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Weather: Partly sunny. Highs around 80. South winds 5 to 10 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly cloudy. A chance of showers after midnight. Lows in the mid 60s. South winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Daytona Beach (a few minutes off from Flagler Beach) here.
- Tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
In Court: It’s pre-trial day in felony court, including a scheduled 1:30 p.m. pre-trial for Jermaine Williams, who faces a first-degree murder charge in the stabbing death of his wife Yolanda Williams, 50, in early August. The case is in the discovery phase.
The Palm Coast City Council meets in workshop at 9 a.m. at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. The council has a long agenda, with items ranging from the expansion of the tennis center to council procedures. For meeting agendas, audio and video, go here.
The Community Traffic Safety Team led by Flagler County Commissioner Andy Dance meets at 9 a.m. in the third-floor Commissioner Conference Room at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. You may also join virtually by computer, mobile app or room device. Click here to join the meeting. Meeting ID: 276 236 998 121 Passcode: CyEKoW [Download Teams | Join on the web]
The St. Johns River Water Management District Governing Board holds its regular monthly meeting at its Palatka headquarters. The public is invited to attend and to offer in-person comment on Board agenda items. Note: meeting start times vary from month to month. Check here to verify the time. A livestream will also be available for members of the public to observe the meeting online. Governing Board Room, 4049 Reid St., Palatka. Click this link to access the streaming broadcast. The live video feed begins approximately five minutes before the scheduled meeting time. Meeting agendas are available online here.
The Flagler County School Board meets at 3 p.m. in workshop to go over the items on its upcoming school board meeting two weeks hence. The board meets in the training room on the third floor of the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. Board meeting documents are available here.
The Flagler County Planning Board meets at 5:30 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. See board documents, including agendas and background materials, here. Watch the meeting or past meetings here.
The Flagler Beach Library Book Club meets at 5 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
Fall Horticultural Workshops at the Palm Coast Community Center, 305 Palm Coast Parkway NE., 6:30 p.m on Tuesdays, 10 a.m. on Fridays. Join master gardeners from the UF/IFAS Agricultural Extension Office for these workshops that cover a variety of horticultural topics. $10 a workshop.
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center: Nightly from 6 to 9 p.m. at Palm Coast’s Central Park, with 55 lighted displays you can enjoy with a leisurely stroll around the pond in the park. Admission to Fantasy Lights is free, but donations to support Rotary’s service work are gladly accepted. Holiday music will pipe through the speaker system throughout the park, Santa’s Village, which has several elf houses for the kids to explore, will be open, with Santa’s Merry Train Ride nightly (weather permitting), and Santa will be there every Sunday night until Christmas, plus snow on weekends! On certain nights, live musical performances will be held on the stage.
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy, 8 p.m. at Cinematique Theater, 242 South Beach Street, Daytona Beach. General admission is $8.50. Every Tuesday and on the first Saturday of every month the Random Acts of Insanity Comedy Improv Troupe specializes in performing fast-paced improvised comedy.
Notably: If my roof wasn’t slanted and if it hadn’t just been redone I might’ve danced on it to celebrate the fall of Bashar al-Assad, about whom I could not enough unprintable, unspeakable, unthinkable things, though no book of the dead will ever have the capacity to compile all the unspeakable, unprintable, unthinkable things he inflicted on his people. Not just him of course. Both Assads, starting with his father, Hafez, whose reign from 1971 to 2000 was Syria’s first reign of terror. Ask, as an example, the people of Hama, that not-quite Muslim equivalent of Philadelphia (the City of Brotherly Love). Hama (which means “fortress” in Arabic) is among Syria’s largest cities. I don’t know if it’s its second city after Damascus, but close. Hama was the city of the Muslim Brotherhood, and there brewed something of a rebellion in 1982. The Brotherhood was nothing to sing about. It was violent, unforgiving, terroristic. So here’s what Hafez did: he encircled the city with the Syrian Army, tanks especially, and bombarded it mercilessly. Leveled it. Massacred its inhabitants. 10,000 to 25,000 dead. Thomas Friedman has an excellent chapter on it in his From Beirut to Jerusalem, back when he was an excellent reporter (before he became a puffed up insufferable columnist). He called it “Hama Rules.” Then Hafez opened the city and invited reporters in so they could take pictures and write detailed accounts of the massacre. He wanted his enemies to know what he was made of. That’s the Assad whose army occupied Lebanon from 1976 to 2000. Then came the son. No one had any illusions. He was as bloodthirsty as his father. More so, as it turned out, as he proved during the civil war that’s been raging there for 13 years. Lebanon’s poor 1.5 million Syrian refugees are surviving storytellers. The BBC places the death toll at half a million. So what now? We may dance over Assad’s fate. But to what end? Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, leader of the rebels who overwhelmed Damascus this week, is an al-Qaeda graduate. If there is something worse than an Assad (Assad means “lion” in Arabic), he may well be it. At least the killing may stop. But it’s a good thing the roof is slanted. This is not the fall of a dictator. It’s a replacement.
—P.T.
| In Coming Days: December 14: Palm Coast's Starlight Parade in Town Center is scheduled for 6 p.m. Dec. 14 in Central Park, this year capping off the city's 25th anniversary celebrations. This festive parade will be a celebration of community traditions, featuring numerous community partners. Enjoy a delightful evening with food, entertainment, and fun for all ages. Don’t miss this opportunity to come together and honor the vibrant spirit of Palm Coast. Be part of this magical event and celebrate our community in style! Santa will arrive on a Palm Coast Fire Engine! There will be food trucks, Letters to Santa station, face painting, and kids crafts. |
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The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
A Christmas Carol at Athens Theatre
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Palm Coast Democratic Club Meeting
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Flagler Beach City Commission Meeting
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series
A Christmas Carol at Athens Theatre
For the full calendar, go here.
Whatever mode Assad and Saddam are in, though, I am certain that they never fool themselves about the underlying tribe-like and autocratic natures of their societies. They always understand the difference between the mirage and the oasis, between the world and the word, between what men say they are and what they really are. They always know that when push comes to shove, when the modern veneer of nation-statehood is stripped away, it all still comes down to Hama Rules: Rule or die. One man triumphs, the others weep. The rest is just commentary. I am convinced that there is only one man in Israel Hafez Assad ever feared and that is Ariel Sharon, because Assad knew that Sharon, too, was ready to play by Hama Rules. Assad knew Sharon well; he saw him every morning when he looked in the mirror.
–From Thomas Friedman’s From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989).
