Touchy-Touchy Capitol Fax. Part I.
Understand that Dr. Eric Whitaker, one of President Obama’s best friends, was not subpoenaed. Just his emails and medical records from the Illinois of Public Health which he ran under Rod Blagojevich. The pro-Squid, pro-Obama Capitol Fax objects to the headline by the Sun-Times: One of Obama’s Closest Friends Part of Federal Probe. Not that the headline says they were subpoenaed but it’s too vague. Again: Whitaker wasn’t subpoenaed but his papers were. And, tsks-tsks Capitol Fax it takes to the 7th paragraph for the paper to say that neither Whitaker or his former chief of staff Quin Golden were subpoenaed.
Perhaps the best way to write the story to win approval of the Obama-idolizing Capitol Fax…while undeniably supplying the best coverage of Springfield extant…would be this:WHITAKER AND GOLDEN NOT SUBPOENAED.
By Dave McKinney, Chris Fusco and Tim Novak Staff Reporters.
President Obama’s friend Dr. Eric Whitaker was not subpoenaed by a federal grand jury, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
However their papers and emails are being looked at—which very well may mean nothing at all: a routine procedure. However, they…Dr Whitaker and Golden…are not under subpoena.
It is clear that the Department of Public Health’s “faith-based initiatives” and health awareness campaigns were designed to assist African-American and other minorities obtain better health care were all functioning well when Dr. Whitaker and Golden left state employment. While they are mentioned in a subpoena which asks for their papers and e-mails, it is important to stress that they…Dr. Whitaker and Golden…are not the target of a subpoena themselves. So as the reader digests this news, it is important to recognize that they are not…repeat not…under subpoena.
Touchy-Touchy Capitol Fax Part II. Capitol Fax is very much interested in passage of State Rep. Lou Lang’s medical marijuana bill. So it criticized a statement opposing it made by the lobbyist for the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police. The lobbyist said one thing that cannot be contradicted:
“There’s a lot of stuff in marijuana that’s not good for you.”
But then he made an overstatement: “It’s like people taking meth. People feel a lot better ingesting methamphetamine.” To which Capitol Fax expostulates with its favorite idiom: “Sheeh!” Sheeh! Is a term of exasperation that kids…and adults who don’t want to grow up…use—most usually seen as a variation of the word “Jesus!”
What Capitol Fax doesn’t report, however, is that the National Institute on Drug Abuse says marijuana smoke contains from 50 to 70% more harmful chemicals than does cigarette smoke and that long-term marijuana users may suffer from severe respiratory ailments. Nor that marijuana addiction is linked with anxiety. Among young people the medical marijuana bill is seen as one step to general laxity and acceptance of the smoke. Anyone protesting it is likely to be greeted by the in-crowd with “Sheeh!” meaning decidedly un-cool. Once again: the pop culture argues that medical marijuana is a good and that any square who opposes it is…well…sheeh!
The Shoplifter’s Assailant: How Awful!
Yesterday in Little Village a 35-year-old unemployed barber picked up a few tubes of toothpaste in a CVS drug store, shoved them in his pocket and beat it out the door. A CVS employee saw him and chased him down a litter-strewn alley where he grabbed him in a choke-hold. The thief cried “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” but the CVS employee held him tightly by the neck until the cops arrived.
By the time they arrived, the thief was dead of strangulation. The medical examiner ruled the death an accidental homicide. The employee will not be charged. He had served prison time for drug convictions but his family said nothing he had done came close to justifying his death. After all, all he did was kop some toothpaste tubes.
“Why would you kill someone over toothpaste?” his ex-wife said through tears. “Why would you even chase him—and is this not murder? It doesn’t make sense!”
There were 15 thefts in the neighborhood in the first four months of 2010. Witnesses say they have previously seen CVS employees tackle shoplifters.
His ex-wife is so upset she wants to sue. “He was a loving stepfather to my three sons! They’ve taken away my kids’ Pops and you don’t do that!”
So they should just have let me run down the alley with the toothpaste tubes he stole: compassion and all. What the hell is this world coming to when a guy who doesn’t have any money and needs some toothpaste is chased down an alley and strangled? Is this fair?
Sheesh.
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*: Saints Philip and James the Less. [1st century]. These were the Apostles Philip and James. Philip came from Bethsaida (Galilee) and became a disciple of Jesus after having followed John the Baptist. Few things are written about him. At the feeding of the 5000 he remarked that 200 pennyworth of bread wouldn’t be sufficient for each person to have even a little. At another time when the Greeks wanted to meet Jesus, they approached Philip first…and finally when Philip asked Christ to show them the Father, Jesus responded: “He who sees me sees the Father.”
Along with the other apostles, Philip was in the upper room awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. He is thought to have preached the gospel at Phrygia and died at Hierapolis, both in present day Turkey (he’s purportedly buried at Hierapolis)
James the Less has been thought to stand with Mary at the foot of the cross but also distinguished from James (called “the brother of the Lord” but supposedly a cousin, hence the distinction: James the Less). His traditional iconographic symbol is a club with which he was beaten to death after having been so sentenced by the Sanhedrin in AD 62. For more than a thousand years the two have been joined together in the feast day..
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