If Mellody Hobson Lucas wanted to ride a CTA bus bike rack, well she could, by God ride a CTA bus Rack. Her boss John Rogers*, formerly Mr. Desiree Rogers **and CEO of the incubator that created Barack Obama and Arne Duncan - Ariel Capital Management, knows how heart-breaking shattered dreams can be, when gangbangers of Friends of the Parks shattered the dreams of a aging bearded gnome with billions of spending loots and his White House wired wife to build a temple to themselves on Chicago's lakefront
John W. Rogers Jr., chairman and CEO of Ariel Investments, where Hobson is president, said this week that Hobson is "just heartbroken by this — she loves the city so much."
Some Dream of having a Temple Museum of Narrative Arts and Snappy Yarns and some just want to be a bicycle,
Chicago is owned not only by America's Dream Cult: Disney, but also the Cycle Fascists who have closed traffic lanes used on city streets from the time that teamsters drove wagons hitched to oat blowers, neighbors.
Friends of the Parks must have gotten to the CTA bus driver.
* Rogers served for six years under Mayor Richard M. Daley as the board president of the Chicago Park District, where he enjoyed what he said was a good relationship with Friends of the Parks. He declared himself mystified as to why it fought so hard to block Lucas from building on the lakefront. **Desirée Glapion Rogers (born June 16, 1959, in New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American business executive who is the Chief Executive Officer of Johnson Publishing Company. In November 2008 she was selected by Barack Obama's office as the White House Social Secretary for the incoming administration, the first person of African-American descent to serve in this function. On February 26, 2010, the Chicago Sun-Times′ Lynn Sweet reported that she planned to step down. Rogers was replaced by Julianna Smoot, former chief of staff to the U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. Smoot was the Obama presidential campaign chief fund-raiser. On August 10, 2010, Rogers was named CEO of Johnson Publishing Company.
Oh, Canada, Oh Say Can You See, Y Mexicanos, al grito de guerra !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Three stunning mediocrites created in an advertising studio, unchallenged by our media and follwed by masses of people who actually belive that they are talented
Trois superbes mediocrites créés dans un studio de publicité , non contestée par nos médias et follwed par des masses de personnes qui ont effectivement belive qu'ils ont du talent
Tres mediocrites impresionantes creados en un estudio de publicidad, sin respuesta por nuestros medios y follwed por las masas de personas que realmente creer que tienen talento
"We must use every means to instill in the population the idea that it is harmful to have several children, the expenses that they cause and the dangerous effect on woman's health… " Adolph Hitler, 1942
I did not know that the Old Paper Hanger wrote compelling narratives for the Dowagers of Death . . .pardon my French . . .Planned Parenthood. How 'bout that?
Hitler brought about a globalized, science validated world order called the Turd Reich , , ,pardon my French, again . . .The Third Reich.
America destroyed the . . .Third Reich in 1945 and ushered in the greatest period of prosperity in human history. The only people clamoring to for abortion on demand were Ivory Tower, Main Line WASPs, Reds, atheists and GOP milksops like Illinois Senator Chuck Percy. Then in 1963, Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade, which made the killing of unwanted human beings the law of the land. America has not been a great nation from that moment.
This past week the United States Supreme Court once again bowed to political will and backed away from the defense of the Constitution. In fact, one of the most oily and opportunistic of all Federal Judges announced from his robes for life, “I see absolutely no value to a judge of spending decades, years, months, weeks, day, hours, minutes, or seconds studying the Constitution, the history of its enactment, its amendments, and its implementation (across the centuries — well, just a little more than two centuries, and of course less for many of the amendments),” he wrote. “Eighteenth-century guys, however smart, could not foresee the culture, technology, etc., of the 21st century.”
This statement should earn the judge more than few lucrative speaking junkets doped to look like scholarly sortilege and guest spots with Chris Hayes and the other lisping lightweights on MSNBC and CNN.
I expect no less. And always with less, Chicagoans can count on myna birds like Eric Zorn, the darling of the pencil neck Progressive Chicago Tribune to echo the crows -
"It is beyond rational belief that (the Texas law) could genuinely protect the health of women," wrote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a sharp concurring opinion. To the contrary, "When a State severely limits access to safe and legal procedures, women in desperate circumstances may resort to unlicensed rogue practitioners, faute de mieux, at great risk to their health and safety."
Pardon her French. The foreign phrase translates to "for lack of a better option."
Pardon my French, Zorn, and Hop et embrasser mon cul , farceur
The crowing from the fetid mountain built on tiny corpses, by the ambulatory tissues the Left demands women be considered to be, as their aborted children are deemed terminated tissues, is loud and proud.
America will never be a great nation, again, until abortion is no longer called anything but premeditated murder.
Today, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. One really dumb fisherman who somehow recognized Christ as the Son of God and later denied knowing him and whip smart scholar who liked to punish none believers with energy and smarmy nastiness of MSNBC host.
These two wildly flawed gents created the religion I believe in - flawed, human, but Graced by God. Both sinners, St. Peter in the lead and St. Paul batting clean-up, dug a foundation that is rock solid on life.
People make mistakes. Planned Parenthood makes millions of dollars on the mistakes of men and women and compounds the misery. Kermit Gosnell slaughtered children. Planned Parenthood was caught selling harvested organs of murdered babies. The Old Third Reich got nothing on Planned Parenthood for lucrative butchery.
Justice Kennedy who tipped the voting has his legacy and it is a sad one. Kennedy is the new Blackmun. Some legacy, crowing on rotting pile of terminated infants.
I was publicly shamed when I was about eight years old. My buddies and I recently watched Jerry Lewis in The Bell Boy at the old Highland Theatre on 79th & Ashland.
We were delighted by Jerry Lewis' antics and mimiced his facial contortions and spasmodic contortions on our walk home to 75th Place and Wood Street, where we sat on a horseshoe of painted boulders under the street sign and continued to pantomime spastic reactions to everything. Mrs. McGuinness and her five year old boy Robbie walked behind us on their way home from the Hamilton Dairy store at 75th & Paulina. Robbie had Downs Syndrome.
We began to mock Robbie in the manner of the comic genius so beloved by France.
We followed Mrs,McGuiness who was openly crying, but we could care less - Hell, Jerry Lewis is a movie star. What's her problem.
Mr. Balllina and Mrs. Ballina yelled from their porch, " You little bastards, stop that! Who do you think you are scaring the poor little guy and making his Momma cry." The Ballinas were older than our parents and childless. Mr. Ballina worked for the Bell Phone Company and his green truck was often parked in front of our house. He was a short wiry little guy with arms like Popeye. He was no where near finished with me and my pals.
Phil and Marie Ballina's corrections had alerted all of our Mom's and we were now about to sail up Shit Creek.
Slaps attendant and exile to our rooms, basements or porches, depending up the level of disgust our mothers had for us, were as nothing to the ticking of seven kitchen clocks up Wood Street and across 75th Place signaled the impending arrivals of Dads.
When Dads came home from shifts, we were properly re-beaten, belted, slapped and vilified according to sizes and ages, but that was not all - No, not by a jug full.
Each Dad shoved each son to McGuiness home up tyhe porch stairs and we each apologized to Robbie, who hugged each of us and said, "Thas Oh Ride Pad, Yus My Bes Frens!"
I learned shame. The shame of this act of my is still very much with me. I learned not to do cruel things to people at a very early age, or at least I learned what cruelty really means.
We pulled weeds and did sic and fetch for Mrs. McGuinesses for a few days after and not one of us could look one another in the face again without a sense of group shame.
Boys will be boys, until they learn to be gentle men. Girls can be even more brutal, but they not generally thoughtless.
As we got older we learned and believed that toughness had more to do with be able to take punishment, than dishing it out.
A few days ago some teens in my neighborhood broke into the Chicago Ag High School. A wonderful woman shared the news of this on Facebook
This was shared with me today. It happened yesterday 6/23/16.
At the Ag School last night someone broke in and harassed all of the animals, tied the mother goat up with a rope, threw eggs at the baby goats, and tied all the chickens legs together. A Police report has been filed. Empty egg cartons were found on the scene. If anyone knows anything about this please contact the 22nd district. Might be a good time to have a conversation with kids about harming animals as local kids are usually seen drinking out in the field behind the school.
The reaction to this universal neighborhood shame and the comments ranged from " arrest the bastards' to " Boys will be Boys,"
On my walks to morning services, last week which takes from 107th & Rockwell, across the CSX rails to Talman Steet, which is a beautiful walk with no two homes alike and varied in design and size. Last week I saw egg shells all over the sidewalks between 106th Street and 103rd Street on the west side of Talman.
I have had my raised ranch egged by teens in passing cars. It is a pain to clean dripping yolks and whites off of bricks and windows, but what the hell.
Damage to property is a step toward thuggery. The next step is cruelty to living things - small animals. Then, it is human beings.
We get our moral shorts in knot when we read about cats being napalmed and dogs used for target practise.
Then we really get to marching and vigil-ing when people get murdered. Cruelty is easy.
I grew up at time when consequences were important thanks be to God. The parents today not only must teach their children well, even within a culture that ignores consequences universal.
My neighbors arrested our development into nasty, vicious little bastards, for the most part, back in 1960.
I am angry that kids in my neighborhood would pelt baby goats with eggs and tie up the poor mother, but understand their acting out needs a swift address, by parents and neighbors.
Tying the chickens together? Awesome! No. that is wrong too, but I could still get behind that. Chickens are nasty critters. Better angels, you recalcitrant nave!
Seriously, I know my neighbors will get to these kids.
Once we understand cruelty - we will never watch, much less laugh about another Jerry Lewis movie.
DYSON: I'm with her ( Hillary Clinton). My money's on her.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That is the last word for today. Thank you all very much.
Gee, a media sanctioned and self-styled public intellectual is hoping hardway for Mrs. Clinton and the first rat off of President Bubba's sinking ship, George Stephanopolous fades America! That is some craps, G!
The Media ( ABC,CBS, NBC, Disney, GE, Sumner Redstone, MSNBC, CNN) want Hillary Clinton to replace Barack Obama. Fair enough, but let us not pretend that things are fair.
This Sunday on ABC we were treated to a tubby loudmouth talking over the other guests and the in-the-tank for Clinton host encouraged incivility.
One of the dumbest of the many puffed-up jerks who write for Big Media is Eric Michael Dyson. Dr. Mike worked on the Chicago Sun Times at a time when real journalists worked there -notably the late great Ray Coffey - Dyson had a teaching gig at De Paul which was in its early stages of being Chicago's vraiment bizarre Catholic University and invited the Hip-Hop Slip Mahoney (remember the Late Leo Gorcey) to draw salary and hand out inflated grades.
When not talking over someone else, Dyson murders communication like no one since Terence Aloysius Mahoney
His column was nothing more than series of beefs about parking tickets and speeding violations accrued by Dr. Eric Michael and his friends, all attributed to systemic white supremacy and the fact that no one knows that Ptolemy was a proud black man. Was Ptolemy his slave name?
This goof has a home in academics, as goofs universal always seem to spread the old bed roll among the ivy and moved on to Georgetown and other faux-Catholic warren of clowns in gowns.
You see, Eric Michael Dyson is an Afrocentrist motormouth jive talking sesquipedalian Sportin' Life and Washington D.C. is no stranger to weirdos, cretins, goofs, perverts and grifters, * as Fox News has Busty, Leggy and Oh, My God She IS Gorgeous Women of Talent. MSNBC, CNN, ABC and CBS try to have as many such Potomac hobos giving voice to elitist desires daily and heavy on Sunday. Here's only a few of such weirdos, cretins, goofs, perverts and grifters known as Contributors -
Anthony Weiner
Rep. Chaka Fattah
Rep. Jan Schakowsky
Dan Savage
Van Jones
Rep. Allan Grayson
Sen. Dick Durbin
Ed Schultz
Don Lemon
Melissa Harris Perry
Chris Hayes
Ronan Farrow
Katrina Vanden Heuvel
George Stephanopoulos was pioneer goof on Cable TV - kind of a Bolshevik beefcake for the Jacobin elites.
Well have an election coming up in November that will be a choice between horseshit and manure.
The choices are obvious.
I am going with manure, because it has a purpose - a wicked self-interest, yet will make something grow.
Horseshit could be manure with a little time, patience and direction, but generally requires a diaper. or an army of Streets and Sanitation workers to clean it off of the streets and her husband left a hell a mess anyway.
Disney, a corporatist monster that hijacked the dream of a wonderful man to sell sweat shop manufactured goods, while undermining American values and erasing its history, owns ABC and, along with the Saudi Royal Family a huge bankroll in the Clinton kick, wants horseshit.
Eric Michael Dyson is fine dispenser of horseshit.
The Friends of Park have saved Chicago's lakefront, for now. This is Chicago, neighbors, and you can set your watch by the next public looting boondoggle.
I wonder how Rahm's profanity crusade is going. Of course NBC Chicago forgives Rahm everything as does WTTW. I Imagine the Rahm swear jar is topped off and ready for a trip to the cash changer at any of Chicago's fine Fifth Third Banks.
The Progressives ( former Liberals, Goo-goos and Hand-wringers) are in control of every branch of Government - yep, I include Governor Rauner who is merely buying time for his Corporatist Progressive Pals and Oligarchs.
From the White House to Hyde Park, the New Machine controls Chicago and Cook County. The New Machine is not about building legions of Democratic Party workers ready, willing and able to get out the vote as a way of saying 'Thank You" for a job on the trucks, a seat in a Patrol car, a place in an Emergency van, a pick and shovel filling pot holes and reconfiguring curbs. No this new machine is a faceless blob of bank accounts, 501(c)3 foundations, blue-stocking law firms, real estate monte grifters, Commnity Activists and the News Media. The poor get a taste of quick cash and lunch boxes and T-shirts, the Armani clad pink cheeks who write small checks not exceeding the the Federal Election Law limits reap huge returns and the middle class, once served so well by the Democrat Party of Cook County pay the bills and get contempt from both the poor and the oligarchs.
This week was a Wow! The middle guys, who really are the little guys, won one here in Chicago. The middle/little guys in the UK won the same.
The same ugly and unfair narratives heaped upon Brexit backers, were meted out to the Friends of the Park here in Chicago.
Friends of the Park were villified by every Friend of Rahm/I'm With Her/Hope and Change voice in Cook County. These forces were marshalled on a huge scale that reminded me of Rahm Emanuel, Forrest Claypool and Pastor Pfleger's smear campaign against the President of Amalgamated Transit Workers Local 308 all through 2013-2014. This was the age of the CTA scandals regarding the Bombardier Rail Car boondoggles and the Ventra Card foul-ups.
Like President Robert Kelly, Friends of the Parks were treated to the attentions of the starving hounds in Rahm Emanuel's kennels. Pastor Pfleger calls Friends of the Parks Gangsters - you know like the GDs. The Rev says, "Tell me the difference between Friends of the Parks and the Gangster Disciples?"
Well, the GDs shot at me, killed a good number of students that I love, shake down local business people, terrorize everyone, Vote Straight Party on Demand ( call on Elder Hal Baskin GD Emeritus) , launder drug money, sling drugs, possess firearms of every variety and caliber, sport snappy gray, blue and black attire on more formal occasions, can not seem to paly well with the Stones and say 7-4 Til the World Blow and Trust by the old six-pointed star . . .yep, just like Friends of the Park.
Pastor Pfleger the political preacher who is probably With Her in 2016
Newton Minnow - The Man who Discovered Barack Obama and Called Television A Vast Waste Land predicted that Rahm would prevail in this dual to death and warned the helots who still read Chicago Editorials without wetting their britches that Friend sof the Park were 'small group setting an agenda' and the might be setting a 'dangerous precedent' - like keeping the public trust. Shucks, can't have that around this burg, Newton.
The Chicago Reader, the script for the hip, chimed in with the Friends of the Parking Lot Meme - the hip don't tailgate, unless it is for an ironic goof on the squares
The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board surprised me on this one. They did not swallow the Rahm Bait and to this I attribute the sound voices of John Kass and Kristen McQueary.
The people who really do not like people in the neighborhoods are the people who really hate Friends of Parks.
Friends of Parks, like the Sons of Liberty long ago and forgotten in public education, could be the spark for Cook County Revolution! Friends of the Parks proved to be friends of Chicago's Neighborhoods.
So the Common Market, gussied up in OXFam/BBC GlobeSpeak to EU, got a bit lighter at 5AM London time.
Brexit forces won the national referendum to - Leave, or Remain in the European Union, formerly known as the Common Market.
The United Kingdom joined the EU in 1975, the year I began teaching in American Catholic secondary schools.
Since that time, I have married the woman of my dreams, fathered three splendid children, purchased two homes, been widowed, taught English at three secondary schools and raised millions of dollars as a Director of Development, met and court yet another woman of my dreams and watched the world get meaner.
I use the more archaic form of 'mean' which is anything but golden. My County Kerry grandparents used the term to describe actions and people that were unnecessarily cruel, stingy, loutish, short-sighted and vain. Inconsiderate and selfish wags the world.
Not always and everywhere, mind you, just the self-described 'big dogs' doing the geopolitical rump wiggles - Politicians, plutocrats and their pet mandarins - pollsters.
Pollsters take orders from politicians and plutocrats and tell us what is morally objectionable. Us are we. The Darby and Joans. Regular folks.
They tell us what is the right side of history.
Well Darby and Joans, all over the UK, just confounded the smart and huge money. I watched one flustered chap on the BBC explain that the banks and markets followed William Hill, Ladbrokes and Paddy Power
Bookies have drastically revised their odds on Brexit betting after unexpectedly strong early polling for the leave campaign upended their confidence that the United Kingdom would vote to stay in the European Union.
Markets have followed the same dramatic route, with the pound hitting six-month highs before dropping off a cliff.
As voting closed about 7am Australian time, betting agency William Hill was offering odds of 1/9 for a remain victory - indicating a 90 per cent probability the UK would stay in the EU.
The Punters beat the house. Punter is a British term for 'the people in the shoppe' -fingering goods and merchandise - searching for a bargain. Yew Knaooow! The Commoners.
The oily Hungarian Bond Villain who funds every creepy political astro-turf organization, put his man in the White House with Vakerie Jarrett to yank his voice box in 2008, screwed up Venezuela and Central America more than Jefe Hugo and backed the REMAIN Global UK initiative and even ordered the White House to phone it in hours before the polls opened.
With the date of the Brexit referendum approaching and “Leave” leading in the polls, Soros published an article in the UK Guardian claiming that a vote to leave the EU would trigger an economic disaster.
“It is reasonable to assume, given the expectations implied by the market pricing at present, that after a Brexit vote the pound would fall by at least 15% and possibly more than 20%,” Soros wrote.
Soros coupled his comments with references to a wildly questionable British Treasury economic “model” that estimated a Brexit would reduce UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per household by $6,321 in 2030.
The scare tactics seemed to work over the next few days. The polls indicated that the chances of a “Leave” vote fell dramatically and global stock markets rallied back.
Matthew Tyrmand believes that this is typical of a Soros’ orchestrated “reflexivity” campaign to overload the consciousness of most UK middle- and lower-class voters that against their own self-interest, they will vote to remain in the EU.
Well, Darby and Joan launched a UK Bourgeois revolution.Like our British cousins, American workers are fed daily yards of tripe from the Soros funded thought mills and have the likes of Elizabeth Warren, Jan Schakowsky and Barack Obama pound our ears about what they are doing for the middle class. Seems to me that they are doing economic genocide on the American Middle Class.
Another son of blue collar south side Chicago, political journalist, John Patrick Feehry, writes,
The global economy has been remarkable efficient in bringing more products to more customers at better prices. It has been the principle reason that more people have been lifted out of abject poverty in global history.
But for the middle class, those who do the bulk of the voting, globalization has come at a tremendous cost. The poor have done markedly better, the rich have done amazingly better, but those stuck in the middle have seen their wages stagnate if they have jobs at all.
Brexit was vote to stick it to the globalizers. It was a vote to reestablish national identity. It was a vote reclaim control of their little piece of the world.
Well, Shucks! The Politicians, Polls and the Plutocrat had it handed to them in Old Blighty. Europe faces what one paper called an 'existential crisis' - Sartre would call that ironic.
The UK is out of the EU. I think that is good thing. If Polls, Politicians and Plutocrats can look stupid, I call that a very good day.
Now, let's see what America will do - stay on the leash, or break the chains.
So the Common Market, gussied up in OXFam/BBC GlobeSpeak to EU, got a bit lighter at 5AM London time.
Brexit forces won the national referendum to - Leave, or Remain in the European Union, formerly known as the Common Market.
The United Kingdom joined the EU in 1975, the year I began teaching in American Catholic secondary schools.
Since that time, I have married the woman of my dreams, fathered three splendid children, purchased two homes, been widowed, taught English at three secondary schools and raised millions of dollars as a Director of Development, met and court yet another woman of my dreams and watched the world get meaner.
I use the more archaic form of 'mean' which is anything but golden. My County Kerry grandparents used the term to describe actions and people that were unnecessarily cruel, stingy, loutish, short-sighted and vain. Inconsiderate and selfish wags the world.
Not always and everywhere, mind you, just the self-described 'big dogs' doing the geopolitical rump wiggles - Politicians, plutocrats and their pet mandarins - pollsters.
Pollsters take orders from politicians and plutocrats and tell us what is morally objectionable. Us are we. The Darby and Joans. Regular folks.
They tell us what is the right side of history.
Well Darby and Joans, all over the UK, just confounded the smart and huge money. I watched one flustered chap on the BBC explain that the banks and markets followed William Hill, Ladbrokes and Paddy Power
Bookies have drastically revised their odds on Brexit betting after unexpectedly strong early polling for the leave campaign upended their confidence that the United Kingdom would vote to stay in the European Union.
Markets have followed the same dramatic route, with the pound hitting six-month highs before dropping off a cliff.
As voting closed about 7am Australian time, betting agency William Hill was offering odds of 1/9 for a remain victory - indicating a 90 per cent probability the UK would stay in the EU.
The Punters beat the house. Punter is a British term for 'the people in the shoppe' -fingering goods and merchandise - searching for a bargain. Yew Knaooow! The Commoners.
The oily Hungarian Bond Villain who funds every creepy political astro-turf organization, put his man in the White House with Vakerie Jarrett to yank his voice box in 2008, screwed up Venezuela and Central America more than Jefe Hugo and backed the REMAIN Global UK initiative and even ordered the White House to phone it in hours before the polls opened.
With the date of the Brexit referendum approaching and “Leave” leading in the polls, Soros published an article in the UK Guardian claiming that a vote to leave the EU would trigger an economic disaster.
“It is reasonable to assume, given the expectations implied by the market pricing at present, that after a Brexit vote the pound would fall by at least 15% and possibly more than 20%,” Soros wrote.
Soros coupled his comments with references to a wildly questionable British Treasury economic “model” that estimated a Brexit would reduce UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per household by $6,321 in 2030.
The scare tactics seemed to work over the next few days. The polls indicated that the chances of a “Leave” vote fell dramatically and global stock markets rallied back.
Matthew Tyrmand believes that this is typical of a Soros’ orchestrated “reflexivity” campaign to overload the consciousness of most UK middle- and lower-class voters that against their own self-interest, they will vote to remain in the EU.
Well, Darby and Joan launched a UK Bourgeois revolution.Like our British cousins, American workers are fed daily yards of tripe from the Soros funded thought mills and have the likes of Elizabeth Warren, Jan Schakowsky and Barack Obama pound our ears about what they are doing for the middle class. Seems to me that they are doing economic genocide on the American Middle Class.
Another son of blue collar south side Chicago, political journalist, John Patrick Feehry, writes,
The global economy has been remarkable efficient in bringing more products to more customers at better prices. It has been the principle reason that more people have been lifted out of abject poverty in global history.
But for the middle class, those who do the bulk of the voting, globalization has come at a tremendous cost. The poor have done markedly better, the rich have done amazingly better, but those stuck in the middle have seen their wages stagnate if they have jobs at all.
Brexit was vote to stick it to the globalizers. It was a vote to reestablish national identity. It was a vote reclaim control of their little piece of the world.
Well, Shucks! The Politicians, Polls and the Plutocrat had it handed to them in Old Blighty. Europe faces what one paper called an 'existential crisis' - Sartre would call that ironic.
The UK is out of the EU. I think that is good thing. If Polls, Politicians and Plutocrats can look stupid, I call that a very good day.
Now, let's see what America will do - stay on the leash, or break the chains.
So the Common Market, gussied up in OXFam/BBC GlobeSpeak to EU, got a bit lighter at 5AM London time.
Brexit forces won the national referendum to - Leave, or Remain in the European Union, formerly known as the Common Market.
The United Kingdom joined the EU in 1975, the year I began teaching in American Catholic secondary schools.
Since that time, I have married the woman of my dreams, fathered three splendid children, purchased two homes, been widowed, taught English at three secondary schools and raised millions of dollars as a Director of Development, met and court yet another woman of my dreams and watched the world get meaner.
I use the more archaic form of 'mean' which is anything but golden. My County Kerry grandparents used the term to describe actions and people that were unnecessarily cruel, stingy, loutish, short-sighted and vain. Inconsiderate and selfish wags the world.
Not always and everywhere, mind you, just the self-described 'big dogs' doing the geopolitical rump wiggles - Politicians, plutocrats and their pet mandarins - pollsters.
Pollsters take orders from politicians and plutocrats and tell us what is morally objectionable. Us are we. The Darby and Joans. Regular folks.
They tell us what is the right side of history.
Well Darby and Joans, all over the UK, just confounded the smart and huge money. I watched one flustered chap on the BBC explain that the banks and markets followed William Hill, Ladbrokes and Paddy Power
Bookies have drastically revised their odds on Brexit betting after unexpectedly strong early polling for the leave campaign upended their confidence that the United Kingdom would vote to stay in the European Union.
Markets have followed the same dramatic route, with the pound hitting six-month highs before dropping off a cliff.
As voting closed about 7am Australian time, betting agency William Hill was offering odds of 1/9 for a remain victory - indicating a 90 per cent probability the UK would stay in the EU.
The Punters beat the house. Punter is a British term for 'the people in the shoppe' -fingering goods and merchandise - searching for a bargain. Yew Knaooow! The Commoners.
The oily Hungarian Bond Villain who funds every creepy political astro-turf organization, put his man in the White House with Vakerie Jarrett to yank his voice box in 2008, screwed up Venezuela and Central America more than Jefe Hugo and backed the REMAIN Global UK initiative and even ordered the White House to phone it in hours before the polls opened.
With the date of the Brexit referendum approaching and “Leave” leading in the polls, Soros published an article in the UK Guardian claiming that a vote to leave the EU would trigger an economic disaster.
“It is reasonable to assume, given the expectations implied by the market pricing at present, that after a Brexit vote the pound would fall by at least 15% and possibly more than 20%,” Soros wrote.
Soros coupled his comments with references to a wildly questionable British Treasury economic “model” that estimated a Brexit would reduce UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per household by $6,321 in 2030.
The scare tactics seemed to work over the next few days. The polls indicated that the chances of a “Leave” vote fell dramatically and global stock markets rallied back.
Matthew Tyrmand believes that this is typical of a Soros’ orchestrated “reflexivity” campaign to overload the consciousness of most UK middle- and lower-class voters that against their own self-interest, they will vote to remain in the EU.
Well, Darby and Joan launched a UK Bourgeois revolution.Like our British cousins, American workers are fed daily yards of tripe from the Soros funded thought mills and have the likes of Elizabeth Warren, Jan Schakowsky and Barack Obama pound our ears about what they are doing for the middle class. Seems to me that they are doing economic genocide on the American Middle Class.
Another son of blue collar south side Chicago and political journalist, John Patrick Feehry, writes,
The global economy has been remarkable efficient in bringing more products to more customers at better prices. It has been the principle reason that more people have been lifted out of abject poverty in global history.
But for the middle class, those who do the bulk of the voting, globalization has come at a tremendous cost. The poor have done markedly better, the rich have done amazingly better, but those stuck in the middle have seen their wages stagnate if they have jobs at all.
Brexit was vote to stick it to the globalizers. It was a vote to reestablish national identity. It was a vote reclaim control of their little piece of the world.
Well, Shucks! The Politicians, Polls and the Plutocrat had it handed to them in Old Blighty. Europe faces what one paper called an 'existential crisis' - Sartre would call that ironic.
The UK is out of the EU. I think that is good thing. If Polls, Politicians and Plutocrats can look stupid, I call that a very good day.
Now, let's see what America will do - stay on the leash, or break the chains.
I am a Democrat. Still vote that way - largely. I love my Alderman,Matt O'Shea of the 19th Ward, because he is a genuine representative of the people he represents. I will not vote for a Congressman, State Senator,or State Rep who takes coin from the Abortion Industry, Planned Parenthood, or Personal PAC Illinois - sorry. I am not a gun owner, never was and never will own one - not because I believe that guns kill people. Guns can be used to kill people. People kill with any means they find handy.
I do know that Planned Parenthood kills more people than the NRA.
I have buried far too many young African Americans ( 9 by my count) in the last twenty years. Not one happened to be gang-banger. Twice that number have been wounded and one splendid young man will be in a wheelchair for life.
I have had several close calls as well. The first time in 1998, a bullet whispered past my left ear and then two more, before I hit the pavement at 79th Street and Sangamon. I called my Dad, who was a WWII veteran of Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima and described the very distinct sound of the rounds. " Did fill your Union Suit?" was his response. No, I answered. " You will the next time."
He was right. I learned to fall with my broad manly rump facing the shooter, so as not to take one in the head. Strange things one learns in one's middle age.
I was not a target; I was in the way. The students I mentioned above were targets, but they were no fortunate. Eric Ersery was murdered in 1998 at 79th & Laflin, trying to protect a young girl. Eric's mother had paid the last installment of his tuition that April day. Eric went to classes and then on to work at Burlington Coat Factory at 81st & Cicero. When he got off the 79th Street bus, Eric walked over to talk to the girl he knew. Gangbangers mistook the girl for relative ( CPD Area 2 Detectives later explained) who had run afoul of them and they emerged from the gangway 9's a popping. Eric covered the girl and his bullet peppered body was found over the girl, who also died.
I don't hate guns. I don't hate inanimate objects. I hate the acts of people too stupid and too thuggish to consider the consequences of their wants.
I hate bullying. I hate violence, I hate stupidity. Most of the mugs in the photo attached above from my experience with them (Schakowsky, Quigley, Duckworth, Davis) as people who impressed me to be very stupid bullies. Violent? Beats me.
Aside from Robin Kelly (whom I have never met) , the people of the Illinois Congressional Delegation are some of the most obnoxious, smarmy, dim-witted, opportunistic and puffed up bullies, it has been my sad experience to suffocate some of my time earth in their company.
To say that this group of self-serving snobs and simpering bootlickers is in any way shape or fashion sincere, beggars logic and sentiment.
Their rumps kissing the floor of the Nation's Capitol insult the victims of thuggery world wide.
Guns do not kill people and more than pencils fail exams.
People who pretend otherwise are sitting on the floors of Congress.
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Jiminy Cricket chirps them sentiments. Chicago is populated with Jiminy Crickets - goofs and goo-goos who not only go along with the destruction of neighborhoods, but see the rainbow and a crock of gold. Jiminy Cricket got Rahm re-elected, put Toni Preckwinkle in her President's chair, backed every single digit I.Q. in Springfield and will do it all over again.
Every Jiminy Cricket Chicagoan (Ready for Hillary/Thinks the BGA Works for People Other Than the People Screwing Our Lives/Still Read The Trib and Sun Times Without Laughing, or Tossing The Old Cookies/Votes Straight Ticket Like It Was 1963) will be only too delighted to know the Narrative Created for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts Continues.
The Friends have abandoned their loftiest argument, that a 1973 ordinance and the spirit of a “free and open” lakefront prohibit further private development east of Lake Shore Drive. Now they’re just trying to cut a deal on the particulars of the museum, like everybody else.
You mean like Becky and Stan across the street who can be sure to profit handsomely by Rahm's Public Land Yard Sale to the wee Lad with bags ofgold doubloonsand happens to be married to a Hyde Park Mafia Princess? Chomsky, Please! Those two are 'real' players and Becky and Stan are, like every non-in-the-mix Chicago citizen, abstractions - votes.
The Compelling narrative voices of the Sun Times Editorial Board, like the castrati on the Chicago Tribune's, are in full harmony here -
But in giving up the high ground of pure principle, the Friends have lost much of their authority in this debate. Why should anybody listen to them? They are a respected and valued group, undoubtedly, but elected by nobody. If it is not a violation of fundamental civic values to grant the Lucas Museum a lakefront location, as the Friends appear to have conceded, then they should step aside. They should drop their law suit and leave it to those who actually were elected by somebody — the mayor and the City Council — to cut the best deal for our city.
Maybe then this negotiation can move into the real world.
Really? Gee. So, the unelected must shut up? Brave New World; Well, compel my britches!
The BGA has a niche right smack dab in the middle of the Sun Times Thought Cathedral seven days a week. No one elected Andy Shaw and the laid off former Sun Times and Tribune ink-slingers who support the Rahm Disney Star Wars Magic Kingdom . . .I mean Chicago.
Jesse L. Jackson, Ist of His Name, and one of most practiced and accomplished stick up artist in Social Justice Mythology continues to prop up the power on Chicago's leading tabloid. - No One Elected the King of Beers
Madeleine Dubeck, came to the Sun Times at the Birth of ReBoot Illinois and no one elected this former editor of the Daily Herald to ReBoot the old Illinois Hard Drive, but she slings ink now and then for the Sun Times, whenever the billionaires ( Crown/Griffin et al) need to gin up some grassroots horseshit for some more Green.
The Sun Times sanctions columns for "advocates and activists" who help draw up compelling narratives to change the social, moral, culture and political landscape of America and heap profits upon the chosen few in league with the Progressive Corporatist Power at City Hall, in Cook County and even out in Springfield.
Jiminy Crickets! When I wish upon a star, I sure don't expect to see Forrest Claypool, Pat Quinn, Toni Preckwinkle, Bruce Rauner, Rahm Emanuel, or Valerie Jarrett to get sprinkled with Hollywood Star Wars Dust and an Obama Museum. Jiminy Crickets all over Chicago do and the Sun Times is always there to make their Dreams Come True.
Next Mayoral Election - I'm Voting Straight Friends of the Park.
"Let's face it: we have a problem in Chicago. The name-calling and politics at City Hall are keeping us from tackling the real issues ... I may not be the best speaker in town, but I know how to run a government and how to bring people together." Rahm Emanuel worked for the Daley campaign as a fundraiser,[42] David Axelrod as campaign strategist, William Daley as chief strategist, and Forrest Claypool as a campaign aide. Wikipedia on Richard M. Daley
"The more killing and homicides you have, the more havoc it prevents." Richard M. Daley(RMD)
To be fair, Rahm's Chicago began at that time in Richie Daley's Mayorship when the University of Chicago Hyde Park Mafia sunk its hooks in his tiny heart. That was when kitchen cabinet Progressive types encouraged RMD to Move out of Bridgeport
Ax people like Pat Huels, Terry Teele and Oscar De Angelo pronto
Use Marilyn Katz PR and watch the Feds takeover CHA* and send problems to neighborhoods
Trust U of C and Northwestern to beat up on the solid but Progressively disdained people who got you elected ( Sheahan, Joyce and Degnan) via university trained Hegelian activists, lawyers and media types: G. Flint Taylor/Locke Bowman/Jeanne Snyder/Bernardin Dorhn et al
Snuggle up to the University of Chicago policy artistes
Use hard-ball tactics against old school Ward bosses - embrace Shakman
Close neighborhood taverns, where people talk politics ( RMD) closed scores of family saloons in Bridgeport, Canaryville, Back of the Yards, McKinley Park, Brighton Park and in the southwest Mick Wards.
Embrace Progressive platitudes and play act regular old schoolisms to fool the helots.
Place Progressive icons in City Departments as Heads and hug Shakman tighter
Have Regular Democratic Organizations ( 10th, 14th, 19th Wards e.g.) send field troops into Lakeview, Uptown, Rogers Park and Hyde Park to shoo out the votes for our Mike Quigleys, Joe Mooores and Toni Preckwinkles.
Turn the keys of the City over to Ameritech, Nortyh Michigan Ave Business Association and Disney.
Don't Worry about Torture or Burge, or whatever - Our judges like Judge Robert Gettleman got your back.
All of those moves put Valerie Jarrett in the White House and helped build Chicago's Thug Comfort Zone.
Today, Chicago is America's largest illegal gun range. The guns used in Chicago's daily bloodbaths are not Commie AK-47s in the hands of Aryan Nation Pro-Lifeers; they are street steel.
We have no havoc and we have tons of homicides.
Here is today's Butcher Bill
Year to DateShot - Killed: 271
Shot - Wounded: 1490
Total Shot: 1761
Total Homicides: 302
No Havoc! Enjoy The Pride Parade, Buy some great Disney Products on the Mag Mile and in City Kiosks Everywhere, but Engelwood, Taste of Chicago and Ride the Giant Ferris wheel!
Disney had one horrific week with the slaughter of people in a nightclub, the stalker murder of a young singer and the corporate controlled death of a toddler at a Disney Resort.
We have the same corporately controlled environment here in Chicago - hey, deaths happen, people.
Alligators go where they wants to go and urban thugs get chillin' with killin' G!
Today we "learn" that Disney was very aware of threats posed by alligators even when their nature habitat is 'controlled' by the suits who erased Walt Disney's Vision.
Here is a solid Disney employee shooing away Wally Gator (Chicago has one as well) from guests on Splash Mountain.
More interesting is the comment section from the Daily Mail article that broke this story. where gent from Birmingham, Michigan notes,
@#$$%%%^^, Birmingham MI, United States, about 5 hours ago
Safer here than walking on streets of Chicago
That is quite true, There has yet to be another alligator attack since the horror of last week, but Chicago killings and homices continue to keep Old Man Havoc away!
Disney and Daley and Rahm's Chicago Both Are No-Fly Zones: "“I think just the whole debate about the flight restriction–temporary flight restriction. How difficult that was, how hard it was to get as compared to Mickey and Minnie getting it.”
Hard, Richie, way hard. Harder than arithmetic.
*Joseph Shuldiner, Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing, will be HUD's point man in Chicago. The former head of New York City's housing authority, Mr. Shuldiner will oversee much of the transition from local to Federal control.
He will arrive in Chicago either Monday or Tuesday to brief Mayor Daley and to talk with residents and the staff of the authority. Mr. Daley is out of the city on a trip to England, paid for by American Airlines, and he could not be reached for comment.
“To create a land that would make this dream reality, we pictured ourselves far from civilization, in the remote jungles of Asia and Africa.” WALT DISNEY
“We knew that Disney was aware that this was a problem, and yet they encourage people to be there,” Disney Guest in the wake of the horrific death of a toddler at Disney Resort
To be perfectly fair, Old Walt intended to have guests be awed by mechanical plastic alligators in Anaheim. Disney today is a very far stretch from Walt's vision - it is a corporate banana republic.
Disney will do everything to keep the horrific death of a baby snatched by one of Florida's ubiquitous alligators - in The Happiest Place on Earth's controlled environments - out of Court. No signs for alligators? Why worry. Disney has plenty of worry and well it should.
I expect the Disney guest, quoted above, will get a threatening call from the suits for " The Happiest Place on Earth - that you can shell out a year's salary for you and the family."
Already there are voices calling for 'examination of parents,' as in the recent Cincinnati Zoo incident when a toddler managed to get into the gorilla exhibit and escaped only because of the quick thinking zoo response team. The magnificent Silverback was killed and the world seemed to want to lynch the parents of the little boy. Now, Disney ranked the 66th on the Forbes 500 appears to be at DEF CON Six.
Disney's beaches remained closed on Thursday and the company was "conducting a swift and thorough review of all of our processes and protocols," Jacquee Wahler, vice president of Walt Disney World Resort, said in a statement Thursday.
"This includes the number, placement and wording of our signage and warnings," she said in the statement.
There was a "no-swimming" sign near the water, but there were no alligator warning signs where the attacked occurred, a Disney spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.
Disney, like McDonald's, is not my cup of tea -flying, steaming, or otherwise.
McDonald's lost any and all appeal for me when it exchanged the winking fat guy, "Speedee" for the predatory child molesting Ronald McDonald. I refused to take my kids to McDonald's ( 1984-Present) and encouraged them to consume products made by Mom & Pop joints in the neighborhood. Primarily because the corporate culture creeped me out.
Likewise, Disney went south for me during the late 1970's and 1980's when the oily suits replaced lovable Old Walt and anyone else with his DNA. Yet I am widowed Dad who was joyfully married to an artistic woman who loved her Mickey and Minnie. The Dude abides.
My kids loved Disney! What little kids do not? I have probably the most comprehensive and thoroughly useless VHS collection of the Disney Canon from Steamboat Willie to Lilo and Stitch. We even went to Orlando on two occasions. They sold beer at Epcot. I joined a Universal Brotherhood of Disney Dad's in Tow!
I friended Dad's from France, an Orangeman from Belfast, a Sikh and a Latvian auto dealer. At Disney Resorts you can hear -
"Maintenant écoute. Rapide les pleurs . Tout le monde doit attendre en ligne . Ce voyage côte votre maman et moi un poumon . Maintenant , éteignez les ouvrages hydrauliques!" French
"Tagad klausīties . Quick raudāšana . Ikvienam ir jāgaida rindā . Šis ceļojums krasts jūsu Mamma un Me plaušu . Tagad , izslēdziet ūdens darbus Latvian In every tongue! Translated to - " Now listen. Quit the crying. Everyone must wait in line. This trip cost your Mom and Me a lung. Now, turn off the water works!"
To which, in every tongue, wives would override with " Lighten up! For Once? Okay?"
I make light of Disney . . .they can take it.
They dish it out aplenty, as well.
I do not make light of the horrific loss of a sweet angel to Melissa and Matt Graves of Nebraska. My God, there is nothing so horrific as the loss of a child.
My hope is that maybe families will begin to see the World of Wonder dreamed up by the Chicago North Side Irishman, back in the 1950's. Go to places where America's past is honored. Go to places that give children a sense of wonder - right in their own backyards, No lines and you won't have to cough up a lung.
My kids seek out great hamburgers, because they know what they are and who makes them. If they want toys, take them to a toy store; Top Notch throws together some serious burger over on 95th Street.
Disney and McDonalds are business; not family.
Walt said it best, “A man should never neglect his family for business."
Since early Saturday, June 4th 2016, I have read, watched and listened to tributes, remembrances and analyses from ink-slingers, talking heads and tweedy fops that contort the life of Muhammad Ali, the father-in-law of my friend Mike Joyce, in pretzel logic so his life and his passing from this life makes their own pet theories somehow important.
Muhammad Ali was a one of the greatest athletes in human history and a genius.
He was an Adonis for most of his seventy four years here with us and man of wit and grace.
You can not explain the life of Muhammad Ali by making him into a Black Joe Hill, a muscular Howard Zinn, a testicular Gloria Steinem, or a good humored Donald Trump.
I understand Muhammad Ali by listening to Errol Garner's April in Paris from Concert by the Sea
Its is all here -humor, power, love, artistry, joy, righteous anger, gratitude, humilty and grace in the hands of two man blessed by God.
"Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." Ian Betteridge's Law of Journalism
" A Semi driver was shot and seriously wounded as he drove north on the Dan Ryan Expressway near 95th Street on Thursday night, the second shooting on a Chicago expressway in five days and among more than a dozen this year, state police said." - Chicago Tribune
Taking a friend to the airport is a task that most of us view as a simple obligation to family and friends. Taking a friend to the airport in Chicago is another matter. For a resident of the Morgan Park neighborhood, the choice of route depends upon the airport - Midway Airport, or O'Hare. Midway is a breeze - head north on Cicero Ave to 63rd street and get in the right lane. Going to O'Hare should be determined by the Tolls, or the Chicago traffic. One can easily go directly to O'Hare on Interstate 294 and pay a couple of tolls, if one is going directly to O'Hare. My task required a trip to River Forest; thus, the Dan Ryan and the Ike.
Recently the stretch of the Dan Ryan between 127th Street and 95th Street has been the site of a number of lethal thug killings and woundings. These incidents that the media and political social justice charlatans call 'gun violence' have boosted Chicago's reputation as the nation's number one Thug Comfort Zone and will only increase the municipal exeunt omnes brought on by such law makers and loud mouths.
I left the barn for my good deed a few minutes before 9 AM. As my friend's flight on United was scheduled for 1:45 PM and required a three hour pre-TSA Mugging arrival and the one hour and change it takes to get to Division and Harlem, I did not wish to shoot craps with Jane Byrne Interchange Cluster Hug.
Driving 111th Street east to Ryan is a breeze. People from Beverly, Morgan Park, Roseland, Mount Greenwood, Washington Heights and Fernwood are generally traffic observant and friendly. There is also the neighborhood's bastion of Service and Protection - the 22nd District of Chicago Police Department at Monteray - just before the Dan Ryan entrance ramp on Hamlet Street.
There was a red light before the ramp and I was enjoying WCDB 90.5 jazz,when my car jarred.
The driver of a red, late-model Nissan Altima had bumped me. As it was slight bump, I turned in my seat and waved off any concern for the driver's inattention, or technical problem. Seconds passed and the light changed. I took my foot off the brake and checked my rear view mirror - the driver, a thirty-something African American man, was screaming at me and laying on the horn - He was saying that I am a Caucasian Fornicator of Oedipal Inclinations.
I recalled the recent spat of Dan Ryan shootings. Though they took place during wee small hours of the mornings, perhaps the huge thick portion day-break was not out of the question: 1. the man hit me. 2. I was sure that he was not infuriated because I had not given him the opportunity to make a clean breast of things concerning his violation Secretary of State Jesse White's Rules of the Illinois Roads. The driver was going apeshit and now was trying to run me off the road.
I am a very good driver and I did not want to allow my nemesis to pull up even with me. After checking on-coming traffic in the rear views, I hit the brakes and swerved in behind the red Nissan and we engaged what can only be described as an expressway dogfight - doing vehicular Immalmans, and two dimensional barrelrolls from 111th Street all the was to 87th Street when I managed to secure my place behind this person who intended no good for me.
On several occasions my enemy in this duel of American ( I drive a Chevy) and Japanese cars managed to pull up next to and began lowering his window. With my peripheral vision I gauged traffic and looked for a firearm and hit the brakes whenever he was close to giving me a more robust burst from his arsenal of epithets concerning my race, or a sound hosing of 9mm pills.
Just past 87th Street, I made a call to 911 and asked for Illinois State Police - I gave the make, model and Illinois license plate numbers and hung up. I was not going to pull over and test Dame Fortune with this gent. All the time I managed to stay behind this guy.
No State Troopers anywhere, Not at 63rd. Not at 47th Canaryville. Not at Sox Park. Not at Chinatown and the guy was staying with me - though just ahead me. He kept turning his head to shout at me. I called again and was told that ' we are covering an accident.'
I followed him to the Ike at the Jane Byrne Interchange onto 290 and west side. The guy pulled as far to the right as he could and I remained on his tail. He faked an exit at Racine. Another at Western Ave. and gave no indication that he was going to allow me top avoid a confrontation with him.
Finally, he gave up at Homan Ave. and I continued on to pick up my friend and take her to O'Hare. we arrived in plenty of time.
After fulfilling my simple task on that particular Holy Trinity Sunday, I headed back to 111th Street and went into 22nd. District Headquarters and made a hit and run complaint, as that was my only means of getting on the record - he hit me on Hamlet Street and that was not on the Dan Ryan. I did not pull over and 'wait' for the Illinois State Police show up.
Mostly, I did not wish to be headline - 63 year old shot in yet another expressway incident - no suspects.
"Why I so much prefer autumn to spring is that in the autumn one looks at heaven--in the spring at the earth."--Søren Kierkegaard
These May mornings are fall like. For the last two weeks you would believe that it was time to rake leaves.
God wakes me up and the least I can do say some small thanks. After prayers, the morning ablutions and whisker landscaping it is time to pound the pavement to 6:30 AM services at my neighboring parish St. John Fisher. Located in what is called West Beverly ( the area north of my Morgan Park neighborhood) the walk is a splendid mile and change that takes me up Talman Avenue and some of the most beautiful homes in the 19th Ward on south side of Chicago. Unlike the tony mansion and massive bungalow phalanxes crowding the Ward east of Western Avenue and the blue collar raised ranches and Cape Cods and frames of Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood, West Beverly aka St. John Fisher Parish, or just Fisher, features streets where every home sports a unique architectural jacket. The photo above is an example.
St. John Fisher Grammar School is the most desired placement in the neighborhood for the children of cops, firemen, CPS teachers, nurses and Cook County and City Hall Government mandarins of every rank. The school run by Sister Jean McGrath is one of most successfully enrolled schools in the Chicago Archdiocese.
A forty foot high cross marks St. John Fisher parish campus of Church, school, rectory and convent.
The church represents the post-World War II architecture found in parishes on the far southwest side - departures from the huge granite, marble Gothic, Lombardy, and Romansque churches found in the older south side parishes. It is a large open and comfortable place of worship.
The parish is named in honor of a martyr to Henry the Eighth's glandular theology of the Anglican and Episopal denominations. St. John Fisher was a bishop who went to King Henry's chopping block before St. Thomas More who seemed to have had a better public relations appeal in history.
Our Lady was crowned by the kids of the parish a few weeks ago.
Early morning services are attended by a baker's dozen of regulars.
My daily perch is in the last pew on the south side of the church which features this stained glass representation of Abraham's interrupted sacrifice of his lad Issac in the most existential episode of the Bible. The knife is up! Will Abe really bring it down on his kid? God's Hand Shows Up!
Since the beginning of Lent and right up to this morning, I have studied this window.
I realized that the young man depicted as ISSAC in the stained glass went to Mount Carmel. He is wearing the 19th Ward requisite tonsorial headwear - a brown MC baseball cap with brim turned around to keep the sun off the kid with see-through Irish skin on his neck.(click on the photo for a better look)
Dad always said that I couldn't find my butt with both hands. I can. Allow me to add this imperative -“Defend the unborn against abortion even if they persecute you, calumniate you, set traps for you, take you to court or kill you." - Pope Francis to celebrate Pro-life Mass, Vatican
"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."
A peach of a guy with all the sweetness one could expect from a life well-spent and in good company: short on brains but a terrific dancer!
Author:
Every Heart and Hand: A Leo High School Story
The Chorito Hog Leg, Book One: A Novel of Guam in Time of War
I refused to take my kids to McDonald's ( 1984-Present) and encouraged them to consume products made by Mom & Pop joints in the neighborhood. Primarily because the corporate culture creeped me out.
