The Other Roeser.
To those who think I was the Roeser who mentioned that “hard rumors” (whatever that is) are circulating that a certain political candidate is gay, let me aver that it’s the other Roeser who said it: Jack, of Barrington. Not me of Park Ridge. We often get confused but we shouldn’t. Jack is the multi-millionaire engineer of proven genius; I’m the Quaker Oats retiree of modest worth who cannot for the life of me learn how to run the video tape on my recorder.
He’s the lean, wiry skipper who, when 80, captained the yacht which won the famed Mackinac race; I’m the portly, double-chinned one who hasn’t been in a rowboat in 40 years. He has made his views known candidly on the rumor; I made mine known yesterday on this blog by describing the dangers of politicians before such revelation being importuned with blackmail…using the cases of Alexander Hamilton and Henry Hyde as reference points.
Jack’s of Luxembourg extraction—in fact, he has pointed out to me, there is a town named Roeser in Luxembourg, population 661; I’m half German (whence the surname and half Irish, mother’s name Cleary) and there are no towns named Roeser in Germany nor Cleary in Ireland. His people lived on Chicago’s north side; my people—both German and Irish-- lived on Chicago’s north side.
We are not related but our lives have taken on an eerie similarity on several fronts without us knowing each other until the mid-1980s.. At one time he lived in Park Ridge (now he lives in Barrington); I have lived in Park Ridge for 45 years. He went to Mary, Seat of Wisdom parish; I did once, too before we moved to the other end of town where we go to St. Paul of the Cross (but St. John Cantius in Chicago’s West Town on Sundays).
Now get this: he has a son Tom; I have a son Tom. He has a daughter, Jeanne Marie; I have a daughter Jeanne Marie. These names were bestowed by both of us on our progeny without us knowing or consulting with one another—amazing coincidences. But there are dissimilarities. His son Tom is CEO of the company Jack founded, Otto Engineering in Carpentersville; I am CEO of the smallest company extant with one employee—me. My son Tom is a government executive and a brilliant painter of exquisite realism whose masterly works can be seen on this blog under RoeserArt in the adjoining column.
A big dissimilarity: Jack’s son, Tom, was lauded extensively in The New York Times for leading a company that has distinguished itself for being an exemplary good community citizen. Neither I nor my son Tom have been praised by The New York Times for anything—although I have the highest hopes that he as artist will one day tower high over any accomplishment I have achieved.
Now I’m sure you’re clear on the uncanny similarities as well as widespread dissimilarities of both of us.
Rich Samuels.
For many years, Rich Samuels has been one of the brightest lights on WTTW-TV. As special correspondent for Chicago Tonight, he has supplied mature and insightful reportorial analysis and commentary. In addition to his superb journalistic skills, Rich, 68, is a multifarious genius, gracefully burdened with over-modesty. He is a summa-cum-laude graduate of Yale, has a Ph.D in Italian renaissance and brings to his work a deeply intelligent bearing and depth that gives `TTW what class it has.
Rich’s contract isn’t being renewed because of an economy crunch at the station. Lord, I could enumerate a galaxy of people in front of and behind the cameras who should be let go instead of Rich…starting with its obscenely overpaid boss, Dan Schmidt; its anchor Phil Ponce; its political editor Carol Marin who has two other jobs where she purveys the same-old, same-old thoughtless liberalism; Elizabeth Brackett, congenitally unable to manage the inevitable panel of three liberals and one conservative without short-sheeting the conservative…and winding up with Chicago Tonight’s executive producer Mary Field who has yet to apprehend a conservative thought.
Not that Rich is a conservative; he probably isn’t. It just pains me to see quality dissed where mediocrity is so shamelessly nurtured.
Obama and Spock: Together at Last.
Barack Obama, the man with the Mr. Spock-like outer-world detachment where America’s national survival is concerned…as distinct from the passion he shows when his race is involved (as with the black Harvard professor who had trouble getting in his house and was apprehended by a white cop)…this self-same Obama took three days to muster up the energy to get out of the golf cart and speak to the nation on the matter of Northwest Airlines Flight 253. A consummate left-wing radical who learned nothing thus far from his presidential experience and forgets nothing of his 3rd world-style hands-off non-patriotism, he is resolutely going to treat Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab as an “alleged” lawbreaker rather than the war criminal who came dangerously close to blowing up an airliner filled with 310 innocent people.
Which means that Obama is going ahead with plans to have Mutallab …who is neither a U.S. citizen nor a permanent or temporary resident of this country…tried in a civilian system who will have all the constitutional and statutory provisions afforded criminal suspects including Miranda warnings, the right to an attorney and the right to remain silent. It certifies that you can forget ditzy Janet (“our system has worked…er, no it hasn’t”) Napolitano as a mortal danger to our security and concentrate on Obama himself as the weakest link in the chain leading to our survival that we could possibly imagine.
Napolitano has shown that she is learning from her experience; this guy about whom the electorate took a hugely ill-considered flyer on election day is uneducable.
There are far more similarities between Obama and Spock than the jug-ears of both. Spock…born in 2230, in the city of Shi’kahr on the planet Vulcan…is only slightly less involved in the problems of earth than is Obama who believes America is no more exceptional than other nations and Christianity is not relevant here. Thus Obama will mindlessly plod on with his plan to empty Guantamo notwithstanding all evidence to the contrary that it is a terrible idea.
To be fair, George W. Bush yielded to importunings from the Left and made a stupid statement that Gitmo should be emptied… which cunning parrot Dick Durbin (aka The Dick) uses to defend his Chief. But Bush could learn from experience as “you’ve done a heckuva job, Brownie” shows since Brownie was gone a few weeks after Katrina.
Not so Obama-Spock who learns nothing and forgets everything not applicable to the Left.
Karl Rove’s Divorce.
One need not be a rumor-monger concerning Karl Rove’s announcement that he is getting a divorce from his 2nd wife to whom he was married for 24 years. Especially that circuitous statement from him that he desires the utmost “privacy.” This from Dana Parino, the ex-press secretary to George W. Bush who is handling the story as a p.r. person for the Roves.
Yeah, sure. That means there is a tootsie lurking in the wings and Rove will soon be sashaying down the aisle with one who undoubtedly will be at least two decades younger. How much you wanna bet?
Ron Paul’s Whacky Foreign Policy.
Whenever I get close to appreciating some of Rep. Ron Paul’s statements on the economy, he goes on television looking like the whacky nutcase he is and looks like: a lanky amateur theorist who belongs haranguing the denizens of a barber shop on Saturday mornings...not just matching the Left but exceeding the Left in blaming this country for causing terrorist Farouk Abdul Mutallab to attempt to blow up the airliner —why? Because U.S. military forces bombed Yemen and assisted the joint Saudi-Yemeni forces earlier this month.
It’s really what Pat Buchanan has been saying. Pat has more charm but both are in my estimation un-hinged. Buchanan wrote a book on history that blamed Churchill as a war criminal and portrayed Hitler as just another far-reaching adventurer…a war hero of World War I…who was justified in his attempts because of the unfairness of Versailles. I’ve changed my mind about Paul. I’m reading his book on the Fed….and he makes some good points…but no one that seriously unbalanced should be considered as a responsible source.
Both Paul and Buchanan don’t understand that jealousy animates terrorism: jealousy of our economic power and envy. The myth that somehow if we could ditch Israel and pull back to our shores the imbroglio would be dropped by the terrorists is absurd. First of all, if you think Obama is pro-Israel or that Carter was, you’ve got another think coming.
I think I’ll junk that book by Paul on the Fed. Anyone that frenetic and lopsided in foreign policy has got to be nuts on the economy as well.
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