Read Raymond Chandler; Mix A Metaphor; Wink at a Homely Girl or Boy and Mind Your Manners

"She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight." ---The Little Sister (Chapter 12)

Now that Civil Unions are a reality in Illinois, I have lost fat, increased my muscle tone, sprouted darker richer and more lustrous hair, play the oboe as well the banjo and guitar, found more zeroes before the decimals in my checking account, and am no longer troubled by Low T. No, not the evil Chinaman Loan Shark and Opiates Purveyor from Morgan Park, but that new affliction of "guys 45 and over." In fact, now that same sex couples can begin bringing an avalanche of lawsuits against everything from gumball machines to the State of Illinois, I sleep much better knowing that thanks to Greg Harris, Deb Mell, the Illinois Democratic Party, WTTW, every news outlet in Illinois and Asian Carp Civil Unions is the path to Liberty.

The last fifty plus years, have been absolute hell!

Well, thank God that's over. Now, I have time to go back and re-read Raymond Chandler.

Raymond Chandler was an Irish-Chicago born , British educated writer who captured the sound and sense of urban America like no other writer, since Mark Twain. As a young man, Chandler fought in the trenches of France during WWI with the Canadian Gordon Highlanders and later transferred to the RAF. After the war, he settled in Los Angeles, married woman eighteen years his senior, clerked for an Oil Company and began writing Pulp Fiction -after he was fired for his boozing.

In one of his early stories his narrator states, "I'm an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard." --"The King in Yellow"

His novels The Big Sleep, The Little Sister, and Farewell My Lovely also helped launch his career as a Hollywood Screenwriter. Hollywood now hires kids who can barely read but create Graphic Novels. Try an find a script that is not lifted from another work -AVATAR is Dances With Wolves from Walter Scott's Waverly.

Chandler represented the epoch when movies were an art unto themselves and actually had wit, craft and a theme.

Now, that my life will be a path strewn with roses, rainbows and lollipops, all thanks to Civil Unions. I can re-read Raymond Chandler.

Profiling, or Scouting?

My pal, Attorney Tamara Holder has a re-posting of a thoughtful article that she wrote last January, following the arrest of the terrorist who attempted to bomb the Detroit airport.

Ms. Holder wrote this in reaction to calls for greater attention to Muslim folks boarding flights to the United States and re posted this morning because the profiling issue was exacerbated by the TSA pat-downs boosted by Homeland Security Czarina Janet Napolitano.

Tamara Holder writes, "“Racial profiling” is used too loosely. Instead, “intelligence” is the issue. If a terrorist gets to a security check-point at the airport, he has already gotten too far. We cannot rely on patdowns and scanners to catch terrorists. Terrorists are smarter than a TSA employee.
Patdowns and bodyscanners may be tools to keep terrorists off of planes but they will just look for a different way to achieve their mission. The 9/11 terrorists may have been caught if the body scanner detected their box cutters. Abdulmutallab may have been caught if the body scanner detected the bomb-making material in his underwear. These measures may or may not work to deter terrorists. We shall see…"
Click my post title for more. I disagree with Tamara Holder. I think Profiling is good scouting.

I think that profiling is no more than a smarmy PC buzz-word like Systemic. High school coaches profile every time that they enter a gym, or grab the top row in the stands at a football game. They are profiling young men ( sexists.) who have the physical abilities to perform great feats of athleticism for the school that can grab them. Option Offense ( teams that use a running game to beat the clock) schools looks for a quarterbacks and running backs who can perform in the Wishbone, I-Option, Spread Option Wing-T Option, Flexbone and Double Option formations. The scouts Profile a quaterback who displays a keen sense of the field as well as a quick witted nimbleness in determining which running back will be fed the ball to take the "dive." "veer," or "mesh" run against the opposing defense. The scouts are looking for qualities and characteristics. They come armed with a Profile.

A myopic kid in an iron lung will not meet that profile.

Likewise, remember the old Western movies when a cavalry patrol came upon a massacred wagon or stagecoach?

The Steel-eyed Old Army Scout and his Commanche Aide would take arrows and lances from the victims and return to the Cavalry Commander.

Scout Cole Murtaugh- "These are markings of a Kiowa Murder Party, Lietenant - see how these red hash marks cover the yellow? That means that Red Hand is out for Yellow Hair scalps."

Lt.Oakes Willoughby -" Mr. Murtaugh, your antipathy to the Kiowa is well known. The Kiowa are indigenous Americans with a rich culture and robust moral sense that is Eco-friendly and Earrth wholesome. To take your meaning, we should troop along and abuse . . .nay, murder people? That is Systemic Racism!"

Scout - " These arrows and lances were just pulled out of the backs of these here women folks."

Lt. Oakes - "Did you see the actual act of launching these missiles, Murtaugh? Who's to say? Who's to say that Kiowas killed these people? It may very well have been an Aryan War Party of disgrubtled Confederate Army veterans. Why, only the other day in an Op-Ed Letter of the Shinebone Star The Rev. Mark Potok of The Southern Poverty Law Center deemed it may be so! I will not Profile."

Scout - "Well,Sonny Boy, me and Jimmy-Sass-Back, here, will pull freight - you and me done split the blanket Lootenant. We'll winter up in the High Lonesome and come down in the Spring and bury you and your patrol then."

Lt. Oakes -" Your empirical sense and systemic racism will not be on my hands. Killing Kiowas will only add to their recruitment efforts."

And that was not how the West Was Won. However, given the PC sentiments of some folks . . . I gotta go with Profiling is Scouting.

Profiling is Scouting - intelligence. It is how option quarterbacks are selected and it was how patrols in the old West avoided that really close haircut.

Will Joe Morris Be the Election Judge in the Rahn Residency Contretemps?

Out in the hustings and on the pavement for Leo High School, I run into clerics and clerks, gents and jerks, and guys-in-the-know, as well as makers of snow. I celebrate the diversity that is Chicago - 24/7.

This I know . . . a gentleman of unimpeachable honesty and absolutely no dog in Chicago's political brawls offered this " it seems that Joe Morris will be involved in the hearing on the challenge to Rahm Emanuel's legal residency status. Isn't that something." Could be.

Joseph A. Morris is a Partner in the law firm of Morris & De La Rosa, with offices in Chicago and London. He maintains an active practice conducting trials and appeals in the areas of constitutional, business, labor and international law. He is a member of the Bars of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Illinois and several other courts. Mr. Morris served under President Reagan as Assistant Attorney General of the United States and Director of the Department of Justice Office of Liaison Services, in which capacity he was the Attorney General's top assistant in charge of International affairs and of liaison with state and local prosecutors and law enforcement agencies. He has served as an American delegate to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva and both a government and a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
A leader in B'nai B'rith and other Jewish and interfaith organizations, he served from 1995 through 2001 as the President of B'nai B'rith in the Midwest. He was founder and first Chairman of the B'nai B'rith International Center for Public Policy.

He serves pro bono publico as the President and General Counsel of The Lincoln Legal Foundation and is active in a number of other bar, civic and charitable organizations.

A frequent lecturer and debater, he has appeared on such national and local television and radio programs as ABC's "Good Morning, America", NBC's "Nightly News", WTTW "Chicago Tonight" abd "Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg". He was former co-host of "Equal Time" on WBEZ Radio, the Chicago affiliate of National Public Radio.

Mr. Morris is an alumnus of the College and the Law School of The University of Chicago. He is married to Kathleen Morris and resides in Chicago.

Professor Dave Protess's "Treats" for "Innocent" Murderers

One of the cottage industries that has eroded any and all faith in our Justice System is the Lawsuit Lottery. The Lawsuit Lottery was invented by radical lawyers and assaults police officers, prosecutors, judges and city, county and municipal governments in defense of convicted murderers and career criminals by tugging at the heartstrings attached to our American sense of fair play.
The gambit is always the same - a murderer was convicted of a horrific crime because

A. Systemic Racist police officer ( black, white, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander) tortured, abused and denied basic civil rights to a copyrighted Minority - usually a black man - in order to close a case.

B. A prosecutor hid evidence in defense of Systemic Racism

C. A Corrections Official tortured, abused and denied basic civil rights to whole bunch of copyrighted Minorities -usually many black men- while they awaited trial.

D. A convicted murdered can only be freed and given Justice by kids taught by Professor Dave Protess of the Medill School of Journalism as part of the Innocense Project.

Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez smelled the same stink that many newspaper readers found wafting through their senses as the endless parade of G. Flint Taylor Burge Bonanzas and Professor Dave Protess Atticus Finch Productions blared from the front pages and spilled into the evening news shows. Now, we learn, via the e-mails that the Cook County Prosecutor Anita Alvarez has stoically demanded that Professor Dave turn over, that Professor Dave Protess, the too much lionized leader of the Medill Innocense Project, tosses "Treats" to obatin the intended outcome of Innocense, where the Justice System had declared Guilt.

No American wants an innocent man to suffer an injustice and the Hegelian Progressives use that sentiment to make millions of dollars and careers for future Katie Courics. Triple figure cabfare, a few few Iron Hotel visits by NIU college cuties . . .nothing seems too costly in the purchase of the intended outcome. That is pure John Dewey flavored Hegelianism.It seems the wheels are off of Professor Dave Protess's Snakeoil Wagon -

CHICAGO, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Northwestern University's Medill Innocence Project arranged a visit from a female student as a "treat" for a prisoner, prosecutors allege.

Illinois prosecutors say the visit and a possible offer of unspecified promises were made before the prisoner recanted his testimony in a 1993 murder and armed robbery case, the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.

Authorities produced three memos and an e-mail sent by students of Northwestern journalism professor David Protess to an attorney representing convicted murderer Armando Serrano, who is seeking a new trial.

The memos include suggestions that Francisco Vicente, who testified against Serrano but later recanted to the students, was upset that a private detective who works with Protess failed to make good on unspecified "considerations."

The e-mail, sent by a student investigating the Serrano case, said a female former student agreed to join a visit to Vicente in prison after he requested her presence.

Dangling a girl infront of a locked-up gent,Professor Dave?

Well, that is all part of the magical world of Hegalian Dialectic that dominates academic methodology - Truth is mutable. As that old Vermont Sap John Dewey said,

Time and memory are true artists; they remould reality nearer to the heart's desire.

If Professor Dave and the Kiddies in his charge really want convicted murderers to be innocent men, well they will by golly be just that . . .with the help of Lawsuit Lottery Lawyers, gutless politicians, and really goofy journalists.

Roberta Gambarini and Roy Hargrove Fronting the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band

Roberta Gambriani - Real Jazz

2010 Grammy Nominee - Roberta Gambarini - "So In Love" Documentary from doug yoel on Vimeo.

Roberta Gambarini is an Italian jazz singer. She was born in Turin, Italy, and started taking clarinet lessons at age twelve. She made her singing debut at age seventeen in jazz clubs around Northern Italy, then moved to Milan, where she worked in radio and television and began recording under her own name in 1986. In 1998, two weeks after arriving in the United States with a scholarship from the New England Conservatory of Music, she was awarded a third place finish in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocal Competition. With this credential in hand she left Boston for New York City to find work in jazz clubs. After walking the pavement and knocking on many doors, she finally got her big break in 2006 with the release of her album "Easy to Love," which caught the attention of jazz critics and musicians familiar with the heritage of a rich African-American art form that was increasingly being taken for granted in a new millennium preoccupied with electronica and country music. Taking a classic modern jazz album by Dizzy Gillespie ("Sonny Side Up," Verve, 1957), she sang each of the three intricate solos by undisputed masters of the idiom (trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and tenor saxophonists Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins) executing each in the original register of horn (including Rollins' lowest notes and Gillespie's stratospheric ones) with such command, accuracy and ease of execution that jazz' elder statesman, nonagenarian pianist Hank Jones was moved to publicly proclaim her the "best new jazz vocalist to come along in fifty years".

Dang!

Paul Krugman Must Have Helped Jan Schakowsky Draft That Goofy Deficit Plan

The last time I saw Jan Schakowsky was on the night of Vice President Biden's visit to Chicago and the Governor Quinn Get Out the Vote rally at the Plumbers Hall on West Washington Street.

While six Leo High School scholars and boxers chatted with NBC 5's Mary Ann Ahern, my eyes caught the dizzy-dim-witted Democratic Congress Critter Jan "MSNBC" Schakowsky darting around and trying to get near the stage. It seems that Jan did not find a spot near Governor Quinn, Congressman Davis, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Senator Dick Durbin and the many genuine Labor Leaders of Chicago - the skilled trades - because before Mary Ann Ahern returned to the TV Media platform, MSNBC Jan Schakowsky went storming off in a huff . . . or a minute and huff.

The dame is dizzier than a fruit fly in a gallon jug of old Gallo.

I read Jan Schakowsky's Progressive Fruit Loop Deficit Plan touted by the usual blowhards as 'The Path to Greatness' over the "Cat Food Commission" - so called by the Daily Kos/HuffPo Cadillac Commies to suggest that all Americans shall dine on cat food as a result of the Simpson-Bowles offerings.

Paul Krugman who bears a striking resemblance and personality parallel to the character Carmen Ghia in the 1968 Classic - The Producers and is a Lefty economist who wants America to go the way of Greece, Portugal, Ireland and California, has been howling and calling for the non-existent "DEATH PANELS" in Obama Care to fight the deficit and along comes Jan, who will do anything to get on stage or in front of a camera and generally offer nothing but future misery, taxes and on her best days a scandal for herself.

Paul Krugman hates the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction and more than likely drafted one for Congress Critter and MSNBC Tool Jan Schakowsky. Sure makes sense. More sense than a goofy plan that will not stop the economic bleeding. Click my post title for Jan's Burnt Offering that was probably drafted by Paul the Baker. It is linked to Prairie State Blue and can also be found on the SEIU Comic Book Progress Illinois complete with drool.

Erroll Garner - Stay Sharp with "I'll Remember April"

Erroll Garner - "This elfin artist possessed one of most felicitous keyboard styles in the annals of jazz, distinguished by delightful dynamic shifts, clever left hand devices and a boisterous sense of swing. This opening track from the famous live date is a fine introduction to Garner's work. He starts with one of those non sequitur piano intros, meandering mini-epics that have no apparent relation to the song they kick off -- another Garner trademark; but when he gets into a groove, he is as unstoppable as a runaway locomotive. Every once in a while, he drops a left-hand chord that explodes off the beat, a pianistic equivalent of an Art Blakey bomb. But he is just as likely to pound those chords out four to a bar. Above all, his solos capture an upbeat, lighthearted attitude that was uncharacteristic of mid-1950s jazz, but which still has its appeal today. My only gripe here is the sound quality, which is sub-par even by Eisenhower-era standards. Still, this is a classic date, and one that every jazz fan should hear." Ted Gioia

I have been here at work since a little after 5AM - loading entries from the great Leo Alumni's contributions to Campaign Leo 2010, the school's fall mailing - total of near $ 20,000 from the day one tally.

To fight the tedium and stay somewhat sharp, as sharp as this middle aged opaque blob of an intellect is capable, I listen Errol Garner.

Thus - I'll Rememeber April

Mommo^HD - Errol Garner - I’II Remember April

This lovely day will lengthen into evening,
We'll sigh good-bye to all we've ever had,
Alone where we have walked together,
I'll remember April and be glad....

I'll be content, you loved me once in April,
Your lips were warm, and love an' spring were new,
But I'm not afraid of autumn, and her sorrow,
For I'll remember, ( I'll remember )
April and you! ( I'll remember )

The fire will dwindle into glowing ashes,
For flames and love live such a little while . . .
I won't forget, but I won't be lonely, ( Oh, no . . . )
I'll remember April, and I'll smile . . .

The fire will dwindle into glowing ashes,
For flames and love live such a little while ( a little while )

I won't forget, but I won't be lonely ( I won't be lonely )
I'll remember April, and I'll smile . . .

I won't forget but I won't be lonely, no . . .
I'll remember April, and I'll smile!

This lovely day will fade away

Stay sharp!

Ripped from Today's Headlines! "Town Outlaws Sleeping In Public"

Click my post title for the whole story!

Well Butter my Butt and call me Biscut! Town Outlaws Sleeping in Public!


Well, Hoss, to my way of thinking . . .Town Outlaws will always do what they want, where they want, when they want and to whom they want.

It is the Outlaw Way.

As my grey haired Pappy always said, "That boy is so slow he can't catch a cold."

The fact that Town Outlaws choose to sleep IN PUBLIC seems hardly news worthy. Shucks! I ain't been this confused since the time I took my gal to see that thar romantic picture show -Brokeback Mountain.

World's Shortest Books in Print and on Kindle

From Monique Garcia's Chicago Tribune report on Governor and Speaker Mike Madigan -"The speaker, who also chairs the Illinois Democratic Party, is a man of relatively few public comments . . ." No. Really?

The sobriquette Speaker Madigan is the greatest oxymoron in Illingua Franca .

Here's shorter works of prose:


GEORGE FOREMAN'S BIG BOOK OF BABY NAMES

MIKE TYSON'S GUIDE TO DATING and DINING ETIQUETTE
RACHEL MADDOW'S TO ALL THE MEN I'VE LOVED BEFORE
INTERESTING NPR INTERVIEWS
ORIGINAL PROSE BY STUDS TERKEL
THE FUTURE OF BEER SUMMITS
PROGRESSIVE THOUGHT
SOMALI YACHTSMEN

ILLINOIS SPEAKER MICHAEL MADIGAN'S RIPING YARNS AND CRACKERBARREL GABS WITH THE PRESS

Gaudeamus! Habemus Skinny and Houli Again! - Radio Wins!

The White Smoke tells me that . . .

Skinny & Houli Show Returns to Chicago Radio

WCEV 1450 AM is the new home for “The Skinny & Houli Show” starting Saturday November 20th at 3:05PM. The show will broadcast each Saturday afternoon for “55 minutes of madness” according to co-host Mike Houlihan.

Lewis Lazzare of the Sun-Times called Skinny and Houli “two true Chicago characters.”
Jim Sheahan AKA “Skinny,” former Director of the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, and Mike Houlihan AKA “Houli,” columnist for the Irish American News and former features columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, introduce listeners to the quirky characters and stories that give our city its unique charm.
The heart of the show includes interviews with local leaders who are making a daily, positive impact in our community. Previous guests include Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, Chicago Bear Israel Idonije, Soul Singer Otis Clay, Sam Sianis of The Billy Goat Tavern, Second City founder Joyce Sloane, Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist Jack Higgins, and roller derby queen Val Capone.
This freewheeling talk radio dialogue features two of Chicago’s most irreverent and irrepressible personalities, discussing what’s happening in the city each week. The hosts will dissect the news, politics, sports, and entertainment scene with their trademark wit and introduce a variety of community activists and neighborhood heroes.

“The Skinny & Houli Show” originally debuted on WNTD 950 AM last January and entertained Chicago until August when the station underwent a format change. Scott Krusinski, General Manager of WNTD, said, “Radio needs more guys like Skinny and Houli. They get it. Chicago talk, from neighborhood guys, suitable for the whole family. Listening to them is like sitting around the kitchen table.”

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart joins Skinny & Houli as their first guest on the new afternoon show this Saturday.
Flood Brothers Disposal proudly sponsors “The Skinny & Houli Show”.on WCEV.
Tune in to a show that will make you proud to be a Chicagoan.

No Time My Dear. Houli's 'Her Majesty Da Queen' Opens Tonight! We Must Get to the Irish American Heritage Center. Now, Do Be a Good Girl . . .

The IAHC will host the world premiere of Mike Houlihan’s new documentary Her Majesty, ‘da Queen on Saturday night, November 13th at 7:30pm. Tickets are $10.
The film is a sneak peek backstage at the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade Queen Contest and captures the humor, heartbreak and excitement shared by more than 100 young women each year as they vie for the crown. Many of Chicago’s most endearing Irish-American personalities are featured in the film in intimate interviews during the pageant.
The film was edited from video shot at both the 2009 and 2010 queen contests.
The screening of Her Majesty, ‘da Queen will begin at 7:30pm with introductory remarks by filmmaker Mike Houlihan and wrap up with a Q&A with the audience and a post-screening party in the Fifth Province Pub. Tickets are $10.

"Hickey's Back!" VP Biden Says,"BFD!"

Oft him anhaga/Often the solitary one
are gebideð,/finds grace for himself
metudes miltse,/the mercy of the Lord,
þeah þe he modcearig/ Although he, sorry-hearted,
geond lagulade/ must for a long time
longe sceolde/ move by hand [in context = row]
4a hreran mid hondum/along the waterways,
hrimcealde sæ/ (along) the ice-cold sea,
wadan wræclastas./ tread the paths of exile.
Wyrd bið ful aræd!/ Events always go as they must!

"Where you been,Hickey? You been scarce."

True, my friend; very true. To wax mysterious . . . There's a road that leads away from most things.

Gnaw on that nugget for a few moments, Boys and Girls! To most, in Truth, I have been missed as much as cold sores on a pretty girl's lips and as necessary as a beer summit.

Really, Kids, this past month has been devoted to a special writing project.

My road is fraught with ice cream sandwiches and long walks in tall soft grass. Occasionally, I cut the soles of these old dogs on cast away pop tops from the 1970's and the odd shard of glass, but a good squirt of Unguentine does the trick and I gets them feet to walkin' again!

Hic Jacet ! Going Dark!

This site is going dark as of tomorrow. I'll be writing and posting but not for public viewing. It is good practice.

Ave atque Vale! Been the grins.

Chicago's Poet J.J. Tindall - This is Poetry

Chicagoetry: Saturday Afternoon
By J.J. Tindall
Saturday Afternoon

Music, if music, is divine,
the sub-atomic matter of divinity.
Not as a god but as a god might be.
He savored the complacencies
of a beer run, illumined by siren song,
the luminous trill of a woman's voice
in Spanish--not the tyrannous bleat
of emergency engines--sluicing through
ash-grey alleys like invisible water
through caverns of Indian-corn brick,
fluttering, flirting and luring,
lute en fleur.

A brook of invisible gems, supple
and turbulent, a careening of lush atoms.
Spanish is music-upon-music to the non-Spaniard
in the works. He encountered a church
festival in the parking lot of Iglesia del
Nazareno, a carnivale of faith and family,
pulsating with popular rhythm and blues.
Children darting and dancing, setting pigeon
flocks--flecked in ash--undulating, supple
and turbulent. Young couples embracing,
husbands and wives in intense conversations
of labor, pain and enduring love.

Visible, culpable: keyboards, trap-set
and bass guitar, with a chorus of three (a trinity).
Music invisible, but real as rain.
The Spanish did not batter his heart
with mythy rhetoric. Divinity pressed upon him
in lush, sub-atomic reality, whorling and whooshing,
like a jettisoned flock of scavenger birds.
Like swirling birds, not a seething, humanesque god.
The more human, the less humane. The less humane,
the less godly. Music, if music, is miracle,
luring lush hearts from deifying life's inherent pain,
not as a god but as a god might be.

October 19th, Black Robes: The Feast of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America

Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning,
and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks.
Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes; truly, I say to you, he will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those servants!

Today's Gospel: Luke 12:35-38


In the 17th Century, the Catholic Church was recovering from decades of Protestant revolt. The Church took a hard look at itself and began to Reform. As part of that Reformation, the Order of Jesuits ( Society of Jesus) was formed by a Spanish soldier named Ignatius Loyola and organized according to military science with a clear and single mission - Progagate the Faith.

In 1646, French Jesuits appeared in North America and quickly converted the Huron Nation to Christianity covering an area from what is now New York to well north and west of Quebec.

Words strive in vain to convey to a comfortable world the virtue of the first missionaries, and to describe the difficulties confronted by these heros desiring to implant Christianity amid the savage nations of the north. Building materials, chapel accessories, everything in effect had to be imported from France; the Indian languages were varied and difficult; customs were at best non-Christian; insects infested the woods where they dwelt; the tribes were migrant and had to be followed from place to place. There were less belligerent ones who responded rapidly to the pacifying and sanctifying influences of the Faith, but the Iroquois of the northeast were dreaded, and it was to them that the eight martyrs all fell victims, over a period of seven years.

The Indians called the Black Robes. They were talented men of science, medicine and military professionals. They were the result of the Church's long hard look. The Catholic Church is taking that long hard look again and so are Catholics themselves.

These men were giants.

St. Jean de Brébeuf (1649), St. Noël Chabanel (1649), St. Antoine Daniel (1648), St. Charles Garnier (1649), St. René Goupil (1642), St. Isaac Jogues (1646), St. Jean de Lalande ,[6] and St. Gabriel Lalemant (1649).


These were some tough and dedicated men.

I feel particularly small and petty in their shadows.

Imagine!

Lookee Here!

Dan Green -Chicago Water Department Hero!

City workers bust tail for all of us. Last winter, I watched my neighbor Steve Riordan plow miles of City roads working around the clock; Water Department teams repaired burst water lines in Morgan Park in sub-zero weather. Today, the Tribune reports about Dan Green who pulled a man from a blazing wreck.

A city water management worker on his way to an overnight shift late Sunday rescued a man whose pickup truck slammed into a metal bridge support beam and burst into flames in the Brighton Park neighborhood, police said.

Just before 11 p.m., Daniel Green, 36, an emergency crew dispatcher for the Department of Water Management, was stopped at the eastbound traffic light on Pershing Road at Western Avenue when a northbound Ford F150 crashed into a support beam. Within a minute, the truck was engulfed in flames, said Green.

"I didn't really pay attention until he hit the pole," said Green in the parking lot of his job just after midnight Monday.

Green and a bystander rushed to help the man, who appeared to be in his 60s or 70s. The two forced the driver's side door open. About eight men then carried the unconscious man to a nearby sidewalk and waited for paramedics to arrive. "This guy was dead if we didn't get him out," said Green, adding that the man was slumped over the steering wheel.

Police at the crash scene said the man was semi- conscious when paramedics took him to a hospital.

Preliminary reports said witnesses saw the truck slam into a bridge support beam from an overhead railroad, said Police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer. The man was taken in stable condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, Greer said.

Police called Green, "a good Samaritan," who pulled the man from the truck before it became fully engulfed in flames, she said.

Mike Houlihan's Latest Film -Her Majesty 'Da Queen World Premiere November 13th at IAHC

If there are any flies on Mike Houlihan, they must be pretty active wee lads! Mike Houlihan hustles like a 70's Disco King. The man is a prodigy. His lastest film "Her Majesty 'da Queen" World Premiere is coming to Chicago's Irish American Heritage Center.

Mike Houlihan's Newest Film to Première at IAHC

The Irish American Heritage Center will host the world premiere of Mike Houlihan's new documentary "Her Majesty, 'da Queen" on Saturday night, November 13th at 7:30PM.

The film is a sneak peek backstage at the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade Queen Contest and captures all the humor, heartbreak, and excitement shared by over 100 young women each year as they vie for the crown. Many of Chicago's most endearing Irish-American personalities are also featured in the film in intimate interviews during the pageant.

"Her Majesty, 'da Queen" was edited from video shot at both the 2009 and 2010 queen contests. This one-hour program is a prologue to Mike Houlihan's epic documentary "Our Irish Cousins", which is currently in post-production. "Cousins" was shot all over the US and in Ireland and reveals the Irish American experience in all it's glory, humor, and sprit.

The screening of "Her Majesty, 'da Queen" will begin at 7:30PM with introductory remarks by filmmaker Mike Houlihan and finish up with a Q&A with the audience and a post-screening party in the Fifth Province. Pub.

The Irish American Heritage Center is located in Chicago at 4626 North Knox with free parking available. For more information call 773-282-7035.

Houlie moves like a Kenyan at a Marathon.

Fear and Frustration Driving People, Mr. President? Nah. It's Prayer and Wide Awake Living

WEST NEWTON, Mass. - President Barack Obama said Americans' "fear and frustration" is to blame for an intense midterm election cycle that threatens to derail the Democratic agenda.

"Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we're hardwired not to always think clearly when we're scared,” Obama said Saturday evening in remarks at a small Democratic fundraiser Saturday evening. “And the country's scared.”

It is tough being President. It is easy wanting to be President. President Obama is sounding more and more like Michael Scott on the TV show The Office with each passing day. Michael Scott is the Manager of a paper company branch office and how the poor guy ever became so is part of the program's charm.

President Obama does not and did not have the experience, nor the basic instincts to be President of United States - nice guy, I guess, but insubstantial. He is the product of collective wishful thinking on the part of the DNC, their cash cows and the American media. If I had not actually experienced the man Barack Obama ( executive director of Woods Fund 1995, Congressinonal Candidate 1st District, Illinois State Senator) I could have become an Obama enthusiast. Instead, I hitched my vote to John McCain who quit running for President on September 9th 2008 at the Bush White House "Holy Poop The Sky Is Falling!" Economic Summit.

Two years and change into President Obama's hapless Administration and the National Warranty expired very early, like the 2010 Impala* which is already being recalled - the seat belts get unhitched. Given President Obama's penchant for automobile tropes, I thought that fitting.

Nope, people are not fearful or frustrated they are Royally pissed.

Mass was packed this morning and the folks of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in the Washington Heights neighborhood prayed for the President after the Gospel - here it is

1 And he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
2 He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man;
3 and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, `Vindicate me against my adversary.'
4 For a while he refused; but afterward he said to himself, `Though I neither fear God nor regard man,
5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.'"
6 And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says.
7 And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?
8 I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

The devout Patriots, mostly Democrats, prayed for Our Presdent and our Congress to defend our country,

We are praying like Hell and are as mad as Hell. I voted last week.


* GM Too Big to Fail? Failed just dandy.

General Motors and its Chevrolet Impala model.

Vehicles affected are 2009 and 2010 model year Chevrolet Impala sedans and the recall is down to concerns over a seat belt issue which means that the front seat belts could separate in a crash, according to Cheryl Phillips over on The Examiner. Over 300,000 vehicles are affected by this recall.

GM will begin notifying owners of these vehicles around October 25 and customers will be requested to take their cars into a local GM dealership where reinstalllments will be carried out on any seatbelts found not to be properly anchored. Both front seat belts will be inspected but it should be pointed out that there have not been any reports of injuries or deaths resulting from this problem.

http://www.onlykent.com/20101017/gm-chevrolet-impala-recall-2010-over-300000-details/