Chicago Daily Observer

Hildy Johnson doesn’t work here any more. Neither does Charles MacArthur or Ben Hecht. Mike Royko is dead and I am not feeling too well myself. If you are one of the few persons who still torture yourself by reading the tepid rags that pass for newspapers in Chicago, you know precisely what I mean.

Why is the online edition of The Chicago Daily Observer important and needed? Because it fills a significant void. The major news outlets have abandoned any pretense at allowing a full range of opinions in their editorial pages and broadcasts more than a few years ago and effective news coverage is not necessarily their forte either, so you need to turn to the Internet for an alternative to the empty secularism and liberal orthodoxy that holds sway in the electronic and print media in our beleaguered city.

Consider a few recent examples: the mainstream media ... Read More...

Years ago I had the. . . privilege? Distinction? Experience? Of sitting until the early hours of the morning with Christopher Hitchens—debating Christianity. Apparently, I
didn’t do a very good job because his mega best –seller “God is Not Great” has done even better in the marketplace than the raft of atheist best-sellers, such as Richard Dawkin’s “The God Delusion,” which preceded it.

What intrigues me about “Great” is how much Hitchens gets right about the modern world and the effect of religion upon it – while still arriving at the wrong place in the end. But he takes us on a journey with words designed – as Hitchens, a brilliant contrarian and writer for Vanity Fair – always designs to them, to both elegantly and yet crudely vivisect his adversary.

Where Hitches fails is, ironically, in the same way – though of course with different content – ... Read More...