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September 2026

September 10, 2026

A September 11th Reflection

Cross-posted from my "campaign" website due to general interest. Back in August, in looking at...

August 2026

August 14, 2026

Illinois’ Assisted Suicide Law is, yes, literally deadly

Cross-posted, with edits, from my "campaign" website due to the general nature of the topic....

July 2026

July 12, 2026

Revising the “Disability [Pride] Flag”

It's Disability Pride Month, as declared by various disability activist organizations, such as The Arc...

June 2026

June 30, 2026

In which I comment on the Supreme Court decisions

Lots of big Supreme Court decisions issued in the past couple days, and, yes, for...

April 2026

April 30, 2026

Is there a fix for gerrymandering?

Right now, there's an escalating tit-for-tat battle, with each of Republicans and Democrats accusing the...

April 05, 2026

Are 28% of Americans truly functionally illiterate?

That's the quickie headline for a long read-through of the 2023 PIAAC report. This study,...

March 2026

March 08, 2026

About Amelia Wittkoetter (for Women’s History Month)

The photograph you see here has no date on it. On the back is written,...

February 2026

February 28, 2026

RIP, newspapers. RIP, Facebook. What next?

For most of my adult life, I was a subscriber to the Chicago Tribune. That...

January 2026

January 24, 2026

What about the Holocaust-denying Republicans?

The numbers are concerning, to say the least, in a poll released last month by...

December 2025

December 31, 2025

“Heritage Americans”? No, WEIRD people.

There's been a whole debate raging on twitter recently, in which one side says, "anyone...

November 2025

November 28, 2025

From the library: Believe, by Ross Douthat

With the subtitle, Why Everyone Should be Religious. Is it a perfect book? No. If...

November 28, 2025

Bonus pre-Advent commentary on The Visitation

Why is this "bonus" commentary? Merely because this is an angle that I don't really...

October 2025

October 21, 2025

Just how high will whooping cough prevalence increase?

My last post, I labelled as a "rediscovered draft." But sometimes I click on an...

October 19, 2025

Missing the point of suburban bike-friendliness

Every now and again, I scroll through the drafts to see what I had written...

October 02, 2025

Are Mormons Christian?

Are Mormons Christian? That’s the question that’s been under discussion on twitter, triggered by the...

July 2025

July 21, 2025

The moral response to immigration enforcement: negotiation

Next Sunday's reading, it turns out, is a timely one: the first part of the...

July 04, 2025

Actually, Card. Cupich is hurting, not helping, immigrants

This is the message that Cardinal Cupich plays on repeat: immigrants have done nothing wrong;...

June 2025

June 25, 2025

Why Second-Order Effects Matter (local politics edition)

Several years ago, it was my suburb's turn to debate the question of flying the...

June 03, 2025

Is Cardinal Cupich Failing the Archdiocese of Chicago?

Cardinal Cupich's KPIs Key Performance Indicators, that is. Look, Cardinal Cupich, as Archbishop of the...

May 2025

May 25, 2025

Pope Leo XIV, Dolton, and a changing Chicagoland

Our new pope is from Chicago. Or maybe not, depending on definitions. After all, his...

May 06, 2025

The Hubris of Suburbia, Arlington Heights edition

Here's some brief background: For a century, give or take, Arlington Heights, IL, a sleepy...

April 2025

April 30, 2025

Illinois Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance? Ugh, no!

The state of Illinois is coming to the close of the legislative session. Some bills,...

April 06, 2025

What are YOUR legislators up to? A report from Illinois

First, the background: In Illinois, the city of Chicago has long been dominated by Democrats,...

March 2025

March 31, 2025

Why are American mobile phone plans so expensive?

Why am I writing about mobile phones? Bear with me . . . First, the...

March 22, 2025

What does the Pope really think about “just war”?

Going on three years ago, in an interview on June 20, 2022, Pope Francis in...

February 2025

February 28, 2025

Do you have a “Third Place”?

For various reasons, I've been thinking more about local issues than national politics these days...

February 23, 2025

What’s good and what’s bad about the Illinois Homeschool Act

The state of Illinois has, at present, a very unregulated approach to homeschooling: you want...

January 2025

January 19, 2025

The ERA of 1972 no longer exists in 2024

So on Friday, President Joe Biden declared that the Equal Rights Amendment is henceforth adopted,...

January 05, 2025

Dear Cardinal Cupich: enough with endless Capital Campaigns!

From 2014 to 2015, the Archdiocese of Chicago ran a capital campaign called To Teach...

January 05, 2025

How “Blind Spots” are driving up medical costs – and worse

Yes, I just finished Marty Makary's new book, the topic of which is clear from...