Now doubt. Florida has been the focus of news over the past couple of years – all of it bad! The recount, haven for terrorists, anthrax, shark attacks, McDonalds game scam, killer storms, 14 year-old teacher killer Nathaniel Brazill, Condit’s bro DUI, and Janet Reno 
Anything else I may be missing?
What did Florida do to deserve this?
Er, just off the top of my head, from out here in the Heartland…
Subway crime?
Guardian Angels?
Son of Sam?
The guy who went berserk and shot people on the subway?
The cops who went berserk and beat up/killed/sodomized with a broom handle the black/white/brown guy(s)?
Serpico, which was based on a true story?
Various “colorful” (read: troublesome) mayors, like Rudy Before WTC?
Donald Trump?
The worst rush hour traffic in the world?
People who don’t know how to drive?
People who don’t know how to park?
The rudest people in the world?
Garbage collectors’ strikes?
Muggers in Central Park?
Joggers being raped in Central Park, on video?
And, er…WTC?
What did New York, New York, the town with two names twice, do to deserve this? 
Florida is an ecological catastrophe. It is a once-beautiful land (albeit, largely swampish) which was turned over to money-grubbers masquerading as “developers” and “realtors”.
Florida, (unlike other ecological-devestating states which merely drain their aquifers), actually supports the concept of “deep well” disposal of poisonous wastes—it’s Government not only drains the Floridan aquifer but, just to be sure, poisons it (thus, by the way, saving a some businesses a bundle of bucks in disposal charges).
Florida deserves every minor inconvenience it has gotten–those you have listed and many others kept well-hidden by the land-developers, realtors, and their bought-and-paid-for hacks, the various Governments.
Florida is a land which is self-cursed: a nearly anomalous situation in the World. :mad:
Stay tuned.
How can we forget the Elian Gonzalez (or Gonzales) matter? :rolleyes:
Hey, and don’t forget the random Kennedy here and there going to trial, being led in chains from the Florida Kennedy compound to jail!
Also note that almost every perp profiled on America’s Most Wanted is “Last Seen In Florida ©”. I live in Florida, and it was years before I realized “America’s Most Wanted” wasn’t a local program!
And Sea, I agree that the environment has been raped and pillaged here, but please explain how you feel the environmental problems led to Elian Gonzalez, hurricanes, Nathaniel Brazil to killing his teacher, etc… Is it punishment from Allah?
The OP mentioned Janet Reno. I would assume it was for that and not because she wants to run for Governer.
Don’t forget the Challenger explosion. Or the Apollo 1 fire. And hey, wasn’t Apollo 13 launched from Florida? Every time a manned space mission goes South, you just know Florida is involved somehow.
And what about that meteor that hit Orlando to punish Disneyworld for Gay Days?
Somehow, though, I think folks who’ve lived in Seattle for the past 18 months aren’t that impressed with Florida’s troubles. There’ve been anti-globalist protests, an earthquake, Boeing leaving town… am I missing anything?
The Mardi Gras riots and the dot-bombs. And does light rail qualify? (Will Seattle ever have a real public transportation system?)
Ah, well. The answer to that is complicated—probably best left as a part of my Witnessings by 'orbust, i and ii;–but I believe that we all are alive, with a body, a mind, and a soul/spirit.
(Each of these, I believe, reside in a different 3[sup]+[/sup]-dimensional space [the “+”, for time]; this higher-dimensional notion has some roots in some mathematical-physics theories under the heading of “SuperString Theory”.)
When I say “all” things are alive, I mean down to (components of) atoms! From there one “builds” life-forms ever bigger up to, say, a Humans: you, me, et alles.
Then life builds onward to ecologies. (BTW, what is a “Human” but a self-contained ecology? ) For example, continuing ever-more onward to, say, the Ecology of Florida: A (very big) life form. Onward, in fact, to the Earth, the Galaxy, the Universe, to, somewhere, “Allah”—as you have said it.
So, to at last try to answer your question: Who is it that “is pissed” and is rendering (judgement or) punishment (or correction)? My guess would be that our having despoiled the General Ecology of Florida, that it would be the life-form that we name “Florida” that is :mad:, :mad:, :mad: . Leaving us, the citizens of Florida, feeling decidedly :rolleyes: or even :eek:** !**
Kinda sorry I asked. Is the view of Florida pretty from the mother ship?
I wrote not quite correctly. I was thinking about physical things. Such things would have components in all three 3-dimensional spaces (plus time).
An entity residing in just the 6-curled up dimensions—the “mind-space” and the “soul-space”—would be, using usual verbage, called “Angels” or some such thing.
However, so long as you brought it up, Revtim, with your comment “Kinda sorry I asked. Is the view of Florida pretty from the mother ship?”, I have to say that you have raised an extremely interesting theoretical question.
If my beliefs are correct, what would be the situation if there were some forms of life here, on Earth, visiting (–or conquering or prosteletizing or plundering-resources or stealing technology or etc.–) from some other Star System?
[sub][Sorry for the spelling of “prosteletizing”–couldn’t find it in the dictionary.][/sub]
Sea, I’m glad you took my comment as I intended, as good-natured ribbing. After I posted, I realized it looked kind of mean-spirited. I hate smilies for some reason, and NEVER use them.
I suppose the Earth and Florida “entities” would fight back. Is that what you think?
Ouch! I don’t know. “Fight back?” You have to ask, “Why would either the Earth or Florida (or any entity in between) want to fight back?”
Considering what we, the citizens of Earth have done to our own Planet, maybe Earth might chose someone else as better suited to be “Species-in-Chief”. 
(The same kind of reasoning applies to “Angels”. . .sort of like some “Old Testament” treatment of the Jews when they were out-of-sorts with The Lord’s rules.)
Can’t you think of a question which leads to a more pleasant outcome? Or do you, too, smell the continuous stench of exhaust fumes? Etc.?
please forgive this cause it isn’t on topic, but i love your username bluecrayola!
Hi Vanilla. The last time I posted on Straight Dope was maybe 8 months ago. Funny thing is, you said the same exact thing to me. Is there a hidden Crayola fetish that you would liek to share with the board?
A native speaks – Yeah, Florida is a layer of Hades, and I say we sort of deserve it, as spoken earlier.
Ecologically, we’re a mess. As if hurricanes and heat waves weren’t enough, we’ve got wicked mosquitoes, and to combat them, we’ve introduced love bugs (look like little black, skinny flies with red thoraxes), which do a beautiful job of gunking up windshields and doing nothing at all but mate. We’ve also introduced kudzu (from Vietnam, IIRC), which would be something like a pretty green vine that chokes trees and grows like a mutated alien pod-slimy-thingy. Now, we’ve introduced a small insect that apparently is supposed to bury it’s larvae in love bugs! Knowing out ecological luck, we’ll find out in a year that these bugs bury their larvae in human brain tissue, and take over our minds…
Other than those, we’ve got snakes, sharks, jellyfish and lotsa other killer lifeforms galore. We’re like Australia with all of this dangerous fauna, only without kangaroos.
Also, Florida’s too flat… Like the Netherlands, only way too hot, humid and run by a dynasty of evil fascist shrubs from Texas.
Economically, we’re somewhat okay. We’ve got beaucoup tourism dollars (and the tourists provide a steady food supply for our native flesh-eating lizards…), but at the cost of our environment. There’s really nothing more beautiful than a stand of tall pinetrees (and we have lots of that in the places in Florida that are still unpaved-over), but those in charge care more about converting that into cash.
Shame. I, at the most, have about eight years to go in this former ecological haven turned economical hellhole. Incidentally, I want to move to Seattle, riots and bespectacled geek-emperors nonwithstanding…
But you do have vicious manatees. Look out, Georgia!
Should we add the fact that O.J. Simpson is now plaguing the Sunshine State? By “plaguing,” I mean living there, attracting attention whenever he clobbers a motorist.
musicguy, when I think of Reno, I think of SNL, not that little boy.
In all fairness to Florida, I never had bad luck there and especially enjoy the Keys. FWIW