Catholicism illustrates the history and treasures of this global religion shared by more than one billion people around the world. The panoramic presentation is filmed in stunning high-definition and spans more than 50 locations in 15 countries.

Using art, architecture, literature, music and all the riches of the Catholic tradition, Father Robert Barron tells the story of Catholicism around the world. The production crew travels to some of the most magnificent and sacred sites in Jerusalem, Rome, Krakow, Warsaw, New York, Istanbul, Ephesus, Lourdes, Mexico City, Athens, Corinth, Mexico City, Uganda, Manila, Sao Paolo, Auschwitz, Kolkata, Philadelphia, Chicago, and beyond. The team was granted exclusive access to film privately in many locations inaccessible to the general public. Highlights include some of the world’s architectural and artistic masterpieces and most sacred places including The Dome of The Rock, the Hagia Sophia, the tomb of Mother Teresa, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, rare views of the Pantheon, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Pope’s private gardens, Chartres, Notre Dame, and Cologne Cathedrals, as well as one of the largest religious celebrations on the planet – the feast of the Ugandan martyrs.

Buy the DVD set now on Amazon.com

Or the accompanying book

The March 17 monthly meeting of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board began at 10 a.m. in Springfield.

Their effective pay for that 76-minute meeting was about $7,800 each.
Four of the board members are paid $93,926 a year, with the chairwoman getting $104,358 for a job that generally entails one meeting per month, usually for one to two hours.

How do you get a gig like that? Technically, you just have to be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. But the members of the educational labor board aren’t what you’d call typical citizens.

One is married to a state senator. One is an ex-Springfield lobbyist. One is an ex-legislative staffer. One is an ex-gubernatorial aide.
The board is one of more than 320 in the state’s executive branch, where unelected appointees preside over governmental decisions from utility rates to pollution control to property tax appeals. Some 30 of the boards offer payment for members ranging from a few hundred dollars per meeting to five or six figures a year, records show. Salaried board members also get state pensions.

Read more at the St. Louis Post Dispatch

Some people are blaming the gas stations. Others are blaming the big oil companies. I blame the lack of transparency, and here’s why.

If you go into a restaurant today, the menu lists how many calories are in each meal. If you shop in a grocery store, each item is now marked with the amount of fat and what kind of fat it contains. A butcher shop lets you know just how lean the meat is that you’re buying. And when you check out of any store, the sales slip lets you know the exact amount of taxes your are being charged.

Phone companies list the various taxes and fees added to your monthly bill. Water bills contain the taxes and fees added on to your usage. Electrical bills contain all the extra fees you’re being charged. It’s all very transparent.

But the same transparency is totally absent when you go to buy gasoline for your car, or when trucks buy diesel to carry the goods to market. All that is posted at filling stations is the price per gallon for the various grades of gasoline and diesel.

Curious, isn’t it?

Do you find it strange how much cheaper gasoline is in Indiana as compared with Illinois.? Have you thought it unusual that gasoline and diesel is less costly in Wisconsin than in Illinois?

The answer lies in the lack of transparency. That is something I’d like to see one of our elected officials change in Washington. It’s time for everyone to see what’s the real cost of buying fuel for our cars, motorcycles and trucks. It’s time for a law to order all gas stations to post the following: the price per gallon of gasoline, then the city tax per gallon, next, the county tax per gallon, then, the state tax added per gallon and finally, the federal tax added per gallon. Now that is true transparency. That is something that would let everyone know exactly why the cost of fuel is soaring so high here.

If the government can rule on just what foods and drink are allowed in our schools, and can order restaurants to list the amount of calories in each meal, and can order manufacturers to list the nutrition facts on every can of food, it can certainly pass legislation to order all gas stations to list the amount of taxes motorists are being asked to pay by the city, county, state and federal governments on each gallon they buy.

If filling up your gas tank is more and more becoming a shocking experience, seeing how much in taxes you’re paying should be a real eye opener. It might even make you pay more attention to just what the government is doing to you rather than for you.

It’s time for some real transparency – not more hot air — regarding the true price of a gallon of gas, and then the piling on of multiple levels of taxation to that gallon.

Wouldn’t you like to see that?

**
Mary Laney is a regular columnist for the Chicago Daily Observer

image Becker’s Texaco, Dwight, Illinois

Bill Brady Had a nice breakfast this morning with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. On my way to Quincy to accept the NFIB (National Federation of Independent Business) endorsement.

I suppose if you’re Jewish yet dumb enough to be taken for millions by slicker lefty ideologue Bernie Madoff you’re dumb enough…even though you’re a Wharton MBA and Harvard lawyer…to be taken for a ride by Obama even if you’re the president of pro-Israel organizations notwithstanding that it was clear during the campaign that The One was, if not by heritage, at least by passion a supporter of Palestinian militancy. But all the same it’s humiliating for a supposed business sharpie like Mort Zuckerman to have to admit it as he did yesterday on Fox News that he not only voted for Obama but wrote at least one speech for him.

His writing for Obama doesn’t faze me or give me the sense of unethical conduct. When you’re a newspaper publisher you can do whatever you want. Remember Phil Graham who advised JFK to pick LBJ while Graham was publisher of The Washington Post? Doesn’t bother me. Publishers have played politics all the time: they’re entitled. Col. McComick huddled with Bob Taft; William Randolph Hearst confabbed with a host of Dem candidates pre-FDR.

Even journalists who play politics under the covers don’t necessarily sicken me. Steve Neal did it all the time—and some say he paid the price. George Tagge of The Trib became a part-time lobbyist to get McCormick Place built. But what I don’t understand is this: All of them were smart.

Zuckerman is supposed to be smart. So what in the world was he thinking when Obama was running around pledging that he would be the very Lefty he has become? I mean it’s no surprise that he foisted a Rube Goldberg health insurance plan on us because he said he would.

Not blowing my own horn but I was the first radio interview Obama had after getting elected to the state Senate. I knew he was a socialist then. I knew his foil of agreeing with every radio caller (“you have a point; you too have a point”) was a dodge.

Wasn’t Zuckerman around when Obama promised all the stuff that since has come true? Zuckerman is a Zionist. Wasn’t he around when Obama kept dissing Israel during the campaign? Now the publisher of U. S. News & World Report and The New York Daily News is disenchanted because of Obama’s record, saying he’s barely treading water. What did he expect—that Obama would walk on water? I guess he bought that stuff about the seas rising and planets healing after the 2008 election.

I always thought Zuckerman was a smart guy. But then I should have known. Anybody who could stand going out with a young Gloria Steinem even for one date in the `60s has got to have something wrong with him.

The Dumbest Pundit.
For some reason Politico’s Roger Simon has the reputation of being astute. The other day in The Sun-Times he wrote that Michael Steele has a chance of being nominated for president by the GOP.
Michael Steele? The GOP national chairman who has said Afghanistan is an un-winnable war? Whose finance director took a group of contributors to a gay-lesbian bondage club? Who in the heart of the recession said that the GOP’s winter meeting will be in Hawaii while the rest of the nation’s Republicans froze? Who attacked Rush Limbaugh (who has 20 million conservative listeners daily) by saying he’s mean-spirited and just an entertainer?

The Dumbest Interior Secretary.

So there they all were yesterday in New Orleans at the very first meeting of the presidential commission on the BP-Deepwater Horizon incident. Testifying was Interior Secretary Ken Salazar who since he’s been sworn in has been regarded as at least two bricks shy of a load.
Salazar told the commission that he was awaiting its recommendation concerning the administration’s proposal to halt deepwater drilling.
Wait a minute, said the commission’s two co-chairmen with almost the same voice: We’re only 10 minutes old as a commission. We were told specifically by the White House that we’d be concerned with long-range policy matters, not decisions like this! In fact your very own deputy, David Hayes, told us that this question is not our concern. After all, the decision has already been made by the White House, remember?
Salazar said, weakly, oh?

But just to clear things up the two co-chairmen, William K. Reilly and former Florida Senator Bob Graham announced that they plan to go to the Interior Department “to try to clarify what is our responsibility and how we’re going to carry it out.”

Go to the Interior Department? But the Secretary of the Interior is on hand! He’s just said he’s expecting your recommendation and his assistant has said that you don’t have to be concerned about deep-water drilling policy. And now you’re going to the Interior Department to clear things up?

**

Tom Roeser is the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Chicago Daily Observer

Obama also said “he had no interest in dictating the result of the selection process and he would not do so, either directly or indirectly through staff or others,” the report said, adding that Whitaker relayed that information to Peters.

And here is what actually happened in negotiating the Obama/Blagojevich purchase/sale of the Illinois Senate seat, (via the Backyard Conservative):

The picture could have been taken before, but the questions about a meeting between Obama and Blago remain. Big Journalism. That question is connected to another big one–the direct contradiction by SEIU Illinois leader Tom Balanoff of the President’s contention that he had no contact or communication with the Blago people on the Senate seat. Apparently in Obama’s mind communicating through Balanoff was not communicating.

Will the media ask them? The subject came up at the White House press briefing. (Was that Ann Compton of ABC Radio, who hails from suburban Chicago New Trier) Time, the Politico and Morning Joe have noticed.

The Obama Greg Craig whitewash report has been questionablefrom the get-go, and looks very questionable now:

Transition aides said it wasn’t until after Nov. 12 that Emanuel, a North Side congressman with close ties to Blagojevich, and Obama talked about a preferred list of Senate candidates, and the president-elect authorized Emanuel to relay it to the Illinois governor’s office.

Balanoff says the president called him on the day before the election, Nov. 3rd to say Jarrett was his choice and convey it to Blago. And are we really to believe that the president wouldn’t have discussed this with Rahmbo at that time? And that Rahmbo would have called Blago without the president’s knowledge to recommend Jarrett between Nov. 6-9th? In addition to that, Jarrett withdrew on Nov. 9th. What prompted that? And what about this:

The report also said that between Nov. 6 and Nov. 8, Louanner Peters, a Blagojevich deputy governor, tried to contact close Obama friend and former state public health director Eric Whitaker about the Senate vacancy.In that conversation, the report said, Peters said the governor’s office wanted to know who spoke for the president-elect regarding the Senate vacancy. Whitaker contacted Obama, and the president-elect said no one was authorized to speak for him on that issue, the report said.

Balanoff’s evidence is key, and contradicts the president. He’s under oath.

Will the president eventually have to testify?

And it’s not just Balanoff. Blago’s chief of staff John Harris opens the door to raising questions about what Obama knew and when did he know it. Did he meet or phone Blago directly, and did hecover that up through the Craig report. Did he lie to the FBI?

That’s what got Nixon impeached, the cover-up, not the Watergate break-in itself. I’ve always wondered whether U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald pulled the plug on the investigation before the White House could get really embroiled in this–and did he give them a heads up that Blago was on tape–recall Jarrett’s abrupt withdrawal from consideration for the Senate seat. (See this.)

So far the judge in the Blago trial has brushed back attempts by the defense to bring Obama into the trial–but once Blago gets on the stand himself–all bets are off.

6. Obama had a secret phone call with Blagojevich
Redacted portion: President-elect Obama also spoke to Governor Blagojevich on December 1, 2008 in Philadelphia. On Harris Cell Phone Call # 139, John Harris and Governor’s legal counsel discuss a conversation Blagojevich had with President-elect Obama. The government claims a conspiracy existed from October 22, 2008 continuing through December 9, 2008.6 That conversation is relevant to the defense of the government’s theory of an ongoing conspiracy. Only Rod Blagojevich and President Obama can testify to the contents of that conversation. The defense is allowed to present evidence that corroborates the defendant’s testimony.

• Illinois Review:
  Illinois employment program cuts off new applicants as demand outstrips supply
• Newsalert:
  David Weigel Responds to Journolist Scandal in Breitbart’s Big Government
• The Capitol Fax Blog:
  Does Illinois need a wage cut?
• Newsalert:
  Man who challenged gun ban: ‘I am so happy, I am so happy’
• The Capitol Fax Blog:
  How things are done here
• Illinois Review:
  Simon targets women voters
• Chicago Reader: The Blog: Clout City:
  City Council to Consider New Gun Regulations Tuesday
• Illinois Review:
  Schock comments on Supreme Court Decision McDonald v. City of Chicago
• Illinois Review:
  State Treasurer Giannoulias opens satellite office in Collinsville

Kind of a consolation prize I guess, akin to the Goracle getting a Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar after losing to GW Bush. But I digress.

Stroger gives Turner, currently a state legislator, a SECOND JOB, which will boost his pension bigtime, at a time when Illinois is in JUNK financial straits, due to HUGE UNFUNDED PENSION LIABILITIES. Oh, and the job is to clean up a corrupt program.

All this while the Blago trial is going on.

Oh and lots of murders this weekend. Get this:

The feds emphatically deny they’ve abandones the city. They say those corruption trials make big headlines and give a false impression that everything else is being neglected.

But others believe that perception is reality, that too much money is being spent sending crooked politicians off to Club Fed; too little sending gang-bangers to super-max.

By most accounts, the trial of Rod Blagojevich, is costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. So did the prosecution of George Ryan — one former Governor in jail, another who may be on his way. While in the inner city, the street gang violence has reached epidemic proportions.

“Whatever Blagojevich did or didn’t do, it didn’t cause our children being murdered and drugs wreaking havoc in our communities, nd gangs wreaking havoc in our communities,” said Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina’s Roman Catholic Church.

Oh shut up Father Pfleger. I’ve never said that to a priest before but I’ll make an exception in your case. Talk to your best buddy Barack the community organizer.

Read more at Backyard Conservative

So we have a situation where then Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama recommends a friend to his fundraising and house fairy Tony Rezko, who’s acting as a “consultant” to Gov. Blago (the now impeached and indicted)

the now-convicted political fixer who helped Blagojevich find people to run state agencies

Tony Rezko, not officially on the payroll. Obama’s friend gets the job, which is charged with handing out funds to “non-profits”, one of which was newly started and run by a state Rep. (Of course, who else could do the job so well) Now lots of taxpayer money is apparently missing and the Feds have launched a probe.

Hence the subpoena. As observers have noted, Whitaker was last seen on the links with our President Barack Obama. PreviouslyBarack’s spouse Michelle also worked with Whitaker.

It is any wonder Illinois is broke? The whole state operates like one big patronage system and cycles our money back to elect these grasping and incompetent people.

There’s also this part of the story, outlined back in 2008:

Whitaker’s agency also got caught up in scandal. He oversaw the budget of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, which approves medical construction projects. Rezko and his associates controlled that board, which they used to solicit kickbacks and payoffs, according to testimony at Rezko’s trial.

Rezko was convicted. Whitaker, who said he wasn’t involved in the board’s day-to-day operations, was never accused of any wrongdoing.

“During my time as director of IDPH, I received four or five calls from Tony Rezko seeking my support for and attendance at the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital charity event,” Whitaker said. “After my employment interview, I never had a conversation with Mr. Rezko about the” health department or the planning board.

Our President Barack Obama had an interest in that board too. Oh, and Susan Sher, quoted as counsel in the article, works for Michelle now as her chief of staff. And as we know, Valerie Jarrett, slumlord, helps out The On.

None of this may be illegal, it may not even be unethical, but it sure stinks.

In other news, another prominent Chicago suicide.

…Just a reminder, the judge in the Blago trial has ruled the president doesn’t have to testify, but reserves the right to change his mind if further evidence is presented. And Rahmbo hasn’t been subpoenaed yet.

More from Backyard Conservative

Rep Jan Schakowsky advising Scott Lee Cohen on the mud slung in politics
Geez, of all people to advise Cohen to step aside because of the mud slung in politics. Schakowsky’s husband Bob Creamer did some hard-time down at Terre Haute for a check kiting scheme and the two of them still walk tall. If Schakowsky’s calling shots here, Cohen oughtta stay. Who’s Schakosky and Creamer to talk.

More from Bill Baar’s West Side

image Ma and Pa Kettle