Here's another thing I saw sprouting in the cornfields (in addition to housing developments). Wind farms, they are called.
Some farmers had signs in their lawn protesting, but others obviously have sold land for this purpose. Apparently each windmill takes 1-3 acres. I saw dozens in southern DeKalb County (IL), but none in adjacent Lee County, on the roads I followed.
The company involved is apparently based in Florida. One woman I spoke with said that they would rather have their wind-farms in Wyoming, but there is some problem apparently with transmission over that great a distance. (Which doesn't sound right to me, but that is what she said).
In principle, wind power (and solar power) sound ecologically fine. In practice, it sure is ugly! But, when it is on a ridge line in the eastern mountains, and visible in every direction for many miles, it is even worse!
And in some places there have been problems from killing birds.
On the other hand, I guess farmers are having trouble making a living with crops alone.
I do wish our new house had a solar panel on the roof. Really, I think it should be required.
But on the other hand, I am glad there are no wind turbines nearby. Having a high former landfill is bad enough! And traffic, traffic is pretty bad, too.
The area I drove through last weekend, in north-central Illinois, has a lot of housing construction going on what had until recently been farmland--and some of the best agricultural land in the world. In many cases, the buildings are at the edge of tiny rural communities, communities that now seem to be becoming (very distant!) suburbs.
Really, I was shocked to see it. All we are talking about is houses, fairly big ones, very close together: no parks, schools, shops, no public transportation. No trees. It isn't a town, it isn't a city, and it isn't what a suburb used to be either. What is it? What will it become in 40 or 50 years?
There are quite a lot of efforts at farmland preservation. But my most recent drives in the country suggest that, thus far, they are not accomplishing a great deal. A couple conversations I had indicated that farmers are having a tough time making a living--although an earlier one, out in western Nebraska, suggested that some had done very well because of the ethanol boom when the price of gas was so high.
I don't have much direct contact, although I do try to shop at farmers markets (now all closed up for the season in this area). That is a very small step, but one of the few I know how to take. I have contributed to Farm Aid; probably I ought to be donating more.
This photo was taken near Cortland IL, which had a population of about 2,066 in the 2000 census, but had grown to nearly 4,000 by 2007, when a special census was conducted. It was first incorporated in 1865, and is located fairly near an access point to the Illinois Tollway, which I assume explains its growing popularity.
This discussion and news stories have reminded me of an experience when I was a young graduate student, 40 years ago. A group of us political science students had a special class that met in a suburban Village Hall. The professional village manager who was the guest lecturer was a bit late, and when he finally came in, he apologized, and this is what he said as an explanation:
He had been on the phone for quite a while with a resident, a local citizen, who wanted the local government to do something about her neighbors. They were sending death rays through the walls of her house that were turning her bones to plastic. While she was wearing a protective hat made of tin foil, she wanted her nefarious neighbors to be stopped! To send the police, to take some kind of action.
I remember feeling a bit shocked. I thought that the energies of political leaders and professionals were spent trying to help make things better for the public and the community: to patch the potholes, put out fires, build the parks, educate the children. I had not considered that among the constituents were, quite literally, a certain number of certifiably crazy people. Nut cases. And that they could be just as outspoken and demanding as regular people--and perhaps even more so.
Now quite a lot of time has passed. The nut cases have become more numerous, more vocal. They have control of tv networks, publish many books and magazines, and have pretty much taken control of one of our two major political parties. Their bones are still being turned to plastic, I guess--but now the liberal-socialist-Muslim Obama people are doing it!
PS--the other thing that was greatly feared in my youth was fluoridation of water supplies, which the John Birchers thought was some kind of communist plot. But you don't hear much about that any more. The Birchers do still exist, though, and among other things they are working to prevent one-world government and to get the U.S. out of the United Nations and build adherence to the Constitution.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
Things I Love:
- Brian announced what he would like to get me for Christmas: ANOTHER KITTY. You can imagine my excitement. It is such that I'm beyond even being about to use exclamation points and I have to revert back to using plain ol' periods. Also, this will be great for Fritz, who we think is getting pretty lonely, especially at night--we don't let him into the bedroom and he's taken to howling at all hours of the night.
- SHOPPING FOR KITTIES ZOMGZ CAN WE HAVE THEM ALL
- How affectionate Fritz has been lately. As we speak he's sitting in the chair with me, purring away.
- Brian, who despite claiming to have no idea how to get gifts for people has come up with an untoppable gift the second year in a row.
- Threadless, and online shopping in general. In the last week I have: ordered a Threadless shirt, ordered something from Woot (a WootOff, to be precise), pre-ordered a video game from Amazon, and ordered yet another Threadless shirt. The first one's already come in:
Things I Loathe:
- The PetSmart employee who I suppose didn't want to risk getting off even a few minutes late, so she lied to us and told us they don't do adoptions after 8pm. (They close at 9--we got there right at 8:30.) I called another PetSmart to confirm this isn't a company policy. We were going up to look again at a kitty we'd played with and loved last night (AFTER 8).
- My decreasing ability to control my RED IMPOSSIBLE ANGER! (That phrase is only going to be funny to me because I am a loser who has inside jokes with herself. I'm aggravated and will cheer myself up however I please, damn it.)
- Procrastination. Sigh. I cannot get myself to stick to a reading/study schedule and as a result, have something like 300 pages of (textbook) reading to do in a week before two tests next Tuesday.
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!
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.
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
Links from my Neighborhood
Congressional Budget Office...
An official, bi-partisan research organization.
The Urban Institute | Resea...
The Urban InstituteGATHERS data,CONDUCTS research,EVALUAT...
Scenic America dedicated to preserving and enhancing the ...
Barack Obama | Change We Ca...
Obama news and info
U.S. Government Accountabil...
"The investigative arm of Congress" and "the congressiona...
