Stand Your Ground tough guy

Let's see two guys get in a fight, and one guy thinks he's losing, or worse yet, says he is, Bang! your dead. Stand your ground, tough guy, the crazy State of Florida, with the Zimmerman acquittal, has just given anyone a green light to decide another's fate. Even an ominous look can be threatening. The big winner here is the gun lobby. Unless your Superman, we all better be packing. The big loser here is all of us. Thanks Florida for your Dodge City mentality.

Victory for Mark Sanford

If some poor pathetic loser, like Mark Sanford, can win in South Carolina, what does that say about the poor pathetic state of South Carolina.

The Last American Working Class Hero

As we dig out of this brutal recession, it seems the unemployment numbers are the new baseline. Although the poor always suffer, it's the hard working middle class that are the true casuaities this time. Who really cares that the unemployment rates are falling, if everyone is making chump change. Most of the jobs being added pay less than 24 thousand dollars a year, and even though wall street has never made more money, they continue to strip jobs, for even more. The carpenters I used to employ for my framing companies averaged over 20 dollars an hour. My lead carpenters could make as much as 250 dollars a day. It was the same for the other trades, masons, electricans, cabnet makers, ect. The trades who had finally made it to a point, where they could take care of their own. Drive a nice vehicle, take a vacation, dinner and a movie, a part of the good life. Where maybe, if the wife worked too, they could by a house, even send the kids to college. Now with thoes wages cut almost in half, the big builders will never give it up. Not that 800 dollars a week was great money, but it was enough to be a part of life. Those skilled hard working tradesmen deserve nothing less. Now with home building finally picking up, there is a shortage of skilled workers. The baby boomers, like myself, are growing older, and the young are not interested in working so hard, for so little. Instead of letting supply and demand, bring the wages back from the brink, President Obama and Congress, to the glee of the big builders, and other fat cats, have chosen instead to expand the guest workers program, as they say, to do the "unskilled jobs Americans won't do". We've heard this before, but this time their going after our skilled middle class jobs. Without the unions the last bastion for the working class, that are failing, due to continued assalts at ever turn, by big business and now goverment led erosion of powers, like the recent roll back of collective bargaining rights for unions by governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, the skilled proud American working class heroes, will be a thing of the past. Instead of being part of the solution, they will be part of the problam, with their 12 dollar an hour wage. The division between rich and poor, have and have nots, will widen yet again. Food stamps, federal assistance, subsidised housing, free school meals for their children, goverment health care.What the hell are we doing? Everyone can't go to college. Construction Was the one place an American, who wanted to learn and work hard could still shine. Now they can only struggle, as we outsource their jobs with cheap labor from other countries. Welcome to America.

Gun Nation

Let me get this straight. you can go into a blank blank gun store, and buy a blank blank AR-15 assalt rifle, with a blanking 30 round clip, with never having shot a blank blank gun in your blank blank life. You have no blanking idea, how to load the blank blank gun, no idea how to shoot the blank blank gun, or even where the blank blank safety is. Blanking amazing.

Rivers In Peril

As a kayak guide on the many rivers in Florida, including the Indian and Banana Rivers, I have noticed in the past few years a critical loss of the sea grass, the life blood of a river. I have spoken at the county and cities in Brevard to try and persuade them to take a stronger stance than the states model for fertilizer use, which only recommends a fertilizer ban during the rainy season. Our River our crown jewel is dying. The White Pelicans and ducks all bottom feeders are nearly gone. The wading birds are all in steep decline, due to the loss of the sea grass. The Manatees, Dolphins and Pelican deaths are at record levels. Our once world class fisheries, have long ago collapsed. In fact the state of Florida has put it on their list of imperiled waterways. Leaking septic tanks, discharges from bumbling sewer treatment plants, thousands of pounds of animal waste, chemicals and trash from our road ways, soil contamination from careless contractors, that change the river bottom from sand to muck all contribute to the death of a river, but make no mistake the number one source of our rivers demise and other rivers throughout Florida is the uncontrolled use of fertilizers, and all the nitrogen and phosphorus pouring in. The recent super algae blooms of the past few years has decimated the sea grass. The time for allowing the individual and the fertilizer companies to decide all our fates has passed. I was disapointed in the county's weak leadership in siding with the states model, in such desperate times, you don't recommend for someone to get out of a burning building. Rockledge on the other hand saw the need for strong action and voted to ban fertilizer use during the rainy season. 
     Representive Steve Crissafulli has now proposed a two year moratorium on local ordinances that put stricter rules on fertilizer use than what the state recommends, if it becomes law Crissafulli's proposal would nullify Rockledge and other cities and counties, who opted for a stronger ordinance. Crissafulli said, the primary goal is not to retroactively change what cities and counties have done. Only a few municipalities would be impacted by a moratorium, those that went stricter than a state model ordinance. It's really about moving forward said Crissafulli, who's also chairman of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee. His family is also in the cattle and citrus industry. It's easy to see where his allegiance lies, and it's not with us, and it's not with our rivers. Don't let false leaders and politicans and the true heavy hitters in all this mess, Big Farmers, and Citrus, Industrial polluters, Landscapers and other fertilizer interests, destroy our amazing rivers. We don't need more Committees and Review Boards. We already know the rivers are dying, and we know why. Don't let politicans, self interests and the powers to be continue in their madness. If we can't stop them, we'll all be held accountable.
      Mark Nathan is a singer songwriter, poet and author.

Feral cats

The feral cat problem in Brevard County must be addressed. There are some who believe every single feral cat must be saved, at the cost to countless millions of birds and other wild life, they kill. To chose one animal over another is the height of hypocrisy. The common cat is not an endangered species, in fact they are at their zenith, while many species of our wild life especially our bird populations are in steep decline. I believe the answer to our problem is simple. All registered feral cat colonies stay in place. All the cats are trapped, neutured and numbered, and allowed to live out their lives. Any new members of a cat colony are picked up and brought to a shelter. New additions to colonies are not feral cats, but are unwanted cats left by irresponsible pathetic people. Hopefully most of them can be adopted. As the feral cats live out their lives, so do the colonies. Stiff fines and penalities should be given to anyone abandoning any animals. Maybe they should be neutered too. We don't need to procreate stupid.

Book burning in Afganistan

For a society to be run by the heavy hand of a religion of make believe, like all religions, and then be obsessed with the burning of a book is archaic at best. For this kind of thought process to be enforced these poor souls will never make it out of their self imposed stone age.