One year ago this week, Hurricane Katrina nearly wiped out New Orleans, one of the oldest, most culturally rich, poorest, and, indeed, important cities in America. In the weeks leading up to the anniversary of Katrina’s onslaught, a glut of television specials have “looked back” at and “remembered” the storm that killed 1,800 people along […]
Opinion
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Life and debt
Before embarking on a five-nation tour of Africa last week, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama expressed concern about the perception that he could deliver to the continent, as he told the Chicago Tribune, “the largesse of the U.S. government.” Though one of the most prominent and respected black politicians in America, Obama frequently tries to underplay […]
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Author! Author?
Fifteen years ago: I quit golf and try a less expensive hobby to humiliate myself. I’ll write a book. A long habit will lead me: Whenever an odd thought passes by, I grab it and force it into a gorilla-head jar. I’ll pull out a jar-thought, stretch it out until I tire of it, call […]
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Party Favors
“They may be our color, but they’re not our kind,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, a loyal and longtime Democrat, of African-American Republicans during a television interview earlier this week. Sharpton announced that he’d be spending the next several months traveling the country to help Democrats defeat black candidates running on Republican tickets. Black Republicans, […]
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Surveillance society
The 18th-century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham once designed a prison he called the Panopticon. The Panopticon was shaped as a cylinder, with cells radiating from a central guard tower. The guard tower was always to be dark, so that the inmates never knew whether they were being observed. Because prisoners could never see the guards, […]
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No end in sight
Israel’s consul general to the Midwest, Barukh Binah, traveled to Springfield earlier this week to discuss the newest war in the Middle East, which started with the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Islamic organization Hezbollah. In the wake of the soldiers’ capture, Binah says, Israeli officials believed they had two military options: 1. Use […]
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The suitable war
1964. I have nothing against the suit and tie; it’s just that I don’t have them in my wardrobe. In my last college semester, for my first professional-type job interview, I borrow my roommate’s suit. The suit “bunches” me, and the shirt collar chokes me as I fight the tie demon. As I attempt to […]
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Taxman cometh
Since being profiled by Illinois Times this spring, Dayton Keyes, who spends less than $1 per day on fuel by producing biodiesel from used cooking oil, says he’s lost count of the media interviews he’s done. So it was bound to happen: Officials from the Illinois Department of Revenue contacted Keyes last week and politely […]
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The checklist
As we pass from one life phase to another, it’s not unusual to make resolutions. Two years ago I passed from work to retirement — and I resolved. It’s time to check up — how’d I do? Resolution 1: Learn to cook. Resolution: accomplished. I think that the recipe is worth passing on, should you, […]
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The essence of beauty
He is dressed as a cowboy and looks to be about 6, which, according to my (admittedly yet unpublished) Rules of Diner Etiquette, is about two years too old to be leaning over the back of his booth, interrupting my reading, and talking to me unannounced. His mother has something bolted through her nose. The […]
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Does anyone feel a draft?
In a story that barely made a ripple in the press, save for a handful of military publications, the U.S. Army upped its maximum age for recruitment last month from 40 to 42, according to Army Times, to avoid “a repeat of last fiscal year’s recruiting shortfall.” In January 2005, Rolling Stone magazine reported on […]
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Did you know Tom?
My boss died unexpectedly. I knew something was amiss when I pulled into the parking lot and there stood our building supervisor, Richie D, holding the door open. He’s done that only once before, the morning after twin tornadoes struck Springfield and we lost electricity. The building, an old brick church, looked dark again, but […]
