King Henry VIII welcomes YOU as you join him in celebrating a summer festival at a country village in merry olde England, recreated in Danville’s Ellsworth Park, ...

AND THE WINNER IS...   

"It was a dark and stormy night" is a phrase written by Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron of Lytton at the beginning of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford.

POET MARY MOORE McLAUGHLIN TO HOST OPEN HOUSE AT THE BRIAR PATCH   

If you are planning to attend the Little Levels Heritage Fair in Hillsboro, West Virginia...

High Heels by Cyla Allison, Ph.D.   

The health care gurus have missed an important piece of reform on about page 632 of the bill alternately suffering through a high fever and then malaise in the House and Senate.

Saint Crispin's Day   

I remember Veteran's Day when it was called “Armistice Day.” My father and two of his brothers were veterans of “The War to End Wars.”

Time at Fifty-Seven    I know everyone says that time seems to fly by as you get older, but I am 57 ...

THE ILLINOIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL OPENS ITS 2009 SEASON   Beginning in 1978 with twenty-one performances on the tennis courts of Ewing Manor in Bloomington, the Illinois Shakespeare Festival has grown to become an internationally recognized company ...

It's Over   

To all of my dear Southern friends and wannabe Southern friends,

A Jeremiad Against Jeremiads   I stopped at the Liars Club to pick up dog food yesterday - by Cyla F. Allison, Ph.D.

A Matter of Integrity   By Doug Rokke, Ph.D. Major, retired, U.S. Army

Keynote speech: anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan   University YMCA 2nd Annual Student Activbist Conference, March 3

Exhibition   Oil Paintings by Hyon Joo Kim

University YMCA's Dump & Run   Annual Sale to Take Place at the U of I Stock Pavilion Aug. 24-26

The Rantoul Theatre Group   A Streetcar Named Desire

Whirlwind Project   Whirlwind Project Reading 2006: The Art of Being Neighbors

High Cross Studio Exhibition    Advanced Placement Studio Art Student Show

A Call to Arts Open Critiques   A Call to Arts - hosted by Euterpe Music Network
with Special Guests Edward Burch and Jason Finkelman

CU Gallery Guild   CU Gallery Guild Summer Schedule

Kyong Mee Choi Art Exhibition   Opening Reception May 5 at 5pm

Camp Kesem    Open to campers age 6-13

News from Neptune   Killers vs. Looters

A MANIFESTO OF A POPE TO BE   I hereby declare my intention to be a write-in candidate for Pope. I am confident that I will easily garner more votes as a write-in candidate for Pope than any of the other Cardinal candidates.

NATIONAL CORPORATE RADIO   Political satire doesn’t get much better than this. As The Onion was (and sometimes still is) to newspaper reporting and The Daily Show to television news, The People Who Do That bring their incisive wit and spot-on satirical nuance to NPR with National Corporate Radio.

NEWS FROM NEPTUNE: WHERE WE ARE NOW   The election of Bush means that much the same group of statist reactionaries (hardly conservatives, either neo- or otherwise) who are guilty of what the German leaders were condemned for at Nuremberg—launching aggressive war—are still in charge of U.S. policy.

NEWS FROM NEPTUNE: HOW TO STOP THE GWOT   Many of those disappointed by the defeat of John Kerry voted for him because they were appalled at the invasion of Iraq -- and quite reasonably feared that neocons and assorted "friends of Israel" would manipulate the US into further wars in Iran or Syria -- or even do something equally dangerous in northeast Asia.

NEWS FROM NEPTUNE: WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN?   Many on the soi-disant Left in the US are saying that the Republican
victory is due to the Christian Right, and some conclude then that the
paramount task for the Left is to attack religion (forgetting perhaps the
conscious ambiguity in Karl Marx' famous remark about the people's
painkiller).

THE REASONS WHY KERRY AND EDWARDS WIN IN NOVEMBER ARE SIXFOLD   As we are surely all well aware by now, the presidential election is about swing states, swing voters, and the candidates who lust after them.

THE REASONS WHY KERRY AND EDWARDS WIN IN NOVEMBER ARE SIXFOLD   Huge swathes of the country have been hurt, directly or indirectly, by the decisions of the current administration and the priorities on which they were based.

Lessons in Nation-Building from the Annals of Douglas MacArthur   In this crisis of intellect called Iraq, awful lessons keep accruing for a nation whose leaders are determined to learn nothing from history. In neoconservative America, Henry Ford's dictum "History is bunk!" has been elevated to fundamental policy. Making Iraq shudder with shock and awe was the easy part. "The terrible simplicities of war," France's de Gaulle said, "are in strong contrast to the devious methods demanded by the art of government."

Third Party Candidacy in Local Elections   (URBANA, IL) Champaign County Officer's Electoral Board upheld the right of Green Candidates Susan Rodgers, Ken Urban, Dave Sacks, and Zach Miller, to remain on the ballot for Champaign County Board. These candidates' ballot access rights had recently been challenged by local Democratic Party operatives.

THE REASONS WHY KERRY AND EDWARDS WIN IN NOVEMBER ARE SIX-FOLD   All of the Fingers on One Hand Working Together, and One Independent-Minded Finger on the Other

Part One of Six in a series discussing the factors that will determine the race for President in 2004


FACTS ARE STUPID THINGS   Remembering Ronald Reagan


OPEN LETTER TO PEACE CORPS DIRECTOR GADDI VASQUEZ   Dear Mr. Vasquez:

I read your memo to All Peace Corps about the death of Ronald Reagan which I received here in Kenya where I am an actively serving Volunteer.

LETTER FROM PHNOM PENH   Hi all,

This is my first group letter this trip, but the internet service is getting sketchier, and will slowdown to almost nil in Viet Nam, so I want to say hello now, while it is still feasible.