Saturday, April 12, 2008

John McCain: Obama's Remarks on 'the American Villagers' is from His Heart!














And," he concluded, "it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

The remarks could be political dynamite, with the Keystone State voting in just 10 days.

"Pennsylvanians don't need a President who looks down on them. They need a President who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families," Clinton blasted.

"As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive, who are rolling up their sleeves," she added. "They are working hard every day for a better future, for themselves and their children."

Steve Schmidt, a senior McCain adviser, described Obama's statement as "remarkable" and "extremely revealing."
Barack Obama - The End of the Trail Speech. I'm feeling you, Senator.

Click my post title for the full Monty on Senator Obama's slight regard for all of us American Villagers.

Barack Obama was not only speaking to 'small-town' America, but the small towns that exist in Big Cities as well - we call them neighborhoods: Obama was talking to Dorchester, Queens, Staten Island, Pilsen, Canaryville, Brighton Park, Edison Park, Norwood Park, Evergreen Park, Morgan Park - hell every Park. Well, maybe not Hyde Park.

This was no Political Gotcha. This is Pure undiluted doctrine - Progressive doctrine. Obama lives this doctrine and it is from the heart - Words do matter. Barack Obama was speaking to his core constituency - Progressives. They are Gown elites - like his Hyde Park Neighbors in Chicago. Like Army brats, University Demographics - that's what smart types call people - tend to be transient - move around alot.

The Progressive demographic tends to be childless; Single or MNKs; college educated; transient; urban; spiritual but not religiously affiliated; professional; mistrustful of law enforcement and people who work in government; non-smoking; up-scale. Our Chicago Lakefront Wards and communities provide a good example - the trendier expensive neighborhoods, where much more disposable capital is enjoyed and where folks reside who make a lot of money - good jobs - and are not anchored to mortgages, schools and community roots, because they tend not to have children. Hence, an affinity for the Progressive Flagship like Planned Parenthood.

Progressives tend to look down upon the very religious, mostly high school educated, blue-collar, ethnic, close-knit, married people; who are, therefore, unfamiliar with the fitness gym/health club life style, due to raising many children in a thirty-year mortgage home, in these far less transient neighborhoods. The 'small town' places on big cities where the smoking ban is having a deep impact on bar owners: Norwood Park, Edison Park, Scottsdale, Mount Greenwood, Morgan Park Wrightwood & etc.

Progressives want Joe and Mabel Six Pack to not only recognize the ’shabbiness of their drab lives,’ but, also, agree with the Progressives that Abortion is a really good thing and that religion is the cause of most societal problems - that, and the fact of their being overweight- 'hate fat,!' under educated, under dressed and over populated. Progressives would rather see huge mastiffs in rastaurants, than Joe and Mabel's six kids. Joe and Mabel are told to keep their mouths shut while Obama conducts our 'current national debate on Race.' Michael Eric Dyson and Cornel West will tell Joe and Mabel just how much like Obama's Granny they are - start to nodding!

Progressives are far less interested in who the precinct captain might be, but they are really interested in Global issues ( like Faux Gras -and so should every other community!!!!

BTW - on all that Progressive demographic stuff - Read Joel Kotkin's studies of the American City. He's a demographer and social scientist - I'm just a guy who works at Leo High School. Gotta site ideas - I'm no Jayson Blair.

http://www.joelkotkin.com/


Obama was having a good old fashioned elitist Jaw-Fest! Obama was speaking to his Peeps! Bill Maher, Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn and all the educated and tweedy stiffs who universally kiss their waxed rumps. Obama's words come from the Heart - he really means what he said. I'm feeling you. You feeling me?

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Chicago - Catch Mandy and the Bandits - A New Sound in Town!





Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favor. She imagines herself not only certain of accomplishing every adventure, but of obtaining those rewards which the accomplishment may deserve. She is not easily persuaded to believe that the force of merit can be resisted by obstinacy and avarice, or its luster darkened by envy and malignity.
Samuel Johnson

On Tuesday, April 9th 2008, Music carried the day! At Fourth Presbyterian Church on Michigan Avenue, the Choir of King's -College Cambridge Directed by Stephen Cleobury voiced the best the human soul has to offer with a series of vocal presentations of choral compostions by Francis Pulenc, Brett Dean, Thomas Tomkins and other English and French composers as well as Bach. A score plus of chorister's ranging in age from the tweens to bearded 18 year olds voiced the roof off the fashionable kirk on the concrete Mag Mile.

Traditions as old the English University birthed themselves right into this goofy and quicksilver 21st Century chanted out the nonsense of an Age that honors transience and disposability; the crass and the shocking. Every person should be blessed with an event like this and reminded of just how great our species truly was meant be by it;s Creator. O Magnum Mysterium et admirabile sacramentum ut anilmalia viderent Dominum Natum!

We are way past Christmas and that is a damn shame, but last evening I was knocked out by these disciplined and talented boys from England who birthed the true genius of musicin the Fourth Presbyterian Church. The most intricate and difficult matrix of notes were born whole and silky by these little boys and young men. It concert ended much too soom.

The night was but a pup and we, ( Yes, dear Reader, this hideous troll of a man had a date with an Angel!) headed north to Katerina's, a Bistro at 1920 W. Irving Park Road to witness the epiphany of Mandy and the Bandits.

Pictured above is the beautiful and talented Ms. Amanda (Mandy) Crumley, who recently formed a band dedicated to American music. For the second time that evening, I was poleaxed with delight in the talents of young people with love and the true discipline of musicians.

Mandy and the Bandits are the best vocal and musical talent that I have witnessed in decades.

Do Click my post title for their site link that treats you to three songs.

Young Ms. Crumley has composed one of the tightest and most disciplined group of artists in the trade. Not since Poi Dog Pondering have this many talented artists brought together Jazz, Country, Bluegrass, Pop and Brazilian music to Chicago.

John McCain: Barack Obama as Sonny Lawson: 'Fifty percent, Lord! I'm talking gross! '




Coming Soon! Senator Barack Obama in Stroker Ace 2008!






Sonny Lawson, played by the great Burt Reynolds in the movie The End ( 1978) tried to drown himself in the sea and got to changing his mind. Lawson screams out 'Lord, I want to live!' and casts forth a litany of deals that The Almighty can not refuse: 'I'll give away all my possessions to the poor, your name' & etc.

The Tide, or the Hand of the Almighty gently surfs Sonny back to shore and Sonny edits his promises to God accordingly.

'Fifty percent, Lord! I'm talking gross!' Gradually, Sonny gets to live and The Omnipotent gets Bupkis.

Here in what appears to be a remake of The End - we see a back-sliding ingenue, who in March made deals to the Media and American People - It's a YouTube World Senator!

Now, with his campaign flush with spending loot. Senator Obama is playing Sonny Lawson - without make-up!


Obama didn't always feel this way. Last March, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the candidate would "aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election." Obama also told the Midwest Democracy Network, in a questionnaire, that he would participate in the system, writing that he had proposed a system in which "both major party candidates...agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election."


Click my post title for more on Obama's land crab polka!

McCain is as good as his word. On Publicly Funded Campaign Financing, Senator John McCain is allover it! “We both made a commitment to take public financing. There’s nothing to talk about. We either keep our word or we don’t keep our word,” McCain said in New York Wednesday. Well, there's commitment's and then there's commitments!
Ask Hollywood - they're Obama's Grassroots. Them folks do commitments, like a lawyer takes 30%! 'Lunch, Baby! You're the Best! . . . Lose that Stiff - See He Dies a Hollywood Squares Death! Put His Children in Bondage! Get me a New Bluetooth, Dana You're Breaking Up! Hey, You're Fired! Tell Your Mother!'


Change You can count on! But don't expect to blow the ink-dry on Obama's currency.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Religion without Preparation H ( Irish Chapstick)




Hat Tip to Frank Nofsinger and the good folks at Maggie's Farm - click my post title.


We all seem to spend way too much time on Atheists, Muslims, but most of all Christians: Catholic, Evangelical, Mainstream Protestant and Wayyyyyy Out There. Find a more riveting pain in the rump than Chicago's Father Andrew Greeley. Greeley could get an eighty-eight year old Poor Clare to palm a roll of quarters in her tiny but devout fists with his incessantly petulant yammer.

Buddhists and Jews make nice always. Never had a beef with either denomination over matters of faith or anything else.

Atheists are the worst of the lot and much more dogmatic than any Jesuit hair-splitter of Wahhabi's Imam could ever dream of being.

Here's the best of religious thought - Buddhist Jew/Jewish Buddhist - this a thought-palindrome?

The sayings of a Jewish Buddhist, and other Jewish humor

If there is no self, whose flu is this?

Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?

Drink tea and nourish life; with the first sip, joy; with the second sip, satisfaction; with the third sip, peace; with the fourth, a muffin.

Wherever you go, there you are. Your luggage is another story.

Accept misfortune as a blessing. Do not wish for perfect health, or a life without problems. What would you talk about?

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single Oy.

There is no escaping karma. In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited. And whose fault was that?

Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.

The Tao does not speak. The Tao does not blame. The Tao does not take sides. The Tao has no expectations. The Tao demands nothing of others. The Tao is not Jewish.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Forget this and attaining Enlightenment will be the least of your problems.

Let your mind be as a floating cloud. Let your stillness be as a wooded glen. And sit up straight. You'll never meet the Buddha with such rounded shoulders.

Deep inside you are ten thousand flowers. Each flower blossoms ten thousand times. Each blossom has ten thousand petals. You might want to see a specialist.

Be aware of your body. Be aware of your perceptions; Keep in mind that not every physical sensation is a symptom of a terminal illness.

The Torah says, Love your neighbor as yourself. The Buddha says “There is no self.” So, maybe we're off the hook.


That reminds me of this old, old one:
Shirley returns home to Miami from her big Africa trip. Her friends ask her about it, as she sits crying at the Mah Jong table.
"Oy," she says. "In the jungle, I was carried off by a huge gorilla, who took me up into a tree and had his rough, animal way with me for hours."
"You poor thing. It must have been terrible."
"No, it was more wonderful than you could ever imagine. Nothing like Marvin."
"Then why are you crying?"
"It's been two weeks, and he doesn't write, he doesn't call."



One a
Me own:
Then, there is the Irish Jew:

Irish Jew " Ahhhhh, Sueeeeee!"

Passer by " Gesundheit!"

Irish Jew " Comes Out Loose."

Howard Dean: SO Very - SO JUST TOO,TOO DNC for me, You Know Like Deano's Letter Telling How So Very Bad John McCain Truly Is! So Very Bad!


Dear Howard,

With regard to your latest missive - the third grade girl scripting your thoughts for you is doing just a bang-up job!

The use of the adverb "so" was bold! Most of all it was just too, too fun to read.

So Liking This Letter, Deano!

Pat

Here's Deano's Letter to Me!

It's like Really So Very Political and Everything about John McCain, you know?


Dear Patrick,

John McCain is so wrong on Iraq, he can't even get the basic facts about the situation on the ground correct.

Today, as he was questioning Gen. David Petraeus, he again confused the difference between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

At least five times as a candidate John McCain has stated that Iran (a Shiite nation) is supporting Al-Qaeda (a Sunni group) in Iraq. This is not some minor mistake, but a significant gaffe. He clearly does not understand the sensitive political dynamics in that region of the world.

What's worse is that he's done it at important times when you'd expect him to be at his best -- he did it today in the Senate while questioning the commander of American forces in Iraq, and he did it on a recent trip to the Middle East.

If John McCain can't remember such a simple fact at crucial times, how will he be able to do it as President?

We have to stop John McCain from taking control of the White House, and stop him from taking over George Bush's war in Iraq. Can you write a letter to the editor of your local paper letting voters in your area know just how confused John McCain is?

http://www.democrats.org/gaffes

Once is misspeaking -- five times is a dangerous lack of understanding. John McCain so badly misunderstands Iraq that he's content to stay there for 100 years, something he's said multiple times. He has also failed to explain how he would pay for a war that is now costing you and me $12 billion each month -- money we could be using to help our economy here at home.

John McCain wants us to believe that his decades of foreign policy experience make him the natural choice to lead our nation at war with terrorists.

We just can't afford someone who just doesn't understand Iraq -- it's too dangerous.

Thanks for your support.

Howard Dean

Dan Kelley's Review of Every Heart and Hand: A Leo High School Story



Chicago writer and Chicago Daily Observer correspondent Dan Kelley sent me this review of Every Heart and Hand: A Leo High School Story the book and the review is a small tribute to the great courage and commitment of the Leo Alumni! God Bless You Guys!

Here's Dan Kelley's review:

This is an interesting book that is both a nostalgic exercise and an informal history of St. Leo High School. It is also a testimonial to faith and endurance.

Pat Hickey details the growth of the Auburn Gresham neighborhood and the plan to promote a Catholic boys high school to serve the community. Established in 1926, St. Leo High School developed a reputation for sponsoring terrific athletic teams and graduating classes that brought great credit to the alma mater. It was a working district filled with bungalows and families that followed the Chicago Cardinals and White Sox.

Racial tensions and changing demographics should have spelled the demise of this venerable institution. The Chicago Archidiocese canceled its subsidy to the school and shuttered numerous Catholic parishes that formerly served to provide entering freshmen students to the high school; the Irish Christian Brothers who had operated the school severed their ties to the institution and lay administrators took over a school that had shaky finances and an aging physical plant; the student population was increasingly African American and non-Catholic; the surrounding neighborhood was in decline and viewed as unsafe, gang dominated turf. The future looked bleak and closing the high school seemed to be the obvious and imminent solution.

As Hickey relates, Leo Men would not support a losing cause, but they would accept a challenge when there was a prospect of winning. The alumni rallied to save the high school. Although St. Leo is no longer serving the same Irish Catholic population as it did in former decades, its alumni donors have maintained the school to educate the impoverished African Americans residing in the immediate community. To quote the author, this may be "the greatest story never told." Oprah can support a school in South Africa and reap unlimited publicity from this worthy endeavor, but when the same thing occurs in the Chicago based television celebrity's own backyard the story is not newsworthy. Don't you know how bigoted the Southsiders are?

This unjust stereotype is unwarranted at St. Leo. These same 'bigots' are providing a high quality education to young men who are exceeding expectations and breaking out of the vicious circle of gangs, drugs, poverty and despair and succeeding at many of the preeminent colleges and universities in the USA. Why would the alumni support a school that no longer serves their children and grandchildren? One of the mottos of the St. Leo Lions is inscribed on the cornerstone: "Pro Deo et Patria" (for God and Country). What else is there to say? Another guiding principle at the school is "Facta Non Verba" (Deeds Not Words). Case closed.

My only complaint with the book is a simple one: I wish that there were more pages and more stories recounted in the book. Nonetheless, this slim volume is recommended for those with an interest in Chicago's South Side.


Click my Post Title for the book.

John McCain: Obama Shills Represent His Views





Air-America Big Mouth - Ed Schultz calls John McCain, who spent five and one half years being tortured by the North Vietnamese, a War-monger; Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D.W.Vir.)said that as a Navy Aviator John McCain dropped laser-guided rockets from 35,000 and gave no thought to the people he killed.

So, those are your guys, Senator Obama? I thought you were better than that. Oh, that's right! You also get along swell with domestic terrorists Billy Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn and then there's bat-guano crazy Uncle Jeremiah! Who else, do you have in the Yes, We Can Pantry? They'll probably pop out before the Pennsylvannia Primary - I'd count on it.

Senator Obama, the Apostle of Rev. Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has marked his ground with their comments and stands by them, it seems.

Clearly, Senator Obama, who has repeatedly argued on You-Tube that John McCain wants America involved in a 100 Year War in Iraq, relishes the positions of his surrogates and wants to position himself as the candidate of change.

Well, they love you at Huffington Post and MSNBC - The Tool Shed, but they are really not enough to carry you into the White House, Senator.

If that works for you Senator, good luck.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Hillary Will Drive America Out of Iraq!



Senator Hillary Clinton will drive America out of Iraq . . . and here's how!


"I think it would be fair to say that it might well be irresponsible to continue a policy that has not produced results that have been promised time and time again,"

HRC - 04/08/2008

John McCain : Earned Respect with Sacrifice & Jay Rockefeller- Born Privileged to Shoot His Mouth Off.





Jay Rockefeller is a twerp. I'll exercise my Rights under the Bill of Rights - I think Jay Rockefeller is a twerp and privileged Twerp at that. Jay exercised his public franchise to sneer at John McCain who spent five and half years being tortured by America's enemies, while Jay's Family added to their fortunes as war-profiteers. Standard Oil did great.

John McCain burned up petroleum products and the North Vietnamese did the same in shooting down McCain.

Rockefellers might have made out from both sides, while Jay went to the Peace Corps - God Love him - really.

McCain was crippled by the North Vietnamese.

The Rockefellers made money off of Nazi Death Camps - no one is tossing Zyclon B at Jay - yet.

From Wikpedia

The Rockefeller based company Standard Oil's marriage with IG Farben, the company which manufactured Zyklon B for the Nazi Party, demonstrates a lack of ethics towards its business practices.



Click my post title for the Twerp's ideas about a Man who stood up to torture and did not make a nickel on the deal.

Ayers & Dohrn: Smug as a Bug in a Rug - Radical Down

I met a real rebel in 1974. Cornelius Enright, that was the name he went by, was a seventy something year old farm hand in County Kerry, Ireland.

As a young man, Con Enright fought the Black and Tans - the British Irregulars comprised of sociopaths and British Army misfits sent to terrorize the Irish during the Rebellion in the early 1920's. Mr. Enright belonged to one of 'The Flying Columns' commanded by Tom Barry and fought a guerrilla action through the mountains bordering Cork and Kerry.

When the British withdrew, Ireland went into Civil War - divide over whether or not to accept the Partition which created the Irish Free State in the southern counties and kept the Northern Ireland counties in the British Empire. Enright took the side of the rebels. He fought and was wounded in the City of Cork and imprisoned by his old comrades. Upon release, Enright continued to fight for a United Ireland.

In 1937, Enright went to Spain and fought for the loyalists against Franco. Was wounded and captured again and released, after a truce was declared. He was excommunicated from his Catholic Faith for siding with the Communists and had been a member of the British Communist Party.

In the late 1960's he returned to County Kerry and worked as a laborer on a cousin's farm outside of Brosna, County Kerry. He prayed the rosary every day, but never went to Mass. 'Once in - never out.' He was a cheerfully poor man. He was totally abstemious as far as alcohol and had been from childhood. He never took a drink in his life.

Then, there are the Chicago radical chic. Trust fund revolutionaries from the 1960's who played at revolution with real explosives and committed real crimes without the remote possibility of long-term harm to themselves or their wealth. Their Daddies, like Ayers' Pater used the long-arm and short pockets to see to that. Ayers grew up in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago in a highly privileged family (his father, Thomas Ayers, was Chairman and CEO of Commonwealth Edison) and attended Lake Forest Academy. Billy had the lawyers and the bankrolls to get them out of any high jinks and youthful indiscretions. Like These from Wikpedia:

According to Ayers' memoir Fugitive Days, he became radicalized at the University of Michigan. During his years there, he became involved in the New Left and the SDS.

Ayers went underground with several comrades including Brandy Diekman and Arion, after their co-conspirators' bomb accidentally exploded on March 6, 1970, destroying a Greenwich Village townhouse and killing three members of the Weather Underground (Ted Gold, Terry Robbins, and Diana Oughton, who was Ayers' girlfriend at the time). He and his colleagues invented identities and traveled continuously. They avoided the police and FBI while bombing high-profile government buildings—including the United States Capitol (two bombs on March 1, 1970), The Pentagon (May 19, 1972), and the Harry S Truman Building which houses the United States Department of State (on January 29, 1975)—along with several banks, police department headquarters and precincts, state and federal courthouses, and state prison administrative offices.[1][2] Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn raised two children, Zayd and Malik, underground before turning themselves in in 1981, when most charges were dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct during the long search for the fugitives.[


They had Chicago blue-stocking connections at the Universities; ink-clout with the Bohemian Dreams Media; seats on the Trust Fund Charitable Boards that have more power than any political machine. Talk about money laundering. Talk about nepotism! But Chicago's 'hard-hitting' investigative journalists have a huge red light in front of them where monied crumbs are concerned. Medill trained reporters and editors will not look into the clout babies of the Left. They will not look into the network of Radical lawyers who enrich themselves and create a Thug Comfort Zone in Chicago.
Hands Off! Basta Ya!

Dohrn and Ayers were trust funded into sinecures - almost like political no-show jobs at Chicago's universities. Chicago journalists are only interested in sitting outside a cop hangout to 'entrap' off-duty policemen.

Ayers and Dohrn are friendly with Barack Obama. He has to be friendly with opportunists like these two insulated phonies, because the teacup Revolutionaries who dominate Progressive Grassroots Lakefront, IVI, goofball politics, command that he do so. Barack Obama is no more tight with these too, than he is with Tony Rezko. He was pushed on these too by some Progressive dimbulb big shot- 'You MUST meet Bill and Bernardine they are soooo committed.' To themselves. Obama's problem is that he is not well served by his Campaign. A smart manager would have had him get way out in front on these two, instead of waiting for a dope like Hannity to shrill about them. These two are not worth it, but that's just me.

There is no way in hell that Barack Obama is joined at the hip with these too, faux freedom fighters. He met them and they gave to his campaign - pretty good metaphor at that - a husky $200. Bill spends that much on his tennis shoes. That shows the level of commitment these two phonies have toward anything that does not directly enrich or further insulate themselves. But that's just my opinion. All I know is what I read in the papers, which I mill through my experience - seeing what good people actually do for poor kids and meeting real Revolutionaries, like Con Enright.

Monday, April 07, 2008

John McCain - Jack That Cat was Clean




John McCain has many great attributes that ring true with Americans - heroic, humble, honorable.

But for my folding money - McCain looks great on the stump, on the tube and on the town! Jack, that cat was clean!

Click my post title to learn much, much from one of the great poetic voices of last Millenium - Dr. Horse.

John McCain: Dave Axelrod with His Britches Aflame!




Click My post title for Obama Campaign Producer/Director/Scriptwriter/Composer Dave Axelrod with his Pantaloons Ablaze! It's a living, Dave.


Dave, take a page from 18th Century Genius Dr. Samuel Johnson:

1,442. Lying; Posturing
"The traveller who describes cities which he has never seen; the squire who, at his return from London, tells of his intimacy with nobles, to whom he has only bowed in the park or coffee-house; the author who entertains his admirers with stories of the assistance which he gives to wits of a higher rank; the city dame who talks of her visits to at great houses where she happens to know the cookmaid, are surely such harmless animals as truth herself may be content to despise without desiring to hurt them."
Johnson: Rambler #189 (January 7, 1752)
Link


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,516. Lying
"The character of a liar is at once so hateful and contemptible, that even of those who have lost their virtue it might be expected that from the violation of truth they should be restrained by their pride."
Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753)
Link


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,517. Lying
"The liar, and only the liar, is invariably and universally despised, abandoned, and disowned: he has no domestick consolations, which he can oppose to censure of mankind; he can retire to no fraternity, where his crimes may stand in the place of virtues; but is given up to the hisses of the multitude, without friend or apologist."
Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753)
Link


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,521. Lying
"The present age abounds with a race of liars who are content with the consciousness of falsehood, and whose pride is to deceive others without any gain or glory to themselves."
Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753)
Link


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,522. Deterrence; Lying
"I am, indeed, far from desiring to increase in this kingdom the number of executions; yet I cannot but think, that they who destroy the confidence of society, weaken the credit of intelligence, and interrupt the security of life; harass the delicate with shame, and perplex the timorous with alarms; might very properly be awakened to a sense of their crimes, by denunciations of a whipping-post or pillory: since many are so insensible of right and wrong, that they have no standard of action but the law; nor feel guilt, but as they dread punishment."
Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753)
Link:
http://www.samueljohnson.com/lying.html


Or From : Jonathan Martin 2008.


By Jonathan Martin

Politico’s Martin Blog

4/7/08 3:17 PM



http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0408/McCain_camp_tries_to_beat_100_years_to_death.html

The way to kill a bad narrative based on one quote?



Hammer it home as a distortion, get independent sources to confirm it as such and then force your opponent to modify or altogether drop usage.



McCain has now reached the next to last step, as demonstrated by the below video wizardry.

Jan Schakowsky 's Mazel Tov to Stuart Levine - And You Want to Be Senator? Hey, It'll Probably Happen!









"Mazel Tov to you, Stuart, on this special occasion," wrote Democratic U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky in another letter included in the program. "Your strong philanthropic efforts and outstanding leadership have contributed greatly to the Chicago area and beyond."

Jan - Question: what is it that Stuart has not put up his nose, popped, ingested, or shot-up? Whatever it is seems to have worked wonders on you. Mazel Tov!

Click my post title for the full Chicago Tribune Story

John McCain: Gov. Blagojevich School Choice Could Be Good For You




Every day that the Walking Pharmaceutical in Armani Suits* jabbers away to Paddy Fitz, the collar around Governor Rod Blagojevich** must feel like Ed Schultz's busting at the stain of fleshy waves like Cuchulain in Yeats' poem battling the sea -

'Stared on the horses of the sea, and heard
The cars of battle and his own name cried;
And fought with the invulnerable tide.'


Pressure. Grace under fire as calamity washes with greater fury, requires the weapon to check insurmountable foe -Fate.

I mean, Jeez, even Pat Quinn is coming on like an uncaged pit-bull from Vick's Doggie Day Care.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-quinn-recallapr07,1,3433388.story

Hey, Milorod,here's a Boss Idea! It's Keen! It's Hip and Happenin'!

Do the Maverick! It is the Dance craze sweeping the Nation and John McCain is the Maverick Mambo King!

Break with the public school lobby on School Choice. Give the taxpayers something. Anything.

You have nothing to lose on this one. No need to worry about tossing Jan Schakowsky Obama's seat ( She would be a Lousy Choice and Illinois has had enough Losers in the National Spotlight); no need to worry about Lisa Madigan's, Alexi Giannoulias', orDanny Hynes' growing popularity and good sense; no more worry about Tony Rezko - well maybe a little bit.

You'd be the good guy for a change. Get to dancing, Guv! Do the Maverick Mambo! Be Like McCain!

Take a look at the fine Heritage Foundation Study of Illinois School Choice Initiatives linked above with my post title. Look at all the boondoggles that allows Arne Duncan to cry-out that 190 Million Dollars is not enough for his Tax-Dollar Dry Vac - 'CPS students are now being murdered with bats; only last week they were gunned down! Think of the Children!'

School Choice - Vouchers is the only real change that will improve our miserable public schools and Vouchers will relieve Illinois Tax-payers of an ever-mounting burden.

Do the Maverick Mambo, Guv! Get all John McCain on us in Illinois. Hey, it can't hurt you. You may even lose some of that tightness around the collar.

* Stuart Levine - the professional Board Appointee in the Tony Rezko Trial who has testified to ingesting - Coke- Meth -Uppers & Downers and just about everything but Testor's Glue - well, the trial just started. Hey Jan Schakowsky love Stuart and She want to be our U.S. Senator, well, after all her hubby is an ex-Con:
From Today's Tribune Jan on Stu: "Mazel Tov to you, Stuart, on this special occasion," wrote Democratic U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky in another letter included in the program. "Your strong philanthropic efforts and outstanding leadership have contributed greatly to the Chicago area and beyond."

** Got that great Rod Frown that was originally posted at Steve Rhodes Great ( even though he thinks I'm a cave-dwelling troglodyte) Beachwood Reporter . Read it at this link:

http://www.beachwoodreporter.com/
Thanks Steve.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

John McCain: Neil Steinberg's 'Riot of the Heart' is Important Reading



Chicago Sun Times columnist Neil Steinberg writes from the heart and uses a powerful noggin in support of that organism. Today, again, Neil Steinberg sticks his neck out with commentary on the debate about race, begun when Barack Obama's bat-guano crazy Uncle Jeremiah's bitter and hateful lectures on themes of victimhood and loopy conspiracies sprinted around the media. Barack Obama was in the jack-pot for not explaining exactly how his close and decades-long discipleship to Wright does not, in any way, affect his own view of America.

Like a good politician, Senator Obama changed the subject and deftly avoided answering the question and simultaneously crafting an artificial National Dialogue on Race: Black America ( really, the Victim Cottage Industry) tells everyone else how horrible whites are, have been and shall always be, while the monologues plays out. This National Dialogue consists of the position that White Supremacy makes life hell on earth for black Americans - now, nod with conviction.

Dollar Store black author and showman,Michael Eric Dyson celebrated the Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination with this bit of prose:

“Before 1965, King was upbeat and bright, his belief in white America 's ability to change by moral suasion resilient and durable. That is the leader we have come to know during annual King commemorations. After 1965, King was darker and angrier; he grew more skeptical about the willingness of America to change without great social coercion.

King's skepticism and anger were often muted when he spoke to white America , but they routinely resonated in black sanctuaries and meeting halls across the land. Nothing highlights that split -- or white America 's ignorance of it and the prophetic black church King inspired -- more than recalling King's post-1965 odyssey, as he grappled bravely with poverty, war and entrenched racism. That is the King who emerges as we recall the meaning of his death. After the grand victories of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, King turned his attention to poverty, economic injustice and class inequality. King argued that those "legislative and judicial victories did very little to improve" Northern ghettos or to "penetrate the lower depths of Negro deprivation." In a frank assessment of the civil rights movement, King said the changes that came about from 1955 to 1965 "were at best surface changes" that were "limited mainly to the Negro middle class." In seeking to end black poverty, King told his staff in 1966 that blacks "are now making demands that will cost the nation something. ... You're really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then."


Neil Steinberg offers a profound antiphon to the all-too familiar voices in the Media who would verbally nod with conviction over Dyson's pettifogging nonsense:

Of course they had cause ( to riot -infinitive, my own) -- their lives mired in poverty, cramped by lack of opportunity, rubbed raw against racism, and their best hope for change, a man of enormous wisdom and eloquence, cut down by a white racist.

But were they right to do it? I'd say no. Who did they hurt? They hurt themselves -- burned their own community, killed and wounded each other, largely.

Connect that to today. I'm not commenting on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, personally, because I don't know him and refuse to judge him based on snippets posted by political shills. But his infamous "God damn America" is an attitude not unknown in the black community, where victimhood and bitterness and anger are too addictive for some to avoid.

We see this attitude in Wright's congregation, and its fervid, knee-jerk reply to critics -- we were wronged! Which shows they don't understand that many Americans don't know and don't care about the troubles they've seen, but do notice and do care when somebody trashes our country -- a riot of the heart, as it were. Like the West Side rioters, they only hurt themselves or, rather, they hurt the first black candidate with a real shot at the White House.


Click My post title for Neil Steinberg's fine Column

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Sister Wendy Beckett: 'My real world is a world away from bustle"



My first experience with a nun occurred in the late 1950's at Little Flower Grammar School at 81st & Honore on the south side of Chicago. It was not a good one; similar experiences cascaded through my eight years at LFG.

My only ally, it seemed, - ( Hey, every one got clouted - except the snitches and they are now DNC Super Delegates) in my personal 'world's collide' with the Religious Sisters of Mercy was my County Kerry bog man Grandfather.

Unlike most, Hickeys, Old Lawrence understood. 'Pay them no mind, so, Páidín ( in Chicago phonetics, sounds like Pat-Sheen, translates to Paddy) , they're a shower of Hairy-faced Old Galway Bitches!'

Later in life, bumps, clouts, psychological warfare notwithstanding, I taught with some incredible women who 'took the veil.' The Sisters of Notre Dame - Helen Kavanaugh, Helen Larsen, Theresa Galvan, and the brilliant Madeline Lamarre. These girls could teach, filet a Kankakee River Channel Cat, work a beer glass like Bricklayer John McKenna and direct all of their actions to God.

I read a book about Sister Wendy Beckett, a South African born Sister of Notre Dame, Art critic, television star and contemplative. What struck me was Sister Wendy's attitude toward all things: 'everthing that happens in Life is a means to an end and I happen to believe that the end is God.' Sister then went on to compare the Rape of Lucretia by Tarquin to Cezanne's The Abduction - and wittily and smartly points to the nature of contempt for human beings intrinsic to the act of Rape.


Sister Wendy's life is spent in Caravan - in American, a trailer, a tornado target - at the bottom of a hill on which sits a Carmelite Contemplative Convent. As a contemplative, Sister Wendy has taken a vow of absolute silence and speaks only to the Superior of the Convent and rarely at that.

She talks a plenty - through her writing. Sister Wendy is a brilliant scholar and master of Art, who understands the nature of artistic expression and can explain the work of the World's Masters to this dumb as dirt know-it- all whose mouth goes like a duck's ass 24/7:


"Art is beauty and God is beauty. If you can get people to look at art; you are bringing them closer to Him, even if they don't know His name."

"My own definition of beauty is that which perpetually satisfies us. You look at it again and again and there is more of it to satisfy us. I would say that beauty is very much an attribute of God - He is essential beauty. But only those of us who have been fortunate enough to have faith know where beauty comes from. For the others, they are responding to beauty and responding to Him, though they mightn't be aware of that - they are responding to the pure, free, strong, loving spirit of God."
Sister Wendy

Got it in one take, Sister Wendy - and without a knuckle to the noggin. Thank You!

Click my post title for the TV series on Sister Wendy

Here is what Sister Wendy has been doing in the contemplative life -
Books

2001
Sister Wendy's Impressionist Masterpieces
Sister Wendy's American Masterpieces

2000
Sister Wendy's American Collection
In the Midst of Chaos, Peace (with Mary J. Dorcy and Dan Paulos)
Sister Wendy's Book of Muses (with Justin Pumfrey)

1999
Sister Wendy's 1,000 Masterpieces (with Patricia Wright)
My Favourite Things: 75 Works of Art from Around the World

1998
Sister Wendy's Nativity
Inner Life: A Fellow Traveler's Guide to Prayer (by David Torkington; foreword by Sister Wendy)
Sister Wendy's Odyssey: A Journey of Artistic Discovery
Sister Wendy's Book of Meditations
Sister Wendy's Book of Saints
The Mystery of Love: Saints in Art Through the Ages

1997
Sister Wendy's Story of Christmas: Adventures in Art
Sister Wendy in Conversation with Bill Moyers: The Complete Conversation (edited by Karen Johnson)
The Wisdom of the Apostles (compiled by Philip Law; introduction by Sister Wendy)
The Duke and the Peasant: Life in the Middle Ages (with Jean De Berry)
Max Beckmann and the Self

1996
Sister Wendy's Grand Tour: Discovering Europe's Great Art
Pains of Glass: The Story of the Passion from King's College Chapel, Cambridge (with George Pattison)

1995
Sister Wendy's Meditations: Meditations on Joy
Sister Wendy's Meditations: Meditations on Love
Sister Wendy's Meditations: Meditations on Peace
Sister Wendy's Meditations: Meditations on Silence
A Child's Book of Prayer in Art

1994
The Story of Painting
The Gaze of Love: Meditations on Art and Spiritual Transformation


Series

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2001
Sister Wendy's American Collection

1998
The Saints with Sister Wendy
The Much Loved Friend: Portrait of The National Gallery

1997
Sister Wendy in Conversation with Bill Moyers

1996
Sister Wendy's Grand Tour: Discovering Europe's Great Art
Sister Wendy: Pains of Glass
Sister Wendy's Story of Painting
Early Art
The Renaissance
Baroque to Romanticism
The Age of Revolution
Modernism

Friday, April 04, 2008

John McCain: School Choice, or More of This? CPS Anti-Violence Meeting Erupts in Violence


Public Schools have eliminated values ( religious or civic) forsake of a pale Political Correctness: when you stand for nothing, expect the consequences.

Catholic, Protestant, Jewish Muslim, Independent schools have stated core values in the mission statements.

The ACLU and the political bosses of the Public School Lobbies have killed the educational immune systems in Public Schools. Where Faith, Patriotism, Civic Values, Family Traditions are not welcome the synthetic gang sub-cultures flourish.

Witness the outburst of violence at a Chicago Anti-Violence Meeting at a Chicago Public high school yesterday.


An anti-violence rally at George Washington High School turned ugly Thursday when a series of fights broke out in a crowd of students being dismissed for the day.

Parents and students had gathered at 3 p.m. to protest what they said has been escalating violence between black and Latino students at the school, at 3535 E. 114th St. on the Far Southeast Side.

Tensions between the groups have persisted for years, parents and students said. But this week has been particularly violent, with several flare-ups that caused some parents to pull children out of school for their safety. Several parents said they would not allow their children to return to school until the violence was addressed.

The protest came on the heels of a larger rally Chicago Public Schools held earlier this week calling for an end to the shootings that have claimed 20 students this year.



John McCain is the only Presidential Candidate of any Party who leads on School Choice.

Click my post title for the latest example of what happens when schools stand for nothing.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

1958 St. Pat's 79th Street Parade- Click My Title for Full Video


Tom Stumpf sent me this wonderful color slide show of the 1958 St. Patrick's Day Parade that marched from Ashland to Halsted on 79th Street. Note the absence of goofy green hats.

Leo High School is the dominant institution of the parade route and continues to be an Auburn-Gresham Anchor.

Get a load of the great floats including Dressler's Baker and Borden's Dairy.

Terry McEldowney, himself a 79th Street Institution, leads the keening on the anthem South Side Irish which chonicles the litany of Catholic Parishes that comprise - the South Side Irish.

Thank you Tom Stumpf!

John McCain: The Democrat Convention: What Really Happens at 3AM!




MSNBC - The Tool Shed's Bloated Fop - Gracie Olbermann and his identical twin Rachel Maddow the Gender Neutral Doublemint Twins of Fatuous Commentary -take every opportunity to slight the Honor, Ingerity, Service and Age of Senator John McCain.

John McCain is the only clear choice for Americans.

This is Howard Dean's Democratic National Committee's Dream Team- Democrat Convention!

Party or Not?

Hat Tip to American Patriot, Free Spender, Tax Smart and Ale Genius, Patriot and Patron - San Francisco's Vietnam Veteran Author - Mike McQuade!!!!!!

Click my post title for the very funny Olbermann Watch - Old Woman Olbermann never gets the time right and he's never been broke

John McCain: School Choice is the Answer to Righting the Political and Economic Disaster that is Our Public Schools




( Hat Tip to Illinois Review's Matt Gauntt - click my post title for more)

Leo Men like Mike Joyce (above) Volunteer to mentor and coach black young men into colleges and universities 93% go on to college. Jack O'Keefe and Denny Conway, two retired Educators do Math and English Prep every Saturday Free of Charge - No Marches. No Dollars.


Yesterday, Arne Duncan, who attended University High in Hyde Park a Blue Chip Independent School, threatened that 190 Million was the minimum CPS would accept from Illinois Taxpayers or the Chicago Taxpayers get it good and hard with a brand spanking new Property Tax. Had one last Fall, Arne, and the Irish Chapstick ( Preparation H) was just starting to take effect.

Politics, taxes, homicides, marches, pronouncements are all nice and everything, thanks very much, but I'll decline - just the same.

School Choice. That's what I want.

With School choice, Public Schools will become accountable through serious competition with University High, Leo, Mount Carmel, Luthers South, North and East, Latin School & etc.

Families will choose where they wish to send their sons and daughters and not be limited by economics - race and class if you will.

After work today, I will drive a bundle of study Guides over to Denny Conway's House so he can prep for the Voluntary Coaching he and Jack O'Keefe ( two retired educators and Leo Alumni) do for Leo High School Seniors. These guys and many other Leo guys step up and help kids boost their ACT Scores and it costs - not Nickel One!

These two retired Leo Men arrive here on Saturday mornings and conduct intense coaching for college bound Leo Men. No March. No Tax Dollars. Just genuine concern for kids.

Bill and Melinda Gates conducted a study linked below that points to the appalling graduation rates in American High Schools - Public Schools. Sadly, no where in the conclusion do I see any consideration for School Choice. Chicago Public Schools graduated about 5 in 10 kids. Might as well teach children very early in life to buy all the Lotto Tickets they can lay hands upon! Here's the Conclusion of the Gates Study:

EPE Research Center
April 2008 Cities in Crisis | 14
Conclusion
When they are not being labeled “obsolete,” America’s high schools have often been described as existing in a state of crisis. As this report has demonstrated, that observation is particularly apt for the school systems serving the nation’s very largest cities. A significant share of recent public debate in education-policy circles has revolved around the challenges we face as a nation ensuring that all students graduate from high school, diploma in-hand and well-equipped to face the world and excel in their adult lives. This is an aspiration that would apply whether an individual student’s path from high school leads to further education, occupational training, or immediately into the world of work.
If three out of every 10 students in the nation failing to graduate is reason for concern, then the fact that just half of those educated in America’s largest cities are finishing high school truly raises cause for alarm. And the much higher rates of high school completion among their suburban counterparts – who may literally live and attend school right around the corner – place in a particularly harsh and unflattering light the deep undercurrents of inequity that plague American public education.
It is often remarked that knowledge is power. The good news is that a movement is afoot to better arm educators, policymakers, and the public with the information they need to more accurately assess the nature and severity of the graduation crisis in their communities and around the country. Innovative efforts to turn around low-performing high schools are also underway. The bad news, however, is that the challenges we face may be more grave than many had suspected or that some are still willing to acknowledge. And when it comes to providing every student with a high-quality education, we have not come as far or moved as fast as most of us would like.
In forging a way ahead, it will be essential that we not lose sight of the disparities highlighted in this report, which portray two very different worlds that exist within the nation’s public education system. As efforts to understand and combat the graduation crisis advance, this movement must proceed hand-in-hand with a fundamental commitment to creating a public education system in which earning a high school diploma is the norm for all students in every community, and where dropping out is a rare exception.

( Emphasis My own) Rare indeed - as Rare as a 'Round on the House' at Bennigan's - invisible.


John McCain is the only Presidential Candidate for School Choice . I caught Senator Obama on Milky Matthews' Hardball Campus Tour, last night. When the issue of inner city schools came up Senator Obama cited Public School Lobby Dogma Chapter and Verse: More Programs ( Federal) More Tax Dollars.

We can not keep putting chips on Public School Roulette Square BLACK/RED 36 - It ain't on the Table.

http://www.americaspromise.org/uploadedFiles/AmericasPromiseAlliance/Dropout_Crisis/SWANSONCitiesInCrisis040108.pdf