Whether a Saint, or a Louse, Why The Pope Matters

 St. Peter crucified upside down.

The first pope, as we Catholics understand the office in its infancy, was Saint Peter. He was a man of rare insight and rank cowardice, identifying Jesus as the Christ and then denying him three times when threatened with reprisal. Peter was restored to grace and then some. It was his acceptance that allowed Christianity to spread from Jews to the rest of the known world. He himself went on to Rome and, unwilling to deny Jesus yet again, was martyred there. That is what all the fuss over today's conclave is about.

 In one of the most succinct and wise couple of sentences, Jeremy Lott, an American historian sums up the importance of the Papal Conclave and the election of a Pope and asks the question 'What if We Get a Bad Pope?'  The answer - 'could be.'

We'll get through.  Our national conclave just re-elected a very bad President and the Holy Spirit was neutral on that one, in my opinion.

Chicago is a Catholic town; yet, the very papers delivered to Catholics's doors, features broadcast on Local television stations and a few radio outlets delight in diminishing Catholics, their Doctrine and their clergy.  The slant is invariably that Catholics have, or should have evolved to embrace abortion, bless promiscuity and demand to re-define the sacrament of marriage and not merely ignore their Faith.

Gay Marriage and Abortion are never going find themselves walking hand-in-hand on the Sunny Side of History with Catholics. However many Catholics will go along to get along and some will work the other side  of the boulevard with Planned Parenthood and Gay Marriage. Senator Dick Durbin is reputed to be one of the most, if not the most powerful Democrats in America and he is rock-solid behind abortion and the redefinition of marriage and family.

Any time I see Senator Durbin I am reminded of the Notre Dame Irish Catholic mystique:



There will be those who wear "Catholic" like a hideous Kelly Green plastic derby with a ChIRish button afixed to its forefront on a particular ethnic holiday, not unlike Senator Dithering Dick Durbin whom I witnessed elbowing his way through the families of First Responders in order to cozy-up to Mount Carmel Football Coaches at the recent South Side Irish Parade.

Durbin sailed past the Knights of Columbus who were one of the lead floats. They had Pro-Life banners festooning the Columbian Galley float.  Mount Carmel High School has claimed so many State Football Championships that seem like the Cook County Democratic Committee of the Future. Visceral Dick could assume that these handsome and talented young lads might be pliable material for his next run for the Senate.

However, the students of Mount Carmel are taught by Carmelite Friars who devote their lives to Our Lady and Christ's Mom is no pal of Planned Parenthood.

Sen. Dick Durbin was among the honored walkers in the parade.
"It's a much better orientation," he said. "This is a great event for Chicago. One of the best."
Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/South-Side-Irish-Parade-Draws-Thousands-196773951.html#ixzz2NPrXVybV

Why was it great, there Senator? Great how?  Due to our "orientation?"  No beer.  Lots of breeders and their kids. Catholics.

Senator Durbin was a Pro-life Democrat until he found joys of swimming in the blood of the lambs and Planned Parenthood green stuff.  Abortion is not Okay and no Woman's Health Issue, unless one happens to be Medea . . .no, not the Code Pink one - the Greek Myth Medea. Durbin is not alone; the entire costumed Catholic coalition Democratic Leaders, with the sole exception of Congressman Dan Lipinksi ( D 3rd) are willfully working against their Catholic constituents in order to make abortion more lucrative and Gay Marriage Illinois a legal bludgeon.

I was not against Civil Unions, but I should have been it seems.  Civil Unions immediate;y made war on Catholic Charities.  That war will seem like a mere spat, once Greg Harris and Heather Steans get enough cowards in the Illinois House of Representatives to enact Gay Marriage.  This law and this agenda is not at all about love it is all about power politics.

However, comes out from the White Smoke will be greeted by a very hostile secular Western culture - not south Western ave. culture and . . . orientation.

It would make perfect sense that Holy Spirit guide the Conclave to select Francis Cardinal George the next Pope.  He is a Paddy Power 200-1 shot and the Chicago media, with the notable exceptions of the Tribune's John Kass and Mary Ahern of NBC,  have sniped at our Archbishop even before he was installed as Ordinary of Chicago.    Cardinal George is a great man who has battled pygmies like Governor Quinn, Mayor Emanuel and the City Council.  The Pope will be assailed before he is consecrated Bishop of Rome by the very powerful forces that are financing the re-definition of marriage and world-wide abortion industry.

The Pope matters.  We have had louses and saints sit in the chair of St. Peter.  As Mr. Lott pointed out above, St. Peter was very much like all of us.  Peter was the most human of the disciples. That is why Christ built His Church on that Rock.  Flawed folks are lead to redemption by a flawed fisherman.

Presidents, Senators, Governors, Attorneys General, Speakers of the House, Mayors and Alderman do not get crucified -right-side up, or otherwise.  Flawed Fishermen do.  Thanks be to God.

South Side Parade 2013: Leo Lions Learn About The Irish Game of Camogie ( Women's Hurling)

While waiting to step off in Sunday's South Side Irish Parade, members of the back-to-back IHSA Track Championship Leo High School team were instructed in the ancient Irish game of Camogie.

The Leo Lions With Annie Redmond of the GAA Champion Camogie (camógaíocht in Irish)  Squad - St. Mary's Camogie.  Camogie is the Woman's Hurling Sport sanctioned by the Gaelic Athletic Association.  St. Mary's play at Gaelic Park through the post-Memorial Day sweltering Chicago Heat.

Camogie like hurling is played with what looks like a sawed-off hockey stick and a leather ball called the sliotar

Matches are contested by two teams of 15 a side, using a field 130m to 145m long and 80m to 90m wide. H-shape goals are used, a goal (scored when the ball goes between the posts and under the bar) is equal to three points and a point (scored when the ball goes over the bar) is equal to one point.The rules are almost identical to hurling, with a few exceptions.^[6]

• Goalkeepers wear the same colours as outfield players. This is because no special rules apply to the goalkeeper and so there is no need for officials to differentiate between goalkeeper and outfielders.
• A camogie player can handpass a score (forbidden in hurling since 1980)
• Camogie games last 60 minutes (senior inter-county hurling games last 70)
• Dropping the camogie stick to handpass the ball is permitted.
• A smaller sliotar (ball) is used in camogie - commonly known as a size 4 sliotar - whereas hurlers play with a size 5 sliotar.
• If a defending player hits the sliotar wide, a 45-metre puck is awarded to the opposition (in hurling, it is a 65-metre puck)
• After a score, the goalkeeper pucks out from the 13-metre line. (in hurling, he must puck from the end line)
• The metal band on the camogie stick must be covered with tape. (not necessary in hurling)
• Side–to-side charges are forbidden. (permitted in hurling)
• Two points are awarded for a score direct from a sideline cut (since March 2012)^[7]

Camogie players must wear skirts or skorts rather than shorts.

It is brutal! The Leo Lions, gentlemen athletes all, were astounded by the skill and athleticism required of this ancient Irish sport.




St. Mary's Camogie:
 R. Callnan, A. Byrne, A. Redmond, N. O’Keefe, C. Murray, L. Mitchell, A. Wall, E. Hennessey, Colette Gill (1-2), E. McQuaid, N. Kerlin, Miriam O’Keefe (2-0), Grainne McCrickland (1-2).

Thanks Annie!

The Queen and The Champs - Her Majesty Bridget McMahon Fitzgerald and The Leo Lions

Leo HS State Track Champsm Coaches Pete Doyle, Ed Adams and President Dan McGrath hosted St. Patrick's Day Queen Bridget Fitzgerald under eaves the soon to be re-opened Franconello's Italian Restaurant before the start of the South Side Irish Parade.

Yarns from Cleek Club of Chicago: Ebert's Thumbs Up for Our Irish Cousins: I'm Mike Houlihan and I Make Movies and Drive a Ford!

Careful readers* of these hoary postings will recall that sometime during the waning days of President GW Bush's second term, Chicago auteur, venture-capitalist, swordsman and wit Mike Houlihan was blackguarded by the scions of mighty thin-bloodlines when he applied for membership to Chicago's Union League Club. Ganged together, the off-spring confederation of the Yankee manques who formed that club during the National Rebellion, could now meet in an antique phone booth, but its clout yet cudgels those whom they fear. Chicago's John Huston, Mr. Houlihan, was denied membership.

Oh WASP'S sting yet smarts; though its strike reaches not the heart and soul of good.

Houli turned to a somewhat younger, but equally unclubable worthy and formed Cleek of Chicago.

As its junior member my duties and obligations are solely fiduciary and financial and the rewards are Olympian - I get to hang with Houli.

I took refuge from a broken heart and the ague among Cleek's Doric columns and the walls of gilt Shiraz and Morocco bound volumes ancienne et moderne de la philosophie, de l'histoire et de la littérature.  My foolish heart was broken due to a faux pas that embarrased the woman I love and caused her to shudder in public when I ordered salade avant le plat principal à la manière américaine at Taylor Street's Chez Joel Bistro Francais.  Somethings are just not to be done and I allowed appetite to sweep away fond trust.

 " How could you?" the delicate and chic woman protested.

" Hey, I like salad afore the meat and spuds, Sweetie and guess what?  I'm ladling French Dressing all over the greens and onions . . .in a French restaurant!"

" Oh! Qu'est-ce une bête, vous pouvez être à des moments!"  she sniffed.

" Hey, Garson!  How's about a little more of this bubbly water?"

Here, at this last graceles utterance, fawn-like tears glowed and glistened in the candle-lit quiet and her alabaster skin went crimson, "Je ne te connais même pas!"

"Hey, It's Taylor Street, Sweets and not some Russian novel with the Cossacks playing at Talleyrand."

It took me days to have the import of those thoughtless and unmeasured remarks dent my heart to a full realization of my dastardry.  Anyway. I caught a bad case of coughs and shakes to boot.

In the Cleek, among the books and brandied Toddies I could regroup, what was left of body and soul.

Having devoured Pope's Epistles II, I decanted a needleful of E & J and on this passage:

Say, what can cause such impotence of mind?
A Spark too fickle, or a Spouse too kind.
Wise wretch! with pleasures too refin’d to please;	95
With too much spirit to be e’er at ease;
With too much quickness ever to be taught;
With too much thinking to have common thought:
You purchase Pain with all that Joy can give,
And die of nothing but a rage to live.	100
Turn then from Wits, and look on Simo’s mate,
No ass so meek, no ass so obstinate:
Or her that owns her faults but never mends,
Because she ’s honest, and the best of friends:
Or her whose life the church and scandal share,	105
For ever in a Passion or a Prayer:

Swine!  Hickey make things right.  Thus, the path to my arching heart and the cordial my ague.  Now, I might attend to the affairs of my fellow man!

I read the Sun Times and howled with approval Roger Ebert's review of Mike Houlihan's documentary epic Our Irish Cousins at the Gene Siskal Film Center.  I fairly jigged with delight that Chicago's Maecenas  of Film had coaxed up two chubby thumbs in favor of Houli's film - and Three out of Four Stars!!!!!!!!

Voila!
 As anyone familiar with Houlihan's work can attest, the man is a born storyteller — the kind of guy who can make a statement along the lines of "You know what's funny? Here's a good story. My brother died ..." and then actually pull it off. He gets a lot of laughs throughout the film, whether from well-polished anecdotes or spontaneous interactions with the people he meets. What is even more impressive, though, is the way that he manages to quietly layer in more serious-minded concerns amidst the laughter so that when he visits the church where his grandfather was baptized more than a century earlier, the scene winds up packing a surprisingly hefty emotional punch. 

Into the Cleek strode my friend! "My dear man!  Oh, Good Show, Houli! This from Ebert?

"Been at the E & J, again." he observed with a director's glass lanyard-ed around his neck.

" One or three to fight the ague and a . . ."

" My name is Mike Houlihan and I make movies."

"Yes, and so much more, like your work riding shotgun on the Salvation Army mobile food wagon in Uptown. . .and . . ."

"I love making pictures but I don't like talking about them.Anybody can direct a picture once they know the fundamentals. Directing is not a mystery, it's not an art. The main thing about directing is: photograph the people's eyes.   It is easier to get an actor to be a cowboy than to get a cowboy to be an actor. It's no use talking to me about art, I make pictures to pay the rent. I didn't show up at the ceremony to collect any of my first three Oscars. Once I went fishing, another time there was a war on, and on another occasion, I remember, I was suddenly taken drunk. For a director there are commercial rules that it is necessary to obey. In our profession, an artistic failure is nothing; a commercial failure is a sentence. The secret is to make films that please the public and also allow the director to reveal his personality.As a beauty, Dolores del Rio is in a class with [Greta Garbo]. Then she opens her mouth and becomes Minnie Minoso . . ."

I was taken a back, somehow my friend had become . . .John Ford!

* the blackuarding of Mike Houlihan by the snobs of the Union League Club - in response Mike founded the Cleek of Chicago - the Driver of the City: Mashies, Rakes and Niblicks are for smaller souls. The Cleek of Chicago is Big, Big Club!

Happy St. Baldrick's Fight for the Cure Weekend!

Today is St. Baldrick's Fight for the Cure Day.  To begin your day, watch Archbishop Patrick Elwood on Fox 32 at 7 AM this morning, as he interviews boxers from Celtic Boxing and Leo High School Boxing Clubs who will entertain the crowd at 115 Bourbon with feats of pugilism and manly derring-do.

Then on Saturday Mar 9, 2013  at 3PM  head over to 115 Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park, IL ( over by the Dominick's what's by the Waldo's by Kedzie.) and lay down Two -bits ($25, or more: Senior Citizens $15 and Kids Free) for a full card of fights, fine food, raffles, music, boon-chums, celebrities and the Bald and Soon to be Bald!

Folks volunteer to have their noggin's shaved for a donation to help fight Childhood Cancer.The Queen of St. Baldrick's Day - Her Majesty Ava*!

Listen to to the lovely Trish Gallagher O'Sullivan of Oak Lawn!

Mar 9, 2013

We are raising money for the St. Baldrick's Foundation to fund lifesaving cancer research for children. Fight for a Cure 2013 is now an annual St. Baldrick's event and a new Southside tradition which takes place the day before the Southside Irish Parade.This year our event features headshaving, boxing, facepainting, raffles, music, buffet and open bar. Please join us for A Good Time for a Great CauseDonation $25 adults $15 for under 21 Free kids 10 and underFor more information, buy tickets on line, volunteer, register to be a shavee or donate

www.stbaldricks.org/events/mypage/7780/2013


Get over there, you Mugs!


*This little Queen is what it is all about!
St. Baldrick's 2013 Fight for a Cure Honored Kid -Ava- 5 years old diagnosed November 16, 2012 with stage 3 neuroblastoma.

The Peoples A-Team - Hugo Over-Dare Productions

Gen. Roland O'Stoney - AKA Sid Arthur - Specialist: Misunderstood Visionary; Tagline: "A man is only a man and a smoked woman is a good cigar.
DRod VanClipLip (AKA Whitey Go Lightly) -Specialist: International Posse Diplomacy; Blackjack; Tagline: " I ain't crazy, but I'm a carrier"
pCisco Pathique- (AKA Bob) Specialist: Fawning Bootlicker:Tagline: "Pre-canned motion is fine in small amounts, but give me the wax paper to get it done right."

Xavier Lardwallow, III (AKA Triple XL): Specialist: Omnivore: Tagline: "Can I have the rest of that eel if you're done with it?"

One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words 'Socialism' and 'Communism' draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, 'Nature Cure' quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.( . . . Hyde Park, Lake view, Evanston, Seattle and of course Hollywood - parenthetical addition my own)    George Orwell from The Road to Wigan Pier.

Bob Woodward- What's Real; What's Not & Moue Progressive Power

Listen to the hand! Let's get Real!  The Truth. Moue Power!


I voted for Nixon. It was the the first vote that I cast as a citizen. I was a sophomore at Loyola University which meant that, like my schoolmates, I took the L from 63rd & Ashland ( Englewood & Howard) and got off at Chicago and walked to Lewis Towers Campus on Rush Street.  Loyola was rigorous.  The professors were dead-on serious and exacting.   Everyone had a job outside of taking classes and many had two or three.  If you were late for a class you often found yourself locked out of the room.

I helped out with the 18th Ward Regular Democratic Organization.  1972 was a very weird election. In the Illinois Presidential Primary votes were cast for individual delegates to the convention.  They were not tagged as generic McGovern, Humphrey, Kennedy, or Ribicoff delegates.

A particularly oily gent by the name of Ald. Bill Singer, who won his Progressive spurs with Abner Mikva's imprimatur and would later rat-out Dr. Scholl Land Deal partners and avoid a Federal Time-out, was feeling his youthful oats and leagued up with the to-be Dean of American Shakedown Artistry, Rev. Jesse Jackson in voiding all of Illinois's duly elected delegates to the convention.and grabbing political power from the clutches of people who actually knew what they were doing.

I was young and disgusted with National Democratic Party.  If George McGovern needed to steal the convention in order to get elected, why would I vote for someone with such low self-esteem?  I held my nose and down my lunch and voted for Tricky Dick Nixon.  Shortly, I began reading excerpts from the Washington Post's reports about Cuban burglars, black bags of dough, a crash near Midway*, CREEP, and GOP rat-sex-ting.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Woodstein, took Nixon to the woodshed.  Shoe-leather reporting and pains-taking attention to facts and numbers unmasked a self-serving phony. Journalism became a sacred institution.

Oddly enough, the same institution that feted Woodstein would become the mask-manufacturers of self-serving phonies from the Chicago Wards all the way to the White House.

The 1972 Democratic Convention and its bloody Irish-twin Roe v. Wade (1973) was the nativity of the national and local idiocies identified as Progressive/Liberal Democrat policy. The term Liberal Democrat has faded into history and Democrat is too often associated with the power mad folly that is American Progressive thought.  If it is Progressive it either encourages State-sponsored murder (abortion/euthanasia) or manages to screw up everything from budgets to traffic.

I am a Democrat; same as I was in 1972.  98% of the votes that I have cast have been for Democrats.  I can not vote for a Progressive; especially after having voted for Pat Quinn and Toni Preckwinkle, as part of doing a solid for some pals.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is what being a Progressive is all about.  He'd burn a library full of pre-schoolers to teach them a lesson about reading the fire code.  Most Progressives in public office and appointed pay-rollers are "ain't she/he greaters"  wealthy dopes with nothing much else to do - you find them running the CTA, serving as Lieutenants Governor, manning the seats on paid commissions, getting facetime on MSNBC while screwing up things in Congress, or at the Department of Education, or building a Sequester.
 The President and the Vice President-practiced Moue Men

Half of Woodstein, 50% of the guys who brought down Nixon, Bob Woodward has gotten himself in the jackpot with the Obama White House for getting his facts straight.  President Obama talks out of whatever side of the mouth Val Jarrett tells him to use and it seems to me does not fully understand what he puts out from that side of his oral cavity. Rahm Emanuel became Mayor of Chicago, because he could no longer even suggest a moue from the President. Bill Daley found that out too. What's the point of being a progressive when you are not allowed to at least torch a village or two.Progressive is all about power.

Hence Mayor Rahm.  Last night, true to the Progressive Code of Etiquette introduced Mr. Woodward  at a Holocaust Museum event at the Hyatt with an attempted Hyde Park Pimp Slap. The Mayor made reference to the e-mails from Gene Sperling at the White House, warning Woodward to beware his 'Obama moved the goal-post' on Congress remarks.

I am a reactionary.  I am never pre-emptively snotty.  However, once the crack against me or mine is made for no other purpose than to denigrate, I am more than happy to oblige. e.g. A Progressive is the loudmouth who tries to embarrass someone -

• Mr. Sumner Quickbritches of the IVI -"Hey, everybody here comes the Biggest Fat-assed Catholic, Racist Homophobic, Wrong Side of History, Breeder Loser in the world!"

• Me, All of the Above- " Runner up."

• Sumner Quickbritches of the IVI - " Hateful! Hateful, on so many levels . . .and sad."

Progressives never learn the sobering and wholesome effects of a slap in the puss, when an off-hand remark, fib, gross-exaggeration, lie or calumny gets blown forth.  Most other folks learned the lesson early often that it does not cost you nickel one to be a good guy.
In response, Robert Woodward offered this salient truth - that Rahm was a player and his play helped cause the division in our nation. Here is nugget of Woodward's  wisdom - “There is so little focus on what’s real, what’s true.”  

 From the 1972 Democratic Convention, to the Watergate burglaries, to Roe V. Wade, through Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Surf-Dog Millionaire John Kerry, Hillary's Benghazi, and Obama's moues, America lost much of its greatness to play the Progressive.

What's real - America is broke and it is being bullied by a fat kid in Korea and a hillbilly with a Koran in Iran; what's true is we can do so much better, but we will not for at least three more years.

* Down the block from my cousin Larry Hickey's home in Queen of the Universe parish - watch the neighbors help the firemen:


It was at 2:29 PM on Friday, December 8, 1972, during the height of the Watergate scandal that United Airlines flight 553 crashed just outside of Chicago during a landing approach to Midway Airport. Initial reports indicated that the plane had some sort of engine trouble when it descended from the clouds. But the odd thing about this crash is what happened after the plane went down. Witnesses living in the working-class neighborhood in which the plane crashed said that moments after impact, a battalion of plainclothes operatives in unmarked cars parked on side streets pounced on the crash-site [High Treason 2 (1992, Carroll and Graf); Harrison Livingston; p426] . These so-called 'FBI types' took control of the scene and immediately began sifting through the wreckage looking for something. At least one survivor recognized a "rescue worker"--clad in overalls sifting through wreckage--as an operative of the CIA [op. cit.; p428]

Nixon whitehouse asserts control of Investigation

One day after the crash, the Whitehouse head of Nixon's "plumber's" outfit--Egil Krogh, Jr.-- was made undersecretary of transportation, a position that put him in a direct position to oversee the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Agency which are both authorized by law to investigate airline crashes. Krogh would later be convicted of complicity in the break-in of Daniel Ellsberg's Psychiatrist's office along with Hunt, Liddy and a small cast of CIA-trained and retained Cuban black-bag specialists.
About a month after Krogh's new assignment, Nixon's appointments secretary, Dwight Chapin, was made an executive in the Chicago office of United Airlines [op. cit.; p429], where he threatened the media to steer clear of speculation about sabotage in the crash. On December 19th--eleven days after the crash--Nixon appointed ex-CIA officer, Alexander Butterfield, as head of the FAA. Students of Watergate will remember Butterfield as the Whitehouse official who supervised Nixon's secret taping system and who exposed the existence of the infamous tapes that ultimately would force Nixon to resign.
Ostensibly traveling with Mrs. Hunt on flight 553 was CBS news corespondent Michelle Clark who, rumor had it, had learned from her sources that the Hunts were about to spill the proverbial beans regarding the Nixon whitehouse and its involvement in the Watergate burglary; Clark also died in the crash.

A large sum of money (between $10,000 and $100,000) was found amid the wreckage in the possession of Mrs. Hunt. It was during this time that Dorothy Hunt was traveling around the country paying off operatives and witnesses in the Watergate operation with money her husband had extorted from Nixon via his counsel, John Dean. Hunt had threatened Nixon and Dean with exposing the nature of all the sordid deeds he had done.

Could it be that the fuel for Hunt's blackmail of the president had little to do with the so-called "third-rate burglary" of the Democratic headquarters? Could it have had more to do with the fate of John F. Kennedy and of Nixon's awareness of who was really behind the planning and deployment of his demise? In the Watergate tapes, Nixon displays a malignant paranoia to his chief-of-staff, H. R. Haldeman, concerning E. Howard Hunt and the Bay of Pigs operation. He decides to use this paranoia to force the CIA to help cover up the Watergate affair:

"...just say (unintelligible) very bad to have this fellow Hunt, ah, he knows too damned much, if he was involved -- you happen to know that? If it gets out that this is all involved, the Cuba thing, it would be a fiasco. It would make the CIA look bad, it's going to make Hunt look bad, and it is likely to blow the whole Bay of Pigs thing which we think would be very unfortunate - both for the CIA and for the country..."

In his memoir, The Ends of Power (1978), Haldeman claims that all the references in the tapes to "The Bay of Pigs thing", were coded references by Nixon:

In those Nixon references to the Bay of Pigs [in the White House tapes] he [Nixon] was actually referring to the Kennedy assassination...After Kennedy was killed, the CIA launched a fantastic cover-up...The CIA literally erased any connection between Kennedy's assassination and the CIA...in fact, Counter Intelligence Chief James Angleton of the CIA called Bill Sullivan of the FBI (Number Three man under J. Edgar Hoover, who later died of a gunshot would) and rehearsed the questions and answers they would give to the Warren Commission investigators."

In The Haldeman Diaries (1994), editor Stephen Ambrose wrote that Haldeman, in the latter years of his life, attributed the above revelations to his ghost writer, Joseph Di Mona; by 1990, Haldeman was repudiating the entire book. One must remember that from the time Nixon fired Haldeman (1973) until December 1978, the two men were not on speaking terms; it was during this time--coincident with his prison term--that Haldeman released his book.

I'm in a Past Perfect Subjunctive Mood

 

'To say that he was a great lover – sensual, generous, delightfully inventive – would be gravely understating what he did not only to my body, but for my soul. . . .' 

Oh, pardon me. I didn't see you there for a minute.  This?   I was just reading some of the very kind things a past lover had to say about me in her soon to be public memoirs. That was uncommon swell of the old gal.

The writer, you ask?

Does it really matter? Really.

Well, she was a a pretty well-known TV actress. This exquisite beauty had been seen on the arms of the likes of Gene Barry, Ed " Kookie" Byrnes, Michael Ansara, you know, Cochise,  Efram Zimbalist, Jr., Darryl F. Zanuck,Jr. and Tommy James of the Shondells.   I had been working for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as as janitor, while getting my undergraduate degree from Loyola of Chicago.  I was on afternoons from 3PM - 11PM  and  I was sent over to the Wabash Inn to grab lunch for the engineer, the janitor super, the the security guys and the two other noon shift janitors.

The engineer and everyone else got burgers or clubs, but the janitor super wanted the ribs and they took a while.  I killed the clock with a Pepsi and the great artistry of the black dude who worked the charcoal grill.   He flipped thick burger patties, cuts of steak, chicken and vegetables like he had twenty people watching the show.

A soft purring voice cooed "Cute."

Still watching the magic of motion and huffing the ambrosial scents , I rejoined, "Cute?  He's an artist."

"No, you," purred this alluring piper.  She slid onto the bar stool elegantly lifted the straw from my Pepsi and tossed it on the bar.  " Where do you work, you pretty thing?"

"OrchstraHallimajaniderded." I drawled to the best of my ability.

"What's your name precious and how old are you?"

" Padickey-nynteen,"  I cooly admited.

" I could could just . . . eat you up!  I insist you be mine!" 

In that subjunctive mood we parted company.

Yep, that about sums it up. Yes sir.

I would have liked that she had bought me another Pepsi.

Waiting for the White Stuff -Snowmageddon Part III

(Up date at 10:04 AM)

Nothing doing here on the great south side.  Schools cancelled and I got up at my usual time -just in case.

So far the weather is mild and no snow.  Hang, on a while, please.  Dunkin Donuts is not open yet, so I'll head over to the White Hen ( actually a 7-11 now, but like Comiskey Park old nomeclatures die hard) at 103rd & Artesian and grab some zoom-juice and cream.

( fifteen minutes later)

I went up Maplewood and saw Alderman Matt O'Shea getting out of the house.  The boy do work hard.  White Hen (7-11)  aside from a couple of lotto-venture capitalists the place was empty.  "Where's the snow?" I asked.  "Don't ask that later, smart ass," was the genial reply.  Cops and Streets and San Drivers were going up and down 103rd Street.  I pulled out onto that street with my 24 oz dark roast and cream and took a right south on Western.  At 10400 S. Western I noticed that Alderman O'Shea already had the lights on.

Unlike that goof Cappleman in the 46th Ward, or that other 40 Watt intellect Proco Joe Moreno, Matt O'Shea is an old time, walk the ward and actually talk to people about services alderman. I may disagree with Matt on rare occassions, but I respect a person who actually works for someone other than himself.

No neighbors were out when I got home, so into Casa Hickey with my coffee and back to the keys.

No snow yet,  I got my oldest, Nora, up for work - I'll drive her to the Metra at 107th and pick her up tonight.

Snow -light snow coming down.  We may get buried, or we may get another pass from God's dandruff.

Stay tuned.  I will be in the garage test-starting the snow blower.

As Concerned as Ald. Cappleman, I provided a Tasty and Wholesome 'Disincentive' for the Kids Last Night!

"I was concerned that the Mobile Food truck was providing a disincentive to those in need to receive sustained help," Cappleman said.

Man, Chicago Sun Times columnist Mark Brown has boated a 'Keeper' - rather a Cappleman - that could fry up a 'disincentive' for the remaining season of Lent.
 
Mark Brown also skeeted the pigeons released from the  Progressive "Ain't He Great" Rookie Alderman of the 46th Ward's NIMBY Feathered Boa.

Feed not the pigeons; Feed not the Poor - Chicago Values as deep-fried as those of the other nit-wit Rahm toe-dipper Proco Joe Moreno.

If any one believes that either one of these jamokes initiated a move on fried chicken breasts, wild squab, or the Red Kettle homophobes of Salvation Army without the say-so the 5th Floor Baryshnikov, let me tell you about my romantic exploits with Dean Martin Dancers.

After a long weekend ofCappleman tears and shifting of narrative, Mark Brown has boated the fowl-foe and chow wagon obstructionist.The Cappleman Couple in Happier Times

The beauty of the wiggling apologia from this wall-eyed payroller is the Progressive nuance with deconstruction -Providing a meal to the Hungry is now 'providing disincentive.'

You see, my beef with Progressives is, was and shall ever be, not with their opinions, policies and power proclamations, but their inability to allow any point of view but their own upon pain of being declared racist, stupid, uneducated, fat, homophobic, sexist, ultramontane, lazy, low-self esteem happy, or members of the Insane Deuces. I want every one to be happy, loved, fed, successful and tolerated, with the requirement of swallowing dissembling nonsense ( AKA horseshit, bullshit, parsed verbiage, memes) as if it were  deep-fried pate de fois gras .

I discussed the Cappleman Crusade on pigeons and poor people with two of my children last evening.  They were appalled by the Progressive pronouncements of this once obscure rookie time-server.

"What a creep," they chorused with varying degrees of outraged antipathy.  However, when I suggested that there just might . . . might mind you . . .be more than a bid of Gay agenda power play behind this particular assault up the Salvation Army, much as there was great Hoo and Ha directed against Cardinal George when he twisted Rahm's ears over Chicago Values, they said , "Fine, Dad . . .good one.  how about dinner?"

Unbeknown'st to me at the time, as I had not yet read of Alderman James Cappleman's descant on feeding the homeless via a Salvation Army wagon, I provided the following disincentives for my bairns!

I baked potatoes.  Purchased a tub of County Fair vinaigrette cole slaw and made garlic bread that turns an old man's hair to its original luster.

Our neighborhood's  most valuable Irish Import, head-butcher Mike Benson (left), who hails from County Adair, Ireland. 


Oven Back Baby Back Ribs - Pre-heated oven 300 degrees/Extra Large Roasting pan with rack

2 racks baby back ribs marinated over night in Apple Cider Vinegar with whole pepper corns, cloves, cinnamon sticks and bay leaves: take out of marinade -Carefully remove the membrane for the back of the ribs :  Dump the marinade - use it again with something else and you'll get sick as hell.

6 tablespoons Hickey Rib Rub spice blend -  from the jar in the cabinet that Conor uses on frozen pizzas and gets his ass-chewed when there is not enough of the stuff when I want to use. . .there.  Okay, here's the stuff that I'm talking about - which I stole from Charlie Olson of Lindenhurst Illinois and he uses when he slow smokes ribs and he has another one for fish. I added basil, so its mine now.

8 tablespoons paprika

3 tablespoons cayenne

5 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper

6 tablespoons garlic powder

3 tablespoons onion powder

6 tablespoons salt

2 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano

2 1/2 tablespoons dried thyme & 1 1/2 tablespoons dried basil

 Rub the hell out the ribs and do not -repeat do not listen to your brother in-law and add brown sugar/cane sugar/Domino's sugar to the dry rub.  Trust me.
Place the Pigcicles meat side up on the rack in the roasting pan cook the hell out of them covered for two hours. Remove, the pan using oven mitts.

Now, slather the meat side up with Argia B's Mumbo Sauce - The Sauce That's Boos - with a clean mopping utensil or culinary brush.  Return to oven for twenty minutes and repeat. Remove from oven and flib the slats, slather the backsides and return to oven for ten minutes.  Remove and flip the slats re-slather and return of ten more minutes. Patience.  2hrs at 300 + post slather 20min. + 20min + 10 + 10.
Remove and set aside.

Serve with Baked Spuds prepared earlier, garlic bread ditto and cole slaw as well.

Back the hell out of the way!  The kids is disincentivizing up a storm.

Is Cappleman's War on Pigeons and the Salvation Army the Prelude to Gay Marriage Illinois?

Alderman James Capplemans ( back left) and his fiance Richard Thale are hugged by Lauren Peters on the Cappleman Victory Night -signalling war most terrible upon pigeons, Red Kettles and Catholics.

Didn't a great community activist once say, "For the poor you have always with you: but me you have not always?"  Why, yes, he did.  He was Jesus.  He did not however make much comment on pigeons; Doves, or rather dove salesmen he did -"And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the chairs of them that sold doves."

You see Chicago Values often come into clash with our feathered friends almost as often as people of faith.   It seems that everything comes down to feathers and faith.

Our Chicago Bird Cage (  la cage aux folles) is very noisy.  One of Chicago's father's is civilly united to another 'father' - Ald. James Cappleman ( 46th Ward) and he is a bona fide Progressive with rock-ribbed Chicago Values.  He is a graduate of the Jane Addams College of Social Work at UIC and old Jane was romantically inclined to towards her own gender, as well.

The Salvation Army feeds poor people and some of those poor people feed pigeons* and pigeons are no doves.  The Catholic Church feeds the poor, but are less mobile in its operations than the Red Kettle heroes. The Catholic Church began with St. Peter and the Salvation Army with General Booth. Both are religions and both institutions. The Salvation Army and its members, like the Roman Catholic Church, holds to the traditional and natural definition of marriage

The Salvation Army's Red Kettles offended Illinois Gay Pope Rick Garcia most recently:

The Salvation Army uses donated money to oppose gay rights, wrote Garcia, a senior policy adviser at The Civil Rights Agenda, attaching a photo of a fact sheet. He suggested that his friends "pass the kettle" and give their money to other groups instead."Serving a gay or lesbian person that needs help with food or housing or clothing is laudable," Garcia said. "But you can't feed them and then stab them in the back."The Salvation Army has grown accustomed to fielding such charges each year as it launches into its most aggressive fundraising season, said Lt. Col. Ralph Bukiewicz, commander of the Salvation Army's Chicago Metropolitan Division. The group also has been criticized for its theological stance on homosexuality and accused of discrimination in shelters and the workplace. . . .For at least six years, gay activists have encouraged supporters to keep their cash and slip printed protest notes into the red kettles instead. The campaign resurfaced this year, gaining more momentum than ever through social media. ( emphasis my own)

Gays stabbed in the back after having been fed by Red Kettle thugs?  No, but pigeons must be sacrificed for the greater good, according to City Significant Other Cappleman.  Now, comes a more telling conflict between organized religion and Chicago Values. Salvation Army Mobile Food Pantries.

Sun Times columnists has offered a number of very straight-forward facts based reports on Ald. James Cappleman's crusades.  Here is the latest:

Ald. James Cappleman (46th) informed the Salvation Army on Friday that it is no longer welcome to feed the poor in Uptown from its homeless outreach trucks.
Cappleman gave the social service agency one month to find a new North Side location — outside his ward — before ceasing operations, said Capt. Nancy Powers, who oversees the Salvation Army’s homeless program in Chicago. . . .While Salvation Army personnel serve up bowls of hot soup, two social workers specializing in substance abuse and mental health mingle with the crowd and try to forge relationships with the homeless to identify those who are ready to get off the street.

A “chaser van” goes along to immediately transport anyone who is ready to enter rehab or go to the hospital.
Operating from a location at Wilson and Marine, the unit feeds 100 people on average at midday Monday through Friday, Powers said. In recent years, most of those lining up for food have been residents of nearby single room occupancy buildings who can’t afford to eat, she said.
Cappleman informed the Salvation Army it was welcome to continue to provide the social workers, but not to feed anybody.

Poor people with food are the gateway to pigeons with a bomb-load -Now, that's Chicago Progressive Thought and Chicago Values: Gay Marriage, Real Estate, and Power Politics!

My own jesuitical 19th Ward Democrat Roman Catholic values lead me to connect the dots between the pigeon drops - The Salvation Army is no friend to the soon-to-be Mr & Mrs. James and Richard Thale-Cappleman and certainly not the Gay Pope Rick Garcia who with dollars from Fred Eychaner and Henry Van Amerigen helped purchase the Governor and both houses of the Illinois Legislature which will soon pass the the Religious Liberty and Marriage Equality Bill.

The future Ald. & Mrs James-Richard-Thale-Cappleman ( 46th) will marry, but they will still need to kill pigeons, knock over Red Kettles, ban rolling food pantries and continue to craft ordinances and push legislation to destroy the Catholic Church.

Chicago Values - fighting pigeons and the Paraclete - another bird.

My Pal John Rubbery has more on Alderman 'Pigeons' Cappleman

 *One of the flying rodents’ benefactors, Young Kang, was charged with battery in May after she shoved Cappleman when he swept up the breadcrumbs she tossed for pigeons.

A Few Traditional South Side Irish Tunes

To Really appreciate the . . .



The In Crowd


Your mane will be back no later than . . .










Now, I ask you . . .




Not really.

One Must Pickett!

One must. Just ask the Lonely!



Levi Stubbs -what pipes are all about!

Catholics Still Stand Up for Our Battered Church

The Catholic Church can not be allowed the time to elect a successor to St. Peter with a cascade of abuse and hostile sneers from the very industry that promotes decadence and universal disrespect - the news media.

While waiting for a friend's plane to land at O'Hare Airport, I watched the monitors featuring the news - it was merely CNN.  Christianne Amanpour, whom, for the life of me, I do not equate with matters religious  and bears a very strong resemblance to tobacco icon Joe Camel. was the featured mouthpiece - live at the Vatican and the always idiotic Soledad O'Brien trotted out the HBO-hit-piece Mea Culpa director*. Worse they reached out to Jeffrey Anderson, the absolute slimiest of the bottom-feeding ambulance chasers and the wizard of SNAP.  Anderson has made millions from bringing suit against the Church and making the media his catamite.

Anderson, who was a bust-out louse with a law license living in his Volkswagon, until he settled on suing the Catholic Church, because it asked a wino not to urinate in the vestibule of a church, is now trolling for work with the  Pope -to-Be. 

First, disclose the names of all the clerics credibly accused and known to the Vatican worldwide along with the country, state and parish or school where the offenses were allegedly committed. . . .Fifth, retain independent and outside professionals to conduct an audit to assure compliance and reliability. An example of a case where this independent investigation worked is the Louis Freeh Report regarding Penn State and the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal.

Sixth, retain independent and outside professionals, nonclerics who do not have a requirement of obedience to the pope and bishops, to conduct investigations into child sex crimes by clergy.

Seventh, retain independent and outside professionals to train, educate and modernize child protection procedures and protocols in every diocese worldwide. You know, like me, Jeff Anderson! ( emphases and sotto voce my own)

Huffington Post offers a  video featuring a precious pair of punks ( click the link and go to the video)who I would love to have join me at Father Perez Knights of Columbus after the Blackhawks lose a close on and have them offer their thoughts.

The Catholic Church and Catholics are in the cultural/political/ legal cross-hairs and shall be for a long time to come.

The Catholic Church alone stood against abortion, until the late 1970's when they were joined by evangelical Protestants and orthodox Jews.

Here is a great voice from a Catholic gent.

Pedophiles
What a blessing it will be when the last pedophile and other weirdos will be weeded out of our Catholic Church. They’ve used it as a hiding place for years to enable them, (they thought) to continue their destructive behavior. When first discovered their bishops simply moved them to another parish, not realizing the serious consequences of their actions. Unfortunately the resulting scandal also got their bishops in a lot of legal hot water, which became a windfall for attorneys like Jeff Anderson whose article in the Dispatch a few months ago asked abused victims to come forward, which hopefully they will?
However have you ever wondered how a jury can convict a dead man of abusing 200 boys as stated in Mr. Anderson’s article? Some of these cases are ridiculous but with millions of dollars at stake, and Catholic priests it seems are guilty unless they can prove their innocence, which is impossible, it’s easy to understand why. I’ve known several dedicated priests who walked away from their profession saying, “You simply cannot fight this and win.”
We as parishioners gave our donations in good faith to our Diocese for Catholic schools, Catholic Relief Services, helping the poor, etc. It’s a wonderful gesture on the part of our church to compensate the true victims, and they certainly have my deepest sympathy. Every few days we read of another sex abuser moving into our area. We read of abused victims of teachers, coaches and pastors of other faiths, where are the million dollar settlements for their victims? The Catholic Church has tried to do the right thing and I commend them for it.
The scandalous TV documentaries about our church, such as Dan Rather on HD Net and others, make our church out to be and I quote the California attorney on that show who said, “The Catholic Church is a big rich powerful organization that makes Enron look like a Sunday school picnic” greatly disturbed me. I had written this when Mr. Anderson’s article first appeared in the Dispatch but just didn’t have the guts to publish it. The cartoon of the devil and the altar boys in the Sunday paper was an insult to me, my church, and I believe even to our friends of other faiths in this area. God bless the wonderfully dedicated Catholic priests I’ve known in my 75 years of being proud to be a Catholic.
Ed Koska
Nisswa

Me too ,Ed.
*  

The Face of Heroism - Last Century and This One

The Face of American Heroism 20th Century




The Face of American Heroism 21st Century




God help us.

Peter Doyle and the Rosary - This Month in Irish American News

Pete Doyle -The Mr. Chips of Leo High School, Chicago IL

Leo Legend Pete Doyle greeted his guys, yesterday when these accomplished Lions returned to mentor the young Lions of Leo.  Every Alumnus from years 1967-Present, ask for Brother Doyle, Handsome Willie, Mr. Doyle, Pete!

From Irish American News

             Peter Doyle and the Rosary – They’re Back at Leo High School


My Dad once told me, “Everything comes back but spats.” The old man knew what he was stalking about whether it was buying tools, jazz records, or clothing – buy to last and skip the trendy. His advice served me well, I love real jazz and eschew the Kenny G varietal elevator music, wear essentially the same public statement with my cloths and hair style (unaltered since 1966- urban prep/greaser) and I demand that the skilled craftsmen that I hire to improve or repair my home use only the best tools.


There are reasons why some things never change; they are classic, and why though out of sight and mind for whatever reason are always welcomed back. You can not say that of the Mullet-hair statement, the Nehru Jacket, or the Leisure suit.


That same can and should be said about wonderful persons and practices.


Pete Doyle is back at Leo. The former Irish Christian Brother who began his long teaching career at Leo High School in 1967, returned three years ago. Mr. Doyle is remembered as Bro Doyle by hundreds of Alumni who pay homage to the man who exemplifies the Spirit of the Lion.


Back in the day, Leo Pep Rallies were often punctuated by bleachers and balcony seats of Leo Men chanting “Handsome, Willie! Handsome Willie!!!!” Handsome was the appellation of student affection for a teacher or coach. The Irish Christian Brothers referred to one another not by their given names, but by their Christening names; thus, Brother Peter William Doyle CCF was called Willie – Handsome Willie.


Pete “Handsome Willie” Doyle teaches religion and coaches track and serves as this school’s campus minister. Leo High School is was and shall always remain Catholic.


No one exemplifies Leo’s Catholic culture better than Handsome Willie Doyle. Students learn exactly why Leo’s Catholic identity is the key to their success. There is much that goes into the tale and worship is a huge part of the glory that is Leo Alumni support and the continuation of the eighty seven year mission on 79th Street.


Pete Doyle and a group of teachers and students instituted the Leo Men Pray program that takes place immediately after school and before athletic practices. Out this program and Mr. Doyle’s religion classes emerged interest in a uniquely Catholic form of prayer. African American evangelical and a few Muslim students indicated great interest in a very particular devotion to Our Lady.


The Rosary is back at Leo High School – the school named for the Rosary Pope –Leo XIII. The Rosary focused and dedicated to Our Lady, became one of great Catholic devotions.


Remember devotions? You know ‘external, public practices of piety?’ Piety? That’s a toughie these days. Piety is equated to hypocrisy, or at the very least rather pinched in the sphincter. Piety is merely means ‘respect’ drawn from a very complex sense of Roman virtue. The Romans and subsequently the Catholic Church took virtue to mean the steps to good living – a gradus. At the most basic was pietas –recognition and reverence for ancestors. Piety came to mean doing a public act that reflected one’s faith and core beliefs. As Catholics dissolved into mere Americans, breast beating, signs of the cross, counting of beads, genuflection and finally living up to the faith became silly things performed by the unevolved. I took three Leo students out for lunch and said grace with the sign of the cross sandwiching the prayer and you should have seen the looks I got from tables of hep and hip.


I have had a rosary in pocket, as well as my keys, some folding money, a toothpick a hankie and those great tasting Listerine pads for years. I pray through the day with the beads tucked away. No need to publicly pronounce my pities unless invited or commanded to do so. The Rosary is a great help to me and it keeps me aware of my vanities and impulses. Don’t hurt none.


I asked Mr. Doyle about the interest our young men, mostly non-Catholic, have shown in this most Catholic of devotions. I began by asking, “You have been a long-time influence on generations of Leo Men (1967-Present). How do you see the young men of today?”


“You know, Pat, they are much the same: some take to studies, some to sports and all need to be loved and encouraged Like the young guys when I first came here to teach, they show a great interest in spiritual things. There seems to be a greater hunger for more sacred rituals and devotions along with their hunger for God and grasping some sense in this life.”


Pete Doyle was born in Los Angeles, CA and returned to teach there in the 1980’s after leaving the Irish Christian Brothers. Aside from that brief teaching hiatus and short stint with St. Gregory High School on the north side, Peter Doyle has stayed close to Leo.


Leo’s Mr. Chips explained the development of interest in the Rosary as a devotion, “Today’s Leo student has a much more spontaneous response to prayer. They are at ease with a personal relation to Jesus. As teens they love to do things in groups which seems to lend itself to a more formalized devotion and the rosary fills that need. Since we began the Leo Men Pray program traditional prayers have had a powerful effect from group prayer. The public nature of bearing witness to Christ through His Mother seems to have hit a chord with the guys. It is active prayer.”


The tangible benefits of holding onto the rosary during the Rosary itself seems to have added to the current interest by students, most of whom are non-Catholic. Doyle went on, “Holding onto a sacred object while publicly or privately praying, meditating and fingering the beads appeal to the young men. They like medals, medallions, charms and the like. The Church has always used the material to our own ascent to the spiritual.”


Pete Doyle is back and now the Rosary is Back. Get this. Pete Doyle wants to have a May Crowning here on 79th in the Leo courtyard at the Statue of Our Lady.