Mike McGill- All American!

One of the joys in life is meeting wonderful people. I continue to be blessed by association with smart, generous, thoughtful and witty human beings who add to life's purpose and make people happier by the simple act of being present.

Around the time that my wife Mary was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, a group of Inland Steel engineers, and executives with whom I became aquainted through my fund-raising work for Bishop Noll Institute, took great pains to help me maintain through the grief. One of this circle of well-educated and generous gents was an executive for Calumet Refractory which made bricks used in steel plants.

Mike McGill looks about ten years younger than his age and presents himself like an English teacher or a bookish scholar. I spent many hours talking literature and history and politics with Mike McGill. Mike had been an NFL Pro, but never talked a down of football. He was like the many heroes who fought at Khe Sanh, Bastogne and the Chosen Reservoir. Mike McGill, like the great newspaperman Ray Coffey, was there and did not need to advertise the fact.

Mike McGill would rather discuss Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson's Shenandoah Campaign of 1862, than the interceptions he made for Purple People Eaters of the Joe Kapp -Era Minnesota Vikings - which numbered MN Justice Allan Page and Jim Marshall among the greats. Nevertheless, Mike McGill would never ask "Do You Know Who I am?" Mike McGill waits in the long lines at Strack and Van Til grocery market until the lady with seven kids -and half of them crying -gets taken care of.

Mike McGill is devoted to his family, his church and his friends. Unlike too many of the Notre Dame Alumni, Mike McGill is a never 'ring knocker' - he is a gentleman and deeply read scholar.

I am proud to spend time with such a man.


Mike McGill

Born November 21, 1946 in Hammond, Indiana.

Playing career
St. Louis CardinalsLinebacker
1972 1971

Minnesota VikingsLinebacker
1970 1969 1968

Notre Dame Football
1967 1966 1965

Mike with his parents on the Notre Dame campus, Nov. 4, 1967.
Photo Courtesy of the Calumet Regional Archives, IUN, Gary

Mike McGill attended Bishop Noll High School and graduated in 1964. He was an all-star athlete in football, basketball and baseball at Noll and then went on to play football at Notre Dame from 1965-1967. He was an All-American in 1967 and was on the 1968 College All-Star team. McGill played six years in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings and St. Louis Cardinals. He also played in Super Bowl IV

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/McGiMi20.htm

Abortion is Health Care Reform:"We are God's partners in matters of life and death," Obama said to the Rabbis

Abortion is not a 'faith based initiative.' It is in the planned and pushed Health Reform Package and it will stay tucked in there until Illinois atheist Rob Sherman starts doing the collections at Sacred Heart 10:30 Mass on Sunday.

President Obama told a group of Rabbis,"We are God's partners in matters of life and death"
From Politico's Ben Smith:

A reader points out that President Obama's call with the rabbis today — as recorded in Rabbi Jack Moline's and other clerics' Twitter feeds — freights health care reform with a great deal of religious meaning, and veers into the blend of policy and faith that outraged liberals in the last administration.

"We are God's partners in matters of life and death," Obama said, according to Moline (paging Sarah Palin...), quoting from the Rosh Hashanah prayer that says that in the holiday period, it is decided "who shall live and who shall die."

The president ended the call by wishing the rabbis "shanah tovah," or happy new year — in reference to the High Holidays a month from now.

Shanah tovah - unless you happen to be the kid the womb.

Yep, President Obama is as beholden to the gals of Planned Parenthood as he is to the Purple Gang of SEIU and Brazilian Oil Tycoon Georgie Soros. It's the Chicago way to remember and do the bidding of your Chinaman (plural in this case).

Catholics voted heavily for President Obama and politicians gave them the will to do so and so did many trades unions and the old school operation of politics. It is very understandable.

I voted for many politicians who are beholden to Planned Parenthood - Dick Durbin, John Kerry, and many more. Now, it does not seem right to do so. There are too many Catholic public servants like Rep. Kevin Joyce, Sen. Ed Maloney and others who refuse to take the abortion coin and they are good Democrats. These gents stay true to their faith.

The fact is that abortion is and will remain a very important virtue of the President's Health Reform push.

I read these six points at American Papist.

1. The House bill specifically includes it. The Capps amendment explicitly allows abortion coverage in the public health plan and subsidizes health plans that cover abortion. (Passed 30-28 in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, July 30)

2. Senate Democrats admit it. "[The health care bill] would include, uh, it would include, uh, Planned, uh, Parenthood clinics." (Sen. Barbara Mikulski, July 9, Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions-HELP-Committee meeting-Planned Parenthood is the No. 1 U.S. abortion chain.)

3. Senate Democrats refused to ban it. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah): "Madam Chairman, would you be willing to put some language in [about] not including abortion services? Then I think you would have more support."Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.): "...No, I would not, uh, be willing to do that at this time." (July 9, Senate HELP Committee meeting)

4. The mainstream media confirms it. ("Government insurance would allow coverage for abortion," Associated Press, August 5, 2009).

5. The Obama administration includes it in its definition of reproductive health care. "Reproductive health care includes access to abortion." (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, July 19)

6. Every amendment to exclude it from health care legislation was defeated by the liberal sponsors. The following is a list of pro-life amendments that would have prevented abortion funding or prohibited abortion mandates for covered services. (For vote tallies and details, see our complete list at www.frc.org here)

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0809/We_are_Gods_partners_in_matters_of_life_and_death.html?showall

Aniston - This is Your Man - I Do Not Want To Hear About 'You and Your Heart" Again You. . um . . .Lady!

Aniston is the one who is not Zelweger. Though both are indistinguishable and equally repellent.

I have been working with a new fund-raising software here at Leo High School since about 6 A.M. and I am sweating like a strumpet on the Pope's lap. Leo H.S. was built in 1921 by Chicago architect Joseph McCarthy ( of Burnham's shop) and this limestone and mortar building retains heat like Kirstie Ally do lard. My inner wall cubicle (windowless) is about 85 degrees on a cool day.

I took a stroll to the Aquafina Bottled water Machine for a buck's worth of deep chilled water from some sump pump in BassAss MN - Ahhhhhhhh! I clicked on Google News and caught Stupid Shrapnel from a burst of Entertainment. I'm Hit!!!!! Jennifer Aniston (serial whiner) is disappointed in love yet again!

Bradley Cooper has a new enemy: Brad Pitt's ex-wife.Jennifer Aniston "honestly feels screwed over" after her date with the "Hangover" star didn't lead to a second, reports US Weekly.
"She wanted to turn her date with Cooper into something," a source told the magazine of duo's dinner date in New York on June 18
A few weeks later, Cooper was out with Renee Zellweger, but apparently Aniston "doesn't see what Renee has that she doesn't," the insider tells US.
Perhaps it is what Zellweger doesn't have that Cooper likes says: ie, no drama.
"She just does her thing, has her friends and her life and is cool. She's really happy and doesn't need anyone to feel complete," the magazine quotes another insider as saying about Zellweger.
But Aniston's going to be alright, adds a pal. Why? "She's used to rejection."
Yikes! With friends like that...

Time for action! I made some calls and took a drive south.

Okay , me and the guys at Kean had ponied up some dough for just such an occasion. We are going to dowry you Jennifer. We went over to the apartments on 103rd over by Jewels and made our offer to Charming Andy Brosnan ( County Kerry Born and Now a U.S. Citizen) with our offer of $74.86 and a pack of Marlboro Reds. This Celtic eye candy up above is your man, Jennifer. Take his hand and love him. He will NOT cheat on you. You are past the heart breaks!

Now, I got stuff to do.

Don't make us do this again. I mean it.

Klein's Nihilists? "Say what you will about the tenets of national socialism, dude, at least it’s an ethos"

Walter Sobchak: "Nihilists! F@#$ me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos."

Time's Primary Colorist Joe Klein whines about townhall folks, which he misidentifies for the purpose of propaganda as GOP, being Nihilists. Click my post title and be moved - or not, which was the case with me, but then again I am a mean selfish bastard.

I have nothing more to say on this topic. Nothing. Nada. Who cares? Zip. Oblivion. Nuttin'!

Whole Foods -Whole Truth - No Free Speech for Thought Criminal John Mackey

CEO and Founder of Whole Foods, John Mackey, offered his thoughts on the folly of Government Health Care. Here is what John Mackey wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

1- "Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts."
2- "Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits."
3-Allow competition across state lines.
4-"Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover."
5- "Enact tort reform."
6- "Make costs transparent."
7- "Enact medicare reform."
8- Revise tax law to make it easier to donate to those without insurance.

Now every Boiled Beets Progressive wearing hemp shoes wants to skin the guy's cucumber.

There is a boycott of Whole Foods afoot. However, like the Obama Health Care Reform initiative itself - a Trojan Horse for Government Run Medicine - this will require clean up in aisle 8.

Personally, I'd love to share a Slim Jim, a bag of Flamin' Hot Pork Rinds and a couple of Ho-Ho's with Mr. Mackey over a cold six pack of Green River and listen to the guy. He sounds sound.

Full disclosure - I shop at
County Fair
10800 S Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60643-3226
(773) 238-5576

Kickin' It Old School With Billy Hill!! Night Life After Ken's on Western Like Billy Dec!

Hat Tip to Steve Rhodes' Beachwood Reporter for an insight to the unsightly and unctuous Billy Dec whose south side counter part oozes down Western Ave. -Meet Billy Hill!



All About Me:

Peabody nominated former Children's TV Cast Member ( Chuck Bill's Adventure Theatre - Voice of Herman the German Moose) , Dis-barred Illinois Attorney, Harvard Il.Business School.Llp, Chicago 2016 Olympic Committee Director of Way Too Human Relations, Slept with Elke Somer in 1978 when she appeared in Please Don't Eat the Daisies at the Martiniquel owns top Chicago Beverly/Morgan Park & Mt. Greenwood venues ,D.B.Mc Spitsteeth; Suds & Underwear Pub and Laundrymat, & won US Coin Operator of the Year! Check him out on the Yellow Pages, The Sign Over Fox's Pub & his blog www.aSelfisThang.com

Kickin It Old School with Two-Ton Baker's Boy Madden:

When I was dropping quarters and dimes in the phone near Kean about hanging with jimmy fallon so many people freaked out! jimmy said "No Way!" so i know there are fans out there that will love this one... i love Jimmy fallon too, he is a huge chicago sport fan... which of course made the Olympics in chicago a no brainer for him to talk about to Billy dec who is the Orginal G of this and I'm crowding 60 now and had my best years when Boz owned reilly's daughter pub and banned me, before gangster billy dauber shot me and my date! (I also got my man love-muscle, drummer from the brian ferguson experience who plays at the glendora house in chicago ridge, in a killer interview coming soon). I have had the pleasure of being in 30 rock green rooms and backstage in the past when i got past security with con boyle who knew everyone, and every time, it's a completely intimidating example of the biggest in tv production at its greatest... but it didn't matter to jimmy, he told me to go #$%^ myself and i was all "dude I would if I could like the dog you know' he still would not drop anything to sit w/ me and get real about his love for chicago... enjoy! i'm no stranger to the strange if you get me. Mike Houlihan won't return my calls which is cool and neither will georgie wendt or mike keaton who was just in beverly for a movie. You can't swim with minnows. the number in chicago is - (773) TRY-U812.

This deep you ain't shallow -kickin' with Billy hill!

So i called the stage hand and road manager for Dick "two-ton" Baker*, Sonny Madden. we hungout and partied past 8p.m. at Jackie Casto's Ken**'s on western. don't think too many hotties didn't ask for a hook-up either - but it was not a night for the ladies it was all about music and the rush that is being a celebrity. Kickin with me is chicago! I kick with kessler and a C'Old Style. Don't drink 'n drive yo!


oh, and don't forget, I'm posting at least one new celebrity interview a day here until I land in Copenhagen, Ky.on oct. 2nd to hear the official announcement on the radio that (hopefully) chicago/usa wins the title of home to the 2016 olympics! how does that happen? you help spread the news! watch tv, pennysavers, go up to people you don't even know while walking at ridge mall, have the kids email blast,.. whatever you can to get everyone in your city, country, world,... to watch these videos and hear how great Chicago is (and the USA is in general), and hear how much we want to host this cultural, sport, and friendship strengthening celebration in our home country in 2016! The Olympics will be huge. . .to people backin' it so I am backin' it!


i'm too busy to punctuate - words -know what i mean. Kickin' it Old school!

* Dick "Two Ton" Baker was a Chicago Entertainment Legend who played at south side clubs like Casto's, Club El Bianco, Franklin House, Mirror Lounge and Mel Collins' Sea Breeze Lounge on Ashland Avenue:

Dick "Two Ton" Baker was a giant -- literally and figuratively -- on the Chicago entertainment scene for nearly four decades, from the late 1930s until his death in 1975. He played piano quite well and sang in a pleasing, infectious baritone voice, but mainly, he entertained, in whatever medium. He had several popular radio shows on on the Chicago Tribune's flagship station, WGN, one of which went out nationwide over the Mutual network. He was on the first television broadcast on WGN-TV (April 5, 1948), and later had very popular children's programs on that and other Chicago TV stations.

http://twotonbaker.com/

** One of the finest ( along with Schaller's Pump in Bridgeport) Old School Family Restaurants where a Billy Dec is shown the door in short order - no dweebs and no hipster doofii.NoteDescription of Ken's Restaurant
This ageless gem has been a mainstay on the strip for many years. Ken's solid menu features outstanding ribs and a scrumdillicious London broil in full meal or sandwich form. The bar rests in a separate room adjoining the restaurant and is a bit of a hangout for the older folks. In other words, this is where Beverly's career drinkers hang out.

Average cost: $10

Ken's
10522 S. Western Ave., Chicago
Tel: (773) 238-0234


http://www.centerstagechicago.com/restaurants/kensrestaurant.html
Click my post title for Billy Dec's smarm

Neil Steinberg says, "It does take a certain kind of monster to run for political office " Really? Meet Illinois Representative Kevin Joyce:Monster

It does take a certain kind of monster to run for political office, to kiss all those babies, raise all that money, and for what? A low-paying handhold in the rugby scrum of elected office.

Chicago Sun Times: Neil Steinberg

Really?

This is the new de Tocqueville? Political dilettante ink-slingers try to keep well-heeled urban hipsters from shopping for arugula at Whole Foods, because the CEO and Founder disagreed with President Obama's Government Health Initiative Blow Through.

They huff and puff about which kid got into the University of Illinois and ignore the idiot hack foisted on Chicago State University after that school was looted by its President for years. They huff and puff about Green Initiatives. They huff and puff about mean Police Officers. They huff and puff about damn near everything that means absolutely nothing to the proper running of government and making people aware of the greatness of our Republic. They are well-schooled ( educated might be a stretch) suburban and self-important. These Opinion Touters , the Marins, Browns, Zorns and Steinbergs, are direct opposites of most people in public service.

I know a guy from the north side who is responsible for a huge department in Cook County government and that department runs well. He is never mentioned in the news. He does not reach out to news people and news people have no idea who he is, because he is at work at 6:30 a.m. ( I get calls every now and then at Leo at that time, because I am at Leo by 6:00 a.m. most days) concerning Leo matters and County matters. He is efficient, demanding and professional. You do not 'get' anything from this guy without going through procedures that get goofier every time a mope on the Cook County Board gets jonesing for his name in the Sun Times or the Tribune.

Today , I glanced at Neil Steinberg's piece about Chris Kennedy's PT ( Political Tease) of the Illinois Pundits. The voters could give a fat rat's ass about Chris Kennedy's Camelot Dreams and the guy would be deader than a raccoon family crossing I-57 at Rush Hour, were he to run for State wide office. Back when, Paul Vallas was thinking about a run for Governor and meeting Blago in the Illinois Primary -WAIT-WAIT Chris Kennedy posed the idea that He should run as Governor and Vallas should be HIS Lieutenant Governor. Just a thought . . .an idea . . . a Trial Balloon which was laughed in the atmosphere and out of the room by much smarter people . . .after giving Kennedy the sober nods due a Kennedy. Pure Hickey hearsay! Pure.

Neil Steinberg wanted Chris Kennedy to run for Governor, or Senator, or Will County Coroner, because he is not like all those people in public service who stand for something and then stand in front of the voters and stand for election. Kennedy is no Steinberg Monster. Those are the people that put themselves on the line to make things better for other people and can expect a snotty crack from a Neil Steinberg.

Other Monsters I like - State Rep. Mary Flowers, Speaker Madigan, Sen. Dan Cronin, Rep. Patti Bellock, Rep. Jim Durkin, Rep. John Fritchey, Sen. Ed Maloney - Republicans and Democrats, Monsters all! Monsters in the same way that Neil Steinberg terms me and my neighbors as Nazis ( "It was a Joke" -giggles, Neil, giggles; rather a chuckle.)

Chris Kennedy is supine. Why climb the gradus, when the Levelers are controlling the Media. These Progressive Latitudinarian "Who's To Say-ers" and Huff Puffers, who could not name a precinct captain let alone a precinct worker and yet have self-absorption to rail against Politics as Usual. They are Cliffs Notes readers of literature and Life.

I live two blocks away from a very effective Neil Steinberg Monster - Illinois State Representative Kevin Joyce. He does not 'need' to kiss babies, because he has seven of his own. Joyce does legislation for people of the 35th District. He does legislation on Autism Education, Sex-Offenders and Career Criminals, Workplace Safety for the Tradesmen, Pro-Life Issues, and Care for the Elderly as Joyce Chairs the Committee on Aging.

Kevin Joyce attends every wake, baptism, funeral and benefit that his schedule allows as well as coaches football** for St. Xavier University. With seven children ranging in age from twelve to eighteen months, Kevin Joyce and his bride Krista would have more on their hands than any two young people could ask for, but Kevin Joyce is a Monster.

I saw the Monster last night dragging in the Little Tykes vehicles and he asked me how my kids were doing. ( Huff!) "Monstrous! ( Puff!)He should be about the State's business!"

Click my post title and see for yourselves!

*Monster–noun 1. a legendary animal combining features of animal and human form or having the forms of various animals in combination, as a centaur, griffin, or sphinx.
2. any creature so ugly or monstrous as to frighten people.
3. any animal or human grotesquely deviating from the normal shape, behavior, or character.
4. a person who excites horror by wickedness, cruelty, etc.
5. any animal or thing huge in size.
6. Biology. a. an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure, as from marked malformation or the absence of certain parts or organs.
b. a grossly anomalous fetus or infant, esp. one that is not viable.

7. anything unnatural or monstrous.

–adjective 8. huge; enormous; monstrous: a monster tree.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Origin:
1250–1300; ME monstre < L mōnstrum portent, unnatural event, monster, equiv. to mon(ēre) to warn + -strum n. suffix

Related forms:

monsterlike, adjective


Synonyms:
4. fiend, brute, demon, devil, miscreant.

**
From Neil's Chuckles:

Chris Kennedy's non-candidacy reminded me of a line from another of politics' tantalizing what-ifs, Minnesota senator Eugene McCarthy, who was running for president in 1968 when he said:

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it's important.

Yeah, that Gene McCarthy was some grid-iron great. Ignorance never stops a Progressive.




http://www.suntimes.com/news/steinberg/1722088,chris-kennedy-senate-not-running-081809.article

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Comes Clean

Grab a knee, Girls! Robert Gibbs explains exactly what you thought that you have heard from him, the President and the Obama White House.

Click my post title and listen up.

MSNBC Puppet Roger "Jowls" Simon Asks About President Obama's "Guts?" Is Rupert Murdoch Hiring?

"Sometimes it is not enough to have just your heart and your head in the right place. You have to have your guts there, too." Roger "Jowls" Simon August 18, 2009 -" Please, let it be him! . . .Rupert??! Thanks for taking my . . .Rupert? . . .Bill? Shep? Hello? Dang."

Roger Simon was a lightweight newspaper guy in Chicago about the same time that Dave Axelrod was a lightweight newspaper guy in Chicago. Roger Simon's old column art posed him to be an earnest clean-cut black crew-neck sweater with a white shirt and both collars pointing to the tips of his desert boots wearing kind of guy. The kind of guy that got the absolute crap beat out of him at Pete's Guiding Light Tap at 63rd & Pulaski. This I know because, I got the absolute crap knocked out me at Pete's Guiding Light Tap for wearing a blue crew neck sweater while tending bar for Pete Marin and that got Hawaiian Dave mad - " You Crazy! Hot Sweater'smakemesosickIKeeelyou!"

Now Roger Simon is given to Hart Marx Suits and has more chins than a Chinese Phone book.

Roger Simon is a proud member of MSNBC Big Top of Clowns that have managed to sink a cable network and pop more light-bulbs for GE than a homer hitting the scoreboard at Wrigley Field by Bob Redford!

Roger pops up on his hind legs and gives assent to whatever magic Matthews, Olberbloat or Maddow toss up to Joan Walsh, Gene Robinson, and Jowly Roger. Today, Roger has written a real snapping piece of Dog Yummy Treatsure to 'Wow the Gang' at some other network cable operation, before the Simonizing begins at MSNBC.

In this Politico piece Jowly Roger questions President Obama's tripes. Not good, Son! Why Roger, only last year you were Relentless in your Praise of then Candidate Barack Obama and since then an ardent acolyte! Why lookee here!

http://www.politico.com/relentless/

Could be that as the President's popularity cork-screws, MSNBC's cash cow no longer milks - "Time For ME To Fly!!!!"

Click me post title for Roger Simon's search for new employment on some other Cable News outlet.

Let's Play Hardball! Countdown! Big Ed's a Coming, Roger and he's bringing Butch Maddow!

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26197_Page2.html#ixzz0OXmn1SQU

Former Alaska Governor Palin Did Nothing to Keep Chicago's City Hall Open Yesterday

Yesterday was opening day for freshmen at Leo High School and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin could not be bothered to drop by and give the African American young men attending this venerable Catholic inner city high school a Howdy! Not only that Chicago City Hall was closed for business and Palin lifted not one finger to help.

Sarah Palin is the cause of all the problems President Obama has had since his historic election.

In Afghanistan, American troops face the Taliban, with whom we should be dialoging, but nowhere is Palin to be found.

When the late Michael Jackson was gulping down white gloved handfuls of crazy pills, did Palin intervene? 'Zounds - she did not!

Did she save Vick's Dogs? Nope.

MSNBC Chris "Milky" Matthews suggests with every breath in his thigh that Palin is ordering folks to strap on the shooting irons and attend Townhalls.

Sarah Palin is goading Americans to attend Townhalls in order that they may be infected by the H1N1 - Pig Puker Virus.

Every voice in electronic media devotes every level of volume in damning Palin, but her pernicious influence on the lives of all Americans continues unabated - like the nemesis of Sherlock Holmes, Professor James Moriarty The Napoleon of Crime, Sarah Palin is La jeune fille à l'agneau.

Yet, considered unlettered and unwholesome to Salonitas and their lap-dogs like David Brooks and Kathleen Parker, Palin weaves a web of calumny and intrigue with the dexterity of Kali -Palin's tawny and sinew-ed Diana-like arms snake in and out of every aspect of the Life American!

Woe unto this Land! Unscrubbed of Palin.

Only this morning, I counted the bills in the silver clip inscribed with the honorific -#1. Dad ( Father's Day 1999) and was shocked to see that I had ten dollars fewer than the previous morning.

Palin is Afoot in this Land of the Free! The Game's Afoot!

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/08/17/palin_called_a_spade_a_spade_97916.html

Brian Dennehy Narrates Story of How the Catholic Church Got Off The Canvas in the 16th Century - Via Papale

America's best dramatic actor, Brian Dennehy, who recently helped Goodman Director Robert Falls bring Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms to life, narrates the tale of how the Roman Catholic Church revived its Gospel Mission after the Sack of Rome by mutinous soldiers of Charles V in 1527.

Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Church Door of Wittenberg in ten years earlier and the Protestant Reformation swept Northern Europe; Islam under Suleiman the Magnificent conquered the Balkans and threatened the Holy Roman Empire of Charles V. The corrupt Papacy was weakened by its self-interests and foolish alliances. England was schismatic. The Catholic Church was on its back and seemed never to rise again.

However, a succession of six Popes and simple journey that welded Piety and Aesthetics in an effort to rebuild not only Rome after the Sack by mutinous soldiers of Charles V, but the Catholic Faith world wide got the Church off the canvass after the many knock-out blows absorbed in the early 16th Century.

American Theatre giant Brian Dennehy lends his voice in the narration for the film about this singular road back by the Catholic Church. At at time when my Catholic Faith is assaulted and challenged by the Star Chamber Relativism due to the hegemony of political and cultural Progressivism in America, while the Catholic Church in America recovers from decades of pedophile scandals, this documentary may spark a renewed vitality in the American Catholic Faithful - we are on the canvass.

Via Papale - The Lost Road of the Popes is the film. Here is an excerpt from Catholic On-line:

Veteran actor Brian Dennehy will be recording the voice over for "Via Papale: The Lost Road of the Popes." The documentary film, slated for a 2009 release, is the first high definition film ever shot in Rome, Italy.

Mr. Dennehy, who has done previous voice over work, was drawn to this particular project because of its production value which he called "pretty extraordinary." The high definition technology adds so much to the viewing experience that he believes it could even visually surpass visiting the papal architecture in person. "It allows the possibility of seeing these works of art in a way they aren't usually seen." He was intrigued by the opportunity of high definition technology to show these works in a new light before they one day crumble or disappear. In his words, "Why not now?"
"Via Papale: The Lost Road of the Popes" is the untold story of the "lost" road on which 16th century Rome and its Church made the most profound urban and religious comeback in history. The film follows six powerful popes and their dynasties as they take on the task of first rebuilding, then glorifying, the new Rome. "Via Papale" unfolds the miracle of this remarkable renaissance, showing how Rome and its papal rulers not only survived, but were inspired by a holy road. Long since forgotten, the Via Papale was the papal processional route along which newly elected popes would process. It is along this road that were built the magnificent monuments, churches, art and architecture that define the city's skyline.

Click my post title for the link to this film

Milwaukee Mayor Wounded While Defending Woman Being Attacked

Hearing a woman's cries for help, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett called 911 on his cell phone and was hit by a man with a metal pipe. The Mayor was seriously hurt while attempting to help a woman at the Wisconsin State Fair.

Public servant Tom Barrett did what too many citizens fail to do and offers a fine example of civic responsibilty. Well done, Mayor Barrett.

From Associated Press

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was in the hospital on Sunday after he was attacked by a person using a metal pipe as the mayor and his family left the Wisconsin State Fair.

Barrett was in stable condition Sunday at a local hospital and was alert and talking when he arrived there on Saturday night, the Milwaukee Police Department said in a statement. It did not provide more details, and a spokeswoman for the police department did not have any further information.

Police said Barrett was leaving the state fair on Saturday night when he heard a woman crying out for help in the city of West Allis, about six miles west of Milwaukee.

Police said Barrett began calling 911 when the suspect who was attacking the woman charged at the mayor and began hitting him with a metal pipe. The suspect then fled the scene, authorities said.

The woman was not injured, and police were still searching for the suspect, who has a criminal arrest record, authorities said.

No other details were immediately available Sunday.

Watch MSNBC Flannelmouth O'Donnell Get His Come-up-ance - Not That He Understands What That Means

You Got That Right, O'Donnell!
Lawrence O'Donnell is filling in for Chris "Milky" Matthews, another Mick Loud Mouth, on MSNBC's Hard Ball.

MSNBC is what I have on when doing the laundry for House Hickey. It is white noise that goes positively Albino when Matthews is on - now, I have see-thru Irish skin,but my God Matthews looks like one of those scary dudes in the Matrix movies or the poor kid Milky in Me, Myself,& Irene.

Matthews usually has on a cavalcade of Irish-American cartoon characters that anyone who attended a parish grammar school in America can recognize - Joan Walsh and Lawrence O'Brien the sure fire Rat-out Everyone else in Class Ass-Kissers and phonies who were sure to let SISTER know that 'Everyone else in Room 304 was talking and not acting as the Blessed Virgin would expect of Catholic children.'

Joan Walsh is afflicted with a perpetual slow-head-shake employed when an opposing point of view's representative is speaking,in order to visually poison the well of dispute for MSNBC.

O'Donnell is the Loud-Mouth Faux Tough Guy Son of the On-the-Pad Police Captain Who Will 'Have Your Old Man Pinched When He Comes Out of B&H Liquors' and only hits a guy when three of his toadies are holding his arms. He is the type of guy who wears his high school Letterman's jacket for the balance of his life though he never played a down of football or got his Chuck Taylor's dirty.

MSNBC has managed to coral every jerk-stereotype from every Catholic grammar school in America into its Democratic Progressive Irish Cartoon Panel. If you remember a creep from St. Malachy's, St. Gabe's, Little Flower, St. Brendan's or St. Columbanus, watch MSNBC and you catch that creep shouting or doing the weepy phoney act.

MSNBC is a propaganda mill. No News is Their News. MSNBC sports Tamron Hall who could not find a Chinaman on 22nd Street while reading news copy at Fox in Chicago; David 'Shay It Don't Shpray It - Fountainmouth' Schuester, a nebbish of the 1st Order; Fatboy Keith Olbermann -nuff said on that nut-job; Butch Maddow, the GLBT show dog of MSNBC and Herman Goring Wannabe Ed Schultz. A Ship of Fools. Volume does not mean quality. Birthers, Palin-Is-Satan, You are a Racist and We Are Not, You Are a Redneck and We Are Not is the full battery of MSNBC opinion slingers.

Lawrence O'Donnell had the sound tech pin back the arms of dispute with a Texas Congressman over the Health Care Debate - which MSNBC is working overtime to help derail. Real Clear Politics offered a video of the shout-down by O'Donnell, which really is Milky's shtick, of Rep. Cullbertson (R,TX) who manages to wedge in this shot on flannel-mouth O'Donnell:

Rep. John Culberson (R-TX): "You know, Lawrence, for your listeners, you're illustrating why MSNBC's viewership is in the tank because you don't allow your people you're interviewing to answer questions. And, you know Lawrence, this is why Katie and everybody else is going to Facebook, everyone's going to the Internet because why listen to MSNBC when you won't even let the people you're interviewing answer the question?"

Click my post title for the full treatment.
Anyone -Democrat, Republican, or any thinking bi-ped who goes on MSNBC should have his/her head examined. It was the first time that I have witnessed am abused guest on that idiotic channel punch back at a bullying creep - neither O'Donnell, nor Matthews would have graduated from high school with a full set of buckers on the south side of Chicago. Creeps of all faiths, races and political persuassions ( though most are Real Democrats) would have been treated to a sound, thorough and wholesome ass-kicking -for starters.


Huge thanks to Tom Bevan's Real Clear Politics for the Head's Up!

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.