Month: December 2005

Trice-fooled, again

Once more into the breach, my friends, regarding Chi Trib’s Dawn T. Trice’s “From any angle, racial profiling is still wrong” of 12/10/05, this time as to her admitting she “might make snap judgments” about who’s a threat, but the government shouldn’t, because “theoretically, it has to be far more judicious because the stakes are too high.”

Apart from the redundancy – “theoretically, it has to be” – she has her straw man at the ready with “snap judgments,” as if she has shown that most terrorists are not Arab or Muslim. She also seems to concede the value of quick decisions when personally threatened. (I hope she does.) That’s on a lonely dark street, for instance, where we have ourselves and those with us to protect. For the government it’s thousands, even millions, to protect.

The stakes are too high, all right.

Trice-fooled, again

Once more into the breach, my friends, regarding Chi Trib’s Dawn T. Trice’s “From any angle, racial profiling is still wrong” of 12/10/05, this time as to her admitting she “might make snap judgments” about who’s a threat, but the government shouldn’t, because “theoretically, it has to be far more judicious because the stakes are too high.”

Apart from the redundancy – “theoretically, it has to be” – she has her straw man at the ready with “snap judgments,” as if she has shown that most terrorists are not Arab or Muslim. She also seems to concede the value of quick decisions when personally threatened. (I hope she does.) That’s on a lonely dark street, for instance, where we have ourselves and those with us to protect. For the government it’s thousands, even millions, to protect.

The stakes are too high, all right.

Wuxtry! Not!

Start off each day with a song, Jimmy Durante told us long ago. Begin blithely, blithely, as one of my favorite blogs would have it. Yesterday the blitheness came unexpected. (It’s the best kind.) There on p. 12 of Sun-Times was a short AP piece about Bush’s popularity going up, reaching highest since last summer. Suddenly, last summer? No, suddenly this winter, he is doing better – five points better in a month! Fancy that!

He’s up to 42%, having gotten energetic in pushing his handling of Iraq and the economy, per an AP-Ipsos poll. In November he had 37% approval, this month 42%. Wow. His new aggressiveness is working. Wuxtry, wuxtry, read all about it. On p. 12 of S-T, six inches under a 4×4 pic, BUT NOT AT ALL IN CHI TRIB! Fancy that!

Whence the blitheness? Not from the news itself, of which I’d had glimmers thanks to Fox News (fair & balanced, you decide), but from the renewed realization of the thoroughly laugh-producing conclusion that Bad News papers can’t handle the truth, to use the Jack Nicholson phrase, or at least don’t think their readers can. And some of them can’t!

Those crazy pronouns

Revisiting ethnic profiling 12/8/05 – “From any angle, racial profiling is still wrong” – Dawn Turner Trice in Chi Trib says she’s heard from readers on how to stop “them” from hurting “us.” These are her quote marks, and I swear, this is the strangest use of quotes I have seen in a long time.

If she’s giving exact words, she’s doing it for a pair of damn pronouns.

If she’s distancing herself from these pronouns, she really ought to say why, since the them-us distinction is elementary, to say the least.

Or is she showing quote marks as comedienne Joan Cusack and lesser performers indicate by raising two fingers on each hand and giving them a shake, with a zany look?

Who knows? Trice goes oral-speech on us, flouting written-word conventions as if she doesn’t even know about them. You might say she translates the spoken word directly to the printed page without making it “writing,” if you catch my “drift.” (Wink-wink)

Those crazy pronouns

Revisiting ethnic profiling 12/8/05 – “From any angle, racial profiling is still wrong” – Dawn Turner Trice in Chi Trib says she’s heard from readers on how to stop “them” from hurting “us.” These are her quote marks, and I swear, this is the strangest use of quotes I have seen in a long time.

If she’s giving exact words, she’s doing it for a pair of damn pronouns.

If she’s distancing herself from these pronouns, she really ought to say why, since the them-us distinction is elementary, to say the least.

Or is she showing quote marks as comedienne Joan Cusack and lesser performers indicate by raising two fingers on each hand and giving them a shake, with a zany look?

Who knows? Trice goes oral-speech on us, flouting written-word conventions as if she doesn’t even know about them. You might say she translates the spoken word directly to the printed page without making it “writing,” if you catch my “drift.” (Wink-wink)

Defamation denied

Spent some quality time last night with blogger Carl Nyberg, of Forest Park, whose legal victory in a defamation suit is told in the latest Forest Park Review. In his Proviso Probe blog, Nyberg reported that the brother of the local high-school board president, Chris Welch, whom Welch voted to hire as a school custodian, had been indicted on a drug-related charge in 2003.

This was true, as Nyberg demonstrated by showing the Review a copy of the indictment. There was more to the suit, which Welch, now running for the Illinois legislature, dropped this week. It ain’t over till it’s over, however. Nyberg called the suit “harassment based on deliberately false statements” and said he hoped “the system will hold [the Welch brothers] accountable.”

Welch has a history of suing opponents, having sued, also for defamation, a former school board president and two critics during his last campaign for school board president, the Review reported  Both suits were also dropped, “leading the defendants to speculate that they were sued in attempts to stifle further criticism.”

The quality time, by the way, was at the Wednesday Journal Christmas party at the Oak Park Conservatory, about which not enough good things can be said – it’s a gem, on Garfield west of East. The Journal publishes the Forest Park paper and several others, including the Wednesday Journal of OP & RF, which publishes my monthly column. For excellent catering, furthermore, run, don’t walk to Chew Chew Cafe, of Riverside (where WJ has another paper), who know how to do it. I came hungry and was not much good at conversation for the first half hour, eating. Nyberg caught me after that time.

He was defended pro bono by Latham and Watkins, whom he found by googling — asking for “Chicago First Amendment pro bono.”  The search turned up four firms, whom he called, eventually finding what he wanted.

Defamation denied

Spent some quality time last night with blogger Carl Nyberg, of Forest Park, whose legal victory in a defamation suit is told in the latest Forest Park Review. In his Proviso Probe blog, Nyberg reported that the brother of the local high-school board president, Chris Welch, whom Welch voted to hire as a school custodian, had been indicted on a drug-related charge in 2003.

This was true, as Nyberg demonstrated by showing the Review a copy of the indictment. There was more to the suit, which Welch, now running for the Illinois legislature, dropped this week. It ain’t over till it’s over, however. Nyberg called the suit “harassment based on deliberately false statements” and said he hoped “the system will hold [the Welch brothers] accountable.”

Welch has a history of suing opponents, having sued, also for defamation, a former school board president and two critics during his last campaign for school board president, the Review reported  Both suits were also dropped, “leading the defendants to speculate that they were sued in attempts to stifle further criticism.”

The quality time, by the way, was at the Wednesday Journal Christmas party at the Oak Park Conservatory, about which not enough good things can be said – it’s a gem, on Garfield west of East. The Journal publishes the Forest Park paper and several others, including the Wednesday Journal of OP & RF, which publishes my monthly column. For excellent catering, furthermore, run, don’t walk to Chew Chew Cafe, of Riverside (where WJ has another paper), who know how to do it. I came hungry and was not much good at conversation for the first half hour, eating. Nyberg caught me after that time.

He was defended pro bono by Latham and Watkins, whom he found by googling — asking for “Chicago First Amendment pro bono.”  The search turned up four firms, whom he called, eventually finding what he wanted.

Wanna buy a baseball team?

Sun-T on Chi Trib troubles, 12/8/05, Eric Herman reporting: Trib Co. stock down 25% in 2005! It’s collapsing Wash Bureaus – Chi Trib, LA Times, et al. – into one, coverage to be “better than ever through greater collaboration,” says Dennis FitzSimons, Trib chairman. (Who will be in charge there?)

Troubles are part of a national pattern: In two middle quarters of 2005, U.S. newspaper circulation fell 2.6% on average. Trib Co. might sell things off, maybe the Cubs!

Wanna buy a baseball team?

Sun-T on Chi Trib troubles, 12/8/05, Eric Herman reporting: Trib Co. stock down 25% in 2005! It’s collapsing Wash Bureaus – Chi Trib, LA Times, et al. – into one, coverage to be “better than ever through greater collaboration,” says Dennis FitzSimons, Trib chairman. (Who will be in charge there?)

Troubles are part of a national pattern: In two middle quarters of 2005, U.S. newspaper circulation fell 2.6% on average. Trib Co. might sell things off, maybe the Cubs!