Daily archives: June 12th, 2010

Why Do People Celebrate by Shooting Guns?

Two Naperville men face Class 4 felony charges because of the way they allegedly chose to celebrate the Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup victory.

From the Sun-Times:

A Naperville man and his son caught the unexpected attention of police as the men allegedly celebrated the Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup victory by firing rounds from an assault rifle into the ground behind their home.

Mark W. Steinbrecher, 54, and his son Mark S. Steinbrecher, 20, were wearing shirts embossed with Blackhawks and Stanley Cup insignia when their booking photographs were taken at the Naperville police station. Both men face Class 4 felony charges of reckless discharge of a firearm.

Police Cmdr. Dave Hoffman said patrol officers were sent at 12:40 a.m. to the Steinbrechers’ house on Naperville’s far southwest side. A neighbor called 911 to report "a subject in the backyard firing a weapon,” Hoffman said.

I don’t understand.


Welcome to the Summer of Blagojevich

It’s not yet bedtime for Blago, but the madness has officially begun.

From John Kass at the Chicago Tribune:

The former Democratic governor of Illinois now has only one audience to charm: his jurors. And they’ve had one heck of a week already, being dragged down the rabbit hole into the wonderland of Illinois politics.

They watched Dead Meat perform from the defense table, sighing, shrugging and making faces at a former chief of staff testifying for the prosecution. Dead Meat was desperate to convince them he’s just an honest man victimized by a pack of schemers.

On just the second day of testimony, the jury was treated to a peek into the political shadows, with audio of Rod praising good buddy and state Sen. Jimmy DeLeo, D-How You Doin?, as the one guy he could trust to bring in the campaign cash.

The Summer of Blagojevich, hopefully the last season we’ll spend with the wild-haired one before he’s sent away, has begun.


Chicago Teachers Union Elects Socialist Leadership

I know the word "Socialist" was dragged through the mud during the last presidential campaign. Barack Obama is showing himself to be quite the centrist — I know my friends in the right will disagree with that, but it’s the truth.

I try to avoid extremes. Strict socialism is too far to the left for my tastes. There are those who would call all public education systems exercises in socialism.

I disagree. Just because an organized governmental entity is running something, that does not mean that particular endeavor is socialism. If that were so, one could argue that government doing anything is socialism: street repair, police, fire, or paramedics.

Socialism is much broader, "a centrally planned economy in which the government controls all means of production," where "private property and the distribution of income are subject to social control."

Socialism is too far to the left to me.

It appears, however, that Socialism is not too far to the left for the Chicago Teachers Union.

Incoming Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis and incoming Vice-President Jesse Sharkey are strongly affiliated with the Socialist Worker Party. In fact, Sharkey is scheduled to speak at the Socialism 2010 convention in Chicago beginning June 17.

Did the rank and file know they were electing socialists?

Too late now.