Month: December 2013

Pope Francis and trickle-down again

Not for attribution

Chi Trib’s Rex Huppke has found something he likes pope-wise, even if he disguises it in a splurge of irony and faux detachment. He plays the naif — “Who, me?” — laying schmaltz on heavier than a high-school sophomore going for the prize.

There are some who doubt the efficacy of trickle-down economics [what Pope Francis condemned]. Those people, according to conservatives, are either communists or, apparently, the pope, whose exhortation insulted the memory of Reagan (patron saint of letting rich people keep their money) and REALLY upset Rush Limbaugh (patron saint of saying things loudly so nobody notices that they don’t make sense).

Thought I’d die laughing, Zelda. That man is SO funny. REALLY!!!

He gives a rundown on millenaristic theory and prediction having to do with the papacy and the world ending with a bang simultaneously, then provides an aw-shucks moment.

The smart thing to do would be…

View original post 191 more words

Do white Americans need an education in slavery? As columnist John Hubbuch asserts?

Oak Park Chronicles

This NOVEMBER 12 (!) column by Wed Jnl regular John Hubbuch had its most recent comment (of 190!) at 1:52 this morning — not counting mine, hours later, at 191.For which this sometime columnist and blogger wants to congratulate what may be the all-time winner in # of comments. CONGRATULATIONS, JOHN!

As for my comment, at 191, have a look. It’s a zinger.

View original post

Fascism lives!

Consider this from Lew Rockwell:

“Fascism” has become a term of general derision and rebuke. It is tossed casually in the direction of anything a critic happens to dislike. … But fascism is a real concept, not a stick with which to beat opponents arbitrarily. The abuse of this important word undermines its true value as a term referring to a very real phenomenon, and one whose spirit lives on even now.

Hmmm. Read on.

Rep. Ford: Change Cicero Avenue to Mandela Road

Oak Park Chronicles

South Oak Park’s Rep. La Shawn Ford wants to rename Cicero Avenue to Mandela Road. It would be “a small gesture from our partnering communities” — Western Springs, LaGrange, LaGrange Park, Brookfield, Forest Park, Proviso Township, Riverside, North Riverside, Berwyn, Oak Park, and Austin, all of the 8th Illinois House District — to honor the late S. African leader, who has been “an inspiration to many,” Ford says in a petition.

Doing this “will send a message that Illinois stands for a strong road for justice,” he adds.

It would to many. But probably not to merchants who have to change their signs and letterheads. Not even, maybe, to the cash-strapped city of Chicago, which would have to change street signs etc. Not to mapmakers — wait: yes to mapmakers, who would gain much business from need for new maps. But not to the town of Cicero, for heaven’s sake…

View original post 117 more words

Will new Vatican commission on abuse answer the one crucial question? – Catholic Culture

Big problem here:

6_th.jpg
Today’s Vatican announcement that the Pope will create a new commission answers every question—except the one question everyone is asking.

What we don’t know is whether the new commission will take action against bishops who fail in their own responsibilities: bishops who cover up abuse. So we don’t know whether the commission will address the root cause of the scandal.

We know that the new commission will issue guidelines for handling sex-abuse issues. But we don’t know if bishops will follow those guidelines.

Followed by several other “we know . . . but we don’t know”s.

Let’s have a law!

Oak Park Chronicles

God knows, we love a law. So let’s have one. Take bike helmets, please. Situation: kids ride bikes, kids fall off bikes. kids hit head on pavement, get concussion, die or worse. This is Oak Park. It can happen here, but it must not happen here, let’s forbid it. Pass a law. Is that simple enough for you?

Some say it won’t be enforced, this new law condemning parents to community service (watching bike racks in shifts, like outside the old Ridgeland Pool door, lest they be ripped off, for instance):

. . . the revised ordinance eliminates the fine and replaces it with possible community service for the parent if they cannot provide proof they [he or she, including single moms or dads already
working two or more jobs?] have acquired a helmet for their kid.

So what? It won’t be enforced:

The chances of…

View original post 221 more words

Chapter and verse about Pope Francis’ economics in letter to Chi Trib

Scroll down for this very good analysis from a Deerfield man: (boldface, bracketed comments added)

Pope and economics

The pope’s heart is in the right place, but he demonstrated a fundamental lack of understanding of free markets and capitalism in his recent economic speech. It is only when China abandoned [reduced?
moderated?] paternalistic government that had kept a billion souls locked in poverty and turned to free-market capitalism that it went from Third World status to a superpower.

. . . more people were lifted from poverty to middle class than the total population of the United States.

Better that capitalism resulted in a few superrich and 500 million lifted out of poverty, than no superrich and 500 million who never left poverty. [Room for papal allusion to obsession with idle rich in
public discourse, including churchly]

The results of free-market capitalism in breaking the chains of poverty are not limited to China; rather, they are evident in every Asian country that adopted it.

John F. Kennedy understood that lowering taxes results in wealth creation for the greatest number of citizens. Conversely, Barack Obama’s imposition of increased taxes and regulation has resulted in the weakest economic recovery on record.

The facts are clear: Free markets and capitalism are the road to prosperity.

Rob Klein, Deerfield

Klein calls it “an economic speech,” which apologists deny. I’d say that the pope’s meaning well extends to the “apostolic exhortation” label he gave it. If he did not know the apostolic part would get drowned out by the economic part, he needs a media advisor in a hurry.

How I hear mass

Not for attribution

The old way, letting the priest do what he has to do while I meditate and commune, privately. It’s the nearest thing to heresy you can come these days. But it’s that or I lose it as far as Catholic practice and belief are concerned.

Too much going on at today’s mass: priest in my face all the time, mumbling or orating, performing, always as if I had no resources and he alone could provide them for me. Ditto the various songsters with hand raised at prescribed moments, as if hailing a taxi, and announcers, directors of all things worshipful or presumably so. I tune it out, reading St. Paul or other New Testament or Psalms or religious verse.

Currently St. Paul in a little volume from the Daughters of Same book store on Mich. Ave., where today I saw he told Timothy that we are citizens of heaven and…

View original post 133 more words