Marathon Pundit

Saturday, September 29, 2007

A.J. Pierzynski signs two year extension with Chicago White Sox

A.J. Pierzynski, the firebrand catcher for the Chicago White Sox and the hero of the 2005 American League Championship Series, agreed to a two year contract extension today.

The two-time all-star is considered one of the most hated players in baseball, but he's the kind of guy you like if he's on your team.

In other Chicago baseball news, that North Side team will clinched the National League Central Division title Friday night.

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Suburban Chicago school renames Halloween "Fall Festival," Christmas "Winter Festival"

In Oak Lawn, Illinois, a southwest suburb of Chicago located near the notorious Bridgeview Mosque, politically correct school administrators are caving in to the demands of a Muslim parent.

From CBS 2 Chicago:

For now, children in Ridgeland School District 122 will celebrate fall festival instead of Halloween and winter festival instead of Christmas.

Brenda Elvidge said, "It's not fair to our kids. This is America and that's an American tradition."

The decision affects the children at four elementary schools in Oak Lawn and one junior high school in Bridgeview.

The district has a 30 percent Arabic population. The superintendent says the reason for the change in tradition comes after one parent wanted Ramadan decorations put up inside Columbus Manor Elementary. They were taken down.

Superintendent Tom Smyth said, "I go back to our policy which says that public schools are to remain neutral in this respect."

Meantime, Arab children are being allowed to pray during what's being called their own time, that's lunch time, during Ramadan.

Parent June Quigley said, "They get to pray in our schools. That is religion in a public school."

Mark my words: Valentine's Day is next.

Oh, have a Happy Fall Festival.

UPDATE October 3: The CBS 2 Chicago article has been radically rewritten, Winston Smith 1984 style, in order, I guess, not to offend anyone.

Related post:

Bridgeview Mosque expansion

Thanks for the link: Freedom Folks

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Friday, September 28, 2007

My Kansas Kronikles: Wetlands and Wildlife Scenic Byway

I traveled through most of Kansas' Scenic Byways during my July trip. Two of those byways are also deemed important enough for recognition by the National Scenic Byways Program. One is the previously blogged about Flint Hills Scenic Byway, the other is the Wetlands and Wildlife route.

This byway roughly surrounds the small city of Great Bend, and it travels through Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. and the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area. Eastern and central Kansas received a lot of rain this summer, which shows a larger Cheyenne Bottom.

Unfortunately I didn't get the name of this prairie stream on the left, which I photographed in Stafford County, on the southern end of the byway.

The waterlogged bounty of the wet summer prevented me from traveling through the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. Flooding closed down that part of the route, so I headed to my next destination, McPherson.

This day of traveling is when I saw, or perhaps noticed, many wildflowers such as these coreopsis, which are common on the Great Plains.

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Ryan Adams hits another sour note

A perform I admire is Ryan Adams. However, he's not someone I'd want to meet in person. Recently he returned to a previous crime against politeness, Minneapolis.

From CNN:

Throughout a show Thursday night, the 32-year-old singer-guitarist complained about the sound monitors onstage at the State Theatre. At one point, he moved two monitors, his microphone and his guitar pedals.

After 70 minutes he'd had enough. Adams announced "the last song," played it and didn't return for an encore. Many fans stood and booed.

"I don't know what the story was," guitarist Neal Casal told the Star Tribune afterward. "I just play guitar."

In 2003, Adams gave a famously bad performance at First Avenue, a rambling two-hour show where he griped about the sound system, played several songs twice and lambasted local rock legend Paul Westerberg

Here's another Ryans atrocity, courtesy of the New York Post:

With his frequent onstage hissy fits, Adams has become our brattiest rocker. During shows, he's been known to complain about the lights, sound, air conditioning, and even fans talking during songs. But his most famous bitch session came during a 2002 concert in Nashville, Tenn. While harmonizing with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, an obnoxious fan taunted Adams with requests for the Bryan Adams song "Summer of '69." Adams stopped playing, had the house lights turned up, reimbursed the guy for the cost of his ticket and had him thrown out.

I read elsewhere that a sympathetic usher let the Adams/Adams fan back in.

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Bob Novak: Univ. of Ill. alumni group's conservative curriculum faces opposition

From AP, more bad news about my alma mater:

Conservative commentator Robert Novak said Thursday that his Washington colleagues were stunned to learn that a University of Illinois alumni group was setting up an organization to encourage and finance conservative studies on campus.

They asked, "Capitalism and limited government at a public university? How can that be?" Novak, an Illinois graduate, told about 250 people gathered for the launch of the Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government Fund.

Some U of I faculty members fear that the group's plans to raise money to pay for classes and research on free-market capitalism and limited government would create an undue conservative political influence on campus. They also complain that the new group was formed without faculty input. (My note: Who cares what they think, it's a big college, there's room for this group.)

"The main thing that concerned me is that this was something that was sort of dropped on the faculty," associate history professor Mark Leff said in an interview. "We read about it in the newspaper, and all of the sudden we find out that there's this organization.