Palm Bay Makes The Drudge Report

Yesterday I checked to see what headlines had been posted on The Drudge Report, and one of the news items was "Florida City Tries To Ban All Chinese Products."

So I clicked on that one to see exactly which city in Florida was being talked about, and lo an behold, it was Palm Bay.

Then I had to see if it was positive news for the City.

Our mayor, John Mazziotti is trying to put into effect a ban on Chinese products when the city buys something.

It isn't a total ban on Chinese products coming into the city, just that the city itself when making purchases for the city, cannot buy Chinese products.

"I don't think people have the slightest idea how much is from China," said Mazziotti. "I remind people every day. Pick up that label and see where it's made. You might surprise yourself."

I think it's pretty cool myself.

Then last night as I headed home from work, I turned on a local AM station to listen to the Jerry Doyle Show, an independent conservative talk show, and he was talking about the issues with all of the recalls and political problems with China going on right now. (Jerry Doyle was part of the cast of the science fiction show, Babylon 5, and also ran for Congress as a Republican in California. He's now an independent and a talk radio show host.)

Then Jerry Doyle starts talking about "this city in Florida, Palm Bay" whose mayor has announced a ban on the city purchasing Chinese products and how he supports that and that this mayor has a lot of guts.

Then, on the air, he asks his producer to call and try to get "the mayor of Palm Bay on the line" and after the next commercial break, he had John Mazziotti on the show as a call in guest.

They talked about the whole range of issues going on with China right now and I thought Mr. Mazziotti was quite articulate and very plain spoken (always a plus in my book) and made his points quite convincingly.

It was kind of surreal driving around town here while listening to our mayor talk live on a nationally syndicated radio program.

Go Mayor Mazziotti!

I certainly don't agree with all of his policies, for example, he opposed a local ordinance that would have fined local businesses for knowingly hiring illegal aliens that I think is a great idea, but I do agree with him on this issue with China.

Picture Post, Sunday June 24, 2007

Howdy folks. I was going through some photos that I've taken lately and ended up with several evening photos, that although not spectacular, I thought I would post them.

I've lived in several southern U.S. states, and they all had appeal for different reasons. Lovely Wife and I tried to take advantage of the places we lived because we have moved so many times in our marriage that we never knew where we might be in another couple of years. I'd hate to look back and say, "Boy, I sure wish we had done such and such while we lived in Wherever."

Of course, most of the things we have done are the cheap things. For most of our marriage, until I went back to school, earned my engineering degree and moved to Palm Bay for my first, and thus far, only job as an engineer, we were pretty much broke.

We went to public parks with the kids, zoos and things of that sort when the girls were little, and so on.

Growing up, I was one of those young people who didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, and I didn't know where, I just knew that I wanted out of Monroe, Louisiana.

For the record, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Monroe. I'm just one of those people who knew I wanted out of there. Monroe has as good a bunch of people there as anywhere else in the world. I'm not saying something about Monroe when I say I wanted out; I'm saying something ABOUT ME.

I've always loved the beach and when I had my degree in hand one of the job offers I had was here in Melbourne / Palm Bay, Florida.

Now, having said all of that, one of the special things about this area is the water. I cannot tell you what it still does to me after ten years of living and working here to come to a point while driving where I can see either the Indian River Lagoon or the Atlantic Ocean. My heart leaps a little bit, even after all of this time.

So the first four of today's pics are a few afternoon shots that I've taken in the last week or two, that are a good representation of what evenings are like here literally 300 days or so every year. It's beautiful so many evenings and causes in me sensations I can't really describe to you.

Without further ado:





This final one is a bit different. I had taken this shot and when I pulled it up on the computer I realized why. To me, the street light over part of the Melbourne Causeway out to the ocean looked like those laser beam, eye thingies on the space ships in the original The War of the Worlds movie from the fifties. Zzzzt!

Y'all be particular now, hear?