Like Fishing? We have GREAT Weather for it in Freeland this Weekend!

This weekend is an angler's delight: and you can read all about it in The Midland Daily News! The sun's shining... the sales are on all over town... and there's all kinds of food and fun for the family!

I heard that you can find some pretty good hotdogs and cookies at Leaman's Green Applebarn! Stop by and try them. We had the peanut butter cookies and they're great! While you're out, do a bit of rummaging... bargains abound. You might even find a treasure or two.

Dioxin legislation opposed...

According to this Midland Daily News article, the key litigants in the dioxin lawsuit are opposed to the new legislation proposed by state Senators Mike Goschka and Tony Stamas, and state Representative John Moolenaar. Of course they are! They want to spend the rest of their lives waiting for money to fall off the Dow Chemical money tree.

These are the same people, along with the ragtag lonetree gang, that Ms. Granholm, current governor of Michigan, listened to and insisted on gratifying by her veto of Senate Bill 390 - the homeowners' fairness bill. These are the same people who brought disrespect and the trashy label ('facility') to our home town with their unproven accusations about extremely minute amounts of dioxin that could possibly - not probably - be in our back yards.

These are the same people who put up skull & crossbones signs in their yards telling the world their property is worthless and then complained because they 'can't sell it'!!! These are the same people who want to drag all of us living along the Tittabawassee River floodplain into their petty, greedy little war against Dow.

This weekend, April 28 - 30, 2006, the friendly little town of Freeland will be hosting the Walleye Festival. If you're not a fisherman there will be loads of other activities - including a township-wide rummage sale. You can hardly drive down some of the streets for the traffic and crowds, so even if you don't want to join the fishing contest, join the crowd! Come on over to Freeland. Stop in at some of the rummage sales and other activities. Meet our real residents and find out why so many people actually want to live in our town!!!

Redneck gets another petition going...

You'd think even the MDEQ bureaucrats would get tired of her ranting after a while, wouldn't you?

I just read an article in the Saginaw News - Groups seek dioxin tests downstream - and another in the Bay City Times - Concerned citizens fishing for help from Feds. It seems the Lone Tree Council has gathered up a few fishermen, residents and enviro-wackos from the Bay City area to petition the ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) to conduct a 'health consultation' to evaluate health impacts of eating fish from the Saginaw River. Is this another attempt at 'reinventing the wheel' or is Michelle Hard-Redneck just trying to scare another group of residents?

Hmmm - let's get this straight now.

First Ms. Heard-Rhetoric wanted to get lifetime health surveillance for litigants living along Tittabawassee River floodplain. What happened? Michigan Supreme Court said no to their class action status.

Herd-Retorik also wants class action for litigants along Tittabawassee River floodplain to make Dow pay them an overblown amount of money for their property. This case is currently sitting in wait in the Michigan Court system.

Meanwhile, Dr. Sam Shaheen, a prominent local physician and developer, has bought at least six properties along the river for a total of more than $800,000, and says he actually bought more than that... this in a time when house sales are DOWN across the nation! See Doctor follows through on offer to buy Tittabawassee River land.

Hurd-Rednek would really really like to make Dow Chemical do all sorts of expensive remediation and clean up along the Tittabawassee River floodplain quickly - before results of various tests (U of M dioxin in soil vs. dioxin in humans in area and assorted wildlife tests by MSU) are reported. Actually, based on her continual comments about the company, she would like to chase Dow Chemical right out of Michigan. After all, her group, the Lonetree Council, was created primarily to 'get Dow' - back in the 1970's.

She seems to think she knows more about dioxins than the scientists in Midland who worked with dioxins most of their lives and developed the means by which dioxins can be measured in tiny quantitites. She seems to think she knows more than Dr. Neill Varner, medical director for the Saginaw County Health Department, who is also quoted in the Saginaw News article. Dr. Varner was learning everything he could about dioxins back in the 1960's when Ms. Riddick was still just a tadpole in her local nursing school pond.

According to the Saginaw News she said 'Contamination now threatens anglers and subsistence fishermen who rely on the river for food. This God-given source of protein (fish) should be accessible to everyone.'

Is that a stretch... or what? We know dioxins do not float around in water... they are deposited in soil and in fat. I guess that means pretty much only bottom-feeders will carry any levels of dioxins in them. That would be primarily catfish, bullheads and carp. Take my word for it...

• Freshwater catfish aren't all that tasty (there's sort of a 'dirt' flavor in them). I've actually eaten them when friends caught them in the harbor.
• Bullheads have to be skinned and I don't know any fishermen who bother doing that.
• ...and carp? - Ever since I was a child nobody wanted to eat those. That was back when you could see human feces floating in the Saginaw River... and anyway, they are a really fatty fish! yuck!

For your convenience I've combined both of today's news articles and you can find them here in .PDF form.

Still hope for all of us who own a 'facility' along the Tittabawassee River floodplain?

Maybe... Today the Midland Daily News published an article: Lawmakers propose trio of bills to deal with dioxin issue. If you missed it, read all about it now. Sounds like there are three separate bills currently going through Michigan Congress, in various states of completion.

I sure hope Ms. Granholm signs this time. It just seems unAmerican for the State of Michigan to say my property is a 'facility' without confirming it is contaminated, don't you think?

Local boy stirs dioxin brew...

Midland Daily News - News - 04/09/2006 published a biased opinion titled - Governor should hold fast in her decision to clean up dioxin. It was written by a local Freeland boy known by many of us (probably most) as the guy who is against 'it' if mainstream U.S.A. is for 'it'! Should we be surprised it took him three months to construct a biased response to the letter we wrote to Ms. Granholm and published in MDN 01/22/2006?

Which reminds me: Don't forget Thursday, April 13, 2006 - Ecological Risk Assessment and the Tittabawassee River, Why, How, and Who Cares? This is first in a series of presentations by a group of dedicated graduate students from Michigan State University about their wildlife studies along the Tittabawassee River floodplain. All presentations will be held at the Chippewa Nature Center in Midland. See this PDF file for details.

No WONDER MDEQ rules Michigan under the 'because we told you so' rule!!!

Their counterpart on the national level, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, operates in the same fashion! I just read this article by ACSH > Facts & Fears:"We Should Expect More from the EPA"

ACSH and another group jointly filed a petition calling on the EPA to eliminate "junk science" from the process by which it determines whether a substance is likely to cause cancer in humans. They petitioned that EPA eliminate guidelines wherein the EPA labels 'likely' human carcinogens based on results attained by feeding rodents enormous amounts of chemicals to induce cancer in the rodents.

When EPA finally responded to the groups they dodged the issue by '...claiming that their Risk Assessment Guidelines are not statements of scientific fact -- and thus not covered by the IQA -- but merely statements of EPA policy.'

Sounds a little like MDEQ's definition --- and then redefinition --- of 'facility', doesn't it?

Why the 'Fish Advisory'...

... because the bureaucrats are increasingly aware that living with dioxin in the environment does NOT make a significant difference in the bodies of human inhabitants! The fact is the ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) has been conducting studies on individuals in Louisana for the past 6-7 years to discover if there is any significant difference in dioxins in the human body in people living in an industrial belt compared to others. They just published their results on March 15, 2006. They found NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE!!! Must be Louisianans get their food at supermarkets just like we do here in the mid-Michigan area along the Tittabawassee!

I'm sure the University of Michigan study will produce similar results. I'm sure Mr. Chester and his jolly band already have a pretty good idea of how that study will turn out. Read all about the Louisiana study here:

• Dioxin Blood Level Study Results Released - reported on KPLC TV – Lake Charles, LA
• Study shows Acadiana Dioxin levels normal; Calcasieu Parish residents had health concerns By PATRICK COURREGES, Acadiana bureau. Published: Mar 17, 2006
• Serum Dioxin Levels in Residents of Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana PDF file published by ATSDR March 15, 2006

Meanwhile, along the Tittabawassee..... the floods came... the floods stayed long enough to worry us a bit... the floods are receding... by tomorrow it will just be a dirty muddy mess along the floodplain. Although it reportedly crested at levels compared to March 2004, it did not come up as high downstream in Freeland, thank heaven. It actually didn't have me worried until Thursday when it peaked here.

I dutifully phoned AKT Peerless, the environmental company hired by Dow Chemical to do the temporary cleanups. The young lady came out and took photos of the flooded area, although it came up even more after she left. I don't think they'll clean up all the yard trash and miscellaneous other trash that landed in my backyard.

The paperwork handed to me by AKT Peerless representative highlighted they would clean mud off any paved surfaces... and would clean up any carpets, etc. that might have been muddied by flood waters. Shucks! I didn't have the lower half acre paved yet! I guess my family and I will have to clean it up ourselves just like we always have in past years!

Chemistry in Michigan...

Note to Ms. Jennifer Granholm and all of your enviro-extremist friends: Here is a bit of trivia I learned today at a website called americanchemistry.com: Michigan:

"27,738 jobs are directly created by the chemical industry in Michigan.
Chemical industry average wages in Michigan are $71,857 - 28.2% higher than other manufacturing wages in Michigan."

P.S. The river is still rising. Regulate dams instead of science.

Apparently the MDEQ thinks we 'river rats' along the Tittabawassee River floodplain are a bunch of Neanderthals!

Today I stray from my usual method of commenting about the DEQ/dioxin news. Below is a copy of the Saginaw News article published yesterday. My comments - in color and bold - are interspersed with the article - for reasons that are obvious as you read it.

Eating fish from river not healthy, DEQ says
Friday, March 10, 2006
JEREMIAH STETTLER
THE SAGINAW NEWS
State health officials say living and dining along the Tittabawassee River may increase a person's dioxin exposure up to 3,900 percent, a brochure mailed to about 500 riverside resident suggests. Wow! Talk about scare tactics… the MDEQ is now using the same type of exaggeration as their buddies in the eviro-extremist organizations!!!
The Department of Environmental Quality brochure, sent to property owners eligible for landscaping and house cleaning because of dioxin, paints a startling picture of what contamination a riverside resident might consume by eating sport fish and wild game from the floodplain.

By eating walleye for dinner one night and deer the next one time a month, a riverside resident would increase dioxin exposure 320 percent over what the average adult experiences, even if the person abided by every state precaution for avoiding contact with the soil, the brochure says.

Change that diet to one meal of catfish and another of deer, deer liver or wild turkey and the exposure rises 1,000 percent higher than that of the average adult, the document says.

The worse-case scenario is a person who eats seven meals of sport fish from the Tittabawassee River a month -- a diet that also would include bottom-feeders such catfish and carp -- and ignores all recommendations for avoiding dioxin. That person would increase exposure to the contaminant 3,900 percent. Oh yeah… us'ns livin' along the Tipadawas floodplain are all livin’ off the land… killin’ and eatin’ off the land – all the deer meat and fish we can kill – the big delicacies bein’ them thar carps ‘n catfish!!! The deer meats we like the best is livers ‘n all them inner organs… and ya know what? The specialty on our dinner plates is a good ol’ mess a’ squirrel brains ‘n eggs! …and a’course thet tar wild turkey is a reg’lar feature on our Sunday supper tables!

State officials say they are trying to spread facts, not fear, about a persistent pollutant that Dow Chemical Co. historically released.

"This isn't a scare tactic," said Robert McCann, spokesman for the DEQ. "What this is doing is presenting some scientific data in a real-world scenario so people can understand it."

Dow officials call the advisory a distortion of the facts -- an objection they raised before state regulators approved the document.
"We don't agree with everything in that brochure, least of all that graph as being a true depiction of the risks of living on the floodplain," said Dow spokesman John C. Musser.
Nevertheless, the chemical giant's operating license requires the company to distribute the brochure to properties with elevated dioxin levels.

Dow officials contend that riverside residents face no "imminent health threat." They argue further that the state's assumptions in developing its advisory -- such as the amount of dioxin absorbed into the blood when a person swallows soil -- are extreme. Man, yer right there, Dow-guys!!! We-uns eats thet dirt a lots ‘n we be's jist fine anyhow! We washes our hands in the river water whilst we’re out there catchin’ supper! Thirsty and we run outa beer er moonshine? We jist dip our jugs er bottles into the river and drink up a slug a that good ol’ fresh runnin’ water!

State officials stand behind the data. Toxicologists such as Linda Dykema, manager of the Toxicology and Response Section of the state Department of Community Health, say the numbers are based on hard science. While the brochure does not speak to health effects, Dykema said it is reasonable to assume that people with higher exposure have a greater likelihood of developing health problems. Hey Ms. Community Health lady!!! Have ya ever looked at health statistics fer us’ns along the Tipadawas???? ‘ceptin fer a few strangers who done moved in, bringin’ their sicknesses with ‘em, we ain’t as sickly as most city folk!

Studies have linked dioxin to reproduction problems, birth defects, diabetes and some forms of cancer in laboratory animals. Studies also link drugs ordered by are docters to some'a this here stuff too! Ya know... feed a rat er a mouse enough a anythin' an' he's gonna get some kinda sick! Same thing prob'ly happen ta us'ns if ya feed us enough a it... 'ceptin the Russian guy done got lotsa dioxin an' a bad dose a pimples! Does thet mean folks ain't reactin' the same way as rats 'n mice?

"We're trying to drive home the point that people should adhere to the fish advisory," Dykema said. "We hope to reach those people who are taking their catch home for dinner."
The state has advised anglers not to eat carp or catfish out of the Tittabawassee River and to limit their consumption of smallmouth bass, white bass and several other species because of dioxin contamination.

The brochure also encourages residents to abide by the state's recommendations for reducing dioxin exposure at home -- such as removing shoes before coming indoors, vacuuming frequently and washing hands and clothes after working outside.
Copies of document are available online at www.michigan.gov/deqdioxin. I dun went ta the link here and had a hecka ‘a time tryin’ ta find thet document yer talkin’ ‘bout. Thet deq website makes ya read all kindsa stuff in order ta find what yer really lookin’ fer!

Saginaw News: http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1142000532175010.xml&coll=9

Well, taday the weather is jacket-y instead of many layers-y and I dun got a river in my backyard again. Guess I'll go fishin' & catch supper. Don't gotta go as far taday!

Addendum - Safe to eat MORE fish from Saginaw River...

State fishing advisory cloudy: Following excerpt from this article in today's Saginaw News - "Some of the latest data say it's OK to eat fish more often from some areas, such as small walleye in the Saginaw River. Other data add advisories, such as one for brown trout in Lake Michigan, said Kory J. Groetsch, a toxicologist with Community Health in Lansing who works on the guide when time allows. " Notice how things sound out of context? Enviro-extremists do it frequently! Just thought I'd share...

The Tittabawassee River will rise... the dioxin controversy will continue to flow...

...and I've been catching up on my reading. There really isn't much new going on along the river except:

• Snow is melting; it's melting fast. Ditches are filling up and runoff is headed toward the river. Weather people are predicting rain - lots of rain. Coupled with the runoff this would be enough to make the river rise even before the dams let loose - or perhaps the 'powers over our northern dams' are releasing water even as we speak. They should have done it as soon as there was water flowing... but no, they wait until it will cause a really significant flood downstream toward... well, that would be us - residents along the Tittabawassee River floodplain. In my experience living here, I can honestly say the flooding is a much bigger problem than 'historical dioxin' is.
• John Musser, the Dow employee who works with MDEQ employees, wrote a letter to the editor of Midland Daily News. He states that MDEQ & Dow have worked together and points out results to date... amounting to a great deal of time, manpower and dollars.
  It appears that Dow is interested in people and science, neither of which appears to be necessary components within the MDEQ bureaucracy, nor of concern to the enviro-extremists' queen of Michigan, Ms. Granholm. Dow is aware of the needs of the people living along the Tittabawassee River floodplain (owners of MDEQ-designated 'facilities') and owners of Midland properties, residential and otherwise, existing 'downwind' of Dow (labeled Priority 2(?), but NOT 'facilities' - yet.)
• Chief litigants in their consuming desire for big money from the chemical 'giant' added their own comment to Mr. Musser's letter. Following is directly as they wrote it:

  'Mr. Musser should check out today's Saginaw News editorial. You may be able to fool some of the people in Midland, but the rest of us aren't buying it. KATHY HENRY
  gary henry'

• The Saginaw News as an authority concerning science? ...and WHO does the lady think is being fooled? Here is the Saginaw News editorial they refer as the scientific dioxin authority; it is titled Dioxin cleanup plan falls short, published in SN March 7.
• Oh! Here is the original OurView from Midland Daily News that prompted Mr. Musser to send a letter to the editor... the title: Our View: Compromise will be in order. Actually I also commented on this one... right at the site - online Midland Daily News. For that reason I'm sharing my copy of the article... highlights and all. Just for emphasis, I repeat my main point here:

  '(we residents)...believe that most of the 'historical dioxin' has been redistributed and spread into such small amounts that it's foolish to be concerned dioxin is a problem ...(we) believe there would have been a 'historical problem' of disease if that 'historical dioxin' was a problem.
  
  The only problem we long term residents see is an interfering group of enviro-extremists with an agenda and an overly zealous bunch of bureaucrats.'

• I'm sharing my copy of this last article... from the Bay City Times, just because: Some not convinced it's a good place to spend a lot of time. This is about Tobico Marsh, where even MDEQ admits existence of lead and arsenic - alongside public trails - and yet they let it go by as a non-problem. It's all about, as the article says: '...harmful pollution from an old landfill that's been seeping into the wetlands... out to the Saginaw Bay.'

Did you miss the MDEQ/Dow Town Hall meeting on February 9?

So did I. Now's our chance to get caught up. We can watch the whole thing on MCTV-3. Here's the schedule:

• Tuesday, March 7 - 11:30pm
• Wednesday, March 8 - 12:00 Midnight (Thursday am)
• Friday, March 10 - 10:00pm
• Saturday, March 11 - 1:00pm
• Saturday, March 11 - 12:00 Midnight (Sunday am)
• Sunday, March 12 - 8:00am
• Sunday, March 12 - 8:00pm

Another Day... Another Roadblock to progress in the alleged dioxin problem along our Tittabawassee River floodplain.

I just left a response to another Our View on the editorial page of Midland Daily News. This article, published yesterday is titled Compromise will be in order. It's in reference to EPA's input about the inadequacy of Dow's workplan. Click it and read it... if you haven't already. Well, click it anyway so you can read my no-nonsense response!

You know, there's an old saying, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' For some reason this saying doesn't appear to mean anything to bureaucrats and enviro-extremists who go around looking for things to complain about. I guess it must provide them with a feeling of job security. Is this Ms. Granholm's idea of creating jobs? This non-problem creates a lot of busy work where an actual PROBLEM is NOT IDENTIFIED.

Yes, you heard that right!!! If there was no pocket of disease along the Tittabawassee River floodplain back when dioxin allegedly flowed into the river uncontrolled way before brilliant Dow Chemical scientists found a way to measure teeny tiny minute amounts of the stuff, and there is no pocket of disease today now that even bureaucratic scientists (is that an oxymoron?) can find the stuff, then where is the problem? Wow! Ol' Sister Mary Whoever sure would be on my case for THAT sentence, wouldn't she?

Anyway folks, this is how we long-term residents in Freeland feel about the whole alleged dioxin problem. Nobody has proved it is a problem because nobody has looked at actual PEOPLE who live here. If longevity of residents with a history of ancestry right here in Freeland is an indicator, there is no problem. That's right folks. It ain't broke!!! Get the government out of our backyards. They are causing anxiety and problems where none existed before their interference.

DEQ agrees with EPA...

Well, yeah!!! Why not? Bureaucratic birds of a feather and all that...
Saginaw News version and here is the Midland Daily News version.

I STILL think the whole dioxin situation is overblown. It is a non-problem that was brought about when Dow Chemical scientists discovered a procedure by which they could measure dioxin in extremely tinier than microscopic amounts. (Correct me if this is wrong. I no longer have my 'live in source' to verify this kind of information.)

This is a political issue brought about in our area along the Tittabawassee River floodplain by enviro-extremists who convinced a few people - some gullible, some greedy, and some a little bit of both - to sue the Dow Chemical Company in order to get their environmentally extreme goals accomplished. Their goals appear to be 'zero tolerance' of any and all substances that they think should not appear in the environment 'naturally.' Not sure what they mean by 'natural' because for one example, dioxins occur naturally as results of fire such as forest fires and the wildfires in California.

The enviro-extremists and their litigious friends do not want to know if dioxin actually harms humans. They will be happy with tests where tiny animals are fed humungous amounts of dioxin and, if the critters develop diseases, they want to extrapolate that information to humans and the tiny amounts of dioxin that may or may not occur in a given backyard. Incidentally, if they find some animal not affected by this type of testing, they disregard it.

For example, they want to say humans will develop cancer from possible exposure to dioxin because mice develop cancer from gigantic amounts of dioxin. Conversely, bullfrogs are unaffected by dioxin, so there is no way they would allow a bullfrog experiment!!!

Oversimplified? - yes.
Wrong? - NO!!! Think about it.

Been out and about AND reading...

...and really don't know where the time goes! Here's what I've been reading lately but just haven't had a chance to just sit and talk about it yet. Yes I have a few comments for each and all of these articles. I've heard this will be another snowy blowy weekend so perhaps I'll get time to come back and bring a bit of 'Shirley's Perspective' to these latest media releases.

Midland Daily News - News - 02/22/2006 - EPA raps dioxin plan

EPA criticizes Dow plan

Rapanos case will make history

Today’s Oral Arguments in U.S. Supreme Court Wetlands Cases Suggest Court Is “Concerned About Federal Encroachment”

EPA raps dioxin plan

So how are all these articles related? It's all about the rights of private individuals and our property. It's all about government control. It's all about the ruination of the American dream!

You know what? There IS hope. Get political! If you don't like what you see happening to our properties and our dreams, get it changed. Let's use our political freedom to vote - before 'they' try to take that away from us too.

How did I ever miss this one?

I guess Mr. Chester is a bit perturbed by Dr. Reitz' article last week. He had to scurry to get his lawyerly viewpoint across about his 'scientific' empire!

Ya know, he just keeps referring to how well the Michigan Department of Community Health & MDEQ do their jobs. Really? If all that dioxin out in my backyard is so bad, why hasn't the MDCH identified it as a 'pocket of disease' caused by dioxin? After all... isn't that what they do? - keep track of disease in Michigan? After all... that dioxin has been here a long time... it is referred to as a historical problem, isn't it?

MDCH hasn't identified a big bad area of dioxin-caused disease because there is no big difference. This is NOT another Love Canal, Stevie, no matter how much you want it to be! ...and you don't want to give much credence to the U of M study because you're afraid the results will say there is no significant difference in levels of dioxin in people living along the Tittabawassee River compared to people in the control group.

Oh, I almost forgot... if you haven't seen Steve Chester's response to Dr. Reitz, find it here: DEQ goal: Protect public, environment: Midland Daily News - 02/19/2006.

Okay 'Priority 2's' - It's Your Turn...

Dow expected to enter round 2 of cleanup - Midland Daily News - 02/19/2006.

...but hey, to paraphrase the primary litigant in the 'wanna get rich by suing the chemical giant' bunch, The mighty Tipadawas done come up again already folks! Y'all come back now, hear?

Perhaps this is Ms. Jenny Granholm's idea of 'creating jobs.' As we try to put the big company out of business we will increase the lower paying jobs provided by all that environmental cleanup... again.............. and again................................. and yet again!

Oh yeah!.... and I might add - make lots of work for state employees. Duh! Where does the state get its money? Of course!!! ... from the taxpayers, who we might add are increasingly unemployed - only in Michigan - because hey, Jennifer is making LOTS of jobs - but pretty much mostly for state employees who are paid by - who? Oh, yes... the taxpayers, who....

Dr. Reitz addresses need for use of scienctific process at MDEQ...

Scientific, legislative oversight needed, please - Midland Daily News - 02/12/2006. Dr. Reitz has worked with other world-reknowned scientists. He knows the scientific process. Part of that process is oversight by another scientific group. If you haven't already, read what Dr. Reitz has to say. He KNOWS what he is talking about!

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is a political entity - NOT a scientific entity - with a lawyer, Steve Chester, running the whole shebang! It's possible that some people who work for MDEQ are scientists but they are not the ones who make decisions. Furthermore, their science is not looked at by scientists outside of their bureaucracy for relevance or authenticity. MDEQ, however, as a political entity, has taken it upon themselves to tell a scientific business entity how to do scientific studies. It's sort of like the artist who paints horses telling the veterinarian how to treat the horse for an ailment or injury!

Wondering where I've been? Following is an excerpt from my article for the March issue of the Blue Chip News, newsletter of the Saginaw Valley Computer Association.

March – springtime; sunshine, renewal. Is it just me, or is it true that winters are growing longer? For me this winter was one of realization that I have fears and weaknesses that just never surfaced until I found myself really alone in this great big old house. The doctor says my body decided it had enough, resulting in a weakened immune system.

A virus had been lurking in my body for years waiting for this moment and it struck – with a vengeance. The result is called herpes zoster, more commonly known as shingles. The virus snuck in, probably in my childhood, when I was exposed to Chicken Pox that never developed. Unlike Chicken Pox however, shingles is NOT contagious. You can only ‘catch’ it the way I did. However, now that it’s been here I’m vulnerable to more attacks. We are now medicating to fight that possibility… and yes, the muscles under the area of attack are still quite painful at times. I’m told this will lessen.

Enough about that. I was down - but not out! Every day is better than the day before - thanks primarily to modern SCIENCE. Some of the medicines I take today were not available for treating this disease twenty years ago. If the Luddites had their way, modern medical miracles would not be possible! You should SEE the string of possible side effects these meds have!!! Enviro-wackos don't want any possibility of side effects in our lives. Enviro-wackos want to 'protect' us!!! Oh! BTW - all of the wonderful modern medical miracles are created by brilliant scientists - just like Dr. Reitz and his cohorts. Furthermore, scientists in the pharmaceutical industry have oversight groups advising them.... and wouldn't you know? Those oversight groups are NOT lawyers and politicans!!! Golly, they are actually other scientific organizations!!! (Just a little back-up info for Dr. Reitz article from a simplistic viewpoint.)

My comments on other events surrounding our little dioxin issue here in the Tittabawassee River floodplain:

• the lawsuit - I'm glad it's back in the higher courts. The more this thing is delayed the more I feel like the majority of folks living here are not shoved into a lawsuit we do not want to support. Maybe common sense will prevail after all.
• MDEQ/Dow meetings - As long as these meetings conflict with my normal life, forget about seeing me there. The meetings appear to be planned for the same days as my SVCA meeting schedule. I now have a new vice-president who will fill in for me whenever I really feel a need to attend a dioxin meeting instead of our computer association.
• Dow decision to sample Midland property - I'm glad my Midland neighbors have choices. They can have their soil sampled if they want but it would appear they are still not labeled automatically as 'facilities' like their downstream neighbors! I personally feel persecuted by the MDEQ for their automatic and unscientific labeling process.

Enough for now. I will try to show up here at least once a week... but gonna take care of Shirley first! I remain.... healthy and kicking in the Tittabawassee River floodplain (finally again).

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.