What a mobocracy means for this nation

Abraham Lincoln served a single, two-year term in Congress, as a representative who opposed the war with Mexico. He was in the minority who realized that the addition of vast new amounts of land would lead to problems over what to do with slavery in that territory. By the time he returned to the nation’s

Tails and Legs and “Fraudulent” Presidential Elections

There’s no single subject I’ve written about more often on this blog, in the nine years I’ve been doing this, than Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps that’s because time and again, examples from Lincoln’s life and times bear a striking relevance to our own. The disputed (by some) presidential election of 2020 reminds me of a story

Dancin’ in the street

At my age, any new experience is something to savor. And when the term “dancing in the street” actually comes to life, it’s damn year impossible to resist. Such was my experience on Saturday, November 7, 2020. When the AP called Pennsylvania, and thus the presidential election, for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, a wave

What Trump’s really offering is thirty pieces of silver

As I’ve stated here on many occasions, I was raised Catholic and attended Catholic school through the end of high school. The teachings of the Church didn’t match my worldview, and it’s been decades since I attended a church service that wasn’t a wedding, a baptism, or a funeral. But some of the stories from

A limerick for these times

The USA has a President Trump Who everyone knows is a chump He gassed his own people And then walked to a steeple Just like a malevolent gump   Dedicated to everyone who was injured at Lafayette Park on June 1, 2020. We must be better than this.    

Here’s what I want for my birthday this year

One of the best things about joining Facebook is that once a year, on your birthday, you hear from dozens of people, from just about every stage in your life. And all of them want to celebrate the day you were born, in one way or another. Facebook makes it easy, too. Not only do

Trump will never be another Lincoln

The photo op at the White House yesterday was perhaps the most absurd and unsettling moment I can imagine. Peaceful citizens standing in front of the White House, doing nothing more than peacefully assembling as the First Amendment allows, were tear gassed and shot at with projectiles, so that the national disgrace that is Donald

The American giant, and a pathetic little man

The “town hall” meeting that Donald Trump filmed for Fox News (because who else would think this up?) yielded a hilariously bad image for a president who cares about little else besides that. He claimed the setting was Fox News’ idea, but a smarter and less vainglorious man than Trump would have nixed the idea.

Out with the old

2017 sucked, no two ways about it. The Cubs didn’t win the World Series, my older daughter went away to college (which is good for her, but I miss her a lot), and we’ve had a bully and a buffoon sitting in the White House. And the tax bill that just got passed by Congress

It’s all hands on deck

On the first day of this new year, I met up with a cousin I hadn’t seen in a very long time. He was in Chicago with his family, and we met up to see a few sights and–in true Chicago fashion–have some deep dish pizza. It was a great day, and I was happy

About that wall…

The first week of the new presidency has shocked and alarmed everyone that I know. It’s an onslaught on the nation that still is, and will always be, my home. Since I love America, I’m willing to fight for it. I won’t sit and watch as our water is imperiled, our openness to immigration is

Shut down Volkswagen

My parents had a light blue Volkswagen Beetle like the one pictured above when I was a kid, and I called it a “Vopiad” because I couldn’t say “Volkswagen.” It’s a happy memory for me. But those warm fuzzys have been abolished forever by the way Volkswagen has behaved since 2009. They installed software that

Everybody wants to rule the World

A song by Tears for Fears encapsulates the 80s for me like few others do. And the irony now, all these years laters, is that it was probably in the air when a high school teacher and coach named Hastert was doing some terrible things to trusting young kids. He went from Yorkville High to

I got a bridge for sale

So the Governor of New Jersey says mea culpa, but not really. After all, he didn’t know the first thing about it. Some underling ordered the Code Red against Fort Lee, to teach that mayor a lesson about what happens when you don’t do what the governor says. Case closed, end of story, right? Not

Such folderol as this

Unless I miss my guess, few people know about William Sidney Porter. He was a guy who loved to write, and he did it over and over again in the course of his lifetime. Wrote lots of interesting things, too. He coined a widely-used term, and wrote a story that just about everyone knows about.

My ordination day

Today I discovered a website dedicated to making the Dude into a religious figure. And  turning a buck, of course, but that’s to be expected. The website offered me, and anyone else who wants to take the time to enter their name and today’s date, the chance to become an ordained “Dudeist Priest.” Here’s the

Bringing 62 back

When I was a kid, Roger Maris’ 61 home runs in a single season seemed like an unbreakable record. Even getting to 50 was nearly unheard of, and nobody even came close to 61 until the mid 1990s. But then Ken Griffey Jr. came close a couple of times, and Mark McGwire seemed to threaten

Merry Hypocrite-mas

I read the news that a U.S. senator was arrested for drunk driving with great amusement this morning. On the one hand I thought there, but for the grace of god, go I. But on the other hand, it’s likely not the first time that this Mormon–and presumed tee-totaler–has done such a thing. He tells

Still worthless

I picked my daughter up at school today, and then we proceeded to drive home. Along the way, we stopped at a red light, and there was a restaurant off to my left. I glanced at the TV screen inside the restaurant, and was greeted by Brian Williams doing the NBC Nightly news. I couldn’t

It’s good to split

[Image from securemyvote.com] Some time ago, I indicated in this space that I was unhappy with Coca-Cola for their participation in a shadowy legislative group known as ALEC. This group was responsible for introducing laws in states around the country, with the assistance of lawmakers who went along with their program. One of these laws

The name was a clue

The story of Roberto Hernandez, who for more than a decade was known as “Fausto Carmona,” is more interesting to me this evening than the Ryan Braun story. Today’s ruling has declawed the testing procedure, and means that the juice will probably be coming back to baseball. Is somebody now going to hit 60 home

The feel-good story that led to a scam

The State of Illinois, in an attempt to raise a few extra dollars in revenue, allows vehicle owners to show their allegiance to a college or university. For a small fee (of which I’m sure each school gets a cut), motorists can go beyond just having a window sticker, or a license plate frame, and

Say it ain’t so

Unlike a lot of people who pay attention to these things, I was supportive of Ryan Braun’s recent MVP award. Matt Kemp of the Dodgers had a better statistical season than Braun–only a fool would deny that–but the award isn’t really about that. What the award is about is up to the individual voter, and

Old-time corruption in Chicago

The man pictured here is 86 years old. Many people don’t even get to live eighty-six years (only one of my grandparents did), and the ones that do should count themselves lucky. But–and I’m sorry if you or a loved one is 86 years old–there are just some things that 86 year-olds can’t do. And