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.
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…
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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.
On Chi’s West Side, domestic disturbance is dangerous scene for cops . . .
Gov. Noem: $47 million going to SD schools to help them re-open safely this fall
Schools aren’t that risky, and teachers are essential workers. We must reopen.
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?
You like Fox News. So do I, mostly. But its polling? Beware . . .
. . . says Joseph Ford Cotto of Chronicles Magazine:
Hard as it may be for some Republicans to accept, Fox News is one of those groups that engages in flawed polling. It contracts with Daron Shaw, a Republican who opposed Trump in the ’16 primaries, and Anderson Robbins Research, a Democratic polling outfit.
Oh.
Consider that Fox News showed Biden with a double-digit lead (see its methodology here) weeks before NBC/WSJ and Quinnipiac released their surveys. Four years ago, Fox News featured a 10-point lead for Hillary Clinton (with same methodology that it uses today); this closed to two points by early November. Was the electorate so elastic that it underwent near-10-point change in a matter of weeks?
Fox News also showed Republicans losing not only the governorship, but the U.S. Senate race in Kansas during the 2014 midterms (on the basis of the same methodology that it continues to apply). The Republican gubernatorial nominee won by four points while the GOP’s senatorial candidate achieved an 11-point victory.
Above all, keep 2016 in mind. Polls inaccurate, T-man won.
Media blame parks and beaches for coronavirus resurgence and ignore massive anti-police protests
Mass gatherings are bad, except for when they are not, according to corporate media’s news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. [emphasis mine: It’s a better term than mainstream]
Though this makes no sense whatsoever, this is the line that several major news outlets have adopted, closely mimicking the position of key Democratic officials who have allowed the Black Lives Matter protests to thrive even while imposing extreme restrictions on businesses and houses of worship. It is purely political nonsense and is likely a big reason why a growing number of people now question the official social distancing guidelines. No one likes being jerked around.
The New York Times published an article this weekend clearly suggesting that the virus’s recent resurgence is due to shoppers, beachgoers, and the like. Conspicuously absent from the article is any reference, whether in writing or in picture, to the continued anti-police demonstrations that fill the streets of major cities day and night. Not even a passing mention. . . . .
Blithe Spirit 