Sometimes it actually pays to “tell it to city hall.”

Local shop owner, boat captain, contractor, marriage officiator and town character, David “Pajamadave” Voorhees, recently sang the blues to the Fernandina Beach City Commission about the trash being left on South 2nd Street fronting his Pajama Life business, and asked it to enforce existing laws to keep a handful of inconsiderate Centre Street merchants from using the space in front of his shop and others along the block-long area as their personal landfill.

For the past year, Voorhees and his pretty blonde fiancé Zan Maddox, whose retail store sits on the east side of the first block of South 2^nd Street at number 12, have had to deal with trash being dumped in front of their business by around the corner Centre Street merchants who decided that South 2nd Street was more convenient for them than the appropriate disposal areas near the marina and city hall. Other businesses on the street faced similar problems and took time each morning picking up litter tossed from Centre Street stores onto their sidewalk and street.

During a meeting of the Fernandina Beach City Commission December 16 the rightfully annoyed Voorhees, asked the commission to put a stop to the trash dumping merchants. He said that they not only wheel their overflowing trash cans to the front of his building, where lids were left open and the contents blow onto the street, but that they also dumped trash bags on the sidewalk in front of his store. He claimed that he and Ricky Pigg, owner of Joe’s 2nd Street Bistro, took 20-30 minutes many mornings to clean up the mess.

This, he logically stated, was not good for business and he got promises from City Manager Joe Geritty and Commissioners Johnny Miller, Tim Poynter, Pat Gass and Robin Lentz to fix the stinky issue and was assured by Geritty that the city’s Code Enforcement Department would take charge of the situation. Apparently PJ Dave’s plea didn’t bounce off deaf ears as he’s not had a problem since he says.

Geritty told the pajama-clad Voorhees to call his office with any continuing problems but I suggest if it happens again he might want to get his pal, local entertainer and guitarist, Dan Voll, to serenade the City Commission and the Centre Street merchants with the following old blues song:

 My baby ran away with the garbage man; My baby, she ran away with the garbage man; Oh, I need you so bad, baby So you can empty my garbage can;

I don’t know where she’s been I don’t know where she’s goin’ ;I don’t know where she’s been; I don’t even know where she’s goin’ ;Please come back to me, baby My garbage can is overflowin’;

My baby she ran away with all my hard earned cash; My baby, ran away with all my hard earned cash; I don’t need the money all that bad; I just need someone to empty my trash;

My baby ran away with the garbage man;My baby, she ran away with the garbage man; Oh, I need you so bad, honey ;So you can empty my garbage can;

My baby, she ran away with the garbage man; My baby, she ran away with the garbage man; I need you so bad So you can empty my garbage can

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The Lights Are On But Nobody’s Home: City Commissioner Pat Gass, the last of the Larry, Moe and Curly trio left standing after the most recent election, is not letting lack of support from recently defeated Commissioners Sarah Pelican and Charlie Corbett, dissuade the voices she says she represents from speaking their minds in her mind. At a joint session between the City Commission and the Port Authority last week when parking was being discussed she barked at newly-elected Commissioner Robin Lentz “Are you really, really going to sit here and call there commissioners liars?” And while the majority of commissioners rightly voted to fully fund Shrimp Festival cleanup, Ms. Gass cast the only dissenting vote citing a word-jumble of silliness that must have been several of the voices in her head all talking at once. Ms. Gass once said that she represents the people that don’t vote and don’t show up at City Commission meetings to express their views, and I have to say that she’s certainly fulfilling that pledge in a very entertaining fashion. It’s a sure bet she won’t be lonely or feel isolated during commission sessions with all of her imaginary friends to keep her company.

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Hands Up! Shout Hallelujah! I was somewhat dubious when Macedonia A.M.E. Church Rev. Anthony Daniel announced plans to host county and city law enforcement officials and members of the local community at his South 9th Street church in Fernandina Beach last week, thinking it might turn into a “police bashing” session. But it was just the opposite. The transplanted New York preacher praised the area police to a packed audience of blacks and whites  acknowledging that “when a law enforcement officer is on the street he can’t afford to lose the fight.” He urged community members to find common ground and the audience had an opportunity to hear from both County Sheriff Bill Leeper and Fernandina Beach Police Chief James Hurley while at the end of the service the area’s two top cops accepted wreaths from church representatives in honor of fallen officers. WOW! Living here just keeps getting better and better.

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Hey Steve, Is That You? Friend Steve Raszkin, proprietor of Wines by Steve on First Coast Highway, tells the story of his recent eye operation to successfully correct a cornea issue as he was flat on his back on the operating table quickly going under the anesthetic, looked up, and hazily saw a number of faces clad in surgical masks staring down at him with one proclaiming “Hey! It’s the wine guy,” just before he lost consciousness. Apparently they liked Steve’s recommendations, and didn’t have a bottle handy in the OR as the two operations he underwent have been successful he tells me and the shop is continuing to do a very brisk business. Don’t forget they have a wine tasting tonight and every Friday from 5-7 pm at the 5174 First Coast Highway location. Call ’em at 904/557-1506.

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Obama Reaction To Paris Terrorists – Terrifying:  I’m mystified and frightened  by the Obama administration’s reaction to the psychopathic Islamic killers and the President’s and those in his administration’s refusal to call them what they are: psychopathic cold-blooded Islamic murderers, killing on behalf of their religion. Even Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the president of Egypt, the Middle East’s most populous Muslim country, denounced terrorism among Muslims and insisted that the Muslims clerics do something about it.

But the reaction by President Obama to the slaughter of the 17 journalists, police and others in Paris last week was as weak as his response to the 2009 killings in Fort Hood, Texas by an Islamic American US Army major that he labeled “workplace violence.”

The White House doused its comments in the stench of appeasement and cowardice when spokesman Josh Earnest refused to even call the Paris massacre an act of terrorism, and made sure to add the traditional non-sequitur, which now routinely follows Islamic terrorist attacks,  that “Islam is a religion of peace.” Obama issued his own statement keeping with his prohibition on using the term “Islamic terrorism,” he simply referred to the attack as “terrorism” — a vanilla expression devoid of any descriptive term explaining the motivation behind the killings. At least he didn’t label is “workplace violence” but to the uninformed it could just as easily have been an act of eco-terrorism.

And even if Obama did threaten to act would anyone believe him? Remember the “line in the sand” threat to Syrian President Assad? Or his claim that he has decimated al-Qaeda? How about that he will eliminate ISIS? Obama and the apologists in his administration are origami experts, they just keep on folding.

Instead of fighting the Islamic madmen the Obama Administration has declared war on our own CIA and Department of Defense. And at Guantanamo he is releasing these maniacs back onto the battlefield faster than our armed forces could capture them.

The Paris killings are reminiscent of the Muslim reaction over the publishing of a series of cartoons in a Danish newspaper in 2006.

In that instance homicidal Islamic madmen caused rioting that resulted in scores killed and  many embassies attacked and consulates torched. Any western country would do, since Danish flags for burning appeared to be in short supply and not easily identifiable by the ignorant, enraged Muslim mobs. And the heck with political correctness — Norway, the UK, Germany, who cares, all Europeans look alike anyway.

Back then  I saw a newscast with a 12 year-old boy in Islamabad, Pakistan sporting a slogan reading “O Allah give me courage to kill the blasphemer.” Apparently his folks went to a Muslim riot and all he got was a crummy “kill an infidel” T-shirt. And who hasn’t seen the videos of Muslims joyfully dancing and cheering in the streets when they heard the “good news” of the 9/11 attacks and when they  hear of  Christian and Jewish women and children being massacred anywhere, anytime? Muslim Shia and Sunni sects slaughter each other and Christians by the droves in Iraq; Muslims massacre Christian and Jewish women, children and the elderly throughout the Middle East; They kidnap and slaughter classrooms full of young school children all over North Africa, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc;  Hijack ships in African waters and kill the crews if ransom isn’t paid; Gleefully behead people and videotape their acts; Continually attempt to blow up passenger airlines; Set off bombs in Boston; Hack policemen to death in New York and London; Kill families and fire rockets into cities in Israel, and on and on.

I can only imagine what these Islamic nuts would do if they wised up and got angry about their own government’s and religious leader’s corruption and totalitarian leadership that perpetuate their economic deprivation, inadequate health care, lack of education and mindless propaganda.

These rampaging hordes aptly reflect the Lenin quote “Religion is the opiate of the masses,” and their leaders have administered an overdose. I have yet to read or hear another logical explanation by anyone that otherewise justifies this Muslim mass horror.

The day after the Paris atrocity USA Today published a column by a London-based Muslim cleric, Anjem Choudary,  headlined “People know the consequences” asking why France would allow the paper to mock Islam, and further excused the murders as justified under Islamic law and confirming my belief that Islam is anything but a peaceful religion. He stated in the very first paragraph: “Contrary to popular misconception, Islam does not mean peace but rather means submission to the commands of Allah alone. Therefore, Muslims do not believe in the concept of freedom of expression……” Normally I would condemn USA Today for printing such garbage, but by doing so it allowed this nut to verify what many of us already know, and that is that Islam is violent. How would you like to live next door to this fruitcake or any others that think as he does?

At a time when the world is facing a situation as dangerous as the one Nazi Germany and militant Japan posed in the late 1930s and early 1940s we have a President who is probably the least qualified, most inept, naive, and ill-prepared person to ever occupy the White House… a community organizer whose acolytes wind him up, push him on stage then pull the string in his back so he grins and spouts meaningless platitudes. He makes Jimmy Carter look like a fierce warrior. Oh, and just last summer it was announced that a Muslim, Fatima Noor, will be a special assistant in the Office of the Director for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in the Department of Homeland Security. And on Tuesday Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced in a closed-door meeting she would name the first Muslim lawmaker, Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN), to the House’s Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Isn’t that comforting.

And as world leaders united in Paris this past Monday for a million man march displaying unity and voicing their opposition to Islamic terror, the US was conspicuously absent — with only its Paris-based ambassador attending. Some 40 world leader including Israel’s Netanyahu and even the Palestinian Authority’s Abbas marched, but not Obama, Joe Biden or even John Kerry.

Democrats should be ashamed and alarmed that their current standard bearer has dismissed the words of President John F. Kennedy who declared, “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.”

Some in the western world appear to be waking up and just maybe this hideous act by psychopathic barbarians in Paris rang the alarm, but apparently not one that can be heard by our do-nothing apologist and Community-Organizer-In-Chief who we are stuck with until January 2017, a very long and frightening two years distant.

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Drinking, Dining & Dancing: Al Waldis, business partner with T.J. Pelletier, in the ultra-popular Fernandina Beach Salty Pelican bar and restaurant venture on Front Street, is a good sport. Last year Al and I made a good-natured bet that my beloved Washington Redskins would win more football games than the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team that Al has adored since their conception and to whose games he purchases season tickets year-after-year. As a result of this bet, Al wore my prized Redskins’ jacket at the Pelican during the entirety of the Dallas Cowboys-Green Bay Packers game last Sunday afternoon as his dismal 3-13 Jaguar team managed to lose one more game than the slightly less pathetic Washington team that finished 4-12. If I had lost this bet, Al would have insisted that I sit on the downtown bench in front of the old train station next to the bronze likeness of the late scoundrel, US traitor and flim-flam man David Yulee and have a photo taken to post on this blog. And speaking of Al & T.J., the duo along with Espana’s Roberto Pestana, will open their downtown Centre St-South 4th Street location at the former location of O’Kane’s, this summer, probably in late August and to be called Amelia Tavern Restaurant & Brewhouse, the island’s first complete brewery, pub and eatery. A new drive-through Starbucks is going up in front of the Island Walk Shopping Center in front of Publix on Sadler, but no word yet on what will happen to the other Starbucks across the street from the new one. Applebee’s on the corner of Sadler and South 8th has closed and plans for the empty building are unknown. I’ve heard that the home of the island’s best hamburger, Putt-Putt at Main Beach, is closed for remodeling until March, but have no confirmation on this.

Gracious loser Al Waldis (left) proudly displaying the Redskins jacket of Dave Scott, (right)