Friday, October 10, 2014

Tours - A Macro-Historical Victory over Islam, A City in France and Home of a Soldier Saint


Macro-history is an attempt to create a model of the cultural-historical process that will explain historical change for all societies-civilizations. The proposed model operates in the spirit of the social sciences, not as a philosophy, focused on patterns of change and not some goal or end of history. It was developed as an alternative to the various myths of progress current in the West from Liberalism to Marxism, and should be tested both empirically and theoretically.

Hey, that's nice.  I see things from a moving vehicle most times.

I drive the Dan Ryan Expressway every morning (southbound) after picking up Leo High School students on my northbound weave through Englewood, Grand Crossing, Bronzevill, Bridgeport and Canaryville.  At 59th Street, the west side view is dominated by the Gothic magnificence of Chicago Embassy Church, formerly known as St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church.

For decades, this beautiful view was magnified by a gold-leaf statue of a horseman with beggar  by his side.  That statue was blown down by a huge of gust of Chicago wind.  The statue represented n event in th elife of Roman cavalryman stationed in Gaul (France) in 317 AD,  The soldier was MartinSanctus Martinus Turonensis; 316 – 8 November 397) 
He was still an unbaptized catechumen when he was forced to join the army at 15. The Roman army apparently had a law that required sons of veterans to serve in the military. Still, Martin found this so far removed from his desire to be a Christian monk that he had to be held in chains before taking the military oath. Once the oath was administered he felt bound to obey. He was assigned to a ceremonial cavalry unit that protected the emperor and rarely saw combat. Like his father, he became an officer and eventually was assigned to garrison duty in Gaul (present-day France).
Even in the military Martin attempted to live the life of a monk. Though he was entitled to a servant because he was an officer, he insisted on switching roles with his servant, cleaning the servant's boots instead of the other way around!
It was on this garrison duty at Amiens that the event took place that has been portrayed in art throughout the ages. On a bitterly cold winter day, the young tribune Martin rode through the gates, probably dressed in the regalia of his unit -- gleaming, flexible armor, ridged helmet, and a beautiful white cloak whose upper section was lined with lambswool. As he approached the gates he saw a beggar, with clothes so ragged that he was practically naked. The beggar must have been shaking and blue from the cold but no one reached out to help him. Martin, overcome with compassion, took off his mantle. In one quick stroke he slashed the lovely mantle in two with his sword, handed half to the freezing man and wrapped the remainder on his own shoulders. Many in the crowd thought this was so ridiculous a sight that they laughed and jeered but some realized that they were seeing Christian goodness. That night Martin dreamed that he saw Jesus wearing the half mantle he had given the beggar. Jesus said to the angels and saints that surrounded him, "See! this is the mantle that Martin, yet a catechumen, gave me." When he woke, it was the "yet a catechumen" that spurred Martin on and he went immediately to be baptized. He was eighteen years old.

Martin later refused to use his weapons in a coming battle.  He told his commander that he would not spill blood, but he was no coward.  Martin declared, " I am a soldier of Christ."  To prove so, he offered to be placed unarmed and in the front-center of the infantry.  This impressed his leaders, but the enemy surrendered before battle was given and Martin was allowed out of army when his time was up.  He became a priest and most reluctantly, the Bishop of Tours.

Martin of Tours was St. Francis of Assisi one thousand years before that lovable saint was born.  He was a capable administrator, even though he spent a great deal of time tending to the poor and sick and he was also a tireless defender of Catholic teachings, though most persons tended to be druids, or army camp followers of the cult of Mithra.  Martin, a soldier, led from the front and over time his example changed hearts.  Tours became wealthy center of trade and also philanthropy. For the next 400 years Tours flourished in finance, but more so in faith.

During this time, a great challenge to Christianity swept out of the Arabian deserts, conquered Roman Syria  Eygpt, Carthaginian North Africa and most of Spain.  The Sword of Islam wielded by The Prophet and the Caliphate (his successors) forced all other faiths and folk to submit to the Koran or pay the tax, or face beheading.  Most submitted with no problem, or paid up.  No one knows the exact numbers of the decapitated

A group of Germanic gents, The Franks, had settled in Roman occupied Gaul, converted to Christianity, yet retained their warlike impulses for slaughter with the scientific application of martial strategy from the Romans. One especially fierce Christian was Charles of the Austarasian Franks. When the Caliphate moved into Gaul Charles and his like-minded cousins were having none of it. They adopted a strategy.

The Battle of Tours (often called the Battle of Poitiers, but not to be confused with the Battle of Poitiers, 1356) was fought on October 10, 732 between forces under the Frankish leader Charles Martel and a massive invading Islamic army led by Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi Abd al Rahman, near the city of Tours, France. During the battle, the Franks defeated the Islamic army and Emir Abd er Rahman was killed. This battle stopped the northward advance of Islam from the Iberian peninsula, and is considered by most historians to be of macrohistorical importance, in that it halted the Islamic conquests, and preserved Christianity as the controlling faith in Europe, during a period in which Islam was overrunning the remains of the old Roman and Persian Empires. 
Franks, led by Charles Martel. Estimates of the Frankish army defending Gaul vary, but by most accounts were between 15,000 and 75,000. Losses according to St. Denis were about 1,500.
Muslims, between 60,000 and 400,000 cavalry, (most likely closer to the lower number) under Abd er Rahman; besides source differences, this army is difficult to estimate in size, since it was often fractured into raiding parties to carry out the pillaging and plundering of various richly cultured Frankish centers; however, the entire Muslim army was present at Tours by Arab accounts. During the six days he waited to begin the Battle, Abd er Rahman recalled all those columns raiding and pillaging, so that on the seventh day, when by both eastern and western accounts the Battle began, both armies were at full strength. . . . No later Muslim attempts against Asturias or the Franks was made as conflict between what remained of the Umayyad Dynasty, (which was the Umayyad Emirate and then Caliphate of Iberia) and the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad prevented a unified assault on Europe. It would be another 700 years before the Ottomans managed to invade Europe via the Balkans.
Christianity and Western culture was saved.    Art, music, philosophy and architecture continued to reflect man's debt to God and despite the obvious misdeeds of Christian kings and popes and their minions - beautiful music, magnificent paintings and sculpture and the printed word moved men toward things eternal.  Judeo - Christian man lived to aspire as well as submit to God's majesty.  Name a great Muslim composer.

Martin of Tours gave a beggar a cloak and that act gave us a capella song and chaplains.  Both words come from that deed. Imagine if Charles the Frank had decided to cave to the Caliphate. or parse his submission in surrender?  Charles became known as The Hammer - Charles Martel. From his wild loins came a breed that produced Europe's greatest king Charlemagne, or Karl Der Grosse to our German cousins. Charles The Hammer saved the city of Tours and also knowledge of Martin of Tours.



On the Dan Ryan Expressway at 59th Street, just past the L tracks St. Martin of Tours remains in grey limestone pointing back to God.





Thursday, October 09, 2014

Old Schools Football: Mount Carmel v. Leo at the Kroc Center October 10th



It will be Melee Mighty Mangles from every sort of angle, when the Carvan comes into the Lion's House!



The hits will keep happening, of that you may be sure . . .Outcome?  A great game between two Chicago Catholic League traditions when Brown and Cream tries to dominate Orange and Black.

Be at the Kroc Center for two great games

JV - Mount Carmel at Leo 5PM
Varsity - Mount Carmel at Leo 7:30 PM

At the Ray and Joan Kroc Center : Home of the Leo Lions

t's Senior Night at tomorrow's varsity football game against Mt. Carmel at the Kroc Center (1250 W. 119th St., Chicago). Come celebrate our senior class and the last regular home game of the season. Our Frosh-Soph plays at 5:00 p.m. and Varsity at 7:30 p.m.

Take the Dan Ryan from the North or South and exit 119th and go east a few blocks - there is ample parking, so do not be afraid to bring your ample.   

My Vote - This November 4, 2014 in Precinct 23 of the 19th Ward of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois

 

Poll Watcher - "Make sure you fill in the whole circle where you vote, Mr. Hickey."


       This will be the most contrarian vote of my citizenship in these USes of A.  I have voted in every election since I cast my first vote for Tricky Dick in 1972 - thanks so muckinfuch Michael Shakman, Jesse Jackson, Abner Mikva and Billy Singer.

I voted Democrat in every Presidential Election from Carter up to Obama '08.

We have evolved, we are told and my evolution as a voting citizen requires that I choose many fatuous blowhards over more complete blowhards, feebs and dummies.

                                   This is the La Brea Tar pits of Electoral Evolution!


How I will cast my ballot in th early voting follows - my votes are underscored.

                                              General Election Candidate List, November 4, 2014
                                                         Punch No. Party Status Candidate
United States Senator 
1 Democratic Richard J. Durbin Candidate
2 Republican James D. "Jim" Oberweis Candidate         
3 Libertarian Sharon Hansen Candidate

Illinois Governor

Governor & Lieutenant
Democratic Candidate
Pat Quinn &
Paul Vallas

Republican Candidate
Bruce Rauner & 
Evelyn Sanguinetti

 Libertarian Candidate
Chad Grimm &
Alexander Cummings


Attorney General 

Democratic Lisa Madigan Candidate
Republican Paul M. Schimpf Candidate
Libertarian Ben Koyl Candidate


"What is taking him so long?"

Secretary of State 
Democratic Jesse White Candidate
Republican Michael Webster Candidate
Libertarian Christopher Michel Candidate

Comptroller 
Democratic Sheila Simon Candidate
Republican Judy Baar Topinka Candidate
Libertarian Julie Fox Candidate

Treasurer 
Democratic Michael W. Frerichs Candidate
Republican Tom Cross Candidate
31 Libertarian

U.S. Representative, 3rd District 
Democratic Daniel William Lipinski Candidate
Republican Sharon M. Brannigan Candidate

State Senator, 18th District

Democratic Bill Cunningham Candidate
Republican Shaun Colin Murphy Candidate

State Representative, 35th District


Democratic Frances Ann Hurley Candidate
Republican Victor C. Horne Candidate

Unopposed Candidates to County Board -I'll do a write-in where needed; same to judges

Referenda

 General Election Referenda and Local Options

"Shall the minimum wage in Illinois for adults over the age of 18 be raised to $10 per
hour by January 1, 2015?"

Yes

 No

To the Voters of the State of Illinois:

"Shall any health insurance plan in Illinois that provides prescription drug coverage
be required to include prescription birth control as part of that coverage?"
Yes
 No

To the Voters of the State of Illinois:

"Should the Illinois Constitution be amended to require that each school district
receive additional revenue, based on their number of students, from an additional 3%
tax on income greater than one million dollars?"

Yes
 No

To the Voters of the State of Illinois:

"Shall the General Assembly of the State of Illinois appropriate additional funds to
provide necessary mental health services for the people of the State of Illinois?"

Yes
 No


                     To the Voters of Cook County:
Friday, September 05, 2014 Page 23 of 25

"Shall the Illinois General Assembly enact the Illinois Public Safety Act (Senate Bill
3659) which would require universal background checks for firearm transfers and
prohibit the sale and transfer of assault weapons, assault weapon attachments and
high capacity ammunition magazines?"

Yes

 No

To the Voters of Cook County:

"Should the Illinois General Assembly amend the Medical Cannabis Pilot Program
Act to give local municipalities a role in the siting of medical cannabis dispensing
organizations and cultivation centers in its neighborhoods?"

Yes
 No

To the Voters of the City of Chicago:

"Should the State of Illinois account for concentrations of at-risk students living in
poverty or who speak English as a second language when determining how state
resources for education are allocated?"

Yes
 No


There!  I am so happy I could spit.


Wednesday, October 08, 2014

The Irish Sitter: Now This Is One Good Looking Woman! My Love for the late Hazel Lavery



On a painting trip to Brittany in 1904, Lavery, a widower since 1891, met Hazel Martyn (1887-1935), the daughter of a Chicago industrialist of Irish extraction. She was then engaged to a Canadian doctor, who died shortly after their marriage. In 1909 she and Lavery married. Hazel*, a beautiful and fashionable woman who herself liked to draw and paint, became Lavery's most frequent sitter. Her well known face and the characteristic red, purple and gold colour harmonies make The Red Rose immediately recognisable as a portrait of her. However, the canvas was begun in 1892 as a portrait of Mrs William Burrell. In 1912, it was transformed into a portrait of Sarah Bernhardt, and in the early twenties it was, for a brief period, a portrait of Viscountess Curzon.
Lady Hazel Lavery was a rare beauty.  There are many good looking Women and women considered to be sexy.  To me, sexy is never skanky, cheap, over-board or manly.  Men are lumpy hideous creatures only kept in check of the savage natures by beautiful women.

I fell madly in love with Hazel Lavery the first time I cashed in my Travellers Cheques for Irish dough at Shannon Airport.  Poor Ireland went to Euro and back to the Third World.

A01.JPG

Hazel Lavery's looks went on money - Irish money.  Her looks were the corporeal representation of the ideal Irish icon Cathleen Ni Houlihan .

* Hazel Lavery: The portrait to the left is Lady Hazel Lavery (1880-1935). From 1928 to the early 1970’s, Lady Lavery’s portrait adorned all Republic of Ireland banknotes as the female embodiment of mother Ireland. A love for Ireland and a keen interest in Irish politics often brought Mrs. Lavery to Dublin where she assisted the Nationalist cause. With her husband, renowned artist Lord Lavery, she hosted the historic Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 at her home in London which finally brought an end to the Irish War of Independence. Famed for her close friendship with the Irish patriot Michael Collins, she continued to fight for his causes after Collins’ assassination despite threats to her life and unfair comparisons to Kitty O’Shea.

Watching Eamon De Valera dismantle the Treaty and the diplomatic links she had worked so hard to establish, Lady Lavery died in 1935 at the age of 55, believing her life to be utterly without purpose. She received at token of appreciation from the Irish government when they placed her portrait on their currency, the Irish pound, as a ghostly watermark representing love and patriotism.

Ask Me About My Racism




The Beverly Area Planning Association hosted the forum in the wake of racist graffiti that was spray-painted on several cars, garages and buildings over a two-day span beginning late Sept. 19. The Beverly Area Planning Association hosted the forum in the wake of racist graffiti that was spray-painted on several cars, garages and buildings over a two-day span beginning late Sept. 19.DNA Chicago
Now, how did I miss that?

There is nothing that tickles my fancy more than any opportunity to scratch and sniff at the scabs on my see-through- 2nd Generation Irish pelt and considering the horrible systemic racial darkness of my heart.

Me and mine are just about the most low-down, dirty, arm-pit smelling, Hairy Ape nasty, bunch of bull-whip cracking Thornbirds who ever Riverdanced poor colored folks into a Melissa Harris Perry level of righteous outrage to soil Mammy Earth's clean and wholesome gravel.

My racist comings and goings begin upon waking and leaping from my dollar stuffed pillows and mattress and shaving my white privileged mug with a straight razor no stranger to violence and blood.  My infringement upon the Souls of Black Folks begins when I pull into the driveway of a single- mother of two whose car happens to be a victim of race hatred these last three years and expect the poor woman to accept a ride from this ChiRish bully to work. Then, I go to work at an all boys Catholic high school funded almost entirely by my black hearted Irish Cousins, where we do good out of White Flight Guilt alone!

There is no limit to the lengths that I will go to make people of different colors obliged in some dark and twisted expiation for my sins. The only people more active in tormenting African Americans and getting more privilege would be the Jews, according to NPR, Rev. AL and Pork Chop Louie Farahkhan, but Micks take a back seat to none when it comes to racial hate, or race guilt and scab-yanking.  You should hear my Ofay glad-handing bonhommie when I pick up the twelve young black scamps from Englewood to Bronzeville every school day.

I watch every Ken Burns documentary and see the strange fruit swing from every limb in Beverly, Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood enough to no that hatred is the only by product squeezed out of these bones and sinews.  Bill Moyers continues the fine public work begun by William Lloyd Garrision, Jospeh Medill and carried on by Reverend Al Sharpton from Ferguson to 111th & and Rock Island line in Morgan Park.

Any chat about race is a monologue and usually a pretty loud one where I must nod with conviction that I only watch the first twelve minutes of Armistad and the last fifteen minutes of Glory.

It is very important that I recognize that I secretly delight in every act kindness, affliction, raised-eyebrow and every outrage manufacture by Reverend Jackson, or Reverend Al as just another nail added to the White Tower of my privileged life.

Dog whistles, or codes will always catch me out.  People better than me will define me. Gee, black people do not like being defined, from what I hear.  White folks have defined who I am - NPR, Ken Burns, Bill Moyers, Eric Zorn, Carol Marin . . .Gosh I guess we are equal!

The very best people continue to say so.

Wednesday, October 01, 2014

Dick Durbin Affiction - Oral Sphincter of Oddi

Thoughtful? Confused? Bewitched,?Bothered, Bewildered? Caught in a Fib? No. This is an affliction cuased from  a nasty case of  Illinois voter amnesia and untreated hubris.  Senator Dick Durbin's pie-hole remains puckered in confused and much 'pu-upon' martydom due to a career in the Senate marked by pandering, posing, posturing and punishing people he just don't like. The man has swallowed gallons of bile and spleen squeezings, causing a build up of smarm. The resultant malady - a kind of Oral Sphincter of Oddi.

There is a cure for this malady, but it is generally treated by proctological surgeons.  That pucker will remain permanent, unless we all help on Election Day.


The poor wee man. 

$ 45.000 Per Night. 'What a Dump.'



Hey, the price is nice.  George Clooney just popped something like $12 million for his wedding.  If you got it, spend it. Just don't forget to tip 'The Help,' as Illinois Congress critter Jan Schakowsky calls us Helots.

Me?  I like to stay at the Chalet Landhaus on in New Glarus, WI.  The mutuels are outstanding and the breakfast is the Cat's nuts - a total Swiss dish smorgasbord and the rasberry scones are sinful.

Picture

However, swells with some serious coin for disposal might enjoy this get-a-way package.






Nevertheless, SOMEone will bitch.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Cappy Dick sez, "Hey Mateys! Try This Presidential Puzzlement and Win V explain thisaluable Prizes!



"Okay Boys and Girls unravel this brain teaser from President Obama - "I recognize the contradiction in a contradictory land and a contradictory circumstance," Obama said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes." "We are not going to stabilize Syria under the rule of Assad," whose government has committed "terrible atrocities," Obama said.
"On the other hand, in terms of immediate threats to the United States, ISIL, Khorasan Group — those folks could kill Americans."




Time's Up! Here's the clue -  "On the other hand, in terms of immediate threats to the United States, ISIL, Khorasan Group — those folks could kill Americans."

Okay, Mateys!!!!!!!!!  Join the crew next week when President Obama belabors the obvious!!!!!!!!!!



Saturday, September 27, 2014

Now, Who Wants to be Putin Pabst in His Icebox?



“Pabst Blue Ribbon is the quintessential American brand — it represents individualism, egalitarianism, and freedom of expression — all the things that make this country great,” - The Russian owner of Pabst, Ð•Ð²Ð³ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ð¹ Kashper. or Yevgeniy Kashper AKA Eugene Kashper

Kashper’s parents, Jewish refugees from Communist Russia, brought him to the US in 1976 when he was just 6 years old, according to a source close to the entrepreneur.
Kashper went on to study at Columbia University. It was only after graduating from college in 1992 that Kashper set out to build a beer empire in the Eastern bloc.
Now, Kashper is “very concerned about being viewed as Russian” in light of the “recent political climate,” according to the source.
I drank the Mountie as a young scapegrace.  I was a delightful young chap and as merry-hearted as Sigmund Romberg opereretta.



Yes sirree, that's how I see the young scamp whose very entrance to a roomful of boon-chums and toothsome trollops would make the rafters roar with wholesome good fellowship and rollicking song. Often after a a few cheeksful of Drewrys, I'd coax one nd sundry to join me for a jaunt around the Ward in my alligator powered chariot -Mon Bijou! Ubi sunt!

Now to the case at hand.  The issue mind and not the score and four container of cans.

The Mountie was and remains Drewrys Beer.  A malted grain beverage for discerning pintsmen with modest purses. Now, Pabst was a great American beer brewed and distributed by a generous German immigrant family that donated a large estate in Oconomowoc, WI for use of a Catholic novitiate of the Augustinian Order. The family is out of the brewing business and continues charitable work.

Pabst is the beer of choice for the hip and aged.  I have watched old gents and soul patched knit hat cowboys blow the foam from a sudsy growler of Pabst in unison and sweet cross-generational tribute to common tastes.

One of the most energetic patriots I know, Dan Kelley of the north side, attorney, philanthropist, wit and swordsman, quaffs his Pabst with gusto.

However, ownership can breed contempt ( e.g. Trump, Willis, The Cell) for the values of the common man and the chicks he digs.

I'd apply the jewelers eye to the sight of a hefty purchase of Pabst,Red White and Blue, or Lone Star beer these days.  A Ruskie owns them.

No sir, to paraphrase Eliot Rosewater, "I tell you, boys," he went on, "if those Russian landing barges come barging in some day, and there isn't any way to stop 'em, all the phony bastards who get all the good jobs in this country by kissing ass will be down to meet the conquerers with vodka and caviar, offering to do any kind of work the Russians have in mind. And you know who'll take to the woods with hunting knives and Springfields, who'll go on fighting for a hundred years, by God? Drewrys beer drinkers.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Chicago: The World Class City - All Net and No Smelt






Romantics will delight in dining lakeside, with a view so close they can toss a coin into the ageless waters and wish for a love to match.
Economists will adore the prices. Shrimp, fish, oysters and other seafood are not only tasty but also a bargain for the pricey Near North Side.Both types of lovers quickly join the regulars at Rocky`s: anglers with their tackle boxes and police officers who dock department boats at the bait shop near Navy Pier.Among the more popular items are the large, french-fried shrimp ($4.50 a half order) and Rocky`s fish sandwich ($1.50), a treat for those familiar with fast-food versions. While both are prepared in a crunchy batter, the shrimp and fish themselves are moist and tender. -Manuel Galvan, Chicago Tribune 1987

Oh, My God! I'm so excited I could moisten my chinos!  Rahm Emanuel has bullied Jimmy Fallon NO Less into yet another vist to Chicago, A World Class City!

Jimmy Fallon came to Chicago when Skinny Sheahan invited Fallon to take the Polar Plunge for the Special Olympics and Rahm was given the full credit.

That's how it goes in Chicago. Anne McGlone Burke working for the Chicago Park District in 1968 runs the firrst Special Olympics in Soldier Field and the the Kennedy Clan takes credit.

That's how you get World Class, change historical facts, erase landmarks and stick to the narrative.

Chicago 2014 is a city with a silver bean, Pritsker Pavillions, Lois Wesiberg Dancing Dervish diversions, cows on parade, Marilyn Monroe softy-core-porn statuary and no where to grab a bag of fried smelts for under $12.   World Class baby.

Chicago was a town - My Kind of Town, Frank's Kind of Town a town that Billy Sunday could not shut down and one could park without taking out a second mortgage.

I guess I am just a grumpy old man who thinks that Toni Preckwinkle, Pat Quinn, Forrest Claypool and Rahm Emanuel could not carry  Wilson Frost's jockstrap. Shucks, I thought that thirty years ago.

When the Fire Department Gym and Rocky's Shrimp and Smelts were demolished to make room for Navy Pier parking, Chicago went from a Sears Roebuck catalog town to the edgy Abercrombie & Fitch world class city inhabited only by members of Smashing Pumpkins, BillyDec, Chief Keef and Richard Roeper and former Mayor Daley perched on a bench in the Viagra Triangle where he can smoke a stogie, as far as we know. -World Class, baby!

Me, I like smelts.  I like them pan fried, deep fried and when I'm Fully Kreuzened - live.  The absolute best was Rocky's.  Rocky's was the stuff of legend - as architecture and as cuisine.  The Italian family owned fried fish palace operated as a bait-shop, as well as eatery, "It`s named for Joe ``Rocky`` Panzo, who was born in Italy before the turn of the century and came to Chicago during the Roaring `20s. "

Rocky's was open from April Fools Day to Thanksgiving.





In 1981, I took my pal Mark Manning, who was in residency at Grant Hospital to Rocky's. Manning, now a semi-retired surgeon in Del Rio Texas, is a Southie from Boston and no stranger to fine fried fish, as in Kelly's on Revere Beach and the No Name over by 151/2 FishPier in Boston, waxed rhapsodic on Rocky's fare.  He had the clams, (" These OUR CrowHawgs, Hick, not clams!"), the shrimp ("These ain't shrimp they're midget prawns or something.") and then had his first ever smelts. Manning was hooked. . .or netted, by these fresh water sardines. Smelts were his caviar. "Hick, Pal-ey, lets stroll ovah to Rocky's" became his mantra throughout his stay here in Chicago, through his career as an Air Force Surgeon and to his recent call from Texas.  " Rocky's . . .I still get all weepy on that place."

Me too.

I miss alot of the great things that made this town - neighborhood saloons with one choice of draft beer and that great cork smell from the beer soaked and reuseable cork or wood pulp coasters; mom and pop stores, dime stores. butcher markets, pop in bottles, Ward bosses who not only tool a few envelopes, but the time to listen to complaints of anyone in their fiefdom and five very different newspapers who hired good writers.

I love Chicago.  I liked it better when it was a town.



Thursday, September 25, 2014

Doing Austins Part II - Leo High School in Gresham of Chicago and Catholic Schools in Israel



Leo High School is not too far from Israel.



“the loss of Catholic schools would mean that a fundamental part of the Church’s mission of evangelization would disappear completely in the very land where Jesus walked.”  - See more at: 

N.B. - My Augustinian examiner blew an O-ring and thus I must examine what passes for my conscience.

Catholic schools are in danger of disappearing in . . .Israel.

Catholic schools have vanished in Englewood, Auburn, Gresham, Roseland, Grand Crossing . . .in Chicago.

Lemme see, Little Flower High School is now Scott Joplin Middle School, Academy of Our Lady ( Longwood) is International Charter School, Little Flower Grammar School is now Ellison Charter School, Mendel High School is now Gwendolyn Brooks Magnet School  ; Mercy High School, St.Thomas Aquinas High School, Visitation High School, Maria High School, St. Wilibrord High School closed an all but forgotten, and elementary schools of the Archdiocese of Chicago closed, closed, closed.

In a very recent study of Catholic schools in Israel conducted by  Father Jeffrey Burwell, the director of Catholic studies at the University of Manitoba in Canada, and reported in The Cardinal Newman Society, Kimberly Scharfenberger, clear signs of change, or die leaped out at me.

“Catholic schools in both Israel and in the Palestinian Territories, especially in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, are in a precarious predicament,” Fr. Burwell said. “The State of Israel has as its primary concern a deep commitment to care for its Jewish residents. As a result of this understandable perspective, the Israeli government is not altogether concerned with non-Jewish schools.” 
Fr. Burwell added that “the Israeli government can do what it pleases when it comes to Catholic schools.” Catholic schools are in the power of the government, because anything they have “is theirs completely and totally because of Israeli generosity,” he said. ( unlike here in Blaine Amendment Illinois) 
Meanwhile, according to Fr. Burwell, Catholic schools in the Palestinian Territories “are in much more dire financial situations” because Palestine is in the midst of political upheaval and tremendous poverty. “Many Christians are leaving the region, which means that the vast majority of Catholic school teachers are in fact Islamic,” Fr. Burwell explained. “It is self-evident that a poor Catholic school that is largely staffed by Muslims can do very little to embrace the notion of evangelization, particularly as the region itself teeters on social and political unrest.” 

 American society is hostile to Catholic schools.  The bogeyman "Separation of Church & State"  is and has been a Nativist dodge. In fact,  thirty eight States continue to clutch the Blaine Amendment to its collective bosom and prominent among them Illinois. School Choice means Popery!  Catholic schools are supported by Catholic individuals, foundations, friends and the ever rising costs of tuition.

No Catholics; no Catholic schools.  Well, maybe a few, like St. Ignatius and Loyola Academy.   That is the ultimate victory of the Progressive!  Catholics tend to think for themselves and people who think for themselves tend to be . . . not pliable.

Some Catholics would argue that Catholic schools should be for Catholics only or for the conversion of the non-Catholic.Some would opine, " Well, how many of your students at Leo are Catholic?"

I'd say. " Fewer than 10%

Then, Mr. Catholic might ask, "Why should a Catholic support a school of non-Catholics?"

I'd argue, or attempt to point to the fact that, where there are no Catholic schools available, there also is an up-tick in urban killings. More Catholic schools, fewer savage killings.

Catholic schools offer more and cost more than Charter, Magnet and generic public schools - they can say God.   You don't have to believe it, but you will see the God stuff put into action.

Gresham is not too far from Israel, Father Burwell replies, “A Catholic school is, by its very being, a tool for evangelization,

Leo High School opererates because of its generous allies: Alumni, Big Shoulders Fund, and foundations. However, the game is stacked against Leo High School.

There will never be vouchers in this state, because the very catholic politicians who should champion school choice take the coin of the very Anti-Catholic forces who besmear the faith and foundations they trot-out at corned beef and cabbage lunches: Illinois PAC, Planned Parenthood, Fred Eychnaer, public service unions and the teachers unions.

As an inner city, gender specific Catholic high school there is greater competition for students to begin with - St. Rita, Brother Rice and Mount Carmel are within easy reach and those schools boast diverse student populations.    However, the real competition  comes from the increased number of Charter schools - there are six such Charter high schools in  Leo High School's Zipcode.   Charter schools are public schools dressed up like Catholic schools and cost 80% less.

Time to get serious.











                                              


Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Wake up, America! The Way This Cat Do!






Hat Tip tro Miky In

'Doing Austins' With Myself Part I

An Augustinian Examiner ( Austin Friars in UK)

" . . .However, there does not seem to have been any 'proper' exams at Oxford for a degree during Medieval times. A student would be presented before his college chancellor and would then have to swear on oath that he had read certain books on his subject and then nine tutors had to testify on each student's ability within his subject. The student would then have to argue on an academic subject before a Master of Arts - usually an Augustinian monk, thus giving the process its nickname 'doing Austins'. " Medieval Studies
Austin examiner -What is your idea of a Catholic school?  Specifically, What is your vision for a gender specific Catholic college preparatory high school?

Me - Well, to your initial and more general question, a Catholic school tends to be one of the following -

  • a parish school dedicated to the immediate member congregation and operated with revenue from tuition - usually but not always an elementary school
  • a central high school ( co-ed or single gender)operated with subsidies from the Archdiocese*, tuition and substantial fund-raising through institutional advancement activities
  • a religious congregation endowed school/academy supplemented by significant tuition costs and an extraordinary and sophisticated institutional advancement operation
  • An Independent Catholic school/academy endowed by individual Catholics of great wealth and open to largely affluent families with some scholarship opportunities for the financially challenged, but again operated via tuition and substantial fund raising activities
  • Innovative and imaginative religious congregation and corporate sponsored work/study schooling, the San Miguel and Cristo Rey models of the De LaSalle and Jesuit orders
To your second question, I would like to see the development of an endowed Independent Catholic high school open to students from struggling and financially challenged families - a school where the revenue pie chart indicates a larger donations wedge than the tuition slice indicates on Catholic school financial graphs. I believe that young people from the inner city's working classes of all races and creeds deserve a Catholic school opportunity.

Austin Examiner - Please explain what you mean.

Me - Sure, This summer I wrote a wonderful column for the Irish American News.

Austin Examiner - A 'wonderful article,' you say?


Me - Delightful, really.  Do go to my link and enjoy the whole piece, but, in essence, let me summarize the salient point with this passage, When Catholics departed the ( inner City and plagued by violence) neighborhoods, so did the Protestants and Jews. White flight became the all too simplistic neologism that helped further polarize races. Black folks attended smaller, non-institutional churches that did not have the economic infrastructure to provide social outreach for poor people. The big churches were deconsecrated and became real estate blight.
For example, when the Irish Christian brothers parted ways with Leo High School, the monastery on the south west corner of 79th & Sangamon Street was abandoned and became a danger to the community. Leo High School’s President Robert W. Foster ordered the demolition of that building, when it had been broken into, looted of brass, copper and other marketable metals, wiring, wood and stained glass to avoid injury or assault upon our neighbors. It cost Leo High School a great deal of money to do the demolition.
Leo High School also raised money from the Alumni and a few foundations and acquired one whole block of neighboring buildings that had been abandoned as well and developed a recreational field open to the community and used by the school’s athletic teams.
Leo High School remains open, a Catholic institution, because of the grace of God and our Alumni and friends. It is costly, but Leo High School educates wonderful young men who turned the brass door knobs embossed with Christ’s cross. Leo President Dan McGrath raised more support revenue in the last two years than at any time in the school’s history. Most of that revenue went to tuition support and capital improvements. Leo’s revenue pie-chart is upside down – fund raising revenue far exceeds tuition revenue. ( parenthetical my own)
Austin Examiner - Delightful . . .somewhat

Me - In our times, a Catholic central high school  for boys, can serve the families of a thriving neighborhood according to the old financial  template, but with greater difficulty. Catholic schools must constantly raise tuition costs on families in order to stay competitive with elite Magnet and Charter public schools. Taxes allow those two challengers to traditional Catholic schools to offer more 'bells and whistles' in curriculum and activity choices.  While tax revenue to public education bleeds everyone, Catholic and private school families lose an extra quart.

Austin Examiner- Must you be so sanguine? Sorry, just trying to lighten the moment.

Me- (with generous wave of my generous palm) Not at all Frater, as Magne Pater Augustine chanted, 'Qui cantat, bis orat.'

Austin Examiner - That will about do -now, continue, please.

Me - Hey, look Hard Collar and Hood, you started the waltz with your quip about my metaphorical conceit.

Austin Examiner - Yes, yes,  "I started a joke / Which started the whole world crying / But I didn't see / That the ...

Me- Hey, cincture belly!  Level off!  Hey,  . . .well, take this up later. Calm down, Man.  Here, drink this. It's Canfields . . .Seltzer . . lime.   Sorry about the Bee Gees number everybody. . .no really.  Can't stand them Brothers Gibbs. . . .




 * Subsidies ended during the episcopate of Cardinal Bernardin

Friday, September 19, 2014

This is How An Emerged Nation Governs - 85% of the Vote and No Beheadings, Massacres, or Explosions! Scotland the Brave



I listened to NPR for the results of the Scots Vote on staying in the United Kingdom.  Yesterday. NPR was all Scotland and a Blue and White ' Yes!'

Today, I needed to drive from 108th & Rockwell to 83rd & Wood Street ( Zipcode 60655-60620 mind you) , or 4.2 Miles in 11 minutes.  In that time, NPR droned out three stories 'from emerging nations.'

They were yarns of UN Aid workers in West Africa slaughtered while educating folks on the dangers of ebola, Siera Leon went on Ebola lock-down and Iran's lashing of happy dancers.

I turned to News Radio 780 AM and finally learned that Scotland Vote "Nae" by at least 10%.

Scotland was passionate about the vote and witnessed an 85% turnout of the vote.  That is Democracy unencumered by parsing of ninnies.  People hold strong opinions and vote on it in a Democracy.  In 'Emerging Nations' they slaughter the closest carbob foot-print, take to the hills, jungles and deserts and wait for a BBC World service crew to record the leadership of the slaughterers to offer a Foucaultian Derrida Lah Dee Dah presis on ravages of 19th Century Euro-colonialism to the African Continent that sparked the massacre,

The BBC and NPR drown us in scab-yanking yarns of suffering from Emerging Nations.  I have a cauliflowed set of ears as a result.

When these Nations finally " Emerge" -then lets celebrate diversity.  Until then, people from Emerging Nations will want to live in a Demcracy like Scotland and the United States. . .for a few years anyway.
After which, the BBC and NPR will 'explan' the ravages of Democracy.

Well Done Scotland!  You are no where near as Balkanized as us Yanks.



Wednesday, September 17, 2014

I'm No Thomas Friedman and Obama is No TR - Not Even a Wilson

 
Marines and sailors showing the flag in Vera Cruz 1914.
Using military force against an enemy to punish, avenge a wrong, as retribution is a timeless cause of armed conflict. There are many examples throughout history of successful punitiveoperations. Analyzing historical punitive expeditions for the elements that made them successful or unsuccessful can aid future military and government leaders in framing strategic and operational conflicts, and serve as a backplane for attempting to understand the nature of punitive expeditions and strikes. - Punishment, Revenge, and Retribution: A Historical Analysis of Punitive Operations MAJ Brandon D Newton U.S.Army
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times coined the term 'The Arab Spring" which followed in the wake of President Barack H. Obama's  nicely ironic Cairo Speech and his now wildly ironic Apology Tours.  The Arab Spring was intended to signal the triumph of the Obama Doctrine over two hundred years of American Foreign Policy.  The Arab Spring was the mythical dance between Islam and Democracy - it was no walz.  Rather, the Arab Spring became conga line lead by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Al Queda and the Wahabbist mullahs - a wholly owned subsidiary of the Saudi Royal Family.  Egypt was only saved from anarchy and Shariah theocracy by the military.  Elsewhere, the Arab and Levantine worlds gushed blood, while America went all Dunkirk in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Obama Sesame Street Diplomacy mouthed by then Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and now John Kerry holds that while it might be necessary to whack a few Taliban/Al Queda and now Isis(l) moles with drone dropped ordnance, diversity and inclusive hugs will make a better world.  Following the beheadings of two American and one British citizen by ISIS(L) knifemen, President Obama  bleated the CAIR meme, " The Islamist State is not Islamic"  Such noggin numbing logic would also lead one to believe that the Nazis were not National Socialists and Caliphate don't need no Caliph.

When 9/11 took place the Bush family helped spirit the bin Laden clan out of the states so as not to harm the family noted for their piety and concrete pouring artistry, because of crazy uncle Osama.  Shortly we learned that the 9/11 monsters were almost universally Saudi, like Osama and that one of many Saudi Princes offered Rudy Giuliani some dough which he tossed back in that worthy's soul-patched mug.

The Saudi Royals have underwritten the Wahhabi blood- flavored doctrines by barely literate mullahs and exported the strict constructionist Qu'ranic verses worldwide.

I really rather foolishly believed at the time that President Bush would Delta Force the hell out of Saudi agents of change.  Instead, we feinted to Kabul and returned to Baghdad with Senator Barack Obama and MSNBC the only victors.

So here we are today - American fighting persons are returning to Iraq and Syria while levitating above the rocks and sands like St. Joseph of Cupertino: Numbers to be determined on a Case-to Case Basis. Three thousand military folks will be going to West Africa to war on Ebola.

So, early this morning I read Thomas Friedman and it seems he and I are in complete agreement . . .well kinda.  Thomas Friedman wants no Imperialistic Ventures Part III - no how and no way.  He believes that Arab Existentialists  will sort things out for themselves.
LONDON — An existential struggle is taking place in the Arab world today. But is it ours or is it theirs? Before we step up military action in Iraq and Syria, that’s the question that needs answering.
What concerns me most about President Obama’s decision to re-engage in Iraq is that it feels as if it’s being done in response to some deliberately exaggerated fears — fear engendered by YouTube videos of the beheadings of two U.S. journalists — and fear that ISIS, a.k.a., the Islamic State, is coming to a mall near you. How did we start getting so afraid again so fast? Didn’t we build a Department of Homeland Security?
I am not dismissing ISIS. Obama is right that ISIS needs to be degraded and destroyed. But when you act out of fear, you don’t think strategically and you glide over essential questions, like why is it that Shiite Iran, which helped trigger this whole Sunni rebellion in Iraq, is scoffing at even coordinating with us, and Turkey and some Arab states are setting limits on their involvement?
I agree wholly, Brother Friedman.  The Saudis, Turks and Emirs du jour will again sit this one out, because  - -  
This is a war over the soul of Islam — that is what differentiates this moment from all others,” argues Ahmad Khalidi, a Palestinian scholar associated with St. Antony’s College, Oxford. Here is why: For decades, Saudi Arabia has been the top funder of the mosques and schools throughout the Muslim world that promote the most puritanical version of Islam, known as Salafism, which is hostile to modernity, women and religious pluralism, or even Islamic pluralism.audi financing for these groups is a byproduct of the ruling bargain there between the al-Saud family and its Salafist religious establishment, known as the Wahhabis. The al-Sauds get to rule and live how they like behind walls, and the Wahhabis get to propagate Salafist Islam both inside Saudi Arabia and across the Muslim world, using Saudi oil wealth. Saudi Arabia is, in effect, helping to fund both the war against ISIS and the Islamist ideology that creates ISIS members (some 1,000 Saudis are believed to be fighting with jihadist groups in Syria), through Salafist mosques in Europe, Pakistan, Central Asia and the Arab world.
Yep and then some.

I am no Thomas Friedman.  I could never have come up with the notion of an Arab Spring brought to you by the nephews of the Grand Mufti who escaped the Nuremberg Trials.  No sir.  I am no sophisticate.

I could never bring myself to call a adjunct lecturer filling a U of C Law School slot as a solid to real estate slum lord Allison Davis and slum lady Valerie Jarret, a Professor - President and Nobel Laureate or not.
Woodrow Wilson was a professor.

Woodrow Wilson was the grandpa of Obama's political coating - a Progressive. Woodrow could reform the hell out of stuff and still enjoy The Birth of a Nation. Wilson was one complex Orangeman.  He would defend democracy at the drop of his silk hat.  Sent the battleship USS Florida sailing into Vera Cruz when dictator Presidente Huerta kidnapped  a score of Americans and then sent Black Jack Pershing after Pancho Villa when he shot up Columbus, NM.

These were punitive expeditions*.  Even a milquetoast like Prof. Woodrow Wilson worked up some gunboat diplomacy and maintained American power in Latin America.  Huerta was no Assad and Pancho Villa, my favorite Mexican patriot, was far from the likes of the Islamist savages; yet, they needed a good bruising.

I wish GW Bush had done so instead of Nation building where there are only desert tribes and self-interest sheiks.

President Obama is no Jefferson, no Monroe, No Teddy Roosevelt and no Wilson.  He is an over-reaching narcissist and a resume inflating empty suit deathly afraid of Valerie Jarrett.

ISIS(L) could use a brief and very thorough punitive expedition.  Once every ISIS(L) caliph in waiting was sent home to the Prophet, every chastising  military person would come home to a heroes welcome, a nice rest, a little something extra in the pay envelop and wait for the next punitive expedition** against directed against anyone foolish enough to kidnap, or kill Americans.

*  Notable punitive expeditions[edit]

The French Navy raids San Juan de Ulua (Mexico) during the Pastry War (1838).
In the 13th century Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, sent emissaries demanding tribute from the Singhasari kingdom of Java. The ruler of the Singhasari kingdom, Kertanagara, refused to pay tribute and tattooed a Chinese messenger, Meng Qi, on his face. A punitive expedition sent by Kublai Khan arrived off the coast of Java in 1293. Jayakatwang, a rebel from Kediri, had killed Kertanagara by that time. The Mongols allied with Raden Wijaya of Majapahit against Jayakatwang and, once the Singhasari kingdom was destroyed, Wijaya turned against the Mongols and forced them to withdraw in confusion.
In 1599 the Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate ordered his nephew Vincente de Zaldivar to engage in a punitive expedition against the Keres natives of Acoma Pueblo. When the Spanish arrived, they fought a three-day battle with the Keres leaving about 800 men, women and children dead.
During the First Anglo-Powhatan War (1610–14), Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr (1577–1618), an English nobleman was appointed Virginia's first royal governor and ordered to defend the colony against the Powhatan. Lord de la Warr waged a punitive campaign to subdue the Powhatan after they had killed the colony’s council president, John Ratcliffe. His tactics against the Indians proved effective and included raiding their villages, burning their homes, torching their cornfields and crops, and plundering their provisions.
From 1838 to 1842 ships of the United States Exploring Expedition engaged in three punitive expeditions against Pacific islanders.
The First Opium War (1839-42), in retaliation of the burning of opiate products by Commissioner Lin Zexu, which resulted in the opening of a number of ports, the cession of Hong Kong to Great Britain, and the Treaty of Nanjing.
The 1842 Ivory Coast Expedition was led by Matthew C. Perry against the Bereby people of West Africa after two attacks on American merchant ships.
The French Campaign against Korea in 1866, a response to the earlier execution by Korea of French priests proselytizing in Korea.
The 1867 Formosa Expedition, a failed punitive operation of the United States.
The United States expedition to Korea in 1871, in retaliation to the General Sherman incident, where a U.S. merchant ship was burned as it entered Pyongyang.
The 1874 Japanese expedition against Formosa.
Benin Expedition of 1897 British punitive action that led to the annexation of the Kingdom of Benin. The New York Times reported on January 13, 1897 that a "punitive expedition" would be formed to "punish the murderers of the Benin City expedition."
The Pancho Villa Expedition from 1916 to 1917, led by General John J. Pershing, was an operation in retaliation against Pancho Villa's incursion into United States.
Suppression of the 1920 Iraqi Revolt against the British Mandate of Mesopotamia,
The 1979 invasion of Vietnam by China was characterised by Deng Xiaoping as an act of punishment necessitated by Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia, saying that "Children who don't listen have to be spanked."
 ** 
The killing or wounding or capture of those opposed to us and the destruction of their property. The destruction of the property of those who aid and abet those hostile to us. The laying waste of entire sections inhabited by people generally supporting those hostile to us. The removal and dispersion of all of the inhabitants of an area of unrest
Major Harold H. Utley, “An Introduction to the Tactics and Techniques of Small Wars.” Marine 
Corps Gazette 16, no. 1 (May 1931): 51. 

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Rauner, The Illinois GOP and Me

 
Rauner said if elected, he would partner with Michael Shakman to work out a settlement that includes a federal hiring monitor. His remarks came after Quinn on Friday released the names of more than 100 clouted state transportation employees who were part of what the state’s top ethics watchdog dubbed an improper hiring scheme. Quinn also said he would keep the 103 IDOT employees on the payroll.  Sun Times
Here on the south side, we have an odd custom.  Let's say, I am walking up to County Fair and my neighbor Mike Regan is driving by me on the way from that great grocery and without looking at me fires his arm out of the driver's side window and at the end of that limb is The FINGER!

Do I get upset and worrying that I might have offended Mike?  Not at all.

Or, let's say I am walking to Kean Gas at 111th & Talman and I hear familiar voice 'Hickey, You ugly old A$$hole!'  Do I recoil in horror at this attempt to define me. Not in the least.  It is a kinsmen voicing this ave.  Cousin Bub coming from Cardinal Fitness over by Maplewood.  We are odd ducks who salute one another with jocular offense and the towel snapping familiarity of friends who know every wart on our fannies.  This is a closed circle.

I am an UnEvolved Democrat*.  That means that I continue to think that life begins at conception, Communism is still a huge threat to the American worker, government should protect people and not enrich sycophants and reward the  demographic du jour and that Republicans are the political party that blows off its own toes.

Abortion was once only acceptable to people like Chuck Percy.  Communists were only electable in Hyde Park. Sycophants were only kept around by Ward bosses for laughs and never boosted to seats on the County Board, or made President of the Chicago Transit Authority every political job holder whether white, blue, or scoop collar beefed about every other race, creed and color's prestige in the Cook County hierarchy. The Irish Catholic is was and shall always be universally loathed and largely shrugged off.

Michael Shakman, a Hyde Park Democrat, changed utterly the Democratic Celtic Twilight of the Daleys et al. and continues to defraud Cook County and the State of Illinois of millions of dollars. Shakman begot every goof in government from Dick Simpson to Pat Quinn.  The Ward organizations no longer exist, but talentless grifters have amasssed numerous pensions for jobs not done from death of Old Man Daley up to the cuurent Carpetbagger on the Fifth Floor. When Cook County residents bolt rigid with shock at each despoiling of their way of life and stutter,'It Can't Get Any Worse'  a Martin Oberman, or a Forrest Claypool lands new Six Figure sinecure with all of perks.

Then there are the Republicans.  The once free-booting back-slappers of Du Page County who ruled
suburbia and downstate from Governors Len Small to Jim Edgar have devolved to a race of bloodless toadies who allow anyone (Eric Zorn, Carol Marin, Pat Quinn, or Sheila Simon for God's sake) to define them.

In his race to lose against the historically hapless Gov. Pat Quinn 2010, Rep. Pat Brady allowed Roe Conn and Richard Roeper to define him as a tax suspect as well as the monstrous master of Pat Quinn Boss Terry Cosgrove of Planned Parenthood to define him as a Lady Hater.

If you are going to succeed in Illinois as GOP office holder, one must be defined and like it.

Only Judy Baar Topinka is a bullet proof because she will dance the polka with any definer. 'Want babies dead? You got it.'

Billionaire Bruce Rauner is in the race to lose against the historically hapless Governor Pat Quinn and he is not only allowing himself to be defined, but he is going full Topinka.  Trying to belittle Pat Quinn is like trying to define the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. God handled both.

Then Bruce Rauner, the Cathcart festooned, beater driving plutocrat wine-guzzler, goes even goofier than Quinn by pledging more tax-dollars to the four-eyed bandit Michael Shakman

Why am I not a Republican?

I will not be defined by people who don't know me, don't like me, or don't get me.


* AKA Reagan Democrat, Close-Knit Ethnic Democrat, 19th Ward Democrat

Friday, September 12, 2014

Obama Getting the Help of the Saudis is like Taking Dust Buster to the Desert.


Caller- Do You Have Prince Abdullah in the Can?

Respondant - No! Diplomatic Immunity!

NYT - BEIRUT, Lebanon — Many Arab governments grumbled quietly in 2011 as the United States left Iraq, fearful it might fall deeper into chaos or Iranian influence. Now, the United States is back and getting a less than enthusiastic welcome, with leading allies like Egypt, Jordan and Turkey all finding ways on Thursday to avoid specific commitments to President Obama’s expanded military campaign against Sunni extremists.

ISIS(L) is the nasty spawn of the Wahabbist Mullahs paid for by the Saudi Royal Family.  Booze and Oil don't mix as any State Policeman can tell you.  The more booze carburetted through an oil pipeline the greater the danger.

For years, I have considered the Saudi Royals to be the world's turd in the punchbowl.  In the early 1990's, while teaching at La Lumiere School in Indiana, young teachers who were unhappy with their low pay and long hours would scan the help wanted adds in the Independent Schools Magazine, published by NAIS and plunk inviting adds featuring "Great Pay and Adventure Teaching English in Saudi Royal Schools - Apply Now!" under my nose in the Main House during the three squares a day meals included in our contract agreement, as well as housing, insurance, great retirement benefits and a magnificent rural lakeside setting.

Hoary old Hickey ( late 30's and early '40's at the time) would offer, " Are you out of your @#$%ing Mind?"

Let's see one - This place is gorgeous and you'd want to go . . .to . . .this?"

There would follow litany of  stuff I knew. Here's a few capital gems:
A range of offenses can doom a subject to execution, including murder, drug dealing, repeated drug use, armed robbery, rape and sexual misconduct like sodomy and adultery. Religious offenses, including sorcery, false prophecy, apostasy and blasphemy can and sometimes do bring death sentences, but are more often dealt with by lengthy or lifetime prison terms.
My brother, a master carpenter, had been offered tax-sheltered work in Saudi Arabia and had done his due diligence.  My Bro is a tee-totaller and devout Mass going Catholic. He gave the offer the back of his hand.

I explained this to the young academic bounders who repaired to what passed for dens of exotic adventure in Rolling Prairie, Hudson Lake, La Porte, Michigan City in Indiana and New Buffalo Michigan the nano second they were 'off duty.' at the school. They too drew sober wind at the thought of a year and change under Shariah Law.

You see, the Arabs loved too booze as much as the Amish, but they do did it on sneak after 1952.  Here's why.

In recent years, Saudi-funded Islamicisation has had some notable triumphs – particularly when it comes to alcohol, which has always been near the top of the Wahhabi hit list, in spite of the fact that Saudis themselves often succumb to drunkenness, alcoholism, and, more recently, massive and widespread drug abuse. Alcohol was actually permitted in Saudi Arabia up until 1952. Two things happened that stopped the party. Firstly, one of King Abdullaziz's sons - Nasir - made an extended trip to America, and learnt to appreciate wine, women and song. Upon his return, the carousing continued with a series of orgies, famously involving men and women. The partying stopped abruptly one night, when the spirits consumed in vast amounts ended up killing seven, including women.
For this Nasir was beaten and imprisoned, but alcohol remained legal - the reveling Saudi elite really didn't want a dry state. The last straw was placed in the camel's back in 1952 when Nasir's brother Mishari – also a dissolute libertine – got himself so drunk that he went out and shot the British consul dead, also wounding his wife. The long-suffering King had had enough, and alcohol was banned. From that date onwards, the Saudi authorities made a virtue out of necessity and preached the evils of alcohol, gaining renewed support from the Wahhabi mullahs, whom the Saudi royal family used thenceforth as a highly effective thought police. Just as the later Talibans found, Desert Islam is not only a highly effective method of social and political control, but it legitimates exploitative and despotic administrative practices. Of course, the ruling elite carried on just as before with their ongoing alcohol-fueled orgies, rapes and paedophilia, but the official line was that alcohol was an evil. Saudi was on the wagon.
One of the first countries to be hit by Saudi double standards was Kuwait, which was severely strapped for cash in the 1960s. Their Saudi cousins offered to help, on condition that this small country – once a drinker's paradise – banned alcohol outright. The Kuwaitis accepted the money, shut down the bars and watched as mosque after mosque popped up, spouting jihad. This development was ironic considering that, barring the Saudis, the Kuwaitis were the most notorious drunks in the Arab world. Time magazine vividly captured the chaotic aftermath of the introduction of the ban:
A month ago the oil-rich sheikdom of Kuwait banned all liquor within its borders, and since then many of its thirsty citizens have been drinking everything in sight from perfume and eau de cologne to rubbing alcohol and Sterno — with predictably disastrous results. By last week, an estimated 150 Kuwaiti had died from alcohol poisoning, several hundred more had been blinded, and Kuwait's hospitals were filled to overflowing. Bathtub gin is flourishing, and bootlegging the real thing has become Kuwait's fastest growing business.
Moving on to the United Arab Emirates, the Emir of one of the Emirates was allegedly an alcoholic who eventually died of cirrhosis of the liver. Being quite the playboy, as most Arab leaders are, he gambled – a lot. So much, in fact, that he bankrupted the whole of his Emirate. Sheik Zayed, the founder and president of the United Arab Emirates, was a just and religious man who had paid off his neighbour's gambling debts one too many times. So, the incoming Emir of this particular Emirate, the son of the alcoholic, had one last resort – the Saudis. In 1985, Saudi money was handed over, again with strings. The Emirate became dry overnight and, again, the ferocious Imams turned up the heat from new, stark, mosques. The long-suffering inhabitants of the statelet now had to watch as their neighbour, Dubai, developed as a magnet for beer swilling, whoring tourists - particularly those from Saudi Arabia.
Women are also high up on the Desert Islam hit list, and the region has seen an increase in restrictive dress codes for women, and in segregation as a whole. If one looks at films during the Golden Age of Arab film making from the 1950s through to the mid 1970s, one sees women dressing flamboyantly in Western dress. They are also invariably uncovered – and not just their hair. Some were beautiful. Some were sexy and even lewd. Strangely, perhaps, drunk women were often used as a comic foil in these movies. They giggled. They flirted. They fell over. All very Carry On...

Booze and Babes are ag'in Shariah Law.  In order to protect Royal Share, the Saudi Royals closed the bars and opened Mosques run by Wahabbi mullahs - the Jihadi Lads who will lop off a noggin, blow up an Israeli kindergarten and slaughter a whole mess of Kurds with a smile.

ISIL is merely bastard kids of the Saudi Royals it seems to me; therefore, why would Soul-patched Pops go all jihad on the bar-sinister spawn?

Not gonna happen.  The only strike force the Saudi Royals will throw together will be a Nile Delta Hot-Tub Full of Jack Daniels Commandos and Royal Saudi Scotch Guzzlin Guard - Praise be the Prophet.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

197 Reasons to Doubt Obama's Speech Last Night -

There is a story about Mr. Obama relevant to the war, battle or whatever he declared Wednesday evening against the Islamic State, aka ISIS. It is found in his former campaign manager David Plouffe's account of the 2008 election, "The Audacity to Win."
Mr. Plouffe writes that during an earlier election race, Mr. Obama had a "hard time allowing his campaign staff to take more responsibility." To which Barack Obama answered: "I think I could probably do every job on the campaign better than the people I'll hire to do it." Audacity indeed. WSJ - Dan Henninger
The Commander in Chief has made no secret of his contempt for the Constitution, Congress, Cupcakes, Corpsmen and Combat Veterans of WWII and especially unborn Children. .  Obama holds so many people in contempt - me and more than likely you -that would take an entire wing of his looming Presidential Library to include the encyclopedic nature of Obama's Universal Contempt(s).  Contempt for the military is an easy one.  Obama has purged as many generals as Joe Stalin. 

 
The Five Year Purge of the United States Military by the Current Commander in Chief

 

Year: 2013 (9, so far). Bold Type are Top Theatre Commanders
1. Marine Col. Daren Margolin – Quantico – Oct. 18, 2013. Was in charge of Quantico’s Security Battalion.
2. Marine Major General C.M.M. Gurganus – Oct. 12, 2013. Commander Regional Command Southwest and I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) in Afghanistan.
3. AF Major Gen. Michael Carey – Oct. 8, 2013. 2-star commander of 20th Air Force. 3 wings of ICBMs. 450 nukes. Covered 3 AF bases across nation.
4. Navy Vice-Admiral Tim Guardina – Oct. 9, 2013. 3-star vice-commander all US nuclear forces (land/air/sea). Relieved of command. Demoted in rank to 2-stars.
5. Marine Major General Gregg A. Sturdevant – September 2013. Director of strategic planning and policy for U.S. Pacific Command and commander of the Aviation Wing At Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.
6. Marine Col. James Christmas – July 18, 2013. Commanded 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. Also, commanded the new Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response Unit.
7. Army Brigadier General Bryan Roberts – May 2013. Commander, Ft. Jackson, SC.
8. Marine Gen. James Mattis – May 2013. Chief of CentCom.
9. Army Major General Ralph Baker – April 2013. Commander of Joint Task Force Horn of Africa at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, Africa
Year: 2012 (Overall total – 4 +24 = 28 Final total).
1. Marine General John R. Allen – Nov. 13, 2012. Commander, ISAF – International Security Assistance Force.
2. Army General David Petraeus – Nov. 9, 2012. Commander, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A). Director of CIA from September 2011 to November 2012.
3. Navy Rear Admiral Charles M. Gaouette – Oct. 27, 2102. Commander, USS John C. Stennis strike group. Relieved within a day or so of Benghazi.
4. Army General Carter F. Ham – Oct. 18, 2012. Commander, AFRICOM. Relieved during Benghazi from direct command of AFRICOM.
Naval Officers (all in 2012): Total – 24
1. Cmdr. Derick Armstrong, Commander, guided missile destroyer USS The Sullivans.
2. Cmdr. Martin Arriola, Commander, USS Porter.
3. Capt. Antonio Cardoso, Commander, of Training Support Center San Diego.
4. Capt. James CoBell, Commander, Oceana Naval Air Station’s Fleet Readiness Ctr. Mid-Atl.
5. Cmdr. Joseph E. Darlak, Commander, USS Vandegrift.
6. Cmdr. Franklin Fernandez, Commander, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 24.
7. Cmdr. Ray Hartman, Commander, amphibious dock-landing ship Fort McHenry.
8. Cmdr. Jon Haydel, Commander, USS San Diego.
9. Cmdr. Diego Hernandez, Commander, ballistic-missile submarine USS Wyoming.
10. Cmdr. Lee Hoey, Commander, Navy Drug Screening Laboratory, San Diego.
11. Cmdr. Dennis Klein, Commander, submarine USS Columbia.
12. Capt. Marcia “Kim” Lyons, Commander, Naval Health Clinic New England.
13. Capt. Chuck Litchfield, Commander, USS Essex.
14. Capt. Robert Marin, Commander, USS Cowpens.
15. Capt. Sean McDonell, Commander, Seabee reserve unit Naval Mobile Const. Battalion 14.
16. Cmdr. Corrine Parker, Commander, Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 1.
17. Capt. Lisa Raimondo, Commander, Naval Health Clinic Patuxent River, Md.
18. Capt. Jeffrey Riedel, Program manager, Littoral Combat Ship program.
19. Cmdr. Sara Santoski, Commander, Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 15.
20. Cmdr. Sheryl Tannahill, Commander, Navy Operational Support Center Nashville.
21. Cmdr. Michael Ward, Commander, USS Pittsburgh.
22. Capt. Michael Wiegand, Commander, Southwest Regional Maintenance Center.
23. Capt. Ted Williams, Commander, Mount Whitney.
24. Cmdr. Jeffrey Wissel, Commander, of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron 1.
Year: 2011 Total – 1 + 157 = 158 overall - especially Capt. Owen Honors Commander USS Enterprise
Army Major Gen. Peter Fuller – May 2011. A top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
157 Air Force majors. Military advocates decry ‘illegal’ early terminations of 157 Air Force majors
Year: 2010 Total – 1 ( total)
1. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal – June 2010. Overall commander Afghanistan. Replaced by Gen. Petraeus.
Year: 2009 Total – 1 (total)
Army Gen. David D. McKiernan – 2009. First 4-star relieved since Truman relieved MacArthur. Commanded in Afghanistan.~ 

President Obama holds so many other vocations in contempt, but they will not be asked to sternly admonish ISIS(L)