Second Thoughts

In my column of May 6, 2010, “Making room for the Huangs,” I described Wenguang Huang, the Chinese translator and journalist who emigrated to the United States in 1990, specifically to Springfield, where he earned his second master’s degree from the public affairs reporting program offered by what was then still Sangamon State University.  Huang […]

 In “Going for the fences” (Oct. 2, 2014) I noted that the moguls who rule the game were in a sweat. Both home runs-per-game and runs-per-game were 20 percent lower than the record-setting pace of the early 2000s. Attendance and TV ratings are down in consequence. The end was nigh. What is wrong with our game? […]

 As much as I enjoy watching them, I dreaded the Cubs’ entry into the playoffs, because that would mean I would be compelled to watch them in every game. I am offended by any team that decorates its players so they look like an 8-year-old’s bedroom, for one thing. For another, I detest watching night […]

 Horseshoe sandwiches have been in the news lately, which reminded me — would a kiddy shoe with fish be half-soled? 

 Back in April I remarked on the decision by Mr. Rauner to take the necessary administrative steps toward seeling the old State of Illinois Center (now known as the Thompson Center) in Chicago. The new governor judged that the building was inefficient, decrepit, and inappropriately designed for its purpose and ougt to be sold, and […]

 In “Wrong in principle” I recalled how, beginning in the 1830s and ’40s the arrival in Illinois of Germans, who spoke an incomprehensible language, and Irish, who obeyed an incomprehensible church, stirred the natives to use the power of government of the people and for the people against these people. I also recalled how Stephen […]

Speaking of things Calhoun: In “Naming rights and wrongs” I remarked on a suggestion from Rich Miller to rename Calhoun County. That bucolic corner of the state, you might know, was named to honor South Carolinian senator John C. Calhoun, who in his later years was an apologist for slavery and a preacher of secession. […]

Attentive readers will recall that I have an unaccountable fascination with naming things – in particular the naming of public parks and schools and the like. I took up the topic here and here and, most recently, here in a column about the propriety of naming a county in a Union state like Illinois after […]

The other day I admitted that I was not quote convinced of the wisdom of the State of Illinois offering tax credits so that Con-Agra, a billion-bucks makers of processed foods, could move their corporate headquarters close to the home of its new CEO. (See “Home is where the boss is,” Oct. 8, 2015.) I […]

 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 […]

 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 […]

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, […]