Jesus' new way of taking over (the beginning of his kingdom on Earth):
It wasn't a matter... of Christians simply taking over and giving orders in a kind of theocracy where the church could simply tell everyone what to do. That has sometimes been tried, of course, and it's always led to disaster. But neither is it a matter of the church backing off letting the world go on its sweet way, and worshiping Jesus in a private sphere.
Somehow, there is a third option... We can glimpse it in the book of Acts: the method of the kingdom will match the message of the kingdom. The kingdom will come as the church, energized by the Spirit, goes out into the world vulnerable, suffering, praising, praying, misunderstood, misjudged, vindicated, celebrating: always -- as Paul said it in one of his letters -- bearing in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed.
I'm in a melancholy mood today. Sad, depressed. And it's not because of the rain. The rain just seems to be doing what I told it to do. Come out, cover me up in a blanket of darkness and wetness. Make the trees, the blooming leaves, the buildings and their bricks moist. All that literate stuff...
But, no, I'm in a funk today. A funk so deep it could be etched into a George Clinton record - if he wanted me to sap the party away.
And I try to do the things that I was created for when this mood hits. Write, think, read, create, teach others to listen to and act as participants in the world they are around and are material in.
But then a voice counters that. Tells me that I'm not good enough, that my writing is frivolous at best, that it doesn't contribute anything to society. That I cannot be a teacher again, that I need to let that dream die. That I am worthless.
It is at this moment that I would like to formally say this to that voice: Shut the F**k Up!
Perhaps not the most graceful words ever committed to proving oneself ready to write for a living. But truer words were never spoken.
Sitting on my desktop tower this moment - and for the last month - is a copy of Shotgun Stories, ranked as one of Jeffrey Overstreet's favorite movies of 08. I wanted to see if it'd be one of mine too. After all, he has helped to shape how I view movies over the last few years (in particular, looking for moments of grace) and introduced me to personal favorites like Paul Thomas Anderson (via Magnolia), Krystof Kieslowski (who's Bleu I finally watched for the first time late last year and have added to my faves of all-time), and Stevie, by locals Steve James and Peter Gilbert (whose Hoop Dreams is within my top-five all time).
But yet I'm not watching Shotgun Stories. I tried a couple weeks ago. Had me a brewski, a man's dinner, a night alone before my birthday. Neighbors downstairs were partying with their frat-friends in anticipation of St. Paddy's Day (because you know how those Irish like to get down...). And I made it a couple minutes in.
But I just wasn't in the mood. Still not in the mood. Not that I don't trust that it will be an experience to remember. But then I realized something.
I. Like. TV.
I'm watching a lot of tele these days, which is remarkable for a guy who doesn't even own a tube. And all this tv viewing can eat at chunks of whatever other time that I might have for quality film viewing. And it's high-quality stuff (well, maybe with one cheesy exception). I'm not dumbing down (for the most part); I do believe that we've only got so many hours of time for consumptive viewing and that we shouldn't waste it on trivial garbage. But TV is not what it was a generation ago. One needn't resign to PBS to purify oneself anymore. Even FOX has some quality (albeit stuck in Friday night limbo now. Remember when Sunday nights were the golden nights at Fox?).
But there's something to be said about the serial and the linear progressions that happen with a multi-year series like "The Office" can produce. Have you seen it recently? The last three shows were golden and belong in the pantheon along with much of seasons 1&2. You witness cyclical changes (Michael has a boss. The boss is a jerk/tight-wad. The boss starts to upset the weird status quo in the office. The boss starts to show fissures. Status quo is resolved) that really demonstrate how complex social interactions can be and how deep human psyches are. In a movie (as in a novel), you would see a character change through crisis, in serials, you see the character flesh-out in numerous crises - perhaps grow, perhaps not.
Another example would be Joss Whedon's series The Dollhouse. Not heard of it? Not seen it? That's a crying shame. Because the mid-season replacement is now on its seventh episode, and Hulu only carries five at a time. Who knows how many more will come out of this tenuous and stressed-filled relationship between the creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly" and the network responsible for "COPS" and "When Animals Go Berserk!" marathons. For the time-being, every episode, every moment of Dollhouse is riveting smorgasbord for the mouth. It's an enigma wrapped in bacon-strips and dipped in fine, dark chocolate. It is to be slowly savored over a long period of time.
I can only hope that it lasts longer than "Firefly" did. Or, for that matter, than "Chuck" will (yes, that is my guilty pleasure).
Renowned pastor, author and Bible translator Eugene Peterson meditating on the so-called "middle voice" - which lays somewhere between the active and the passive voice in ancient Greek grammar.
My grammar book said, "The middle voice is that use of the verb which describes the subjects as participating in the results of the action." I read that now, and it reads like a description of Christian prayer -- "the subject as participating in the results of the action." I do not control the action; that is a pagan concept of prayer putting the gods to work in my incantations or rituals. I am not controlled by the action; that is a Hindu concept of prayer in which I slump passively into the impersonal and fated will of gods and goddesses. I enter into the action begun by another, my creating and saving Lord, and find myself participating in the results of the actions. I neither do it, nor have it done to me; I will to participate in what is willed.
We saw it the day before the Oscars. Didn't have high hopes, but wife was really excited. I can say now that I'm a happy convert and was gladly rooting for it during the telecast.
First, the negatives: it's melodramatic (aren't most Oscar contenders?); it contains too many implausible scenarios;; it's fate-driven and, tied with that, it's predictable.
I don't always hate fatalism, but the cheap notion that destiny plays as a cheap plot device makes me sick to my cheap stomach. It's why I can't stand most romantic movies, with Eternal Sunshine being a particular (and odd) exception. And this particular film... Well, let's just say, "It is written."
But yet, there are a lot of elements in Slumdog, and though some may not work so well on their own (say, the derivative gangster movie posturing of older brother in latter scenes), the piece as a whole presents a view of lower-class India that I think the popcorn-eating, extravagance-loving, song-dance-and-swirling-color viewers out there (myself included) need to confront. The whole is worth more than the sum of the parts - it's like a Frankenstein monster of a meal made out of really crazy disparate parts that you should hate (or at least wave burning sticks at madly), yet it all works together to create something extraordinary, fresh, and tasty.
Initially, I did not enjoy this movie. Still question if I do, but I found it to be powerful and disturbing. Disturbing in a sense that is ferociously honest.
What I found so odd about this film is how misanthropic it is - I was sure I had picked up a Coen brothers flick by accident. What made it odder still is that unlike PT Anderson's last two films (both of which rate as some of my favorite of all time), There Will Be Blood had no shot of redeeming grace. No plague of frogs to deliver the entrapped slaves of LA from their self-hatred and suicide (as in Magnolia), no inexplicable piano dropping from heaven or even less-explicable unmerited love that saves a dangerously implosive and lonely man by allowing him to act out of love and overcome regret (as in Punch-Drunk Love). Just a man who intensely and insanely drives out any would-be competition.
This is a story about the all-taking consumption of greed, and this time, there is no salvation from the emptiness of self-centeredness. It is the story of a wretched prospector who begins his adventures seemingly supernaturally aged, who hopes to find hope in finding kindred spirits but ultimately fails in this regard, who lives oil. Oil, in fact, is his lifeblood and is the metaphor for his life. His heart pumps oil. You can sense the literary functions in the movie throughout. If Jed Clampett found the crude accidentally by shooting at some food, Daniel Plainfield finds it because it is him; the land that he takes the oil from bubbles to the top with the black, volatile, cruel, nasty, mangy majesty, much as it does from his skin.
In other words, what I've come to appreciate about the film is that Daniel Plainfield represents not all of humanity, nor, I hope, the director's view of humanity. But rather, a view of humanity held by one of its most important oil men. America, the man with the long straw and bowling balls aimed for his enemies is Dick Cheney.
My name is Dick Plainfield and this is my associate, G. W. Plainfield.
I only partially kid here.
Also notable is the breathtaking cinematic scope and the haunting and searing soundtrack, not to mention the singular vision that makes this three hour movie intensely watchable.
Well, generally, [Gingrich] is very quick to see the historic election of President Obama and the potential for his support to last, and what that means for Congress, and how we compare the success of Barack Obama to, frankly, the difficulties that Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid are having with the American public right now. You know, Congressional Democrats are nowhere near where this president is right now in terms of public opinion.
(On a personal note, I think that's an interesting wedge issue. I may not agree with Newt's ideas, but I think that the Republican party needs to stand up and intelligently challenge the Democrats in power. Otherwise, you face the prospect of a one (weak-arse) party system, as if the Democrats weren't inept enough as it were, they would become inept and fascist.)
Over the last three decades, the pretax incomes of the wealthiest households have risen far more than they have for other households, while the tax rates for top earners have fallen more than they have for others, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
As a result, the average post-tax income of the top 1 percent of households has jumped by roughly $1 million since 1979, adjusted for inflation, to $1.4 million. Pay for most families has risen only slightly faster than inflation.
Before becoming Mr. Obama’s top economic adviser, Lawrence H. Summers liked to tell a hypothetical story to distill the trend. The increase in inequality, Mr. Summers would say, meant that each family in the bottom 80 percent of the income distribution was effectively sending a $10,000 check, every year, to the top 1 percent of earners.
[Editor's notes: 1) I'm going to try to finish up "Oscar Week" this week or next week. Most likely early next week. Depends on whether or not I can finish up any more really recent really good films (at current rates, no such luck); 2) I'm taking a semi-bloggatical, but mostly from my work at ChicagoDads. Still, every other day (at least through this week), I'll have something posted there. So, please, check it out.] This book addresses two questions that have often been dealt with entirely separately but that, I passionately believe, belong tightly together. First, what is the ultimate Christian hope? Second, what hope is there for change, rescue, transformation, new possibilities within the world in the present? And the main answer can be put like this. As long as we see Christian hope in terms of "going to heaven," of a salvation that is essentially awayfrom this world, the two questions are bound to appear as unrelated. Indeed, some insist angrily that to ask the second one at all is to ignore the first one, which is the really important one. This in turn makes others get angry when people talk of resurrection, as if this might draw attention away from the really important and pressing matters of contemporary social concern. But if the Christian hope is for God's new creation, for "new heavens and new earth," and if that hope has already come to life in Jesus of Nazareth, then there is every reason to join the two questions together. And if that is so, we find that answering the one is also answering the other. I find that to many -- not least, many Christians -- all this comes as a surprise: both that the Christian hope is surprisingly different from what they had assumed and that this same hope offers a coherent and energizing basis for work in today's world.
Oscar week (where I try to recount my favorite movies from 2008 as I'm catching up to them) starts today. My review of my favoritest movie of the year (and favorite for a long time) is posted at friend, pastor (and blogger) David's Signs of Life blog.
I really love that film in a way that I think my review doesn't quite express. But the review was festering in my head and I didn't write down and wrestle with the passages until the last few minutes. So what's left is a sprawling bit of a mess that I don't have the talent to put together in the last few minutes. I may just re-edit the piece and repost it here at the end of the week. But don't let that stop you from going to SoL and making a comment.
As far as what qualifies as an Oscar Week pic at LeftCheek: 1) I'd have to really like it. (Sorry, Tropic Thunder) 2) I'd have to have had an interest in seeing it, in order to see it (sorry, Benjamin Button) 3) It should have either been released in 2008 or widely released in 2008 (therefore, even though There Will Be Blood was released in '07 and in fact nominated for Best Pic at the last Oscars, most people didn't get a chance to view it until '08. Then again, most people chose not to. Sometimes, it sucks to be most people).
Other Daily Show pieces on Gitmo/Guantanamo Baywatch here.
Interesting article at NYTimes about how the financial district tends to lead the way in the cyclical nature of executive pay. This actually seems like good news to my ears, a kind of leveling off. No mention, however, was made to how this Great Pay Deduction may affect pampered sports stars. But all signs point to: let 'em loose and suffer like the rest of us!
Fellow Facebook users, protect yourselves! There's actually a lot of stuff on here that I wasn't aware of, and before I get my professional on again, I'll have to put 'em to good practice. (via A. T. at Facebook)
In case you missed it, for the last week plus, my profile picture was of former governors of Illinois who ran afoul of the law either before or after their tenure. There are four, count them FOUR, within the last half century or so. Four of the last eight. Beautiful. That's a 50% chance. Not good odds.
Rod Blagojevich: 2003-2009 Pay to Play Scandal (Did we mention that he looks like a Lego-Man? More info on him in ChicagoDads page. And yet some more to come.)
George Homer Ryan: 1999-2003 Licenses for Bribes Scandal (twenty-three charges, including racketeering, extortion, obstructing justice, accepting bribes) (Fun fact: Wikipedia lists next Republican trying to replace him [and losing to Blagojevich] as "Jim Ryan [his son]". This is wrong. And bad, even by Wikipedia standards. The two are not related; that much was reported by the media numerous times during the election.)
Daniel Walker: 1973-1977 Savings & Loan Fraud in the 1980's Quote from his autobiography, "I knew this was against regulations. But like most businessmen, I saw a huge difference between regulations and law."
Otto Kerner, Jr.: 1961-1968 Accepting Bribes (Interesting note from Wikipedia - and this may or may not be apocryphal, Kerner was turned in because the Arlington Park race track manager deducted his bribes from her tax forms because she was under impression that bribes were an ordinary business expense in Illinois. To which I reply, "Well, to an extent.")
This is to make up for sucking at blogging here the last few months (although you can still find me - at least through the next month - blogging at ChicagoDads. I think I did some pretty decent posts there this last week, if I do say so myself.)
Maureen Dowd's righteous indignation at these idiots who take our money and reward themselves for doing it.
Berkeley, oh, Berkeley. Thanks for reminding me of where hippies went wrong [and why I want to kick them]. (@spydrz via Twitter) Young Adult Literature writing kit. If it sounds familiar, that's because it's been done, time, and time, and time, and time again.
Another reason to not name your boy Sue or Roddrick: Jail time. (ibid)
Wonderful pics of Inauguration Day via the Boston Globe. Numbers 3 & 5 give a wow visual to the crowds. But I was more awed/floored/taken by the pics 19 and 23. Which means, yes, I did cry. Again.
Among all the hubbub, it was good to see friends who supportedand voted for Obama keep their cool about them and just throw a few words of moderation out there. In addition, I did a post on the other site about this social-psychological status called elevation, which I think a lot of people erroneously view as either idol-worship or momentum for change. It is neither, but it can still be a watershed moment (pun not intended).
My wife's friend is studying in Jerusalem now, expecting to leave shortly (long story). She told us about how the Palestinians were basically trapped - that all of the jobs and money was outside of their encamped neighborhoods but that they could not leave those areas. Now, I'm no fan of terrorism, but I think I can see where the seeds of extremism and violence are sown, and this scenario can't be good for anyone. As Jenn said via Facebook, I don't think they'd put this story ("Inside the World's Largest Prison") in a US paper, which is too bad, because a lot of people are missing something in their anti-terrorism (and anti-Muslim) rhetoric. Pray for the peace of the Middle East.
Ever since this whole series of interconnected tubes got together to call themselves the interwebs, I was a bit skeptical that the center may not hold. And now, here's my proof:
I bought maybe three or four records this year. Two of them from this year. I did get a few freebies and all, but most were ep's or downloads that I only listened to a few times before I lost the copies (which is easy to do in a year when you lose two computers and gain another two...). And although I enjoyed GirlTalk, I'm not drawn into it.
1) Al Green Lay It Down The Good Rev's return to Stax-sounding soul could be seen as a gimmick, like when modern divas "collaborated" with old dead men or when old classics made "duets" records with present day B-grade stars. But, for the time being, it just feels so right, it's got to be good:
(FWIW, these vids suck - sorry. In this case, the recent concert vids featuring Al suck even more, so I decided not to give my readers a case of motion-sickness and opt for max audio q)
2) She & Him Volume One After awhile, I think I grew weary of the neo-hipster country ("More slide guitar!" can never replace "More cowbell!"), but there are some wonderful songs on this disc that made me smile. I'm a definite sucker for that wall-of-sound pure pop that made a brief appearance in Arcade Fire's Funeral but then overcame some bighaired girl's record. Here, there is just the right amount and plenty of variety (at least the first several songs, including the Roy Orbison-esque "I Was Made for You"):
Honorable mentions: I don't have these records... ladies. Or, yet. But I will soon; and when I do, it's over... Ladies.
Sam Phillips Don't Do Anything I love her leathery voice. And her penchant for writing poetic yet acidic verse on top of sparse but Beatles-esque pop melodies is unmatched. So, why haven't I bought anything new from her since that Martinis and Bikinis cassette in the mid-90's? Because this album wasn't released until this year, that's why. And here, her skills seem to be in top form.
TV on the Radio Dear Science I loved the last album so much that I named it my favorite record of the year (actually, it was top 6. But looking back, it may be top 2 or so). And that's when I was able to buy music and a lot of wonderful stuff came out. This one seems to add hip-hop as well as hip-hop optimism. It's like their angry, muted Stax horns are being shared by PM Dawn. And I ain't complainin':
Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago This is the type of quiet, introspective music that I could probably only listen to after some intense TVotR, but nevertheless, I'm getting old and this is just sounding more and more palatable to my ears. But then again, I can stand some falsettos occasionally. It's been rated high enough by enough trusted ears where I'm giving it some more listens and may take the plunge soon enough.
I'm a loser. I admit it. Most of these states were fly-bys (often at speeds exceeding what I'd feel comfy driving at now). But still, these are the - admittedly Midwestern-centric - states that I've visited or at least drove through (if they're on the East Coast, I most likely just drove through them with the exceptions of Georgia and, overnight once a piece, Virginia and New York).
Caveat lector: I'm not sure how Louisiana ended up on this map. I don't think I was any part of any hurricane rescue...
and, yes, it's very similar to the wonderful First and Second Semester Spanish Spanish Love Songs. Which is why it's so wonderful.
2) Thanks to astute (Micah's World) reader Reg, I now know that my high school students did not have the most interesting names in the world - but they just might if backers of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez get their way. There was a bill being sent through the National Assembly earlier this month, according to the Times, that would make a list of registered children's names and pare that list down to one hundred. So, no more Tutankamen del Sol, Kleiderman Jesús, Yureimi Klaymar, Yusneidi Alicia, Yusmary Shuain, Kleiderson Klarth and Yusmery Sailing.
So long, Hengelberth, Maolenin, Kerbert Krishnamerk, Githanjaly, Yornaichel, Nixon and Yurbiladyberth.
Was that kid's name Mao Lenin? And another was named Nixon? What's next, a Ronald Reagan, maybe a few Hitlers? ohh, nevermind...
3) OK, this is transcendent wonderment. The octogenarian rock & roll choir Young@Heart performing "Purple Haze." The performers seem to take these songs to be both tongue-in-cheek and fun, but yet it's all so touching and real. Really real. Every. Last. Word. Of it.
fwiw, in honor of the couple who came by for dinner last night, I wanted to play one of the two musical geniuses that came out of Seattle. And out of those two, Hendrix beats Cobain in my book most nights. But I just saw this clip the other day and thought it to be a wonderful confluence of art and life. So, there you go.
Note the dispassionate, detached look, the post-ironic koala shirt and vintage sweater, the black skinny-pants and the sparkly shoes. I think we have a toddler hipster on our hands.
My question: if one is posing as a member of a group that is made up of self-aware poseurs, doesn't that automatically make one an authentic member of that group?
In other words, does Joss get a pass to subscribe to Paper and argue about hipster bands that are so new they don't even exist yet? PBR is out of the question, as is American Apparel, but PB&J and the Cool Kids are okay, right?
Voters in tiny Sodaville, Oregon, population 290, elected Thomas Brady Harrington, 33, mayor in November, despite a criminal rap sheet that included robbery, eluding a police officer, illegal firearms possession, reckless endangerment, and assorted other charges. One resident trying t explain the outcome suggested that voters might have confused Harrington with his father , local businessman Thomas L. Harrington.
By the way, according to the Lebanon-Express, he took on the incumbent mayor and whooped her behind! A whopping 79-66 votes. Yes, it does make Wasilla look still silly, but still... read on. Further news from the Express details that Harrington became interested in local politics when he found out that a previous city recorder embezzled $30,000.*
In Massachusetts in November, a Suffolk County judge turned down a compensation claim by Robert Aldrich, described by prosecutors as a career criminal, for income lost during "wrongful" incarceration after he'd been illegally arrested for burglary. The judge said she'd been able to find any "income" Aldrich migh have earned during his six months in jail aside from home-improvement work he admittedly kept "off the books" to avoid paying taxes, but a prosecution spokesman summed it up more bluntly: "The defendant is a career B & E (breaking and entering) man seeking compensation for burglaries he couldn't commit while locked up."
According to The Boston Globe, Aldrich the judge may have allowed Mr. Aldrich to make some collection on his "lost" under-the-table dealings, if she had believed that he was making as much as he was claiming. The problem may have been, however, that Aldrich was claiming $4000 per month for a total of sixty-seven thousand dollars. Furthermore, although previous judges had ruled his arrest as 'wrong', she looked over the evidence in the cases provided and had no doubt that he had committed the burglaries. Natch.
via Chuck Shepherd in "News of the Weird" from Chicago Reader, December 11, 2008 edition, p. 79. (btw, notice how in previous editions of my NotW I would list the page around 100? 88 pages total, this time. Papers are shrinking...)
*The faux-journalist in me says that I should report that he didn't mean it that way, that he seems troubled by the ineptitude of the council and how it has not been looking for solutions for its monies- or water-shortages. But if you want that, that's why we give you the source...
he also, according to the suit & trib, sought to have trib editors fired in exchange for state backing of trib sellings - incl. wrigley field.
i mean, of all the things to soil wrigley w/ (as if frats, gawkers, bad baseball, broken promises, and boatloads of cheap, warm beer weren't enough), this just takes the poop-cake!
DN: Will he be able to appoint a Senator from his jail cell? And will the Senate seat said appointee? It'll be interesting to see what goes down...
i think that that power is just so wrong in the first place. nobody trusted g-rod w/ that appointment in the first place. but i don't think anybody actually thought... jeepers.
as my wife said, here's to hoping mayor daley follows his accomplice du' nincompoopse.
DN: That's a good one!
Maybe there's something in the water supply in Springfield...
Jason Dye: here's the kicker: neither daley, obama nor blags are in the least bit 'friends', but they all live in separate neighborhoods in chicago. i think the last gov (ryan) lived in springy.
here's another thing, daley (like his father) wields a LOT of power, but he's got his machine wielded too tightly to get taken down (at least from where i sit. definitely not by anyone in chicago). he's been tied to one fed-exposed scheme conspiracy after another, but he makes reagan look like velcro. he gets away scot-free every time.
obama's shrewd enough to distance himself (for the most part) from any of these feuds / power-plays. mccain tried to make those associations stick but they couldn't.
g-rod, otoh, was just shrewd enough to get himself elected (based on, of course, good ol' illinois nepotism - that he turned his back on!), but built too many enemies to stay politically viable for long w/o sinking. which is prob why he tried so hard to leverage that appointment...
--------
KS's wondering if Rod will get his hair cut....
Jason Dye: what a set-up, k---. ok, here goes:
Jason Dye: only if they could exterminate the bees out first.
Jason Dye: next preferred style for blagosjovic: corn-rows.
after airing the infamous clip of blags from monday where he says, "I have nothing to hide," john stewart says, "except what is on my forehead. my guess is, it says, 'bribe me.'"
i wish. i thought of those during my semi-weekly shower.
but, if you so desire, i'll supply more after i cool down from this craaazy week.
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CDwould like to know what's going on with our Illinios governors, are they not paying you enough ?
JFD:
I didn't know we had more than one governor. Unless you referring to the multiple personalities of G-Rod.
CD:
no I was referring to our previous governor that was caught selling cdl's
JFD:
ah yes . . .
Jason Dye: yeah, seriously, though. i wonder how blaggy kept on complaining that he needed more money and how he came to be in such financial constraints that he would ALLOW HIMSELF TO BE TAPED TRYING TO EXTORT BRIBES...
i mean, besides the fact that he's a big dummy.
fwiw, ryan got the bribes while he was secretary of state. tried to cover it up while gov.
CD:
regardless of that fact, I hate that b'cuz you rose to those ranks does not give you the right to be corrupt while us ppl on bottom are starving
CD:
I hope O'bama does something bout corruptness in our gov't I really hold that mainly responsible for the economy
yep, and he rose through the ranks by marrying a powerful state rep's daughter. and then he back-stabbed that whole family as soon as he got in office!
CD:
well thats our govt for you
------------------
AS can't believe the mockery of goverment in IL.
Jason Dye: hey, so do you think our next guv will bring up our education status so that we're 48th out of 50? or just get arrested?
DW: I think we should declare his residence in Chicago as the new Governors mansion, and when he is booted out of office - declare eminent domain, and take it :D
Oh, and he is a tool who steals our money ---------
WVK is proud Illinois is living up to its reputation.
CH:
lol!
RU:
Tell me about it
AT:
Yay for Pat Fitzgerald, for exposing all this. The message--that outrageous corruption is not accepted as status quo--actually fills me with hope.
i would not wanna get on his bad side. i wouldn't want him running for office, becoming mayor or gov or even AG. but, for what he's set up to do, he's the best.
---------------
And finally, the first person to comment on this story in my facebookiverse, my wife:
JFD hopes Daley follows G-Rod to his happy place.
PA: are there puppies and kittens and rainbows and sunshine in the happy place?
MP: Preach it.
JAS: Amen
Jason Dye: jfd, let's hope so, babes. although i fear daley's too shrewd.
pa, i hope not. but then again, blago does strike me a as a bit odd...
PA:
i wonder how many more secrets are hiding in his hair...
MR:
i'm very curious what daley and roderick are up to, since i'm not in chicago and haven't seen chicago news for a while.
MP:
MR: What are they up to? They are up to no good. As usual.
MR:
well, yeah ... that's a given. and i love how they've retained their offices (probably through the cemetery vote).
i don't know how/why rod got his 2nd term. but richie's got his machine pulling all the right strings. it'd be a beautiful symphony if they were playing the right tune.
I now understand why people don't regularly blog their facebook status updates. Re-formatting was a not-nice piece-o'-work --- so I didn't even finish.
but, if you so desire, i'll supply more after i cool down from this craaazy week.
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CD would like to know what's going on with our Illinios governors, are they not paying you enough ?
Unless you referring to the multiple personalities of G-Rod.
CD:
JFD:
yeah, seriously, though. i wonder how blaggy kept on complaining that he needed more money and how he came to be in such financial constraints that he would ALLOW HIMSELF TO BE TAPED TRYING TO EXTORT BRIBES...
i mean, besides the fact that he's a big dummy.
fwiw, ryan got the bribes while he was secretary of state. tried to cover it up while gov.
Jason Dye:
CD: