Let's Remember Prohibtion - The Dawn of the Nanny State

If I remember correctly, yesterday January 16th is the Anniversary of Prohibition - the 18th Amendment, the Great Experiment, a Ken Burns PBS Masterpiece and the Dawn of the American Nanny State.

Americans used to remember.  To Remember is to honor.  Americans are too busy with celebrities, Twitter, IPads, and Echo Chamber thought patterns.

• Remember the Alamo?            'That was a car rental '
• Remember the Maine?            'The main what?'
• Remember Pearl Harbor?       'We dropped the Bomb there?'
• Remember Your Manners?      'Who are YOU to say? @#$% Off, Dude!

Progressives erase historical facts, persons, attitudes, words and thoughts in order to build The Right Side of History - always have and always will.  The need to forget is essential to transforming America from a capitalist, racist war-mongering land of 1%ers to a Harrison Bergeron ( Read the whole story) dystopia ruled by the less-than- 1%-ers: Color not character/Party Not/Worth.

Let's try and remember Prohibition - the 18th Amendment ratified by Utah on January 16th, 1919.

Prohibition was a disaster developed and promulgated by Progressives in the 19th Century - a broad coalition that included Frances Willard's WCTU, Jane Addams, Roger Baldwins ACLU, Methodists, United Church of Christ, Baptists, Congregationalists, the Ku Klux Klan and Planned Parenthood.   The movement to Prohibit the sale and possession of strong drink morphed from a fundamentalist evangelical religious attitude to power politics phenomenon so evident today.

The 18th Amendment was ratified by 36 States and became the law of the land and it was repealed because of the Depression in 1934.  It was a colossal exercise in human misery.  The Progressives no longer use the ballot box.  They employ legislation at the local, state and federal level and they also shop for judges.

One thing they learned from The Great Experiment was - never allow individuals to have a say about anything.

Remember Prohibition.

Remember something. 

Can You Stomach Wright's Content and Context

Jeremiah Wright is no crazier than fellow UCC member and Public Television Ninny Bill Moyers.  They are cut from the very same context - here its is:

The Foundation of Western Civilization is the three-headed demon of Racism. Militarism and Capitalism.

Yesterday Jeremiah Wright made the Dr. Martin Luther King Address at Karen Lewis's MLK Birthday Breakfast.  Wright went all Wright on Obama, who has been an inane drone ever since he tucked a clipboard tightly in his armpit as a comminity organizer, Woods Fund robot, book signer, Dem Back Bencher and Little Miss punching bag for Bobby Rush and Laura Washington.  However. Daffy Wright invoke Dr. King, - Dr King said, "I Have a Dream,“I have a dream,” Obama says, “I have a drone.”

Na, NA,NAHHHH, Go' Dayem!

There's more -

Wright, Obama’s former pastor, called for King’s “revolution of values” and a rejection of the “three-headed demon” of “racism, militarism and capitalism” — the foundations of Western society, he said.

You know:

• Hook Nosed Jews like Spinosa, Maimomedes, Einstein
• Garlic Eatin Eyetalians like Dante Da Vinci and Columbus!
•  Kraut gulping Germans like Beethoven, Schiller, Goethe
• Beer Guzzling BoHunks like Gregor Mendel
• Frenchie Down-lows like Montaigne, Rabelais
• All them Irish Niggahs!
• Crackers like Lincoln, Twain,
• More of them Jews!!!!

He's not crazy and CTU President Karen Lewis is not . . .corpulent.

Lewis defended Wright’s remarks, including the Obama references, saying the pastor’s words need to be seen in a broad context.  “The issue is, how do we put those things in context so we can get to the point where we can have a world that’s healed and perfected, where we don’t have war?” Lewis said.

Have another stack of flap-jacks, Karen.

Dr. King would have loved that gathering of intellectual titans.

Karen, if my would, to use your phrase 'Pisses You Off,' look at the broad context . . . and do have some biscuis and gravy, a couple of Parkerhouse sausage patties, a dozen rashers of crispy bacon and some sticky buns. 

Puppy Love Hates Family: Chicago's Progressive War on Families

         

       Chicago - Home of the Dogs and the People Who Hate Children in their Eateries!

Rahm Emanuel, Deb Mell, Ameya Pawar, Proco Joe Moreno hate families and will do anything in their power to make sure that Breeders (Unevolved Non-Homosexual Couples with Kids) exit the city limits.

Everyone loves dogs. President Obama not only loves pups; he ate one!  My neighbors have dogs and walk them along the tracks on Rockwell Street, armed with ethanol based plastic bags from County Fair and sporting Zip-Lock plastic bags on the mitts to remove the leavings of Seamus, Preckwinkle, or Riddick the Rottweiler.  One guy takes his dumber-than-Arne Duncan Irish Setter to Kennedy Park and hits nine iron shots for the happy goof to chase and retrieve.  I could watch that for hours.  I have.

In Rahm Emanuel's Chicago, Dogs are loved; crying babies are not.

The Chicago Park District was urged Tuesday to create more dog parks for the city’s 600,000 canines — and to lower the fundraising bar for dog owners — after aldermen authorized financing for Chicago’s 21st dog park.
The City Council’s Committee on Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation agreed to contribute $195,081 in “open-space impact fees” collected from local developers to build the nearly half-acre park on a city-owned lot at 1358 W. Monroe. 

The total budget for the park is $910,081, in part because the Park District demands that dog parks be built with artificial turf. That’s in addition to a requirement that local groups of dog owners maintain dog parks.

The evolved people ( local groups of dog owners maintain dog parks) demand grass, but dogs love to romp and roll and recycle their consumed Dog Yummies and Gluten Free Yuppie Dog meals. Yes, Stosh and Stella, there is Yuppie Dog for the 600,000 alleged canine partners in Family Chicago.  Tucker, Jasmine and Ms. Vaginette are just not comfortable romping, rolling and recycling their comestibles on Chicago Park District Astro-Carpets.

The grassroots Puppy-Love Yuppies want natural for their puppies paws, but grass gets torn-up and nitrated when Tucker, Jasmine and Ms. Vaginette Go three leg (male), or dumpster dipped (female).

“The grass — we’ve discovered that it just gets destroyed,” she( CPD bureaucrat Doreen O'Donnell) said.
(Deb) Mell then turned to the maintenance requirement, asking “What happens if the people who signed up to maintain [a dog park] move away or get too busy?”
O’Donnell replied, “Either another group takes on that responsibility or the Park District may revert it back to another park use.”

Hush!

The City Council that apes Rahm's " The Children" Coverall Screed is hell-bent for leather chaps on turning Chicago's Parks envisioned by Danny Burnham as a people's urban haven into Mutt Manhattan.  It took a great group of committed Moms (breeders and wives of cops, firefighters and City workers) from Mount Greenwood to form a private 501(c)3 in order to upgrade playround equipment for human pups.


Four-legged critters have evolved hacks watching their backs.  Here is the attitude of the Progressive writ large

Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th) accused the Park District of setting the bar too high in a city that’s home to more than 600,000 dogs.
“Demographics of the city are changing. People are having children later. Some people are choosing not to have children. People have more dogs. Parks in our city should reflect that. [But] it doesn’t seem like dog-friendly areas are fundamentally part of the Park District’s mission, which puts the cost of raising funds and maintaining dog-friendly areas onto our constituents,” Pawar said.

Who's rubbing Ameya's belly?  

• "The demographics are changing! "SOME people are choosing not to have children -  I smell a huge campaign contribution from Illinois Personal PAC!) 
• "Parks in our city should reflect that. " - Few people; fewer parks
• "[But] it doesn’t seem like dog-friendly areas are fundamentally part of the Park District’s mission, which puts the cost of raising funds and maintaining dog-friendly areas onto our constituents,” - Well, Yeah! Dog's are owned by people, like fish, Pot-bellied pigs, cars, bikes, golf-clubs. Parks are for people, dumb ass; not their accessories. 

First World Issues by a Third World Soul

• I am so tired of seeing infants and toddlers and people who just seem not to care a whit about fashion in places where I choose to dine.
• Why not replace CTA Boss Clayopool with a Ventra Card; thety work about the same
• Arne Duncan can be bought for $ 250,000
• Syndicated News Agregator Rich Miller for far less
• E-Smokes are called a 'Gateway to Addiction and Weed is Medicinal
• I dance for Skittles, or Sour Patch Kids
• No one ever complains about Techno Pop
• I hate White Whine
• After Grenada, I have been losing the War on Women
• Nurses should not wear scrubs anymore, but go back to wearing tight fitting Russ Myer whites and stilleto pumps - don't get me started on Flight Attendants

• Hillary Clinton
• There is only one James Bond in the same way that there is only one Maverick
• Matt Dillon never drew first and never had to answer charges of police toture - neither did CPD Lt. Frank Ballinger
• No television program has ever had a theme to match that of M -Squad

AG. Holder and Pres. Mr. Clean - The Gallagher and Shean of Post Racial, Post Political and Post Toasties America

When these two cronies meet

Why it surely is a treat

The things they say

And the things they do

And the funny way they greet...

"Mr. AG Holder!  I say Mr. AG Holder! No Legal Problems, Mr. AGHolder??"

 Criminal Charges Not Expected in IRS Probe:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation doesn't plan to file criminal charges over the Internal Revenue Service's heightened scrutiny of conservative groups, law-enforcement officials said, a move that likely will only intensify debate over the politically charged scandal.
The officials said investigators didn't find the kind of political bias or "enemy hunting" that would amount to a violation of criminal law. Instead, what emerged during the probe was evidence of a mismanaged bureaucracy enforcing rules about tax-exemption applications it didn't understand, according to the law-enforcement officials.

"  Absotivley Mr. Clean!" 

"Mr. AG Holder!  I say, Mr. AG HOLDER!!!!  Benghazi?"

Attorney General Eric Holder, who is also linked to CCR, has brought in a raft of terrorist lawyers into the Justice Department, including in the No. 3 position and described them as “patriots”.
In Benghazi, some of Obama and Holder’s patriots helped cause the deaths of four Americans.

" Been Golfing, Mr. Clean?"

Cue the band.

An Abortion Every 96 Seconds - Way to Go, America!!!!! You Esss AYYY!!!!

President Obama and the one person he really cares about - Arch Hag and Planned Parenthood Corpse Wrangler Cecile Richards.  They had to give up Doc Gosnell - you gotta bust some eggs to make an omelet.

". . .never before had a state with the authority of its responsible leader decided and announced that a specific human group, including its aged, its women and its children and infants, would be killed as quickly as possible, and then carried through this resolution using every possible means of state power" -Eberhard Jäckel 1986

Well, up until 1986 maybe.

Every single room temperature I. Q.* that manages to get elected to and remain in public office has the support and financial muscle of Planned Parenthood - the Ad Hoc Fourth Branch of Government.

Planned Parenthood has helped script most of the movies coming out of Hollywood over the last four decades ( Roe v. Wade 1973) , placed its President in the White House and managed to convince otherwise kind-hearted souls who love puppied and old briefcases like Illinois Governor Pat Quinn that the slaughter of children is no biggie.

No organization has been so successful in managing and financing the slaughter of human beings with the general approval of the national population, since Albert Speer designed swell buildings and the politically correct managed to create Gemeinschaftsfremde (community aliens).  

We Yanks have only managed to make infants Gemeinschaftsfremde, the Obama White House, the DNC, gutless GOP milksops, Hollywood and the media are hard at work making sure that the disabled, the handicapped, the elderly and mentally vulnerable get their places in the metaphorical boxcars.

As it is Planned Parenthood's Arch-Hag Cecile Richards proudly proclaimed, 

In its latest annual report, released in December, Planned Parenthood says it did 327,166 abortion procedures in the course of one year and 2,197 adoption referrals. That works out to approximately 149 abortions for each adoption referral.
The data comes from an accounting of “patient care” Planned Parenthood says its “affiliate health centers” did in the year that ran from Oct. 1, 2011 to Sept. 30, 2012.
Planned Parenthood says in it new annual report that it received a total of $540.6 million in government grants and reimbursements for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2013. That accounted for almost 45 percent of the organization’s total revenue of $1,210.4.
The 327,166 abortions Planned Parenthood did in the year from Oct. 1, 2011 to Sept, 30, 2012 was down 6,798 abortions from the 333,964 abortions the organization did in the year from Oct. 1, 2010 to Sept. 30 2011.
Still, the 327,166 abortions that Planned Parenthood did from October 2011-September 2012 works out to approximately one abortion every 96 seconds.

Those crying babies in 3 Star hash-houses will be a thing of the past!  Gummers in retirement villages will disappear.  Marriage will be as meaningful as the Magna Charta.  Everyone will have a Vagina!  Like a Polar Vortex can justify killing the nations energy sources, Barack Obama will executive order more dollars to help bring about a Final Solution to all the people that 'best people' just do not like.

Now, that's what some people call hope and change!

I don't.


* e.g. The Following Sex ( in good old Latin) are the mushrooms from Planned Parenthood's garden.

1. Sen. Dick Durbin
2. Gov. Pat Quinn
3. Rep. Jan Schakowsky
4. IL Rep/ Fran Hurley
5. US Sen. Marque Kirque
6. President Barack H. Obama

BBC - A Childless World is a Fullfilled, Happy, and Ever So Wonderful World!

Unevolved and unhappy family and so not cool.

Way evolved and brilliantly happy and ever so much splendid couple.


The BBC was at one time a voice of hope ecoing over the Channel to a Europe occupied by the Planned Parenthood Approved Nazi Germany.  Eugenics is meant to make the world a happier place for fewer people.  Abort defected children and people whom the 'best' people just don't like very much.

How responsible is it to have children in a world whose environmental health is already under stress? That's the question Joanna Benn poses this week in the Green Room. On the other hand, she wonders, will a couple more hungry mouths make much difference?
'I came out of my house last week and got caught up in a fleet of mothers and prams.'

Toss them pram pushing Breeders into an Open Auschwitz!  Damn their eyes!~

 The BBC controls the early morning hours of American Public Radio.  Some people really a enjoy a voice right out of Downton Abbey aping idiocies into the Progressive echo chamber.  The BBC and NPR tend churn out stories about the world epidemic of Christians eating Muslims, wondrous tales of emerging nations taking their baby steps toward totalitarianism and the big chairs at the United Nations, millions of  reports of Israeli bulldozing bullies knocking down the walls of Jericho, Gaza, the Golan Heights and Palestinian Hookah shops, while Irish millionaires rent out yachts and run rockets to Hamas.  All of these is made palatable via the pipes of OX Bridge schooled wanker.  Not only has NPR adopted the swanky wankers from perfidious Albion, but also the cable news hillbillies at CNN and MSNBC. Piers Morgan has down his level best to sink Ted Turner's cable full of Ron Burgundies, while Martin Bashir's anal-fixations went virally toxic at the clown opera called MSNBC.

BritVox Rocks!

Me? Puts me off my feed listening to the platter of manure served up by Jeeves of Airwaves.  I listen to NPR for absurdities.  This morning's offering was a bit much for this single Dad of three, who misses his bride who died in 1998. Open University released its finding that married couples with children are too often busy raising, providing for, feeding, housing clothing, educating and hugging their spawn find less time to knick down to the local for some pintsand Cosmos, take in a U-2 Benefit concert, or experiment in depraved acts of sexual intimacies so graphically re-enacted on BBCs1-2-3 and purchased by HBO.

Childless couples 'have the happiest marriages'... but mothers are happier overall than anyone else
Study finds people without children are more satisfied with their relationships and more likely to feel valued by their partner
Women with children are happiest, and those without are least happy
By contrast, men with children are slightly less happy than those without
Open University findings based on surveys with more than 5,000 people

Here is a link as I could not find the BBC -Brit Vox's interview with Dr.Jacqui Gibbs who also found, not surprisingly, that 'non-heterosexual couples' ( I guess that would be Randy&Andy, or Mac & Sappho) were happiest.

You see; the BBC, NPR, President Obama, George Soros, Gloria Steinem, Planned Parenthood and Dr. Kermit Gosnell know that our world and the 'best people in it' are evolving to the point where this study makes absolute . . .truth.

Me?  Shoot, I still admire Ward Bond and detest abortion and all of its manifestations.. How evolved can that be.

If only that  BavarianSanger paper-hanger had the sense to hire BBC BritVoxed chappies to announce train schedules to Bergen -Belsen maybe things might have worked for 'the best people'' - Nah.

Intercession, Deus Ex Machina, or Trunk Monkey ?

I am blessed to know people of grace and discernment.  Mike Monaghan, an artist and gentleman to the backbone, lives in Galway, Ireland.  Mike shared this video created by deep feeling genius for a television ad.  Here is an example of sharing what is best in the human soul.



There is hope for mankind. Trunk Monkey!

Illinois Denied FEMA Aid for Torando Devastated Towns - Thanks, Obama, Durbin and Quinn!

Washington Illinois Denied FEMA aid - You Didn't Bill That!

The Illinois GOP is a congress of losers - has been so ever since Honest Abe's funeral and always will be. The reason for this being, the Illinois GOP is deathly afraid mopes, stooges, mealy mouthed creeps and grifters.

When Bill Brady allowed Roe & Roeper to bully him into turning over his taxes on demand, in last Guv-Go-Around, he was toast. Brady allowed others to define him and his candidacy.  Just the other day Roe and Roeper pulled billionaire Bruce's flannel lined, relaxed-fit Carhartt britches over the minimum wage nonsense.The FEMA story is tailor-made to nail Pat Quinn's purple tie to the donkies who work for him - they screwed up the FEMA application:

Damage was assessed from Dec. 2 to Dec. 6 and an application was sent by the state of Illinois to the federal government asking for public assistance in effected communities.
Washington Mayor Gary Manier said in the month that’s passed since that assessment, the perception of damage has only escalated.
“Unfortunately, sometimes you have to turn these applications in earlier than before you’ve done due diligence to the entire process and know what your numbers really are,” Manier said Thursday. “Debris removal is probably one of the biggest as far as man-hours and taking debris to the landfill. Everything comes at a cost.
“There’s a lot of unknown costs. We’ve got a little bit better understanding of what we’re going to be facing in the spring, in the next six months or even a year or two out. … It’s an ongoing learning experience for all of us.”
The preliminary damage assessment conducted jointly by federal and state emergency management agencies was $6.1 million in costs in nine counties affected by the storms, far short of the threshold for federal assistance in Illinois of $17.8 million, but an appeal could include costs that weren’t on the original application.

Read more: http://www.mortontimesnews.com/article/20140109/NEWS/140109188/1001/NEWS#ixzz2q673gwDa

Instead, Rauner and the three other'victims' for Governor will mouse out answers prefabbed at Trib Tower and WTTW about Wage and Income Inequality and 'Aren't You Ashamed to be You?'

I have yet to read or hear of one GOP gubernatorial hopeful raise the issue of FEMA's repeated denials of disaster relief aide to Illinois.

• The White House is stuffed with Illinois (read Hyde Park) career grifters, as is the Federal Government itself.

• Senator Dithering Dick Durbin and his stooge GOP lap-dog Marque Kirque are all fired up to rename the ATF Federal Building the Eliot Ness Building - We have waited far too long! -, but they can not get FEMA to come up with the trump to help Washington, Illinois.

• The most unqualified man to ever occupy the White House, Barack H. Obama, spends more time in his native Hawaii, than he does in the Land of Lincoln and writes idiotic Executive Orders to make sure abortion and Trojans are keeping women healthy quicker than 10:30 Mass at Sacred Heart.

• Governor Pat Quinn found his brief case Betsy and a puppy, Rosie, but remains the most inconsequential person in Illinois History.

Worse than my bullets above remains the Illinois GOP.  The only shots they manage to fire are aimed directly at their own toes.

Rauner, Rutherford, Bill 'Loser' Brady, and Dillard are as much the reason for the Illinois Endless Season of Stupid.

Christie and Bridgey

October 2012 - Mitt:'Governor Christie, if I can ever . . .ever do anything . . .to help you as much as you helped me . . .don't even ask.  BTW - I had the dog-gonedest time of a time getting here on that George Washington Bridge . . .only one lane was open outside of this little town. . . can't recalls the name . . .Husky, or Portly? Ask Bridgey, your aide.'

The Guv: ' Bridgey. . .Bridgey.  Yeah, Thanks.'







August 2013 -' Bridgey, Romney gave me a great idea. . . .get this. Put the book down and snap them molars tight . . .Now, Listen.  I am not a bully.''

Beanie Babies, Leo High School and Main Street Entrepreneurship

"It is clear that the quantity of product or of merchandise offered for sale, in proportion to the demand or number of Buyers, is the basis on which is fixed or always supposed to be fixed the actual market prices.. . .  It often happens that many things which actually have this intrinsic value are not sold in the market at that value: That will depend on the humors and fancies of men and on their consumption." Richard Cantillon (168?- 1734)  Irish Father of Modern Economic Theory

Notes from Chiberia - The Big Chill 2014.  I read about Ty Warner's legal problems and thought about the hundreds of dollars spent by the Family Hickey on Beanie Babies and my happy life.

In the mid to late1990's, I lived in Griffith, Indiana. My wife and I were blessed with three children, two girls and a boy and had a very modest bungalow one alley away from main street and three blocks from our parish of St. Mary's church and grammar school.   Mary worked as an art teacher in Hammond and I commuted to Leo High School in Chicago. Every morning we awakened to the great smells of Patty Cake Bakery and Dave & Lee's diner.  I made the trip through the alley to the back door of Patty Cake a couple of days a week and to Dave & Lee's with the Mary and the kids on the weekends.  I love main streets.

The main street of Griffith had an Italian Imports store, a drug store, music store, two insurance agencies,a sporting good store and a barber shop, as well as the municipal center with police and fire.  In nearly every business there began to appear displays of hand sized plush toy animals crafted from bean bag sacks.  Each had a name like Zippy the Zebra, or Bob the Baboon.  They were modestly priced and sold out quicker than an NSA tech aide with a GED.

Word of mouth and niche marketing made this juvenile necessity the commodity of the next ten years.  By the time, we moved to Chicago in 1999 I had baskets of Beanie Babies.  A remember going to a florist on Ridge Road in Highland, Indiana to order flowers for a wake and going with carefully written note to purchase three distinct bean bag toys.  I followed hand written notes and grocery lists from my wife to the letter,   "Don't ask why a purchase is necessary, just get it." Not only were kids buying Beanie Babies, but also adults.  Ladies and some guys collected the plush toys in the same manner as my Irish aunts did Waterford Crystal and Belleek china.

Later, Beanie Babies were modified and stuffed into Happy Meals at McDonald's.  As the kids grew up the Beanie Babies were given away to neighborhood youngsters here in Chicago, donated to St. Vincent De Paul Society, or Vietnam Veterans Charities.  I still shop main street which is Western Avenue between 111th & 99th Streets.  I don't see too many Beanie Babies these days. I learned that the guy who marketed these toys made billions.

He made billions of dollars because he was an entrepreneur - Ty Warner understood the difference between wealth and money.  Wealth is a condition of being; money is a medium of exchange. In the 17th Century an Irish ex patriot by the name of Richard Cantillon crafted the model of entrepreneurship. " Cantillon held that market prices are not immediately decided by intrinsic value, but are derived from supply and demand . . ."

- 
What would you pay for a bean bag shaped like a jackass?   What the market ( happy household full enchanted kids) will bare.  Each Beanie Baby was marketed by a time table and number of the individual species.  They would be available only after an announced date and only in a limited number. You snooze; you lose.

We teach opportunity at Leo High School in Chicago.  We teach the guys who attend Leo that many, many people are backing their play so long as they meet our expectations as students and most of all as men.  College is promoted, but so are the skilled trades and public service and safety vocations. I take some of our more . . .obstreperous young gents for a visit to the boiler room and show them a rudimentary course in heat conduction and tell them what a steam fitter, pipe fitter or stationary engineer can make in a year.   All they need to do is develop a work ethic and learn some math and graduate with level of skill and commitment to be accepted as an apprenticeship.  They are always impressed.  Each day is a Beany Baby.  Leo has been a school of opportunity from the day it opened its doors in 1926.  Leo was a main street school located on 79th Street where every need "from obstetrician to undertaker" was filled according to the orders of its denizens.

Leo High School was considered a business entity as well as a school for young men. Though most of the neighbors living along the main street of 79th street were Roman Catholic, many of businesses were operated by Jewish entrepreneurs - Siegel's pharmacy, Blackman's Jewelry, Morris B. Sachs' Clothing for Men.  These entrepreneurs put skin in the game and were as much a part of the life of the Catholic high school for boys as they were in the community at large. They invested time, treasure and talent in the operation of Leo High School and were rewarded with the patronage of a vast Catholic army of consumers.

Maurice Blackman not only provided rings for Championship Leo football and basketball teams, but hired Hylands, McKeevers, O'Briens and Gerritys to work in his store for tuition and pocket money. The late Jim McKeever ( Leo '54) said the Blackman's were like family to him and taught him as much business and ethical lessons as the Irish Christian Brothers.  The entrepreneur sees wealth, while a hustler sees money.  Wealth is found in values and values create wealth.  Leo students were active in Catholic Action, a social justice club that helped the infirm, the indigent and the incarcerated.  Also, Leo students built aircraft identification models for the War Department through WWII.  Students and main street worked together.

As main street died, so too the wealth of wisdom and community.  CVS, Walgreens and banks with ever changing titles seem to dominate main street.  Corporations sole without a soul.  Schooling has become as blandly faceless as business - Algebra, Geometry, History, Physics, English, Spanish.  Teaching to the tests and aggregate scores now pass for 'education.'

I'd like to see our guys have an opportunity to experience the joy of a sale.  Imagine a 17 year old kid making a close, even if it were a Beanie Baby crafted to look like the Leo Lion at $ 5.75.  The founder of Beanie Babies used shoe leather to place his products in stores and businesses in Griffith Indiana in the early 1990's. 

Man up, Neighbors! We Got Doug Kershaw!

That You Whining Out There!  Look'ee Hyar!



Lo-T, Dude?  Snow too Much, Bub?  Bills to Pay, Cupcake?  Hell, Boy!  We got Doug Kershaw!



Buck Them Blues and Whiney Ways! Ragin' Cajun Show Us the Way!




Let's show 'em Men Are Back, Girls and Boys!

Get over Ourselves! Happy New Year!

Claypool Wouldn't Know the Truth Unless It Came With a Government Paycheck

DNA Erica Demerest photo

Forrest Claypool - say it with me, please " Forrest Claypool."  There; isn't that like a Yoga moment, or cucumbers on the eyelids?

For most Chicago journalists, just saying " Forrest Claypool" is a tonic akin to a seventh grade fat boy getting a Saint Valentine's Day card from a tween stunner - the Hope, Oh the Hope!

You see over the last forty years, Chicago newspapers gave up integrity for access.  Columnists and Editorial Boards care more about the news morsels tossed by a Daley, a Blago,  an Obama, a Rahm, a Mike Quigley, or a Pat Quinn than it does about getting out the full story. Public television and radio, WTTW& WBEZ share the agendas of the elected Progressives who run this city, county and this state and the activists and PACs who help keep them in power, They feed at the same tax-funded trough.

I'm just a working stiff, with a mortgage and a new tax on something I own or don't own every sixty seconds in Cook County. To me, the name " Forrest Clayyyyyyyyyyyypoooooooooool " portends a looming grift - a government sanctioned pinch of my wallet.  Forrest Claypool to my waxless ears is akin to the names of great grifters, cads, bounders, cut-purses and ne'er-do-wells of common culture Reese Kilgore, Butch Cavendish, Velma Valento, Bill Sykes and of course Galworthy's hideous Soames Forsyte. .  Uriah Heep is Congressman Mike Quigley's sole property, though Forrest Claypool would give Wee Mike a run for his money.

Thanks to the capriciously snorting snouts of Chicago's iconic news hounds, Forrest Claypool does not get away with murder, only character assassination of better persons -Amalgamated Transit Union Local #308 Bob Kelly.  Why only yesterday, Forrest Claypool celebrated the continued employment of 65 felons turned CTA apprentices with this -"Despite Mr. Kelly's commitment to end the rail car servicer apprentice program and put his own union members out of work, we've been able to work with Local 241's leadership to find a place for these individuals, guaranteeing them the opportunity to work and put food on their families' tables for another year," CTA President Forrest Claypool said previously." And often.

Robert Kelly has been portrayed in our collective Chicago media as cross between Simon Legree and Sir Percival Glyde, from the moment that the doomsday clock on the Forrest Claypool, Rahm Emanuel, Michael Pfleger CTA School for Felons was announced last March. Though the ex-cons were placed in rail cleaning posts, no one bothered to let the union governing such labor in on the plans.  Kelly wanted the workers placed in the jobs at the Local 308 recommended salaries, but Rahm Pinchpenny Savior and Forrest Claypool chained the workers to Micky D salaries in the name of Saul Alinsky.

But Kelly has said he wanted the CTA to pay the rail workers more money. The 65 rail apprentices are dues-paying union members, but they’re paid a considerably lower wage than their union counterparts, and they don't get benefits.
“What do I say to people when I say you’re going to do the exact same work next to a guy making $25 an hour and benefits, and I'm not going to pay you benefits?" Kelly asked on "Chicago Tonight" recently.
"They're using these people to save money. Give them the right wages, health, pension, benefits. Let’s give these people a real second chance. Let’s do it. I will sign that deal tomorrow, turn these people over, and give them a real shot at life,” Kelly said.

The SPIN fed to the gaping maws of the Chicago news hounds avoids the facts, minutes, calendars and records of Forrest Claypool.  No one from WTTW to Chuck Goudie to Eric Zorn will bother with the facts missing from a good Claypool news feed.

Claypool is such a gutless, sniveller that he and Rahm hired Citizen Michael Pfleger to perform the character hit on Bob Kelly.  Michael Pfleger wrote a Jeremiad on the alleged nasty nature of Bob Kelly in the always complicit Chicago Tribune, followed by an idiotic smear piece about Kelly's daughter winning a scholarship in the Sun Times.  Pfleger led a December protest that included accomplished grifter and activist Rep. Bobby Rush and a score of Pfleger acolytes at the offices of ATU 308, during the Local's Christmas Party. Now, Michael Pfleger has issued a Fatwa on Kelly via one of his FaceBook pages.

Post by Father Michael Pfleger.

Claypool knows enough to duck a working man in an honest forum.  I have never met Bob Kelly, but I have had more than enough personal contact with Forrest Claypool for one lifetime - usually at political fund-raisers for good people in public life who must admit Claypool on the guest list or near their coat tails.  Usually those same people find themselves subject to scurrilous charges on TV or in a column, later to be dropped.

Claypool would not know the truth if it came with a government check.  He does not need to know it.  Forrest Claypool is fine. Rahm Emanuel is fine.  Michael Pfleger is fine.

Chicago?  Not so good.

Robert Kelly?  We shall see.

Don't Be a Butt Flicker; Be A Butt Picker! Show 'Em Your Butts, Illinois Smokers!

Few things make me more astonished to be a resident of Cook County, Illinois than the lengths to which intellectually challenged and socially retarded individuals manage to find huge paying government jobs, especially with the Illinois General Assembly.

I have taught many young people to be good and sober minded citizens in classrooms from Kankakee to Auburn Gresham, even though my humanly flawed soul strays from the path now and then.  I am proud to say that a number of my students have gone on to careers in business, the church, government, the entertainment industry and the arts.  A few have even thanked me for my small part in their achievements and vocations.

A very few have gone on to unhappy lives of missed opportunities and disappointments public and private. One poor chap became a legislator in another State and ended up going to prison for violating the public trust.  He was always a sneaky little bastard.

As the new year dawned, I was compelled to think about the new punitive law in effect at midnight last.  This is the Deb Mell Butt Flicker Public Act:

Cigarette butts
HB 3243, PA 98-0483 Some Illinois residents will likely pledge to quit smoking cigarettes as a New Year’s resolution. Those who don’t may want to resolve not to flick their cigarette butts on the ground, or they could face a hefty fine. Cigarette butts have been added to the litter control act, and those who toss them on the ground could be charged with a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of no less than $50 and up to $1,500.

Now, with advent of the Medical Marijuana Law Illinois ( " . . . Patients must be at least 18 years old to apply for a medical marijuana card through the Illinois Department of Public Health and must prove they have one of 33 serious or chronic conditions specifically listed in the bill. They must have an established relationship with a doctor who approves their use of the drug. Successful applicants will be allowed 2.5 ounces of marijuana per a two-week period. Patients, caregivers, owners and employees of growing operations and dispensaries will all be required to pass background checks Owners of growing operations or dispensaries will be banned from making campaign contributions. "), is a Joint to be considered a Butt?  Is there a The Dude's Exempt Clause?  You know like that compelling scene from Big Lebowski?



( sotta voce - Can't hate Creedence and you can't stop bullshit, in my considered opinion. )

There's more.  A triple- repeat offender could go away to the Iron Hilton and pay up to $25,000 for the crimes committed against Mother Earth, Sanitary Issues, Public Safety and Deb Mell.

I smoke, or did, having resolved with my usual steely will to quit the foul talon-clutch of the Marlboro Man.  Through  my years as a tobacco weed fiend, I managed by dint of good manners and an expansive heart to deposit ciggy refuse in a proper receptacle ( ashtrays public and private, empty beer cans, or field stripped in the manner of a Forest Ranger).  I tended not to smoke in restaurants over the last thirty years and have never once lite one up in the house that shelters my bairns.

Like jaywalking, traffic scofflawing, toxic dumping, drug trafficking, or murdering for hire, I never needed a law or ordinance to know what I should or should not do.  That is because I was not educated in public schools (K-20).  Rather, I was taught by Catholic scholars to be a modestly Catholic scholar - Esse Quam Videre.  

Last spring, while suiting up for the Gay Marriage Warfare and Victory, Deb Mell took the time to amend legislation in the Illinois General Assembly to make sure that butt flickers, a particularly nasty breed of Eco-Vandals, got it good and hard.  Governor Pat Quinn who is always quick to sign his name to any and all idiotic legislation crafted with polling and pie charts from the Paul Simon Institute and fashioned by thought challenged activists and deep feeling snitches like Deb Mell signed this latest law against common sense by Cook County Progressives.

Cook County Progressives awe me.  I have yet to encounter one ( male, female, breeder, LGBTQ, hyphenated Irish, Swede, or Proud Black Brother) that was in any way shape or form an admirable, self-reliant, or nice person.  Yet, otherwise admirable, self-reliant and nice persons who take public office allow them to control Illinois.  Awesome.

That said,  Be not a Deb Mell Law Scofflaw.  Flick no butts from a fixed position, or, God Forefend, moving vehicle.  Don't be Flicker, not for fear of Law's Majesty and Might, butt, because it is the right thing to do.  Be a Butt Picker.  If you, or I, continue to absorb the fumes made fashionable by Walter Raleigh, pick the butt, strip the butt and save the butt for future use -recycle.

Illinois Butt Pickers might want to show Deb Mell and her cosponsors the fruits of being concerned Illinois voters, taxpayers and citizens.

Save your butts and show your butts! Collect your butts in gallon sized zip lock bags; drop them off at Alderman Deb Mell's office, or the offices of Bill's co-sponsors. My own Representative Fran Hurley jumped at the chance to savage butt flickers.

Show them your Butts!  Obey the Law with all of the intelligence and mutual respect it deserves.

Here's who want to see your butts: Show 'Em Your Butts!  It's the Law!
Representative Deborah Mell (D)
Represented the 40th District

Alderman Mell's 33rd Ward Service Office 3649 North Kedzie Chicago, Illinois 60618 Office Hours Monday-Friday 8:00 AM - 5:00PM Ward Night: Wednesdays 5:00 PM - 7:00PM The Ward Office is also open the first Saturday of every month, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM. Please call ahead to confirm office hours.  Former Springfield Office: 247-E Stratton Office Building Springfield, IL   62706 (217) 782-8117 (217) 558-4551 FAX Former District Office: 3657 N. Kedzie Avenue Chicago, IL  60618 (773) 267-2880 (773) 267-2840 FAX

Email: staterep40@gmail.com

Years served: January 2009 - July 2013 Committee assignments: Biography: Full-time legislator; B.A. Political Science and History, Cornell College; California Culinary Academy; Mayor Rahm Emanuel Advisory Council for Human Relations; Award for Activism, National Organization for Women; Howard Brown Cornerstone Award for community excellence. Representative since 2009. Representative Frances Ann Hurley (D) 35th District Springfield Office: 252-W Stratton Office Building Springfield, IL   62706 (217) 782-8200 District Office: 10400 S. Western Chicago, IL  60643 (773) 445-8128 (773) 672-5144 FAX Additional District Addresses Email: repfranhurley@gmail.com Years served: January 2013 - Present Committee assignments: Appropriations-General Service; Cities & Villages; Health Care Licenses; Transportation, Regulation, Roads; Public Safety: Police & Fire Commit. Biography: Full-time state legislator and lifelong resident of the southwest community; graduate of Saint Barnabas Elementary School, Mother McAuley High School, and Saint Xavier University; former aide to Alderman Ginger Rugai and Matthew O’Shea; member of the Saint Christina Parish, Mt. Greenwood Civic Association; former director of the Saint Christina Manna Program and volunteer for Christ Hospital’s Ronald McDonald House, Misercordia, American Cancer Society Yme softball tournament, Bucks for Burn Camp, PADS, Marist High School, Mt. Greenwood Party in the Park, and Merrionette Park Youth Softball; lives in Mt. Greenwood with her three children (Nate, Nick, and Emily).

Representative La Shawn K. Ford (D)
8th District

Springfield Office: 239-E Stratton Office Building Springfield, IL   62706 (217) 782-5962 (217) 557-4502 FAX District Office: 4800 W. Chicago Ave. 2nd Floor Chicago, IL  60651 (773) 378-5902 (773) 378-5903 FAX Additional District Addresses

Email: repford@lashawnford.com

Years served: January 2007 - Present Committee assignments: Appropriations-Human Services; Health Care Availability Access (Vice-Chairperson); Health Care Licenses; Small Business Empowerment & Workfo (Chairperson); Restorative Justice (Chairperson); Tollway Oversight (Vice-Chairperson); Veterans' Affairs. Biography: Real estate entrepreneur and founder of Ford Desired Realty, Inc. Received his B.S. in Education from Loyola University in Chicago. Former history teacher and basketball coach for Chicago Public Schools. Licensed Illinois real estate broker, member of the Chicago and National Association of Realtors, board member of the Austin YMCA, board member of Circle Family Care, board member of the Austin Chamber of Commerce, founding organizer of Zawadi Youth Group, and member of St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church Parish Council and Finance Committee. Representative Elaine Nekritz (D) 57th District Assistant Majority Leader Springfield Office: 245-E Stratton Office Building Springfield, IL   62706 (217) 558-1004 (217) 558-4554 FAX District Office: 830 S. Buffalo Grove Rd. Suite 120 Buffalo Grove, IL  60089 (847) 229-5499 (847) 229-5487 FAX Email: enekritz@repnekritz.org Years served: January 2003 - Present Committee assignments: Environment; Judiciary (Chairperson); Personnel & Pensions (Chairperson). Biography: Attorney; Law Degree from University of Michigan. Her experience includes working as a real estate attorney, later becoming partner, with the law firm of Altheimer and Gray. A community activist, she was chairperson of the Village of Northbrook's Community Relations Commission from 1997 to 2002. A member of the National Council of Jewish Women. She resides in Northbrook with her husband, Barry.

Representative Emanuel Chris Welch (D)
7th District

Springfield Office: 266-S Stratton Office Building Springfield, IL   62706 (217) 782-8120 (217) 524-0448 FAX District Office: 10055 W. Roosevelt Rd. Suite E Westchester, IL  60154 (708) 450-1000 (708) 450-1104 FAX

Email: repwelch@emanuelchriswelch.com

Leo High School Rookie Teacher/Coach Kimberly Hickey 5'/100lbs of Heart

Lisa Black of the Chicago Tribune visited Leo High School before the Christmas break and witnessed what I have been blessed to see every day - a school that matters to the students it serves.  Leo High School's eighty plus years of service to Church, city and country matters, because the focus is always on the young men who come here to learn.

Leo has been home to legendary teachers like Brothers Finch, O'Keefe, Birmingham and Coogan of the Irish Christian Brothers ( 1926-1990) and lay men and women like Jimmy Arenberg, Bill Hession, Bob Foster, Bob Swazt, Tom Joyce, George Cummings, Nancy Finn, Jay Standring, Jack Fitzgerald, Tom O'Malley,  Aurora Latifi and Mike Holmes.  There are hundreds of others, but I feel safe in saying the people listed are legends. A legend is someone who comes to work for the sake of other people.

Lisa Black spent a great deal of time in the halls of Leo where the unfiltered opinion of young men rings the truth of the old school's motto - Facta Non Verba.  Leo High School, from days of Bob Foster's leadership, never puts on a dog and pony show for visitors, much less for the probitive eyes and clear hearing of a professional news reporter.  In the words of President Dan McGrath, "Leo is what it is."  Leo is a home thick with family.  Dan is the Patriarch, Mike Holmes the protective older brother, Aurora Latifi the matriarchal Lion Queen, Board Member and boxing Coach Mike Joyce The Consigliere and Leo's Director of Development, the proud but crazy uncle who sleeps on the fold-out couch.  Well, I do get here early.   Our students spend the happiest hours of their days here at school.  I open the doors for many of them hours before the start of the class day.

Into this close-knit family stepped a pretty little girl at the end of last July.  Kimberly Hickey is all of 5' tall and weighs-in at a romping stomping 100 lbs,  after a George Foreman All You Can Eat breakfast. Miss Hickey teaches math and coaches boxing with Mike Joyce.  Read Lisa Black's story about a legend in the works.

Lisa Black's wonderful story of Leo's Miss Hickey will appear in the Chicago SundayTribune print edition in the Chicagoland section ( Dec. 29,2013).