Some noteworthy comments in the wake of the Abu-Taleb victory:

1. The lackey problem (a bit on the bizzaro side):

Corporate VMA

Posted: April 9th, 2013 10:17 PM

You still have two administrative level bankers, and a corporate attorney at the helm of Oak Park. Until you get rid of the rest of the corporate lackeys, I’m afraid you have not won.

2. The good-guy approach:

[Trustee] Ray Johnson from Oak Park, Illinois Facebook Verified Posted: April 9th, 2013 10:09 PM

We’ve all benefited from John Hedges years of service and I thank him for all he has done. Congratulations to Anan and his team. We now move forward together with a spirit of cooperation focused on common ground and the needs of all residents. We have lots to do and I’m as committed as ever.

3. Ditto:

John Butch Murtagh from Oak Park, Illinois Facebook Verified

. . . if he’d run, say ten years ago, or 15 or 20, before people got tired of the same-old, same-old at Village Hall.

or . . .

. . . if no smart, able campaigner-restaurateur had not surfaced to challenge him.

or . . .

. . . if Oak Park demographics had not changed from super-idealistic to limited-pragmatic-with-view-to-making-our-utopia-work-better-than-before.

or . . . (fill in the blanks) . . .

A fascinating exercise, no?

. . . and should have left one of them there. An explanation to readers:

The first post, “Anti-Anan column raises issue from the dead?” shoulda, coulda been left there. In it Bowman called attn. to Jon Hale’s “One View” column which called attn. to now-president-elect Anan Abu-Taleb’s tax conviction and subsequent clemency reception.

News factor was employment by the opposition of what I likened to a “last-minute flyer on the doorstep.” So it might have stayed online, whence I evicted it, as those who punched the link that led nowhere know too well. Sorry.

The second, “Hale for ‘underdog’ Hedges in e-blast,” began to look like what I’d depicted unfavorably in the first one, too much of the last-minute flyer, not enough of news fit to print, as a well known newspaper used to say of what it offered. Not sorry. (Another great publication changed that, puckishly…

. . . and ending with announcement of new cloud drives. Great sell copy.

This year’s ersatz World Backup Day holiday coincides with a real one, Easter, and, while you could make analogies about resurrecting your data, the holiday the event’s organizers want to focus on is the one that comes a day later: April Fool’s Day: If you’re not backed up, there’s a chance you could end up looking like a fool.

Inspired.

. . . not often.

Showed up with my voter i-d card, thinking to make a point — I need i-d for driver’s license, not for voting? Oh? But one of the table people knew me, so I could only say I had it ready.

Woman shook head. Not needed, she said, which I knew. You’d take my word for it, I said, but point was lost as the long-time regular who knew me pulled my page up and pushed it across for my John Hancock.

Hey, it’s nice to be known, and no one in the village or out of it had an easier time of casting a vote.

7:30 or so it was. 20 to 22% expected, I was told. Not much.

Side note: the “next” button on the machine page, bottom right, was reluctant to respond, like the one at the library for taking a…

Robert Milstein from Oak Park
Posted: April 8th, 2013 6:59 PM[scroll
down]

We received an an email blast by Mr. Hale accusing Anan of misdeeds 23 years ago? Hedges publically said that it has no bearing on the election. He accepted Anan’s explanations and even the Journal walked past any inkling of a problem.

But sleeze rises to the top and Hale appears to be the new VMA hatchet man. Striking at the last moment like a true coward, John sought to besmirch a man running an honest, transparent campaign. Voters in OP are not stupid, they will see thru John and vote Anan

I would say so.

And would add that the 5/5/09 Wed Jnl piece by Ben Myers takes apart the Sun-Times piece on which Hale rests his case, in which case-resting Hale betrays at best a naive approach.

For instance:

The director of Northwestern University’s Center…

From the (Ballad of the) Buzz Cafe, March 14:

 “The experience on the board today, a lot of it is really theoretical, and almost like an academic experiment at times.  . . .

Buzz Cafe owner and forum host Laura Maychruck, holding up seven cards on which audience members had written questions: “There’s a lot of outrage on these cards” — about lack of economic development effort by the village and the problems business owners have in dealing with the village. . . .

Collette Lueck, running unopposed for reelection as a trustee: “I don’t know what the outrage is about. . . .

From the Chamber of Commerce forum March 19:

John Hedges to Anan about his lack of civic involvement:

“You’ve lived here 22 years,” he said, raising his voice. “Where have you been? The rest of us have been working hard. . . .

“I live these…

Father socked it to us dryly this a.m., 8 of the clock, inspiring/shaming us into being better Catholics with a citation from, God save the mark, Nietzsche! How many other RC pulpits rang this morning with that name? Not many.

Nietzsche said he couldn’t be a Christian because Christians weren’t. Ah. They fell off the mark. Therefore, decided the eminent philosopher, he would not be one.

Lesson: Be a Christian, fellow! Or get out of this church!

On the other hand, from Catholic Answers via Big Pulpit, we have this from The Imperfections of the Saints:

If I was to compile a list to be titled Common Catholic Misconceptions of the Catholic Faith, near the top of the list would have to be this Catholic misconception about the nature of sanctity:

The saints are to be considered perfect in their earthly lives, to such an extent that all that…

. . . in English to die for:

Though Ronald Knox (1888-1957) won renown as a Catholic priest, university chaplain, retreat master, and author of spiritual books, it is at least arguable that he made his living from his bestselling detective stories. In fact, it was Msgr. Knox who wrote the widely accepted rules the Ten Commandments that guided the so-called Golden Age of Detective Fiction. He was a keen reader of Arthur Conan Doyle, and he even established a satirical genre of mock-scholarship of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

He made a respectable living that way, but he knew that Man cannot live by bread only; there is life for him in all the words which proceed from the mouth of God (Mt 4:4). And so Msgr. Knox gave his life to deeper mysteries than any earthly detective could solve.

Thing is, the English is not mysterious in this translation…