Personal Asides: Finally—On “Political Shootout Sunday” State Rep. Susan Mendoza (D-IL) and Paul Caprio…George Ryan Gets What’s Coming to Him…The “I Didn’t Have Enough Money to Buy a Contraceptive” Story.

Mendoza & Caprio.

Guests on “Political Shootout” Sunday on WLS-AM (890) will be State Rep. Susan Mendoza (D-IL) and Paul Caprio, director Family PAC. Mendoza spent her early childhood in Chicago before moving to Bolingbrook. She attended Northeast Missouri State University, got a BA. After returning to Chicago she coordinated business outreach for the Chicago Department of Planning and Development. She has been a guest before; Paul Caprio, of course, is a leader in the state’s pro-family movement and a highly regarded conservative strategist.

George Ryan.

All those convicted murderers sprung from death row, all the money spent pro bono by Winston & Strawn, all the exercises in p. r. to woo support of a presumably liberal jury…stemming from the early days of the Ryan governorship when the bulbous-nosed cynical grunter figured he’d be tried for corruption—the trip to Cuba to see Castro about which Sneed rhapsodized…the overnight change on social policies including the gubernatorial veto of a bill the venal old crook had promised to sign…all the exertions by Big Jim who obviously Ryan had something on... and the firm’s partners paying the freight in reduced bonuses to accommodate the most prestigious lawyer in the nation, Dan Webb…all the delays…the sentence lighter than expected—still the scythe of justice was not deterred as the court of appeals upheld the procedure of the trial. The elephantine exertions of Big Jim which, along with his naptimes on the Hollinger Board, got him demoted as firm chairman. The system still works: Deo Gratias

Not Enough Money to Buy a Contraceptive.

The barren, secular-hedonistic-pagan character of the “Sun-Times” under the Canadian twins (John Cruickshank the publisher and Michael Cooke, editor-in-chief who’s responsible for the “National Enquirer” lurid displays in the newspaper that is hemorrhaging red ink), was laid bare to its stark nakedness earlier this week…which tells you more about the one-sided prurient tabloid than you’ve ever suspected. You know, the paper that’s supposed to be blue-collar working class.

The story: 20-year-old pre-med student Elizabeth Harris of Waukegan has to skip her trip to Costa Rica for fun where she was eager to wine and dine on a break from college studies at the U of I-Chicago. And since Elizabeth is black, the dictum from schlock-meister Cooke was in effect: in a play to get more African American readers, Harris was shown standing by the window, sadly. She is a victim. Lonely: a black single U of I junior in the cruel city.

Why? Because federal funding is cut off from birth control and although the single Harris can afford a cell-phone, she couldn’t find the scratch for contraceptives. How sad. One almost expects the “Sun-Times” resident columning Pout, Rev. Jesse Jackson to write a column blaming George W. Bush for this tragedy.

“Cost hikes across the country are a result of new federal regulations that removed incentives for drug makes to provide birth control at low cost to colleges,” wrote the “Sun-Times.” And so “Harris encountered the increases when she wanted to c0ontinue with the NovaRing, a monthly vaginal contraceptive through UIC. She was shocked”—shocked!—“to find the new cost was $35, up from $15.”

So she went without. Tragedy writes sympathetic Cyndi Loza of the “Sun-Times.” “Some health officials fear students will be forced to rely on condoms, which may not be as effective.” And there is a crisis. `When it’s not planned sex, something like a condom mayh not be used’ said Dr. Nandini Khatkhate, UIC medical director at Family Medicine Center.”

Aha. “The price increase in hormonal birth control can be traced to the Deficit Reduction Act signed by President Bush last year, aimed at reducing federal spending by $39 billion…[T]he U. S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued regulations that dropped college clinics from a list of agencies to which drug companies could sell discounted drugs.”

The tear-jerker. “Harris, coming from a low-income home, said she cannot afford to pay so much for birth control.”

And, of course, since the black female poor are animals who must have their sex, goes the tone of the article, there is a hardship. Not a word in the article about the alternative of practicing abstinence—because in Michael Cooke’s rag which should be published on soft paper and hung on a roll, there is no such thing as abstinence. Nobody abstains. You do what you feel like doing. Not a line about studies that show that poverty stems often from single-parents…like Harris is evidently going to become. After all, sex is a great human need which compels its young to participate. No such thing as self-control. No such thing as morals. Just the stark figure in the paper of a young black girl looking wistful. Bad Uncle Sam: bad Uncle Sam for driving a girl to have an unwanted baby since she had to achieve her crazed biological need…that’s what the story implies. I can almost hear Jesse Jetstream whine that those who oppose abortion should have enough compassion to at least see that the taxpayers provide low-cost contraception to keep such playthings of passion as Harris from conceiving.

That story ran Monday. Tuesday along comes the secular, worldly wise,,,the African American Everywoman…the columnist played up by Cooke to “understand” the black hassle, Mary Mitchell…standing with hands on hips looking up at the ceiling (as with all other columnist’s photos) giving the aura of the black woman’s savior against black male sexism, Mary Mitchell. Hey baby, she says to the crestfallen Harris, young people “fortunate enough to get into universities like UIC are supposed to be smart.” Mitchell’s cynical advice, equivalent of wisdom Harris could have heard from any run-of-the-mill hustler on the street: “Did it ever occur to Elizabeth Harris…that maybe she should have gotten rid of her cell phone instead of stopping her birth control pills?” Hey, that’s the advice one expects to get from a mother. No mention of abstinence, just the “hard lessons” we “try to pass on…to our daughters and granddaughters.” The hard lesson is that kids are not cheap, AIDS is deadly. But by all means don’t defile Michael Cooke’s porno paper and espouse morality. That’s not black authenticism.

Mitchell’s rejoinder is about as vapid as the paper. You don’t forestall sex because sex is…well…as essential for fun when you’re young. You just assess priorities. Give up the cell phone but by all means keep on copulating whenever you’re of a mind to. Mitchell, the journalistic “model” for black females, is enough to typify generations of young people trapped in poverty without absolutes, is enough to make one sick.

I can hear this adviser to the passionately immature say—when the feds stop subsidizing, ditch you cell phone to pay for contraceptives and then…

You go, girl!