1/02/12 WINTER, BEACH GRASS, AND ALREADY AT ODDS IN THE NEW YEAR

IT'S WINTER FOR SURE

SEED PLUME OF BEACH GRASS

BUDDY IN THE BEACH GRASS

Monday, 8:30 AM.  16 degrees, wind NW, very strong and gusty, up to 40 MPH I would guess.  There is little additional snow but it has been blowing and the roads are slippery, I put my yak tracks on this morning.  The barometer is up and if the clouds are cleared out the temperature will plummet.  All those who wanted winter have gotten their wish. 
    Our outing at the beach yesterday was cold and windy but enjoyable nonetheless.  The American beach grass, or American marram grass, Amophilla breviligulata, is the primary pioneer dune species along the Great Lakes.  It spreads by runners and tenaciously holds and builds the foredune, the dune closest to the water.  Often it is the only plant species holding the sand in place.  It develops seed heads in late August, which are still prominent now and at least many of the plumes still contain the miniscule seeds.  The species is native to the Great Lakes and the eastern seaboard.  It is an extremely important conservation plant, without which lake and ocean shorelines would be much more prone to erosion.
Commentary: If you are going to watch the Rose Bowl game today between Wisconsin and Oregon, you will  at some point be subjected to a “Recall Walker” (Wisconsin’s Governor) protest.  Ye gods! These people are like a pestilence!  They accost one at the post office, at the grocery store, on street corners, their signs are everywhere (which one knows   will never be picked up after the recall movement is over).
    These folks are getting desperate now, because they are still around 50,000 signatures shy on the recall petition, which must be completed by January 17 to trigger a recall election.  So, it’s off to the Rose Bowl Game to make a spectacle of themselves and the state of Wisconsin.  I can’t imagine many of the protesters have procured tickets to the game.  In any case most of them will be Union hirelings from Chicago or somewhere, as it is safe to assume that few legitimate protesters could spend thousands of dollars to go to Pasadena from Wisconsin, and certainly wouldn’t do so if they didn’t have tickets to the game.  If there is a mass protest in the stands during the game then I will admit to them being mostly Wisconsinites (and probably mostly University of Wisconsin faculty). But even that begs the question of why they would go to such lengths, and embarrass their own state and the Badgers team by making a scene at this premier football bowl game. 
    I can’t tell you how much I detest the actions of these people, who can’t abide losing the last election and continue these inane protests.  Even now, over a year after the governor was elected, they are still singing anti-Walker songs daily in the Capitol rotunda, as though they were a legitimate part of the Civil Rights movement of a half-century ago, or something.  
    I do, however, have a solution to what is in my opinion an unwarranted recall, which is so  expensive and disruptive to the  daily business of government  and the decorum of the state and its capitol. Legislation should be enacted to make signers of a recall petition personally responsible for all the costs involved in the recall process.  I wouldn’t think it unconstitutional, since it has nothing whatsoever to do with freely participating in a routine  election. 
In any case, these unreasonable and ubiquitous protesters have pushed the limit of the patience of the general public, and spoiling the atmosphere for Wisconsin’s football team and its fans today goes beyond the limit of at least my own patience. 
         And, I must say, it pains me even more to know that many of the Recall Walker folks are acquaintances and neighbors, and that we are already so at odds in the new year, but it seems that divisiveness and rancor are the political order of the day.