Chicago Daily Observer

St. Odilo in Berwyn wound up its triduum of old-style Latin masses Tuesday night, Nov. 20, with not quite the 400 people of the first one, two weeks and one week earlier. Maybe 300 this time, parishioners and others who came out on a dark and stormy night to celebrate a divine mystery.

This was the holy sacrifice, commemorated and re-enacted in pre-Vatican IIfashion. Fr. Anthony Brankin, the pastor, had a few words beforehand from the pulpit, as he did for the first two. Follow what we are doing up here if you wish, he said, noting the booklets that were available for all. Or don’t, as it suits you. Just being there and drinking in the atmosphere would do it also.

Excellent advice. I for one find the same-old, same -old words of the mass to be, ah, highly repetitive, to cite the obvious. This is theater, after all. ... Read More...

I was catching up on local news about the CTA last night, and drifted in to differing outlooks for the French Rail Strike.

The Chicago Tribune thinks the strike is still going on

Neither The Wall Street Journal nor the Sun-Times published any news about the strike since the 23rd, the day before the strike ended.

The Financial Times thinks "Sarkozy victorious as strike ends"

To (les) echo Dennis Byrne, if only our Illinois leaders could show the leadership of the French, we may be able to resolve the CTA "Crisis". Read More...

Iraqi parliament has shown more courage in solving its problems than Illinois legislators

For all of the Iraqi parliament’s flaws, I would trade it straight up for the crowd that we’ve got in Springfield. Ridiculous, you say? Then, consider what both have accomplished. First, the Illinois state government: (This space left intentionally blank.)

That’s right, nothing. Maybe the Iraq parliament hasn’t done much more but think about its challenges compared with Illinois’ crew. Iraq has to repair centuries of tyranny and brutalization. The country is split in three, marked by a centuries-long and sometimes bloody religious feud. With virtually no experience with self-government, the Iraqis are expected to come up instantly with a government and culture that respects democratic values.

Read More...