One Sentence Alone Indicates the Greatness of 'Professor' Joseph Epstein -America's Montaigne

"Without intellectual courage, even the most charmed of lives lose their allure; unwilling to declare their beliefs, even the most brilliant of men are in the end divested of their gravity."

The above knock-out punch of a sentence comes from the ungloved mitts of Chicago's own Joe Epstein.

In a gloriously written essay on the "Charmed Life" of Isaiah Berlin in last week's Weekly Standard, "Professor" Epstein concluded his assessment of a life lived, but perhaps not really worth all of the schmoozing, name-dropping and plucking appointments.

Joe Epstein recently retired from teaching at Northwestern University and recoiled from my  use of 'professor' as my term of address in greetings spoken, or written.  Joe would say, " I am not a piano player in some Kankakee Cat-House, Hickey."  I also see him as the American Montaigne - the daddy of the essay.  Not good enough.  

Joseph Epstein is the Mohammad Ali of American prose non-fiction.

Toni Preckwinkle is Bone Stupid . . .but at Least as Smart as Karen Lewis and Rahm Went to New Trier.

"We've got in this country such distorted values. In the last 30 or 40 years we've invested all this money in our prison system, and our schools are starving for money." Toni Preckwinkle on America

Inmates get 24/hour care for roughly $ 39.000 per inmate - that's for 365 days per annum.

CPS children attend school for roughly 5 hours and 52 mintes (on the heavy side) at a cost of $ 26.500 - that's for 161 days per annum.

"We ought to invest a lot more in our public schools. You know, feed the kids breakfast, lunch, and dinner; have after-school activities; keep the schools open until nine o'clock in the evenings and on weekends; invest in things like the Boys and Girls Club and the Park District—I mean, everything, basically, to dramatically ramp up the investments in our children." -Toni Preckwinkle on Fighting Crime in Chicago

Toni Preckwinkle is bone stupid.

Then there is Karen Lewis ( read Jesse Sharkey) 

”The labor leaders of that time, though, were ready to kill. They were. They were just - off with their heads. They were seriously talking about that.” -<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Rf-N7Fe_Wc4?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

"The issue is we cannot get a perfect contract. There is no such thing as a contract that will make all of us happy, and we're realistic about that. The other issue, do we stay on strike forever until every little thing we want is capable of being gotten. We don't think that."

"This idea of corporate efficiency that's been pushed toward schools, that's a problem for us. It's not good for kids. I think people don't understand that. If kids are in chaos, their lives are in chaos. Where is the stability?"

"I'm so thrilled that people are going back, all of our members are glad to be back with their kids. It's a hard decision to make to go out, and for some people it's hard to make the decision to go back in." September 19, 2012

Karen Lewis is considered a ripe plum to Mayor of Chicago.

As for Rahm? Meh.  With regard to  Education and Chicago Crime, Rahm versus Toni and Karen is a debate about the difference between horse poop and manure.

"I wake up some mornings hating me too." -Rahm Emanuel

There, I've Said It Again!!!! Toni Preckwinkle is Bone Stupid

Toni Preckwinkle Mayor of Chicago?

Toni Preckwinkle is bone stupid, but that never seems to impede the path of an Illinois Progressive - Dick Durbin, Pat Quinn, Jan Schakowski, Joe Moore, Mike Quigley, Deb Mell. Deb Shore. Proco Joe ad infinitum.

I must repeat this!  Toni Preckwinkle is bone stupid.  I must repeat this in much the same manner as Carol Marin lifts ideas from Laura Washington - weeks late - and Eric Zorn channels the Brothers Klonsky, the Granta versions of Billy Ayers.

 Toni "The Cook County Crypt Keeper" and Zeus Preckwinkle sharing a hilarious moment.

Did I mention that Toni Preckwinkle is bone stupid?  There, I've said again!




That Toni Preckwinkle!  She's the Crypt Keeper and yet she managed to dump all of the corpses on Dr. Jones AND get the Sun Times Editorial Board to help.

Toni Preckwinkle is not evil; she is bone stupid and that always helps as a Progressive. . . anywhere and especially here in Cook County.

I remember Toni, from back in the days when she fell down an open manholes on the way from City Hall to the State of Illinois Building. Wasn't that a time?

I remember Toni when she dumped on Chicago Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow, after he was dead of course, as a racist.

I remember Toni Preckwinkle when she wore shoes from two very different pairs.

I remember Toni Preckwinkle . . .and I would love to forget that she is yet breathing my air.

Nevertheless, Toni Preckwinkle will always be with us, as long as there is a WTTW, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times - Carol Marin lifting thoughts from Laura Washington and Eric Zorn channeling the thoughts of the Brothers Klonsky.

Todd Stroger was seriously challenged, but Toni Preckwinkle is stupid and you can't fix stupid. You an only become a Progressive public money grabber. Stupid people depend upon formulae and always stick closely to the script.  They use teleprompters and memes, because an original thought would die of suffocation with the vapor-locked cavern between their ears.

Marijuana demands to be free!  Dopers allied with academic and lawyers with Progressive crendentials years ago and made legalization of drugs an identity politics adjunct.  Movie like Traffic appealed to the Smart Set -"Yeah, whom do drugs most harm, Hmmmm?"  The War on Drugs is a Drag, because it thickens prison yards, shoots up the community and denies dweebs the freedom to choose to get smoked up and baked. Toni Preckwinkle is doing for dope what Joe Moore did for goose guts.

Today, the Cook County Board President let her inner Toni out at an event dubbed a leadership conference hosted by the most fatuous ninny to sit in the Governor's Chair until Pat Quinn -GOP Jim Edgar and the ears at U of I  pricked up for the War on Drugs:

That’s when she said Reagan deserved “a special place in hell,” a comment that produced a discernible gasp among conferees, according to some in attendance.
She then, jokingly, said, “What, you didn’t like that?” the witnesses said.
Rose declined comment about her remarks or his exchange with Preckwinkle during what had been billed to attendees as an “off-the-record” discussion, though media representatives from the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and WBBM-TV were not told about those ground rules.
Preckwinkle offered no excuses. She later told the Sun-Times, “It was a conference and wasn’t supposed to be a media event, but when you speak in front of reporters it is a media event.”

The woman who wore the jacket for the Crypt Keeper of Cook County, Dr. Jones called Toni evil and Toni Preckwinkle damned Ronald Reagan, long dead of course, to Hell.

Toni Preckwinkle is in no way evil.

Toni Preckwinkle is bone stupid.  Bone stupid makes evil happen.


http://www.suntimes.com/14641564-761/preckwinkle-sorry-she-said-reagan-deserves-special-place-in-hell-for-war-on-drugs.html

Cucumbers, Cops and Chicago Media! Where's the Loevy?

 

I am not surprised that only hours after the revelation of Team Loevy's aiding and abetting Police Torture by a CPD Alumnus, Steve Manning-Mandel, no other suggestions of coming investigations are afoot by the Chicago Corporate Media. In fact, the report itself has been "edited"

Here is January 20,2014 report from the Federal Court at 1:27PM

Mandell said he did “a little bit” of the spying he was being paid for, but was conning Michael by claiming to be doing more work than he was being paid for.
He said he used the computer databases and other tools at the civil rights law firm Loevy & Loevy, where he was working as an unpaid process server, to research half a dozen targets Michael had asked him to keep tabs on.
That’s a potential embarrassment for the highly-regarded law firm, which represented Mandell in a 2005 wrongful conviction case against the FBI.  - BY KIM JANSSEN Federal Courts Reporter February 20, 2014 1:27PM

Here is the "updated" report that is heavier on cucumbers than Loevy & Loevy.  

 In the end, it was the cucumber salad that did Steve Mandell in. . . .He used his unpaid job at civil rights law firm Loevy and Loevy to research Michael’s rivals, he said.  Updated: February 21, 2014 2:26AM  (emphases my own)

That is some update.      The cucumber trumps the computer used by Steve Mandell in the offices of Loevy & Loevy?  Count the number of times Steve Mandell is refered to as ex-cop, or former Chicago Police Officer and then try and find the Loevy & Loevy in the print media these next few days,

Loevy & Loevy are believed to be the arch-enemies of cops who torture, yet have and unpaid cop planning a sophisticated torture and execution chamber under their very snot-lockers?  Can't have that and continue to set the likes of Anthony Porter, Aaron Paterson and other worthies back into the the very communities they terrorized.  Can't have that and expect G. Flint Taylor to fight Gator Bradley for spilled nickels on the court room floor.

Reporters have a tough job. They get the story. They write the facts of the story and then find that their facts must fit the print according to the editorial policy folks.   Hence, Kim Janssen's report from the Federal Court on January 20th found itself 'updated.'

The Chicago news media is invested in the activities of Loevy & Loevy, as much as the elected officials and policy wizards who need to have the police presented as racist, brutal and corrupt.  All inquiry ends there.

Loevy & Loevy make millions of dollars from suits brought against Law Enforcement ( police, prosecutors, judges and the public they serve) and Loevy & Loevy provides capital in coin and court cases that create compelling yarns.  Loevy & Loevy were complicit in a torture plot managed by a man who briefly and infamously had been a cop decades ago.

Steve Mandell is a convicted monster.  Loevy & Loevy are this monster's Frankenstein.

Buried Ledes and The 'Wrongful' Conviction Industry

One cop that Jon Loevy likes

Steve Mandell leaves the Dirksen Federal Building in 2005 with his attorney Jon Loevy. | Sun-Times Media file photo

Unlike this crew, who have managed to completly avoid corporate and complicit media Inquiry altogether.

bury the lede

1. (idiomatic) (news writing style) To begin a story with details of secondary importance to the reader while postponing more essential points or facts. 

Lede - means The Man in Old English, interesting to note.

For years, I have written about the willful ignorance of politicians and the media that helped create Chicago's "Wrongful" Conviction Industry.  

Chicago is a Thug Comfort Zone thanks in large part to this Industry that benefits journalists, Marxist academics and unprincipled lawyers.  This Industry benefits very few people and was founded on wishful doctrine - John Dewey's replacement of Inquiry for Truth.  Begin with a premise like 'all police officers are paid racists, Uncle Tom Go-longs, or sadistic fascists operating for Systemic Racism' and any conviction even for the most horrific and bloody of acts can and will be tried in the media and over-turned.

Generations of Chicagoans have been emotionally, intellectually and spiritually water-boarded with the drip-drip-dripping yarns of electric testicle burners, Houses of Screams that no one but John Conroy seemed to hear, and sequestered testimony by disappearing boy scouts and of course Vietnam chestnuts.  Kids unborn when Officers Fahey and O'Brien were, in fact, tortured and murdered by the Wilson Brothers at 80th & Morgan deeply believe that Jon Burge tortured more Black persons than Idi Amin.

The Peoples Law Office, G. Flint Taylor, Jon Loevy, David Protess, Locke Bowman and Aaron Patterson are the founding founding fathers of Systemic Police Brutality and Wrongful Convictions, Llc.

Today, we learned, thanks to a public heads-up from police blog The Second City Cop, of the co-operation the law firm of Loevy & Loevy provided to a man hired to murder for the mob. SCC was required to dig the lede up that was buried deeply down page.

Former Chicago cop Steve Mandell took the stand in federal court Thursday to defend himself against charges he plotted multiple murders.
The risky move — rarely taken by defendants, especially in such a high stakes case — comes at the end of a two week trial at which jurors have heard how Mandell built a torture chamber on the Northwest Side, where he planned to extort, then kill a wealthy suburban businessman, and how he allegedly planned to kill an owner of Polekatz strip club and his wife.
But then this happened:
Mandell said he did “a little bit” of the spying he was being paid for, but was conning Michael by claiming to be doing more work than he was being paid for.
He said he used the computer databases and other tools at the civil rights law firm Loevy & Loevy, where he was working as an unpaid process server, to research half a dozen targets Michael had asked him to keep tabs on.
That’s a potential embarrassment for the highly-regarded law firm, which represented Mandell in a 2005 wrongful conviction case against the FBI.
Really? Do tell. The Loevys helped him win a suit against the FBI that was later overturned. And the Loevys also have a habit of scoring large payouts in suits against the City. It certainly sounds like Mandell was hip deep in the shit that got him placed on Death Row once before.
Very interesting. (emphasis my own)

Credit Kim Jansenn of the Chicago Sun Times for providing the  Loevy & Loevy info. Perhaps some investigative jornalist might begin to dig deeper into the Industry and the complicity of academics, lawyers and elected officials in creating the Chicago Thug Comfort Zone.

More interestingly a young Chicago police officer, Martin Preib*, has book coming out this month that sheds light on the protected species of the Wrongful Conviction/Police Torture Industry.



New City Communications **offers a taste of Preib's painstaking research and sharp insights -

 . . . a disturbing vision of David Protess and the Innocence Project emerged, as well as of the wrongful conviction movement itself. In 2011, Protess was caught by Northwestern University “knowingly misrepresenting the facts” in a matter related to an unrelated wrongful conviction case. The attorney for Northwestern told a judge that Protess had altered emails subpoenaed by prosecutors. Protess brushed aside the assertion that he had altered evidence, saying it was just a misunderstanding, but it was enough for Northwestern to conduct its own internal investigation. After this internal investigation, Protess was fired from the university and the school issued a public statement acknowledging Protess’ wrongdoing. I exchanged many emails with Protess and some phone calls with Paul Ciolino when I first became interested in this story. But as my questions eventually revealed my skepticism about the Porter exoneration and the conviction of Simon, as well as the manner in which Protess ran the Innocence Project—which he continues to run to this day independent of Northwestern—Ciolino refused to respond to my inquiries. Eventually, Protess, too, stopped responding to me. How deep did Protess’ lying go? How badly were his cases tainted? Perhaps the best people to answer this question are detectives Salvatore and Gray, and Alstory Simon, who wastes away in prison to this day. “I got accused of a lot of things I didn’t do. There were lies said about me in this case. If they’re lying about me, who else are they lying about? What other detectives are they lying about?” Salvatore says. -

It may be a beginning.  Truth is much tougher to swallow than Inquiry.

*Martin Preib is a Chicago police officer and writer. His first book, “The Wagon and Other Stories from the City,” was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2010. His essays have been published in Playboy, Virginia Quarterly Review (winner of the 2005 Staige D. Blackford Award for Nonfiction) and Tin House.  His new book, “Crooked City,” will be available at Amazon.com this month. -

**Newcity.com is a Web site about Chicago. We start with the core coverage found each week in Newcity magazine, Chicago’s only locally owned and operated cultural weekly, where we’ve been covering the turf for more than 25 years, and extend it with your input on this site.  
**

Iwo Jima February 19, 1945- Thanks Dad.

Sixty-nine years ago, my late father was just twenty.  He was a PFC in the Third Marine Division and  a veteran of the Bougainville (1943) and Guam ( 1944) Campaigns. He and his pal Bob Guth were aboard an LST off Iwo Jima on this day in 1945.  Thanks Dad, Bob and all of the other heroes who made very little of their great sacrifices.

Podcast Comes to Beachwood Reporter! Kingsford and Rhodes Rock the Airwaves!

Listen up, Bitches!

"The world's wittiest Chicago-centric news and culture review kicks off its new weekly current events podcast with hosts Andrew Kingsford and Steve Rhodes. It's real, man." 

Steve Rhodes is a true Chicago newsman, even though he hails from The Land of Ice and Snow where people actually like Garrison Keillor and Swedes vote for Al Franken and On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore. . . . where was I ? 

Yep, Steve Rhodes can sling ink.  Steve is paired with Andy Kingsford from Oz, who owns and operates The Flying Saucer - a great place for generous portions of great food at modest prices,  Rhodes sling ink and Andy slings hash.  Together, they present the a solid podcast of news and insight only rivaled by the Skinny and Houli Show. 

Voila, Steve et Andy les durs sauvages et originales de Beachwood Inn et des journalistes qui connaissent leurs pommes de terre de leur Preckwinkles!

Leo HS Morning 2/11/2014 -I Ride With Pride and Clyde By My Side!

 I am blessed with a great life and the opportunity to work for Leo High School.  I get to Leo at about 4:45 most days and start the boilers, do some paper work and get one of the vans ready to pick up between seven and nine guys participating in early morning activities. My crew is usually Cyde, Chris, TJ, Mick, Joe, Latrell, Caleb, Gaylon, and Sydney.  I begin in Englewood at 74th & Normal, go to Grand Crossing at 66th & King Drive, take that beautiful, historic and inspiring Boulevard north to 35th and Dunkin Donuts!

At 5:45 AM I defrost and chip ice from Old # 7 and get the heat up -somewhat and at 6:10 head to pick up my co-pilot and fifteen year old mentor Clyde at 74th & Normal 

 The man emerges and runs to the van.  Hoists himself and a twenty pound book bag in to the van and greets me with a genuine "Good morning Mr. Hickey! My Mom says hi!  Let's Roll!"Route #66   Nelson Riddle   Nelson Riddle Collection

Download Route #66   Nelson Riddle   Nelson Riddle Collection MP3 for free on Dilandau

 Roll we do north toward Hamilton Park . . .

and then east to Wentworth, north again to 67th and then east to grab Chris - on the way Chris's Mom calls to say that he has the flu. Like Clyde, Chris never misses a day and commands a 3.8 GPA.

We pass Chris's home in the Park Homes and head north

 Under the 63rd Street L Platform

 and past Wahsington Park at 59th Street.  Past the 55th Street Garfield Boulevard the real charms of Chicago Architecture from the days of Burnham become evident.

 East and west we see scores of the very best examples of Chicago Architecture.

 We come to heart of Bronveville the birthplace of Chicago Blues and Jazz and the Harold Washington Library on the east side King Drive.

 At 45th we pass a beautiful old building boarded up and aching for a rehab.

 The Sax Man agrees!

 On the east side of 43rd and MLK drive stands my very favorite Chicago building.

 Just before 35th Street we come to the wonderful WWI Memorial to the Men of Bronze - the all African American Illinois Guard Regiment from Chicago that twisted the Kaiser's mustache until he gave up.   We make a right at 35th Street and a left at the strip mall that is home to our Dunkin Donuts

I explain that we are 'showing the flag,' like a 1920's Yankee gun-boat on the Yangtzee River - representing Leo High School in words and deeds and the lads have stepped up magnificently. For two years now, we are warmly greeted by the Dunkin Donuts regulars, headed by the Mall Manager Roy and the working the men who begin their day here.

Not a day goes by without a full report from Clyde

and fleshed out by Joe, Mick, Caleb, TJ, Latrell & etc.

The Dunkin Donuts He-Bull . . .

and the Dream Team serve us with coffee, OJ and a box of Munchkins ( chocolate glazed only).

These are my pals!  Missing is eighty year old Miss Marie and the famous BB Ref.

Back to the van and west on 35th Street, we pass Catholic League rival D.

 and approach the Dan Ryan.

 We pass Sox Park and merge with a near miss which upsets sissy-britches Mick

 Now, I pay great attention to rush hour south!

 We exit at 79th Street head west and arrive at Leo High School at 7:15 AM.

The guys polish off the Munchkins and get a hot breakfast at Leo.  The guys head to their activities, or tutoring sessions.  They put in a very long day of academics and sports and most do not get home until well after 7PM.

I am a very blessed man - Facta Non Verba.

Progressive Hack and Armchair Theologian Pat Quinn Firmly Believes in Jane Addams Mother Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth

 

“That Christianity has to be revealed and embodied in the line of social progress is a corollary to the simple proposition, that man’s action is found in his social relationships in the way in which he connects with his fellows; that his motives for action are the zeal and affection with which he regards his fellows” Jane Addams

“I believe in taxes being based on ability to pay,” Quinn said. “I think that’s a principle as old as the bible. I think what we have to do in Illinois is have a fair system that also promotes economic growth.” Gov. Pat Quinn

 Governor Quinn firmly believes that decision about a woman's body should be made by her and her doctor. He supports a woman's right to privacy and choice without restriction as embodied in Roe v. Wade.
In accordance with his beliefs that healthcare should not be predicated on income, Governor Quinn supports legislation restoring abortion coverage under the state Medicaid plan. In addition, he supports legislation to repeal Illinois' 1995 Parental Notice of Abortion Law.
Source: 2010 Gubernatorial website quinnforillinois.com, "Issues" , Nov 2, 2010

Pat Quinn goes to church and it happens to be a Catholic Church.  However, it his thoughts words and deeds are pure 19th Century First Church of the Darwinian House of Jane Addams - Secular Progressive Reformed. There are many of my coreligionists who chew swallow the bloody wafers, Girl Scout cookies and walking-around money from Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry without even a chaser, because they feel for women.  Feelings and intentions trump everything else; after all, the zeal and affection with which he regards his fellows” is all that is important.

Jane Addams really carried the ball over the goal-line for people who believe that Catholics are not zealous, nor affectionate toward their fellow man in the abstract and the particular. In fact, Jane Addams  is held in greater esteem by secularists, politicians of both parties who want to be considered Progressive, most academics and journalists and people who brand themselves independent thinkers, than canonized saints, Catholic bishops and theologians and people of simple faith.

Governor Pat Quinn cut and pasted Paul's letter to the Corinthians in order to fluff up the bunting over the redefinition of marriage in Illinois, rather than support St. Paul's doctrines.  St. Paul is the enemy of Jane Addams and her adopted spiritual children. Jane was a follower of Auguste Comte - the father of sociology and the religion of humanity.  The Social Gospel preached by Miss Settlement House and The Reverend Mr Quinn is all about science as the grease of government and government the salvific Eucharist itself.   As Brandon Harnish wrote in his brilliant essay Jane Addams's Social Gospel Synthesis and the Catholic Response, "in Addams's view Christianity is like putty, its greatest attribute being its ability to change shape." - to evolve.

The Progressive Movement grabbed Darwin by the forelocks and swung him in every direction -war & peace, sickness and in health, birth and death, sex and marriage have been formed and re-formed more than Late Night television. Jane Addams's Social Gospel was the religious component of the Progressive Movement, but it was her dabbling in politics that really paid off and proved the whetstone for the progressive dagger.  Jane Addams bullied her way into an appointment as 19th Ward sanitary officer and the rest was history.  Hull House was as much political headquarters as Alderman Johnny De Pow's grocery and saloon.  From Hull House, Addams preached her Social Gospel and waged holy war on the Democratic Party that not only bowed to, but canonized this Dowager a century later.

The Social Gospel has no room for a pew full of Catholics, so long as they remain Catholic.

As Jane Addams's Social Gospel was putty, the Catholic view of Christianity is stone ( remember the Rock of Peter?) 'used for foundation and construction alike.  The Catholic Church in Chicago was decades ahead of the Progressive in care for the poor, the elderly, the indigent, the unwanted and the ignorant.  The Social Gospel preachers evangelized politicians, journalists, professors and the comfortable.  Government replaced good works with policy.

Policy is Pat Quinn.  How's things going? One way.

Where's The Kerryman?

Chicago 1912 - Amid a sea of Stetsons, straw boaters and bowler hats stands Dermot Bresnahan of Scartaglen, County Kerry, asking .  Which one might he be?  Mighty Bee!