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.

Police Commission Demotes Milwaukee PD Chief For Using Teargas On Rioters

Removing the option when protesters riot no matter how bad things get. An anarchist’s dream.

Milwaukee, WI – The Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission (FPC) voted unanimously on Thursday night to demote Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales to captain.

Chief Morales, who was chief of the Milwaukee Police Department for three-and-a-half years, had been at odds with the FPC since the commission chair demanded that he fire the officer who arrested Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown in 2018, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

FPC commissioners recently took exception to the Milwaukee Police Department’s use of teargas to disperse rioters at violent protests.

Enabling the war on cops beyond the current situation.

via  The Police Tribune

Biden unchained: All Blacks Think Alike!

. . . from his bunker:

The full, shocking statement: “Unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community, with incredibly different attitudes about different things” (Red State).

Tries fence-mending:

Biden later tried to “clarify” his remarks with a Tweet, but whoever wrote the tweet for him didn’t clarify at all but rather said what he wants you to believe Biden believes (Twitter).

Branches out:

In a similar statement trying to compliment Hispanics, Biden said “When I mean full diversity, unlike African American communities and many other communities, you’re from everywhere” (Twitter).

Protectors go to work:

The media is editing out some of Biden’s more racist comments (Red State).

The opponent can’t resist:

Trump mocked Biden for his “dumb” statement (Twitter).

His people are thankful for . . . what?

Democrats are thrilled Covid-19 is keeping Biden out of the public eye (Fox News).

Taking comfort where they may.

Silence squelched in Novus Ordo mass — a meditation on noise

Vatican 2-style mass and the death of silence . . .

Dominus Vobiscum: Notes from a massgoer's underground

The parish has N.O. masses and also Extraordinary Form (Latin) masses. Today I attended one of the former, where I had to start jotting just as the sermon began. Only a six-minuter and something acceptable, I trust, in any case not unusually good or bad.

Feeling dreaded ennui coming on, I reached for the little black pad and pen, and there I was again. In the few recent weeks when I made Extraordinary (Latin) my mass of choice, I had not done this once!

Why now? Because the service was losing my attention, and I had to wrench it back into place by recording my reflections. It’s a ploy I learned decades ago, in my exclusively N.O. days. This was my first trial of attention, of cooperation, collaboration, indeed participation in the holy sacrifice.

Most preachers fall short and thereby constitute a distraction. On this occasion Father urged us on…

View original post 208 more words

Up close and lethal . . . Consider the welder’s mask . . . . .

Which saves the eyes from viral pollution . . .

. . .  plus lends visibility to masking, so you won’t look like a bank robber or hold-up man or moll.

Think it over . . . and now the doggerel for the day . . .

Madam Birx, she told us so: The simple mask has got to go.

In place of it, there must be mo’.

. . . .

Of which mo’ mo’ mo’ . . . here: Up close and lethal . . .  OakPark.com

The ‘Cancelling’ of Flannery O’Connor by a Jesuit for the sake of “Jesuit values”

Jesuit values? That’s what they all say when they’d rather not explain.

 In the wake of the public statement issued by the university’s president, Rev. Brian Linnane, SJ, explaining that O’Connor’s name would be removed because she does not “reflect Loyola’s Jesuit values,” hundreds of writers, scholars, readers, and admirers of O’Connor’s work have expressed their shock and sorrow to see her repudiated by the university. [emphasis added]

These values are increasingly hard to discern, I fear.

via Commonweal Magazine

Schools aren’t that risky, and teachers are essential workers. We must reopen.

65 to 35% among public school teachers, against opening. Fake body bags, etc. left outside school district’s offices.

Maybe they should have brought signs that read “I’m not essential” — because that is what they are telling us.

Panicky bunch. What happened to remembering the children as reason for giving them a raise in a union contract?

via The Washington Post