O'Reilly Says South Side is like Haiti?!?

"If you've ever been to the South Side of Chicago, I mean, it's a disaster. Alright?" said O'Reilly. "It's like Haiti. It's like -- I've been to Haiti a couple times, and I support some charities there, but Haiti just never gets better no matter how much money you put in there because they don't have a system.”

Wow! O'Reilly, a Fox News &*@$% Person is going on tour being 'bold and fresh'. Aside from wearing a t-shirt under a sport coat he's being fresh in a Racist, Simple minded, almost leader of All-the-evil-thoughts-and-systems-that-ruins-this-world way.

The Sunday NYTimes buried some actual good news about Haiti it its article, "Imagining a Stronger Haiti Past the Pain" : '...the government of President Rene Preval, elected in 2006, is the most honest Haiti has had in generations. Last year, it presented a two-year development plan that won broad acceptance; at a conference in April, donors pledged $350 million. Crime was falling before Jan 12, and Haiti's police, once a source of terror, had become the nation's most trusted institution. Such progress, though modest, undermines arguments that Haiti's problems are so deeply rooted in its culture as to doom any state -building effort to failure--a mirror image of the claim that the country bears no responsibility for its own plight.'

It is strange how I have come to cherish the NY Times for its thoughtful and informative content...something missing from about ALL other media I come into contact with.

There has been a bit of a hubbub about NYTimes announcing they will begin charging online readers...in 2011. Please! I truly appreciate the Times. I'm from a generation that pays for just about nothing...and takes A LOT when it comes to information stored on the internet. Heck my generation doesn't really like to pay for anything.

But, I happen to know several of my generational co-horts, cheap bastards such as myself, who actually pay the $6 a day for a Sunday times. I don't want everything I like to be a charity (ex: public radio and my place of employment)...it makes them weak! Ny Times has an excellent product, I want old fashioned capitalism to keep it alive...which means people like me who see its value will hand them cold hard cash (or paypal) in return for some of the only thoughtful reporting to be found these days.

Acephelous Performance

Things to do in Chicago with Guest

drink atop the hancock

small galleries in the west loop followed by tacos

MCA on a free day

Shopping in Wicker Park (division and milwaukee) lunch at sultans

Dinner at Devon, Korean grill or Little Siagon

Riding bikes (lunch at handlebar)

visiting the lake

free performance at the cultural center

monday at the empty bottle

picture in a bar picture booth

coffee culture: star lounge, letizias, metropolis, intelligencia

Symphony

The HideOut for soup or Sat dancing

Art Institite

Garfield Conservatory

Old Fashion Movie (theater on southport)(anthropologie)(tango sur steak)

Hair cuts

Thrifting

Maxwell Street

Thousand Waves Spa

Green market

Sunday Craft Fair at E.B.

Fringe theater in Rogers Park (ride the Red Line)

Rent Movie at Odd Obsession

Play in Humboldt Park (kick ball or catch) eat at cart...pinchos, jibaritos o garlic plantains

Dat Donut Southside

Cahokia Mounds

I picked Nick up in St Louis and we drove back to Chicago on the 28th of December. We stopped at the Cahokia Mounds which are just past East st Louis. It's a 6 mile area that used to have 120 mounds built around 650CE. The biggest, Monks Mound:"A massive structure with four terraces, it is 10 stories tall, and is the largest man-made earthen mound north of Mexico. Facing south, it is 92 feet (28 m) high, 951 feet (290 m) long and 836 feet (255 m) wide."

These are pyramids similar to the ones I climbed in Mexico, but never venerated the same way. They were built so long ago no-one knows who built them, they're attributed to the "Mississippian Culture". Again, a self centered racist history ignores an amazing culture that came before. Time has tied the builders to no-one.

While we walked through the empty snow paths between slopping mounds we spotted a herd of deer. We counted 20 grazing in the snow with their darker coats on. They looked up lazily, not afraid of us.