Baby boomer memories: Things I used to do but don't do any more

Baby boomer memories: Things I used to do but don't do any more
I still call the refrigerator the "ice box." My wife and kid laugh at me all the time.
"Is the ice box the freezer dad?" my son asks.
"Everyone's a comedian," I reply.
We used to have a big box with a white insulated plastic or steel lining. Probably steel painted white, or maybe porcelain. Every few days, a truck would carry in a block of ice using a large metal clapper shaped like rounded tongs. He would drop it in the box and we'd have meats and other fresh foods in there.
That was back in the days when peddlers used to roam the neighborhood streets in Chicago. The guy who pushed the cart with the large wheel that turned as he rolled the wood and metal contraption down the center of the street walking slowly and calling out "Knives. Knives. Knives." He used to sign a song too, but I don't remember how it went or what he was singing about.
Imagine a guy walking down the middle of the street with a collection of butcher knives hanging from a wire like a clothes line over the cart?
"Fall to the ground face down, sir. Spread your legs and arms and keep your palms down. You will only get one warning before we start firing, sir."
Clothes lines. Clothes pins. Every home had two metal "t"'s in their yards, one pipe cemented into the yard at one end, and another at the other end of the yard. The top was crossed by another pipe. And there were little metal loops under each cross pipe. Lines made of nylon or string stretched from one cross to the other. Usually about four lines. A bag with clothes pins hung at one end, bulging with wooden clothing pins that were snapped together with a metal spring. Those were the good ones. The older ones were a single piece of wood carved into a clasp that slipped over the clothing item and the line.
Drying out the clothes after a wash in the scrubber was a family affair. Mom would have the kids help as we stretched out the bed sheets and folded them over a line, snapped a clothes pin at each end and one in the center. That allowed them to dry in the sun. When there was sun.
For some reason, it was always sunny when I was a kid. Safer neighborhoods. Less to fear. Less talk about gruesome violence and killings. And nothing about race relations. There was only one race as far as most people were concerned. Blacks were people you read about when studying the Civil War.
We didn't have dish washers. Instead, we had a plastic "box" that we placed in the sink and filled with warm water and some soap. Each day after dinner, we'd scrape the dinner scraps into the garbage -- no liners, just a plastic container that had to be hosed out each week. And then we would put the plates, glasses and dishes into the plastic box and wash them by hand. 
We had a wire frame where we would line each plate standing up held in place by a row of hard plastic covered steel wire bands. They'd dry and then we'd put them in the cabinet until the next meal.
Someone invented a "plate" with a down pointing lip so that the plates would drip dry on the plastic plate and the lip would hang over into the sink and the water would roll down into the sink. Before, we'd put a folded towel underneath to catch the dripping water from the plates and glasses.
Not everything could be easily wiped dry.
We had the black and white box TV set with the round TV tube. We'd turn it on and wait for the tubes inside the TV to warm up and a light would form a dot in the center of the gray screen and then expand into a gray then black and white picture. When we closed it, it would snap to a small star burst that disappeared into a tiny dot in the center of the screen.
Every time you changed the channel, you had to get up off the coach, walk to the TV set and switch channels turning the tuner.
Then you'd sit down and get back up to move the rabbit ear antennas on top of the TV until the picture came in clearer. It never was "clear." It was always "that's better!"
We had one telephone. Heavy black with a black chord wrapped in electrical cloth-like covering.. The long cord was about 10 inches in length and you had to stand by the phone. It didn't move. You dialed using a ring dialer putting your finger into the numbered holes and turning it in a circle to the silver clip, then lifted your finger out and the dial would turn back into place in a snap. You would dial 6 numbers. Everyone's phone number began with two letters, usually representing a neighborhood. Raveswood5 3487  ... or RW5 3487.
There were all kinds of neighborhood extensions you would use and that's how you remembered everyone's number.
Of course, it was easier to just yell out your kitchen window into the kitchen window of the neighbor. 
"Hey Esther. When you come over, bring the peanut butter and the Wonder Bread!" Mom would cheer.
Mom and Esther would place one of two pieces of white Wonder Break on a plate in front of the kids and spread butter on it. And then they would pour white sugar on it and we'd eat that for lunch. Peanut butter was a luxury. One of the great inventions we enjoyed in the 1950s.
In the background, if you had some money, you might have a large box that was a radio. And the voice would introduce orchestra songs during the day. Some news. And stories and plays read by the day's Hollywood and New York actors and actresses. We loved listening to stories on the voice box.
One day the gas company came but to seal the coal shoot on the side of the house. It was a black heavy wrought iron cover sidewalk level usually in the front of the house. A coal truck would stop and someone would shovel coal into a pale and then carry it to the shoot. Open the shoot and pour the coal in. I don't recall that lasting long when I was a kid. I remember when it was a big deal to have a large tank installed that was filled with some kind of heating oil. Then later, it was replaced by gas pipes.
Only the luxury homes in the 1960s were built with Central Air Conditioning. It was like owning a Mark I Lincoln Continental. But many families managed to buy an air conditioner box that was placed inside a window in a room. The air conditioner would chill that one room. And run all day. Water would drip from the outside grill into the garden on top of the garden snakes that were common, too.
It was actually called a "Garter Snake." I think it was called that because the cris cross yellow pattern on the snake's back looked like a garter snap.
They didn't bite but they sure were abused.
We had a push mower. A gasoline mower was one of those luxuries only the rich later enjoyed. And in the Fall, we raked the leaves into a pile over the curb into the street and then at night lit them on fire until they burned down to black charred ashes. The smoke from the small piles of leave fires that dotted the streets as far as the eye could see were memorable. Not nauseating at all.
One day, the City of Chicago sent an "Alderman" to explain that the community was going to regulate when we could burn the leaves. All during the same few weeks. Eventually, burning leaves was outlawed.
Our family would also get together at 6 pm and sit together around the dinner table and enjoy a dinner meal together where we would talk. That would last about an hour.
Today, the dinner table is just a convenient place to put the laptop and the ethernet box that plugged into the wall socket to bring in the Internet. There are wires everyplace, now. Corners of counters are filled with them. We have a dish washer that has to be replaced about every six years. A refrigerator with a built in freezer. When the ice box was replaced by the rounded white refrigerator, they added a top freezer area. Later, we could by a storage freezer box where we could store bulk purchases of meat and also store the plastic bags of grape leaves that we picked that my mom used to make grape leaves stuffed with rice and lamb.
The air conditioner goes on and off by itself. I don't even notice it, except when it is too hot outside. The TV's are always on with someone chatting on the flat screens constantly. Little green and red lighted dots stay on at night glowing the night with an eerie LED mist.
It's a different world. That's for sure.
-- Ray Hanania

Consequences of hate speech, not for everyone

Consequences of hate speech, not for everyone
By Ray Hanania

The tragic killings of four Americans during protests in Libya including the American Ambassador to Benghazi, Christopher Stevens, has over-shadowed a major aspect of the role hate plays in provoking communities to hate.

The Stevens killing was a tragic exception to the rule involving protests that are sweeping the Arab and Muslim World against America’s hypocritical standards when it comes to hate speech.

An American extremist originally thought to be an Israeli American produced a movie which defames in the most offensive manner Arabs, Muslims, Islam and the Prophet Muhammed.

To Arabs and Muslims, the film was no different than a man standing up in a crowded theater and yelling “fire,” but then also blaming the “fire” on a specific religious or ethnic group.

While Americans have expressed unbounded criticism of the murders of Stevens and the three other Americans, the initial criticism of the promoter of the hate video was tempered by arguments that “people in American enjoy the right of free speech” and “free speech is a corner stone of Democracy.”

That changed days later when it was determined that the man, who claimed to be Israeli American Sam Bacile, has been identified as an outspoken anti-Muslim Coptic Christian, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. Immediately, police set upon Nakoula and determined that he had outstanding criminal warrants.

For those who argue that as disgusting as Nakoula’s anti-Islamic and anti-Arab video is, it is protected by free speech and American society is powerless to take any actions, I would remind them about the vicious campaign orchestrated by pro-Israel groups and activists against Helen Thomas in 2010.

Critics charged that Thomas, an award winning veteran journalist and the first female White House correspondent, had engaged in anti-Semitic hate speech when she flippantly responded to questions posed in an ambush by a notoriously racist anti-Arab supporter of Israel.

In fact, the Anti-Defamation League, which selectively fights instances of bigotry and hatred, issued a statement that gave the Society of Professional Journalists, the national organization of mainstream American media, the mandate to act on Thomas, one of the SPJ’s veteran and honored members.

The SPJ had created a Life Time Achievement Award in her name that was awarded to a long list of prestigious journalists.

But the ADL coordinated with the SPJ’s newly elected Israeli American president and a national SPJ board that had become increasing hostile to American Arab SPJ members and that same year terminated its then young program to give American Arab members of the SPJ a voice to raise issues concerning imbalanced media coverage.

The ADL spearheaded the assault on Thomas and issued this statement on January 10, 2010 to give the SPJ’s board cover for their political move to censor Thomas and punish anyone who dared to question media bias in favor of Israel, a foreign country:

“Fortunately, there are consequences in our society for those in positions of power or authority who publicly express racist, anti-Semitic or prejudiced views. We are pleased that the executive committee of the SPJ agrees that this award was no longer appropriate given the unprofessional and unbecoming conduct of its namesake.”

If you dispute that the ADL’s role was merely as an observer, it’s worth noting that the ADL statement denouncing Thomas came one year before the SPJ national board under its Israeli American presidency terminated the Helen Thomas Life Time Achievement Award, Jan. 14, 2011.

What are the consequences of anti-Arab and anti-Islamic hate speech? Statements by American politicians defending the rights of the haters included a declaration by Republican Candidate Mitt Romney attacking President Barack Obama for bowing to Arab and Muslim extremism.

The Egyptian embassy statement read, “The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims, as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.”

Romney said that a statement issued by a low-level Administration aid from the Egyptian embassy expressing regret for the hatred expressed in the video was a “surrender” to our enemies and an apology for “American values.”

Yes, when someone criticizes Israel, they become anti-American Nazi anti-Semites.

When someone criticizes Arabs and Muslims, or even denounces hatred against Arabs and Muslims, they are ridiculed as contradicting American values of free speech.

Maybe that’s why this year the ADL has been invited by the SPJ’s increasingly anti-Arab and anti-Muslim national board to be a sponsor of this year’s journalism convention which takes place in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Sept. 20.

Maybe someone should make a video about that. But God Forbid that we might protest, being Arab and Muslim and all.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning journalist who ended his more than 30 year long SPJ association by tearing up his membership card. Reach him at www.TheMediaOasis.com.)

Palos Heights Restaurant showcases local comedians

Palos Heights Restaurant showcases local comedians

Sam Buca’s in Palos Heights will showcase a lineup of local comedians at a special performance Wednesday Sept. 26.

Performers will include longtime club owner and comedian Bill Brady, comedians Brian Hicks, Paul Kelly and a special appearance by Southwest News-Herald Columnist Ray Hanania.

The show begins at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $10 each with a two drink purchase minimum. Dinner is also available for guests during the show.

For information, call Sam Buca’s, 12231 S. Harlem Avenue, at 708-361-1226.

END

Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow should run for Governor

The good news in the Drew Peterson conviction is that finally, after tolerating years of Peterson's outrageous arrogant taunting of justice and the public, he was finally convicted for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.
Peterson is a low-life skank, the kind of human trash that makes you wonder about how someone like that manages to become a part of a police department. Of course, a close look at Bolingbrook's controversy-plagued, corrupt-looking police department pretty much explains the "how" of it all. But the real good news is Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow.
Finally, someone who is not afraid to stand up for the rights of the victims of crimes. Someone who is willing to roll up his sleeves and fight the good fight for real justice. Finally, someone who doesn't run for a tough battle but instead goes into it will all of his talents, convictions and relentless energy.
The real victory in the Peterson conviction is the rise of James Glasgow. This is a guy who clearly has shown he cares more about the people he represents than the politics that often corrupts the system and undermines true justice.
The people finally have someone who doesn't let fearing losing a fight prevent him from fighting, especially when it involves the rights of the public who oftentimes are an after-thought for most elected officials.
Glasgow is my candidate for Governor of Illinois. Maybe Illinois Attorney General. Maybe for the US Senate. But surely someone we need in Illinois to stand up and fight for us. Someone the public can trust to defend their rights, not abuse them. Glasgow is the person who we, the public, can give our trust, and then return to our everyday lives without becoming investigators or vigilantes because the current system has let us all down. Glasgow is someone we can proudly say "represents us, the people."
For a change.
Run for higher office, Glasgow. Run!
Fight, now, for Stacy Peterson, Glasgow! And then turn your sights on that cesspool of government corruption, Bolingbrook. The public is with you whatever you plan to do!
-- Ray Hanania www.TheMediaOasis.com

And important change in the Democratic National Committee Convention Platform

And important change in the Democratic National Committee Convention Platform (And as fast as it was changed, it was returned to the Israeli enslavement language. President Obama ordered that the issue of Jerusalem and Israel's claim to it be restored to the Democratic National Committee Platform. What a puppy!) We'll see how long this lasts:

2012 Democratic National Committee Convention Platform

The Middle East. President Obama and the Democratic Party maintain an unshakable commitment to Israel's security. A strong and secure Israel is vital to the United States not simply because we share strategic interests, but also because we share common values. For this reason, despite budgetary constraints, the President has worked with Congress to increase security assistance to Israel every single year since taking office, providing nearly $10 billion in the past three years. The administration has also worked to ensure Israel's qualitative military edge in the region. And we have deepened defense cooperation—including funding the Iron Dome system—to help Israel address its most pressing threats, including the growing danger posed by rockets and missiles emanating from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. The President's consistent support for Israel's right to defend itself and his steadfast opposition to any attempt to delegitimize Israel on the world stage are further evidence of our enduring commitment to Israel's security.

It is precisely because of this commitment that President Obama and the Democratic Party seek peace between Israelis and Palestinians. A just and lasting Israeli-Palestinian accord, producing two states for two peoples, would contribute to regional stability and help sustain Israel's identity as a Jewish and democratic state. At the same time, the President has made clear that there will be no lasting peace unless Israel's security concerns are met. President Obama will continue to press Arab states to reach out to Israel. We will continue to support Israel's peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, which have been pillars of peace and stability in the region for many years. And even as the President and the Democratic Party continue to encourage all parties to be resolute in the pursuit of peace, we will insist that any Palestinian partner must recognize Israel's right to exist, reject violence, and adhere to existing agreements.

Elsewhere in the region, President Obama is committed to maintaining robust security cooperation with Gulf Cooperation Council states and our other partners aimed at deterring aggression, checking Iran's destabilizing activities, ensuring the free flow of commerce essential to the global economy, and building a regional security architecture to counter terrorism, proliferation, ballistic missiles, piracy, and other common threats.

(369 words)

The 2008 Democratic National Committee Convention Platform

Stand with Allies and Pursue Diplomacy in the Middle East

For more than three decades, Israelis, Palestinians, Arab leaders, and the rest of the world have looked to America to lead the effort to build the road to a secure and lasting peace. Our starting point must always be our special relationship with Israel, grounded in shared interests and shared values, and a clear, strong, fundamental commitment to the security of Israel, our strongest ally in the region and its only established democracy. That commitment, which requires us to ensure that Israel retains a qualitative edge for its national security and its right to self-defense, is all the more important as we contend with growing threats in the region–a strengthened Iran, a chaotic Iraq, the resurgence of Al Qaeda, the reinvigoration of Hamas and Hezbollah. We support the implementation of the memorandum of understanding that pledges $30 billion in assistance to Israel over the next decade to enhance and ensure its security.

It is in the best interests of all parties, including the United States, that we take an active role to help secure a lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a democratic, viable Palestinian state dedicated to living in peace and security side by side with the Jewish State of Israel. To do so, we must help Israel identify and strengthen those partners who are truly committed to peace, while isolating those who seek conflict and instability, and stand with Israel against those who seek its destruction. The United States and its Quartet partners should continue to isolate Hamas until it renounces terrorism, recognizes Israel's right to exist, and abides by past agreements. Sustained American leadership for peace and security will require patient efforts and the personal commitment of the President of the United States. The creation of a Palestinian state through final status negotiations, together with an international compensation mechanism, should resolve the issue of Palestinian refugees by allowing them to settle there, rather than in Israel. All understand that it is unrealistic to expect the outcome of final status negotiations to be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949. Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel. The parties have agreed that Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations. It should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.

(392 words)

-- Ray Hanania

end

Remembering Mosquito spraying in the 1960s

Many suburban communities through Cook and DuPage Counties will be spraying for mosquitoes because of fears stemming from the West Nile Virus outbreaks.
Dozens of people have become infected with West Nile Virus, and several have died. The virus is carried by mosquitoes. The virus was first associated with Africa, the Middle East and Asia and first appeared in the United States in New York in 1999. It's been an annual health threat ever since.
Local governments have arranged to have their communities sprayed to kill mosquitoes that might be carrying the virus. This year has been particularly deadly with more than 66 fatalities nationally. Incidents of the virus are increasing exponentially, up 40 percent from last week and expanding.
It's become of particular concern in Cook and DuPage Counties following the death of some noted celebrities including the Village President of Lombard, Bill Mueller.
When I was a child, we had never heard of West Nile Virus. People did die from the flu virus and other infections, many thought to have been spread by mosquitoes during rainy summer months. Although this year in Chicagoland has been dry, with a drought across the country, the last few weeks have brought rains, pooling water and a sudden increase in mosquitoes.
Government efforts to combat the virus include driving trucks spraying a "fog" consisting of chemicals including Envion, which is most commonly used to kill mosquito larvae and mosquitoes with carry the virus. Envion is not considered dangerous. As a child, the county used DDT and sprayed it twice a summer at the start and at the end driving the truck through neighborhoods up and down streets until the entire city was covered.
The truck was large and white, and it had a tube that extended from the back that spray the heavy gray-white fog into the air as it drove down the street. As children, we used to drive out bikes next to the truck, grabbing on to the truck and to the other kids on their bikes who were holding on to the truck as the DDT saturated our faces, hair and noses.
It wasn't healthy but back then, no one really cared. Never mind that riding a bike while holding on to the side of a big truck driving down a street was considered pretty dangerous, too, and still is.
Nowadays, the idea of having the chemical sprayed in the air has raised fears among parents. So local officials from government and schools have been doing "robo-calls" to alert parents that spraying will take place in suburban communities, usually after 8 pm and closer to the curfews to minimize contact with humans who presumably are in their homes.
Hopefully, it will work.

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