It is a rare human being who does not enjoy being read to. The soothing tones of the mother at the bedside, reading us to sleep, the soothing tones of the politician, reading from a teleprompter, reading us to sleep – our appetite for the spoken word is instinctual. Happily, technology and big government have […]
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
Reinventing the past
Building new businesses based on new ideas is the central axiom of the near-science of economic development. Sangamon County’s would-be Edisons in the medical field recently were invited to submit ideas for the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce’s Project Innovation, intended to encourage local entrepreneurs in health care. The finalist ideas, announced in May, included […]
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Passing the buck
For the second consecutive year, the Illinois General Assembly has confronted the state fiscal crisis by “passing the buck.” Last month, the legislature passed a General Funds budget for fiscal year (FY) 2011 that would give most state agencies lump-sum funding rather than line-item appropriations. The largest gaps between FY 2011 appropriations and current funding […]
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Something about a man in uniform
You wouldn’t think it was possible for a soldier to shoot himself in the back while marching toward the front line, but Congressman Mark “Don’t Get Fooled Again” Kirk has managed to do it several times. By all accounts a capable intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve, Mr. Kirk felt compelled to make himself out […]
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Responsible policy creates jobs
Bobby Schilling’s June 3 op-ed “Cutting taxes creates jobs” is rife with so many mistakes and distortions I don’t even know where to begin. Mr. Schilling asserts that there are no new jobs in the 17th District. I suggest he visit the Rock Island Arsenal, where federal investment in the ASPI program has created and […]
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My life of soccer in Springfield
I’m one of 2.5 billion (that’s with a “b”) people who will be watching an upcoming quadrennial event on TV with great anticipation. The top 32 national teams of the world will meet in South Africa to compete in the “World Series” of soccer, futbol, futebol, calcio, voetbal, le foot, podosfero. Whatever the name for […]
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Cheeseparing in the Capitol complex
The William G. Stratton Building – eyesore, health risk, money trap – has gotten a reprieve. It has been sitting on Death Row since 2007, when the State of Illinois launched an inquiry and found the 56-year-old office building to be guilty, and began the process that would lead to its execution by bulldozer. Turns […]
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Cutting taxes creates jobs
It takes a lot of nerve to take credit for something you didn’t do. It takes a politician to take credit for something that hasn’t even happened. My opponent, U. S. Rep. Phil Hare, is currently touting his alleged jobs record, patting himself on the back for how many jobs he’s created. Unfortunately, Mr. Hare […]
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Treasures from faraway seas
The advantage of pursuing an education in a bookshop rather than a school is that at the bookshop young readers can pick out books that teachers and parents think aren’t good for you. I had bought several books by the historian Richard Hofstadter, then the DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University. Reading […]
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Making Springfield a better place
“‘Intellectual oasis’ might be asking the venerable place to shoulder more weight than it could plausibly bear, but homage is overdue.” I was trading anecdotes about Shadid’s when Michael Skube said that. He is the Eastsider who went from a cub reporter covering prep games for the old Illinois State Journal to book critic for […]
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Freedom is not free
“Freedom is not free” writes William W. (Bill) Smith of Quincy whenever he signs his book, A Moment in Time. Bill speaks with considerable authority on the subject of freedom, having spent two and a half years in a North Korean prisoner of war camp. He survived the ordeal, but nearly half of those who […]
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Profiles in Courage against wrongful conviction
A special event will take place in Springfield on Monday, May 24, when exoneree Rolando Cruz comes to Springfield to recognize those who helped free him almost 15 years ago. In 1983, 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico was kidnapped from her Naperville home in the middle of the day, taken to a nearby wooded location and brutally […]
