1/31/12 SPLAKE FOR DINNER, AND VOTING FOR THE CANDIDATE WHO DOES HIS OWN TAXES

WINTER DAWN

SPLAKE; SPOTTED LIKE A LAKE TROUT...

...FLESH LIKE A SALMON

Tuesday, 8:30 AM.  30 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sky is mostly overcast but clearing as a winter sun struggles through clouds.  The barometer predicts snow.
        Neighbor Jon went fishing far out on the inter island ice yesterday, which he said was a bit iffy.  He had a good day, and dropped off a beautiful 1lb.  splake fillet, enough for a wonderful  fresh fish dinner for two. 
        Splake is a hybrid between lake trout and salmon, and is one of the most beautiful and flavorful of our game fish.  Its skin is spotted like a lake trout and the flesh is red-pink like salmon.  It will be broiled in lightly salted water and white wine, along with lemon and onion slices. Brought to a boil, the fish is done in a New York minute (it should not be over cooked). Serve it with boiled parsley buttered potatoes, broccoli, fresh French bread, and a decent bottle of white wine, and there is nothing finer.
       Tonight’s entertainment will be watching the Republican primary returns from Florida.  I am fairly disgusted with the negative campaigning, and am glad not to have to hear it blatantly and constantly as the unfortunate folks in Florida do.  I hope Rick Santorum can hang in there with a decent showing, as I am beginning to think he is the most sincere of all the remaining candidates.  At this point in time I am about ready to vote for Santorum, the lone candidate who actually does his own taxes.

1/30/12 SUMACS IN WINTER, AND BELIEVING IN YOUR GROCERY BILL

MALE SUMAC, SANS BERRIES

FEMALE SUMAC, WITH BERRIES

Monday, 8:30 AM.  20 degrees, wind SW, light.  The sky is overcast with snow clouds, we received 3”  of snow last night and the barometer predicts more of the same.  We haven’t gotten a lot of snow at one time this winter, which is fine with me, but it has been pretty consistent of late and is beginning to build up.
        Most people who are familiar at all with the out-of-doors recognize the shrub we commonly call staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) when they see it, as distinctive as the persistent red fruits are in fall and winter.  Most don’t know that there are  a number of other sumacs that are less common, including the smooth sumac (R. glabra), very  similar to the former but without the fuzzy hairs on  branches, or the fragrant sumac (R. aromatica), an aromatic, spreading shrub of sand dunes and other dry habitats; or the poison sumac (R. vernix), a tall shrub of mostly inaccessible swamps.  And few would easily recognize poison ivy (R. radicans) as a close elative.
        But, back to the staghorn sumac itself; most people who are casually familiar with it probably don’t know that only shrubs with female flowers bear the characteristic conical panicles of fuzzy flowers and fruits, and that the male shrubs, being devoid of the fruits in winter, are also present on the hillsides and woods edges.  In the fall these male shrubs are just as obvious as the females since both have similar brilliant red to orange colored leaves.  So, next fall, take a closer look at the sumacs in their brilliant coloration, and note which ones have fruits and which ones do not.  Often whole stands of sumac will either have fruits or will be fruitless.
        Joan and I went to the grocery store yesterday and were again shocked by the savage inflation which is taking place on the shelves and in the freezers; canned mushrooms, for instance, have doubled in price in the last eighteen months, the same for turkey thighs. which used to be inexpensive protein. Bread prices have also skyrocketed.  It isn’t just retirees that are affected, since most people are also now on “fixed incomes,” their salaries not rising comparatively with inflation.  It is no wonder so many families are on food stamps.  I cringe when I hear that the “fed” is going to print more dollars and dump them into the system, for when they do, we will have yet another round of inflation.  Instead of dumping dollars into the financial system we should be dumping clueless or conniving politicians out of office.  And probably do away with the Federal Reserve as well.  The wealthy are not hurt by inflation, as they can buy hard assets with low interest loans and pay for them with increasingly inflated dollars.  The poor are crushed by inflation, and the middle class eventually forced to sell their few assets in a declining market to survive, and are eventually reduced to poverty. 
        We are well on our way to being a two-tiered society, rich and poor, the condition of every other economy throughout history. The most vile aspect of this scenario for Americans is that it is purposeful, foisted on us by our government (politicians and bureaucrats) who see inflation as an easy and stealthy way to pay off the national debt they have created, while increasing the dependence of the citizens on the state and thus ensuring their own perpetuation.    Don’t believe the government’s inflation statistics.  Believe your grocery bill.

1/29/12 FROZEN IN, AND HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE...

"AIN'T GOIN' NOWHERE...

...DITTO...

....US NEITHER

Sunday, 8:00 AM. 13 degrees, wind W, calm.  The sky is overcast but clearing.  The barometer is up and predicts sunny weather.  I have been checking with neighbors and I think my remaining thermometer runs about two degrees high, but until I get a new weather station one of these days, I will report what it reads.
        The Bayfield commercial fishing fleet (at least a few die hard fishermen) was still going out every day until recently, but now the ice is too thick to try to break through to open water.  Some of the boats stay tied up and frozen in, but many are out of the water on stands, especially if they need painting or welding before spring.
        Buddy just plays and plays, usually all by himself, in the house or out (I am leaving him loose a little more, as long as he behaves himself and comes back when he is called, but he can take off like a shot and disappear in the blink of an eye).
        Did you see the photos of Arizona Governor Brewer shaking her finger at the President as they met after he deplaned from Air Force One?  I would behave myself, if I were him, and remember, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

1/28/12 WINTER BEACH SCENES, GYPSY MOTHS, AND REMEMBERING THE EDSEL

GPSY MOTH EGG MASS ON RED OAK

THREE SISTERS

BEACH GRASS

GIANT REED GRASS

Saturday, 9:00 AM.  28 degrees, wind W, calm at present.  The sky is overcast and the barometer predicts snow, which there is about 4" more of on the ground since yesterday morning.

        Yesterday turned out to be snowy and wintry by the end of the day, so Buddy and I took a run on the beach, and a few photos as well. 
         We have some unwelcome news for Bayfieldians; the presence of more than a few Gypsy moth egg masses, primarily on oak trees, which are the favorite food of the larvae of this pest.  Introduced into the eastern US in the 19th Century as a silk moth, the Gypsy  moth has been making its way across the continent ever since, and has at last reached northern Wisconsin.  The caterpillars can be very destructive, defoliating entire trees during the summer months.  Usually the damage is mainly a nuisance, but very unsettling when the trees are bare in summer.  Trees normally recover unless the defoliation occurs more than two consecutive years.  Old oaks, our largest and oldest deciduous trees, are most susceptible to real damage.  The egg masses are apparent in the winter as hard, flat, fuzzy, tan colored deposits, perhaps two and a half inches long and about an inch wide.  The female moths deposit the egg masses in bark crevices, branch crotches, even under the edge of house siding, or on vehicles (one way the pests migrate).  Gypsy moths are so called because they migrate from place to place and appear erratically here, there and everywhere, but seldom staying in one area very long.  The caterpillars spin long silken strands which act like parachutes, the wind often blowing the larvae great distances to establish a new infestation.
        In my experience Gypsy moths are more pest than pestilence, and I hate to see broad scale aerial spraying to attempt to control them.  However, if a community  is heavily infested it may become so obnoxious that spraying individual trees may be necessary.  There are other measures that can be taken, which are not as expensive or intrusive as spraying, which might be a topic for another blog.  But at this point, the city needs to have some idea of how many egg masses might be out there, particularly on oaks.
        Aside: I’ve been thinking of what to say about the Chevy Volt, the government inspired/funded electric car that has a propensity to explode.  I’ll make my comment in the form of a question: remember the Edsel?

1957 FORD EDSEL

1/27/12 A WEDDING ANNIVERSARY AND OTHER DEBATES

DAWN OF A FINE WINTER DAY

Friday, 7:30 AM. 21 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sky I blue and cloudless, the Penoke hills visible on the southeast horizon and the barometer predicts partly cloudy skies.  It will be a fine winter day.
        Happy anniversary Joan, and thanks for putting up with me all these forty-four years!  We have a joke about our wedding that we have been tossing back and forth between us from the very first day.  When we said our marriage vows, Joan had no trouble with any of the traditional pronouncements until she got to “for richer or….” Then she had great difficulty getting  the “poorer” out. The best  that she could do was to stutter a barely audible, “p.;p..p...p….poorer.”  She must have had a premonition.
        After watching the Republican presidential candidates debate again last night on CNN (we’re starting to know all their lines by heart) we have concluded that the candidate we want is an amalgam of the various traits and policies of the remaining four: the fire and mental quickness of Gingrich; the calm deliberativeness and executive experience of Romney; the constitutional certitude and devotion to individual liberty of Ron Paul; and the moral clarity and middle class values of Santorum.  Don’t think we’ll find the ideal, but maybe each could learn from the others and one finally rise to the top.

1/26/12 A NEW HOT ROD, AND A MAN AND HIS DOG

COCOONED

NEW HOT ROD

..

...BUCKLE THOSE SEAT BELS

...500 HORSEPOWER CHEVY CORVETTE ENGINE

Thursday, 8:30 AM.  33 degrees, wind SE, light.  The sky is overcast, fog enshrouds the Island, and the barometer predicts precipitation.
        The sailboats at the City Marina are all stored out of the water, parked on stands.  Most of them have been shrink-wrapped in plastic for the winter, and look like so many huge June-bug chrysalises.
        The Coast Guard, not to be outdone by local municipalities such as Ashland and LaPointe  that have ice-rescue air boats, now has its own, and it is a beauty. A 27 ft. long,  welded aluminum hull, enclosed cab, sixty-knot per hour beauty.  It is American made and has a 500 horsepower Chevy Corvette V8 engine. They ought to be able to snatch a floundering ice fisherman from the jaws of an icy death before he even gets wet. And heaven help the terrorist trying to approach our shores across the ice by dog sled or snowmobile!   We will watch for this new piece of technology out on  a training run, and are certain the young Coasties are falling all over each other trying to get licensed to pilot this new hot rod!
        Overheard in the Ode household: Art says, “This place sure gets dirty in the winter!” Joan says, “That’s because a man and his dog live here.” Art says, “But you would miss us if we were gone.”  To which Joan replies, “Yes, but I’d have a clean house.”
A NEW HOT ROD, AND A MAN AND HIS DOG

1/25/12 HAMBURGER SOUP, AND IF WORDS WERE ROSES

BARE BONES BLACK WALNUT

WINTER WOODLAND TRAIL

DULL WINTER MORNING

Wednesday, 8:30 AM.  25 degrees, wind SW, calm.  The sky is overcast and there is a dusting of slippery stuff on driveways and roads.  It was a Yak Track morning.  The sky is overcast but the barometer predicts partly cloudy skies.  It is a rather dull winter morning.
        Yesterday fulfilled its promise and was a glorious day, warm and sunny enough that I managed to scrape most of the accumulated ice from the driveway in the afternoon.  While I worked at that I  let Buddy run loose a bit, whistling for him every so often and giving him a treat when he returned.  He did well enough and we quit while we were ahead. 
        The good day was topped off by one of my favorite Bayfield winter meals, hamburger soup. That’s soup, not chili.
        It is good friend Ruth Johnson’s recipe.  She and  her husband Curt now live in a retirement community in Minnesota, and I know she will not mind us passing it on:
Hamburger soup
2 tsp. Butter                                      4 celery tops, chopped
1 medium chopped onion                   parsley to taste
1.5 lb. Ground beef                             1.5 tsp thyme
1 28 oz. Can diced tomatoes               10 peppercorns
2 cans beef consommé                        1 tbsp salt
2 soup cans water                               1.5 cupS barley
4 sliced carrots (into pennies)
Sauté onions in butter.  Add ground beef, brown and drain.  Add rest of ingredients and cook covered for one hour or more.
Delicious!
Commentary on the President’s State of the Union speech:
        If words were roses, we would be living in a rose garden.  We are not.

1/24/12 LIFE'S SIMPLE REWARDS

AN ARCTIC LANDSCAPE

INTO THE TEETH OF THE STORM ON THE DUNE

FOG AND BLOWING SNOW ON THE BACK DUNE

MEMORY OF A LONG AGO STORM

Tuesday, 8:45 AM.  24 degrees, wind WNW, light but picking up.  The sky is mostly blue with a few high white clouds.  I had 3"-4” of new snow to shovel.  The barometer is way up and it will be a gorgeous winter day.
        Yesterday’s weather was nasty.  Not quite a blizzard, and not really cold, but windy, with icy, granular, blowing snow, the kind that stings your eyes and gets down the back of your upturned collar.  Driving and walking were a bit hazardous, more so because things didn’t seem as bad as they actually were.  Nonetheless,  Buddy and I went to the beach, where the weather was really vile and the landscape pretty arctic, but not without an icy beauty. 
        And that’s the best one can say about storms and bad weather; there is an aesthetic element present that can’t be found on better days.  I am always grateful when walking into the teeth of a storm that I can still do it and enjoy it, and am ever grateful for a fire in the fireplace and a warming drink in my hand afterwards.  Life does have its simple rewards!

1/23/12 THE IRON RANGE...WHERE IMMIGRANTS DUG THEIR WAY TO FREEDOM

MINING DISPLAY AT WI WELCOME CENTER IN HAYWARD

MELLEN MAIN STREET

HAYWARD MAIN STREET BARS

MONTREAL RESTORED MINERS COTTAGE

COULDN'T GET THERE...EVEN WITH 4-WHEEL DRIVE

NOT MUCH BUSINESS IN PENCE

...OR ELSEWHERE

MOSTLY CUT OVER

PENOKE RANGE,  IRON COUNTRY

MELLEN SCHOOL 1910...THOSE WERE THE DAYS

LOGS WAITING FOR THE FREIGHT TRAIN  IN MELLEN

MELLEN MAIN STREET

Monday, 8;30 AM.  27 degrees, wind W, light with moderate gusts.  It is snowing lightly and we have about an inch of slippery, granular stuff on the ground.  The sky is overcast, the Island is barely visible and this may go on for a while, as the barometer predicts.
        I have written several blogs regarding the proposed open pit iron mine in northern Wisconsin, which would eventuallly be roughly a mile wide and four miles long and operate for at least 35 years, bringing jobs and tax revenues to  Iron and Ashland Counties and the region as a whole.  I have presented some of the pro and con arguments and did a brief analysis of the proposed, controversial legislation concerning it.  I thought it would be instructive to those readers who have an interest in the topic to give some verbal and photographic descriptions of the actual area involved.
        So, yesterday Joan, I  and Buddy took a ride to and through the general geographic area involved, stopping first to fortify ourselves with some roast beef sandwiches from Arby’s in Ashland, which was a real hit with Buddy, who wanted ours as well as his.  He didn’t get them.
        We took State Hwy. 13 south to the town of Mellen in Ashland county, which is about forty miles from Bayfield.  We then took State Hy 77 east toward Hurley, another 23 miles.  The proposed mine straddles the Ashland and Iron County line, approximately midway between Mellen and Hurley.  The tiny community of Upson is closest to the west side of the proposed mine, and the equally diminutive village of Pence is on the east side.  Several other little villages lie along Hwy. 77 before one gets to Hurley, on the Wisconsin border with Michigan.
        An aside: during the rough and tumble early days of logging and later mining, Hurley was known as one of “The three H’s”, viz. Hayward, Hurley, and Hell. It is also appropriate to note Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s comment regarding his grandfather’s emigration from Italy to the coal mines of Pennsylvania, which is just as appropriate to the Iron mines of Wisconsin; “He came here and literally dug his way to freedom.” Hurley has a large ethnic Italian population.

        Except for the community of Montreal (which is a restored mining village and National Historic Site) just outside of Hurley, these little settlements are very depressed, and rather reminiscent of Appalachia.  One is struck by the fact that some of these communities, at least, were once prosperous, attested to by the few remaining grandiose buildings such as the 1910 Mellen public school.  The countryside in this region is pretty enough but is not wilderness or even virgin forest, but has, according to my practiced eye at least, all been logged over, probably numerous times.  There are a few farms but the soil is not conducive to agricultural prosperity.  Mostly, it is empty except for the trees, the few villages, the highway, and a few railroad tracks, some active and some not. 
        Anyway, I hope you find the photos interesting and instructive to the issue of renewed mining in the region.

: Sunday, 9:00 AM.  20 degrees, wind SW, very light. When temperature and humidity are up after a cold spell we are bond to get snow, and the overcast sky sure looks like it.  That’s good, as it will add to the snow base for the dogsled races on February 5th and 6th.
        The Ashland Daily Press announced yesterday that Wisconsin would be receiving an additional $28 million dollars in heating assistance money from the federal government, a particularly important fact for the impoverished northern counties of the state, most of which are extremely depressed.  Nationwide, over 800 million dollars of such aid is being made available to the states.  I cringed when I read the statistics.
        Don’t get me wrong, I sympathize with the rural (and urban) poor who  are having a hard time heating their homes this winter, and do not wish to see anyone go cold, or hungry (think food stamps and extended unemployment insurance), or poorly clothed or housed (think public assistance of many kinds, including subsidized housing and grants for insulation and thermal glazed windows).  But it has come to pass that there are government grants and subsidies to ameliorate just about any human condition and beyond (paying anyone who can say “farmer” to erect fences, plastic greenhouses and  you name it). I view it all with wonder, all the time, in these economically depressed  northern counties of Wisconsin. 
        But what really astounds me, and I must admit makes me feel less charitable towards the less fortunate among us, is that by and large these same folks also vehemently oppose a mine that would bring thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to the area; who oppose almost any effort to lift government  restrictions or reduce taxes on businesses and their neighbors; who oppose almost any change; and support radical political elements that preach punitive taxation and class warfare.
        All of us lose our independence and ultimately our freedom when we become dependent upon government for our basic needs. Most of us are descendents of immigrants who fled conditions of serfdom in Europe or Asia or South America to exist as free people in a new world devoid of the tyrannies of the old.
         A serf is a serf, whether indentured to the nobility, an oligarchy, the church or the state.  Slavery is a terrible injustice, because an individual’s freedom has been taken away by force.  Serfdom in a way is worse, because it is essentially a social contract, entered into on a quid pro quo basis; a measure of freedom given up for measure of largesse.  The peasant is serf to the noble who protects him with castle and arms; or serf to the bishop who owns the land in the name of the church and promises heavenly rewards instead of earthly food; or serf to the dictator who promises  the rewards of ethnic or religious superiority over others; or serf to the politician who promises food stamps and heating oil in exchange for a vote.  It is all the same road, and eventually there is neither freedom nor prosperity.  Our society has determined that there should be a government role in providing an economic safety net for its citizens and that is fine as far as it goes. But when the “safety net” extends beyond the deserving needy and becomes  the social contract, freedom and prosperity are doomed.
        The only bar to serfdom is the political and economic freedom of the individual.  And the primary role of democratic government is to be the guarantor of those freedoms, not to ensnare people onto the dole.

1/22/12 A SERF IS A SERF

LOOKS LIKE SNOW

Sunday, 9:00 AM.  20 degrees, wind SW, very light. When temperature and humidity are up after a cold spell we are bound to get snow, and the overcast sky sure looks like it.  That’s good, as it will add to the snow base for the dog sled races on February 4th and 5th.
        The Ashland Daily Press announced yesterday that Wisconsin would be receiving an additional $28 million dollars in heating assistance money from the federal government, a particularly important fact for the impoverished northern counties of the state, most of which are extremely depressed.  Nationwide, over 800 million dollars of such aid is being made available to the states.  I cringed when I read the statistics.
        Don’t get me wrong, I sympathize with the rural (and urban) poor who  are having a hard time heating their homes this winter, and do not wish to see anyone go cold, or hungry (think food stamps and extended unending unemployment insurance), or poorly clothed or housed (think public assistance of many kinds, including subsidized housing and grants for insulation and thermal glazed windows).  But it has come to the point that there are government grants and subsidies to ameliorate just about any human condition and beyond ( i.e., paying almost anyone who can say “farmer” to erect fences, plastic greenhouses and  you name it). I view it all with wonder, all the time, in these economically depressed  northern counties of Wisconsin. 
        But what really astounds me, and I must admit makes me feel less charitable towards the needy among us, is that by and large these same folks also vehemently oppose a mine that would bring thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to the area; who oppose almost any effort to lift government  restrictions or reduce taxes on businesses and their neighbors; who oppose almost any change; and support radical political elements that preach punitive taxation and class warfare.
        All of us lose our independence and ultimately our freedom when we become dependent upon government for our basic needs. Most of us are descendants of immigrants who fled conditions of serfdom in Europe or Asia or South America to exist as free people in a new nation devoid of the tyrannies of the old.
         A serf is a serf, whether indentured to the nobility, an oligarchy, the church or the state.  Slavery is a terrible injustice, because an individual’s freedom has been taken away by force.  Serfdom in a way is worse, because it is essentially a social contract, entered into on a quid pro quo basis; a measure of freedom given up for a measure of largess.  The peasant is serf to the noble who protects him with castle and arms; or serf to the bishop who owns the land in the name of the church and promises heavenly rewards instead of earthly food; or serf to the dictator who promises  the rewards of ethnic or religious superiority over others; or serf to the politician who promises food stamps and heating oil in exchange for a vote.  It is all the same road, and and at the end of it there is neither freedom nor prosperity.
    Our society has determined that there should be a government role in providing an economic safety net for its citizens and that is fine as far as it goes. But when the “safety net” extends beyond the truly deserving needy and becomes  the social contract, freedom and prosperity are doomed.
        The only bar to serfdom is the personal and economic freedom of the individual.  And the primary role of democratic government is to be the guarantor of those freedoms, not the ensnarer of the unwary onto the dole.

1/21/12 RETRO ALL THE WAY!

FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE STEAK PIT...

...RETRO DECOR

AT LAST, A DECENT CUP OF COFFEE!

Saturday, 8:00 AM.  0 degrees F., wind WSW, calm.  The sky is mostly clear with some clouds moving in from the W, and the barometer predicts snow but it will have to become much more humid for it to amount to much.
        The Friday Night Fish Fry being alive and well in northern Wisconsin, Joan and I went to The Steak Pit restaurant in Washburn for the same last night, and had incredibly good walleyed-pike.  The Steak Pit is a very nice, mid-priced restaurant on the lake.  It has a kind of '60’s retro feel which we like very much, with excellent service.
        I have discovered I am on the cutting edge of something, after all.  Coffee pots. Yes, coffee pots.  Joan has pointed out that several of the high powered cooking shows she watches have my new coffee pot on the set.  You may or may not remember my diatribes over the last several years concerning modern drip coffee pots, that are expensive technological nightmares that never seem to last very long, and worst of all make an insipid,  lukewarm brew that needs designer brands of coffee to taste like anything.  I abandoned that kind of coffee maker several years ago and then tried expensive electric percolators, old, new and everything in between and they too proved unsatisfactory, sometimes making a good cup of coffee but the perk often pooping out due to a bad electric cord or an un-replaceable, worn out heat element. 
        I longed for the olden days, when the percolator sat on the stove un-tethered to an electrical outlet, the strength and heat of the coffee determined by the hand of the maker at the stove.  Unfortunately, such simple percolators seem to be no longer available except as cheap camp coffee pots.  So that’s what I bought, for $8.00 at Wal-Mart.  It works as I anticipated, and it is not very particular as to brand or expense of the coffee, almost any pre-ground type will suffice.  So I fill the pot with water and coffee before going to bed, set it on the burner, and upon rising I turn the stove burner on to medium, set the microwave timer for twenty minutes, and at the sound of the beep turn it down to low and I have a piping hot, satisfying cup of Joe whenever I please, all morning long. 
        So goodbye to complicated, expensive coffee technology and designer roasts! I am a happy coffee drinker again.  The only fly in the ointment (or rather coffee) is that the pot is Chinese made and of course the hinge on the pot lid is already broken.  However, it’s manufacture is a technology our industries should be able to master if they can get the Environmental Impact Statement approved, and I await an improved American model, hopefully with the addition of the old glass bubble on top so one can actually see the coffee perking.  We also ought to be able to produce a more audible, powerful, pleasant perk, as of yore. I’d like a perking sound reminiscent of my old Chevy V8 with the mellow dual mufflers, and the pot  should have lots of chrome.  Ah, those were  Happy Days!

1/20/12 ASKING FORGIVENESS

LAKE SMOKE BEYOND MADELINE ISLAND

DOWNY WOODPECKER FUELING UP

I'M NOT ON POINT, MY TOES ARE JUST COLD

Friday, 8:00 AM.  –4 degrees F. Wind WSW, calm.  The sky is lightly overcast with high, thin stratospheric clouds.  The barometer predicts clear skies.  The channel is completely frozen over between Bayfield and Madeline Island this morning, so there is no  lake smoke rising from it.  But the steam clouds rise into the sky to a great height beyond Madeline Island and out into the open lake.
        Our morning walk was a bit cold but otherwise pleasant.  The neighborhood dogs were out in force, their owners evidently tired of having them in the house for the duration of this cold snap.
         One of these mornings when the ice is thick enough to make it interesting, I will hitch a ride on the ferry to experience it breaking  ice.
        Commentary:  We have been watching Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich’s personal reputation travails with mixed emotions, but mostly with disgust.  Disgust with Gingrich for his philandering, and abandonment of not one but two former wives; disgust with his second wife (who has discovered that what goes around comes around) for being enticed into an interview with ABC to rehash old grievances two days before the South Carolina primary; and disgust with ABC for being a partisan party to the whole tawdry affair (the old pejorative "muck racking" seems most apt).

        Whether one believes Gingrich or not, he claims he has reformed, gotten religion and asked God for forgiveness.  It would be most appropriate if his second wife and ABC did the same.  

1/19/12 "ME FIRST" POLITICS AND THE MODERN DAY LUDDITES

THE SUN STRUGGLES TO EMERGE FROM THE LAKE SMOKE

THE FERRY BOAT IS BREAKING SOME  ICE EACH MORNING NOW

Thursday, 8:00 AM. –6 degrees F.  Wind W, calm.  There is about 3” of new snow on the ground and lake effect snow continues to fall as the sun struggles valiantly to emerge from the lake smoke.  There should be fewer complaints about the lack of winter now.
        Neighbor and ferry boat captain Sherman says the ferry is breaking thin ice now every morning but he won’t venture a guess as to whether we will have an ice road to the Island this year.  He said 1998 was the last year he can remember that the ferry ran all winter.  The city workers were flooding the ice rink in Reiten Park on the lakef ront  yesterday, I took a photo but somehow lost it.
        By all accounts the Administration, using the State Department as its mouth piece, has denied approval of the oil pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to Houston, citing lack of time for environmental studies.  This project has been studied for three years, has already been rerouted because of some environmental concerns about its route over the Ogallala aquifer, and is a known and well practiced technology. 
        The President’s  tactic is to drag his feet long enough that the pipe line decision will not be a factor in the election campaign, even though doing so may loose the nation the pipeline, its jobs, economic impact and the Canadian oil resource.  This as a sop to the leftist environmentalists who are among his strongest supporters.  This is exactly the kind of “me first” politics that has brought the nation to its economic knees.  And this is not only  an economic issue but one of national security. 
        Had attitudes like the present pervaded our national history the great canals of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries would never have been built, waterpower would never have been harnessed, forests would never have been cut for farmland, coal and iron ore would never have been mined, Rural Electrification would never have happened, the Industrial Revolution would have passed us by; we would not have won WWII, or gone to the moon.  This administration and its left wing environmental supporters are the most reactionary forces of our entire history; modern day Luddites.

1/18/12 TIRED OF ENDLESS CAMPAINGING? IT IS ONLY JUST BEGINNING

ZONING APPEALS BOARD...DON, SHERMAN, HANNA, ART, HOWARD...

...MEETINGS HELD AT THE FIRE HALL

ICE IS FORMING IN EARNEST NOW

SUNSET IN THE PINES

Wednesday, 8:30 AM. Temperature 4 degrees and it has fallen a degree and a half in the past hour. wind S, calm.  The sky appears mostly clear but light, stratospheric clouds are forming and the barometer predicts snow.  It would have been a frigid walk if there had been even a breath of wind, but with the sun rising it did not seem very cold at all.  Buddy did not act cold.  Even though he is a short-haired breed, he will keep warm in cold weather if well fed.
        The City of Bayfield Zoning Appeals Board which I chair met yesterday morning, and approved an appeal from a young Bayfield businessman to waive a building code which would have kept him from fully utilizing a property in the business district which he just purchased.  It is perhaps an indication that overly-restrictive city ordinances are becoming less popular in these hard economic times.  I have found that many laws and ordinances are over-restrictive or unnecessary, often copied from other ordinances elsewhere, or initiated to solve an issue of the moment and afterwards becoming  unnecessary or intrusive.  I am convinced this happens at all levels of government, and must be continually combated or in accumulation they will strangle us.
        The movement to recall Wisconsin Governor Walker has evidently well exceeded the number of signatures needed to force a special election, which will probably take place sometime this coming summer. At present there is no Democratic opposition candidate. The recall also targets five other Republican office holders, none of which is charged with any crime or misdemeanor. 
        The recall election, which will cost over nine million dollars, will occur only several months before the regularly scheduled November, 2012 elections for all state senators and representatives, and for Congress, so the state will be in a constant political campaign all year long, after having been in full campaign mode since before the November, 2010 elections.
    Walker will have served almost one-and-a-half years of his four year term.  Only one state governor has been recalled throughout US history.  The recall campaign has been funded primarily by public union money from out of state.
        The endless political campaigns, on the national, state and even local levels, are beginning to wear a little thin.  Unending tit-for-tat political warfare is not conducive to good governance in a democratic republic.  In fact, it has resulted in little more than gridlock on almost all levels of government, and the electorate is bound to tire of it at some point. I certainly have.