The #1 reason I love the U.P. The vast woods. My camp is located in Negaunee Township. It’s right outside of a quiet little neighborhood known as Heartwood. The forest in the area is what tickles my fancy the most. If something is ever bothering me, I know I can go out to camp and take a long walk. You don’t realize how beautiful the world is until you really think hard about it. The leaves changing colors, an animal in their natural habitat and the smell of the air in this particular environment gets me the most. The leaves are green for a while, and then just blossom into beautiful shades of yellow, red, and orange. It makes such an astonishing Kodak moment that I wish I had my own house built in the middle of the forest. Walking around in the woods and seeing squirrels, deer, owls, and even bears is astonishing! I’ve only spotted an owl once, and I was just amazed by the size of it. I was sitting in my blind and out of nowhere this creature comes soaring down to pluck a chipmunk out of the bait pile. It’s wingspan was so wide, I never knew they were that large. Looking eye to eye with it was quite intimidating, especially because it’s head was turned around 180 degrees. It almost scared the shit out of me because it was so close and I was afraid of it pecking me to death. Walking up on a deer grazing is a wonderful sight also. Most of the time I find myself and a deer just staring at each other for at least a couple minutes. During deer season though, of course, you see a deer and they’ll take off like a redlining drag racer. The smell of the woods clears out my nostrils. No smog around to get into my lungs, the atmosphere is clear around me. Air just seems so much cleaner, fresh, and crisp. It runs through my nostrils with ease, and I like it. Not only do you smell the freshness of the air, but the pine trees too. If I could bottle the smell of the woods up, I’d put that aroma in a candle and make a fortune around here. A not so good smell though, is when you gut that deer you shot and hit it’s piss bag. The smell of it’s blood is also cleansing, in a non-psycho/sicko way. The steam arises from it’s body and you can feel the heat it’s internal organs give off. Still a good feeling knowing you shot that just moments before though.

Bagging a buck is my favorite part about camp. Waking up at five in the morning to walk to your blind in the blackness of the morning sucks, but it’s worth it. The adrenaline that runs through your body when you’re spooked by the oh-so-powerful wings of a partridge ten feet away, or the sight of a deer eating corn and apples out of your bait pile, it’s a rush. I love animals and all, but killing them is a sport to me and a thrill seeker at the same time. Being able to brag to your buddies on how many birds you’ve shot, or the massive buck you took down is also a blast. I haven’t shot a bird yet this season though, so I’ve kept my mouth shut. Celebrating the kill of a buck or taking down a few birds is my second favorite part of camp.

Getting completely wasted is always a good time. It may not be fun to others, but deer camp is mostly about shooting deer and getting plowed later in the night. Now, I’m not trying to come off as an alcoholic, but it’s almost a way of life around here to us Yoopers. There’s nothing better than one of us, as in myself and my fellow hunters at camp, shooting a buck and celebrating the kill. At my camp, it also leads to heading to McFarland for a night of Big Bon’s. Drinking with my father is also a great time. Seeing him down a 12-pack with ease and myself getting dizzy after about six or eight makes me chuckle because he’s been drinking for god knows how long, and I can only swallow a fraction of what he can. I can’t keep up with my old man; his tolerance is far beyond mine. The next morning is always rough. I usually don’t wake up for the morning hunt, which hurts me in the long run for that burning desire to take down a buck. For all I know it could be mowing down on free food while I’m in the camp sleeping off the night before. Deer season is long enough to get more than one chance, and I’m okay with that.

In the end, I could live at deer camp. Hook me up with a TV and cable and I could probably do it. The reason I am still living here is camp all together. The woods, the hunting, but not so much getting belligerently drunk; that’s just a treat on the side. If it wasn’t for the offerings the U.P. gives me in being able to hunt and go out in the woods, I wouldn’t be here anymore. I’d be enlisted in the military without a doubt, I still might enlist, we’ll see. It’s that I don’t want to leave this place; I love it too much. I’d rather live here the rest of my life and raise a family rather than living in a big city. What’s keeping me in this little town is the life I live, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

I was driving a late 1990’s, maroon Chevrolet Cavalier that belonged to my friend, Tadge. The dumbasses were also drinking in the vehicle, probably not the greatest idea. We were on our way to the all glorious hometown of our nation’s shittiest, nastiest, strip joint ever. McFarland, Michigan…the home of Big Bon’s.

The night was young, very young, and we still didn’t know if I’d get in as “Shay Thompson” or not. We neared the cheap arrow sign on the side of the road that read, “GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS.” At this time in my life, I had JUST turned sixteen years of age and I was driving to Big Bon’s; I didn’t know what the hell to think. As we pulled in, Tadge starts quizzing myself on the “new me.” He starts asking me height, birthday, and eye color, just to cover the basics. Right before Tadge and I walk in, I toss in a nice and juicy dip of Grizzly Wintergreen, and then throw on my red flannel. I was hoping this would make me look a tad bit older. Well, I’m pretty damn sure that the nice female at the door knew that the picture on the I.D. was definitely not me, and probably took into consideration that she just saw the same I.D. about two minutes earlier. I keep my cool though, act casual, and she takes one good look at me as she marks an “X” on my hand in black marker.

I’m in a strip club at the age of sixteen, if you can even call this piece of shit a strip club. The air is thick with smoke, there’s empty non-alcoholic beer cans all over the place, and that’s mainly because this poor establishment lost their liquor license. I glanced around. Laughter erupts within me because I just can’t take this place seriously. It’s a joke, a stage made out of plywood for crying out loud, and you can’t help but laugh at it. I bring my attention to the stage now and feast my eyes upon the 250-pound linebacker/stripper known as “Trinity,” dancing to “She’s My Cherry Pie,” made famous by Warrant. This just adds to the list of junk I can laugh at in here.

We eventually sit down at a table and that’s when the fun begins. I’m still laughing my ass off as I look across the room and see two African-American men sitting at a table. Not a sight you see too often in a place like McFarland. On top of that, Trinity is over there groping both of them at the same time. All that goes through my head is, “Wow, this is going to be one hell of a show tonight.”

As more strippers took the stage on the good old plywood dance floor, Tadge starts making friends, one in particular that looked like a cracked out toad. That is not a joke, she really looked like that. The night goes on, and we get the great idea to tell Big Bonnie herself that it’s Tadge’s birthday. Everyone that’s heard about Big Bon’s knows what happens next. A nice and personal face-full of Bon’s moon balloons, disgusting. The plan doesn’t go through, though. A while after that, a topless mid-40’s stripper starts rubbing her private parts in Jesse’s face. I look at him, and he looks back and gestures a fake sniff as if he could smell what’s between her legs. Next thing I know, she’s sitting on my lap, and my legs are shaking like an off-balanced washer machine. I reach into my pocket for a bill to thank her for her wonderful services. She leaves the table with the reply, “Thanks baby.” As soon as she gets out of eye sight, the guys start laughing at me and I have no clue why. I ask them what’s going on, so Tadge informs me that I gave her a $5 bill. Big mistake, you give out pocket change at a place like Bon’s, that’s just how it goes.

It’s now getting towards the end of the night, gentleman are getting lap dances all over the place, and we just so happen to set up base camp right next to the private dance room. The private dance room is not fancy whatsoever; it’s about a 4’x4’ closet with fluorescent paint on the walls. An older-looking fellow and a dancer head into the room for awhile. The fine lady walks out. I notice the man has been sitting in there for a good ten minutes adjusting his crotch and such, so I bet Jesse that the man has a boner. Sure enough, after a couple more crotch adjustments, the guy walks out to our table and says, “She got me so hard, I was embarrassed to come out!” Yeah, it was hilarious, but sick at the same time.

I look towards the door and see that Peter Griffin and Louie Anderson look-a-likes decided to stop by. The Peter Griffin looking man proceeds to the stage with a bill in his mouth, lays on his back in the middle of the stage, and lets the stripper do her job. She takes a seat right on his fat gut and gives this character a show. Afterwards he tries getting up, but can’t because he’s a larger man, his big and tall friend and the stripper help him…priceless.

The night is towards the end and we’re all exhausted from busting our guts all night and throwing out crinkled up $1 bills. All I can really say is that I was a minor then, but my 18th birthday is in the next couple of days. I’ll be having a great time at Big Bon’s again soon. It’s a run-down place, not the cleanest, and has ugly strippers, but it’s a good laugh and well worth the ten dollars for a great night.

Two weapons of mass destruction that are very common around Marquette County are the bow and the gun, shotgun and rifle mostly. Overall, bows and guns are similar in the way they both take down the prey of our choice, but they are very different in the terms of structure, aiming, and specific types.

First, we’ll take a glance at the structure of a bow. The bow and arrow goes so far it’s remarkable. It dates back to first being used forty-thousand years ago. The basic structure of a bow is quite simple. A pair of curved elastic limbs, made of wood, metal, or fiberglass are connected by a string. The string is then pulled backwards which stores energy that’s later released when putting the arrow into flight. The amount of force required to pull the string back is called draw weight. A greater draw weight projects arrows faster and at a greater distance. A bow’s string is usually made from synthetic polymers that are resistant to moisture. Today’s modern materials for the making of a bow make it easier to kill an animal these days, almost too easy.

Aside from the structure of a bow, we can now explore how to aim it. In the aiming of a bow, there are two main forms; using a sight picture or not. The sight picture is the target and the bow itself. What you want to do is pull the string back close to your face and in the same place every time, fully extend your bow arm, and release the string. Repeated shots taken with the sight picture in the same position will hit on the same point, or where you hit the target. This allows you to adjust your aim to achieve good accuracy. Modern bows use sights that mark the predicted impact point. There are usually several multicolored pegs on the side of the bow just above your arrow rest. Along with the pegs is the peep sight, which is a small round device you look through. To aim, you look through the peep sight and place the top peg on the center of your target. Four sight pegs is the norm on a bow. The pegs go by how you sight them. All the pegs are for different ranges of shot. Say your target is about forty yards away. Usually, the bottom peg is for the farthest shot, depending on how you prefer it. Now if you were 40 yards away, what you’d do is look through the peep sight and use your bottom peg to aim. Not all bows use these types of sights because it depends on what type of bow you are using.

Next, we’ll explore the different kinds of bows that we can use. There are several types of bows which consist of composite bows, longbows, compound bows, and the crossbow. I’m not going into detail about every single one, but I will tell you that they all have certain aspects that make them different. Composite bows are smaller with higher power and made from different materials rather than wood. Longbows are very tall, almost the same height as the person using it. This is just your basic wooden bow. A compound bow is what most modern hunters use today. It consists of a system of pulleys and cables to bend the limbs. These are usually made of aluminum or magnesium which makes them very light. Last, but not least, the crossbow. Crossbows are bows mounted on stocks that shoot projectiles, often called bolts. It has a mechanism where the string is pulled back and a vertical rod is thrust up, forcing the string out.

This time around we’ll be learning the same aspects again, but this time it’s about guns. Guns are very different in structure. The shotgun is made up of a barrel, a stock, and a chamber. When you put a shotgun together, it usually comes in three parts and is very easy to do. All the parts just snap into place and you’re ready to go. Rifles are basically the same concept in design, except they don’t project the same sort of object. Shotguns project shells, or slugs, while rifles shoot out bullets. The shotgun is more powerful than a rifle, easier for most shooters to hit a target, and more intimidating. Rifles are used for long range shooting in hunting, warfare, and shooting competitions. For both, the mechanism is quite simple. A hammer is pulled back when the gun is cocked. There are many ways to cock a gun. When the trigger is pulled, the hammer snaps back to its original spot, hitting the metal casing of the shell or bullet which projects it out the barrel and at the target. Just make sure you’re not pointing it towards a friend, or else you’ll be sorry.

Now we’ll look at how to aim this high powered weapon known as the gun. Aiming of a shotgun is very easy when it comes to shooting your target. The general idea is to point it in the direction of your target. Shotgun shells spread out once they leave the barrel. The shell itself contains little bb’s that spread to a certain diameter, depending on the size of the gun. Since the bb’s spread, it’s actually kind of hard to miss your target. To actually aim a shotgun, you look down the barrel where you’ll then see a nipple-like pin sticking out which you aim at your target. A rifle almost always has a scope on it. The scope on a rifle is almost like binoculars, which allows you to zoom in on your target to get a precise shot. A scope has crosshairs on the lens and what you do is put the intersection of the crosshairs on the spot you want to hit. With different types of guns, come different methods of aiming.

The next aspect of guns is there is very many types of them. What I mean by this is the action of the gun itself. The action is the way you load the gun. These consist of break-action, pump-action, lever-action, semi-automatic, and bolt-action. Break-action actually “breaks” or separates at the stock of the gun and barrel. Once open, you slide the shell into the barrel; sometimes there is even two barrels. Pump-action is an efficient way when it comes to hunting birds. You can load up to five slugs into the chamber and pump the handle to load one. This is better for fast and simultaneous shooting. Lever-action is actually designed from earlier rifles. Semi-automatic shotguns use gas, inertia, or recoil operated actions to increase the rate of fire. A cartridge is loaded into the gun and that’s it, just pull the trigger and shoot all the shells. Bolt-action is my personal favorite. These types can actually shoot at a greater range than some other types. Rifles have the same concept with lever-action and bolt-action. They also have assault rifles and sniper rifles. Assault rifles are often called machine guns. Most people know these as guns that fire very rapidly. Sniper rifles are rifles with very optimal scopes.

In conclusion, bows and guns are very similar when it comes to taking down a target. Both are weapons of choice in our local area. They do have different seasons for when their use is allowed though. Bow season is always before rifle season when it comes to shooting a deer. They may be similar when it comes to killing, but the construction, aiming, and the types are very different from each other. I personally like shooting guns more just because that little kick from the recoil you get. I also have never hunted with a bow, but would like to start because it’s a challenge. Just make sure you’re holding on to that gun or else it’s going to fly right out of your hands before you even know it.

Works Cited

1. “Bow Structure-Patent 3923936″. Free Patents Online. December 5, 2008 <http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3923036.html>.

2. Huffman, Joe. “Gun Dictionary”. Boomer Shoot. December 5, 2008 <http://www.boomershoot.org/general/GunDict.htm>.

Marijuana should not be legalized no matter how bad stoners out there want it to be because of the effects on the mind and body. Cannabis, which is marijuana, is a drug that consists of dried mature flowers and leaves of female plants. It contains THC, (Tetrahydrocannabinol) which is a chemical compound in cannabis that alters your mind, and puts you into a state of psychoactive and physiological effects. In my eyes, people are not very smart when they are high. This is why it should not be legalized.

The legalization of marijuana would not be a good choice for the following reasons: Fatal accident increase, death rate in general would increase, and health issues. There are dumbasses out there that would go smoke a bowl then drive around. Smoking weed affects your perception of depth, speed, and time. The deception of all these factors only spell out rising fatal accidents.

Driving around high off THC would be very risky because your mind is not able to comprehend what’s really going on. On top of that, people don’t pay attention. It’s almost like you’re in a trance and sometimes have no idea what’s going on around you. Driving baked like a cookie is the same as driving under the influence of alcohol. I have personally smoked weed before and drove at the same time. From my personal experience, going sixty miles per hour feels like you’re going about twenty-five. Paranoia comes into play also. You look around and sense that everyone is looking at you. If it was to be a legal drug it should carry on the same punishment of being drunk while driving. High driving is the same as driving under the influence whether you want to believe it or not. It’s definitely not driving sober, therefore, it should fall under the category of a D.U.I. That’s why fatal accidents would increase.

Death rate would definitely increase with no doubt in my mind. I know from personal experience that people do dumb shit when they are high. I mean really dumb. It’s not as hardcore as other drugs out there, but marijuana effects different people in different ways. This is where the psychoactive effects come into play. The brain is affected by the THC which puts you into a total different state of mind. You may think you’re floating or flying sometimes. You never know what an individual would try while they’re under the influence. One second you’re sitting on the couch eating potato chips and all of a sudden a buddy could get up and go on the roof of the house and try flying for all you know. Hell, they might even grab a gun not knowing it’s loaded and start messing around and end up hurting themselves or another person.

The health issues are quite outstanding. Cannabis smoke actually contains more toxic substances than tobacco smoke. The smoke contains twenty times more ammonia and five times more hydrogen cyanide and nitrogen oxides than tobacco smoke. Those are all bad for the body. No ties have been connected between marijuana use and lung cancer on the other hand. Some believe that THC has a “protective effect” by causing cells to die before they become cancerous. Smoking pot is bad for you whether you get lung cancer or not because it straight up effects the mind in the long run and not in a good way.

Now on the flip side of all these effects and harm to the brain and body, there could be possible positive aspects of legalizing marijuana. I look at it just like the drinking age. When a person becomes of age to drink most of them will go to the bars and get smashed often. After a while though, the novelty of getting drunk legally wears off. I know this for a fact because my brother and his friends used to go out to the bars about 3-4 times a week. Now they go out about 4-5 times a month maybe. I believe it’s the thrill of doing something illegal that gets people that adrenaline rush. It’s the same with weed. We know it’s illegal, but yet we still do it because it’s a thrill. Just like alcohol, I think if marijuana was legal all the negative aspects would happen for quite a while, but then eventually the novelty of getting high legally would wear off. Therefore in the end it could be a good thing if marijuana was legalized.

In conclusion I still believe that marijuana should never be legalized because of the long term effects of the brain and body along with the fatalities and health risks. This is just my own opinion and some people may think different, but I’m confident in believing that many would agree with me. Yes, I have smoked it, and it’s definitely not my cup of tea. For all those stoners out there I’m sorry because I think marijuana will never be legalized. It’s too risky to legalize knowing what it does to the mind. If it ever does get legalized on the other hand it probably won’t be in my lifetime so I’m not worried about it whatsoever.

Works Cited

“InfoFacts-Marijuana”. National Institute of Drug Abuse. December 5, 2008 <http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html>.

Jenkins, Richard. Cannabis and Young People. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2006.

“Surveys & Polls- NORML”. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. December 5, 2008 <http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4420>.

T, Buddy. “Effects of Marijuana-The Health Effects of Marijuana”. About. December 5, 2008 <http://alcoholism.about.com/od/pot/a/effects.htm>.

1. Facebook.com

2. YouTube.com

3. break.com

4. addictinggames.com

5. google.com

6. wluctv6.com

7. up-football.com

8. nmu.edu

9. serialkillercalendar.com

10. arcticcat.com

MARQUETTE – Detectives with the Upper Peninsula Substance Enforcement Team arrested six people Wednesday night in Marquette.

A 36-year-old former Chicago resident now living in Marquette and Ishpeming was arrested for alleged delivery of crack cocaine.

Two search warrants were served as a result of the arrest, one in Marquette and one in Ishpeming.

In those searches, police said they found evidence of drug sales, drug use and more than $12,900 in cash.

Three suspects were arrested for conspiracy to deliver crack cocaine and two others were arrested for being a disorderly person, loitering in a drug house.

One of those suspects was wanted on another arrest warrant, police said.

All six persons were lodged in the Marquette County Jail. Their names have been withheld by police pending their arraignments in Marquette County District Court.

Police said several other arrests, on both state and federal charges, are pending as the investigation continues.

UPSET detectives were assisted by officers from the Marquette and Ishpeming city police departments.

This is awesome.  It actually happens around here, and I think it’s kind of cool to know that.  Yes, we live in small towns, but these sort of things do happen around here every now and then.  People believe it’s mostly marijuana in this area, but to hear that this happened I believe is cool almost.  It’s almost exciting because you’d expect it in a larger city so when you do hear about it, it’s a thrill.  I do know of a meth lab that got busted right down the road from my ex-girlfriend’s house and that was also pretty exciting.

1. Legalization of marijuana

2. Drinking age

3. Politics

4. Gun control

5. Abortion

6. Poaching

7. War overseas

8. Gas prices

9. George W. Bush

10. Pre-marital sex

I’m going to be honest, I love debating.  The feeling of putting someone in their place is a good feeling.  I mean, I can admit when I’m wrong, but when I know I’m right in what I believe in…I’m not going to give up on the topic.  Debating tends to lead into arguing usually, that’s my least favorite part because it always ends up in people getting mad at each other because of their personal views.  I get over it in two seconds though.  It’s no reason to be upset with someone.  Yes, they may look at a subject differently, but you have to be open to another person’s opinion yet still have your own and stick to it.  I don’t get over heated unless the person I’m debating against is absolutely wrong and won’t admit it.  I can’t stand that, it’s kind of just like…shut the hell up already.  I know when to drop it also.  When I can’t take it anymore I’ll just change the subject to end the conversation.  Often I find myself agreeing with another individual so they pipe down.  When it all comes down, debating can be very ugly  and even tear some people apart.  My mother is a big republican and I really don’t know why…it kind of pisses me off because it does not benefit our family at all considering we are middle class.  I can’t talk politics with her because she’s never wrong I guess, but at the end of the day I still love her unconditionally.

Christopher’s grandmother, Sue Rodriquez, said she had no idea how the network obtained the photo and they have no right to use it in an entertainment program.”Oh my, God have mercy,” Rodriquez said after seeing Christopher’s picture on the show. “They ain’t got no right doing that — not a bit of right.”She cried as she watched a clip from the soap opera. She said it still hurts to think about her grandson, who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in March 2007.”That baby meant the world to us, and people don’t have the right to do this kind of stuff. That’s our baby,” Rodriquez said.In the soap opera, Billy Dee Williams plays a hospital worker. In the episode in which Christopher’s photo appeared, Williams’ character apparently received a letter and a photo from a son he abandoned. The photo was of Christopher.Channel 4 has the same picture of the Christopher, which provided by the Barrios family to media outlets during the March 2007 search for the boy.”First, who gave them permission to use his picture? Second, I’m glad I don’t watch this kind of mess — soap operas — because if I had seen Christopher’s picture on there, I would have gone nuts,” Rodriquez said.ABC, which produces the show, told Channel 4′s Jennifer Bauer it does not know how they got the photo.The network offered the following apology:

“While the production team would never have knowingly chosen this particular photo, its use was a terrible error. We offer our deepest condolences to the Barrios family for their loss and our sincerest apologies for any pain caused by our mistake. In the coming weeks, SOAPnet will air a series of public service announcements in Christopher’s honor, to raise awareness of missing and exploited children. Meanwhile, the episode is being edited to permanently remove the photo, and we have taken steps, including reviewing internal processes to determine how it happened in hopes of preventing this type of mistake from occurring again.”

Rodriquez said knowing that such an error would never happen again makes her very happy.

Along with the family I am not very happy about this.  For one, they didn’t even have consent to use the picture on the shower.  Second of all, they don’t even know how they got the picture.  That’s bull shit.  If they wanted to use a picture, they could’ve just made one up instead of using an actual murdered child’s photo.  It’s modern technology, they can almost make up anything these days it seems like.  It does cheer me up though that they gave a sincere apology and will air public service announcements about missing children.  They actually do seem very sorry for the mishap, which is a plus.  In the end though it wasn’t right to use an actual picture of a murdered boy.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/17844042/detail.html