the way of the redneck mystic shaman and other howlers and twisters from Key West of Weird, by way of Australia

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Continuing yesterday’s Australian movie “Water Diviner” theme, something sailed into port this morning:

Conversation started Monday
6/8, 8:31am

Kristy Huddleston

Hi Sloan thank you for accepting my friend request. I found your information on rainbow alchemy this evening and wanted to say thank you I will be trying it out. I really got a lot from the comments you made on the article/video about shamans. Thank you 🙂
8:35am

Sloan Bashinsky

Your’e welcome, Kristy. Have one other online friend in Australia, Ann Massey, Perth, she’s a novelist, that’s how we met, as I recall, re her novel SALVATION JANE, which I reviewed on Amazon.com, as did she review on Amazon by novel, HEAVY WAIT: A STRANGE TALE, which is about the spirit development, in a contemporary fashion, of a man and a woman chosen by the spirit world to have that experience, but the getting there was a bit wooly. baaaaaa!!!
6/8, 8:38am

Kristy Huddleston

Well that was meant to be 🙂 things align at the right time. Hope you have a wonderful day!

I was just wondering do you have a Facebook page for your shaman articles or is it just the website?
9:07am

Sloan Bashinsky

No, but everything I publish is in the shaman or Melchizedek priest tone, the two are not the same but are kindred; unlike traditional shamans, I seldom journey; the spirit world folks come to me, either directly, sometimes, or through their human proxies, who seldom, almost never, know what’s running them, and I engage what comes in the way I was taught by angels and am advised ongoing by them. Very different from, inverted perhaps best describes it, from traditional shaman training and work. I may use our dialogue here in today’s post at goodmorningkeywest.com. Feel free to converse more, and, if you wish, tell a little about yourself. I am pretty sure I have readers, who don’t say much, who are interested in this subject.
6/8, 9:35am

Kristy Huddleston

Thank you Sloan I will be doing some reading on your website. Interesting about you working with angels. I have had a connection with the shaman way and been close with some Native Americans but lately my interest has come back to the angels and wanting to and working in communicating with the angels. What you said resonates with me. I have done many different healing classes and am now finding connecting with the angels and hearing their guidance has been amazing but also very challenging at times. I am happy to be on this journey. Thank you and many blessings 🙂
9:46am

Sloan Bashinsky

Thank you, Kristy - yes, the angels can be very challenging, they simply do not think or perceive like humans, and trying to follow their lead and bend to their advice and suffer their spankings when I mess up, often without realizing I’m messing up, is … different, and the spankings have, at times, been awful (understatement). I’m thinking yours and mine today will lead off what I’m working on for goodmorningkeywest.com, it seems to fit well as a lead into what I had at the top until you showed up 🙂. Did you read MUTANT MESSAGE DOWN UNDER, by Marlo Morgan? It seemed to be widely debunked in Australia, but when I was in Kakadoo in November 1995, two members of that aborigine tribe came to me out of dream time in the back of a SUV, in which there were several young Australians and me, and I alone saw the couple, and, being of the view back then that I was to ask spirit beings who showed up, what I had they wanted?, I did that. And the couple laughed, said, this was telepathic, “We are real people, what could you possibly have that we would want?” Mortified, I conceded their point, asked, “Then why did you come to me?”, and they said, “We came to welcome you into our tribe,” and then they went back into dream time. Later, I figured they were interested in seeing if I could be a real person but live in civilization and not in the wild as they did. In MUTANT MESSAGE DOWN UNDER, they told Marlo Morgan, some of them had tried to lived in civilization, and had found they could not be real people doing that, so they went back to living in the wild and became real people again.

In somewhat similar vein:

It was raining pretty good about 12:30 p.m. yesterday, when I was ready to pedal my old but, so far, trusty ladies conch cruiser painted with faded Florida Gators orange and blue up to the jail on stock island to see my lady and vice presidential convicted empty pistol-toting felon running mate Kari Dangler, who is probably the funniest person I ever met, when she isn’t slicing and dicing me for something I did which she said I ought not to have did.

Anyway, I stared up at that big black cloud to the east, which was sprinkling where I stood in front of Sippin’, and since it wasn’t sprinkling all that hard, I unlocked my conch cruiser from the bike rack in front of Tropic Cinema and started easing out of Old Town, toward that big black cloud, which seemed to be parked over Searstown, or thereabouts, on North Roosevelt Blvd. As I kept advancing, the big black cloud, blowing wind hard into my face, kept retreating, but from time to time I had to stop and take shelter when the sprinkling got more persistent. It’s cold in the jail, I didn’t want to freeze, and I only had the clothes on my back, and wet underpants, well, that’s not my idea of how to spend the rest of the day in town, before getting on the shuttle bus and heading back up to Cudjoe Key, where I stay with my friend Todd German, whose graciousness saved me from being a street person living in the wild, again.

I kept getting back on the old gator cycle, and I kept advancing, and the big black cloud kept retreating and sprinkling, and I kept getting off the bicycle under a roof overhang, and I kept advancing, and by the time I reached the top of the island, the wind had died down and the big black cloud was gone from over the jail and was up on Rockland Key, it looked to me. So it all worked out, even as I wondered if maybe angels were playing with that big black cloud?

I have seen them do that twice when I was on an airplane and the airfield into which we were headed to land was socked in, and the pilot came on the intercom and said we were going to have to circle for a while, and the person sitting beside me groaned, and I said, well, maybe something will happen, and, presto, the pilot came back on the intercom and said a hole had appeared in the weather and we were cleared for landing, and I told the person sitting beside me what had just happened was a supernatural demonstration, not for me, but for that person. One time was flying into Denver, Colorado, the other time was flying in to Kathmandu, Nepal, which later turned into a trip to Darwin, Australia, and Kakadoo, to meet the two real people, after which my life-long wish to live in Australia evaporated, I supposed because I had done what I had longed to do in Australia, but didn’t know I had wanted to do it until it happened.

Just joking, I make that kind of stuff up all the time, I have to, to be the greatest con man ever. However, when I started telling Kari about the big black cloud receding as I advanced toward it, then stopped, then I advanced again, she got it before I even got near done telling the whole affair.

At some point during our visit, Kari told me about a cowboy who used to like to say, “There’s a dance party in my pants, and you’re invited,” and she would be obliged if I take that cowboy to heart when she gets out of there, and I said indeed will be obliged to do that.

I then told Kari about my ending yesterday’s frigate birds, freedom, pelicans, water diviners and jail birds, Florida Keys and Key West post at goodmorningkeywest.com with her telling me on the phone the night before that all she has to do is think about me for a little while, and then she has an experience she can’t explain in a letter to me, because the jail censors won’t let the letter leave the jail. You published that?, she asked. Yep, I did, I said, and I used that picture of you sitting on my lap to make sure my readers got the point. Oh, they got the point without that picture, she said, and my eyes were closed, both of them, and your eyes, too. Yeah, I said, that emphasized the point.

Meanwhile, there is this other side of Kari and me in front of Burger King on North Roosevelt Blvd some weeks before her probation was interrupted because she flunked a pee test, she wasn’t supposed to drink and, well, she really did like vodka for a really long time. She still says she didn’t used to be Mary Magdalene, but I knows better :-).

Here below is the spirit world’s perspective

of Kari’s and my relationship when it was first forming

Just as the time ran out last night during our pre-paid inmate debit account telephone call, I slipped in,

I used to be Abraham Lincoln.

“WHAT?!!

Yeah, I did.

WHAT?!!!

Connection disconnected by debit call provider.

Can’t wait to talk to Kari again, get sliced and diced in seventh heaven :-).

Further meanwhile, under the subject of “Justice 🙂 ….. it still exists!”

Amiga Christine Russell, aka Jaguar Woman, replied to the copyright infringement part of yesterday’s frigate birds, freedom, pelicans, water diviners and jail birds, Florida Keys and Key West post:

Sloan -

I was upset when I first read about the demand payment to The Blue Paper, so I did a little Googling 🙂

Take a look into “LCS science payment demand letter ” you will find comments like this one: “this is Getty Images/Pic-Scout and Getty/Pic-Scout does care about the facts they are just about the money. ” There are many, many comments about how they are doing this to countless people. SO I think you correctly summed it all up - this is all about scaring people and taking their money. Read the comments, many think these people are guilty of the infringement themselves and can not prove ownership of the pics they claim are theirs! GREED - it’s everywhere!

From www.womeninbusiness.about.com :

Are Getty Images Business Practices Legalized Extortion?

Since at least the mid 2000s, Getty Images has been a bullying innocent copyright infringers; engaging in barely legal extortion tactics when it comes to asserting intellectual rights to images and material sold or licensed through their website.
Despite large public outcry and a lot of bad press, it’s 2011 and the Getty campaign to pursue children, small-time blog owners, and the average Joe has only intensified. If you think you are safe because you paid for a license, think again. Licenses expire and when they do, rest assured Getty knows the date and may visit your website to collect.

How does Getty Find Copyright Infringers?

Getty uses automated robots that crawl the Internet looking for its images. Getty’s tools are so sophisticated that if you use even a part of their images in a logo, banner, or button, they can recognize an unlicensed image. Their crawlers can locate images that have been altered, inverted, flipped or turned upside down, regardless of what you rename the image file.

And there’s a lot more if you care to read on the topic.

But it seems there IS JUCTICE :-)…. and you will love this one from ibtimes I found:

Getty Images Sued Over Settlement Demand Letter: ‘Unfair, Deceptive Scheme,’ Copyright Lawyers Claim

By Christopher Zara @christopherzara c.zara@ibtimes.com on August 26 2014 5:09 PM EDT

Known for demanding payment from unsuspecting web publishers, Getty Images was slapped with a lawsuit for “deceptive business practices.” Reuters

With its well-known penchant for saber rattling, Getty Images Inc. is not one to forgive and forget, but now one of its intended targets is turning the lens back on the stock-photo giant with an unforgiving lawsuit of its own, accusing Getty of unfair business practices.

The Seattle company, which owns and licenses a vast library of more than 80 million images, has long been infamous for its boilerplate “settlement demand letters,” routinely fired off to unsuspecting website owners it claims have used one or more of its photos without permission.

Rather than simply ask Web publishers to take down its images, the company informs alleged copyright infringers, in no uncertain terms, they are now required to pay a licensing fee for the image or images used — sometimes to the tune of several hundred to thousands of dollars. All the while, Getty has remained unapologetic in the face of criticism from small-time Web publishers who label it a bully and an extortionist.

Now the company may have rattled its saber in the wrong direction. In a bit of karmic correspondence last month, Getty sent one of its letters to the Schneider Rothman IP Law Group, a Florida law firm that just happens to specialize in copyright litigation. Getty wanted a $380 licensing fee for a photo of a woman texting and driving, which Getty claimed was being used on the firm’swebsite without permission.

But the lawyers at IP Law Group had a different idea: Instead of paying the fee, they filed a legal complaint accusing Getty of “unfair and deceptive business practices.” The firm is seeking a court declaration that no infringement was committed and an injunction against Getty to stop it from demanding payment where no infringement exists.

In fact, IP Law Group claims it never displayed the Getty-owned image on its website. Rather, the texting-woman photo was syndicated through a plugin operated by Zemanta Inc., a software company that provides third-party content to Web publishers.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Joel B. Rothman, a partner at IP Law Group, said Getty should have done its due diligence before making accusatory claims. “You have to check,” he said. “You can’t just send out a letter, accuse somebody of infringing and demand money from them. You have to know that they did something that would entitle you to that money.”

To scour the Internet for unauthorized uses of its images, Getty uses image-tracking software created by PicScout, which Getty acquired in 2011. It’s a laborious task, but Rothman said Getty’s policing process has become so automated, the company is likely demanding money from countless website owners who have done nothing wrong — and who may not have the legal wherewithal to fight back. He said the mere fact that an erroneous letter was sent to an experienced intellectual property lawyer should serve as a red flag.

“You can’t tell me that a human being at Getty is reviewing these things,” he said. “If they were, they would know better than to send a letter to me.”

A spokesperson for Getty Images admitted the letter was sent to IP Law Group in error, conceding it can be “very difficult” to know if an image is licensed through a third party. Had the company been made aware of the error, the spokesman said, it would have closed the matter at once.

“In this instance, [IP Law Group] never responded to the notices Getty Images issued and did not reach out to Getty Images to let us know that any use by them was licensed,” the spokesperson said in an email. “This is a good example of avoidable litigation.”

The spokesman said the claim against IP Law Group has since been closed. But just as Getty doesn’t accept “Sorry, we didn’t know” as a satisfactory response to its settlement letters, Rothman said he has no plans to accept that answer from Getty. “I’m not closing my case,” he said. “If I had sent a letter like the one they sent to me, the bar would have my license.”

Getty is well aware it has earned a reputation as an uncompromising bully, but it maintains its enforcement practices are necessary to “protect the intellectual property rights and creative process of artists and photographers” in the digital era. For its part, the company has made attempts in recent months to soften its image, including launching an embed tool in March that allows users to share its images with other platforms.

Rothman said he understands the challenges Getty and other copyright owners face in a copy-and-paste world. In fact, many of his clients are photographers who themselves are victims of copyright infringement. But he said being a victim of copyright doesn’t excuse making a victim of someone else.

“I’m not saying that Getty doesn’t have a basis in some cases, but they certainly have no infringement claim against my firm,” he said. “And they shouldn’t be using automated methods to take advantage of people who haven’t done anything wrong.”

Getty Image Rothman Complaint

I replied:

Hi, Christine -

After Naja first emailed me about it, I dropped by her and Arnaud’s home and we talked about that and other things. I told her I thought it might be a scam. In the questions I posed to the “suitor”, I as much as “divined” it is a scam. Maybe they now will write to me and make a similar demand. It gave me another good opportunity to swim MRSA up [Key West Mayor] Craig Cates’ ass. I found myself today thinking again about Craig denying MRSA is in the water down here, and saying to the angels that Craig either had his head where the sun never shined, or he was a bald-face liar - you pick.

Naja’s reply to Getty about her and my use of the photo being “fair use”, under the circumstances, was welcome for me. I google and copy lots of photos from the Internet and use them in posts at goodmorningkeywest.com, which has never been a money maker, and was not set up with that in mind, but well meaning friends persuaded me late last year to install a PayPal button, which turned out, so far, about like I figured it would turn out. When I told Todd last night, any psychiatrist worth his or her salt would tell me I’m not crazy, just lazy, Todd said, lazy I am not. He sees how hard I work, just not like other people work. He’s right, and, so far, this world is not willing to pay for the work I do.

Sloan

Along similar lines, Sancho Panza wrote:

You are most definitely not normal… you are also not able to become normal… ergo, you are dis-able(to be normal). But be afraid, my friend, there are no free lunches in this World… you may be forced to take some “normalizing” pills or spells and be limited in your comings and goings out of your crusty shell… have you danced with the Devil by the light of a pale moon?! *;) winking

Chuang Tzu was one day fishing, when the Prince of Ch’u sent two high officials to interview him, saying that his Highness would be glad of Chuang Tzu’s assistance in the administration of his government. The latter quietly fished on, and without looking round, replied, “I have heard that in the State of Ch’u there is a sacred tortoise, which has been dead three thousand years, and which the prince keeps packed up in a box on the altar in his ancestral shrine. Now do you think that tortoise would rather be dead and have its remains thus honoured, or be alive and wagging its tail in the mud?” The two officials answered that no doubt it would rather be alive and wagging its tail in the mud; whereupon Chuang Tzu cried out “Begone! I too elect to remain wagging my tail in the mud.”

A true lover of wisdom has hands too busy to hold on to anything! He learns by doing and every pebble in the path becomes her teacher! Oink

I replied:

Well, Sancho, I suppose he’s a nice devil, as far as some devils go, and certainly I have always liked Jack Nicholson, I wuz especially enamored with his devil ways in “The Witches of Eastwick,” seemed to be playing himself all the way in that one, but, dear me, if I’m to dance with the Devil, I prefer the female model. Let me see if I can rustle up some pretty pictures to vicariously entertain you. Don Q

P.S. Chuang Tzu, where wuz you when the angels shanghaied me into the political pig parlor, er, pen?

Sancho wrote:

Point is, Chuang Tzu liked doing what he did…… you, like an old, tired hound dog chasing what moves your way, also like doing what you do. People are always ready to give you advice as to what you should or should not do to improve your lot, but The Angels(your spirit) know better what you really need… as opposed to what you want! *>:) devil

I replied:

I’ve been telling people that for decades, it seems to be an alien concept, mentally deranged, sort of like the congregation sized up the messenger in Mark Twain’s “The War Prayer”. The angels, however, are very real and not the same as my spirit, which, I suspect, is in league with them.

Didn’t the Rolling Stones do a smash hit about not always getting what you want, but you always, or sometimes, getting what you need?

Perhaps in that regard, Facebook crusade against errant Key West bicyclists:

Michael Haskins shared 92.5 KJJY‘s photo.

June 6 at 3:07pm ·

Should do this in Key West. It would add millions to the city coffers! Not stopping at Stop signs, driving wrong way on one-way streets, not stopping at red lights . . . and the list goes on. Drunk driving! Don’t forget the obvious!

92.5 KJJY

Agree or disagree?

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Sheri Pogue, Stephanie Martin, Bill Estes and 63 others like this.
Kevin Welsh Can’t tell you how many times I have almost been nailed in KW

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205441782738808:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · June 6 at 3:24pm
Sheldon Nelson Cyclists are required to follow the EXACT SAME laws as a car!

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- Richard Siniscalchi replied · 1 Reply
Lee Hines this would never happen in Key West!

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John Jones I drive cab…Over 90% of cyclists have either no or improper lighting, Don’t stop at traffic signs or signals, wear dark clothing at night, ride down One Way streets the wrong way or have no knowlege of the rules of the road ! A little enforcement would help !

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205441877661181:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · 3 · June 6 at 3:47pm
- Lee Hines replied · 1 Reply
Robert Coburn It’s not just Key West. We have the same thing in Carmel…blowing stop signs, wrong side of the street, drunk. Then there are the bicyclists!

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205441900221745:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · June 6 at 3:55pm
Tim Hallinan Absolutely agree. A car that had the right-of way and didn’t have time to stop would have bowled a strike, and everyone would blame the driver.

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205441950382999:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · June 6 at 4:12pm
Joyce Dunwell On Big Pine they and pedestrians too, blatantly break every law as though they are challenging you to hit them.

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- Robert Coburn replied · 1 Reply
Alex Okinczyc Where’s bicycle repairman when you need him?

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205442055265621:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · June 6 at 4:35pm
Bud Navero Add my vote. Station cops on Eaton, Southard, etc., rotate them like the holiday drunk patrols. Make renters give out law pamphlets and ENFORCE the law! (instead of using five cops to arrest a homeless drunk)

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205442082786309:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · June 6 at 4:44pm
Henry Terry We have camera tickets in NY. A monstrous regiment that has corrupted the already dubious courts. Although I am shocked to hear these viewpoints, my I suggest our country has to find another way.

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205442087946438:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · June 6 at 4:46pm
John Schafer Fines should start at $25 then rapidly escalate to same as car fines!!!

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205442167108417:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · June 6 at 5:05pm
Elise Dee Beraru Bicyclists are bound by the same vehicle code as motorists, including stop signs.

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Eric Brewer Doesn’t mean they follow those codes. If I had a dollar for every time I saw someone on a bicycle going the wrong way up Southard with an alcoholic beverage in one hand, I could buy a Conch house.

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Denise H Marchant I got a ticket here in 1969 for riding my bike on a one way street. It was $25 back then.

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205442569238470:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · June 6 at 6:55pm
Betty Webb Agree. Obey the rules or pay the price.

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205442702841810:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · June 6 at 7:35pm
Stephanie Martin I can’t tell you how many times I’ve nearly hit a cyclist because they ran a stop sign. They have to follow the same rules of the road as a car.

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205442797004164:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · 1 · June 6 at 8:05pm
Harry L. Sawyer Jr. Key West answer to the bicycle problem was to educate folks driving motorized vehicles to watch out for bicycles. Meanwhile, Key West makes headlines across the country for the number of people injured riding bicycles. It will continue to be a problem as long as the bike riders are not the ones being educated. Why are the powers to be so afraid to make bike riders obey the law?

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205443020689756:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · 1 · June 6 at 9:12pm
Sloan Bashinsky how about ticking jay walkers and pedestrians who cross intersections on green lights, a popular activity on Duval Street

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205443237775183:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · June 6 at 10:25pm
Sloan Bashinsky However, if the KW cops started ticking bicyclists and pedestrians, they might need a few, or a lot more, cops, and maybe that would hinder arresting all the pedestrian drunks and drug dealers on Duval Street and nearby, as well as hinder arresting homeless people for open container, drunk or not. But then, arresting and jailing all the drunks in town would require a jail about 10 times as big, naw, 100 times as big maybe, and my goodness, what would happen to the Key West economy? What economy, booze is the engine that drives the Key West economy.

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205443250855510:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · June 6 at 10:31pm
Harry L. Sawyer Jr. Sloan…you got it. Maybe if the PD did their job….lives could be saved. works everywhere else, why mot Key West?

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205443254015589:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · June 6 at 10:32pm
Mark Dandrea My wife nearly “t-boned” a bicyclist the other day who blew a stop sign. She had come to a stop and was turning right, he coming from her left, simply came flying right in front of her bumper, at a four way stop. She missed him by a hair and he had the nerve to be pissed at her. I got to hear the entire exchange between them on her cell with her giving him the “ear-full” he deserved. You want to be treated respectfully on the roads and I agree you should (although some of the roads you choose to cycle on are not the best choice), then obey the traffic laws as I do (in my car).

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205445345587877:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · 1 ·June 7
Sloan Bashinsky I see bicyclists who pedal as if they own the road, or the sidewalk, and sometimes I give them hell, and sometimes just shake my head. Some of them seem to be reincarnated kamikazes. I sometimes see the same in moped drivers, and skateboarders, and golf cart drivers - on public streets. I myself often sneak my bicycle through red lights, but not in a crazy way, I look both ways, for oncoming cars and police cruisers smile emoticon. Sometimes I see cars and trucks and even conch trains and trolleys being driven by people who ought to be yanked from behind the steering while and flogged. Due to serious over development of Key West and narrow streets in Old Town, there is and always be lots of traffic congestion and lots of bicycles on the streets and even on the sidewalks. I often take my bicycle onto a sidewalk when the street traffic is heavy. Many times have I experienced cars and trucks, and especially taxis, whizzing by me and nearly hitting me with their right hand rear view mirror, even when I’m pedaling in a bike lane. The most bizarre bicyclists seem to love riding on North Roosevelt, instead of on the sidewalks, as if they own that road, it’s there holy duty to be there getting in the way of motor vehicles. I frequently tell them the sidewalk is a lot safer, and as often as not, I get a mean look, or yelled at.

"}" data-reactid=".4f.1:4:1:$comment10205441710537003_10205445957883184:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0">Like · Reply · June 7
Dan Ayers The bigger questions is WHY aren’t the cops nailing bicycle law breakers left and right and why aren’t the newspapers advocating the cops to do so? Word would spread quick if the cops would just start ticketing and stick with it. Hell, if 1/10 of the fines for running stop signs went to repaving streets, we could have six inch thick gold covered streets in about a month. And the cyclists ALWAYS blame the car because they are too stupid to understand simple physics. That 4000 lb car will always win over a 200 lb person/bike. Always. What gives them the right to break all the rules when the rest of us can’t ?

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Sloan Bashinsky Dan Ayers, there are far worse things going on in Key West than a few seriously misbehaving bicyclists, relative to many bicyclists. Do you ride a bicycle in Key West? If not, why not? If everyone living in Key West, who knows how to ride a bicycle, rode one, instead of jumping into a car or truck, or onto a loud air-fouling moped, this town would be a lot different, the streets would be a lot lest congested, the air would be a lot lest polluted, there would be a lot fewer overweight people, the town would be a lot quieter. I wonder how many of the 7 elected city officials get around town on bicycles? I have asked them at city commission meetings to ride bicycles instead of motor vehicles, to lead the way in reducing street congestion, noise, air pollution, as part of what Mayor Cates calls Key West being clean and green. I don’t think I got any results. As for far worse things going on, spend nights on Duval Street, get lots of eye and ear fulls. A stripper I offered a ride at the bus stop on Stock Island, when I was headed up to Marathon one day, I didn’t know her, or that she was a stripper, when she accepted the ride, told me her whole life story en route. She said, young Key West cops providing night time security in Duval Street clubs are trafficking street drugs in those clubs. I can’t imagine KWPD going after that.

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Harry L. Sawyer Jr. I think ignoring the fact that bicyclists are being injured and killed on the streets of Key West is serious. To ignor this FACT as hampering our local and tourist right to being part of a Key West tradition is sad. The laws were created to make bicycling a safe and exciting form of transportation to see the wonderful sites Key West has to offer. Not get them a helicopter trip to a Miami trama center.
My point is…….we care about their safety.

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Sloan Bashinsky My observation, Harry, most bicyclist injuries are self-inflicted. More cops will not stop that. More arrests of bicyclists misbehaving, will that stop it? I doubt it. Many people in Key West either prefer riding bicycles around town, or that’s all they can afford because it costs so much to live here. The tension between bicycles and motor vehicles probably is here to stay and not resolvable. I am wondering why the great heat toward bicyclists in some of the comments in this thread? Did cops arresting drunk drivers reduce the number of drunk drivers in Key West. I don’t think so. I’m a heap more concerned about drunk drivers of motor vehicles, than I am about bicyclists, drunk or sober. Cops should arrest and jail drunk drivers of all kinds, including bicyclists. But to arrest a bicyclist for easing through a red traffic light on Duval Street, for example, while pedestrians are walking against that same green light in cross walks, which I have seen happen, well that seems a bit weird to me. Again I ask, what is driving the great heat in some of the comments in this thread?

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Harry L. Sawyer Jr. Probably because of the stress bicycleist cause every time they EASE through a tragic light or stop sigh and a motorist almost hits them. Police officers have a problem citing, not arresting, violations under traffic, chapter 316 fs. Are not criminal. The problem is they do not need a DL and will lie about their name,DOB, etc. and guess what…. Never show up in court.
we’ll just pray for the souls of those who say that NO law apples to bicycles riders. This thread only points to the fact that as long as there is money to be made by selling and renting bicycles, a few dead here and there is part of living on the edge in Key West. $$$$$$$$. To live and die in Key West is the new thought promoted. One human family would place a certain amount of responsibility on locals to make everyone obey the laws. The same Laws enforced all over the State of Florida, except Key West. I guess the other counties and cities have it all wrong.

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Sloan Bashinsky I think the same things happen elsewhere, as in Key West, people break the law, or don’t, they get arrested, or don’t, they get treated well by cops, or don’t; Key West is jammed tight, many bicycle per capita, perhaps cars and trucks should be banned, to solve the problem. Semi-joke. A heap more people are hurt or injured in Key West by booze, but booze is legal. And by prescription drugs, but they are legal. And by street drugs. The tone in this thread leaves still wondering where’s all the heat really coming from? I wish everyone in Key West was on a bicycle, or on foot. The most dangerous thing I see in Key West, ongoing, is motor vehicles driven by drunk and/or impatient drivers.That dwarfs dangerous bicyclers. Did passing laws against drunk driving slow that down? No. Did putting drunk drivers in jail slow that down? Did fining drunk drivers slow that down?

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Dick Moody Arrogent riders too!

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- Sloan Bashinsky Perhaps KWPD Police Chief Donnie Lee deputizes citizens who want to make bicyclists obey every last traffic law, and they rid the town of the arrogant bicyclists, and lots of other bicyclists, who don’t stop at every stop sign, who sometimes carefully sneak through red lights, who do not pollute the air with burned fossil fuel or loud noise, who do not congest the streets, who do not contribute to global warming, unless they smoke tobacco or other vegetable matter, and in that way fill the city coffers with fines, or, maybe, the bicyclists end up in the pokey, never know what KWPD officers given half an excuse will do with traffic offenders, but if you attended Citizen Police Review Board meetings in the past 12 months, then you got a pretty good idea. And, goodness, imagine the caseload bonanza the Public Pretender’s office and district courts will get, and all the court costs, and all the tax dollars paid to the Public Pretender, and, goodness, this really does look like a local economy booster, but what about the drug trafficking in Duval Street clubs, what about the drunk drivers, who truly are dangerous to other people?
  
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sloanbashinsky@outlook.com

the way of the redneck mystic shaman and other howlers and twisters from Key West of Weird, by way of Australia

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