Ah, Crestview Rocks: AKA the new Pokémon Go! sweeping the Hub City, only better.

This new craze involves smartphones but only to the extent of people taking pictures of what they have found (and displaying them) on social media as opposed to having their eyes diverted from the basic function of looking both ways before crossing the street.

It has the same positive impact on the community as the previous craze, leading people to discover places in Crestview they might otherwise have never gone to — especially on Main Street.

Crestview Rocks surpasses Pokémon Go! in the sense that it’s something that every age group can enjoy and of which they can take part.

Families and friends get together in the evening to paint rocks to be discovered and admired by those who jovially participate in the hobby, and it brings out their creative juices.

Crestview Rocks is another way for businesses to get discovered, and it gives people another reason to go outside to get their much needed — and often neglected — dose of vitamin D.

Of course, with all the positive vibes that this newly beloved hobby attracts, some people just want to watch the world burn.

Unfortunately, there are some in our fair city who feel the overwhelming need to literally trash the joy that Crestview Rocks brings to the people who just want something to enjoy in a city that has little else to offer entertainment-wise.

Now, an interesting aspect of our budding city is that it still has the small-town, everybody-knows-everybody connection, and the kind of people who would throw away painted rocks are also the kind of people who love attention.

With that said, to those who decide to troll our painted-rock-loving public, just remember where you live and who knows you; and remember that large quantities of gravel are easy to access and to dump on your doorstep.

If you want to throw away rocks so bad, I’m sure some would be happy to give you an abundance.

Let people enjoy things.

Johnny C. Alexander is a Crestview resident and freelance writer, photographer and videographer.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Dear rock trolls, let people enjoy things!

If you wonder why the entirety of Washington and the entrenched ruling class of major cities hate Trump, it is simple.

He may mess up their honey hole, the mindless money faucet that is Washington D.C. — and thus, the power so many derive from it. Too much power over our lives has been sent to D.C. Trump was sent there to bring some of it back to the people, and the “deep state” is fighting him.

Trump has a different POTUS-Operandi than any predecessor, and it concerns the inextricably entrenched elites. He is indelicate, but he's the right person to do it.  It will be a nasty fight. No nice guy ever cleaned house.

Neither side of the aisle wants its ox gored. Republicans want more money for the military, even though we spend four times more on our military than any other country and more than the next eight countries behind us — combined. They keep us scared and fearful that somehow Islamic extremists, who do not have cable TV or processed cheese, will cross the ocean and get us.

You can’t justify an annual trillion-dollar national security budget if you make every country look like Montenegro. Trump shoved aside their president as if his food order number was just called at Chick-fil-A, as if to say, "Montenegro, please!"

In order to grow the military industrial complex, it behooves the political class to keep us in constant fear.

So politicians fight for “their” share of the approximately $4 trillion a year in spending that Washington takes from us and then magnanimously spends on us. To get all they can, congressmen and lobbyists always stay up until the midnight deadline of the spending bill.

If the CBO is right about the numbers on the health care "repeal and replace" bill, it will be one in a row. How can 23 million people lose their insurance if only 10 million are signed up? When the CBO scored ObamaCare in 2013, it estimated that 26 million would be signed up by now. Good enough for government work.

Both parties have their angle at power. Democrats divide the country into classes of aggrieved parties. They remind them that life is unfair, and the Republicans are around to ensure it is so.

Democrats have no evidence but want to move forward to impeach Trump. Then they can get on with impeaching Pence, then Paul Ryan…

North Korea fired another ballistic missile last weekend. So sit tight; the priorities of Democrats are such that they will be holding hearings on Trump’s "Russian collusion" from their undisclosed nuclear bomb shelter near Washington.

Democrats know that if you cannot win on your ideas, you use the technical aspects of law, government and media innuendo to crush your opponents. A clear conscience in a Washington D.C. politician can only mean one thing: the early onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Add to the entrenched right and left the many corporate cronies, unions, agencies, journalists and foreign diplomats who hide in the fatty folds of this huge government apparatus, and you can see why Trump scares them.

Tensions are high. The Montana Congressional candidate body slammed a reporter.

But the good news for the GOP is that, if politics stays on this body slam trajectory, Republican The Rock can be their next presidential nominee. 

Ron Hart, a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, is a frequent guest on CNN. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Trump upsets the ruling class

Kathy Griffin crossed the line and CNN did the right thing in firing her.

Griffin recently did a photo shoot holding up a decapitated, synthetic bloody head resembling President Donald Trump. What she did was obscene and there was nothing funny about depicting violence toward another person.

Griffin was terminated from the annual New Year's  Eve program hosted by Anderson Cooper and Griffin. Anderson Cooper remarked that he was "appalled by the photo shoot and that the picture was disgusting and completely inappropriate," according to CNN.com.

Griffin apologized for the photos saying, "I beg for your forgiveness. I went too far. I made a mistake and I was wrong," according to a post on Instagram.

The photograph was taken by celebrity photographer Tyler Shields, who later took down it down as requested by Griffin.

The photo was a stupid stunt by Griffin and by photographer Shields — both guilty of losing all sense of reason.

For the last decade and more, we have heard too many times about Islamic extremists cutting off the heads of contractors and journalists and others taken hostage. Americans and people around the world have shuddered as good people have been tortured and decapitated for the world to see. Such acts have been carried out by the evilest and heinous depraved persons of the world.

Everyone who has the opportunity to be a comedian, entertainer, public speaker or television personality has a lifelong opportunity to say something stupid or just be stupid in general. Every day is a life of guarded speech and guarded life decisions.

It's easy to blurt out something accidentally and blow a career. It's also within a human's ability to literally orchestrate a moment such as Griffin and self-destruct. Griffin probably hasn't totally blown her career but losing the New Year's Eve gig is probably something she won't regain. On the other hand, some far left wing liberal media group will probably embrace her and offer her another show or spotlight her in some way.

President Donald Trump was recorded saying something on a bus that was vile about grabbing women in a certain offensive way. His statement did not cost him the election but it was an ugly statement.

Statements and actions can go from the obscene and insane to just making up big lies as Brian Williams did on NBC Nightly News. Williams admitted he, "Said things that were not true," back in June 2015. He lost his NBC anchor chair but has bounced back a bit by his new role on MSNBC, which is not exactly a shabby position.

We all have heard that no man can tame the tongue and out of the same mouth come blessings and cursing.

I wonder if Griffin's recent stunt will help any of us in America. Is there any possible chance that we might think a little more about what we say or, in Griffin's case, what we depict ourselves doing?

Often it only takes a spark to get a fire going. While Griffin suspected there would be a firestorm from her picture, I don't think she ever imagined the severity of the burns.

Most people who play with fire never do.

Glenn Mollette is an American syndicated columnist and author.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Kathy Griffin played with fire, got burned

To Joe Blocker, Jerry Milligan and Bob Allen:

Each of you gentlemen has taken an opportunity to express yourselves publicly on an issue that’s been on everyone’s minds since early March: changing Crestview’s charter to incorporate a city manager-council form of government.

Mr. Blocker, you committed yourself to acting to the will of the people and to not succumb to the threats of an outsider (even if he is an expert, and they weren’t threats).

You very passionately advocated for the education of the people and focused on getting something sent out in the water bill. I appreciate your gesture and willingness to take a suggestion that was first offered by someone in our Facebook group.

However, when the water bill initiative stunted, what additional efforts did you make at educating the public?

You claimed after your election victory that you wanted and needed the public’s assistance in steering our city, and yet you haven’t taken time to respond to any of my emails that I’ve sent the whole council, which is disappointing when sat against your promise to work with the people and your encouragement for the people to get involved.

We’re involved now.

Mr. Milligan, you served on the previous charter review committee and helped determine a move to a city manager was necessary.

Recently, you’ve published an article with The Good Country stating that a city manager form isn’t the only one we can go to, and you focused heavily on education of the public the same way Mr. Blocker did.

I’ll ask you a similar question — what steps have you taken since the beginning of March, when this issue picked up speed, to educate the public about the inefficiencies of what we currently have and what options we have moving forward, with pros and cons of each?

Mr. Allen, you are a former councilman with deeper knowledge on this issue than the average citizen. You went so far as to equate the rationale (delivered by experts) to a Little Johnny scenario and jumping off bridges, and went so far as to state a strong mayor form of government should be the way of Crestview’s future, citing representation to the voters as being the largest benefit over a manager.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that you canceled out your own argument, for in one point you acknowledged that a three-fifths vote in an open meeting can quickly dismiss a city manager (the council meets at least twice per month), but then in an attempt to argue your main point of a strong mayor, you suggest a lengthy process of impeachment/recall, or waiting for the next mayoral election (every four years) as being better for the voters, in the event of a bad mayor — all of which, even in the best circumstances, would take longer than getting three-fifths of the council to act.

Further, if we move to a model “strong mayor” charter, the mayor typically hires a city manager upon taking office. This means we not only raise the current mayor’s salary, but we also hire an additional employee, which is gluttonous spending when we can hire a manager, re-evaluate existing salaries to accommodate the move of duties under the manager, and come out spending less money than if we went to strong mayor.

My question to you, Mr. Allen, is what substantiating data and facts do you have to support your suggestion of a strong mayor for Crestview, specifically?

Voter representation is a flimsy argument here, because it can easily be flipped on end that the five existing elected officials, who answer to the voters, are still accountable to their constituents in the same manner you claim a mayor would.

ALL elected officials are susceptible to a recall petition initiative. The data supporting a city manager is backed by the Florida League of Cities, in addition to other state, and nationally recognized entities whose whole call in life is to advance municipalities.

A question I have for all three of you, since each of you expressed public education as being of massive importance, is this: What steps did you take before the last election to educate voters of there even being an election?

And when the turnout was so alarmingly low at 3.8 percent, what steps did you take to make sure voters will come back out next election, or what steps did you take to try and improve future involvement?

It seems each time this topic comes up, it’s the same group defending against change, holding “CAUTION!” signs, and random speed bumps occur along the way to throw people off the scent.

Gentlemen, is there something you’d rather the people not see? 

Matt Gates, with the Facebook page Crestview Citizens for Change, is not to be confused with Matt Gaetz, the U.S. congressman. He lives in Crestview.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Questions for city manager critics

President Trump has renamed terrorists from monsters to losers.

I agree.

People such as 22-year-old Salmon Abedi, who contrive to inflict such a heinous act as the carnage he recently inflicted in Manchester, England, is the worst of pathetic world losers.

Abedi joins a long list of scum who are so disconnected from rational thinking and healthy emotions that they are filled with hatred; resentment of normal life; (to hurt) loving people who simply want a night out on the town such as an Ariana Grande concert.

In the case of Alyssa Elsman of Portage, Michigan, it was just a fun walk in New York City. She was heinously killed in Times Square most recently by Richard Rojas, who also injured 21 other pedestrians in a killing spree that he hoped would end in his death by the police. He is a sad loser who took a vibrant girl's life.

These world losers spend too much of their lives locked away in their private rooms staring at a computer contriving and discovering how to completely waste their lives by gaining world recognition by killing innocent people.

Instead of getting a real life by mowing grass, building a real career, serving in the military or serving humanity, they seethe inside to destroy or maim a few human beings.

I understand that all human beings have struggles and issues but there is a depravity that some hideous, crazy losers unfortunately stoop to in trying to make themselves feel momentarily better.

The list of losers sadly has grown to a list we can no longer find the space to write about or identify all the names. From around the world now there are people young and old who maniacally and successfully brought about school killings, theater shootings, church murders and concert massacres.

While the national news informs us well of the bad news and the hideous people who are making it happen, we must not forget that most of the world is still filled with good people.

As we face Memorial Day weekend in America, we remember all the good people serving in our military. We remember the many, many men and women who fought valiantly for our country because they were decent, strong and good moral people.

Many of us go to the cemetery this time of year and remember not only our military heroes, but also moms and dads, grandparents, children and siblings and friends who have preceded us in death. We remember them and we miss them.

Last weekend a taxi driver from South Africa gave me a ride and was so thrilled to be working in America. He was a nice guy. A college student working weekends at a hotel helped me with my bags. He's from Sudan and was an articulate, hard-working kind young man happy to be in America. They are winners.

I don't understand the radical evil hatred that permeates a person to end his or her life and the lives of others. They dramatically need a changed way of thinking — a different mind and a different heart. Many are so immersed in such hatred, radicalized we call it, there is no turning back for them.

What can we do? Try to affect the world around us with good. Be not overcome with evil but overcome evil with good. Be alert. There are poisonous vipers in the world and they intend to hurt somebody. You aren't going to change them.

I've always believed in hope. However, I do believe a person can reach a mental/emotional state where they are beyond the help and influences of sane reasonable people.

These people are lost. President Trump called them losers. 

Glenn Mollette is an American syndicated columnist and author.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Trump said it best — 'They Are Losers'