Tag: Blithe Spirit

History lesson

16-page campaign booklet with party platform
NOT this party!

What liberal Dem, progressive, etc. would object to this as a political platform?

“We ask that government undertake the obligation above all of providing citizens with adequate opportunity for employment and earning a living.

The activities of the individual must not be allowed to clash with the interests of the community, but must take place within the confines and be for the good of all.

Therefore, we demand: … an end to the power of financial interest. We demand profit sharing in big business. We demand a broad extension of care for the aged. We demand … the greatest possible consideration of small business in the purchases of the national, state, and municipal governments.

In order to make possible to every capable and industrious [citizen] the attainment of higher education and thus the achievement of a post of leadership, the government must provide an all-around enlargement of our system of public education….

We demand the education at government expense of gifted children of poor parents…. The government must undertake the improvement of public health — by protecting mother and child, by prohibiting child labor — by the greatest possible support for all groups concerned with the physical education of youth.

[W]e combat the … materialistic spirit within and without us, and are convinced that a permanent recovery of our people can only proceed from within on the foundation of The Common Good Before the Individual Good.”

Probably not the educating-of-gifted part, based on this parent’s experience of public K-8 schooling in Oak Park IL.

But certainly not any of it, once the lib was told whose platform it was.  See here for whose platform.

Wheeling Jesuit for sale?

Wheeling Jesuit University campus
WJU campus: lots of land

A Pittsburgh banker, referring to nearby Wheeling WV as a bedroom community for his city, warns Wheeling Jesuit University adherents:

The hiring of Mr. Richard Beyer, the fifth president at Wheeling Jesuit University in 10 years, deeply troubles me.  Besides the unresolved issue of the sacking of Jesuit Fr. Giulietti, there is the longstanding issue of the coming bankruptcy of this institution.

Does Mr. Beyer know that he was hired actually to close the school?  The banking community in this banking city is waiting for the opportunity to arrange the sale of the institution. The loss of students and faculty, the disappearance of alumni support and crushing debt cannot go on much longer.

There are scientific and other research institutions in this city that need to grow and expand and have the resources to do so. But land is tight here. Wheeling is a bedroom community to Pittsburgh. It is time to act.

The land-hungry institution commonly mentioned is the U. of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which has a Specialty Care Center (for Pediatric Otolaryngology) in Wheeling.

Are the Jesuits and the Wheeling bishop (part owner of WJU)  preparing to bail out?

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Later: That said, I’m into a little bit of buyer’s remorse, or at least uncertainty here, because I cannot discover a Leo Cleary in or near Pittsburgh, nor can others find him among WJU alumni.  White Pages dot com says there are seven Leo Clearys in the U.S.  Cities with one are:

  1. Odell, IL (2)
  2. Indianapolis, IN (1)
  3. Greenwood, IN (1)
  4. Gloucester, MA (1)
  5. Lynnfield, MA (1)
  6. Cherry Hill, NJ (1)
Leo Cleary celebrities include

LEO CLEARY, Modified Stock Car Racing Legend

LEO “THE LION” CLEARY won a bunch of features at tracks all over the northeast, starting at the old Norwood Arena in the 1950’s . . .

Doesn’t mean there’s nothing to concerns about WJU’s fiscal condition (dire, say some who should know) or the chance of selling to the U. of Pitt Medical Center (offer’s been made, say some who might know).  In any case, stay tuned.
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The end of Indian innocence

One-way glass (4) used in a teleprompter
Behind the wizard's curtain

TelePrompter tales from New Delhi:

Obama will make history for more than one reason during the Nov 6-9 visit. This will be the first time a teleprompter will be used in the nearly 100-feet high dome-shaped hall that has portraits of eminent national leaders adorning its walls.

Indian politicians are known for making impromptu long speeches and perhaps that is why some parliament officials, who did not wish to be named, sounded rather surprised with the idea of a teleprompter for Obama.

“We thought Obama is a trained orator and skilled in the art of mass address with his continuous eye contact,” an official, who did not wish to be identified because of security restrictions, said.

Obama is known to captivate audiences with his one-liners that sound like extempore and his deep gaze. But few in India know that the US president always carries the teleprompter with him wherever he speaks.

Teleprompters, also called autocue or telescript, are mostly used by TV anchors to read out texts scrolling on a screen and attached to a camera in front of them.

A modern-day emperor with no clothes.

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Flying off to Cambodia

Democratic Party logo
Old joke, can apply to donkey: Why are there so many more horses than horses' asses?

From Jim Geraghty at NRO-Morning Jolt:

Moe Lane, examining Democrat divisions: “Congressional Democrats are only going to be united by one person — the President — and just in case there’s still somebody who hasn’t noticed by now: the President is incompetent at leading people in directions that they don’t already want to go.

Which is not what the Democrats need right now. So there’s no solution in sight, unless of course the President wants to start learning all of those boring, practical political skills that he should have started picking up a couple of decades ago.”

But Cocky Locky doesn’t do boring.  So that won’t happen.

Earmarks, passing lunch, street talk, shifting

Tectonic plates of the world
Tectonic plates of the world: shifty creatures

* Sen. Jim Demint (R-SC) against earmarks (a) because they are used to sell bills that wldn’t pass otherwise (true: he cites La. [Purchase] and Neb. [Cornhusker goodie] in health-overhall passing) and (b) they distract senators from their national responsibilities, making them hostage to new bridges and playgrounds.  Thus on Don & Roma on WLS-AM this morning.  [Earlier, on CBS, quotes]

* Mike Huckabee on Dem’s saying we will know what’s in the overhaul bill when we have passed it: Like knowing what I had for lunch after I passed it. !

* WLS-AM news reader Wendy Snyder, raspy of voice and superior (above-it-all) of tone: Something happened on “Madison Avenue.”  What a winner is this Wendy, pride of Brookfield IL, who should get to know the city.

* Chi Trib head about election results: “Titanic shift.”  Tectonic.  Yes, titanic is of great force or power, synonyms are big and large: above average in size or number or quantity or magnitude or extent.

But rapid reader of headline thinks shift as tectonic: pertaining to the structure or movement of the earth’s crust, as in “tectonic plates” and “tectonic valleys” or of or pertaining to construction or architecture, synonym is architectonic

Which would be figurative in this context, yes.  But called for by the rapid reader, the kind who reads headlines.  If you’re going to use shift, I am arguing, don’t break ground with new idiom.  Am I alone in this?

Father McNally meets Cardinal George

The Arthur Heurtley House on Forest Avenue (de...
Not Ascension Catholic but still a nice Oak Park building

Wed. Journal editor Dan Haley disapproves:

The giant hammer of the Roman Catholic archdiocese has landed at Ascension Church in Oak Park. On the pastor.

How else to explain the odd apology in the Sunday bulletin from Rev. Larry McNally? This summer McNally got way out front on the third rail issue of ordaining women. He also criticized Rome’s inquiry into America’s female religious orders.

He spoke from the pulpit, wrote a letter to the Sun-Times, and allowed/encouraged a petition drive outside the church doors calling on the church to change its stance and allow women priests.

In my opinion, Haley betrays extreme discomfort at requirements.  Thing is, Fr. McNally ain’t nothin’ without Holy Mother Church, which has always had requirements.

He has a pulpit in a grand church building that preceded him by many decades, built by an organization that did so by many centuries.  The organization is picky about who gets called Father in its ranks.  That’s one of its longstanding requirements.  Tut, tut.

Years ago, as president of a book-authors’ organization, I heard one of us bemoan the idea that you had to be a book author to get in.  But it was one of our requirements.

Chicago Reader had a cover story many years ago in which the writer inveighed against standards — but had to abide by those of the editor.  So it goes.

Get real, all ye requirements-deniers, editors, writers, priests, whoever you are.  You ain’t nothin’ without ’em.

Later: At the same time, this forcing McNally to testify himself, as it seems to be, smacks of ecclesiastical hardball, prompting the question, Would Jesus have done it that way?

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Not your usual political book

Peter Jennings
He prayed for this man.

GW Bush’s new book has something very good for pro-lifers:

In the chapter “Stem Cells“, Bush describes receiving a letter from Nancy Reagan detailing a “wrenching family journey”.

But ultimately, Bush writes: “I did feel a responsibility to voice my pro-life convictions and lead the country toward what Pope John Paul II called a culture of life.”

In the book, Bush describes an emotional July 2001 meeting with the Pope at the pontiff’s summer residence.

Savaged by Parkinson’s, the Pope saw the promise of science, but implored Bush to support life in all its forms.

Later, at the Pope’s funeral — and after a prodding from his wife that it’s a time to “pray for miracles” — Bush found himself saying a prayer for the cancer-stricken ABCNEWS anchor Peter Jennings.

Surprise, per Drudge, no shots at anyone in Decision Points — a quite personal autobiographical account.

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