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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks Doctor! Thanks for everything.




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

Southwest Observer Scoops - South Side Parade On!

99% confirmed: South Side parade @ 10:30 a.m. Sunday

This is very good news.

» Read similar stories filed under: Beverly Breaking News Local Organizations Morgan Park Mount Greenwood
Location(s)
10300 S. Western Ave.
Chicago, IL, 60643

A

n inside source has told the Southwest Observer that the South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee plans to march - quietly and inconspicuously - from 103rd Street to 111th Street along Western Avenue at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

The reason is simple: The committee will lose its parade permit unless it continues to step off from the original parade start point at the intersection of 103rd and Western. Although no one would confirm this on record, it's all but guaranteed that - because of this technicality - the parade will continue.

For the obvious reasons, the committee has kept it quiet, so as not to attract the thousands of drunks who ruined it in recent years for the rest of the neighborhood.
Still, those partaking in past parade-day imbibing before noon should look out for the small band of marchers who plan to make their way south along Western Avenue. I'm told that they plan to march on the east side, which has always been the dry side and makes sense so as not to attract attention of the potentially hundreds of pub crawlers who plan to continue the other parade-day tradition: drinking heavily.

Kristen McQueary Queen Maker? Did Columnist Give Kelly Burke Bum Counsel"

Kristen McQueary confronts the Old Boys and lands Kelly Burke in the Jackpot.


The Evergreen Park Burke's are a great family. They banded together family and friends and got Kelly Burke, an attorney, a squeaker of a win in the February Primary for State Represenative ( 36th District). Rep. James Brosnahan (D Evergreen Park) called it quits. Kelly Burke won with less than 50% of the vote against a Speaker Mike Madigan and Big Union candidate.

John O'Sullivan, a construction laborer, beat long-time Worth Township Democratic Committeeman Dennis Magee with more than 75% of the vote.

John O'Sullivan , as Worth Township Committeeman, has a great responsibility to many constituencies. One of his responsibilities is to appoint vacancies. One of those vacancies is State Representative James Brosnahan's position. Kelly Burke demured on the appointment and now that seat was filled by Mike Carberry. It seems that Kelly Burke, in order to maintain an independence from the Ward and Party regulars might have been too coy, due to counsel from Kristen McQueary.

After the primary ( Feb. 18th) Kristen McQueary wrote this in the Southtown Star. This was a fed piece. You know - the ones that follow a phone call. The Guide to the Perplexed type. "What should I do Kristen? I won and yet I am beholden." McQueary like every tin-pot Queen Maker with ink to spill, seems to use the earnest Kelly Burke's 'Independendence.' What does a political pundit have to lose? Nothing. Never do. Some elected officials trust journalists and that seems always to their peril.


Kristen said,

But by accepting the appointment to the seat, she loses some of that appeal (Independence my own). She will benefit from the incumbency infrastructure on which Madigan builds his loyalty. Heading into November, she'll have staff, money and resources, a few months of legislative experience, a wider perspective and a fatter Rolodex. She'll probably have a few bills on Gov. Pat Quinn's desk, thanks to Madigan.

Burke said she welcomes the opportunity to serve constituents if appointed, but she will run her fall campaign the same way she ran her primary.

"I ran a pretty strong campaign using the resources of my family and friends and volunteers, and that's kind of my plan going forward," she said.

Appointing someone other than Burke doesn't make sense.

It does not make sense to a columnist with an inflated sense of importance and the need to kick at "The Organization: The Old Boys, The Clout." Columnists love the abstarct notion of Independence and view obligation ( beholden) as some sort of mark of Cain. The only real Independent folks are poor souls that get treated at State Funded Mental Health Facilities - the padded cell fraternity is as independent as it gets. Grit and tenacity are great, but please,get real about Independence. Poor Kelly Burke had the hook run through her gills with that last sentence and the paragraph to come. Kristen McQueary set her hook.

I stood out in the freezing cold with Kelly Burke's husband Terry on Primary Day. Like Kelly Burke, Terry is a wonderful guy. His brothers. two great kids, in-laws and family friends were working like Americans. The whole family, kids included, busted their rumps for Kelly. I also remember that Committeeman John O'Sullivan backed Kelly Burke, in spite of bucking the unions and O'Sullivan is a rock-solid union man.

Kelly Burke was at John O'Sullivan's kick-off party in Oak Lawn, as I recall.

Nevertheless, it appears that political columnist Kristen McQuery was doing a David Axelrod - activist journalist - bit here. Word is that Kelly Burke vacillated about the appointment and waited well past the deadline for the Committeeman.

It seems that she did so by being beholden to Kristen McQuearey's thoughts here in the February 18th column. Good Lord! Be beholden, but take advice from a columnist?

Either way, Burke is likely to land the appointment.

The downside is that she'll be casting difficult votes in April and May on state spending. She'll have a voting record. If the Republicans get serious, they might be able to make things difficult for her. Voters of the 36th District once again could experience a spirited campaign.

Except in that case, Burke might want Madigan's help.

He always finds a way to corral his flock, doesn't he?

That is troubling. The Committeeman, a great guy, wanted Kelly Burke and needed to go with another Burke backer Mike Carberry who also bucked Big Labor.

Good people are often hurt by the press. What goes on in the minds of a "Columnist" God only knows. Kristen McQueary did not help Kelly Burke and if and when Kelly Burke gets to Springfield this incident could dent her credibility with her colleagues.

When Kelly Burke has a beef with somebody, she takes it up with Kristen McQueary.

HBO's Pacific Review in WSJ - Poetic Prose

I read this review of HBO's mini-series The Pacific and was treated to poetry in prose. Nancy Dewolf Smith's close reading of this TV event is splendid writing. Here it is in its etirety. The subject of the War in the Pacific is epic.


HBO's 10-part miniseries "The Pacific" encapsulates the American war against Japan in a series of four battles, as experienced by U.S. Marines, that took place between August 1942 and the middle of June 1945: the famous ones for Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the more obscure but also brutal fight to drive the Japanese off Peleliu island. Even those who know already that the Pacific theater was like no other in the war may be shocked by the harrowing combat re-created here.

Stunning in a different way are the three Marines at the center of the series. In their true stories and, more importantly, their individual responses to the demands of warfare, we find a perfect trinity of action, emotion and intellect. Understated as it is here—we must see for ourselves what these men are, and only with effort, in the most fleeting moments—the nuanced humanity they bring to the screen is crucial. Other characters also leave indelible impressions. Yet without these central three, the series might be little more than a balletic action film with psyche-piercing sights and sound effects.

Sgt. John Basilone (Jon Seda), the machine gunner who won the Medal of Honor at Guadalcanal, is the doer, the man without whom no war would be winnable. Although Basilone was a household name in America during the war, we do not often read his mind in "The Pacific," or need to. Yanked out of action after Guadalcanal to go on a lengthy war-bond promotion tour at home, he buries his frustration in a grim pursuit of female flesh. And yet when true romance arrives—only months before he voluntarily returns to action in the Pacific—the ultimate Marine is the most vulnerable of men.

Mr. Seda, whose face invites us in even as it gives nothing away, deserves most of the credit for clarifying a simple mystery at the heart of braveness; how, stripped to his elemental self, a hero is a kind of innocent. Even so, the power of a scene where we see him without clothes—bursting with health even as he faces death, his skin tattooed and yet looking as unblemished as a baby's—owes much to those who so gracefully filmed it.
Pfc. Eugene Sledge (Joe Mazzello) entered the war later than some, partly because his physician father—who, like many fathers then, had fresh memories of the carnage of World War I—did not want his son to enlist. Sledge's transformation from a clean-living moralist to a battle-scarred realist who needs reminding that he even has a soul can be painful to watch. Precisely because he came to war with a tender, open heart, the price he pays in suffering is a wounded spirit that may never have healed. His story is a reminder that life is not the only thing war can extinguish. Some survive but never regain the capacity to feel unbounded, guiltless joy.

If there is a pair of eyes through which we see most clearly, they belong to Pfc. Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale). He comes to the Pacific already a classic outsider, and although he becomes a crack fighter with close bonds to his comrades, his letters home reveal cynicism and detachment. Some horrors, once seen and participated in, cannot be forgotten, he says. "It is one thing to reconcile these things with God, but another to square it with yourself."

But Leckie, watching and recording, is resilient. From the depths of a total mental breakdown, he latches on to signs of life—some of them no larger than the wisps of blond hair blowing in the breeze on a nurse's cheek. Thanks to Mr. Dale, we see more deeply into Leckie than any other character here, and his transformations from harsh-faced judge of mankind to happy lover and back again are both troubling and marvelous to see.

"The Pacific" spends no time on lectures. Two of the series' most fundamental truths are delivered in single lines. One comes when a taxi-driving vet who served in Europe tells Leckie that the men who fought in the Pacific had the hardest war. Another becomes clear at a sunny behind-the-lines military base where flowers grow and buxom nurses abound—and we are reminded that this picture, familiar even now, is a fake. For most, the Pacific was only blood, mud and lonely, unmitigated fear.

As for the meaning of it all, we have Capt. Andrew Haldane (Scott Gibson) and the words: "I want to believe, I have to believe...every man that's wounded, every man that I lose, that it's all worthwhile because our cause is just." And then there's Bob Leckie's more succinct profession of faith: "I believe in ammunition."

What would the old breed make of all this, if more were alive today? To see the mesmerizing Rami Malek as Louisiana bayou boy Pfc. Merriell Shelton, who first appears like a sinister genie at the gates of hell, but may be something else entirely. To see the faces of the Marines at a jungle showing of "For Whom the Bell Tolls," yelling raunchy comments at the young Ingrid Bergman until her femininity casts a soothing spell and they stare, transfixed, at the screen. To watch once more the splashing men wading into the sea to wash away the gore and filth of months of combat, their naked bodies gleaming as if, somehow, they have been purified...until the next battle makes them sinners again.

Mary Mitchell is an Idiot and Craig Wall is a Punk - Let's Dialog about Race . Oh, Let's Do.

If it bleeds it Ledes( leads) -if it ain't bleeding help it do so. Mary Mitchell and Craig Wall

Some guy in West Beverly put racially charged block letters all over his garage. Mary Mitchell wrote that the guy is an "idiot pure and simple." Not a racist, but an idiot pure and simple.

Could be.

Craig Wall, Fox WFLD investigative reporter boldly put his microphone in the confronted guy's face and demanded to know "Are you a racist?. . .Are YOU a Racist?" Craig Wall repeatedly asked that.

Here let me try - "Are you an A$$hole, Craig?"

Begs the question.

The goof with the yard art might be an idiot and might be a racist.

However, whatever this guy's real or demanded civic crimes might be he takes a far back seat to Fox's Craig Wall and the always reactionary Mary Mitchell. One is a punk and the other an idiot.

Only a punk or an idiot, or both would want to make a very publicly announced,planned and inevitable booze stroll in this neighborhood become a race issue bloodbath.

Thousands of booze fueled idiots ( Bucktown, Ukranian Village, Logan Square, Lakeview and Lincoln Park and suburban Facebook ChiRish - Miller Brewing's Rainbow of Idiots) intend to get their Irish Freak on, despite the fact that no parade is scheduled. Thousands of the past years inebriated guests who took Metra south or boarded Booze Cruise Buses from fern bars will weave up and down Western Ave. in the Facebook inspired Parade of Dopes. Queen Sister of It Takes a Village ( who promptly responded to Craig Wall's clarion call) might join them for Cokes and Jokes. Booze and stupidity shaken up with a pretty lame race story like this will make an obnoxious event a good blood lede for Monday's papers.

This Sunday, thousands of nitwits will converge upon this neighborhood of mine. The Parade is canceled, nitwits. This same quiet and very livable neighborhood has seen too many racially charged and motivated crimes in the last few years. Interestingly, they have been black on white crimes and not t'other way around. Old people beaten to death in their homes and PC dictums require that no Hate Crime be attached - as it was merely a property crime. B.S.!

Only a few years ago, three black kids beat s sickly white boy (heart condition) nearly to death and with much huffing and puffing and crocodile tears columnists like Mary Mitchell insisted no racist motivations whatsoever on the part of the pipe-wielding trio, even after they admitted that they chose the boy because he was a goofy looking white kid.

There was no backlash. Blacks and whites continue to live in the neighborhood. No white on black crime. No lynchings, bull whipping, taunts or teases. Nothing. Black people want to buy homes here and live with people Chicago's Media demand at every possible opportunity to be racist thugs. Ironically, my black neighbors want no part of the thug-life they left behind in Grand Crossing, Gresham, Englewood and Roseland.

Yet, Mary Mitchell and anal apertures like Craig Wall need blood ledes - even when the truth is pretty anemic.

Mary Mitchell is an idiot and a very well-documented one at that. Craig Wall is a Punk.

I used to love the south side parade. I will go to Mass and pray for peace and then keep an eye on kids and home.

*

More than 13,000 people have pledged to show up and another 7,600 responded as a "maybe". Kelleher says he posted the event on a whim and was just curious to see what people would say.

Now the "event" could turn into the world's largest pub crawl. A St. Patrick's Day celebration in New York City set that record last year with 3,163 participants.

Kelleher says there is no official starting place or itinerary for the day. Residents of Beverly are concerned that if thousands of people show up, the crowd would get out of hand.

Alderman Virginia Rugai says she has made the Chicago Police aware of the Facebook posting, but as of now, the police do not plan to add patrols that day.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/mitchell/2096447,CST-NWS-mitch11.article

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/20100310-racially-charged-display

Massa's in the Hot, Hot, Hot Shower! DNC Lather Lobbying.

Rep. Massa says it was not sexual harassment - it was 'Tickle Fights!'

Bony Finger poking Rahm Emanual lobbies Massa's support in the Congressional Shower!

Yet, I am still a Democrat - Chicago Democrat. Hey, really. We showered together after practice in high school and that was it. Really.

The South Side St. Paddy Parade With No Parade but A Parade of Idiots!

With the cancelation of the south side Parade, young festive Bucktown/Wicker Park/Lincoln Square/Lincoln Park swells and maids by the bus load from Fern adorned saloons, will be seen going east and west on Western Ave. this Sunday.

It is always heart-warming when a bullet proof, fully Kreuzaned, soul patched young buck manages to slur out a demand for the non-existent south side taxi cab -"Ehh, OhFuggah. Wherez a Cabs at? Maaaan Do'od yoo Suck!" Followed by a sharp moistening of his chinos and an acrobatic weave backward, onto my lawn. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

While we regret the need to alter such a fine tradition, the Committee feels that suspending the South Side Irish Parade in its present form is the just and responsible thing to do.”

The decision has since created uproar on Facebook. Over 30 groups and events were created, some comprised of around 10,000 members. After numerous posts of pointing fingers and expressing grievances, the groups now talk about turning the weekend in Beverly into the world’s largest pub crawl. “I say everyone just shows up and has a good time,” said Anthony Palaggi on one of the group sites. “Viva la Resistance!” said Mike Benninghoff on another site.

Click my Post Title about the Facebook Parade of Drunks

Col. James A. Mulligan - A Heroic Figure from Chicago's Buried History

I re-read a 1921 edition of Catholic Church in Chicago 1675 - 1871 by Gilbert J. Garraghan, S. J. no doubt one of Father Damen's later disciples.

This history chronicles the growth of Catholic Chicago from Father Marquette's original Mass for the voyagers on the sand dunes near the mouth of the Chicago River to the Great Chicago Fire.

The first Catholic Church built in Chicago was Father St. Cyr's St. Mary's located on the south side of Lake Street near State in 1833 with a mere 200 ( mostly French) worshipers.

By 1857 and flood of thousands of Irish immigrants, the still magnificent Holy Family Church towered above 12th Street ( Roosevelt Road; a Catholic College was in place at St. Mary of the Lake and Catholic Institute (later the Chicago Lyceum) -Literary and Debating society flourished.

One of the chief members of the Catholic Institute was recent graduate of St. Mary of the Lake College - James Adelbert Mulligan.

Col. Mulligan organized the three Catholic Military societies ( the Shields, the Emmett and the Montgomery Guards) into the Chicago Irish Brigade, which was the 1st militia from Illinois recognized for the Federal Army in the American Civil War. This body became the Illinois 23rd Regiment.

Col. Mulligan led the Illinois 23rd ( 3,500 tough Micks) to Missouri where it faced Confederate General Sterling Price's force of 12,500 Rebs in what must have been the wildest battle of the Civil War - The Battle of Lexington also known as the battle of the Hemp Bales.

Hemp is dope. Mulligan's force was outnumbered and surrounded on the campus of Masonic College. Sterling Price bombarded Mulligans troops from September 18th through the 20th. On the 20th of September, Price soaked hundreds hemp bales in the Mississippi River and used them as breastworks - constantly closing a grip around the throats of the 23rd Illinois.

General Price probably should have lit them bales on fire and smoked the Micks into submission. Too stoned to fight?

Nevertheless, the soaked bales did the job and Mulligan and the 23rd were captured and later paroled in a prisoner exchange - not uncommon in the old rules of war.

Mulligan became the commandant of Camp Douglas but was removed for treating the Confederate Prisoners with dignity and food. Progressive minded radical Republicans wanted the Camp to be a punitive exercise - starve and freeze the Rebs.

Col. Mulligan returned to combat leading the Chicago Irish Brigade in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley against Confederate General Jubal Early at Leestown and later Second Kernstown ( n.b. Illinois Irishman James J. Shields defeated Stonewall Jackson at the 1st Battle of Kernstown in 1862 and was the only Union General to best Jackson) where Rearguard Action expert Col. Mulligan fought a fighting retreat and was killed by a Confederate sniper.

We read way too much mythology about Jane Addams and Lyman Trumbull types and most of it is inflated nonsense.

James A.Mulligan was quite a historic figure. We only read about great Americans like Beaubien, Brownson, Shields and Mulligan in books that were close to history and not re-invented redactions of history.


James A. Mulligan (1830-1864)
James Adelbert Mulligan was a brevet brigadier general of volunteers in the Union Army. An Irish politician in Chicago, he raised the "Irish Brigade" (23rd Illinois). He was wounded at Winchester and as his men were carrying him from the field he ordered them to save the flag rather than to save him. He was captured and died three days later.

Pat Hickey's Film of "The Snot Locker"

The New York Times called The Snot Locker "the year’s most critically acclaimed American film." Rotten Tomatoes reported that 0.1% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on a sample of "both of them," with an average score of 8.4 out of 10, or something like that and it was the second highest-rated film in 2010 at this site, behind Polanski's's Up with People Like Us. At Metacritic, which assigns a rating normalized to 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 0.0 based on 33 reviews. Rotten Tomatoes wrote of the critics' consensus, "A well-acted, intensely shot, action filled war epic, Pat Hickey's The Snot Locker is thus far the best reviewed of the recent dramatizations of the nose."[25]

Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun Times refused to rate the film, but Roger Egbert, a guy in Custer Park, IL., thinks this is the best dang old film of the year and as one of the best of the By God decade, writing, "The Snot Locker is a great film, an intelligent film, a film shot clearly so that we know exactly who everybody is and where they are and what they're doing and why." He applauded how the suspense was built, calling the film "spellbinding, but that did not happen. I thought I was Farmering on the cold ground myself." Egbert considered Houli "a leading contender for Academy Awards", writing, "Houli's performance is not built on complex speeches but on a visceral projection of green stuff that tells who this man is and what he feels and that is sinus backup. He is not a hero in a conventional sense." Shot entirely in Illinois. and on a cell phone camera at that, Hickey captures what it really feels like to be stuffed up and congested.

See this film, before the Nyquil kicks in!


The Snot Locker

"Stuffy" a fifty-ish Actor with a Radio Show - Mike Houlihan

"The Kid" a baby - Morganthaller Cavendish

Music Score Aqualung by Jethro Tull

Cinematography - Cingular One

Powerful Story of Abortion Horrors and Planned Parenthooding Out of Philadelphia

Lawyer and writer Christine Flowers penned a powerful and disturbing story about the Abortion Industyry in America and the Planned Parenthooding of the Media. Well done Ms. Flowers! Read this.

The legalization of abortion was supposed to have protected not only "a woman's right to choose," but women's health in general. Unfortunately, the advocates hadn't yet heard of Dr. Kermit B. Gosnell and his abortion house of horrors.

In the wake of revelations about the unethical practices, unlicensed practitioners and grisly conditions at the West Philadelphia family planning clinic (are mummified fetuses in jars a form of birth control?), I expected the pro-choice activists to circle the wagons and attack a much greater enemy than the doctor himself: pro-lifers.

They didn't disappoint me.

Abortion is still legal and widely available in Pennsylvania. Which means legalization hasn't entirely eliminated the questionable medical practitioners who plied their trade in the dingy pre-Roe alleys. It just moved them into the light of day on Lancaster Avenue.

But the pro-choice crowd simply can't admit that. They'll acknowledge that licensing requirements must be made stricter. They'll applaud the fact that Pennsylvania suspended Gosnell's license, and that he agreed to a suspension in Delaware. They'll say that this doctor wasn't typical of the average abortion provider.

And they'll do what our sister paper did in its editorial on the topic, conjuring up the images of Barnett Slepian and George Tiller, abortionists killed by radical anti-abortion activists:

"Sadly, threats, protests, and even the murder of doctors who perform abortions have forced many good physicians out of the abortion business, leaving others to fill the void."

Like I said, I saw it coming.

You can't risk undermining the whole decades-long charade that legalized abortion is a medical necessity and that only by removing virtually all restrictions on availability can you promote "reproductive health." The women who died at Gosnell's clinic might differ, if they still could.

Still, I'm willing to concede that the vast majority of abortion clinics don't resemble the hellhole on Lancaster Avenue.

I'm also willing to admit that most of the people who perform abortions believe they are providing a necessary service.

But what I refuse to accept is the spin that many pro-choice advocates apply to this and similar issues, trying to make it seem as if they are the only ones who care about women's health.

Click my post title for more.

Lt. Guv Sheila Simon - The Hope of Every Goo-goo Entitlement Child of God - or Higher Power -or Void

Former Progressive Alderman Marty Oberman's kid Justin got waxed in his bid for the State Treasurer. The kid stood for Office and took his lumps, God Bless Him! He wrote a very gracious and thoughtful letter to his supporters.

From day one, we ran a substantive campaign talking about the issues that affect each of us on a daily basis. On job creation, we proposed new, creative initiatives that would allow the Treasurer to work more closely with Illinois businesses. In Rockford, for example, we hosted a forum on high-speed rail to discuss ways that we could use existing manufacturing infrastructure to make Illinois a leader in building new rail equipment.

On ethics, we led from day one by proposing tough new sanctions limiting who we would accept contributions from.

These issues – job creation and ethics – are at the heart of why I wanted to be your next State Treasurer, and they will continue to motivate me. Since the polls closed and the results became clear, I have heard from many of you encouraging me to stay involved on these issues and to continue to fight for a government that will improve and honor our beleaguered Illinois. I can assure you that I intend to do just that. Thank you so very much for everything you have done and for the faith you put in me.

http://www.obermanforillinois.com/

He stood for office!

Then there are the Illinois Panjandrums - the array of political fringe folk whom Goo-goos and Ummers wet their silkies over - Chris Kennedy, Sheila Simon and the parade of "Ain't They Greaters!" that Progressives scream out common sense about.

Chris Kennedy - RFK's Boy owns the Merchandise Mart Building and has been as quiet as a Progressive at a Charity Auction since he locked down an appointment to the U of I Board. Chris announces and then crawfishes his candidacy for various public offices in Illinois. He'd get his Patrician Ass handed to him in any election.

Sheila Simon is the daughter of Paul Simon. I am the son of Pat and Ginny Hickey -BFD! My Dad is a great stationary engineer and WWII vet ( Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima) and my Mom can still whistle through her fingers and break a pane of glass. I have trouble working a channel-locks am as Yellow as a Duck's Foot and dribble when I whistle.

Sheila Simon won the endorsement of President Obama in her run for Mayor of Carbondale, Illinois and lost the election. She is also a former City Councilman from Carbodale. Sheila Simon was appointed to the Illinois Reform Fun House run by former Federal Prosecutor Patrick Collins. The only talent on that panel is Northwestern Football Coach Patrick Fitzgerald.

Goo-goos and Ummers ( people who must offer "Ummm" as an antecedent to any forthcoming stupidity -usually in print) love Sheila Simon. "Ummers tend to be boiled beets Progressives. Goo-goos are bed and breakfast owners who, having shaken down zoning officials in Chicago, go after them skalawags and ne'er-do-wells with the BGA.

Sheila Simon evoked the memory of her departed Dad and looks very much like Pater Simon. Sheila wants to give hope to Progressive Children of Entitlement - not children of Regular Democratic Elected Officials, but IPI and IVO Sanctioned Dimwits Not Hacks. You see, if the son or daughter of non IPI-IVO Sanctioned Dimwit but Not a Hack were to run for office Carol Marin and Eric Zorn and Mark Brown and Studs Terkel would get their panties in a twist. I heard Studs Terkel only the other day on NPR - he's a treasure. "Ummers" tell you what to think and get very upset when you disagree with them.

You shall know them by these words " Ain't She Great? No, Really." Why is she great? "She just is!" No, she is as dumb as hammered horseshirt, in truth. "She's Great!" Less filling! & etc.

Sheila Simon wants the "appointment" to the LT. Governor's spot. Pat Quinn should leave the spot empty. It is an empty spot to begin with and Sheila Simon wants to fill that void with her onion-skinned talents. The Lt. Governor job is one that Sheila Simon believes that she can really sink her teeth into . . .unlike the Illinois Reform Commission.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO -- The daughter of late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon has submitted her application to be the next Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor.

Okay! Chris Kennedy seems to laying in weeds after being appointed to the University of Illinois Board.


Sheila Simon is a former member of the Carbondale City Council and a member of Gov. Pat Quinn's government reform commission.
She calls her chances of being named the nominee "a long shot." But she says she's committed to helping the Democrats secure a victory this fall.

The Democratic Party began accepting applications this week from people who want to replace primary winner Scott Lee Cohen on the ballot. Cohen has left the race.

More than 175 applications had been submitted as of Saturday afternoon.

Party officials say no timeline has been set to pick a candidate.

Killing the Legendary Pump Room - Tribune Shilling for the New Owners?

Note to the Tribune reporter - witness the dearth of Tom Collins glasses? No glass black panthers adorn the tables either. Martinis seem to be the drink to order.


I just left a crowded Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church here on the south side of Chicago. Father Gallagher gave a beautiful and simple homily about the need to accept God's will - the parable of the Chaff and Wheat.

Weeds grow up with the grain and louses, creeps, thugs and low-lifes thrive among simple, hard working, generous and wonderful people. What we want is not important, but what we do with what we are given and how we treat others is all that matters.

The Mass was thick with Catholics - Croatians, Irish, Italian, Mexican, African American worshippers - and as if to add a poignancy to Father Gallagher's homily a wildly obnoxious loud and disruptive crack-pipe aficionado who snorted, farted, fidgeted and interjected occasional commands of "Hey, Boss! Boss! Over here! I'm worshipping. God Bless You." At the hand shake of peace following the Pater Noster, the pipe smoker was greeted with "Peace be with You." and pressings of the flesh.

Not expected and yet ironically welcomed, the gent stumbled out of the pew as Holy Communion was administered bounced down Sacred Heart's narrow and rickety stairs. After Mass, Our Sunday Visitor, the crack-piper, was still bouncing his way from car-to car in the crowded parking lot on 117th & Church Street.

The presence of the crack head only made Father Gallagher's homily more beautiful.

We are all in this Vale of Tears and Garden of God together.

Chicago's Pump Room in the Ambassador East Hotel is a secular temple and house of comfort to travelers and revelers.

The Pump Room has hosted celebrities and helots for decades. Last week, the Chicago Tribune trashed the Pump Room with this sophomoric and whiny narrative by a disappointed reporter. With one visit to the legendary Pump Room, reporter Lauren Viera swept the decades of service, welcome and grace long attributed to the Pump Room into the gutter:

In my recent hunt for the perfect Chicago hotel bar, I was after a particular mood. I wanted to find a classy lounge of yore: dark colors and textures typical of a private club; perhaps a hint of a bygone golden age, with history hanging heavy in the air, and long nights of lounging worn deep into leather booths. And most of all, I wanted well-executed classic cocktails, worthy of predictably inflated price tags.

Check out how we rate Chicago's hotel bars on a scale of one through five.

My first stop was at the Drake Hotel's Coq d'Or, which opened Dec. 6, 1933 — the day after Prohibition was repealed in the United States. Fortunately, the lounge's classy ambiance has changed little in the 76 years since. The burgundy-colored leather booths, the gilded finishes, the tuxedoed bartender — all accounted for. But ask for a Tom Collins, the classic gin-based sour long drink that has been ordered with multiple variations since the 1870s, and you're lucky if it's served in the appropriate tall-glass tumbler (which, incidentally, is named for the drink). At Coq d'Or, my watered-down Collins-mix cocktail was served in a hurricane glass drowning in ice.The Ambassador East Hotel's famous Pump Room was by far the most disappointing, considering its storied history. Opened in 1938, it was at one time the go-to hotel lounge in Chicago, frequented by Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman and the like.

On my visit, I was one of just three patrons sitting in the bar and still had to wait five minutes before the bartender on duty, concentrating intently on his handheld device, finally took notice. In reply to my Tom Collins request, he produced a watery vodka-soda, splashed with Rose's lime juice, served in a pint glass.

Only after I asked him how he made the drink did he pause, brows furrowed, and ask, "What's in a Tom Collins, anyway?" After hearing out the recipe and trying his hand at a fresh drink, he set it down in front of me apologetically and said, "You should always get what you want. Especially when you're out."

What I want, I'm afraid, doesn't exist anymore.

( click my post title for the full nonsense)

Heavens! A Tom Collins? Why not an Arrack Swedish Punsch, Black Velvet(Guinness & Champagne)The Doctor, or a Diki-Diki? All cocktails.

The Tom Collins is ordered with all the frequency of Keeley's Half & Half, Drewrys, Meister Brau, Andecker, and Grain Belt beers.

AS an old bartender ( Mike Doorhy's Mayfair West at 63rd & Mozart, Connelly's Tap at 63rd & Hamlin and Pete's Guiding Light at 63rd & Pulaski/Reilly's Daughter Pub on 111th, OB Joes at 111th & Sacramento and Leo's Riverside Tap on the Kankakee River), I knew my Mr. Boston Cocktail Bible.

Tom Collins - Voila!

2 ounces gin;1 ounce lemon juice, (freshly squeezed, if possible);1 teaspoon confectioner's sugar;Club soda -Add the first three ingredients for your Tom Collins drink to a cocktail shaker half filled with ice cubes. Shake vigorously long enough to chill, about 30 seconds.

Pour the strained cocktail ingredients into a Tom Collins glass or similar tall glass filled almost to the top with ice cubes. Top off with the club soda. Stir and serve with a straw.
Possible garnishes for your Tom Collins drink are an orange or lemon slice. Some people add a maraschino cherry.

I tried to imagine how this reporter would have reviewed Father Gallagher's Mass. The crack head sat directly behind me at Mass and next to Mrs. Scanlon. Mrs. Scanlon ( an eighty something widow) did not slide away from our Sunday Visitor, but accepted him as her pew mate.

Lauren Viera, it seems to me would have recoiled in utter and loud horror, demanded that the smelly drug addled gent be tossed from the house of worship and then pen a pithy missive of condemnation to the Cardinal.

Sometimes you a get a bum drink. Order something else - something less obscure.

The Pump Room continues to be a great and gracious place for an elegant time with wonderfully talented and fun people ( Max, Steve, Jesse, Bob, Angel, Gloria, James, Yancey et.al.) and handsomely mixed cocktails. The staff of bartenders ( Angel is # 1.) are exacting in the ministrations of the mixologist's arts and more so attentive to the point being family members.

When the Chicago Tribune wants something killed it dances the Joe Medill jig all over it. Might the Chicago Tribune being doing the new owner a service? Provide bum reviews and scare off potential visitors?

An honest reporter would have asked for some other cocktail, if the bartender seemed flustered by such a dated order - something else, or at least had the grace to come back again.

The crack head might be back next Sunday, but so will Mrs. Scanlon and all the other worshipers. Likewise, people who know better than some of the Dinny The Dimwits at the Chicago Tribune - a huge demographic that - will crowd the Pump Room.

God separates the chaff from the wheat.

Michael Moriarty's Close Reading of Communism/Progressivism in "On The Water Front"

Michael Moriarty is great actor and a serious scholar. I learned that Mr. Moriarty had Chicago roots ( Grandfather was baseball great George Moriarty - born in 'Back O' The Yards and buried at St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Evergreen Park). Mr. Moriarty played Henry Wiggen in the great American film Bang the Drum Slowly.

Mr. Moriarty writes for Big Hollywood. The other day Moriarty presented a close reading of Elia Kazan's classic film On The Waterfront and presented some sobering thoughts on American Political culture, Marlon’s Mao: Part Three.

Michael Moriarty is a good read. Click my post title for the full article.

Here is a sample:


Close Reading/Reading to Write
Definition of genre

Close reading—usually of a written text, but quite possibly of a film, a painting, or another work of art—is the first stage in writing an essay that responds to or builds upon the ideas in the original text. That is why a close reading is sometimes called “reading to write” or “reader response.” Rather than merely extracting facts from the text, a close reading prepares you to analyze it critically through your own writing.

http://uwp.duke.edu/wstudio/resources/genres/close_reading.pdf

This, the Great American Tragedy of Communism’s homicidal insistence upon invading America as a “Progressive Movement” – the assassination of the very Catholic President John F. Kenney being one of its most disgracefully high points – will, I have massive faith, eventually turn out to be just another triumph of America over the mortal enemies of her infinitely and universally resonant Declaration of Independence.
Here, while basking in the relevance of On The Waterfront, I suddenly see the cosa nostra metaphor, the Brechtian fascination with Chicago mobs, the Obama administration’s Red-packed Czardom and Mao Zedong himself as the Godfather of all Godfathers … this mounting tower of Progressive Babel, making absolutely no sense whatsoever unless you have a ruthless mob willing to enforce it.
Our Second Amendment?!
If we don’t have weapons in our hands, the enlightened despots still know that we’re packing heat.
Most important is our American knowledge of the truth and the power of love.
With our government now run by no more than an Ivy-league educated, gangster’s mob, I recall Terry Malloy’s reluctant acceptance of a pistol from his doomed lawyer brother who insists – following one of screen history’s greatest moments of acting, Rod Steiger’s resigned and tragic sigh, the beginning of his surrender to the inevitability of his own death – “You’re gonna need it!”
Here is where, even before Karl Malden’s firey priest makes his re-entrance, God begins to arrive.
Then, of course, the hair-raising race down the darkened alley when Terry Malloy and Edie Doyle first barely escape being run down by Johnny Friendly’s hit team truck, then see the hanging, dead body of Rod Steiger.
Brando’s childlike plea to Eva Marie Saint to take care of his brother’s now fallen body, that gun in his possession, ready to do business.
Terry goes to Friendly’s bar to reek revenge upon his brother’s killers. With his hand still bleeding from the near-death escape with Edie, Terry hunches on the bar, gun in hand, to await the arrival of Johnny Friendly.
Who shows up?
A priest … a Catholic priest.
God again!!

Stabat Mater (Dolorosa) at St. John Cantius Catholic Church

St. Cantius Catholic Church offered the Stations of the Cross last evening. God knows I need as much Church as any sinner can get and I sin like a Congressman on junkets.

One of the most beautiful pieces of music from the Baroque period was performed - the Stabat Mater by Pergolesi. Click my post title ( Katia Ricciarelli and Lucia Valentini sing the final movement of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. 1979. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.)

Stabat Mater means - the Standing Mother - Mary Mother of Christ. It is the heartbreaking depiction of a mother witnessing the last breaths of her Child - think of Childrens Memorial Hospital at any given time.

St. John Cantius Catholic Church celebrates the magnificence and te simplicity of Faith. In our zip-lock culture, Faith is sneered at and shouted over. Faith engines our efforts and taps on the shoulders about our obligations to those we love and those we are commanded to love - that's the tough one, boys and Girls.

St. John Cantius
825 N. Carpenter St.
Chicago, IL 60642

http://www.cantius.org/

About the Stabat Mater

Date 1736

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710 - 1736) was born in Jesi, Italy. His name became known thanks to his comic opera La Serva Padrone. He was slightly handicapped and had a weak constitution. He probably died of tuberculosis. A lot of confusion exists about which works Pergolesi did or did not compose. As his work came more and more in demand, some publishers tried to make a little extra by taking an anonymous composition and attaching the name of Pergolesi to it. However, about the Stabat Mater there is no doubt. It is known that in his early years he composed a Stabat Mater in A minor.
Probably the Stabat Mater in C minor was Pergolesi's last composition. The commission for this work was given by the same Order in Naples for which Alessandro Scarlatti 20 years earlier had composed a Stabat Mater. Though the score of the compositions is almost identical, the melodic lines of Pergolesi are more sentimental and highly ornamented.The piece was widely acclaimed and it seems to have inspired many composers to imitate, paraphrase and adapt (see Brunetti, de Nardis and Paisiello). Joseph Eybler (1764 - 1846), who was a friend of Mozart and who became Court Kapellmeister in Vienna after Antonio Salieri, added a choir to replace some of the duets, and extended the orchestra. Others were John Adam Hiller/Johann Adam Hüller (1728 - 1804) and Alexy Fyodorovich L'vov (ca. 1830). The musical setting of Psalm 51 "Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden" of the great Johann Sebastian is another example.

Performers Soprano, alto, three violins, cello, organ
Length 41.44 minutes (CD 1), 41.30 minutes (CD 2), 37.27 minutes (CD 3), 40.03 minutes (CD 4), 34.58 minutes (CD 5), 39.38 minutes (CD 6), 33.12 (CD 7)
Particulars The work is divided into twelve sections, varying from one to five stanzas. Very moving melodies, which led to some criticism because they were thought to be too cheerful. Interesting is the line "dum e-mi-sit" which is sung intermittently, as a musical picture of the last breaths of Jesus. This is found also with some other composers.
Some interpretations deviate from the composer's score, as a choir has been added to the two voices (see the second Colorbar, based on CD 2). This is probably based on the Eybler adaptation.

Governor Pat Quinn Will Win - The Media and the "Umm-ers" Are All Over Brady Like A Cheap Suit

Bill Brady won the Illinois Republican Primary for Governor and that is like kissing your sister - not that that is a bad thing mind you - just in case the Sex is Politics and Morality Crowd ( GLBT Advocates) are monitoring my helot's thougts. I have been meaning to ask if Incestuous Relationships fit in as an undeserved sexual morality minority group in need of the standard Progressive Hegelian Makeover. Most sexual peccadillo's have been Botox-ed Beautiful in this manner and are given a loud powerful voice and re-written histories in the Media.

Poor Bill Brady. In a year when Illinois should sweep a GOP Governor into the job, the "blow your toes off" DuPage Dimwits will lose the race.

Pat Quinn needs only to leave the Lt. Governor's Slot empty and allow the SEIU paid for Illinois Media to beat up on the Kid who won the GOP Lt. Governor spot and pour manure on Bill Brady. The "Ummers" are already all over Brady - "Ummers" are Progressive columnists and Snark Assenting Bloggers who charcteristically begin every snotty and irony drenched faux question or observation with the antecedant "Ummmm...,"

The Ummers are especially hard on Brady. Brady, even before Kerque Dillard, Marque Kerques twin, was treated to a daily rhetorical kick in the nuts by the poor man's moss-back Huffington Posters. These Midol gulpers think that they are on MSNBC and that they can create their own Illinois Sarah Palin - Palin would have their guts for garters. Dan Proft would do far worse to the Ummers.

Dan Proft would have blow-torched the Ummers.

Pat Quinn should catch a wave and tall tropical iced beverages until November.

Bill Brady will look like that poor broad in the first Aliens Movie before the critter ripped out of her chest -"Pleeeaaassse! Just kill me."

Here's just a sample of what the GOP Governor Primary Winner can expect.


Bill Brady Gaffes Again: Attack On Quinn's Early Release Program Unfounded (VIDEO)
Huffington Post (blog) - ‎57 minutes ago‎
With a final vote count in the Republican primary for governor expected today, Bill Brady revved up the campaign engine. Expected to be declared the primary ...
Brady misfires on governor Chicago Sun-Times
Brady swings and misses at Quinn Chicago Tribune
Brady Tries to Bring Early Release Program Back Up WGIL Radio News
Chicago Daily Herald - MyFox Illinois


I like Pat Quinn and he will win a walk. Poor Bill Brady.

A St. Paddy's Day Message to Every Elected Official

"Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde*"
Beware of the anger of a patient man.

Pronounced - koe-vade varrig farr nah foe-ih-geh

Practice this and make some calls to your Senators, Congressfolks, State Legislators, Guvs, and Aldermen. They'll love to hear from you.

The O'Connell Sisters

The three O'Connell sisters took home their fried fish from DiCola's ( no meat this Lent for these ladies) and I overheard this exchange near the parking lot of County Fair ( 10800 S. Western Ave.):

Mary Elizabeth says, "Whew, it is sure windy today."

Molly replies, "No, no. Today is Thursday."

Colleen says, "So am I. Let's find a bar!

Pat Hickey's "The Alderman" will "Represent" " The Situation" - Reality South Side Show - Insulting People and Making Money: It's All Good.

"We're looking for people who represent what a South Sider is," said Joan O'Connor, casting producer for O'Connor Casting Co*. No African Americans wanted! Thought I'd help there- Hope O'Connor Casting hears some feedback.

Cretins, Feebs and Dummies will line up for hours to "Represent the South Side" - Our Version of "Jersey Shore" Attitude.

Knowing that real south siders - devout, hard-working, painfully honest, fun, witty, generous and genuine people will not make the O'Connor Casting Call, I decided to represent.

Get a guy who looks like the gent above and call his abdomen - "The Alderman" Call his gut the Alderman - it's Old School for Beer Belly. Edgy.

The Devil's Dictionary

ALDERMAN
Alderman, (n.)
An ingenious criminal who covers his secret thieving with a pretence of open marauding.
English Slang Dictionary v1.2
alderman
a man's pot belly

This person's diet should be subsistance level ( of a Rugby Team) stuffings of Slim Jims, Whitey-One-Bites ( White Castles), Hot Dogs from Pops on Kedzie, Old Style Beer, Jagermeister Shooters, Flaming Hotz, and Waldo Cooney's Pizza Slices.

This person should sleep during most daylight waking hours and spend the balance of the day drinking draft 'Syles in Bust-out joints ending with BrewBakers Pub on Western Ave. at about 5A.M.

He should not be capable of generating, much less uttering, an original thought and merely sputter obsenities, racial epithets, phrases and verbals laced with apologies about his days of "Playing some Ball at ( fill in a Catholic High School) " crying about Anne Marie Balzakas who took him to Maria High School's prom and ran off into the tall weeds at Marquette Park when he got all smoochy and living in Mom's basement, since Dukes of Hazzard got cancelled.

The Media will love this edgy and "reality" based concept programing, so long as this presentation of a south siider is fulfilled. Any positive portrayal would be doomed. Can't have that.

The O'Connor Casting Company sound like real champs. Real Stock cuffers, or what's the word? It's hyphenated I believe.

*

CASTING REALITY TV SHOW: ARE YOU THE NEXT "JERSEY SHORE" TYPE OF REALITY STAR?
ARE YOU THE NEXT “Jersey Shore” TYPE OF REALITY STAR?
Do you live on Chicago’s Southside?

•Are you between the ages 19-27yrs? (Irish, Latino, Italian, Polish… open to all races and nationalities)
•Do you openly celebrate your true Southside self as a true Southsider?
•Are you the GUY or GIRL who is awesome in oh so many ways?
•Are you sexy, crazy, fun, outgoing, outrageous, love to make things exciting, always up for an adventure, and a HUGE SOX fan?
•If so, then we want you, your friends, your total awesomeness.
CONTACT US NOW!
If you or someone you know fits this description, please tell them or forward on to them.
HOW TO APPLY: Email Chicago@oconnorcasting.tv
INCLUDE:
Your FULL name, contact info (phone, address, etc).
Brief description of your awesomeness and why you would be a great Reality Star. And THREE RECENT pictures of yourself.
(In an emergency, contact 312-226-9112, but email is best.)

Audition Dates: Now thru the end of March (RESPOND – SOONER THE BETTER)
Audition Location: O’Connor Casting Company, 1017 W. Washington, Suite 2a, Chicago, IL 60607

Sun Times Natasha Korecki - A Real Reporter! Natasha Skewers Blago With an Elegant Final Sentence

That is Natasha Korecki in the Center - One of Chicago Best Reporters!


Who, What, When, Where, and Why are all that a reporter needs to present in any story with simple declarative sentences.

The absolute American Master of the simple declarative sentence is former Chicago Tribune Sports Editor Dan McGrath.

Natasha Korecki of the Chicago Sun Times is always at the head of the Class of the Field as well!

Today's piece on the Northwestern University speech by the odious louse and former Illinois Governor is one of Natasha Korecki's best presentations. It is a gem of solid reporting.

Ms. Korecki allows Blago to speak and cavort, unencumbered by irony. The irony of this Drip's perpetual public posing suffices and Ms. Korecki reports.

More, without the preening and self-absorption of columnist, Natasha Korecki gives the reader an elegant coup de grace on Bumpkin Blag with this poignard* of closing sentence -Blagojevich, 52, is scheduled to go to trial on wide-ranging corruption charges in June.

Right thru the liver!



*A poignard, or poniard, originally a French word, is a lightweight dagger employed in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Illinois Entrenched School Lobby Ain't Ready for Reform

Senator Meeks is out in front for Genuine School Reform. That is a reform that begins and ends with Vouchers - the only means of getting real Accountability and Competition for Public Schools. Public Schools are Un-Accountable and Compete with no one.

Public Schools are enthralled by the Illinois Public School Lobby - a Gordian knot of Teachers Unions, Ralph Martire Industries ( Pie Charts=More Taxes R Us), Public School Vendors, Bus Companies and hundreds of tax-funded satellite Education sucker fish - our Cook County Superintendent Charles Flowers* in their many manifestations.

Yesterday, Chicago Daily Observer's President John Powers posted a great report on the legislation by Illinois Senator James Meeks to reform Illinois Public Education.

His voucher proposal would allow parents of students in the academically lowest 10 percent of Chicago Public Schools to have the option of sending their children to a private school, if space is available.

Meeks, formerly a strong advocate for improving Illinois’s public schools, said his plan comes as a result of violence and increasingly poor test scores in CPS schools.

“Right now, our General Assembly rules actually lock a kid into a low-performing school,” Meeks said. “And we have no plans to get the kid out.”

Teachers unions and parents are opposing the proposed legislation, saying that taking the students out of public schools will hurt the school system. When Meeks outlined his legislation last week to a Senate committee, the opposition was ready to speak up.

Opposition to the Meeks efforts come not from African American Legislative leaders who in the past have supported the Illinois School Lobby,. . .

State Sen. Rickey Hendon, D-Chicago, serves on the Senate committee and supports Meeks’ plan. Although vouchers have historically been a Republican idea, Hendon said he believes the city of Chicago needs this option.

Hendon said CPS is failing the students in the bottom 10 percent of schools, and that he is tired of seeing the violence.

“We’ve been saying we’re going to educate out babies. We’re going to fix the schools. We’re going to find solutions,” Hendon said. “And nothing has changed. Absolutely, positively nothing.”

State Sens. Bradley Burzynski, R-Sycamore, and James Clayborne, D-East St. Louis, also voted to move Meeks’ proposal forward. It now goes to a Senate education subcommittee, where it is scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday.

. . . but from the Blue Stocking Lobbyists.

Ben Schwarm of the School Management Alliance said the program is not realistic because of funding issues. He said there is no way to know how many students will participate in the program until the school year starts.

“We don’t know how many of our students are going to leave our district,” Schwarm said. “We don’t know how many students from other districts are going to come to our schools on enrollment day because they don’t live here. And for planning purposes, setting a budget and so forth, that raises some problems.”

Well done Senator. Hammer them!

* Supt. Charles Flowers:

The Daily Southtown newspaper wrote a detailed article exposing the corruption and failure of Charles Flowers as Superintendent. Here's the article and reporter contact information below:

When Charles Flowers took over the reins of the Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education two years ago, critics were skeptical of his baggage.

Flowers, a former special education teacher and administrator, has a history of questionable financial dealings from his days as board president at west suburban Maywood-Melrose Park District 89. But he came into office in 2007 vowing to root out corruption and bring reform to Cook County public schools.

Once he became regional superintendent, Flowers hired relatives and friends and then began giving employees salary advance loans. Then he went to Cook County government for an emergency loan, which the regional office has yet to repay.

In April, the regional office couldn't make payroll and earlier this year the department didn't pay its group health insurance premiums on time, leading the company to temporarily cancel workers' health benefits.

So where's the money?

http://provisoinsider.blogspot.com/2009/05/daily-southtown-exposes-regional.html

Spotlight on Our Federal Mandarins!

President Obama rewarded SEIU's Mandarin* Andy Stern with a seat on the Federal Commission to Defeat the Deficit, which is like giving a drunk stewardship of the beer lockers at Sox Park.

Al Gore has made a Second Act of His American Life by sweeping in all Carbon Credit Chips onto his All In Move to Create the Federal Climate Mandarin.

Scholar and Demographer Joel Kotkin, one of my favorite reads each week, kicks the move to Mandarin Government that has parked such powerful American resistance - Tea Party Memberships and etc.

Kotkin, in Forbes, points to the slide to Mandarinism and the Jeffersonian reaction by us helots.

There also seems to be a conscious design to recreate the country as a European-style super-state. Forged by an understandable urge to minimize chaos after a century of conflict, the super-state generally favors risk management through centralization of authority. This has traditionally been accomplished by ceding regulatory powers to national capitals, though lately more and more powers have been ceded to the European Union.

Initially the administration had hopes of imposing similar controls through acts of Congress. However, with the shifting political mood, this seems less and less possible. With its latest action the administration sends the message that it will now impose the desired results through the bureaucracy. Under the proposal, private firms that do not raise wages will be bullied into doing so through the manipulation of federal contract awards. . . .This new order would transform the very nature of American capitalism. Now the economic winners will not be those working for the most agile or profitable companies, but those who gain the blessings of the federal overlords. In some senses this extends the corrupt, largely failed political economy of Chicago politics to a bastard American form of French dirigisme.

Climate change provides another critical and necessary rationale for the expansive federal role. With the "cap and trade" system all but dead, the administration now wants to regulate energy and land use through the gentle graces of a largely unaccountable EPA apparat. As a result, we may see energy use, land use and transportation--as is increasingly the case in California--controlled by the whims of the unelected bureaucracy.

Such command and control approaches have their advantages in making people do what the mandarins demand. This is one reason there are so many admirers of Chinese autocracy now. In that regime, unlike our messy democracy, you can be forced to be green in precisely the way they tell you. There are always firing squads for those who go off the program.

Of course, even the most passionate centralists don't advocate adopting the Chinese model. But the notion of an enlightened super-state has long appealed to those disgusted with American-style muddling through. In some ways, the current fashion recalls Americans' attraction for the Soviet Union or even fascist Italy during the troubled 1930s.

Click my post title for more from this great original thinker.

*A mandarin was a bureaucrat in imperial China, and also in the monarchist days of Vietnam where the system of Imperial examinations and scholar-bureaucrats was adopted under Chinese influence. What did the Soviets call them?

Michael Moore Named Obesity Czar and Andy Stern Named to Federal National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

Yep, Andy Stern, Member, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform!


Charlie Sheen named to Hollywood Celebrity American Values Insitute

Tigers Woods named to the Dalai Lama's Council on Celebacy

Danika Patrick named to the Right Turn Society

That President Obama is a Howler! Get This!

• Andy Stern, Member, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

President Obama said, “For far too long, Washington has avoided the tough choices necessary to solve our fiscal problems. I am proud that these distinguished individuals have agreed to work to build a bipartisan consensus to put America on the path toward fiscal reform and responsibility. I know they’ll take up their work with the sense of integrity and strength of commitment that the American people deserve and America’s future demands.”

Andy Stern named to the Order of Lenin - they still give that one out? Andy'd be the Cat's Nuts with that around his neck. Better that than Andy Stern around our throats and wallets.


Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina

to civilians for outstanding services rendered to the State,
to members of the armed forces for exemplary service,
to those who promoted friendship and cooperation between peoples and in strengthening peace, and
for other meritorious services to the Soviet state and society

The Eclipse - Beauty in a Film

I was multi-tasking all weekend - home repair guy, chauffeur ( St. Rita cheerleading), Bloggeur, dutiful Catholic ( 8:30 AM Mass at Sacred Heart - for the Transfiguration), attentive date and Mike Houlihan book signing event attendee - but I had an oportunity to watch a beautiful movie on the otherwise lousy HBO.

Ciarán Hinds plays a teacher tasked with being a driver for celebrity Literary Personalities -guest of the Cobh ( cove) Ireland Literary Festival. Hinds plays Michael Farr, widower with two children, with gracefully sad dignity who goes about his duties as parent and employee with Jansenistic stoicism all day only to be haunted by his loneliness and fears by night. This guy is no whiner.

One of the Literary Figures played with puckish self-absorbtion is Aidan Quinn. His character is "What being an A$$hole is all about," as we south side Chicago Irish are wont to say. Quinn treats people like cocktail napkins - waitresses, someliers, drivers and lovers. He refers to other human beings - those who are not literary lions and icons like himself , and who really is after all, as 'Stalkers.'

Ciaran Hinds is forced to deal with Quinn because of his task and a wonderful woman writer played with delicacy and genuine soul by Iben Hjejle who studies and writes about ghosts and hauntings. Iben Hjejle's character understands loss and also the shallow overtures of a gold plated jerk. She is a terrific woman.

This is the best movie that I have seen in many, many years.

The Eclipse is gentle, but shattering film about about grief, narcissism, ghost, parenting and redemption. The great Irish actor Ciaran Hinds plays a simple man who emerges from his grief over the loss of his wife and exsorcises his own demons when he is forced confront his own loneliness and fear during an Irish Literary Festival.

Ciaran Hinds is the greatest actor since Spencer Tracy. Hinds was named Best Actor for his role in this film at the Tribeca Film Festival last April.

Here are some notes on the film that is running on HBO at this time from the Tribeca Festival. Click my post title for more.

Renowned playwright and filmmaker Conor McPherson attended The Eclipse with two of his actors, leading men Ciarán Hinds and Aidan Quinn. His multi-tasking movie is a fusion of love story, grief study, character comedy and horror. The audience gathered for its world premiere responded to all of those elements enthusiastically: visible seat-jumping and audible gasps sprang from the scares, laughter emerged from the surprising comedic choices, and the drama hit home too, prompting personal stories from some audience members who’d lost loved ones.

“This is the first audience who’s ever seen the film,” McPherson announced to huge applause as the credits ended. He likened the premiere of his ghost story to an “out of body experience.” The Eclipse won praise from the crowd for its digital camera work and expressive original score by Fionnuala Ní Chiosáin, who was also in attendance. The setting and location further elevated the film’s mysterious mood. McPherson’s location team scouted every seaside town in Ireland, but the final decision was swift. “Cobh just had the most visual bang offered and that was it. I needed the gothic thing.”

Ciarán Hinds was open minded about what exactly his widower character was experiencing during the ghostly visitations. “Michael is haunted by his own emotions and his own grief. In a sense it could be real.” Whatever the story, the actors must take it seriously. “One doesn’t play the absurdity. One plays the truth.”

Aidan Quinn seemed thrilled to provide comic relief for a change. “I think it’s an awful terrible thing when an actor gets typecast as being serious.” His novelist character amused him. “That character Nicholas is in his own private Idaho,” he said and joked about preparing for the drunk scenes: “I had to do research. Being Irish, we don’t usually go there. It was difficult for me, but I took one for the team.”

McPherson showered praise on his cast: “I’m not a writer who writes things that people read. I can’t do that. I need great performers to lift the work, and I’ve been very fortunate.” Hinds and Quinn were his first choices, and he felt he was lucky to get them. Quinn, ever quick with a quip, countered, “Brad and Johnny turned it down.”

“I always need a supernatural element in all my stories.” McPherson said. “I think life is supernatural. I don’t think there’s any divide. I think it’s all a huge mystery.” A more practical question emerged: How do you market such a mix of genres? McPherson, light-hearted and thrilled with the premiere, confessed: “Listen, I’m exhausted after making it. I don’t know. It’s a supernatural love story. There are people who are obviously very good at [marketing], so…we need them!”

Eleven Year Old St. Cajetan's Girl Directs Candy for Haiti Kids! Hailey Crowley -St. Cajetan Warrior!

Your St. Cajetan's Lady Warriors!

A local clown columnist wrote that Pro Lifers only care for the 'acorns while the forest burns.'

Millions of actual children living in the real world right now will continue to be denied basic health care -- some fatally -- in the name of protecting embryonic potential children. It's like letting a forest burn down for the sake of a bag of acorns.

Strain that metaphor, Steinberg! http://www.suntimes.com/news/steinberg/2073553,CST-NWS-stein28.article

Catholic Charities opens at 8 A.M. (folks are lined up in front every day well before that time) every day on 79th Street just east of Racine to feed children and their parents, while Planned Parenthood offers opportunities to kill children all over the state. Here's some of the support Catholic Charities offers all over Chicago:

Services
Adoption
Child Development
Counseling
Children/Youth/Families Abuse or Neglect
Domestic Violence
Education
Emergency Assistance
Employment & Job Training
Health Care
Homelessness
HIV/AIDS Services
Immigration / Naturalization
Legal
Maternity / Pregnancy
Nutrition
Refugee Resettlement
Senior Services
Senior Housing
Substance Abuse
Veterans Services

http://www.catholiccharities.net/services/


"Acorns and trees"do pretty well - cradle to grave.

The history of institutional health care in Chicago begins with the Daughters of Charity and the Sisters of Mercy - care for foundlings, orphans and the indigent.

This Dante spouting goof Steinberg tries to imply that being anti-Abortion is hypocritical. Catholics prove the dope wrong again. A better man and a better journalist working for the same news group as pays Steinberg prints a real story on the same day. Sweet Ironies.

Hailey Crowley eleven years of age and a student at St. Cajetan Parish Grammar School must have learned that life is pretty complex. Her mom and dad it appears did a great job of raising her.

Witness this report by Steve Metsch of the Southtown Star:

Hailey Crowley was deeply touched when she saw televised reports from earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
"I just wanted to do something to help because we have so much stuff and they don't have anything. They're living on the streets," said Hailey, 11.
She won't soon forget one image.
"There was a picture of a little boy, younger than my brother, sitting in the street and crying," said Hailey, whose brother, Liam, is 6.
Hailey, of Chicago's Beverly community, decided to help raise money for the children of Haiti but wasn't sure how.
Then she found inspiration at a cousin's baptismal party.
"They had chocolate bars with her name on the label. I thought, 'I could do that,' " she said.
She asked her parents, Doug and Mary Kay Crowley, to buy several cartons of Hershey milk chocolate bars.
Doug Crowley helped Hailey design "Help 4 Haiti" labels in the red and blue colors of the Haitian flag.
Printed for free by Copy Cats, a print shop at St. Xavier University, the labels were slipped over the Hershey labels.
And then Hailey got busy selling candy bars for $2 each.
"A lot of people gave me more than $2. A lot of relatives gave me $20 for one bar," Hailey said.
One family gave Hailey $100 for one chocolate bar, Mary Kay said.
Hailey went door to door selling chocolate bars. She called friends and relatives. She even sold candy during lunch at St. Cajetan School, where she is a sixth-grader.
To date, Hailey has raised more than $300 that will be donated to UNICEF to help needy children in Haiti.
"It makes me happy," she said of her large haul.
St. Cajetan Principal Terry Reger is "happy and thrilled" by Hailey's idea.
"She's an example of the message we're trying to get out to our kids. You give back. You help others. That's what it's all about," Reger said.
"Hailey is very genuine. She's not in it for the publicity. This is Hailey. This is who she is," Reger said.
This is Hailey's second effort to help others. She organized a candy sale for Hurricane Katrina relief when she was in second grade, her father said.
That's not too surprising, given her upbringing. Helping others is a common trait in members of the Crowley family.
Doug Crowley is a Chicago firefighter. Mary Kay Crowley is a nurse at the University of Illinois Medical Center.
If you are interested in helping Hailey raise money for Haiti, she will be selling her "Help 4 Haiti" chocolate bars through St. Patrick's Day.
HOW TO HELP

To buy a "Help 4 Haiti" chocolate bar or make a contribution, e-mail Hailey Crowley's father at douglas_crowley@hotmail.com.

White House to Tap Chicago's Own Mike Houlihan to Replace Desiree Rogers

Auteur, Raconteur, bon viveur, agent provocateur, souteneur, connoisseur, rapporteur,
littérateur, farceur, danseur, répétiteur,Beaux sabreur, Monseigneur Michael ( Michel) Houlihan to replace DimBulb Diva Desiree Rogers!

It would make perfect sense. The White House could replace a self absorbed Liability with an UnRepentant Man of the People! Rumors are darting like the icy flakes of wet stuff and clinging to the concrete and clay of Middle America! Hope and Change!

In an exclusive exchange with Film Maker Mike With Both Hands Brand , during a packed book signing at Harte's Saloon in south suburban Evergreen Park, the witty Renaissance Man Houlihan was speechless when I passed on the hot rumor that he was to be named to replace Ms. Rogers - for a moment.

Pulling himself to his full and majestic height, future White House Social Director Mike Houlihan opined -

" When called I will serve at the pleasure of my President! ‘We have the best brand on Earth: the Obama brand, Our possibilities are endless Brand Obama is about to get ripped a new one! Ice e'm Down, Gibbs! Wooooooooooo!"