mmckerral's blog
Chicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke wrote a piece a few weeks back that pops back into my head almost every day.
The tongue-in-cheek column was a faux obituary written about the death of “Facts.” My favorite line among many good ones states, “Facts is survived by two brothers, Rumor and Innuendo, and a sister, Emphatic Assertion.”
He asked that in lieu of flowers, mourners make a donation to their favorite super Political Action Committee.
I am not sure how shocked Americans are to know President Barack Obama supports same-gender marriages.
But I was shocked when I read news reports about the president’s announcement that Republicans accused Obama of “playing politics.”
Of course he is.
Some 10 years ago, “Free Speech Zones” began cropping up throughout the country.
I always thought that the entire U.S. was a constitutionally protected “Free Speech Zone,” but the courts disagree. They have supported ordinances and laws that create designated areas exercising free speech — more specifically, where protests can occur.
The 17th anniversary of the federal building bombing in Oklahoma City, April 19, 1995, is today, and a generation of young people probably cannot say what happened that day.
In fact, for many that 17-year-old tragedy serves as an afterthought when the word “terrorism” pops up in a conversation.
The resurgence in the discussion of the measuring “Gross National Happiness” — prompted by talk in the United Nations — seems a bit whimsical at first blush.
But people vested in the “happy” business or who study the impact of happiness on other qualities of life warn against dismissing its value.
Back in the 1980s my family dispatched me to Niagara Falls, N.Y., to represent the McKerrals at a funeral for an uncle.
During the visit, I went where my grandmother lived before she died — in a two-apartment flat only a few blocks from the falls. I spent time there every summer through about age 15.
As we sat in front of 436 10th St., I turned to another uncle and said, “I don’t recall this street having streetlights.”
The business of the U.S. Supreme Court always comes with impact for Americans, even the most obscure cases.
But today the court embarks on rulings in the politically-charged case involving the “Affordable Healthcare for America Act” — “Obamacare,” as some call it.
And everyone seems to be watching, figuratively.
The subject of online privacy appears from time to time on my iCitizenforum posts. In recent years, the concern about the level of privacy online took a sharp turn toward consumer protection, particularly tracking of online behavior done by search engine providers and businesses, and away from identity theft.
So for Web users, the recent announcement of the Obama administration’s “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights” is worth examining.
As the one-year anniversary of the “Arab Spring” approaches, it appears not much good bloomed from it.
Egypt’s military took over the government there, and in the first round of “free” elections, the party aligned with Islamic fundamentalism won the most seats in the assembly. Meanwhile, 16 Americans have their lives hanging in the balance after Egyptian officials arrested them for spying.
The U.S. finds itself again in familiar territory — literally and figuratively — when it comes to being genuinely despised by people it insists it wants to help.
From my viewpoint, it’s pretty much been that way since the U.S. literally re-built Europe following World War II.
Those were the good old days. The days getting old now are those that have the country mired in an impossible situation in Afghanistan. The deteriorating investment there is now almost bankrupt because of a series of gaffs, the latest the burning of copies of the Quran by the military.
