A Knight in Dragonland

I unfortunately was not able to attend the Daily Times / Friends of the Pekin Public Librarry forum on April 3rd, so I have to base my opinion on what I’ve read in the Daily Times regarding the mayoral debate, the council candidates’ discussions and the reaction of those attending. I hope to catch [...]

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In the last week or so I’ve been repeatedly reminded that my opinion is in the minority around here. Public smoking bans – a standard of civilization in much of our country and in many other countries across the world – seem to be the height of controversy in the Heart of Illinois. [...]

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Deep breaths, Matthew.  Slowly, in and out.  OK, I’m calm now.
Ahem.  In case you didn’t notice, I get a little fired up (pun intended) about the issue of smoking in public places.  I feel strongly that it’s an issue of public health and respect for the personal liberties of non-smokers.
There is no right to smoke.  [...]

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The Pekin political scene is starting to rev up again after the post-primary lull. The biggest news of the last few days has been the announcement on Monday that Daryl Dagit is stepping down from the city council and Tuesday’s Southside Business Association candidate forum for both mayoral and city council candidates.
Dagit’s departure comes [...]

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On a note of personal disgust, all the local council and mayoral candidates apparently think it’s OK to violate the personal liberties of non-smokers and expose innocent bystanders to toxic chemicals.
Shame on them all! I think I’ll go buy a can of mace and start randomly spraying people in the face with it. [...]

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This time, Mangan is having visions of thought police. Ohh lord …
From my point of view, Rick Wade’s March 20 column simply called for honesty and civility on the editorial page when writing letters addressing the upcoming election. This is advice that Wade should apply to himself in his blog behavior, but [...]

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It seems William Toel has responded indirectly to my earlier criticism regarding his role in the Grace Presbyterian Church capital campaign (second to last item on his “Experience” list). Thanks to my regular commenter, Tom 2, for pointing it out.
Toel has added a letter from Dr. Ben Johnston, the senior pastor of Grace Presbyterian, [...]

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I read Rick Wade’s editiorial column today, and I was wondering whose political signs were uprooted recently. My understanding is that Dave Tebben and Barb Strand signs have been taken down by political vandals.
Well, add District 108 school board member Karen Frazier to the list. I had one of her signs in my [...]

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The contrarian in me is itching to post something to antagonize my stalker, although I have no idea what I said that so offended them. My usual topics of discussion are experiencing a bit of a lull.
The school consolidation issue seems dead in the water – the proper place for that proposal, in my [...]

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Election results are in on the WEEK website, and Jim Mangan’s candidates didn’t do so well. In fact, Mangan’s endorsement appears to be a political kiss of death.
Along with Connie Milburn, Mangan’s council candidates (John Gay, Neva Farson and David Kern) rounded out the bottom four in the vote tally. Only Jason Juchems, [...]

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I have stated previously that I believe Mr. William Toel, candidate for Mayor of Pekin, has an honesty problem. It’s nothing blatant or outright, but he certainly bends the facts to the breaking point. Let me provide my readers with an example.
On his webpage, Mr. Toel makes the following statement regarding his experience [...]

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Well, it seems I was right … the flier on my door came from Mangan. It also shouldn’t surprise me that Mangan misrepresented one of the candidates on his list.
In the headline article of the weekend Times, Jason Juchems distances himself from the rest of Mangan’s list in no uncertain terms:
I have in no [...]

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I had a campaign flier on my door yesterday. I’m thinking it’s a product of Jim Mangan, but I’m only guessing since there was no name on it. The wording on the flier has Mangan’s characteristic odd and prolific use of quotation marks to highlight certain words and phrases, and the content seems [...]

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The new Daily Times weekend edition contains a board editorial objecting to Jim Mangan’s “no tax” demands on mayoral and city council candidates.
First, they challenged Mangan’s claims to represent a larger group of citizens:
[...] no others in that group have emerged from the shadows to identify themselves, much as no other member of the consolidation [...]

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OK, Rick. You vigorously defended your paper against my suggestion that it might be acting as Jim Mangan’s mouthpiece a little too much.
But now … page 1, lead article … “Citizens challenge candidates.”
For one thing, that title is misleading. I read the article several times to make sure that I didn’t miss anything, [...]

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