I love Chicago and consider it the best – by far – city of all the cities in the US that I have ever visited. It is a great dream of mine to live there one day. This is why I didn’t appreciate Robert Knight’s article in The Washington Times that gives a horrifying (and might I add completely untrue) picture of my favorite city.

However, my self-righteous indignation over the unfair criticism of Chicago took a step back after I read the concluding passage of the article:

Chicago just sailed by Los Angeles, long considered the most gang-ridden city, in total gang membership with as many as 150,000 street thugs, as reported by the Christian Science Monitor. It’s a safe bet that not many of those young men bought Father’s Day cards in June. Surveying the social and fiscal damage in Chicago, you might honestly conclude that sworn enemies of the United States could not have done a better job of sowing the seeds of internal chaos [emphasis mine].

I often find the journalistic jargon difficult to understand (here, for example, I failed to realize that David Brooks was actually trying to defend Romney rather than ridicule him.) This is why I don’t want to jump to any conclusions before consulting with my readers.

In the quoted passage, do the words marked in bold-type attempt to insult single mothers as only being capable of raising criminals?  Or is the suggestion here that all criminals (at least in Chicago) are immigrants? Because this is a holiday that many other cultures either don’t celebrate. Or does the journalist try to say that Father’s Day cards are a very basic necessity of life and people who can’t afford them must be extremely poor which is what drives them to the life of crime?

Of course, if we analyze the passage within the larger context of the article, we might conclude that the Big Bad Government provides all inhabitants of Chicago with free Father’s Day cards because people in Chicago are so spoiled by governmental munificence that they expect Governor Pat Quinn to buy, sign and mail their cards for them.

Which interpretation do you think is more likely?

P.S. If you suffer from elevated blood pressure, it might be a good idea for you to avoid reading this article. It is very offensive. The paragraph about charity is especially obnoxious. And the paragraph that comes right after it makes me wonder about the author’s mental health.

Do people who exhort everybody to drink tap water actually drink it? I find this impossible to believe because tap water in every place I ever lived was absolutely disgusting. To put  it bluntly, it stinks. In the sense of having a very nasty smell. And it tastes horrible. It’s especially annoying when I go to a restaurant and a waiter plops a glass of this nasty toilet-smelling water right in front of me. I never know if I’m supposed to drink it or wash my feet in it.

Please don’t mention filters because the linked story makes it very clear that the blogger in question drinks tap water in situations where no filters are available:

If you carry a reusable water bottle with you when you go out you can easily refill it as needed. In airports I empty mine out before I go through security and refill it on the other side, and I’m never without a drink when I need it.

I love the environment and everything, but drinking water from an airport toilet seems too extreme.

Pink pens – seriously, people, if pink pens bother you a lot, I suggest you go over the recent legislation introduced into your state’s House of Representatives. That exercise will help you realize that, tragically, women have much bigger problems in this country today than pink pens. I can’t wait for the day when these pens will become the most pressing feminist issue. However, if you are burning with self-righteous anger over them today, I find that ridiculous. And that’s all I want to say about this.

Elections in Quebec – as much as I love Quebec, I believe that these elections are hopeless. Liberals (it’s Canada, people. These are not the same Liberals as we have in the US) are stupid, corrupt, and even more stupid. PQ hates immigrants (argue with me about this if you are an immigrant to Quebec. Otherwise, please hold your peace). CAQ’s platform is filled with lies. And nobody else has a chance. If I were in Quebec right now, I’d vote for the Green Party because at least I don’t despise them. And that’s all I want to say about this.

RNC and DNC – because I see no difference between them and the Oscars and life is too short to waste it on stupid, dishonest speeches made by people who rarely know how to deliver a good public talk. And that’s all I want to say about this.

Labor Day – because several people in my blogroll wrote about it a lot better than I ever could and I don’t want to regale anybody with a bunch of trivialities. And that’s all I want to say about this.

Clint Eastwood and his empty chair speech – because it’s wrong to laugh at the elderly and also because I hate how the only aspects of politics that many people seem to care about are the ones that resemble a bad comedy show. And that’s all I want to say about this.

First day of school – because I’ve already been teaching for 2 weeks and people who had longer holidays make me envious. And that’s all I want to say about this.

Obama’s “You didn’t build that” comment and the resulting backlash – this was a stupid comment to make given the country where it was delivered. A few more comments like this one, coupled with a few more “Polish death camps”, and what used to be a sure-fire election win will start slipping out of Obama’s hands. And that’s all I want to say about this.

This is me, though. Everybody else should feel free to talk about these things in the comments section.