Now Crowd Sourcing: WaPo and NYT Request for 'Help' With Trash-Bin Journalism Make Weiner Look Like Harry Truman

I was laughing at Anthony Weiner months ago. Like Illinois embarrassment Congressman Jan 'Turkish Bath' Schakowsky, this goof kicks his way up to any microphone and howls non-sense.

To me, Schakowsky and Weiner are what Progressives are all about. I admire liberals, but have yet to encounter a Progressive who was ever anything but a dull, mean-spirited opportunist. Liberals like Don Rose and Jim Carville always do the heavy-lifting cleaning up the mess created by Progressives.

However, the corporate media gives Progressives their scripts - Hegelian/John Deweyesque memes for group think.

Today, I read about a story I heard at earlier in the week that the New York Times and Washington Post were recruiting 'volunteers' to read Sarah Palin's e-mails from before 2008. President Obama has no more Osama Bin Ladens to sic Navy Seal Teams on and his "I Shot the Shariff" bump in the polls is under water. Well, time to go after the woman again.

Sarah Palin gives Progressives the heeby-jeebies and really brings out their natures. Sarah Palin had the Audacity to bring a Downs Syndrome baby into the world and she manages to be a very happy person. That galls the Hell out of progressives, more than the news that Cop, or Fireman won the Illinois Lottery.

Weiner was a disaster waiting to happen - it did. However, this crowd sourcing by the lazy yet smug Media makes Anthony Weiner
look like Harry Truman.

Today at 9 a.m. Alaska Time (1 PM EST), the Alaska state government released some 24,199 e-mails between Sarah Palin, Todd Palin and Alaska public officials from Palin’s days as governor—the emails were on paper and in boxes, still needing to be scanned. Sites across the web, from the New York Times (NYSE: NYT) and the Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) to Mother Jones and MSNBC, swung into action. Details from the e-mails hit Twitter within minutes and the first batch was scanned within half an hour. Already, we’ve learned that the Palins wanted to install a tanning bed in the governor’s mansion in Juneau.

But there’s something else—beyond the salacious nuggets—that’s notable about the Palin e-mails.


UPDATE: We have had a strong response to our crowdsourcing call-out on the Palin e-mails. We've reconsidered our approach and now would like to invite comments and annotations from any interested readers.

Here’s how to participate:Over 24,000 e-mail messages to and from Sarah Palin during her tenure as Alaska's governor will be released Friday . We’ll be posting them here, and are inviting you to comment on the most interesting or most noteworthy sections. Please include page numbers and, where possible, a direct excerpt. We'll share your comments with our reporters and may use facts or related material you suggest to annotate the documents displayed on The Post site. We may contact you for further details, by way of your registered e-mail with the Post, unless you specify otherwise in the comments.

For micro-updates as tomorrow unfolds, check out our new Twitter feed .

--

Over 24,000 e-mail messages to and from former Alaska governor Sarah Palin during her tenure as Alaska's governor will be released Friday. That's a lot of e-mail for us to review so we're looking for some help from Fix readers to analyze, contextualize, and research those e-mails right alongside Post reporters over the days following the release.

We are limiting this to just 100 spots for people who will work collaboratively in small teams to surface the most important information from the e-mails. Participants can join from anywhere with a computer and an Internet connection.

If you need inspiration before getting started, take a look at what to expect from the e-mail drop. For micro-updates as tomorrow unfolds, check out our new Twitter feed.


Index of e-mails (in chronological order):

- Alaska Records Request

- Alaska Records Request

- December 4th, 2006 to February 20th, 2007

- February 20th, 2007 to March 9th, 2007

- March 9th, 2007 to March 30th, 2007

- April 27th, 2007 to May 4th, 2007

- May 4th, 2007 to May 14th, 2007

- May 14th, 2007 to June 1st, 2007

- June 1st, 2007 to June 13th, 2007

- June 13th, 2007, to June 19th, 2007

- June 19th, 2007 to July 3rd, 2007

- July 3rd, 2007 to July 17th, 2007

- July 17th, 2007 to July 30th, 2007

- July 30th, 2007 to August 9th,. 2007

- August 9th, 2007 to August 21st, 2007

- August 30th, 2007 to September 7th, 2007

Click here for the updating list of e-mail documents and stories.

Have you read the Palin emails? Share the interesting or noteworthy sections in the comments below, including the date of the e-mail and an excerpt.
By Ryan Kellett | 10:56 AM ET, 06/09/2011

Mom and Dad can be real proud there Ryan! Why not join a flash mob and beat up kids from Misericordia?

Well, the response form Americans is less than approving. Here's a few ( all unedited and as they appear).



Top Comments (158)All Comments (2536)
Newest first Oldest first Most Recommended first

NoVAHockey
Greg was noting that Post is seeking help in reading the emails. I'm not sure what they're paying.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/h...
6/10/2011 1:33:02 PM CDTRecommendRecommended by 1 readerReplyReport
1 more (expand)


tina5
It is pure sexism the way Palin is being attacked. I remember how Hillary was attacked, too. The idea of calling on readers to dig through her emails is outrageous. Why don't you do your own job? And why don't you dig through Obama's past in the same way? I guess you're afraid of powerful women.
6/10/2011 8:09:12 AM CDTRecommendRecommended by 53 readersReplyReport
29 more (expand)


markandbeth92
Y'all liberals sure do go to a lot of trouble to try and smear someone you consistantly say is an idiot.
Why are y'all so afraid of Sarah Palin?
6/10/2011 5:32:12 AM CDTRecommendRecommended by 61 readersReplyReport
28 more (expand)


Yoki
So we're going to spend our valuable time (in my case - $370/hr consulting fee) doing WAPO's job, for no monetary return? Why? I'm way left, have no patience with moron Palin, but I wonder why you think we'll all work for you for neither credit nor money.
6/10/2011 12:57:26 AM CDTRecommendRecommended by 22 readersReplyReport
21 more (expand)


kitchendragon50
Rake your own muck. Disgusting that you call on readers to join in your festivities.
6/9/2011 2:04:25 PM CDTRecommendRecommended by 238 readersReplyReport
74 more (expand)

Kevin Myers - Why One Writes, Yet Sales Stink Out Loud

I have written two books, articles, reviews, rants, confessions, obfuscations, grants, proposals, love notes and many, many apologies. I am blessed to have received payment for the books, articles and reviews. Go figure.

Those payments went immediately to debtors - Peoples Gas, ATT, ComEd, Cook County, The City of Chicago, and the great folks at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Some spare shillings and shekels went to entertainment and my snappy habiliments.

Great writers practice the art. I too practice the craft with the love of the game of a fourth-stringer. There are so many wonderful writers. Some of my favorite writers practicing today are not the best-selling political pundits and hacks, nor the plugged-in lawyers, let alone the socialite dabblers who pen less than meaty bestsellers, and columns. In my helot's opinion the very best writers are:

Joseph Epstein - America's Montaigne: Joe Epstein is to Pat Hickey as Tartar of Kobe beef with Imperial Beluga caviar and Belons oyster is to a Slim Jim.

Beachwood Reporter Publisher/Editor and moral titan Steve Rhodes who has more integrity than Gates has nickels

Actor/journalist/musician Michael Moriarty - God did overtime pumping talent, grace and courage in this fierce defender of honesty

Literary critic/activist Camille Paglia - The Total Woman

Lawyer/journalist Christine Flowers of Philadelphia - A Superb Person

Sports writer and Leo HS President Dan McGrath the King of the Declarative Sentence

Chicago historian Richard Lindberg If it happened Richard reports on it without varnish

Chicago attorney/journalist/historian Dan Kelley who is exact and poetic in presenting his prose

Jazz critic/journalist Stanley Crouch he writes with the soul of a sailor

Bloggers John Ruberry and Anne Leahy who keep Illinois wide awake to common sense

Novelist/historian Kevin Baker - read Baker's historical novels and understand America: Paradise Alley, Dreamland and Strivers Row better than Dos Passos.

Tribune columnist John Kass - Royko couldn't carry John's jockstrap, nor would care to

Sun Times Reporters Natasha Korecki and Mark Konkol Hope for Journalism

Second City Cop - The Flat-foot can sling prose

Humorist/actor/Film Maker Mike Houlihan: The Man is Pure Gold

18th Century Chicago Genius the late Tom Roeser

Journalist Dennis Byrne a reminder of Ray Coffey's honest prose

Demographer/journalist Joel Kotkin

Political Pundit Don Rose - Maybe the only Progressive who parts with a nickel

Crime Biographer/historian Rose Keefe - tougher than Smash McKenna after a full meal

Priest/Homilist -Father Tony Mazurkiewicz,O.Carm. & Father Gallagher of Sacred Heart Church

At the top of this talented tree, is Irish Independent columnist Kevin Myers. The man can line up words like Napoleon lined up Tirailleurs, Grenadiers, and Chasseurs at Austerlitz. Today, Kevin Myers presents a golden insight to writers in the face of reality.

Spilling ink does not portend a bankable pot of gold.

Wednesday June 08 2011
Few things so thoroughly test the will to live of Writers of Unsuccessful Books (such as this columnist) as the inexcusable success of others, and why they are so favoured.

Any tour of a bookshop by us WUBs reveals slain pine trees groaning beneath the weight of the pink-covered works by authors who may simply be described: TOP: Twenties, Ovaried, Photogenic. And if they're not T or P, but are still O, then there's always the Orange prize for women writers only (which is announced today: imagine the outcry from those well-known literary feminists Fallopia Whynge and Ovaria Fume over a man-only literary award).

The 'Daily Telegraph' last week gave a half-page splash to the first novel of a TOP named Georgina Bloomberg. The author is 28 and already famous, being the very successful show-jumping daughter of the even more famous Michael Bloomberg, the Wall Street billionaire and mayor of New York. Moreover, no doubt emboldened by family success, her sister nurtures serious political ambitions. Georgina Bloomberg's debut work of fiction is about -- well whaddya know -- a successful show-jumping daughter of a Wall Street billionaire, with a politically ambitious older sister. The fair Miss Bloomberg has even been interviewed at length about her "writing" by the 'New York Times', dear God almighty. So how was this possible? All was revealed in the 'Telegraph' story: "Bloomsbury, the publisher, said the idea for the book came from an agent."

Of course it bloody did. (Pause to vomit).

Traditional publishing is dying, and the market-driven, agent-led TOPification of books is one reason why. However, market distortions are not just at the TOP level of pulp fiction. It is now the norm for established writers to gushingly review one another's books: in Ireland, it is Colm/Sebastian/Joseph/ Anne, in Britain it is Julian/ Ian/Sebastian/Martin, interlocking literary torcs upon whose burnished gold the sun of mutually warm critiques never sets.

Which is why at this time of year, I almost welcome the annual outbursts of toxin from VS Naipaul, at whatever festival he is attending. Last week he announced at Hay that no woman writer would ever be as good as him -- to an entirely predictable fury. He is a quite refreshingly horrible man. He doesn't write to be successful or to be popular. He has no eye for a market, or an idea of what a market is. This is not a touching and beguiling naivety, so much as ignorance about the real world, which in scale is probably every bit the equal of the ignorance of the delightful Miss Bloomberg. But presumably unlike her, Naipaul exults in his ignorance as proof of his superiority, where in reality it is simply a pathological disorder.

Naipaul is a monster. His monstrousness is not made in any way more charming by his lack of guilt or shame. By his own account he repeatedly betrayed his young and vulnerable wife with prostitutes.

He is the kind of vile man who is murdered in the opening pages of a whodunit, and at the end we find that every single character we have met in the book, including the investigating police officers, plus Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Roger Ackroyd and Sherlock Holmes, have all entered the general and thoroughly deserved conspiracy to kill him.

Yet Naipaul is a sublime writer. No living novelist comes near him. It is an inexplicable paradox. The only other "modern" novelist who was so unpleasant was also perhaps the only English writer over the past century who was his match: Evelyn Waugh. He too was a monster: a posturing snob, a sneering bully and -- like Naipaul today -- an alpha male whom no one could ever best in social interaction, merely because of his status in the human hierarchy. This is a fact of life that confirms our condition as exalted chimpanzees: it is always impossible for lower status animals to defeat higher status animals in social conflict. No one left Bismarck's or Hitler's or Stalin's or Churchill's or Cheney's or Rumsfeld's offices slapping their thighs and chuckling triumphantly: "By God, I got the better of that dormouse."

WAugh's misanthropic life came to an end just as Naipaul's literary career was beginning, almost like a transmigration of abominable souls. Nonetheless, wise observers ought to judge the literary merits of both men solely for their written words, whereas their spoken utterances, full of hatred, bigotry and snobbery, should be treated with contempt.

But of course, the world is not wise, which is why Naipaul's recent and very silly boast, that no woman writer would ever be as good as him, has been making predictably loud headlines, with a drearily predictable indignation from Fallopia Whynge and Ovaria Fume. This is stupid: his opinions are neither worth repeating, rejecting nor reacting to, in any way. They should, like Miss Bloomberg's literary ambitions, and those of all her fellow TOPs, be totally ignored. Alas, that is not the way life on this planet works, which is what we poor weeping WUBs know all too well, as we watch Bloomberg make No 1 in Tesco, while Naipaul is the overall bestseller in Hodges Figgis, and Writers With Ovaries enjoy the Orange.

Irish Independent

Ain't it true though.

A Toast to Tom Roeser from Dan Kelley

A Toast to Thomas F. Roeser
By Daniel J. Kelley

I am finding it hard to mourn Thomas F. Roeser.

Yes, I am saddened by his recent demise and I will certainly miss his company and his op-ed columns and radio programs. I also feel for his many friends and family members who will miss him so much. I am not ashamed to say that I have wept for other persons who have left us, especially those who to have been taken at an early age, but not for Tom.

I am finding it hard to feel empty. I do regret the conversations that we did not have time to hold when the game was called, but my strongest reaction to Tom’s death is a sense of gratitude. I feel that Tom’s life is the subject for a celebration. I am confident that he is in the presence of the Risen Lord.

The Requiem Mass held for Tom at St. John Cantius was beautiful and moving. It was eloquent in its simplicity. The selected Gospel reading related the familiar account of Jesus comforting Martha and Mary following the death of their brother Lazarus in which Christ reveals himself as “the Resurrection and the Life.” The choice of this reading was perfectly appropriate, but, when I reflect upon Tom’s life, I am also reminded of the Parable of the Talents. I truly believe that Tom merited commendation as “a good and faithful servant.”

Tom Roeser lived a full life and remained amazingly active and engaged up until the last. His last broadcast aired on WLS 890 AM on May 15th; his final column was posted on May 16th. His radio retirement was announced only a few short days before his death. The truth of the matter is that Tom maintained a vigorous schedule up until the time of his last hospitalization. I hope and pray that I may still be so vital and engaged as I grow older. It was wonderful to see how many of Tom’s many friends were decades younger than he was.

In recent years, Tom had to make some adjustments due to a variety of medical complaints associated with his age, but I somehow thought that it was quite possible that he would spring back into action as soon as his doctors released him from the hospital as he had done so many times before. While this was not to be, I can say without hesitation, aches and pains aside, Tom would be the first to admit that he had been enjoying himself and having plenty of fun during his “retirement.” In addition to his radio appearances, he published his first full length book, “Father Mac,” a marvelous biography of Father Ignatius McDermott, the founder of the Haymarket Center which provides services to recovering addicts and alcoholics.

For many years, Tom Roeser and I were like the proverbial ships that passed in the night. We occasionally interacted with some of the same people, sometimes attended the same series of luncheon talks, supported the same charities and not for profit organizations, but otherwise did not associate frequently. Like many Chicagoans, I knew of Tom Roeser primarily through his appearances on panel discussion programs such as “Chicago Tonight.”

Initially, I was confused as to why Tom was regularly asked to speak on behalf of the Republican Party on Channel 11 inasmuch as he was not an elected official or a party officeholder. Later, having heard a few of the official spokesmen of the Illinois Republican Party, most whom were entirely clueless as to why they were Republicans apart from legislative district geography or regular paychecks, I came to appreciate why John Calloway preferred to have Roeser on his live broadcasts. Some of the official flacks could not articulate coherent opinions or begin to defend the Reagan Revolution or the Republican platform.

While I was familiar with Tom through these television appearances and his weekly columns in either the Chicago Sun-Times or the Tribune, I did not know him personally. All of this changed due to the Internet. Tom had begun his own web log and I found myself reading his daily posts and responding with occasional comments. Eventually, I sent him a complimentary letter and this resulted in my being invited to join Tom for lunch at the Chicago Athletic Association. I was surprised and delighted when Tom encouraged me to begin writing for “The Chicago Daily Observer” while we were dining in the Cherry Circle lounge. The next few years were such great fun!

I do think that Tom showed me a trifling amount of partiality once we became better acquainted solely on account of the fact that we were both educated in Minnesota; Tom attended St. John’s under the Benedictines; I studied with the Christian Brothers at St. Mary’s. While I was an undergraduate, former US Representative Albert H. Quie served as the Governor of Minnesota. I was to learn later that Tom had worked for Quie at the start of the Republican politician’s congressional career.

I am grateful to Lillian Roeser and the entire Roeser family for patiently sharing Tom with all of us for so many years. For a man who never held an elected office, Tom led a very public life. My hope is that someday in the not too distant future, Tom’s autobiographical essays are gathered together and edited into a full length book.

As a final observation, I am most thankful to the anonymous registrar who slated Tom Roeser for the Theology class taught by the Reverend Ernest Kilzer, O.S.B. This simple act may have made all of the difference for those of us who had the privilege of coming to know and love Tom and his manifold works.

Daniel J. Kelley is a regular contributor to “The Chicago Daily Observer” who was recruited by Tom Roeser.

Joel Kotkin on The Green Environmental Mullahs Beheading Common Sense

" So, I deal with the folks that invented the Zero and Mother Earth will shower blessings on Illinois? Well,Domo Arigato!" Illinois Governor Rube Quinn in February,2011

Illinois is a rube state - that is part of its charm. Trends come late, but warts seem to go away quicker. I remember seeing Leisure Suits at weddings well into the New Millennium and just the other day a guy asked if I had ever seen that TV show called the Soprano's what's on cable, but the swears are bleeped out, but you know what the guy is saying. You know? Only vaguely.

Illinois is all Gay Marriage, Green Friendly, and Twitter Savvy now. In recent years, thanks to our media and elected legislators who do exactly what editorial boards tell them is vital and that immediate attention required, Illinois has aped the twin Coasts East and West and banned cigarette and cigar smoking ( water pipes would have been anti-Muslim), movie popcorn butter that tastes good, bullying, and encouraged every snake-oil idea from Bullet Trains to Peotone to Green Everything.

Abortion Fans, Environmental Advocacy Groups and Gay Advocates joined forces and helped elect more than a few from the "yammering classes" to positions of policy power in Illinois - Terry Cosgrove, Debra Shore, Ralph Martire and others.

Illinois is taking itself as seriously as California, New York, and Massachusetts - costs be damned! Illinois will take decades undoing itself, like guys wearing mullets to LaLapalooza.

Joel Kotkin has had his thumb on the pulse of American folly for years -Kotkin long ago identified the American Progressive as affluent, urban/faux urban, often unmarried, childless, degreed, professional, physical fitness junkies, concerned with issues that immediately impact on their lifestyles. Kotkin long-ago warned of the SEIU Bubble bursting local and state economies. Today, in Forbes, Joel Kotkin likens Environmental Secularists to Iranian Theocratic Mullahs and their impact on the economies of both localities.

Then there’s California, rich in everything from oil and food to international trade and technology, but still skimming along the bottom of the national economy. The state’s unemployment rate is now worse than Michigan’s and ahead only of neighboring Nevada. Among the nation’s 20 largest metropolitan regions, four of the six with the highest unemployment numbers are located in the Golden State: Riverside, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. In a recent Forbes survey, California was home to six of the ten regions where the economy is poised to get worse.

One would think, given these gory details, California officials would be focused on reversing the state’s performance. But here, as in Iran, officialdom focuses more on theology than on actuality. Of course, California’s religion rests not on conventional divinity but on a secular environmental faith that nevertheless exhibits the intrusive and unbending character of radical religion.


As with its Iranian counterpart, California’s green theology often leads to illogical economic and political decisions. California has decided, for example, to impose a rigid regime of state-directed planning related to global warming, making a difficult approval process for new development even more onerous. It has doubled-down on climate change as other surrounding western states — such as Nevada, Utah and Arizona — have opted out of regional greenhouse gas agreements.

The notion that a state economy — particularly one that has lost over 1.15 million jobs in the past decade — can impose draconian regulations beyond those of their more affluent neighbors, or the country, would seem almost absurd.

Governor Pat Quinn gets many of his ideas from the same crowd of folks who have policied Illinois into near bankruptcy. Energy Initiatives are tailor made for Rubes. There is always the hidden cost. However, once the Green Mullahs have convinced Governor Rube to buy Mitsubishi I-Cars because it will not only lower Man's dirt Carbon Feets-Prints, it will create JOBS, JOBS,JOBS with State Tax Dollars!

NORMAL, IL – February 4, 2011. Governor Pat Quinn and Mitsubishi Motors North America (MMNA) today signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to support the advancement of electric vehicle and renewable energy technologies in Illinois. As part of the agreement, Illinois will receive a limited number of Mitsubishi Motors “i” battery electric vehicles (i MiEV) on a temporary basis to evaluate the new electric vehicle (EV) technology on the state’s fleet.

“We are continuing to make strong investments in our green economy, which are putting people to work across Illinois. This partnership reflects our mutual commitment to the EV industry here in Illinois, and our common interest in bringing the jobs and environmental benefits these innovative technologies will deliver to our state. In Illinois, we are doing everything necessary to stabilize our economy, and this partnership is an important step toward securing our long-term economic growth.” Governor Pat Quinn said.

http://www.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=18&RecNum=9201

Okay fellow Rubes, read Joel Kotkin's parallel study of trendy California and then read Pat Quinn's Energy Initiatives. Mitsubishi I-Car will be touted as costing under $ 28,000 dollars - but . . .

ShareMitsubishi Sets $27,990 Price for Electric i Car, But Read Fine Print
By Brad Berman · April 22, 2011

Welcome news about EV affordability, but premium trim levels bring price close to Nissan LEAF
Mitsubishi announced Thursday that its “i” electric car—formerly named i-MiEV—will have an MSRP of $27,990 (excluding destination charges), making it the most affordable mass-market electric vehicle available to U.S. consumers. This price is for the base ES trim level.

Read the Fine PrintWhile the base level i sets a new lower benchmark for EV affordability, a closer look at features and trim levels shows a price relatively close to the LEAF (and probably the Ford Focus Electric)—vehicles with more space, power and range. Focus Electric pricing has not yet been announced. . . .

The base model Mitsubishi i ES includes speed-sensitive electric power steering (EPS), LED rear tail lamps, driver seat heater, electric air conditioning with micron filter, remote keyless entry, 3-spoke sport steering wheel, an on-board recharging system with 120V portable 8 amp charging cable, and a 4 speaker, 100-watt AM/FM/CD audio system with MP3/WMA playback.

The price for the i climbs from $27,990 to $29,990, when adding a 360-watt, eight-speaker sound system, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, upscale upholstery, two-tone interior, 15-inch alloy wheels, and fog lamps. Add another $2,790 for the SE premium package—putting the price to $32,790—to get a navigation system, a rearview camera, Bluetooth, steering-wheel-mounted audio controls, and a quick-charge port. An available "Cold Zone" package will be offered on both the ES and SE trim levels of the Mitsubishi i for $150. It includes a battery warming system and heated outside mirrors.

The i SE package is 10 bucks more than the base-level Nissan LEAF SV, with an MSRP of $32,780, which offers a navigation system, Bluetooth, satellite radio, and stability/traction control. The LEAF SL goes to $33,720 when including a photovoltaic solar panel spoiler, rearview camera, automatic on/off headlights, cargo cover, and Homelink universal transceiver.

The key difference in cost between the two EVs could be the onboard quick charger, which is included in the Mitsubishi i’s $32,790 SE premium package—but the quick charge port is only available on the Nissan LEAF’s premium SL package at an additional $700, lifting the price to $34,720.

The other major distinction could be availability. Mitsubishi’s Yokozawa said the initial goal is to deliver about 2,000 units of the i, and later expand to between 20,000 and 30,000 units per year. Nissan is already delivering that quantity in the U.S., plans to steadily ramp up production, and aims to sell 500,000 units globally in the next few years.

Like I said, Read Joel Kotkin and remember what he wrote when you read upcoming mandates a-coming in our Rube Legislature to be signed by Governor Rueban Quinn.

Thank Mother Earth but take care of the old brain pan, Rubes.

Footpads to Flash Mobs - Chicago's Diet of BS Made Media Morbidly Obese

This is how Mary Schmich of the Tribune wants Chicagoans to understand the nature of a beating meted out by a score or less of vigorous black youth. Just like the photo above, for all the readers in Lake County.

Flash Mobs is a cute name. It is an adorable way to describe the pummeling of victims by a score or less of hardy youths enjoying an outing in the Gold Coast, Streeterville, Northwestern Campus, River North, or even the Bean. Flash Mob is the latest Chicago Media serving of Blatant Sophistry (BS). PC is the Old Country Buffet of Blatant Sophistry.

Mary Schmich is copping the plea in this morning's Tribune: When a news story omits race, do we really know any less? Well, gosh yes, Mary! Where would the Lenard Clark beating by white thugs have gone without the sauce of race? Gee whiz.

As an editor pointed out when I asked about it, the crimes don't appear to be racially motivated. There's no sign the criminals picked victims because they were of a certain race. They picked them because they had certain stuff.

"People see it as a media conspiracy," he said of the decision to leave out their race. "It's a media quandary."

Here's the quandary, for editors, for cops, for all of us:

Race alone doesn't predict or explain behavior. Just because this mob was young and black hardly means that all young, black people in groups are a violent mob. Knowing the race of these attackers is no form of protection.

It is not a quandary for cops, Mary. They arrest people in the act of committing crimes, or via the eye-witness report of the victim. Leave the cops out of this. The Media have spun this - meme -"The rampant corruption, racism, and brutality of the Chicago Police have created this situation" Nope. Meme not working there, Mary.

Chicago's media is the Mickey D's of journalism with one or two exceptions. Blatant Sophistry is only one serving on the Political Correctness Nutritional Pyramid: Blatant Sophistry; Identity Politics; Group Think; and Secularism are the Four Food-for-Thoughtlessness Groups. At Mickey D's a tubby child can whale-out on Three Big Mac 'N Cheeses, Super-Sized Fries and a Mega Pop. In Chicago, one can read the Tribune, Sun Times, or watch Channels 2,5,7,9 and 11 and sate one's self with Noggin Larding news and opinion.

Flash Mobs are what Chicago paper hat journalists are calling squads of black kids doing a beat down on victims -usually 'goofy-looking' white folks, in the words of the early flash mob who nearly beat Ryan Rusch* to death at Beverly Park in 2007.

The Chicago Media helped create the climate, which I have called the Thug Comfort Zone in this blog, in which beneficiaries of 'identity/grievance/entitlement politics' feel very comfortable doing anything. Ironically, more black people have suffered to a greater degree than any other demographic. Black kids get shot, raped, beaten, set-afire, robbed, and force-fed insect repellent - anybody remember Ryan Harris and Little Girl X**? Thought not.

Instead, the Chicago media has done a rhetorical flash mob on law enforcement, the justice system, the courts and especially police officers as human beings.

Subsisting on a diet of BS is not good for people. Like Mickey D's gobblers, morbid obesity is the outcome - Fat Heads.

In 19th Century Chicago "footpads" were the flash mobs. They were gangs of jackrollers who beat and robbed victims. Back then the victims were drunks and fools wandering about the Levee. Today, a victim is usually . . .anybody. In the 19th Century, footpads were generally lazy, ignorant, unskilled, and savage wastes of DNA. Today, Chicago beat down artists ( Flash Mobbers)are identical to their Chicago antecedants. The only difference is that today, the PC Media interviews the mothers of the criminals for more heart-tugging BS calories.

There are BS free reporters and journalists. One of Chicago's best is Natasha Korecki who is so adept at fending off BS, that she covers the Blago Trial. Ms. Korecki is a solid reporter. She was a guest on WTTW's Weekin Review, last Friday.

Natasha Korecki of the Chicago Sun Times nearly had the panel on Chicago Week in Review hose capuccino through their schnozzes when she said that race was the key factor in the 'flash mob' phenomenon. Give it a look:

Watch the full episode. See more Chicago Tonight.

*

The diminutive eighth-grade student of St. John Fisher School had just left his cousin’s house and was walking through the park when the teens attacked him, hitting him on the head and kicking him. After Rusch fell, the teens continued to attack, leaving the bloodied Rusch in a seizure.

One of the juveniles later told police that they had attacked Rusch because he was a “goofy-looking white boy” – something that originally prompted police to investigate the incident as a hate crime.

http://www.southwestobserver.com/news/neighbors/conviction-beverly-park-beating-12-33


**On January 9, Girl X was found raped, beaten and poisoned in the seventh-floor stairwell. She was unconscious and foaming at the mouth, her panties shoved down to her knees. Her T shirt had been used to strangle her, and gangster-style graffiti was scrawled on her abdomen in black ink. While the country focused on the case of another brutalized child--this one a privileged little beauty queen in Colorado--public outrage over the comatose Girl X was at first virtually nil.



0n a hot July afternoon in 1998 the mostly naked body of 11-year-old Ryan Harris was found in an isolated backyard in Englewood. She'd been missing for a day. Her face was battered and covered with blood, her mouth stuffed with a pair of underpants. A folded leaf was in each nostril.



Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985957,00.html#ixzz1OgVcQxyJ

Michael Moriarty, Sergei Rachmaninoff and James Joyce

“She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue. Her head was leaned against the window curtains and in her nostrils was the dusty odor of cretonne. She was tired.” James Joyce -'Eveline' from The Dubliners

Eveline or Evvy, refused to escape and buried her White face in the common-place -lace curtains, dust and a timorous obligation to the familiar.

In this very short story by James Joyce, the reader gets dragged into the soul-less commonplace that is Eveline.

She is a middle class woman in love with a a manly, kind, adventurous and alive man named Frank. Frank is leaving dear old dirty Dublin for Buenas Aires and wants to take Evvy with him. She refuses. She stays musty and dusty. Get these final lines -

A bell clanged upon her heart. She felt him seize her hand:

"Come!"

All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would drown her. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing.

"Come!"

No! No! No! It was impossible. Her hands clutched the iron in frenzy. Amid the seas she sent a cry of anguish.

"Eveline! Evvy!"

He rushed beyond the barrier and called to her to follow. He was shouted at to go on but he still called to her. She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition.

Old Jim could work a pen.

Another fine writer is my frequent e-mail pal, Michael Moriarty. This actor, musician, journalist and courageous defender of the unborn lives in Canada and is working on an autobiographical musical composition. This musical biography may be a Confessio like St. Augustine's or an Apologia ala John Cardinal Newman. We shall see, or hear.

Nevertheless, Mr. Moriarty wrote a touching remembrance for Exit Stage Right. Like his musical composition the essays are titled The Haunted Heaven. In the passage that I provide today, Mr. Moriarty explores the coming of the Holy Spirit through the music of Rachmaninoff. Here is the passage by the Russian composer refered to in Mr. Moriarty's essay -

Rachmaninoff!

What a Virgil, Sergei Rachmaninoff, to lead me into the Haunted Heavens of Life!

Then to be reintroduced to the Russian giant by a divinely gifted genius named Olga Kern!!

She is now ripping into the last movement with all the simultaneous speed, strength and sensitivity she can summon up with the same oceanic brilliance she has mustered throughout this virtual monster of a piano concerto.

Russian composers and Russian musicians will play a monumentally large role in my life as the years pass. The first of course was the vibrantly impassioned Russian genie, Sergei Rachmaninoff.

He and his Haunted Heaven entered my life before I could even talk.

To this day Rachmaninoff's protean lyricism seems unsurpassed by anyone.

He and his music became a virtual umbilical cord to my infancy's ecstasy.

His melodies are only the beginning of his abandon to whatever muse God chose to both plague and adore him with.

Oceanic is the only adjective that seems sufficient.

Unlike Eveline in Joyce's tale, Moriarty plunges into the waves.

Michael can work a pen.


http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/959/

Lo, He is With Us Always - Authority at Kean Gas on 111th & Talman in Morgan Park

NB - Gas Prices are are now $ 4.39 for regular - that was last year's photo.

Matthew 28: 16 - 20
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
17 And when they saw him they worshiped him; but some doubted.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."

I heard this gospel twice in the last two days. It is a reassuring and commanding nostrum from the Risen Christ, to the eleven of the Apostle line-up. Judas did the Dutch Act, after selling the Boss out, remember.

Yesterday, I listened to this gospel during Tom Roeser's magnificent send-off at St. John Cantius Catholic Church on Chicago Ave. and Sangamon on the north side of Chicago. The place was packed and con-celebrated by seven priests. The liturgical music was transcendentally beautiful, unlike the more pop culture ditties embraced by licensed liturgists at too many parishes.

The gospel matched the music. You have been chosen by Christ to use His authority to make disciples of all nations.

Authority comes from the Latin word auctoritas
derived from the word auctor - "planter-cultivator". The word meant to augment or making greater by adding on to something.

I raise money at Leo High School, because I have been give the authority to do so via the Archdiocese,the Mission of Leo High School, the President for Institutional Advancement, the Alumni of Leo High School and the 501(c)3 standing of the high school with the Office of Catholic Schools. The money I raise, by that collective authority, adds on to Leo High School supplementing tuition costs, new programs, meeting utility increases, adding to the campus.

Our authority comes from a greater authority. We are told to do something with that authority. Tom Roeser defended the unborn, the canon of Catholic doctrine, the Bill of Rights, and the canons of taste and wit. God rest this merry gentleman. Tom's spirit and soul will not rest long be assured.

Today, after Mass and hearing this same gospel, I hiked my way to Kean Gas on 111th & Talman for a 20 oz. Dark Roast. Kean Gas is one of the very last family owned, full service gas stations in Chicago. Jimmy and Roli Kean have managed to preserve something of value in this Blackberry world. They hire young guys to check the antifreese, wiper fluid, oil, tires, wash windscreens and windows as well as pump gas.

This allows drivers an opportunity to pop in for coffee and pastries from Wolf's Bakery on 95th Street, chat and pick-up items forgotten on the last visit to County Fair Foods. Kean Brothers Gas helps keep us human in a small but vital way. Kean Gas is an urban Salon.

This morning, I bragged up the Leo Track team with young Jack Leiser, who's old man Tom is contemporary of mine and a rock-ribbed Leo Man. Jack jumps out to service people at the pumps. " Man six State Titles and with only six kids." You may say.

We were joined in short-order by Joe Murphy, another Leo Man and member of St. Cajetan Parish, whose sister teaches at St. Walter's Parish. Joe and I talked near his truck, from which he services air-conditioners. Joe works with many of the CPS schools. We talked about the Leo banquet last April and the impressive turn-out of young African American Alumni shepherded to the event by Mike Holmes, Mike Anderson, Mark Lee, Curtis Cooper, Ken Mason and Noah Cannon. These Lions have helped make the biggest increase in freshman enrollment at Leo in years.

While we were gabbing, Bill Letz another Leo Alumnus, teacher, coach/referee and soon to be retired pipe-fitter stopped at the air-pump with his ten speed. He spotted the knot of coffee fueled gabbers, " The Old Kean Country Store . . .!" Spot on, William! Human contact, communication and following the commands of the gospel . . .with colorful language and the occasional sexist trope, mind you.

Which brings me back to authority.

Murph asked me to have Mike Holmes, Leo football coach and director of admissions, give him a call to set up a parent meet and greet to let parents at St. Walter's know about the success and value of Leo High School. I assured Joe that Holmes would call him Tuesday night at the latest, as I have jury duty on Monday. In mid-chat a very old gentleman approached us.

" I started my car after church, but now the engine will not shut off. Can any of you gentlemen help me?"

This guy had a serious auto-problem and it is a Sunday. No auto shops are open.


Jack Leiser only checks fluids and pumps gas. Joe is a skilled building engineer. Bill Letz a pipe-fitter. I read books and shoot off my mouth for a living.

Jesus, we're sorry sir.

Joe Murphy whipped out his cell-phone and tried to call a guy who fixes cars in Merrionette Park. Murph reached the guy, but he was at his place in Michigan. Then, Joe remembered, "Pep Boys! They are open seven days a week, sir. They do a great job and will give you fair shake. They are on about 130th & Cicero."
The poor man needed a higher authority than a gas pump, engineer, pipefitter, flannel mouth educator, but he came to the right place. Joe Murphy knew.

The old gentleman thanked us and took his still running old Ford west on 111th Street.

It believe the Gospel authority message was fulfilled. It was as easy as getting coffee at Kean with good people.

The Only Way a Republican Can Win The Presidency - Get Smart About Real Labor

Dorothy Rabinowitz has written very sober warning to any Republican with the tripes to run against Barack Obama in 2012. President Barack Obama has been a lousy President, in my opinion, but he is a very formidable politician with more money than he needs, and an adoring corporate media that has cashed in its integrity for investment in Green Energy Initiatives. Green Wall Street has gone the way of the Dodo bird, but engineering firms (they always seem to be Sierra Club members), lawyers, and venture capitalists - with heart-breaking sincerity and moral weltanschauungs continue to pump millions of dollars in the Obama 2012 Campaign in the hope of Cap'nTrading, stop oil drilling, kill coal, fund Rube Goldberg automotives, build windmills, and rake in some profits -all for a Greener Planet.

Ms. Rabinowitz writes,"The Republican who wins will have to know, and show that he knows, that most Americans aren't sitting around worried to death about big government—they're worried about jobs and what they have in savings."

Correcto! However, the GOP, especially in my home of Illinois, has a propensity for blowing its own toes off. In the last Illinois gubernatorial race, the GOP candidate Bill Brady used all of the rhetorical force that swept Democrats out of the Congressional House of Representatives in November and lost to Rod Blagojevich's Lt. Governor Pat Quinn. The GOP had only one candidate in the big field for governor who understood that all labor is not SEIU and that was Dan Proft. The tasseled loafer Illinois GOP refused to support Dan Proft and opted for small-business, pro-life, anti-union zealot Bill Brady.

Pat Quinn campaigned like a blue collar guy and now governs like a Trotskyite from Berkley. Bill Brady did all of the hot-button Tea Party razz-matazz and got himself beaten by Pat Quinn. Pat Quinn wrapped himself up as the savior of the working man. I voted for Quinn, God help me.

Pat Quinn was elected because the skilled trades and not radical leftists of SEIU got out front for Quinn. Brady blew his toes off by attacking unions -all unions. The GOP would not know a working man if the guy were three feet away fixing his toilet.

Public Service monster unions ate up labor in the last forty years with the rhetorical teeth of Marxist Andy Stern's One Big Union bullshit. Join Us or Die!

Sadly, too many skilled trade and industrial unions played ball with SEIU. However, SEIU is no friend of labor.

The GOP tags all unions as corrupt and evil - Stupid as well as false. Take a look at Wisconsin, while public service unions need to have the reigns tightened on them, Gov. Walker and the GOP managed to alienate blue collar trades people in the bargain. These are people who are doubly burdened by SEIU tax-aholic degenerates. They reap not the benefits that suck up tax dollars and are vilified and threatened by the GOP as well.

A Republican for President must get union smart and play fair with the American working man.

This candidate should spend a month or more with business agents, apprenticeship officers, and apprentices in some of the American industrial and skilled trades unions.

Go home with a young guy who is paying for his classes, working with journeyman, paying a mortgage, maybe even private school tuition and municipal, county, state and federal taxes that eclipse his income, before he pays out in pension, medical, grocery, utilities, and tries to top off the used car he drives to and from the job.

Take a look at what it costs out of pocket to earn a salary that is touted to be inflated by the very media that demands greater tax-burdens.

The GOP, in Illinois and across America, pays lip service to the memory of Ronald Reagan. Reagan won over blue-collar votes, because he took the time to understand blue collar values. The working man is not a fan of abortion for example. The tasseled loafer Republican, like Illinois' U.S. Senator Mark Kirk, is abortion friendly.

The Tea Party is not a right wing conspiracy, but a genuine national voice of frustration aimed at the pompous and smug voices that have hogged the pulpits and microphones for too long.

Barack Obama will win the White House again in 2012, unless some candidate has the tripes to learn about real American labor and give voice to their concerns. Attacking unions is stupid as well as incorrect.

Presidential Proclamation–Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender June Pride Month: Seven Brides for Seven Sisters/ And Vicey Versa?

There was a particularly rosy sunrise this morning as I made my way to the Man Cave that is Leo High School.

Red-Eye told me about the Civil Union Ceremonies at Millenium Park with Governor Pat " The Gambler" Quinn giving away the Brides (One Size Fits All).

Earlier I read of President Obama's Proclamation ( click my post title)naming June the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender June Pride Month and I immediately thoght of the Johnny Mercer classic June Bride!





JUNE BRIDE
From "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers"
(Music: Gene DePaul / Lyrics: Johnny Mercer)


LIZA
Oh, they say when you marry in June,
You're a bride all your life.
SARAH
And the bridegroom who marries in June
Gets a sweetheart for a wife.
RUTH
Winter weddings can be gay
Like a Christmas holiday.
MARTHA
But the June bride hears the song
Of the spring that lasts all summer long.
DORCAS
By the light of the silvery moon
Home you ride, side by side
LIZA
With the echo of Mendelssohn's tune
LIZA, SARAH & ALICE
In your hearts as you ride
ALL BRIDES
For they say when you marry in June,
You will always be a bride.

LIZA
The day a maiden marries is a day she carries through the years
MARTHA & DORCAS
The Church is full of flowers, bridal showers all passe
ALL BRIDES
The groom's waiting at the altar, here comes the bride,
They're each promising to love and obey.
LIZA
There's madness celebrating
Every bridesmaid waiting
Just to see which one of them will catch the wedding bouquet.

ALL BRIDES
For they say when you marry in June,
You will always, always, always, be a bride.

ALICE, SARAH & DORCAS
In November, the snow starts to fly,
Piling up, ankle-high.

LIZA, MARTHA & RUTH
Come December, it's up to your knee,
Still a bride's a bride-to-be.

ALL BRIDES
January, higher still,
To the parlor window sill.

MILLY
February finds a drift
And the storm that seems never to lift.

LIZA, SARAH & DORCAS
March comes in like a lion, what else?
Still the snow never melts.

LIZA & ALICE
April showers will come, so they say.
LIZA
But they don't, and it's May.

ALL BRIDES
You're about to forget the whole thing,
All at once, one day, it's Spring.

I also remembered this touching movie quotatation in celebration of Brides Everywhere!

. . .I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your home on the wedding day of your daughter. And may their first child be a masculine child.

L. Brazzi


Presidential Proclamation–Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender June Pride Month

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION

The story of America’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community is the story of our fathers and sons, our mothers and daughters, and our friends and neighbors who continue the task of making our country a more perfect Union. It is a story about the struggle to realize the great American promise that all people can live with dignity and fairness under the law. Each June, we commemorate the courageous individuals who have fought to achieve this promise for LGBT Americans, and we rededicate ourselves to the pursuit of equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. . . The west was won by its pioneers, settlers, adventurers is long gone now. Yet it is theirs forever, for they left tracks in history that will never be eroded by wind or rain - never plowed under by tractors, never buried in compost of events. Out of the hard simplicity of their lives, out of their vitality, of their hopes and sorrows grew legends of courage and pride to inspire their children and their children's children. From soil enriched by their blood, out of their fever to explore and be, came lakes where once there were burning deserts - came the goods of the earth; mine and wheat fields, orchards and great lumber mills. All the sinews of a growing country. Out of their rude settlements, their trading posts came cities to rank among the great ones of the world. All the heritage of a people free to dream, free to act, free to mold their own destiny.

Oh sorry, I mixed up that last bit - it was not President Obama. That was Spencer Tracy Narrating the movie How the West Was Won.

Rep. Anthony Weiner with Frankie Yankovic and His Yanks!

The most energetic little guy in Congress with the look that a dachshund gets just seconds before he realizes that he is not a member of the Leo High School 6 Time State Champion Track Team at the point of impact with a 1968 Buick Electra has gotten his Wurlitzer Upright ensnared in the zipper of Twitter.

In order avoid gratuitously sophomoric play with euphemisms like Gen. George Armstrong Custard Chucker, The Bologna Bassoon, Tony's Meat Whistle, The Weighty Weiner Walloper, Wedding Tackle, Major Manchowder,The Ole Kidney Cracker, Elmer's Glue Gun, The Bald Bishop, Duke Feelgood, and The Jolly Plowboy, ad infinitum , let's turn to music.



Progressive Pompadoodle Dandy! Click my Post title for a prose tune by the Great Johnny Kass - "I Tug the Line!"

Tales of the South Side: Bub's Murtaugh's Silk Blue Jamies

Bub's Murtaugh loved sea-food. Lent was a year round feast for Bubs. He ate pickled herring on toast made from good sweet Lithuanian bread for breakfast; fried clams and oysters for lunch in the cab of his Graffiti Busters truck; a snack of perch and slaw after work; and Bubs polished off a whole broiled monkfish with lemon butter in his Mom and Dad's home near Durkin Park in St. Bede's parish.

Last year, Bubs' Dad laid down next to his wife and mother of Bub's in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery on 111th Street in Worth Township. Bubs began seeing a lady. Bubs never had a wonderful sense of sight, but Cupid's arrow struck deeply in some muscle of Murtaugh's anatomy.

Against the canons of morality of Holy Mother Church, Bubs invited the woman to move in with him. The woman in question was of dubious virtue and Bubs had but little himself. She was a drop-out of Emeryk Zajack's Bartender Academy on Archer in Garfield Ridge and worked at the Swap-a-Rama in Alsip, where she met Bubs when he was buying Cook County Campaign Buttons for his collection.

After a few months, the . . . woman with whom Bubs shared his abode became as wearisome as the endless loop of NCIS and Law and Order(Sam Waterson only) reruns on cable. Bubs began stopping 'for a short one' longer and at less familiar venues. Bubs' roomy suspected that her relationship with Mr. Mutaugh might go the way of Emeryck Zajack's Academy for her. Perhaps, Bubs was trading up. Most disconcerting and morally reprehensible, but customary in the no-man's-land of unsanctified concupiscence.

One evening Bubs called home to his paramour and says, "Honey, I have been asked to fly to Canada with my supervisor and several of Toni Preckwinkle's cousins for fishing. We'll be gone for a long weekend.

This is a good opportunity for me to get that promotion I've been wanting so could you please pack enough clothes for a 3 day weekend. Also, would you get out my rod and tackle box from the attic?"

Made sense, Bubs loved his fish and walleye and Northern were always nice.

Bubs asked in the sweetest of tones, "We're leaving at 4:30 PM from the County Yard on Doty and I will swing by the house to pick my things up.. 'Oh! And please pack my new navy blue silk pajamas. Hey, you get to free-range cable all you want and I stocked up on Happy Cossack from Kenwood."

Though enchanted by days of Shopping Networks and Vodka Rickies, the Zajack Bartender Academy Aspirant Emerita thinks this sounds a bit odd, but, being the good "friend," shall we say, she does exactly what the homeowner asked.

Following the long Canadian Idylle Bubs came home a little tired, but, otherwise, looking good. The sore thumbed and vodka marinated Mistress welcomes Bubs home and asks if he caught many fish?

The Cook County Would Be Pensioner says, "Yes! Lots of Walleyes, some Bass, and a few Pike." He said, "But why didn't you pack my new blue silk pajamas like I asked you to do?"

The now home-secure Zajack Academy Washout replies, "I did, they're in your tackle box".

This south side saga originated with Max Weismann of the Center for the Study of Great Ideas

Meme: The Holy Septalogue for Atheists, Dummies, and Progressives

Hours before Memorial Day, Tom Roeser returned to Christ. Tom was a brilliant original thinker among a throng of 'Wait, Wait -Don't Tell Me!' group thinkers. Group thinkers are the readers of Cliff's Notes for Life or Redaction Graphic Novels. Cutting edge.

Across the pond of our continental east, lies the island nation of my forebears. The insular Irish are recovering from economic disaster and cultural vaporization. The Irish are Euro's - chock full of PC. The Irish pews are empty and the Mass Rock now has PC mold. During and after the Famine, the Faith kept the people resilient. The Faith is now Meme'd as the Sex Scandal of Cassocked Buggers and Croziered Cover-ups.
RTE -Raidió Teilifís Éireann or Irish PBS crows doctrines from its secular pulpit - just it it does here in Yankland.

Against this tide of slick imbecility is writer Kevin Myers of the Irish Independent. Mr. Myers is a witty, well-read, principled and courageous social critic, not unlike Chicago's angelic curmudgeon and 18th Century Man Tom Roeser.

Where there is original thought given voice there is hope. Last week I read two insightful criticisms by Mr. Myers of group thought - one on Aggressive Feminism and the other on the daffy Arab Spring ( Arab Spring was developed by NYT's Tom Friedman, or fed to him by NSC Samantha Power to remind us that the Mideast all of us helots that 'Just Like" Prague in 1968). In both cases, Kevin Myers links the atheist Darwinian Richard Dawkins' Selfish Gene - Meme. Meme is the hot word tossed out by hip tossers and poseurs in print and on the air-waves.

Meme one writer states, "A meme is an idea that behaves like a virus--that moves through a population, taking hold in each person it infects."

Thus, Casino Gaming cures Budgetary Cancers; Marriage Can Be Legislated; Racists Don't Hope.

Kevin Myers is especially brilliant in taking down the goofy notion (meme) called the Arab Spring. This is the current group thought in currency among readers of the New York Times, Salon, listeners of NPR and viewers of PBS.

However, what makes the Arab Spring meme so fascinating is its sheer power. Consider Prague, home in 1968 to one of the finest symphony orchestras in the world and to one of the greatest ballet companies in Europe, with many lively schools of philosophical and literary debate.

I must have missed this somehow or other, but is there a Cairo Symphony Orchestra? A Syrian National Theatre? A Saudi Ballet Company, whose quite Diaghilevian brilliance, alas, is largely concealed by the ballerinas' burkas? Is there an intellectual ferment in Yemen about the role of the welfare-state in a post-Marxian neo-Hegelian dialectic? Does Kuwait resound to the chatter of female students discussing the maternal rights of lesbians? Are gays in Algiers preparing their first wedding ceremony, to be conducted by a transsexual rabbi?

Now that is one solid palate cleansing gulp of insightful original thought. The Meme crafters or the Selfish Genes in popular culture and print have succeeded in underminng Faith. Why understand human behaviorin the light of Faith? The Meme Doctors tell us that the Koran and New Testament are alike. Don't bother reading the Koran, trust us.

Imagine, if you will, Carol Marin objecting to the patriarchal hierarchy of the Imams,with the same vim and vigor that she castigated the Catholic Church for not ordaining women. Would Carol's noggin be receptive to stones and boulders of Islamic critics?

Current Memes demand that we accept on faith that !. Gay couples and married couples produced the same number of children, after all homosexuality is Gay! Think not? Homophobe!!! All convictions are the result of coerced confessions. Coerced Confessions are the result of torture; All Convictions must be paid off in millions of dollars/



Mosaic Law? Shucks we got these here Memes and there are only seven.


Aaron Lynch described seven general patterns of meme transmission, or "thought contagion":[16]

1. Quantity of parenthood: an idea that influences the number of children one has. Children respond particularly receptively to the ideas of their parents, and thus ideas that directly or indirectly encourage a higher birthrate will replicate themselves at a higher rate than those that discourage higher birthrates.
2. Efficiency of parenthood: an idea that increases the proportion of children who will adopt ideas of their parents. Cultural separatism exemplifies one practice in which one can expect a higher rate of meme-replication — because the meme for separation creates a barrier from exposure to competing ideas.
3. Proselytic: ideas generally passed to others beyond one's own children. Ideas that encourage the proselytism of a meme, as seen in many religious or political movements, can replicate memes horizontally through a given generation, spreading more rapidly than parent-to-child meme-transmissions do.
4. Preservational: ideas that influence those that hold them to continue to hold them for a long time. Ideas that encourage longevity in their hosts, or leave their hosts particularly resistant to abandoning or replacing these ideas, enhance the preservability of memes and afford protection from the competition or proselytism of other memes.
5. Adversative: ideas that influence those that hold them to attack or sabotage competing ideas and/or those that hold them. Adversative replication can give an advantage in meme transmission when the meme itself encourages aggression against other memes.
6. Cognitive: ideas perceived as cogent by most in the population who encounter them. Cognitively transmitted memes depend heavily on a cluster of other ideas and cognitive traits already widely held in the population, and thus usually spread more passively than other forms of meme transmission. Memes spread in cognitive transmission do not count as self-replicating.
7.Motivational: ideas that people adopt because they perceive some self-interest in adopting them. Strictly speaking, motivationally transmitted memes do not self-propagate, but this mode of transmission often occurs in association with memes self-replicated in the efficiency parental, proselytic and preservational modes.

Behold! The Meme Septalogue!
Memorize and repeat after me: Thou shalt have no God other than Meme.

The Loss of Tom Roeser -Chicago's 18th Century Man.

This great photo captures the essence of Tom Roeser and I believe that it was taken by his friend and colleague Cal Skinner.


The 18th Century was the age of Teach the Pirate, Jack Ketch the Executioner,Samuel Mason the Highwayman, Edmund Burke the Statesman, Alexander Pope the Poet, Joseph Priestly the Scientist, Locke the Philosopher, Handel, Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi.

It was a conservative age that ended in republican revolutions -only one succeeded. The American Revolution balanced Jefferson's wild-eyed republicanism with Adams, Hamilton, and Madison's principled Federalism.

It was the age of Giambattista Vico whose Scienza Nuova was the script for conservatism. Vico help that truth gets around - to employ my south side vernacular.

Man begins history as a vulgar brute grunting, hitting, and killing as a form of expression. As man signs and grunts with greater clarity, human understanding begins - stay away from my meat, or get clubbed and eaten. Gotcha! This is where Man employs tropes and metaphors in a less than aesthetic poetry, but truth will be communicated.

Eventually Man achieves what Vico called ragione tutta spiegata fulfilled reason in which reason and right combine to provide not only political, economic and religious stability, but fulfillment and reverence for beauty, majesty, and purity. Then along comes our age - Who's to Say, I was Born This Way, Deal With It.

This is the advent of what Vico called the human Ricurso, or the return to grunts (MSNBC, Charlie Sheen, Lady Gaga, Glen Beck) and signs ( Global Warming, Lean Forward, Lock and Load and You Betcha). The Ricurso is the recurrence of the Savage's trope -Listen to me, or I'LL KILL YOU!

The true conservative reminds us of the joys and liberties of the Republic, in order to avoid the savagery of anarchy and despots. It is an 18th Century concept.

Tom Roeser was a true conservative -politically and theologically. His life warned against the Roads Most Travelled -group think.

Tom Roeser was an original thinker who stood upon the texts and traditions that best preserved what is best in our politics and in our Faith. Though Catholic, Tom Roeser was a catholic (universal theologian).

Tom Roeser was God's watchdog and fearless intellectual combatant. Tom never once said that he had all the answers. Rather, he pointed all of us in the direction of where the right answers were to be found.

Tom Roeser disagreed, but always welcomed debate; even with singularly disagreeable people, all were invited to Tom's feast.

A giant has exited and pygmies have taken the stage.

Chicago has lost an 18th Century Man. God help us. Thanks for for your stewardship, Tom. See you in Church!

Leo High School Wins Its Fifth Class A and Sixth IHSA State Track Final

In the entire history of the IHSA the only Catholic/Private school to win a track & field title is Leo High School.

Leo has won five Class A State Track Championships and one Class AA Title.* Leo High School has no track. Leo Lions tain in the school.

Today, Coach Ed Adams and the Leo Lions did it again.

CHARLESTON, Ill. — Bruce Gray didn't want to leave the track Saturday after completing the 100-meter dash. Instead, the Leo senior stared anxiously at the scoreboard, waiting for the race results at the Class 1A boys state track and field meet.

After a push in the final 20 meters, Gray paced around during a short delay while the photo finish was reviewed.

"I didn't know where the finish line was," Gray said. "I just wanted to finish."

Gray's surge led to a rare first-place tie with Peoria Christian's Jon Hutchison. Both finished in 10.79 seconds. The tie helped Leo edge Harrisburg 42-41 for the 1A title.

"We haven't had (a state title) in a few years," Gray said.

Leo's first state title since 2003 can be credited to a strong showing in the relays.

Aided by another strong finish by Gray in the 400 relay, the team that included Andre Patton, Theodore Hopkins and Denzel Tucker took second (42.95), just ahead of Winnebago (42.96). Leo junior Rueben Blackwell was second in the 110 hurdles (14.83) and Gray added a fifth-place medal in the 200.

Leo's 800 relay team of Patton, Hopkins, Tucker and Gray finished runner-up (1:29.31) to Walther Lutheran's Cole Evans, Tyreese Russell, Andre Cooper and Sean Cotton (1:28.12).

"Everybody came out and ran their hearts out," Cotton said. "I just tried to run (the anchor) hard and hold off Gray."

 

*Boys Track & Field
Season Class Titles Place Won Lost Tied Coach
1980-81 A 1 Bro. John O'Keefe
1982-83 A 3 Bro. John O' Keefe
1994-95 AA S 1 Ed Adams
1997-98 A S 1 Ed Adams
As Chicago (Leo)
1999-00 A S 2 Ed Adams
As Chicago (Leo)
2000-01 A S 3 Ed Adams
2001-02 A S 1 Edward Adams
2002-03 A S 1 Edward Adams
2003-04 A S 2 Edward Adams
2004-05 A S 3 Edward Adams
2009-10 1A S Edward Adams

A Special Relationship(s) - The Heat's Dwayne Wade and Coach Jack Fitzgerald

Dwayne Wade is a Superstar athlete - one of the giants of the NBA. Jack Fitzgerald is a high school and small college basketball coach - a legendary journeyman mentor who graduated from Leo High School in 1969, returned his alma mater and learned the craft from Tom O'Malley. Tom O'Malley was one of Jimmy Arneberg's boys. Arne was coached by Brother Francis Finch and the great Vince Dowd.

This is a Leo chain of being.

Dwayne Wade never attended Leo High School but he was mentored and coached by Jack Fitzgerald at Richards High School.

Dwayne Wade understood that he was helped by a man who understands not only the game, but the reasons put everything, heart, mind and body into any effort.

Dan McGrath wrote another wonderful portrait of two men brought together by a spirit much larger than their ambitions and wants. Click my post title for the full New York Times story.

Any of us who have watched our children play sports or tiptoe through a dance recital or blow the fluegelhorn in a concert could empathize with Jack Fitzgerald on Tuesday.

He viewed the Game 4 telecast of the Bulls-Miami Heat Eastern Conference playoff finals from a quiet table in a South Side pub, and a nosy reporter tried to be unobtrusive as Fitzgerald agonized. Dwyane Wade is not his son, but Fitzgerald has paternalistic feelings for the Heat’s All-Star guard, the best player and one of the best kids he worked with during 27 years and 444 victories as a high school coach in the Chicago area.

“It’s hard to watch,” Fitzgerald said. “I get a little pit in my stomach, the same way I did when I was coaching.”

The pit felt like a bowling ball on this night as Wade struggled, missing seven straight shots at one point, including an uncontested breakaway dunk.

“He’s just not in the flow,” Fitzgerald said quietly, his stoic demeanor concealing his inner turmoil.

Jack Fitzgerald would never admit to being a great man and that is his greatness. Jack Fitzgerald helped Dwayne Wade become the fine young man he is, even though he is an NBA Superstar. The hands that help are guided by a spirit of very old and willing hands going back generations.

And Palms Before My Feet: Leo Boxers Eat With George Foreman

This donkey needs a shave, a shower and a financial bail-out - too blessed to fail.

Where do I begin? Hours ago!

It was a stormy day outside of Leo High School. Within it was cheery and warm with anticipation of the upcoming evening's fete at Harry Caray's on Kinzie with two-time Heavyweight Boxing Champ, 1968 Olympic Gold Medalist, Minister of Christ, Entrepreneur, and philanthropist George Foreman.

While winds and rain buffeted 79th Street, Leo High School was warm with academic, athletic shoulders to the wheel and much anticipation. The Big Shoulders Fund and the Boxing Brokers invited Mike Joyce's Leo Boxing Team to share steaks with George Foreman at Harry Caray's. Not only that, but the Track Team was heading down to the State Meet.

Leo's track team departed for the IHSA State Track meet at 11:30 AM. Track coach and Leo AD Ed Adams handed me a key to a vehicle. Off they went with shouts of beefy good-fellowship and God Speed.

At 5 PM, Asst. Boxing Coach Marquis Ball arrived and we inspected the nicely decked-out squad of boxers - Shirts and Ties all. Marquis offered to drive and I handed him the key. Me and the boxers followed the big Leo Alumnus and future Chicago Police Officer out to the motor pool. The vans were gone. There was one of a trio of 22 passenger bus into which this key fit and worked - it was a real pig -last used by the track team in April. With a cloud of white smoke, we wandered away from the warmth of Leo High School toward cold steel and glass of the Loop. Nice ride on the Dan Ryan Expressway.

Marquis pulled in front of Harry Caray's and handed the key to the young Mexican American Valet. We were greeted and directed up to the George Foreman Event. This dinner is prelude to tonight's charity boxing night at Chicago's House of Blues -BBF The Broker Boxing Foundation.

George Foreman charged up to greet us and warmly pressed the flesh with the Leo Boxers. "Come on up and let's get our pictures taken!" We all all got into the ring with the most menacing and happy man on the planet. I put my tiny dukes up with the Champ and the camera man, Mr. Nixon the event's chairman, snapped a shot.

No sooner had I stepped away, than the sober and serious baby-faced Marquis Ball, a man in the image and likeness of George Foreman softly whispered "Transmission's shot.The bus is stuck."

I went down to the lobby and the manager told me, "The bus will not move."

Thanks be to God! We were here anyway. Think Mule. Call for a tow. I did. Call for a limo to get the guys back to Leo. The manager contacted a service. Done. Hickey you are one get-it-done Donkey. Steak Time!

Nope. No sooner had I eyed the fried ravioli cascading over Marquis Ball's plate, than I got a call from the Towing Service. " I'll be there at 7:30 you gotta ride with me - Oh, and it's cash only because my boss has the truck with the card swipe."

No Sweat! I went down to the Harry Caray ATM and took out . . . limited to $ 200. The tow was going to cost $ 245 minimum it will be more believe it Esse. Well I had close to a yard on me - $ 84 and change.

The manager again. " Mr. Hickey, the limo will cost $ 145 minimum in cash." Do the math, Mule. Back to the ATM - command;English;Yes to $2.00 Fee; Receipt? You Bet! Mercifully, the ATM though limited to maximum take-out of $ 200 allowed me to extract another two yards from my checking account and there was enough in the balance thanks to my modest 2010 Tax Return.

Another phone call. "Mr. Hickey, you gotta come along with me in the tow to tell me where to place the bus. I'll be there soon."

Marquis and the boxers would return to Leo, having sated themselves with steak and spoon vitals, and take the limo home.

At 7:35 the tow truck arrived and shook hands with my shipmate Rico, a Puerto Rican kid from Pilsen who now lives in Evanston and drives for a towing company in Skokie.

We had a great talk on the way south about boxing, being a kid, Roberto Clemente High School, Leo High School, and thanking God that at least the bus arrived in front of Harry Caray's.

We put the bus in the lot north of 79th Street, because it was pouring rain and there were no other vehicles in the lot. I paid Rico and duked him $25. I was getting soaked . . .by the rain. The tow was more than fair.

I opened the padlock on the gate of the faculty lot on Sangamon, crossed over to Leo and went around to east entrance and let my self into the school vestibule and waited. By the time the Limo with the kids and Marquis arrived, it was 9:45 PM.

The kids all had autographed pictures of themselves with George Foreman. I got a hot one of the team with George and the actor Martin Klebba - he is the dwarf from Pirates of the Caribbean. This one will belong to the school.

God is good.


This donkey knows.

THE DONKEY
G.K. Chesterton

When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born;

With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil's walking parody
On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.

Blago II : Epilogue - A Quinn Martin Prodcution

Rod Blagojevich, the now removed Governor of Illinois, serial gate-crasher, lout, lay-about, whiner, buffoon, pistachio pitch-tool, and political plantar's wart is set to testify.

Cool.

I remember on a website called Chicago Sports Fan on the 620 Score there was a post called Blagojevich: Epilogue A Quinn Martin Production and I laughed my ass off . . .well not literally, it still follows me around.

I connected immediately. Blago is a Quinn Martin Production. Pat Quinn? Nah.

This entire shabby saga has been soup for nuts. Blago was kicked out of a very prominent post-South Side parade parties decades ago. Everyone goes to this Morgan Park worthy's party, but Blago was not invited. He did not go there for the fun, fellowship and free feed; Blago gate crashed in order to gnaw on the rumps of the likes of Neil Hartigan, Bill Daley, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry ( South Side attendees all) and captains of labor, church and industry.

Everyone but everyone knew Blago to be exactly the man he is today. That's politics, kids.

The Blago saga has had no real light shined upon since Rep. Jim Durkin tuned up Roland Burris.

This has all been a tedious drama, not a comedy. It reminds me of the Old 60's TV shows The Fugitive, Twelve O'Clock High, The F.B.I., and The Invaders, all broadcast on ABC that always had a pretentious Act I, II, III and IV - and the Epilogue.

All four Acts of this sociopathic mirror gazer Blago have been Epilogue

Act I - The Primary - Money, Vanity and Fear Give Illinois Blago over Paul Vallas

Act II - The Governorship 1 & 2 - The Looting of Illinois & PACE for Grannies

Act III - The Impeachment and Fitzy- Starring Roland Burris - need I say More

Act IV - WLS, Trial One, Survivor and Pistachios

The Epilogue, or denouement ( DE new Mon) as we Francophiles like to toss about, was the resolution of the alleged drama in which David Jansen shook off the hay from the farm work he did as a doctor on the run from the one-armed guy. Blago has more explanations about his many one-armed guys, than the Vitalis-ized David Jansen could ever dream of.

All Four Blago Acts are Epilogue - This Has been a Quinn Martin Production!!!!!!



*QUINN MARTIN
US Producer
Born Martin Cohn. Born in New York City, New York,
U.S.A., 22 May 1922.
Died, in Rancho Santa Fe, California, 6 September 1987.

Leo High School Boxers to Meet George Foreman and The Big Shoulders of Chicago

The Big Shoulders Fund of Chicago has boosted thousands of inner city kids up through the financial ropes and put them toe-to-toe with success in Catholic Schools. You can not get into the ring without some help.

The Big Shoulders Fund was started by a 79th Street guy by the name of James O'Connor. Jim O'Connor was the CEO of ComEd, when it did not hammer citizens with utility bills. Jim O'Connor was the man who built the nuclear power plants that generated cheap, affordable power to Illinois citizens in Chicago and northern suburbs. Jim O'Connor wanted kids from 79th Street, 63rd Street, 55th Street, along Archer Ave., North Ave., Milwaukee Ave., and Irving Park Road to have the opportunity to attend Catholic Schools. Catholic Schools prepared Jim O'Connor to become a successful, caring and giving citizen.

The Big Shoulders Fund works year round to scare up funds, assist schools with budgeting plans, leadership plans and operational efficiency. The Big Shoulders Fund is the cut-man for the Office of Catholic Schools.

Tonight, the Leo Boxing Team will attend a dinner honoring George Foreman and the George Foreman Foundation at Harry Caray's restaurant. Most of our boxers have never been to Harry Caray's. In fact, many of these kids never really see much of Chicago beyond the few square miles that comprise their neighborhoods and Leo High School.

Leo High School is on 79th Street a few blocks east of Jim O'Connor's boyhood home on Marshfield Street. Jim O'Connor knows Leo High School. The Big Shoulders Fund has helped Leo families meet the costs of an education at this school, since the early 1990's. Thanks to that commitment and support, Leo High School makes a difference in the lives of young men. One method of life preparation outside of the classroom is the Boxing Room on the school's second floor. This facility was built with the help from State Representative Mary Flowers, Irish Boxing Trainers Martin and Oliver McGarry, Mexican American Middleweight and contractor JC Gutierrez and attorney, Leo Alumnus, Advisory Board Member, Hall of Fame Inductee and Leo Man of the Year 2011 Mike Joyce.

Since 1999, Mike Joyce has trained Leo High School boxers to fight in the methods developed by Constantine "Cos" D'Amato -the peek-a-boo approach style of boxing, where the hands are placed in front of the boxers face for more protection.

Protect yourself in the ring and in life. Cos D'Amato trained Floyd Paterson,Jose Torres and Mike Tyson. Mike Joyce trained thirteen Golden Gloves champions, the captain of Team USA, Lamar Fenner and Superheavyweight Thomas Hayes. Leo Boxers also became the scholar/athletes any school would envy. Boxer Eder Cruz is Leo's 2011 Gates Millennium Scholar.

A man who came from a tough environment, boxed for America and won the Gold Medal in Mexico at 1968 Olympics, and won two Heavyweight Championships, turned his life over to Christ and helped others develop the life worth living - a life of giving.

George Foreman has the shoulders to match the Big Shoulders Fund and those of Jim O'Connor. Tonight ten Leo Boxers will have the opportunity share their life stories with people who know what life is all about - James O'Connor and George Foreman.