"The Schiavo case is only slightly more consequential" than Eric Zorn's pet, the U. of Illinois mascot case, he says today.

Just when I decide I will pay no more attention to him, a headline rips my attention away from something substantial, in this case

Eric Zorn: "Just another skirmish in the culture war"

in a Tribune email.

I leave it to you to plow through Z's head-tripping convolutions to discern his argument, which usually is a triumph of logic over experience but may not be that much in this case.

"It hasn't happened in the 46 other states that have a system that allows people to obtain a permit to carry a concealed firearm," says NRA man Todd Vandermyde in Sun-Times, referring to Mayordaley II's "more arguments settled with firearms. More bodies in the morgue and more gun victims in the rehab hospitals" when concealed-carry laws pass.

Is this a good follow-up for Illinois newspapers, to look at what's happened elsewhere? As a noosepaper reader, I think so.

HAH! I THOUGHT OF IT AND YOU DIDN'T, OR IF YOU DID, I GOT COLUMN SPACE AND YOU DON'T! . . . Got instant reaction to random shootings? Don't? Try Dawn Turner Trice in today's Chi Trib, where it's a matter of "Want security? Treat mental illness."

"If we fail to discuss mental illness, its devastation and the lowly place it continues to occupy in our health-care system . . . we miss something huge," she says. Security remains "paramount," but we have to go preventative.

A doctor tells her 60 percent of children of depressed parents are going to battle depression "during their lifetime" but if identified they "may never become" ill. He's right, but so what? He didn't ask to be asked by Trice about it.

Did she talk about mental illness at tsunami time? Why not? Her response is typical instant expertizing by columnist, which should have instant penalty imposed by the American Society of Prevention of Stupidity by Columnists. A day's pay, minimum.

Better she talk about the tragedy of life, even its sweet mystery, and not the supposed "myth and mystery" in which mental illness is "still shrouded."

Docs have long wait lists, insurance is inadequate, Trice has her cause for the day -- mental illness and the inadequacies of the health system! She has bounced from shooter headlines to an issue!

WINNING IS WHAT? . . . U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel says he comes from the "Vince Lombardi wing of the Democratic Party: Winning is everything," says Chi Trib with ill-disguised approval or at least conspicuous non-disapproval. Can we imagine reading that about Karl Rove?

Later: The head was unfortunate, because the story stands up, if somewhat laboriously. Take a look.

The Chi Trib (Co.)-owned LA Times is raked over righteously and it seems rightly indignant coals by radio man Hugh Hewitt here . He is madder than hell about a p-1 story that as he quotes it is a puff piece for our friends the North Koreans -- just folks, after all, like us -- sans context, as if Ed Murrow had told how warm-hearted those Nazis are. FYI Trib Co. leadership, says Hewitt.