Extravagant Affectations: Radical Feminist Theologian Wants Abortion

I am proud that I took my degrees at Loyola University of Chicago.  The courses were rigorous, unforgiving and complete.

Things seems to have changed at my Alma Mater - radically so.

Today, the Sun Times a secularist myna bird of a paper offered a silly screed from a professor of Theology from Loyola - Susan A. Ross.

Not only is Ms. Ross a professor, but also " a faculty scholar at Loyola University Chicago, where she previously served as department chair. She is past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and a Public Voices Greenhouse Fellow through The OpEd Project."

The OpEd Project is a radical feminist project that collects "  the number of women thought leaders contributing to key commentary forums—which feed all other media, and drive thought leadership across all industries—to a tipping point.  We envision a world in which the best ideas—regardless of where or whom they come from—will have a chance to be heard and shape society and the world.  "

No guys.

Today's piece by Ms. Ross obfuscates Catholic tradition on abortion.

Like most Progressive abortion lovers, Ms. Ross employs the happy face of Pope Francis to mask the fact that abortion is evil, unjustifiable and sinful.

Pope Francis has challenged single-issue definitions of what it means to be Catholic. He has said that love of God and neighbor and, especially, mercy and compassion, are at the heart of what it means to be Christian and devoted an entire year to Mercy.
He has changed the rule that says abortion is such a serious sin that only a bishop could forgive it; now any priest has that power. He has chided church leaders for their focus on sexual issues and urged them to make the church more welcoming.
Perhaps the bishops are beginning to see that opposition to abortion is not the only thing that defines a “good” Catholic. With the possible repeal of the Affordable Care Act, they have also begun to make statements about the potentially disastrous impact of the loss of health insurance for millions of people.
And in the wake of Trump’s ban on immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries, some Catholic leaders have spoken out strongly on the devastating impact.
Perhaps over the next four years, pro-life Catholics will begin to consider the effects of defunding reproductive health services on poor women not only in the United States, but also across the globe. Or perhaps pro-life Catholics will consider marching for pre- and post-natal health care, maternity leave and child care. Perhaps pro-life Catholics will speak up for women’s voices and moral agency in a church whose leadership is made up of celibate men.

Yeah, them single issues can really enslave women. Pink knit hatted women howled against Trump. and some even mooned the guy's building near the river.   That is one enthralling single issue - hating Trump. Only thing missing form Ms. Ross's smoke job was " Keep your rosaries off my ovaries" and a nod to Virginia Slims and women's health.

I was a senior at Loyola, when Roe V. Wade was judicially legislated as the law of the land.  Loyola University was disgusted. The students were ashamed of the Ruling and America stopped being a great nation.

Today, Susan A. Ross is allowed to misrepresent Catholic traditions and teaching to smooth political opportunities for the school that I loved. Hell, why should De Paul get all the great land deals from the Chicago Banana Republic?

Professor Ross has a powerful audience of radical feminists and spineless males who are perfectly happy with abortion, Kermit Barron Gosnell and the lie about women's rights.

There are more women with brains and wonderful hearts.

Abortion should and will go the way of the Virginia Slim.

Could Today, April 3rd, Be The Exact Parallel Date of the Crucifixion? Scholars, Sources and Loyola in the 1970's

 

On the whole I consider that the date A.D. 33 April 3 offers fewer difficulties than any of the
others, but my ambition has been rather to explain the character and tendencies of the different
lines of evidence than to arrive at a conclusion, and I believe, as I certainly hope, that my opinionhas in no part of the discussion been biased by the desire to support any particular conclusion. J.K. Fotheringham 1934

Those of us who studied at Loyola University in the 1970's remember Father Filas, S.J. as one of the pivotal scholars in the study of the historical Jesus, based upon his deep scrutiny of the Shroud of Turin.  Father Filas seemed to be Loyola's show-horse. I never had the opportunity to study with Father Filas, but many of my pals had the pleasure.  We were the south side L-crowd and took classes in the old brown stone Lewis Towers and the now long gone Marquette Center which was accessed by a bridge over Rush.  I missed out on Father Filas.

There were others, many other: Dr. Francis Swarzenberg, Dr. Larry McCaffery (Leo '43), Father Charles Ronan & etc.

I recall taking classes and a senior seminar on English histor from the War of Roses to the Stuarts with Dr. Lionel Trimble. Dr. Trimble was an exacting scholar who expected no less than exacting work from this former member of Janitors Local #25 and a senior hoping to graduate on time with Mike Manske, James "Molly" Molloy, Mike Miller, Mary Kay Harvey, Joe Phelps and Rita Buckley, with whom he had begun his baby steps on the scholastic throw rug.

Dr. Trimble argued for the very best sources, as the only key to unlocking the past.  Paper and parchment crumbles, rots, burns and tucks neatly away in places meant to shun the eyes of the curious. Censorship, neglect, wars, pestilence and the ancient examples of losing the TV remote affected history as well.

We must always be careful about jumping to conclusions - Irish Inquiry.

We must always be sceptical of partisanship when it comes to memory - Irish Alzheiners.

We must always look to 'the best sources.' One is an excerpt, unearthed, so to speak, and reprinted in Real Clear History,

Early this morning of good Friday, I finished reading a great old piece of scholarship by J.K. Fotheringham (14 August 1874 – 12 December 1936).  John Knight Fotheringham was a British scholar of Middle Eastern history and religious history.

Fotherigham dove into the deep end of the pool and came up with treasure chest packed with scholarship: Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Aramaic sources that includes Josephus, the Synoptic Gospels, as well as the Gospel of John, Tacitus, Annidazugga, as well as, what we should call, modern (His contemporaries) studies.

This is a dense read. It is slow going.  It was just like the dusty texts and manuscripts dumped in my mitts by Dr. Lionel Trimble concerning that nasty son of a bitch Perkin Warbeck.   Yet, we arrive at a scholar's conclusion. April 3, A.D. 33.

The primary morals of an undergraduate, wearing Orchestra Hall janitor's wear, come back and I nod with conviction.  Old Johnny Knight Fotherington nailed it.  Maybe.  

Jewish Novels, Berlin Airlift, Leon Uris' "Armageddon-A Novel of Berlin" and Preserving Our Memory

“To me, a writer is one of the most important soldiers in the fight for survival of the human race. He must stay at his post in the thick of fire to serve the cause of mankind.” 
― Leon Uris

Dr. Suzanne Gossett was a great teacher in the English Department of Loyola University when I was an undergraduates in the early 1970's   I had a course in the Jewish American novel and we read Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Phillip Roth and Henry Roth's Call It Sleep.  I loved Malamud, liked Bellow, detested Phillip Roth and found myself conflicted about the other Roth.  Call it Sleep took a kid by the name of David Schearl from the age of six into early adolescence - the tale is very much like James Joyce's early pages of Portrait of the Artist as Young Man in its imagism and sexual iconography - only in Yiddish, as opposed to Jackeen Dublinese.

The book is a compendium of fear boiling in a little guy.  He gets bullied by family, Reb Yidall his Hebrew instructor, older kids and, of course, a Catholic thug named Leo who gives David a rosary and rapes his little sister.

I presented my conflicts to Dr. Gossett, the novel is powerful and beautifully written, but seems dangerous.  David is a victim for scores of pages and is only freed somehow - Deus Ex Machina -by a step-father who relents from killing the boy and a mother who finally offers him some level of psychological comfort. Call It Sleep is an angst-addict's dope.  I countered Henry Roth with Leon Uris was not part of canon of Jewish novelists in the Loyola offering.

Leon Uris had not time for Freudian, Jungian, or Hegelian deconstructions and dithering.  Jews faced the existential reality of extinction.  Now, that is a problem.

Uris wrote about the common humanity that just might save not only Jews but stupid and self-absorbed planet full of carbon footprints.

Dr. Gossett assured me that, while Leon Uris sold millions books, wrote the screenplay to movies like Gunfight at OK Corral and others,  he was no Saul Bellow.  However, . . ." I could write a paper."

I did - got a B- and noted from my mentress " B'nai B'rith would love your point of view on the self-loathing Jew."   I used Armageddon and Exodus to counter Henry Roth.  Thin gruel. Armageddon and Exodus remain truly great reads. Exodus chronicles the birth of Israel in the wake of Holocaust and Armageddon the Berlin Airlift - contemporary to Israel's geopolitical obstetric agonistes.

This month marks the Anniversary of Berlin Airlift in 1948.  I believe that this event happened to be as much of an existential threat to mankind. The USSR and USA et al were at daggers drawn with blood lusts still up from the Second World War.  Gen. George Marshall and the hundreds of anonymous pilots and crews who flew food and fuel into the Soviet blockaded city of Berlin made Stalin blink.

Leon Uris gives humanity fair warning "It Can Happen Again"  and when it does everyone, not just the Jews, are fair game.

We, all of us, do not have  the time, the temperament, the memory or the luxury to self-loathe.

England in Flames: The Arrogance of Entitlement

Guardian photo




I'm in London now, I am sad and literally devastated by the riots and the turn of events that has gotten it to this place. The emerging youths that are getting involved in looting need to stay away as it is only a matter of time for someone else to get hurt or go to jail senselessly. Urging the families and the parents of the young kids to keep them home. Communities need to stick together to keep them away. Not just London but nationwide, please keep them home and safe.
Idris Elba, The handsome east London-born star of Luther, The Office and The Wire, has told the Guardian:

I do not believe that Mr. Elba became a fine actor because of his race, his good-looks, or any sense of entitlement. God Bless this fine gentleman.

I spent some time in Great Britain and Ireland. The British custom of the queue is unlike anything here in America. The Queue is the lining up of passengers, or customers for transportation, entertainment or goods. It is an example of what is best in man -manners, courtesy and humility. People wait in line, or rather they did.

Americans need signs posted and a contest recording on modes of transportation to allow the disabled, expectant mothers and the elderly, first passage aboard buses and trains. Americans do not queue - they position.

I worked as a janitor and as a dock worker for Gateway Transportation and Shipping, while I was in high school and college. As a janitor, was would clean toilets and use a sifter to clean sand filled ash-trays (remember them). Very often, I might be seen by friends and neighbors at my menial unskilled tasks for which I was paid the prevailing wage, because I paid union dues. The prevailing wage for a janitor was about $2.85 in 1970. Janitors were largely immigrants from eastern European countries and college punks like me. The immigrants worked like dogs and sad to confess too often this college punk dogged the work, because was only paying my tuition at Little Flower and Loyola. The Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian, Lithuanian, Russian, Greek and Croatian DPs were earning the rent, the groceries and saving what they could.

I worked like a dog on the docks at Gateway Trucking originally located near Western and Cermak and later out in Chicago Ridge on Harlem at about 106th. Gateway was the largest trucking dock in the Midwest at the time. It went bankrupt in the 1980's, was taken over by Yellow Trucking and is now a rust-belt ghost town. I was a casual -non-union freight humper. We were on call and when called in you showed up, or you didn't work again. The Teamsters were the highly skilled truckers and fork-lift drivers. Some Teamsters supervised the casuals. In the winter the dock was brutally cold, but you kept warm by staying busy. You were entitled to one bathroom break every two hours and a twenty minute lunch each eight hour shift. You were entitled to your pay, which was more than a union janitor made, back then - about $ 4.25 an hour.

When not working I was reading American, Russian, British, Classical Latin literature and studying the core curriculum for a bachelor of arts degree. The education I received at both Little Flower High School and Loyola University was priceless. On the wall of Marquette Center at the Rush Street Campus were the Latin quotations of The Great Jesuit Thinkers, Ignatius Loyola, Aloysius Gonzaga, Saints. and Scripture.
One that struck me the most was this one -Initium sapientiae timor domini est: The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord.

Like the United States, Great Britain has turned God into a guest on Bill Moyers for PBS - God is, if He must Be at all, a champion of diversity, Gay marriage, Abortion, and a Class warfare firebrand. The Archbishop of Canterbury has come out in favor of Sharia Law and embraces diversity.

Diversity erases any and all crimes - assault, arson, looting, the odd rape here and there.

London and other cities in Great Britain look like the Blitz Reenactment - not because of poverty, Class, or oppression. The diverse youth are looting because diversity is the father of entitlement. Entitlement means you are a God!

In Chicago demi-Gods kill with impunity, because they may do so without fear.

The Media has portrayed murdering, gang-banging thugs as victims and heart-tugging urchins. Ever since the media played Yummie Sandifer as a martyr to 'not not doing enough for thugs' Chicago has enjoyed a willful slide into Apocalypse. There is no respect for Law, because there is no fear of anything. God?

God is for gun-hugging, toothless breeder hillbillies.

I don't buy that sorghum. I was educated by real scholars who understood that learning is a two-edged sword - it cuts its way to wisdom, or to hubris. Wisdom requires humility. Hubris requires only entitlement. Nothing is free. Education is costly -then, now and always. The more one invests in pursuit of that end, the more one values it as a whole.

My tastes in literature run to sensibilities developed between John Dryden and William Makepeace Thackeray - it often called in the canon of literature Augustan or Neo-classical. It holds that science is a tool and not an end. That understanding that Man is a creature and not a God is wisdom.

Alexander Pope's Essay on Man presents this little fire extinguisher:

Of systems possible, if ’tis confest
That wisdom infinite must form the best,
Where all must full or not coherent be,
And all that rises, rise in due degree;
Then in the scale of reasoning life, ’tis plain,
There must be, somewhere, such a rank as man:
And all the question (wrangle e’er so long)
Is only this, if God has placed him wrong?
Respecting man, whatever wrong we call,
May, must be right, as relative to all.
In human works, though laboured on with pain,
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain;
In God’s one single can its end produce;
Yet serves to second too some other use.
So man, who here seems principal alone,
Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown,
Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal;
’Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.

I worked as a janitor and on a loading dock in order to become an English teacher. I hope that was an adequate one. Sifting ash-tray sand for cigar, cigarette butts, wrappers, wads of used tissue, unplugging toilets, mopping up everything imaginable, dumping trash into rat-happy gondolas is not humbling. Humping freight is not humbling. I was blessed t learn that I am entitled to nothing; therefore, I am not terribly inclined to bump the queue, smash windows and grab Reboks. Study and work are part of the whole.

Arrogant Man is burning the cities of Great Britain and shooting anyone on the streets of Chicago.

Thoughts of Glenna and the War of Roses and my Toeses

When I went to Loyola back in the early 1970's, I took a class with Dr. Trimble - English History: The Wars of the Roses To The Tudors. Only five students took the class and by the second week it was down to me and a girl named Glenna, most days as the other three students made only perfunctory appearances.

Dr. Lionel Trimble was a scholar*of the old school. He was close to seventy years old and spoke in very mannered, low and formal English, but what he spoke of -Perkin Warbeck, Nat Tyler, Bolingbroke, Hotspur, Mortimer, Richard II,III, Pope Nicholas Breakspear, York and Lancaster, Richard Duke of Gloucester, Buckingham, Owen Glendower, and Henry Tudor honeyed the air of Loyola's Lewis Tower on Rush Street, or so I believed.

Dr. Trimble began lecturing the moment he closed the door at the appointed time - if you were late you were locked out. History after all is about time.

Glenna was from the far North - Kennilworth or Winnetka and dressed like she was going to a board meeting at Northern Trust Bank. This was in the days when blue jeans were uniform of the day for Catholic girls freed from jumpers of Longwood Academy, Queen of Peace, Maria, St. Scholastica and other convents-lite.

Glenna had jet-black hair and alabaster skin and wore pearls most days and horn-rimmed black glasses. More importantly, to this late-adolescent testosterone bubbling scholar-manque, Glenna was graced by God with the body of mortal sin itself.
Her calves and legs, usually encased in grey or blue hose, were magnificently athletic and femininely arched at the feet, shod in low heeled pumps or black boots.

Glenna was a twenty year old Mary Tyler Moore encorpified. It took every level of self-control and self-worth in my poor powers to focus on the Wars of the Roses, when the war of hormones and romantic day-dreaming of a life as the kept man of Glenna: she attending to the world of corporate banking and larding our savings and checking accounts and me ministering to her every passion, while cooking and cleaning our Tudor Brick Home adorned by Red and White Rose bushes and maintaining my wash-board like belly, and rock hard chest with feats of home-spun athleticism.

To say that I was distracted is understatement.

Glenna and I communicated but once as I recall - days before the end of the Spring Semester. I was seated in my usual position of advantage angled just behind and to the right of this exquisite beauty, in order to take in every move and crossing of legs, but most importantly the neck, ears and superior jaw occasionally draped by the raven hair - flicked with an elegant racking by manicured and lovely fingers.

As was my wont - I was adorned in my janitor's uniform grey green work slacks and light grey long sleeved shirt with patches over each pectoral -left emblazoned HICKEY and right in Gothic script ORCHESTRA HALL. I wore heavy work boots and thick white socks. I would go from my classes directly to 220 S. Michigan and work the 3-11 shift, get relieved by cousin Willie and Tony Gac, study and sleep. Get up take a shower in the musicians locker room and return to class. Ah, the Days of Ivy!

My legs stretched comfortably in anticipation of Dr. Trimble's arrival and luxuriating in the breath-takingly sexy propriety that was Glenna and I checked my notes.

Glenna forced down her Oxford University text and pulled her horn-rimmed glasses off, tossed her cascade of black hair in a sweep that scarfed her neck and stared into my eyes with her own lavender blue orbs - "Excuse me."

My heart stopped. Yes?

"Please move, or do something. Your feet smell awful. Really. I am sorry. Please; before I throw up."

Slack jawed and silently I skulked back several seats and rows away. Dr. Trinble saved me from further shame by transporting me to Bosworth Fields.

I got and A + for my essay, notes and exams; never saw Glenna again.

By the way, my feet had soured due to the fact that I wore the same work shoes day-in-day out in rain, snow, and slush. My doctor gave me a formaldehyde regimen. Rule -toss boondockers and tennis shoes; merely washing feet don't do it.

My feet are like Roses, ever since Glenna.


*

Powicke, F.M. (1953). The Oxford History of England: The Thirteenth Century 1216-1307. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198217080.

Green, V.H.H. (1955). The Later Plantagenets: A Survey of English History Between 1307-1485. Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd. ISBN 0713151765.

R.I.P. Leo Man and Loyola Professor Dick Maher PhD.

Great Leo Man and constant backer of this great old school's mission Prof. Dick Maher went home to Christ.

Richard J. Maher


Maher, Dr. Richard "Dick" J. PhD 67, passed away in the comfort and presence of family at Evanston North Shore Hospice on September 14, 2010 after a brief but heroic battle with cancer. Dr. Maher was a husband to his wife Karen of 43 years; father to his sons, Daniel (Karen) and Patrick; grandfather to two wonderful grandchildren, Ryan and Senna. In his life, Richard was known as trusted husband, father, uncle, grandfather, educator, mentor and friend. He was looked upon as the 'Godfather' of his Wilmette neighborhood as being known as a level headed person who could settle any dispute or listen to neighbors who just needed to vent. Richard was the valedictorian of Leo High School class of 1961, graduated from Notre Dame in 1965 and received his Doctorate from Northwestern University in 1971. Dr. Maher was an accomplished academic author of several textbooks, peer reviewer of several projects and editor. He was a Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Loyola University Chicago for over 40 years and was preparing to retire to spend his golden years with his darling Karen. As his first days of courtship to his last days of life were, all about making sure his darling Karen would be looked after and taken care of. Visitation will be Friday, September 17th, 3 to 9 p.m. at Wm. H. Scott Funeral Home, 1100 Greenleaf Ave., Wilmette. A Memorial Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church in Wilmette will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations to St. Francis Xavier Parish, 524 9th St., Wilmette, IL 60091 would be appreciated. Share a tribute at www.mem.com. Info 847-251-8200.

Dr. Thomas Origitano - Brain Surgeon Demands Smart and Ethical Choices Over Trumpeted Technology

The most horrific words that I have heard in my fifty seven years on earth were said to me by one of the most wonderful men I have met in that same time. "It's a glioblastoma."

In June of 1995, my young wife, mother of my three children, Mary had a brain tumor operated on by Loyola University Neurosurgeon Dr. Tom Origitano,M.D. - he sent a piece of the tumor to various labs and had gotten the fatal summary from many quarters.

"Mary has a glioblastoma tumor*." This savagely aggressive tumor is more prevalent in males. To my understanding, it is a death sentence. The tumor was massive! The pressure on my poor Girl must have been unbearable, but she was a beautiful, tall, skinny, redheaded, Kankakee Irish/French hardass - who else could put up with south side Irish knucklehead?

Dr. Origitano used a state of the art laser procedure, but warned me that the brain was God's domain and that he would only do as much - actually it was more - as he could do. This was Ali versus Mickey Rooney.

Dr. Origitano looked like Tom Selleck at the time that he treated Mary and they bonded immediately. The fact that I look like Barney Rubble on a good day had no impact on my relationship with this tall, dark, handsome and commanding surgeon had no impact whatsoever - " Oh yeah, Honey,He is almost a cute as you, . . .even without the soup stains all over his shirt. You didn't wear your drop-cloth at lunch again. Now, trot along and get me some ice cream, we have brain surgery stuff to do."

DR. Origitano gave Mary more time with me and the kids than should have been acceptable according to rules of science and technology. Mary kicked at the glioblastoma for the better part of two years before the Divine Ref called the Fight on January 17th, 1998. From that time on, I got periodic phone calls from Dr. Origitano about "how's things going for you?" Dr. Origitano gave me Mary's hair from the last surgery, which I store and treasure.

Today in the Chicago Sun Times, this soft eyed, humorous and very compassionate man of science and skill warns us of taking technology much too seriously - the human brain was built by God.

In the U.S., industry aggressively promotes the rapid adoption of new technology. Manufacturers spend heavily on studies, medical meetings and ads in medical journals and sign up influential physicians as well-paid consultants. This raises the possibility that money, rather than data, is driving the use of new technology. When a surgeon uses a particular brand of clip to seal off a brain aneurysm, is it because the product is truly the best clip on the market or because the surgeon is being paid by the manufacturer? (Loyola University Medical Center, like most other academic centers, has policies to pro- tect against such conflicts.)

Industry has been, and will continue to be, a partner in developing innovative technologies to prevent, diagnose and treat disease. But we need to protect against the possible corrupting influence of industry. And with health-care costs exploding, we also must make sure new technology is worth the cost. Intraoperative navigation may very well prove to be an effective way for surgeons to safely remove larger portions of tumors. But if this extends patients' lives only by two or three months, can we afford it?

Among the most-expensive new technologies are computer-assisted systems that deliver precisely targeted doses of cancer radiation therapy. Studies have found that each of these systems is effective in treating specific types of tumors and other disorders. But in many cases, they are being used to treat tumors or disorders that haven't been studied definitively.

Medical technology also has risks. CT scans and other medical imaging procedures are the greatest contributors to total radiation exposure in the U.S. population. But some CT scans may not be necessary.

This was demonstrated in a recent study at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. Our study, published in the Journal of Neurosurgery, examined the routine use of CT scans in patients after brain surgery. We found low-tech bedside exams by a skilled physician did a far better job than CT scans in predicting which patients would need to return to the operating room to treat complications. We eliminated about one-third of the post-operative CT scans because they weren't telling us anything useful.

Thanks Doctor! Thanks for everything.




* It is very difficult to treat glioblastoma due to several complicating factors:[20]
The tumor cells are very resistant to other conventional therapies
The brain is susceptible to damage due to conventional therapy
The brain has a very limited capacity to repair itself
Many drugs cannot cross the blood-brain barrier to act on the tumor
Treatment of primary brain tumors and brain metastases consists of both symptomatic and palliative therapies.

Mark Harris and the Moriartys - George & Michael: Novels, Baseball, Chicago and God

"You will no more expect the novelist to tell you precisely how something is said than you will expect him to stand by your chair and hold your book". Mark Harris American Novelist 1922-2007

In my Arcturus Calendar for October 7 it says, "De Soto visited Georgia, 1540." This hands me a laugh. Bruce Pearson also visited Georgia. I was his pall-bear, me and 2 fellows from the crate and box plant and some town boys, and that was all. There were flowers from the club, but no person from the club. They could of sent somebody.

He was not a bad fellow, no worse than most and probably better than some, and not a bad ballplayer neither when they give him a chance, when they laid off him long enough. From here on in I rag nobody.

Mark Harris - Bang the Drum Slowly

Mark Harris wrote great novels. I read The Southpaw and Bang the Drum Slowly while I worked nights at Orchestra Hall, which paid for my tuition at Loyola University. I worked - didn't get fired anyway.

I read these books on the recommendation of Dr. William Heibel of the English Department at Loyola. Years later, Dr. Heibel would serve on my Master of Arts Oral Examination panel - he was brutal and a great guy.

Bang the Drum Slowly is a secular parable set in the 1950's - its narrator is a fireball pitcher for the fictitious New York Mammoths by name of Henry Wiggen.

Henry Wiggen is a talented athlete and sharp student of human nature - in the off season Wiggen sells insurance to the natures who inhabit the team clubhouse. One of the more ignorant, sad and lonely members of the Mammoths is the rube catcher Bruce Pearson who would make Shoeless Joe Jackson appear to be Baseball's Noel Coward.

Wiggen and Pearson room together and Wiggen learns that Pearson is dying of cancer.

Wiggen tries to make Pearson enjoy his own talents, gifts and humanity in his last days.

The novel was made into a beautiful film and teamed two wonderful actors Robert DeNiro and Michael Moriarty.

Recently I learned that Moriarty's grandfather, George, had been born and raised in Chicago's Stockyards and was great baseball player.

George Joseph Moriarty

Positions: Third Baseman, First Baseman and Outfielder
Bats: Right, Throws: Right
Height: 6' 0", Weight: 185 lb.

Born: July 7, 1885 in Chicago, IL (All Transactions)
Debut: September 27, 1903
Teams (by GP): Tigers/Highlanders/WhiteSox/Cubs 1903-1916
Final Game: May 4, 1916
Died: April 8, 1964 in Miami, FL
Buried: St. Mary Cemetery,in Evergreen Park, IL
Relatives: Brother of Bill Moriarty

and more . . .


George Moriarty
Street-tough George Moriarty carved a career in baseball that spanned more than 50 years, as player, coach, manager, umpire, executive, and scout. As a player, Moriarty played with Ty Cobb on the Detroit Tigers, and used his aggresive baserunning to swipe home 11 times. He later succeeded Cobb as manager of the Tigers, after becoming an AL umpire. Moriarty spent two decades as an arbiter before joining the Al office as a public relations official. He later scouted for several teams, until his death in Miami in 1964.
Career Batting Stats
G AB H R HR RBI SB AVG SLG OBP OPS OPS+
1076 3671 920 372 5 376 248 .251 .312 .303 .616 95.9
Teams George Moriarty Managed
Detroit Tigers (1927-1928)
Born
George Joseph Moriarty was born on July 7, 1885, in Chicago, IL.

Died
April 8, 1964, Miami, FL

Batted: Right
Threw: Right

Major League Debut
9 27,

Nine Other Players Who Debuted in 1903
John Titus
Hans Lobert
Solly Hofman
Lee Tannehill
George Moriarty
Jake Stahl
Three-Finger Brown
Chief Bender
Red Ames

Post-Season Appearances
1909 World Series
Notes
Actor Michael Moriarty, known for his roles in the television show Law and Order, and the baseball movie Bang the Drum Slowly, is the grandson of George Moriarty.


Michael Moriarty's grandfather played with Ty Cobb and could be as mean as that iconic sociopath, but retained more humanity and good humor. From Wikipedia:

It is reported that once while Moriarty was umpiring, Babe Ruth, who was at bat, stepped out of the batter's box and asked Moriarty to spell his last name. When he had spelled it out, Ruth reportedly replied, "Just as I thought; only one I." The baseball card shown to the right of this text spells Moriarty's name incorrectly - with "two I's."
Moriarty also was noted for his influence on the life of Tigers first baseman Hank Greenberg. During the 1935 World Series, Moriarty warned several Chicago Cubs players to stop yelling anti-semitic slurs at Greenberg [2]. When the Cubs players persisted with their remarks, Moriarty took the unusual step of clearing the entire Chicago bench - a maneuver that got him fined by then-commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis [3]. Later, when Greenberg was pursuing Babe Ruth's single-season home run record, Moriarty kept the final game of the 1938 season going until darkness made it impossible to continue. Greenberg finished the night two homers shy of Ruth's record [4].
In his biography, Hank Greenberg recalled:
Much later in my career George Moriarty and I became very good friends. Back in the early 1900s he played third base for Detroit, and he used to steal home. Somebody wrote a poem about him, and the title was “Never Die on Third Moriarty.” All through the rest of his life George felt he knew something about stealing home. When he was umpiring on third base . . .

Not only that George Moriarty was a musician and songwriter.

thus -

Despite his combative field persona, off the field Moriarty could be more congenial, maintaining close friendships with Jesuit priests at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. Moriarty also fancied himself a lyricist, and collaborated with Richard A. Whiting on the tune "Love Me Like the Ivy Loves the Old Oak Tree."

A great American Novelist created a character who plays America's past time. A great athlete competes and flourishes in that mileau. His grandson goes on to play the character created by Mark Harris and goes on to become a great American Actor

God seems to know what He's doing.



http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/moriage02.shtml?redir

Self-Same-Sex Marriage: At Loyola University, Advocates of Self -Same-Sex Marriage Find a Bathroom

Self-Same-sex marriage: At Loyola University, advocates of Self Same-Sex Marriage find a voice and its no longer a whisper or a moan

Yanker McAnnic -Totally Inspired By Chicago Tribune Columnist Mary Schmich!
March 28, 2009

When Polonius ( Pole) Waxer, who's 26, enrolled at Loyola University's Chicago School of Law three years ago, he went to the student activities fair looking for the Onanist/Wanker/Tosser/Meat Whistle Polisher's Support Group. There wasn't one.

The lack of an official Onanist Support Group at a Catholic school might not surprise you since the Roman Catholic church deems masturbation a sin ( The Catechism of the Catholic Church -Articles 2357-2359). But Waxer was surprised. He had come to Loyola convinced that he'd be as accepted there as he was by his Catholic grandmother in Peotone, the Will County south suburb where he grew up in the village's only basement, watching strange movies about Space Amazons and Bikers. A Lonely, Solitary man, Waxer listened to Eric Carmen, Bread and Michael Jackson songs on his I-Ped - 'Beat It!, Beat It!' 'Allll By Myself!!!!!!!!! ( One, two , three) & etc.

"I thought, OK, Get a Grip! I know I'm not the only one here, Everyone Polishes the old Bayonet! Girls do it; bees do it; even educated Fleas do it!" he said when we met on Thursday.

"Where are they?" Everywhere! But in hiding. Shame -doncha know.

He found them. They were in the bathrooms, wheelchair access approved throughout the University. That year, he and a few other Onanist students formed a group, called Boxing the Jesuit. One of the deans signed on as an adviser. 'It was Signal moment in my Academic Career - like reading Noam Chomsky or writing to Ward Churchill - He's Dreamy! I am glad that one Academic could Fist this Ordeal and Take Things in Hand!'

And on Thursday, the flat-screen TVs all over the law school were advertising the group's latest venture: a University Wide Circle Jerk 'Rambler Wrist-Off".

If Loyola were a public school, I might have deleted Waxer's e-mail about the symposium. Life is heavy with press releases, not mention Sex in the City Re-Runs and Giradelli Chocolates. But the fact that one of Chicago's Catholic institutions was opening its grand "Ceremonial Cast-Off" to Onanist advocates seemed worth some consideration.

"I think this reflects young Catholics in Chicago," said Waxer, a slender guy with short auburn hair, neatly dressed in slacks, a white shirt and a navy pullover sweater and really well defined hand, wrist and forearm muscles and really intense look to his eyes. When I arrived, he'd been reading news articles—new methods for Wrist Therapies in Whacko,Februs and Lollypops magazines.

"People in this age group, 22 to 30," he went on, "are mature, able to think things through. Like find the time place and reading material to express real love. As American Film Director Woody Allen said, "Don't knock masturbation; it's sex with someone I love."'

He doesn't mean that all young Catholics think Tossers should be allowed to marry, instead they ought to enjoy the Full Benefits of the Civil State by Marrying Themselves. Some Loyola students appear to be in denial -in Pole Waxer's first year—someone ripped the group's posters off a wall in a locker room—he's felt entirely supported at this school where crucifixes hang in the classrooms.

Waxer wasn't raised Catholic, but—"I know it sounds really schmaltzy"—Loyola feels like family. He points out that it's not just Catholic, it's run by Jesuit priests.

"The Jesuits value giving themselves a hand," he said. "They value anything thing that trendy bullies demand of a University and allow discourse on all manner of Taboo topics. If you're pro-choice or you're gay, you're someone who can add to the discussion and to the Circle of Jerkers"

And so on Friday there will be a Handsome Demonstration of Self-Love.

Greg Harris, the Chicago state representative who is shepherding a civil-unions bill through the Illinois legislature, will be on Hand as he is a dedicated 'Seed Spiller and True Son of Onan*. So will lawyers pressing for same-sex marriage in Iowa and California. It is all about Identity Politics and Advocacy Issues that actually do not exist in the actual world, but are fabricated by academics and promoted by lazy elected officials.

These Wrist Rangers will be there to advocate. Waxer anticipates students who will come to argue. It's all part of the education.

Waxer himself isn't ready to be married.

" We Tossers have trouble committing -=even to ourselves. Vintage Posters of Joan Collins or Lex Baxter are another thing entirely. They get Onanists a pumping!
But when I am," he said, "I want my devotion to this person - ME - to be recognized the same way my parents' devotion to each other is recognized, without the commitment of course. I want my kids -when begotten scientifically -to whom I will apply my spilled Pecker Snot to the proper vaginal receptacle in a clean Lab - to be able to say, 'Yeah, my Pops are married.' "

After a while, we walked over to the Rambler Wrist Off where the Boxing the Jesuit symposium will be held. The ceilings whiter than usual, and Loyola Chicago's semen rose across the walls of windows.

Out in the changing, growing city, old buildings crowded next to new ones, and next to buildings so freshly under construction that you couldn't know exactly what they'd look like, only that one day soon they'd be there, and that once they were there, we'd take them for granted, we would not remark on the cement finishers sixth trip to the Porto potty in the last hour! We would say rather, He is busier than a City Editor at the Sun Times and Doing the Same Thing!'

Just like, I'm betting, Self-same-sex marriage, getting a handle on love, will make everyone happier,busier . . .stronger. Get a Grip indeed.




*Onan spilled his semen on the ground when he went in to his brother's wife, so that he would not give offspring to his brother. (Genesis 38:9).

"The Jesuits value diversity," Really? Better Read up Kid. Gay Life Style Forum Has No Place at Loyola.

Jesuits Celebrate Diversity? Don't bet the Council of Trent on that One, Bucko!

That's what a young Gay Loyola Law Student tells Mary Schmich in this morning's Chicago Tribune, while detailing his work for Gay Marriage, while shepherded by Il.Representative Greg Harris who is crafting a law to make Same Sex Marriage the Real Deal.

Pretzel rhetoric is a Progressive thing. The Jesuits might be moral and ethical cowards these days, but celebrate diversity they do not. At least they are not expected to do so. Here is what Loyola - the saint - says:


“We should always be disposed to believe that that which appears white is really black, if the hierarchy of the Church so decides” St. Ignatius Loyola - The Capo Di Tutti Capi of the Jesuits said that and the Catholic Church holds that Homosexuality - Gay Lifestyle - Sex With Same & etc. is a Sin.

But then there is the Secular Media and Mary Schmich.


Greg Harris 'shepherded' Gay Loyola Law student John Litchfield to Mary Schmich.

Mary Schmich heard a real diversity feel good story about . . .get this . . .A Gay Initiative at Loyola University of Chicago! Loyola University is not only Catholic, but Jesuit and now Mary Schmich, the Jeannette McDonald to Eric Zorn's Nelson Eddy at the Celebration of Diversity Chicago Tribune. Who can forget their cooingly delightful 'Dear Mary'-'Dear Eric' Blogger Smooches?

When I I',m Calling You -OOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Sorry. This was such a feel good story that I'm All Fiber One with The Milk of Human Kindness! Hey, I think I'll rent Milk get under a snugger blanket with popcorn and Green Tea and feel good all weekend.

Nah, I'll probably be wallowing in my heterosexual life-style born of my two parent ( one each -a female woman and an arrested development butch male)family, nurtured in Catholic Grade School, High School, and at Loyola University twice ( Bachelors and Masters), fulfilled and graced in the sacrament of Marriage with three children.

Yep, Mary Schmich thinks that this story needs to raise the warm and fuzzies on all us Catholics out here in Helot-land.

The fact of the matter is . . . Gay lifestyle*, all the man/man girl/girl sex stuff - which part goes where and etc. - avoids the whole issue of procreation and propagation of the Faithful. Catholic Boy and Catholic Girl join together to beget little Catholic Boys and Girls. Gay lifestyle is the domain of the Secular Universities and Secular Media. Not at Loyola. Hell, the Jesuits even frowned roundly on the Heterosexual Lifestyle when I went there and there were plenty of Gay Ramblers as far back as 1970. Great Business Students as I recall. Shoot, I went to AIDS-related funerals of at least five pals from my old College days. They were all buried with the Sacraments.

No Mary Schmich. While this is a dandy feel good, uplifting, heart-tugging, inspirational . . .hey, did Tyler Perry script this too? . . .tale, it is disingenuous - new speak for not honest.

This is an Illinois Representative Greg Harris propaganda piece to help push his Gay Marriage Agenda. This is Greg Harris at work with the compliant Chicago Media. Gay Life-Style is not a Sacrament. It makes Gay Happy an should be tolerated by us Divesity Sexual Lifestayle Types - heterosexuals - guys and girls who get married and such.

Read Mary's story. Do . . . .I'm all buttery yet! Sigh.


* Covered as a sin in the Catechism of the Catholic Church Articles 2357-2359).

So is fornication, masturbation, and pornography. I needed ( need) to wear out a path to the Old Confessional on a couple of those myself, but never seemed to need to form a support group. I wonder if Advocacy Politics covers lads who 'Beat The Bishop?' That would be one HUGE Progressive Demographic - You May Already Be a Member!

John McCain- 'Invictus' - We Get it,Billy - Got it at Loyola University - Lewis Towers

John McCain is now a Victorian. Sure don't seem like one to me, but what would I know? He seems like a well-adjusted American who was introduced to and developed a great appreciation for literature - the Great Conversation. These days, it seems, that literature is domain of the really smart - The Great Monlogue.

William (I call him Billy) Kristol, the really smart guy on FOX TV Cable News picked up on John McCain's allusion to 19th Century poet William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus” (1875). Have a White Owl, Billy!

John McCain said that 'We are Captains of our Fate' Billy caught that and coupled McCain's allusion to Henley's poem. Smart guy. Billy ought to stop by Keegan's Pub, when Jeopardy is on! 'I'll take Latin Poets and Hot Babes for $5,000 Alex!'

Kristol lets us know that McCain was alluding to 'Invictus.' Jimmy Molloy, now a retired Chicago Police Deputy Superintendent, got it. Chicago Fire Capt. Mike Miller got it. Hell, even I got. We read Henley in 1973 at Loyola University - The Public Transportation Harvard!

Annapolis Alumnus and Prisoner of War, John McCain used literature to off-set the horrors and depression of his five and half years of torture in the Hanoi Hilton.

I read Henley as part of a 19th Century British Literature survey course at Loyola University in 1973 - Henley was being dismissed as an artifact even then by the more fashionable professors and would be scooped up and taken to the memory dump by literary critics during the next thirty years, as cargo in the 'Dead White Guys' purge of literature and collective conscience.

Loyola University of Chicago is an urban Catholic school populated by lower middle class and middle class ethnic types. When I attended Loyola, my classes were filled with L-Riders from the south side at the Rush Street Lewis Towers Campus - my standard dress was grey janitors uniform to go along with my buzz hair-cut, as I was on 3-11PM shift after classes. My classmates often wore Khaki Police Cadet Uniforms, or Carroll's Red Hanger sports coats and smart young women's office wear for work at Sears on State Street and such.

Some of my classmates were Vietnam Vets and very few others attired themselves in Counter Culture wear. I had the late Dr. Hart, our Dean, for 19th Century Brit-Lit. He covered Henley and Kipling as well as the more canonized Ruskin, Arnold, Swinburne, Coleridge, Byron, Keats and Shelley.

In fact most of us in Hart's class enjoyed the Kipling and 'the minor' Victorians more as they promoted the values that each one of us lived - work hard, do a solid eight hours, take your lumps.

John McCain is very much like us L-Riders who became Police Officers, Firefighters, Sears Executives, School Teachers, Nurses, Accountants, and productive members of society. Loyola University provided a great education. Dr. Hart was not one of those teachers who dismissed writers, but introduced them to us - he allowed us to decide who was worthwhile and who was way off the critical mark.

Unlike John McCain, who was in the last years of his personal Gethsemane, we played with meter and message of 'Invictus' - we became Captains of our own souls.

We get it Billy. I don't think that makes McCain a Victorian - he's seems more of an Edwardian to me - sword in the cane; brandies with Oscar and Shav; having a bash at the Motts, Cards and Dice at Monte Carlo and what not?!

Click my post title for Billy Kristol's smart guy massage of John McCain. Billy was writing McCain's political obituary a couple of weeks ago, when all the L-Riders were supporting John McCain. Loyola University is a splendid school - thank you.

Ad Majoram Dei Gloriam