Beware: If you're lucky the following blog entry might be worth 2 cents...

This morning I switched my tv channel over from Martha Stewart to a news channel where yet another citizen was railing away at our president! It amazes me that there is so much HATE in our United States of America today... and so much of it based on misinformation and bias. That is not, however, my topic for the day. This is:

I tuned out that woman's tirade because of her rage, her hatred, and her overall non-grasp of the American English language. The words I heard from this indignant and angry woman's mouth were '...conversated with...' Prior to commenting on this topic I checked out the accuracy of her word conversate at dictionary.com. As suspected, there is no such word!

How often does this happen? Too often. What's my point? Years ago there was a tv show called 'Grace Under Fire.' It was about an ordinary woman, perhaps undereducated and definitely 'blue collar,' and despite her lot in life, pretty darned intelligent. I will always remember these words from Grace on that show... 'Why is it the news always interviews the village idiot!??!!!'

Here's my answer to Grace. Many news reporters have forgotten their job is to REPORT the news as it is. Instead they want to MAKE news by featuring the dramatic, the accusations, the mistruths, and the misguided.

In my neck of the woods, reporters have every opportunity to listen to and interview some of the most intelligent scientific minds in the world. What do they do instead? They interview the crackpots who seem to enjoy destroying 'big business' because they think 'big business' can afford to share the wealth with them.

Yes, we get our 2 cents worth in on occasion but we really have to push to be heard. Meanwhile, there is a meeting next month. I'm sure the press will be there. I'm sure some of our scientific superstars will be in the audience. Who do you think the reporters will seek out? I'll bet real money on this one... they want to know what the econutz have to say.

What's my point? Good gosh! There I went rambling again!

Oh yes - the point - Don't you just love it when somebody with less than a pea-sized brain goes about changing the language? I'll bet next time the dictionary is revised I'll find conversate in it!!! Scarey, huh?

We're in the news again....

...but first, would you buy a used car from this guy? I sure wouldn't! This is Steve Chester, director of MDEQ. They tell me he's a lawyer by profession and he is the one standing by his mantra that our homes are facilities because the law says so!!! His mantra has nothing to do with science. Not only that, the law says so because the MDEQ got the legislators to put that law there in the first place. Chester and his diggers are in backyards all over Michigan telling citizens what they can and cannot do with their property.

We, the taxpaying residents of Michigan, are paying this guy to go into a few of our backyards and then judge us all guilty of owning toxic facilities. He won't even tell us what percentage of the total homes in the Tittabawassee River flood plain he has actually tested - or whose - but I know the Henrys had their property tested. Their testing pictures were in newspapers. I haven't seen any MDEQ workers in any yards near my home and he says my home is priority one - implying it's loaded with dioxin just because it's in the high water area for the big 2004 March flood!!!

Maybe you should just cancel spraying the dandelions in your yard this year because your neighbor in the next block sprayed his. You would be using the same kind of science Mister Chester uses.

I hope you have read the forum piece by Midland Matters and Tittabawassee River Voice in the Midland Daily News today. If not you can find it here at http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15977446&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472539&rfi=6. The same sorry three sent MDN their same sorry opinions. Just for fun I'll respond to them here:

• Mr. Linhard: You are partially correct. Common sense is a rare commodity in the leadership at MDEQ and apparently in the governor's mansion. MDN did pretty good in enforcing the 300 word rule - Bill, Len & I each used less than 300 words!!!
• Ms. Henry: It is insulting to the majority of residents that you should want to include ALL 2000+ of us in your personal vendetta against Dow Chemical.You may choose greedy tort lawyers over legislation through our elected representatives but most of us prefer changing the wrong. I see you finally admit '..there isn't a study that gives absolute proof that people in the area have more illness because of the dioxin...' and the way your lawsuit is going I'd say it's you who are 'beating a dead horse.'
• Mr. Stoll: Pay attention. We don't want individual tests. We just want to be treated like U.S. citizens. We want to be called 'innocent until proven guilty.' This could be done by removal of the label 'facility' from our residential properties.
• Mr. Bergman: Your solution sounds good but here's what you don't know. Most of the residents along the Tittabawassee River floodplain can not afford the money up front for their own dioxin testing. We are mostly working stiffs with families, as well as farmers and retirees. FYI some of the litigants had their properties tested by the MDEQ in order to get the ball rolling on their litigious venture.

What a Week it WAS!

Our friend and cohort, Bill Egerer, founder of Midland Matters, had a chance to speak out for all of us Friday as featured speaker on Off the Record - Weekly Edition #2006-28. Just click on the little icon at beginning of the article to view this PBS presentation. If you don't have time to watch the whole clip, Bill's portion is probably a little past half way into the program. Just scoot the little slider over with your mouse.

Bill was cool and calm at the roundtable with three totally uninformed but biased people. As he presented the facts to this group, they failed to 'trip him up' with their tunnel-visioned questions based on environmental extremist propoganda. It would appear that Bill was the only one of the four prepared for this interview.

The Saginaw News Thursday, January 5 headlines Dow submits cleanup plan. State regulators and Dow Chemical will discuss the plan during a community meeting running from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, February 9, at Horizons Conference Center, 6200 State in Saginaw Township.

Here is a link directly to the .pdf file of the Dow Remedial Investigation Work Plan. It's a pretty big file so if you have dial-up you might want to download it at the library or somewhere else with high speed internet. Dow & MDEQ will discuss this at the next community meeting, planned for February 9. This article also informs us that the transcript of the November 9 meeting presented to us by Dow and MDEQ is now available online.

I'm sure you've heard about the fine by now... Here's the Midland Daily News article, published 01/06/2006: Dow fined for conducting unreported dioxin tests

Bill, your deserve a break for surviving the den of liberalism called Public TV. This one's for you! (the picture, but I'm sure you'll enjoy the article as well)

You know, lots of residents notified Ms. Granholm that we wanted her to sign the Homeowner's Rights legislation, but she was only hearing her special friends, wasn't she? Don'tcha think she & her friend Stevie should quit playing with our state?

Just had to share this article by Dr. Gilbert Ross as he gives us another new look at skewed 'facts' and resulting fears. in this articleNever Mind: From Soda to Psychopharmaceuticals, Science Marches on with New Data. How often do our Luddite environmental extremist neighbors try to deter science in order to protect us from the bad guys? Dr. Ross gives us a couple more examples.