Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

It's Hump Day, readers, so you can officially begin to think about the upcoming weekend at noon today. Enjoy your morning Sift.

A- Carlos Miller identifies a Golden Beach police officer who he feels needs to be taught a lesson.

Take Golden Beach police officer Robert Ruggiero - who was recently named Officer of the Month in this tiny town on the northeast corner of Miami-Dade – a one-mile stretch of road on the county border notorious for its speed traps.

Ruggiero confronted a citizen the other day who was recording him during a traffic stop, so he informed the citizen that recording cops without their consent is a felony in Florida.

[...]

I just might take Ruggiero up on his offer because as long as he’s making promises, I can promise I will beat his ass in court if he arrests me for video recording him without his consent.

B- Redland Rambles tries to untangle the mystery of some unique North Florida pears that recently made the trip south to Miami-Dade County.

Ara recently purchased a five-acre property in Lake City, which came with an abandoned grove of heritage pear trees which hadn’t been sprayed or cared for in years. The parcel was originally part of a 100-acre orchard, and she thinks there are several varieties of pears growing on it. “I am guessing that we have Flordahome, Hood and Pineapple right now. The previous property owner said we had five to six varieties but did not know the names,” Ara wrote in an email. “The extension agent said that they could be even older than the above named varieties, and that we may never know the specific varieties other than calling them Florida pears, because the property has had pears on it for a minimum of 50 years.”

C- Roy Black shares more of his secrets this morning as he explains the importance of the opening argument.

The opening is the story of the case, not what you are going to say but what happened to the people. Forget the vapid cliches of jigsaw puzzles, road maps or my favorite, the table of contents. Instead think of those clever 30-second multi-million dollar Superbowl commercials. They certainly get our attention.

D- Bark Bark Woof Woof links to a great column on why Republicans tend to reject reality and instead rely on a dogma based upon, well, nothing.

The lure of dogmatic orthodoxy is powerful and comforting. It fits neatly onto a bumper sticker -- "God Said It. I Believe It. That Settles It" -- along with "No Socialism" and "Keep The Change." You don't have to think about it, and life is uncomplicated. But thinking about it leads away from the church; you get all sorts of impure thoughts, like raising taxes might actually help the economy and that when we say "equal protection under the law" we really mean it.

E- Current events gets Obalesque talking about his collection of memorabilia.

I also have an antique leather post card autographed and personally dedicated to me by David Bowie. During the Serious Moonlight tour, he stayed at the Latham Hotel in Philadelphia where my very good friend Rag lived, and she sent him the post card with a note asking him to sign it. Which he did.

.