In the “I wish I wrote it” category is a letter in today’s Sun-Times by Nancy J. Thorner, of Lake Bluff, in which she criticizes standard MSM labelling practices: “religious right, never secular-left; right-wing, never left-wing,” etc.

In fact, I did write it, more or less, noting the dearth of “liberal Democrat” as finder in Google but wealth of “conservative Republican” – the latter often self-applied, by the way, which says something about honesty.

For whole letter, scroll down for “A news slant to the left.”

Stop the presses!  AP story about senior bloggers is in Sun-Times too, in addition to USA Today.  It’s also in Elgin’s Daily Courier-News, I am told.  And in Boston Globe or at least at its site, plus God and Google know where else. 

Writer Carla K. Johnson is on to something, I’d say, with her account of senior-citizen denizens of the blogosphere.  A fair-use excerpt of what somehow caught my attention, if you don’t mind:

“It’s easy to start [a blog] if you can connect dots,” said former Jesuit priest and retired newspaperman Jim Bowman, 73, of Oak Park, Ill. Bowman writes four regular blogs: one on happenings in his city, one a catchall for his opinions, one on religion, and one offering feedback on Chicago newspapers [this one].

A recent post from his newspaper blog praised the Chicago Tribune’s front page stories on the White Sox World Series games:

“It’s been a lovely thing, to see copy so clean and substantive enough to make E.B. White and his mentor William Strunk Jr. stand up in their graves and say Yippee,” Bowman wrote.

Bowman once had eight separate blogs, but has let some lapse. The blog topics he doesn’t keep up with anymore include ideas for sermons, Chicago history and condominium life.

“Like any other hobby, you’ve got to make sure it doesn’t take over,” he said.

I love it.

You never know what you’ll find in the newspapers.  This in USA Today is not all about me, which is a shame, but I’m in it.  Carla K. Johnson of AP-Chicago did a good job here, as did fotog Jeff Roberson, whom I gave a brief tour of OP’s Lake-OP Ave. intersection on a beautiful day.  In fact, as you can see, OP is featured as much as I, which is not a shame.

The story was also picked up by The Southern.com, “Southern Illinois’ home page,” without pic.

Chi Trib’s Dawn T. Trice objects to a Catholic parish’s decision to cancel a Girls Inc.-related fund-raiser because Girls Inc. is pro-choice, arguing that Girls Inc. does great work.  Its motto, “inspiring all girls to be strong, smart and bold,” should decide the matter, says Trice, who peeled data off its web site when its people were not available to her.

But what would Trice say about school districts (Oak Park is one) and community fund-raising operations that freeze out Boy Scouts of America because it’s anti-gay?  Groups do that sort of thing.  For them it’s not pursuing a “narrow political agenda,” as the fund-raiser doll-maker, American Girl spokesman called the parish’s decision.  It’s a heart-of-the-matter issue, as gay tolerance is at the heart of those school districts’ position. 

If Trice wants to argue that the good outweighs the bad in this case, fine.  But to profess acceptance of consumer boycott “for any reason” and then to condemn this boycott makes no sense.

ON THE VENTI FRONT . . . From one who knows:

Venti is a coffee size at Starbucks – the largest size you can get. Rather than small, medium and large, S-bucks offers something like tall, grande, venti. They want to make it all seem bigger and more mysterious. I try to stick it to the man sometimes by just ordering it the basic way, “Small coffee, please.” Sometimes they don’t know what I’m talking about.

“Crafty Russian seeks venti of cash from Starbucks,” is p. 4 Chi Trib head.

What, pray tell, is a venti? A kind of coffee, I guess. At www.decafmocha.com I see “decaf venti no-whip mocha” and a creamed-up cuppa. But has Chi Trib so completely written off the straphanger trying to make sense of the world as to put it in a headline?

And do not look for “venti” in the story. Whom are these guys talking to, besides each other?

This is worth posting.  See http://www.millersmiles.co.uk/report/1455 for info on Chase bank account phishing expedition which I just thwarted in my case by changing info at my Bank One site that I had put on their phony site.  Read all about it, and BE CAREFUL, noting especially this:

Chase Bank never send their users emails requesting personal details in this way.

It was the phony site’s request for my SS# that set bells ringing.  At least I didn’t give that.

Orin Kerr at Volokh Conspiracy says the “Scalito” tag doesn’t fit, rather Alito is a John Roberts:

Like Roberts, Alito is an
   institutionalist who spent his career working in government at a very
   high level (including at the Solicitor General’s Office). Like
   Roberts, Alito is a very likable person. In light of his similarites
   to Roberts, I expect that Alito will be confirmed without a
   filibuster.

Let’s have an Alito Watch.  Begin, point of view yesterday from Suspicion Central, where I live:

 There isn’t even a nominee yet, and the Dems and MSM are already in major smear mode,

That’s from “Dog (Lost)” karinschulz3@aol.com, commenting at Protein Wisdom.  MSM means Chi Trib and Sun-Times, if circulation means anything these days.  So.  Chi Trib on line?

It was “a choice to cheer conservatives,” says the head of the Mark Silva and Jan Crawford Greenburg story.  To sadden liberals?  Say it, Trib; there are liberals out there, I think. 

“[A]fter the flame out of Harriet Miers,” says the lede sentence.  Colorful writing for breaking story, yes.

It “followed the embarrassing retreat of his first choice,” says 2nd sentence-graf.  More color.

There had been “mounting criticism within the Republican Party and increasing skepticism among senators and conservative interest groups,” says 3rd graf.  OK, more like it for breaking story.

The rest is good, informative deadline stuff, though obviously neither writer had to crawl under an upturned car to get the name of the pinned victim (an old CDailyNews story about Ray Coffey) and they were ready for this.  Crawford Greenburg has been quite reliable, by the way — I read a lead of hers to a Columbia College (Chi) writing class some years back ; I just don’t have a take on Silva at this point.

Sun-Times gives us three AP stories.  Its crack Washington bureau slept late?

more more more

Hoo boy, look at ex-Chi newsman Roger Simon’s saying today’s war on Muslim terrorists is not “ fighting predatory fascism that [is] trying to take over the globe.”  It’s at Transterrestrial Musings, where Rand Simberg draws a bead on that notion.

 If that word [totalitarianism, substituted by Simberg for fascism, now applied to any disagreement with any leftist position] can’t be applied to people who want to run every aspect of everyone’s daily existence, will brook no dissent, and have no apparent value for human life, as the Jihadis objectively do, then to who does it apply?

Etc.  Very good, Rand Simberg, but it’s to whom, dammit.