Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Shakman Begat Simpson - Corruption, or What's in Your Wallet?




Corruption!  Like household mold, the very thought of it sends crowds of folks scurrying for the last boat out.  Corruption, like house-hold mold Stachybotrys (chartarum/atra), allows panels of experts to prove with scientific certainty that "it must be!" even though only in court is that true.  Science finds it very hard, if not impossible,  to prove a negative, but judges do so all the time.  The mold epidemic grew out of the hysteria of early 1990's in the Cleveland era, when insurers were brought to court and forced to pay huge damages to folks who purchased homes where molds were detected - causing them life-threatening harm.  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) needed back off the Cleveland hysteria - toxic mold just ain't*  Nevertheless, lawyers find judges and judges make judgments.


Only in court can one prove a negative, to wit,  Michael Shakman :

Shakman filed suit against the Democratic Organization of Cook County, arguing that the patronage system put nonorganized candidates and their supporters at an illegal and unconstitutional disadvantage. Politicians could hire, fire, promote, transfer—in essence, punish—employees for not supporting the system, or more particularly, a certain politician. The suit also argued that political patronage wasted taxpayer money because public employees, while at work, would often be forced to campaign for political candidates.
In 1972, after an exhaustive court procedure and much negotiating, the parties reached an agreement prohibiting politically motivated firings, demotions, transfers, or other punishment of government employees. A 1979 ruling led to a court order in 1983 that made it unlawful to take any political factor into account in hiring public employees (with exceptions for positions such as policy making). Those decisions along with companion consent judgments—collectively called the Shakman decrees—are binding on more than 40 city and statewide offices. Encyclopedia of Chicago

Yea!!! Patronage Bad!!!!! The Progressive Lexicon grows like household mold! Mold is determined by climate -just the right of moisture with the right temperature and mold goes gangstah!


N.B. - Here is a political bonbon doillyed and dropped by Dan Kelley on Progressives and Patronage:



Berny Stone relates a story about dealing with a (future) Progressive politician:
I was in charge of 8 precincts with guys like Dick Elrod and Howard Carroll. I made sure everything ran smoothly in their precincts. Dick Elrod ran for Alderman and lost. But then he ran for Sheriff and won. I worked for him when he was Sheriff. For two years prior to the special election (Stone succeeded 50th Ward Alderman Jack Sperling resigned  when he was appointed to a judicial position) I was his Assistant Chief Deputy Sheriff and I handled all of the foreclosures of the office. At that time the amount of foreclosures that we had in one year we have now in a month. Dick asked me to take the job. We lived very close to each other. My specialty as a lawyer was real estate and he knew he could trust me.

In my opinion it was about picking a good qualified person. A young lawyer came to me who never handled foreclosure before so I helped him. I took him all the way through. Later I met him again when he became an Alderman, his name was Larry Bloom. I said Larry you rail against patronage but I was a patronage appointed employee and I helped you.



Yea, Patronage begat Bosses who begat Racist Bossism which begat Systemic Torture, which begat Systemic Racism, which begat Pan-Sexism, which begat Homophobic Bullies ad infinitum.

Michael $hakman and $hakman industries ( decrees, monitors, consultants, media stooges, lawyers and tax-funded panels) were the moist climate that gave us our unique Chicago brand of Progressive government. The day that Richie Daley, while in political exile circa 1980's after defeating the Shakman Decree signing Republican Bernie Carey as Cook County States Attorney:

 By what rules had the 11th Ward machine always lived? Now that Daley and company were out of power for the first time in half a century, were patronage hiring and firing no longer nice?
The Tribune wondered aloud, "How far will the 11th Ward carry its campaign for civic purity?" Suggesting that Daley embrace the Shakman ruling against political firings, the paper sneered, "Stranger things have happened, though we can't at the moment think of any."
But the strange thing did happen. Shortly before leaving office, Bernie Carey had agreed to sign a second Shakman decree. The original decree, signed by Carey in 1973, banned political firing; the new decree would ban political hiring as well. Soon after taking office, Daley became the first county official to sign the new decree. During the campaign--in which he had also come out in favor of merit selection of judges, a machine curse--he had pledged, "This office will be professional. I will not take a letter from any ward committeeman."
According to John Schmidt, who has served since 1980 on Daley's professional advisory committee, Daley has kept that pledge. Daley did have to settle a lawsuit brought by five former Carey employees whom he had fired (including Carey's brother-in-law); they had held policy-making positions exempted from Shakman restraints, but they contended that they had first been demoted to nonexempt positions, and then fired, so that the decree was violated. Daley has also hired some politicians not known for their professional skills, like former alderman and now state representative Miguel Santiago. However, the Shakman decree does not mandate that public officials hire only persons of consummate professional skill; it merely prohibits political hiring and firing of non-policy-making employees. And Daley has apparently never been found in violation of the Shakman decree.

Only a few years before hugging $hakman, while giving a talk at University of Chicago, Richard M. Daley bemoaned the fact that "One of the real problems of government is (was and continues to be) the decline of patronage" (parentheticals my own). While an Illinois Legislator, Daley began to play soft ball with and for Dawn Clark Netsch, literally and figuratively, as team mate of Don Rose, Dr. Quentin Young, Marty Oberman and Thundering Dick Simpson.  Daley opened the doors of power to people who really knew how to not only wield it but hang on to it. The Hyde Park Mafia killed the Cermak Machine: The City that Worked, became the City that Shrinks.

Dick Simpson waddles through the corridors of power like a later day Sir Robert Cecil.  In fact, the Richard M. Daley years often reminded me of Elizabeth Tudor's reign - the complete and utter destruction of the Catholic aristocracy and the ultimate ascendancy of a singularly secular state. Dick Simpson, like the patiently sebaceous and splenetic Earl of Salisbury, followed his political pops Abner Mikva - identical the transformative and conniving Sir Francis Cecil, 1st Baron of Burghley.  Daley's Good Queen Bess Reign were marked by public executions of loyal kinsmen, competitors and courtiers ( Ald. Pat Huels, Miriam Santos & Paul Vallas e.g.) and odd alliances ( President GW Bush was not unlike the Virgin Queen's friendship with French King Henry IV).

The New Stuart, Rahm Emanuel, is very much like Scottish-born King James I, who was a Renaissance chameleon like no other.  The Progressive Stuarts will prove to be as toxic and ultimately self-destructive as their historical parallels.

The toxic shock value works wonders as long as their is an unpinched mu$hroom growing out of this political mold.  Corruption!

Thundering Dick Simpson is poised to contaminate the Chicago suburbs to fight Corruption - whatever the hell that is supposed to mean - with lawyers and judges who will determine Dick's terminology and prove his negative.

Shakman begat Simpson.  Household mold begets mushrooming household insurance rates.

History works. Science?  Nice for making better cheese, beer and Progressive nonsense. Courts give us the mandates, taxes and confusion we live with everyday.




*The term "toxic mold" is not accurate. While certain molds are toxigenic, meaning they can produce toxins (specifically mycotoxins), the molds themselves are not toxic, or poisonous. Hazards presented by molds that may produce mycotoxins should be considered the same as other common molds which can grow in your house. There is always a little mold everywhere - in the air and on many surfaces. There are very few reports that toxigenic molds found inside homes can cause unique or rare health conditions such as pulmonary hemorrhage or memory loss. These case reports are rare, and a causal link between the presence of the toxigenic mold and these conditions has not been proven.In 2004 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) found there was sufficient evidence to link indoor exposure to mold with upper respiratory tract symptoms, cough, and wheeze in otherwise healthy people; with asthma symptoms in people with asthma; and with hypersensitivity pneumonitis in individuals susceptible to that immune-mediated condition. The IOM also found limited or suggestive evidence linking indoor mold exposure and respiratory illness in otherwise healthy children. In 2009, the World Health Organization issued additional guidance, the WHO Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality: Dampness and MouldExternal Web Site Icon [PDF, 2.52 MB].
A common-sense approach should be used for any mold contamination existing inside buildings and homes. The common health concerns from molds include hay fever-like allergic symptoms. Certain individuals with chronic respiratory disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, asthma) may experience difficulty breathing. Individuals with immune suppression may be at increased risk for infection from molds. If you or your family members have these conditions, a qualified medical clinician should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment. For the most part, one should take routine measures to prevent mold growth in the home.


Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Most American Movie - Bang the Drum Slowly

 
The Best Years of Our Lives defines the essence of what American courage is versus the disastrous proposals and delusions that brought the entire human race into the Second World War. The film also portrays the essence of an American goodness which, now more than ever, is like no other in the world. Michael Moriarty - Ottawa Life Magazine 7/15/2012

       "Genius is a web into which poor, normally mortal humans inevitably fly!" - Michael Moriarty - Ottawa Life Magazine        

Bruce Pearson ( Robert DeNiro): Everybody'd be nice to you if they knew you were dying. Henry Wiggen ( Michael Moriarty: Everybody knows everybody is dying; that's why people are as good as they are. from Bang the Drum Slowly - 1973

I beg to differ with a man of true genius, only this once; Michael Moriarty wrote that The Best Years of Our Lives, which presents the the physical, mental and spiritual anguish of three WWII veterans upon homecoming,  might just be the greatest American film ever produced.   Moriarty, whose grandfather was reputed to be the one of the most fiercely competitive men to ever play professional baseball, the most American of sports, George Moriarty, feared by the legendary Ty Cobb and respected by the profession as an umpire once he retired from play, is an athletic actor who brought the soul of baseball - a tragi-comic drama itself- to life in the film Bang the Drum Slowly (1972)*.   I'd offer that this film is the genuine American movie.

It is American because it is youthful, hopeful, energetic, profane, respectful, witty and courageous.  Play is serious business.  Games ( in Greek agonistes ) are man's recognition of God.   In pure sport, man enacts his course of life.  The goal is to come as close to perfection as possible, without allowing ones self to become ensnared in pride (hubris)  -that is what tragedy is all about.   The Games that we play are very serious.   The struggle required in living well is our mortal art.  Baseball is often agreed upon to be an example of perfect sport - requiring patience, energy, charity, deft physicality and self-deprecating humor.

The manager of the fictional baseball team of Mark Harris's novel and screenplay, Dutch, offers this summary of his time on earth -" When I die, in the newspapers they'll write that the sons of bitches of the world have lost their leader."  

Dutch Schnell's aphorism stands as tall  his memorable "Skip the facts, just gimme the details."  The devil dwells in the details:

This is the story of a star-pitcher Henry " Author" Wiggen ( Moriarty) attempting to give dignity to the last months  of dying catcher Bruce Pearson ( DeNiro) and in so doing draws every spark of humanity from a clubhouse full of idiosyncracies, egos, appetites and grudges. Death has no sting.

Here is what Moriarty and Wiggen hath wrought.



The agony ( the struggle) of dying young is the American gift to God.  The Game is everything, because the game reflects God's love of man.

Bang the Drum Slowly is the American film.

* Chicago Note -America's Montaigne, Joseph Epstein**, sent this Chicagoland fact along:


Maury and Lois Rosenfield, the couple who produced Bang the Drum Slowly, both of them now dead, were dear friends of mine. They lived in Glencoe. Maury was a successful lawyer, who became interested in the movies through a friendship with Ben Hecht. The Rosenfields acquired the services of DeNiro for this movie for $10,000. Of Michael Moriarity, Maury used to say that no actor had ever done less to advance his own career. . . . Keep tapping away.
Best, Joe

Joe noted that Mr. Rosenfield had great respect for Moriarty's selflessness.

**

Joseph Epstein (born January 9, 1937 in Chicago) is an essayist, short story writer, and editor, best known as a former editor of the Phi Beta Kappa Society's The American Scholar magazine and for his recent essay collection, Snobbery: The American Version. He was also a lecturer atNorthwestern University from 1974 to 2002. He is a Contributing Editor at The Weekly Standardand a long-time contributor of essays and short stories to The New Criterion and Commentary. The late William F. Buckley, Jr., in his review of Snobbery, called Epstein the wittiest writer alive.
Epstein's body of work reveals his fascination with common everyday situations, amusing trends and small pleasures that he brings to his reader's attention. He also specializes in essays that shed light on the musings and ideas of famous and forgotten authors and writes short stories that prominently feature the city of Chicago and the characters that have populated his 70 years as an observer of the city.


http://www.ottawalife.com/2012/07/the-best-american-film-of-my-life/

Monday, July 16, 2012

Thundering Dick Simpson Demands More . . . of The Same Only More!



Dick Simpson illustration


Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is on the phone.
“Hi, Lisa. How are you?” asks Dick Simpson, head of the UIC Department of Political Science, as he sits in his book-lined office in the Behavioral Sciences Building. UICC - Street Cred of Thundering Dick Simpson



The Progressive way  to rid a home of raccoons, horse flies, tics, bed bugs, Norway rats and the odd timber wolf would be to tap a few reporters armed with studies from UICC, demand time on WTTW, make tour of the Dane Placko, Mike Flannery gas-and-nod shows, demand a tax-payer funded home inspector and a blue ribbon panel consisting of Dr. Quentin Young, Deb Mell, Deb Shore, Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon ( 5-String Banjo), Boss Terry Cosgrove, Forrest " Ho Gauge Rail" Claypool, NU(a)TO Andy Thayer, Ralph Martire, Dawn Clark Netsch, Slim Coleman and of course the ubiquitous Chris Kennedy to confab and vigorously  note that the home owner should 

  • close doors
  • fix screens
  • toss food waste in plastic bags and place them in the black plastic gondolas provided by Waste Management or the Ward Office
  • Be Sure to Re-cycle cardboard, plastics and metal and place them in the Blue Re-cycle bins
  • Prepare to move once home ownership is lost, due to failure to meet the basic mortgage obligations
  • Apply for Affordable Housing
Yep, Thundering Dick Simpson is setting the table for Progressive Knit-Hat, Gender Ambiguous, Childless and generally disagreeable candidates to flourish in our suburbs. How about small towns too?  Think Custer Park, Diamond, Eileen, Reddick and Papineau Illinois Machine Politics and Mossback Graft -" Clel, I'll vote for you, if'n I get two jars a stink bait." Done and done.

With the full push of Chicago's media, Thundering Dick is getting full cooperation to the very same thing to suburban government as the City of Chicago and the mythical homeowner above with his latest UICC paper written by a bunch of kids at Cement City University and under the supervision of Thundering Dick, his own bad self.

Thundering Dick earned his Progressive spurs from Abner Mikva and went on to a long and inconsequential career as an office-holder - Alderman - before becoming a 40 Watt academic at Stanley ( Terrorist Bill Ayers' career laundering Rabbi)Ikennberry's Circle. Thundering Dick's Green Grass and Greed: Corruption in the Suburbs is a wow-read for folks who do not read very much.  Thundering Dick leads with his jowls on this one -

The obvious and potentially most effective method for dealing with corrupt officeholders
would be to elect new public officials dedicated to ethical behavior and governmental reform. Such candidates, if elected, can help change the culture of corruption in these suburbs. Voters should support candidates committed to fighting corruption.
Thundering Dick-King Maker

Well, I'll be dipped and rolled!!!!!!!  Ain't that a wonderment!!!!!!! Vote for new folks!  Well, that must mean a whole new line of folks trotted out by old Thundering Dick, his own bad self!

The Study is a Cliff's Notes of old news stories and attendant graphs about incidents of corruption in the suburbs - some going back to the 1970's when Thundering Dick brought the Democratic Machine under Old Man Daley to its knees . . . with laughter. That was then and this is now.


Back then, when everyone and everything still worked,  folks like Thundering Dick were laughed out of the room; these days, we elect the likes of Blago, Burris, Joe Moore, Sheila Simon, Pat Quinn, Mike Quigley, Jan Schakowsky, Toni Preckwikle and other ninnies and grifters.

I am sure that Thundering Dick has a rapt audience for his summary.  Folks just don't take the time to read, connect dots to dimwits, and are much too kind and polite to tell Progressives to go pound sand.  Some folks, anyway.

http://www.uiaa.org/uic/news/uicalumni/0911a.html
http://www.uic.edu/depts/pols/ChicagoPolitics/SuburbanCorruption.pdf
http://www.uic.edu/depts/paff/clips/06-26-2012.pdf

Friday, July 13, 2012

Second City CeaseFire Blog







The anti-violence group CeaseFire helped orchestrate the surrender of a teen police wanted to talk to about a shooting that left two young girls wounded.CeaseFire accompanied 18-year-old Jermaine Lewis, his attorney and family as he met with Chicago police.
"I cannot say whether he is innocent or guilty," said Bob Jackson of the Roseland CeaseFire. "We just want to make sure there is no retaliation on his life today." Huge Shout Out to ABC 7 always CeaseFire Friendly and Rahm Snuggly! scc(f).con(vict).

Chicago wants to give CeaseFire the job of community policing.  Mayor Rahm gave us  a million reasons to be the police.
The Police think they all that.

This is Second City CeaseFire -SCC(f),con(vict).  Chuck Goudy, Brian Knowles, Phil Ponce got our back. Know this, unlike them police, CeaseFire will never be in Jon Loevy or Flint Taylor's crosshairs - them drive-by gangstahs is on!

Be Positive, Be Strong, Be Silent -CeaseFire Don't mean start snitching y'all.

Office Tio Wanna, CeaseFire Chicago

Comments welcome:

Did Pat Fitzgerald Resign Because Holder Deep-Sixed Any Probe of Congressman Jackson?


 Patrick Fitzgerald  U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder (L) and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald (R) announce indictments against 43 defendants in the U.S. and Mexico on charges of drug trafficking August 20, 2009 in Washington, DC. The effort inlcudes the indictment of 10 alleged Mexican drug cartel leaders in 12 indictments unsealed yesterday and today in U.S. federal courts in Chicago and Brooklyn.

With Fitzgerald stepping down, there is a good chance a political hack will be appointed to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago. That appointee will be an order taker. He or she will do what they are told and keep quiet about it. Sort of like Eric Holder. Peter Bella Washington Times May 23, 2012

Jackson also allegedly directed a fundraiser, Raghuveer Nayak, to buy plane tickets for a woman described as Jackson's "social acquaintance." Jackson and his wife have called that a personal matter.
Days before Jackson announced the medical leave, Nayak was arrested and pleaded not guilty to unrelated medical fraud charges. At Blagojevich's 2010 corruption trial, prosecutors said another Blagojevich fundraiser was ready to testify that Jackson instructed Nayak to raise money for Blagojevich's campaign to help him secure the Senate seat. The same witness later testified he attended a meeting with Jackson and Nayak.
Jackson was not charged and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. Huffington Post 7/11/2012


 Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D., Ill.) is undergoing inpatient treatment for “physical and emotional ailments” that are more serious than previously thought, his office said in a news release Thursday.The congressman’s office had said on June 25 that the 47-year-old son of civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson had begun a leave of absence on June 10, citing exhaustion and providing no timeline for his return. NY Daily News July 5, 2012

Eric Holder is the wildest General of the Justice Department ever.  There is law and then there are laws and then there are things to be ignored.  More important than enforcing Federal immigration law is bringing suit against states like Arizona, Mississippi, Florida and Texas over voting statutes. More important than looking into the armed Black Panther poll-watchers of 2008, was Holder's note that America is a Nation of Cowards.  The guy is on his own, because he has President Obama's back on all things, legal, political or cultural. Eric Holder will be here for the full tenure of President Obama's stay in the White House. Holder is the Crypt Master and the One-Man Star Chamber.

One Justice Department employee resigned only days before the announcement that Democrat bundler, Congressional panderer and accused medical care wallet-lifter Raghuveer Nayak* was about to wear a Federal jacket, none other than Patrick Fitzgerald.


No sooner had the Chicago Office of the Feds announced the Nayak indictments than head-scratchers nation-wide asked "Where's Jesse Junior?"  The question is loaded with buckshot - where on earth is the Congressman and where is the forthcoming Federal probe of scion of Rainbows for his part in the Blago/Rezko/ et al Federal purge?


This begs my humble question, ' Did Patrick Fitzgerald resign because Eric Holder deep-sixed any probe into Congressman Jackson's active and vigorous Federal mousetrap?


Given Eric Holder's penchant for clarity and transparency, as well as his snappy good-humor, it will blizzard on Luzon before anyone in the media will ask the same. 












Federal Indictment - completely laundered of political stains and any mention of Congressman Jackson

*Nayak’s facilities did not accept patients covered public health insurance programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and instead accepted patients insured by private health insurers, such as BlueCross BlueShield, or patients who agreed to pay the entire fees themselves. Private insurers treated Nayak’s facilities as “out-of-network” when paying bills submitted for patient services.
Between 2000 and December 2010, Nayak allegedly defrauded patients by paying and arranging to pay bribes and kickbacks in the form of cash and other hidden payments to physicians who would refer their patients to Nayak’s facilities for medical treatment. Nayak paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to different physicians in exchange for patient referrals, the charges allege, adding that the physicians deceived their patients by not disclosing that they were being paid for making referrals to Nayak’s facilities.

http://www.fbi.gov/chicago/press-releases/2012/raghuveer-nayak-owner-of-area-surgery-centers-charged-with-fraud-and-tax-offenses-for-allegedly-paying-physicians-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars-in-bribes-for-

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Success, Wealth and Achievement Creates Mean People ? Honor Bright?


em·pa·thy  
n.1. Identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives. See Synonyms at pity.
2. The attribution of one's own feelings to an object.

[en- + -pathy (translation of German Einfühlung)].The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


Empathy is over-rated.  Some of the rottenest, self-absorbed, manipulative and tight with a buck people I know are  appointed  hogs with snouts in the public trough and each one is empathetic.  These ladies and gents have made careers at tax-payer expense spouting high-minded policies that will ensure their snot-lockers a place in the public bucket for years to come. The human heart can only be measured by the spike in  taxes imposed on the public and they can be heard to shout, "Keep Your Rosaries off my Ovaries." 


The empathetic public lungs bellow for or against these policy initiatives:

  •  Living wage -- An artificially high wage that minimally benefits some individuals and creates unemployment for the rest
  • The Common Good -- A phrase used by a small group ruling in the name of the majority in order to enact laws that abrogate an individual's rights
  • Gun control -- Confiscation of legal firearms from law abiding citizens
  • Universal health care -- Access to affordable health insurance
  • Public assistance programs -- Government programs
  • Plight of the homeless -- People who are victims of their own poor choices with the exception of the mentally incompetent
  • Entitlement programs -- Taxpayer funded appropriations
  • Taxes -- Legal plunder
  • Social Security -- The largest Ponzi (pyramid) scheme in history.
  • Tax cuts for the rich -- Tax cuts for the economy or A proven economic stimulus plan that produces 65% of all new jobs.
  • The rich need to pay their fair share of taxes – Legal plunder where the top 10% of taxpayers pay 70% of all income taxes and the bottom 50% pay 3%.
  • "Do you want to get rid of Social Security?" -- "Do you want to continue unchanged the largest Ponzi (pyramid) scheme in history which is going broke?  The same scheme that sent Bernie Madoff to jail?"
  • It's free money (federal grant/stimulus money) -- Funds that are actually paid by taxpayers or are put on our children's credit card and have a limited life so whatever is started will have to be paid for in a few years by local and/or state taxes.
  • Unions are for the workers -- Unions are for unions.  Just like corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians.  The goal is to increase the union's power not the worker's power. 
  • Unions and the Government have increased the standard of living -- Businesses that invest in capital equipment increase the productivity of workers which lowers the price of their products and increases the standard of living. 
  • Social Justice – The revocation of Natural Rights so government can use legal plunder to steal property and give it to those who have not earned it. 
  • Fairness – using legal plunder to steal property from individuals who have earned it in order to give it to individuals who have not earned it.
  • Spread the Wealth – using legal plunder to steal property from individuals who have earned it in order to give it to individuals who have not earned it.
  • Shared Sacrifice – using legal plunder to steal property from individuals who have earned it in order to give it to individuals who have not earned it.
  • It’s Free Money (Federal grants or stimulus money) – Funds that are actually paid by taxpayers or are put on our children's credit card and have a limited life so whatever is started will have to be paid for in a few years by local and/or state taxes.
  • Price Gouging – Simple supply and demand in a scarce marketplace which results in the fairest distribution of goods and services.
 The New York Magazine's Lisa Miller has trotted out a 'scientific' study' that proves empathy only rests in the hearts of dedicated lay-abouts, bust-outs, slackers, mouth-breathing job-dodgers, or people who depend upon the public teat for self-esteem and biological sustenance:

 Wealth may give you a better brain. It may make you a more strategic thinker, a savvier planner. (Research has shown that the more a ­person is able to imagine himself in the future, the more cash he is likely to have in his savings account.) And the cognitive benefits of affluence may accrue incrementally, speculates Dovidio, so that very rich people have better brain functioning than moderately rich people. These hypotheses are at the untested frontier of the new science: “I think in ten years we’ll have a compelling story on this,” says Dacher Keltner, the psychologist who oversees the work of Piff and his colleagues. But already the outline is becoming clear. Princeton University psychologist Eldar Shafir has shown that in environments of abundance, people make better financial decisions—it’s not that rich people tend to be better educated and can afford better advice, but that people living paycheck to paycheck don’t have the mental space to make the smartest long-term moves. The efficiencies of the affluent brain may trigger the shutting down of what the researchers call “pro-social” impulses and lead people toward the kinds of behaviors that a hedge-fund manager I spoke to characterized as “ruthless.” “They’re more willing to hurt others in their quest for money,” he said. “When you look at people who’ve done exceptionally well, it tends to be the difficult people.”. . .  (Research shows that the rich tend to blame individuals for their own failure and likewise credit themselves for their own success, whereas those in the lower classes find explanations for inequality in circumstances and events outside their control.) But the truth is much more nuanced. Every American, rich and poor, bounces back and forth between these two ideals of self, calibrating ambitions and adjusting behaviors accordingly. Nearly half of Americans between 18 and 29 believe that it’s “likely” they’ll get rich, according to Gallup—in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Those who have already gotten wealthy wrestle openly and with real anguish over how to raise children who are productive, community-minded, and hardworking. Jamie Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, made a documentary in 2003 called Born Richand, since then, has become a kind of confessor to the anxious wealthy. “Everyone says, ‘I don’t want my kids to turn out to be the next Paris Hilton,’ ” says Johnson, “It’s weird. You know they want their kids to be superior. They want their kids’ lives to reflect the wealth and the position they have in society. But they don’t want their kids to be elitist and arrogant.”

Wealth may give you a better brain?  Wealth begets brains?  Have any of you ever met a really dumb rich person? Sure you have.  All the wealth in the world can not do a damn thing for the present generation of the Kennedy Clan.  Likewise, based on human observation of the likes of the late Old Teddy, Dr. Billy 'Landmine' Smith the acquitted rapist, Patrick, Joseph the Deuce or any other Kennedy males, I'd prefer my daughters marry tattooed, meth-addled Carnies than Kennedy males linked by DNA to Old Joe.
Wealth does not mean that you will become a louse of the first order, either.  Sts. Francis of Assisi, Mary Seton and Blessed Edmund Rice were all born to wealth and dedicated their lives to the poor.  Lord Bertrand Russell, a celebrated atheist and author of Principia Mathematica, was, not only a cat with nickels to toss around, but also a very nice man.
I have had the privilege of knowing $1%-ers here in the Midwest and the City of Chicago - the late Don Flynn, the courtly and thoughtful John Buck, Tom Owens, Andy McKenna, Frank Considine, Dick Landis, Dick Walsh, Patti Bidwill,  Mary Ellen 'Mel' Cooney, Dan Walsh, Ron Gidwitz, John Powers, Joe Power and especially the very sweet and heroic James O'Connor.  These ladies and gents, Christians and Jews, are great people and very generous.  They do not mouth platitudes or build monuments to themselves with words - they are doers and self-made accomplished tireless workers.  They do. The empathetic talk.
Wealth does not make one smart, pretty, or fun to be around.
My daughter and I witnessed US Congresswoman and professional empathy spout-er, Jan Schakowsky scream at a little Asian girl who was helping co-ordinate the sign-in of guests for Alexi Giannoulias when he ran for Illinois Treasurer - it seems that this political blowfish was not on the list that included my Alderman, Senator Barack Obama and bunch of others.  " You little idiot!," screamed Jan, " I am supposed to up there next to Obama! Don't you know who I am? I  can't believe that someone so stupid . . .IIII"  Empathy positively rang through the halls of Conrad Hilton that day. The little Asian volunteer fought back tears of embarassment.   I sure  loves me that there Empathy!
My daughter asked me, " Dad, what's wrong with that woman?"
All I could say was , " She's  Jan Schakowsky, sweetie."

The New York Magazine presents yet another scientific justification for Jan Schakowsky and other empathic public truffle snuffle-ers/






Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Catch Terry Sullivan Live ONLY If You Have One Foot in the Groove!



Scat Baxter- Herring Croker"What goes on around here? There's a dark horse in this here race and my boy's running a slow third*."

Pearls Oignon "Scat, don't say stinks. If absolutely necessary, smells, but only if absolutely necessary."

Bucko Flannigan-  "Oh Scat you're slipping. That used to terrify me, the withering glance of the goddess. Terry Sullivan and the Chicago Jazz Caravan Shade me from the heat and that's what the round hair cuts call cool, Jill and Jacks!  Gates, from Cottage Groove to Buffalo Groove, Cats will swing  like saloon doors on pay-day with Terry, even if it hair-lips the Governor!" 

CHICAGO JAZZ CARAVAN
with vocalist Terry Sullivan

Sunday, July 15, 2012
3:00 pm
TWELVEWEST nightclub
12 West Elm, Chicago
Admission $15

Limited seating; reservations recommended
at 312/337-3200 or www.12westelm.com
Dress: business casual or better
                                                           

The CHICAGO JAZZ CARAVAN
is a roving ensemble of some of
Chicago’s most seasoned jazz musicians,
performing music reminiscent of
New York jazz supper clubs of the ‘fifties.

Personnel:
Tom Muellner, piano     Art Davis, trumpet
Larry Kohut, bass     Terry Sullivan, vocals

TWELVEWEST is Chicago ’s
sophisticated new gold coast nightclub.

 * Bowdlerized dialog from High Society

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

What the Water? Abortion and the Gay Marriage of Mainline Minds



. . .  Enough now; since the sacred matter that I mean
I should be wronging longer leaving it to float
Upon this only gambolling and echoing-of-earth note
What is … the delightful dene?
Wedlock. What the water? Spousal love.
Epithalamion 1918  Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ







Below - the Full Package Mainline Protestant - Lesbian Episcopalian priest and abortion blesser Rev. Dr. K. Hawthorne Ragsdale.
Katherine Hancock Ragsdale
“When a woman wants a child but can’t afford one because she hasn’t the education necessary for a sustainable job, or access to health care, or day care, or adequate food, it is the abysmal priorities of our nation, the lack of social supports, the absence of justice that are the tragedies; the abortion is a blessing. 
“And when a woman becomes pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option open to her; decides she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to a safe, affordable abortion – there is not a tragedy in sight -- only blessing. The ability to enjoy God’s good gift of sexuality without compromising one’s education, life’s work, or ability to put to use God’s gifts and call is simply blessing. 
“These are the two things I want you, please, to remember – abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Let me hear you say it: abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done.”  The Rev. Dr. Katherine Ragsdale was appointed as the sixth and newest president of Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) in Cambridge, MA, March 30 2009
INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - The U.S. Episcopal Church is poised to become the first major religious denomination in the United States to approve a rite for blessing gay marriages after its bishops overwhelmingly approved such a liturgy on Monday. . . .The United Church of Christ, a mainstream Protestant denomination with about a million members, has gone further so far than any other U.S. church, voting in 2005 to support same sex marriage. Chicago Tribune
Chances are that if you choose to believe that abortion is a blessing,  you will also bless same sex marriage.  You will considered yourself nuanced and fully evolved.  This is marriage of opinion, or if you insist, conviction is as mainline as it gets. 

Mainline Protestant churches and denominations have long approved Darwin's survival of the fittest. The Mainline Protestant churches ( United Church of Christ, United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran, and Episcopal as well as Quakers and the various Moravian churches) get their name form the old Philadelphia suburb along the Pennsylvania Mainline Railroad, noted for its affluence.  The more affluent one might be the more one might associate with Mainline Protestantism*. With affluence comes educational opportunity and a post-secondary degree more than possible. Mainline Protestantism takes a nuanced view of scripture known as High Criticism - this holds that the Bible should only be regarded as a neat read - "Mainline denominations generally teach that the Bible is God's Word in function, but that it must be interpreted both through the lens of the cultures in which it was originally written, and examined using God-given reason. Mainline Christian groups are often more accepting of other beliefs and faiths." ( emphasis my own).  

If God's Word is regarded in function, no wonder Bill Moyers is the  Mainliner's Pope.  God never wrote speeches for LBJ insisting more kids get sent to Vietnam, after all.  Likewise, God never should the 'good sense' to turn on LBJ when things got uncomfortable.  The heart wants what the heart wants.

America's secularism is rooted in Mainline Protestantism.  Margaret Sanger's genocide of millions has had the full communion and hearty support of Mainline Protestantism.  Gay marriage is merely an adjunct of abortion.

The Episcopal Church in America announced its full and unflagging support for the marriage of Man and Man, or Woman and Woman.  The Episcopal Church has fully evolved and joined abortion and gay marriage in its rituals, doctrines and teachings. Killing an unborn child is blessing.   Wedlock without water - there will be no offspring in a same sex marriage no matter how many times the Rev. Doctor Ragsdale intones over the couple.

An Episcopal pre-school will be little more than a orphanage.






*  Mainline Protestant Income:
  • 25% Reported less than a $30,000 income per year.
  • 21% Reported $30,000-$49,999 per year.
  • 18% Reported $50,000-$74,999 per year.
  • 15% Reported $75,000-$99,999 per year.
  • 21% Reported an income of $100,000 per year or more, compared to only 13 percent of evangelicals.[31]




















Monday, July 09, 2012

Wrongfully Accused of "Tossing Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder"

 The Young Gee. Flynt Taylor of Some Peoples Law Office defended fellow Brown University Alumnus Cleophus " Fastidious" Johnson against the charge of Throwing, Putting, Tossing, or Placing the said overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder, since the 1960's.

Cleo Fast was the lead singer of the very popular and ground breaking  bi-racial vocal quintet - Rice Puddin' N Raisns who covered the song in 1964 formed with two Negro and three WASP Trust-fund white boy singers. Rice Puddin' N' Raisins sang and recorded folks and popular domain favorites and were Ivy League favorites until Woodstock.







C. "Fastidious" Johnson,  seen here with on the extreme sinister side with  colleagues the late- Morton Salt, "Tall Milk" Sorenson,  "Ovaltine" Abercrombie N. Fitch and "Flat" U. Lance when they recorded the chestnut in 1964. The three Swedish American members of the quintet committed suicide and baritone "Ovaltine" died of embarrassment when Gov. Pat Quinn withdrew his nomination to the Illinois Anti-Bullying Panel upon learning that "Ovaltine" had once  teased his own hair. Quinn announced the withdrawl of Mr. Abercrombie N. Fitch's  nomination this past Memorial Day weekend here in Chicago. Fastidious Johnson alone survives


With their recording of Who Threw The Overalls in Mrs.Murphy's Chowder Roman Catholic ethnic working class types - you know, White Flighters - blamed Mr. Johnson.  Gee Flynt Taylor pointed to the long held fact Roman Catholics become racists, sexists torturers of minorities and universal homophobes upon baptism.

The question of Who had, in fact, be spoiled the the pottage with soiled workman's outer-wear has long caused racial antipathy and denial from close-knit Catholic ethnics who sun burn easily. Gee Flynt Taylor, who is universally celebrated lifter of public wallets and voice for the Goddamed always wrongfully accused, took the case of classmate Johnson without going for public monies.  


Gee. Fyint Taylor has stood with Mr. Johnson all these years, as the surviving member of vocal quintet has a lot of money still unspent.

Mr. Johnson was blamed for the affront to Celtic Cuisine immediately after the Rice Puddin' N Raisins version of the song climbed the charts.

Gee. Flynt Taylor points to the very lyrics and the hot-tempered guilty themselves:


Oh the Murphy's gave a party just about a week ago
Everything was plentiful, the Murphy's they're not slow
They treated us like gentlemen, we tried to act the same
But only for what happened, well it was an awful shame
When Mrs. Murphy dished the chowder out
She fainted on the spot
She found a pair of overalls
In the bottom of the pot
Tim Nolan he got rippin' mad
His eyes were bulgin' out
He jumped up on the PI-A-NO
And loudly he did shout
Oh, who threw the overalls in Mrs Murphy's chowder
Nobody spoke, so he shouted all the louder
It's an Irish trick that's true ( Quod Erat Demonstrandum!)I can lick the mick that threw ( House of Screams!)The overalls in Mrs Murphy's chowder
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/b/bing_crosby/who_threw_the_overalls_in_mrs_murphys_chowder.html ]So we dragged the pants from out the soup and laid them on the floor
Each man swore upon his breast he'd ne'er seen them before
They were plastered up with mortar and were worn out at the knee
They'd had their many ups and downs as we could plainly see
When Mrs Murphy she came to she began to cry and pout
She'd had them in the wash that day and forgot to take them outTim Nolan he excused himself for what he'd said that night
So we put music to the words and sang with all our might
Oh, who threw the overalls in Mrs Murphy's chowder
Nobody spoke so we shouted all the louder
It's an Irish trick that's true
I can lick the mick that threw
The overalls in Mrs Murphy's chowder (emphases and commentary Taylor's)
Taylor points to the sworn testimony of Mr. Nolan and the self-damning words of Mrs, Murphy and concluded, " No matter the evidence, They ( You know who They are) will always blame a man of color."

Mr. Johnson spoke to the fifty-plus years of Taylor's personal advocacy and summed things up with this ," Justice is never dished up, because of systemic racism and the fact that were Justice to be, there'd be no payday for Gee.  


Justice served with spuds and gravy.


More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/b/bing_crosby/#share