Pat Hickey is not impressed with the new Chi Trib project:

For better than forty years the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board worked to make sure that everyone takes this person very seriously, and questions the values, aspirations and intentions of these people

And now they want help in recommending a fix-it.

Hickey is hands-down the most fertile mind on the Chicago blog scene. Fascinating.

This is what Alinsky called “rubbing raw the sores of discontent.”

Catholic priests in military face arrest for celebrating Mass

By Todd Starnes

The U.S. military has furloughed as many as 50 Catholic chaplains due to the partial suspension of government services, banning them from celebrating weekend Mass. At least one chaplain was told that if he engaged in any ministry activity, he would be subjected to disciplinary action.

What’s being rubbed raw is presumed discontent with the lousy Republicans. Big O. knows what he’s doing.

Or thinks he does.

Our man in the White House on CNBC:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: John, I think it’s fair to say that—during the course of my presidency—I have bent over backwards to work with—the Republican party. And have purposely kept my rhetoric down. I think I’m pretty well known for being a calm guy. Sometimes people think I’m too calm.”

John Steele Gordon at Commentary:

The mind boggles. This is a president who did not meet with the Republican minority leader in the Senate until a year and a half into his presidency; who excluded Republicans from any part in the shaping of the ObamaCare legislation, and forced it through on a strictly party-line vote; who excluded Republicans from any input on the stimulus bill; who invited Paul Ryan to a conference on health care and then insulted him to his face when Ryan could not reply; who accused Republicans of wanting only to deny health care to 30 million Americans; who called them “bitter clingers,” and told his supporters to get in their faces.

The only thing President Obama, the most divisive, partisan president in the history of the republic, has ever bent over backwards to do was to get out of a sand trap. He has kept his rhetoric down only to the extent of not advocating violence against Republicans.

What to make of this fellow O.? Unique in our annals?

Shutdown alert! Shutdown alert! Shutdown alert!

For a fun-filled view of what happens when Internet access is denied, see madcap blogger Mark Shea’s over-the-top depiction of panic in Seattle. And remember, folks, it could happen here!

Chicago’s homeless guru ex-SJ Shurna, hearts Pope Francis in HuffPo.

Quotes MSNBC fellow.

A different kind of Dominican.

Cheryl Chastine out of Oak Park, FYI.

Don’t come in, I’m in here! You can hear it now, you men, can’t you? Even in your own homes. If your kid’s in a public school in this state, forget it, as California’s brave new world takes a turn for lack of privacy:

California Governor Jerry Brown recently garnered headlines for signing a bill requiring all public schools to permit students to use the restrooms, locker rooms, and other personal facilities that correspond with their “gender identity.” The purpose of the law is to ensure that transgender Californians can use facilities corresponding to the sex they perceive themselves to be, rather than the one they appear to be.

Conservatives must resist two temptations in considering this development. First, we can’t dismiss the bathroom bill as a ridiculous “Left Coast” idiosyncrasy concocted by “Governor Moonbeam” and his crazy cabal of unreconstructed hippies. Second, we cannot and ought not assume that we can rely on disgust, discomfort, or any other visceral reaction to carry the day in opposing such progressive legislative innovations. Efforts to remove gender distinctions from public facilities are national and serious, and should be treated as such.

Was it not Mike Royko who tagged Jerry Brown thus? In the long-ago Chi Daily News?