The title alderman means “old man”, connoting some wisdom that comes with age, perhaps. I like an alternative title “viceroy”. It sounds so weird nobody would want it. Then we could just eliminate the position!
I'm pretty far removed from IL politics, but this douche canoe DeVore is who *republican* voters selected to be the AG candidate? The petty meanness of republicans - elected officials AND their voters - is reason enough for any decent person to put the republican party in the rear view mirror and move on to decent candidates.
Are there no decent republicans any more? Are they all this mean? This petty?
I mean, until the former guy, Ronald Reagan was arguably the worst president in my whole life. But at least he pretended to be decent. Now? The great Saint ronald of Reagan couldn't even get through a republican primary.
Regardless of whether "Selling Shame" may be considered lazy journalism for using low-hanging fruit from a bygone era to show how horrible we used to be, the featured Lysol ad is not a good example. Lysol's use as an abortifacient was a open 'secret' , and their ads were cleverly hidden messages about what really was hurting family relationships and how to solve that particular situation. A good article on this was published in the Atlantic:
Republicans, both libertarian and conservative, seem grounded in deriding others that they see as not quite as smart or righteous as they see themselves. This is why DeVore didn't use payment as a teaching moment, to reinforce their money handling skills. It was more fulfilling to belittle them as I'm sure he does to everyone in an effort to be superior.
It’s a great insight that easy access to gambling is likely to be driving the high NFL ratings. Wouldn’t it be swell if there were a way to make book on productive uses of time or resources.
Dear Eric – As an activist against the death penalty at the time of Marilyn Lemak’s trial, I too struggled to understand her actions. A few thoughts 20 years later (sorry for the length):
It seemed so obvious that “mental illness” was involved. Yet Marilyn never claimed her ex-husband’s conduct was so uniquely cruel as to drive a person over the edge—and there was absolutely no sign of similar irrational conduct or breakdowns in her past. I have to say the “Zoloft defense” offered by her current lawyers, as explained by Janet Lagerloef, is the first compelling explanation I’ve heard.
Marilyn has done far more in the past twenty years than simply stay out of trouble. Faced with a life sentence in a maximum-security prison (which might bring out the worst in any of us), she has found ways to carry on and to help other women whose lives have been harder than hers. She serves as the boot-camp instructor in Logan’s bakery training program, working to equip women with job and life skills they can really use when they get released. "We all are different ages, different races, different backgrounds and we are all learning to work together to get the job done," she told a local reporter who visited the prison.
It's not that this Good Deed, or her overall good conduct in prison, somehow "compensate" for the crime. How could they? But they do paint a picture that is completely alien to Joe Birkett’s caricature of the irrational, self-centered woman incapable of seeing beyond her own pain.
And it’s hard not to notice that her life before the murders fits the same picture. She was not only a good and loving mother, as one of your readers recalled. Dozens of other parents were happy to trust her with their own kids as a Sunday school teacher – and doctors trusted her as an experienced nurse on their surgical team (in highly stressful situations where lives could be on the line).
So, for forty years before the spring of 1999, and for twenty years after, she's a kind-hearted, level-headed, conscientious person you’d be glad to have as a neighbor. For one brief period in between—while on high doses of Zoloft—she is an out-of-control “madwoman” who allegedly could kill her own children to vent her rage and despair over an impending divorce. That’s more than a mere “correlation” between Zoloft and murder.
In fact, it’s enough to make reasonable folks think that temporary, drug-induced insanity is a serious possibility. Maybe I and others have taken these pills without doing anything bizarre. But then again, I’ve taken penicillin without problems, too. If someone else takes it and is rushed to the hospital with their throat swollen shut, do I roll my eyes at the doctor who says penicillin was the cause? Of course not.
A new trial sounds great, and might have made perfect sense in, say, 2003. But asking a jury to extract the truth from witnesses trying to recall what they saw 25 years ago may be too much to ask. So if Gov. Pritzker could grant clemency to Paula Sims, as a victim of post-partum psychosis, he should not hesitate to do the same for Marilyn Lemak.
Great choice in "Lorena" for Tune of the Week. I've always loved the story of generals trying to ban the song. For me, it conjures up an image of a group of young men huddled around a campfire far far from home and listening to the song while trying to hide their tears from their comrades.
I don't think it's appropriate, word-wise, to use phrases like the "Republican Party" anymore. Non-"Democratic Party" citizens are either MAGA, or something else. The Republican Party forked, as they say in software development, a few years ago. It would be great if they rebranded as the MAGA Party, leaving the remainder to form a third party. I think a MAGA Party would survive post-Trump, as a minority party.
Boy ... I've not thought this out well, but maybe we wind up with some alliances across parties like in other democracies like in Israel. Parliamentary system?
A few crime comments after listening to Mincing Rascals. I think that the commentary on the crime rate misses the point of the type of crime and where it occurs. There is a reasonable perception that there is more violent crime and that the crimes are more violent. Also, that crime has spread into formerly safe neighborhoods, and routine expressway shootings. The victims of gang crime are also much more frequently bystanders and small children. Stolen cars are now more frequently carjackings. There is also the increase in public disorder with 'take-overs' of intersections for parties and drifting, and the motorcycle and car races/stunts on the expressways. This has been accompanied by a governmental and political shift away from 'law and order' towards 'social justice' and police reform which seems to reduce the already low chance of arrest and prosecution for violent criminals. The shift also has little or nothing to address the heightened concerns of citizens.
The private police story was encouraging in that it seemed no one was proposing defunding the police. It seems like there’s a significantly underserved market for protection from criminals down there.
Re Proposed fines for not stopping/avoiding the police. It sounds good on paper, but I doubt it will stem the flow. It seems that quite a few crimes being committed use getaway cars that are stolen. If this new law is enacted, it will just make criminals smarter by using stolen cars during crimes even more than they do now.
The title alderman means “old man”, connoting some wisdom that comes with age, perhaps. I like an alternative title “viceroy”. It sounds so weird nobody would want it. Then we could just eliminate the position!
I'm pretty far removed from IL politics, but this douche canoe DeVore is who *republican* voters selected to be the AG candidate? The petty meanness of republicans - elected officials AND their voters - is reason enough for any decent person to put the republican party in the rear view mirror and move on to decent candidates.
Are there no decent republicans any more? Are they all this mean? This petty?
I mean, until the former guy, Ronald Reagan was arguably the worst president in my whole life. But at least he pretended to be decent. Now? The great Saint ronald of Reagan couldn't even get through a republican primary.
How far the party has fallen.
What a shame. What a disgrace.
Regardless of whether "Selling Shame" may be considered lazy journalism for using low-hanging fruit from a bygone era to show how horrible we used to be, the featured Lysol ad is not a good example. Lysol's use as an abortifacient was a open 'secret' , and their ads were cleverly hidden messages about what really was hurting family relationships and how to solve that particular situation. A good article on this was published in the Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/the-things-we-cant-face/600769/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
Republicans, both libertarian and conservative, seem grounded in deriding others that they see as not quite as smart or righteous as they see themselves. This is why DeVore didn't use payment as a teaching moment, to reinforce their money handling skills. It was more fulfilling to belittle them as I'm sure he does to everyone in an effort to be superior.
It’s a great insight that easy access to gambling is likely to be driving the high NFL ratings. Wouldn’t it be swell if there were a way to make book on productive uses of time or resources.
It's too bad the "special children" can't file a libel lawsuit against DeVore.
BTW, today's preferred term for students with developmental disabilities is diverse learners; we dropped "special" a few years ago.
And there isn't any decency left in the Republican party.
Dear Eric – As an activist against the death penalty at the time of Marilyn Lemak’s trial, I too struggled to understand her actions. A few thoughts 20 years later (sorry for the length):
It seemed so obvious that “mental illness” was involved. Yet Marilyn never claimed her ex-husband’s conduct was so uniquely cruel as to drive a person over the edge—and there was absolutely no sign of similar irrational conduct or breakdowns in her past. I have to say the “Zoloft defense” offered by her current lawyers, as explained by Janet Lagerloef, is the first compelling explanation I’ve heard.
Marilyn has done far more in the past twenty years than simply stay out of trouble. Faced with a life sentence in a maximum-security prison (which might bring out the worst in any of us), she has found ways to carry on and to help other women whose lives have been harder than hers. She serves as the boot-camp instructor in Logan’s bakery training program, working to equip women with job and life skills they can really use when they get released. "We all are different ages, different races, different backgrounds and we are all learning to work together to get the job done," she told a local reporter who visited the prison.
It's not that this Good Deed, or her overall good conduct in prison, somehow "compensate" for the crime. How could they? But they do paint a picture that is completely alien to Joe Birkett’s caricature of the irrational, self-centered woman incapable of seeing beyond her own pain.
And it’s hard not to notice that her life before the murders fits the same picture. She was not only a good and loving mother, as one of your readers recalled. Dozens of other parents were happy to trust her with their own kids as a Sunday school teacher – and doctors trusted her as an experienced nurse on their surgical team (in highly stressful situations where lives could be on the line).
So, for forty years before the spring of 1999, and for twenty years after, she's a kind-hearted, level-headed, conscientious person you’d be glad to have as a neighbor. For one brief period in between—while on high doses of Zoloft—she is an out-of-control “madwoman” who allegedly could kill her own children to vent her rage and despair over an impending divorce. That’s more than a mere “correlation” between Zoloft and murder.
In fact, it’s enough to make reasonable folks think that temporary, drug-induced insanity is a serious possibility. Maybe I and others have taken these pills without doing anything bizarre. But then again, I’ve taken penicillin without problems, too. If someone else takes it and is rushed to the hospital with their throat swollen shut, do I roll my eyes at the doctor who says penicillin was the cause? Of course not.
A new trial sounds great, and might have made perfect sense in, say, 2003. But asking a jury to extract the truth from witnesses trying to recall what they saw 25 years ago may be too much to ask. So if Gov. Pritzker could grant clemency to Paula Sims, as a victim of post-partum psychosis, he should not hesitate to do the same for Marilyn Lemak.
Great choice in "Lorena" for Tune of the Week. I've always loved the story of generals trying to ban the song. For me, it conjures up an image of a group of young men huddled around a campfire far far from home and listening to the song while trying to hide their tears from their comrades.
Re: DeVore
I don't think it's appropriate, word-wise, to use phrases like the "Republican Party" anymore. Non-"Democratic Party" citizens are either MAGA, or something else. The Republican Party forked, as they say in software development, a few years ago. It would be great if they rebranded as the MAGA Party, leaving the remainder to form a third party. I think a MAGA Party would survive post-Trump, as a minority party.
Boy ... I've not thought this out well, but maybe we wind up with some alliances across parties like in other democracies like in Israel. Parliamentary system?
There is nothing good to say about DeVore, which is a sad commentary on Illinois politics. We are stuck with Kwame Raoul.
There should have been another choice for a new name in your poll. If we are stuck with alder -x then I vote for aldercon but would prefer prefelon.
I've been proudly inclusive for years, calling them Aldercreatures. I probably picked that up from Mike Royko.
DeVore’s claim to fame was litigating against public health measures during a pandemic that killed more than a million Americans.
A few crime comments after listening to Mincing Rascals. I think that the commentary on the crime rate misses the point of the type of crime and where it occurs. There is a reasonable perception that there is more violent crime and that the crimes are more violent. Also, that crime has spread into formerly safe neighborhoods, and routine expressway shootings. The victims of gang crime are also much more frequently bystanders and small children. Stolen cars are now more frequently carjackings. There is also the increase in public disorder with 'take-overs' of intersections for parties and drifting, and the motorcycle and car races/stunts on the expressways. This has been accompanied by a governmental and political shift away from 'law and order' towards 'social justice' and police reform which seems to reduce the already low chance of arrest and prosecution for violent criminals. The shift also has little or nothing to address the heightened concerns of citizens.
The private police story was encouraging in that it seemed no one was proposing defunding the police. It seems like there’s a significantly underserved market for protection from criminals down there.
Re Proposed fines for not stopping/avoiding the police. It sounds good on paper, but I doubt it will stem the flow. It seems that quite a few crimes being committed use getaway cars that are stolen. If this new law is enacted, it will just make criminals smarter by using stolen cars during crimes even more than they do now.