A Visit to Casa Hickey

Not Chaos like together crush'd and bruis'd,
But as the world, harmoniously confus'd:
Where order in variety we see,
And where, tho' all things differ, all agree.
Alexander Pope, Windsor Forest, ll.12-16

Friday night, the woman I love and I paid a visit on two new parents and their beautiful child; after I got in my baby fix for the weekend, we had a late light supper at the fabulous KODA Bistro in West Beverly. Before we headed north and west to return the elegant and beautiful woman to her home in the immediate west suburbs, I stopped by the house.

My Daughter Clare and her troop of pals, expanded from the St. Cajetan pre-school line-up, to include teen beauties and scholars at Mother McAuley, Marist and St. Iggy from every parish urban and south sub-urban, were thronged and polishing off post-Halloween Fun Size Milky Ways, Three Musketeers and Kit Kats, Capri Sun Juices, slices of Doreen's pizza, between the back door ( the only entrance employed on the south side) and front room ( pronounced Frunchroom hereabouts) AKA living room.




The fair dame's reaction went viral.

A dolor sit hominis castrum suum, vel alterius palude!

N.B. This Sunday morning's pre-Mass offering was inspired by Michael Moriarty's wonderful article on Bette Davis. Click my post title.

Cosgrove and Quinn , The Christians, Hide Behind a Rape Victim

Two political mice, Governor Pat Quinn and his boss Terry Cosgrove*, have pushed a rape victim out in front of their brawl with Illinois's Catholic Bishops.

Governor Pat Quinn has revealed the full content of his character and its emptier than a politician's promise.

Terry Cosgrove, President of Planned Parenthood's Personal PAC, shoveled $ 500,000 and 'in-kind' support behind a career opportunist.


I worked to help this manneQuinn get elected Governor. God forgive me.

Since his victory Governor Pat Quinn has done everything he was told to do by every lug nut and gear in the Progressive Machine. He has been especially compliant to Boss Terry Cosgrove.

The most sickening thing about Governor Quinn's will to power is his immediate run-for-cover on every decision he makes and every bill he signs. He is now permanently hiding behind Terry Cosgrove's Personal PAC and a sad young woman who was forced by Terry Cosgrove to dive on Quinn's barbed wire with Cardinal George.

Quinn, whose approval ratings have been stuck around 30 percent, has seemed energized by the jousting with his church, describing his action as “the Christian thing to do.”

And as if recognizing the potential of a public-relations backlash for targeting a rape victim, the Catholic Conference of Illinois issued a statement Thursday that seemed to soften its focus on Goodman, though it did not name her nor contain an apology. “Our hearts go out to any victim of rape, one of the most personally violent crimes against women,” the group said.

Cardinal George and the Catholic Conference of Illinois never once mentioned rape, rape victims, or the poor woman being honored by Terry Cosgrove's abortion PAC.

Pat Quinn, who calls himself a Catholic in front of Catholic voters, stated that he is standing with the abortion happy dowagers of Planned Parenthood, because he is a Christian. Christian trumps Catholic, because Catholics do not recognize abortion or the marriage between two men, or two women. Christians are good and Catholics are mean, until the Knights of Columbus, or Chicago Catholic League All-Stars are needed to help Gov. Easter Bunny.

The Christian Quinn plays the media. The media plays everyone. However, it is Quinn appointee Terry Cosgrove who plays Quinn. Now, the Two Christians are playing the victims by pushing the previously unnamed rape victim into the news.

She said her attacker went on to college, never having faced charges for the two rapes in 1991.

When asked why she didn’t go to police back then, Goodman said, “It was like my insides were ripped out. I felt powerless, like I couldn’t do anything. It didn’t cross my mind to go to the police or go to the hospital or even be tested.”

Until last year, G?????? was not active politically. But her mother told G??????’s story to the head of Personal PAC, Terry Cosgrove, who directed nearly $500,000 in cash and services from his bipartisan organization into Quinn’s campaign.

“Terry knew about my story. He called me one day and said, ‘We’re really fighting hard because this person running against Pat Quinn feels very strongly about abortion, even in cases of incest and rape. He believes a person should not have a choice,’ ” G?????? said. “That really struck me. I’m not political, or I wasn’t very political. And he said, ‘Would you like to speak on behalf of that campaign and speak against this guy, Bill Brady?’

“I started reading up on him, and I decided OK. I wouldn’t mind representing the people who are so silent. Rape survivors are a very silent epidemic,” she said.

She appeared in a Personal PAC commercial that used only her first name. It aired shortly before the election and, along with a major phone-banking operation by Cosgrove’s organization, helped turn suburban women against Brady.


The poor woman says that the Cardinal makes her feel like a baby killer.

The Cardinal never once mentioned the woman. I sure as hell will not. I'll leave that to the two Christian heroes -Quinn and Cosgrove.

Quinn and Cosgrove are two Christians. Give me a Pagan any day.


Quinn's Boss -Terry Cosgrove

*

Fresh off of the role he played in getting Gov. Pat Quinn elected, the president/CEO of Personal PAC discussed the past, present and future with Windy City Times
Terry Cosgrove, who started off as executive director of the pro-choice organization Personal PAC in 1989, has been a tireless fighter for a women's right to choose during his entire career.

In talking with Windy City Times, he described his job as "leading the organization in carrying out its mission which is to elect pro-choice candidates." He went on to say that "what's involved in that is a lot of cheerleading and keeping everyone on the same page which is recruiting candidates and helping them run campaigns. However, I spend about 60 to 70 percent of my time fundraising." Personal PAC's website states that the organization's overall mission is to elect pro-choice candidates in a bipartisan way to state and local office in Illinois.

Polling in October showed that Bill Brady, Quinn's Republican opponent, led by 13 percent. The question is: How did Personal PAC help turn the tide to a Quinn victory? The organization did so by sending out direct-mail pieces; buying its first television ad (called "Jennie") in the organization's 21-year history (costing $200,000); placing robocalls using a voice recording of the television ad; and distributing leaflets at Metra stations throughout Chicagoland to educate voters about Brady's conservative views.

Regarding these measures, Cosgrove said, "I knew if we could get enough of those suburban women, that's where the victory was" so the television ad, robocalls and direct-mail campaign were focused on suburban women who only vote in midterm general elections and not the primaries. The television ad ran during every morning-news show; many daytime talk shows; and WGN News and CLTV all day to reach as many suburban women as possible. Brady's operatives cited these tactics as the reason for his loss more than anything else.

Cosgrove also wrote an article in October for the Huffington Post entitled "Bill Brady: The Most Anti-Woman Nominee to Every Run for Illinois Governor" (which Windy City Times also ran) that outlined where Brady stood on women's issues. Asking Cosgrove how he felt when Brady conceded he said "he felt great" since Brady would "have been a disaster" for Illinois.

Some of the other victories Personal PAC can cite in this election cycle are four out of the six Illinois Senate races and nine of the 11 Illinois House races they targeted for the General Assembly elections. Other victories include Toni Preckwinkle as Cook County board president and Jeff Tobolski's 16th District commissioner win over pro-life incumbent Tony Peraica.

So what does Cosgrove do on an average day to keep things moving forward? The day we talked to him he also had a conference call with his executive committee, a business lunch with a friend/donor, a late meeting with a potential new board member and signing a stack of letters to donors thanking them for their support. He remarked that every day is different depending on what is happening politically.

Where did his passion for the pro-choice movement come from? After being raised in suburban Morton Grove along with his parents (his father recently died), older brother and younger sister (who has two kids, a girl and a boy) he went on to the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana where he earned two masters degrees. While still in high school he got involved with political activism, more specifically, Cesar Chavez's grape boycott in the 1970s. He protested in front of a Jewel grocery store and later got arrested. Along the way he got involved in the pro-choice movement when he saw that poor women would give up purchasing groceries for their children in order to pay for their abortions since the Hyde Amendment prevents the government from funding most abortions. Since becoming involved in the pro-choice movement, Cosgrove said he hears from many individuals, including family members, who have told them their abortion stories. He said hearing women tell their stories has only caused him to fight harder since 83 percent of counties in the United States do not have abortion clinics.

Being openly gay hasn't affected his work although elected officials call him to get information and advice on LGBT issues statewide, Cosgrove said. He sees the work he does with reproductive rights going hand in hand with LGBT equality since they are both civil-rights issues. Since his organization is bipartisan he stressed the importance of getting support from both sides so significant pieces of legislation can get passed.

To date he said his most satisfying accomplishments are getting abortion services restored for poor women at Cook County Hospital, getting Quinn elected, continuing to get pro-choice candidates elected to statewide offices over the years and passing proactive reproductive health legislation. Among his many honors is receiving the Impact Award from the Chicago Foundation for Women.

As for the future, Cosgrove said he is looking forward to the re-drawing of the political map in Illinois so they can elect more pro-choice candidates and pass the Reproductive Health and Access Act in the state assembly. He also would like to get comprehensive sex education taught in the public schools so young adults will know the ways to act responsibly.

His message to the readers of Windy City Times is to "live life to the fullest because there is so much opportunity out there so reach for the top of the trees." He said that is why he is optimistic about the future for reproductive and LGBT rights even though others around him may be skeptics.

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=29716

Governor Christian(Quinn) and his Mouthpiece- Personal PAC's Terry Cosgrove

People always said Pat Quinn was nice, but I had no idea just how Christian he was, until he paid off Personal PAC Boss Terry Cosgrove and $ 500,000 and "In-Kind" help from Planned Parenthood - the Abortion Industry.

Damn Christian.

The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic organization that helps the unborn avoid getting their tiny skulls crushed by stressed-out Mommies and the Health care professionals and they also raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the disabled and the challenged.

But Gov. Pat Quinn is a Christian. Damn Christian.

Catholic Charities, from the historical get-go, took care of orphaned and family-challenged children and placed them with a married couple, that used to be a a man and a woman, until Pat Quinn signed the Christian Defense of Religious Liberty Act and immediately stripped Catholic Charities of any and all state funding. Christian.

Damn Christian.

Governor Damn Christian was admonished by Cardinal George and all of the Catholic bishops of Illinois for honoring Personal PAC, run by Terry Cosgrove, a lawyer, Quinn appointee, LGBTQ string-puller and Quinn spokesman. It sure looks like Governor Damn Christian turned to Terry and said, "What do I say?"

Terry handled all of the supine media and made the Bishops, Catholics, and people who just might think that an unborn child ought not have its tiny skull crushed in order to reflect a Woman's Power, or to fight crime of violence, be viewed as enirely UnChristian. Pat Quinn is a Christian -Damn Christian!

Terry Cosgrove stepped up, as he did in the election and got mems to Eric Zorn and all the Chicago media especially the Huffington Post. Here's Terry, who said yesterday that the Bishops were merely 'bent out of shape' because Bill Brady lost the election -

Personal PAC president Terry Cosgrove told the Chicago Sun-Times that the bishops have been angry ever since Quinn defeated conservative Republican Bill Brady in the gubernatorial race. The Catholic Conference threw their support behind the anti-abortion Brady during the election. Cosgrove also mentioned that Catholics are against birth control, which would reduce the number of abortions if it were more accessible in all communities.

“It’s very hypocritical for them to be so passionate about denying women the right to make this profoundly personal decision, yet they won’t do anything to lessen the need for something they see as so wrong,” Cosgrove told the Sun-Times. “The hypocrisy is so alarming.”

You got that right Terry! Goveror Christian said this, and I belive Terry wrote it for him:

"I'm going to the event to present an award to a woman who is a victim of rape, and who is a very strong advocate of helping rape victims all over our state and country, so I really think that's a proper Christian thing to do, to honor someone who's doing something that helps the community at large," Quinn said, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Governor Christian paroled a lot of rapists and thugs. One murdered a little fourteen year old girl. The Christian thing to do? Damn Christian.

If a Christian can countenance murdering a child in the womb, give me a Pagan, or a Catholic, or a Few, or a Lutheran, or a Baptist, or a Muslim anyday.

Leo Veterans Observance Today - Dr. Barrett on Valor and Resilience

Teenaged Marine in Chosin Reservoir 1950 - 35 degrees below zero and surrounded by twenty Red Chinese Divisions - Resilience?

"Fall seven times and get up eight."

In Dr. Terence W. Barrett's recently published book The Search for the Forgotten thirty-four:Honored by the U.S.Marines, Forgotten in their Hometowns?, the final pages sum up Valor as the ability to bounce back - to face the slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune.

Think of police officers hitting a door; firemen rushing up the stairs of every flaming building, a young mother in the throes of labor, any ER nurse, a Com Ed high wire electrician up a utility pole in an electrical storm and think of what most of us call stress. The cable's out. Gas is $ 3.65. Take another good look at that photo above. That kid, if he lived, is now approaching 80 years of living. That boy, frozen, scared, without sleep, and very hungry is resilient. He's on his feet. I believe that he handled the balance of his life with grace and dignity, if he lived past the days ahead of him.

The Outrage of combat is the ultimate test of human resilience. I used to tell my wrestlers that toughness was not determined by how much pain one could dish out, but how much one could endure in order to win. It is so much more than that.

In his study of the lives and the heroic action of American heroes, Dr. Barrett presents human resilience and the psychology of dealing with stress. Fear is merely an adjunct of stress. Resilience, the ability to get back into the fight has a psychology all its own. Barrett explains "resilience is more than managing encounters with stress or harsh experience. Resilience is the ability to adapt in spite of it, to adapt positively in spite of it, and to grow from it. Resilience is identified . . . as part attitude(or thought),and part ability: a blending of strength, endurance and adaptibilty. Resilience develops over time, likely associated to the encounters with realistic and reasonable stresses, and what might be called diligent striving. A persons learns to manage. And once a child learns to manage, he or she will tend to remain resilient across a lifetme."

Barrett goes on to study diligent striving and notes that those men studied in this book demonstrated extraordinary resiliency. They did not wait for events to shape them.

Today, Leo High School will be graced with presence of scores of WWII, Korean War, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan heroes. Resilient men and women.

Our students will witness what it takes from those how most surely did.

If they fall, they will get up again. The alternative is unacceptable. Facta Non Verba - Deeds Not Words.

God Bless Our Veterans.


Click my post title to link to the pages on Resilience by Dr. Barrett

Hey, Bishops, Gov. Pat Quinn The Parser Owes Planned Parenthood Personal PAC

In a statement from the Catholic Conference of Illinois, the church leaders said Quinn had “gone beyond a political alignment with those supporting the legal right to kill children in their mothers’ wombs to rewarding those deemed most successful in this terrible work.”

Yeah, but Governor Pat Quinn owes Personal PAC Planned Parenthood. He owes Terry Cosgrove*.

The man has priorities. In fact, I am certain that Terry Cosgrove jotted out a response to the good Cardinal George and all of the other Catholic Bishops of Illinois.

This is a doozy -

Quinn's office issued a statement saying he was attending Personal PAC’s annual lunch and will present an award to a rape survivor and “preeminent advocate for victims of rape”

. . .And she keeps a neat wallet.

Rape victims? Abortion is a woman's best defense against Rape? Crimes of violence? Tell that to Kelli O'Laughlin's parents. It appears that a recently paroled Gangbanger murdered the fourteen year old during a "crime of opportunity." You gotta love that neologism for a savage doing exactly and whatever he wants to do.


This murdering savage was given his "opportunity" not via George Bush's economics but by Pat Quinn's parole carousel!

The 14-year-old girl was stabbed a week ago Thursday when she apparently interrupted a burglary at her home. Since then, dozens of officers have investigated more than 100 leads. As friends and family gathered at a visitation for the Lyons Township freshman Wednesday, ABC7 learned one of those tips apparently panned out.

Officially, authorities at the Indian Head Park Police Department are quiet. One law enforcement source tells ABC7 that the man in custody is a state parolee. Another state police source says the person being questioned is a "Chicago gang-banger." ABC7 is told he hailed a cab after the crime last Thursday, possibly from the Hinsdale oasis on the Tri-State Tollway. Another police source says dogs were able to track the man's scent to that oasis along 294, not far from Indian Head Park.

( emphasis my own)


When goofs like Quinn parse, they believe that people of good will are just too dumb to live. I guess that is why they are soo cozy to Personal PAC, Planned Parenthood and all the piles of loot they have in the hoards built with State and Federal.

Quinn says he is honoring Personal PAC, in order to honor a rape victim. Personal Pac is all about money for abortions. Terry Cosgrove opened up huge industrial cans of whup-ass on Brady, in order to get Quinn where he stands today - honoring Cosgrove's Personal PAC.

Quinn delivered to Terry Cosgrove - got him a bullet proof pension and job, signed the Religious Liberty Civil Unions door-wedge to Gay Marriage, paid off the Green crowd and paroled lots of thugs.

Quinn promised all of the laid off skilled tradesmen who went to his rally at the Plumbers Hall last November that he would fight for them. Quinn fought for Terry Cosgrove and Personal PAC and Planned Parenthood and union men and women continue to join the unemployed. I heard Pat Quinn promise the thousands of skilled tradesmen in the Plumbers Hall. I heard Pat Quinn promise. The thousands of union women and men, and this poor dim-wit writing this morning, believed his parsing promises. We went out and worked to get Quinn elected, God Help Us.

That is where a Quinn promise ends. He is a Progressive. He owes no one but the Personal PAC, Terry Cosgrove, LGBTQ activists, the harpies of Planned Parenthood, lefty lawyers, the thugs he paroles, and the tax-a-holics.

Pat Quinn is in . . .for now. He pensioned up. The rest of us? Illinois?

Pat Quinn owes no one else, least of all the Catholic Bishops of Illinois and far down from them the children in many wombs.




*Terry Cosgrove is president and CEO of Personal PAC, a group that is dedicated to electing pro-choice politcians. His confirmation passed the Illinois Senate by a vote of 30-25 Thursday, with Republicans vehemently opposed and debate getting so heated that two senators had to be separated, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

The GOP is characterizing Cosgrove's appointment as "pay-to-play" based on his PAC's support of Quinn in the recent gubernatorial election. Quinn's opponent, Republican Bill Brady, was a hard-line opponent of abortion rights, believing them wrong even in the cases of rape or incest.

Personal PAC came out very strong against Brady in the race, taking out heartbreaking ads featuring first-person narratives of rape victims who wouldn't have been allowed to seek abortions under a Brady regime. The group raised and spent over $400,000 in the race.

Brady lost very narrowly, coming up short by just under 20,000 votes. And many Republican strategists have suggested that the PPAC ads swung enough female voters in the Chicago suburbs to tilt the race toward Governor Quinn.

The GOP is understandably reluctant, then to see him given a statewide office. But as Rich Miller writes in his Chicago Sun-Times column, this hardly qualifies as "pay-to-play" by the traditional definition of the phrase:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls
AM0054 LRB097 11341 AMC 53483 x

1
APPOINTMENT MESSAGE


2 To the Honorable Members of the Senate, Ninety-Seventh General
3 Assembly:

4 I, Pat Quinn, Governor, am nominating and, by and with the
5 advice and consent of the Senate, appointing the following
6 named individual to the office enumerated below. The advice and
7 consent of this Honorable Body is respectfully requested.

8 Title of Office: Member

9 Agency or Other Body: Illinois Human Rights Commission

10 Start Date: March 28, 2011

11 End Date: January 21, 2013

12 Name: Terry Cosgrove

13 Residence: 6805 N. Greenview, #2, Chicago, IL 60626

14 Annual Compensation: $46,960

15 Per diem: Not Applicable

16 Nominee's Senator: Senator Heather A. Steans

17 Most Recent Holder of Office: Gregory Simoncini

18 Superseded Appointment Message: Not Applicable
/story?section=news/local&id=8416828

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-mourners-gather-to-remember-slain-girl-there-are-no-words-20111102,0,3922664.story

Hey, Bishops, Gov. Pat Quinn The Parser Owes Planned Parenthood Personal PAC

In a statement from the Catholic Conference of Illinois, the church leaders said Quinn had “gone beyond a political alignment with those supporting the legal right to kill children in their mothers’ wombs to rewarding those deemed most successful in this terrible work.”

Yeah, but Governor Pat Quinn owes Personal Pac Planned Parenthood. He owes Terry Cosgrove.

The man has priorioties. In fact, I am certain that Terry Cosgrove jotted out a response to the Cardinal George and the Catholic Bishops of Illinois.

This is a doozy -

Quinn's office issued a statement saying he was attending Personal PAC’s annual lunch and will present an award to a rape survivor and “preeminent advocate for victims of rape”

. . .And she keeps a neat wallet.

Rape victims? Abortion is a woman's best defense against Rape? Crimes of violence? Tell that to Kelli O'Loughlin's parents. It appears that a recently parolled Gangbanger murdered the fourteen year old during a "crime of opportunity." You gotta love that neologism for a savage doing exactly and whatever he wants to do.


This murdering savage was given his "opportunity" not via George Bush's economics but by Pat Quinn's parole caroselle!

The 14-year-old girl was stabbed a week ago Thursday when she apparently interrupted a burglary at her home. Since then, dozens of officers have investigated more than 100 leads. As friends and family gathered at a visitation for the Lyons Township freshman Wednesday, ABC7 learned one of those tips apparently panned out.

Officially, authorities at the Indian Head Park Police Department are quiet. One law enforcement source tells ABC7 that the man in custody is a state parolee. Another state police source says the person being questioned is a "Chicago gang-banger." ABC7 is told he hailed a cab after the crime last Thursday, possibly from the Hinsdale oasis on the Tri-State Tollway. Another police source says dogs were able to track the man's scent to that oasis along 294, not far from Indian Head Park.

( emphasis my own)


When goofs like Quinn parse, they believe that people of good will are just too dumb to live. I guess that is why they are soo cozy to Personal PAC, Planned Parenthood and all the piles of loot they have in the hoards built with State and Federal.

Quinn says he is honoring Personal PAC, in order to honor a rape victim. Personal Pac is all about money for abortions. Terry Cosgrove opened up huge industrial cans of whup-ass on Brady, in order to get Quinn where he stands today - honoring Cosgrove's Personal PAC.

Quinn delivered to Terry Cosgrove - got him a bullet proof pension and job, signed the Religious Liberty Civil Unions door-wedge to Gay Marriage, paid off the Green crowd and paroled lots of thugs.

Quinn promised all of the laid off skilled tradesmen who went to his rally at the Plumbers Hall last November that he would fight for them. Quinn fought for Terry Cosgrove and Personal PAC and Planned Parenthood and union men and women continue to join the unemployed. I heard Pat Quinn promise the thousands of skilled tradesmem in the Plumbers Hall. I heard Pat Quinn promise. The thousands of union women and men, and this poor dim-wit writing this morning, believed his parsing promises. We went out and worked to get Quinn elected, God Help Us.

That is where a Quinn promise ends. He is a Progressive. He owes no one but the Personal PAC, Terry Cosgrove, LGBTQ activists, the harpies of Planned Parenthood, lefty lawyers, the thugs he paroles, and the tax-a-holics.

Pat Quinn is in . . .for now. He pensioned up. The rest of us? Illinois?

Pat Quinn owes no one else, least of all the Catholic Bishops of Illinois and far down from them the children in many wombs.


http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8416828

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-mourners-gather-to-remember-slain-girl-there-are-no-words-20111102,0,3922664.story

"Whose Country ’Tis of Thee?" Joseph Epstein - A Patriot to Patriots - Honor America

The man who is the American Montaigne, a master of prose and the most elgant of essayists, Jospeh Epstein has written a master piece. A brilliant rebuttal to the Self-loathing goofs and frauds in American society, Joe Epstein's Commentary article should not be missed. Please, read this in full by clicking on my post title.

Here is a sample passage from this beautiful essay of self-discovery and piety-

Americanism means many things. It means equality of rights and therefore equality of duty and of obligation. It means service to our common country. It means loyalty to one flag, to our flag, the flag of all of us. It means on the part of each of us respect for the rights of the rest of us. It means that all of us guarantee the rights of each of us. It means free education, genuinely representative government, freedom of speech and thought, equality before the law for all men, genuine political and religious freedom, and the democratizing of industry so as to give at least a measurable quality of opportunity for all, and so as to place before us, as our ideal in all industries where this ideal is possible of attainment, the system of cooperative ownership and management, in order that the tool-users may, so far as possible, become the tool-owners. Everything is un-American that tends either to government by a plutocracy or government by a mob. To divide along the lines of section or cast or creed is un-American. All privileges based on wealth, and all enmity to honest men merely because they are wealthy, are un-American—both of them equally so. Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood—the virtues that made America.

(emphasis my own)

Thank you, Joe!

Herman-eutics

Hermeneutics is the study of texts in their many manifestations. It came out of Bible studies and how words were translated and evolved into a discipline during the 19th Century concerned with 'authenticity.' Was St. Jerome genuinely happy as a starving stylite when he translated the Old and New Testaments from Hebrew and Greek to Army Camp Latin -The Vulgate? Crap like that. Who shives a git?!!!!

Germans can pile it on like no other ethnic group, crap and or paper. Hermeneutics, the word, is derived from the Greek God Hermes - the messenger of the gods - AKA - The Interpreter, The Deceiver, The Deliverer, The Guy With the Straight Dope. As an undergraduate and graduate student I was subjected to German Hermeutics -Hans Georg Gadamer, and Paul Ricoeur et al. - because hermeneutics crossed over to literary studies. Schleiermacher said that every problem of interpretation is a problem of understanding. UhHuh. This on the test?

Progressive despise religious doctrine; Progressives cling to Memes. Memes are churned out and disseminated by AKPD Media Firm - better known as David Axelrod and Obama 2012. Memes go directly to the Media and Hollywood. Hermeneutics the study of texts sure seems heavy in the AKPD Media Firm's work.

Progressive do hermeneutics - example - Michael Moore is neither a plutocrat nor an enormous endomorph - because he does not will to be. Though Michael Moore appears to be 99%body fat, he can not and shall not be judged to be one of the 1%.

GM is save, Bin Laden died - Okay?

How about these -BP spilled and the Economy Tanked? Solyndra Gained and Solyndra Tanked? Not working -though of the same logic.


Hermeneutics is now becoming Herman -eutics, because nothing makes a Progressive poop his pantie hose, like a genuine Black Man who holds conservative principles, an authentic, practicing and religious Jew, or a Catholic unencumbered by coin from Planned Parenthood. What's wrong with those people?

Herman Cain, the Progressive argues, is not an 'authentic' Black Man - Really? More so, if you like Herman Cain it is only because you happen to be a racist.

Herman Cain is merely an 'Entertainer' ( Laura Washington Sun Times) or a Minstrel Show Darkie ( Toure -mononomynous pampered child of privilege and MSBNC Black Man).

Herman Cain, like most of us does not get the Meme. His favorable polling numbers will soar and the vitriol will get more vinegary from Lettermen, Leno, MSNBC and the MEME idolaters. Group think is what it is all about.

Barack Obama came to the White House packaged in bubble-wrap and shipping peanuts. He is the Dresden China President, he chips and breaks far too easily.

Herman Cain would stride into the same building under his own steam. No one will raise Cain - Cain is self-lifting and that scares the manure out of Politico's Jonathan "Mumbles" Martin's mouth.

Herman Cain reminds me of every authentic black man who sends his son to Leo. Like Herman, that man pays his own way and demands raised expectations for his son.

Authentic black men suffer no back sass, guff, or bullshit from their sons or their sons' teachers. Authentic black men, like authentic white men, do not bully, nor do they accept bullying. Authentic black men are only bested by authentic women, as are all authentic men.

Bullies and phonies jabber. Herman Cain speaks authentically.

Herman Cain may or may not get the GOP nomination. I would vote for him, over the tasseled loafer alternatives Mitt, Perry and Newt. I am still a Democrat, but I did not vote for President Obama the last go around and most certainly will not again. I would vote for Herman Cain in New York Times Minute.

When all of the gold-plated jackasses in America are against Herman Cain, you can bet that Herman Cain is the only authentic man running for President.

Hermaneutics was a pain in the ass. Herman-eutics is pathetic.

Herman Cain is authentic.

Remembering a Hero - Dr. Terry Barrett, The Leo Alumni, Veterans Everywhere and Cpl. John Fardy, Medal of Honor Hero

I scanned in haste - apologies all around - click on the photo and zoom in for a better view.
On Monday, I received a treasure. Miss Adams, the executive secretary for Leo High School handed me a package from Dr. Terry Barrett. It was his book The Search for the Forgotten Thirty-four: Honored by the U.S. Marines, Unheralded in their Hometowns?

The back cover of this book features the grave marker that was replaced by Dr. Barrett, The Marine Corps, The Medal of Honor Foundation and especially the Leo Alumni Association behind the leadership of Vietnam U.S. Army Hero - Jim Furlong ( Leo '65). Until August 15, 2011, passersby had no idea that beneath the well-managed sod of Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in south suburban Alsip, lay the bones of a Medal of Honor Marine - John Peter Fardy. With a heads up from Dr. Barrett, Jim Furlong and Mark Lee ( Leo '85) sparked the energy to do honors long overdue.

It was Terry Barrett's research on heroes forgotten here at home, though their actions in defense of America were the highest and most noble sources for a study of valor, that brought all of us together and offer some fair tribute.

Dr. Barrett's book is now available to us all. I read the entire 612 pages over two nights and re-read Chapter 18 several times. Beginning on page 255, the story of Cpl. John Peter Fardy is laid out with painstaking attention to detail. Dr. Barrett unearthed records and family members to capture some of John Fardy's soul. That soul is magnificent. John Fardy smothered a Japanese grenade with his body in order to protect the squad of Marines he was leading in the fight for Okinawa. Barrett notes early in the book that of the 82 Marines awarded the Medal of Honor during WWII, 27 hurled themselves on live grenades, like Leo's John Fardy (Barrett 155).

A psychologist, as well as a Marine, Dr. Barrett explains that there is no training in the Marin Corps Manual for throwing one's self on a grenade. He explains with exacting detail how a Marine in combat might react to a grenade tossed into his foxhole - he might try and throw back, or he might leap from the hole, or in the worst scenario, keep fighting if he cannot reach the missile.

Psychologist Barret details the five steps necessary in taking any action ( Sensation, Perception, Recognition, Conclusion, Decision and Action). Jim Furlong and Mark Lee were made aware of John Fardy, recognized that his valor was unheralded, concluded that this would not stand, decided to get into the fight and honored John Fardy. Leo's motto is Deeds Not Words - Facta Non Verba.

In Chapter 18 there is a great subheading to some beautiful paragraphs - it is a quote from a man who lost some of leg to a Viet Cong grenade, Jim Furlong -" We Will Get This Done" ( Barrett, 282).

Click my post title and get this book.

Leo High School Veterans Observance - Friday Nov. 4th at 11 A.M.

The late Bernie Ingersoll ( Leo '43) with Don Hogan ( Leo '45) and Jerry Tourville ( Leo '48) in 2006 at the Veterans Observances.

Leo Veterans Observances

Leo High School site of Veterans Observance on Friday, November 4th, 2011
at@11:00 A.M

Contact - Mr. Pat Hickey -Director of Development (773) 224-9600 ex. 208
When – November 4th 2011 at 11AM
Where – The Courtyard of Leo High School 7901 South Sangamon Street Chicago 60620
What - Leo High School, Leo Alumni Association welcomes all veteran to the Memorial Observance at the Leo War Memorial in the school’s courtyard. , Leo High School Principal Phil Mesina (USAF ret.) r & Vice Principal Frank Wilson (USMC ret.) will direct the observance which features presentations by Veterans, wreath - laying by John Gardner, President of the Alumni Association

Who - Leo High School erected a memorial in 1965 to the many Leo men who have died serving America in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam and the Windy City Veterans of Chicago updated the engraved names and constructed permanent lighting for the memorial. Last year more than two hundred persons joined the 150 Leo students in honoring America’s war fallen.

Leo High School Speakers at War Memorial 11 A.M.

1. Principal Phil Mesina, USAF (ret.) and Vice-Principal Mr. Frank Wilson, USMC (ret.) call to Order

2. Prayer Father William McFarlane Leo '83

3. Leo Alumni President Dan McGrath

4. Color and Honor of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines – Posting of the Colors -Chicago’s own & Wreathe Laying by Leo Veterans & Purple Heart Veterans.

5. Our National Anthem by Leo Freshman Chris McSmith

6. Leo 2004 Alumnus and Iraq Afghanistan Combat Veteran: Sgt. Jauwan Hall, USMC

7. Taps by Bugles Across America Larry Richards (Leo'60)– Gun Salute and Dismissal & Refreshments in Leo Cafeteria

Join us for this solemn tribute to America's heroes.

The Media Is Jasper Hoegen-Vander - Locker Inspection and The Herman Cain Lynching

Jonathan Mumbles Martin - MSNBC Manure Salesman with a Mouthful of Samples


At the end of the school year, there was always locker inspection. At Bishop McNamara High School in Kankakee, IL, sometime in the late 1970's, I taught (for want of a better term) young gent by the name of Jasper Hoegen-Vander. Jasper was, I believe, the only student in my career whom I failed for the entire year. Jasper completed nothing - not a homework assignment, not a quiz, not an essay and certainly not an exam. Jasper had and did nothing.

I met with Jasper, talked with his parents, brainstormed with my Department Chair, Guidance Counsellor, and Principal and could not motivate Jasper to do anything. I had taught his older brother Perry, a great athlete, student leader and scholar who went on to University of Illinois. Jasper's folks owned a produce farm in the Dutch colony of Wichert, IL between St. Anne and the Indiana State line. Jasper, it seemed would have been fully content to be Robert Frost's Hired Man until the day he cast off his mortal coil.

On Jasper's last day of four years of complete inactivity at Mac, I asked the lad to do something - anything on a piece of paper that could justify my giving him a Gentleman's D for the year.

"Anything? Like how stupid and boring you are?"

As you wish, Jasper, anything.

"How about how fat and slutty your Mom is?"

One man's opinion might suffice.

For forty five minutes we carried on with this Bizzaro World Socratic Method - Jasper posing ever more gloriously obscene and offensive questions concerning my ontological* place on our planet. On paper, nothing.

All of my other students, six sections of a score or more, had handed in blue books and were cleaning out their lockers for the summer.

Jasper, it is getting on to four o'clock and you have not even put your name on the paper.

"Are you looking on my test,Man? That's cheating. What are you a cheat? Did you cheat your way to the top?"

My position is far from the top, Jasper, and I have to conduct locker inspection.

" Hope you'll find some cool stuff? Bag of dope for you to smoke? That how you got to be such a dope?"

Jasper, hand in your paper.

"What about locker inspection?"

That last question became the stuff of legend. For the balance of my career at Bishop Mac, which ran from 1975-1988, colleagues would ask that question, whenever something absurd was posed by someone at faculty meetings. " We should modify the curriculum to reflect the contributions of political prisoners to our way of life - Thoreau, Gandhi, the Soul on Ice Negro,. . .Theodore Cleaver" would be met with a universal chorus of "What About Locker Inspection?????!!!!!!!!!!!!"

When I heard and later read about the Politico C-4 getting fused by Jonathan Martin all I could say was "What about Locker Inspection?"

Jasper's question floated out into the ozone.

Locker Inspection? What does that have to do with anything?

"I'm asking the question, Mr. A$$hole ( Jasper, to say the least, understood the social proprieties)? WHAT ABOUT LOCKER INSPECTION???????"

It rang loudly through the halls.

Jonathan Martin is a journolist MSNBC regular mumbling manure salesman with a mouthful of samples. Jonathan's lynching of Herman Cain sparked me to again ask, "What about Locker Inspoection?"

Jonathan Martin is Jasper Hoegen-Vander Lite.

Herman Cain is a very nice, black man who is married to a very nice woman and he is also a GOP Presidential Candidate who happens to be more popular than our first Bi-racial President. That will not stand. Jonathan Martin is asking the very same questions of the American Body Politic and Candidate Herman Cain as Jasper HoegenVander posed to me in an all but empty classroom in Kankakee.

Take a look.



If Herman Cain is as MSNBC insists a Minstral Performer, a Racist Joke and a Sexual Harasser, why is Mumbles Martin asking "WHAT ABOUT LOCKER INSPECTION!"

Like Jasper, Jonathan Martin has got nothing.

Unlike Jasper, Jonathan Martin is unwilling to spit it out - a manure salesman with mouthful of samples.

De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum.






*Ontology (from onto-, from the Greek ὤν, ὄντος « being; that which is », present participle of the verb εἰμί « be », and -λογία, -logia: science, study, theory) is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations.

America's Killer Apps and a Solid Wet Towel Snap

My son leaves for work a little after five o'clock in the morning. My eldest child is at work by 7:30 A.M. My youngest is at Mother McAuley for Zero Hour classes at 7 A.M. and the cat is trying to break into the closet in the hall to get at the Charmin and Bounty towels, the little feline bitch.
I'll be at Leo between 5 and 5:30 AM.

My son is an apprentice in a skilled trades union, my eldest is working in-between jobs, and my youngest is preparing to meet the world. Old Dad has been at it for decades.

I went to four o'clock Mass on Saturday with scores of neighbors - cops, foremen, school teachers, retirees and far too many young talented people who have been recently laid off.

America is having some tough times. The President recently said that we are soft, unimaginative, and lost our competitive edge. I respectfully disagree. The President has not watched kids at Kennedy Park, or Catholic League football, nor witnessed the creativity on display at a St. Cajetan's science fair. Likewise, he may do himself some good tagging along with union cement finisher, carpenter, electrician, or do a ride along with cops and firemen in Englewood.

Sometimes it takes an outsider to let us know that we are still in the game. Niall Ferguson gives navel gazers a snap of the wet-towel with his latest piece in Newsweek.

America had proudly reinvented itself before. But this time around, the "reinvention" had wrought a toxic behemoth, one that will likely kill the American economy in our lifetime. The "financial industry" in America is the modern equivalent of American opium traders of yore. Just as the "traders" such as the grandpa of an American president (Delano), plus other American blue-bloods became filthy rich pushing the illicit drug on the China (with the help of gunboats and demands of "free trade"), today's American "finance industry" is designed to serve the same function, backed by unlimited capital, and pushing a low cost, high profit "product" that is designed and guaranteed to ruin the buyers. In the case of opium, within a short couple of generation?s, the illicit drug (banned by the Qing governemen?t but pushed by the Anglo American swashbuckling "smugglers?" backed by gunboats) hollowed out the Chinese economy, dragging it down from No. 1 down to below 100th in the world.

He takes the Blackberry, Apple Mac tropes gets the cold wet and sharp point of towel to the flabby rump with stinging accuracy. Click my post title above for the full whack.

Here are the Killer Apps on the American Device, that will get us back in the game:

Western Civilization's Killer Apps

COMPETITION
Western societies divided into competing factions, leading to progressive improvements.

THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
Breakthroughs in mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, and biology.

THE RULE OF LAW
Representative government based on private-property rights and democratic elections.

MODERN MEDICINE
19th- and 20th-century advances in germ theory, antibiotics, and anesthesia.

THE CONSUMER SOCIETY
Leaps in productivity combined with widespread demand for more, better, and cheaper goods.

THE WORK ETHIC
Combination of intensive labor with higher savings rates, permitting sustained capital accumulation.


All America needs to do is, as John Kass tells, lay off the Hopium Pipe. Pull it together! Hit the pews; help the neighbors; get the nose out of the belly-button; hit the books; turn off MSNBC, FOX, and CNN and go to a Ward Meeting. Buckle that chin-strap and play until the last whistle.

The Noon of Night - The Shock and The Fright!

Aside from the Occupy Wall Street Kids, Halloween is celebrated one the Eve of All Saints Day - that's tomorrow a Holy Day - November 1st. The celebration of All Hallows E'en began in Ireland about 1,000 A.D as an amalgamation of the Celtic Samuin ( Sow-en)a harvest celebration with Pagan Druidic Rites absorbed by the Christian Faith.

Apples, pumpkins, bonfires, blessings, maledictions and especially dressing up and begging became associated with the night of the faeries, spooks, hags, goblins and zombies. Tales of the supernatural were spun by the imaginative and pranks were played upon cheap-skates and cranks.


Tonight, troops of kids and their parents will flood my streets from about 4- 7PM. They will be decked out as Captain America, Princesses, Glee Cheerleaders, Pumpkins, Vampires and Batman.

I have bowls of Kit-Kats, Three Musketeers, M & Ms, Milky Ways, and Tootsie Rolls ready for the throng.

From my front porch, I will with throaty theatricality give out with hoary verse, as well as dispense Dentist Ammo.

Here is my favorite from the Cavalier/Metaphysical poets

The Hag

Robert Herrick (1648)



The Hag is astride,
This night for to ride;
The Devill and shee together:
Through thick, and through thin,
Now out, and then in,
Though ne’r so foule be the weather.

A Thorn or a Burr
She takes for a Spurre:
With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,
Through Brakes and through Bryars,
O’re Ditches, and Mires,
She followes the Spirit that guides now.

No Beast, for his food,
Dares now range the wood;
But husht in his laire he lies lurking:
While mischiefs, by these,
On Land and on Seas,
At noone of Night are working,

The storme will arise,
And trouble the skies;
This night, and more for the wonder,
The ghost from the Tomb
Affrighted shall come,
Cal’d out by the clap of the Thunder.

Spooky? Wait til the neighbors see me in my Mark Spitz 1970 rig out!

Hickey in a Speedo . . . shudder, quake and howl!

Abortion Nutty Nun-Skull Joan Walsh Whacks Her Ruler on Billy Daley's Noggin

Sr. Joan would sicken a mad dog raised on a diet of barbed wire and broken beer bottles - Lawd, Ha' Mercy!


Nothing is more repulsive than a thick ankled old Irish Harpy with all of the worst and not one of the positive aspects of a caricature Nun. Joan Walsh, editor of Salon and MSNBC Whack-job goes off on White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley. Joan Walsh would have made a splendid goof-ball nun, doing liturgical dance, and helping Planned Parenthood kill more kids.

Sister Joan hates arrogance and puffery so much in people who think that they have the salt to stand in Barack Obama's shadow.

Truth to tell, young Barry Obama would have cashed in his future Nobel Prize just to get in the same elevator as Bill Daley in 1995, when he was tagging along with Billy Boy Ayers at the Woods Fund.

Bill Daley gets cracked in Cankle's review of Roger Simon's Politico interview with the Chief of Staff. Simon was a laughable entity years ago in Chicago a

President Light Weight is bullet-proof, because of Harpy's like Walsh and the Mules of MSNBC.

Sr. Joan gives Billy the Full Bush -

My favorite part comes when Simon asks Daley how the White House keeps politics and policy separate. “They can be separate, yeah,” Daley says. “You can say, ‘Look, this may be good policy, but the politics of it may be shitty.” Simon asks which Obama will go for, and Daley’s answer may well find its way into a 2012 GOP ad. “He’ll try to find that middle ground,” Daley says. “How close can we get to it being really shitty policy or really shitty politics but getting something accomplished?’” (For the record, Politico used dashes to denote the dirty words, but I think the quote is most honest if rendered the way Daley said it.)

That’s a deeply stupid remark, but Simon plays it straight; in fact, the profile comes off as worshipful. The Politico veteran relates that Daley used to keep an old “Help Wanted: No Irish Need Apply” sign in his Chicago law office, as a typical Daley reminder, in Simon’s words, “of where they came from and how far they have gotten.” Oh please. Sure, generations back Daley is said to be descended from famine Irish, but where Bill Daley came from is a place of privilege: He is the son of perhaps the most powerful mayor in America.

Daley is a Democratic version of George H.W. Bush as described by the late Ann Richards: someone born on third base who thinks he hit a triple. He used his family background and political connections to take part in today’s quintessential Democratic get-rich-quick scheme, corporate law and investment banking. It’s always shocked me how a certain type of affluent Irish Catholic can excuse his work on behalf of the wealthy as long as he has a “No Irish Need Apply” sign in his office, which puts him on the side of the underdogs. Daley is an overdog who represents the interests of overdogs.

Have fun reading Joan Walsh's dried up and nasty point of view by clicking my post title.

Why Bother With The Trib - The Real Reporting Can Be Found at Chicago News Co-Op

I read quite a bit. Even at this hoary-age of the dark-side of 58, I tend to remember what I read. Reading like plumbing, carpentry, and painting is an art. I do not plumb, carpent or paint, unless there is a very good reason to do so, like black water gushing up out of every household orifice, timbers a'cracking and chips of paint getting mixed in with the Lime and Salt flavored tortilla chips.

I read because I must. I have taught generations of high school kids not only to engage in reading, but introduced them to the very best in writing, in order to become discerning readers.

While a student at Loyola, I worked with a Stationary Engineer who was a 'big reader' - Mack Bolan, Nick Carter, Mickey Spillane, various and sundry crotch novels with titles like "Trailer Park Pam and the Big-Top Snake Wranglers at Play." While appreciative of the cover art that packages such tomes, I, none the less, found the lurid prose to be just that and came away from their sentences with the feelings of shame that must accompany young Ezra when Mom comes down into the basement with basketful of the twenty-something's laundry and catches Young E with his mitts around more than a pretzel stick, while watching the Kardasian hi-jinks on the wide-screen Hi Def.

Chicago's two remaining big newspapers and their web-sites have become little more than Condensed Lite Nick Carter dailies.

The Chicago Tribune, to be fair, has made some modest gains toward substance in recent months, but any paper with a disc jockey as managing editor and editorial board propagandist is rather sad. The Sun Times, likewise has improved from its laughable days when Cheryl Redd called the shots, and has excellent journalistic foot-soldiers like Mark Konkol, Natasha Korecki, Maureen O'Donnell, Tim Novack and Abdon Pallasch and Southtown's Star's Steve Metsch.

However, you can not find a better source for reporting, opinion and insight than the Medill Castaways of the Chicago News Cooperative ( New York Times).

One of my favorite, Metro and City Hall beat journalists is Dan Mihalopoulos. Today, this gritty and exacting reporter cuts through fatuous opinions of the Aldermen and City Hall flacks and presents the realities of Chicago Police Manpower shortages.

The ACLU and the usual suspects of political loudmouths and phonies are providing cover form Rahm Emanuel's dodgy deployments. Dan Mihalopoulos offers the facts - reminding readers of what newspapers used to do. While the Emanuel 'Smart Sizing" of the Chicago Police Department might provide cover for aldermen and the Administration, saturating high crime areas with Officers will not necessarily solve the problem.

Only Dan Mihalopulos cuts to the chase -

The Chicago News Cooperative recently obtained a list of the unit assignments for the 10,300 sworn Chicago police department employees from a police source who requested anonymity because the department leaders have declined to release it.

The records described the unit assignments as of early October and appeared to reflect the vast majority of the recent personnel moves ordered by the Emanuel administration.

Most of the detectives were assigned to one of the department’s five area headquarters, while about 2,400 of the police officers were either assigned directly or detailed to specialized units, including the narcotics section and the internal affairs division.

It was impossible to deduce from the data exactly where the officers in specialized units were working. The list also did not include supervisors.

The other 7,000 police officers, representing a majority of the department’s sworn members, were each assigned to patrol beats in one of the 25 districts. The number of officers in each district ranged from a low of 191 in the 23rd district to 386 in the 7th district.

A comparison of the beat deployment figures with department statistics for property crimes and violent crimes in each district this year shows:

¶Four districts — the 25th, 8th, 6th and 4th — had higher ratios of both property crimes and violent crimes per officer than the citywide average.

¶The highest ratios of property crimes to beat officer counts were in the 14th, 8th and 25th districts, each of which reported at least 15 property crimes per patrol officer in the year’s first eight months.

¶The lowest proportion of violent crimes to officers was in the 1st district, which covers downtown Chicago, followed by the 19th district on the North Side.

¶The 4th district, in the city’s southeast corner, had the largest gap between staffing level and violence, with 4.05 violent crimes per officer.

The 4th district covers most of the 7th Ward, whose alderman, Sandi Jackson, praised Emanuel for adding officers to areas of greater need, despite tight budget constraints. But asked about the Chicago News Cooperative findings, Jackson replied: “There is absolutely a disparity. We are not where we would want to be ideally.”

Some experts say the reaction of aldermen in apparently underserved districts, though politically astute, would not lead to the wisest policies for fighting crime.

“It is reasonable and rational to expect that there should be more officers in areas with more crime,” said Arthur Lurigio, a professor of psychology and criminology at Loyola University. “But there is no evidence that would necessarily be the case.”

Lurigio said saturating areas with officers often merely pushed criminals to other places that then witnessed a spike in violence.

Imagine if high crime areas were saturated with beat officers, prowler cars and paddy wagons?

Imagine what Harvey Grossman and the ACLU say and how quickly they would shop for Federal Judges to sue over racist invasions and forces of occupation in Englewood, or Roseland?

Fourteen people were wounded and one killed last night, blares the Tribune in anticipation of a full explanation to people by Eric "The Water Boy" Zorn, or a thunderingly hilarious cop-slamming J'accuse from Bruce Dold.

Read The Tribune for laughs, read the Chicago Sun Times for the great reporters and skip the columnists, and read the Chicago News Cooperative in order to be fully informed.

To Well-Heeled Chicagoans

It is a shame that Chicago's 1%ers can meet at Smith and Wolinsky's and pony up hundreds of thousands of dollars and invest in a bar or a restaurant, but take a pass on helping to fund the only real news source in Chicago - The Chicago News Cooperative. I mean aside from a guy who moved to Chicago and already pumps millions into schools, the great John Canning, where are all of the Oxen Gore-ing PlumpCats and Kittens? Support Chicago News Cooperative. Us Helots are already pumped dry, by Rahm, Boss Preckwinkle, Governor Easter Bunny, and Boss Claypool -not to mention Boss Shakman.

This great source of news should be supported by the people who have the most treasure in their kicks. If you have a couple of hundred thousand dollars laying around your Gold Coast condo, Lakeview gray stone, or Hyde Park mansion, give Jim Warren a call, or write a huge check to

Chicago News Cooperative Contact Info:
70 East Lake Street, #810
Chicago, IL 60601


www.chicagonewscoop.org

Chicago needs real news and good writing.



The two journalistic and editorial equivalents of "Trailer Park Pam and the Big-Top Snake Wranglers at Play" just aren't cutting it. Buck up, Buckaneers!

On October 31st, Let's Celebrate the Birth of Our Seven Billionth Human Being - Welcome to a Great Life, Little Guy!

Legendary Boxing Trainer Angelo Dundee with incoming Leo High School Freshman Jake Joyce Class of 2028. Angelo is 90 and Jake is well shy of his first birthday.

STEUBENVILLE, OH—October 31, 2011, has been declared "the day of seven billion" – the day the population of the human race will reach its highest mark ever. Many experts have deemed this "an ominous day." But Steven W. Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, says it should be a celebration.

"I, for one, am not frightened," Mosher said. "In fact, we're celebrating the birth of baby seven billion. (This milestone) represents a great victory over death."

Yesterday, I had the pleasure and honor to hold in my arms, Master Jake Daniel Joyce - Leo High School Class of 2028. Jake is the son of Jamillah Ali-Joyce and Leo Boxing Coach Mike 'Pickle' Joyce Leo '86 and the little brother of big sisters Nadia and Amira.

He is a beautiful little man, alert, smart, and duked up in the Cuz D'Amato Beek-a-Boo style.

I am a Baby-sap. Little gents and ladies get along with me until a few years past the age of reason - T'weens -Gen Y-ners.

Baby's give us sinners a tap on the shoulder to yank our heads out of our belly buttons and recognize the fact that we are not the center of the universe. They are God's Eyes and Voice.

This morning before gearing up for the day at Leo, I read the above story about the 7 Billionth Human coming aboard on Halloween. I occupied 40 minutes watching a You Tube video of Dr. Mosher. Listen to this guy.





How anyone can argue for the death of child plum evades me. I tend to view Planned Parenthood as the later-day Baal Rites - toss the innocent to death, to appease ourselves. And they call Cannibals savages?


Happy Birthday, Kid!

Les Soeurs Baiser - A Tale of Halloween Deception

Men sholde nat knowe of goddes pryvetee [God's private affairs].
Ye, blessed be alwey a lewed [unlearned] man
That noght but oonly his bileve kan! [who knows nothing except the Creed]
Geoffrey Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales


Thanks to John Dewey, too many Americans have been duped. Lord Bertrand Russell, the father of Logical Positivism, and a celebrated agnostic, was a contemprary of the Father of American Public Education, who took a dim view of Dewey's dim philospophy of Education - Inquiry is Truth. Well it is not, Jasper.

Lord Russell tagged Dewey's will to power, via fundamentally unsound pedogogy, to be a "cosmic impiety." Because one insisits that 'it just is' does not determine an end.

Here is a seasonal object lesson that deconstructs Dewey's Inquiry, that I recently heard from Vietnam Hero and California Yeoman Iron Mike McQuade.


"A cabbie picks up a Nun. She gets into the cab, and notices that the
VERY handsome cabdriver won't stop staring at her. She asks him why he is staring..

He replies: "I have a question to ask, but I don't want to offend you"

She answers, " My son, you cannot offend me. When have been a nun as long as I have, you get a chance to see and hear just about everything. I' m sure that there's nothing you could say or ask that I would find offensive."

"Well, I've always had a fantasy to have a nun kiss me."

She responds, "Well, let's see what we can do about that -
1) you have to be single and
2) you must be Catholic."

The cab driver is very excited and says, "Yes, I'm single and Catholic!"

"OK" the nun says. "Pull into the next alley."

The nun fulfills his fantasy with a kiss that would make a hooker blush.

But when they get back on the road, the cab driver starts crying.

"My dear child," said the nun, why are you crying?"

"Forgive me but I've sinned. I lied and I must confess, I'm married and I'm a Unitarian."

The nun says, "That's OK. My name is Steve and I'm going to a Halloween party!"

Quod erat Demonstrandum.

Rahm's Residency Rules -You Stay As Long as There's a Nickel To Be Squeezed Out of You Helots; Only Then You May Go

Inspector General Joe Ferguson, in a report issued this week, said the city's residency requirement makes no exceptions.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has received criticism for allowing the chief administrative officer of the Chicago Public Schools to live in Winnetka for the next two years because of his reluctance to pull his adopted daughter out of her school.

Joe -Well, maybe this one time for an appointee -after all the kid goes to school in Winnetka - he's not a cop, teacher or fireman for Crissakes.

Rahm - Let's Change the Subject! Call the Water Boy! Tell Eric I need three or four residency shout-outs!


The Garbage Grid is the tip of the spear and the upcoming raised water rates is merely the dagger to the short ribs. When you can't breathe, you can't fight back.

Chicago and Cook County has turned the keys over to the progressives.

The Middle Class Tax Base must stay, for immediate future, because it must pay for planned Urban Center Chicago - the playground for the elites. If you own a home, have kids, attend church services, cut your own grass, rake your lawn, keep an eye on your neighbors' kids, call-in crimes, take food to suffering and wonder how long you can keep up with the mounting expenses and the glaciers of bullshit from politicians and the news media, you are not an elite.

Cops, Firemen, Streets and Sanitation Workers, Skilled Tradesmen, Clerks, Accountants, and necessary worker bees for the City of Chicago must reside within the City Limits . . .for now.

Progressive Career ASSholes*, like Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle will call her media pals and publicly humiliate and lay off hundreds of County janitors and then purchase more land for CC Forest Preserves. She'll call her media pals again and publicly humiliate and fire a family man from his County job, because he did not vote for Joy Cunningham's desire to be an Illinois Supreme Court Justice. Make sense?

Career A$$holes, like Forrest Claypool, will cut bathroom breaks and then whine about union rules for bus drivers and CTA train drivers, as if those decades-old benefits sprouted up like some magic Carbondale mushrooms and then continue to build his own pension cash mountains by dint of insider appointments, because the chinless jerk can't get himself elected.

Give me an honest, hard-working thief any day, over these Career A$$holes.

Huge lay-offs are coming and soon. The County and the City of Chicago will lay off the last of the Helots in the coming months and years.

What happens to the Shakman Empire when that happens? Mike gonna strike tents?

That's all down the road. There's more to do!

The Aldermen of the City Council will have gelded themselves, the Wards will be Smart-sized and the population of the City will continue its diaspora to Will, Du page, and Lake Counties. The poor are Section 8'd to the collar suburbs and the middle class will follow shortly, once every possible nickel can be squeezed out the pockets of people in the neighborhoods.

That's the plan, Stan! In a few years, Joe Ferguson, or his clone, will announce that it is just ducky for City employees to hit the trail.

The Progressive Triumph of Will shall be celebrated in the Green, Childless Chicago Urban Center. Garbage and Water, Kids.

* Progressive Career A$$holes can be identified as a person or persons whom breathless idiots term "Ain't He/She Great?" There is never a scintilla proof on the claim, however; thus "Forrest Claypool did a great job with the Chicago Parks District." How and What? Explain, please. "Well, he just did. He's an outsider and a Reformer. What are you some Right Wing Nut? He's Great! Great I tells You!"

The Career A$$hole makes broad and frequent use of Chicago's Iconic Columnists and The Career A$$holes Media Organ -Channel 11 WTTW & WBEZ ( Count the Times a Non Career A$$hole is the featured focus, or a guest - unless being targeted for take-down or abuse. WTTW will invariably do a Progressive Policy Pile -On the target for today, like last week's Eddie Arruza and Forrest Claypool shout-down of CTA Union President Bob Kelly.

http://discussions.chicagotribune.com/20/chinews/chi-cook-county-forest-preserve-looking-to-buy-land-20111026/10

A Baby Seal Walks into a Club… Hollandaise on a Baby Moon

Zagat's just listed Les Nomades as the best restaurant in Chicago.

I had the pleasure of dining at Les Nomades* early last Christmas season and it was worth every nickel. The service is attentive and informative, without making . . . well me . . .feel like the Summer School Valedictorian.

Rarely does one find exquisite food served with wit and friendly admonitions regarding cutlery and elbows.

My beautiful table mate and I were dining at Les Nomades with an ever so lightly falling Currier and Ives snow outside and roaring genuine wood fire warming toes and hearts. Every detail of the food, the presentation, and even the fine china serving dishes are exquisite.

Into the main course, we are struck by revulsion as the sauce for the charred asparagus and mushroom ragout arrived; to be served on a distinctly cheap-looking metallic disk, that looked like the Baby Moon on Maury Lanigan's 1964 Pontiac Tempest . Not being a craven sophisticate nor a devotee of Nouveau French cuisine and the byzantine rites that accompany the pre-prandial delights, I mentioned the odd presentation to Brendan our waiter.

With a warm smile Brendan explained, “There’s no plate like chrome for the hollandaise.”

A couple of fish are put in a tank. One says to the other, "How you drive this mother?"

Souriez et le monde entier sourit avec toi. Fronce les sourcils et vous êtes sur votre propre, Jack!


*

In the pantheon of local restaurants few fly, as the cliche goes, "under the radar" quite like Les Nomades. That should soon change for a couple of reasons.

Zagat named Les Nomades as its top-ranked Chicago restaurant; Alinea can't get the top spot all the time. Zagat calls Les Nomades “one of the last bastions of haute cuisine" while praising the “beautifully prepared" food of chef Chris Nugent.

The ranking may be a tad bittersweet for Les Nomades, as Nugent is leaving to open Goosefoot in Lincoln Square (2656 W. Lawrence Ave.). Named after the edible green that grows freely within Chicago's city limits, Grub Street Chicago's Michael Gebert reports Nugent has no plans on downsizing or making his take on French cuisine less expensive.

[Nugent] plans to offer an 8-course and 12-course tasting menu for an anticipated $90 and $140 in the 36-seat space. But the restaurant will be BYO, putting Goosefoot in the same fast-growing high end-accessible category as places such as Schwa and EL Ideas.
Nugent also told NBC 5's The Talk he plans on opening Goosefoot in November.

The Tribune Water Boy Has a Blinding Flash of "N.S.?"

Eric Zorn, the Garbage Grid Grinder and Water Boy for Team Rahm-a-Lama-Dang-Dong had an Epiphany after watching WTTW - Winnetka Talks To Wilmette.

Like, the movie goers nodding with conviction to the sight of Charles Foster Kane's Rosebud Sled incinerating to a cinder in Xanadu,CA, Eric Zorn realizes that . . . Public Unions cost money!

After months of mouthing the Mike "Michigan Fats" Moore Meme in Wisconsin and throaty preachifying about Union Solidarity, The Water Boy now knows what any blue collar tangible citizen has known for decades about Time and Half for Overtime and Double Time and a Half on Birthdays.

Solidarity Forever . . .well until now.

Talk about many happy returns! Earning $50 an hour if you usually earn $20, just because it is Your Special Day.

And who pays for these gifts? Riders, the same folks who are looking at fare increases or service cuts if the CTA doesn’t get its costs under control, in part by winning work-rule concessions from its unions.

Kelly, who was seated next to Claypool on the WTTW set during the contentious conversation, went on: “If a guy is working and is getting paid for eight hours and he works on his birthday, he gets an additional eight” hours, he said. “If you do the math, that’s not 21/2 times. There’s nobody out there who gets 21/2 times.”

Well, almost nobody. During a follow-up interview Tuesday, Kelly said that when his members are called to work an overtime day on their birthday or employment anniversary, they’re paid double time and a half, but he estimated that “it doesn’t even happen 100 times a year.”

Still. WTTW moderator Eddie Arruza asked the question on everyone’s mind: “Why do they get paid extra on their birthday anyway?”

Eddie Arruza and Forrest Claypool tag teaming a guest on WTTW? -Ouis!Naturalmente, Mes Amis!

Progressives always do a pile on a target-guest, like two geeks emerging from their latest locker-stuffing at the hands of jocks and cool kids and then jumping like WWF Heroes on poor little Tobie, the ADD lite weight, but Summer School Valedictorian. Nobody bullies like Progressives.

Well, I'll be dipped and rolled, says the Water Boy! EZ has been been doing any number of cheerleading routines for the Smart Garbage Grid and most recently Bump-Up The Water Rates and Get Your Own Bad Selves a Meter from the top of Rahm's Progressive Propaganda Pyramid.

Eric only reports and comments on what he is given. Today, he must react on what he saw and the strain to his very soul is hurtful to witness and, obviously, facts must be brought to his attention.

Public Unions, Eric, are paid for through taxes. Public Unions are as old as the 1960s when Lefties in New York got JFK's Okey-Dorky to hammer Tammany Hall. Tammany Hall ( the Democratic Ward Machine) is gone and Public Unions have all but murdered the Middle Class.

The Skilled and Industrial Trades Unions and their membership, not tweedy mopes with milky hands and earnest big-hearted, but two-faced activists, fought and bled for Labor Rules.

The Public Service ( teachers, City, State, Federal workers) aped the gains made by Real Labor. Eric does not twist Forrest (Rula Lenska) Claypool's nipples for bashing the Civil Rights of Workingmen. I listened to that tin-horn mope make promises to Union Men, trying to unhorse Joe Berrios two Springs ago, all over the south side - Forrest, Boss Toni and Easter Bunny Quinn. Eric the Water Boy, instead, gets all pissy about Union Bargaining Chief Kelly doing exactly what he was employed to do (stand up for his Local)and then mocks the rank and file's benefits bargained for with political hacks and their progressive propagandists in the first place.

As a Progressive, Water Boy, you demand to go east and west on Western Ave., but that is not, in truth, how traffic flows.

Instead of coming to a realization that Public Service Unions are not a really great idea, though they create a swell post-Shakman Patronage Army.

Eric's outrage over the obvious is charming, even whimsical. Harry Potter's magic wand works just fine on the big screen and on cable, but when your little digits tear open the packaging and you try it out - you must contend with your magical imagination.

Double Bubble and Double Time and a Half, little Muggle with the Water Pail, has been around for a very long time.

So, the next time Michigan Fats and Big Ed want to get a bongo circle in Madison, WI, or Zuccotti Park, ask the Two TeleTubby Trotskys - 'Who's paying?' It's easy let me do this slow -

Private Sector -labor good! - only so much money to bargain for.

Public Sector -labor(PACs) not so good! - Tax well's drier than All Things Considered.


The Skilled Trades and Industrial Unions who helped make the American Middle Class fought for decades to earn those rights through Collective Bargaining with Management.

Water Boy! The Game's Afoot and you're all tangled up . . .here, start with this knot . . .then over . . .over that's it . . .Over not under . . . under is opposite of over . . .that's right over, but upside down . . .we'll come back and see how you're doing.