Cicero's Dictum on Government, Hanlon's Razor and Hickey's Corollary

Ralph Martire spoke in Kankakee on Taxes!

The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, 55 BC

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Hanlon's Razor
However, Illinois Government listens to Ralph Martire*, believes that SEIU is a labor union and appoints Julie Hamos and Sheila Simon to Illinois Pensions; thus, stupid malice, or malicious stupidity! Hickey's Corrolary
*

There are many common culprits that politicians, interest groups and the public blame for Illinois' current budget crisis. But according to Ralph Martire, executive director of the Chicago-based Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, few are the real reasons for the $13 billion deficit.

Martire was the featured speaker Saturday at a town hall meeting on the state budget crisis in Bradley sponsored by state Rep. Lisa Dugan and state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, both Democrats.

While wasteful spending, fraud and high taxation are often perceived as the problem -- the real issue is Illinois' tax structure. In front of about 200 people, the trio attempted to address some of the key misperceptions of the problem . . .
Martire had some interesting things to say -- things he has said before in this area when he spoke at the Kankakee Public Library. But things that probably bear repeating.

He said the crisis is not being caused by high spending, the burden of high taxation, the cost of pensions or health care programs for low-income residents, or by fraud, waste and abuse.

Ralph, keeps cashing them checks, though! Hell, at least I'd wear a mask and pretend I had a gun.

SEIU's Andy Stern to Resign - Redistributed Wealth of His Workers On His Hip

Enough is not a feast - Andy Stern's Marxist snout will remain in the tax-payer trough =no worries on that.

"Last night I received confirmation that Andy Stern is resigning as President of SEIU. He has not yet made a public announcement; we will share the details as we become aware of them," Sosne wrote in an email obtained by POLITICO.

Sosne offered no explanation for the move, but another SEIU official speculated that Stern had finally tired of the draining job.

"Health care getting done is a good culmination," the official said.

Sosne isn't seen as a Stern loyalist or a central union player, but she's a respected former nurse who sits on the international's board as president of SEIU Local 1199NW, which represents nurses. She and her assistant didn't respond to questions about the email. Stern's spokeswoman also didn't immediately respond to a question about the email.

The SEIU has emerged as a central political player and has grown rapidly under Stern's tenure, and some close to him had expected him to resign during the first term of the president he helped elect, and after the achievement he'd spent years focusing on, widening access to health care. But he's also waged a series of bitter battles inside the labor movement, one of the nastiest of which turned in SEIU's favor with a California court ruling last week. Stern also won a victory when Obama named his union's lawyer, Craig Becker, to the National Labor Relations board over Republican objections in a recess appointment last month.

Stern, even without the union presidency, would remain on, among other things, the board of President Obama's deficit commission, to which he was appointed in February.

Anna Burger is to Andy Stern as Stalin is to Lenin. These University of Pennsylvania Alums - school of social work - have hoodwinked our supine corporate media into believing that SEIU is not a PAC, but an actual labor union. Nope. They are ACORN writ large and the folks who helped Blago fire-sale President Obama's hardly ever used U.S. Senate Seat.

Maureen Dowd - Feminist Nun With No Where to Go

Maureen Dowd- A Modernist-Feminist Nun With No Where to Go.

Before and after, 8:30 Mass on Feast of Divine Mercy, me the gents lined up with the traditional bound rods, (facere in Latin mean to do, or to make ) and took a few whacks at the women - octogenarians to toddlers. "Quit your squawking, or I'll give something to cry about! Hey, you Old Bat, this bumps for you!"

You see, Catholicism in the hands of our martini marinaded maid of Progressive America is an animist tribe of phalli-equipped Patriarchs. What's a couple of cuts with some supple wood I ask you? It ain't childbirth, for Crissakes! Did them no end of good too, I might add.

"Mrs. Mungoven slide out of them comfy kneelers and hit the hard wood floors, sister. Them pews is for us Manimals!"

Maureen Dowd really needs a date. Not gonna happen it seems. To paraphrase, Henry II to his sweating Dukes - "Will no one take this troublesome Twist out for a date and shut her up, for Crissakes?"

I picked up on Maureen Dowd's latest nuanced squeal against the Catholic Church via the Religion of Peace.

When I was in Saudi Arabia, I had tea and sweets with a group of educated and sophisticated young professional women.

I asked why they were not more upset about living in a country where women’s rights were strangled, an inbred and autocratic state more like an archaic men’s club than a modern nation. They told me, somewhat defensively, that the kingdom was moving at its own pace, glacial as that seemed to outsiders.

How could such spirited women, smart and successful on every other level, acquiesce in their own subordination? I was puzzling over that one when it hit me: As a Catholic woman, I was doing the same thing.

I, too, belonged to an inbred and wealthy men’s club cloistered behind walls and disdaining modernity.

I, too, remained part of an autocratic society that repressed women and ignored their progress in the secular world.

I, too, rationalized as men in dresses allowed our religious kingdom to decay and to cling to outdated misogynistic rituals, blind to the benefits of welcoming women’s brains, talents and hearts into their ancient fraternity.

Oh, heck no! Let's see now:

1. Stoning women went out before the 1st Pope

2. Female castration? Nope.

3. Mandatory garb for the womens? Not since Monsignor McMahon ( circa 1965)

4. Silence for women? As if.

5. "Women's brains, talents and hearts into their ancient fraternity?" Mo have another Cozmo! Sheesh, girls have sororities! Brains.

I wish a real genteel hunkish Man Candy serial dater would step up and treat Maureen Dowd to a night on the town - sappy Jennifer Aniston movie, late supper of cold quail's eggs, caviar and tiny toast points and gallons of French bubbly, carriage ride, walk in the soft rain followed by a cab ride through an urban landscape and faux forest, slowing down to an Oh,so gentle glide and depositing Ms. Dowd in front of a Knights of Columbus Hall where she could have more than a few solitary nightcaps and shrewishly demand the Grand Knight for a ride home. ' You doan Know ME! You men! Les Havanover,Kay?'
Magic!

Chicago needs Jewish Heritage Day

I bought my first real three-piece suit from Al Koralchik at his tailor shop on O'Brien Court & Halsted with the dough I made from working at Gee Lumber ( Greek Family) on 79th Street. Al Koralchik was the brother-in-law of Izzy Kagan, a great Austin High School football star who served in the Marines with my Dad's buddy the legendary Leo Coach Jimmy Arnenberg on Guam. They all kept in contact after the War and Mr. Kagan eulogized Coach Arnenberg at his funeral Mass.

I worked for Si Blitztein at the Evergreen Plaza. Si subsidized more Catholic educations than Catholic Charities.

Jews like Morris B. Sachs* and the Blackman Family Jewelers - now in Orland and Tinley Parks - once served the Catholic population along 79th Street, supported the south side Irish Parade, sponsored Leo High School Letterman Club, Yearbook and offered scholarships to poor kids.

Jews were our neighbors and co-laborers in the Trades Unions.

My grade school and high school buddy Danny Levi ran the Irish Temple on 111th Street.

Catholics and Jews seem to carry the philanthropic load in Chicago - read the names on every civic and cultural board of directors.

Today, Ms. Naomi Stewart argues:

Chicago needs a Jewish day. We need a Jewish parade. Chicago has all kinds of ethnic parades and days, and Jews are a huge part of Chicago. We contribute to the economy, culture and education. We like to wave flags and be seen marching down the streets having fun, too.
We could have a ''Jewlicious Fest,'' as they have in New York and San Francisco. Many cities have fests for Jews, except Chicago. Chicago is a big city. The day should be May 14, in celebration of the creation of Israel. Let's call it ''Jewish Heritage Day.''

Unless they give us a parade and our own day, I will never feel welcome in this town. I never did, and now I realize why. I hope I'm not the first or only Jew to suggest this idea.

Chicago's first synagogue, Kehilath Anshe Mayriv (KAM), was founded at the corner of Lake and Wells in 1847 by a group of Jewish immigrants from the same general region of Germany. By 1852, about 20 Polish Jews had become discontented enough to break off from KAM, and founded Chicago's second congregation, Kehilath B'nai Sholom, a more Orthodox congregation than the older KAM. In 1861, the second major secession from KAM occurred, and, led by Rabbi Bernhard Felsenthal, this splinter group formed the Sinai Reform Congregation, meeting in a church near the corner of Monroe and LaSalle Streets.

In 1859 the United Hebrew Relief Association (UHRA) was established by some 15 Jewish organizations, which included a number of B'nai B'rith lodges as well as several Jewish women's organizations. After the fire of 1871, Jews moved out of the downtown area, mainly southward, settling eventually in the fashionable lakefront communities of Kenwood, Hyde Park, and South Shore. Wherever they settled they established needed institutions, including Michael Reese Hospital, the Drexel Home (for aged Jews), and the social and civic Standard Club.

That would be some celebration!

*

One of the shows frequently asked about (when it wasn't a question on Bozo's Circus) was The Morris B. Sachs Amateur Hour. Sad to say, many ended the phone call dismayed that one of their favorite shows is just a memory today. Since the show was aired live, chances of any kinescope films popping up sometime are rare.

From an era where local talent shows were the norm, the Sachs program was considered the "daddy" of all amateur hours. The program had already been heard on WENR Radio for fifteen years when it came to WENR-TV in 1950. Master of Ceremonies was jovial and easy-going Bob Murphy, who joined the show in 1949 doing the radio version for one year and then taking on double-duty when the program debuted on channel 7. Murphy's job was to make sure the contestants, many who probably had never seen a television studio before, were comfortable. The show's announcer was Bob Cunningham. Music was provided by two Amateur Hour alums- Adele Scott and Al Diern.

Musicians, jugglers, acrobats, singers, comedians and more took the stage. Some hoping to "hit the big time," others for the thrill of being on television, and some came for the prizes.

And we are not talking cheap door prize junk. Winners on The Morris B. Sachs Amateur Hour went home with watches, jewelry, cash, and every thirteen weeks- a car if he or she won the semi-finals.

The Morris B. Sachs Amateur Hour was produced by Norm Heyne and aired on WENR and WENR-TV Sunday afternoons from 12:30 to 1:30.

My Dad's Pacific Part 2 and His Final Fight

Presidential Unit Citation w/2 Bronze Stars
Navy Unit Commendation w/ 4 Bronze Stars
Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Streamer w/1 Silver Star
World War II Victory Streamer

On Thursday, my brother called and told me that my sister had taken my Dad to Palos Hospital ER.

That morning, my Dad told my brother that he had 'kind of a stomach ache.' My Mom was in a rehabilitation facility in Palos Park, following a knee replacement. Mom swims and walks and her muscle tone is great. Dad has been without his girl for about a week and we thought maybe his stomach issues were concern.

Like most of the Irish and especially men of his generation, Dad believes that if one avoids doctors, one is well.

Not the case. Dad had a blocked colon and it had ruptured - probably days before. Dr. Kanashira, a beautiful Japanese American woman and his doctor, questioned Dad, 'How could you stand the agony?' With his usual understatement he replied, " I'm a Marine."

He is that. I learned from Dick Prendergast ( Leo '43) about ten years ago, just how much of a Marine this man is - They went into the Corps together at 17 years of age. My daughter Clare has a picture of my Dad, Dick Prendergast and the late Dick Burke, a Chicago Fire Captain as young tough Marines on Guadalcanal before Guam. They are skinny and hard looking eighteen year olds. Dad had just come back from Bougainville.

Dad was court-martial ed for being AWOL after Boot Camp. He went home on liberty, but his train back to San Diego was side-barred. He was late getting back; court-martial ed and offered the choice of Navy prison or the Solomon Islands. He chose the later.

Without basic infantry training, Dad was sent to Guadalcanal in September of 1943 and trained as a machine gunner with veterans of that battle. He was assigned to A Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines of the 3rd Marine Division. He went to Bougainville in November, 1943 and fought there.

Dick Prendergast trained to be a Signal Corps officer with Joint Assault Signal Companies and arrived on Guadalcanal in 1944. He and my Dad met up again and Dick learned why Hickey went overseas and was veteran.

They went to Guam next. Guam was a slaughter for the 3rd Marines.

At 0829, the attack was directed at the 2000 yards of beach between Asan and Adelup points. The 3rd Marines landed on Red Beach 1, on the left flank. Being closest to Adelup Point, they soon realized that the Japanese were secured in effective defensive positions within the Adelup Point and upon Chonito Cliff, the high ground overlooking the beach. . . . One tunnel system, 400 yards long, connected Chorito Cliff with Adelup Point. Japanese troops could retire to positions on the back-slope of the ridge during intense shelling, and return out to the peninsula behind the U.S. Marines landing on the beach. The Americans realized that their worst obstacle would be the 'almost impossible' terrain facing them (Lodge 1998:40). Troops advancing toward Chorito Cliff and Bundschu Ridge took heavy losses. Four times they attempted to advance up rugged cliffs covered with sword grass. Four times they were pushed back. Climbing up the 60 degree slope required two handed climbing that made it impossible to return fire. Marines lay piled at the bottom of the ridges and the others were forced back to the beaches over and over until reaching success (Gailey 1988:95-97). Heat of over 90 degrees, intense humidity, lack of drinking water, and motion sickness from the long confinement aboard the ships brought the efficiency rate of troops down to 75%. By mid-afternoon, many men were dropping from exhaustion. By day's end, the regiment invading Asan beach counted 231 killed or wounded. Of the 100 amphibious trucks (DUKW's) available, thirty-six were lost during the landing and immediate assault phase on Asan Beach. . . . Three days after W-Day, (24 July) the Southern Landing Force had its beachhead firmly established. The steep cliffs and ridges surrounding both Asan and Agat beaches again took their toll on the troops. Weighed down with the intense heat and humidity, and lacking adequate drinking water, the troops advanced on the ridges that sometimes required two handed climbing through razor sharp sword grass. The cliffs were so steep that supplies were sent up on ropes. Advancement over the ridges often required repeated efforts and caused significant losses (Gailey 1998:97).

The largest Banzai Charge of the Pacific war hit the men on Guam. One account says it all.

"On the left flank, the 3rd Marines is just having a terrible time," Eddy said. Eddy's platoon was being sent into a situation becoming more and more desperate - the battle line along Chorito Cliff and the ridge that would be named after Capt. Geary Bundschu. "You know, the Marines are always doing things like that, moving units. So ... we are detached from F Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 9th Marines - we take the place of A Company of the 1st Battalion, 3d Marines, - we take the place of the unit of Capt. Bundschu," Eddy said.

While the entire 3d Marines met stifling opposition on and near Red Beach 1, Bundschu and the rest of Company A were particularly mauled by the enemy. Caught in the ridge by machine gun fire from above, the unit could not move forward or backward.

Bundschu would lose his life on the ridge, becoming one of the 3d's 615 men killed, missing, or wounded in the first two days of fighting. As a unit, A Company was barely hanging on. . . . Harassed by well-placed and hidden machine guns atop the cliff and above on the ridge, the 3d managed to scale the cliff about noon of July 21, reach beyond the ridge later, and onto Fonte Plateau by July 25. But its frontline by July 25 still did not solidly contact with that of the 21st; a gap also existed between the 21st and 9th. . . . Takashina's counterattack was unlike the banzai charges experienced before by the Marines in the Pacific. This one was well-planned and coordinated; the objective defined - to thunder through the gaps, down the ravines (between ComNavMar and Top O' the Mar restaurant) and onto the beachheads. There, troops of the Rising Sun would be able to put the Americans into disarray by disrupting their communications as well as halt resupply of Marines above, thus isolating them.

Through the night, Takashina sent thousands of his soldiers into the gaps, hoping that his counterattack force would reach the beachheads. The force was comprised of seven battalions funneling into four columns through the 3rd Marine Division's frontline.. . . . ( a veteran) , who had fought in Bougainville and Iwo Jima and in other battles, said the night of July 25-26 in Guam was a living nightmare. He and his men repulsed not one, not two but seven banzai charges that night.

"It was the most traumatic experience I ever had, it will live in my memory forever," he said. Fighting was at close quarters. "I had expected to be in battle, but never anything like this. When you think about fighting, you think that you're 100 yards away, but this was pretty gruesome, fighting them from 20 feet away and they're running all around you and screaming. "They were of a different culture. They did things that Marines wouldn't do - yelling, screaming. They didn't give a shit if they got killed; they just wanted to make sure that you got killed. That was what got to you - they wanted to die. They were willing to sacrifice themselves, "They were screaming at us. There was 'Marine, you die,' - they were screaming all that kind of BS, and we'd return it. I remember George Tuthill - he was one of my machine gun section leaders - and he had a loud voice, extremely loud. He'd be shooting, yelling, just things that you couldn't print.

"It's all silly, like little kids yelling at each other, but it's all desperation too." . . . The men along the front line were told that the enemy was 2,000 yards ahead. "We were beat - we were all trying to get some rest. Then a flare went up again, and like all of a sudden, I saw them. They were there, in front of us."

"Thousands ... they were like ants. Oh man, they kicked the shit out of us. They just kept coming, coming."

Dad was one of about thirteen men in Company A to survive Guam. He went to Iwo Jima as a part of the reserve force , but the 3rd Marines were ordered back to Guam where they continued to fight in the jungle until long after the War Ended. Dad came home to Chicago in November 1945 and never left. He never went on a cruise. He put the War far behind him and dedicated every fiber in his being to his wife, three kids and his Union - Local 399.

Like most WWII veterans he refered to his time in the War as 'In the Service.' Everyone else had it much worse than he did. Dr. Grasias who did the surgery on Dad remarked on the Japanese grenade fragments that he still carries.

The grenade fragments are of no consequence to the man who possess them still. A blood clot found its way up and the veteran of Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima is being hammered by an 'evolving stroke.'

I pray that the morphine drip and the other medicines allow Dad to bypass what he has stored.

Please God, give him baseball at Billy Smith Field on 79th Street, smooch and hug time with his girl Ginny, play with his grandchildren and big icy pitchers of Keeley's Half and Half ( hi favorite beer of all time - that and 'whatever you got') in the company of Donny, Bud, Jack, Bart, Sy and Mike his brothers; candy with Joan, Nonnie, Margarite, Mary, and Kathleen his sisters - his favorite and Irish twin Helen is still with us thank God; pay-back breakfasts with my wife Mary, hugs from his mother Nora and eternal peace with father Lawrence - with whom he never seemed to get along. He's earned this.

He has been up many hills and trails in the jungle, let him have smooth path to Christ.

Michael Moriarty Fights PC Jazz Goofs & Erroll Garner - I'll Remember April

Progressive Jazz: How the Left’s ‘Teachable Moments’ Killed Bradley’s Michael Moriarty's poignant and on-target essay on the Progressive PC poisoning of jazz focused my attention on the Great Erroll Garner Click my post title for pure genius.

Errol Garner is ignored. It seems to me that Mr. Garner is ignored because he was not angry enough - to the contrary.

Garner remains unique. Playing consistently to a very high standard, he developed certain characteristics that bear few resemblances to other pianists. Notably, these include a plangent left-hand, block-chorded pulse, a dancing pattern of seemingly random ideas played with the right hand in chords or single notes, and playful introductions, which appear as independent miniature compositions, only to sweep suddenly, with apparent spontaneity and complete logic, into an entirely different song.

Sumptuously romantic on ballads, and fleet and daring on up-tempo swingers, Garner’s range was wide. Nicknamed ‘The Elf’, more, perhaps, for his diminutive stature than for the impish good humour of those introductions, Garner was the first jazz pianist since Fats Waller to appeal to the non-jazz audience, and the first jazzman ever to achieve popular acclaim from this audience without recourse to singing or clowning. Dudley Moore acknowledges much of his style to Garner, and ‘swinging 60s piano jazz’ owes a massive debt to him. Stylistically, Garner is in a category of which he is, so far, the only true member. Since his death in January 1977, there has been no sign that any other pianist other than Keith Jarrett is following his independent path in jazz.

Michael Moriarty, a jazz pianist as well as a great American actor, wrote this

My God, the politicizing of jazz had grown to a militant exclusivity that infuriated me!
Had I not been with my director and had downed a few more drinks, I might have tipped over a few tables.
Now the atmosphere of this Nicole Henry album was inspired in one of the most jazz-addicted nations in the world, Japan.
They obviously retain a freedom within their increasingly sensitized souls more American than that most American giant of world cities, New York!!
Perhaps it was the moment the sportscaster, Dick Schapp asked me, “Michael, is there anyone in New York you haven’t offended?!”
“Yes,” I should have said, “You, Dick!”
Tighten the phones to your ears, if you’re using them to listen to the intimacy Ms. Henry maintains with herself – and that, mind you, is the first necessity of any recording … or film artist for that matter – and then let the “still, small voice” in.
Let the deep and quietly, blissfully disturbing surrender happen.
Bradley’s is no more and hasn’t lived for many years because once Bradley himself had died, his poor wife could not keep the Progressive Militants out.
That crowd of elitists, enlightened despots and intellectual supremacists had driven the regular customers like myself … had forced them out.
Eventually even they didn’t come.
Why?
They had no one to give a “teachable moment” to.
What happened to Bradley’s has now happened to all of America.
How long we will be in for this horrifyingly arrogant, “teachable endlessness” … and how long this soul-less and tragically American fascism can continue … will perhaps depend upon the depth of agony we all must feel repeatedly when the quintessentially American forms of music are fed to us as a privilege only afforded us by the Progressive dictators who claim to own it.

Big Hollywood 4/10/210

Jazz belongs to all of us. Thanks Mr. Moriarty and thank you Mr. Garner

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mmoriarty/2010/04/09/progressive-jazz-how-the-lefts-teachable-moments

http://www.oldies.com/artist-biography/Erroll-Garner.html

John Kass? Dithering Dick Durbin - Alexi's Zorba the Creep!

Just when WTTW had a golden opportunity to fight the power ( Illinois Speaker Mike Madigan- the only adult in Illinois Government) and allow Carol Marin to smugly snark-out Bosses, Bossism and Boss malapropisms weaving a purple toga ( that's a Roman thing) for Forrest Claypool - the panjandrum ( always appointed rarely elected) Zelig of Reform, John Kass of the Chicago Tribune hosed on the Greek Fire!

Oprah!

Just when will Claypool allow his buddies in the Obama White House to persuade the toxic Alexi Giannoulias to drop out and draft Claypool for a run against Republican Mark Kirk for the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois?

"Excuse me?" Claypool asked, as if he hadn't thought of it. "I have no interest in running for the Senate. I'm running to be the next Cook County assessor."

Claypool, the liberal Democrat, is indeed campaigning as an independent for assessor against Democratic Party warhorse Joe Berrios, D-Madigan.

"I'm not considering the Senate," he told me.

But he must have considered it, at least fleetingly, even as he's trying to gather 25,000 petition signatures to get himself on the November ballot.

And so have Democrats and Republicans who want to look past the latest sound bite and the next Claypool suck-up session. I'm sure President Barack Obama and his City Hall guys have thought of it.

Roasted Lamb, by the beard of Zeus! Kass, where's Illinois Senior Senator Dithering Dick Durbin? Boutsokefalos Durbin has been the Greek Mentor to Alexi Giannoulias and took the boy to fabled Hellas for a walk among the ruins and imparted his sage counsel on all things melon, lemon and felon!

Remember? Last Spring - 2009. The Odyssey of Durbin? What wisdoms did he impart to the young Treasurer? What pearls? What skata was Dithering Dick Talkin'?


"I believe he(Alexi) will be more forthcoming. There are some things we do know and should acknowledge. He (Alexi) has not been involved with his family bank for four years.The current portfolio of that bank, only 9 % of those loans reflect loans that were on the books when he(Alexi) left the bank 4 years ago, so the loan package out there now at that bank is substantially different. I think he should come forward. He's talked to me about it what happened there, he's very proud his father started this bank and built it up from nothing. The controversy there whether it reflects on Alexi himself personally or the banking practices remains to be seen, but I've encouraged him to answer all the questions." Senator Dithering Dick Durbin

IOANNES (Ιωαννης) Kass! While our anger is often aimed at the obvious man in power, or the most skilled or the most successful, it is not always the Great Man who is the puppetmaster, but often the Iago, or the Catesby, or the Bacon. Just because Senator Durbin presents himself as a hapless dope, does not mean that he is without his ability to seed folly and influence a young man. Remember what Aristotle said in Rhetoric -

Anger may be defined as an impulse, accompanied by pain, to a conspicuous revenge for a conspicuous slight directed without justification towards what concerns oneself or towards what concerns one's friends. If this is a proper definition of anger, it must always be felt towards some particular individual, e.g. Cleon, and not "man" in general. It must be felt because the other has done or intended to do something to him or one of his friends. It must always be attended by a certain pleasure -- that which arises from the expectation of revenge. For since nobody aims at what he thinks he cannot attain, the angry man is aiming at what he can attain, and the belief that you will attain your aim is pleasant. Hence it has been well said about wrath,

Sweeter it is by far than the honeycomb dripping with sweetness,
And spreads through the hearts of men.

Stay angry, John Kass - IOANNES ( Ιωαννης)!!!!!! NOW!!!! I MUST Dance!!!!!!!!!!!!

MSNBC Hates Real Nuns and Why I Can't Tea Party - for Real - It's A South Side Thing -My Problem, Really.

I mean, by the MSNBC definition they would be racist: After all, 79 percent of those polled were white. That's a lot of white people and Chris Matthews must reckon, a lot of hoods*.Why the Left Hates the Tea Party
I count three Hoods - Old School South Side-ism for Nuns.
My buddy John Rubery - the Marathon Pundit - sent me this great photo of three nuns attending a Tea Party event in Rockford, Illinois.

I witnessed the first big Tea Party event last year in Chicago, when I was in the Loop on Leo High School business. It was a very tame, respectful and nice crowd of people.

N. B. -Given the fact that I aged ( we say 'dragged up') on the south side of Chicago, where mothers and fathers; extended family; neighbors; friends; teachers and coaches protect the young from ridicule ( ' Murtagh!, you are not wearing that cape out to play again; you are a senior at Marist, for Crissakes! Only Mike Joyce can get away with that and you are no boxer, Honey.') very early in life, Tea Party sports wear does not suit me. Therefore, I feel uncomfortable intruding in mufti. For example, were I to don a tri-corner hat, black vest and swell knee-britches and hose worn only by serial bicyclists on Milwaukee Avenue, Gino Ford, Eddie Carroll ( 'Put a net over Hickey') , Mike Regan ( "Get Him That Canvas Sweater with Tuck-Away Arms," Joe Capagna, Tommy Kordas, and Boz O'Brien ('Don't let His Kids Know') would call the CFD paramedics and have me shot up with animal tranquilizers until I got better. Thus, due to cultural cowardice, I am not a Tea Partier.

You see, the lovely lady with whom I am utterly flattered by her tolerance and acceptance of my Gordian psychic package and I stroll the tony streets of Chicago's Gold Coast and the delightful and impish Old Town. She is charmed by the sight of thirteen and fourteen year old boys decked out like Harry Potter and remarks on that sight. She shudders when I offer the insight, "Victims."

My heart goes out to these uninhibited young fellows festooned as they are in whimsical garb on a blustery April Sunday. I can well imagine the drubbing these romantically inclined boulevardiers would take at the hands of the less whimsically inclined denizens of 108th & Rockwell ' "Hey, Harry,is Hogwarts' Off for Easter? Get over here and empty your pockets for me and Frankie, Buzz and Knuckles or Hermione’s Time Turner will zap your nuts!"( 5th graders at St. Cajetan's). It is my hang-up.

However, I admire and respect and envy the many, many, many Americans who stand up!

These three wonderful women are an example to us all. It nice seeing Nuns without needing to shudder, flinch and recoil from their folly of escorting kids to an abortion factory, or encouraging goofballs to toss blood at Easter Mass - which some nuns did, as a matter of fact, - and avoided getting bracelets put on their flabby wrists when the cops showed up.

Get the Context from Dan Kelley in the Joe Berrios Brawl

Chicago Daily Observer columnist and attorney Dan Kelley presents the best analysis of the Cook County Assessor Race coming soon to voters near you!

Dan Kelley presents the context for this race being papered over by the dimwitted corporate media - especially the ever fatuous icon Carol Marin. I like Joe Berrios and Carol Marin does not. That is usually Okay by me.

For the real deal dig here and find the gold.

Thus:

Berrios might have been vulnerable to a primary challenge in 2008, but the only opponent to emerge was Jay Paul Deratany, a lawyer with ties to US Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-9th) and her husband, the former felon, Robert Cremer. Deratany enjoyed financial support from the gay community, but his campaign money could not buy him love from the primary electors. A stronger opponent might have caused Berrios some sleepless nights, but the leftist Shakowsky endorsed a Board of Review candidate who could not play to the voters in the bungalow belt. Had a more conventional opponent filed against Berrios in 2008, he may have been retired already.

If Claypool qualifies for the November ballot, this may be the most interesting local contest in more than a decade. Claypool has a political resume that is enviable when contrasted with that of Berrios. For the time being, voters will have to wait and see what develops.

Click my post title for Dan Kelley's Chicago Daily Observer piece

Lent's Over! A Titillating Tale of Knocker's Up Feminism From Portland

With devotions and mortification's of the flesh replaced with the Joy of Forgiveness, I offer this telling and titillating tale of Feminists Folly. Be assured that I shall be chastised by a singularly devout, albeit sexy, young woman who deigns to be seen in public with your humble correspondant - " Exactly, how old are you? Ten?"

'Oh My, My! Oh, Hell Yes! Better Put on That Party Dress!'

PORTLAND – About two dozen women marched topless from Longfellow Square to Tommy's Park this afternoon in an effort to erase what they see as a double standard on male and female nudity.
A group of women and men who had shed their tops march down a Congress Street sidewalk from Longfellow Square to Tommy's Park. They were promoting the freedom of women to be topless in public. The group attracted many amateur and professional photographers.

The women, preceded and followed by several hundred boisterous and mostly male onlookers, many of them carrying cameras, stayed on the sidewalk because they hadn't obtained a demonstration permit to walk in the street. About a thousand people gathered as the march passed through Monument Square, a mix of demonstrators, supporters, onlookers and those just out enjoying a warm and sunny early-spring day.
. . .Ty McDowell, who organized the march, said she was "enraged" by the turnout of men attracted to the demonstration. The purpose, she said, was for society to have the same reaction to a woman walking around topless as it does to men without shirts on.

However, McDowell said she plans to organize similar demonstrations in the future and said she would be more "aggressive" in discouraging oglers.

Gals, me and the gents appreciate your struggle . . .out of the Knocker Harnesses.

U of I Chris Kennedy and Stan Ikenberry -Billy Ayers' Chinaman? -Continue Progressive Transparency

You gotta love Progressive ( Not The Machine) Transparency. No More Machine Clout from the Progressives who make Clout look Clean!

Stan Ikenberry*, the Interim President of University of Illinois and long-time One-Man- Ruler of University of Illinois Back in the Day when ComED Billy Ayers got slipped in the back door and had his Career as a Terrorist Laundered, and his panjandrum packed Board announced the candidates for U of I President. Well, sort of:

U. of I. board members met in closed session Monday in Chicago and will convene again Friday to interview at least some of the top candidates.

Strobel and board chair Christopher Kennedy would not name the candidates, citing their concern for confidentiality. They also declined to say how many individuals the trustees would meet. While state law allows the candidates' names to remain private, a final board vote on the appointment must be taken in public.

Chris Kennedy, who gets appointed to everything, just like Sheila Simon, and does not need to run for public office, is the Chair of this fine exercise in Progressive Transprency.

You see they do not want to announce the names of the candidates for concerns about confidentiality - confidentially that stinks Chris.

Stan Ikenberry is still very confidential about just how Billy Ayers became a distinguished professor of education. Confidentially, Stan, it was because Billy's Dad had scads of dough. Pay to Play, Bubba!

Well, Chris Kennedy, who has scads of dough, is just a tingle with excitement!

"Kennedy described the candidates as coming 'from the finest universities in the country.'

'Everybody wants the job,' Kennedy said.
The meetings will be part sales pitch by the board, however.
U. of I. is struggling with mounting budget concerns, with the state now $466 million behind in payments the university had expected to receive already this fiscal year. Faculty and administrators are required to take up to 10 furlough days by June."

Chris Kennedy and Stan Ikenberry and Billy Ayers - Now that's Fresh Air . . .in a closed-tight, windowless barn full of hogs with the runs.

*

And, as these same records also demonstrate, the advisory committee that Ayers co-chaired played no operational role whatsoever once the Challenge hired its Executive Director at the end of its first year.

Ayers had nothing to do with Obama’s recruitment to the Board. Barack Obama was encouraged to run for Chair by Deborah Leff, with whom he served on another board, recommended by Pat Graham, and elected by the bipartisan founding board members: Susan Crown, Pat Graham, Stanley Ikenberry, Ray Romero, Arnold Weber, and Wanda White.

Barack Obama months ago confirmed that he had contact with Ayers during the course of his foundation work, and he pointed out that “We served on a board together that had Republicans, bankers, lawyers, focused on education”. Senator Obama also said earlier this year that Ayers was “not somebody who I exchange ideas with on a regular basis”, a fact that is not in any way contradicted by their contact through the Annenberg Challenge which ended 12 years ago, or by any of the Challenge records.

http://article.nationalreview.com/372023/obamas-challenge/stanley-kurtz

Chicago's Progressive Cork Screw: Sun Times Needs Facts Like Rep. Phil Hare Needs U.S. Constitution

Cartoon by the Great Dan Piraro
The dappled underwear that is the Chicago Sun Times editorial page once again exceeds my expectations and lowers the bar of any moral high ground.

The Sun Times is loaded with talented writers like Mark Konkol, Natasha Korecki, Mike Mulligan, and Tim Novak; however, the Progressive cadre calling the editorial tune and the self-proclaimed icon-columnists are a pretty stale box of unsalted mixed nuts.

Carol Marin's "Bossism" smooch for Forest Claypool was flare gun signal for the goofy editorial board of the Chicago Sun Times, which has thought manufactured for it by Planned Parenthood, IVO-IPO, SEIU, the most strident Leftists at University of Chicago, Northwestern University and UICC, pulls its own britches down for public inspection with this hate mail to Boss Madigan, Boss Cullerton, Boss Berrios and Boss Sounds Everywhere!

We have no evidence Berrios and Madigan have ever swapped a single lucrative favor, but anybody can see this is far too cozy a relationship.

But howl they do!

Time for a trip to the mighty Kankakee River to snag some smallies and put the Sun Times to good use!


http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.changetowin.org/connect/moron.jpg&imgrefurl=http://bi

Easter 1916-2010: Ireland's Proclamation and Prayer

On Easter Monday 1916, Irish rebels seized the General Post Office in the heart of Dublin and launched years of resistance to Great Britain and a bloody Civil War - The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

This is the 94th Anniversary of the Birth of the Irish Nation and a call to rekindle the Faith that has been shake by clerical arrogance, ignorance and intransigence. Of the many speakers calling for a renewal of the Irish Nation was Irish Army Chaplain Eoin Thynne.

Army chaplain Msgr Eoin Thynne, in the name of “the compassionate and merciful God”, recalled with affection those who fought and died for freedom.

He asked for God’s blessing on the men and women they were remembering before focusing on contemporary events.

Msgr Thynne said: “Guide our nation on the ways of justice, integrity and truth. Give us the strength to bear the fatigue and hardship of our present economic difficulties.

“Enlighten our hearts with the willingness to forgive those who have been contaminated by the virus of corruption, the selfishness and greed. Those whose pride and arrogance have inflicted misery and hardship on your people.”

Msgr Thynne prayed that Ireland would “rediscover the feelings of security, peace and inner comfort”.

He added: “Give us the courage to improve ourselves and to shape a society built on a solid foundation of ethics.”

Relatives of those who died in 1916 present, included Nora de hÓir, from Limerick, niece of Kathleen Clarke who was married to Thomas Clarke. Kathleen Clarke remained active in public life after her husband’s execution and was lord mayor of Dublin.

Meet the Gardener! Happy Easter and Rejoice in Your Neighbors!

John's Gospel was given a turbo-charge by Father Gallagher at this morning Easter Mass at Sacred Heart Church.

The little 107 year old French Shrine Mission Church at 11652 S. Church on south side of Chicago was packed - the Sheas, the Wardinglys, the Reillys, the McEldowneys Brothers, Chief Jimmy Corbett, Jimmy Littleton, the Schumachers, the Vasys, the Dukevichs, the Garcias, The Esplanados, the Finns, the Sheahans, the Knightlys, the Moores, and Hickeys & etc.. Firefighters, Cops, teachers, nurses, City Hall clerks, tradesmen, WWII,Korea,Vietnam, Desert Storms veterans and two young guys just back from Iraq and Afghanistan. They are tough, generous, simple and brilliant people of faith.

Father Gallagher beamed as the two Schumacher toddlers pushed the envelop, because Grandpa Jerry was two pews in front. Father Gallagher called our church within The Catholic Church "The Shrine of the Blessed Intermission." Everyone turned around to cast the glance of recognition toward Baritone Terry McEldowney whose commentaries on homilies - even while in progress - are legendary. " No, not today. This is for the beautifully dressed young ladies."

In Today's Gospel, the Risen Christ is unseen, the Tomb is Empty, Mary Magdalen tells the disciples Peter and John, John bolts to the tomb followed by the lumbering fisherman and find the funeral shrouds and wrappings. Magdalene went conspiracy theory -"' They' have taken Him away!" No they, Toots, but He. Interesting to note that secular feminists and parsing Progressives tend to ignore the fact that Christ chose the gospel's 'fallen' but forgive woman to reveal the wonder of his Resurrection.

John the Gospel writer credits himself with. “He saw and believed” (Jn 20:8) offering a bit of writer's hubris and shameless self-promotion - as is our wont.

Father Gallagher talked of the appearance to Magdalene of Christ whom she mistakes for a Gardener.

That is what the Resurrection and our Catholic Faith is all about - the Risen Christ whom we self-absorbed people mistake for something else. Christ merely says, "Mary."

That is what is waiting for us - we hope and pray.

Christ might say, "Hickey. Your wife's here. What the Hell she see in you? Just, stroking you . . .come on in."

The Catholic Church will be fine. God Bless Father Gallagher. The joint was packed.

A Catholic Response to Washington Post's Know-Nothing Editors

The Washington Post* wants Gay Marrage, Abortion, as secular America and the Catholic Church to disappear. The Washington Post issued this fatwah on Catholics.

From today's On Faith section: Should the Pope resign? Richard Dawkins answers:

Pope Ratzinger should not resign. He should remain in charge of the whole rotten edifice - the whole profiteering, woman-fearing, guilt-gorging, truth-hating, child-raping institution - while it tumbles, amid a stench of incense and a rain of tourist-kitsch sacred hearts and preposterously crowned virgins, about his ears.

Here's my response - It only takes two of us, though we started with twelve.

The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
one in Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he was born of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.

For our sake he was crucified
under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son
he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic
and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism
for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.



*

WASHINGTON POST MAY BE THE MOST UNDERVALUED media company in America today. That's because investors give it virtually no credit for Kaplan, a large and rapidly growing education division that generates more than half the company's revenue and profit.


Shares of the Post (ticker: WPO) trade for 445, less than half their 2004 peak, and about 50% of Barron's estimate of the company's asset value. Controlled by the founding Graham family, the low-profile Post is a mini conglomerate, operating Kaplan, a cable-TV business with 669,000 basic subscribers, a group of network-TV stations, the Washington Post newspaper and Newsweek magazine

Huge Hat Tip to Jill at Pundit and Pundette

The Chicago Police - Christ and the Harrowing of Hell

Today, in Catholic and most Christian liturgical observances, witnesses the Harrowing of Hell.

Following His death on the Cross, Jesus descended into Hell ( Sheol in Hebrew) and freed the good people from Satan and Death.

"We got shots fired over here!" Chicago Police Officer heard on News video.

Everyday is Holy Saturday for the women and men of the Chicago Police Department. On that Channel News Video from Thursday caught in full truth and it is remarkable to witness the Chicago Police Officers charge to sound of gunfire while the good people and victims protect themselves as best they can. Click my post title for the heroic Truth about Chicago Police Officers

Christ Harrowed - Looted - Hell of the Good and freed us from Death and the lure of Satan -ha-Satan ("the accuser") Hebrew.

Chicago Police are accused every day of every sin and motivation by lawyers and politicians who get rich off of the suffering people of Englewood, Austin, Gresham, Roseland & etc. They really get the truth tossed at them

These places are madhouses of criminal activity and tie down precious resources which could be deployed fighting crime," Weis said.

The 41 people shot between the end of Wednesday and 2 a.m. Friday included four people who were wounded outside the Magnolia nightclub near 122nd and Halsted, Weis said.

Other shooting sites included Bronzeville, Grand Crossing and South Shore. During one especially violent stretch, 16 people were shot in a little more than two hours.

Among those was a woman who said she was shot in the arm in Millennium Park about 12:30 a.m., but did not report it until she was treated in a Melrose Park hospital. Police have questioned where the shooting happened.

Weis noted that the second Englewood shooting occurred despite the immediate presence of three dozen heavily armed and uniformed police officers.

"It shows the complete brazen lack of respect for authority." Weis said. "The question that I have to ask is, what would they do when we're not here?"

This is the Old English and Middle English term for the triumphant descent of Christ into hell (or Hades) between the time of His Crucifixion and His Resurrection, when, according to Christian belief, He brought salvation to the souls held captive there since the beginning of the world. According to the "New English Dictionary" the word Harrowing in the above connection first occurs in Aelfric's homilies, about A.D. 1000; but, long before this, the descent into hell had been related in the Old English poems connected with the name of Caedmon and Cynewulf. Writers of Old English prose homilies and lives of saints continually employ the subject, but it is in medieval English literature that it is most fully found, both in prose and verse, and particularly in the drama. Art and literature all through Europe had from early times embodied in many forms the Descent into Hell, and specimens plays upon this theme in various European literatures still exist, but it is in Middle English dramatic literature that we find the fullest and most dramatic development of the subject. The earliest specimen extant of the English religious drama is upon the Harrowing of Hell, and the four great cycles of English mystery plays each devote to it a separate scene. It is found also in the ancient Cornish plays. These medieval versions of the story, while ultimately based upon the New Testament and the Fathers, have yet, in their details, been found to proceed from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, the literary form of a part of which is said to date back to the second of third century. In its Latin form this "gospel" was known in England from a very early time; Bede and other Old English writers are said to show intimate acquaintance with it. English translations were made of it in the Middle Ages, and in the long Middle English poem known as "Cursor Mundi" a paraphrase of it is found.

Chicago Street Violence - The Savage Wars of Peace: CPD =USMC?

CHICAGO - Six people were shot on the South Side this morning in two separate incidents at the same place.
It began when four people were wounded near 66th Street and Marshfield Avenue on the South Side around midnight this morning.

Chicago Tribune April 2, 2010 - or Haiti 1919?


I have been reading several histories of Haiti and a biography of Chesty Puller. Poor Haiti. Eternally, Poor Haiti.

Historian and biographer Jon Hoffman wrote in Chesty,

The island of Hispaniola had a long and troubled history. Spanish colonizers disposed of the Indians who lived there and imported African slave labor. The French took over the Western third of the island in 1697 and christened it Haiti. These eleven thousand square miles - 75 percent mountainous interior and 25 percent coastal plain- produced an abundance in coffee, sugar, and other cash crops. By 1791 the rich colony had a population of twenty-five thousand whites, thirty thousand free mulattoes and half a million black slaves.The slave rebelled that year. A decade and half of conflict brought the creation of an independent state and the death of 70 percent of the inhabitants, including all the whites. The nation never achieved prosperity or stability due to an unending series of revolutions and coups. The mulattoes, advantaged by their status under colonial rule, maintained French culture and governed the country. The true power brokers, however were the cacos, lawless rural blacks who formed gangs and provided a violent boost to any would-be leader willing to pay for their assistance. With their interests ignored by both the mulattoes and the cacos, the vast majority of population remained poor, illiterate and sickly ( Hoffman, 24.)

Into 19th Century Haiti came Imperial German agents of the Kaiser and American sugar and coffee interests (HASCO: Haiti Sugar Company). By 1914, Woodrow Wilson sent U.S. Marines with an occupying force from 1919 -1934. In The Savage Wars of Peace Max Boot recounted this tale of how America and Haiti came into a diplomatic agreement boosting American involvement in Haiti

In 1915, President Wilson sent Marines to occupy Haiti, where they would stay for nineteen years. But, being a legalistic people, we wanted to put a legalistic gloss on this occupation, and, therefore, the State Department drafted a treaty that would ratify long-term, open-ended American occupation of Haiti. The question was how to get the President of Haiti to sign this treaty, because in the past when Haitian presidents had seen their poll approval ratings plunge, they had often literally been torn to pieces. Therefore, this was not something that the President of Haiti wanted to risk.

The job of getting the treaty signed was given to Major Butler, U.S.M.C., who was detailed to the Haitian gendarmerie. Major Butler went over to the Presidential Palace and asked for the President and was told that the President was in the bathroom, so Butler said, "Okay, I'll wait." And then, as one hour turned to two, it suddenly started to dawn on Major Butler that perhaps the President was not planning to emerge from the bathroom. But, being an enterprising Marine, he did not let a minor thing like this stand in his way. He just marched outside the Presidential Palace, grabbed a ladder, propped it up against the wall, climbed up to the second floor, and looked inside the window of the bathroom, where he saw the President sitting, fully clothed in his pinstriped trousers and top hat and morning coat, reading a magazine on the toilet. So Major Butler calmly opened the window, jumped into the room, took out a pen, took out the treaty, and said, "Sign here, Mr. President," and the President did.

The Marines landed. These Marines brought roads, sanitation and safety. In their wake came Progressive/Pacifists alleging torture, abuse and racist Imperialism.

The Marines left in 1934 and Haiti returned to its independent ways under the Duvalier Family. The killing and misery continued, but a mythology emerged that portrayed the Cacos ( the gang-bangers) as heroic and noble. Not unlike, the public relations work that Chicago newspaper columnists, Marxist Lawyers and Academics have done for Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, Mickey Cobras, Four Corner Hustlers and the Black P. Stone Nation.

Last night Chicago witnessed Chicago Police in the role of the U.S. Marines in Haiti circa 1919-1934.

Chicago police are investigating nine separate shootings spanning a 24-hour period that left two dead and seven wounded. The victims' ages ranged from 11 to 27-years-old.

The Cook County medical examiner's office identified the fatalities as Lacharles Johnson, 27, and Jeremy Lindsey, 16, both of Chicago.
And a disturbing trend appears:
Police have no one in custody in any of the shootings.
The 800-man-shortage in the Detective Division rears it's ugly head. That 30-something percentage clearance rate last year? We'll bet 100 dollars toothpicks it dips lower this year. All thanks to no hiring for two years by Daley.

from Second City Cop

History visits Chicago streets every day. Maybe Chicago cops should adopt the Old Campaign Hats of Small War Marines.


http://www.cceia.org/resources/transcripts/139.html

Lawyer Christine Flowers Explains the Hypocrisy Behind The Faux Outage Over the Catholic Church in the Media

Christine Flowers is a lawyer and columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News. It is my honor call this beautiful and talented woman my friend.

Christine Flowers is an Italian American rooted in our shared Catholic Faith, appalled by the pedophile abuse by predator priests protected by PC-enthralled bishops and disgusted by the hypocrisy of the corporate media that shills for the abortion industry, radical feminists and advocacy Progressive political opportunists who seek to damage the moral authority of the Pope and diminish the place of Catholics in America.

We are not a secular nation. We are a people and nation of many Faiths. My Faith is under assault.

Christine Flowers has our backs.


Christine M. Flowers: The New Inquisition


By Christine M. Flowers
Philadelphia Daily News

I'M ALWAYS
touched when hostile readers express an interest in my credibility.

I take it as a backhanded compliment, an acknowledgment that they read me on such a regular basis that they've come to recognize certain themes in my work. The list would include empathy for the police, antipathy for abortion and apoplexy about the Eagles. And a profound attachment to the Catholic Church, my spiritual home.

Which is why I wasn't at all surprised when I received an e-mail from someone who has written before about my "hypocritical" failure to criticize the pope and the faithful: "I'm waiting with bated breath for you to write about the current pedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church, Christine. Unless you do so, you've lost all credibility."

Of course, whenever I've written positively about something the church deserves praise for, I never get a pat on the back from the peanut gallery to which this particular type of fan belongs.

These people don't want balance about the church and its perceived - and in some cases real - failings. They aren't concerned with a nuanced and comprehensive view of this magnificent but flawed institution.

They're out for blood, and seize on any opportunity to tear it apart, piece by highly publicized piece, reveling in and sometimes even distorting events that happened decades ago, making it appear as if the Catholic Church is merely a sinister enterprise preying on the innocent.

And they want me to fall in line like a good soldier and aim my inky arrows at Rome.

Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not about to do that just to pacify people who, after all, don't

really care about the church except when it's portrayed in a negative light.

In the past, I've railed against the insensitivity of church hierarchy for failing to adequately address the pain of victims.

I've criticized it for attempting to evade the criminal laws, choosing therapy for the victimizers over justice for the aggrieved.

I've doubted the existence of some so-called "homosexual cabal" that supposedly preyed on altar boys, even while acknowledging that the church has been negligent in dealing with troubled priests. And I've wondered out loud how Bernard Cardinal Law, the man who single-handedly orchestrated the coverup in Boston, could be living the good life in Rome.

But it's never enough.

Now, a new set of scandals has been thumped in the press, one that reaches from middle America to the hills of Ireland to Pope Benedict's Germany.

The details, while shocking, refer to horrors committed more than 20 years ago, but they're being used to condemn a church that - more than any other organized faith institution in the world - has made the most public and painful act of contrition in history.

Yes, grievous mistakes were made, under a veil of secrecy that has destroyed the confidence of so many Catholics and driven many more from the pews. This pope has recognized it, and has been courageous and unflinching in his attacks on what can only be called the most mortal of sins. That is why it's so painfully ironic that he's become the new favorite whipping boy.

Personally, I'm tired of my church being exposed to the same boilerplate attacks every time some long-ago transgression is revealed in the press, usually around the time Catholics prepare to celebrate a sacred moment like Christmas or Easter.

Like clockwork, people who have always had a bone to pick with Rome channel their anger and frustration on a wide range of topics (abortion, female priests, celibacy, same-sex marriage, meatless Fridays in Lent) into rants against the institution.

For example, the Philadelphia Gay News recently published a column titled "Shut up, Pope, part II" (thank God I missed Part I) demanding that Benedict "come clean and confess." It's about the pedophilia scandal, taking a break from the publication's usual drumbeat of criticism of the church's views on homosexuality and AIDS.

Pity it missed the pastoral letter where Benedict directly addressed those who were abused:

"You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. . . I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity violated."


I HAVE the feeling that no amount of "confession" and self-flagellation would make the PGN and other critics truly happy. Their goal is a user-friendly church, one that not only addresses the pedophilia scandal in terms to their liking, but also changes its fundamental nature.

I know the wish list: Celibacy gone? Sure! Female priests? Come on down! Seal of approval for abortion? We hear ya! Same-sex marriage? Can we register at Macy's?

And they think my credibility is on the line.

Christine M. Flowers is a lawyer. Listen to her Thursdays on WPHT/1210 AM, 10-midnight.

E-mail cflowers1961@yahoo.com.

Good Friday is God's Friday in Anglo/Saxon.

Sue ACLU? Racist on School Choice and Rev. James Meeks and Voucher

Ed Yohnka and ACLU needs to be sued for hundreds of millions of dollars in a class action brought by Reverend James Meeks, every Church that operates a school for the benefit of all Illinois Tax-payers, every parent of every child of every color and ethnic origin.

Ed Yohnka's ACLU is always anti-Catholic and now ( on the pages of SEIU's Progress Illinois by Angela Caputo) appears to be intrinsically racist in its powerful objection to Senator James Meeks legislation concerning School Choice Vouchers.

Mr. Yohnka offers this noose-like threat to poor black kids in Chicago on the pages of Progress Illinois!

Those schools would be free to use these funds to pay for religious indoctrination, including the construction of worship spaces, the purchase of religious books, and the hiring of religious instructors.

That is an insult to the Baptist, AME and Muslim children who attend Leo High School.

Is Ed Yohnka ( spelled YONKA by Angela Caputo at Progress Illinois) telling these black kids that they are brain-washed; ignorant; unable to think for themselves?

Mr. Yonka, I have not witnessed one conversion to Catholicism. Not One, Sir! 85% of Leo's 100% black young men are not Catholic, Mr. Yohnka. However, all 100% of our young men are impoverished. So, are the many hundreds of poor black young men who want to have a Choice in Education find themselves lynched by the ACLU! Again!

Indoctrination?
It is simply inappropriate to use state taxpayer dollars to fund religious indoctrination.

Indoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology (see doctrine).[1] It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned.[2] As such it is used pejoratively, often in the context of political opinions, theology or religious dogma. Instruction in the basic principles of science, in particular, can not properly be called indoctrination, in the sense that the fundamental principles of science call for critical self-evaluation and skeptical scrutiny of one's own ideas. In practice, however, a certain level of non-rational indoctrination, usually seen as miseducative, is invariably present. The term is closely linked to socialization; in common discourse, indoctrination is often associated with negative connotations, while socialization refers to cultural or educational learning.

Good Old ACLU Catholic bashing aside - Ed Yonka accuses parochial schools of being miseducative and also says that black kids are easy prey for indoctrination.

Sue the ACLU! It is what they do! To everyone with Common Sense.

Dear Friend,

Since the founding of our country, Americans have believed that entanglement of church and state was a bad idea. Senate Bill 2494, which passed out of the Senate last week, would do just that.

Urge your State Representative to oppose SB 2494!

Sponsored by Senator James Meeks, this bill would allow payment of public taxpayer funds to private religious schools, by means of tuition vouchers to certain parents. Those schools would be free to use these funds to pay for religious indoctrination, including the construction of worship spaces, the purchase of religious books, and the hiring of religious instructors.

It is simply inappropriate to use state taxpayer dollars to fund religious indoctrination. Tell your State Representative that SB 2494 is a really bad idea.


Sincerely,


Edwin C. Yohnka
Director of Communications
and Public Policy

Single User Government Run Hygiene Will Follow the Tipping of Guam

“My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.” Hank Johnson, (D-GA)

Guam has been occupied by the Spanish, the Americans, the Japanese and is an American Territory. My Dad still carries Japanese grenade fragments that he got as souvenirs on Guam from July 21st through Oct. 1945, with a trip to Iwo Jima in between.

I wrote a novel, read by tens of people, centered on Guam.

Today, a Georgia Congressman warned that Guam might tip over. Thoughtful.

Hank Johnson begged America to get behind Obama Care. This intellectual Giant just might help President Obama earn government control over all of us beasts of the earth.

Hank, you are a caution.

Click my post title for more from Hank, hat tip to Max Weismann and Anne Leary's Backyard Conservative