Newt more than a media-basher

Read this about Newt as more than what’s advertised by Romney-ites:

Tonight’s debate in Florida may be, as advertised, crucial to the outcome of the race there. But whether Speaker Gingrich knocks this one out of the park or he doesn’t, one fact stands clear. He’s survived this long against extraordinary odds and attained the challenger status he now holds not because of his nifty way of attacking the media, poor dears.

He’s here because he speaks to people in ways that assume their interest in ideas of consequence, and they know it — they can hear. And because he speaks [mostly, I'd say] in ways that reflect a respect for their intelligence, and has much to say to them. They know that, too.

This way of relating to voters is no gimmick. It’s a condition of mind and one of bottomless value on a campaign trail. [italics added]

Not that I don’t approve of media-bashing, which is needful for their reform.  Tough love, we might say.

Catholics under siege

Catholics and other Americans united in defense of religious liberty should hear what NY Archbishop Dolan has to say about the government forcing church institutions to provide insurance to cover birth control and abortion-inducing drugs.

Here is Abp. Dolan on the subject:

“From a human point of view, we may be tempted to surrender, when our government places conception, pregnancy and birth under the ‘center for disease control,’ when chemically blocking conception or aborting the baby in the womb is considered a ‘right’ to be subsidized by others who abhor it,” said Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) at the vigil’s closing Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on January 23.

And he is in today’s Wall Street Journal, subscription only.

AmSpect assumes

American Spectator fellow on the presidential speech:

Aside from the fact that the Democrats didn’t seem to enjoy being there any more than the Republicans, the address begged a number of different questions.

He lost me right there.  Prompted or suggested questions.

I’m cranky as it is when the Obfuscator-in-Chief flaps his lips, then comes the conservative commentator to throw me off my feed even more completely.

Brian Williams bit hand that feeds him

An entertainer like Brian Williams should know better than ban applause.

He’d be nothin’ but a houn’ dog without it, baying at the moonglow.

Sun-Times make non-endorse decision in nick of time

Sun-Times endorsements no more:

With this in mind, the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board will approach election coverage in a new way. We will provide clear and accurate information about who the candidates are and where they stand on the issues most important to our city, our state and our country. We will post candidate questionnaires online. We will interview candidates in person and post the videos online. We will present side-by-side comparisons of the candidates’ views on the key issues. We will post assessments made by respected civic and professional groups, such as the Chicago Bar Association’s guide to judicial candidates.

 What we will not do is endorse candidates. We have come to doubt the value of candidate endorsements by this newspaper or any newspaper, especially in a day when a multitude of information sources allow even a casual voter to be better informed than ever before.

True dat (as Pat Hickey would say).  Chi Daily News man at The Hall, Jay McMullen, used to look at the anti-Daley I editorials and scoff.  News stories, many of which he wrote, were what mattered, he said.

On the other hand, not having to endorse Obama in the fall has the advantage of not having to explain why.

Obama vs. Israel, so what?

Ed Koch can’t help lovin’ that guy.

Working stiffs to enviros: Get lost

It’s that pipeline:

The Laborers International Union of North America announced today that it is quitting the BlueGreen Alliance, a major coalition group. LIUNA head Terry O’Sullivan did not mince words in explaining why they were leaving in a statement released today.

“AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka recently said there was a divide in the labor movement over this project. That is an understatement. That divide is as deep and wide as the Grand Canyon. We’re repulsed by some of our supposed brothers and sisters lining up with job killers like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council to destroy the lives of working men and women.”

LIUNA was not the only union upset over the White House’s action. On Wednesday, Edwin Hill, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, asked critics of the pipeline: “What are your plans to replace the 20,000 jobs that are now on hold?” The Teamsters, among other unions, had also supported the project.

BlueGreen [sic] Alliance should have the blues over that, not to mention their maximum leader, O.

On not paying attention at mass

It’s a question of filtering.  Readers murder the language, chanter squeaks and over-dramatizes, choir delivers warmed-over pop stuff, people behind you chat, presider (celebrant, mass-sayer, whatever) gives into quirks, offering his own rendition of the words of the mass. 

Somehow have your own private mass, ignoring the minister when necessary, trusting in ex opere operato, that is, the work worked, what makes the mass the mass, rather than opera operantis (the work of the one working), that is, what the priest brings personally to the opus, that is, the mass itself.

Clear as mud?  OK, ignore the nonessentials that bug you, concentrate on what matters.  Amen, brother and sister.

Newt spoke

NY Sun applauds Newt’s speech, noting at the end:

The synthesis of ideas Mr. Gingrich unfurled in the Palmetto State suggests we are in for one of the great nominating contests of our time.

Gentlemen, keep your engines running.

Playoffs embarrass Bears coach – chicagotribune.com

You were wondering about Chi Bears and whom to fire?

Chi Trib’s Rosenbloom fingers Coach Smith, the great stone face of coaching, but also by implication Virginia McCaskey.

Which goes with the pregnant thought that she and the rest of the McCaskeys are the ones to fire.