Leelanau Whippersnapper

Conservatism is Dead

There was once a time when I considered myself to be pretty “conservative”.  I was all for small government, self-reliance, and basic values.  Ya, not so much any more.  The Log Cabin Republicans can eat my shorts.  I have no use for today’s conservative.  They are all about big governement, spying on citizens, control of the masses…you name it, the face of conservatism today is VASTLY different from what it was years ago and I’m not even that old.  On the same note, I’m not real fond of liberalism either.  I don’t really appreciate the  dumbing down of everything to the lowest common denominator just so nobody gets offended.  I really can’t stand whiny rants of inequity about whatever.  I guess I don’t really fit either mold and I’m OK with that too.  I did find a nice blurb on conservatism tonight that I wanted to post.  I agree with it but know that there is an equally disturbing converse side for liberals.

It Must Be scary to be a Conservative - By Chris Bowers

It must be really scary to be a conservative. To be one, you must live in constant fear of terrorists nuking the United States, of gay people on the verge of convincing you that you really enjoy sodomy, of Spanish becoming the official language of the United States next week, of every African-American voting seven or eight times in the next election, of radical Islam suddenly becoming the latest hip thing among kids across the country, of perpetual lesbian orgies in girls bathrooms in high schools across America, of liberals forcing everyone to become a vegan, of Christians being rounded up into concentration camps, and of Democrats outlawing private property if they were to ever take power again.

Here is another picture of complete stupidity.

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Federal Frustrations

I thought that I might not write again until Monday however I didn’t mention this in my last post and wanted to do so before I forgot about it.  Today was Sarah’s baby shower and I got to hang out with the ladies for a while this afternoon.  Quite pleasant really, no drama, lots of fussing, and I didn’t have to do anything but sit back, watch, and take pictures all afternoon.  Not bad really.  Sarah looked like she really enjoyed herself (why wouldn’t she…she and Brian have made out like bandits with lots of loot for baby Christopher).  I’m getting very excited for them, Brian and Sarah will both make great parents, it will be fun to watch their family grow.

I was going to rant tonight about my experience almost getting a ticket at the beach the other day but I’ve decided that those people who might have found this story amusing have already been told.  I didn’t get a ticket but suffice to say I won’t be making many trips to the national lake shore this summer.  Way to loose the support of a local dip shits.  Clearly the feds want nothing to do with me or my dog.  They sure want my money though.  I’ve got mixed feelings about what happened but I’m still not really that happy about it.

Awesome weather here lately…all over the country really.  Sarah and Brian go back to Iowa tomorrow, from what we understand most of the state is now under water.  It should make for an interesting trip home for them.  Saw some really great clouds tonight.  Check out leelanauphotography.com for more but here is a sample.

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Monopolies and Bandwidth

I’ll admit that I’m pretty much a tech-geek but in the same breath I’m nowhere close to a true nerd!  Anyhow, this is an issue that is of great concern to me and it should be to you as well.  When the internet was young back in the early 90’s, AOL was the primer internet service provider.  They charged BY THE HOUR for internet access on their networks for speeds up to 28.8kbs.  This was a great model for making HUGE profits and ripping consumers off.  Since AOL was the service to have, I signed up and I recall my first bill of $250 for a MONTH of internet access and I nearly got rid of the computer all together.  After that, I did all my internet browsing at GVSU using their high speed connection for free in the computer lab until AOL finally went to an “all you can eat” program for a low monthly fee.  That price structure became the norm in the internet access world, until today.

Time Warner has announced that they will now be testing “metered bandwidth” pricing schemes in a few markets.  They will put a cap on the bandwidth you can consume per month and you’ll be charged if you go over that amount.  Bandwidth for those of you reading who don’t know is the amount of data transfered upstream and downstream (uploads and downloads) between your computer and your internet service provider.  If you don’t use your internet connection for anything but email and basic web page browsing, these new caps won’t mean anything to you and they really wont’ affect you.  HOWEVER, if you are geek like me and you get all your music, video, and on occasion your movies via the internet this is cause for significant concern.  I installed a bandwidth meter on my computer about 3 months ago when I caught wind of the potential for providers to move in this direction.  I wanted to know what my average consumption was per month so when monthly plans are eventually introduced, I could select the one that best suits my needs and so I could start to gauge how much internet access would cost me in the future.  Keep in mind that becuase I’m an early adopter, I’ve paid up to $130 a month for broadband access in the past, and I would think that in some markets today, people are still paying that much a month.  I do not however think that broadband should be costing ANYONE anywhere more than $50 a month.  I consume about 30GB of bandwidth a month, more downloads than uploads but still, that is considerably higher than most people I know might use.  That bandwidth consists of web browsing, email, streaming music, streaming TV and video, and a movie or two via my access to OneBox at Amazon.com using my TiVO set top box.  According to this article, it is only 10GB short of the cap on their best plan of 40GB per month and that plan is more than I’m paying now.

There is somewhat of a war going on right now in the tech world.  On the one side you have the big monopolies (Time Warner, Comcast, Charter, RIAA), on the other side you have the open access activists (of which I am one).  I strongly believe that access to the internet should be treated as a utility with the same quality, speed, and unrestricted access offered to EVERYONE regardless of location (like electricity).  I am a very strong opponent of censorship campaigns pertaining to content on the internet, and I have real problems with forced advertising although I support some advertising methods as legitimate ways to reduce the end cost to consumers.  I DO in fact understand that it costs money to provide internet access.  I’m not an idiot.  In most cases however I’ll pay more for something to get rid of advertising.  On the flip side are these big companies who want to control how we access information on the internet and how we acquire digital media.  They loose money when I watch TV online becuase I am subjected to different advertisers who may or may not be subsidizing my viewing to my particular service provider.  It’s ALL about the money (Again, I’m in sales so I know what that means however, there are other models out there for making money).

So, to conclude this chapter, it’s generally in your best interest to use service providers that do not put restrictions on bandwidth and if it’s introduced if you have the option, you should switch providers.  Increasingly your media will come from the internet in various forms and that media will consume bandwidth at higher and higher levels as everything moves into the HD world.  Cable companies want you to watch movies on THEIR cable services, they don’t want you to download them becuase when you do that they miss out on a critical revenue stream.  Too bad.  I don’t like monopolies and while I generally don’t like government intervention either, this is one area where our government must act to retain low cost access to information and media via the internet.

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Prop 2 - Killing Me Softly

From the Detroit Free Press:

Mich. court condones misleading ballot tactics

You know, before I was in a serious relationship I don’t think I would have really cared that Gay marriage was “banned” in Michigan through the passage of proposal 2 in 2004.  Now that I’ve been in a serious relationship and now that the relationship has ended it makes me wonder why I am continuing to live in this state at all.  I know why I continue on here but oh my fucking god folks, how fucking ignorant can you all possiably be?  Did your crack pipe explode in your face?  Did Bubba forget to wash his overalls again?

Already, Lambda Legal, which recently created a “Safety Scale” of states as guidance for convention planners as well as gay couples planning to travel or relocate, put Michigan, once a leader on gay rights, in the worst class.

For those of us who care about Michigan, the damage this court ruling does to the state’s reputation is, to put it mildly, discomforting.

Michigan Sucks.  If I had been allowed to get married to Jirar, I would already have the use of the legal system to help us both dissolve our relationship.  What if the 2 of us had adopted children?  We were together 10 years, it would not have been unusual for a heterosexual couple together that long to have had kids, why not a gay couple?  The fact is, Jirar and I had (and continue to have) no legal rights in Michigan.  He could walk out on his commitments tomorrow and I would have absolutely NO recourse.  He could have the power, gas, phone, and cable shut off here tomorrow and I could do nothing about it since they are all in his name.

Two justices dissented from that May 7 ruling, saying the five-justice majority read too much into the amendment. The dissenters, citing the campaign’s bait-and-switch tactics, issued a warning that should be heard nationwide: “(T)he majority condones and even encourages the use of misleading tactics in ballot campaigns… (I)n the future, organizations may be encouraged to use lies and deception to win over voters or the court. This should be a discomforting thought for us all.”

Not only is this one of the worst states in the county economically, it has also become so corrupt even our justices don’t know what justice is.

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Spring Has Arrived

Here in Leelanau, there is only 1 sure way to know that spring has arrived.  Cherry Blossoms.  The sweet cherry trees are in full bloom up here right now and I was fortunate today to have an awesome day off to take some pictures.  Be sure to visit the new gallery on leelanauphotography.com for the full spread.  I spent the day today driving around Leelanau taking pictures and then the rest of my day at the cottage sitting on the deck enjoying cool breeze of spring.

Got a lot on my mind right now, can’t put much of it on this blog.  I’m ready to get out of this house and get on with my life.  Amazing how difficult that concept has been lately.  Anyhow, stay tuned, I may try to push my landlord to allow me out of my lease early.  If not, I’m sure I can tolerate living out here until August but with gas prices now at a new high (it was $4.09 in Maple City today…the highest price in the county) it’s becomming VERY expensive to commute 60 miles a day.  I am slowing weeding through shit.  In fact, when I’m doing writing this, I’m going to clean out another closet and try to see what I can get rid of.  I’ve kept a bunch of things hoping that I could eventually sell them on eBay.  Well, that’s just not going to happen.  I don’t have time right now to fuck with it.  Oh well, someone shopping at Good Will might appreciate getting a good deal of a lot of this crap.  One man’s junk is another mans treasure I guess.

Meijer was in the news here today.  They were fined something like $189,000 for breaking campaign finance rules set by the state of Michigan.  Serves them right.  I have a big problem with what Meijer tried to do (influence an election and subsequent recall of a township board that opposed Meijer’s plans to build a new store) and I absolutely agree with the price they are paying for breaking the law.  HOWEVER, I also sympathize with Meijer.  First, they own the property where they wanted to build a new store in Acme Township (outside of Traverse City).  They have for years.  Second, this area has clearly demonstrated OVER AND OVER again that another store like Meijer is not only needed but BADLY needed.  The Traverse City Meijer is one of the busiest stores in the entire company, the volume they do is crazy!  People come to shop at that Meijer from ALL OVER Northern Michigan.  Certianly Meijer is IN BUSINESS TO MAKE MONEY and another store would help them achieve that goal.  It is the desire and purpose of ALL retail businesses to MAKE MONEY (that is a concept too many people always seem to forget).  Acme Township was an ideal location because it was conveniently located on the opposite end of town from the existing Meijer.  The problem was that certain factions in the community did not want a big box store to come in a “spoil” the charm of their little community.  Never mind that Meijer was bending over backwards to design a store that would “fit in” to the landscape.  OK, here is where I have the problem.  Acme is a SUBURB of Traverse City.  It is not some little village in the middle of nowhere, it nearly bursts at the seams in the summer with a population that easily doubles or triples in size with tourists and summer residents who ALL come here from big cities down state and who ALL shop at Meijer downstate.  Acme (along with Traverse City) HORRIBLY under serves it’s residents by preventing business operations that people CLEARLY want (via zoning and exceptionally poor planning).  If people hated Meijer so much, why do people travel from ALL OVER NORTHERN MICHIGAN to shop there???????  Here is my suggestion:  I think Meijer should shut down their Traverse City operations entirely and pull right on out of here.  Their new Petoskey store will serve the area.  For a good year or two people will have to shop at Tom’s and Glens (or drive 80 miles north to Petoskey) and people will have to pay substantially more for their groceries than they would have at Meijer.  People will get sick of that shit really fast.  THEN, Zoning laws will be changed to allow Walmart to move in with their Super Center (since they will play the political game right and kiss lots of ass).  Once Walmart is in they will DEVASTATE the Mom and Pop shops that had been doing decent business since Meijer left.  People will shop at Walmart since it’s their only option to save money on commodities that they need to have in order to survive. (Come on folks, follow the history of what happens when Walmart comes to town).  Tom’s, Glen’s, and Olsen’s and the other tiny stores will all go out of business leaving only Walmart and then Traverse City can become another sleazy, run down,  middle American town with nothing to offer but a huge walmart store and a pretty view of the bay.  None of the smaller businesses will have any reason to exist since everyone can get what they want from Walmart….DO YOU SEE WHERE I’M GOING WITH THIS??????

Grow the fuck up Acme Township. Why do people in this area kick themselves in the ass over and over???  Get over the fact that GROWTH HAPPENS, in 20 years you WILL have some sort of Super Center in your “little village”.  Look, I like the fact that it’s quiet up here but I hate the fact that people are so fucking stubborn.  There is growth and then there is SMART GROWTH.  Why is the latter so fucking difficult for you all to figure out????  This is why I’m not in Politics.  I would offend too many people becuase I am too black and white.  This issue is clear cut in my mind and I don’t understand why other people can’t follow the logic.  I don’t care about your emotions, I care about your ability to think about things reasonably and deliberately.  Here is the question that Acme needs to answer which through this ENTIRE thing they have failed to answer (hell they haven’t even figured out how to ask it yet):  If you will not allow Meijer (or whatever other big box store) in to your community than WHO WILL YOU ALLOW AND WHY WILL YOU ALLOW THEM AND NOT OTHERS??? That is the question they have ALL failed to answer.  When and IF Acme Township can answer that question they will start on an appropriate SMART GROWTH path.  Until then, they will fight many more of these battles.

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Conservative?

The following has been stolen from Wally’s Joke Mail and reposted here without permission.  I did not write these but I’m not sure Wally did either since I’ve seen these same things posted elsewhere.  Pay attention to the highlighted ones.  These are statements I find particularly disturbing and true in my neck of the woods.  Traverse City is not by definition a conservative area in the same way that Grand Rapids is but some of the back woods boys up here would sure like you to believe it’s all about American Flags and guns!

1. You have to be against abortion, but support capital punishment on demand.
2. You have to believe that governments create oppression and businesses create prosperity.
3. You have to believe that the man wearing a turban in the airport is more of a terrorist than the white man carrying a concealed gun.
4. You have to believe that federal funding is a handout and that disadvantaged people should be able to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” just like you and your daddy and his daddy before him.
5. You have to believe that someone made up global warming to scare you into not driving that gas-guzzling SUV.
6. You have to believe that being sexually confused is an abomination that God hates.
7. You have to believe that the people advocating those afflicted with AIDS should “stop whining.”
8. You have to believe that if schools don’t provide sex education and/or condoms, then kids just won’t think about sex and it will all just go away.
9. You have to believe that animal rights activists aren’t doing “what God intended,” but hunters are.
10. You have to believe that if someone has fallen on hard times it is their own fault and they should be given no help.
11. You have to believe that God lives in your own little box and that He hates all the same things and people you do.
12. You have to believe that the ACLU is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the NRA is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.
13. You have to believe that the tax on your yacht is too high and that the homeless man isn’t being taxed enough.
14. You have to believe that the contributions to American history made by Caucasian men are more important than those made by women and African-Americans.
15. You have to believe that Black History Month is reverse racism, but the Confederate flag is just a historical symbol.
16. You have to believe that any war we fight is for a good reason, because the president said so.
17. You have to believe that God loves everyone, except for gay people.
18. You have to believe that this message is part of a crazy, left-wing revolution.

Some people are just irritating.  Others are just plain stupid.

The population is beginning to change now up here for the summer.  Today I pulled into The Coffee Bean to grab a cup of coffee on my way home from work and I had to park next to what I think was the BIGGEST SUV I’ve ever seen in my life.  It was the size of a small school bus, it was BRIGHT white (I hate white cars) and it was clearly driven by someone who cares nothing about how that vehicle makes them look when gas is now at $4.00 a gallon up here.  I would venture to say that the owner of that car has been made rich by the stupidity of others and is now showing off his ego. The only thing missing from this truck was a set of bulls balls for the hitch. (I don’t know who the woman is below, this is just to show you what bulls balls are).

Summer time up here brings with it some pretty crazy people.  Some even more so than the back woods meth-heads that populate the area in the winter.  These people have money, love to show it off, and care about nobody but themselves.  To the locals these people who come up here only on the weekends and then somehow think they live here are known as Fudgies…a horrendously bad nickname in the first place.  These are the folks who whistle at me at work in order to try and get my attention to help them.  Guess what folks, I don’t stop for people who whistle at me.  I’ll loose a sale before I am treated like that.  I’m not a dog, I don’t have a tail.  If you want to treat me like you would a dog than you had better have a treat for me in that fucking bag of yours or I’m going to jump on you, bite you and give you rabies you stupid fucks.  Pardon me, will you help me?.. works much better.

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The Cost of…

Take a look at this article. Thought some of the statistics were pretty interesting.

Bottom line, the production of 31.2 billion liters of water for the U.S. bottled water market took roughly 17.6 million barrels of oil.

The simple break down is 3.4 megajoules of energy to produce a water bottle, cap and packaging with a barrel of oil producing about 6 thousand megajoules. Taking those numbers into account you arrive at 17.6 million barrels of oil, enough oil to run 1.5 million cars on U.S. roadways for an entire year.

I’ll be the first to admit that I do like bottled water but I like it only for the convenience of the bottle, the water is certainly nothing special.  It does not taste that much different from what comes out of my tap.  That said, especially in the summer I tend to recycle my bottled water.  I’ll fill it with filtered tap water multiple times and usually keep the bottle until I loose the cap (which happens surprisingly often).  It’s not much but it helps.

This county is all about convenience.  The nature of my job and my entire income depends entirely on America’s thirst for convenience items.  It is therefore very difficult for me to harp on people for buying them or using them.  Plastic bags and bottled water are only a small part of the “convenience market” but we as a society have to start changing our consumption behavior.  I think my generation will start but I don’t think any serious efforts will take place for many years to come.  I hope that someday, recycling will be mandatory EVERYWHERE and that I won’t live in a township like Cleveland Township in Leelanau County that voted down a recycling program becuase they didn’t want to pay $25 a year to support the program.  CHEAP FUCKING BASTARDS!  Oh well, I do what I can.

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Priorities

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Sugarloaf Dies Again

The saga of Sugarloaf continues here in Leelanau. God it just never ends. The web keeps getting thicker. The individual who signed an option to purchase has backed out at least for the time being. There was a 90 day rule which he rightfully stated was not enough time to complete due diligence. How anyone could possibly untangle the mess that is Sugarloaf in 90 days is beyond me. Anyhow, that potential buyer is still interested in the resort but so much more research has to be done to see if it’s even worth his time. He was pretty smart to back out. Sugarloaf needs someone with a HUGE amount of capitol to invest OR they just need to rip the shit down and turn it into a park.

I’ve just given up on Sugarloaf and I think many other people in this county have too. It’s not that we don’t want to see it come back to life, it’s that so many people have tried and failed miserably. It’s clear that the county could give a shit and the township just doesn’t have the capitol or the resources to help. So, like so many other things in Leelanau, the resort will continue to rot away becuase nobody really wants to make a 110% effort to do something about it. I guess I wouldn’t care as much if I didn’t live right across the street.

There is too much complacency in Leelanau. One of my political rants for Leelanau is the overly apparent lack of vision this county has for it’s future. It is primarily a county of retired, seasonal residents, many of whom have quite a bit of money. Those of us that live here year around and are younger, don’t have the capitol to have an influence where you have to pay in order matter. Elitism is OVERLY EVIDENT in Leelanau. When township boards have bare quorum meetings during the winter becuase the majority of the people sitting on those boards are at their other homes out of state, it means there is a huge problem with the way things are being run. Why bother even having a body such as that if you are only having productive meetings 3 or 4 times a year????

Tangents. This county suffers from a serious lack of young people who actually give a shit about what things will be like in 20 years. Many of the counties resident’s won’t be alive in 20 years so why would they bother caring about what things will be like in 20 years? This is NOT a slam by the way, it is simply a statement of fact. I’m not concerned that you older folks don’t care, I’m concerned that you older folks won’t give up your seats on the county boards to younger people who actually DO give a shit and want to push changes. I’m concerned that EVERY time someone suggests a positive step in the right direction, someone gets in the way and fucks it all up becuase change is too difficult or too expensive. This county has a HUGE fucking tax base, rather than embezzling it why not put that tax base to good use and do something productive?

This county needs to start considering what it is and what it isn’t. Figure it out already and quit DOING NOTHING!

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Back to the Grind

Well it was back to work today after a pretty decent weekend off.  I didn’t get much done around the house but that’s OK for now.  As it gets nicer, it will be easier to get motivated to clean shit out and get rid of it.  I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me.  I will be moving to a smaller place without a spouce, shit needs to get thinned down and cleaned out.  I’ve already managed to dump about 10 bags of stuff at Goodwill in the past month, I can only imagine how much more I’ll end up just donating.  I wish I could sell it and make some money but I just don’t have the time.

I am really pretty disappointed with work right now.  Not really with my co-workers or even the jack ass customers that come in, I’m disappointed that here we are in the middle of April and business is STILL not getting any stronger.  I am STILL having to send my people home early.  This time last year, we were hopping and things were very brisk.  The mood this year is pretty somber.  It’s going to be a tough summer for a lot of businesses around here and everywhere else in the state.  I’ll know when Memorial Day weekend gets here how things are going to be.  As it stands that’s only 6 weeks away.  It’s all downhill after that weekend so I’ve got 6 weeks here to make some serious sales.

Things are quiet lately in the house and I like it like that.  I can’t wait to be in my own place.  If there is one thing Jirar taught me it was to give a shit about your own environment.  I simply can not live in a shit hole.  When the house is clean, I am more productive, I am nicer, I can find things, my allergies don’t bother me….yada yada.  When the house is dirty, so is my life and I don’t like that feeling.  I do not have 100% control over my personal environment when a roommate is present and since I no longer have to share my life with anyone, I want that control back 100%.  Soon enough.

So I found this on the internet the other day and had to post it.  I’ve not written much about politics here lately and I don’t really intend to start but there were recently some issues with China’s treatment of Tibet as well as with the Olympic torch passing that apparently pissed off a few people.  I’m not a big fan of China but I’m also not a big fan of hypocrites.  It’s pretty interesting up here, in red-neck land you get a lot of people who are constantly screaming YEH FOR AMERICA — FUCK THE COMMIE BASTARDS! But these people have no idea that a huge portion of that “American” car they are driving have parts made in China.  Many have no idea that the T-Shirt they are wearing that says JEFF FOXWORTHY in big Red White and Blue letters was made in China.  Many have no idea that the flag they have draped across the gun rack in their pick-up truck was made in China.  The fact of the matter is that China is responsible for a huge portion of our imports in this country.  We are a huge contributor to their success as a developing nation.  The politics will change in China, that is certain.  There are no developed countries left in the world who can reasonably push communism without social revolt.  Economic freedom will always bring political freedom with it.  I personally think China will become a major Superpower in the next century and we need to work with them not against them.  Anyhow, don’t be a hypocrite.  If you want to be anti-anything, don’t do a half ass job at it like the dip shit in the picture below.

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