Quick Hits – August 25, 2022

No third column on radioactive dinnerware

You’ve probably already noted that Tuesday’s column covered Elgin city councilman Tish Powell’s latest malfeasance and not the absurd saga of the KCSAO’s attempt to violate the probation of a mentally ill Batavia 19-year-old on the basis of radioactive vintage dinnerware. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to bang my head against the wall every time I write that sentence, but I unilaterally decided to follow the advice of the great Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight’s wife who hung signs around the house admonishing him, “The horse is dead, get off it!”

Put more simply, I’d made my point and anything more would’ve veered into the overkill realm.

Suffice it to say that my sources were dead on. This bullshit maneuver was, indeed, nothing more than the KCSAO, aided and abetted by court services and the highest levels of the judiciary, covering their incompetent assess by using a ridiculous “violation” to force the parents to accept a new probation agreement.

That means the insider was dead on when they told me that the original agreement “was one of the poorest ever written.” So, these parents and their son were made to suffer for the absolute lack of leadership and supervision in the state’s attorney’s office. To wit, the new probation terms cover much more territory and they’re far more specific.

When I used the word “suffer,” I meant financially, too. Defense attorney Gary Johnson doesn’t work for free and I’m guessing this little “adventure” cost that family at least five grand. Since this stupidity rests squarely in their laps, I’m sure the KCSAO will be stepping up to cover those costs any day now.

Oh! And the new agreement made no mention of the fiesta ware or Depression glass. I guess that radioactive dinnerware wasn’t all that important after all.

The only good to come out of this sad situation is every last assistant state’s attorney is officially on notice that, while their boss, Jamie Mosser, may bear the ultimate responsibility, I’m going to hold them accountable for going along with any further KCSAO abuse of power. And by “accountable” I mean making them so famous that it will likely affect their future employment possibilities. But unlike those conscienceless ASAs, I’ll only apply this minor power when it’s required.

More specifically, I hope Kelly Orland and Margaret O’Brien are listening because it certainly would be in their best interest to pay attention to my promise. Put more simply, the journalistic gloves are off, and if the situation warrants it, I’m going to treat those ASA’s exactly as they would treat any defendant.

There’s a time when you need to turn over the car keys

As I read the story about the tragic accident that took the life of 19-year-old St. Charles East graduate, baseball standout, and all-around good guy, Kevin White, I, once again found myself “raging against the dying of the light.” It’s something I do with great frequency.

Sadly, my persistent declarations about life’s insistent injustice haven’t gotten me very far, but that won’t stop me from maintaining that teenagers should never die in traffic accidents, particularly when they’re faultless. This is exactly why I don’t believe in a Christian God. No “loving” deity would simply sit back and watch this absurdity happen. And unless you want to test my right hook, don’t tell me this utterly unnecessary death was part of any “divine plan” because there clearly isn’t one.

That’s just something people say to make themselves feel better.

But while we can’t begin to affect that dynamic, there is one we can change. The driver who made the errant left turn that killed Mr. White was a 74-year-old man. And though I can’t prove his age had anything to do with it, considering how he rammed a car while making a left turn at a major intersection, I’d be more than willing to bet it did. And I’d be willing to double down on that wager based on some recent experiences involving older drivers.

As I made my way through the St. Charles Meijer parking lot earlier this month, the 80-something woman in front of me stopped at one of the stop signs and wouldn’t budge. I didn’t want to resort to the horn, so I simply went around her, but she was still sitting there as I walked into the store. And she wasn’t waiting for anyone, either.

Last Friday, I was behind a 70- to 80-year-old driver attempting to make the turn from Fargo onto Kaneville Road in Geneva. But when she was confronted with some minor construction at that intersection, she couldn’t figure out how to navigate the right turn. Again, I avoided the horn because I didn’t want to further fluster her, and after sitting there for three to four minutes, she finally edged her way around the corner at 5 mph.

Then there was the elderly man driving westbound on Bricher Road in St. Charles at 15 mph in a 40-mph zone in broad daylight. I tried to be patient because none of us are getting any younger, but the motorists behind me didn’t share my largesse, so I finally had to pass him.

The fact that I drive no more than 20 miles a week, but still regularly run into these elderly driver issues is a clear indication of just how prevalent this problem really is.

The truth is, we’ve all watched those DMV eye testers pass a senior citizen who couldn’t get past that second alphabetic line because, to the vast majority of Americans, having a driver’s license is the very foundation of their independence. So, even the State is loathe to strip someone of that privilege, despite the often-obvious deleterious effects of old age.

Truth be told, none of the three drivers I encountered should be on the road.

I know it’s particularly difficult to tell your elderly parents it’s time to surrender the car keys, but as Kevin White’s parents will tell you, the alternative can be so much worse.

Still trust the “experts?”

Just one scant month ago, the self-proclaimed “experts” were warning us that the abundantly contagious BA.5 COVID variant would throw us right back into the grip of the pandemic Dark Ages. They shrieked that hospitals would be overwhelmed, our soon-to-be-opening schools would become superspreader sites, and ongoing variants would render the current vaccines obsolete.

Of course, the pandemic panic porn prone media ran with that story to the point where even my wife noted that grocery store mask usage had started ticking upward. But as has been the case for the entirety of the plague, the opposite happened.

Worldwide COVID cases went down by a massive 24 percent last week, with pandemic deaths dropping six percent. And this was true of all global regions, particularly Europe and Africa, where cases plummeted by an incredible 38 percent.

Closer to home, Kane County health department director, Michael Isaacson, was quoted as saying “We believe the absolute worst of the pandemic is over,” and the KCHD is one of the few institutions that’s actually been ahead of the COVID curve.

Then 79-year-old Joe Biden just got COVID twice, and after suffering mild cold-like symptoms, he’s fine. His 71-year-old wife Jill caught it from him, and despite having to endure a similar rebound case, she’s also doing fine.

But despite this overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the majority of medical “experts,” the press, and most progressives continue to tell us that we’re still standing in the shadow of the viral Sword of Damocles.

Follow the “science you say?” That’s fine if you want to chase the “experts” as they run around in circles, but as for me, I’ll be happy to continue to follow the evidence.