Hull House, a hallowed Chicago institution for 123 years, recently closed due to lack of funds. For generations, it was the crown jewel of American settlement houses, important enough to be mentioned in history textbooks, and also an ongoing source of local civic pride. Today, every Chicagoan, from Mayor Emanuel and the city’s corporate fathers, to those in the Occupy Chicago movement should be ashamed at how the public has virtually ignored the death of Hull House.

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There seems to be a spreading belief that we are living in horrible times, and a reflection of those times is the bitter atmosphere in Washington.  Hatred!  Vilification!  The politics of personal destruction!  Fanaticism!  Oh, I just can’t go on.

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Here’s why the GOP presidential race and whom we settle on as the ultimate nominee matters: Politico reports that the White House has been telling progressives that they’re going to “love” Obama’s State of the Union address tonight. If we don’t defeat Obama in November, America will be gone. And once she’s gone, that’s it. Game over. For us and the rest of the world.

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The foreign policy and national security strategy of only one of the four remaining Republican candidates is adequate against this tenuous scenario. Ron Paul’s agenda for the Middle East will guarantee a nuclear Iran, turn North Africa over to the Islamists, and ignore the next wave of jihadists who have trained their sites on the US Homeland. Congressman Paul may be a staunch advocate for citizens’ Constitutional rights, but in my modest view, his vision for US Foreign Policy may force Americans into a national security predicament as bad as or worse than that of a second Obama administration.

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It’s often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. President Obama keeps giving us the same thing—the same policies, the same rhetoric, the same tone—over and over again. I’m not sure he expects a different result, though. And that’s the point: he’s neither insane nor stupid. He’s a pure leftist ideologue who will not—indeed, cannot—change.

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Pity the NYC Police Department.  Entrusted with safeguarding the welfare of almost 9 million people daily as the first guard of defense against terrorism, their only hope is to be smarter than the enemy and intercept him before he strikes again.  After the horror of 9/11, and after all the other Muslim generated terrorist acts in the U.S. and abroad, this is a very tall order and one which our police department, under the command of Commissioner Kelly, deserves great praise for having accomplished.  Undoubtedly they have gotten assistance from the FBI, the Dept of Homeland Security and from various community watchdogs but since we have not had a repeat of 9/11 since then, we should all be eminently grateful for the success of their training and the bravery of New York City’s police corps.

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With South Carolina in his pocket and momentum clearly shifting, I wondered what the economy under a Gingrich administration might look like. With the caveat that anything is better than what we have, I find a lot of the stuff that Newt espouses is red meat for a free market guy like me. Having said that; here is what he says he would do:

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Just days after the American colors were “cased” in Iraq, a wave of al Qaeda-style bombings struck Baghdad, killing dozens. The attacks also cast doubt on President Obama’s claim that, with our GIs coming home after nine years, Iraq is now “sovereign, stable and self-reliant.”

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In light of recent accusations from his ex-wife Marianne, Newt Gingrich would probably prefer to forget the time he drew a picture showing the two of them at the center of their universe.

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We’ve got a mixed bag today. Google reported and missed. Microsoft reported and missed. Intuitive Surgical reported and hit big. IBM reported and missed revenues while hitting profits. The end results; Google got nailed overnight; Microsoft went up; Intuitive Surgical went down big while IBM was up nicely.

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Let’s just take a quick look at some of the headlines and try to piece together precisely what is going on in the United States economy. Wells Fargo reports billions in quarterly profits beating estimates while Citigroup misses badly. France’s triple a credit rating goes by the boards and our own government lawmakers pushed new spending of $1 Trillion last year.  Iran continues to threaten the supply chain of oil through the straits of Hormuz and we continue to block the Keystone XL pipeline preferring to purchase our oil from Venezuela and Brazil rather than Canada.

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At last, someone is trying to get people to stop wearing their pajamas out in public, and all I can say, is a resounding, it’s about time!

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Friday the thirteenth, so far, stock market wise, is ugly. As I write this the market is down 140 points on the Dow and a like percentage in the other indices, and I think you can blame yesterday. The jobs report yesterday was lousy and yet the market the market went up a smidge. Why? The news was bad yesterday; not today; how come it went up yesterday and is down high today? I have no idea.

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As you might imagine, I read a tremendous amount of market research from varied sources. I read it all with a jaundiced eye since I principally believe that most of the folks who publish this stuff are trying to sell it. I see absolutely nothing wrong in that, but it does provide a filter and it should for you as well.

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Associated Press reports that former President Jimmy “The Kook” Carter this week said there’s nothing wrong with Islamists taking over Egypt, because that’s the will of the Egyptian people.

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Mabul (The Flood) is an award winning Israeli film that has just opened this year’s Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center.

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Progress! Last year it took ’til almost two months into the new year for us to hear from our non-Muslimy Balkans Muslim friends whom we “rescued” from Christian Serbs and the jaws of civilization. This year, we’re only about a week in, and already we’re experiencing that familiar Balkan gratitude. (Though 2010 beats out 2012 by a day.)

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     Name a 21rst century movie about a famous, outstanding British woman suffering from Alzheimer’s with a devoted husband played by the noted British actor Jim Broadbent.  “Iris” you say correctly, referring to the 2001 film about the author Iris Murdoch - but wait, here’s another that fits exactly the same description.  “The Iron Lady,” starring Meryl Streep as a demented Margaret Thatcher and Jim Broadbent as her loyal spouse has so much wrong with it that perhaps its reprisal of another scenario is the least of its sins.  Nevertheless, it bears mention since the decision to cast a bio-pic about England’s first woman prime-minister in the context of her doddering senility is not only wrong-headed but derivative to boot.

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The newspaper story says the state is threatening to withhold some $2 million from two schools here that didn’t meet their test score goals.

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So, evidently, the Islamo-Fascists – or one of them, at least –  have developed a new way to attack the world’s Jews, stealthily, by remote control, as their victims try to go about living normal lives.

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We now have the first race of 2012 under our belts. It was simultaneously exciting and boring. Exciting because it was a three-way race for much of the night, then it was a two-way race between the Dominant Guy and the Dark Horse, and then it was the Dominant Guy by a mere 8 votes. Boring because we conservatives are still saying, “Are we really going to go into this war with Barack Obama for the future of the country…with this group?” Sigh.

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The news of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il’s death is akin to a beautifully wrapped holiday present: It’s full of promise, but might turn out to be a huge disappointment.

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