Cheap Trick, the pride of Rockford, has a new CD out called The Latest. It’s been released through Tunecore , a service that makes it easy for bands to sell…
Current Events
486 Articles
Jon Cummings
3 Min Read
The most thrilling, and also the most ridiculous, presidential speech of modern times came not from an actual president, but from a fake one. Michael Douglas’ off-the-cuff remarks at the…
Ann Logue
2 Min Read
Abraham Lincoln was born 201 years ago last week. He was America’s greatest president because he took charge in a time of crisis, a civil war that seems unimaginable in…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Just in time for last weekend’s National Tea Party convention — an event which will be remembered mostly for the way Sarah Palin had her devotees eating (and the rest…
Ann Logue
1 Min Read
This country is full of gorgeous old houses in places where the cost of living is negligible. For $149,000, you can have a five-bedroom brick center-hall colonial house on the…
Dw. Dunphy
1 Min Read
We are fast approaching yet another Valentine’s Day and the endless stream of invectives that seem to follow it like sea gulls after garbage trucks, and the taunts of “Hallmark…
Ann Logue
3 Min Read
February 2 is Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney and Election Day in Illinois. We have a lot of hot contests here in the state because our governor, who took office after…
Ann Logue
1 Min Read
Sita Sings the Blues is a great, sad movie about a breakup. The creator, Nina Paley, mixes animation styles and narrators, using the story of the Hindu gods Rama and…
Ted Asregadoo
5 Min Read
The election of Scott Brown to the United States Senate has been the sexy political story of the week, but it’s also a reminder to the Democratic party — and…
Dw. Dunphy
1 Min Read
Dear Lord, what an awful mess. Nigerian born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab managed to board an airplane armed with explosives. He got through the supposed security checkpoints placed from Nigeria through…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Whether or not Democrats manage to salvage health care legislation, losing Ted Kennedy’s seat is just desserts for their substantive and strategic failures.
Ann Logue
3 Min Read
Americans like to stress about our current account deficit. Even if they do not know the terms of the amounts, they worry about the fact that we export much less…
Robert Cass
14 Min Read
On the morning of January 11, numerous media outlets reported that former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich had proclaimed to Esquire magazine that he’s “blacker than Barack Obama” in its February…
Dw. Dunphy
1 Min Read
It was the middle of the night in the middle of August. I was lying in my bed in the dark while imaginary ironworkers slammed steel hammers against my chest…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Thanks for sticking with me after the first half of this monstrous column wrapping up our series on Ayn Rand and her overlong orgy of Objectivism, Atlas Shrugged. I realize…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
”We do not tell — we show.” So says the mentor of Atlas Shrugged‘s three key ”strikers,” philosopher Hugh Akston … on page 735 of a 1,168-page novel, in a…
Ann Logue
1 Min Read
John Maynard Keynes, the eminent economist who is back in style, described the stock market as a beauty contest. He asked the readers of his General Theory of Employment, Interest,…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
I tried. I tried so hard. You’ve gotta believe me when I tell you how I tried and tried to finish Ayn Rand’s oversize chronicle of obsessive-compulsive capitalism, Atlas Shrugged,…
Ann Logue
2 Min Read
When I was a kid, I had to listen to whatever the DJ picked. One of the odder decade-end lists was Nielsen’s list of the most-played singles on radio between…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
I have to admit, I’m a bit conflicted this holiday season. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been going through the motions — spending lots of time at home with my…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Here’s the thing about reading Ayn Rand: She forces you to think the way she does. Once you’ve immersed yourself in her black-and-white worldview — and once you’ve adjusted your…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
When I was a senior in college, instead of prepping for a career as a Rand-ian Master of the Universe with high-level courses in economics or engineering, I chose a…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
A homework pass to the first commenter who can identify what inspired this column’s headline — without resorting to the Google (honor system!) — and can tell us why The…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Objectivism is back, baby! Don’t take my word for it — just check out this cover of the libertarian monthly Reason, which offers up a freaky old Audrey Hepburn-meets-the-wicked-witch photo…
Robert Cass
6 Min Read
So, are you done with all your Thanksgiving leftovers? Already looking forward to that Christmas ham? Then listen up, all you attendees of Jesus’s annual baby shower, and take a…
Ann Logue
1 Min Read
Americans have a unique phobia about taxes. Years ago, politicians told us that we could have more stuff by paying less money, and we liked that. And so, we believe…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
It was such a simpler time, that summer of 2001. Remember it? That last season of America’s (cyclical) innocence shimmers in the memory, sorta like those gauzy images of lovebirds…
Ann Logue
1 Min Read
Last week, a conservative friend asked me how I liked living in Sweden under Comrade Obama. I sighed. Somehow or another, it has become accepted that Sweden is a frightening…