Understanding President # 44 - "The White Sox Kid" Sums Him Up.

President Obama is finally being understood by Blue and Red America - there is a vast whiteness, a void, the great empty that is sum total of an entirely imagined man with a Presidential pension and Nobel Prize.

He is the same man that he was in 2009 when he talked about himself as the nation's Chief Sox Fan:



The names Minnie Minosa, Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox, Billy Pierce, Joe Crede, Frank Thomas, Bo Jackson, Dick Allen could not ring that Pavlovian Presidential Bell.   Obama got a pass on that, because most Americans were too busy listening to Letterman make rape jokes about Sarah Palin's kids.

How should we not be surprised that Man in the Hart Schaffner & Marx rig-outs could answer any question about where he was on September 11, 2012, who wrote the Libyan talking points, where did the IRS get the knackers to open the books on Americans, how many bullets does DHS buy each day, which guns go to Mexican drug cartels, Samantha Powers, how many hours is it from Italy to Benghazi, or what is religious freedom?

I trust government only so much as I trust the people elected to govern.   

Alvarez Agonistes: "60 Minutes" Had No Time for the Root of Its Interest in Anita Alvarez - David Protess

Under the spreading chestnut tree/I sold you and you sold me/.There lie they, and here lie we/ Under the spreading chestnut tree. Orwell's 1984

The Two-Minute Hate Drill was crafted by George Orwell in his novel 1984 - George was off by twenty-eight years.  These days the we get a heaping helping of the Two-Minute Hate Drill every day and no time off for Sunday. We have Hate Week cycles: We got Burge; we got Palin: We got Ryan; We got Blago; We got Charlie Sheen; We got Lindsays -Lohan and Graham; We got Joe Walsh: We got Chick Fil A; We got 1%-ers: We got Catholics and We always got Israel!  We have Vanecko and we now have the Random Judge!


My favorite Chicago reporter and one of the best in the business, Natasha Korecki reported this in today's Sun Times about the "60 Minutes" tune-up:

“We are appalled, absolutely, unequivocally appalled by the lack of information [in the ‘60 Minutes’ report],” Alvarez’s spokeswoman, Sally Daly, said. “They did not include information that is critical to this case. Anita spent an hour doing this interview. We were ensured that we were going to get a fair shake ... I didn’t expect that from ‘60 Minutes.’ She could have easily not done the interview. She stood up and explained the cases publicly.”
Daly said the piece failed to report key facts in the cases — the so-called Engelwood Four case and one in which a group of Dixmoor men’s cases were dismissed after they spent years in prison. That included some suspects pleading guilty and testifying against others before judges and juries.
“These cases were presented multiple times to judges and juries,” Daly said. “Our office did a very, very thorough, careful review of these cases. She found that there was not enough evidence.”

The object of the Two Minutes Hate Drill, or a Hate Cycle are determined by the needs of the agreed upon tautologists of the academic, legal, political  and journalistic interest complex: Progressive academic, clerics (UCC, Unitarian, atheist and secularists), elected officials, funding sources (Eychaner, Van Amerigen & etc.), and the cadres of lawyers and law professors in symbiotic solidarity with Medill fashioned editors and columnists. Their reach is national but most effective when pounded out locally.  E.G. David Protess' Innocence Project, rock-rooted on the campus of Evanston, Illinois' Northwestern University and buttresses by the MacArthur and Blum Centers for Law, has trained and sent forth the hundreds of journalists to CNN, Newsweek

Dave Protess no longer operates within the ivy of Northwestern, because Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvares out-ed Professor Dave as a phony and the university booted the Tweedy Fagin - The Chicago Tribune Company's Chicago magazine tried to parse Protess back into a good light: 

“That the university had seen fit to issue a one-sided, nasty, vituperative broadside against him in the form of that press release seemed to be a violation of trust, not only of the university’s relationship with David Protess as a faculty member but a breach of trust with us.”

Cubbage responds by saying that Protess forced the university’s hand. “Northwestern University generally does not discuss publicly actions regarding its faculty and staff,” he says in an e-mail. “However, statements in the media by Professor Protess and our desire to be as forthcoming as possible on an issue of great importance to the University, its faculty, our students, alumni and our community prompted us to make the statement.” . . .A few weeks later, an article by a Medill senior, Brian Rosenthal, appeared in The Daily Northwestern, questioning the reporting methods of Protess and his students. On the same day, a lengthy piece in the Chicago Tribune raised similar questions. Both articles cited two identical episodes (neither of them denied by Protess): that one of his students said she had misrepresented herself as a U.S. Census Bureau employee to learn the whereabouts of a potential source and that another had posed as a ComEd worker to help track down a witness.

Both incidents were contained in the Ferkenhoff report, according to sources. And Protess says Jenner & Block questioned him about both. When I asked Cubbage whether the report had been leaked, he responded, “The University has no knowledge as to whether the report was shared, other than it was not shared by the University’s Office of General Counsel or its outside counsel.” Rosenthal told me that he “had no direct contact with the so-called report.” The Tribune reporter, Matthew Walberg, declined to comment.

The stories could merely have been the result of increased scrutiny brought on by the controversy over Protess and the nature of the accusations against him. Whatever the case, the effect was palpable. Protess’s reputation, as well as his 30-year legacy, suffered a staggering blow. More than that, media attention had shifted away from outrage over Protess’s ouster and onto his and his students’ professional ethics.

Protess offered his defense: There’s a long tradition of reporters going undercover, including for a Pulitzer Prize–winning series in the Tribune in which the reporter William Gaines posed as a janitor to detail hospital abuses.

And several practitioners back him up. “As a longtime investigative reporter who also holds a doctorate and specializes in the history of investigative journalism, I can tell you this,” says the University of Maryland’s Feldstein: “Exposing wrongdoing is not easy. Powerful interests do everything they can to block such challenges to their authority. I can tell you that flirting with a source or paying a source’s cab fare is a routine practice among journalistic professionals, not even a misdemeanor compared to the literal felonies that Protess exposed.”

Others disagree with the practice of journalists misrepresenting themselves. “I don’t say I condone that, and it’s not what I do as a journalist,” says American University’s Lewis. “I always disclose who I am, and that’s how I conduct myself. [But] I also understand that this is a slightly gray area.” In the end, the point was moot. Protess was out. The damage was done—both to him and to the school. “It has a long-term effect that will take a long time for the institution to get over,” says Foster. “It’s one of those moments in the 90-year history of Medill, one of those chapters in the [university’s] history, that I think will remain heartbreaking.

”Not just heartbreaking, adds Leff. Ironic. “From the minute I heard about the Anita Alvarez subpoena, I felt that she set out to ruin David’s reputation and to derail the concept of the [Medill Innocence] Project. And I think she did a damn good job. And I think that, wittingly or unwittingly, the university played right into her hands.”

At the bottom of it all, the question still remains: Why would the university go to such great lengths to not simply reprimand Protess—or even push him out—but to publicly attack him, his work, and his integrity, to virtually excommunicate a man who had brought such renown to the school? (emphasis my own)

And that, boys and girls, was how Anita Alvarez was bumped to front of the line for Two Minute Hate and now in the Hate Cycle.

"60 Minutes" sent their hard hitting team to do a job on Cook County States Attorney Alvarez and they chatted up an Innocence Project talker from a its New York affiliate, Peter Neufield to dig up necrophilia in order to smear Alvarez, but not the hometown cabbie briber and Fagin Dave Protess.  Alvarez was set up and she is now a subject for the scorn of Zorn, the malice of Marin, and eggs of the editorial boards of both papers.

Alavarez was Bush-whacked. Given the editing, the snide and syrupy slurs of CBS 'Byron Pitts, Anita Alvarez did a commendable job with the 60 Minutes advocate. She held her ground and stated the case.

Ms. Alvarez fell afoul of the Medill/NorthwesternLaw/Lawsuit-Lotto Lawyer complex when she out-ed Chicago’s Fagin – David Protess – for the hypocrite-corner cutting phony that he is; causing Northwestern to deep-six him after years allowing The Wrongful Everything Gang to burnish the university’s reputation as Progressive Dreamworks and Hogwarts Illinois

London, 1928:Mr. Belloc Called it Right, But There Is Still Time To Get It Right

I guess Bill O'Reilly and John Stewart went at it last night.  They had a debate -  A gifted comic genius and an ego on steroids.  

John Stewart is brilliant.  Bill O'Reilly has a massive following.  Politically, I might be closer to O'Reilly, but that is about it.  I don't get the guy.  John Stewart on the other hand has a mind like a Swiss CPA and good humor and comic timing of a Chicago Homicide Detective.



I imagine John Stewart mopped the floor with Bloviating Bill.



Eighty four years ago, two literary giants went tusk to tusk in London  George Bernard Shaw and GK Chesterton. Read the debate. I am going to see a dramatic presentation of this event this afternoon at the Provision Theatre* ( 1001 West Roosevelt Road).  



The conclusion by the moderator, Hilaire Belloc is the pay-off.



Mr. Belloc scored the only real hit in the verbal combat with his prophetic analysis of the end of the industrial age.


MR. BELLOC:  I was told when I accepted this onerous office
that I was to sum up.  I shall do nothing of the sort.
In a very few years from now this debate will be antiquated.
I will now recite you a poem:
    "Our civilization
    Is built upon coal.
    Let us chant in rotation
    Our civilization
    That lump of damnation
    Without any soul,
    Our civilization
    Is built upon coal.
    "In a very few years,
    It will float upon oil.
    Then give three hearty cheers,
    In a very few years
    We shall mop up our tears
    And have done with our toil.
    In a very few years
    It will float upon oil."
In I do not know how many years--five, ten, twenty--this debate
will be as antiquated as crinolines are.  I am surprised that
neither of the two speakers pointed out that one of three things
is going to happen.  One of three things:  not one of two.
It is always one of three things.  This industrial civilization which,
thank God, oppresses only the small part of the world in which we
are most inextricably bound up, will break down and therefore
end from its monstrous wickedness, folly, ineptitude,
leading to a restoration of sane, ordinary human affairs,
complicated but based as a whole upon the freedom of the citizens.
Or it will break down and lead to nothing but a desert.
Or it will lead the mass of men to become contented slaves,
with a few rich men controlling them.  Take your choice.
You will all be dead before any of the three things comes off.
One of the three things is going to happen, or a mixture of two,
or possibly a mixture of the three combined. (emphases my own)

After finally watching the Obama/Romney debate which I recorded, I re-read the above.

Mitt Romney gets what Belloc spoke about, especially his fifteen words about using clean coal as a path to relieving some of our economic burden. The day after the debate, I read where coal stocks soared on the markets.  President Barack Obama fully embraces the words of Belloc that I emphasized in dark ink.

*

Shaw vs. Chesterton: The Debate

Review by Lauren Whalen 

Opposites attract: the principle doesn’t just apply to romantic relationships. To quote one of my favorite sitcoms, “We’re friends. We don’t need to have anything in common.”George Bernard Shaw and GK Chesterton – two of the finest literary minds of the 20th century – had very little in common. Shaw was an atheist, socialist and vegetarian, while Chesterton was a Christian distributist who loved meat. Yet the two remained best friends who relished a stirring yet respectful debate. Based on actual exchanges between the playwright and journalist, Shaw vs. Chesterton: The Debate is an intelligent peek into the minds of two brilliant men, though the talk-heavy format may not appeal to everyone.

The play begins with Shaw (Lawrence McCauley) and Chesterton (Brad Armacost) preparing for an onstage debate, while bantering playfully and assisting moderator Belloc (Michael Downey) with his bloody nose. Throughout an intermission-less 85 minutes, Shaw and Chesterton interact with audience members, tease Belloc and embark on friendly verbal sparring: first on the topics of politics and religion, then in a “lightning round” with spectator input. But Chesterton has a secret that, when revealed, will throw Shaw for a loop and could change the friendship forever.Some elements of Shaw vs. Chesterton feel superfluous: for example, Inseung Park’s otherwise spot-on set design includes chairs bolted to the walls. Why is that necessary? Also, the play opens with Jim Poole’s video compilation of famous debates from this century and last, involving Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and Richard Nixon, among others. Because this audience is attending a play with the word “debate” in the title – and most of them have probably watched television in the past decade – they are well aware of what a debate actually entails and don’t need it spelled out for them.

And at its core, Shaw vs. Chesterton is just that: an hour-plus-long debate. Only two scenes showcase Shaw and Chesterton’s relationship outside of the back-and-forth: more human and less showy, these were my favorites, and I wanted more of the same. While the talk of property and religion is both interesting and frighteningly relevant, I wasn’t always engaged. I could appreciate the intellectual sparring, but I wanted to learn more about the men themselves and their unique friendship.

Despite a script that doesn’t always compel, the three actors have a wonderful time onstage and share this joy with the audience. Downey brings a light comic touch to his moderator role, with relatable frustration when the sparring gets slightly out of control. As Chesterton, Armacost articulates conservative beliefs with a jolly fervor and a deep respect for his opponent. And McCauley’s bombastic and hilarious Shaw radiates wit and good humor with flawless delivery of lines such as “I’m an atheist – and I thank God for it!” He wields his pocket watch like a weapon, dispelling the friendliest of fire, with brotherly love for Chesterton shining through every syllable.

As this contentious election year has proved, people find comfort in their beliefs. They also find comfort in each other. Shaw vs. Chesterton: The Debate effectively illustrates what happens when two brilliant individuals agree to disagree, chatting all the way.Timothy Gregory’s direction of two stellar actors is promising – if only his adaptation had been more engaging.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-bill-oreilly-debatemt1thewrap59586-20121006,0,7546780.story

Mother Jones 2012 is Sarah Palin

  

The American Mothers Jones -2012/20th Century








Diane Reece of the Washington Post,  a very talented writer who did not need a pile of dough from George Soros, Bill Burton, David Plouffe, or Mother Jones magazine to rent a house next to the Palin Family, is critical of Palin but honest and fair-minded. Rather than do a standard Joan Walsh Salon bitch, Diane Reece made an honest and forthright attempt to witness the impact of Sarah Palin on a crowd of people.  Diane Reece wrote for the Washington Post -

It was the first time I’d ever seen Palin in person, and it was well worth the 19-mile drive from my suburban Kansas City home to The Berry Patch, a you-pick blueberry farm near Cleveland, Mo., population 665, in rural Cass County.
Not because I’m a fan or even agree with her ideology, but to see what all the fuss has been about.

There has been fuss aplenty!  I believe that I am the only member of my vast family who admires Sarah Palin.  The very pious, elegant and well-spoken woman who deigns to be seen in public with me is put off by Gov. Palin's rhetorical choices and her God-given voice.  Coming from a blue-collar Irish Catholic family where Party loyalty equals Union (Real Labor) fidelity Ms. Palin's own Family Labor background gets lost in translation by my dear tribe, as well as the American Progressive Smart-Set.  The same family members, my Mom most loudly, who hold that Ms. Palin must be "nuts" are not in the least put off by Nancy Pelosi's ghost whispering. Second to the mental health canards, comes the Celtic charge of being a "total phony!"  Could be.  It's lost on me.

I like and admire Sarah Palin.  She can lead.  President Obama, in the words of Hockey Dad and Chicago's own Bobby Hull, "couldn't lead a dog out of a thunderstorm with a T-bone steak." The man can baffle with soaring bullshit, I'll give him that . . .not that he writes any of it.

 I'd follow Sarah Palin into a Jenny Craig Program; I would not follow President Obama into Old Country Buffet.

I understand that some people might be put-off by fashion, couture, and un-filtered plain-speak.  Ms. Diane Reece is first mainstream journalist to make those objections personal and not universally dogmatic:

When Palin took to the makeshift stage in the middle of a Missouri farm field, she was dressed more for the part of Hollywood celebrity than serious politician. I know someone’s going to remind me that just last week, I said it was sexist to focus on the wardrobes of women in politics.
But it was hard for me to take Palin seriously dressed as she was.
First, her shoes: Five-inch wedges. Her black capris weren’t quite skin-tight but tight enough, and her t-shirt with its Superman logo (a Steelman campaign shirt emblazoned with “Our freedom. Our fight.”) emphasized her figure. She never once removed her oversized sunglasses.
I’m sorry, but I’d like my minister, my doctor and yes, my politicians, to look and dress for their parts.
Once Palin spoke, I couldn’t help but think she sometimes sounds like a caricature of herself. Perhaps it’s her unique manner of speaking or her overuse of certain phrases.
There were moments during her 15-minute speech that I felt like applauding and there were certainly moments that I groaned.

I do know that Sarah Palin scares the marrow out of people that I would not particularly care to spend any amount of time with, much less value their opinions -MSNBC's entire Clown Opera, Il. Gov. Pat Quinn, The jerks John McCain hired in 2008,  The Second Wave Feminist Dowagers of the Abortion Industry, David " Crisp Britches" Brooks,  or Martini Mo Dowd.  Most of all the editors and contributors of Mother Jones Magazine have worked over-time to defraud American history and be-smeer the name of Mary Harris Jones, who was the Sarah Palin of the last century.

Mary Harris "Mother" Jones is an Irish Catholic woman, who lived a life that not only bridged America's Industrial Revolution to the Rise of American Labor, but defended the traditional family, unborn children and children forced into work, women torn from the hearth and most of all "Her Boys!"  Mother Jones was tough old broad who had watched her working man husband and children die of fever, the business that she built with her two skilled hands burn in the Chicago Fire, and working men struggle for wages, reasonable working hours and conditions, as well as basic human dignity, and labor, politcal, social welfare frauds work against them.

Mother Jones was a  force of nature. Mary Harris Jones was tough and very happy  little widow. The Press, the Governors and frauds hated her.

Mother Jones magazine performed post-mortem hysterical castration on the historical Mary Harris Jones, denuding her memory of her Catholic Faith and identity, as well as her counter-Marxist methodologies.Mother Jones was no Emma Goldman, no Jane Addams, no Margret Sanger; Mary Harris Jones was an honest woman who never cashed in on her celebrity and never played ball with the radical phonies. She was no atheist.  Mother Jones made war on phonies, weaklings, cowards, Prohibitionists, and do-gooder frauds, as well as capitalists. John L. Lewis made her sick to her stomach.  Big Bill Haywood she considered a pawn to booze and Bolsheviks.  Dowager abortionists?  Forget about it.

Sarah Palin is the clearest image of Mother Jones.  She is happy, honest, courageous and not a good fit for MSNBC. - Mother Jones would have turned Rachel Maddow into quivering  belaboring curds of word-whey.

At the end of her article, Ms. Reece wondered if the SuperMan T-shirt, 5" Heel Wedgied Mother Jones would would help steer a Missouri Hawkey Mawm to the Senate Race.   Nope. Like Mother Jones herself, sometimes your are the Grizzly and sometimes just a hard working Mom.



Mary Harris Mother Jones -“Goodbye, boys; I’m under arrest. I may have to go to jail. I may not see you for a long time. Keep up the fight! Don’t surrender! Pay no attention to the injunction machine at Parkersburg. The Federal judge is a scab anyhow. While you starve he plays golf. While you serve humanity, he serves injunctions for the money powers.”

Governor Sarah Palin-“It’s unbelievable to me that you spent last week in campaign mode, gallivanting around the country to start raising the billion dollars for your reelection bid that is still 19 months away ‘while Rome burns.’ . . . As was recently asked: When do you ever just ‘roll up your sleeves, unplug the teleprompter’ and do the job of governing and administrating for which voters hired you? I know, I know, granted you will be even busier very soon. After all, golf season kicks into high gear shortly. NBA and NHL brackets await.”


http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/pgs/portraits/Mother_Jones.php
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/post/sarah-palin-mama-grizzlies-united/2012/08/06/23393f12-dfc6-11e1-8d48-2b1243f34

Chicago Values 2012 Shoots Angels and Hammers Heroes- Harold's Chicken is a Man's Chicken

Harold's Chicken 3B  -over by Leo High School
8316 S Ashland 
Chicago, IL 
773.298.0964

Never had me a Chick-fil-A; probably won't.  I do not like chain-gang eateries - with the sole exception of White Castle.  I prefer Mon and Pop operations - Greek restaurants, Top-Notch, WonderBurger, Illinois Bar & Grill Delux Baskets of heart-attack inducing and colon blocking goodness. Harold's Chicken is far superior to the now Jim Crow-de-clawed,  slimmed down plantation cracker with white whiskers known acronymically as KFC ( formerly the Colonel).  The late Harold Pierce* was a Chicago business man who retired to St. Anne, Illinois, after opening his numbered chain Harold's Chicken all over the south side.  Harold sent his daughter to Bishop McNamara High School in Kankakee, Il where I had the privilege of teaching the young lady and meeting the Chicago entrepreneur. Harold was a man's man who fished and hunted and shared his fields and ponds with impoverished teachers.  Harold was all about family. This fine man went home to Christ in March 1988.

At the time that I knew Mr. Pierce in the mid-1980's, all of Harold's operations were limited to black neighborhoods - like Station # 38 above.  Harold had no intention of leaving the neighborhoods, nor of expanding his base to include Mick, Dago, Polack and Loogan neighborhoods.  "You white boys would burn me out, Hickey,  have some more gizzards, Son."  Today Harold's kids can be found operating among the Occupy Chicago trust-fund kids who me met their first black friend in pre-school of North Shore Country Day. Harold met white cops and firemen who took product home to Hegewisch, Morgan Park, Beverly an Scottsdale and his product is still honest to the man's core values - not necessarily Chicago Values 2012.

The late Harold Pierce would be castigated by the Wilmette New Trevian (Chicagoan in voto) Mayor as not having Chicago Values.  Chicago Values, at the moment, means one must publicly acknowledge the sanctity of same sex marriage - though Illinois has yet to be fully baptized in the creed.  Things were, after all, a Civil Union of minds and hearts.

Nope, eating at Harold's Chicken might be anathema, because Harold Pierce's values were not Chicago Values.  Value meals are the outward sign of Gay Grace.

A business may no longer believe, much less publicly proclaim anything that does not pass the Progressive taste tests -

• Ban Sabra Hummus, because it is Israeli and we should all be Eye-less on Gaza.  Fact is, them Home-boy Jews whip up some dandy chick peas and garlic.
• Pile-on Walker Wisconsin - I was there last weekend and will return this weekend to get my Swiss On in New Glarus and Green County!
• Boycott Katy Perry ( whoever she happens to be) because her video's proceeds will support veterans - so saith  Naomi Wolf ( whoever she happens to be)
• Boycott whomever comes within wallet distance of Al Sharpton, or Jesse Jackson,  père
• Cry hate and havoc upon every Catholic Bishop on the planet with emphasis on our heroic Chicago-born and bred Francis Cardinal George**
• Close down a cake shop because the owner values traditional marriage
• Sarah Palin - the real Mother Jones.
• Fossil Feulishmess - No Keystone for this Nation; Planned Parenthood of Red China will benefit
• Big Breeder Families are hateful and selfish

There is no end to Chicago Values - one day it is Goose Guts and another its happens to be Chick-fil-A

My friend Dennis Byrne captures the Chicago Values mindset - the one in which having the precision marching units of of the Fruits of Islam Bow-Tie drill teams call cadence to combat Capping in the Community makes perfect sense and sensibility - in an article that will get Windy City Times to full scream in his article for the Chicago Tribune. 

The articles touches upon the Chick-fil-A contre temps ( how many of you chicken gobblers believe that Mayor Coon Eyes twisted Alderman Poco Moreno's ears like Kelsey Grammer in the Boss in order to test the waters with his ban on Chick-fil-A???? Come on! Let's see them greased stained mitts!), but actually defines the genesis of Chicago Values Universal  - it starts with deep-fried bigotry and gets smothered in thick gooey hypocrisy - found, where else, but academic halls of ivy:

Now comes Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, with his New Families Structure study, which gathers a much larger sample of 15,000 Americans ages 18 to 39. In a Slate article, he summarized his peer-reviewed research that appeared earlier in the Social Science Research journal: On 25 of 50 different "outcomes" the study evaluated, "the children of women who've had same-sex relationships fare quite differently than those in stable, biologically intact mom-and-pop families. …
"Even after including controls for age, race, gender and things like being bullied as a youth, or the gay-friendliness of the state in which they live, such respondents were more apt to report being unemployed, less healthy, more depressed, more likely to have cheated on a spouse or partner, smoke more pot, had trouble with the law, report more male and female sex partners, more sexual victimization, and were more likely to reflect negatively on their childhood family life, among other things."
This is a debate-changing study, especially because it challenges more recent court findings in which judges cite the "no difference evidence" as a reason for overturning laws that define marriage as between a man and a woman.
Unsurprisingly, some of Regnerus' colleagues want to drive him out of academia on a rail. They've criticized his study for receiving sponsorship money from a conservative group, the Witherspoon Institute, and they've found some shortcomings (don't all social science studies have them?) in his methodology. The study has little to do with gay marriage, critics charge, because it's about same-sex child rearing.
Regnerus acknowledges that more study is needed (what scholar doesn't?), and he clearly outlines the steps he took to ensure the study's methodological correctness and objectivity. He doesn't claim to know the cause of the differences. Ironically, one scholar of the pro-gay persuasion who refused an invitation to participate on a panel to ensure the study's objectivity now is blasting the study for its lack of objectivity. He's leading a 200-scholar posse to demand the journal's editor explain why he dared publish such a piece and that he should collar more writers who are "sensitive" to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) parenting issues.
While Regnerus' social science credentials appear impeccable, it's just a start of academic Star Chamber proceedings against him for daring to step beyond the given wisdom. Three of his colleagues published an op-ed on The Huffington Post, charging that his "reckless" research "besmirched" the university. He is to appear before a panel of university officials that's investigating him for "scientific misconduct."

Chicago Values are merely a very heavy hammer to bop unfortunately honorable people over the noggins. Progressives have succeeded, because they have cowed the cowardly and nudged the normally courteous people off of the public stage.

The Harold Pierce was a proud man, an out-doors man, a family man and man who tossed together product that is still some very serious bird.

*Harold Pierce, a black Chicago entrepreneur, founded the restaurant in 1950. The character of Harold's developed primarily out of necessity, because the larger fast food chains tended to avoid African-American neighborhoods. In turn, Chicago's legal and social obstacles to black-owned businesses at the time prevented Harold's from expanding into downtown or the North Side. Harold's became one of the few examples of a thriving fast food chain that was owned by, and primarily served, the black community.Harold's fried chicken is different from that served at other fast food chicken restaurants (Kentucky Fried Chicken, Brown's Chicken, Popeyes, etc.) in two significant ways. The first is the cooking medium. Harold's chicken is cooked in a mix of half beef tallow and half vegetable oil, while most other chains use only vegetable oil. This provides a taste that is more similar to the traditional home-cooked fried chicken that was invented in theAmerican South.

The second major difference between Harold's chicken and most other restaurants is that at Harold's, the chicken is not fried until it is ordered, while most chains fry their chicken in large batches and store it on warming racks until it is purchased. Harold Pierce set up a chain-wide policy from the beginning that all Harold's chicken would be cooked only after it was ordered, in order to preserve the freshly cooked taste of the chicken. Originally, this meant that there was a twelve to fifteen minute wait between ordering the chicken and receiving it. Harold Pierce's son has altered the original method, however: the chicken is now fried half-way beforehand, and then cooked to completion when it is ordered. This maintains the chicken's freshness while shortening the delivery time to seven or eight minutes.

** I was born and raised here, and my understanding of being a Chicagoan never included submitting my value system to the government for approval. Must those whose personal values do not conform to those of the government of the day move from the city? Is the City Council going to set up a “Council Committee on Un-Chicagoan Activities” and call those of us who are suspect to appear before it? I would have argued a few days ago that I believe such a move is, if I can borrow a phrase, “un-Chicagoan.” Francis Cardinal George

from Bill Baar's West Side

http://baarswestside.blogspot.com/2012/07/nominations-for-chicagos-committee-on.html
http://www.chicagoreader.com/pdf/060414/060414_harolds.pdf
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/07/28/lakewood-cake-shop-refuses-wedding-cake-to-gay-couple/
http://www.jammiewf.com/2012/feminist-douchebag-calls-for-katy-perry-boycott-over-marines-video/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0731-byrne-20120731,0,7181268.column

Parallel Lives: Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Barack H. Obama

[Commanders like Sulla*] were men who had risen to the top by violence rather
than merit; they needed armies to fight against one another rather than against the
public enemy; and so they were forced to combine the arts of the politician with
the authority of the general. They spent money on making life easy for their
soldiers and then, after purchasing their labour in this way, failed to observe that
they had made their whole country a thing for sale and had put themselves in a
position where they had to be slaves of the worst sort of people in order to become
the masters of the better. (Plutarch, pp. 8182)

Presidents, like Barack Obama**, are men who had risen to the top by politics and public relationsrather than merit: they needed blocks of voters ( SEIU, ACORN, G.E., NBC, ABC, CBS, NYT, Chicago Tribune, WaPo, ACLU, DNC, NOW & etc.) to rail against any opposition ( Rep. Bobby Rush, Jack Ryan, Allan Keyes, Sarah Palin. Sen. John McCain) rather than argue for the public good; and so they were forced to combine the arts of the politician with  voice of a demagogue.  They spent money making life easy for their friends and then, after purchasing their labour in this way, failed to observe that they had made their whole country a thing for sale and had put themselves in a position where they had to be advocates of the worst sort of people in order to become the masters of rest.

*Sulla, Vatican Museums, Vatican City

Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 BC)

Lucius Cornelius Sulla stemmed from a good, though not very wealthy Roman family. He came to prominence most of all in the Social War (91-89 BC). When in 88 BC Mithridates, King of Pontus, attacked the Roman province of Asia, where a alleged 80'000 Romans and Italians were massacred, the senate decided on Sulla, who was then one of the current consuls, to be commander of the army against Mithridates.
But the Tribune of the People Suplicus Rufus called for the command to be given to Marius. The concilium plebis backed this proposal. But Sulla proved a man not to be messed with. He marched on Rome at the head of six legions and forced the reversal of this decision.
This type of action was to prove typical of Sulla's methods.

After successfully completing his campaign against Mithridates Sulla returned back to Italy. Other than having command of a battle-hardened army he held no office. Sulla was not to wait for anyone to offer him any political position. Far more he simply marched on Rome and took it by force. The consuls Gnaeus Papirius Carbo and Marius the Younger could not raise an army powerful enough to fend him off. And so Sulla took charge. He was not to take power as an elected consul, but in the position of dictator, a post specially set aside in the Roman constitution for times of military crisis.
Though this was not a military crisis and Sulla hardly cared. The position simply allowed him complete power.
He now introduced a new judicial device called 'proscription'. This meant the publication of lists of any people he deemed undesirable. Rewards would be made to those who brought them in, be they dead or alive. It goes without saying that Sulla used this device in order to annihilate any political opposition, rather than to track down any real criminals.
40 senators and 1600 equestrians supposedly died in this first wave of gruesome proscriptions.
Sulla undoubtedly had all the hallmarks of a Stalin, Mussolini or Hitler. He even revelled in calling assemblies at which he would hold grand speeches, threatening and intimidating all those he claimed to be his enemies, as well as his own audience.
But dictators like Sulla don't just stop killing because the names on the list are exhausted. Instead he began adding new names of people who had become 'enemies of the state'. There was no place people, once on those lists, were safe. Even those who took refuge in temples were killed. Some might have ben hauled before him and thrown at his feet. They were killed nonetheless. Others fell victim to the mob, being literally lynched by a bloodthirsty crowd. Those suspects who only had all their belongings confiscated and were then thrown out of Rome were indeed the lucky ones among those who felt Sulla's wrath.
and shoudl any have managed to flee, then an intricate network of spies sought to track them down overseas.

Alas, Sulla was not only to be remembered as a butcher. He also used his position to reform the constitution. Strangely for a man who himself ignored the senate's wishes and who killed an unprecedented number of its members, he did much to restore its authority.
After the damaging conflicts with the Gracchi brothers and their infamous use of other assemblies, the senate was now reaffirmed as the highest body, entitled to veto any decision reached by another assembly.The power held by the Tribunes of the People was virtually abolished, as they now no longer possessed the power to challenge the senate.
Membership to the senate was roughly doubled, many equestrians and magistrates of other cities being added to their ranks.
Further he introduced a law by which any new member to be admitted to the senate had at least to have held the position of quaestor beforehand. This was no doubt to assure the senate remained a body of political and administrative experience.
Also, in order to prevent the re-emergence of serial office holders like the Gracchi, Sulla restored the ten year waiting period before one could hold the same public office a second time.
Additional to this, perhaps to prevent any meteoric rise to power by people like the Gracchi brothers, he introduced a rule by which anyone holding office would have to wait at least two years before he could be nominated for the next higher office.
Of course such restrictions were to make the struggle for power among the ambitious young sons of powerful families all the more intense.

Sulla also instituted legal reforms, which created new courts for particular types of crime. Also his reforms highlighted between civil and criminal legal procedures. Here, too, the senate found its authority strengthened, as Sulla's reforms allowed only senior senators to sit as judges.

Unusually for a tyrant, Sulla retired in 79 BC. He spent his last years on his country estate, writing his memoirs. Within a short time he died of old age.

**

Biography forBarack Obama More at IMDbPro »

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Date of Birth

4 August 1961, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Birth Name

Barack Hussein Obama II

Nickname

Barry
Bama
Rock
The One
No Drama Obama

Height

6' 1" (1.85 m)

Mini Biography

Barack Obama was born to a white American mother, Ann Dunham, and a black Kenyan father, Barack Obama Sr., who were both young college students at the University of Hawaii. When his father left for Harvard, she and Barack stayed behind, and his father ultimately returned alone to Kenya, where he worked as a government economist. Barack's mother remarried an Indonesian oil manager and moved to Jakarta when Barack was six. He later recounted Indonesia as simultaneously lush and a harrowing exposure to tropical poverty. He returned to Hawaii, where he was brought up largely by his grandparents. The family lived in a small apartment - his grandfather was a furniture salesman and an unsuccessful insurance agent and his grandmother worked in a bank - but Barack managed to get into Punahou School, Hawaii's top prep academy. His father wrote to him regularly but, though he traveled around the world on official business for Kenya, he visited only once, when Barack was ten.

Obama attended Columbia University, but found New York's racial tension inescapable. He became a community organizer for a small Chicago church-based group for three years, helping poor South Side residents cope with a wave of plant closings. He then attended Harvard Law School, and in 1990 became the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review. He turned down a prestigious judicial clerkship, choosing instead to practice civil-rights law back in Chicago, representing victims of housing and employment discrimination and working on voting-rights legislation. He also began teaching at the University of Chicago Law School, and married Michelle Robinson, a fellow attorney. Eventually he was elected to the Illinois state senate, where his district included both Hyde Park and some of the poorest ghettos on the South Side.

In 2004 Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, representing Illinois, and he gained national attention by giving a rousing and well-received keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. In 2008 he ran for President, and despite having only four years of national political experience, he won. In January 2009, he was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, and the first African-American ever elected to that position.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Spouse

Michelle Obama

(3 October 1992 - present) 2 children

Trade Mark

When making informal public visits, often rolls up shirt sleeves and "joins in" on a job site.

Passionate, fiercely idealistic speeches.

Distinctive, clipped manner of speaking.

Trivia

His first name comes from the word that means "blessed by God" in Arabic.

In the Kenyan town where his father was born, the long-brewed "Senator" brand of beer has been nicknamed "Obama."

U.S. Senator from Illinois since 3 January 2005.

Won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word for the CD version of his autobiography "Dreams From My Father" (2006).

Lives in Hyde Park (Chicago).

On "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (1993), he revealed that President George W. Bush nicknamed him "Bama" and "Rock".

The movie he saw on his first date with Michelle Obama was Do the Right Thing (1989).

Related to Park Overall.

Has two daughters, Malia Obama (born in 1998) and Sasha Obama (born in 2001).

Candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 US presidential election.

Several celebrities including; Halle Berry, George Clooney, Sheryl Crow, Bob Dylan, Topher Grace, Macy Gray, Bruce Springsteen, Oprah Winfrey Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Hayden Panettiere, Zachary Quinto, Eddie Murphy and John Cleese support his 2008 presidential campaign. Robert De Niro gave his endorsement at the same rally where Barack was endorsed by Caroline and Ted Kennedy.

Enjoys playing basketball and poker.

At his wife's suggestion, he quit smoking before his campaign to win the Democratic nomination began.

His paternal relatives still live in Kenya.

Confessed teenage drug experiences in his memoirs "Dreams from My Father".

One of his ancestors was Mareen Duvall, also an ancestor of actor Robert Duvall.

Shares his surname with a small city in western Japan, which means "small shore" in Japanese.

Plays basketball.

Born to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (1936-1982) and Ann Dunham (1942-1995), married from 1960 to 1965.

Named one of Time magazine's "100 most influential people in the world" list in 2005 and 2007.

Chosen as one of "10 people would change the world" by New Statesman magazine (2005).

Won his second Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for "The Audacity of Hope" (2008).

On June 3, 2008 he won the Montana primary election giving him enough delegates to become the first Black American presidential candidate to win a major political party's presumptive nomination for the office of President of the United States.

Is a die-hard Chicago White Sox fan.

More than 215,000 people attended his speech in Berlin on 24 July 2008.

Has one half-sister, Maya, born to his mother and stepfather in 1970.

Has his look-alike puppet in the French show "Les guignols de l'info" (1988).

Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham died Sunday November 2, 2008 in the early evening in Honolulu from cancer. She was 86.

Is the first African-American man to be elected President of the United States (November 2008).

When elected President, he won the battleground states of Florida, Virginia and Colorado - all of which had voted Republican in 2004.

Is the first American president to be born in Hawaii.

Was the 27th lawyer to be elected American president.

Was elected to be the 44th president of the Unites States of America on 4 November, 2008.

As a child growing up in Hawaii, his classmates knew him as Barry.

Presidential campaign slogan: "Change we can believe in".

Is primarily of Kenyan, Irish, and English ancestry.

Favorite movies are Casablanca (1942), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), The Godfather (1972), and The Godfather: Part II (1974).

Is a fan of "The Wire" (2002).

First ever US President to address a Muslim community at an inaugural speech.

Shares the same birthday as long-time White House correspondent and journalism legend, Helen Thomas. On her 89th birthday (and his 48th), they celebrated by blowing birthday cupcakes together in front of the press corps.

First United States Senator to be elected President since John F. Kennedy.

October 2009, won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Fourth US President to win a Nobel Peace Prize (2009) after Theodore Roosevelt (1906), Woodrow Wilson (1919) and Jimmy Carter (2002).

Defended his decision not to issue a formal written statement on the death of controversial pop star Michael Jackson on 25 June 2009.

Half-brother of Maya Soetoro-Ng.

Brother-in-law of Konrad Ng.

Merited a position in Time magazine's - The 100 Most Influential People in the World ("Leaders" category) - with an homage contributed byDavid Remnick (Issue: May 10, 2010).

Received a gift of a Portuguese water dog from Senator Ted Kennedy and his wife Victoria. Because the particular breed is reportedly hypo-allergenic, the First Family and friends were highly unlikely to suffer any allergic reactions in the pet's presence. [2009]

Obama's appearance on "The View" (1997) (29 July 2010) made him the first ever sitting US President to appear as a guest on a daytime TV talk show.

Obama's birthplace of Hawaii makes him the first U.S. president not born in the continental United States.

Brother-in-law of basketball player, coach and author Craig Robinson.

Son of Barack Obama Sr..

The character of Matt Santos in 'The West Wing' is based on him.

The first US President to be born after the Vietnam War started.

Is a big fan of the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man and collected the comics as a youth.

Counts "Homeland" (2011) as one of his favorite TV shows.

First U.S. President to be personally presented with an Apple iPad 2 by Steve Jobs before it was officially released domestically.

Notable for being the first United States President to participate in social media. He is the first President to have a personal Facebook page and a Twitter account, and the first President to hold Q&A sessions via those forums and YouTube. He is also the first sitting President to own and use an iPod, Blackberry (custom made for security purposes), and iPad.

His daily newspapers are The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He claims to not watch cable TV news stations.

Introduced the 50th anniversary television broadcast of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).

Can speak Indonesian to a certain degree, having lived in Indonesia for a number of years during his childhood.

The TV presidential election campaign commercial for Obama featured, Carl Reiner, Garry Marshall, Larry Gelbart, Valerie Harper, Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara (slogan: "This Ain't Funny, it's a serious election. Don't vote out of fear, vote for hope - Vote for Obama").

Personal Quotes

[from keynote speech given at the 2004 Democratic party national convention] There's not a liberal America and a conservative America. There's the United States of America. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. We coach Little League in the blue states, and have gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war, and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

And it lives on in those Americans -- young and old, rich and poor, black and white, Latino and Asian and Native American, gay and straight -- who are tired of a politics that divides us and want to recapture the sense of common purpose that we had when John Kennedy was President of the United States of America.

[regarding former President Bill Clinton's support for his wife--and Obama's opponent for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination--Hillary Rodham Clinton] Sometimes I don't know who I'm running against.

[when asked whether he would call on Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton to release their tax returns, after Hilary loaned $5 million of her own money to her campaign] I'll just say that I've released my tax returns. That's been a policy I've maintained consistently. I think the American people deserve to know where you get your income from. But I'll leave it up to you guys to chase it down . . . I think we set the bar in terms of transparency and disclosure that has been a consistent theme of my campaign and my career in politics.

In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

When I am this party's [Democratic party] nominee, my opponent will not be able to say that I voted for the war in Iraq; or that I gave [George W. Bush] the benefit of the doubt on Iran; or that I supported Bush-Cheney [former VP Dick Cheney] policies of not talking to leaders that we don't like. And he will not be able to say that I wavered on something as fundamental as whether or not it is okay for America to torture - because it is NEVER okay. That's why I am in it. As President, I will end the war in Iraq. We will have our troops home in sixteen months. I will close Guantanamo. I will restore habeas corpus. I will finish the fight against Al Qaeda. And I will lead the world to combat the common threats of the 21st century - nuclear weapons and terrorism; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease. And I will send once more a message to those yearning faces beyond our shores that says, "You matter to us. Your future is our future. And our moment is now."

This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

Change is coming to America.

In America, we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know, we idolize the John Wayne hero who comes in to correct things with both guns blazing. But individual actions, individual dreams, are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations.

In Washington, the call this the Ownership Society, and it is especially tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in life's lottery, that we're the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won't be the chump who Donald Trump says: "You're fired!"

In America, we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know we idolize the John Wayne hero who comes in to correct things with both guns blazing. But individual actions, individual dreams are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations.

In Washington, we call this the Ownership society, and it is especially tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in life's lottery, that we're the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won't be the chump who Donald Trump says: "You're fired!"

To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and the structural feminists and punk rock performance poets. We smoked cigarettes and wore leather jackets. At night in the dorms, we discussed neocolonialism, Franz Fanon, Eurocentrism and patriarchy. When we ground our cigarettes in the hallway carpet or set our stereos so loud that the walls began to shake, we were resisting bourgeois society's stifling constraints. We weren't indifferent or careless or insecure. We were alienated.

(visiting Ireland) My name is Barack Obama of the Moneygall O'Bamas. And I've come to find the apostrophe we lost along the way.

Hopefully, more and more people will begin to feel their story is somehow a part of the larger story of how we're going to reshape America in a way that is less mean spirited and more generous. I mean I really hope to be a part of the transformation of this country.

I'm not interested in the suburbs. The suburbs bore me. And I'm not interested in isolating myself. I feel good when I'm engaged in what I think are the core issues of the society, and those issues to me are what's happening to poor folks in this society.

It's crucial that people don't see my election as a sign of progress in the broader sense that we don't sort of point to a Barack Obama any more than you point to a Bill Cosby or a Michael Jordan and say "Well things are hunky dory".

To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren court, it wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, or at least as it's been interpreted and Warren court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties, Says what the states can't do to you. Says what the Federal government can't do to you, but doesn't say what the Federal government or the state government must do on your behalf, and that has shifted and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that.

Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years, and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

It's great to be here this evening in the vast, magnificent Hilton ballroom, or what Mitt Romney would call a little fixer-upper.

You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we're talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn't dawn on them that somehow their friends' parents would be treated differently. It doesn't make sense to them and frankly, that's the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective. (May 9, 2012)

I have to tell you that over the course of several years, as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I've just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married. (May 9, 2012)

Where Are They Now

(November 2008) Elected the 44th President of the United States of America

"O Ye of Little Faith?" - It Might Just Be Enough to Be a Church, But Steve Chapman Thinks Otherwise

And when he entered into the boat, his disciples followed him: And behold a great tempest arose in the sea, so that the boat was covered with waves, but he was asleep. And they came to him, and awaked him, saying: Lord, save us, we perish. And Jesus saith to them: Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then rising up he commanded the winds, and the sea, and there came a great calm. But the men wondered, saying: What manner of man is this, for the winds and the sea obey him? Gospel of Matthew - 23-27 Douay-Rheims Bible


Speaking of Tempests in a tea-cup - I read Steve Chapman, the poor man's David Brooks Conservative voice at the Chicago Tribune, well before break of day. Chapman is too cute by half and nearly as accurate.

This week, Newsweek decided to deconstruct Christianity with the words and counsel of Andrew Sullivan - a gay Catholic Conservative Sarah Palin stalking Christopher Hitchens without the makings.

Sullivan has full media agreed upon standing as an important voice. It plumb evades me. Nevertheless, Mr. Sullivan gets syndicated nationally, along with other strange speaking sophists and bunko-artists like Michael Eric Dyson, Roger Simon, Jonathan Alter, and always hilarious Roland S. Martin. Interesting to note each and every one of those nationally recognized voices were silenced here in Sweet Chicago by the gales of laughter stormed up by readers of the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, The Daily Defender and other news outlets.

Andrew Sullivan commands us to "Forget the church. Follow Jesus."
Andrew is just down right hissified that religion has become so politically polarizing.

Organized religion ( read the Roman Catholic Church) is mean, because Catholics who are largely Catholic are disgusted and angry by the Obama Regime's HHS Mandate, along with antipathy to Homosexual Marriage. Catholics are the Jews and Evangelical Christians of the New Millennium - fair targets for group hate. Mormons are really in for abuse in the months to come as well.

Mainline Protestant religions and secular Jews melted away decades ago into Unitarianism - the are spiritual but not necessarily religious and certainly not judgemental. They can be identified as State Religionists with Bill Moyers as Supreme Pontiff.

Jews, Evangelicals, and Catholics know that Jesus not only said "Follow Me, but also added this biblical (Gospel - Matthew the Taxman again) imperative -"And I say to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. " Tough to parse that one away, there Andrew.

Conservative voices like David Brooks, Andrew Sullivan and Christopher Buckley validated Barrack H. Obama's parking pass in the drive way at 16 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2008 and beyond.


Not be left out of the faux-conservative Obama bandwagon, Steve Chapman does a great Amen to Andy Sullivan's dumps Churches and Follow Jesus the Community Activist:

So a lot of people who are not conservative but once would have gone to worship services have decided they don't belong. They see the GOP claiming to represent the will of God and run the other way.

"Each year, fewer and fewer Americans identify as secular Republicans or religious Democrats," write political scientists David E. Campbell and Robert D. Putnam in the current issue of Foreign Affairs. "Formerly religious Democrats (except among African-Americans) have drifted away from church, and formerly unobservant Republicans have found religion."

That may sound like a reasonable trade for conservative Christians. Who needs skeptics and scoffers anyway? But it has some side effects they may come to regret.

One is that they are losing leverage and consideration in one of the two major parties. President Barack Obama's proposal to make religiously affiliated universities and hospitals provide contraceptive coverage to employees might not have occurred if religious folk were more numerous in the Democratic ranks.

Another consequence is that making the Almighty synonymous with political conservatism breeds contempt for faith. Young people now are far more likely alienated from religion than their forebears were. In the 1970s, only 12 percent of people in their 20s disavowed any religious affiliation. Today, 33 percent do.

The change has a lot to do with the fact that "millennials" tend to be liberal or libertarian on social issues. When they hear Republicans invoking the Bible to justify banning same-sex marriage, many deduce that Republicans are too intolerant to bear — and so is the Bible.

The people with no religious affiliation lean strongly Democratic. In 2008, 75 percent voted for Obama, compared to 45 percent of Protestants and 54 percent of Catholics. Even in 2010, a Republican year, 68 percent of them voted Democratic for Congress.

The Republican practice of spurning "none/other" voters (basically, all who don't identify themselves as Christians) could turn out to be a fatal error. The Georgetown University blog Nineteen Sixty-four says they are now so numerous that "Obama could lose both the Catholic and Protestant vote to the Republican nominee — even lose badly — and still win re-election."

As the nonreligious proliferate, the GOP may find it has foreclosed any chance of winning their votes. What it hears from this group comes straight from the old country song: "God may forgive you, but I won't. Yes, Jesus loves you, but I don't. They don't have to live with you, and neither do I."

Chapman starts his piece with a lame joke about God the Father being a Republican, but His Son is a Democrat. I am a Democrat and as I recall from my parents and Catholic teachers, there are two Testaments but one Bible. The later Christians believe to be the fulfillment of the former.

Andrew Sullivan and Steve Chapman argue that if you are to be considered a sophisticated devotee of secular goodness and citizenship, you need to be un-Churched. Get un-Churched and get hip with the State - the Progressive Vatican.

Perhaps, Mr. Chapman hears the giggles among the helots and pew-Occupiers. Perhaps, he is looking for the same comfortable bedding found by lambs who left Chicago's caustic giggling Rubes and Patriarchal religionists: Roger Simon, Michael Eric Dyson, Jonathan Alter and the always hilarious Roland S. Martin.

That Progresive manger has great straw ( pays well).

I'll stick with the Rock.

Religion is not a 12 -Step Program, Political Caucus, or try-out for Salon. It is like trying to train for a sport*. Religion is a tough and heavy set of weights strapped to our ankles while we sprint and struggle up many flights of stairs. We practise religion and some times we manage to actually strengthen ourselves, but we do not get up those stairs on our own. We have voices shouting encouragement, warning, remonstrance and judgement. It is up to us to continue the climb. If we quit, as we often do, it does us no earthly good to make up an excuse. " The coach don't like me; he favors the Italian kids; I broke my ankle last summer; I need to feel good about myself. Some else will carry my load."

Those of us who make it to the top know that run down is easy, but there is another set stairs to follow.

The young people, whom Chapman and other clever dicks call the Millennials, might find fulfillment on Saturday nights, club hopping, or boozing, or dancing with their friends. They need a voice to tell them that lying bed until noon or beyond on Sunday morning and moaning, OMG!!! God! Christ! is not church service. They generally get there after trusting the faith in spite of the tempest.

We of little faith, belong to a huge strong and very unpopular Church. If you belong to a club you go the meetings. Those meetings started with eleven and shortly twelve, because Judas Iscariot's self esteem was challenged. The demographics found in Acts of Apostles pointed to a very healthy development. Romans thinned out the numbers considerably, but this Church managed endure the Big Government Mandates of the Julio-Claudians and the Praetorian Emperors.

Obama is a cupcake compared to Domitian, so far.

* Past Acquaintance -Jesus, Hickey, you were the biggest Pu$$y of all time!

Your Humble Correspondent - Well, runner-up, anyway.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-oped-0405-chapman-20120405,0,7104250.column