Tribune Editorial Board Savages Cardinal George and Plays it Safe

Chicago Tribune posted this last month to illustrate the Penn State Scandal -now, wonders about bizzare analogies.


"I knew very early that I was gay, so it was very uncomfortable growing up. I don't really have very happy memories," Henry van Ameringen told Advocate.Com

Henry Van Ameringen is an American angel, scion to a fragrance fortune and leader of the Homosexual Justice League - known as The Caninet.

I would bet a shiny penny that not one member of the Tribune Editorial Board knows who Henry Van Ameringen might be, let alone not see that blitzkrieg of howling, threats and orchestrated faux outrage over Cardinal George's equating some member Gay Activists with the Ku Klux KLan of the early decades of the last century.

America is gay friendly after all. Glee has taught us that. Oprah has spoken ex cathedra. All of the best people believe a the conjugal bed is gender neutral. If two men want to have a baby together it is their Civil Right.

Henry Van Ameringen is the George Soros of the Gay Movement. Mr. Van Ameringen is not alone. He has used the family fortune to help promote gay lifestyles, combat any and all opposition to the gay agenda and punish those in the way of Homosexual Marriage -written by openly gay journalist Mike Cloud and published in Time Magazine:

A few weeks before Virginia's legislative elections in 2005, a researcher working on behalf of a clandestine group of wealthy, gay political donors telephoned a Virginia legislator named Adam Ebbin. Then, as now, Ebbin was the only openly gay member of the state's general assembly. The researcher wanted Ebbin's advice on how the men he represented could spend their considerable funds to help defeat anti-gay Virginia politicians.

Ebbin, a Democrat who is now 44, was happy to oblige. (Full disclosure: in the mid-'90s, Ebbin and I knew each other briefly as colleagues; he sold ads for Washington City Paper, a weekly where I was a reporter.) Using Ebbin's expertise, the gay donors — none of whom live in Virginia — began contributing to certain candidates in the state. There were five benefactors: David Bohnett of Beverly Hills, Calif., who in 1999 sold the company he had co-founded, Geo-Cities, to Yahoo! in a deal worth $5 billion on the day it was announced; Timothy Gill of Denver, another tech multimillionaire; James Hormel of San Francisco, grandson of George, who founded the famous meat company; Jon Stryker of Kalamazoo, Mich., the billionaire grandson of the founder of medical-technology giant Stryker Corp.; and Henry van Ameringen, whose father Arnold Louis van Ameringen started a Manhattan-based import company that later became the mammoth International Flavors & Fragrances. he five men spent $138,000 in Virginia that autumn, according to state records compiled by the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project. Of that, $48,000 went directly to the candidates Ebbin recommended. Ebbin got $45,000 for his PAC, the Virginia Progress Fund, so he could give to the candidates himself. Another $45,000 went to Equality Virginia, a gay-rights group that was putting money into many of the same races.

On Election Day that year, the Virginia legislature stayed solidly in Republican hands; the Democratic Party netted just one seat. But that larger outcome masked an intriguing development: anti-gay conservatives had suffered considerably.

(emphases my own)



Henry Van Ameringen and four friends had created the Cabinet -

The group that donated the money to use against Black and the others is known as the Cabinet, although you won't find that name on a letterhead or even on the Internet. Aside from Bohnett, 52; Gill, 55; Hormel, 75; Stryker, 50; and Van Ameringen, 78, the other members of the Cabinet are Jonathan Lewis (49-year-old grandson of Joseph, co-founder of Progressive Insurance) and Linda Ketner, 58, heiress to the Food Lion fortune, who is running for Congress against GOP Representative Henry Brown Jr. of South Carolina.

Ketner's is something of a long-shot bid — her district has been reliably Republican for years — but recently Congressional Quarterly described her "suddenly strong run" against Brown as "the biggest surprise" in this year's House races. Ketner, who was invited to join the all-male Cabinet as a way of diversifying it, declined to discuss her role in the group.

Among gay activists, the Cabinet is revered as a kind of secret gay Super Friends, a homosexual justice league that can quietly swoop in wherever anti-gay candidates are threatening and finance victories for the good guys. Rumors abound in gay political circles about the group's recondite influence; some of the rumors are even true. For instance, the Cabinet met in California last year with two sitting governors, Brian Schweitzer of Montana and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, both Democrats; political advisers who work for the Cabinet met with a third Democratic governor, Wisconsin's Jim Doyle. The Cabinet has also funded a secretive organization called the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), which a veteran lesbian activist describes as the "Gay IRS." MAP keeps tabs on the major gay organizations to make sure they are operating efficiently. The October 2008 MAP report notes, for example, that the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force fails to meet Better Business Bureau standards for limiting overhead expenses.

According to the online databases Opensecrets.org and Followthemoney.org, the seven members of the Cabinet have spent at least $7.8 million on political races since the beginning of 2004, although their true level of giving is doubtless far higher, since Followthemoney.org — which is run by the nonpartisan National Institute on Money in State Politics — does not capture all contributions to PACs (for instance, the Cabinet money that went to Ebbin's PAC in 2005 doesn't show up on the website). The Cabinet spends at least as much each election cycle as does the PAC run by the Human Rights Campaign, the world's largest gay political group. And yet the Cabinet has operated in stealth, without accountability from watchdogs. (The Cabinet does not subject itself to MAP analysis.)

Cabinet spending shows up in races all over the country where pro-gay candidates have a good shot. For instance, Bohnett, Gill and Van Ameringen have given $143,000 this year to New York Democrats, who are within two seats of controlling the state senate. A Democratic New York legislature would likely approve equal marriage rights.

Gay became powerful. Anything with enough money behind it is powerful. The Catholic Church used to be politically powerful. Men doing with boys has been its undoing, but ironically homosexuals argue that such horrific abuses have nothing to do with pedophilia. Likewise, GLBTQ activists and their cowed friend in the media can not allow Cardinal George to point out, quite correctly, that political intimidation by gay activists is not unlike those used by the KKK. They are.

Gays activists are much better organized and funded than the Klan was and though the KKK was very mainstream in the early decades, it never became part of American Culture. Recently, the Gay Lifestyle has as been touted as no different from Ward and June and Ozzie and Harriet.

The Catholic Church is the only insititutional religion stand up to the Gay Activists. So, hostile is the Chicago Gay Community that even Cardinal Bernardine, once remembered as a friedn to Gay Chicago is being excoriated - Here is Windy City Times editor Tracy Baim -

Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago, is not the only person hiding prejudice in the heavy robes of religion, but he is a powerful leader in the Catholic Church, and therefore his words have more meaning and power than your average street preacher or member of the church choir. . . .Other religious facilities have long endured the Pride Parade passing their doors on Pride Sunday, with no "anti-religious" problems reported in four decades. In fact, religious groups, including gay Catholics, have been a part of Pride almost since it began. Ironically, the KKK did march against the Pride Parade in its early years, and many spiritual people helped counter their presence.

But Cardinal George could not let the parade pass by his Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church on Belmont Avenue. He fought back, and did so using a vile comparison to the KKK. The Parade will still pass by the church, just at a later time. The change in time really is not what upset most LGBT people; rather, it was what George said about the KKK. He told FOX News Chicago: "You don't want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.

At this point, an apology is not enough. George has proven that he is out of touch with the progress of the LGBT movement in this city and country, and he should pass the torch to a new generation of Catholic leadership. Like Joseph Cardinal Bernardin before him, George has tried to use the church's power to keep back civil rights; Bernardin lobbied against Chicago's gay-rights bill in the 1980s, and George has spoken out against gay civil unions and women's rights."

Tracy Baim has been joined by the Tribune Editorial Board this morning, offering a simperingly gutless bitch slap Cardinal George.

Hours after Chicago's archbishop raised that astounding notion, organizers of the city's annual gay pride parade announced that they would delay the start of next year's march to avoid disrupting morning Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

That should have been the end of it.

A week later, gay rights groups are still demanding the cardinal apologize — or resign — and George is defending what he calls "an obvious comparison." Is this how anyone wanted to spend their Christmas season?

The gay community wasn't trying to antagonize Catholics when it drew up a plan that would send its floats past the Belmont Avenue church next June. Last year's Chicago Pride Parade drew more than 700,000 spectators, and organizers and city officials agreed it had outgrown its old route. . . .Responding to the blowback, a diocesan spokeswoman said the remarks were taken out of context and suggested people listen to the entire interview. We did. They aren't. George reiterated them on Wednesday, issuing a statement just when things might have been dying down.

"When the pastor's request for reconsideration of the plans was ignored, the organizers invited an obvious comparison to other groups who have historically attempted to stifle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church," the statement read. "One such organization is the Ku Klux Klan which, well into the 1940s, paraded through American cities not only to interfere with Catholic worship but also to demonstrate that Catholics stand outside the American consensus. It is not a precedent anyone should want to emulate."

That's right: As recently as 70 years ago, the KKK openly demonstrated against the Catholic Church. What that has to do with the pride parade is lost on us.

Hours after? The parish and the pastor asked the Gay organizers months ago about altering the times or the route, but after the oily Mike Flannery and the dim Dane Placko played WTTW on Cardinal George and the national network of gay activists, leftists bloggers, and petition drive roll-out via Henry Van Ameringen 's Truth Will Out ( TWO) and the Soros funded Change.org did the orgabizers roll out their cooperation.

Cardinal George, did not roll over or retreat on his analogy. It is correct. Catholics are not hostile to homosexuals. Catholic teaching does not allow adultery to be considered a matter of conscience - it is a sin for breeders, gays, onanists and deep thinkers. No bribe, threat, or legislation can change that.

The Chicago Tribune continues in the tradition of its founder Joe Medill, a wild anti-Catholic bigot. How's that analogy.


http://www.answers.com/topic/international-flavors-fragrances-inc
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/11/08/Gay_Donor_Named_New_Yorker_of_the_Week/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-cardinal-20111230,0,1589078.story

"I knew very early that I was gay, so it was very uncomfortable growing up. I don't really have very happy memories," van Ameringen told NY 1.

To The Manure Borne -Uffish Pipsqueaks and Snooty Bores

The other day in one of my posted musings, so innocent yet piquant, I described a progressive icon as being To The Manor Born.

To the Manor Born suggests birthright and a wholesome patrimony, which in point of fact the cunning and smarmy bastard might lay claim to biological surety, but his manner speaks otherwise.

An Anonymous twerp suggested that I was stupid. My dear chap, we are all born ignorant, but it's the education that we have acquired that makes us stupid.

The Uffish Pipsqueak railed endlessly that " you (me) call yourself an English teacher and the right phrase is To the Manner Born." Not only, my adversary who goes nameless, am I charged with self-proclamation, but also a bad one at that.

The phrase, to the manner born, comes from Shakepeare's Hamlet.

HORATIO: Is it a custom?

HAMLET: Ay, marry, is't:
But to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honour'd in the breach than the observance.

President Obama is great example of to the manner born; He seems Presidential. Like he was born to be President. The same can be said of Charlton Heston as Moses, or Andy Jackson. Martin Sheen makes a good President on the Old West Wing.

People who go to Ireland for a visit often return with lilt and an armory of witticisms. It took weeks to cure my thirteen year old daughter Nora of calling everything she liked 'Brilliant.' My son Conor, on the hand, said 'Dang' all through Great Britain, Ireland and only recently exchanged that exclamation of delight, approval and approbation for WTF!.

To the Manor Born was said to be used sometime in mid-19th Century. Where and how, I do not know nor do I shive a git.

To the Manner Born and To the Manor Born have nice uses and are far more colorful and dainty than the application of the hackneyed "Snob, stuck up, phony."

To the Manner Born is and should be complimentary - it says that someone sure has taken to the climate.

To the Manor Born suggests an intrusive plunger goes where he or she is not welcomed, nor fitting. It was the title of a BBC comedy in which a titled dowager fallen on hard times moved from the Ancestral Manor to a Suburban Estate.

My Uffish* antagonist who called me stupid just might be correct, in the most tangled web of inquiry every twisted by Dr. John Dewey.

Perhaps having dined at that particular bullshit buffet that is Progressive Thought for so many years, the anonymous pipsqueak is to the manure borne.

*“While he stood in uffish thought, the jabberwock with eyes of flame came whuffling through the Tulgey Wood and burbled as it came.” Lewis Carroll . . .not Eddie Carroll the Roofer Philosopher King.

Dispute at South Loop L

A man was shot on a South Loop “L” station platform Monday night after a dispute broke out between two groups of young people, police said.
Chicago Tribune
Dispute??? That ain't no dispute.

Circa August,1804: London -
"Who the duece is this Montrand?" asked the Duke of York.

"They say, sir," replied Upton, "that he is the most agreeable scoundrel and the greatest reprobate in France."

"Is he, by Jove!" said H.R.H.; "then let us ask him to dinner immediately."

" Sink me, Milord, my most Royal and round good fellow," Upton replied and ventured. "I've pen'd an altogether delightful poesy on Lady L'_________; sink me, if I have not."

York commands, "Out with it, man!"

Upton flourishes the fluttering bows of his silken cravat for greater effect, postures Attic and descants his verse -

To Cloe, a disagreaable Prude, Impertinent by boasting her Virginity

Say, Prudish Cloe, why this mighty rout
To prove what no-one who has eyes can doubt?
What need you tell us, you're a virgin still?
'Tis plain you're such, howe'er against your will.
What lustful wretch that e'er has seen you, would
Accept a maidenhead by you bestow'd
Cloe! Ne'er labour then to prove a case
That stands so well attested in your face.

"Guards! Take my Lord Upton to the tower until that time as my brother "Prinny, George Augustus Frederick of Hanover, Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, and Baron of Renfrew - Prince Regent of England and sole galloping right to the amorous Lady L'________. er, . . .No. Simply won't, do! Won't do at all. Sink me, Upton, if your head isn't in the hazard and . . .Yet, damned nuisance the scandal and all. Roylaty you know. Alternative, Upton?"

"Pistols, Royalty? Sabers and broadswords altogether unsettling in this damnable heat. Pistols, I think. The time is now."

"Nonsense, Upton! The proprieties. Invitations, publishing of wrongs, catering . . .game hens and cold Rhenish, eh? What? Haw? Haw? Three days minimum."

"Your servant, Majesty and God Save George Augustus Frederick of Hanover, Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, and Baron of Renfrew -

Now, that's a dispute, Bitches!

Compliments pass when the quality meet.


http://www.georgianindex.net/Prinny/prinnys_set.html

This Too I Did Not Know - Daft Punk

I was loading Campaign Leo 2011 contributions to my Excel file - just one of the many exciting and challenging activities in the action-packed world of Catholic high school fund-raising - and I got flummoxed with eye and brain fatigue; both organs display wildly spinning odometers.

I took a break after reading the enclosed note -

"Take me off the list. I didn't attend Leo - you have the wrong
Jim Dolan Class of 19$%."

I took a stroll up to the second floor all quiet. Should be it's 4 AM. Back at the computer . . .nah. I linked to Neatorama.com ,a great science and stuff website and read about a man who lived with Turkeys for a year - TV Movie?

Naturalist Joe Hutto embarked on a unique, once-ina-a-lifetime scientific project that became much more than just science: he lived as a turkey for a year.

Joe explains his life as a turkey in this interview with New Scientist:

Q- You lived with wild turkeys in rural Florida for over a year. How did it all begin?
A- I had been experimenting with the imprinting phenomenon - in which young animals become attached to the first moving object they encounter - for years, with many types of birds and mammals. Wild turkeys are difficult to come by, so when I lucked upon some wild turkey eggs I decided: OK, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Q- These turkeys regarded you as their mother. Was that a lot of responsibility?
A -It was, because wild turkeys are precocial - they are born fully alert and ambulatory and don't stay in the nest. They have to imprint at birth so they know who mum is, and they can't be left alone at all. I realised that if I was going to do this project then it was going to be a 24-hour-a-day commitment, which I was willing to do.

Q -What did being their mother mean in practice?
A -I had to be with them before daylight so that when they flew down from the roost their mother was there waiting, and I had to remain with them until after dark. If I tried to leave before it was completely dark they would fly down and try to follow me, and then they were left on the ground, where they were vulnerable to snakes or weasels.

Q- Was your research scientific?
A- It started out as a science project but it became more than that to me. I found it impossible to avoid a very personal involvement, so a certain scientific empiricism and detachment was immediately lost in the process.

I wonder if Joe started to open his yap heaven-ward during rain storms after a few months, when his feathered-kinfolk took to drink.

I also learned that Canadians are the world's hardest working people -not Mexicans as I have always believed - based up the World Holiday Index.




But I was really intrigued toe learn that geeks make helmets to honor the Euro-Trash musicians -Daft Punk. I needed further research and went to the Web World Cliff's Note Wikipedia.

Daft Punk are an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (born February 8, 1974) and Thomas Bangalter (born January 3, 1975).[1][2][3] Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s house movement in France and met with continued success in the years following, combining elements of house with synthpop.[1][2][4] The duo is also credited with producing songs that are considered essential in the French house scene. They were managed from 1996 to 2008 by Pedro Winter (Busy P), the head of Ed Banger Records.[5] Early in the group's career, the band members were strongly influenced by groups such as The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones. Bangalter and de Homem-Christo were originally in a band called Darlin', which disbanded after a short period of time, leaving the two to experiment musically on their own.

Daft Punk - cool name, but no Sam and Dave.

Best Christmas Gift EVER! Houlihan Skinny Cargo Pants!

Houli got in 'em; so can I!



I had no idea. The Skinny and Houli Show on WCEV 1540 AM Radio s a cult classic. That I know. However, I had no idea that 'branding' of the two Chicago radio legends had extended to fashion retail*, until I tore open the Chrsitmas gift box from my daughters Clare and Nora.

I had been brought to manly tears with the gifts from Conor The Boxed Set CDs Slim Whitman Live! at Michigan City, Indiana State Correctional Facility- a vegetable slicer and the Hamilton Beach Juicer from the all three Childe Hickeys, but this . . .this was too much!

The Hottest Pants this season: The J Brand Houlihan Skinny Cargo Pant. Seen on everyone from Ciara to Sarah Jessica Parker, Rihanna to Jessica Alba, Khloe Kardashian to Hilary Duff. Featured in Star Magazine, The New York Times and Nylon.

They are the super sexy cargo of the season…strap them on with towering heals or flats and you will look amazing…

The ripping britches came with the requisite applicator - a large plastic forceps with the appearance of a giant sized shoe-horn - in order to snug in the cellulite layers shingle-ing my athletic sinews and corded muscles.

Houli and Skinny should use the Motto of the Irish Republican Army to brand these strides -"Once in; never out!" Tru Dat.

J Brand Houlihan Skinny Cargo Pants in Vintage Olive and many Colors - as seen on Hilary Duff
These super-sexy cargos will become a part of your daily uniform this season. They're casually perfect with a tank top and flip flops , or dress them up with a pair of towering heels and a sexy top for a night out to dinner and the clubs with your army of best girlfriends.

J Brand Houlihan Skinny Cargo Pants in Many Colors


• Skinny Cargo
• Low-Rise
• 10.5-Inch Leg Opening
• 29-Inch Inseam
• 7.5-ounce Luxe Japanese Twill
• 98% Cotton, 2% Lycra






select size: 23 24 25 26 27 31
select color: West PointBlackSharkskinWhiteVintage West Pointrefresh size/colorsDON'T SEE YOUR SIZE OR COLOR?
CLICK HERE TO BE NOTIFIED WHEN IT BECOMES AVAILABLE.



Price: $230.00
$218.50 Save 5% QTY

It's Monday, Bitches!

While at Work - Man Crashes into Gresham District Police Station; Does Not Make Good His Escape

Wassail! wassail*! all over the town,
Our toast it is white and our ale it is brown;
Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree;
With the wassailing bowl, we'll drink to thee.

There was some police activity just Kitty-corner to Leo High School. A car belonging to a gent who earlier kissed the concrete wall of the station house at 79th & Halsted sat at 79th & Peoria Streets. Wassailing is suspected.

Boxing Day has gotten off to a more than sobbering start, this post Nativity Day.

Police say an intoxicated man drove his car into an exterior concrete wall at the Gresham District police station on the 7800 block of South Halsted Street early Monday morning.



Nobody was injured, Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer said.

Andrew Walker, 36, of the 100 block of 154th Street in Harvey, came up the sidewalk, sideswiped a tree and hit the barrier before driving away, police said.

He was cited for DUI and leaving the scene of an accident where property damage occurred.

Greer said Walker was stopped in his 1987 Chevy Caprice on the 7900 block of South Peoria Street, about a block south and west of the police station, and arrested.

No major damage to the building was reported, Greer said.
pnickeas@tribune.com

*wæs hæl - OE- "Good Health"

Castleisland Tornado - Publican Cam-Corders the Cloud

The earliest known tornado to hit Ireland took place on April 30, 1054 near Kilbeggan in County Weatmeath - it was the earliest known European tornado.

Last Wednesday, a tornado hit the ancestral grounds of the Hickeys -Castleisland, County Kerry. The event was recorded publican Tom McCarthy.

Castleisland publican, Tom McCarthy re-living the town's tornado ordeal ...

By MARISA REIDY mreidy@kerryman.ie
Wednesday December 21 2011
A FREAK tornado tore through the centre of Castleisland at lunchtime on Friday last, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

The terrifying twister, which measured approximately 100 feet in width, ripped through the town in a matter of minutes, uprooting roof slates, knocking over walls and fences and breaking trees and shrubbery.

The majority of the damage was centred in the Cahereen Heights estate in town, with one local resident describing the phenomenon as one of the most frightening things he had even witnessed. The local man told The Kerryman that as he made his way from his car to his house, the sky darkened before he was confronted by what appeared to be a tornado.

"To be honest, I don't know what it was but as I made my way into the house I saw this black/purple coloured thing in front of me, shaped like a horse shoe. It was about 50 yards away from me and about 100 ft wide and it took over the whole green [in the estate]. It was about five foot off the ground and the force of it was so intense. "I tried to make my way into the house and could hardly close the door with the force of it," he said.

You may say. . . Us Yanks have a shower them bastards,
too, so.


Tom McCarthys
40 Main Street
Castleisland
Co Kerry Phone 066-7141313

Merry Christmas! Let Us Adore Him!

Hebrew Verbal Form - hadar = Splendor

A primitive root; to swell up (literally or figuratively,
active or passive); by implication, to favor or honor, be
high or proud.
Lev 19:32 -- honor the presence of an old man
Isa 63:1 -- glorious in his apparel,
Isa 45:2 -- level the mountains,
Lam 5:12 -- the faces of elders were not honored.
Dn 11:20 -- splendor of (the) kingdom


From Oxford English Dictionary:
to address, salute, reverence, to worship as a deity, to
pay divine honors to, to reverence with relative or
representative honors, to reverence or honor very
highly; to regard with the utmost respect and affection,
to offer worship.
to like or admire very much, to regard with loving
admiration and devotion, to love intensely or deeply
to enhance the appearance especially with beautiful
objects, to enliven or decorate as if with ornaments


No legislation can do this. No activism can make this possible. No series of columns can bring forth a child. Yet, we demand to honor those trinkets above what life happens to be. The fragility of goodness gets overwhelmed with selfish shouts and shabby egos.

We forget the meaning of adoration.

What and Whom we honor speaks to ourselves. Last August hundreds of people helped rededicate the grave of a young man who died at Okinawa in 1945. Cpl. John Fardy, Leo High School Class of 1940 was the posthumoius recipient of America's Highest Honor - the Medal of Honor. His grave marker made no mention of that fact. A historian, Dr. Terry Barrett brought this fact to every one's attention and Purple Heart Veterans, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan War veterans, Leo Alumni, Leo students and people who had heard of the story put in time, treasure and talent to rededicate the grave so that people would also honor a hero. That hero was as fragile as the day he was born. Like baby in the manger, his mother outlived him.

We honor our elderly.

We honor our spouses.

We honor our children.

We honor our family.

We honor our neighbors.

We honor our country.

We honor our church.

We honor ourselves in daily acts, thoughts and prayers.

Tonight we honor our Being. Our Being within God's Plan. I was blessed to witness the birth of my children. I honor that blessing. These births did not 'happen' they occurred as a consequence of something greater - the signal of God's love. Life is not tissue, impulse and liquid.

Two thousand plus years ago, in Roman occupied Judea, a carpenter and his expectant wife journeyed to fulfill their tax obligations and those requirements coincided with the necessities involved in allowing God to bring forth a child. Having witnessed the three births of my children, I understand that contractions and breathing and coaching and forceps and stirrups and in the case of my son a great deal of cutting without anesthetic were fundamental but not essential. God brought them forth, Malthus, Hegel, Nietzsche, Dewey and Sanger notwithstanding.

I adore my children and the woman who made them possible. I adore the child born in Roman occupied Judea during the tax collection while Quirinius was Governor in Syria.

I honor those of us who adore and honor God in the simple acts that honor others.

Merry Christmas!

Henry Van Not the Klan - Gay Networks War on Chicago's Cardinal George

Chris Pennock and event sponsors David Hollander and Henry van Ameringen at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Leadership Awards

Meet Henry Van Ameringen - Henry is helping fund the petition drive against Chicago's Cardinal George.

Cardinal George is now the target of a petition signed by 1,000 persons from around the country, as radical Gay activists mobilize their hearts, hands and voices in a national shriek.

With multi purpose Soros funded push by Change.Org - Gay Activists are doing their best to make Catholics uncomfortable. We're Okay. Thanks and Merry Christmas.

However, such actions and the very cooperative nature of a not very bright American media can confuse some people . . . who happen to be very confused from the get-go.

The fact is that the Roman Catholic Church sponsors more Gay friendly services than any LGBTQ Advocacy meet-up and shout center. Full Medical HIV-AIDS services, psychological services and counselling are available because the Catholic Church has been in the fore-front for Gays, just as it has been for children, battered women, convicts, the elderly, the disabled, the challenged and most of all the unborn.

Cardinal George spoke to two very limited context occupants, Mike Flannery and Dane Placko of Chicago Fox WFLD affiliate in Chicago. Mike Flannery is best known for his obsequious shadowing of President Obama and Dane Placko is noted for . . .having a job at Fox 32.

Cardinal George made the point that some Gay Activist employ rhetoric used by the KKK in the 1920's - it was virulently anti-Catholic. The Catholic Church is opposed to Gay Marriage and LGBTQ activists are anti-Catholic, including some Rainbow Sash members. Dane Placko asked Cardinal George, "What Rhetoric?"

Here is some found in the comments of the Chicago Tribune -

Thinker1 at 2:06 PM December 23, 2011
He should resign or be reassigned to where he can spout his hatred without anyone having to listen to it.
Reply
Report Abuse
1 0

Ned_Flaherty at 12:14 PM December 23, 2011
The Catholic Church is just as much a hate group as the Klan is, wasting tens of millions of dollars trying to suppress, oppress, demean, degrade, and deny all LGBT citizens of all faiths.
Jesus would never have collected or spent Catholic riches this way; instead, He would have provided food, clothing, shelter, health care, and education to those who need it most.
"Demonstrating in the streets" is a time-honored American principle, and nothing that any religious leader has any right to prohibit, prevent, or proscribe.
Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Francis George, like most of his colleagues, is at least 60 years out of date. The "Gay Liberation" he fears began in the 1960s and finished in the 1970s. It was succeeded by gay rights in the 1980s, civil rights in the 1990s, and human rights in the 2000s. Cardinal George thinks it’s still the 1950s.
The dirty little secret feared by the cardinal and his cronies is that if gays ever get liberated, then most Catholic priests will get liberated, too. And once they are, those priests will have no reason to remain enslaved to a religion which preaches that they’re evil, when they can just re-dedicate their lives to God and mankind through most other religions.
Under Cardinal George, the Roman Catholic Church is just a holy holdout for Klansmen wearing fancier robes, with more jewelry, and following the same superstitions.
Reply
Report Abuse
1 0

PatrickCHGOPDX at 10:40 AM December 23, 2011
The GLBT Communty is the least of the worries that the church needs to be worring about. Or at least stop thinking with a Mid Evil Century thinking.
Reply
Report Abuse
1 0

dlayman58 at 9:02 PM December 22, 2011
Interesting that it is Cardinal George who actually shares so many of the bigoted views of the Klan, yet he now tries to deflect attention from the child rape by Catholic clergy with this dishonest attack. Interesting that this Cardinal's hateful comparison and paranoia comes just when the Dutch Catholic Church has acknowledged that children in its care are twice as likely to be raped by clergy than they would be outside of these Catholic child-abuse mills. I think he forgets that it is not he who decides who may march in parades and what Americans may protest. I am disappointed, and wonder whether some medical issue has hampered this man's mental faculties. Whether his motivation is bigotry or inability to reason, he should apologize to gays whom he has slandered, and then he must resign in disgrace.

Placko - listen up! Remember Terry Cosgrove last November -rhetoric My Man.

Flannery -Nice set up.

Immediately after the Fox broadcast - Rich Miller of Capital Fax Blog who takes coin from Democratic Party lobbyists and operatives - largely - as well as PACs and offers news tid-bits - went flat out for the Democratic voices for Rep. Harris, Gov. Quinn and Terry Cosgrove. Rep. Sara Feigenholz mimed the meme "unfortunate" over the Cardinal's remarks

Well, Greg and Sara, Fortune Favors the Bold. we shall see.

Openly gay State Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), whose district includes the Gay Pride parade route, criticized the Cardinal’s “unfortunate choice of words.” Harris predicted “it probably will provoke other unfortunate words ” from some gay activists.

State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago) also weighed in on the statement, telling ChicagoPride.com, "The Cardinal's unfortunate choice of words in comparing the LGBT community to the Klu Klux Klan is offensive. ... I would hope an apology be forthcoming."

Gay activists need the Catholic Church neutralized in order to move from Civil Unions to Homosexual Marraige.

Truth Wins Out is a 501 (c) 3 think tank located in Burlington, Vermont.

Truth Wins Out

337 College St Apt 12
Burlington, VT 05401

Here is its Board of Directors

Board of Directors
Dan Hall (Board Chair)
Retired Financial Advisor
West Palm Beach

Paul Schappaugh
IT Specialist
Atlanta, GA

Steve Wilkins
Actor
Shreveport, LA

Rev. Jerry Stephenson
Hospice Minister/Author
Fort Lauderdale, FL

Lisa Fels
Public Relations
Washington, DC

Gene Stone
Author
New York, NY

Board of Advisors
Colette Seguin Beighley
LGBT Resource Center
Grand Valley State University
Grand Rapids, MI

Glenn Shadix
Actor
Birmingham, AL

Sean Strub
Entrepreneur
New York, NY

John H.K. Sweet
Retired Psychiatrist
St. Louis, MO

Henry van Ameringen
Philanthropist
New York, NY

There is even a Gay Imperial Court -what's that about?




Members of the Imperial Court of New York: their Imperial Majesties Dowager Empress XX Gefil Tefish and Dowager Emperor XV Fantasia and Her Most Imperial and Sovereign Majesty Empress XXI B, the reigning Empress of New York. NY Gay Task Force Awards Dinner 2007 featuring philanthropist and adviser to Truth Wins Out Henry Van Amerigen (above)



A New York City philanthropist Henry Van Ameringen is an adviser and funder.

You can expect a post Christmas MSNBC line-up from Morning Joe to Rachel Maddow urging more signatures.

The KKK was powerful. They kept a Catholic out of the White House ( Al Smith for Dane Placko and Mike Flannery). The Gay Machine wants to keep bishops out of America.

http://www.change.org/

http://www.truthwinsout.org/board-of-advisors/
http://www.thetaskforce.org/events/leadership_awards/ny_leadership07/photos


http://capitolfax.com/2011/12/22/uh-oh-5/

Bank Robber Returns to Finish His Beer -Had to be Stiegl Pils!

PORT RICHEY, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a Tampa Bay area man ordered a beer at a bar, left to rob a nearby bank then came back to finish his beer.
The Pasco County Sheriff's Office says 52-year-old John Robin Whittle was arrested at the Hayloft Bar in Port Richey on Thursday afternoon. Deputies say he's the man who robbed a Wells-Fargo bank branch earlier, but not before stopping off at the Hayloft for a brew.
A bartender there says Whittle ordered a beer, disappeared for about 30 minutes and then returned to his beer. Deputies say they arrested him at the bar about 10 minutes after he left the bank.
Whittle remained in jail early Friday on $10,000 bond. No attorney was listed for him.

The Hayloft Bar - population: Bartender and a thirsty armed robber of the Wells Fargo Bank -recently returned.

Bartender, " Took you long enough . . .I put a coaster over it and placed in the cooler."


Robber, "Thanks pal. Here's an Abe Lincoln for your troubles and professional attention to hospitality ethics. I had a little bit of business that needed attending. Thanks for keeping an eye on my Stiegl Pils*. This is some beer my friend. Several years ago, I was fishing a creek off of the Kankakee River and ran into two teachers from Bishop McNamara High School in Kankakee. They were named Olson and Hickey. We caught a couple of stringers full of smallies and spent the next two hours cutting fillets and putting them in plastic bags. Olson said, "Let's drive over to Gardener (Illinois) and get a couple of Stiegl Pils. I was hooked by the way the two them talked about that beer.

Well, I followed them right into the Gardener House Inn - a restaurant and bar owned by Joe and his wife Waldetrou from Austria. You know What? They had a hammer-head shark on the wall that Joe caught right here in Port Richey. Well, sir that was my first taste of Stiegl.

When I saw you had it here I had to order one. Stiegl -his has become my beer. I'll sip this tasty beer as I imagine myself in Vienna or Salzburg or some rustic village in the Alps. It pours a nice straw colour with a nice foamy head. It tastes of bread like sweetness with a nice hoppy finish. It's not bitter at all, kind of sour at the finish and the bready sweetness stays with you. It's incredibly good and I think a fine example of a really good German pils."

The doors of Hayloft Bar simultaneously burst open front back and side and into the afternoon dimness and welcome crowded heavily armed Port Richey Swat Officers and Pasco County Sheriff's Police.

Port Richey Police Officer - "Put the beer down! Place your hands on the Bar!"

Pasco County Sheriff - " Hold on, Office! The man is drinking a Stiegl Pils. Show some respect. Let this man finish a wonderful Pils! You, sir, are under arrest for the armed robbery of Wells Fargo Bank and are . . . are quite obviously a very discerning pintsman. My compliments, Sir! Take your time"

*Stiegl Pils - It is that important!

An elegant, refined beer with a pleasant hoppy bitterness.

The lighter, gently kiln-dried malt gives Stiegl Pils its light golden colour. The marvellous bouquet of the finest Saaz hops, a characteristic bitterness and liveliness make it a favourite of beer connoisseurs that love a delicate hoppy note and a fine, aromatic flavour.

William Makepeace Thackeray ( 1811-1863) Christmas Poem "The Mahagony Tree"

On 23 December 1863, after returning from dining out and before dressing for bed, Thackeray suffered a stroke and was found dead on his bed in the morning. His death at the age of fifty-two was entirely unexpected, and shocked his family, friends, and reading public. An estimated 7000 people attended his funeral at Kensington Gardens. He was buried on 29 December at Kensal Green Cemetery, and a memorial bust sculpted by Marochetti can be found in Westminster Abbey.

I became more than interested in the writings and the man William Makepeace Thackeray in 1967, when Father James Sheridan, O.S.A. had us read Vanity Fair. In the 19th Century Thackeray and Dickens were the gods of literature. Charles Dickens is more widely read these days and Thackeray but too rarely.

Thackeray was born in India and came to England with his widowed mother while very young. His old man was an Administrator for the East India Company and had died there. Young Thackeray was educated at Charterhouse School in London and later had a brief career at Cambridge, where his booze parties and gambling debts erased his inheritance. Thackeray fell in love with an Irish girl from an impoverished military family and married. They had daughters in quick order and the tiny wife suffered severe post partum depressions and attempted suicide. Thackeray placed his pretty, tiny and delicate love in the care of French home for the insane and Isabella Shaw Thackeray outlived her very sane and tender-hearted husband.

Thackeray was the single-parent of two little girls and wrote, edited, sketched volumes of work that not only brought them wealth and comfort, but ensured the best care for Mrs. Thackeray. Thackeray was a good guy.

He understood human vanity and snobbery - in fact, Thackeray wrote the Book of Snobs. (click my post title for that Christmas Treat)His very Title -The Book of Snobs, by One of Themselves signals the very nature of the author.

Charles Dickens was the hot-property and beloved BOZ of London. He had a large family that began to bore him. Dickens had his wife committed to a London Insane Asylum and took up with his wife's cousin. Dickens would have made a great celebrity in our times and would no doubt have Danced With the Stars, become a regular on HBO's Bill Maher Celebrity Pimp Slaps and shared Ben and Jerry's with Michael Moore.

Dickens abused Thackeray's good nature. Like too many of our contemporary celebrities, Dickens spread gossip about his literary rival for no good reason or purpose - but like out dogs of today, did so because he could. I believe that is one reason why Dickens remains so popular- He is a great talent and an interminable asshole.

Thackeray worked, lectured, sponsored and influenced young writers like Anthony Trollope and Charlotte Bronte, who not only dedicated the second edition of Jane Eyre to Thackeray, but also portrayed the older writer in that novel as Mr. Rochester.

Thackeray was a tolerant man, because he himself was tolerated and forgiven. His characters are flawed and sometimes even evil, but always human and never two-dimensional creatures like those found in Dickens. Thackeray like people and I believe that he really understood them.

Old Bill Thackeray died one hundred and forty-eight years ago today.

The Mahogany Tree

Christmas is here;
Winds whistle shrill,
Icy and chill,
Little care we:
Little we fear
Weather without,
Sheltered about
The Mahogany Tree.
Commoner greens,
Ivy and oaks,
Poets, in jokes,
Sing, do you see?
Good fellows' shins
Here, boys, are found,
Twisting around
The Mahogany Tree.

Once on the boughs
Birds of rare plume
Sang, in its bloom;
Night birds are we:
Here we carouse,
Singing like them,
Perched round the stem
Of the jolly old tree.

Here let us sport,
Boys, as we sit;
Laughter and wit
Flashing so free.

Sorrows, begone!
Life and its ills,
Duns and their bills,
Bid we to flee.

Life is but short --
When we are gone,
Let them sing on,
Round the old tree.

Evenings we knew,
Happy as this;
Faces we miss,
Pleasant to see.
Kind hearts and true,
Gentle and just,
Peace to your dust!
We sing round the tree.

Care, like a dun,
Lurks at the gate:
Let the dog wait;
Happy we'll be!
Drink every one;
Pile up the coals,
Fill the red bowls,
Round the old tree.

Drain we the cup. --
Friend, art afraid?
Spirits are laid
In the Red Sea.
Mantle it up;
Empty it yet;
Let us forget,
Round the old tree.

Come with the dawn,
Blue-devil sprite;
Leave us to-night,
Round the old tree.

William Makepeace Thackeray 1811-1863

Cardinal George and Catholic Charities - The Hands That Helped HIV Victims

Gay Activists are nothing like the KKK -they are much better served by the media.

Civil Unions have ended nearly 200 years of Catholic help for children and childless couples. The move to Homosexual Marriage in Illinois requires more hostility toward the only Institutional Faith ( hospitals, schools, and services) that will not yield on abortion or the marriage between a man and a woman. It is all about politics, money and votes.

A statement from Francis Cardinal George:
"...Public awareness about the disease (HIV/AIDS) has often been overcome by a creeping indifference in the face of many other world-wide crises. The Catholic Church, along with many other religious groups, has approached persons living with HIV/AIDS as people who need special spiritual and physical care. The Catholic Church continues to be engaged in this ministry internationally and locally.

In Chicago, Catholic Charities has been the catalyst for much of the Church's outreach to persons living with HIV/AIDS and their families. Whenever there is suffering the Church gathers. Please keep the men, women and children living with the disease as well as those orphaned by the disease in your prayers. Please support their caregivers and those working to prevent and cure HIV/AIDS..."

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.
Archbishop of Chicago

A Statement from Rev. Msgr. Michael M. Boland, Administrator, President and CEO of Catholic Charities:
"Preventing HIV/AIDS is a challenge that we cannot ignore, as there is no cure, no vaccine to prevent it and it will simply not go away. It is therefore crucial to educate ourselves and others about HIV/AIDS, as understanding these can help us to respond with intelligence and compassion to our brothers and sisters infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS and help to eradicate the hurtful stigma and humiliating discrimination which continue to accompany the disease. I invite you to browse our HIV/AIDS Services and Ministry page."

Here's more -


Catholic and AIDS Resource Links



AEGIS
www.aegis.org
AIDS Education Global Information System; comprehensive news, daily updates.

AIDS Action Website
www.aidsaction.org
Resources for professionals in the HIV/AIDS field.

American Catholic
www.AmericanCatholic.org
Home of the online editions of St. Anthony Messenger, Catholic Update, Millennium Monthly, Youth Update, Scripture From Scratch and other Catholic features, is a service of St. Anthony Messenger Press and Franciscan Communications, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

The Care Team Network
http://www.careteam.org
The mission of the Care Team Network (CTN) is to be a training and resource center for the development of volunteer Care Teams for persons with health concerns or other special needs.

Caritas Internationalis
www.caritas.org
Caritas Internationalis is an international confederation of Catholic organization, mandated by their respective Episcopal conferences. All Member Organization seek to contribute to the socio-pastoral mission of the Church through the spreading of solidarity and social justice. This is done without regard to creed, race, gender or ethnicity.

Catholic AIDS Action, Namibia
www.caa.org.na
Acting in the spirit of Christ, Catholic AIDS Action challenges the AIDS pandemic in Namibia with the Courage to Fight and the Strength to Care. It builds on Roman Catholic affiliated groups and institutions to inspire and support programs of HIV/AIDS prevention, home-based care, spirituality, and support of orphans.

Founded by Sister Raphaela Händler in February 1998, and with the strong support of all four bishops of the Namibian Catholic Bishops Conference, Catholic AIDS Action has a national office in Windhoek with branch offices in eight of the country's 13 political regions. Both Catholics and non-Catholics are served equally. The staff consists of 12 Namibians (including 5 religious sisters), plus 4 long-term foreign nationals. As one measure of diversity, the prayers that are said at the beginning and end of staff meetings are offered in seven different languages!

Catholic Charities
www.catholiccharitiesusa.org
Catholic Charities encourages people to help themselves by learning to advocate for their rights. Catholic Charities USA is a membership organization based in Alexandria, Virginia. By providing leadership, technical assistance, training, and other resources, the national office enables local agencies to better devote their own resources to serving their communities. Catholic Charities USA promotes innovative strategies that address human needs and social injustices.

Catholic Health Association of the United States
www.chausa.org
The official site of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, which represents more than 2,000 Catholic health care sponsors, systems, facilities, and related organizations. Founded in 1915, CHA unites members to advance selected strategic issues that are best addressed together rather than as individual organizations. The Association advocates for a just health care system, convening leaders to share ideas and foster collaboration, and uniting the ministry voice on critical issues.

Catholic Medical Mission Board
www.cmmb.org
Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB), founded in 1928, is the leading U.S.-based Catholic charity focusing exclusively on international healthcare, particularly the well-being of women and children. CMMB works collaboratively and without discrimination to deliver solutions to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa, and provide primary healthcare in Latin American and the Caribbean. Global initiatives include recruitment and placement of medical volunteers, medicine and medical supply shipments, emergency development and training grants for in-country primary healthcare workers.

Catholic News Service
www.catholicnews.com
The mission of Catholic News Service is the mission of the Church itself--to spread the Gospel through contemporary means of communication. Our mission is to perform this task by reporting the news which affects Catholics in their everyday lives. Some of that news is good and some is bad, but it is what readers need to know in order to work for salvation. They need to know that there are saints in the making in the Church today and they need to know that there are sinners too.

Catholic Relief Services
www.catholicrelief.org
Catholic Relief Services was founded in 1943 by the Catholic Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and disadvantaged outside the country. The fundamental motivating force in all activities of CRS is the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it pertains to the alleviation of human suffering, the development of people and the fostering of charity and justice in the world. CRS provides direct aid to the poor, and involves people in their own development, helping them to realize their potential.

The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance
www.e-alliance.ch
The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) is a new and broadly ecumenical network for international cooperation in advocacy on HIV/AIDS and global trade. It provides excellent resources for churches and church leaders looking to respond to the AIDS pandemic..

Faith in Action Volunteer Program
www.fiavolunteers.org
Faith in Action is a national volunteer movement that brings together religious congregations from many faiths and other community organizations. Their common mission is to help people who are aging and chronically ill maintain their independence by providing them assistance with everyday activities.

Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_hiv.cfm
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation is an independent philanthropy focusing on the major health care issues facing the nation. The Foundation is an independent voice and source of facts and analysis for policymakers, the media, the health care community, and the general public. This link goes directly to the Daily HIV/AIDS Report.

Maryknoll
www.maryknoll.org
Maryknoll, The US based Catholic mission movement includes: the Maryknoll Society (priests and brothers), Maryknoll Congregation (Sisters), the Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful (laity, priests and religious), and the Maryknoll Affiliates. Since 1911, Catholics in the United States have responded to the worldwide cry of the poor by becoming Maryknoll Missionaries. Today, Maryknollers help people overseas build communities of faith. Some work in war zones with refugees, others minister to the sick, the elderly, orphans or people with AIDS. Through lives of service, Maryknollers translate the gospel of love into different languages and in different cultures.

National Association of Catholic Chaplains
www.nacc.org
The National Association of Catholic Chaplains is a professional association for certified chaplains and Clinical Pastoral Education supervisors who participate in the healing mission of Jesus Christ. It provides standards, certification, education, advocacy, and professional development for its members.

National Association of Church Personnel Administrators (NACPA)
www.ncapa.org
The National Association of Church Personnel Administrators (NACPA) is a membership organization dedicated to the development and promotion of just personnel practices rooted in gospel values. NACPA has been serving the Church and its ministers since 1971. Membership in the Association is open to clergy, laity and religious of the Catholic Church as well as interested persons of other faith traditions. NACPA and NCAN developed a resource for developing policies with regard to employees who are living with HIV/AIDS.

National Black Catholic Congress
www.nbccongress.org
"We, The National Black Catholic Congress, comprised of member organizations, represent African American Roman Catholics, working in collaboration with National Roman Catholic organizations. We commit ourselves to establishing an agenda for the evangelization of African Americans; and to improve the spiritual, mental, and physical conditions of African Americans, thereby committing ourselves to the freedom and growth of African Americans as full participants in church and society. Aware of the challenges, we are committed to evangelize ourselves, our church and unchurched African Americans, thereby enriching the Church. We hold ourselves accountable to our baptismal commitment to witness and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ." - Mission Statement

National Black Catholic Evangelization Forum
www.bcn.net
The official site of the National Black Catholic Evangelization Forum. In collaboration with other national organizations, the Forum offers "promising practices" designed to empower local and regional leaders to do the work of evangelization as "we work together to eradicate the evil of racism in the Church and in society." Visit the site to order a copy of HIV/AIDS: Sharing the Compassion of God, a program that offers scriptural reflections, questions to promote personal transformation, a prayer service for hope and healing, and practical suggestions for ongoing community outreach to those affected by HIV/AIDS.

National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry (NCCHM)
www.ncchm.org
The National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry is a proactive agent of a National Pastoral de Conjunto. The council supports it's members' common advocacy, education, and networking. NCCHM promotes this pastoral de conjunto through its annual membership meeting, training symposia, national leadership congresses, and vehicles of communication, as well as a formal linkage to the United States Catholic Conference (USCCB).
The NCCHM is the only organization of its kind in the United States. It is composed of 56 Catholic national and regional ministerial and professional organizations, institutions, apostolic movements and religious congregations of men and women. NCAN is a member of NCCHM.

National Catholic Education Association (NCEA)
www.ncea.org
The NCEA is the largest professional educational association in the world. Membership includes 200,000 Catholic educators who serve 7.6 million students at all levels of Catholic education. This Web site contains information concerning elementary and secondary schools, colleges, and seminaries.

National Catholic Office for People with Disabilities
www.ncpd.org
Vigilant in promoting the inclusion of Catholics with disabilities in their parish communities and the total fabric of society.

National Conference for Catechetical Leadership (NCCL)
www.nccl.org
The National Conference for Catechetical Leadership (NCCL) was formed as an organization of diocesan, parish, and academic catechetical personnel. Its purpose is to enrich and strengthen the ministry of catechesis throughout the Catholic dioceses of the United States, and to serve the multicultural, multiracial Church. It promotes the Church's catechetical ministry.

Office for AIDS Ministry of the Archdiocese of Atlanta
www.atlantaaidsministry.org
The website administered by the Office of AIDS Ministry of the Archdiocese of Atlanta has a wealth of information about the Roman Catholic Church's response to the HIV and AIDS pandemics. Most of the resources are both in English and Spanish.

Pledge for Peace
www.PledgePeace.org
Working for peace doesn't need to be a far-off ideal. In fact it's just a mouse click away on the Web site. The site urges visitors to make a pledge to do something for peace, either by praying, forgiving someone or doing acts of charity and outreach. Those who make pledges also are asked to note how many hours they plan to devote to the endeavor. To date, more than 1 million hours have been pledged since the site was launched two years ago. The Web site is part of a project called, "1,000 Years of Peace," sponsored by St. Anthony Messenger Press, a Franciscan publishing house in Cincinnati, and communication representatives from 13 women's religious congregations from the Cincinnati region. The goal of the project is to obtain about 8.5 million hours of peace pledges to total 1,000 years of peacemaking activities.

Secretariat for African-American Catholics, United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops
http://www.usccb.org/saac/hivawareness.shtml
The Secretariat for African-American Catholics is on the forefront of raising awareness about HIV/AIDS. This site offers resources on HIV/AIDS and resources for individuals and parishes. The fact that African-Americans make up a disproportionate percentage of people living with HIV/AIDS makes these resources all the more important.


Secretariat of Hispanic Affairs, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
http://www.usccb.org/hispanicaffairs/hivaids.shtml
This site highlights the impact of HIV/AIDS on Latinos. The National Catholic AIDS Network is working in collaboration with the Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs to increase the resources available in English and Spanish for Latinos.

Salt of the Earth
http://salt.claretianpubs.org/shake/2000/08/ss0008.html
An online source for social justice published by the Claretians.


United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
http://www.nccbuscc.org
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is an assembly of the hierarchy of the United States and the US Virgin Islands who jointly exercise certain pastoral functions on behalf of the Christian faithful of the United States. The purpose of the Conference is to promote the greater good which the Church offers humankind, especially through forms and programs of the apostolate fittingly adapted to the circumstances of time and place. This purpose is drawn from the universal law of the Church and applies to the Episcopal conferences which are established all over the world for the same purpose.

The Vatican
www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm
The official site of the Vatican and the Holy See. The site is full of resources about the Roman Catholic Church, Popes and the Vatican.

ZENIT - The World as Seen from Rome
www.zenit.org/english/
ZENIT is an International News Agency. Our mission is to provide objective coverage of events, documents and issues emanating from or concerning the Catholic Church. ZENIT's articles are reproduced in hundreds of publications worldwide and are used by numerous radio and TV stations.
ZENIT's coverage includes:
Activities of John Paul II, such as his travels, documents and audiences The Vatican, including diplomatic activity, humanitarian efforts, and profiles of Church leaders Interviews with and features about leading lay Catholics, including researchers, politicians, writers and entertainers

Save the hypocrisy for Mike Flannery, Dane Placko and Rich Miller.

http://www.ncan.org/resources/church_say.cfm

Tracy Baim's Cry for Gay Self Esteem and Why I Ain't Really Hearing It

I have known many great people who happened to be homosexuals, in much the same manner as I happen to be attracted and committed to the opposite sex; love is precious and private. They were and continue to be wonderful and caring people with rich and fulfilling lives and they have self-esteem in warehouse proportions.

Then they are Gay Activists, who are very much like their heterosexual counterparts - pains in the collective ass.

Activists are about as happy as a mob of Islamist fundamentalist at a Danish Cartoon Festival.

Gay or Straight, Activists go from zero to 10 on the loud and obnoxious and are constantly in crisis or attack mode - about or against exactly what God only knows.

This morning I visually thumbed through the electronic pages of the always angry Huffington Post - tweedy Northwestern Prof. Unemployed Fagin, Dave Protess, is railing about Injustice while he awaits his next subpoena; the man is screwing one and all and Tracy Baim offers a plea for historical Gay Self-Esteem.

To reboot my passion for LGBT issues and people, I launched the Chicago Gay History Project, interviewing some 200 people, mostly on video, and online now. As a result of that, I also helped advise WTTW TV on their Out & Proud in Chicago film project, and they recommended me for the companion book, published by Surrey Books in 2008, Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay Community. I also started to scan hundreds of thousands of editorial and photo files from the pre-digital era, to eventually post those online, too.

While keeping my full-time gig as publisher of Windy City Times, I realized there are different and important ways to make sure our LGBT legacy is not lost. The website is one way, and books (print and e-books) are another. So I have worked on three other books: Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage, Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow, and Jim Flint: The Boy From Peoria.

The last two, co-written with Owen Keehnen, came out this year. They document the lives of two very important gay Chicagoans. Both are controversial -- but who isn't after a few decades of activism? Their stories were not well documented until these books, and there are hundreds of other Chicago LGBTs worthy of such documentation.

Fair enough. Self-esteem comes from books about a boy from Peoria who put on shows for a very limited audience? Noel Coward I understand, but Mr. Flint? A leather bar owner? Chaps and Whips and Brando Jackets might not be to everyone's taste, but . . .I don't honestly get it.

I don't get the definition of self-esteem in this, Ms. Baim's, context. My self-esteem objects to any and all cataloging of my sexual inclinations, assignations, or self-touting manifestations of worth. Self-esteem, as far as I know, refuses public proclamation.

Real Combat Veterans never talk about their war experiences.

True philanthropists are tough to find - this I know, as a professional fund-raiser - they are deep in the weeds.

Saints don't know they are.

Self-esteem requires no fanfare. Role-playing folks are pretty sad creatures. A real magician never really needs to wear a cape and most of the really great chefs rarely wear their big white hats out to a movie.

If you want to see Tracy Baim's conception of self esteem, go to any Starbucks, get a coffee and grab a chair. The show is a riot.

Go to a trendy tavern in mid-afternoon and meet a score of unpublished poets, playwrights and novelists - no end of that measure of self-esteem. Like Notre Dame Alums, faux writers will let you know.

Watch a reality TV show - self esteem aplenty.

I met my late wife and mother of my three children, while bartending for a gentleman who happened to be as Gay as Christmas, as well as a canny businessman. For that gentleman, I owe a magnifiucent and precious hunk of my life. He did not care a jot that I was a breeder, nor I that my Vietnam Bronze Star awarded veteran bosss, who never ever talked about 'Nam, though his breeder brother and nephews did aplenty, was in love with a man.

No on, and that means NO one, cares a whit about my sexual lifestyle, which is about as wild as George Gobel reruns; likewise, only sad and needy people need to raise their self-esteem via some artifical means - they need to wear their medals and halos in public. I know that being happy in your skin is tough work for breeder and gay alike. We are all sinners, God help us.

CTA Can't See the Rail Cars for the Forrest Claypool

According to an October 10, 2005 Crain's Chicago Business article, three companies submitted proposals by the September 15, 2005 deadline: Alstom Transportation Inc., an American subsidiary of French firm Alstom S.A.; Bombardier Inc., the Montreal-based aircraft and railcar manufacturer; and Kawasaki Rail Car Inc., a subsidiary of Japanese company Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. According to Crain's, the three manufacturers all retained local consultants, many former CTA and city staff and officials, to help them hone their pitches and navigate the Chicago political waters.

from http://www.chicago-l.org/trains/roster/5000mkII.html

There's the trees in this particular Forrest. Care to identify each tree?

Is there a Marilyn Katz Elm? Perhaps a Dave Axelrod Larch? Mayhaps there be a mighty Judson Miner/Allison Davis Redwood, or a Dr. Quentin Young Acorn?

When a Progressive Protected Specimen like Forrest Claypool - one of many mind you ( Sheila Simon, Dawn Clark Netsch, Deborah Shore & etc.) - is placed in a position of authority troubles are many and owned by taxpayers. They always have the stamp of approval of coalitions a-plenty - Transgender Iwo Jima Flag Raisers, Brownies LUV Abortion, Friends of the Alligator Gar and Gator Bradley, Lawyers for Ne'er Do Wells, Miscreants and Scoundrals, Rush Street Cougars for Self Respect, and the I'm a Loser Because of Systemic Everything Task Force.

The "Ain't He/She Great" stamp of approval branded on the bald rumps of Progressive Protected Species is a passport to profitable paydays and munificent pensions. "Ain't He/She Great" signals an association to a politically necessary pile of street money on election day ( a policy PAC or public employee union), armies of community minded activists sporting XXXXL T-shirts in SEIU Purple, ACORN Red, or a Rainbow, or Progressive persons of wealth and influence.

The Ain't He/She great branded lady or gent pops out of nowhere and appears on election petitions in order to eliminate, or punish political rivals. The Ain't He/She Great phantom is generally armed and equiped with a Media columnist or a spot on the mast-head of Huffington Post.

The helots and worker bees in the precincts and Wards ask, "What'd He do? Where She come from?" Matters not; Ain't She Great? He's a Reformer and we're all gonna get a sweet deal.

Under the Ain't He Great rubric, no one is greater than Forrest Claypool. Try and find his salary among City Workers; you can't as he was appointed with an undisclosed salary - n'est-ce pas! You can hear the shouts though, Forrest can run a Mayoral Staff! He Can Run Parks! He Can Run a County Board . . .well, almost! He Can Run the Trains and Buses on Time Without Stopping for a Pee! Forrest can . . .lay blame.


On my birthday, I was delighted to learn that the CTA had purchased a fleet of state of the art train cars -

Mayor Emanuel and CTA President Forrest Claypool Unveil New Rail Cars

11/8/2011

The 5000-Series Car Scheduled to Make Official In-Service Debut on the Pink Line

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CTA President Forrest Claypool today unveiled new 5000-series rail cars, marking the first time there has been an addition to the rail fleet since 1992. The first of these new rail cars are entering revenue service on the Pink Line. Emanuel and Claypool were joined for the inaugural run at the Midway station on the Orange Line by representatives from Bombardier Transportation, the manufacturer of the cars.

“The CTA remains the primary mode of transportation for many residents of Chicago, and these new rail cars reflect the Agency’s commitment to its customers and to our city,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “In order for Chicago to grow, continue attracting new businesses and increase the quality of life for all Chicagoans we must continue to invest in public transportation, improving transit infrastructure and expanding service.”

After a successful prototype testing period, the first of 706 brand new, full production model cars will debut on the Pink Line. As more cars continue to arrive, they will be tested internally to ensure all components are operating properly before going into service.

“The 5000-series cars provide a more enjoyable ride for customers,” said CTA President Forrest Claypool. “These cars have wider aisles and roomier interiors, electronic destination signs and security cameras in each car for enhanced safety.”

The addition of these new cars to the fleet will allow CTA to retire some of its oldest cars which average between 32 and 41 years old.

“Modernizing the fleet is very important and is fiscally prudent because a younger fleet requires less maintenance and allows CTA to keep the trains on the system where they are needed and not in the repair shop,” Claypool said.

The rail cars feature an aisle-facing seating configuration which adds six inches to the narrowest portion of the aisle, allowing more room for customers carrying backpacks, packages, luggage, strollers and bikes. The aisle-facing seating also provides space for an additional wheelchair position, increasing the total to two per car.

The cars also have LED displays with larger text-size that will replace the scrolling destination signs on the exterior of the lead car. The LED signs on the interior will display the next stop, date and time. The same signs can also be used for a text display of the audio announcements made to customers in the rail car. Above the doors, there is a system map with LED lights that indicates the train’s present location as it travels along the route. In addition, the side doors have an opening/closing light in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act regulations.

Each rail car has multiple security cameras and will eventually transmit real time video to CTA’s Control Center, the Office of Emergency Management and Communication and the Chicago Police Department. CTA’s Control Center will also have remote access to signs, giving them the ability to make emergency audio and text messages inside the trains if needed.

After a competitive selection process, CTA selected Bombardier Transportation Corporation to manufacture the rail cars. Bombardier is a recognized leader in the manufacturing of mass transit vehicles.

The total cost of the rail cars $1.137 billion which is funded by two CTA bond issuances backed by sales tax receipts. The remainder is paid for by $150 million in federal funds.Link to the gallery:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ctaweb/...7627960132703/

Ain't He Great! The cars don't work! $1.137 billion less the $ 150 million Federal.

Only days ago, the Bombardier Cars - as painstakingly studied as the swell parking meters sucking in credit and debit cards all our Urbs in Horto - were lifted off the tracks.

The CTA Tattler of Chicago Now snitched -

"Now remember, the first set of 10 cars were delivered in April of 2010. They underwent rigorous testing on every rail line. And the manufacturer is just now discovering this "flaw"?

Interestingly, Claypool says: “This decision demonstrates an abundance of caution on our part as we work with Bombardier to address these issues.” Perhaps. And perhaps more complete testing should have been done in the first place."

Those darn Bombardiers!

Dang! But, Forrest Claypool, perhaps, can detail the oxen on the CTA Rails getting gored for our $1.137 billion less the $ 150 million Federal. Claypool will go on, if he really actually must do so, Chicago Tonight, WTTW doncha know, with Carol Marin tossing some under-hand softballs like,

" Gee, Ain't You Great?"

"Well, shucks Carol, now that you mention this - Yes. . .Yes I am. The Bosses need to go!"

" What about thos rail-cars Forrest? Are they really safe?"

" They sure are Carol! Why, I ran the Parks and that was much tougher than running a great city transportation system, where employees expect to be paid while they take a pee. Not on my watch, Carol. You know, Carol, I am an outsider and a reformer."

" Ain't he great? Tommorrow, I will ask a bus driver exactly how long he expects to be paid while taking a pee and how long that pee might be. The Pee Fee -Our Tax-Dollars Down the Drain - Thank you Forrest Claypool!"

The next time someone tells you so-and-so is great, ask the Ain't She/He Great-er, " Can You find a Chinaman on 22nd Street?" or direct that worthy to find his/her posterior lobes using both hands in one motion.

Epic Fail! Ain't He Great! Great. . .really great . . .really terrific . . .couldn't be better . . .the cat's nuts . . .

Kim Jong Il - An Irish of Asia Wake for Dear Leader

North Korean Mourner -Yer Man looks Deadly in his best togs, so.

Kim Jong-eun the Bereaved - Put a Santa hat on it and call it Randal

Only Days before, Poor Man - 'That's a grand set of breathers on you girls! Must all be Frogmen,so.'

Koreans - the Irish of Asia

They don’t like anyone who isn’t Korean, and they don’t like each other all that much, either. They’re hardheaded, hard-drinking, tough little bastards, “the Irish of Asia”.

PJ O'Rourke

On Monday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency called him the "Great Successor," and urged the people to rally around their next leader.

Kim Jong Un is expected to lean on members of his father's inner circle, including his aunt, Kim Jong Il's sister Kim Kyong Hui; her husband, Jang Song Thaek; and other Kim Jong Il confidants, experts said.

"Even though Kim Jong Un has been appointed as the successor, they may form a committee to rule the country at first," Yoon said. "His power succession is not completed yet."

New Zealand Hearld

Put a male Korean (more specifically a Busanite) and an Irish man in the same room and I bet it’d be hard to tell the difference between the two of them: They’ll both make a bee-line for the alcohol, swear their heads off, all the while talking in loud, obnoxious voices. Undoubtedbly each would be singing themselves silly before the night is over.
If things ever went wrong between the two, there’d probably be a very verbal (fist?) fight. Who would win? I don’t dare venture to answer that question. I’ve seen both the Korean (Busan) and Irish temper up front and in person and I’m telling you, when the wrong buttons are pushed both are scary in their own unique ways.

Anne Nominus

( Park Funeral Parlor ) One hour before the other mourners arrive. The bereaved members of the family have a quiet moment -

Kim Kyong-hui( sister of the Deceased) - He worked day and night for socialist construction and the happiness of people, for the union of country and modernisation. He left us so suddenly,

Chang Sung-taek ( her Husband) - That he did.

Kim Jong-eun ( The Son) Jong-eun - Investors were rattled by the news because they are not sure about what will happen in North Korea after his death, Auntie, some say you are a slave to the drink

Uncle Chang - 'Tis so

Auntie Kim - Listen here, ye scut! I'll have none of your Frenchy Swiss swagger on this day of days - My Brother was twice the man his Da was and I'll tell you me Bucko, that I am three times the set of knackers than he had dangling, so. You pull your plum and smile the while.

Uncle Chang - 'Tis true nonetheless.

Kim Jong-eun - Da said the place is mine from from bog to boreen!

Auntie Kim - Did he, so? And who told him to do so, just? You, Ye, moon-mugged little wanker, have a guess?

Uncle Chang - He did that, so, entirely.

Kim Jong-eun - I am the Four Star General, Auntie . . .There'll be wigs on the green . . .if . . .

Auntie Kim - Laudy daw and talk a lugh! You are a four-star little c#$% who will do as he's feckin' well told and none of your gas, Boyyo.

Kim Jong-eun - Me Da said, after the wake and all. that I'd run the bollocks off of all of ye and the Gypos & Pakis in the boot of me Hillman Hunter. Now, when may I begin?

Auntie Kim -Ask me arse and Unkie's bollocks; go and shite yourself blue; eff off and don't be annoying me . . . I've a throat on me . . . where's my #$%^ing Baby Power*

Kim Jong-eun - Auntie, I . . .

Uncle Chang - ( sotto voce) Now, dont be a caffler, ye young Gasur! She'l be off on a Gee-Eyed pisser that'd kill a pikey. Christ O'Mikey ,I could eat the lamb o' Jaysus through the rungs of a chair. The noon tucker ain't til after the Angelus,so, fer #$%^'s sake. Now, quiet so, or the Auld Hoor'll be up yer gicker quicker than any micker on the licker. The Cute Hoors is linin' up so. ( Commandingly but quiet) Last pull on the Power, Luv.

Auntie Kim - feck Off, Ye. Jasus, when's Tay? I could eat a baby's arse through the bars of a cot . . .I'd eat a farmer's arse through a blackthorn bush! A wafer and pint of Vitamin G'd be Deadly, 'bout now.

Uncle Chang -If I were mad, I would!

Enter the mourners - film at ten.
* miniature bottle of Powers Irish Whiskey (favoured size for ladies handbags