Sunday Morning Coming Down

One of the more interesting aspects of having a 6th grader in the house has been the books she is reading.  The last few weeks have been filled with The Giver and the next book is Facing the Lion. I'd read The Giver before on the advise of my sister a teacher who prides herself on reading all the books on the Florida reading list.  My nephew commented that the book had been banned in several school districts.  The view of life in the book are not much different from Brave New World by Huxley, but I read that book in college and not in 6th grade.  Fifty years ago is a long time and the stirrings I remember probably did not kick in until 7th grade. And probably the biggest difference is access to the Internet, that has swallowed up so much time for everybody from the time kids get access to their first computer.

I'd never heard this before I read Craig Johnson.  This may become my new rejoinder for most requests I get.  Or maybe not.  With the right tone of voice I think it's funny but I think more than a few folks may not understand the remark let alone the humor in it. The UU religious part of me agrees with the following: Unitarians think they are too good to go to hell and the Universalists think god is too good to send them to hell. This is not a very important post, but it actually triggered a google search about ice water in hell.

There were still people waiting in line to vote at the Coral Gables Library at about 4:30pm on Sunday 10/28/2012.  Yesterday, I believe about 28,000 people voted at early voting stations throughout the county on the first day of early voting.

Sandy has moved away from South Florida.  It's still breezy but the sky is blue and it's cooler.  Thankfully it was not as rainy as Issac.  Miami has broken records for the amount of rain this year. Today is also the first day of early voting in Florida.  I thought I would get up early and vote.  The lines were long at 7:30 AM.  I had originally planned to get up really early and be one of the first to vote.  I guess a lot of people had the same idea as the parking lots around the Coral Gables Library were full.  My impression from the people in line is that this election is going to be much closer than the election four years ago in Florida.  It took almost 2 hours fifteen minutes to vote. I would guess that for many people it is easier to vote absentee, but I just feel a liitle bit more engaged in the process even if it takes some time waiting in line.  I had a little bit of a chuckle as I saw the sign where pol...

George McGovern died on Sunday.   I’ve thought about his candidacy for the presidency in 1972   often over the last 40 years.   He spoke out against the Viet Nam War before it was popular.   He served in the military during WWII as a bomber pilot but did not make his military experience a big part of his campaign.   He is quoted as saying that he wanted to be President in the worst way and he succeeded. I think he was a populist and a liberal and while his political campaign in 1972 was soundly rejected and the country voted overwhelmingly for Richard Nixon, I think he spoke for many people who eventually understood and agreed with the need to end the war. One of the more profound comments he made after losing the election and returning to the Senate was the need for the campaign and the campaigning to end.   This is something the current political class has forgotten.   Bob Dole and George McGovern worked together on farm policy and trying t...

The debate last night is getting a lot more like the crap we hear from congress.  For all the talk about needing to be aggressive and make points, stir up the base and what ever the chattering heads are saying, and fighting back, and back biting the debates so far have been lacking serious, substantial discussion of policy from both sides. I would have liked a little more dignity from the candidates.  Stepping on each other the way they did last night was more like McLaughlin Group or the NFL Pregame Shows or Sports Talk Radio talking about the Yankees. Mercifully the election will be over in about twenty days.  And somebody somewhere is already visiting Iowa and New Hampshire getting ready for 2016.

The Miami Herald gives me a rather unique opportunity two survey parts of two neighborhoods in Miami Dade County.  This survey done weekly and it consists of a passive visits to about five hundred residences.  I deliver advertising flyers to houses that are not subscribers to the Miami Herald. The neighborhoods range from modest 1-2 bedroom condominiums that were converted from rentals to really nice and big houses that circle Lake Catalina and Blue Lake.  Both neighborhoods are centrally located, near parks, expressways, and shopping. I have delivered Herald Values to these neighborhoods for almost four years and have watched the housing market, advertisers interested in the area, and talk to more than a few people who live in neighborhood regularly. My next few posts to this blog will give my opinion on what seems to be happening in these typical Miami Neighborhoods. In 33155 properties along Lake Catalina are receiving major makeovers.  At the corner of Mi...