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Weather: Cloudy. A chance of showers in the morning, then showers likely in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 50s. Chance of rain 60 percent. Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. A chance of showers in the evening. Lows in the lower 40s. Chance of rain 50 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: Daniel Rodriguez Trial , 8:30 in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County Courthouse, before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols. Rodriguez, 27, is accused of raping a young boy over several years. He faces mandatory life in prison if convicted. See: “Daniel Rodriguez, 27, Rejects Plea, Opting for Trial and Risk of Life in Prison in Molestation of Young Boy.”
Ribbon-Cutting at the New Tennis Courts at Palm Coast’s Southern Rec Center, 8 a.m., Southern Recreation Center, 1290 Belle Terre Parkway, Palm Coast. On June 18, 2024, City Council approved a “Growth Grant” agreement with the USTA, funding $700,000 to cover the construction of additional tennis courts. The USTA’s mission is to promote and develop tennis for all. This year, the USTA recognized the City of Palm Coast as part of the 75th anniversary of the USTA Florida Tennis Trail. The Southern Recreation Center has added 4 clay courts, new efficient LED lighting that will make us eligible for nighttime tournaments, and its first show court. Our show court is an open-air tennis stadium that seats over 180 spectators. We continue progressing towards other facility amenities including shade structures, water stations, and additional parking.
A Flagler County Commission Workshop is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. The commission will discuss budget matters.
Flagler County Land Acquisition Committee meeting, 3:30 p.m. in the 3rd floor administration conference room at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell.
The Flagler County Library Board of Trustees meets at 4:30 p.m. at the Flagler County Public Library, 2500 Palm Coast Pkwy NW, Palm Coast. The meeting of the seven-member board is open to the public.
The Flagler County Commission meets at 5 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 E. Moody Boulevard, Building 2, Bunnell. Taco, Flagler County Fire Rescue’s therapy dog, gets an introduction with the County Commission. Former County Commissioner Dave Sullivan is up for an appointment to the Value Adjustment Board, replacing Don “Toby” Tobin. Commissioners are also making several appointments and re-appointments to the county planning board. Commissioners are also voting on whether to uphold a dangerous-dog designation for Luke, owned by an individual on Via Capri in Hammock Dunes. The five county commissioners and their email addresses are listed here. Meetings stream live on the Flagler County YouTube page. Access meeting agendas and materials here.
Nar-Anon Family Groups offers hope and help for families and friends of addicts through a 12-step program, 6 p.m. at St. Mark by the Sea Lutheran Church, 303 Palm Coast Pkwy NE, Palm Coast, Fellowship Hall Entrance. See the website, www.nar-anon.org, or call (800) 477-6291. Find virtual meetings here.
Notebook: The impending inaugural of our felon commander in chief aside we are at a far enough remove from the calendar’s martial holidays that we can bring this up. A “poem” honoring veterans has been going around for a few years, one of those anonymous productions that no one has–or should–take credit for, spreading on social media with viral regularity, in time for each fall’s flu season. It was unfortunately read at our own recent Veterans Day ceremony in November. It goes like this:
It is the veteran, not the preacher, who has given you freedom of religion.
It is the veteran, not the reporter, who has given you freedom of the press.
It is the veteran, not the poet, who has given you freedom of speech.
It is the veteran, not the protester, who has given you freedom to assemble.
It is the veteran, not the lawyer, who has given you the right to a fair trial.
It is the veteran, not the politician, who has given you the right to vote.
It is the veteran, who salutes the Flag, who serves under the Flag, whose coffin is draped by the Flag.
Besides its demonstrable falsehood (there are no rights to preserve if a civil society doesn’t foster them, wars or guns aren’t the prerequisite to rights, veterans at war generally don’t give a shit about rights so much as surviving and getting home), the lines ooze contempt for all things civilian and reverse–take their revenge against–the purpose of civil society, making the military an end in itself, rather than the means to an end. To the “poet,” those ends are contemptible. Only the means are honorable, and of course only veterans die and are owed honors. The lines remind me of a piece by Gore Vidal on West Point, where he notes the West Point motto, Duty. Honor. Country. And notes especially how country comes last. West Pointers, he wrote, “do not like civilians, while their contempt for politicians is as nearly perfect as their ignorance of the institutions of the country that they are required to serve–after duty, that is; after honor.” That strain in the American military has always been there, a fulgurance seeding a future Cesar. The more martial we become, the more we fetishize the military in our civilian lives, the more the seed is fertilized, the closer Cesar gets to the Rubicon. Yet those are the kind of poems that get the loudest applause from the civilians ranged in ceremonies to those defenders so quick on the draw of contempt.
—P.T.
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December 2025
Holiday Plant Class Series
Florida Ethics Commission Meeting
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
First Friday Garden Walks at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park
Holiday Sale to Benefit Area Homeless
Friday Blue Forum
Santa in Bunnell
First Friday in Flagler Beach
Free Family Art Night at Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
‘Annie,’ at Limelight Theatre
Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn
‘Greetings,’ A Christmas Comedy
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Flagler Beach All Stars Beach Clean-Up
For the full calendar, go here.
Just before the Second War, I listened several times to Air Force generals discuss with a humor that soon turned into obsession the degree with which the White House could be seized, the Congress sent home, and the nation kept out of the war that the Jew Franklin D. Rosenfeld was trying to start against Hitler. Although Hitler was a miserable joker (and probably a crypto-Jew), he was doing our work for us by killing commies. I do not think this sort of thinking is by any means dead today. I once asked Fletcher Knebel what gave him the idea for his Seven Days in May, a lively and popular thriller about the possibility of a military coup in Washington. “Talking to Admiral Radford,” he told me. “He scared me to death. I could just see the Joint Chiefs kicking Kennedy out.”
–From Gore Vidal’s “West Point,” The New York Review of Books, Oct. 18, 1973.
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