For our last major trip of the year (probably until Spring), we're headed out to Fort Lauderdale and Key West on Wednesday morning -- thank you, Delta Sky Miles for nearly free tickets. Plus it's off-season, so motel rates are great. One in Fort Lauderdale is $53 a night (WONDERFUL reviews on "TripAdvisor", our travel "Bible"), and it's 269 FEET to the beach. Water temps are about 80, and the seafood is already making both of us hungry!
In Key West, the place we're staying is $100 a night, but in September it was over $200, way, way out of our price range -- remember, we're not just poor, we're CHEAP and poor! Well, maybe just CHEAP! Even got a coupon for a free breakfast at Denny's on my birthday -- the morning we leave -- and Denny's is 2 blocks from our motel.
So, it's off to drive to the southern end of I-95, and US-1, sunset at Mallory Square, Hemingway's house with the polydactyl cats, maybe some swimming in the warm, tropical water, and just relaxing and eating great SEAFOOD(I want to try grouper, had pompano in Nashville and loved it) and home-made KEY LIME PIE!!
So we're off Wednesday! Pics when we return!
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OK, if you're anti-liberal OR closed-minded, you may not want to read the rest of this post. It basically credits liberals with many positive aspects of our every-day life -- and it IS historically accurate as far as I can tell. This is NOT my attempt to criticize conservatives -- most of them are good, hard-working Americans -- but rather an attempt to point out that not everything with the tag, "Liberal" is bad, either, as some conservative pundits would have people believe.
With so many people who are angry at those liberal, communist, statist, socialists for stealing away "their" country, I had to share this commentary. Please note that this originally read "Joe Republican", but with the change in outlook of the main parties, this isn't accurate today.
I have to wonder what those who hate liberals, and everything liberals have done, with a passion, would choose to give up on this list. Also note, in the past many of those "liberals" WERE Republicans, notably Teddy Roosevelt, who would be hounded and shouted out of the GOP nowadays as a "RINO."
Back a hundred years ago, both major parties contained both liberals and conservatives; then about 1964 with Goldwater, the Republican party began its shift to the right, furthered by Reagan and Gingrich (Bush isn't a conservative, TRUE conservatives say), which continues today. There is NO room in the GOP now for anyone who is to the left of Atilla the Hun. The Democratic Party, however, is still populated with both liberals and conservatives (at least here in the South), and that's a good thing to my mind.
There IS another side to this "big government" debate. There ARE wasteful government programs (some heralded by GOP members of Congress because their districts benefit); there ARE more people on welfare than there should be (and yes, some of them are Republicah); there ARE crooks and connivers in government (Democrats seem to be more crooked, Republicans seem to be more immoral), there IS more "soft money", untrackable, going into politics today (latest figures show 5-1 for Republicans). But does anyone actually BELIEVE that the "other party" is going to be any different?
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Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.
All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance -- now Joe gets it, too -- EVEN IF he lives in a "right-to-work" state where he gets union benefits without paying union dues.
He prepares his morning breakfast: bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girlie-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.
In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.
Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.
He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.
Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union.
If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment checks because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.
It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.
Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.
Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the taxpayer funded roads.
He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans.
The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.
He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.
Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved conservatives have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day.
I love it, I really love it! And you're in Kentucky! Much luck! And I hope you don't get spammed to hell.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I just love the crooked Democrats and the immoral Republicans. Not to mention Attila the Hun. That's a very succint way to describe the politics in your country.