“CHICAGO SOUNDS LIKE MOSUL:” That’s an email from . . . Michael Yon, who knows his Mosul. Here’s the story on last weekend’s violence. Still, they’re different: One has crooked officials, violent gangs with their hooks into government and law enforcement, and a culture of corruption that has resisted the central government’s effects to clean it up, and the other is a city in Iraq.

UPDATE: Fred Butzen emails: “I’m surprised you overlooked this difference: One has crazy preachers, and the other is in the Middle East.”

MORE: Another reader emails:

It really should be no surprise, since Chicago and Illinois itself have been failing to reach their political benchmarks for years now.

It is too bad there is not some powerful politician who might have served the Chicago area and brought them Change and Hope. If there was, we could blame him for the “complete failure” to achieve those political benchmarks and reduce sectarian strife.

Heh.