Posted on 09/04/2006 2:32:20 PM PDT by neverdem
Once a town of big shoulders and waistlines, Chicago looks increasingly like the nanny state of California.
I FONDLY REMEMBER visiting the Sears Tower in Chicago almost 20 years ago. Before being allowed to enjoy the view from what was then the world's tallest building, visitors had to sit through a promotional film about how rough and tough and great and booming the Second City was. (Never mind that the proud hometown of baseball's sad-sack Cubs had already slipped to third place in population, behind Los Angeles.)
At some point in the film, the narrator — possessed of a tooth-rattling basso profundo usually reserved for more elevated art forms, such as NFL highlight reels — proclaimed, apropos of nothing, that "Chicago ain't no sissy town!" He was, if memory serves, quoting an alderman or some other species of criminal native to the Windy City.
But it turns out that Chicago is a sissy town because that "stormy, husky, brawling … City of the Big Shoulders," in Carl Sandburg's evocative 1916 poem, seems hellbent on putting a chokehold on just about everything that makes a city a city. Namely, fun. Local pols evidently are more dedicated to rooting out gluttony among residents than reining in a police department neck deep in an ugly torture scandal.
Over the last year, the Associated Press recently reported, Chicago snuffed out smoking "in nearly all public places" and pulled the plug on using cellphones while driving. This April, the "Hog Butcher for the World" (Sandburg again) became the first city in the country to ban the sale of foie gras, on grounds that force-feeding geese to make the tasty treat is more cruelty than Al Capone's adopted hometown can bear.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
nanny state/big city blues
Un - believe - able! What's next, no veal?
It's for the "chidrn" and the promotion of an agenda.
I split my time between Chicago and London...was very disappointed to come back here last week for the first time in about a year to discover the smoking ban...and London will have one go into effect soon. P*sses me off that they take the money I pay for smokes in massive taxes then tell me I can't smoke them. Don't really get bothered about the foi gras ban, as I've never really liked it, but this stuff is getting ridiculous...I'll eat what I want, and if there is really a big enough market for non-smoking places, why didn't some enterprising individuals open them up as such? Scotland brought in a smoking ban recently, because all the pols said "the people want it" and now pub business is slumping. Bah.
Don't give them any ideas....
Sounds like San Francisco, sans tech and nice view.
Chicago snuffed out personal freedom for the delusion of the betterment of the whole for political directive.
The foie gras ban is silly, becuase it stops at the city limits. That said, the way that goose livers are prepared - hot-steaming live geese over grates to shock the livers into fattening, just before killing the birds - is pretty sickening.
I can agree with the cellphone-driving ban, though, I've seen too many close calls with idiotic jerks.
LOL!
Nanny State Ping........
No offense intended toward Chicago FReepers, but I didn't lose anything in the Windy City an so feel no need to bother visiting.
Apparently Ditka showed up at the city council meeting to protest and smoked a cigar the whole time! Gotta hurt his business, though, as his restaurant is also a cigar bar.
I was really hoping Ditka's opposition to the ban would have been more of an incentive for other businesses to oppose it.
What's scarier is ... WHO (what sicko) figured out that live-searing the geese would fatten the livers?
I don't eat veal or fwa graw ;-)
So is the author supporting a city full of jerks, or what?
I hadn't really followed what was going on back here in Chicago at the time it passed, but going back over the history of it, I would've hoped/thought the same. Instead, everyone cowed out and let him go it alone. Now we have a whole series of annoying regs that don't seem to be the same anywhere you go...sometimes 50 feet from a non-smoking section is ok, sometimes you can only smoke at the bar, other times never at the bar. If you're from Chicago, you'll probably know what I mean!
That way, you won't meet with with your friends and acquaintances and talk about current events, politics, and hope to change the things with which you disagree.
Don't give in.
Heh...getting me to shut up on topics like that is like getting me to stop breathing (or smoking!)
Bill Swerski's SuperFans. Live from Ditka's Grill, the Super Fans, Swerski [Joe Mantegna], Pat Arnold [Mike Myers], Todd O'Connor [Chris Farley], and Carl Wollarski [Bob Smigel] handicap da Bears-Giants game ...
Swerski: Now, gentlemen, let me ask you this: What if da Bears were all 14 inches tall, you know, about so high? Now, what's your score of today's game?
Wollarski: Bears 18, Giants 10. And that would finally be a good game.
Arnold: Yeah, it would be a good game. Mini Bears 24, Giants 14.
O'Connor: What about Ditka? Would he be mini, too?
Swerski: No, he would be full-grown.
O'Connor: Oh, then, uh.. Mini Bears 31, Giants 7.
Wollarski: Oh, hold on. Then I change mine, too. I thought it was Mini Ditka.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.