John Dewey and When G. Flint Taylor Met Jon Burge

Outcomes are the beginning and end of what John Dewey calls inquiry. Inquiry is what John Dewey replaced truth with, in not only his philosophy of education being played out so dramatically in the Chicago Teachers Strike, but also his very evolving nature of a Dewey civil society. Truth had always been more evident in mathematics, one philosopher, Descartes,  held that the closest one might come to a perfect concept of Truth was the multiplication table.

John Dewey was influenced by Darwin and the Radical Socialists who followed in the wake of Malthus and Jeremy Bentham, but I am getting deep in the weeds here.

Suffice it say, John Dewey replaced the multiplication table with the new study of biology.  Things morph, evolve and bend to the will.  Social Justice issues and control of the minds of the young are plastic.  Math is static.  

Outcomes/Inquiry/Instrumentalism are themselves outcomes of the Hegelian Will!  John Dewey dismisses Belief, because God has too many manifestations -One God, Three Persons in One God, No God.  Belief is a crap shoot.  Too much math.  With Dewey, Truth became anything.

Inquiry depends upon future outcomes that satisfy the inquiry itself.

Western thought holds that truth can be known by causes. What caused the accident?  Who, or what caused Man?  Dewey understood that children needed to "child-centered" and constantly at play - The teacher is not in the school to impose ( Like old time Catholic nuns) certain ideas or to form certain ( like Catholic Schools) habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these influences - John Dewey ( parentheticals my own)

As both a child and a teacher allow me this playful inquiry.  G. Flint Taylor has made millions of dollars by bringing suit against the police, especially his vilification of the now notorious and convicted perjure Jon Burge.  Through Burge, G. Flint selectively influenced generations of young Americans into the truth that he and most police officers tortured black men twenty-four hours a day and all without a shred of proof or a court sanctioned conviction of torture. G. Flint Taylor has done John Dewey proud. Everyone, but me and a couple of cops, believes that Jon Burge is race-torture's eponym.


e.g. - Inquiry and Proof Positive -G. Flint and Aaron Patterson


Now, let's suppose that G. Flint Taylor was caused to inquire because of this -

A lawyer ran a stop sign in 1972 and subsequently was  pulled over by a young red-haired, beefy Chicago cop.G. Flint Taylor went to Brown University and had a degree from Northwestern Law thinks that he is smarter than the Vietnam Vet because he is a lawyer  and is certain that he has a better education than any cop from Chicago. G. Flint decides to prove this to himself and have some fun at the deputy's expense.

Officer Jon Burge says, "License and registration, please."

G. Flint Taylor challenges the simple cop, "If you can show me the legal difference between               slow down and stop, I'll give you my license and registration; and you give me the ticket. If not, you let me go and don't give me the ticket."

 Burge shrugs, "Sounds fair. Exit your vehicle, sir."

Taylor says, "What for?"

Burge says, " You didn't come to a complete stop at the stop sign."

G. Flint argues, "I slowed down, and no one was coming."

Officer Burge undeterred  stands fast, "You still didn't come to a complete stop. License and registration, please."

G. Flint goes Sophist, "What's the difference?"

The empirical Burge  answers, "The difference is, you have to come to complete stop, that's the law. License and registration, please!"

At this point, Officer Burge takes out his nightstick and starts beating the ever-loving crap out of the lawyer and says, "Do you want me to stop or just slow down?

 As Jack Dewey said, "Till the Great Society is converted in to a Great Community, the Public will remain in eclipse. Communication can alone create a great community" 

Control communication and you eclipse everything.

Wonder how the CPS strike will outcome? It will outcome fine. We will all win, because inquiry made it so. Do not believe and certainly do not do the math. It's a Dewey thing.

Leo High School - One of the "Unreal" Catholic Schools Reported by John Kass

Martez Hampton, a gentleman scholar-athlete of Leo High School's Junior Class has the answer - School Reform is Vouchers.


We had the pleasure of John Kass in the house on the opening day of the CPS Strike.  John's visit was prompted by Karen Lewis' announcement of the strike of all CPS teachers with her statement "Real school will not be open (Monday)."

Leo High School is as real as it gets.  John Kass is a south side guy who knows a plateful full of BS is not a prime rib dinner.

Since real school wasn't open, I was compelled to visit an unreal school.A South Side school where 100 percent of the students graduate, and 100 percent are accepted to college. A Roman Catholic all-boys school that draws from poor and working-class neighborhoods, a school where there are no cops or metal detectors, no gang recruitment, no fear.
An unreal school that is mostly black, but with a smattering of whites and Latinos, and where every student who sees a stranger in the halls goes up to the newcomer, introduces himself, shakes his hand, looks him in the eye and calls him Mister.
Leo High School, at 79th and Sangamon, seemed pretty unreal to me, too.

The entire Leo High School Family, students, staff, parents and Alumni ( 1930 -Present) thank you John for you visit and your great appeal to reason on what constitutes Genuine School Reform.



http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0912-20120912,0,7520520,full.column

SEIU Scabs - It's All Good . . .evidently

Ever wonder where the labor term "scab" comes from? For those who might not know, a scab is also sometimes called a"strikebreaker:" a person who returns to the job without permission from the union or the striking workers during a strike action. One of the most powerful weapons a labor union has is a strike. By crossing the picket line, a scab can render a strike useless. Kate Thomas -SEIU.org

I grew up in a family that despises scabs.  We were all taught as soon as we could walk -Never Cross a Picket Line.

That is an absolute. I never have done so. Nor have I given business to anti-union entities - No Wal-Mart ever; unlike many Progressives. Real labor created the standard of living that I have been blessed with all my life.  Real labor is sacred.  

These days?  Not so much.

When Real Labor decided that SEIU made a good partner a few years ago things changed. Big Labor is equated with SEIU and AFSCME and many manifestations of teachers unions.  All are public-salary entities.

Real labor took a beating that will continue until the goals of the Marxists who run and control public service labor are reached and the middle class built by organized labor will disappear.

Here is just one example of this Marxist/Trotskyite hypocrisy that goes unchallenged by news papers, radio and television:

Message to All SEIU Local 73 Members at Chicago Public Schools
Posted by adamrosen on September 6, 2012SEIU Local 73 stands in solidarity with 26,000 public school teachers, clinicians and paraprofessionals who are fighting for a contract with Chicago Public Schools. However, we do have a contract with Chicago Public Schools and we cannot go on a sympathy strike with CTU.  The majority of our members approved a contract with CPS that included a no subcontracting agreement for the life of the agreement along with a “me-too” clause on wages comparable to what is achieved for paraprofessionals. . . .(wait for it!). . .However, we do have a contract with Chicago Public Schools and we cannot go on a sympathy strike with CTU.  The majority of our members approved a contract with CPS that included a no subcontracting agreement for the life of the agreement along with a “me-too” clause on wages comparable to what is achieved for paraprofessionals.

Solidarity?   Uh, huh.  Now, that's some real Studs Terkel Lefty Horse-shit! Imagine a guy telling the mother of his six children, " Babe, I only kinda slept and had sex with that man." The heart wants . . . what the #$%^?

Real labor backed the Chicago Tribune's striking printers from January 1986 and all the way through the buy-out settlements in Sept. 1987.

Pickets from every skilled trade union marched with the Printers and did not cross the picket line and cancelled the Chicago Tribune.

 That was then.
This is now.  
I doubt if an inflatable rat will get dumped at SEIU headquarters on Ashland, but one should be carted there in Teamster City.

O Tempora, O Mores!

Different Times, different bullshit, or horse-shit, or both.



http://www.seiu.org/2010/01/origins-of-a-scab.php
http://seiu73.org/2012/09/06/message-to-all-seiu-local-73-members-at-chicago-public-schools/
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-09-30/business/8703130991_1_printers-tentative-accord-usery
















http://www.seiu.org/2010/01/origins-of-a-scab.php

CTU, CORE, ISO and its Agent for Acronym Happy Socialist Change Jesse Sharkey

The historical crisis of mankind is reduced to the crisis of the revolutionary leadership." 

-Leon Trotsky, or Jesse Sharkey?

Karen Lewis was elected on the CORE  ( Caucus of Rank/File Educators) slate of the Chicago Teachers Union.  CORE is the Caucus backed by the ISO -International Socialist Organization. Karen Lewis is CTU President and Jesse Sharkey is the Vice President

ISO is International - says so right in the title. Jesse Sharkey is an ISO big shot, as well as second in command of CTU. Jesse Sharkey is a Marxist/Trotskyite, which is nice for him; I am a Catholic Democrat, which is nice for me.  Free country. . .for now.

Anyway, Jesse Sharkey is another below the radar power-player in Chicago.  He is the power behind Karen Lewis and some power that be.

Let's look back in our Chicago CPS history. Bear in mind that Education Reform will not happen until Vouchers - Real Choice - is mandated. Let's return to those thrilling days of yester-year - The Dawn of CORE.

Marilyn Stewart, " whose smile would light up a room" as the our media icons always told Chicago readers, was once head of CTU and headed the United Progressive Caucus (UPC)  Ms. Stewart was a standard issue Progressive mediocrity and grifter who had tossed every pack of race cards available ( WBEZ, WTTW, Carol Marin, Mary Mitchell & etc) at Deb Lynch, the last effective CTU President, in order to grab power. Ms. Stewart looted the CTU six ways to Sunday once in power only be ousted by Karen Lewis with the full public relations might of ISO's plant in the CTU Jesse Sharkey.

Jesse Sharkey is a Brooks Brothers Bolshevik and a leader of the ISO - and international oragnization of retro-Communist Trotskeyites.  Jesse Sharkey is not unlike lawsuit lotto lawyers, G. Flint Taylor, Locke Bowman and Jon Loevy - all have the imprimatur of the Illinois Progressive guru Abner Mikva and the lesser lights like Dick Simpson. They are Google scrubbed and patient revolutionaries.

Last April, when America turned its eyes on Wisconsin and even Illinois pulled its noggin out of its rump for a peek, SB7 came to be.

Lewis’s betrayal of the union ranks caused some embarrassment for the International Socialist Organization, since CTU vice president Joel (sic) Sharkey, elected on the CORE slate, is a long-time prominent ISOer. For several days, the ISO  kept mum about this dirty deal behind the backs of the membership. But on April 21, the ISO’s main writer on labor and the Democrats, Lee Sustar, posted an article on the Socialist Worker web site, “A crisis for teachers union reformers?” saying that Lewis had “shocked” CORE members by her stab in the back. Sustar said that Lewis “acted alone,” and complained that she “withheld that information from the CTU House of Delegates,” which she addressed by Skype on April 13. He claimed “other CTU elected officers and members” only learned of the deal after the meeting. What Sustar didn’t tell readers is that the ISO is up to its neck in the CTU bureaucracy, whose paid staff includes a number of ISOers, and that the ISO’s CTU vice president Sharkey learned of Lewis’s sellout on the night of April 12, as he admitted to a CORE meeting two weeks later (according to a May 21 leaflet by the League for the Revolutionary Party). So Sustar’s April 21 article was a cover-up for the ISO’s own betrayal.
On the day that article appeared, Marjorie Stamberg of Class Struggle Education Workers posted a commentary, “Big ‘Surprise’ – Chicago Teachers Union Reform Leader Sells Out,” on several New York education activist blogs. A week later (April 27), an ISO supporter responded by posting a defense of CORE and arguing, “No one should have to apologize for supporting these genuine reform movements – warts, growing pains and all.” “We should see union leadership as merely a tool, not an end-all be-all” he intoned, denying that the Sustar article was “somehow hiding” the ISO’s role in CORE. But there was no mention that Lewis’s No. 2 in the CTU leadership, Sharkey, is a prominent ISOer, or of Sharkey’s April 25 admission before many witnesses that he knew of Lewis’ betrayal almost immediately and said nothing of it to union delegates at a meeting the next day. The writer piously hoped that the CTU ranks would reject Lewis’s “unilateral agreement,” and on May 4 the CTU House of Delegates did reject SB7. Yet this was just covering CORE’s ass, since the CTU tops did nothing to mobilize against the bill which was ultimately signed into law by Democratic governor Pat Quinn, whom the CTU had endorsed (along with other Democrats) in the November 2010 elections. Maybe that political support for capitalist politicians is one of the “warts” the reformists want us to overlook.

You see Karen Lewis endorsed Illinois SB7 which required a 75% strike vote by the rank and file and has worn a big target on her back ever since.  Karen Lewis must prove that she is 'all that' and go strike happy, even though she is committing the political Dutch Act.

Here's why -

Class-struggle unionists are not opposed to using every legal means to thwart the attacks on the public schools, the students, the teachers and staff. But we underline that the courts are not neutral, they are part of the bourgeois state just as the police and legislature are, and they exist in order to enforce the interests of the exploiters against the exploited. We hold that to defend the workers’ interests it’s necessary to mobilize the ranks of labor at the head of all the oppressed independently of and against the courts, the cops and all the capitalist parties and politicians. Reformist leftists, in contrast, pretend that if enough pressure is brought to bear in the streets, or otherwise, the courts can be induced to come down on the side of “the people.” So what happened in this case? For starters, the CTU suit said nothing about the over 500 “provisional” teachers who were dumped, and did not challenge the CPS’s “right” to lay off the 749 tenured teachers, only the way it was done. In October, a sympathetic judge ruled against the CPS and ordered that these teachers be put on a recall list and given priority when hiring resumes. Lewis hailed the “stunning court victory” – yet almost 1,300 teachers were still out of a job. ISO -International Group

Karen Lewis is finished no matter what happens, or however long this strike will last.  Jesse Sharkey will see to that.

Jesse Sharkey, it seems to me, is the architect of the current CPS Strike.  While media follows Karen Lewis like goslings, Jesse Sharkey appears strategically.  He's the Veep.  Personally, I do not believe that Karen Lewis can make change, much less effect educational reform at any level.

CPS and CTU are gobs of stinky  cheese cut from the same John Dewey wheel and things are playing out according to plan - Jesse Sharkey's plan:

  

http://sync.democraticunderground.com/101756875
http://www.dailykos.com/news/Marilyn%20Stewart
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0910-byrne-20120911,0,6394835.column
 http://www.internationalist.org/index.html
http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/ctu-candidate-deborah-lynch

SEIU Stands WITH CTU While Scabbing Every Day

SEIU is a Marxist PAC.  It is responsible for not only the decline of American Labor, but also the murder of the American Middle Class that organized labor helped to make a wonder of the world after WWII.

SEIU is led by Reds in purple costumes armed with social work degrees from University of Pennsylvannia with a modest sprinkling of nurses.

SEIU own most Democratic legislators in Illinois, the Mayor of Chicago ( that is why they are allowed to sit this one out)  as well as the President of the United States who have no comment on this strike whatsoever!

SEIU is as phony as every Progressive I have ever encountered.

SEIU will cross the picket-lines.

I wonder if Bruce Springsteen will warble out a ballad about that.

Service Employees International Union Stands in Solidarity with 26,000 public school teachers, clinicians and paraprofessionals of Chicago Public Schools.The Chicago Teachers Union is calling for a better school day and adequate resources for students, as well as fair compensation and improved job security for teachers. SEIU supports the CTU if they are forced to strike; however, many of our members are contractually obligated to work in the event of a strike. SEIU members will continue to work at the schools to ensure the safety and health of Chicago’s schoolchildren as their teachers fight for their education.
Strong public schools are critical for working families in Chicago. SEIU Illinois calls on Chicago Public Schools to prevent a strike by giving our students, schools and teachers the resources they need to succeed.

When Rahm fires the membership of CTU, SEIU will welcome their dues!

Teach, mop, dust it's all good!

 Now, that's Solidarity!

 http://www.seiu1.org/2012/09/08/seiu-local-1-stands-with-chicagos-teachers/

The CPS/CTU Raccoon & Skunk Fight is On! Catholic Schools Open for Business

“We have failed to reach an agreement that will prevent a labor strike,” Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said. “No CTU members will be inside of our schools Monday.” - Tribune

I am here at the Eight Seven Years Young Leo High School, a college preparatory school for young men of the Archdiocese of Chicago.  Proco Joe Moreno and Mayor Rahm noted this summer that Catholics share not their Chicago Values.

The CTU is Chicago Values 2012.  CPS is Chicago Values 2012.  Together, Chicago Values 2012 have given parents and their children the fruits of Chicago Values.

Leo is a four story brick and mortar facility with more re-bar than Fortress Europe.  It is a solid building built upon a deep and thick foundation and the Gospels of Christ.  There is no central air-conditioning and the old structure retains heat like sponge.  In Chicago's winters, the Sangamon Wind whips the The Hawk through the portals and keeps the 1921 twin Kewanee Boilers working like Poblano with two shovels.

Our students receive a quality education and learn to be competitive and caring men.  It costs money - their families, our teachers, our Alumni and our partners work to pay the bills.  More so, the school, like all Catholic schools, is rooted in Catholic Values, not Chicago Values 2012,

These are the fruits of Chicago Values, 

At a raucous House of Delegates meeting last month, teachers yelled “strike!” and “hell no!” as union leaders discussed the district's latest contract offer. Days later, the union filed its legally required 10-day strike notice and set the date for a walkout on Sept. 10, the beginning of the second week of school for the majority of CPS students. Over the course of negotiations, Lewis emerged as a powerful voice for teachers' rights and a lighting rod for criticism. A veteran science teacher and activist, Lewis took over the union's leadership in 2010 amid uncertain times.
 With little movement in contract talks heading into summer, Lewis was credited with channeling teacher angst with a historic strike vote. The June vote strengthened the union's position at the bargaining table and ratcheted up opposition to Emanuel's reform agenda.
 As contract talks pushed into their final days, Lewis was front and center, calling Emanuel a “bully” and “a liar” in front of thousands at a massive rally at Daley Plaza on Labor Day.
 And on Sunday, Lewis led the teachers in a strike.

The mask is off this being a Labor Issue, as Karen Lewis and CTU's  public salaried brothers and sisters of SEIU will scab, cross their picket-lines and draw pay.  Those are Chicago Values 2012. " Condoms for Kids and Abortion for when the condoms fail". Kids, stay away from Chick Fil A and school for the next few days!"

Public education is a mess. This strike is being portrayed in the Chicago Tribune as " well it is about time we had a strike."  They are running a swell retrospective on Teacher Strike's past.  There is a "Teachers are Swell" sympathy piece by a parent in full solidarity with CTU, while SEIU comrades cross picket lines without losing a wink of sleep.

Chicago Values 2012?

Not if my life depended upon it.

Up Date:

7:55 AM. - I passed scores of Red T-shirted CTU members at Bronzeville Academy on 35th; Hendricks Math and Science Academy at 43rd & Princeton and Graham Elementary at 44th & Union -  I picked up Joe S at 35th & Kind Drive; then Nick, AJ, White Chocolate, Ryan & Sean at Pizza Nova on 43rd and then
Mitch, Sal, Tommy and BK at Graham.

We did not honk, but smiled and waved.  Faces dropped when they saw the Leo High School Logo and van full of Bronze and Canaryvillains off to school . . .A Catholic School.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-public-schools-chicago-teachers-union-contract-talks-strike,0,1578458,full.story

CPS/CTU A Skunk Fighting a Raccoon - Catholic Schools Open Everyday!!

It's All About the Children! All is relative and as John Dewey demands of American Public Education All must be Verifiably Satisfying.  Got that?

I got it years ago, when I studied Philosophy of Education at Loyola University.  Truth is a moveable feast for John Dewey that begins and ends with "Inquiry."

Inquire about leadership in American Public Education -Arne Duncan e.g.

Inquire about Chicago political leadership: Rahm's busy raising cash from Hollywood and what's left of 1%-ers for Obama.

Inquire about the  Public Service Union Solidarity - SEIU is set to cross the picket lines.

Inquire about a 19% increase in an average public salary that amounts to $ 71,000 per annum.

Inquire about length of school day.

Inquire about tenure, accountability, pension, health benefits, sick-days, and school calendars/

Inquire about test scores, college placement, drop-out rates.

If one must, do inquire. Like I said, I got it ( as in understood John Dewey education as a pernicious,  power mad and "cosmic impiety" that assaults truth).



In the next 24 hours, either CPS will cave and toss more money to Karen Lewis in verifiably satisfying manner, or a strike will take place in verifiably satisfying manner.  Either way, it is the public education you, the taxpayer, votes for, agrees whole-heartedly with, or must live with.

In any event, Catholic Schools in Chicago will be open for learning, sharing and strengthening the values God finds verifiably satisfying. In today's Gospel from Mark, Jesus cures a deaf-mute.  Get a load of these beauties!




Chicago Public education is a skunk fighting a raccoon, in my empirical understanding of its dysfunctional operations.



Stock up on the moral and education tomato juice, Citizens, or get used to smell.

On Monday The Children Will Be in School -Catholic Schools

No less a political genius* and storied-back benching alderman than Thundering Dick Simpson of U of I at Cement City offers this concerning the looming CPS/CTU Strike -


" (Karen) Lewis can claim victory if a short strike ends with a contract favorable to teachers, according to Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. (Karen) Lewis could argue the teachers union flexed its muscles and the Emanuel administration caved.

"The problem isn't so much if the teachers strike," Simpson said. "The question is how long they strike and on what terms it's settled." ( Emphases and Parentheticals, my own) -Thundering Dick Simpson - author of They's CarUption In the Soberbs!

My God!  Why is this man not more of an influence universal? The insight!  The grasp of the obvious!  The cool Dewey-esque arrival at the conclusion inquired of! 

On what meat does this our Dick feed?

Any way.

Leo High School, Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Cajetan, St. Barnabas, Mother McAuley, St. Ben's, Gordon Tech, Marist, Brother Rice, St. Rene Groupil, St. Benedict the African . . .etc. and etc. will all be open for school on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Yadda, Yadda, Yadda until Columbus Day and then . . .till when summer comes.

Simeon and Morgan Park?  Could be, but then again maybe not.

You can count on Catholic Schools, Lutheran Schools, Dutch Christian Schools and the nopn-sectarian private schools, because the teachers and staff want to be there to practice their professions. If a teacher is unsatisfied with his or her contract, that teacher can say Adios!  More importantly, if a teacher is really unsatisfactory and should be selling Groupon futures and Green Energy ventures over the phone, the school can say, "Here's your hat; leave the keys; leave the stapler and the globe and best of luck in all of your future endeavors!"

School Monday!  Long strike, short strike, outcomes political and actual notwithstanding, Catholic Schools ( and our Protestant and non-Christian compeers) will educate your child, because God is our platform.

For those who think not, keep asking Thundering Dick Simpson what he really thinks. 

Stuff like what is the edge of bowling ball like?

* N.B. - If one were to seek a political insight from a practiced professional and genuine scholar in this Proco Joe Burg, one must consult Dr. Paul Green of Roosevelt University. To paraphrase the eminent restaurateur and lay-historian Jackie Schaller of Schaller's Pump - " Thundering Dick Simposn couldn't carry Paul Green's jockstrap. . .too heavy."

http://www.enotes.com/julius-caesar-text/act-i-scene-ii

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-teacher-strike-politics-20120909,0,6197296,full.story

Charlotte's Web - Jennifer Granholm and What I Took Away from the DNC

It was nice to see President Obama rewind and play his 2008 Denver Podium Pledge last night.  It was nice to watch John Kerry make his pitch for a cabinet post.  It was nice to see Joe Biden stay on message. . .sort of.  It was really nice to see Jennifer Granholm go all Sam Kinison on her peeps.



Guv, that must be some powerful good loco-herb mixed in that bag of granola you nailed.

Here is the late Sam Kinison; now, compare and contrast.  Oh, do.



And they say Joe Biden is an odd duck.

DNC 2012 - Old Country Buffet Better Off!

 It was Old Country Buffet at the DNC last night. President Bubba Elvis was killer.  The two chicks who preceded him were as sexy and appealing as any woman who has fronted a PBS, or NPR fund-raising appeal.  The gift to the nation is no tote bag, or Peter, Paul and Mary Retrospective CD set, but an Old Country Buffet of tasty treats.

Are we better off?

Bubba said yes:

Listen to this.  Listen to this.  Everybody (inaudible)   (APPLAUSE)   Everybody (inaudible) when President Barack Obama tookoffice, the economy was in freefall.  It had just shrunk 9 fullpercent of GDP.  We were losing 750,000 jobs a month.  Are wedoing better than that today?   AUDIENCE:  Yes!   CLINTON:  The answer is yes.  Now, look.  Here's thechallenge he faces and the challenge all of you who support himface.  I get it.  I know it.  I've been there.  A lot ofAmericans are still angry and frustrated about this economy.  Ifyou look at the numbers, you know employment is growing, banksare beginning to lend again, and in a lot of places, housingprices have even began to pick up.   But too many people do not feel it yet.  I had this samething happen in 1994 and early '95.  We could see that thepolicies were working, that the economy was growing, but mostpeople didn't feel it yet.  Thankfully, by 1996, the economy wasroaring, everybody felt it, and we were halfway through thelongest peacetime expansion in the history of the United States.But...

Sandra Fluke - Not so Much unless she can get us to chip in for the rubbers she is going to need to stay healthy: 

"An America in which access to birth control is controlled by people who will never use it; in which politicians redefine rape so survivors are victimized all over again; in which someone decides which domestic violence victims deserve help, and which don't." 

You mean like lesbians? 

Elizabeth Warren said no

.. . . but now, for many years, our middle-class has been chipped,squeezed, and hammered.  Talk to the construction worker I metfrom Malden, Massachusetts who went nine months without findingwork.  Talk to the head of a manufacturing company in Franklin,trying to protect jobs, but worried about rising costs, talk tothe student in Worcester who worked hard to finish his degree,and now he is drowning in debt.
 

Hammered and sickled, there Bessie, hammered and sickled. Talk to the Purple People Eaters of SEIU, Bessie, and really learn how to scalp the middle class - that construction worker bargains in good faith through a real labor union; that Franklin 1%er is Federally Mandated into the poor house like an Amish Milk Man; that student was told to Pell grant each and every semester with free money and his Mom & Pop are co-signers.

Menu includes:

• MOVING AMERICA FORWARD ( one Loan at a Time)

• REBUILDING MIDDLE CLASS SECURITY

  1. Putting Americans Back to Work ( SEIU)
  2. The Middle Class Bargain ( see your local Pay Day Loan guy)
  3. Cutting Waste, Reducing the Deficit, Asking All to Pay Their Fair Share ( see Red China)
  4. Economy Built to Last ( payday-to-payday)

• AMERICA WORKS WHEN EVERYONE PLAYS BY THE SAME RULES

  1. Wall Street Reform ( Bwwwwwaaahhhhhaahhhhhhhhh)
  2. 21st Century Government: Transparent and Accountable ( see 2008 Obama Speech)
  3. Lobbying Reform and Campaign Finance Reform ( No Koch Bros)

• GREATER TOGETHER

  1. Strengthening the American Community (Except Catholics, Hillbillies, Black Republicans, Utah, Arizona, Texas, 19th Ward Chicago Dems)
  2. Protecting Rights and Freedoms ( Eric Holder's Got It Goin' On!)
  3. Ensuring Safety and Quality of Life ( Abort the Kids)

• STRONGER IN THE WORLD, SAFER AND MORE SECURE AT HOME

  1. Responsibly Ending the War in Iraq ( turn off FOX)
  2. Disrupting, Dismantling, and Defeating Al-Qaeda ( with Irony)
  3. Responsibly Ending the War in Afghanistan ( With a departing sterm talking to forthose Taliban Scapegraces)
  4. Preventing the Spread and Use of Nuclear Weapons ( unilateral disarming by Us)
  5. Countering Emerging Threats ( see Souther Poverty Law Center)
  6. Strengthening Alliances, Expanding Partnerships, and Reinvigorating International Institutions
  7. Promoting Global Prosperity and Development ( George Soros)
  8. Maintaining the Strongest Military in the World ( with bake sales)
  9. Advancing Universal Values ????????????? ( Chicago Values?  No, Chicago is racist dog whistling).

 Yep, last night was an Old Country Buffet, but the bill come à la carte.

: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/05/transcript-bill-clinton-speech-at-dnc/#ixzz25glhsJIp
 http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/05/transcript-elizabeth-warren-speech-at-dnc/#ixzz25gjlO2j7
http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-election/sandra-fluke-s-speech-full-text-from-the-democratic-national-convention-20120905

Why Did The Sun Times/BGA Drop the Cop Blog Beating Boast?

Andy Shaw with BGA investigator Godfrey "Mule" Nez de Rongeurs in happier times


“A racially charged blog that reportedly has wide readership among Chicago police officers ceased operations this week less than an hour after the Better Government Association visited a detective to ask whether he was the anonymous operator of the web site.” (Better Government Association) 

 http://www.bettergov.org/race-baiting-cop-blogger-goes-underground/

Andy Shaw and the BGA tub-thumped its war on cops and working stiffs only a week ago.  After appearing to have bullied a cop-blog out of existence with threats and insinuations of "more to come" and publicly outing the suspect, Chicago Sun Times' BGA badge on its web edition posted a statement of victory by Bob Herguth, speaking for the now invisible Andy Shaw Boss of BGA.

The BGA is a non-profit non-partisan government watchdog that investigates public agencies and public employees, and often reveals findings in news stories.
The BGA decided to look into the blog’s operations because it appeared to be run by one or more Chicago cops and, until Wednesday, reportedly had a large following on the force. Among other things, the BGA wanted to see whether the blog was updated by officers on the clock, and whether hate-related speech was permitted within the police department, which has a long history of racial strife within its ranks and between white officers and minority members of the public (Sept.1, 2013)

As is my custom, I clicked on the Columnist site and read the iconic and the worthwhile daily readings.  I scrolled down to the BGA link and found that there was no longer the gleeful report by Bob Herguth that stated the intent of corruption buster Andy.

Andy Shaw jumped the shark.

Used to ambushing blue-collar workers on public salary, Andy knows that protestations from the victims of his rabbit traps are rare.

This time, he went against law enforcement officers from Chicago who tend to be very smart as well as a tad combative when spat upon.

In my opinion, Andy Shaw who never drew a politically uncompensated breath in his life, was tasked with trying to intimidate a Congressionally honored CPD vet on disability and violate the 1st Amendment Rights of all Americans, by Rahm or a Rahmbot with access to the 5th Floor.

Things seem to have gone south on Andy and he has gone to ground, at least until after the Obama Acceptance Speech tomorrow night.  Likewise, the Sun Times scrubbed itself of Andy's crow snack, which the cops will serve up with gusto and a side of pay-back.

Andy Shaw has national nepotism ventures ( Washington D.C.; New Orleans) that might just get scrubbed as well.

Lookee, H'yar' ain't nothin' thar!@  http://www.suntimes.com/news/bga/index.html

Durbin Goes Goofier Than Usual - Bye God; Bye Jerusalem

Now, lookee here, Dick . . .read that exactly as Samantha Power* wrote it for me.  I don't know what it says . . .something about Tel Aviv, or Jerusalem . . .blame Fox and get all Dick Durbin. . .Folks'll eat it up. .

Senator Dick Durbin - in his own words and with his own fatuously timid soul.



Yeah, Dick, Fox TV wrote that swell DNC platform.

This boiled cucumber of a man has given us these gems -

Senator Roland Burris -Which side was Dick on? In, Out, Stop Him, Hug Him.

Gitmo - American Troops are Nazis

Abortion - Always Happy to Help

Housing for Terrorists - Visit Thompson, Illinois Melon Capital of the World

Defender of Religious Liberty - As if

Hybrid Cars - Fewer Tornados

and so much more.


* A member of the president’s National Security Council who shares Noam Chomsky’s foreign-policy goals? An influential presidential adviser whom 1960s revolutionary Tom Hayden treats as a fellow radical? A White House official who wrote a book aiming to turn an anti-American, anti-Israel, Marxist-inspired, world-government-loving United Nations bureaucrat into a popular hero? Samantha Power, senior director of multilateral affairs for the National Security Council and perhaps the principal architect of our current intervention in Libya, is all of these things…
 http://thatsmycongress.com/senate/senatorRichardDurbinIL111.html
http://plancksconstant.org/blog1/2011/10/senator_dick_durbin_is_an_idiot.html
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/sen-durbin-blasts-fox-and-bret-baier-for-harping-on-removal-of-god-from-dnc-platform/
http://washingtonexaminer.com/the-ugly-truth-about-obama-advisor-samantha-power/article/143310

Our Rahm-Shackles - Chicago's Covenant of Debt

Huzzah!  Two coal fired ComEd Plants are shut!

Neighborhood and environmental activists are celebrating as Chicago’s last two coal-fired electricity plants enter a three-month decommissioning phase. But the closings are leaving dozens of Midwest Generation workers without a job.

The company, a subsidiary of California-based Edison International, says its Crawford station in the city’s Little Village neighborhood burned its last lump of coal more than a week ago after operating since 1924. The Fisk station, constructed in 1903 in nearby Pilsen, shut down Thursday night.

Real Estate opportunities abound! (Well, at least until January 2013 when President Flat-line begins work on his museum) Allison Davis get to dealing; call Valerie Jarrett, while these opportunities for Federal Green grants can be converted like a lazy Catholic into a Unitarian!   

Yes, Sirree Bob!!!!   Glad them coal burners went south; kept me sleepless some days.

Obvious is irony is sarcasm, the gateway drug to cynicism.  Passed through them portals sometime ago, but scratch a cynic and reveal a tender hearted sweetie-pie.  I recall another such cynical Catholic Hillaire Belloc, who refereed the bouts between GK Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw in their wholesome debates over socialism v. capitalism.  Belloc poetically predicted,  in 1928,the joy of our Community Activists who brought down Old King Coal and cleared the properties for Allison Davis and Val Jarrett 2012-

    "Our civilization
    Is built upon coal.
    Let us chant in rotation
    Our civilization
    That lump of damnation
    Without any soul,
    Our civilization
    Is built upon coal.

    "In a very few years,
    It will float upon oil.
    Then give three hearty cheers,
    In a very few years
    We shall mop up our tears
    And have done with our toil.
    In a very few years
    It will float upon oil."

Belloc understood the nonsense of polemics and the progressive Fabian need to caricature not only people but inanimate objects.  Wittily skewered the faux outrage and pious claptrapping with this -

We Chicagoans are Rham-shackled, rickety, near collapse. Ramshackle is a distortion of the word ransacked.  You know, Looted.  A condition of unbalance due to a sacking of what is within.

Much of the Rahm-shackle condition was created by the Daley Regime -post-Pat Huels Daley; the University of Chicago vintage Daley.  Rahm is merely the full fruition of this organically grown Man-eating plant.

The murders reflect the Thug Comfort Zone created by this alliance of real estate bandits, academics, media pawns, and lawsuit Lotto lawyers.  Chicago is what the catoonist-satirist Jules Feiffer created in his play Little Murders*(1967) - an urban dystopia of random killings, rampant feminism, emasculated males, overwhelmed and undermined police, garbage strikes and power outages.  People, Feiffer predicted would be isolated, afraid and desperate because the society through government wanted it that way.

The public schools will open under threat of strike, but open they will, in order to get the school head-count tax buckeens. CTU loudmouth,Karen "Foghorn Leghorn" Lewis makes the late Tony " Big Tuna" Accardo seem like a Hubbard Street dancer and has the Obama White House ( Valerie Jarrett, LLc) tying Rahm's leash-like for Foghorn Leghorn Lewis' Rahm Rump Challenge:



Make no mistake, as President Flat-line likes to say, Rahm wil shuttle twixt Charlotte and Chi-town with a bundle of boodle for Foghorn Lewis. Strike? I think not.  Valerie Jarrett and Allison Davis are no where near finished developing slum properties for future government subsidized gambits.  Praise Jesus!


Here in my own back yard, Rahm and the real estate rangers are getting their oily fingers on the keys to the soon to be abandoned Beverly Art Center: a Personal PAC approved and abortion friendly real estate transaction in the making with Fifth Third Bank!

We are Rahm-shackled. Wobbly, looted and hooked to this condition as long as we vote badly.  Show me a Democrat with the heart of lion or Kevin Joyce and I will vote for him.  Show me a Republican who is not shod in tassled loafers and I may vote for GOP.  Show me more Pat Quinns, Sheila Simons, Dick Durbins, Toni Preckwinkles, Rahm Emanuels, Mark Kirks, Forrest(s) Claypools, Deb Shores and Jans Schalowsky and I will show you the door with great force, as well as the big blue recycling bin in my alley for your paper products.

Val Jarrett and Allison Davis have more real estate to parlay into slum housing with the two coal burners knocked out and another on the way in Morgan Park.  Rahm Shackled - it's a Chicago Value. So is random killings, abortion and isolated people.

*Little Murders (1967) Jules Feiffer
Patsy Newquist is a 27-year-old interior designer who lives in a New York rife with street crime, noise, obscene phone calls, power blackouts and unsolved homicides. When she sees a defenseless man being attacked by street thugs, she intervenes, but is surprised when the passive victim doesn't even bother to thank her. She ends up attracted to the man, Alfred Chamberlain, a photographer, but finds that he is emotionally vacant, barely able to feel pain or pleasure. He permits muggers to beat him up until they get tired and go away.

Patsy is accustomed to molding men into doing her bidding. Alfred is different. When she brings him home to meet her parents and brother, he is almost non-verbal, except to tell her that he doesn't care for families. He learns that Patsy had another brother who was murdered for no known reason. Patsy's eccentric family is surprised when she announces their intention to wed, then amazed when their marriage ceremony conducted by the atheistic Rev. Dupas turns into a free-for-all.

Determined to discover why her new husband is the way he is, Patsy coaxes Alfred into traveling to Chicago to visit his parents. He hasn't seen them since he was 17, but asks them to help with a questionnaire about his childhood at Patsy's request.
Alfred ultimately agrees to try to become Patsy's kind of man, the kind willing to "fight back." The instant that happens, a sniper's bullet kills Patsy, again for no apparent reason. A blood-splattered Alfred goes to her parents' apartment, New Yorkers barely noticing his state. He descends into a silent stupor, Patsy's father even having to feed him.

A ranting, disturbed police detective, Lt. Practice, drops by, almost unable to function due to the number of unsolved murders in the city. After he leaves, Alfred goes for a walk in the park. He returns with a rifle, which he doesn't know how to load. Patsy's father shows him how. Then the two of them, along with Patsy's brother, take turns shooting people down on the street.

http://www.wbez.org/news/activists-rejoice-coal-fired-plants-shut-down-102129
http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/debate.txt
 http://www.amazon.com/Little-Murders-Penguin-plays-screenplays/dp/0140481184

Happy Labor Day from Rahm and Richie Daley!

"What's in YOUR pocket?" - Not a hell of a lot, but thanks for asking, Boys!

This says it all,

Monday is Labor Day, a national holiday honoring American workers and the symbolic start of fall. The following public services will be affected: Yadda, Yadda, Yadda and . . .

Parking: Pay boxes must be fed.
chicagobreaking@tribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-schools-banks-more-closed-for-labor-day-20120903,0,4942404.story

http://theexpiredmeter.com/

Fight Along With Martin McGarry You'll Be in Great Company

"Poets aren’t often boxers. They tend to use parts of the brain that don’t respond well to being rattled around like ice in a cocktail shaker.. . .with the noted exception of Vernon Scannell" - Andrew Taylor

A quarter of a century ago
I hung the gloves up, knew I'd had enough
Of taking it and trying to dish it out,
Foxing them or slugging toe-to-toe. V. Scannell

from The Tiger and the Rose: "A roll-call of the great champions can still stir me like a rough heroic poem. I have experienced the Aristotelian catharsis as powerfully in the boxing stadium as in the theatre."

However, Vernon Scannell* was professional boxer and Man of Letters.  He reminds me of Beverly Man Martin McGarry, a boxer, teacher, mentor, and pipe-fitter.  The poem Nettles by Scannell really gets to thye nature of the man Martin McGarry:

Nettles by Vernon Scannell

My son aged three fell in the nettle bed.
'Bed' seemed a curious name for those green spears,
That regiment of spite behind the shed:
It was no place for rest. With sobs and tears
The boy came seeking comfort and I saw
White blisters beaded on his tender skin.
We soothed him till his pain was not so raw.
At last he offered us a watery grin,
And then I took my billhook, honed the blade
And went outside and slashed in fury with it
Till not a nettle in that fierce parade
Stood upright any more. And then I lit
A funeral pyre to burn the fallen dead,
But in two weeks the busy sun and rain
Had called up tall recruits behind the shed:
My son would often feel sharp wounds again.

Martin McGarry feels.  He feels the nettles of living and helps youngsters to fight back and balance themselves with confidence. Marty McGarry can dish it out as well and now he is in the brawl of his life . . .well, maybe. Let's get in the ring with McGarry Clan and mix it up for Marty!

In February 2012, Martin McGarry, of Belmullet, Co. Mayo, Ireland and owner of McGarry’s Boxing Club was diagnosed with Familial Amyloidosis, an extremely rare and fatal, hereditary disease, which claimed the life of his mother and two brothers. Join us to Fight for Martin McGarry...When: December 2, 2012 Time: 1:00pm until 6:00pm;  Where: 115 Bourbon Street -3359 West 115th Street  Merrionette Park, IL 60803 

*

Vernon Scannell (born 1922) is a British poet and author. He was at one time a professional boxer, and has written novels about boxing. 
He was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, and brought up principally in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. He left school at 14. 
During World War II he served in the British Army in the Gordon Highlanders, in France and North Africa. He was imprisoned for desertion, took part in the Normandy landings and was wounded, and once more deserted after VE Day. He wrote about these experiences in An Argument of Kings (1987). 
He subsequently worked as a boxer, and later studied at Leeds University, encountering Bonamy Dobrée and G. Wilson Knight. He was arrested as a deserter in 1947, and sent to a mental hospital. He returned to Leeds in 1948, and put together a first poetry collection, published by the Fortune Press. He subsequently worked as teacher and for BBC Radio, while developing his range as a writer. 

http://skinnyhouli.com/2012/09/podcast-sept-1-2012/
http://www.wgntv.com/videogallery/69508740/Health/Martin-McGarry















http://www.fightformartinmcgarry.org/index.html

CPS v. CTU - I Don't Have a Skunk in This Fight

I had plenty of opportunities to become a public school teacher.  I took a pass.   From 1975 right up to this Sunday Mass, I thank God I did not.

I know hundreds of public school teachers, union members all; nevertheless, many are great people who teach kids with authority, great kindness and limitless patience.  Their patience is shredded by the bureaucracy for which they labor, be it Grayslake District # 127 or Chicago Public Schools and the Teachers Union to which they must belong as a legislated condition of employment.

In the words of my salty-tongued departed Dad, they are "between a $hit and a Sneeze."

That's the nature of Public Education.

My neighbors in Chicago Public Schools are taxed with goofy policy that in no way has anything to do with academics and labor fakirs playing with their paychecks and working conditions.  They love teaching and universally despise CPS and CTU.  It's a paycheck.

I predict that the Strike will be used to arm-twist Rahm "Mayor Coon-Eyes" Emanuel with Karen "Big Tuna" Lewis threatening to withhold an endorsement of Obama 2012 and a ubsequent cave-in by Rahm, Jean Claude and all sundry at CPS. Huzzah! It's all about the $$$$$$$$$$$ and political hoopla.

I get a paycheck and love going to work everyday.  I never work a day.  In fact I rarely use the word work with reference to my vocation.  I go to school.  That is the difference between teaching in public education and a Catholic School.  I learn as well as impart the little that I know.

Yesterday, I took my love to the Soul Bowl ( Hales v. Leo) on the site of Chicago's oldest college - St. Xavier College(University) - the one that Obama's White House declared no longer a religious insititution.  One building remains from that old Sisters of Mercy college for women on the west side of the Hales Franciscan Campus -just beyond the athletic field.  It was a very long day for Leo High School - our JV Team lost 24-12 and our Varisty bowed to Hales 20-12. Hales Franciscan is celebrating its 50th Anniversary as a Catholic prep school for African American young men and no better way to do so than besting Mighty Lions.

The elegant and lovely young woman with whom I spend my quality time has as much interest in athletics as I would exploring the history and influence of scent -parfumare (through smoke in Latin). However, this opportunity to stand behind the Leo bench and take in the sights and scents of young manhood in energetic combat with opportunity she found enchanting.

MS. S met the Canaryvillains and Bronzevillains, whom I transport to Leo each morning and witnessed their athletic heroics that fell short of victory.  Skinny little tough guys like Brian, Mitch and BK and brawny stawarts like Tommy and the gargantuan Daylon.  BK weighs as much as one of the cheeks of my rump and by dint of courage attention to detail was 'going both ways', recovered two fumbles and made several tackles during crucial downs.  Little Mitch confounded receivers and pushed the play to the sidelines.   Brian weighs less than BK and Mitch and is a wide receiver who snagged several hard fired pigskins from the clutches of two Hales deep-cover agents.
Big Daylon was felled by an ankle injury in the second half and his loss to the offensive line is reflected in the final score. Hales is a quality program and like Leo and every Catholic school in Chicago will not go on strike.

The motto of Leo High School is Facta Non Verba -Deeds Not Words.  That seems the universal motto of Catholic and private schools as well.  Picket signs are not needed to tell the cameras and the media that its is "About the Children."  That is a given.

" We will pay you $ 21,000. . . "  You will like hell, Adios Father!  Good luck filling the spot.

Since 1975, I taught at Bishop McNamara ( '75-88), La Lumiere School ( '88-94), Bishop Noll Institute('94-95) and Leo High School ( 1995-Present) and parted fair-friends and remain most happy.

Nope I chose to take my resume to Catholic teaching, because I am a Catholic and because I find slogans and memes tiresome.  The John Dewey public education doctrine that replaced Truth with Inquiry has always seemed educational poison to me.  I am a professional.  Never been fired. Teaching is my trade and my vocation. Ms. S saw some of the handiwork in the eager, frustrated, baggage-burdened, financially challenged faces of the young men in hard combat on a football field.  She noted the respect and genuine affection each student athlete reflected on their coaches, teachers and administrators. More so, she was over-whelmed by the presence and beefy tactile of the recent graduates who thickened the sidelines.  These guys ( Akim, T.O., Steve - all playing college football) hug hard and mean it even though they had endured and understood the ass-chewings and character remonstrances meted out by us greybeards over the previous four years.

"They really love you guys ( Mike Holmes, Noah Cannon, Dan McGrath, Pete Doyle and even me). You are so lucky to do what you love. It must be great to work at Leo." Or any Catholic School, really. If the pay is too low, exit smiling.

We do not work, we go to school.



http://www.perfume-training.com/Self-Study-Perfume-Courses.html