Thumbs Up and Down for 2012

Thumbs Up: To beer and the people who love it. With the Door County Beer Festival in Baileys Harbor, Egg Harbor AleFest and rumors of a new brewery and pub in the works, Door County has become a beer lover’s paradise. Three cheers, and bottoms up!

Thumbs Up: To the people of Wisconsin for turning out in record numbers for this year’s presidential election. Despite being asked to head to the polls an extra time this year and having to endure 2012’s sometimes mind-numbing barrage of political ads, 3,071,434 Wisconsinites cast a vote in the presidential election, the highest number ever for a single office, statewide election.

Thumbs Up: To the residents of Jacksonport for voting to purchase the Koulias property next to Lakeside Park. Even though times are tough, the community realized that letting the property slip into the hands of some developer would mean losing a beautiful addition to the park and the town.

Thumbs Down: To the NFL for putting fake refs in real games. Two thumbs down for waiting until they blew a game-deciding call for the Packers before bringing the real refs back. Why couldn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back have caused a Bears loss instead?

Thumbs Down: To negative campaign practices and political action committees that can anonymously raise ungodly amounts of money and pump it into belligerent political advertising. 2012 was the first presidential election since the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission overturned parts of the Campaign Reform Act of 2002, allowing corporations and unions to put gobs of money in the political game.

Thumbs Sideways: To the Ephraim Village Board’s decision on plein air painters setting up shop in town. Although it seems ridiculous not to allow the Ephraim Business Council to invite painters to Evenings in Ephraim, most board members made the call based on their interpretation of village ordinance. The public relations fiasco has led to re-writing, and hopefully clarifying, an ordinance that doesn’t allow competitive businesses to set up on public property. For the record – plein air painting is allowed in Ephraim, just don’t sell your work.