WGN's Dean Richards Blasts Tribune's Anti-Palin Bias

WGN's Dean Richards

If there were any lingering doubt as to the depths to which the Chicago Tribune has sunk in its bias against ideas and personalities conservative, it was put to rest this morning by the Tribune Corporation's own Dean Richards.

On his Sunday morning WGN radio arts show, Richards excoriated the Tribune editorial scribes for bastardizing his Sunday Tribune Arts column with an overtly misleading and what he termed "mean spirited" anti-Palin headline.

Richards conducted an interview with four time Oscar nominee, Julianne Moore. In the print interview, he questioned her on her role in the new comedy, "Crazy Stupid Love."

Julianne Moore

Four paragraphs later in the article, he questioned Moore regarding her portrayal of former vice-Presidential candidate, Sara Palin in the TV movie, "Game Change."

With this body of copy a Tribune headline writer came up with the headline for Dean's column, "Moore talks 'Crazy, Stupid, Love' and playing Sarah Palin."

On his radio broadcast, Richard's was uncharacteristically furious. "The headline completely misrepresented my article -- it was mean spirited and not the right thing to do," Richards said.

"You can see why people would say the Tribune is biased when they do things like that and some people will look only at the headline and think that Dean Richards is a biased cheap shot artist, " he said.

Richards said that he fired off an e-mail to Tribune editorial personnel asking for an explanation and asking for the name of the headline writer.

Sara Palin

He had not yet received an answer at the time of his Sunday morning broadcast.

"I am no fan of Sara Palin and people who know me know that, Dean Richards said. "But this was just not the right thing to do."

I'm eagerly waiting for the next liberal Tribune apologist to predictably summon up the ghost of Colonel McCormick and tell us that the Tribune editorially endorses lots of Republicans so it really is Chicago's right-wing paper.

Fact is the Chicago Tribune has become a dissembling left-wing rag. And now, even some of its few remaining intellectually honest employees are admitting as much.

"Progress Illinois" Blasts Durbin For Walmart Ties

Chicago's Lefties Still Hate Walmart

Progress Illinois, the voice of zany leftism in the state, reacted to yesterday's opening of the first Walmart in Chicago by reaffirming their call to boycott Walmart and blasting lefty U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin for his ties to the firm.

After long opposition from organized big-labor in Chicago, Walmart finally gained City Council approval to open here and it did so yesterday in the impoverished black Chatham neighborhood.

At a smaller than usual 10k sq. ft. "Walmart Express"  it will provide there, among many other things, discount groceries and fresh produce in an area long lamented by Chicago's libs as a "grocery desert."

And at the new store, Walmart gave jobs to 50 people selected from a pool of neighborhood applicants in high-unemployment Chatham.

Apparently that's not good enough for the loony lefties at Progress Illinois. On their website yesterday they restated their call for a consumer boycott of Walmart and even blasted their champion, Senator Dick Durbin for his ties to the evil corporate giant:

Likes Walmart's Campaign Cash

"Walmart has announced it is donating $20 million to charities and opening several dozen new stores in Chicago area; this is no surprise since records show repeated contact and donations from Walmart PAC to Sen Dick Durbin; Two of Durbins  (sic) former aides, are now lobbyists for the top Democratic powerhouse firm Podesta Group, which lobby's (sic) for Walmart."

Walmart just can't win with Chicago's lefties. If it gave away all of the contents of it's Chatham Walmart Express for free, Progress Illinois would blast them for "cultural insensitivity" for insulting Chatham's residents with handouts.

I wonder, will Dick Durbin move to make amends and mollify his pals over at Progress Illinois by returning all his campaign cash from Walmart?

Don't hold your breath waiting for that one.

Cook County Board May Free Illegal Aliens From County Jail Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning the Cook County Board will consider Commissioner Jesus Garcia's (D-Chi) bill to require the county jail to release illegal aliens being held for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unless they have been convicted of a felony or two misdemeanors.

Currently Cook County jail remands 6 illegal aliens a day over to ICE.

This is the latest in the effort of Chicago multiculturalists and open borders enthusiasts to nullify American immigration laws locally.

Latino-centric pol, Garcia

This comes on top of Cook County Sheriff, Tom Dart's July 11th announcement that he was unilaterally looking into legal ways that his office could cease co-operation with ICE.

According to WBEZ radio, if Dart suspends enforcement of immigration laws or if Garcia's bill should pass, it would make Cook County the largest local government entity in the nation to be in non-compliance with US law.

And Garcia's new bill also comes on top of Cook County State's Attorney, Anita Alverez' March 25th decision to evict ICE from the Cook County Court Building, where it had been assessing the immigration status of arrestees and putting a "hold order" on those found to be illegally here.

Sheriff Tom Dart: Cultural Marxist?

The elected Chicago pols who are opposed to enforcement of US immigration laws are undermining them in a manner that can only be described as "death by 1,000 cuts."

Tomorrow morning, the Cook County Board of Commissioners, should it pass Jesus Garcia's de facto local amnesty, could deliver the local coup de grace to our duly constituted immigration laws.

Oh, by the way. The last person to be put on hold for deportation before Alvarez kicked ICE out of the courthouse was one Marek Tomaszewska.

He was arrested for attempted murder for beating his ex-girlfriend into an inch of her life. He pushed her to the ground and repeatedly kicked her in the face. He had a previous battery conviction in this country. He is eligible for deportation and is being held at the Cook County jail.

He could be the last deportee from Chicago.

NEWS UPDATE 11/27/11 -- At 11th hour during the Wednesday morning Cook County Board meeting, Mr. Garcia announced that he was withdrawing the bill from consideration in order to "rethink it." Apparently this San Francisco-styled amnesty plan was a trifle too zany for even the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

Reagan's Cold War Victory Complete: American Culture Prevails At Eurovision 2011

Reagan Led US to Victory
Over the Soviet Union

This December 26th, it will be a full 20 years since Ronald Reagan led the US to complete victory over the Soviet "Evil Empire." 

To look at the recent 2011 Eurovision Song Competition, our victory is every bit as thorough as that of Rome over Carthage.

The winning entry in that iconic pan-European competition was a duo from the former Soviet state of Azerbaijan who sang a completely American-styled pop song in almost perfect Midwestern American English.

The Euro song winners were a couple calling themselves ELL/Nikki. They prevailed with a song called, "Running Scared," (not Roy Orbison's classic American rock version.)

Their vocal offering would seamlessly fit into the playlist of any contemporary pop radio station, anywhere in America.

ELL/Nikki: 2011 Eurovision Victors
From Former Soviet Azerbaijan


Following is a video of the performance which won the May 14th competition among 25 European nations in Dusseldorf, Germany for best European song.

It's sung in English -- American English.

Foreigners may heap criticism on the US -- but it is obviously a cloak for their deep seated envy of America.

The current dumbo-eared occupant of the White House may run around the world apologizing for America's greatness and power, and of course, he just doesn't get it.

They all really still want to be like us. Here's the winner for Best European Song of 2011:

Voucher Opponent Emanuel To Send Kids To Elite Private School

Zachariah, Ilana and Leah Emanuel
will be insulated from Chicago's crappy schools

Our Liberal Democrat Mayor Rahm Emanuel became more than a little testy when asked by NBC's Mary Ann Ahern as to whether he was sending his children to the gold-plated, private University of Chicago Lab School.

"What I do as a father is separate from what I do as a public official," he whinnied.

In other words, as a father, Rahm Emanuel thinks that the Chicago public schools stink. But as a public official, in debt to the powerful teachers unions, he thinks they're just fine.

He chose private schools for his kids.

He says everybody else should have no choice but to suffer the hideous Chicago Public schools.

You see Emanuel opposes voucher school choice systems that would enable parents to use their school tax monies to send their kids to good private schools like his kids. He opposes school choice because the teachers unions do. Education big-labor could never abide vouchers, because the rotten schools they operate would be out of business in very short order.

Emanuel is hardly the first liberal hypocrite to hide his kids away at Ritzy, safe, competent private schools while singing the praises of public education for the plebians.

Public school boosters, Barack Obama, Al Gore, Jesse Jackson, the Kennedys and 40% of Chicago Public school teachers send their own kids to good private schools.

If you live in Chicago and desire a decent education for your kids, you do however have a choice. Just bring money -- lots of it:

University of Chicago Lab School

University of Chicago Lab School
Schedule of Tuition 2011-2012 School Year

Grade -- Yearly Tuition 

Nursery School (Half Day)
$14,814                       
Nursery/Kindergarten(Full Day)
$21,060                         
Grades 1 - 4
$21,876                       
Grades 5 - 8
$23,676                    
Grades 9 - 12
$24,870                      

Summer Music 1966: Banned in Chicago

Pope Paul VI lauds Cardinal Cody
for banning Lou Christie's 1966 summer hit

It's just too hot to even think about Chicago politics. So it's a perfect time for our annual Chicago Lampoon summer song fest.

This year I'll include one that was banned from the Chicago airwaves.

When I posted my favorite summer songs last year, I didn't realize that 2 were from the summer of 1966. Frank Sinatra's "Summer Wind," hit #1 that year and the Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City" hit was the #4 top seller of 1966.

Since we'll almost certainly have another thunderstorm tonight,  for good measure, this year, I thought I'd throw in another favorite from the summer of '66, Lou Christie's Rhapsody in the Rain which reached #16.

It would have done a lot better on the charts, but the Catholic Cardinal of Chicago in 1966, John Cardinal Cody, had it banned from airplay on WLS and WCFL -- the two major pop stations at the time, in the nation's 2nd largest market.

Seems the Cardinal thought that the rhythmic windshield wipers while "makin' out in the rain" and "makin' love in the storm," were just a little too morally corrosive for our young souls.

Anyway here are the summer sounds of 1966.

Maybe they'll help mitigate the Chicago's 99 degree, July 20, 2011 heat a little bit:

Frank Sinatra's #1 1966 hit, The Summer Wind:



The Lovin' Spoonful's #4 1966 hit, Summer in the City:



And Lou Christie's banned, morally corrosive #16 1966 hit, Rhapsody in the Rain:

Illinois Government Workers in Fat City: IPI Report

Gulag-era Kolymian miners

Ever since I began posting complete lists of public school teachers' salaries, I've been getting scores of irate letters from teachers or their union shills.

They have become so tiresome in their predictability.

After characterizing the work of a school marm as being something more grueling than that of the a Gulag-era Kolymian gold miner, they then say that teachers deserve a "living wage" or "a decent salary."

The last one who wrote this, just today, worked at Skokie's Niles West High School where a $230k gym teacher is the highest paid gym teacher in the state, if not the nation. Salaries at her public school in modest Skokie are only surpassed by those in opulent Lake Forest.

And it's just not government school employees.

Today the Illinois Policy Institute released its exhaustive study on public sector v. private sector salaries in Illinois.

Would it surprise you to learn that government employees make lots more?

The Illinois Policy Institute report showed:

---Compensation per state government employee averaged $69,500, which is 23 percent more than the private sector worker average of $56,500. Much of the difference was in employer-paid benefits, which were more than 1.5 times that of private employees. State employees received 16 percent more in wages and salaries than private employees.

---Compensation per local government employee averaged $63,100, which is 12 percent more than the private sector worker average of $56,500. Much of the difference was in employer-paid benefits, which were more than 1.5 times that of private employees. Local government employees received 4 percent more in wages and salaries than private employees.

Take a look at this brief introductory video and then read the synopsis of the IPI study right here.

Then the next time a government worker starts bleating to you about his backbreaking conditions and need for a simple "living wage" ---

-- you'll know what to say.

Hot German Supersongstress Helene Fischer Shrieks Crappy Chick Songs in English

The Euro schlager music superstar Helene Fischer sounds so beautiful in her native German. And to say she is easy on the eyes is a monumental understatement.

But when she chooses English language songs to cover, it seems she has developed a career death wish. Lately, her choices seem to have been just simply godawful.

Eric Carmen was the bane of American men and boys during the 1970s, churning out some of the most maudlin, schlocky, syrupy, downright crappy chick music of all time.

And lo and behold, the gorgeous Helen Fischer decides to cover one of his tunes -- what is possibly in the top 10 list of all-time worst American pop songs -- All By Myself.

Helene Fischer's Musical Advisers

As we used to say on the grammar school playground, while sticking a finger in our mouths for dramatic effect: Barf!! Puke!!

And then apparently, the sadly ill-educated Fraulein (she only ever studied singing, dancing and acting) decided she wants to show her "social conscience" by covering the shrieky, trite "What about us? -- Earth Song" -- popularized by no less a pea-brain than the late pederast, and monkey petter, Michael Jackson.

One begins to wonder who Helene Fischer's career advisers are -- Moe, Larry and Curly?

"Muskrat Love", by the Captain and Teneille, in a CNN poll and several other surveys has been voted by Americans as the stupidest pop song of all time.

With the idiotic selections she's been making in English language songs, look for Helene Fischer to be covering that little gem any day now.

Here is the execrable 1976 Eric Carmen hit, All By Myself:



And here, Fischer dresses up like the LA perve himself, while belting out the asinine, What About Us? (Michael Jackson's Earth Song)

(If you have dogs with sensitive hearing, you may want to let them out in the yard right now as she does some very serious shrieking and howling in this one.)



Give me Helene Fischer's German schlager tunes from a few years back, but please spare me her recent idiotic American pop music selections. The girl needs some serious career counseling. Isn't that supposed boyfriend of hers, Florian Silbereisen, man enough, to slap some sense into her?

(This was reprinted, by permission, from the Chicago Schlager Music Review.)

Rap(e) Fans Prevail Over Feminists, Gays, Whites At Pitchfork Fest

Odd Future: Anti-white, Anti-women, Anti-gay

A major music festival in Chicago this weekend, is showcasing a black rap group, Odd Future, that overtly sings of murdering white girls, raping girls of any racial group, lesbians defecating in synogogues, and beating the hell out of homosexuals.

Oddly there's nary a peep out of Chicago's progessive liberals. In fact, several noted left-leaning groups are financially sponsoring the event.

The 5th annual Pitchfork Music festival is being held today thru July 17th at Union Park on Chicago's West side.

The appearance of the racist, misogynistic, homophobic group is made possible by the event's sponsors: Heineken Beer, Whole Foods Market, WBEZ Chicago Public Radio, The Chicago Reader,Puma, Urban Outfitters, Lifeway Kefir, Zipcar, Emusic, TimeOut Chicago, WXRT radio and several others.

Pitchfork event writer, Sean Fennessey, told the Tribune, "They (Odd Future) rap about raping women. Often."

Here are selected lyrics from the Odd Future rap offering, "Swag Me Out":

"Chillin in class with a bag full of grass
lookin' for a white chick to smoke up and choke up.
I even got that white sniff to come over here and take a whiff
Now you ready to get raped and ate by Mr. Haley?
Imma take your bitch back to my crib
...If you gotta problem bitch, hop on this dick

Nigga don't want you here

so get the fuck out fore I shoot you like a deer.
Two nazi dykes shittin' in a synogogue
Cuz that bitch licks balls from Western to Crenshaw
And her grandma suck dick down in Rimpau
And she masturbates with vaseline and a Ken doll."

Pitchfork spokesman, Ryan Schreiber said, "They are a band that we feel is creative and forward thinking musically."

You can see all of Odd Future's lyrics complete with ebonics translations right here.

Now it is a bit peculiar that the "progressives" in Evanston were a mere two months ago, howling over the sexist misogyny of a businessman who wanted to start an eatery featuring waitresses in sexy "Tilted Kilts."

They indignantly painted pictures of aroused patrons taking to the streets to molest school girls because of the inciteful attire there. They killed that proposal

But no complaints with this black rap group.

And the Chicago Tribune shudders at the thought of mentioning the race of the black mobsters attacking whites on the North side and gays in Boystown.

But no complaints with the overtly anti-white lyrics of this black rap group.

I'm sure that Heineken and Whole Foods and WBEZ Chicago Public Radio have corporate-sponsored seminars on the need for racial sensitivity and respect in the workplace.

But no problem sponsoring this black rap group.

The hypocrisy of the Chicago liberal-progressive establishment is breathtaking.

3 Armed Blacks Invade Home in Lake Forest: Fruits Of Obama Racial Profiling Law

If you've been thinking that maybe you could insulate your family from urban black crime by amassing a pile of money and moving to tony Lake Forest, think again.

The Lake Forest GazeboNews reported yesterday that a gang of three armed and masked black men are sought in connection with the invasion and armed robbery of an occupied home there, July 8th.

According to the report, the armed invaders bound a woman in duct tape and held her at gunpoint while they ransacked the house stealing jewelry and electronics.

The three suspects are still at large.

It's fortunate that Lake Forest's on-line newspaper hasn't the qualms of the censorious PC "reporters" at the Chicago Tribune who refuse to mention the race of offenders or suspects if they happen to be protected minorities.

The  Tribune's Mary Schmich and Dawn Turner Trice have editorialized that reporting such racial identification serves no useful purpose and makes minorities feel bad.

But this event does raise a matter of important public policy.

It is entirely possible that black criminals are now feeling emboldened to prey upon victims in predominately white suburbs due to the 2004 Illinois racial profiling law.

The bill was proposed by Illinois State Senator Barack Obama in 2000 at the urging of the ACLU.

When in the past, suburban police departments such as Lake Forest's would have found some rationale for stopping suspicious looking blacks cruising an affluent neighborhood, today they can't.

In fact, liberal Highland Park, (just South of Lake Forest) hired an independent investigator to monitor all stops of racial minorities there.

No doubt, that has had a chilling effect on police surveillance of prospective criminals there and, as of 2004, throughout the state of Illinois.

If you're a black burglar, robber or other miscreant just go up to Lake Forest, Highland Park or any other North Shore suburb and case the joints. And if you're stopped by the cops and questioned, yell "racial profiling."

And call Barack Obama's Justice Department.

Evanston's Arrington Heirs: Useful Idiots or Just Idiots?

Michael Arrington announces gift
as leftist Mayor Tisdahl lurks in the wings

The children of the late, legendary Republican statehouse leader, W. Russell Arrington announced that they are donating half a million dollars to the bankrupt, leftist City of Evanston.

In return for this they will get their old pappy's name on a lagoon.

Just imagine the caretakers of Ronald Reagan's legacy pouring in funds to bail out an economically mismanaged, socialist Berkeley, California and you get the picture.

Arrington, who was elected from Evanston to the state legislature from 1945 to 1972 -- back when it was a conservative bastion -- was known as Mr. North Shore Republican.

The powerful leader of the Illinois State Senate he was fiscally and socially conservative to the core. An ardent devotee of the staunch anti-communist, Richard M. Nixon, he was tough on crime, tough on drugs, and tough on Democrat machine voter fraud.

Senator W. Russell Arrington

Now his heirs are shelling out a lot of cash to get a lagoon named after him in Evanston.

Evanston is today the Illinois paradigm for leftist social nincompoopery.

It voted 87.14% for Obama in '08. The Evanston Township High School recently jettisoned its advanced honors programs because hardly any blacks and Latinos could qualify. Its City Council is seriously considering banning plastic shopping bags to save the earth. It thwarts business development at every turn. Its government actually has a full time, paid "sustainability director."

And it is going broke.

Evanston's current mayor, an aging feminist Earth Mother named Elizabeth Tisdahl, in a rare moment of candor, actually told the Pioneer Press as much.

"I feel bad having to tell these new city hires about our employee benefits packages, because I know we won't be able to pay for them down the road," she confessed.

Enter the feeble minded offspring of Senator Arrington.

At the end of June, the paunchy diminutive heirs, Michael Arrington and Pat Smythe announced a $500,000 gift to the City of Evanston for improvements to a city-run lakeshore lagoon. It will be named for their father.

Surrounded by Tisdahl and a gaggle of fawning, local lefty pols at the Dawes Park site, the two heirs announced that they had "collectively made the decision."

I always thought that a "collective" consisted of more than 2 parties, but in new-age Evanston, who knows?

So here you have half a million dollars from a foundation named in honor of a prominent, fiercely partisan Republican conservative going to patch leaks in the foundering hull of the state's premier socialist municipality.

Ardent budget-balancer, W. Russell Arrington is surely turning over in his grave.

P. I. Tchaikovsky: First On-line Dating Scam Victim

The Horrors of On-Line Dating

A longtime journalist friend of mine just went thru a scathing divorce and then got scammed by an on-line dating confidence trickster.

Talk about having a bad year.

First the divorce. My friend (let's disguise his name by calling him Jeeve) lost his shirt in a nasty divorce. Jeeve's wife of more than a decade decided she wanted to "find herself." To her that meant leaving Jeeve and taking all his worldly goods.

She retained the legal services of the East Coast equivalent of Gloria Allred and drew the East Coast equivalent of Nurse Ratsched as the presiding judge.

Jeeve, of course, was left with little more than the pants he was wearing and the tattered shreds of his manhood.

Alone now, but ever the optimist, Jeeve jumped right back out there. He signed up with an on-line dating service (bad idea) which specialized in hooking you up with Asian and Russian women (very bad idea.)

In no time at all, Jeeve found, what he thought was the girl of his dreams.

She was a Chinese girl (who wrote English astoundingly well), young, pretty as a lotus blossom and dedicated to the arts of pleasing a man.

Just what the doctor ordered, thought Jeeve, but then the requests for cash started coming. Idiot that he was, he acceded a bit at first but when the $7k tab for airfare (to visit him) arrived, he began to do a little checking.

He discovered that his little lotus blossom was pulling off the same scam with at least four other saps from throughout North America and the Pacific Rim.

Sadder but wiser, Jeeve logged out of this predicament, but not before he vented his spleen on romancescam.com, a site devoted to outing internet con artists.

The site is replete with hundred of such tawdry tales.

Which brings me to the story of how the great composer, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was the first recorded victim of an on-line dating scam.

Saturday Smoking Lounge: Beatles Endorse Marlboro

The famous Marlboro Man

Marlboro is almost certainly the most popular cigarette brand in the world today and it is a little known fact that John Lennon and George Harrison cut an ad for the brand during their Beatlemania heyday.

The ad, shown below, had an obviously low-production value and was an impromptu effort filmed aboard a tour flight.

But at the height of their popularity, anything touched by the Beatles would sell so Philip Morris apparently lived with the reality that the Beatles wouldn't stoop to sit down in a studio and shoot a serious ad.

The Beatles were smokin' in the mid-60s

Ironically, George Harrison blamed his death on his heavy smoking of earlier years and in 2003, U.S. politically correct poster makers, airbrushed the famous cigarette out of Paul McCartney's hand in the Abbey Road poster. This brought down the ire of Apple Inc. which owns the rights to the photo.

John was a heavy smoker to his dying day -- a death that was in no way affected by tobacco use.

Here is the peculiar Beatles Marlboro ad:

Paul McCartney Coming To Chicago: Lock Up The Wives & Daughters

Former Wings front man, Sir Paul McCartney, will be coming to Chicago for two performances at Wrigley Field on July 31st and August 1st.

For $6,200 you will be able to score a front and center seat on the Wrigley outfield grass. The more economy minded will be able to view the event with binoculars from the upper deck nosebleed seats for a mere $170.

The 69 year old author of When I'm 64, Yesterday,  Michelle and countless other pop classics really can't be doing it for the cash.

Despite his most recent costly divorce from the charming Heather "Pegleg" Mills, his net worth was still estimated to be $1.2 billion in 2009. So why is he coming?

I think he's coming for the chicks.

Despite McCartney's meticulously honed PR image as "the cute Beatle", "grieving widower", and "devoted family man" the fact is Sir Paul has (during his past touring days, at least) been as horny and prolific as an alley tomcat.

It was all pretty much covered up by the Beatles' massive publicity machinery at the time, but according to Beatles biographer, Albert Goldman, Paul was the worst of the lot when it came to keeping it in his pants.

He quotes Cynthia Lennon as saying, "Paul was the town bull."

In his very unauthorized 1988 book, The Lives of John Lennon, Goldman chronicles the paternity suits against Paul that cost the Fab Four millions in lost revenue. It seems that McCartney, while on tour, suffered more bimbo eruptions than Bill Clinton during his White House years.

First there was the Anita Cochrane affair.

Paul's Illegitimate English son
Phillip Paul Cochrane with mother Anita

It seems that in 1963, Paul knocked up a 16 year old English groupie leaving her quite preggers. According to Goldman (P.177) the distraught girl repeatedly and fruitlessly tried to contact Paul by letter and telegram to apprise him of the impending birth of their son.

Only when Cochrane's family filed a formal legal paternity action did the millionaire Beatle take notice, offering a paltry $7.50 a week in child support.

Beatles Manager, Brian Epstein, eventually hushed the matter up by settling a $14,000 settlement on the teenage mother in exchange for a (since broken) non-disclosure agreement.

The kid today looks surprisingly like Paul in his prime.

And then there was the Erika Huebers affair.
While performing with the Beatles in Hamburg in '62, Paul had an extended affair with the 19 year old platinum blonde waitress, who gave birth to a daughter in December of that year, alone, in a hostel for impecunious unwed mothers.

According to Goldman (p. 139) the, then unemployed, Huebers pleaded via mail with Paul to send her some money for their daughter. Once again, the "cute Beatle" did the disappearing act, only taking notice when a German court found against him in absentia.

This ended up costing the Beatles big-time, since to avoid having their concert fees garnisheed, the Beatles had to avoid Germany entirely during their peak concert years.

Only in 1966 did the Beatles play Germany again after Paul finally settled with the mother for around $13,000.

(This case was reopened in 2007 with the now 46 year old daughter claiming that McCartney fraudulently faked paternity blood tests.)

The 69 year old McCartney

Word is now that the ever-virile vegetarian is about to embark on his third trip down the matrimonial aisle, sometime this summer with New York millionnaire, Nancy Shevell.

I wonder if the sextagenarian sexual athlete,Paul McCartney, will be spending his waning days of bachelorhood once again sowing his wild oats -- this time here in Chicago.

At 69, I'd guess he'd better bring an ample supply of viagara.

Independence Day in IL 2011 -- Nanny Says Buckle Up in Back

As of '98 Illinois enforced
seatbelt use with roadblocks

Chicagoans got a 4th of July gift from their state government this year in the shape of a new order to wear seat belts in the back seats of their cars.

They can be stopped by police if any back seat rider is seen unbuckled and ticketed and fined.

The latest in the never-ending stream of nanny state ukases went into effect on July 1 after being signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn.

The history of IL government impingement in this little area of liberty is almost a case study of Ronald Reagan's proverbial frog in the simmering cauldron.

In '85, Illinois passed its first seatbelt law, but then it assured citizens that cops would not make traffic stops for this alone and would not issue tickets for this, unless it was noticed in the course of some greater infraction.

All that went by the way in 1998, when the all knowing nannies in Springfield passed a strengthened law making seatbelt usage a stoppable offence.

Today we have seatbelt-check government roadblocks and now this back seat requirement.

The nanny-staters continually whine that these are "common sense safety measures" and maybe they are. But so is coming inside out of the rain and a free citizenry doesn't have government agents to enforce that -- yet.

A masterful study was recently issued by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, which analysed the levels of personal liberty in the 50 American States.

Illinois came in 49th in personal liberties -- behind even ultra-left Massachussetts and New York.

The new backseat buckle law was the brainchild of Chicago State Senator John Cullerton, who over the years seems to have never seen a cause too trivial not to require that it be remedied by decree backed by government force.

Chief nanny, Sen John Cullerton

And Cullerton is re-elected time and again by landslide numbers by the 200,000 sheeple of his North side city of Chicago legislative district.

Will the last patriot there please turn out the lights?

Happy 4th of July, Chicago and be sure to celebrate your independence by buckling everybody up -- or else.