Excitement! Enthusiasm! Happiness!

Omar,

I want to thank you for your very generous coverage of our project in the SunPost [“Museum Talk,” published Jan. 25]. I particularly appreciated how you conveyed the excitement and potential of Museum Park alongside your excellent description of Jacques Herzog’s public appearance last week. We appreciate your interest and coverage of MAM and look forward to working with you in the future.

Richard P. Townsend
Deputy Director for External Affairs, Miami Art Museum

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Sweet Home Florida! If Those Meddlesome Doctors Want Our Cigs, They Can Pry ’Em From Our Cold, Dead Fingers.

If the fascist doctors at the AMA want to make our entire city non-smoking, we don’t need them [“Put Out,” published Jan. 25]. We have enough traffic as it is without more a-hole doctors getting stoned at our clubs while telling us not to smoke cigarettes. This is Florida, a SOUTHERN state; we value individual freedom, not some little Hitlers in white coats telling us what to do.

Pro-choice isn’t just for women that want to have abortions. CHOICE includes what we eat, smoke, drink, wear, etc. I’m tired of people telling us what choices to make. If those stupid doctors prefer to do business with the people’s Republic of California, let them go there and regulate each other to death. But Florida must remain a free state!

Hershel Goldberg
Miami Beach

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Sweet Home Florida! How to Solve the State’s Windstorm Insurance Crisis, IMH

Regarding the insurance crisis [“Wind Insurance Special Session,” published Jan. 18]:

Most folks are familiar with the difference between whole life and term life insurance.

How about “whole life windstorm” insurance? This kind of insurance would be bought directly from the state. The property owner buys insurance in his name and his folio number.

No agents’ commissions are involved.

The state insurance would cap at up to $150,000. Over this coverage the owner would have to find private, for-profit carriers.

The policy is written for 15-20-25-30 years. When a policy is paid up it is valid as long as the policy owner resides in the state. The property owner has portability coverage, meaning that he/she can move and carry his policy along with him in the state.

The policy would have no cash value.

If and when a claim is made and satisfied, the homeowner would have to reapply for a new policy with the purchase of a new residence or repair of old residence. In other words, upon a payout from the state, the homeowner would have to begin from square one, building equity in another “whole life” policy.

This program would be somewhat a “retirement thing” for Florida residents. After the policy is paid up, the Florida resident could forget about paying for windstorm insurance for the rest of his/her life.

Premiums would probably be a little costly. For a homeowner to gain $150,000 equity in 30 years, the premiums plus the interest would have to add up to $150,000 in 30 years.

If and when a homeowner builds equity on an annual basis, the homeowner might be reluctant to make small windstorm claims.

Robert Fournier
Miami

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Educate Yourself, Club Writer: And Learn to Appreciate That Which Is PopLife

Re: “Club Hopping — Nomadic PopLife May Be Headed for the Afterlife at Post,” published Jan. 11.

I was not really planning to reply to the above article, but after reading it again and getting more and more annoyed, I had to point out a few items that irked me.

First, parking. I have gone the past couple of weekends and have not had to pay for parking. Granted I had to park across the street. A whole ... 50 feet away? (Valet is only eight bucks by the way...)

But, I will ignore the writer’s personal issues with Post (and how the bartenders dressed?? Who cares??)

The sentence that really bothered me was: “The superficial aside, most people come to an event like PopLife to find out about new and less attainable music, and sadly, the indie couture prevalent in the club was more updated than the tunes being played there.”

There is nothing to say about this sentence other than it is completely wrong. Granted some older tunes are played... but to say that PopLife does not play new music? Check out Matt Cash’s blog where he posts his playlists. Please try and find another DJ that plays newer “updated” tunes than him. The author uses primetime TV (Grey’s Anatomy, Conan [O’Brien]) to find the newest music out there? You cannot be serious. Yes, there is only one room and that does limit the variety of music played, but the patio area seems ready to be converted to a second DJ area.

The whole article just seemed a bit much. I feel the author was there for five minutes, found one upset “regular,” got her quote and left. What other night can bring Deerhoof and Of Montreal? Never heard of Deerhoof? Probably because they don’t play them on Laguna Beach.

30-year-old “Money-Bags-McGee”

Christopher D. Mora
Miami

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Top 15 Reasons SunPost Is Politically Incorrect

Dear Erik:

I am writing in reference to the SunPost editorials [“County Commissioners Better Change Their Act — and Soon, published Jan. 4 and “Strong-Mayor System: Tempting, But Wrong,” published Dec. 28] in support of the current regime running the Miami-Dade County Commission. It is truly regrettable that in opposing Mayor Carlos Alvarez’s strong-mayor amendment to the Miami-Dade county charter, the SunPost has chosen to support the corrupt-us quo, rather than modernize the county charter. Here are just a few of the reasons why we need to support Mayor Carlos Alvarez’s Strong Mayor Amendment:

1. County Commission hikes water rates 29 percent, after having illegally and unethically diverted $20 million annually to the county’s general (slush) fund for the last 10 years. Meanwhile, the state of Florida puts the county on probation for poor water management practices.

2. County overshoots the Carnival Center budget by $102 million and brings in project one year late. County forgets to provide parking, but remembers to sell naming of $500 million facility to budget cruise-ship line for nominal sum ($20 million).

3. County declines to form gang unit in MDPD amid epidemic of drive-by shootings and 30 teen homicides in one year. Solution? Police step up patrols in chat rooms.

4. County raises sales tax 15 percent, promising Bay Link light-rail and other transit improvements. Instead, county raises bus fare for working poor 20 percent and disables promised oversight body (CITT). The Bay Link derailed. Gravy train runs like clock; $200 million a year extra in regressive sales tax windfall.

5. County displaces 600-plus poor families, promising “affordable housing”…. Homeless to live in sculpture made of giant kitchen utensils by renowned Cuban artist. (Paid for with 287k in public housing funds).

6. HOMELESSNESS and panhandling fastest-growing local occupations. Shantytown sprouts in Miami. Please see #5.

7. County, in cooperation with city of Miami, beats up elderly and press observing and opposing Free Trade Agreements in Miami. County/city lose Trade Secretariat. No one held accountable.

8. Noted airport executive Angela Gittens run out of town by county hacks. Then, airport construction delays and overruns of $1 billion mushroom under Bush replacement retread with zero days’ airport management experience.

8. Commissars respond to constitutionally guaranteed right to petition government by “encouraging” people to disown their signatures and inform on those who collect them.

9. Commission uses taxpayer dollars to unethically fund opposition to proposed strong-mayor amendment.

10. Next, commission members hold secret “Stop Alvarez” meeting. When caught on Jan. 9, they informed a local reporter that no public business was done and therefore Sunshine Law was not violated. Apparently, they forgot that public expenditures are automatically public business, de facto and de jure. Penalty by law: removal from office, six months in jail, $500 fine. But it won’t happen. The law is for you and me, not our dais divas.

11. Founding Fathers forget to include reference to “manager form of government” when writing U.S. Constitution. Scholars at County Hall are on the case.

12. County uses armored cars to pick up library fines.

13. County-run Port of Miami cited as virtually the only facility in Western world to handle less freight than previous year. Losses: $9 million on $88 million revenue. WHO IS WATCHING THE STORE?

14. Commission whines about free press and sets up its own tax-funded propaganda operation. In the Soviet Union, this party organ was known as Pravda. In Cuba, the name is Granma. In Miami, the name is Chamber Gazette. It’s available in English.

15. Time magazine compares Miami to Third World countries. MD Public Library removes issue from shelves. That’ll show ’em.

To add insult to larceny, supporters of the status quo warn that a bad mayor could be elected and that we could actually experience corruption. In addition, they claim the public would be too obtuse to vote the evildoer out of office. Evidently, our solons have forgotten that we indolent citizen-dolts elected THEM. Will we continue to allow public officials and their lobbyist handlers to trash-talk the public and behave like juvenile delinquents? One would hope not. We cannot afford to support the Miami crime machine and its kleptocracy anymore.

Mike Burke
Miami Beach

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A New Purpose for Felines

I see that political events are to be exempt from Miami Beach’s new anti-partying law [“Party People in the House,” published Jan. 18]. By the way, what’s the bounty on meddlesome bureaucratic politicians these days? It used to be $35 per head for stray cats (thank human kindness that those devil-days are long gone now), but the price might have to be lowered for the politicos. Cats actually benefit humans by keeping the parasitic rat population under control.

Hey — perhaps the strays could be trained to hunt meddlesome bureaucratic politicians! Admittedly, it wouldn’t be much of an adjustment, so to keep their interest (the kitties, I mean), we might have to reward them with a bit more consistent decency, care, cat food and kindness. I expect that most freedom-loving people, the Cat-Networking volunteers and other kind-spirited folks would agree that it will be well worth it.

Just pave the streets, wouldya, Mr. Mayor, et al.? And quit pushing people around. There’s already laws against most everything except for making more new laws. How many laws do we need or can we heed? Is ignorance of the law still “no excuse,” when even lawyers have to specialize?

And quit ripping off people by towing their cars — it’s a goddamn racket, and you know it!

David Melvin Thornburgh
Miami Beach

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John Hornbuckle — Worthy of Not Being Eaten By a Genetically Altered Cat

My wife, Nancy, and I want to take this opportunity to praise our good friend, Biscayne Park Mayor John Hornbuckle, for taking the reins as a great public servant in helping establish the Adam and Anthony Benevolent Account to help the two brothers who were in a hit-and-run accident in his city. They are still looking for the person responsible for this tragic accident. We have made a donation to help out the boys and urge the public to do whatever they can, too. Whatever you give is good. Again, John we need more elected officials like you who truly care and take action.

God bless you,

Sid Gersh
Aventura

[Editor’s Note: For more information on the Adam and Anthony Benevolent Account or the hit-and-run incident, log on to www.biscayneparkfl.gov.]