A question for our dedicated readers, derived from a recent trip to Galena. I seem to recall from an Illinois History class that Issac Funk, the pioneer businessman developing quite a bit of Central Illinois, made his original trade as a ferryman around the Galena area.
Did I get that right, or did he only do business around Heyworth/Wapella/Downs/Bloomington?
Also for 2 points, what trade were the Warners (of JW Bank fame) in before Banking?
Quiz Answer: The Warners sold construction material and supplies to the Illinois Central Railroad as it was being built through Central Illinos. If I recall, the specialty was berm (the hard pack that is under elevated track).
35 comments:
I believe the Warners got their start running a golf cart repair shop in town. 2 pts coming my way. bbd
Plaster Blaster obviously has no place here...
BBD,
Wouldn't the Warners have also dabbled in video rentals as well in said golf cart repair shop?
Plaster Blaster,
It's hard to find any context for your post, which does seem to seep into ranting territory.
I will veer off topic into your domain. Speaking for myself and not the w.com community, I do not support the farm bill and do support stronger educational opportunities for all. And I am willing to pay for it.
Let me encourage you to add a dose of civility to your posts, as well as provide some clue as to who you are actually responding to.
HG
I remember my Grandfather talking about a Funk who invented some type of farm machinery. My Great Grandfather worked for Funk's when he first came to Illinois.
I may stand corrected but I believe My Grandparents bought their homestead property from the Warners. Perhaps the Warners were farmers.
Plaster blaster was it something you ate? Bet it wasn't grown in the U.S.A.
the last anonymous must be a toohill. I believe Patrick did work for a funk when he came from New York....at any rate i have heard the same story.
Plater Blaster have a Coke and smile..............
Lots of Toohills out there MTB, but about 1/2 the county worked for Mr. Funk in some way shape or form, including our mutual great-great grandfather.
JBP
PB - have a PBR. I think Stevie or Paul said there's good and bad in everyone.
JMK - excellent point on videos
HG - don't encourage PB plus thanks for your courageous pro-education stand. what is your position on the children - are they our future?
MTB - I finally was able to soak up the storefront first hand a few weeks ago. Very nice. I was hoping for more free samples. Your sales force was on fire that day (father of MTB). He could have sold Rex cleaner to an Amway dealer. bbd
PB....I like your style. A little shake up is just what the board needed. Plus, admire your use of street rhetoric, like "welfare mamas." And picking farmers as a target, when most of the board have fathers or grandfathers who were farmers (including myself) is certainly antagonistic. Putting the danger back in journalism. I can dig it.
And MTB, if we're giving credentials on relatives, my uncle Jimmy Ryan claims HOF boxer, lawman and Irishman from St. Paul, MN, Tommy Gibbons, is my great great great uncle. My Great Grandfather's mother was a Gibbons from St. Paul and has claimed him as a relitive. This is likely 75% untrue, but it sounds great on wapella.com
Plaster blaster posted that a while back but it got taken off, I think it was in some string about an ownership society and the farm bill came up. I also think in was a response to some generalized racism that was being posted. In the original context it was one of the best debate style rebuttals Wapella.com has ever seen.
Obviously he was waiting for some farm related topic to pop up to re-post it.
I have a question for PlasterBlaster or anyone.
What movie was the phrase "Plaster Saint" used in?
That is a great line.
You have to admit, it fits perfectly on a farmer complaining about the welfare mamas.
I remember those posts. A bunch got censored for no good reason, It was basically an argument between BEP, SoCal and PB. It was around the time of the Larry Storch for governor topic and fiat money.
BEP and SoCal were complaining about paying for the welfare mamas etc. BEP was pissed about the Pres. Candidates not voting for the farm bill.
PB wrote the "You're all a bunch of Plaster Saints" rant to put them in their place.
It was censored for being true.
Plaster Saint
a person who makes a show of being without moral faults or human weakness, esp. in a hypocritical way.
PB....a friend of mine had some wise words to say:
"Dear Anti Farm Bill person,
I am very sorry about your recent accident and the closed head injury that you suffered. I will hope and pray that through medication and therapy you will be able to return to your job as a fire watcher.
Please remember that dairy farmers feed not only America but the world. American agricultural prices have been oh so low these many years. When we enjoy some prosperity we are besieged by exorbitant input prices. But these are details and I realize that these silly facts probably don't compute in your hominid cranium. Want to see high food prices: let corporate America grow your food.
The projects do provide us with some great hoops, an alternative language and lots of murders to watch on the 10 o'clock news. Who would eat the government cheese if the 'jects were closed down? Nike would go out of business as would the baggy jean makers. There would be anarchy.
IF, and this is a big IF, you pay taxes, you should be outraged by government handouts. This farm bill you slam provides food stamps to many Americans. Please don't trade your allotment for fire water and beads any more.
A Plaster Saint
Cc: A papier mache Saint, a stucco Saint, a dryvit Saint, St. Serenus the Gardener and St. Isidore the Farmer"
Most of the censorship has to do with being boring, regardless of the facts.
There is not enough room on the Wapella.com for factual information.
Bring on the hyperbole and Buck Owens.
JBP
I thought Funk invented a type of music I get down to three or four times a week with the old lady.
I love the farm bills. It keeps medium size farms from falling into the hands of a much larger corporate America. Besides why would I dislike something that puts money into my relatives' pockets?
Plaster Blaster, did you send back your stimulus package money? Seems to me that makes us all welfare momma's.
Writing from a dairy farm in St. Henry, MN,
I have been watching this live on my lunch hour and I am baffled by the censorship.
Hey RD,
Maybe the gov't should have used some of that stimulus (or farm bill) money and fixed a few of the bridges around the county.
You know, the bridges we all drive over from time to time and that occasionally collapse.
You know, like, fix them before they collapse, not after.
JV
EEP is correct. The largest portion of the "farm bill" goes into the "Food Stamp" program, so the vast majority of "beneficiaries" of the Farm Bill have never set foot on a farm in their lives.
I'm not a farmer. I've paid out HUGE sums of money every year in federal and state income taxes, FICA taxes, Medicare taxes property taxes, sales taxes, etc. If I want to take issue with paying for handouts to able-bodied people, the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees me the right to exercise free speech. Other than our wise blog moderator, "anonymous" posters here who do not like what I post can just put the "wah-mbulance" on Speed Dial, because I will not be silenced by those who think that their disagreement with my views gives them the right to shut me down. It doesn't.
To have the audacity to compare able-bodied welfare recipients [who do nothing in return for their upkeep] to farmers who produce the nation's and much of the world's food supply, takes total ignorance to a new low.
Oh, and btw, I'm not a "Plaster Saint," or a saint of any kind, for that matter. I'm sure that's a slur used by the troll to demean Catholics. I'm not, and have never been a Catholic, but unlike the troll, I have respect for those who practice the Catholic faith.
EEP - 8/22 @ 6:26 a.m. EXCELLENT POST!
SoCal
Calling all welfare mama and agriculture mama enthusiasts - attempted perspective to a lot of Pantagraph-like banter....
2008 budget breakdown....
$2.4T in total federal outlays -
600 billion social security,
600 billion defense,
400 billion medicare,
361 billion Medicaid
other income security 128 billion (that is probably where TANF, formerly AFDC program is but I'm honestly not sure). I think TANF is $16.4 billion per another source
15 billion is farm income stabilization.
Farm subsidies and TANF are borderline rounding errors in the context of the overall budget.
Interest on the debt is $260 billion. I vote for everyone taking their proportionate hits and kicking out a balanced budget again for a few years. There is an inflation buster. Does Paris Hilton have a postion on this - I liked her envrionmental policy.
Let's go get those Russians! all my love, bbd
source = http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2008/sheets/hist03z2.xls
Here goes,
bbd's perspective is correct on issues of the federal budget. The farm bill is a small fraction of the federal budget, and there are bigger fish to fry. That said, I think the present farm bill does create distortions that are better left to the market. These distortions encourage some extra-rational choices which lead to economic inefficiencies.
"Welfare mama" is inflammatory rhetoric largely unsupported by data. The characterization is more out of date in light of the welfare reforms of the 1990s. Moreover, welfare is a distinct program from food stamps. To those who are given to this rhetoric, I am always interested in what they propose should society's response be to those unfortunate people who truly do not have the ability to take care of themselves. They do exist.
As for the Russians, I'm not ready to re-ignite the cold war over this. I'll let our Russian experts chime in, but I'm not convinced the Georgians were without blame here.
HG
Thanks for the kudos, SoCal.
I only wish I could accept them.
However, the post in question was not written by myself, but rather, by a person who, like Batman, preaches justice and equality, only to remain anonymous in the end.
Gordon: "I never said 'thank you.'"
Batman: "And you'll never have to."
SoCal,
You're right James Blunt!
JV
I knew I could count on BBD to put farm bill spending into perspective. Being actively engaged in farming/farm pmt. recipient, I know first hand that the program has flaws(google EWG website). Also EEP has good points in his post. As far as being called a hypocrite by plaster blaster, lets talk face to face somewhere. RJT
HG - I assume you mean more to the free market rather than entirely to the free market? The international ag market certainly ain't entirely a free market. Ever seen a ticket-off French farmer.
Get some perspective and concentrate on either the big picture (e.g. figuring out Medicare, Medicaid, and a cost-friendlier foreign policy)or a proportionate approach to spending excesses. Otherwise we'll be arguing about rounding errors while the big one's eat us up - that is what is happening.
bbd
RJT,
I never called you a hypocrite, unless you were one of those bad mouthing the poor people in the projects and complaining about the farm bill at the same time, which I know you were not.
I will meet you at the Circle tonight if you like.
1st round is on me.
PB
Mod,
Why the censorship on my other reply's?
bbd--Thanks kindly for the economics lesson on perspective. But as my French agrarian friends would say, "Au contraire." It is possible to walk and chew gum at the same time: we need to focus on the big picture, and swat the disease-carrying mosquito of a silly farm program at the same time.
HG
HG-
I did clearly state in my post that I take issue with paying for the upkeep of those who are able-bodied. [ie: capable of providing for themselves]I have no problem with public assistance of any kind for the elderly, the medically/mentally disabled, etc.
SoCal
" Anonymous said...
SoCal,
You're right James Blunt!
JV
August 23, 2008 10:51 AM"
I'm sorry, but I'm unclear as to what or whom you are referring to.
SoCal
By the way, I just noticed some sloppy writing on my part - 2nd paragraph of my last post was not directed at you, HG. Actually was directed directly at the grand master plaster blaster. bbd
Mod,
Why the censorship on my other reply's?
My unmitigated gall and sheer boredom
JBP
It is mildly interesting to see the hand-grenade effect of incendiary comments.
SoCal--my comments were more directed at PB, who has aroused quite a stir (never mind that I think he's basically right on the farm bill).
bbd--you're off my hook now following clarification.
I'm glad to see RJT and PB are getting together.
My guess is those that are censored probably have earned their way onto the mod's blacklist.
HoosierGato
Hoosier Gato-
I understand that you were referring to another post. I just wanted you to know that I do make a distinction between those truly in need and those who "take advantage" simply because they can. I meant no offense to you, good Sir, and there was never any taken on my part, either. :-)
SoCal
SoCal, We are in harmony. HG
PB - your post is much more civil and targeted and ending with buying RJT a round, all right! I wanna sing a healing song - we are the world maybe....
HG - my point is that the mosquitos have dominated the dialogue for years, it hasn't helped and contributes to inflammatory blue/red trench warfare. Look at the rates of growth of our 2 incomes asst examples (tanf & farm) compared to medicare, medicaid, and defense. As long as the income asst growth rates continue to be ridiculously modest, I'm all for basically ignoring these mosquitos within reason (about 1% of total spending combined - not 1% of dialogue) if it leads to making grown-up decisions on the real spending pressures. bbd
bbd--I will note there is an amplification effect to the farm bill as it affects broad international trade agreements. The French don't give a hoot about our medicare or social security, but they do care about our farm subsidies, as we do theirs. And an improved farm bill opens the door for greater benefits in trade beyond the farm sector.
And whatever the case may be, the farm bill comes up like a weed every five years or so, and so we must consider it, like it or not. It's never been hardwired, like medicare and social security currently are.
HG
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