Sun Times Puffery: "Rahm Emanuel: 'I became my own worst enemy ... " Chicagoans Replay," Not as long as we're still breathing

Jerry Plunkett: If they don't let us at those Boches pretty soon, I'll have to carve me up a top-sergeant!

Terence 'Crepe-Hanger' Burke: Don't mind him sarge, he's his own worst enemy!

Sergeant 'Big Mike' Wynn: Not while *I'm* alive, he ain't! Fighting 69th (1940)

Rahm Emanuel: 'I became my own worst enemy ... '

Not even close' yet, the pre-election scenery painting goes on at the Chicago Sun Times.  Fran Spielman offers a dutiful homage to her overlord's and their favorite 9.5 fingered strongman -Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

In order to lend more national gravitas to her Rahm-souffle, Frannie cracked a few familar eggs - the Rajin Cajin Jimmy Carville and the alwats hilarious Pee-Wee Herman of Cable - Paul Begala, "Paul Begala says being mayor is “why God made” Rahm Emanuel, and he expects his friend to remain in the job “as long as the people of Chicago will have him.” 

The same was said of Mussolini, the Paper Hanger of Vienna and the Castro Brothers.  Gosherino, Paul!

Carville says, 'Two and Out and if it is third term Rahm Emanuel wants, why, he'll throw himself between Rahm and the filing petition scanner next time.

Tough.  I mean tough.

Not as tough as Rahm, to be sure - Fran Spielman's yellow brick road for the little prique to gambol his way back to Floor # Five is paved with Rahms own narrative,“I’m driven to make a difference. It’s part of my upbringing. It’s part of my psychology. I do it in a forceful way. It may ometimes rub people the wrong way. I’m not saying I haven’t contributed,”  and then  that gets calked with BS by Begala - " " He's a Do-er" 

Sure he's tough.

You wanna see tough?  Get aload of the second Rahm Emanuel term of office.

St, Valentine - Help Me Be Less of a Jerk

I take a backseat to no man, when it comes to being selfish, whiny and most of all a bearer of grudges.

I like to think that i bear no one grudges, but it ain't so.  I like to think that I am something of Stoic, nah. My liberal generosities?  Need work. Lots of work.

Where to begin?  Take a look at this paragraph from the biography of St. Valentine from Catholic On-line:

Saints are not supposed to rest in peace; they're expected to keep busy: to perform miracles, to intercede. Being in jail or dead is no excuse for non-performance of the supernatural. One legend says, while awaiting his execution, Valentinus restored the sight of his jailer's blind daughter. Another legend says, on the eve of his death, he penned a farewell note to the jailer's daughter, signing it, "From your Valentine."

He was a real flesh and blood human being during the reign of Emperor Claudius the Goth ( Claudius II - not the Julio-Claudian step daddy of Nero).  Valentine was a priest who continued to marry Christian couples though the Emperor had banned all Christian worship and ministrations of sacraments by priests.  Claudius was one of long-line of warrior emperors in the 3rd Century AD.  He spent most of his time with his legions fighting Germans and Goths.  Whether he ever met Valentine is a matter of some dispute.  However, Claudius Gothicus was an old-timey Roman pagan with no tolerance for Christians.

Valentine refused to go-along to get along. He was imprisoned and legend has it that he even tried to convert the Emperor while in the joint - bold, but fatal.  He was beaten, stoned and beheaded.

Valentine was not selfish,or  whiny, and bore no grudge.  He is the Patron Saint of lovers and his feast, like everything that's rooted in faith -All Hallows Eve, Christmas, Easter ad etc.- was co opted by secularists and largely forgotten as a flesh and blood hero.

I pray today that St. Valentine helps me be less of a selfish jerk.

Dialogue - Obama and Everyone Else from Dryden's" The Conquest of Granada"

John Dryden is rarely read by high school students.  Dryden was a 17th Century poet and he was the master of the 'closed couplet.' AKA the heroic couplet.

He wrote a play The Conquest of Granada using closed couplets.  I never taught this particular piece, but i really liked it.

The story is about the defeat of the Muslim Moors by the Spanish with the conquest of the city of Granada.

The main characters are mostly Moors and members of two factions violently opposed* to one another - think Sunni and Shia, or Democrat and Republican.  The Spanish Christians are united.

The hero of the play is the undefeated warrior Almanzor who is madly in love with his king's lady, Almahide/  She too loves Almanzor, but refuses to give in to 'what the heart wants' for the larger good of loyalty to one's word and lord.

There is a bit of dialog that reminds me of President Obama, the most closed minded and ineffective President since James Buchanan.

Boabdelin, the king of Granada, knows of the divided agendas (  Abencerrages v.Zegrys) and could care less; divided subjects give a king more power - keep 'em guessing: " The People their own tyrants are."

Almanzor, who has 57 Campaigns against the united Christians of Spain under his belt, knows that each of victories were Pyrric and further strengthened Christian resolve. Boabdelin, like 'I won both' Obama cares less.

Boab. I do not want your counsel to direct
Or aid to help me punish or protect.

Almanz. Thou want'st them both, or better thou would'st know,
Than to let factions in thy kingdom grow.
Divided interests, while thou think'st to sway,
Draw, like two brooks, thy middle stream away:
For though they band and jar, yet both combine
To make their greatness by the fall of thine.
Thus, like a buckler, thou art held in sight,
While they behind thee with each other fight.

Boab. Away, and execute him instantly! 

At least an IRS audit, Mr. President.

* "The story is told that one of the Abencerrages, having fallen in love with a lady of the royal family, was caught in the act of climbing up to her window. The king, enraged, shut up the whole family in one of the halls of the Alhambra, and ordered the Zegris to kill them all. The apartment where this is said to have taken place is one of the most beautiful courts of the Alhambra, and is still called the Hall of the Abencerrages."

Cappy Dick Hick says, "Hey Kids, Diagram This Sentence and Qualify for Valuable Prizes!"

I used to love Cappy Dick, the old cartoon section activity and swell yarn feature found in the Funnies Section of most newspapers. Cappy Dick was supposed to be some gnarled wharf rat, ex-Sea Dog, who hung around kids, , , ,in a good way.   Kids were asked to do puzzles, draw funny pictures, connect dots, and read stories about kids trapped in caves.

Great stuff.  I never completed one assignment.  I had enough to do not doing the homework assigned to me by Religious Sisters of Mercy.

While reading across the web, I was stunned not to find the usual Hollywood headline grab of the week - you know Michael "Michigan Fats" Moore telling the world that American Snipers are cowards, or Whoopie Goldberg's latest GI misfire on the View. However, I did find this statement by Amy Pascal, the cashiered SONY exec who had her e-mails hacked by NK Reds.

"I kept calling [IT] and being like, 'They don't have our emails, tell me they don’t have our emails,' " Pascal said at the Women in the World conference.

Man, I communicate with greater clarity after twelve ice cold cans of Drewry's and nose full of Testor's Airplane glue.

I immediately thought of Old Cappy Dick -BTW: I am referred to by boon chums as Hick, but mostly Hickey. Babies, even my Mom and children,  call me Hickey.

Hick works - How about I take on the role of Cappy Dick Hick(ey).

Quote I - "Hey, Kids diagram this sentence!!!!!!!!!!  You may qualify for valuable prizes!"

• World Book Encyclopedia, Vol 14
• Balls of string
• Balls of Yarn
• Book of Yarns

Here we go, Mateys!!!

"I kept calling [IT] and being like, 'They don't have our emails, tell me they don’t have our emails,' " -Amy Pascal of the Glass Ceiling

Twenty Two Shades of Moss - The Liberating Soul of the American Zombie

I  will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld,
I will smash the door posts, and leave the doors flat down,
and will let the dead go up to eat the living!
And the dead will outnumber the living! Epic of Gilgamesh

October 31, 2016
 (voice over)
Louis got down out of the tree only long enough to take quick look around.  They were out there and he could feel their dead eyes on him somehow. "How they do that they're dead, " he said to no one in particular; rather still animated by a human soul.




How?

Let me tell you, how.  Hi, I 'm Craig Masters Y Johnson - Soledad.  You may remember me from CBS This Morning, where I was the go-guy on matters concerning our sexual mores and Latino web-surfing.  Louis was up a tree because he was afraid, afraid of change, not in touch with his emerging self and still a distributionist who reads Belloc and Chesterfiield. Louis like so many Americans is unliberated and remains a kinemortophobe.

Since 2006, people have evolved.  From the first Zombie Walk in Pittsburgh - Stonewall of the UnDead - Americans have come around with the help of Federal Judges, appointed for life and smarter than God, the only metaphysical phenomenon unacceptable to good persons.

Thirty eight of fifty States have included the perambulating departed,  or Mossies because of our evolved coloration, if you simply must be slang-ready,  as eligible for health care benefits, home loans, foster care eligibility and service as first responders. Thirty-eight states and their Mossie federal judges have finally made things right for the hundreds among us who are different - less talkative and addicted to live human brains.

Let's get the twelve remaining Tea Party states to toss their bags get more alive with people who ain't! Call your Federal Courts of Appeals - no sense doing this by legislation. Act now. Moss is the new Green. 

Worldwide Kristallnacht, or Obama's 'Just Some Random Jews'

I don't have a Nobel Prize.  Yet. Could happen.  A former Illinois State Senator, currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in D,C. has one.  He's the very same gent who asked me 'Where's the Gate?," when asked to climb into the boxing ring at an amateur boxing show in the old Saber Room on 95th Street in Hickory Hills, Il.  In 2000, this celebrity trophy presenter did not remember that one climbs through the ropes of the square ring - pretty confusing in itself, for some, that term.  Barack Obama is now Mr. President.

Back then in 2000, Illinois State Senator Barack Obama was looking for any opportunity to get his face and name out there - that's politics.  My task that night was to steer our celebrity trophy presenters to ring just before the bout -" Senator,  the referee will raise both kids' arms because it is an exhibition.  I'll have both trophies near by on the canvas - hand one to each and then give your spiel."

Illinois State Representative Kevin McCarthy(ret.), a Leo Class of 1968 went before Mr. Obama. Prior to McCarthy, two Chicago alderman and Chief Tim McCarthy who dove in the path of bullets meant for Ronald Reagan awarded trophies to the kids.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate to be and future leader of what we then called The Free World, asked me, "How do I get in there? Where's the gate?"

I smiled that sort of busy " YOU GODDA BE$HIDDING ME smile and then realized that Senator Obama was confused.

"You climb through the ropes, like in Rocky and all those boxing movies, Senator."

"Oh."

He was fine after that, but he was later elected President and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

I mentioned this incident when people asked me why I could not back Obama for President; they said, " Who are you? Some @#$%ing genius?  Anyone could get they wrong."  True, maybe this guy can be President.


Well,  here we are in 2015!.

A little girl was murdered by ISIS(L) only hours ago.  A Jordanian pilot was put to the torch last week.  Japanese gents were beheaded.

The guy who looked for the gate at the Saber Room blamed Crusades.

More importantly 70 years after Leo High Graduates like Lou Knox killed SS men in Italy, Bernie Ingersoll recovered from Battle of Bulge wound and three score and more of their schoolmate gave their lives, Jews are refugees once again.

There is a worldwide Kristallnacht ( The Night of the Broken Glass) signalling another wholesale slaughter of Jews.  This Kristallnacht is not sparked by the cries of Seig Heil nor limited to German states but by an prayer ( Takbir) shouted allahu akbar! This atrocity is worldwide and religious.

President Obama is the same young ambitious guy who does what he is told. President Obam is told to do everything by Valerie Jarrett; simple as that.

Jews are fleeing Paris, London, Berlin and even Dublin 

Here is Barack Obama's reply to the Retro Exodus, PRESIDENT OBAMA: "My first job is to protect the American people. It is entirely legitimate for the American people to be deeply concerned when you've got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris. "

That's the Obama I know - whithout Valerie Jarrett he'd go on and on " Jews are folks - random folks.
Islamist savages are just bunch of knuckleheads . . .probably Tea Partiers and Ferguson haters . .  religious zealots like Catholics through history . . .who burn and lynch black folks, lie Dr. Ben Carson and Col. Allan West . . .as American as a Clinton Eastwood western . . .random Jews can go whereever they want . . .not to Gaza . . .or here . . . random Jews aren't Dreamers . . ." until 2017, when he boards Air Force One to Hawaii.

Obama still looks for the gate.

Custer Park Men Released into the Custody of Brian Wesbury - Economist

Two men from Custer Park, Illinois were arrested on suspicion of being recruited by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ( and the Levant) ISIS(L).

Dwanne Burhop (45) and Dale 'Critter'  Poissons-Croc (44)  of Custer Park, Il claim that they only volunteered to enlist in the army of Islamic States of Iraq and Syria ( and the Levant) because the guy speaking on the toll free number mentioned Free Ice. Burhop took the call at Custer's Keg, when the owner asked him to watch the bar, while he grabbed a smoke outside,

Homeland Security has determined that the jug-line fishermen were not an existential threat; however, Dale 'Critter' Poisson-Croc is still under investigation for hate-crime speech and thought by yet-Attorney General Eric Holder, who is personally reviewing 'This Cracker's Hateful Soul." Poisson-Croc termed the membership of the Wilmington Rod and Gun Club "Faggots" and he did not mean bundles of kindling, nor underclassmen in an English boarding school.

Both men were release into the custody of economist Brian Wesbury.* Wesbury fully intends to make sure that Burhop and Poisson-Croc avoid future use telephones, as the Kankakee River Naturalists had been taken into custody for answering the phone at Custer's Keg and mistaking the ISIS(L) for an ice-philanthropist. Burhop told Reuters, or Rooters, or whatever, " We been keeping our cans of Red, White and Blue cool in the river and we eat everthing that comes our way on the spot.  These last few weeks the beers freeze.  It makes sense to get free ice. The damn Federal lawyers don't see it that way - needed us some ice.Man said, " Free Ices" so we're in."

He repeated that claim upon release. " Man said Free Ice-es. O........Kay?? What'ld any one do?  We said we're in!"

Wesbury is a graduate of Northwestern University and therefore can be counted to be 'nuanced.'

He is also a superb Jug-line fisherman and avid drinker of sub-Premium domestic beers.  He will shack with the two until Homeland Security is satisfied. Homeland Security is always 'satisfied' with the best intentions of inebriated motorist on the Dan Ryan slowing down to 15MPH at the sight of a State Police roller.

Wesbury had this to say,  "Pundits have a bottomless reservoir of pessimism and also a magnified ability to extrapolate the most recent trends. So, when Q1-2014 real GDP fell at an annual rate of 2.1%, fear turned rampant."

Poissant-Croc was non-plussed. Burhop has yet to go on record regarding Mr. Wesbury's stewardship,

Extrapolate.  Cool.  Now without jumping to no conclusions. . .this story will develop some.





*  Brian S. Wesbury (born September 8, 1958) is an American economist focusing on macroeconomics and economic forecasting. He is the economics editor and a monthly contributor for The American Spectator, a conservative political magazine, in addition to appearing on television stations such as CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News,and Bloomberg TV frequently. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and for five years served as an adjunct professor of economics at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.

U of C's John J. Mearschiemer Critic of Israel, Pal of Iran and Now Ukraine Crisis Molotov

Anyone who hates Israel, demands that Iran should get The Bomb and understands why Obama lie, naturally will want to sell the Ukrainian people back into slavery under Vlad Putin.

John J. Mearschiemer is a University of Chicago apologist for all things Valerie Jarrett.  Get this crapola from another rarefied air breathing professor -

Sending weapons to Ukraine will not rescue its army and will instead lead to an escalation in the fighting. Such a step is especially dangerous because Russia has thousands of nuclear weapons and is seeking to defend a vital strategic interest.

There is no question that Ukraine’s military is badly outgunned by the separatists, who have Russian troops and weapons on their side. Because the balance of power decisively favors Moscow, Washington would have to send large amounts of equipment for Ukraine’s army to have a fighting chance.
But the conflict will not end there. Russia would counter-escalate, taking away any temporary benefit Kiev might get from American arms. The authors of the think tank study concede this, noting that “even with enormous support from the West, the Ukrainian Army will not be able to defeat a determined attack by the Russian military.” In short, the United States cannot win an arms race with Russia over Ukraine and thereby ensure Russia’s defeat on the battlefield.

I can almost see that other fatuous ninny David Brooks with brow a-knit nodding his doughy noggin with amiable accent on the PBS News Hour -'Yes, yes,'

Obama has already sold out 

• the American Middle Class 
• African Americans Citizens
• Black Youth in America
• Mexican American Citizens
• Organized Labor (sans public sector unions and SEIU)
• the Syrians
• the Libyans
• the Egyptians
• the Crimea
• Fort Hood
• Boston
• Coptic Christians in particular
• Christian universal
• Israel
• Jews universal
• NATO
• Nebraska
• Chicago Obama Library bidders
• Hillary Clinton

Vlad Putin a tin-horn bully who scares the poop out of Choom Gang Barry, was given a license to steal by President Obama and his White House.   Obama eco/petro fuel policies all but saved Putin from certain economic implosion.  

Valerie Jarrett, it seems, has called out her reliable academic shill John J. Mearsheimer to set the scenery for another dagger plunged in the back of the brave Ukrainian people. Obama and Putin dance to the same jig fiddled by George Soros - you must crack a few skulls to make brain salad.

Obama is a screw up.  He is a very calculated screw-up.  He listens only to a very few people. John J. Mearsheimer is one of them. 

Rahm Emanuel has "Earned" My Vote? BS, MBS & PhD!

There was a an old response to an outrageous assertion from a person who had college degrees after his name, that I no longer hear in Chicago.  It went  " Listen to him. He's an important guy. Look at the letters after his name BS, Master of BS, Piled High and Deep!"

We no longer live in Chicago.  We reside in Chicagoland.

Editorial Boards in Chicago are umbilical chords pumping life and vitality into the misery that is Illinois still-born government.  Editorial Boards in Chicago shined no light on Candidate Obama long association with Chicago Slum Warlords: Allsion Davis and Valerie Jarrett who trotted out bundler Tony Rezko - The Man in The Iron Mask. Nor did they point out the daffy irregularities of  Blago, Burris, Quinn & Company, Ralph Martire: The Architect of Pension Three Card Monte, Daley's Sell off of Assets.

Reporters did that. No paper has better reporter than Chicago Sun Times: Tim Novak, Dan Mihiapolous, Chris Fusco, the silenced Dave McKinney and Natasha Korecki. They are the Casandras of our  City.  Chicago went the way of the stockyards and became Chicagoland, which is gussied up with verbal arugula from Sundance Films and Sundance Bob Redford doing a solid for Ari Emanuel  We are asked to pretend that Rahm Emanuel is 'one of us.' Chicagoland is Hollywood-lite.

That is Okay with both Chicagoland Papers.

These twin Chicagoland editorial boards work to get Rahm a permanent place on the 5th Floor.

That is their right and privilege.  The pin-stripe crowd that comes into Chicagoland from Lake County and points tonier and exits at sunset command the skype-ready board rooms that look down on Chicagoland and giggle with pride and snide, knowing full well that Rahm Emanuel will direct more cash to their vaults.  They nod with conviction and solemn agreement when the Twin Chicagoland Medill Brat Pack inks its endorsement.

The twin pulp endorsements are as glued to the truth as a Brian Williams combat yarn and tell us that our lot is Resignation.  "Resignation is the lot of the helot with thirty year mortgage and $ 487 water every six months.  Resign yourselves to the inevitable, pay your bills and shut the duck up, or Rahms sake."

I am told by the editorial board of the Sun Times, the paper with fanged talent I listed above, that Rahm Emanuel 'Earned My Vote.'

Bullshit!

Was that too intemperate and un-WTTW?

How about Horseshit - you know the stuff Ed Burke so solemnly banned from the Gold Coast.

I earn my pay.  I earn the love of my children and respect and courtesy of my neighbors.

The very same editorial ink that tells me, in no uncertain terms, that I owe my vote to Dancing Priam, tells me also that, " The city’s four main pension systems are underfunded by a stunning $20 billion. Workers and retirees will have to pay in more and get back less. There is no other way. Homeowners, best we can tell, will have to pay higher taxes. Absolutely nobody will be happy."

Gee, you think?

I will bet that my Ward, the 19th, will go along with Rahm, because for too many of my neighbors personal obligations will demand it.  They will be a doing a solid for the guy who desperately believes that Rahm wil save his job on the Garbage trucks, or down at the Hall, or help his kid get a pipes trades job, in some way.

I know. I have been there and voted that.

Vote for whomever you believe to the best person, be it Rahm, Bob, Chuy, Willie, Doc or Jimmy the Two-Headed Boy.

You owe no one your vote.   You don't need a PhD to tell you that, but he will.

ComEd and ReMix Chicago Offer Leo Men a Look Life in the Arts

A drone operated by two young artists greeted the van load of Leo High School students, who woke up early on Saturday, got gussied up, and boarded a van commanded by Coach Debo and History teacher Bill Tomaka and drove to the Pilsen neighborhood.  At LaCuna Lofts located at 2150 S. Canalport ( just off the street from Cermack Road), Com Ed sponsored a day-long program that featured REMIX.

The Remix Project was created in order to help level the playing field for young people from disadvantaged, marginalized and under served communities. Our programs and services serve youth who are trying to enter into the creative industries or further their formal education; The REMIX Project provides top-notch alternative, creative, educational programs, facilitators and facilities. Our mission is to help refine the raw talents of young people from across the GTA in order to help them find success as participants define it and on their own terms.

This program started in Toronto,Canada and recently found a home at Lacuna Lofts, with the backing of Joe Cacciatore, son of a great Chicago philanthropist.

Leo High School was invited to share the talents of our students with the artists and directors of REMIX.

We have a some very talented gents. One in particular happens to be less than an engaged academic gent, but actively pursues his musical interests and inclinations.  Two attendees from Leo are remarkable vocalists and the other five young men work in church choirs, act as sound technicians for DJs and MCs in their neighborhoods, or dabble in techno-artistry.

As Coach Debo wheeled the Leo van into the lot a drone hopvered over the vehicle and buzzed the gents as they alighted from Old Number 7 ( my morning pick-up vehicke for the last three years).

ComEd representatives greeted the gents, who were the first to arrive for the day's events and the Leo Lions mingled with grace and dignity. Click on the link for the day's events from Hashtag ComEd.  The photos here are my own.

Thank you to all of the folks at ComEd, REMIX and LaCuna Lofts!

This about sums it up!

 This last great shot is via ComEd

TWO Illinoisans of ICE-ES?

ISIS recruits Burhop and Poisson-Croc in Spring 2014 at the shack on Rt 113 Custer Park, IL -happier before involvement with ISIS(l)

February 6,2015 (Reuters, or Rooters, or Whatever)

 Dwanne Burhop (45) and Dale 'Critter'  Poissons-Croc (44)  of Custer Park, Il claim that they only volunteered to enlist in the army of Islamic States of Iraq and Syria ( and the Levant) because the guy speaking on the toll free number mentioned Free Ice. Burhop took the call at Custer's Keg, when the owner asked him to watch the bar, while he grabbed a smoke outside,

The life-long friends and Reed -Custer High School graduates live in a shack on the west bank of the Kankakee River, where they run Linco-Jug lines and trap river muskrats for a livihood, have not had a refrigerator since the Clinton Second term, when COMED shut off their power due to non payment.

" We been keeping our cans of Red, White and Blue cool in the river and we eat everthing that comes our way on the spot.  These last few weeks the beers freeze.  It makes sense to get free ice. The damn Federal lawyers don't see it that way - needed us some ice.Man said, " Free Ices" so we're in."

Dwanne Burhop's classmate and fellow Linco-Jug linesman Poissions-Croc added, "This is Bull@#$%! Some set up from the Wilmington Gun Club faggots who want us off the river."

Poisson-Croc is now charged with hate-speech crimes and is currently under review by Attorney General Eric Holder, who is"not anywhere near through stomping on the likes of these two."

Story Developing

More Raymond Chandler, Please! America Needs Chandler!

No American writer writes better than Raymond Chandler.  Chandler was considered Pulp.  Hemingway got a place in the canon of Literature.  That should be indicative of what is dreadfuylly wrong with us.  Raymond Chandler told the truth.  Ernest Hemingway is supposed be the truth.

Raymond Chandler knew that Hemingway was a bully with powerful friends and a typewriter. In The Big Sleep Chandler offered this insight via dialogue

Who is this Hemingway person at all?”
“A guy that keeps saying the same thing over and over until you begin to believe it must be good.”
“That must take a hell of a long time,” the big man said.

Not really, Chandler knew that Americans will buy anything as long as it was packaged nicely. How else did Obama get two terms and why is Dancing Withe Stars?

Hemingway  wanted the world to know that he was 'vital.' Okay.

Chandler was, as another great writer described himself to be, ' the broken hearted witness to mankinds' folly.'

Raymond Chandler wrote within what is called the 'hard-boiled' detective genre.  His prose is supposed to be black and white and anything but elegant.  Well, get this -

“There are blondes and blondes and it is almost a joke word nowadays. All blondes have their points, except perhaps the metallic ones who are as blond as a Zulu under the bleach and as to disposition as soft as a sidewalk. There is the small cute blonde who cheeps and twitters, and the big statuesque blonde who straight- arms you with an ice- blue glare. There is the blonde who gives you the up- from- under look and smells lovely and shimmers and hangs on your arm and is always very tired when you take her home. She makes that helpless gesture and has that goddamned headache and you would like to slug her except that you are glad you found out about the headache before you invested too much time and money and hope in her. Because the headache will always be there, a weapon that never wears out and is as deadly as the bravo’s rapier or Lucrezia’s poison vial. There is the soft and willing and alcoholic blonde who doesn’t care what she wears as long as it is mink or where she goes as long as it is the Starlight Roof and there is plenty of dry champagne. There is the small perky blonde who is a little pal and wants to pay her own way and is full of sunshine and common sense and knows judo from the ground up and can toss a truck driver over her shoulder without missing more than one sentence out of the editorial in the Saturday Review. There is the pale, pale blonde with anemia of some non- fatal but incurable type. She is very languid and very shadowy and she speaks softly out of nowhere and you can’t lay a finger on her because in the first place you don’t want to and in the second place she is reading The Waste Land or Dante in the original, or Kafka or Kierkegaard or studying Provençal. She adores music and when the New York Philharmonic is playing Hindemith she can tell you which one of the six bass viols came in a quarter of a beat too late. I hear Toscanini can also. That makes two of them. And lastly there is the gorgeous show piece who will outlast three kingpin racketeers and then marry a couple of millionaires at a million a head and end up with a pale rose villa at Cap Antibes, an Alfa- Romeo town car complete with pilot and co- pilot, and a stable of shopworn aristocrats, all of whom she will treat with the affectionate absent- mindedness of an elderly duke saying goodnight to his butler.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye

One of my favorite passages from The Long Goodbye ends the reverie of private detctive Phillip Marlowe's enchantment as he watches a stunningly put-together woman clinb a high dive ladder and plunge nto a pool -
"She opened her mouth like a firebucket and laughed. That terminated my interest in her. I couldn't hear the laugh but the hole in her face when she unzippered her teeth was all I needed."

Don't we all.   

Why Honor The Honorable?

I am one fortunate son and that is said without one scintilla of irony wrapped in the clause.

My character, for what it is, was formed at a time in our history when honor was bestowed upon very exceptional persons.  They were exceptional for the virtues evident in their thoughts, words and especially deeds.  At grammar school sports banquets everyone who played on a team got huge plateful of spaghetti cooked by the Dads, ice cream Dixie cups with wooden spoons donated by Hamilton Dairy and the first kind words from coaches who challenged us to 'put out' in everything we did and reminded that no one loves a 'dogger.'  I don't recall trophies, ribbons, or certificates dispensed universal, but some tokens went to exceptional players.

We were not all champions and that was good, because only the tough guys who won The Soutrhtown Economist Big Bell ( usually St. Cajetan's) held that honorific.  In the late 1960's, St. Cajetan's dominated our conference in football and St. Sabina's in basketball. Those were exceptional teams of athletes.I was and remain an exceptionally bad athlete with all of the grace of a loose bowling ball in fast-moving panel truck carrying a glass menagerie.  Yet, I lack not for confidence, pep and get up and go.

Lessons learned early in theory and practice taught me some understanding of honor.  If one begrudges the exceptional any and all recognition, one is a bitter ass.

 Take a look at the 2014 Gallup lists of moost admired persons

There are some exceptional people, but there are more celebreties in place than exceptional, it seems to me.
Joel Osteen? That's some list

I do not like lists.  Lists are very New York City hoity-toity and were the whipping dogs of one of the all-time great modern ironists, Hessville of Hammond, Indiana's Jean Shepherd. This Midwestern born and bred writer and broadcaster was amazed by New York's addiction to list making and Made The List idolaters.

Lists seem to diminish the exceptional for sake of the appoiuted.  I would rather make a team, than be added on to it to make me feel good. The exceptional earn, the celebrated are granted.  The only real list that makers, it seems to me, is the roll-call of Medal of Honor recipients.  Terry Barrett wrote in The Search for the Forgotten Thirty Four ( a book no young man should miss reading) that " Without question the Medal of Honor recipients had a full measure of spirit, evident in their actions long before they entered combat. Childhood friends, school companions, and teammates recalled it. Fellow recruits recognized it early in training. And commanders counted upon it when they sent these men into harm’s way. This is the quality that the recipients breathed into the comrades who witnessed their heroic bravery. Only from spirit can come inspiration."

I once gave a student of mine a higher grade in a high school sophomore English survey course, not because of the essay on Ambrose Bierce's short story " The Sniper," but for the exceptional thing he brought to his essay. It was a handwritten Civil War journal from his great grand uncle who served in the Illinois 64th Regiment. They were snipers - sharpshooters. Exceptional.

That student went on to live an exceptional life. Exceptionally happy.  He became a machinist for a great Illinois Tool Maker.

We must teach our young people the difference between being an exceptional person and a celebrated person.  Today, young people love Seth Rogan, because they have forgotten Jack Black; though both have limited arsenals of wit and talent, both were wildly celebrated.

Letsbegin with honoring Medal of Honor Recipients - early and often. Terry Barret explains early in his book -

The men described in the following chapters lived and died in circumstances in which few people in the general population will ever find themselves. The majority of people will never know if they possess this brand of bravery, because heroic bravery is seldom called for in everyday events. 

Realistically, not all people are capable of heroic bravery. Yet, many more than are aware, “average” and “ordinary” individuals, do have the potential to experience bravery. Reading about bravery and learning about heroes might help us discover this quality within ourselves and practice it deliberately. We might find ourselves less troubled by fear.
Medal of Honor recipients provide us examples. By encouraging children and adults to take the nine actions described of these men and fostering the development of the traits they exemplify, people would accomplish much in life with greater confidence and more certain esteem for themselves.
Our culture would also discover itself to be less anxious, fearful, or cowered by the intimidations of terror. (emphasis my own)

Our culture might also wake up to the fact that police officers, firemen and most first responders are not Suge Knight.

Our Core Curriculum Must Value Valor

". . . the demonstration of bravery is a reflection of personal character." Major General James Livingston, USMC (ret.) fgrom the Preface to The Search For The Forgotten Thirty-Four , Terence Barrett

 Everything that is done by reason of ignorance is not voluntary; it is only what produces pain and repentance that is involuntary. For the man who has done something owing to ignorance, and feels not the least vexation at his action, has not acted voluntarily, since he did not know what he was doing, nor yet involuntarily, since he is not pained. Of people, then, who act by reason of ignorance he who repents is thought an involuntary agent, and the man who does not repent may, since he is different, be called a not voluntary agent; for, since he differs from the other, it is better that he should have a name of his own.  Aristotle -Nichomachean Ethics

If I were to plan a school for young men in 2015, it would be important to make sure that every lesson and every objective meet the test of Valor.

I am not a particularly brave person, but I know bravery and honor bravery, not in some crypto-Rahmbo homage to cruelty and acts of violence, but the underlying gentleness required of any brave act. My Dad, God rest him, fought in three brutal campaigns of the south Pacific, but bravest thing he ever did was hang laundry in the yard, when my Mom was laid up in the hospital with kidney failure in 1960.  He worked three jobs and took care of three little kids which meant laundry, cooking and cleaning during the Ozzie and Harriet epoch, when real men had dens, volumes of Playboys and 'the liitle woman' for such deeds.

My Dad, who was generally as combative as an old nun going through change of life, took the taunts from the Dads over fences. All but old man, Phil Bellina

Aristotle made the distinction between a brave man and crazy man, "   We ought presumably to call not what a fool or a madman would deliberate about, but what a sensible man would deliberate about, a subject of deliberation.: NE Book III.

We must deliberate.  Not always a possibility. How then do we act and how do we train generations of young men to act with grace, dignity, piety and deliberation if possible. Terence Barrett explains:

Brave acts occur every day. Great numbers of humans possess qualities of moral strength, purpose of mind, and courage. Finding themselves in the right difficult circumstances they demonstrate bravery. Most brave individuals go unheralded because their lives seem unremarkable or because they perform unwitnessed acts of bravery. Sometimes the witnesses to their bravery do not survive the circumstances.
Bravery is a personal quality, usually understood to be an inner core of strength and courage. Bravery is demonstrated by a deliberate and conscious choice to quickly, perhaps immediately, initiate an action in a difficult and challenging situation. That action will be in a manner uncommon (perhaps) to most people and performed in a socially accepted and respected way. Put simply, bravery is the demonstration of courage.  

Dr. Barrett's wonderful book The Search for the Forgotten Thirty Four examines the lives thirty four men who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for acts of conspicuous bravery.and who died in relative obscurity even in their own home towns. Barrett write, "  Examination of Medal of Honor Citations suggests that Marines repeatedly perform in certain ways in their demonstration of heroic bravery."

He goes on with this  tem[late of brave actions "Nine general actions were identified to be ways in which Marines earned the nation’s highest award for bravery in battle:
1) Do what is asked for or required and more.
2) Fend off an enemy assault, especially one of unequal odds.
3) Volunteer for a challenging task potentially dangerous to oneself.
4) Turn the outcome of an engagement with the enemy by initiating an assault.
5) Demonstrate leadership that inspires others to take action despite imminent danger.
6) Sustain deliberateness of purpose despite extended duress.
7) Carry on one’s duty in spite of grievous, debilitating, and life-threatening wounds.
8) Put self in harm’s way, disregarding danger, to rescue others.
9) Act in defense of fellow combatants, even to the risk of one’s self.

A hero’s age at the time of action does not determine bravery."

If we graduate a student with Honors, but without an understanding of the nature of valor, I believe we might as well not teach at all.

Bravery is observable and self-evident and requires no parsing, or context management.  To do what is virtuous requires brave deliberation.  This is a cross-disciplinary imperative for a good school. Every book, every essay, every quiz and every activity should be dedicated to giving young men the outlet for bravery. Lessons should focus on examples of valor : in Geometry and Mathematics the Bravery of Archimedes;
Biology and Physics the Self Sacrifice of Pierre Currie and intellectual courage of Gregor Mendel and the Internet can provide halls of learning beyond the walls of the school.

All students come to school with fears. Those should be addressed and Barrett does a wonderful job of it -

Bravery does not mean fearlessness.
American author Mark Twain had traveled, worked on the Mississippi steamboats, and watched the Civil War nearly tear the nation apart. When he wrote the following comment, he was 59-years-old. He was not trying to be funny; he was serious when he said; “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear–not absence of fear.” 6
Mark Twain and others have long understood that fear and bravery go hand-in-hand.
Acting with bravery means that a person must perceive a danger or threat, real or imagined. Bravery is then demonstrated by an admirable human action, an indifference to fear, and a disregard for the personal danger. Note, however, that indifference to fear does not mean the absence of it. A person recognized to possess bravery consciously rises to meet a challenge that triggers fear, draws upon this personal quality, and takes an initiative few might endeavor.
The award Citations for the recipients repeatedly describe their heroic actions with specific words: included among these are admirable, bold, courageous, daring, dauntless, fearless, gallant, honorable, indomitable, intrepid, resolute, stout hearted, tenacious, unfaltering, unwavering, valiant, and valorous. The words impart a certain sense to the actions of these men.
Can we accept the implied meaning as accurate? Is dauntless a measurable and quantifiable personal quality? How might courage best be defined? A person described to be dauntless is believed to be without fear, unintimidated by danger. The words dauntless and courageous are often used interchangeably. Both are considered synonymous with brave. Yet, dauntless and courageous do not mean the same thing.
There can be no question that the Marines described in this book acted courageously. That they acted without fear at the same time is not accurate. A person does not have to be dauntless to be brave.

Dare I work toward this?  

Just a thought.

Jeb? Governor Jeb Bush? You Mean John Ellis "Call Me Jeb" Bush? President? I'll Pass.

"With inferior numbers you concentrated your troops, and successfully opposed his progress, and obliged him to relinquish his purpose. His next attempt will be on our right" - Robert E. Lee

I have heard many really smart political people tell me just how smart Barack H. Obama was, how heroic John Kerry was, how fair Jim Edgar was, how  selfless Judy Barr Topinka was, how much Richie and Maggie Daley LOVED Chicago, how nice Pat Quinn was, how loyal Charlie Crist was, how incorruptible Valerie Jarrett was, how maverick McCain was, how horrible Palin remains, how American Indian Bessie Warren believes herself to be and that all turned out to be very wrong.
  Even Einstein burned his toast,  once in while.

The bell weather it seems to me is always a consensus built by some schmuck with a bad come-over and worse mustache who hates middle class ethnics and blacks, but knows they are essential to any election.

People who seem to be consistently wrong about everything, make very good Campaign Gurus, because they know that we don't like to be wrong about elections and fools about political candidates and will never publicly say, " I knew that the late Judy Barr Topinka* was afraid, but I convinced myself that she was just one 'tough gal who tells it like it is.'"  People want to Win With Quinn, but avoid the consequences of his terms in office.

It continues.

All the World is getting political wood over the inevitable crowning of JEB.  No,not the swashbuckling Reb Jeb, who screwed the pooch at Gettysburg in '63 and allowed George Gordon Meade to hand Ol' Marse Robert his rump. but the other Bush White Meat.  Jeb Bush, Governor Jeb Bush. John Ellis Bush who is not George W. Bush.

Who asked for him? Probably some GOP bath water guzzler like US Senator Marque Kirque (R IL). More than likely. it is also some Democrats who realize now that President Barack H. Obama had less control over Chicago slumlord weevil Valerie Jarrett, who runs the White House policy wheels, than he had over his unravelling terms of office and have decided to right off 2016 as a loss.

All I know is that JEB Bush seems to be as tired a product as John McCain, Lindsey Graham.  McCain quit the race for the White House in September 2008 when the economy tanked and allowed his flabby campaign's only asset to be chewed up by the punk media.

JEB?  Jeb Bush, Governor John Ellis " Call Me Jeb " Bush really wants the job. He wants the job in the same manner and with the same sense of entitlement as the current daffy, but dangerous occupant. Scott Walker makes sense and has with stood more poop tossed at him than Governor Palin endured in month of MSNBC treatments.  He's tough, not full of himself, cautious around the press. and actually has succeeded.

I would love to see America elect an African American as President, Dr. Ben Carson, but that will not happen, as long as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton hold a 9mm loaded with Race Rounds to heads of Goldman Sachs, Hollywood, GE and both coasts.

JEB?  I think not.  We just had eight years of Obama's empty suit.

If the likes of Dana Millbank, Joan Walsh, EJ Dionne, David Brooks and all of the other dependable ink-slinging amoebas, praise JEB Bush, it seems to me he will be a disaster as President.

Smart guys????????

What say you?







*Judy Barr Topinka grabbed a delegate's spot to attend the 2008 RNC rather than do her own due-dilligence - get petitions, win the delgate elections & etc.  Nasty old hag.

Republican National Committeewoman Mary Jo Arndt  2008
Major General John Borling, USAF (Ret).
Former Ambassador and Former Illinois Republican Party Chair Rich Williamson ILLINOIS DELEGATES
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