florida

Chris Knight's avatar

I needed this trip, severely.  Looking in the mirror this morning, I barely recognize the guy who set off eleven days ago on what became over a week in Florida.  It’s not the face of the Chris who’s spent most of the past several months in grief over the passing of a parent, or in frustration of other things that have tested my perseverance.

Sometimes you need to step away from things and give God some elbow room to work His way on your life.  I have been so focused on writing my book and the hard wall of progress I’ve been hitting since late February, so trapped by the four walls of my living room and too many times bouts of depression, that those had become the only substantial elements of my life.  And that’s not right at all.

For sake of myself, the book, everything… I had to ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Driving south down I-95, your stretch of which must be the most treacherous length of interstate in the continental United States.  The GPS blaring red alerts of “stay in the left lane” practically the entire time from the Georgia border until well past town.  Hopped-up on Dr. Pepper and Lindsey Stirling’s “Shatter Me” playing over the car stereo.

It was one of the most crazy awesome experiences I’ve ever had as a driver.  But please… please… do something about that highway.  A lot of the time I could barely tell where one lane ended and the other began.  You guys are one confused motorist away from a collisional calamity of crippling proportions.

Looks like a pretty nice town though.  Maybe next time I’ll stop for a bite to eat there....

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Breaking news on, I think every TV station in the land right now.

George Zimmerman: found Not Guilty

Justice was served.  And I’m going to tell you why…

George Zimmerman has been found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin because the prosecution in this case either had NO real evidence whatsoever, or they were the most incompetent team of prosecutors in the history of anything.  Too many times it seemed as if the prosecutors were scoring points for the defense!

Either way, justice was done in this matter.  The burden is on the prosecution to prove guilt, not on the defendant to prove innocence.  And the prosecution came nowhere close to meeting that burden....

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Found a rather strange story about Anthony Brasfield, who was arrested by the Florida Highway Patrol on a felony charge.

His crime: releasing a dozen or so red and silver heart-shaped balloons into the sky for his girlfriend.

From the article at Sun-Sentinel.com…

Also watching the romantic gesture: an FHP trooper, who instead noted probable cause for an environmental crime.

Brasfield was charged with polluting to harm humans, animals, plants, etc. under the Florida Air and Water Pollution Control Act.

Endangered marine turtle species and birds, such as wood storks and brown pelicans, seek refuge in John U. Lloyd State Park, about 1.5 miles east of the motel.

Between 2008 and 2012, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said there were 21 arrests statewide under the rarely used environmental crime statute. The third-degree felony is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Five years in prison for ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Hey, I got a write-in vote from Florida for the office of President of the United States!

Not a joke: that is a real ballot a friend turned in this afternoon. I doubt I’ll win but hey, at least someone thinks I’m more qualified for the job than Roseanne Barr. That’s… something, I suppose!

As for my own vote for President:

There it is. That’s it. The space on my ballot for President was left unmarked. Untouched. Unsoiled. As virgin as the wind-driven snow.

I had thought of writing in “Rufus T. Firefly”. Until a wise friend convinced me today that a write-in vote for a fictitious character or anything like that would have been just as waste of a vote as those who blindly vote straight-ticket. That a much more morally powerful vote would be to choose not to participate in that particular madness at all.

Wanna know what ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

In the wake of American schoolkids rebelling against the federal government’s new school lunch rules, a school district in Florida is considering installing video cameras on its school cafeteria trashcans so it can monitor and determine if students are throwing away their vegetables.

Meanwhile the students of Northside Independent School District in Texas are being told to wear ID badges containing location-tracking radio chips on penalty of “suspension, fines, or being involuntary transferred”.

Here’s an idea: the students should go ahead and wear the badges, but only after putting them in their microwave ovens for a minute or two. THAT oughtta scramble the innards enough to make them useless!

Some good commentary by Fred Reed – the Internet’s finest curmudgeon – about the growing “Eye of Sauron” over us, which you can read here....

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Renfield had the right idea at least: if you’re gonna eat bugs, give it some variety!

Edward Archbold, age 32, is dead after eating “dozens of roaches and worms” in a pet store’s contest in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

From the article at The Smoking Gun…

Investigators reported that Archbold “wasn’t feeling well and began to regurgitate” shortly after the contest’s conclusion. “He had consumed dozens of roaches and worms,” a sheriff’s spokesman noted.

Archbold was pronounced dead after being transported to an area hospital. An autopsy was conducted, and the Broward County medical examiner is awaiting test results to determined Archbold’s cause of death.

The roach eating contest was part of the reptile store’s October 5 “Midnight Madness” sale. Contestants had four minutes to devour the most discoid roaches, which can grow up to three inches long. “Oh yeah, any vomiting is an automatic DQ,” the store cautioned in

...
Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

An eight-foot tall LEGO “minifigure” was found on the beach at Siesta Key Village, Florida earlier this week…

From the story at Boing Boing…

Boing Boing reader Jeff Hindman says he chanced across a “giant Legoman washed ashore” today while strolling on the beach at Siesta Key Village, Fla.

“It is very big, about 8 ft. tall,” Hindman said. ” … I worked with Lego in my younger days, but this piece is amazing, it’s still there on the beach.”

A photo of the creature shows it beached on a sandbank, in otherwise good condition. On its chest is the message, “No real than you are.”

This suggests it has the same origin as Lego men who washed ashore in Zandvoort, Holland, three years ago, and then in Brighton, England.

Doesn’t look like the LEGO man is in any distress from his ordeal. I mean, look at how big ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Just three things:

First, I admit that I didn’t follow this trial at all up until Tuesday when the verdict was reached and announced. When that happened it was darn near impossible to read anything but about it. So I took it upon myself to study the case and now that some of the jurors have broken their anonymity and begun talking about it…

I have to say that the jurors reached the best verdict that they possibly could. And when some of them say that it anguished them that this was their verdict, I have to take them at their word.

Do I believe that Casey Anthony murdered her 2-year old daughter Caylee Anthony? My answer would be “Is there anybody who seriously believes that O.J. didn’t do it?”

But in our legal system, the burden is on the prosecution to prove guilt beyond any reasonable doubt. Not the ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

In the state of New York a government agency is ordering pet cemeteries to cease and desist with interring the cremated remains of human pet owners with their beloved dogs and cats.

Meanwhile in Fort Pierce, Florida (I happen to have lots of family there) two women were taped by video surveillance at a Winn Dixie supermarket stealing seventy-five sticks of deodorant. Police figure the ladies will try to sell the deodorant to convenience stores.

Not the craziest stories that I’ve heard lately, but certainly worth passing along for your mirth and merriment 😛...

Read more