Catholic Schools Work for the Kids Who Attend Them - School Choice Needs Town Halls

My youngest, Clare, begins her high school experience next week at Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School - the largest all-girls school in America. Clare graduated from St. Cajetan Grammar School in our Morgan Park Neighborhood. Her girlfriends are going to Mother McAuley, Marist, St. Ignatius and St. Francis of Assisi. The boys are going to Mount Carmel, St. Rita, Marist and Brother Rice. White, Black and Hispanic - they are going to Catholic High Schools.

Mother McAuley costs about $ 8,000 and change with tuition and fees each year and most of the other schools round out about the same with St. Ignatius Prep topping the crowd with its menu. The path to success is expensive - very expensive, because Catholic schools encourage not just participation but full immersion in activities that strengthen the moral, civic and religious virtues. Kids like Clare become Catholic League Athletes - cheerleaders, football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, Lacrosse, Rugby players, wrestlers, as well as track and distance runners. They work on Dramatic, Choral, Polyphonic productions as musicians, singers, actors, stage hands, lighting technicians and even crowd control. Life skills and people skills are part of benefits pad for in time, treasure and talent.

Catholic Schools Superintendent Sister Mary Paul McCaughey works, from what I can tell to be, a fifteen to twenty hour day bringing people of talent and treasure together in order to squeeze out some time for Catholic Schools. James O'Connor, Josh Hale and Tom Zbierski of the Big Shoulders Fund are shepherding millions of dollars in gifts so that any family wishing to commit to Catholic Schools can afford to do just that. This genuine commitment is learned when people are young.

The kids in Catholic Schools learn stewardship and the value of a buck, as most of them also try to find part-time jobs to help the Old Man and the Old Lady, one or other, or both, to meet tuition and expenses costs.

Kids learn what it means to do without - tonier vacations for the family, Gold-Cable Packages, water-sport toys, and time in front of the Idiot Box (TV) or thumbing the controls of X-Box and Text-messaging appartii.

The investment in Catholic Schools is a community forming activity that is in fact an extension of the Parish Life - we are responsible for each other. The Best example of this reality is Chicago's Big Shoulder Fund that provides millions of dollars in aid to inner city families who can not afford the cost of Catholic Schools.

I work at Leo High School that is 99.9% funded by white Leo Alumni who are graduates of that school from the 1930's, '40's, 50's. 60's, 70's and 80's. Leo has been 100% African American since the 1990's; however, men like Frank Considine ( '39) Bill Koloseike ('45), Andy McKenna & Dick Landis ('47), Tom Owens ('54), Don Flynn ('56), Joe Powers ( '70) and Bob Schemel ('71) have contributed millions of dollars to Leo High School over the years. The real miracle beyond these gargantuan sums from the very succesful great guys named above are the endless drops of $50, $100,$500, $ 1,000 and above by hundreds of Leo Men, who also open the doors of the 1926 School at 5:30 a.m. and tutor the kids for A.C.T. and S.A.T. prep like Denny Conway and Jack O'Keefe, or fill the bleachers at every event like Bob Hylard, Frank McDermott, Bill and Jack Farnan, Jim Farrell, Rich and Jim Furlong, Gene Earner and all of his many sons, Dan Stecich, Larry Lynch, Tom Lynch and . . . you get the idea.

Catholic Schools make a better America and very good Americans. Catholic Schools are the Original Gangsters* (The OGs) of Faith Based Initiatives. Catholic Schools are unapologtically Catholic and teach without bowing to the 'Tyranny of Relativism,' to quote the Pope, which has had all Public Education in a Full Nelson Head-lock for decades. Catholc Schools teach from a position of Faith and that Faith is rooted in unshakeable truths - You don't steal, you don't kill, you don't lie, you don't sleep around like an HBO hero, you don't forget that you are obligated to other people. That's Commitment.

An interesting fact from a recent study noted that Catholics who attend Catholic schools tended to remain married to the same partners for life. Catholics don not find ease and comfort in the Faith but endurance and charity. Charity means hard work and developing a big set of shoulders.

The Big Shoulders Fund is rooted in the Courage and Commitment that was developed in and around Catholic Schools. The money available to inner-city families did not get there by Osmosis.

Real School Reform depends upon the vitality of Catholic Schools. Catholic Schools offer competition -if not accountability.

When politicians and hand-wringing activists and think-tank agendanistas get wise to themselves they will see that Catholic Schools are the hub of genuine Reform. Ask Paul Vallas, who succeeded in Chicago by following the Catholic School gradus and took those reform victories to Philly and New Orleans.


Americans need to demand Town halls on Real Reform in Education. If you think Health Care is a concern, hold the phone on Education Reform!

Click my post title and commit to Catholic Schools.

Here are some findings on Catholic Schools by the Rand Corporation that are being forgotten:

In a study published in 1990,. . .the Rand Corporation analyzed big-city high schools to determine how education for low income minority youth could be improved.2 It looked at 13 public, private, and Catholic high schools in New York City that attracted minority and disadvantaged youth. Of the Catholic school students in these schools, 75 to 90 percent were black or Hispanic. The study found that:


The Catholic high schools graduated 95 percent of their students each year, while the public schools graduated slightly more 50 percent of their senior class;


Over 66 percent of the Catholic school graduates received the New York State Regents diploma to signify completion of an academically demanding college preparatory curriculum, while only about 5 percent of the public school students received this distinction;


85 percent of the Catholic high school students took the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), compared with just 33 percent of the public high school students;


The Catholic school students achieved an average combined SAT score of 803, while the public school students' average combined SAT score was 642; and


60 percent of the Catholic school black students scored above the national average for black students on the SAT, and over 70 percent of public school black students scored below the same national average.
More recent studies confirm these observations. As parents, politicians, and concerned observers become aware of the benefits of Catholic schooling, particularly for the poor, the rhetoric demanding action builds. Syndicated columnist William Raspberry, a self-described "Reluctant Convert to School Choice," wrote recently, "It seems as obvious for poor children as for rich ones that one-size-fits-all education doesn't make sense."3 Furthermore, according to a recent survey conducted by Terry Moe, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and John Chubb, founding partner and curriculum director for the Edison Project, a stunning 83 percent of public school parents and 82 percent of inner-city poor parents want parochial schools to be included in the choice of schools to which they can send their children.4

http://www.heritage.org/research/urbanissues/bg1128.cfm

That was in 1990, boys and girls and public schools have performed much worse, while Catholic Schools continue perform so much better.

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/17413589.html?dids=17413589:17413589&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+08%2C+1996&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=BORROWING+SUCCESS+IN+THE+SCHOOLS&pqatl=google

*OG - Urba Dictionary
An Original Gangsta or Original Gangster.
Yo, What up OG? What's good in tha hood? Catholic School, Tru Dat.

"This Is PC! Get Me Re-Write . . .Stat! Immediately, if not Sooner!" The Fort Dearborn Salon

"It's not to say there wasn't a massacre, but we wanted to provide a vehicle for people to come together," The Fort Dearborn Massacre?

In the gentle words of the Apostles and His Ma upon Christ's Ascent into Heaven," Come Again????"

"It's not to say there wasn't a massacre, but we wanted to provide a vehicle for people to come together," said Tina Feldstein, president of Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance the ceremony's host.

Here's the story* - Potowatomi Indians ( Native Americans one and all) butchered the people hiding in Fort Dearborn, because they were paid by the British to do so during the War of 1812. Now, their descendants are scalping the invading white man whose hegemony is a Trail of Tears up at the big Casino near Milwaukee and more power to them! Chicago Tribune reporter Ron Grossman tells of another PC Idiot Iconoclastic Venture under the aegis the Park District to rename a stretch of street around 16th & Indiana with a park to hallow the ground of the Beach Party formerly known as the Fort Dearborn Massacre.

Ron Grossman reported with balance and professionalism. I would have gone all Pokagon on some of the mouthpieces involved -"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR BILGE BESOTTED MIND? Here, hold still while I slap you. Stop wiggling, it will help you."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-fort-dearborn-massacre-renamaug14,0,4033765.story

However, the revisionism and political oiliness is rooted in the well-worn Political Correctness that further makes idiots of our children and besmears the discipline of historical scholarship through dilettante Dollies and their appointed roles on societal committees - Ms. Feinstein.

Perhaps Chicagoans can expect a full transfer of truth:

Chicago Stockyards - Vegan Alternative Landscape

Chicago Fire - A Rainbow of Color and the Wind of Change

Chicago White Sox - Diversity Hose

Colombian Exposition - Imperial Racists Festival

St. Valentine's Day Massacre - Faith Neutral Retribution

Please, folks, when well-meaning morons want 'to bring people together' by destroying the historical record, give them a plateful of bubblegum cookies to keep them occupied.

*Fort Dearborn Massacre

In 1810, Captain Whistler was replaced at Fort Dearborn by Captain Nathan Heald, an experienced soldier, who also brought with him Lieutenant Linus T. Helm, another officer with experience on the frontier. Helm soon married the step-daughter of John Kinzie. In addition to she and Heald’s wife, there were other women now at the fort as well, all wives of the men stationed there. Within two years, there were 12 women and 20 children at Fort Dearborn.

The first threat came to the fort with the War of 1812, a conflict that aroused unrest with the local Indian tribes, namely the Potawatomi and the Wynadot. The effects of the war brought many of the Indian tribes into alliance with the British for they saw the Americans as invaders into their lands. After the British captured the American garrison at Mackinac, Fort Dearborn was in great danger. Orders came from General William Hull that Heald should abandon the fort and leave the contents to the local Indians.

Unfortunately, Heald delayed in carrying out the orders and soon, the American troops had nowhere to go. The unrest among the Indians brought a large contingent of them to the fort and they gathered in an almost siege-like state. The soldiers began to express concern over the growing numbers of Indians outside and Heald realized that he was going to have to bargain with them if the occupants of Fort Dearborn were going to safely reach Fort Wayne.

On August 12, Heald left the fort and held council with the Indians outside. By this time, it was estimated that 500 of them were encamped at the fort. Heald proposed to the chiefs that he would distribute the stores and ammunition in the fort to them in exchange for safe conduct to Fort Wayne. The chiefs quickly agreed and conditions were set to abandon the stockade.
Heald returned to the fort and here, was confronted by his officers. Alarmed, they questioned the wisdom of handing out guns and ammunition that could easily be turned against them. Heald reluctantly agreed with them and the extra weapons and ammunition were broken apart and dumped into an abandoned well. In addition, the stores of whiskey were dumped into the river. Needless to say, this was observed by the Indians outside and they too began making plans that differed from those agreed upon with Captain Heald.

On August 14, a visitor arrived at the fort in the person of Captain William Wells. He and 30 Miami warriors had managed to slip past the throng outside and they appeared at the front gates of the fort. Wells was a frontier legend among early soldiers and settlers in the Illinois territory. Captured by Indians as a child, he was adopted into the family of Little Turtle, the famous war chief of the Miami. Later, Wells served as a scout under General “Mad Anthony” Wayne and was currently serving as an Indian agent at Fort Wayne. He was also the uncle of Captain Heald’s wife and after hearing of the evacuation of Fort Dearborn, and knowing the hostile fervor of the local tribes, headed straight to the fort to assist them in their escape. Unfortunately, he had arrived too late.

Late on the evening of the 14th, another council was held between Heald, Wells and the Indians. Heald was told that, despite the anger over the destruction of the ammunition and the whiskey, the garrison would still be conducted to Fort Wayne. In turn, Heald was told that he had to abandon the fort immediately. By this time, Heald had more than just his men and their families to think of. John Kinzie and the other nearby settlers had also come to the fort for protection. Throughout the night, wagons were loaded for travel and reserve ammunition was distributed, amounting to about 25 rounds per man.
Early the next morning, the procession of soldiers, civilians, women and children left the fort. The infantry soldiers led the way, followed by a caravan of wagons and mounted men. The rear of the column was guarded by a portion of the Miami who had accompanied Wells. They, along with Wells himself, did not believe the promises made by the other tribes and they had their faces painted for war.

The column of soldiers and settlers were escorted by nearly 500 Potawatomi Indians. As they marched southward and into a low range of sand hills that separated the beaches of Lake Michigan from the prairie, the Potawatomi moved silently to the right, placing an elevation of sand between they and the white men. The act was carried out with such subtlety that no once noticed it as the column trudged along the shoreline. A little further down the beach, the sand ridge ended and the two groups would come together again.
The column traveled to the an area where 16th Street and Indiana Avenue are now located. There was a sudden milling about of the scouts at the front of the line and suddenly a shout came back from Captain Wells.... the Indians were attacking, he cried! A line of Potawatomi appeared over the edge of the ridge and fired down at the column. Totally surprised, the officers nevertheless managed to rally the men into a battle line, but it was of little use. So many of them fell from immediate wounds that the line collapsed. The Indians overwhelmed them with sheer numbers, flanking the line and snatching the wagons and horses.

What followed was butchery.... officers were slain with tomahawks.. the fort’s surgeon was cut down by gunfire and then literally chopped into pieces ... Mrs. Heald was wounded by gunfire but was spared when she was captured by a sympathetic chief, who spared her life... the wife of one soldier sought so bravely and savagely that she was hacked into pieces before she fell... John Kinzie’s niece was spared but was narrowly wounded by a tomahawk. She was finally spirited away by a Potawotomi named Black Partridge, a childhood friend. In the end, cut down to less than half their original number, the garrison surrendered under the promise of safe conduct. In all, 148 members of the column were killed, 86 of them adults and 12 of them children.
Captain Wells, captured early in the fighting, became so enraged by the slaughter that he managed to escape from his captors. He took a horse and rode furiously into the Potawatomi camp, where their own women and children were hidden. Somehow, the barrage of bullets fired at him missed their mark, but his horse was brought down and he was captured again. Two Indian chiefs interceded to save his life, but Pesotum, a Potawatomi chief, stabbed Wells in the back and killed him. His heart was then cut out and distributed to the other warriors as a token of bravery. The next day, a half-breed Wynadot named Billy Caldwell, gathered the remains of Wells’ mutilated body and buried it in the sand. Wells Street, in Chicago, now bears this brave frontiersman’s name.

In the battle, Captain Heald was wounded twice, while his wife was wounded seven times. They were later released and a St. Joseph Indian named Chaudonaire took them to Mackinac, where they were turned over to the British commander there. He sent them to Detroit and they were exchanged with the American authorities.

Dr. Camille Paglia Knows That Sgt. Jimmy Crowley Will Have Another Beer at the White House Before Obama's Public Option Gets Articulated

Salon is a pretentious word for a beer and wine guzzle and gum flap. Its roots are in the Italian neoclassical age ( late 16th century) when everyone who was anyone was agog over Horace, Cicero, Virgil and Catalus.

Groups of people who could read met in a big open room and read Latin poetry and discussed the beauties of the tropes and truths of the sentences. The French went apey over the salone gatherings of the Italians and aped the tradition from the 17th Century on and then the children and grandchildren of Yankee Puritans and immigrant swell-wannabees played Salon. They still do.

I attend a Salon every morning up at Kean Gas where worthies gather to exercise their gums over events and ideas large and small. This gathering includes teachers, lawyers, ComEd workers, Peoples Gas clerks, Cops, Firefighters, Nurses and Ward precinct captains. Invariably my faults and peccadillo's are tossed back upon my positions to poison the well of dispute -nonetheless, my helot's thoughts get free voice. Last Friday, I had the pleasure to 'salon' with Beachwood Reporter and NBC Chicago web-meister Steve Rhodes - a rock-ribbed liberal of the old school and young man with a lode of intellectual and literary gold to mine. I was bested in dispute and at Eight Ball no end by Rhodes and other 'bright young things' - and that is as it should be. It was the best of salons.

Salon ( Clique my Post Title) is also a slick magazine that features agreed upon smart-set contributors and sanctioned opinion-slingers. Ever-weepy and whiny Joan Walsh, an endlessly dull harpy and MSNBC head-shaker, holds this tent's center-post. However, the absolute best writer and only original thinker at this salone ( in deference to the Professor's Italian Heritage) is Camille Paglia.

I know of Dr. Pagila due to my trade as a has-been English teacher. Camille Paglia always extends the context - the breadth and depth of her reading never posts limits on her mind's ability to articulate without cant or bigotry.Dr. Pagila is openly gay yet not given to strident agenda netting. She is a former Catholic who respects the beauty, mystery and majesty of the Faith. She is a feminist who never allows simple-minded association to grab for the broad brush and repaint the house.

This week Dr. Paglia went right to the root of the Obama White House's failure to articulate why Health Care Reform must be accepted by every American without a careful examination of the guts of the agenda. Paglia writes that Obama Care's root problem could be witnessed a few weeks ago in the Gates/Crowley nonsense and distraction. Pagila states,

As a libertarian and refugee from the authoritarian Roman Catholic church of my youth, I simply do not understand the drift of my party toward a soulless collectivism. This is in fact what Sarah Palin hit on in her shocking image of a "death panel" under Obamacare that would make irrevocable decisions about the disabled and elderly. When I first saw that phrase, headlined on the Drudge Report, I burst out laughing. It seemed so over the top! But on reflection, I realized that Palin's shrewdly timed metaphor spoke directly to the electorate's unease with the prospect of shadowy, unelected government figures controlling our lives. A death panel not only has the power of life and death but is itself a symptom of a Kafkaesque brave new world where authority has become remote, arbitrary and spectral. And as in the Spanish Inquisition, dissidence is heresy, persecuted and punished.

Surely, the basic rule in comprehensive legislation should be: First, do no harm. The present proposals are full of noble aims, but the biggest danger always comes from unforeseen and unintended consequences. Example: the American incursion into Iraq, which destabilized the region by neutralizing Iran's rival and thus enormously enhancing Iran's power and nuclear ambitions.

What was needed for reform was an in-depth analysis, buttressed by documentary evidence, of waste, fraud and profiteering in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and insurance industries. Instead what we've gotten is a series of facile, vulgar innuendos about how doctors conduct their practice, as if their primary motive is money. Quite frankly, the president gives little sense of direct knowledge of medical protocols; it's as if his views are a tissue of hearsay and scattershot worst-case scenarios.

Of course, it didn't help matters that, just when he needed maximum momentum on healthcare, Obama made the terrible gaffe of declaring that, even without his knowing the full facts, Cambridge, Mass., police had acted "stupidly" in arresting a friend of his, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Obama's automatic identification with the pampered Harvard elite (wildly unpopular with most sensible people), as well as his insulting condescension toward an officer doing his often dangerous duty, did serious and perhaps irreparable damage to the president's standing. The strained, prissy beer summit in the White House garden afterward didn't help. Is that the Obama notion of hospitality? Another staff breakdown.

Both Gates and Obama mistakenly assumed that the original incident at Gates' house was about race, when it was about class. It was the wealthy, lordly Gates who committed the first offense by instantly and evidently hysterically defaming the character of the officer who arrived at his door to investigate the report of a break-in. There was no excuse for Gates' loud and cheap charges of racism, which he should have immediately apologized for the next day, instead of threatening lawsuits and self-aggrandizing television exposés. On the other hand, given that Cambridge is virtually a company town, perhaps police headquarters should have dispatched a moderator to the tumultuous scene before a small, disabled Harvard professor was clapped in handcuffs and marched off to jail. But why should an Ivy League panjandrum be treated any differently from the rest of us hoi polloi?

Class rarely receives honest attention in the American media, as demonstrated by the reporting on a June incident at a swimming pool in the Philadelphia suburbs. When the director of the Valley Swim Club in Montgomery County cancelled its agreement with several urban day camps to use its private pool, the controversy was portrayed entirely in racial terms. There were uninvestigated allegations of remarks about "black kids" made by white mothers who ordered their children out of the pool, and the racial theme was intensified by the director's inept description of the "complexion" of the pool having been changed -- which may simply have been a whopper of a Freudian slip.

A salon is a big open room. Camille Paglia seems to be the only Salonista willing to welcome the helots who drink coffee with me at Kean.

God Bless, Dr. Paglia.

SEIU Scripting Dan Lipinski on Health Legislation - It Sure Looks Like It!

Edwardian England -
Oscar Wilde - " I wish I'd said that!"
James Whistler - "You Will, Oscar. You will!*"

The Other Day -
Dan Lipinski - A Car Simile!
SEIU - Yes, a Car Simile. It's like when . . .
Dan Lipinski - I thought nothing was like when.
SEIU - Just read it and believe it.
Dan Lipinski - That, I can do!

Dan Lipinski is getting cover from SEIU - why not, money and crowds of XXXL Purple sign wavers.

Dan Lipinksi voted for Cap and Trade.

Now,Dan Lipinski is going all Progressive in his tag-along work for SEIU over Health Care Legislation that will lead to Government Medicine. Bad Medicine.

In STNG ( Pioneer Press)The Doings: LaGrange Dan Lipinski seems to have lifted his statement directly from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 1199 on the Bureau of Workers Compensation payments to the medical industry from July 21, 2005 study that decries American Health Industry. Click my post title for that study. This study was reported in Environment Health and Safety Leaders EHS Today way back in 2004 - about the time that Congressman Lipinski states that he began his study of America's Health.

Many of the claims against the Bill's enemies - the Health Villains picked out by SEIU for Congressman Dan Lipinski - echo in the 3rd District's Congressman's statement printed on August 9, 2009.

However, Dan Lipinski even seems to have even lifted a witticism from the article.

In the STNG statement Dan Lipinski catalogs the evils of the Hospitals, Insurance Companies, and the Pharmecuetical villains but also adds this, "One reason treatment is so expensive is the near-total lack of price information available to health care consumers. These days, entering a hospital for treatment is like buying a car without looking at the sticker."
Yep. Smart Simile going on there, Dan. However, in 2005, an SEIU Spokes Folk said this

"It's like going to buy a car and instead of negotiating based on what the actual cost of manufacturing the car is and figuring in a slight mark-up, taking the sticker price on the window and negotiating something higher and then thinking you've done a good job," Courtney said.

While Ohio BWC's payment structure, which the agency implemented in 1998, seems reasonable at first blush, Courtney and SEIU allege that BWC is not paying a percentage of the actual cost of providing medical treatment to injured workers. Instead, SEIU asserts the agency is paying a percentage of a huge mark-up on the cost of those services as much as 300 percent, depending on the hospital. SEIU calls the mark-up a "sticker price," while hospitals call it a "charge."

Here is Congressman Dan Lipinski's full statement.

August 6, 2009

By Dan Lipinski
Ed. note: This is one of our regular essays from legislators. We've asked them to use the space to speak to their constituents. Rep. Dan Lipinski's 3rd Congressional District includes Indian Head Park, La Grange, LaGrange Park, Western Springs, Burr Ridge, Westchester.

Unrelenting increases in health care costs are creating an intolerable burden for individuals, families, businesses and the government, while tens of millions of Americans lack any insurance. People with pre-existing conditions are denied affordable coverage. The first time that hospital patients learn the price of their surgery is when the bill arrives in the mail, full of steep price mark-ups.

Insurers bury the details of their plans in the fine print, leaving people uninformed until it is too late. The pharmaceutical industry is hugely profitable, but taxpayers are subsidizing the advertising expenses of drug companies.

It is clear to me, and the many Third District residents who have contacted me, that change is long overdue. Every part of the health care system is in need of reform. That's why I am focused on fighting to pass comprehensive reform legislation.

As I scrutinize the reform proposals Congress is considering, I am focused on holding all the players in the health care industry accountable, making health care more affordable and improving the quality of care (including promoting preventive care and early treatment). Controlling skyrocketing costs must be a key priority. Surging costs not only hurt families, but threaten our government's financial stability and the vitality of our nation's economy. Just as I did when considering the ill-conceived bailout and the flawed stimulus, I continue to focus on fiscal discipline.

I have been working on repairing broken parts of the health care system since I was elected in 2004. As a diabetic, I am keenly aware of the importance of good care and insurance coverage. The first piece of legislation I introduced in Congress was the Hospital Price Transparency and Disclosure Act.

One reason treatment is so expensive is the near-total lack of price information available to health care consumers. These days, entering a hospital for treatment is like buying a car without looking at the sticker.

My legislation would end that, by mandating that hospitals disclose the prices they charge for the most common procedures and medications. This would allow people to shop for the best price, helping to drive down costs. I am currently working to ensure that a price transparency provision is included in the legislation Congress is considering.

Another issue I believe we must address is the tax break that health insurance and pharmaceutical companies receive for their advertising expenditures. Eliminating these subsidies would produce at least $6.3 billion annually that could be devoted to urgently needed health care reforms.

The pharmaceutical ads that fill our airwaves continue to generate concern about the accuracy of the information they contain, and their potential to artificially increase demand for drugs, sometimes even before dangerous side effects become known.

One recent study estimated that drug companies spend more on promotion than they do on research and development -- a clear example of misplaced priorities.

As pro-consumer, pro-taxpayer measures, both my price transparency and pharmaceutical bills are endorsed by Consumers Union, the independent, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. No doubt they won't solve every problem in the system, nor do they represent all of my health care reform efforts. But they are examples of the kind of straightforward, common-sense improvements to our health care system that I am fighting for in Washington.

As I write this, I continue to work to improve the health care reform legislation that we are considering in the House of Representatives. It is critical that this bill constitutes comprehensive reform, and avoids pouring more money into a broken system. I will carefully examine the bill to make sure it meets my core principles for reform, cost-savings, and coverage, and improves health care for the residents of the Third District.

A tall fella like Congressman Alamo Dan Lipinski should not need lifts.

A Primary Run? Anyone?

*
*In a rare appearance as a 'straight man', Oscar Wilde complimented James Whistler on a quip with the words, 'I wish I'd said that.' Whistler devastatingly replied, 'You will, Oscar, you will.'



http://www.pioneerlocal.com/lagrange/news/forum/1704122,pioneer-press-lipinski-073009-s1.article

Red Baiting Tribune - and that ain't all bad. 1934 Cartoon

Given "the context" of criticism of the President, it is charming to note that now the Chicago Tribune has the full-time White House cheerleaders of the The Swamp ( Mark Silva) whirling dervishly for President Obama. Thanks to Max Weissman of the Center for the Study of Great Ideas.

Max writes:

Chicago Tribune cartoon from 1934

Here is an editorial cartoon 75 years old! Seem familiar? Most all of us know what happened and how long it took to get things straightened out. Most of those in DC weren't even born then!

Look at this cartoon from 1934, and look especially at the plan of action.
Remember the adage, "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it". Looks like we could be in for difficult times.

Dan Proft - The Only Candidate for Governor Offering a Real Solution to School Reform

I love Clout. I'd love to have some. Like my helot neighbors, I watch the checking balance dip close to the danger zone each pay period - mortgage, groceries, McAuley Tuition (paid), McAuley books for one ($ 600 + Paid), gas ( $30 fill-up), Mr. Swifty Dry Cleaning (Priceless), Cable ( $58), ComEd ( a lung), People Gas ( the other lung), ATT ($$$$) and of course my extravagant lifestyle that takes me to the Islands ( Blue Island, Stony Island & if I am very good Treasure Island in Old Town).

Clout is that thing you read about in the newspapers and hear on TV - it is a very good thing. I once witnessed a Cook County Board Reformer bully an underling at City Hall Office of Special Events for his Taste of Chicago VIP passes, only to see him on Chicago Tonight with the nodders as he railed against the Bosses!Bosses? The fact is the only genuine exercises of Clout that I have ever witnessed were performed by the Pilates Class of Reformers -"Do You Know Who I Am?"

Yes, Madam, and what you are!

Well, now Dan Proft is running for Governor as a Republican. I just voted for John McCain and have yet to get over that gum scraping.

However, I have always been charmed - charmed I tells you - by Dan Proft's simple declarative sentences that lack any and all passive/aggression that so clearly marks a Progressive, or a goof.

Pat Quinn is earnest. He always seemed to be too good of a guy to be a Progressive, but he plays ball with them and that is enough to put this boy off his Hungry Man dinner. Poor Pat Quinn is staked out for the dingoes.

Dan Hynes? He'll be fine; he always is.

But Dan Proft is the only man in the race talking the truth about Clout for School Reform. Proft's Clout should get him every vote of every Illinois voter who understands that Public Education in Illinois is a Fixed Deal - an Old Country Buffet of empty calories.

Proft wants to make every Illinois school child and their families Clout Captains. Proft is a hard kid. He will brook no guff or back sass from the Nose Gays in the News Business or the Cadillac Commies of SEIU. He has taken some hard hits and yet always manages to get a nice Knuckley one between the lamps of the cheap-shot artists.

Wouldn't you like to have the same "clout" as the politically-connected,
particularly when it came to the education of your children?

Are you tired of a system that discriminates against families based on
their income and address?

Well, under a Proft administration, you have been pre-selected for the
"clout list".

With 13,000 Chicago Public School families with children on waiting
lists to attend charter schools, is it any wonder that a few parents
with political connections would try to get their children into one of
Chicago's elite schools? Of course it isn't. It is entirely natural for
parents to want the best education possible for their children.

Instead of scrambling over a pile of other politicians and media elites
to more vociferously denounce the CPS clout list, I pledge to do the
opposite: I will formalize it and to expand it. It's as simple as this:

If your name is in the phone book, your name is on the clout list.

As governor, I will create a Universal Clout Program.

In a Proft Administration every family, regardless of address or income,
that is currently faced with the prospects of sending their children to
schools that we know will fail them, would be able to send their child
to the school of their choice. Instead of sending education dollars to
centralized bureaucracies like CPS, a Proft Administration will attach
those dollars to the students, allowing their parents to choose which
school is best for their child.

As governor, I will invest in children, not Soviet-era bureaucracies
like CPS.

Competition works.

I like Clout. Hope we all get some.

Lipinski Tells Third District "Take Government Run Health and Like It!' Line in the Sand drawn for Danny by SEIU on July 1, 2009 - Yeah, That'll work?

I can not wait for reed-like Danny Lipinski, whose 3rd Congressional District is dominated by senior citizens and Catholics, to hold his Government Health Care townhall meeting.

Duck, Son! That's boiling water them Bushas are fixing to toss at you - Marquette Park Napalm! The odd shouts of wkurwiasz mnie ; co kurwa, do kurwy nędzy ! ; or in Lithuanian -Gaidzio pautai, galva and dve is, shudvezis! Mmm(1) Mmm(2) Mmmmnnn(3rd and final with a shake of the head.

Oh, well the XXXXXXLLL Purple T-Shirts guided by the XXS. Purple T-Shirted white guy with three Masters Degrees from University of Pennsylvania will be a huge help!

I hope Danny has one. You Tube would melt.

Here's Congressboy Lipinski's SEIU Marching Orders from July 1, 2008 on the SEIU funded graphic novel Progress Illinois:

Rep. Lipinski wasted no time drawing a line in the sand*, telling the 3rd Congressional District crowd that, in order to limit the cost of health care for individuals, small businesses, and the federal government, a public plan is a must.

But his support comes with a few caveats. Lipinski admits that employers may stop offering private insurance to workers if a government plan exists. "It all depends on how the public option is implemented," he said. And Lipinski prefers the "level-playing field option" championed by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), in which the government-run plan would be granted no special advantages over private insurers, such as the ability to use Medicare's low rates or to access taxpayer subsidies.

*Wow an Alamo trope! How'd that work out for Travis, Danny Boy? Alamo Dan Lipinski!

Stoa Poikile - Philosophers of the Porch - American Urban Stoics

Stoa Poikile means the "the painted Colonnade, " or Porch, from which the philosopher Zeno (326-264 B.C.)questioned and prodded his students. These disciples were called Stoics or "philosophers of the Porch." The Stoics held that everything happens necessarily. Each day has twenty-four hours, comprised of light and hours of darkness, unless one lives in Alaska, or Sweden, or some other Northern clime and those folks must behave accordingly.

You could call them fatalists. Eventually stoicism became a huge part of Christian philosophy, which affected the the teaching of theology. Stoicism is often misjudged as an unemotional and joyless path to living - on the contrary.

I remember translating passages of Marcus Aurelius in Father Henry Maibusch's Latin class. Most of the sententiae or sentences were reminders of the wholeness of the universe and each man's small role in it - ironically, Marcus Aurelius was the Emperor of Rome and wrote the Meditations in an army tent while campaigning against the German tribes of Danube. Aurelius spent most of his reign with his Legions defending Rome, rather than luxuriating in its power and wealth. In Book X he wrote:

Everything which happens either happens in such wise as you are formed by nature to bear it, or as you are not formed by nature to bear it. If, then, it happens to you in such way as you are formed by nature to bear it, do not complain, but bear it as you are formed by nature to bear it. But if it happens in such wise as you are not formed by nature to bear it, do not complain, for it will perish after it has consumed you. Remember, however, that you are formed by nature to bear everything, with respect to which it depends on your own opinion to make it endurable and tolerable, by thinking that it is either your interest or your duty to do this.

Translated to 19th Ward Chicago by a guy with whom I sat on the porch last night. Chicagoans tend to sit on the porch with neighbors and talk. Mostly, politics, mutual interests, Catholics school politics and gossip, high school sports, recipe exchanges, often pretty funny stuff, but last night was dead serious. I had just come home from another meeting and a guy I had not talked to in months drove by, saw me backed up and got out and we sat on the cracking concrete of my porch.


"Hickey, your wife died and my wife is dying. That's it. Not a whole Hell of a lot we can do about - cry I guess, but that is not going to bring your wife back or keep mine out of the nice coffin at Sheehy's Funeral Home. I still have kids at home and will need to go back to work after Martha dies and do my job and make dinner after work; pack lunches for school' pay bills; learn to live alone in a house full of kids. Martha is on the morphine drip. Thanks, I gotta get back to the hospice."

This guy went to Mount Carmel High School and John Carroll University. I never saw him drink more than one beer. I never heard him tell a dirty joke. He is 'whipped' in love with his wife and he will not have her in a few hours. She is going back to God, or as the stoics might say the Logos.

Stoics live by endurance and not Hope. Hope is only important if we have the skills to endure. Like grief, living is a process. It started when we were kids and goes until we ain't.

Illinois State Crime Commision/Illinois Police Athletic League Offer Back-To School -Back Packs!

Illinois Crime Commission Police Athletic League's Jerry Elsner Challenges Fox 32's Pat Elwood to a few rounds in the Square Ring!Attention everyone!

The 3000 backpacks are ready, the t-shirts are ready, and, thanks to board member Mike Lanigan's donation, we have the hot dogs for the Back-to-school Free Fair for disadvantaged kids at Prairie State College on Saturday, August 22nd.

We are still in dire need of donations for chips, cokes, napkins, condiments, and, if possible, cookies, etc. Please send your donations to the office as soon as possible (PAL, 1550 Spring Road #310, Oak Brook, IL 60523).

We also need your help on the day of the event. Call me for details. 630.778-9191.
Thanks,
Jerry Elsner*

*BEFORE KIDS CAN GO PLACES THEY NEED A PLACE TO GO
The Illinois State Crime Commission has recently expanded its youth outreach program through a new and exciting program - the Police Athletic League of Illinois (ISCC/PAL-IL). The Police Athletic League of Illinois is a youth- oriented program focused on athletics and recreational activities to tighten the bond between police, adults and youth.

The Police Athletic League is based on the belief that children, if reached early enough, can develop a strong, positive attitude towards police officers in their journey through life towards the goal of adulthood and citizenship.

Our Police Athletic League Boxing Program has so much potential to change the lives of many inner-city youth. It is a unique approach that reaches out to kids before they get into trouble and intervenes with kids the very first time they get into trouble - allowing them another chance to stay on the straight and narrow. We believe we could reach thousands of kids in the Chicago area if we had the proper funding.

The ISCC program supports the reduction of youth crime through two initiatives: 1) A Place to Go and 2) Operation First Chance ™.


A Place to Go
This is the cornerstone of our program. It consists of a number of neighborhood-based clubs (some in schools, some freestanding) that will provide a place for kids to go after school to participate in supervised boxing clubs that will afford them an opportunity to interact with law enforcement and "the system" in a positive way.

Kids would be expected to commit to a six week program that would immerse them in physical fitness, boxing, sportsmanship, and general good behavior. Future plans include opportunities to work with volunteers on such topics as help with school work, issues at home, substance abuse, and job mentoring.

All participants would be expected to keep up with their school work, remain sober, clean, and well behaved (i.e. no gang involvement) during the program.

The impact of the program would be tracked by the program coordinator who would be in touch with kids, parents and teachers to determine how each kid is doing on a regular basis.

At the completion of the program, kids would be eligible to participate in PAL boxing tournaments and to receive awards based on their standing.

It would be our hope that graduates of the program would volunteer to stay around and to help with younger more vulnerable kids. The benefit of this is twofold: increased reach for the program and a sense of meaning and importance for the graduates.


Operation First Chance™
We remain committed to providing opportunities for underprivileged youth. As a testament to our commitment, we would like to re-energize our boxing roots through a unique boxing program for at-risk inner city youth. The First Chance™ Program will allow us to sponsor first-time, minor offenders in a boxing program rather than have them incarcerated in a juvenile detention facility. Our purpose is threefold: 1) we will give these kids some pride and a chance to start over without the stigma and learned bad-behavior that so often accompany a stay in juvenile detention and 2) we will augment our role as "good citizens" of Illinois by proactively saving the state a portion of the approximate annual cost of $50,000 to house a kid in juvenile detention and 3) it gives us an avenue to connect individually with at-risk kids.

We are faced with a woefully under-funded set of constructive programs to serve the youth of Illinois. Nearly 70% of Illinois youth with working parents have no place to go after school, except the streets. For example, a recent study of Chicago found 17 neighborhoods receive low funding for teen programs despite suffering high levels of unemployment, teen pregnancy, gun violence, and other social ills. If we consider the plight of those with a recent minor run-in with law enforcement; isn't it better to expose them to positive role models rather than "the system" and the street?

On behalf of the Police Athletic League, we want to do our part in countering the number of kids we merely throw away by exposing them too early and too often to a system that devalues them and marks them as losers.

St. Rita High School Cheerleaders at Comiskey Park August 9, 2009

St. Rita Cheerleaders along with about twenty five other schools and clubs put on a great show for thousands of Moms, Dads, Siblings and Cousins at Comiskey Park ( The Cell to those who insist upon Change for the Sake of Dollars)) in the 95 + Degree heat and Desert Breeze today.

All of the girls were remarkable, especially my youngest child Clare!

Irish Wall Flower and Nobel Laureate William B. Yeats said it well, but nevertheless was not exactly a hit with the Chicks.

TO A CHILD DANCING IN THE WIND
by: W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)

DANCE there upon the shore;
What need have you to care
For wind or water's roar?
And tumble out your hair
That the salt drops have wet;
Being young you have not known
The fool's triumph, nor yet
Love lost as soon as won,
Nor the best labourer dead
And all the sheaves to bind.
What need have you to dread
The monstrous crying of wind?

Progressive Columnist Yale Butler-Munchen Explains "Just How Stupid Americans" He Feels Them "To Be!" Really!

As a columnist who regularly dishes out sharp criticism, I try not to question the motives of people with whom I don't agree. Today, I'm going to step over that line.

I'm the bad guy for saying it's a stupid country, yet polls show that a majority of Americans cannot name a single branch of government, or explain what the Bill of Rights is. 24% could not name the country America fought in the Revolutionary War. More than two-thirds of Americans don't know what's in Roe v. Wade. Two-thirds don't know what the Food and Drug Administration does. Some of this stuff you should be able to pick up simply by being alive. You know, like the way the Slumdog kid knew about cricket.

Not here. Nearly half of Americans don't know that states have two senators and more than half can't name their congressman. And among Republican governors, only 30% got their wife's name right on the first try.

Sarah Palin says she would never apologize for America. Even though a Gallup poll says 18% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth. No, they're not stupid. They're interplanetary mavericks. A third of Republicans believe Obama is not a citizen, and a third of Democrats believe that George Bush had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, which is an absurd sentence because it contains the words "Bush" and "knowledge."

People bitch and moan about taxes and spending, but they have no idea what their government spends money on. The average voter thinks foreign aid consumes 24% of our federal budget. It's actually less than 1%. And don't even ask about cabinet members: seven in ten think Napolitano is a kind of three-flavored ice cream. And last election, a full one-third of voters forgot why they were in the booth, handed out their pants, and asked, "Do you have these in a relaxed-fit?"

And I haven't even brought up America's religious beliefs. But here's one fun fact you can take away: did you know only about half of Americans are aware that Judaism is an older religion than Christianity? That's right, half of America looks at books called the Old Testament and the New Testament and cannot figure out which one came first.

And these are the idiots we want to weigh in on the minutia of health care policy? Please, this country is like a college chick after two Long Island Iced Teas: we can be talked into anything, like wars, and we can be talked out of anything, like health care. We should forget town halls, and replace them with study halls. There's a lot of populist anger directed towards Washington, but you know who concerned citizens should be most angry at? Their fellow citizens. "Inside the beltway" thinking may be wrong, but at least it's thinking, which is more than you can say for what's going on outside the beltway.

And if you want to call me an elitist for this, I say thank you. Yes, I want decisions made by an elite group of people who know what they're talking about. That means Obama budget director Peter Orszag, not Sarah Palin. Now, people who don’t know that Medicare is a government program probably aren’t reacting to what President Obama is actually proposing. They may believe some of the disinformation opponents of health care reform are spreading, like the claim that the Obama plan will lead to euthanasia for the elderly. (That particular claim is coming straight from House Republican leaders.) But they’re probably reacting less to what Mr. Obama is doing, or even to what they’ve heard about what he’s doing, than to who he is.

That is, the driving force behind the town hall mobs is probably the same cultural and racial anxiety that’s behind the “birther” movement, which denies Mr. Obama’s citizenship. Senator Dick Durbin has suggested that the birthers and the health care protesters are one and the same; we don’t know how many of the protesters are birthers, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it’s a substantial fraction.

And cynical political operators are exploiting that anxiety to further the economic interests of their backers.

Does this sound familiar? It should: it’s a strategy that has played a central role in American politics ever since Richard Nixon realized that he could advance Republican fortunes by appealing to the racial fears of working-class whites.

Many people hoped that last year’s election would mark the end of the “angry white voter” era in America. Indeed, voters who can be swayed by appeals to cultural and racial fear are a declining share of the electorate.

But right now Mr. Obama’s backers seem to lack all conviction, perhaps because the prosaic reality of his administration isn’t living up to their dreams of transformation. Meanwhile, the angry right is filled with a passionate intensity.

Let’s face it: This is no party of Einsteins. Really, it isn’t. A Pew poll last month found that only 6 percent of scientists said that they were Republicans.

Democrats should be leading this discussion. Instead, they’re losing control of it. That’s unfortunate because the debate is too important to be hijacked by hooligans.

Click the Post title for a Genuine Progressive Hero - Rep. Brian Baird ( D- Wash) a Champ; Smart Guy MSNBC Withit -Hep Cat.

Yale Butler-Munchen writes an amalgamae of many thoughtful auteurs, my pets. Arianna Huffington is DYING to get Yale!http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/opinion/07krugman.html?ref=opinion


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-smart-president_b_253996.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/opinion/08blow.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/06/AR2009080603854.html

Tamara Holder on Fox with Neil Cavuto - Civil Rights Attorney Probes White House "Fishing" on Health Care Reform

When it comes to being a jerk, I take a back seat to no man! You think you are a jerk? Runner-up , Pal!

Or, as Dostoyevksy once said, “I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too”

Yep, I make Five on a daily basis and, thus, am the epitome of charm. Consider this - several years ago I painted Civil Rights Attorney Tamara Holder with the big-ass roller that I reserve for G. Flint Taylor, Locke Bowman and Jon Loevy, the Lawsuit Lotto Jackpoint Lawyers who use criminals and their misdeeds in a game of deconstructing ( Hegelian-Faux Foucault) the Justice System for millions in police abuse scams.

I was wrong about Tamara Holder ( the other Cadillac Commies? Not a chance. Met a few and witnessed all three and they are Gold-plated Bums). I should have known better as Criminal Defense attornies often must advocate for monsters - Frank Avila, Tom Durkin, Terry Gillespie are solid men. Mr. Sexist Jump to Conclusions Hickey went loopy on Tamara Holder in order to grind on his point. Wrong. Tamara Holder is the real deal and U.S. Constitution True Believer who does not game the system.

I had the great pleasure of witnessing Tamara Holder* defend our Civil Rights on Neil Cavuto's Your World yesterday afternoon ( the Video's are unavailable at this early hour of posting -Sorry) and Ms. Holder raised questions about the White House and its attempt to 'tamp-down' anger about the very bad Health Care Reform Legislation that is being stuffed down the throats of us all, like fois gras geese.

Linda Douglas, on the Official White House Website is seeking sneaks to rat out intranet ideas that run contra to Obama Care. Tricky Dickey meets Scary Barry!

Ms. Holder cited Constitutional Law that would clearly confound the Obama White House
in its efforts to avoid the Right to Privacy Act, should information about Americans and their opinions be complied by Czarina Douglas.

Tamara Holder is a frequent contributer on legal matters to national news. Click my post title for more on Tamara Holder.


* Tamara Holder is featured in the July 2009 Issue of Chicago Magazine as one of the Super Singles - I missed the cut as I am an old widowman dating an astoundingly beautiful writer, Jazz Singer, Liturgical Choir Director and by dint of the matter that Ms. Sullivan has pious and charitable heart.

August 7, 2009 68.0FLog In | My Account | Subscribe | Sitemap | Advertise | About Us | Contact Us All Chicago-Mag Chicago-Home Radar
Chicago Magazine / July 2009 / Singles 2009 / Tamara Holder

Tamara Holder
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Tamara Holder -29
Criminal defense attorney, TV legal analyst
From: La Junta, Colo.
Lives in: Old Town
Resumé note: Among other collaborative efforts with Jesse Jackson, Tamara founded a pro bono expungement clinic, in 2006, at Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

. . .

“I graduated early from high school, college, and law school. I see what’s ahead, and I put my head down and go for it.”

“In college, I assumed I would marry my college sweetheart, have three kids before I was 27, and live happily ever after. Things change.”

“I can’t live without my digital camera. I love taking pictures of my friends and the places I see. Also, you never know if you’re going to need it at a crime scene.”

“Getting up early, snowboarding all day long, having a few beers, and being in bed by 7 p.m.: That’s the best day ever.”

Barbara Boxer on Hard Ball - Sartor Resartus

Here are two photos of the Town-hall Health Care protestors taken over the last week. One, presents the Green Bay, WI Fashionistas and on the other are Tea-baggers from Raleigh, NC sporting haute couture . Click my post title for the Spartan Sack-Cloth of Senator Barbara Boxer damning these snappy boulevardiers as they exercise their Patrician First Amendment Rights. "Damn their, eyes!"


MSNBC and the Boiled Beets Progressive Universe is a-howl with objections that these well-turned-out-clothes horses are the paid hirelings of the Insurance Blackguards and the GOP. The Republicans as far as I have experienced could not lead a parade of drunks to an open bar. Hey, I'm a Chicago Democrat, what can I tell you.

The Democrats have split their britches and America is laughing at them and well they should. The Tailor needs re-tailoring.

"The gladder am I, on the other hand, to do reverence to those Shells
and outer Husks of the Body, wherein no devilish passion any longer
lodges, but only the pure emblem and effigies of Man: I mean, to Empty,
or even to Cast Clothes. Nay, is it not to Clothes that most men do
reverence: to the fine frogged broadcloth, nowise to the 'straddling
animal with bandy legs' which it holds, and makes a Dignitary of? Who
ever saw any Lord my-lorded in tattered blanket fastened with wooden
skewer? Nevertheless, I say, there is in such worship a shade
of hypocrisy, a practical deception: for how often does the Body
appropriate what was meant for the Cloth only! Whoso would avoid
falsehood, which is the essence of all Sin, will perhaps see good
to take a different course. That reverence which cannot act without
obstruction and perversion when the Clothes are full, may have free
course when they are empty. Even as, for Hindoo Worshippers, the Pagoda
is not less sacred than the God; so do I too worship the hollow cloth
Garment with equal fervor, as when it contained the Man: nay, with more,
for I now fear no deception, of myself or of others."

Thomas Carlyle - Sartor Resartus, Chapter VI Old Clothes.

The Party Line is cut from some very flimsy cloth. Watch Senator Barbara Boxer's patchwork with needleman Chris "Milky" Matthews on MSNBC - click my post title.

The Democratic National Committe has long been in the hands of Goofs ( Howard Dean is a Champion Goof) and goofs are essentially delicate intellects with very bad tempers who require complete attention for their points of view. While they demand attention, they loudly shout down and insult any one or any idea that threatens their point of view. Thus, Health Care and Government Run Health Care. Bad idea.


http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/5/1051/1051.txt

Jan Schakowsky Talks Single Payer Health! No, Really.

I #$%^ing hate bridesmaids dresses. Total waste of my hard-earned money, even if—or especially if—they’re purchased from usually reliable purveyors of good taste like Vera Wang or Neiman Marcus. Bridesmaids dresses have inspired bad movies and good websites, because frankly, their only upside is that they offer comic relief.
Now, being Progressive, I’ve seen some bridesmaids’ dresses of truly spectacular multicolored #$%^itude. Weddings below the Mason-Dixon are a festival of the tacky and tricked-out. Lime! Fuschia! Ruffles! Picture hats! Butt bows! We could spend hours unpacking the psychological baggage of a woman who makes her allegedly dearest friends wear such hideousness. Then New York weddings introduced me to the previously unimagined: black bridesmaid dresses. The only time you’d wear black to a Progressive wedding is if you’d #$%^-ed the groom and needed a passive-aggressive way to show your sorrow that he’s off the market (so be forewarned—if any of you show up to my wedding in black, I will make assumptions). I realize that little black dresses are practically a religious obligation for Tea-Baggers, and black bridesmaids dresses can probably be recycled more easily, but come on, ladies! I don’t care how chic/flattering/slimming black is, it’s not a joyful color, and weddings are joyful occasions. Save the black for my funeral, or at least for my divorce party.

A good bridesmaid dress is practically an oxymoron, but I’ve had them. And needless to say, I’ve had bad ones too. For your reading pleasure, I’ve culled the tops in each category for this rant. Feel my pain, won’t you?

This exerpt from how I hear Jan Schakowsky is accurate in spirit if not lifted from a site about fashion. This makes more sense than the Congress-critter Her OWN Bad Mannered Self and much more sense than Dithering Dick Durbin. It is tough being a Democrat with these mopes out there.

On Wisconsin Women, PT.II- A Krazy Glue Apologist for Male Members of Identity Politics and my Sober Riposte - The Rakes Progress

Yesterday, Dear Reader, I waxed rhapsodic on the cementing of a Wisconsin* Gent's Genitalia to his Hunger Bucket.

Four wronged Women Talibaned the Hell out of the Lecherous Lad.

A concerned Male Apologist complained on my comment page thus, Male Identity Politics and Victimhood? God's Wounds!

Anonymous said...
Such vigilante “justice” must NOT be tolerated and a strong message must be sent to women that they cannot commit spousal violence and get away with it, any more than a man can. This is a question of Male Rights. Men are not the property of women. Merely because he had relations with other women does NOT justify the brutal attack that was committed against him.

What if the situation was reversed? Many women cheat too. Do we men have the right to exact our own revenge on a wife or girlfriend who cheats? Can a man take his cheating wife and handcuff her to a bed, punch her in the face repeatedly, hold her at gunpoint, and then super-glue her vaginal lips together? Would this be portrayed as a joke in the media? Would men who had committed such a crime be released on a mere $200 bail? You can bet that if the situation was reversed, the sexist-pig “women’s organizations” would be up in arms over it. I am absolutely infuriated by this violation of Male Rights. These women must be given serious time to send a message to women everywhere that women are not above the law, and that such violence against men will not be tolerated.
3:33 AM

Considering my love for 18th Century morality, William Hogarth's Plates of the Rake's Progress, and Igor Stravinsky's** modern opera adaptation of Hogarth's moralising sketches, I cocked an eye-brow and rejoined, This a.m.!

Yet,

As Nick Shadow goaded Young Tom Rakewell into the life dissolute, marrying Baba the Turk, and gaming madly at the green baize tables, while swilling gallons of Rhenish, our thoughts should turn to the Tempter's terms to Tom:

'No eye his future can foretell
No law his past explain
Whom neither Passion may compel
Nor Reason can restrain.'

Alas, Poor Tom, who dallied away from Anne Trulove for the fleshier pleasures, like our Chedderhead Chap with his Lance permanently sheathed, is undone by his own ministrations.

Do, Anonymous Male Member, read up on the Rake's Progress as this cautionary tale makes a moral meal both wholesome and filling!

5:17 AM

Judgment comes -ET IN ARCADIA EGO!


* Do please note the male tropes in this anthem

On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin!
Plunge right through that line!
* Run the ball clear down the field,
* A touchdown sure this time. (U rah rah)
On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin!
Fight on for her fame
Fight! Fellows! - fight, fight, fight!
We'll win this game.

On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin!
Stand up, Badgers, sing!
"Forward" is our driving spirit,
Loyal voices ring.
On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin!
Raise her glowing flame
Stand, Fellows, let us now
Salute her name!

Stand up, Badgers, indeed.


** Synopsis -click my post title.

Charter Schools Retain Catholic School Mission - Rockford's Mayor Larry Morrissey Moves School Reform

Two weeks ago I attended a lunch in Joliet, where I heard Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey* speak to the issue of school reform and his focus was on competition, accountabilty and the horrors of fighting in-bred complacency. Public Schools devolved and once vital Catholic Schools disappeared.

Rockford was once a powerful industrial town, like Peoria, Decatur and Kankakee. Its public schools needed a shot in the arm. Charter Schools offered that possibility.

Charter schools are publicly-funded schools that trade greater accountability for autonomy. They are often founded by groups of master teachers who enter into a charter, or contract, with a school district for five to 10 years.

Performance goals are established in the charter and they are reviewed periodically by the authorizing school district. Of the 43 charter schools established between 1996 when state law authorized charter schools in Illinois and 2007, 21 percent folded.
http://www.rrstar.com/homepage/x565327016

Once vital Catholic schools like St. Patrick's were reorganized as Charter Schools. Rockford Star Register's Chuck Sweeney reports:

When I was a kid my parents sent me to St. Patrick’s School, back when that school had 972 students, and was the largest school in the Rockford Diocese. We had two sites in those days — the early 1960s — the “new building” on School Street and the old school on Royal Avenue, which housed 7th and 8th grades.

As the Catholics left the area, the school gradually dwindled to no more than a couple hundred students when the church pulled the plug in the ’90s.

It’s been sad to see the sturdy School Street building, constructed in 1953-54 with another wing added in 1958, empty of school kids all these years. The church has kept it up and running, and has used it for various purposes. So it it hasn’t been allowed to fall apart and is still in good shape.

Tonight I drove by the old school — and it was lighted like a Christmas tree. There were people inside, turning it into — a school! Ah yes, the same green chalkboards were there. Green boards? Yes. It’s St. PATRICK’s School, after all.

The old St. Pat’s will become the Galapagos Charter School later this month.

Does my heart good to see my old school back on line again. I hope the new kids enjoy the building. I know I did.

http://blogs.e-rockford.com/sweenyreport/

Reform can happen. Leaders Like Mayor Larry Morrissey make Reform happen.


*Lawrence J. "Larry" Morrissey (Born in 1969 in Rockford, IL) is the Mayor of Rockford, IL. As an independent, Morrissey defeated Democrat incumbent Doug Scott in the 2005 mayoral elections after trying in his first run in 2001 with a populist campaign promising road improvements, education reforms, lower property taxes and a revitalized downtown. In an attempt to reduce the city's reliance on property taxes to fund road projects, Morrissey proposed an increase to the city's sales tax. A sales tax increase referendum was defeated in the March 2006 primary but passed in the April 2007 election

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Morrissey

Putin Eyes Chinaman's Dinner

This has got to be killing you, or will be.

"Comrade, if you are finished with that plateful of Yak, slide her over! I could eat the crotch out of a bear!"

Putin on Centaur, Vlad? You Is Bad.

Vlad, Dude! You go all Centaur* on us?

Get there quicker, I suppose, and saves on bus fare.

Or, is this a Frat Stunt?

*A centaur is one of the symbols associated with both the Iota Phi Theta and the Delta Lambda Phi fraternities. Whereas centaurs in Greek mythology were generally symbolic of chaos and unbridled passions, Delta Lambda Phi's centaur is modeled after Chiron and represents honor, moderation and tempered masculinity.

Oh, Yeah! Stay out of Wisconsin, Vlad. Glue, get me?

Get this Dude lined up for the Triple Crown!

Four Wisconsin Women Offer That Trust is Not "The Krazy Glue" of Love

“The best proof of love is trust.” Dr. Joyce Brothers

"No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.”
T.S. Eliot quotes (American born English

"I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken - and I'd rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived. " Margaret Mitchell

"What is a kiss? Why this, as some approve: The sure, sweet cement, glue, and lime of love." Robert Herrick

Four Lovelies in Wisconsin, with the strings of their tender hearts ripped from the Lute of Love by a loathsome Lothario, Krazy-glued the Chedderhead's Johnsonville to his gut.

A sticky case of revenge unfolded last week in a Wisconsin motel after a woman discovered her husband was cheating and invited three other scorned lovers to settle the score -- with Krazy Glue.

The 36-year-old Lothario was carrying on with all of them before his wife figured it out and notified the others, according to a criminal complaint filed in Calumet County, Wis., in a town about 90 miles north of Milwaukee.

"We had a plan," one of the women, Therese Ziemann, 48, told an investigator, according to court records.

Ziemann lured the man to a Stockbridge hotel Thursday, promising a "rub down," the complaint says. He was blindfolded and tied to a bed. Then Ziemann text-messaged the other three women, including the man's wife, who joined her in the room.

After the victim was threatened with mace, punched in the face and taunted, the mischief moved south.

Ziemann glued a sensitive body part to his stomach, according to the complaint.

The women, including Michelle Belliveau, fled when the man started yelling. All were later charged with false imprisonment. Ziemann also faces charges of fourth-degree sexual assault and misdemeanor battery. The wife was not named to protect the man's identity.

The man was treated and released at a hospital, said Calumet County District Atty. Kenneth Kratz, who otherwise declined comment.

-- Lisa Black

As always, do click my post title for the fine report on this Love Yarn from Chicago Tribune.

However, this Bartlett's moment on Trust & Love in Wisconsin needs the recent offering of Chicago Renaissance Man and Captain of the Sweeter Sciences Mike Houlihan, from Irish American News, to fully understand this touching episode's sordid impact on us all who sojourn among those from the Dairy State:

There are a few mysteries I’d like the folks in Wisconsin to clarify. What’s with the cheese and porno shops all over the interstate? Guy is driving to Wisconsin and his pal says. “Hey, while you’re there pick me up a half pound of Colby, some night crawlers and the August issue of Juggs.”

I’ve been told that many Sapphic romances start at the University of Wisconsin when gal pals are out partying. “Hold my hair back Hanna, I’ve had twelve brews and I’m gonna hurl!”

And what’s the deal with everybody in Wisconsin wearing t-shirts with “clever” sayings imprinted on them? Wouldn’t it be easier for the state to just order about two million XXXXXXXL t shirts that say, “I’m with stupid!”

Thus Love Lanquishes Farve, Farve Away!

http://www.irishamericannews.com/index.php/people/social-circle/733-hooliganism-july-2009

Treasury Tax-Fraud Geithner says, "Middle Class ! Hyar 'Tis! Hey, Just Forget to Pay . . . Oh, That Was Under George W.Bush . . . Buck Up, Yanks!

Now, there is a puss that just screams out confidence and integrity! Timmy Boy " Fogot Them Taxes" Geithner!

Timmy Tipped his hand. Well the tell was there since January anyway folks, but Secretary Timmy said, "We have to bring these deficits down very dramatically," Geithner told ABC's "This Week." "That's going to require some very hard choices."

Good and Hard, Americans.

Republicans were quick to jump on a lack of a fresh no-new-taxes pledge, with House Minority Whip Eric Cantor's office e-mail blasting Geithner's remarks to the press.

Geithner was adamant that controlling the deficit is vital to keeping the economy cooking along.

"We will not get this economy back on track, recovery will not be strong and sustained, unless we convince the American people that we are going to have the will to bring these deficits down once recovery is firmly established," he said.

Legendary former Federal Reserve boss Alan Greenspan said yesterday the feds had done well controlling the economic crisis. He also said the fear of long-running deficits was legitimate, with this year's and next's deficit running about $1 trillion.

He said health reform and tax hikes could be part of the solution.

Yep, Change you can Feel!

Money, Marbles, or Chalk? Who thinks Timmy will be the FIRST Obamanaut to get launched into oblivion????? Me!!!!!!

Kankakee River Rescue! Well Done, Derek Mullady and the Mullady Family!

First "Ed Mullady's Kankakee River Fisherman's Atlas" for Illinois published. Mullady helps organize "Save Our Streams" to fight building two new dams along the Kankakee River. Campaigned against building a reservoir lake near Wilmington.

The Mullady Family has watched over the Kankakee River for as long as I can remember.
River Scouts Pat and Matt Mullady were pals of my late wife Mary and dedicated naturalists like father, Mr. Ed Mullady. I fished the Kankakee River for fourteen years and often with their guidance and sound criticism.

Their father Ed Mullady is the dominant sportsman/activist/conservationist and Father of the Kankakee waterways for all of his life. He is the publisher of Kankakee River Report. Ed Mullady's sons and grandsons have protected the beauty and the majesty of what most argue to be the cleanest river in Illinois. The Mullady family dedicated their spirits to the waters of the Kankakee. It is a generational vocation.

Today, I read that Derek Mullady heroically saved the life of a man who crashed his plane into the Kankakee River.

Mullady and four friends rode a harbor boat out to the overturned plane and dragged it to shallow water where they flipped it over and cut the victim out of the cockpit.

"We cut him loose and...he coughed up blood and started breathing," Mullady said.

Mullady said the victim, a man who appeared to be in his 40s, was underwater for about six minutes before being rescued. The unidentified pilot was taken to an area hospital, where he was listed in fair condition, Kankakee County Sheriff's police spokesman Tim McCabe said.

Officials remained on the scene and were investigating, McCabe said.

The Federal Aviation Administration was notified but further details were unavailable, said agency spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory.

Mullady downplayed any notion that he was a hero. "I don't know if I'd say that," Mullady said. "Just at the right place at the right time, I guess."

--William Lee

I can safely say that the only bad thing to ever come out of Kankakee was the nine inch Alligator Gar that I caught near Custer Park and a few Mud Puppies.

Birthers? Don't Know One. Now, Divorcers? Palin-aphobia Distraction.

Keith Olbermann is bathtubbing, or some such marination. Butch Maddow is tanking. Big Ed Schultz is looking more Hermann Goringesque each episode. Milky Chris Matthews just back from a fudge finding tour of Africa is paler than the foam on the White House Lawn.The pencil neck Limey,as well as Mel Brooks impersonator Howard Dean, is filling in for Olbermann on Countdown. MSNBC is the Toolshed yet, but has been at the tip of the "Birther" Spear.

"Birther's" are folks who continue to ask for President Obama's Birth Certificate. They are out there somewhere, but I have yet to meet one. I run into many,many people in my job as a fund raiser for an inner city Catholic high school for African American young men - Leo High School! I am in the Loop three to five days a week. I meet the entire canvass of the American landscape (CEO's, middle managers, cops, fire fighters, City Hall operatives, journalists, tradesmen, nurses, clergy of all denominations, men, women and little kids. No Birthers.

The Birthers MSNBC and the Astro-turf Roots Boiled Beets Progressives are shouting out warnings about the Birthers!!!!! Dang. Where are they?

Yesterday, I met three new configurations of the Conspiracy Folks - The Divorcers, two women and one man, while I ambled about Beverly Park during the Play for Maeve event. Upon seeing my harmlees, but ruggedly handsome and contemplative self, they swarmed a-buzzing! All three worked mightily against George W, Bush and all he stands for, Racism, War and the heart-break of Psoriasis. The two women were especially strident "Mr. McCain-loser (me) . . .looks like your Eskimo-pie VP is not so Family now?"

"Ladies, you have me at a disadvantage. What news, pray tell, is the germ of your question?," I asked after Doffing my green Pat Mac's Pack ( Paddy McNamara is my cousin's little boy who suffers from returning brain tumors) baseball cap - I always wear a hat so I can tip it to a Lady!

"Palin the Quitter is quiting Todd!"

" Honor Bright, Skirts?"

" It's in Alaska Report if you can read, or do you get all your news from FOX?"

" Why, yes, I read some and no some of my best news sources are delicate flowers of the 19th Ward like yourselves. I shall avail myself of this broadsheet post haste."

The Progressive gentleman agreed and seethed -and on such a nice day.

Returning to my Yeoman's cottage some few blocks from Beverly Park, and after making a sandwich of heroic proportions as I did not get to sate myself on hot-dogs at the event, I searched and found this -

A National Enquirer story exposing previous affairs on both sides led to a deterioration of their marriage and the stress from that led to Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska last week.

The Palins were noticeably not speaking to each other for most of last Sunday's resignation speech in Fairbanks. Sarah ditched Todd (MSNBC) right after the speech and left without him. Sarah removed her wedding ring a couple of weeks ago.

Sarah has recently purchased land in Montana and is considering moving the family there. Sarah Palin is originally from Idaho.

What Ho! Them 'Hoes have hit the mother load! The National Enquirer no less!

The sinking Progressive barge is baling ballast!

It turns out that Palin and Todd are not, in fact, considering divorce. Given the Health Reform Clown Opera, with Nutmeg Jan Schakowsky piping melancholy mad for Government Medicine, the Flat Beer Summit, Double Digit Unemployment, Clunkers, and the expanding War in Afghanistan -the graveyard of Empires - I expect that some misdirection plays are afoot. Thus, the woman most feared by Second Wave Feminists, Salonistas, Academic Fakirs, and Boiled Beets Progressives is Target One.

The Divorcers will dominate the Cable as well as the chimera of the Birthers! Glory Be!

They are throwing spit-balls at a battleship. Palin will be fine.

Birthers -meet the Divorcers - now have fun and don't soil yourselves too much.

Max Weismann's Letter to George - Orwell

Letter to George Orwell

RE: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)

Dear George,

Many of us Americans scoffed at your book when it came off the press in 1949. Now 60 years later, events are occurring that sadly give us pause and respect for your early vision.

Alas, your terms "Big Brother" and "Newspeak" reflect the direction of our current society of excessive governmental paternalism, control and the dangerous absence of a real press.

Unless we wake up as citizens, I'm afraid we will end up as your Winston Smith.

Best regards,

Max Weismann

Swiss Frank Nofsinger's "The Irish Confessional"

It is Saturday. Get to Confession,after Playing for Maeve at Beverly Park! Click my post title, Sinners!

This cautionary tale comes from the Connectict Yankee, Patriot, Beer Quaffer and Mule Skinner -Swiss Frank Nofsinger.

Irish guy goes into the confessional box.

He notices on one wall a fully equipped bar with Guinness on tap.

On the other wall is a dazzling array of the finest Cuban cigars.

Then the priest comes in.

"Father, forgive me, for it's been a very long time since I've been to
confession, but I must first admit that the confessional box is much more inviting these days."

The priest replies "Get out, you're on my side.