Home of Edgar Lee Masters in Petersburg. PHOTO BY KENROSSALEX VIA WIKIPEDIA.ORG The only class of people less happy to confront dead writers than high school sophomores are probably mayors. Dead writers cause more trouble in their hometowns than even the most factious of them ever do when they are alive. Over in Petersburg, I […]
James Krohe Jr.
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Give me your energetic, your trained . . . .
A new report from the Pew Research Center provides confirmation that immigration in the U.S. is not quite as simple as some political candidates would have voters believe. Among their findings: There are two great immigrant streams — the largely unskilled or underskilled that so obsesses Republican candidates like Donald Trump, and the educated professional […]
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The American way
More afterthoughts inspired by my Sept. 24 column on immigration, “Trumped-up charges:” One way to get rid of foreigners in our midst is to help them become Americans. Broadly speaking, that was the policy that made great the America that Trump wants to restore. Yet Illinois’ newest Congressman, Darin LaHood, voted against measures to allow undocumented […]
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Trumped-up charges
Photo by Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS Brother Trump is the savior come to rescue America, in the opinion of a majority of self-identified Republicans. On the stump he works crowds into a fever with his perorations against immigrants (how he spells “Mexicans”) who are surging across our borders without papers or prospects, taking “our” jobs […]
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Down on the border
Illinois’ newest Congressman, Darin LaHood, has argued that the U.S. must put more resources into securing the borders to stop the flow of immigrants coming in illegally. Really? More? Between 2000 and 2010, U.S. taxpayers spent something like $90 billion trying to secure the U.S.-Mexico border — National Guard troops , border agents, X-ray machines, […]
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The history of the history
The State Journal-Register today offers a useful retrospective on the evolution of the Lincoln Home National Historic Site by Tara McClellan McAndrew. (“Protecting Lincoln’s legacy in his neighborhood has evolved with the times.”) More might be said on that subject – indeed more has been said. In “A new old street” which appeared in […]
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A “D” for damnation
ILLUSTRATION BY RICK NEASE/TNS Ordinarily I would not trouble the Roman Catholic church with my opinions. Its sacred books are divinely inspired; my columns, alas, are not. I would happily take my nose out of the church’s business if it would stop sticking its into mine. Same-sex marriage is a civil matter, and it is […]
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A little knowledge . . . No, 8 in a series
I am obliged to Steve Benen for pointing out the results of the newest Washington Post/ABC News poll. While Hillary Clinton has only a modest advantage over Donald Trump — 46% to 43% — Clinton has a 26-point advantage among college graduates, while Americans who do not have a degree prefer Trump by nine points.
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We have a Houston problem
Reuters confirms what began to look inevitable some years go: According to official data from both states, Houston’s growing population is expected to exceed that of Chicago within 8 to 10 years, making the Texas city that nation’s third largest after New York and Los Angeles. Houston is projected to have a population of 2.54 […]
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Off the menu
Marquette Inn in Chicago, IL. A few years ago, I met an old pal from Springfield in Chicago. We grabbed a bite at the Marquette Inn, the ground-floor diner named after the magnificent 1895 Loop building of that name which housed it, a place sentimental for both of us for different reasons. It was just […]
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Everything old is new again, Part 2
This caught my eye the other day. ““The conspirators against our liberties who have been admitted from abroad through the liberality of our institutions, are now organized in every part of the country.” Another well-known author on the same topic, I learned, believed that these conspirators religious doctrines demanded compliance, with the result that they […]
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Ride on
I am on a Bruce Rauner fast, during which I have foresworn insulting our new governor. So I will instead refer you to Guardian columnist Jeb Lund’s recent appreciation of Mr. Rauner’s role model, “When you’re as bad at campaigns as Scott Walker, you should just give up.” Referring to the Wisconsinan’s faltering Presidential campaign, […]
