Big Jim O'Connor - 'The Big' in the Big Shoulders Fund

Ellen and Jim O'Connor - two people who keep Chicago's shoulders as broad as they should be.

Jim O'Connor could have been a big shot, but he was not brought up that way.  He could have become a guy who snaps his fingers to summon waiters, dresses down a janitor for missing a cigarette butt, demands VIP treatment and asks all of us little folks, " Do you know who I am?"

Jim O'Connor could have been a celebrity.  Instead he became what he is today - a gentleman.  A Gentleman works at it.  A gentleman holds doors, waits until everyone finds a place in the elevator and takes the stairs if that is not possible.  A gentleman makes every person comfortable with his manner and his skills.  A gentleman remembers his place and especially the place that formed him.

Jim O'Connor is a 79th Street guy, a Little Flower parish kid whose ability and drive, as much as the support and love showered upon him in his little world between Ashland and Western Avenues on 79th Street moved him into the bigger world.  Jim O'Connor remembers the Jewish, Greek, Swedish, German and Italian merchants who hired him and his pals to deliver groceries, sell shoes and clothing, sweep out butcher shops, or trim edges in his little world to help pay for a Catholic education.  Jim O'Connor remembers who helped him be Mr. O'Connor.

Thousands of inner city boys and girls now in their 40's should remember Jim O'Connor who helped bring people together to see that they received a Leo, Maria, St. Ignatius, St. Rita, Mount Carmel, St. Benedict, St. Gregory, Our Lady of Tepeyac, Josephinium, Queen of Peace, St. Sabina & etc. education.  He did and so did many, many many other folks named McKenna, Dowdle, Crown,  Stephan, Crohan, Buck, Gidwitz, Stone, Stein, Considine, and Canning. Read Michael Ferro's story below.

Jim O'Connor could have been a Big Shot, but he is not rock-star, a political hack, an activist grifter, B-Movie actor, a media creature, pro athlete, or faded eye candy.  Jim O'Connor is a guy with Big Shoulders who rode the CTA bus and L away from 79th Street, so that he could reach back and help kids waiting for a bus at 79th & Marshfield.

By MICHAEL FERRO
Daily Splash columnist
Last Modified: Oct 11, 2012 08:22AM
Whenever I hear the expression “lead by example,” one name that always comes to mind is Jim O’Connor Sr., the retired Unicom and ComEd chairman who introduced me to the Big Shoulders Fund several years ago. Of the many causes friends have asked me to support over the years, this one is particularly special because it offers the greatest return on investment. And it’s the best possible return: the high-quality education of a multitude of students.
A little background: The fund is dedicated to preserving and supporting 93 Catholic schools that serve inner-city students. Two-thirds of these schools are supported by patrons who pledge to donate a major sum of money to a particular school over the course of three years. The money can be used for scholarships, to maintain the school property or for academic programs the principal deems critical. And students don’t have to be Catholic to attend (in many of the schools, 90 percent of the student body is not Catholic).
The results are nothing short of miraculous: Ninety-seven percent of the students enrolled graduate. Of that number, almost 90 percent go on to college.
While Jim is far too humble to take credit for the work he’s done, he is a philanthropic force in Chicago. Just a few months ago, he was part of a leadership group for a Big Shoulders dinner that raised $6.3 million — more than any single non-profit event in Chicago’s history — bringing the total he’s helped raise for the Big Shoulders Fund over the last 25 years to $225 million.
Jim has chaired the fund since its inception, when he co-founded it at the urging of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin with three other local business leaders: Andy McKenna Sr., Barry Sullivan and the late Edmund Stephan. When they started, there were 140 Catholic schools in the program, and many of them were at risk of closing. While not every school has been saved, in other cities the losses have been much steeper (in New York, last year alone 27 Catholic schools closed).
On average, more than 60 percent of the kids enrolled in these schools come from families living beneath the poverty line. Parents are expected to fund a portion of the students’ tuition, but most receive significant scholarships and support. “They really need to have somebody give them a hand up,” Jim said. “That’s what this is all about.”
Supporters include many of Chicago’s civic leaders: John Canning (who is currently co-chairman of the fund along with Jim), Lester Crown, Ron Gidwitz, Art Velasquez and many more. The patrons’ generosity knows no bounds; fifteen years ago, one donor pledged $10 million to help subsidize families struggling to put two or more children through Catholic schools. And like the recipients, not all of the donors are Catholic — in fact, about half aren’t.
When I told Jim he’d be the subject of this article, his response was classic: “You could put my name as a footnote,” he said. “This is really about a group effort.” He wanted to make sure we acknowledged Canning (“my co-chair for 15 years who personally sponsors scholarships for more than 100 students”), Monsignor Ken Velo (the popular and deeply respected president of the fund) and Josh Hale (the fund’s executive director of seven years “who is as good as any non-profit executive I’ve ever worked with”).
Everything Jim has done for the city of Chicago’s children is incredible, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how he has also inspired all of his own children — Fred, Jim and Elizabeth Cole — to participate and give their time and money to this cause in a large fashion.
He’s an inspiration to his family, an inspiration to the community and an inspiration to me.
Michael Ferro has made a donation in Jim O’Connor Sr.’s name to the Sun-Times Foundation at the Chicago Community Trust.

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Copyright © 2012 — Sun-Times Media, LLC

The Bronzeville/Canaryville Express: Leo Transportation: A Daily Giggle Mission

"I love the young dogs of this age, they have more wit and humour and knowledge of life than we had; but then the dogs are not so good scholars." Samuel Johnson from Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

I leap out of the sack every morning, hit my knees to the floor and pray the Memorare and the Novena to St. Teresa, in anticipation of my tasks and the fun the day brings to this old high school teacher.

I get to transport the lads from Bronzeville and Canaryville neighborhoods to Leo High School. The Ford van gets stuffed like a Christmas goose with teenage lads. At 35th & Dr. Martin Luther king Drive's BP station, I pick up the giant Daylon -14 years of 300 + lbs. of muscle, bone and more than few layers of baby fat; the lean and athletic Joe who racks up football field yardage like Willie Moscani on a nine ball felt.  Then the two stops in Canaryville at Pizza Nova for AJ, Nick, Brian, Ryan and Sean and Graham Elementary at 44th & Emerald for Jeff, Mitch, Tommy, Sal and Bryan.

The patter is wild, the consumption of Dunkin Donut holes (glazed only) furious past human understanding, and the teasing of this Methuzalah behind the wheel a thing of beauty - Hip-Hop, Novice Blasphemies, pleas, male malodorousness and beefy good fellowship.

Now, I must $#$%, shower and shave and get about  to my morning's obligations and delights.  

Terry Sullivan Sings the American Songbook at 12 West Elm -Sunday, Oct. 14th at 3P.M.

CHICAGO JAZZ CARAVAN

with vocalist Terry Sullivan

Sunday, October 14, 2012

3:00 pm

TWELVEWEST nightclub

12 West Elm, Chicago

Admission $10

Limited seating; reservations recommended

at 312/337-3200 or www.12westelm.com

Dress: business casual or better

The CHICAGO JAZZ CARAVAN

is a roving ensemble of some of

Chicago’s most seasoned jazz musicians,

performing music reminiscent of

New York jazz supper clubs of the ‘fifties.

Personnel:

Tom Muellner, piano        

Larry Kohut, bass     Terry Sullivan, vocals

TWELVEWEST is Chicago ’s

sophisticated new gold coast nightclub.

12 West Elm St. Chicago, IL
312-337-3200

3:00pm to 5:00pm

Terry Sullivan Trio  (Category 1) $10 cover      copy this event into your personal desktop calendar

    

This Cat Drifts With Passion - Chet Coppock: A Conundrum Wrapped in Bacon

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite. Kahil Gibran

"Watch the run, watch the screen, watch everything!" - Abe Gibron

 On AM radio in Chicago, one is more than likely to hear an ad delivered by Sports Journalist, wit, boulevardier, gourmand and authority Chet Coppock.

Chet Coppock and the words 'succulent' are synonymous is this our palatable swine and kine town, when the man is pointing hungry bellies in the direction of a fine dining establishment; however, I recently needed to pull the old Malibu onto the shoulder of the Dan Ryan in order to control my giggles upon hearing Chet shill for a plastic surgeon.




I nearly went east and west*on the Ryan when I heard this one! Mr. Coppock's salutation " This cat drifts (or is it drips?) with passion" caused me no end of giggles.

The DNA of language is safe in the hands of Chet Coppock!

* an homage to Mike Houlihan

President Obama's Debate Performance Mirrors His Presidency - Dennis Byrne Explains

Obama's presidency was based purely on hope, change and hot air. Never did he demonstrate executive ability or leadership. He was called brilliant and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize purely on expectation. The debate showed how he has failed to grow into the office.Obama's presidency was based purely on hope, change and hot air. Never did he demonstrate executive ability or leadership. He was called brilliant and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize purely on expectation. The debate showed how he has failed to grow into the office. Dennis Byrne, Chicago Tribune

Barack Obama spent his entire adult life being told that he was the bees-knees for so long that he has become Capt. Yossarian who explains with Biblical certainty at every waking moment  “I am miracle ingredient Z-247. I'm immense. I'm a real, slam-bang, honest-to-goodness, three-fisted humdinger. I'm a bona fide supraman.” ( Catch 22, Heller) 

Barack Obama has become what flattery made of him.

He did not wish to govern Illinois; wanted to govern America.

The debate last week made the vanity of human wishes pretty obvious to all but those who flattered the man to this permanent  human condition.

In today's Chicago Tribune column, Dennis Byrne presents the Barack Obama as the man in the debate in full.

Samuel Johnson remarked on what we saw in Barack Obama a two centuries and change before the match-up in Denver 2012:

Remark each anxious Toil, each eager Strife,And watch the busy scenes of crouded Life;Then say how Hope and Fear, Desire and Hate,O'erspread with Snares the clouded Maze of Fate,Where Wav'ring Man, betray'd by vent'rous Pride,To tread the dreary Paths without a Guide;As treach'rous Phantoms in the Mist delude,Shuns fancied Ills, or chases airy Good. (Vanity of Human Wishes line 3-10)

Tribune Editorial Board - Repeats the Obama Senate Gambit for Tammy Duckworth

In 2004,the Editorial Board and its Care Kid Columnists of the Chicago Tribune did more* to give Barack Obama Senator Peter Fitzgerald's seat than an army of 11th, 14th, 17th, 18th, 19th & 47th Ward City workers could do with millions of walking around dollars, Michael Shakman and all of his works consigned to the back of UPS 40' trailer bound for Nome and limitless air time on WTTW.

2004. . . Dave Axelrod, one-time kid reporter for the Chicago Tribune, went full smear with help of Northwestern disc Jockey-editor Bruce Dold had four years of practice in the editorial driver's seat.  Sealed divorce records of public people became the thermonuclear detterant to one's decision to remain in a race. Millionaire, Army vet, school teacher, philanthropist and venture capitalist ( yes, he built that life, Barry) was the road-block to Barack Obama. Tammy Duckworth Bruce Dold's editorial page and his rag-rangers went all over Blair Hull like a cheap suit, until he opened his own divorce records.

Danny Hynes ran second to Barack in the Democratic Primary because he did so with the very same enthusiasm and grit that I ran yesterday's Chicago Marathon.

Now, for the Republican Primary.  Jack Ryan, a school teacher, venture capitalist, and Chick Magnet, needed to be eliminated Bruce Dold, sent the Trib lawyers to California to have a compliant judge forcibly 'unseal' the divorce file - because the public needed to know the private life of a would be public man.

The Chicago Tribune made Barack Obama and aside from scrutiny by John Kass and Dennis Byrne and a very few others, this organ played Obama's waltz into the White House.

Today, its shameless folly is played out in its endoresemnt of Tammy Duckworth, the moveable feast for Dem-Progressives. who moves more than an old man's bowels.

2006 article: Illinois's 6th congressional district election, 2006In the 2006 election, Duckworth was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives seat for the 6th congressional district of Illinois which was vacated by long-time incumbent Henry Hyde. Duckworth lost to her opponent, Representative Peter Roskam, by 4,810 votes.^[8][34][35]2012Main article: United States House of Representatives elections in Illinois, 2012#District 8In July 2011, Duckworth launched her campaign to run in 2012 for the re-drawn 8th congressional district of Illinois.^[1] She defeated her opponent Raja Krishnamoorthi to win the Democratic nomination on March 20, 2012, and will face incumbent Republican incumbent Joe Walsh in the general election on November 6, 2012. Wikipedia

Once an election boundary  pre-drawn, Dawn Clark Netsch and Abner Mikva begin scouting real estate for Tammy Duckworth's entry into the lists.

Tammy Duckworth gave her blood and limbs in the service of America and for that deserves the honor and respect of all.

Since, her heroic recovery Tammy Duckworth has been a government appointee and frequent candidate.  No less a political reformer than Governor Rod Blagojevich appointed Duckworth to the post of Illinois Veterans Affairs Director, where she was duly criticized for using state time and vehicles to make political appearances for frequent election victim Dan Seals, another Progressive card-board cut-out.  Following some bad press, Tammy Duckworth got hereself a Federal appointment and new opportunities to run against Joe Walsh.

Tammy Duckworth's service deserves respect, but certainly not a place at the Progressive trough that is paid for by tax-payers. God bless her, but don't vote for her,

Bruce Dold's endorsement is a re-play of the Obama ascent to power and a term ending November 6th.  The editorial praises Tammy Duckworth because she is not Joe Walsh! Bruce even leads with his patented Axelroding of Tribune enemies -

Then there were the tax liens, the building foreclosure, the suspended drivers license, the court fight over child support …
It's too bad, because the Joe Walsh who showed up for our endorsement interview had a lot more to offer than the Joe Walsh whose antics are splashed all over YouTube. In a face-to-face meeting with Duckworth, he was direct, specific, and even charming.
Walsh pulled no punches about his views. He embraced the plan offered by Rep. Paul Ryan to restructure Medicare. He said he would not raise taxes, period. He said the long-term fix for Social Security is to "put younger Americans in charge of their retirement income." To achieve lower tax rates overall, he would support eliminating deductions for mortgage interest and charitable donations.
Duckworth, by contrast, was noncommittal on some key issues, and largely drew from the Democratic playbook. She said she was not ready to make major changes to either Medicare or Social Security. She would increase taxes for those earning more than $1 million a year. She'd be OK with ending the deduction for second homes and yachts.
Duckworth also said she'd cut oil, gas and agribusiness subsidies, and that better supervision of wasteful defense contracts could save $9 million a day. But Walsh is correct when he says those cuts wouldn't dent the deficit. "We have to reform entitlements, period."
Where he offered solutions, Duckworth too often offered only a promise to search for one.
That all might sound like it's leading up to an endorsement of Walsh but ... it's not.
Walsh has been a congressman made for cable television, but not for his constituents. He has fueled the political vitriol that has paralyzed Washington, that nearly shut down the federal government, that has failed to produce meaningful fiscal reform and economic recovery. We saw something in that endorsement interview — what a congressman Joe Walsh might have been.
Our endorsement in the 8th Congressional District goes to Duckworth.

Here is the tepid, shuck's she's a wounded vet endorsement -

When we supported Duckworth in a 2006 run for Congress, we said she wasn't politically polished. Unfortunately, she has since become a more-practiced politician. Practiced, that is, in not offering her opposition targets by getting too specific on solutions. We have, though, always admired her character and moxie. She risked her life for her country, and lost both legs when an Iraqi grenade struck her Blackhawk helicopter in 2004. So yes, she's a war hero, though she says that label belongs to the comrades who saved her life. She served as director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs for three years and assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for two. We believe she will draw on all that experience to represent the district well. We hope she will challenge her own party leaders. Duckworth has the capacity to inspire, Walsh tends to antagonize. Duckworth is endorsed.

The Chicago Tribune placed a young inexperienced egoist in the U.S. Senate in 2004 and sky-rocketed that man who America fully saw in contrast to a man of ability for the first time in Denver last week.  That performance  was a Obama's A -Game, folks.  Illinois can not afford another "aint'she great" light-weight in government - We are topped off!

Pat Quinn, Sheila Simon, Jan Schakowsky, Deb Mell, Deb Shore, Mike Quigley, Forrest Claypool, Toni Preckwinkle . . .how they working out for us?

*  But Obama wouldn't have been elected to the U.S. Senate, much less president, without a few more sex scandals yet. In the 2004 Illinois Democratic Senate primary, Obama badly trailed multimillionaire Blair Hull for months. He and Michelle agreed that if he lost that race, he was out of politics. Then divorce papers revealed that Hull's wife had accused him of physically assaulting her. (Hull said he didn't want to "relitigate" his divorce.) Obama was already moving in the polls, and he had to fend off other candidates, but after the scandal he surged into the lead and won the primary.At first the general election pitted Obama against GOP Senate nominee Jack Ryan, a popular banker expected by many to win handily. Until, that is, Ryan's wife, TV actress Jeri Ryan, said her husband pressured her to accompany him to sex clubs and have sex in front of strangers. Ryan withdrew from the race and Obama cruised to victory against fringe candidate Alan Keyes. Daily Beast 2009

London, 1928:Mr. Belloc Called it Right, But There Is Still Time To Get It Right

I guess Bill O'Reilly and John Stewart went at it last night.  They had a debate -  A gifted comic genius and an ego on steroids.  

John Stewart is brilliant.  Bill O'Reilly has a massive following.  Politically, I might be closer to O'Reilly, but that is about it.  I don't get the guy.  John Stewart on the other hand has a mind like a Swiss CPA and good humor and comic timing of a Chicago Homicide Detective.



I imagine John Stewart mopped the floor with Bloviating Bill.



Eighty four years ago, two literary giants went tusk to tusk in London  George Bernard Shaw and GK Chesterton. Read the debate. I am going to see a dramatic presentation of this event this afternoon at the Provision Theatre* ( 1001 West Roosevelt Road).  



The conclusion by the moderator, Hilaire Belloc is the pay-off.



Mr. Belloc scored the only real hit in the verbal combat with his prophetic analysis of the end of the industrial age.


MR. BELLOC:  I was told when I accepted this onerous office
that I was to sum up.  I shall do nothing of the sort.
In a very few years from now this debate will be antiquated.
I will now recite you a poem:
    "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."
In I do not know how many years--five, ten, twenty--this debate
will be as antiquated as crinolines are.  I am surprised that
neither of the two speakers pointed out that one of three things
is going to happen.  One of three things:  not one of two.
It is always one of three things.  This industrial civilization which,
thank God, oppresses only the small part of the world in which we
are most inextricably bound up, will break down and therefore
end from its monstrous wickedness, folly, ineptitude,
leading to a restoration of sane, ordinary human affairs,
complicated but based as a whole upon the freedom of the citizens.
Or it will break down and lead to nothing but a desert.
Or it will lead the mass of men to become contented slaves,
with a few rich men controlling them.  Take your choice.
You will all be dead before any of the three things comes off.
One of the three things is going to happen, or a mixture of two,
or possibly a mixture of the three combined. (emphases my own)

After finally watching the Obama/Romney debate which I recorded, I re-read the above.

Mitt Romney gets what Belloc spoke about, especially his fifteen words about using clean coal as a path to relieving some of our economic burden. The day after the debate, I read where coal stocks soared on the markets.  President Barack Obama fully embraces the words of Belloc that I emphasized in dark ink.

*

Shaw vs. Chesterton: The Debate

Review by Lauren Whalen 

Opposites attract: the principle doesn’t just apply to romantic relationships. To quote one of my favorite sitcoms, “We’re friends. We don’t need to have anything in common.”George Bernard Shaw and GK Chesterton – two of the finest literary minds of the 20th century – had very little in common. Shaw was an atheist, socialist and vegetarian, while Chesterton was a Christian distributist who loved meat. Yet the two remained best friends who relished a stirring yet respectful debate. Based on actual exchanges between the playwright and journalist, Shaw vs. Chesterton: The Debate is an intelligent peek into the minds of two brilliant men, though the talk-heavy format may not appeal to everyone.

The play begins with Shaw (Lawrence McCauley) and Chesterton (Brad Armacost) preparing for an onstage debate, while bantering playfully and assisting moderator Belloc (Michael Downey) with his bloody nose. Throughout an intermission-less 85 minutes, Shaw and Chesterton interact with audience members, tease Belloc and embark on friendly verbal sparring: first on the topics of politics and religion, then in a “lightning round” with spectator input. But Chesterton has a secret that, when revealed, will throw Shaw for a loop and could change the friendship forever.Some elements of Shaw vs. Chesterton feel superfluous: for example, Inseung Park’s otherwise spot-on set design includes chairs bolted to the walls. Why is that necessary? Also, the play opens with Jim Poole’s video compilation of famous debates from this century and last, involving Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and Richard Nixon, among others. Because this audience is attending a play with the word “debate” in the title – and most of them have probably watched television in the past decade – they are well aware of what a debate actually entails and don’t need it spelled out for them.

And at its core, Shaw vs. Chesterton is just that: an hour-plus-long debate. Only two scenes showcase Shaw and Chesterton’s relationship outside of the back-and-forth: more human and less showy, these were my favorites, and I wanted more of the same. While the talk of property and religion is both interesting and frighteningly relevant, I wasn’t always engaged. I could appreciate the intellectual sparring, but I wanted to learn more about the men themselves and their unique friendship.

Despite a script that doesn’t always compel, the three actors have a wonderful time onstage and share this joy with the audience. Downey brings a light comic touch to his moderator role, with relatable frustration when the sparring gets slightly out of control. As Chesterton, Armacost articulates conservative beliefs with a jolly fervor and a deep respect for his opponent. And McCauley’s bombastic and hilarious Shaw radiates wit and good humor with flawless delivery of lines such as “I’m an atheist – and I thank God for it!” He wields his pocket watch like a weapon, dispelling the friendliest of fire, with brotherly love for Chesterton shining through every syllable.

As this contentious election year has proved, people find comfort in their beliefs. They also find comfort in each other. Shaw vs. Chesterton: The Debate effectively illustrates what happens when two brilliant individuals agree to disagree, chatting all the way.Timothy Gregory’s direction of two stellar actors is promising – if only his adaptation had been more engaging.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-bill-oreilly-debatemt1thewrap59586-20121006,0,7546780.story

My World and the Men Who See It As I Do.

In the best light, of course . . .



. . .and in the full light of  a gernerally overcast day . . .Hickey in Full! The Yin and Yang of Being Me -moved and moved upon!

Moonlight - What it Can do? It Can Serenade

Image:Ken Williams, Shadow and Stone :"The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.” Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)






Most fitting and it becomes you all!

MSNBC's Own Toure -"If you just have a bunch of white people, you’re gonna come up with alternate realities that don’t make any sense."

Speak on it, My Brother!




Yeah, them alternate realities do get troublesome. there, Wife Oaks.

Progressive Ballet - Rahm Knifes Labor - "which there's a history at"

Progressives detest working people.  Always have and they always will.  Organized Labor helped create the American Middle Class.  Progressives tend to come from above the Middle Class. Always have and they always will.

Anyone who has read about, much less studied the history of the American Labor Movement understands this reality.  Read serious scholars of labor like J. Anthony Lucas who in his magnificent epic Big Trouble detailed the reality of radical versus real labors conflict in coming to terms with American values, law and society.

Radicals wanted labor to morph into an international Marxist wave and real labor wanted to scratch out a comfortable life free from want for American workers.  Guess who won?

In the last twenty years, American labor has played ball with Progressives who want only Class Warfare as means of grabbing power and eliminating the American middle class.

Skilled trades have always demanded rigorous apprenticeship programs and autonomy.  Local # 007 should not allow the City of Chicago, Cook County, the State of Illinois, or the United States Government to dictate
its policies and practices.  Skilled trades are always the target of the Progressive media for idiotic and inflammatory columns and editorials condemning the fact that a back-hoe operating engineer is paid the prevailing wage.  One never reads an investigative series about the Marxists running SEIU, on the other hand, nor any questions posed about the enslavement of low-skilled and no skilled workers who comprise its membership. Once in SEIU, never out. . . .unless finally unemployed and unemployable.

Today, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fully reveals his Progressive pedigree - a backstabbing radical sneak.

Progressives get into government by the back-door deal. Name one Progressive in government who actually has a record of accomplishment, accountability, skill, loyalty, or honesty.  I do not have all day. I have work to do and so do you.  That's rhetorical question.

Progressives are placed in government by soulless elected officials who have managed to scratch out a lucrative deal with the job slot as the quid pro quo.  Most Progressives in government are initially appointed and eventually moved around away from the people they have harmed or the job they have botched, until such times as other bigger or more lucrative deals can be forged between Progressive dominated foundations, banks, family fortunes and media outlets needed by short-sighted, at best, politicians.

Once secured via -open slot on a ballot without opposition, or department chair, the Progressive gets a full media/PR - usually Marilyn Katz - Earl Scheib (Riiiight!!!!!!!!) body, fender and paint job that gets a baked-on enamel finish and glossy glow of Reformer, Boss-foe, Friend, Ally, Fighter, and Intellectual Titan!!!!!


Sheila Simon, Toni Preckwinkle, Mike Quigley, Deb Shore, Deb Mel, Jan Schakowsky, Forrest Claypool, Pat Quinn, Rahm Emanuel and President Obama all came up to prominence in this manner. We had a national peep at the reality of Progressive worth with the Presidential Debate.  There is no there -there.

Labor, real labor, has played a most dangerous game by aligning itself with Marxist public-salaried unions. More (membership and dues) is not always better.

Recently, community activists have stood blocking the entrance to Rainbow Cone on the east side of Western Ave. shouting " Go home to your own Casa!"  in honor of race harmony and economic justice.  Mexicans are working and blacks are not at a huge on-going construction project in Evergreen Park, Il. Black Capitalist and self-stated activist Edward Gardner heard the cries of Mexicans go home and jumped into the fray. Here is Progressive mouth-organ WBEZ's take on activist Ed in the pink skimmer.

Black nationalists, activists, workers and politicians marched up and down Western Avenue, chanting “If we don’t work, nobody work.”

The target was the site of a new Meijer location. The store, part of the big-box store grocery chain, is going up at 92nd and Western in the suburb of Evergreen Park.
Leading Sunday’s protest was 87-year-old Ed Gardner, founder of the iconic Soft Sheen hair care company.The millionaire has spoken extensively about the issue on black radio programs and has garnered massive support among African-Americans for picking up the mantle on the jobs issue.
A spokesman for the Meijer chain told WBEZ that officials have met with Gardner as well as the construction company. A letter on behalf of the company and contractor was sent pledging to support minority-owned businesses and contractors on the project.

Now, Ed Gardner, is a 1%er, like Fred Eychaner of pan-Gay Progressive capitalism, who gets a media pass on anything.  Ed is black, but not like Col. Allan West is black.  Being black means one must be linked to the Progressives or you become whiter than me, you see.

Rahm Emanuel gamboled pirouette à la seconde. Take Race, Beat Trades à la hauteur.

First of all, my staff has been in touch with Mr. Gardner. I think they’re meeting with him this morning, and they’ve met with him before. Mr. Gardner and I share the same goals, and the same objectives. We’ve talked about, where other cities are pulling back on public transportation, I just told you, we’ve got 400 permanent CTA bus driver jobs. We’ve got 200 to 300 jobs in rehabilitating our buses. We’re going to fix the Red Line, and over 30 percent of the work is going to be done by firms that are minority- and women-owned, and over 50 percent of that is African-American firms. On this particular project at 95-th. I talked to my staff, and as soon he said it was Hispanic and whites working on, I said, “Go check out what’s happened.” But remember, only a few years ago, the complaint was, “Nobody’s investing.” Now, we’re investing. The question is, “Now that we’re investing, who’s getting the work and who’s working on it?”…Now we’ve got to make sure that the building trades, which there’s a history at, which have not been opened to African-Americans and Hispanics and others, and minority children, make sure they have a training program, so the jobs that we’re investing in, and finally doing after years of not doing, are open to everybody in the city to apply for, and have the skill set so they, too can have that work.

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Emanuel-Responds-To-African-American-Job-Protests-172472571.html#ixzz28QXyuEqH

Why has millionaire Ed Gardner not taken the old bull by the handsful?   Black capitalism has done pretty well.  What skills and paths to advancement has Ed Gardner offered to workers of SoftSheen (l'Oreal) products?  But that might be a distracting cul-de-sac on 87th Street.

No, this bone is not being offered for a vigorous picking with Ed Gardner; rather, Rahm Emanuel and Progressives.  Rahm shuffles the issue of hiring practices onto the building and construction trades ( who support the Progressive ballet artiste BTW) and with a wink of his Racconish eyes tosses the race card - trades are racist - which there’s a history at.

Progressives will always stab the people they use to get into power repeatedly in the back -kidneys lungs, livers and hearts.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Emanuel-Responds-To-African-American-Job-Protests-172472571.html
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/26/reviews/971026.26lingemt.html

When Barry Met Willard -" One Never Knows, Do One?"

I was watching the news last night and caught President Obama's assessment of the previous night's debate.

President Obama told a crowd in Denver on Thursday that he barely recognized the “spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney” at the debate the night before.
“It could not have been Mitt Romney because the real Mitt Romney has been running around the country for the last year promising $5 trillion in tax cuts that favor the wealthy,” Obama said. “The fellow on stage last night said he didn’t know anything about that.”
He continued with the riff: 

I can well understand the President's frustration.  Much like a child who has come to understand that a corpulent and hoary whiskered denizen of the Arctic Circle, given to festive red and smartly furred habiliments, does not, in fact, jet the stratosphere in a 19th century winter-conveyance, fueled by an octet of Rangifer tarandii each winter's Yuletide in order to deposit youthful plunder for Good Boys and Girls, President Obama really believes in the Willard Mitt Romney created by Marilyn Katz, the Daves (Axelrod & Plouffe) Planned Parenthood, SEIU, Sandy Fluke and offered wholesale on MSNBC.

Yes, Mr. President, there is a Mitt Romney, but he is a product of minds like the one's owned by Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Big Ed Schultz. The Mitt Romney on stage is the Mitt Romney that they never told you about and he is the one who made you very, very sad the other night. I imagine your confusion, young fella - "Coal???? Nobody said anything about coal?  This guy loves coal, too. Isn't that a stocking stuffer for evil rich dudes and racist hillbillies and Catholics? You people told me Mormons had Harems!~!" 

There, there.

The President Obama that I know is the disappointed little chap who walked away from the podium wondering just what the Hell had happened.

I Guess the Debate Went to Romney

Must have been one tough ride home in the Presidential Limo!

I was reading and missed the debate.  Before leaving Leo High School for Bronzeville and  Canaryville this AM, I heard WLS host Dan Proft remark, " Well, to quote Cousin Eddie( Randy Quaid) from Vegas Vacation - 'I haven't seen a beating like that since some guy stuck a banana down my pants let loose a monkey.'

Thank God and John Kass - G-Men Meet Leo Men

John Kass again reports on the great young men of Leo High School.  Today, John presents the story of the visit of Jeremy Clark, Darryl Johnson and Mike Braxton to FBI Headquarters in Chicago.


At the start of the CPS Teacher Strike, John Kass of the Chicago Tribune paid a visit to Leo High School and talked to the great young men who work to become contributing people who will make a difference in Chicago's inner city.

Leo High School is a Catholic college preparatory high school, founded in 1926 at the orders of Cardinal George Mundelein to serve poor kids from neighborhoods south of the stockyards.  Leo has never been what some might call an elite secondary school and God willing never will be.  Some people term a school, that in reality is an exclusive school - where tuition and tests make it impossible for blue collar sons to find a seat in the classroom.  Leo is elite - it is blessed by God.

In the late 1960's, I heard street talk that Leo High School was on its last legs.  In the 1970's, when I began teaching high school, folks in the know  placed no chips on the Black and Orange ( Leo's Colors).  In the late 1980's, when I was teaching at La Lumiere School, alma mater of Justice of the United States John Roberts, word was out that Irish Christian Brothers were planning to leave Leo. In the 1990's Cardinal Bernardine ended all Archdiocesan financial support to Leo and the Irish Christian Brothers ended their sixty year presence at Leo, with exception of the heroic Brothers Rupert Finch and Steve O'Keefe.  Bob Foster became the first lay Principal in the school's history and the smart set gave fierce Foster  six months to one year until the Lion's roar would end.  The Lion roared louder behind the leadership and stewardship of the Leo Alumni. The Old Lion leaped into the New Millenium clawing and biting.  When President and CEO Bob Foster retired, everyone with half a brain sang the same old song.  Only a Father Pfleger could save Leo.  Wrong again.

Irish Christian Brothers, Cardinals, Educators, Business Wheels, and mythological heroes like Bob Foster and Mike Holmes,or quietly fierce leaders like Pete Doyle and Dan McGrath are merely human beings. Catholic schools are God centered.  God Provides.

Leo High School faces tough times financially and it always has. Enrollment goes up and down, because inner city families are challenged to pay what they honestly are able to do.  Support from Alumni and friends is always limited - there is only so much money. We would love to have piles of gold and swag to provide more for our wonderful, funny, challenging and sweet young gents, but we thank God for reach day, each gift and each opportunity to do more.

Life is prose and not poetry.  It is quotidian, messy, unsettling, costly and challenging - it is supposed to be. God provides the gestures from good souls like John Kass.

There is always God.  I do not believe that John Kass came to Leo merely to do a solid for old an pal, or get a great story. I believe that God's hand gave Kass's shoulder a shove. The same hand that wakes me up and sends me Leo High School, guides my hands on the wheel of the Canaryville van, keeps my tired old lamps focused on the proper Dan Ryan lanes and back to 79th & Sangamon with the Young Lions.

Thankl God it is not just up to me.

The Debate: President Obama ( played by Cab Calloway) and Mitt Romney ( presented by Austrian-born John Wengraf)

 "Scio opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti verbum Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum"   "I know your works ... that you have but little power, and yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My Name." (Apocalypse 3.8)

Got us a debate to night.Pass.

Made my mind up in 2007 and I am voting for the guy with the funny name.

I'm gonna read me some Tacitus (translated by Michael Grant) - Tiberius's trap of Sejanus seem fit.

Juvenal, Satire X
Sermones XAnd now the flames are hissing, and amid the roar of furnace and of bellows the head of the mighty Sejanus, the darling of the mob, is burning and crackling, and from that face, which was but lately second in the entire world, are being fashioned pipelines, basins, frying-pans and slip-pails!  Up with the laurel-wreaths over your doors!  Lead forth a grand chalked bull to the Capitol!  Sejanus is being dragged along by a hook, as a show and joy to all!  "What a lip the fellow had!  What a face!" - "Believe me, I never liked the man!" - " but on what charge was he condemned?  Who informed against him?  What was the evidence, who the witnesses, who made good the case?" - "Nothing of the sort; a great and wordy letter came from Capri." - "Good; I ask no more."     And what does the mob of Remus say?  It follows fortune, as it always does, and rails against the condemned.  That same rabble, if Nortia had smiled upon the Etruscan, if the aged Emperor had been struck down unaware, would in that very hour have conferred upon Sejanus the title of Augustus.  Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two thing - Bread and Games!     "I hear that many are to perish." - "No doubt of it; there is a big furnace ready." - "My friend Brutidius looked a trifle pale when I met him at the Altar of Mars.  I tremble lest the defeated Ajax should take vengeance for having been so ill defenced."- "Let us rush headlong and trample on Caesar's enemy, while he lies upon the bank!" - "Ay, and let our slaves see that none bear witness against us, and drag their trembling master into court with a halter round his neck."     Such was the talk at the moment about Sejanus; such were the mutterings of the crowd.   translation by G. G. Ramsay

Senator Barack "Quiet Riots" Obama is President Obama

 

I reported on then Senator Barack Obama's Hampton Univeristy speech of June 2007, when he had entered the race for President. Thus 'quiet riot'
The transcript of Senator Obama's remarks were redacted, rather laundered, by the media at that time. I linked that in a March 2008 post yet again when Senator Obama lectured America on Race in his Teaching Moment that tossed United Church of Christ Black Liberation scholar/preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the path of the bus that would soon bump over the man and his works.  Here is what ABC news provided from the Hampton University Speech which I labeled as the 'Quiet Riot' speech:

http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/2007/06/quiet-riot-obamas-malaise.html

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Tuesday that the Bush administration has done nothing to defuse a "quiet riot" among blacks that threatens to erupt just as riots in Los Angeles did 15 years ago. 

The first-term Illinois senator said that with black people from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast still displaced 20 months after Hurricane Katrina, frustration and resentments are building explosively as they did before the 1992 riots.

"This administration was colorblind in its incompetence," Obama said at a conference of black clergy, "but the poverty and the hopelessness was there long before the hurricane.
"All the hurricane did was to pull the curtain back for all the world to see," he said.
Obama's criticism of Bush prompted ovation after ovation from the nearly 8,000 people gathered in Hampton University's Convocation Center, particularly when he denounced the Iraq war and noted that he had opposed it from the outset.
Repeatedly, he referred to the riots that erupted in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four police officers of assault charges in the 1991 beating of Rodney King, a black motorist, after a high speed chase. Fifty-five people died and 2,000 were injured in several days of riots in the city's black neighborhoods.
"Those 'quiet riots' that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths," Obama said. "They happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and hope dissipates. Despair takes hold and young people all across this country look at the way the world is and believe that things are never going to get any better."
He argued that once a hurricane hits or a jury renders a not guilty verdict, "the frustration is there for all to see."

Yesterday, a video of Candidate Obama's complete and unexpurgated teaching moment became public through Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller:



This is Barack Obama - community activist, autobiographer and President of the United States.  He is the same man today, as he was in 2007, 2004 and 1995.  His world-view fully formed by Planned Parenthood, Frank Marshall Davis , Andy Stern, Derrick Bell , James Cone, Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers and prepared for public consumption by Marilyn Katz. Nothing Shocking, here, as the White House explained to the release of the newly discovered video..

Our media, so wanted an icon of diverse blood and skin tone, who could race bait with the same silky ease as Henry Louis Gates and demand a beer summit teaching moment whenever things went south.

America made Barack Obama President of the United States. He has not changed a bit, nor will he.  His cover is blown a bit, but certainly no where near enough.  The media that did not create Brand Obama certainly buys it and sells it.

This video will not matter much, as the Hampton University speech in 2007 had no effect at all in the 2008 election.  If it racist to present the speech in full, that is what Barack Obama, community activist, lawyer, Illinois back-bencher, US Senator, candidate for and President of the United States has demanded that it always be so.  Barack Obama has gotten everything he has demanded up to this election. It will be interesting to see if things continue for him no matter how it affects America.




http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/02/obama-speech-jeremiah-wright-new-orleans/3/

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3246610

Rick Kogan, a Real Newsman, Talks Up Danny Goldring, a Real Actor\

                                                                                              

Chicagoans have a nose for BS, that somehow gets all plugged up when they enter the polling booth on election day.  Almost any day other than election day the old collective snot-locker works just fine.

That is due to the fact that Chicagoans were blessed with real newsmen for so long.  One could pick up one of any of the many news dailies and get the straight dope on what was going on -unvarnished, unparsed, nuance and agenda free reporting.

Like Chicago home-grown root beer, potato chips, ice cream and job security, accurate and BS free reporting is limited to a very few sources - The Tribune offers John Kass, Rick Kogan, Phil Rosenthal and Dennis Byrne on the opinion and information beat - these gents are the real deal with leather on the pavement experience reporting the news. The Sun tImes has only Steve Huntley and Mark Brown, but is blessed with great reporters like Natasha Korecki, Maureen O'Donnell, Steve Metsch, Tim Novak and Chris Fusco. The great Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Mark Konkol has moved on.

Rick Kogan is a great read and an even better listen - the man has pipes.  Rick Kogan has the sexiest voice on radio.  The only other voice sexier on the planet in my experience belonged to Barb Stegmiller.  We tended bar at the old Reilly's Daughter in Oak Lawn before and during the Jimmy Carter Administration. Barb and I are contemporaries and moved along the same strands in the south side network - she is a daughter of St. Tommy More Parish, Queen of Peace High School and an alumna of ISU.  Barb has a voice that Lauren Bacall would have murdered an orphanage full of toddlers to possess.  Reilly's Daughter owner Boz O'Brien made an offer to Barb on behalf of male staff of several hundred dollars a month to call each of us periodically at 2,3, or 4 AM.  " Hi . . .Pat, this is Barb . . .did I wake you? "  Not to worry!!!!!!!!

Rick Kogan does exactly the same magic on female listeners and the odd gent to bats for the other side of the plate, every Sunday Morning on WGN and now on WBEZ.  The deep, husky basso profundo words of welcome that links listeners to guests comes through the wires like a Wurlitzer Church Organ in Cologne Cathedral with E. Power Biggs hitting the keys.

More than Rick's great voice, his honest heart and head presents news of people with exacting detail to accuracy.

Rick Kogan's latest presentation is that of Chicago actor Danny Goldring - a guy with the Ashkenzim Irish mug - that combination of Celt & Viking Redheaded pallor that seems to charm and threaten simultaneously, unlike the more Sephardic Micks like me.  Mr. Goldring is just one of the many great Chicago actors in the cast of "Boss" - Kelsey Grammer's brilliant mirror of Chicago politics.  Kelsey Grammer has collected many of the best from Chicago stage Tony Mockus, Francis Guinan, Amy Morton and my personal favorite in the entire series -James Vincent Meredith as Alderman Ross.

Danny Goldring like most of the Chicago based and born cast has that familiar presence - we know this guy.



There is no BS to his character.  He is a Chicagoan.  Mr. Goldring plays the boyhood pal to Grammer's Mayor Tom Kane, former CPD homicide dick, conscience and saloon owner Ryan Kavanaugh. Mayor Kane came up through Streets and Sanitation and out of Bridgeport; He has gone away from what he was to the powerful monster that he has become.  Goldring's Kavanaugh keeps him tethered to the roots.

Rick Kogan goes to the roots - a barbershop -to present this authentic and talented actor -

Look at that face in the photo and try to tell me that is not a great neighborhood face. Aging handsomely and full of life, it is the face of actor Danny Goldring — even the name is neighborhood perfect, Danny — sitting in the barbershop that he has visited with regularity for the last 20 years.
The guys, barbers and customers, at Alfredo's, at 833 N. State St., greeted the actor warmly last Saturday morning. Stories were swapped, a few wicked but well-meaning wisecracks filled the air, and fading photos of customers and barbers past lined the walls.
"I love this place," says Goldring. "It's old school. A lot of characters."

Boss presents an authentic portrait of Chicago politics - it is pure prose, tough quotidian, smelly, nasty and broad shouldered.  Grudges are the grease of our government.  Politics is the sport of mooches and career of geniuses. These days, Chicago politics is characterized by milquetoasts with power and feebs with cover:  Could a ninny like Pat Quinn have been governor twenty years ago?  Could a suburban grifter and name-dropper ever have gotten into the elevator to the Fifth Floor at City Hall, before Richie Daley sold off every asset and authentic apparatus in city government? I think not.

Chicagoans like authentic for the most part.  That is why Ed Burke and Mike Madigan manage to do some good for people. while the milquetoasts gab on Chicago Tonight.

Kelsey Grammer has done more for political science than Thundering Dick Simpson is allowed to do.

We know BS and genuine PS when we see it.

Actors and newsmen men like Goldring and Kogan keep Chicago's nasal passages clear.

Fr. Bob Barron takes on the Cosmic Impiety of Our Times

Father Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry, Word on Fire, and the Rector/President of Mundelein Seminary.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, the television pioneer holy man, wit, historian and priest, had it made - he spoke to very open ears and attentive minds.  For decades Bishop Sheen was welcomed into the homes of not only American Catholics on the tube ( Catholic Hour, Life is Worth Living and Fulton Sheen Program), but captured the hearts and minds of other Christians and Jews as well.  One of his major topics was the universal fight against Communism.  Like Satan, Communism managed to fool people that it never existed.  Families who lost sons at the Pusan Perimeter, Inchon, the Chosin Reservoir and Pork Chop Hill in Korea, gradually became comfortable with Reds.

Here is a program from Bishop Fulton J. Sheen Program (1961-1968)  from 1968 -  on this taping the Bishop lays the economic, political, psychological and religious advantage of communist keeping non-Marxist nations at war: He nails it at 3:01

Joe Stalin croaked and avuncularly cartoonish shoe thumpers took his place. Americans no longer worried about Reds in academia, the State Department, or organized labor, because, like Joe Stalin, Senator Joe McCarthy croked.  However, Bishop Sheen continued to offer sermons warning against Communism and the devil's co-equal until advertisers to his national television program was limited to MagicKist carpet cleaning and American Catholics, Jews, and Christians became more interested in Laugh In and The Smothers Brothers and the return of Pete Seeger and his Red Banjo from America's basement. How dangerous could a skinny old geezer with a banjo strapped on be to anyone?

Like the Devil, Communism was no biggie.  The very same mindset of Aw-Shucks American hospitality and fair-play bumped science up in place of religious worship.

Now, decades after Bishop Fulton J. Sheen's return to Christ another witty and scholarly priest has stepped onto the American scene -Chicago's own Father Bob Barron, rector of St. Mary of Lake University in Mundelein, IL. Unlike, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, Father Barron plays to a very hostile audience.

Like Bishop Sheen, Father Bob Barron has used the communications media (television, radio, print and the web) to engage the Devil and all of his works.  One of the best tools of evil is science.  Science has a huge altar and an enormous pulpit, as well as very talented and very bigoted voices shouting down people of faith who are no less schooled in the arcana of science, yet retain humbled before the author of the cosmos - God.

In the 19th Century, faith was eliminated from the discussion via the usual suspects - Hegel, Dewey and Marx.  Curricula K-20 offers no consideration of thought ( philosophy, science, history or literature) that does not consider culture except through the lens of Hegel, Dewey, or Marx.  American literature in high school text books practically dominates Emerson, Thoreau, Melville, Hawthorne, Garrison over any other consideration in order to valorize the subsequent identity-politics light weights who string out the canon.   In philosophy of education future teachers of American children receive an eye-dropper of Plato's thin broth redacted of course and feast upon Rousseau, Fichte, Mann, Dewey and now, comically sad but true, William Ayers.

As for science, there is no search for truth, only solutions to problems.  You can go to the moon, but you can not recall why we went there . . .to beat the Commies, Remember?  Commies are not a problem they are our bankers; therefore, cancel NASA shuttle flights.  We are tickled to death that we are getting great pictures from Mars, but why are we there?  What's the plan, there Hawking and Dawkins?


Father Barron chats with a priest scientist Father George Coyne:



Man built cathedrals that attempted to match to awe and majesty of God's love of man.  Man illuminated and preserved the works of Aristotle, Plotinus, Heraclitus, Empedocles and the plays of Aristophanes in beehive stone cells of monasteries far from the reach of savages in order to justify God's ways to Man. That is called piety.  The opposite of piety is pride and pride on steroids is hubris. Hubris is what the Greeks worried about - if man forgets God, Man is screwed.  We like to forget that.   We need Fulton J. Sheens and Bob Barrons.

In my opinion, Father Barron has a tougher row to hoe.  Bishop Sheen's foes, Satan and the Soviets, were much more understood by people during the American Golden Age ( 1945-1972).  I mark the end of WWII and Nixon's Trip to China and the very next year Nixon cleared the way for Roe v. Wade and the American Genocide*.   Once Tricky Dick ate egg-rolls with Mao and chatted realpolitik with Chou En Lai, Americans put on their eatin' pants too, burped away bad thoughts and watched the Tube and nodded that abortion was health care.

Father Barron offers a genuine consideration of modern hubris, or what Bertrand Russell called cosmic impiety, in an article from RealClear Politics.  Here is a salient passage:

 Though the sciences might be able to explain the chemical make-up of pages and ink, they will never be able to reveal the meaning of a book; and though they might make sense of the biology of the human body, they will never tell us why a human act is moral or immoral; and though they might disclose the cellular structure of oil and canvas, they will never determine why a painting is beautiful.And this is not because "science" is for the moment insufficiently developed, it is because the scientific method cannot, even in principle, explore such matters, which belong to a qualitatively different category of being than the proper subject matter of the sciences. The claim that "science" could ever provide a total understanding of reality as a whole overlooks the rather glaring fact that meaning, truth, beauty, morality, purpose, etc., are all ingredients in "the universe."
But as is usually the case with scientistic speculation, Carroll's thought is designed, above all, to eliminate God as a subject of serious intellectual discourse. The first and most fundamental problem is that, like Hawking, Dawkins and Dennett, Carroll doesn't seem to know what Biblical people mean by "God." With the advance of the modern physical sciences, he asserts, there remains less and less room for God to operate, and hence less and less need to appeal to him as an explanatory cause. This is a contemporary reiteration of Pierre-Simon Laplace's rejoinder when the Emperor Napoleon asked the famous astronomer how God fit into his mechanistic system: "I have no need of that hypothesis."
But God, as the classical Catholic intellectual tradition understands him, is not one cause, however great, among many; not one more item within the universe jockeying for position with other competing causes. Rather, God is, as Thomas Aquinas characterized him, ipsum esse, or the sheer act of to-be itself -- that power in and through which the universe in its totality exists. Once we grasp this, we see that no advance of the physical sciences could ever "eliminate" God or show that he is no longer required as an explaining cause, for the sciences can only explore objects and events within the finite cosmos.
To demonstrate the relationship between God and the universe more clearly, it would be worthwhile to explore the most fundamental argument for God's existence, namely the argument from contingency. You and I are contingent (dependent) in our being in the measure that we eat and drink, breathe, and had parents; a tree is contingent inasmuch as its being is derived from seed, sun, soil, water, etc.; the solar system is contingent because it depends upon gravity and events in the wider galaxy. To account for a contingent reality, by definition we have to appeal to an extrinsic cause. But if that cause is itself contingent, we have to proceed further. This process of appealing to contingent causes in order to explain a contingent effect cannot go on indefinitely, for then the effect is never adequately explained. 
Hence, we must finally come to some reality that is not contingent on anything else, some ground of being whose very nature is to-be. This is precisely what Catholic theology means by "God." Therefore, God is not one fussy cause within or alongside the universe; instead, he is the reason why there is a universe at all, why there is, as the famous formula has it, "something rather than nothing." To ask the sophomoric question, "Well, what caused God?" is simply to show that the poser of the question has not grasped the nettle of the argument.

No, Father, we have settled all that.  Science says "toss up those big-ass wind-turbines (NIMBY Rules apply of course) and all is well."  Go to Mars!  "Why?"  Because, there was water there billions and billions and billions of years ago! " And?"  There was water there billions and billions and billions of years ago. 

Keep at them, Father!

REV. ROBERT BARRON, M.A. (Phil), S.T.D., .

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Professor of Faith and Culture

M.A., Catholic University of America; S.T.B., M.Div., S.T.L., University of St. Mary of the Lake; S.T.D., Institut Catholique de Paris. Former Associate Pastor at St. Paul of the Cross Parish. A member of the Catholic Theology Society of America, G.K. Chesterton Society, Paul Tillich Society. Author of The Strangest Way: Walking the Christian Path, Creation as Discipleship, A Study of the DePotentia of Thomas Aquinas in Light of the Dogmatik of Paul Tillich, Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master, And Now I See: A Theology of Transformation, Heaven in Stone and Glass and Bridging the Great Divide and The Word on Fire: Proclaiming the Power of Christ and of the Priority of Christ: Toward a Postliberal Catholicism. Articles on theology and the spiritual life have appeared in numerous journals.

*Planned Parenthood continues  to get one third( $ 345 Million dollars) of its funding to murder children from the Federal Government.
Forget Mars.  We got serious business here.

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/622643main_FY%2013%20Budget%20Presentation.pdf

This is 'What is On,' When My Love Asks, " What Are You Thinking Right Now?"

Make sense?

Women are from Venus and Men are . . . . . . I'm sorry, what were you asking?  Oh, we are very different.  The mind wanders, though purpose allows us to somehow unplug the sink, get that raise, change the tires, knock out that Jap machine gun nest on Hill 262 . . .sorry.

I am always asked by the elegant, graceful and thoughtful woman I love, " What is on your mind, right now?" Nothing lurid, My dear.

Women really, really, really want to know.  I try and and try to explain, "not much."

Usually it is stuff I need to do.  Women think deep, caring and beautiful thoughts.  Men?



Ladies, This is what is going on when we have that far-away look.  It is not, "how can I make this a better world, or ' Was I unkind to interrupt her thoughts with a suggestion that I actually followed what the hell she was saying?"

Nope.  Here's what's on the brain screen, Girls. This one gets replayed in my old brain pan a lot!