Something different: a Chicago safari

Note, however, this comment from “Bootsie”:

    You motherfuckers got the nerves to put two White Bitches on the photo….Prejudice Bitches where will you get your drugs from now. I don’t believe this Blog, white people own this only because when an African American make certain comments you white Bitches delete them. Its so sad that you would even make fun of something like this.
July 7, 2013 at 6:34 AM

The site runs Bootsie and others who object. Bootsie, apart from his angry and prejudicial language, makes a point about making fun of this. As for the site’s featuring crime in the ‘hood, it’s what the Sun-Times does routinely, with different emphasis — on victims and the generalized horror at it all.

Anonymous thanks Bootsie for his comment, says he should start his own site, to which Bootsie:

I don’t have to start my own site , you know its wrong and its sad. If i had my own site Do you think it’ll be all about white folks shooting up schools or killing their entire family no…..i totally disagree with this safari shit

All in all, honest reportage, honest exchange. You do not get this in the dying newspapers.

Advice for the writer (of fiction but applicable to non-fiction, I’d say), from Enemy Salvoes, 264-265:

Do not be intimidated . . . into never uttering a Yes or a No by the propaganda of the nuance the prevarication the half-light the pseudo-statement and the pseudo-truth those barren lands of fashionable literary criticism. . . . . enter fully into the spirit of the side-taking and it will become a game for you . . . a game in which there is only one rule: namely, that you must place yourself on the side to which you belong . . . . You will find you will achieve more true detachment that way than by playing at Mr. Fair-Play, and doing as much harm as you can to the people to whom you do belong as the Anglo-Saxon has been doing for so long, in his cold frenzies of suicidal liberalism . . .

. . . . You play at being yourself and so you are yourself; it is quite unnecessary to play at being anybody else to be completely the artist. If you cannot be detached” with yourself, there is nothing you can be detached with! . . . . you will not find that playing Number One, or the First Person Singular, has cramped your style . . .

And believe me, you could still be wrong! Behold the problem.

In his recently widely cited interview, he urged “proclamation in a missionary style,” with focus “on the essentials, the necessary things . . . what fascinates and attracts . . . makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus,” offering “urgency and radiance and freshness [that] is new and welcome,” comments Robert Royal.

But if he were to call me he does such things, but Im not holding my breath I would point to the misleading phrase [“The dogmatic and moral
teachings of the church are not all equivalent”] that starts [the] passage [in
question]. Its true: not everything in Catholicism is on the same plane. Benedict and the American bishops, for example, tried for years to explain that life takes precedence over secondary policy questions. Francis no doubt agrees, but before making his strong evangelical point, hes given an unnecessary opening to those who would twist his words.
Those of us who publicly fight these battles already know what were going to be hearing from the other guys: “Will you Catholics stop yapping all the time about abortion [or contraception or gay marriage]. Even the pope has told you to give it a rest.” And they wont be entirely wrong.

The world is only too happy for the Church to leave the battlefield and allow the secular world to kill babies in unimaginable numbers, destroy marriage, and along the way reduce religious freedom none of which will be good in the long run for the evangelical efforts Francis favors.

Francis is seeking to bring a new Catholic spirit to the world and thats all to the good. Lets hope the spirit that arises is the one he seeks, not a wayward one that others foist on him and the Church. [italics
added]

Here’s a bit of fraternal correction — as to phrasing, not substance. Quite legitimate, it seems to me.

Pat Hickey is not impressed with the new Chi Trib project:

For better than forty years the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board worked to make sure that everyone takes this person very seriously, and questions the values, aspirations and intentions of these people

And now they want help in recommending a fix-it.

Hickey is hands-down the most fertile mind on the Chicago blog scene. Fascinating.

This is what Alinsky called “rubbing raw the sores of discontent.”

Catholic priests in military face arrest for celebrating Mass

By Todd Starnes

The U.S. military has furloughed as many as 50 Catholic chaplains due to the partial suspension of government services, banning them from celebrating weekend Mass. At least one chaplain was told that if he engaged in any ministry activity, he would be subjected to disciplinary action.

What’s being rubbed raw is presumed discontent with the lousy Republicans. Big O. knows what he’s doing.

Or thinks he does.

Our man in the White House on CNBC:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: John, I think it’s fair to say that—during the course of my presidency—I have bent over backwards to work with—the Republican party. And have purposely kept my rhetoric down. I think I’m pretty well known for being a calm guy. Sometimes people think I’m too calm.”

John Steele Gordon at Commentary:

The mind boggles. This is a president who did not meet with the Republican minority leader in the Senate until a year and a half into his presidency; who excluded Republicans from any part in the shaping of the ObamaCare legislation, and forced it through on a strictly party-line vote; who excluded Republicans from any input on the stimulus bill; who invited Paul Ryan to a conference on health care and then insulted him to his face when Ryan could not reply; who accused Republicans of wanting only to deny health care to 30 million Americans; who called them “bitter clingers,” and told his supporters to get in their faces.

The only thing President Obama, the most divisive, partisan president in the history of the republic, has ever bent over backwards to do was to get out of a sand trap. He has kept his rhetoric down only to the extent of not advocating violence against Republicans.

What to make of this fellow O.? Unique in our annals?

Shutdown alert! Shutdown alert! Shutdown alert!

For a fun-filled view of what happens when Internet access is denied, see madcap blogger Mark Shea’s over-the-top depiction of panic in Seattle. And remember, folks, it could happen here!

Chicago’s homeless guru ex-SJ Shurna, hearts Pope Francis in HuffPo.

Quotes MSNBC fellow.