My Take Aways from President's Syria Lecture and Dinner in Heart of Italy

I spent a wonderful day with my President - of Leo High School - visiting St. Cajetan 8th grade boys about the Leo Opportunity ( affordable tuition and transportation)  and later tramping through a parade ground of school buses at Midwest Transit Equipment in Kankakee, IL.  Thanks to the generous outpouring of treasure from Leo Alumni and friends into the Leo Express to Opportunity campaign headed by Leo grad Sam Leno '63, my President had a blank check for the campaign account.  We bought two vehicles - a 72 passenger school bus and a 28 passenger activity bus.

My President was like an Arab and our Midwest Transit  sales manager was most receptive to Leo's needs and knocked off $ 4,500 from the total. cost.  My President acted.

The bus and the activity vehicle are now being painted to attest to Leo High School ownership.  Once out of the sub-Saharan sun and into the AC of my Malibu we celebrated with a couple of bottles of water. I dropped my President off at St. Cajetan's to retrieve his car and then went back to Leo High School to retrieve my cell phone ( left on the desk when I went for a much needed haircut prior to the St. Cajetan's visit - in the heat and humidity what passes for my hair adds nothing much to my manly bearing) and inform a lovely woman that our evening's assignation had moved from Taylor Street to the Heart of Italy - "We are eating at Bacchanalia!!!!  Park on Oakley over by Ald. Moreno's offices and see you at 6PM, Love!"

I know that squeals of delight had more to do with the splendid bill of fare there than anticipation of this freshly shorn widow-man.

The food at every restaurant in Heart of Italy sparks manly tears of joy, but Bacchanalia Ristorante's is especially compelling. We shared ( well, sort of) baked artichoke and parted ways at main course. I taking the road most travelled - *Porterhouse Vesuvio (Charbroiled, Topped with our Signature Vesuvio Sauce & Potatoes) and she with Veal Cutlet Milanese (A crisp Veal Cutlet platter).  Again we spooned in alliance over a platter of the House flagship side - Sautéed Spinach (Spinach Sautéed in Garlic and Spices).  We both hefted home sizeable portions of the delicacies.  My leftovers never seem to live through the night as my 23 year old Son gets home from work shortly after my retirement.  A good meal is not a gorging, but an event marked by talk and punctuated by forkfuls.

Conversation sparkled throughout the shared meal, touching upon the Leo vehicle purchases and the upcoming Leo/Lake Forest Academy Football, abusive male cads and bounders, sacred and choral music, jazz, The Humpday Camel commercial and Syria.

Syria is no place for Americans, no place for indigenous Christians, a horrible place for Jews and what might be the  Arab Spanish Civil War  for another global war. President Obama is finally being understood as the career anointed appointee that is his CV.  The poor man is was and ever shall be in over his head and pay-grade; unless, of course, you are All In With Obama*.

Following the lush meal that only Americans can enjoy, we sat on the benches of Oakley Street and chatted before I accompanied my lovely table mate to her car.  She headed north on Western Ave. to the Congress Expressway and I south to Morgan Park.  I cranked the AC and left the radio on to the President's Syria speech.  I listened attentively and here is what I took away.

President Obama has yet to master History "In World War I, American GIs were among the many thousands killed by deadly gas in the trenches of Europe."

The collective reference, G. I.s, did not come into common parlance  until the 1940's, as American troops were commonly termed Doughboys in WWI. The self-styled rhetorical wonder of a President engaged once again in misrepresenting historical fact., not unlike his gaffe of praising the Navy Corpsemen who saved their Leaterneck brethren in WWII. well, that rhetorical nit picked, The President droned on in syrupy humanitarian tone, crafted no doubt by Samantha Powers, until he poisoned his waterhole with this hypocrital flourish -

" The purpose of this (rhetorical?)  strike would be to deter Assad from using chemical weapons, to degrade his regime’s ability to use them, and to make clear to the world that we will not tolerate their use.

That’s my judgment as Commander-in-Chief. But I’m also the President of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy. So even though I possess the authority to order military strikes, I believed it was right, in the absence of a direct or imminent threat to our security, to take this debate to Congress. I believe our democracy is stronger when the President acts with the support of Congress."   

( emphases my own) Really?  Like HHS mandates, EPA weapons, IRS shenanigans?

Back to the issue - President Obama drew a red-line ( several) against Assad, people were horribly gassed, Congress was tossed the ball, the Administration twisted the need like a Hanover pretzel, 70 % of the public are against any intervention tiny pin-prick or not and Vlad Putin caught John Kerry's Inner Biden.  Now, Putin has brokered a deal what to do . . .""I have, therefore, asked the leaders of Congress to postpone a vote to authorize the use of force while we pursue this diplomatic path. "

Postpone the vote that world demands, for a strike against whom and what?

I took away much more wholesome goodness from the Heart of Italy neighborhood than in all of the empty calories of The President.  My dinner companion took home spinach and veal and I most of the porterhouse, spuds and the sinful artichoke hearts and garlic sauce, from Bachanalia Ristorante. 

From the Syrian Speech?  Much less.


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