William Makepeace Thackeray ( 1811-1863) Christmas Poem "The Mahagony Tree"

On 23 December 1863, after returning from dining out and before dressing for bed, Thackeray suffered a stroke and was found dead on his bed in the morning. His death at the age of fifty-two was entirely unexpected, and shocked his family, friends, and reading public. An estimated 7000 people attended his funeral at Kensington Gardens. He was buried on 29 December at Kensal Green Cemetery, and a memorial bust sculpted by Marochetti can be found in Westminster Abbey.

I became more than interested in the writings and the man William Makepeace Thackeray in 1967, when Father James Sheridan, O.S.A. had us read Vanity Fair. In the 19th Century Thackeray and Dickens were the gods of literature. Charles Dickens is more widely read these days and Thackeray but too rarely.

Thackeray was born in India and came to England with his widowed mother while very young. His old man was an Administrator for the East India Company and had died there. Young Thackeray was educated at Charterhouse School in London and later had a brief career at Cambridge, where his booze parties and gambling debts erased his inheritance. Thackeray fell in love with an Irish girl from an impoverished military family and married. They had daughters in quick order and the tiny wife suffered severe post partum depressions and attempted suicide. Thackeray placed his pretty, tiny and delicate love in the care of French home for the insane and Isabella Shaw Thackeray outlived her very sane and tender-hearted husband.

Thackeray was the single-parent of two little girls and wrote, edited, sketched volumes of work that not only brought them wealth and comfort, but ensured the best care for Mrs. Thackeray. Thackeray was a good guy.

He understood human vanity and snobbery - in fact, Thackeray wrote the Book of Snobs. (click my post title for that Christmas Treat)His very Title -The Book of Snobs, by One of Themselves signals the very nature of the author.

Charles Dickens was the hot-property and beloved BOZ of London. He had a large family that began to bore him. Dickens had his wife committed to a London Insane Asylum and took up with his wife's cousin. Dickens would have made a great celebrity in our times and would no doubt have Danced With the Stars, become a regular on HBO's Bill Maher Celebrity Pimp Slaps and shared Ben and Jerry's with Michael Moore.

Dickens abused Thackeray's good nature. Like too many of our contemporary celebrities, Dickens spread gossip about his literary rival for no good reason or purpose - but like out dogs of today, did so because he could. I believe that is one reason why Dickens remains so popular- He is a great talent and an interminable asshole.

Thackeray worked, lectured, sponsored and influenced young writers like Anthony Trollope and Charlotte Bronte, who not only dedicated the second edition of Jane Eyre to Thackeray, but also portrayed the older writer in that novel as Mr. Rochester.

Thackeray was a tolerant man, because he himself was tolerated and forgiven. His characters are flawed and sometimes even evil, but always human and never two-dimensional creatures like those found in Dickens. Thackeray like people and I believe that he really understood them.

Old Bill Thackeray died one hundred and forty-eight years ago today.

The Mahogany Tree

Christmas is here;
Winds whistle shrill,
Icy and chill,
Little care we:
Little we fear
Weather without,
Sheltered about
The Mahogany Tree.
Commoner greens,
Ivy and oaks,
Poets, in jokes,
Sing, do you see?
Good fellows' shins
Here, boys, are found,
Twisting around
The Mahogany Tree.

Once on the boughs
Birds of rare plume
Sang, in its bloom;
Night birds are we:
Here we carouse,
Singing like them,
Perched round the stem
Of the jolly old tree.

Here let us sport,
Boys, as we sit;
Laughter and wit
Flashing so free.

Sorrows, begone!
Life and its ills,
Duns and their bills,
Bid we to flee.

Life is but short --
When we are gone,
Let them sing on,
Round the old tree.

Evenings we knew,
Happy as this;
Faces we miss,
Pleasant to see.
Kind hearts and true,
Gentle and just,
Peace to your dust!
We sing round the tree.

Care, like a dun,
Lurks at the gate:
Let the dog wait;
Happy we'll be!
Drink every one;
Pile up the coals,
Fill the red bowls,
Round the old tree.

Drain we the cup. --
Friend, art afraid?
Spirits are laid
In the Red Sea.
Mantle it up;
Empty it yet;
Let us forget,
Round the old tree.

Come with the dawn,
Blue-devil sprite;
Leave us to-night,
Round the old tree.

William Makepeace Thackeray 1811-1863

Cardinal George and Catholic Charities - The Hands That Helped HIV Victims

Gay Activists are nothing like the KKK -they are much better served by the media.

Civil Unions have ended nearly 200 years of Catholic help for children and childless couples. The move to Homosexual Marriage in Illinois requires more hostility toward the only Institutional Faith ( hospitals, schools, and services) that will not yield on abortion or the marriage between a man and a woman. It is all about politics, money and votes.

A statement from Francis Cardinal George:
"...Public awareness about the disease (HIV/AIDS) has often been overcome by a creeping indifference in the face of many other world-wide crises. The Catholic Church, along with many other religious groups, has approached persons living with HIV/AIDS as people who need special spiritual and physical care. The Catholic Church continues to be engaged in this ministry internationally and locally.

In Chicago, Catholic Charities has been the catalyst for much of the Church's outreach to persons living with HIV/AIDS and their families. Whenever there is suffering the Church gathers. Please keep the men, women and children living with the disease as well as those orphaned by the disease in your prayers. Please support their caregivers and those working to prevent and cure HIV/AIDS..."

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.
Archbishop of Chicago

A Statement from Rev. Msgr. Michael M. Boland, Administrator, President and CEO of Catholic Charities:
"Preventing HIV/AIDS is a challenge that we cannot ignore, as there is no cure, no vaccine to prevent it and it will simply not go away. It is therefore crucial to educate ourselves and others about HIV/AIDS, as understanding these can help us to respond with intelligence and compassion to our brothers and sisters infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS and help to eradicate the hurtful stigma and humiliating discrimination which continue to accompany the disease. I invite you to browse our HIV/AIDS Services and Ministry page."

Here's more -


Catholic and AIDS Resource Links



AEGIS
www.aegis.org
AIDS Education Global Information System; comprehensive news, daily updates.

AIDS Action Website
www.aidsaction.org
Resources for professionals in the HIV/AIDS field.

American Catholic
www.AmericanCatholic.org
Home of the online editions of St. Anthony Messenger, Catholic Update, Millennium Monthly, Youth Update, Scripture From Scratch and other Catholic features, is a service of St. Anthony Messenger Press and Franciscan Communications, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

The Care Team Network
http://www.careteam.org
The mission of the Care Team Network (CTN) is to be a training and resource center for the development of volunteer Care Teams for persons with health concerns or other special needs.

Caritas Internationalis
www.caritas.org
Caritas Internationalis is an international confederation of Catholic organization, mandated by their respective Episcopal conferences. All Member Organization seek to contribute to the socio-pastoral mission of the Church through the spreading of solidarity and social justice. This is done without regard to creed, race, gender or ethnicity.

Catholic AIDS Action, Namibia
www.caa.org.na
Acting in the spirit of Christ, Catholic AIDS Action challenges the AIDS pandemic in Namibia with the Courage to Fight and the Strength to Care. It builds on Roman Catholic affiliated groups and institutions to inspire and support programs of HIV/AIDS prevention, home-based care, spirituality, and support of orphans.

Founded by Sister Raphaela Händler in February 1998, and with the strong support of all four bishops of the Namibian Catholic Bishops Conference, Catholic AIDS Action has a national office in Windhoek with branch offices in eight of the country's 13 political regions. Both Catholics and non-Catholics are served equally. The staff consists of 12 Namibians (including 5 religious sisters), plus 4 long-term foreign nationals. As one measure of diversity, the prayers that are said at the beginning and end of staff meetings are offered in seven different languages!

Catholic Charities
www.catholiccharitiesusa.org
Catholic Charities encourages people to help themselves by learning to advocate for their rights. Catholic Charities USA is a membership organization based in Alexandria, Virginia. By providing leadership, technical assistance, training, and other resources, the national office enables local agencies to better devote their own resources to serving their communities. Catholic Charities USA promotes innovative strategies that address human needs and social injustices.

Catholic Health Association of the United States
www.chausa.org
The official site of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, which represents more than 2,000 Catholic health care sponsors, systems, facilities, and related organizations. Founded in 1915, CHA unites members to advance selected strategic issues that are best addressed together rather than as individual organizations. The Association advocates for a just health care system, convening leaders to share ideas and foster collaboration, and uniting the ministry voice on critical issues.

Catholic Medical Mission Board
www.cmmb.org
Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB), founded in 1928, is the leading U.S.-based Catholic charity focusing exclusively on international healthcare, particularly the well-being of women and children. CMMB works collaboratively and without discrimination to deliver solutions to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa, and provide primary healthcare in Latin American and the Caribbean. Global initiatives include recruitment and placement of medical volunteers, medicine and medical supply shipments, emergency development and training grants for in-country primary healthcare workers.

Catholic News Service
www.catholicnews.com
The mission of Catholic News Service is the mission of the Church itself--to spread the Gospel through contemporary means of communication. Our mission is to perform this task by reporting the news which affects Catholics in their everyday lives. Some of that news is good and some is bad, but it is what readers need to know in order to work for salvation. They need to know that there are saints in the making in the Church today and they need to know that there are sinners too.

Catholic Relief Services
www.catholicrelief.org
Catholic Relief Services was founded in 1943 by the Catholic Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and disadvantaged outside the country. The fundamental motivating force in all activities of CRS is the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it pertains to the alleviation of human suffering, the development of people and the fostering of charity and justice in the world. CRS provides direct aid to the poor, and involves people in their own development, helping them to realize their potential.

The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance
www.e-alliance.ch
The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) is a new and broadly ecumenical network for international cooperation in advocacy on HIV/AIDS and global trade. It provides excellent resources for churches and church leaders looking to respond to the AIDS pandemic..

Faith in Action Volunteer Program
www.fiavolunteers.org
Faith in Action is a national volunteer movement that brings together religious congregations from many faiths and other community organizations. Their common mission is to help people who are aging and chronically ill maintain their independence by providing them assistance with everyday activities.

Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_hiv.cfm
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation is an independent philanthropy focusing on the major health care issues facing the nation. The Foundation is an independent voice and source of facts and analysis for policymakers, the media, the health care community, and the general public. This link goes directly to the Daily HIV/AIDS Report.

Maryknoll
www.maryknoll.org
Maryknoll, The US based Catholic mission movement includes: the Maryknoll Society (priests and brothers), Maryknoll Congregation (Sisters), the Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful (laity, priests and religious), and the Maryknoll Affiliates. Since 1911, Catholics in the United States have responded to the worldwide cry of the poor by becoming Maryknoll Missionaries. Today, Maryknollers help people overseas build communities of faith. Some work in war zones with refugees, others minister to the sick, the elderly, orphans or people with AIDS. Through lives of service, Maryknollers translate the gospel of love into different languages and in different cultures.

National Association of Catholic Chaplains
www.nacc.org
The National Association of Catholic Chaplains is a professional association for certified chaplains and Clinical Pastoral Education supervisors who participate in the healing mission of Jesus Christ. It provides standards, certification, education, advocacy, and professional development for its members.

National Association of Church Personnel Administrators (NACPA)
www.ncapa.org
The National Association of Church Personnel Administrators (NACPA) is a membership organization dedicated to the development and promotion of just personnel practices rooted in gospel values. NACPA has been serving the Church and its ministers since 1971. Membership in the Association is open to clergy, laity and religious of the Catholic Church as well as interested persons of other faith traditions. NACPA and NCAN developed a resource for developing policies with regard to employees who are living with HIV/AIDS.

National Black Catholic Congress
www.nbccongress.org
"We, The National Black Catholic Congress, comprised of member organizations, represent African American Roman Catholics, working in collaboration with National Roman Catholic organizations. We commit ourselves to establishing an agenda for the evangelization of African Americans; and to improve the spiritual, mental, and physical conditions of African Americans, thereby committing ourselves to the freedom and growth of African Americans as full participants in church and society. Aware of the challenges, we are committed to evangelize ourselves, our church and unchurched African Americans, thereby enriching the Church. We hold ourselves accountable to our baptismal commitment to witness and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ." - Mission Statement

National Black Catholic Evangelization Forum
www.bcn.net
The official site of the National Black Catholic Evangelization Forum. In collaboration with other national organizations, the Forum offers "promising practices" designed to empower local and regional leaders to do the work of evangelization as "we work together to eradicate the evil of racism in the Church and in society." Visit the site to order a copy of HIV/AIDS: Sharing the Compassion of God, a program that offers scriptural reflections, questions to promote personal transformation, a prayer service for hope and healing, and practical suggestions for ongoing community outreach to those affected by HIV/AIDS.

National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry (NCCHM)
www.ncchm.org
The National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry is a proactive agent of a National Pastoral de Conjunto. The council supports it's members' common advocacy, education, and networking. NCCHM promotes this pastoral de conjunto through its annual membership meeting, training symposia, national leadership congresses, and vehicles of communication, as well as a formal linkage to the United States Catholic Conference (USCCB).
The NCCHM is the only organization of its kind in the United States. It is composed of 56 Catholic national and regional ministerial and professional organizations, institutions, apostolic movements and religious congregations of men and women. NCAN is a member of NCCHM.

National Catholic Education Association (NCEA)
www.ncea.org
The NCEA is the largest professional educational association in the world. Membership includes 200,000 Catholic educators who serve 7.6 million students at all levels of Catholic education. This Web site contains information concerning elementary and secondary schools, colleges, and seminaries.

National Catholic Office for People with Disabilities
www.ncpd.org
Vigilant in promoting the inclusion of Catholics with disabilities in their parish communities and the total fabric of society.

National Conference for Catechetical Leadership (NCCL)
www.nccl.org
The National Conference for Catechetical Leadership (NCCL) was formed as an organization of diocesan, parish, and academic catechetical personnel. Its purpose is to enrich and strengthen the ministry of catechesis throughout the Catholic dioceses of the United States, and to serve the multicultural, multiracial Church. It promotes the Church's catechetical ministry.

Office for AIDS Ministry of the Archdiocese of Atlanta
www.atlantaaidsministry.org
The website administered by the Office of AIDS Ministry of the Archdiocese of Atlanta has a wealth of information about the Roman Catholic Church's response to the HIV and AIDS pandemics. Most of the resources are both in English and Spanish.

Pledge for Peace
www.PledgePeace.org
Working for peace doesn't need to be a far-off ideal. In fact it's just a mouse click away on the Web site. The site urges visitors to make a pledge to do something for peace, either by praying, forgiving someone or doing acts of charity and outreach. Those who make pledges also are asked to note how many hours they plan to devote to the endeavor. To date, more than 1 million hours have been pledged since the site was launched two years ago. The Web site is part of a project called, "1,000 Years of Peace," sponsored by St. Anthony Messenger Press, a Franciscan publishing house in Cincinnati, and communication representatives from 13 women's religious congregations from the Cincinnati region. The goal of the project is to obtain about 8.5 million hours of peace pledges to total 1,000 years of peacemaking activities.

Secretariat for African-American Catholics, United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops
http://www.usccb.org/saac/hivawareness.shtml
The Secretariat for African-American Catholics is on the forefront of raising awareness about HIV/AIDS. This site offers resources on HIV/AIDS and resources for individuals and parishes. The fact that African-Americans make up a disproportionate percentage of people living with HIV/AIDS makes these resources all the more important.


Secretariat of Hispanic Affairs, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
http://www.usccb.org/hispanicaffairs/hivaids.shtml
This site highlights the impact of HIV/AIDS on Latinos. The National Catholic AIDS Network is working in collaboration with the Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs to increase the resources available in English and Spanish for Latinos.

Salt of the Earth
http://salt.claretianpubs.org/shake/2000/08/ss0008.html
An online source for social justice published by the Claretians.


United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
http://www.nccbuscc.org
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is an assembly of the hierarchy of the United States and the US Virgin Islands who jointly exercise certain pastoral functions on behalf of the Christian faithful of the United States. The purpose of the Conference is to promote the greater good which the Church offers humankind, especially through forms and programs of the apostolate fittingly adapted to the circumstances of time and place. This purpose is drawn from the universal law of the Church and applies to the Episcopal conferences which are established all over the world for the same purpose.

The Vatican
www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm
The official site of the Vatican and the Holy See. The site is full of resources about the Roman Catholic Church, Popes and the Vatican.

ZENIT - The World as Seen from Rome
www.zenit.org/english/
ZENIT is an International News Agency. Our mission is to provide objective coverage of events, documents and issues emanating from or concerning the Catholic Church. ZENIT's articles are reproduced in hundreds of publications worldwide and are used by numerous radio and TV stations.
ZENIT's coverage includes:
Activities of John Paul II, such as his travels, documents and audiences The Vatican, including diplomatic activity, humanitarian efforts, and profiles of Church leaders Interviews with and features about leading lay Catholics, including researchers, politicians, writers and entertainers

Save the hypocrisy for Mike Flannery, Dane Placko and Rich Miller.

http://www.ncan.org/resources/church_say.cfm

Tracy Baim's Cry for Gay Self Esteem and Why I Ain't Really Hearing It

I have known many great people who happened to be homosexuals, in much the same manner as I happen to be attracted and committed to the opposite sex; love is precious and private. They were and continue to be wonderful and caring people with rich and fulfilling lives and they have self-esteem in warehouse proportions.

Then they are Gay Activists, who are very much like their heterosexual counterparts - pains in the collective ass.

Activists are about as happy as a mob of Islamist fundamentalist at a Danish Cartoon Festival.

Gay or Straight, Activists go from zero to 10 on the loud and obnoxious and are constantly in crisis or attack mode - about or against exactly what God only knows.

This morning I visually thumbed through the electronic pages of the always angry Huffington Post - tweedy Northwestern Prof. Unemployed Fagin, Dave Protess, is railing about Injustice while he awaits his next subpoena; the man is screwing one and all and Tracy Baim offers a plea for historical Gay Self-Esteem.

To reboot my passion for LGBT issues and people, I launched the Chicago Gay History Project, interviewing some 200 people, mostly on video, and online now. As a result of that, I also helped advise WTTW TV on their Out & Proud in Chicago film project, and they recommended me for the companion book, published by Surrey Books in 2008, Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay Community. I also started to scan hundreds of thousands of editorial and photo files from the pre-digital era, to eventually post those online, too.

While keeping my full-time gig as publisher of Windy City Times, I realized there are different and important ways to make sure our LGBT legacy is not lost. The website is one way, and books (print and e-books) are another. So I have worked on three other books: Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage, Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow, and Jim Flint: The Boy From Peoria.

The last two, co-written with Owen Keehnen, came out this year. They document the lives of two very important gay Chicagoans. Both are controversial -- but who isn't after a few decades of activism? Their stories were not well documented until these books, and there are hundreds of other Chicago LGBTs worthy of such documentation.

Fair enough. Self-esteem comes from books about a boy from Peoria who put on shows for a very limited audience? Noel Coward I understand, but Mr. Flint? A leather bar owner? Chaps and Whips and Brando Jackets might not be to everyone's taste, but . . .I don't honestly get it.

I don't get the definition of self-esteem in this, Ms. Baim's, context. My self-esteem objects to any and all cataloging of my sexual inclinations, assignations, or self-touting manifestations of worth. Self-esteem, as far as I know, refuses public proclamation.

Real Combat Veterans never talk about their war experiences.

True philanthropists are tough to find - this I know, as a professional fund-raiser - they are deep in the weeds.

Saints don't know they are.

Self-esteem requires no fanfare. Role-playing folks are pretty sad creatures. A real magician never really needs to wear a cape and most of the really great chefs rarely wear their big white hats out to a movie.

If you want to see Tracy Baim's conception of self esteem, go to any Starbucks, get a coffee and grab a chair. The show is a riot.

Go to a trendy tavern in mid-afternoon and meet a score of unpublished poets, playwrights and novelists - no end of that measure of self-esteem. Like Notre Dame Alums, faux writers will let you know.

Watch a reality TV show - self esteem aplenty.

I met my late wife and mother of my three children, while bartending for a gentleman who happened to be as Gay as Christmas, as well as a canny businessman. For that gentleman, I owe a magnifiucent and precious hunk of my life. He did not care a jot that I was a breeder, nor I that my Vietnam Bronze Star awarded veteran bosss, who never ever talked about 'Nam, though his breeder brother and nephews did aplenty, was in love with a man.

No on, and that means NO one, cares a whit about my sexual lifestyle, which is about as wild as George Gobel reruns; likewise, only sad and needy people need to raise their self-esteem via some artifical means - they need to wear their medals and halos in public. I know that being happy in your skin is tough work for breeder and gay alike. We are all sinners, God help us.

CTA Can't See the Rail Cars for the Forrest Claypool

According to an October 10, 2005 Crain's Chicago Business article, three companies submitted proposals by the September 15, 2005 deadline: Alstom Transportation Inc., an American subsidiary of French firm Alstom S.A.; Bombardier Inc., the Montreal-based aircraft and railcar manufacturer; and Kawasaki Rail Car Inc., a subsidiary of Japanese company Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. According to Crain's, the three manufacturers all retained local consultants, many former CTA and city staff and officials, to help them hone their pitches and navigate the Chicago political waters.

from http://www.chicago-l.org/trains/roster/5000mkII.html

There's the trees in this particular Forrest. Care to identify each tree?

Is there a Marilyn Katz Elm? Perhaps a Dave Axelrod Larch? Mayhaps there be a mighty Judson Miner/Allison Davis Redwood, or a Dr. Quentin Young Acorn?

When a Progressive Protected Specimen like Forrest Claypool - one of many mind you ( Sheila Simon, Dawn Clark Netsch, Deborah Shore & etc.) - is placed in a position of authority troubles are many and owned by taxpayers. They always have the stamp of approval of coalitions a-plenty - Transgender Iwo Jima Flag Raisers, Brownies LUV Abortion, Friends of the Alligator Gar and Gator Bradley, Lawyers for Ne'er Do Wells, Miscreants and Scoundrals, Rush Street Cougars for Self Respect, and the I'm a Loser Because of Systemic Everything Task Force.

The "Ain't He/She Great" stamp of approval branded on the bald rumps of Progressive Protected Species is a passport to profitable paydays and munificent pensions. "Ain't He/She Great" signals an association to a politically necessary pile of street money on election day ( a policy PAC or public employee union), armies of community minded activists sporting XXXXL T-shirts in SEIU Purple, ACORN Red, or a Rainbow, or Progressive persons of wealth and influence.

The Ain't He/She great branded lady or gent pops out of nowhere and appears on election petitions in order to eliminate, or punish political rivals. The Ain't He/She Great phantom is generally armed and equiped with a Media columnist or a spot on the mast-head of Huffington Post.

The helots and worker bees in the precincts and Wards ask, "What'd He do? Where She come from?" Matters not; Ain't She Great? He's a Reformer and we're all gonna get a sweet deal.

Under the Ain't He Great rubric, no one is greater than Forrest Claypool. Try and find his salary among City Workers; you can't as he was appointed with an undisclosed salary - n'est-ce pas! You can hear the shouts though, Forrest can run a Mayoral Staff! He Can Run Parks! He Can Run a County Board . . .well, almost! He Can Run the Trains and Buses on Time Without Stopping for a Pee! Forrest can . . .lay blame.


On my birthday, I was delighted to learn that the CTA had purchased a fleet of state of the art train cars -

Mayor Emanuel and CTA President Forrest Claypool Unveil New Rail Cars

11/8/2011

The 5000-Series Car Scheduled to Make Official In-Service Debut on the Pink Line

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CTA President Forrest Claypool today unveiled new 5000-series rail cars, marking the first time there has been an addition to the rail fleet since 1992. The first of these new rail cars are entering revenue service on the Pink Line. Emanuel and Claypool were joined for the inaugural run at the Midway station on the Orange Line by representatives from Bombardier Transportation, the manufacturer of the cars.

“The CTA remains the primary mode of transportation for many residents of Chicago, and these new rail cars reflect the Agency’s commitment to its customers and to our city,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “In order for Chicago to grow, continue attracting new businesses and increase the quality of life for all Chicagoans we must continue to invest in public transportation, improving transit infrastructure and expanding service.”

After a successful prototype testing period, the first of 706 brand new, full production model cars will debut on the Pink Line. As more cars continue to arrive, they will be tested internally to ensure all components are operating properly before going into service.

“The 5000-series cars provide a more enjoyable ride for customers,” said CTA President Forrest Claypool. “These cars have wider aisles and roomier interiors, electronic destination signs and security cameras in each car for enhanced safety.”

The addition of these new cars to the fleet will allow CTA to retire some of its oldest cars which average between 32 and 41 years old.

“Modernizing the fleet is very important and is fiscally prudent because a younger fleet requires less maintenance and allows CTA to keep the trains on the system where they are needed and not in the repair shop,” Claypool said.

The rail cars feature an aisle-facing seating configuration which adds six inches to the narrowest portion of the aisle, allowing more room for customers carrying backpacks, packages, luggage, strollers and bikes. The aisle-facing seating also provides space for an additional wheelchair position, increasing the total to two per car.

The cars also have LED displays with larger text-size that will replace the scrolling destination signs on the exterior of the lead car. The LED signs on the interior will display the next stop, date and time. The same signs can also be used for a text display of the audio announcements made to customers in the rail car. Above the doors, there is a system map with LED lights that indicates the train’s present location as it travels along the route. In addition, the side doors have an opening/closing light in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act regulations.

Each rail car has multiple security cameras and will eventually transmit real time video to CTA’s Control Center, the Office of Emergency Management and Communication and the Chicago Police Department. CTA’s Control Center will also have remote access to signs, giving them the ability to make emergency audio and text messages inside the trains if needed.

After a competitive selection process, CTA selected Bombardier Transportation Corporation to manufacture the rail cars. Bombardier is a recognized leader in the manufacturing of mass transit vehicles.

The total cost of the rail cars $1.137 billion which is funded by two CTA bond issuances backed by sales tax receipts. The remainder is paid for by $150 million in federal funds.Link to the gallery:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ctaweb/...7627960132703/

Ain't He Great! The cars don't work! $1.137 billion less the $ 150 million Federal.

Only days ago, the Bombardier Cars - as painstakingly studied as the swell parking meters sucking in credit and debit cards all our Urbs in Horto - were lifted off the tracks.

The CTA Tattler of Chicago Now snitched -

"Now remember, the first set of 10 cars were delivered in April of 2010. They underwent rigorous testing on every rail line. And the manufacturer is just now discovering this "flaw"?

Interestingly, Claypool says: “This decision demonstrates an abundance of caution on our part as we work with Bombardier to address these issues.” Perhaps. And perhaps more complete testing should have been done in the first place."

Those darn Bombardiers!

Dang! But, Forrest Claypool, perhaps, can detail the oxen on the CTA Rails getting gored for our $1.137 billion less the $ 150 million Federal. Claypool will go on, if he really actually must do so, Chicago Tonight, WTTW doncha know, with Carol Marin tossing some under-hand softballs like,

" Gee, Ain't You Great?"

"Well, shucks Carol, now that you mention this - Yes. . .Yes I am. The Bosses need to go!"

" What about thos rail-cars Forrest? Are they really safe?"

" They sure are Carol! Why, I ran the Parks and that was much tougher than running a great city transportation system, where employees expect to be paid while they take a pee. Not on my watch, Carol. You know, Carol, I am an outsider and a reformer."

" Ain't he great? Tommorrow, I will ask a bus driver exactly how long he expects to be paid while taking a pee and how long that pee might be. The Pee Fee -Our Tax-Dollars Down the Drain - Thank you Forrest Claypool!"

The next time someone tells you so-and-so is great, ask the Ain't She/He Great-er, " Can You find a Chinaman on 22nd Street?" or direct that worthy to find his/her posterior lobes using both hands in one motion.

Epic Fail! Ain't He Great! Great. . .really great . . .really terrific . . .couldn't be better . . .the cat's nuts . . .

Kim Jong Il - An Irish of Asia Wake for Dear Leader

North Korean Mourner -Yer Man looks Deadly in his best togs, so.

Kim Jong-eun the Bereaved - Put a Santa hat on it and call it Randal

Only Days before, Poor Man - 'That's a grand set of breathers on you girls! Must all be Frogmen,so.'

Koreans - the Irish of Asia

They don’t like anyone who isn’t Korean, and they don’t like each other all that much, either. They’re hardheaded, hard-drinking, tough little bastards, “the Irish of Asia”.

PJ O'Rourke

On Monday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency called him the "Great Successor," and urged the people to rally around their next leader.

Kim Jong Un is expected to lean on members of his father's inner circle, including his aunt, Kim Jong Il's sister Kim Kyong Hui; her husband, Jang Song Thaek; and other Kim Jong Il confidants, experts said.

"Even though Kim Jong Un has been appointed as the successor, they may form a committee to rule the country at first," Yoon said. "His power succession is not completed yet."

New Zealand Hearld

Put a male Korean (more specifically a Busanite) and an Irish man in the same room and I bet it’d be hard to tell the difference between the two of them: They’ll both make a bee-line for the alcohol, swear their heads off, all the while talking in loud, obnoxious voices. Undoubtedbly each would be singing themselves silly before the night is over.
If things ever went wrong between the two, there’d probably be a very verbal (fist?) fight. Who would win? I don’t dare venture to answer that question. I’ve seen both the Korean (Busan) and Irish temper up front and in person and I’m telling you, when the wrong buttons are pushed both are scary in their own unique ways.

Anne Nominus

( Park Funeral Parlor ) One hour before the other mourners arrive. The bereaved members of the family have a quiet moment -

Kim Kyong-hui( sister of the Deceased) - He worked day and night for socialist construction and the happiness of people, for the union of country and modernisation. He left us so suddenly,

Chang Sung-taek ( her Husband) - That he did.

Kim Jong-eun ( The Son) Jong-eun - Investors were rattled by the news because they are not sure about what will happen in North Korea after his death, Auntie, some say you are a slave to the drink

Uncle Chang - 'Tis so

Auntie Kim - Listen here, ye scut! I'll have none of your Frenchy Swiss swagger on this day of days - My Brother was twice the man his Da was and I'll tell you me Bucko, that I am three times the set of knackers than he had dangling, so. You pull your plum and smile the while.

Uncle Chang - 'Tis true nonetheless.

Kim Jong-eun - Da said the place is mine from from bog to boreen!

Auntie Kim - Did he, so? And who told him to do so, just? You, Ye, moon-mugged little wanker, have a guess?

Uncle Chang - He did that, so, entirely.

Kim Jong-eun - I am the Four Star General, Auntie . . .There'll be wigs on the green . . .if . . .

Auntie Kim - Laudy daw and talk a lugh! You are a four-star little c#$% who will do as he's feckin' well told and none of your gas, Boyyo.

Kim Jong-eun - Me Da said, after the wake and all. that I'd run the bollocks off of all of ye and the Gypos & Pakis in the boot of me Hillman Hunter. Now, when may I begin?

Auntie Kim -Ask me arse and Unkie's bollocks; go and shite yourself blue; eff off and don't be annoying me . . . I've a throat on me . . . where's my #$%^ing Baby Power*

Kim Jong-eun - Auntie, I . . .

Uncle Chang - ( sotto voce) Now, dont be a caffler, ye young Gasur! She'l be off on a Gee-Eyed pisser that'd kill a pikey. Christ O'Mikey ,I could eat the lamb o' Jaysus through the rungs of a chair. The noon tucker ain't til after the Angelus,so, fer #$%^'s sake. Now, quiet so, or the Auld Hoor'll be up yer gicker quicker than any micker on the licker. The Cute Hoors is linin' up so. ( Commandingly but quiet) Last pull on the Power, Luv.

Auntie Kim - feck Off, Ye. Jasus, when's Tay? I could eat a baby's arse through the bars of a cot . . .I'd eat a farmer's arse through a blackthorn bush! A wafer and pint of Vitamin G'd be Deadly, 'bout now.

Uncle Chang -If I were mad, I would!

Enter the mourners - film at ten.
* miniature bottle of Powers Irish Whiskey (favoured size for ladies handbags

American Catholics - Ben Stone on the Rock of Peter: Michael Moriarty Nails It.

Between Joseph Biden and Nancy Pelosi, Vice-President of the United States and former Speaker of the House, American Catholics and Catholicism have been officially given role models that publicly defy the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI and the centuries-long, pro-life tradition of the Church.

What Abraham Lincoln said about America may very well be repeated about the Catholic Church: If She dies, it won't be by a foreign power. It will be by suicide.

America is not dead yet but is, indeed, dying because of the Roe v Wade decision 38 years ago. There is no longer the American "inalienable right to life".

The same Leftist attack on the United States from within the Democrat Party is the same Leftist attack on the Catholic Church from within largely Democrat American Catholicism, i.e. Biden and Pelosi.

Michael Moriarty

It takes a mirror to tell me to lay off that third Italian beef from Al's on Taylor Street. Two is enough for any glutton. Those size 36/29s fit like a surgical glove and that ain't good . . .for other people to look at. A man can not go through life wearing "eatin' pants."

Being a Catholic is tougher than being a happy gent on the thresh-hold of size 38 britches. My note to self . . . leave the car in the garage and hike. Eat like a Unitarian and pray like a Poor Clare.

Yesterday, I posted a piece in reaction to Neil Steinberg's latest in his serious of snotty advice to Catholics concerning Governor Quinn's fealty to Planned Parenthood and Progressive Everything, over his loudly stated Christian conscience conflicting with his broadly stated personal Catholicism.

Today, I noticed that 19th Ward Blog which reaches many more readers is likewise offended by the Dante spouting Masker of the Sun Times.

http://19thwardchicago.blogspot.com/2011/12/latest-attack-on-catholic-churchby.htmlAmerican Catholics have a problem. Public Catholics (Clan Kennedy) and elected Catholics ( Biden, Daley, Durbin, Quinn, Kerry, Pelosi et al) tend to belong to the Democratic Party. Chicago Catholics like me tend be Democrats as well. The Progressives control the Democratic Party. The Progressives are secularists -no religion is better than any religion. Abortion is a must. There is no such thing as sin, because of evolution and Civil Rights.

The Catholic Church in America is the last stand against the evil that is killing an unborn child. Likewise, the Catholic Church in America is the last stand against the Progressive elimination of sin.

In the last couple of years, I have become more aware of intrinsic evil behind Progressive thought. Bertrand Russell, an agnostic intellectual, called Dewey/Hegelianism the most dangerous assault on thought in centuries and termed it a cosmic impiety. I witness the results of John Dewey's work daily, working at an inner city Catholic high school and see that Catholic education works well for non-Catholic African American young men. Catholic values help them succeed - not marches, T-shirts, nor tax-breaks.

It is the mirror held up to Public Education and the world without sin, or consequences that it helped create. We struggle at Leo everyday, undoing what John Dewey hath wrought, because the bulk of our students come from public schools. Leo is costly. Leo holds the individual accountable - teachers, administration, staff, students and parents.

Part of my work brought me into contact with one of America's best actors - Michael Moriarty. Mr. Moriarty is not only a gifted actor, but a splendid jazz musician, composer and essayist. More so, Michael Moriarty has stepped away from American life, lives very well in Canada and tries to make sense of lunacy here. By here, I mean the Progressive epi-center Chicago.

Michael Moriarty has Chicago roots, as I have written about, and keeps in touch with what is happening here. Chicago's capitulation to the Roger Baldwin, WEB Du Bois, John Dewey, Henry Wallace Progressives after decades of growth and success as the City That Works as a Catholic Democrat American city is as much a concern to Michael as it is to me.

Progressive secular doctrine has replace the Church Triumphant of Cardinal Mundelein and is actively trying to stamp out Catholic opposition to its agendas - abortion for all, and sin no longer exists - only systemic racism, classism and sexism.

Michael Moriarty has very solid grip on what is going on here in one of President Obama's many hometowns - Hawaii, Kansas, Indonesia, Chicago. Chicago is the progressive epi-center that created the President. The President, like the governor, owes his success to the secular Progressive papacy. Every Progressive is a pope . . . ask one.

Michael Moriarty writes another beautifully Joycean essay that links Catholicism, St. Joan, Progressive Marxism, abortion, and Democrat Catholic Maskers like Quinn and Durbin with the Jewish Catholic intellectual Simone Weil and the actress Ingrid Bergman in a stained-glass masterpiece of a mirror.

Law and Order's Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty) understands the Rock of Peter and the sand that is a soulless secularism.

No way I am buying size 38 pants.

Click my post title

More Michael Moriarty at the Paley Media Center

http://www.ny.com/cgibin/frame.cgi?url=http://www.paleycenter.org/&frame=/frame/museums.html

Catholics Can Be Elected. We May Elect One Governor of Illinois Next Go Around

Friday is the day politicians enjoy as a news memory hole. TGIF! Friday was the day that Gov.Pat Quinn chose to meet with Cardinal George and nine other Illinois Bishops. He pretty much tossed the meet-up away until he shot his mouth off to the very talented Sun Times political reporter Abdon Pallasch. Quinn parsed the chat.

Everyday is Friday for too many Chicago columnists and editorial boards.

The Chicago Sun Times is now trolling for on-line subscriptions; therefore, a web-reader can only grab a snatch of what their out-front propagandists have to say. No way I'm popping out nickels to read with care and cut and paste for grist to mill.

The Chicago Sun Times has great reporters ( Natasha Korecki, Abdon Pallasch, Mark Konkol, Tim Novak, Chris Fusco, Fran Spielman, Maureen O'Donnell, Rick Morrisey) and a pretty good columnist in Mark Brown. The balance of ink-slingers is . . . pre-fabricated, or processed food for thought.

The editorial and commentary quality may improve in the coming months when more thoughtful and engaged investors give the substance a good look-see.

Neil Steinberg offers another in his phalanx of snotty columns aimed at the breeders and church-goers - Catholics. He wonders if Catholics can still be elected.

Steinberg's Lazy-Susan wit attempts to spin the bowls of anti-Catholic bigotry in to the Catholic Bishops of Illinois, when one might expect that anti-Catholic bigotry comes from another quarter. Clever, Lad! I read snatches of Steinberg, because the whack-a-mole Verison-funded tin-cup pop-up blocks the passages. Snatches were plenty for me; not clever.

The spiel is Steinberg defends Governor Pat Quinn, who attended thirteen years of Catholic schooling over the bishops who are charged with defending the Faith. Quinn is vassel to Terry Cosgrove a multi-purpose coalition Gay/Planned Parenthood Boss.
Quinn is also a governor whose Catholic education is at odds with his obligations to Personal PAC and Progressive Identity.

Click my post title for Catholic Teachings on Sexuality, Human Identity, and Marriage. You really need to do some Progressive parsing to ugly it up.

My Catholic Faith ( not for everyone and tough to live up to) is 2,000 years old and has withstood Goths,Moors and Vikings. It's greatest peril arose in the late Middle ages when comfort and riches politicized the faith and practices of Christians universal. Bishops and Popes and Kings and Emperors played politics and things went bad.

The pews got kind of empty, because religion and politics became toxic and sexual abuses of all sorts ( simony, usury, nepotism, & etc.) permeated the institutional Church. The Church reformed itself and people who no longer cared much for the smells and bells, rigors of authority and patriarchal pastoral priesthood took it on the heel and toe and became Lutherans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and for the more secular appetites Unitarians. We still have Popes and bishops, but in America Kings and Emperors were shown the door. We have Presidents, Senators, Congressmen, Governors, Mayors and State Legislators, as well as judges. It gets complicated.

In the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, bribery was up-front. Families could purchase the Papacy and even the odd nation-state. Some American families ( Kennedy, Rockefeller, Bush, Dodd, and Daley) can and do purchase power with the help of PACS. In order to make the political landscape more Rainbow-hued and Abortion friendly these Families and PACS purchased Pro-life Catholic politicians. Coalition building is not possible on Rock of Peter.

Gov. Pat Quinn has placed himself outside of Catholic teaching on Abortion and Homosexual Marriage. Were I, as a Catholic teacher, to offer my personal convictions that a teenage boy should occupy his hours in front of computer screen in his locked room gratifying himself in front of images of naked babes with - " It is your Civil Right to pursue your Happiness," I think that I might be called to task and account fro my exercise of conscious. Likewise, were I inclined to fulfill my goatish instincts . . .too disturbing to catalogue. Happiness is not

You see Happiness, from Aristotle through Santayana, has very little to do with carnal desire. In fact Dante, as orthodox a Catholic moralist as one may find in a layman, takes Thomistic (St. Thomas Aquinas) morality to poetic task in the Divine Comedy. I believe that Neil Steinberg has loudly and often touted his love of Dante.
Dante would toss Catholic politicians who take coin and votes to promote abortion and secular homosexual doctrines into the jaws of Satan - like Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius. Allegorically speaking, of course.

Catholics can and should be elected to office. Here in Illinois we may begin to do so again.


http://www.suntimes.com/news/steinberg/9524518-452/is-it-still-ok-to-elect-catholics.html

Pat Quinn's Gay Abortion Christmas Carol - " Did You Hear What I Heard?"

It was as gay as Christmas when Pat Quinn signed the Civil Union act; but, gay ain't always happy. The Bishops tried to correct Quinn on the issue. You can't fix . . . Governors.


Pat Quinn hears exactly what he hears. I hear a train a-coming and I get off the tracks. I hear a fire truck or ambulance siren and I ease to the right in traffic and stop. I hear 'the garage is on fire' and I tend to dial 911. Pat Quinn hears what he wants to hear.Cardinal George and nine more Catholic bishops of Illinois spoke to the daffy Governor for over two hours at Chicago's Union League Club about the differences between political PAC Obligations and Church teaching on the evil that is abortion and the fact that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Two hours - Abortion is 100% Evil
Marriage is between a Man and Woman


Pat Quinn explained the meeting to Abdon Pallasch of Chicago Sun Times -

Quinn said Saturday morning that the two-hour talk between him and Cardinal Francis George and 9 other bishops was “only a little bit” about his positions the bishops say are at odds with Catholic teachings on abortion and gay couples’ right to adopt — a clash that has made headlines recently — and more about the need to help the poor.

“A lot of the discussion was how we could work together to fight poverty, help the people who are less fortunate and need a helping hand,” Quinn told the Sun-Times as he left a Christmas toy give-away on the Far South Side. “Getting people jobs, helping people who don’t have enough food to eat — that’s what the church’s social mission is all about.”

Nope.

"But after reading Quinn’s comments posted on the Sun-Times website Saturday, the bishops that met with Quinn issued a written statement saying Quinn characterized the meeting wrong: The primary purpose of the sit-down, they said, was to admonish the governor for using his Catholic up-bringing to justify views that they say aren’t supported by the church. It was the second time in the past two months the bishops have issued a statement blasting the Catholic governor.

“We share the Governor’s concern for the poor,” they wrote. “From our point of view, however, this was a meeting between pastors and a member of the Church to discuss the principles of faith, not the works of faith. On several occasions, the Governor has referred to his Catholic conscience and faith as the justification for certain political decisions.”

Governor Quinn listens . . .to Boss Terry Cosgrove about the beauty and benefits of abortion and to openly gay Rep. Greg Harris who high speed-railed the Religious Liberty and Civil Union Legislation Which Pat Quinn signed with gusto! This is the religious liberty legislation that immediately made war on Catholic Charities.

Statewide Relationship RecognitionnoLicenses marriages for same-sex couples.noHonors marriages of same-sex couples from other jurisdictionsyesRelationship recognition for same-sex couples: civil unions.2010 Civil union law enacted, effective June 1, 2011. Allows same-sex and different-sex couples to enter into a civil union and receive "the same legal obligations, responsibilities, protections and benefits as are afforded or recognized by the law of Illinois to spouses." Please join our Illinois Civil Union Tracker.1996 Anti-marriage bill adopted. Prohibits marriages "between two individuals of the same sex" and declares such lawful marriages to be "against public policy." See Illinois Compiled Statues, Chapter 750 §§ 5/201, 5/212 and 5/213.1.Statewide Employment ProtectionsyesPrivate employment protections based on sexual orientation.yesPrivate employment protections based on gender identity.yesPublic (state) employment protections based on sexual orientation.-Public (state) employment protections based on gender identity.See 775 ILCS 5/1-103 and 775 ILCS 5/1-102.2005 Sexual orientation and gender identity were added to the Illinois Human Rights Act. Senate Bill 3186, an amendment to existing law, signed by Governor Rod Blagojevich on 1/21/05Statewide Parenting LawsWho May Adopt Any person. 750 ILCS 50/2Second Parent Adoptions Approved in Petition of K.M. 653 N.E.2d 888 (Ill. App. 1995); reaffirmed in In re C.M.A., 715 N.E.2d 674 ( Ill. App. 1999)Notes Permits individual, joint and second parent adoption.

Greg Harris said that this legislation is merely the path to marriage between homosexual couples. Marriage between two men or two women is a problem for Catholics. Marriage is for procreation - breeders having kids. Breeders enjoying the procreative act outside of marriage are required to hit the confessional box and ask forgiveness for committing adultery.Adultery is having sex outside of marriage - one-tie all tie - homesexual, breeder, onanist ( the legendary Solitary Man that Neil Diamond celebrated in his 1966 song of the same name). At least that is what I hear and comprehend.

I am sure that Gov. Pat Quinn comprehends - Cosgrove's Personal PAC of Planned Parenthood gave him $ 500,000 to be governor of Illinois and Greg Harris did not obstruct Quinn's Budget. What did the Catholic Church give Pat Quinn - a pass. . . until now.

What do you hear?

The Jews of Illinois - Read The Reform Advocate

I love reading old books, newspapers and magazines. Recently, a pal sent me a link to an archive of periodicals long lost. The Online Library is the source.

One of the most striking and thoughtful is The Reform Advocate and English magazine published by Bloch and Neuman on Dearborn Street and Edited by Dr. Emil Hirsch. Click my post title and read the issue in full on the webiste.

The comon sense and clarity of the writing is wonderful (especiallially the editorial warning on the looming Prohibition laws)and the advertisements are great.

http://www.archive.org/stream/jewsofillinoisth00elia#page/n191/mode/2up

Alexis Ortiz - Recovering Alcoholic Ex-Con - Man of the Year

Hope and Change. Hope is a grace given by God to those of us who ask for help. Change is a circumstance. Place a hopeful person in a circumstance and and something wonderful can happen. Hope* is the first of the Heroic Virtues - those qualities that make us good people.

Just out of jail, a recovering alcoholic is being hailed a good Samaritan.

Alexis Ortiz found a wallet at the Mobil gas station at Walton and Sashabaw in Waterford yesterday.

Inside the wallet was enough cash to tempt even the most honest person: $1,000 in cash, credit cards and a man's identification.

The Ortiz family is struggling, but this father of seven did the right thing and called police.

A man in Detroit, father of seven, ex-con and a recovering alcoholic was at a Mobile gas station and found a wallet stuffed with cash amounting to about $ 1,000. For any man with seven children that is a live-changing amount of dough, but for a guy who gave up the sauce after getting out of jail, that is some circumstance.

Alexis Oritz is blessed with Hope. This we know because he passed the test of circumstance -Summa Cum Laude.

Ex-Con Finds, Returns Cash-Filled Wallet: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Merry Christmas Alexis! Thank You for this Christmas Gift of Heroic Virtue writ large!

* The Heroic Virtues - 2,000 years of them:


Hope is a firm trust that God will give us eternal life and all the means necessary to obtain it; it attains heroicity when it amounts to unshakeable confidence and security in God's help throughout all the untoward events of life, when it is ready to forsake and sacrifice all other goods in order to obtain the promised felicity of heaven. Such hope has its roots in a faith equally perfect. Abraham, the model of the faithful, is also the model of the hopeful "who against hope believed in hope. . .and he was not weak in faith; neither did he consider his own body now dead . . . nor the dead womb of Sara" (Romans 4:18-22).

Charity inclines man to love God above all things with the love of friendship. The perfect friend of God says with St. Paul: "With Christ I am nailed to the cross. And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:19-20). For love means union. Its type in heaven is the Divine Trinity in Unity; its highest degree in God's creatures is the beatific vision, i.e. participation in God's life. On earth it is the fruitful mother of holiness, the one thing necessary, the one all-sufficient possession. It is extolled in 1 Corinthians 13, and in St. John's Gospel and Epistles; the beloved disciple and the fiery missionary of the cross are the best interpreters of the mystery of love revealed to them in the Heart of Jesus. With the commandment to love God above all Jesus coupled another: "And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these" (Mark 12:31). The likeness, or the linking of the two commandments, lies in this: that in our neighbor we love God's image and likeness, His adopted children and the heirs of His Kingdom. Hence, serving our neighbor is serving God. And the works of spiritual and temporal mercy performed in this world will decide our fate in the next: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom. . .For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat. . . Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:34-40). For this reason the works of charity in heroic degree have been, from the beginning to this day, a distinctive mark of the Catholic Church, the pledge of sanctity in countless numbers of her sons and daughters.

Prudence, which enables us to know what to desire or to avoid, attains heroicity when it coincides with the "gift of counsel", i.e. a clear, Divinely aided insight into right and wrong conduct. Of St. Paschasius Radbert, the Bollandists say: "So great was his prudence that from his mind a bourn of prudence seemed to flow. For he beheld together the past, the present, and the future, and was able to tell, by the counsel of God, what in each case was to be done" (2 January, c.v, n.16).

Justice, which gives every one his due, is the pivot on which turn the virtues of religion, piety, obedience, gratitude, truthfulness, friendship, and many more. Jesus sacrificing His life to give God His due, Abraham willing to sacrifice his son in obedience to God's will, these are acts of heroic justice.

Fortitude, which urges us on when difficulty stands in the way of our duty, is itself the heroic element in the practice of virtue; it reaches its apex when it overcomes obstacles which to ordinary virtue are insurmountable.

Temperance, which restrains us when passions urge us to what is wrong, comprises becoming deportment, modesty, abstinence, chastity, sobriety, and others. Instances of heroic temperance: St. Joseph, St. John the Baptist.

G. Flint Taylor, Jon Loevy and Locke Bowman Set to Sue Braidwood House of Barks?

The Dog is a Pig, Man!

John Conroy will have an illustrated Children's Book ( Graphic Golden Book) detailing the horrors of Atom - the canine Jon Burge - who learned his techniques in 'Nam and bit testicles.

Every ambulance chasing Commie in Illinois must have morally indignant wood in their Dad 'N Lads.

Will Gator Bradley be an Urban Dog Whisperer?

Police dog fired for brutality
By Mary Baskerville Sun-Times Media December 16, 2011 4:10PM
Reprints3TweetUpdated: December 16, 2011 5:16PM



Two incidents of aggression cost him his job on the Braidwood Police Department, despite a petition signed by 403 people and public pleas asking the Braidwood City Council to reinstate him.

But the city just couldn’t stand for police brutality. Even if it did come from a dog.

The city ordered canine officer Atom into retirement, which he’ll spend at the home of his handler, Officer Doug Savarino.

City Attorney Scott Pyles said Atom cost the city $300,000 in settlements.

The dog, who joined the department in 2006, attacked a man who was already apprehended for a traffic stop and was not resisting. In a separate incident, he attacked an Illinois Conservation Police officer during a search for a suspect, Pyles said.

“We had to take some action,” Pyles said.

Mayor Bill Rulien said the department is bringing on a new dog, Neutron, but he is trained as a drug-sniffing dog, and has not been trained to attack, Rulien said.

“He will find drugs but not eat people,” Rulien said.

Giggle not.

Wierd is the new normal.

Shakman Gave Cook County Our Gang, Abortion and SEIU Political Landscape

Thanks to Michael Shakman and the Shakman Decrees a Veteran Gangster Disciple can be an Impact Political Player! Hal Baskin with the late Judge R. Eugene Pincham and former United States Senator Roland Burris.













In 1969 Michael Shakman and other Hyde Park lawyers, along with the long-dormant Progressive political players indigenous to that Chicago community, went shopping for a judge.

The nature of that legal marketing expedition evolved from sociological laboratories around the University of Chicago sparked by John Dewey and other long haired gentlemen and short-haired females. This particular push against the Democratic Political Machine affected our political psyche once it was determined by the right judge that political hiring is an intrinsic evil.

The Shakman Decrees* did nothing to end corruption; rather, they made a transfer of power from a Political Machine to Progressive Coalition Machine. Shakman Decrees created the political landscape that elected a President. All the graveyards in Cook County could not create more votes than Shakman - SEIU, ACORN, Progressive Coalitions Universal and political power remained in the hands of the very few.

Barack Obama could not have vaulted over the political gradus to the White House without Shakman.

Like Hyde Park itself, the Shakman victory is unique. Only in Cook County and in some few Illinois towns did this Dewey shower of Inquiry is Truth blossom and grow. No where else,in America, can or will Michael Shakman Enterprises flourish. What Shakman hath wrought is this:

1. Planned Parenthood's Personal PAC Has More Money and Muscle Than the Teamsters

2. SEIU and the less Public Salary Unions are Ward Organizations

3. Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, Latin Kings, Four Corner Hustlers, Mickey Cobras
are precinct captains

I find it . . .consistent that no newspaper, or media outlet is finding journalistic grist for the mills in Chicago Magazine's well-crafted investigation into the association of gangs and political hacks.

However, my concern lies in the authors' dismissal of gang-banger activism in Chicago as a mere homage to Bathhouse John and Hinky-Dink's high-jinks, instead of a wormy Progressive abortion of political honesty rooted in Shakman and the Shakman Decrees.

Here is Shakman's effects upon our political life in Cook County

Many forms of political corruption—taking bribes, rigging elections, engaging in pay-to-play deals—are plainly unethical, if not illegal. But forming political alliances with gangs isn’t a clear matter of right or wrong, some say. In many Chicago neighborhoods, it’s virtually impossible for elected officials and candidates for public office not to have at least some connection, even family ties, to gang members. “People try to paint this picture of bad versus good—it’s not like that,” says a veteran political organizer based in Chicago who specializes in getting out the vote in minority areas. “Everybody lives with each other, grew up with each other. Just because somebody goes this way or that way, it doesn’t mean you’re just gonna write them off automatically.”

For better or worse, gang members are constituents, the same as businesspeople in the Gold Coast. Says Aaron Patterson, an imprisoned gang member: “It ain’t like gangs come from another planet.”

For some politicians, gang members can be a source of political strength—all the more so given that the once-formidable City Hall–Cook County patronage system, the lifeblood of the old Machine, is mostly gone. In the heyday of the Machine, recalls Wallace Davis Jr., a former 27th Ward alderman, political chieftains could simply snap their fingers and marshal a large cadre of city workers to go door-to-door with “a pint of wine and a chicken” to turn out the vote.

Few politicians nowadays have such armies at their beck and call. To win elections, many officeholders and candidates—especially those who represent parts of the city with high concentrations of street gangs—turn to those gangs as their de facto political organizations. “It went from wine and a chicken to hiring a gangbanger,” says Davis, who served from 1983 to 1987. “It’s unfortunate.”

Though estimates vary, most authorities and criminologists agree that there are 70,000 to 125,000 gang members in the city. In the numbers game of Chicago politics—in which, as the old joke goes, a one-vote victory constitutes a landslide—a constituency of that size gets noticed. (Keep in mind that in Illinois convicted felons can vote once they are released from prison.)

Yet, Shakman goes unidentified.

Would that the authors went further -Inquiry is not Truth; John Dewey notwithstanding.



*

Shakman at work from todays's Chicago Tribune:. . .The concession deal was struck between the Park District and the restaurant operator under then-Mayor Richard Daley. Investors in the restaurant venture included Daley friend Fred Barbara and city contractor Raymond Chin. The city is now trying to undo the 20-year deal.

The Park Grill's lawyer, Michael Shakman, called the city's lawsuit "way off base" and said the restaurant's ownership group "was not selected through political connections."

The city's lawsuit "punishes honest people who created a restaurant that was risky and uncertain when the Park Grill agreed to go into Millennium Park," Shakman said in a statement. "Now that Millennium Park is successful, the city wants to redo the deal and wants money to which it has no right. That's not fair. A deal is a deal."

The city's Law Department is reviewing the countersuit, spokesman Roderick Drew said. The city maintains that the Park District did not have the authority to reach agreements for the use of the land, said Drew, who added that the deal was not approved by the City Council, which he said is required for approval of a concession permit.

rhaggerty@tribune.com

Twitter @RyanTHaggerty

Our Public Imagination Shakman
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.

http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1138.html

The Common Hurd - Modern Genius

Sam Hurd is a Chicago Bear playing on specialty teams for which he is paid a tidy $ 4,000,000 per year.

In order to use his capital earned from standing on the sidelines for most NFL engagements between the Monsters of the Midway and their competition, Sam wanted to continue investing his dollars in tax-free capitalism.

No doubt apprehending the growing demand for medicinal and recreational marijuana, which Cook County President the Chicago City Council are now hard pressed to deliver to the Weed Demographic, Master Hurd sought to capitalize on that herb's future demand with a robust supply.

The NFL vetting process matches that of the national media; therefore, NIU scholar/athlete and NFL veteran Hurd saw Opportunity's fore-lock in need of a hardy tug.

He reached out in a manner befitting his status:

Hurd’s party dined on $300 worth of filet mignon Wednesday. At the steakhouse, he told the undercover agent “his co-conspirator is in charge of doing the majority of the deals” while he focused on “higher-end deals,” the affidavit said. Hurd also allegedly told the agent that they already distribute four kilos of cocaine a week in the Chicago area, but his supplier couldn’t keep up with his demands.

Hurd also asked the agent if he could provide him with Mexican cell phone numbers, “as Hurd believed that law enforcement did not have the capability of ‘listening’ to Mexican telephones.” He even referenced the money that had been taken by authorities in Dallas, and claimed “the seizure of currency could not be associated to him.”

Mexican cell phones must have that Cartel Cache Coding Device. Kind of like, Irish GPS - "Hey, Murphy sober up! Your wife is on her way and she ain't happy; now, drink up."


Modern Genius - 10 % inspiration and 90 % incarceration

MSNBC Flash Mob and Demographic

Lean Forw. . .Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Michael Moriarty in Full - Read This Brilliant Analysis of Music, Faith and the Progressive Culture of Death

Michael Moriarty has a written an important essay. Read this.

The Haunted Heaven: Chapter Twenty Seven: Old Notes In A New WayBy Michael Moriarty
web posted December 1, 2011

Leonard Bernstein again seems to have entered my memoir as a musical guide for this most revolutionizing corner of my life. His lectures on modern music, now blocked by Koch Entertainment, this one in particular, defines "composers that have something to say". In America you increasingly pay for any education that might be offered on the internet.

With his customary brilliance, Bernstein reveals how a final diatonic, major chord, orchestrated as Stravinsky does in his Symphony of Psalms, can even sound "new".

Next, I'm watching Bernstein put Bachian muscle and balance into the execution of a Bach orchestral work.

Now, the St. Matthew Passion, as Bernstein himself says, "writing music was religion for J. S. Bach'.

"His godliness shines through all his music, first to last."

Bernstein's own divine genius as a teacher, as a composer, as a conductor?

It is beyond indisputable.

Alright.

Follow my reasoning, my deduction. If one looks at the political forces and "themes" that run and increasingly clash? Cacophony? Or modern music?

Bernstein might say, "Both!"

In that monosyllabic declaration lies Bernstein's infuriating equivocations politically. What might he be thinking now, were he alive? Would he, for one, be defending Roe v Wade?

Of course, as the only "civilized thing to do!"

Hmmm … and since Protestants, Progressive Protestants such as the Clintons and the Obamas actually promote abortion, Bach, being a Protestant child of Luther's Reformation, might agree, mightn't he?

There has always been a war between artistic genius and sanity. The confines of sanity, however, begin with "thou shalt not murder". Wander "out of that box" and you either have lunacy or just pure evil.

Crime and sin for the sake of crime and sin … until, of course, the thrill of crime and sin for the sake of crime and sin is gone.\ Then crime and sin would continue for no other joy than the pure abandon of evil. That is not lunacy, that is Evil. Evil's pure and conscious intent is the utter destruction of Good. That, of course, would mean the end of God.

Progressive "Reason" would inevitably necessitate the end of religion.

The end of God.

Eventually.

Not that the Progressives like the Clintons wouldn't lie to the faithful. They would lie and already have lied, as they say, "Big Time!" The Devil's Lobby, I call it.

C. S. Lewis, an Anglican of all things, wrote a great deal about The Devil in The Screwtape Letters and was later re-immortalized in the 1993 film, Shadowlands.

Catholic writers, of which I consider James Joyce, of course, one of, if not the greatest – the greatest, that is, if you don't consider Shakespeare a Catholic (many do) – have a profoundly more complex and subtler relationship with The Devil. The Church has truly split hairs about the depth of Hell involved with each transgression.

Forgiveness, of course, for any of the sinners is always possible, depending, of course, upon the sincerity of the sinner.

How did I get here in a chapter entitled "Old Notes In A New Way"?

There are few existing and major "old notes" that are older than the Catholic Church. The preceding Greek and Latin cultures, of course, haunt us in the same way they haunt the Catholic Church. The Catholic church, however, will be known eventually as the creation that saved the human race by her unswerving stand against abortion.

What is haunting me now is why a video accompanying a January, 2011 article, The Ox-Bow Generation, didn't work for quite some time. Yet it works now, months later. The Hanging of an innocent man is, indeed, an abortion.

The Fierce Faction For Abortion, and that is the only name I could label it with at this point, has massive influence obviously.

At the same time, this is the second day of the Arizona shooting in Tucson and Sarah Palin is still being targeted, ostensibly for her "target" symbolism.

No. It is for her stand against abortion. No one more fully represents pro-life than Sarah Palin.

Now, with Palin out of the 2012 Presidential race, it is Herman Cain who has been "forced out", not, as the press say, because of his marital past, but because of his unmitigated stand against abortion. Such a position is an assault against all "modern women"!

This is an example of The Bipartisan Progressives using gossip and marital secrets as propaganda in an "old way".

"Using old propaganda tools in an old way."

Michelle Malkin's article The progressive "climate of hate:" An illustrated primer, 2000-2010 lists, with her column's telescopic memory, the ten years of hate engendered by the fallaciously "hate-hating" Left.

The Left is well-known for serving up its vengeance cold.

Proud of it.

Glenn Beck, while on television, was doing his best to warn the Right against violence of any kind but righteous indignation can be tranquilized just so long. Perhaps that is why he avoided the issue of abortion as best he could. He was rather pushed into one episode dealing with the horrors of infanticide. Though Beck eventually proved too inflammatory and expensive for Fox Network, even he knew the hot potato that abortion has always proven to be. I don't follow his radio show so I have no idea how concerned he's been about Roe v Wade's spiritual destruction of the American soul.

However, 37 years of legalized murder could very well amount to 89 years of legalized slavery. We know how America and Americans could endure such inhumanity for just so long and then …

Ending legalized slavery is an "old note" for America.

Ending legalized abortion, with the hindsight we have about slavery, can be handled legislatively and at a much slower pace than the five years of Civil War.

Something, however, must be done now!

Why?

The American soul and her "inalienable right to life" have been destroyed by Roe v Wade.

As I have said one thousand times, the Golden Rule does not read, "Do unto gestating infants what you would not have wanted done unto your own gestating infancy."

Devoid of the Golden Rule, the American people's silence before the murder of Roe v Wade seems to be begging for an even colder indifference to human life out of the present, Far Left American government.

How does one resist a one hundred year-old Progressive Movement with profoundly international support and resources?

The Catholic Church.

An old note to be played in a new way.

Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com.

Caitiffs and Cads -Bounders and Blackguards

Of course a monarch can never be a caitiff, cad, or bounder . . .much less a blackguard.

This miserable measure the wretched souls maintain of those who lived without infamy and without praise. Mingled are they with that caitiff choir of the angels, who were not rebels, nor were faithful to God, but were for themselves. The heavens chased them out in order to be not less beautiful, nor doth the depth of Hell receive them, because the damned would have some glory from them.

Inferno by Dante Alighieri

That ain't good . . .to be a caitiff. The word comes from the Anglo-French of the 11th Century, following the name change William The Bastard of Normandy affected with his conquest of Harold the Saxon in 1066. It's better to be a conqueror than a bastard. Being a bastard is tough, because one inherits only his skin and is required to acquire a name for oneself. The word caitiff differs a bit from a bastard.A caitfiff is bastardized form of the Latin captivus or captive.




One was expected to die in combat, rather than become a captive. A caitiff therefore is someone who was there at a battle, and surrendered - called it quits.

From that military meaning evolved a judgment of character - one who surrendered was implied to be a wretch, a craven, a coward. Someone without the honor to die rather than surrender, because he lacked inner feelings of virtue and nobility. Such a craven person would huddle with other like minded self-interested cowards in a township.



A Cadet ( Capitellum or 'little head') was a townie. Someone who curried favor of his betters - not to the Manor Born. If you lived in a Manor, you were noble by birth and blood. From Cadet evolved the caddie, a low-born person who did the bidding of his betters. A Cad was one who strayed into a better circle of society by dint of service and might flirt and play the dandy with the Lady of the Manor, but a Cad who went over the boundaries was a bounder -first employed in our living language around 1550. The extent of a Cad's excesses would be semiotic -signals and promises of exhausting pleasures - and go no further.



A Bounder is a complete rotter, scoundrel, or near-do well. One capable of any and all manner of miscreance - a breaker of faith. One might trust Clive Ajouter-Sur -Un-Matelas, the family wine steward, to distinguish a claret from a Rhenish, but should not be altogether floored to find Imported Frog-eater bouncing on the Baldacchino Supreme atop of Lady Salope.

Clive has gone from cad to bounder. A Cad might intend to diddle Lady Cuisses-Chaud Salope, but a bounder will enact the deed.

A Caitiff merely will know what is going on in the chambre à oucher master
between Lady Salope and Clive and smirk and ooze about his daily tasks.

A Bounder becomes a Blackguard when he mocks, curses, thrashes and ultimately beats Lady S following a particularly Herculean assignation, confronts Lord S with the unhappy fact that his Lordship has been goated. . . has been goated vigorously and often, with a grand sweep of the cape given him by her Ladyship exits Salope Manor with a great Spanish leather Gladstone choked with Pounds Sterling and minor coin as well as trinkets and stones snatched from Lady S's horde of jewels and successfully publishes his 3rd person omniscient account of the decade long carnal romps with Lady S all the while plotting against Baron Vaine Salope's appointment to the Ministry of Exchequer.


A Blackguard is the top of the wicked tree here. Caitiff and Cads edge close to the boundaries of a higher social circle, while taking only those liberties afforded their place in life. Thus a Caitiff who ventures to flirt with Lady S becomes a Cad and Cad graduates to Bounder when seals the carnal deal. However, a Blackguard goes the extra mile in letting the world know about it - kiss and tell, don't you know.

I like bounders.