Well, I’m back home after leaving the first part of July for Missouri and Ohio. I had enough energy to empty most of the van, but not enough to set up my desktop computer equipment. Don’t expect much from me.
I-95 rest area welcome
A workman saw me taking the photo and explained the area was infested with water moccasins. “Another guy was doing some trimming with a weedeater the other day and got into a nest of three of them about as thick as your wrist. They came up striking.”
“That sign’s not quite as scary as the one at the Welcome to Florida rest area when you cross the border,” I noted.
“Really? What does it say?” he asked.
“Rick Scott – Governor.”
He gave me a smile and went off to wrestle with water moccasins or something.
….and a better sign would have been Charlie Crist Governor? Not much of a choice between the two.
I guess I opened that political door with my snark, but you deserve a response: I didn’t vote FOR Crist, I voted AGAINST Scott.
I would rather have a liberal Republican (Crist morphed from a Republican to an Independent to a Democrat) in the office than a guy who was CEO of Columbia/HCA that pled guilty to 14 felonies and agreed to a $600+ million fine in the largest fraud settlement in U.S. history.
“Columbia/HCA admitted systematically overcharging the government by claiming marketing costs as reimbursable, by striking illegal deals with home care agencies, and by filing false data about use of hospital space. They also admitted fraudulently billing Medicare and other health programs by inflating the seriousness of diagnoses and to giving doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA. They filed false cost reports, fraudulently billing Medicare for home health care workers, and paid kickbacks in the sale of home health agencies and to doctors to refer patients. In addition, they gave doctors “loans” never intending to be repaid, free rent, free office furniture, and free drugs from hospital pharmacies.
“In late 2002, HCA agreed to pay the U.S. government $631 million, plus interest, and pay $17.5 million to state Medicaid agencies, in addition to $250 million paid up to that point to resolve outstanding Medicare expense claims.In all, civil lawsuits cost HCA more than $2 billion to settle; at the time this was the largest fraud settlement in U.S. history.”
In fairness, Scott was not implicated and no charges were raised against him personally. At the time this was going on, he invoked his 5th Amendment right to dodge 75 questions in a civil suit because of the criminal investigations surrounding Columbia/HCA.
Either Scott was grossly negligent as a CEO or he was a crook. Neither makes him sound like a good candidate for being CEO of a state.
I like snake stories..
Scott isn’t an isolated case. Illinois also elected a crook as governor, and numerous other drug users, domestic abusers, etc., were returned to office by voters who claim to be fed up with incumbents.
My question is, how do they know the snakes are poisonous? Did someone try to eat one? Or do they mean the snakes venomous, meaning they might bite and inject a toxic venom?
Keith, I’m happy and surprised that they got all the words spelled right.