Chicago Daily Observer

Is Illinois 49th on Education Spending?…Does it Have One of the Lowest State Tax Burdens?...Does it Really Have Too Few State Employees? Stay for This Answer.

Is Illinois really 49th in education spending? Do we have one of the lowest state tax burdens in the U.S.? Do you really believe that Illinois has too few state employees?

That’s just a small taste of what Center for Tax and Budget Priorities President Ralph Martire (and respectfully stated my future Chicago Daily Observer columnist colleague) used on WLS-AM’s “Political Shoot-Out” last Sunday with host Tom Roeser. He tirelessly points to these data points in testimony, columns and in interviews to justify greater government taxing, spending and intervention into our lives.

But while they reflect real numbers, they are irrelevant at best and misleading at worse.

Let me explain why.

According to a 2005 paper by Ben DeGrow of the Colorado based ... Read More...

Bob McClory *and all ye Call to Actionists past, present and future, be advised! Latin is coming! Latin is coming!
Yes, dear sisters and brothers, right here in Chicago River City, or just outside it, in beautiful Berwyn, where the church strangely named Odilo is taking the Holy Father in Rome up on his personal edict permitting old-style Latin mass wherever people want it.
Saint Odilo, that is, at 2244 East Avenue, a block north of Cermak, 6600 West as Chicago crows fly, on three consecutive Tuesdays, November 6, 13, and 20, at 7 p.m., “for the souls in Purgatory in the extraordinary form (Latin traditional).”
Nothing precipitous here. It will be four months since Pope Benedict announced that Tridentine (16th-century Council of Trent) masses are A-OK on priest and parish say-so, period.
Since 1988 it’s been OK on local bishop say-so, and ... Read More...