From The My Michigan Connection Blogroll

Yes. Once again it has been a while since I last posted. I am working today on refreshing the page, cleaning up the blogroll, etc.

Here's what's happening with the Michigan bloggers -

At Akindele Unleashed, a post entitled Building Independent Minds discusses the need to reject the dogma of our political parties and reassert the value and judgement of our independent minds and actions.

Independence will come from our minds when we realize that (1) no political party will come in and save us and (2) we have to save ourselves. The Democratic Party and their policies have not done anything to enhance urban communities to move them into the 21st century and the Republican Party still think that they can win elections without coming into the urban communities. It is a sad day when Democrats can run on conservative principles in rural Michigan and win elections but Republicans will not even open the discussion on an urban execution plan to even forge relationships in urban areas.

For Detroit Red Wings fans, Matt Saler at On The Wings looks for the silver lining with recent changes in the Wings locker room.

Also, most of us would consider this good news: it looks like Samuelsson’s priced himself out of returning.

All in all, this is comparatively great news after the pretty crappy events of the first day of free agency (even though I wasn’t a fan of keeping him, losing Hossa to Chicago wasn’t exactly a highlight of the off-season). The summer could have gone even further south had Hudler and Leino played the Wings tougher in negotiations, but it looks like things are headed to a good conclusion.

Matt, I'm not sure I agree with you about Samuelsson though.

Programming note: Christine Barry is working upgrade her site. Be sure to check it out soon.

There more happening in Alaska than just the Sarah Palin resignation.....
Here's former Michigan boy Buford T Porcupine, aka Todd Katke, sharing his pics from his beloved Denali National Park.

Rise and shine trail buddies, it's 4:00am in Denali National Park. On the road patrolling by 4:30am. Once again this year I was offered another opportunity to camp and ride along with a old friend (a video photographer) on a film permit. A solid week of scouting for wildlife along the 90+ mile road that runs out to Wonder Lake. On a typical day, we rose at 4:00am and were on the road by 4:30am drinking our coffee and having dash board muffins to go. As sleep was optional, we put in 20 hour days. Some mornings we might encounter brown bears right alongside the road early in our day. Other mornings maybe a little later in the day. Maybe catching a red fox running with morning breakfast, heading for the den at the Polychrome Pass overlook area.

Karen De Coster notes the latest spectator sport...Competitive Eating.

It’s sad that Americans delight at watching people shove food into their mouth while it dribbles down their chin, cheering them on. How did this ever get to be entertainment? 68 freakin’ hot dogs in 10 minutes. Juvenile males who delight in making themselves sick in front of an audience. Americans are bored people, I tell ya.

Along the same line as Karen writes, I cannot help but wonder at how pathetic has it gotten that we are fixated by the latest news about what drug combination killed Michael Jackson but completely missed all the fine print contained in that abomination known as the Cap & Trade Bill.

In case some have forgotten, Dr. Sanity posted a copy of the Declaration of Independence. While everything else seems to be going to Hell, let us all hope that we can reassert the rights illuminated in this document and emerge on the other side with our values intact.

Closing this post brings us back to more stories about food ...
Mid-Michigan Foodie writes about a conspiracy in the making - Strawberry shortage.

Today we were looking for strawberries; lots of strawberries; about 12 quarts, to be exact, mostly for freezing.

I knew of one small you-pick operation near the Midland County line, but we didn't have time to pick our own. After a fruitless (pardon the pun) Internet search of strawberry growers in our area we settled on buying ours from Buckeye Market, a venerable produce grower/seller east of Gladwin; while they don't grow their own strawberries, they do sell Michigan berries, and they have a local reputation for quality.

When we got to the store, we found lots of summer people provisioning for the long weekend...but no strawberries. A shipment from Traverse City was due to arrive at noon, I was told. I left my number and asked for a call when the berries were in.