Unique pictures of Chicago's Black Squirrel

One of my absolute favorite animals by far is a special Black Squirrel which is unique to Chicago. So far in my lifetime, I have only seen one on the north side of Chicago near where I do my Sunday morning radio show.
Squirrels can be annoying. And given that the vast majority that I have seen are an ugly, boring gray, they are not very popular. The urban legends, which may or may not be true, is that if a squirrel bites you, you'll have to get that series of painful rabies shots. Of course, most squirrels run when approached by humans, but will fight with rabbits and crows, so the odds of knowing whether that is true or not are pretty high.
But a Black squirrel is a beautiful sight. Amazing fur and deep black. It stands out. You can't miss it.
The Black color makes the squirrel look a lot less like a "rat," and more of a potential pet.. Maybe that's why over the past 300 years, the population of black squirrels has diminished to the point where they are so rare. People either killed them for the fur or trying to capture them. Squirrels do not like to be caged at all and will go berserk and screech like a demon until released.
A few years back, I had two squirrels in the throes of matrimony apparently chew their way through the sofit and facia to get into the roof of my home. They seemed to love to prance around during the day collecting nuts and acting nutty but at night they were raising a real noisy ruckus. So I had to try to flush them out of the house and back into their usual nest of browned leaves twined together by sticks and string they collect. (And maybe so squirrel spit, too.)
They just refused to leave.
So, I checked to make sure there were no babies in the roof and waited until I could confirm they were both inside. When they were, I closed the opening, and stuck my hand into the roof with two cans of insect fogger and filled it up. Within a minute, outside, the stuffing in the whole pushed out and the squirrels jumped out of the hole onto the roof screaming like hyenas. One after the other.
They were mad. But as soon as I knew they were out, I permanently closed the opening to keep them out using "Stuff," the foaming junk that sprays and grows and hardens. Then I had to spend $3,500 to re-do the gutters, sofit and facia around the entire house.
Here are some pictures of the Black Squirrel to which I have rededicated this column to reflect my Chicagoland upbringing.
Enjoy.

Total recall, the remake is a fantastic SciFi feature film

Don't listen to the movie critics who are trashing the new remake film "Total Recall" starring Colin Farrell. The movie critics are much like the journalists and media types who have been trashing the HBO TV series "The Newsroom." People in creative industries often don't like the successes of others because they didn't do them. It's the downside of creativity. Envy. HBO's "The Newsroom" is a realistic look at the hypocrisies of today's media and "Total Recall" is a reflection of how a great idea can be converted into another great idea.
There are three ways to make a movie that has already been made. The first is to remake it precisely to the story line, adding only the advancements of our new technologies. The second is to make a sequel, which is what I always prefer, a follow through of a great movie. The third one is to take a great movie, use the same concept and story line and adapt it and the story and that is exactly what Producer Toby Jaffe has done. 
Total Recall with Colin Farrell is a different version of the 1990 Total Recall starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. 
The story lines are similar but the facts of the story have changed dramatically. The digital technology advances have made this new version a spectacular film worth seeing. Kate Beckinsale plays Lori Quaid the "wife" of unsuspecting secret agent Douglas Quaid whose memories and skills come alive after visiting Total Rekall (spelled with a K), a place where people of the future can go to get the "memories" of an exciting vacation, past life or experience they have never had but always wanted. Jessica Biel plays his partner who is working with the resistance. Beckinsale plays a much tighter sinister role than Sharon Stone, although Biel is easily matched by Rachel Ticotin's original 1990 role.
Missing is the exploding "fat" woman, the talking robot Johnny Cab, and the mini-Siamese little face that is conjoined and comes out of the revolutionary's stomach. The three-breasted woman is there and they made her far better looking than the old role. 
But Doug Quaid is already a secret agent with a mind control plant suppressing his memories and his visit to Total Rekall brings out his secret agent skills through 118 minutes of non-stop excitement and film energy.
You know where the film is going if you saw the original Schwarzenegger film of 1990, but the details are as different as night and day. Even the story location between the Federation and the "Colony" are significantly different. 
This is a far better film than "The Dark Knight Rises," the Batman follow-through.
I know you will enjoy it.
-- Ray Hanania www.hanania.com

The passing of Paul McGrath, a Chicago icon

Paul McGrath and I never really got along. Well, in the beginning, we started off as friends. In 1979, when Jane Byrne was elected Mayor, McGrath was writing a column for Chicago Magazine. About that time, Walter Jacobson was doing commentaries of substance at WBBM TV. And I was writing a lot of the things that most of the veteran City Hall reporters didn't want to write about the new mayor, Jane M. Byrne. So Byrne, naturally, singled me out for anger. She attacked me publicly. Her aides assaulted me verbally. They excluded me from press briefings and denied me the information they were giving to other reporters. That only made me write even more forcefully about the Byrne Administration.
When Byrne declared that she would refuse to speak with me, Jacobson did several TV commentaries about me, noting that my columns in the then Daily Southtown, had sent Jane Byrne into a spiraling tizzy. They were great columns of insider tidbits that by themselves could not fill up or justify a news story.  About a year after I started my City Hall insider column, Mike Sneed started hers, doing the same thing I did. (She blamed me for Byrne firing her, although in reality I had nothing to do with it.)
That's when Paul McGrath called me. He wanted to profile me in Chicago Magazine. It was fun being showcased by Jacobson on TV. It was the first time I had been put in such a high profile public spotlight And  as we all know, I've never left that fast track of high profile spotlight since. I'm still there in the apex of the spotlight, usually in the middle of some major controversy. That's my job as a media consultant. That's what I do best for clients, help them survive the toughest controversies, especially those created by the news media. That's what they pay me for.
McGrath did a nice two page profile with a large picture of me leaning into a press briefing that Byrne was giving. The headline, I believe, was "Who is Ray Hanania and Why is Everyone Mad at Him?"
That was exactly my life at that time. Everyone was mad at me. It wasn't just Jane Byrne. It was nearly every alderman and suburban mayor. But that was also a different time in journalism when I was given lots of time to do my work. Today's reporters are rushed and bias comes from cutting corners in favor of your friends.
His feature profile on me was the first one I had framed, one of many that followed.
McGrath was later hired by Jane Byrne to serve as a deputy mayor. And he was doing well, until one day his close friend Karen Connor and Byrne's Patronage Chief Frank Santoro ahd a meeting with him and they invited me to attend. McGrath was against it and I was hesitant. I liked Karen and Santoro. They were both very honest and very cordial to deal with, unlike other political types I had met at City Hall. Santoro and Connor thought they could sit with me and offer me some insights to help me "better understand" the good that Jane Byrne was trying to do.
I agreed. Why not? I had been trying for a year to get Byrne to sit down with me and talk about she was always suspicious because I came from the Southwest Side and was close to both Alderman Bill Lipinski and Rich Daley, who we all later learned was planning to topple her and take her place as mayor. Daley had been frozen out after his father's death by Mayor Michael A. Bilandic and City Hall Chief of Staff Tom Donovan, a brilliant political insider.
It was while we were all four sitting in Karen Connor's office that Jane Byrne slapped the door of her office open and looked around spotting Connor, Santoro, McGrath and me, her arch enemy in the media, sitting together. She snapped in her usual sarcastic tone a satisfying "a ha!" and then remarked, "I see you are all having a little meeting her without me." She looked around for a few minutes that seemed like years burning her eyes into the faces of each of her aides -- like they were traitors -- and then as fast as she came in, disappeared, spinning around on her three inch high stiletto heels, escorted by her two body guards, Mike Graney and another who I would later disclose were secret owners of one of ChicagoFest's most profitable concession stands, Anna's Friend Dough.
Before Byrne could storm out, McGrath was up and out of his chair screaming at me, Connor and Santoro calling us traitors and blaming them for our meeting. He chased out quickly on Bryne's jet stream.
We didn't talk much but it wasn't more than a few months before Byrne fired him and replaced him with a former City News Bureau reporter Bill Griffin, who later went on to marry Mike Sneed.
McGrath never got over his anger with me. He didn't want the meeting to take place at City Hall to begin with and wanted us to go to a restaurant in the burbs. But Santoro wouldn't leave the city's limits and Connor thought the paranoia was unjustified.
In the end and many years later, Connor and Santoro moved up to Michigan or Wisconsin where they started an antique store. I haven't heard from them in years.
But I did hear from McGrath about three months ago when he asked to be my "Friend" on Facebook. We seemed to get along until I wrote a column critical of Israel and he made some vicious comments that I felt were extremist and inappropriate. And I quickly unfriended him and even "Blocked" him from my page.
I would not tolerate intolerance.
We never did get to speak again.
Still, it is with sadness that I note that Paul McGrath died this week at age 75. (Read the Chicago Reader story by writer Mike Miner.)
Ironically, I had written a lengthy feature for the Chicago Reader on the 20th Anniversary of Jane Byrne's election, in February 1999. McGrath was writing for The Chicago Reader and had protested back then that he didn't feel I would be objective and that I would simply bash Byrne. I didn't bash Byrne at all, but merely reported on her notorious antics. In fact, I thought I was kind to Jane Byrne who clearly was mistreated by Rich Daley and the Daley administration. Byrne never did get her due as a former Chicago Mayor and the hatred between Daley and Byrne never chilled.
Regardless, Paul McGrath was a Chicago political icon and presence in Chicago politics and Chicago news. He deserves recognition for his skilled writing, his many journalism awards, and his talent as a political analyst. Whether we were or were not friends is irrelevant. I always respected him as a character in a the major theater of Chicago Politics.
As a good friend of mine and my journalism mentor would often tell me, "It's all a paper moon." Harry Golden Jr., meant that politics was just a stage and everything was not real except the people who acted on the stage of politics.
-- Ray Hananiawww.hanania.com

The Chik Fil A controversy is all Bull-Fil-A

We do live in America, don't we? This is a country where free speech is not only tolerated but it is encouraged. The idea that two people can argue differing views on controversial topics is what makes this country so great.
Dan Cathy, the owner and founder of Chik Fil A told an interviewer recently that he opposes same-sex marriage. I disagree with him but I don't hate him. He cited his religious beliefs that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.
As a Christian, myself, I think religious views sometimes overshadow reality but we tolerate them. I'm not against Gays living together or being recognized as "married" not because of religious views but because it makes sense. Two people who care about each other -- love is a word with a lot of meanings and nuance -- should be able to share their property and rights without hassles in the event of one or the other's death. And they should be allowed to live their life together.
On the other hand, my personal view in my life is that I don't embrace that lifestyle and frankly I honestly don't care about the debate over whether it is genetic or a choice. It exists and if people don't bother me or force me to accept their views, I'm fine with everyone.
What I am not fine with, though, is people like Chicago Ald. Proco "Joe" Moreno who disagrees with Chik Fil A owner Dan Cathy but has taken his disagreement beyond tolerance, vowing to prevent Chik Fil A from opening a restaurant in Chicago.
That violates the same Constitutional Rights that allow two people of the same sex to be "married." It's just wrong. It is also a denial of free speech. 
Dan Cathy did not say he would refuse to hire anyone who is Gay. He simply said he doesn't believe in Gay Marriage. That's his right. Ald. Moreno should be defending him, not punishing him. And Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the biggest hypocrite of all, shouldn't be wasting his time engaging this debate when Chicago has so many more important problems like the unacceptable level of gun-related violence and street gang shootings and murders.
Those are things we should work against, not punishing someone who has a view that differs with our own.
What Ald. Moreno is basically doing is saying that if enough people in this country hate Gays, they should use that power to prevent Gays from actively pushing for equal rights.
Does that mean cities that oppose Gay Rights should ban businesses that recognize Gay Rights? When we talk about about hate crimes, that is exactly
I haven't eaten at a Chik Fil A ever. Not because of this issue or other political issues. But because I heard the place was expensive.
-- Ray Hananiawww.hanania.com

The assertion that "banning guns would stop the criminals" has a major flaw

PASS THIS COLUMN AROUND Well here is a fact, folks: "Don't outlaw guns, outlaw the criminals ... it's the criminals who get guns and kill people. If we ban guns, the only people who will have them are the criminals." 
Well, maybe that wouldn't be so bad, based on history: Think about it. 
James Holmes was not a criminal, just a 24 year old with no major criminal history, with an arsenal at his home. He killed 12 and injured 71. 
There was Seung-Hui Cho, who shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 people in 2007 at Virginia Tech. He wasn't a criminal, just an Asian American college kid.  

John Hinckley, Jr.'s shot Reagan, Brady and Orland's Police Chief Tim McCarthy on March 30, 1981.

John Hinckley, Jr.'s shot Reagan, Brady and Orland's Police Chief Tim McCarthy on March 30, 1981.  

The 2nd Amendment was written for a different world, and there's no reason why it can't be changed to protect our rights in today's world.

He wasn't a criminal, but he got a hold of a gun. 

The two kids at Columbine High school in 1999 in Columbine, Colorado were not criminals. But they got a hold of an arsenal of weapons. 

On Jan. 8, 2011, Jared Lee Loughner killed six and wounded at least 12, including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, outside a grocery store in Tucson, Ariz. He wasn't a criminal either. 

On Nov. 5, 2009, Major Nidal Hasan, a psychologist with the U.S. Army, killed 13 soldiers and wounded 42 others at a base in Fort Hood, Texas. He wasn't a criminal and was authorized to have a legal weapon. 

On April 3, 2009 Jiverly Wong, 42, burst into a citizenship class at an immigration center in Binghamton, N.Y., and killed 13 and wounded four, before he killed himself. He wasn't a criminal.

On March 30, 2009, a gunman shot eight people to death and wounded several others at a nursing home in North Carolina. Most of those killed were elderly nursing home patients. The suspect did not have a criminal past.

On March 29, 2009, a man killed five of his family members, including his two children, and wounded his wife at a townhome in Santa Clara, Calif., before killing himself.

On March 10, 2009, Michael McLendon, 28, killed several of his family members including his mother and grandparents, and then went on a rampage killing 10 people in several towns in Alabama before killing himself.

On Dec. 24, 2008,  Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, 45, dressed up in a Santa suit and showed up at a Christmas party at his ex-wife’s parents’ house in Covina, Calif., and killed nine people to death. He then burned the house and then killed himself.

On Feb. 14, 2008, a former graduate student at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., killed five students in a lecture hall, and wounded many others, before shooting himself.

This is just a partial list of the mass murders that have taken place. There are two dozen more I can cite. In EVERY CASE, the killers were NOT CRIMINALS, but regular people who got a hold of a weapon and then went on a murder spree.

It isn't just "criminals" who we have to stop from getting guns.

The 2nd Amendment was written for a different world, and there's no reason why it can't be changed to protect our rights in today's world.

-- Ray Hanania

www.hanania.com

(Some of the chronology data above is from WKBT News in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.)

Radio Chicagoland: Penn State, Olympic uniforms, Jesse Jackson and Syrian support of al-Qeada

Topics on Radio Chicagoland this morning: Radio Chicagoland: Penn State, Olympic uniforms, Jesse Jackson and Syrian support of al-Qeada Joe Paterno "Joe Pa" is a disgrace. He knew what convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky was doing. He and others at Penn State were aware of the misconduct and they tolerated it or turned away their eyes for more than a decade. Ten years of child abuse by a retired coach with full access to the sports facilities and the protection of Paterno and the Penn State administration. People say the students at the University will suffer if further punishment is meted out to the administration. But the truth is that punishment is necessary. More officials there should be charged and punished. The real offenders, though, without doubt, are the sports media, the journalists who also knew about Sandusky but have remained silent. The sports media is complicit, just as they were complicit in the infidelity of golf great Tiger Woods. They all put money ahead of morality. Personal gain ahead of principle. The students may be punished for Sandusky's crimes and the silent acquiescence of the administration. But it is very likely that many teachers knew too. And I'll even bet students who attended and played in sports there knew also. And the journalists knew. If the students suffer, they shouldn't blame justice. They should blame Paterno and Sandusky and the shameful Penn State administration. OLYMPIC UNIFORMS have taken center stage as our athletes prepare for the Summer Games in London. Turns out the odd looking uniforms they will wear were mad in China. That is a bad thing. It sends the wrong message of twisted patriotism. China is a nation is civil rights abuses. The oppression of dissidents and free speech. The exploitation of children. And, the production of thousands of products that are tainted with lead, that are sold to American children. The uniforms are not the only products made in China. Much of the media broadcast equipment that will be used to cover the Olympics were made in China. Clothing that many of the journalists will wear in covering the Olympics will be made in China. The means by which the story was reported, in part, are made in China. The "made in China" disgrace should not be limited to one offense of patriotic egotism. It should instead be a protest of principle. Either end the importing of cheap and sometimes dangerous Chinese products into the United States, or shut up about the Olympics. It's more hypocritical to knowingly shut your eyes to hypocrisy and Chinese abuses while embracing the phony moral high ground in criticizing the Olympic uniforms. The disgrace didn't start with the Olympics and won't end there, either. Let's address the hypocrisy in the American Baseball industry, and the fact that official "American" baseballs are made in China. Pathetic morality. Weak principle. Hypocrisy made in America. CONGRESSMAN JESSE JACKSON JR., is a good person and a good leader. But it sure was strange to hear his mother speak on his personal crisis. She's been silent in the face of so much hypocrisy in the Jacosn family. Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., is the one family member who could, for many years, hold his head high. Despite the charges filed against his fundraiser. Rughuveer Nayak, who reportedly was a go-between to raise $1 million for disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to make Jackson a US Senator, filling the vacancy in the Senate seat formerly held by President Barack Obama, there are no charges against the congressman. We can speculate all we want. But it might have been nice to hear his mother speak about her husband's problems, or the egos of her other sons. Her comments about Congressman Jackson were inappropriate and strange. AL-QAEDA IN SYRIA. There is no doubt now that the government of Bashar all-Assad was complicit in assisting al-Qaeda attacks in Iraq not only against Iraqis but also against American soldiers. If Americans are not outraged by the war crimes being committed by Assad's security forces and military in the murder of thousands of civilians and children in Syria, they should be enraged by the evidence that Assad provided aid to al-Qaeda to satisfy Syria's anti-American agenda, and agenda shared by the tyrants in Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
We invaded Afghanistan to avenge the al-Qaeda terrorism against the World Trade Center's Twin Towers. We attacked Iraq to avenge the selfish politics of former President George W. Bush and his Vice President, the original evil-doer himself, Dick Cheney. We should immediately invade Syria and avenge the hundreds and maybe thousands of American soldiers who died in Iraq because of the support Syria's dictator Assad provided to al-Qaeda.
But will we and is our fight against al-Qaeda pure or driven by selfish politics?
--- Ray Hanania www.hanania.com

What can you tell visiting Arab world journalists about America and the media?

What can you tell visiting Arab world journalists about America and the media?
I've been meeting with journalists who work in the Arab World, trying to explain to them why this country is so hypocritical and misleading when it comes to things like Freedom, and how Democracy is a misnomer. They're shocked because they have spent their lives as oppressed people believing that America was the great hope of the World, and confused because so many American policies contradict the principles that Americans claim Democracy represents.
It is confusing because America is not as free as people living in oppression think. It's all relative, of course. And the facts are not so clear, starting with the purveyor of "facts," the mainstream American or Western News Media.
The mainstream media is biased. They're one-sided. And worse, they have limited knowledge of other countries and culture so their reporting in incomplete, which contributes to the inaccuracies and falsehoods pushed by the bias and partisan political agenda that every major media has but pretends doesn't exist.
The bias is not consistent. In other words, the mainstream media is objective and fair on many issues, giving a false sense of morality and ethical conduct for the entire industry. But the media industry is corrupt. It's not controlled. But it is influenced. And that influence is managed by those who are at the helms of the media conglomerate. They decide when to be ethical and when to be unprincipled. And usually, when it comes to the Middle East, Arabs, Muslims and especially the issue of the Palestinians, the mainstream media's spigot of "unprincipled" is left open and rarely closed.
It's a shocker for visiting journalists. They recognize the bias in the United States, and how bias breeds racism that is very sophisticated and not as open as it was in the 1950s. Americans are educated and the one thing they are most educated on is how to disguise their racism and their bigotry. They are very talented at taking hatred and dressing it up as fear, or justified protectionism against things like "terrorism" and criticism in general from regions like the Middle East.
They always leave shocked because they don't want to believe it. But they must believe it. It's true. America is plagued by people who hate and that hatred is processed as discourse in the mainstream media. It's all relative. The purveyors of hatred are very successful and wealthy. Hate generates money in America.
It's different int he Middle East, and that's what causes confusion. Hate is something manipulated by the dictators who, by the way, were almost all installed into their power and dynasties with the help of either the Western Allies or the United States Government.
America has a policy on dictators that is very clear and precise and consistent. If the dictator is anti-America and doesn't embrace the American political agenda, then the dictator is a terrorist leader, like Venezuela's "President" Hugo Chavez, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, and Syria's Bashar al-Assad.
But, if the dictator is one that embraces American foreign policy, principle and ethics go out the window. And they are our allies and friends. Jordan's King Hussein. Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Husni Mubarak, Iran's Shah Reza Pahlavi, and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu who has a split personality by choice: a Democratic leader to his people, Jews, and a dictator and tyrant to all non-Jews who wish to live in Israel or Palestine. 
Yes, hate, dictatorship and tyranny can be managed and processed and even volumed-up and volumed-down. That's how the friendly dictators co-exist with what would seemingly be incompatible American Democratic principles. 
In Syria and the old Iraq and in today's Afghanistan, dissidents are arrested, brutalized and even murdered. Just because one is or isn't an ally of the United States doesn't matter. It happens. The governments will arrest you and kill you if they are pushed enough with your "free speech."
In the United States, the violence is rare, but the bullying and the intimidation is as aggressive. If you are a dissident who challenges mainstream views, you are excluded and ostracized. You are libeled and criticized and called all kinds of names. The point is that Democracy doesn't need to use violence to murder you. That would be a violation of Democracy and Freedom. But, they can do everything else, including destroying your life, disparaging you so much that you can't find a job or that you are fired from your job. You are excluded from media coverage, except when that coverage promotes your exclusion. They cover you as a terrorist, but not as an activist or dissident or someone who champions principle. Principle doesn't matter in America once you are categorized as being a "threat" by the media and mainstream government. 
In some cases, if you weather the oppression, they will arrest you and jail you, but they will charge you with being a terrorist or contributing to terrorism, by virtue of your views and media coverage which has whipped up the public rage against you and your movement and your cause.
If you criticize sacred cows, like Israel, you become a pariah, demonized and labeled with special words that  have been given special specific meanings like "anti-Semitic." Even government adopts laws that punish you for your views and what you think. The State of Illinois prohibits anyone from working for the public government in any capacity if they support the "boycott of Israel." You are required to sign a contract in which you agree to not boycott Israel. The term "boycott" is interpreted in many ways, all intended to undermine anyone who slips through the large cracks in American Democracy and American free speech. If you boycott some Israeli products, such as the settlements, you could be fired. Because the media and the critics do not nuance words. They don't distinguish between things like mainstream Israel and extremist Israel. If you criticize the extremist Israelis, you will be punished in America.
That's the real world of America. It is ugly, unprincipled, biased, racist and far from free. They just don't kill you like the dictators and tyrants -- well, most of the time, they don't.
-- Ray Hananiawww.hanania.com

Controversy over Anthony Shadid's death

Anthony Shadid's cousin Edward. a doctor from Oklahoma, where Shadid was from, was speaking at the ADC Convention dinner June 24 when he revealed some inside information about Anthony Shadid's death that the New York Times has been keeping secret and hoping no one would explore.
Shadid, a brilliant journalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner (and good friend and supporter of American Arab journalism) died Feb. 16, 2012 while crossing into Syria through some rugged mountains. Apparently, Syria had Shadid listed as a Wanted Person in newspapers and on TV there, according to the cousin.
But what is amazing, is that story that Edward Shadid told at the convention got so little traction, making many American Arabs wonder about how serious the ineffectiveness factor is in our community. ADC Legal Director Abed Ayoub protested to the New York Times after Edward Shadid's remarks, but the New York Times just brushed that protest aside.
Nothing in the community whatsoever. Word was distributed by one of the extremists who insinuate themselves among the many American Arabs who attend and who are concerned about the challenges we face in this country but that apparently no organization, from ADC to AAI to long lost groups like the AAUG, NAAA and others, have and continued to fail to overcome.
In it, Edward Shadid claimed that Anthony Shadid called his wife, Nada Bakri, and said after a heated fight with his editors about going into Syria, "I want the world to know that the New York Times Killed me."
Anthony Shadid's widow, Nada Bakri, released this Tweet days later after the cousin's speech aroused some concern. She's an employee of the New York Times, too.
#AnthonyShadid "I do not approve of and will not be a part of any public discussion of Anthony's passing. It does nothing but sadden Anthony's children to have to endure repeated public discussion of the circumstances of their father's death."   (Click here for link)
So here is the video from the ADC convention. Start watching at 5 minutes into it. 

You decide. But it seems the New York Times newspaper which spends so much time, resources and money to expose every scandal and accusation made about everyone else in this world, should address this in more than just a paragraph press release issued by a flak from their PR department. 
Pathetic both for the American Arab community reflecting how ineffective and worthless their leaders really are, and the mainstream American news media in this country that is so biased, worse than the corruption politicians, mobsters and street gang members, too.
Ray Hananiawww.Twitter.com/rayhananiatrending #JournalismDemise

HBO's "The Newsroom" rankles the hypocrisies of the corrupt mainstream news media

I really enjoyed the drama of Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom" on HBO last night. Having stepped into my first newsroom in 1976 with the same wide-eyed apprehension, I connected with Maggie Jordan, the assistant promoted during "war" to an associate producer. I also connected, more importantly, with the building controversy that is growing around The Newsroom between Aaron Sorkin and the show, and the mainstream news media which hates to see its own failings.
And that's exactly what The Newsroom will do, besides entertain HBO subscribers. It's going to show, just by natural selection of show topics, exactly what's wrong with today's news media. Sorkin may not directly address those shortcomings by criticizing the mainstream news media, which so deserves to get its ass kicked behind the wood shed. He'll accomplish this, based on the first episode, by simply scripting a Newsrooms in a way to show us how a real newsroom should be operating. Because today's newsrooms are not operating the way they should be.
They're more corporate owned. Many have been cannibalized by their media competitors to the point where the news media is now acting like a corporate monster with no room for ethics.
Of course the critics are bashing The Newsroom. It's like listening to someone tell you why you are irrelevant  and why you are so hypocritical and wrong. The news media's ego is larger than any and it can't take it in its collective, hypocritical consciousness.
Sorkin's series is a punch to the mainstream news media's chest, knocking the wind out of the media's phony self-image of heroism and honesty and morality. The ugly, stench blows out of the mainstream media's mouth as Sorkin slams them by showing them what they were, what they are not and, sadly, what they probably will never return to become.
Yes, the news media was a great institution back in the day when I entered journalism moved by the disclosures of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. (For those of you who have forgotten who they were -- I say were because everyone clearly changes when drizzled with corporate greed, profits and riches -- click here.
The truth is, American mainstream news media is sick.  It's been compromised. It is unethical and its writings are biased, one-sided and often driven by corporate agendas than by a Don Quixotec-style crusade for truth based on fairness and accuracy. Today's media is corrupt and rotten to the core. They love to dish it out while veiling, disguising or hiding their own conflicts-of-interest. Their own nepotism. Their own corruption -- what we have seen is only the tip of the iceberg. Their own compromises of principle to make money. Their own pulling-punches to minimize criticism of interests they own.
The public can't trust the American mainstream news media any more. Today's journalists like to pretend they are on a crusade for truth, justice and the American way, like Superman defeating the evil-doers in tights while working as a journalist in a suit by day. But they are not Superman anymore. Instead, it's a slick dark blue pin-stripped suited corporate money counter, changing clothes into another dark blue pin-stripped suit pretending to be the champion of something. Their own self-interest of course. And the big "S" from the Superman logo is no longer on this character's chest, but instead is being stamped on the foreheads of every schlepper out there who lays down a small fortune to buy one of their worthless newspapers or pays an outrageously high monthly subscription to tune into the garbage grind on Cable TV.
Yes, Aaron Sorkin has sucker punched the mainstream news media and they hate it. And they're going to get back in the only way they know how, by trashing it with a drive fueled by their own selfish interests. They've lost sight of their mission which is to write honestly for the audience. These critics are writing for themselves, kings with no clothes, smelling like alewives on a Chicago summer evening.
Must be tough for the mainstream news media to look in a mirror manufactured by Sorkin and I am loving every minute of that thought and the show itself, The Newsroom, broadcast every Sunday night on HBO at 9 pm (CST). 
Jeff Daniels offers a phenomenal portrayal of an anchor Tom McAvoy who thinks that the news media owes more to journalism than simply paychecks and power or clout. 
Producer Jim Harper, played by John Gallagher Jr., symbolizes exactly the problem that real journalism faces into today's corrupted media environment. He's up against a colleague (Don Keefer, played by Thomas Sadoski) who has compromised himself so badly, enjoying the spoils of the media but lazily ignoring truth when it doesn't come out of his own pocket.
I loved the performances of all of the show's actors and actresses. What they are doing is real.
And it is nice to see Sorkin's "The Newsroom" reflect one other major reality of today's pathetic mainstream news media, the lack of diversity in a newsroom. I'm not talking about the lack of diversity that is falsely and hypocritically argued by African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans (UNITY: Journalists of Color) but the diversity of exclusion in which the "new minority" of Asians, Indians, Arabs, Muslims and a lot of others whoa re constantly libeled (in print) and slander (in broadcast) by today's media. One minority, Neal Sampat, played by Dev Patel, symbolizes the challenges this new minority has in the real world of journalism, except that we, the new minority, have a more corrupt environment to face than the lucky Patel who plays a smart journalist in the perfect journalism environment that sadly only exists in Sorkin's mind, the wishful longing of many in the public that have abandoned hopes for ethical journalism, and in the new HBO TV series "The Newsroom."
-- Ray Hananiawww.hanania.com

Malibu lights and suburban lawns

About every 6 or 7 years I have to replace all the Malibu lights around the house. It's an all day job. They used to be round, made out of cheap plastic and tough to attach to the wire, using a back clip that screws non to press the connector, pointed metal phalanges into the black wire. But they get dirty and rust quickly.

Now, they make heavy metal and wires that use clips hat lock around the wire. They're easier to replace, but still, only last a few years. The bulbs are expensive. It cost about $6 to replace each bulb. The light is only $10.

For some reason chipmunks like to chew on the wires, too. And if you have a gardener, they constantly screw up the lights. I tried talking with them but they don't always speak English and they don't care.

I used to use colored filters on the lights but eventually replaced them all with white lights only. The new transformers also go on at dusk and you can set the time limits. In the old days, you had to use a wheel timer with clips that kicked he transformers on and off at set times. Much more reliable today.

The solar lights are worthless and have to be replaced almost every year. The solar panels deteriorate quickly because of the weather.

But despite all the cost and the effort to install, maintain and replace the ones that break, they sure look great on a summer night. Beautiful.

- Ray Hanania

Best Buy stores are a scam: The Rewards Cards shuffle

Best Buy is the Worst Buy. They're dishonest. Most people don't care. We buy things, spend money, get junk and when they break, we just move on. That's what society has taught us over the years. When someone gives you garbage, just accept it and move on. That's the American Way.
I've been buying technology products from Best Buy for many years. I have spent a lot there. I had a Rewards Card with them and every time I make a purchase, they ask me for the card, but I don't have it. So they look it up using my telephone number on their system. The cashier tells me she found it and then the sale goes through.
I figured I got my credit for the purchase on my Rewards Card.
But that's not the case.
Turns out when they ask you if you have a Rewards Card and enter it into the system, they are not really entering it at all. It's just a scam to get your information in to their system so they can send you sales pitches for junk that has to be pushed. Good merchandise sells itself. Junk needs the Best Buy push.
All these years of entering my Rewards information at the register and I finally went online and discovered none of it has been entered at all. But I have been getting their junk mailings, spam emails and harassment at the register everytime I buy something.
When I finally complained to someone at the store, he confessed. It's all a scam, he acknowledged. They just want your contact information. The real system works this way. 
You buy something at Best Buy. They list your Rewards Card number on the sale. They want you to leave the store thinking you got a "reward" when in fact you really didn't.
The clerk explained it to me this way. "If you don't go home and log into the Best Buy web site (myrz.com) and enter the information from your receipt, your purchase doesn't count towards the reward at all," he said.
Wow. What a scam?
Every time I make a purchase, I am supposed to go home and log into my Reward Zone membership online to give them traffic and put up with all kinds of online push sales pitches. New Windows pop up. The web site is confusing to use. They are hoping that if 5 percent of the people who waste their time doing all this will actually end up buying something online, they've achieved their goal.
So the next time you are in Best Buy, tell those assholes to shove it up their asses.
Fortunately, we have alternatives in Orland Park. Wal-Mart's technology section is phenomenal. And there is also CompUSA nearby.
Unlike Best Buy, which is the Worst Buy, they don't lie.
-- Ray Hanania

The Unreal Rielle Hunter, John Edwards mistress

The jury didn't buy the government's case, but I don't buy the lies and exaggerations of either Rielle or John Edwards. Everyone is a liar in this story and the ABC 20/20 promotion of her book that they call a legitimate news story. Not! Did they do the story as journalistic courtesy? Because Rielle is a former journalism colleague?

How can they slam Andrew Young and his book The Politician lies when they are all liars. Maybe Young was the only honest one in this entire sordid story?

But truly, John Edwards is one of the worst politicians, a man who was once admiredy so many as the most honest and most trustworthy. So sordid and so sad.

- Ray Hanania

 

Amin El Gamal breaking glass ceiling in TV media

I interviewed Amin El Gamal this morning. What a breath of fresh air in a media world of darkness in this country. He's an actor, of Egyptian American heritage and he is starring in episode 5 of Aaron Sorkin's new HBO TV series The Newsroom which features actor Jeff Daniels.
Gamal is a role model for other American Arabs, breaking through the extremely thick glass ceiling that pushes American Arabs down when it comes to media, journalism, entertainment. From the standpoint of being American Arab, the term "Media" is a broad category that includes journalism, Hollywood movies, TV, broadcast and print news, and entertainment including stand up comedy. It defines how mainstream Americans view and understand, or not understand, Arabs, Muslims and the Middle East. It's not just how we are portrayed in the news media. It also includes how we are portrayed on television, in movies and in entertainment including stand up comedy. It even includes other aspects of expression that define us and mold our stereotype as Arabs.
I interviewed Gamal on my two radio shows, Radio Chicagoland last Sunday June 17 and this morning on Radio Baladi, Friday June 22.
I think Arabs have gone through two stages in media relations over the years and are now in a third stage. We started as outsiders. Our parents never encouraged us to become journalists or entertainers. It was considered disrespectful. Not honorable professions. They pushed us to be doctors and engineers, mainly, and even grocery store owners and business people. Journalism? Stand up comedy? TV and Hollywood film acting. As much as there was a lot of hoopla about Omar Sharif, when I was growing up, as one of the only Arabs to make it into mainstream Hollywood film, the fact was we didn't really like him. He wasn't a role model. And when he smooched with Barbara Streisand and kissed her, that was it. The community here and back home, where American Arabs are attached by an umbilical cord, we dropped him like a lead balloon.
The second stage was to recognize in the 1970s that the media, mainly the news media, influenced our lives so much as Arabs in American and in the Middle East. The way they misreported on us, libeled us, exaggerated our most negative traits and acts while ignoring all of the more important and more powerful contributions that Arab culture has and continues to make in this world, created an environment where were were oppressed. It contributed to the radicalization of our community -- only the extremists who didn't care how we were portrayed, would stand up and fight. The rest of the community acted like sheep. We complained about it but did nothing about it.
That's why I got into journalism in 1976, refusing to accept the system. Getting into the media in 1976 was not easy because I was viewed with disdain, like I was a traitor working in a journalism media industry and at a newspaper that libeled Arabs and Muslims almost on a daily basis. It was much like the first Arabs who tried to break into Hollywood film and acting. Almost everyone of them began by portraying a "terrorist" in movies that libeled the reality of Arab society and culture. It was difficult because many people would criticize me, the way they criticized Arabs actors who played terrorists in movies, saying that we were contributing to the continued demonization of Arabs.
But the truth is that those who refrained from entering the hated fields of journalism, movies, acting, were the real contributors to our demonization. Not participating was a major cause of the media's distortion and lies about Arabs. What we did was to get inside the belly of the media beast, be it in journalism as it was in my case working for an anti-Arab newspaper like the Southtown or later the Chicago Sun-Times, or other Arabs who entered the acting profession playing terrorists in the many movies. By becoming a part of the monster, we are now in positions to begin the process of changing the beats. We can change from inside, not from outside. We can become a part of that which we do not like or that which demonizes us and change things. Make it different. We can do from inside what we could never do from outside or on the sidelines where we became enemies, combatants and foes.
Amin El Gamal is working from the inside to change things and so are all of the Arabs and Muslims who have entered media professions that traditionally have been the source of the distortion and lies and negative stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims in the United States or in Hollywood.
Click here to listen to the Radio Chicagoland podcast of the interview with Amin El Gamal.
Click here to listen to the Radio Baladi podcast of the interview with Amin El Gamal.
-- Ray Hanania

NEWS RELEASE: Grants available for Syrian Students at US Campuses

NEWS RELEASE: Grants available for Syrian Students at US Campuses

Contact: Sharon Witherell, IIE, 212-984-5380, switherell@iie.org
Leena Soman, IIE, 212-984-5360, lsoman@iie.org

For immediate release:

IIE Opens Emergency Student Fund to Provide Financial Relief to Syrian Students Studying on U.S. Campuses

Grants of $2,000 will help Syrian students with urgent financial needs to continue their studies in the United States

NEW YORK, February 15, 2012— The Emergency Student Fund (ESF) of the Institute of International Education (IIE) is issuing a call for nominations from U.S. colleges and universities that have Syrian students on campus with urgent financial need due to the escalating unrest in Syria. The program aims to help international students from Syria pursuing higher education in the United States complete their studies so that their academic careers are not interrupted as a result of turmoil in their home country.

Syria-ESF will provide grants of $2,000 each to Syrian students nominated by their U.S. host colleges and universities who may be unable to continue or complete their degree program in the United States due to serious financial difficulties precipitated by the situation in their home country. Administrators and faculty from accredited U.S. campuses can nominate up to four Syrian students at their institutions who need financial assistance to complete spring semester 2012.

International Student Advisers or other campus officials should submit applications to IIE by February 29, 2012. To nominate students, advisers must complete the Syria-ESF nomination form and e-mail it to SyriaESF2012@iie.org. Applications directly from students will NOT be accepted.

U.S. host campuses nominating students for Syria-ESF awards are expected to provide some emergency assistance to the nominated students, through tuition waivers, full or partial scholarships, housing, stipends, loans, work study, or other forms of support.

IIE anticipates that the need will exceed funding currently available in its Emergency Student Fund, and is actively seeking donations from interested individuals and foundations.

Awards will be announced in early March. IIE may announce a second call for nominations in late March 2012 depending on the availability of funds and ongoing need.

“The Institute is committed to helping students finish their chosen courses of study so that they will be prepared to help meet their home countries' needs,” said IIE President and CEO Allan Goodman. “Supporting students now is critical to educating future leaders for our increasingly interdependent world.”

According to data from the 2011 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange, published annually by IIE in partnership with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, more than 500 students from Syria studied in the United States in 2010/11, an increase of 24 percent from the previous academic year.

IIE’s Emergency Student Fund provides grants to post-secondary students matriculated at accredited educational institutions outside their home countries whose sources of support have been impacted by natural disaster or other crises. Since 2010, IIE’s ESF has provided over $1 million to nearly 400 students from Japan, Haiti, Libya, and Thailand whose home sources of financial support were impacted by crisis or natural disaster. 

Building on a Freeman Foundation designation of $2.5 million for emergencies involving students from East and Southeast Asia studying in the U.S., IIE is issuing a request to donors around the world to support this fund for other world areas. The Institute seeks additional contributions for the Emergency Student Fund so that it can respond quickly to help international students when disasters and emergencies in their home countries threaten to jeopardize the completion of their studies.

###

Institute of International Education

Founded in 1919, the Institute of International Education (IIE) is a private not-for-profit leader in the international exchange of people and ideas. In collaboration with governments, foundations and other sponsors and donors, IIE creates programs of study and training for students, educators and professionals from all sectors. These programs include the flagship Fulbright Program and Gilman Scholarships administered for the U.S. Department of State. IIE also conducts policy research, provides resources on international exchange opportunities and provides support to students and scholars in danger.

Radio Chicagoland expands into Southland Chicago and Northwest Indiana

Radio Chicagoland which is broadcast every Sunday from 8 am until 11 am is now expanding its broadcast signal on two stations. Radio Chicagoland will now simulcast live on both WSBC AM 1240 and WCFJ AM 1470 radio stations.
The call-in number remains 773-792-1240 and the web site remains www.RadioChicagoland.com. But while WSBC AM 1240 broadcasts mainly to Chicagoland's North, Northwest, West and near Southwest suburbs (as far south as Palos), the new radio station WCFJ AM 1470 will now include listeners in the far Southlands and Northwest Indiana. WCFJ is based on Chicago Heights and will include southwest suburban communities from Orland Park south.
"Listeners in Orland Park should be able to chose between either station but now the new station will open up the popular political and current events talk radio program to many new communities including Tinley Park, Frankfort, Homewood Flossmoor, Chicago Heights and also into Northwest Indiana," said radio host Ray Hanania.
The program focuses on the hottest topics in the news and includes a special interest in regional, national and international politics.
Kheir Fakhreldin co-hosts during the program from studios located in Northwest Chicago at 5625 N. Milwaukee Avenue.
Hanania also hosts Radio Baladi on WNZK AM 690 in Detroit every Friday morning from 8 (EST) am until 9 am there. The web site is www.RadioBaladi.com and the call in number there is 248-557-3300.END

Justin Martin asks the question: Why not more Arab Journalists in American media?

This important question is ignored by the bigotry and bias of the majority of the news media ... it deserves more attention and I wonder why the mainstream media doesn't address it more often. One reason is the bigotry that exists in the mainstream news media that reflects the discrimination that is "policy, practice and reality" in American society and politics.
http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/why_arent_more_arab_americans.php
Please read and comment. The Columbia Journalism Review should give more space to this topic because it cuts right to the heart of the problem of how this country addresses the Middle East.
Recently, when a leader of NAAJA in Washingtn DC spoke with aides to President Barack Obama, asking if he would address one of our next conventions, the response was "Absolutely not." Why? Because of the bigotry in this country, Because Obama is playing politics with the Middle East, Arabs and Muslims and only cares about how it applies in the Middle East not in a Diverse America. And, because Obama knows that the mainstream American media -- and organizations like the Society of Professional Journalists and UNITY" Journalists of Color, are driven by racist and discriminatory views and leadership. 
(The SPJ is the worst, most discriminatory organization in American journalism today. It's leadership is racist and driven by anti-Arab and anti-Muslim policies as demonstrated by the series of events from the closing of the Arab SPJ Section to the slander against Helen Thomas to the interference run by its leaders to keep American Arabs from running for SPJ leadership positions.)
Read the Martin piece and please comment.
ThanksRay HananiaNAAJA National

Boycott against Lowes misses real goal

Boycott against Lowes misses real goal
By Ray Hanania – There’s nothing like emotion to bring Arabs and Muslims together, even when they don’t agree.

When TLC announced that it was broadcasting a new show called “All-American Muslim,” the Muslim community expressed anger and criticism.

All of the people in the new reality show about Muslims in Detroitland, where one of the largest Arab populations resides, were Arabs; there were no non-Arab Muslims.

That provoked a barrage of criticism beginning with one Pakistani who noted the majority of Muslims in the World are non-Arab.

Arab Muslims also were angry with the show, with many complaining that the idea of an Arab seeking to open a dance studio or a liquor establishment was offensive.

Of course, I don’t see too many Muslims complaining about the dirth of liquor stores operated by Muslims not just in Detroit but across America, and even in the Middle East.

Now, TLC’s “All-American Muslim” is involved in a new controversy that may trump the anger from Muslims and Arabs against the portrayals in the show.

A fanatic Christian group in Florida called “The Florida Family Association” announced it was protesting the show because the show, they said, sought to impose Islam on Americans and to justify Sharia law.

The group targeted all of the advertisers on TLC, more than 50 and almost all of them announced they were removing their ads from broadcasting during the TLC program. They said the majority agreed to reconsider advertising and that 20 had withdrawn their Ads.

Some of those advertisers include the biggest names in American commerce, many of them patronized by Muslims and Arabs: Amway, Anheuser Busch Inbev, Bank of America (Cash Rewards), Campbell’s Soup, Dell computers, The Gap, General Motors (Chevy Runs Deep), Good Year, Home Depot, Honda North America, HTC Phones, Ikea, JC Penney, JP Morgan Chase (Chase Sapphire), Lowe’s, McDonald’s, Nationwide Insurance, Nintendo (Mariokartz.com), Old Navy, Petsmart, Pier One, Radio Shack, Sears , Signet (Kay Jewelers), Sonic Drive-ins, Subaru, T-Mobil, Toyota (Camry), Volkswagen, Wal-Mart and Whirlpool (Maytag).

During the past two Friday morning broadcasts of Detroit’s Radio Baladi (WNZK AM 690), one of the largest American Arab and Muslim radio shows in the country, callers complained about the show that it portrayed Arabs and Muslims inaccurately.

Suddenly, the response from the Muslim and Arab community has changed.

Now, faced with the protests from the rightwing religious fanatics, Arabs and non-Arab Muslims are beginning to rally around the show.

And I think that’s something they should have done from the start.

Nationally, Arabs and Muslims across the country have begun targeting Lowes, ignoring all of the other advertisers who agreed to either remove their advertisements or to prevent their Ads from appearing during the show.

The fact is “All-American Muslim” is the perfect way to help show the true side of American Arabs and Muslims. That Arabs and Muslims are no different than any other people. We have very religious people and we have very secular people and much more in-between. We’re no different than they (Americans) are.

Except in one respect. It doesn’t seem that Arabs and Muslims appreciate the nuances and subtleties of effective communications. We have never understood the American media or the power of communications. We’re stayed away from it and only in the past decade has there been a slow but steady trickle of American Arabs and Muslims who have tried to engage the media.

And the “media” doesn’t just include the biased anti-Arab and anti-Muslim newspapers, radio shows and TV shows. It includes the public relations spin of communications strategists by influence peddlers in this country. It includes movies and TV shows and especially sitcoms. And, the bias includes reality TV.

It’s amazing to me that many Arabs and Muslims will tolerate the sale of alcohol and foul-mouthed comedy when it is in mainstream American public venues such as by nearby liquor stores or on Cable TV. But when someone slaps a label on it and says it represents Muslims or Arabs, the internal battle begins. We become our own worst enemies.

The truth is that instead of blasting Lowes for removing its advertising, we should be sitting with Lowes and demanding that they fund more programs like “All-American Muslim.” If they don’t like it because it is “too controversial,” then fund programs that are more mainstream.

When does Lowes advertise in Arab newspapers or on Arab radio shows. All-American Muslim is about the ONLY Arab and Muslim program we have on TV, outside of some scattered comedy flashes on Cable TV.

We should be proactive and we shouldn’t react with our emotions, as we too often do.

We should be holding the media responsible. I mean, why do we get angry with Lowes and say nothing when a major American newspaper that we subscribe to trashes Arabs and Muslim causes like Palestine or the injustice of the War in Iraq, or the war crimes against the people of other Muslim countries?

Before American Arabs and Muslims can prevent biased actions like those of Lowes, we need to insure that we have our own act together.

We can’t expect others to respect us as Arabs and Muslims if in fact we don’t respect ourselves.

(Ray Hanania is the co-host of Radio Baladi which broadcasts on WNZK AM 690 every Friday morning in Detroit at 8 am, and the host of Radio Chicagoland which broadcasts on WSBC AM 1240 every Sunday morning from 8 am until 11 am. Visitwww.RadioBaladi.com for more information.)