Shakman, Grid and Progressives the Imperial Triumvirate of Chicago

"The aldermanic role in service delivery should be ended and the focus of aldermanic activity shifted to legislation and oversight functions," the report says. Amen. Yes, those high-maintenance constituents will howl, but that's not what aldermen fear most. They're afraid taxpayers who learn they don't need 50 garbage districts will realize they don't need 50 aldermen.

Chicago Tribune Editorial Ending Any and All Debate on the Grid System


In Republican Rome, after each abuse of power by political strongmen( Marius and Sulla)and civic turmoil, arose a committee of three - a Triumvirate - literally three men. There were two Triumvirates - the first was Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey.

Caesar was a class warrior who took the side of the lower classes over the rich, though Caesar was a Patrician (rich guy) himself. Caesar managed public opinion and then exercised public control He was the original Op Ed opinion maker - Commentarii de Bello Civili et Commentarii De Bello Gallico - were Caesar's Dreams from My Father and Audacity of Hope.

Caesar ruled. Here in Chicago, Mayors came and went, until the 1950's and the decades of Mayor Richard J. Daley. Like Caesar Daley was popular and powerful. Mike Royko's book Boss portrayed Mayor Richard J. Daley as Caesar.

Caesar amassed power with the full approval of the Senate of Rome. Some Progressive Senators did not like that and sought to end one man rule. They Shakman'd Caesar.

When Mayor Daley died our home-grown idiots wrung hands and rent garments about such one man power emerging again and employed the Shakman Decrees - in my opinion the most moronic, mealy-mouthed and cynical dagger to the kidneys of the body politic ever crafted by a legal sneak. Nothing against the corporeal Michael Shakman, mind you, he had his agenda and shopped for the right judges. He and his enterprise is doing swell. The City of Chicago Post-Shakman? Not so hot.

Policy,not politics was the true exercise of power - Shakman was the knife. Progressives palmed that shiv and will twist it home with the Grid System that will effectively end any and all power within the City Council.

This is a Triumvirate of Power - Shakman, Progressives and the Grid System.

Chicago Aldermen, or City Council Members as they like to be PC addressed, have historically handed power over to anyone.

Question: What is an Alderman?

Answer: The City of Chicago is comprised of 50 wards or legislative districts, determined by census of the population. Each ward elects one alderman - at times there two. The 50 aldermen comprise the City of Chicago's Council, who with the Mayor of Chicago, are charged with governing the city. An alderman's term is four years. The Chicago City Council is gaveled into session regularly (usually monthly) to consider ordinances, orders, and resolutions whose subject matter includes traffic code changes, utilities, taxes, and many other issues

The Mayor of Chicago appoints. He appoints Department Heads - Water, Police, Fire, Streets and Sanitation City Departments. Likewise, the Mayor appoints the boards that govern Chicago Park District, Chicago Public Library, Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago Transit Authority, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, et al and thanks to Richard M. Daley and Illinois Legislature the the heads of the Chicago Public Schools.The Mayor is the President of the City Council and the City Clerk is the Secretary of the City Council.

The Mayor and the Aldermen serve four year terms following an April Election per the 1872 City and Villages Act.

Sounds simple? Read the papers. Read Chicago history. Chicago city government is designated a 'weak Mayor' system by Charter. Still is.

In practice, the Mayor's Office is virtually Imperial. Old Mayor Daley took the power of Budget from the City Council. Mayor Harold Washington signed the idiotic and Chicago Metro Unique Shakman Decrees. Shakman* killed Jacksonian democracy in Chicago.

That was the end of the Jacksonian intent. Andy Jackson, the Pappy of the Democratic Party, believed that if elected officials had more 'checks' on them, the less harm they could do - it is to giggle, Old Hickory.

Coming soon, will be the end of the City Council. The American Media have been at war with legislatures for decades. When the people vote, overturn the will of the people by Executive fiat or Shop for a Judge. Witness California's recent Defense of Marriage Vote. People 0; an openly Gay Judge 1.

Here in Chicago "Everybody Hates Alderman." You can see an Alderman; not so a Chicago Mayor. Aldermen go to jail ( 30 since 1972). Governors of Illinois go to jail ( Kerner, Walker, Ryan, Blago soon), but Mayors do great.

I know a couple of Aldermen. They are very hard working people. They are accessible. My Alderman is all over the Ward. Most voters like and appreciate him and some do not. I like my Alderman very much. Matt O'Shea elected last April to serve the 19th Ward. I see him out in the Ward almost every day. He knows what the needs and problems are and he can solve a few of them. Most of what can not be solved are due to the historical context into which he was elected.

The Grid System being considered for garbage collection in the City will most likely be a reality.

Waste Management, or some other private company, will be awarded a City Contract, much like the Parking Meter deal, or the one that went to the Australian Company that operates the Skyway Toll Booth, both were said to be Revenue Boosting and dollar smart. The Media wanted those; the BGA approved, and Progressives and Goo-Gos gushed! Executive Fiat!

Shakman and the Grid and the Progressives are the Triumvirate.

If you think Chicago has been an Imperial City, stick around.


* Shakman Decrees

In 1969, one man made his stand against the Chicago political machine. Michael Shakman, an independent candidate for delegate to the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention, battled against one of the most enduring traditions in Chicago's politics: political patronage, or the practice of hiring and firing government workers on the basis of political loyalty. With many behind-the-scenes supporters, Shakman's years of determination resulted in what became known as the “Shakman decrees.”

Shakman filed suit against the Democratic Organization of Cook County, arguing that the patronage system put nonorganized candidates and their supporters at an illegal and unconstitutional disadvantage. Politicians could hire, fire, promote, transfer—in essence, punish—employees for not supporting the system, or more particularly, a certain politician. The suit also argued that political patronage wasted taxpayer money because public employees, while at work, would often be forced to campaign for political candidates.

In 1972, after an exhaustive court procedure and much negotiating, the parties reached an agreement prohibiting politically motivated firings, demotions, transfers, or other punishment of government employees. A 1979 ruling led to a court order in 1983 that made it unlawful to take any political factor into account in hiring public employees (with exceptions for positions such as policy making). Those decisions along with companion consent judgments—collectively called the Shakman decrees—are binding on more than 40 city and statewide offices.

Roger R. Fross Chicago Encyclopedia

Occupy America - The Only Black Faces Belong to the Cops - What Racists!

Occupy America!

I am occupied. I need to get to Leo H.S. and help Darnell with his essay and make a couple of phone calls to see if I can get "D" some part time work. Though a remarkabley youthful and resonably fit 58 year old white Irish N-Word, me and "D" have much in common. We are not the tallest testosterone towers, enjoy reading, writing and sports and we get to work early.

The balance of "D's" time will be taken up with academics and sports and mine will be dedicated to phoning Leo Alumni, patrons and pals and writing grant boilerplate. Sim occupatus, terribiliter!

I am troubled by the affluent, youthful, pampered and badly schooled kids and adults getting too much face time away from Facebook - on the TV and Huffington Post.

Michael Moore's waves of umber chins are everywhere howling Lear-like against Wall Street - the vacant store front of American Commerce. Butch Maddow, Milky Mathews, Loopy Larry O'Donnell and the entire Ship of Fools at MSNBC -now featuring Crown Heights Al Sharpton the Jew-hating Rev -is flat out blowing kisses to the kids wearing the V Masks.

I see only white faces among the crowds of protestors. Where's the African American folks? Not invited? No. They, like me and "D" are too occupied with work.
"D" flanked by me and McG ( Leo President Dan McGrath)



The only black and brown and yellow faces I have observed in the massive coverage belong to New York Police Officers ( Love your work BTW!).

Ho hum.

"Right Sizing" of Chicago is Happening - As Garbage Collection Goes, So Exits the Middle Class

The city will begin by demolishing 3,000 houses deemed unsafe and a public hazard before the end of the year, with up to 10,000 houses being torn down within the next three years. The plan is to encourage citizens to move closer to the center of the city. The process will be gradual, beginning with city services such as trash collection becoming more infrequent. City planners call this solution “right-sizing”

That was Youngstown, Ohio and Detroit. According to the University of Chicago's Urban Portal, policy is in play.

The University of Chicago gave Mayor Daley Frank Kruesi*, Ron Hueberman, an upcoming Biography, by Keith Koeneman, and a job -as a distinguished senior fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies.

The University of Chicago wrote Mike Quigley's strategy to take over Cook County government and encouraged students to help G. Flint Taylor sue the City of Chicago, as well as hound former Cook County Sherrif Michael Sheahan. On that effort the U of C was 1 and 2 - Quigley was sent to Congress and Mike Sheahan made complete asses of the MacArthur Center for Justice, which immediately moved to Northwestern University.
Pathetically, G. Flint Taylor coninues his Police Torture Mythology and loots Chicago taxpayers six ways to Sunday.

By and Large, as in Millions Large, University of Chicago was wildly successful in owning Chicago and Cook County government enough to make policy. Policy is what passes for politics in this transcendent age,

Policy only requires elected pawns to legislate and lazy journalists to justify anything. Witness Zorn on the Grid of August 23rd's Change of Subject. The always Progressive policy dependable Eric Zorn rolled out the handstands and hoorah's for the "Right Sizing" talking points -

I'm guessing garbage collection isn't your area of expertise. Mine neither.

But if the city of Chicago were to come to us and ask us to create a rough design for a household refuse-collection system, there's almost no chance we'd come up with the expensive, crazy-quilt system now in place.
That system contains 50 garbage fiefdoms, one for each cleverly gerrymandered ward, and results in trucks taking peculiar, time-wasting routes so as not to cross these artificial political boundaries.

The baseline inefficiency of such a scheme will cost the city $30 million more in 2011 than a simple ward-neutral grid-collection system would cost, according to a budget analysis performed last year by the Chicago Office of the Inspector General.

Before suggesting such a change, we'd ask three questions:

Do any other major cities do it our way?

Evidently not.

The city's Department of Streets and Sanitation is unaware of any municipalities that follow the Chicago model. And officials concede that Chicago's garbage-related costs, more than $200 a ton, are unusually high.

Does it make business sense to do it our way?

Clearly not.

Private companies that deliver services — think FedEx or UPS — have become fanatical in recent years about optimizing route efficiency to cut costs. They even try to minimize the number of left turns against oncoming traffic made by their vehicles.

Even some cities are doing it. Waste Age magazine reported last year that the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation has been using "geographic information systems" software "for mapping, analysis and geodatabase management … to make sure that trash pickup is balanced throughout the entire network."

Makes one want to collect rain in a yellow barrel. Mayhaps, Mayor Rahm will christen this looming venture EZ Grid, for this journalistic snow-job well done!

Policy makes money.

God is no longer making real estate, therefore, policy controls real estate.

For the last few mornings, I have been posting on the policy to shrink Chicago. It seems that in order to make this City a garden for the chosen few, the working many should pack their bags.

The Chosen Few are the Progressives, because they make policy - Gay Marriage, Green Initiatives, and garbage collection. The path to a City inhabited by Birkenstock, NPR listening, WTTW viewing, Urban Walk-way ambling, and Bicycle darting affluent, childless, post graduate, secularists requires an elimination of neighborhoods.

Neighborhoods are undesireable. Progressives demand a community. A Community is distinguihsed from a neighborhood by ordinances, activists and initiatives, as opposed to friends, family and faith.

Neighborhoods are comprised of families, poor and middle class and they must go.

Neighborhoods are protected by Wards - local political fiefdoms that meet the needs of neighbors who actually know one another. They live beyond what is called the Urban Center - You know the place with Pritzker These and Those and Silver Beans that neighborhood folks go to only rarely. That is the place where neighbors meet the Entitled who scream, "Can't I enjoy an al fresco Latte Arabica and hummus without some fat breeders and their damn kids?"

The way to eliminate neighborhoods is to eliminate the already dimiinished power of the Wards.

The method is the Grid System. Once Chicago adopts the Grid System for services like tree triming, street cleaning, snow and garbage removal, the poor and the middle class breeders will be forced to leave. Zoning at the Ward level has already chased businesses out of the neighborhood - taverns, restaurants, barber shops, tailors, shoe repair shops, framing stores and entertainment venues. My Ward, the once powerful, but still voter robust 19th Ward has more than seventy (70) vacant store fronts on Western Avenue between 87th Street and 115th Street.

There are great stretches of vacant land along other streets in adjacent Wards (17th, 21st, & 18th).

Let's read that study of Urban Policy one more time -

The city will begin by demolishing 3,000 houses deemed unsafe and a public hazard before the end of the year, with up to 10,000 houses being torn down within the next three years. The plan is to encourage citizens to move closer to the center of the city. The process will be gradual, beginning with city services such as trash collection becoming more infrequent. City planners call this solution “right-sizing”

It's not only familiar, boys and girls, it is here.

If the Aldermen vote for the Grid System for services, and I expect that they will after mousing replies like 'Well, what else are we supposed to do? The City is Broke and this is only answer,' Chicago will be the Home of the Chosen Few and the neighbors will have moved on.


*

Former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, one of the nation’s most prominent urban leaders, will bring his extensive policymaking experience to the University of Chicago as a distinguished senior fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies.

The five-year appointment, Daley’s first commitment since leaving public office on May 16, will take effect July 1.

Daley will coordinate a guest lecture series that will include a variety of perspectives and approaches concerning the major issues facing cities in the 21st century. The 10 annual guest lectures, beginning with the 2011-12 academic year, will bring policymakers from around the globe to debate critical urban policy challenges, and to help train future policy leaders at Chicago Harris. As Chicago’s longest-serving mayor, Daley will add an important voice to the University’s ongoing conversations about the future of cities.“The students and faculty at the University of Chicago benefit from a culture of open debate, in which a diverse range of scholarship and practical experiences comes together in the search for knowledge and solutions,” said University President Robert J. Zimmer. “By bringing in urban policy leaders of many perspectives, Mayor Daley will help foster illuminating discussions about how our cities can flourish, and will provide University of Chicago students with valuable educational experience.”

Citing the University of Chicago’s history of vital contributions to Chicago, Daley said he looks forward to engaging with researchers and young leaders who are committed to forming a vision for the future of cities.

“The University of Chicago has been a leader in developing new approaches to address the evolving needs of cities,” Daley said. “I am honored to add my voice and experience to that important work. As I’ve always said, cities that continue to rely on old methods and common practices will almost certainly lose their footing in our growing global economy.”

Daley’s new role will provide students and faculty at the Harris School and across the University with insights on subjects such as urban education, law enforcement, civic planning and economic development, said Harris School Dean Colm O’Muircheartaigh. "There isn’t a policy practitioner out there with more strategic vision and hands-on experience with the ins and outs of running a city today than Richard M. Daley,” O’Muircheartaigh said. “Bringing the country’s most experienced mayor into Chicago Harris enriches our policy school and complements our rigorous scholarship. I am delighted that, as a university embedded in a great city, we are able to benefit from this unique resource.”

First elected mayor of Chicago in 1989, Daley announced last fall that he would not seek re-election after more than 22 years as mayor and nearly 40 years in elected office. As mayor, he has been widely recognized for efforts to help improve Chicago’s public spaces, urban design, educational system, public safety, public libraries and business development. Daley’s tenure in office has influenced scholars and other leaders in defining the role that mayors can play in addressing the problems confronting America’s largest cities.

Daley’s affiliation with the University of Chicago comes as the University continues broad-based efforts to expand its programs on a range of challenges confronting modern cities.

As part of this effort, the Harris School founded its Urban Policy Initiative in 2009 to foster new research relevant to Chicago and other urban environments around the world, and to train the professionals who will lead these cities. In addition to Daley’s visiting scholar position, the Harris School currently is in the process of hiring five new faculty members to conduct urban-related research.

The Urban Policy Initiative also partners with a number of efforts within disciplines across the campus, such as the Urban Health Initiative, the Crime Lab, the Urban Education Institute, Chicago Booth’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and a new University of Chicago Urban Network dedicated togenerating collaborative social science research.

“The University of Chicago is committed to engaging with its urban environment, and the participation of the former mayor will greatly enhance its capacity to do so,” said O’Muircheartaigh. “The future of cities will determine the future of civilization; students and faculty across the whole University will have a keen interest in participating in these conversations.”

Following Tuesday's announcement, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel released a statement on Daley's new appointment.

"On behalf of the entire city of Chicago, I congratulate Mayor Daley on his appointment at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy Studies. I am confident that Mayor Daley will bring to his new role the wisdom, insight and experience of his more than two decades in office. I am thankful that he will be participating in the ongoing dialogue as we all work to make Chicago a safer, stronger city."

- Sarah Galer
Communications Office
Phone: 773-702-7681
Email: syaccino@uchicago.edu
•Features - Archive
•University of Chicago News




Frank Kruesi is the former President of the Chicago Transit Authority. He resigned in April 2007 after serving 9½ years.[1] He is now an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy.[2] Prior to his time at CTA, he was the Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy for the U.S. Department of Transportation.[3]

Ron Huberman
Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1971, Huberman is the son of Holocaust survivors. Huberman and his family moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee when his father, a cancer researcher, began working at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He moved to the Chicago area for his high school years, where he came out as gay at age 15.[1] Huberman later attended the University of Wisconsin, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and English. While working as a Chicago police officer, Huberman attended night classes at the University of Chicago and finished with master’s degrees in both Business Administration and Social Service Administration. Huberman was a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow and an Albert Schweitzer Fellow while at the University of Chicago.

Hey, How About That Property Tax Bill? Now, That's Progressive! Thank George, Paul and Daisy Soros.

Frannie Spielman of Sun Times reports on Mayor Rahm's vow to tussle with scofflaws - the Worker Bee, Helot, Breeders on the City teat! Call Andy Shaw! Naw, let Andy snooze.

Fran Spielman is a fine reporter on City Hall, but today seems to have copied the notes given by Rahm - in his order of importance. Has to do with numbers. City Workers who have not paid parking, speeding, moving violation tickets, or water bills, or assessments, or something. The breakdown of bad guys is a tad troubling, but consistent.

Let's do math on this fine Sun Times piece.

Now, Lookee here!

Of the 33,237 city employees, 2,380 of them, or 7.2 percent, collectively owe $882,366. Of the 67,864 employees at five sister agencies — the CTA, CHA, Park District, City Colleges and Board of Education — 5,883 or 8.7 percent together owe nearly $2.1 million.

The worst sister agency offender is the CTA, with a $714,544 debt shared by more than 20 percent of the mass transit agency’s employees.

The Chicago Police Department has 13,973 employees and 988 deadbeats who together owe $326,646. Of the Fire Department’s 4,983 employees, 285 scofflaws share $126,184 in debt. The Department of Streets and Sanitation’s 2,127 workforce includes 247 scofflaws who owe the city $104,816.

The City Council has 420 employees and 40 deadbeats who together owe $12,530.

This last one is a head scratcher.

If the CTA is the worst at 20%, why is it that the City Council does not follow CTA with almost 10% Deadbeats?

Cops have 13,973 employees with 988 owing revenue. So, that's 988 X 100 =98800 Divided by 13, 973 = 7.07 and change.

Firefighters have 4,983 and only 247 'scofflaws. So, that's 247 X 100 =24700; Divided by 4,983 = 4.95685 and change

City Council ( that's the Aldermen) with 40 scofflaws X 100 = 4000;Divided by 420 = 9.5283 and change

CTA owes the most at 20%

Cops owe 7.07 and change

Firemen owe 4.95 and change

ALDERPEOPLE owe 9.5 and change

I am confused. Why would the ranking be last? Should it not be

CTA -20%
ALDERPEOPLE -9.5%
Cops - 7.07
Firemen - 4.9

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Now, I might have err'd. I am human I err. I err all the time. But I ain't wrong.

This is all tied to Rahmalamadangdong's Grid Policy Initiative. He has a Case Book that he will toss to the City Council ( Alderpeople) and order them to vote the middle class out of Chicago.

The Chicago Media tosses us City Dogs and Worker Bees a bone in the form of some poor slob gaming the system. The banquet can be found in the policies that benefit the Forrest Claypools appointed to a big spot at the CTA, or a Gay Israeli Utility Player for the Chicago Police/Office of Emergency Management/Mayoral Chief of Staff/Chicago Public Schools/ and Chicago Transit Authroity.

The poor slob caught sleeping in a garbage truck goes to the guillotine. Claypools and Hubermans go up the food chain of the very systems they manage screw up by millions of wasted or policied tax-dollars.

Now, having read that bone to us mutts intended to get us to snarling and snapping, let's take a peek at yesterday's Second Installment of the Property Tax Bill from Maria Pappas.

Lookee h'yar

Why, the property value went down and the taxes went up!

Progressive! I wrote about the Progressive Plan to shrink Chicago's Worker Bee population and it is a plan.

A pal wrote to me in response to that post. He wrote, "A progressive passes a street person while en route to a commuter station (this happens in less than a minute) and boasts that he or she lives in a diverse neighborhood. In truth, they have no real interaction with such persons.

In order to facilitate that trendy neighborhood, Daley cleared out the subsidized CHA projects to speed up the pace of gentrification and handed the displaced residents Section 8 vouchers and sent them North, South and West (sometimes, including various suburbs under the auspices of the Cook County Housing Authority rather than the Chicago Housing Authority). Now, we are witnessing once stable, middle class enclaves beginning to decline on account of the new unassimilated Section 8 tenants. This is not fiction. It is a reality that I can testify to.

Adding insult to injury, the property tax bills arrived today. Property values have fallen, but the tax rates are much higher. The taxing bodies simply raised the rates to offset the decreased valuations."

You may say.

Yep. Here's the deal Ron Huberman, like our President was plucked and placed into our government a very long time ago. Why, because Soros said too.
Regular Democrats were told by their various Chinamen that the 'plucked' were really and truly great - Secret Formula Z-28 with Chrome! Why This Fiiiiiinnnnne Young Man is a Behemoth of Future Greatness and Was Found in the Weeds by a Beneficent Pharoh named of George Something' and they jumped into the game.


We waste our time on Tony Rezko and Bill Cellini and their misdoings, because they are the bones, like the poor Streets and San slob caught napping by BGA Mensa Man Andy Shaw.

Ron Huberman*, the son of poor Israeli immigrants, had his schooling paid for by Paul and Daisy Soros, kin to George who owns the DNC, the White House and the American Corporate Media. Patiently, and over the last decades the plucked and placeed have steered the likes of Daley, Quinn, and Rahm to the Progressive Policy Path.

Huberman, like Forrest 'Can't Catch a Vote' Claypool is a protected species of Policy. The genuine Boondoggles are not the victims tossed to the public in print by the players. The genuine Boondoggle begins and ends with same cast of charcters running 501(c) 3's stuffed with cash by Soros and his lesser lights. Public Policy has brought us our tax bills and the politicians who engineered them. The Progressive Public Policy that hides under the bones.

* Ron Huberman

Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1971, Huberman is the son of Holocaust survivors. Huberman and his family moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee when his father, a cancer researcher, began working at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He moved to the Chicago area for his high school years, where he came out as gay at age 15. Huberman later attended the University of Wisconsin, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and English. While working as a Chicago police officer, Huberman attended night classes at the University of Chicago and finished with master’s degrees in both Business Administration and Social Service Administration. Huberman was a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow and an Albert Schweitzer Fellow while at the University of Chicago.

Forrest Claypool

Forrest Claypool is an American politician and political operative. A former Democratic member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, Claypool serves as president of the Chicago Transit Authority. In 2007-2008, Claypool served as a key member of Barack Obama campaign's media team, in his capacity as a longtime partner of David Axelrod. . . .On Tuesday, 19 April 2011, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel -- a longtime political ally of Claypool -- appointed him president of the Chicago Transit Authority

Wikipedia - it ain't the OED, but, for Progressives, it is washable.

The Voice of the Pampered, Insulated Kids Who Will Never Know the Business End of a Broom: George Soro's America

Get a load of this -

George Soros pumps a lot of money into his efforts to control America. He has invested capital in Daily Kos, Michael Moore's Tucker, Media Matters, Obama 2012, as he did 2008, Van Jones, Hamas, and the Arab Spring translation American October Revolution.

Soros's cash fueled grassroots works. Over the weekend in New York, 700 of the Usual A$$holes, were arrested in the daffy Wall Street occupation and Brooklyn Bridge traffic jam. Soros robots were sent to Chicago's Financial District, but the Bears were on.

Big Shoulders City? For now.

Soon, Progressives will be Chicago's Sole Demographic - a real celebration of Diversity.

I had a wonderful dinner conversation with friends on Saturday night. Conversation can be a 'remember when' litany of my past sins, crimes and misdeamenors; that is generally an element of family gatherings.

Good conversation and great conversation is participation of insights and observations that each member at the heaping board brings like the covered dishes, salads and desserts. I made Caldo Verde and it was SENSATIONAL! The final application of finely chopped mint and cilantro pumped up the spicy sauage chunks, pureed spuds, and minced kale. This breeder can work a skillet and sauce pan.Not much on desserts, though - I eat them like a man going to the chair, but generally louse up a recipe. Go figure.

The post-prandial chat was sweet and spicy!

My friend Elias Crim, Chicago Director of Res Publica America, an upcoming multi-disciplinary think tank, pushed the chat out of the local political sphere with his recent studies of Detroit and other American cities.

Detroit is no longer in the top 20 American cities and neither are St. Louis, Buffalo, Kansas City and Cleveland. Elias refered to a study conducted on the 2007 census by Scott Summer for Wall Street Pit - Global Market Insight.

Here is an interesting tidbit:

In addition to Detroit, here are some other cities ( here's the payoff!)where residents can enjoy more open space, uncrowded streets, nice museums and symphonies, and beautiful old homes at rock bottom prices:

St. Louis: 857,000 to 319,000, Cleveland: 915,000 to 397,000, Buffalo: 580,000 to 261,000

I was born in 1955, so to me those three will always be big cities. But they have fewer people than Mesa.

These cities are not in the top 20:

Baltimore, Boston, Seattle, Washington DC, Nashville, Denver, Milwaukee, Portland, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Atlanta, Miami, Cleveland, Oakland, Minneapolis

And these aren’t even in the top 50:

New Orleans, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Buffalo

Prediction: Austin will be the fastest growing big city in America over the next 50 years.

(emphasis my own)

Austin? That's in Texas.

On Sunday, I read that Chicgo Board of Options Exchange is planning to move from Chicago's Loop. , , to Texas! Austin, n'cest pas?

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago-based CBOE Holdings Inc., parent of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, is holding talks with officials of several states about a possible move of its headquarters.

With its action, the CBOE joins the CME Group Inc., the world’s largest futures exchange operator, in considering relocating its headquarters because of an increase in Illinois’ tax rate to 7 percent from 4.8 percent.

CBOE chairman Bill Brodsky told the Chicago Tribune the exchange does not want to leave, but the state’s tax structure as it relates to the exchange “is virtually punitive.”

CME Group has held discussions with at least five states about moving its headquarters and several hundred staff members. However, its main trading floor and other functions would remain in Chicago.

Both exchange operators are talking with Illinois officials.

Texas for the Chicago Board of Options Exchange? What about that HUGE real estate property dominated by Trading Companies? Texas?

That's that goat-roping, Aggie Guv Rick Perry's state, is it not; the one that is called business friendly? For real?

Perhaps, this announcement is merely the fabled motor oil soaked 2 X 4 that will be brought down hard on the bridge of the nose of Governor Pat "Ralph Martire Said More Taxes" Quinn, in order to get that worthy's attention.

Perhaps it is all part of the plan to provide more open space, fewer children. sweeter police, an abscence of minority folk and white ethnic worker bees, Catholics and breeders from the City of Big Shoulders.

I think it is more the later than the former.

Evidence? Well, instead of the Virgin Mary Blue Recycling truck crews at Karin's Dunkin' Donuts at 104th & Western ( a bell weather of City employees) there was a thick squad of Waste Management gents ordering Coffee An' - Waster Management is part of the smart sizing of Chicago's Middle Class. The big Rook taking out thousands of jobs will be the Grid System, replacing the Ward City Services ( Snow Removal, Tree-trimming, Waste-Hauling & etc.).

The Middle Class will have fewer minority and white ethnic breeders able to afford life in the City of Big Shoulders.

Cops and Firemen will be asked, by the Mayor's Vox Progressive Editorial Boards and WTTW nodders - Chicago Needs Fewer of you anyway, or Freedom to live outside, this our City? After all EVERYONE knows Chicago cops are brutal, corrupt, racist and mostly breeders; firemen are racist, corrupt, breeders. Keep enough to make Block 37, Lakeview, Boystown and Loop safe and banish these children of Eve to some Rube hinterland.

Tempting? You bet, if you are single, without children, homosexual, affluent, health doctinal, secular and Progressive. Chicago would be just ducky without all those mustachioed, low-brow, beer swilling, Marlboro men and their baby machines.Museums, Planned Parenthood outlets, a Child-and Smoke Free Millenium Park, Dog Walks, Flashy Entertainment Venues, Green Open Space, River Walks, Bicycling highways to replace the Jane Addams and Dan Ryan, and organic food everywhere will replace churches, schools, office buildings, and whole neighborhoods.

Chicago commericial real estate possibilities are smaller than Congressman Mike Quigley,

There are seventy empty storefronts on Western Ave. between 87th & 155th Streets. The Loop itself is a mirror of Western Ave. - ask any commercial real estate expert about space available. There's plenty. Commercial now mean away.

It will be a Progressive Paradise enjoyed by . . .Progressives!

Pack your bags, or get serious.

We seriously discussed the future of the American City. Maybe, the worker bees and neighborhood breeders will consider the changes a'coming.
Shakman!
Privatize!
Smart Size!
Grid!
Git!







http://wallstreetpit.com/79226-shrinking-american-cities

The Late Luke Kelly's Linguistics

Enunciate! The man had a tongue like a buggy-whip. Now, pay attention.












Got it? Practice, children, practice.

Barry's "Soft" Serve Malaise! Pour it on!

Soft soap? Naw, more like custard frozen concoctions squirted out like Jimmy Carter's American Malaise.

Malaise sounds like a rich custardy dessert treat - here is some more.



Our 44th President was selected and elected - here was his tough path to the White House:

1961 Barack Hussein Obama II was born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii
1967-1971 Attended schools in Indonesia
1971-1979 Attended school in Honolulu
1979-1981 Studied at Occidental College for two years
1981-1983 Graduated from Columbia University
1985-1988 Obama worked as Director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP)
1988 Entered Harvard Law School
1991 Obama graduates Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and returns to Chicago
1992 Married Michelle Robinson
1992-2004 Obama served as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School
1995 Obama publishes his manuscript "Dreams from My Father"
1998 Daughter Malia Ann was born
2001 Daughter Sasha was born
1997-2004 Member of the Illinois Senate from the 13th District
2005-2008 United States Senator from Illinois
2009 Inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009

Absent from our Timeline of President 44's Life is the appointment of the young community organizer, following his other appointments and marraige, to Woods Fund Directorship and Directorship of the Annenberg Challenge by Billy Ayers.

Likewise absent are all of the appointments and persons who lifted President Obama over the gradus of political life onto Olympus.

Pretty soft, there, tough guy. Oh, and he got a Nobel Peace Prize!

Bang up job, there, Mr. Softee!

The Fouling of Walter Payton in an Age of Iagos: "I follow him to serve my turn upon him."

William Shakespeare dramatized the Tragedy of Othello The Moor of Venice in 1604, basing his play, as he had on most others, on another source. Shakespeare knew what the public liked and he drew his dramas from popular tales, histories and legends.

Legend of Othello the Moorish naval captain of Venice came from a story by Chinthio from 1565 that told the tale of a black man in the service of the Republic of Venice in its wars against the Turks. Othello secretly married Desdemona the daughter of a Venetian Senator, at the same time that he promoted Cassio over his man Iago.

Iago emerged as one of Western Culture's great villains. He is a sneak of some ability and use in the service of a greater man in order to advance his own wormy path to power. Iago whispers in the ear of people who can make difficult for his master, like our contemporary political worms who feed columnists and editorial boards with rumors and hints of scandals and corruptions in order to advance their careers. It works most effectively. Columnists can wait for the phone to ring with hot political meat for the broiling and the worm can always expect a swell column touting his . . .'greatness.'

Politics plays into everything.

Here is the creed of Iago and political worms in every vocation taken from Scene I of Othello. Iago replies to Rodrigo, who was in love with Desdemona and has learned of the secret marriage to Othello:

O, sir, content you.
I follow him to serve my turn upon him:
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
Many a duteous and kneecrooking knave,
That doting on his own obsequious bondage
Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
For naught but provender; and, when he's old, cashier'd.
( break my own - as this first verse paragraph presents a good servant)

Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are,
Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,
And throwing but shows of service on their lords
Do well thrive by them; and when they have lined their
coats
Do themselves homage. These fellows have some soul,
And such a one do I profess myself.

(This last is the man of our age - Iago.)

Some men serve their betters even into obscurity, when the great person's powers have diminished and these ar ethe people Iago scorns.

The smart, ambitious and politically skilled modern mover-and- shaker is Iago. His service to a great man is merely his own means of amassing power and riches. . .down the road. . . once people are made to believe and accept anything, of course.

Our age is a sad one. It seems that ever since 'really smart' people began to mock the old Budweiser paintings of Custer' Last Stand as inaccurate and therefore rubbish, that persons who actually did something with their lives became the target of deconstructionists. The deconstructionists are the voices from the sidelines - the Fantasy Football experts - the people outside of the boxing ring - the pundits.

Our media is one endless 24/7 Punk'd.

Walter Payton was a great football player. His memory is befouled by a new book that is burning up all of the oxygen in our American living room.

The purpose of the book is obvious - another Iago who followed a hero, long after his young death, I might add, in order to shatter any and all foundation to a positive memory of this man, who dedicated his life to his profession. Iago thrived with the murder of Desdemona and the suicide of his chief and it mattered not who else was damaged in his deconstruction of a great man. The author of the Payton book embarrasses Payton's widow and sons by making public any and all of the human failings in the great Chicago running back.

Shakespeare's Iago gets his comeuppance and it is implied that he will be dragged off and tortured. Jeff Pearlman will make the TV circuit and millions of dollars from Life's arm-chair quarterbacks and fans of TMZ.

Merit matters not in age that accepts Noam Chomsky as an intellectual pillar, terrorist Bill Ayers as a Distinguished Professor of Education, Cop Killer Mumia as a an authority on Law and Justice, as does the National Lawyers Guild (◦Mumia Abu?-Jamal, National Vice President for Jailhouse Attorneys)


The Walter Payton book by this Iago smears what passes for American culture - the one that debunks American History's heroes with all manner of calumnies - Jefferson raped slaves, though it appears now that might be completely untrue; Custer was a genocidal maniac and not the most skilled light cavalry officer of his age; JFK was a whoremaster and not the man who stared down Communism in October 1963; Ty Cobb was merely a racist hillbilly and not the most determined baseball player of all time who still holds the record for career batting average at .366.

The Walter Payton smear by Jeff Pearlman, like so much of this age, is meant for a people who do not engage in anything, but sneer and dismiss the people who achieve, because that justifies their own sloth. The Walter Payton book smears the people who would by such an item more than the memory of a man who achieved.

Appointment to a job, rather than achievement of a post is what Iago is all about - why stand for an election when one can get appointed? Why be an athlete when one can sneer at the Jocks? Why study, when one can assault and rob, or even murder a nerd?

Iago prefaced his intentions with this -

Preferment ( Appointment)goes by letter and affection,
And not by old gradation (Achievement), where each second
Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself
Whether I in any just term am affined
To love the Moor

That sadly is the summary of the state of our American morality and culture.

http://www.nlg.org/about/national-board/

http://www.enotes.com/othello-text/act-i-scene-i

Fun Before the Run - Give to Special Olympics

People give. They give of their time, talents and treasure. My talents are about as limited as my treasure, but I have all the time in the world.

That is why when Skinny Sheahan sent out a call for help at the Fun Before the Run fund-raiser on October 6th at 115 Bourbon Street ( 6PM), I gave the running giver a call and offered my time.

Goo-goos, Chicagoese for professional do-gooders, the people who try to legislate life by bullying City Hall, the County and Springfield for tax money, never seem to have time, or treasure for good works. Their talents go flat-out making policy statements and pi$$ing in the ears of the news media.

Helping people is active participation in your parish, your schools, your neighborhood and with your kids. Calling Carol Marin with an idea about child-rearing policy will not keep your Young Che away from a twelve pack of Tall Boys and a bag of weed before school. You must actually, in some way, be a part of their lives.

My poor kids. I and my family and neighbors wear them like old tighty whities on a fat man.

James "Skinny' Sheahan stays svelte, because he is always giving to good works. Get Skinny. Get busy.

Here's what Skinny says,

Dear Chicagoans,

Since my retirement last year I have been volunteering my time with Special Olympics Chicago. This organization raises funds for the nearly 5,000 athletes that participate in programs throughout the city. On October 9 I will be running my 40th and last marathon to raise funds for this incredible organization.


Special Olympics was founded in our great city with the first games taking place at Soldier Field in July, 1968. 1,000 athletes participated at the first games and today more than 3,000,000 athletes participate in competitions around the globe. Special Olympics is truly one of Chicago's proudest achievements.



On Thursday, October 6, I will be hosting a Fun Before the Run Event at 115 Bourbon St Thursday from 6:30-9:30pm. 115 Bourbon St is located at 3359 W 115th St in Merrionette Park, IL. I would love it if you could join us. All the proceeds go to Special Olympics Chicago. Your $30.00 tax deductible donation includes food and beverage.

If you cannot make the event, I would really appreciate it if you would make a donation in my name towards Special Olympics Chicago. You can do that by clicking here ( on Hickey's post title). Donating through this website is simple, fast and secure. It is also the most efficient way to support my fundraising efforts.



I would like to thank you in advance for anything you can contribute. If you know of anyone that might be interested in participating, I appreciate you forwarding them this email.


Hope to see you there, !

Sincerely,



Jim "Skinny" Sheahan

Thirty One members of the Leo High School Class of 1954 joined Bill Hession for lunch at Ken's restaurant on Western Ave. to brainstorm about helping the young men at Leo High School.

Six girls from Mother McAuley heard about the Special Olympics party hosted by Skinny one week from tonight ( October 6th at 6PM) and want to help.

You have been told about good work. Get Skinny and get over to

115 Bourbon Street
3359 West 115th Street
Merrionette Park, IL

OR CLICK MY POST TITLE AND COUGH UP SOME TREASURE!

Burb Tolls: Blazer Sadness

This revenue brainstorming by the Chicago Inspector General has generated nods and affirmations from our Aldermen who have created this mess. Get this one found on Anne Leary's always brilliant Backyard Conservative Blog:

“We pay tolls to get into other suburbs,” said Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th. “I guess membership has its privileges. A lot of people come into the city of Chicago.”

Membership has its privileges. Pay to get into Chicago and avil yourself of $30 and change parking and pay much, much more for beer, wine and cigarettes. This is Scams Club U.S.A!

How about this?

Captain Rakehell's Revenue Riders - Padders Upon the Drive!

Joe Ferguson, Chicago Inspector General, be a genteel man of Old World manners and sensibilities; however, a man taxed by the fiscal insensibilities that dominate Progressive Nodders like Alderman Joe Moore must act.

Payrolled Pretend Grannies are fixed into Chicago's Budget!

Wilco Concerts for more CPS Taxes!

Salaries and Pensions for Brahmins!

Cultural & Diversity Affairs All Year!

Pandering Via Race Giveaways! Free Back to Skool Buskins for the Bairns!

Forrest Claypool!

Chicago can not do without these! Stand and Deliver! On the Lakeshore! On Untolled Highways! Swag and Plunder for the Lord Mayor!

Lay off the Watch (cops), the Bucketeers (firemen) the Varlets and Louts ( Ward-bound Vassels and Laborers)!

Lay on with Sword and Cutlass! Thunder Blunderuss and Pistol Brace! Stand and Deliver! Give Over!

Who 'neath the gloom of October's looming lowering clouds dons the mask of Taker General; spreads the wealth? Joe Ferguson's Dragoons?

Nay, he NOW bee Captain Rakehell and his Revenue Riders - MossTroopers and Tax Preying Embargo Agents of the Lord Mayor.

Captain Rakehell Gives Fair Warning!

"Citzens and small purses, give ear! This lesson shall you learn. Healths and Bon Peres, My Lord Mayor's task is to tax you!

Give ears on this lesson and favor redistribution of wealth!

There be in this City a Master Peril there in the City Office of Budget. This Worthie had a great lusty man-servant, but, as appears by the sequell of the discourse, not of very much witt.

About two months ago, there comes a maggot into his head to turn padder upon the highway; so he acquaints his master with his resolution.

“Master,” says he, “I have been two years in your service, and what I get is inconsiderable, and will scarce suffice my expenses; and I work very hard. I fancy,” says he, “that I could find out a better way to live, and by which I should have more ease and more money.”

“Ey,” says his master, “pray what is that?”

“It is,” says he, “by turning padder.”

“Alass! John,” says he, “that will not do; take my word,” says he, “you’ll find that a harder service than mine.”

“Well, but I’ll try,” says the man.

And so, next morning, away he went, with a good clubb in his hand; and being got in the Lake Shore Road, somewhere about Grand or Randolph, there overtook him on the road a genteel man on horseback, as foreign borne gas is too dear a fuell.

John letts him come up to him, and taking his advantage, he catches hold of his briddle, and bidds him stand and deliver.

Upon which he un-whealed, being a highwayman himself, he began to laugh that a thief should pretend to rob a thief.

“But,” says he, “harken, thou padder, I’m one of thy trade; but surely, thou’rt either a fool or one that was never at the trade before.”

“No sir,” says John, “I never was at this trade in my life before.”

“I thought so,” says the genteel highwayman; “therefore, take my advice, and mind what I say to you. When you have a mind to robb a man, never take hold of his briddle and bid him stand, but, the first thing you do, knock him down, and, if he talk to you, hit him another stroke, and say, ‘Sirrah! you rogue, do you prate?’

And then,” says the highwayman, “you have him at your will,” etc.

Thus they walk’d on for about a mile, the highwayman teaching the other his art; and as they were going a by way to a certain vicinity - Bridporte, they comes to a badd lane.

Says the padder to the other on horsback “Sir, I am better acquainted with this country than perhaps you are, this lane is very badd, and you’ll indanger [of] lying fast, therefore you may go through this yate, and along the field side, and so miss all the ill way.”

So he took his advice, and going that way the padder went the other way, and coming to the place where the highwayman should ride through a gapp into the lane again, this rogue, this padder, stands under the hedge, and as soon as ever he sees the highwayman near him, he lends him such a knock over the head that he brought him down immediately.

Upon which he began to say, “Sarrah, you rogue, is this your gratitude for the good advice that I gave you?”

“Ah! you villain, do you prate?”

And with that gave him another knock. And so, having him wholy at his mercy, he takes almost a yard ($100) from him and gets upon his horse, and away he rides home to his master at Budget, by another way, as fast as he could go, and being got home he goes to his master and tell’s him, saying — “Tash! master, I find this a very hard trade that I have been about, as you sayd it would prove, and I am resolved to go no more, but be contented with what I have gott. I have got a good horse here, and a yard in my pocket, from a highwayman, and I have consider’d that I cannot be prosecuted for it, therefore I’ll live at ease,” etc.


At Which, Master Perill drew a brace of cap'n ball pistolles from 'neath his westkit and coat -" Stand and Deliver, Lout! The Lord Mayor's Swag You Hold! Give over, John, or a Ball in your Brainpan!"

Stand and Deliver, Chicago!

. . .and like it.


Notes:

1.padder: footpad, mugger.
3.yate: gate; northern dialect form


Yarn taken from The Diary of Abraham de la Pryme, (Durham, Surtees Society, 1870), pp. 76–77
December 1695

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

Tyrone Davis Confounded Heraclitus

"No man ever steps in the same river twice". Heraclitus

"But if I had just one more try
I would be yours, yours alone until the day I die
and we would have a love so divine
If I could turn back the hands of time" Tyrone Davis

The old weeping Philosopher, Heraclitus argued the Unity of Opposites - climbing a ladder is essentially descending it's rungs in reverse; 'Always remember the longer you live/The sooner you'll bloody-well die!'

Heraclitus never really said that 'everything flows' he said this, "Ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομέν τε καὶ οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμέν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν."

("We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not.")

Tyrone Davis is what am!

The late Tyrone Davis who passed away in 2005 was one of the greats. He had more soul than he could control.

In 1969, he confounded Heraclitus -




Time to get to work at Leo. Slept late.

How Many? Q & A in the Parishes

Q. How many guys, what had jobs with the city, but don't any more and still know some guys that are heavier than whale poop, does it take to screw in a light bulb?


A. I dunno exactly, but my brother's girlfriend's father's boss's secretary's sister's next-door neighbors' priest's cousin's union shop steward's uncle's Knights Of Columbus, over by Father Perez, Sergeant-of-Arms's nephew's best friend did it real cheap for me once. You didn't hear it from me - Shakman and all. Call the guy, but on the quiet. Who's Marist got this week?

Those Arab Spring Bullies and Coptic Christian Diaspora

As I've stated here any number of times, Progressive subsist on a banquet of bullshit.

The same folks who get their backs up about fois gras and the mistreatment of geese support the murder of children via Planned Parenthood. The same people who support Cadillac Commies and Race Hustlers like Al Sharpton refuse to part with a nickel to help black kids get a good education, let alone support real School Choice- Vouchers.

The same people demanding homosexula marriage hiss at Catholics and spit out Pedaphile!

The most violent cowards tend to be anti-war activists.

The new anti-bullying campaign is no more than an adjunct of the homosexual marriage agenda.

While balloon heads like Lady Gaga drop $ 35,000 and change to get in the news and question the President about Bullies, Coptic Christians in Egypt are being slaughtered and run out of theor homeland.

In response, the president made remarks about “his administration’s anti-bullying campaign, and then more generally about the importance of values and who we are as Americans.”

But let's worry about Bullying? Sure. I hate bullies. They are easily dealt with - not rocket science. If your kid, or any kid gets intimidated, tell that child to step up and give the indimidator a shot in the snot locker. If the bullied is too intimidated, he/she can tell someone. Call the local news media and they will be out in a New York minute, especially if the bullied is LBGT,or Q.

The Coptic Christians are bullied, burned out and banished in Tom Friedman's Araba Spring. Now this bullying by bullies who know their stuff:

Nearly 93,000 Coptic Christians have left Egypt since 19 March, a report by an Egypt-based Coptic NGO has said.

The number may increase to 250,000 by the end of 2011, according to Naguib Gabriel, the head of the Egyptian Federation of Human Rights, which released the report.

The current trend of Coptic immigration endangers the structure of Egypt's population, Gabriel told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Sunday. He urged the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the Egyptian cabinet to work on curbing the phenomenon.

Gabriel based the data stated in the report on information from Coptic churches and communities abroad.

"Nearly 16,000 migrated to California, while 10,000 moved to New Jersey, 8000 to New York, and 8000 to other American states," according to Gabriel. "Around 14,000 left to Australia, 17,000 to Canada, and 20,000 settled in the Netherlands, Italy, England, Austria, Germany and France."

Gabriel attributed the Coptic emigration to hardline Salafi groups seeking to apply Islamic law, deny Copts senior government posts, and reduce incoming tourism. He also blamed attacks on Coptic churches and the government's failure to bring attackers to justice.

Coptic author Kamal Zakher said the numbers in the report were exaggerated, but that concern over Coptic immigration is justifiable.

Migration procedures take up to a year to complete, so it is illogical to say the January revolution caused the Copts to leave the country, Zakher said.

Are there any passages in the Koran or the made up stuff of Sharia Law about bullying?

Doubt it.


http://www.politico.com/blogs/click/0911/Gaga_for_Obama_.html

St. Xavier University v.NLRB - Esse Quam Videri

By Thunder! I have a Doctorate in Important Stuff from Phoenix University (on-line)! This class size is an Outrage! Kick the Pope in Boyne Water! I'm Hitting the Bricks!Strike, Strike! Strike!

I'll be going in to Leo High School shortly. I get up at about 4 A.M. and practice writing. That has been my habit for many years. I started teaching in Catholic secondary schools in 1975.

I have never belonged to a teachers union. I was a janitor ( now SEIU)and held a paid up card for years. Nearly every male and many female members of my immediate and extended family hold union cards in the skilled trades - stationary engineers, machinists, plumbers, electricians, carpenters.

I generally get over to Leo High School between 5-5:30 A.M. where I read the obits for the names of Alumni, answer e-mails, do prospect research and often tutor the guys in English and American Lit, or help with their essays.

Teaching - is it a profession, or trade? Professionals, like lawyers, doctors, and accountants, set up their practices, or work for partnerships. Teachers want to be treated like professionals - they demand it.

It has been my honor to work with real professionals. People who have not only imparted information, methods, or theories but inspired young people to exceed their grasps.

At times, I have worked with few real dogs - people who took every sick day and change; never took advantage of the library during free time; could not manage a class of any size; had more excuses than Michael Moore has chins; threatened lawsuits when terminated. They were jokes. Many found homes with their State of Illinois Certifications in public schools.

One outstandingly stupid gent became a regional superintendent in southern Illinois. He had a personally crafted sign in his classroom: 'Untied We Stand!' Untied he was from the bonds of his Catholic school contract, after he violated his contract for the last time.

This morning I read the hopelessly slanted report by the Tribune's Seeker -Manya Brachear. Her grain of salt begins with this poisoning of the well -

For years, some Roman Catholic bishops and conservatives have complained that American Catholic colleges have strayed from church teachings. Now, labor regulators in Chicago have declared that St. Xavier University isn't Catholic enough by government standards either.

Really? Most Catholic colleges are Corporations and Bishops are Corporations Sole in Illinois. They are separate legal entities. Which is it legal, or doctrinal?

Georgetown University, De Paul University and University of Notre Dame have bent like like Gummi Worms to be perceived as secular Ivory Towers. In fact Georgetown removed the Cross for President Obama. Notre Dame arrested rosary praying priests and old folks, unhappy with Our Lady's University telling America that Abortion is Okay. De Paul University, for some goofy reason, wants to be a rube Berkeley.

It is no easy thing being a Catholic, anymore than it is being a good Baptist, or a devout Jew, especially given American sub-culture these days.

Homosexual Marriage is unacceptable; Abortion is unacceptable. Therefore, to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Progressive bully pulpit Catholic is unacceptable.

Catholic Gummi Bears agree.

The NLRB gooning of St.Xavier University is no more than the Obama White House playing street for its base. President has no street cred and needs some quickly. Gooning a Catholic school will toss red meat to MSNBC, GE, Hollywood and SEIU. It'll show the man is serious about Change '08. The Change that gave us our current economic and moral swamp.

Part time ( Adjunct) teachers are not forced into the St. Xavier University HR Offices on 103rd Street at gun point. There is a perfectly fine Community College on Pulaski at 76th ( Daley) and another over on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive at 99th Street (Chicago State). They are secular choices, where no bishops pop out of the wood work.

As to the social justice issue, read the encyclicals. Pope Leo XIII for whom this old high school was named is the Pope of the Working Man and author of Rerum Novarum. Leo XIII wrote it for 19th Century working men who had full time jobs as meat-cutters, teamsters, drovers, renderers, leathermen, engineers, carpenters, electricians and plumbers. This was the age of the Molly Maguire hangings (23 hangings) in Pennsylvania and Colorado Mine massacres - hardly adjunct art teachers.

Rerum Novarum was not a call to organize lemonade stand workers, though work very hard.

The fact that a person studied real hard to get a Phd. in Public Art, or wrote her Masters thesis on 'The Enslavement of Women in Archie and Jughead Graphic Novel' is to be praised, but meat for a union local getting organized anywhere.

Pope Leo XIII was no Saul Alinsky.

I hope that St. Xavier University wins this one.

Catholic Universities like Catholics should be what they seem to be and not bend like Gummi Worms in order to charm dim bulbs like Manya Brachear.

Tribune Truth Commission: I Giggled All Through Mass

Illinois Progressive Machine - pols and union leaders do not mean Progressive Brahmins, or SEIU.

A Truth Commission, then, could cast light on these rampant abuses by pols and union leaders of rank-and-file workers and Illinois taxpayers. Then the rest of us taxpayers can apply whatever heat is necessary to enact significant reforms.

I heard today's Gospel read and immediately giggled like a six year old. The old bat next to me shushed me, not once but three times. "Grow up!" she hissed. As if.

I tried to stop giggling but God help me I could not. I so bad that I giggled all the way to the Communion rail. It was a Saturday Mass, so I guess that might absolve me a little bit.

It was funny. I had read Saturday's early on-line editorial in the Chicago Medill . . .Tribune. The Tribune is playing cold case investigation of the Illinois legislature, in order to find fault with 'somebody' for the current economic collapse that can be easily laid in the laps of the people who caused it - The Progressives.

Illinois is underwhelmed by revenue, because the Dawn Clark Netsch, Ain't She Great, poster-boy for pie-chart Marxism Ralph Martire has not been laughed out of the room for twenty years.

That is the essence of the problem; that, and the fact that Abner Mikva and other Brahmin's have not had a commission in a week or so. Abner Mikva chaired the Gaming Commission about ten years ago, that investigated Emerald Casino, that happened to be a pet project for ruin by the Tribune Editorial Board. Mikva killed Emerald's license to the nods and hushed awe of the progressive Machine. Illinois Gaming is now as pure as honey-dew vine water! Lord Ha' Mercy!

But at the bullshit buffet that is Illinois Progressive thought, one can not but guffaw.

Here's the Gospel passage from St. Matthew that got me in Dutch with the Shawlies all around me.

"What do you think? A man had two sons; and he went to the first and said, `Son, go and work in the vineyard today.

'And he answered, `I will not'; but afterward he repented and went.

And he went to the second and said the same; and he answered, `I go, sir,' but did not go.
Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him.

I see the first son as the legislators of 1991 - yeah, alright we'll get to it. Illinois was pretty flush with revenue back then -Saddam was launching SCUDS into Israel, Bubba was diddling Paula Jones and underaged Arkansas interns and the economy was flush and Jon Burge was fired as a cop. Shoot, the Red Chinese wanted to open more Soy Sauce works in Illinois.

Guess what? Dawn Clark Netsch was the Illinois Comptroller (Dawn Clark Netsch (1991-1995)! The Illinois Comptroller cuts the checks from the revenue that comes in.

The Comptroller is charged, by the terms of Section 17 of Article V of the Constitution of Illinois, with the duties of: (a) maintaining the central fiscal accounts of the state, and (b) ordering payments into and out of the funds held by the Treasurer of Illinois. In accordance with this duty, the Comptroller signs paychecks or grants approval to electronic payments made by the state to its employees and creditors.

Kind of a Truth Commissioner on the public larder. Well DCN was cool with the Comptrolling and then ran for Governor. Ain't She Great?

D.C. Netsch was an Illinois Legislator along with the bad guys litanized in the Chicago Medill . . .Tribune. Now, I am given to understand that Ms. Netsch was a 'wide-awake' eagle-eyed public servant who would, were she so inclined,swoop down on corrupt snakes and pluck them from the sand. Maybe not.

Public Unions got powerful because of the Progressive Machine and sapped Illinois Revenue and Progressives like D.C.Netsch foisted pie-chart pirate Ralph Martire on us all to dazzle the Chicago Medill . . .Tribune and other news hounds. Cry Bullshit! and let slip the dogs of whores. . . and other protected species in the food chain!

Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers began raping taxpayers over police torture, discrimination ( gay, racial, dietary, you name it), SEIU became Big Labor, Wages became determined by legislation and not collective bargaining. More Ain't She/He Great Progressive Brahmins were no longer laughed out of the room. They became somebodies, by dint of appointments.

The second son in the Gospel is the Media - they say they will go into the vineyard and grunt and sweat, but they only manage to get Abner Mikva a paid commission, Ralph Martire a steady income flow, the Better Government Association stocked with pikers who stalk truck drivers and plumbers to catch them napping and after Illinois has gone to Shit, trot out salaries.

Truth Commission? Oh, Hell yeah. Why not.

How many tax-dollars have gone to Education programs mandated for Illinois schools to advocate abortion, Homosexual Marriage, idiotic sex education curricula and other hot button Progressive agendas?

How many millions of tax dollars have gone to make SEIU and the other lesser light public employee boon-doggles?

How many billions of dollars have gone to studies, commissions and retreats to tell us that the middle class is not paying enough for Green Initiatives, Reversing the Chicago River, and High Speed Rails?

How many gazillions of taxpayer dollars have not only fattened the wallets of Cadillac Commie lawyers, but also over-turned the convictions of thugs and killers?

One final question? Why did it take twenty years and the absence of the powerful from public life for the Chicago Medill . . .Tribune to pretend to grow a pair?

" As I was Sitting by the Fire, . . ." Pffunt! Spontaneous Combustion in Galway

The fact that in my nearly three score carbon footprint, I have had two very beautiful, smart, witty, and elegant women find me in any way attractive, good company and not socially sobering is proof enough for me that a great and merciful God exists. Go figure.

View the Midwestern skies at sunset, consider that Two and Half Men is on television, Chaz Bono, The platypus, Vlad Putin's cheerleaders, middle aged men who wear ear rings, or lawyers who wear cowboy hats.

We can explain the above photo (unphotoshopped BTW) Cathie Jung (USA, b. 1937) has a corseted waist measuring 15 inches. Un-corseted, it measures 21in. Her enthusiasm for Victorian clothes is why at the age of 38 she started wearing a training belt to gradually reduce her then 26in waist. She has never had surgery to define her waist.

Many Civil Rights advocates hold that the 'heart wants what the heart wants' which should explain this perfectly natural impending assignation.


Science is limited to that which can be explained. "Hey, baby, do Fries come with that wake? Baby you fine! Slow, up! Oh, this shark has . . . Pearly Teeth Babe . . ."



In Galway, the medical examiner has determined a case of spontaneous combustion.

A man who burned to death in his home died as a result of spontaneous combustion, an Irish coroner has ruled.

West Galway coroner Dr Ciaran McLoughlin said it was the first time in 25 years of investigating deaths that he had recorded such a verdict.

Michael Faherty, 76, died at his home in Galway on 22 December 2010.

Deaths attributed by some to "spontaneous combustion" occur when a living human body is burned without an apparent external source of ignition.

Typically police or fire investigators find burned corpses but no burned furniture.

An inquest in Galway on Thursday heard how investigators had been baffled as to the cause of Mr Faherty's death at his home at Clareview Park, Ballybane.

Forensic experts found that a fire in the fireplace of the sitting room where the badly burnt body was found, had not been the cause of the blaze that killed Mr Faherty.

An old guy is sitting by the fire,

As I was sitting by the fire talking to old Reilly's daughter
Suddenly a thought came into my head, I'd like to marry old Reilly's daughter

Giddy I ae, giddy I ae, giddy I ae for the one-eyed Reilly

. . ., but I digress.

Spontaneous combustion. You burst into flames. Science.

Ladies and Gentleman! The Prime Mover - The Uncaused Cause! God, his own bad self!

Quod erat demonstrandum!

http://www.oddee.com/item_97912.aspx

Alluring is Attractive - Skanky is Repellant: Feminism Gave Us the Skank

Males are not at all like Women. Equality? Equality should not mean whatever any androgynous subjectivist mouth-foamer demands it to be - " as you like it ,there, Titillian Transgender. By the way you have some bits of SlimJim betwen your teeth,"

Knock yourself out! Freedom to be woman is not license to be a skank, or another man.

Guys that are free with their tongues, where I come from anyway, tend to gum their food.

Freedom has always been a gift of God to us. We are free not to act like dogs and later justify promiscuity with an article by some alphabetted clown from Playboy or Cosmo.

Nevertheless, I am delighted by the signage on Expressways all over this great Metropolitan area touting the upcoming TV Show Pan Am. This series, like other 'return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear' Madmen presents well-dressed and cleaned up human beings as the standard for sexy.
As the philosophically hirsute trio ZZ Top teaches us all 'Every Girl Crazy 'Bout A Sharp Dressed Man!' So it is with, what I call, the Superior Gender. Nicely groomed and fashionably turned-out women are better than a Sunrise with Butterflies.

Playboy Bunnies and Stewardesses are back. Guys who wear suits and hats are back.

Clothes make not the person, but sure can tell us much about that person. I have Leo sweatshirts, T-shirts and gym shorts aplenty, but I would never wear those items to a dinner with an elegant and beautiful woman at Les Nomades. Entitled third tier movie stars can afford to act like dopes and arrive unshaven and dressed like Harry Potter on Hillbilly Heroin. People with the stamp of dignity burned into them by years of accomplishment and attention to other people have no such luxury.

Since the bra-burning harpies and their Tongue-studded, Tattooed sisters have donned everything from Meat to a Sneer, males continued to seek out beauty in days gone by. Alluring women do not dress like Andy Devine, nor do they spew foul Saxonisms like a vodka marinated whackjob. Nor do they allow foul-mouthed loutish males to verbally pollute their spaces. Sexy women finish conversations with louts in cold measures and colder glances -' I find your language as disgusting as your sense of fashion. Please, annoy the woman at the end of bar who is vomiting-up her Cosmo dinner. Yes, the one with tattoo on each breast saying, "Look" and "Lap." Goodbye."

Nothing is sexier than finely accoutered woman giving a slob the verbal kick to the curb.



I do not believe that I will watch Pan Am, but do hope that adolescent males aging 12-45 take in this show. They have feasted on MTV and HBO versions of women on Jersey Shore and Entourage. There is nothing sexier than woman who is centered, moral, smart and presents herself like a woman.

The Town of Chicago and the Beauty of Waiting

Father John P. Smyth
"No person stands so tall, as one who stoops to help a child."

My job requires a great deal of waiting - waiting for that magic moment in fund-raising, when the mission and operation of Leo High School matches a prospective donor's history of giving to a school like Leo with that person's capacity to make a gift; waiting to pull together current achievements and activities at the school to make a compelling presentation to that person; waiting to get an opportunity or appointment and waiting for the magic moment when that person asks, "How can I help."

Waiting is beautiful. In that gap between need identification and the gift, I get to again get knocked over by the capacity of people to look beyond themselves. Here in Chicago, the wait is never all that long.

Yesterday, before I went home to clean up for the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame Induction Dinner at Hawthorne Race Course, I had the opportunity to teach a few seniors about the job interview process. The teacher is a wonderful young lady who won her teaching spurs and the universal respect of the often times challenging 17 and 18 year olds in her many Math classes. As part of a business math unit, this innovative and thoughtful young lady has called a number of Leo Alumni professionals to serve as a mock interview panel next week. I was the stalking horse.

I am a teacher and a teacher, or a coach is a salesman. This morning when I get into work, I will sit down with one of our senior athletes in this class for a lesson on preparing for the up-coming interview and to go over his practice resume. From those lines on the paper, I will attempt to articulate the core worth of this splendid, thoughtful, tough, and centered young man in a letter of recommendation for this fictional job. I will also use this opportunity to begin drafting a letter from me that will be used in his college application. This is fund-raising.

This teacher's impact on her students is the core of what I do. This lesson in the steps necessary for securing employment is what it is all about. The young man has learned that many people are in his corner - his teacher, volunteers who went to Leo years ago, and a splendid old chap who works in the Development Office. I'll be waiting for this senior.

I always arrive early. I had a ticket for a guest of the Leo Advisory Board's table, a beautiful woman who has helped the kids at Leo for a number of years. I waited outside the entrance for her.

Haythorne Race Course was packed with giants.

Father John Smyth the legendary priest/athlete who dedicated his life to Christ's children, no matter what religion, race, or circumsatnce they walk in the world. Father Smyth walks along side them.

Gale Sayers, the Kansas Comet and arguably the gold standard for NFL running backs, who uses his modest fortune to help inner city kids learn to speak in public, develop computer skills and more importantly learn that they do not walk alone.

Rocky Bleier of Notre Dame and NFL fame, whose career was interrupted by service in Vietnam where he was horribly wounded, but fought back his wounds to not only play professional football, but pace the great Franco Harris of Pittsburg Steelers.

Three Time National College Basketball Championship coach Jim Calhoun of University of Connecticut.

Mr. Calhoun reminded all of us of the quality that makes Chicago great - "Chicago is a Town," he told us, " You all know each other and care for one another."

Chicago is a town. I waited outside for a woman of great fortune. While waiting, I met one of Honorees for the evening Barry Sanders. He was followed by Heisman Trophy winner and Fenwick legend Johnny Lattner and a gentleman by the name of Pat Kelly. We talked while they waited for elevator operated by beautiful girl with a new set braces from Hubbard High School. Barry Sanders, Pat Kelly and Johnny Lattner turned all of their attentions to the little girl tasked with taking them up to the second floor.

The dinner began at 7 P.M. and Leo's guest was fighting traffic on the Stevenson Expresway, no matter I waited. Retired Cook County Sherrif Mike Sheahan, Hall of Fame Father and Daughter Jerry and Katie Schumacher with Katie's gorgeous Mom Kathy, Chicago Firefighting hero Jim Corbett and others treated the elevator operator like she was the most important person on earth as well. It is good to wait.

At 7:35 P.M. our table mate arrived and immediately was swarmed by the parking lot attendants. This wealthy and prminent lady greated the older attendent,"Hey, how's your wife Albert?" I waited while she caught up with her friends. When our elevator doors opened the Hubbard Greyhound in braces was on break, but when we arrived on the second floor Gold Cup Room, Leo's beautiful philanthropist chatted with each and every waiter, waitress, bartender and manager after hailing them by name. The wait was worth it.

Later in the evening, Jim Calhoun reminded all of us that what makes Chicago great is not, plants, Silver Beans, or World Class tinsel.Chicago was, is and should remain a Town of Wait-ers. Waiting is beautiful. Chicagoans are neighbors and they are patient, generous, friendly, helpful and present. They wait in the long lines at Wakes. The greatest people are never disdainful of people and treat every person Oprah or a janitor like a neighbor.

Pikers are pushy and never wait.

We joined the throng of Leo Men waiting for this gracious woman's arrival. Presidnet Dan McGrath held out her chair and the brawny stalwarts stood in welcome: Jack Fitzgerald, Bob Sheehy, John Linehan, Bill Holland and Rich Finn - Mike Joyce a Hall of Fame Director and his expectantly radiant wife greeted us from the directors table. We were waiting for Leo football coach and Board Member Mike Holmes, who arrived before Grace was said. Our table included Tamara Holder, attorney, journalist and Fox Television News legal analyst, who joined the Advisory Board in January. The brawny stalwarts now include a stunning young lady. Father John Smyth led us all in prayer and he noted while many in crowd had not waited for Grace to said, somethings should not wait. Our guest handed President Dan McGrath a gift for the boys at Leo. Waiting is exquisite in this great town.

I better launch off my ass, I do not want to keep a young man waiting.