Personal Asides: Who Dem? Some Identity Pols See Lt. Governor Spot as “Jewish Seat”!...The Dreadful “F” Word.

                                               Feast of  St. Cyril of Alexandria*

                

                         A Jewish Seat?  If So, I’ve Got Just the Guy!   

               The Dem party that has brought us quotas and identity politics, set-aside candidacies for gay, lesbians, gays, transgenders…everything but pro-life and pro-gun (which disqualifies State Rep. John Bradley of  Marion)…is embroiled in a dispute over the kind of person to fill the Lt. Governor slot now that Scott Lee Cohen has vacated it. 

                Rationale: Since Cohen is Jewish, political correctness might mandate a Jew for the job otherwise Jews will be offended (my comment: political realists could argue--who cares what Jewish voters think?  If years of Dem romancing pro-Palestinian Lefties haven’t offended `em do you think by missing out on Illinois Lt. Governor who doesn’t even preside over the Senate would be an insult?.  A neat idea: Julie Hamos who lost the 10^th district congressional nod.  (she’s a 2-fer, a Jew and a woman.  Hey, no, a 3-fer—Jew, woman, member of a Hungarian refugee displaced family—how’s that? Wait—a 4-fer. Jew, woman, refugee family background and thoroughly obnoxious). 

               If Lt. Governor is to be a Jewish seat my vote is for one of the brightest state legislators on either side of the aisle; Jack Franks of McHenry.  I kid you not.  But then my endorsement is a seal of death for him: Sorry Jack. 

                      The Dreadful “F” Word is Used Too Often. 

              When I was young and until, frankly, I hit 40 or so, the word was scrupulously avoided in usage by men in front of ladies.  That is still true in some respects.  Now it is used almost indiscriminately by men and women, one to another but still this canon from my youth which once reigned supreme should be regarded again now as we strive to improve the culture: 

               Women who claim they are not distressed by its use may have ceased to be ladies but have not yet learned to be gentlemen. 

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           *: St. Cyril of Alexandria [AD 377-444].  A holy and necessarily combative man which the Church needs more of today. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt and received a classical and theological education and was ordained by his uncle, the patriarch of the city,  He attended the Synod of the Oak which deposed John Chrysostom whom he believed, falsely, guilty of the charges against him—showing saints, even intellectual ones, can make mistakes.. He became patriarch of Alexandria but only after a riot of his supporters and followers of his rival Timotheus. A somewhat violent guy for a saint. In 430 he became embroiled in a good and great fight: opposing Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople who insisted that Mary was not the Mother of God since Christ was divine and not human. 

           Cyril went to Rome and convinced Celestine I to convoke a synod there to condemn Nestorius.  Celestine told Cyril that he, Cyril, should do it so Cyril presided over the 3^rd General Council at Ephesus attended by some 300 bishops. All condemned Nestorius but at the last moment there came the arrival of the Archbishop of Antioch and a huge group of followers who caused the Council to reverse course, found Nestorius innocent and…get this…condemned Cyril! 

            Cyril was arrested by Emperor Theodosius II along with Nestorius but Cyril was released after the arrival of Papal legates. Then Cyril got back at Nestorius and forced him into exile. Those were the days, my children!  For the remainder of his life, Cyril wrote treatises defining the Trinity and the Incarnation which kept heresy at bay.