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Personal Asides: Heads Should Roll on the Islamic Major... Fact-Free News Labeling.

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:49:00 CST

Heads Should Roll at Army and FBI.

News that communications from our Islamic-loving Major Nidal Malik Hasan and a radical cleric in Yemen known for his fiery anti-American teachings were intercepted by federal agencies-and a decision was made to do nothing about them... inaction which caused the death of 13 military personnel at Fort Hood--should warrant (a) a top-level congressional hearing and (b) that without much delay, heads should roll: specifically at the Army and FBI.

And the heads that roll should not be those of underlings... usually singled out as scapegoats-but if facts warrant, those belonging to Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey and FBI Director Robert Mueller. The signs are ever-present that political correctness by the feds led to the disaster, marked by a comment the FBI made to the news media immediately following the blood-bath... that "the possibility of terrorism is being dismissed."

It's one thing when you have media liberals (locally the Sun-Times' Neil Steinberg) fearing opprobrium on Islamic terrorists. That's the way anti-Catholic Steinberg is constituted. He's famed as a congenital relativist, no absolutes liberal with a sick comedic sense. He joked the other day that if a woman kills her kids and tells people Jesus ordered her to do it, condemnation of Christianity is equivalent to worry about Islamic terrorists anent the Hasan matter. How the hell the Sun-Times can continue printing what this twit serves up as "commentary"... and give him an entire page to regurgitate his twaddle... is astounding-but that's another issue. The liberal media are one thing but when two major agencies twiddle their thumbs on political correctness it's conducting a probe and if found guilty toppling their heads.

Fact-Free News Labeling.

This is the era of fact-free political labeling. People grow up indoctrinated with false ideological and flamboyant labels that liberal media affix. And the labels stick like glue even though most are inaccurate. Therefore, here's some initial debunking ... of presidents and legislative acts... intended for those interested in shaking off false media-fixated history.

#1: "Insider Trading's "Morally Wrong."

So-called "insider trading" has been ruled illegal and condemned as "immoral." Illegal, yes-but morally wrong? Milton Friedman's view on this as on most things is exceedingly sensible. This Nobel prize winner in economics said, "You want more insider trading, not less. You want to give the people most likely to have knowledge about deficiencies of a company the incentive to make the public aware of that." He didn't believe a trader should have to make his trade public because the act of buying and selling is itself information for the market. Friedman's original proposition has been joined by legal scholars Henry Manne, Daniel Fischel and Frank Esterbook as well as conservative economic philosopher Thomas Sowell.

But the issue hasn't been debated fairly since showboat liberal Republican "reformer" Teddy Roosevelt... multi-millionaire scion of a family that owned 24 acres of land now called downtown Manhattan... made hay by crusading against people who simulated his own family-- "the malefactors of great wealth." His rich country squire cousin FDR blamed much of the Depression on Wall Street insider speculating which was nonsense. The Depression was worsened because original restrictions on Wall Street trading deprived the general public of knowing what was happening to the market-which they assuredly would have without the information blockade.

In 1933 the heavily Democratic congress passed what FDR demanded: even further restrictions on information with creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In `34 the president named as its first head Joseph P. Kennedy, the most spectacular insider-trader of his time--who raised a lot of money for activities which he would later pontificate were unethical. Indeed, he had made his fortune as an insider in unregulated markets-that and a financier of illegal bootlegging. Roosevelt laughed off this complaint saying "it takes a crook to catch one."

That was then. But the real popular demonization of so-called insider trading crested with the 1987 film "Wall Street," which ultra-lefty producer Oliver Stone utilized as a cudgel to attack the boom times that came in the late `80s under the hated Ronald Reagan. "Wall Street" told the story of a young broker (Charlie Sheen) who wanted to rise on the Street quickly and so became a toady for one Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) who proclaimed "greed is good." Stone banked that overwhelmingly economics illiterate movie goers (gobbling popcorn and slurping cola) would be convinced all stock trading is crooked-and many of them did... and with the help of today's media still do.

Snarling, soulless Douglas introduces Sheen to "insider trading" and also to a gorgeous interior designer, Darien (Daryl Hannah). Darien is a money-hungry creature who gets angry with Sheen when he decides to go "straight." It's too late, though and the SEC arrest Sheen in his office, leading him away in handcuffs. They agree to fit him with a wire and he entraps Douglas. Darien has learned nothing from this and looks for another sugar daddy. (Incidentally, Daryl Hannah was born in Chicago, the stepdaughter of prominent city investor the late Jared Wexler. Hannah hated the role and was the only player in it who wasn't nominated for an Academy Award because her heart wasn't in defiling capitalism, her stepfather's trade. Ironically, she became the girlfriend of none other than the late John F. Kennedy, Jr., grandson of Old Joe).

Thanks to radical Oliver Stone and liberal Hollywood hustlers, it's not surprising that so-called "insider trading" has been pictured as gangsters no matter what Milton Friedman and other free-market economists have said. But the point remains that prohibitions on insider trading prevent the market from adjusting as quickly as it otherwise would to the demand for corporate assets... resulting n prices that lie. Example: the 1970s price ceiling on gasoline. The ceiling caused prices at the pump to almost criminally mislead about the scarcity of oil which prompted us to waste countless hours waiting in line to fuel our cars. Friedman used that as an example to prove that similar waste occurs when corporate assets are mis-priced-the correction of which would occur when the truth quickly hits the street.

Economist Donald Boudreaux uses this example: Jones & Jones Widget company is on the verge of bankruptcy due to mismanagement. So Jones & Jones can legally hide their financial condition for a time. During that time Jones & Jones' price will be too high for its worth. Investors buy Jones & Jones at prices that deliberately hide its near-insolvency... creditors extend financing at prices that don't compensate creditors for the risks they are unknowingly taking.

Some Jones & Jones employees decline job offers at other companies believing all is okay at Jones & Jones. Eventually, of course, the true condition of Jones & Jones comes out and investors, creditors and employees all pay the price. And don't forget the economy pays a price as well. Misled by Jones & Jones' stalling on the true condition until required to do so, capital that otherwise would have been directed to other more qualified sources don't get to those firms. Other firms don't expand their operations, can't expand into new job hiring.

See what I mean? With legalized insider traders, the truth would get out quick, prices would adjust to match and market participants would be protected quicker. For further information, read "Insider Trading and the Stock Market" by economist Manne, dean emeritus at George Mason University. Manne says truthfully that Enron and Global Crossing scandals would have been divulged more quickly, would occur less frequently. Legalizing insider trading would add three percentage points to U. S. economic growth.

But don't expect Hollywood will make movies debunking liberal labels. It's too interested in assailing free market capitalism and portraying it as evil-even though he has benefited from the system. That's what Barack Obama-style neo-Marxism is all about.

#2: Harry Truman Was a "Great President."

Harry Truman had some good points but also glaring deficiencies. We should get over the idea of the high school-educated bantam rooster "good old Harry." He turned out to be better than expected but as an unknown when he succeeded Roosevelt, we expected nothing. We just missed inheriting Henry Wallace the crypto-pro-Left visionary which would have been disastrous. Here are Truman's good points and bad-and you decide.

Good : horrific as it is to consider, he dropped the atomic bomb and won World War II which saved us at least 5 more years of war and many thousands of young American lives by island-hopping... .still a tough decision that would keep you and me awake for the rest of our lives. But it didn't faze Harry who slept a good 8 hours the night after he gave the order. (Good but that gives you pause, doesn't it?)

Good: He finally learned he should stop listening to State Department appeasers and reject the Obama-like idea that pleaded with the USSR: "can't we all get along?" He pushed the Marshall Plan that stabilized western Europe and largely saved it from Communism and proclaimed the Truman Doctrine supporting those who resisted Soviet imperialism, supported the Berlin airlift. Good: He recognized the new nation of Israel.

Bad: He seized the country's steel mills to head off an impending strike during the Korean war which was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Bad: He was notoriously soft on corruption which especially hit the IRS: the assistant treasury secretary in charge of tax policy had to resign for doing favors to big-wigs. Bad: After World War II, he became convinced that by possessing the A-Bomb we could cut back on military preparedness so he slashed the Marine Corps to the bone. He fired four defense secretaries between 1947 and 1951. That led to the "Revolt of the Admirals" which spared the armed services so that they would be ready for the Korean War (which was caused by Truman).

Bad: He caused Free China to fall to the Communists by insisting that Chiang kai Shek accept them in a coalition government (which Mao was committed to reject). Chiang refused with the result that the U.S. ended all military support for him against the Reds and Mao took over in 1949. Bad: his secretary of state said publicly that Korea was outside the perimeter of our defense which triggered the North to invade the South on the pretext that we didn't care. Truman then reversed the policy and ordered us into an extra-constitutional "police action" which never had congressional sanction. Bad: Having done that, Truman gave World War II hero 5-star general Douglas MacArthur too free a rein leading MacArthur to assume he had the sole right to invade China to punish its entry into the war.

Bad: Having foolishly seeming to give MacArthur too much authority, when things got hot, Truman fired him instead of allowing Mac, a true hero, to resign-and bad again-fired him via news reports (MacArthur hearing from a radio broadcast that he was removed). This incompetence led to frenetic division in the United States which tore the country apart and encouraged North Korea and Mao-led China.

Bad: He was notoriously soft on corruption which had permeated the IRS where agents on the take were winking at tax evaders. After a congressional probe he called in a special prosecutor who reported to the Attorney General. But when the special prosecutor got close to corruption by the AG, the AG fired the prosecutor... after which Truman fired the AG. Government became a musical chair comedy.

Bad: He shut his eyes when it was disclosed by Joe McCarthy and others that the government was riddled with Communist sympathizers... and famously charged that McCarthy was dragging a "red herring." But pressured by congressional hearings, he set up his own probe which resulted in 2,500 employees being dismissed-but he resisted demanding that all federal employees take a loyalty oath. Bad again: He was warned repeatedly that undersecretary of the Treasury Harry Dexter White was pro-communist and should be fired. Truman resisted and instead named White to a high post in the International Monetary Fund. When it got too hot, White skipped out to Moscow as a bonafide Communist, taking with him God knows how many secrets to give to the Kremlin.

While liberal university historians rated him 9th among the presidents and 4th among the six "near great" presidents, he should be near the bottom-probably in the lowest third. But the legend of Harry Truman the Great lives on-thanks to hagiographers as David McCollum. The unjustified glory phase still continues with Republican presidents and candidates who say they will strive to be "another Harry Truman." They know not what they mean.

#3. Direct Election of Senators "Good Reform."

This nation's founders wanted to have the Congress composed of one body elected directly by the people (the House of Representatives) and another to be elected by the state legislatures (the U. S. Senate). Their reason was clear: they wanted state governments to provide a significant check on federal usurpation of the states i.e. the liberal populist sentiment. George Washington himself illustrated the value of the Senate with a cup of very hot tea. He poured some in his saucer for cooling. That is the roll of the Senate, he said, to cool the product of the emotionally-driven more populist House.

Nevertheless, the battle to change the system began as early as 1826 with steady drumbeat of the "reformers" and lasted until ratification of the 17th amendment in 1913 which gave direct senatorial election to voters.

The 17th was a giant step to the unraveling of the great balance between state and federal prerogatives. And it is not a coincidence thatmost of the great senators in U. S. history were elected by the legislature only a few of whom were Charles Carroll of Carrolton, [Md.], the only Catholic Declaration signer, Daniel Webster [Mass.], John C. Calhoun [S,C,] John Quincy Adams [Mass.]. Sam Houston [Texas], William Seward [NY], Stephen A. Douglas [Ill.], Leland Stanford [Calif.], Henry Cabot Lodge [Mass.], Robert LaFollette [Wis.], Nelson Aldrich [NY] William E. Borah [Idaho], Elihu Root [N.Y.], all sturdy individualists, many of wealth and success who represented a counterweight to the more populist House.

Also, said the "reformers," the senate is controlled by big money due to wheeling and dealing electoral process in the state legislatures..

A horrible example they cited came from the journalism of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst (whose own father was U. S. senator from California, elected by the legislature)-came from Chicago (surprise?)... that of Billy Lorimer [1861-1934] the Republican boss of Chicago (doesn't that sound quaint-Republican boss of Chicago?) who allegedly bribed first one Democratic state legislator and then others to enable Lorimer to sneak his election by a narrow vote. One Dem charged he was paid $1,000 to go for Lorimer: soon he was joined by others who made the same assertion.

Then came the inflated, pompous pooh-bah of self-righteousness, ex-president Teddy Roosevelt, running in 1912 as Progressive party candidate, who said he would not appear on the same platform with Lorimer. Immediately, Billy Lorimer was expelled from the Senate by that body's vote. Lorimer was a crook: no doubt about that. But you change the Founders' concept of the Constitution because of him? Nevertheless, Lorimer was the horrible example of the bad apple. His case foolishly pushed the drive to amend the Constitution to provide for direct election of senators.

Has the 17th amendment given us a better class of senators? Take a look at the partial roster of incumbents as 2009 began: the late Ted Kennedy [Mass.] scion multi-millionaire whose family regularly plumped big dough into his and his brothers' campaigns, John Kerry [Mass.], the richest U.S. senator who married the Heinz catsup fortune; Chris Dodd [Conn.] under probe for favoritism with Wall Street; Jay Rockefeller [W.Va.] multi-millionaire; 91-year-old Robert Byrd [W. Va.], the longest serving senator in U.S. history, a former Ku Klux Klan member; Harry Reid [Nev.]; Bernie Sanders [Vt.], a socialist and far-leftist since involvement in radical politics at the University of Chicago, who caucuses with the Democrats; Herb Kohn [Wis], multi-millionaire; Diane Feinstein [Calif.], married a multi-millionaire investment banker who has made mega-millions with a construction company doing business in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also the ex-comedian Al Franken [Minn]; Dick Durbin [Ill.]; Olympia Snowe [R.I.], Barbara Boxer [Calif.]; Chuck Schumer [N.Y.].

Demographics show the 17th amendment has produced members more likely to have an Ivy League education (hence: liberal). States are more likely to have split Senate delegations and the Senate is more likely to resemble the partisan temperament of the House-just the opposite of the lesson Washington demonstrated with the saucer that cooled his tea.

I'll serve up other subjects for debunking later. In the meantime, if you wish, suggest some subjects by writing to me at thomasfroeser@sbcglobal.net.

Thoughts While Shaving: Napolitano Worries That Muslims Here Will be Alienated... Donatelli's Foolish Advice to the GOP.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:44:00 CST

Napolitano's Worries Typify Obama-ites.

While everyone else is wondering if the attack of Fort Hood was caused by a concerted Muslim terrorist group or represents one single Army major who is a devout Muslim and who went berserk... you'll be happy to know that the Obama administration's homeland security secretary is today in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates for meetings with Muslims and worrying that the attack here may start an anti-Muslim backlash in this country.

Thus, a possible anti-Muslim backlash: the first concern of Janet Napolitano.

There: isn't that reassuring to have that the first concern of homeland security... I mean, she is today in Abu Dhabi-worrying about U. S. Muslims-- while working for a president of whose background we know very little... whose college grades at Occidental and Harvard Law are shut off from us... whose school writing (distinguished from books purportedly written by him) are withheld... and whose supposed attendance in Columbia University (in 1981 when he supposedly transferred there from Occidental) cannot be verified by Fox News, the only news reporting group interested... and which questioned ex-students from this era, finding no one-absolutely no one-who knew him ... and like all other news agencies is unable to transcript and verification papers because they have been ordered withheld at the demand of the Obama administration...

All these things and more-culminating in a president about whom no one really knows... whose religious training is co-mingled Muslim and Christian (about which there is continuous dispute)... who has stated America is not more exceptional than any other country... who has denied we are a Christian nation... and... whose middle name is Hussein? Are we not damned fools for taking this Mystery Man on trust... and his minions who are supposedly sworn to protect our safety but whose central preoccupation is to protect Muslims from our "misunderstanding" after one of their religion slaughtered twelve of our army personnel... or are we not?

Just wondering.

Donatelli's Reassuring Counsel.

In recent political history, Frank Donatelli has always been known as a second-ranking and third-rated coat handler and relatively minor employee in the Reagan administration who was never anything more than a deputy, assistant or under-deputy special assistant... and who when he finally became assistant to the president was easily topped by a bevy of better qualified advisers.

Now he is chairman of a thing called GO-PAC... a subaltern organization that is well down the shuffle of hierarchy but which was once headed by Newt Gingrich when he began his move upstairs as a junior congressman. The other evening Donatelli addressed the Lake County Republican Federation Dinner which I attended (gratis, thank you, dear benefactor). You'll be interested to hear what this longtime time-server minion of Gingrich said about New York 23. You remember New York 23 where the reigning eleven Republican county chairmen in the district... all indebted to big labor as a legacy from the Dewey and Rockefeller era... sat down in a pizza parlor (yes that's right) and endorsed the candidacy of liberal Assemblyman, pro-abort, pro-same-sex marriage, Dede Scozzafava whose husband is a high-ranking union official, working every day closely with state Democrats.

Scozzafava was nominated from the pizza parlor with no input from the grassroots. True there is no such thing as a party primary in New York thanks to generation of liberal Republicans ala Dewey, Rockefeller ad infinitum. Everything is done by convention but in this instance by grubby handshakes of all co-conspirators in a pizza parlor. No ad hoc town hall. Nothing. Talk about old-style boss politics.

Doug Hoffman was named by the Conservative Party who stood for all the things Scozzafava did not. Gingrich endorsed her promptly as a kind of sop pragmatism saying that while he doesn't agree with her on many things, Republicans should understand the half-a-loaf theory. That's when the smartest guy in the room proved to be the dumbest-as has happened not infrequently in the past with despite his brilliant coup to capture the House ultimately he was forced to bow out after spectacular mismanagement, ethics charges and fines and a notable extra-curricular dalliance that produced Wife No. 3... after which he became a Catholic.

Scozzafava received $900,000 from the RNC largely due to Gingrich's influence with Michael Steele the chairman. Despite this, the polls showed Scozzafava running in third place behind Hoffman and the Democrat, Bill Owens. Scozzafava pulled out, declaring she would always stay a Republican. The next day... the next day... she endorsed Owens wholeheartedly for Congress. Now the Republican assembly leader in Albany is talking to her about loyalty.

Long story but you know it, I'm sure. Anyhow this hack Donatelli tells the Lake county Republican Federation that the object lesson in New York 23 is that Republicans should not allow themselves to be divided. Meaning that the grassroots support of Hoffman was wrong since the Big Eleven in the pizza parlor had decided for them. Meaning Republicans should learn never to challenge the system or allow the grassroots a say after the party big-wigs have determined what is good for them.

The best thing about the event was that it was not boring... not when I was on the edge of my seat witnessing a so-called GOP "leader" instruct the faithful only days after two major victories and one defeat caused by the Grand Old Party going to the tune of almost a million bucks with the decisions made in the pizza parlor. The lesson imparted by Donatelli showed once again that anybody who wants to follow Gingrich's advice and who doesn't know about his record of 50% goofyness and 50% genius should remember New York 23-that and go out of their way to counsel with Gingrich's Peerless Strategist Donatelli.

Personal Aside: Incredible Failure to Understand the Enemy Within-and the Koran--Involved in Fort Hood Tragedy.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:46:00 CST

Imagine, an army major... not a private or new boot but a relatively high-ranking medical doctor with a degree in psychiatry with a Muslim name, Nidal Malik Husan, whose name appears on radical Internet messages that equated suicide bombers to heroic soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save others' lives... who got into verbal fights with others in the military because he opposes U. S. action in Afghanistan and Iraq... who has been a lifelong Muslim... who attended Muslim prayers regularly when he lived outside Washington, frequently in his military uniform... who was fighting orders to be deployed to Iraq at the end of this month... who according to Terry Lee, a retired colonel who worked with Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood quoted others as saying "maybe people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Times Square"-all these things and...

Nobody for a minute suspected this guy as a potential threat? The level of innocence, naivete and gullibility is unbelievable... as is the failure of CBS (the Katie Couric network) and NBC to identify-when other news agencies did-that he is a Muslim (only ABC-TV did at the outset). This innocent belief in the good qualities of people... as with 9/11... is on one hand a fine American trait but on the other a very short-sighted, innocent, credulous view of the world. It's the same kind of liberal think-well-of-everybody-and-for-gosh-sakes-don't-make-judgments that left us open on 9/11. But on and before 9/11 we didn't have the short-hand warning bells that the Army routinely received-and ignored-with Nidal Malik Husan.

For one thing, let's stow this damnable political correctness which is a trademark of our relativistic society ("there are no absolutes; what is right for you may not be for me; what is right for me may not be for you"). Nor is believing in absolutes aping the religion of Islam. When you find someone pouring into the Koran regularly, remember some of the frightening passages from the Prophet who tells readers he is the Messenger of Allah: Koran 48:29: "Muhammad is Allah's Apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers but merciful to one another." In Islam law, jihad is an obligatory response when a Muslim territory is attacked. When non-Muslims invade a Muslim country or a country near to one, jihad is personally mandated upon the inhabitants of that country who must repel the non-Muslims wherever and however they can.

Are there moderate Muslims? Yes, to be sure but it is unlikely they are typical. And it is incumbent upon this nation... particularly the U. S. military... to set aside starry-eyed relativism and recognize that all religions are not the same... that the words of Jesus "Love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind of the ungrateful and the selfish" [Luke 6:35] " are vastly different from the words of the Koran "Therefore, when ye meet the unbelievers in fight, smite at their necks; at length when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly on them: thereafter is the time for either generosity or ransom, until the war laws down its burdens... But those who are slain in the Way of Allah, He will never let their deeds by lost" [Qur'an 47:4].

Remember, Islamic law is not definitive in condemning the killing even of women and children "unless they are fighting against the Muslims" This has been interpreted by scholars of Islam as sanctioning the murder of civilians if they are perceived as even indirectly aiding the war effort. (The quote is from "Umdat al-Salik o9.10, cf al-Mawardi, al-Akham as-Sultaniyuyan, 4.2.

It is time for all of us... I thought up to now it is hardly needed to remind the military... to examine our enemy. Any view that Muslims should be accepted as... as... Presbyterians... is tragically na�ve and should be relegated to abject simple-minded liberalism. The fact is that Muslims with clear ties to jihad terrorists have entrenched themselves into our political system and... as we now see-but should not be surprised to see-our military establishment. What we must do is (1) read the Koran: I have. (2) report honestly about jihadist activity in the West. (3) reclassify Muslim organizations. (4) Reexamine those who are in high posts involving the military. The case at Fort Hood wreaks of simple-minded naivete and ignorance. Finally (5) we should do what all too frequently is ignored in our education-take pride in Western culture.

Thoughts While Shaving: 11 GOP County Chairmen "Nominated" Scozzafava... Of Course Dan McCormack's Hearing Should be Public!

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:35:00 CST

Nominated by 11?

The lesson for Republicans on New York 23 is that eleven county chairmen "nominated" Dede Scozzafava for the GOP congressional nomination-heedless of the counter-revolution going on in the country. True, New York law prevents a primary but the closed-room style of the party caused it to name a candidate at furious odds with key elements of the GOP program. There certainly was no law or rule preventing the party from staging a Town Hall where candidates interested in running could present themselves. It was the stupid closed-mind of the GOP there... and the obtuseness of the GOP nationally... that allowed the meeting of two handfuls of pols to make the selection rather than open the process up for wider participation.

Dan McCormack.

Dan McCormack, the unfrocked Catholic priest who spent five years in jail for sexually abusing five boys, is ready to be freed. Prosecutors will now seek to have him committed as a sexually violent person. A county judge ruled yesterday that the court hearings on this matter will be open to the public. McCormack's attorney said the public's interest in openness "isn't safeguarded by knowing the inner workings of [McCormack's] brain." On the contrary, I argue the public has every right to know. I only wish the hearing could be extended to examine the inner workings of the brains of those archdiocesan and seminary officials who were asleep at the switch and who allowed this guy to be ordained in the first place.

There was entirely too much rush from civil and moral judgment to protect those archdiocesan and seminary officials from their responsibility for McCormack in my view. The whole thing was outrageous. Everyone... everyone... associated with this scandal has been promoted in one way or another-including the seminary rector who told the Sun-Times after the scandals rocked the Church that he, the rector, would ordain McCormack again. AGAIN! Outrageous! The entire case wreaks with purposeful ineptitude... the seminary records of McCormack having "disappeared"... the rector being promoted auxiliary bishop of Chicago, promoted again to bishop of Tucson, promoted yet again to number two in the leadership of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. If that isn't rewarding a person who... having expressed little remorse for his culpable toleration of clerical perversity isn't disgusting... serving as a gift for malfeasance of duty... I don't know what is.

McCormack should be placed under lifetime watch as a convicted pedophile-one who, incidentally, has never expressed remorse for his actions. When asked to comment at his conviction he had nothing to say. I say again: the lack of oversight, the callousness with which the seminary regarded an offender, the slipshod way in which things of that nature have been handled here... cry to heaven for vengeance. Instead those who presided over this atrocity continue to swing incense burners, wear miters, carry crosiers and receive honors from docile "sheep." Don't get me started.

But, then, I have.

Thoughts While Shaving: The Christie-McConnell GOP Victories... Is the Tribune Changing?...An Also-Ran for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:19:00 CST

Lazarus Rises. Once Again.

It was a close one-the New Jersey race, I mean. Everybody thought Chris Christie would come close and that if Jon Corzine hadn't won by the numbers, New Jersey's corrupt Democratic system... not unlike ours here in Chicago... would see that he would eke it out by the simple application of vote fraud. But a Democratic victory was not to be-and more than any other group, the independents who had veered to Obama have moved to the Republican column-frightened to death by Obama's stop-start-stall lack of governance. In all, it reminds me of Chapter 11 in the Gospel of John where Jesus goes to Bethany and is told that one of his best friends, Lazarus, died four days earlier.

Then follows what is probably the most profound sentence in the New Testament-short and bitter. It says "Jesus wept."

But after weeping, He goes to the tomb where he is remonstrated from entering it by Lazarus' sisters who say that their brother had been entombed so long... four days... that the body would stink. Christ disregards them, enters and returns with the alive Lazarus. That is indeed a profound symbol for the Republican party of this nation which was sundered by one of the most charismatic presidential candidates extant. But the electorate has itself been awakened by the failure of the new president to perform... and his words ring hollow. Thus the gesture that evoked the GOP Lazarus to rise again was not particularly anything a charisma had anything to do with.

More than anything else, it is the faltering performance of a charisma-only candidate run by the image-manipulations of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that has produced this stunning victory. Christie is no oracular barnburner. He is... I am gratified to point out... a fat guy-which gives hope to all of us fat guys. There is no surprise in McDonnell winning... a Robert Redford look-alike in a state that usually toppled Republican. But Christie... a conservative and pro-life-not a Republican liberal like Christine Todd Whitman causes us to savor the sweetness of unaccustomed victory.

It was really an unset-I mean New Jersey. It was sweet: the trouncing of the liberal Democratic New Jersey governor, mega-multi-millionaire Jon Corzine... sophisticated ex-Goldman Sachs co-chairman (but in fact born in tiny Willey Station, Illinois near Taylorville) by Republican Christie... Corzine, who had married his childhood sweetheart and who grew too big for her after becoming mega rich, having won the U. S. Senate and then the governorship, escorted a female union leader, shacked up with her before his divorce became final-prompting his ex-wife to say truly that Corzine would betray his state as he had his family.

The significant thing about New Jersey is that the upscale areas which since 1996 have been trending Democratic... because they are liberal on social issues and not that conservative on fiscal (read: New Trier in Illinois lingo)... are now moving the other way.

And the significant thing about Virginia is this: That state calculates its statewide voter returns by congressional district. Three congressional districts swung from Republican to Democrat in 2008. McDonnell carried those three districts heavily last night. You can bet that those three Democratic congressmen will be very jittery this morning-both in looking at their own future and in calculating how strongly they will be supporting the Obama agenda through next year.

As I trundle to bed, Fox has called the 23rd of New York for Democrat Bill Owens. If this sticks and Hoffman loses, it will have been because of the Judas kiss imparted by Dierdre Scozzafava, the very liberal Republican who bowed out and said she would never endorse a Democrat: (that pledge lasted 24 hours before she embraced Owens). All the same, Fox notwithstanding, I'm not ready to concede. It's going to take time to count those votes that come from the far North Country, near Canada. I think we may well find that Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman has pulled it out by inches.

Given how poorly Obama is doing (vacillating on reinforcements for Afghanistan which he had said earlier was essential to win), it may well be that Republicans win control of the House in 2010 because of the electorate's legitimate concern that Obama who hasn't run so much as a candy store, plainly does not know how to govern-just how to make a pretty speech.

For one thing it definitely slows the pace toward passage of the Obama health care bill in the Senate-where even before the election returns were announced, Harry Reid was not committing that the bill would be passed this year.

And indicative of the fact that liberal media never learn... the AP quoting approvingly an unnamed Democratic consultant who said the GOP is in an identity crisis and "the extremists have won," which we have heard beginning with the election and reelection of Ronald Reagan. My guess is that it will empower movement conservative candidates in the Republican party for president rather than the establishment... among whom I would first name Palin and Pawlenty as benefiting foremost-then Romney... who campaigned for Hoffman but who looks country club... and Huckabee who stayed aloof from Hoffman the least. Probably the biggest winner is Fred Thompson who now, alarmingly, displays a beard! He's not running for anything but he did more than anyone else to help Hoffman and won the undying support of conservatives even if it is... as I maintain we will see it is NOT... a losing campaign.

Tribune Returning Rightward (Somewhat)?

Are my eyes deceiving me or is The Tribune edging somewhat rightward? Two examples-appearing on the same day (Tuesday). First the brilliant Scott Stantis cartoon which makes the point that the Democrats' big health bill makes provision for abortion (no matter how strenuously they deny it). The cartoon is fully worthy of a Higgins. The second is the editorial that criticizes then Quinn administration's short further "delay" on parental consent... in all, a delay of 14 years. I don't care what anyone says-this is a definite break with the past where the old paper... striving to rid itself of its valuable tradition past... acted to giddily liberal as to simulate your uncle Oscar in drag.

Runner-Up for the Nobel in 2007.

You would be justified in wondering who in the world could defeat Irena Sendlerwewa (commonly known as Irena Sendler) for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Her story is matchless. A Polish-born Roman Catholic whose physician father died from typhus contracted while treating Jews in Warsaw in 1917, she grew up with a deep love of the Jewish people and from the very first, as a social worker, she cared for them... especially during the days of the Nazi persecution.

Determined to find a way to rescue them from the Warsaw ghetto she learned the rudiments of plumbing and sewer repair. Then she convinced the Nazis to allow her to work there as a plumbing/sewer specialist. On her missions she carried with her a big ostensible tool bag and in the back of her truck a burlap sack. She also put a dog which she had trained herself in the truck. For a long period of time she smuggled out Jewish babies first in her tool bag, then transferred to her sack. The dog barked whenever a Nazi appeared, warning her. All told she saved an estimated 2,500 infants and small children. Eventually the Nazis caught on to her, broke both her legs and arms and beat her severely. She recovered, kept the names of the babies and kids in a glass jar buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to find any parents who may have survived and link them up with their lost children. Most of the parents had been gassed. She then helped place the kids in foster homes.

Irena Sandler died last year at 98 (1910-2008). She was put up for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 but lost. The co-winner was Al Gore for his global warming slide-show.

Only the goofy left-skewed Nobel committee could have passed up Sendler for Gore-but this year it matched the record by choosing Obama as the Prize-winner not for what he did but for the rhetoric he claimed he would adapt. How inspiring.

Personal Asides: Not THAT Rick Kogan...The Church Militant.

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:09:00 CST

Rick Kogan.

Yesterday I responded to one who signed himself Rick Kogan who reported that in my column on the Chicago media, I committed no fewer than 14 grammatical errors. Naturally everyone at The Chicago Daily Observer thought it was the Rick Kogan who writes for The Tribune and broadcasts occasionally on WGN.

I THOUGHT it was funny since I don't know Rick Kogan and felt he has no reason to display animosity to me... and now we find out that the correspondent was not the journalist Rick Kogan at all-but either someone else with his name or one who wished to misrepresent him.

The journalist Rick Kogan wrote The Observer to explain it was not him so for my comments about him yesterday I apologize because I thought it was the real Rick Kogan. Have I lost you so far? Well, there's more. The real Rick Kogan wrote: "Well, there may indeed be another Rick Kogan out there but this Rick Kogan who works for the Tribune and has worked for the Sun-Times and Daily News and appreciates commentary of any kind, even over-heated and wrong-headed, did not send the previous message." Complicated, huh?

To him I say: Accept this as a half apology. For my having criticized you since I believed you were the real Rick Kogan. But since you imply my article was over-heated and wrong-headed... I will take half of it back. Oh, what the hell, Real Rick: let's forget it altogether and have a drink at the place that replaced Riccardo's.

The Church Militant.

The late Robert Novak told me that he became a Catholic after reading the history of the Church. He decided to convert because, he says, any church that could survive the ignominy of clergy who have disgraced it for 2,000 years must be divine. Good point-and these two news items reaffirm Novak's point.

Clerical Bubblehead No 1.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn has recorded a robo-call... going to every registered voter in a certain city council district... praising Democratic Assemblyman Vito Lopez. It doesn't bother Bishop DiMarzio one whit that Lopez, a Catholic, has been endorsed by NARAL (National Abortion Rights League) and has sponsored a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in New York. The reason for the prelate's warm praise: Lopez helped derail a bill that would have lifted the statute of limitations against pedophilia priests and other clergy accused of indecent acts. The bishop says he doesn't call upon voters to reelect Lopez... who is facing a very tight squeeze for reelection... but he just wants to thank him on behalf of the Brooklyn diocese.

Clerical Bubblehead No. 2.

Santa Fe [N.M.] Archbishop Michael Sheehan told the National Catholic Reporter last week that he supported Notre Dame's decision to confer an honorary degree on President Obama and further cannot understand the reason for what he called the "big scene" of protests against Obama's address and honorary degree. "We don't want to isolate ourselves from the rest of America by our strong views on abortion and the other things," he said. What "other things?" Probably the items listed in the 10 commandments. He exhibited his further ignorance thusly: "We'd be like the Amish, you know, kind of isolated from society, if we kept pulling back because of a single issue."

Both deserve the Thomas Cranmer Medal... named for the Archbishop of Canterbury [1489-1556] who processed the request of Henry VIII to the pope for a divorce from Catherine of Aragon and handed the Church to Henry as his plaything, designating him sovereign head of the Church of England. Unfortunately weasel Cranmer got caught between the switches and when Mary I, a Catholic, ascended the throne she took it rather hard that wily old Cranmer had renounced his and her faith and converted to Protestantism. So she locked him up and condemned him to death. Then Cranmer experienced a most nervous, jittery re-conversion to Catholicism. Then when he found out his re-conversion to Catholicism would do him no good, he... let's see how one says this... re-re-re-converted to Protestantism. His head was lopped off by Bloody Mary (who was no more bloody than Henry) and... believe it or not... this weak vessel Cranmer was proclaimed a martyr to Anglicanism.

To both DiMarzio and Sheehan the Cranmer medal... with our salutations.

Thoughts While Shaving: Dierdre Endorses Dem... Dead English Language Curator Kogan... What to tell Catholic Bishops Asking $$ for CHD... and More.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:55:00 CST

Scozzafava for Owen.

Immediately after New York Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava pulled out of the 23rd district congressional race because she was running third in a poll, the Obama White House raced to the phones to entice her to endorse the Democrat in the race, Bill Owens. Despite her earlier insistence that she is a lifelong Republican, she did just that. And the liberal vulture media are pulling for Owens to beat Doug Hoffman to use it as a "teaching moment" to nudge the GOP leftward, using the old canard you have to be a RINO to win.

It proves once again how duplicitous liberals are. And it shows that Newt Gingrich, long touted as the smartest guy in the room, can use a little humility which he can store up along with his hubris. A former insurgent against the GOP House establishment himself, he has come to be too comfortable with the establishment. He's kept saying that, after all, Deirdre was picked by the party. Wrong: she was picked by a series of establishmentarian Republican groups... country-clubbers... who see nothing wrong with someone who favors abortion rights and same-sex marriage and has had ties to ACORN. Gingrich should have remembered his own insurgency and known better.

The following are winners nationally in this project: Sarah Palin who endorsed Hoffman along with a number of others... Tim Pawlenty who endorsed her... Fred Thompson. Scoring a flat zero each: Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee who hung back and stayed neutral. But Newt gets the booby prize.

All the same I'm rather disappointed Dierdre pulled out. That leaves only one overweight Republican candidate running in a special election: Robert Christie for governor of New Jersey. This is the especial minority group to which I belong and which needs greater representation in politics. The Democrats have a leading figure in Barney Frank. Whom do we Republicans have but Christie? Disappointing.

Rick Kogan.

Rick Kogan (Rick isn't short for Richard he will have us know since he was named after the trendy old restaurant and bar Riccardo's) has referred to me as a serious purveyor of incorrect English grammar... citing 14 cases of faulty usage in my article Thursday about the Trib and Sun-Times. Yeah, probably guilty as charged although I haven't counted `em. Unlike Rick I don't have an editor and type this myself... sans proofreader-the article to which he referred at 12:30 a.m. To expect a liberal to forgive a white fairly well-off conservative traditionalist writer of grammatical errors is fruitless.

He also said I am 90-nine full years older than I am. I'll take that as an example of Rick's devotion to journalistic accuracy. But to my ungrammatical errors first:

Winston Churchill, a master of English prose once concluded a fiery address to the House of Commons by ending his sentence with a preposition. A hostile Laborite called him on it. Churchill's tart response:

"That, sir, is a charge up with which I shall not put!"

Noam Chomsky the linguist well accepted in Kogan's journalistic social circles suggests that with English, "usage rules"... pointing to how sentence structure, wording and rhetoric have changed since Chaucer's Middle English. No new regulations were handed down but through dint of years people did by violating the old. At age 90 can't I be excused for wanting to step up the pace of change before I meet my Maker?

But to Rick: thank you for adding to my age by nine and sneering so superiorly. Especially for having taken the time to so assiduously count my double-digit grammatical offenses. Now let me offer him yet another digit... stemming from the Latin digitus meaning "finger."

The traditional one finger salute. Wth the salutation "Conjugate this, baby."

Why the GOP Switched to Knox.

In 1936, the almost dead-on-its-feet Republican party met in Cleveland to nominate a ticket of sacrificial lambs to take on a ragingly popular team of Roosevelt and Garner. It quickly decided to nominate the popular governor of Kansas Alf M. Landon whom they nicknamed "the Kansas Coolidge." But who to run with him? The overwhelmingly popular choice was then stripling Governor Styles Bridges of New Hampshire, the nation's youngest governor who was readying a run for the U. S. Senate. Bridges was willing, even eager, to give up the Senate run in favor of the vice presidential nomination-even if he were to lose, which was a certainty. He savored national exposure which he could parlay into a future national replay.

So, the GOP Elders decided: Bridges it was to be. Everybody shook hands in the smoke-filled back room and prepared to march out to the convention arena to get it done. Then a genius among them thought it over, told them the consequences and everybody turned on their heels and strode back into the room to pick another candidate.

They chose in Bridge's place Col. Frank Knox, publisher of The Chicago Daily News.

Why didn't they stick with Styles Bridges? Did they find a serious character deficiency? Nope. Just this:

With the ticket Landon-Bridges, Democrats were sure to invent the slogan: "Landon Bridges Falling Down."

Landon-Knox went down to the worst defeat in electoral history up to that point. And that same year, Bridges was elected to the U. S. Senate, served as president pro-tem when the Republicans took it over in 1953 and remained in that chamber until his death. Incidentally, he became a fictional centerpiece in Allen Drury's famous and enduring novel of the Senate "Advise and Consent." Involved in a furious battle of personalities with Sen. Lester Hunt (D-Wyo.), the rumor was that he got rid of Hunt by blackmail: Unless Hunt were to resign his seat, there would be revelation that his son was a homosexual.

Hunt resigned-and as private citizen later killed himself. That story, fictionalized, became the major theme of Drury's Pulitzer-prize novel.

Catholic Bishops Hitting Parishioners for CHD.

This being November, Catholic churchgoers should get ready to be hit by a contribution request from all Catholic bishops just before Thanksgiving. The bishops will be appealing for monies to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development---the group run by a few liberals who steered $7.3 million to ACORN in the past ten years but which now since the scandal sorely repents it.

Don't provide absolution for this bishopric handful's grievous sin and give them another chance. Please.

The way to handle that is when the basket is passed during Mass, clasp your hands together in prayer-praying for the Holy Spirit to take up the slack, taking politicized alms from the hands of the bishops, some of whom have left-wing intent.

And while He's at it, providing Divine assistance to better the crop and fewer Lefty prelates.

Fem Supporter Blasts Criticism of Roeper.

A female supporter of the Sun-Times' Richard Roeper writes on my email (thomasfroeser@sbcglobal.net): "Why do you insist on saying Roeper's column is designed to appeal to young people? Are you stuck in 1989 [sic]? The Sun-Times doesn't target Roeper's column to young people, nor is his subject matter to that demographic. He writes about pop culture, politics, sports, movies, local news etc. etc. etc. In other words it's a GENERAL INTEREST COLUMN, MORON. He's not even that liberal (in favor of gun owners' rights, in favor of capital punishment, regular guest on O'Reilly factor etc. etc... Every time you do the `aging liberal bachelor' things about Roeper, you sound like a senile old man. Fine, we get it. You're incredibly jealous because he probably makes 20 times what you make. But [ejaculatory reference to the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity] try to be a little more relevant and on point!... "

An outraged devotee, obviously.

But, tell me, readers, what does "stuck in 1989" statement mean? What happened that year? Write to me at the same email she used. And thanks.

Thoughts While Shaving: Jim Tyree's Disappointing Vow... Comparing Both Newspapers-and the Recycled Old Guys New Venture, "The Chicago News Cooperative": Just What We Need.

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:52:00 CST

Say It's Not So, Jim.

Jim Tyree who heads the group that just bought the Sun-Times says he won't change anything in its editorial content. God, what a shame. Sure, many owners say this but I have a hunch Tyree is telling the truth. The problem is that the Sun-Times has a lot of great assets as a newspaper-and lamentably some huge defects. The assets are a great news-staff with a number of super-stars including Fran Spielman and Abdon Pallasch. The paper really and truly does cover Chicago news better than the Tribune... more scoops certainly. It has toned down its more flamboyant coverage. The front-page design has improved and is slightly more demure: i.e. the flaming era where a 4-column photo showed two huge black lesbians swabbing spit has passed. Jack Higgins, its Pulitzer prize-winner still continues to be great.

The things wrong with the paper are almost all of its rabidly left-wing columnists starting with Steinberg and moving through the aging bachelor boy who is getting up there but is supposed to appeal to kids: Roeper. Mercifully Falsani has moved to California but I give her credit for adopting a very ill child and I could read her if she didn't comment on religion. Huntley, a vestige of the past, is a much better national-international issues columnist than I had supposed when he took over that beat.

But I must say again: I'm smart enough to know there should be at least two liberal columnists but there is no conservative columnist that covers Chicago with astute reasoning to match Dennis Byrne. There appears to be a definite bias at the Sun-Times against anyone who has what is now the majority opinion on abortion (check the latest Rasmussen: a majority is seriously questioning the old liberal nostrums: abortion, same-sex marriage). Stella is all right and Sneed, while cotton candy, for some reason always catches my eye with something I didn't know.

Now if Tyree wants to truly save the paper why has he taken this stupid vow not to tinker with the editorial content? The tone of the paper should move to the Right simply because its present stance-knee-jerk and roughly equivalent to being the uptown edition of the old Daily Worker-doesn't make it. It's a lefty publication in an attempt to appeal to blacks but frankly the unpalatable but undeniable truth is this: not that many blacks read newspapers. Their own historic newspaper The Defender which flourished in the less-modern past has gone kaput.

But the fact is that Lefties publish a good number of newspapers not because they're too dumb to recognize that leftism doesn't pay-but for personal reasons: to appeal to their friends. Just like Hollywood. They make leftwing films to appeal to their port-side soul-mates. Tyree will be just another milestone on the path to permanent insolvency if he doesn't influence the editorial-commentary content right-ward. That means ousting Marin and the rest, kicking out the editorial page editor and moving the thing not SO far right but definitely TO THE RIGHT.

The Tribune.

The Tribune's superstar is John Kass. Do I like him because he's a Republican? No-because he's not a Republican: he has heaped scorn on the Republican half of the Combine. He's conservative. I ask you: where is it written in the stars or elsewhere that a newspaper can't have a conservative as a columnist? Kass is everlasting proof that someone with a moderately conservative view can be successful. Why is he the only one in the whole damned paper full-time who is?

The news staff over there, though, is distinctly second rate compared to the Sun-Times. Their best Chicago writer who covered City Hall has departed. David Greising who wrote business... albeit a Lefty... was excellent on his beat. Well he's gone. The new cartoonist is acceptable: not Higgins' quality but is getting better.

But the important thing is this: the paper has moved perceptibly away from looking like USA TODAY-but has become more of a magazine rather than a newspaper. Why is that? Who's great idea was this? In the old days... and remember I am old enough to be approaching the Prophet Abraham in years... in the old days when there were four papers-The Tribune, The Daily News, The Chicago American, the old tabloid Times-it was the Tribune that covered Chicago news including politics like a blanket. The Daily News had the outstanding foreign staff and some very good columnists: Howard Vincent O'Brien incomparable. The American was the flashy sensationalist. Nowadays the Trib has Kass, Denny Byrne As an Op Ed and pfffffft that's it.

The Chicago News Cooperative.

Last week it was announced that a creature called The Chicago News Cooperative was formed. It's funded by the MacArthur Foundation and looks to me like an out-of-retirement project for old liberal journalists who've been bounced... to take them off the street. There's irony in the fact that the head man will be Jim O'Shea, former managing editor of The Tribune who was eased out of there and made editor of its Los Angeles Times where he either was canned or walked out. In any case, looking at the roster, it seems very like Resurrection Day for old liberal journalists-which God knows we don't need any more of. It looked for awhile like Jim Warren would go over there... probably the most liberal of the bunch... who was the Washington editor of the Tribune, known for his crusade against journalists who speak at special functions for big honoraria.

Warren kept writing about them for a purpose that seemed obvious to me: nobody asked him to speak for fancy prices. And why would they? Have you ever read anything by him or heard him say on WGN anything remotely fresh and apart from conventional wisdom? But no, he thought about it but has become a Top Dog at that sprightly journal of superior culture and taste, The Reader... which features a truly colorful column by a homosexual who advises on both straight and gay relationships... also a column labeled "Free S-t." Isn't that lovely?

Speaking of which, none other than our Big Jimbo... you know who I mean... the ex-Republican governor Jim Thompson who breathes in unison with Daley... is going to have his law firm Winston & Strawn do pro-bono legal for them. Just as he did for bulbous-nosed old George Ryan.

And huzza! CNC has just signed a contract with the premier leftist newspaper in the nation-The New York Times-to produce two pages of "exclusive editorial content" twice a week-Friday and Sunday. Gawd a production featuring old-timers who were justifiably let go, now recycled for our reading pleasure. Can hardly wait.

Personal Aside: Obamacare and Dem Politics Stumps at Oak Park's Ascension Catholic Parish Hall as Chancery Shrugs: "Who-Us?"

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:17:00 CST

The Chicago (Catholic) Way.

Ah, yes. Children, the lastest is that Chicago's archdiocesan leadership sanctions and shuts its eyes to the conversion of Oak Park's Ascension parish to a pro-Obama forum on health care... this news from the Blythe Spirit blog written by Jim Bowman who took it from a report by Susan Jordan on CatholicCitizens.org, the website of Catholic Citizens of Illinois. Jordan is a resident of Oak Park.

Ascension is a good word for this flaccid, evasive, continuingly parsing archdiocesan leadership notably soft on local, state and national Democrats. It will shortly ascend to the presidency of the USCCB, the bishops' forum that meets in its contributor-paid-for marble temple in Washington, D. C. similar to the UN General Assembly, each bishop with a microphone of his own.

We're All Good Fellows When We Democrats Get Together.

Here's the story of the pro-Obama Democratic follies at Ascension as told by Jordan-follies that come close to the theatrics performed by Pfleger who turns Saint Sabina's into a raucous lefty rally every Sunday:

Late last summer Ascension parish advertised a forum on health care to be held at the parish Sept. 20 called "Under the Doctors' Microscope." The meeting was scheduled to take place at Ascension's parish hall. The initial flyer put out by the parish was blatantly partisan... listing on the flier the following sponsors: the Democratic Party of Oak Park.. and the group "Organizing for America" (Obama's grassroots advocacy group that's working feverishly to get his socialist program passed).

Jordan couldn't believe her eyes. She initiated contact with the archdiocesan "Respect Life" office and then via an intermediary to Ascension's pastor who goes by Fr. Larry McNally-not Lawrence-- (like most liberals he probably wants to be known as "Good Old Larry the regular guy"). Every time you hear priests going by nicknames, watch out: most times you've got a genuine vestigial throwback to the good old `60s of "hiya, fellas, I'm Father Chuck... but just call me Chuck!"

Jordan said Father Larry McNally (an Irishman, natch... a real fit for the pro-abort Daleys, Madigans, Quinns and Cullertons)... said it was a mistake and "we want the event to be nonpartisan." Sure-sure, Larry-a procedure in line with the fundraiser last year for Mercy Home for Girls and Boys that featured pro-abort Sen. Hillary Clinton, then a presidential candidate sent out by Fr. Scott Donohue. Gee whiz, everybody formed a circle and pointed at everybody else like in the Thomas Nast cartoon from the 19th century that showed accused pols playing ring-around-the-rosie about responsibility for Boss Tweed. First Donohue said the speaker pick was done by a lay committee with which he wasn't involved. But he must have known the pick, right? Well, yes, but he checked it with the archdiocese. Up and up in the hierarchal pyramid at the Chancery office it went, everybody pointing to everybody else until the buck stopped with the one who parses-parses-parses-and, of course, he parsed again... so tediously that responsibility was blurred, the blame shuttling back downstairs.

Well, let's see if Fr. Larry was as good as his word.

Dems Paid for the Fliers.

Surprise: he wasn't. The next issue of the flier came out a week before the event and guess what? The same list of sponsors-the Democratic Party of Oak Park and Obama's lobbying group, "Organizing for America," were still listed. But no surprise there: almost 1,000 of the Dem fliers were paid for by the Oak Park Democratic party. What's fair is fair.

With the heat on, another flier appeared a bare two days before the Forum omitting the sponsors names.

Then Good old Fr. Larry promised he would straighten everything out at the outset by telling the archdiocese's Respect Life that he would "clearly address the pro-life issues" in his opening remarks at the blatant political-lobbying fest. But of course, strategically he wimped out, saying that on a table in the back of the hall was a stack of USCCB (U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops') statement on health care. Period. End of equal time.

Oh, yes, Good Old Fr. Larry wasn't as inactive as it seems. Earlier he had contacted the chancery and warned that one Susan Jordan was planning to disrupt the meeting. And the usual strategy straight out of Saul Alinsky's handbook (which he had dedicated, charmingly, to the devil-in-chief Lucifer) that good old Fr, Larry had received "hate mail." That's what old Alinsky himself once told me was his approved tactic. I interviewed him at the Industrial Areas foundation (I got there through his assistant Ed Chambers who because we were classmates Saint John's believed I was in the Trotsky mould and Msgr. Jack Egan who tried to convert me to believe, as did he, that the old atheist-Commie was the reincarnation of Tom Paine.)

"We always spread the word that is hatred, hatred. And there may be violence at rallies," said Alinsky. "That way a cop shows up and the media too which strengthens our hand substantially." Sure enough, a cop showed up at Fr. Larry's pro-Obama rally. (This is written just to tell Saul as he revolves on the eternal spit that his strategy was followed meticulously at Ascension parish in Oak Park which stifled all talk about abortion... and pass that to Lucifer when you see him next: maybe he'll turn down the heat.)

Two hundred fifty attended the Obamacare pep rally conducted on church property, its tax status protected by exemption because it is purportedly nonpartisan. The panel consisted of physicians, topped off by Dr. David Scheiner, touted as "President Obama's personal physician for 21 years!" Audience: Yayyyyy!

Maybe the other doctors on the panel had divergent views but Jordan reports one couldn't tell as the only remedy for the nation's health care "crisis" was single-payer universal health care. Good old Fr. Larry was there, of course and so was Fr. Richard Hynes from the archdiocese's Office of Evangelization-both mum.

The rules: nobody could ask a question verbally from the floor-but had to write them on white cards. A key question went to Dr. Scheiner, Obama's personal doc. And it was fitting for a Catholic to ask. It was a question that asked about taxpayer funding of abortion that was contained in the bill. You wanna know Scheiner's answer?

"Abortion is an issue that has been debated for decades. It really should not be part of the conversation on healthcare reform." That was that. And the audience, responding loyally on cue yelled Yayyyyyyyyyy! All the while good old Fr. Larry and good old Fr. Hynes representing the Church that has crusaded against abortion for almost 2,000 years, superbly non-judgmental, sat on their hands, saying nothing.

But that's not all. Believe it or not, after their rally the Obamacare loyalists protested that they couldn't pass out literature. And pro-abort Democratic Congressman Danny Davis-he of the foghorn basso profundo voice who will be running for president of the Cook county board at the primary next February-told the very compliant left of center blog Chicago Catholic News he was told at the last minute he couldn't speak because he is a politician. I don't blame him for being shocked because he had spoken at Ascension earlier... and damnit he's used to Catholics bouncing off the walls as he intones ala Paul Robson. That's what happens at Sabina's! But he's assuage because Good old Fr. Larry said he'd write Davis a letter of apology in behalf of the parish.

Chicago "Catholic" News religiously (pun intended) reported that the Democratic Party of Oak Park and Organizing for America that they were offended that they couldn't distribute their literature. Dear-dear. The things you have to put up with after you plunk down the dough to hype a Democratic rally at a Catholic parish hall!

Now let me predict: When this story gains even more currency, the answer from the archdiocese will be superbly parsed. Who's responsible? Not you, not me but that guy there behind the tree! On one hand... then the other hand... back to the one hand... then to the other. And the supine mainstream print media will agonize that free speech was partially throttled when the Dems couldn't pass out their literature telling folk who to call in the Congress to lobby Obama's program through. But Good Old Fr. Larry will apologize and say these evil conservatives like me have changed their meeting into a caricature.

That's the Catholic Church Militant: Chicago style. Or rather from the people to whom principles and IRS rules are discarded, it's another variant of The Squid: Its Chicago (Catholic) Way.

4 Thoughts While Shaving-4.

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:58:00 CST

1. The Heartland Institute.

One of the nation's finest think tanks is located right here in Chicago-but has exerted national influence. It is The Heartland Institute which has helped me in multifarious ways with innovative research and excellent speakers on current topics ranging from the economy through its superb discounting of the global warming baloney (now called by liberals "climate change" since lack of warming is so obvious). Heartland is celebrating its 25th anniversary tomorrow (Thursday) with its annual dinner at the Hilton downtown.

Here are just a few of the many-many accomplishments it's chalked up in the last quarter century: helped defeat tax subsidies for sports stadiums, convention centers and municipal broadband ventures... all of which should be paid by private funds... thus saving taxpayers billions... helped defeat hundreds of proposals to hike income, sales, excise and property taxes at federal, state and local levels... has become the country's finest advocates of school choice, helping write legislation creating vouchers, tax credits and charter school programs that enroll 2 million students every year...

... helped defeat ClintonCare and is doing a great job educating the unwary on ObamaCare now... has led the way on the follies of global warming: the principal reason only 36% support it now. I remember when, before Heartland started on the issue, a heavy majority of Americans supported it, misled by faulty liberal reasoning... distributed more than a million books and a million videos on multitudinous topics but primarily debunking the propaganda on climate change-running nearly $2 million in advertisements, including one that challenged Algore to debate (he finked out)... hosted three international conferences on the issue featuring scientists from 26 countries.

To accomplish these thing it has benefited from a tremendous leader all those years in Joe Bast, its first employee. At his side is a brilliant guy who possesses great resources as one of the best communicators I have ever met: Dan Miller, the former editor of Crain's who was business editor of the Sun-Times who was a regular for many years on Chicago Week in Review.

There's still time to attend its birthday banquet. Call them NOW at

(312) 377-4000 and tell them you want to support them for the fine work they are doing to save this country.

2. Reward the Experiment by Tuning in CBS-2 Chicago.

While I'm in such a good mood about Heartland, I want to commend a great experiment in sold news content-the CBS-2 news show at 10 p.m. It's no secret that they have had a rocky couple of years with their ratings... but lo and behold... they have totally revised their news presentation by stressing solid Chicago content at 10 p.m. (I haven't caught the other hours). What I like about them is that it has no glitz, no endless happy talk, no joshing and giggling... but also they have dropped stories that fill their competitive stations with brain-dead and inane cotton candy-type fare such as... happy puppies with ribbons at a doggy fair... a 5-year-old weight lifter ad vomit which passes for "news."

The news staff is one of the finest I've seen covering the news and I first started watching... gosh... when Fahey Flynn was on with his jowls and bowtie. The best anchor I've seen here in years is Rob Johnson... supported by Jay Levine... superb investigations by Pam Zekman who I've known since she was a faux bar owner of The Mirage which we at the Better Government Association set up to catch Old Man Daley's crooked plumbing inspectors.

Do turn to it at 10 because I for one want to see a first-class content-wise news operation succeed... which may spur competitors to imitate them with content not fluff.

3. Why Won't The Economist Subscription Run Out?

The biggest disappointment in many years has been the gradual turning from a brilliant news/commentary publication... The Economist... to another liberal, pro-gay, pro-death-with-dignity publication that has lost its soul. It is tedious to keep on receiving it... waiting for my subscription to run out. I have studiously ignored it ever since it greeted Obama with wild huzzas, pointing out that with luck he can duplicate Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal which "conquered the Depression." As if a succession of good economic historians like Amy Shlaes haven't pointed out how the Depression was never conquered until World War II set the economy to churning.

Well I reserve vapid reading for the bathroom and yesterday, ensconced on my throne, I reluctantly turned to the magazine (which calls itself a newspaper)... hoping that for these few moments of solitary self-communion I could find something not banal. But-sure thing-there is a review of two books about Ayn Rand. Now I am not critical of Ayn Rand, enjoyed while young "Atlas Shrugged," loved "The Fountainhead" film... regarding Ayn's studiously embraced atheism as erratic but redeemed somewhat... somewhat... by her steady drumbeat that said this country's innovative freedoms are being ground to bits by liberal statism..

But get the headline extolling her in The Economist: "Capitalism's Martyred Hero." How's that again-martyred hero? The loose appellation "martyred" has been applied to almost everyone who has been killed. Our sloppy media call JFK "the martyred president." Lincoln was "a martyred president." Both assassinations were tragic-but were they "martyred"? The definition of martyr is this: One who accepts death rather than yield his religious convictions.

That doesn't fit many people. Lincoln was laughing his guts out at a vulgar show "Our American Cousin" at Ford's on Good Friday when a nutty actor blew his brains out. Kennedy was riding in a motorcade in Dallas, he being in that town to stabilize the Democratic party which was warring between factions, one headed by John Connally and the other by Ralph Yarborough. Ayn Rand martyred? The Economist cites favorably two biographies that claim she had her critics-evidently the pretext for the claim she was martyred. She died in her bed a multi-millionaire from her books with millions of adulatory followers. She was a carnal pig-desirous of an expanded sex life, she told Nathaniel Brandon her acolyte that she had arranged it with his wife that they could share him. She insisted that her husband wear a bell on one shoe so that when she approached her while she was reading she could hear him coming. When Brandon tired of her and left, she was disconsolate.

But Ayn Rand a martyr? Then just before tossing this dreadful pagan publication to the other side of the room from my seated position, I glanced at the obligatory simpering obituary which appears every week. This was a lachrymose piece detailing a great loss... as usual about someone no one ever heard of except some fruit loops in England-this about one Sir Ludovic Kennedy who crusaded for "the right to a good death"-voluntary euthanasia.

Martyr and advocate of "the right to a good death." My God how soon will it take for that subscription to run out?

4. A Conservative Genius in Herscher, Illinois.

I've praised Jim Ridings before. He's the gifted author of the only book written about the most crooked, most venal Illinois governor... and no I don't mean Blago. Blago was an amateur. I mean Kankakee's Len Small. Jim is a retired, aged 59, former investigative reporter for some southern Illinois newspapers. Now it turns out he varied his great writing with a cartooning skill that easily... very easily... surpasses anything Doonsbury has done, or Charles Schulz with "Peanuts"-or anyone else. So excited was I when I received his book of cartoons that I phoned him and asked if he would please draw and write for The Chicago Daily Observer.

Jim said he'd consider writing for it but he's abandoned cartooning. I want to tell you that's a great shame because his book of cartoons easily rivals in its way anything I've read that skewers liberalism. His cartoon book, written some years ago, is entitled "The Politically Incorrect Cheese Weasel." I don't know but it's probably still available along with his Len Small bio which I definitely know is available. You can inquire by writing Jim Ridings at "Side Show Books, P. O. Box 464. Herscher, Illinois 6094.