2/23/12 SIGNS OF SPRING, AND A PROPOSAL TOO LOGICAL FOR THE POLITICIANS TO GRASP

VIEW FROM THE BEACH...NOTE THE ICE TENT

SCENE OF THE CRIME

NOT FOG...I DROPPED THE CAMERA IN THE SNOW

Thursday, 7:45 AM.  28 degrees, wind W, calm.  The sky is overcast but the barometer is up and it should clear.  It was very icy this morning and we only walked around the block.  Yak Tracks didn't help much.
        There are indeed signs of spring in Bayfield:

•  Load limit signs are appearing on town roads. 

• The first Bayfield in Bloom meeting was held at the Bigwater Café yesterday. 
• A raccoon  got the cover off the bird seed container on the porch last night and also tore a bird feeder apart.  I thought it might have been an early bear, but the masked bandit scurried away when I turned on the porch light.

        The Bayfield in Bloom meeting was attended by seven enthusiastic committee members and we are off to a good start towards the tenth annual B in B Kickoff with the  Garden Talk radio show and horticultural exhibitors at the Pavilion, and the annual Arbor Day tree planting and celebration, all on May 11th.  If we are lucky there will still be some of our tens of thousands of daffodils in bloom. Come visit us if you can!
        I have been considering the argument put forth by nay sayers to the Keystone pipeline, that the project and its Canadian oil won’t affect US oil and gasoline prices because the pipeline oil will follow the world market and be exported to China and India anyway. 
        Well, here’s my answer to that excuse:  it is fully within the constitutional rights of the federal government to place an export tax on pipeline products leaving our shores.  I bet Canada will do the same before the oil enters the US.  The tax should be an amount that would compensate for the federal and state taxes now placed on gasoline at the pump that would have been garnered had the product been sold here; and the tax money then used to reduce consumer taxes by that dollar amount, lowering the cost to the consumer considerably.  It would be a win-win situation for all, and thousands of  pipeline and refinery jobs will be created and stay in the US to boot. 
        My proposal probably wouldn’t fly because it is too logical and straightforward for the politicians to grasp, but in good faith I offer it anyway.