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.

Rauner vs. the skilled trades. Maybe a problem here.

Pat Hickey fires a shot of warning about Rauner:

Bruce Rauner wants the skilled trades to open up their books to him. Governor Carhartt wants to see how many minorities and veterans are in skilled trades apprenticeship programs.

The Skilled Trades should tell Bruce Rauner to go pound sand.  Governor Rauner wants to measure data, in order to control. Each skilled trade got to where it is today on its own.  Yes, they did build their own success.

The minority-representation thing is worrisome, to be sure.

Pope Francis: Free expression doesn’t mean right to insult others’ faith – CNN.com

​Let us now praise the Pope for making a good point:

There are sins of speech and writing and drawing (and lots of other things one could mention). Not a new point but appropriate in its Charlie Hebdo timing, EXCEPT for its confusing moral with political freedom, two quite different and not in themselves synchronous things.

Freedom of speech as generally if not universally understood refers to POLITICAL not MORAL freedom, which I am sure the Pope realizes. He should make that clear and not confuse matters by promoting a moral (personal) obligation rather than a political (governmental) requirement.

Lots of immoral things are legal, dear Holy Father. Please, make that distinction next time the spirit moves you. ​

​

Gilligan: Abortion facilities the only places Illinois lawmakers refuse to inspect – Illinois Review

​Call off your tired old health inspections — of abortion facilities in our great state of Illinois.​  http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2015/01/gilligan-abortion-facilities-the-only-places-illinois-lawmakers-refuse-to-inspect.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FbYHz+%28Illinois+Review%29

Pat Quinn’s revenge

It’s all these last-minute exec orders, seven of them, including got-back-at-you items to show Rauner who used to be boss.

In one fell swoop, Gov. Bruce Rauner reversed seven 11th-hour executive orders signed by outgoing Gov. Pat Quinn, declaring they were not in the best interest of Illinois residents.

That includes an executive order that called for Rauner to release all of his tax information as well as one that increased the minimum wage for state contracts from $8.25 an hour to $10 an hour. Both of the issues were sticking points in a bruising campaign between the two men in 2014.

It’s (almost) enough to make you feel sorry for the party that made him its standard-bearer. Not quite.

Thank God for abortion?

​Loyola U.-Chicago lays an egg:

One day before the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Loyola University Chicago will host a journalist who once thanked God for abortion on television.​

​Woe is us. Thing is, top- or middle-level Romantic Catholic leaders ​just want abortion to go away, not so much in real life as in public discourse. It’s an embarrassment, interferes with the business they want to conduct. They just aren’t interested.