people-from-illinois

"I was good on my job and I demonstrated the proficiencies that allowed me to excel purely on merit."

"As an outsider, I have observed that Uganda has made tremendous strides from the Amin era."

"I would rather be remembered as a Christian who loved his country and family."

"The labels liberal and conservative used to mean something fairly clear. A liberal used to mean somebody who believed in the individual, who believed in the free market, who believed that you should break down all the barriers toward individual self-expression. If this meant destroying the church or weakening the power of parents within their family, destroying social classes, all sorts of conventions, this is what liberals were in favor of. What conservatives were interested in doing was preserving a kind of cultural order, preserving a tradition, preserving a sense of sacredness—even if they weren’t particularly religious themselves, they had to preserve that sense of the sacred. And what happened in the 1940s and 50s is that conservatism got defined as what used to be called liberal. In other words, the free market is everything, the individual is everything. Forget family—forget everything, essentially, but the marketplace and the defense of the nation, because the old liberals were also great colonialists. And the people who called themselves liberals were in fact socialists or worse. What was somebody with something like a conservative worldview going to do? There was no place. There was no label. There was no party. There was no movement. It’s like being a conservative environmentalist today. The greatest environmental thinker, the most powerful philosopher of conservation today, is Wendell Berry, who is a conservative. He lives on his little farm in rural Kentucky. He writes books about managing his own little family farm. He’s a Christian, he’s a traditionalist, but he’s on the board of the Sierra Club. Why? Because there’s no conservative organization that would welcome Wendell Berry; they think he’s the devil incarnate. And that, in a nutshell, is the failure of American conservatism—not to make a place for the real social, cultural, and moral conservatives who have surfaced from time to time. Jack Kerouac was a conservative and nobody knew that at the time. Why was he a conservative? He thought of himself as a man of the right. He thought he was a patriot. He was a rugged, old-fashioned individualist, but he loved America. He hated this rise of America-bashing of the 60s, and he’s quite an interesting person. Obviously, he was a moral anarchist in some sense, but way down deep he had the...impulses of a Baudelaire, who was also a conservative."

"Among Professor Needham’s most distinguished research is his work with the aquatic insects—the , , and . To the damsel flies and dragonflies particularly, he gave much of his time in study of the biology and classification. His outstanding work A Manual of the Dragonflies of North America, revised in 1954 with a former student, Dr. M. J. Westfall, as co-author, was published by the only a few years before his death. During his career Professor Needham published more than 250 scientific articles, educational papers, and textbooks. His writing was clear, concise, and interesting to read."

"In the beds of all our larger lakes and streams there exists a vast animal population, dependent, directly of indirectly, upon the rich organic food substances that are bestowed by gravity upon the bottom. Many fishes wander about over the bottom foraging. Many , heavily armored and slow, go pushing their way and leaving tralis through the bottom sand and sediment. And many smaller animals burrow, some by digging their way like moles, as do the and of gomphine dragonflies; some by "worming" their way through the soil, as do the larvae of and many . Among the burrowers none are more abundant or more important than the young of the mayflies. Indeed, there are hardly any aquatic organisms of greater , for they are among the principal herbivores of the waters, and they are all choice food for fishes. How abundant there are in all our large lakes and streams is well attested by the vast hordes of adults that appear in the air at the times of their annual swarming. They issue from the water mainly at night."

"See how the is adapted to . Its s stand erect with s curving inward. The trough-like pollen cavities of the anthers, opening upward, expose their stores to the insect standing on top. So great is the excess of production over actual needs that the little bee wastefully and unwittingly scatters over the is enough for setting the seed. This store of choice food the flower reserves for its proper visitor—chiefly for this little bee. Large bees would have great difficulty in collecting pollen from flowers that hang on such slender stalks. Wingless insects, like ants, which, if gathering pollen, could run only from flower to flower upon the same plant, and which would thus be poor agents in , are rigidly excluded. Should they be able to run out along the slender flower stalk, and round the fringed border of the and get inside, they would still find between themselves and the pollen overhead a barrier of glandular hairs bearing an acrid and offensive secretion which they would choose to avoid contact."

"s are most likely to be seen about about old logs and stumps that are red with decay and crumbling, though an old rail fence or a stone wall is often their last resort. It is no accident that we find them oftenest about old stumps; the rusty red of their fur matches the color of the rotten wood, and they escape the notice of their many powerful enemies. Even the conspicuous stripes of black and white fall into place at lights and shadows, and tell no tales of their presence."

"s and frogs and s, scurrying to cover as we approach the shore of a still clear pond, show us that the water has some very lively inhabitants. They swim and dive and paddle in the open until we come, and then they hide from us distrustfully. Theirs is another world than ours. In that world there are strange living creatures in endless variety. ... No one who has lived by clear waters can have failed to see something of their wonderful life: minnows on the shoals; s dragging their cumbersome portable houses over the brook bed ; the clinging to the stones in the riffle, or the adult in their dancing nuptial flight in the air above the stream; and what could be more interesting? To make the knowledge of the whole range of life in ponds and streams a little more easy of access ... is a public service of no small moment. It is all in the interest of a better human environment; better for health, for , for instruction, and for aesthetic pleasures."

"Jews have been some of the largest funders of cultural Marxist ideas and supporters of those ideas over the last 30 or 40 years. […] Until you cleanse that ideology from the hierarchy in the academic elite of the West, there will not be a safe future. I'm not going to say Israel won't exist, but Israel will be in jeopardy as long as the Western children, children of the West, are being taught, with primarily Jewish dollars, subsidizing it, to view everything through oppressor-oppressed dynamic."

"Kirk’s stature has become even larger in death than it was when he was a living political phenomenon."

"It's a strange tweet that Elon pinpointed on here. But the first part is absolutely true. Let's go to this. "Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them." Now, I don't like generalizations. Not every Jewish person believes that, but it is true that the Anti-Defamation League was part and parcel with Black Lives Matter. It is true that some of the largest financiers of left-wing anti-White causes have been Jewish Americans. They went all in on woke. And it wasn't just ADL, it was some of the top Jewish organizations in the country that have done that."

"I am here tonight to tell you, to warn you, that this election is a decision between preserving America as we know it and eliminating everything that we love."

"The one issue that I think is so against our senses, so against the natural law, and dare I say a throbbing middle finger to God is the transgender thing happening in America."

"If it feels like you’re being forced to honor and respect a demagogue and liar under penalty of … some bad thing, well, you’re not wrong. As Radley Balko said Monday, “we're witnessing the most aggressive, fanatical crackdown on free speech in my lifetime. The speed and breadth of government censorship and private sector and nonprofit capitulation has been astonishing, as has the lack of urgency [or] silence from people who've long claimed to care about this stuff.” How is this happening? Consider the case of Stephen King. Yes, that Stephen King. Last week, on Twitter, the novelist quoted-tweeted remarks by Fox host Jesse Watters. “Charlie Kirk was not a ‘controversial’ or ‘polarizing’ man,” Watters said. “Charlie was a PATRIOT. THIS is a turning point and we all need to turn in the right direction. Rest in peace, my friend.” It should be said first of all that this is a lie. Kirk was nothing but controversial and polarizing. That was his entire shtick. And that’s why Stephen King said: “He advocated for stoning gays to death. Just sayin’.”"

"The boisterous partisan rhetoric during the funeral of Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota), who died in a plane crash before the 2002 elections, provoked a backlash that became known as the “Wellstone effect” and was a factor in the subsequent defeat of his replacement on the ballot, former vice president Walter Mondale. There were political overtones to the 2018 memorial service for Sen. John McCain (R), whose war heroism Trump had disparaged and whose service also took place in Arizona. But eulogist Joe Biden, then a former vice president, lamented: “All we do today is attack the oppositions of both parties, their motives, not the substance of their argument.” Since then, that divide has only deepened. As the memorial for Kirk so vividly demonstrated, the growing imperative for the movement that Trump started and Kirk helped elevate is not to bridge, but to conquer."

"The Turning Point founder was addressing the subject of gun violence when he was fatally shot in Utah. Kirk was known to be a gun owner himself and regularly spoke out on the issue, including on behalf of the National Rifle Association in the aftermath of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018. At a Turning Point event in Salt Lake City in April 2023, he said, “It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment.”"

"Q: Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last ten years? Kirk: Too many. Q: It's five. Now five is a lot, right? I'm going to give you credit. Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last ten years? Kirk: Counting or not counting gang violence?"

"Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA and a prominent figure in the American conservative movement, was fatally shot during a live event at Utah Valley University on 10 September. His death has reignited scrutiny over his controversial political stances, particularly his outspoken opposition to LGBTQ+ rights and inclusion. Kirk, aged 31, built his reputation as a staunch supporter of right-wing ideologies, often courting controversy with inflammatory remarks. His views on LGBTQ issues were among the most divisive. He frequently described progressive stances on gender and sexuality as “sexual anarchy” and condemned LGBTQ-inclusive education, arguing that it eroded cultural identity. In multiple broadcasts and public appearances, Kirk used anti-transgender slurs and celebrated being able to do so on platforms like Rumble. He labelled transgender individuals as “groomers” and advocated for banning gender-affirming care, even suggesting that providers should face “Nuremberg-style trials”. His rhetoric aligned with broader efforts in right-wing media to roll back LGBTQ+ protections, including celebrating Supreme Court rulings that allowed businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ+ customers on religious grounds."

"Kirk’s comments extended to dangerous misinformation. Just moments before his fatal shooting, he responded to a question about trans mass shooters by saying “Too many,” despite data showing the vast majority of such incidents are committed by cisgender men. His influence was not limited to media. Kirk played a key role in shaping conservative youth discourse through Turning Point USA, a platform that has been criticised for hosting events and promoting narratives hostile to LGBTQ+ communities. Despite this, he was invited as the first guest on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s podcast earlier this year, a move that drew backlash given Kirk’s history of incendiary remarks. While tributes from political allies, including President Donald Trump, praised Kirk as “legendary,” critics argue that his legacy is marred by a pattern of bigotry and harmful rhetoric."

"MAGA activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead while speaking at a university campus in Utah on Wednesday, was well known for his outspoken opinions on a number of hot-button political issues. The 31-year-old co-founder of Turning Point USA, a key ally of President Donald Trump, was shot in the neck by a sniper’s bullet at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem and was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A police manhunt for the gunman is ongoing. A Chicago-born son of an architect, Kirk co-founded Turning Point when he was just 18 years old alongside businessman Bill Montgomery with the aim of promoting conservative values in America’s universities and colleges."

"He rose to prominence during the first Trump administration through his podcast, cable news appearances and campus speaking tours. His views were often viewed as controversial. As an anti-abortion Christian, he routinely debated progressive liberals, Muslims, and the LGBT+ community, resulting in allegations of misogyny, Islamophobia, and homophobia.During the Covid pandemic, he denounced mask mandates. He referred to vaccine requirements as “medical apartheid” and also promoted Trump’s false claim that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” against him by a vast Democratic conspiracy. Kirk frequently adopted Trumpian talking points, blaming DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) hiring practices for flooding in Texas earlier this year, calling New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani “a parasite” and attempting to steer the national conversation away from Jeffrey Epstein by announcing he was “done” with the subject."

"I believe marriage is one man one woman Also gay people should not welcome in the conservative movement As Christians we are called to love everyone I will always stand against people who wish to establish their own personal values as a reason to kick others out of our movement"

"Literally, not a single Democrat is celebrating the Kirk assassination. It's complete wishcasting on the right. They're radicalizing their followers based on an inaccurate view of their opponents that fits with a victimization narrative. Meanwhile, the most prominent people on their side start indulging in conspiracy theories and gleefully sharing memes after [Nancy] Pelosi's husband is attacked … The hypocrisy is overwhelming. They get off on the idea of “civil war” and collapse and invent the reality they want to see. They imagine Democrats are like themselves when they're not. Under these conditions, the president and his goon squad are almost certainly going to try targeting all of “the left,” as Kirk defined it. The regime is already arresting people for the “crime” of their race, with the Supreme Court’s blessing. If they can criminalize your identity, they can criminalize your speech – or at least force you into silence for insufficiently praising a “free speech champion” like Charlie Kirk."

"The five-hour memorial service for conservative activist/influencer/organizer Charlie Kirk that packed tens of thousands Sunday into a Phoenix-area stadium was a melding of religion and politics unlike any seen before. Or perhaps it was proof, if any more were needed, that the line that used to separate them may no longer exist, particularly on the right. Practically missing were the healing rituals the nation has come to know in these times when it is rocked by the all-too-common kind of tragedy that occurred when Kirk was killed Sept. 10 on a college campus in Utah. With the exception of a moving and powerful declaration by his widow, Erika Kirk, that her Christian faith calls her to forgive her husband’s killer, there were almost no appeals for transcending the political divide or putting hate aside. Or recognition that the spasm of political violence of recent years has been the work of — and inflicted upon — both of the nation’s ideological tribes, arising in an era in which deranged individuals find in the fetid corners of online culture justification for horrendous acts. All of this formed an emblem of where the country finds itself in the Trump era. “He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them,” the president, who was the final speaker, said of Kirk. “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.”"

"That Kirk did not explicitly advocate for the stoning of gays to death, in the strictest sense and syntax of those words, is therefore a distinction without a difference – unless, like Kirk, you’re a liar. In that case, the distinction between saying what you’re saying and not saying what you’re saying is important. If that collapses, so does your deception. As long as the distinction between what is said and what is intended to be understood is in place, it’s possible to bully people into silence. That’s what happened to Stephen King and others. They spoke the truth about Kirk – not the strict letter of it but the true spirit of it – but did not have the courage to stand by the truth after being accused of slander. And in the process of apologizing, they ended up affirming the lie, making it grow bigger, such that a USA Today story about King’s apology says that he “repeatedly apologized for a false accusation.” (After all, it must have been false if Stephen King apologized for it.)"

"Prove me wrong"

"Never give up, never surrender, and always go for the win."

"Joe Biden is bumbling, dementia-filled, Alzheimer's, corrupt tyrant who should honestly be put in prison and/or given the death penalty for his crimes against America."

"Three weeks ago, Blake, if we would have said that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks, we would have been called a [rolling r] rrracist. But now they're coming out and they're saying it for us. They're coming out, and they're saying, "I'm only here because of Affirmative Action." Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person's slot to go be taken somewhat seriously."

"Kirk adopted a traditional Christian conservative stance in his approach to many contemporary issues, telling an audience at a Trump election rally in Georgia last fall that Democrats “stand for everything God hates” and adding: “This is a Christian state. I’d like to see it stay that way.” He also lashed out at the gay community, denouncing what he called the “LGBTQ agenda,” expressing opposition to same-sex marriage and suggesting that the Bible verse Leviticus 20:13, which endorses the execution of homosexuals, serves as “God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters.” “I don’t agree with your lifestyle,” Kirk told a gay Wisconsin college student last September. “I don’t think you should introduce yourself just based on your sexuality because that’s not who you are.” He also argued against gender-affirming care for transgender people and insisted there are only two genders, sporting a T-shirt at one Arizona rally last year that read: “xy = man.” More recently, he discussed the burning of Pride flags, writing on X (Twitter): “We should work to overturn every conviction for those arrested, fined, or otherwise harassed for the ‘hate crime’ of doing donuts over Pride flags painted on public streets."

"And it says, by the way, , — might want to crack open that Bible of yours — in a lesser referenced part of the same part of Scripture, is in Leviticus 18, is that "Thou shall lay with another man, shall be stoned to death." Just sayin'. So, Ms. Rachel, you quote Leviticus 19, "Love your neighbor as yourself". The chapter before affirms God's perfect law when it comes to sexual matter."

"I'm sorry, if I see a Black pilot, I'm going to be like, "Boy, I hope he's qualified.""

"I have a very, very radical view on this, but I can defend it, and I’ve thought about it. We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s."

"What we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have a reasonable disagreement, where violence is not an option."

"I do have a daughter .. that's awfully graphic .. calm down... the answer is yes, the baby would be delivered. But let me tell you why: no, hold on, let me ask you a question."

"You don't have to stay poor. You don't have to accept being worse off than your parents. You don't have to feel aimless and unhappy. You don't have to support leaders who lied to you and took advantage of you for your vote. America's future is a series of choices."

"Democrats have given hundreds of billions of dollars to illegals and foreign nations, while Gen Z has to pinch pennies just so that they can never own a home, never marry, and work until they die, childless."

"When I hear the slogan, "make America great again", I'm also hearing, "return America to its British roots"."

"Let me preface this post by saying that violence is never okay and as much as I dislike someone and their cruel ideas, I would never want their life to be taken in an act of violence. Democracy should be built on ideas, not force. But I AM going to say this: If anyone thinks that a reasonable price for the second amendment is countless innocent lives, and then that person has the cold-heartedness and audacity to say that empathy is likened to a social disease, they will get no protracted sympathy from me. Unfriend me if you don’t like hearing this simple truth. I’ll never advocate for violence in any form, but it sounds to me like karma is sometimes swift and ironic. As Kirk said, “play certain games, win certain prizes.'"

"Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You're not in charge."

"Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America."

"[Charlie Kirk] felt that Bibi Netanyahu was a very destructive force. He was appalled by what was happening in Gaza. He was above all resentful that he believed Netanyahu was using the United States to prosecute his wars, for the benefit of his country, and that it was shameful and embarrassing and bad for the United States and he resented it."

"The world says truth is hate. But in reality, the absence of truth is the cruelest hate of all. Paul reminds us that love rejoices in truth (1 Corinthians 13:6), and that we must “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). To stay silent while people remain in sin is not love — it’s indifference. Even this week, a Reuters report on a law professor suspended over posts about Kirk shows how fiercely culture now polices speech around controversial public figures. That should wake us up. If even Scripture is branded as hate, then we must be prepared to face the same hostility. Standing firm in a world turned upside down. The culture may label us “haters,” but the truth is this: standing on God’s Word is the most loving thing we can do. Charlie Kirk lived this out boldly. And Franklin Graham’s defense of him reminds us that true Christianity is not about silencing sin or watering down truth. It’s about proclaiming Christ with courage and compassion. Like Charlie, we are called to hold fast to biblical truth — no matter the cost."

"One thing that frustrates me most is how often Charlie’s critics ripped his words out of context. Take his comment on the Civil Rights Act. Critics spun it as racist, when his point was about federal government overreach — not opposing equal rights. Or his remarks on the Second Amendment, where he said liberty comes with a cost. Opponents twisted that into indifference about human life, even though he also called those deaths tragic. Even Scripture itself has been twisted this way for centuries. Satan quoted Psalm 91 out of context when tempting Jesus (Matthew 4:6). Why should we expect the world to treat modern truth-tellers any differently? That’s the real playbook: rip words from their setting, slap a label of “hate,” and dismiss the speaker entirely."

"Franklin Graham recently reminded us of something I’ve always admired about Charlie Kirk: he stood firmly on biblical truth, but he did it with compassion. He debated boldly, yet never with malice. He modeled what it looks like to stand on God’s Word while still loving those who disagreed. That’s what struck me most about Charlie’s ministry. When culture calls biblical truth hate speech, Christians must remember that speaking God’s Word is the highest form of love."

"Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There's ugly speech. There's gross speech. There's evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. Keep America free."

"America is the only country where even those who hate it refuse to leave."

"This week, the Associated Press said Charlie Kirk was “assassinated” Wednesday on a college campus in Utah, where he was evidently shot through the neck. That characterization, however, is not neutral. It conveys the president’s preferred view of his death, as an example of America becoming a “killing field” that requires the remedies of a strongman, like murdering the homeless, per Trump's fave TV show. But Kirk was not assassinated. He was murdered. Yes, he was a prominent figure. Yes, he was very important to the Republican Party. But he wasn't running for high office, he wasn't leading a mass movement and he was not democratically elected. If anything, he had a high perch, because billionaires gave it to him. Melissa Hortman was assassinated, however. She was a Democratic legislator and the former speaker of the state House who led the enactment of sweeping progressive reforms in Minnesota. In June, she was assassinated by an anti-vaccine terrorist named Vance Boelter. Boelter killed three others, including Hortman’s husband. But he was not assassinated. Neither were the other two, though two of the three were also lawmakers. They were murdered. Hortman was a former speaker. For that reason, her murder rises to the level of assassination. This is not just semantics. By elevating Kirk's murder to the level of an assassination, he's turned into a moral figure who appears to transcend politics, such that we are forced to either praise him – or at least say nice things about him – or remain silent for fear of being seen as endorsing political violence. That is, of course, one of the goals of authoritarian politics – to censor, silence and suppress the opposition by any means. Kirk was key to that. He presented himself and his organization as champions of free speech on college campuses while also keeping lists, complete with pictures, of professors and students who said and wrote things he didn't like in order to encourage people to monitor and harass them."

""Oh, MLK's a great guy." Actually MLK was awful. OK? He's not a good person. He said one good thing he actually didn't believe."