Here’s the guy and what they say about him (and in effect the whole WJU situation).
There’s a whole background on this here. If you are interested.
Suffice it to say, this looks like a happy ending to a very messy story.
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Am sorting through this latest from Wheeling, will have more later. Meanwhile, interest is obvious and widespread, to judge by views of this and other Wheeling Jesuit items. Later.
At the March 1 forum at the Carleton Hotel, village board presidential candidate Anan Abu-Taleb dropped info about Oak Park’s finances that deserved a response from candidate John Hedges. But the response was weak.
The village is $100 million in debt, said Abu-Taleb, and has a meager 58% funded of its $126 million in pension obligations, including fire and police pensions, whose shortfall last year rose from $105 million to $106 million.
Pension funds had negative balances in seven of the last 11 years, for what he called a structural deficit. Village staff tells him the village is planning on its funds earning an unrealistic 8% annually, he said.
Hedges, who has been a village trustee since 2007, implicitly conceded the accuracy of the figures, which are backed up aggressively by a Better Government Assn. report, but surprisingly dismissed them. “The big issue is the property tax,” he said…
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Web site that does not look like a holy card.
In fact, looks very good. Congrats to them.
Historian John Lukacs on The Future of History, title of his newly published book (Yale), as elucidated by reviewer Anne Barbeau Gardiner (New Oxford Review, Jan.-Feb., 2003), italics mine.
What is this thing called history?
The central point of Lukacs’s book is that history is a form of literature and not a science. Yes, professional historians must have “serious archival knowledge and practice,” but they must also be dedicated to finding out the truth about the past.
What’s it for?
“The purpose of history is understanding even more than accuracy (though not without a creditable respect for the latter).” A good history is “unavoidably anthropocentric” because it conveys “the knowledge that human beings have of other human beings.”
[In pursuit of this human element] historians should be willing to consult not only the documentary evidence but also the great literary achievements of past ages . . . .
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Andrew Klavan — True Crime, Damnation Street, Shotgun Alley and many other books — called the pope’s Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration “luminous,” then worried that he sounded “like a nun.” His hard-guy reputation was at stake.
Then he read Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week from the Entry into Jerusalem to the Resurrection and decided the hell with it, he was willing to risk it.
Pope Benedict, as I’ve said before, is the Last European, by which I mean the last great man and mind who fully comprehends the beautiful but now dying culture that produced him.
Its appalling to me, though not surprising, that the only thing the mainstream media ever covers about him is how often he apologizes for the abuses of some priests or how politically incorrect his view of gay people is or whatever.
I have now read a good selection of his writings and when the work of Foucault and Derrida and de Man and the rest of that benighted lot has toddled off to the obscurity it so dearly deserves, Benedict’s writings will stand. They may be the final flares of genius to fly up from the continent he loves before darkness closes over it.
Eloquent, that.
Thinking of seeing “Identity Thief“?
Consider this from Adam Shaw at Catholic News Service:
The film contains skewed moral values, much slapstick and other violence, considerable sexual content including a semi-graphic nonmarital encounter, off-screen masturbation and brief rear nudity, occasional profanity, frequent rough and crude language and an obscene gesture.
Other than that,
Craig Mazin’s screenplay offers few fresh jokes. He relies instead on exploitative sight gags and foul language.
Other than that, it’s a work of art.
Surprise. Harmon is always such an independent thinker:
Senator Harmon (D.-Oak Park) endorses Robin Kelly, salutes Toi Hutchinson
Dear Friend:
I am proud of my friend and colleague, Senator Toi Hutchinson, both for her congressional campaign and for her selfless decision to put the interests of the residents of the Second Congressional District ahead of her own political ambitions.
Selfishly, I’m thrilled that Toi will remain in the Senate. In her time in Springfield, she has demonstrated great abilities as a legislator and a leader, tackling tough issues with equal parts tenacity and grace. She is a highly valued member of our caucus, and I expect that she will exert even more influence, having been battle tested by a hard campaign.
Notwithstanding my gratitude for her return to the Senate, I doubt we will be able to keep her long. Toi’s potential is limitless. I expect she will soon again be courted to run for higher office. Until then, we in the Senate are happy and fortunate to have Toi fully back in our fold. . . . .
. . . . blah blah blah . . . And the machine goes rolling along . . .
