Another one bites the dust

Perhaps Mark Boerckel's greatest trick is making being smart look easy.

The United Township High School senior and magician maverick is a National Merit Scholar finalist, an Advanced Placement scholar, first in his class and is attending Clemson University this fall with all his expenses paid.

But there is more to Mr. Boerckel than his mind.

He is captain of the swim team, an accomplished magician, a devoted Christian and enjoys dabbling in politics through the Illinois Federation of Teenage Republicans.

Ugh! Boerckel, a "devoted Christian", is apparently following the "What would Jesus do?" credo and planning to major in economics and financial management.

Apparently Jesus has also taught him that he should be a leader in the party of anti-gay, anti-imigrant, anti-minority bigots, and lead the charge for ever increasing spending on endless war, the elimination or starvation of social programs for the poor and needy, accelerated decimation of the environment, and the rapid expansion of the already enormous gulf between rich and poor in the U.S. and the world. No doubt Jesus is tickled pink with this fine young footsoldier for Christ.

(But one would think that Falwell, et. al. might frown on his interest in pagan "magic." After all, Harry Potter books are evil.)

But magic is a handy skill to have for a Republican. You have to be able to distract people (look over there! It's Janet Jackson's boob!) and appear to do one thing (Healthy Forests Initiative, "Fixing" Social Security, etc.) while doing another (opening up Federal forests to logging companies, destroying Social Security, etc.) Boerckel is no doubt a very accomplished young man. Perhaps he'll end up doing the Lord's work for Halliburton, Wal-mart, or the RNC.