CHICAGO’S FREE WEEKLY | THIS ISSUE IN FOUR SECTIONS FRIDAY, JULY 1, 2005 | VOLUME 34, NUMBER 40

Our Town The big whoop over a whooping crane p 10

Books A new breed of Let’s Hear It spy novel p 21 for the Loving,

The Works Protecting Wimpy Jesus Daley in the It’s not easy being the country’s most name of outspoken critic of Rapture theology. election reform By Todd Dills p 6 A blow for student journalists, Liz Armstrong goes to NextFest, PLUS more than you ever wanted to know about toothpaste, and more. Section One Letters 3 Reviews Theater 20 Columns Queen Lucia at Lifeline Theatre Hot Type 4 Books 21 The Seventh Circuit screws us again My Life in CIA by Harry Mathews The Straight Dope 5 and Spy’s Fate by Arnaldo Correa The promises toothpastes make Plus The Works 6 Ink Well Springfield pulls a fast one Chicago Antisocial 8 We have one question for the Dickbot. July 1, 2005 Our Town 10 Chicago’s first whooping crane in a century or so

ON THE COVER: MARC MONAGHAN (CRANE) Let’s Hear It for the Loving, Wimpy Jesus

With The Rapture Exposed out in paperback this week, Barbara Rossing is about to enter round two in her battle with the Left Behind people.

By Todd Dills ost likely nobody you know has read one, but more than 50 million books in the Left M Behind series have sold in the past decade. Six of the 12 apocalyptic thrillers by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins have entered the New York Times best-

seller list at number one. LaHaye is influential in . MERIDETH UL L

more direct ways too: in the run-up to the 2000 PA election he co-led the Committee to Restore Barbara Rossing American Values, a group of evangelicals who subjected Republican candidates to a questionnaire Antichrist in the final war of to test their allegiance to the right-wing agenda. A Armageddon. Then he comes former Baptist minister, he cofounded the Council back again to finish off the for National Policy, the Concerned Women of evildoers and save those who’ve America (headed by his wife, Beverly), and the seen the light since his last visit. California branch of the Moral Majority, all political The first book in the series, Left Christian organizations, after leaving the pulpit in Behind, was published in 1995, the early 80s. He advocates what amounts to one year after Barbara Rossing theocratic government for the U.S. in his 2001 work joined the faculty of the Lutheran of nonfiction, Mind Siege: The Battle for Truth. The School of Theology at Chicago in Left Behind series and assorted spin-offs (graphic Hyde Park, where she’s now novels, Bible covers, a children’s series) are estimated tenured. When she spoke in to bring in at least $100 million a year, which churches or in the classroom LaHaye channels back into the Christian right. about Revelation, inevitably The books novelize a not-too-cheery interpretation people would ask her what she of the Bible, much of it based on the book of thought of the novel. She didn’t Revelation, in which Jesus Christ returns to earth read it until ’98 or ’99, and she and, in an event known as the Rapture, takes the didn’t think much of it. “[It’s] like true believers to heaven. He leaves everyone else a disaster movie with Bible verses behind to suffer seven years of chaos then fight the thrown around continued on page 16 2CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE 3

m Chicago Reader, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago, IL 60611 312-828-9926 JULY 1, 2005 f VOL 34 | NO 40 Letters @ [email protected]

Publisher Michael Crystal Editor Alison True historical ignoramus as our vation to grant easements to Managing Editor Kiki Yablon esteemed senator, unless he a not-for-profit entity such Senior Editors Michael Miner |Laura Molzahn | Kitry Krause With Friends thinks that at Auschwitz or as LPCI, or in Hackl’s case, Associate Editors Martha Bayne | Anaheed Alani in the gulag they issued Talmuds to the Oak Park-River Forest Philip Montoro | Kate Schmidt Like These... to all the Jewish prisoners Historical Society. On Hackl’s Assistant Editors Jim Shapiro | Mark Athitakis Staff Writers Steve Bogira | John Conroy | Jeffrey Felshman and the gestapo and OGPU site he writes about his Harold Henderson | Deanna Isaacs | J.R. Jones | Ben Joravsky To the editor: routinely investigated and historic home in anticipation Monica Kendrick | Peter Margasak | Tori Marlan | Bob Mehr The Tribune’s initial omis- disciplined camp guards who “Readers like of selling it and says, “Also a Jonathan Rosenbaum | Mike Sula | Albert Williams Copy Chief Brian Nemtusak sion of the FBI torture report didn’t respect their prisoners’ to make up great buyer incentive is being Editorial Assistants Pat Graham | Renaldo Migaldi | Joel Score at the core of Senator Durbin’s basic human rights. Something their own offered: Sellers have left the Laura Kopen | Mario Kladis | Michael Marsh | Tom Porter protest got deserved Zorro-like can be lamentable, unworthy minds, and option, and will assist in the Jerome Ludwig | Ann Sterzinger | Tamara Faulkner Patrick Daily | Stephanie Manis | Robert Cass | Kerry Reid rapier slashes in Reader of the American system (though they must transaction, for the buyer, Todd Dills | Katherine Young | Julia Rickert headlines: “Tell ’Em What considering Guantanamo is have noticed to donate a preservation Typesetters Vera Videnovich | Kabir Hamid to Think: But don’t tell ’em in Cuba, it’s a lot closer to the the missing easement to the Landmarks Archivist Eben English what they’re thinking it norm there), and still be so far fact—namely, Preservation Council of about” [Hot Type, June 24]. short of the utter inhumanity what the FBI Illinois. Such an easement Advertising Director Don Humbertson Now, to cover the political of the Nazi, Soviet, or Pol Pot agent had could be worth up to an Display Advertising Manager Sandra Goplin as well as journalistic dimen- regimes that the comparison said in the estimated $120,000 in federal Assistant Display Advertising Manager Katie Platz sion of this story, I suggest is obscene, not to mention e-mail Durbin income tax deductions.” Online Advertising Coordinator Renate Durnbaugh an article headed: “Daley dumb as a tree trunk or a read to the A historic easement would Display Representatives Jeff Martin | Christine Thiel Brad Winckler Twists Knife: Dems leave Chomsky admirer. Senate. The guarantee that the building Sales Development Manager Susan Zuckert Durbin twisting in wind, If, since his article appeared, Tribune didn’t would stand forever and never Senior Account Executives Denice Barndt | Angie Ingham prisoners twisting in pain, Miner has been taken away report that.” be threatened by development. Evangeline Miller | Ryan A. Norsworthy | Beth Somers terrorists twisting in delight, for psychiatric imprisonment, —Michael Once an easement is granted, Geary Yonker Account Executives Michael J. Anderson | Nichole Flores Obama twisting lips in silence.” been denounced by his own Miner in Hot the mortgage is then encum- Julie Mueller | Tim Tomaszewski Such failures of the “opposi- relatives in front of his entire Type, June 24 bered, and the value of the prop- Advertising Project Coordinator Allison Hendrickson tion party” actually to oppose village, or beaten to death in a erty diminishes. The federal Advertising Assistants Katie Hennebry | Jennifer K. Johnson only make it easier for the rice paddy for being literate, income tax deduction should Kieran Kelley | Sarah Nishiura administration to get away I take back everything I said. offset the amount the property is with the blatant hypocrisy Otherwise, read some history diminished by. However, these Art Director Sheila Sachs of: (1) openly meditating tor- before the next time you homes are harder to sell and Associate Art Director Godfrey Carmona ture, (2) releasing Brit try to score cheap points off take a special buyer to see the Art Coordinator Elizabeth Tamny Production Director David Jones Guantanamo prisoners (in Bush, citizen. value of historic preservation. a presumably minor favor What I find troubling is that Production Manager Bob Cooper Michael Gebert to Tony the Lapdog) to go Hackl seems to have a sliding Associate Production Manager Nickie Sage W. Newport Production Artists Jeff Marlin | Jennifer McLaughlin home and blab to the tabloids scale; on one hand he interprets Mark Blade | Benjamin Utley | John Cross | Andrea Bauer about tortures they experienced, Michael Miner replies: historic guidelines as dogma and Dustin Kimmel | Josh Honn | Mike Browarski Nadine Nakanishi (3) and then turn around Among other details that ruthlessly applies them to oth- Editorial Design Jardí + Utensil to excoriate Democrats escaped good citizen Gebert, ers, while on the other avoiding and the press for revealing I wasn’t writing about Bush. any financial encumbrance of Operations & Classifieds Director Mary Jo Madden torture practices. his own assets. Controller Karl David Wilt Failing an opposition party, Another inconsistency was Classifieds Manager Brett Murphy our only hope may lie in a when he said, “Now I’m the bad Classified Representatives Sara Bassick | Danette Chavez Republican ticket of Senators In the guy, picking on those poor old Bill Daniel | Kris Dodd | Chip Dudley | Robert Gory Jane Hanna | Andy Hermann | Janet Lukasiewicz | Jeff McMurray John McCain and Lindsey women” in the River Forest club. Amy O’Connor | Scott Shehan | Kristal Snow | Bob Tilendis Graham (R., SC), who have Pest Camp “I really like them and don’t Stephen Walker not backed off in criticizing want to hurt them.” Matches Coordinator Michael Beaumier U.S. torture policies as incite- Heather Kenny’s June 17 cover However on his Web site Back Page Representative Chris Auman Operations Assistants Patrick O’Neil | Alicia Tomaszewski ments to terrorism, betrayals story, “Preservationist, or Hackl says that he has “tried Receptionists Monica Brown-Fielding | Dorie T. Greer of Americanism, and exposure Pest for Short,” was compelling; to overcome the ignorance, Robert Jacobs |Dave Thomas | Stephen Walker of American servicemen I wanted to read more so I the lack of creativity and Bookkeeper Marqueal Jordan to retaliatory torture by future went to Marty Hackl’s Web imagination, the bigotry, Circulation Manager Perry A. Kim captors. (McCain also offers site and found some glaring the racial intolerance and Circulation Fred Adams | Sadar Bahar | Neil Bagwell John Barrille | Kriss Bataille | Mark Blade | Michael Boltz needed Senate leadership inconsistencies with his the chauvinism of many of Jeff Boyd | Michael Bulington | Bill Daniel | Tom Frederick on global warming.) public persona. the Club’s members.” Kennedy Greenrod | Nathan Greer | Scott Harris | John Holland The Reader article went on at Does this sound like a Sasha Kadukov | Dave Leoschke | Mark Mardell | James McArdle Moe Shanfield some length about Van Bergen description of people “I really Shane MacDougall | John Merton | Dave Miedzianski W. Hollywood Terry Nelson | Gerald Perdue | John Roeser | Phil Schuster and the fact that Hackl once like”? It is cowardly to write Dorian Tajbakhsh | David Thomas | Stephen Walker Craig White owned a Van Bergen historic mean-spirited, hurtful things home. What the article neglect- on a Web site. I also think it Topic A: ed to say, or what Hackl did not is manipulative when he says, Information Systems Director Jerry Davis Information Systems Project Manager Conrad Hunter volunteer, was that he never “Now I am the bad guy, picking Information Systems James Crandall | John Dunlevy The Coverage gave a historic easement on his on those poor old women.” Doug Fawley | Sean Phelan home. It is common practice for Hackl is picking on the elderly Special Projects Coordinator Lisa Martain Hoffer Michael Miner [Hot Type, people concerned with preser- continued on page 23 June 24] quotes some details National Advertising about the alleged abuses at The Ruxton Group, 1-888-2-RUXTON Guantanamo and imagines New York |Chicago|Phoenix |San Francisco that he’s proven that Dick Durbin’s comparison of the CHICAGO READER U.S. forces to Nazis, the gulag, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago, IL 60611 Pol Pot, Khan Noonien Singh, 312-828-0350 www.chicagoreader.com etc is dead-on. In fact, all he’s proven is that he’s as big a For recorded information on placing classified ads, call 312-828-1140 (24 hours).

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CHICAGO READER, INC. President Robert A. Roth Vice President Robert E. McCamant Treasurer Thomas K. Yoder Executive Editor Michael Lenehan 4CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE

[email protected] Hot Type www.chicagoreader.com/hottype

“Hazelwood” Goes to College Another Seventh Circuit ruling, another defeat for the press

By Michael Miner eware the ruling that the administration department purpose; to serve the best inter- opens with a condescend- would come to our printing ests of the student body.” B ing joke. “Controversy plant, read the student The Student Press Law Center began to swirl,” federal appellate newspaper’s contents, and in Arlington, Virginia, has been judge Frank Easterbrook wrote approve the paper for advising Porche and Hosty, and airily, “when Jeni Porche became printing by us.” its executive director, Mark editor of the Innovator, the stu- The editors rejected these Goodman, had this to say on dent newspaper at Governors terms, which Richards claimed Easterbrook’s opinion: “It defi- State University. None of the to have told Carter sounded nitely has extended Hazelwood to articles concerned the apostro- illegal. But it was the university the college realm. The real ques- phe missing from the that paid his bill, and he didn’t tion is, how far?” University’s name. Instead the want to run off another issue and Hazelwood pitted a suburban students tackled meatier fare.” wind up eating the cost. The Saint Louis high school against Easterbrook went on for 12 more Innovator didn’t appear again. student journalists who’d been pages, but the first paragraph As Porche and Hosty saw it, a forbidden to publish stories on announced that Porche had lost. public institution had squelched teen pregnancy and divorce. By a I guess a First Amendment the press. Joined by a student five to three margin the Supreme squabble started by student jour- reporter, they promptly took Court ruled for the administra- nalists is easy to shrug off— GSU to court, where federal tion. Because the paper was pro- what’s at issue but the license judge Suzanne Conlon narrowed duced as a part of the high kids have to scold the faculty and a long list of defendants to school curriculum, the court rea- mock the administration? Yet Carter, whom she said should soned, the principal was within Jeni Porche was 28 and Margaret stand trial. “Defendants concede his rights—right or wrong. Hosty 33 back in May 2000, that Innovator serves as a public Hazelwood appalled champi- when the two graduate students forum,” Conlon reasoned, and in ons of the student press, who became editors of the Innovator. a public forum “the state’s right condemn most high school By various accounts, GSU was to limit expression is sharply cir- papers as trivial, vacuous, and a mess back then. The Rockford cumscribed.” generally unworthy of institu- Register Star would soon call it Carter’s been trying to get out tions whose purpose is to pre- “one of the most troubled univer- from under ever since. The heart pare kids to be citizens. Talk to sities in the state system,” point- of her argument—argued by the those critics today and they’ll ing out that the student body office of Attorney General Lisa add that the failure of high was shrinking and “at least four Madigan—is that thanks to the schools to expose students to of its programs have been denied notorious Hazelwood case of serious newspapers is one reason accreditation or offered without 1988 she had reason to believe they don’t read them. GRANE proper approval.” Porche and she was doing her duty and Judge Conlon and the three- D DE

Hosty took on the powers that be therefore deserved what the law OY judge appellate panel found it LL and made them furious. calls qualified immunity. Two Jeni Porche, Margaret Hosty easy to distinguish Hazelwood The issue of October 31, 2000, years ago a three-judge panel of from the matter at hand. The brought a letter from president the Seventh Circuit unanimously Dean of student istrators had “acted inappropri- GSU paper was extracurricular. Stuart Fagan complaining that rejected that argument. But the ately, and probably illegally, with Its editors were appointed by a the paper “failed to meet basic full appeals court decided to life Patricia Carter blatant disregard for students’ Student Communications Media journalistic standards” and rehear Carter’s motion to dismiss argued that thanks First Amendment rights.” Board, whose written policy was another from the dean of the the suit, and last week six of the Porche and Hosty were any- to let the paper’s staff decide its college of arts and sciences other ten judges joined to the notorious thing but grateful to Killam. contents “without censorship or calling an article by Hosty a Easterbrook in ruling for Carter. Hazelwood case He’d got on their bad side by advance approval.” And if the “collection of untruths.” On “A terrible decision,” says Jim noting “several ethical lapses” of mission of a high school is indoc- November 1 the Innovator’s Killam, adviser to the Northern she believed she their own, in particular their trination, at a university intellec- printer, Charles Richards, heard Star of Northern Illinois doubling as editors and student tual freedom reigns. Noting that from Patricia Carter, the dean of University. “It’s going to give was doing her duty senators. Porche and Hosty over half of American college student life. Richards later some administrators the right to when she said the wrote Killam, “We take great students are 22 or older, the described that conversation in censor first and ask questions umbrage at that assessment, appellate panel reasoned that writing: “She told me that later.” Killam has been watching student paper had believing it to be entirely erro- treating them “like 15-year-old Regional Publishing was not to this case from the beginning. As to be approved neous and, if not precariously high school students and print any more issues of ‘The president of the Illinois College single-minded, then astonishing- restricting their First Innovator’ without first calling Press Association when the suit by administrators ly shortsighted.” At GSU, they Amendment rights by an unwise her personally and then she, was filed, he led an investigation for printing. explained, “student government extension of Hazelwood would be herself, or someone else from that concluded the GSU admin- and student media are united in an extreme step for us to take.” CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE 5

® The Straight Dope by Cecil Adams

Several months ago I posed a question concerning the confusing (and potentially misleading) statistics placed on toothpastes, which my paranoid mind attributes to advertising spin and possibly outright lies by toothpaste makers. Wanting to get the most fluoride bang for my buck, I trusted only your answer, because I know firsthand just how expensive it is to maintain Not so, Easterbrook has now the Supreme Court, their suit is (and replace) one’s teeth. I consistently check your column and understand replied. over. And the college press must that not all questions are answered, and that some questions are follow-ups When journalists lost beware: Hazelwood is now inside on previous material. But today I see a brand-new article on coprophagia, Branzburg v. Hayes in 1972 the the gates. of all things. I am hoping that a serious question didn’t fall on ears deaf to courts and the media alike read into the opinions of a divided all but the sensational or shocking. —Johnny Henson, via e-mail Supreme Court some sort of atience, chief. We get to every- You may now be concluding that all right to protect sources. The bal- News Bites thing (of consequence) eventu- toothpastes are the same. Not so fast. loon didn’t burst until 2003, P ally. Besides, after a column on What’s confusing are federal labeling when the Seventh Circuit’s a Mark Jacob, the Tribune’s coprophagia, what could be requirements. “Active ingredients” are Richard Posner seized an oppor- foreign and national news editor, more fitting than one on the best way to those meant to confer a medical benefit. tunity to declare that Branzburg had a smart idea last week. clean your teeth? Others, such as whiteners, may be active Your original letter made a number of in the colloquial sense but did no such thing. “Furor over Der Fuehrer,” a story observations: (1) The price range for perform only a cosmetic Posner’s sidekick Easterbrook he wrote for the Perspective sec- toothpaste is surprisingly wide. Sure function and so aren’t sin- just made the same kind of move. tion, demonstrated that “people enough, during a recent casual survey at gled out on the label. That Hazelwood was another defeat of all political stripes have been the supermarket I noticed that the price said, the evidence that mar- with a silver lining, in this case a throwing around references to per ounce ranged from 17 cents for Ultra quee ingredients other than Brite on sale to $3.00 for fluoride accomplish any- footnote: “We need not now Adolf Hitler and the Gestapo for Rembrandt Plus “premium whiten- thing is far from over- decide whether the same degree years.” Jacob made a list. On it ing toothpaste with fluoride.” (2) whelming. A rundown on of deference is appropriate with was North Korea saying Donald Most toothpastes contain pretty some popular ones: respect to school-sponsored Rumsfeld “put Hitler into the much the same proportions of the a Whiteners. Research expressive activities at the college shade,” Rumsfeld comparing an same active ingredients. (3) by manufacturers says However, not all do. Presumably you they work; Consumer and university level.” Easterbrook Arab terrorist to “Hitler in his refer to the fact that most tooth- Reports among others wrote, “Picking up on this foot- bunker,” Senator Phil Gramm pastes use sodium fluoride (NaF) for UG SIGNORINO says they don’t, and that SL note, plaintiffs argue, and the dis- calling a Democratic tax propos- cavity control while some use sodium you should see your trict court held, that Hazelwood is al “right out of Nazi Germany.” monofluorophosphate (SMFP). A few also dentist about having your inapplicable to university newspa- Jacob said Dick Durbin should include ingredients to control gingivitis quential. Although the percentages of teeth bleached if they’re discolored. (inflamed gums) and tooth sensitivity, but, NaF and SMFP vary, they provide roughly a Desensitizing agents. Research on one pers. ...Yetthis footnote does not have learned a long time ago that oddly, none lists an active ingredient to the same amount of fluoride—1,000 to common ingredient, potassium nitrate, is even hint at the possibility of an people who played the “Reich make teeth whiter, a common toothpaste 1,100 parts per million (ppm). In an era of mixed at best—a 2001 review concluded it on/off switch: high school papers card ...havelooked darn silly.” claim. Your unsurprising questions: What maximum this and ultra that, such unifor- was ineffective. reviewable, college papers not But have they? In War Made gives, and which toothpaste is best? mity is curious, since (a) federal rules a Antigingivitis agents. Top-selling reviewable.” Easy, a new book by media critic Fluoride first. Over the past 30 years, allow as much as 1,500 ppm in nonpre- Colgate Total contains triclosan to reduce most developed countries have reported scription toothpaste, provided the label plaque and swelling and bleeding of the On the contrary, he wrote, Norman Solomon, there’s a declines in tooth decay in the neighbor- says not to give it to kids under six; (b) gums. Some studies report positive “ Hazelwood’s framework is gen- chapter called “This Guy Is a hood of 50 percent due to fluoride in research suggests 1,500 ppm toothpaste results, some don’t, but the American erally applicable and depends in Modern-Day Hitler”; it begins, toothpaste, drinking water, etc. Virtually may be slightly (6 percent) better at con- Dental Association has given the stuff its large measure on the operation “Evil that warrants the large- all U.S. toothpastes contain a fluoride trolling cavities than the 1,000 ppm kind; seal of approval and Consumer Reports of public-forum analysis rather scale killing of war needs a face.” compound, either NaF or SMFP. In the and (c) U.S. toothpaste makers sell high- says it’s good at germ busting. However, than the distinction between Solomon’s point is that invoking early 1990s a few researchers claimed fluoride toothpaste in Europe. The expla- so are most other toothpastes. NaF was better at cavity control than nation, as far as I can tell, is that market- Conclusions: (1) Notwithstanding curricular and extracurricular the Führer primes the pump of SMFP, but the current scientific consensus ing a 1,500 ppm toothpaste here entails your paranoia, most toothpastes aren’t activities.” Though Judge Conlon martial enthusiasm. Durbin’s is that they work equally well. The original an expensive federal approvalprocess equally bad, they’re equally good. When had written that the defendants biggest mistake, you might find decay fighter, stannous fluoride, intro- not required of products in the lower Consumer Reports rated 38 toothpastes conceded the Innovator was a yourself thinking, is that he used duced in Crest in 1955 (remember range, and the one recent attempt (Extra- in 1998, 30 were judged excellent. (2) public forum, Easterbrook felt Hitler to criticize a war instead Fluoristan, fellow geezers?), is seldom Strength Aim in the late 80s) wasn’t con- Price mostly reflects the grandiosity of used now—among other things it can stain spicuously successful. But come on. Given manufacturer claims, not product quality. the question needed plenty of of to start one. teeth. Some recent studies, though, sug- the explosion of brand variations in Remember pricey Rembrandt? It got analysis of his own. gest it’s useful in combating gingivitis. recent years, is this the time for tooth- some of CR’s worst ratings. Dirt cheap Why? Not to contradict Conlon, a Those liberal judges did it Differences in the amount of fluoride paste hypesters to be telling themselves: Ultra Brite, on the other hand, got which in the end he didn’t do. again. According to John Kass used in various toothpastes are inconse- Eh, what we’ve got is good enough? some of the best. And not to cut through confusion, on June 26, “liberals on the which would have been his job if Supreme Court have gutted the he’d been reviewing an actual old-fashioned notion of private Comments, questions? Take it up with Cecil on the Straight Dope Message Board, www.straightdope.com, trial. The issue here was whether property.” The next day Dennis or write him at the Chicago Reader, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago 60611. Cecil’s most recent compendium of knowledge, Triumph of the Straight Dope, is available at bookstores everywhere. Carter should even stand trial, Byrne marveled, “How odd that and Easterbrook wanted to liberals on the U.S. Supreme demonstratehow murky every- Court have come down on the thing was. “Many aspects of the side of influential corporations context of constitutional law. Thomas admitted as much. the quintessentially legal ques- law with respect to students’ and their profits.” Those slippery Justice John Paul Stevens, who “Today’s decision,” he wrote, “is tion of whether the government speech, not only the role of age, liberals know how to be simulta- wrote the opinion for the 5-4 simply the latest in a string of owns, or the public has a legal are difficult to understand and neously anti-private property majority that voted to uphold our cases construing the Public right to use, the taken property.” apply,” he wrote. “Public officials and pro-corporate profits. Connecticut’s supreme court, Use Clause to be a virtual nullity.” George Will saw the irony. In a need not predict, at their finan- Kelo v. New London, the emi- probably thought he was apply- Stevens invited states unhappy June 24 column, he noted that cial peril, how constitutional nent domain case that made the ing state laws and federal prece- with the court’s position on emi- conservatives had been rooting for uncertainties will be resolved.” two Tribune columnists, their dents as he found them. (Of nent domain to write stiffer “judicial activism [to] put a leash So he gave Carter qualified paper’s editorial page, and lots of course the Supreme Court restrictions of their own. Thomas on popularly elected local govern- immunity from liability, letting other people very unhappy last majority always claims to be said to hell with the states: “A ments.” But the activists lost. her off the hook. Unless Porche week, shows how little “liberal” applying precedents as it finds court owes no deference to a leg- Which meant the liberals won? and Hosty wangle a hearing from and “conservative” mean in the them.) In his dissent, Clarence islature’s judgment concerning Will thought so. Whatever. v 6CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE

The Works [email protected]

The Incumbency Protection Act of 2005 Despite recent “reform,” it still takes more nominating signatures to run for mayor of Chicago than it does to run for governor of the whole state.

By Ben Joravsky n May the General Assembly sees local elections. The commis- quietly approved a bill that sioners eventually decided that I cut in half the number of running in a citywide campaign petition signatures a Chicago was roughly the same as running mayoral candidate needs to as an independent in a statewide make the ballot, from 25,000 to election, which requires around 12,500. The backers of the bill, 25,000 nominating signatures. which Governor Blagojevich is That’s the number they recom- expected to sign, say it makes the mended to state legislators, who city’s election law fairer, but local made it law in 1998. independents aren’t rejoicing. “If Independents immediately they say it’s reform don’t believe attacked the legislation. them,” says Jay Stone, a political Requiring 25,000 signatures activist whose father is 50th “really isn’t very logical at all,” Ward alderman Bernard Stone. says Frank Avila, a lawyer and “The election laws are there to independent political activist. help incumbents stay in power.” “There are many more people in In 1995 mayoral candidates Illinois than in Chicago.” And needed only around 3,000 signa- many more in New York City, tures—the exact number fluctuat- where a mayoral candidate needs ed because it was based on a per- only 7,000 signatures. centage of the people who’d voted In 2002 Avila sued the Board of in the previous election. That year Election Commissioners on behalf the General Assembly adopted a of four relatively unknown may- law that eliminated mayoral pri- oral candidates, though he admits maries in Chicago and made the none of them had a chance of election nonpartisan—all candi- defeating Daley. “I didn’t do it as dates had to run without party an anti-Daley suit,” he says. “I did labels. If no candidate got more it as a prodemocracy suit.”

than 50 percent of the vote, there’d The suit charged that the UL DOLAN be a runoff between the top two 25,000-signature requirement PA candidates. But state legislators was so difficult to meet it effec- the ballot if he had—Avila readily because he didn’t need to. unbeatable,” he says. None of the didn’t specify how many nominat- tively denied candidates access to concedes that none of them had Avila dropped the case before four even came close. ing signatures mayoral candidates the ballot. All four plaintiffs made 25,000 signatures, much less a judge decided it, in part Now Daley’s administration is needed to get on the ballot, and the the 2003 ballot, but only because 25,000 legitimate ones. No one because none of his clients had mired in scandals, and the city’s issue wound up before the Chicago Daley didn’t challenge any of their counts the signatures unless enough money to pay him to schools, parks, and public trans- Board of Election Commissioners, petition signatures. He probably someone challenges them, and pursue it. “The conventional portation system are broke. Two the three-person body that over- could have knocked all of them off Daley didn’t challenge them opinion was that Daley was well-known politicians, con- CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE 7

gressmen Luis Gutierrez and have to actually live where you’re Means. “You have to expect it.” Jesse Jackson Jr., are openly Mat Delort, an election-law expert, registered to vote. You can’t sign Of course Daley’s opponents criticizing the administration figures that independent candidates often nominating petitions for more can challenge his petitions just and dropping hints that they than one candidate in a race.” And as easily, but most observers might run against Daley in need three times the required number because voters can sign only one say that’s a hopeless cause. 2007. At the moment he looks a of signatures to survive a challenge. petition, candidates with big “You can’t knock Daley off— little vulnerable, so why would organizations—usually incum- they know what they’re doing,” the General Assembly, whose statewide election or 25,000 sig- not sure why.” bents—have a big advantage. says Stone. “Each precinct leaders are Daley allies, change natures—whichever is lower.” Means thinks Madigan and Delort figures that independ- captain goes door-to-door and the election law to benefit may- If the new law were consistent Daley realized the law had to be ent candidates often need three collects signatures and reports oral challengers? Steve Brown, with that, mayoral candidates changed if they wanted to fend times the required number of to the district leader, who a spokesman for House Speaker would have to gather only off another suit like Avila’s. Jay signatures to survive a challenge. reports to a ward secretary. Michael Madigan, says the around 4,800 signatures on their Stone agrees. “They want to keep “There are a couple of rules of They check those signatures new law has nothing to do with nominating petitions for the the number of signatures as high thumb,” he says. “If you have against the polling sheet. Each the ins and outs of mayoral poli- 2007 election, since 483,993 bal- as they can to keep people from your people circulate door-to- page has to be notarized. They tics. “It’s an effort to bring con- lots were cast in the last one. running, but they don’t want to door with poll sheets in their don’t even have the same sistency to signature require- Means also points out that a keep it so high that it won’t sur- hands in a stable neighbor- notaries notarize every page— ments for candidates up and Republican or Democrat run- vive a court challenge,” he says. hood—meaning residents have God forbid there’s some prob- down the ballot,” he says. ning for statewide office needs “It’s a classic machine move. It’s lived there a long time—then you lem with one particular notary.” None of the politicos I talked only 5,000 signatures to make not reform. It’s protection— need one-and-one-half times the Means is less concerned to, independents as well as party the ballot. “Mayor Daley needs incumbent protection.” number of required signatures. about the new law than other loyalists, believes this. They more signatures to get on the As Stone points out, it won’t be But if you’re circulating at the observers. “I know that 25,000— point out that the new require- ballot to run for reelection than easy for challengers to collect Jewel on the north lakefront in a and probably 12,500—signatures ment isn’t even consistent with Governor Blagojevich needs,” he even 12,500 good nominating sig- transient neighborhood you need are way out of line, but I have the requirement for independ- says. “You figure this out.” natures. For one thing, candidates maybe three times that number. to say these requirements give ents or third-party candidates Most observers assume the aren’t allowed to start collecting I’ve seen politicians with two to you a goal,” he says. “They help running for statewide office. 25,000 requirement was cut to until 90 days before the filing three times the number filed get you figure out which precinct Rich Means, a political activist benefit Daley. “Let’s be realistic, date. For another, Chicago’s elec- knocked off the ballot.” workers are real and which ones and election-law expert, says the if they [Daley and Madigan] tion code is a thicket of rules and The election-law experts I are blowing smoke. It tunes up requirement for statewide candi- didn’t want it to happen it regulations. “Some rules are obvi- talked to assume Daley will have your campaign—shows the world dates is “based on a percentage wouldn’t have happened,” says ous, others are not,” says Mat his experts carefully scan the that you’re for real. We have to of the votes in the last election. one election-law expert who Delort, another election-law nominating petitions of anyone admit, if you can’t raise 12,500 It’s one percent of the number of works for the Democratic Party. expert. “Names have to be who dares run against him. “It’s good signatures you can’t possi- people who voted in the last “So certainly they were for it. I’m signed—you can’t print them. You the first line of attack,” says bly win the election.” v 8CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE

Chicago Antisocial [email protected]

skin, then stuck him in a little room modeled after Dick’s old writing den—avocado shag car- pet, Sears Electric Twelve type- writer loaded up with paper, bot- tle of Cutty Sark. I didn’t feel like waiting in line for half an hour to sit with him on the couch, so I went around to the window, leaned in, and asked, “Are you sad?” He turned his head to look at me, blinked, and said, “What does this refer to?” I asked again, a little louder. “Mr. Dick, are you sad?” His eyes twitched and he fumbled with his fingers. His lips moved, but nothing came out.

ast Thursday I was walking by

WK) L the Reckless Records in Wicker Park when a dude in a ratty, curly

ER (MOHA black wig and white aviator shades AU started talking to me. “Hey,” he said. “Do you like PBR?” “Sometimes,” I said.

ESUIT), ANDREA B “Then come to this party.” He AC handed me a lime green photo-

TH (SP copied flyer with band names in . RO cutout letters like a kidnapper’s

T), R.D ransom note. It was just random enough to intrigue me. I headed to the place on Saturday night a little after 11, all geared up for an old-fashioned summertime punk-rock shindig. SUSAN RAE MILLER (DICKBO Left: the Dickbot, part of the NASA exhibit, and promotional literature from Genetic Savings & Clone at NextFest. Right: do you like PBR? The huge West Town apartment had all its lights on and was lousy with bike messengers wearing cleats and funny little hats. A big tattooed burler of a guy sat me down and started explaining why he was a perfect subject for a newspaper article. He told me I Have Seen the Future about his band, which performs songs about gentrification and “all the negative shit that happens through street life.” He asked me and It Is Fucking Scary for my number: “We can talk about this at length. I have great things to say.” When I wouldn’t NextFest puts a bright face on cloning, artificial give it to him, he handed me his business card, which advertises his intelligence, and environmental villainy. tattoo-artist gig. I told him I had a boyfriend. “Oh, come on,” he said. By Liz Armstrong “He doesn’t have to know.” Right ormally, Navy Pier is one in the country, and that to this The rest of the exhibitors like- glossy eight-by-tens of an afflu- before I walked away he made a of the last places I’d visit day the company is fighting the wise evoked a vision of the future ent-looking couple holding the request: “Don’t make me look like N voluntarily, but during the law that makes polluters pay for wherein technology will solve all two cats we met that day: Tahini, an asshole.” zombie days of summer I’ll do the messes they make. our problems. Auto-aero cross- the original, and Baba Ganoush, I knew only one person at the anything for free air-condition- General Motors followed suit, breeds will let us fly over traffic the clone. In the white space party, and not very well. So I ing. Tickets for Wired magazine’s making broad assertions about jams. Our clothes will change under this image was a message walked around by myself, look- annual high-tech extravaganza, the future of cars fueled by shape in response to changes in reminiscent in both font and ing the place over. I stopped in NextFest, were $15, but I kept hydrogen, presenting concept temperature, noise, and air pol- tone of the De Beers engagement one room with cardboard honey- my eyes locked on my cell phone vehicles in sedan, sport, and SUV lution. New methods of surveil- ring ads: ACLONE SAYS YOU ’ D comb and egg-crate foam sta- like an oblivious asshole while models. They passed out little lance are already using small- DO IT ALL AGAIN. It was like pled to the walls. pretending to text-message cardboard flyers embedded with scale triangulation to help us something out of Blade Runner. “Are you looking at the art?” someone and kept walking until wildflower seeds—just dampen, find our keys; home-security sys- That movie was, of course, said the host, who introduced I blended in with the crowd. plant in soil, keep moist, and tems don’t just tell us someone’s based on Philip K. Dick’s book Do himself as Johnny. Right away I noticed that watch them sprout. Each flyer in the house, they also detect the Androids Dream of Electric Not seeing any, I said no. General Electric, one of the festi- bore a picture of a hydrogen- intruder’s race and gender. Sheep? It’s still one of the best “You were looking at this stuff val’s sponsors, had taken advan- fueled concept car, the AUTO- A California company with the pieces of literature about the dan- like it was art,” he said, pointing tage of the opportunity to polish nomy, and a quote from Larry inspired name Genetic Savings & gers of artificial intelligence— to all the cardboard and foam. its meme. GE hyped its upcoming Burns, GM’s VP of R and D: Clone eased the crowd into the which made Hanson Robotics’ Then he explained to me, very Ecomagination line of products— “GM is committed to taking the idea of playing God by disarming NextFest offering the most carefully, that it was for sound including ship engines that emit automobile out of the environ- us with an almost sickening depressing of all. The smarty- absorption. less nitrogen oxide, a water desali- mental debate.” But General vision of cuteness: two identical pantses at Hanson constructed a At midnight three cops pulled nation plan that’s supposed to Motors is responsible for the tabby cats, both in rhinestone computer “brain” and filled it with into the parking lot of the bank delay the impending world water ridiculous, gas-guzzling collars, one of them the other’s all of Dick’s writings, then threw next door and turned on their crisis, and solar paneling for peo- Hummer—the world’s biggest clone. “Now, with a kibble-sized in speech and facial recognition, lights. Everyone gathered in the ple’s homes. What a friendly, FUV—and has been slow to piece of tissue and $32,000, the nervous tics, and sophisticated living room and sat still, barely green company, I thought. But embrace alternative power tech- bereaved can replicate their language-processing software. talking. Johnny left for a couple then I remembered that less than nology, releasing its first fully deceased feline friends,” reads They built a physical replica of the minutes, then came back, visibly a decade ago the U.S. Public functional hybrid vehicle, a huge the festival program, under a pic- man using 36 servomotors and a shaken. “Sorry everyone,” he Interest Research Group called pickup truck with comparatively ture of two indistinguishable kit- proprietary polymer called yelled. “Party’s over.” GE the worst Superfund polluter high gas mileage, only this year. tens in a beaker. GSC handed out Frubber that looks just like real I wasn’t aware it had begun. v CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE 9 10 CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE

[snip] Back when the Supreme Court was a force for find that southern-born blacks who finished their schooling good. Princeton University economist Orley Ashenfelter and just before effective desegregation occurred in the South colleagues evaluate the impact of Brown v. Board of fared poorly compared to southern-born blacks who fol- Our Town Education in a National Bureau of Economic Research paper: lowed behind them in school by just a few years.” “When we examine the income of male workers in 1990, we —Harold Henderson | [email protected]

legs and figured it must have escaped tions, in partnership with several from a zoo—the only wild flock, with government agencies, had been Field & Street some 200 of the five-to-six-foot working since 2001 to create an east- birds, migrates between Texas and ern flock of the endangered birds, Alberta. Still, the bird was unusual, teaching them to migrate between A Secret so he started taking pictures. “I pho- national wildlife refuges in tographed it for 45 minutes,” he says, Wisconsin and Florida by leading Visitor “found some people walking dogs, them with an ultralight aircraft—a then came back and photographed it strategy made famous by the movie Why you didn’t hear a peep some more.” Fly Away Home. about the first whooping Whooping cranes are notoriously Monaghan remembered that a few shy, but this one seemed less per- years back he’d taken his eighth crane to land in Chicago in turbed by Monaghan than by a graders on a trip to Baraboo, more than a century Canada goose that evidently thought Wisconsin, where they’d visited the it owned the lagoon—it kept hissing International Crane Foundation. He By Stephen Longmire at the crane. Then a fight broke out went to the ICF Web site and saw n Sunday, May 8, Marc between two men in the street next that it was one of the partners in the Monaghan was in Washington to the lagoon. “It was some stupid Whooping Crane Eastern O Park looking for dog walkers guy-car thing,”Monaghan says. Partnership, the group trying to to photograph. As he wandered past “They had to be separated, then the establish the new flock. He found a Lorado Taft’s Fountain of Time he guys got back in their cars.” But now link that said “Report a Crane saw a big white bird with a long beak he was worried that the bird was Sighting” and sent a description of and a flash of red on its forehead going to get hurt. the bird. “Let me know if this really standing in the lagoon. He went home and called the is a whooping crane,” he wrote. “It’s

Monaghan, the 56-year-old dean neighborhood birding expert but got in an urban area with lots of cats and GHAN of students at the University of no answer. He tried the police. “They dogs and a few not-so-nice people.” Chicago Lab School’s middle school got interested,”he says. “Finally they Anne Lacy promptly wrote back MARC MONA and a photographer for the Hyde got me the number for the first-aid that he’d probably seen a sandhill The bird known as 18-04 in Washington Park Park Herald, was pretty sure the bird station at the Lincoln Park Zoo. crane. Sandhills, which are smaller was a whooping crane, North That’s when I gave up.” and darker than whoopers, were crane, then swore him to secrecy: America’s tallest bird and one of its In the evening Monaghan phoned once endangered too. But they’ve “Our main concern now is too many rarest. “I’m a bit of a birder,” he says. his friend David Graber, a naturalist bounced back and are now fairly overeager folks getting too close and “I mean, I own a set of binoculars at Sequoia and Kings Canyon common in the northern midwest. really bothering this bird.” and a bird book. I’m sort of like a National Parks in California, and Monaghan e-mailed one of his ICF staff could tell from social drinker—I don’t go out on bird said he thought he’d spotted a photos to Lacy. “Fantastic!” she fired Monaghan’s photos that the bird he’d counts, but I do know they exist.” whooping crane. Graber told him a back. “I love the digital age!” She said found was number 18-04, a male He saw colored bands on the bird’s network of conservation organiza- the bird was indeed a whooping continued on page 14 CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE 11 12 CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE 13 14 CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE

[snip] Convenient ambivalence. “The University of Chicago has are private and much nicer than the bathrooms for those of us just supplied us with a number of bathrooms for those ‘uncom- who have timidly accepted the social construction of our male- fortable’ about classifying themselves within the hegemonic ness or femaleness. They are so much nicer, in fact, that I use taxonomies of bourgeois heteronormativity,” reports Matthew them regularly. When I was confronted ... I simply replied, ‘I’m Our Town Rose, as quoted in First Things magazine. “The new bathrooms not comfortable calling myself a man on this campus.’” —HH

continued from page 10 one saw it again until Monaghan did observers were watching the crane raised the previous summer at the a week later. That was the first visit a they spotted a King Rail walking Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in whooping crane had made to along the shoreline,”Westcott e- central Wisconsin. The nearly 50 Chicago in over a century. mailed ICF.“This is a seldom seen birds in the eastern flock are all Once Monaghan knew how bird in these parts. We decided not to hatched from eggs taken from the remarkable the bird he’d seen was, post the rail sighting on the internet, western flock. The chicks have as lit- he was uneasy about publishing any as it might bring out some birders tle contact with people as possible— of his pictures in the Herald while who would most likely see the the scientists who approach them the crane was still in Hyde Park. “I whooper and set off a mad rush.”He wear white crane costumes and feed had an ethical struggle about that,” said other birders had seen the rail them using hand puppets that look he says. “Did this bird need less or and posted an announcement online like cranes. The fledglings are also more attention?” a little later, but they didn’t seem to raised separate from the older birds, ICF tried to ensure that as few have spotted the far larger crane. then led south in the fall by an ultra- people as possible learned that 18-04 Tuesday night Westcott e-mailed light to teach them the migration was in the city. A staffer contacted that four ornithological society bird- route. According to the U.S. Fish and Chuck Westcott of the Chicago ers had failed to find the crane that Wildlife Service, the whole process Ornithological Society and asked if evening. Monaghan had gone look- costs around $160,000 per bird. some of the group’s members would ing for the bird that afternoon, but Last summer 18-04 damaged some keep an eye on the crane without he hadn’t seen it either. feathers and couldn’t go with the putting the word out to other bird- On Wednesday ICF heard that a other first-year birds behind the ers. Painfully aware of what he’d be single whooping crane had been ultralight, so WCEP staff took a denying his fellow birders, Westcott spotted flying north of the city by two chance and introduced it to the older agreed. Meanwhile WCEP staff reliable Evanston birders, though it birds, hoping it would fly south with debated whether they should go to had been headed south at the time. A them when they left a couple weeks Chicago and capture the young bird day later a WCEP tracker caught up later. It did, and when it showed up in an attempt to spare it possible with 18-04 in southern Wisconsin, in Florida the staff started calling it a injury or let nature take its course. and the following Monday it was rock star.This fall they plan to let a On Monday evening, the day after back at the Necedah National quarter of the fledglings try to make Monaghan first saw 18-04, Westcott Wildlife Refuge—the first whooper the trip south with the main flock e-mailed ICF that the bird was still to have learned the eastern migra- instead of the ultralight. in the lagoon near 60th and Cottage tion route without human help. This spring 18-04 was the last Grove and that it “looked to be On Wednesday, the same day ICF GRANE crane to leave Florida, taking off healthy but apprehensive of the learned that 18-04 had left Chicago, D DE

alone on April 18. It was spotted in observer.” It was still there the fol- one of Monaghan’s pictures appeared OY LL northern Indiana on April 30, but no lowing morning. “While two in the Hyde Park Herald. v Marc Monaghan CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE 15 16 CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE

Rossing

continued from page 1 Behind interpretation was not historical context. Revelation, Christianity is about.” in it,” she says. But by 2002, only false but dangerous. “The the final book of the New During her time at Carleton, having read the whole series and mentality...that somehow God Testament, is an exhortation Rossing was grounded in her studied the political activities of has laid out in advance a script for written by Saint John (whether home church, St. John’s its authors, Rossing was writing the end of the world, that things it’s the apostle John is disputed) Lutheran. There was a Christian a book of her own: The Rapture have to get worse and worse and to his fellow Christians in what community on campus, she says, Exposed: The Message of Hope in this is somehow God’s will before was then the Roman province of but they were “Crusaders for the Book of Revelation, a work of the world can end and Jesus can Asia Minor, expressing his Christ types” who proselytized a theology and pop-culture return, taking everyone away—I confidence, Rossing says, in Christianity influenced by Hal criticism published in March think it’s terrible theology,” God’s victory against oppression Lindsey’s then-popular 2004 by Westview Press. It’s due Rossing says. “Because then as the by the Roman Empire. Rossing doomsday polemic, The Late out in paperback, with a new environment or anything gets contends that John’s true vision, Great Planet Earth. Lindsey’s preface, on July 5. worse, people will somehow think and God’s message for us, is one book interpreted the cold war The book has made Rossing this is what the Bible says.” of hope, of the end of empire and through the lens of Darby- the leading voice of reason on the The theology behind end-time oppression when Jesus returns— influenced Bible prophecy and question of the Rapture. She’s prophecy emerged in 19th not to lay waste to the earth or to predicted that the Rapture been interviewed on talk radio century England and was rescue humans from it, but to strongest interests: religion and would happen any day now, to be and has appeared on 60 Minutes brought to America by a live with humanity again in the science. She found it in the followed shortly by World War and World News Tonight With preacher named John Nelson earthly kingdom. environmental movement. “The III. “Lindsey’s got ‘Red China’ Peter Jennings. When journalists Darby, who read the Bible as a movement stresses ethics and and the ‘yellow peril’ in there,” need someone to represent those kind of playbook for future ossing grew up in Northfield, God’s love for creation, the Rossing says. “He didn’t yet have who disagree with LaHaye and events. He pieced together R Minnesota, the daughter of a urgency of protecting this the Muslim world as the enemy, Jenkins, hers is the name that disparate verses (some from physics professor and a chemist. created world,” she says. “I really but he kept ‘updating’ it over the comes up. “When I first started Revelation, others from all over Her grandfather, a Lutheran think that God loves the earth years ....Icall it the ‘Antichrist writing my dissertation on the Bible, including the book of pastor, encouraged her to study and that the earth is in du jour’ mentality.” Revelation, I never thought I’d be Daniel in the Old Testament and religion when she was debating trouble. ...We need the best of Rossing says many of her fellow thinking so much about the Paul’s letters to the Corinthians options for college, but she took science to help us approach students argued for the truth of Antichrist, and in such a public and the Thessalonians) and gave the practical route, entering things like global warming and Lindsey’s book: “‘If you don’t way,” she says. “But I think the them new meanings that Rossing Carleton College in her climate change. And we need believe exactly what we say, then church really needs a public voice says were never intended. hometown in 1972 and majoring people to go into science, and you’re going to get left behind, against right-wing theology, so Her reading of the book of in geology. But after a summer at that doesn’t mean that science you’re going to hell.’ That’s a very I’ve become more interested in Revelation follows a more the Holden Village Lutheran and religion are incompatible. scary thing for young people,” she being accessible.” traditional pattern, starting with retreat in western Washington, This is part of the religious says. But it didn’t turn her off She wrote the book because she the original Greek text and she started looking for a field right’s program that I think is religion. After graduating she came to believe that the Left considering its source and that would combine her two really misguided. It’s not what went to Yale Divinity School on a CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE 17

fellowship. She finished her master’s and was ordained in 1982 and went on to teach and serve as pastor at Holden Village and at Bethany Lutheran Church in Minneapolis throughout the 80s. In 1998 she earned a doctorate in theology from Harvard, where she concentrated on the New Testament and early Christianity, and then moved to Chicago to teach at the Lutheran School. “I had other job offers,” she says, “but this school had an excellent reputation. It has a PhD program, so I have PhD students, some of whom are international students who go back to their countries and become world leaders. So our school really has an important voice.”

he hardcover version of The T Rapture Exposed was released to coincide with the publication of the last chapter in the Left Behind story, The Glorious Appearing. 60 Minutes invited Rossing to appear on a Morley Safer segment about the Left Behind books. LaHaye and Jenkins talked about the vast sales they’d racked up being no doubt the Lord’s work. And they talked about America as world leader by divine bequest, about bleeding red, white, and blue. They talked about the liberal manufacture of a “loving, wimpy Jesus.” During Rossing’s few minutes on the air, she responded to the image of the destructive, avenging Christ so crucial to the Rapture script, saying, “You can piece together that vengeful warrior Jesus, you can find him here and there, but the heart of the Bible, the overwhelming message, even of the book of Revelation, is of a nonviolent lamb who conquers not by killing people, but by giving his life. ...They takethe message continued on page 18 18 CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE

Rossing

continued from page 17 then and personalize it to evildoers, they make this an ‘us versus them’ kind of theology—if you’re not with us, you’re against us. They forget that the message of the Bible is that each person is created in the image of God.” In academia, Rossing says, her worldview is the common one. “I think pretty much every scholar on Revelation thinks what I’ve said. The only difference is that I’ve written a trade book that is more accessible, and I’ve made some connections to popular culture.” The reason no one else has written a book like hers, she says, is that “we thought the Left Behind books were so ridiculous that they didn’t need to be answered. They’re just pulp fiction. You don’t usually need to have scholars critiquing that level of novel. But then I discovered that everyone was reading them! “I don’t think I am the maverick,” she says. “I’m the traditionalist—the ancient tradition, 2,000 years of Christian understanding that Jesus is only going to come back once, not twice, and not to destroy the earth, but to save it. And, yes, I’m cast as a maverick, and in the end I guess it’s great. I think we need to take back the Bible, and I’m trying to do that.” She’s currently at work on a second book, about the connections between Christianity and ecology. “If we’re not going to be taken off this earth, and if God wants us to live on this earth, what does that mean in terms of sustainability and environmental degradation, and how does God heal the world?” she says. “Because that’s what I think the end of Revelation is about: God healing the world.” v

Find those fabulous old home movies to show at Chicago Home Movie Day. Saturday, A ugust 13 at the Cultural Center. It’s sooner than you think so start looking now! For more information call: I urge anyone with an interest in learning more 773 478 3799 about how to care for and preserve their own or visit our website at: personal m emories to join in the festivities being offered in t heir community on August 13. www.chicagofilmarchives.org or visit: Martin Scorsese www.homemovieday.com

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE 19 20 CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE Reviews Theater Books

athews Queen Lucia by Harry M at Lifeline Theatre o Correa REVIEW BY ZACTHOMPSON by Arnald a TH MIKE NEWIR 20 REVIEW BY a 21

Theater

QUEEN LUCIA LIFELINE THEATRE

Puff Piece Lifeline’s musical treatment of E.F. Benson’s Queen Lucia is as it should be: lighter than air.

By Zac Thompson oltaire wrote that anything Christina Calvit’s script likewise too stupid to be spoken can leads Georgie into strange territo- V always be sung, and per- ry a time or two. Though in the haps Lifeline Theatre had that book Georgie wonders if his axiom in mind when it chose to admiration for Olga has turned turn the novel Queen Lucia into a into love, he would never lose musical. The first in a series by sleep over it. Yet beginning in the British humorist E.F. Benson, this second act, Calvit has him not 1920 book is about as substantial only hung up on the singer but as your average musical comedy close to turning his various queer libretto—its tone is arch, its sub- signifiers into an outright declara- jects are inconsequential, and its tion of homosexuality. If Georgie characters are prissy middle-aged is conceived as a sexless child, the children. The Big Themes—birth, incompatibility of his effeminacy love, adultery, death—trouble with a crushlet on Olga doesn’t these big babies not a whit. really matter. But when he’s recast Instead they expend their ener- as a gay man, the situation gies on garden parties, living becomes quite a bit trickier. In room theatricals, and piano any event, sexuality in Riseholme recitals. And though sometimes is as incongruous as it would be in they have spouses, nobody ever the Hundred Acre Wood. seems to grow amorous. Apart from these slight flaws, Narcissistic and director Frances Limoncelli’s pro- WHEN Through small-minded, duction is a lovely confection, 7/24:Fri 7:30 PM, these folks T light, fluffy, and delicious. Elise

Sat 4 and 8 PM, become petu- UNKET Kauzlaric’s self-loving, self-dram- Sun 5:30 PM lant and throw atizing Lucia preens and chirps tantrums when and flutters about the stage—

WHERE Lifeline SUZANNE PL Theatre, 6912 N. they don’t get Queen Lucia until things start to go wrong, Glenwood their way, and when she turns into the nastiest PRICE $18-$24 as on any play- hierarchy in the little town of from Georgie, who develops a bit a little jazz. Delightful if deriva- brat you’d ever want to see. INFO ground, the Riseholme and fancies herself of a crush on her, inciting Lucia tive, these keep the show float- Whatever she does, Kauzlaric 773-761-4477 strong tend to solely responsible for its cultural to war. Lucia and the other ing on air. A few tunes, however, does with gusto in the show’s MORE Sun 7/10, boss the weak enlightenment. Luckily for her, inhabitants of Riseholme have an send it thundering to earth. The most flamboyant role. Georgie is John Sparks and around. it’s a small place where everyone indefatigable, childish zest for life score’s two or three heartfelt the character with whom the Albert Williams The triumph is just as intoxicated with Lucia that endears them in spite of love songs ring false in a world audience most identifies, given offer a postshow of Benson’s as she is with herself. Most intox- their ridiculousness. where sincerity has no place. his occasional addresses to us, discussion. novels is not icated of all is her devoted adju- Music plays a prominent role Worse still is Georgie’s self- frequent wordless asides, and the that they tant Georgie Pillson, a fop who in Riseholme, which gives searching solo late in the fact that he’s essentially the vic- amuse—which they do, relying fills his days with needlework and Lifeline composer-lyricist evening, “Little Life,” in which tor’s spoils in the Lucia-Olga war. on the well-worn device of deflat- piano duets beside his beloved George Howe plenty of opportu- he indulges in some unwarrant- This places a heavy burden of lik- ing the pompous—but that he monarch. The novel that Lifeline nities for parody: somber recita- ed analysis of his motives for ability on the actor playing him, makes us fond of his frivolous has adapted also features an tives, operetta-style waltzes. For remaining in a backwater. The but Jamie Axtell’s genial manner, creatures and their little stunts. opera singer, the genuinely kind good measure he throws in moment is not only inconsistent boyish grin, and girlish laugh Tirelessly energetic, insufferably and talented Olga Bracely, who jaunty Tin Pan Alley-style num- with Georgie’s general oblivious- carry the day. Like so much else snobbish Emmeline “Lucia” moves to Riseholme and starts bers, tongue-twisting Gilbert ness but introduces an unwel- in this fizzy production, he thor- Lucas is at the top of the social getting a lot of attention—even and Sullivan-esque patter, even come gravity and even gloom. oughly charms. v CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE 21 Books

MY LIFE IN CIA BY HARRY MATHEWS (DALKEY ARCHIVE) SPY’S FATE BY ARNALDO CORREA (AKASHIC) Beyond Bond A new breed of spy novel questions the very conventions of the spy novel.

By Mike Newirth n the 1947 noir The Lady books aren’t likely to be the liter- the reader, details of his real-life From Shanghai, Orson Welles ary comfort food the old ones literary arc—his pride in being I (playing an Irish merchant were, but they might provide a elected to the Oulipo, for sailor laid low by Rita Hayworth) new hybrid of entertainment and instance, and his involvement sums up the espionage writers’ warning, with the spymasters’ with a new literary magazine, creed: “It’s a bright, guilty world.” fictive counterparts enacting Locus Solus. Things get compli- Where classic crime noir invari- 21st-century renditions of Paul cated when these distinct narra- ably shot for the gutter, writers Revere’s midnight ride, alerting tive elements fuse. Harry prac- specializing in intrigue—includ- us to the limits of their craft. tices fake “dead drops,” making ing Graham Greene, Eric One new novel looks back to sure he’s observed by nosy Ambler, and especially Ian the bad old days of 1973 to acquaintances, and engages an Fleming—aimed higher, fasci- highlight an underpinning of enigmatic Asian woman to nated with bureaucracies and much classic intrigue fiction: weave him a shawl purportedly cabals and the doings of the that the alpha-male heroes of containing a Siberian map. He wealthy and compromised. The such books were not just privi- then starts a travel agency as a narratives were well-suited to the leged, but cynical and indolent. front and begins tweaking those shadier excesses of the cold war, he meets while doing his imper- embassy to spar with a presumed which at its peak was a rich sonation of a “company man” KGB agent, notwithstanding. But source of material, providing a Newer spy novels aren’t with the organizationally obses- when he realizes that his Walter reliable villain, lots of nifty tech- sive literary devices favored by Mitty-esque spy play has over- nological innovations, and well- likely to be the literary the Oulipo. This unnerves his lapped with actual espionage established tropes of pursuit, circle, and it keeps the reader on atrocities, namely American intel- capture, cross, and double-cross. comfort food the old tenterhooks, since we don’t really ligence involvement in the After the fall of the Soviet Union know if his flights of fancy are Chilean military coup of 1973, the many critics observed that John ones were. intended to distract us from the moral core of the story solidifies. le Carré and numerous lesser implausibility of his spy story or “I kept hoping the situation lights struggled creatively, at Harry Mathews’s My Life in CIA ple start mistaking him for an if he’s just putting us on. would change, knowing it least in terms of crafting a suit- is being marketed as an “autobi- agent or informant of the CIA—a Mathews seems immensely wouldn’t,” he writes. “The U.S. ably spooky nemesis. ographical novel,” an under- charge leveled surprisingly often nostalgic for the sense of action were going to recognize the new September 11 gave fans of real- standable approach given in those days at idle young men and import specific to the back- Chilean government. ...I’d made life intrigue a hefty new reading Mathews’s standing as the sole of means living abroad. room politics of the era. Soon his myself party to a monstrosity.” By list, but unfortunately nonfiction American member of the Mathews skillfully captures the antics (which include chalking the novel’s somewhat fragment- best sellers like The Cell and Oulipo, a French writers’ league gloomy European political nonsense signs on buildings and ed ending, Mathews seems aware Against All Enemies served that promotes the application of atmosphere of the era, with skulking in alleys) attract both he’s started to resemble Graham mainly to highlight our math and puzzles to the cre- bitter memories of the ’68 censure from lefty acquaintances Greene’s brutish, bumbling appalling impotence in the face ation of fiction. strikes weighing on everyone’s and overtures from shady busi- quiet American. of the new threat of global ter- Initially the novel seems minds and thuggish cliques of nessmen, ham-tongued thugs, rorism, as evidenced by our straightforward. In bone-dry fascists and communists still and at least one real operative, hile Harry’s wealth and dearth of skilled Arabic speakers prose, “Harry” describes his life stirring up trouble, eager for tar- who ushers Harry all too readily W American passport allow and the notorious inability of the as a creative, well-to-do Parisian gets to denounce. It’s this air of into the fold. him to play spy without much FBI and CIA to share basic flaneur, biding his time between humorless partisanship and sour Throughout he seems intent personal consequence, the hero information. bistro meals and assignations betrayal that provokes the on creating the aesthetic effect of of Arnaldo Correa’s Spy’s Fate It’s reasonable to assume this (the tone and situation are both prankish libertine to reinvent a spy story without actually writ- can escape neither the manda- decade might well see the rein- reminiscent of James Salter’s himself as the spy his friends ing one—moments of plausible tory nationalism nor the per- vigoration of the spy novel as a scorching 1967 erotic novel A suspect he is. skulduggery and tension, as when sonal blowback of a career in commercial force. Contemporary Sport and a Pastime) until peo- Mathews reveals, in asides to he’s invited to the Russian continued on page 22

The book that “shines a blazing new light on America’s criminal justice system,” says ROBERT A. CARO. “An important and illuminating work…In his stories about the people—from the judge and the lawyers to the defen- dants—whose lives come together in a single American courtroom, in a single year, Bogira shows that he is a masterful reporter.” SCOTT TUROW hails “A wonderfully vivid portrait of a criminal courtroom in the nation’s busiest courthouse.” “Gripping,” says THE WASHINGTON POST. “For fans of Law & Order, CSI and other crime dramas dominating prime time, Bogira offers the real thing” —BALTIMORE SUN

Published by KNOPF STEVE BOGIRA www.aaknopf.com 22 CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE

Books

continued from page 21 strings among his intelligence stock narrative of escape and espionage. Correa, considered a cronies and steals a motorboat evasion by incorporating a founder of Cuban noir, began to pursue them. Soon enough domestic subplot: while Manuel publishing in 1966, and his the weary, aging spy finds him- is hiding out in Vermont waiting early short fiction was favored self trying to protect and pro- to cross into Canada and retrieve by Castro. The 2002 publica- vide for his children in the U.S. a Swiss passport, he rents a room tion of Spy’s Fate in the U.S. from behind bars. The FBI and from a single mother who’s being was his first English transla- CIA sniff at his trail, even as he stalked by a local prosecutor and tion; it’s just been rereleased in languishes in a detention center finds time to exact skillful retri- paperback. It’s a prescient look disguised as an ordinary bution on her behalf, an efficient at spycraft not as the fetishized refugee, but eventually he slips bit of spy sadism that harks back means to a Bondian lifestyle, away from his captors—though to the original Bond novels. but rather as the thin edge of not before igniting the fury of When Manuel returns once the wedge in relations between Sidney King, a vengeful CIA again to Cuba, his actions hostile nations. manager who lost a leg ten become a political litmus test for The novel opens with a veter- years earlier to a bomb that both his fellow spies and loyalists an’s homecoming. Carlos may or may not have been within Cuba’s deteriorating mili- Manuel of the Cuban intelli- planted by Manuel. King is now tary infrastructure. The irony of gence service has spent three so bitter that he schemes, Manuel’s career—that he has years pursuing a mission in Bolton-like, against his own dedicated his life and skills to Africa, and upon returning in subordinates. serving a tin-pot socialist regime 1994 he finds his homeland Revenge propels the plot as it now in terminal decline— badly hobbled by the Soviet sprawls into kidnapping, faked remains, despite all the twists of Union’s dissolution. He wants to deaths, and operational ties Correa’s elaborate plot, the slow down and spend quality between the CIA and conserva- novel’s solemn central thread. time with his grown kids. tive Cuban exiles (a cold-war-fic- Both My Life in CIA and Spy’s Instead, he’s startled to find tion chestnut, as in James Fate are published by lefty inde- them not just sullen but building Ellroy’s American Tabloid). But pendent presses, but despite a raft for the risky Florida cross- Correa invests his characters their quirks they’re essentially ing. Correa uses a rambling with enough detail and color that thrillers, as compelling as any- third-person omniscient voice the reader is absorbed by the thing by le Carré. Spy’s Fate is that’s out of style in American lit- conflict between Manuel’s cyni- an absorbing and oddly relevant erary fiction but works well here cal yet loyal cronies, the “true potboiler, while Mathews per- to make 1990s Cuba accessible. believers” among Castro’s mili- forms the valuable service of Manuel is both shrewd and a tary who want to make an exam- capturing the myopic obsession patriot, and he realizes the end ple out of their ex-spook, and the with the accoutrements of spy- of Soviet patronage has trans- CIA’s middle-aged cold warriors dom that’s led real-life spooks to formed both his nation and his who (with the exception of the their current state of ineffectu- life’s work into a house of cards. payback-obsessed King) are just ality. What distinguishes both is Fearing for his children on killing time until Cuba’s collapse. the dissolution of the covert, rit- their flimsy raft, he pulls some Correa further humanizes the ualized social contract forever epitomized by rows of unnamed stars on a wall in Langley, Virginia: that uncredited sacri- fice will be honored by a nation’s ideals. In a time when America’s intelligence corps has been stained by outsourcing scandals, torture, and the prac- tice of “extraordinary rendition,” we shouldn’t be surprised when the spies whose exploits enter- tain us turn unreliable and jaundiced too. v CHICAGO READER | JULY 1, 2005 | SECTION ONE 23

Ink Well by Ben Tausig Letters

46.Sleep over Chain of 48.GI cops Commands 51. Contents of a six-pack? 52.Less than 90 degrees ACROSS 53. Greek column type 1. “Howl’s Moving Castle” frame 55.“Law & Order: ______” 4. Pants measurement 56.Goals 59.Say what you will continued from page 3 10.Whacks 63. Tower’s letters in his community, and people 14.My ______, Vietnam 15.Prepare, when the end is nigh 64.Most e-mail from deposed should take issue with him. Nigerian princes 16.Big ball 65.Major blood vessels I was surprised Hackl was 17.Speak to the owner? 66.Richie’s dad, to the Fonz so candid about waiting 18.Vehicle safety feature 67.Chatters for an old man to die so he 20.Commoner 68.Converted, in a way could personally profit from 22. Former Genesis competitor: abbr. 69.Mouse spotter’s cry buying his home. Hackl is the 23. Palof Scooby 24.Burn a bit worst kind of bottom-feeder DOWN 26.Hitching phrase 1. Keep time, perhaps in the real estate market. 28.Velvet finish? 2. Husband of a countess So you ask, preservationist or 29.Quick chicken-cooking method 3. Candy with a hole pest? Hackl is neither; he is 33. Imposes, as a tax 4. Discount rack abbr. an opportunistic hack. 34.Dunked, maybe 5. Diner sign substance 38. “You can say that again!” I am so happy I live in the 6. Ill humor city and not out there with those 39.Mild movie ratings 40.Ides rebuke 7. Electric swimmers real estate crazy suburbanites. 41. Mexican music 8. Year abroad 44.Poison ivy and poison oak 9. “Pimp My Ride” network Brenda Daley 10.Shrek, e.g. Heather Kenny replies: 11. Story with a point LAST WEEK: SUMMER COMBING 12.Love interest Hackl says he decided not 13.It’s a wrap to donate an easement, which 19.Bring to mind 36.Draw with acid 49.“Big ______” (Notorious B.I.G. single) allows owners to place certain 21. Beachwear choices 37.Do some housework 50.Kind of preview restrictions on property in 25.Born 39.M.D. 54.Dogfood brand 26.Some servers perpetuity, for two reasons. 42.Sharp as ______55.Balkan native 27.Beaver’s blockade 57.Have the guts First, the house is located in 43.Yellow conveyance 29.Poetry event 58.Potato container Oak Park’s Frank Lloyd Wright 44.Worldly 30.Blood: prefix 60.Remote Historic District, which gives 31. 1, for one 45.Burma’s first prime minister 61. Winning side in a 1973 Supreme the structure some protections; 32.Hermit 47.Must Court case it can’t, for example, be demol- 35.Da Brat or Iggy Pop 48.‘Misdemeanor’ Elliot 62.Japanese capital ished. Second, he suggested an easement as an incentive for a buyer because even though he couldn’t get much of a tax benefit from it, a buyer with a higher income could.