An asylum for the preservation of illusion.

Seeing Green

I've added pictures to the Other Cities section. Specifically, in Milwaukee, Kenosha, Racine, and Waukegan from my bike ride to Milwaukee. I've added a subdirectory to the Loop neighborhood featuring the traditional dying of the Chicago Rive for St. Patrick's Day this year.

Thanks to a reader I also fixed a spelling error in the name of one of the neighborhoods (Montclare).

I also have a set of pictures from the war protest this year that are still being edited.

Hello, Dimitry?

Tonight on WBEZs pre-election coverage (which was surprisingly useful) was interviewing a representative of the Cook County Board of Elections about the new gee-wizz voting machines when a caller asked a pointed and topical question. Does there exist, he asked, a way for the new video touch-screen voting machines to produce a paper trail that will allow for an audit or recount of election results?

There has been a large amount of concern over this issue. Why is it that voting machines from such companies as Diebold do not include paper trails when Diebold consumer products — from ATM machines to grocery store checkout counters — have such features. Moreover, why do we need such complicated voting systems at all?

Do You Feel Sufficiently Patronized Yet?

A while back, the CTA created a plan to reroute the Douglas Branch of the Blue Line up to the Green Line and around the Loop. This means that there would be trains between 54/Cermak and The Loop rather than 54/Cermak and O'Hare. The plan was announced without public input and community reactions were fiercely negative. A great deal of noise came from UIC, where students wouldn't be able to use the L as a shuttle between East and West campuses, but even "real" residents of the neighborhood were angry, principally over the lost one-seat ride to O'Hare.

At the time I believed it was a good plan, and I still do, but I was working on other political things with the CTA and saw their poor handling of the Blue Line situation as being a mirror of our experiences with them. They are arrogant, presumptive, and heavy handed. At any rate, the plan fell apart and the CTA had to slink away with its tale between its legs.

Catholicism Is Not Just About Abortion

Catholic Democrats in Congress have issued a statement on the effect of their religion on their political views. They use the Clinton era line on abortion, that they will seek to minimize if not criminalize it, but primarily focus on how the Democratic message meshes with Catholic morality: care for the poor and the sick, avoiding unjust war, and ensuring education.

As badly needed as such a statement is, the problem is that it's not just Republicans who are trying to overemphasize abortion. The Church itself (at least, the American Catholic Bishops, as the Vatican has remained more holistic) has developed a laser-like political focus on abortion. The theology behind this is called "disqualifying issues." The idea is that there are some issues that are so central to Catholic teaching that someone who ignores them is irredeemably morally wrong no matter how many other values they uphold. As long as "disqualifying issues" remains the line of the American church, Catholic Democratic politicians can continue to expect virulent attacks by Church leaders.