Author: Jim Bowman

Jim Bowman covered religion 1968-78 for the Chicago Daily News, since then has written books, articles, etc., mostly on corporate history but also on religion (Company Man: My Jesuit Life, 1950-1968), and more recently on politics (Illinois Blues: How the Ruling Party Talks to Voters -- Lulu.com, Kindle). Longtime Oak Park, Illinois, resident, he lives now on Chicago's North Side, where four of his and Winnie's six children live close by.

Big-city blues, death in the afternoon and any old time, can’t win for losing.

Chicago Newspapers

11 killed, 46 wounded in Memorial Day weekend violence: It was the deadliest Memorial Day weekend in Chicago in eight years. New mayor, old stuff.

Death toll . . . highest since 2015, when 12 . . .  were killed. The total number shot, however, was still far below the 71 . . .  wounded by gunfire over the 2016 holiday weekend.

The Gresham police district on the South Side recorded the most shooting victims, at least seven, followed by the Harrison District on the West Side, where at least six people were shot.

South Side, West Side, not all around the town. Thus be it ever. A newbie at Daily News, November, 1969, for my introductory week on the middle watch, 4 to midnight, given a story for small write-up, mayhem in ‘hood I knew, told desk man in charge, “This happens all the time, doesn’t it?” meaning…

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Cardinal Cupich of Chicago sounded alarm to fellow bishops in 2018 about publishing abuser priests five years before AG dropped hammer on him

Sunday sermons, weekday observations

Cupich had stern advice for fellow bishops.

Cupich said Tuesday that he wants the bishops at their November meeting to go even further and require that all dioceses publicly list priests and bishops credibly accused of abuse. So far only about 50 out of 190 dioceses do so.

Wanted stern action on cover-ups.

Cupich also wants his colleagues to cede some of their zealously guarded autonomy to an independent review board of lay experts who would have the authority to investigate any bishop or cardinal accused of abuse or of covering up for abuse.

His “watershed moment”:

“I think we have to take action,” the cardinal said. “We are at a watershed moment. We have to deal with the issue of accountability, accountability of bishops, that has to happen. … We have to do everything possible to understand that this is a watershed moment, that accountability is key, that…

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So the man misplaced his key phrase. Meeting a deadline, we presume . . .

Chicago Newspapers

Sun-Times man to his AFTERNOON EDITION readers couple hours ago:

Maybe you already knew this, but today I learned that the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse was built way back in 1893 — and reconstructed in 1917.

He’s right, of course, about me, anyhow. I did not already know he learned that today, or anything else, for that matter. I also did not know that about the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse.

He’s got my attention, however, and will pay more attention to his learning curve.

All in all, he has an impressive portfolio. Check him out.

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Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive

Don’t mess with Mr. In-Between

In the dark days of the 2nd world war, the message was a religious one. Johnny Mercer’s lyrics:

Gather 'round me, everybody
Gather 'round me while I'm preachin'
Feel a sermon comin' on me
The topic will be sin and that's what I'm ag'in'
If you want to hear my story
The settle back and just sit tight
While I start reviewin'
The attitude of doin' right
You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium's
Liable to walk upon the scene
To illustrate my last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do just when everything looked so dark?
(Man, they said "We'd better accentuate the positive")
("Eliminate the negative")
("And latch on to the affirmative")
Don't mess with Mister In-Between (No!)
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
(Ya got to spread joy up to the maximum)
(Bring gloom down to the minimum)
(Have faith or pandemonium's)
(Liable to walk upon the scene)
You got to ac (yes, yes) -cent-tchu-ate the positive
Eliminate (yes, yes) the negative
And latch (yes, yes) on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No, don't mess with Mister In-Between

When there were no atheists in foxholes.

Wuxtry, wuxtry, read all about it, manic masking enthusiasm has just evaporated.

It’s come to this, has it? Our leaders have led us astray? Heaven forfend!

As on several prior occasions, liberal Bundestag Vice-President Wolfgang Kubicki has used his parliamentary prerogatives to put a question to the Health Ministry, and compel an answer. He asked what study results the Ministry could cite to demonstrate the efficacy of face masks. Lauterbach’s crack team of virus understanders responded that, uh, it is a very complicated problem, and, in truth, well, actually, nobody really knows what effect masks really have. This is because “the effectiveness of individual measures… cannot be examined in isolation, but only in conjunction with the other measures in place at any given time”.

In other words: they got nothing. After years of making kids mask for hours on end in school, and imposing arbitrary but quite obnoxious mandates on aeroplanes and public transit and clinics, they have no idea whether it did anything, and no plans even to find out whether it did anything. Suddenly all that manic masking enthusiasm has just evaporated.

When the world’s leaders in organized smarts can’t back up their governmentally induced pandemic-olium, are the rest of us allowed to throw up our hands and announce the hell with it?

Probably not.

Mayor Lori and her sanctuary city a sad tale of hubris and striking a pose

Chicago Newspapers

Expired food, infections, infestations reported at Chicago police stations serving as makeshift shelters for immigrants

Outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot has taken aim at Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas who has been sending immigrants to Chicago and other sanctuary cities as a response to President Joe Biden’s border policies.

In an open letter Sunday, Lightfoot told Abbott that her administration was aware he planned to resume busing immigrants to Chicago and other cities yesterday, noting that 8,000 have already been sent here since August.

She got a major virtue-signalling award when she embraced her sanctuary city policy, and now she’s after the Texas governor for taking her seriously.

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ABC Censors RFK. The Left doesn’t trust people to make up their minds and (who knows?) end up agreeing with them.

Chicago Newspapers

He touched on one of our most enduring (and to some endearing) sacred cows.

ABC heavily edited its interview with Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Thursday because it didn’t like what he said about vaccines. In doing this, ABC demonstrated that it thinks the people who are unfortunate enough to watch the network are too stupid to think for themselves or evaluate truth claims on their own.

All we can say, good thing he didn’t diss masks.

more more more here on what interviewer claimed and how RFK rebutted her elsewhere . . .

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Chi Trib ed page: Brandon Johnson’s statement on Loop violence was as revealing as it was lamentable

testing one-two

Chicago Newspapers

Gets to the heart of the matter.

“In no way do I condone the destructive activity we saw in the Loop and lakefront this weekend. It is unacceptable and has no place in our city,” Johnson said on social media. “However, it is not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.”

What a blather.

Trib:

Johnson’s condemnation of violence felt like an obligatory preamble hoping to ward off criticism. The statement’s real rhetorical energy came only at the end: Johnson and his fledgling transition team apparently saw the weekend violence downtown as a chance to offer a sociological admonishment to those who were frightened.

There’s more of that coming down the pike from this masterful double-talker.

No criticizing the kids, the mayor-elect says, even if you ran hard and fast at the sound of gunshots or decided to check out of…

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