St. Joseph - How to Man -Up!

Yesterday was the South Side St. Paddy's Day Parade, but my thoughts were turned to St. Joseph*. Here's the deal - every year my cousin Willie opens up his bungalow over on Bell to about 200 people - mostly cousins and relatives and neighbors, but also Willie's endless parade of friends. Willie is one of the most genuine human beings and Christian gentleman to the steely backbone ( the anti-Hickey so to speak). Willie and Kerry and Bart, Maggie and Liam host a great Party that is often guested by the Great. President Barack Obama, Paul Vallas, Alderman Rugai,Tom Dart, Judge Tom Murphy, members of the Irish Government have all attended the Mass and Irish Breakfast with Willie before the Parade.

My role was to help cook bacon and Irish Bangers, but since the growth of this event exceeded the time and material needed to feed the folks, Willie has contracted the work out to Calabria. My job now is to help with the coffee. Nephew Bart and myself had to get the filled urns and pitchers and plastic vessels from Karim at Dunkin Donuts on 104th and Western.

I got to Willie's with the coffee and set things up, but then had to leave and get my car locked into the driveway at home. Anyone and everyone decides to make parking a personal entitlement. 'Park Here! Open Driveway! We won't have to walk a block or so - What's he going to do Tow Us? Flatten our Tires?' Well, it is a thought, Jasper. The Parade route on Western gets locked at 10 A.M. and it becomes impossible to cross Western Ave.

I got my car back home and started to walk the eight long and short blocks back to Willie's. A frantic woman had lost her little boy between 108th and 107th on Artesian. I asked her where and she said , 'I stopped to talk to a friend here on Artesian and turned around and he was gone! He's wearing a lime green T-shirt with dragons and Cubs hat- He's four years old - Oh, My God!.' Knowing the greatness of my neighbors, no little guy would go unnoticed and I tried to reassure her. I told her I would walk south on Artesian. It was still early and the thick crowds had yet to smother Western Ave. Down Artesian I went with a purpose and eyes wide open. Look, I am a gold-plated jerk about many things, but kids are not one of them - especially lost kids. I cut East on 109th and made my way back North on the west side of Western Ave, keeping an eye peeled for a solitary, crying four year old boy with a Lime Green Dragon t-shirt and a Cubs hat.

Nothing. I was getting as frantic as the poor Mom back on Artesian. I walked through the parking lot at County Fair and talked to two cops and they said no dice on the little guy. I crossed the parking lot to DiCola's and walked through that area and in back of the Quaker Meeting House. Nothing. I had lost Conor, Nora, and Clare for moments of pure anguish and self-loathing at museums, malls and marathons ( which I watch, but choose not to Run). There is nothing more horrific to a parent.

At 107th and Campbell I found the woman - girl really - talking to a tall bruiser who had a lime-green Buckeen with a CUBS hat perched on his shoulders. 'Thank you so much! This is my boy friend, Joe Petraikus and he chased Larry back to me.'

It turns out that Larry (4) went to pet a puppy and had ducked out of sight and followed the puppy and its owners west on 107th Street. The woman's boyfriend Joe the Loogan, a sobriquet I kept to myself by the way given the size and sinews of the lad, saw the wandering Larry and scooped him up.

It was too late to head back to Willie's and so I returned home to write an article for Chicago Daily Observer. I started thinking about Joe the Loogan, Larry and I never got Mom's name.

Joe, like the Patron of the Catholic Church, the patron of Fathers, the patron of workers, the patron Saint of Italians and Sicilians, was man who cared for the child who belonged to another. Joe found a little boy who had wandered off and agonized his mother, just like St. Joseph, the blue collar tradesman of Royal Blood, found his wife's little boy in a Temple full of wise men. Joe the Loogan found a little boy in waves of green costumes pushing strollers and wagons.

St. Joseph is the best saint. He teaches us males what it means to be a man - how to love with unconditional courage and gentle toughness. Toughness means not what one can dish out - pain, abuse, terror - but how much one can endure - doubt,discomfort and sometimes disgrace. Italians and Poles celebrated the masculine St. Joseph who worked quietly with his hands and protected his wife and child from the idiot who governed them.

We Irish celebrate a loner who worked miracles with his words. We need to crowd in on St. Joseph more than we do - I know I could use some manning up,

St. Joseph teaches us to Man up. Celebrate St. Joseph - no goofy green hats, and Miller Brewing keeps their hands off him. March 19th - St. Joseph Watch Over Us Guys!



*Joseph was foster father to Jesus. There are many children separated from families and parents who need foster parents. Please consider contacting your local Catholic Charities or Division of Family Services about becoming a foster parent.

Prayer -Saint Joseph, patron of the universal Church, watch over the Church as carefully as you watched over Jesus, help protect it and guide it as you did with your adopted son. Amen

Embryonic Stem Cells Come from Dead Kids - End of Story

President Obama's stem-cell policy "one of those definitional 'change we can believe in' moments," said John Nichols in The Nation. By reversing George W. Bush's ban on federal funding for research using new embryonic stem-cell lines, Obama is making it clear that "science and morality can mix."

No, he's showing that science and politics can mix, said Robert P. George and Eric Cohen in The Wall Street Journal. "Bush's policy was one of moderation," because it permitted the science to continue without encouraging the destruction of human embryos. Obama is pretending to be calm and moderate while advancing radical policies that "will promote a whole new industry of embryo creation and destruction," funded by taxpayers.

"If you support this research, congratulations: You won," said William Saletan in Slate. But, remember, this wasn't a fight between ideology and science. "It was a fight between 5-day-olds and 50-year-olds." If you ignore the losing side's main point -- that "embryos are the beginnings of people" -- you could win the stem-cell debate but lose your soul.

The Gals of Planned Parenthood and the Geldings who play ball with them might opine -

'Can you weigh a soul? Can a Soul get reservations at Spiaggia? Soul? Oh, I'm voting for the Soul.'

Planned Parenthood needs a win. They had a huge political one in November with the election of President Obama, for whom Planned Parenthood the scions of Eugenics Warrior Princess Margaret Sanger spent millions of dollars to support.

Anyone can get elected, really. I'm from Illinois and we twice elected the Klepto-Governor Rod Blagojevich, who begat Senator Roland Burris, poster boy for political opportunism, who begat more nonsense than a Stooge-athon on Cable. All that politics requires is sticking to the crafted script, having willing idiots like Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Butch Maddow in your hip pocket to to vilify any and all opposition, and keeping the cat hair off of your top coat.

Planned Parenthood needs a philosophical win based upon the tactical application of science which uses numbers, graphs, charts and nuance
over morals and ethics that employs unmeasurables - human understanding, honesty, and good will, for the most part. The Politics of ABORTION allows Obama and Planned Parenthood to sacrifice infants on the altar of 'Research.' Just gush out 'Research will save lives and end disease' and gutless nitwits and bumper sticker junkies will nod with solemn conviction. Oppose the Abortion Industry (PP, Abortion Docs, DNC, MSNBC, Cell Research Companies, Agit-Prop Progressives & etc.) position and get called evil Mormons, close-knit ethnic Catholics Bigots, or Rural Religious Reactionary Rubes, like in the nuance Gay Debates in California. BTW - they ( The Gay Agit-Propers) conveniently forget the African American Churches in the vilification process in the Gay Debate, because they need some black coalition building once Jesse Jackson and Al Sahrapton bite off their morditas.

Stem Cell research demands that infants die - be murdered. Nuanced Abortion Rhetoric allows Planned Parenthood to euphemize euthanizing people - like 'partial birth abortion' which means jamming a probe into the skull of a full-term baby and then yanking the dead little critter out with a forceps.

Jesus, Can you imagine dating some Planned Parenthood harpy? Ilsa of the SS and Penelope of Planned Parenthood have about the same cache.

President Obama is scripted on the wrong side of this debate. He will come out looking like more of an opportunistic dope than some Hitlerian monster - that job's taken. President Obama's strident triumph of the will - 'science over morality' dodge will make him look dumber than Rod Blagojevich with a hangover.

I like this gent's point of view.

It was a fight between 5-day-olds and 50-year-olds." If you ignore the losing side's main point -- that "embryos are the beginnings of people" -- you could win the stem-cell debate but lose your soul.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research comes from Dead Kids - End of Story.

I expect not.

Friar Jack's Real St. Paddy! Better Than the One Goofs Puke To at Both Parades Here in Chicago

It is tough knowing who in Hell each of us happens to be, let alone 'knowing' what a Legendary Saint is all about.

Today and tomorrow the Youth of America will get over served.

They want to get their Chi-Rish On! Chi -Rish don't Ch-Ite about St. Patrick or Saint Patrick's day.

I hold that St. Paddy was an Italian whose folks worked in Wales.

He converted the Irish to Christianity after being a slave in the Emerald Isle for years, and years. Instead of asking the Pope for 'a Mule and Forty Acres' in County Kerry; the emancipated Patricius asked to speak Truth to Power.

Here is a fine account of the abused Saint.


What do we know about the life of St. Patrick?

Patrick was born Patricius somewhere in Roman Britain to a relatively wealthy family. He was not religious as a youth and, in fact, claims to have practically renounced the faith of his family.

While in his teens, Patrick was kidnapped in a raid and transported to Ireland, where he was enslaved to a local warlord and worked as a shepherd until he escaped six years later.

He returned home and eventually undertook studies for the priesthood with the intention of returning to Ireland as a missionary to his former captors. It is not clear when he actually made it back to Ireland, or for how long he ministered there, but it was definitely for a number of years.

By the time he wrote the Confession and the "Letter to Coroticus," Patrick was recognized by both Irish natives and the Church hierarchy as the bishop of Ireland. By this time, also, he had clearly made a permanent commitment to Ireland and intended to die there.

These two brief documents are the basis for all we know of the historical Patrick. The Confession, because its purpose was to recount his own call to convert the Irish and to justify his mission to an apparently unsympathetic audience in Britain, is not a traditional biography.

And the "Letter to Coroticus," apparently an Irish warlord whom Patrick was forced to excommunicate, is a wonderful illustration of Patrick's prowess as a preacher but doesn't tell us much by way of traditional biography either.


Adapted from St. Anthony Messenger.


How did Patrick decide to return to Ireland?

As recounted in the Confession, most of the major events in Patrick's life are preceded by a dream or vision. The visions were usually simple—almost self-explanatory—but they were also very vivid and carried enormous emotional impact with Patrick.

The first vision, which he received after six years of servitude in Ireland, came by way of a mysterious voice, heard in his sleep. "Your hungers are rewarded: You are going home," the voice said. "Look, your ship is ready." Indeed, some 200 miles away, there it was. (Patrick was nothing if not tenacious.)

The second vision—the one that came to him after he'd returned home and that called him back to Ireland—was equally straightforward. Victoricus, a man Patrick knew in Ireland, appeared to him in this dream, holding countless letters, one of which he handed to Patrick. The letter was entitled "The Voice of the Irish." Upon reading just the title, he heard a multitude of voices crying out to him: "Holy boy, we beg you to come and walk among us once more." He was so moved by this that he was unable to read further and woke up.

But the dream recurred again and again. Eventually Patrick told his dismayed family of his plans to return to evangelize Ireland and soon began his preparations for the priesthood. What is interesting about this dream calling Patrick to his lifelong mission to the Irish is that it came not as a directive from God, but as a plea from the Irish. According to his recollections decades later, Patrick wasn't commanded to bring civilization or salvation to the heathens. He was invited to live among them as Christ's witness.

When he finally returned to Ireland, he proceeded to treat the barbarians with the respect implicit in his dream. From the outset, Patrick felt humbled and honored that God had selected him to convert the Irish. Apparently he never doubted that he would be able to do so.


Adapted from St. Anthony Messenger.


What was life like during Patrick's time?

Patrick lived in the fifth century, a time of rapid change and transition. In many ways we might say that those times of turbulence and uncertainty were not unlike our own. The Roman Empire was beginning to break up, and Europe was about to enter the so-called Dark Ages. Rome fell to barbarian invaders in 410. Within 10 years of that time, the Roman forces began to leave Britain to return to Rome to defend positions back home. Life, once so orderly and predictable under Roman domination, now became chaotic and uncertain. Patrick entered the world of that time.

The British Church of Patrick's time was also intimately connected with the Roman Empire. Missionaries from the continent followed the development of Roman towns, travelling over the system of good Roman roads. This was an urban Church with bishops establishing their centers in these Roman towns. The great ecumenical councils, beginning with that in Nicea in 325, doctrinally solidified a developing and common faith throughout this Church.

As Ireland had not come under the Roman Empire, it was for the most part unnoticed and untended by the developing Church. There were some Irish Christians, mostly on the eastern and southeastern coast. Many of these were probably British slaves who had been taken into captivity by the Irish. There is a record of a Bishop Palladius being sent to Ireland before Patrick. But the mission of Patrick was unique. There had been, up to this time, no other organized or concerted missionary effort to convert any pagan peoples beyond the confines of the Roman Empire. Patrick's efforts to do this, in fact, were criticized as being a useless project.

Adapted from A Retreat With St. Patrick: Discovering God in All.



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Friar Jack's Inbox

A note from Friar Jack: I want to take this opportunity to thank the hundreds of you that have taken the time to respond to me in recent months and offer your own thoughts about my musings or the Catechism Quiz. Often your thoughts are very profound and heartfelt and indeed illuminating to me, not to mention inspiring. They can also be challenging, even sharply so, causing me to reconsider and often to broaden my horizons. Many also include kind words of appreciation and touching pledges of prayerful and loving support. My most heartfelt thanks to all!!

It is my intention and that of my coworkers that each of you who sends me an e-mail response receives an automatic response indicating that I am very grateful for all communications from you, read each one of them and pray for all who write me, as well as for our entire online community. I want to confirm that all of this is true.

I am told, at the same time, that there can be glitches. After the newsletter goes out we must disengage the automatic response temporarily to avoid being bombarded by "out of the office" notices and other responses. Being technologically challenged I don't understand such things, but this problem has been mentioned to me more than once. So if you don't always receive a response from me, it's not that we don't have good intentions.

Let me also explain that it is simply impossible for me to answer personally the large volume of e-mails that come in. This is painful to me, because I am often deeply touched by your comments, insights and sincere questions. This was especially true of many responses to my last musing, "God's World Is Holy." My heart wants to answer and engage in dialogue with you, but because of the many hats I wear here at St. Anthony Messenger Press and unrelenting deadlines, it is simply impossible for me to do so.

One thing that amazes me about your responses is that they come from all around the world and from people of different religious backgrounds. We are truly an international and "ecumenical" community. This is a good lead-in to this month's Inbox. Last month we printed an e-mail from a reader who said the Muslim majority in Malaysia persecutes Christians. Two readers from Malaysia wrote to take exception with that assertion. Here is one of the two e-mails:


Dear Friar Jack: I am a Chinese living in Malaysia. I am baptized as a Catholic in year 2002. Previously I was a Taoist. I write in response to the statement made by Miss Erina that "Christians in Malaysia are persecuted and imprisoned." The statement seems so general and misleading. I myself observe harmony, freedom and respect in whatever religion one chooses to embrace in the country. My family is staying in a neighborhood where the majority of the residents are Muslims. Though there are a lot of differences in cultures, beliefs and mindsets between Muslims and Christians, as far as my neighborhood is concerned we are able to live harmoniously and respectfully with each other. Diplomacy and peace will not come by themselves. They have to be developed. I believe we as Christians are always called by God to live peacefully with all people and to love everyone. Though it is hard to practice humility, it is the root to understand and accept people and their beliefs. "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me..."—June

Dear Friar Jack: I sometimes cannot understand the difference between my human life and my life of GOD. I hope (and know that I will) stand face to face with him so to thank him for all he has given to me. I do understand that my GOD, Maker and Savior gives to me all I need to get through what we call life. Why is it that he looks to me with a love as if I am the only thing in this universe? My GOD is an awesome GOD and I tell him so each day.—Chester

Dear Chester: You express with great reverence and humility the mystery of God and the close relationship you seem to have with God. Jesus also spoke of this mystery from God's point of view: "I am the vine, you are the branches" (John 15:5).

Send your feedback to friarjack@americancatholic.org.

U2 at Keegan's Pub in Beverly - Nah, Not Really.

Singer Bono and his U2 bandmates were spotted hanging out at the Violet Hour lounge in Wicker Park on Tuesday night before exiting through the kitchen -- after their syndicated radio interview at the Metro rock venue, where they hawked their new album and upcoming tour, whose first U.S. stop is Sept. 12 at Soldier Field.

From Sneed 3/12/2009

Singer Bono and his anonymous U2 bandmates were ignored at Keegan's Pub at 10618 S. Western Ave., Chicago in the Beverly neighborhood on the south side, where no one asked about their new album and upcoming tour, whose first U.S. stop is Sept, 12 at Soldier Field. from me, if you don't mind.


Bernard - Irish born owner of Keegan's and Guinnesss tapster. - 'Soft day, lads. What's the craic?'

Bono - 'Four pints, please.'

Retired CPD hero - 'More of your extended family crowding into our country illegally, Bern?'

Bernard - 'They're Jackeens, Billy. Drink your Miller and don't scare off the trades . . . (soto voce) he's harmless lads . . .now. Dublin men'

Bono - 'We are that . . .more world men nowadays.'

CPD hero - 'Outta work, too? I thought most of you Pig$hit Irish #$%^ed off back to Paddyland in this, our troubled economy. Must be some brick work left out in Will County.'

Bono - 'Jaysus, We're U2, Yank.'

CPD - 'Were I what?'

Bono - 'No We're . . .We are . . .U2.'

CPD - 'No, I are retired'

Bono - 'I'm Bono'

CPD - 'I'm thirsty.'

Bono - 'There's four Tellies in here Have you not seen us?

CPD- You on Jeopardy?

Bernard - 'Enjoy your pints, Lads. ( Fade to black,or green,or pink or whatever . . .)

Out of such events events weaves the rich full tapestry of life in Morgan Park.

Jody Weiss - Learn from CPD Chief Francis O'Neill ( 1848-1936)

Click my post title for the MSNBC Bonfire of the Vanities celebration of Phil Rogers over his slanted report on The Judge Gettleman/G. Flint Taylor Law School Smack-down of Police Superintendent Jody Weiss.

Jody Weiss made a tepid attempt to 'do the right thing' for Police Officers but backed down.

There is a wonderful new book Chief O'Neill's Sketchy Recollections of an Eventful Life in Chicago, Edited by Ellen Skerrett and Mary Lesch. Chief O'Neill saved lives in the Iroquois Theatre Fire, Protected strikers in the Railway Strike, The 1904 Stockyard Strike, the great municipal and Teamster Strikes of 1905. fought with Progressive phonies and loudmouths like Emma Goldman, who was involved in the assassination of McKinley, and Dr. Cornelia DeBey 'a Mannish woman who was most aggressive,' Vice Lords Hinkey Dink Kenna, and Corporate monsters like Meat Packing Companies, and the thousands of vicious criminals. Chief O'Neill even had a cockroach lawyer like G. Flint Taylor - One Brode Bradford Davis, who tried to make some dough off of the police.

Chief O'Neill warned all persons who decide to be Chicago's Top-Cop.

Every head of the police in a large city, whether know as general superintendent, chief, or commissioner, is certain to encounter difficulties. The general public wants the law enforced. The leaders of the powers that be expect concessions and special favors. Between the two influences he is liable to get forced out before the term of his office expires.

On difficulties not already mentioned, I had more than my share, all of them based on the desire of certain elements to force my resignation. As soon as Mayor Harrison had left the city on his midsummer vacation in 1901, investigators were set to work to dig up something to my discredit in past years. It was surmised that in the mayor's absence discipline would be relaxed and that I might incautiously become involved in questionable associations. As nothing came of this move, a scheme was evolved to indict me on the charge of attempting to violate the civil service law; in back of this scheme was the political leader most interested in my disgrace. It was rehearsed for one week in the home of a police lieutenant, When the time was ripe, the witness was seized on a [subpoena] duces tecum and hurried to the office of the state's attorney, where he lost his nerve, forgot his lines and blurted out the truth. Notwithstanding this, he was taken before a grand jury, where he denied knowing anything to my detriment. It appears that the lieutenant had been promised a captaincy in any police district of his selection if he succeeded in smirching me. Instead, he lost his job and his pension.

The publisher of an evening paper, now dead, had been subsidized to harass me daily, but it did not work, the final effort was to "frame" me. It was very alluring bait indeed if I would only bite, but as I could not be induced to visit 'the spot.' I escaped all conspiracies unscathed and continued as head of the Chicago Police Department until it suited me to retire from service.

Chief O'Neill knew the Progressive phonies, the corrupt politicians, the dangerous anarchists, the vicious strike breakers, the callous capitalists, and sneaks in his ranks. Most importantly O'Neill knew the respect he had earned as a 'flat-foot' who took a burglars bullet, who backed his men when a radical tossed a bomb that killed eleven at Hay Market Square, who treated strikers as dignified working men, and never trusted the Press.

Carlos Nelson and Greater Auburn/Gresham Development Corp. Getting Things Done on 79th Street

My pal Carlos Nelson, long-time director of the Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corporation invited me over to the offices at 79th and Racine to discuss a planned tour of the Auburn/ Gresham neighborhood. we are working with writer Chris Vogel to develop some historical context to the tour. Much fun!

Along with Cheryl Johnson, Linda Johnson Herb Newkirk and my buddy Ernest Sanders, Carlos Nelson has had his shoulders set to a huge wheel. This neighborhood is an architectural dream scape with fine examples of the Chicago bungalow and commercial Art Deco properties abounding.

The history and the fabric of these neighborhoods is rich soil indeed.

Carlos and his staff have worked very hard to bring about some positive changes on the landscape and in the hearts of people. The landscape part is easy its the work on the human pump that is trouble.

There is no denying that 79th Street between the Dan Ryan and Ashland Ave. has undergone dramatic changes some which Leo High School has had a big part.

Most significantly, Carlos Nelson and GAGDC has eliminated much of the blighted properties and attracted new businesses to the neighborhood. Stores and services that were nowhere to be found in 1995 - gas stations and drug stores were no existent. Now 79th Street has stores and social service providers including Catholic Charities.

Leo High School has remained as an institutional anchor and source of inspiration to our neighbors. Our partnership with Carlos Nelson is a great one.

Barbie's Fifty! Cougar Barbie, or Drive Three Kids to Four Different Sporting Events Barbie

Girl You'll be Woman Soon! Noooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not Neil Diamond! Where's Moose Gilmartin?

Moose Gilmartin, a critic with a discerning ear for quality music, would invariably treat a Neil Diamond offering with an abrupt and ripping swipe of the phonograph needle arm across the grooves of the record. CEEEEWRRRPPPPPPPPIIIIIIIIIPPFFFP. Followed by the deft Frizzbeeing of the tainted vinvyl against the wall and replacement of J.J. Jackson's recording of . . .

You don't know how I feel
You'll never know how I feel
When I needed you to come around
You always try to bring me down
Oh, but I know, girl, believe me when I say that
You are surely, surely gonna pay, girl
But it's all right all right girl
You can hurt me but it's all right
Hey now, one day ah, you will see
You'll never find a guy like me
Who'll love you right both day and night
You'll never have to worry 'cause it's all uptight
Oh, but I'm tellin' you girl and I know it's true
That I was made to love only you
But it's all right, all right girl
You can hurt me, but it's all right
Go on, yeah

Oh, oh, yeah
My my my baby, wow, yeah!
But it's all right all right girl
Hey, say it's all right all right girl
Now there's one thing I wanna say, hey, yeah
You'll meet a guy who'll make you pay
He'll treat you bad and make you sad
And you will lose the love you had
Oh, but I hate to say I told you so, but
Baby, you gotta gotta reap what you sow
But it's all right all right girl
You are payin' now, but it's all right
So goodbye, now, goodbye, girl
You're payin' now, say bye-bye
You hurt me once, you hurt me twice
Oh, but-a baby, that don't cut no ice
Hey, goodbye, baby

Much better for a fine come of age woman like Barbie!

Happy Birthday, Toots!

My two girls stripped hundreds of your clones 'Buck Nekid!' and one slept with Nekid Barbies under her feet as a nightime ritual - I kid you all not!


One German woman has the largest Barbie Collection in the World! Most American parents believe that their child held that honor.

Bettina Dorfmann to take a look at her record-breaking collection in Germany with an assortment of Squarehead Barbies or maybe even a Klaus Barbie? That was cruel.

J. J. Jackson is much more fitting a Queen Like Barbie, than goofy old Neil Diamond.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7929492.stm

Bill Maher - The Inflated Ego of a Cheap Bigot and Deflated Talent. Billy There's Bigger and Better Catholic Haters.

Progressives hate Catholics and love Bill Maher.

Progressives are allowed to hate Catholics in PC America. It's the only form of bigotry allowable under Law ( not covered by any Hate Crimes - the ACLU does not aid Catholics or take up Catholic Civil Rights) and Custom. It is as American as defending Flag Burners and Late Night TV Monologues.

Bill Maher is not witty or really all that funny, but he is outrageously loud.

May 2002:


"I have hated the Church way before anyone else. I have been pounding religion for nine years on this show."
"... I offer this modest proposal that the Catholic Church just drop the pretense and just go gay. Just come out of the confessional. Preach the sermon on the mountain. Embrace it. Let the straight people be Baptists. It's high time you gay Catholics stood up and announced to the world, 'We're here, we're queer, get Eucharist.'"

That's a giggle? Billy. A bit puffed-up with smarmy self-importance, but not much funny. Now get this.


Bill Maher hated the Catholic Church before any one else.

Really? More than Oliver Cromwell? Who, when asked if Catholic children should be burned along the with the adults in Drogheda Cathedral in 1649, answered, 'Nits breed lice.' Oliver Cromwell would have been a great help to the Japanese during the Rape of Nanking. It was Cromwell who sent the thousands of Irish Catholics to the Caribbean as slave; hence all the Islanders with names like Patrick, Desmond, and Colin - Mahn. As James Joyce said in Ullyses, "What about sanctimonious Cromwell and his ironsides that put the women and children of Drogheda to the sword with the bible text God is love pasted round the mouth of his cannon?"

Sanctimonious Bill Maher, you hated the Catholic Church more than Pastor Charlie Chiniquy? More than the only American Apostate Charles Chiniquy who blamed Lincoln's assasination on the Jesuits? He would have fit in on Real Time. Check Chuck out!

"Long before I was ordained a priest, I knew that my church was the most implacable enemy of this republic. My professors … had been unanimous in telling me that the principles and laws of the Church of Rome were absolutely antagonistic to the principles which are the foundation stones of the Constitution of the United States of America." Charles Chiniquy 1809-1899


Here's more Maher-bles that Billy lost:

February 2005:


"We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I do believe that. I think that religion stops people from thinking. I think it justifies crazies. I think flying planes into a building was a faith-based initiative. I think religion is a neurological disorder. If you look at it logically, it's something that was drilled into your head when you were a small child. It certainly was drilled into mine at that age. And you really can't be responsible when you are a kid for what adults put into your head."
"When you look at beliefs in such things as, do you go to heaven, is there a devil, we have more in common with Turkey and Iran and Syria than we do with European nations and Canada and nations that, yes, I would consider more enlightened than us."-MSNBC's Scarborough Country interview with Maher

April 2005:


"For those who did not make the funeral, the Vatican has asked that in lieu of flowers, just stop touching your d---."
"People waited in line for 24 hours to see the pope's body and when they got to see the pope, they smelled worse than he did."

May 2007:


"And it's easy to start a religion! Watch, I'll do it for you: I had a vision last night! A vision! The Blessed Virgin Mary came to me - I don't know how she got past the guards - and she told me it's high time to take the high ground from the Seventh Day Adventists and give it to the 24-hour party people. And what happens in the confessional stays in the confessional. Gay men, don't say you're life partners; say you're a nunnery of two. 'We weren't having sex, officer, I was performing a very private Mass, here in my car. I was letting my rod and staff comfort him. Take this and eat of it, for this is my roommate Barry. And for all those who believe, there is a special place for you in Kevin.'"

January 2008:


"You can't be a rational person six days of the week and put on a suit and make rational decisions and go to work and, on one day of the week, go to a building and think you're drinking the blood of a 2,000-year-old space god. That doesn't make you a person of faith ... that makes you a schizophrenic."
"...UFOs are a lot more likely than a space god [that] flew down bodily and you know who was the Son of God and you know had sex with a Palestinian woman..."

America is a tolerant land. This punk still has his teeth.

Bill Maher is what being an asshole is all about.

Happy 77th Birthday Keely Smith!

Click my post title for Keely Smith, allowed to ignore Louis Prima for once, offering the absolute sexiest song ever.

Keely Smith makes the self-constructed Divas like Cher , Dianna Ross, Madonna and others fade like cheap paint. This Broad on the Video is the Goods.

Keely Smith is currently writing her autobiography, which has been a work in progress for several years. "I started it about four years ago and then put it aside," she explains. "When I read it, I wasn’t sure if I liked what I had written, but now I’ve started on it again. I want to do it with complete honesty, or not at all." And there are certainly plenty of lifetime experiences to chronicle: winning one of the first-ever Grammy Awards in 1959, performing at President Kennedy’s inauguration, receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and friendships with everyone from The Rat Pack to Elvis Presley.

"I have been very blessed in my life," says Keely Smith reflecting back. And as she looks towards the future, there are even more accolades to receive and sold-out shows still to come. In October of 2000 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, The Cherokee Honor Society will bestow Keely with its prestigious Cherokee Medal of Honor. "It’s the highest recognition that can be bestowed to a woman in the Cherokee nation," she states proudly. The Medal of Honor is given out annually to recipients whose achievements bring pride and honor to the Cherokee nation and community.

The incomparable Tony Bennett has gone on record naming Keely Smith "one of the greatest jazz-pop singers of all time." What better candidate then to honor Count Basie, one of the greatest bandleaders of all time. Further expanding her audience and repertoire, Keely Smith once again pays tribute to an important figure in her life with class, respect, and above all, an immense display of pure talent. Merv Griffin says it best—“Keely is awesome!”

Or, to quote the great Chicago pianist ( Scuttlebutt Lounge/Chop House) and frequent guest in Granny Hickey's kitchen, Hots Michaels. 'Keely Smith is the Silk.'

CPD Officer Tim Gould: "I ain't no hero. . . . I swear on my dad's grave that I do not think I am a hero," the South Chicago District officer said.

These are the men and women that oily louses like Flint Taylor and Jon Loevy ( just my un-nuanced opinion there, Mr. John Q. Public) work the Media and the courts to vilify as racist monsters.

Advocacy politics and law requires monsters. These fictional Monsters make money for the bottom feeding G. Flint Taylors and Jon Loevys who keep the Media fueled with stories and allegations about systemic police misconduct. They take the Progressive re-write of history as context - you know the one - where Jane Addams did more for poor immigrants than the Daughters of Charity or the Democratic Ward Bosses Jane was there, but heavy lifting was done by nuns and saloon keepers - and create Media Monsters who eat black people and pocket millions of dollars. The Media Divas eat it up. Media Divas are reporters or news readers who believe that they are public persons - celebrities.

Media Divas, like Mark Brown, Frank Main, Andy Shaw, and the howlingly funny and obnoxious old Walter Jacobson hate cops, because cops are infinitely smarter than them and almost to a man and woman, better persons than the Media Diva. The Media Divas get told that they are not really all that smart by homicide, burglary, vice and gang detectives - Ouch. Ouuuuuch!

I watch police officers every day, from 6 Am until sometimes very late at night over near Halsted on 79th Street. I never see Jon Loevy or G. Flint or Mark Brown or Locke Bowman on 79th Street - that is where the gun violence always seem to take place. Aside from the West Side, you can almost always be assured that address of the 'tragic' events reads something like 77%% S. Emerald; 84%% S. Racine: 9%$ W. 79th Street; 83&* S. Sangamon.

Police officers are there, taking the bullets and most of all the abuse from a public poisoned by the press and sickened by the lawsuit addictions of Marxist lawyers.

Officer Timothy Gould is the officer I am most familiar with over in the 6th District and he's sometimes a Woman, like the Romanian Officer with the sandy pony-tail ( she was a knock-out), or more often Black, Irish, Croatian, Italian, Polish, Mexican and even occasionally a Korean male.

They are heroic and professional.

This is what they do,

Gould then heard somebody screaming for help in the back of the building.

"I ran around back and knocked out the back window," Gould said. "I couldn't reach [inside the window] because the window was about eight or nine feet high, so I got a chair. I jumped on the chair, used my flash light and started hollering, 'Where you at?'"

Gould battled the smoke, crawled halfway into the window and finally was able to grab the man's arm.

"I felt his arm and I pulled him and got him to the window," Gould said. "I turned around and said, 'get on my back' and jumped off the chair and got him to the ground."

They are heroes. G. Flint Taylor and Jon Loevy and Locke Bowman are , as far as I can tell, water-bugs at best. The Media loves water-bugs, I guess.

Police Critics Condemn Use of Sentence Ending- Preposition by Officer as He Saves Life

The fire started about 4:10 a.m. in a three-story apartment building at 7845 S. East End Ave., according to Fire Media Affairs Asst. Director Eve Rodriguez.

Responding emergency units found three people trapped inside.

South Chicago District police officer Timothy Gould was responding to a call when he saw smoke coming from the building. The 18-year police veteran attempted to access the hallway through the main entrance on the side of the building, but smoke and flames were too strong.

Gould then heard somebody screaming for help in the back of the building.

“I ran around back and knocked out the back window,” Gould said. “I couldn’t reach [inside the window] because the window was about eight or nine feet high, so I got a chair. I jumped on the chair, used my flash light and started hollering, ‘Where you at?’”

In as fierce a Gathering of Worthies as when the cast of Harry Potter had lunch at the Daley Center, Some Peoples Law Office. Loevy, Loevy and Loevy Smith, Northwestern University Law Drop-outs and the Blum Center for Suing the $hit out of Chicago, the Boiled Beets Progressive of Illinois The Brighthole Coalition and 2229th Missionary Position Agnostic Church, roundly condemned Officer Timothy Gould, an 18 year veteran and close-knit ethnic Catholic for saving a South Shore black man while ending his sentences in prepositions.

SpokesTwerp G. Flint Taylor, noted for wrassling Gator Bradley for the sweepings of cash last summer, offered this,

'First Burge takes black men out on his Waterboarding Kris Craft Light Carrier and now systemic racism rears its head by disrespecting a black man with incorrect grammar. We are asking that all branches of Government give me Three Trillion dollars. This will not stand. Frivolous? I'll show you frivolous! I have the Press in my loincloth! I'll have Judge Gettleman in my corner again! You'll see! I am somebody!'


Blogger's note - Well done and God Bless you Officer Gould for your heroic and selfless act.

NPR Propaganda - Principal Fired Due To Mean Old Laws and Not Because He Was a Gay-Friendly/Advocacy Liar!

Read the spin on this NPR AgitProp!

NPR's Linda Lutton spins like a break-dancer on a wet floor - Rito Martinez was fired - just like the many, many, many city employees caught living in Greener Pastures than the Mean Streets they contracted to serve. Righto Rito, Morgan Park is as nice as Oak Park, though fewer gents sport soul-patches and chin whiskers. Yours, Rito, is a particularly spanking combination, Bye The Bye!

Nope. Rito got fired for being a sneak and a breaker of oaths. However to the Comrades of NPR - Rito is Gay Friendly and Lefty-Righteous! Now he is Benito Juarez? No way Jose-ita! Rito's a Sneak. Rito got caught. Rito got Launched.

NPR gushes this:

A popular principal who helped lead the fight for a gay-friendly high school in Chicago is leaving the district.

Rito Martinez has been principal of Social Justice High School in Little Village since it opened in 2005. Martinez told students at an assembly yesterday that he chose to live in Oak Park so he could get better access to services for a son who has Down’s syndrome. But that violates residency rules that require most CPS employees to live within the city limits.

Senior Channing Redditt said students at the tight-knit school responded with a mix of anger and sadness to the news.

REDDITT: Many students were asking, “Can we fight this? What can we do to stop this from happening?”

Social Justice High School will be honored next week as a model for getting youth to participate in local civics. Martinez was named a Golden Apple Teacher in 2002. This fall he co-led a fight to start a gay-friendly high school, though the effort fizzled out.

A CPS spokeswoman said Martinez has already resigned and will leave the school in June. She said the situation is a stark reminder that policies must be followed.

Are you kidding me?!!!! 'Officer the Speed Limit says that My driving at 85 MPH is a violation! Basta YA! Venceremos!'

Hell. I'm gay friendly! Friendly with Gays! ' Hey, Cyril, great Hibiscus you got goin' there! Andy find work yet?' Sure, I am. Honor bright! I pick up Gay Bill from the Antique Shop ( as Opposed to Crabby Bill the Banker for City National) when he takes the Rock Island ( Metra)in to 107th all the time. 'Bill, Hop In - It's colder than a well-digger's ass out there!' Does that mean that now, I can speed on Longwood Drive, when school lets out? I'm Gay Friendly!

That's just being a gentleman - it ain't political.

TS, Rito!

What is good for the Geese should be good for the Propaganda!

Anti-Catholic Bigot Maher and Skeletor of Righty Chic - Meet the Geeks

Now, here is my idea of how to waste money during our national economic Bataan Death March - go see Coulter and Maher spit at each other at the Chicago Theatre.

Maher is a pasty, back sliding Irish, anti-Catholic bigot and Ann Coulter has all of the shrill sex appeal of riding an English Racer Ten-Speed East along Brainard Ave. across the eight miles of rocks, rats, and old railroad ties between Hegewisch and Hammond along the South Shore lines, near the old Republic Steel works. Bumpy.

Maher is the punk too frail to punch at the end of bar, who, having pissed himself, after a long afternoon of no work and caging beers, attempts to divert attention from his stained Chinos by shouting religion and politics nonsense at the top of his lungs- to no one in particular.

Bill Maher is playing for free at every bust-out bar in America. You want to see Bill Maher? Hit The Owl's Diaper, or The Captain's Scuttlebutt Hole, He's Not INN, or Take Your Bleeding Guts Out The Back Door Saloon.

Ann Coulter . . .not my particular cup of Aconite.

Here's the tag for this Sewer Rat Cage Match -

4 ticket listings are displayed in the map Help
Balcony 3 R N Up to 6 $105.00 each View Details
Main Floor 3 L Q 2 $132.00 each View Details
Main Floor 4 L CC 2 $219.00 each View Details
Pit AAA Up to 6 $286.00 each View Details

If you have that kind of dough to blow watch the Geeks Meet - Happy Days Are Here Again!

Gettleman and G. (Gimme) Flint Taylor Worked Together Before!

Cop Bashing U.S. District Judge Gettleman and G. ( Gator or Gimme, or Gimme Gator!) Flint Taylor collaborated across the Fed bench and gave big dough to Taylor and some to the murderers of Chicago Police Officers O'Brien and Fahey - The much (allegedly)abused Wilson Brothers, in 1997. Together Again!

G. Flint Taylor is the Cockroach Cadillac Commie Counsel for Criminals and Judge Gettleman is the U.S District Court Judge who slapped Police Superintendent Jody Weis with a contempt of court citation and a caveat that Weis give up the names and addresses of Chicago Police Officers to the Gang-Bangers, Inc. of Chicago's Best Buddy - G. ( GD) Flint Taylor.

Now, Hush now. I am about whisper the name of the Author of the following piece from 1997. IT'S JOHN CONROY! The guy the Progressives burn incense to, but can't get his own head around the fact that G. Flint Taylor can not close the deal on Burge and that Chicago Reader can't afford to pay any more. It appears that G ( Gimme) Flint Taylor gets with Gettleman:

The breakdown in payment ordered by Judge Gettleman is as follows: The city is to pay $900,016 to Wilson's lawyers—Flint Taylor, Jeffrey Haas, and John Stainthorp of the People's Law Office. An additional $100,000, earmarked for Wilson, is to be paid directly to the widow and two children of William Fahey, who are identified in court documents as "judgment creditors" of Andrew Wilson. The Fahey family won a wrongful death suit against Wilson years ago, and thereby ensured that they could garnish any money awarded him in his civil rights suit against Commander Burge, his comrades, and the city.

The city's lawyers have agreed to abide by half of the judge's order. They have not appealed the judgment that the city was responsible for the misdeeds of policemen who were aware of brutality and did not stop it or get proper medical attention for Wilson. For their inattention to duty, the city has already issued checks to the Fahey family for $50,448 and to the People's Law Office for $504,749. The city's lawyers deny, however, that taxpayers should pay for the misdeeds of policemen when they apply electric shock to suspects. The corporation counsel is appealing that portion of the Gettleman judgment in the U.S. Court of Appeals.

G.(Gimme) Flint Taylor's GOT the Media! He's GOT every murdering thug between the Mississippi and the Atlantic! He's GOT Gettleman - it seems he's had Gettleman.

Gee - its in the news.

Illinois Media Ignores Catholics - The Meeks Shall Inherit the Lede - Well Smelt This!

What the Hell! Cardinal George, six other bishops from this State, the boatload of Catholic Leadership and the great folks of the Catholic Conference of Illinois go to Springfield to do Grassroots Lobbying for Seven Issues vital to Illinois Catholics and here is the coverage:


Catholic Leaders, Parishioners To Meet With Lawmakers
MyStateline.com - ‎20 hours ago‎
(Springfield) -- Francis Cardinal George is leading a group of Catholic bishops and parishioners at the Illinois Capitol today.

Our exclusive with Rep. Senger
Chicago Daily Herald - ‎18 hours ago‎
SPRINGFIELD -- Catholic leaders want Illinois taxpayers to pay an estimated $70 million more next year to subsidize private schools. ...

Ignore the Mackerel Snappers!

No News - But Wait - Sex Abuse!!!!! That Sells! Damn them Catholics!

Check this out. Catholics get ignored wholesale when lobbying for issues that matter to them, but the Media smears - SEX ABUSE ALL OVER!

Chicago archdiocese's sex-abuse tab: $15.8 million in '08
Chicago Tribune - ‎5 hours ago‎
By Margaret Ramirez | Tribune reporter The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago paid more than $15.8 million in legal settlements related to sexual abuse ...
Chicago Archdiocese pays $35.5M in abuse claims ABC7Chicago.com
Chicago Archdiocese paid $100M in sex abuse claims: Church report Crain's Chicago Business
all 8 news articles »


Google This! Oh, sorry I forgot. It's Lent! You can not beat newspaper clowns for Flat Out Phonies and Simpering Lickspittles. They'll break bread with you at noon and then ridicule your neighbors as racists in print before breakfast the next day, purely because they can. They'll crash a guy's St. Paddy's Parade Day Party, get legless on his booze, eat like they're going to the Chair, throw up in his drive-way and then write a Cotton Mouth Mather piece on 'drunken South Side Catholic teens' at the Parade. I witnessed some of Chicago's celebrated journalists doing just that over many years. 'Butter wouldn't melt in their mouths, so.' because there is hardly any room left in their gaping maws with free eats and booze. Like the pet Chimp that the dim-wit kept, they'll gnaw on your face and forget any and all graces. What is important ( not loyalty, decency, courage - those virtues died with Ray Coffey) to Media clowns? - ego and appetite in no set order.


However where Race is Concerned they are very correct and gutless.

Rev. Sen. Meeks does not like the brand of toilet paper in Dolton schools and learns that Highland Park has Charmin - the media lights up. 'Hurtful! Shameful! Systemic Racism! Wipe Out Hate! Be Charmin' Y'all -Pass the Charmin!' Front Page- Color! Nutgraphs and Ledes all over the place!

The Race Card Trumps All. Catholics are a Rainbow Coalition - Asian, Black, Native American, South Sea Islander, Hispanic, and all of us Pale Faces of varying hues. There are alot of Catholics in Illinois -3,611,033 Catholics or 31.59 of the State Population. Now that is diversity - Jews can't say that; Muslims ain't nowhere near us; most mainline Protestant Churches not even close. Catholics are Diverse, but we love that Fish!!!!

Time To Toss some of the Fish that we don't eat on Fridays in Lent! Lets toss some smelt ( small herring like fish) caught out at Washington Park and Jackson Park Boat House (great spots) wrapped in local newspapers into the lobby of each news outlet - cause a stink. I love smelt and smelt fishing. Nick Novich caught one. He mounted it. Most netters gather in thousands, like St. Pete and his pals on Galilee. Deep fried or pan fried - they good!! Let's toss some at the Ink-slingers and get their attention to Fairness to Catholics.

That's 3,611,033 bundles of smelt,or 31.59 % of Illinois people causing a stink! The Media stinks worse - rotting fish can be explained -Wholesale injustice to 31.59% of Illinois due to Progressive Doctrine Mandates - Catholics do not Matter -can not.

Get all Activist and What Not! Let's toss some smelt!

And I Thought I Was One Ugly Cat

I'm not much to look at, nothin' to see
Just glad I'm livin' and happy to be
I got a woman, crazy for me
She's funny that way

I can't save a dollar, ain't worth a cent
She'd never holler, she'd live in a tent
I got a woman, crazy for me
She's funny that way

Though she'd love to work and slave for me every day
She'd be so much better off if I went away

But why should I leave her, why should I go?
She'd be unhappy without me, I know
I got a woman, crazy for me
She's funny that way


When I hurt her feelin's once in a while
Her only answer is one little smile
I got a woman, crazy for me
She's funny that way
Charles N. Daniels (a.k.a. Neil Moret) and Richard Whiting 1929
Click my Post title for the Ugly Truth!

Hat Tip to Eddie Carroll - Old World Craftsmanship in Roofing and New Age Womanizing

Atheist Bob Sherman - Behold His Mighty Hand! God Sends Quigley Out of Town!

Mike Quigley! No time to sit back there big fella - let's get you packed on on your way!

God is Great! No one and I mean no one saw this Anus Mirabile! God in His Majesty has cooked the ballots in the 5th Congressional District and has deigned to send The Uriah Heep of Illinois -Commissioner Mike Quigley* - to Congress. Washington D.C. gets the Terror of Tiny Town! 22% of the Vote! And Bob Sherman does not believe in God! Well, Bob, my boy take another look! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWEH!

I can not tell you how happy this makes me. Mike, if you need a hand packing and clear wrapping the boxes let me know. I'll pick up ten Boxes of Joe from Karim at Double Ds ( Dunkin Donuts) on Western. I have about six good and thick blue U-Haul blankets up in the rafters of my garage from when me and the kids moved to Morgan Park.

Sure, I know you got the 'real' election in April and all, but, really, let's start looking for a nice Hobbit Habitat for you in D.C. and get your stuff packed up and shipped.

Bob Sherman if this don't prove the Prime Mover knows the Score; then, God don't make little Green apples and it don't rain in Indianapolis in the sumer time/no such thing as Dr. Seuss Disneyland or Mother Goose . . .. . . Sorry went all O.C. Smith on you there.

This could not be better. Mike Quigley - Alpha Mike Foxtrotted off to D.C.!

John Fritchey - it is in God's hands that you remain in Springfield and work with Speaker Madigan, Kevin Joyce, Ed Maloney,Jim Durkin, Dan Cronin, Dan Burke,Jackie Collins and the always smart and honest Mary Flowers to make sure the more child-like Legislators at least appear to act like grown ups.

Sara Feigenholz - you'll always have the Purple Gang.

All of the others who ran - thanks for you public service. God Bless each and every one of you. Laying it on the line for your neighbors is what public service is all about. And then there is Mike Quigley . . .

Now, let's get Mike Quigley off to Washington, D.C. where he can really shake his money maker. Let's get Quigley out of town - Pronto!

Here, Mike, let me get the door.


*

Quigley, 50, grew up in Carol Stream but started his political career in Chicago, working as an aide to establishment Ald. Bernard Hansen (44th) while studying for his master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago.

Like Emanuel, he is media savvy, quick to offer a tip or pointed quote. But Quigley also is a wonk, known for writing policy papers on such arcane topics as tax-increment financing and government restructuring.

Throughout the campaign, Quigley pushed what he considers to be strong credentials as a reformer, someone willing to take on entrenched power. He also relentlessly trumpeted his endorsements from the editorial pages of the city’s two major newspapers.

Quigley lost a previous aldermanic bid and briefly challenged then-County Board President John Stroger before dropping out and supporting ally Forrest Claypool, who lost the 2006 Democratic primary.

Illinois Catholics at the Capitol Today

I'm up early and saw that there was Bupkis on Catholics at the Capitol in the Illinois Media.

Here goes: Illinois Bishops* behind Chicago's Francis Cardinal George,O.M.I. and along with the Catholic Conference of Illinois will meet Illinois Legislators and Leaders to address seven issues vital to Illinois Catholics.

1. legislation to increase the Education Expense Tax Credit, utilized by Catholic school parents, from $500 to $1000 annually;
2. funding to community organizations and parishes to provide English classes to immigrants;
3. legislation mandating that a woman seeking an abortion be offered the opportunity to view a sonogram before the procedure;
4. opposition to legislation providing for same-sex marriage or similarly defined civil unions;
5. legislation to ensure federal and state reimbursements are provided to Catholic health care and hospitals on a timely basis;
6. legislation to finally abolish the death penalty;
7. legislation or budgetary action to provide a cost of doing business increase for Catholic Charities and other social service providers.

I know how my legislators will vote as they are Catholics and neighbors. Illinois Catholics should make a great case and we know Illinois Legislators will do the right thing - seven times.



Chicago
His Eminence Francis Cardinal George

Rockford
Most Reverend Thomas G. Doran

Springfield
Most Reverend George J. Lucas

Peoria
Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky

Belleville
Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton

Joliet
Most Reverend J. Peter Sartain

With the Kool Kidz at Chicagoist - The Blago Book

I get out of the neighborhood when my kids let me off the leash and I venture to the North Side. The Woman Who Has Captured My Heart lives up North - no kidding. She has me doing things that I have not done in years - no, I shower and groom with great gusto and regularity thank you - get all dogged up and go hear live music ( jazz mostly) attend the theatre, peek in galleries, cane louts and ne'er -do-wells . . .

I like the Flatiron district of Wicker Park at the intersection of Milwaukee Avenue, North Avenue, and Damen Avenue. Cafe Absinthe with bartender Brendan from New York is a great spot. Among the muffler's and soul-matched Dudes, I'm the Geezer in J.C. Penny black top coat that some DuPage County Sonovabitch left when he grabbed my Brooks Brothers at the Illinois Crime Commission Dinner hosted by Patrick Elwood last Spring, Irish farmer cap, $ 15 Regular Boys Haircut from John's on 111th and crew neck sweater over button collar shirt.

'Whoa! Who let that Square in there!'

Lookee Here, your father's hip he know what cooks!

In that spirit I turn to Chicagoist a franchise Big City hipster website that always seems to capture the pulse of Chicago . . . North of Bridgeport anyway.
After reading John Kass's great send-up of Milod's tome I treated myself the Chicagoist treatment. Our kids drew from the AP posting on this item:

It's like watching a train wreck,” Martin told the Sun-Times in reference to Blago’s appearance on several network television shows since Jan. 26. “And I'm not sure, in this economy especially, people will pay money to read about a train wreck.” According to the Associated Press, a Blago book deal or talk show might be a viable option for the ex-governor’s two-pink-slip household, now down two salaries worth $277,000 a year.

Literary agent Ted Weinstein, who helped a Nevada school teacher turned campaigning congressman hook up with Random House, predicted the governor could land a book deal valued at up to six figures if - and only if - he admits he is guilty or spills about some friends. “If he says, ‘Here's how the whole world works’ -- the underside of Chicago, naming names -- damn, we'd all want to buy that,” Weinstein told the Sun-Times. Blagojevich’s public relations agent, Glenn Selig, whose firm also represents Drew Peterson, confirmed the ex-governor has been offered more than one book deal, but stayed mum on the possible contents of such a book.

Would that they offered more commentary Ala Steve Rhodes' Beachwood Reporter Now, that lad hands me a giggle with regularity of a Dick Durbin about-face.

As to Blago's Book . . . Who's gonna read it to him?

David Brooks and Chris Buckley - A Solid as Their Convictions. The Indulgent Boys! Done Romancing with President Obama Already?

David Brooks and Chris Buckley and Kathleen Parker and . . .the other old broad what's her name? . . . worked for Reagan. Dammit!

Sorry.

David Brook and Chris Buckley* are two mopes who have kept me from drinking the GOP Soup.

Brooks and Buckley went to different schools together, but mew the same kittenish convictions. Barrel chested He-men they ain't! Would you want to be in a Fox Stoll with either Gent? Me either.

I am a 19th Ward Democrat, which means that I am probably more socially conservative than most Republicans. I worked very hard for John McCain, who seemed to quit when the financial meltdown took place. At that time, IVY League Preppy Smart Guys David Brooks (who my Angelic girlfriend thinks is 'really, really interesting and nuanced') and Chris Buckley who has managed to write some very funny stuff, went Skull and Bones on McCain and Black-Balled him, or whatever the Hell the Eastern Prep Boys call it.

They helped elect President Obama, who probably wishes he were in Hyde Park about now, as much as George Soros. George Soros is doing to America what he did to Francois Mitterand's France about ten years ago.

Hey, here's shiny new Sacajawea Gold Coin for any newshound who can tell us all 'Why Can't George Soros Go to France?'

Anywho, the Prep Boys, Brooks and Buckley are now sour on Obama.

Hey, you too privileged twerps, remember George Danton? Danton was the ink slinger in Revolutionary France who demanded Real Change! Robespierre went all Gillette Blue Blade on Georgie Danton. Can't be an Indulgent when you give all the power to the Jacobins.

You two mopes need to man up.

Move to the 19th Ward. Get your asses chewed for failing to cut the lawn in a timely manner or not watching over your kids, by the solid wives of firemen, cops, tradesmen, teachers and professionals.

Does make one's cravat point to the willows; what? It do.

SEIU - Blowing The Deal for Janitors in the Press

Two of my best pals are Doctors ( Mr. MDs). Clark is an Internal Medicine Superstar and Manning is the best surgeon in Southwest Texas and Mexico. Both told me 'If you can feel your heart pumping gallons of blood, you have a problem. See a doctor and quick. The Beauty of any living organ is that you should not know its there.'

When any Organism or Organization kicks up with genuine Old Timey Activism, it seems, then you are a dead man.

If your collective bargaining unit is flapping its arms like a baby sparrow on a crowded side-walk before it has entered into negotiations with management, you workers are screwed, blued and tattooed - maybe color that up to Purple.

Yesterday, SEIU Chicago with Tom Balanoff, did all of the old Trotskyite stuff right - organized a march to the Czar's Palace, waited for cossacks to saber workers, and flooded the route with Press and sprinkled the podium with the colorful assortment of politicians it has purchased - Toni Preckwinkle and Joe Moore.

If you click my post title and watch the Progress Illinois video catch Joe Moore's weaving and grinding up on the podium - he looks like a horn-dog on Viagra overload, or a five year old boy with a kidney full of Mountain Dew Red in a way too long line at Target.

Here's the deal. Unions engage in collective bargaining for their rank and file. Good ones engage management and actually bargain the best deal for their workers. The press is never invited.

SEIU pressures politicians to change laws and ordinances that raise taxes and secure
some pittance of a raise. SEIU's dues paying membership get to march in the cold and listen to rhetoric. At the end of the month they have more month than pennies.

The Press buys SEIU's nonsense, because SEIU talks and talks and talks and then makes Purple People march. Good theatre; bad labor practices.

Janitors are paid lousy wages. Ask Tom Balanoff and SEIU to bargain in good faith and not in the media.

Anybody hear anything from The Building Owners and Management Association (BOMA)? Nope. Read anything in the SEIU tanked up media - you know the ones who always use 'Labor" when they mean SEIU? Nope. BOMA is used to dealing with real labor unions. The ones that succeed for the rank and file.

They (BOMA) already won.

Chaplet for The Seven Catholic Illinois Issues - Use The Seven Wounds of Christ

I am not a particularly pious person - would that I were - I'm too lazy and too chicken. However, I pray like a Turk at a Bris Milah most days.

The Rosary takes many forms and variations here is one based upon the Seven Wounds of Christ. How about we Illinois Catholic pray for each of issues that our Cardinal, our Bishops, Our Schools Chief, Our Chancellor and the great people of the Catholic Conference of Illinois bring to Soringfield this week? I'll do it if you guys will. See, I'm lazy and chicken and need group reinforcement.

Here's each issue and the prayer to go with it.

1.legislation to increase the Education Expense Tax Credit, utilized by Catholic school parents, from $500 to $1000 annually; Wound of the Knees
From the moment of your betrayal, you were bound and dragged by the centurions before your accusers and false witnesses. When you were unable to keep pace with these torturers, you fell to your knees, were flogged and then dragged again. If the punishment of those knees were not enough, under the burden of your heavy cross you fell again to your knees three times. I praise worship and adore the wounds of your knees. By these wounds I ask that you make all souls close to your heart become ardent lamps lighting today's dark and faithless world.
On the next 4 beads
1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, 1 Glory be to the Father,
I adore you Jesus, I love you, and I praise you.


2.funding to community organizations and parishes to provide English classes to immigrants;Wound of the Scourging
I come before you as an unworthy person begging you to allow me to consecrate myself entirely to your most Sacred Heart. I praise, worship, and adore the Holy Wound of your scourging with so many openings that shine forth with the pure and bright rays of your patient love. I offer to you, Jesus, your Holy Church, and I ask you to bless our Pope, our bishop and all our priests.
On the next 4 beads
1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, 1 Glory be to the Father,
I adore you Jesus, I love you, and I praise you.


3.legislation mandating that a woman seeking an abortion be offered the opportunity to view a sonogram before the procedure;Wound of the Left Shoulder
During your scourging the torturer's whip lashed onto your left shoulder before tearing the flesh from your back and then not punished enough you were forced to carry your own heavy cross on that same red, torn and bloodied shoulder. Because of our sins You have been struck unto death. I praise, worship, and adore the Holy Wound of your left shoulder. Help all those who desire to serve You more closely by increasing their faith, hope, and love. And I ask you to protect all your priests and strengthen them against the attacks of the Evil One.
On the next 4 beads
1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, 1 Glory be to the Father,
I adore you Jesus, I love you, and I praise you.


4.opposition to legislation providing for same-sex marriage or similarly defined civil unions;Wound of the Crowning of ThornsO my Jesus, your Holy Face has been marred by the malice of sinful man. The thorns from the twisted branches penetrate into Your Sacred Head, the Temple of Divine Wisdom. May the memory of your wounds ever remain in the hidden places of my heart, to stir up within me your compassionate sorrow, so that the flame of your love may be enkindled in me. I thank you for the infinite love with which You endured so numerous and such cruel sufferings, to expiate my sins which I detest with all my heart. "O Jesus, whose Face delights my heart, I beseech You to imprint in me your Divine resemblance, to inflame me with your love and make me contemplate your glorious Face in Heaven."
On the next 4 beads
1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, 1 Glory be to the Father,
I adore you Jesus, I love you, and I praise you.


5.legislation to ensure federal and state reimbursements are provided to Catholic health care and hospitals on a timely basis;Wound of Your HandsUnited with the entire Heavenly Hosts and with all the faithful on earth, I praise, worship, and adore the Holy Wound of your Hands. I thank you; for it is on account of our sins that Your hands have been pierced. I offer to You all those who at this moment are dying. Touch the heart of those souls and have mercy on them.
On the next 4 beads
1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, 1 Glory be to the Father,
I adore you Jesus, I love you, and I praise you.


6.legislation to finally abolish the death penalty;Wound of your FeetIn union with all the souls that are still detained far from You in Purgatory and who yearn to be with You, I praise, worship, and adore the Holy Wound of your Feet. Have mercy on those souls who hunger while awaiting your mercy. Come to the aid of those tried by life's difficulties and all those who walk in darkness. Allow them to discover that You are their only hope.
On the next 4 beads
1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, 1 Glory be to the Father,
I adore you Jesus, I love you, and I praise you.


7.legislation or budgetary action to provide a cost of doing business increase for Catholic Charities and other social service providers;Wound of the Opened Side
It is through your sufferings that You relieved our sins and reconciled the world to Yourself. Receive our praise, worship, and adoration for that suffering. I praise, adore, and worship the Wound of your opened Side, your pierced Heart. I desire to live every remaining day of my life in the cleft of Your opened side and to love you more. So I ask you again to inscribe your wounds on my heart, that I may read in them your sufferings and your love. May the memory of those wounds ever remain in the hidden depths of my heart so that I may return Your love to you.
On the next 4 beads
1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, 1 Glory be to the Father,
I adore you Jesus, I love you, and I praise you.

Seven Cardinal Catholic Issues for Illinois Legislature

March 4th Catholic Illinois will have its voice heard in Springfield, Illinois. The Illinois Legislature will hear the demands of Illinois Catholics. Francis Cardinal George and Chicago Catholic Schools Chief Sister Mary Paul McCaughey will articulate Seven items of Catholic Concern for the Illinois Legislative Agenda:

1.legislation to increase the Education Expense Tax Credit, utilized by Catholic school parents, from $500 to $1000 annually;

2.funding to community organizations and parishes to provide English classes to immigrants;

3.legislation mandating that a woman seeking an abortion be offered the opportunity to view a sonogram before the procedure;

4.opposition to legislation providing for same-sex marriage or similarly defined civil unions;

5.legislation to ensure federal and state reimbursements are provided to Catholic health care and hospitals on a timely basis;

6.legislation to finally abolish the death penalty;

7.legislation or budgetary action to provide a cost of doing business increase for Catholic Charities and other social service providers;

We can call The Catholic Conference at 312-368-1066 for further information. We can also call our Illinois Legislators and our Catholic Illinois Governor.

Art Not Chance - Catholics Not Welcome Still

"I have hated the Church way before anyone else." Bill Maher


Alexander Pope's family was not allowed to live within 'ten miles of London or Windsor.' That was due to the very acceptable anti-Catholic sentiment that flourished in Britain and still is quite fashionable in the United States.

Bill Maher's whipping of the Pope's Dogs in America - all 60 million of us - gave him the Bulliest of Pulpits - TV. Maher goes unchallenged and unchecked and will continue to do so. He even has a movie out that no one I know has seen, but everyone has heard about - Buzzzzzzzz.

Boston College reviewed the movie:

Religulous is incredibly indicative of Maher's love to stir up trouble and surely offended those who identify with the Holy Land or creationist museum guests. Instead of striving to inspire religious questioning, Maher attacks beliefs that are dear to a huge demographic. Charles' style is reminiscent of his pervious work on Borat, as Religulous attempts to go over the heads of those at whom it pokes fun. Just like Borat, Charles takes the back seat and lets the lead (Maher) take the driver seat to craft his style of humor.

After his prolific talk show history, Maher takes his disregard for others' feelings to the big screen in Religulous. Although entertaining, Maher falls short of convincing many to question their beliefs; instead, he alienates those who might sympathize with his cause.

http://media.www.bcheights.com/media/storage/paper144/news/2009/02/19/TheScene/Mahers.religulous.Able.To.Stir.Up.Extremism.But.Not.Debate-3637016-page2.shtml

PC gave Maher carte blanche, but it failed to fuel the clown with talent or genuine insights - human much less divine. Maher tools for others who hate Catholics in particular and religion in general.

HBO gave the raving anti-Catholic Bill Maher a wonderful platform from which to insult sixty (60) million Americans. Renegade Catholics are lionized like George Carlin, Eugene O'Neill, or F. Scott Fitzgerald. America has no place for Catholics in text books ( try and find any reference to the Carrolls of Maryland; John Barry Father of the US Navy; or American Philosopher Orestes Brownson). Devout Catholics are dissected on a Procrustean rack by context critics and semiotic totalitarians and then tossed aside as slaves to the Vatican.

Like writing itself, this fashionable American bigotry is practised. Good writing requires continued practice. As Pope wrote," True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest who have learned to dance"
In Essay on Criticism, Pope defended literary orthodoxies and savage attention to virtues, patriotism, and piety in Faith. Writers are not 'outside' themselves it seems. A writer who would attack a life-long friend in an attempt to curry favor with a patron, could not devote himself to the canons of taste that command all literary arts,

Likewise, trendy bigots can spew hate in fashionable epithets and sound bytes

But if in Noble Minds some Dregs remain,
Not yet purg'd off, of Spleen and sow'r Disdain,
Discharge that Rage on more Provoking Crimes,
Nor fear a Dearth in these Flagitious Times.
No Pardon vile Obscenity should find,
Tho' Wit and Art conspire to move your Mind;
But Dulness with Obscenity must prove
As Shameful sure as Importance in Love.
In the fat Age of Pleasure, Wealth, and Ease,
Sprung the rank Weed, and thriv'd with large Increase;
When Love was all an easie Monarch's Care;
Seldom at Council, never in a War:
Jilts rul'd the State, and Statesmen Farces writ;
Nay Wits had Pensions, and young Lords had Wit:
The Fair sate panting at a Courtier's Play,
And not a Mask went un-improv'd away:
The modest Fan was liked up no more,
And Virgins smil'd at what they blush'd before--
The following Licence of a Foreign Reign
Did all the Dregs of bold Socinus drain;
Then Unbelieving Priests reform'd the Nation,
And taught more Pleasant Methods of Salvation;
Where Heav'ns Free Subjects might their Rights dispute,
Lest God himself shou'd seem too Absolute.
Pulpits their Sacred Satire learn'd to spare,
And Vice admir'd to find a Flatt'rer there!
Encourag'd thus, Witt's Titans brav'd the Skies,
And the Press groan'd with Licenc'd Blasphemies--
These Monsters, Criticks! with your Darts engage,
Here point your Thunder, and exhaust your Rage!
Yet shun their Fault, who, Scandalously nice,
Will needs mistake an Author into Vice;All seems Infected that th' Infected spy,
As all looks yellow to the Jaundic'd Eye.

LEARN then what MORALS Criticks ought to show,
For 'tis but half a Judge's Task, to Know.
'Tis not enough, Taste, Judgment, Learning, join;
In all you speak, let Truth and Candor shine:
That not alone what to your Sense is due,
All may allow; but seek your Friendship too.

Be silent always when you doubt your Sense;
And speak, tho' sure, with seeming Diffidence:
Some positive persisting Fops we know,
Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so;
But you, with Pleasure own your Errors past,
An make each Day a Critick on the last.

'Tis not enough your Counsel still be true,
Blunt Truths more Mischief than nice Falsehood do;
Men must be taught as if you taught them not;
And Things unknown propos'd as Things forgot:
Without Good Breeding, Truth is disapprov'd;
That only makes Superior Sense belov'd.

Be Niggards of Advice on no Pretence;
For the worst Avarice is that of Sense:
With mean Complacence ne'er betray your Trust,
Nor be so Civil as to prove Unjust;
Fear not the Anger of the Wise to raise;
Those best can bear Reproof, who merit Praise.

'Twere well, might Criticks still this Freedom take;
But Appius reddens at each Word you speak,
And stares, Tremendous! with a threatning Eye
Like some fierce Tyrant in Old Tapestry!
Fear most to tax an Honourable Fool,
Whose Right it is, uncensur'd to be dull;
Such without Wit are Poets when they please.
As without Learning they can take Degrees.
Leave dang'rous Truths to unsuccessful Satyrs,
And Flattery to fulsome Dedicators,
Whom, when they Praise, the World believes no more,
Than when they promise to give Scribling o'er.
'Tis best sometimes your Censure to restrain,
And charitably let the Dull be vain:
Your Silence there is better than your Spite,
For who can rail so long as they can write?
Still humming on, their drowzy Course they keep,
And lash'd so long, like Tops, are lash'd asleep.
False Steps but help them to renew the Race,
As after Stumbling, Jades will mend their Pace.
What Crouds of these, impenitently bold,
In Sounds and jingling Syllables grown old,
Still run on Poets in a raging Vein,
Ev'n to the Dregs and Squeezings of the Brain;
Strain out the last, dull droppings of their Sense,
And Rhyme with all the Rage of Impotence!

From Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

Clowns like Maher get the job done for their masters. Their Masters are the people who have eliminated the canons of taste in all of the Arts, in Politics, and in common societal discourse. I call them The Who's To Say-ers: 'Who's to say Lesbianism at the Grammies is not what Americans demand; that humorless PC gelds literature and art.' I do not find Maher clever or funny. He lacks depth of thought and practiced attention to the canons of humor. He is an outrageous loudmouth.

Pope had it right. 'Tis best sometimes your Censure to restrain,
And charitably let the Dull be vain:
Your Silence there is better than your Spite,
For who can rail so long as they can write?