Chicago Daily Observer

In America we believe in redemption and even self-reinvention. And we don’t usually require stagy Stalinesque recantations. But Dohrn and Ayers test the limits of that generosity. They remain spectacularly unrepentant, self-indulgent, unreflective—still bloated with a sense of entitlement, still smug with certainty. They are dead to irony. Dohrn declared her contempt for the judicial system but wanted into the bar association. The two of them encourage young people to “be outraged.”

Ayers and Dohrn never posed any real threat to U.S. national security. Their asinine chatter about killing people and their anti-American sloganeering were as ineffective as their bombs. But they did real harm. Their victims were liberals: the millions of people who were part of the mainstream antiwar movement and who later voted against Ronald Reagan. These people opposed the Vietnam War but didn’t hate their country.

“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Just last summer Father Pfleger said my words was trash to the community and I didn’t deserve to be on the McDonalds tour. It’s crazy how the tables turned in just under a year.

Father Pfleger’s own words and opinions of Mrs. Clinton came In the worst way and now he expects for the world and his church to give him a full acceptance. Do you think its right that he apologizes and gets away with his words? Did he really lose anything? I lost a multi million dollar contract, he embarrassed and disgraced my name in public by his billboards calling my music trash. He even went as far as getting Bill O’Reily to get on TV to diss me as well, and not once did he ever call me or even ask me my opinion of my ... Read More...

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna used the occasion of the conviction of Democratic fixer Tony Rezko to call for repair of the “broken political system in Illinois.”

Yeah, well, we’ll see about that.

McKenna’s commitment to reform will be tested this weekend when the state GOP convention meets in Decatur to debate, among other things, freeing the party from that “broken political system.” It will be a test of whether the party’s Ins will be able to keep the party’s Outs out.

The party’s Ins are doing whatever is necessary to keep that system broken because it ensures the continue flowing (to them) of money and power. The Outs have the ideas and the conscience necessary to revitalize the party and liberate the state from its Rezko-like corruption in which both the Democratic and Republican brass wallow together. The GOP’s only hope for redemption is to yank ... Read More...

Finally, it’s over – the school year that is. Today is the last day for elementary school in my western suburb.

I’m looking forward to a much more laid back summer schedule.

I’m also looking forward to the end of “appreciating the teachers” every time I turn around.

Christmas, teacher birthdays, the beginning of the school year, “Teacher Appreciation Week,” and of course, the end of the year when the “big” gifts are due. And it’s not just the teachers, but all the aids, assistants, and on it goes.

This year’s instructions for “teacher appreciation” week, along with money and cards and anything else one can think of, asked me to, among other things, “send in flowers from my garden” to the teachers, teachers aides, etc. What garden? I’m too busy to plant a garden. I’m busy working to pay my exorbitant property taxes, which even on my little house ... Read More...

On the way out of Park Ridge’s St. Paul of the Cross 8:30 a.m. Mass yesterday a reader exclaimed “Did you read Falsani today?” and he emitted a sound through his teeth-“sheeeeesh!” which told it all. Nowhere can you get more misleading illiteracy about Catholicism then from her. You’d think a degree from Wheaton would give her at least a working knowledge, but nope.

So we begin. The column is entitled “Why does church need Pfleger fill-in?” The body type is Falsani’s the bold-face is the answer from Catholic orthodoxy.

“When the Rev. Michael Pfleger takes his annual vacation to Hawaii, usually for two weeks in October, Kimberly Lymore, the parish’s pastoral associate since 2000, steps in to run St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church. Lymore, 50, has been a member of the Faith Community of St. Sabina’s (as members prefer to call it) for exactly half of her life, joining ... Read More...

Again, is John Kass saying the Daleys played a significant role in getting Barack Obama to where he is today? If not, what’s the big deal of Kass arguing that Democrat Daley supported Democrat Obama here and there? If yes, where is the evidence to support that?

For at least a year, the Chicago Tribune’s John Kass has been arguing that Senator Obama is “backed,” by the Daley machine. [See here]. Well, if Kass is arguing that Mayor Daley has supported Obama for President and that Daley supported Obama in his general election campaign for the U. S. Senate- he’s right on that, but so what? Was Mayor Daley instrumental in Obama beating Alan Keyes or in his winning the Democratic nomination for President? Of course not. So what is Kass’ point?

“I think this was meant to be,” Obama said privately the next day, recalls adviser David Axelrod. “I think we were flying too close to the sun, like Icarus. When you’re fighting for change, it’s not supposed to be easy.”

In Greek mythology, Icarus’ father gives him wax wings that empower him to fly, but warns of the danger in soaring too high.

But like Icarus, Obama wouldn’t heed his elder’s advice. Icarus would crash into the sea. Obama would learn from his own crash in New Hampshire and make history.