Entitlement Solution

Reading in the Chicago Tribune this morning about a group of Winnetka kids who basically moved into an unoccupied home, used it as a party house and did some damage. About ten grand worth, according to the owner's attorney.

Right after that was an article about seniors at Deerfield High School hazing freshmen (although parents of the seniors deny it happened). All of this comes on the heels of what I wrote about yesterday...the teenage Deerfield girl who went missing over last weekend, prompting some 2 thousand people to look for her...only to turn up the next night and have her parents withhold the information about where she had been and what she was doing.

Entitlement amongst the rich is not a new issue on the North Shore where I live. Most of the time we just shrug it off. Ever since two Deerfield High School students died in a rollover crash after an alcohol soaked homecoming party a couple of years ago, I don't shrug.

I get angry.

That party became news because the parents of the teens who held it claimed they had no idea alcohol was being served. A judge believed differently. Ironically, during the trial, one of the teen girls who testified against the parents was arrested the night she gave her testimony for being drunk/high at another party.

The stories go on and on. And parents keep denying their children have done anything wrong. After all, why should children be taught to to accept responsibility for their actions? Parents don't have time for such nonsense nowadays. They have parties of their own to attend. After all, as a besotted dad bragged to me at the scene of a DUI crash that killed one of his son's classmates, "I pay taxes so teachers and cops can deal with my little creep."

I've come up with a solution to the entitlement problem and I'm inviting any legislator who believes they have the required cojones to help me enact it into law.

We'll call it the Teenage Entitlement Act of 2009.

My proposal provides that any young person convicted of crimes based in feelings of entitlement (ie: feeling they have the absolute right to do whatever they wish and acting on it by trashing a house, stealing, drinking and driving, disappearing for 24 hours and prompting an areawide search, causing pain and suffering to others in any fashion just because their parents never taught them how to behave like adults) would face a specific punishment, to wit: (a) required enlistment in any branch of the armed services they choose with (b) mandated immediate deployment to a combat role in a war zone. The law would also provide that, for every teen convicted and deployed, a soldier/sailor/marine/Coastie/airman already serving in the conflict would be allowed to come home.

Obviously this would deal with the problem on two levels.

Children would rapidly learn not only to accept responsibility for their actions but to take responsibility for the lives of their peers. And parents who have never really given a crap about how they raise their children would learn (hopefully) to worry about their kids for once. Really worry.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Because parents would not be permitted to use their clout to get an easier posting for their kid, we'd probably lose a few scions of wealthy families. But hey, wouldn't it be better that they die as heroes in war, perhaps while acting selflessly to save their comrades, (think Medal of Honor...) rather than be known for eternity as the dumbass drunk driver who managed to kill themselves and some innocents on the highway? Or as "that dumb freshman who drank himself to death at a frat party?"

Want to end entitlement in our lifetimes? Write your lawmakers. Let's get this bill drawn and passed.

Of The President, Roland, and A Missing Girl

I had two comments to write on my Facebook page during the President's speech last night. One was that I was listening to him and, I said, "feeling hopeful."
The man has vision and some of the toughest problems to solve that any President has ever faced. I think he can make inroads if we, and Congress, work with him. That's my two cents. Disagree if you like but please, pray that nothing happens to him. If it does, we're in a world of hurt.

The other comment was that Nancy Pelosi would make a marvelous bobble head(tm if required).

I felt a little sorry for Uncle Roland, though, the man John Kass in the Tribune refers to as Senator Tombstone. CNN had two shots with him in the background as the President passed by last night. Temporary Senator Burris wore this odd little smile which reminded me of a new kid in the neighborhood wistfully watching the other kids play, knowing they will never let him be part of their group. It's ironic because many of them are probably looking over their shoulders at potential indictments just as he is. The only difference is, we know what he's done. The other senators' secrets are a little more hidden. At least for now.

Speaking of hidden secrets, how about the Deerfield girl who went missing for all of 30 hours or so last weekend.? What's going on behind closed doors there, eh? Rumor has it that within minutes of their little girl showing up, daddy and mommy told the cops, "She's fine, there was no crime, don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out."

I won't speculate on what happened, but I am willing to bet that the cops never had the full cooperation of her family or her friends.

The North Shore, despite appearances to the contrary, is a tough place to grow up.

Rods and Ends

Thanks to L.A. Wilson for the review of Every Secret Crime on Books are Pretty earlier this month.

And speaking of other bloggers, if you have ever wondered if you could marry a serial killer, Katherine Ramsland, PhD. discusses some who did on Lee Loffland's wonderful and incisive blog, The Graveyard Shift.

Speaking of marrying a serial killer, it's interesting to note that our local publicity-mongering ex police sergeant with one spouse technically missing, and another dead-in-the-bathtub, is on the matrimonial trail once more. After some confused denials, the happy couple recently officially announced their intent to betroth. Or he did. During an interview on Nightline.

That guy, I tell ya, is a publicity machine. Impressed at the job his flacks are doing for him, former governor Blago apparently used the same firm to arrange his whirlwind, last gasp media blitz last week. There's irony for ya.

Oh, that's right. News of the day is that we have a new governor and that the old one is finally and officially toast. I have to say Blago's final days were like watching the Extended Version of the famous O.J. Simpson pursuit. Having covered the state capi-tool back in my graduate school days, I was pleased to note that our new generation of state senators are just as windy as their predecessors. But when backed into a corner by the world media and public opinion, damn if they don't wield a heavy voting hammer. What courage it must have taken to come up with that unanimous vote.

My final take on the Blago Bust and followup?

The arrest and subsequent impeachment and ousting of our governor and all of the associated fallout could have been a wake-up call, not only to all elected officials but to all Illinoisans.

Unfortunately, most everyone will just hit the snooze button and go back to sleaze.

On Message but Off The Point

It was a fascinating day of TV watching yesterday.

As in the old days of rock radio, it was, "All Blago, all the time!" as our Governor, aided by his public relations firm, made the rounds of the New York based television shows to proclaim his innocence and castigate the Illinois senators who have ripped away his rights so they can railroad him out of office, essentially for being a man of the people.

Preposterous allegations, of course, but Blago stayed with the message, resisting all attempts to get him to waver.

The attempts were pretty lackluster.

Barbara Walters, for all her vaunted skill as an interviewer, stumbled over her questions like I did in my first month as a TV intern. The women of The View proved, as always, a bunch of nitwits with Whoopi leading the pack, questioning why the Illinois Senate is taking away Blago's rights (an argument sort of echoed by Geraldo Rivera on Fox awhile later as he and Whoopi cooed and hugged). Neither of them have apparently read the rules of the impeachment trial. But then again, why let facts mess up some perfectly good posturing?

And Larry King let Blago get away with claiming that Supreme Court rules bar him from speaking out about the allegations against him. Huh? The rules of good sense, maybe, but the Supreme Court has nothing to do with it. As a lawyer and former prosecutor, Blago knows someone accused of a crime can say anything they wish. I wish he'd tried that "Supreme Court" argument on Nancy Grace.

A caller came up with the best question of the evening on Larry King. She asked Blago if his media tour is an attempt to influence a future jury pool.

What I haven't heard anyone say about Blago's media blitz is this:

He's a megalomaniac. He loves and courts attention. While his lawyer (who quit, probably in disgust) Ed Genson told him to keep his trap shut, Blago wanted to make his last gasp as Governor the best it could be. He'll be busted down to private citizen by Friday but, by golly, he's having a ball getting his face in front of a national audience first.

Unfortunately for you, Governor, the nation's TV viewers have a miniscule attention span.

Fortunately for us, the people who are prosecuting you do not.

Finally, Some Good News

An amazing story is unfolding in New York right now.

155 people are alive because of a series of...what to call them? Perfect coincidences?

Nope. It's nothing short of a miracle.

A pilot and crew who knew exactly what to do.

A passenger sitting on the emergency aisle who reacted properly and instantly and popped open an emergency door.

Ferries operating in the area of the crash which have bows low enough to allow them to take passengers directly off the wings rather than requiring them to enter 20-40 degree water.

A miracle.

Bird strikes are a significant problem at O'Hare as well. And can you imagine what would have happened if a pilot had to drop an airliner into Lake Michigan...where the only emergency watercraft available to respond are fireboats...and, only if it happened at the right time of day, perhaps a dinner cruise boat or two?

A miracle it happened where it did, when it did and that the pilot and others reacted as they did.

A bright spot in an otherwise gray winter.

Impeached...And He Keeps on Running

Great photo from the Chicago Tribune of a guy who just doesn't get it.

While the subject of their work was out for a jog today, the Illinois House, on a vote of 114 to 1 (now there's a loyal friend...maybe he figures he can be a U.S. Senator, too) impeached Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Yet, Blago held a news conference in response within hours, coming out fighting behind a guy in a wheelchair and some other recipients of his gubernatorial largesse to pound away at how much he has done for the state and how his power struggle with the House is the only reason representatives voted the way they did.

Instead of focusing on the impeachment which, with any luck, will force him from politics forever, he sounded like a guy getting ready to run for a third term. He ended by reciting a poem. He's a big fan of poetry.

One of the things I've read about sociopaths is how much joy they take from watching their victims' pain. They revel in it. They get a kick out of tweaking authorities and the media and showing off their intelligence. Like reading a little rhyme to the unwashed masses.

Speaking of reading, I was fascinated to read a memo sent to the impeachment committee by my friend and former cop reporter Bob Arya. Bob left journalism to work for Blago. He quit state government in October.

It's not in iambic pentameter but it deals with such things as how the governor shunned his office in Springfield, not for his office in Chicago, but in favor of working from home.

"The Governor's chosen method of communicating with most senior staff on virtually all matters was via speakerphone from his home," Arya writes, adding that Blago's language cited in the federal complaints, including regular use of the F-word, was commonplace when he dealt with his staff.

Arya goes on to detail how Blagojevich failed to hold regular cabinet meetings, used the state plane with no consideration of the cost, detested Lt. Governor Pat Quinn and refused to work with him, refused to entertain diplomats from other countries "unless it (served) one of his political goals" and made it clear that one of those goals after the beginning of his second term was to put himself into position to run for President. Another was to do all he could to destroy Speaker of the House, Michael Madigan.

Madigan's still standing. He announced the results of the impeachment vote today.

But back to Bob Arya's memo. Basically he told the committee, "I was witness to a host of matters and behaviors which were not only alarming but clearly convinced me that the Governor was incapable and/or unwilling to perform the duties of Governor...".

Fascinating.

Bob is an honorable guy and I respect his toughness. I have no doubt he tried to point out to the Governor and others that they were heading the state in a wrong direction.

Nobody paid attention.

Blago's still laughing at us.

Since he enjoys poetry so much I've composed a little verse in his honor. Maybe he'll read it after his next news conference.

Roses are Red. Violets are Blue. George Ryan's in the joint. Soon Blago will be too.

Doobie doobie doo.

A Brief Announcement

Socks Monster, the Feline Action Hero, has been appointed to edit this blog.

Many of you will remember Socks from his appearances in Deader by the Lake and Every Secret Crime.

With the addition of Socks to the staff, you can expect my blog posts will be shorter.

"Tight writing and better imaging are the keys to good blog posts," says Socks, a graduate of Northwestern's prestigious Cat School of Journalism and the Columbia School of Cat Journalism.