Kathrina Malik’s Neighborhood

Ronald Reagan's birthplace

DoctorD
Yesterday
4 comments

Ronald Reagan was born in an apartment on the second floor of this small-town bank building (which previously was a general store). It is in the community of Tampico Illinois, which has a population of somewhere around 772.

That's according to the 2,000 census; we've got a new one coming up next year--which for some reason has excited great controversy in right-wing circles. Rep. Michelle Bachmann is refusing to fill the form out, and TV commentator Glenn Beck might not fill out his either, but is fearful that if you don't, you won't be able to get a permit for a gun. Bachmann thinks the information may also used to round people up and put them in internment camps. All this is of course ridiculous, preposterous fear-mongering fantasizing, but it is in keeping with destructive spirit of present-day Republicanism. If you can't beat them, then knock over the game board!

And of course one census worker has been killed, apparently for being a "government agent." The word "fed" was written on his bound, naked body. Were Bachmann and Beck complicit? I don't think all the facts are out in this case. Some theorize it was really suicide, apparently.

But, back in reality-land, there are ten questions on the 2010 form; filling it out takes about ten minutes, and you can see it if you want on-line now, but you can't fill it out there. It comes in the mail.

As to privacy, I imagine Google knows a heck of a lot more about you than the Census Bureau does.

However, I doubt that the Reagan family itself resisted being counted. Actually, I hope at least that they were proud to be counted as Americans. Lots of Reagan's ideas and policies ended up hurting the country badly, but I don't doubt that he had a genuine love for the US. And he should: he was the product of an "opportunity story," just like Barack Obama is. Start poor, rise high.

Anyhow, the reason the census exists is to provide a basis for the apportionment of representatives among the states, which is determined (in the House, but not the Senate) by population. In more "modern" times, it also has a considerable influence on the flow of some types of federal financial aid, where population is an important allocational factor: bigger states get more. It was provided for by Article I, Section II of the Constitution. Originally it counted all free persons; excluded Indians not taxed; and did also include 3/5ths of "other" persons, which is to say, slaves. That was, of course, a great compromise. If slaves had been counted one-for-one, that would have increased the representation of the slave-holding states and probably encouraged the spread of slavery further. (These are the facts behind the "liberal" myth that African-Americans' were considered to be only three-fifths of a person. Even Condi Rice has said her ancestors were only 3/5ths of a man).

Anyhow, Reagan was a small town boy, living in a number of different places in north-central Illinois. There is a "boyhood home" in Tampico, and another (which is open to the public) in Dixon IL. There is a "Ronald Reagan Trail" that you can drive; it begins in Tampico, and in the past two weekends, I have driven most of it.

Reagan trail sign

I liked Tampico well enough to go there twice lately, but really, there isn't a place there to get a cup of coffee, other than the Casey's General Store. However, at Halloween there was a little girl dressed as a pirate who wore a pirate ship hanging all around her. That was definitely worth seeing, and probably I will go back sometime again.

Random is not Always as Random as It Seems...

Bookmole
Yesterday
3 comments

I was surfing Rolfrazzi.Com.

First Random Photo:

Tom Cruise - God Help Us

Second Random Photo:

Don't Leave Damn Fine Actor Off That List

Third Random Photo:

Maybe Not, But He IS Crazy

And, just for fun:

Come On, Keira - There's Thin, Then There's TOO Thin!

Duck!

And That is The Truth!

1 comment

Political Statement for Today

Bookmole
2 days ago
2 comments

Mutually Assured Destruction = MAD

It was mad then. It still is.
One small world, folks.
One small world, one life each.
Why fuck it all up.

Wrong Number? Or a Portent of Doom?

Bookmole
3 days ago
5 comments

I just had a wrong number. For Elric.

What is the first thought that goes through your head?

Cos mine was Elric? Fuck! Will he have Stormbringer and call on the Dukes of Hell?

Not good on a Friday evening.

Long Time, No (serious) Post

Bookmole
4 days ago
2 comments

How about a bullet list? Cos I am seriously not up to much, but it has been soo long since I posted anything of note.

When Husband said to Daughter OK, what is it you want to talk about, then? I think the properties of light and its structure were the last things he expected to hear. Open University course on physics has now been paid for (by Daughter), so we might get more of those sort of questions in the future.

This has has been struck by plague. Eldest Son had three weeks off work, so of course he got flu halfway through his holiday, passing it on first to Daughter and then to Me. Husband was in Rome, networking in the computer world, and seems to have missed it. Middle Son and Youngest both got it very lightly indeed.

Daughter has had her first Celebrity Sighting since starting a new job in Hampstead = Russell Brand and Katy Perry. Though when she rushed out the door to look, he was staring at it, so she was red faced and embarrassed. Apparently Hampstead has a LOT of celebrities.

And French men selling onions and garlic from bicycles, though not with a beret or a striped jumper. darn.

Fireworks make Heidi WOOF!

Over-development

DoctorD
4 days ago
3 comments

I just wanted to call attention to Karen's post about about the potential development of wetlands in Redwood City, California. The land is presently designated as open space, but Cargill wants to build 12,000 housing units and 1 million square feet of office space on a salt marsh.

Generally speaking, local governments seek development (almost regardless of its merits) because it provides them property or sales tax revenues. Commercial or industrial development is of course the "best" in this regard, because it doesn't attract in children who have to be given an education or receive other costly services.

This is a problem in so many places! Even during this deep recession, when there are millions of empty shops and foreclosed homes, unnecessary or unwise development continues. In contrast, I was so impressed in touring England to see a sharper differentiation between cities and the surrounding countryside. We saw much less of the wasteful sprawl that is commonplace here. (Still, it is a subject of concern there, too).

Let's help keep America Beautiful, if we possibly can. Let our children and grandchildren admire it too.

Amber waves

Back to Reagan country!

DoctorD
5 days ago
1 comment

As it turns out, I am going back to Reagan Country in north-central Illinois for a long weekend. We were there last weekend, after the Pumpkin Fiasco, and now I'm returning for a volleyball match, but also to visit some additional historic sites. Here's a guide:

Reagan trail map

There was a time in the past when I would have avoided Reagan territory for political reasons (and my wife still feels that way). But my own mood has softened. First, I like it that Reagan came from not very prosperous circumstances--we saw the modest apartment he was born in. And second, I agree with Obama that Reagan was a transformational figure:

"I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that, you know, Richard Nixon did not, and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path, because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like, you know, with all the excesses of the '60s and the '70s, you know, government had grown and grown, but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating, and I think people just tapped into — he tapped into what people were already feeling, which is we want clarity, we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism, and, and, you know, entrepreneurship that had been missing."

And thirdly, I guess, not only as a speaker, a Great Communicator, Reagan was an intellectual powerhouse compared to the Palin-Beck-Bachmann-teabagger crowd. Perhaps not him personally, but there were people around him who were actually interested in policy ideas! And they wrote books about them, actual books! I worked on a lot of those issues when I was in Washington, and I wrote quite a bit about them, too.

Things have gone downhill in his wake. There aren't any "conservative intellectuals" left now, and there used to be many.

So now I don't avoid travel to central Illinois, but do kind of consider Alaska off-limits. Although with the Governor resigned, perhaps I ought to go up there--before the glaciers melt away.

V is for?

DoctorD
5 days ago
4 comments

I tried to watch the new ABC show "V" (apparently a remake of an earlier series) for two reasons: (a) it is science fiction, which I like, and (b) watching the promos for it, I had a definite feeling that the show is making an anti-Obama statement, and possibly was even designed for that purpose. The attractive-appearing aliens from space come offering "hope" and speaking other Obama-like messages, offering benefits like greatly improved health care--when, of course, they are really up to evil. And of course in the mind of the far right, Obama is an "alien," not an American. So I wanted to see how the show played out.

The trouble is, I found V to be too boring, and turned it off after about 20 minutes. I did think the big hovering spaceships (saucers, really) were rather cool. But the characters seemed shallow and unimpressive, and I just couldn't get into it enough to find out where the story is going, in terms of either politics or plot.

I do hope the earthlings survive, though. In any contest between us, and even some "superior" life-forms from some other part of the galaxy, I am hoping that we win out. That is my perhaps myopic but still definite "planetary patriotism." Someone else is going to have to watch this show, however.

There is no question that "entertainment" shows can have a political message, and there is at least some reason to believe that they can have political impact. I enjoyed 24 for several seasons, but really in the end it came down basically to a justification for torture. Was Dick Cheney an advisor on scripts? I imagine, perhaps, so.

I am sure these questions will be covered in the various news and opinion outlets, and V's political ramifications will be perhaps over-explored. But I for one found V quite tedious. Whether Republicans will, I can't say.

Live long, and prosper!

My Dump Truck Poem

DoctorD
6 days ago
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I lead a "personal poetry sharing circle" at a nearby Senior Center. Consequently, in my capacity as "leader," I felt I had better write a poem as an "example." The following is what I came up with.

It isn't polished, and perhaps isn't even complete. And it is kind of depressed, don't you think? Probably showing the frustration of being very retired.

But anyhow, it is what I wrote, as of this morning. The group meets this afternoon. I am going to take it.

Dump truck with plow

It used to be that

life for me was

a big snow plow

astride the front of

a huge dump truck

Barreling along

Cleaning out, clearing away

Getting things done!

Aimed at accomplishments

and having some, too.

I was the driver.

Strongly, skillfully

I made a path

I blazed a trail

I won awards

I followed some others, true, but also

Some others followed me

Slowly, the path widened up, straightened out

Quite a good job, and

Quite a bit of hoopla!

Kids came to watch in their scarves and thick coats

they threw snowballs, and constructed

snow men

Overall, it was quite a show

But now, life for me is more like a west-bound train

passing silently in the night

over empty prairies and

past small towns

with no lights left on

and few residents left, either

A place to turn back, perhaps

to the buffalo

A place where just a drink of cool water

Causes excitement for many from many, many miles away

No one to wave to

Nothing to whistle at

And no reason to stop

Before the end of the line

Good Mileage?

DoctorD
6 days ago
5 comments

I got to drive my new car (a Subaru Forester) this past weekend out "into the country"--yes, there really is quite a bit still left, west of Chicago, if you go out far enough, to the middle of Illinois-- and noted the gas mileage. On a 300 mile trip, I clocked in at 26 miles per gallon.

That doesn't seem too bad to me, but it doesn't seem too good, either. Don't you think that nowadays you need to get over 30 miles per gallon before you are getting "good" mileage? On some future trip, where we will be driving mostly expressways, I will try to crash that barrier.

But what I also noticed is how far out the "suburban sprawl" has gone, with big developments near tiny rural towns and on far fields. (One example is Pingree Grove, which had only 124 residents at the time of the 2000 census, but has grown rapidly since, and I guess is still doing so despite the recession and housing collapse--not sure about that, though).

My first thought is, no one should live there at all. This is some of the best agricultural land in the world. It ought to be left alone. Northern Illinois University has made an effort to document the changes and the loss of this primary food resource.

But a second issue relates to fuel consumption. People who live so far out, so far away from employment and shopping, have to drive everywhere, all the time: no other sort of transportation exists, or is possible. Getting more fuel-efficient, less-polluting automobiles isn't much of an improvement if we have to have more of them, driven further each day.

I personally feel slightly guilty on this issue, as the development we have moved into was once open space. Not exactly farmland: actually, much of the area was a US Naval air base. But on the good side, it isn't "way out," either. Developed communities surround us on all sides. And much of our shopping at least can be done with a drive of just a mile (although none is really in very easy walking distance, at least not if you are carrying packages). Even the excellent high school is just a couple miles away.

Anyhow, it seems to me that there is a big tension between the push for better-mileage cars and the continuing dispersal of population in search of cheaper houses. All of the political attention (and consumer interest) seems to be focused on the former aspect. But isn't the latter just as important??

Actually, I imagine that many of these "rural" homeowners have lost their homes because, in search of the American Dream, they were mislead into mortgage they couldn't really handle, certainly not as jobs were being lost. But that is small comfort: there is no way to "unbuild" the construction. The land is now gone, forever.