I would imagine that those people that are using people's charitable impulses to con the money to buy cigarettes - started smoking long ago. And I wonder how many residents of TV Land or anywhere that PAY other people to cut THEIR grass - would be willing to tell the owner of the grass cutting service that NO smokers MAY ever cut THEIR grass. And say THAT to all workers that they have come to do anything on their property. So, basically, if you are NOT part of the solution, then you are PART of the problem!
.......Or they could (?) move to a home where there is no grass like maybe an apartment or an island of all rock surrounded by water - or a houseboat. Put your $ where your pie-hole is!

Window washers ARE really nasty - I have seen them in every large or medium-sized city that I have been to.
......I am very glad that you have had GOOD experiences with homeless people. Some are wonderful and if I were homeless, and could afford an RV, I would stay at Walmarts or other mall areas. In point of fact, I do stay in my compact car when I treat myself to motorized vacations to explore the US 1st hand and up close and personal. I also take naps on blankets in a public park during daylight hours - I only have to watch out for those male dogs that lift their legs.
.......As I wrote on Pg 7 # 99 - I have had a mixed bag of early adult experiences with homeless people. But, strangely enough, I have had MUCH worse luck dealing with people that attend church regularly, which may be a compensation thing, as the psychologists believe. Compared to them - the homeless are angels.

Welcome to Florida - like Alaska, it is a frontier state - only more red necks.

Someone posted that the Walmart beggers are picked up by a white van at the end of the day. That reminds of the young kids who arrive in a white van and go door-to-door selling magazine subscriptions. In the 70's and 80's I've had them at my door. Probably the same people, magazine sales are down, so they just got a new angle.

California is running a surplus. They are figuring out how to give people money back. But that is beside the point. If any state just pushes their homeless off to another state or ignores them they are shirking their responsibility - period. And shame on them for doing it

AAHHHH do believe that he would like to have pot legalized by Federal Law. He / She is trying to nudge the TRUE believers, not the PRETENDERS, in that more WHOLESOME direction. Why golly me, that would even put the NARCO TRAFFICKERS out of business. I dddddoooo believe that would be what is called a win /win !!!!!!!!
.............I can hear the jingle in my head......Pot, its a win / win NOT a sin / sin... Hee, he ...hee, he.......That's all folks!

If you are that naive, you should invite them into your home, give them a place to live and feed them and then watch them rob you blind.

It would have been even funnier If the truck guy threw a recently trapped live wolverine at those 2. Not nice but funny! And then they put the video on Facebook (I hate) or Instagram (also hate) or some other way supposedly cool media sites.

The only way I would stay there long enough to note all of that would be if I were a Policeperson getting paid by the hour.

Thank you for importing that "skewed illogical mentality" to FL!!! :ohdear:

You are quite right about the condition of the Walmart on Rt441. As a matter of fact, there are scammers and crooks working inside the store also. Not the employees, but the supposed customers that will work you in a heartbeat. I've been there once in the past 8 years and even then, I ended up leaving without purchasing anything.
I know what it is like to be broke, but I have never begged or taken welfare, even though I qualified for it. Once you become addicted to handouts, you will start to expect them. You can work three part-time jobs to pay you way until you get a decent full-time job. If you are single, it's easy but if you have a family it is desperate. You do not have time to beg. You HAVE to find some work and you will take whatever is offered. Even cleaning toilets, raking leaves, or performing anything for a few bucks.

No, as guilty as it makes me feel, I do not give money out to anyone hanging out by the stores where I have to shop. If someone says they are hungry, I will buy them a meal. But, I do not give them money.

Instead of ignoring the problem (actually 2 - homelessness and drug usage) and having people themselves find solutions or CON men / women arising and taking advantage of a situation - maybe we need to petition our State and Federal Governments to DO the RIGHT thing and the thing, for which, we pay taxes - and ACTUALLY SOLVE the problem.

Even little me has a suggestion, or 2 or more.........start a JOBS program like back in the real old days of Democracy giving all the willing a place to work and make money - even if you have to bend the minimum wage laws.
......Stop the STUPID**** ZONING LAWS that favor the wealth disparity, racism, and homelessness. I don't say,"let them eat cake" BUT I DO say:" let them live in tents".
.......Put the Drug Cartel KILLERS of their addicted customers and coyotes that are caught into Japanese-style prisons for long terms. Attempt to rehab the addicted customers.
........Make POT legal and ALL others (except maybe for Native American ceremonies) and study peyote to see if it has bad side effects.
.....Control the legal pharmacy DRUG overuse and "pill mills" and greedy and lazy Doctors that overprescribe.
.......I think that would be a good START! And also worry about 2024. The future needs to be so bright that I will need shades!

Wow, a sensible post. What a shock on this forum. I would add to those jailed the American drug families (Oxycontin anyone!) who are currently getting a slap on the wrist

Kernels of corn are seeds designed to be eaten by deer and some birds like Geese. Geese hunters in Nebraska often hide in a blind in a cornfield or milo and wait for both Geese and pheasants, if the seasons overlap.

It's time to repeat the story of my college days. I was living in Boston, in a studio at the foot of Beacon Hill (the uber-wealthy section of the city, where the governor's mansion is located). School (Emerson College) was down the street a few blocks, and I walked or took the T everywhere. I had two part-time jobs, plus I was a busker. A street musician. Subway performer - not a beggar, not poor - but accepted by the "underground culture" of Harvard Square, Cambridge MA. Most of them were homeless, but there were a few folks who shared apartments, one guy lived with his parents, and a few had their own places because they had good jobs or their parents paid for it.

At the end of one particular day, some of the homeless people invited me to THEIR home - the cemetery two blocks away. I went, and they shared the food they had bought with what they'd acquired through panhandling, and we passed around a couple quarts of Miller (blech but it's the thought that counts), and I slept in a beat up sleeping bag next to a wino who had his own blanket and pillow. We were up past midnight talking about life, experiences. A couple of the folks were drug addicts and one was having an unpleasant experience with drugs that night, but they gave him his space and he zoned out without incident.

I can't say I'd ever want to be homeless, and I'm not sure I'd want to make a vacation out of sleeping in graveyards. But it opened my eyes to the experience, and gave me some empathy I hadn't had prior to that.

Perhaps because I actually DID "walk in their shoes" for a day, I'm able to be a little less judgmental about the concept of homelessness. For those "christians" who choose to judge - remember your catechism or bible lessons or whatever you folks get when you're kids.

Does this make me naive? Nope. In fact, it makes me a little more experienced and "enlightened" than you. It gives me the "street cred" that you apparently lack. I know when I see an addict, and I can tell when someone actually needs money to survive and is down on his luck, and when someone is doing just fine and is trying to scam me out of my money.

As for the guy eating the McDonald's burger - I actually watched an Sonic Employee hand out bags of food to each of the three people with signs - one at the Walmart driveway corner, one near the Dollar store, and one at the driveway across the street where McDonald's is. Seems minimum wage employees are more generous than wealthy old people. Not surprised. A little disgusted, but not surprised.