Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Former Governor Pat Quinn's Quote of the Weak . . .week.



The Quinn-tuplets sing their latest hit - Guy* Got You, Under My Slin

"This is from a millionaire banker who was working for a bank, he was the Midwest Chairman of a bank that helped drive the American economy into the ditch and created the Great Recession," said Governor Pat Quinn. (emphasis my own)

Pat Quinn's keen grasp of the obvious serves him well and keeps Illinois, unborn babies, and the middle class under the knife.

*This Guy


My Take Aways from President's Syria Lecture and Dinner in Heart of Italy



I spent a wonderful day with my President - of Leo High School - visiting St. Cajetan 8th grade boys about the Leo Opportunity ( affordable tuition and transportation)  and later tramping through a parade ground of school buses at Midwest Transit Equipment in Kankakee, IL.  Thanks to the generous outpouring of treasure from Leo Alumni and friends into the Leo Express to Opportunity campaign headed by Leo grad Sam Leno '63, my President had a blank check for the campaign account.  We bought two vehicles - a 72 passenger school bus and a 28 passenger activity bus.

My President was like an Arab and our Midwest Transit  sales manager was most receptive to Leo's needs and knocked off $ 4,500 from the total. cost.  My President acted.

The bus and the activity vehicle are now being painted to attest to Leo High School ownership.  Once out of the sub-Saharan sun and into the AC of my Malibu we celebrated with a couple of bottles of water. I dropped my President off at St. Cajetan's to retrieve his car and then went back to Leo High School to retrieve my cell phone ( left on the desk when I went for a much needed haircut prior to the St. Cajetan's visit - in the heat and humidity what passes for my hair adds nothing much to my manly bearing) and inform a lovely woman that our evening's assignation had moved from Taylor Street to the Heart of Italy - "We are eating at Bacchanalia!!!!  Park on Oakley over by Ald. Moreno's offices and see you at 6PM, Love!"

I know that squeals of delight had more to do with the splendid bill of fare there than anticipation of this freshly shorn widow-man.

The food at every restaurant in Heart of Italy sparks manly tears of joy, but Bacchanalia Ristorante's is especially compelling. We shared ( well, sort of) baked artichoke and parted ways at main course. I taking the road most travelled - *Porterhouse Vesuvio (Charbroiled, Topped with our Signature Vesuvio Sauce & Potatoes) and she with Veal Cutlet Milanese (A crisp Veal Cutlet platter).  Again we spooned in alliance over a platter of the House flagship side - Sautéed Spinach (Spinach Sautéed in Garlic and Spices).  We both hefted home sizeable portions of the delicacies.  My leftovers never seem to live through the night as my 23 year old Son gets home from work shortly after my retirement.  A good meal is not a gorging, but an event marked by talk and punctuated by forkfuls.

Conversation sparkled throughout the shared meal, touching upon the Leo vehicle purchases and the upcoming Leo/Lake Forest Academy Football, abusive male cads and bounders, sacred and choral music, jazz, The Humpday Camel commercial and Syria.

Syria is no place for Americans, no place for indigenous Christians, a horrible place for Jews and what might be the  Arab Spanish Civil War  for another global war. President Obama is finally being understood as the career anointed appointee that is his CV.  The poor man is was and ever shall be in over his head and pay-grade; unless, of course, you are All In With Obama*.

Following the lush meal that only Americans can enjoy, we sat on the benches of Oakley Street and chatted before I accompanied my lovely table mate to her car.  She headed north on Western Ave. to the Congress Expressway and I south to Morgan Park.  I cranked the AC and left the radio on to the President's Syria speech.  I listened attentively and here is what I took away.

President Obama has yet to master History "In World War I, American GIs were among the many thousands killed by deadly gas in the trenches of Europe."

The collective reference, G. I.s, did not come into common parlance  until the 1940's, as American troops were commonly termed Doughboys in WWI. The self-styled rhetorical wonder of a President engaged once again in misrepresenting historical fact., not unlike his gaffe of praising the Navy Corpsemen who saved their Leaterneck brethren in WWII. well, that rhetorical nit picked, The President droned on in syrupy humanitarian tone, crafted no doubt by Samantha Powers, until he poisoned his waterhole with this hypocrital flourish -

" The purpose of this (rhetorical?)  strike would be to deter Assad from using chemical weapons, to degrade his regime’s ability to use them, and to make clear to the world that we will not tolerate their use.
That’s my judgment as Commander-in-Chief. But I’m also the President of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy. So even though I possess the authority to order military strikes, I believed it was right, in the absence of a direct or imminent threat to our security, to take this debate to Congress. I believe our democracy is stronger when the President acts with the support of Congress."   
( emphases my own) Really?  Like HHS mandates, EPA weapons, IRS shenanigans?
Back to the issue - President Obama drew a red-line ( several) against Assad, people were horribly gassed, Congress was tossed the ball, the Administration twisted the need like a Hanover pretzel, 70 % of the public are against any intervention tiny pin-prick or not and Vlad Putin caught John Kerry's Inner Biden.  Now, Putin has brokered a deal what to do . . .""I have, therefore, asked the leaders of Congress to postpone a vote to authorize the use of force while we pursue this diplomatic path. "

Postpone the vote that world demands, for a strike against whom and what?

I took away much more wholesome goodness from the Heart of Italy neighborhood than in all of the empty calories of The President.  My dinner companion took home spinach and veal and I most of the porterhouse, spuds and the sinful artichoke hearts and garlic sauce, from Bachanalia Ristorante. 

From the Syrian Speech?  Much less.


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

The World Music Festival - Catherine Zeta Jones With Her Purse Full of Ruffies Couldn't Drag Me There


For its 15th installment, Chicago's World Music Festival has recovered from its nadir last year—a hastily assembled and underwhelming lineup that was just one by-product of a clumsy administrative overhaul that left the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events basically rudderless at the start of 2012.  . . .Chicago Reader

Rudderless, since 1999 you mean.  The World (Third, n'cest pas) was the handiwork of Lois Weisberg - the octogenarian Highland Park Luck Strike Gal and Culture Vulture who traded in her Cows on Parade for a full out assault on fun. Lois had the late Maggie Daley bully her husband into giving Chicago Special Events to Lois and her surrogates. Chicago was directed to accept Nigerian Thumb Piano cacophonies over Tom Jones with the Mambo Express.  Lois immediately slit the throat of Celtic Fest, Country Music Fest and other activities that people actually enjoyed and attracted revenue to the City coffers.

Ethnic music is wonderful.  The music inspires community dance to the polka, Polanez, Céilidh, or blue grass clog and full throat-ed vocal jump-in - VOooooooLare!  OhOH!  

But is not what culture vultures impose. This is a  PC static music festival and as fun as a lecture on Quantum Mechanics, or most programming on WTTW.

The World Music Festival is the entertainment equivalent of post- Hydro-Colonic pucker contests.  I love music and in my opinion the Third World is as sophisticated musically as a  drunken rodeo clown offering a nice little Chorégraphe russe. Hey, but that's just me. I do get bugged being lectured by tweedy geeks and Euro-trash posers concerning the canons of taste; especially, when such toe tappers as LapLander Goat Bladder Balladiers make the Lakefront sound like a Congress of Vegans following an all you can eat Kimchi Buffet. Oddly, the World Music Festival features musicians who might be considered sing-along pals of Al Qaeda.

Here's some of Headliners
Qawal Najmuddin Saifuddin Brothers World Music Festival
QAWAL NAJMUDDIN SAIFUDDIN & BROTHERS It's been more than a decade since the World Music Festival booked a qawwali group—not that surprising, considering the crippling tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan, where qawwali arose and maintains a dominant cultural position. So it's encouraging to see Qawal Najmuddin Saifuddin bringing this form of Sufi devotional music to Chicago. This group of powerfully voiced brothers from Karachi—Ehtishamuddin Hussain, Zafeeruddin Ahmed, Muhammad Najmuddin, and Saifuddin Mehmood—claim to be blood relations of 13th-century poet and composer Amir Khusrau, widely . . . yadda, yadda, yadda and praise be the Prophet's sphincter.

Debashish Bhattacharya World Music Network Festival Peter Margasak
DEBASHISH BHATTACHARYA Debashish Bhattacharya isn't the first to develop a slide-­guitar practice within the Indian classical tradition—that distinction belongs to his principal mentor, the great Brij Bhushan Kabra  Boy Howdy!!!!! Could Spade Cooley *have used this Buckaroo's twang.

Kardemimmit World Music Festival
KARDEMIMMIT The four young Finnish women in this terrific combo write their own songs, played largely on the kantele (a native zitherlike instrument, here in 15- and 38-string versions), and their inviting, accessible arrangements ring with sweet, precise vocal harmonies. Imagine sitting through a marathon showing of The Third Man  Anyway,  one could get glimpse at some Finn Shins.

Consider the source; please do.  I missed the whimsy of Cows on Parade.   Enduring a-tonal clangs, whizzing and buzzing for forty minutes, or minutes and being expected to search my soul for the darker societal sins while clapping with gusto is not my plate of wholesome offal.

Were the enchanting and available Star of Chicago (the movie), Ms. Catherine Zeta-Jones to offer her alabaster Welsh arm to accompany a night of World Music Festival, I'd demure. Unless, of course, the evening entertainment included Terry McEldowney and Volga Boatmen, or Johnny and the Fat Boys of Polka Nirvanah.


*

Monday, September 09, 2013

The Ballerina and Bicyclist: Rahm Recycles Oberman's Empty Resume with Metra Appointment!



 “I’m not there as a person who rides Metra every day,’’ Oberman, 68, told the Chicago Sun-Times on Sunday. “I’m a bicylist.’’

A Metra rider asked me about Rahm Emanuel's appointment of Marty Oberman to the Metra Board.  I said that was an homage to Dr. Quentin Young and his disciple Abner Mikva.  The ballet of the bicycle!  The photo above pretty much tells it all.  That get up in any neigyhborhood but Lincoln Park would spark thousands of  calls to 911 from concerned parents. 

On Marty it works.

Bicycles were all the rage in Mao's Red China and Progressives want America to return to those thrilling days of yester-year.  The Reds how ever went all Adam Smith recently and are happily killing the biosphere with auto-emissions as well as babies.

In the very special world of the Cook County Progressive, Marty Oberman is the cherry on the bullshit sundae.  A self- stamped Reformer, Oberman is notable for riding bicycles and having occupied the aldermanic sinecure that is the 43rd Ward.  Abner Mikva is the Progressive Wizard of our bankrupt, stooge-stuffed, incompetent and ninnie/nannies of Illinois.

Name a dope in public life: 

  • JanSchakowsky
  • Pat Quinn
  • Rep. Mike Quigley
  • Toni Preckwinkle
  • Rep. Danny Davis
  • Dick Simpson
  • the late Dawn Clark Netsch
  • Barabar Flynn Currie
  • Julie Hamos
  • Deb Mell
  • Deb Shore
  • Forrest Claypool
  • Valerie Jarrett
  • Arne Duncan
  • Desiree Rogers
  • Joe Moore
  • Shelia Simon
and you will find the stamp of the Mikva Challenge all over them.  Progressives (IPI/IVI) are the only protected species in Illinois public biology.  Short of public agreeing with Francis Cardinal George any and all crimes/misdemeanors/slapping the help/or acting ass by these loudly trumpeted blow-hards of "Good Government" gets immediate consignment to the Medill Memory Hole.

Marty Oberman is back!  He is going to be Rahm Emanuel's Metra Guy!  Like Forrest Claypool, who knows absolutely nothing about buses or train-cars, not linked to a boon-doggle with Bombardier, or Ventra Cards, Marty Oberman don't takle no trains - he bikes.

Biking is the street-cred for Reformers, who snap fingers at waitresses, leave no tip and manage to have Chicago's media purse puppies write glowing accounts of their purported brains and hearts. These memes go unchallenged even after a Toni Preckwinkle manages to collect cadavers for Cook County, or a Jan Schakowsky manages to tune-up a young Asian volunteer at an Alexi Giannoulias meet-and-greet, or a Forrest Claypool trolls for an appointment.  That is Reform.

Metra evidently needs to pay Marty Oberman in order to right itself and provide commuters with safe and timely public transportation.  Marty Oberman's CV reads like a Wikipedia entry purged of facts.

Lookee H'yar!


As first General Counsel for the Illinois Racing Board in the 1970s, Oberman investigated corrupt racing interests. From 1975 to 1987, he was known as a voice of independence in the City Council and opponent of Machine regulars during Council Wars.
Oberman also served as chairman of the Mayoral Commission on Labor and Management under Mayor Jane Byrne; as chairman of the Shoreline Protection Commission under Mayor Washington, and, more recently, as a member of Emanuel’s Midway Airport Advisory Council.

Rahm knows money and money comes from Progressives.  Now, politics and actual government in the bad old Machine Days required that people who actually knew anything about, anything could help make a difference - Mayor Ed Kelly was an civil engineer;  Mayor Richard J. Daley was a practiced accountant and budget master with decades of experience in Springfield.  The hair-shirts of Progressive Illinois had ties to fortunes and university faculties and the more radical law firms.  When money (political action committees/foundations/coalitions supported by real estate and banking) trumped competency Reform ( read Goo-goo) replace Machine.  Reform is the flatulent  by product of corned beef and cabbage Ward politics and government - it is loud and drifts with the prevailing winds, befouls the atmosphere and chokes the tax-payer.

Marty Oberman is only now breaking wind with his ten-speed.

Friday, September 06, 2013

Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) - Syria and Peleliu





This week a State Department program dedicated to eliminating the dangers of explosive remnants of war (ERWs) continues to remove bombs, landmines and canisters seventy four years after WWII in Palau Island group.

This week and last week Secretary of State John Kerry has made the rounds of TV news, cable and the United States Congress to make the case of  adding explosives to the surface of Syria.

Syria is a former French colony in the Middle East that evolved to become government for the Assad family of tall male John Cleese look-alikes given to looting and killing Syrians as well as Israel.  The Palua Island group is a lush volcanic chain of islands in the Pacific of which Peleliu is memorable for being turned into charcoal biquet and gave of thousands of Americans in 1944.
In Palau, the non-governmental organization Cleared Ground Demining (CGD) operates a program centered on the island of Peleliu, where for 74 fierce days in late 1944, American forces battled the island’s Japanese defenders.  The scorched earth, and the charred remains of trees and vehicles have long since given way to lush greenery on Peleliu.  A few pillboxes and artillery emplacements still stand, and oil drums, canteens and other war relics still litter the jungle.  However, ERW remain the most dangerous reminders of the fierce combat that swept over the island.  Loose bullets, machine gun bands, mortars and large aerial bombs contrast with the beautiful scenery on land and in the waters around Peleliu, making this picturesque landscape dangerous for the locals, for development and for tourists.  U.S. funding helps CGD to build local capacity to deal with the negative effects of ERW by training Palauan teams to conduct battle area clearance, explosive ordnance disposal spot tasks, and risk education campaigns.  U.S. funding has supported the clearance of suspected hazardous land adjacent to Peleliu’s only power plant, and this coming year, CGD will clear unexploded ordnance (UXO) along a planned pipeline that will supply the residents of Peleliu with running water. -  

The Battle Peleliu was a horrific strategic miscalculation described by military historians as 'unavoidable and unnecessary.' WWII memorrialist Eugene Sledge wrote, " The 1st Marine Division was ordered to seize Peleliu in the Palau Islands, to secure General Douglas MacArthur's right flank for his return to the Philippines. D-Day was 15 September 1944. Our commanding general predicted a three-day battle?a gross miscalculation. The Peleliu campaign turned into one of the bloodiest, most vicious battles of World War II."

Syria has been an Arab Spring meat-grinder for years.  The Assad Family has long been allied to Russia and the Soviet Union before that.  Since Jimmy Carter's American Malaise foreign policy of the late 1970's, Syria has been as tight as ticks with Ayatollah's of Iran.  The Ayatollah's spent their exile years away from the Shah in Paris melding Marxism with Mohammad.  Syria is chock full of chemical weapons, just like the ones used by Saddam Hussein on the Kurds of Iraq.

President Obama is now aware of those Weapons of Mass Destruction and is determined to drop ordinance on Syria.  John Kerry, who dined and cocktailed with Mr. & Mrs. Assad,  is doing his patrician best to see that President Obama gets his wish.

John Kerry's State Department task force on ERWs is cleaning up Peleliu's ordinance.

Peleliu and Syria share the month of September.  The strategists who demanded the invasion Peleliu on Sept 15, 1944 are not unlike the folks who can not give straight answer on the Benghazi massacre that took place on September 11th 2012. Peleliu was taken only with valor and blood in a redundant exercise of ego.

The awful struggle was a testament to the skill and bravery of the Marines against a tenacious foe. But our division intelligence section lacked critical information regarding:
  • The large coral ridge complex, containing more than 500 connecting caves.
  • The enemy plan to conserve manpower and fight a battle of attrition.
  • Enemy plans for intensive night infiltration, greater than Marines had previously experienced.
There had never been anything like Peleliu in the Pacific. It set the stage for the bloodbaths of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. But they had strategic significance. As it turned out, MacArthur walked into the Philippines with little opposition. I shall always harbor a deep sense of bitterness and grief over the suffering and loss of so many fine Marines on Peleliu for no good reason. It was my privilege to fight alongside them, fine, courageous, loyal and dependable men who filled the ranks of the finest division in World War II.
We must never forget them. (emphasis my own)

Sadly, Professor Sledge, the people we elect remember nothing.


Oil paintings of Peleiu by WWII combat artist Tom Lea - I asked my Congressman Dan Lipinski (D 3rd) to vote against this looming Syrian Peleliu.

Wednesday, September 04, 2013

This From Post Feminist Progressive Ireland - Gender Specific ATM Card Abuse

 And she means it!

Get this opener -

"MEN whose abusive partners or wives are not allowing them an ATM card and access to their weekly wages are among the desperate callers to a domestic violence support service."

Men whose abusive partners . . .OR wives ???  Ireland a bog of PC crazy.

Partners First?  Wives? Afterthought.

Anyway.  Guys are limited in their access to ATM free money cards.  And that is spousal abuse. Really?

The men may only be allowed €20 to €30 a week as an “allowance” and must survive on the money, leaving them demoralised and unable to put petrol in their car.
Their hidden plight ( Oh NOW it can told, Dear Reader!) is revealed in the annual report of the support group Amen which is seeing a rise in demand for its services.
One in four men who is contacting  the service say they are being physically abused by their partner or wife.
No kidding.  Men, of whom I number myself, should only in the last circumstances of necessity be allowed a free hand on the wallet, credit card, ready cash, candy dish change, or negotiable bonds, mortgages, agreements and codicils.  Good God, were it not for the superior gender the unevolved heterosexual male would have reduced the economy of every civilization to that of the Arab League, or the more remote quarters of New Guinea with cash spent on lap-dances, the great smell of Brute, Marlboro lite 100s, Chivas, Hennesy, crafty beers, bling as well as property damage and all levels of lien and liability.



Have you ever watched one of us unevolved males pay a visit to the grocery store untethered to wife, daughter, or girlfriend?The cart is stuffed with
  • Salt & Pepper Cashews at $ 7.98 per six oz. plastic re-close able can,  
  • three loaves of beef steak rye bread, 
  • two lbs of corned beef, one pound of Nellies Roast turkey, 
  • Slim Jim Teryaki Beef Flavored Breakfast Oats, 
  • Lobster Salad from the high-end deli,  
  • twenty-five porterhouses, 
  • Brillo Pads, 
  • paper plates, 
  • eight 24 oz. cans of Dinty Moore, 
  • Dr. Pepper (12)/Green River eight litres
  • Hershey's syrup/Log Cabin syrup, syrup of ipecac, 
  • three pounds of Jimmy Deans Spicy sausage, 
  • 12 frozen Doreen's Jalapeno & sausage pizza, 
  • 15 boxes of Jiffy Cornbread mix, 
  • three bottles of Argia B's Mumbo Sauce, 
  • one head of ice berg lettuce
  •  three pound bag of onions, 
  • ten pound bag of Idaho gold spuds, 
  • three trays of sauerkraut pirogi, 
  • one bottle each: Louisiana hot sauce, Tabasco sauce & Buffalo wing sauce,  
  • three pounds of chicken wings.
  • Paper towels - in lieu of napkins
An ATM card is a mere implement to made available to unevolved males by bankers to lay waste to savings accounts.

Women have longs taken the sterner measures in household economies universal. Ireland had at one time exhibited a wholesome honesty and unself-conscious regard for the superior gender, but that was before feminism, rampant Euro-friendly fealty in all matters formerly governed by common sense and abortion on demand.


Friday, August 30, 2013

Don't Send Your Kids to a Private (read Catholic, or Religious) School; Save Your Money for Medicinal Marijuana and ObamaCare, and Don't Forget LaLaPalooza 2014!


Bad parents made their kids go here


Good Parents  send their kids to public schools and save money for Medicinal Marijuana, LaLaPalooza, Pitchfork, Vegan Carry-outs and Indigo Girl Tix.

I read a really goofy Manifesto on Slate by Allison Bendikt and I knew that Bruce Dold of the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board could not wait to re-print it after Eric Zorn shoved it under his nose.  The Tribune Editorial Board and its stable of quirky, edgy and too cool for Catholic school columnists has all the gravitas and discernment of MSNBC.  Here is Ms. Benedikt's attempt at public discourse - premise - Parents who send their kids to private schools ( Catholic, Jewish, Lutheran, Muslim, Dutch Reformed and Suburban Secularist) are bad people.

Allison Benedikt is married to John Cook, who also writes for national Progressive publications like The Nation, Salon, The Republic.  You magazines read by rich people who really hate rich people.

Allison is not as strident as her hubby, who demands that private schools be outlawed just The Reich did in the 1930's.  Allison merely points to bad parents who send their kids to Catholic schools . . .private schools. She's not strident merely judgmental.

I am not an education policy wonk: I’m just judgmental. But it seems to me that if every single parent sent every single child to public school, public schools would improve. This would not happen immediately. It could take generations. Your children and grandchildren might get mediocre educations in the meantime, but it will be worth it, for the eventual common good. (Yes, rich people might cluster. But rich people will always find a way to game the system: That shouldn’t be an argument against an all-in approach to public education any more than it is a case against single-payer health care.)
 So, how would this work exactly? It’s simple! Everyone needs to be invested in our public schools in order for them to get better. Not just lip-service investment, or property tax investment, but real flesh-and-blood-offspring investment. Your local school stinks but you don’t send your child there? Then its badness is just something you deplore in the abstract. Your local school stinks and you do send your child there? I bet you are going to do everything within your power to make it better. . . .( YES WE CAN!!!! SI! SE PUEDE!!!!!) . . .Sorry but I could help myself.Now here comes the payoff!  . . . 
There are a lot of reasons why bad people send their kids to private school. Yes, some do it for prestige or out of loyalty to a long-standing family tradition or because they want their children to eventually work at Slate. But many others go private for religious reasons, or because their kids have behavioral or learning issues, or simply because the public school in their district is not so hot. None of these are compelling reasons. Or, rather, the compelling ones (behavioral or learning issues, wanting a not-subpar school for your child) are exactly why we should all opt in, not out.
Ms. Benedikt notes that she is fine ( perfectly content) with her ignorance of history as well as other public school education afforded gaps in her intellectual capacities.   Catholic schools teach that Ignorance is human, but Stupid is forever.  Ignorance needs to be corrected.  Human aspiration is the result.  A stupid person does not care a whit about what she/he does not know.  Back to paragraph # 1, parenthetical close:

(Yes, rich people might cluster. But rich people will always find a way to game the system: That shouldn’t be an argument against an all-in approach to public education any more than it is a case against single-payer health care.)
Rich people cluster, Catholics muster, but what about all those African American kids like the 90% here at Leo Catholic High School?  They have bad parents, Aunties, Grandmas and GrandPappies?  Bad Sponsors?

Ms. Benedikt admits to the sorry state of American public education in her Manifesto
I  believe in public education, but my district school really isn’t good! you might say. I understand. You want the best for your child, but your child doesn’t need it. If you can afford private school (even if affording means scrimping and saving, or taking out loans), chances are that your spawn will be perfectly fine at a crappy public school. She will have support at home (that’s you!) and all the advantages that go along with being a person whose family can pay for and cares about superior education—the exact kind of family that can help your crappy public school become less crappy. She may not learn as much or be as challenged, but take a deep breath and live with that. Oh, but she’s gifted? Well, then, she’ll really be fine.
My spawn all attended Catholic schools Pre-12 because we are Catholic.  However, were I Wiccan my spawn would have donned Catholic schoolyard jumpers, or Virgin Mary blue polos and navy strides from Zemskis anyway. I love my children, but more than that - I am obligated to their development as Americans.  Americans are not moral relativists, but committed citizens who know that they are not  the center of the Universe. To that end, I must do for my children from conception until I shed my mortal husk.

The total cost for the Catholic schooling of my spawn breaks out like this

Plutocrat Hickey Games the System, or From 1988 - 2014 for Spawn Total of 3

P-8   $ 26,000 in Tuition
P-8   $   6,400 in Books and Fees
9-12 $ 75,000 in Tuition
9-12 $   9,450 in Books and Fees
Spawn Total $ 116,850
My salary range between 1988-2013* Before Mortgage/City/County/State/ Federal Taxes & my Social Security Payments

1988 - $ 22,000
2013 - $ 71,000
* Two Parent Income 1988-1998 ( widowed 1/14/1998 all kids received Social Security Death Benefits monthly and socked away; plus generous gifts from family members in Memoriam)- Single Parent 1998-2013.

The Spawn Payoff - My oldest daughter and her fiance are going to close on house in Oak Lawn next month; my son is taking his Boiler Operations Class prior to his October journeyman's exam for IUOE Local 399 and my baby girl is engaged in the Freshman Seminar at Western Michigan University. All three Spawnies are committed voters ( Anti-Abortion Democrats) tax-payers and free of any criminal record.

That makes me a Bad Parent*.

Ms. Benedikt has cast her thoughts upon the waters of public opinion - good on you, Allison.  The Benedikt Manifesto will aid the Public School Industry's propaganda machine and reach the eyes and ears of millions.

My tens of readers have been offered my homey homily.

So long as whack-jobs continue to be afforded the microphones, the air-time and print shoved in front of  politely silent ( stunned?) audiences, what passes for American thought will continue to be as compelling as the Manifesto: Private School v. Public School in Slate, The New Republic, or The Nation.

Personally, I find more gravitas in periodicals like Jugs and Ammo. 

* One of the most laughable memes employed by the Public School Propaganda Ministry Contra School Choice is tired old saw - " BUT, People, Catholic Schools can kick out kids and have done with them."
Here is an exchange with a young man who lost a brother ( CPS Alum) to gang violence last October and went into a tail spin of truancy - we could not have the young guy back unless he chose to live at Mercy Home for Boys and Girls. Posted to Facebook.
  • Conversation started Thursday

  • (PHOTO Name REMOVED) Thank you for everything you and Mr.Mcgrath did for me last Mr. H, Last year was the roughest year of my life and I'm glad you to (sic) we're there to support and motivate me.. I couldn't express that anymore! Thank You
  • Today
  • Pat Hickey

    You are a fine man, #$%%. God knows the troubles that have beset you in your young life, but He will help you over come anything. Dan and I both miss you. Stay strong. Old Man Hickey



  • ( PHOTO REMOVED )I'll try, that's the best thing I can do
    Times are tough, but only tough people make it past hard times ..
  • Pat Hickey

    You got that right. Fight the goofy impulse and work with your strengths - you are wicked smart, witty and good-hearted - work with that. McGrath and I are here for you 24/7 - Dude.


Thursday, August 29, 2013

I'm Sorry. I Can't Talk Right Now . . .





Look. . .just try and  understand . . . :
I'm having just a splitting Haddock. Yes, there are crepes as well. . .Jesus.




You think this stuff is easy?

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Cardinal George is No Sun Times Columnist!

 

Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago*, past President of the American Conference of Catholic Bishops, internationally honored author and theologian, Oblate of Mary Missionary priest is no newspaper columnist and he certainly is no Progressive member of the Cook County Democratic Party, nor is he any way near a GOP tasseled loafer suburban fence sitter, like Senator Marque Kirque and gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner.

How can a scholar of sacred theology expect to reason with a Mark Brown**, an Eric Zorn, a Carol Marin, a Neil Steinberg, or a Proco Joe Moreno and maintain any semblance of moral high-ground? Recently these folks have opined upon the Secular Redemption of Milliken Don James St. James who merely slaughtered his entire family in 1960's served his time in the nut house, deemed clean, was released, advanced degreed, changed his name and lived anonymously among the folks as respected member of the academic community, not unlike Dr. Josef Mengele or other South Americans of post-Holocaust redemption. Columnist love this American Progressive Gatsby narrative. But that is Columnist Theology.

Today, Mark Brown, one of the very few columnists who actually offers a semblance of a fair shake, recounts his 'cordial' exchange with Cardinal George concerning this summer's hoo-ha over Proco Joe and company's outrage in letter form protesting Catholic Campaign for Human Development's (CCHD) decision to no longer fund the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights( ICIRR).

Mark Brown wrote a searing column that burned the fibers of manly hearts that already agree with him on matters relating to same-sex marriage and scorched the muscles of that vital organ in the womanly breasts of maids and dowagers who equate bike repair with non-Euclidean sex and Civil Rights.

Cardinal George found fault with Mr. Brown's column; hence the 'cordial' dialogue.

George expressed his opinion that the funding cutoff “wouldn’t have been an issue if we weren’t in a campaign for governor.”
That confused me a little, because I certainly would have raised the issue whether there was an election next year or not. The cardinal reiterated that his understanding is that some people want to use gay marriage as an issue in the governor’s race.
I suggested it was his decision to halt funding from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development to the immigrant groups that made this an issue. He rejected that assertion, arguing that the leaders of the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights in effect cut off funding to their own member groups with the decision in May to endorse gay marriage.
You see, Cardinal; George is not only an episcopal and evangelical leader of the Catholic Church in Chicago, but he also happens to be a Chicagoan and someone who can and does read print.

To avoid any confusion, there is a race for governor.  The signer of the hostile and historically damaging Illinois Civil Union Bill, Governor Pat Quinn, lost the May bid to make Same -Sex Marriage the Lincoln Log Cabin for his Reelection, chinking every crack with Progressively pious platitudes.  Quinn is even more unpopular than his enemies who are growing up out of the ground from the dragon's teeth sown by the very forces that own Quinn's political soul - ( SEIU, Planned Parenthood, Dr. Quentin Young, Abner Mikva, the ACLU and Fred Eychaner). We now have Bruce Rauner, a billionaire buccaneer hopping out of Rahm Emanuel's vest pocket as a GOP standard bearer and Bill Daley who gave Rahm his first job.  We have Kwame Raul as a wedge candidate to gobble up Quinn's African American base, if there ever had been such, and a cavalcade gimpy-wimpy GOP dependables.

Now, that is something to confuse one, Mr. Brown.

The Catholic Church has been sanctioned for fire bombing by the DNC, because of its implacable defense of the unborn and traditional marriage.

Cardinal George knows the political landscape and it is hostile.  What passes for an evolved culture in this country finds the Gay Ann Landers, Dan Savage,  to be a sober and thoughtful Catholic voice and it finds the certitude of ethical and moral principles just too mean for a queen. Mark Brown offers his last word on the matter ex-cathedra, or swivel seat, or easy chair in a much less than cordial manner.  Mark Brown wants that to be his column's take away?

The cardinal acknowledged his own characterization of the pope’s comments on gays may have been “jarring,” as I put it, but he said he was frustrated by journalists missing the pope’s point.
“In our culture, ‘Who am I to judge’ means nobody has the right to distinguish right from wrong,” which wasn’t what the pope meant, the cardinal said.
“He was saying that a person who has given up their sinful ways, you don’t judge them. You accept them,” George said. “. . .He started out saying: gay sex is wrong.”
I told the cardinal I never believed for a moment that the pope was changing church policy toward gays, only setting a different tone that was missing from his own approach.
The cardinal expressed frustration that, in the current political climate, Catholics can’t express their opposition to same-sex marriage without being regarded as bigots.
“”When that becomes the criterion for accepting gay and lesbian people, then we’re in the bind we’re in now, which is a real bind,” he said.

No - that is not what a Sun Times reader must take away from the 'coridal' exchange of the columnist and mere Cardinal.  It is this.

"Nobody really expects the Catholic Church to change, only to adapt."

Millions of European Jews were told that very thing. Now, that was some lesson in social evolution . . . very scientific.

* Francis Cardinal George, OMI Education
Bachelor in Theology, University Ottawa
Master in Theology, University Ottawa, 1971
MA in Philosophy, Catholic University America, 1965
PhD in Philosophy, Tulane University, 1970
STD, Pontifical Urban University, Rome, 1989
Career
Ordained priest Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 1963, provincial central region, 1973—1974, vicar general, 1974—1986; coordinator Circle of Fellows Cambridge Center for Study of Faith & Culture, Massachusetts, 1987—1990; ordained bishop, 1990; bishop Diocese of Yakima, Washington, 1990—1996; archbishop Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, 1996—1997, Archdiocese of Chicago, 1997—; elevated to cardinal, 1998; cardinal-priest S. Bartolomeo all'Isola, 1998—
Career Related
Vice president US Conference Catholic Bishops, 2004—; chancellor Catholic Church Extension University St. Mary of Lake, 1997; member Congregation Divine Worship, Discipline of Sacraments, Congregation for Oriental Churches, 2001—, Congregation Institutes, Consecrated Life, Societies Apostolic Life, Pontifical Commission for Cultural Heritage of Church, 1999—, Pontifical Council Cor Unum, 1998, Congregation Evangelization of Peoples, Pontifical Council for Culture, 2004—, Catholic Commission on Intellectual & Cultural Affairs
Creative Works
Author (pastoral letter): Becoming an Evangelizing People, 1997, Dwell in My Love, 2001
Memberships
Mem.: Am. Catholic Philosophical Association, Am. Society Missiologists
Religion
Roman Catholic
Address
Office: Archdiocese of Chgo Pastoral Ctr PO Box 1979 Chicago IL 60690-1979
** Mark Brown

Brown grew up in central Illinois, graduated from Northern Illinois University in 1977 and then attended the Public Affairs Reporting program at University of Illinois-Springfield, then known as Sangamon State, where he was a Sun-Times intern. Brown worked four years at the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa, before joining the Sun-Times full-time in 1982.
At the Sun-Times, Brown worked mainly as a general assignment reporter specializing politics and government, which led him into investigative reporting. In September 2000, Brown began writing his column, which currently appears Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday. One of his strengths is that he has experience covering not only Chicago City Hall, but also Cook County government and the Illinois Statehouse.
Brown, a third-string high school basketball player, grew up obsessed with St. Louis Cardinals baseball, Chicago Bears football and Bradley basketball. Only Bradley has moved down on his radar, replaced by the Bulls.