Socking it to HIM

One alleged screed deserves another, and Debra Pickett in S-T obliged today.  Harvey Mansfield’s book on manliness (Yale) is a “screed,” she says.  So she throws caution and logic to the winds in a full-fledged irritated-feminist diatribe.  You don’t think so?  Then so’s you’re old man.

Mearshimer vs. Israel, and no story?

Look here and see there's nothing in the Trib about John Mearshimer, the U. of Chi prof who co-authored a paper about the Israel lobby that is being roundly criticized and attacked in a # of blogs as at Powerline and at American Thinker. 

 

Mearshimer is "reticent to take questions from the media" about the paper, he told the Forward.  (Reticent?  He means reluctant.) 

 

Good Chicago-connected story here, but MSM are ignoring it, including AP.  Trib and Sun-Times aren't waiting for their cue from the East Coast, are they?

Feeling pain publicly

Never saw noosepaper and community so play into hands of elected officials as Sun-Times Sunday, with its weeper, "Englewood kids in the crossfire,"  and Chi Trib with its "LIVING IN WEST ENGLEWOOD: A family endures," about the fearful and the beleaguered in Englewood, and 500 people following Daley and Blago and ex-Black Panther Rush around in a compassion parade.  Blago talked gun control, Daley said (not kidding) "There is no excuse for anyone to take a gun and point it at a child or at a home in any community."

 

Does Blago think he can keep guns out of gangsters' hands with a new law?  And does Daley think there are people who defend pointing guns at children?  Do any of them see this as a law enforcement problem rather than an opportunity to make sad and serious while making political hay?

Englewood

To Suzanne Ontiveros, in wake of her Saturday S-T column, “Why can’t we keep Chicago kids safe?” I wrote:

 

I put this on my Chicago Newspapers blog the other day about Englewood:

. . . it's quite interesting that in the wake of recent fatal South Side shootings, there's no outcry (screaming headlines) about (a) gun control -- though "delusional" Mayordaley II apparently made some customary noises about it -- and (b) root causes of gang criminality.  Sun-Times did have "Instant Messages" emailed from readers that touched on the former but also had the two items that in this blog's opinion matter most in these matters: 1. Decriminalization of recreational drug use and 2. draconian law enforcement. 
 
The former would require a change of heart mostly of white libs, the latter of them and the affected, afflicted community, which would have to permit cops to get tough.  Since this would mean jailing neighbors' sons, among other things (deport gang-bangers, said one letter writer!) , I bet on decriminalization happening before any unleashing of cops.  Oh, another -- yes, better -- idea was for parents etc. to take back the sidewalks by standing on the corners watching all the drug customers drive by.  Is this affected, afflicted community up to such unanimity?  Not so far.

In my opinion, a Rudy Guiliani is what's needed among political leaders -- he made Times Square usable and NYC habitable -- and a Monsignor Robert Fox among religious -- he helped Harlem-ites take back their streets in the 60s.  This is a law enforcement problem, Sue, but quiet, steady community pressure is part of it.  What think?

 

====================

Here I add:

 

In support of the Guiliani-NYC approach, consider this from City Journal, part of an article about how NY police have gone to other cities and made a big difference in crime reduction:

[Dean] Esserman [former Brooklyn assistant district attorney] quickly introduced New York–style police tactics [in Providence RI], including an aggressive task force (working with federal prosecutors) that removed weapons from the streets in record numbers and, even more important, a Compstat (computerized statistics) management-accountability system that has focused the whole department’s attention on crime reduction and held commanders responsible for achieving it. Serious crime has fallen dramatically—13 percent in 2003 and 12 percent in 2004—and police morale has soared. Esserman has replaced most of the [jailed ex-mayor] Cianci-era commanders with his own trusted people.

 

And he’s improved relations with minorities, in part by opening new police substations in minority neighborhoods.

Before the 1990s, the belief held in both policing and political circles that crime resulted from factors beyond anyone’s control, and that police could do little to influence crime rates. Gotham’s crime turnaround—which continues under current commissioner Ray Kelly—shattered that myth. The New York–bred police chiefs at work in other U.S. cities continue to prove that, properly led, cops can cut crime.

As for Msgr. Fox, his crowning achievement occurred in spite of his middle-class-assumptions liberal mentality as identified and criticized by Christopher Shannon at an on-line magazine, “The New Pantagruel”:

Fox’s work with Puerto Ricans did have one redeeming moment worthy of [education reformer Ivan] Illich’s original vision. In 1967, a riot broke out in Spanish Harlem following a police shooting of an unarmed Puerto Rican man. As night fell, Mayor John Lindsay pleaded with people to stay off the streets. Reasoning that such a course of action would only leave the streets open to the most violent in the community, Fox instead organized a night-time peace procession in which he led Puerto Rican Catholics in the recitation of the rosary. The presence of the rosary procession was enough to keep the peace through the night and restore order to the community. The lesson, of course, is that Fox finally succeeded in inspiring action for social justice only after appealing to an indigenous Puerto Rican—and Catholic—tradition not explicitly related to modern conceptions of “social justice.”

Health, education, and Stroger

"Mediocre health care" trumpeted in S-T p. 6 yesterday, AP story out of Boston with one of those multifarious New Eng. Jnl of Med studies.  People don't get what they deserve!  But what commission decided what people deserve?  And mediocre compared to what?  That question never asked by Lemming Press, a.k.a. Mainstream Press, a.k.a. a la Rush Limbaugh Drive-by Press.  How is a drive-by shooting of smash-and-grab information like this not propaganda?

 

Meanwhile, you want health care?  Try Canada, where the "single-payer system" is "imploding," per Cafe Hayek: where new orders emerge and NYT.  Say wha'? 

[C]osts for the national and provincial governments are exploding and some cancer patients are waiting months for diagnostic tests and treatment.

What the . . . ?  Costs exploding, system imploding.  Almost as confusing as an AP story out of Boston about a New Eng. Jnl of Med study.

=========================

A U. of Chi study finds museums diversity-free these days.  Researchers bemoan the fact, one of them telling Sun-Times that kids may be busy "with soccer practices and everything else."  But one of the neighborhoods which go least to museums is Englewood, notable for its random fatal shootings of little girls.  Soccer practice has to be very low on what keeps Englewood kids away from museums, or I'm a monkey's uncle.

=========================

Cook County board president John Stroger, stricken with a stroke, was not taken to Stroger (Cook County) Hospital but to Rush, which has Stroger's records and specialized in neurological problems, said the MD spokesman.  Stroger (hospital) nurses were on hand at the press conf. to complain about it.  On the other hand, who in his right mind would go to Stroger (hospital) when he could go to Rush right next door?  Or some place else miles away, for that matter?  The board slapped Stroger's name on county hospital, but he wouldn't go there — rather, wasn’t taken there.  Can we blame him?  Them?

Case of the buried lead and other mysteries

Even columns have leads, and I am pleased to report I found Mark Brown's today in Sun-Times.  It took some digging, but there it was, at the very end: " . . . the citizens of Cook County deserve to be kept completely informed about [county board president Stroger's] health in the coming days."  (Nice going, Jim! For finding it)  There it was, 'way at the bottom, coated in vanilla, and nicely stated as to "completely informed," not partially.  Brown was lied to by relatives, and the rest is blah blah blah spelling it out in no certain terms the people's right to know the health of elected officials

 

Meanwhile, the long arm of Middle East terrorism reached Urbana yesterday when the Daily Illini editor was fired for running anti-Muslim cartoons.  Not 3,000 New Yorkers in a tall building the victims this time, just the First Amendment.  No problem, U. of I. trustees or publisher's board.  We feel your pain, you stinking cowards.

 

And Atty Genl Lisa Madigan, who may or may not still belong to the gov's love-hate commission, wants no part of controlling a public-complaint mechanism she devised.  She's worried about AG's to come who might screw up how complaints are registered or questions asked about open meetings and using freedom of info.  She gets lots of complaints as things stand, and wants to keep it that way.  Does she mean the boxed form on her web site that I used two days ago to ask if she's on the love-hate commission?  Nothing yet from her, by the way, and I have some Jewish voters waiting to hear.  Maybe even some non-Jews, who knows?

 

Finally, it's quite interesting that in the wake of recent fatal South Side shootings, there's no outcry (screaming headlines) about (a) gun control -- though "delusional" Mayordaley II apparently made some customary noises about it -- and (b) root causes of gang criminality.  Sun-Times did have "Instant Messages" emailed from readers that touched on the former but also had the two items that in this blog's opinion matter most in these matters: 1. Decriminalization of recreational drug use and 2. draconian law enforcement. 

 

The former would require a change of heart mostly of white libs, the latter of them and the affected, afflicted community, which would have to permit cops to get tough.  Since this would mean jailing neighbors' sons, among other things (deport gang-bangers, said one letter writer!) , I bet on decriminalization happening before any unleashing of cops.  Oh, another -- yes, better -- idea was for parents etc. to take back the sidewalks by standing on the corners watching all the drug customers drive by.  Is this affected, afflicted community up to such unanimity?  Not so far.

Boo-hoo the boo-boo

Chi Trib's Colleen Mastony has a page one Metro Near West story about Elmwood Park, its Italian immigrants of two generations past vs. Latin Americans of today, with dollop about Poles also of today -- Poles are second only to Italians now, reports Trib, which would not surprise someone who shops at Caputo's on Harlem near Diversey.  The story jumps off from recent put-down of Elmwood Park (EP) schools for not taking an Ecuadorean kid on immigrant-status grounds.  It was the last straw, apparently, for tightly knit, stranger-shy EP, but higher-ups put them down and they had to take the kid.

 

Point is, older immigrants resent new ones. 

Second-generation immigrant families, mindful of how their parents and grandparents once struggled to gain a foothold in the U.S., now find themselves arguing about the rights of new immigrants,

OK, but the next sentence stops the careful reader, who hasn't got all the time in the world to read what Trib has to say, even if he lives near EP and wrote about it recently and used to eat bagels there:

Among recent arrivals, some wonder if it is right to extend social services to those who subverted laws to come to this country. Others think basics such as education should be available to all, especially to children, who are not responsible for their immigration status.

Which thanks to dangling phrase means that some recent arrivals question social services for recent arrivals.  The reader trying to take Trib seriously -- Mastony and her apparently MIA copy editors -- wonders what's going on here?  A wrinkle he hadn't realized?  Nope.  Another irritating boo-boo by the once world's greatest newspaper.

Stand-up guys & gals

FYI, here are the non-Jews who have not resigned from Gov Blag's hate-crimes commission over the Farrakhan-man flap, having apparently decided they can work with the top aide of a Jew-basher who won't distance herself from his [if not his, whose?] contumelious remarks.  If any are Jewish, I stand corrected:

 

Rev. Willie T. Barrow, Commission Chair
Chair of the Board, Emeritus, Rainbow PUSH Coalition

 

Kimberly M. White, Executive Director
Governor’s Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes [staff]

 

Lisa Madigan
Attorney General, State of Illinois [oh?]

 

Honorable [sic] Robin Kelly
State Rep., District 38

 

Honorable [sic] Larry McKeon
State Rep., District 13

 

Honorable [sic] Carol Ronen
State Sen., District 7

 

Rev. H. Douglas Bankhead
Second Baptist Church

 

Ertharin Cousin
America’s Second Harvest

 

Rick Garcia
Equality Illinois

 

Denise Gordon
PCI Inc.

 

Sgt. Kelly Henby
Illinois State Police

 

Ernestine Jackson
City of Bloomington

 

Ann Lata P. Kalayil
South Asian American and Policy Research Institute

 

Shannon Sullivan
Coalition for Education on Sexual Orientation

 

Karen Lennon
Entreprenour

 

Laura McAlpine
The Coalition for Education on Sexual Orientation

 

[Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad
Nation of Islam {top aide of Jew-basher}]

 

Gail Purkey
Illinois Federation of Teachers [!]

 

Gilberto, Romero Jr.
League of United Latin American Citizens

 

Sgt. Anthony J. Scalise
Chicago Police Department, Civil Rights Section [!]

 

Laura Thrall
YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago

 

Rev. Ronald Webb
Shiloah Baptist Church

A moving experience

Just moved but have been reading the noosepapers. 

 

Have wondered where the non-Jews disappeared to in the wake of the Farrakhan man's latest spew and subsequent resignations of Jews from Gov Blago's love-hate commission.  Are Jews the only ones who object to Nation of Islam contumely? 

 

Have also wondered what went on in the mind of Cub manager Dusty Baker, if anything, when his player Barry Bonds showed up beefed up -- steroid use is strongly suspected -- when Dusty managed the San Fran Giants. 

 

Will have to consult notes on various receipts for services rendered by rug cleaners and telephone installers before offering further comments disguised as wonderings.  For now, however, the body is tired and th-th-th-that's all, folks.

Off the Yids?

Such a day for Jews and cops in Chicago.  The former, excoriated by Minister [sic] Farrakhan, a.k.a. Calypso Louie, had to put up with one scheming governor and a condoning black state rep [wrong: senator] from Maywood who also represents part of Oak Park. 

 

The one cried the 1950s anti-anti-communist "guilt by association" as what motivates Jewish members of an anti-discrimination commission who resigned because another member is aide-de-camp to Minister [sic] F. and not only invited commission members to hear Louie excoriate Jews but did not denounce him, the gov talking as if she and Louie merely attended the same lodge or hung out together at the same barbershop.

 

The other, one Kimberly Lightford, shrugged off the resignations as "unfortunate." 

"What I really enjoyed about the commission [when she was a member] is that it was unique, in that we were all different--different backgrounds, different religions, different geographical areas," Lightford said. "If all were alike, or the majority were alike, and you were evaluating an issue that took place, it would be all like minds."

Like all agreeing that you don't excoriate Jews at the United Center?  That would sure be a drag.  What a ditz.  Her Jewish constituents, not to mention Catholics, Protestants, and secular humanists who presumably object to Louie's tirades, have to love her.  She a stand-up girl.

 

Cops, meanwhile, find Alderwoman Madeline Haithcock still seeking to name a block or two after Fred Hampton, whose "off the pigs" comic books were a big seller among young bloods, one of whom lay in wait for two of them in 1969 and shotgunned them to death before being shot and killed by cops.  Yes, he was one of Fred's Black Panthers, Fred had to admit.  Two weeks later Fred was shot and killed by cops who may have been a bit leery of asking questions before shooting.

 

Minister Louie drew a full house to the United Center for his most recent excoriation of Jews.  It was "Saviour's Day" for his Nation of Islam.  He has a record of such effusions.  But Gov. Blago says so what?  Louie's "minister of protocol" belongs on his commission anyhow.  What, me worry?  He's not excoriating governors, is he?

Verbal

Never let it be said that Mayor Daley is lost for words.  Chi Trib's Kass put a microphone in his face and asked him if Forrest Claypool, candidate in this month's primary for Cook County board president, seeking to replace John Stroger, is a reformer, as he is being greeted by lib Dems in Oak Park and elsewhere.  The mayor said:

"He worked very hard as [Daley's] chief of staff. He worked very hard at the Park District [where he was superintendent]. I am supporting John Stroger. I am not negative about anyone."

 

Mayor, is Claypool a reformer?

 

"That would be up to him. I mean, everybody is a reformer. I think everybody is a reformer. I mean everybody is. Regardless of every life, you reform, you change. Some people don't drink anymore. Some do. Some smoke. Some don't smoke. We are all reformers. Everybody is a reformer."

Does this mean Chicago is ready for reform, as Alderman Bauler famously denied in 1955, the night Mayordaley I was elected mayor?

Page one headlines!

Sun-Times: "Where are all the naked men?"  Vanity Fair has naked women.  Why no naked men?  Seriously, we want naked men!  We want naked men!  This an AP story out of New York exploring an important social phenomenon.  No thanks.

 

Chi Trib: "Wisconsin's lonely crusader fights on," about Sen. Feingold (who has his name on an anti-free-speech act that forbids buying air time at what he and McCain say is the wrong time) as arguer against Patriot Act is left-wing puffery.  Can you imagine a lonely-crusader story about Joe Scheidler, who's made a career out of opposing abortion?

 

Next to it is "Pro-war ads take aim at swing state," about 527 ads in Minnesota that feature war widows and other bereaved saying it's worth it.  Power Line, which has been all over this story, notes, " The story omits almost entirely any discussion of the wild local reaction to the airing of the ads in Minnesota."  It also spells out GOP strategy in running the ads here with a view to going national with them or something like them, but that's standard, isn't it? 

 

The funding group, Progress for America, not to be confused with Howard Dean's Dem party group Democracy for America, is mentioned in the same breath with Moveon.org but without mention of George Soros' role in the latter.  I would have expected something more chewy, shall we say, from our home-grown nationally aspiring newspaper.  For a fairly neat rundown on 527s, have a look at a Wash Post piece of 10/17/04, "After Late Start, Republican Groups Jump Into the Lead: Since August, 527s Raised Six Times as Much as Democrats."  Yes. '04.

 

Finally, consider Sun-Times Controversy essay Sunday by Don Rose, "THE POWER OF ART MAKES GOOFS OF US ALL: WE WATCH WITH ASTONISHMENT AS MUSLIMS RIOT IN PROTEST OF A CARTOON, BUT PROVOCATIVE ART HAS TRIGGERED VIOLENCE FOR CENTURIES, EVEN IN CHICAGO," which does not appear on-line.  It's admittedly a thumb-sucker for a Sunday opinion section, but annoying because it shows what runs through writer's and editor's mind, as in such a bother, all this Islamo-fascism talk, we've seen it all (and done it, for that matter) before. 

 

Bad cess to thinkers of that ilk.  This is how MSM writers have their way, far more than slant and omission and exaggeration, but by deciding what's worth discussing.  They frame the argument.  But the power of art to inflame (and inspire) is not what comes to mind for most people in these days of fatwa and beheading.  No, no.  Sorry, Don Rose.

================

Update:

From Reader Nancy:  Regarding the lonely crusade story about Feingold that appeared in the Tribune today, there was also one about Joseph Scheidler which began on the front page and ended on page 16.  It sounded like a lonely crusade story to me.  The title of the quite lenghty article was:  "Defiance pays off for abortion foe:  Justices rule protests weren't racketeering" by Judy Peres and Mary Ann Fergus, Tribune staff reporters.  The headline on page 16 read:  "Roe vs. Wade led him from PR to activism."  The article, at least in the way I interpreted it, highlighted Scheidler's struggles throughout the years.  NJT

 

She's right.

=======================

Update again:

From Reader Bob: I note that Feingold was treated even-handedly, with a section well  back in the story on what critics and admirers say about him.  On the other hand, Scheidler is called a "tireless zealot" in the  first graph, not by named critics but by the Trib writers.  And everbody knows that lonely crusaders are the good guys and  zealots are the baddies.