* News Idiot of the Week - Updated

Alderman Moore Garners Award as Cities Biggest Goof-ball

Alderman Moore got tar and feathered by the mainstream media this week. Raked over the coals. So now the City of Chicago (and beyond) residents that follow the "news of the day" found out in the past few days, what I've been telling you all the past 3 years. Alderman Moore is a "quack."

You gotta feel sorry for those who "waddle" behind this elected official. Alderman Moore "Ducks" the tough issues and "Fowls" up the easy ones.

A sample taste of 100 voters in The "Broken Heart" Poll shows 8% of my readers think Alderman Moore still has brain cells left. The other 92% think Alderman Moore has lost his mind. I not ashamed to admit this fact. I truly enjoyed Alderman Moore get roasted in public view.

The above photo and below comments are the final nail to the kooky incident. The Chicago Tribune Editorial yesterday was the topping on the whole foie gras. Here are a couple of the colorful writings from others before the main course editorial.

* A Chicago aldermen is flapping his wings to ban foie gras in the city. Headline, Chicago Tribune.

* Of the seven aldermen who showed up Tuesday for the hearing before the Committee on Health, three said they were certain they had never eaten it. In fact, some weren't sure what it was. "Is this from grass or something?" Text from Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. in the Chicago Tribune.

No Walter, it's not grass. Come to think about it, are we banning grass too? All this development, our front and back yards of Chicago are vanishing at an alarming rate.

* The Chicago Sun-Times Carol Marin called Alderman Moore " a lily livered polititian."

Tell us how you really feel Carol? But really, you let Moore off the hook. Do you know how many times Alderman Moore used his courage and actually went against the Mayor in the last 10 years when it came to voting on the corrupt budget that was submitted to city council? How many times did he ask why the city needed so many hired (to do-nothing) truck drivers?

As promised, the Tribune editorial in full.

Duck, duck, goose
Tribune editorial, September 15, 2005

The old adage about not wanting to watch sausage being made is especially true of legislative bodies, where aldermen, state lawmakers or congressmen are often clueless about details of the bills they pass--even those that spend millions or billions of dollars.

So it may seem a little ironic that a Chicago City Council committee this week began debate on a ban on, not exactly sausage, but an upscale culinary cousin: foie gras, a delicacy most aldermen have never tried and many can't even pronounce.

For the record, don't say "foy grass" or "foo grass." It's "fwah grah," which is French for fat liver. The way it's made is pretty grisly and cruel, especially if you're a duck or goose selected for the honor. Tubes are jammed down the birds' gullets, and they are force-fed repeatedly until their insides swell and turn to a buttery goo.

This process does not take place in Chicago. Foie gras isn't made anywhere in the U.S. except New York and California.

No argument here that any gastronome who wants to chow down on this artery-clogging concoction, which can go for $100 a pound and is on menus at only the most exclusive eateries, may deserve whatever medical emergency ensues.

But why in the world does the City Council feel the need to meddle in something so small and so personal and so ... inconsequential ... as what a restaurant chooses to put on its menu?

Politicians like to see themselves as problem-solvers, and Ald. Joe Moore, the sponsor of the ordinance, is hardly the first to try to get government to step in to solve a problem before it exists.

Last year, Illinois lawmakers voted to clamp down on tongue-splitting in the state, even though no one believes the bizarre cosmetic procedure has ever been performed here. Bills in the Springfield hopper this year sought to take on other discomforting practices yet to afflict us, including alcohol huffing, eyeball piercing--and foie gras making.

If all of this seems a little silly, well, it is. As for foie gras, if Chicago diners think its production is indecent, they can simply refuse to patronize restaurants that serve it.

Say this much, though, for the idea of a ban: Moore's proposal, coupled with a 1986 ordinance, would make Chicago a combined nuclear-weapon/foie-gras free zone. Probably, dare we say, the first in the nation.
Copyright (c) 2005, Chicago Tribune

Update: This was sent to me from the New York Times. "I think we both (Charlie Trotter and Rick Tramonto) regretted sort of getting dragged into the mud, the real story is to eat or not to eat foie gras." Mr. Charlie Trotter said.

As Mayor Daley said yesterday,"the Govenment should not be telling citizens what to wear".. in regards to the cab driver uniform.

So why should the Government tell a chef what to put on his menu?