• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
MENUMENU
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • FlaglerLive Board of Directors
    • Comment Policy
    • Mission Statement
    • Our Values
    • Privacy Policy
  • Live Calendar
  • Submit Obituary
  • Submit an Event
  • Support FlaglerLive
  • Advertise on FlaglerLive (386) 503-3808
  • Search Results

FlaglerLive

No Bull, no Fluff, No Smudges

MENUMENU
  • Flagler
    • Flagler County Commission
    • Beverly Beach
    • Economic Development Council
    • Flagler History
    • Mondex/Daytona North
    • The Hammock
    • Tourist Development Council
  • Palm Coast
    • Palm Coast City Council
    • Palm Coast Crime
  • Bunnell
    • Bunnell City Commission
    • Bunnell Crime
  • Flagler Beach
    • Flagler Beach City Commission
    • Flagler Beach Crime
  • Cops/Courts
    • Circuit & County Court
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • Federal Courts
    • Flagler 911
    • Fire House
    • Flagler County Sheriff
    • Flagler Jail Bookings
    • Traffic Accidents
  • Rights & Liberties
    • Fourth Amendment
    • First Amendment
    • Privacy
    • Second Amendment
    • Seventh Amendment
    • Sixth Amendment
    • Sunshine Law
    • Third Amendment
    • Religion & Beliefs
    • Human Rights
    • Immigration
    • Labor Rights
    • 14th Amendment
    • Civil Rights
  • Schools
    • Adult Education
    • Belle Terre Elementary
    • Buddy Taylor Middle
    • Bunnell Elementary
    • Charter Schools
    • Daytona State College
    • Flagler County School Board
    • Flagler Palm Coast High School
    • Higher Education
    • Imagine School
    • Indian Trails Middle
    • Matanzas High School
    • Old Kings Elementary
    • Rymfire Elementary
    • Stetson University
    • Wadsworth Elementary
    • University of Florida/Florida State
  • Economy
    • Jobs & Unemployment
    • Business & Economy
    • Development & Sprawl
    • Leisure & Tourism
    • Local Business
    • Local Media
    • Real Estate & Development
    • Taxes
  • Commentary
    • The Conversation
    • Pierre Tristam
    • Diane Roberts
    • Guest Columns
    • Byblos
    • Editor's Blog
  • Culture
    • African American Cultural Society
    • Arts in Palm Coast & Flagler
    • Books
    • City Repertory Theatre
    • Flagler Auditorium
    • Flagler Playhouse
    • Flagler Youth Orchestra
    • Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
    • Palm Coast Arts Foundation
    • Special Events
  • Elections 2024
    • Amendments and Referendums
    • Presidential Election
    • Campaign Finance
    • City Elections
    • Congressional
    • Constitutionals
    • Courts
    • Governor
    • Polls
    • Voting Rights
  • Florida
    • Federal Politics
    • Florida History
    • Florida Legislature
    • Florida Legislature
    • Ron DeSantis
  • Health & Society
    • Flagler County Health Department
    • Ask the Doctor Column
    • Health Care
    • Health Care Business
    • Covid-19
    • Children and Families
    • Medicaid and Medicare
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Violence
  • All Else
    • Daily Briefing
    • Americana
    • Obituaries
    • News Briefs
    • Weather and Climate
    • Wildlife

How CSX Bought Mica, Funerals for Space and Symphonies, Internet Dating: The Live Wire

July 2, 2011 | FlaglerLive | 1 Comment

The Flagler Beach Pier's support staff. (© FlaglerLive)

You’re welcome to send your Live Wire news tips or suggestions to LiveWire@flaglerlive.com.

Today’s Live Wire: Quick Links

  • John Mica’s Pork Obsession
  • Best Japanese Ad Ever
  • End of the Space Age
  • John Lennon, a Reagan Fan?
  • End of the Symphony Orchestra
  • Sex, Love, Loneliness: Internet
  • What’s a Teabagger?
  • Gmail’s New Look: A Preview
  • The Activist Supreme Court
  • History of English in 10 Minutes
  • A Few Good Links


Live Wire Rewinds

LW102
LW102
LW101
LW100
LW99
LW98
LW97
LW96
LW95
LW94
LW93
LW92
LW91
LW90
LW89
LW88
LW87
LW86
LW85
LW84
LW83
LW82
LW81
LW80
LW79
LW78
LW77
LW76
LW75
LW74
LW73
LW72
LW71
LW70
LW69
LW68
LW67
LW66
LW65
LW64
LW63
LW62
LW61
LW60
LW59
LW58
LW57
LW56
LW55
LW54
LW53
LW52
LW51
LW50
The Complete Live Wire Archive

John Mica’s Pork Obsession

From The Times: “With a price tag of $1.2 billion at completion, the rail line is expected to serve just 2,150 commuters a day when it starts operating in three years. It will not link to the Orlando airport or Disney World, among the region’s biggest traffic generators. Florida’s governor is even considering killing the project, worried that local government officials will rebel if they have to cover any shortfalls at the fare box. But the so-called SunRail project has survived, at least so far, a testament to the ability of one congressman to help push through hundreds of millions of dollars in federal spending, even at a time of deep concern over ballooning federal deficits. Representative John L. Mica, a Florida Republican and chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has spent years badgering federal agencies, bullying state officials, blocking Amtrak naysayers and trying to bypass federal restrictions to build support and squash opposition to the commuter line. […] But skeptics question whether Mr. Mica’s real goal is to give a taxpayer-financed gift to CSX, the freight rail giant and a generous Mica campaign donor, which would get $432 million for its tracks and for upgrades to tracks it owns elsewhere in the state. Other Florida businesses close to Mr. Mica also stand to benefit if the project is built. […] Campaign finance records show that many of the contractors that worked on the project, including an engineering firm, Parsons Brinckerhoff, have been major contributors to Mr. Mica’s re-election campaigns. So have businesses and individuals who could benefit from the project, including ICI Homes, a real estate developer that owns several sites close to a proposed SunRail station, and Florida Hospital in Orlando, whose $250 million expansion plan is contingent on getting a station on its property. Executives at ICI Homes, or their relatives, have contributed nearly $70,000 to Mr. Mica over the last decade. An additional $35,000 in donations have come from staff members and lawyers at GrayRobinson, a Florida law firm lobbying for the project.” The full story.

See Also:

  • The Sentinel’s Mica Endorsement Over Beaven: Pork Is Good As Long As It’s Our Pork
  • Flagler Commissioners Endorse SunRail As Gov. Scott Prepares to Derail Commuter Line

The Best Japanese TV Ad Ever

CBS’s The Feed declared the following ad the best ever, all around, not just in Japan: “It’s almost too good to be real. These two Nissin Cup Noodle commercials from 1992 show James Brown adapting his classic “Sex Machine” to sell miso soup. But you already knew that. Because you’ve already watched this video over and over. Because it’s the greatest thing ever.”

End of the Space Age

From The Economist: “2011 might, in the history books of the future, be seen as the year when the space cadets’ dream finally died. It marks the end of America’s space-shuttle programme, whose last mission is planned to launch on July 8th (see article, article). The shuttle was supposed to be a reusable truck that would make the business of putting people into orbit quotidian. Instead, it has been nothing but trouble. Twice, it has killed its crew. If it had been seen as the experimental vehicle it actually is, that would not have been a particular cause for concern; test pilots are killed all the time. But the pretence was maintained that the shuttle was a workaday craft. The technical term used by NASA, “Space Transportation System”, says it all. But the shuttle is now over. The ISS is due to be de-orbited, in the inelegant jargon of the field, in 2020. Once that happens, the game will be up. There is no appetite to return to the moon, let alone push on to Mars, El Dorado of space exploration. The technology could be there, but the passion has gone—at least in the traditional spacefaring powers, America and Russia. […] With luck, robotic exploration of the solar system will continue. But even there, the risk is of diminishing returns. Every planet has now been visited, and every planet with a solid surface bar Mercury has been landed on. Asteroids, moons and comets have all been added to the stamp album. Unless life turns up on Mars, or somewhere even more unexpected, public interest in the whole thing is likely to wane. And it is the public that pays for it all.” The full piece.

See Also:

  • Good Riddance: How the Shuttle and the Space Station Crippled America’s Space Program
  • Endeavour Arcs Beyond Flagler Beach and Into History As Throngs Squint Goodbye



John Lennon, Conservative?

Andrew Romano in the Daily Beast: “According to Fred Seaman, who worked for Lennon from February 1979 until he was shot and killed by a deranged fan on December 8, 1980, the counterculture icon who once asked us to imagine a world without organized religion, personal property, or national sovereignty was, in fact, a secret Ronald Reagan fan. […] By 1980, Lennon had long since soured on the radical leftist politics of his youth, telling Playboy’s David Sheff in his last major interview that he “dabbled in so-called politics in the late ’60s and ’70s more out of guilt than anything. Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn’t enough and you have to go and get shot or something, or get punched in the face, to prove I’m one of the people. I was doing it against my instincts.” Disillusioned with harsh, overreaching Yippies like Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, Lennon now emphasized individual responsibility rather than collective political action. “Produce your own dream,” he told Sheff. “If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It’s quite possible to do anything, but not if you put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don’t expect Carter or Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself.” Lennon’s self-reliant streak made him skeptical of pop-culture charity efforts–and even foreign aid. When Sheff pointed out that a Beatles reunion could raise “$200 million [for] a poverty-stricken country in South America,” Lennon balked. “I am not going to get locked in that business of saving the world on stage,” he said. […] So is it possible that Lennon liked Reagan more than Carter? Sure (although the anti-war side of him would have tired of the Gipper’s martial rhetoric). The problem is that it’s absolutely impossible to infer from such speculation that the former Beatle possessed a cohesive political worldview–to claim, in other words, that he was “a conservative” (or for that matter, “a liberal”).” The full story.

See Also:

  • How Republicans Became America’s Arabs
  • Eleanor Roosevelt: If I Were a Republican Today

End of the Symphony Orchestra

From Standpoint: “Like a condemned man on a guillotine that jams in mid-fall, the symphony orchestra appears to survive on a whim and a prayer. The past year has been a testing one, the most parlous in memory, and few orchestras go into the summer festival whirl feeling entirely secure about what lies beyond. […] The United States sustains half the world’s 500 or so professional orchestras. After decades of conservatism, the floodgates finally broke last winter. Symphony orchestras in Honolulu, Syracuse (NY) and Bellevue (WA) went into liquidation. Detroit toughed out a six-month strike before musicians finally accepted a 22 per cent pay cut; some of the best players have since left town. Louisville went into bankruptcy protection with a view to cutting the orchestra to chamber size; Columbus, Ohio, has halved its band. And then came the bombshell. In March, Philadelphia, the first US orchestra to earn world fame in the 1920s when Leopold Stokowski conducted and Rachmaninov gave premieres, went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy to fend off its creditors. Philadelphia is — with Boston, Chicago, Cleveland and New York — one of America’s big five orchestras, so designated for the power of their playing and the depth of their financial endowment, built over a century. The Philadelphia sound was once held to be the acme of musical perfection, a symbol of what musicians could achieve in a free society. […] Any competent historian would tell you that the crunch has been a long time coming. Symphony orchestras, evolving in the 1830s to meet subsistence needs of urban musicians and a rising demand for entertainment from a growing middle class, started out by playing music that was fresh and new. […] Heavily dependent on local donors, themselves of advancing age, orchestras carried on playing Brahms, Schumann and Dvorak, music of a distant past, accentuating their geriatric profile. Musicians, fearful for their jobs, adopted a hard-hat unionism that won them $100,000 starting pay for a 20-hour week in the Big Five, unaffordable when the market crashed. Attitudes have since hardened into confrontation. Only in American orchestras do I hear well-meaning executives referred to as “management”, the natural enemy.” The full story.

See Also:

  • On Unexpectedly Historic Night, Jacksonville Symphony Celebrates America in Palm Coast
  • Cultural Development Richer Than Economic: How to Grow Palm Coast Into a City With Soul

Sex, Love, Loneliness: Internet

From The New Yorker: “The process of selecting and securing a partner, whether for conceiving and rearing children, or for enhancing one’s socioeconomic standing, or for attempting motel-room acrobatics, or merely for finding companionship in a cold and lonely universe, is as consequential as it can be inefficient or irresolute. Lives hang in the balance, and yet we have typically relied for our choices on happenstance—offhand referrals, late nights at the office, or the dream of meeting cute. Online dating sites, whatever their more mercenary motives, draw on the premise that there has got to be a better way. They approach the primeval mystery of human attraction with a systematic and almost Promethean hand. They rely on algorithms, those often proprietary mathematical equations and processes which make it possible to perform computational feats beyond the reach of the naked brain. Some add an extra layer of projection and interpretation; they adhere to a certain theory of compatibility, rooted in psychology or brain chemistry or genetic coding, or they define themselves by other, more readily obvious indicators of similitude, such as race, religion, sexual predilection, sense of humor, or musical taste. There are those which basically allow you to browse through profiles as you would boxes of cereal on a shelf in the store. Others choose for you; they bring five boxes of cereal to your door, ask you to select one, and then return to the warehouse with the four others. Or else they leave you with all five. […] Match.com, one of the first Internet dating sites, went live in 1995. It is now the biggest dating site in the world and is itself the biggest aggregator of other dating sites; under the name Match, it owns thirty in all, and accounts for about a quarter of the revenues of its parent company, I.A.C., Barry Diller’s collection of media properties. In 2010, fee-based dating Web sites grossed over a billion dollars. […] So, for the purposes of this story, I didn’t do any online dating of my own. Instead, I went out for coffee or drinks with various women who, according to their friends, had had extraordinary or, at least, numerous adventures dating online. To the extent that a date can sometimes feel like an interview, these interviews often felt a little like dates. We sized each other up. We doled out tidbits of immoderate disclosure.” The full story.

See Also:

  • Sorry eHarmony, Compatibility Is Overrated
  • The Decline of Marriage

What’s a Teabagger?

From The Week: “Was President Obama speaking derogatively when he referred to the Tea Party as “tea baggers”? That’s the topic of some debate after a review of Jonathan Alter’s book, The Promise: President Obama, Year One, revealed that Obama used the term in November 2009. The grassroots movement didn’t always consider “tea bagger” a slur: Early Tea Partiers innocently embraced the term until they discovered its vulgar connotations (see also the 1998 John Waters movie Pecker). In a twist, some conservatives have recently advocated that the word be reclaimed. Here’s a look at the evolution of the insult,” week by week.

See Also:

  • Taking Back America–from Tea Party Phonies
  • “You Smirked, Mr. Chairman”: Tea Party Puts County Commission On Notice
  • Festive Fears and Cheers at Tea Party Rally


Gmail’s New Look: A Preview

Click on the image for larger view.
From the Gmail Blog: “[W]e’re embarking on a series of interface updates to help strip out unnecessary clutter and make Gmail as beautiful as it is powerful. This is part of a Google-wide effort to bring you an experience that’s more focused, elastic, and effortless across all of our products. The changes are not going to happen all at once. We know that you love and care about Gmail as much as we do, and we’ll be working on these upgrades gradually over the next few months to allow plenty of time to understand and incorporate your feedback into the evolving design. We’re kicking things off with two new themes for you to try out as a sort of sneak peek at what we’re up to. Starting today, you’ll see the “Preview” and “Preview (Dense)” themes in the Themes tab in Gmail Settings. Why two themes? Our new interface will eventually expand dynamically to accommodate different screen sizes and user preferences, but until then you can pick the information density that you prefer. […] If you poke around you’ll hopefully find a lot to like and a much cleaner, modern look but also few rough edges. In particular, some Labs features may look a little strange in the new themes. We plan to fix these issues as we roll out changes in the coming months. You can also expect some updated themes that embody the same design principles but are better suited to working in a dark environment, use a different color palette, or include the illustrations that we know many of you love to see around your inbox.” Read more.

See Also:

  • Google Is Giving Gmail a Makeover
  • How to Get and Stay on Top of Your Email Easily by Dealing with It Tomorrow

The Activist Supreme Court

The legacy.
From Scotus Blog, a review of this year’s Supreme Court term: “It is activist, of the purest form, for a Court to decide a case on a broader legal basis than is necessary — no matter what its reason for doing so. And the Roberts Court is, one might say, perfecting the practice. The two most activist decisions that this Court has reached did not, in fact, come down this Term. The first was the ruling in 2007 in the Louisville and Seattle school cases, where the Court reached out to nullify voluntary public school desegregation efforts, when there was really no pressing legal issue to decide. The second was the ruling last year in the Citizens United case, with the Court proclaiming a sweeping new doctrine of corporate free speech when, in reality, the case could easily have been decided on far narrower statutory grounds — as the then U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan had suggested be done.
Both were classic demonstrations of what the “Ashwander rules” were meant to discourage. In 1936, when a Court majority stretched its judicial muscles in Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority to decide unnecessariliy a constitutional issue, Justice Louis Brandeis protested, and laid down a set of guidelines — quoted endlessly after that by cautious jurists — against deciding a constitutional issue when not necessary to resolve a case. A whole theory of “constitutional avoidance” has built up around the “Ashwander rules.”
It is apparent, at the close of this past Term, that the Roberts Court has not given up the temptation to which it yielded in in the school cases and the corporate campaign spending case. The examples are quite vivid.” The full analysis.

See Also:

  • Executive Overreach? Supreme Court Considers Rick Scott’s Rule-Making Powers
  • Florida’s Death Penalty Ruled Unconstitutional

Independence Day Special: History of the English Language in 10 Minutes

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6:



Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

See Also:

  • Gerrymandering
  • Emerson: The American Scholar
  • N-Word Reckonings: Wrestling With ‘Nigger’ In and Out of Context

A Few Good Links

  • The spell is broken: What will replace Harry Potter?
  • Can the Gay Bar Survive?
  • Magazines: Givin’ It All Away
  • Bill Moyers is liberal journalism’s fickle godfather
  • Chess Cheaters
  • Bin Laden document trove reveals strain on al-Qaeda

Support FlaglerLive's End of Year Fundraiser
Thank you readers for getting us to--and past--our year-end fund-raising goal yet again. It’s a bracing way to mark our 15th year at FlaglerLive. Our donors are just a fraction of the 25,000 readers who seek us out for the best-reported, most timely, trustworthy, and independent local news site anywhere, without paywall. FlaglerLive is free. Fighting misinformation and keeping democracy in the sunshine 365/7/24 isn’t free. Take a brief moment, become a champion of fearless, enlightening journalism. Any amount helps. We’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit news organization. Donations are tax deductible.  
You may donate openly or anonymously.
We like Zeffy (no fees), but if you prefer to use PayPal, click here.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. rickg says

    July 3, 2011 at 2:24 am

    The Lennon story is really a stretch. The proponents of this information must have been smoking the same things John and Yoko did. And that wasn’t one of Mr. Reagan’s strong points as you may have heard…. Just say no… And I think when it comes to an accurate understanding of John I would look to Yoko and Sean.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Conner Bosch law attorneys lawyers offices palm coast flagler county
  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Primary Sidebar

  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Recent Comments

  • Bob Zeitz on Metronet Contractor Punctures Flagler Beach Water Main for 2nd Time in 24 Hours, Again Affecting City’s Water
  • B on Metronet Contractor Punctures Flagler Beach Water Main for 2nd Time in 24 Hours, Again Affecting City’s Water
  • CrazyTown on Mayor Mike Norris’s Lawsuit Against Palm Coast Has Merit. And Limits.
  • Mothersworry on Metronet Contractor Punctures Flagler Beach Water Main for 2nd Time in 24 Hours, Again Affecting City’s Water
  • Call me disappointed on Mayor Mike Norris’s Lawsuit Against Palm Coast Has Merit. And Limits.
  • Atwp on Judge Gary Farmer, ‘Discriminatory, Offensive, Sexually Charged, and Demeaning,’ Fights Suspension
  • Larry on Mayor Mike Norris’s Lawsuit Against Palm Coast Has Merit. And Limits.
  • justbob on Mayor Mike Norris’s Lawsuit Against Palm Coast Has Merit. And Limits.
  • Fernando Melendez on Mayor Mike Norris’s Lawsuit Against Palm Coast Has Merit. And Limits.
  • Jim on Mayor Mike Norris’s Lawsuit Against Palm Coast Has Merit. And Limits.
  • Jim on If Approved, Religious Charter Schools Will Shift Yet More Money from Traditional Public Schools
  • William Hughey on Mayor Mike Norris’s Lawsuit Against Palm Coast Has Merit. And Limits.
  • Kenneth N on Last of Palm Coast’s City Manager Candidates Withdraws, Clearing the Way for Pause and Reset Months from Now
  • JimboXYZ on Metronet Contractor Punctures Flagler Beach Water Main for 2nd Time in 24 Hours, Again Affecting City’s Water
  • Alic on Metronet Contractor Punctures Flagler Beach Water Main for 2nd Time in 24 Hours, Again Affecting City’s Water
  • aw, shucks on DeSantis Stands By Attorney General’s Defiance of Federal Court Order Halting Cops’ Arrests of Migrants

Log in