Intrigued by my initial request for FOIA logs at my local library, I wanted to see how other libraries in the area would handle an identical request. I submitted a request for FOIA logs from 2012 to the present to libraries in Woodridge, Lisle, Lombard, Westmont, Bolingbrook, Aurora, and Naperville.
Illinois State University is Giving Away Students’ Contact Information for Free
If you’re a college student and want to know who is collecting your personal contact information, there’s no better way to find out than a Freedom of Information Act request.
A review of all FOIA requests from my alma mater, Illinois State University, reveals that individuals and companies can obtain students’ contact information without a student’s consent. This is possible because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
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Letter to the Democratic Party of DuPage County
To The Democratic Party of DuPage County,
I am done with your emails. I am tired of the ugly fonts. I am tired of the long-winded emails where things are randomly capitalized, bolded, or italicized, causing me to lose the message in the sea of text. It’s 2017, not 1997. If you want people to be involved, then clean up and fix your communications.
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Tales from Adolescence: Kill Bill and Jewel
Note: In this occasional series, I’ll tell tales from my youth. Some will be about me, others about my friends. In this example, it’s the latter.
In high school I worked at the local Jewel grocery store. It was a pretty decent job; the hours were flexible and the pay we good. I never saw myself as a model employee, but compared to my coworkers I could be seen that way.
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Dissent in Detroit
Earlier this year I wrote about dissent in the arts, but specifically in music. In that post, I said, “I hope dissent in the concert halls and theaters across this land makes encourages more civil discourse because this country needs to understand one another more than ever.”
It may not have happened in a concert hall, but we need to talk about Eminem’s freestyle at last night’s BET Awards. It is straight up bananas.
It doesn’t mince words, but it doesn’t have to – it’s a rap freestyle. It’s supposed to make you uncomfortable. You’re supposed to rap and talk shit about your opponent. But Eminem does more than talk shit: he scorches the Earth. The ferocity of his verses, the herky jerky delivery, and the end where he tells his fans that if they support Trump they can fuck off is impressive. Eminem has always struck as a mad, perhaps madder than Onyx – who always sound pissed off, but the madness sounds sincere and palpable.
In these times of supposed culture wars where salvos come daily from Twitter, it’s incredibly refreshing to see a cogent salvo against those in charge come from a format outside of print and social media.