Illinois Marathon Pundit

And it was inevitable that some of these people pushed back...
The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury.

It's all these 'gatherers' and 'sharers' going around counting and measuring and taking off to storage. They do more gathering than sharing and we never see most of the stuff again.
Hob Hayward, Hobbit farmer, The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien.

Get up off your arses men
Don't let 'em think you're getting lazy
Get up out of your easy chairs
We gotta lot to do out there, well ain't we?
"Get Up," The Kinks.

We are nation that has a government, not the other way around.
Ronald Reagan.

Are you tired of government bailouts of failed companies? Does the coverup by the Democrats over the AIG bonuses have you steamed? Are you angry about our nation's march to socialism?

Then show up at a Tea Party near you.

I was at the Chicago version of the Nationwide Chicago Tea Party last month, with little notice we got 400 patriots to show up.

The Tax Day Tea Party will take place, of course, on April 15. The theme is "Repeal the Pork, Cut Taxes." Once again the Chicago edition will start at Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington Street. But it will start at noon this time.

If you don't live near Chicago, then there is probably a Tea Party near you.

Click here to find what is going on in your state.

Or join the Facebook group.

As far as I can gather, there's at least one Tax Day Tea Party in almost every state.

What to do at the party? Bring signs, a loud voice, and a patriotic state of mind.

Let's be heard!

Let freedom ring!

Technorati tags: business news government politics chicago illinois tea party Chicago Illinois bailouts aig democrats

Since the Great Depression is a popular topic during our current economic turmoil, I thought today would be a good time to write about the Civil Conservation Corps.

If I run north for my daily workout, I run past a CCC-built picnic shelter. This one, built with Joliet limestone, is in Harms Woods in Skokie.

Scattered throughout the Forest Preserve District of Cook County are similar structures. On Archer Avenue in southwest suburban Willow Springs, there is a monument to the CCC workers.

Here's some more about the CCC, from Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism:

Perhaps no program better represented the new governmental martial outlook than the Civil Conservation Corps, or CCC. Arguably the most popular program of the New Deal, the CCC mobilized some 2.5 million young men into what could only be called paramilitary training. CCCers mostly worked as a "forestry army," clearing dead wood and the like. Enlistees met at army recruiting stations; wore World War I uniforms; were transported around the country by troop trains; answered to army sergeants; were required to stand at attention, march in formation, employ military lingo--including the duty of calling officers "sir"--read a CCC newspaper modeled on Stars and Stripes, went to bed in army tents listening to taps; and woke to reveille.

After the CCC was approved by Congress, FDR reported, It is a pretty good record, one which I think can be compared with the mobilization carried on in 1917." The Speaker of the House boasted of the CCC's success: "They are also under military training and as they come out of it the come out improved in health and developed mentally and physically and are more useful citizens and if ever we should become involved in another war they would furnish a very valuable nucleus for our army." Meanwhile, the Nazis were establishing similar camps for virtually identical reasons.

During warm weather weekends, the Harms Woods shelter is popular with picnickers, on light-jacket days the fireplaces are blazing.

About an eighth of a mile south of the shelter was a CCC-built public washroom, a little brother of sorts, also built with Joliet limestone. It was a notorious spot for male/male sexual trysts.

Some stuff I just know.

The Forest Preserve District demolished it two years ago.

Technorati tags: government history geology cook county books jonah goldberg fdr great depression skokie