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Been There	Dan Urbanski Posted: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 9:16 PM The passing of Dan Urbanski was very sad news. He was not only an excellent photographer, but was also a strong defender of our natural resources. He will be missed.
Great Scott	Dan Urbanski Posted: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 7:47 PM Dan was a real gentleman and a credit to the community. I was proud to call him my friend. My life will never be the same.
Great Scott	Toni Tikkanen Posted: Saturday, September 25, 2004 7:54 PM Thanks, KeweenawNow, for the moving obituary for Toni Tikkanen. I did not know her well, but enjoyed her music on many occasions. I had no idea she was such an accomplished linguist. Now I regret very much that I did not avail myself of the chance to become better acquainted with her while I could. My sincere condolences to her family and friends.
look2it	Vote! Posted: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 7:51 PM Listen up now you young folks haven't bothered to register. It's your future that's on the line. If you don't vote now, don't come around whining later.
Cousin Jack	Toni Tikkanen Posted: Thursday, September 30, 2004 2:46 AM I had the pleasure of meeting and playing music with Toni and Oren Tikkanen in the late fall of 1984 as we prepared for a New Years Eve gig at Dee Stadium. Wow! An accordion player. How do they do it? As an acoustic guitarist and stand-up bass player I marveled at her capacity for effortlessly coordinating both hands whilst also huffing and puffing those in-between bellows. No doubt! This is a difficult instrument to play! It's like a miniature piano you have to hold in your arms and simultaneously give the breath of life to. My deepest sympathies to Oren and Toni's family and friends.   She will be missed!   Cousin Jack
look2it	Big Weekend Here Posted: Friday, October 01, 2004 10:45 AM Thanks for planning my weekend for me! I've seen Walkin' Jim before, and he's great--can't miss him. Then the free pizza and walk on Saturday and the tour of the solar house--irresistable. Guess finishing the wood-stacking will have to wait a few days.
Great Scott	Minimum Impact Zones Posted: Wednesday, October 20, 2004 12:42 PM Thanks for the article and map, Michele. Readers should make sure to click on the map in the larger article to get a clearer view. The bigger map is still a little blurry, but you can make out most of it.
Editor	Minimum Impact Zones Posted: Monday, October 25, 2004 11:24 PM Thanks for the comments, Scott. I'll try to get a better map if possible. That's the best I could do with the size of the page for now.
Been There	Bete Grise South Posted: Saturday, October 30, 2004 12:23 PM Michele, Thanks for the tremendous article on the Bete Grise South award! In times like these it's heartening to see people taking positive action to protect our land for future generations. People like Jeff Knoop and Tina Hall of TNC have worked hard for us on this and on other vital projects in the Keweenaw. So have Tom Collins of the SSA and Walt Arnold of IP/LSLC. The unsettling part of the whole process, though, was the granting of the permit for a bridge over the wetland that, in theory, opened up Bete Grise South to development. The permit was originally denied after well-attended public hearings (I was there) with unrefuted testimony from many experts about the irreparable damage the bridge would cause. After the publicity died down, the DEQ quietly approved a slightly modified form of the permit--with no further input from the public allowed. Only adjacent property owners such as Gary Kohs (he fought the permit tooth and nail) had any say in the matter, despite its importance to all of us. In effect the DEQ and, by extension, the state government, said to us, "Your participation in local affairs and all your expert testimony don't matter to us. One way or another, we're going to do what we want as soon as you are not looking." It was clear from the beginning that the bridge approval was intended as leverage to jack up the price IP/LSLC could get for the land (the sewage situation at Bete Grise South made development there preposterous). Many of us feared that the huge sum required to buy and protect the land might never be raised. We still can't rest easy until the purchase is signed, sealed, and delivered. Let me emphasize that I don't fault Walt Arnold for this extortion. I know he cares deeply about the Keweenaw too and was acting as an agent of his company, as he is obligated to do. I blame the DEQ and the state government for failing to exercise the responsibility we've entrusted to them. Been There
Great Scott	Bete Grise South Posted: Saturday, October 30, 2004 11:27 PM I loved the Bete Grise story also. Too often we don't appreciate what we have here until we lose it. We have plenty of room for development in the Keweenaw without destroying areas like Bete Grise.
Cousin Jack	Tom Collins Posted: Monday, November 01, 2004 4:09 PM I've met the brother and he's one of us. Go Tom!   , CJ
Been There	DNR Public Meeting Posted: Sunday, November 28, 2004 1:07 PM Michele, thanks for posting the minutes of the October 5 meeting! I agree with Bill Hyrkas that KPAC did a good job for us on Keweenaw Point.
Great Scott	Skiing in the Keweenaw Posted: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 11:08 AM Michele, nice to see you outside away from your computer! The sun shining on the snow today reminds me why I love our winters so much. The lighter snow that fell yesterday is more the kind we need for skiing - more is on the way I hope.
Been There	Bete Grise South Posted: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 11:06 AM Michele, Your article, Bete Grise wetlands, shoreline protected through TNC partnership, proclaims wonderful news for the Keweenaw! Kudos to everyone involved in protecting that precious fragile area for future generations. And many thanks to you for keeping us all posted on went on there! Been There
Been There	Fraud 2004 Posted: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 10:20 AM Although I was not happy with the presidential election results, I don't think that Bush stole the election this time. Michigan voters tried to clean up the mess in the White House, but voters in Ohio were not quite sharp enough to follow suit. Nevertheless, Ray Molson brought up an important issue in his article: Fraud 2004. HAVA completely sidesteps the major issues of election fraud. Granted, it would be nice to have some national standards set for national elections, but what does it matter that everyone can vote on modern machines if the votes aren't recorded or counted accurately? As one involved in the conduct of our local elections, I can attest to the care taken to make sure that all votes here are properly counted. Still, the presence of a paper ballot audit trail makes it possible to reconstruct the results when necessary. When no audit trail is available, you have an accident waiting to happen: One Last Election Lesson. The November election may feel like ancient history, but it is still going on in North Carolina. The state has been unable to swear in an agriculture commissioner because a single malfunctioning electronic voting machine lost more ballots than the number of votes that separate the two candidates. The State Board of Elections, the candidates and the public are sharply divided on how to proceed. The mess North Carolina finds itself in is a cautionary tale about the perils of relying on electronic voting that does not produce a paper record. Although the North Carolina mess resulted from stupidity, not fraud, the lack of an adequate paper trail created a situation impossible to resolve satisfactorily. It's ridiculous that HAVA doesn't require an auditable paper trail of all votes cast. The only reasonable explanation for that failure is that congress does not care about--or secretly desires--inaccurate elections.   Been There
nm420	Re: Fraud 2004 Posted: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 11:31 PM I'm not quite sure about your reasoning for rejecting fraudulent election activities this last year. You say "I don't think that Bush stole the election this time," which implies that you believe the election in 2000 was stolen, if I am reading correctly. But if it is acknowledged that this was a very real possibility in the past, what makes things different this time around? It would be a rather unreasonable assumption to think that, once having taken steps to rig vote tallies in the past, this cadre of jackals would see no use for it again. Even if we were to ignore evidence of election fraud from past elections, all of the pieces that are being discovered from this last election, when put together, sound like a plot from some cheesy novel. Yet the sheer improbability of these events all occurring simultaneously by accident just doesn't make sense. In fiction, it's alright for things to get a little fantastical, but reality follows a much more predictable pattern. If we throw in the evidence from past elections as well, it would appear to be an open-and-shut case.
Been There	Re: Fraud 2004 Posted: Thursday, January 20, 2005 12:54 PM nm420 Of course I don't know for a fact that the election wasn't stolen this time, but I think it unlikely. You mischaracterized my post when you wrote this: I'm not quite sure about your reasoning for rejecting fraudulent election activities this last year. I don't claim that there were no fraudulent election activities, but I doubt that they were sufficient to turn the whole election last year. I say that from my perspective as a person who works directly in the election process and did not want Bush to win the presidency. The actual conduct of elections occurs at local precincts, with stakeholders from all sides working together and, in my experience, watchfully and responsibly. The coordination and concealment necessary to perpetrate fraud successfully of a quantity sufficient to change the results of the 2004 presidential election would, in my estimation, make it highly unlikely. That said, if too many precincts employ voting machines with no audit trail, the potential for stealing an election becomes much greater. If the actual counting process is totally automatic, poll workers have no good way to be sure that the count is accurate. We can't allow that to happen. Been There
nm420	Re: Fraud 2004 Posted: Saturday, January 22, 2005 1:03 PM It would be quite a feat to actually prove, undeniably, that any intentional fraudulent activities ever go on, as the very nature of such activities requires extreme levels of secrecy. You can find errors and whatnot, but it can always be claimed that they were purely accidental, unless some moron wrote up a memo detailing the crimes. A few "accidents" here and there are to be expected, but when patterns start emerging from these seemingly unrelated phenomena, the most reasonable explanation is that they truly are related via some hidden mechanism. Now, despite your experience in working with the local precincts, where I'm sure very little fraud is perpetrated by the actual workers, it is my understanding that once votes have been counted at the precinct they are sent off to a central tabulating machine, which adds up all of the votes from many precincts. It is here where I fear that most "accidents" might occur; indeed, it would be the most logical place to set up an attack. Now, I am not suggesting that these machines were manipulated in every state of the Union, but then there wouldn't really be a need to do that. But all you can do is speculate when, in Ohio, the press and citizens are locked out of this part of the counting process. Or when elections officials do everything possible to keep the original polling tapes under lock and key, or even attempt to destroy them. I suppose it's a moot point, if we agree that some fraud went on but disagree on how much of an effect it had, as the damage is done and nothing can be done to change that. Yet still, I can't see how certain people would take steps to rig the vote counts yet fail to make sure that these activities would be just enough to tip the election in their favor. Despite their morals, these people do have a lot of smarts.
Been There	Re: Fraud 2004 Posted: Monday, January 24, 2005 1:04 PM nm420, Naturally I can't say with absolute certainty that Bush operatives did not steal the last election but, for practical reasons, I just don't see it as likely. You wrote: ...it is my understanding that once votes have been counted at the precinct they are sent off to a central tabulating machine, which adds up all of the votes from many precincts. It is here where I fear that most "accidents" might occur; indeed, it would be the most logical place to set up an attack. However, the counts from all precincts are published in addition to the totals. Anyone can verify that the totals add up correctly, and precinct workers can (and do) verify that the published counts match those that they've reported. Thus the fraud would have to be widespread, tightly coordinated, and completely concealed from local observers. I don't doubt that immoral parties would love to rig our elections. Further, I suspect that the push for unauditable voting machines has that objective as a secret goal. I just don't think it likely that that goal was achieved in the last presidential election. So far as I know, the only recent major U.S. elections that were stolen by the fraudulent manipulation of voting machines were in Georgia in 2002. To help prevent the rigging of future elections, I'd like to see auditable voting methods everywhere. Been There
nm420	Re: Fraud 2004 Posted: Friday, January 28, 2005 11:56 AM Unfortunately, all we can do is speculate about fraud, as any hard evidence would rightly be destroyed or kept under lock and key. There was also evidence suggesting fraud in the Florida 2002 gubernatorial race, not to mention the 2000 presidential race. Even Nebraska's election of Chuck Hagel in 1996 had some questionable aspects. Perhaps I am too quick to jump to conclusions, though my gut instinct, when it yells at me, hardly ever fails. In this instance, maybe it has or maybe it hasn't; only time will tell, and it might not at that. Whatever the truth happens to be, it is without a doubt that something needs to change before these suspicions become even more grounded in reality. Even if we were to guarantee that every vote gets counted properly and that no voter gets turned away due to the color of their skin or the location they call home, there still is much to be done to fix our election process. Despite the high turnout at this last election, it was still dismally low, largely the result of a class of politicians out of step with the reality that faces America. I certainly don't agree with the apathy that causes many citizens to not even register to vote, but there is a valid point to their argument that the choices offered to the voting population are nearly one and the same. Third parties offer something truly fresh, but the game is rigged against them, making their succes a virtual impossibility. Without some kind of major shakeup in how our elections are run, voting becomes practically irrelevant, though I'm too stubborn to throw in the towel yet.
Been There	Re: Fraud 2004 Posted: Thursday, February 03, 2005 10:45 AM nm420, The NYT today published an editorial condemning the government's retaliation against the citizens who had the effrontery to challenge the Ohio election results: Blaming the Messengers. One of the strengths of our democracy is that citizens are free to question the results of an election. But four lawyers who did just that in Ohio, contesting President Bush's victory, are now facing sanctions. These lawyers, and other skeptics, may not have cast significant doubt on the legitimacy of the outcome. But punishing them for trying would send a disturbing message. As you probably know already (but other readers might not), The Free Press of Columbus, Ohio has been keeping the rest of the country up to date on the situation there:  Ohio's GOP Attorney General launches revenge attack on Election Protection legal team. In a stunning legal attack, Ohio's Republican Attorney General has moved for sanctions against the four attorneys who sued George W. Bush et. al. in an attempt to investigate the Buckeye State's bitterly contested November 2 election. Robert Fitrakis, Susan Truitt, Cliff Arnebeck and Peter Peckarsky were named by Attorney General James Petro in a filing with the Ohio Supreme Court. Petro charges the November Moss v Bush and Moss v. Moyer filings by the Election Protection legal team were "frivolous." Petro is demanding court sanctions and fines. The Free Press ran another piece last week detailing some of the previous actions of the Ohio Attorney General: "Political payback" nothing new to Ohio official. Robert J. Fitrakis isn't the first person to accuse Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro of "political payback" and he probably won't be the last. Political payback appears to be the Petro's -- and the Ohio Republican Party's -- way of doing business. The GOP leaders in Washington who were willing to endanger the life of a covert agent serving our country, Valerie Plame, simply to retaliate against her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for telling the truth, set the tone for GOP politicians throughout the states. And what a mean, petty tone that is! Been There
nm420	Re: Fraud 2004 Posted: Wednesday, February 09, 2005 1:58 PM It is truly exasperating. It seems that any sense of decency or propriety has been thrown out the window with this group of like-minded leaders. I understand that politics is a quite scrupulous game and that payback is a bitch, but there are more appropriate channels to go about serving revenge. There are more subtle ways to go about hushing people up, and outing a CIA operative or calling for fines and sanctions against legitimate lawyers are not included among those ways. My only hope is that their unabashed hatred will eventually serve to topple their rule. If that doesn't do it, then freedom will be nothing more than a pipe dream.
Cousin Jack	Portage Lake Library Fundraiser Posted: Friday, February 18, 2005 5:07 PM Hmmm...that Portage Lake Library fund raising concert sounds like a lot of fun. Wish I could be there. Guess an appropriate long distance tune request for Cheap Therapy will just have to do (if they have time to put it together) How about the Byrds version of Dylan's My Back Pages?   Cheers, CJ
Cousin Jack	Eagle Harbor Township Website Posted: Monday, March 07, 2005 1:10 AM My favorite township in the whole U.P. has a new website and an excellent one indeed? Uncork the dandelion wine, ma sher-ry amour, it's time for a Grand Callithumpian!   Cheers EH, Cousin Jack
Cousin Jack	Someone Left the Cake Out in the Rain Posted: Friday, March 11, 2005 1:53 AM Are you Shakespearienced?   Tickets now on sale, CJ
Great Scott	Snow Photos Posted: Saturday, April 02, 2005 3:05 PM Thanks to Keweenaw Now for showing Jim Junttila's beautiful snow photographs. He took them just in time. The warm weather now is really chopping down the snow around here. In a couple of months I'll check out Jim's snow photos again looking forward to the next winter.
Maggot	Snow Photos Posted: Monday, April 04, 2005 1:23 PM Great Scott yo sho yos playing with a full deck?  Thems nice pictures but theres no call to start mourning for winter and callin it back careful what you wish for.   m
Great Scott	Snow Photos Posted: Monday, April 04, 2005 4:56 PM Snow is one of the best things about the Keweenaw. I think so and so do my customers, some come for hundreds of miles to enjoy our winter sports. What do you like best, Maggot, the road kill?
Maggot	Snow Photos Posted: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 8:46 AM Great Scott no need to get up on yor hind legs like that cant yo make  a buck off summer sos yo dont hafta wish for winter yearlong?
Cousin Jack	Australian Fauna in the Creationist Sauna Posted: Thursday, April 21, 2005 10:56 PM K-NOW's recent article extolling a Canadian Rockies beaver film reminded me of my long-running fascination with everything Australian, an intrigue born mnay years ago in part from my first awestruck boy-naturalist's glance at the glossy color photo of a duck-billed (beaver-tailed) platypus within the pages of our multi-volume set of World Book encyclopedias. It also happens that the Australian platypus is an extraordinary living embodiment of one of the more difficult to imagine genus leaps (reptilian to mammalian) which had to occur in the macro-evolution of organic life if Darwin's larger thesis is right (a discussion we were having a little while back here). This Creationism and the Platypus webpage vents some of the hot air that's been blown by "creation" evolutionists while introducing us in simple layman's terms, as revealed in excerpts below, to one of the most fascinating (and yes beautiful) creatures alive on Planet Earth today: The platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus is one of the most unusual of living creatures. It is a mammal which has fur and suckles its young, but it also lays eggs, has webbed feet, a bill that looks like that of a duck, and a tail resembling that of a beaver.   In general, the platypus has a fascinating mixture of reptilian and mammalian features. Mammalian traits include fur and mammary glands. Reptilian traits include the laying of eggs, and a common rectal and urinogenital opening, or cloaca (hence 'monotreme', Latin for 'single hole').   Since the platypus is found on only a part of one continent, it is not clear what facts about its geographical distribution are in need of explanation. All monotremes and almost all marsupials are found on a continent which has, except for bats and rodents, no native placental mammals. The evolutionary explanation for this is that placental mammals were not able to get established in Australia before it separated from the other continents, and the distinctive Australian fauna developed from the primitive mammals that lived on Australia at that time. This explains very well why Australia contains almost all living monotremes and marsupials, but has almost no native placental mammals.   In summary, the features of the living platypus, and the evidence available from its scanty fossil record, are both consistent with the idea that it has evolved from primitive mammals which still had many reptilian characteristics. Cheers, CJ
Tea Leaf	A Tribute to Jim Rooks Posted: Sunday, April 24, 2005 2:00 AM I recently discovered the wonderful publication, KeweenawNOW. Michele Anderson's March 24, 2005 ribute to Jim Rooks, “Keweenaw Loss: Jim Rooks of Copper Harbor, 1935 - 2005” is a beautifully written farewell salute to a giant of a man. I didn’t have the privilege of knowing Jim Rooks, but thanks to Ms. Anderson’s wonderful salute to Jim, I had a good look at him as he passed this way. Surely Jim was as tall as the Estivant Pines he helped save. Thank you again, Ms. Anderson.
Tea Leaf	Jim Brandenburg, wilderness photographer Posted: Sunday, April 24, 2005 2:45 AM I enjoyed the Jim Brandenburg article written by Jeff Dambrun. For me, it was a nice introduction to a wilderness photographer I had heard of, but knew very little about the man. Thanks to this nicely written article, I am now well aquainted with Mr. Brandenburg.
Cousin Jack	I Could Drink A Case Of You Posted: Friday, May 06, 2005 2:02 AM O Canada?   I could drink a case of you My Darling And still be on my feet     Tactical Magic Bitter & Sweet 40 Years in the Wilderness To This Very Day May 6th, 1965 No Jive   Holy wine Part of you Pours out of me   Ah Australia!   CJ
Been There	World Environment Day Posted: Saturday, June 04, 2005 9:06 AM Michele and Tammy, Thanks for the terrific articles on the Terrace Park project! With World Environment Day coming tomorrow, June 5, those articles are very timely. Thanks also to Cathy Hill and all those who worked on the trail. Tammy, you certainly deserve the skate park, and have shown that you can be counted on to treat the land responsibly. To see the effects of varying approaches to land stewardship across wider areas, click through this sequence of satellite images published by the BBC today in connection with World Environment Day: Changing planet revealed in atlas. An atlas of environmental change compiled by the United Nations reveals some of the dramatic transformations that are occurring to our planet.   It compares and contrasts satellite images taken over the past few decades with contemporary ones. These highlight in vivid detail the striking make-over wrought in some corners of the Earth by deforestation, urbanisation and climate change. These remarkable images show the dramatic changes caused by varying approaches to land stewardship. Been There
ajJessieAnne	Article Comments Posted: Saturday, June 18, 2005 9:45 AM RE: article on Finish affect on Upper Peninsula dialect. I grew up part of the Finish community of Fairport Harbor, Ohio. Recently, I was sitting in a Rochester, NY restaurant, when it I suddenly said to myself, "That man speaks Finnish!" After analyzing my thoughts, I realized it was the way he said the "t" in English. At the end of the first year I taught in Rochester, a Rochester-born teacher said, "You used to speak funny when you first came, but you sound better now. My mother's maiden name was Makarainen. Jessie Anne Werner Rochester, NY
Been There	Greasing the Skids Posted: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 8:20 AM A few years from now, the corporate press will feverishly "investigate" why nothing was done about the impending oil crisis that has been, as Ray Molzon points out, obviously and inexorably developing for decades. As a society, we don't exercise the conservation necessary to pass on a better world to future generations. As voters, we don't elect leaders who tell the truth. Just as a dangerous intersection never gets a stoplight until someone is killed, every problem--no matter how clear and serious it is--is always ignored until the crisis arrives. That's the "me generation" America of today. Been There
Great Scott	French-Canadian Christmas Posted: Saturday, December 31, 2005 12:10 PM Michele, great story and photos! We can be Finns or Cornish or German and still celebrate the full heritage of the copper country. Nice to see.