Advocating Pessimistic Naysaying

Barbara Ehrenreich gets me. Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. Evangelical mega-churches preach the good news that you only have to want something to get it, because God wants to “prosper” you.…

Bloggers are Not Boycotting Downtown

Pretty much I view the anti-blogger sentiments expressed by the Citizens Community Enhancement Commission as evidence of a power struggle over information and message. I still do. However, it has come to my attention that real fear has been generated among some downtown business owners that bloggers are calling for general boycotts of downtown. Yes,…

Loss of Milan Krpan

Milan “Mile” Krpan, 76, of DeKalb, IL, died Friday October 9, 2009, at Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb. Milan was born June 21, 1933 in Sv Rok, Lovinac, Croatia, son to Ivan and Marija (Krpan) Krpan; he married Marija (Maria) Sulentic in Salzburg, Austria on December 7, 1958. Just weeks later Milan would leave Vienna,…

Castle Bank

One of many divisions of the US Department of the Treasury is the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). OCC is charged with ensuring a banking system that is competitive and sound, and this has been a busy year, especially in Illinois. The OCC website offers an Enforcement Action Search. Feeding in “DeKalb,…

Shaw Suing McHenry County Blogger

During the whole water authority referendum hoo-ha I visited the McHenry County Blog a few times for its coverage of the issue. Now the publisher, Cal Skinner, is being sued by the same people who own DeKalb’s Daily Chronicle. According to the Northwest Herald: The civil lawsuit challenges Cal Skinner Jr.’s June 3 post on…