Only California has a better credit rating than Illinois, but California has a better long-term outlook. Yay for us!
Copyright 2012, Story. All rights reserved.
19
Aug 12
Editorial Cartoon: How to fix the economy
It’s a good time to be rich in America. Well, it’s always a good time to be rich in America. Perhaps the better way to put it is: It’s a good time to be rich if most of your income comes from investments and not wages.
Rock River Times click here
Copyright 2012, Story. All rights reserved.
07
Aug 12
Editorial Cartoon: Is it time for gun control yet?
Full disclosure: I’m not against owning guns, but with the number of legal guns being used to commit mass-murder, it’s hard to say that guns are a good idea. Of course, you can swing the other way and say that more guns are the solution. Take that notion to its logical end and it would make the wild west seem pretty much like a Disney movie.
Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.
29
Jul 12
Editorial Cartoon: Sensata Plea To Save Jobs
The folks over at Freeport based Sensata are asking Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney to step in on behalf of workers to keep their jobs in America.
You can’t have it both ways. We can’t complain about a loss of freedom at the hand of government and then go to government and implore them to step in against “evil” business. I don’t like having jobs go to China just because of labor costs, but making profit is not intrinsically a philanthropic enterprise.
Copyright 2012, Story. All rights reserved.
15
Jul 12
Editorial Cartoon: Hazard Pay for Police
It’s too easy to make this about race and money. It’s really about providing the infrastructure we need.
At first glance, the police union’s request to have hazard pay seems like an endictment of a lawless and uncontrollable West-side. When I first read the reports, I imagined a cop saying “I’d rather be back in Afghanistan than patrolling West State Street”, but it sounds more like “this is where the crime is and I could use some help out here”.
For me, the real question is: Do police catch criminals or keep the peace? They are two different things. If police catch criminals, then it matters less where those police are stationed or how many there are since catching criminals is an ex post facto proposition. On the other hand, keeping the peace requires that police engage their community and act as part of the social infrastructure. Catching criminals allows a smaller bottom line on the city budget, but a higher cost to everyone. Keeping the peace is expensive and labor-intensive, but makes all the difference.
Copyright 2012, Story. All rights reserved.
04
Jul 12
Editorial Cartoon: Booze Ban on the Kishwaukee River
You can’t go a weekend during the summer without witnessing a modern wagon-train of inner tubes and various flotation devices floating lazily down the beautiful Kishwaukee river–a wagon train fueled by beer and abandon. Apparently, good-natured fun is bad for us and our overlords have stepped in to protect us from all the negative side-effects of pleasure.
I suppose this isn’t the worst thing in the world if they said that alcohol in the parks was a bad influence and so on, but booze is only outlawed at the put-in and take-out access points in the parks. Here are two things I’ve learned about human beings: Never underestimate the lengths people will go to for a good time, and you can always rely on Illinois government (at any level) to provide unending fodder for easy material.
By the way, I’m not actually advocating putting a friend in a catapult. There’s got to be a better alternative to buddy-chunkin’.
Copyright 2012, Story. All rights reserved.
02
Jul 12
Editorial Cartoon: Of Course YOU Don’t Need a Safety Net…
After listening to the right wing talk about self-reliance and hard work, I wonder how these guys and gals would feel if they ever had to choose between baby formula and a flu shot. There’s a fine line between a welfare state that encourages people to be less productive and providing the basic building blocks that allow people to go out and do the things they need to get a bigger piece of the pie. I suppose that I (and fellow voters) would feel much more secure if the far-right actually came out and admitted what the policies they espouse are designed to do: old people dying in the street, higher infant mortality, debtors prisons, resurgence of long-dormant plagues — you get the point. Then, we’d never have to worry about one of these types ever getting elected.
Copyright 2012, Story. All rights reserved.
02
Jul 12
Editorial Cartoon: Landfill Expansion
Expand the Winnebago County Landfill? Why Bother?
Copyright 2012, Story. All rights reserved.
27
Jun 12
Editorial Cartoon: Repeal Obamacare (and wackiness ensues)
A campaign promise to repeal the patient protection and affordable care act sounds a lot like a promise to get a swift kick in the pants come election time. In a world where health care costs always increase and employer provided health insurance is always a one economic downturn away from oblivion, it’s a hard sell to get mom and pop to support such a huge step backward–especially when it comes time to refill the cholesterol/blood pressure/diabetes/ADHD/can’t go to sleep/depression/heartburn/’insert ailment here’ medication at a higher cost than any other nation in the world (to subsidize lower prices everywhere else).
If the Supreme Court doesn’t invalidate the law, I’ll start printing my “Yes We Can, Again” T-shirts.
Copyright 2012, Story. All rights reserved.
