Friday – warm, sun and clouds.
Drive down to Rookery Bay a nature reserve, mangrove swamplands – sorry wetlands. They have a docent giving an hours talk around the touch tanks of crabs and conches etc. All very interesting and well worth the $5 entrance fee. Then we have a nature walk. Somehow we manage to get lost and are marauding around this wilderness. Map was definitely wrong! Very hot and very humid and no water.
Bump into a family of racoons scampering across our path.
Afternoon round the pool and get some reading done. Have to configure Wendy’s new toy.
It’s oh so quiet around here. The majority of these expensive homes and boats seem empty.
In the UK your average old geezer has his garden shed, deck chair and sherry bottle to escape to peace quiet, tranquility and some male sanity. Over here it seems that the yacht or boat serves the same purpose. One of our few neighbours escapes each morning to his yacht complete with his coffee and cigarettes. The yacht actually never goes anywhere. It’s just his very expensive garden shed.
Political correctness allows for two basic types of complaint: that people who behave the same are treated differently, and that people who behave differently are treated the same.
He was so sick of politicians having sexual affairs that he decided to run for office.
Politicians are like diapers; they need changed often and for the same reason.
Would vegetarians eat carrots if they had faces?
Do vegetarians hate plants?
Has anyone noticed that it’s islamophobia awareness month here in the UK. Mind you how such 
a thing can exist as after all a phobia is an extreme irrational fear of something. Well given the religion of peace’s track record one would hardly call a fear of it irrational. This loathsome term is nothing more than a thought-terminating cliché conceived in the bowels of Muslim think tanks for the purpose of beating down critics.’ In short, in its very origins, ‘Islamophobia’ was a term designed as a weapon to advance a totalitarian cause by stigmatizing critics and silencing them.
I think it’s about time we designated December British Culture Awareness Month in order that muslims, and other foreign imports, can learn to appreciate the culture and generosity of the nation that hosts them, rather than an entire 
month dedicated to more special treatment.
Saturday – warm, sun and cloud again.
Lazy morning. FaceTime with Kurt and family. Great video of Jasper playing the piano. He really loves it and is starting to take notice and respond.
After lunch we take a long bike ride, well long according to Wendy, down to a Christmas Bazaar at Goodlands. It’s only about 5 miles away from Marco but a World of difference. Gone are the manicured lawns, Cadis, Mercs and all the trimmings of wealth. This is small town Florida. Must be poor there’s no Starbucks.
Bazaar can best be described as quaint. Pop into a local key side bar, swamp side judging by 
the smell. Live music. Commit a major sin and before 17:00 have a lager, well they called it that but I don’t think there’s any trades description laws over here. Classic American pinklewater.
In the evening finally get to watch the last episode of season 2 Revenge. Can you believe it’s been left open for yet another season – what a surprise. Wendy gets to watch a weeks worth of East Enders. Actually watching that tripe be spun out for months at least makes you appreciate US series for quick action.
Here’s some facts, a rare commodity these days, that will probably never see the light of political day. THE top 1% of taxpayers are now paying almost 30% of all income tax. Ah you may say but I bet there paying less than they used says the labour disinformation machine. Well actually in 1979, the year Margaret Thatcher came to power, the highest-earning 1% of taxpayers contributed just 11% of all income taxes — even though the highest rate of income tax was 83%. So perhaps reducing top rate tax does have the desired effect.
The top 10% of earners have seen their share of the tax burden rise from 
35% of all income tax in 1979 to 55% now. Even middle-income earners have seen their tax burden increase, with the top 50% of the population accounting for more than 90% of the income tax. The research suggests a couple on average earnings probably receive more from the state through public services than they contribute in taxes.
Let’s see how this message gets mangled on Question Time.
Anyone who says he can see through a woman is missing a lot.
Women would rather have beauty than brains, because the average man can see better than he can think.
It always puzzles me to hear of professional women, are there any amateurs?
My wife says I never listen to her. At least I think that’s what she says.
Some women are like pianos; when they’re not upright, they’re grand.
Imagine the Apple marketing machine pissing off 60% of it’s customers and 95% of them ready for defection to the evil empire (Microsoft). Well that’s what the Vatican has managed to do. Three polls of nearly 10,000 people reveal a profile of British Catholics adrift from Vatican-style Catholicism:
Just 5 per cent of Catholics, and 2 per cent of those under 30, are “faithful Catholics”. in terms of traditional teachings and practice on weekly Mass attendance, sure belief in God, taking authority from religious sources, and opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage and euthanasia.
Fewer than four in ten of the Catholics surveyed said that they viewed the Catholic Church as a positive force in society. When those who took a negative view of the Church were asked their reasons, the most common answers were discrimination against women and gay people, the scandals concerning child abuse, hypocrisy and moral conservatism.
Nearly all churchgoing Catholics believe in God, as do 70 per cent of Catholics in total.
Nearly nine in ten agreed that an unmarried couple with children was a family, and two-thirds said that a same-sex couple with children was a family. Fewer than one in ten said they would feel guilty using contraception.
By a small margin, Catholics were in favour of allowing same-sex marriage.
Some disturbing results which will surely result in the Vatican Marketing Director getting a brown envelope. I would think the Chief Executive would be getting his marching orders too if he doesn’t man up and sort it pretty soon – more white smoke? How far adrift can an organisation be from it’s customer base. Disturbing but not surprising. Perhaps the most disturbing is that 60% of catholics don’t believe their church is a positive force in society.
Who said it?
What is wrong with inciting intense dislike of a religion
if the activities or teaching of that religion are so
outrageous, irrational or abusive of human rights
that they deserve to be intensely disliked.”
Answer in the next blog.