Behold His Handiwork! Things Pat Hickey Fixed: He is no plumber, no engineer, no electrician, no mechanic and certainly no cosmetic surgeon!
Do click my post title for the link to the great caveat to Labor and Joel Kotkin's Politico piece. H/T - Max Weismann & There I Fixed It!
My family is comprised of very skilled trades workers ( men and women) who voted for Barack Obama. I am the only Hickey to back McCain. I did so because I did not and do not believe that Barack Obama was up to the job as President and that he had some very dicey people pouring poisonous ideas into his very willing ears.
I am a school teacher. I read and my relations work with their hands, heads and hearts. They are stationary engineers, electricians, carpenters, plumbers and pipefitters. Even the Hickey's( Brennans, Walshs, Winters, & etc.)with law degrees hold union cards.
When I work with tools bad things happen - to me and others. Hence, there is an ideological Mason/Dixon line drawn between me and my kin folk born of an inability and avoidance of genuine work on my part.
Hickeys are union people. I am as well - real unions. Politically, the skilled trades unions have historically made pacts with the devil in order to advance the prospects for workers to live with dignity and in safety.
In last forty years, politics betrayed the workers more than any Pinkerton agent or capitalist goon. Political Action Cadres (PACs) masquerading as Labor have co-opted Labor with sheer numbers.
Skilled Trades and Industrial Trades became enthralled by and to tax-payer salaried unions most notably Services Employee International Union (SEIU) which dictates policy to the National Democratic Committee ( Howard Dean) and the White House ( President Obama).
Our economic turmoil is not some glitch, but a planned operation - witness the recent remarks on Health Care by the daffy dimwitted Rep. Jan Schakowsky -
SCHAKOWSKY: “I know many of you here today are single payer advocates and so am I … and those of us who are pushing for a public health insurance don’t disagree with this goal. This is not a principled fight. This is a fight about strategy for getting there and I believe we will.” ( Emphasis my own -You got that right, Jan.)
Single payer ( The Government) Health Reform is the stated end game.
Likewise, One Big Union is the end game for SEIU. Skilled Trades will lose all autonomy and influence, as the jobs continue to disappear. Joel Kotkin a Social Demographer who trained under Michael Harrington and learned the dangers of creeping socialism has long been a critic of the economics of modern Progressives.
His article in Politico is a must read for all Labor People. Click my post title for the full article. Here is a bit of it.
This is Kotkin's genuine teachable moment. Real Labor might learn something.
As a recent New America Foundation report makes clear, precious little has gone to the productive side of the economy that determines the country’s competitiveness and creates many high-paying blue-collar jobs. Infrastructure, a critical component of any productivity-enhancing strategy, has accounted for barely 10 percent of the package.
The results have not been pretty for the productive sectors of the economy. Construction workers now have higher than 19 percent unemployment; jobs in this sector have fallen during the past year in 333 out of 352 metropolitan areas, with more than 200 plunging by double digits. Meanwhile, the hard-pressed manufacturing sector suffers more than 12 percent unemployment.
Why this disinclination to fund the tangible parts of the economy? One reason may be that those working in construction and manufacturing — both blue-collar workers and white-collar professionals — do not wield the same influence in this law review administration as college professors, Service Employees International Union-organized workers or unionized teachers.
One also senses that some militant environmentalists in the administration may be less than enthusiastic about anything associated with the entire carbon-creating part of the economy. Certainly, new factories, natural gas facilities, roads, ports and waterways don’t fit the professed passion of the president’s own science adviser, John Holdren, for the gradual “de-development” of the U.S. and other advanced economies.
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Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25636.html#ixzz0MqRrJpSt
Crime biographer and historian Rose Keefe has just written the account of the first automobile facilitated murder ( Okay, Pal! You're Goin' Fer a Ride) in our history.
In 1904, shortly after the Chicago Stockyard Strikes of that summer, a young man from Racine,Wisconsin, William Bate, who was working in a Chicago hotel, became the first victim of an automobile facilitated murder out in then rural Lemont, Illinois.
Rose Keefe has written a twelve page study of this ground-breaking and fast-getaway murder that you can access by clicking my post title.
From Lulu the instant download publisher:
On November 19, 1904 in Lemont, Illinois, Chicago chauffeur Billy Bate was found slumped behind the wheel of his Toledo touring car. He'd been shot in the head execution-style, making him the first recorded victim of the now-infamous one-way ride. Although the authorities launched a nationwide manhunt for 'Mr. Dove', his last known passenger and probable killer, their efforts were unsuccessful and the Bate Auto Murder remains unsolved. This 12-page ebook includes photos of the victim and the death car. It's a story of big city violence in rural surroundings, and marks a trend that continues to this day.
Published Books:
Guns and Roses: The Untold Story of Dean O'Banion, Chicago's Big Shot Before Al Capone. Cumberland House Publishing (Nashville, TN) 2004
The Man Who Got Away: the Bugs Moran Story. Cumberland House Publishing (Nashville, TN) 2004
The Starker: Big Jack Zelig, the Becker-Rosenthal Case of 1912, and the Advent of the Jewish Gangster. Cumberland House Publishing (Nashville, TN) 2008
Professional Affiliations:
Member, the Writer's Union of Canada
Radio, Television, and Film Appearances:
"Talkline with Zev Brenner", WSNR 620 AM(NY) (November 2008)
"Dave Gordon Radio Show Show", ThatRadio.com (October 2008)
"Our Gotham",www.monk1903.com (June 2008)
"Bulldog and The Rude Awakening Show", WOCM-FM 98.1 (June 2008)
"Mobs In America", Abu Media Ireland (August 2007)
"Man, Moment, and Machine" History Channel televised special (November 2006)
"Young Indiana Jones" DVD Series- consulting expert (July 2006)
"Paddy Whacked": the Irish Mob History Channel televised special (March 2006)
Dave Strauss Radio Show, KTRS St. Louis (February 2006)
The Radio Detective, with Jerry Pearce (March 2004)
WBIG AM with William Kelly (March 2004)
Web and Magazine Articles (author) :
"Max 'Kid Twist' Zweifach - Leader of Monk Eastman Gang ." J*Grit- the Internet Index of Tough Jews, January 2009
"Big Jack Zelig - Lower East Side Gang Leader." J*Grit- the Internet Index of Tough Jews, January 2009
"Rose Rossi- First Victim of the One-Way Ride?" On The Spot Journal, Fall 2008
"The Fighting Parson: Remembering the Reverend Leslie Spracklin, Canada's Elliot Ness." On The Spot Journal, Volume 1, Issue 5, Winter 2007
"A Buck A Fist: Dopey Benny Fein and New York's Labor Wars". On the Spot Journal, Volume 1, Issue 3, Spring 2007
"Labor Pain: Mossy Enright and Chicago's Labor Wars". On the Spot Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, Fall 2006
"Mary Ward: The First Fatal Automobile Accident". History Magazine, Volume 8, Number 2, December / January 2007
Personal Appearances:
Golden Age of Gangsters Convention, Itasca, Illinois, September 2004
Contributing Author / Expert:
The Most Evil Mobsters in History, by Lauren Carter. Michael O'Mara Books Ltd, London, England, UK 2004
Public Enemies: America's Criminal Past 1919-1940, by Rick Mattix and William J. Helmer. Cumberland House Publishing, (Nashville, TN), 2007
Bad Seeds In The Big Apple, by Pat Downey
President Obama will drink Bud Light at the Thursday meeting with the African-American professor and white police officer who got in a dust-up earlier this month. Press secretary Robert Gibbs just made the announcement to the press pool on Air Force One
1939 Trailer of John Ford's Classic StagecoachDanger holds the reins as the devil cracks the whip ! Desperate men ! Frontier women ! Rising above their pasts in a West corrupted by violence and gun-fire !
or.
2009 Trailer for New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg's Stagecoach . . .
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg defended a city program to send homeless families out of New York on planes, trains and buses on Wednesday, saying it “saves the taxpayers of New York City an enormous amount of money.”
Speaking in the Blue Room in City Hall to announce a new finance commissioner, Mr. Bloomberg was asked if the program simply shifts the homelessness program to a different place, as some critics of the program have suggested.
“I don’t know, when they get to the other places, whether they find jobs,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “It may be an easier place for them. If we don’t — we either have two choices. We can do this program or pay an enormous amount of money daily to provide housing.”
It costs the city about $36,000 a year to provide shelter for a homeless family. The average stay in shelter is about nine months.
Last Night on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann but actually Governor Howard Dean!
Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland: Meeting adjourned. Oh, I am sorry, sir, I didn't mean to overstep my bounds. You say that.
Governor Howard Dean: What?
Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland: "Meeting is adjourned".
Governor Howard Dean: It is?
Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland: No, you *say* that, Governor.
Governor Howard Dean: What?
Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland: "Meeting is adjourned".
Governor Howard Dean: It is?
Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland: [sighs, then gives the governor a paddleball] Here, sir, play with this.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the rights of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” C.S. Lewis.
Identity Politics and Victim Agendas are played out. Alderman Tom Tunney's nod to the Gay Lesbian Bi-sexual and Transgender (GLBT) cadre is the latest such nonsense with his attempt to define GLBT as a minority in order to gain capital perks from tax-payers.
Thus:
Chicago’s first openly gay alderman today re-opened the volatile debate about whether City Hall should establish contract set-asides for businesses owned by lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered residents.
Six years after raising the issue only to drop it like a hot potato, Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) brought it up again during a Budget Committee hearing called to extend until 2015 a construction set-aside ordinance for minorities and women. Today, Tunney was hardpressed to explain how someone would prove they’re gay to qualify for a city set-aside — especially after the seemingly endless string of stories about minority business fraud.
“Qualified domestic partners. That could be one factor,” the alderman said.
He added, “That’s why there’s nothing passed yet in any municipality. We still need to work on the definition.”
Chris Dodd? Dithering Dick Durbin? Al Franken?
Giants they be not.
Max Weismann of the Center for the Study of Great Ideas passed along the above cartoon. Thanks Max!
Three great Americans are about to 'tamp down' the Race Mess!
The Beer Summit! This will be dead serious and once again, President Obama will put Race behind us all. Until, about two minutes after the Beer Summit when Robert Gibbs blows off more toes than the Italian Army after El Alamein.
I do not see this as an evening of 'three guys' looking at albums and cranking up Dr. Horse and Mitch Ryder, until Mrs. Obama calls the President into the kitchen and says, "That is about enough. Tell your Buddies good night. The girls have school and you have Health Care Reform."
Nope. This frothy confab may be just as frosty as a mother-in-law's kiss. So, why not have a great Chicago beer make its way into American History.
Might I suggest Goose Island's Matilda!
Matlida - Gooseisland Brewmasters Notes:
Wild in character, with a slightly fruity aroma and a spicy yeast flavor that is as unique as it is satisfying – Matilda is an intriguing choice for beer and wine lovers alike. Dry and quenching, it’s the perfect accompaniment at the dining table or for casually socializing at the bar.
Recipe Information:
Style: Belgian Style Pale Ale
Alcohol by Volume: 7%
International Bitterness Units: 32
Color: Golden Sunrise
Hops: Styrian, Saaz
Malts: 2-Row, Caramel
Serving Suggestions:
Preferred Glass: Wide Mouth Glass
Preferred Serving Temperature: 40ยบ
Food Pairings: Matilda pairs with many foods. Its spicy yeast flavors compliment fresh mussels and contrast rich pork belly.
Pork Belly - Please!
Cheese Pairings: Camembert, Washed Rind Cheeses ( ditch the cheese)
Cellaring Notes: Develops in the bottle for up to 5 years
5th Annual Play for Maeve - The date for this year's event has been set. Please check back as we get closer for more information.
Save The Date to Play for Maeve McNicolas*!~
Saturday August 1st , 2009
1-6 at Beverly Park
2460 W 102nd St, Chicago, IL - (312) 747-6024
Admission
(Includes: Food, soft drinks, T-Shirt, activities and games for the kids, entertainment)
$50 for a family ticket
$30 for an individual ticket
**New this Year a Family ticket will also include special “Maeve” string backpacks for the kids, as well as a raffle ticket to be used for an item TBA soon.
*Maeve's Story
Maeve McNicholas was born on a cold, rainy day in May, 2002 which was so opposite of what her personality turned out to be. Maeve became our sunshine. She was a sweet, calm baby that grew into an even sweeter toddler. She was extraordinary in ways that are hard to describe to those that didn't know her. She had an amazing capacity to make us smile and always shared hugs and kisses with those she loved. Even those that didn't know her well would comment on her kindness. In March of 2004, our family grew by two with the addition of Maeve's new siblings, twins Billy and Nora. Maeve, who at that time was not even 2 years old, took the major change in her life in stride. She showed little jealousy and constantly gave her new brother and sister kisses. She was going to be the best big sister ever. Our family was on top of the world – little did we know that soon it would change.
From the time she was born, Maeve was a very healthy child. She suffered from relatively few colds and seemed to be spared many of the common childhood illnesses. Occasionally she had episodes of vomiting, but these episodes would be brief. She would get sick for a day and then she wouldn't throw up again for another 6 months or so. There always seemed to be a reason. She ate too much junk or she was at the babysitters with another child that just got over the stomach flu, etc. All in all this probably happened only 3-4 times over a year and a half. There seemed to be no reason for concern.
On July 25th, 2004, Maeve vomited when we got to a family party. We attributed it to car sickness, because she had been in the sun in the car for almost an hour. She then appeared to feel better and played the rest of the day. The next day she vomited a few more times. We contacted the doctor who said to monitor Maeve’s condition and call back the next day if she wasn't better. She got worse during the night so we brought her to the doctor the next day. The doctor said to take her to the ER to be treated for dehydration. That's all they thought it was - dehydration. When she didn’t “perk” up in the ER, they decided to keep her overnight for observation. Soon after, she had a seizure and then a few minutes later another one. Maeve looked at my husband and myself and said "It's okay". Those were the last words we would hear Maeve say before they sedated her. A few hours later we were informed by the doctors that there was a "significant" mass in her brain. We still had hope, Maeve had a lot of spunk, we could fight this. After waiting through an agonizing night, we met with the neurosurgeons the following morning. They planned on performing surgery to remove the tumor; however that was not to be. Maeve's condition never became stable and the swelling in her brain, despite the placement of a shunt, caused too much damage. She went to Heaven at 4:37 am on July 29th, 2004, less than 36 hours after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. Maeve was only 26 months old.
Abraham Lincoln mopped the street with Judge Stephen Douglas. Two great actors, in 19th Century dress, reenacted the The Fifth Debate(Galesburg) of the Great Lincoln Douglas Debates.
The McCormick Foundation ran a Freedom of Speech Booth.
Amnesty International offered literature to Chicagoans, about political abuse of prisoners.
Illinois Atheist Pontifex Maximus, Rob Sherman walked around with a giant plastic Dill Pickle and proved that his arms are too short to box with God. The Dude is passionate and intense - really intense. God love him! Mr. Sherman had an Atheist tour bus that would have been the envy of Madonna . . . or the Madonna!
Check it out on Rob Sherman's site - It was parked on La Salle across from the Library - Ten-4, Rollers! Atheistical Mystery Tour is East Bound and Down!
http://www.robsherman.com/
Chicago writer, WGN radio host, golfer and Patriot, Rick Kogan directed the public speaking events made moving eulogies form Bughouse Square heroes the late Alderman Leon Depres and Studs Terkel. The always classy Rick Kogan asked for a moment of silence and Rob Sherman loudly objected to amusement of all.
Hey, Speak on it Brother! This was celebration of America at its Best in place that is a temple of Free Speech.
The Newberry Library hosted the 25th Annual Book Fair and it was a great success. The staff of the Newberry took care of browsers and buyers with speed and efficiency.
All around the park, preregistered speakers took to the soapboxes and gave out like Americans! Rick Kogan and I chatted about the power of the two actors who portrayed Lincoln and Douglas( with Michael Krebs taking the part of Lincoln, and Larry Diemer that of Douglas), as well as the intrinsic power of the words of Galesburg Debates themselves.
Douglas was a Democratic Party line, save the union orator with unhappy task of defending slavery.
Lincoln was the sharp, homey Illinois Central lawyer who bobs and weaves with the geography of Illinois. Douglas complained about Lincoln's feckless abuse of the Truth over the issue of slavery - saying one thing in Charleston and another in Freeport. Lincoln cleaned his clock with this!
When the Judge says, in speaking on this subject, that I make speeches of one sort for the people of the northern end of the State, and of a different sort for the southern people, he assumes that I do not understand that my speeches will be put in print and read North and South. I knew all the while that the speech that I made at Chicago, and the one I made at Jonesboro and the one at Charleston, would all be put in print, and all the reading and intelligent men in the community would see them and know all about my opinions. And I have not supposed, and do not now suppose, that there is any conflict whatever between them. But the Judge will have it that if we do not confess that there is a sort of inequality between the white and black races, which justifies us in making them slaves, we must then insist that there is a degree of equality that requires us to make them our wives. Now, I have all the while taken a broad distinction in regard to that matter; and that is all there is in these different speeches which he arrays here; and the entire reading of either of the speeches will show that that distinction was made. Perhaps by taking two parts of the same speech he could have got up as much of a conflict as the one he has found. I have all the while maintained that in so far as it should be insisted that there was an equality between the white and black races that should produce a perfect social and political equality, it was an impossibility. This you have seen in my printed speeches, and with it I have said, that in their right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” as proclaimed in that old Declaration, the inferior races are our equals. And these declarations I have constantly made in reference to the abstract moral question, to contemplate and consider when we are legislating about any new country which is not already cursed with the actual presence of the evil,—slavery. I have never manifested any impatience with the necessities that spring from the actual presence of black people amongst us, and the actual existence of slavery amongst us where it does already exist; but I have insisted that, in legislating for new countries where it does not exist, there is no just rule other than that of moral and abstract right! With reference to those new countries, those maxims as to the right of a people to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” were the just rules to be constantly referred to. There is no misunderstanding this, except by men interested to misunderstand it. I take it that I have to address an intelligent and reading community, who will peruse what I say, weigh it, and then judge whether I advance improper or unsound views, or whether I advance hypocritical and deceptive, and contrary views in different portions of the country.
Don't expect the mutual boots to The Old Jewels, the long taloned calloused horny fingers reaching into the pie-hole of his opponent to yank out the bloody roots of molars, or the celebrated Irish art of application of the Casteisland Kiss -snapping one's forehead into the bridge of the opponent's nose.
Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes traded the first shots Friday in next year's Democratic primary battle for governor over who's more culpable for the state's financial woes.
The governor called Hynes a "no show" on tough budget choices, while Hynes' campaign accused Quinn of keeping quiet while disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich "drove our state into a ditch.". . . "When you get in the arena, you've got to make decisions," Quinn said. "You can't stand on the side of the road and not take part in tough battles. You can't be a no show. You can't just show up and say, 'Hey, I want to be elected to something.' I think you have to show you have the courage of your convictions to stand in the arena, take tough positions, do hard things because that's what the public demands."
But Hynes campaign spokesman Michael Rendina disputed Quinn's characterization, noting Hynes has proposed $1.2 billion in cuts to the state budget along with $1.8 billion in new money by legalizing more casinos, closing business tax breaks and expanding the sales tax to luxury items. Hynes had been critical of inconsistencies behind Quinn's failed push for an income-tax increase and questioned why the governor hadn't made cuts to try to win public support.
"Gov. Quinn is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. After Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn spent six years in silence watching Rod Blagojevich drive our state into a ditch, it is puzzling that he describes a 50 percent income tax increase on Illinois families as leadership," Rendina said
Born in 1948 in Hinsdale, Illinois, Quinn attended the local Catholic grade school, St. Isaac Jogues. He graduated in 1967 from Fenwick High School, a Catholic school in Oak Park, Illinois run by the Dominican Order of Priests[1]. While a student at Fenwick, Quinn was the cross-country team captain and the sports editor of the school newspaper. Quinn went on to graduate Phi Beta Kappa from Georgetown University in 1971 with a bachelor's degree from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. After taking a few years off from education, he received a Juris Doctor degree from Northwestern University School of Law in 1980.[2]
Quinn is divorced and has two sons, Patrick IV and David, born on April 12, 1983, and December 16, 1984, respectively. Both sons, like their father, competed in scholastic sports, specializing in track and field events.[3]
Quinn was briefly a practicing tax attorney before his career in public office.
Few things in life make one more happy than bargains. Good work is never cheap and cheap work is never good.
I have been buying meat from Griffith Meat Market in Griffith, Indiana,since 1994. Griffith is a beautiful little town south of Interstate 80 off of Cline Avenue, just two exits east of Hammond, Indiana. My family lived there from 1994, until 1998. We bought our meat from the family owned Griffith Meat Market on Glen Park. When my wife Mary died in 1998, I moved the kids to the south side of Chicago, but continued to buy the $123.00 package.
This package of meats takes great care of the Family Hickey and my kids eat like they are going to the chair.
Thus,
10 Lbs. Chicken Breasts
08 Lbs. Ground Beef
04 Lbs. Sirloin Steak
03 Lbs Pork Loin Roast
03 Lbs Chuck Roast
02 Lbs Strip Steak
02 Lbs Beef Stew
02 Lbs.Polish Sausage
02 Lbs.Italian Sausage
02 Lbs. Breakfast Farmer Sausage
02 Lbs.Bratwurst
01 Lb. Ham Steak
Griffith Meat Market
507 E Glen Park Ave
Griffith, IN 46319-2321
Click my post title for more
The meat is of exceptional quality. Do make a quick trip to Griffith, IN.
Overall, 49% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Today marks the first time his overall approval rating has ever fallen below 50% among Likely Voters nationwide. Fifty-one percent (51%) disapprove.
"I mean, if I was trying to jigger into -- well, I guess this is my house now, so -- it probably wouldn't happen.President Barack Obama June 22, 2009
"But let's say my old house in Chicago -- here I'd get shot."
Here is the president's full answer from the transcript:
Click my post title for the Politics Daily, for whom Lynn Sweet writes, and the video
"Well, I should say at the outset that "Skip" Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here. I don't know all the facts. What's been reported, though, is that the guy forgot his keys, jimmied his way to get into the house, there was a report called into the police station that there might be a burglary taking place - so far, so good, right? I mean, if I was trying to jigger into - well, I guess this is my house now so - (laughter) - it probably wouldn't happen. But let's say my old house in Chicago - (laughter) - here I'd get shot. (Laughter.)
That should give no end of a boost to the morale of the Chicago Police Department. Mr. President, this was a new low in Presidential Humor, but not nearly as low as your numbers will plunge by Labor Day. Laugh that off.
Here is the rest of the Presidemt's answer to Lynn Sweet -
"But so far, so good. They're reporting - the police are doing what they should. There's a call, they go investigate what happens. My understanding is at that point Professor Gates is already in his house. The police officer comes in, I'm sure there's some exchange of words, but my understanding is, is that Professor Gates then shows his ID to show that this is his house. And at that point, he gets arrested for disorderly conduct - charges which are later dropped.
"Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that, but I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge Police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact.
"As you know, Lynn, when I was in the state legislature in Illinois, we worked on a racial profiling bill because there was indisputable evidence that blacks and Hispanics were being stopped disproportionately. And that is a sign, an example of how, you know, race remains a factor in this society. That doesn't lessen the incredible progress that has been made. I am standing here as testimony to the progress that's been made.
"And yet the fact of the matter is, is that this still haunts us. And even when there are honest misunderstandings, the fact that blacks and Hispanics are picked up more frequently and oftentime for no cause casts suspicion even when there is good cause. And that's why I think the more that we're working with local law enforcement to improve policing techniques so that we're eliminating potential bias, the safer everybody is going to be."
CLASSIC LOUISA MAY ALCOTT NOVEL BECOMES LOCAL HIT MUSICAL, JULY 23, 24, 25 "Little Women: The Musical," the beloved novel and new Broadway hit, graces the stage of 99th Street summer theatre during this, its 31st season. All of your favorite Alcott characters come alive to portray the touching story of a family growing together, this time in perfect harmony. The performances will run July 23, 24, & 25 @ 8PM in the Mother McAuley Auditorium at 3737 W. 99th Street. Directed by Patricia Haynes. Musical Direction by Pat Mooney assisted by Nicole Simental. Set Design by Josie Blough. Lighting by Colleen Thomas. Adults $16, Seniors $14 and Children $12. For more information or to order tickets over the phone call 773 881 6512.
Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School
3737 W. 99th
Chicago, IL
President Obama smeared a Cambridge Policeman and the Cambridge Police Force and then went even smaller. He seemed to imply that here in Chicago, police would have shot him. Not much of a joke, Mr. President - pretty small.
President Obama won a remarkable victory last November. High Hopes and Nowhere to go but up.
Since January 19th, President Obama has been honeymooned and swooned over.
Now, having junketed around the globe to Apologize for America - no one asked him to do that by the way - here or abroad - and fudged Guantanamo Prison, the Stimulus #1, and the Health Care Reform dodge. His numbers dropped significantly.
It'll happen.
However, last night President Obama showed America how small a man he happens to be and still sleep in the White House.
Read this transcript of his Meet the Press with Lynn Sweet over the Skip Gates nonsense.
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said Wednesday that police acted "stupidly" in the arrest of prominent black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and that despite racial progress blacks and Hispanics are still singled out unfairly for arrest.http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...est=latestnews
"This still haunts us," Obama said.
Obama called Gates a friend, and said he doesn't know all the facts of the case. Nonetheless, Obama said, anyone would have been angry if treated the way Gates claims police in Cambridge, Mass., treated him. Gates, a Harvard University professor, claims he was arrested in his home after showing ID to police who responded to a report of a possible burglary.
"Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof he was in own home," Obama said during a prime-time news conference that otherwise focused on the health care debate.
Gates' arrest followed a report of a possible burglary. A woman apparently saw Gates force the front door and called police. Police came and demanded that Gates show identification. Gates was arrested shortly afterward for alleged disorderly conduct, a charge that was dropped Tuesday.
"What I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately," Obama said. "That's just a fact."
That disparity is a reminder that "race remains a factor in the society," Obama said.
The nation's first black president held himself up as testament to what he called the "incredible progress" minorities have achieved.
The police sergeant accused of racism after he arrested Gates insisted Wednesday that he won't apologize.
Police say Gates at first refused to display ID and then accused the officer of racism.
Sgt. James Crowley said he followed proper procedures in arresting Gates.
Standing in the stately East Room of the White House where he now lives, Obama allowed some humor into the discussion.
Obama ticked off the reported facts of the Gates case -- starting with Gates apparently forgetting his keys and jimmying the door. Police responded appropriately at first, Obama said.
"I mean, if I was trying to jigger into ...," Obama began, and then trailed off as reporters laughed. Obama laughed, too. "Well, I guess this is my house, now so it probably wouldn't happen."
Obama said he could understand police responding in good faith if he was forcing his way into his old house in Chicago.
"Here I'd get shot," he joked.
Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley declined today to criticize President Obama for saying Wednesday night that police "acted stupidly" in the arrest last week of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., but he did say it was "regrettable" that anyone would speak without knowing the "whole story" of the confrontation a week ago at Gates's home near Harvard Square
Danny Davis pretends that he is driving in Britain, last year, for driving on the wrong side of Kedzie on the West Side (hugely Black Demographic area), gets a ticket, and screams 'Racial Profiling!' Intolerable. Justice.
The Tamil Tigers' and Rev Sun Myung Moon's Congressman Danny K.Davis gets a walk while he pontificates in slow basso profundo tones. Yes, Yes!
The race card is tossed. Years ago Eric Michael Dyson, the academic who equates Tupac to Homer, got a ticket over near Washington Park and devoted a series of his Sun Times columns to the horrors of driving while black.
Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, a Black Ivory Tower Academic and pal of the President was arrested at his home when he busted into the house that he had locked himself out of and white woman neighbor thought that Skip's house was being burglarized while he was in China. She called the cops. The cops came and the rest is being played out in Presidential Racial History. Chris Matthews is concerned, 'Hmmyeah." Here is a quote from Skip Gates about the incident.
Gates said he does not think that anything he did justified the officer's actions. He walks with a cane and said he did not pose a threat.
"I weigh 150 pounds and I'm 5-7. I'm going to give flak to a big white guy with a gun. I might wolf later, but I won't wolf then."
Like Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., I am interracially married, currently live in a predominantly white neighborhood, have a healthy respect for armed men wearing uniforms, and have had the police come to my house in a confrontational manner, doing the job they're paid to do.
It happened when our house alarm went off at 2 a.m. a few months ago, on a night the electricity was off and the neighborhood was dark as pitch. WANH!! WANH!! WANH!! It sent my wife and me leaping out of bed. I sprinted downstairs with a baseball bat, our Rottweiler and a flashlight to confront any possible intruder. I checked all the windows and doors, the dog yawned, and it quickly became apparent that there was a short circuit from a rear door.
My wife called the alarm company and gave them the code for a false alert.
Then two cops showed up.
The first thing they did was ask me to step outside. The second thing they did was to ask me for my identification, to prove that I lived there. They were demanding and they were not friendly. They kept their flashlights in my face. They did not take my word for it that it was my house, though I was as white as they were.
Once I showed them my driver's license with the address, they asked if anyone else was inside, and then they asked if they could look around the place.
I was irritable in that middle-of-the-night kind of way, but it did not occur to me that they might be picking on us, the salt-and-pepper couple on the block. What occurred to me was that they got a call about a home alarm going off and they had to secure the premises before they could leave. And I was thrilled to have them search the entire house, because my wife's 9-year-old daughter was murdered in a home invasion in Silver Spring six years ago. The police came running then, too, but it was too late.
2009 Catfish Days Schedule
IF . . .Chris Kennedy brings the wife and Kids to Wilmington Catfish Days over the Weekend, I will go all John McCain Loyal for his Campaign for U.S. Senator from Illinois, Governor? We'll need to think on that.
Honor Bright! I did a daily McCain Post for well over year and every one of them 'Hack Perfect,' just like, Mr. Straight-talk had dropped a few nickels my way!
Picture Mr. Chris Kennedy wandering Water Street and ambling along the Mill Race.
Chris - " This Chowdah is Exceptional! Really thick."
Wilmington Wildcat Grad '67; KofC and Vietnam Vet -" Son, that's Catfish Gravy. It goes on the biscuits. Your cup is empty, Son. Get over and fill her up over to The Rustic. Now, just get the beer and forget the Women's Reproductive Health and Green nonsense. Save yourself some grief. Ask the bartender where you can get a pint of Doc's stink bait, as you're cane-poling above the damn. That's votes, Son."
Catfish Days is a great family celebration and great time with great people.
Politicians talk through people.
If Chris Kennedy goes to Catfish Days, I'll not only vote for him but post a Kennedy Love Piece every morning.
Not gonna happen.
All of your folks take I 55 or I 57 south. Exit where it says Wilmngton and you will be at Catfish Days!
ALL EVENTS ON THE NORTH ISLAND UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED
Events subject to change without notice
Last updated: 7/1/09
HAPPENINGS ALL WEEKEND
CARNIVAL-With $15.00 All You Can Ride Specials on Thursday & Sunday
FOOD VENDORS-- A great variety of food all weekend
MUD VOLLEYBALL-Get a little muddy (okay a lot) and have loads of fun
BEER GARDEN --Serving ice cold beverages Friday- Sunday
MOMS COOKIES - "Support our Troops" activities all weekend
THURSDAY----TEEN NIGHT SPONSORED BY RIVERFRONT LANES
5pm- 9pm Miss Wilmington Contestants Fund Raising Events
5pm-6:30pm- Waiting Til Friday- Local Teen Band
6 pm-10:-00pm $15.00 --All You Can Ride Night at Carnival
6pm- 8pm Meet Jammer the Joliet Jackhammers Mascot
7pm-10pm Teen Karaoke
8pm-1030 pm Teen Guitar Hero Contest - Sponsored by Mar Theatre
FRIDAY-- SPONSORED BY WILMINGTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
6pm-- Carnival & Food Vendors open
6pm --Beer garden opens
6:30pm - Jim Nesci Reptile Show
8pm --Live Entertainment -Featuring Copy Cats with A Blue Dude Performance Playing a wide variety of music that's sure to entertain
9:30pm-- Friday Night Fireworks-Sponsored by Catfish Days Committee
SATURDAY
9am-4pm --Flea Market/Craft Show-downtown
10:30am --Woodys Bike & Pet Parade-Sponsored by Skinners Animal Clinic (Line-up begins at 10am at Booth Central School - parade route is Jackson St to Main to Baltimore to North Island. Awards/Trophies presented at stage on North Island after Parade)
11:00am- Bike Safety Course- Sponsored by Wilmington Police Dept & Sulphur Springs Arbor of Gleaners
11:00 am- Diamond Dance Co. & WHS Spirit Line Performance-Mar Theatre
11:30am Baby Wilmington Contest- Mar Theatre- Sponsored by Finale Dance Studio
Noon-Wilmington Fire Dept. Fire Fights-Downtown
Noon-Carnival, Food Vendors and Beer Garden Opens
12pm -- Magic Show- featuring Bozo Alum Jim Brown
12:30pm- Diamond Dance Co. Performance- Mar Theatre
1:00pm- Miss Wilmington Pageant- Mar Theatre
1:00pm- Belly Dancing Performance - by Johara Dancers Watch and then learn the art of belly dancing
1pm-4pm Petting Zoo and Pony Rides- Sponsored by Wilmington Public Library
2:00pm- Professional Ventriloquist- Bob Rumba
3:00pm-- Juggling Performance-Come see Circus Boy Bobby Hunt perform amazing Juggling acts and great fun for all
12:30pm- Diamond Dance Co. / Spirit Line Performance
8pm --Live Entertainment -Featuring Sundance Playing a wide variety of music that's sure to entertain www.thebandsundance.com
9:30 pm - Outdoor Laser Light Show-Sponsored by the City of Wilmington
SUNDAY
8am-Catfish Days 5k Run-Sponsored by Fitness Advantage
Noon- Carnival and Food Vendors Open
1pm Catfish Days Parade Parade begins @ Water St. and Mill St. to Ryan St. to Wilmington High School
2pm-Beer Garden Opens
2:30pm-- Coloring contest winners announced-
2pm-6pm $15.00 all you can ride at Carnival
2pm-6pm --- D.J./ Karaoke- provided by Rockin Karaoke
3pm- 6pm -- Touch a Truck- Get up close to a variety of unique vehicles
2pm- Wilmington Community Band Performance-Veterans Memorial Park
3:30pm- American Legion Band Performance-Veterans Memorial Park
Self-boiled icon and perpetual news raker, Carol Marin is testing the temperature of the Illinois Political bathtub before Chris Kennedy puts a tootsie into it! Senator, or Governor, or something.
Carol has tested the water before and to sweet effect for Carol. Remember the Fogartys? They did not do too well, but then again, they are not icons. Carol be an Icon.
That's nice. In 1995, Carol did the heavy lifting for an ambitious Fed when she sat in front of the cameras at Channel Five (5) NBC and ran with rumor that made her the icon she be today! Remember the Langert murders. Boy, I do. I know the two lovely people, Mary and Chris Fogarty. who were framed with the Langert Murders. Even People Magazine called it a rumor.
At 4 P.M. Nancy's father went to the town house and discovered their bodies lying faceup in the basement. Richard had been handcuffed and shot in the back of the head. Nancy had been shot in the elbow, side and stomach. With her finger, she had tried to scrawl a message in blood. At first, rumors circulated that the letters spelled IRA. Later, police concluded that the message was a heart next to the letter U.
CORRUPT NEWS MEDIA personified by TV anchorwoman Carol Marin in my case, abetted the MI5/FBI criminals the same way they abetted the Omagh perpetrators - by blaming it on the RIRA and, by extension, McKevitt. Within days of the Langert massacre Buckley got Marin to announce on prime-time network TV that “the IRA are linked to Langert murders.” When I phoned her the next day to learn the basis for her “scoop,’ she told me that her source was “an FBI agent.” When I asked her how she had met her responsibility to verify it she said she had not done so but had accepted the uncorroborated word of the FBI. She never issued a correction; and the rest of the news media parroted her lies.
The one place lawmen apparently did not pay enough attention to was the town of Winnetka itself. But at the community's highly regarded New Trier Township High School, senior David Biro, 17, a lanky honor student known for his biting sarcasm and perverse humor, mockingly bragged to classmates that he had shot the Langerts. Accustomed to Biro's frequent claims that he was a hired assassin, drug dealer and street-gang member, most of his fellow students did not take him seriously. Finally, however, one of Biro's schoolmates decided that there was more to the boy's claims than mere braggadocio. Early last month he told Winnetka police what Biro had been saying. Investigators listened closely, since Biro had mentioned details of the murders that had never been publicly released.
It wasn't the first time Biro had caught the eye of police. According to friends—all of Biro's acquaintances cited in this article have insisted on anonymity since they are potential court witnesses—he was admitted to Charter Barclay, a psychiatric hospital in Chicago, three years ago after reportedly trying to poison his parents, brother and sister with tainted milk. Since then he had been stopped by police for a series of minor infractions. When the high school informant told police of Biro's claims of involvement in the Langert killings, investigators recalled that Biro had been spotted, wearing black clothing, near the murder scene on the night of the slayings.
On Oct. 5, the day after police learned of his boasting, Biro was taken into custody for questioning as he left his parents' three-story stucco home. After police searches of his bedroom uncovered items, including a glass cutter, handcuffs and a .357 Magnum revolver, that had been stolen from the office of Biro's former lawyer, the teenager was charged with first-degree murder of Richard Langert and his pregnant wife, Nancy, and the intentional homicide of their unborn child. A .357 Magnum can fire the type of .38-caliber bullets used in the murders, and while law enforcement officials have revealed few details of their investigation, they say they are confident that the .357 Magnum and other items taken from Biro will link him to the murders. Biro is being held at the Cook County jail without bail, awaiting his Nov. 21 arraignment.
Biro's arrest has bewildered the community and left everyone, including the police, wondering why a child of privilege might have committed such a crime. Drawings and writings recovered from his room have led police to consult with ritual-crime experts to determine whether Biro may have dabbled in destructive occult beliefs. His closest friends wonder if Biro may have been "pushed or dared" into committing a crime as a street-gang initiation—or whether he might have killed the Langerts at the behest of someone else.
Some classmates say Biro was driven, as one acquaintance put it, "to test his limits." A red notebook, found in his room by police, contained underlined news articles about the murders, including a magazine story in which an attorney for Nancy Langert's sister observed, "I bet if they ever do catch the culprit it will turn out to be some local teenager." Says one girl: "If [Biro] did do it, it's because he wanted to commit the perfect crime. Dave viewed everything as an intellectual challenge, and he may have been too smart for his own good."
One question remains: Why the Langerts? Though Biro's parents were casually acquainted with Nancy Langert's parents, police admit they are puzzled about the nature of the relationship—if any—between Biro and his alleged victims. Although the teenager accompanied his mother to the Langerts' funeral, police say there is no evidence he knew them before the night that their paths may have fatally crossed.
I am SO evolved and So There!
Saturday, July 25, 2009, from 10 am - 6 pm (Learn about the special festivities planned to celebrate the Newberry Book Fair 25th anniversary!)
I am brushing up my Eccos! This is no south side Pierogi Fest, or Irish beer swill with music. I will dress the part of the 56 year old progressive, hip and still got it baby - man about town! Well, some parts of town.
I want to give off the image that I'm a successful full fledged academic on holiday. Polo shirts with khaki pants won't do and everyone working the stands will be wearing the same thing that gives that Public Television WTTW Pledge Drive but Outdoors impression. Me Too.
First - a trip to John's on 111th to get a near-shave on the noggin - Ala Billy Ayers, Dick Simpson, Moby, Uncle Fester from Smashing Pumpkins and Gay activists. White guys should never shave their heads and Hipsters get close to that but not down to the bone. We middle aged south side close knit ethnic types still tend to the The Princeton or the Boy's Regular haircut. Also, no shave 'til Sunday Mass. You hasta give off the three day growth Old Guy Miami Vice Nubby Stubble Look - Like Billy Ayers and Pete and Peggy Seeger.
Second - Get a stud ear ring. Every fifty-something Hispter that's really with it has one. I might need take a handful of pain killers and couple of Olde English 40's to that. DoooooooooooDe!
Third - Cotton, Cotton Cotton! - Something loose and breezy maybe some sort of faux Tolstoy peasant shirt ( white) belted with a good quality knotted rope from Mount Greenwood True Value. Britches?????? Cargo shorts extra baggy and shin length, or patchwork blue jeans? Hmmmmm. Maybe a standard issue Che T or a Tie-Dyed
Fourth - Footwear - Birkenstocks or Eccos? Sandals or boaters? No socks. Stangkee Feet Caynt Be Beat!
Fifth - Deportment to match the schedule! Yes, yes . . . I have been North of Madison many times and the most important thing to wear is (I agree) a big smile! I'm the customer!!! So Sally and Seth, don't sit behind your table, Duckies, Get off your Lard and come over and be helpful, or I'll get all Catholic school on you! . Stand the whole time and have something to keep you looking busy. "See my smile? I can be passive aggressive too. Don't you think that you might want to have a better attitude and please dont smoke? Did you really wash your hands after handling that Nelson Algren hardcover and you're not going to eat that roasted corn? Is that organic corn? Where's the beer tent?"
Here's the schedule and my expected behavior.
Celebrate 25 years of inexpensive used books at the Newberry's annual Book Fair. We have a record number of books to sell this year! More than 110,000 donated books will be sorted into 70 categories for your browsing convenience. With many books priced under $2, it's easy to replenish your home library's holdings on subjects ranging from antiques to zoology.
Admission is free.
Happy shopping!
Parking: The Newberry Library does not have a visitor parking lot. Limited metered parking is available on area streets. Daytime and evening parking restrictions do apply, so be sure to read the posted signs carefully. Garage parking is also available in the neighborhood. No Hummers; No Buicks; No Lincolns; No Fords and No Chevies.
The following garages offer discounted parking to Newberry patrons ($7 for 0-8 hours; $9 for 8-10 hours). Remember to bring your parking ticket with you so it can be validated by the Newberry security guard. The Sheehan Family at 10857 will let you use their drive way but then you need to take Metra downtown and transfer to the CTA
100 West Chestnut Street (enter on Clark Street)
100 East Walton Street (valet service)
Festivities on Saturday, July 25
9 am – Complimentary yoga presented in Washington Square Park by lululemon athletica - Pass. Where's the beer ticket booth?
10 am – Book Fair opens
10:30 am – Complimentary kids’ yoga presented in Washington Square Park by Get Healthy Chicago
12 pm – Meet the Author: Alex Kotlowitz (book signing) Author of Never a City So Real a wonderful, short study of Chicago. I will leave him alone.
Bughouse Square Debates (1 pm to 4 pm)
1 pm – Rick Kogan Welcome! - " Hey, Kogan, You Bastard! It's Hickey!! Yeah, that's right! You were 'spozed to have me back on your show and talk about my novel! Yeah, I'm heckling! What's the matter? Not so tough when don't have Steve Bertrand to back you up! . . . Terry, in a minute, I . . . no I have not had enough beer. My Mom is in Orland; Okay? Kogan! I'm here allllll Daaaayyyy!!!!!!"
1:15 pm – Presentation of the Altgeld award to High School Teacher Barb Thill - Clap politely.
1:35 pm – Main debate (Abraham Lincoln vs. Stephen Douglas) "Go Douglas! Little Giant Rocks! No Lincoln; No War!"
2:15 pm – Memorial tributes to Studs Terkel, Leon Despres, Franklin Rosemont and Judith Krug - " Hey, . . . why you call the cops on me??????" A wide-eyed Terry Sullivan watches in disgust and mild disbelief. Ms. Sullivan calls Hickey's kids, " I am afriad your father is at Chicago Ave. Police Station. I will post bail, but I am going home. Please, have your Father call me . . . when Hell Freezes!"
2:30 pm – Soapbox Debates ( still in custody)
3:45 pm – Dil Pickle award presented ( still in custody)
6 pm – Book Fair closes for the day
9:45 P.M - Hickey gets released into the custody of his kids. The elegant,polite and beautiful Ms. Terry Sullivan awaits the forth coming apology "Oh, No" Phone call.
The 2009 Book Fair is generously supported by Whole Foods Market, Hallett Movers, and by our media partner, Flavorpill.
Many thanks to the following restaurants for donating lunches to our many wonderful Book Fair volunteers:
Bistro Zinc
Caffe Baci
D'Absolute Caterers
Edwardos
Fox and Obel Food Market
Goddess and Grocer
Go RomaJewell Events Catering
Occasions Chicago Catering
Tri-Star Catering
A tough looking biker was riding by Lincoln Park zoo, when he saw a little girl leaning into the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabbed her by the cuff of her jacket and tried to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.
The biker jumped off his bike, ran to the cage and hit the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.
Whimpering from the pain the lion jumped back and let go of the girl. The biker then took her to her terrified parents, who thanked him endlessly.
A reporter saw the whole scene, and addressing the biker, said, 'Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I saw a man do in my whole life.'
'Why, it was nothing,' said the biker, really. The lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, and acted as I felt right.'
'I noticed a patch on your jacket,' said the journalist.
'Yeah, I ride with a Jewish motorcycle club, Hillel's Angels' the biker replied.
'Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist with the Sun Times, you know, and tomorrow's papers will have this on the front page.'
The following morning the biker bought the paper to see if it indeed brought out the news of his actions. On the front page was the headline:
ISRAELI GANG MEMBER ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH.
H/T - Max Weismann -Center for the Study of Great Ideas
Confiteor Deo omnipotenti et vobis, fratres,
quia peccavi nimis
cogitatione, verbo, opere, et omissiรณne:
mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Ideo precor beatam Mariam semper Vรญrginem,
omnes Angelos et Sanctos,
et vos, fratres, orare pro me
ad Dominum Deum nostrum.
WLS-AM is once again giving Blagojevich a platform from which to spin his legal defense and build sympathy for his poor beleagured self. . . . Blago seems to be following the advice given him by Sun-Times editorial page editor Tom McNamee:
1. Pander.
2. Bully
3. Demonize
4. Distort the truth
5. Make stuff up
6. Forsake all intellectual honesty
Six for six.
If in the opinion of the confessor there is a case of grave necessity that could permit "general absolution", it is to be submitted to the judgement of the Diocesan Bishop with whom lies the responsibility for deciding whether the necessary conditions are indeed present (cf. can. 961); without such a decision, "general absolution" may not be conferred. Moreover, as the canon itself points out, "sufficient necessity is not considered to exist when confessors cannot be available merely because of a great gathering of penitents, such as can occur on some major feastday or pilgrimages' (can. 961, S1, 2 ).
The authorization given to Diocesan Bishops does not permit them "to change the required conditions, to substitute other conditions for those given, or to determine grave necessity according to their personal criteria however worthy" (Pope Paul VI, Allocution to the Bishops of the region of New York in the United States of America, April 20, 1978: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 70 (1978) 330). The Diocesan Bishop "makes this judgement graviter onerata conscientia, and with full respect for the law and practice of the Church" (Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 2 December 1984, n. 33: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 77 (1985) 270). Furthermore, the fact that the canons acknowledge the right of the faithful to confess their sins on days and at times arranged for their convenience (cf. can. 986, S1) cannot be used as a justification for an alternative practice of "general absolution".
In this context it is of great importance to remember that even when the sacrament is received by means of a collective absolution, it nevertheless requires, as a result of its divine and irreformable foundation, that each penitent have the necessary dispositions for the reception of this sacrament, namely, individual and `personal repentance for sins committed, the resolution to rectify scandal or injuries that may have been caused in relation to those sins, the intention of amending his life, and the intention to make an integral and individual confession as soon as possible of those grave sins from which he is impeded from confessing at the time. Each of these dispositions must be present in order that the sacramental absolution be received validly (cf. Conc. Oecum. Trid., sessio XIV, cap. IV: Denz.-Schon. 1676-1677; sessio XIV, Canones de sacramento paenitentiae can. 5: Denz.-Schon. 1705; can. 987; Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Sacramentum Paenitentia, (16 June 1972): Acta Apostolicae Sedis 64 (1972) 512; cane. 962, S1, 963, 988, S1; Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio Paenitentia, 2 December 1984, n. 31: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 77 (1985) 260-261).
Nor should the importance of the act of satisfaction be passed over. This final act of the penitent "crowns the sacramental sign of Penance" (Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia 2 December 1984, n. 31 Acta Apostolicae Sedis 77 (1985) 263). Hence, the confessor is to impose salutary and appropriate penances, in proportion to the kind and number of sins confessed, taking into account, however, the condition of the penitent. The penitent, for his part, is bound personally to carry out these penances (cf. can. 981).
True wit is Nature to advantage dress'd,
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd.
-- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
-- Essay on Criticism, Part ii, Line 97
The Media freak show continues on the WLS Airwaves with disgraced Governor Blago yapping away for pay. ( click my post title)
Pay to Play! Then WLS gets all Harrumphing about the State of the State of Illinois and tosses the Gatecrasher of Illinois more Dog Yummies. " Gee, you mean, if we keep starving and beating this pitbull puppy and making it wear a twenty Pound weight around its little neck, that it could possibly bite someone? For Real?"
Oh, yeah! Giving Blago radio time is very much like wearing a porkchop suit to a huge dog fight. Great idea!
Steve Rhodes, a real journalist with a wide context of human understanding and rich and varied frame of reference, skewers the Tossed Twit Guv and also gets in a very accurate shot at the Sun Times - the soon to be bankrupt rag that pretends to matter. STNG- The Chicago Standard for Rock Solid Hypocrisy!
Noted budget expert Rod Blagojevich took to the airwaves (again) on Sunday to advise state lawmakers on solving the state's fiscal crisis -- as adeptly as he handled the public till during his six years as governor.
He did not give advice on how not to get impeached.
Among his ideas: privatize the state lottery - which the U.S. Department of Justice have pretty much determined would be illegal.
But this isn't about what's good for the state, it's about what's good for Rod Blagojevich.
WLS-AM is once again giving Blagojevich a platform from which to spin his legal defense and build sympathy for his poor beleagured self. . . . Blago seems to be following the advice given him by Sun-Times editorial page editor Tom McNamee:
1. Pander.
2. Bully
3. Demonize
4. Distort the truth
5. Make stuff up
6. Forsake all intellectual honesty
Six for six.
At least Blago's good at something.
True ease in writing comes from art and not chance, like wearing a belt and not losing your pants.
Well, done Rhodes Old Man!
Tavis: If you were a preacher, what do you think your message might be? What would you be coming back to time and time again?November 2007
McCourt: Freedom. Well, you can't do that because a religion by its very nature binds you in. It has its parameters or perimeters so you have to follow a certain doctrine. So I'd call myself an atheist in a way - a spiritual, religious atheist, which is a contradiction in terms.
Tavis: Yeah, I hear you.
Prayer of the Vincentian Family
Lord Jesus, you who willed to become poor,
give us eyes and a heart directed toward the poor;
help us recognize you in them --
in their thirst, their hunger, their loneliness, and their misfortune.
Enkindle within our Vincentian Family
unity, simplicity, humility,
and the fire of love
that burned in St. Vincent de Paul
Strengthen us, so that faithful to the practice of these virtues,
we may contemplate you and serve you in the person of the poor,
and may one day be united with you and them in your Kingdom.
Amen.
If your heartaches seem to hang around too longJohnny Ray -Cry 1952
And your blues keep getting bluer with each song
Remember sunshine can be found behind a cloudy sky
So let your hair down and go on and cry
"We acknowledge now with President Obama that we have made mistakes in the United States, and we along with other developed countries have contributed most significantly to the problem that we face with climate change," she said. "We are hoping a great country like India will not make the same mistakes."A.P.
Career
Inspired by rhythm singers like Kay Starr, LaVern Baker and Ivory Joe Hunter, Ray developed a unique rhythm based style, described as alternating between pre-rock R&B and a more conventional classic pop approach.[1]
Ray first attracted the attention of Bernie Lang, a song plugger, who was taken to the Flame Showbar nightclub in Detroit, Michigan by local DJ, Robin Seymour of WKMH. "We were both excited" Seymour recalls. "We heard two shows that first night."
Lang rushed off to New York to sell the singer to Danhy Kessler, the "Mr. Big" of the Okeh label, which is a subsidiary of Columbia Records. Kessler came over from New York, and he, Lang and Seymour went to the Flame. According to Seymour, Kessler's re-action was, "Well, I don't know. This kid looks well on the stand, but he will never go on records."
It was Seymour and Lowell Worley of the local office of Columbia who persuaded Kessler to have a test record made of Johnnie Ray. Worley arranged for a record to be cut at the United Sound Studios in Detroit. Seymour told reporter Dick Osgood that there was a verbal agreement that he would be cut in on the three-way deal in the management of Johnnie Ray. But the deal mysteriously evaporated, and so did Seymour's friendship with Danny Kessler.[2]
Ray's first record, the self-penned R&B number for OKeh Records, "Whiskey and Gin", was a minor hit in 1951. The following year he dominated the charts with the double-sided hit single of "Cry" and "The Little White Cloud That Cried". Selling over two million copies of the 45 single, Ray's delivery struck a chord with teenagers and he quickly became a teen idol.[3]
Ray's performing style included theatrics later associated with rock 'n roll, including beating up his piano, writhing on the floor and crying.[citation needed] Ray quickly earned the nicknames "Mr. Emotion", "The Nabob of Sob", and "The Prince of Wails", and several others.[3]
More hits followed, including "Please Mr. Sun", "Such a Night", "Walkin' My Baby Back Home", "A Sinner Am I", and "Yes Tonight Josephine". His last hit was "Just Walkin' in the Rain", in 1956. He did, however, hit again in 1957 with "You Don't Owe Me a Thing", which reached #10 in the Billboard charts. He was popular in the United Kingdom, breaking the record at the London Palladium formerly set by Frankie Laine.[citation needed] In later years, he retained a loyal fan base overseas, particularly in Australia.
[edit] Later career influences
Ray had a close relationship with journalist and television game show panelist Dorothy Kilgallen who gave a boost to his sagging career during his engagement at the Tropicana Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1965.[4]
In early 1969, Ray befriended Judy Garland, performing as her opening act during her last concerts in Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmo, Sweden. Ray was also the best man during Garland's wedding to nightclub manager Mickey Deans in London.[5]
Ray's American career revived in the early 1970s, with appearances on The Andy Williams Show in 1970 and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson three times during 1972 and 1973. His personal manager Bill Franklin resigned in 1976 and cut off contact with the singer a few years later. His American revival turned out to be shortlived. He performed in small American venues such as El Camino College in 1987.[6] Australian, English and Scottish promoters booked him for their large venues as late as 1989, his last year of performing.
Some writers suggested that the reason American entertainment bookers and songwriters ignored him in the 1980s was because they simply did not know who he was, or what his sound was like.[7] His exposure during the new era of cable television was limited to a few seconds in Dexys Midnight Runners' 1982 music video for "Come On Eileen", using archival footage of Ray from 1954. He was name checked in the lyrics to "Come On Eileen" (viz "Poor old Johnnie Ray sounded sad upon the radio / he moved a million hearts in mono").[8]
His other video appearance was in Billy Idol's 1986 "Don't Need a Gun", in which Ray appeared on-camera.
[edit] Personal life
Ray had issues surface regarding his sexuality several times in his career, including two arrests for soliciting men for sex. Ray quietly pleaded guilty and paid a fine after the first arrest, in the restroom of the Stone Theatre burlesque house in Detroit, which was just prior to the release of his first record in 1951.[9] Ray went to trial following the second arrest in 1959, also in Detroit, for soliciting an undercover officer in one of the city's gay bars. He was found not guilty.[9]
Despite these issues, Ray married Marilyn Morrison a short time after he gave his first New York concert, which was at the Copacabana in 1952. The wedding ceremony, attended by New York mayor Vincent R. Impellitteri, made the cover of the New York Daily News.[10] Morrison, the daughter of a Los Angeles nightclub owner,[10] was aware of the singer's sexuality from the start, telling a friend she would "straighten it out."[9] The couple separated in 1953 and divorced in 1954.
In the years hence, writers have noted that the marriage occurred under false pretenses,[11] and that Ray had a long-term relationship with his manager, Bill Franklin.[9][12][13] Ray also had a relationship with columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, whom he met following an appearance on What's My Line? in 1956.[9][13][14] Kilgallen was a strong support for Ray during the 1959 solicitation trial.[9][13]
Ray drank regularly and his alcoholism caught up with him in 1960, when he was hospitalized for tuberculosis.[9] He recovered but continued drinking, and was diagnosed with cirrhosis at age fifty.[14]
On 24 February 1990, Ray died of liver failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.[3][14] He is buried at Hopewell Cemetery near Hopewell, Oregon.
For his contribution to the recording industry, Johnnie Ray has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard.
Mark 6: 30 - 34
The apostles returned to Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.
And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a lonely place by themselves.
Now many saw them going, and knew them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns, and got there ahead of them.
As he went ashore he saw a great throng, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
"Your eel, I think, Sir?"
American Progressives own the microphones, cameras, printing presses, most of the American airwaves and, for now, the American Government, but loudly demand complete and utter silence from Americans as well.
Progressives took fair advantage of opportunity and most unfair advantage of American courtesy, when their views were greeted with polite*, if not enthralled good manners and sense, until this point in our history, where any publicly uttered deviation from Progressive agendas or doctrines surface.
Americans with opinions in direct opposition to those agendas and doctrines must happily drink from a poisoned well -'How can you say, Bush is not a War Criminal; Palin is not an Idiot; Woman's Reproductive Health is murder; Thug Apartheid is Affirmative Action?"
Here is a sampler of modern Progressives from Wikipedia.
Contemporary progressivism
The fourth and current liberal Progressive movement grew out of social activism movements, Naderite and populist left political movements in conjunction with the civil rights, GLBT (Gay rights), women's or feminist, and environmental movements of the 1960s-1980s.[17] This exists as a cluster of political, activist, and media organizations ranging in outlook from centrism (eg. Reform Party of the United States of America) to left-liberalism to social democracy (like the Green Party) and sometimes even democratic socialism (like the Socialist Party USA).
Modern American progressivism includes political figures such as Barack Obama who calls himself a progressive, as does Hillary Clinton[18] Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, Al Franken, Debbie Stabenow, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Cynthia McKinney, John Edwards, Sherrod Brown, Kathleen Sebelius, David McReynolds, Ralph Nader, Howard Dean, Peter Camejo, and the late Paul Wellstone. Also in this category are many leaders in the women's movement, cosmopolitanism, labor movement, American civil rights movement, environmental movement, immigrant rights movement, and gay and lesbian rights movement. Other well-known progressives include Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, George Lakoff, Michael Lerner, and Urvashi Vaid.
Significant publications include The Progressive magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, The American Prospect, Mother Jones, In These Times, CounterPunch, and AlterNet.org. Broadcasting outlets include Air America Radio, the Pacifica Radio network, Democracy Now!, and certain community radio stations. Notable media voices include Cenk Uygur, Alexander Cockburn, Barbara Ehrenreich, Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman, Thom Hartmann, Jim Hightower, the late Molly Ivins, Rachel Maddow, Stephanie Miller, Mike Malloy, Keith Olbermann, Greg Palast, Randi Rhodes, Betsy Rosenberg, Ed Schultz David Sirota, and The Young Turks (talk show).
Modern issues for progressives can include[citation needed]: electoral reform (including instant runoff voting, proportional representation and fusion candidates), environmental conservation, pollution control and environmentalism, universal health care, abolition of the death penalty, affordable housing, a viable Social Security System, renewable energy, smart growth urban development, a living wage and pro-union policies, among many others.
Examples of the broad range of progressive texts include: New Age Politics by Mark Satin; Why Americans Hate Politics by E.J. Dionne, Jr.; Community Building: Renewing Spirit & Learning in Business edited by Kazimierz Gozdz; Ecopolitics: Building a Green Society by Daniel Coleman; and Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.
The main current national progressive parties are the Democratic Party and the Green Party of the United States. The Democratic Party has major-party status in all fifty States, while there are state Green Parties or affiliates with the national Green Party in most states. The most successful non-major state-level progressive party is the Vermont Progressive Party. However, progressives often shy away from parties and align within more community-oriented activist groups, coalitions and networks, such as the Maine People's Alliance and Northeast Action.
Peter Bernstein and Eminent Dr. Lonnie Smith ( wizard of the Hammond) at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase (Click my post title for traffic sinking sounds)
My work for Leo High School takes me on the Dan Ryan -often. It also puts me on Illinois 290, 294, 355, 90,94, and 57.
My attendant motor pool duties as Leo Development Guy and Hickey Dad routes me on tag runs East and West on 111th, 95th, 87th, 79th and 63rd streets as well as up and down Vincennes, Halsted, Morgan, Racine, Loomis, Ashland, Western, Kedzie, Pulaski, and Cicero.
Trafffic is tiresome. You get all Bobblehead. The great American landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmstead understood the tiresome nature of all traffic when creating the last of the great American public spaces -Jackson Park in Chicago and the community of Riverside, here on the Des Plaines River. F.L. Olmstead sunk traffic from view with berms and forest. Olmstead eased the soul.
Traffic dominates our lives. It is a hazard to our physical well-being, to be sure, but. as importantly, to our spirits and souls. We experience traffic -physically, mentally and spiritually and the Tolls do take a Toll.
The blight on the eyes where all that is beautiful is the odd Hooters Signage.
The auditory car-wrecks are as unpleasant -Chest-caving Bass Bumps from Morons; Horn Addicted Honkies; double-clutching Rental Truck neophytes and the odd screamers.
Sink me, if traffic noise don't. It do.
Hence, sink traffic, American Bobbleheads, with the silky strings of Jazz Guitarist Peter Bernstein*. Peter Bernstein, to my experience, is best Jazz Guitarist since late Wes Montgomery. No Guitar Hero poser, Bernstein lets the strings sing.
Secretary of State Jesse White should mandate a tape or disc in every vehicle.
I pop in Peter Bernstein's Signs of Life ( 1995), whenever my duties as a driver take me to Elmhurst at 9 A.M. and back to 21 S. Wacker for a 1 P.M. appointment and I drive safely, soberly and sweetly. Honor bright.
Arrive Alive and with your Whole Soul!
*
Born September 3rd, 1967 in New York City, guitarist Peter Bernstein has been a part of the jazz scene in New York and abroad since 1989. During that time he has participated in over 60 recordings and numerous festival, concert and club performances with musicians from all generations. As a leader, Peter has made five recordings for the Criss Cross Jazz label. The latest, Heart’s Content, features the all-star rhythm section of Brad Mehldau, Larry Grenadier, and Bill Stewart.
While a student at The New School, Peter met the legendary guitarist Jim Hall, who asked him to participate in his Invitational Concert as part of the 1990 JVC Jazz Festival. The event featured such guitarists as John Scofield and Pat Metheny and was released as a CD by Music Masters. Hall once noted that Peter “…has paid attention to the past as well as the future. He is the most impressive young guitarists I’ve heard. He plays the best of them all for swing, logic, feel and taste.”
That same year, Peter was discovered by alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson and took part in the first of four recordings with him. He was a regular member of his group throughout the 1990s. “Some people just have it.” Donaldson said. “…most of the time you have to teach someone what to do, but Peter knows it all.”
Peter has also played with legendary drummer Jimmy Cobb (Cobb’s Mob), organist Larry Goldings, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Melvin Rhyne, drummer Bill Stewart, Joshua Redman, Diana Krall, Nicholas Payton, Lee Konitz, Tom Harrell, and Eric Alexander and performed in North America, Europe and Asia and making numerous television appearances.
Peter has taught at the Julliard School, Berklee College of Music, North Texas State University, the New School Jazz Program and the Jazz Conservatory in Amsterdam.
Peter has been fortunate to gain the respect of his peers and mentors. He has been recognized in both the readers’ and critics’ polls in Downbeat Magazine for the past three years. He continues to hone his style through writing and performing and has developed a distinctive and unforgettable guitar voice that is all his own.
Kevin Myers is an Irish writer for the Irish Independent newspapers. I came upon Mr. Myers and his work while reading Joel Kotkin, the American Demographer and writer and an article by Mr. Myers seemed to dovetail with Kotkin and my own thoughts about the dangers of public unions - tax salaried employees. California is sunk and Illinois is sliding to economic ruin due to the strident harping of SEIU and AFSCME. Massive numbers of people put the itch in the undies of gutless and dim politicians - always has been the case.
SEIU is a danger to the American Middle Class and the American Labor Movement that helped give this country a standard of living unmatched by any nation in history - until now.
Mr. Myers July 15, 2009 took Irish Public Unions to task for much the same reasons that I perceive SEIU and the lesser lights to be threat to the middle class.
There is no money left to tax!
Mr. Myers casts a surgeon's eye on movements grassroots and others that are often jammed down the public's maw by lazy members of the media.
I am a fan.
Kevin Myers (born 30 March 1947 in Leicester, England) is an Irish journalist and writer. He writes for the Irish Independent and is a former contributor to The Irish Times newspaper, where he wrote the "An Irishman's Diary" opinion column several times weekly. Until 2005, Myers wrote for the Sunday Telegraph in the UK.
His articles often offer criticism of left-wing opinion and the "liberal consensus", sometimes incorporating hyperbole, sarcasm and parody.
Myers' Irish Times opinion columns were often in contrast to its editorial position, which led to some conflict with his editors. In early January 2005, The Irish Times refused to publish a column in which he accused the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) of responsibility for the Northern Bank robbery. It was later published by the Daily Telegraph[2] He often advocates support for the United States, though he is sometimes critical of the foreign policies of the Bush administration. He ultimately endorsed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He has praised George W. Bush, but has also described him as 'mad'. He is frequently critical of anti-war activists.
Myers is sceptical of the viability of multiculturalism and favours limits on immigration to prevent the growth of racial tension in Ireland. He has criticised the Catholic Church in many pieces, and favours the legalisation of prostitution.[4] In recent articles he has been critical of Islamic fundamentalism and extremism. In his journalism Myers has opposed the classification of Travellers as an ethnic minority,[citation needed] and has opposed feminist philosophy and the role of trade unions in setting economic policy. He has written against the compensation culture and has opposed state policies towards the Irish language. (emphasis my own)
Other columns have a less political nature, discussing road safety, pet peeves, rugby union, favourite places in Ireland, etc. The fortnightly satirical publication, The Phoenix, regularly lampoons what it sees as his apparent self-obsession, and referring to him by his other names such as Kevin Myarse or Colonel MyArse.
By Kevin Myers
Tuesday April 07 2009
'Protect women and children in next week's Budget', declared the headline in a press release from the National Women's Council last Friday. The statement added a couple of paragraphs later: "Women and children are at the greatest risk of poverty and all payments supporting women and children should be protected. Women are already facing serious consequences from the recession with unemployment figures showing the sectors of retail and services have been severely hit."
So, 36 years after the foundation of the NWCI, we see what the official, government-sponsored version of Irish feminism has mutated into: the cry of the officers on the deck of the foundering Titanic -- "Women and Children First". But at least in those days there was a coherent moral order behind that command. Children were children, and women were seen to be weaker and inferior and thus voteless; gentlemen of all classes would naturally stand back and give them places in the lifeboats first.
If there is a coherent moral order to the present thoughts of the National Women's Council, it is that words no longer mean what they used to. In the Council's prospectus for the year 2009, the word "equality" is used 38 times. Yet clearly, in the sisters' deviant vocabulary, "equality" does not mean equality of pain, or hardship or suffering or poverty. No: it means the opposite of equality. It means a protection from these conditions, regardless of what men are enduring. In other words, lifeboat-feminism, surely the most ignoble and unprincipled of all the many liberal political creeds which dominate our ethos today.
Only a lifeboat-feminism could spout the gibberish "Women and children are at greatest risk from poverty . . . Women are already facing serious consequences from the recession", the very day after the unemployment figures were released. These showed that of the 19,600 jobs lost in March, 13,600 were those of men, and 6,000 were those of women. That is to say, job losses amongst women were just 44pc of the rate endured by men. Moreover, the area in which job losses are not going to occur, the public service, is heavily dominated by female employees. Only an organisation driven by a demented sense of counter-factual, gender self-pity could promote the fiction of female victimhood at such a time.
And no, the NCWI press release doesn't mean "mothers", it makes no mention of mothers, not even once. Though interestingly enough, it refers to "women and children" four times, and to "women" just three times. Psychologically, this is simply placing women at the protected level of children, just as was done on the Titanic: quite an achievement for a state-subsidised feminist body in 2009, if a largely unsurprising one.
Naturally, the National Women's Council is a quango, of which there is (equally naturally) no male equivalent. Over 70pc of its budget comes from the Department of Justice and, wait for it, Equality and Law Reform. Now, you just know that those terms "equality" and "law reform" are never intended to apply to improve the lives or the legal position of men, don't you? Other state-providers of funds to the NWC are Combat Poverty and the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. So, we have two government departments and one meaningless quango subsidising yet another quango, which is simply telling untruths, and making totally unrealistic demands of the Government which is paying for it.
This wouldn't matter if the shrill and unprincipled emanations of lifeboat-feminism were ignored. They are not. They are treated with a deferential respect by the Government and media alike. More than that, they have created a systemic imbalance in which women are consistently treated by less exacting standards than are men. The most grievous example of this of recent times concerned an Army officer who one night deserted her post as barracks-orderly, and left the armoury unprotected. She falsified the log to make it seem as if she had conducted perimeter patrols, which had never occurred, and she later lied to her commanding officer when questioned about her suspected absence from her post.
In other words, she had betrayed the greatest single institution in Irish life, and let down her fellow soldiers in a manner for which there could be no other proper outcome: a court martial, with an ignominious dismissal from the service. Instead, she was merely fined, and allowed to retain her commission. (Dear God in heaven, what would the great Bull Callaghan or Mickie Joe Costello have made of that?)
If the Army, the embodiment of the very qualities of steadfastness, stoicism and duty that we, as a society, most require in the maelstrom into which we are now sailing, can find itself applying the exceptionalist dogmas of lifeboat-feminism, what hope for the rest of us?
The blades of fiscal prudence will cut hard and low over the coming months, but you can be reasonably sure that, standing no less tall at the end than they were at the beginning, will be the state-sponsored feminist institutions of Irish life. And as the suffering deepens, their cry will doubtless ring over the ice-covered decks of Irish life: "Equality For All! Women And Children First!"
kmyers@independent.ie
As a child he rarely washed his hands, but did exhibit an early interest in literature...His mother would replace the Playboy magazines she found under his mattress with holy cards...which resulted in a Pavlovian response whenever the lad opened a prayer book.
Chicago Renaissance Man Mike Houlihan brings his 2009 Stimulus Package to the South Side!
1. Mental Health Reform - A Serious Case Study
2. A Woman's Right to Choose - any number of gents with pints in their mitts and mortal sins the size of Wyoming
3. Energy Independence - depending upon how tired the start of the week made you feel
Join Houli this Thursday night (July 16) at
Jack Desmond's Irish Pub in Chicago Ridge at
6pm, 10339 South Ridgeland, for some stand-up comedy and more hooliganism!
Keep up with Mike writing for The Irish American News
http://irishamericannews.com/index.php/people/social-circle/733-hooliganism-july-2009
The bartender listened to the old carney all night complaining about his crappy job.
What line of work are you in, pal?
I follow the elephants in the parade with my shovel.
Ever think about quitting?
What? And give up show business!
I was at Kean Gas this morning and heard from a Cook County Sheriff's Deputy that Sheriff Tom Dart had asked a judge to appoint someone to oversee the disaster that is Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, IL.
My Cousin Willie works for the Sheriff and he has not had much shut-eye in the last six or so days. Willie bought some fish from my son Conor at Di Cola's on Western Ave. just before closing on Tuesday. Conor said Willie looked dead on his feet.
All of the Sheriff's people have done a great job.
Today, I heard that Roman Szabelski of the Catholic Cemeteries was appointed.
Roman Szabelski the Chief of the forty or so Catholic Cemteries in the Chicago Area was appointred by a judge to oversee the horrors of Burr Oak Cemetery, years of mismanagement leading to one of the great horrors of recent history.
Two years ago, Mr. Szabelski appeared on Public Radio to talk about Green Issues in the Cemetery Industry. ( click my post title)
Brushing aside the usual smarm ( snide remarks about 'What Catholics Believe') from the soft-talkers of Public Radio, Mr. Szabelski articulated the care and concern of the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese for families of the deceased:
RICHARD: The Catholic Church prefers full-body burial in consecrated ground. That’s because Catholics believe in the resurrection of the dead. The church has only allowed cremation since the mid-Sixties.
MELBY: That doesn’t mean Chicago’s Catholic cemeteries are immune to progress.
COMPUTERIZED GRAVE LOCATOR: Spell out the last name of the deceased that you are trying to locate using the touch-screen keyboard, and then press search.
SZABELSKI: So I’ve just keyed in my family name and I’m pushing search. Florence Szabelski is my mother so I’m asking it to show that record to me.
MELBY: That’s Roman Szabelski. He’s executive director of Catholic cemeteries for the Archdiocese of Chicago.
RICHARD: Roman started mowing grass at the cemeteries in 1979. Today, he presides over 2.2 million dead at 43 cemeteries around Chicago. He has a good sense of what his customers want.
SZABELSKI: We come from a very conservative tradition where people want their 3 by 8, their grave, to look like their backyard, which is perfectly manicured.
MELBY: Providing that much space won’t be a problem anytime soon. Roman says the archdiocese has stockpiled enough land not just for the next couple decades, but for the next one to two hundred years.
SZABELSKI: We’re sitting in Queen of Heaven Cemetery right now, which is roughly about a 300-acre site. About 100 of those acres are leased to the golf course next door. As we need the property, the golf course will go from 18 to 9 to zero and a driving range and that property will be used.
MELBY: Roman doesn’t expect to dig into that golf course for another 25 years.
RICHARD: Yet Roman is considering carving out a green burial section in one of the cemeteries here.
MELBY: Still it won’t be easy to do in this sea of manicured lawns. Green burial advocates prefer a natural landscape of wild grass and trees. Their preference is to keep the plots free of any monuments or markers.
SZABELSKI: So we’re trying to figure out how do you incorporate a green burial cemetery section into a traditionally kept cemetery.
The Andy Stern Doctrine is International Chaos and out of Chaos Comes More Chaos and out of Chaos More Power has helped cause chaos and crisis for families and governments all over the globe. Here in Chicago, Sons of Erin Mayor Richard M. Daley and Dennis Gannon are confronted with the reality of Public Unions and the Skilled Trades Locals are taking Andy Stern's heat. Hundreds of workers will be laid off as negotiations have been twisted by AFSCME and the Teamsters - Andy Stern's pets.
Big Labor is the euphemism that Andy Stern's SEIU dictates America's Media to employ in every article.
Big Labor means SEIU. It means Public Unions - whose membership are paid out of taxes.
Bad Labor is always the Skilled Trades Unions - these men and women invested thousands of their own dollars and countless hours of time to develop the rights that they earned and their unions bargained in good faith to own. They are the backbone of the American Middle Class. Andy Stern and the Boiled Beets Progressives intend to tax the American Middle Clas out of existence.
Andy Stern merely bullies gutless political hacks and news persons to scratch out tax-dollars for his multitudes.
Taxes are paid by members of real unions -Skilled Trades Unions and Industrial Unions.
Andy Stern can not organize Skilled Trades. SEIU depends upon monstrous numbers of unskilled workers and works overtime to bring illegal aliens under the umbrella of Big Labor.
Politicians know numbers - heads, votes and dollars.
California is a budgetary train wreck and Illinois is about to slide off the tracks as well.
The Media ( TV,Radio, Intranet, Print) are largely in Andy Stern's vest pocket along with the leadership of the Democratic Party ( DNC) and far too many Skilled Trades unions.
Play ball with Andy Stern and you lose your bat, your glove, your shoes and your shirt.
Ireland is undergoing a Great Awakening - the land of Big Jim Larkin and James Connolly has long plucked the Harp of Labor and the Workingman. Ireland is waking up to the Andy Stern Doctrine thanks to journalists like Kevin Myers of the Irish Independent.
Public Unions in Ireland are, as they in America, largely comprised of massive numbers of unskilled workers, low skill workers, and immigrant workers. The navvies and the hod-carriers; the sweepers and bar-keepers are Romanians, Poles, Ugandans, Kenyans, Moroccans, Serbs and Croatians: The Irish Congress Trades Unions. Private sector jobs are gone and public sector jobs are bleeding the Celtic Tiger dry.
Here is Kevin Meyers' witty and sharp analysis of Public Unions on the Irish Economy:
It is nine months since economic Armageddon hit this Republic. In that time, about a quarter of a million people in the private sector have lost their jobs. In the public sector, the story has been a little different. Yes, some temporary jobs have gone there, but they were temporary all along.
Just one job went in the public sector. Financial Regulator Patrick Neary was allowed to take early retirement, with a €630,000 pay-off and a pension of €140,000 a year.
Otherwise, the serious jobs are still there: permanent, pensionable and, what do you know, still with rising incomes. Yes, public-sector pay actually increased by around 4pc in the last year. Everyone with jobs in the private sector lost money.
Let me put this slowly, for the politburo of Ictu and Siptu and Fukyu and all those other insane public-service bodies, who have been inhaling too deeply in the public trough. There is no money. Do you get that? There is no shagging money. The notion that you can continue to enjoy your present incomes, with lovely fat pensions to follow, compares with Pyongyang's plans to capture and colonise Arizona.
We are borrowing €30m a day to pay public service wages and pensions. Even a North Korean economist would realise that this is unsustainable. Comrades Begg and O'Connor clearly have not.
I have not yet made up my mind whether this is because they are too stupid or too demented. It really doesn't matter. The result is much the same.
As Alan Ruddock revealed last Sunday, pay in the public sector is 47pc higher than in the private sector -- for those in the shattered, battered latter category who still have jobs, that is. Alan has a strong stomach: he has trawled through Comrade Begg's speeches searching for shiny gobbets of wisdom, which is rather like wading through the late Kim Il-sung's public utterances looking for a Shakespearian sonnet.
Anyway, our intrepid explorer came up with this pearl from Comrade Begg: "Our problem is not the size of our public service, but the collapse of our tax base."
In the entire and voluminous history of trade union brainlessness, has there ever been a remark as devoid of cerebral content as that?
Every single penny in tax-take goes on public service incomes, but that is still not enough; and so we still have to borrow over €200m a week, just to match the public-sector pay bill alone. And worse still is the proposed cure: the terms set for Colm McCarthy's committee to propose economies.
This is well-named as An Bord Snip, for it is limited to making cuts in public services, but none in the number of public servants.
The latter will remain as numerous as ever: they'll just have less work to do.
And, of course, since we all know that these economies will not be nearly enough, the International Monetary Fund will sooner or later move in, bearing glittering scythes. It will sack droves of public servants, cut all pensions, slash judges' pay, and halt all tribunals, and best of all, it will savage TDs' incomes and expenses.
It will do this. This is as certain as the Saharan sun burns. And the reason this will happen is that Fianna Fail -- and that piece of reptile's foreskin otherwise known as the Greens -- would prefer to have some nameless foreigners take the blame for the necessary fiscal surgery than impose it themselves.
In the meantime, terrible and probably irreversible damage will have been done to our economy.
But, of course, neither that, nor even the loss of sovereignty to the IMF, matters much to our political masters.
Provided outsiders are seen to be doing the dirty work, which of course Fianna Fail will protest vehemently at, the gamble is that the party will once again be returned to office in the next election.
That there is neither pride nor dignity -- and least of all, patriotism -- in such a ploy is utterly irrelevant.
For as the heirs of Kim Il-sung or deValera alike will tell you, political power is the purpose. It is all that counts, no matter how ignobly or basely it is achieved.
Trustee meddling in student affairs at the University of Illinois' flagship campus extended beyond admissions as one board member made sure his relative got the classes he wanted, an associate dean testified Monday before a state panel.
Ms. Doyen Sheepshanks, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, told the Illinois Admissions Review Commission that she received a "directive" from the provost's office in 2003 to help the student secure spots in classes that were already filled.
In doing so, the student jumped over scores of others ahead of him in the queues, she said.
"I remember it distinctly because of how distasteful I found it to be, but nevertheless, why put off memories, been invited on dates; might have gone but what for; awfully different without you; don't get around much any more." Dean Sheepshanks told the panel, which is investigating abuses at the Urbana-Champaign campus. . . .
The trustee's relative eventually registered for four of the six classes he wanted, the associate dean said. He was denied entry to one course because the room could not accommodate another morbidly obese student under the fire code and was rejected from the other when a department chair balked at such nepotism, poor grooming, nostril hair and halitosis, Sheepshanks testified.
The incident marked at least the second time the trustee's relative received preferential treatment on his class schedule, she said. In the 2003 case, the student had not registered for classes at his assigned time and was shut out of several courses when he eventually tried, but managed to spend the entire semester playing pool and caging drinks from Graduate students of the School of Economics.
"If they had used the regular enrollment time, they would have gotten in on their own,but as the directive had come from the Provost, distasteful at it might seem, I nevertheless inked a pithy note on good quality Florentine card stock, which was a gift from gentleman that I met at this quaint truck stop in Gilman, or was it Paxton . . .nevertheless, he was a robust and lusty poet-Teamster with leonine hair that waved luxuriantly even without the faintest of breeze and the Arms of an Adonis, or a Francis Boyle and we dallied a bit in Arcola and purchased delightful Amish candies and soaps, but . . . the wanderlust doused the torch of passion, we parted sweetly and I must uphold the Woman's burden." she said.
The student later sent a letter to college officials apologizing for the trustee's meddling, saying he never wanted preferential treatment. " It was cool that you helped. I can't be the Chief, so why go to U of I? I mean, my posse is going to SIU and they party cheaper in Giant City and Cobden. Gotta bounce! Peace out!"
Sheepshanks refused to identify the student or the trustee, citing federal laws protecting student privacy, but waxed rhapsodical about the Gentleman Poet- Teamster and their Arcola Idyll.
After all. long time ( 16 years) University Boss Stanley Ikenberry said nothing like this happened on his watch! As far as he wished to tell.
“Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.” Senator Al Franken
Yesterday, in Senator Al Franken’s first public utterance to the United States of America, he stepped on his Wikipedia.
In attempting to blow kisses in the direction of the camera and Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Senator Al Franken told Sotomayor that she was "the most experienced Supreme Court nominee in 100 years." Well, Al that’s nice, but not really all that truthful. 100 years would set the historical chronology bar at 1909 So, maybe Al gets this one. Let's See Here! Do Math, Do the Math . . . Nope. Charles Evans Hughes was the Michael Jordan of Law America – he was two-time nominee – he retired from the Court and like MJ –Hughes Returned! Hughes was first nominated ninety nine years ago. Yep, he’s under on both.
I like Wikipedia. It is flawed and so am I. Nevertheless, a quick reference check can clean up any dodgy bullet point. However, it helps to have a patina of reading and learning, when using quick points for full rhetorical value. However, I will forego my use of Wikipedia, and take a look at Cornell University Law site.
Yep. Plenty on Charles Evans Hughes. Charles Evans Hughes was much more experienced, but probably no where near as empathetic as Judge Sotomayor. Senator Al Franken wanted to shine the apple for the SOTUS designate ASAP and was a LOL.
Charles Evans Hughes was first appointed Associate Justice of United States Supreme Court in 1910, and then resigned in 1916 to run against Woodrow Wilson, to whom he lost by 3,000 votes in California. Hughes was named again to the Supreme Court in 1839, after having served as Secretary of State and was nominated as Chief Justice by Herbert Hoover and subsequently gave FDR all kinds of Holy Hell from 1930 until 1941.
Now, Charles Evans Hughes had been Governor of New York and Dean of Cornell Law School and had done all kinds of Law work and taught Latin, Japanese and Calculus prior to a great public career.Senator Al Franken was a comedian who defeated Norm Coleman with the help of ACORN and other grassroots travelers.
Senator Al Franken will be good many laughs during his short time in the United States Senate.Sonia Sotomayor will join the United States Supreme Court for Life. History is not a sound byte.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j1LmmL3rs_PHzUL8uK_s_yualRRgD99DNVBG1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Franken
Gov. Pat Quinn is Dry Pumping Illinois.
"This is jobs. This is Illinois recovery. We've got to get our economy back on track," Quinn said at the bill-signing at Marshall High School on the West Side.
"And, as Franklin Roosevelt said a long time ago, the best way to do it is to prime the pump with public works where the government steps in and builds buildings and builds a lot of other things that the people need," the governor said.
Quinn's latest budget plan would include borrowing up to $3.6 billion to pay public-employee pensions. Quinn helped defeat a similar proposal in May as he tried to force a tax increase.
A CHicago Cop detailed to Mayor Daley's Grand Beach, Michigan Getaway caught one of three escaped Michigan City Indiana Prison Escapees.
Well Done, Office!
GRAND BEACH, Mich. -- One of three inmates who escaped from the Indiana State Prison was caught Monday in a southwestern Michigan town by a security guard for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.
A Grand Beach police officer got a call before 7 a.m. that a private security guard for Daley was holding convicted killer Charles Smith at gunpoint in a home's driveway near the mayor's vacation house in the town about eight miles from the prison, said Grand Beach Police Chief Dan Schroeder.
Schroeder said another inmate had been spotted in Grand Beach, but he didn't know which one or who saw him.
Authorities were still searching for convicted murderer Mark Booher, 46, of New Castle, and convicted rapist Lance Battreal, 45, of Rockport.
It was not immediately clear whether Daley was at the house when Smith taken into custody and Schroeder did not have any more information about Smith's capture.
As a bartender of many years, I listened to marinated mopes go through the stages of Drunkenness:
1. Witty and charming (part 1)
This is after one or two drinks. Mr. Booze is coursing the old brain pan and you are now Robert Wagner. Often Self- deprecating at the on-set to show what a sweet-natured but with it guy you are! "C Students Make the World Go-'Round!"
2. Rich and famous
By the third drink, " Hey, I can get You in to See Daley! No Kidding, I Know Cheeks Malone on the Mayor's Detail!"
3. Benevolent
Here's a twenty for your bar-maid, Pal. She's single Mom I hear too. It's only money.
4. Just one more and We'll eat Boys -On Me!
a stall tactic
5. Are We Men or Campfire Girls ? Fornicate Dinner ! A Round, Chief! Everyone,from the Street to the Shithouse!Just one more and then we'll eat!Honest!
6. Patriotic
The war stories Begin " Yeah, I was One A, but They Never Called me Up For 'Nam! I'da Gone Too!"
7. Warm up the Enola Gay !
" I'dA Gone To 'Nam But I Had a High Lottery Number
"We would have won in 'Nam, but..."
8. Invisible
You flip the finger to the Biggest Biker in the Bar - "No Dude! The Librarian Behind You!"
9. Witty and charming (part 2)
"You know, I Like a Girl with a Head on her like a Boulder in a Roy Rogers Movie"
10. Bulletproof
" Ged On Yer, Triscull, Na'cy boy . . . You go ta Carmuhl? . . .Hi' me agun 'n see what happens!"
GOP - Spin Doctors are Stage 10 on Palin!
GOP Political Operatives want Sarah Palin's pelt on the door before the Congresional Races of 2010 get started. Palin will be a huge influence. Murphy and Harp Harpy Noonan are Palin Drunk and Bullet Proof. Watch the Dipsos chase the pink elephants!
Chick Magnet and MSNBC lap-dog Mike Murphy is the loudest. The geek Mark McKinnon with the Miami Vice thing going on Butch Maddow's show is good too.
MSNBC cuts checks to people who will read their scripts.
Here's Mike Murphy:
"Professional operatives keep their eye on a broader horizon and understand, without independents and swing voters, she can't win," Murphy said. "She's a stone-cold loser in a general election. . . .Some blame sexism, though again there is sharp disagreement between Palin's supporters and detractors. Some think the former beauty queen has always been hurt by her looks, whereas others think her appearance has helped her considerably. "If Sarah Palin looked like Golda Meir, would we even be talking about her today?" Murphy asked."
Sarah Palin will draw Democrats and grass-roots Republicans and Independents to vote out Congress Bozos in 2010. Hell, folks like her! I like her. She's like the Moms on my block and like them could run government like Eamonn Coglan.
Mike Murphy and other over-paid GOP loser advisers are pooping themselves like a DQ Soft-Serve dispenser on an August Night in Gila Bend, Arizona - that's hot!
Girls, if Sarah Palin is such a loser, why all the fuss?
Last week was nuts! Burr Oak Cemetery was desecrated and thousands of my neighbors are at a loss to understand the monstrous misdeeds perpetrated on the souls now departed and their families.
I went to Mass and spent the whole time rubber necking and trying to coax a smile out of a blondie two year old trying to pull a Steve McQueen from her Mom and older sisters -'I not like Church!' Share it, Sister.
Last night I tried to make up for my crumby Mass by doing some reading and came upon a great site run by a Catholic Convert. We don't get many of them these days. I was touched by this remark on the Home Page, by Dee:
I am a recent convert to the Roman Catholic Church (2005) from Evangelical Protestantism. I'm interested in Catholic theology, Celtic spirituality, and Benedictine Spirituality. I am an Associate at Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY (Episcopalian) and work and live in beautiful New England. I love to travel, and my most recent trip was to the Holy Land in February 2008. I enjoy music, reading, family and friends. I enjoy blogging about my faith and facilitating the Great Adventure Bible Study, an overview of Salvation History. Hope you enjoy my new blog
Cogitosus, a monk of Kildare in the eighth century, expounded the metrical life of St. Brigid, and versified it in good Latin. This is what is known as the "Second Life", and is an excellent example of Irish scholarship in the mid-eighth century. Perhaps the most interesting feature of Cogitosus's work is the description of the Cathedral of Kildare in his day: "Solo spatioso et in altum minaci proceritate porruta ac decorata pictis tabulis, tria intrinsecus habens oratoria ampla, et divisa parietibus tabulatis". (The rood-screen was formed of wooden boards, lavishly decorated, and with beautifully decorated curtains. )
Probably the famous Round Tower of Kildare dates from the sixth century. Although St. Brigid was "veiled" or received by St. Macaille, at Croghan, yet, it is tolerably certain that she was professed by St. Mel of Ardagh, who also conferred on her abbatial powers. From Ardagh St. Macaille and St. Brigid followed St. Mel into the country of Teffia in Meath, including portions of Westmeath and Longford. This occurred about the year 468. St. Brigid's small oratory at Cill-Dara became the centre of religion and learning, and developed into a cathedral city. She founded two monastic institutions, one for men, and the other for women, and appointed St. Conleth as spiritual pastor of them. It has been frequently stated that she gave canonical jurisdiction to St. Conleth, Bishop of Kildare, but, as Archbishop Healy points out, she simply "selected the person to whom the Church gave this jurisdiction", and her biographer tells us distinctly that she chose St. Conleth "to govern the church along with herself".
Thus, for centuries, Kildare was ruled by a double line of abbot-bishops and of abbesses, the Abbess of Kildare being regarded as superioress general of the convents in Ireland.
Not alone was St. Bridget a patroness of students, but she also founded a school of art, including metal work and illumination, over which St. Conleth presided. From the Kildare scriptorium came the wondrous book of the Gospels, which elicited unbounded praise from Giraldus Cambrensis, but which has disappeared since the Reformation.
According to this twelfth- century ecclesiastic, nothing that he had ever seen was at all comparable to the "Book of Kildare", every page of which was gorgeously illuminated, and he concludes a most laudatory notice by saying that the interlaced work and the harmony of the colours left the impression that "all this is the work of angelic, and not human skill".
Small wonder that Gerald Barry assumed the book to have been written night after night as St. Bridget prayed, "an angel furnishing the designs, the scribe copying". Even allowing for the exaggerated stories told of St. Brigid by her numerous biographers, it is certain that she ranks as one of the most remarkable Irishwomen of the fifth century and as the Patroness of Ireland. She is lovingly called the "Queen of the South: the Mary of the Gael" by a writer in the "Leabhar Breac". St. Brigid died leaving a cathedral city and school that became famous all over Europe. In her honour St. Ultan wrote a hymn commencing:
Christus in nostra insula Que vocatur Hivernia Ostensus est hominibus Maximis mirabilibus Que perfecit per felicem Celestis vite virginem Precellentem pro merito Magno in numdi circulo.(In our island of Hibernia Christ was made known to man by the very great miracles which he performed through the happy virgin of celestial life, famous for her merits through the whole world.)
The sixth Life of the saint printed by Colgan is attributed to Coelan, an Irish monk of the eighth century, and it derives a peculiar importance from the fact that it is prefaced by a foreword from the pen of St. Donatus, also an Irish monk, who became Bishop of Fiesole in 824. St. Donatus refers to previous lives by St. Ultan and St. Aileran. When dying, St. Brigid was attended by St. Ninnidh, who was ever afterwards known as "Ninnidh of the Clean Hand" because he had his right hand encased with a metal covering to prevent its ever being defiled, after being he medium of administering the viaticum to Ireland's Patroness.
She was interred at the right of the high altar of Kildare Cathedral, and a costly tomb was erected over her. In after years her shrine was an object of veneration for pilgrims, especially on her feast day, 1 February, as Cogitosus related. About the year 878, owing to the Scandinavian raids, the relics of St. Brigid were taken to Downpatrick, where they were interred in the tomb of St. Patrick and St. Columba. The relics of the three saints were discovered in 1185, and on 9 June of the following year were solemnly translated to a suitable resting place in Downpatrick Cathedral, in presence of Cardinal Vivian, fifteen bishops, and numerous abbots and ecclesiastics. Various Continental breviaries of the pre-Reformation period commemorate St. Brigid, and her name is included in a litany in the Stowe Missal.
In Ireland today, after 1500 years, the memory of "the Mary of the Gael" is as dear as ever to the Irish heart, and, as is well known, Brigid preponderates as a female Christian name. Moreover, hundreds of place-names in her honour are to be found all over the country, e.g. Kilbride, Brideswell, Tubberbride, Templebride, etc. The hand of St. Brigid is preserved at Lumiar near Lisbon, Portugal, since 1587, and another relic is at St. Martin's Cologne.
Text taken from http://www.newadvent.com/
The interesting part of this whole essay is that it is not mentioned directly but Brigid (pronounced Breed in the ancient Gaelic) is often confused, and their stores interwoven, with another Brigid who was a pagan and honored as a goddess. The whole idea that St. Brigid's convent was underneath a large oak tree, oaks being highly venerated by the Druids and priestesses of pagan Ireland, certainly has reinforced the idea for centuries.
Edward C. Sellner, in his book Wisdom of the Celtic Saints states that 'nuns at her monastery are said to have kept an eternal flame burning there, a custom that may have originated with female druids residing at that spot long before the saint arrived. Their leader supposedly was a high priestess who bore the name of the goddess Brigit or Brighid, a deity of wisdom, poetry, fire and the hearth. Like other Celtic goddesses who sometimes appear in groups of threes, the goddess Brigit was associated with two sisters by the same name -- one who was patron of healing and the other of the smith's craft. The attributes were eventually identified with Brigit, the saint, whose feast day, February 1, came to be celebrated on the same day as that of the pagan goddess.'
Democrat Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that the conclusions of this review should help shed more light on these rule-of-law issues that the previous administration avoided for a long time.Click me Post Title to Follow More!!
"This report underscores why we should move forward with a nonpartisan commission of inquiry," Leahy said. "Without a thorough, independent review of decisions that run counter to our laws and treaties, we cannot ensure that these same mistakes are not repeated. Such a commission must have bipartisan support to be able to truly get to the bottom of these issues with objectivity and credibility."
Father Dan Mallette blesses the desecrated grounds at Burr Oak.
So I asked the undertaker what it took to make him laugh/when all he ever saw is people cryin'
first he hands me a bunch of flowers that he received on my behalf/he said, "Steve business just gets better all the time
Steve Goodman -Somebody Else's Troubles
Max Weismann of the Center for the Study of Great Ideas is an architect and a philosopher.
He designs. Max Weismann thinks. He thinks because he reads and he reads what is great. Max wrote to me in response to the horrific desecration of the dead Americans at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, IL
"We are under Siege!Aside from the plethora of current inequities and iniquities being perpetrated on the citizens of this nation, we have now reached the nadir--Congress now passes massive bills of profound and long lasting consequences, without even reading them.
That said, we are ultimately at fault--whenever something is wrong in our communities, cities, states or country, it's because we let it get that way."
The looting of graves to make room for more bodies and bigger profits at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, IL. necessarily leads to the simple proposition -" God ain't making any more land."
Four cemetery employees are charged with dismembering human bodies so plots could be resold, or pounding down original graves to create more room, affecting nearly 300 deceased. ( click my post title for more) For openers.
The path from Burr Oak Cemetery goes well beyond the greedy designs of four hapless mopes - three gravediggers/graverobbers and the Lady in the Office - to Tucson, Arizona where the former corporate heads of Perpetua laid their weary bodies down in retirement.
Slivy Edmonds Cotton, the former president and CEO of Perpetua, Inc, lives in Tucson, AZ. She says she stepped down in 2002.
During her time with the company, she managed Burr Oak Cemetery.
Cotton says, "I have to tell you I was totally shocked and appalled at such a horrendous story, we really spent a lot of time trying to create the type of company in the funeral industry that was all about serving families and people."
We asked cotton if she investigated any similar cases of cemetery desecration at the time she was managing Burr Oak.
Cotton says, "I don't think that there's ever been anything to this magnitude. There are always rumors about things may have happened years ago, and there were rumors about things that might have happened years ago. We did do some investigation and were not able to identify anything that had actually happened."
Cotton says she did hire Carolyn Towns. Towns was one of the employees arrested in the case.
Cotton adds, "Carolyn having been on the management team, she was certainly aware at that time that these types of things were not tolerated."
Cotton goes on to say that she hasn't had contact with Towns in years, nor the company.
"I was there very often and we had two or three other managers who traveled to the various properties to make sure there was enough presence of management. This is not the way most cemeteries operate, and it's certainly was not the way Burr Oak operated at the time I was involved."
The current president of Perpetua in Richardson, Texas, Melvin Bryant didn't return our calls.
Grave robbing is a taboo that goes back to the dawn of civilized (people living together) history. Respect, piety and grace is bestowed upon the dead, unless profit is to be had in violating the sanctity of eternal sleep. Indiana Jones, or Burke and Hare, rob graves for profit.
Burking the dead was a practice also known as Resurrectionists, after the two Irish grave robbers in Edinburgh, Scotland in the early part of the 19th Century -William Burke and William Hare - in which graves would be robbed and bodies sold for medical research and anatomy lectures. The practice was so lucrative that Burke and Hare became serial killers who filled the graves that they would later rob.
In the light of the miserable treatment of the dead at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, IL., Sheriff Tom Dart dispatched the Chaplains of the Cook County Sheriff's Office to bless the grounds in which the bodies were dumped, after their plots were re-sold.
This small act of decency speaks very well of the Cook County Sheriff. When small deeds mark a heart, one can trust that larger issues will be graced with a great heart.
Well done, Sheriff Dart!
Click my post title for the link to the Tribune Story.
A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman. Edmund Burke
’Tis with out judgment as our watches, none go just alike, yet each believes his own. In poets (Politicians) as true genius is bur rare, true taste as seldom is the critic’s share…” (lines 9-12).
“But you who seek to give and merit fame, and justly bear a critic’s noble name, be sure yourself and your own reach to know, how far your genius, taste, and learning go…” (lines 46-49). Alexander Pope Essay on Criticism
"Politics is more difficult than physics."
- Albert Einstein
Physicist (1879 - 1955)
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is a genius. The fact that her father is the Illinois Speaker of the House matters not; it don't hurt none, but it matters not. It only matters to people who tend to be smarmy and bitter in the first place.
Politics is not a science; it is an Art. It is a skill that is mastered over years of practice in the same way that a poet, or a plumber becomes one with the craft.
Many plumbers have sons and daughters in the trade, but damn few poets hang out a sign that reads- Oscar Wilde & Sons - Preferred Posey. To the Gay Absolutist and the Homophobe - Oscar had kids, before he buggered off with Lord Douglas. None of the Kids went into the business, however.
Politicians pass the Art on to their children - each in her/his own way. Lord Randolph Churchill greatest accomplishment in his years on earth had to be the psychological abuse and torment he passed on to Winston Churchill, who would go on to serve and save Western Civilization.
Mayor Richard J. Daley, the exact tempermental polar opposite of Lord Randolph, was a 'take the kids to work' politician, much like the artiste plumber, whose children can not wait to draw a union card, cut and thread pipe and then dope it up!
Adlai Stevenson was another very good Artist. We have many political father and sons shops here in the 19th Ward - most are pretty damn effective mechanics.
Mike Madigan is a master politician and his daughter Lisa Madigan is a political genius.
Attorney General Madigan followed a wonderful man, Republican Jim Ryan and a political hack, our Junior Senator from Illinois into the job. Lisa Madigan learned from both of her predecessors.
It was the cow-pie of Roland's Burris's brief,but far too long tenure in the U.S. Senate that prompted most 'columnists' to hold Lisa Madigan up as challenger to Burris. It will be Chris Kennedy. That will be an absolute howl to witness!
Lisa Madigan understands that her management of Attorney General in the toxic Illinois atmosphere will allow her to chose her Office in her own Time.
In fact, I expect Attorney General Madigan to make a string of indictments against the many Foxes in the Taxpayers Hen house over the next few semesters, that will make national headlines and power alliances on both sides of political aisle.
Fight for the Governorship! Fight with Roland! Their bones will bleach like roadkill outside of Carbondale in August.
Lisa Madigan is a genius. Her old man is a great mechanic, but the girl is a genius!
Monday, July 6, 2009
MADIGAN SUES CHICAGO FURNITURE RETAILER
Read more »
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Thursday, July 2, 2009
***CONSUMER ALERT***CONSUMER ALERT***
MADIGAN: 4 MILLION BABY FLOATS RECALLED DUE TO DROWNING RISK
31 Reports of Children Falling Into Water When Float Seat Splits
Read more »
Inflatable Baby Floats Recalled
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Thursday, July 2, 2009
DuPAGE COUNTY MAN SENTENCED ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CONVICTION
Read more »
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
MADIGAN: TICKETMASTER AGREES TO SHUT DOWN DECEPTIVE TICKET BROKER WEB SITES
New Guidelines Result from Attorney General’s Investigation of Exorbitant Hannah Montana Ticket Prices
Read more »
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Monday, June 29, 2009
***CONSUMER ALERT***CONSUMER ALERT***
ATTORNEY GENERAL MADIGAN AND AARP WARN CONSUMERS ABOUT DEFECTIVE WOMEN’S ROBES LINKED TO SIX DEATHS
More than 2,500 Dangerous Robes Still in Illinois Homes
Read more »
Photo of Product
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Friday, June 26, 2009
MADIGAN, I-SORT PARTNERS ANNOUNCE RESULTS OF QUINCY AREA SEX OFFENDER COMPLIANCE CHECKS
Read more »
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Thursday, June 25, 2009
MADIGAN FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST WHEELING TRAVEL COMPANY FOR FAILURE TO PROVIDE REFUNDS TO CONSUMERS
Attorney General Urges Consumers to Be Alert for Fraud During Summer Travel Season
Read more »
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
MADIGAN, TJ MAXX REACH AGREEMENT TO ENSURE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA FOLLOWING MASSIVE SECURITY BREACH
TJ Maxx Parent Company to Implement Comprehensive Data Security System
Read more »
Attorney General Lisa Madigan is no Dan Lipinski and certainly no Todd Stroger. The fact that her Dad is Illinois Speaker of the House of Representatives matters not - it don't hurt none, either.
In fact, The Illinois Attorney General is a genius.
A genius understands her times and her abilties to make the most of those times.
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Monday, June 22, 2009
ATTORNEY GENERAL SUES DECEPTIVE IMMIGRATION SERVICES PRACTICE FOR FAILURE TO PROVIDE PROMISED SERVICES
Read more »
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Thursday, June 18, 2009
MADIGAN REACHES AGREEMENT WITH US CREDIT FIND TO PREVENT PHONE CRAMMING
Read more »
Chicago Renaissance Man, writer, film director, actor and political prognosticator Michael Houlihan is writing and mentor, long-time Chicago News legend, Jim Strong giving sound journalistic advice, at the Chicago Examiner! Recent Forbes Magazine profile subject ( 31st Wealthiest Man Around) Philip Anschutz is the publisher of The Examiner chain.
Mike's monthly Hooliganism for the Irish American News is no where near enough blue collar value point of view for a Metropolitan Area living in a veritable Honesty Desert. With Houlihan there is -No Nuance, No Parsing, No Smarm ( south side culture allows No Smarm - only hot-blooded invective, malediction and blasphemy) and No Group Think Whining that the Pencil Neck Progressives offer. Thus, " We were ALL of Us made better people the day Michael Jackson decided to become Diana Ross - all of us!"
Now, the Chicago Examiner provides writers like Mike Houlihan to present the unvarnished and un-PC truths to readers, wasting away to intellectual nothingness for lack of solid opinion fiber. Houli got Fiber, Y'all!
Houli is fiber rich and chock full of the real McCoy. Here's a taste of Houli's declamation on Goo-Goos ( Good Government Progressive Feebs in Creeps Clothing):
Many goo-goo’s in Cook County are Democrats, but they chafe at the reputation of their party. They elected Blago, but won’t admit it. They love Governor Pat Quinn for his record as a goo-goo, but they reserve disdain for Daley.
Goo-goo’s are so much more than simple good government people; they are patronizing peddlers of pabulum. Like Zorn in the Tribune, Carol Marin in the Sun-Times, or that brilliant seasoned journalist Katie Couric who so intellectually took Sarah Palin to task on what magazines she read during the campaign.
Goo-goo’s belong to Planned Parenthood and PETA and the “Society for the Prevention of Jimmy Pushing Johnny Out of Line”.
Goo-goo’s believe that our new President walks on water and if we don’t see it we are racist luddites.
Goo-goo’s fear Palin more than Putin, Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il, and the Pope. She’s the antithesis of the goo-goo worldview, and she just might get elected President someday. That’s what scares them more than anything.
Joe Klein knows Billy Jack. The real guy who made what is arguably and probably the first PC Movie. It was about an Irish -looking American Indian (Native American) dude who went all martial arts on Rednecks and Bikers in order to save Hippies and the Red Folks. Joe Klein is a Billy Jack Journalist - he kicks everyone he don't like. Hell, Joe hangs out! Picks up kicking tips and protects Hippies and Red Folks. Kick them rednecks!
http://www.billyjack.com/
Remember that idiotic song, One Tin-Soldier? Jesus, my filings hurt every time I hear that! There is a very special place in Hell for every person associated with that song.
Catholics are always good kicking targets:
"I do believe there's something weird a few of our colleagues have [against Clinton]," he said. "They tend to be Roman Catholics, actually. People like Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, Maureen Dowd. They've had it in for Bill and Hillary Clinton since Monica Lewinsky. They feel that the Clintons are trying to put one over on us all the time."
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2008/03/03/klein-alter-and-lowry-on-anti-hillary-bias
Well, for elites like Joe Klein, Catholics never belonged here in the first place, unless they were needed to dig ditches, trim-lawns, hump steel and provide political aptitude for Progressive Cupcakes. Nuance.
It seems that after getting out of the elite Hackley School and University of Pennsylvania ( the official school of SEIU Leadership), Joe wrote for Rolling Stone and got close to Tom Laughlin - Billy Jack his own Bad Self.
Joe Klein out-ed the Clinton's with his Roman a clef Primary Colors as self--absorbed power vampires and made a killing by cashing-in trust and professionalism. Get cozy and trusted and betray that trust. Nuance.
The Nuanced are the Elitists who insult people and get rewarded. Joe Klein makes much money. Joe Klein talks down from that pile of dough.
Joe Klein offers all of us, in his Rolling Stoneish -Time piece, his sober Redneck kick on Redneck America in a dutiful slap as part of the Palin Pile On.
I wrote that Palin's America--white folks, small towns, traditional values--was a Republican fantasy, a vestige of Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America" hornswoggle in the 1980s.
Real America is much different from, and more interesting than, that white-bread fantasy, a problem the Republican Party--the party of immigrant bashing--will be wrestling with for the immediate future. And it brings to mind a conversation I overheard, and can't get out of my mind, between two educated Iranians at a North Tehran party last month. Both had attended university in the U.S. One had recently returned from the States, the other hadn't been back here in 15 years. "You wouldn't recognize the place," the recent returnee said. "They don't have any Americans left."
Klein graduated from the Hackley School and the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in American civilization. In 1969, Klein began reporting for the Essex County Newspapers, and The Peabody Times in Massachusetts In 1972, he reported for Boston's WGBH, and until 1974 he was also the news editor for The Real Paper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a contributing editor for Rolling Stone from 1975 to 1980, and Washington bureau chief from 1975 to 1977.[1] He became friends with actor-director Tom Laughlin after interviewing him for Rolling Stone and appeared briefly as a reporter in Laughlin's 1977 film Billy Jack Goes to Washington.
Klein published Woody Guthrie: A Life in 1980 and Payback: Five Marines After Vietnam in 1984. He was a political columnist for New York from 1987 to 1992 where he won the Peter Kihss Award for reporting on the 1989 race for Mayor of New York. In May 1992 he joined Newsweek and wrote the column "Public Lives", which won a National Headliner Award in 1994. Newsweek also won a National Magazine Award for their coverage of Bill Clinton's 1992 victory. From 1992 to 1996 he was also a consultant for CBS News, providing commentary.[1]
Governor Pat Quinn is a lovely man. Speaker Mike Madigan is probably a lovely guy as well. Mike Madigan is as easy to pin down, publicly and privately, as it is the very last olive oil coated snow pea on a huge plate with a dinner fork, while thirty formally dressed celebrities ask you questions about quantum mechanics while being taped by the crew of 60 Minutes for their Christmas Special.
The difference being that Pat Quinn has made a career of crafting a public persona as a guy who cuts his own lawn with an ancient Sears Craftsman 18 in. Cut Path Reel Mower, Hand Pushed, like the one he used twenty years ago against George Ryan, who hired guys to cut his lawn; and Mike Madigan, could care less what I, the Sun Times editorial board, PETA, Pope Benedict XVI, Perez Hilton, Rev. James Meeks, Carol Marin, WTTW, or the cast Blue Man Group think of him.
Mike Madigan is the Packey McFarland* of politics. Muhammad Ali once called Chicago welter-weight Packey McFarland the greatest boxer who never one a championship.
Pat Quinn is ballromm dancer in the ring with Packey McFarland, the king of the Stockyards.
Tim Novak, the only real investigative writer at the Sun Times wrote this on July 4th:
The governor spent two hours Friday -- a holiday for most state workers -- discussing the state's $9 billion deficit with state Sen. James Meeks, who backs the tax hike. Their meeting came one day after Quinn met with 27 female legislators.
The governor says he plans to sit down with more lawmakers in the coming days.
"I have a number of other legislators -- Democrat and Republican, House and Senate -- I will be meeting with over the next few days,'' Quinn told reporters. "We believe in consensus-building.''
The Senate approved a tax-hike proposal in May, but it failed in the House.
Madigan won't support Quinn's income-tax increase without support from Republican legislators, leaving the state without a budget, which could force drastic cuts in social service programs across Illinois.
Quinn didn't blame Madigan for the stalemate over the state's budget crisis. But Meeks did.
"I do not think the governor is the problem,'' said Meeks, who is also pastor of Salem Baptist Church, which has one of the biggest congregations in Illinois.
"I ain't scared to call the speaker out -- he ain't my daddy,'' Meeks said. "If the speaker wanted this solved, it would be solved. For whatever reason, he doesn't want to work this out. Pat Quinn is trying to do everything he can to save social services.''
Meeks accused Madigan of playing politics by refusing to pass the income-tax increase without support from Republican legislators.
"That's a political decision, not based on what's right and wrong,'' Meeks said. "I think the Democrats bear the burden here because we're in leadership. We can pass any bill.''
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said "the speaker is attempting to work cooperatively with the governor. The speaker supports a tax increase, but it's going to have to be a bipartisan effort. He [Meeks] ought to focus his efforts on Republicans.''
Political observers say they think Madigan is using the state budget crisis to politically weaken Quinn, who plans to run for election next year. One of Quinn's opponents in the Democratic primary could be Madigan's daughter, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. She is also mulling a run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Roland Burris.
During his entire career, Packey engaged in 104 bouts and lost just the one. He never forgot the loss and as he moved up in competition, placed caution first and preferred to outbox his man with shiftiness and speed rather than try to put him out and risk getting caught by a lucky punch. For the remainder of his career, he was floored only twice – by Ray Bronson and “Cyclone” Johnny Thompson.
Packey grew up in a tough section of Chicago (“back of the stock yards”) and learned early on to use his fists to take care of himself in fights on the street and in the handball courts. During his first year in the ring (1904), at fifteen years of age, Packey lost the only fights he would ever lose. Harry Gilmore Jr. noticed him in 1906 and guided him to some impressive wins over Billy Finucane, Fred Gilmore, Young Morris, and Jack Fox and, in 1907, wins over Steve Kinsey, Joe Galligan, Kid Goodman, Maurice Sayers, Charlie Neary, and Benny Yanger. Another win over Goodman and victories over Kid Herman (newspaper) and Bert Keyes earned him a match with Freddie Welsh, the unbeaten Britisher.
Packey gained a decision over Welsh in ten rounds at Milwaukee on February 21, 1908 and followed this great win by defeating Jimmy Britt in six rounds at Colma on April 11, 1908.
When accusations of favoritism surfaced after the first McFarland-Welsh bout, fans clamoured for a rematch. A second bout with Welsh was held on July 4, 1908 at Los Angeles. It ended in a draw after twenty-five rounds. Welsh showed himself very clever and skillful at close quarters while McFarland was better at a distance.
Palin Haters on Vacation! For now.
As a Regular Democrat (one not given to the allure of free Purple T-Shirts or having MSNBC think well of you), Sarah Palin represented all that is good in public service - Gov. Palin reminds me of all the great women in my neighborhood.
Moreover, Gov. Palin drew fire for John McCain*, for whom I had great hope and more admiration, until the economy tanked and McCain limped through the end of Campaign, and did so cheerfully and heroically.
Gov. Palin exuded the qualities detested by the Progressive robot-army of academics, media mopes, lard-padded politicians like Dick Durbin. ( click my post title for those)
Gov. Palin is feared, because she is genuine.
When the clowns gang up on one genuine American, it seems to me, time to pull the clowns off and toss them back into the Volkswagon.
* I was a very early McCain partisan in the last go-around, my daughter Nora was elected to be a McCain Delegate, and was sad to see John McCain give up the fight after September 19, 2008.
Illinois - Third Congressional District
Area 124.5 mi² (322.45 km²)
Distribution 100% urban, 0% rural
Population (2000) 653,647
Median income $48,048
Ethnicity 77.9% White, 5.9% Black, 2.9% Asian, 21.3% Hispanic, 0.3% Native American, 2.7% other
Occupation 27.6% blue collar, 58.1% white collar, 14.3% gray collar
Cook PVI D + 11
My grandfather, a genuine Bogman from Crinna Hill, Castleisland in the Kingdom of Kerry, could blaspheme uninterrupted and without repeating himself employing a Gordian Knot of profanities, scatological, pornographic and epicly laced nouns, verbs, abverbs and adjectives that could shatter the teeth of a Dutchman.
Larry Hickey would walk Shep his mongrel mix of matted-haired fanged menace along the railroad tracks around 75th Place and Ashland, dragging the black/brown/yellow massive mutt with applications of broom handle for direction and darts ofvillainous language much more 'hurtful' as PC Cupcakes are wont to say. PETA would have loved Lawrence!
"Christ, Jeezus Almighty! Shtop, So! Godammit you rare 'Hoor of a frothy Bitch's welp! . . . & etc. only louder!" Much to the amusement and edification of urchins playing along the tracks at Marshfield.
Grandpa Hickey was a howling Modern Language Association Convention encorpified and a blazing tutorial on blasphemously charged imprecations and maledictions on two legs. I received a Four-letter Degree, along with my sixty-plus 1st cousins, well before the Sisters of Mercy taught me phonics and catechism.
Language is the sacrament of the Irish.
Now, due to PC-idiocy and membership in the European Union, Ireland is being coerced into dumb-down its once high-standards for licentious language:
A NEW crime of blasphemous libel is to be proposed by the Minister for Justice in an amendment to the Defamation Bill, which will be discussed by the Oireachtas committee on justice today.
At the moment there is no crime of blasphemy on the statute books, though it is prohibited by the Constitution.
Article 40 of the Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of speech, qualifies it by stating: “The State shall endeavour to ensure that organs of public opinion, such as the radio, the press, the cinema, while preserving their rightful liberty of expression, including criticism of Government policy, shall not be used to undermine public order or morality or the authority of the State.
“The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent material is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.”
Last year the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, under the chairmanship of Fianna Fรกil TD Seรกn Ardagh, recommended amending this Article to remove all references to sedition and blasphemy, and redrafting the Article along the lines of article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which deals with freedom of expression.
The prohibition on blasphemy dates back to English law aimed at protecting the established church, the Church of England, from attack. It has been used relatively recently to prosecute satirical publications in the UK.
In the only Irish case taken under this article, Corway -v- Independent Newspapers, in 1999, the Supreme Court concluded that it was impossible to say “of what the offence of blasphemy consists”.
It also stated that a special protection for Christianity was incompatible with the religious equality provisions of Article 44.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern proposes to insert a new section into the Defamation Bill, stating: “A person who publishes or utters blasphemous matter shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding €100,000.”
“Blasphemous matter” is defined as matter “that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion; and he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage.”
Where a person is convicted of an offence under this section, the court may issue a warrant authorising the Garda Sรญochรกna to enter, if necessary using reasonable force, a premises where the member of the force has reasonable grounds for believing there are copies of the blasphemous statements in order to seize them.
Labour spokesman on justice Pat Rabbitte is proposing an amendment to this section which would reduce the maximum fine to €1,000 and exclude from the definition of blasphemy any matter that had any literary, artistic, social or academic merit.
Dan Lipinski has been as exciting as Melba Toast. All of a sudden the 3rd Congressional District Wall-Flower has Progressive Star Power!
Man Alive! This Cat is Gone! He's Knocked Out! The Purple Tax-Players of SEIU embrace this Reed! He's Cap'nTrade! He's Health Muscle!
In one week Dan Lipinski's political acne has gone all Clear A Sell!
Dig what this cat's Sayin' Here!
About 300 people turned out for the packed event, which featured eight speakers from organizations with a large stake in health reform, such as businesses, doctors, unions, nurses, pharmaceutical companies, and hospitals. Rep. Lipinski wasted no time drawing a line in the sand, telling the 3rd Congressional District crowd that, in order to limit the cost of health care for individuals, small businesses, and the federal government, a public plan is a must.
But his support comes with a few caveats. Lipinski admits that employers may stop offering private insurance to workers if a government plan exists. "It all depends on how the public option is implemented," he said. And Lipinski prefers the "level-playing field option" championed by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), in which the government-run plan would be granted no special advantages over private insurers, such as the ability to use Medicare's low rates or to access taxpayer subsidies.
Dan Lipinski was given his Congressional Seat by his Dad - Dan Lipinski defeated a boiled beet Progressive John Sullivan and a genuine Man of the People -Honest John Kelly ( who gave Carol Marin the Hose Knot of a lifetime with his 'straightforward' answers to smarmy and snobby questions) in the Democratic Primary. Once in Congress Lipinski faded into the wallpaper. Now, Dan joined Republican Mark Kirk to betray Illinois on this most dangerous and gutless vote.
These two elected goofs need to go. Mark Kirk is a Republican and thinks that he'' make a swell Senator - Mark, we already have two lightweights in the U.S. Senate -Durbin and Burris - all filled up here! Kirk's MSNBC-friendly nose nuzzle showed Illinois what his presence in Washington is worth. Dan Lipinski decided that playing ball against his constituents is Okay - it ain't Congressman.
You 'killed the job' as they say in the Trades.
Dan Lipinski represents a very traditional Democratic base - people described as blue-collar, Catholic, anti-Abortion, anti-tax Democrats.
Dan Lipinski took the path of least resistance. Dan Lipinski voted for the most dangerous piece of legislation to the American Way of Life ever crafted - The Cap and Trade Bill. Dan Lipinski allowed his rump to be padded against the Progressive Loudmouths and Purple T-shirt howlers. This was a close vote in a very sheepish U.S. House of Representatives that is driven by the Media and the special interests Planned Parenthood, ACLU, SEIU, ACORN and the balance of the Acronym pantheon of activists.
Dan bleeted with this flock of beauties.
Illinois is represented by two Locked Up Senators - Dithering Dick Durbin and Roland Burris. They are Cap and Trade Teammates.
Dan Lipinksi betrayed my neighbors. I do not believe that Dan Lipinki could name three people from his District (3rd) to begin with - Dan sold them out, anyway.
In the United States, the House of Representative climate bill, approved by a 219-212 vote Friday evening (see list below), would mandate that 15% of the nation's electricity come from renewable sources such as wind and solar power by 2020, potentially expanding the market and profit potential for companies in those sectors. Towards that goal, it seeks to boost nascent industries such as wind-generated electricity and solar power.
Cap-and-trade has been tried in Europe by the signers of the Kyoto Protocol and according to the Heritage Foundation's Ben Lieberman, "Nearly every European country participating has higher emissions today than when the treaty was first signed in 1992. ... emissions in many of these nations are actually rising faster than in the United States." Yet perhaps the Obama administration has its eye on something other than limiting emissions. Possibly it sees cap-and-trade as a great way to gain control of still more of the private sector.
As mentioned above, the huge amount of money mulcted from the private sector and handed over to the public sector has got to please every collectivist in the White House. Moreover there is the huge bureaucracy that will have to be set up to oversee cap-and-trade.
Those of us who have followed the economic crisis and the Ponzi schemes of Bernard Madoff are familiar with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). If the administration's climate legislation is passed, we shall have the Cap and Trade Commission (CAP). It will be vast.
To begin with, CAP's agents will have to go to every factory and office building and presumably even public buildings and decide their allowable amount of emissions. That is to say, their cap.
Next the agency will auction off and oversee the sale of the documents that certify emissions allowances. Call them coupons. Then the agency will have to monitor the exchange of these allowances and the ownership. Finally the agency will have to monitor compliance and presumably punish those who fail to comply.
In this setup there will be countless opportunities for corruption as polluters try to bribe CAP's agents, or the agents try to elicit bribes. As with the SEC, there will be incompetence and lax enforcement. Finally, there will be senators and members of the House of Representatives making special pleadings for corporations in their regions, labor unions, special pleaders of all sorts.
Finally, there is the economics of the legislation. It will take $2 trillion from the private sector and dump it into the public sector. That is to say, a large tax on the private sector will transfer money to the public sector. So how is the private sector to grow itself out of this recession? The administration's answer is that the government will return the money to worthy endeavors, health care, green technology - again still more opportunities for corruption and for special favors to pleading solons and numas on Capitol Hill. ( emphasis my own)
The Prophet Obama was very disturbed recently when asked if he was a socialist. Socialism is government control of the means of producing and distributing goods and services. What I have just described is a powerful instrumentality toward socialism. Along with Cap-and-Trade, the Obama administration is calling for a sufficient number of these instrumentalities to socialism that by the next election the United States will be very close to being a socialist state.
Democrats used to give elites like Norman Thomas the chair in the corner. Remember, at one time Organized Labor and the Democratic Party helped make the American Middle Class and raise the American Standard of Living that was marvel of history.
Boiled Beet Progressives like Roger Baldwin, Jane Addams and Norman Thomas were generally 'praised' but largely ignored and well they should be. They are fit subjects for the salon set - who generally do not work for a living - much less for anyone else; but as far as impacting on American life -they offer bupkis.
Noramn Thomas ran for President of the United States six times and just before his death remarked -" I have not come to burn the American Flag; I have come to cleanse it!"
Really? Nope Norm, Roger, Jane, W.E.B. and their heirs have succeeded in smothering debate, controlling the weak-kitten Media, Academia and Stalinist labor. Acronyms with bags of gelt -ACLU, SEIU, ACORN - have replaced personalities like the old timey radicals.
SEIU's Stalin Andy Stern was able to blackmail WAl-Mart and squeeze a letter out of the corporation that killed main street:
Wal-Mart -- which provides insurance to employees and wants to level the playing field with companies that don't -- on Tuesday delivered a letter to President Obama taking a different stance.
"We are for an employer mandate which is fair and broad in its coverage," said the letter, signed by Wal-Mart Chief Executive Mike Duke. Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, also signed the letter, along with John Podesta, who led President Obama's transition team and is chief executive of the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning think tank.
The National Retail Federation, the industry's main lobby, said it was "flabbergasted" by Wal-Mart's move. "We have been one of the foremost opponents to employer mandate," said Neil Trautwein, vice president with the Washington-based trade group. "We are surprised and disappointed by Wal-Mart's choice to embrace an employer mandate in exchange for a promise of cost savings."
I am a
Canna
What Flower
Are You?
