Carol Marin's Mad Marriage Electorate Metaphor - We Are Rainbow Sherbet! I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream . . .

 

What flavor is Rainbow?  Carol Marin begs this question. . . within her Gay Marriage column on this Seventh Sunday after Easter.

Your Marin Morning Metaphor Madness:

"The electorate is not vanilla. It’s a rainbow sherbet,. . ."

Vanilla ?  adjective, noun? Rainbow goes all adjectival and sherbet remains a noun.

Carol Marin has a column, a podcast, face-time on WTTW and NBC.

I have a mortgage; three wonderful kids; modest personal debt, a wealth of reading across the disciplines, some skill as a writer, a solid reputation as a secondary English teaching, a laughable history in organized sport, a pocket full of spending loot and a gal who knows what to do with it.

I would not trade places with the poor woman for all of the gold in the teeth of 21st Century Professional Athletes.

Unlike, Ms. Marin, holding an opinion that contradicts my own is not a cause for jihad- especially if that opinion demands the complete obliteration of the values I live by.  No, every one is entitled to ones opinion; no one is entitled to tell another person that a flavor is color wheel. e.g. Carol's

Problem is the old one, Pat Brady, isn’t all that old. And dared to express a modern idea about equality, publicly voicing support for same-sex marriage. Brady’s pronouncement caused the delusional in the right wing of the Republican state central committee — I’m speaking chiefly but not exclusively of Jim Oberweis, the state senator and ice cream king — to choke on their double-dip vanilla.
The electorate is not vanilla.
It’s a rainbow sherbet, though you’d never have known it looking at the Republican National Convention last year. Even though the Land of Lincoln’s favorite son was closing in on re-election as the first African-American president.

Ice cream is a frozeb treat.  Vanilla is a flavor extracted from a plant that tastes like vanilla.  
Vanilla irony?, or ironic vanilla?

A Rainbow is visual manifestation of light reflected from the earth's surface to the skies above and the concoction of Light + Water droplets.  I guess that one's historical, cultural and religious values can and should be reduced to a Carol Marin chilled cream concoction. Here's the deal, as I see it, simple man that be - if you hold the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman with the goal of producing a biological family, blessed by God, and bonded with eternal love for another, well, then you are double-dipped vanilla.

My problem lies with the fact that there Rainbow Sherbet is a rhetorical device that intends to skews the senses. Rainbow is visual and flavor lies on the old taste bud lizard. What does Rainbow taste like, Carol?


More to the point, Sherbet and Ice Cream are very, very different.

Ice cream
nounfrozen dessert containing cream and sugar and flavoring [syn: ice cream] 
sher·bet 
nouna frozen fruit-flavored mixture, similar to an ice, but with milk, egg white, or gelatin added. 

QED - sherbet is different from ice cream, though both happen to be frozen desserts.  Vanilla is a flavor of ice cream, Rainbow is not a flavor. It is traditionally three flavors concocted by Mr. Emanuel Goren of Sealtest Ice Cream, as between courses palate cleanser.

Rainbow sherbet is comprised of orange, raspberry, lime (traditional) and possibly lemon, or pineapple for the exotic tongue and the progressive Third World fruit flavors of mango, prickly pear, pommegranet and kiwi for les meilleures personnes

Rainbow sherbet is three flavors (with attendant color) made seperately, but swirled, scooped or packed together.

Three distinct evolutions, but packed together artificially -like Gay Marriage. Man + Woman + Gay Man, or Woman = traditional marriage under Greg Harris's Religious Liberty and Marriage Equality Bill -"Sponsoring Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, said the bill is needed “because we need to treat all Illinoisfamilies equally under the law” but the status of people in civil unions is often misunderstood.

Under the measure, marriage in Illinois would be allowed between two people rather than only a man and a woman."

Greg Harris sponsored the Civil Union legislation that Gov. Pat Quinn could not wait to sign, after the herd in Springfield were shepherded by Fred Eychaner and Personal PAC's millions, and no one 'understands?'  I understand it Greg.  Catholic Charities understands it, perfectly.

Vanilla, or rainbow sherbet?  Vanilla, argues the 40 Watt thinker Carol Marin, is the wrong side of history and must be rejected because it is only one color ( I guess that means flavor in the Marinade). Rainbow flavor is the right side of history and evolution.

Yet, were one to do, what all of God's children do with a frozen dessert, what would we get?

One ugly-assed color ( kind of a brownish pinkish hue), depending which flavors ( Ala Marin) are used. Vanilla color ( Marinade) is white and remains, so.

A man (or Woman to woman) united in a love ( sex and affection) relationship and civilly joined by the state to another man (or Woman to woman)will not result in a biological child no matter what the heart wants.

Making a law that demands otherwise is hardly a rainbow, much less a sorbet which is very different indeed from a sherbet.

Asian Women and White Irish Males - A Sensitive Consideration

(above beauty) "EeeeeewUUUUUUUUUU!!!! OMG This Old Irish Gwailo is totally staring right through me!" says Hot Asian Babe

Is it all about the eyes?  Round-eyed white males -qwailo, or 'ghost people' -are said to stare through every Oriental woman within staring distance.  That is something, I must get to the meat of ASAP.  I try to treat all people with equal dignity and sensitive regard.  My Uncle Bart ( a Korean War Veteran) taught me at a very early age to be sensitive in the regard  of others -"Patsheen, you gotta remember that a crowded elevator smells very different to the midget on board, no matter where he's standing. . . . chew on that for a while."

Post Honeymoon Sino-Celt Cuisine 2013 (above) - once the bond is formed.

I recently learned that a FeminAsian activist/documentarian  wants the world to know that Gwailo males are said to be disturbingly enralled with the Women of the Orient.  Cute is cute, I would counter, but I thought to pursue the issue.

A new documentary, which airs tonight ( May 6, 2013)on PBS, explores the psychology behind yellow fever - the phenomenon that sees white men attracted to, and sometimes even obsessed with, Asian women.Filmed and directed by Debbie Lum, a fourth-generation Chinese-American from St Louis, Missouri, Seeking Asian Female looks to discover why many men see Asians as ideal wives, a concept that is 'very painful for the Asian-American community,' Ms Lum told ABC News.According to the filmmaker, there is an overriding perception that women of that particular race are more docile and make for obedient life partners, a stereotype that is offensive and often untrue.

The lovely Ms. Lum, descanted with Foucaultian charm - 'Every Asian-American woman knows exactly what I am talking about,' she said. 'Men come up to you in a way that really looks like a stare, which lasts a bit longer than it should. 'You can feel it,' she continued. 'It's like they are looking through you.'

Well, Deng! Talk about painting with a broad brush.  Ms. Lum, just beca,use a round eyed geezer is giving a bit of Eastern Dim Sum the long appraisal, does not necessarily mean that like Jimmy Carter, one has lust in the heart.   At our age, it takes twenty minutes to read the plastic wrapped menu at Denny's.

I ran into an acquaintance who in his late middle aged shopped for an Oriental bride - one Declan "Banjo" Larkin.  A trans-continental Tristan and Isolde union was formed between Larkin and his mail-order bride Crystal. Banjo is retired City of Chicago Water Department digger.  The man can dig; hence the sobriquette of Banjo, a euphemism for the shovel. 


Banjo Larkin Mount Carmel 1967 "Hickey, 
When is it time to go to the Chinese dentist? "

Me- " Hmmm, I dunno."

Banjo Larkin -"Tooth-hurty.. . .get it?"

Me - "No, please repeat it"

Banjo Larkin - "Hickey, 

When is it time to go to the Chinese dentist?  . . .(repeated -ad infinitum)"

Me- "Banjo, How's the Bride?"

Banjo- " A Pearl, Hickey.  A Pearl of the Orient!"

I imagined Larkin Manor. . .
 

Mr. & Mrs, Banjo Larkin of Alsip, Illinois, At home:

Mrs. Banjo-  " Bajo, Is Gon Rain?"
Banjo - "Fuggs My Tay?"
Mrs. Banjo -" Arun Stow. Gedgey Yu-sef.! . . . .(in diminishing sotto voce in native tongue)   AI YA! NI SHI ( trans: you are a) DAI ZI!   Gwailo mudah fudah! "

I read a study from the London School of Economics that concluded:

“We found no evidence of the stereotype of a white male preference for East Asian women. However, we also found that East Asian women did not discriminate against white men (only against black and Hispanic men). As a result, the white man-Asian woman pairing was the most common form of interracial dating—but because of the women's neutrality, not the men's pronounced preference. Men don't seem to discriminate based on race when it comes to dating. A woman's race had no effect on the men's choices.” 

Quod Erat Demonstrandum!

I love women.  They tolerate us . . .for the most part.  One even married me.  I am now a widower.  When my beloved wife Mary was fighting for her life, well meaning persons of limited thought often asked her " How'd get a brain tumor?" 

 The ready redhead would rejoin, " I married him."

I dated fewer women* than I recall, I suppose.  Let's see, I am now 60 and change and began to notice the allure of women at age (10 let us say).

• Irish American - Eileen (3), Noreen (2), Terry(1) ,  Mary (1), Mary Kate (1), Kathleen (1), Sally (1). Patty (1) - Norine was salt water Irish.

• French American (Kankakee County only) - Michelle (2), Paula (2), Barbara (2)

• Italian American - Cristine ( 2), Lynn (1), Marylynne (3)

• Polish American - Cindy (1), Anna (2), Alina (1)

• German American - Betty (1), Debbie (1)

• Jewish American - Bunny ( 1), Deborah (1)

• Beer-Goggle Skank American (undeterminate number and unspeakable self-loathing if exact)

• African American - Pam ( 1/2) her dad ran me off with plumber's wrench - circa 1972.

That's it.

Now, as to Les belles femmes sexy et désireux de l'Orient???? Never had the pleasure of a comely maid of the Heatrhen Chinee.  I'd take a hard run at Nancy Kwan ( or the babe above) six days to Sundays:  forward and in reverse.  " My secret!"


* Numbers may skew as to the recollections of women and level of enjoyment or personal revulsion measured on the assignation(s). 

http://web.archive.org/web/20071130030433/http://www.glaad.org/poc/api/embracing_diversity.php

Leo High School and the Skinny & Houli Show Will be Featured in Robert Redford's 'Chicagoland' for CNN

Skinny Sheahan, Dan McGrath, Mike Houlihan and Bob Redford

“It’s a city that wears its heart on its sleeve and I am honored to be a part of telling this story,” Redford said.

Bob, not only heart - you gotta remember this is the Windy City; you'll find some stuff on the sleeve less solid than heart and who knows what up them sleeves. Just sayin'!

This past October through December, a film crew headed by Marc Levin made a number of trips to Leo High School.  Mr. Levin explained that he was working on a continuation of a project developed for CNN through the Sundance Network and Robert Redford.  The project had focused on New Jersey with series called Brick City. The intent is to capture modern American big city life and the people who have a positive impact.
Houli and legemndarty Leo Boxing Coach, Mike "Pickle" Joyce

In December they wrapped up the visits with an interview of Leo President Dan McGrath.  This past April 6*, Dan and I were again invited to share the Life Leo on the Skinny and Houli Show.  As is my wont, I arrived early and was greeted by the same crew from Sundance.

They were taping the Skinny and Houli as part of the project.  Kismet?  Mayhaps.

The Skinny and Houli Show's mission is to capture the people who do for others in this great American City; the Sundance project is all about that.  Here at Leo, we do what we can do and most days so much more.

Robert Redford doing 'Chicagoland' TV series
by James Hibberd
Comments 10Add comment
CNN has ordered a documentary series looking at the challenges faced by the city of Chicago.
In Chicagoland, executive producers Robert Redford and Laura Michalchyshyn team with Brick City filmmakers Marc Levin and Mark Benjamin in an eight-part series about “a city generating change and innovation in social policy, education, and public safety – to meet national and local challenges.”
According to CNN’s release, Chicagoland will capture “the riveting, real-life drama of a city looking to unite at this critical moment in the city’s history. In the aftermath of a countrywide economic collapse, Chicago faces the challenges of improving its public education system, and neighborhood and youth safety. Can the city’s leaders, communities, and residents come together in ways that expand opportunities and allow aspirations to be realized?”
In a statement, Redford praised Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel: “The vibrant culture and opportunities inherent in this 21st century, world-class city run alongside profound daily challenges. Much of it falls on the shoulders of its tough, visionary mayor, his team and people doing heroic work in neighborhoods throughout the city. Chicago has always had a rhythm all its own. It’s a city that wears its heart on its sleeve and I am honored to be a part of telling this story.”

“Chicago is the quintessential American city and where it goes tells us a lot about where our country is going,” added series producer Levin.
Chicagoland will debut in early 2014.

Catch Skinny and Houli on Saturday afternoon's at 3PM on AM 1450 Chicago's Ethnic Station.  Drop by Leo High School -7901 South Sangamon, Chicago, IL (773) 224-9600 ex. 208 (ask fo Hickey).
Watch Chicagoland** in 2014.

*

Podcast: April 6, 2013

April 7, 2013 by Mike Houlihan Leave a Comment

Skinny returns from New Jersey and the lads welcome Leo High School President Dan McGrath and Development Director Pat Hickey, both guys from ‘da old neighborhood. Leo alum Ed Whalen, class of ’62, heard the Lions would be at Lizzie’s that night and makes a surprise appearance for a quick beer and quicker exit. Dan tells the story of Leo student Miles Turner, who was gunned down when his cousin was killed last October and is now on the mend and hopes to make it to the prom. We hear how Cardinal George counsels recalcitrant boys at Leo and Pat Hickey claims Anwar Sadat picked a trio of Leo alums to turn around Egypt before Anwar himself wound up like young Turner’s cousin. We get a special musical package from Danny Quinn, a huge lineup on “Who Died?” and learn more than we wanted to know about Justin Bieber’s monkey in “Who Cares?” Skinny & Houli announce details of their trip to Ireland in October and invite everybody to join them, (call Cathy Featherstone at847-542-1439), and then McCormick Place Concierge Marty Mullarkey cuts up with the boyos.  ‘Tis a great show and that’s no Mullarkey!

**

CNN Picks Up Robert Redford-Produced Docu-Series ‘Chicagoland’

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday May 8, 2013 @ 7:02am PDTTags: Chicagoland, CNN, Robert Redford

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The Chicago way is coming to Jeff Zucker’s CNN in 2014. The cable news network has picked up Chicagoland,executive produced by Robert Redford with his Sundance Productions partner Laura Michalchyshyn and filmmakers Marc Levin and Mark Benjamin of BCTV. The eight-part unscripted series examines the challenges the Windy City faces as it tries to rebuild from the consequences of the recent economic crisis. Praising “tough, visionary” Windy City mayor (and brother of Redford’s WME agency chief Ari Emanuel) Rahm Emanuel, Redford said today in a statement that “Chicago has always had a rhythm all its own. It’s a city that wears its heart on its sleeve and I am honored to be a part of telling this story.” The series is set to debut on CNN early next year. “We’re very pleased to bring this unique long-form series to the network”, said Amy Entelis, CNN Worldwide’s SVP Talent and Content Development. “Chicagoland is a creative exploration of stories relevant to every city and every American”. Sundance Productions’ debut documentary All The President’s Men Revisited premiered on Discovery last month.

 

Stephen Hawking and Some Other Public Intellectual Dumb-assesI

 "If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good."--- Ezra Pound

Sometimes both are true, Mr. Pound.  Love your poetry, but I would take a pass on a pub crawl with you.
I have a weird social code.

If I get on someones nerves, I try avoid social contact with them; why put the poor suffering SOB with time spent with me?  Likewise, if I find another person to repellent, phony, self-absorbed, mean-spirited, or just bone-stupid, I tend to decline invitations to share thoughts.

I love a good debate and like to have my opinions challenged with spirited, thoughtful and good natured vigor. I learn from people that way.   There is so much that I do not know, that I can not allow my inclinations and prejudices to get in the way.  If more people thought the way I do . . . we'd eat pretty damn good.

Ignorance is no crime, but stupid is a life sentence.

I have know off-charts IQs who happened to be the most petty, cheap-tipping, half-baked, bigoted arrogant dumb asses this side of a Columbia University faculty May Day picnic.

Stupid people do not share anything, unless it is forcibly pried out of the pink digits.  Want to measure the worth of a Mensa Member, or Phi Beta Kappan Rhodes Scholar?  Watch her tip a bartender, or him a waitress.  Stupid people delight in taking any wildly contrarian point of view in order to clutch the attention of one all gathered - ' America and Third Reich planned to impose Christianity on the free-thinking indigenous Unitarians of New Guinea by introducing 'cargo cultism' during WWII and conducting genocide on the Great East Asian Co-Prosperity Activists of Port Morseby, Weewak and Owen Stanley Mountain folk."

Thank you Oliver Stone; now go load up that pipe of yours and get back to us on ShoTime.

Today, another beauty surfaced.

Stephen Hawking boycotted a conference in Israel to 'protest' Jews demanding that Palestinian fascists stop blowing up pizza parlors full of kids, showering rockets on neighborhoods and calling for a New Holocaust.

Hawking is the much afflicted physicist who operates from a wheel chair command center and who knows the exact quants in quantum mechanics.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - British cosmologist Stephen Hawking has pulled out of an Israeli conference, joining an academic boycott of Israel to protest against its occupation of Palestinian lands, Cambridge University said on Wednesday.
The wheelchair-bound Hawking, who has won international recognition for his work on black holes, had been due to speak at a prestigious conference in June organized by Israeli President Shimon Peres that draws hundreds of leading world figures.
However, his name was quietly dropped from the list of participants earlier this week, giving a major boost to supporters of pro-Palestinian groups that want to isolate Israel on the international stage over the continued occupation.
"This is his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there," the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine said on its website.

Hawking has joined the company of other public intellectuals and artists who proved to be absolute dumb-asses in world events, politics and living within the columns that make up history's personal pagination - Poets Ezra Pound and William Butler Yeats were tickled by fascism's trinkets -soaring rhetoric and mythopoeic imagery.  Pound became radio traitor for Mussolini and Yeats formed his own Celto-fascist political party.

Semiotic totalitarian Noam Chomsky leads the pack as a dumb-ass, with all of hate of a Bill Ayers and all of gravity of MSNBC.  The old clown is pathetic and no more of a public prophet than the now forgotten mope Ward Churchill.

First, Chomsky is an absolutely shameless liar. A master of the argument in bad faith. He will say anything in order to get people to believe him. Even worse, he will say anything in order to shut people up who disagree with him. And I’m not necessarily talking about his public critics. If you've ever seen how he acts with ordinary students who question what he says, it's quite horrifying. He simply abuses them in a manner I can only describe as sadistic. That is, he clearly enjoys doing it. I don't think anyone ought to be allowed to get away with that kind of behavior.
Second, Chomsky is immensely important to the radical left. When it comes to American foreign policy he isn't just influential, he's basically all they have. Almost any argument made about foreign affairs by the radical left can be traced back to him. That wasn't the case when he started out back in the late '60s, but it is now.
Third, he is essentially the last totalitarian. Despite his claims otherwise, he's more or less the last survivor of a group of intellectuals who thought systemic political violence and totalitarian control were essentially good things. He babbles about human rights all the time, but when you look at the regimes and groups he's supported, it’s a very bloody list indeed.
Communism and fascism are obviously dead as the proverbial doornail, but I doubt the totalitarian temptation will ever go away. The desire for unity and a kind of beautiful tyranny seems to spring from somewhere deep in the human psyche.
Fourth—and this may be most important—he makes people stupid. In this sense, he's more like a cult leader or a New Age guru than an intellectual. He allows people to be comfortable with their prejudices and their hatreds, and he undercuts their ability to think in a critical manner. To an extent, this has to do with his use of emotional and moral blackmail. Since he portrays everyone who disagrees with him as evil, if you do agree with him you must be on the side of good and right. This is essentially a kind of secular puritanism, and it's very appealing to many people, for obvious reasons, I think. We all want to think well of ourselves, whether we deserve it or not.There is an intellectual side to this, as well. You see it clearly in his famous debate with Michel Foucault. Chomsky says at one point that there is a moral and ethical order that is hardwired into human beings. And Foucault basically asks him, why? How do you know this hardwired morality exists? And even if it exists, how can we know that it is, in fact, moral in the first place? We may feel it to be moral, but that doesn't make it true.Chomsky's answer is essentially: Because I believe it to be so. Now, whatever that is, it isn't thinking. In fact, it's an excuse for not thinking. Ironically, Chomsky later said that Foucault was the most amoral man he ever met, whereas I would argue that Foucault was simply pointing out that Chomsky's “morality” is in fact a form of nihilism. (emphases my own)

I have read this clown.  There are people who do important work in linguistics, like Northwestern University's Tolstoy scholar Gary Saul Morson, there work makes sense to people who want to present texts to their students in manner that will broaden conversation, not diminish talk.  Noam don't play that way; hence his appeal to loud mouths and phonies.

In Obama's Policy Jungle, Follow the Kookie Krumbs - Samantha Power to Susan Rice to Valerie Jarrett to Hillary Clinton to . . .

The Benghazi tragedy is treated by the political media, the DNC and most especially Brand Obama's White House like a smashed up box of Maurice Lenell cookies that only would be used if high end Rich biscuits could make all the difference in the world.


Yes, sir. Some might scoff at this Chicago product as food for the helots ( it is) in the same tones one hears from WTTW/PBS/NPR zealots snort when they hear Fox anything.  I learned long ago, from Chicago saloon keeper and political genius Boz O'Brien, the meaning of value - " Boz, what's the difference between a vase( Vahhhhzzzz) and a vase( Vayce)?"

Mr. O'Brien patiently and spontaneously answered, " Forty Dollars."  In our brand conscious folly we value nothing.  Hell, we help murder infants through our taxes - outliers or not.

 Maurice Lenell cookies were made on north Harlem Ave. and for 70 years a family of Swedes cranked out pinwheels, sugar cookies, tea biscuits and those vanilla bits with the prehistoric cherry in the middle.  Granny Nora Hickey , of Cahirciveen, County Kerry opted for Maurice Lenell "bickies" for her tea table in the kitchen at 7535 S. Marshfield.  Those cookies crumbled up a storm.

Back in the day, Maurice Lenell's came in tin boxes in stacks on paper doilies.  They looked classy and working people could afford them.  As our society became more disposable-friendly after Roe v. Wade, paper and flimsy plastic replaced the tin.  Those cookies crumbled quicker, often in the over-stuffed Jewel bag squeezed between cantaloupes and 48 oz. cans of Dinty Moore.

Crumbled cookies put swells off and by the Obama First Term Maurice Lenell was swallowed whole by some food group.  Now, Obama's youthful demographic eat cookie dough.  Oh, yeah, Benghazi.

Sept. 11th 2012,  the Obama Kooky Middle East narrative crafted by Samantha Power at the command of Valerie Jarrett crumbled like tea cookies.  Power and Jarrett are exempts, as singularly a Chicago product as Maurice Lenell's baked goods. Exempt hires are answerable only to person who hired them.  They are salaried. . .very salaried . . .employees who are exempt from the standard application processes and the job requirements most of the rest of us must meet.

What in Valerie Jarrett's public resume makes her vital to national executive capacity whatsoever? Valerie Jarrett hand-picked some the Obama Administrations daffier prodigies: Desiree Rogers, Van Jones, Arne Duncan, Anita Dunn and the girl-friend of Cass Sunstein Samantha Power.

Samantha Power is architect of the Obama Middle East Policy - from the bow tour, the Cairo speech, the Arab Spring, the ascent of the Muslim Brotherhood, the back-door treatment of Israel -as in, " Hey, Hymies, hit the back door!"

Now, just hours before the start of another hearing on Benghazi, Eric Holder's FBI found some Minnesota cracker by the name of Buford to divert attention from the collapse of Brand Obama. Perhaps, I just a tad cynical.  Maybe this has nothing to do with Libya; rather, it is make-up dibs to David Sirota of Salon, who begged for Boston's terrorists to be fans of NASCAR, or Knights of Columbus.  Brand Obama is banged up good, Eric.  Nice that your boys grabbed Buford, though.

Brand Obama is packaged in flimsy plastic and the Kookies have crumbled.  Even the fawning Democratic Establishment (wonky  money-dogs, media purse puppies) are baring their fangs:

For some time, the left of the MSM has been attacking the White House over issues like drones and Guantanamo, but now much heavier fire is coming from the center. The Washington Post ran an opinion piece by Thomas Carothers and Nathan J. Brown arguing that the administration’s Egypt policy has been overtaken by events. And both Dexter Filkins in the New Yorker and Bill Keller in the New York Times have gone after the administration for dithering on Syria, especially in light of the mounting evidence that Assad has crossed the administration’s “red lines” on the use of chemical weapons. These are heavy hitters; throw in the David Sanger co-authoredNYT weekender saying that the whole “red line” controversy in Syria was caused by a major presidential gaffe, and some of the biggest dogs in town are saying some very harsh things about presidential competence and judgment.If we were sitting in the White House right now, we would be worried that the Benghazi hearings scheduled for later this week could be an important tipping point, accelerating the MSM turn away from a lame duck president whose Middle East policies, to put it mildly, face some unresolved issues.
President Obama faces a tough mix of domestic and foreign challenges in the Middle East. Abroad, the situation in Syria has steadily worsened while the Egyptian revolution he championed looks less attractive every day. The mullahs in Iran have not shown many signs that they fear his wrath, suggesting that a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue is not in the cards.

The Congressional hearings on Benghazi beginning tomorrow should sweep up some of the Kookie Krumbs littering America's standing in the world. We should see the penmanship of Samantha Power all over this mess, under the commands of Valerie Jarrett.

Democrats will circle the silent butlers around the neck of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who sat down hard the Benghazi cookie tray and collect the Kookie Krumbs. Hillary Clinton will be the subject of national and world ridicule, until she serves up Jarrett, Samantha Power and President Obama.

Unless the GOP again screws up the hearings as royally as they have in the past ( Fast & Furious/Benghazi),
I believe that the two White House exempts and their Chinaman the President will wear the jacket of political
larceny all covered up with and by the crumbs of these dilettante egoists.

The need now, among Democrats, over the next fews months will be to convince the American voter that George W. Bush selected Barack H. Obama to run for the Illinois Senate, US Senate and America's Chief Executive.  Hillary Clinton, once the crumbs have been brushed, will help do just that. That's how this cookie crumbles.

With Benghazi ( "Long Time Ago") Peeling, Hillary Clinton Will Toss These Three Under the Bus

Benghazi, seems like only yesterday.  Jay Carney said that I am very much mistaken, because it happened so long ago and that an American Ambassador and three security heroes were slaughtered in Libya, while the White House remained on Deaf Com 6 - Got an Election, Folks! Distraction.

 Samantha Power, Susan Rice and President Lame Duck #44 will be the Fall Person's tossed to history's dentures by Hillary Clinton: When the smoke clears Hillary Clinton the #45 Wannabee will put the jacket on Mrs. Cass Sunstein, (Samantha Powers), The proud black woman named Rice who is not named Condalisa, ( Susan Rice) and the Al Green in Chief President Barack H. Obama.  The bus is rolling.

From Stephen Hayes for the Weekly Standard, The Nation with a moral core:

After the internal distribution, CIA officials amended that draft to include more information about the jihadist threat in both Egypt and Libya. “On 10 September we warned of social media reports calling for a demonstration in front of the [Cairo] Embassy and that jihadists were threatening to break into the Embassy,” the agency had added by late afternoon. And: “The Agency has produced numerous pieces on the threat of extremists linked to al Qaeda in Benghazi and Libya.” But elsewhere, CIA officials pulled back. The reference to “Islamic extremists” no longer specified “Islamic extremists with ties to al Qaeda,” and the initial reference to “attacks” in Benghazi was changed to “demonstrations.”
The talking points were first distributed to officials in the interagency vetting process at 6:52 p.m. on Friday. Less than an hour later, at 7:39 p.m., an individual identified in the House report only as a “senior State Department official” responded to raise “serious concerns” about the draft. That official, whom The Weekly Standard has confirmed was State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland, worried that members of Congress would use the talking points to criticize the State Department for “not paying attention to Agency warnings.”
In an attempt to address those concerns, CIA officials cut all references to Ansar al Sharia and made minor tweaks. But in a follow-up email at 9:24 p.m., Nuland wrote that the problem remained and that her superiors—she did not say which ones—were unhappy. The changes, she wrote, did not “resolve all my issues or those of my building leadership,” and State Department leadership was contacting National Security Council officials directly. Moments later, according to the House report, “White House officials responded by stating that the State Department’s concerns would have to be taken into account.” One official—Ben Rhodes, The Weekly Standard is told, a top adviser to President Obama on national security and foreign policy—further advised the group that the issues would be resolved in a meeting of top administration officials the following morning at the White House.

There is little information about what happened at that meeting of the Deputies Committee. But according to two officials with knowledge of the process, Mike Morrell, deputy director of the CIA, made broad changes to the draft afterwards. Morrell cut all or parts of four paragraphs of the six-paragraph talking points—148 of its 248 words (see Version 2 above). Gone were the reference to “Islamic extremists,” the reminders of agency warnings about al Qaeda in Libya, the reference to “jihadists” in Cairo, the mention of possible surveillance of the facility in Benghazi, and the report of five previous attacks on foreign interests. 

I see the penmanship of Samantha Power, the Foreign Policy Czar of the Obama White House, the Irish-born OxFam activist/journalist who remains in the shadows but crafts the daffy Obama Middle East balls-up universal, all over the talking points read by Susan Rice. Reuters reported that Samantha Power is about to be 'disappeared' to a State Department post.

Samantha Power is like cashiered Green Czar Van Jones, one of the power persons who appear out of left-field and manage to craft bad policy while avoiding the blame. Unlike Jones, Power keeps her ego in her purse.   When it got the better of her ambitions, got her knocked off Obama 2008 Campaign for nasty comments on the future Secretary of State. Van Jones took his ego to TV.

Hillary will bounce Power quicker than Bill Clinton's next exploitable chick comes along.


When the dust settles on the Benghazi Disaster Sept. 11, 2012, so long, long, long ago in the words of White House Press Flak Jay Carney, Hillary Clinton will be required to get from under her fish-monger roar of 'What difference does it make?"



PeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeLenty!
Samantha Power is ready for tenure at Columbia.
The President already purged the military in this matter, Rice resigned quicker than the time it takes to have a new talking point, but Hillary Clinton thinks she will walk into the White House in 2016.

What a difference a long time makes.

Leo High School is Lourdes? No, but it will do: The Miles Turner Miracle

Miles Turner, Leo 2013 went to prom last night.

 

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

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Miles Turner's heroic battle against five bullets is nothing short of miraculous.  Miracles are scoffed at, just as they were in secularist France in the mid-18th Century when a peasant girl brought miraculous water to millions of physically afflicted people at Lourdes.

Cardinal George is in Lourdes.  Cardinal George is a very significant presence at Leo High School in the Gresham neighborhood.

It always seems that whenever Cardinal George is out of Chicago on the business of the three million Catholics of this city, the moral and political pygmies take the opportunity to insult, offend, or disrupt the work of the Archbishop of Chicago.  Once Francis Cardinal George boarded the plane for the sacred shrine in France, the Tribune's pencil-necked Progressive sucker-puncher Eric Zorn rolled out a series of insulting, flawed and cowardly screeds leveled at the Cardinal's objection to Mayor Rahm's punitive tax on church institutional water.   At the same time before the City Club of Chicago, Emanuel's City Council Floor Leader Alderman Pat O'Connor went all Vidkun Quisling on the Faith of His Fathers.

Mayor's floor leader blasts Catholic Church over water squabble
5/3/2013 7:30:00 PM
By FRAN SPIELMAN -Chicago Sun Times
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's City Council floor leader lashed out at the Catholic Church on Wednesday for rejecting the mayor's compromise offer on water fees for nonprofits even after, the alderman claimed, failing to clean its own house on the priest sex abuse scandal."They're clearly not owning up to the fact that there are people out there damaged by the church and they're talking about free water. Really?" said Ald. Pat O'Connor (40th).
Describing himself as "a Catholic, not a happy one these days," O'Connor said, "The church has so many internal problems, they ought to satisfy their own problems and they ought to address the things that are in the paper every day and stop talking about free water. Quit saying that they handled things right in the past or . . . or, even worse, saying mistakes were made in the past, but they're not correcting those mistakes."
Earlier this week, Cardinal Francis George jumped into the controversy caused by Emanuel's decision to cut off the free water spigot to struggling churches and nonprofits that provide a safety net of social services to needy Chicagoans.
The cardinal appeared at a news conference called by an "inter-faith coalition" of religious leaders to reject the mayor's offer to restore the free water perk to groups with assets under $1 million.
The cardinal called the lake a "gift from God" and said maybe "we should start charging the city for water" - not the other way around.

Water - a source of revenue for spendthrift city.  Water - a sign of the miraculous.

It all depends on which side of history, one takes the vantage point to see something.

Miles is afflicted with bullets from a gang-bangers gun; Cardinal George is afflicted not only with the intrusion of cancer, but a cultural and political class of  bigots who hide behind the same altar of science as secular inquistors who challenged the faith of the French peasant girl Bernadette's faith and blocked the miraculous waters of Lourdes . . .for a time, anyway.

 A Medical Bureau was established in 1882 to test the authenticity of the cures. The doctors include unbelievers as well as believers and any doctor is welcome to take part in the examination of the alleged cures. As many as 500 medical men of all faiths or no faith have taken advantage of the invitation each year. Many books and movies tell the story of Lourdes. Even Hollywood made a movie of this remarkable event in the 1940's entitled "The Song of Bernadette" which won six academy awards.

Today, Hollywood gives religion and the Catholic faith in particular very short shrift. Miracles are now called health policy by the secular Believe Nothings. Miles Turner stood again because his family believe.

Miles Turner was prayed for not only by his wonderful parents and family, but also the Cardinal and the extended Leo High School family.  Alumni called about Miles everyday and asked how they might help the family.  Most importantly, Miles was lifted out of his many recovery beds by skilled physicians, technicians, therapists, teachers and Dan McGrath, President of Leo High School and football coach and surrogate father of hundreds Mike Holmes.

Dan and Mike stood with Miles and his family nearly everyday from the time the young man was shot. I have never been more proud of human beings.

Dan and Mike joined the Turner family is moistening Miles' lips and throat with ice and later water.  Miles could not take liquids for months.  Christ's words from the cross, "I thirst!" were remembered. Miles was slaked with words of comfort and encouragement from the lips of Leo teachers Kristine Meany, Katy Hyland, Aurora Latifi and Bob Schablaske who tutored Miles when his strength returned.  Water and wisdom were not denied.

Cardinal George is in Lourdes, Miles went to prom and will graduate with his class.  The newspapers and TV stations that feature the Miles Turner miracle, will also mock the Cardinal and the very faith that is core of Leo High School.  It is good that those media outlets are awed by this story of personal
struggle, but is also sad that they will not consider the waters of miraculous faith that make the struggle worth the while.

The water tax is merely a punitive measure to force people of faith to go against their beliefs and become out-spoken critics, like Alderman Pat O'Connor, of the religion, the schools, the associations and institutions that made his 'personal struggle' a vacuum-packed biography and a lucrative life.

If Cardinal George had only been compelled to agree that abortion is health care and gay marriage religious liberty, churches could have all the water they could want -untaxed.

Had Miles Turner indicated with his suffering eyes the words "I Thirst" to Rahm Emanuel, or his City Council Floor Leader Pat O'Connor, his lips would have remained mighty dry.

As it is, Leo is not Lourdes, but it sure as hell will do.

Jerry Schumacher -God Gets His Gentle Giant in the Line-up

Toughness should always be measured against gentleness and compassion.  The oils of the sacraments are meant to make us supple and never brittle.  Like the leather baseball mitt that we were given as kids from Dads who scrimped to make the purchase, our lives only endure when we apply the oils and massage our hearts and wrap them in good works and intentions.  The softer the soul, heart and head, the tougher the person becomes able to take the shocks and hard ground.

Jerry Schumacher is one of the toughest person's I know.  He has gone home to Christ oiled and tested -gentle and sweet.

Jerry is a couple of years my senior and eons my superior in wisdom, grace and compassion. Eternity will be a very short journey for Jerry.

He was a giant whose legendary athleticism never allowed the mistaken notion that toughness was all about doing unto others with cruelty. Jerry never boasted - he didn't need to; he never bullied- he never needed to; he never listened to gossip, or bad-mouthing of other people -that he never needed.

Jerry loved deeply.

Jerry was too tough a man to ever shout out, " How You Like Me Now?"

Pygmies are prone to that statement.  Pygmies and little kids playing at tough guy.

His biography is impressive with accomplishments.  His life was so much more.  I never once heard Jerry Schumacher utter an unkindness, much less do a cruel or selfish thing to any person.

His kindness mortifies my own thoughtlessness.

Jerry's welcoming boom of a voice and open palms fill out God's starting line-up.

God Bless Us with some men like Jerry Schumacher; we ain't that tough anymore.

He was a graduate of Mount Carmel High School, where he won a Prep Bowl Championship on 1967, and of the University of Michigan. While at playing football at Michigan he was part of a Big 10 and Rose Bowl winning team.
He was later inducted into the Chicago Catholic League and Mount Carmel High School halls of fame. Mt. Schumacher went on to teach at Gordon Tech High School from 1974 to 1978. He was a member of Local 150.
Mr. Schumacher was the son of the late James and Kathleen nee McInerney, fond son-in-law of the late Chuck and Marge Miller.
He is survived by his wife Cathy nee Miller and children Karen (Shawn) Finnin, Katie (Michael) Cawley, Jerry Jr. and Brian (Emily) Schumacher. Grandfather of Kathleen, Brigid, Shawn and Jack Finnin, Stella and Nora Cawley.
He is also survived by his siblings Carole, the late Gene (Lee) Schumacher, Janice (John) Comiskey, Kathleen (Frank) Maloney, Erin (David) Carlstedt, Maureen (Phil) Panatera, Mary Pat (Jim) Rohan, Jim (Julie) Schumacher, and Susan (Tom) Sheahan.
Fond brother-in-law of Michael Miller, Ret. Bat. Chief CFD, and PJ (Joanne) Miller. Proud uncle and great uncle of many nieces and nephews.
Visitation will be on Thursday, May 2 from 3 to 9 p.m. at St. Cajetan Church, 2445 W. 112th Street.
A Funeral Mass will take place on Friday, May 3 at St. Cajetan Church at 10:00 a.m. Interment  will be at Mt. Olivet Cemetery.

Waterboy Eric Zorn Tries to Tweak Cardinal George - Spitballs Tossed at the USS Missouri

"You'll thank me for this years from now, Eric . . .or not. Yeah, probably not"

The Chicago Tribune's Waterboy, Eric Zorn, whom the Tower Editorial Board would to prop up to be The Man over a real newsman John Kass,  once again does his Nerd-Gone-Gangsta routine with today's attempt to tweak Chicago's Archbishop Francis Cardinal George over Rahm Emanuel's callow water tax levy on churches.

The claim that the public should pay water bills for organizations that do good things for the community at large is flimsy -- what, should we pay their electric bills, too? How about their property insurance? -- but at least arguable.
But the claim that the public should pay church water bills because religion itself is such a good thing -- a "glue" -- that everyone should chip in to pay for it is constitutionally (and otherwise) offensive.

Alas, The Kids in the Tower are up against EZ's gifts and public tastes. John Kass speaks with the heart and soul of a neighborhood Chicagoan and therefore remains the vox populi.  Eric 'EZ' Zorn ? This poor goof must have had a very sad childhood, indeed.

Many of the self-proclaimed 'smartest kids in class' had horrific experiences in school, due to their sense of opinion, free speech and downright loud proclamations of their whiz-bang logic.  While teachers might patiently smile at young Eric's penchant for entering the lists of any and every argument, cadres of contemporaries waited as patiently for recess, or lunch time opportunities for activist rebuttal in the form of pantsing the young Rousseau and tossing his Dad 'N Lads up on the nearest available utility lines.

The salubrious effect pantsing had on many a young Danton from my halcyon days was profound.  Young Hegels avoided becoming public ninnies and embraced common sense. Yousee, pantsing was a much more direct and emphatic manner of saying, " My dear chap, have you thought through what you have just said?  Allow me and your boonchums here to demonstrate the folly and willfully bad manners your comments make . . .grab the snotty little prique, Alphonse!"

Eric Zorn, sadly, missed out on this opportunity to remove his schnozzola from his belly-button for life because his words and inclinations were protected by educators unschooled in group play, but learned in group think.  The young fellow was few years behind the Golden Learning Curve. The result - EZ would be as welcome among most Chicagoans, as Kermit Gosnell at The Babysitter's Club.

Francis Cardinal George is more of my cultural contemporary than Eric Zorn.   We got smacked when got snotty with our elders and betters and Eric Zorn was taught by 'Who's To Say-ers.'  Wrong Side of History?  Perhaps. Wrong Side of the Brain-pan?  For sure.

Let's get to pantsing.

EZ objects to Cardinal George's protestations over a tax levied by Mayor Rahm on churches as a warning shot fired over bow.  Had Cardinal George gone all Seamless Garment on Gay Marriage, everything would be jake.

Instead, the historical exemption for churches was nixed.

Rahm Emanuel causes men of faith like Alderman Pat O'Connor to soil his Haines at the thought defending his church and common sense:

Story by 89 WLS Reporter Bill Cameron(CHICAGO) At City Hall, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's City Council Floor Leader Alderman Pat O'Connor says he's upset about the joke Cardinal Francis George made yesterday in a bid to restore free city water for churches.
O’Connor is not amused by the cardinal joking that maybe it’s time for the church to charge the city for water because Lake Michigan is God’s gift to us.
When asked, the alderman said the cardinal should stick to praying and saving souls.
“The silliest things can be said and people latch onto it.” O’Connor said. “For chrissake, we sell everybody water!  And now all of a sudden because we’re a church, we’re not supposed to sell them water?  At some point, i think what’s gonna happen is someone’s go– and here he alluded to pedophile priests - and stop talking about free water.  H/T Dan Kelley

That a boy, Pat!  Roll over.  Sic 'em with that abuse canard.  The white haired burgher really gave us a look at the gummy worm he has for a backbone.

Aldermen are scared $hitless of Rahm. All of them.  Why?  Plum evades me. Money, or the future lack of it thereof, I reckon.

Back to EZ - Eric Zorn hasa veritable  written of Pentateuch  of Rahm Happy propaganda ever since the diminuitive danse tyran took over the Fifth Floor from Richard II : Garbage Grid/ School Reform/Ceasefire Giveaways/Make underutilized and empty real estate an opportunity for the Hyde Park Mafia ( Miner/Davis/Jarret/Rogers et al)/Cop Bash and Mayor Water Tax-ey.

The water tax not only pumps up the Mayor with the Raccoon Eyes, but has the added tang of slapping the Catholic Church. Thus, more EZ logic.

The claim that the public should pay water bills for organizations that do good things for the community at large is flimsy -- what, should we pay their electric bills, too? How about their property insurance? -- but at least arguable

The Lake provides water, water.  The Unevolved, unlike the pains-in-the-ass, understand that the Great Lakes were part of God's Bounty.  That Bounty went untaxed for churches and other do-gooding non-governmental clingers to religion . . .until the Evolved showed up.

Insurance is, like usury, an unnatural man crafted construct.  Electricity comes from God's Bounty, but it takes ComEd, not City Hall, to harness the sparks after getting the coal burners a' cooking.

Apples and lug nuts,there,  Eric.

Now, to call of of the most respected scholars and original thinkers in a hard collar - a flimsy logician?

Well, that is like tossing spitballs at a battleship.

The water tax is a punitive measure to make the churches roll over on legislation that is dangerous and silly.

Every bill pumped into Springfield with Planned Parenthood dollars, or Fred Eychaner's moolah will be opposed by Cardinal George and the next the bishop of Chicago and the churches that avoid appearing like a Bill Moyers special on PBS.

Catholic aldermen will back Rahm.  Eric Zorn will carry water for Rahm.  Some kids are still in dire need of good pantsing.

Nice Try, Mr. Zorn, but Kermit Gosnell is Abortion in America.

 Eric Zorn - If You are evolved, you gotta go along with him . . .or else.

Gosnell, 72, is charged with running what amounted to a squalid abattoir where he performed late-term abortions and severed the spines or otherwise killed outside the womb fetuses who showed signs of being able to survive.
He’s charged with first-degree murder in four such alleged incidents and with third-degree murder in the death of a patient who allegedly received a fatal overdose of anesthesia from Gosnell’s poorly trained staff.
I don’t mean to minimize the disturbing nature of these incidents and other stories out of Gosnell’s clinic that are not part of the remaining charges against him.But Gosnell is not the face of abortion in America, as opponents of abortion rights are suggesting. He is the face of illegal abortion in America. Eric Zorn, Planned Parenthood Shill and Chicago Tribune Vox de Abortus

The Chicago Tribune is and has been in bed with the abortion industry for quite some time.  Abortion is the litmus test for the evolved - Sexual revolutionaries,  Feminist hair-splitters, PETA hand wringers, Environmentalist Earth Firsters,  Marijuana activists, Gaza activists, Anti-America Exceptionalists, Public Education Bolivarists (Klonsky et al), Marriage Deconstructionist and Government apologists.

If one is okay with abortion, one is evolved and all the other non-sense doctrines make perfect sense.

People who lose sleep over the bugs that, might, just might, be depressed by the Keystone Pipeline are perfectly at home with Dr. Kermit Gosnell's butcher shop and only upset that the monster outed abortion for what it is - wholesale murder of the innocent for profit.

Eric Zorn is fully evolved and today let fly his dart of affection for the nature of Dr. Gosnell's labors, but not his methods.  He says that Dr. Kermit Gosnell is a face of illegal abortion.

Abortion is perfectly legal, Eric, wholesome, well funded, politically le plus approprié.  Dr. Gosnell operated, not in the shadowy alleys, but in the full light of day on the corner.

I imagine that Illinois Personal PAC's Boss Terry Cosgrove has been packing the e-mail and twitter accounts of Change of Subject and perhaps proferred a noon snack at one of Chicago's Clubs, or A-list eateries to discuss the impact of Gosnell on contributions and the political effect his knife work might have on the Gay Marriage vote.  Gay Marriage and Abortion are twin civil rights memes demanding the evolved to get in line and the unevolved punished.

Yep, Personal PAC invested in new Senators and State Reps. in Illinois on the condition that they vote for Gay Marriage.  My Senator, from a district that is not exactly Boystown (19th Ward & Worth Township in largely traditional Catholic and breeders) voted the Greg Harris Anti-Marriage Law up the chute.

My Representative, Fran Hurley, has take Personal PAC's coin and will obey Boss Cosgrove, just as Gov. Pat Quinn has made a career of doing so.  Personal PAC funds Greg Harris, as well as the usual plastic Evolutionaries like Barbara Flynn Currie, and so many other people in government who created Our Illinois.
Abortion funds the Progressive.

Abortion is murder for profit, Eric. You can call abortion Womans' Reproductive Choice Health Care, or a swell 5lb Whitman's Sampler for Dowagers, but euphemisms do nothing to sponge up the blood children, much less a selfish and thoughtless side of history that would make Stalin and Hitler blush with envy.