The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, September 25, 2025

State won't reveal police-ICE details by John Cole, Tennessee — State won’t reveal police-ICE details by John Cole, Tennessee

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Weather: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 4pm and 5pm. Sunny, with a high near 91. Heat index values as high as 102. Calm wind becoming east 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon. Thursday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 7pm and 2am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 72. South wind 3 to 6 mph.

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:

Drug Court convenes before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols at 10 a.m. in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County courthouse, Kim C. Hammond Justice Center 1769 E Moody Blvd, Bldg 1, Bunnell. Drug Court is open to the public. See the Drug Court handbook here and the participation agreement here.

The Flagler Beach City Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 105 South 2nd Street in Flagler Beach. Watch the meeting at the city’s YouTube channel here. Access meeting agenda and materials here. See a list of commission members and their email addresses here.

Flooding Study Presentation: The Northeast Florida Regional Council presents a so-called compound flooding study, developed with Flagler County through a Florida Department of Environmental Protection resilience grant. The study identifies vulnerabilities and proposes ways to adapt. It is being presented to all local governments. 5:30 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell.

Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry: Flagler Beach United Methodist Church‘s food pantry is open today from 9:30 a.m. to noon at 1500 S. Daytona Ave, Flagler Beach. The church’s mission is to provide nourishment and support in a welcoming, respectful environment. To find us, please turn at the corner of 15 Street and S. Daytona Ave, pull into the grass parking area and enter the green door.

Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Central Park, from noon to 2 p.m. in Central Park in Town Center, 975 Central Ave. Join Bill Wells, Bob Rupp and other members of the Palm Coast Model Yacht Club, watch them race or join the races with your own model yacht. No dues to join the club, which meets at the pond in Central Park every Thursday.

Connecting to Palm Coast Expo: The Palm Coast Citizens Academy Alumni Ambassadors are excited to host two more Connecting to Palm Coast Expo, a unique event designed to welcome and support new and recently settled residents. This free event will be held on May 7, 2025, and Sept. 25, 2025, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Palm Coast Community Center, located at 305 Palm Coast Parkway NE. At the Connecting to Palm Coast Expo, attendees will find a variety of booths hosted by city departments, local civic organizations and clubs, and social services, each offering valuable resources and guidance to help new residents get acquainted with everything Palm Coast has to offer. Representatives from a range of city departments will be available to answer questions, while civic groups and clubs will provide information on how to get involved in the community.

Event Highlights:
• Informational booths from Palm Coast city departments
• Insights from local civic organizations and clubs
• Access to social services and other important community resources
• A welcoming atmosphere to meet fellow residents and city representatives

The Connecting to Palm Coast Expo is free to attend, and all are welcome. Whether you are brand-new to the area or looking to learn more about your community, this is an event you won’t want to miss!

The Palm Coast Beautification and Environmental Advisory Committee meets at 5 p.m. at City Hall, 160 Lake Avenue, Palm Coast.

Palm Coast Concert Series, 6 to 8 p.m. at the Stage at Town Center, 1500 Central Avenue. This free community event brings everyone together to create lasting memories while showcasing local bands. Tonight: SoulFire.

‘Nunsense,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre, Limelight Theatre, 11 Old Mission Avenue, St. Augustine. 7:30 p.m. except on Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets are $37.55 per person. Book here. Definitely “habit-forming”, this riotous show takes us through a fundraiser organized by the Little Sisters of Hoboken. They are trying to raise money to bury one of their sisters who was accidentally poisoned by the convent cook, Sister Julia (Child of God). Originating as a line of greeting cards, Goggin expanded the concept into a full musical that became the second-longest off-Broadway run in history.

Chatterbox: The question posed ChatGPT today is this: Was Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo not just a kinder, gentler Ahab? I am reproducing the answer below, editing out what seems to me these things’ programmed ways of first sending some smoke up your ass, then getting down to business. I can tolerate bullet points. I had not expected the chart. But whatever.

Captain Nemo and Captain Ahab do share significant thematic DNA, but they also diverge in important ways. The idea that Verne’s Captain Nemo is a kinder, gentler Ahab holds some truth, but it also oversimplifies both characters. Let’s break it down.

Common Ground: The Haunted, Obsessive Antihero

Both Captain Nemo (from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island) and Captain Ahab (from Moby-Dick) are:

Charismatic, enigmatic captains of highly specialized ships (Nautilus and Pequod).
Men set apart from the world, either physically or ideologically.
Driven by trauma, vengeance, or disillusionment.
Symbolic figures, often standing in for bigger ideas (anti-imperialism, hubris, obsession, etc.).
Opposed to mainstream society, especially its moral and political norms.

So in that sense, yes — Nemo could be seen as a “kinder” Ahab: more intellectual, less maniacal; motivated by humanist despair rather than pure vengeance.

Key Differences: Mission, Morality, and Madness

Aspect	Captain Ahab	Captain Nemo
Goal	Kill Moby-Dick (symbol of fate/nature/god)	Escape human tyranny; wage secret war on imperialism
Tone	Vengeful, monomaniacal	Brooding, mournful, reclusive
Motive	Personal revenge	Political and philosophical rejection of society
Relationship to Crew	Rules by force and fear	Deep loyalty (though still mysterious and authoritarian)
Madness	Clearly unhinged	Introspective, emotionally wounded
Symbolism	Human obsession vs the unknowable	Rebellion, the limits of science, and loss

Ahab is self-destructive — he’s out to kill the universe for offending him. Nemo is escapist, even when he’s striking back — he’s out to withdraw from the world, not annihilate it (though he does engage in violence).

A Kinder Ahab? Yes — But Also a Reflection of a Different Age

Melville’s Ahab (1851) is very much a Romantic figure — emotionally extreme, almost mythic in his madness, written in a Shakespearean register.
Verne’s Nemo (1870) is proto-modernist — still symbolic, but grounded in 19th-century anxieties: colonialism, scientific progress, and moral ambiguity.

So Verne may have taken Ahab’s template — the obsessive, estranged sea-captain — and reimagined him through a more philosophical, politically charged lens. Where Ahab rails at nature and fate, Nemo rages at injustice and empire.

Final Thought

You could say:

Ahab is what happens when obsession consumes the soul.
Nemo is what happens when idealism curdles into isolation.

So yes — Nemo is a kind of Ahab, but one who’s traded madness for melancholia, and vengeance for retreat. Kinder, perhaps — but no less tragic.

–ChatGP.T.

Now this:

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