Letters to the Editor
Untitled Document We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address, and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com. MY BEEF WITH DAVID PIMENTEL The “studies” that David Pimentel has done on ethanol production were sponsored by the oil industry…
Tiny wonders
Untitled Document Anyone who’s shattered a pricey cell phone on the sidewalk, gagged on the smell of a roommate’s stinky sweat socks, or endured a serious illness should appreciate the various nanotechnology-research endeavors at universities around Illinois. “Nanotechnology is likely to be as important as the Industrial Revolution was 100 years ago or the Computer…
Cap City
Untitled Document HOMEWARDBOUND Fire up the barbecue grill. Prepare the punch. Call your aunts and uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins, and neighbors. After spending 45 days in the Muscogee County, Ga., jail for demonstrating at a military base, Diane Lopez Hughes got out of the joint this week. Known around Springfield for her involvement in peace-and-justice issues,…
Be patient
Untitled Document Initial reports didn’t reveal the name of the mentally ill man killed by Springfield police last Saturday night at the Bel-Aire Motel — so when I heard the news I spent a few seconds pondering the possibility that the departed was the same guy who had, less than two weeks earlier, called to…
Time to stop eating meat
Untitled Document Vegetarians and vegans argue that eating meat is bad for the environment. How true are these claims? There has never been a better time to go vegetarian. Mounting evidence suggests that meat-based diets are not only unhealthy but that just about every aspect of meat production — from grazing-related loss of cropland, to…
The corned-beef myth
Untitled Document Good Grief — Not Beef! I just want to put something straight About what should be on your plate, If it’s corned beef you’re makin’ You’re sadly mistaken, That isn’t what Irishmen ate. If you ever go over the pond You’ll find it’s of bacon they’re fond, All crispy and fried, With some cabbage…
Empty promises
Untitled Document In early 2006, Gov. Rod Blagojevich faced a firestorm of criticism from Jewish leaders for his appointment of Louis Farrakhan’s “minister of protocol” to the Illinois Hate Crimes Commission. Several Jewish members resigned from the commission in protest of Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad’s appointment, but Blagojevich refused to back down and claimed that…
Winging it
Untitled Document They may look like little blizzards, but those fast-moving cloudlike formations over Lake Springfield aren’t precipitation. They’re gulls, flying low over the water. There are 51 identified species of gulls in the world — 28 in North America — and Springfield has played host to at least 18 of them. Telling species apart…
Woohoo!
Untitled Document The mark of a classic is a message that endures. Charles Dickens’ works remind us of the power of compassion; the novels of John Steinbeck call attention to social injustice; William Shakespeare’s plays warn of the dangers of hubris and celebrate the follies and joys of love. To this august company add the…
Thinking small
Untitled Document By the middle of the century, the inventor Ray Kurzweil suggests in his 2005 book The Singularity Is Near, human beings will live in perpetual clouds of nanobots, molecule-size robots that spend each moment altering our microenvironments to our precise preferences. Over the longer term, he imagines that nanotechnology — the manipulation of…
Green days are coming
Untitled Document Oh yes, laddies and lassies, it’s that special time of year in which we celebrate the Irish in all of us. This year St. Patrick’s Day falls on Monday, so anything this weekend up to and including March 17 is fair game for anyone caring to become a drunken blade or a inebriated…
People’s poetry
Untitled Document aroundthecosmos poem #6 total eclipse the moon adull copper penny unblinkingvisible now only in earthlight its attendant winking starsoon to be light-drowned the cold the cold is biting how cold the moon how still behind me on the streetmultiple lurid stoplights turn red green red green redtraffic sweeps its yellowheadlights ruby eyes trail…
Word up
Untitled Document Craig Hall is instantly likable. It’s not just his easy smile or his larger-than-life personality. It’s his ability to live every day with a no-holds-barred attitude. He doesn’t dwell on what some may call imperfections; instead, he uses them to his advantage. So what, he says, if he stutters? “I have told my…
Grape-leaf group therapy
Untitled Document Stuffed grape leaves are heady little treats, but we rarely think about making them ourselves. They seem too exotic and complicated for home chow, but what they really need is brawn, not brains. There’s not much to the homey meat filling, but you need lots of warm bodies to man the grape-leaf assembly…
Abe the scrapper
Untitled Document Everyone knows Abraham Lincoln as the inspiring orator, the war hero, the Great Emancipator, but now a local sports group is billing the 6-foot-4-inch, 180-pound former president as something a bit different. Steve O’Connor, who is heading up the Abraham Lincoln Triathlon Series in Petersburg and New Salem this April and August, claims…
Cashing in on payday loans
Untitled Document The Bible tells us that Jesus drove the moneychangers out of the temple (for charging less, by the way, than we’re now assessed on our Visa and MasterCard bills). Credit-card rates of 20 percent or so are ridiculous — but what should we call an interest rate of 400 percent? “Rip-off” is too…
Green peace
Untitled Document The Democratic Party may not be the only party facing a contentious nominating convention this summer. Battle lines are being drawn for a possible showdown between Green Party members at their convention, scheduled to take place in Chicago in July. On Super Tuesday, Cynthia McKinney — a former Democratic congresswoman from Georgia who…
