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Florida of the Day Stranger than Fiction Tampa Bay

Florida of the day: Alligator bites face of man searching lake for free frisbees

“Supposedly he was in the water up to his waist and he was looking for Frisbees when the gator took notice of him,” said Largo police spokesman Lt. Scott Gore in a Tampa Bay Times article titled “Alligator bites man’s face at Largo park”. The person in question is Travis Spitzer, was wading into the lake in middle of Largo’s Taylor Park…at 5 in the morning, looking for lost frisbees.

I should first correct myself. He was looking for discs. If you know anyone who plays disc golf, “Ultimate,” or any form of the game, you know not to use the term “frisbee” in their presence unless you want to set yourself up for a half-hour ultra pedantic lecture on how discs are not frisbees. Take it from me: it’s a half-hour of your life that you’ll never get back.

Taylor Park disc golf course. Photo by Megan Hoffman. Tap to see the source.

Taylor Park has a disc golf course that borders Tylor Lake in the center of the park, which is pictured above. Also pictured above is a sign warning you about alligators in the lake. The sign is actually intended for people new to Florida; if you’ve been here long enough, you’ve probably internalized the assumption that there’s a gator in any body of fresh water, natural or artificial.

From the Tampa Bay Times:

Police did not know how big the alligator was, but Gore said Spitzer used his left hand to pry the animal off. He was transferred to a hospital with injuries to his hand and face.

Police said he is expected to survive the bite.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Tampa office responded to the scene and is investigating.

Some things to keep in mind:

  • The fact that it was 5 in the morning means that he wasn’t playing disc golf, but just prospecting for lost discs.
  • In case you were wondering if they were expensive, you should know that you can get disc golf discs for less than $20 each.
  • Alligators are most active from dusk until dawn, so it was at the tail end of their active period.
  • Alligators are more active than usual during mating season, which runs from April through to the end of June. Spitzer may have butted in on some gator’s sexytime.

In short: Standard Florida Man operating procedure — high risk, low reward, questionable judgement.

To give you some sense of where this all took place relative to Yours Truly, here’s a map:

Tap the map to see it at full size.

Categories
The Current Situation

Grampa Simpson vs. Antifa

References

Police attacking a news crew:

 

Police stepping over an old man they knocked down:

 

Police destroying water bottles, food, and medical supplies after assaulting medics:

Categories
The Current Situation The More You Know...

It’s Philippine Independence Day!

In addition to being Loving Day, it’s also Philippine Independence Day, a.k.a Araw ng Kalayaan, which means “Day of Freedom”. It’s observed on June 12th, and on that day in 1898, the Philippines declared independence from Spain.

Among other things, Filipinos fly the flag, whose parts symbolize the following:

  • Royal blue field: Peace, truth, and justice.
  • Scarlet red field: Patriotism and valor.
  • White triangle: Equality and brotherhood.
  • Three stars on the corners of the triangle: The three main geographical regions of the country namely Luzon (my home island), the Visayas, and Mindanao.
  • The sun at the center of the triangle: Each of its eight rays representing the eight Philippine provinces that started the revolt against Spain.

I’m happy to mark Philippine Independence Day, but tracing it back to June 12, 1898 and calling it “independence” is, in my humble opinion, a bit of a stretch. While the Filipino revolutionaries did some impressive stuff, including drafting Asia’s first democratic constitution and forming Asia’s first democracy, that was quickly undone by:

  • The signing of the Treaty of Paris turned the Philippines into a U.S. territory,
  • The Philippine-America war, which would give us such gems as Rudyard Kipling’s dickhead poem, White Man’s Burden. Fuck you, Rudyard, and all your poems. I don’t even quote The Sons of Martha, and I was an engineering student. (And thank you, Mark Twain, for The War Prayer.)
  • The massacre in Samar, where U.S. forces just up and killed every male over the age of 10.
  • Garbage like this:

    Tap to see the racist garbage at full size.

In spite of all this, I still celebrate the day. I just don’t do it blindly.

Categories
It Happened to Me The Current Situation

Happy Loving Day!

On this day in 1967, the United States Supreme Court issued their ruling on the case of Loving v. Virginia, which struck down laws banning interracial marriage across the U.S..

The case involved Mildred Loving, a woman of color, who was married to Richard Loving, who was white. In 1958, they were sentenced to a year in prison for marrying each other, in violation of Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which made it a crime for people classified as white to marry people classified as colored. In court, they had to plead guilty to “cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth.”

The case also involved the state of Virginia, whose original state song lyrics included the line “There’s where I labored so hard for old Massa,” and the signature line of the chorus, “There’s where this old darkey’s heart am long’d to go.”

On this day in 1967, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Racial Integrity Act and similar laws were unconstitutional, and this ruling was also used as a precedent in Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that made same-sex marriage legal countrywide.

For some readers, 53 years ago may seem like pre-history, but think of it this way: Both presidential candidates were of legal voting age at the time. Actually, that does make it sound like pre-history. My point is that there are a lot of people alive today who were alive at that time (myself included, by a few months).

Today, we call June 12 Loving Day. While it’s victory for everyone, it’s especially so for me and Anitra, since it means we’re not committing a crime simply by being married.

Thank you, Mildred and Richard Loving, and Happy Loving Day, everyone!

Categories
The Current Situation

Every now and again, Trump accidentally tells the truth

Tap the image to see the shocking candor at full size.

This moment of honesty — even though it was accidental — is quite refreshing. Ain’t nuthin’ as nice as a Trump self-own; I’m looking forward to seeing more of these over the next few weeks.

Thanks to Tony Pierce for the find!

Categories
The Current Situation

Street Fighter 2020

Recently in San Diego, a racist picked a fight with an Asian man. It didn’t go well for the racist, as the photo above and video below show.

My favorite observation about this fight is this one on Twitter by @BCarniello:

He backed away from a pointless fight. He backed away some more. He kept backing away until he couldn’t anymore. Then he did what he had to do to defend himself. And even after he knocked the attacker out, he still tried to help him back up.

As a kid in grade school and high school, I lost every one of this type of fight. As an adult, armed with a better sense of self, started going to the gym regularly, and learned to fear this kind of thing less, I started winning — once with my accordion still strapped to my chest.

I’ve been in this guy’s shoes, and must confess that I’ve watched the video at least a dozen times in a row, cheering every damned time — not only for the coup de grace, but the grace he shows at the end by helping pick up his would-be assailant, a man who saw him as less than human. Do you think the racist would’ve done the same had he won?

Good on you, unknown Asian gentleman, for conducting yourself honorably in a difficult situation. Also: nice overhand right!

Worth reading

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Categories
Florida of the Day Stranger than Fiction The Current Situation

Florida of the day: Retired Navy captain accidentally broadcasts racist conversation with his wife on Facebook Live

Think of it as the 21st century equivalent of the dreaded “butt dial”. Imagine being at home, having a nice, quiet racist conversation with your wife about how black people get away with everything, the Chinese are intellectual property thieves, and white people can’t do a damn thing about either when you check your phone, look at Facebook, and the comments are telling you that you’ve been broadcasting for the past half hour.

That’s what happened to Jacksonville-based retired Navy Captain Scott Bethmann and his wife Nancy while watching TV and seeing news about the Black Lives Matter movement. Scott comments on how companies have issued statements supporting BLM, at which point he unleashes his Inner Karen:

Screenshot from News4Jax news.

News4Jax (local TV news in Jacksonville) says that the video image is completely dark and only the audio is available, which suggests that Scott may have had the Facebook app active on his phone and accidentally “butt-dialed” a new Facebook Live broadcast.

Scott: I’ve gotten an email about how “We’re supporting…” and “We need to fix this problem.” Fuck you!  “Oh, if you work in my office and you’re silent, we know where you stand.” So all the white people have to say something nice to the black bitch that works in the office. But the black bitch don’t get fired. [sounds of rustling] It’s bullshit.

At any point in the conversation, Nancy refers to the black community and as News4Jax puts it, “makes other racial slurs. The husband and wife talk about women and minority groups who serve in the military…”

Nancy: Fuck Asians from China who love to steal all of our intellectual property.

She then reminds Scott that there is a standard racist modus operandi: to not appear racist…

Nancy: That’s why I’m telling you — you better watch yourself on that board.

Scott: I don’t say anything; that’s my point.

Nancy: The admission board!

Scott: I just said! The white motherfuckers can’t say anything. That’s the point we’re making here, Nancy.

Captain Scott Bethmann used to be on the board of the U.S. Naval Academy’s Alumni Association board and was the Jacksonville chapter’s treasurer and national trustee. That all changed when word about his accidental broadcast and the chapter president posted a notice on the Association’s Facebook page which included this statement:

This morning, the board and I were notified of statements made by our chapter treasurer and national trustee, CAPT Scott Bethmann, SC, USN (Ret.). The nature of those comments are not consistent with our volunteer leadership mission at our Jacksonville Chapter of the United States Naval Academy Alumni Association, the national Alumni Association, and does not represent the leadership values of our Naval Academy or the US Navy.
CAPT Bethmann has resigned from our board and his trustee position. Our board is convening an emergency meeting today to discuss our way forward.
To echo the words of Superintendent, Vice Adm. Sean S Buck, “honor, courage, and commitment, and the mission of the United States Naval Academy. Nowhere is discrimination tolerated in any of those values.”

That post received a lot of comments, including this one, which makes a very important point (the emphasis is mine):

As a retired Marine Corps Senior Enlisted, I can’t help but wonder how many performance evaluations this CAPT wrote over his career that affected the careers of minority service members? It is scary to think of the careers he likely stymied.

To borrow a line from Captain Bethmann: That’s the point I’m making here, Nancy.

Here’s the News4Jax story: