Random thoughts, late at night

We shouldn’t be too smug watching the Chinese deal with the Olympic Torch controversy. Given our current reputation around the world, if the 2008 Olympics were to be held in an American city … say, Chicago … can you imagine the disruption that would occur along the route of that flame?

The Roman Catholic hierarchy does not grasp a very important fact. Only since the 20th century has it had to deal with a widely educated congregation, both in the United States and Europe. To expect such a group of educated believers to blindly submit to the opinions of old white men in Rome simply isn’t reasonable.

Twenty-five years ago, the cry of Wall Street and of a good many right-leaning Republicans was “Get the government off our backs!” We did. We rescinded regulation and trusted to the morality of the marketplace. Welcome to 2008, folks.

In 1967, David Ben Gurion, the first leader of post-independence Israel, told a bunch of headstrong young bucks, fresh from a shockingly easy victory over the Arabs, that Israel must return the captured lands back to the Palestinians. Just think of the pain and suffering that might have avoided if the Israelis had taken the advice to heart.

And speaking of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict-they’ve both done a wonderful job of proving the old biblical injunction, An Eye For an Eye … to be totally fraudulent.

I surely recognize the complex security problems that Israel faces. Israel is a free and democratic society surrounded by enemies. I also know that if I were a Palestinian, I would use every means possible to fight back against the inhumane, de-humanizing strong-arm tactics of the Israelis used against my people for the past 60 years.

How the hell are our local governments going to contend with the current pothole crisis all around metropolitan Chicago? If you want to destroy your front end, just drive past Kiddieland on

Terrorists can never bring down the United States. But our official indifference to the true needs of the country surely will. All those turbaned fellows should lay down their rockets, sit back and watch. I feel sorry for whichever senator claims the presidency.

I’ve never known our national priorities to be so wrong-headed. And while we’re at it, let’s build some more ICBMs.

Anyone who knows me will report that I am a liberal. True. But when I lay down my First Principles, I surely sound like a traditional conservative:

Rule One – the government should only do that which the citizenry cannot accomplish privately.

Rule Two – government is best and most efficient at the most local level possible.

Rule Three … well, I could go on for a long time-you get the idea. The only problem with these true and wonderful principles is that we live in an extremely complex, urbanized and technological society. For so many issues, the federal government is the only entity capable of handling the job. That’s why civics is such an important, but neglected, school subject.

For a democracy to function well, it requires a strong middle class with wealth and opportunity spread broadly. Unfortunately, our country has been headed in the wrong direction for too many years. And the pace is accelerating.

All nights give way to dawn. As of this writing, it is only 277 days until George Bush permanently retires to Crawford, Texas. May he have a full and happy life and may he never be seen off the ranch again. I am sure there have been equally inept administrations in our nation’s history. They just didn’t have the opportunity to cause the colossal damage inflicted on this country and on the world by the Bush administration. What a God-awful disaster!