Tamara Holder - Leo Man

Leo High School opened the school year a week ago.  The school welcomed the freshman class and their families and greeted the returning Lions and their folks.

Absent from the returns was a young gent who earned the respect and affection of every soul in this eight-seven year old Catholic high school for males that has been the home to young guys from Chicago's south side. Many of those Leo Lions are now many of the most successful and generous leaders in every vocation. CEO's who were once poor kids who lived along the tracks that run through Auburn, Gresham, Englewood, Brainerd and Chatham received a Leo education that is fundamentally different from any public or charter school.  The difference is that God's law is the foundation of all studies and activities.

For 87 years, poor kids, as well as the sons of blue-collar parents learned that a Leo High School education is earned and owned jointly with the generations that have gone before them.  A Leo Education still means what it did to the Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers, the Irish, the Italians, the Lithuanians, the Poles, the Swedes, the Germans, the Mexicans and the African Americans who walked through these portals on 79th Street.

Most of our students receive some financial aid, just as many had in the Great Depression, but no one gets everything.  There are no free rides. Families and students invest time, treasure and talent to earn a Leo diploma.

One guy who is not a particularly bookish student, or a hot athlete, or a magnificent singer, or the reincarnation of St. Francis family could not afford the most modest stab at meeting tuition.  He was going to a public school.  That left a huge hole in the heart of the Lion.

President Dan McGrath had men drive over to the kid's home and we took him out for lunch at Schaller's Pump ( owned by Leo Hall of Fame 1943 Alum Jackie Schaller) in order to negotiate an important man back to Leo High School.

The school had allocated financial aid to all of our registered students, but as is always the case, more is needed because financial situations change like Midwest weather. We told our guy " You worry about your studies; let us worry about how to pay for them.  You are a Leo Man.'

We left it at that.  Dan paid for lunch and we headed to the parking lot.  An eighty-seven year old man was slowly working his way out of his car - it was none other than Louie Knox - Leo '42.  Mr. Knox was a member of Darby's Rangers and had the honor of "liberating Rome" days before General Mark Clark and his Army.  When the Rangers were wiped out Mr. Knox became one of America's pioneer Special Forces warriors fighting in Italy and Southern France with a mixed Canadian/American commando unit. 
Lou Knox -Leo '42 throws out the first pitch at Comiskey Park.

Louie Knox met our guy patted in on his shoulders and admonished him 'to be a Leo Man.' We dropped the Leo Man off at home - now, how to find help.

One can go to the well much too often.  No one knows that more than a person who is tasked with raising money.  We have Go-to-guys in the hundreds(  e.g.Sam Leno Class of 1963 spearheaded this summer's transportation campaign The Lion Express to Opportunity) but there are only so many dollars.  Leo works 24/7 to widen the well and dig in new locations.

One of our Advisory board members and the only woman among a thick baker's dozen middle aged African American and Irish American males who look like the cast of Deadwood,  is an exceptionally tall, athletic, smart, witty and beautiful Jewish woman - Tamara Holder. (See? Tamara is Just one of Guys!. . .Not.)

  Tamara is a criminal defense attorney, as well as a national television figure.

Tamara is a guys-gal.  She has not a drop of pretense coursing through her veins, despite being one of the sexiest women in America. She holds her own with the Brothers and  Boyos who tend to be the polar opposites of NPR-types.  Tamara delights and dazzles the Alumni with an occasional visit to Alumni meetings at Father Perez Knights of Columbus and treats inner city kids who have never ventured north of Chinatown to lunches at Harry Carray's.

I called Tamara in between her appearances  on Neil Cavuto and Sean Hannity as a Fox Television Legal Analyst.  I told Tamara about our guy,  Like a Lou Knox, Ms. Holder took command.of the objective and reached out to public and private pals.

The hole in the Lion's heart is filled by a leggy girl who leads with her heart.

Tamara Holder, like WII hero Lou Knox, lives the Leo motto Facta Non Verba - Deeds Not Words - every day.

Thanks, Baby!

Ogden Nash on Planned Parenthood and Lovers of Abortion

À Bas Ben Adhem ( of Personal PAC Illinois, Organizing for America and PPA)

My fellow man I do not care for.
I often ask me, What's he there for?
The only answer I can find
Is, Reproduction of his kind.
If I'm supposed to swallow that,
Winnetka is my habitat.
Isn't it time to carve Hic Jacet
Above that Reproduction racket?

To make the matter more succint:
Suppose my fellow man extinct.
Why, who would not approve the plan
Save possibly my fellow man?
Yet with a politician's voice
He names himself as Nature's choice.
The finest of the human race
Are bad in figure, worse in face.
Yet just because they have two legs
And come from storks instead of eggs
They count the spacious firmament
As something to be charged and sent.

Though man created cross-town traffic,
The Daily Mirror, News and Graphic,
The pastoral fight and fighting pastor,
And Queen Marie and Lady Astor,
He hails himself with drum and fife
And bullies lower forms of life.
Not that I think much depends
On how we treat our feathered friends,
Or hold the wrinkled elephant
A nobler creature than my aunt.
It's simply that I'm sure I can
Get on without my fellow man. 

Was Senator Dick Durbin a Defrocked Priest?

No wonder Senator Dithering Dick is so chummy with the abortion crowd.

Bad Poetry That is Scads of Fun - Lady Caroline Norton (1808-1877 and not minute too soon!)

" Fritz, I asked about that snake bite . . .  Doc sez, yer not gonna make it!"

We know what the people of America think. This is a very bad idea. (Senator Richard Durbin D. IL)

A very wise man wrote " It strikes me that the turpitude of our politicians might come into starker relief if we were to view them as bad poets: pathetic and desperate souls, free from restraints of harmony and good form, who must fill the world with their corrupt and ugly visions and endeavour to shape it to them."

It do seem so. People who recite poems in public settings tend to limited their study of the art to the poems that helped us as kids. Memory skills are developed with poems whether tying shoes or remembering days in a month.  My encounters with bad poems had to do with punitive post-school day assignments afforded me by Sister Mary Alaric, RSM,  The more sing-song the poem the better for the memory.  Often the themes are as humanly rudimentary as the wee human's place . . .elementary.

No one is more WEE than a politician. Politicians have themes for each grift they intend to perpetuate e.g  "Monica, gimma a Vet's poem for the old gimps at Hines VA this morning. You know,  all that 'Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye!' bullshit. Then I got a date with some  Sheenies up in Lincoln Park for lunch, followed by the Old Timey Shine Ministers - dig up some Yiddish  Yiddle-Fiddle crap and some WEB DuBoy  'I Hate Whitey Stuff'  -Hey, I love this stuff you dug up for the Shuttle Disaster Survivors! Who wrote it? . . .Don't know?  Ah, neither will they!

"O Moon, when I gaze on thy beautiful face,

Careering along through the boundaries of space,

The thought has often come into my mind

If I shall ever see thy glorious behind."

The more Bathetic the more the poem is recited. 

Imagine, if our elected dolts had actually developed any level of discernment through the study of poetry? Imagine Dick Durbin without AE Houseman?  Where would a Joe Biden go for work?  Where would Gov. Pat Quinn find a paycheck?  Where else but behind bars would a Rod Blagojevich be?

Imagine not needing to endure a very bad recitation of "IF" at every political campaign kickoff from a dolt who would struggle to spell the title of the poem let alone tell you that it was Kipling who wrote - Henry Wadsworth Kipling. Even great poets like John Donne and William Wordsworth wrote some pooches. 

I really enjoy the ballad form that told stories of highwaymen, outlaws, briggands, badmashes and the bollocks.  The absolute best are the closed couplet train-wrecks like the offering attached.

Don't get me wrong - Bad Poetry rocks! The Stuffed Owl Variety.

Poetry is a blessing and had at one time been the most important discipline. The More undisciplined the poem the more it hits the mark as bad poetry ' The Boy stood on the Burning Deck . . .& etc.'

Lady Caroline Norton was the granddaughter  of the Irish wit and playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan ( The Rivals) and reputed to be one the most beautiful women in Great Britain.  She was witty, well-read, kind and warm-hearted; married to her polar opposite - a slow-witted lawyer with soul of a gnat. This titanic midget of man sued his wife for 'Criminal Conversation' -adultery with Lord Melbourne,in a fit of sissified jealousy. Divorce was unheard of at the time, but the couple were separated for keeps.

Though this gorgeous and talented woman was known in her day as a poet - The Female Byron by some -she is known these days for activism for woman's children's rights.  Here is why.

V. Bingen on the Rhine

By Caroline Elizabeth Sarah (Sheridan) Norton (1808–1877)

A SOLDIER of the Legion lay dying in Algiers— There was lack of woman’s nursing, there was dearth of woman’s tears; But a comrade stood beside him, while his life-blood ebbed away, And bent, with pitying glances, to hear what he might say. The dying soldier faltered, as he took that comrade’s hand,         5 And he said: “I never more shall see my own, my native land; Take a message and a token to some distant friends of mine, For I was born at Bingen—at Bingen on the Rhine! “Tell my brothers and companions, when they meet and crowd around To hear my mournful story, in the pleasant vineyard ground,         10 That we fought the battle bravely—and, when the day was done, Full many a corse lay ghastly pale, beneath the setting sun. And ’midst the dead and dying were some grown old in wars,— The death-wound on their gallant breasts, the last of many scars; But some were young,—and suddenly beheld life’s morn decline,—         15 And one had come from Bingen—fair Bingen on the Rhine! “Tell my mother that her other sons shall comfort her old age, And I was aye a truant bird, that thought his home a cage; For my father was a soldier, and, even as a child, My heart leaped forth to hear him tell of struggles fierce and wild;         20 And when he died, and left us to divide his scanty hoard, I let them take whate’er they would—but kept my father’s sword; And with boyish love I hung it where the bright light used to shine, On the cottage wall at Bingen—calm Bingen on the Rhine! “Tell my sister not to weep for me, and sob with drooping head,         25 When the troops are marching home again, with glad and gallant tread; But to look upon them proudly, with a calm and steadfast eye, For her brother was a soldier, too—and not afraid to die. And, if a comrade seek her love, I ask her, in my name, To listen to him kindly, without regret or shame;         30 And to hang the old sword in its place (my father’s sword and mine), For the honour of old Bingen—dear Bingen on the Rhine! “There’s another—not a sister,—in the happy days gone by, You’d have known her by the merriment that sparkled in her eye: Too innocent for coquetry! too fond for idle scorning;—         35 Oh friend! I fear the lightest heart makes sometimes heaviest mourning! Tell her, the last night of my life (for, ere this moon be risen, My body will be out of pain—my soul be out of prison), I dreamed I stood with her, and saw the yellow sunlight shine On the vine-clad hills of Bingen—fair Bingen on the Rhine!         40 “I saw the blue Rhine sweep along—I heard, or seemed to hear, The German songs we used to sing, in chorus sweet and clear; And down the pleasant river, and up the slanting hill, That echoing chorus sounded, through the evening calm and still; And her glad blue eyes were on me, as we passed with friendly talk,         45 Down many a path beloved of yore, and well-remembered walk; And her little hand lay lightly, confidingly in mine … But we’ll meet no more at Bingen—loved Bingen on the Rhine!” His voice grew faint and hoarser,—his grasp was childish weak,— His eyes put on a dying look,—he sighed and ceased to speak:         50 His comrade bent to lift him,… but the spark of life had fled! The soldier of the Legion, in a foreign land was dead! And the soft moon rose up slowly, and calmly she looked down On the red sand of the battle-field, with bloody corpses strown; Yea, calmly on that dreadful scene her pale light seemed to shine,         55 As it shone on distant Bingen—fair Bingen on the Rhine Thought that Square-head'd never die. I guess the French Foreign Legion had Nazi war criminals on the run even in the Mid-19th Century. Did not know that.

Groove - Stay Cool with Dr. Lonnie Smith and Peter Bernstein

It's Monday and full class schedules kick in at Leo HS.  My office is already up over 86 Degrees.  Stay cool with Peter Bernstein and Dr. Lonnie Smith.

Change Is Pukka! Hickey On The Cot!

I was having a wet-on the terrace, after padding the hoof in my parish, when I noticed a pukka sahib from down the quad ,  who had recently gotten the chuck at work and had  moithered the neighbors with his yowling.

The Traps from District 22 had set upon the Topper and determined to take the Old Sweat, who was obviously off his chump, on the peg.

Ichabod!! No pother to me Old Boy.  I'll just chat up the God-Wallah at Sacred Heart about this bother on Sunday next and hand sketch it down in my moleskin notebook.

The Feast of the Assumption of Mary, Mother God and Abortion's Vale Tears Here

Today is an unmoveable feast. August 15th, like December 25th, is a set date and dogma of the Roman Catholic Church.

President Obama assumes that folks believe a rodeo clown wants to kill him.  He also assumes* that ObamaCare will allow the government to erase religious beliefs that get in its way ( see Kathleen Sebilius).  Likewise, Obama assumes that the Muslim Brotherhood will turn into the Congressional Progressive Caucus by dint of Obama Fiat and red tresses of Samantha Power and fall asleep in fields of poppies like Dorothy and Toto and the Cowardly Lion. 

The Feast of the Dormition has been celebrated in the Catholic (East & West) Church from the earliest days of Christianity.  The Dormition means the 'the falling asleep' in Greek.  I included the concept in my novel a few years ago (chapter 44.) because the month coincided with the plot.  The Dormition of the Theokotos is celebrated in the Greek Orthodox Church to this day and is based upon early church writings presented in the narrative voice of the Apostle John attributing Mary's Assumption into Heaven without the decay of the human body.

In 1950, Pope Pius XII issued this belief as dogma for all Roman Catholics. "that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."  Mary died, but was Assumed to heaven without bodily decay.

Now, we know that the do ctrine of the Assumption is based upon apocryphal writings and ' has never asserted nor denied that its teaching is based on the apocryphal accounts.'   The slide-rule boys and post-Kantian egg-head Progressives howl scorn on such non-science. Assumption!

I believe that.  That Mary was Assumed to Heaven makes much more sense than same sex marriage.  Two guys are not going to consummate a marriage, but are going to have sex.

A consummated marriage is most likely to produce a child, not a fetus.  That stuff is biological science.

It makes more sense that the Virgin who gave birth to the Son of God was Assumed to Heaven after death, than it does to believe killing a child is health care.  A non-Catholic will not believe what I believe.  That is okay.  This is still a free country . . .for now.

Our government pays abortionists.  Our government sanctions same sex marriage.  I don't believe that has come to pass, but it most certainly is true.

It is as True to me as the Feast of Assumption.

Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinner and voters.

* as·sume  /əˈso͞om/
Verb
Suppose to be the case, without proof: "afraid of what people are going to assume".
Take or begin to have (power or responsibility): "he assumed full responsibility for all organizational work".
Synonyms
suppose - presume - take

The Loss of Another Happy Man: Kevin Flynn At Home With Christ

Susan and Kevin Flynn

The other morning I checked my cell phone which had been recharging over night.  I found four missed messages from my brother and the attendant voice mails. When a family member calls multiple times in short succession, it is never happy news.  " Pat, Mom took a fall.  We are at Palos (hospital),." my Mom had a knee and hip replacement over the last two years.  She is a very fit and healthy 87.

I was happy to learn that the fall damaged her right-side hip joint which was the God-given device and not on the artificial ball and joint left side, as artificial components tend to really damage bones and sinews.

Happy is the word.  Was her fall merely fortunate?

Now, I can't work a home improvement job without a gun to my head, but I can reach into the old reading tool box to try and sheet-rock life's pains . . .somewhat.  I have been reading Herodatus' Histories, since the 4th of July.  I went back over the encounter between Solon, a really smart Greek and Croesus a really rich Greek.   Solon was a visiting Athenian smart guy to the Sardian court of Croesus, who demanded that he was the happiest man in the world because he was the richest.  Solon argued that one can only determine another man's happiness upon death.  Solon held to the notion that Croesus was merely fortunate, lucky. Hey, You are really wealthy; that's nice. You are the king of Sardis, which is like being President of the United States, which is nice, but so what ?

The smart guy explained, " For in the course of long time a man may see many things which he would not desire to see, and suffer also many things which he would not desire to suffer. The limit of life for a man I lay down at seventy years: and these seventy years give twenty-five thousand and two hundred days, not reckoning for any intercalated month. Then if every other one of these years shall be made longer by one month, that the seasons may be caused to come round at the due time of the year, the intercalated months will be in number five-and-thirty besides the seventy years; and of these months the days will be one thousand and fifty. Of all these days, being in number twenty-six thousand two hundred and fifty, which go to the seventy years, one day produces nothing at all which resembles what another brings with it. Thus then, O Croesus, man is altogether a creature of accident. As for thee, I perceive that thou art both great in wealth and king of many men, but that of which thou didst ask me I cannot call thee yet, until I learn that thou hast brought thy life to a fair ending: for the very rich man is not at all to be accounted more happy than he who has but his subsistence from day to day, unless also the fortune go with him of ending his life well in possession of all things fair. For many very wealthy men are not happy, while many who have but a moderate living are fortunate;  and in truth the very rich man who is not happy has two advantages only as compared with the poor man who is fortunate, whereas this latter has many as compared with the rich man who is not happy. The rich man is able better to fulfil his desire, and also to endure a great calamity if it fall upon him; whereas the other has advantage over him in these things which follow:—he is not indeed able equally with the rich man to endure a calamity or to fulfil his desire, but these his good fortune keeps away from him, while he is sound of limb, free from disease, untouched by suffering, the father of fair children and himself of comely form; and if in addition to this he shall end his life well, he is worthy to be called that which thou seekest, namely a happy man; but before he comes to his end it is well to hold back and not to call him yet happy but only fortunate. Now to possess all these things together is impossible for one who is mere man, just as no single land suffices to supply all tings for itself, but one thing it has and another it lacks, and the land that has the greatest number of things is the best: so also in the case of a man, no single person is complete in himself, for one thing he has and another he lacks; but whosoever of men continues to the end in possession of the greatest number of these things and then has a gracious ending of his life, he is by me accounted worthy, O king, to receive this name. But we must of every thing examine the end and how it will turn out at the last, for to many God shows but a glimpse of happiness and then plucks them up by the roots and overturns them."

Kevin Flynn lived for forty-six years.  He was very fortunate.  His Dad, Donald F. Flynn, amassed what we would call a fortune. Kevin went to great Catholic schools ( Fenwick and Marquette University).  Married a beautiful and unspoiled woman, Susan.  Fathered four beautiful and unspoiled children. He could have lived for the next Bulls Skybox, VIP treatment everywhere, lorded his fortune and luck over his staff and generally lived the life that leads to scandal without consequence and dismissive self-satisfaction. That is Pagan stuff.
Herodatus too was a Before the Common Era Pagan, but wrote of God the Unchanged.  God the Unchanged is the same one we worship.  Kevin Flynn worship the Triune God through Christ with his short life.


Kevin Flynn did not live like a Celebrity Pagan.  Kevin Flynn picked up his father's Catholic moral tool-set and tried to make life better for those less fortunate than Kevin Flynn. One should be regarded as one treats people regardless of bank account, vocation or circumstance. A great person never needs to ask, " Do you know who I am?"  A great and happy person asks, " How can I help?"

Kevin asked to serve on Leo High School's Advisory Board after his his Dad went home to Christ.  The Leo Advisory Board is not sexy appointment.  With the sole exception of Tamara Holder, it is comprised of happy men who were schooled here on 79th Street in the values of giving back without the applause of Chicago Magazine, or WTTW.   The work of making a Catholic education a possibility for young men from Englewood, Gresham, Brainard, Grand Crossing, Bronzeville and Canaryville whose families are not financially fortunate is Herculean. The rewards are Olympian.

We received the news of Kevin Flynn's accident with all of the sadness attendant to a death in the family.  Kevin's devoted helper Linda Eichorn contacted Leo President Dan McGrath with this terrible news.  We know Kevin's wife Susan and the four children, especially the boys Donny and Brendan.  Moreso, we know Kevin's mother Beverly who not only had her love Don called home to Christ, but now her son.

We know loss.  Last year one of our freshman, Antonio Davis, was slaughtered by a thug shortly before the start of the school year.  Kevin was one of the first to call Dan McGrath to ask how he could help Antonio's family.  A few weeks later, senior Miles Turner was shot five times by another urban savage and struggled from a coma and heroically managed to stand once again, but remains confined to a wheel chair. Again, Kevin Flynn stepped up to help another suffering family.

Kevin Flynn was a happy man.  That he was fortunate enough to be wealthy was a matter of some consequence, I suppose.

He was happy in his family and in his work.  Kevin Flynn treated everyone with respect, dignity and manly concern, even those who tried and continue to demand to define him.   That is evident in the sadness, universal.

We live in an age where envy is somehow dignified by what passes for culture and politics.   Life is as precious to a fortunate family as it is to the more challenged of us.  Loss is as painfully evident in six and seven figure families as it is in working man's tribe. Kevin's father was a very happy man. Kevin Flynn learned to be a very happy man.  His sons and daughters will be helped by the loving family and friends of the Family Flynn to be happy persons.

My Mom is doing fine; she continues to be lucky, despite another hip replacement surgery, a fractured elbow and a fractured ankle. Mom is 87 years lucky and happy. Kevin Flynn was 46 years happy.

19th Ward Local Notes: Speed Cameras at Ag School and the Myth ofl Sole Survival

The Children attending Chicago's Ag School at 3800 W. 111th will no longer be in danger of death while crossing from their lessons to get a slice at Wise Guys Pizza.

" "I think that you've got to understand that if you save even one life, you are saving the whole world," lllinois Governor Pat Quinn February 6, 2012

One life is the whole world?  Now that is a headscratcher . . .and very bad math. 

An Italian bugler (Giovanni Martini 7th Cavalry 1951-1922)  was the sole survivor of US 7th Cavalry's encounter with Native America in the summer of 1876; I venture to say that the historical analysis of the event was less than positive.  Slow down, Gen Custer!  Ease up, there Crazy Horse! Custer -"Here, Trunk-stuffer, take this message to the whole world!"

Bugler Martino - "Grazie Colonnello! Spero che quelli indiani sterminati voi palle così come quei riccioli. Subito il colonnello!"

There have been other historical events, air traffic misfortunes these days, featuring the One Life Saved meme that falls flat even to this day - Governor Quinn notwithstanding.  Hey, a sole survivor!

There are all kinds of statistics for the body counts due to anthropogenic or cosmic events in history. From the Last of the 300 Spartans, Aristodemus in Herodatus, to the Beloved Apostle John of the Gospels,  right on down to the last surviving member of the original 2008 Brand Obama White House --Valerie Jarrett. Axelrod and Bagdhad Bob, Desiree Rogers and  and Rahm - Ubi Sunt?

Non fraudantes, quantum adhuc iaculis - they are still at it . . .you know, . . .The Public Grift.

Rahm Emanuel was saddled with the debts amassed following the terms of Richard M. Daley.  That he knew.  He also knew that he needed revenue from revenue paying squares.  Thus!  Speed Cameras! Speed Cameras are intended to boost City coffers via $50/$100 over the speed limit times the many motorists who can not apply the cruise control mechanism in bumper-to-bumper urban traffic.  Bikes will shoot by stop signs and cameras, but cars will be arrested by the unblinking eye of the Department for Revenue on the other side of the lens.  Cameras are being dispatched ( 12 locations before Labor Day 2013) in tax revenue rich zip codes throughout the city.

Red-light cameras generated $69 million for the city in 2010, and speed cameras likely would grow that number considerably. Speeders going 6 mph 10 mph over the limit would face $50 fines. Those going 11 mph and over would face the full $100 ticket.
Under the new law, the "safety zones" where cameras could operate would cover nearly half the city, the Tribune found.
In addition, a Tribune analysis of federal data on crashes showed that Emanuel's proposal would have a limited impact on reducing fatalities. Of the 251 pedestrian deaths in the city between 2005 and 2009, fewer than half occurred in the "safety zones" and less than one-quarter of those involved speeding.
The cameras would run in school zones from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday. The cameras would only operate on school days in school zones. The cameras near city parks would still run one hour before opening until one hour after closing. Emanuel had to agree to those compromises to win approval last fall.
Money would go toward increasing school safety and school transportation, with some earmarked for after-school programs.
The administration envisions a retrofit of speed detection equipment onto many of the city’s 190 existing red light cameras, which are located almost exclusively on busy arterial streets.

In my community the first of such cameras is being positioned at the Chicago Agricultural High School located at the intersections of Alsip/Oak Lawn & the City of Chicago.  We are expected to nod with conviction when told by fatuous but practiced grifters like Pat Quinn and Mayor Rahm that we are saving but one child with each ticket.

Shortly after Labor Day, we can expect columns of cameras lining Western Avenue from 119th Street South to Howard on the North, saving one child a citation,  like the crucifixes set on the Appian Way by Mayor Marcus Licinius Crassus in 71 B.C., in order to save the life of just one child. To paraphrase Pat Quinn, 'Crucify One! Make Believers of the Rest!'

I always try to drive the posted speed limits.   If I do not, I expect that I will be crucified in $ 50 range and will pay like a good citizen; but will be damned if I am going to believe that if I save one life, I am saving the whole world.

Save it, Grifters.

From the Action-Packed World of High School Fund-Raising and Development

I get that alot.




Let me check . . .
h/t Ms. Terry Sullivan, Jazz Vocalist and Development Director

Real Jazz in Chicago: Gayle Kolb Sets the Standard for Sexy, Soulful and Sincere

This vocalist began her singing career in Los Angeles performing for many years at the Hyatt Hotels and the Hotel Bel-Air. With her jazzy voice, she had the honor of singing with greats such as Joe Pass and Sweets Edison.
​
Gayle is often noted for her vocal passion, husky whisper, and heartfelt vocal interpretation of the music. As one critic said, “She fills her songs with every uninhibited depth of herself.”

Later she moved her home base to Chicago (her home town) performing in Chicago at The Terrace and Las Vegas at the Stardust Hotel and the Tropicana not to mention the Blue Max Room and many more.

Katerina's on Irving Park Road features many of the best jazz artists in Chicago.  On Fridays the shows begin at 6:30 PM - there is the early show which requires no cover and a 9:30 PM seating with a modest cover.

Last night, my beautiful, talented, diminuitive diva, Ms. Terry Sullivan, and I enjoyed the great Gayle Kolb accompanied by the great Tommy Muellner on the piano for three forty minutes sets of high quality jazz.

Tommy Muellner is a jazz pianist who makes other musicians gasp with envy and discerning delight, because Tommy plays with a smile that betokens respect and genuine enjoyment of the art.  I can only think of Errol Garner, when Tommy solos.

Gayle Kolb reminds me of Julie London with greater range.

Last night Gayle added Eartha Kitt to my apprehension of tone and phrasing.  

Gayle performed two of my favorite standards.  Enjoy!






   Ill Remember April - Gayle Kolb




Midnight Sun



  
Saturday, August 24, 2013
What Not Inn
Fennville, Michigan
7:00pm to 11:00pm
phone: 269-543-3341
www.whatnotinn.com
with Tom Muellner on keys and Danny DeLorenzo on bass.

Saturday, September 7, 2013
What Not Inn
Fennville, Michigan
7:00pm to 11:00pm
phone: 269-543-3341
www.whatnotinn.com
details TBA

Here's a Puzzler: Watch Megyn Kelly or Rachel Maddow?

Lookee H'Yar!  With whom should I spend an hour of politcal quality on the old tube? FOX or Foul?


Should I watch a very smart and witty woman . . .with children and a husband . . .who happens to be as pretty as Grace Kelly,


OR a smug, snarky Rhodes Scholar, like former Congressman and child molester Mel Reynolds (D-IL) who looks like Jack Webb?

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Life is Choice.

Look Under Your Seeeee-eats! There's a Medal of Freedom and a Fetus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oprah: Do you think we've lost the belief that we can succeed? I was talking with Skip Gates [Henry Louis Gates, scholar of African-American history and culture], and he was saying how ironic it is that our parents believed that their little nappy-headed boys and girls could grow up and be somebody if they worked twice as hard.

Barack: We no longer operate that way, but we should be working twice as hard, because we still have challenges and barriers other communities don't have. . . .like Hyannis Port, Martha's Vineyard, Hollywood, Maui,

 "On the Gosnell trial, Steinem added: "It makes more clear why you need Planned Parenthood." -  


President Obama will award the nation's highest civilian medal to his favorite Chicago White Sox player of all-time, Mr. Cub -Ernie Banks.

He will also toss the bling to the two women who defined what it means to be an Woman in the Age of Obama -

Gloria Steinem - who pioneered the gender specific lifestyles of women like Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Lady Gaga and the Dowager of Hags Madonna. Without the pioneering efforts of Ms. Steinem, a former Playboy Bunny, women would be free to be as loudly foul-mouthed, empty, self-absorbed, blood-thirsty and soulless as any man. . . even a member of Saudi Royal Family. Ms. Steinem was completely unmoved by the Dr. Kermit Baron Gosnell Butcher Shop in Philly and continues to advocate the snipping of spinal chords babies all the way up Kindergarten.

Oprah Winfrey - like Ms. Steinem, Oprah created generations of pan-demographic binge-eating female couch potatoes who anxiously awaited her pronouncements on books that preach the glories of abortion and home economics and find vicarious comfort in the discovery prizes under the seats of studio audience, Oprah placed there after shaking down the sponsors of the Oprah Winfrey Show! and the Oprah Winfrey Channel and the Oprah Winfrey Productions and the Oprah Winfrey Cosmetics.

The President chooses the recipients.  He is the President of Abortion.

What is the Value of the Presidential Medal of Freedom? Bill  Clinton is getting pay-back for being the voice of 2012 Campaign and Anthony Weiner and his Bride are still in the news.

If you love abortion drug addiction, rehab, suicide attempts, binge eating and purging, liposuction, Botox,  narcissism and graceless stupidity with no moral consequences are only the outlets that make perfect sense. Freedom demands choices after all.

In the words of President Obama's former Religion adviser and Secretary of State John Kerry's choice for the formation of the Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives Shaun Casey, “I, frankly, am glad American civil religion is dying,”

But, you gotta love the choice of good old # 14 Ernie Banks.

Only Steve Rhodes' Beachwood Reporter Studies the Thug Dictator Lobby of Illinois

The REV- "Shakedown . . . I mean Shake Mr. President"


Auld Bob -"Rev - You had me at Shakedown!"
The REV -" Is this the Lobby?"
Auld Bob " No . . .The Liberry!"

"They called themselves the 'Chicago connection' and appeared confident that their contacts with Illinois politicians would help persuade newly elected President Barack Obama to lift longtime economic sanctions against leaders in Zimbabwe, according to federal charges unsealed Tuesday," the Tribune reports.
"The two, Prince Asiel Ben Israel and C. Gregory Turner, were charged with violating federal law by lobbying on behalf Zimbabwe's longtime president, Robert Mugabe, whose violent and oppressive regime has been the target of U.S. economic sanctions since 2003." Chicago Tribune via Steve Rhodes' Beachwood Reporter: By Steve Rhodes / Posted on August 7, 2013

 Bob Mugabe . . .

Dadirai was at home alone when Mugabe's thugs arrived. They descended on the woman, hacking off one of her feet and one of her arms, before setting fire to the dying woman in front of her house. "That was not isolated case," the shocked head of the delegation Marwick Khumalo said after his return to Harare.
It is part of a new strategy on the part of Mugabe's henchmen. Instead of just hunting MDC party officials, many of whom have gone underground, they are going after their family members as well. Last Monday, for example, they caught Abigal Chiroto, the 27-year-old wife of the newly elected MDC mayor of Harare, Emmanuel Chiroto, along with her four-year-old son. They set the house on fire and disappeared with the woman and child, before releasing the boy at a police station.
Abigal's body was found a few days later not far from her house. She still wore a blindfold and her body was so terribly battered that her brother-in-law could only identify her by her clothes and hair. Aus Dem Spiegel -By Jan Puhl and Toby Selander 2008

That was in 2008, the advent of Hope & Change Worldwide. In 2013, Old Bob Mugabe, at last glance, had exactly $ 217.00 in National Treasury of Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, named for Cecil Rhodes who was Diamond Digger who funded Rhodes Scholarships awarded to such luminaries as Rachel Maddow, Susan Rice and former Congressman Mel Reynolds. Old Bob Mugabe went from Jesuit seminarian to Black Liberation theologian to Marxist to Witchdoctor Thug Bandit Chief while amassing friendships with Rev. Jesse Jackson, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Brand Obama's Foreign Policy Wiz Susan Rice.

Here in Chicago, where Mikva's Hyde Park Mafia Embraces the West Side Vice Lords, the MacArthur Foundation, Billy Ayers and his odious Old Lady, Medill School of Journalism, the Center for Wrongful Convictions, South Shore Bank, WTTW, and both newspapers in one huge Global Hug of Progressive Coalition building, one might imagine that there might be some follow-thru on reports that Illinois Lobbyists for Old Bob Mugabe's Machete Coalition in Zimbabwe. . .  might, just might mind you. N.B. This terminal verbal,  dangling over the pavement was, for our friends of Welsh ancestry.

Old Bob is a color-blind thug and master of diversity in butchery, if not a wiz at accounting -

Children as young as eight are being beaten by Robert Mugabe's henchmen as he hunts down opposition supporters, it emerged yesterday.
White farmer Roy Bennet, an MP for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, told how three youngsters, aged eight to 12, were beaten by police trying to find out the whereabouts of their MDC-supporting parents.
In another incident, a magistrate was dragged from court, beaten and paraded through the streets.
Mr Bennet said: 'What is happening in Zimbabwe is not a white and black issue. It is an orchestrated attempt by the president to destroy the opposition. It is not land reform - it is the suppression of another view.'
Mr Bennet, who faces arrest for speaking out, said Zimbabwe was experiencing a level of ethnic cleansing 'not seen since Kosovo'. Opposition to Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party was being crushed by any means - from mutilation to starvation, he added.
Hundreds of Mugabe supporters ran riot yesterday in the eastern town of Chipinge, evicting white businessmen and looting their premises.
The violence came as it emerged that Mugabe's wife Grace had chosen the farm she wanted to take over.
She apparently marched on to the Iron Mask estate 30 miles from Harare last week and told the owners John and Eva Matthews, who are both in their 70s, to quit.
More than 90 white farmers, all charged with failing to leave their land, had their cases heard in courts. Among those given 24 hours to vacate their farms was Dennis Streak, father of Zimbabwe's cricket captain Heath Streak.

Here in Chicago, only Steve Rhodes ( no relation to Cecil) and his wonderful Beachwood Reporter has bothered to connect the Race-Grifters/Political Hypocrites/Feebs and Dummies  Coalition-

But here's the interesting part:
"According to the charges, Ben Israel and Turner attempted to persuade undisclosed federal and state government officials - including an Illinois state senator and two U.S. representatives from Chicago - to push for the lifting of the sanctions. The two reached a consulting agreement with Zimbabwe officials to be paid $3.4 million, authorities charged, but it was unclear whether they received any money."
So who was the state senator and who were the U.S. representatives?
"The 56-page criminal complaint described in detail how Ben Israel and Turner allegedly enlisted the support of a 'State Senator A,' who hoped that the election of Obama would cause the U.S. to take a fresh look at Zimbabwe.
"That same state senator wrote in a 2009 letter that he had made a 'commitment' to Mugabe and could use his leadership position with the National Black Caucus of State Legislators to organize a delegation to travel to Zimbabwe and fight for the removal of the sanctions, according to the complaint.
"Records show that state Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, chairs the international committee of that caucus. Efforts to reach Trotter were unsuccessful Tuesday. His attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, said he had not seen the complaint and had no comment.
"Ben Israel and Turner were successful in arranging for State Senator A and several other lawmakers to meet with Mugabe and other top Zimbabwean officials during several trips there in 2008 and 2009, according to the charges."
And the reps?

At least Steve Rhodes bothers to ask*.

Treat Yourself to the Best! - as the old Mail Pouch Chawin' Baccy Ads once boasted -Read Beachwood Reporter and support it with a modest but significant donation or One Big-Assed Grant!

* Steve Rhodes and I loudly disagree with one another on many issues (Burge Mythology & etc.); however, Steve Rhodes has more integrity than the combined editorial boards of NBC, The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun Times.  

Illinois Same Sex Marriage is More Important Than Poor Kids In Albany Park and Everything Else

In his column this morning Mark Brown concludes,

 " One day soon, the Illinois Legislature is going to make it legal for gay and lesbian couples to get married in Illinois — despite the Catholic Church’s opposition.
But there will still be poor kids in Albany Park who need help fixing their bikes.": markbrown@suntimes.com Twitter: @MarkBrownCST

You see the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) cut its grants to the lllinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) because the ICIRR's board of directors was touched by Same Sex Marriage Illinois, a  much broader coalition of money, influence, ink and iconoclasts, to fully support same sex marriage in its fight for immigrant and refugee rights. The Chicago Tribune published a letter that excoriated Francis Cardinal George and CCHD for what it  regards as a heartless neglect of the poor. The letter’s signers were Chicago Aldermen Proco Joe Moreno, Danny Solis, Patrick O’Connor, and James Cappelman; Cook County Commissioners John Fritchey and Larry Suffredin; and Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza - huge Catholics, Huge.  Like the Castro Brothers (Cuba, not Ohio) the signers are all about the Church, poor and really helping folks - Salvation Army and such.

The poor kids in Albany Park got $20,000 in grant money from CCHD.  $ 20,000 would help five poor kids from Englewood get a Leo High School Education.  Twenty thousand bucks is about half a payroll for Leo High Schooll employees every two weeks.  Nothing to sneeze at, $20,000, but the board of Directors of Illinois Coalition for  Immigrant and Refugees Rights (ICIRR) listened to Rick Garcia, Rep. Greg Harris, Personal PAC's and Governor Pat Quinn's Boss Terry Cosgrove appeal to evolved reason.  The Same Sex Marriage Heart trumps all other vessels.

Going from the heart of that meaty criticism, Mark Brown yanks on the heart strings with case-specific philippic aimed at Cardinal George, CCHD and unevolved Catholics in Illinois and it's a good one, worthy of two-hour WTTW special  narrated by the Ann Landers of homosexual journalism -Dan Savage. Here's the Sun Times' pilot



I wonder if Same Sex Marriage Illinois will fund those industrious kid in Albany Park? Maybe a grant from Henry Van Ameringen, Fred Eychaner, Personal PAC Illinois, or Northern trust Bank will ensure that poor kids in Albany Park kept them wheels rolling.

My bet is not.  Why would they apply money meant to secure the doctrine that Marriage is just a semantics exercise toward a non-systemic enterprise operated for the purpose of helping a few urchins?  That is what the Catholic Church is for, after all.

I remember my Mom telling me, Be careful of what you ask for.  No kidding.

Shortly after Same-Sex Marriage Illinois won the Civil Unions battle,  Catholic Charities ended almost two hundred years of care for Illinois orphans and support of childless married couples ( a guy and a gal).   Same Sex Marriage Illinois, a broad coalition of money, influence, ink and iconoclasts, makes the Vatican Bank seem like parish savings and loan during the Depression.  It is powerful and has purchased the legislature ( is that too cynical? Nah.) the Governor, the Illinois Supreme Court, The AG, the Media and people who equate conscience with watching Will and Grace/Glee/Bill Maher and of  course WTTW.

Francis Cardinal George Archbishop of Chicago has been treated with shamefully great disrespect by Same Sex Marriage Illinois, but maintains his dignity and good humor while defending the Church.

It is intellectually and morally dishonest to use the witness of the Church’s concern for the poor as an excuse to attack the Church’s teaching on the nature of marriage.  Four weeks ago, Pope Francis wrote: “…marriage should be a stable union of man and woman…this union is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God’s own love, and of the acknowledgement and acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation, whereby spouses can become one flesh and are enabled to give birth to a new life.” In other words, when it comes to marriage and family life, men and women are not interchangeable. The whole civilized world knows that.
Those who signed the open letter in the Tribune proclaimed their adherence to the Catholic faith even as they cynically called upon others to reject the Church’s bishops. The Church is no one’s private club; she is the Body of Christ, who tells us he is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Because the signers of the letters are Catholic, they know that in a few years, like each of us, they will stand before this same Christ to give an account of their stewardship. Jesus is merciful, but he is not stupid; he knows the difference between right and wrong. Manipulating both immigrants and the Church for political advantage is wrong.

The big picture in the matter of Same Sex Marriage Illinois was artfully captured in this paragraph by Tina Korbe in 2011 concerning the Illinois Legislature's Civil Union codicil requiring all Illinois adoption services recognize the sanctity of homosexual couples:

The decision of the Illinois legislature to initiate the requirement in the first place — knowing it would hamstring Catholic Charities, which provides essential services — demonstrates an appalling willingness to allow an adult agenda — the mainstream acceptance of gay behavior — to supersede children’s interests. The spokesman for the state’s child welfare agency has said he thinks the child welfare system Catholic Charities helped to build is strong enough to withstand CC’s departure. But it’s hard to believe the shuttering of so many CC affiliates won’t make the burden of finding a home for children in need even greater.( emphasis my own)

I don't recall Mark Brown or other columnists bewailing the plight of the many hundreds of those young bairns.

" One day soon, the Illinois Legislature is going to make it legal for gay and lesbian couples to get married in Illinois — despite the Catholic Church’s opposition.
But there will still be poor kids in Albany Park who need help fixing their bikes.":

Yep. The Illinois  Same Sex Marriage Coaltion could care less.

Chicago! In The Words of the Late Rufus Thomas -"Look Out For the Bull!"

Who Runs with Bulls?  Hemingway reported on the running of the bulls in Pamplona, as did James A. Michner, but neither ink-slinger put on their Keds in a race with Mr. Bull and the lads.  Who runs with Bulls?

These guys - 

As if the desultory violence in Chicago was not enough, 

we will soon have an opportunity to watch Tick Heads, Stoners, Posers, Occupy Chicago Veterans, Coked-Up Venture Capitalists and other cases of arrested development get their Sun Also Rises On.

The Great Bull Run, modeled after the festival that takes place each year in Pamplona, Spain, will hold its inaugural run next month in Richmond, Va., and will hit at least eight other cities before arriving at Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney on July 12.
Organizer Bradford Scudder decided to create the U.S.-based event to give thrill-seekers a chance to run with bulls without having to spend the time and money to fly to Spain.
For a fee starting at $35 , participants can enjoy a bull run followed by a rotten tomato fight, another Spanish tradition.
The Great Bull Run website warns participants that the race is "the real deal" and that participants "accept the risk that you might be trampled, gored, rammed or tossed in the air by a bull." Participants must pay an insurance fee, and medical staff will be at the site.
To minimize risk, organizers said they will use less aggressive bulls than the ones that run in Spain.

 I read Hemingway's canon of Bull-fighting tomes ( Death in Afternoon & etc.) and taught the Sun Also Rises.   Even my Breathing for Credit sections understood, as well as the Honors and AP English sections, that running with the bulls or jumping into the corrida with Old Toro was not a great idea . . ., but that was before we Elected President Obama and now two guys can have children and American exceptionalism means closing shop world wide.

I still believe in Rufus Thomas.




Rufus Thomas would have made a splendid Commander in Chief.

On Monday, Only Doug Kershaw Will Do

Editing the Leo Handbook for 2013-14, waiting for Joe Furlong (Leo '56 & CFD Bn..Chief: Ret.) to drop off a huge check for the Lions Express to Opportunity vehicle campaign are nice tasks.

The only thing better than Leo Men, Leo Alumni and Incoming Revenue on any Monday is a Rampaging Lion or a . . .










The Ragin Cajun!!!!!!

Our World Needs Boats Full of Tough Greeks in Narrow Waters

I had a long chat with a pal living in Canada.  We talked bout everything from Leo High School to Libya, Chicago to Cairo, and DC to Moscow. We agree that neither of us could have imagined the condition of our planet today, controlled as it is by bullies and grifters. Chicago's Mayors ( Daley & Rahn) refuse to hire more police officers, but will gladly hand one million dollars over to wife-beating gang-banging pensioners to combat spiking homicides, rather than support cops sued for doing their jobs.   Putin gives asylum to a traitor and bullies our President six ways to Sunday all the while luring his victim into committing ground troops to Syria according to Putin's time table.

My friend asked me " How can you continue to live in the most corrupt city in America?"  I love it here.  Sure,  there is an astounding set of policies and those who support those dictates that ignore the murders by decrying despair as merely 'gun violence.' Sure, there are friends of mine who continue to devoutly believe that President Obama  is working to help the American Middle Class by doing everything in his power to obliterate it.  Sure, people who want my continued vote listen more carefully to Planned Parenthood PACs than people. Those folks 'evolved.' However, these are my people.  I am no stranger to bad choices, but with time, prayer and attention to circumstances have managed to defeat despair.  Likewise my evolved neighbors and friends.

 This Evolved Sensibility tells them that sticking with social sciences is the only sure means to alter chemistry, biology. physics, economics, and theology.  History is diminished.  Literature is deconstructed. Faith? Meh! Therefore, President Obama makes more sense to the evolved, who can parse away abortion and procreation, than history and common sense.

President Obama 'restored' America's standing in the world to pre-War of 1812 heights: thirty American embassies are closed only a three years after what cynical gents like me called his World Apology Tour.  Catholics for Obama helped HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebillius make war on religion by calling it Health Care.

We are yet a free people.  The world has always had bullies and grifters.  If we read history we know this and try to live accordingly.

Iran is a threat to world peace and so North Korea and so is Al Queda and so is Planned Parenhood and so is Vlad Putin and so is . . .Iran was called Persia up until the 1960's.



At one time a piece of work by the name of Xerxes hand whole world in his hands. Xerxes was a one man European Union.  There were Greeks for Xerxes who wanted a share in his New World Order that rolled over Babylon (Iraq), Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia ( Dafur & etc.) and most of Greece.

Xerxes armies slaughtered the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae only after only losing twenty thousand souls.  Xerxes how ever was a master of soaring rhetoric and political theater.  He ordered the burial of the twenty score thousand Persian dead, cut the head of Spartan King Leonidas from its corpse and left the rotting bodies of the Greek slain in the pass they had defended and encouraged Organizing for Persia to conduct tours of the battlefield for the more timid Greek populations.

Most Greeks did not buy the cam into the Persian media campaign and understood that a few tough Greeks could make a difference.    They abandoned Athens to Xerxes and went to across the pond to Salamis.  Should they fight, or flee,  or evolve?

When the commanders had assembled at Salamis from the States which have been mentioned, they began to deliberate, Eurybiades having proposed that any one who desired it should declare his opinion as to where he thought it most convenient to fight a sea-battle in those regions of which they had command; for Attica had already been let go, and he was now proposing the question about the other regions. And the opinions of the speakers for the most part agreed that they should sail to the Isthmus and there fight a sea-battle in defence of the Peloponnese, arguing that if they should be defeated in the sea-battle, supposing them to be at Salamis they would be blockaded in an island, where no help would come to them, but at the Isthmus they would be able to land where their own men were.
50. While the commanders from the Peloponnese argued thus, an Athenian had come in reporting that the Barbarians were arrived in Attica and that all the land was being laid waste with fire. For the army which directed its march through Boeotia in company with Xerxes, after it had burnt the city of the Thespians (the inhabitants having left it and gone to the Peloponnese) and that of the Plataians likewise, had now come to Athens and was laying waste everything in those regions. Now he had burnt Thespiai 3101 and Plataia because he was informed by the Thebans that these were not taking the side of the Medes.
51. So in three months from the crossing of the Hellespont, whence the Barbarians began their march, after having stayed there one month while they crossed over into Europe, they had reached Attica, in the year when Calliades was archon of the Athenians. And they took the lower city, which was deserted, and then they found that there were still a few Athenians left in the temple, either stewards of the temple or needy persons, who had barred the entrance to the Acropolis with doors and with a palisade of timber and endeavoured to defend themselves against the attacks of the enemy, being men who had not gone out to Salamis partly because of their poverty, and also because they thought that they alone had discovered the meaning of the oracle which the Pythian prophetess had uttered to them, namely that the "bulwark of wood" should be impregnable, and supposed that this was in fact the safe refuge according to the oracle, and not the ships.
52. So the Persians taking their post upon the rising ground opposite the Acropolis, which the Athenians call the Hill of Ares, 32 proceeded to besiege them in this fashion, that is they put tow round about their arrows and lighted it, and then shot them against the palisade. The Athenians who were besieged continued to defend themselves nevertheless, although they had come to the extremity of distress and their palisade had played them false; nor would they accept proposals for surrender, when the sons of Peisistratos brought them forward: but endeavouring to defend themselves they contrived several contrivances against the enemy, and among the rest they rolled down large stones when the Barbarians approached the gates; so that for a long time Xerxes was in a difficulty, not being able to capture them.

The Athenian Themistocles was like an old timey big city Tammany Hall politician who could toss bribes with the best of them in order to stop Xerxes.  He was surrounded by thoughtful, safe, considerate somewhat evolved community activists and elected officials who wanted to go along to get along retain their interests.  Themistocles understood that most people are blinded by self-interest, ignorance and timidity - who am I to say? types.

Themistocles heard them out -

So when they were gathered together, before Eurybiades proposed the discussion of the things for which he had assembled the commanders, Themistocles spoke with much vehemence 36 being very eager to gain his end; and as he was speaking, the Corinthian commander, Adeimantos the son of Okytos, said: "Themistocles, at the games those who stand forth for the contest before the due time are beaten with rods." He justifying himself said: "Yes, but those who remain behind are not crowned."

Themistocles went all NPR for a while -

60. At that time he made answer mildly to the Corinthian; and to Eurybiades he said not now any of those things which he had said before, to the effect that if they should set sail from Salamis they would disperse in different directions; for it was not seemly for him to bring charges against the allies in their presence: but he held to another way of reasoning, saying: "Now it is in thy power to save Hellas, if thou wilt follow my advice, which is to stay here and here to fight a sea-battle, and if thou wilt not follow the advice of those among these men who bid thee remove the ships to the Isthmus. For hear both ways, and then set them in comparison. If thou engage battle at the Isthmus, thou wilt fight in an open sea, into which it is by no means convenient for us that we go to fight, seeing that we have ships which are heavier and fewer in number than those of the enemy. Then secondly thou wilt give up to destruction Salamis and Megara and Egina, even if we have success in all else; for with their fleet will come also the land-army, and thus thou wilt thyself lead them to the Peloponnese and wilt risk the safety of all Hellas. If however thou shalt do as I say, thou wilt find therein all the advantages which I shall tell thee of:—in the first place by engaging in a narrow place with few ships against many, if the fighting has that issue which it is reasonable to expect, we shall have very much the better; for to fight a sea-fight in a narrow space is for our advantage, but to fight in a wide open space is for theirs. Then again Salamis will be preserved, whither our children and our wives have been removed for safety; and moreover there is this also secured thereby, to which ye are most of all attached, namely that by remaining here thou wilt fight in defence of the Peloponnese as much as if the fight were at the Isthmus; and thou wilt not lead the enemy to Peloponnese, if thou art wise. Then if that which I expect come to pass and we gain a victory with our ships, the Barbarians will not come to you at the Isthmus nor will they advance further than Attica, but they will retire in disorder; and we shall be the gainers by the preservation of Megara and Egina and Salamis, at which place too an oracle tells us that we shall get the victory over our enemies. 37 Now when men take counsel reasonably for themselves, reasonable issues are wont as a rule to come, but if they do not take counsel reasonably, then God is not wont generally to attach himself to the judgment of men."

Still no good -  he went all Mark Steyn on the lads -

61. When Themistocles thus spoke, the Corinthian Adeimantos inveighed against him for the second time, bidding him to be silent because he had no native land, and urging Eurybiades not to put to the vote the proposal of one who was a citizen of no city; for he said that Themistocles might bring opinions before the council if he could show a city belonging to him, but otherwise not. This objection he made against him because Athens had been taken and was held by the enemy. Then Themistocles said many evil things of him and of the Corinthians both, and declared also that he himself and his countrymen had in truth a city and a land larger than that of the Corinthians, so long as they had two hundred ships fully manned; for none of the Hellenes would be able to repel the Athenians if they came to fight against them.

Finally, Themistocles unloaded common sense on the waxed-up ears of the timid -

62. Signifying this he turned then to Eurybiades and spoke yet more urgently: "If thou wilt remain here, and remaining here wilt show thyself a good man, well; but if not, thou wilt bring about the overthrow of Hellas, for upon the ships depends all our power in the war. Nay, but do as I advise. If, however, thou shalt not do so, we shall forthwith take up our households and voyage to Siris in Italy, which is ours already of old and the oracles say that it is destined to be colonised by us; and ye, when ye are left alone and deprived of allies such as we are, will remember my words."
63. When Themistocles thus spoke, Eurybiades was persuaded to change his mind; and, as I think, he changed his mind chiefly from fear lest the Athenians should depart and leave them, if he should take the ships to the Isthmus; for if the Athenians left them and departed, the rest would be no longer able to fight with the enemy. He chose then this counsel, to stay in that place and decide matters there by a sea-fight.

Xerxes outnumbered the Greek Fleet by three to one.  Xerxes' fleet was smashed. The bully retreated.

Our Canadian/Chicago phone chat included a very poor redaction of my reading of Herodatus.  The guy on the other side of the wireless network is a very smart man and understood what I was trying to say about our world seemingly controlled by pagans, narcissists, bullies, incompetents and grifters - Now when men take counsel reasonably for themselves, reasonable issues are wont as a rule to come, but if they do not take counsel reasonably, then God is not wont generally to attach himself to the judgment of men."

God helps boat loads of tough Greeks in narrow waters.