Climbing Chicago - My Spring Break Ascent of the Dan Ryan Woods Hill.

Easy ascent in the Winter of 1965 - me and guys from 75th & Wood.

For the most part . . .except when Maury Lanigan decided to kamikaze guys and then rub their mugs in snow and threaten further outrages of a much more sinister nature were one to rat him out.
I am a man who enjoys a challenge and the testing of my male mettle with a vigorous assault on the senses and the spirit. I watched the entire Cheyenne Marathon presented on Encore Western channel only this Christmas break without taking meals and answering the call of nature with an Olympic dash and powerful discharge of uric fluids that fair shot me airborne during the Cheyenne Bodie Theme Song.



Yes, sir!

Yesterday Leo President Dan McGrath and I travelled to Kankakee to inspect vehicles that may be become part of the Leo Motor Pool.  Midwest Transit Equipment is largest purveyor of buses, shuttle wagons, casino caravans and vans for sale and lease to schools and charities. This vast surplus sales venue just north of the Kankakee County Fairgrounds reminded Dan of the Navy's Mothball Fleet which he passed daily as sports editor of San Francisco Chronicle

We had a productive visit followed by a meal of man-sized proportions at the legendary Longbranch in L'Erable, Il.

During the meal, we discussed our shared duties and obligations to Leo HS over the spring break.  Dan would man the ramparts development and organizational on Spy Wednesday and I would post myself visible in the hallowed halls on Holy Thursday.  We would both steward the school on Good Friday.

"What will you do with a day off, Pat?" asked my superior and friend.  I gave the issue of time-off some thought.  " I believe I will attempt a morning ascent of the hills of Dan Ryan Woods," I answered with my temperamentally uncharacteristic challenge to physical exertions.

" Well, good luck to you."

Luck indeed.  Generations of Leo High School footballers and very few of Little Flower gridiron Argives ran the slopes of those challenging hills in full pads and helmets under the Spartan eyes of coaches Arneberg, Hanlon Foster, Lord and Houlihan.

The Dan Ryan Woods boasts the highest land elevation above the city of Chicago and at one time was the greatest toboggan slide in the world.

Below is an aerial view of the Woods within the City. Remember top is North and bottom south:



At 87th noted by the pine tree is the highest point above Chicago.

I tasked a Sherpa - retired Chicago Parks Supervisor and physical fitness director Marlin "Bud" Speed.  Bud Speed managed the field houses at O'Halleran Park at 1800 West 83rd Street, coached CPD Bee-Wee Football and ' ran the order' for the Leo Lights and Heavies between 1965-1975.


Bud knows these hills. Bud gave hundreds of Chicago lads lessons in the life vigorous.

I asked Bud Speed, " How should I best prepare for this ascent?"

"When's the last time you climbed?"

" 1966, or there about . . .No!  I just remembered I had to climb the hills at the Leo Freshman game with Gordon Tech this fall . . "

" I really don't give a shit.  What are you climbing the hills for anyway, old age made you soft in the head as  every where else?"

You any of you noticed that mobidly obese behemoths not only gulp gallons of Diet Pepsi, but also tend to commentary of every other person on the planet but elepant on the rascal?

Nevertheless, I had interrupted Bud's viewing of the latest edition of Jugs and Ammo in order to prep for the climb.  Ignoring the commentary on my sagging excess epidermal manifestations, I continued, " Should I carbo-breakfast or wait until completing my descent?"

" Eat first, Dipshit, that way you won't die hungry."

This AM, after taking my daughter Clare and two of her buddies for day Two of their Red Cross Safety Certification Classes at the Chicago AG School, I followed the master's instructions to letter with a Chicago Style Hot Dog ( 1 only & certainly no fries) and amended the dietary regimen by firing up a Marlboro Red.

I faced the summit and pressed headlong up the 40 Degrees incline. I thought of my friends and acquaintances who had endured this crucible during the dog-days of August Triple Sessions and laughed my ass off.  Thank God, I did not go to Leo.  I would have probably just faked an injury or submitted to the branding of "Pussied Out!"  Hurtful remarks make not a heart attack.

From the tree-walled summit I took in the majestic panorama of my native south side.  This is a happy place to have been raised.

While bending into my climb, my neighbor and Leo football veteran Mike Regan '70 cell phoned a number of retirees and Catholic League long-teeth.  Upon my descent, I was greeted with applause and well-done.  Mike had been exercising his dog, when he spied my exertions.

" What are you soft making that climb?  I still have Hanlon and Tony Kelly nightmares.  All that glue you used to sniff must have finally taken hold."

Not all.  I like a challenge.

Every Gay Man and Woman Had a Mom and a Dad - Is That Bad?

“It’s become a joke that [marriage] is so sacred,” - Gay Activist from Uptown -Chicago Sun Time

I'd like to be a great and handsomely over-paid professional athlete, but God didn't make me that way.  I run slower than a Rolex watch bought from the trunk of a car in a vacant lot on Racine..  I can barely navigate the living room without doing serious damage to the china cabinet, taking a patch of flesh off my shins from contact with the coffee table and eventually launching myself out on the front lawn via the picture window.Was this due to Nature or Nurture?

I have no childhood malady, nor have I been subjected to any physical trauma despite my being a major league klutz.  Nevertheless, life has allowed me the honor and privilege of working with many gifted athletes as a teacher and coach.  My Hoop Dreams are for the Leo Lions once again.  We had a brutal basketball season.

My Mom was faster than me. She could beat me in dead sprint, until I turned thirteen.  My Dad and I played catch; he took my fastballs in the mitt and I caught his with my face.  Football was an ideal sport for the criminally slow and took my place on the line. " Hickey, just take up some real estate - get in the way."  That, I can do coach! Basketball?  As if!   I tried out with guys and Coach Spatz bellowed in his Jim Backus voice - "JeeeeZus Christ Almighty and the Forty Thieves!!!!!!!????  Kid, did you have Polio?"

My parents and coaches and pals encouraged me with good natured patience, not unlike Coach Spatz's stunned commentary on the most obvious of facts.  My Self esteem suffered not.  In fact, it directed my energies and aspirations.  Honed my work ethic and balmed my lightly bruised ego.

The extended family and the traditional family of one Mom and one Dad served me and most people I know very well - gay and straight.  Like Chief Justice Roberts, I have gay cousins and a gay aunt. Who doesn't?

I love them and respect them, even though I know that they will never birth.   They love me, even though I never was or will be a very good athlete. Did I grow up into a frustrated jock, an athletic wannabe?  Oh, Hell No!  Were I a better (even modest athlete) jock-strap I might have become one and ignored the alternative lifestyle I love - I read books.  I am more about Thackeray, than Dwayne Wade.

In the media's breathless hysteria to bull through Gay Marriage, I found this sad comment from a Gay Marriage activist in today's Sun Times.-

As rainbow flags fluttered above several hundred supporters at Federal Plaza, 230 S. Dearborn, D.J. Reed, 30, contrasted the importance of marriage to the gay community with its trivial portrayal in pop culture.
“It’s become a joke that [marriage] is so sacred,” said Reed, of Uptown.
“So many straight people everywhere love watching ‘The Bachelor’ and any other stupid fake wedding TV reality show, and people who truly love each other aren’t allowed to,” said Reed, a salesman at Nordstrom. “I just think they should open their eyes to what’s really going on.”

I beg to differ.  I was married.  When my wife died, I laughed not.   I had three young children about to be raised by Homer Simpson and that is no laughing matter.   All three grew up knowing how much I loved their mother and they had witnessed our very tactile affection for one another prior to and after her long illness; not to mention my absolutely pole-axed spirit and subsequent dissolute gambling.

We live with what God gives us and what we do about it: I have stumpy legs - my inclinations, however, are my own.

Marriage between a man and woman is a sacred union and not a Civil Right.

Palm Sunday - How Are Things Going for You , So Far, This Week?

Palm Sunday is the celebration of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem at Passover.  On that Sunday, Jesus entered the God's City, occupied by the Romans and run by the out-sourced security of Herod Antipas, to roads paved with palms and folks shouting Hosannas like Cubs fans in April.

Things were looking good.  Monday and Tuesday were filled with miracles, parables and foiling traps set by the Pharisees (Democrats of the day) and the Temple gang, the Sadducees ( GOP CPAC grandees).

Wednesday, one of the disciples decided to get on 'the right side of history' and went to the Temple gang who were pretty thick with Herod, Junior to negotiate a compelling narrative.

Thursday, Jesus broke bread with the lads and Judas left early to pick up his fee.   Peter, the business agent for Galilee Fisherman's Local VII, was informed that he'd get thin, once things got thick, and tried to wave off the prediction from Jesus.  Later, that night, while Jesus torments in the Garden, and pretty sound post Passover meal loosening of the eatin' pants and forty-winks with his equally callow fellows, Peter got up in the grill of one of the Temple Boys and lopped off the guy's ear, which Jesus put right with a touch of his hand, but decided to allow Jesus to take the pinch.

Peter was asked three times if he knew the guy in custody.  Three times Peter said, " Oh, Hell no!"

Jesus' few hours were occupied with several tune-ups from the Temple Cops, appearances before Caiaphas - the Temple AG - a trip to the Prefect Pontius Pilate the Homeland Security Chief for some genuine torture at the hands of some pros, witnessing Pilate's hand-bath, another tune-up from the Guests of the Nation including a scourging and crowning with thorns, losing a vote to Barabbas.  Ecce Homo, Folks!  a walking tour of Jerusalem while carry some very heavy timbers, getting nailed to the timbers and eventually taking a Roman pila in the ribs.

We feel pretty good on Sundays, but must remember that there is going to be a really rotten hump day, a very confusing Thursday and mortally horrible Friday waiting us all.

The good news; things get better.

Though The Hipster-Cool Cities Plan Has Failed Everywhere Else, Chicago Continues Its Drive to the Hoop - You Know, South, West and North of the Loop

Hipster's Dream City!

Burning money trying to become “cooler” ends up looking something like the metropolitan equivalent to a midlife crisis. Joel Kotkin

We had a Leo Alumni meeting at Father Perez Knights of Columbus Council 1444 in Mount Greenwood here on the south side last night.  It was great.  Irish kids from the Classes of 1943, '44 and &  and Black Kids from the 70's, 80's and 90's.  There were about sixty kids all told -For Light-hearted Boys Make the Best of Old Man, as the Irish song goes.



The Alumni Banquet is upon us and the class captains reported on tables purchased followed by President Dan McGrath's report on the school.  Leo High School was represented by Dan, Mike Holmes '76, Coach Noah Cannon '91 and yours truly.  Prior to the start of the meeting Mike and Noah spoke of the march of folly by CPS in the closing of neighborhood schools. "Where are the kids from Alonzo Stagg Elementary supposed to go?"  Aldermen who support Mayor Rahm in all things are now faced by their constituents and the race card is tossed freely, as in all things necessry to the subject.

(Alderman Carrie) Austin said she had not been told which schools in her far South Side ward are in line to be shut down. But most of the schools targeted by the district are in predominantly black neighborhoods on the South and West sides
"I don't think anything is a done deal in this city. I'm not going to let them do this to us, not again," she said. "Every time the whites get to screaming and hollering, they back off and steamroll over black and brown folks. Not this time."

This time and everytime, Carrie; make book on it.  It is not a white and black issue.  It is the PLAN.  The PLAN is to eliminate neighborhoods by shooing the helots (white,black,brown,and pale) the Hell out of Chicago's City Limits by whatever means necesary ( Ventra Cards, crumby to closed schools, thug comfort zones, idiotic ordinances and the attached fees, property tax increases and garbage grid boondoggles).

The PLAN has a goal of -CHICAGO Urban Center City.  This has been brewing from the time that Richie Daley took to hanging around University of Chicago dudes and turned his back on Bridgeport friends.  Daley took Frank Krusie -the CTA genius, Forrest Claypool -the job hopper and CTA genius, the Hyde Park Mafia ( John Rogers, Valerie Jarrett, Judson Miner, Allison Davis, Bill Ayers and Arne Duncan) and told the bad boys of the Hamburg Club to stay off his porch.

• Bike Lanes -Good!
• Red Line Safe & On Time -Bad
• Red Light Cameras -Good
• Cops and Firefighters -Bad
• City Services - Bad
• Open Green Spaces -Good
• Churches and the People Who Go to Them-Very Bad
• Hooka Centers -Very, Very Good
• Schools -Who Cares ! We Have Degrees from Columbia! Make Chicago Your Classroom!
• Neighborhoods - Unevolved: Too many Breeders and their damn kids with their Parades; we need Green Spaces and Bike Lanes

See? Progressive, going back to the 1970's.

The idea of the PLAN is that by creating a Creative/Intellectual Demographic as the urban core population, all the other pains-in-the ass folks black, white, brown, or pale could get the Hell out and visit Urban Center Chicago on holidays, the weekends, and when paying traffic, parking and City Ordinance fees.

Urban Centers, a comfort-zone for affluent childless couples, single secular degree'd, Progressive, fitness conscious, trendy urban pioneers, has been the template for city government too lazy, corrupt, or Progressive to make thoughtful investments in time, treasure and talent to provide adequate services to the tax-payers who dwell in neighborhoods.

This template cracked under the weight of its own folly, the Geography of hipness:

Geography of Hip Coolness

Perhaps the best that can be said about the creative-class idea is that it follows a real, if overhyped, phenomenon: the movement of young, largely single, childless and sometimes gay people into urban neighborhoods. This Soho-ization—the transformation of older, often industrial urban areas into hip enclaves—is evident in scores of cities. It can legitimately can be credited for boosting real estate values from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Wicker Park in Chicago and Belltown in Seattle to Portland’s Pearl District as well as much of San Francisco.
Yet this footprint of such “cool” districts that appeal to largely childless, young urbanistas in the core is far smaller in most cities than commonly reported. Between 2000 and 2010, notes demographer Wendell Cox, the urban core areas of the 51 largest metropolitan areas—within two miles of the city’s center—added a total of 206,000 residents. But the surrounding rings, between two and five miles from the core, actually lost 272,000. In contrast to those small gains and losses, the suburban areas—between 10 and 20 miles from the center —experienced a growth of roughly 15 million people.
The smallness of the potentially “hip” core is particularly pronounced in Rust Belt cities such as Cleveland and St. Louis, where these core districts are rarely home to more than 1 or 2 percent of the city’s shrinking population. Yet the subsidy money for developers is often justified in the name of “reviving” the entire city, most of which has continued to deteriorate.

The Politics of Hipness -

Investments in “cool” districts may well appeal to some young professionals, particularly before they get married and have children. But overall, as Florida himself now admits, it has done little overall for the urban middle class, much less the working class or the poor.
Indeed in many ways the Floridian focus on industries like entertainment, software, and social media creates a distorted set of economic priorities. The creatives, after all, generally don’t work in factories or warehouses. So why assist these industries? Instead the trend is to declare good-paying blue collar professions a product of the past. If you can’t find work in deindustrialized Michigan, suggests Salon’s Ray Fisman, one can collect “ more than a few crumbs” by joining the service class and serving food, cutting hair or grass in creative capitals like San Francisco or Austin.
These limitations of the “hip cool” strategy to drive broad-based economic growth have been evident for years. Conservative critics, such as the Manhattan Institute’sSteve Malanga have pointed out that many creative-class havens often underperform economically compared to their less hip counterparts. More liberalacademic analysts have denounced the idea as “ exacerbating inequality and exclusion.” One particularly sharp critic, the University of British Columbia’s Jamie Peck see it as little more than a neo-liberal recipe of “biscotti and circuses.”
Urban thinker Aaron Renn puts it in political terms: “the creative class doesn’t have much in the way of coattails.”

And as today's Tribune CPS feature displays - RACE - The very people

On paper, the “creative class” theory worships at the altar of diversity. “The great thing about cities,” Florida told NPR last year, “is they're diverse. There's diverse people in them.” Yet even leaving aside their lack of economic diversity, the exemplars of “hip cool” world, notes urban analyst Renn, tend to be vanilla cities with relatively small minority populations. San Francisco, Portland and Seattle are becoming whiter and less ethnically diverse as the rest of the country, andparticularly the suburbs, rapidly diversify.
Creatives may espouse politically correct views, but the effect of Florida’s policy approach, notes Tulane sociologist Richard Campanella, often undermine ethnic communities. As they enter the city, creatives push up rents, displacing local stores and residents. In his own neighborhood of Bywater, in New Orleans, the black population declined by 64 percent between 2000 and 2010, while the white population increased by 22 percent.
In the process, Campanella notes, much of what made the neighborhood unique has been lost as the creatives replace the local culture with the increasingly predictable, and portable, “hip cool” trendy restaurants, offering beet-filled ravioli instead of fried okra, and organic markets. The “unique” amenities you find now, even in New Orleans, he reports, are much what you’d expect in any other hipster paradise, be it Portland, Seattle, Burlington, Vermont or Williamsburg.

The very people whom Urban Creative Hipster Centers must please simply can not do without the very people they so detest - the middle class breeders of all races.  The Creative and Hip cannot fix a sink, a time for an appointment, much less a government official.  The helots who go to the precinct captain in order to tidy up a playground are scorned by the Creative Secular Urban Dweller as thoroughly unevolved.  That is why a hard-hitting newspaper series on corruption tracks the misadventures of some poor slob who takes the odd nap on his shovel and ignores the Global Inbred Corruption of a CTA President who could not tell you how MPG a bus gets, let alone start one who manages to finesse editorial boards into ignore the roots of Bombardier/Ventra scams.

The PLAN is working to make Chicago an Urban Center, but Urban Centers don't work.

"Where are the kids from Amos Alonzo Stagg Elementary supposed to go to school?"  Not in the PLAN that is for sure.

Check, Please! New Hosts -Same Menu. How 'Bout This?

CHICAGO — After wading through hundreds of video submissions, producers for “Check, Please!” are now 17 steps closer to finding their new host.On Wednesday, the popular WTTW-Ch. 11 show posted on its website "The Round of 17" — bios, photos and videos for 17 hopefuls vying to replace longtime host Alpana Singh.
The finalists include Rochelle Trotter, wife of famed chef Charlie Trotter, and Ina Pinkney of Ina's Kitchen.

Singh announced in January she's leaving the show to focus on her River North restaurant, the Boarding House. DNAChicago 

That's nice and soooooooo WTTW.  The Concept of young, successful, urbane urbanites and their posse dining at trendy restaurants and giving a review to the clinking of wine glasses on Public Television is just so. . .  shall I say  . . . Sriracha . Check, Please! is a hit.  I believe that I can go one better.

Get four city dwelling Chicagoans, who actually grew up here from neighborhoods like Back of the Yards, Albany, Edison, Armour and Garfield Parks and Ridge, Mount Greenwood, Englewood, Clearing, Chicago Lawn, Canaryville, Edgewater and over by Midway, to go to very well-established eating joints with The Eatin' Pants On; Gulp and Carbo up and finally Bolt on the Bill!

These will needs be young adults who grew up ditching the dweebs, lame-ohs, snitches, dipwads and crybabies, by hopping fences, tossing garbage cans, climbing trees, gutters and fire-escapes. They will be adepts in cutting the urban trail: skeeching from fenders of passing cars in snowy weather, hopping freight cars, sauntering past Paddy Wagons with a wave to the cops in cab as one directs its door panel searchlights in pursuit of  ' four losers who bolted from Chris, Jim and Gust's Salonika Salon ( " Μπορείτε γαμημένο ιρλανδική κατάπιναν του πέους σας έρχονται πίσω εδώ μαλάκας και να πληρώνουν το λογαριασμό σας!) on Wentworth.'

Now the moral and ethical nature of my show ( Perhaps a casting title Dian and Dash?)- it is against the law to steal, but more so it is wrong.  Have I dined an dashed?  You bet.  Am I proud of doing so?  . . .No, but . . .it was funny as Hell. Does this mean that I am a far less than earnest person?  God I hope so! Earnest people sneer at the thought of dining and dashing, but are perfectly swell with Forrest Claypool's Ventra Pass

Forrest Claypool is very earnest.

 The Check Please panelists were and are always earnest, smug and nerdy lispers with a thick sense of self-importance and . . .just a refreshing hint of mint. .  Generally speaking, their presence at a table for a night of dining out would put me off my feed. Check it out, White Liberal!@

Now, this goof is not Hasidim, he is a JO, but very earnest and knows wine.  Take that #$%^ing hat off at the table!  Sorry,

Hey, don't get me wrong; they are probably all fabulous people with great social sense and thoroughgoing earnestness.  I hate earnestness.  Anybody else?

The Earnest will tell you what they think of you and your clothes, haircut, aftershave, political party, religion, diet, credit card, or automobile and when you find yourself either justifying, defending, or explaining yourself, the earnest person will smile knowingly,lovingly, sadly and dismissively offer a conclusive, "That is just so sad on so many levels. You are putting on weight - you'd want someone to tell you that -Don't You Think?"  You see only earnest people manage to reach adulthood without ever having had to to face the consequences of their words and deeds - they were nurtured and schooled by equally earnest, but wildly litigious parents.

Where neighborhood folks grew up and learned to settle differences between their contemporaries knowing that bandages and iodine were available to make things better, civil litigation never happened.  Earnest people avoided abrasions and slights by dint of premptivly announcing legal action.

More unwholesome however is this all too empirical fact:  Earnest people will always allow you to pick up the check and the tip, following their long descantings on the disappointing  wine,  spices, presentations and the atmosphere.  I always part from earnest people with a strong desire to kick them squarely in the nuts, or the similar apparti - gender specific.

But enough about me. . .earnest people are just tops!  Don't you think?

Anyway, how's about a show, not unlike Check Please.

Get four regular Janes and Джонs, ( John is from Ukrainian Village) and their pals to visit Miller's Pub on Wabash, Les Nomades on Ontario, Ken's on South Western and Kalbi on west Lawrence Ave.

1. Panelists and friends must eat like they have been endowed by their Creator with two A$$holes
2. Panelists and friends must not pay the tab, but, they must leave an obscene tip for the wait staff,and
    manage to get away without paying, or being fatally wounded in the process.
3.The host must be an accomplished regular guy/gal and have never hosted anything on Public Television or  
    Radio - even better must be willing to take a swing at Richard Roeper, Billy Dec, or refuse any
    opportunity to shine in their celebrated light.

Only after requesting payment from the show's producer will all costs to the visited establishments; if threatened by lawyers.  We will ask for proof positive that such folks ever visited the restaurant, chop-house, ham'negger, bistro, luncheonette, posada, roach coach, hash-house, grill, Grille, cafe, charcuterie, or brasserie and them prove it.  Nah, we'll pay up.  The owners will be paid and gladly.



The Concept: Dine and Dash -The action to go in a restaurant,sit at a table, order whatever you want, eat and then leave quick without payin.

Obama 2016 Calling - Illinois House Dems Make Marriage Null and Void!

 "Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” - You know Who!!!!!!! from Matthew 4: 1- 9-10

Obama's 2016 Campaign ( watch for 3rd term!) demands Illinois House of Reps vote for the nullification of Marriage in Illinois - 

Chicago Sun Times White House Reporter Sweet Tweets this info: 

Obama's "Organizing for Action" pushing Illinois House to legalize gay marriage
By Lynn Sweet on March 19, 2013 9:00 AM | No Comments

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WASHINGTON--President Barack Obama's Organizing for Action--the outgrowth of his re-election campaign--is jumping in the fight to legalize gay marriage in Illinois, on Tuesday sending an e-mail to Obama's Illinois activists and supporters asking them to lobby Illinois House members to vote yes on the marriage bill, already passed by the Illinois Senate.
Obama already has urged the Illinois General Assembly to legalize gay marriage. Gov. Pat Quinn wants to sign a bill making Illinois the tenth state with gay marriage.
Last month, an Illinois House Committee advanced the bill to the full House floor, but so far the measure lacks the votes to pass the chamber, Sun-Times Springfield Bureau Chief Dave McKinney reports.This is the first attempt by OFA to get involved in an Illinois issue. The OFA, to have offices in Chicago and Washington was created to support the Obama agenda--and local issues that activists might want to work on.
Below, the text of the e-mail from Organizing for Action.....If you care about marriage equality, here's something really important you can do right now.As early as this week, the Illinois State House could vote on a bill -- already passed by the state Senate -- that will give all couples the legal right to marry. If it passes, Governor Quinn says he'll sign it into law. That's huge for all of us in the OFA family who care about this issue.Right now, reports say the bill is short of the votes it needs to pass, so these calls matter.
Take two minutes and look up your state representative right now -- then give them a call to let them know that you want them to vote YES on the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act.
It's really easy: Just use that website to look up your address, click "confirm your address," then scroll down to find your state representative's information.
Like President Obama said last year, he believes that marriage equality is a question of fairness -- of treating others the way you want to be treated.
Right now, his home state is just one step away from becoming the 10th state in the nation to approve same-sex marriage -- and making sure that gay and lesbian families in Illinois are treated equally in the eyes of the law.
We've heard from OFA supporters here in Illinois that this issue matters to you, and that's why we're teaming up with Illinois Unites for Marriage -- a joint project of ACLU Illinois, Equality Illinois, and Lambda Legal -- to add our voices to this fight.
This House vote is the final hurdle to making sure this historic legislation becomes the law of the land. Right now, a number of state representatives are still undecided, and we know this vote's going to be close.
Take a few minutes to look up your state representative today and urge them to vote YES in allowing all loving couples to share in the freedom to marry:
http://my.barackobama.com/Illinois-Marriage-Equality

To which I reply. 

To Il Rep. Fran Hurley,

If you really care about the people you represent, do not make the choice that Senator Bill Cunningham made to help promote the nullification of marriage in Illinois.  He voted YES !!!! for the Greg Harris\/ Heather Steans Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act. 

Fran you are at bat. Let's see which side of the plate you hit from on this important legislation.

Here's the pitch. Our district is comprised of people who married in same manner as they did after eviction from the Garden of Eden - Adam and Eve.  Not only that, Pope Francis is not a fan of same sex marriage and I suppose that Greg Harris, Fred Eychaner, Terry Cosgrove and Smell Mogul Henry Van Amerigen, as well as Heather's Dad want this legislation jammed through before Pope Francis has people jumping over to this side of history again.

Read a few of your e-mails from me and the neighbors and Catholic Coalition of Illinois.

Vote your conscience Fran.

We'll do the same.

Organizing My Garage - Hickey Cooperative Coalition Institute and Faith-based Plumbing

Dennis Byrne on Pope Francis, Progressive Narrative Doctrine and Just Folks

Pope Francis and a woman who really, really, really hates his guts - The President of Argentina, the widow Kirchner.

The Holy Spirit picked a winner in the Italian kid from Argentina.   The Conclave of Cardinals did the voting to be sure, but it was the Paraclete who did the selection of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, Archbishop of Buenas Aires to be 266th successor to the Chair of St. Peter.

This 'breath from God' whispered in the hearts of Cardinals could not come at a better time for Christ's Church, especially here in the secularly propagandized United States.  At this time, the loudest and most strident critics of the Catholic Church are the very people too many Catholics fear to offend with a confession of faith - " ( NPR voce with botoxed smile) I hope this Pope does everything we would have him do - ordain wonderful caring women and their wives as well and make sure that every woman has the proper funding to terminate her baby bump when she chooses;  don't you think?"

Those who do 'disagree' that the murder of children in the womb is merely a medical procedure chosen by a woman, or that same sex partners must define the meaning marriage are said to be 'on the wrong side of history, homophobic, unevolved, hateful, patriarchal and racist.

The loudest tossers of the priest sex-abuse scandal are perfectly comfortable with abortion on demand, sex without borders and dismissive of the family as a primitive superstition. These folks worship at the temple of John Dewey - the partiarch of social science ( facts and data that lead to government control) want to see religion disappear altogether - Jew, Catholic, Muslim Protestant, Hindu; perhaps with allowances for secular Buddhism and Unitarians.

Dennis Byrne, a Chicago reporter of the old school ( he actually cares about the facts) answers the strident howlers.

Pope Francis will indeed open the window to a breath of fresh air in church, as it was said of Pope John XXIII decades ago. Say goodbye to the over-the-top ostentatiousness of some hierarchy and clergy that has troubled many Catholics. Pray that Francis can cleanse the church of the last vestiges of the child sex-abuse scandal and that he will clean up the alleged hinky financial dealings. Expect a crackdown on the curia — the church's own version of a bloated government bureaucracy. And I'll bet Francis will bring more women — religious and lay — into the higher ranks of the church.
But the church's critics — inside and out — might as well get used to some things not changing — opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion, artificial contraception and, as much as I would like to see it, married and women priests. I'd be glad to engage my religious friends on those issues, but that's for another day. Disagreement over such things need not destroy my faith. And it shouldn't allow the church's critics to define it as a medieval, abusive organization, obsessed with sex.
Pope Francis or no, the church will remain both a human and a divine organization, hamstrung by human frailties but capable of great deeds.

I am a practicing Catholic, though sometimes I ditch practice, and try to live according to morals and ethics my faith lays out for me.  Christ, His Father and the Holy Spirit, as well as my neighbors are holding the score card - not a study, a poll, a compelling narrative, a meme, MSNBC, WTTW, Hillary Clinton, Lady Gaga, the Cast of Book of Mormon, Glee, Anderson Cooper, or the Illinois Department of Human Services, much less some elected official or appointed judge .

Americans, Muslim, Jew, Catholic, or Baptist, are not yet subject to wearing an embroidered Star, Cross, or Crescent Moon on our duds.

Holy Smokes! Look Alikes

British Yeoman Actor Jonathan Pryce  bears a striking resemblance to Pope Francis the First - seen below in a 2002 photo on a Buenas Aires bus


Then of course there is this doppleganger set and they ain't Mary Kate and Ashley


The Divil, You Say!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2295082/Why-does-devil-The-Bible-look-exactly-like-President-Obama.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

The Lion Queen - Master Teacher Aurora Latifi of Leo High School

This lovely Albanian Lass has the Lions eating out of the palm of her hands!

Mr. Wendell Hudson, a class act of DNA Chicago ( home to Pulitzer Prize Icon Mark Konkol) came out to Leo High School recently to do a feature on our Lion Queen - Aurora Latifi.  This young math teacher has changed the lives of scores of willful young men.  Boys are not easy to teach . . .anything and must be met where they are in this awkward and challenging stage of development - one minute they are trying to download pictures of naked women and in an instant very much concerned about Sponge Bob's most recent predicament.

I am amazed at the talented women Leo High School students have as mentors and instructors - Cristine Meany, also a math teacher, tutors Miles Turner who is making miraculous progress recovering from five bullets.  These young ladies have much more command presence and command of their disciplines than many of the males who have run screaming like kittens on fire from the onerous work of teaching young men. " I CAN'T TEACH THESE KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  Alpha Mike Foxtrot, Cup Cake!

Aurora Latifi is a Master ( m.gender) Teacher.

AUBURN GRESHAM — Aurora Latifi grew up wanting to be an engineer in her native Albania, but the government wouldn't allow her to, so she settled on teaching.

Latifi, 49, says now she has no regrets about going into teaching, and the move turned out to be good news for students at Leo Catholic High School on the South Side, where Latifi got a job after moving to America 12 years ago.

"She is a wonderful teacher and an asset to this school," said Dan McGrath, president of Leo, an all-boys school founded in 1926. "She really cares about her students, which is why she arrives early and leaves late. Her willingness to go that extra mile for students is what makes her so effective as a good teacher."

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130318/auburn-gresham/leo-high-school-teacher-makes-her-mark-adopted-country#ixzz2Nu75T2HG

Thanks DNA CHICAGO and to you Mr. Hudson!

Only Democrat Not Crashing the Investiture of Pope Francis is Congressman Dan Lipinski ( D-3rd)

Vice-President Jim Crow Joe Biden -I'm against it, but I'll be Damned, if I'll End It! 

Vice President Joe Biden will lead the U.S. presidential delegation to Rome for the Inaugural mass for Pope Francis on Tuesday. Lynn Sweet Chicago Sun Times

That's Joe!  He'd have been a great help to Anne Frank and her kin, " I'm not going to interfere with that!"  However, Joe Biden will tell us what marriage means.  He'll take Communion and help more women choose to knock off their children, weed out the unwanted ( Downs Syndrome e.g.) and work to snuff the elderly who are selfishly living far too long.  Not only that, Joe Biden will show up at the Vatican, like he believes in all that smells and bells patrirachal mumbo-jumbo.

I can not imagine myself deciding to attend an Illinois Gay Marriage, if the law manages to get in Old Soul of Fenwick Governor Pat Quinn's chubby fingers; nor can I imagine dropping by with a swell gift from Nordstrums at the shower for Ms. Bébé Mort Van Mais Riche (16) on the joyous celebration of her first abortion.

In fact, if my beliefs and point of view happen to be 'repellant' to more self-statedly evolved persons, I tend to stay the hell away from them, but wish them God's blessings.  We always hear It Takes a Village, but in the last twenty or so years due to the fence built between neighbors which is called the The Right Side of History,  my village is being torched -  the ethnic, working class Catholic village.  It is the village Joe Biden pretends to have been from, the village that Nancy Pelosi has looted, the village that Quisling Catholics like Pat Quinn, Mike Quigley and pretty much every Democrat who sprang from said village planning to attend the Investiture of Pope Francis wanted burned to the ground on the orders of fence builders - Planned Parenthood, the DNC, LGBTQ Enterprises. the Media and, of course,  Public Television and Radio.

My villagers are expected to be thrilled with the elimination of one of the Seven Sacraments via the Religious Freedom and Marriage Equality Illinois fence. Good fences do not make good neighbors. Something there is that does not love a legal wall.

That does not stop Planned Parenthood Rainbow Coalition Masonry Causcus from showing up where they least belong -  besides Vice President Biden,

Others in the Biden delegation to honor the world's first Hispanic pope--with Italian roots-- include New Mexico Gov.Susana Martinez; House Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia. President Barack Obama had asked Boehner to be part of the presidential delegation and he declined.

"The installation of Pope Francis, the first Holy Father ever to hail from the Americas, is a milestone in world history and an event of monumental significance to the millions of Americans who share in the Catholic faith," Boehner said in a statement.
The House delegation to the Vatican will also include, besides Lipinski, Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Sean Duffy (R-WI), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX), Jim Langevin (D-RI), and Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) and Father Patrick Conroy, S.J., the chaplain of the House of Representatives.  (Bold - my own: Abortion Stooge and Anti-Marriage)

Lynn Sweet fails to mention that NM Gov. Susanna Martinez was a Democrat and is now a very Pro Life Republican Governor - Ms. Anti-Quinn of sorts.

Nancy Pelosi, like Biden, is not a powerful intellect, but a power player for the abortion industry, as is Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-CT) and Ms. Sanchez (D-CA).  Then there is the cowardly President of Georgetown University John " Hide the Crucifix" DeGioia . . . .Mama Mia! The Joyful Onanists on a junket!

The group was invited by President Obama as representative of American Catholics.  This is another of Obama's smarmy insults, however, unlike symbolic disdain for Churchill trinkets or Royal Ipod uploads. this is an affront to Pope Francis and Catholics.  In Your Face! My American Catholics Love Abortion, Love Gay Marriage and Most of All . . .Me!  " I'm Barack Obama and I approve this Message."

Only one Democrat on the list of elected officials going to Rome to celebrate the Pontiff who heroically defends life from conception and as heroically objects to governmental social engineering and sophistry.  That is Congressman Dan Lipinski. Dan Lipinski is only who belongs at the Investiture of Pope Francis. The other Democrats are shameless gate-crashers.

The others are as shameless as I would be accepting banjo lessons from Lt. Governor Sheila Simon, or half-court passes for Simeon's Fifth Trip to Peoria,

First off I do C Tuning and play like Luke Kelly and secondly, I have no Kevlar.

No, sir!  I don't go where I don't belong.  If I did, I could run for office as a Democrat.

Sizing up Pope Francis? Start with the Shoes

Papal Footwear 2013 - a well-polished set of brogues - like any cop, firefighter, foreman, or construction supervise.

The guy is on the level.  That is a set of well-worn, maintained and comfortable set of kicks on the Pontiff. Already, I am sure, Papal Fashionistas are having conniptions, the twizzles, the vapors and the miseries!

Unlike, preening political compelling narrative crafting creeps, who don handkerchiefs, denim jackets, Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and Ambercrombie and Fitch boots with a footlong corncob pipe clenched between capped buckers prior to saunter among the helots, Pope Francis I walks the walk,