Ramblin' around

This morning I went out and about for a bit.

I went to the Davenport Public Library to return some books. I had checked out two of them because I am having one of my periodic bouts of curiosity about my ancestry. I'm no genealogist, but I do know that my ancestry is largely German, and most of the Germans in this area are from the Schleswig-Holstein region.It's the part of Germany that is on the Denmark border. One of the books was a very small volume about the people who emigrated to the area as a result of the revolutionary activity in Schleswig-Holstein in 1848. They came here, speaking no English, and worked to build their lives here. Their kids were more fluent in English, but into the 1880s their newspaper was Der Demokrat. They were behind the founding of the Turners Clubs (Turnverein). It took three generations - or more - before the German was fully replaced by English. While this was happening, there were newspaper editorials decrying those who came to this country, took jobs, and didn't even bother learning English. Sound familiar?

After dropping the books at the Davenport Library I drove up Brady Street on the way to the Bettendorf Library. Great thing about a library card in the Quad Cities these days: with it, I can check books out from any public library and most college libraries in the area. The only holdout from the system is Augustana. God only knows what they think they can be so arrogant about. On Brady Street there was a sign that said "Garage Sale." Only, something else obscured part of the sign from my vision, so the sign looked like "rage sale." I wonder what units they'd sell rage in? "I'd like three of those little boxes of rage, please - I think someone's going to cut me off in traffic today." "OK, sir, but for just a little more you can have four of the big boxes of rage, and you can then be a member of the Tea Party!"

A little lesson in Realpolitik. Once someone is elected to office, their mission becomes to get reelected as many times as possible. Never mind "serving the people" or "getting rid of corruption." It's neither of those. It's, "I have power, and I mean to keep it." So, those who holler loudest about pork-barrel politics will be the biggest bearers of pork. (See "McConnell, Mitch".) My only question: do you think the Tea Partiers' candidates will be any different? Seriously? You see Rand Paul, when asked whether he would have voted for the civil rights measures in the '60s, waltz all around the question. A simple yes-or-no question, but the next day his people were accusing the interviewer of trapping him. Poor not-ready-for-prime-time Rand! Or you see Sharon Angle, when asked to explain one of her own comments, running from the reporter like someone had told her her shorts were on fire.

So what would you expect if you elect a lot of Tea Partiers? No more honesty - no cuts in budgets, just rearrangements - and a lot less smarts. Which may be what they really want.

I got to the Bettendorf Library. It's my favorite in the QCA - newer, cleaner, brighter than the others. You check out your books by scanning your card, then laying your books, CDs, whatever, on a table. You point to a screen to say whether you want a receipt. That's it.

One of the books I checked out is entitled 1688. Those familiar with English - or Western - history will recognize that as a seminal date - the year of the Glorious Revolution. I'm looking forward to the read.

So, thus goes my day on this cloudy, rainy, chilly late September day - one of those days when autumn shakes its wrinkled, crooked finger at us and says, "I'm back!"

Notre Dame-Stanford on now. It's refreshing to see two schools play whose athletes are expected to perform academically as well as athletically - whose students don't think "did that in high school" when they hear the word "graduate".

Differences between Notre Dame and Ohio State?

Notre Dame has class.

Notre Dame has classes.