Stapesless Politicians Killed Policing - Chicago is Thug Comfort Zone

"But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid." Raymond Chandler

"The three smallest bones in your body are all found inside your ear, and you would be completely deaf without them.  Known formally as the malleus, incus and stapes (and informally as the hammer, anvil and stirrup, after their approximate shapes), Natural News

Our problems are First World Problems - "My God! Tom Skilling said we can expect up to ten inches of Snow!  Trump is President!  There's Fake News!  The Cop Thinks I Ran that Red Light - I Know It was Green!"

It is my belief that the only people who should be allowed a beef are First Responders, the only people dedicated to making America remain First World.

I watched a cop get a dressing down from a motorist on Western Ave. at about 110th Street, around 11 A.M., yesterday.   I was walking home from Mr. Swifty Dry Cleaners and could hear the woman who looked and sounded like that smug 'sixty-something' in the AARP commercials. The officer was African American and about thirty years of age and wrote the violation with appreciative good humor.  The woman argued that she had 'not run through the red light' at 109th Street just past County Fair Foods "Big Plans!"

I nodded to the officer in full appreciation for his 'troubles.'

The officer was not chasing a thug, or wondering whether or not he should draw his service weapon and go home at the end of the shift; he was taking lip from a well-heeled harpy with that goofy bumpy sticker that only really nasty-tempered and intolerant people seem to slap on the rump of their roadsters - COEXIST


I went on my way. I don't have any bumper stickers.  I wear my heart on mu sleeve - it is more than just a handkerchief, you know.

I wondered if this harridan had a Blue Ribbon and Blue Light on here porch.  That would really seal the deal.

The cop would go to his next urban adventure.  Ms. AARP would tell everyone at her Book Club about her battle with fascism.  Maybe she gave Ja'mal Green a jingle about a get together.

The cop might be taking rounds on Vincennces at 103rd,  Percy Julian has had more than few stray lead peltings these past few years.

Chicago is a Thug Comfort Zone,  I have been writing those three words since here on Google since 2006.

ChiRaq, Beruit on the Lake, Kosavo on Kostner, it is all the same; not because of Police Officers, or systemic racism, or a Code of Silence, or Commander Burge, but because of mayors and politicians from Jane Byrne, Harold Washington, Gene Sawyer and Richie Daley right up to and including Rahm Emanuel.

Each mayor wanted crime to go away and homicides to disappear, but doing so allowed the Marxists Lawyers and the well-funded university Centers for Law, Journalism, Truth, Wrongful Justice and Revolution kick up public relations, headlines, editorial series, class-action lawsuits, hefty Lefty contributions, controlled narratives and mythologies, while mayors went to ground under Massive Instant Payout Settlements, Blue Ribbon Panels, Task Forces, Musling Officer Testimony, Judge  Shopping, Conversations about Race, Community Policing, Floral traffic medians and access to the fifth floor for Sneed, Marin, Brown, Steinberg, Goudy and Shaw.

The Marxists co-opted philanthropy and the Politicians co-opted Media Faces, all the while allowing police officers and policing to twist in the wind, dry up and blow away.

The Marxists of the People Law Office, Loevy & Loevy, et. al. are going to ambulance chase, agitate, smear and whine.

Government should be something less than boneless, in the face of such assaults. It is not.

Richard M. Daley was shameful.  Rahm is disgraceful.  They have lacked tiniest element of bone mass.  The three smallest bones of the human body are found in the ear - the stapes, being the smallest of the hammer, anvil and stirrup.

Rather than allow themselves to be grouped with police officers involved in the sworn duties as patrolmen and detectives, Daley and Emanuel have crushed individuals and policing itself under the brass wheels of City Hall bus.

The officer taking abuse from Ms. COEXIST near Mr. Swifty's yesterday feels the wheels.

Bruce Dold Tribune Fake News Pillories Woman for A Month - Here Is How to Handle Offensive People

When Black Friday comes

I'm gonna dig myself a hole

Gonna lay down in it 'til

    I satisfy my soul -   SteelyDan

 . . . decades before Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in the early 1600s“dudgeon” was being used to mean a feeling of anger or resentment. OED

Most read stories this hour

Woman berates Michaels workers in Chicago in rant caught on video

BREAKING NEWS Novemeber 29, 2016
Woman berates Michaels workers in Chicago in rant caught on video
Jessie Grady walked into a Michaels store last week in Chicago to buy a Santa hat for her young daughter. She ended up witnessing — and filming — another customer's "unprovoked attack" in which the woman unloaded on black Michaels employees, claiming she was being discriminated against and declaring...

Bruce Dold's Chicago Tribune December 9, 2016

One woman is menacing Chicago.  She is not an Alpha Female, ripped, tattooed androgynous Marvel Comics paragon with bad wiring.  She is small and seems rather timid, until our $15 an hour barristas, or checkout person makes the mistake of punching that invisible button which causes unfiltered, mean-spirited words and tones to gush from her modest frame.

Citizen Journalists have made life hell for a person who has caused only a checkout person to be showered with GoFundMe largesse.  The woman, whom I will not name, because other citizen journalists with hyper- elevated levels of High Dudgeon* and room temperature I.Q.s have cyber-bullied the young woman enough. There are much worse and more dangerous people out there, racist or not. Many are repeat offenders. High Dudgeon works for NPR types and other comfortable afflictors and they never get enough.

Enough is not a feast!  Bruce Dold gorges away High Dudgeon and he is  editor of a great daily metropolitan newspaper.

The Chicago Tribune's website has taken down stories of rapists, killers, gunmen, grifters and frauds with exacting efficiency in the name of journalism, once the news has passed a few days.  Like the Laquan McDonald shooting at the time it happened, or when Rev. Jesse Jackson threatened to cut the nuts off of President Obama.

Not so the Michael's Menace Maid. 

DNAinfo, The Daily Mail, IGBTNation, Root, Heavy, Facebook and The Chicago Tribune of Bruce Dold  introduced the Menace on November 29th as a Trump Supporter.

A few weeks before an admitted Trump Supporter was beaten and car-jacked on the West Side,  High Dudgeon began to boil in need of a proper response to the heartbreak of Trump and all that it means to Bruce Dold and others.

Black Friday arrived and allowed pent of High Dudgeon to flow like river!

It is weeks since the poor woman went viral on the cashier, but the Chicago Tribune of Bruce Dold maintains the pillory so it stays fresh in the vapid minds of people who need a good jolt of artificial outrage and High Dundgeon.

In the normal world, populated by people of all races, creeds and colors who are far too busy taking care of life, a person's public bad manners gets confronted in a manner that sets things right.

Years ago, 1993 I believe, my wife and I drove up from Kankakee to have dinner at the original Maple Tree Inn owned and managed by the late Charlie Orr.  Maple Tree Inn was one of the very first Cajun restaurants in Chicago and home to the great jazz stylings of the King Fleming Trio.

Charlie hired great wait staff.  He hired a young Irish immigrant girl and on her first day, serviced a table full of Chicago Reader foodies.  The Reader has always been a hipster, in-crowd source for all knowledge.  This table of Yuppies, as the era-tagged them, were loud and needy.  The Irish girl served them with speed and cheerful efficiency.  Mary and I were seated a few feet from their table. One smarmy creep ate like he was going to the chair, talking at the top of his voice and his maw full of catfish, and beefed about how 'inauthentic' his blackened catfish tasted.  He began to abuse the waitress, to the delight of all an sundry in this happy circle of jerks.

The girl asked if she could get him something else.  "What? and wait another twenty minutes?  Are all of you this stupid?  Who is cooking in there? He is no Cajun."

The girl burst into tears.

The table laughed, like the Chicago Tribune editorial board must have, when Ald. O'Reilly demanded that Bully Trump signs get taken down.

Charlie Orr burst onto the scene.  He had been meeting with King Fleming in the Cavern-like basement bar and Kevin the Chef from Louisiana had sent word of the table of shit-heels.

" Charlie had a great Walrus like mustache and smiled like the Beatific Vision itself.  He greeted Mary and me warmly and asked us to stick around for the jazz and a few Steinlagers. He excused himself and warmed the offending table with his Ward Bond of a grin.

" Hello, I am the owner.  Did you like the food?"

Silence.

" My chef served on an Oil Rig as cook and worked under Paul Prudhomme for six years.  I buy fish at Fulton market every morning.  This little girl started this evening and you made her cry.  Now, ( very pregnant pause) Leave what is on your plates and GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY PLACE!"

The Maple Tree Inn was packed and roared with applause and shouts of 'Here! Here!'

The pack of shit heels skulked out.

Today, people record, lawyer up and team up with the News Media - detested by normal people everywhere.

Citizen journalists are becoming as big a set of creeps as Real Journalists, Editors and other merchants of High Dudgeon.

If you are really offended say something and be willing to take a punch in the chops.  Chances are you will not need to accept a blow, because abusive people are generally cowards, or damaged people. You can say something on the spot - Or you can use your phone camera , record and skulk away like a shit-heel.

Judicial Watch Might Own the Obama Legacy

"The public has a right to know precisely how Obama and his senior White House advisors Emanuel and Jarrett responded to Blagojevich's corrupt attempts sell Obama's Senate seat."

Hell, yes, I want to know.  More than this, I want to know President Obama's academic records.  I have been under the impression that the man is a dim-bulb from my first encounter with him back in 1997.  Subsequent person-to-person encounters, chats and directions through the ropes of a boxing ring ( 2004) upheld my impression.  My empirical experiences conflicted with the approved narrative that the young man from the Choom Gang was none other than Solon, Moses, Jack Marshall and Bill Moyers wrapped in flesh.  Could I have been wrong in my assessment?  It would not be the first, or the last time.

I believe that we would see a rather weak set of records for the efforts of  a lazy, callow, ambitious, but not overly energetic, disinterested and less than bright student.  Poor attendence, sloppy work, more excuses than pregnant nun will be noted in some columns.

However, I am pleased that Judicial Watch continues to shovel the heavy coal for skeptical old me.

Judicial Watch's lawsuit asks the court to order the interview reports' release, noting:

[U]nder the circumstances it cannot be said that release of the requested records could reasonably be expected to interfere with whatever is left of Blagojevich's criminal prosecution. The public should not be forced to wait any longer to review the FBI 302s of President Obama, former White House Chief of Staff and now City of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, or Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett while Blagojevich pursues his second, plainly futile appeal.

"The FBI interviewed Barack Obama eight years ago about the selling of his Senate seat. The American people should finally get to see these FBI interview reports," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "The public has a right to know precisely how Obama and his senior White House advisors Emanuel and Jarrett responded to Blagojevich's corrupt attempts sell Obama's Senate seat."

Short of seeing the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Laurette's report cards, I will be satisfied to read Senate Seat baiting and Valerie Jarrett's negotiations with the incarcerated Great White Smelt of Patrick Fitzgerald, former Governor, WLS DJ, Elvis Impersonator and Mell Family public money Master Key, Rod Blagojevich.

The Obama Legacy, might, just might be found in the ink transcripts and notebooks of F.B.I. investigators.  This inquiry , subsequent to the release of documents, will be the first peel of the Valerie Jarrett Vidalia!  Madame Jarrett has been Obama's chief handler long before Rahm Emanuel, Dave Axelrod and Bill Daley acted as his Kevlar.

This should be interesting.  I getting big jar of Salted and Black Pepper Cashews when it happens.

Father Tony Brankin, Chicago's Polonia and Zero Chicago News Coverage

“It begins with Mass, the great engine of life. Then the regular prayers of the rosary, Breviary, meditations through the rest of the day and in the car. My spiritual reading is from journals and the classics. I don’t meditate while sculpting. If I’m working on Jesus’ knuckles – that’s what I’m concentrating on.” Father Tony Brankin, St. Odilo's Parish, Berwyn, Illinois

On Nov. 19, when Poland and the Polish people, from the bishops to the government, did that ( Proclaimed Christ the King) through the Jubilee Act of Acceptance, their example became a testimony to the world to do the same. Catholic Register

I spent a wonderful day with the lady I love trolling the shops on Lake Street in Oak Park, while Chicago took on its first snow toupee of the year. We hit bookshops, hat stores and that great Indian Restaurant The Khyber Pass. It was a lovely continuation for a day begun at Mass.

I had gone to Mass at Sacred Heart in Morgan Park with Father Gallagher, an octogenarian hero, who spent most of his priesthood as a missionary in Mexico, who must be the greatest homilist in my Church. Sweetly and succinctly, Father Gallagher relates the Gospel to the daily lives of the blue collar worshipers, who enjoy saying the Memorare after the Creed and singing the standards at Mass.

The only match to Father Gallagher's simple and no-nonsense path to the Cross is a sermon  by Father Tony Brankin, pastor of St. Odilio's in Berwyn.

My lady friend attends Mass at St. Odilo's when not singing at St. John Cantius Church and old Polish parish rated the most beautiful Church in America.  It is.

The Polish attend to the smallest details in all things, from Copernicus to Madame Curie to Pope St. John Paul II.   Poles are one of the largest ethnic (white) demographics in Chicago.  They are arguably the most organized (non-Alinsky) of Chicago's neighbors: Polish National Alliance,Polish Roman Catholic Union, the magnificent Copernicus Center and any number of the many morphed credit unions and savings and loans.

Miss Sullivan, the lovely and elegant lady who deigns to be seen in public with me, showed me a homily by Father Brankin.  It celebrated the fact that Poland, in this Jubilee Year announced by Pope Francis, proclaimed Jesus Christ the King of Poland - both Church and State.

"Immortal King of Ages Lord Jesus Christ, our God and Savior! In the Jubilee Year 1050 anniversary of the Baptism of Polish [people], in the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, here we Poles stand in front of you (together with their authorities, clergy and laity) to acknowledge your reign, surrender to Thy law, entrust and take you to our homeland and the whole nation…We confess before heaven and earth, that your reign we need…Wishing to worship the majesty of Thy power and glory, with great faith and love, we cry out: Rule us Christ!”

So prayed the Polish bishops at the Church of Divine Mercy in Krakow, Poland, on Nov. 19 in a major ceremony formally declaring Jesus Christ as King of Poland. It was the day before the feast of Christ the King in the Church’s liturgical calendar. Poland’s President Andrzei Duda took part along with thousands of pilgrims in the Mass and ceremony. (Scroll down to read the entire prayer-declaration here.) The ceremony marked the end of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy and the 1,050 anniversary of Polish Christianity.

I had heard of this, but had not lodged it into my tiny brain's 'full attention chamber.'  Father Brankin praised the fact that people of faith can and do live meaningful and important lives with faith active in every aspect. In fact, politicians and the government wholly agreed.

On television, Senator Jan Maria Jackowski explained that the faith is the strength of Poland. He said “if we keep our core values, we build the common good. However…if we forget about the great heritage of this force that gives us faith and what gives us the heritage of the Gospel, it would not be so good. We see what is happening in the countries where de-Christianization is progressing at a rapid pace.”

Father Brankin, whose flock includes many, many, many immigrants from Mexico, Central America and Poland, as well as Czechs, Ukrainians and Lithuanians, honored the Poles.  The Chicago newspapers wholly ignored this event, so did the Catholic New World.   There was plenty on the new Cardinal, diversity workshops at UCCB, kids wearing Red for Cardinal Cupich, but no mention of Poland's most severe blow to world secularism.

Father Brankin always argues that spiritual life must begin with attendance at Mass.  I know many Catholics who consider themselves to be more 'spiritual' than active.  That is like joining a club and never attending a meeting.  Too many of us no longer want to go to Mass.  Let's be Unitarians.

That's cool.  Mass is what keeps me from going off the rails and craving my baser instincts.  I told the kids at Brother Rice that I attend services and receive the Eucharist every morning at St. John Fisher - no brag, just fact.

" Does that mean you are Holy?" asked one chap from St. John Fisher Parish, with more than a spoonful of obvious irony.

I told him. " No, not by a jug full.  It does make me less of a jerk, however.  Somewhat."

Kids, like all of us are pulled to be secular, overly cynical and fundamentally intolerant, by the broader HBO culture.  Poland seems to have kicked that trend to the curb.

I went to Mass yesterday, met my lovely friend, heard from her about Father Brankin's homily, delighted in Poland's stand to proclaim Christ it's King, and noted the lack of coverage - ignoring is also a sharp form of censorship.

God Bless Poland. God Bless great priests.  God Bless young people.  God whack the media on the back of the noggin.  It will not do much, but would be a start.

America's Obama Mission Drift and All That Jazz

Hollywood *created our President through American Mission drift.

I spent twenty-five years of my forty year career in Catholic education as a fund-raiser - Director of Development is usual term, or more the MBA school of B.S. nomenclature Director of Institutional Advancement.  Either term means 'the person who makes calls on people to make donations.'

Calls mean pitches to potential donors that involve matching Mission to Operations.

You state -"Here is what we stand for" and through a series of infinitives:

• To expand its ability
• To provide a quality Catholic education
• To instill the virtues of 
• To prepare students

attempt to match mission to peration . . . and all that jazz.  This is followed by a representation of programs and activities, budget, financials and needs assessment and the ask.  The ask is usually in keeping with the need, but it was my happy experience that the give often exceeded the ask.

The Mission; the Operation/Needs and the Ask - that is the job - it ain't brain surgery.  Tell that to an Institutional Advancement Suit.  I lived by the dictum of the late Father Ken Yarno, C.S.V. - " Be Brief and Be Gone!"  Donors don't want pals, or neat guys for lunch dates.  They want to help a school, a program, or a cause with a minimum of BS.

It was my experience that 80 % of the money came from  20% of our donors.   That is a very healthy match of mission to operation.

One of my tasks was to make sure that the 20% included new donors and gift grants from foundations.

I found that in my last years, foundations drifted from their stated missions.  Likewise, big individual donors wanted to make more impact on the broader society.  Foundations that had been family faith spirited became more social justice locked-up and giving templates became 'systemic' gives to hot-button causes like immigration reform, public education reform, public health reform, law reform and out-reach programs.

Foundations were driven by big donors and big causes by big agendas.

Today in 2016, Americans gave over 300 Billion dollars to charity.  However, the donations are being driven by fewer people.  It is now something like a 90/10.

One of the most useful works for fund-raisers in Catholic education was Peter Greer's 2014 Mission Drift:The Unspoken Crisis Facing Leaders, Charities and Churches. Greer argues that,  faith-based organizations drift from their found missions "Slowly, silently, and with little fanfare, organizations routinely drift from their purpose, and many never return to their original intent. Harvard and the YMCA are among those that no longer embrace the Christian principles on which they were founded. But they didn't drift off course overnight. Drift often happens in small and subtle ways. Left unchecked, it eventually becomes significant. "

Let's say, one day that Bubs Murtaugh, a wildly wealthy alumnus of St. Regular Guy's Catholic Prep, is harpied by his third trophy wife to get more Catholic kids educated to the benefits of Planned Parenthood, the Revolutionary Communist Party USA and NAMBLA.  To that end, Bubs writes check in the amount of $ 6,095, 285, 000,000 to St. Regular Guy.  That would be some Board to tear up that check.

No one would give that much?

Could happen.  I had a guy write a $500,000 check without an ask.

My guy said put it to good use - scholarships.  A crowd of Alums owe their sheepskins to this guy, but he is no Bubs Murtaugh.   

I know schools that have 'go be along with the Big Bangers,' some to a great end and others not so much.  Mission drift.

America, like world of philanthropy, had undergone a massive mission drift at the very same time.  Money drives political parties and political parties drive people who are not paying attention.

Catholics who find abortion to be a necessary 'distraction' from the really wonderful things that Planned Parenthood does for women's health did not arrive at that goofy premise over-night.  Slowly, in 'in small subtle ways'  crazy notions that roll over eternal truths become the intellectual currency of people who do not pay attention.

Dick Durbin did not happen over night.  He needed time and a lack of attention.

My Democratic Party, the one that beat fascism, fought back Communism, created the American Middle Class and our once great standard of living suffered mission drift from 1972 DNC in Miami to the present. 

Gradually, an entire nation that honored valor, worth, integrity, competence and fierce of love of country found Barack Obama to be its Chief Executive.  Hollywood, GM, GE, Goldman Sachs, Sierra Club, George Soros, Henry Van Amerigen, Fred Eychaner, SEIU, ALF-CIO were driving the mission of the Democratic Party which had shed Hubert Humphrey, Scoop Jackson and Daniel Patrick Moynihan for the likes of Anthony Weiner, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Nancy Pelosi as its face and voice.

Why not an untested bi-racial back bencher as Chief Executive?  People no longer pay attention.

Occupy Wall Street and Move-on.org blew up more of America than Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dorhn and Weathermen ever dreamed of bombing.  God bless them, as Speaker Pelosi cooed.

Mission drift happened.  It happened in philanthropy and it happened in government.

November 8th was a push back at mission drift. And all that jazz - America Great Again, Mad Dog Mathis, Carrier.

Hey, that's super.  However foundations are rooted in their agendas - looking downstream, Polk Brothers, Woods Fund MacArthur Foundation, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford, Hearst and  all the rest are still driven to the rive gauche.

Let's see if people will pay attention. 

 * with very few execptions.

Really, Really Hate America? Read This, Unless It Has Been Banned by Your Local Public Library of School District

           

           educere Latin - to lead away (from ignorance)

education- give intellectual, moral, and social instruction to (someone, especially a child), typically at a school or university. Merriam Webster 2016

"I want beginning teachers to resist, to rebel against all of it, to reject these clichés, to stand on their own feet, and to make their way toward the moral heart of teaching at its best." - Bill Ayers, Terrorist and Retired College of Education Professor.

Colin Kaepernick and other foolish youngsters who do bloodless, inconsequential and juvenile demonstrations accepted by the script writers for Social Justice Warriors should be forgiven.  They do not know any better.

Kneeling during the National Anthem, stomping, burning and desecrating the American flag, yelling, or spray painting obscenities about police, the President Elect, Jews, Israel, white neighbors, black neighbors, Mexican Americans, or Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are just ignorant and spoiled people acting out.

Reacting to such actions with anything but a raised eyebrow, must be reserved to Veterans.

Me, I'm as yellow as a duck's foot and drew a magic Draft lottery that allowed me to finish college and become an English teacher.  Most guys my age (64), were as lucky.  The guys a few years older, went to Vietnam and many did not come home; many more came home without limbs, attached to colostomy bags, in wheel chairs and all with more horror than Joseph Conrad novel.

Kids no longer are introduced to Joseph Conrad, William Thackeray, Walter Scott, Owen Wister, or Edward E. Hale*, because Marxists like William Ayers dominated American Colleges of Education since the 1980's.  Literature has been denied its common humanity, by disciples of idiotic critical theorists and semiotic totalitarians like Noam Chomsky.

Had high teachers been trained in rigorous mastery of their disciplines (math, science, literature & composition, history and government) rather than John Dewey inspired radical theories and social engineering nonsense,  more informed intellects would be voting.

Saturday, the Chicago Bears will play the San Francisco 49-ers and their daffy QB Colin Kapernick.

Kaepernick's PR guru seems to have given the bad advice, just like Bill Ayers poisoned legions of current public school teachers in his time at UICC.

Education means the condition of having been led away from ignorance.  The evidence points to a condition contrary to it its purpose.

Colin Kaepernick, a child of the bi-racial union of an African American father, who abandoned the union before the child was born and a young white woman who could not care for the child. Colin Kaepernick was adopted by a white family in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin and moved with them to California, where the boy displayed great athletic talents in baseball ( Colin was drafted by the CUBS in 2009) and football ( he decided to QB for the University of Nevada Wolves.  He took a degree in business and was drafted into the NFL.

Things seem to indicate to me that Colin Kaepernick might never have been assigned much less read Edward Everrett Hale's very long short story - The Man Without a Country.

I suggest that contemporaries of Colin Kaepernick are wholly unfamiliar with this work of American Literature - deemed to be an artifact of dead white men and a document of Imperialism, by too many American colleges.

Here is an assignment.

Read this story linked here

Tomorrow - let's talk about it.

Do you think that if Colin Kaepernick and thousands of young people and far too many older folks, behaving like him, would act better, had they been educated by a competent teacher about the truths made evident in the Man Without a Country? 

* for my lazy lads:

 On trial for supporting Aaron Burr, U.S. Army lieutenant Philip Nolan denounces the U.S. and says that he never wants to hear about his country again. Exiled to U.S. Naval warships, Philip moves from ship to ship, never returning to or hearing about America.
At first he is unrepentant, but over time he becomes desperate for news of his country. He asks a young sailor for news of America and urges him to never speak ill of America. "Stand by her, boy, as you would stand by your mother, " he says, referring to America as "her," which he does each time he talks about the United States. While at a ship party, he asks a woman with whom he dances for news of America, but she refuses and walks away.
Years after his sentence, he realizes he is dying. He shows an officer named Danforth a shrine he built to America. The shrine includes a portrait of George Washington, a painted bald eagle and an outdated map. This map, he says, is proof that he has a country. He asks again for news, and Danforth gives in, sharing all of the major events that occurred since his trial except the Civil War.
After he dies, an epitaph he wrote is discovered. He describes himself as loving his country like no other man loves her but acknowledges that he deserved nothing from her.

Trump and the Battered, Dipped and Fried Media: "Who Wants Rainbow Cones????"

Trump tweets* and people who expect hushed attention every time they open their yaps, or scribble deep thoughts, media types go off the rails bat-guano like a crowd of eight-year olds within earshot of my late uncle Bart Hickey.

Bart would watch his nieces and nephews at play in Grand Pa Hickey's patch of Crinnie Hill, his yard along the north side of his house at 7535 S. Marshfield, and decide to wind them up.

Bart was the tallest of the Hickey males and looked every bit the Korean War Marine Staff Sergeant that he had been, as well as a D.I., before his return to Chicago.  He was Hollywood handsome and full of the devil. Not unlike this guy 

"Goofs and Split-tails!  Who wants Rainbow Cones?"

Who would not?  Since 1926, Rainbow Cone has been the south side Chicago Ice Cream Mecca, May the Prophet Bless it.

Ice Cream had been a treat, rather than part of the American food pyramid. . .Rainbow Cones!!!!  and any chance to raise the bar on the Good Humor truck or Dixie Cups from Hamilton Dairy was a release of juvenile passion known only to my generation, but appreciable to the broader culture.

Uncle Bart would pack his Buick full of Hickeys, Brennans and Winters no less than twelve at a time with a few in the trunk and drive way out to 9223 S. Western on the edge of the City - Ultima Thule in our provincial Visitation, St. Killian's, Little Flower and St. Tommy More Parish experiences.

Rainbow Cones are towers of Orange sherbet, Pistachio, Palmer House vanilla with cherries and walnuts,, Strawberry and chocolate ice creams wrapped in a Belgian Waffle come . It ain't ice cream; it's Ambrosia.  Rainbow Cone the establishment looks like an old Spanish hacienda, right out of Zorro and remains open only from late March to early November.

Once we were baited, Uncle Bart would periodically shout out, " Who wants Rainbow Cones" and get the boomeranged universal " WE DO!!!!!!!!!!!!"

To which he'd reply, " Hey, who wouldn't?" and then go off to work.

Or, he might toss that one out at tender moments when Grandpa Hickey was regaling us of with tales of his strength, " I picked that Connacht bullock up over the wall by the ring in nose and he was that happy to be on the good side of Conway's line over with a better family, so."

" Who wants Rainbow Cones?"

Adios, to you, old Turkeybird!  Nice story. We're getting Rainbow Cones (sotta voce)

Only to wait, wait and wait. Are we ggoing to Rainbow Cones, Uncle Bart?

" Sure, when it snows in the Philippines!"

Cruel, hell no it was funny as hell.  We got toughened up to a world where one can not have everything.  In the words of Steven Wright, "where would we put it?"

Winding up eight olds is funny. Winding up Anderson Cooper, David Brooks, E. J. Dionne and the New York Times is hilarious. What a pack of dip-wads!

Donald Trump tweets to the media, like Uncle Bart tested his tribe with offers of Rainbow Cones.

The fun was in the watching.  I'd love a Rainbow Cone, right now!

* Trump's tweets to the media remind me of this great scene from the The Guard.

Meditation: Art - The Last Refuge For This Scoundral

 "The president is a study in intelligence, thoughtfulness and the ability to articulate and express himself in a clear and concise manner. " Thomas Frisbie, Sun Times Editorial Writer

Long Tom Frisbie is consistent and the Sun Times always delivers lip-service to citizen-taxpayers and rump munches for the oligarchs who ascended in 2008, blazed wildly and pop-fizzled into irrelevance on November 8th.

Cook County, the soil that seeded, cultivated and harvested the Obama Age Apogee( 2008-2016) that included the rise and fall of Pat Quinn and Rahm Emanuel, remains unaffected by the events, the messages and the spirit caused the Progressive Apogee to fall.

Like the Chicago Tribune ( Bruce Dold ed.), the Sun Times pretends that Obama ruled Camelot, when it fact it was merely Hollywood Squares.

Unlike Tom Frisbie, or Bruce Dold, I have not been anything but underwhelmed by Barack Obama, from my first encounter with him at Woods Funds, through his hack-work as a pass-along  seat occupier in the Illinois and U.S. Senate and his rather sad Presidency.

I remember more than a few of these public moments. when Barack Obama truly revealed exactly who he happens to be - kind of a dope:




Then there was this valediction for a Mass Murderer.

" At this time of Fidel Castro’s passing, we extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people. We know that this moment fills Cubans - in Cuba and in the United States - with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him.
For nearly six decades, the relationship between the United States and Cuba was marked by discord and profound political disagreements. During my presidency, we have worked hard to put the past behind us, pursuing a future in which the relationship between our two countries is defined not by our differences but by the many things that we share as neighbors and friends - bonds of family, culture, commerce, and common humanity. This engagement includes the contributions of Cuban Americans, who have done so much for our country and who care deeply about their loved ones in Cuba.
Today, we offer condolences to Fidel Castro's family, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Cuban people. In the days ahead, they will recall the past and also look to the future. As they do, the Cuban people must know that they have a friend and partner in the United States of America." President Obama upon the death of a Dictator

Today, at Mass I thought about a story my late wife related to me.  Mary was an art teacher.  She told me a story that is probably apocryphal, but passed from one teacher to her.

An Art Teacher gave her class the opportunity to draw and color whatever they wanted.  The guys did dinosaurs eating jet fighters and the most of the girls smiling studies of themselves outside of their homes.  One little girl who did not care for art at all perked up and excitedly went to work.

The teacher walked over and asked, "Molly, what are you going to draw?"

"God."  was the answer.

The teacher said, " People don't know what God looks like, Molly."

Molly continued, " They will."

Art only works for the childlike.  Michealangelo, Duccio, Dali and Mary's Molly were all as children, like George Bernard Shaw whose death resulted from a fall from a ladder while pruning an apple tree.

You will never hear of Bob Costa, Chris Matthews, or Tom Frisbie doing the same.

Art gives us meaning in the same way faith directs our actions. Belief in nothing requires nothing of us - YOLO notwithstanding.

Read books; not the New York Times Review of Books. Enjoy a musical and not make a statement by gushing over Hamilton.

We will not find comfort among hacks.  We will not find meaning among hacks.  We can go very far towards meaning, by being like Molly.

We can study the childlike musings of Dr. Samuel Johnson who wrote the most prophetic study of the Obama Apogee in his poem London, 1738 : An Imitation of Juvenal's Sixth Satire.

 Since Worth, he cries, in these degen'rate Days,Wants ev'n the cheap Reward of empty Praise;In those curst Walls, devote to Vice and Gain,Since unrewarded Science toils in vain;Since Hope but sooths to double my Distress,And ev'ry Moment leaves my Little less;While yet my steady Steps no Staff sustains,And Life still vig'rous revels in my Veins;Grant me, kind Heaven, to find some happier Place,Where Honesty and Sense are no Disgrace;Some pleasing Bank where verdant Osiers play,Some peaceful Vale with Nature's Paintings gay;Where once the harass'd Briton found Repose,And safe in Poverty defy'd his Foes;Some secret Cell, ye Pow'rs, indulgent give.Let —— live here, for —— has learn'd to live.Here let those reign, whom Pensions can inciteTo vote a Patriot black, a Courtier white;Explain their Country's dear-bought Rights away,And plead for Pirates in the Face of Day;With slavish Tenets taint our poison'd Youth,And lend a Lye the confidence of Truth.

  from London 1738 by Samuel Johnson

I must remember to turn to Art and take the journalists for poisoners of Youth that they be - people who will never fall out of an apple tree.

I Shall Arise and Go, And Make Some Corn Bread!

I had a swell Thanksgiving!  Did not overdo the helpings and avoided my usual the Gibraltar-like renditions of smashed garlic spuds and stuffing and decided to forego the traditional fifth helpings.

Took a vigorous walk from the garage to my couch in the basement and watched recored episodes of Cheyenne. Where will he be camping tonight?

It is now Saturday and I made a pot of Brunswick stew* last last week.  My son is stopping by after work this afternoon and the lad can work a fork like his Mom and Pop.

Nothing goes better with Brunswick stew like a golden brown cast iron skillet full of corn bread.

I do corn bread good. Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Butter a good cast iron skillet  9" diameter I used soft Kerry Gold

1. Cup of Gold Medal Flour
1. Cup of Quaker Corn Meal
1. Cup of sugar
1.tsp. of sea salt
1/4 cup of Honey
1. Jumbo Egg from Marianno's
1. 10 oz. can of Green Giant nibblets corn
3 & 1/2 teaspooons of Calumet Brand Baking Powder
1/3 cup of Peanut Oil - Mr. Planters, Please.
1 generous dash of Vanilla extract

Mix it all in a bowl with good sized fork.  Don't mix too well.  Spread it pie tin and toss it in the oven for 25 minutes.  Check with a butter knife for doneness. Dance to doneness~!




When it is 'doneness' let oven cool down to 145 degrees F. and keep corn bread nice and warm until your eaters bang open the back door and squeal, " It it done?"

Then ladle out some Brunswick stew 
Cut corn bread into diagonal slices for dipping.

Use softened Kerry Gold butter for eating corn bread, like an American.


*I use chicken thighs and pork shoulder, corn scraped from the oven roasted cob and replace Greathern Beans for the lima bean - lima beans are just wrong on so many levels.

The Reds Want Black Friday - You Might Just Shop on Amazon

Note the sign in the middle of this Sun Times photo by Ashlee Rezin, the one that says GET ORGANIZED FOR AN ACTUAL REVOLUTION www.revcom.us.  Note that it is professionally printed, but I do not see the stand Union bug.  I never the see the old union bug on the palm cards of Progressive Democrats. Look at Forrest Claypool's, or Toni Preckwinkle's.  Reds never worked with labor. 

That is because revcom.us is the website of the Revolutionary Communists.

Working with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle?  Rainbow Push and Jesse Jackson?
Black Lives Matter? International Workers of the World (IWW)?  Subcribers of public television and viewers like you?

Yep.  The article, by Sam Charles,  accompanying the dramatic photo of diverse peoples crying and pleading for Justice for Laquan McDonald and ACTUAL REVOLUTION never once ( yet again) mentions the active role of Revolutionary Communists in every bit of race-baiting street theatre in the country.

We had the REVCOMS in my neighborhood for the past month and only once were they mentioned by Howard Ludwig of DNAinfo Chicago and only in passing.

Today, in the Tribune Birkenstock Partisan and professional lefty, Ron Grossman worries that Trump's election might, just might, mind you, signal an age of 'air-brushed' history.  You know, American history without  gnawing racial, gender and class guilt. Ron likes the scab yanking yarns of the fatuous John Hope Franklin and the mythopoeic Howard Zinn.  Ron has been napping for the last eight years.  His trade has been doing the work of ten Dmitri Shepilovs keeping the truth out of the way of the news on a daily basis. Eight years of 'white-out history.'  It continues in Cook County, with every edition of every paper and every blab from the yap of Carol Marin.

This Black Friday, please think of the Reds.  They deserve some credit - after all every Cook County slated candidate won on Trump Tuesday and that is something.

Homeboy Bruce Dold Wants President 45 and His Whole Fam-Damily Right Where Bruce Can Find Him!

Urban League CEO James Compton, former Tribune Editor Gerould Kern and Trib editor Bruce Dold, former Governor Pat Quinn and Mayor Rahm Emanuel in simpler times.

"Our advice to the Trumps is to move, sooner rather than later, and avoid returning home often. That approach would greatly ease the trouble in Manhattan, simplify the task of protecting the family, minimize costs for the federal government and New York City, and reassure the public that Trump will give the presidency his full attention." Bruce Dold et al

The Editorial genius of that great metropolitan newspaper, the one that endorsed Governor Hemp of Allepo, wants President-elect Donald Trump and Melania and the kid right where Bruce Dold can find them.

The Chicago Tribune did not want Francis Cardinal George to live in the Archbishop's Residence, bought and paid for by Chicago Catholics.  Cardinal George wanted to sell the place in 2002, by was over-ruled by his flock and the Tribune and the rest of the supine Chicago media cat-called his home until the man went to Heaven.  How many times did Manya " The Seeker" Brachear pooh-poo its opulence while poor black girls like Dorothy Brown had to struggle until the caged bird sang?  Lots.

The White House is different.  It is a dump to a man like Trump.  If Bruce Dold took a call from gilded Trump Tower, NYC, how in the name of Sweet Fanny Adams would he report such a missive?

You see things get confusing . If Trump is staying in Manhattan, how in the name of Sweet Fanny Adams will The Chicago Tribune report any executive pronouncements with its iron-clad accuracy - like Dewey Wins!

Bruce Dold is a simple man who likes his politics served up steaming, warm and plentiful and placed right in front of him by Rahm Emanuel, Forrest Claypool, Dick Durbin, Pat Quinn, Cardinal Cupich, Rev. Jackson, Pastor Pfleger, Toni Preckwinkle and Mr, & Mrs. Bob Creamer.

Keep things simple. Bruce is simple.  Rahm says something and the Dold abides.  Keep the narrative.

Prose often is required to apply rhetorical devices to keep readers from falling asleep on the Red Line, or finding another news source. Rhetorical devices are keen ways of expressing the obvious - if Mitt Romney says that Vladimir Putin is a dangerous man.  A really funny guy might say, " The 80's are calling and want their foreign policy back." That is so cool and he's a community organizer!

So, newspaper guys like Bruce Dold need to use things like metonymy and synechdoche.

Metonymy is figure of speech (rhetorical device) in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated, like Hollywood, the Pentagon and the White House.

Metonymy's sister device is Synechdoche, or using a part of something to represent the whole, as in " All Hands on Deck,!"  Bruce would not see a bunch of hands flopping from keel to forecastle via ladders and passageways, or perhaps he might given his endorsement of Gary Johnson.

Keeping the Trump family in the White House makes things easy for Bruce, Mary Schmich and Eric Zorn.

The White House called, Bruce Dold!

Just kidding.

Sophie Went to Heaven

Sophie, a black feline critter, who pawed kitty litter
Into my Bass Pro Size 10 Waders,
Scratched Wallpaper like an S/M Dominatrix, bitter
At being Prom Queen with no Daters
In her youth,  Died just before the needle
from Doctor Libby was applied

In the booth, of BevLab Animal Care.
And I cried.

I cried for Sophie and cried for me,
And debit carded her ashes for the family.

Sophie had a score and five and
was bloated with Cancer cells
That ate up her hide, as well
As well as the IAMS cat tucker

I am gonna miss the little . . .
Cat.

Cardinal Combine? Strange Smoke from Pope City

Crain's Chicago Business February 1998 :Chicago's Archbishop Francis George, 61, was elevated to cardinal by Pope John Paul II during ceremonies in Rome. The new cardinal led a special mass in Vilnius, Lithuania, in honor of Valdas Adamkus, 71, the Chicago-area resident who was sworn in last week as Lithuania's new president. . . 

So I'm wondering, rhetorically for the purposes of a Sunday column, what do we call this relationship, again? This Illinois custom of quiet sharing of power across party lines for the benefit of a fat connected few? . . .What is it? What is it, again? John Kass, Chicago Tribune

The Combine!  The Illinois Combine!  That Illinois peace in the valley when the 'two parties can be as one when there's money on the table,' Brother Kass! Praise Mammon and bless his name.

Now, it appears that the once secular band of boodlers opened its arms to Holy Mother Church via our media darling Archbishop.

I do not recall a caravan of Illinois politicians, grifters, hangers-on and venture capitalists going to Rome for the elevation of Archbishop Francis Eugene George, O.M. I. to Prince of the Church , a kid from Portage Park and St. Paschal's Parish.

I recall members of his family and childhood pals making the pilgrimage.  Cardinal George returned to Chicago as 'Francis our Neighbor' and was treated to having his house and person egged, T-p'd and porch poop-bagged at least twice a month by theological room temperature I.Q.s of the Chicago Tribune, Sun Times, WTTW and the likes of  Manya Brachear, Cathleen Falsani, Michael Sneed, Elizabeth Brackin and Carol Marin, as well as all the political creeps at City Hall and the County Building.

Agenda and Grievance politics played out in the media against a real priest, who took it all with grace, patience and good humor. Chicago Values conflicted regularly with traditional - some might say ultramontane - values.

Francis Cardinal George was a Lion of the Church and simple parish priest, who could have cared less what Jay Levine, Chuck Gowdy, Windy City Times or Toni Preckwinkle thought of him. But touch his flock, or mock his faith and Cardinal George would throw down, like a Canaryville tough guy on St. Paddy's Day.

The media detest straight froward people.

I was gobsmacked by the embrace of the Catholic Church by the very people who made Cardinal George's life a bed of nails, even during his final days. Here are the members of the Chicago entourage for Blase Cupich:

The mayor and first lady of Chicago Amy Rule will lead the delgation (sic) at which Cupich will be elevated by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica on Nov. 19, a dinner in support of Catholic Extension in Rome that evening and a celebratory Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Nov. 20.
Among those joining Emanuel’s entourage: Father Tom Hurley of Old St. Patrick’s Church; Reverend Stan Davis, co-Executive Director of the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago; Bishop Wayne Miller, President of the Council of Religious Leaders; Jo Ann Rooney, President of Loyola University; Dennis Holtschneider, President of DePaul University; Gov. Bruce Rauner; Senator Dick Durbin; State Senate President John Cullerton; State Comptroller-elect and current City Clerk Susana Mendoza; Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke; Congressman Mike Quigley; Aldermen Ed Burke, Pat O’Connor, Danny Solis, Michelle Harris and Marge Laurino; Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer; Anne Pramaggiore, president and CEO of ComEd; Stefano Pessina, executive vice chairman and CEO of Walgreen Boots Alliance; Desiree Rogers of Choose Chicago; Don Edwards, CEO of Flexpoint Ford; Daniel McCaffrey, CEO and Chairman, McCaffery Interests; Margaret Houlihan Smith of United Airlines; Wynona Redmond, of Wyn-Win Communications; Cherryl Thomas of Ardmore Associates; Senator Renato Turano of Turano Bakery; former NBA star Isiah Thomas;  Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson; Chicago Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago; Rocco Claps, director of the Illinois Department of Human Rights; a Cristo Rey Jesuit High School student and a Christ the King High School student–both of whom work in the mayor’s office. Shia Kapos in Chicago Sun Times 11/ 15/2016

The only name I read above without having the feeling that I was wearing spun-glass underwear is Father Tom Hurley.

I was surprised Pat Quinn didn't make the trip.

Perhaps, this is signals a new spirit of cooperation between Church and State, a cismontane rapprochement.  Maybe it is just all Civic Spirited, good fellowship.  Maybe.  Maybe, I should lace up my Converse Chuck Taylors and pound the boards against Dwayne Wade.

Or, maybe, . . . . perhaps the sleaze of the Illinois  Combine will be now sanctified. That would be dispiriting.

Cardinal Kilroy has some funny pals.

Mass will be interesting all this week.