As I travel the state and see the zillion road projects (mostly needless) I am mystified at how sloppy and poorly handled the construction sites are. The recent actions by the legislature to give the road builders and consultants a red carpet to our road projects is a travesty and appears to be aiding in these messy, dangerous areas. More and more I see zero effort to properly block off construction areas as roads are realigned during construction leading to folks driving off the active road and into the sites at night. Also we have so many road projects going on that the road builders are using the same employees and equipment at various sites often leaving sites empty of anyone, despite the “work zone” area.

Paula Dockery posted the following story on Facebook. Click on the link to read the story. Below are my comments.

Scott hires Indiana’s Edwin Buss to head Florida Department of Corrections; Walmart’s Bryan Koon as Emergency Management chief

Sorry to sound like a Gloomy Gus,but here’s more evidence that Scott is out of touch with Florida. Heck, I raise the question if he has ever been in touch with the state. He continues with the attitude of too many other carpet baggers that …what worked one place will work here. That can be the case. In Florida’s history, that has been a very bad direction to go in.

Indiana’s crime rate vs. Florida’s is like comparing a bad pick pocket to a successful serial killer. I’d love to be the fly on the wall as this fellow Scott wants begins to take in the vast complexities of the crimes, people and landscape of Florida. I wonder if he might not bailout a year from now… or some such.

I’ve been involved in some emergency management issues. A cut rate approach might just shut down a questionable project we’ve boiled way too much money in with even more questionable results. Good to see the fellow is from the Navy in that most of our mostly likely worse disasters are bound to involve water. I hope he reads a lot of Florida history fast about how we got to where we are and that we are sewed together by a fine tether of rivers, lakes and streams… and that those also happen to be part of our water supply.

We have been pummeled in Florida by political phone calls. Specifically what are known as “robo-calls”, which are automated phone calls where you pick up the phone and no one is there except some digitally enhanced voice hawking some candidate. I’ve been fuming about it. It wasn’t until I saw Facebook posts about the issue from three friends (G.K. Sharman, Jennifer Huber & I can’t remember who the other is) that I realized I wasn’t alone and made this cartoon.

Obama sure has proven that with a lack of education you sure can’t see past the end of your nose.

Written by Ken Culotta.

I couldn’t get The Velvet Snowstorm website to take this right now, so I’m putting it here.

Hillsborough County, Florida, dumps their annual dinner name for a name less controversial…That is, if you’re ignorant of history.

Here’s the story:

Good-bye Jefferson/Jackson, hello Kennedy/Graham

Here’s my commentary:

OK, so Jefferson and Jackson had some questionable decisions. But the Democrats would stare at a few mistakes and ignore the overall human being.

One that was the first territorial Governor of Florida and a reason why Americans are in the state at all. The other being a father of our country, who actually had the guts to fight for the liberties so that we can write what we’re writing here in this great country to begin with????

So they pick a former President who used more beds than a Sealey Posturepedic factory. Graham is OK, but why group him with that nasty Kennedy group. I’m setting aside that Graham’s family dredged and filled part of the Everglades for Miami Lakes and now Bob hugs trees. Hey, Bob! Wanna help the trees? Tear down those lousy homes, refill the land and help save the ‘Glades!

More reasons why the Democrats are a mess.

This guy is slick! How can you golf during a tumultuous weekend like this and the press doesn’t interrupt you? This cartoon almost seems to support the President’s activities. I hope it leaps to someone’s mind that Bush was pummeled for even holding golf clubs during less trying times. Is Obama the new Teflon President?

Below is the pencil drawing. It was tough getting the motion lines to work in the color version.

I actually penciled this back in February and inked it on an airplane going from London to Washington, D.C. I waited on this to use while we were gone. I sent this from our hotel room in Charleston, South Carolina.

This what I see happening. Stimulus money going to a select group of workers in the road building industry, while the rest of us are stuck in the traffic snarls they cause. I’ve been there and watched this stuff happen. Much worse that even more of my tax dollars are used to perpetuate these sweetheart deals of unneeded, costly roads that go on for miles so that the road builder makes an even larger profit.

I came across this story from a friend on Facebook.

As someone who has extensively studied the history and ideas and ideals of evolutionary theory, I find this fellows column and what he writes about rather hilarious. To imagine Darwin, or any theorist embracing natural selection to say,” Let’s save WhoVille.” is preposterous. The whole idea of evolution is some stay, some go. That’s how you grow. If you leave room for emotion, you get in the way of the process that would otherwise occur.

Geisel’s stories were doused in sentimental jib-jab. I love his stories as the stories they are. But in the context of heralding natural selection, Geisel wrote to thwart it. He was pretty persistent in the idea of all must be saved. That is neither natural nor evolutionary.

Folks like Darwin, Linnaeus, Buffon, Lamarck, plus so many others invested much time and effort over long periods of time to lead to theories still tested today. The more they learned the more their ideas had semblance of sense. It was time and effort. Trial and error. That is what produced volumes of material. All far more extensive and involved than a Geisel short children’s book.

I believe to be creative it takes that time and effort. That trial and error. The more you learn and try to know the more creative you can be. It’s much like in Scrabble. You get a random series of letters and are supposed to assemble a word out of it. You can only piece together words, if you know the words beforehand. The article rambled more about making up the words. Points aren’t earned with made up words. You have to work to know those possibilities. Reading and learning.

Creativity comes from the more knowledge gained the more you can play in your head to then pick up pencil, paintbrush, trumpet, dance shoes and explore the possibilities with the knowledge gained. Painting a building takes knowledge of building and some sense of architecture. Most artists use reference for such. The more they know beforehand , the less the reference is needed. Someone lacking that information is flat out of luck. They’ll just make it up and the final piece will show that lack of knowledge. Thus the informed trumps the ill informed. Move the weaker away as the stronger survives.

Evolutionary theory is hardly understood today. The media and special interest groups have watered it down to be about humans coming from monkeys. Something Darwin himself only touched on in his volumes written. Or you have those on the left trying to fit their bleeding heart square peg in the evolutionary hypothesis round hole. More and more Darwin’s brutal theories are being fluffed for a more cry baby audience. It is sad that these anniversaries are being recognized as the bastardization of Darwin’s work is continued. My theory is that better left alone or have it destroyed.