McHenry County Blog

When I pulled my Chicago Tribune out of the plastic bag and put it on the kitchen counter, you see what I saw:

From my point of view, this is where ads are placed to interfere with my reading the front page. Usually I just rip them off.

This time my political antennae went up as I read the first part of President Ronald Reagan’s famous TV debate question:

“Are you better off now

Why would that be on the front page of the Tribune the day for President Barack Obama’s second Inauguration Ceremony?

As I turned the paper over, I read the rest of the question:

than you were 4 million years ago?”

Down at the bottom in much, much smaller type was “The Croods.”

Turns out it has nothing to do with Obama, but is promoting a movie called “The Croods” coming out on March 22nd.

I’ve seen copy cat bumper sticker from the one below that Bush-haters displayed during his last term in office didn’t predict the future.

I can’t find it now, but I did find this anti-Barack Obama T-shirt:

Obama was privately sworn in today. The public ceremony will be held tomorrow.

Since it’s a school holiday for Martin Luther King’s birthday, I guess school kids won’t be treated to watching the Inauguration.

Here are the details:

Don’t forget the third debate party is tomorrow night. As in the past food will be served. There will also be a cash bar.

Third Debate Watching Party

Tuesday, October 16th
7:00 – 10:00 PM
Corkscrew Bistro
1402 N. Riverside Dr.
McHenry

Here’s this weekend’s homework for Crystal Lake Catholics who attend St. Thomas Catholic Church on Route 176.

President Obama: An Opponent Of Catholicism?

By Msgr. Eric Barr, Vicar General & Chancellor, Diocese of Rockford

Step with me into the area of controversy and consider the provocative question of whether President Barak Obarna is an opponent of Catholicism and its values. As our government bent upwards and sideways last week to appease the darkness that is radical Islanr, apologizing and even going wobbly on the issue of free speech, I thought a bit about how the president and his govemrnent is treating Catholics and their views.

For your consideration:

First abortion rights.

Not only is the president a fierce proponent of abortion on demand, he is also for something that should horrify not only Catholics but all people of good will. Not once, not twice, but three times as an Illinois senator, Obama opposed the “Bom Alive Infant’s Protection Act,” which stated that babies born after abortions are persons and must be given care.

His opposition was a patent endorsement of infanticide – the murder of children. There has never been an abortion restriction that he has endorsed. He is not simply pro-choice; rather, he is an activist in the strongest sense, diametrically opposed to the most obvious moral stance taken by Catholicism.

Second, the humiliation of Cardinal Dolan over the health care act.

During a White House meeting between the cardinal and the president Obama promised the cardinal that he would protect churches and religions and the consciences of those in Obamacare, not forcing them to go against their beliefs in any way.

The HHS mandate forcing Catholics and others to pay for birth control abortifacients, and sterilization in their employees’ healthcare plans showed his prornise to be false and the “compromise” he suggested simply doubled down on his belief that the Constitution provides only for freedom of worship (inside church buildings) and not freedom of religion (a broader concept that allows people of faith to act publicly).

Third, his continued prevarication, i.e., lying, about freedom of religion.

Just this past Monday, the president made a video on religious liberty. The HilI reports that Obama, “made a campaign pitch to ‘people of faith’ in which he reaffirmed his ‘commitment’ to this value saying ‘The American people should know this: In a changing world, my commitment to protecting religious liberty is and always will be unwavering-’” He goes on talking about protecting people’s consciences – something he has no intention of ever doing. Meanwhile, Obamacare marches on; steamrolling Catholic morality and the First Amendment under its weight. How can that be tolerated by citizens?

These statements and attitudes by the president become even more breathtaking when weighed with the passion and determination the administration has shown trying to soothe outraged Muslims who are not even citizens of our country.

The rioting mobs around the world are kowtowed to and the precious sensibilities of their belie{s are put on the front burner even as they kill and harm others. Nothing jusfifies this peculiar and unreal stance of the president.

But these are the times we live in, when truth is sacrificed for expediency and a hostile stance – we could even call it a hatred – toward religion and Catholicism in particular grows in our country. Ifs persecution without rack and pyre, but perhaps those are coming too, if men and women of integrity, regardless of faith do not stand up for religious liberty.

September 21 , 2012, Observer Newspaper

A movie I went to Schaumburg last Friday to see is coming to Crystal Lake and other AMC theaters in the Chicago area, including Round Lake and South Barrington.

It’s called “Obama’s America 2016.”

The scholar-president of King’s College in New York City, Dinesh D’Souza, wrote a book on the same subject as the movie entitled, ‘The Roots of Obama’s Rage.”

D’Souza interviews various folks from Obama’s youth in a calm voice, asking questions that seemed pretty neutral to me.

He attempts to discover Obama’s world veiw.  “Welt Anschauung,” of you are into German.

D’Souza does it from an immigrant’s point of view.  He said that had he stayed in India, as his family wished, he probably would have spent his life within one mile of where he was born.

He is the same age as the President, was married in the same year and has about the same color skin, as he points out.

D’Souza concludes that Obama has adopted an anti-colonial view as a result of his father’s views and that of other males he knew while he was growing up.

And that Obama considers the United States one of the colonial nations.

The is reflected in many of the President’s decisions, D’Souza argues, running from increasing the national debt to decreasing the number of nuclear bombs in the country.

I think I would have to see the movie again to be able to articulate the author’s take on how Obama’s upbringing affects his policy decisions.

And I may do that Friday night at the Crystal Lake movie theater.

The graphic of various counties around the world showing the number of nuclear weapons for each and Obama’s goal to reduce our inventory to 300 from 1,500 brought the thought that world politics would be very much like those in Bismark’s time–a Balance of Power situation with many nations having roughly equal power and coalitions deciding winners and losers on the world military stage.

The interview with Obama’s half brother in Kenya, who lives in a hut about five feet wide was oh, so politically correct, at least at first.

As if reading from a script he answered the question about why Obama did not help him raise his economic status by saying that Obama had his own family to take care of.

Then, not so politically correct, he voiced his view that the British had left Kenya too soon.

He pointed to South Korea, South Africa and Chili as countries with similar economies when the British left Kenya.

Now, he observed that all but Kenya had made it out of Third World (not his phrase) status.

Quite a counterpoint to D’Souza’s take on Obama’s views.

= = = = =
Short bio of Dinesh D’Souza

Born in Mumbai, India Dinesh D’Souza has truly lived the American Dream. He moved to the United States to attend Dartmouth College and upon graduation he went to work in the Reagan White House as a policy analyst.

He has been a fellow of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University and the American Enterprise Institute. He is also the author of the New York Times Bestseller The Roots of Obama’s Rage. His other book titles include the popular

• What’s So Great About Christianity,
• Letters to a Young Conservative, and
• The End of Racism

He is a popular speaker and has appeared on Hannity, The Colbert Report, Glenn Beck and Politically Incorrect.

I guess Congressman Joe Walsh has nothing to lose by continuing to carry the fight to President Barack Obama.

Today I opened the Chicago Sun-Times and found an article on page three entitled,

Walsh: Obama ‘isn’t
smart enough’ to
be called a ‘tyrant’

Certainly Walsh knows that Illinois has been labeled the “bluest,” that is, the state most likely to vote to re-elect Obama.

What’s his strategy?

Tammy Duckworth, Walsh’s Democratic Party opponent, is mentioned in the article, but clearly Walsh is positioning himself to make the case against the President.

Maybe it’s a good thing, since I couldn’t even get a bumper sticker at the Republican State Convention to cover up my McCain one from four years ago.

Monday morning at a Barrington Park District facility, Mark Beaubien’s widow Dee Beaubien had a formal kick-off to her quest to gather 1,500 good signatures (3,000 being the goal) to get on the fall ballot as an Independent to run against Republican Dave McSweeney.

Not knowing the park behind the library, I had done some research on how to find the place, but it was still past the 10 o’clock announced starting time when I arrived at Jewel Tea Pavilion in Citizen’s Park.

Even so, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to look at license plates and bumper stickers in the isolated parking lot east of the meeting place.

The first I saw had the number 64, that of my old legislative district. I made a wild guess that it belonged to the woman who defeated me in the 2000 GOP primary, Rosemary Kurtz.

That didn’t really surprise me since Dee and Rosemary have similar philosophies.

For some reason, the Chevy with the Obama 2012 and the Turn Off Fox bumper stickers caught my attention.

Then I thought, of course, Democrats will be supporting Dee Beaubien because there is no Democratic Party candidate running for State Rep. in the 52nd House District.

I walked past the back ends of some other cars.

There was a retired legislator plate with “BC.”

No mystery there.

Former State Rep. Beth Coulson, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress to replace Mark Kirk, still had a “Beth Coulson for State Rep.” bumper sticker on her bumper.

Moving along, I found a bumper sticker on a car bought in Highland Park that said, “GOBAMA.”

Good play on words, I thought.

Another Obama 2012 was on the back of a black vehicle.

Above it was an Evanston Township High School sticker.

Below was one I just focused on.

When I did, it made me smile.

“I ride inside.  DogsAgainstRomney.com” with a photo of a dog whose breed I should recognize, but don’t.

A Volvo sported a round “Obama 2012″ sticker on its bumper. It was bought in Barrington.

A Ford Taurus has four bumper stickers.

Two were “Obama 2012″ ones.

One was stuck over a “Women for Obama” sticker, probably from 2008.

And, on the right hand side of the bumper was a “Melissa Bean for Congress” bumper sticker.

And, finally, a Toyota bought in Arlington Heights had a handmade poster in its back window touting workers’ rights in Wisconsin:

A friend of McHenry County Blog attends the Church of the Holy Apostles in McHenry. He told me of how its priest had talked about.  Here is what he took away from last weekend’s service.

The first reading heard around the world in the Catholic Church for Sunday, March 4, 2012 was taken from Genesis 22. It was the story of Abraham preparing to sacrifice his son Isaac to God.

Of course, God stayed Abraham’s hand at the last moment and counted his actions as righteous.

At the Church of Holy Apostles in McHenry, Father Robert Sherry took some of his homily time to focus on the current state of affairs in Church-state relations.

Asking those gathered if the story of Abraham preparing to kill his own son horrified them, he followed-up by recalling the story of Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, IL.

Unfortunately this hospital with the very name of Christ had regularly practiced what came to be known as “Live-Birth Abortion” in which a child who happened to escape death during a botched abortion attempt would be left unattended with no medical care or treatment in a laundry closet until the baby died a cold and lonely death.

As a result of an expose by former Christ Hospital nurse Jill Stanek, the Illinois Legislature drafted a bill called the Born Alive Infant Protection Act (BAIPA).

Father Sherry stated that then-State Senator Barack Obama voted against BAIPA time and again, each time it came up for a vote in committee or on the senate floor.

This same former Illinois State Senator who saw such little value in human life of course is now President of the United States and is forcing employers throughout the country to pay for contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs.

Despite the fact that the Catholic Church views contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs as SIN, it will fall under the term of “employer” with its Churches, hospitals, and schools and under the law will be required to provide them to all employees.

I applaud Father Sherry and his willingness to speak the truth boldly and without fear.

Our great nation is splintered into factions of Democrat, Republican, Tea Party, Occupy Movement, Liberal, Socialist, Progressive, Conservative, Traditionalist, Constitutionalist … the list goes on and on …

Our nation, our people, We the People once were able to live secure in the knowledge that the United States Constitution will provide Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Freedom to Peaceably Assemble and to Petition the Government for a Redress of Grievances.

We now see tyranny at the highest level of government as the President of the United States is stripping the Church of its freedom by “prohibiting the free exercise” of the Church and by forcing it to take an active role in the deaths of innocent children by providing contraceptives and abortifacients to its employees.

Although the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which would have given the Church the ability to opt-out of providing drugs or services which it objects to on moral or religious grounds failed in a largely party-line vote, please take the time to contact your legislators to show support for the U.S. Constitution and the freedoms contained within and ask them to provide a solution to this constitutional crisis.

• Senator Mark Kirk (312) 886-3506
• Senator Dick Durbin (312) 353-4952
• Congressman Joe Walsh (847) 973-9341
• Congressman Don Manzullo (815) 356-9800
• Congressman Peter Roskam (630) 893-9670
• Congressman Randy Hultgren (630) 232-7104

This morning on the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times is the headline,

“CARDINAL DEFIES OBAMA ON BIRTH CONTROL”

All capital letters.

This comes one day after the Chicago Tribune reported Obama’s popularity in Illinois has improved since last fall.

One might ask, “How’s that trend coming?”

In my analysis of why Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum won every county in the Missouri
primary, I suggested that the Catholic Bishop’s letter, read through his diocese the weekend before the election, might have motivate Catholics to go to the polls (even though it asked for letters).

How better to deliver a message to the President than to vote for the GOP candidate who is most Pro-Life?

It’s not just happening in the Joplin Catholic Church my brother-in-law attends.

At St. Thomas in Crystal Lake, I arrived early to register voters and heard part of the homily by Monsignor Daniel Hermes.

He was talking about the controversial decision by the Obama Administration.

I didn’t catch the exact words in the first part of the sentence, but the thrust was that he could see something good coming out of “all the stupid stuff coming out of the Federal government now.”

Immediately after, John McFadden, a teen in the congregation spoke movingly of his trip to Washington to take part in the Pro-Life march. He said he wanted to be able to tell his children that “when I was a kid I stood up for something.”

Parishioners fill the pews at this five o’clock service. I was told it was because the Super Bowl was the next day.

When I inquired if the youth spoke at every service, the Monsignor told me that there was a different teen speaking at each mass.

This was the second shot at the President at St. Thomas in two week.

The following letter from Rockford Diocese Bishop Thomas Doran was read the weekend before.

He writes of  “an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts the Church in the United States directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to religion liberty for all citizens.”

Doran points out that about 25% of Americans are Catholic.

He identifies the objectionable mandate as being forced to provide “sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs and contraception.”

The Bishop says that unless the ruling is overruled Catholics will have to either violate their consciences or “drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so).”

Among those penalties would be the forcing of Catholic citizens to buy health coverage containing the objectionable “services.”

“We cannot–and we will not–comply with this unjust law.  People of faith cannot be made second-class citizens.”

There’s more, of course, some along the lines of the Missouri Bishop’s letter.

The point to be made is that this was part of a one-two punch in Crystal Lake.

The Chicago Cardinal’s roundhouse makes three.

Here’s the scoop from Defend the Vote‘s Sharon Merconi:

“The past couple of days were very busy!

“As workers in the political field know all too well, the period just after filing for the ballot is a crazy time in the election cycle.”

Here’s what happened last Wednesday with Meroni, Cleveland and Boulton v Obama:

[It] “is a direct challenge to Mr. Obama’s application for ballot placement in the March 20, 2012 Illinois Primary, based on defects in his signature petitions. The Objectors withdrew their challenge on Wednesday January 25th.

“President Obama’s filed application for the Illinois Primary was surprisingly sloppy, as the signature petitions had numerous defects.

“The President filed the maximum limit of 5000 signatures, and needed 3000 valid ones to get on the Illinois ballot.

“By law, petitions must be consecutively numbered; he had a 20 page gap.

“Some petitions were missing the circulator signature, and some were not notarized.

“More importantly, our preliminary review indicated a higher than expected number of signatures were not by registered Illinois voters, as is required.

“Only this objection would attack enough signatures to potentially keep Mr. Obama off the ballot.

“The others were valid, but insufficient in scope of signatures to block him from the ballot.

“Bottom line, he must have 3000 valid signatures out of 5000 filed, and we had only 7 calendar days to conduct a review.

“Right off the bat, we lost two days by the fact that our order for ballot petitions was ‘mishandled’ by the ISBE.

“Near the close of business on Friday, January 6, 2012, we received 60 disks of ballot petitions of various candidates as requested, but upon return to the office we found that the disk for Barack Obama’s petitions was . . . BLANK!!!

“The difference was crucial to our efforts to review the Obama petitions with a sound and double-checked database analysis. As it was, we filed the Objection to the Obama petitions with seven minutes to spare at 4:53 pm on January 13, 2012.

“During the records review of the petition signatures, held at Illinois State Board of Election offices in downtown Chicago, ISBE clerks called ‘Checkers,’ rule on each challenged voter signature on a line by line basis though comparison with ISBE records on computer screens.

“In this case, over 3,000 individual reviews had to occur.

“On respective sides of the Checker are single representatives of each party, who notes each ruling, and asserts the party’s position.

“After six hours of checking at eight computer terminals, a substantial ongoing effort by 40 Board employees and volunteers, we determined in the final stages of the records check that Mr. Obama had reclaimed sufficient signatures to cross the 3000 mark required for ballot placement.

“Through close review and extensive use of pocket calculators, we had to face the mathematical reality that the President was certain to prevail on the challenge, and consequently instructed our counsel to file papers to withdraw the Objection to avoid using additional hours of effort and time.

“No further action will follow.”