Oh, here we go again!
Not content with inviting all the ATVers in the world to their June parade in Silver Bay, the local ATV crowd is demanding that the North Shore State Trail be opened to their noisy and destructive vehicles.
As for the old slogan that "We just want a place for locals to ride," the latest demand is to eliminate the 90-mile limit on trails in Cook County. So, how many miles do you locals want permission to destroy fragile ecosystems and wildlife habitat on?
The US Forest Service process started last year with mucho public input to try to keep everybody happy has tanked. How thankless to try to find a way to preserve the environment by limiting the damage done by ATV rough riders, not to mention protecting quiet spaces. It isn't only the people who need peace and silence, it is the wild creatures who are terrified by the noise and smells and speedy depradations of the clueless folks who bring their joyless and lawless midget psyches blundering into the ancient forest.
It looks to be a long summer. Lovers of peace and quiet, beware!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Here's a pretty mess!
Reprise: Developer mania once seen in downtown Grand Marais is alive and well on Lutsen Mountain. True is reminded of the neocon power domination philosophy so eloquently stated by Karl Rove (or was it Darth Cheney?): You just push and push and keep pushing until you get stopped.
So it is on Lutsen Mountain. The rich owners who here shall remain nameless wish to turn the moutain into an Aspen-like city of huge buildings (55 plus feet high) and infrastructure paid for by the government (as in "public-private partnership" meaning public subsidies of private enterprise) and utterly destructive of the moutain's steep-slope land with its limited soil on bedrock, and the Poplar River watershed that supports all life within its domain.
The nameless management has shamelessly advocated for a new one-percent sales tax that will like the proverbial straw break the backs of us poor folks already suffering from huge new costs for food, energy, gas and health care.
Says Leroy Halberg, water and septic inspector for Cook County, "No one is lookiing at the overall picture, the cumulative effect of development on the watershed."
A recent letter was sent to the Lutsen town board from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Health. In part this letter read, "We are starting to question whether the area can sustain such increased pressure on its water resources without impacts to human health and the environment. Currently there are 14 noncommunity wasterwater treatment systems in the area and all of this water is obtained from aquifers that have limited capabilities for providing drinking water."
In case y'all haven't noticed, neocons in the years since Reagan have increasingly de-clawed regulation; all the more remarkable that two Minnesota regulatory agencies have the courage to send a letter like this to challenge the corporate-owner dominated Poplar River Management Board.
There will be public meetings between the PRMB and the county coming up to consider wastewater treatment and drinking water safety.
Folks, turn out! Or failing that, write letters or emails or call your West End Commissioner Bruce Martinson.
Do you think Lutsen Mountain makes a profit from its disregard of the Poplar watershed? Does the Pope shit in the woods?
So it is on Lutsen Mountain. The rich owners who here shall remain nameless wish to turn the moutain into an Aspen-like city of huge buildings (55 plus feet high) and infrastructure paid for by the government (as in "public-private partnership" meaning public subsidies of private enterprise) and utterly destructive of the moutain's steep-slope land with its limited soil on bedrock, and the Poplar River watershed that supports all life within its domain.
The nameless management has shamelessly advocated for a new one-percent sales tax that will like the proverbial straw break the backs of us poor folks already suffering from huge new costs for food, energy, gas and health care.
Says Leroy Halberg, water and septic inspector for Cook County, "No one is lookiing at the overall picture, the cumulative effect of development on the watershed."
A recent letter was sent to the Lutsen town board from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Health. In part this letter read, "We are starting to question whether the area can sustain such increased pressure on its water resources without impacts to human health and the environment. Currently there are 14 noncommunity wasterwater treatment systems in the area and all of this water is obtained from aquifers that have limited capabilities for providing drinking water."
In case y'all haven't noticed, neocons in the years since Reagan have increasingly de-clawed regulation; all the more remarkable that two Minnesota regulatory agencies have the courage to send a letter like this to challenge the corporate-owner dominated Poplar River Management Board.
There will be public meetings between the PRMB and the county coming up to consider wastewater treatment and drinking water safety.
Folks, turn out! Or failing that, write letters or emails or call your West End Commissioner Bruce Martinson.
Do you think Lutsen Mountain makes a profit from its disregard of the Poplar watershed? Does the Pope shit in the woods?
Sunday, March 23, 2008
"My religion is kindness": US MSM strikes out again
The Dalai Lama is the most honored being on the planet, whether the US MSM knows it or not (mostly not). This holy man has sought a peaceful solution for his native Tibet by all nonviolent means for nearly 50 years of repressive rule by China. During that time he has never neglected his students. He has been tireless in his teaching of love for all sentient beings. "My religion is kindness," he once said.
This holy sage is being dissed by the Beijing government: not a new thing but escalated as the Tibetan people rise up against Chinese oppression as the Olympics draw near. The Dalai Lama will never associate himself with violent protest no matter what the Chinese propagandists say.
The US MSM has mostly reported that China is putting down "violent protests" against Chinese rule of Tibet. Although many Americans honor and revere the Dalai Lama, the Bus$cos don't want any interference with trade with China. Several news reports have quoted the spiritual leader of Tibet as barely speaking English. True knows this is bullshit, having read several books he has written about Buddhist philosophy. These erudite tomes would glaze over the eyes of your average MSM American journalist looking for the sleazy angle. They are filled with the wisdom of the Buddha and they aren't sound bites for the evening news.
Look, then, to this UK report on the truth, as mirrored by the rest of the world. No one alive is holier than the Dalai Lama. No one speaks more forcefully on behalf of peaceful dialogue. No one else declares a love for all sentient beings, especially those who Americans like to hunt, kill and eat.
Dalai Lama: "I Am Prepared to Face China. I Will Go to Beijing"
By Andrew Buncombe
The Independent UK
This holy sage is being dissed by the Beijing government: not a new thing but escalated as the Tibetan people rise up against Chinese oppression as the Olympics draw near. The Dalai Lama will never associate himself with violent protest no matter what the Chinese propagandists say.
The US MSM has mostly reported that China is putting down "violent protests" against Chinese rule of Tibet. Although many Americans honor and revere the Dalai Lama, the Bus$cos don't want any interference with trade with China. Several news reports have quoted the spiritual leader of Tibet as barely speaking English. True knows this is bullshit, having read several books he has written about Buddhist philosophy. These erudite tomes would glaze over the eyes of your average MSM American journalist looking for the sleazy angle. They are filled with the wisdom of the Buddha and they aren't sound bites for the evening news.
Look, then, to this UK report on the truth, as mirrored by the rest of the world. No one alive is holier than the Dalai Lama. No one speaks more forcefully on behalf of peaceful dialogue. No one else declares a love for all sentient beings, especially those who Americans like to hunt, kill and eat.
Dalai Lama: "I Am Prepared to Face China. I Will Go to Beijing"
By Andrew Buncombe
The Independent UK
Friday 21 March 2008
As crisis over Tibet deepens, Dalai Lama makes extraordinary offer to negotiate directly with President Hu Jintao.
Dharamsala - Almost half a century after he fled to India, the Dalai Lama has raised the extraordinary prospect of travelling to Beijing and holding face-to-talks with the Chinese regime in an effort to resolve Tibet's most serious crisis for two decades.
Having watched helplessly from exile as his Tibetan homeland has suffered under Chinese rule, the man regarded as a living god by millions of his followers said yesterday that he was ready to negotiate personally with the Chinese leadership. The Dalai Lama, 73, acknowledged the difficulty associated with a face-to-face summit, but said he was even ready to meet President Hu Jintao, notorious in Tibet for his hardline approach when he served as Tibet's local Communist leader. "I am always ready to meet the Chinese leaders, and particularly Hu Jintao. I am very happy to meet," he told a small group of journalists at his office in Dharamsala. "But as I mentioned earlier, to go to Beijing and meet leaders... that would be big news. Many Tibetans would think... may develop some unrealistic expectations. I have to think very carefully."
While a visit to Beijing would leave him open to criticism of appeasing the Chinese, the undertaking the Dalai Lama gave yesterday underlines his desperate wish to avoid further bloodshed in the country of his birth.
Seeking to put pressure on China, he said he was willing to travel to Beijing in a matter of weeks if there was a "concrete indication" that the Chinese authorities were prepared to negotiate and if the protests in Tibet had concluded. His spokesman later confirmed that while he did not wish to simply provide the Chinese with a photo-opportunity that could be used against him, he was ready to discuss a "mutually agreeable solution" to the issue of Tibet.
The remarkable prospect of a summit between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese leadership - either in Beijing or elsewhere - came as China said police had opened fire and wounded four Tibetan protesters in Sichuan province and arrested dozens of others who had ignored a deadline to end the most serious demonstrations to rock Tibet for more than two decades.
Earlier this week, the Chinese leadership indicated it would be prepared to talk to the Dalai Lama if he stopped "separatist activities" and recognised Tibet and Taiwan as parts of China. Gordon Brown told the Commons on Wednesday that the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, had told him he was ready to meet the Dalai Lama if he renounced violence. But assessing the genuine intentions of the Chinese leadership remains at best a guessing game. Beijing is concerned about sullying its reputation ahead of the upcoming Olympic Games, but while giving an undertaking to meet the Dalai Lama, various Chinese officials have continued to demonise him and accuse him and his "clique" of orchestrating the demonstrations in Tibet.
"For the Dalai Lama, we not only listen to what he says, but more importantly, we focus on what he does," said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang. "He has said he is not a separatist. But all of his propositions and actions prove that he has never stopped his splittist words and deeds."
The Dalai Lama knows his only real leverage as head of a Tibetan government in exile is in winning over international opinion to his cause. Today he is due to meet Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, while tomorrow he is scheduled to have lunch with the actor Richard Gere in Delhi. Both have supported him for many years.
Winning the backing of camera-friendly celebrities and power-wielding politicians has long been the strength of the smiling and avuncular 1989 Nobel laureate. Laughing, joking and yet utterly serious all in the space of a sentence, this is a role he continues to play to perfection as the cause to which he has devoted his life receives unprecedented world attention. Never more than now has he needed to stress the importance of non-violent protest and the limited nature of the movement's demands.
"The Chinese constitution already mentions autonomy [for Tibet]. So that should not be just a word on paper but implemented on the spot," he said, sitting in front of a statue of the Buddha. "The whole world knows Dalai Lama is not seeking independence, one hundred times, a thousand times I have repeated this. It is my mantra - we are not seeking independence."
In Beijing, the authorities admitted for the first time that the often violent protests that swept through Lhasa 10 days ago in protest against Chinese rule had spread to other Tibetan communities in additional provinces. Subsequently, the government has dispatched more troops and paramilitaries across the region as it seeks to reassert its control in those areas. It has banned the media and foreign tourists from travelling to the region.
Precisely how many people have been killed or injured as a result of the protests and the subsequent crackdown is unclear. The Chinese government says 16 people have died while the Tibetan exiles say the number stands at 80. On walls and buildings throughout Dharamsala, exiles have posted graphic and disturbing photographs of Tibetans apparently killed by Chinese police or soldiers.
"It's horrible. There are many bodies. The Chinese are holding the bodies," claimed Tenzin Thangh, who was participating in a candlelit vigil through the main street of the town - a procession that has become a nightly occurrence. "The soldiers are going into all parts of Tibet."
>From Dharamsala, a former British hill station established on the peaceful fringe of the Himalayas, Chinese accusations regarding the Dalai Lama's ability to direct events in Tibet and the description of him as "a devil with a human face but the heart of a beast", appear little short of preposterous. Indeed, his cautious "middle way" approach has been criticised by some Tibetans, including the Tibetan Youth Congress which seeks full independence from China. While many younger Tibetans have been outspoken in their criticism of the Dalai Lama's tactics, in recent days they have halted such comments in an apparent effort not to appear divided at a crucial juncture.
What certainly does not seem in doubt is the reverence with which he is held as the community's religious leader. Before meeting reporters yesterday, the Dalai Lama spent time in the flower-filled gardens of the compound receiving and blessing various visitors, including a family who had travelled secretly from Shanghai.
Asked later how he felt about the personal insults that Chinese officials had directed towards him, he said such comments mattered little to him. He also said he did not believe that the international community was taken in by what the Chinese said.
"As a Buddhist monk, it does not matter what they call me," he said with a chuckle. "The outside world doesn't believe that I am [a] devil."
A man's house is his castle?
The feds are spying on us, our phone and email conversations, and we can't get a driver's license or a post office box without providing our physical address location. What happens to that information? For a fee, anybody on the Internet can get it....
So True was dismayed to find another privacy leak courtesy of Cook County. ANYBODY, that's right, anybody, can pull up your name, property identification number, taxpayer information, property information and assessed property value.
Who lobbied for this Big Brother privacy invasion? Realtors? Collection agencies? Or maybe the NSA (for those of you who don't know: the NSA spies on all of us, all of the time, with no oversight, thanks to Bush, Cheney, Rove, et al who nonetheless delete all of their own computer hard drives so we can't find out what THEY are doing about, say, torture memos, firing of federal attorneys who don't agree with them, big big payouts to crony corporations, lies to the media, to name only a few of their crimes....)
Please, dear Cook County, DON'T make it easier for anybody to invade my privacy. And WHY are you only announcing this new travesty of individual rights after the fact?
True
So True was dismayed to find another privacy leak courtesy of Cook County. ANYBODY, that's right, anybody, can pull up your name, property identification number, taxpayer information, property information and assessed property value.
Who lobbied for this Big Brother privacy invasion? Realtors? Collection agencies? Or maybe the NSA (for those of you who don't know: the NSA spies on all of us, all of the time, with no oversight, thanks to Bush, Cheney, Rove, et al who nonetheless delete all of their own computer hard drives so we can't find out what THEY are doing about, say, torture memos, firing of federal attorneys who don't agree with them, big big payouts to crony corporations, lies to the media, to name only a few of their crimes....)
Please, dear Cook County, DON'T make it easier for anybody to invade my privacy. And WHY are you only announcing this new travesty of individual rights after the fact?
True
The Creechville dilemma
In 1909, J.S. Creech opened his sawmill operation at a 12-man camp on Elbow Lake near Maple Hill, during a time that logging was bringing new local jobs to the pioneer settlers. His 1,300 acre parcel along the Elbow River was the source of his timber. Within a few years Creech hired only locals for his logging operations.
Today, 99 years later, his descendants Leroy and Barbara Creech are opposing annexation of Creechville by the city of Grand Marais. "We can't afford to live here now," Leroy Creech told WTIP reporter Barbara Jean Meyers in an interview. "When they charge us more, how will we afford that? ... We don't need the water and sewer."
The county has declined to support the annexation by the city after hearing concerns from Creechville residents. Commissioner Bob Fenwick says it is a tough choice; although property values will go up tax increases will in some instances more than double, not including the new sewer and water assessments.
There are no villains in this story. The city has been working toward the annexation project for years now at the request of some Creechville residents. They did go through a public process and did get approval for the project. However, property owners like Creech didn't realize that everyone would be required to sign on, not only those who wanted city water and sewer.
It's hard for True to imagine what it would be like for a pioneer family to be driven out of their century-old home because they can't afford to pay for amenities that they don't need.
Mayor Larsen told WTIP in an interview that the project will benefit all sewer and water users by spreading out the cost, and that the city is applying for grants to help those who need assistance. The grants could be jeopardized if the project is held up.
Here is True's idea: Don't look now but in the last 20 years or so onsite wastewater treatment technology has skyrocketed. Yes, the city ought to provide sewer and water for those who want it, but it also ought to allow new onsite cluster system technology as an option for those who can't afford to buy in. The townships of Tofte and Lutsen are looking at cluster systems with small waste package plants. Grand Marais ought to look to 21st century options for those who can't afford city taxes, sewer and water. Honor your elders and your pioneers, folks!
True
Today, 99 years later, his descendants Leroy and Barbara Creech are opposing annexation of Creechville by the city of Grand Marais. "We can't afford to live here now," Leroy Creech told WTIP reporter Barbara Jean Meyers in an interview. "When they charge us more, how will we afford that? ... We don't need the water and sewer."
The county has declined to support the annexation by the city after hearing concerns from Creechville residents. Commissioner Bob Fenwick says it is a tough choice; although property values will go up tax increases will in some instances more than double, not including the new sewer and water assessments.
There are no villains in this story. The city has been working toward the annexation project for years now at the request of some Creechville residents. They did go through a public process and did get approval for the project. However, property owners like Creech didn't realize that everyone would be required to sign on, not only those who wanted city water and sewer.
It's hard for True to imagine what it would be like for a pioneer family to be driven out of their century-old home because they can't afford to pay for amenities that they don't need.
Mayor Larsen told WTIP in an interview that the project will benefit all sewer and water users by spreading out the cost, and that the city is applying for grants to help those who need assistance. The grants could be jeopardized if the project is held up.
Here is True's idea: Don't look now but in the last 20 years or so onsite wastewater treatment technology has skyrocketed. Yes, the city ought to provide sewer and water for those who want it, but it also ought to allow new onsite cluster system technology as an option for those who can't afford to buy in. The townships of Tofte and Lutsen are looking at cluster systems with small waste package plants. Grand Marais ought to look to 21st century options for those who can't afford city taxes, sewer and water. Honor your elders and your pioneers, folks!
True
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Poor Lynddie England, chump and poster child of bad soldier
The MSM vilified Lynndie England as the evil incarnate of Abu Ghraib after the world looked on in horror at the photos of her tormenting prisoners. Poor dumb Lynddie admitted her guilt and said she knew she was wrong and got sent to jail despite the obvious sexual abuse by her superior officer (namely, she was preggers with his kid).
It boggles the mind that the press could demonize this subnormal child-woman for obeying the orders of her bosses while exonerating the Commander-in-Chief who made it all happen, who now admits with pride that he authorized torture of the "hardened terrists." You surely know who I am talking about? The "mission accomplished," "heckuva job, Brownie" guy? Yep, the buck stops with him.
Lynndie recently gave an interview. She's really mad at the press (well, who isn't?) But for Lynndie they are entirely to blame for the whole scandal that damaged America in world opinion, and why is that? Why, because stuff like the Abu Ghraib torture is just doing business as usual in the Army but the people can't be expected to understand that. They need to be protected from the truth.
Lynndie, poor boobie, took the rap like a good soldier but she is really pissed because the press didn't go along with the Big Lie that her "superiors" bamboozled her into pleading guilty for.
What a mug! She doesn't even get it, that her latest admisison about torture-as-usual is the most damning evidence we have that we need to look way up to the top of the food chain for the real perpetrators of the horrors at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo and all those secret detention sites in countries that don't fool around denying that they torture, and torture, and torture.
Thanks, Lynndie, for helping us get the big picture
It boggles the mind that the press could demonize this subnormal child-woman for obeying the orders of her bosses while exonerating the Commander-in-Chief who made it all happen, who now admits with pride that he authorized torture of the "hardened terrists." You surely know who I am talking about? The "mission accomplished," "heckuva job, Brownie" guy? Yep, the buck stops with him.
Lynndie recently gave an interview. She's really mad at the press (well, who isn't?) But for Lynndie they are entirely to blame for the whole scandal that damaged America in world opinion, and why is that? Why, because stuff like the Abu Ghraib torture is just doing business as usual in the Army but the people can't be expected to understand that. They need to be protected from the truth.
Lynndie, poor boobie, took the rap like a good soldier but she is really pissed because the press didn't go along with the Big Lie that her "superiors" bamboozled her into pleading guilty for.
What a mug! She doesn't even get it, that her latest admisison about torture-as-usual is the most damning evidence we have that we need to look way up to the top of the food chain for the real perpetrators of the horrors at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo and all those secret detention sites in countries that don't fool around denying that they torture, and torture, and torture.
Thanks, Lynndie, for helping us get the big picture
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Relaxing with the Sunday paper: It's the news, stupid
How astonishing that only 40 percent of Americans know that nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq so far. If that is the case I imagine far fewer know that over a million Iraqis have died, mostly civilians, and four million have been displaced. Or that returning soldiers have huge suicide rates and are refused treatment for PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder for you dummies). Or that to the rest of the world the United States is synonymous with torture and unilateral aggression against other sovereign nations.
Ya ya, Fox news is a Repug mouthpiece and the MSM parrot the Bushcos. But, even an ordinary reader of the Sunday paper should know how many soldiers have died in Iraq. Even dummies ought to figure out that the Iraq war was a disaster which will also cripple our children's generation with debt, and that the impending war of aggression with Iran orchestrated by our nutty right wing neocons who welcome the Apocalypse will ignite a new world war with superpowers Russia and China against us. What IS it with you, amigos?
Hmm, reading on in the new Strib Lite, there's a story about how folks are leaving their houses behind so they can make their car and credit card payments. Say, what? Isn't that deja vu Depression all over again? Why aren't people asking that question? If you can make your own house payment, do you just blow it off?
Another story, about Tibet:
The repressive Chinese government is blaming the victim, not to mention killing them and rounding them up into jail. The Chinese regime has refused to acknowledge Tibetan Buddhism ever since their 1951 coup and takeover of this small country in the Himalayan mountains. The Dalai Lama, the holiest person on the planet, who now "rules" his worldwide constituencies of faith from Dharamsala, India, is being blamed for the violence perpetrated by the Chinese. Buddhits devotees and monks are imprisoned for their nonviolent protests. Look more closely at the photos: the monks are in pain on account of the "violence" by the Chinese police with their night sticks and guns.
People will rise up when their deepest beliefs are subjugated (except in the modern-day US of A where the pioneers have morphed into limp wimps who cave at the bogey "terrists"). This is sorta mentioned in the LiteStrib story but like everything else the MSM reports it favors the party line. In this case, the Chinese party line.... And who will stand up for the peace-loving Tibetans in the press? So far, nobody. Not even the groupies who reverently attend appearances by the Dalai Lama around the world, and who listen to his wise and loving message of peace to all beings.
Soldiering on, as we move into the afternoon and toss the junk pages that could have saved a couple acres of rainforest: Readers learn how fed reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is "improvising" and making "bold moves" to save the U.S. economy. Hmph. Jumping ahead: On Monday it appears that the latest bold move bails out Wall Street mega-giant Bear Stearns to the tune of billions, just a little blip, while children go without health care, our infrastructure crumbles and collapses, and people don't have jobs. Even AP reported this news but maybe you missed it on Fox.....
We get the government we deserve. True admits it is harder to get the real news now but it is the duty of us citizens to try. You just have to actually read the paper and skip front page which might as well be what we used to call the "Women's Page," back in the day.
The people divided will always be defeated. The people, stupid, will always be conned.
True
Ya ya, Fox news is a Repug mouthpiece and the MSM parrot the Bushcos. But, even an ordinary reader of the Sunday paper should know how many soldiers have died in Iraq. Even dummies ought to figure out that the Iraq war was a disaster which will also cripple our children's generation with debt, and that the impending war of aggression with Iran orchestrated by our nutty right wing neocons who welcome the Apocalypse will ignite a new world war with superpowers Russia and China against us. What IS it with you, amigos?
Hmm, reading on in the new Strib Lite, there's a story about how folks are leaving their houses behind so they can make their car and credit card payments. Say, what? Isn't that deja vu Depression all over again? Why aren't people asking that question? If you can make your own house payment, do you just blow it off?
Another story, about Tibet:
The repressive Chinese government is blaming the victim, not to mention killing them and rounding them up into jail. The Chinese regime has refused to acknowledge Tibetan Buddhism ever since their 1951 coup and takeover of this small country in the Himalayan mountains. The Dalai Lama, the holiest person on the planet, who now "rules" his worldwide constituencies of faith from Dharamsala, India, is being blamed for the violence perpetrated by the Chinese. Buddhits devotees and monks are imprisoned for their nonviolent protests. Look more closely at the photos: the monks are in pain on account of the "violence" by the Chinese police with their night sticks and guns.
People will rise up when their deepest beliefs are subjugated (except in the modern-day US of A where the pioneers have morphed into limp wimps who cave at the bogey "terrists"). This is sorta mentioned in the LiteStrib story but like everything else the MSM reports it favors the party line. In this case, the Chinese party line.... And who will stand up for the peace-loving Tibetans in the press? So far, nobody. Not even the groupies who reverently attend appearances by the Dalai Lama around the world, and who listen to his wise and loving message of peace to all beings.
Soldiering on, as we move into the afternoon and toss the junk pages that could have saved a couple acres of rainforest: Readers learn how fed reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is "improvising" and making "bold moves" to save the U.S. economy. Hmph. Jumping ahead: On Monday it appears that the latest bold move bails out Wall Street mega-giant Bear Stearns to the tune of billions, just a little blip, while children go without health care, our infrastructure crumbles and collapses, and people don't have jobs. Even AP reported this news but maybe you missed it on Fox.....
We get the government we deserve. True admits it is harder to get the real news now but it is the duty of us citizens to try. You just have to actually read the paper and skip front page which might as well be what we used to call the "Women's Page," back in the day.
The people divided will always be defeated. The people, stupid, will always be conned.
True
The Gunsmoke Monologues: Oh those f*****g PC Police!
What the hell? If y’all want to police smokers, if you PLEASE, make them stop smoking right outside the building where I can’t escape the fumes. But, NO. This is considered on the level of “nuisance crimes” like littering our precious forests, that nobody bothers to enforce.
Smokers get to have a life and they ought to get regularly screened for lung cancer—which also attacks non-smokers but usually gets diagnosed too late to save their lives because the PC Police decree that they are Bad, that they Deserve to Die.
I used to be a smoker. In the 20th century there were allowances made. Railroads had smoking cars, clubs had smoking rooms. Now in the 21st it would be so easy to create comfortable and pleasant rooms for smokers, with our high tech options to mitigate, ventilate, and separate. But, NO. The evil Smokers must be punished. No leeway is permitted, no comfort allowed, no recognition for the social community of smokers (Think, a ciggie after sex? After dinner?). NOT, you say: They are so bad, bad, bad, even if you were once one of them.
Well, except for letting them puff away while I am trying to enter a building, any building, y’all make me want to smoke again (in a comfortable room at home with the window open or lazing on my deck). After 13 years, I Need a Smoke! In Kentucky where I come from tobacco is a good thing. For Native Americans, tobacco is a sacred thing.
Minnesota is one of the worst states in terms of trying to find a sensible solution for non-smokers and smokers alike. Ugh. I wish I could move to Canada, but with Repugs like Pawlenty, Bachmann, Bush & Cheney in charge, the dollar is tanked and so I can’t afford to leave this stupid state. Don’t forget, it wasn’t the best and the brightest who left the old country for the New World (as dear Garrison Keillor has pointed out)!
Last but not least, Minnesota “allows” corporate polluters hundreds of thousands of pounds per year for environmental pollutants discharged in the course of their business activities. The state wants to invest in more filthy coal-powered electrical plants and a copper mine (Polymet) that will destroy all life in local lakes and streams. The state has jumped on the Ethanol Bandwagon even though it is widely understood that the consequences of ethanol production will increase poverty and hunger while destroying wildlife habitat around the increasingly fragile world we inhabit.
Minnesotans, get your priorities straight. Have a little compassion for smokers, give them a filtered space to light up, and think outside the PC Police Law. If you want to be really PC, start charging those corporate giants with the “new sin” of pollution as per the Pope and letting THEM pay the big fines.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Lutsen: who's minding the henhouse?
The day dawns for Lutsen township elections and Paul Quinn is challenging incumbent Supervisor Marland Hansen. Sounds like a healthy democratic process? Guess again.
Hansen and Quinn are both on the same page when it comes to the HUGE issues facing Lutsen township, namely the downtown development design approved by a public process and the Lutsen Mountain mega-developers who are not answerable to anybody. Not for their mega-slump dump of dirty water into the Poplar River. Not for their increasing push toward the limits of the TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) that can't absorb additional turbidity. But most of all, not for their Mega-Development of a new McCity on Lutsen Mountain with 55 foot high buildings, curb-and-gutters designed for a mini-urban area, and no, repeat, no, plans to mitigate the already challenged TMDL on the Poplar River watershed, a huge area affected by the Mega Mountain Corporation.
So, people of Lutsen, do you want to elect Tweedle Dum or Tweedle Dee? Either candidate washes his hands over the Poplar River/Lutsen Mountain pollution issues. Either candidate expresses disdain for the public-process-approved downtown design by the U of M Center for Changing Landscapes. True, having closely studied these designs, has nothing but praise for them, especially for the seamless integration of the bike trail into the overall plan and for the "intelligent design" (if you will pardon the reference) that will limit new development to the town center and to the publicly determined good--i.e., housing and commercial development that serves citizens.
Lutsen citizens: True can't vote for y'all. You need to stop being world-class wimps while others decide the fate of your lovely, lovely township.
Hansen and Quinn are both on the same page when it comes to the HUGE issues facing Lutsen township, namely the downtown development design approved by a public process and the Lutsen Mountain mega-developers who are not answerable to anybody. Not for their mega-slump dump of dirty water into the Poplar River. Not for their increasing push toward the limits of the TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) that can't absorb additional turbidity. But most of all, not for their Mega-Development of a new McCity on Lutsen Mountain with 55 foot high buildings, curb-and-gutters designed for a mini-urban area, and no, repeat, no, plans to mitigate the already challenged TMDL on the Poplar River watershed, a huge area affected by the Mega Mountain Corporation.
So, people of Lutsen, do you want to elect Tweedle Dum or Tweedle Dee? Either candidate washes his hands over the Poplar River/Lutsen Mountain pollution issues. Either candidate expresses disdain for the public-process-approved downtown design by the U of M Center for Changing Landscapes. True, having closely studied these designs, has nothing but praise for them, especially for the seamless integration of the bike trail into the overall plan and for the "intelligent design" (if you will pardon the reference) that will limit new development to the town center and to the publicly determined good--i.e., housing and commercial development that serves citizens.
Lutsen citizens: True can't vote for y'all. You need to stop being world-class wimps while others decide the fate of your lovely, lovely township.
Friday, March 07, 2008
To the GM Park Board: Government Ethics 101
One of the biggest problems with having two local papers in Cook County is that neither one can devote adequate resources to the big issues. The Park Board meetings, for example, often get bypassed entirely.... it has been True's experience that these folks want to encourage the rich and get rid of the middle class who now support Rec Park with their huge fees for utilities and space for their RVs....
So, the latest brouhaha is the decision to add nine (count em, nine) new docks to the present marina of 16 slips. By True's calculations this is an increase of MORE THAN HALF (56 percent) without, as far as True knows, any public process.... The new slips obscure the lake view of North House and the Hjordis. It looks like a hostile takeover by the downtown Bidness interests from where I sit....These guys compare our tiny harbor to MegaMarina Bayfield. They think the big bucks are just waiting to descend on Grand Marais, despite recent studies that rich yacht owners are on the decline. Wheareas our loyal Rec Park tenants have stayed year after year despite knockout increases in fees. Hello, Grand Marais? The rich will see us as a "slapdash" town and won't want to be bothered to stay here. Too totally funky. So, why do we care? The ordinary folks, the working folks and the middle class, love us. They are our bread-and-butter, our biggest fans.
Bidness doesn't like North House because they pay their way and yet they still make money, they draw in tourists from all across America, and they are committed to sustainable development of the harbor. Bidness couldn't care less about sustainability so long as they can sell more gas to the rich s---ers who want to dock here but don't want to pay their fair share like the rest of our tourists who pay for lodging and meals or the RV Park folks who pay horrific fees to retain their spaces...
Worst of all are the statements by board member Carol Backlund and Recreation Area Assistant Manager Dave Tersteeg. True is appalled that they just don't get it, that conflict-of-interest means DO NOT VOTE. Ya shure, anybody can express an opinion. Carol, Dave, do your worst... but DO NOT VOTE. Hello, you think your opinions are valuable? Duh.... so is everybody else's opinion, but the rule goes that if you have even the slightest interest in the decision you DO NOT VOTE.
Civics and Government appear to be low on the list of classes for Cook County students.
The ultimate decision about extra slips in the marina should be considered in terms of its impact on existing businesses and the environment, as well as the view shed that visitors expect during their holidays. NOT NOT because anybody might even conceivably profit from additional slips....
It is no wonder that the neocons who control the government slash away all legal challenges to their limitless power: The Sheep are putty in the hands of the Wolf.
True's fave paper is not the Star and yet they had the story this time.
So, the latest brouhaha is the decision to add nine (count em, nine) new docks to the present marina of 16 slips. By True's calculations this is an increase of MORE THAN HALF (56 percent) without, as far as True knows, any public process.... The new slips obscure the lake view of North House and the Hjordis. It looks like a hostile takeover by the downtown Bidness interests from where I sit....These guys compare our tiny harbor to MegaMarina Bayfield. They think the big bucks are just waiting to descend on Grand Marais, despite recent studies that rich yacht owners are on the decline. Wheareas our loyal Rec Park tenants have stayed year after year despite knockout increases in fees. Hello, Grand Marais? The rich will see us as a "slapdash" town and won't want to be bothered to stay here. Too totally funky. So, why do we care? The ordinary folks, the working folks and the middle class, love us. They are our bread-and-butter, our biggest fans.
Bidness doesn't like North House because they pay their way and yet they still make money, they draw in tourists from all across America, and they are committed to sustainable development of the harbor. Bidness couldn't care less about sustainability so long as they can sell more gas to the rich s---ers who want to dock here but don't want to pay their fair share like the rest of our tourists who pay for lodging and meals or the RV Park folks who pay horrific fees to retain their spaces...
Worst of all are the statements by board member Carol Backlund and Recreation Area Assistant Manager Dave Tersteeg. True is appalled that they just don't get it, that conflict-of-interest means DO NOT VOTE. Ya shure, anybody can express an opinion. Carol, Dave, do your worst... but DO NOT VOTE. Hello, you think your opinions are valuable? Duh.... so is everybody else's opinion, but the rule goes that if you have even the slightest interest in the decision you DO NOT VOTE.
Civics and Government appear to be low on the list of classes for Cook County students.
The ultimate decision about extra slips in the marina should be considered in terms of its impact on existing businesses and the environment, as well as the view shed that visitors expect during their holidays. NOT NOT because anybody might even conceivably profit from additional slips....
It is no wonder that the neocons who control the government slash away all legal challenges to their limitless power: The Sheep are putty in the hands of the Wolf.
True's fave paper is not the Star and yet they had the story this time.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Reader protests ATV world parade in Silver Bay
Dear True,
What's the matter with these people? Why don't they meet in Las Vegas? Or Sturgis? Why not pick a site more compatible with their hobby? They drive noisy, gas fume generating, tippy little doodlebugs. They want to bring these noisy, smelly, hazardous (to themselves, thankfully) machines in great numbers to a pristine, quiet wilderness area where they hope to roar around disrupting other people's peace of mind and polluting the air. Why not ride in the National Cathedral or the Library of Congress or some other place where quiet is the norm?
The majority of the rest of us are here for the quiet, dammit.
Pam Dorris
Lutsen
Viva New Scandinavia!
Dear True,
I vote whole-heartedly for the Republic of New Scandinavia, independent, generous, ecologically sensible, full of nice people, and yet stern and swift in the removal of loud, greed-based, showy, silly visitors, including profiteers, speculators, and "motorheads."
Viva New Scandinavia!
Pam Dorris
Lutsen
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