narcissism, testosterone poisoning, salmonella infections, jail soy food allergy, homeless shelter contagious diseases, second-rate sewer system pollution, pedestrian crosswalk roulette, and other life-threatening maneuvers - Key West kamikaze society

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Where to begin today’s fun? How about recent email exchanges with Jerry Weinstock, M.D., Psychiatry, retired, sometimes; Jerry and his wife, Donna, live in Key Haven, which is situated on the Gulf side of US 1, about a mile above Key West:

SLOAN—-“-Everest “-the movie—-you may find worth seeing —-let me know I will leave a ticket with your name at the box office -it is in 3D ——-an appreciation of sea level and the tragedy in the film based on Narcissism —-psychological -fundamental to our present culture.———-blossoming of our present time. ( your birthday gift—should you wish)?
Jerry

I replied:

Thanks. I saw promos for “Everest” and did not feel tugged to see it. The promos seemed a bit over-dramatic, I wondered if the climbers had over-reached due to ego drive? The film is showing now at the Regal. The afternoon showings interfere with my eating dinner at soup kitchen, so I usually don’t do a movie in the afternoon unless it’s something I really want to see, and night showings are too late for me to get into KOTS. Let me sleep on your offer, perhaps the angels want me to see “Everest” and review it.

I knew a doctor in Santa Fe somewhat, who was into outdoors tests, whitewater kayaking when I met him. He later got into mountain climbing and went up Everest and got killed there. When reached Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal, 15,000 feet, that was higher than I ever wanted to be on a mountain. There were climbers camped just above the base camp, waiting on the weather to clear so they could climb one of those peaks, which seemed around 25,000 or more feet high. I was not tugged to be with them. I recall reading of Sir Edmund Hillary, who was the first to reach the top of Everest, when asked if he would try to do it again?, he replied, why would he do that?, once was plenty. He stayed in the area afterward, doing community work, trying to help the people of that area.

Testosterone poisoning did not get the best of Hillary, but it has destroyed humanity, by not giving estrogen nearly enough say so and sway. Absent an estrogen revolution, humanity’s future is not pretty. Estrogen = the feminine, yin, anima, Holy Spirit. Her absence lies at the root of most medical diseases, including psychiatric, addictions, wars and just about all other human “diseases”, including absence from God.

Jerry wrote:

I liked your summary of the whole thing—-there is a huge narcissistic element
involved which I thought you would -of all people get that hidden subtle—-deep layer psychic—

most to of the tragedy stemmed from that part of the ego -the narcissistic demonic
facet of our worldwide human culture NOW—-it hit me squarely

No one picked it up that I have conversed with——OBVIOUS to me the disease of the
affluent and non-affluent.(not as much)—-love and prestige of $$$$$ our culture;
leading to the planet’s destruction -pretty obvious-narcissism connected .

Enough the offer stands —-if you you ever want to activate it —-or some other feature
in the future.-that you may gravitate to. i know the times are lousy for you
do not fit your schedule. —-such is life-good luck today SLOAN——-Jerry

I replied:

After publishing this morning, I pedaled my bicycle into Fort Zachary Taylor State Park to read more in an Asian detective novel I’ve been pecking away at, written by a western man who lives in France and Thailand, the fellow who wrote The Godfather of Kathmandu. Both novels contain priceless assessments by the Thai detective and his crooked police chief boss and other less pretentious toward goodness Asian hoodlums, of the infantile stupidity and egoism of western people, especially Americans and Brits. The author tosses in interesting other tidbits, such as, the Brits turned most of China’s adult males into opium addicts back when England “owned” China, so those men would not revolt and take what they saw the Brits getting. Generally awful view of the west, with plenty of cemetery humor, to mitigate the stark cruelty, indifference and wilyness of the mature Asian criminal mind. While reading, I fell asleep in my folding “beach chair” and went far, far away for a while, probably my head was tilted over to the side and my mouth was open and maybe my tongue was lolling out the side and the whites of my eyes rolled back in their sockets where showing, a real creature feature, as my bright yellow poncho and foul weather almost matching trousers flapped in the breeze from a forked dead tree branch, drying. The wi-fi out there was down, so after trimming my beard and toe nails in plain view at the picnic table, I gathered up my stuff, loaded my bicycle back up, and headed to the county library, where I am now. En route, I found myself thinking of the question reported in today’s post, put to county commission candidates during a 2008 candidate forum: What are the 3 greatest threats to the Florida Keys? I thought, if I were asked that question today, I probably would say: greed, gluttony and lust. Translated: development, boozing and drugging, and lust. But then, I suppose I should not offend, by not mentioning it, that river in Egypt.

Thanks for keeping the movie offer open, and modified, am pondering the Bobby Fisher movie at Tropic Cinema, will let you know later.

Ciao

Jerry wrote:

SLOAN: sounds as if that book has touched additional cognitive wellsprings.
enjoyed your description.————-hi to Kari——-Jerry

I replied:

The book is an escape, perhaps into reality, sometimes :-).

Interesting conversations with Kari past two days, some reported into today’s at goodmorningkeywest.com, headed your way by email shortly.

Jerry wrote:

housing for you and Kari -Prime objective !!

this the city fathers don’t want anyone to know the Iguanas carrying Parasites in their
GI tract—-sent a young child to Miami ——airlift -severe Salmonellae—just saved her life.

plop in their swimming pool-that with MRSA nice combination-polluted air and water
LOVELY —-enough anymore I will precipitate-a migraine——-kind regards to you and Kari-Jerry

Bobby Fischer movie sounds—-worth seeing. ——good luck ===Jerry

good blog

I replied:

Had not thought about iguanas carrying disease. Under-cooked chicken a good chance of infecting a person with Salmonellae, that’s how I caught it twice, first time in a restaurant in late fall 1987. Self-diagnosed it. Very bad news. A chiropractor-herbalist amiga in Ojo Caliente, northern New Mexico, prescribed combo of chaparral (2 caps), sage (one cap) and cayenne (one cap), 4 X a day. Local health food stores (Boulder, Colorado) where I lived had no sage caps, so she substituted fenugreek-thyme combo caps, which the heath food stores carried. I had stopped eating, which laid down the awful G.I. commotion, drank mostly fluids, and in about a week, I was feeling pretty okay, for me; I think I took the herbal prescription for 10 days. The second time, a couple of years later, I was in Birmingham when it onset fully, after I had contracted it in a different restaurant in Boulder. A Birmingham veterinarian I knew, who used homeopathic remedies on animals, and on animal owners sub rosa, gave me homeopathic arsenic, and that took care of it that time. I hope never in Eternity to get Salmonellae again - very bad news, and with my kinky G.I. tract, it was hell getting the stuff to move out of me.

The Fisher movie is what I want to use your birthday present on, if possible, it’s at The Tropic. Thanks

Jerry wrote:

those herbals if not cure will help———-good ones.

give me the day ———-PM or evening
for the MOVIE ————-Jerry

I replied:

The “herbals” seemed to have been a cure for the Salmonella.

Sunday night showing works for me. Thanks

Jerry wrote:

OK —we will have an envelope with your name. Sunday Night
the Bobby Fischer movie————Jerry

I replied:

Imagine there will be some narcissism in the movie; Fisher was a twisted soul, not without a great deal of help from Uncle Sam, after Fisher defied him and played the evil Russian, who, I wonder, could have cared less about communism or the cold war?

On the Kari front:

She told me yesterday, nurses in the infirmary said blood work will not reveal a soy allergy; it will take skin patches to try to determine if the awful, itchy sores all over Kari are reaction to her eating soy food in the jail. Meanwhile, the infirmary put Michelle Stedman, who also is broken out, on cortisone, a steroid, which was never given to Kari. I told Kari to tell Michelle for me, that if she takes enough cortisone, she might end up with hair and horns growing out of her nose and ears. Kari said she had heard that the problem is far more widespread in the men’s part of the jail. Jail staff are thinking maybe it’s the soap used by the jail to wash inmates clothing, sheets, towels, etc., or maybe too much soap is being used. I said, well, soap is not causing the awful intestinal tract distress, which follows on the heels of her (Kari) eating soy. I said it sounds like the jail will do all it can to try to avoid dealing with the soy allergy issue, because dealing with that will require the jail to stop feeding soy to inmates, which will cause change (commotion) and will cost the jail more money, if hamburger, for example, is more expensive that soy meat substitute, which Kari says is what inmates now are fed. I told Kari to please tell Michelle Stedman I said she and you and other inmates suffering from these awful symptoms need to join ranks and keep requesting a diet change, which I imagine just feeding inmates hamburger, instead of soy meet substitute, will go a long way toward resolving.

It ain’t narcissism not to want your body all broken out with open, painful, itching sores, which, besides being pure torture (cruel and unusual punishment), in this tropical locale, are screaming invitations for MRSA infections.

Soy allergy photos:

MRSA infection photos, below:

On the Key West homeless shelter front, KOTS, located on the Sheriff’s land near the jail:

I stayed nights at KOTS for maybe 10 or so weeks, until just the other day, and I might stay there again. It’s a homeless shelter. Most of the clients are active addicts. Many of the clients have serious diseases, some are contagious. Many of the clients don’t bathe often. Some of the clients stink. Recently, I heard from KOTS clients eating at the soup kitchen, KOTS had banned a homeless man who did not bathe, who kept putting his hand down his butt crack, and then did not wash his hands before using the soft drink machine and the microwave. Previously, I had watched several KOTS men clients try to keep this man away from the drink machine and microwave. In the dorms, the 3-ft-wide sleeping pads are inches or less apart. Unless you have an end pad, you sleep next to two other homeless men. If one of them has an infectious disease, such as MRSA, influenza, hepatitis, scabies, lice, TB, you can end up with it, and I doubt you will see SHAL (Southern Assistance Homeless League, which runs KOTS for the City of Key West, or the City of Key West offer to pay your medical bills. In fact, if you make a stink about it, you could end up finding yourself banned from KOTS, for “whining”. Since I started staying in the home of friends, sores and itching on the bottom of my feet and around my little toes are going away; I thought that was caused by something on the communal bathroom/shower floors.

Now how about the most recent Editorial in the Key West Citizen (keysnews.com), my interjected thoughts in bold italics, I added the photos:

Wednesday, September 30, 2015
A true epiphany needed
It is with great dismay and disbelief that we heard Monore [Monroe] County Commissioner George Neugent’s

Neugent

feigned outrage and attempt to blame the numerous concerned citizens groups who sued the county and FKAA to require the utility to construct a deep injection well at the Cudjoe Regional treatment facility. Multiple lawsuits against the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority and the county by both commercial fisherman and homeowners associations have cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to eventually compel construction of a deep well, which was in the original plan and should never have been in question.

As payback for these groups forcing the county to do the right thing, Commissioner Neugent has publicly stated that he wants to take the cases to court, which will result in additional legal fees for county taxpayers, all to correct the county’s egregious mistake.

While Commissioner Neugent may have nearly perfected the art of political manipulation, blaming the alert and courageous citizen groups for catching the county and FKAA in their scheme to short-change our environment is going far beyond the bounds of political decency. These groups should be commended for averting a potential environmental disaster, not ridiculed by any public official. The individuals who should be chastised and blamed for yet another incredible waste of taxpayer money are the Monroe County elected officials sitting on the dais and the FKAA board and bureaucrats who participated in the scheme.

Commissioner Neugent’s comments are a characteristically political attempt to divert us from the real story — our government’s ineptitude and arrogance. It was the county, in conjunction with FKAA, that first chose to replace the Cudjoe deep injection well, called for in the original master plan, with four shallow injection wells. By making the switch, the county could skirt the Department of Environmental Protection’s limit of 1 million gallons of treated effluent per day by building four shallow wells that could each dispose of 1 million gallons per day. Therefore, the four shallow wells have a potential capacity of 4 million gallons per day. The combined effluent from the four wells will be injected in a concentrated area just 120 feet below the ground’s surface into porous limestone.

When the concerned citizens groups learned of the switch and potential ramifications after FKAA had constructed the shallow wells, these groups immediately voiced their concerns to both the county and FKAA. Instead of acting on the legitimate issues raised, FKAA took a hard-line position and insisted on activating the shallow wells upon completion of the sewer installation. It was only then that the groups were forced to sue FKAA and the county to prevent use of the shallow wells and to compel construction of a deep well, which the county should have done initially in compliance with the master plan.

This was after the hard line taken by FKAA and Commissioner Neugent, especially, but also the other 4 county commissioners, to prior hollering by lower Keys property owners about the widespread use of already proven ecologically disastrous E-1 grinder pumps throughout Cudjoe Regional Sewer District, instead insalling of gravity collection sewage lines wherever feasible, such as are used in Key West. I myself was part of an email conversation between several irate and actually knowledgeable lower Keys citizens, with Neugent, whose arrogance and belittling of his own voting district constituents would have been hilarious if it were not so grave. Yet, unbelievably, Nugent carried his own voting district in the 2014 county commission races, leaving me, at least, thinking he is just what his constituents want for a county commissioner. I don’t recall the Citizen Editorial Board weighing into the grinder pump fracas, which was getting lots of coverage at my webistes. It might be, in the long run, shallow vs. deep injection wells will be a molehill, compared to what happens if another Hurricane Wilma covers the lower Keys with sea water, knocking out the electricity, and all of those grinder pumps, which rely entirely on electricity, stop working, and raw human waste backs up into all of those yards and into the homes and buildings - hello HAZMAT teams, adios resale value of any of those homes and buildings.

It is also of grave concern that Commissioner Neugent attempts to mislead the public into believing that the most recent round of testing of the shallow injection wells showed there was no pollution or detection of pollution. Even though FKAA fought against it, the lawsuits finally forced FKAA to conduct testing to determine the potential impacts of disposing treated effluent into shallow wells. The first round of testing, which was conducted by an independent source, exposed the danger of injecting excessive amounts of treated sewer water discharge into shallow wells, with the potential of exacerbating leaching of the existing landfill. After the results of the independent test were publicized, the county had no choice but to agree to construct a deep well.

We hope that Commissioner Neugent will enlighten us as to the test data he relies upon to indicate that no pollution will result from use of shallow wells until the deep well is completed. In fact, water quality and pollution were never tested, as promised. The recent test conducted by FKAA only tested the water capacity of the shallow wells, and the test was conducted using fresh water instead of effluent. How was pollution tested when no pollutants were introduced into the shallow wells during FKAA’s testing? Is this simply a misstatement by the normally politically-adept Commissioner Neugent, or is he purposely trying to confuse us into thinking the discharge water will have no negative impact on our nearshore waters and coral reef system?

We find it ironic that Commissioner Neugent, who heralds himself as an environmental crusader - er, when did he do that? I ran against him in 2006 and in 2010, and I was the environmental candidate, and, as far as I know, I’m the only person who ever ran for the county commission, or for mayor of Key West, who was the environmental candidate - would chastise a group of courageous citizens who ultimately triumphed on behalf of the environment. These groups should not have to incur any expense for correcting the county’s inexcusable mistake, and they certainly should not be undermined by an elected official whose commission created the costly problem in the first place.

Perhaps Commissioner Neugent will someday have an “epiphany” and apologize to the taxpayers for the county’s blatant waste of taxpayer money and, most importantly, its callous disregard for our precious Florida Keys waters. It may also be time to reevaluate the need for term limits on county commissioners, as some of our veteran commissioners appear to have lost their objectivity and good judgment.

Maybe some day The Citizen Editorial Board members and the county voters will apologize for continuing to reelect George Neugent, now in his, what?, 5th, or is it his 6th 4-year term?

— The Citizen

Now let’s move to the Editorial in today’s Citizen:

Beware, bicyclists and pedestrians, of the Crosswalks of Death.
There is an insidious element that was recently introduced into our community, and
sooner or later it is going to take a life. These malevolent devices charade as safe havens,
luring in unsuspecting victims, while in reality they pose a deadly threat to those sucked into their promise of protection.
The purely evil things we speak of are, of course, the new crosswalks on [North] Roosevelt Boulevard. There are numerous less-than-brilliant new traffic “control” devices brought to us by the FDOT with the newly revamped Roosevelt Boulevard. There is the confusing red stoplight arrow at the triangle, which in many cases causes drivers to sit patiently — backing up traffic — when they could legally turn after stopping. Why not simply make it a solid red light that would be universally understood?
Of course, there are also the much-maligned “sharrows” encouraging bike riders to use the full right lane even though there is a perfectly good bike path adjacent to the road. Some legal research has shown that these stupid sharrows are not mandatory as we
have been told, but instead optional. If this is the case, they should be removed in
the interest of safety and plain old common sense.

I am on North Roosevelt’s sidewalks, on my bicycle, just about every day. It’s been quite a while since I saw a bicyclist crazed or stupid enough to ride in the right-hand lane (sharrows) on the boulevard; I see lots of bicyclists using the sidewalks on either side of the boulevard.
We have railed repeatedly about the vast gaggle of new signs obstructing views and cluttering up the roadsides. We seem to remember a promise by the FDOT to remove
a large number of these signs but unless we missed it, we are still waiting for the FDOT to keep its promise.
Now, back to the main focus of our rant, the Crosswalks of Death.
While all of the newly installed crosswalks are virtual pedestrian gallows, the most glaringly dangerous is the one in front of the K-Mart shopping center. These crosswalks, while obviously intended to promote safety and while certainly implying safe passage to the pedestrians which use them, are instead much more dangerous than having nothing
at all.

I beg to differ; that crosswalk is protected, to some degree, by the stop light at the Overseas Market shopping center, to the west, and the stoplight at Kennedy Drive, to the east. The truly dangerous pedestrian crossings are the one above the Taco Bell, below Salt Channel Bridge, and above the traffic signal at the upper Publix shopping center. Through those crosswalks, motor vehicles are barreling, typically above the speed limit.
The problem lies in that the crosswalks have simple flashing yellow lights, which give drivers absolutely no indication if pedestrians are actually crossing or not. - Not true. Pedestrians and bicyclists walking their bicycles through any of the crosswalks are in plain view to oncoming traffic, from a distance. The problem is motor vehicle drivers see pedestrians and bicyclists at the crosswalks, on the sidewalk waiting to cross, and the motorists do not even slow down; they ignore, or do not see (far less likely), the pedestrians and bicyclists and the crosswalk signs and flashing lights. Many times have I forced motor vehicles to stop moving into a crosswalk, pointing at the signs, and when that dose snot work, by shooting motorists a bird. Of course, I am very careful to allow myself time to head back to the sidewalk, to avoid being run over by a motorist, who chooses to ignore me, or (far less likely) doesn’t see me; and I always wave thank you to motorists who stop on their own, and let me cross safely. - Couple that with the fact that if traffic does stop for pedestrians in the left lane of traffic, that same vehicle very effectively blocks the crossing pedestrian from view of the motorists barreling down the right lane. True. Anyone who has traveled down the boulevard has surely seen a near-miss as pedestrians or bicyclists cross the lane as an oblivious driver either slams on the brakes or even worse, blows through the crosswalk without even realizing the near-miss. - Or, the stopping vehicle is nearly, or actually is, rear-ended by a motorist following close behind. - What is particularly confounding about the K-Mart crosswalk is that there is a stop light with REAL crosswalks not a hundred meters away at the corner of Kennedy and Roosevelt. Where is the logic? Agreed, it would be best to remove that crosswalk, because it’s not really needed. Pedestrians and bicyclists can cross more safely at the Kennedy Drive traffic light and at the Overseas Market Traffic, about 3 city blocks toward downtown Key West.
To sum up, we have to again repeat our morbid prediction that it is a matter of when, not if, someone is seriously hurt or killed in these new crosswalks. The danger they possess needs to be addressed immediately and a safer solution implemented.

The way to really deal with it immediately is, no apology, station unmarked KWPD cruisers near the pedestrian crosswalks and give out lots of running through pedestrian crosswalk traffic tickets, which will increase the city treasury’s revenues and give KWPD officers something really important to do, as opposed to arresting homeless people for drinking in public, or sleeping outside at night.
— The Citizen

sloanbashinsky@outlook.com