Ask David Axelrod - Is Misericordia Home Really Necessary?

"People with developmental disabilities need places like Misericordia to live fulfilled lives, to live happy lives," said Axelrod. "I've seen it in my own daughter's life, and I want to see that available for many, many others." David Axelrod April, 2011

This year, the Catholic Church in the United States is being told she must "give up" her health care institutions, her universities and many of her social service organizations. This is not a voluntary sacrifice. It is the consequence of the already much discussed Department of Health and Human Services regulations now filed and promulgated for implementation beginning Aug. 1 of this year.

Francis Cardinal George in Catholic New World - February 26, 2012

“The reduction in the number of pregnancies compensates for the cost of contraception,” Sebelius said. She went on to say the estimated cost is “down not up.” Kathy "One Child Policy" Sebelius HHS Secretary March 1, 2012
Bucks, or Babies? Breeders, Wafer Catholics and Bible toting Gun Hugging Rubes say "Babies, Kathy." Sophisticated Secular Progressives shout, "dollar savings of course. No Babies , No Bucks, No Problem and cleaner, Greener Earth."

Misericordia Home is Chicago's place where special needs children and adults have been cared for since 1921. David Axelrod runs the Obama 2012 Campaign - Greater Together. Ironically enough, David Axelrod has a special needs child in the care of Miseridcodia Home and David Axelrod is not a Catholic. This is ironic because Axelrod's candidate and our Chief Executive,President Obama, is at war with Catholics, because the Catholic Church as an institution is powerful, but only remains powerful in so far as it stands for its doctrines. Doctrines can not be sold like a commodity, or Green Future, or Shares in GE, unless of course one happens to be an elected official who calls himself/herself Catholic but promotes any and all agendas that conflict with the doctrines of the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church as an institution has physical assets, developed through the course of American History via the support of individual Catholics and some friends who admire the good works those assests support - like Misericordia Home.

There are schools, hospitals, and family support centers of all kinds and types.

I am not familiar with a John Dewey Center for Childeless Couples, or a Planned Parenthood Fetus Drop-Off Station, but I know that John Dewey's Hegelian discipuli demand that Catholic Hospitals perform abortions and that Catholics get in line with China's policies toward big families.

Special Needs children are the focus of a new medical paper that is all the rage in Europe. Children born with special needs should be put to death, "in order to spare the mother and other family members a psychological burden" that the child's place as a living carbon foot-print might pose.

Catholics, traditional Catholics, breeders and wafer swallowers,as they are deemed by Catholics for Obama, fear for the future. Catholics for Obama say this:

Is Obama Pro-Life?The answer is “yes.” Looking through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching, Senator Obama has spent his entire career striving for the common good. He supports health care programs that will cover all Americans, a living wage for working families, and solutions that allow distressed families to stay in their homes. And rather than trying to overturn Roe v. Wade, an ineffective strategy for 40 years, Senator Obama will reduce abortions. How? By promoting health care for pregnant women and better infant care, day care and job training. In fact, data has shown that social and education programs actually reduce abortions.

Catholic Social Teaching? Whose? Nevermind. Oh, that one is dated 2008. Could be because there is not a Catholics for Obama 2012 . . .yet.According to this same standard of reason posed by Catholics for Obama - Adolph Hitler was a member of PETA. Loved Blondi, He Did!

Obama Catholics need to tweak that gusher above because President Obama is clearly pro-abortion and not any way near pro-life.

Push has come to shove. Obama will not yield on his Mandate for Contraception and Abortion ( morning after pills for Ms. Fluke)because Planned Parenthood would go all Bill Maher on his butt.

Unless President Obama gets fewer votes than . . . anyone not Obama, the Catholic Church's institutions like Misericordia will close, as will Catholic schools, hospitals, Catholic Charities, any Catholic mission surrounded by bricks and mortar.

I gotta ask, Did David Axelrod actually mean what he said about Misericordia in April 2011? Ask him yourselves, folks.






http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8093243

http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/2012/03/post-natal-abortion-considered-four.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/cardinal-george-birth-con_n_1307749.html

Purim - Catholics and Jews in the Same Boat Against the Tide of Progressive Aggression

I am working on an article for Irish American News with a deadline of March 15th. The article will appear in the April edition of Cliff Carlson's Irish American News (IAN -On-Line: http://www.irishamericannews.com/ and the topic is the war on faith resulting from secularism as the new government Church opposed to any religious belief, Catholic in particular.

I will talk about the English anti-Catholic laws of the 17th Century and how Catholic gentry, desiring to maintain their economic and political status, abandoned the faith.

In discussing the current conflict, I will parallel the Catholic politician, largely Democrat, who needs votes, money and muscle to maintain his/her political power. Last Fall, the pot in Illinois boiled over, when Governor Quinn who signed the Religious Liberty and Civil Unions Bill into law also stood with Illinois Personal PAC - Planned Parenthood's political treasury which supports not only the move to universal government funded abortion and contraception, but also re-constructs marriage.

Governor Quinn, like Senator Durbin and many other GOP and Democratic elected officials, took the vague tag of Christian, when confronted by Illinois Catholic Bishops led by Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago.

Like the 17th Centry Squire Quinn of BallyQuinn Ireland, Governor Pat Quinn maintained his place as a Progressive Democrat. Faith is such a antiquated thing to so many of the evolved affluent, educated professionals free of the ghetto walls of faith. Many such Catholic spawned folks shed the skin of doctrine and catechetical rigors for situational ethics and know that they know better than the Wafer Catholics.

In my article I will feature chats with three very well-educated, sophisticated, articulate, yet to the Progressive very unevolved Catholic leaders. They are churchmen - Father Anthony Brankin, a musician, sculptor and Irish traditionalist priests, Francis Cardinal George of Chicago who has taken more punches from the secular evolved media, academics, and elected officials than Billy Conn in his loss to Joe Louis, and finally an exclusive interview with Timothy Cardinal Dolan of New York, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

As part of the protocol, I requested the interview through the Archdiocese NYC Office of Communications and was graced with a call from the Office of Delegate for Health Care - Karl P. Adler M.D. I spoke with Dr. Adler's delightful secretary yesterday afternoon, Ms. Sandy. Ms. Sandy is of Scots-Irish descent and married to Welshman from South Carolina.

Talk about diversity.

Ms. Sandy sent me an article following our chat about the HHS Contraception Mandate by the Obama White House. Her boss, Dr. Karl Adler, has been at Cardinal Dolan's side all through this defense of religious liberty. We talked about faith. I'm a Catholic, by birth and, in my much battered post-middle age, by choice.

Our coreligionists, the Jews, managed to thrive during two thousand years of persecution at the hands of Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, Pagans and,since Hegel, Nietzsche and John Dewey The Progressives. The Progressive Soviets and Nazis fell far short of exterminating God's Chosen People with the blood and hearts of Protestants, Catholics and more than few atheists. The consistent ethic of Judeo Christian culture is and has been genuine love, charity, courage, conviction, and common sense.

From the Jews we Catholics should learn more about conviction, holding onto faith, in order to survive as human beings and especially now as a Church.

Yesterday was the start of the religious Feast of Purim. Ms. Sandy sent this to me.



Office of Delegate for Health Care
Archdiocese of New York
1011 First Avenue
New York, NY 10022


Pat,

Tomorrow is Purim*, well actually after sundown this evening. NYC is a very Catholic town, it is also very Jewish. I read this article and thought of the Jewishness of Catholics the HHS mandate and how Jews came to be called Jews

The Holiday When We Became Jewish

By Naftali Silberberg

What is the significance of the name "Jew"? Where does the word come from and what does it mean?

The word Jew (Yehudi in the Hebrew) is a derivative of the name Judah (Yehudah),Jacob's fourth son; hence calling someone by this name would seemingly imply that the person is a descendant of that particular tribe. However, as is well known, Jacob had twelve sons, progenitors of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, all of whom comprise our great nation. Why, then, is the entire Israelite nation known as "Jews"?

(The conventional answer to this question is that the majority of Jews today are descendant from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin-—the two tribes which comprised the "Kingdom of Judea." The other ten tribes, the members of the "Northern Kingdom," were exiled to unknown lands. There must, however, be a deeper reason for the fact that the Chosen Nation has been called by this name for close to 2500 years!)

Perhaps this question can be cleared up by analyzing the very first individual to be dubbed "Jew." The first instance of this word appears in the biblical Book of Esther, which chronicles the story of Purim: "There was a Jewish man in Shushan the capital, whose name was Mordechai the son of Yair... a Benjaminite" (Esther 2:5).

That's right: the first "Jew" was actually from the tribe of Benjamin!

An objective study of the Purim story reveals that the whole frightening episode was plainly avoidableAn objective study of the Purim story reveals that the whole frightening episode was plainly avoidable. The entire incident was a result of Mordechai's obstinate adherence to a code of behavior which was clearly outdated and inappropriate for the times. Mordechai was an elderly rabbi who yet recalled days – more than half a century beforehand – when the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem and Torah Law was supreme. His snubbing of Haman might have been condign during that generation. But things had changed dramatically. The people of Israel were in exile. How did Mordechai dare put his entire nation in danger of extinction by slighting the king's favorite minister? Apparently someone neglected to inform this sage that the ability to conform is the key to survival...

Mordechai, however, thought otherwise; and he had a famous precedent supporting his "foolish" actions. Many years earlier, a powerful Egyptian ruler wished to take his ancestor, Benjamin, as a slave. Benjamin's brother Judah wouldn't hear of such a possibility. In what would be his proudest and most defining moment, Judah completely ignored all royal protocol, angrily approached the powerful ruler – who, unbeknownst to him, was actually their brother Joseph – and threateningly demanded Benjamin's release.Judah is the embodiment of the exiled Israelite who must walk a thin line: While he must live at peace with his neighbors, follow the laws and customs of the land, and "pray for the peace of the regime," he has the courage of his convictions to stand up against all the powers that be in order to defend his ideals. In the words of Rabbi Sholom DovBer of Lubavitch, "Only our bodies were sent into exile; not our souls!"

Mordechai "the Jew" was a proud student of his great-uncle Judah. He knew that Torah law forbids a Jew from bowing to Haman (and the statuette which dangled from a chain around his neck), and for him that was the final word. Indeed, Judah's and Mordechai's actions were vindicated as events unfolded--no harm came to either of them as a result of their brave conduct.

Judah is the embodiment of the exiled Israelite who must walk a thin line. Leading by example, Mordechai succeeded in implanting this sense of pride in the hearts of the masses. When Haman issued his decree of annihilation, not one Israelite even considered abandoning his religion in order to be spared death. At that moment, we all became "Jews." Accordingly, the Book of Esther is the first place where our nation as a whole is referred to as Jews.

The name stuck. Because the next 2,500 years would repeatedly test our "Jewishness." Under countless regimes – both friendly and, as was usually the case, hostile – we struggled against friends and enemies who wished to impose their will upon us at the expense of our relationship with G‑d. Again and again we proved ourselves true to G‑d, earning the name Jew through oceans of blood and tears.

The grand story of history concludes in similar fashion as the Purim story: we are here to tell the tale and our enemies aren't... The joy of Purim is greater than any other holiday because it tells the story of the nation who never allowed its soul to be shackled--the story of the Jew.

(empasis my own)

Judah completely ignored all royal protocol, angrily approached the powerful ruler – who, unbeknownst to him, was actually their brother Joseph – and threateningly demanded Benjamin's release - Cardinals George and Dolan and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have determined to no longer 'go-along-to-get-along. Survival means coniction. This Purim, this Lent, we should try and meditate on what it means submit to royal mandates. In order to live one must be will to object and if needs be take punishment and perhaps death.

Catholics - be like Jews. They don't survive; they live.

The Irish celebrated the outlawed Eucharist on rocks in the wilderness with outlawed priests. Squire Quinn of Bally-Quinn kept his houses, lands, titles, horses and dogs. Call that living?


*The festival of Purim is celebrated every year on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar (late winter/early spring). It commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia from Haman’s plot “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in a single day.”

Fight for the Cure With the Boxers of St. Baldrick's - Sat. 3-7 PM at Bourbon Street

Eric Owens vs. Logan Plantz SuperHeavyweights -Really?

These two dreadnaughts will touch gloves and each other. My pal Eric Owens will graduate this Mother's Day from Leo High School. Big E is off to college in the fall well-armed with the Leo Spirit of Giving. Our guys from Mike Joyce's Leo Boxing Club will square off with Celtic Boxers, Marty McGarry's Boxers and many, many other great amateur and pro talents all on the same card to knock-out cancer.

Come on out Saturday for a full afternoon of sport, fellowship, food and fun at the most generous venue on the south side 115 Bourbon Street. There is not a weekend goes by, that 115 Bourbon Street does not help sick kids, suffering families and causes that really matter.

If you can't join us go to the donation website for St. Badrick's Right Cheer!
https://www.stbaldricks.org/donate/event/7780/2012

Or, dial them up at (888) 899-BALD extension (2253)and make a handsome drop. make it is handsome as Tommy Zbikowski of the Baltimore Ravens and the Sqaure Ring of the Sweet Science.

Make it as handsome as Dicky Eklund who is always ringside for anyone, especially kids, who can use a powerful punch of aid.




Event St. Baldricks Fight for a Cure A Good Time for a Great Cause

Saturday March 10th 3:00-7:30

115 Bourbon Street 3359 west 115th street

Open bar, buffet, raffles, headshaving, St. Patrick's Day queen and court, music and live boxing

Featuring boxers from Leo High School, Celtic Boxing Club, McGarry Boxing Club and Southside Knockout

$25 Donation

All money raised goes to the St. Baldricks Foundation which is the largest fundraiser for childrens cancer research

If you can not attend and would like donate please visit www.stbaldricks.org and search Fight for a Cure

For more info please contact Trish O'sullivan 708-536-0003


Click My Post Title for a Great VIDEO


DONATE On LINE - I did - it is THAT simple.

http://www.stbaldricks.org/events/donorlist/7780/2012

It's a Progressive Thing - Did Obama Put the Blocks to Rahm in Order to Make Nice with Putin?

Finally! Some me time. . . . thought them Hebes . . .Israelis. . . would never leave. Ted Kennedy is still dead, or I could trot him out for some poll juice. . . Putin won . . .go figure. . . Hey! Think I'll give Rahm a call and wind him up . . . yeah, I'll call Rahm!- Thoughts of B.H. Obama on 3/5/2012 - mid-afternoon EST.


"A riot is the language of the unheard." Jeremiah Wright Pastor Emeritus

Thing is Rev. a riot is always a planned activity and no one throws an activity like a Lefty.

Well, everybody hears Andy Thayer, all the time, and no one asked to; yet, G-8 has gone the way of Riverview, The Eastland, The Stockyards, and the Olympics.

Now, how did this come to pass? Here's my helot's musings over cold soup in my office at Leo.



1. Let's see, now - Bad Vlad Leroy Putin wins the Russia Super Monday Take All by a beardful.

2. Russkies ain't happy being Syria with snow. Vlad busted the Occupy Red Square kids - God Bless'Em right after the polls closed.

3. Obama needs to look strong for NATO after caving in on defensive missiles a few semesters back. You know. . .Poland and the Czechs? Vlad might give Obama some sugar on that one and boy does he need - Syria, Muslim Bros., still Gitmo, Apologies and dead Jarheads. Bin Laden is about useful as Old Teddy, these days. Gotta bring something to NATO,maybe some Soviet Sugar.

4. Obama has gotten about as much mileage out of Rush Limbaugh and Ms. Fluke and Catholics still find Obama as contemptible as Radio's Sidney Greenstreet of Airwaves. Cardinals George and Dolan have their dukes up, yet. Catholics and then them other religionists . . .Jews here and there.

5.The Israelis are gone and are never happy after a visit with Jerry Wright's altar boy. Waiting at the back door and what not. Calypso Louie call that one, last year?

6. David Axelrod always says allow no crisis to go unrewarded - who better to reward than the current Occupy 1600 Dude! Cancel the Party! No G-8! However Chicago still gets a face full of Andy Thayer's lithping loonathy all week come May. Call a Preth Confrenth!

Therefore, Obama muses, Rahm gets a tune-up. No G-8; Keep the NATO with my blessings!

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin... the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered Jeremiah Wright, Pastor Emeritus

Not a word about God, Jews or Garlic Eating Big -nosed Eyetalians.

Mmm + Mmm + MmmmmmmmmmmmSpeak on
it, Rev! Oh, that's right. You did. Plenty.

Shoot, check out Camp David!

Gale Sayers - Discipline, Dress, Self Esteem, Health and Happiness at Leo High School: A Studied Carelessness Requires Great Care

Gale Sayers # 40 1965
Gale Sayers Citizen in 2011 with Mrs. Townsend Miss Adams and Miss Hamp of Leo High School

A cravat was the forerunner of the modern necktie. It consisted of a strip of immaculately white starched linen about 12" by 60" that was wound around the throat several times and tied. To achieve the "studied carelessness" of the creases in his cravat, Brummell reclined in his chair as if he were being shaved and wound a cravat around his neck. Then lowered his chin, ever so slowly, until the starched linen wrinkled to perfection. If one wrinkle was too deep or too shallow, the cloth was thrown aside. Once, when a visitor saw Brummell's valet carrying an armload of lengths of tumbled white clothes as he descended from his master's dressing room, he asked what the man was taking away and was informed, "These are our failures, sir." Cravat knots could be simple and casual like the Mailcoach or complicated. Brummell was famous for his cravat worn in a waterfall.

Georgian Men's Fashion

NFL legend Gale Sayers* of the Chicago Bears never did a touchdown dance. In one game, he scored six touchdowns and after each courteously handed the ball to the Referee. " I wanted them to know that I had been here before. . .and that I was coming back."

Today our dred locked and Viking maned mesomorphs are indistinguishably the same with antic finger points upon a tackle, or frantic dancing in the endzone. They play to the camera alone.

Gale Sayers never made near the salary of a taxi squad NFL player today. However, he is and remains a legend.

Mr. Sayers has no drug, gun or assault charges against him, nor doe she have creditors pounding his doors. He and his bride of many decades Ardi conduct charitable work in the inner-city as a well as employ people in business. Mr. Sayers dresses with the simple dignity and singular virtue that marked his career on the football field. Through the Gale Sayers Foundation, Gale Sayers mentors the young men at Leo High School, as well as the many younger boys and girls on the West and South Side of Chicago.

Gale Sayers continues to look remarkably like he did when he signed with George Halas. We want our young men to model themselves on a man like Gale Sayers, who happens to reflect the very same image cast by Leo Legends -Bob Foster, Jimmy Arneberg, Jack Fitzgerald, Tony Parker, Dr. Stafford Hood, and Mike Holmes.

We have a dress code and code of discipline. They are ideal and tight. Daily life is anything but that - life is prosaic, messy and quotidian. Too many of our students come from tough family and economic circumstances. In fact, many of our young men arrive here at Leo High School shortly after I get my broad manly rump into the chair. More so, we have a tough time getting some of them to get home for the day's end. Believe it or not, and this is something we try to impress upon our hard-working teachers, for most students the happiest hours of their day are spent within the walls of this old Catholic high school.

Our discipline problems are very few and they become the Molehill Mountain for us -"Tuck in that Shirt! Where's Your Belt? Take off that Hoodie! Those Aren't Uniform Shoes! Your Hair is Extreme."

Now, this being Leo, with its rich history of manly manly miscreance ( think Bill Nelligan, or the late Tom Foy)there are the odd crap games and the occasional Marlboro Light incidents, some tardiness and a bit of back-sass. Nothing in the way of a public school, or Leo circa 1968.

Dress Code and general comportment are standards that this school holds up with its rock-solid Catholic orthodoxy as ideals and expectations the student is obliged to meet - to the very best of his ability.

Many times, home life impacts with this. Last November, President Dan McGrath (Leo 1968) explained to our Alumni at a meeting that one of our young men was receiving amny detentions for being out of uniform. Dan also remarked that this young guy wore the same shirt and pants for the last three weeks. Upon some delicate investigation, President McGrath learned that the family was in dire financial trouble, the Dad out of full time work taking handyman jobs and the Mom working at two minimum wage stores and only getting the hours available. Their lights were turned off, hence the unlaundered attire.

Our guys immediately raised about $400 in cash to help get the young man some new clothes and to help the family get the lights back on - several volunteered to find the Dad some meaningful employment.

That is one kid out of scores more.

Leo High School is working on a plan to combine neat, simple and manly dress with a code of virtuous conduct that reflects the individual packaged within.

Do clothes make the man; no, but that speak loudly of he is all about.

I'll try and report more articulately on this topic in the weeks to come. It is an easy thing to set-out a dress, or disciplinary code; it is another thing altogether to make it attractive given our goofy culture. Gale Sayers worked himself without mercy in order to present a 'studied carelessness' on and off the field - he made it look so easy.

Taking a hard look at the life of Gale Sayers and how he presents himself is a damn good start.




*

Halfback >>> 6-0, 198
(Kansas)
1965-1971 Chicago Bears
Gale Eugene Sayers. . .Kansas All-America. . .Exceptional break-away runner. . .Scored rookie record 22 TDs, 132 points, 1965. . .Led NFL rushers, 1966, 1969. . .Named all-time NFL halfback, 1969. . . All-NFL five straight years. . .Player of Game in three Pro Bowls. . .Career totals: 9,435 combined net yards, 4,956 yards rushing, 336 points. . . NFL lifetime kickoff return leader. . .Born May 30, 1943, in Wichita, Kansas

http://www.georgianindex.net/tailors/tailor.html

WOW. . .I Coulda Had a G-8!

“Hello Rahm . . .good and you? Listen about your request for the help with G-8. . . I’m kinda stretched at the moment. . .how about this. . .cancel all those rooms booked for the 17th- the 19th . . .I’ll have it here . . .that navy base whatchamacallit.
Look . . .at least I won’t get any of it on my Campaign . . .that is all this important. . . . Rahm . . .Rahm? Valerie! Get Bill Daley on the line.”

Advanced Style or Gummers With Money

"This is who we should strive to be." from Chicago Tribune's Barbara Brotman

Few things escape my notice; that does not mean that I fully grasp their sense to some, nor their essential worth to me.

I dress reasonably well. Still the aging Joe College Look - Outlet Brooks Brothers or knock-offs. Subdued, yet grace-worthy, if I take the time to have daughters or companion to give me the once over.

This morning the Chicago Tribune's Barbara Brotman offered this New Export to the Midwest her daughter's gushing approval for a documentary on Stylish Women - photo above and the filial accolade. Here's more -

Admirers have been wearing down their exclamation point keys posting comments.

"I utterly adore these women ... they so ROCK!"

"OMG. They are so cool!!!"

"This looks GREAT! So excited to be an old lady!"

Among their fans is Tavi Gevinson, Chicago fashion blogger and editor-in-chief of the online magazine Rookie. A 15-year-old student at Oak Park and River Forest High School, she occupies the opposite end of the fashion age range, but has linked admiringly to the Advanced Style website. She joined Cohen in hosting a party for the Advanced Style women in New York during Fashion Week in September.

"I'm inspired by them, and I admire that Ari doesn't make them into a novelty, or talk about them like they're precious or cute," she said in an email. "Some of them have style you might call cute, but their ideas and personalities are so important when he writes about and photographs them, and they all seemed so present and lively at the party."

Cohen began the project when he moved to New York from the West Coast five years ago. "All around me were these incredible women who were so dressed up and, more important, were active — going to the opera, working, getting their groceries," he said.

Is it just me? I think all of these women have natural beauty and sport wonderful features. That said, I think their get-ups would sicken a billy goat raised on razor blades and broccoli.

Does age demand that one don glassesthat Harry Caray might deem garish, dye hair the color that Bozo thought extreme, and eschew the wooden, or peg-leg entirely, like the blue-hair second from right above? Is the sombrero a necessity for a night out with the grand kids at Billy Dec's, or Stations of the Cross?

Here is Nancy Kwan a contemporary of the ladies sporting the Dick Tracy look above:



Same age, wildly different approach to 'what works.' Though fourteen years my senior, I'd take a hard run at Nancy Kwan. Nothing is sexier than basic black and pearls.

Wrong -On So Many Levels - My Life as Me.

Each day provides its own gifts. Marcus Aurelius


Trader Joe's is nice. There is one in Oak Park on Harlem just a bit north of Lake Street. This is an exoctic country for me.

On Saturday, the woman I love needed to return to Trader Joe's as she had been charged twice for a pound of coffee. As a member of the superior gender this chic, lovely and thrifty woman kept hold of the receipt; something this impulse shopping Pater Familias fails to do. I have a cabinet full of unused Billy Bucks in $1 and $5 dollar denominations, because I invariably forget to bring those cost-cutters along with me on my many trips to pick up items needed and the cart load of "Ooooooo,Eddy's Lime Bars, Pan Color Pepper Crushers, Exotically Flavored Triscuits, and cheeses of Iceland." One day, I shall break the bank of the Baffes Family - eight legs of lamb, a week of porterhouses, Oberweiss Milk, and a gallon of designer olive oil.

Miss S, who is a frequent subject of my musings, but demands in no uncertain threats to leave her name out of my present and future pages, actually consults the receipt upon return from shopping and conducts a complete and thorough audit of purchases.

Saturday, she assessed Trader Joe's for the twice-priced coffee and while she presented the receipt to managers all and sundry, I parked the car in Mega-level lot and went up to Lake Street. I bought a hideously wonderful stuffed toy for my two-year old pal Emmett and met Miss S back at Joe's.



We returned to my car and pulled out on Harlem and headed north one block turned right and I told Miss S. about my purchase, " Emmett is gonna love it. It is a butt-ugly rag doll of some kind of monster . . ."

Miss S. Was delighted, "Where is it?"

"Jesus Chri. . ."

"Please."

"Sorry."

" Did you place it on the trunk, like you did with that wine we supposed to bring to Steve and Susan's last week? That went crashing onto the pavement, requiring another purchase? DO NOT swear or utter another mot juste from your arsenal of obscenities, please. And do calm yourself; it is not the end of the world."

"Close though."

Cowed and craven, I obeyed this tiny woman and the Illinois traffic dictates of sense and sensibility and right turned my way back to the chock-filled parking venue available at Trader Joe's."

First level - nothing.

"Did you park on this . . .?"

Second Level - ditto slowly pacing each parking spot and scanning with a hunter's eye for the plastic vanity bag with the Monster Doll.

Third Level

"Why did you not just place the bag in the front here with you?

Second Level Redux - I got out and belly-crawled under a few SUVs and Volvos. Nope.

Level One Yet Again!

Miss S. remained dignified and silent, fully cognisant of the boiling over of the once cheery good will and avuncular intent to make a child's day now a roiling pot of male peccadillo's souped up and ladled out. Remember, J.M. Barrie never created the Island of Lost Girls. I do. . . well, sometimes.

Details are made to be attended.

With the resignation and realization that fifty-nine years of such events as this, I determined to give the field to my folly this day and return better suited to the mortal combat involved in buying a two year old a surprise.

" I'll grab one of them monsters later in the week."

" That's nice."

Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.
Marcus Aurelius

Father Sammie Maletta on Obama's War on Catholics and Religious Liberty

Father Sammie Maletta, Jr. was assistant pastor at Notre Dame Parish in Long Beach, Indiana and served as chaplain for La Lumiere School in LaPorte, Indiana. I was proud to work with Father Sammie then and more proud of him for his courageous homily linked below.

For those of you who voted for I cannot believe you voted for this (referring to the mandate).

Let us be clear, President Obama let us be Catholic

The government wants to get in our business and tell us how to run our business, how to run our Churches.

I cannot make a decision about the Church without going through the government.

Why is the government so obsessed with reproductive services? And forcing us to go against our Faith to do what they want us to do

Father Sammie Maletta



If you are interested in knowing about my educational and various assignments then please scroll down to the Curriculum Vitae outlining my years as a priest.

I guess what I would like you to know about me is that I love the Lord Jesus and I am passionate about His Roman Catholic Church. I have been a priest for more than 25 years and the Church has made me what I am. I feel so incredibly honored and grateful to be living my life as a priest. I believe in striving for excellence and have found over and over again that apparent obstacles in life are really opportunities where our faith and character are tested and formed. So, for better or worse I regularly find myself challenging and motivating those around me to do one more thing for Christ.” Fr. Sammie Maletta


Curriculum Vitae

Reverend Sammie L. Maletta, Jr., was born in Gary, Indiana on March 9, 1953, the eldest of seven children of Sammie and Theresa Maletta. He was raised in Portage, Indiana and graduated from Portage High School.

After receiving a BA degree in English Literature from St. Meinrad Seminary and graduating with an M.Div and STB degree with honors from St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Father Maletta was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Andrew Grutka on August 15, 1980, at the Cathedral of the Holy Angels in Gary, Indiana.

Upon ordination, Father Maletta was assigned to instruct religion at Marquette High School in Michigan City, Indiana. In the spring of 1981, he began graduate studies in business administration at Notre Dame University School of Business. In the fall of 1981, he was assigned as administrator at Sacred Heart Parish in Wanatah, Indiana and St. Martin Mission in LaCrosse. In 1982, he was assigned administrator of St. Theresa Parish in Shelby, Indiana. In the fall of 1982, Father Maletta was assigned to study canon law in Rome, Italy. While studying in Rome, Father Maletta was selected to serve on the staff of the United States Bishops Theological Consultation. In June of 1984, he completed canonical studies and received a JCL with high honors from St. Thomas of the City. In the autumn of 1984, after return from abroad, Father Maletta was assigned to the Marriage Tribunal of the Diocese of Gary and appointed Adjutant Vicar Judicial and Defender of the Bond. He was also appointed Assistant to the Chancellor, while serving as administrator of Ss. Monica & Luke Parish in Gary, Indiana. In January of 1985, he was appointed Director of the Marriage Tribunal for the Diocese of Gary. In May of 1987, he served as Judge for the Marriage Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado.

Father Maletta was appointed Judicial Vicar for the Diocese of Gary in December of 1988. In 1989 Bishop Norbert Gaughan appointed Father Maletta to study civil law at Valparaiso University School of Law while continuing his diocesan responsibilities. He graduated with a Juris Doctorate in civil law from Valparaiso in May of 1992. Father Maletta received the prestigious Honors Award for Excellence in Trial Advocacy.

In July of 1992, Father Maletta was appointed pastor of St. Joan of Arc Parish in Merrillville, Indiana. Shortly after his appointment as pastor, he resigned from all of his diocesan appointments in order to focus on the parish. In October 1992, after successfully sitting for the Indiana Bar, Father Maletta was sworn in as a civil attorney. In August of 1993, Father Maletta was certified by the Indiana Supreme Court as a Civil Mediator. Father Maletta continues to maintain both his licenses to practice law and his certification as a mediator.

Bishop Dale J. Melczek appointed Father Maletta as Diocesan Legal Counsel in April of 1994. In January of 1995, Father Maletta was appointed Representative of the Bishop for Health Care Concerns. He was invited to serve as Canonical and Ethical Counsel to the international law firm of Mayer, Brown and Platt in Chicago, Illinois. While serving in this position, Father Maletta was given the opportunity to participate in the filing of an amicus brief before the United States Supreme Court in behalf of the Catholic Health Association of America in the Oregon Assisted Suicide case, Lee vs Oregon.

On February 1, 1997, Bishop Dale J. Melczek appointed Father Maletta Vicar General/Moderator of the Curia for the Diocese of Gary.
In 1998, Father Maletta was appointed to the Catholic Health Association Canon Law Committee, an appointment that has recently been renewed.
In January 2000, after successfully completing his term as Vicar General/Moderator of the Curia, Father Maletta requested not to be reappointed, but to return to parish ministry and to pursue other interests. In July 2000, Bishop Melczek released Father Maletta from his diocesan responsibilities.
In August 2000, Father Maletta was appointed by the Provincial of the Congregation of Holy Cross ‚ Indiana Province, to serve on the Fatima Retreat Center Advisory Board at Notre Dame University in South Bend.
In September 2000, Father Maletta agreed to serve as Project Manager for Catholic Health Association.
In October 2000, Father Maletta assumed the position of Attorney Of Counsel for the Chicago law firm of Burke, Warren, MacKay and Serritella, P.C.
In the fall of 2000, Father Maletta was named as one of the twenty most influential people in Northwest Indiana.
In March 2001, Father Maletta agreed to serve as a Certified Instructor for the Napoleon Hill Foundation located at the Napoleon Hill World Learning Center, Purdue University Calumet.
In June 2001, Father Maletta was invited and agreed to serve as a member of the Commission on Race & Gender Fairness for Lake County, Indiana.
In July 2001, Father Maletta was appointed Pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in St. John, Indiana.
In October 2006, Relevant Radio began broadcasting Father Malettaís homilies which can be heard on radio station 1270AM on Friday mornings at 9:00am.
In February 2007, Father Maletta was appointed as Administrator of Holy Name Parish in Cedar Lake, Indiana, with all the rights and obligations defined for administrators in the Code of Canon Law.
In January of 2003, Father Maletta was invited to attend the USCCB Committee on Canonical Affairs Seminar for Judges, Advocates and Promoters of Justice who will assist the Bishops to carry out the necessary penal processes which are called for in the Code of Canon Law, the Norms promulgated by the Holy Fatherís Apostolic Letter Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela and the ìEssential Normsî adopted by the Bishops to address the scandal of sexual abuse of minors by clerics.
Since resigning from his diocesan positions, Father Maletta has provided organizational consulting for various institutions and businesses.

Father Maletta co-wrote Marital Failure: The Churchís Response for Chicago Studies in November, 1992. He was an editor of the Catechism Life in Christ, published by ACTA Publications in Chicago, Illinois (1993-1995). In August of 1994, he wrote a weekly column that was published in the Northwest Indiana Catholic newspaper on the New Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was also published by diocesan newspapers throughout the country. Father Maletta was a primary and contributing author of the Gary Diocesan Millennium booklets, Jesus, Holy Spirit, and God the Father.

Over the years, Father Maletta has been a popular public speaker, offering retreats and parish missions throughout the Midwest. Father Maletta has conducted numerous seminars on the relationship of canon and civil law to a life of faith. His seminars on sexbased differences have been well received by both local and national organizations. In recent years, Father Maletta has conducted workshops on the Catechism (as revealed in story).

Professional Memberships

Canon Law Society of America
Indiana Bar Association
Lake County Bar Association
National Health Lawyers Association
Catholic Health Association

God bless Fr. Sammie Maletta

Hat Tip: Mike Houlihan!!!

The Greatest Two Hander of All

" I wear the white socks only to hold down the smell from my gravel agitators, Baby. Glad you asked. The Catalinas are a band that counts. They're from over by Mendel. Play your cards right and I'll give you a tour of the wrestling mats."

Yes, Sir. In the words of a sage chum, " All that I can and the easy ones twice."

In 1967, a Cincinatti group The Casinos ( led by Gene Hughes included Bob Armstrong, Ray White, and Pete Bolton)released one of the all-time great two handers, probably the best - Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye - the was the same year as the Summer of Love and Sgt. Pepper. go figure.

A Two-hander was a slow dance. The one that was romantic to young ladies and an lascivious delight to hormone fueled dweebs and dudes.


http://www.casinos67.com/

Saddleback Mountain - Dead Babies: Abortion and Infanticide are on Obama's Table

July 10, 2006, USA Today op ed by then Senator Barack H. Obama:

… [W]e live in a pluralistic society, and … I can’t impose my religious views on another.

Democrat Presidential Candidate Barack (no H.)Obama to Saddleback Rick Warren August, 2008 - Asked at what point a baby gets “human rights,” Obama, who strongly supports abortion rights, said: “… whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity … is above my pay grade.”

Not these days:

Obama Chief of Staff Jacob Lew on February 13, 2012 speaking for the Obama White House:

"We have set out our policy," Lew said. "We are going to finalize it in the final rules, but I think what the president announced on Friday is a balanced approach that meets the concerns raised both in terms of access to health care and in terms of protecting religious liberties, and we think that's the right approach."

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius - “The reduction in the number of pregnancies compensates for the cost of contraception,”



Yesterday, I posted a medical paper advocating the post-natal murder of children deemed a threat to the physical and psychological well-being of the mother and her family. The paper pointedly considers Downs Syndrome children, like Trig Plain and the thousands of persons loved, nurtured and protected here in Chicago's Misericordia Home. Planned Parenthood, NARAL, ACLU, and NOW offer no such care.

Obama's political gambit to 'shore up the Greater Together base with a hard slap at religion and in particular Roman Catholics is a game of chicken. Obama and the Dowager Class of Abortion Happy Eugenicists have the media on their side along with General Electric, and George Soros. You can have them.

We have Cardinals George of Chicago and Dolan of New York. I'll take them.

Yesterday, the Democrats and one Republican defeated an amendment that would protect religious liberty and the Constitution itself. Barack Obama was an adjunct instructor at the U of C and taught classes in Constitutional Law, before he became President. Illinois Republican Senator Mark Kirk (absented by a stroke of luck) more than likely would also have voted with Dick Durbin and these Vichy Catholics more beholden to Planned Parenthood, NARAL, NOW, GE, MSNBC and George "Heart-breaker" Soros:

Senator Mark Begich (Alaska, D) – Opposed
Senator Tom Harkin (Iowa, D) – Opposed
Senator Richard Durbin (Illinois, D) – OpposedSenator Mary Landrieu (Louisiana, D) – Opposed
Senator John Kerry (Massachusetts, D) – Opposed
Senator Barbara Mikulski (Maryland, D) – Opposed
Senator Claire McCaskill (Missouri, D) – Opposed
Senator Robert Menendez (New Jersey, D) – Opposed
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (New York, D) – Opposed
Senator Jack Reed (Rhode Island, D) – Opposed
Senator Pat Leahy (Vermont, D) – Opposed
Senator Maria Cantwell (Washington, D) – Opposed
Senator Patty Murray (Washington, D) – Opposed

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, like Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, is a Vichy Catholic. Vichy Catholics take the Dowager coin and are more afraid of the bad opinion of the clowns on MSNBC than they are of teachings they play at in front of Catholic voters and Catholic contributors. As far as Bishops go, they can live happily without them.

The DNC has crunched numbers and told Dithering Dick and other Vichy Catholics that they need not worry. The Catholic Demographic important? As if.

Push will come to shove. The Bishops will not blink first. Vichy Catholics will have a Canossa moment ( Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV v. Pope Gregory VII and all that German lay investiture stuff in the 11th Century). HRE Hank came up a huge loser in that one. Likewise, I believe we will see a few Vichy Catholics become Unitarians or join the Bill Moyers/Rev. Wright United Church of Christ -two very wholesome denominations for NPR/PBS minded coreligionists.

As to President Obama? He went all in on this one. He can't back down. Gotta Keep the Base and the Dough Ray Me!

Ed Morrisey wrote the other day in the Wall Street Journal:

Some may doubt that the bishops would create this kind of havoc and disruption, and perhaps President Obama believes Cardinal George and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to be bluffing. However, Obama may want to read St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, and his Principle and Foundation of faith, which informs Catholics on the priority of salvation. The first task of mankind, according to St. Ignatius, is to serve God and “save his soul,” and “other things on the face of the earth” should be used only as long as they serve that purpose. When they become a hindrance to salvation, St. Ignatius warns to “rid himself of them.”

Cardinals' George and Dolan and the Catholic Bishops of America have been pushed hard. If the Obama side wins, America loses Catholic Hospitals, Schools, and places like Misericordia.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/02/obama_the_lawbreaker_versus_the_catholic_church.html

Post Natal Abortion Considered = Four Pages and End-notes of Science and Madness

What follows is a serious paper delivered by two very educated people. . .soul-less, anticeptically rational, progressive thinking scientists.

These people argue that not only is an unborn child disposable, but that a child born a fit subject for execution.

Our President owes Planned Parenthood. This is Planned Parenthood's endgame. This is what Planned Parenthood is all about.

Consider the icy words of his Health and Human Services Commissar Kathleen Sebelius only today concerning the White House's 'screwed up' contraception mandate and cost cutting,“The reduction in the number of pregnancies compensates for the cost of contraception.”

Newly obtained documents prove that in 2003, Barack Obama, as chairman of an IL state Senate committee, voted down a bill to protect live-born survivors of abortion - even after the panel had amended the bill to contain verbatim language, copied from a federal bill passed by Congress without objection in 2002, explicitly foreclosing any impact on abortion. Obama's legislative actions in 2003 - denying effective protection even to babies born alive during abortions - were contrary to the position taken on the same language by even the most liberal members of Congress. The bill Obama killed was virtually identical to the federal bill that even NARAL ultimately did not oppose.




Barack H. Obama supported live birth abortion as an Illinois State Senator, before he decided to be President, launder his past. parse his record and read what was put in front of him. He whines and cries about people who question the place of his birth and is not concerned a whit about the deaths of children not his own. He shudders at the thought of anyone asking for his birth certificate, while enforcing mandates that preclude the issuance of such to millions yet unborn.

I have never wanted to examine that dark documents. I would like to examine his academic records and written academic papers, in order to understand his agenda.

Now, consider the words and intent of the following. Here it is in full (emphases my own).

PAPER
After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?
Alberto Giubilini,
1,2
Francesca Minerva
3,4
ABSTRACT
Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not
have anything to do with the fetus’ health. By showing
that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the
same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that
both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3)
adoption is not always in the best interest of actual
people, the authors argue that what we call ‘after-birth
abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all
the cases where abortion is, including cases where the
newborn is not disabled.
INTRODUCTION
Severe abnormalities of the fetus and risks for the
physical and/or psychological health of the woman
are often cited as valid reasons for abortion.
Sometimes the two reasons are connected, such as
when a woman claims that a disabled child would
represent a risk to her mental health. However,
having a child can itself be an unbearable burden for
the psychological health of the woman or for her
already existing children,
1
regardless of the condition of the fetus. This could happen in the case of a woman who loses her partner after she finds out that she is pregnant and therefore feels she will not be able to take care of the possible child by
herself. A serious philosophical problem arises when the same conditions that would have justified abortion become known after birth. In such cases, we need to assess facts in order to decide whether the same arguments that apply to killing a human fetus can
also be consistently applied to killing a newborn human.

Such an issue arises, for example, when an abnormality has not been detected during pregnancy or occurs during delivery. Perinatal asphyxia,for instance, may cause severe brain damage and result in severe mental and/or physical impairments comparable with those for which a woman could request an abortion. Moreover, abnormalities are not always, or cannot always be, diagnosed through prenatal screening even if they have a genetic origin. This is more likely to happen when the disease is not hereditary but is the result of
genetic mutations occurring in the gametes of a healthy parent. One example is the case of
Treacher-Collins syndrome (TCS), a condition that affects 1 in every 10 000 births causing facial deformity and related physiological failures, in particular potentially life-threatening respiratory problems. Usually those affected by TCS are not mentally impaired and they are therefore fully aware of their condition, of being different from
other people and of all the problems their pathology entails. Many parents would choose to
have an abortion if they find out, through genetic prenatal testing, that their fetus is affected by TCS. However, genetic prenatal tests for TCS are usually taken only if there is a family history of the disease. Sometimes, though, the disease is caused by a gene
mutation that intervenes in the gametes of a healthy member of the couple. Moreover, tests for TCS are quite expensive and it takes several weeks to get the result. Considering that it is a very rare pathology, we can understand why women are not usually tested for this disorder. However, such rare and severe pathologies are not the only ones that are likely to remain undetected until delivery; even more common congenital diseases that women are usually tested for could fail to be detected. An examination of 18 European registries reveals that between 2005 and 2009 only the 64% of Down’s syndrome cases were diagnosed through prenatal testing.
2
This percentage indicates that, considering only the European areas under examination, about 1700 infants were born with Down’s syndrome without parents being aware of it before birth. Once these children are born, there is no choice for the parents but to keep the child, which sometimes is exactly what they would not have done if the disease had
been diagnosed before birth.
3.


ABORTION AND AFTER-BIRTH ABORTION
Euthanasia in infants has been proposed by philosophers for children with severe abnormalities whose lives can be expected to be not worth living and who are experiencing unbearable suffering.

Also medical professionals have recognised the need for guidelines about cases in which death seems to be in the best interest of the child. In The Netherlands, for instance, the Groningen Protocol (2002) allows to actively terminate the life of ‘infants with a hopeless prognosis who experience what parents and medical experts deem to be
unbearable suffering’.
4
Although it is reasonable to predict that living with a very severe condition is against the best interest of the newborn, it is hard to find definitive arguments to the effect that life with certain pathologies is not worth living, even when those pathologies would constitute acceptable reasons for abortion. It might be maintained that ‘even allowing for the more optimistic assessments of the potential of Down’s syndrome children, this potential cannot be said to be equal to that of
a normal child’.
3
But, in fact, people with Down’s
syndrome, as well as people affected by many other
severe disabilities, are often reported to be happy.
5
Nonetheless, to bring up such children might be an unbearable burden on the family and on society as a whole, when the state economically provides for their care. On these grounds, the fact that a fetus has the potential to become a person who will have an (at least) acceptable life is no reason for prohibiting abortion.

Therefore, we argue that, when circumstances occur after birth such that they would have justified abortion, what we call after-birth abortion should be permissible.
In spite of the oxymoron in the expression, we propose to call this practice ‘after-birth abortion’, rather than ‘infanticide’, to emphasise that the moral status of the individual killed is comparable with that of a fetus (on which ‘abortions’ in the traditional sense are performed) rather than to that of a child. Therefore, we claim that killing a newborn could be ethically permissible in all the circumstances where abortion would be. Such circumstances include cases where the newborn has the potential to have an (at least) acceptable life, but the well-being of the family is at risk. Accordingly, a second terminological specification is that we call such a practice ‘after-birth abortion’ rather than ‘euthanasia’ because the best interest of the one who dies is not necessarily the
primary criterion for the choice, contrary to what happens in the case of euthanasia.
Failing to bring a new person into existence cannot be compared with the wrong caused by procuring the death of an existing person. The reason is that, unlike the case of death of an existing person, failing to bring a new person into existence does not prevent anyone from accomplishing any of her future aims.

However, this consideration entails a much stronger idea than the one according to which severely handicapped children should be euthanised. If the death of a newborn is not wrongful to her on the grounds that she cannot have formed any aim that she is prevented from accomplishing, then it should also be permissible to practise an after-birth abortion on a healthy newborn too, given that she has not formed any aim yet.

There are two reasons which, taken together, justify this claim:

1. The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus,
that is, neither can be considered a ‘person’ in a morally
relevant sense.
2. It is not possible to damage a newborn by preventing her
from developing the potentiality to become a person in the
morally relevant sense.


We are going to justify these two points in the following two sections.

THE NEWBORN AND THE FETUS ARE MORALLY EQUIVALENT
The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus in the sense that both lack those properties that justify the attribution of a right to life to an individual.
Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are human beings and potential persons, but neither is a ‘person’ in the sense of ‘subject of a moral right to life’. We take ‘person’ to mean an individual who is capable of attributing to her own existence some (at least) basic value such that being deprived of this existence represents a loss to her. This means that many nonhuman animals and mentally retarded human individuals are persons, but that all the individuals who are not in the condition of attributing any value to their own existence are not persons.

Merely being human is not in itself a reason for ascribing someone a right to life. Indeed, many humans are not considered subjects of a right to life: spare embryos where research on embryo stem cells is permitted, fetuses where abortion is permitted, criminals where capital punishment is legal. Our point here is that, although it is hard to exactly determine when a subject starts or ceases to be a ‘person’, a necessary condition for a subject to have a right to X is that she is harmed by a decision to deprive her of X. There are many ways in which an individual can be harmed, and not all of them require that she values or is even aware of what she is deprived of. A person might be ‘harmed’ when someone steals from her the winning lottery ticket even if she will never find out that her ticket was the winning one. Or a person might be ‘harmed’ if something were done to her at the stage of fetus which affects for the worse her quality of life as a person (eg, her mother took drugs during pregnancy), even if she is not aware of it. However, in such cases we are talking about a person who is at least in the condition to value the different situation she would have found herself in if she had not been harmed. And such a condition depends on the level of her mental development,
6
which in turn determines whether or not she is a ‘person’.Those who are only capable of experiencing pain and pleasure (like perhaps fetuses and certainly newborns) have a right not to be inflicted pain. If, in addition to experiencing pain and pleasure, an individual is capable of making any aims (like actual human and non-human persons), she is harmed if she is prevented from accomplishing her aims by being killed. Now, hardly can a newborn be said to have aims, as the future we imagine for it is merely a projection of our minds on its potential lives. It might start having expectations and develop a minimum level of self-awareness at a very early stage, but not in the first days or few weeks after birth. On the other hand, not only aims but also well-developed plans are concepts that certainly apply to those people (parents, siblings, society) who could be negatively or positively affected by the birth of that child. Therefore, the rights and interests of the actual people involved should represent the prevailing consideration in a decision about
abortion and after-birth abortion.

It is true that a particular moral status can be attached to a non-person by virtue of the value an actual person (eg, the mother) attributes to it. However, this ‘subjective’ account of the moral status of a newborn does not debunk our previous argument. Let us imagine that a woman is pregnant with two identical twins who are affected by genetic disorders. In order to cure one of the embryos the woman is given the option to use
the other twin to develop a therapy. If she agrees, she attributes to the first embryo the status of ‘future child’ and to the other one the status of a mere means to cure the ‘future child’.

However, the different moral status does not spring from the fact that the first one is a ‘person’ and the other is not, which would be nonsense, given that they are identical. Rather, the different moral statuses only depends on the particular value the woman projects on them. However, such a projection is exactly what does not occur when a newborn becomes a burden to its family.

THE FETUS AND THE NEWBORN ARE POTENTIAL PERSONS
Although fetuses and newborns are not persons, they are potential persons because they can develop, thanks to their own biological mechanisms, those properties which will make them
‘persons’ in the sense of ‘subjects of a moral right to life’: that is, the point at which they will be able to make aims and appreciate their own life. It might be claimed that someone is harmed because she is prevented from becoming a person capable of appreciating her own being alive. Thus, for example, one might say that we would have been harmed if our mothers had chosen to have an abortion while they were pregnant with us or if they had killed

2 of 4 Giubilini A, Minerva F. J Med Ethics (2012). doi:10.1136/medethics-2011-100411
L aw , e t h i c s a n d m e d i c i n e
Downloaded from jme.bmj.com on March 1, 2012 - Published by group.bmj.comus as soon as we were born. However, whereas you can benefit someone by bringing her into existence (if her life is worth living), it makes no sense to say that someone is harmed by being prevented from becoming an actual person. The reason is that, by virtue of our definition of the concept of ‘harm’ in the previous section, in order for a harm to occur, it is necessary that someone is in the condition of experiencing that harm. If a potential person, like a fetus and a newborn, does not become an actual person, like you and us, then there is neither an actual nor a future person who can be harmed, which means that there is no harm at all. So, if you ask one of us if we would have been harmed, had our parents decided to kill us when we were fetuses or newborns, our answer is ‘no’, because they would have harmed someone who does not exist (the ‘us’ whom you are asking the question), which means no one. And if no one is harmed, then no harm occurred.

A consequence of this position is that the interests of actual people over-ride the interest of merely potential people to become actual ones. This does not mean that the interests of actual people always over-ride any right of future generations, as we should certainly consider the well-being of people who will inhabit the planet in the future. Our focus is on the right to become a particular person, and not on the right to have a good
life once someone will have started to be a person. In other words, we are talking about particular individuals who might or might not become particular persons depending on our choice, and not about those who will certainly exist in the future but whose identity does not depend on what we choose now. The alleged right of individuals (such as fetuses and
newborns) to develop their potentiality, which someone defends, is over-ridden by the interests of actual people (parents, family, society) to pursue their own well-being
because, as we have just argued, merely potential people cannot be harmed by not being brought into existence. Actual people’s well-being could be threatened by the new (even if healthy)child requiring energy, money and care which the family might happen to be in short supply of. Sometimes this situation can be prevented through an abortion, but in some other cases this is not possible. In these cases, since non-persons have no moral
rights to life, there are no reasons for banning after-birth abortions. We might still have moral duties towards future generations in spite of these future people not existing yet. But because we take it for granted that such people will exist (whoever they will be), we must treat them as actual persons of the future. This argument, however, does not apply to this particular newborn or infant, because we are not justified in taking it for granted that she will exist as a person in the future. Whether she will exist is
exactly what our choice is about.

ADOPTION AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO AFTER-BIRTH ABORTION?
A possible objection to our argument is that after-birth abortion should be practised just on potential people who could never have a life worth living.
9
Accordingly, healthy and potentially happy people should be given up for adoption if the family cannot raise them up. Why should we kill a healthy newborn when giving it up for adoption would not breach anyone’s right but possibly increase the happiness of people involved (adopters and adoptee)?

Our reply is the following. We have previously discussed the argument from potentiality, showing that it is not strong enough to outweigh the consideration of the interests of actual people. Indeed, however weak the interests of actual people can be, they will always trump the alleged interest of potential people to become actual ones, because this latter interest amounts to zero. On this perspective, the interests of the actual
people involved matter, and among these interests, we also need to consider the interests of the mother who might suffer psychological distress from giving her child up for adoption.

Birthmothers are often reported to experience serious psychological problems due to the inability to elaborate their loss and to cope with their grief.
10
It is true that grief and sense of loss may accompany both abortion and after-birth abortion as well as adoption, but we cannot assume that for the birthmother the latter is the least traumatic. For example, ‘those who grieve a death must accept the irreversibility of the loss, but natural mothers often dream that their child will return to them. This makes it difficult to accept the reality of the loss because they can never be quite sure whether or not it is irreversible’.
11 We are not suggesting that these are definitive reasons against adoption as a valid alternative to after-birth abortion. Much depends on circumstances and psychological reactions. What we are suggesting is that, if interests of actual people should prevail, then after-birth abortion should be considered a permissible option for women who would be damaged by giving up their
newborns for adoption.
CONCLUSIONS
If criteria such as the costs (social, psychological, economic) for the potential parents are good enough reasons for having an abortion even when the fetus is healthy, if the moral status of the newborn is the same as that of the infant and if neither has
any moral value by virtue of being a potential person, then the same reasons which justify abortion should also justify the killing of the potential person when it is at the stage of a newborn.
Two considerations need to be added.

First, we do not put forward any claim about the moment at which after-birth abortion would no longer be permissible, and we do not think that in fact more than a few days would be necessary for doctors to detect any abnormality in the child. In
cases where the after-birth abortion were requested for nonmedical reasons, we do not suggest any threshold, as it depends on the neurological development of newborns, which is something neurologists and psychologists would be able to assess.

Second, we do not claim that after-birth abortions are good alternatives to abortion. Abortions at an early stage are the best option, for both psychological and physical reasons. However, if a disease has not been detected during the pregnancy, if something went wrong during the delivery, or if economical, social or psychological circumstances change such that taking care of the offspring becomes an unbearable burden on someone, then people should be given the chance of not being forced to do something they cannot afford.

Acknowledgements We would like to thank Professor Sergio Bartolommei,
University of Pisa, who read an early draft of this paper and gave us very helpful
comments. The responsibility for the content remains with the authors.
Contributors AG and FM contributed equally to the manuscript.
Competing interests None.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
REFERENCES
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2. European Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies. EUROCAT Database. http://
www.eurocat-network.eu/PRENATALSCREENINGAndDIAGNOSIS/
PrenatalDetectionRates (accessed 11 Nov 2011). (data uploaded 27/10/2011).
3. Kuhse H, Singer P. Should the Baby live? The Problem of Handicapped Infants.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985:143.
Giubilini A, Minerva F. J Med Ethics (2012). doi:10.1136/medethics-2011-100411 3 of 4
L a w , e t h i c s a n d m e d i c i n e
Downloaded from jme.bmj.com on March 1, 2012 - Published by group.bmj.com4. Verhagen E, Sauer P. The groningen protocoldeuthanasia in severely Ill newborns.
N Engl J Med 2005;10:959e62.
5. Alderson P. Down’s Syndrome: cost, quality and the value of life. Soc Sci Med
2001;5:627e38.
6. Tooley M. Abortion and infanticide. Philos Public Aff 1972;1:37e65.
7. Hare RM. Abortion and the golden rule. In: Hare RM, ed. Essays on Bioethics.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1993:147e67.
8. Hare RM. A Kantian approach to abortion. In: Hare RM, ed. Essays on Bioethics.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1993:168e84.
9. Hare RM. The abnormal child. Moral dilemmas of doctors and parents. In:
Hare RM, ed. Essays on Bioethics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993:
185e91.
10. Condon J. Psychological disability in women who relinquish a baby for adoption.
Med J Aust 1986;144:117e19.
11. Robinson E. Grief associated with the loss of children to adoption. In: Separation,
reunion, reconciliation: Proceedings from The Sixth Australian Conference on
Adoption. Stones Corner, Brisbane: Benson J, for Committee of the Conference,
1997:268e93, 278.1
Department of Philosophy,
University of Milan, Milan, Italy
2
Centre for Human Bioethics,
Monash University, Melbourne,
Victoria, Australia
3
Centre for Applied Philosophy
and Public Ethics, University of
Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria,
Australia
4
Oxford Uehiro Centre for
Practical Ethics, Oxford
University, Oxford, UK
Correspondence to
Dr Francesca Minerva, CAPPE,
University of Melbourne,
Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia;
francesca.minerva@unimelb.
edu.au
Received 25 November 2011
Revised 26 January 2012
Accepted 27 January 2012

Giubilini A, Minerva F. J Med Ethics (2012). doi:10.1136/medethics-2011-100411 1 of 4
L a w , e t h i c s a n d m e d i c i n e
JME Online First, published on February 23, 2012 as 10.1136/medethics-2011-100411
Copyright Article author (or their employer) 2012. Produced by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd under licence.
Downloaded from jme.bmj.com on March 1, 2012 - Published by group.bmj.com
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http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/2008/08/breaking_news_n_1.html

Marxist Ralph Martire's Progressive Whack-a-Mole Illinois Legislation

Marxist Brother Ralph Martire explains his latest budget wizardry to Groucho Quinn and Harpo Cullerton.


Ralph Martire of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, is the only one Pat Quinn goes to for budget advise with the facts on saving us all some money


Get ready, friends and neighbors, Ralph Martire must have had snacks and punch with Dawn Clark Netsch because Ralph's Ist Term Snooze is over! Ralph Martire is the budget architect of Illinois. Splendid job, there Ralph. Ralph is the Chico Marx to Pat Quinn's Groucho. Ralph has been quiet of late, but he is not done. . .not by a Jug full! Nope Jackie Cullerton is fronting for Ralph with a GRADUATED ILLINOIS INCOME TAX!

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- An Illinois budget group wants to change the state constitution so that income tax rates can be based on wealth.
The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability says a graduated rate would tax people more fairly and produce more money for the state's troubled budget.
The liberal-leaning budget group also says it could stimulate the economy by offering tax relief to poor and middle class families.

The same splendid folks who made Religious Liberty a Civil Union are back!

Pat Quinn's budget is as sound as Illinois! But, that's not enough! There's More!

It is so keen that SEIU Illinois ( did they not help create our economic mess? Oh Hell Yes!) is all over it!

Still, Ralph Martire, executive director for CTBA, says that the graduated tax “actually has political legs.”

The reason is that the 2011 income tax increase from three percent to five percent expires in 2015. “They made it temporary and the state knows that they can’t afford to get rid of it,” Martire explains.

So it would be politically popular, Martire contends, to push for a graduated tax: The revenues would stave off painful cuts and the vast majority of citizens would still see an income tax cut.

“There is going to be a lot of organizing in the next couple of years over the need to do this from an economic policy, tax policy, and fairness standpoint,” Martire promises.

Perhaps the most powerful state leader for the graduated tax is Senate President John Cullerton. Cullerton spokesman Ron Holmes notes that the Chicago Democrat was one of 19 to vote 'yes' for a progressive tax in 2008 in the 60-person Senate.

Here it is - No more Flat Tax of 5%. Ralph taking page from our Class Warrior President, formerly Mr. Present of the Illinois State Senate, and offering a 3% to Illini making under $250,000 and a Taxing Something Else for everyone else. Do the Math as Ralph knows you will not - hence his pie-chart piracy, where numbers are a moveable feast.

1. Cut overall state income tax burden for 94 percent of all taxpayers—that means on average, taxpayers with under $150,000 in annual base income would receive a tax cut;

2. Despite shifting tax burden to affluent taxpayers, nonetheless keep the effective state income tax rate for millionaires at just 4.3 percent;

3. Raise at least $2.4 billion annually in new revenue to help eliminate ongoing structural deficits in the state’s General Fund; and

4. Stimulate the growth of at least 36,000 jobs in the state’s private sector through enhanced public and consumer spending. As of August, 2011, Illinois hasn’t replaced 342,000 non-farm jobs it lost during the Great Recession.

Sounds Great! It always sounds great. Trouble is Ralph Martire has masterminded the hole Illinois will be climbing out of until Forrest Claypool gets a job on his own hook.

Ralph operates on the premise that taxpayers never pay enough of the their fair share. Taxpayers are the only revenue Illinois legislators ever consider. The ever popular. . . More!

Ralph thinks like Chico Marx.

http://progressillinois.com/quick-hits/content/2012/02/28/alternative-solution-illinois-budget-crisis

CLASS 2A SECTIONAL SEMIFINALS HERSCHER, IL - Leo 65, Bishop McNamara 57, OT

Leo Varsity # 13 -Sophomore Martez Hampton played last night like legendary Leo coaches Jimmy Arneberg, Tom O' Malley and Jack Fitzgerald were on his butt.

The Leo Lions

1 James Shields G Jr. 5-6
3 Tybias Scott G Sr. 5-8
4 Sean Moore Jr. G Jr. 6-3
5 Blake Wilson F Sr. 6-3
10 Marshon Tucker (C) F Jr. 5-9
11 Lantz Roberts G Sr. 5-9
13 Martez Hampton G So. 6-3
15 Luther Woods F Sr. 6-6
20 Jarrod Cooper G Sr. 6-1
33 Russell Woods PF Jr. 6-8 215
34 Karon Braggs (C) F Jr. 6-3
42 Kaylon Rimpson F Jr. 6-2
55 Lazarick Johnson F Jr. 6-4

Head Coach - Mr. Noah Cannon

Bishop McNamara Fighting Irish
2 Delano Samuels Senior G 5'10 155
3 Keyon Thomas Senior PG 5'8 155
10 Jonnie Evans Junior PG 5'9 165
12 Mitch O'Brien Junior G 6'0 165
14 Rashad Springer Junior F 6'5 175
20 Te'Andre Watson Junior G 6'2 155
22 Erron Hall II Senior G 6'2 170
24 Jamar Rivera Senior G 6'3 165
25 Luke Jarvis Senior F 6'5 175
32 Jay Slone Junior F 6'3 180
55 Michael Hoekstra Junior C 6'7 205

Head Coach: Justin LaReau


I picked up the Southtown Star a few minutes ago to see if they had a story on the great game played in Herscher, IL for IHSA 2-A Sectional between Chicago's Leo High School Lions and the Fighting Irish of Bishop McNamara Kankakee, IL.

Nope. Swell coverage of New Trier, which was located north of Madison Ave. last time I looked. New Trier, as I recall is in Winnetka, with a campus Northfield.

The Leo Scores were available.

I witnessed a great game in Herscher, Illinois last night. I taught at Bishop Mac from 1975-1988 and know many of the parents of kids on the Fighting Irish roster, having had the poor kids in my English classes. I saw the once beefy Kyle Turro, an outstanding football player, know lithe of frame due to parenting five bairns himself. I saw Julie Mowrey, now a teacher at MAC and the stunning Donna Douglas who continues to look like a prom queen/volleyball stand-out. Dave Hoekstra, who suffered my American and British Lit torments salved by my late wife Mary's art instruction in the 1980's, is the proud father of Mac's Center Mike Hoekstra who dominated the boards all night long. There was Scott O'Brien and his mom watching hot shooting Guard Mitch O'Brien. Scott was a great Mac player himself.

Bishop McNamara controlled the game under the boards and from the free-throw line, as well as outside shooting. Leo was plagued by the invisible cover over the hoops all night it seemed and our free throw shots were colder than a mother-in-law's kiss. Leo President and hardwood veteran of our three-floor gym, Dan McGrath kept the stats - " We are 2-10 in free throws."

Leo brought a Fan bus packed with kids and Leo Alumni and their spirited joyful noise got our guys to dig deeper and close the deficit with the fiery will of LION!

With two minutes to go, led by the outstandingly aggressive play of Kieron Bragg(34), Jarrod Cooper (20), Martez Hampton (13) and the star of the comeback Tybias Scott (3) Leo tied the Irish at the buzzer.

I missed most of the Leo dominated OT 4minutes, because one of our most loyal Alums lost a valuable item that fell under the Herscher bleachers. As Director of Development, yours truly crawled under the stands in a futile search and was joined by decorated Vietnam Veteran and Leo Hall of Fame-er Jack Farnan. Herscher High School football coach John Wakey and I shared remembrances of days past amid the gum, pop, popcorn and snot rags, " Hickey, you ever learn anything about football?"

Not a whit, John, but thanks for asking. Always a sound and healthful thing to be reminded of one's less than formidable gifts. John Wakey is a man and a half and credit to the teaching professional. We climbed out from under the stands without finding a very precious item lost. With prayers to St. Anthony it will turn up.

Leo controlled the OT. Bishop McNamara is a magnificent team and a great school. I spent some of the happiest years of my very happy life there. The Lions managed to score more baskets in the Over Time.

The Lions were tested by the Fighting Irish. The Finals are Friday in Herscher.

Dennis Byrne Nails 501(c) Hypocrites - Hull House Settlement for Cronies?

Remember when real estate agent and hausfrau Patty Blagojevich was named to the board of directors for a local charity? Thought so. Let me refresh you, dear reader.

CHICAGO — The wife of impeached Illinois Gov
Rod Blagojevich was fired from her $100,000-a-year job as a Chicago homeless agency's chief fundraiser.

The Chicago Christian Industrial League's board exercised a termination clause of Patti Blagojevich's contract on Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times reported on their Web sites Wednesday.

Interim Executive Director Mary Shaver told the papers she could not discuss personnel issues. She did not return telephone messages from The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The poor girl went from bagging 100K to eating worms in Costa Rica - life's viscissitudes.

Mrs. Blagojevich was fired almost immediately after her husband was cuffed by the Feds; however, the same folks hired her for some reason at a husky salary, I might add. That is Charity these days.

I have been working in and around charity since 1991. Mostly, I work with private family foundations with, in charitable circles, modest piles of loot. They are not the Ford, Hearst, Joyce, MacArthur, Polk Brothers, or God forbid, the Woods Fund. There's charity . . . and then there's Charity.

I also have a great deal of luck taping local companies for support - Wells Fargo, The John Buck Company, McDonalds & etc. Law Firms with Leo Alumni are very generous, as well.

CHARITIES - Wood Fund, Joyce and MacArthur play big league politics. Those charities pay hugely and grant magnificently to connected and sanctioned entities.

It seems to me that since the early 1990's more of the Big Charities play politics rather than philanthropy. In fact, some family members of the MacArthur Foundation beefed to the press in the mid-1990s about the radicalization of their family fortunes by hand-picked boards of directors. I recall the Chicago Tribune running a series of such articles back then, but no such inquiry seems to arouse the tepid souls of editorial boards these days. The Annenburg Foundation, once a rock-ribbed conservative entity was handed over to the likes of Bill Ayers and folded into the Woods Fund Web. No story there.

Recently Hull House caved in under the burden of . . . well, someone is asking. Dennis Byrne, an old timey news guy, takes hard look at why that well-larded CHARITY went alewive.

Take Chicago's historic Hull House, the "crown jewel of settlement houses," which went belly up. A tragedy, indeed. The conventional, and correct, wisdom is that it became too dependent on government largesse. Yet, it's too easy to blame someone else, namely the stingy government.

The signs were there. The Better Business Bureau, in its last review of Hull House, found that it failed to meet some standards for charity accountability. It cited insufficient board oversight, lack of transparency in certain financial matters and inadequate reporting of its activities.

In 2009, the federal Pension BenefitGuaranty Corp.announced its takeover of Hull House's pension plan, whose liabilities for employees and retirees amounted to $11.1 million. Hull House Executive Director Clarence Wood at the time called the group's financial position solid, saying, "We are not about to close our doors."

And why would he want to? According to the last public disclosure I could find (2008), he was paid $283,000. As much as that might surprise many people laboring in the vineyards of public service for much more modest sums, it's not that unusual for nonprofit bosses. Scanning public records, I discovered top salaries and benefits in many Chicago-area nonprofits were in the reasonable, if not humble range. Then there were those that zoomed into the stratosphere, from $300,000 annually to a good deal more than $1 million. You can, and should, check out your favorite charity by examining its Internal Revenue Service Form 990 (Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax), available on the Economic Research Institute and other Internet sites.

Those high salaries rile Rick Roberts, who received from President George H.W. Busha Point of Light award for his work in the 1990s as CEO of the former Chicago Christian Industrial League, a social service agency serving the homeless.

"The CEO of any tax exempt charity must be held to a higher standard," he said. "With limited private dollars available and massive public budget deficits, why should any organization receive preferential tax treatment, let alone expect tax deductible private donations when the key people in that organization are enriching themselves, even if it's legal?

Roberts wanted to make clear that he wasn't indicting all nonprofits, naming Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army as examples of organizations serving the needy without enriching their employees or CEOs. Others may pay high salaries but do an especially good job, such as the Greater Chicago Food Depository. It's "doing not only a remarkable service but doing so to save money for hundreds of other nonprofits," he said.

Roberts sees too many nonprofits gaming the system, such as Illinois hospital executives plunging into debt to fund exorbitant expansions, and not incidentally to justify their plush salaries. He also warns about the increasing trend of nonprofits turning their operations over to for-profits so they can avoid the IRS' Form 990 disclosure requirements.

"If your goal in life is to help the poor rebuild their lives and heal their minds or bodies by working in a charitable endeavor, then accept the fact that you're not in the private sector where capitalist standards of compensation are an appropriate goal," he said. "It doesn't mean paying pauper wages. Just reasonable ones."

Today the belly-up museum and charity boasts the fine contributions to urban living by the Conservative Vice Lords. Charities -the bigger ones, always managed to attract program directors who spent far too much time with the Testors Glue tubes in youth. Thus, one can also understand its failure to attract any public willing to toss away a ten-spot, or more to honor gang-bangers, or other miscreants and perverts in a celebration of diversity.

Dennis Byrne, a Chicago writer, blogs in The Barbershop at ChicagoNow. dennis@dennisbyrne.net

Patty Blagojevich, briefly, received a pretty handsome pay package for her experience as a fund-raiser, but the board of CCIL took a real hard look at that salary once her hubby did the perp-walk.

Hull House was founded by Jane Addams and her special friend Ellen Gates Starr in 1889 with a donation of the mansion by the Hull Family and help from her Alderman Johnny Powers. Jane Addmas, as phony and homely an old broad as ever wore a page-boy, really saw her settlement house 'take off' after the 1904 Stockyard Strike. Jane and her short-haired activist intimates sold out the strikers - it's in the Chicago Tribune by the way.

Charity is good business. Dennis Byrne is doing a great job in calling public attention to the disconnect - philathropy and business . . .monkey business.


http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/