By David Rutter
1. DuPage County, WTF?
The reality of public life and what constitutes free speech has tilted so far into the twilight that spending public money this way appears to have no antidote. Who knows, maybe real folks who work for their wages and hope to live normal lives have become so inured to this trend that it no longer seems philosophically preposterous. Even Alice eventually forgot she was in a bad dream.
It didn’t take the Supreme Court ruling on “corporate free speech” to validate this insanity, but eventually the inertial forces make this oozing slide back to the primordial pool as inevitable as a noxious glacier.
2. Highway Samurai, WTF?
Who among us has not wished to march down an interstate while waving a sword and declare we are cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?
It would have been better if he were naked at the time, but you can’t ask for everything.
3. Rick Perry, WTF?
We have become a nation of whack jobs masquerading our goofiness as piety. The sacrament of choice is Cocoa Puffs.
4. David Protess, WTF?
Northwestern University is less concerned about the particulars of a journalistic hero being run out of town on a rail than about the higher value of, er, what exactly? We’re not sure what Northwestern’s values are in this case, but the integrity of Medill’s J-school foundry has suffered a terrible blow. For the price of a degree, Northwestern students are getting a good lesson in how the world really works.
5. Frank Clark, WTF?
Canonization seems somewhat hyperbolic for the guy who ran ComEd for 10 years but can a mediocre company really be operated by wonderful, exceptional executives? A company cannot be as self-interested and publicly indifferent as ComEd if not for the poeple who operate it. If you believe these pre-posthumous accolades, it must be true that he’s a fabulous success story. Chief Operating Officer Anne Pramaggiore is the wonderful, exceptional executive destined for the chair next.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on September 9, 2011