On Monday, when the big storms came racing through the upper midwest, we had wires come down in our backyard. They set one of the trees back there on fire, and took out our electricity, as well. When I called the power company an hour or so later, to check on the outage, I was told there was no estimated time for restoration yet ( Read more... )

In case you didn't hear about it, there was a major storm system that passed through our area last Thursday. (Thing One has a friend in Germany who contacted her to make sure she was all right, so I guess it was international news.) Two tornadoes (I think that's the official number, although earlier they thought there might have been as many as ( Read more... )

Gary is probably the punchline to most jokes about Indiana, actually ( Read more... )

Today is International Transgender Day of Remembrance. It's a day to remember those who have died in the past year because of anti-trans violence.Last year on the Transgender Day of Remembrance, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed the legislation allowing same-sex marriage. When I pointed out that the day was already significant for some GLBT ( Read more... )

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Driving down the highway in swirling, blowing snow that gives you variable visibility of about ten feet to about 100 feet, is bad enough. Add to this the vertigo you experience when suddenly your visibility is taken away and you can't see past your windshield, and the road you have driven down literally thousands of times disappears, so suddenly ( Read more... )

How many of the people who are calling for the castration of the eighteen suspects (in other words, people who have not yet even been tried in court) in the gang rape of that eleven year old in Texas also applauded the Illinois legislature and governor for abolishing the death penalty in our great state earlier this week ( Read more... )

Rod (the Mod) Blagojevich has been found guilty only on one count of lying to the Feds.

Another story I read said something about a mistrial being called, and the prosecutors promising to go for a re-trial.

It would really be nice if, some day, Illinois and crooked politicians didn't have anything in common.

So, you go to the search engine of your choice, and type in "you know you're from [where you're from] when." Then you look over the results to find something actually appropriate, copy it, and put the stuff that applies to you in bold. I put my comments in italics.

( It's very long. )

The Illinois State Senate voted today to put a constitutional amendment on the 2010 ballot to allow the recall of governors.

I'm not entirely certain what I think of the idea. It seems good. But then, remember California's recall of Gray Davis? That was a farce. Of course, it was California.