Is Gov. Rauner Illinois' Hipster Doofus?

The more I watch newbie Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, the more I'm reminded of the character Kramer from Seinfeld. Besides a mild physical resemblance, Rauner, like Kramer, seems to have a worldview that is a little 'off'. Kramer became lovable for simply not looking at the world like everyone else. He was constantly coming up with schemes to improve life around him and society in general that were so goofy and disjointed, friend El...aine tabbed him the 'Hipster Doofus'. Like Hipster Doofus Kramer, Rauner is careening around Illinois proposing cracked ideas that he thinks are genius but are falling flatter than Aunt Jemima's pancakes. Whether it's pulling out funding for autism and homecare for single mom programs, or proposing Right To Work zones to further erode union and prevailing wage uplift to the middle class, Rauner is showing he's much better suited for comedy than governance. Check that! Rauner may be deporting himself like a Hipster Doofus, but his version is more suited to tragedy.

Gay marriage critic and child of gay parenting misguided

With arguments before the Supreme Court on gay marriage a week away, Canadian Dawn Stefanowiz was given nearly of full page of Tribune ink and pixels to rail against the US legalizing gay marriage, as was done in Canada in 2005. Stefanowicz spent her first 30 years under the spell of her gay father and his succession of male partners. Her beef against daddy? "I did not see my father or his partners valuing, loving and affirming women. My father's preference for one gender (male) created an inner sense of inequality for me." Stefanowicz then extrapolates from this unfortunate experience, which untold millions have experienced at the hands of a heterosexual parent, to conclude her poor self esteem was the result of same sex parenting. We could surmise that if her father was a thief instead of a successful executive recruiter, she might conclude gay parenting is associated with thievery.

Stefanowicz's other argument against gay marriage is societal. She claims Canadians have lost their personal freedoms because of government imposed restrictions against expressing any belief same sex marriage is wrong. Her solution to these restrictions, whether real or imagined, is not to lobby for change in governmental policies; it's downright discriminatory and draconian: "Marriage must remain between a man and a woman — to the exclusion of all others." That's like saying we shouldn't have given the vote to women in 1920 or to blacks in 1965 because of the unfair societal pressure on those expressing their belief neither of these enhancements to human freedom was necessary.

Regarding Ms. Stefanowicz's bizarre lobbying for continued discrimination against LGBT folks enjoying the same humanity she does, Billy Shakespeare said it best: "The woman doth protest too much, me thinks."

At College of DuPage, taxpayers pay for the food; Foundation pays for the booze

The front page story in today's COD Daily Scandal, a.k.a. Chicago Tribune, reveals a pretty slick trick President Breuder used to buy all that fine wine and scotch consumed by Breuder and trustees at Waterleaf dinners before 25 Board meetings in the last four years. Since charging taxpayers for liquor is frowned upon at community colleges, Breuder simply split the bill; food to Breuder's Waterleaf... house account and high octane refreshments to the College of DuPage Foundation's Waterleaf house account. Those 25 meetings racked up $9,000 in bar bills expensed at the expense of needy students, who could have received many more scholarships for that $9,000. The bigger the announcement at Board meetings, the bigger the bar bill which averaged $360 per dinner. Breuder and his trustee bosses really celebrated before an August, 2013, meeting where the Board announced Breuder was named CEO of the year for the Association of Community College Trustees' Central Region. The liquor tab for that dinner was $643 which included 6 bottles of fine wine. What's worse is that COD officials denied for months there even was a Foundation house account at Waterleaf. Perseverance by COD Daily Scandal reporters and lawyers finally coughed up the incriminating info. Breuder says all those FOIA requests were simply a fishing expedition. Can't be that when no fish could survive in what Breuder was swimming around in.