Chicago Catholic School Test Scores Soar - No Chicago Newspapers Carry the News?

Yesterday, on the way home from Leo High School at about 4:20 P.M. I heard Chicago Catholic School Superintendent Mary Paul McCaughey announce that Chicago Catholic Schools ( elementary and secondary) posted their best standardized test scores in years. That was on WIND. I like Michael Medved.

Sister Mary Paul credited good parents, good teachers and solid no-nonsense curriculum in a values-based setting as reason for the success.

I turned to the Chicago Newspapers on-line at 4:00 AM and found . . .Zip, Nada, and Zilch. Try and Google something. The editorial boards do not want their agenda (Progressive/Tax Funded Special Interests/LGBT/Secularist) countered in hard copy.

Every scrap of bad news and any rumor of possible allegations of imagined bad news about Catholic schools, Catholic priests, Catholic beliefs get front page howler monkey fanfare from Chicago's editorial boards and iconic self-promoting columnists.

A poor delusional woman who believed herself to be an ordained priest ( there are no ordained Catholic Women Priests) was denied Catholic burial and the Tribune is still running her death notice - or at least it was still running yesterday ("Ordained against all odds" - nope still there) -in the attempt to make the Catholic Church appear at fault, when in fact the poor woman had self-excommunicated. Manya Brachear, the loopy religion Blogger/Columnists who invites every shaman and witchdoctor to pontificate on matters contrary to Catholic Doctrine, will no doubt have a hugely dismissive piece on Catholics and their mean spirited Faith.

Chicago Tribune -Ordained against all odds The Poor woman* is not and was not ordained! What a bunch of smug, self-righteous dip-sticks comprise the Tribune Editorial Board!

Chicago News Media is the captive of Progressive Agenda.

Only weeks ago, the Chicago and Illinois teachers unions succeeded in making Republican State Legislators go as yellow as a duck's foot and vote down Senator James Meeks' legislation that would offer inner city parents vouchers to attend inner city private ( read Catholic) schools. School Reform is lip-service. Columnists and editorial boards are controlled by the special interests with only the Progressive Secularist Agenda's hand on the joy-stick.

Catholic Schools save Illinois taxpayers millions of dollars and succeed in providing the education that the news media shoots its collective mouth off about every time a CPS kid is gunned down by a savage, or every time CPS test scores cork-screw lower in the achievement loam.

The News Media is a captive of special political interests.

*The excommunicated woman who imagined herself to be an ordained priest had a partner. The obituary caused a bit of talk among lawyers ( I had occasion to speak with several in my neighborhood). They believe that the "Nancy Katz" listed in the column as the next of kin or whatever the hell they want to be is actually the lesbian activist judge appointed to the Circuit Court of Cook County. Why would gay activist, or an editorial seek to advance its agenda with smear at the Catholic Church? Practice.

http://www.glhalloffame.org/index.pl?todo=view_item&item=143

No Chicago Journalist ( Hack) Will Take on SEIU, or Will No Chicago Journalist Take on SEIU?

Dithering Dick Durbin is a sausage made by Progressive politics - an expensive, bland and largely indigestible sausage. Not every politician is a sausage but Progressive politics is a policy-sausage manufacturer that employs smarmy pie-chart cutters like Ralph Martire for Tax Increases every hour on the eights and 40Watt Intellect columnists. The sausage casing is provided by Teachers Unions, Planned Parenthood, SEIU and the corporate media. No elected official dove into the casing like Dick Durbin.

The guy, as far as I can tell having spent several hours in his company when he needed a photo op with black kids, does not strike to be as impressive as melba toast and has the personality of a dial tone. Dick Durbin is a sausage.

Today SEIU's Comic Book -Progress Illinois - praises Dithering Dick for this bon mot- "BP no longer stands for British Petroleum. It stands for Beyond Patience."
Dithering Dick!!!! Positively Shavian! Clubs and clubbable swains will echo that one!

How about this BP - Before Planned Parenthood ( $$$$$$$) -Durbin was Pro-Life - Better Payday? Brighter Possibilities? Big Payday? Berry Progressive?Before Planned Parenthood; Bought Politicians . . . yeah, that works.
http://www.progressillinois.com/

SEIU owns Durbin, Schakowsky, and so many others. Well they co-own Durbin and Schalowsky and so many others.

SEIU was at one time the old Janitors Union ( Local 25)- The Building Theatres and Amusements Janitor's Local # 25. They had Universal Family Health Care for all union members and their families, before Andy Stern sold off the assets to turn the union into a Marxist Political Action Committee.

This powerful PAC owns columnists and websites and refuses to feed any hand that bites them. Capital Fax has long had a warm and mutually gushing relationship with Progress Illinois and SEIU, as far as I can see.

SEIU is all about power - Gays, Immigrants, Sick Folks, Victimhood Capitalists, and Academics are the spice that flavors sausages like Dick Durbin, Jan Schakowsly and so many others.

No Chicago columnist will ever take on SEIU. However, remember that a Conservative is merely a Liberal who has been mugged. Witness a journalist who witnessed SEIU at their worst and most thuggish:

What's interesting is that SEIU, the nation's second largest union, craves respectability. Just-retired president Andy Stern is an Obama friend and regular White House visitor. He sits on the President's Fiscal Responsibility Commission. He hobnobs with those greedy Wall Street CEOs -- executives much higher-ranking than my neighbor Baer -- at Davos. His union spent $70 million getting Democrats elected in 2008.

In the business community, though, SEIU has a reputation for strong-arm tactics against management, prompting some companies to file suit.

Nina Easton - Fortune Magazine

Andy Stern is part of Blago scandal and also a member of the President's Council on Deficit Reduction.

Gee, call me cynical.

Keeley Smith - Sunny Side of the Street -Best Version Ever~

On The Sunny Side Of The Street lyrics


Dorothy Fields / Jimmy McHugh

Grab your coat and get your hat
Leave your worry on the doorstep
Just direct your feet
To the sunny side of the street

Can't you hear a pitter-pat
And that happy tune is your step
Life can be so sweet
On the sunny side of the street

I used to walk in the shade
With those blues on parade
But now I'm not afraid
This rover crossed over
If I'd never have a cent
I'd be rich as Rockefeller
Going to set my feet
On the sunny side of the street

Herscher, Illinois - Farmer Saved in Grain Elevator Nightmare

Farming is a dangerous livelihood. Several years ago my late wife's uncle was killed in a farming accident in Herscher, Illinois. In my many years in Kankakee County as a high school teacher, I learned to respect and admire the courage and conviction of America's farmers. Many of my colleagues, Jim Frogge, Jerry Krieg, Terry Granger and others were farm boys. I de-tasseled corn and walked beans with them. I have been inside grain elevators and respect the inherent danger of flash fire and worse - the shift of product.

Today, a farmer in Herscher, Illinois was rescued from a grain elevator accident.

May 24, 2010 (HERSCHER, Ill.) (WLS) -- A farmer who was rescued from a grain bin is going to be OK, according to Herscher fire officials.

The farmer became trapped in the bin and surrounded by grain while emptying it. Other farmers and emergency crews from the small town and other community agencies responded. They were able to pull the farmer from the bin.

Herscher officials said they have trained for the situation for many years and that training led to the man's rescue. The man remained awake and talking throughout the ordeal.

He is now being checked out at a local hospital, but is expected to be OK.

Neighboring farmers are helping clean up the grain.

(Copyright ©2010 WLS-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

God Bless the Volunteers, and neighbors! God keep safe all who work the soil.

Pudgie the Duchess -Author of Budgie the Helicopter - Who Could Count to £500,000

I am completly charmed and captivated by the Duchess of York's attempted shakedown of the ink-slinger who posed as a capitalist.

There is a mixture of sympathy and horror here in Great Britain for the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, whose financial situation, in her own words, “is under stress.” She was caught on camera by an undercover reporter for the News of the World offering to sell access to her ex-husband, Prince Andrew, for £500,000, which would be approximately $750,000. The reporter who did the sting posed as a businessman.

Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, has a lot of business connections. He is the UK’s Special Representative for Trade and Investment. He travels the world meeting royalty, heads of state and businessmen, greasing the wheels for business deals to be done by British companies all over the world, and courting investment here. We followed Prince Andrew on one such trip to North Africa. His position as a member of the royal family does afford him incredible access, which he uses, not for his own enrichment, but to help British business. It is a job, from what we could tell from our contact with the Duke, he takes very seriously.

£500,000? That's all? Passio Domini nostri Jesu Christi!!! Hell, if I was gonna toss the embrace of the Empire and its fine Family of Free-Loaders, I'd ask for a Million - for staters.

Milton's Myopia!

This winsome tale of a winning Fergie, who charmed the pants off of lard ass lay-abouts everywhere, is just another in the jackpot of hits to The Family Royal of Perfidious Albion.

I see a feature-length 3-D animation epic by James Cameron with an anti-Bush subtext and a foot-taping score and libretto by Sir Elton John and the Duchess Her Own Bad Self!




The duchess is the author of children's picture books that featured Budgie a PC little gobshite of a helicopter.

ACLU -Catholics May Not Enter Into Business Agreements -Ed Yohnka

ACLU and American Progressives have hated Catholics and the Catholic Church from the get-go - that's okay; nothing new. However, for the last forty years the American corporate media have sucked- up to the ACLU on every instance of opportunity to impugn Catholics and undermine any all moral authority of the Catholic Church.

Folks still take the sacraments each Sunday and many people continue to convert to the Roman Catholic Faith. Nevertheless, NPR, the newspapers, Public Television ( WTTW) and new internet Progressive flagships like Huffington Post offer the ACLU full forum. Ed Yohnka of ACLU availed himself of an opportunity to make such that the Abortion Industry keeps the dollars flowing to Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, by denying the Catholic Church the right to enter into contracts.

Voila!

In a little reported local move, Resurrection Health Care, a Roman Catholic health system, is seeking to sell two of its suburban Chicago hospitals to the nonsectarian Vanguard Health Systems. As part of the deal, Resurrection has demanded that Vanguard maintain the religiously-based health care restrictions Resurrection instituted when took control of the hospitals a number of years ago--and Vanguard has agreed to do so.

These restrictions are embodied in the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services ("the Directives"), promulgated by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, and are imposed on all Catholic-owned institutions and the employees who work in those institutions. The Directives prohibit many critical health services--particularly in the area of reproductive health end-of-life care. Under the Directives, patients are denied tubal ligations and vasectomies as well as contraception. In fact, the Directives prohibit many women who have been raped from accessing emergency contraception, which could, if taken promptly, prevent an unwanted pregnancy. Patients' end-of-life wishes are only respected if they are consistent with "Catholic moral teaching." Elective abortions are forbidden, as are abortions that are necessary to preserve the pregnant woman's health. In cases where a pregnant patient's physician believes that she will die if her pregnancy is not immediately terminated, the physician may seek approval from the hospital's ethics committee, who will decide whether the Directives permit termination in that case. Only if that committee allows it, can the life-saving measure be taken.

These restrictions endanger women across the nation . . .

Eddie Boy, women who get abortions are just fine and dandy. Unborn Children? Not so hot.

The Catholic Church will not yield on abortion, as it did not yield on Fascism and Communism. That really puts Progressive panties in a tight twist.

Ed, name ONE istance where the ACLU Ever helped Catholics. Name one Aborted Child, Ed.

Huffington Post, NPR, WTTW, the corporate editorial boards and amoeba spined hacks like Dick Durbin will help you huff and puff about "American Values."

American People know the smell of dead skunk and the themes of the ACLU.

Hey, how about them BlackHawks!

Richard Blumenthal Comes Clean!

Indict Them Ideas! Paul Begala and Why President Obama Is Not Doing Very Well

I am a Democrat. President Obama did not get my vote in 2008, because I thought that he was no where near ready and that he was handled by some very dicey people. He is.

Things are going very badly in foreign policy, the gulf of Mexico, the Mexican border, Afhghanistan, Iraq, of the streets if Chicago and in the national economy. Things are going badly because the dicey folks are the only voice forcing issues and circumstances.

Here is a prime example - Paul Begala. This guy is about as impressive as any American Idol participant. Hey, thanks for playing; there's the exit.

President Obama has people even less impressive than Paul Begala in his Administration - Eric Hoder, Janet Napolitano e.g. and conducting American Foreign Policy - Ms. Rice and Master Michael Posner e.g.. Every week there is new disaster and shift in the 'compelling narrative,'

Here is a bon-bon from Begala.

"The president needs to indict not simply Bush or even Republicans. He is a visionary thinker, and his rhetoric should reflect that,” said Democratic strategist Paul Begala. “I want President Obama to make a consistent, compelling indictment of conservative ideas.”

Politico

Good Lord. Time, get a-moving!

Mustang Sally -"It's Froi-deh!"

"As Kingfishers Catch Fire" - Anti-Religion Bigots and PC Nitwits in Academia

Be the Difference?

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves - goes itself myself it speaks and spell,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

Gerard Manely Hopkins S.J.

Marquette University is embroiled in a controversy over the hiring of wildly Gay feminist and edgy polemicist Jodi O'Brien -

In less than a week, sociologist Jodi O’Brien has become a household name in Milwaukee.
O’Brien, currently the chair of the Department of Anthropology, Sociology and Social Work at Seattle University, was offered the position of dean of the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences at Marquette University. O’Brien accepted. Then the offer was withdrawn.
O’Brien just happens to be an out lesbian and feminist who studies gender, sexuality and religion, among other subjects.
Many faculty members, students and alumni are defending O’Brien and questioning whether Marquette is truly a top-notch academic institution that takes seriously its Jesuit mission to “search for truth.”

Marquette University like almost every other nominally Catholic college ( Loyola, DePaul & etc.) twists into a pretzel to be media friendly and 'intellectually free.'

No less a Jesuit than poet Gerard Manley Hopkins was wildly orthodox. Hopkins is one of the greatest late 19th Century poets and its best imagist.

Hopkins is a dead white man.

Jodi O'Brien is a lively lesbian and a loud Abortion advocate. So the Marquette University hires this edgy loudmouth and expects absolutely no blowback from donors who were educated in a Catholic Marquette and might be a tad uneasy about paying someone to deconstruct the foundations of faith.

Get this there was blowback and instead of poop-can-ing the contract with O'Brien, Marquette's amoeba spined Dr. Danny Maguire spouts this -the controversy has made Marquette look like a “cult school.” over the University deciding to rescind the offer to make the O'Brien the Dean of Arts and Sciences.

A Cult School, Danny Boy?

Really?

Here's a different thought - A Catholic University has a Right and an Obligation to be Catholic.

This is exactly what is occurring with the recent case of Marquette University rescinding its dean job offer to Jodi O'Brien. She made use of her rights to be a lesbian and to promote the lesbian lifestyle. She has written about this way of life and has no problems admitting who she is and is willing to stand up for her rights.

Marquette University has the right to its identity, to its system of beliefs and to promote its Catholic way of life. Both the professor and the university have the right to be who they are, to promote who they are and to have acceptance for what they choose to be.

It was decided that O'Brien's personal choices and her way of life and subsequent teachings would cause conflict with the original intent and mission of Marquette. Marquette has the right to provide its students with professors, deans and classes that fall into the particular mission statement or goals of the university.

O'Brien may feel that her rights were violated and that the university's actions were discriminator, which is where the problem comes in. An institution has the right to decide who teaches and leads and who does not; it's a basic freedom.

Now if Marquette had said no women or no Jewish teachers or no African-Americans, that would be wrong and the proper actions should be taken to correct the problem. But that is not the case here.

Ask yourself, if someone openly denied the Holocaust and spoke out about it but then wanted to join a Jewish committee and was denied, would anyone raise an eyebrow? If someone was openly racist, wrote books about it and then wanted to join the NAACP but was denied, would it be an issue?

What we can learn from this episode is this: We in America have rights and freedoms and privileges, which most of the rest of the world does not have. With these rights and freedoms come responsibilities and consequences.

If you are a known alcoholic, which you can choose to be if you want to drink your health away, you might not be given that school bus driving job. If you are a known racist and you promote it openly, you might not get that NAACP position. If you are a lesbian and openly promote it, you might not get that position at Marquette University. Just as O'Brien has the right to be a lesbian and to promote it, so does Marquette have the right to promote a Catholic lifestyle and way of life.

Freedom works both ways.

Brian Brehmer of Milwaukee in an Op Ed piece - Click my post title.

Religion is not a bad thing, unless of course you begin and end your day without a thought of your own and get your ideas only from NPR, Bill Maher, Sex in the City, Will and Grace ( that still on?), Sir Elton John, the subtext of Billy Elliot, and Wildebeests of the View.

Our music, architecture, literature, science, philosophy and diets are rooted in religion . . .until we got too comfortable to really care.

The Bronte Press of Bourbonnais, IL - A Thing of Beauty

I have always been uncomfortable around things of beauty - I tended to break them, get my soiled mitts and finger prints all over them and await the fell swoop of hand to the back of my noggin.

Thus my aestheic point of view was rudely - albeit prudently - stamped at an early age. Hence, my aesthic appreciations found safe ground on the less tangible arts - words, ideas and music. The plastic arts had a much more Pavlovian impact upon me. Touch it and get whacked. Things of beauty are meant to be touched - but by graceless boy, or clumsly adult.

Books are beautiful in themselves. Hand printed minature books are a treasure.

In my salad days as a baby teacher, I had the great good fortune to meet Suzanne Granzow-Pruchnicki and her husband Paul. Suzanne was my late wife Mary's Art Teacher at Bishop McNamara in Kankakee and later her professional mentor. Mary followed Suzanne as Art teacher for that great Catholic high school. Paul taught Theology, Philosophy and English and served as link to Catholic aestheics. Paul and Suzanne married.

Suzanne's family were Manteno, Illinois gentry and Suzanne and her sister Elmira were steeped in culture and the arts. They founded the Bronte Press, which produced minature books -not for the filthy fingers of young Paddy Hickey, but for a carved black walnut tri-pod stand which would adorn a mantel.

Take a slide down I-57 to Kankakee County and visit the Bronte Press in Bourbonnais* - which I continue to prounce like a Townie - Burr-Bonus.

Bronte Press:
Phone: 815-932-5192
County: Kankakee
Manufacturing Firm: Are you looking for Bronte Press offers and services?
Year Established: 1977
Exec: Paul Pruchnicki

* I arrived in Kankakee County in the fall of 1975, just before the great "Say Bour -Bo-Nay" Campaign by the Franco-phone Fascists. Townies always say BURR-BONus. Even my wife's Frog-eating side of the family.

Click my post title for more on the Bronte Press of Bournonnais

Dr. Horse -Because He Can and is Sorely Needed.

NPR Approves Catholic Women Wiccan Worship as Wonderful

The Archdiocese of Chicago is denying burial in a Catholic cemetery to a woman ordained as a priest.

Chicago Public Radio May 18, 2010

Question why don't Catholics name their male children Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli?

Because they were not Catholics! They ( above named) jumped ship; Quit; Heroically departed; caused Schism; split; took it on the heel and toe; bounced; caught the fast train on a slow track; took a powder; took the air. . . I could go on, but then I'd be quilty of being a Progressive Pain in the Dupa. Can't have that. I must get to the point - something Chicago Public Radio and every Progressive never seems to do.

Chicago Public Radio is not a friend of Catholics, nor is NPR, nor is WTTW.

Public Broadcasting in all of its manifestations is cozy with Abortion/Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender stuff/ Reversing the Chicago River/Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers like G. Flint Taylor, Jon Loevy and Catholic Bashing Ambulance Chaser Jeff Anderson.

Chicago Public Radio huff and puffed about a poor woman who died of cancer and believed hersel;f to be an ordained Catholic Priest. At best she was delusional as worst a schismatic. I am a prosaic man. I believe that the poor thing took Progressive nonsense to heart. Chicago Public Radio is a humorless joke - always was and always will be.

Here is the NPR Propaganda piece which should be entitled - Damn Those Catholics! We Do!

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

Outside Washington, D.C. in a suburb called Falls Church, Virginia, about 40 Roman Catholics gathered this week to hear mass. They were not in a church and the person delivering the sermon was not a man. Fifteen American women claim they were ordained as Catholic priests this summer. Church leaders say the women are heretics and may be excommunicated.

NPR's Rachel Martin reports.

RACHEL MARTIN reporting:

The congregants mill around the driveway at the home of Bridget Mary Meehan. They sip iced tea and make small talk. Some wear gold cross pendants. Others carry well-worn bibles. When it's time to start, they walk two by two into the backyard accompanied by Meehan's 81-year-old father on the saxophone.

(Soundbite of song, Amazing Grace)

MARTIN: As insects buzz in the trees, 58-year-old Bridget Mary, wrapped in white robes, delivers her message to the ad-hoc congregation.

Ms. BRIDGET MARY MEEHAN: Jesus was a rule-breaker. Jesus challenged the religious leaders, so do we. All are welcome at this table.

MARTIN: She says a prayer over a plate of bread and a glass of wine, then issues a sacramental blessing to each person who comes forward. Meehan and fourteen other women say they were ordained as priests or deacons through two ceremonies earlier this summer, one in Europe and another in Pennsylvania. The women say their ordinations were conducted by three European women and these women were ordained in a secret ceremony by male bishops who are in good standing with the Vatican, which makes all their subsequent ordinations legitimate. For Bridget Mary Meehan and the other self-described priests this is the realization of a lifelong calling.

Ms. MEEHAN: I feel called to be a Roman Catholic priest. It's in my DNA. I'm Irish born, Irish Catholic. We're here because we love the Catholic Church and we're called to make it a better church, to make it a church where we're all equal, women and men. So we are really practicing holy disobedience to an unjust law.

MARTIN: According to canon law, only men can be ordained as priests and conduct the primary rituals of the Catholic Church. Phil Lawler, an editor with Catholic World News, says the women's claim to ordination makes a mockery of Catholic doctrine.

Mr. PHIL LAWLER (Editor, Catholic World News): They do tremendous harm, first of all to themselves and to whatever people are following them into this sort of break from the church. And they do a tremendous harm in terms of muddying the water and confusing people about what the Catholic Church is and does.

MARTIN: Three of the women received letters from their bishops saying their actions are grounds for automatic dismissal from the church. Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee wrote a letter to the Vatican suggesting all the women be excommunicated. Bridget Mary Meehan has written several popular books on religion and spirituality. Her Catholic publisher has now dropped her, saying Meehan's actions put her at odds with the church.

Dolores Leckey is with the Woodstock Theological Society at Georgetown University. She says the women have not only distanced themselves from mainstream Catholicism but their actions undermine real improvements in the church on women's rights.

Ms. DOLORES LECKEY (Senior Fellow, Woodstock Theological Society, Georgetown University): Twenty-five years ago, women were not in the positions of leadership that they are today. And they have a voice and an influence on what happens in the actual day-to-day life of the church.

MARTIN: But for many at this backyard mass, like Barbara Fiske(ph), the all-male priesthood is the last front in the fight for gender equality in the church.

Ms. BARBARA FISKE: It's a day of rejoicing. I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime, but I am happy to be able to rejoice today.

MARTIN: Her friend, Mary Lou Sleevey(ph), shows off her t-shirt emblazoned with the word heretic and a list of names including Joan of Arc and Galileo.

What does that mean?

Ms. MARY LOU SLEEVEY: That means some of us are considered fringe.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. SLEEVEY: You know, you...

MARTIN: Is that a bad word?

Ms. SLEEVEY: Not for me it isn't.

(Soundbite of laughter)

MARTIN: A study out of Georgetown University in 2000 showed that 70 percent of American Catholics surveyed would support women priests if the church approved. Religious scholars say that's not likely to happen anytime soon.

Rachel Martin, NPR News, Washington.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5662518

Steve Rhodes - The Only Liberal Who Calls Out the Universal Hypocrisies on Sarah Palin

I am as proud of Steve Rhodes as any man can be and I am as sexist as I am allowed to be.

Steve Rhodes publishes, contributes to and edits what I believe to be the finest Chicago clearinghouse on news, sports, culture, poetry and common sense on the Information Superhighway invented by Al Gore, who also invented Global Warming - The Beachwood Reporter.
Steve Rhodes is a journalist in city where most columnists come off as suck-ups and snitches in a classroom dedicated to suck-ups and snitches.

Steve Rhodes and I share a love of the written word and a reverence for - at least a nod to truth and common sense.

Today, as he does most days, Steve Rhodes holds the Diogenian Lamp over the suck-ups and snitches in the classroom over the treatment of the Thrilla from Wasilla - former Alaska Governor and GOP V.P. candidate Sarah Palin.

I like Sarah Palin. On my basest level ( one to which I cling in spite of my better angels), I think that she is very easy on the eyes. I am a sexist - devout, drooling, but not without shame. I love women almost as much as Rachel Maddow and much more than Sir Elton John. Gee let's see which person would I enjoy hanging around with . . . weepy Joan Walsh? . . . Rep. Rosa DeLauro? . . .( both of whom would sicken a billy goat raised on barbed wire and broken beer bottles) or Sarah Palin?

Jeepers.

I also like Sarah Palin as a person - she seems like a fine mother and seems very happy. Happiness really upsets American Progressives - unless of course they happen to be burning witches at the stake or engaging in universal self-loathing.

Voila! Rhodes on Truth!

The Palin Exception
By Steve Rhodes
One thing I learned this week - well, I re-learned, I've faced it before - is that sexist coverage of female politicians is an awful thing unless the pol is Sarah Palin. Then it's perfectly acceptable to at least a certain number of progressive feminists in and out of the media.

Why? Because if you despise someone's politics, they apparently no longer can be defended on any other grounds. Apparently it was always about politics, not principle.

So when I posted Reporting Palin, I shouldn't have been surprised by the depressing responses I got from some quarters.

As I've written before, the whole of America seems to need a civics lesson in how to carry on political discourse, decipher the media, and learn to think for themselves like the actual, independent citizens that democracy calls for.

And much of the media still needs lessons in how to do their jobs.

Here is the simple proposition I was operating under:

"Sexist coverage of Sarah Palin is every bit as despicable as sexist coverage of Hillary Clinton, which is every bit as despicable as sexist coverage of Laura Bush, which is every bit as despicable as sexist coverage of Michelle Obama, which is every bit as despicable as sexist coverage of Kay Bailey Hutchison, which is every bit as despicable as sexist coverage of Nancy Pelosi."

How silly of me. Haven't I learned by now of the Palin Exception?

Her politics are so despised - in part justified in my view, but also in part based on a lot of debunked nonsense akin to Al Gore's never-made claim to have invented the Internet - that certain principles go out the window.

But she has a right to her politics. She also has a right to covered fairly - even if she, like many other politicians, including our president, doesn't always play fair. Make that part of the reporting, but don't demean her because of her gender.

Just to reiterate, here is just a slice of the record.

1. "From Ferraro to Palin: Sexism in Media Coverage of Vice Presidential Candidates." By Caroline Heldman, Occidental College.

"We find persistent gender differences in mention of dress/appearance, mention of candidate family, gendered policy coverage, and negative tone that disadvantage female candidates. Additionally, female candidates are four times more likely to receive sexist media coverage, and the intensity and volume of sexist coverage increased dramatically from Ferraro's run in 1984 to Palin's run in 2008. We also compared Palin's coverage in Old Media (print) and New Media (blogs) and found that sexist coverage and negative coverage are more pronounced in this new medium."

2. "Like Hillary, Sarah Faces Media Sexism." By Marie Cocco.

"[T]he media will continue to subject Palin to the unapologetic sexism that has been directed at her since the very first hours after John McCain announced that she was his pick to be the Republican vice presidential nominee - and which continued to animate coverage of her, right up through a lengthy political profile in the current issue of Vanity Fair.

"Almost as certain, my colleagues will seek to defend the indefensible as something Palin brought upon herself - by being too ignorant, too unpredictable, too touchy, too hypocritical, too loose with facts, too inept at governing, too flirty, even too obviously fertile. Yes, this is one of the assertions made in the Vanity Fair profile . . .

"Almost as soon as she'd finished her breakthrough speech at the Republican National Convention, one columnist for the liberal online magazine Salon called Palin a 'dominatrix' and a 'pinup queen,' referred to her 'babaliciousness' - and described her convention address as having been charged with enough sexual energy to give the partisan crowd a 'collective woody.' Another Salon columnist described Palin as a 'Christian Stepford wife in a sexy librarian costume" who was, for the most ideological Republicans, a 'hard-core pornographic centerfold spread.'

"Palin early on was called 'Stepford Barbie' and 'Caribou Barbie' - terms used even by highbrow commentators, who find it acceptable to liken Palin to the impossibly proportioned fashion doll. The Barbie epithet marked Palin as an object of sexualized fashion fascination well before it came to light that the vice presidential nominee had used Republican Party funds to buy an expensive campaign wardrobe."

3. "Media analyst sees racism, sexism in election coverage." By Holly Jackson.

"Audible gasps filled Ellis Auditorium at MU on Tuesday night, as Pozner played a clip featuring CNBC talk show host Donny Deutsch saying Palin was a woman he wanted to lie next to in bed and Clinton should have put on a skirt."

4. "Geraldine Ferraro Accuses Media Over 'Sexist' Scrutiny of Sarah Palin." By Tom Baldwin.

"Ms Ferraro remains angry at the 'sexist treatment' of Mrs Clinton by the media. 'In New Hampshire, someone put up a sign saying Iron My Shirt. Nobody spoke out. Imagine if Hillary's supporters had said [to Obama] Shine my shoes. Everybody would quite rightly have been jumping on it. Women in politics should not be treated better than men, just fairly.'"

5. "Estrich On Sexist Attacks On Palin." By Jim Lindgren.

"Susan Estrich, former Dukakis campaign manager, just said on Fox that she was appalled by the attacks on Palin [and called them] 'really unfair' and 'really sexist.'"

6. "Juan Williams: 'Centerfold' Palin Successful Because She's Attractive." By Lachlan Markey.

"Fox News contributor Juan Williams, also a reporter for NPR and the Washington Post, was at a complete loss when Sean Hannity told him last night that he would rather Palin be president than Barack Obama. 'Your libido is getting in the way of your thinking,' Williams told Hannity . . . 'I think she is a superstar centerfold for conservative men.'"

7. "Clinton Aides: Palin Treatment Sexist." By John Harris and Beth Frerkring.

"Sarah Palin found some unlikely allies Wednesday as leading academics and even former top aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton endorsed the Republican charge that John McCain's running mate has been subject to a sexist double standard by the news media and Democrats.

"Georgetown University professor Deborah Tannen, who has written best-selling books on gender differences, said she agrees with complaints that Palin skeptics - including prominent voices in the news media - have crossed a line by speculating about whether the Alaska governor is neglecting her family in pursuit of national office.

"'What we're dealing with now, there's nothing subtle about it,' said Tannen. 'We're dealing with the assumption that child-rearing is the job of women and not men. Is it sexist? Yes . . . '

"* Liberal radio host Ed Schultz used the words 'bimbo alert' to refer to Palin, and the Huffington Post featured a photo montage of Palin with the headline, 'Former Beauty Queen, Future VP?'

"* CNN's John Roberts recently pondered on air: 'Children with Down's syndrome require an awful lot of attention. The role of vice president, it seems to me, would take up an awful lot of her time, and it raises the issue of how much time will she have to dedicate to her newborn child?'

"This line of inquiry was echoed by writer Sally Quinn, who in her 'On Faith' column for washingtonpost.com agreed that Palin is a 'bright, attractive, impressive person," but also asked, "is she prepared for the all-consuming nature of the job?'

"'Her first priority has to be her children,' Quinn wrote. 'When the phone rings at 3 in the morning and one of her children is really sick what choice will she make?'"

8. "'No One Will Ever Be Able to Take Your Place' as a Mom." By Richard Prince.

"'My question to Sarah Palin is this. Who is going to lead your children?' Sidmel Estes-Sumpter, a media consultant and former president of the National Association of Black Journalists, asked on her blog on Friday.

"'I get it when you say you have a supportive husband who is always there for you. I get it when you complain that men aren't subjected to the same kind of questioning as women when it comes to family values. Been there . . . done that . . . got the t-shirt. But Sarah . . . GET REAL. No one will ever be able to take your place as a mother. I'm telling you this not because of what I have heard. I'm telling you this because this is what I know.

"'More than 17 years ago, I was elected the national president of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). . . the first woman in our organization to accomplish that. The biggest heartstring pulling at me was how it would affect my two year old son. That consideration almost forced me not to run.'"

9. "Newsweek Cover Races To The Bottom With Old Photo Of Palin." By Glynnis MacNicol.

"The weekly magazine, which since its relaunch has opted for increasingly blogosphere-like headlines to generate readers, apparently has decided that the best way to cover Sarah Palin's reemergence on the national stage is with an old photo from Runner's World . . . But resorting to a photo like this (and yes I realize she posed for it, though in an entirely different context) to illustrate such a condescending headline forces me conclude that Newsweek thinks Palin is an annoying little problem because she looks good in runner's shorts, and not a problem because, as both the magazine's articles suggest, she is the 21st century's version of Barry Goldwater, and has broad national appeal for a whole slew of reasons, very few of which having to do with how she looks in runner's shorts."

10. "Biden's Gloves Come Off . . . Against 'Sexist' Media." By Matthew Jaffe.

"[T]he truth is, some of the stuff that the press has said about Sarah, and that others have said about the governor, I think, are outrageous," Biden said. "I just think some of the stuff said has been over the top, totally unfair, and has been sexist, and I think the way the governor has handled it has been admirable."

11. "Matthews: Palin Like A 'Mail-Order Bride.'" By Ed Morrissey.

"No one will be surprised to see Matthews do this, but having Newsweek's Howard Fineman busting a gut and joining in the fun may be a bit of a surprise."

12. "From Gloria Steinem to Norah O'Donnell, Misogyny and Sexism Are Fine if the Target (Palin) Is on the Right." By Julia Reed.

"Blogs accused her of faking her own pregnancy with a Down syndrome child to cover up for her daughter. Mainstream journalists - female mainstream journalists - like Norah O'Donnell questioned whether a mother of five could effectively function as vice president. More piled on about her irresponsibility in accepting the nomination with five children, including one with special needs. Alan Colmes suggested on his blog that her airplane travel had possibly contributed to the fact that her child was born with Down syndrome. It went on and on and on. Where was the feminist outcry?

"Plenty of Republican women were sickened over the treatment of Hillary Clinton (hell, even I cried at the video that introduced her convention speech), but there has been no reaching across party lines to defend Palin. Not even when Martin Peretz dismissed and demeaned her by saying, 'I give [Palin] her due: she is pretty like a cosmetics saleswoman at Macy's.'"

13. "Eric Zorn's Sexist Folly." By Steve Rhodes.

"The Tribune columnist today retells the jokes of late-night comics about Sarah Palin without any recognition of how offensive many of them are."

14. "Palin as Pinup." By Steve Rhodes.

"I'm not sure what to do first, re-read Freud or call Susan Faludi."

*

Again, my simple proposition is this:

"Sexist coverage of Sarah Palin is every bit as despicable as sexist coverage of Hillary Clinton, which is every bit as despicable as sexist coverage of Laura Bush, which is every bit as despicable as sexist coverage of Michelle Obama, which is every bit as despicable as sexist coverage of Kay Bailey Hutchison, which is every bit as despicable as sexist coverage of Nancy Pelosi."

But when it comes to Palin, well, a lot of "progressive" women (and liberal reporters) simply don't care.

-

Steve remember what the poet and philosopher Al Sweringen from Deadwood told his minions - "You want a donkey's attention, you bring a #$%king pole down between his ears."
Yes Sir!

Knockout! Not Mike, Jamillah - A Marriage of True Minds!

I met Mike Joyce when I went to work here at Leo High School in 1995. Mike helped coach football and served on the Leo Advisory Board.

He developed a Boxing Program here at Leo that has produced half a score of Golden Gloves Champions, Heavyweight Pro Thomas Hayes ( 27-1) and the Captain of Team U.S.A. Lamar Fenner. More importantly, hundreds of young men developed confidence and dignity in the Square Ring.

Mike Joyce cared for an octogenarian boxing legend, Hermann Mills. Mike took the fighter into his home; bought his clothes, food, medicine and drove him to and from American Legion bingo three nights a week. As a lawyer, Mike helped every person in a jackpot out of the particular jamb. When my wife died in 1998, Mike Joyce helped me through years of self-pity, grief, and folly.

He is the smartest person I have ever met and that includes Steve Allen.

Somehow, this great hearted pug, who used to pull neighborhood kids through Morgan Park streets who attached ropes to the bumper of his car while wearing roller blades, met a stunningly beautiful and gracious girl -Jamillah Ali. Talk about beauty and the beast.

These two talented and generous people bonded in marriage. God bless them!

From Sneed's column:

" 'The Champ' said, 'Yes,' and so did Jamillah," said Joyce's brother, Kevin, who told Sneed: "No one ever thought Mike would get married. For the last two years, he's been the happiest anyone has ever seen him. At the wedding, Mike said, "Muhammad, you'll always be 'The Champ,' but 'The Greatest Ever' is my mother, Mary Joyce, and she's going to pass that title on to my wife, your daughter."

Ali, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, was able to walk his daughter down the aisle at the beachside wedding before 140 friends and dozens of onlookers at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Naples. The wedding was performed by the Rev. George Clements.

"Muhammad Ali sat throughout the whole reception and invited people to come up and take pictures with him," a wedding source said.

Joyce, a former prize fighter known as "Irish Mike Joyce," promotes young boxers and opened a boxing club at his alma mater -- Leo Catholic High School in Auburn Gresham.

"Mike has always been consumed in helping others and has been the best man in at least six weddings," Kevin Joyce said.

Jamillah, one of Ali's family of seven daughters and two sons, works at the Secretary of State's office. Joyce's dad, Jeremiah, was a Chicago alderman for four years and an Illinois state senator for 14 years.

Whether it be a matter of personal relations within a marriage or political initiatives within a peace process, there is no sure-fire do-it-yourself kit.
Seamus Heaney

They'll be fine Seamus!

Michael Posner's American Foreign Policy Gallery

North Korean and Progressive Point of View on American Exceptionalism: Catholic Priest and Military Doctor Torture Asian Baby - probably not historically accurate but really high-minded.

"Part of a mature relationship is that you have an open discussion where you not only raise the other guy’s problems, but you raise your own."
Michael Posner - over matriculated stiff, fawning boot-licking jackass and State Department Chinaman's Pal! Judge Richard "Curb Your Enthusiasm" Posner must be related.

Autre!

"There are not enough Chinamen in the world to stop a fully armed Marine regiment from going where ever they wont to go"- Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller

Chicago's Own Fawning Boot-Licker Michael Posner - Your State Department in Action!

Even MTV is smarter than Michael Posner ( this guy has GOT to be related to Judge Larry David Posner - the guy who doubled down on Ed Vrdolyak). The Hemp smokers at MTV announced this last month -

Ever since MTV finished filming The Real World DC last fall, Housing Complex has wondered what would become of the beautiful red-brick mansion that hosted it. Well, first HealthHIV took the top two floors. Then, it sounded like owner Doug Jemal was wooing a restaurant for the ground level. Today, Bisnow is reporting that the former home of Josh, Callie, and Mike will soon be occupied by a museum devoted to the ongoing horror of forced labor camps in China.. . . The Laogai museum, underwritten by the Yahoo! Human Rights Fund, chronicles the experience of some 40 million people who have passed through the Communist regime’s labor camps since the 1950s, millions of whom have died. Kempton likened it to the Holocaust, which already has a museum in D.C.—except the persecution continues.

“Our museum really should be in Beijing or Shanghai, but can’t be,” Kempton says. “This is a system that is still going on.”

Well, this way, they’re only a few blocks away from the Chinese Embassy.

Crist on a Crunchable! Michael Posner is the Chicago born child of privilege who attended every toney college he could find and mapped out a career of high-moral-indignation at American History i.e. He is a Progressive Darling!!!! Posner is the State Department Jackass who boot-licked the Red Chinese and grovelled out apologies for the State of Arizona.

I wish the over-educated -rather, this over matriculated stiff could have some quiet quality time with the Korean War Veterans of the Burbank Marine Corps League and at the Oak Lawn VFW - open his smarmy yap and then sit back and watch the show. "The Chosin Resevoir was a shameful Trail of Tears for the Heroic Peasant Peoples Army against the running Dog Mercenaries of Capitalism. I'm a Torture Expert, People stop tickling me!!!!!!"

Shorebank Checks for Jan Schakowsky's Hubby - Bob Creamer

"I'm in sort of hour-by-hour contact with them. It's still a bit of a nail-biter, but it's very, very active and they're getting closer to where they need to be," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.), who has been lobbying for assistance for ShoreBank.

Shorebank - formerly South Shore Bank - did not invest in inner city Catholic high schools: this I know.

Congressman Jan Schakowsky is going flat-out to bail out Shorebank. That's nice. I'll bet it is to say 'thank you.' Maybe Shorebank gave Jan's ex-Con Hubby Bob "The Shank" Creamer check writing privileges. That's pretty tough to get following a stretch in Club Fed for Check Kiting, but, then again, Bob "The Shank" Creamer can waltz into the White House.

What's wrong with that?

Tom Roeser Speculates Specter's Chair

"I sorta kinda hope Specter wins so as to make it easier for Pat Tooney to defeat him in November—but I don’t think that’s possible so we’ll be saying farewell to the biggest phony who ever inveigled the two party system… "

- Tom Roeser

Chilling - not stirred.

Noam Chomsky - The Rodney Dangerfield of the Witless and Humorless

I gotta tell ya, I gotta tell ya!!

Noam Chomsky responds to Israel's Good Sense and Humor

"The young man asked me whether I had ever been denied entry into other countries. I told him that once, to Czechoslovakia, after the Soviet invasion in 1968,"


“By the time I was 16 I had sex once, and VD twice, I tell ya, I tell ya.”

"I could tell my parents hated me. My bath toys were a toaster and a radio."

"I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous - everyone hasn't met me yet."

"I worked in a pet store and people would ask how big I would get."

"Enough about me . . .what you you think of me?"

No Noam - 'T'aint Unusual for Goofs to Get the Old Hyman Roth

Every American Academic goof, doofus and dipstick gets treated like Roman Polanski by grade-inflation pests working in our corporate media. Billy Ayers, Ward Churchill and Noam Chomsky are the gold-standard for academic posing.

Chomsky was a linguist ( semiotic totalitarian) whose brain-pan rubber band snapped decades ago - kind of like former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who sues America at The Hague every time a pigeon flies over his Volvo.

Chomsky is a hot property, because the corporate media ( AP, MSNBC, NYT, ABC, CBS, HBO & etc.) think that his 'Rip America a New One' is cutting edge stuff.

Israel, America's most solid ally, told Noam - No Dice. Noam got the Hyamn Roth-Meyer Lansky heave-ho at Israeli Customs.

American political activist Noam Chomsky, who is an outspoken critic of Israel, has described being denied entry into the West Bank as "unusual."

Palestinian official Mustafa Barghouti had invited the linguist to lecture at the Palestinian Bir Zeit University on Monday.

Chomsky said he had been held up for hours at the Allenby crossing between Jordan and the West Bank on Sunday, and was ultimately denied entry into Palestinian land.

AP

Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.

Noam Chomsky

Hey ! That they did Noamie!


Them Zionists must have read a few of Noam's tome - you magnificent bastard!

Brava, Ladies!Mother McAuley Spring Instrumental Concert

My beautiful red-headed baby Clare and the String Ensemble of Mother McAuley!

Gershwin, Chopin, Severn, Handel, and Oskielunas were all terated royally by the musicians of Mother McAuley High School. Oskielunas? That's Mother McAuley Senior Sarah Oskielunas; who presented Opus One for piano and string. It was wonderful and it followed the most heroic young woman who coaxed the audience into Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" with what might be one of the most difficult clarinet introductions in any composition - Senior Mighty Mac Mary Claire Reynolds.

My daughter Clare and her pals bowed through three compositions with the beginning strings ensemble.

Mother McAuley is doing it right!

Here is by far one of this low-brow's favorite pieces. I met Leonard Bernstein three times ( 1970,'71, & '73) and each time he acted like a bigger doofus than the year before, but that lad could conduct. I think this version is almost as good as the Chicago Symphony's under Henry Mazer.

The Ascension Sunday with Jazz Great Wes Montgomery and St. Luke

. . . Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.
While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven.
And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
and were continually in the temple blessing God. Luke 24: 46 - 53

Down here on the ground, we tend to dart our glances and concerns at eye-level -rarely tracking above the horizon. "Nothing down here, folks; it's all about above and beyond."

Faith moves our eyes away from ourselves and somehow carries along with that change in perspective the people we are meant to love.

Happy Ascension Sunday! All the saints who were keeping their eyes locked on the quotidian and the trite are up above the weather and the silliness down here on the ground.

Betty Loren Maltese Should Host Chicago Public Radio

Updated: Friday, 14 May 2010, 9:39 AM CDT
Published : Friday, 14 May 2010, 8:44 AM CDT

FOX Chicago News

Chicago - Former Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese says she wants to pursue a career as a radio talk show host.

Betty Loren-Maltese — the former Cicero town president recently released from prison — is scheduled to co-host on WVON radio Monday. Whatever you think of the idea of yet another felon behind a Chicago radio mike, there's a bright side:

At least she's a woman.

Mary Schmich Chicago Tribune



Agreed! More woman felons are needed on our Chicago airwaves = Fresh Air! NPR for Betty Loren Maltese. I get a huge kick out of Betty! Hell, I'd even drop an envelop stuffed with nickels to support "Listener and Federal Government Sponsored Radio! WBEZ!"

Shoot, Mayor Betty was an employee of the Federal Government and has been thoroughly vetted. She knows the works and I'm not talking about a Palermo's thin Crust - Insider Politics, Systemic Racism, Gay and Lesbian Life Issues, Convicted Radio Hosts

Imagine - if you will:

BLM- "This is ( cough) Fresh Air with Betty Loren Maltese, with my guest WVON Host and former Club Fed Alum Cliff Kelley - Chicago's Gay and Lesbian Friend of the Community Hall of Famer. First off Cliff, I need to ask you this question - it is standard NPR policy and practice - Studs Terkel? Wasn't he a Treasure?"

CK- "That he was, Betty."

BLM- ( Cough, hack) Cliff, ( cough) disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich gets on WLS every hour on the eights - what's with that? He has not even been convicted and yet a Chicago Radio Station has given him a spot when he wants it -when he wants it."

CK- " Betty it makes you wanna holler and go Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."

BLM- "Cliff, ( cough, cough, hack) I see see this as an affront to the Gay Lesbian Community, the African American Community, and to women everywhere. Now, I am a breeder, but I stand in solidarity with every oppressed minority.( cough, cough, cough hack) I gotta lay off these Ginny Slims. (cough)

CK -"Betty, I stood the time for doing the crime and there were plenty of others that should have put on DOC jumpsuits, but for race, gender and lifestyle hegemony controlled by whitey."

BLM - "We'll be back ( hack, hack, cough) with more Fresh Air!"

Sponsor Voice Over - "If you are making that first uncomfortable and life-changing move and suing the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County States Attorney because you are in Pontiac State Prison and you'd really like that new Mercedes-Benz G-Class 'an all the Trim that it can hold,G'- speak to the Law Pros at G. Flint Taylor's Peoples Law Office - You will be two-thirds on the way to your Jackpot! Urban Translator available upon request - and a substantial fee."

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-04-23/news/ct-met-schmich-0423--20100423_1_radio-host-car-radio-older-women

http://www.glhalloffame.org/index.pl?item=114&todo=view_item

Top Illinois Democrat Tells Scott Lee -"Scat!"

"And then I was told, if they couldn't find anything to put me in jail over, they would still put me in jail. They would make something up to put me in jail. They did not want me on that ticket," Cohen said.

No, it was not party Chairman Michael Madigan or Gov. Quinn, he said.

Sheila Simon*!

Abner Mikva!

Chris Kennedy!

Jan Schakowsky!

Muriel Abbot?

Mae Kennedy Kane!

Wee Michael Quigley!

Wally and the Fat Boys!

Mr. Light Green Smith!

John From Over By Wendy's on Western!

Marvin Muckinfuch!

This be a head scratcher, Y'all! Scott Lee, spill it, Dude! You're killin' us!

*

Ms. Simon, who had been endorsed by Mr. Quinn on Friday, won a vote of the state’s central committee, made up of 38 top Democratic leaders.

Voters selected a Democratic nominee for the lieutenant governor in February: Scott L. Cohen, a pawnbroker and political unknown who had spent $2 million of his own money on his campaign. But, within days of the election Mr. Cohen resigned under pressure from party leaders after questions emerged over a domestic battery charge, unpaid child support and steroid use.

Democratic leaders, who have battled a reputation for cronyism and back-room deals, announced that Mr. Cohen’s replacement would be picked in a manner that seemed to turn its old reputation on its head. All who wished to apply should do so. Résumés would be posted online. Interviews would be done in public.

Among the applicants was an array of expected candidates — state lawmakers, mayors, county board members, convention delegates and former political candidates, including Ms. Simon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/us/politics/28illinois.html

Epithalamion - For Jamillah and Mike: May 15, 2010

Our mortal path only becomes solid and sure footed when another person bonds to us - marriage. Man was meant to travel with a woman; set a path for children. Each of us finds the chemistry sparked by another's love to be the only real purpose that the parade of experiences that strings behind our steps allowed to somehow ignite. I believe that it is God's hand and delicate fingers that crafted this event. Let no man put asunder.

In 16th Century, Ireland an English civil servant met and bonded with the daughter of an aboriginal Irish chieftan - Edmund Spenser and Elizabeth Boyle. All around them the Irish and English were slaughtering one another - yet, marriage elevated the world's most beautiul poetry above the prosaic.

Here are Spenser's beautiful words for tomorrow's bride and groom - my friends Jamillah Ali and Mike Joyce*.

My love is now awake out of her dreame,
And her fayre eyes, like stars that dimmed were
With darksome cloud, now shew theyr goodly beams
More bright then Hesperus his head doth rere.
Come now, ye damzels, daughters of delight,
Helpe quickly her to dight.
But first come ye, fayre Houres, which were begot,
In Joves sweet paradice, of Day and Night,
Which doe the seasons of the year allot,
And al that ever in this world is fayre
Do make and still repayre.
And ye three handmayds of the Cyprian Queene,
The which doe still adorne her beauties pride,
Helpe to addorne my beautifullest bride:
And as ye her array, still throw betweene
Some graces to be seene:
And as ye use to Venus, to her sing,
The whiles the woods shal answer, and your eccho ring.

Now is my love all ready forth to come:
Let all the virgins therefore well awayt,
And ye fresh boyes, that tend upon her groome,
Prepare your selves, for he is comming strayt.
Set all your things in seemely good aray,
Fit for so joyfull day,
That joyfulst day that ever sunne did see.
Faire Sun, shew forth thy favourable ray,
And let thy lifull heat not fervent be,
For feare of burning her sunshyny face,
Her beauty to disgrace.
O fayrest Phoebus, father of the Muse,
If ever I did honour thee aright,
Or sing the thing that mote thy mind delight,
Doe not thy servants simple boone refuse,
But let this day, let this one day be myne,

From The Western People - Ballina County Mayo

MAKING the right impression on your prospective father-in-law is always a daunting task, but when the woman of your dreams is a daughter of boxing legend Muhammad Ali it must seem like the bar is set extra high.

Nevertheless, Chicago man Mike Joyce proved himself a heavy-weight in the romance stakes when he whisked Jamillah Ali to Ballina during her trip to Ireland with her father last week where he had co-ordinated a surprise marriage proposal.


Mike, whose grandmother Mary Carey (nee Higgins) hailed from Swinford, had commissioned a stunning white gold diamond Claddagh-themed engagement ring as a surprise for Jamillah, from Ballina jeweller, Joseph Winters, of The Hazel jewellery shop.


Joseph became acquainted with Mike Joyce some years ago through mutual friends in the USA. Mike is a partner in Chicago’s Celtic Boxing Club along with Rossport native Terry Cox. Muhammad Ali also has an interest in the club and Mike has known his daughter, Jamillah, for many years. He always told Joseph Winters that he would one day buy a ring for Jamillah from him. Last week the Ali family travelled to Ireland where Muhammad was made honorary freeman of his ancestral homeplace, Ennis. For Mike it was the perfect opportunity for a marriage proposal. He had been liaising with Joseph for some time in advance of the trip about a ring and Joseph suggested the Claddagh theme because of its Irish associations and the fact that it is the emblem of the Celtic Boxing Club.


Jamilla knew nothing of the conspiracy until Mike brought her to Ballina where they made a very low-key visit to Joseph in The Hazel on Wednesday afternoon, last.


Following some general chit-chat with Joseph, Mike told Jamillah that he wanted to show her something nice whereupon the ring was produced, with Jamillah immediately consenting to be engaged.


Afterwards the happy couple posed for exclusive photographs by photographer Henry Wills for the Western People and met with some of Joseph’s acquaintances in Ballina. The Hazel Jewellers on Tone Street in Ballina is probably the oldest jewellers in the west of Ireland, having been established in 1938 by Joseph’s parents, William and Mary Winters.


Now, Joseph has been joined by his son William who represents the third generation of the family involved in the business.

Honest Ward Healer and the Phony Reformers - John Powers and Jane Addams

I am no fan of Jane Addams. Hull House? Nice. However, I have much greater regard for the man who cared for more Jewish, Italian, Greek and Irish families who lived in the most densely populated Ward in America - the 19th Ward.

The 19th Ward today comprises stately Beverly, as well as working class Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood neighborhoods. In the 19th Century, the 19th Ward took in the near west side where Jews, Greeks and Italians crowded out the Irish around Taylor, Congress, Roosevelt with Halsted as the axis.

Halsted Street is thirty-two miles long, and one of the great thoroughfares of Chicago.... Hull-House once stood in the suburbs, but the city has steadily grown up around it and its site now has corners on three or four foreign colonies. Between Halsted Street and the river live about ten thousand Italians—Neapolitans, Sicilians, and Calabrians, with an occasional Lombard or Venetian. To the south on Twelfth Street are many Germans, and side streets are given over almost entirely to Polish and Russian Jews. Still farther south, these Jewish colonies merge into a huge Bohemian colony, so vast that Chicago ranks as the third Bohemian city in the world. To the northwest are many Canadian-French, clannish in spite of their long residence in America, and to the north are Irish and first-generation Americans. On the streets directly west and farther north are well-to-do English-speaking families, many of whom own their houses and have lived in the neighborhood for years; one man is still living in his old farmhouse.

Jane Addams - Twenty Years at Hull House

Hull House is accepted to be the be-all-and-end -all in Chicago's Social Justice Olympus - it is the Progressive St. Peters.

Hull House at that time it served some impoverished people by offering staged productions of Aeschylus, readings of William Lloyd Garrison, tips on grooming and Bologna sandwiches for pennies a day.

The Alderman of the 19th Ward was John ( Johnny De Pow) Powers, a saloon keeper grafter.

At the time John Powers held its aldermanship, the 19th ward included the area between Van Buren and 12th (now Roosevelt Rd.), and between Loomis and the south branch of the Chicago River. Always a poor immigrant neighborhood, it was adjacent to “Bloody Maxwell,” the famously crime-ridden district just to the south. The Tribune described conditions in the 19th graphically in 1897:

Do the drivers on the wagons indulge less freely in profanity? Do the workmen in the street show love and peace? Halsted street betrays it not. Ewing [now 12th Pl.] and Forquer [now Arthington St.] streets look otherwise. Bunker [now Grenshaw St.] and De Koven streets hide it well. Soiled children play upon the walks. The tin can travels on its endless way. Girls bend low over their work in the sweatshops making shirts at eight cents apiece. Six hundred saloons, twenty for each church in the ward, cast their exhilirating influence over the scene. The only thing bearing indisputable marks of a celestial nature is a Chinese laundry.

When Powers was first elected in 1888, the ward was almost entirely Irish, but in the 1890s and 1900s, Italian immigrants flooded into the neighborhood, and by 1910 the voting population was over 80% Italian. The savvy Irishman Powers managed to hold onto his seat, however, by assiduously incorporating potential Italian rivals into the lower levels of his political organization, who then promoted him to their fellow countrymen, even giving him quasi-Italian names like “Johnny de Pow” and “Gianni Pauli”.

Johnny (Powers) provided more fundamental aid, too, when a breadwinner was out of work. At one time he is said to have boasted that 2,600 men from his ward (about one-third of the registered voters) were working in one way or another for the city of Chicago. This did not take into account those for whom the grateful holders of traction franchises had found a place. When election day rolled around, the returns reflected the appreciation of job-holders and their relatives.

American Heritage
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1960/1/1960_1_12.shtml
This paragon of sin (mortal and venial) also cared for a "Diverse" population of many tongues, diets, historical/political contexts, and aspirations. It was Powers who designated Ms. Addams and her gal pal Ellen Starr as part and parcel of the 19th Ward - Addams was appointed to a very lucrative and important position as Ward Garbage Inspector. Jane Addams returned this gesture* with contempt and two decades of insurrection.

John Powers had the support of the population and especially parish priests. That sticks in the craw of Progressives always - then and now.

Mother Cabrini worked the same side of the streets as Jane Addams and long before the Cedarville, IL failed medical student and her girlfriend Ms. Starr arrived on Halsted Street, the Sisters of Mercy were doing the work that did not begin and end with Jane Addams.

First to arrive, in 1846, the Sisters of Mercy were soon operating three schools, running an employment bureau for working women, volunteering at a free clinic, and teaching literacy classes. Attending to many non-Catholics during the cholera epidemics of 1849 and 1854, they also took over what was to become Mercy Hospital.

Nuns and other Catholic women attended to the needs of wave after wave of immigrants. They ran orphanages, hospitals, housing for the elderly, and day care centers. They worked with unwed mothers and tried to “rescue” female prostitutes. While almost never publicly challenging the male authority system—although some did not shrink from doing so privately—these religious women created for themselves an enormous sphere of autonomous or semiautonomous activity within the confines of an extraordinarily patriarchal ecclesiastical structure.

Above all, nuns taught school: without their labor and devotion, the Catholic school system would not have existed.

Powers served for 39 years - from 1888-1927 - that is a 19 year jump over the twenty at at Hull House.

Powers took care of thousands more people than Jane Addams and 'the short haired women and long-haired gentlemen' of Hull House, but there are no tributes, ket alone kind words allowed in our milky Progressive conversations.

The Democratic Ward bosses did more for the indigent and immigrant that the apostles of reform. A newpaper man of time understood that, Finley Peter Dunne. His Mr. Dooley offers this honest assesment.

"Whin Jawnny Powers wint into th' council I don't suppose
he had anny idee what a gr-reat man he'd make iv himsilf. He
thought iv most all th' wurruld except th' nineteenth as honest.
He believed that th' la-ads that presided over th' municipyal purity
meetin's was on th' square en' he hated th' ladin'mimbers iv
churches an' th' boys that gives money to home missions an'
thrainin' schools because he thought they were inhumanly honest.
It didn't take long f'r to make him see diff'rent. Inside iv his
first term he begun to undherstand that they was rare, flesh-an'-
blood, bribe-givin' men. They was good fellers, th' same as Chick
McMillan, an' betther to dale with because if things didn't go
right they'd not be apt to come down an' shoot bullets through th'
sawdust ham in front iv a man's grocery store. An' whin wanst he
got their measure he knew how to threat shim. He's quick to lam,
Jawnny Powers is. None quicker. But I wudden't iv had his expeeryence
f'r twict his money. I'd rather set back here en' believe
that whin a man dhresses dacint he's respectible an' whin he has
money he won't steal."
"Somethin' ought to be done to rayform th' rayformers," suggested
Mr. Hennessy.
"Thrue," said Mr. Dooley. "I'm thinkin'iv gettin'up an organization
to do th' wurruk. I'd attimpt to put a branch in ivry church
an' charitable society in Chicago an' in ivry club. An' whin anny
man that abuses Jawnny Powers an' Yerkuss while buyin'th' wan
an' guaranteein' th' bonds iv th' other'd come up f'r Main Shepherd
or Chief Angel I'd agitate again him. I wudden't let him set
by while Jawnny Powers was bein' done up en' portend he was In
on th' pray; I'd get afther him.
"Thin I'd put up a social colony like Hull House down town
near th' banks an' th' boord iv thrade an' th' stock exchange. I'd
have ladin' citizens come in en' lam be contact with poor an'honest
people th' advantage iv a life they've on'y heard iv. I think th'
Hull House idee is right, but I'd apply it diff'rent. A man wurrukin'
in a bank all day thryin' to get money anny way he can,
how's he goin' to know anny diff'rent? What he needs is to be
cheered up, have th' pi-anny played to him be nice-lookin' girls,
an' find out somethin' iv th' beauties iv honest poverty be convarsin'with
poor en' honest people."
"But where'd ye get th' la-ads to rerun it?" asked Mr. Hennessy.
4
"That's easy," said Mr. Dooley. "If ye'll get th' bankers I'll get
th' others. I know thousands iv poor but honest men that ar-re
on'y waitin'f'r th'chanst to get wan crack at a banker."

Finley Peter Dunne, MR DOOLEY AND THE CHICAGO IRISH: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A
NINETEENTH-CENTURY ETHNIC GROUP, ed. Charles Fanning (Washington: Catholic
University of America, 1976), pp. 220-22, 242-44


*http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9E04E5D81039E433A2575AC0A9679C94699ED7CF

All Carol Marin Needs to Know About "Fair"- Camera One, Carol!

Fair is fair. I don't think government prosecutors are being fair to Rod Blagojevich.. . .No surprise there.But it still doesn't feel fair.

In between there are a couple of hundred words or so that say not much.

C. Marin - See Marin on WTTW and NBC 5.

Carol Marin helped ruin the lives of Chris and Mary Fogarty. Once it seemed clear that George Ryan was going to be hammered by hack Judge Pallmeyer, Carol decided to mock Lura Lynn Ryan. Carol Marin worries about fair.

Fair enough! Tutorial time: Carol, Rod Blagojevich will not spend a day in jail. That might not be fair, but you will be cool with it. Actually, Carol Marin wouldn't know "fair" if it jumped up and bit her on the ass.