Leo H. S. Retires # 91 Football Jersey Don Flynn and Neighborhood Says Goodbye to a Landmark

Leo 58, St. Ignatius 54 was the final score of the varsity basketball game last night in Leo's iconic Brother Finch Gym (3rd Floor).

The St. Ignatius Freshman and Sophomore teams soundly beat our Leo Lions by 9 points apiece, but the gents of the varsity saved Leo from a an Iggy Sweep.

They had help from the spirit of # 91 Donald F. Flynn, Class of 1957. Don Flynn went home to Christ in October after decades of powerful support to his teammate Bob Foster and Leo High School. Don Flynn was a self-made mega-millionaire, who never forgot that he was a poor kid from St. Kilian's Parish.

On the football fields of Shewbridge and those defended by Mount Carmel, St. George, St. Rita, Fenwick, Mendel, and before a crowd of tens of thousands of fans in Soldier Field, Don Flynn scared the livers out of scores of Catholic and public school football players.

With Don Flynn's passing, Leo marked the passing of great heart and meaty set of hands always ready to give more and more. Therefore, before the start of the varsity game, Leo President Dan McGrath paid tribute to Don's brother Bob, his son Kevin and his wife Susan and his four grandchildren, and Don's faithful and long-time secretary and friend Yvonne Sperandeo, as well as thirty plus friends and family members and permanently retired Leo football jersey number 91.

Having bested the Lions at the lower levels, St. Ignatius gave the varsity a contest Don Flynn would be proud of - taking an early lead in the double digits. By the start of third quarter, the Lions methodically chipped away at those numbers and gave Leo and the Flynn family a well-earned victory.

East of Leo, the old Walgreens Building on the south east corner of 79th & Halsted collapsed onto Halsted. Four people were injured, but no loss of life, thanks be to God. The men and women of the Chicago Police Department's 6th District are keeping people safe as they always do.

79th Street has changed since the early 1900's when that beautiful terra cotta bedecked building dominated the corner - Franks Department store was torn down years ago. Leo helped the city of Chicago take down a bock of abandoned buildings between Sangamon and Morgan Streets. St. Leo Parish was closed and a treatment center for veterans stands under the Lombardy bell tower of the church. The Chapel of St. Leo in Leo High School that once hosted the over-flow crowd of Catholic worshippers is now the cafeteria for Leo students who dine under a crystal chandelier that once loomed above the altar with the north wall allowing light through stained glass windows dedicated to Our Lady.

The mission remains the same. Leo students, like Don Flynn, have the opportunity to rise above circumstances and challenges.

Things disappear and sometimes collapse. The spirit of Catholic values are here to stay.

St. Cecilia Pray for Us - A Musical Collaboration Unites America's Michael Moriarty and Chicago's Dan Robinson

Let us pray. O Eternal God, who gave us, in the person of Saint Cecilia, a powerful protectress, grant that after having faithfully
passed our days, like herself, in innocence and holiness, we may one day attain the land of beatitude, where in concert with her, we
may praise you and bless you forevermore in eternity. Amen.

Two great musicians are working on the prayed for premier of an original work. Michael Moriarty*, celebrated actor, musician, composer and defender of unborn children has written a string quartet - musical presentation that usually consists of two violinists, a violist and a cellist. The work from the time of Haydn has four movements. Dan Robinson**, director of the St. Cecilia Choir of St. John Cantius, has taken Mr. Moriarty's work, transcribed the manuscript and played it through to determine that it should be presented in public.

Michael Moriarty, most known as a stage, screen and television actor, symphony for strings was first performed in St. Louis and again at the New York City. Of this work performed as part of the Bachanalia Festival at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan,CAROLINE STOESSINGER, the cathedral's artistic director said,
"Bach said he wrote music for the entertainment of the soul. Michael Moriarty is an entertainer who writes in a contemporary idiom, influenced by jazz and highlighted with memories of 18th-century counterpoint."


I am working to scare up some funding ( a modest $ 7,000-$8,000) in order to secure a venue, pay musicians for rehearsals and the concert. During my post-Leo hours, I am hitting up possible patrons or a solid corporate citizen (Bank or Business) in order to help this collaboration between two talented men some funding.

If you love music and you appreciate the labors of talented people, let's pray to the Catholic Muse of Music - St. Cecilia. Not only that, if you have any ideas about helping to bring this work to life here in Chicago - leave a comment. Thank you!

Everybody!(repeat after each line) Pray for us. Saint Cecilia,

Saint Cecilia, wise virgin,(Pray for us. Saint Cecilia, & etc.)

Saint Cecilia, whose heart burned with the fire of divine love,
Saint Cecilia, apostle by your zeal and charity,
Saint Cecilia, who converted your spouse and procured for him the crown of martyrdom,
Saint Cecilia, who by your pleadings moved the hearts of pagans, and brought them into the true Church,
Saint Cecilia, who did unceasingly see your guardian angel by your side,
Saint Cecilia, who mingled your voice with the celestial harmonies of the virgins,
Saint Cecilia, who by your melodious accents celebrated the praises of Jesus,
Saint Cecilia, illustrious martyr of Jesus Christ,
Saint Cecilia, who during three days suffered most excruciating torments,
Saint Cecilia, consolation of the afflicted,
Saint Cecilia, protectress of all who invoke you,
Saint Cecilia, patroness of holy canticles,
Saint Cecilia, special patroness and advocate of all singers, musicians, authors, and students,

*

Michael Moriarty's Music
New CD
[5-7-00] A Voice in the Wilderness (working title) -- Michael will be in the recording studio soon!

Great Find:
An album, "The Highest Standards" from the mid-80s contains a song, "You'll Never Walk Alone" featuring Michael playing the harmonica.

Production Company: Plug Records
Producer: David Lahm.

Michael Moriarty's Jazz CDs
Reaching Out
Sweet 'n Gritty
The Michael Moriarty Quintet Live at Fat Tuesday's April 12, 1992


The New York Times has called Michael Moriarty "a jazz pianist of considerable skill."

Michael Moriarty's Classical Tape
The Music Of Michael Moriarty
Symphony For String Orchestra, conducted by Michael Moriarty
Psalm For Solo Violin, Nina Beilina - Violinist
The Kaufman Symphony For Chamber Orchestra
Simplicity
A CD with William Feasley, guitar & Vladimir Lande, oboe
From a review:
"The little-explored combination of oboe and guitar has managed to find a
small but unique repertory for itself. The sharp, dark overtones of this kind of
ensemble work best with lyrical modern music, as in Ibert's dramatic Entr'acte,
Karl Pilss's lovely neo-classic Sonatine, and a serious, ruminative piece (Simplicity)
by Michael Moriarty (yes, the actor!)..."

**

St. Cecilia Choir and Sine Nomine Ensemble
Daniel V. Robinson, Director

In addition to serving as one of the directors of the Sine Nomine and St. Ceclia Choirs at St. John Cantius, Daniel Robinson is music director of the Great Lakes Dredge and Philharmonic Society in Chicago. He has also guest-conducted the a cappella ensemble Bella Voce. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and graduate degrees in music from Stanford University. He studied conducting with Robert Shaw, Clayton Krehbiel, John Ferris, Howard Swan, Weston Noble, and Richard Rosewall. He was founder and music director of Basically Bach. Previous church choir work includes stints with the Harvard University Choir, the Harvard University Summer Choir, the First Unitarian Church in Danvers, MA, and the Stanford Memorial Church Choir.

My Own Anti-Abortion and Traditional Marriage PAC Anti-Endoresements

This is gal is all Personal PAC. I'm agi'n it.


I would like to thank the Infanticidal Dowagers and their handmales at Illinois Personal PAC, a subsidiary of Planned Parenthood Abortion Industries, or Kidz R Dead! This group of wealthy secularist harpies and dandified fops provided a swell palm card on whom to vote against in the March Primary.

In my neighborhood, Rep. Kevin Joyce (35th D.) was a fierce warrior for women and children and therefore opposed to Illinois Personal PAC. In fact, Kevin Joyce, now the Athletic Director for Ave Maria University, demanded that his replacement be anti-abortion.

I was disappointed to see the name of the candidate for my Illinois (35th) Representative District accepting an endorsement for Personal PAC - Fran Hurley. Love the young woman! Can't give her my vote. Choice, as they say, is about health. I have two other vote choices - Andy Hodorowicz and Anthony Martin. Don't know Anthony, but I know the Hodorowicz Family. Great folks.

This last Saturday, the former Employee of Year for Texas Planned Parenthood Abby Johnson* spoke to anti-abortion voters and citizens in Oak Brook. Abby Johnson, author of Un-Planned her story of the abortion industry that is Planned Parenthood smartly challenged the myth that Planned Parenthood is anything but an abortion mill universal.

Fran Hurley should have attended Speakout Illinois 2012; Kevin Joyce would have done so. Accepting an endorsement by Personal PAC is a deal breaker.

However, it does provide a swell reverse palm card for Illinois voters!

Here is a list of candidates for whom one should not cast a vote -ever . . . for anything.

2012 Primary Election Endorsements
Personal PAC Endorsements
March 20, 2012 Primary Election

Additional endorsements will follow in the coming weeks

Cook County
Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court: Dorothy Brown (D)
Cook County Recorder of Deeds: Karen Yarbrough (D)
Cook County State’s Attorney: Anita Alvarez (D)
Illinois House of Representatives

HD 001 – Daniel Burke (D)
HD 002 – Edward Acevedo (D)
HD 003 – Luis Arroyo (D)
HD 004 – Cynthia Soto (D)
HD 005 – Ken Dunkin (D)
HD 009 – Art Turner (D)
HD 010 – Derrick Smith (D)
HD 011 – Ann Williams (D)
HD 012 – Sara Feigenholtz (D)
HD 013 – Greg Harris (D)
HD 014 – Kelly Cassidy (D)
HD 016 – Lou Lang (D)
HD 017 – Laura Fine (D)
HD 018 – Robyn Gabel (D)
HD 019 – Robert Martwick (D)
HD 021 – Rudy Lozano (D)
HD 024 – Elizabeth Hernandez (D)
HD 025 – Barbara Flynn Currie (D)
HD 026 – Christian Mitchell (D)
HD 027 – Monique Davis (D)
HD 028 – Robert Rita (D)
HD 029 – Thaddeus Jones (D)
HD 030 – Will Davis (D)
HD 034 – Elgie Sims, Jr. (D)
HD 035 – Fran Hurley (D)
HD 038 – Al Riley (D)
HD 039 – Maria “Toni” Berrios (D)
HD 040 – Deb Mell (D)
HD 043 – Keith Farnham (D)
HD 044 – Fred Crespo (D)
HD 050 – Kay Hatcher (R)
HD 056 – Michelle Mussman (D)
HD 057 – Elaine Nekritz (D)
HD 058 – Scott Drury (D)
HD 059 – Carol Sente (D)
HD 059 – Sidney Mathias (R)
HD 061 – Ed Erwin (D)
HD 067 – Charles Jefferson (D)
HD 068 – Carl Wasco (D)
HD 071 – Mike Smiddy (D)
HD 078 – Camille Lilly (D)
HD 080 – Anthony DeLuca (D)
HD 084 – Alex Arroyo (D)
HD 084 – Stephanie Kifowit (D)
HD 084 – Carol Cheney (D)
HD 085 – Emily McAsey (D)
HD 092 – Jehan Gordon (D)
HD 097 – Tom Cross (R)
HD 098 – Natalie Manley (D)
HD 103 – Naomi Jakobsson (D)
HD 114 – Eddie Lee Jackson (D)



Illinois Senate
S 01 – Tony Munoz (D)
S 02 – William Delgado (D)
S 03 – Mattie Hunter (D)
S 04 – Kimberly Lightford (D)
S 05 – Annazette Collins (D)
S 06 – John Cullerton (D)
S 07 – Heather Steans (D)
S 08 – Ira Silverstein (D)
S 09 – Daniel Biss (D)
S 09 – Mark Levine (R)
S 10 – John Mulroe (D)
S 11 – Martin Sandoval (D)
S 13 – Kwame Raoul (D)
S 14 – Emil Jones, Jr. (D)
S 16 – Jacqueline Collins (D)
S 17 – Donne Trotter (D)
S 20 – Iris Martinez (D)
S 22 – Michael Noland (D)
S 23 – Tom Cullerton (D)
S 26 – Amanda Howland (D)
S 28 – Dan Kotowski (D)
S 29 – Julie Morrison (D)
S 30 – Terry Link (D)
S 31 – Melinda Bush (D)
S 39 – Don Harmon (D)
S 40 – Toi Hutchinson (D)
S 42 – Linda Holmes (D)
S 46 – David Koehler (D)
S 52 – Mike Frerichs (D)
S 57 – James Clayborne, Jr. (D)

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District
Debra Shore (D)
Stella Black (D)
Kari Steele (D)

Judicial

Judge of the Supreme Court – 1st District, Fitzgerald Vacancy: Mary Jane Theis (D)

Judge of the 1st Appellate Court – 1st District, S. Cahill Vacancy: Mathias Delort (D), Mary Brigid Hayes (D)

Judge of the 1st Appellate Court – 1st District, Gallagher Vacancy: Marguerite Anne Quinn (D)

Judge of the 1st Appellate Court – 1st District, S. O’Brien Vacancy: Jesse Reyes (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County, Moran Vacancy: Russell Hartigan (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County, O’Mara Vacancy: Diann Karen Marsalek (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County, Pucinski Vacancy: Lorna Ellen Propes (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County, Simmons Vacancy: Michael Forti (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County, Stewart Vacancy: Deidre Baumann (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County 8th Subcircuit, Chiola Vacancy: Celia Louise Gamrath (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County 8th Subcircuit, Cole Vacancy: Brad Trowbridge (D), John Ehrlich (D), Helaine Berger (D), Ellis Levin (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County 8th Subcircuit, Durkin Roy Vacancy: Deborah Gubin (D), Sharon Finegan Patterson (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County 8th Subcircuit, A Vacancy: Laura Liu (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County 9th Subcircuit, Epstein Vacancy: Mary Trew (D), Abbey Fishman Romanek (D), Larry Axelrood (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County 10th Subcircuit, Locallo Vacancy: Thomas Allen (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court – Cook County 12th Subcircuit, Rochford Vacancy: Andrea Schleifer (D), James Murray (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court - 16thJudicial District 2nd Subcircuit, A Vacancy: John Dalton (D)

Judge of the Circuit Court - 19th Judicial Circuit 2nd Subcircuit, A Vacancy: Patricia Fix (D)



Additional endorsements will follow in the coming weeks - I will be looking forward to them!

If it is Personal PAC, Terry Cosgrove's Powerhouse of Planned Parenthood Plunder, I am against it. Nothing good comes from abortion or those who accept their bloody nonsense.

HT to a commenter at 19th Ward.com

Illinois DCFS Grants Abuse - granted by the Illinois Progressive Machine

Your Illinois Progressive Machine's Steve and Eydie

Some years ago, both Chicago newspapers and the blow-dried blow-hards on the idiot box took up the sanctimony and faux outrage over some Father John Smyth* who could not say no to helping any child and the fact that Illinois Department of Child and Family Services heaped the work of caring for children on his broad shoulders. Illinois "thought" about the children -Oh, My God!!! They are being cared for at Maryville and so many mental health professionals linked to the Illinois Progressive Machine are doing without!

Recently, in the wake of post-Blago hand-wringing there have been a few morsels in print concerning the looting of tax-payers' dollars via grants to DCHS providers -absent Father Smyth. Perhaps it had more to do with the fact that Father Smyth wore a stiff collar and black suit, but I tend to think that some in the media were upset over the confusing spelling of the man's last name.

An easier to sell more familiar Smith contracted up for grants without oversight.

A new Smith emerged - Dr. George E. Smith - a mental health professional with at least four companies doing a husky business with the State of Illinois.

Back in October, Chris Fusco and Dave McKinney trotted out the tale of old school improprieties that were long in place, but rocked a tad when State Sen. Ricky Hendon abruptly resigned following his impassioned work on Greg Harris's Religious Freedom and Civil Unions legislation -

While introducing Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, Hendon told the crowd that he had "never served with such an idiotic, racist, sexist, homophobic person in my life... If you think that women have no rights whatsoever, except to have his children, vote for Bill Brady. If you think gay and lesbian people need to be locked up and shot in the head, vote for Bill Brady." Hendon's remarks were immediately disavowed by Governor Quinn, among others, and Hendon was sharply criticized by members of the Illinois media. Hendon later tried to apologize to Brady on the Senate floor, but Brady would not accept his apology

One hand soaps up the other and hearty foam makes for lathery larder of opportunity!
Gay Lesbian Transgender BiSexual and Questioning issues and agenda link up with public pension deals, woman's need to commit infanticide, avoid the death penalty, right wrongful convictions and make sure that needy children all over Illinois provide mental health professionals the opportunity to lift at least $18 million dollars in grants to nowhere. If it is Progresively sanctioned it is costly, useless, and divisively combative, it always seems.

Rep. Greg Harris got his Civil Unions and immediately conducted a Father John Smyth on Illinois Catholic Social Services -stripped Catholic Charities of the right to direct adoptions of children by a husband and wife. Thus, clearing the path for more systemic opportunities, like those enjoyed by Dr. George E. Smith, it seems, and other Progressively networked grant grabbers.

Let's take a gander at this weekend's unconnected DCHS dots by Tribune Investigative reporters. Rickey Hendon seems absent since October and just who were the legislative God Daddies at Chicago State University anyway? One mght ask.

But Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza said the wrongdoing may go further, as the state only investigated contracts Smith held dating back to 2008. Smith has been doing businesses with the state since 1986.

“This investigation could literally have taken us another year-and-a-half or two to uncover,” Meza told House lawmakers. “There had to be a point at our office where we decided that we thought that even though we did not fully uncover every piece of misconduct that Dr. Smith may have engaged in, we had to issue the report.”

Pressed if it was possible that more than $18 million in tax dollars were misspent, Meza said, “I think that’s a fair statement…we may never know.”

The Illinois attorney general’s office is investigating in an attempt to recoup some of the money, and federal grand jury subpoenas have named some of Smith's companies among records sought from state agencies, including Diversified Behavioral Comprehensive Care.

Meza said the investigation’s scope was limited partly because agencies are only required to keep documents for three years, a timeline lawmakers said they will push to extend.

Legislators also said they will also seek changes to the state’s Ethics Act, which prevents many cases of wrongdoing by state workers from being made public. The allegations against Smith’s were laid out in a report that contended former DCFS director Erwin McEwen failed to properly oversee grants. McEwen and Smith are longtime friends, and McEwen eventually refused to cooperate with investigators.

Under the law, reports are made public if it leads to an employee being fired or being suspended for three or more days. McEwen resigned, but a lower-level employee was suspended for five days, leading to the report’s release by the Executive Ethics Commission.

The commission could have redacted the majority of the report not dealing with the suspended employee, but decided to make the findings public.

Lawmakers also lashed out against Gov. Pat Quinn for not firing McEwen when the administration received the initial report last May. Instead, McEwen was allowed to stay on the state payroll through September.

Quinn general counsel John Schomberg said the administration wanted to give McEwen “due process” and “provide for additional transition time” as it searched for a replacement.

Schomberg said ethics laws also placed the governor’s office “between a rock and a hard place” because if they fired McEwen, they were not allowed to say why until the report was made public.

It was an argument Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, found lacking.

“What does one have to do to get fired working for Gov. Quinn?” Franks said. “If it was the private sector you would have opened yourself up to lawsuits for absolutely negligence. And I think that’s what’s happened here.”

What does it take to get fired by Governor Quinn?

Why, the Okay of Terry Cosgrove, Barbara Flynn-Burris-Currie, Greg Harris, Dawn Clark-Netsch, Dr. Quentin Young and the legion of lesser lights of Progressive Illinois, you silly man.

By the way, Diversified Behavioral Comprehensive Care. ain't that a company name that just cries out for Progessive approval?

However, the smoke screen is up and wafting cover for these committed ninnies and their attendant swag-grabbers -everyone is huffing and puffing about Speaker Madigan, the only competant adult in Springfield.

If the news media was in anyway concerned they would look carefully at the Progressive Machine and witness some real villians at work doing some lusty looting.

No outrage over this here financial mess at DCFS from any Public Guardian? Well, judge not the protected few and thou shalt be a judge, I reckon.

*

Murphy has called Maryville "a financial mess," and two monitors for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services have called for a financial audit of the institution, which got $62 million last year from taxpayers. Maryville also has a $100 million endowment.


Smyth said he welcomes any scrutiny of Maryville's books and plans to comply with other demands the monitors made in a report that criticized the institution's treatment model as outdated. DCFS Director Bryan Samuels said Wednesday the monitors' suggestions must be met within 60 days or the state will remove 160 wards it has at Maryville's main campus.


"I have no problem with the 10 or 11 things DCFS has put into the contracts," Smyth said. "We'll meet them within 60 days, and that's plenty of time."


Those issues include the audit, staffing levels and better employee-retention policies for Maryville

http://chicagoist.com/2010/10/24/rickey_hendon_blasts_bill_brady_cal.php
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/10/quinn-disavows-hendon-comments-rips-brady-on-social-issues.html

http://www.rickross.com/reference/maryville/maryville1.html

Google Adsense Subtracts Catholics - Obama Counts on It.

In Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), the $22-billion-a-year online-advertising Goliath, Obama appears to have found a corporate kindred spirit. Google executives, led by CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, are scary smart and supremely self-confident (much like the President himself), and despite their company's growing power, they depict themselves as advocates for consumers.

"What we shared is a belief in changing the world from the bottom up, not from the top down," Obama told Google employees during a 2007 visit to its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Money.CNN.com

Google refused to allow advertisements on a Catholic Blog because Catholic was 'negative and pornographic.' Photos of Our Lady? Saints?

Can this be merely a coincidence? I have been using Google Blogger for a few years, as a writing pad. My penmanship, once rather nice, thanks to the Sisters of Mercy, deteriorated through decades of teaching, which requires the signing of quick-notes that began in 1975Please admit Gabriel Horn to 6th period, as he was enjoying full, rich flavor of Virginia tobacco in the second floor men's room, he should have been much more industrious and gone into the faculty men's room near the boiler room which goes unoccupied, until Sherwood changes the oil on # 3 bus, takes the Kankakee Daily Journal in with him and occupies that august currule chair until school dismissal. Thank You Hickey, English. and devolved to G.Horn >6th> PFH( indiscernible as a Doctor's note).

I write, as has been my practice, each and every morning. I don't get paid - I don't do ads.

Most Bloggers pick up candy and smokes money by offering Ads -on Google via AdSENSE.

The information highway offers more than communication and information. It is the Sears Roebuck of the World. It is also Slippery Dan's House of Knockers and Rumps.

Pornography has been with us since paleolithic man* smeared stuff on cave walls. Art is often pornographic and intrusively offensive like the Mapplethorpe and his disciples, which always manage to find cave space at the Guggenheim. I am an unsophisticated man.

I like Dogs Playing Poker and Pool, but I appreciate the contributions made to Art by people of Faith -Cimabue, Raphael, Giotto, Tintoretto & etc.

Art is always political and so, it seems is Google. I read this in Chicago Now of the Chicago Tribune.

A few days ago I put in an application to Google AdSense to be on my blog. What that means is there would be an ad on my blog, and if you click on that ad, I would get paid a little bit. I don't get paid now, so I thought it might be worth a shot.

I waited patiently as other bloggers got approved within hours in some cases or days. I finally contacted them and this was the response I got:

"Your ads are not serving to your site is because we have noticed you have
negative or pornographic content. Please remove this content and allow 48
hours for ads to begin serving. If you believe that your site has been
flagged incorrectly please let me know.

The Good Folks at Google

The blogger continued -

I've been writing this blog since November of 2010. I've never used a swear word in the headline. I've never put up an inappropriate picture. I have, however, written about being Catholic and what that has meant to me, my family and friends.

I have written about abortion and the scandal within our Church involving sexual misconduct by our priests. I wrote about my great niece making her First Communion and I've written about our choir's struggles to find another parish after our Pastor forced us out. I've written about the new translation and a myriad of other topics related to my Catholic faith.

Potentially negative, non-family safe or offensive to their advertisers? It that's the case, I have two words for Google AdSense and they are not God bless.

Filed under: Catholic, Religion

Nevertheless, I found this on Google -

“Fear Factor” producers’ plans to serve fresh glasses of donkey semen to contestants on the next episode had NBC execs so concerned … they gave serious thought to killing the stunt, TMZ has learned.
Sources involved in the production tell us the stomach-churning stunt was shot last summer — but NBC honchos were having a tough time swallowing this one as the air date approached.
We’re told the challenge involved teams of twins drinking the full glass of donkey semen — with a glass of urine thrown in for good measure. Contestants had to drain both glasses in order to move on to the next round.
Our sources say NBC execs had multiple pow-wows in the months after the stunt was shot … but eventually gave FF producers the thumbs up.
Calls to NBC were not immediately returned.
The episode airs this coming Monday — and yes, we’re told multiple contestants actually do (gulp) drink up.

Like I said, I am no sophisticate - De Gustibus Non Est Disputanum. I have yet to see Fear Factor, Jersey Shore, Kardshian Anything, Hard Core Porn of any kind.

Google cites Catholic Blog content as negative and pornographic. President Obama finds Catholics and the Catholic Faith equally as offensive and is on the offensive in support of Planned Parenthood and Gay Marriage. I am glad I take no Google coin - more so now.


What we shared is a belief in changing the world from the bottom up, not from the top down - Take down Catholics and the rest is easy.




http://www.ghanamma.com/2012/01/fear-factor-donkey-semen-makes-nbc-question-taste/

*

The cave man used the tools he found at hand. His pigments were ochre and manganese and iron dug from the earth and mixed with animal fat. Or charcoal, perhaps left from the same fires which burned to light the darkness of his cave. His canvas was the walls, floors and ceilings of his cavern home, often in large seemingly communal chambers, often in the deepest most difficult to access recesses. Occasionally he used stone or flint tools to engrave or carve a bas- relief. He sometimes employed the natural variation in the surface of the walls to achieve a three dimensional effect.

His subject? The things he knew best; the animals upon which he depended for food and clothing - his very existence. Those same animals which could mean danger and death. There are bison, deer, mammoth, ibex and wooly rhinoceros. Fish and horses and bear. He painted and he engraved single figures, animals in pairs, whole compositions. He overlapped lines or superimposed new figures over those of an earlier time or age. He painted too, human figures: male, female, anthropomorphic figures more crudely rendered than animals. He sometimes used his own hand as a stencil. Most intriguing of all he painted signs. Non- representational forms, repeated over and over in never-ending variation. These have been variously interpreted as sexual symbols, counting methods, architectural structures, lunar variations or depiction of plant life.

His style? A sense of freeness, a flowing, often sensitive line. An ease of composition. A oneness with his work. This early man, working by the light of charcoal fires or crude oil lamps often in the deepest, darkest recesses of his cave, produced an art form which seldom has been equaled to this day. A universal style - for similar drawing and identical themes are found in caves many hundreds of miles apart - symbols which continued, little changed, for 10,000 years.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/21/technology/obama_google.fortune/

Robert Emmett Tyrrell's Prescient Eye on Newt

Publisher Bob Tyrrell toyed with the idea of running for Mayor of Chicago, at the time that Rahm Emanuel was forced to go in his attic by Queen Sister and other local activists. The Fenwick Alumnus was kidding on the square, as he'd be a carpet-bagging interloper who spent most of his recent years in Washington D. C.; or was that Mayor Emanuel?

R. Emmett Tyrrell publishes the American Spectator, a marked contrast to the elitist friend of the working man The Nation, which has been a sanctimonious rag from the time it splashed ink at the order of William Lloyd Garrison.

Bob Tyrrell, though a Washington pundit, is a genuine West side Chicago-type of guy. He can spot a phony in crowd on Wiltshire Blvd. - "Them."

Our media, on the other hand, love phonies. The media are the 'Ain't They Great' cheerleaders. If a pick-pocket rails against Bosses, The Machine, Systemic Racism, Police Torture, and Reform, that cut-purse is born-again baptized a Progressive Aint He Great Icon.

If a nickle snitching GOP hack plays Bi-Partisan, he becomes a Patriot. Phonies abound, because most folks are pretty nice and they are far too busy working to make up the lost taxes looted by the Patriot and the Progressive to give them an earful.

I am a Democrat, but will not vote for President Obama - BFD. One man & one vote against Astro-Grassroots. I am voting against the horse, in order to dump the DNC cart ( Planned Parenthood, ACLU, SEIU, LGBTQ, LSMFT)

I could care less who the GOP Nominee happens to be, though I would prefer it to be Rick Santorum.

If the GOP nominee is Larry the Cable Guy, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Henry Waxman, Charlie Sheen, President Obama's Uncle Omar, Christine, or Rosie O'Donnell, Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Billy Paul, Billy Joel, Joy Behar, Joel Osteen, Framin' Eamon, The Badger Boylan, Wallace "Gator" Bradley, Vernon Supreme, Clyde Oakes, Newt, or Mitt he/she will have my complete support and vote assured. It is that important.

Mr. Tyrrell called Newt out years ago. and linked Newt to Bill "Bubba" Clinton - our first and only Black Hillbilly President.

After Newt’s and Bill’s disastrous experiences in government both went on to create empires, Bill in philanthropy and cheap thought, Newt in public policy and cheap thought. As an ex-president Bill has wrung up an unprecedented $75.6 million since absconding from the White House with White House loot and shameless pardons. I do not know how much Newt has amassed, but he got between $1.6 million to $1.8 million from Freddie Mac, and he lobbied for Medicare Part B while receiving, according to the Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney, “Big Bucks Pushing Corporate Welfare.” Now after a lifetime in Washington he is promoting himself as an outsider. . . . Back in 1992 I appeared with Chris Matthews on some gasbag’s television show. Was it Donohue? At any rate, I said candidate Clinton had more skeletons in his closet than a body snatcher. It was a prescient line then, and I always got a laugh. I can apply the same line today to Newt, though he has skeletons both inside and outside his closet.

Conservatives should not be surprised by the scandals that lie ahead, if they stick with him. Those of us, who raised the question of character in 1992, were confronted by an indignant Bill Clinton, treating the topic as a low blow. To listen to him, character was the “c” word of American politics. It was reprehensible to mention it. By now we know. Character matters. Paul, Santorum, and Romney have it. Newt has Clinton’s character.

Santorum and Romney have character, but President Obama will hand Romney his lunch, I am afraid.

Like I said, this election is far too important not to lose. R. Emmett pointed to the GOP phony, Newt. He is a phony and seems as comfortable being one as had President Clinton.

President Obama does not know, or believe that he is one. If character matters, . . . let's see.

Vernon Supreme Compared to President Obama Vernon (Vermin?) Supreme seems far less dangerous.

Whereas Fifty Alderman Voted Unanimously for a False Statement

Citizen Richard M. Daley and Ald. Joe Moore cheeks to jowls.
Alderman Joe Morre (D-49th Ward) is a silly goose. His fois gras ordinance stands as a national laughing stock that eclipsed even Blago in his salad days of infamy.

Here is a false, WHEREAS in Joe Moore's Torture Ban Ordinance -

WHEREAS, former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and Chicago police officers under his command tortured scores of African-American men, which resulted in false confessions leading to wrongful convictions and imprisonment; and . . . we get to and shortly.

Not one Chicago Police Officer, let alone Jon Burge, was convicted, let alone proven to have tortured anyone.
Perhaps, Joe might have said," WHEREAS, we the undersigned agree to the firm collective belief that "former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and Chicago police officers under his command tortured scores of African-American men, which resulted in false confessions leading to wrongful convictions and imprisonment," but that might not be chilling enough to inspire genuine citizen resolve to hang torture-ers and systemic racists universal!

Instead.

Jon Burge went to jail because of a slick legal maze created by Flint Taylor and used by the Feds under Fitzgerald.

Perjury Conviction - Yep.

Torture Convictions -Zero.

Therefore, WHEREAS Above as presented and voted upon is false, misleading, disembling, and nevertheless accepted.
Whicj leads us to "and WHEREAS" -

WHEREAS, the City of Chicago and its taxpayers have paid and continue to pay millions of dollars to defend lawsuits arising from those torturous acts;

and

Whereas, drop the nonsense, save the taxpayers some nickels and do some actual work.

At the end of the 19th Century, a French Army Officer was sent to Devil's Island, because Everyone Knew He Was Guilty. His wrongful imprisonment was overturned. I wonder if the Center for Wrongful Convictions might not want to look into Jon Burge's Federal Perjury Conviction, because there are ralroad tracks all over the place.

Jon Burge and Wrongful, Hurtful, Race-ful Law Enforcement we shall have with us always, because there is too much money for pettifogging Cadillac Commies at stake.

http://illinoiscat.wordpress.com/torture-free-chicago-resolution/

City Council Unanimously Votes Ban On Torture -Another Meaningless Bit of Self-Puffery by 50 Needy People

Sister Benita Coffey and the Coalitions she represents.

This morning, Chicago Tribune's opinion page featured another in the endless shower of Police Torture screeds. This was written by Bendictine Sister Benita Coffey and has all of the value of a Confederate $100 Bill.

Here is a taste:

Last week, the Chicago City Council unanimously passed a resolution against torture, a symbolic act, at best. Torture is inhumane, banned by the United Nations and most civilized nations, and is contrary to the core beliefs of the world's major religions.

So why are the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, the Illinois Coalition Against Torture and religious communities like mine lauding this as a historic event? We shouldn't have had to ask our elected officials to pass legislation proscribing torture. It seems to be basic common sense, instinctive human behavior to abhor torture. To inflict cruel and inhuman treatment is beneath us as human beings.

While applauding our city's leaders for making Chicago the first city in the nation to condemn torture, we are certainly not seeing our goal anywhere near being accomplished. This is one deliberate and necessary step. It will indeed be a long road to raise the consciousness of the general public that torture is a reality; it is happening and likely will continue until we demand that it stop.

If memory serves, Sister, Jesus joined no Coalition. Plenty of torture going around, his cousin got himself beheaded and all, but Jesus never signed up with the Sicarri, or Zealots, in their Coalition Against The Stooge Puppet King Herod and Roman Imperialists Masters and Crucifiers. Like Free Mumia, I recall that the crowd that demanded Jesus get a tune-up by the cohort prior to crucifixion, demanded Free Barabbas! Now, those folks were committed activists, Sister.

Sister decries the fact that the media paid not enough attention to her and the various coalitions. Sister, we have more Coalitions than Mount Carmel has football championship trophies and yet kids are murdered with impunity because lawyers get fat overturning convictions on meme that police torture, lie, intimidate and use saracasm.

Sister Benita Burge's Up -

The day also presented the opportunity for us to address another type of torture — prolonged solitary confinement. In Illinois, the Tamms Correctional Center is a supermax facility that incarcerates inmates in solitary confinement, often for months or years at a time, which mental health professionals define as torture. Here in Chicago, to our shame, former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge and officers under him tortured some 200 suspects to the point of confessing to crimes they did not commit. These victims were imprisoned while most of those who tortured, except Burge, who was convicted of a related crime, remain free.

Mental Health professionals? Incarceration of crazy thugs is torture - health care provided, educational opportunities abound, legal access to Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers, no to mention shelter, meals, and wardrobe; unlike the victims of these thugs, incarcerated under dirt until Judgement Day.

Sister Benita brings it home to Council and the Coalitions -This resolution declaring Chicago a torture-free city is a momentous occasion. We can be proud that our City Council can be called on to stand by its word and demand accountability if such violent treatment should ever again occur.

Sorry Sister, this is but another sanctimoniously meaningless bit of self-puffering from 50 people doing nothing meaningful, Sister.

Jon Burge was convicted of perjury after years of media bear-baiting and legal legerdemain.

G. Flint Taylor and legions of other fatuous opportunists have made fortunes by playing media, do-gooders and generations of young people completely unaquainted with the facts of the murders, arrests, convictions and subsequent judge shopping by Peoples Law Office, MacArthur Center for Justice, Loevy & Loevy.

There has been absolutely no proof of torture - hundreds of allegations and millions of dollars in payouts -but not one win in G.Flint Taylor's column.

Jon Burge was trapped in a legal maze created by time, judge shopping, media complicity and collective memory loss.

When torture appears, deal with it. That has yet to be proven. Truth is not something "We Can All Agree Upon." That is John Dewey.

There is much to pray for, Sister. Good people are up to their elbows helping young people read, write, add and subtract and somehow know that other people want to help them without lining their own pockets.

Praising a hollow and popular gesture like this means nothing and actually keeps the problems on our streets more than healthy. By the way, schools need teachers. I have not seen a nun here at Leo High School, in the heart Chicago's killing fields, in years. Facta Non Verba.


N. B. - do read Gregory Koger one of Sister Benita's Coalition Guys.

Here is Sister Benita's coalition pal's coda-“What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers.”—Karl Marx

And his Mission Statement:

The world today cries out for radical, fundamental change. . .
But the cruelest fact of all is this: IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY! For here is the glaring contradiction: in today’s world the production of things, and the distribution of the things produced, is overwhelmingly carried out by large numbers of people who work collectively and are organized in highly coordinated networks. At the foundation of this whole process is the proletariat, an international class which owns nothing, yet has created and works these massive socialized productive forces. These tremendous productive powers could enable humanity to not only meet the basic needs of every person on the planet, but to build a new society, with a whole different set of social relations and values…a society where all people could truly and fully flourish together.

—Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

Here are the City Council Coalitions, Speakers and Advocates:

Speakers at the press conference and hearing included: Congressman Danny Davis; Flint Taylor, attorney with the People’s Law Office who has been instrumental in seeking justice for the men tortured by Chicago police commander John Burge; Dr. Frank Summers, psychologist who lead the fight within the APA to bar psychologists from participating in interrogations and torture in Guantanamo; Cherif Bassiouni, United Nations war crimes expert; Melinda Power and Margaret Power, Illinois Coalition Against Torture; Mary Lynn Everson, Marjorie Kovler Center; Sr. Benita Coffey, representing the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT); Laurie Jo Reynolds, activist with Tamms Year Ten; Mario Venegas, Chilean survivor of torture under Pinochet; Mark Clements, Burge torture survivor; Mary L. Johnson, mother of a Burge torture victim and inmate at Tamms Correctional Center, as well as several other mothers of Burge torture survivors; and Wallace “Gator” Bradley, who spoke to the use of torture in the federal ADX supermax prison.

http://gregorykoger.com/ Charming Coalition.

Tales of the South Side - Police Officer George Newell and the Temptations

The "Classic 5" lineup of The Temptations: David Ruffin (bottom left), Melvin Franklin (top left), Paul Williams (top right), Otis Williams (bottom right), and Eddie Kendricks (center) circa 1965.

Chicago Police Officer George Newell* is a man of parts - husband & father, public safety professional, Leo Alumnus and civic minded neighbor.

I did not know until last night that George also drinks deeply from the Pierian Spring.

"You have two books out, Hickey."

Indeed, and read by tens of people.

" I wrote a study of the Temptations, the Temptin' Ts. This woman from a publishing house in New York liked my proposal and I submitted the manuscript: six hundred pages with notes and photos."

Hey, that's wonderful George. You are among the Leo Literary Lions, Dr. Lawrence McCaffery of Loyola authored many books on Irish history, Paul Somers is the author of the history of Lake Michigan Aircraft Carriers of WWII, Dr. Jack O'Keefe has published two best-selling novels and former Fire Commissioner Jim Joyce has a book about life on 79th Street in publication. You are standing in tall company with your brother Lions.

" There's a problem."

There always is in bringing any book to full-term, George.

" The publisher has a problem with my book. I love The Temptations!"

Who could not?

" I concentrated on the early years of the group. I tried to make a case for the cause of the many splits and personnel changes in the group, substance abuse, creative shifts in the R & B genre, the clash of ego, the train wreck of celebrity, the racism in the recoding industry."

All good topics of focus. What was the problem? Were they looking for a substantial treatment on some other point of discussion?

" No, they liked where I took the ideas fine."

Were there problems with point of view?

" No. not at all."

Was there a problem with your format?

"No, I handled that well - one-inch margins on all sides;double-space;courier or new courier font; no smaller than twelve-pitch; no more than 26 lines per page all that was fine."

What did they tell you was the problem?

"It was just my Pagination . . . running away with me!"

Uh,huh.

I continue to be a Ball of Confusion, much like the world today, Hey. Hey.

The hook slipped nicely into my gills; set with authority. George boated another fine bass-hole.

In the sobering words of the Dublin prose genius, Flann O'Brien, " out such events weaves the pattern of what I am pleased to call my life."


*

Newell, 45, of Morgan Park, has lived in the 19th Ward for 15 years with his wife and son, who attends Morgan Park High School. He grew up at 95th and Sangamon streets and attended St. Margaret of Scotland Elementary School and Leo High School. He has been an officer for 20 years, including the last nine with the 22nd District. He currently works as a school resource officer at Percy L. Julian High School.

19th Ward.com

Pat Quinn Will Name Jan Schakowsky to Kirk's Senate Seat

President Obama grabbed the box of nickels before the outraged Jan and the two flannel-mouths could snag it.

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) joined Governor of Illinois Pat Quinn in announcing that the U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded $186 million in high speed rail funding to finance track and other improvements on the Chicago to St. Louis corridor between Dwight and Joliet. Earlier today, the Department of Transportation notified Congressional Appropriators that they have reprogrammed $400 million of the $2 billion in funding that was rejected by the governor of Florida.

High Speedrail's Connect Midwest is the Place to draw the likely conclusions in Illinois.

Following the flowers, cards, and stuffed animals, the stroke-surviving U.S. Senator Mark Kirk can expect a visit from Governor Pat Quinn and Lt. GUV & 5-String Banjo Sheila Simon. It will begin with -

Guv Christian " Hey Mark! How's the guy? Terry Cosgrove sent his best. Listen, you ain't no Gabby Giffords and we really need to make play for the spot. Boy, that is some good looking Salisbury Steak and green jello. Thought it was a piece of leg-o-lamb. Anyway, since you'll be laid up and all, I'm naming Jan Schakowsky to your spot."

Lt. Guv Plucky Simon "Ain't she great? Just great, really terrific, couldn't be better, I'll give her Dad's ties. . . ."

Guv. Christian -" What's that Mark? You're not making sense. . .gotta go. Get some rest. Thanks for the help in D.C.!"


In the Land of Lincoln, where if it is goofy, or contra natura things MUST be evolved -you know -chic, dashing, elegant, exclusive, fashionable, high-class, in, in vogue, mod , modish, posh, select, sharp, superior, swank, swanky, tony, uptown - it makes no sense at all to appoint someone from the GOP to Kirk's seat in the Senate.

Remember all that flapdoodle that Pat and his boss Rod the Convicted had when they went and named Roland Burris to President Obama's Seat? Lord Ha' Mercy! Same Party, Same Race Same Gender, as Senator/President Obama! Huge Mistake!

Well Governor Christian Quinn, Praise Jesus, has an opportunity to use his cookie sheet intellectual depth and after thinking above the envelop will realize that naming a woman from the opposite Party, opposite gender and another race, makes perfect sense, as does Gay Marriage, borrowing more on the debt, giving raises to political cronies and appointing Terry Cosgrove to anything.

It is time; Illinois is evolved! Illinois demands a woman with the same capacity for clear Quinn-esque thought and ubiquitous own-horn-blowing.

Quinn could appoint Congressman Quigley, Kirk's Damon to his Pythias, or Damon to an Affleck, depending upon your own personal cultural context, but that would be too patriarchal and Old Boys-ish. Dawn Clark Netsch, with panties a-twist in high dudgeon, would give Governor Christian a sound dressing down, make no mistake -not to mention the ire of Carol Marin and Toni Preckwinkle.

Nope, Pat Quinn is as predictable as a doctor's note in a pot-head's pocket. He will go with Jan Schakowsky as Illinois' First Non-African-American Woman Roland Burris!

What go possibly go wrong with that?

Ask the High Speed Rail Boys!

Gee, I hope this early prediction spoils not the prize.

A Church the World Hates Welcomes All- Father Tony Brankin

If I were not a Catholic, and were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world; in other words, I would look for the Church which the world hates.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

The priest from El Paso . . .Illinois, who studied for Holy Orders at the old St. Viator's College ( Olivet University) in Bourbonnais, Illinois, and became the Bishop of Rochester, NY, as well as a television celebrity in the 1950's was a good one. Fulton J. Sheen, like the magnificent athlete/priest/bishop Bernard Sheil of Chicago is pretty much banished from popular imagination. Who they?

Well, they were no Bill Maher, or Simon Cowell, nor were they self-proclaimed community activists. Neither was Jesus. He was an apprentice Jewish carpenter and the Son of God.

Shiel and Sheen were energetic servants.

The world is beautiful. It is people who want to advertise for profit who throw up the hideously intrusive billboards along life's highway.

The TGIF Obama Presidency is the Mandate America Administration. Last Friday, always trot out bad news on Friday, mandates that "private insurance provide contraception and the abortion pill for ‘free’, which means insurance rates will go up and that all Americans will end up paying for it, no matter how disgusted you are by abortion."

Our popular culture comes not from building cathedrals as community, developing a synthesis of great thought from the ancients on of the Gospels, or Scripture. Rather, popular culture happens to be what is on an editorial page crafted by group think artisans, or what is available on cable. Oprah is Aquinas and Bill Maher is Chaucer.

Students are walked away from Western Civilization and begin the study of history at the end of the 19th Century. Truth is "a proposition is a plan of action and that it is only judged true when that plan of action has proven successful when put into action." Truth is a moveable feast.

Truth is tougher, it seems to me.

Last week in the Parish bulletin of St. Odilo's in Berwyn, IL, Father Tony Brankin, a Chicago Catholic priest, musician* and sculptor, offered this:

The people in charge of the culture—the newspapers and television—even the modern professors in the universities and seminaries—anyone who owned a microphone or stood in a pulpit or sat at a desk in a classroom told us that the
Catholic Church was no longer to be considered the One True Church. They told us that the Catholic Church did not have a special position in the mind of God nor in the hearts of the people. They persuaded us to believe that the Catholic Church—even though historically we knew that it was the one that Jesus Himself had founded—had no more authority than any other group or club or organization. They told us that every teacher—every speaker—everyone—all groups—all opinions—all teachings were equally capable of being right or wrong.

Oh, and it worked. We have all been damaged by this campaign against the uniqueness and authority of the Catholic Church. As moderns we have been made to think that possibly all religions are equal. How many times do we hear them say on television or in some movie or in some discussion on the radio that all faiths are paths to heaven—and that none is better than another? The problem is that if we hear this enough—we begin to believe it. We think that maybe they are right. It sounds so gentle and simple to say all religions will take us to God —Blah blah blah.

In fact, we have been brain-washed into thinking that we cannot even discover the Truth—either about God—or about His will for us—or about anything for that matter. The movers and shakers of our world, you know, the celebrities and politicians, as well as the ones who write the commercials and the scripts of all the shows we watch—the ones who teach us and our children what is important and what is not important—they want us to believe that we cannot find any kind of truth—because truth—they would say—does not even exist.

You say something long enough and loud enough and with enough of a crowd behind you and it becomes Truth, in the Dewey mold: Gay Marriage is same as Marriage, Choice is Woman's Reproductive Health, Promiscuity as no consequences, only treatments, and 1% is way too many.

Catholics are not homophobic, do not hate women, nor are they slaves to a Roman Master, of German parents, who wears a funny hat.

Father Brankin is not a priest that the media invites to share opinions on WLS, WTTW, or with the columnists and editorial boards of our surviving newspapers. Truth is a hard and answers are easy. You need an Progressively cached activist priest or nun, who fights for gay marriage, better and more abortions, and the ordination of women for easy answers to Dewey's agreeably verifiable conclusions to inquiry.

Father Brankin, like Bishops Sheil and Sheen, takes the tough road and beauty of living outshines the billboards, slogans and memes and he concludes with an invitation to all, not a mandate, a welcome to unity -

There are elements of truth in many faiths. If someone who is not Catholic believes that Jesus Christ is God and Man and the savior who died on the cross and rose from the dead—well, of course, that is correct, and that will help that person get to heaven. But if someone who is not Catholic denies things that Catholics believe, well, that might make it more difficult for that person to get to heaven. If, for example, a Muslim believes that God wants us to destroy our enemies and that a person
will go to heaven if he commits suicide and kills many people along with himself—how is that the same as saying that it is God’s will to love our enemies? In other words how does suicide and ritual murder help us get to heaven in the same way that loving our enemies gets us to heaven?

Again, suppose someone says that they don’t believe what the Catholic Church teaches about life and love. They believe, for example, that there is nothing wrong with artificial birth control. Well, they will have a very difficult time explaining to their children (or even to themselves) why pre-marital intimacy is wrong or why extra-marital intimacy is wrong—or even why abortion is wrong or why gay marriage is wrong. And if they do not believe what the Catholic Church teaches about life and love—basically that love is very much about having babies—then they will be forced by the logic of their unbelief to accept every other kind of immoral behavior—
unfaithfulness and promiscuity and a life of sin, homosexual behavior, pederasty, incest.

Not believing in Catholic truths necessarily makes it more difficult for non-believers to save their souls. I am talking about all this today because Wednesday we begin “Church Unity Octave week”. This is eight days in which
we are asked by the Church to pray as fervently as possible that those who are outside the Catholic Church may—to put it simply—become Catholic.

We pray that atheists may come to believe in God—that Pagans may learn of the true God. We hope that Jews will accept Jesus, and that Protestants (the so called “Christians”) would begin to understand the fullness of Revelation as
it is found in the One True Church, the Catholic Church. Most of the time—because of modern influences—we think that Catholics must relate to other religions by simply
celebrating our differences. But that is really not enough—nor is it honest.
People need to know—for their own sake— that there is such a thing as Truth—and that there is a true God and a true religion—and all of it will be found in the Catholic Church. If we love our brothers and sisters——then we should want them to get to heaven by belonging to the faith that will help them get to heaven.

We must do everything possible—prayer, example, and willingness to witness to the Truth of our religion—in order to bring them to the fullness of truth—in the One True Catholic faith. Because in that Oneness is Truth and in that Truth is salvation .

Life is beautiful without the billboards obscuring the view.

* edited update thanks to Leo Man Bob Hylard:
pat ..as you know fr.brankin is also a devotee of irish music as well his sculptoring..i'm happy to say my daughter lynn has one of his handmade irish harps.[ a beauty ]..my mother-in-law lived in st.thomas more and was totally dedicated to the man ..fr.brankin would sometimes borrow the harp to duplicate its' style for another would be harpo marx..lynn is quite good at the harp but it's too heavy to carry downtown for street music...


http://www.prolife.com/BIRTHCNT.html

On My Way to Peggy Kinnane's! Houli's There Wednesday Night, So I Gotta Beat Feet!

I'm as short on carfare as I am on the Cardinal Virtues; therefore, I had better beat feet, take it on Arthur Duffy, hit the bricks, start walking, motor this voter, make movin' behoovin', set sail these barques of mine, toe it north and ease west, hike to Houli* at Peggy Kinane's!

Okay, get snacks and water. Wake the mules and check my directions -

1. Head north on S Rockwell St toward W 107th St
0.1 mi
2. Turn right onto W 107th St
0.2 mi
3. Turn left onto S Western Ave
1.6 mi
4. Slight right to stay on S Western Ave
13.4 mi
5. Turn left onto N Milwaukee Ave
5.7 mi
6. Turn left onto N Northwest Hwy
7.0 mi
7. Continue onto Rand Rd
1.7 mi
8. Turn left onto Seegers Rd
0.7 mi
9. Turn left onto N Broadway St/Seegers Rd
66 ft
10. Turn right onto US-14 W
4.3 mi
11. Turn left onto N Evergreen Ave
354 ft
12. Turn right onto E Campbell St
Destination will be on the right

I'm OFF!




The fun begins at 7PM and Houlihan will tell some preposterous stories from his celebrated book and hold court at this legendary Irish pub till 9PM. Mike is offering all Peggy Kinnane's patrons a 60% discount on the price of his book that night!

Stop into Peggy Kinnane's for some Hooliganism and kick off your St. Patrick's Day shenanigans early. Peggy Kinnane's is located at 8 N. Vail Avenue in Arlington Heights. For more information. Call 847-577-7733.

Stop in and yuck it up with Renaissance Man Mike Houlihan - the man is busier than a retarded kitten trying bury cat poop on a marble floor.

*Mike Houlihan is an award winning writer, actor, producer, director, filmmaker, radio host, and journalist. He began his professional career in 1973 with The American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, CT and has appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, on television, major motion pictures, our nations largest newspapers, periodicals, and bathroom walls. For more info please go to his websites, TapiocaTheMovie.com, ouririshcousins.com and skinnyhouli.com.

Archbishop Dagger Tim Dolan Calls Catholics to Fight Obama's "Choice" Mandate

President Obama loves to toss out Civil War rhetoric and links. His Choice Mandate demanding that contraceptive and abortifacient pills get shoved down everyone's throat, is reminiscent of 1863.

In 1863, Abe Lincoln sent Federal troops fresh from killing fields of Gettysburg to stop the Draft Riots in New York. The riots continued with great loss of life. Archbishop John " Dagger John" Hughes, spiritual Shepherd of the Catholic immigrant flock was doing the rioting in protest to unfair military conscription ( Micks in the Army; Yanks buy out of service), who was dying after decades of spiritual and temporal combat against Nativist hatred of Catholics, said this to rioters

-“Men! I am not able, owing to the rheumatism in my limbs to visit you, but that is not a reason why you should not pay me a visit in your whole strength. Come, then, tomorrow, Friday at 2 o’clock to my residence, northwest corner of Madison Avenue and Thirty-sixth Street. There is abundant space for the meeting, around my house. I can address you from the corner balcony. If I should not be able to stand during its delivery, you will permit me to address you sitting; my voice is much stronger than my limbs. I take upon myself the responsibility of assuring you, that in paying me this visit or in retiring from it, you shall not be disturbed by any exhibition of municipal or military presence. You who are Catholics, or as many of you as are, having a right to visit your bishop without molestation.”

As good as his word, the dying prelate addressed a crowd of 5,000 the next day.

The riots ended.

Words matter, only when conviction and steel resolve give them legs.

When two of " Dagger" John's Irish born priests challenged his knowledge of Canon Law, the bishop thundered -"I will show you County Monaghan canon law. I will send you back to the bogs whence you came!"

In the 1970's, had one Catholic bishop the sand and soul of Archbishop Dagger John Hughes - Roe v. Wade would have been a foot-note in history instead of the murderously flawed Supreme Court Ruling that has sapped the American Soul of its worth.

Now, after years of mincing and simpering parsing prelates, Catholic bishops are standing strong. Cardinal George in Chicago has been ambushed and flayed by the Gay Mafia and always comes back swinging. Denver's Archbishop Charles Chaput has stood for Catholic doctrine and moral teaching as have Illinois Bishop Listecki and Seattle's Bishop Sartain. One young Cardinal Designate is filling the long and wide shoes of Dagger John

Cardinal designate, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York challenges Catholics to figh the Obama Choice Mandate announced by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebilius on Friday, January 20, 2012.

This is serious assault on religious liberty, the most abortion happy and intolerant President in American history. Dagger Tim Dolan's words will have little impact upon Jersey Shore Catholics, those who fully believe that souls don't vote and abortion is a health civil right. It may however energize Catholics like me who generally vote Democrat and have given too long a pass to cream puff Catholics like Illinois Governor Quinn, Sen. Dick Durbin, Lisa Madigan and others of their ilk. If the life of the unborn child can be treated as no more than tissue to be torn, save your pieties on anything else.

President Obama is tone deaf to Americans, having had his ear cocked to the Planned Parenthood, secularist Victrola from the day he landed in Chicago. When all you want to hear is how transformationally soaring and thigh tingling you are from spin wizards and sycophants, it is pretty tough to hear what real people are saying. That said, a capable man wants to hear from the people.

Let's speak and see if he cocks his arrogant noggin our way.

Keep at them Dagger Tim!

“Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience. This shouldn’t happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights,” Cardinal-designate Dolan said.

On January 20, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Health and Human Services, announced that non-profit employers will have one year to comply with the new rule.

Cardinal-designate Dolan urged Catholics and the public at large to speak out in protest.

“Let your elected leaders know that you want religious liberty and rights of conscience restored and that you want the administration’s contraceptive mandate rescinded,” he said

Do to this link for the video -

http://bcove.me/ob5itz9v

http://the-american-catholic.com/2009/02/11/honest-abe-and-dagger-john/

http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Dagger-John-Archbishop-John-Hughes-Pat-McNamara-1-18-2011?offset=1&max=1

Abortion Trail Boss Sara Paretsky - All Hat; All Prattle

The Chicago Tribune offers no less a voice on Obama's Choice Mandate than crime writer Sara Paretsky. Mrs. Paretsky is the author of the V.I. Warshawski novels. V. I. Warshawsky is female shamus, gum shoe, private dick, snoop, transom climber whose name combines V. I. Lenin, a eugenics pioneer of the last century, and the iconic Warshawsky's Auto Junk Yard on Archer Avenue. V.I. Warshawsky is a feminist tough gal from the 10th Ward ( Hegewisch and South Chicago)who is mentored by a doctor ( perinatologist - guess what she do?) who runs a woman's health clinic often beset by anti-abortion activists ( Bitter Medicine 1987 and others). V.I. Warshawsky is a lawyer and former member of the Cook County States Attorney's Office who gets on the case of patriarchal cops, corporate 1%-ers, and hateful Catholics.

Parestky's books sell. I read one (Blood Shot 1988)which deals with bad, powerfully patriarchal, environmentally hateful, corrupt anti-recycling politicians meant to mirror Ed Vrdolyak - less than close. It ain't Raymond Chandler.

Today, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a statement finalizing the rule that requires insurance plans to provide coverage for contraception without charging a co-pay, co-insurance or a deductibles.

It wasn’t always a sure deal. Back in August, HHS adopted the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation to include family-planning services as one of the preventive health care items for women that must be covered by newly issued health plans, but it was only an interim rule, subject to comments.

In November, there was a lot of worry about whether the decision that contraception should be a covered preventive service under the Affordable Care Act would survive. President Obama met with Roman Catholic bishops, and one of them came away saying, “I left there feeling a bit more at peace about this issue than when I entered.”

Our Bodies, Ourselves.org January 20, 2012

Today, one would think that Tribune editor Bruce Dold had snagged Leo Tolstoy to chirp up Obama's Choice (abortion) Mandate, given the editorial trumpeting.
From The jump, Sara Paretsky goes to the heart of the issue - herself

Sunday marks the 30th anniversary of my first novel. It was synchronicity, perhaps, that V I Warshawski was born on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Like Roe, though in smaller ways, V I has helped change women's lives. Justice William Brennan, writing for the U.S. Supreme Court, believed (as I believe) that women are full citizens and moral agents, able to make decisions without a father, a church or legislator telling us what to do.

In V I's early years, I got some ugly letters, including one that said V I should be beaten for talking back to men. But for most readers, V I came as a breath of fresh air. She was a woman who granted other women permission to solve their own problems and live their own lives as well or ill as they could.

Justice Brennan's words, which challenged the ancient notion that women are not as human as men, have not fared as well. In myth, song and Congress, we are often described as animals. During the 1996 debates over welfare reform, Republicans characterized women as "alligators," "cats" and "wolves."

Aligators, cats and wolves? Can't say as I recall that particular Americanization of Similes.

Well, Sara should sell some of her books, if not the Choice Mandate that requires contraception and abortion ( abortifacients) get into the hands of all fertile women-folks.

Seems odd that Choice is forced.

Then, again, Our Bodies, Our Fertility seems no less important a document than Our Bodies, Or Selves 1971 by the gals at the Boston Woman's Health Collective.

Our Bodies, Our Selves

Our Bodies, Ourselves is the resource that women of all ages turn to for information about their bodies, sexuality, and reproductive health. Completely revised and updated, these pages provide women with the information and tools they need to make key health decisions—accurate, evidence-based information, input from leading experts, and personal stories from women who share their experiences. This new edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves includes the latest vital information on:
• CHANGES IN THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM—especially how health care reform affects women and how to get the care you need.

• SAFER SEX—how to engage in pleasurable, satisfying sexual experiences while protecting your health and the health of your partner.

• ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RISKS—including minimizing exposure to everyday pollutants that endanger reproductive health.

• BODY IMAGE—resisting negative media stereotypes and embracing healthier approaches to looking and feeling good.

• LOCAL AND GLOBAL ACTIVISM—using social media and organizing tactics to build community and advocate for policies that improve women’s lives. • As well as crucial information about gender identity, sexual orientation, birth control, abortion, pregnancy and birth, perimenopause, and sexuality and sexual health as we age.

Together with its companion website, ourbodiesourselves.org, Our Bodies, Ourselves is a one-stop resource for women of all generations.

What's Behind Obama's 'Choice" Mandate? The Brook Farm's Bovine Leavings.

The Obamacare regulation gives faith-based institutions, like Catholic universities and hospitals, the choice of violating the fundamental tenets of their faith by covering the federally mandated coverage in their employee health plans, or of dropping health insurance for their employees — in which case they would be fined for violating the employer mandate.

Grace-Marie Turner


Catholics Suck!

I know that in the opinion of the Obama voter, I most certainly do. Catholics have always sucked; unless of course Catholics controlled the vote, the working and middle classes, and the wide world of sports.

In the 19th Century, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne,Lyman and Harriet Beecher-Stowe, Fredrick Douglas, Honest Abe Lincoln, William Lloyd Garrison, and Lyman Trumbull detested Roman Catholics. Jane Addams, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Dubois, Roger Baldwin, Margaret Sanger, John Dewey, Upton Sinclair, Sinclair Lewis, and Henry Wallace hated Catholics with a purity that made the KKK seem like Quakers. This last group of sweethearts created the machinery of eugenics and Hegelian power politics - Planned Parenthood and American Civil Liberties Union.

In the 19th Century the romantics ( Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne et. al) lived a communal experiment called the Brook Farm Movement under a Unitarian minister and hs bribe George and Sophia Ripley - believe it or not. Rev. Mr. Ripley and his disciples followed the teachings of secular socialist Charles Fourier. Flourier became in the words of Brook Farmers "A Second Coming of Christ."

One brilliant and religion hopping seeker (Congregationalist, Methodist, Unitarian, Baptist, Brook Farmer) was Orestes Brownson a genius no public school child has ever heard of - he is buried in the chapel of the Sacred Heart at University of Notre Dame, of all places. Brownson wrote this of Brook Farm -"the atmosphere of the place is horrible. To save money, "retrenchments", or sacrifices, were called for, particularly at the dinner table. Meat, coffee, tea, and butter were no longer offered, though it was agreed that a separate table with meat be allowed in December 1844. That Thanksgiving, a neighbor had donated a turkey." Orestes Brownson converted to Roman Catholicism and became editor for the Paulist Fathers and the Quarterly Review America's greatest Catholic newspaper.

Brownson and other Brook Farm Transcendentalist converted to Catholicism, in recognition of the secularist and communistic Utopian nonsense at the core of their beliefs. Mrs. Ripley became a Catholic; how's that for irony? One Brook Farm apologist complained -"We are beginning to see wooden crosses around and pictures of saints... and I suspect that rosaries are rattling under aprons." Dang!

Brownson recognized the egotistical American intellectual romantics need to be little gods - he termed this Odinism. Much of this can be witnessed in the more radical Native American quasi-religious rites and rituals, or in the Amnesty for Illegals Movement.

Brook Farm failed, but that never stops and egomaniac. Egoism does not work in Catholicism - humility does. We do not make the rules to suit or immediate needs - we don't go around Congress as it were. As Orestes Brownson wrote, The Catholic Church is not the divinely constituted representative of the spiritual order on earth.

Secularist egoists believe that.

President Obama carries water for the American intellectual traditions rooted in a failure Brook Farm and re-organized sub rosa in the 20th Century by egoistic secular Progressives, and Incorporated in the agencies that control the American Democratic National Committee, universities, media and radical interests.

Choice means Abortion.

Choice is an Obama Mandate that can't wait . . .well at least not until after the 2012 election.

This is nothing new. It is the same old egotistical ( WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD!)cow pies that littered Brook Farm. As the great N.D. football coach,Frank Leahy said,“Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/288756/religious-liberty-latest-target-obamacare-grace-marie-turner

Obama's Choice Mandate - War on Catholics; Well, Not All Catholics.

Notre Dame 's Choice Planned Parenthood's President Barack Obama


The President, wholly owned by Planned Parenthood, which has owned the Democratic National Committee for decades, mandates Choice.

Choice is a euphemism for Abortion which is the engine that drives Planned Parenthood.

Choice's smokescreen is women's reproductive health.

Women's reproductive health employs contraception - largely birth control pills, but also schoolyard condoms for kids and also . . . abortion, because, after all they are kids.

Kathleen Seblius, the Kansas Mauler herself, a Birth Catholic and a Planned Parenthood owned politician, directs all Health and Human Services for Planned Parenthood's first President, Barack H. Obama. Sebilius, speaking for Planned Parenthood, the folks who use abortion to make sure that 'unwanted' children are murdered, trotted out the announcement that Choice is a Federal Mandate:

Planned Parenthood Federation of America and other women’s advocates had been worried the White House would broaden the list of employers that were exempt from the requirement. They expressed relief that the White House stuck to the basic policy.

“This common-sense decision means that millions of women, who would otherwise pay $15 to $50 a month, will have access to affordable birth control, helping to save hundreds of dollars each year,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood.

The decision was a setback for social conservatives, Republicans and especially the U.S. Conference of Bishops, which criticized the requirement as a violation of religious liberty.

I am a life-long Catholic, more trouble than I am probably worth, but a Catholic. Abortion is and always be murder. It is premeditated murder - choice after all.

The U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops issued a very strong condemnation of Obama's Choice Mandate and said, in effect, to take his one year extension and place it in its proper aperture.

Washington: The Catholic Bishops of the United States called “literally unconscionable” a decision by the Obama Administration to continue to demand that sterilization, abortifacients and contraception be included in virtually all health plans. Today’s announcement means that this mandate and its very narrow exemption will not change at all; instead there will only be a delay in enforcement against some employers.

“In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences,” said Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The cardinal-designate continued, “To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their healthcare is literally unconscionable. It is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom. Historically this represents a challenge and a compromise of our religious liberty.”

The HHS rule requires that sterilization and contraception — including controversial abortifacients — be included among “preventive services” coverage in almost every healthcare plan available to Americans. “The government should not force Americans to act as if pregnancy is a disease to be prevented at all costs,” added Cardinal-designate Dolan.

At issue, the U.S. bishops and other religious leaders insist, is the survival of a cornerstone constitutionally protected freedom that ensures respect for the conscience of Catholics and all other Americans.

Back in the day, Barack Obama followed orders from Emil Jones and Mike Madigan. Obama took no risks.

Barack Obama has always done exactly what he has been told, but only by some of the most screwed up people in Florsheims and Jimmy Choo's - Rod Blagojevich, Tony Rezko, Miner & Davis, Frank Marshall, Rachel Maddow, Valerie Jarret, Samantha "Irish Arab-Spring:PowersJan Schakowsky and Bob Creamer, Katha Pollitt, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Frank Rich, The Journolistas, Jeremiah Wright, Dawn Clark Netsch, Van Jones, Desiree Rogers, Andy Stern, Georgie Soros, . . . ad infinitum.

Obama could care less about Catholics or their bishops.

Catholics are in for some ugly days ahead, unless they are Catholics like Dick Durbin, Kathy Sebilius, and Pat Quinn.

Catholics have two guys with steel in the soul - Archbishop Tim Dolan of New York and Francis Cardinal George. Archbishop Dolan and Chicago's Cardinal George will take most of the hits. They are up to it.

See you at Mass.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/la-pn-religious-groups-extra-year-to-comply-with-birth-control-rule-20120120,0,3542705.story