John Adam's Quote - Enslave a Nation

There is a quote floating around by John Adams

John Adams never said that

I made up my version of what he said 

EcoFest 2012

Learning Gate Community School is hosting its 3rd Annual EcoFest.

EcoFest 2012 is a community event organized by Learning Gate Community School to celebrate the many businesses, organizations, and individuals in the Tampa Bay area dedicated to the principles of sustainability – Ecology, Equity and Economy.

EcoFest 2012 will be held on April 14, 2012 on the school grounds  at  16215 Hanna Rd in Lutz, Florida. The event will be open to the public from 9:00 A.M. until 3:00 P.M. Admission to the event is free.

There will be live music, workshops (including building rain barrels and creating container gardens), demonstrations, informational booths, green living products and services. Some local artists, green businesses, environmental organizations, alternative health practitioners, renewable energy specialists, organic farms and gardens with produce. EcoFest at Learning Gate Community School is Saturday April 14 from 9a to 3p. It’s a free event for the community and will feature over 100 green vendors as well as some relevant workshops like building rain barrels and collecting rain water, creating a container garden and a presentation by Tampa Electric.

Presentation	Speaker
How to Conserve and Store water as our natural resource	Virginia Overstreet - Water Wise
Making a difference, Recycle, Garbage, reusing.... Keep our County Beautiful	Pat Deplasco - Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful
Growing Scientists Hands-On Environmental Projects	Jim McGinity - Learning Gate
What is composting, and how nature processes organic materials	Monica Ragukas
Project Based Learning at Learning Gate Middle/High	Summer Solomon - Learning Gate
Garden Containers- easy gardening for everyone	Kray Funch
How to effectively store rain water and how it benefits us	Shelly Stein
Greening Your Environment - How you can inspire others to be more eco-friendly and earth conscious.	Lisa Custer - Going Green Tampa

I know Virginia Overstreet. She has a fantastic Florida Friendly Yard in Seminole Heights.  Her workshop will be very good.

Misleading SH Patch "Best of Seminole Heights" Customer Service Contest

Seminole Heights Patch is holding a contest "Who Has the Best Customer Service in Seminole Heights?"  Currently the finalists are Sherry's Yesterdaze and  the Milk and Honey Tea Shop.  However Milk and Honey is not located in Seminole Heights, it is on west Busch Blvd, in Lowry Park Central area. 

The owner of the Milk and Honey does not know which neighborhood he business is located.  She said "actually we are in Seminole Heights. Busch Blvd is the dividing line between Seminole Heights and Forest Hills/Old Carrollwood, and we are on the South side of the road."

Of course it is not the dividing line - Hillsborough River is.

SH Patch's response has been "Seminole Heights Patch's coverage extends beyond Seminole Heights. We cover a good hunk of Central Tampa, as far north as Busch Boulevard. While the Milk n' Honey Tea Room and Gift Shop is outside of the Seminole Heights neighborhoods (it's actually in Lowry Park Central), it is just inside our coverage area and eligible for our readers' poll. Besides, even if Milk n' Honey were just outside our "technical" coverage area, we would likely include it in our poll since it's clearly so relevant to a lot of our readership."

What would people think if the Tampa Tribune held a Best of Tampa contest but allowed businesses from St. Petersburg to apply since they are in the coverage area? 

Seminole Heights has spent a long time branding its identity.  Its should not be watered down by Seminole Heights Patch.  They should either rename the contest such as "Best of Central Tampa" or "Best of Seminole Height Patch Extended Coverage Area" or remove Milk and Honey from the contest.  Let them know your thoughts about that.  In case they keep it with its misleading title, I urge readers to vote for Sherry's Yesterdaze at her SH Patch listing and on the SH Patch Championship site.

Here is how the voting is handled

In this final championship round, each poll vote is worth 1 point, each favorable comment on this story is worth 20 points, and each favorable directory review written during the polling period is worth 50 points. In addition, we'll award 200 bonus points for the business with the most total favorable reviews on their directory listing overall. 

Hate Radio 970 WFLA

Why do local advertisers continue to advertise on Hate Radio 970 WFLA?

Here are some of Rush Limbaugh's recent Sandra Fluke rants that were heard via the Texaco Xpress Lube Studios of 970 WFLA



Many of the 50 plus advertisers who pulled their ads have essentially said the same thing. "Mr. Limbaugh’s comments are not in line with our values." 970 WFLA continues to have Rush on the air. Does this mean that Rush's comments are in line with the values of Clear Channel Communications, 970 WFLA, General Manager Dan Diloreto, Program Director Steve Versnick, Sales Manager John Trimm, Hosts Jack Harris, Tedd Webb, Corey Dylan and others? 

If you listen to 970 WFLA, call up local advertisers from other shows on the station and ask them why they advertise on a station that obviously feels Rush's Hate speech is in line with their values.   Let them know that Rush's spew of sewage reflects on them too.

In light of this I propose new slog for Hate Radio 970 WFLA\

970 WFLA - Tampa Bay's Rush Hate Radio Station
970 WFLA - Your Daily Dose of Rush Hate
970 WFLA - Tampa Bay's Reverse Sewage Plant - Sending out Rush Sewage to all homes in Tampa Bay
970 WFLA - Rip off the knob and lock in Rush Hate
970 WFLA - Tampa Bay's Rush's Women Haters Club
970 WFLA - Free contraception if you send us your sex videos
970 WFLA - Women - Keep em barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen
970 WFLA - Solve the education budget crisis - don't send women to college - keep them dumb and dumber
970 WFLA - We don't confuse you with the facts - just twisted Rush Hate
970 WFLA - We don't need no stinking sex education - just twisted Rush Hate
970 WFLA - Moving you from Free Speech to Hate Speech

**Update** There are now 141 advertisers who have pulled their ads from Rush's show or have specifically asked that their ads not be aired during Rush Hours including:

21st Century Insurance	Hotels.com	Rite Aid
Ace Hardware	Honda	Robitussin
Acura	IBM	Sam Adams
Advance Auto Parts	Icy Hot	Sam’s Club
Advil (All products)	Intuit/Small Business	Schiff – Digestive Advantage
Alacer/Emergen-C	JC Penney	Schiff – Mega Red
Allegra (all products)	Johnson & Johnson (All Brands)	Schiff – Move Free
Allstate	Kohl's	Schiff - Sustenex
Ally Bank	La Quinta	Scotts Miracle-Gro (all products)
American Express	Lifetime	Sears (All products)
Autozone	Little Caesars	Sony
Boston Beer	Lowe's	State Farm
British Petroleum	Luxottica	Staples
Bullfrog Sunblock	Macy's	Sterling/Kay Jared Jewelers
Caltrate	MasterCard	Subway
Centrum	Mc Donalds	Takeda Uloric
Chapstick	Midas	The Home Depot
Clorox (Pinesol/Homecare)	Napa Auto Parts	ThermaCare
Cortizone	National Realtor	Toyota
DeVry	NBC-TV	Turbo Tax
Discover Card	Office Depot	Twinings of London
Domino's Pizza	Office Max	Tyson/Wright Brand Bacon
Exxon/Exxon Mobil	One Main Financial	Unisom
Farmers Insurance	O’ Reilly Auto Parts	United Healthcare
Ford	Orkin	U.S. Army
Geico	Outback	U. S. Postal Service
General Motors (All products -GM Certified Service, Chevy, Onstar, Cadillac, etc)	Preparation H	Visa
Gold Bond (all products)	ProNutrients (all products)	Walgreens
Grainger	Progressive Insurance	Wal-Mart
Green Mountain Coffee	Prudential	Wells Fargo
Hallmark	Radio Shack	Wrigley
H&R Block	Rent-A-Center	Yahoo!

.

Lutz Dog Park

I've created a new website for the Lutz Dog Park, to show you what the park looks like, the amenities and nearby dog businesses including recommended dog and cat trainers. http://lutzdogpark.weebly.com

Southern Brewing and Wine Making is going up for their wet zoning tonight 12/8/11 at Tampa City Council.  They are the first item on the 6 PM agenda. Please post this information on the blog.
We need as many people there as possible.

The wet zoning restricts the sale of distilled liquors to before 11 PM.  No package sales of distilled liquors.  No amplified music outside and doors must be closed if amplified music inside.  

One Hundred Reasons to Mourn the Loss of Ink on Paper - from Word Weaves

On her blog, Susan is creating a list of One Hundred Reasons to Mourn the Loss of Ink on Paper

"I’m dedicating one post a week to the value of ink and paper books. My goal is 100 posts; 100 reasons they shine over e-books. My intention is not to trash e-books. I accept the digital future. But I don’t prefer e-readers and I mourn the downfall of print books. I only have 25 reasons on my list, so the Quest is to grow that list. If you’d like to share your reasons, please leave them in comments. If yours is one I don’t have, I’ll use it and credit your name.

Reason # 1. Paper books are physical treasures. When you pull them from your shelf to read again or to enjoy leafing through, you remember where you got them . . . ." (more)

If you have a reason of your own, go to Word Weaves and add a comment.

Kelly Benjamin's Seminole Heights video

Tampa City Council Candidate Kelly Benjamin released his second viral campaign video today, this one focused on creating a better quality of life in Seminole Heights.

You can watch the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1FqXkI7rus

The first video, released 2 weeks ago, focused on West Tampa and can be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAbBnkS3RUQ

www.votekelly.org

Kelly Benjamin runs for City Council

Kelly Benjamin is running for the District 6 seat on the Tampa City Council on a pragmatic, common sense platform based on neighborhood revitalization, small business support, and improved transit (including making Seminole Heights a station if the light rail proposal passes in November).

He just filed on Monday so he does not have a website up and running yet, but he will in the next week or so. He will be qualifying via petition again and canvasing all over Seminole Heights and West Tampa in the coming weeks.

Although I'm not living in the area, I throw my support behind Kelly Benjamin. This is his second try for this office. He has a lot of interesting life and work experience since then and I think he will do a good job as a city council member.

For more details read the Creative Loafing article and TampaBay.com Bay Buzz blog

Electric fence,barbed wire and razor new rules

An email I received from reader Wendy who asked that I post this:

> The new rules for installation of electric fences, barbed wire, and razor
> wire are going before City Council on Thursday evening at 5:30 PM. The
> proposed rule states that any business that can show they had criminal
> activity on their property can be allowed to put in an electric fence,
> barbed wire or razor.
>
> A more comprehensive proposal was put forward but, apparently, City Council
> did not put it forward.
>
> This ordinance will be sent to the Planning Commission as it is written
> unless we can get City Council to either
> a) continue this to allow public input or
> b) modify this.
>
> The proposed verbiage that was set forth originally but was not approved
> was:
>
> A variance can be had allowing an electric fence, razor wire, or barbed wire
> if the applicant can:
>
> "1) provide documented police reports that clearly demonstrate criminal
> activity occurred at the property during the two years prior to the variance
> request, Reports of false alarms cannot be used to demonstrate a
> significant security need.
>
> 2) Provide evidence that, at the time the criminal activity occurred other
> means of security protection devices were installed and in proper operating
> condition. Other means of security protection devices include, but are not
> limited to, alarm systems, guard dogs, security personnel, and/or adequate
> chain link or sold wall fencing, when allowed.
>
> In applying the variance criteria, the VERB,, ARC, or BLC shall balance the
> applicant's need for the variance with the visual impact to the surrounding
> community. The purpose of the provision is to ensure that any use of
> electric fencing barbed wire or razor wire should be used only as the
> extreme last resort of property protection."
>
> Based on what is currently being proposed, any business that is broken into
> can get a variance for barbed wire, razor wire or an electric fence.
>
> If you cannot attend Thursday night, please send an email to
> Tampacitycouncil@tampagov.net asking them to change the ordinance as
> originally proposed. If ou want to send me your email, I will read it into
> the record.
>
> The more people that show up, the greater the impact.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Susan Long