Author: Fuzzy Curmudgeon

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Twin sisters of different mothers, in my opinion. That’s my wife Sally on the right. On the left is our friend Christine, who is a waitress at Mel’s Diner in Naples. We met Christine and her cohort Jackie when we were here in September 2000 for our honeymoon, which you can read about starting here.

Much has changed in the year and a half since we were last here.
For one thing, Michelbob’s is closed until next month. Bastards. Sally wanted ribs for her anniversary dinner.
For another, Bill’s on Fifth is now Pier 41. The food is just as good or better, though. I had filet mignon and Sally had shrimp scampi…both amazingly tasty. The chef came out and made the rounds and was very happy to hear us wax poetic about the food.
For another, we went down to Marco and Mustang Sally’s appears to have closed the door. Which is a shame, they had good food, too. Not to mention the karaoke vocal stylings of Myles Loud. His Elvis and Tom Jones (complete with torn-open shirt) are spot-on. Apparently he hangs at the La Casita restaurant in Marco now.
On the plus side, the beach is still there. Down the street, the Tides Inn has finally been torn down to make way for condominiums…starting at $2.5 MILLION. Yet here we are on the south end of Loudermilk Park, 300 feet from the beach…and Sally’s parents aren’t rich.
On the minus side, we only seem to come here when tropical storms are heading right for us…
I’m beginning to wonder if the north side of Naples has changed as much as the south. Scares me.

What is it about this town…you drive and drive and drive and never seem to get anywhere.
And residents, get a clue…lane changes are best signalled with that funny little lever on the left side of your steering wheel.
Otherwise, it’s that second wedding anniversary kind of thing. Posts will be light this week since I’m limited to 48kbps via AOL. Echh. At least Sally’s parents got cable at the condo this year, and at least they get Fox News 🙂
Beach? What beach?

…terrorism is still terrorism.
And PETA is about to find out what a terrorism investigation is all about. Giving money to the ELF is a no-no, morons. Especially under a “get tough on terror” administration.
Your salad days (hee hee) under Clinton are over.

…who shall live, and who shall die.
The jury finally came through. Amazing.

At this hour the whole House of Israel stands before its God, the God of Justice and the God of Mercy. We shall examine our ways before Him. We shall examine what we have done and what we have failed to do; we shall examine where we have gone and where we have failed to go. Wherever we have sinned we will confess it: We will say “we have sinned” and will pray with the will to repentance before the Lord and we will pray: “Lord forgive us!”
We stand before our God and with the same courage with which we have acknowledged our sins, the sins of the individual and the sins of the community, shall we express our abhorrence of the lie directed against us, and the slander of our faith and its expressions: this slander is far below us. We believe in our faith and our future. Who brought the world the secret of the Lord Everlasting, of the Lord Who is One? Who brought the world understanding for a life of purity, for the purity of the family? Who brought the world respect for Man made in the image of God? Who brought the world the commandment of justice, of social thought? In all these the spirit of the Prophets of Israel, the Revelation of God to the Jewish People had a part. It sprang from our Judaism, and continues to grow in it. All the slander drops away when it is cast against these facts.
We stand before our God: Our strength is in Him. In Him is the truth and the dignity of our history. In Him is the source of our survival through every change, our firm stand in all our trials. Our history is the history of spiritual greatness, spiritual dignity. We turn to it when attack and insult are directed against us, when need and suffering press in upon us. The Lord led our fathers from generation to generation. He will continue to lead us and our children through our days.
We stand before our God; we draw strength from His Commandments, which we obey. We bow down before Him, and we stand upright before Men. Him we serve, and remain steadfast in all the changes around us. We put our faith in Him in humility and our way ahead is clear, we see our future.
The whole House of Israel stands before its God at this hour. Our prayer, our faith, and our belief is that of all the Jews on earth. We look upon each other and know ourselves, we raise our eyes to the Lord and know what is eternal.
“Behold, He that guardeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”
“He who maketh peace in His high places, may He make peace for us and for all Israel and say ye, Amen.”
We are filled with sorrow and pain. In silence will we give expression to all that which is in our hearts, in moments of silence before our God. This silent worship will be more emphatic than any words could be.
PRAYER COMPOSED BY RABBI LEO BAECK FOR ALL JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN GERMANY FOR THE EVE OF THE DAY OF ATONEMENT, OCTOBER 10, 1935

Thanks to my alert wife who’s watching the Fox News scroll, I just found out that those three medical students who caused all the ruckus in Florida the other day have been refused internships at the hospital where they were going, at least temporarily.
I love it. Actions have consequences, assholes.

Unfortunately they bought the Indianapolis Star (which was already a crap newspaper and had been for years under the Pulliam “leadership”) and took it to the left. To make it worse, we had to endure a 20th anniversary salute to USA Today in the Focus (opinion) section of the paper this morning. Gahhh. “USA Yesterday — News for the unwashed masses”.
At least they still run a more-or-less right wing editorial page and leave the lefties (home grown and imported) on the op-ed. That way I can wrap garbage in the op-ed without losing the good stuff.

The ACLU clearly still doesn’t get it.
It seems like the events of the past couple of days would make it clear that the ACLU doesn’t speak for the general public. But hell, they haven’t spoken for the general public for years.
UPDATE: Maybe the ACLU should read Glenn Reynolds more often.

From Fox News:

One of three men detained after a terror scare on a Florida highway said the experience was an injustice that should never be repeated.
“I learned that injustice, regardless against whom, is wrong,” Ayman Gheith said in a television interview late Friday. “It is against us today, tomorrow it could be against you.”

Yeah, right. But only if we do stupid things like joke audibly in a restaurant in a red state that we’re going to commit a terrorist act, and then run a toll plaza in Florida without paying, and then don’t cooperate with the officers who arrest us.
Here is a perfect example of an attempt to shove the blame for this entire sorry escapade off on someone else. I would never have let these sorry excuses for humanity go free; I would have charged them with something, at the very least with failure to pay toll. I think I would also have suggested that maybe a trip to Guantanamo might be in their future if they didn’t cooperate fully and immediately.
Get a clue, Mr. Gheith. This entire experience was your own damn fault, and you and your buddies ought to be made to pay for it. And to make matters worse, you had to cry racism:

Speaking to reporters after his release, Gheith, who has a long beard and wore a skull cap, said the woman may have been influenced by his appearance.
“She saw obviously the way I was dressed and maybe she put a little salt and pepper into her story,” he said.

Sure, I automatically believe that. Not.
Any injustice that was done here was done to the people of Georgia and Florida, who are going to have to pick up the tab for all this bullshit. I think they should send Mr. Gheith and Co. the bill.