Happy Easter, Christ Has Risen! Now, Let's Roll Back the Big Stone Keeping Schools in a Cave

Kids believe only what is taught to them.  Last night 28 kids, most under the age of 18, were arrested on Chicago's Mag Mile for intimidating people and another bunch were arrested following an assault on a woman who asked that the kids put out their cigarettes. I do not believe that the youngsters were engaged in civil disobedience demanding that CPS keep failing schools open, nor were they concerned with the plight of LGBTQ citizens.

From this same edition of the paper, the Opinion section of the Chicago Tribune was thick with opinions on both issues as being fundamental to life on our planet.  The school closings?  I see them them as part of the overall Rahm Plan to shrink the City of Chicago ( services) down to an Urban Center.  Likewise, the abhorrent incivility tolerated on Chicago Transportation systems by the Mayor and CTA Boss Forrest Claypool is a component in this plan.  Why else would a Mayor not do his utmost to light a fire under his appointee to interdict such behavior and provide the necessary police officers at his disposal to correct the situation?  Answer.  It is not part of the Plan.

The Plan includes a $ 100 million dollar loan to gussy up the River Walk, but not seek a loan to hire more cops.

Back to the schools. The closed schools, the largest school closing in American history, are  real estate.

Take a look at who is protesting the school closings ( CTU's Karen Lewis & Jesse Sharkey)  - they worked with Mayor Emanuel to engineer the closings.  Their Red-shirted Dragon Dance through the Loop last week provided Bill Ayers and opportunity to be described as an "elementary school expert' in the Chicago media, as well as swell venue for SEIU to play civil disobedience for cameras without the possibility of arrest.  Tickets were issued.

For the last thirty years Bill Ayers* and the well-camouflaged Mike Klonsky have trained a generation of radicals who now control Chicago Teachers Union through CORE.  Chicago Public Schools have nose-dived deeper into the tax-dollars from the moment the Annenberg Challenge was boarded and looted by Bolsheviks and took command of the Education Department at University of Illinois at Chicago.  Here's a challenge.  How many UICC disciples of Billy Ayers are CPS teachers?

The idea of schools has been entombed in a cave behind the boulder rolled by Ayers and Klonsky.

Schools should reflect the neighborhoods they serve.  Catholic schools most certainly do just that and graduates of Catholic schools, black, brown and white manage to avoid massive arrests on Mag Mile and intimidate passengers on the CTA.

Ayers and Klonsky made small schools (cadres) wholesome to lazy and not very bright editorial boards and columnists.   Schools fail, because they are supposed to do just that.

Chicago is a Catholic city.  No matter how much Eric Zorn, Mary Schmich, Neil Steinberg, Carol Marin, Clarence Page, Dawn Turner Trice, or WTTW try to obscure that fact, Catholics rub up against Baptists, Unitarians, AME, Lutheran, Jewish, Greek Orthodox, Dutch Reformed and atheist neighbors.  Schools should reflect that fact, but they are not allowed to do that.

Christ died on Friday, busted Hell's prisoners out on Saturday, and triumphed over death today, when he rolled back the big rock.

The big rock blocking real schools and the idea of a school is still wedged in pretty deep.   Kids are taught what to fear and given no means to conquer fear.  Behavior reflects what people are all about.


*"Elementary education expert and professor Bill Ayers — who has sparked controversy on the national political scene with his ties to President Obama — was in the crowd in support of teachers.
" 'The assault on public education and abandonment of these communities has to be resisted,' Ayers said." Chicago Sun Times

The Bravest Easter Bunny Ever!

On Nov 16th 2012 our lives were completely changed forever, our 4 yr old daughter AVA was diagnosed with stage 3 neuroblastoma high risk, this is our journey with her... Ava's Family on Facebook
This Holy Saturday, the day when Christ Harrowed Hell, this old sob-sister was treated to a heroic little girl. Ava!

Ava was the inspiration of us south siders who attended the recent St. Baldrick's Fight for the Cure at Bourbon Street on Saturday, March 9th.

Ava had another surgery after the Fight Night and took her first step on the road back with the help of her Dad and Mom.

Tell me marriage does not matter.

Christ Jesus, Victor! This makes me happy!

Rahm's Garbage Grid, Layoffs and Meeting Tuition Payments for Catholic Schools

 

The Beverly Review recently reported on a meeting of residents of the 19th Ward and Alderman Matt O'Shea. 

"The program concluded with a discussion on the city’s move to a grid garbage collection system that will be implemented in the 19th Ward in 2013. The program, O’Shea said, will save the city between $15 and $17 million in 2013 and $20 million in 2014 by essentially doing the same amount of work with fewer crews.

Currently, O’Shea said, there are 11 Streets and Sanitation crews that work five days a week to collect garbage in the 19th Ward. Under a grid system, all 48 of the city’s Streets and Sanitation crews will “saturate” an area of the city at once, thereby eliminating the work of seven crews per week (55 minus 48).

The 19th Ward’s garbage collection day under the grid system will most likely be Monday, O’Shea said, and recycling pick-up will continue every other week. Local residents, he said, will receive written notification before the new system is implemented." (emphases my own)

This gives me pause.  Great pause.  The same amount of work will be performed by fewer crews, who now work five days per week, but they will be part of a 48 crew city-wide.  Seven crews will be eliminated.

Is that seven(7) crews Tops?  Citywide?  Which Ward's crews will get the chop?  Back in 2008 when the well-coiffed Inspector General Dave Hoffman was all the rage, a typical garbage collection crew consisted of  three persons.( an MTD, the driver, and two Laborers) who work 8 1/2 hour days 30 minutes of paid lunch.

Even the well-coiffed IG Dave Hoffman had to admit that Bureau of Sanitation (BOS) workers had a "dirty and smelly job."  Gee, You Think, Dave?   Dave wrote a hair-raisingly hysterical Jeremiad against these 'dirty and smelly' crews in 2008 and bean-counted his assessment that most crews ( Dave counted *only 10 Wards out of the 50 btw) to the conclusion that these 'dirty and smelly' workers loafed an average of TWO HOURS A DAY!!!!!!!!

Systemic Loafing, People!!!!! Quod Erat Demonstrandum!!!!  We need the Garbage Grid Pronto!

Hey, thanks for playing your part there Dave!  How are things working out for you in the post-political life?

Well, the Grid is coming.  More crews will be laid-off, smart-sized, re-configured, no longer compensated, bereft of salary.  Thank God, for the great souled reformers! Why even this morning the Sun Times caught some poor slob napping on the job!

You see that is how Progressives roll.  Find some clouted mope who games the system, tag his behavior as SYSTEMIC, and fire hundreds of solid people standing in the way of some Red Light Camera, $100 M. Riverwalks**, CPS - Our Lady of Perpetual Helplessness, Garbage Grid, Claypool's Pee-breaks, Ventra Card, or Bombardier CTA Car boondoggle, which are the necessary components to Chicago -Urban Center.

What will happen to the families of Sanitation Crew member laid off in sacrifice to Progressive Mammon?

Well, they won't be making obscene lower middle class salaries; that's for sure.  Some MTD Streets and San Driver with three kids in Catholic Schools had better re-evaluate his life choices!  Some Laborers will need to pull Marsha from Queen of Peace High School and send her Madam Curie.

The City workers that I know are breeders who send their kids to Catholic elementary and secondary schools.  Like their neighbors who happen to be electricians, carpenters, cement finishers and sprinkler fitters, the Hope & Change Economy, that is GW Bush's fault 100%,  they can only hope that something will change.  Well, there is Marriage Equality, after all, but that won't pay the $10 K tuition for a Catholic high school education.

The Progressive gets a win-win out of this.  With Garbage Grid and other up-coming City of Chicago employment downturns ( privatized police and fire n'cest pas?), fewer families can afford to send their kids to Catholic schools and fewer kids will learn Catholic teaching and fewer voices will oppose SYSTEMIC CHANGES UNIVERSAL!

Huzzah!  It's an Andy Shaw Rodeo, folks!

Nope, Rahm's Garbage Grid and Obama's Economy are here to stay.  Catholic Schools like Leo High School are working hard to help our middle and lower middle class neighbors meet the opportunity to get a Catholic Education.  It is a systemic thing with Catholics.

Over the next few weeks, I explain exactly how Chicago families can budget against Rahm's Garbage Grid and the Obama Economy.


*"Between May and September, IG investigators spied on 77 garbage truck drivers and 145 laborers in 10 wards. They reported what they called "systemic, pervasive" waste and fraud".Tribune

** Please diagram the following sentence - "The truth is, we're now at a juncture in the history of the city of reintroducing the city to the river and the river to the city," Emanuel said. Chicago Tribune

Where is CTU Mastermind Jesse Sharkey in Chicago Media Coverage of CTU Outrage? The Reds are Denouncing Jesse and Karen Lewis

"Let's not pretend that when you close schools on the South and West sides, the children affected aren't black," Lewis said. "Let's not pretend that's not racist." Chicago Tribune

Amid growing opposition to planned school closures and consolidations in Chicago, Illinois, a March 4 Socialistworker.org article entitled “Rahm's scorched-earth assault on our schools” crudely attempts to re-write the history of events surrounding the assault on public education in the city.Socialist Worker, the publication of the International Socialist Organization (ISO), seeks to whitewash the role of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), in which it has a leadership position. ISO member Jesse Sharkey is the current vice president of the CTU. Far from opposing the closure of schools, the CTU and the ISO have collaborated in implementing the Obama administration's school “reforms” with Democratic mayor Rahm Emanuel. WSWS

Wow, hard to get happy after that one, Jesse. Who's the racists?  You? Karen? Rahm? Arne "Demosthenes" Duncan? President Obama? Whom to believe?

Here is the Chicago Media coverage of yesterdays Occupy the Loop with Karen & Jesse & CTU & SEIU lalapalooza singing like Joan Baez with VISA commercial contract and then there is the World Socialist Web Site going all Stalin on ISO member and CTU VP Jesse Sharkey the Karl Rove of the XXX Red Shirts.

The difference is that Jesse Sharkey is invisible in the Chicago Media coverage, while Jesse Sharley is universally denounced as a running dog counter-revolutionary Obama/Rahm stooge in the authenticist Lefty organs.

Denunciation is as Lefty as a Saul Alinsky Hoe-Down on WTTW, or a Studs Terkel Fashion Retrospective.
The Chicago news organs dedicated to whomever they take their daily meme rations has some old-timey Public Radio-worthy copy - let's begin with this pearl from the Medill sausage -

Among those who were sitting on LaSalle Street in front of City Hall hoping to be arrested in an act of civil disobedience was Tom Balanoff, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 1. He said he was demonstrating to show that massive school closings are "not the right direction. This is not the way to really solve the problem in education."
Balanoff said he had been arrested in acts of civil disobedience "many times over the years."
"It's as American as apple pie," he said.

Sing me some Joe Hill, there Union Maid!

Then we have the Sun Times which not only trotted out compelling "it's about the children" laments from real folks, but also this bit of nonsense news -

Elementary education expert and professor Bill Ayers — whose ties to President Obama sparked controversy because of Ayers 1960s radicalism — was in the crowd in support of teachers and kids like his granddaughters who attend CPS schools.
“The assault on public education and abandonment of these communities has to be resisted,” Ayers said. “How can we abandon public education at this point in history and move away from the one thing that’s going to give people hope for the future, and that is a solid powerful education.”

Makes you want to bomb something, don't it?

There is the obligatory accounts of Chicago's Ed.- Zeppelin CTU President Karen Lewis tossing race-cards at Rahm like so many Frisbees and third person narratives about Dr. Bennet-Byrd and Mayor Rahm and the mention of Aldermen who really, really, really care - Ricardo Munoz, Bob Fiorreti and. of course America's favorite family guy Rev. Jesse Jackson -unquoted.

No Jesse Sharkey*?

Salon, a clearing house for smug Progressive shouting, quotes Jesse Sharkey ISO/CTU with this fiery hammer and sickle that somehow went unmentioned in Chicago's reportage:

“The only thing that’s like it( Rahm's Murder of Schools) is Hurricane Katrina,” said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey of the potential devastation, “except this is being done on purpose.” ( parenthetical my own)


The WSWS goes on to really give Karen and Jesse a comeuppance -

The ISO closes its article with the claim, “As the CTU rightly argues, we should oppose all school closings and stand up against Rahm's scorched-earth war on public education...”
This too is a lie. Lewis made it clear on the second day of the strike that CTU accepted the mayor’s plan to shut down schools. The main concern of the CTU leadership was to ensure that school shutdowns be carried out with the collaboration of the union and not unilaterally by CPS.
Lewis told the Chicago Tribune September 12, “We understand the whole movement of closing schools and doing it aggressively... we either do this together in some reasonable way or we will always be fighting, and I think the key is that the people that are making these decisions want to make them unilaterally.”
In the aftermath of the strike, during a November episode of Chicago Tonight, CTU Vice President Sharkey said nothing to oppose what he termed the “unpopular policy” of school shutdowns, and instead advised that it need be carried out in an orderly fashion. “There’s no point in closing schools until there is a plan in place.”
Speaking at a union organized rally earlier that month, Sharkey said, “What the school board should do is take a year off. Have a moratorium on school closings and have a real process where there is a study of plans and the people who are part of the coalition here, the parents, the community and the teachers of Chicago have real input into what happens to our schools.”
This “real input” has been a series of sham hearings on the school closures and consolidations, where thousands of parents, teachers and students have voiced their opposition to the closures.
On February 11, CTU president Karen Lewis released a video announcing CTU would be sending organizers to assist those displaced by school closures. She admonished teachers—many who will be losing their jobs, and many more whose teaching conditions will become much more difficult after the closures—to support the CTU's efforts to do so.

Which side are you on, Bill Ayers, you elementary education plutocrat?

Why is Chicago's media taking the side of capitalists?

HOW much longer will Americans be satisfied with the endless Progressive Banquet of Bullshit?




                    Here's a good start - send you kids to a Catholic School.


* 24 hour Jesse Sharkey News:

  

Climbing Chicago - My Spring Break Ascent of the Dan Ryan Woods Hill.

Easy ascent in the Winter of 1965 - me and guys from 75th & Wood.

For the most part . . .except when Maury Lanigan decided to kamikaze guys and then rub their mugs in snow and threaten further outrages of a much more sinister nature were one to rat him out.
I am a man who enjoys a challenge and the testing of my male mettle with a vigorous assault on the senses and the spirit. I watched the entire Cheyenne Marathon presented on Encore Western channel only this Christmas break without taking meals and answering the call of nature with an Olympic dash and powerful discharge of uric fluids that fair shot me airborne during the Cheyenne Bodie Theme Song.



Yes, sir!

Yesterday Leo President Dan McGrath and I travelled to Kankakee to inspect vehicles that may be become part of the Leo Motor Pool.  Midwest Transit Equipment is largest purveyor of buses, shuttle wagons, casino caravans and vans for sale and lease to schools and charities. This vast surplus sales venue just north of the Kankakee County Fairgrounds reminded Dan of the Navy's Mothball Fleet which he passed daily as sports editor of San Francisco Chronicle

We had a productive visit followed by a meal of man-sized proportions at the legendary Longbranch in L'Erable, Il.

During the meal, we discussed our shared duties and obligations to Leo HS over the spring break.  Dan would man the ramparts development and organizational on Spy Wednesday and I would post myself visible in the hallowed halls on Holy Thursday.  We would both steward the school on Good Friday.

"What will you do with a day off, Pat?" asked my superior and friend.  I gave the issue of time-off some thought.  " I believe I will attempt a morning ascent of the hills of Dan Ryan Woods," I answered with my temperamentally uncharacteristic challenge to physical exertions.

" Well, good luck to you."

Luck indeed.  Generations of Leo High School footballers and very few of Little Flower gridiron Argives ran the slopes of those challenging hills in full pads and helmets under the Spartan eyes of coaches Arneberg, Hanlon Foster, Lord and Houlihan.

The Dan Ryan Woods boasts the highest land elevation above the city of Chicago and at one time was the greatest toboggan slide in the world.

Below is an aerial view of the Woods within the City. Remember top is North and bottom south:



At 87th noted by the pine tree is the highest point above Chicago.

I tasked a Sherpa - retired Chicago Parks Supervisor and physical fitness director Marlin "Bud" Speed.  Bud Speed managed the field houses at O'Halleran Park at 1800 West 83rd Street, coached CPD Bee-Wee Football and ' ran the order' for the Leo Lights and Heavies between 1965-1975.


Bud knows these hills. Bud gave hundreds of Chicago lads lessons in the life vigorous.

I asked Bud Speed, " How should I best prepare for this ascent?"

"When's the last time you climbed?"

" 1966, or there about . . .No!  I just remembered I had to climb the hills at the Leo Freshman game with Gordon Tech this fall . . "

" I really don't give a shit.  What are you climbing the hills for anyway, old age made you soft in the head as  every where else?"

You any of you noticed that mobidly obese behemoths not only gulp gallons of Diet Pepsi, but also tend to commentary of every other person on the planet but elepant on the rascal?

Nevertheless, I had interrupted Bud's viewing of the latest edition of Jugs and Ammo in order to prep for the climb.  Ignoring the commentary on my sagging excess epidermal manifestations, I continued, " Should I carbo-breakfast or wait until completing my descent?"

" Eat first, Dipshit, that way you won't die hungry."

This AM, after taking my daughter Clare and two of her buddies for day Two of their Red Cross Safety Certification Classes at the Chicago AG School, I followed the master's instructions to letter with a Chicago Style Hot Dog ( 1 only & certainly no fries) and amended the dietary regimen by firing up a Marlboro Red.

I faced the summit and pressed headlong up the 40 Degrees incline. I thought of my friends and acquaintances who had endured this crucible during the dog-days of August Triple Sessions and laughed my ass off.  Thank God, I did not go to Leo.  I would have probably just faked an injury or submitted to the branding of "Pussied Out!"  Hurtful remarks make not a heart attack.

From the tree-walled summit I took in the majestic panorama of my native south side.  This is a happy place to have been raised.

While bending into my climb, my neighbor and Leo football veteran Mike Regan '70 cell phoned a number of retirees and Catholic League long-teeth.  Upon my descent, I was greeted with applause and well-done.  Mike had been exercising his dog, when he spied my exertions.

" What are you soft making that climb?  I still have Hanlon and Tony Kelly nightmares.  All that glue you used to sniff must have finally taken hold."

Not all.  I like a challenge.

Every Gay Man and Woman Had a Mom and a Dad - Is That Bad?

“It’s become a joke that [marriage] is so sacred,” - Gay Activist from Uptown -Chicago Sun Time

I'd like to be a great and handsomely over-paid professional athlete, but God didn't make me that way.  I run slower than a Rolex watch bought from the trunk of a car in a vacant lot on Racine..  I can barely navigate the living room without doing serious damage to the china cabinet, taking a patch of flesh off my shins from contact with the coffee table and eventually launching myself out on the front lawn via the picture window.Was this due to Nature or Nurture?

I have no childhood malady, nor have I been subjected to any physical trauma despite my being a major league klutz.  Nevertheless, life has allowed me the honor and privilege of working with many gifted athletes as a teacher and coach.  My Hoop Dreams are for the Leo Lions once again.  We had a brutal basketball season.

My Mom was faster than me. She could beat me in dead sprint, until I turned thirteen.  My Dad and I played catch; he took my fastballs in the mitt and I caught his with my face.  Football was an ideal sport for the criminally slow and took my place on the line. " Hickey, just take up some real estate - get in the way."  That, I can do coach! Basketball?  As if!   I tried out with guys and Coach Spatz bellowed in his Jim Backus voice - "JeeeeZus Christ Almighty and the Forty Thieves!!!!!!!????  Kid, did you have Polio?"

My parents and coaches and pals encouraged me with good natured patience, not unlike Coach Spatz's stunned commentary on the most obvious of facts.  My Self esteem suffered not.  In fact, it directed my energies and aspirations.  Honed my work ethic and balmed my lightly bruised ego.

The extended family and the traditional family of one Mom and one Dad served me and most people I know very well - gay and straight.  Like Chief Justice Roberts, I have gay cousins and a gay aunt. Who doesn't?

I love them and respect them, even though I know that they will never birth.   They love me, even though I never was or will be a very good athlete. Did I grow up into a frustrated jock, an athletic wannabe?  Oh, Hell No!  Were I a better (even modest athlete) jock-strap I might have become one and ignored the alternative lifestyle I love - I read books.  I am more about Thackeray, than Dwayne Wade.

In the media's breathless hysteria to bull through Gay Marriage, I found this sad comment from a Gay Marriage activist in today's Sun Times.-

As rainbow flags fluttered above several hundred supporters at Federal Plaza, 230 S. Dearborn, D.J. Reed, 30, contrasted the importance of marriage to the gay community with its trivial portrayal in pop culture.
“It’s become a joke that [marriage] is so sacred,” said Reed, of Uptown.
“So many straight people everywhere love watching ‘The Bachelor’ and any other stupid fake wedding TV reality show, and people who truly love each other aren’t allowed to,” said Reed, a salesman at Nordstrom. “I just think they should open their eyes to what’s really going on.”

I beg to differ.  I was married.  When my wife died, I laughed not.   I had three young children about to be raised by Homer Simpson and that is no laughing matter.   All three grew up knowing how much I loved their mother and they had witnessed our very tactile affection for one another prior to and after her long illness; not to mention my absolutely pole-axed spirit and subsequent dissolute gambling.

We live with what God gives us and what we do about it: I have stumpy legs - my inclinations, however, are my own.

Marriage between a man and woman is a sacred union and not a Civil Right.

Palm Sunday - How Are Things Going for You , So Far, This Week?

Palm Sunday is the celebration of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem at Passover.  On that Sunday, Jesus entered the God's City, occupied by the Romans and run by the out-sourced security of Herod Antipas, to roads paved with palms and folks shouting Hosannas like Cubs fans in April.

Things were looking good.  Monday and Tuesday were filled with miracles, parables and foiling traps set by the Pharisees (Democrats of the day) and the Temple gang, the Sadducees ( GOP CPAC grandees).

Wednesday, one of the disciples decided to get on 'the right side of history' and went to the Temple gang who were pretty thick with Herod, Junior to negotiate a compelling narrative.

Thursday, Jesus broke bread with the lads and Judas left early to pick up his fee.   Peter, the business agent for Galilee Fisherman's Local VII, was informed that he'd get thin, once things got thick, and tried to wave off the prediction from Jesus.  Later, that night, while Jesus torments in the Garden, and pretty sound post Passover meal loosening of the eatin' pants and forty-winks with his equally callow fellows, Peter got up in the grill of one of the Temple Boys and lopped off the guy's ear, which Jesus put right with a touch of his hand, but decided to allow Jesus to take the pinch.

Peter was asked three times if he knew the guy in custody.  Three times Peter said, " Oh, Hell no!"

Jesus' few hours were occupied with several tune-ups from the Temple Cops, appearances before Caiaphas - the Temple AG - a trip to the Prefect Pontius Pilate the Homeland Security Chief for some genuine torture at the hands of some pros, witnessing Pilate's hand-bath, another tune-up from the Guests of the Nation including a scourging and crowning with thorns, losing a vote to Barabbas.  Ecce Homo, Folks!  a walking tour of Jerusalem while carry some very heavy timbers, getting nailed to the timbers and eventually taking a Roman pila in the ribs.

We feel pretty good on Sundays, but must remember that there is going to be a really rotten hump day, a very confusing Thursday and mortally horrible Friday waiting us all.

The good news; things get better.

Though The Hipster-Cool Cities Plan Has Failed Everywhere Else, Chicago Continues Its Drive to the Hoop - You Know, South, West and North of the Loop

Hipster's Dream City!

Burning money trying to become “cooler” ends up looking something like the metropolitan equivalent to a midlife crisis. Joel Kotkin

We had a Leo Alumni meeting at Father Perez Knights of Columbus Council 1444 in Mount Greenwood here on the south side last night.  It was great.  Irish kids from the Classes of 1943, '44 and &  and Black Kids from the 70's, 80's and 90's.  There were about sixty kids all told -For Light-hearted Boys Make the Best of Old Man, as the Irish song goes.



The Alumni Banquet is upon us and the class captains reported on tables purchased followed by President Dan McGrath's report on the school.  Leo High School was represented by Dan, Mike Holmes '76, Coach Noah Cannon '91 and yours truly.  Prior to the start of the meeting Mike and Noah spoke of the march of folly by CPS in the closing of neighborhood schools. "Where are the kids from Alonzo Stagg Elementary supposed to go?"  Aldermen who support Mayor Rahm in all things are now faced by their constituents and the race card is tossed freely, as in all things necessry to the subject.

(Alderman Carrie) Austin said she had not been told which schools in her far South Side ward are in line to be shut down. But most of the schools targeted by the district are in predominantly black neighborhoods on the South and West sides
"I don't think anything is a done deal in this city. I'm not going to let them do this to us, not again," she said. "Every time the whites get to screaming and hollering, they back off and steamroll over black and brown folks. Not this time."

This time and everytime, Carrie; make book on it.  It is not a white and black issue.  It is the PLAN.  The PLAN is to eliminate neighborhoods by shooing the helots (white,black,brown,and pale) the Hell out of Chicago's City Limits by whatever means necesary ( Ventra Cards, crumby to closed schools, thug comfort zones, idiotic ordinances and the attached fees, property tax increases and garbage grid boondoggles).

The PLAN has a goal of -CHICAGO Urban Center City.  This has been brewing from the time that Richie Daley took to hanging around University of Chicago dudes and turned his back on Bridgeport friends.  Daley took Frank Krusie -the CTA genius, Forrest Claypool -the job hopper and CTA genius, the Hyde Park Mafia ( John Rogers, Valerie Jarrett, Judson Miner, Allison Davis, Bill Ayers and Arne Duncan) and told the bad boys of the Hamburg Club to stay off his porch.

• Bike Lanes -Good!
• Red Line Safe & On Time -Bad
• Red Light Cameras -Good
• Cops and Firefighters -Bad
• City Services - Bad
• Open Green Spaces -Good
• Churches and the People Who Go to Them-Very Bad
• Hooka Centers -Very, Very Good
• Schools -Who Cares ! We Have Degrees from Columbia! Make Chicago Your Classroom!
• Neighborhoods - Unevolved: Too many Breeders and their damn kids with their Parades; we need Green Spaces and Bike Lanes

See? Progressive, going back to the 1970's.

The idea of the PLAN is that by creating a Creative/Intellectual Demographic as the urban core population, all the other pains-in-the ass folks black, white, brown, or pale could get the Hell out and visit Urban Center Chicago on holidays, the weekends, and when paying traffic, parking and City Ordinance fees.

Urban Centers, a comfort-zone for affluent childless couples, single secular degree'd, Progressive, fitness conscious, trendy urban pioneers, has been the template for city government too lazy, corrupt, or Progressive to make thoughtful investments in time, treasure and talent to provide adequate services to the tax-payers who dwell in neighborhoods.

This template cracked under the weight of its own folly, the Geography of hipness:

Geography of Hip Coolness

Perhaps the best that can be said about the creative-class idea is that it follows a real, if overhyped, phenomenon: the movement of young, largely single, childless and sometimes gay people into urban neighborhoods. This Soho-ization—the transformation of older, often industrial urban areas into hip enclaves—is evident in scores of cities. It can legitimately can be credited for boosting real estate values from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Wicker Park in Chicago and Belltown in Seattle to Portland’s Pearl District as well as much of San Francisco.
Yet this footprint of such “cool” districts that appeal to largely childless, young urbanistas in the core is far smaller in most cities than commonly reported. Between 2000 and 2010, notes demographer Wendell Cox, the urban core areas of the 51 largest metropolitan areas—within two miles of the city’s center—added a total of 206,000 residents. But the surrounding rings, between two and five miles from the core, actually lost 272,000. In contrast to those small gains and losses, the suburban areas—between 10 and 20 miles from the center —experienced a growth of roughly 15 million people.
The smallness of the potentially “hip” core is particularly pronounced in Rust Belt cities such as Cleveland and St. Louis, where these core districts are rarely home to more than 1 or 2 percent of the city’s shrinking population. Yet the subsidy money for developers is often justified in the name of “reviving” the entire city, most of which has continued to deteriorate.

The Politics of Hipness -

Investments in “cool” districts may well appeal to some young professionals, particularly before they get married and have children. But overall, as Florida himself now admits, it has done little overall for the urban middle class, much less the working class or the poor.
Indeed in many ways the Floridian focus on industries like entertainment, software, and social media creates a distorted set of economic priorities. The creatives, after all, generally don’t work in factories or warehouses. So why assist these industries? Instead the trend is to declare good-paying blue collar professions a product of the past. If you can’t find work in deindustrialized Michigan, suggests Salon’s Ray Fisman, one can collect “ more than a few crumbs” by joining the service class and serving food, cutting hair or grass in creative capitals like San Francisco or Austin.
These limitations of the “hip cool” strategy to drive broad-based economic growth have been evident for years. Conservative critics, such as the Manhattan Institute’sSteve Malanga have pointed out that many creative-class havens often underperform economically compared to their less hip counterparts. More liberalacademic analysts have denounced the idea as “ exacerbating inequality and exclusion.” One particularly sharp critic, the University of British Columbia’s Jamie Peck see it as little more than a neo-liberal recipe of “biscotti and circuses.”
Urban thinker Aaron Renn puts it in political terms: “the creative class doesn’t have much in the way of coattails.”

And as today's Tribune CPS feature displays - RACE - The very people

On paper, the “creative class” theory worships at the altar of diversity. “The great thing about cities,” Florida told NPR last year, “is they're diverse. There's diverse people in them.” Yet even leaving aside their lack of economic diversity, the exemplars of “hip cool” world, notes urban analyst Renn, tend to be vanilla cities with relatively small minority populations. San Francisco, Portland and Seattle are becoming whiter and less ethnically diverse as the rest of the country, andparticularly the suburbs, rapidly diversify.
Creatives may espouse politically correct views, but the effect of Florida’s policy approach, notes Tulane sociologist Richard Campanella, often undermine ethnic communities. As they enter the city, creatives push up rents, displacing local stores and residents. In his own neighborhood of Bywater, in New Orleans, the black population declined by 64 percent between 2000 and 2010, while the white population increased by 22 percent.
In the process, Campanella notes, much of what made the neighborhood unique has been lost as the creatives replace the local culture with the increasingly predictable, and portable, “hip cool” trendy restaurants, offering beet-filled ravioli instead of fried okra, and organic markets. The “unique” amenities you find now, even in New Orleans, he reports, are much what you’d expect in any other hipster paradise, be it Portland, Seattle, Burlington, Vermont or Williamsburg.

The very people whom Urban Creative Hipster Centers must please simply can not do without the very people they so detest - the middle class breeders of all races.  The Creative and Hip cannot fix a sink, a time for an appointment, much less a government official.  The helots who go to the precinct captain in order to tidy up a playground are scorned by the Creative Secular Urban Dweller as thoroughly unevolved.  That is why a hard-hitting newspaper series on corruption tracks the misadventures of some poor slob who takes the odd nap on his shovel and ignores the Global Inbred Corruption of a CTA President who could not tell you how MPG a bus gets, let alone start one who manages to finesse editorial boards into ignore the roots of Bombardier/Ventra scams.

The PLAN is working to make Chicago an Urban Center, but Urban Centers don't work.

"Where are the kids from Amos Alonzo Stagg Elementary supposed to go to school?"  Not in the PLAN that is for sure.

Check, Please! New Hosts -Same Menu. How 'Bout This?

CHICAGO — After wading through hundreds of video submissions, producers for “Check, Please!” are now 17 steps closer to finding their new host.On Wednesday, the popular WTTW-Ch. 11 show posted on its website "The Round of 17" — bios, photos and videos for 17 hopefuls vying to replace longtime host Alpana Singh.
The finalists include Rochelle Trotter, wife of famed chef Charlie Trotter, and Ina Pinkney of Ina's Kitchen.

Singh announced in January she's leaving the show to focus on her River North restaurant, the Boarding House. DNAChicago 

That's nice and soooooooo WTTW.  The Concept of young, successful, urbane urbanites and their posse dining at trendy restaurants and giving a review to the clinking of wine glasses on Public Television is just so. . .  shall I say  . . . Sriracha . Check, Please! is a hit.  I believe that I can go one better.

Get four city dwelling Chicagoans, who actually grew up here from neighborhoods like Back of the Yards, Albany, Edison, Armour and Garfield Parks and Ridge, Mount Greenwood, Englewood, Clearing, Chicago Lawn, Canaryville, Edgewater and over by Midway, to go to very well-established eating joints with The Eatin' Pants On; Gulp and Carbo up and finally Bolt on the Bill!

These will needs be young adults who grew up ditching the dweebs, lame-ohs, snitches, dipwads and crybabies, by hopping fences, tossing garbage cans, climbing trees, gutters and fire-escapes. They will be adepts in cutting the urban trail: skeeching from fenders of passing cars in snowy weather, hopping freight cars, sauntering past Paddy Wagons with a wave to the cops in cab as one directs its door panel searchlights in pursuit of  ' four losers who bolted from Chris, Jim and Gust's Salonika Salon ( " Μπορείτε γαμημένο ιρλανδική κατάπιναν του πέους σας έρχονται πίσω εδώ μαλάκας και να πληρώνουν το λογαριασμό σας!) on Wentworth.'

Now the moral and ethical nature of my show ( Perhaps a casting title Dian and Dash?)- it is against the law to steal, but more so it is wrong.  Have I dined an dashed?  You bet.  Am I proud of doing so?  . . .No, but . . .it was funny as Hell. Does this mean that I am a far less than earnest person?  God I hope so! Earnest people sneer at the thought of dining and dashing, but are perfectly swell with Forrest Claypool's Ventra Pass

Forrest Claypool is very earnest.

 The Check Please panelists were and are always earnest, smug and nerdy lispers with a thick sense of self-importance and . . .just a refreshing hint of mint. .  Generally speaking, their presence at a table for a night of dining out would put me off my feed. Check it out, White Liberal!@

Now, this goof is not Hasidim, he is a JO, but very earnest and knows wine.  Take that #$%^ing hat off at the table!  Sorry,

Hey, don't get me wrong; they are probably all fabulous people with great social sense and thoroughgoing earnestness.  I hate earnestness.  Anybody else?

The Earnest will tell you what they think of you and your clothes, haircut, aftershave, political party, religion, diet, credit card, or automobile and when you find yourself either justifying, defending, or explaining yourself, the earnest person will smile knowingly,lovingly, sadly and dismissively offer a conclusive, "That is just so sad on so many levels. You are putting on weight - you'd want someone to tell you that -Don't You Think?"  You see only earnest people manage to reach adulthood without ever having had to to face the consequences of their words and deeds - they were nurtured and schooled by equally earnest, but wildly litigious parents.

Where neighborhood folks grew up and learned to settle differences between their contemporaries knowing that bandages and iodine were available to make things better, civil litigation never happened.  Earnest people avoided abrasions and slights by dint of premptivly announcing legal action.

More unwholesome however is this all too empirical fact:  Earnest people will always allow you to pick up the check and the tip, following their long descantings on the disappointing  wine,  spices, presentations and the atmosphere.  I always part from earnest people with a strong desire to kick them squarely in the nuts, or the similar apparti - gender specific.

But enough about me. . .earnest people are just tops!  Don't you think?

Anyway, how's about a show, not unlike Check Please.

Get four regular Janes and Джонs, ( John is from Ukrainian Village) and their pals to visit Miller's Pub on Wabash, Les Nomades on Ontario, Ken's on South Western and Kalbi on west Lawrence Ave.

1. Panelists and friends must eat like they have been endowed by their Creator with two A$$holes
2. Panelists and friends must not pay the tab, but, they must leave an obscene tip for the wait staff,and
    manage to get away without paying, or being fatally wounded in the process.
3.The host must be an accomplished regular guy/gal and have never hosted anything on Public Television or  
    Radio - even better must be willing to take a swing at Richard Roeper, Billy Dec, or refuse any
    opportunity to shine in their celebrated light.

Only after requesting payment from the show's producer will all costs to the visited establishments; if threatened by lawyers.  We will ask for proof positive that such folks ever visited the restaurant, chop-house, ham'negger, bistro, luncheonette, posada, roach coach, hash-house, grill, Grille, cafe, charcuterie, or brasserie and them prove it.  Nah, we'll pay up.  The owners will be paid and gladly.



The Concept: Dine and Dash -The action to go in a restaurant,sit at a table, order whatever you want, eat and then leave quick without payin.

Obama 2016 Calling - Illinois House Dems Make Marriage Null and Void!

 "Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” - You know Who!!!!!!! from Matthew 4: 1- 9-10

Obama's 2016 Campaign ( watch for 3rd term!) demands Illinois House of Reps vote for the nullification of Marriage in Illinois - 

Chicago Sun Times White House Reporter Sweet Tweets this info: 

Obama's "Organizing for Action" pushing Illinois House to legalize gay marriage
By Lynn Sweet on March 19, 2013 9:00 AM | No Comments

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WASHINGTON--President Barack Obama's Organizing for Action--the outgrowth of his re-election campaign--is jumping in the fight to legalize gay marriage in Illinois, on Tuesday sending an e-mail to Obama's Illinois activists and supporters asking them to lobby Illinois House members to vote yes on the marriage bill, already passed by the Illinois Senate.
Obama already has urged the Illinois General Assembly to legalize gay marriage. Gov. Pat Quinn wants to sign a bill making Illinois the tenth state with gay marriage.
Last month, an Illinois House Committee advanced the bill to the full House floor, but so far the measure lacks the votes to pass the chamber, Sun-Times Springfield Bureau Chief Dave McKinney reports.This is the first attempt by OFA to get involved in an Illinois issue. The OFA, to have offices in Chicago and Washington was created to support the Obama agenda--and local issues that activists might want to work on.
Below, the text of the e-mail from Organizing for Action.....If you care about marriage equality, here's something really important you can do right now.As early as this week, the Illinois State House could vote on a bill -- already passed by the state Senate -- that will give all couples the legal right to marry. If it passes, Governor Quinn says he'll sign it into law. That's huge for all of us in the OFA family who care about this issue.Right now, reports say the bill is short of the votes it needs to pass, so these calls matter.
Take two minutes and look up your state representative right now -- then give them a call to let them know that you want them to vote YES on the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act.
It's really easy: Just use that website to look up your address, click "confirm your address," then scroll down to find your state representative's information.
Like President Obama said last year, he believes that marriage equality is a question of fairness -- of treating others the way you want to be treated.
Right now, his home state is just one step away from becoming the 10th state in the nation to approve same-sex marriage -- and making sure that gay and lesbian families in Illinois are treated equally in the eyes of the law.
We've heard from OFA supporters here in Illinois that this issue matters to you, and that's why we're teaming up with Illinois Unites for Marriage -- a joint project of ACLU Illinois, Equality Illinois, and Lambda Legal -- to add our voices to this fight.
This House vote is the final hurdle to making sure this historic legislation becomes the law of the land. Right now, a number of state representatives are still undecided, and we know this vote's going to be close.
Take a few minutes to look up your state representative today and urge them to vote YES in allowing all loving couples to share in the freedom to marry:
http://my.barackobama.com/Illinois-Marriage-Equality

To which I reply. 

To Il Rep. Fran Hurley,

If you really care about the people you represent, do not make the choice that Senator Bill Cunningham made to help promote the nullification of marriage in Illinois.  He voted YES !!!! for the Greg Harris\/ Heather Steans Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act. 

Fran you are at bat. Let's see which side of the plate you hit from on this important legislation.

Here's the pitch. Our district is comprised of people who married in same manner as they did after eviction from the Garden of Eden - Adam and Eve.  Not only that, Pope Francis is not a fan of same sex marriage and I suppose that Greg Harris, Fred Eychaner, Terry Cosgrove and Smell Mogul Henry Van Amerigen, as well as Heather's Dad want this legislation jammed through before Pope Francis has people jumping over to this side of history again.

Read a few of your e-mails from me and the neighbors and Catholic Coalition of Illinois.

Vote your conscience Fran.

We'll do the same.

Organizing My Garage - Hickey Cooperative Coalition Institute and Faith-based Plumbing