Tag: Blithe Spirit

The good and the bad, emphasis on Trib and Sun-Times

Chicago Newspapers

A Blue Line passenger, a white man 30 or so, in nice (expensive-looking) brown leather jacket and giving the appearance of an easy-going, inoffensive, non-confrontational fellow, dark hair neatly cut, neither swarthy nor bearded — a passenger, in short, who calls attention to himself in no way — rises at Pulaski, westbound, stands at the door as the train slows and stops.  It’s in the middle of a weekday afternoon, the car is sparsely occupied.

Doors fold open before him, he steps toward the concrete platform, but as he does so reaches overhead and on the backlit glassed-in diagram of train routes overhead slaps a five-inch-square white label that sticks firmly, on which are inscribed black-marker pen scribblings.  He does it in a flash, barely pausing as he leaves the car, and is gone.

The doors unfold and close, the train pulls away.  The label’s markings, examined, show themselves as indecipherable…

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Wall Street has diversity

There are the big banks and the rest — hedge-fund operators, private equity companies, etc., who have their problems with the big guys, Ira Stoll explains:

* Many of the hedge fund and private equity guys used to work at the big banks and left to strike out on their own for a reason.

* The smaller firms compete with the big banks for the job of managing capital for rich individuals and institutions.

* When the banks raise capital or handle trades for the smaller firms, they charge fees that the smaller firms wish were lower.

* The banks have access to cheap capital via the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that the smaller firms dont get.

* The smaller firms sometimes dont like the trading terms set by the banks on things like posting collateral.

* The bank executives dont like the way the non-bank guys pay the capital gains tax rate on their carried interest, while the bank executives pay a higher income tax rate on their compensation.

What’s more, they give money to different parties, the big guys to Dems and Obama, the others to Republicans and Romney. So don’t lump them together as if they lacked diversity.

Argues Stoll of NY Sun.  But Obama does take some private equity money, as Halper of Weekly Standard points out

Hanna Loikkanen
Hanna Loikkanen is not part of this story but is clearly a nice person deserving of some more recognition. (Photo credit: East Capital)

.  It’s not as if he’s boycotting them.  He doesn’t boycott money.

Georgetown vs. the bishops

The Wash DC Catholic paper:

Founded in 1789 by John Carroll, a Jesuit priest, Georgetown University has, historically speaking, religious roots. So, too, do Harvard, Princeton and Brown. Over time, though, as has happened with these Ivy League institutions, Georgetown has undergone a secularization, due in no small part to the fact that much of its leadership and faculty find their inspiration in sources other than the Gospel and Catholic teaching. Many are quite clear that they reflect the values of the secular culture of our age. Thus the selection of Secretary Sebelius for special recognition, while disappointing, is not surprising.

And thiis:

With all of the people struggling so hard to preserve freedom of religion, and with all that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has said in defense of this important value, Georgetowns choice of the architect of the radical challenge of such freedom for special recognition can only be seen as a statement of where the university stands certainly not with the Catholic bishop

American Catholic picked the quotes, adding this:

The editorial is not mincing words. It is plainly stating that Georgetown is, for all intents and purposes, no longer a Catholic university. As Msgr. Pope notes, these words come from the Archdioceses official newspaper, and therefore had to be signed off on by the Cardinals senior staff.

The invite is indeed a stunning declaration by the Jesuits, a throwing down of the gauntlet.

Blithe Spirit

 

Approached by a young woman at a reception and told she had bet she could get three words out of him, President Coolidge replied, “You lose.”

As mayor of Northampton MA, he bucked the trends and went out of his way for the Irish.

And how’s this for wisdom that lasts?

There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.

And:

I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form.

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Fast stepping by Jesuit institution

Fast stepping by Jesuit institution

This is a very tangled web being spun at Georgetown, where HHS Secy. Sebelius, of mandate fame, has been invited to give a commencement talk . . .  no, a talk at a commencement time event . . .  no, a talk at a “tropaia” gathering, where trophies are given . . . no . . .  oh, forget it.

Georgetown is coming up with new versions of this speaking appearance of the Catholic who would make Catholic universities and hospitals offer contraceptive and morning-after abortifacient pills insurance.  It’s one accommodation after another.  That place is acting, dare we suggest it, you might say . . . jesuitical.

 

Chicago Newspapers

Not too badly, for starters.  Consider Mayor Rahm Emanuel, late of the global office, winner of primary in one-party city, now with Fifth Floor Office on LaSalle Street, and his “pension plan.”  As elucidated by Sun-Times people Spielman and McKinney 5/9/12.

Their story shows Democrats getting the Wis. Gov. Scott Walker message.  Showing the way to fiscal sanity, Walker has emboldened the weak of heart, even in Illinois.  Ditto Wis. Congressman Paul Ryan, rashly depicted as violating Christian principles with program of austerity when quite the opposite is true.  A little child will lead them, says Scripture in another context; in this case it’s Wisconsin.

As for violating Christian or peculiarly Catholic principles, where is the rule that says you rob Peter to pay Paul over and over until all falls down and all suffer, the poor as usual more than anyone else?  Or one that…

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