Howard Dean: SO Very - SO JUST TOO,TOO DNC for me, You Know Like Deano's Letter Telling How So Very Bad John McCain Truly Is! So Very Bad!

Dear Howard,

With regard to your latest missive - the third grade girl scripting your thoughts for you is doing just a bang-up job!

The use of the adverb "so" was bold! Most of all it was just too, too fun to read.

So Liking This Letter, Deano!

Pat

Here's Deano's Letter to Me!

It's like Really So Very Political and Everything about John McCain, you know?

Dear Patrick,

John McCain is so wrong on Iraq, he can't even get the basic facts about the situation on the ground correct.

Today, as he was questioning Gen. David Petraeus, he again confused the difference between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

At least five times as a candidate John McCain has stated that Iran (a Shiite nation) is supporting Al-Qaeda (a Sunni group) in Iraq. This is not some minor mistake, but a significant gaffe. He clearly does not understand the sensitive political dynamics in that region of the world.

What's worse is that he's done it at important times when you'd expect him to be at his best -- he did it today in the Senate while questioning the commander of American forces in Iraq, and he did it on a recent trip to the Middle East.

If John McCain can't remember such a simple fact at crucial times, how will he be able to do it as President?

We have to stop John McCain from taking control of the White House, and stop him from taking over George Bush's war in Iraq. Can you write a letter to the editor of your local paper letting voters in your area know just how confused John McCain is?

http://www.democrats.org/gaffes

Once is misspeaking -- five times is a dangerous lack of understanding. John McCain so badly misunderstands Iraq that he's content to stay there for 100 years, something he's said multiple times. He has also failed to explain how he would pay for a war that is now costing you and me $12 billion each month -- money we could be using to help our economy here at home.

John McCain wants us to believe that his decades of foreign policy experience make him the natural choice to lead our nation at war with terrorists.

We just can't afford someone who just doesn't understand Iraq -- it's too dangerous.

Thanks for your support.

Howard Dean

Dan Kelley's Review of Every Heart and Hand: A Leo High School Story

Chicago writer and Chicago Daily Observer correspondent Dan Kelley sent me this review of Every Heart and Hand: A Leo High School Story the book and the review is a small tribute to the great courage and commitment of the Leo Alumni! God Bless You Guys!

Here's Dan Kelley's review:

This is an interesting book that is both a nostalgic exercise and an informal history of St. Leo High School. It is also a testimonial to faith and endurance.

Pat Hickey details the growth of the Auburn Gresham neighborhood and the plan to promote a Catholic boys high school to serve the community. Established in 1926, St. Leo High School developed a reputation for sponsoring terrific athletic teams and graduating classes that brought great credit to the alma mater. It was a working district filled with bungalows and families that followed the Chicago Cardinals and White Sox.

Racial tensions and changing demographics should have spelled the demise of this venerable institution. The Chicago Archidiocese canceled its subsidy to the school and shuttered numerous Catholic parishes that formerly served to provide entering freshmen students to the high school; the Irish Christian Brothers who had operated the school severed their ties to the institution and lay administrators took over a school that had shaky finances and an aging physical plant; the student population was increasingly African American and non-Catholic; the surrounding neighborhood was in decline and viewed as unsafe, gang dominated turf. The future looked bleak and closing the high school seemed to be the obvious and imminent solution.

As Hickey relates, Leo Men would not support a losing cause, but they would accept a challenge when there was a prospect of winning. The alumni rallied to save the high school. Although St. Leo is no longer serving the same Irish Catholic population as it did in former decades, its alumni donors have maintained the school to educate the impoverished African Americans residing in the immediate community. To quote the author, this may be "the greatest story never told." Oprah can support a school in South Africa and reap unlimited publicity from this worthy endeavor, but when the same thing occurs in the Chicago based television celebrity's own backyard the story is not newsworthy. Don't you know how bigoted the Southsiders are?

This unjust stereotype is unwarranted at St. Leo. These same 'bigots' are providing a high quality education to young men who are exceeding expectations and breaking out of the vicious circle of gangs, drugs, poverty and despair and succeeding at many of the preeminent colleges and universities in the USA. Why would the alumni support a school that no longer serves their children and grandchildren? One of the mottos of the St. Leo Lions is inscribed on the cornerstone: "Pro Deo et Patria" (for God and Country). What else is there to say? Another guiding principle at the school is "Facta Non Verba" (Deeds Not Words). Case closed.

My only complaint with the book is a simple one: I wish that there were more pages and more stories recounted in the book. Nonetheless, this slim volume is recommended for those with an interest in Chicago's South Side.

Click my Post Title for the book.

John McCain: Obama Shills Represent His Views

Air-America Big Mouth - Ed Schultz calls John McCain, who spent five and one half years being tortured by the North Vietnamese, a War-monger; Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D.W.Vir.)said that as a Navy Aviator John McCain dropped laser-guided rockets from 35,000 and gave no thought to the people he killed.

So, those are your guys, Senator Obama? I thought you were better than that. Oh, that's right! You also get along swell with domestic terrorists Billy Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn and then there's bat-guano crazy Uncle Jeremiah! Who else, do you have in the Yes, We Can Pantry? They'll probably pop out before the Pennsylvannia Primary - I'd count on it.

Senator Obama, the Apostle of Rev. Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has marked his ground with their comments and stands by them, it seems.

Clearly, Senator Obama, who has repeatedly argued on You-Tube that John McCain wants America involved in a 100 Year War in Iraq, relishes the positions of his surrogates and wants to position himself as the candidate of change.

Well, they love you at Huffington Post and MSNBC - The Tool Shed, but they are really not enough to carry you into the White House, Senator.

If that works for you Senator, good luck.

Hillary Will Drive America Out of Iraq!

Senator Hillary Clinton will drive America out of Iraq . . . and here's how!


"I think it would be fair to say that it might well be irresponsible to continue a policy that has not produced results that have been promised time and time again,"

HRC - 04/08/2008

John McCain : Earned Respect with Sacrifice & Jay Rockefeller- Born Privileged to Shoot His Mouth Off.

Jay Rockefeller is a twerp. I'll exercise my Rights under the Bill of Rights - I think Jay Rockefeller is a twerp and privileged Twerp at that. Jay exercised his public franchise to sneer at John McCain who spent five and half years being tortured by America's enemies, while Jay's Family added to their fortunes as war-profiteers. Standard Oil did great.

John McCain burned up petroleum products and the North Vietnamese did the same in shooting down McCain.

Rockefellers might have made out from both sides, while Jay went to the Peace Corps - God Love him - really.

McCain was crippled by the North Vietnamese.

The Rockefellers made money off of Nazi Death Camps - no one is tossing Zyclon B at Jay - yet.

From Wikpedia

The Rockefeller based company Standard Oil's marriage with IG Farben, the company which manufactured Zyklon B for the Nazi Party, demonstrates a lack of ethics towards its business practices.

Click my post title for the Twerp's ideas about a Man who stood up to torture and did not make a nickel on the deal.

Ayers & Dohrn: Smug as a Bug in a Rug - Radical Down

I met a real rebel in 1974. Cornelius Enright, that was the name he went by, was a seventy something year old farm hand in County Kerry, Ireland.

As a young man, Con Enright fought the Black and Tans - the British Irregulars comprised of sociopaths and British Army misfits sent to terrorize the Irish during the Rebellion in the early 1920's. Mr. Enright belonged to one of 'The Flying Columns' commanded by Tom Barry and fought a guerrilla action through the mountains bordering Cork and Kerry.

When the British withdrew, Ireland went into Civil War - divide over whether or not to accept the Partition which created the Irish Free State in the southern counties and kept the Northern Ireland counties in the British Empire. Enright took the side of the rebels. He fought and was wounded in the City of Cork and imprisoned by his old comrades. Upon release, Enright continued to fight for a United Ireland.

In 1937, Enright went to Spain and fought for the loyalists against Franco. Was wounded and captured again and released, after a truce was declared. He was excommunicated from his Catholic Faith for siding with the Communists and had been a member of the British Communist Party.

In the late 1960's he returned to County Kerry and worked as a laborer on a cousin's farm outside of Brosna, County Kerry. He prayed the rosary every day, but never went to Mass. 'Once in - never out.' He was a cheerfully poor man. He was totally abstemious as far as alcohol and had been from childhood. He never took a drink in his life.

Then, there are the Chicago radical chic. Trust fund revolutionaries from the 1960's who played at revolution with real explosives and committed real crimes without the remote possibility of long-term harm to themselves or their wealth. Their Daddies, like Ayers' Pater used the long-arm and short pockets to see to that. Ayers grew up in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago in a highly privileged family (his father, Thomas Ayers, was Chairman and CEO of Commonwealth Edison) and attended Lake Forest Academy. Billy had the lawyers and the bankrolls to get them out of any high jinks and youthful indiscretions. Like These from Wikpedia:

According to Ayers' memoir Fugitive Days, he became radicalized at the University of Michigan. During his years there, he became involved in the New Left and the SDS.

Ayers went underground with several comrades including Brandy Diekman and Arion, after their co-conspirators' bomb accidentally exploded on March 6, 1970, destroying a Greenwich Village townhouse and killing three members of the Weather Underground (Ted Gold, Terry Robbins, and Diana Oughton, who was Ayers' girlfriend at the time). He and his colleagues invented identities and traveled continuously. They avoided the police and FBI while bombing high-profile government buildings—including the United States Capitol (two bombs on March 1, 1970), The Pentagon (May 19, 1972), and the Harry S Truman Building which houses the United States Department of State (on January 29, 1975)—along with several banks, police department headquarters and precincts, state and federal courthouses, and state prison administrative offices.[1][2] Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn raised two children, Zayd and Malik, underground before turning themselves in in 1981, when most charges were dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct during the long search for the fugitives.[

They had Chicago blue-stocking connections at the Universities; ink-clout with the Bohemian Dreams Media; seats on the Trust Fund Charitable Boards that have more power than any political machine. Talk about money laundering. Talk about nepotism! But Chicago's 'hard-hitting' investigative journalists have a huge red light in front of them where monied crumbs are concerned. Medill trained reporters and editors will not look into the clout babies of the Left. They will not look into the network of Radical lawyers who enrich themselves and create a Thug Comfort Zone in Chicago.
Hands Off! Basta Ya!

Dohrn and Ayers were trust funded into sinecures - almost like political no-show jobs at Chicago's universities. Chicago journalists are only interested in sitting outside a cop hangout to 'entrap' off-duty policemen.

Ayers and Dohrn are friendly with Barack Obama. He has to be friendly with opportunists like these two insulated phonies, because the teacup Revolutionaries who dominate Progressive Grassroots Lakefront, IVI, goofball politics, command that he do so. Barack Obama is no more tight with these too, than he is with Tony Rezko. He was pushed on these too by some Progressive dimbulb big shot- 'You MUST meet Bill and Bernardine they are soooo committed.' To themselves. Obama's problem is that he is not well served by his Campaign. A smart manager would have had him get way out in front on these two, instead of waiting for a dope like Hannity to shrill about them. These two are not worth it, but that's just me.

There is no way in hell that Barack Obama is joined at the hip with these too, faux freedom fighters. He met them and they gave to his campaign - pretty good metaphor at that - a husky $200. Bill spends that much on his tennis shoes. That shows the level of commitment these two phonies have toward anything that does not directly enrich or further insulate themselves. But that's just my opinion. All I know is what I read in the papers, which I mill through my experience - seeing what good people actually do for poor kids and meeting real Revolutionaries, like Con Enright.

John McCain - Jack That Cat was Clean

John McCain has many great attributes that ring true with Americans - heroic, humble, honorable.

But for my folding money - McCain looks great on the stump, on the tube and on the town! Jack, that cat was clean!

Click my post title to learn much, much from one of the great poetic voices of last Millenium - Dr. Horse.

John McCain: Dave Axelrod with His Britches Aflame!

Click My post title for Obama Campaign Producer/Director/Scriptwriter/Composer Dave Axelrod with his Pantaloons Ablaze! It's a living, Dave.


Dave, take a page from 18th Century Genius Dr. Samuel Johnson:

1,442. Lying; Posturing
"The traveller who describes cities which he has never seen; the squire who, at his return from London, tells of his intimacy with nobles, to whom he has only bowed in the park or coffee-house; the author who entertains his admirers with stories of the assistance which he gives to wits of a higher rank; the city dame who talks of her visits to at great houses where she happens to know the cookmaid, are surely such harmless animals as truth herself may be content to despise without desiring to hurt them."
Johnson: Rambler #189 (January 7, 1752)
Link


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,516. Lying
"The character of a liar is at once so hateful and contemptible, that even of those who have lost their virtue it might be expected that from the violation of truth they should be restrained by their pride."
Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753)
Link


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1,517. Lying
"The liar, and only the liar, is invariably and universally despised, abandoned, and disowned: he has no domestick consolations, which he can oppose to censure of mankind; he can retire to no fraternity, where his crimes may stand in the place of virtues; but is given up to the hisses of the multitude, without friend or apologist."
Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753)
Link


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1,521. Lying
"The present age abounds with a race of liars who are content with the consciousness of falsehood, and whose pride is to deceive others without any gain or glory to themselves."
Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753)
Link


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1,522. Deterrence; Lying
"I am, indeed, far from desiring to increase in this kingdom the number of executions; yet I cannot but think, that they who destroy the confidence of society, weaken the credit of intelligence, and interrupt the security of life; harass the delicate with shame, and perplex the timorous with alarms; might very properly be awakened to a sense of their crimes, by denunciations of a whipping-post or pillory: since many are so insensible of right and wrong, that they have no standard of action but the law; nor feel guilt, but as they dread punishment."
Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753)

Link:
http://www.samueljohnson.com/lying.html


Or From : Jonathan Martin 2008.

By Jonathan Martin

Politico’s Martin Blog

4/7/08 3:17 PM



http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0408/McCain_camp_tries_to_beat_100_years_to_death.html

The way to kill a bad narrative based on one quote?



Hammer it home as a distortion, get independent sources to confirm it as such and then force your opponent to modify or altogether drop usage.



McCain has now reached the next to last step, as demonstrated by the below video wizardry.

Jan Schakowsky 's Mazel Tov to Stuart Levine - And You Want to Be Senator? Hey, It'll Probably Happen!

"Mazel Tov to you, Stuart, on this special occasion," wrote Democratic U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky in another letter included in the program. "Your strong philanthropic efforts and outstanding leadership have contributed greatly to the Chicago area and beyond."

Jan - Question: what is it that Stuart has not put up his nose, popped, ingested, or shot-up? Whatever it is seems to have worked wonders on you. Mazel Tov!

Click my post title for the full Chicago Tribune Story

John McCain: Gov. Blagojevich School Choice Could Be Good For You

Every day that the Walking Pharmaceutical in Armani Suits* jabbers away to Paddy Fitz, the collar around Governor Rod Blagojevich** must feel like Ed Schultz's busting at the stain of fleshy waves like Cuchulain in Yeats' poem battling the sea -

'Stared on the horses of the sea, and heard
The cars of battle and his own name cried;
And fought with the invulnerable tide.'

Pressure. Grace under fire as calamity washes with greater fury, requires the weapon to check insurmountable foe -Fate.

I mean, Jeez, even Pat Quinn is coming on like an uncaged pit-bull from Vick's Doggie Day Care.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-quinn-recallapr07,1,3433388.story

Hey, Milorod,here's a Boss Idea! It's Keen! It's Hip and Happenin'!

Do the Maverick! It is the Dance craze sweeping the Nation and John McCain is the Maverick Mambo King!

Break with the public school lobby on School Choice. Give the taxpayers something. Anything.

You have nothing to lose on this one. No need to worry about tossing Jan Schakowsky Obama's seat ( She would be a Lousy Choice and Illinois has had enough Losers in the National Spotlight); no need to worry about Lisa Madigan's, Alexi Giannoulias', orDanny Hynes' growing popularity and good sense; no more worry about Tony Rezko - well maybe a little bit.

You'd be the good guy for a change. Get to dancing, Guv! Do the Maverick Mambo! Be Like McCain!

Take a look at the fine Heritage Foundation Study of Illinois School Choice Initiatives linked above with my post title. Look at all the boondoggles that allows Arne Duncan to cry-out that 190 Million Dollars is not enough for his Tax-Dollar Dry Vac - 'CPS students are now being murdered with bats; only last week they were gunned down! Think of the Children!'

School Choice - Vouchers is the only real change that will improve our miserable public schools and Vouchers will relieve Illinois Tax-payers of an ever-mounting burden.

Do the Maverick Mambo, Guv! Get all John McCain on us in Illinois. Hey, it can't hurt you. You may even lose some of that tightness around the collar.

* Stuart Levine - the professional Board Appointee in the Tony Rezko Trial who has testified to ingesting - Coke- Meth -Uppers & Downers and just about everything but Testor's Glue - well, the trial just started. Hey Jan Schakowsky love Stuart and She want to be our U.S. Senator, well, after all her hubby is an ex-Con:
From Today's Tribune Jan on Stu: "Mazel Tov to you, Stuart, on this special occasion," wrote Democratic U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky in another letter included in the program. "Your strong philanthropic efforts and outstanding leadership have contributed greatly to the Chicago area and beyond."

** Got that great Rod Frown that was originally posted at Steve Rhodes Great ( even though he thinks I'm a cave-dwelling troglodyte) Beachwood Reporter . Read it at this link:

http://www.beachwoodreporter.com/
Thanks Steve.

John McCain: Neil Steinberg's 'Riot of the Heart' is Important Reading

Chicago Sun Times columnist Neil Steinberg writes from the heart and uses a powerful noggin in support of that organism. Today, again, Neil Steinberg sticks his neck out with commentary on the debate about race, begun when Barack Obama's bat-guano crazy Uncle Jeremiah's bitter and hateful lectures on themes of victimhood and loopy conspiracies sprinted around the media. Barack Obama was in the jack-pot for not explaining exactly how his close and decades-long discipleship to Wright does not, in any way, affect his own view of America.

Like a good politician, Senator Obama changed the subject and deftly avoided answering the question and simultaneously crafting an artificial National Dialogue on Race: Black America ( really, the Victim Cottage Industry) tells everyone else how horrible whites are, have been and shall always be, while the monologues plays out. This National Dialogue consists of the position that White Supremacy makes life hell on earth for black Americans - now, nod with conviction.

Dollar Store black author and showman,Michael Eric Dyson celebrated the Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination with this bit of prose:

“Before 1965, King was upbeat and bright, his belief in white America 's ability to change by moral suasion resilient and durable. That is the leader we have come to know during annual King commemorations. After 1965, King was darker and angrier; he grew more skeptical about the willingness of America to change without great social coercion.

King's skepticism and anger were often muted when he spoke to white America , but they routinely resonated in black sanctuaries and meeting halls across the land. Nothing highlights that split -- or white America 's ignorance of it and the prophetic black church King inspired -- more than recalling King's post-1965 odyssey, as he grappled bravely with poverty, war and entrenched racism. That is the King who emerges as we recall the meaning of his death. After the grand victories of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, King turned his attention to poverty, economic injustice and class inequality. King argued that those "legislative and judicial victories did very little to improve" Northern ghettos or to "penetrate the lower depths of Negro deprivation." In a frank assessment of the civil rights movement, King said the changes that came about from 1955 to 1965 "were at best surface changes" that were "limited mainly to the Negro middle class." In seeking to end black poverty, King told his staff in 1966 that blacks "are now making demands that will cost the nation something. ... You're really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then."

Neil Steinberg offers a profound antiphon to the all-too familiar voices in the Media who would verbally nod with conviction over Dyson's pettifogging nonsense:

Of course they had cause ( to riot -infinitive, my own) -- their lives mired in poverty, cramped by lack of opportunity, rubbed raw against racism, and their best hope for change, a man of enormous wisdom and eloquence, cut down by a white racist.

But were they right to do it? I'd say no. Who did they hurt? They hurt themselves -- burned their own community, killed and wounded each other, largely.

Connect that to today. I'm not commenting on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, personally, because I don't know him and refuse to judge him based on snippets posted by political shills. But his infamous "God damn America" is an attitude not unknown in the black community, where victimhood and bitterness and anger are too addictive for some to avoid.

We see this attitude in Wright's congregation, and its fervid, knee-jerk reply to critics -- we were wronged! Which shows they don't understand that many Americans don't know and don't care about the troubles they've seen, but do notice and do care when somebody trashes our country -- a riot of the heart, as it were. Like the West Side rioters, they only hurt themselves or, rather, they hurt the first black candidate with a real shot at the White House.

Click My post title for Neil Steinberg's fine Column

Sister Wendy Beckett: 'My real world is a world away from bustle"

My first experience with a nun occurred in the late 1950's at Little Flower Grammar School at 81st & Honore on the south side of Chicago. It was not a good one; similar experiences cascaded through my eight years at LFG.

My only ally, it seemed, - ( Hey, every one got clouted - except the snitches and they are now DNC Super Delegates) in my personal 'world's collide' with the Religious Sisters of Mercy was my County Kerry bog man Grandfather.

Unlike most, Hickeys, Old Lawrence understood. 'Pay them no mind, so, Páidín ( in Chicago phonetics, sounds like Pat-Sheen, translates to Paddy) , they're a shower of Hairy-faced Old Galway Bitches!'

Later in life, bumps, clouts, psychological warfare notwithstanding, I taught with some incredible women who 'took the veil.' The Sisters of Notre Dame - Helen Kavanaugh, Helen Larsen, Theresa Galvan, and the brilliant Madeline Lamarre. These girls could teach, filet a Kankakee River Channel Cat, work a beer glass like Bricklayer John McKenna and direct all of their actions to God.

I read a book about Sister Wendy Beckett, a South African born Sister of Notre Dame, Art critic, television star and contemplative. What struck me was Sister Wendy's attitude toward all things: 'everthing that happens in Life is a means to an end and I happen to believe that the end is God.' Sister then went on to compare the Rape of Lucretia by Tarquin to Cezanne's The Abduction - and wittily and smartly points to the nature of contempt for human beings intrinsic to the act of Rape.


Sister Wendy's life is spent in Caravan - in American, a trailer, a tornado target - at the bottom of a hill on which sits a Carmelite Contemplative Convent. As a contemplative, Sister Wendy has taken a vow of absolute silence and speaks only to the Superior of the Convent and rarely at that.

She talks a plenty - through her writing. Sister Wendy is a brilliant scholar and master of Art, who understands the nature of artistic expression and can explain the work of the World's Masters to this dumb as dirt know-it- all whose mouth goes like a duck's ass 24/7:

"Art is beauty and God is beauty. If you can get people to look at art; you are bringing them closer to Him, even if they don't know His name."

"My own definition of beauty is that which perpetually satisfies us. You look at it again and again and there is more of it to satisfy us. I would say that beauty is very much an attribute of God - He is essential beauty. But only those of us who have been fortunate enough to have faith know where beauty comes from. For the others, they are responding to beauty and responding to Him, though they mightn't be aware of that - they are responding to the pure, free, strong, loving spirit of God."

Sister Wendy

Got it in one take, Sister Wendy - and without a knuckle to the noggin. Thank You!

Click my post title for the TV series on Sister Wendy

Here is what Sister Wendy has been doing in the contemplative life -
Books

2001
Sister Wendy's Impressionist Masterpieces
Sister Wendy's American Masterpieces

2000
Sister Wendy's American Collection
In the Midst of Chaos, Peace (with Mary J. Dorcy and Dan Paulos)
Sister Wendy's Book of Muses (with Justin Pumfrey)

1999
Sister Wendy's 1,000 Masterpieces (with Patricia Wright)
My Favourite Things: 75 Works of Art from Around the World

1998
Sister Wendy's Nativity
Inner Life: A Fellow Traveler's Guide to Prayer (by David Torkington; foreword by Sister Wendy)
Sister Wendy's Odyssey: A Journey of Artistic Discovery
Sister Wendy's Book of Meditations
Sister Wendy's Book of Saints
The Mystery of Love: Saints in Art Through the Ages

1997
Sister Wendy's Story of Christmas: Adventures in Art
Sister Wendy in Conversation with Bill Moyers: The Complete Conversation (edited by Karen Johnson)
The Wisdom of the Apostles (compiled by Philip Law; introduction by Sister Wendy)
The Duke and the Peasant: Life in the Middle Ages (with Jean De Berry)
Max Beckmann and the Self

1996
Sister Wendy's Grand Tour: Discovering Europe's Great Art
Pains of Glass: The Story of the Passion from King's College Chapel, Cambridge (with George Pattison)

1995
Sister Wendy's Meditations: Meditations on Joy
Sister Wendy's Meditations: Meditations on Love
Sister Wendy's Meditations: Meditations on Peace
Sister Wendy's Meditations: Meditations on Silence
A Child's Book of Prayer in Art

1994
The Story of Painting
The Gaze of Love: Meditations on Art and Spiritual Transformation


Series

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2001
Sister Wendy's American Collection

1998
The Saints with Sister Wendy
The Much Loved Friend: Portrait of The National Gallery

1997
Sister Wendy in Conversation with Bill Moyers

1996
Sister Wendy's Grand Tour: Discovering Europe's Great Art
Sister Wendy: Pains of Glass
Sister Wendy's Story of Painting
Early Art
The Renaissance
Baroque to Romanticism
The Age of Revolution
Modernism

John McCain: School Choice, or More of This? CPS Anti-Violence Meeting Erupts in Violence

Public Schools have eliminated values ( religious or civic) forsake of a pale Political Correctness: when you stand for nothing, expect the consequences.

Catholic, Protestant, Jewish Muslim, Independent schools have stated core values in the mission statements.

The ACLU and the political bosses of the Public School Lobbies have killed the educational immune systems in Public Schools. Where Faith, Patriotism, Civic Values, Family Traditions are not welcome the synthetic gang sub-cultures flourish.

Witness the outburst of violence at a Chicago Anti-Violence Meeting at a Chicago Public high school yesterday.

An anti-violence rally at George Washington High School turned ugly Thursday when a series of fights broke out in a crowd of students being dismissed for the day.

Parents and students had gathered at 3 p.m. to protest what they said has been escalating violence between black and Latino students at the school, at 3535 E. 114th St. on the Far Southeast Side.

Tensions between the groups have persisted for years, parents and students said. But this week has been particularly violent, with several flare-ups that caused some parents to pull children out of school for their safety. Several parents said they would not allow their children to return to school until the violence was addressed.

The protest came on the heels of a larger rally Chicago Public Schools held earlier this week calling for an end to the shootings that have claimed 20 students this year.

John McCain is the only Presidential Candidate of any Party who leads on School Choice.

Click my post title for the latest example of what happens when schools stand for nothing.

1958 St. Pat's 79th Street Parade- Click My Title for Full Video

Tom Stumpf sent me this wonderful color slide show of the 1958 St. Patrick's Day Parade that marched from Ashland to Halsted on 79th Street. Note the absence of goofy green hats.

Leo High School is the dominant institution of the parade route and continues to be an Auburn-Gresham Anchor.

Get a load of the great floats including Dressler's Baker and Borden's Dairy.

Terry McEldowney, himself a 79th Street Institution, leads the keening on the anthem South Side Irish which chonicles the litany of Catholic Parishes that comprise - the South Side Irish.

Thank you Tom Stumpf!

John McCain: The Democrat Convention: What Really Happens at 3AM!

MSNBC - The Tool Shed's Bloated Fop - Gracie Olbermann and his identical twin Rachel Maddow the Gender Neutral Doublemint Twins of Fatuous Commentary -take every opportunity to slight the Honor, Ingerity, Service and Age of Senator John McCain.

John McCain is the only clear choice for Americans.

This is Howard Dean's Democratic National Committee's Dream Team- Democrat Convention!

Party or Not?

Hat Tip to American Patriot, Free Spender, Tax Smart and Ale Genius, Patriot and Patron - San Francisco's Vietnam Veteran Author - Mike McQuade!!!!!!

Click my post title for the very funny Olbermann Watch - Old Woman Olbermann never gets the time right and he's never been broke

John McCain: School Choice is the Answer to Righting the Political and Economic Disaster that is Our Public Schools

( Hat Tip to Illinois Review's Matt Gauntt - click my post title for more)

Leo Men like Mike Joyce (above) Volunteer to mentor and coach black young men into colleges and universities 93% go on to college. Jack O'Keefe and Denny Conway, two retired Educators do Math and English Prep every Saturday Free of Charge - No Marches. No Dollars.


Yesterday, Arne Duncan, who attended University High in Hyde Park a Blue Chip Independent School, threatened that 190 Million was the minimum CPS would accept from Illinois Taxpayers or the Chicago Taxpayers get it good and hard with a brand spanking new Property Tax. Had one last Fall, Arne, and the Irish Chapstick ( Preparation H) was just starting to take effect.

Politics, taxes, homicides, marches, pronouncements are all nice and everything, thanks very much, but I'll decline - just the same.

School Choice. That's what I want.

With School choice, Public Schools will become accountable through serious competition with University High, Leo, Mount Carmel, Luthers South, North and East, Latin School & etc.

Families will choose where they wish to send their sons and daughters and not be limited by economics - race and class if you will.

After work today, I will drive a bundle of study Guides over to Denny Conway's House so he can prep for the Voluntary Coaching he and Jack O'Keefe ( two retired educators and Leo Alumni) do for Leo High School Seniors. These guys and many other Leo guys step up and help kids boost their ACT Scores and it costs - not Nickel One!

These two retired Leo Men arrive here on Saturday mornings and conduct intense coaching for college bound Leo Men. No March. No Tax Dollars. Just genuine concern for kids.

Bill and Melinda Gates conducted a study linked below that points to the appalling graduation rates in American High Schools - Public Schools. Sadly, no where in the conclusion do I see any consideration for School Choice. Chicago Public Schools graduated about 5 in 10 kids. Might as well teach children very early in life to buy all the Lotto Tickets they can lay hands upon! Here's the Conclusion of the Gates Study:

EPE Research Center
April 2008 Cities in Crisis | 14
Conclusion
When they are not being labeled “obsolete,” America’s high schools have often been described as existing in a state of crisis. As this report has demonstrated, that observation is particularly apt for the school systems serving the nation’s very largest cities. A significant share of recent public debate in education-policy circles has revolved around the challenges we face as a nation ensuring that all students graduate from high school, diploma in-hand and well-equipped to face the world and excel in their adult lives. This is an aspiration that would apply whether an individual student’s path from high school leads to further education, occupational training, or immediately into the world of work.
If three out of every 10 students in the nation failing to graduate is reason for concern, then the fact that just half of those educated in America’s largest cities are finishing high school truly raises cause for alarm. And the much higher rates of high school completion among their suburban counterparts – who may literally live and attend school right around the corner – place in a particularly harsh and unflattering light the deep undercurrents of inequity that plague American public education.
It is often remarked that knowledge is power. The good news is that a movement is afoot to better arm educators, policymakers, and the public with the information they need to more accurately assess the nature and severity of the graduation crisis in their communities and around the country. Innovative efforts to turn around low-performing high schools are also underway. The bad news, however, is that the challenges we face may be more grave than many had suspected or that some are still willing to acknowledge. And when it comes to providing every student with a high-quality education, we have not come as far or moved as fast as most of us would like.
In forging a way ahead, it will be essential that we not lose sight of the disparities highlighted in this report, which portray two very different worlds that exist within the nation’s public education system. As efforts to understand and combat the graduation crisis advance, this movement must proceed hand-in-hand with a fundamental commitment to creating a public education system in which earning a high school diploma is the norm for all students in every community, and where dropping out is a rare exception.

( Emphasis My own) Rare indeed - as Rare as a 'Round on the House' at Bennigan's - invisible.


John McCain is the only Presidential Candidate for School Choice . I caught Senator Obama on Milky Matthews' Hardball Campus Tour, last night. When the issue of inner city schools came up Senator Obama cited Public School Lobby Dogma Chapter and Verse: More Programs ( Federal) More Tax Dollars.

We can not keep putting chips on Public School Roulette Square BLACK/RED 36 - It ain't on the Table.

http://www.americaspromise.org/uploadedFiles/AmericasPromiseAlliance/Dropout_Crisis/SWANSONCitiesInCrisis040108.pdf

McCain: Daley states, 'That's Right! You Know What Time It Is!' - He's 'Bout To Bust a Property Tax Cap, YO!

Only Hours after bringing Chicago Public School Homicides to its knees with a dramatic and well-publicized March around Thompson Center, shots were fired near Morgan Park High School in my neighborhood.

With his usual aplomb, Daley went Old Testament on the City Tax-payers. Daley and Arne Duncan, both proud products of private education, promised to bust a cap- Property Tax Cap - the one that was raised last Fall, if Gov. Blago does not come up with the trump for Arne's National Laugh, in the ear of Chicago Tax Payers.

That's me. I take the weather personally.

Public Schools are tragedy and Chicago Public Schools are Blood Tragedy ( Marlowe, Jonson, Ford)- the shockingly violent sister of the genre. CPS kids die from homicide. People kill those kids. The guns do not go off by themselves. People kill other people because they feel comfortable doing so - we live in a Thug Comfort Zone.


We live in a Thug Comfort Zone, because thugs are fearless - they suffer no consequences. The sorry state of public education in Chicago contributes to the Thug Comfort Zone, as do the more moronic members of the media, lawsuit addicted radical lawyers, radical 501(c)3 University Think Tanks and gutless politicians.

School Choice will help end the violence, by forcing Arne Duncan to make his school's accountable through competition.

John McCain is a Federalist who will lead for School Choice. The Federal Government will encourage States to act on School Choice.

Here's Insane Arne D on what you need to know:

Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan said $180 million in new state money is the "bare minimum" to allow the district to expand kindergarten, evening classes and foreign-language instruction, among other programs.

The threat comes after Daley raised property taxes last fall. Additionally, the City Council increased the real estate transfer tax as part of a CTA bailout that also included a quarter-cent sales tax increase that took effect Tuesday. Come July 1, the Cook County Board's 1 percent sales tax increase will hit taxpayers.

Get to Marching' Arne!

The rest of us, let's get to John McCain's leadership on School Choice.

You know what time it is!

Click my post title. for the story on Daley's Threat

John McCain: Meet John Kass!

Today's Reuters piece reports that John McCain feels that Americans are too cynical - really? Sorry- comes with being a life-long smart-ass and punching bag. And there in lies the rub; I make a crack and expect one in kind. Not so, too many very loud Public voices in Cable TV, Print and especially on Talk Radio. Say anything - no consequences.


Senator John McCain at 71 years of age and five of those years being tortured with great regularity, is sprinting around the country, while a bloated fop on MSNBC- The Tool Shed, Keith Olbermann makes cracks about his age and lifetime of service.

"But when healthy skepticism sours into corrosive cynicism our expectations of our government become reduced to the delivery of services. And to some people the expectations of liberty are reduced to the right to choose among competing brands of designer coffee."

Olbermann and his androgynous twin Rachel Maddow make a point of sneering at Honor, Service and Commitment, because they were spawned by the forces of indulgence and self-satisfaction.

Not so, Chicago Journalist, Columnist, wit and 'fly-in-the-ointment' that greases Illinois public corruption, The Chicago Tribune's John Kass. John McCain would have no difference of sentiment from John Kass - identical values it seems to me. From Wikpedeia - My C-Minus Intellect's Canon of Facts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kass

John Kass is a Chicago Tribune columnist.

The son of a Greek immigrant grocer, Kass was born June 23, 1956, on the South Side of Chicago and grew up there and in Oak Lawn, IL. He held many jobs - retailer, ditch digger, waiter - before becoming a student of film at Columbia College in Chicago. There, he worked in the student newspaper and gained the attention of Daryle Feldmeir, president of the media department and previous editor of the Chicago Daily News. Feldmeir and media professor Les Brownlee helped Kass to obtain an internship at the Daily Calumet in 1980, where Kass worked as a reporter until he left for the Tribune.

Kass lives in the southern suburbs of Chicago with his wife and twin children.


[edit] Style of Writing
Kass uses his bully pulpit to rail against corruption in government and highlight the impact of corruption on taxpayers. In September 2003, he wrote about Federal indictments handed down in a scandal involving city contracts. Kass wrote, "what drives the criticism is the obscene amounts of taxpayer dollars that go to [Mayor Daley's] pals. In deal after deal after deal, the attitude is that his guys can take what they want and the people in the neighborhoods better shut up about it, while higher taxes put more and more pressure on families to pay for the deals."[1]

Kass often writes nostalgically about Chicago's bygone days. He describes one of Chicago's famous steakhouses by writing, "[Gene and Georgetti's] is a hangout where information is traded, among politicians, insiders, reporters, wise-guys, salesmen, consultants, from the buttoned down to the gold chains crowd. And what makes it work is that they serve the best steak in the city, period. The service is impeccable without being showy and the drinks are honest. Gene's is a part of the old Chicago, the city as it was before so much of the downtown was turned into a theme park."[2]

A frequent target for Kass is Richard M. Daley, the long-time Mayor of Chicago. Kass once wrote, "Investigations into massive affirmative-action contract fraud and the Hired Truck scandals, and a series of convictions have pressured the mayor and his inner-circle, who, when it came to cronyism and contracts, once behaved as if they were untouchable. Now, the mayor has jumped on the reform bandwagon, at least publicly, frantically offering good-government initiatives, even as the feds bore in on the source of his absolute power: His patronage armies that dictate politics and policy on the local, state and federal levels, electing his favored candidates, but also crushing those he doesn't like, getting rid of them in party primaries."[3]

In his columns Kass is a frequent critic of what he terms as the "combine" of Illinois politics, wherein powerful elements of the Illinois Republican and Democratic parties unite for the purposes of political corruption.

Kass also writes about lighter topics, particularly beer can chicken.
Kass's column appears on page 2 of the Tribune's news section.

John Kass goes out of his way to pin-prick the vanities of public men and women whose public actions indicate that they feel somehow above the Law and those they were elected to serve. Kass is the best Chicago Public Writer since Finley Peter Dunne, who invented the 'Public Persona' style of writing with his character Mr. Dooley. Only the Chicago Tribune's Daniel B. McGrath, the Sports Editor, is Kass's superior in crafting simple declarative sentences. Dan McGrath is recognized nation-wide as a great sports writer. Writer indeed,

John Kass is no cynic - far from that group of wily Greeks who used words to circumvent the Law and even Ethics.

Kass is locked to ethikos - what ought to be. The Romans touted morals ( mores - customs or traditions, the Greeks locked ethics into Man. John Kass does not give - in Chicago terms - a 'fat rat's ass' about niceties or politically correct boondoggles. Like Dryden, Swift, Pope, Thackeray, Twain, and Mencken, Kass roots out the deeds that make life miserable for most of us.

Senator John McCain, meet John Kass.

Senator McCain worries that,

"Many Americans are indifferent to or cynical about the virtues that our country claims," the former Vietnam prisoner of war will say.

In part, he says, it is because some have suffered economic dislocations while others profit as never before, and in part, it is a "reaction to government's mistakes and incompetence and to the selfishness of some public figures."

He comes close to calling some Americans spoiled, saying they are cynical because "the ease which wealth and opportunity have given their lives led them to the mistaken conclusion that America, and the liberties its system of government is intended to protect, just aren't important to the quality of their lives."

Senator, point to John Kass and more of us will get things right.

John McCain: "Heroes" Ad Leads off with Teachers

The Choice is ours. John McCain is a public servant who lives what he believes and believes what is best about America.


John McCain's video ad "Heroes' Leads off with Teachers and his most inspirational teacher, Mr. Ravenel: English Teacher and Football Coach . Click my Post Title and learn something.

John McCain is the only candidate running for President of the United States with a clear position on School Choice. Given the very sad state of America's public schools, School Choice is the best and only means of saving public education.

John McCain: Arne Duncan, Phd. Piled High and Deep! School Choice Arne, Is the Only Way to Help Yourself and the Chicago Public Schools

Leading Cancer Specialist Dr. Krop E. PayCheque informed the disappointed children of the 101st Airborne Division's Precision Bicycle Marching Team that raccoons often have their way with tired carburetors and there is absolutely nothing that serious members of the League of Baseball Hotties could do - or improve upon - at this time.

And for more clarity on the crisis facing tax-payers and the deplorable state of Chicago Public Schools we have CPS CEO Arne Duncan:

From Today's Tribune

Clarke's slaying, like every other student killing this year, left Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan speaking about the need to get rid of guns and hold manufacturers accountable. Last year in CPS a record 34 students were killed during the school year.

Tuesday's rally will put more heat on lawmakers, Duncan said.

"This is a public health epidemic. We are struggling to find the cure for AIDS, we are struggling to find the cure for cancer; we know the cure for this public health epidemic -- getting rid of guns," said Duncan. "We need political courage."

You need a much looser collar size. You need air to the brain-pan, Arne!

We all need School Choice.That's Arne up there in the photo of his classmates who did not attend Chicago Public Schools either - see how he pays attention!


Photo: Arne Duncan Top Row Extreme Right - His Left - Tall Guy.