Cook County Forest Preserves - Our Greatest Natural Asset for Education, Pleasure and Recreation

 

To acquire … and hold lands … containing one or more natural forests or lands connecting such forests or parts thereof, for the purpose of protecting and preserving the flora, fauna and scenic beauties within such district, and to restore, restock, protect, and preserve the natural forests and said lands together with their flora and fauna, as nearly as may be, in their natural state and condition, for the purpose of the education, pleasure, and recreation of the public.  Cook County Commissioners 1905

1904 had been a tough year for Chicagoans, especially south siders -  Chicago lost the Summer Olympics to St. Louis and the Streetcar and Stockyard Strikes. put many people in financial, physical and even mortal jeopardy - scabs opened fire from rail cars used by the packers to safely transport them to and from the yards and killed several strikers.

Orchestra Hall was completed largely through the subscriptions of the Swift, Armour.  Schwarzschild & Sulzberger packinghouse barons. Very few stockyard workers attended the symphony, I would hazard a guess.

What did working people do and where did they go for relaxation?  What was available to them?  Saloons.  Church.  Union Halls.

The Great Conservationist was in the White House. President Teddy had designated vast tracks of land for the edification, enjoyment and education of the American people.

It seems that in 1905, a few like-minded public servants did the same.

Some brilliant people staked out  68,000 acres of field, wood and water around and within the City of Chicago and gave us the Cook County Forest Preserve District.

This soul tonic of a resource is one of the wonders of living where we do - one wonders if a contemporary public official has the heart and brains to match the vision of the 1905 County Commissioners.

Following the lead of Dr. John Rauch's  Public Parks, City of Chicago (Chicago, 1869), the great sanitarian who fought Yellow Fever and cholera here and beyond Chicago,  some clear headed people put the Forest Preserve into being just after the 1904 strikes and the loss of Olympics.

The 1905 document calling for the creation of a Forest Preserve District was weakly written and it was not until 1911 that the dream came to life.

From that time, the common man, as well as the swell, had his own 'green retreats.' Dan Ryan Woods, Maple Lake, Willow Slough, Joe Louis Golf Course, Brookfield Zoo, Arie Crown Botanic Gardens, Busse Woods, Desplaines River Trail and Camp Dan Beard became places where the grey canyon of La Salle Street, or the red dust of Hegewisch might be forgotten for  a couple of restorative hours.

• Chicago kids could take nature hikes, toboggan, sled, swim, play football, softball and jog.
• Old Timers could take their Kerry Blue, or mixed mutt breed out for a chase of a tennis ball.
• Lovers could neck.
• Families could barbecue, picnic, camp and relax.
• Children at the Nature Stations like Little Red Schoolhouse could learn about the flora and fauna of Cook County
• Teens learned to 'drink responsibly

For one hundred and eleven years, the working stiff and the well-heeled have been afforded a pastoral paradise.

Quality people put this into being.  Let's pray that quality people will preserve the Cook County Forest Preserve District.

All photos of Dan Ryan Woods

The United Nations is King Herod The Great - The Senator Dick Durbin of His Day

 Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the US Senate Majority Whip, received the International Family Planning Award from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood of Illinois and the United Nations Foundation (UNF).

 "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."[ Jeremiah from The Gospel of St. Matthew

By geographic region, abortion policies were most
restrictive in Oceania, followed by Africa and Latin
America and the Caribbean. Only 6 per cent of
Governments in Oceania and Africa and only 12 per
cent in Latin America and the Caribbean allowed
abortion upon request. Eighteen countries in Africa,
12 in Asia, 8 in Latin America and the Caribbean and
8 in Oceania allowed abortion only to save a
woman’s life. Europe and Northern America, in
contrast, had the most liberal abortion policies in
2013. Both Governments in Northern America and
73 per cent of Governments in Europe allowed
abortion on request.  United Nations -Abortion Policies and Reproductive Health

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents.  Herod the Great was an oily Progressive thinking opportunist who switched allegiances at the drop of some blood, but was very civilized and sophisticated.   He was a Jew who who took a  Nishtkefelecht attitude towards matters of religion and conscience, like an Irish Catholic Democrat who is praised by Planned Parenthood. Think of Senator Dick Durbin and you understand King Herod.  Totally, sophisticated.

Civilized and sophisticated people, United Nations explains, approve of abortion - a woman's reproductive health.

Unsophisticated people take the lessons of Matthew's Gospel to heart:

When [the Magi] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."[7] When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old or under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."

Wait a minute!  Even HBO's Game of Thrones, must see TV for any sophisticate, offered an homage to St. Matthew - the late King Robert's bastards must all be slaughtered so that  creepy little King Joffrey can rule - just like Herod and not unlike the former Pro-Life Senior Senator from Illinois.

Abortion is a murder of convenience.

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents - slaughtered by Herod the Great in order to scientifically eliminate any and all possibilities of having a claimant to his Roman throne.

The United Nations, which has been  owned and operated by Marxist sophisticates ever since the Korean War Cease Fire, is the most sophisticated body of thugs on earth.  With pie-charts, graphs, globalist politicians and a dunghill of rhetorical polemics, the United Nations has done more to isolate people of faith ( Israel), slaughter people of Faith ( Uganda, Somalia, Syria, Lebanon) and innocents globe round than any psychopathic dictator or James Bond Villain could dream up.

I see the United Nations as a global Planned Parenthood.  I see their biggest supporters ( Senator Dick Durbin and so many others) doing King Herod the Great on a daily basis.

This is a day that commemorates the slaughter of children under the age of two by that globalist sophisticate and civilized Progressive King Herod of Judea.

This is a day for some unsophisticated examination of the deeds of some all too human monsters - individual and collective.

How Un-Evolved of Me! Loping the Mule is Not Love for Evolved

The Sin of Onan - past time of both genders and a few more.

You ladies all of merry England
Who have been to kiss the Duchess's hand,
Pray, did you not lately observe in the show
A noble Italian called Signor Dildo? ...
A rabble of pricks who were welcomed before,
Now finding the porter denied them the door,
Maliciously waited his coming below
And inhumanly fell on Signor Dildo ... Sir John Wilmot 17th Century Libertine

I have been told that I need to work on my filters.   Especially when I speak to people beyond the pale of my blue collar Catholic parish, where marriages largely remain intact, kids grow up and become useful citizens and weirdos are generally seen for what they happen to be.

Gay people are married and live happily together. Some with adopted children who are happy that someone houses, feeds, provides and most of all loves them.  That is a good thing.  Fact of the matter is those folks choose not to live in my neck-of-the-Dan Ryan Woods.  This appears to be hetero-marriage world.  I am sure that are gay couples here in the 19th Ward, I know more than few gay singles, here and about who work at the County Building, City Hall and at the Criminal Courts, who grew up in Tommy More, Little Flower, St. Dennis and Ethelreda parishes with us who chose not to marry at this time.  They are great people who would be as welcome as they are without spouses, because they are great people.

That said, and I said it many times,   Marriage is meant for a man and a woman. Way back in 2011, Illinois passed the Civil Unions Ordinance which did not confer on couples the terms 'spouses,'husbands, and 'wives.'  That was handled by Gov. Pat Quinn, the Paul Simon Insitute Polls and our elected officials on November 20, 2013.  Evolution sure has sped up some!

The legislation has yet to change the simple fact that the Yin and Yang of gender remains at play and no matter how much two gals, or two guys love one another the laws of biology discovered by Fr. Gregor Mendel, O.S.A. remain in play:

1) The Law of Segregation: Each inherited trait is defined by a gene pair. Parental genes are randomly separated to the sex cells so that sex cells contain only one gene of the pair. Offspring therefore inherit one genetic allele from each parent when sex cells unite in fertilization.
2) The Law of Independent Assortment: Genes for different traits are sorted separately from one another so that the inheritance of one trait is not dependent on the inheritance of another.
3) The Law of Dominance: An organism with alternate forms of a gene will express the form that is dominant.
The genetic experiments Mendel did with pea plants took him eight years (1856-1863) and he published his results in 1865. During this time, Mendel grew over 10,000 pea plants, keeping track of progeny number and type. Mendel's work and his Laws of Inheritance were not appreciated in his time. It wasn't until 1900, after the rediscovery of his Laws, that his experimental results were understood.

We are people;not peas!  Got it.

When gender became as unnecessary to the political culture world, it became of paramount necessity to the litigious high priests of moral legislation and jurisprudence.  Lawyers lawsuit the shit out of average un-evolved people of Faith and not the other way around.

When gay marriage was argued all the way from Springfield to the United States Supreme Court, people of sense and faith worried about the marriage between a man and his rooster, girl and her pet pony, an ardent swain and his melon, brothers seeking more than a Bromance, sapphic sisters setting up camp, Mormon poly-same sex partners and a Frog and her robot.

All objections were immediately peck sniffed and eyes rolled like Buddy Bomar was tossing them, by the evolved libertine libertarians who study morality on HBO.  Mark Ruffalo is cool with it; worship it.  It gets better.  

In France,  a woman named Lilly wants to marry her robot.  Robot passion suppression is not new - sex toys appear in every culture. For the Ladies, The Dildo, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) appears, appears mind you, to have been evolved from the smoothly carved wooden, how shall I say, tool of nautical origin.

 One theory is that it originally referred to the phallus-shaped peg used to lock an oar in position on a dory (small boat). It would be inserted into a hole on the side of the boat, and is very similar in shape to the modern toy. It is possible that the sex toy takes its name from this sailing tool, which also lends its name to the town of Dildo and the nearby Dildo Island in Newfoundland, Canada.

For the Gents, the Sailor's Wife, the Mighty Mitt, the Fleshlight, or the Fifi developed in prison for the more  staunch anti-sodomy cell dwellers. The Fifi, which refers to an artificial vagina usually made by rolling a trash bag or condom inside of a towel, and using some sort of lubrication such as hand lotion.

The Robot's fiance and would-be spouse, Lilly the Frog, has science, behind her desires, of course:

University of London Computing Professor Adrian David Cheok said he believes robots will not only become common, but preferable for many people.
“It’s going to be so much easier, so much more convenient to have sex with a robot. You can have exactly what kind of sex you want. That’s going to be the future. That we will have more sex with robots and the next stage is love … we’re already seeing it.”
“Actual sex with humans may be like going to a concert. When you’re at home you can listen to Beethoven’s ninth symphony, it’s good enough and once or twice a year you’ll want to go the Royal Albert Hall and hear it in a concert hall.
“That may be the way sex with humans is going to be. It’s going to be much more easier, much more convenient to have sex with a robot, and maybe much better because that’s how you want it.”

Now, Professor Adrian David Cheok is no  ordinary jagoff.  He's a scientist, no doubt a devout onanaist as well.

All of these evolved means of onanism come down to self love - Onanism. We were sex educated ( segregated from the ladies of course)  by Father Gerrity in the mysteries of self mastery and the lists of love-making outside of the sacrament of Matrimony.   Self-love ( pocket pool, boxing the Jesuit, beatin' the bishop, loping the old mule, greasing the flagpole, chuckin' the custard ) was a thoroughly vain pursuit and the Sin of Onan.  

And sin we did!

However, self control and human will tempered by moral adjustments and canon law, prevented generations of hearts wanting what the heart wants from shivering our timbers 24/7.  That and exhaustion, I suppose. We  managed to fall in love, marry and procreate and then do that providing and loving for the bairns.

On the secular side of things, Planned Parenthood demands more wiggles and giggles and more penetrating productions. A gal has to make a buck.

Grabbing the gecko was not an act of love, but an imitation of sex.

Evolution is a hoot in this Anthony Weiner World of Ours!  Just maybe not all that . . .gratifying.

Allow me to speak on Siebert's Pub and then St. Raphael's Catholic Church - Greeting a New Wave of Catholics With the Grandeur of West Side and South Side Icons

If you’re looking for a family friendly place with a unique menu, full bar and 12 draft beers then... 
Siebert's Pub is the place for you!

This is why I left you in Crete, that you might amend what was defective, and appoint presbyters in every town as I directed you (Titus 1:5).


Last weekend, Terry Sullivan and I spent some long planned quality time with two of the most impost important people in my life - Kate and Charlie Olson. Both of these people got me through the toughest times in my life and made the happiest ones beyond special.

Charlie and I taught at Bishop McNamara High School in Kankakee, IL.  Kate was senior the year I began there and was one year junior to my wife Mary Cleary Hickey.

In 1988, Mary and I went to La Lumiere School in Laporte, Indiana and shortly after Charlie and Kate moved up to Lake County, Illinois where Kate worked as an engineer for Baxter and later Abbott Labs and Charlie taught and coached at Grayslake North.

When Mary was diagnosed with brain cancer, Charlie and Kate would drive to our home in Griffith, Indiana and often take the three kids with them.  They were with us all through that horrible time.

They helped me recover from loss and regain my balance - sort of.  They are delightful friends.

Though last weeks Arctic Chill and blizzardy road conditions turned Lake County into a scene from Dr. Zhivago we soldiered out to Salem, Wisconsin just over the State Line and had a great dinner at Sieberts Pub, which seems to have shanghaied a four star chef from somewhere, because the sea food and other dishes made more happy Packer Fans, than the Bears did the next day. Charlie and I both had the grilled Ahi Tuna steak, lightly seasoned with a side of homemade wasabi mayo. Most places do to tuna steaks, what TGI Friday's and Chili's do food in general.  
You eat it with all gusto and passion of David Mamet strapped to chair and subjected to 48 hours of Bill Moyers on PBS loop tapes -"We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie." In the absence of a fine pie, go to Siebert's*.

Siebert's prepares ( Medium rare tuna – Cooking temperature 132°F (56°C) – Cooking time 30 minutes) the fish and presents it with care.

Kate and Terry had pasta and pulled pork, but I am so self-absorbed that I only can comment on what I had for dinner.

Siebert's is and old timey road house on Antioch Road above the Chain of Lakes.  The staff are very welcoming to south of the border FIPS. Never once, did I feel the need to comment on the Packer wear, nor the fried cheese curds getting vacuumed up at the bar, by all and sundry.

We were stated and satisfied.

The next morning We went to 11A.M Mass at St. Raphael the Archangel Catholic Church, before the trip home and my daughters Christmas gathering in Oak Lawn.

St. Raphael the Archangel is a work of genius.  This original place of worship was a typical post-WWII era, cookie-cutter modern American barn-like ecumenical design - externally indistinguishable from the the 11th Day Unitarian Temple of Coexistence, or an interior not unlike a rock concert venue.

Some people think that Catholic Churches are empty, only because of the scandals, or that the liturgies are too traditionally Catholic.

Nonsense, the Catholic Church has had scandals ever since Acts of the Apostles.  The Catholic Churches in the Catholic Church that are unashamedly Catholic - not Episcopalian/Methodist Lite, or Unitarian Book Club variety - are packed on Sundays.  If it looks Catholic, it more than likely is that.  Try and get a seat at St. John Cantius, or St. Odilo's three minutes before the Gospel and then try and reserve parking in front of City Hall.

We took Little Grassy Road east to Route 45 and then north for about a mile and there on our left ascended a blast from the past.

St. Raphael the Archangel was the dream of the late Francis Cardinal George, a Chicagoan steeped in our towns faith and history.In 2006, knowing the ever increasing population of Lake County, Cardinal George ordered Father John Jamnicky to assess the need for and begin the planning for the construction of a traditional Catholic Church.  On April 30th, 2007 Father Jamnicky became the first pastor of St. Raphael the Archangel. It was a barn - literally.

"An old barn, on the Alfred and Florence Pedersen farm in Antioch, converted into the temporary St. Raphael the Archangel Catholic Church.
Liturgical artifacts and furnishings salvaged from various shuttered Chicago Catholic churches and recycled in the temporary church."

Unlike too many houses of worship, it did not stay a Catholic barn.

The beauty of the immigrant built churches of Chicago reflected the authenticity and power of the devout who labored and penny'd - up the pew money to build St. Adalbert's, St. Patrick's and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Chicago.  The parish cut out a fine Mission:

St. Raphael the Archangel is a young parish, only 6 years old, of approximately 600 families. We are currently holding Mass in a remodeled barn, which we believe to be the most beautiful temporary church you will ever see, while our permanent church is being built in Old Mill Creek.
We are a traditional Roman Catholic Church that teaches the Gospel and the Bible with clarity and enthusiasm. We are loyal to the Magisterium – the teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church. It is important to us that we live our beliefs, that we are witnesses of the compassionate love of Jesus for all people, that we share his message with others so that they may grow in spiritual life and find salvation. It is our goal to affirm and advance the Catholic faith.

St. Raphael the Archangel took the best of Old Catholic Chicago - the facade of St. John of God and the interior of St. Peter Canisius - matched the 'welcome home' mission sparked by Cardinal George.

His spirit rises above the prairies of Lindenhurts with the Bell Towers and Stained Glass windows of St. Raphael the Archangel.



The place was packed.  There were many young families, especially Mexican and Filipino, as well as former Chicagoans.  A south side priest Father Michael McGovern is pastor of St. Raphael the Archangel.  Father grew up in  Christ the King parish. His homily reflected the many signs demanded of God by weaklings like me and the daily signs that blow by my notice.  An angel told Mary and Joseph to expect the unexpected. They did not blink.  I get whacked between the eyes with two by four and I ask when lunch is served.

St. Raphael the Archangel is a sign that Cardinal George is very much with us, renewing Christ's Church by pointing to the signs of our faith in history. Pretty good weekend trip north of Madison Avenue.

Food for the soul can come with wasabi mayo or a parish that dedicates itself to renewal without erasing tradition, beauty and history.


* Siberts Pub: 8403 Antioch Rd, Salem, WI 53168
Phone: (262) 843-4621:  Aaron & Kim Edmonds owners

Lower Police Standards - The Three Pander-Bears & Rahm's Racist Insult to Chicagoans

"Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday opened the door to allowing candidates with minor drug and criminal offenses to become Chicago Police officers to attract minorities at a time of high crime and deep distrust." Chicago Sun Times City Hall Cheerleader  Fran Spielman

Gee, Chicago minorities are just too involved in weed and youthful shenanigans to become cops?  Parents in Englewood, Chatham, Brainerd and Auburn Gresham allow their boys and girls to fire up some Loud, even though it might mean saying bye, bye to gainful employment at a later age?

Wow, Chicago minorities in Garfield Ridge, Pilsen Little Village and South Chicago can not escape the lure of Latin Kings, Maniac Latin Disciples Latin Counts, Vice Lords, Stones, All People Nation, Spanish Cobras, Latin Dragons, Latin Eagles, Imperial Gangsters, Simon City Royals, Harrison Gents, Almighty Ambrose and the Surenos, weed, theft and battery?  Que Lastima!

The Mayor who is drowning in homicides and his City Council of Progressive Independent Rubber-stamps are clawing at the old Pander-Bears Playbook as a life preserver. A white pander-Bear, a Latino Pander Bear and a Black Pander Bear set up Rahm's end-run around sense, safety and the sanctity of life.  Ed Burke, George Cardenas and Roderick Sawyer came up with another gimme-shelter dodge for Rahm the Racoon-Eyed Mayor.

Ever since Mayor Coon-Eyes Emanuel hushed up the video on the shooting of Laquan McDonald and tossed his family $3 M buckeens to hush-up about City Hall mischief, the  Big Bill Thompson of Highland Park has been universally ridiculed, shunned by the Clintons and Obama's White House, detested by citizens of Chicago - minorities and the few remaining majorities left in the city's tax-base, but propped up, worshipped and all but felated by the Chicago press and WTTW.  Rahm has had to skulk his way through the revolving door at Trump Towers and now the Sun Times is engaged in more post-Laquan mythopoeia with this howler from the always supine Lynn Sweet:

Lynn Sweet
@lynnsweet | email
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WASHINGTON — Since the election, President-elect Donald Trump has lavished attention on one family, besides his own, meeting with all three Emanuel brothers: first Ari, then Rahm, and on Wednesday, with eldest brother Zeke.
This leaves the strong impression that Trump, if not exactly courting the famous and accomplished brothers, is going out of his way to seek input from the Chicago-born Democrats.!

Love that Fake News!

Lynn, tell them about Rahm's three pointer in that game against the pre-schoolers at the Latin School!  Oh, that never happened?  So, what! So long as you are doing fake news, pour it on!

Hey, how about Mitt Romney's chances at Secretary of State?  Oh, that's right.  That was cruel of me.

Many disinterested Chicago voters and WTTW watchers will nod with conviction and agree with Lynn Sweet that "Boy Them Emanuel Scamps are Just the Nuts!  Ain't they?  And Such Talented Boys!"

Rahm and the Chicago City Council with the 50 ( sorry, 49, as of yesterday, I guess) AlderStampers will totally destroy what is left of Chicago and recruit future Chicago Police Officers right off of CLEARPATH - put together by former Superintendent McCarthy to identify the City's gang hot-spots.  Not every gang-banger has committed a murder, yet; but, they smoked some loud and now can pass the piss tests, thanks to Brother Ed Burke, Father Emanuel!

Set up a CPD recruiting station at Foster Park. The only people allowed in there are gang-bangers.

I hate to give these creeps a good idea.

I worked with African American, Mexican, Latino, Canaryville Irish kids for twenty one years.  They could pass a piss test. They do not sport a Jacket threaded with larcenies.  Their parents sent them to Catholic schools to stay away from gangs.  The same can be said for the families that chose Charter Schools.  The very same can be said of the vast majority of minority kids who attend CPS.  CPS students are forced into Claypool's concentration camps and told to like it at Harper, Robeson and Hubbard, while the elites grift out spots for future activists at Whitney Young and Gwendolyn Brooks.

Lower standards and telling "minorities" that they just can not make the cut is racist, insulting and self-serving.

Lower the standards and insult the very mission of Law Enforcement.

On Wednesday, the effort picked up steam.
Burke and Cardenas joined Sawyer in sponsoring a resolution calling for City Council hearings to discuss implementing the federal recommendations.
The report suggests that police departments across the nation should disregard minor criminal offenses of candidates from “underrepresented communities,” revise the controversial psychological exam and lower the bar for written and physical exams.  ( So keep high standards for White Boys and Girls?)   
“Certain barriers — including background investigations that treat all arrests and criminal convictions alike regardless of type of offense or how recent the occurrence, or even screen out those voluntarily admitting to drug use alone [without any conviction] — can prevent the agency from hiring the diverse officers it needs to connect with and serve the entire community,” the report says.
Likewise, psychological tests and credit checks put up “discriminatory employment barriers to women and racial minority applicants,” the report states.
Burke made a similar argument Wednesday.
“Simply put, there are many occasions when a minor incident that occurred many years ago should not be enough to rule out a candidate for consideration,” Burke, a former Chicago Police officer and ex-Police Committee chairman, said in a news release.
“We are not so much asking the department to lower [its] hiring standards as we are asking them to apply a greater standard of fairness." (Emphases my own) 

Horseshit, Eddie! How long was he a cop?  Toolong on City Council for sure.  In fact, every Council Member should ponder the story I link here.  Disgusted by the politicians elected to fill seats in their town,  every member of Bunker Hill, Indiana's Police Department resigned.

It is time for these pandering political clowns to be tossed out of business.  I include our Chicago Media.

And Trump is dangerous?