Jews, Greeks and Romans - The Feast of the Epiphany -The Heart, Head and Hands of Man

I fail to follow the Star over Bethlehem. I fail every time I fall prey to my personal monsters - arrogance, anxiety and anger. It seems that I have had a lifetime Triple A membership. This morning's Mass of the Feast of the Epiphany was another whack to the back of my ten cent head.

The Epiphany was once almost as important in Christian devotions as the Birth of Christ. According to the Gospel of St. Matthew, Magi witnessed the rise of new star signalling the birth of a Redeemer of Man in Bethlehem of Judea. These wise men or astrologers, or kings followed the star with unquestioning devotion - taking the long journeys from their homelands. Traditionally the Magi represent all the people of earth - Asian, African and Caucasian.

A wise man with whom I have the honor of knowing, Max Weismann -Director of the Center for the Study of Great Ideas - is dedicated to the study of how man can lead a happy life. The Greeks called happiness Eudaimonia (evðaimoˈnia pronounced FEW-Day Monia). Roughly translated the word is a composite for "Spirit of Well Being." Aristotle wrote in the Nicomachean Ethics that leading a happy life is not merely the pursuit of pleasure but in 'living well' - according to arete - or virtue. Doing anything well requires virtue or a tough minded application of our skills and abilities to make something useful and beautiful. It takes concentration and tireless effort to become an athlete, an artist, or a parent. Nothing springs from the head of Jove.

The Greeks it seems to me are the Head of Mankind - the Intellect.

The Jews are the Heart and Soul of Man. It was the Jews who recognized that the power of God lies not in might but in forgiveness, charity and humility.

The Romans made use of everything and everyone that they conquered and offered systematic application of all that was good, lasting and worthwhile. The Romans are the Hands of Man - the great manipulators and architects of Faith, State, and Taste.

Together, civilization offers us a means by which to follow the Star of Faith with Head, Heart and Hands. One or two is not enough. The Epiphany brings three wise men together in an act of recognition, humility and fortitude. They recognized the right path, allowed the Star to guide them without questioning its place in the heavens, and ventured into a journey fraught with perils and uncertainty.

The Epiphany has come to mean an awareness of something that was once hidden. The Star of Faith is not hidden - it is merely clouded by my submission to arrogance, anxiety and anger.

I pray that God helps me allow my membership in Triple A to lapse - permanently.

Max Wesimann Happy Birthday - The Pump Room's "Most Interesting Man"

Happy Birthday to Max Weismann*, philosopher, classicist, architect, bon vivant, raconteur, discerning pintsman, and Director of The Center for the Study of Great Ideas.

Max Weismann is also the Commodore of Chicago's Ambassador East Pump Room. His Station is at the northeast corner of the elegant horse shoe bar and from his perch he dispenses good will and jambs his long athletic arm deeply into his pockets - to the elbows mind you - to bring coin of the Republic in saloon largess only matched by Boz O'Brien -owner of Midway Airport's Reilly's Daughter Pub.

Max makes Henry Kissinger go bashful

Brian Erlacher was sacked by Max

Jim Thome asks Max to watch him in the cage

Mayor Daley opens his mail

The Lincoln Park Zoo sings to Max at Christmas

The Black Hawks sing Chelsea Hammer whenever Max drops a cocktail napkin to catch the eye of a Swedish Stewardess

Max gets tips from bartenders

Max Weismann uses only the vowels he truly needs

Max never needs Tom Skilling - clouds part with his advent


When it is raining, it is because he is sad.

Even his parrot's advice is insightful.

If there were an interesting gland, his would be larger than most men's entire lower intestines.

His shirts never wrinkle.

He is left-handed. And right-handed.

Even if he forgets to put postage on his mail, it gets there.

He once knew a call was a wrong number, even though the person on the other end wouldn't admit it.

You can see his charisma from space.

Max Weismann is my friend - Happy Birthday, Max!


*

Max Weismann is an American philosopher and a long time friend and colleague of Mortimer Adler, with whom he co-founded the Center for the Study of the Great Ideas in Chicago. He is director and president of the Center and has dedicated his time and talents to promoting the philosophical and pedagogical ideas of Dr. Adler. He also compiled, edited and published, How To Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization, a 600 page tome of never published work from Adler’s television series, The Great Ideas. Weismann serves as chairman of the Great Books Academy [over 3.000 students] and is professor of philosophy at Rushmore University.[1]

Prior to his career in philosophy and education with Dr. Adler, Mr. Weismann was a consultant in the field of architecture, construction management and exhibit design and fabrication. He worked on famous projects like the Century 21 Exposition, 1964 New York World's Fair and Expo 67, with such notables as Walt Disney, Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller, Mies van der Rohe, Louis I. Kahn, Paul Rudolph, Marcel Breur, José Luis Sert, Edward Durell Stone, Minoru Yamasaki, Harry Weese, Moshe Safdie, Jacques Yves Cousteau, Alexander Calder, and Edward L. Barnes. Mr. Weismann oversaw the development and construction of the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Weismann also invented a revolutionary color imaging system, that was used worldwide in the fields of color proofing and printing, graphic design, television and advertising.

italics - http://symbii.com/stories.php?sid=618

Super le truc, merci! From Max Weismann - Bon Vivant & Commodore de Pump Room

I tried this on a Blatz Tall Boy - to no avail.

Vous avez soif, pas de tire bouchon mais une paire de chaussure? Parfait ! vous pouvez ouvrir votre bouteille de vin !! REGARDEZ ;)

WHY MEN SHOULD NOT TAKE MESSAGES

God's Good Health to Max Weismann!

Today's Mass* and all my prayerful thoughts go with my friend and mentor Philosopher Max Weismann. Max heads the Center for the Study of Great Ideas and is one of the genuine stand-up guys in Chicago. Max stands in tall company with my Mom and Dad, Mary's Mom Alice & Chuck Holm, Nora, Conor, Clare, Willie & Kerry Winters & the Kids, Tom Mahoney, Bob Hylard, Nick Novich, Bart Winters, Charlie and Kate Olson, Jim Frogge, Tamara Holder, George Applegate, Mike McGill, Jack Higgins, Bernard Callahan, Chris and Mary Fogarty, Tommy Ward, Mike Holmes, Big Curtis Banks, Rich Lindberg, Rose Keefe, Thomas Hayes, Marquis Ball, Marty Tully, Tom Roeser,All my Cousins( in the hundreds), Mike Kennedy, Pat Buck, John B. Powers, Billy Higgins, Eddie Carroll, Boz O'Brien, Terry McEldowney, Mike Houlihan, Mike 'Pickle' Joyce, Mike and Anne Cullen, Steve Swerdeloff, Mike McQuade, Frank Nofsinger, Christine Flowers,Steve Rhodes, Mary Ann Roti, Rick Kogan, Rich Furlong, Jim Farrell, Dick Prendergast, and all the Leo Alumni, Patti Bidwill, Billy Helm, Lisa Hwang, Mel Cooney, Jim & Betsy Kennedy, La Lumiere School, The Kids at Leo, Sister Mary Paul McCaughey, Jim Durkin, Ed Maloney, Kevin Joyce, Skinney Sheehan, John Sheehan, Mary Terese and Steve Riordan, Elias Crim, Steve and Susan Jordan, Father Gallagher, Father, Gene Smith, Gino Ford, Cardinal George, Bishop Ray Goedert, Bishop Gorman, Joe Gorman, 6th District Chicago Police Department, Jack Quinn, Mary Pat McWalters, Mike Miller, Seb, Hasan, Tyrone, Tyrell, Mike, James ( all of 1440 N.Lake Shore Drive), Angel of the Pump Room, my Brother Kevin and Sister Joan, Jim and Gail Cleary, Mike and Shelby, My Nephews, Ollie and Martin McGarry, Joe Epstein, Gary Saul Morson, Kevin Baker, Dan Kelley, Anne Leary, John Rubery, Asher Fein, Sy Blitzstein,and the beautiful and elegant Terry Sullivan -to name a very few of the great people I am blessed to share my life on this earth. These people put the balm on Christ's wounds.

*Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10:35-45.

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
He replied, "What do you wish (me) to do for you?"
They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."
Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
They said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared."
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Each of us prays in many different ways and I like to group all of the people I love into a bouquet of support and love for Max Weismann as he faces two tough surgeries this week.

Each of us has a Gethsemane, but they all should be prayers that merge as one.

God's Blessing and health to you, Max! From all of us!

Max Weismann's Letter to Secretary Arne Duncan - Right America's Moral Compass With Great Ideas

Secretary Arne Duncan
United States Secretary of Education
LBJ Education Building, Room 7W311
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202

Dear Secretary Duncan:
I reside in Chicago and I am a well known moral philosopher in the field education and I am the protégé of Dr. Mortimer J. Adler.
.
U.S. Attorney General Holder: "We want to listen to educators, parents, and experts in the field, and find out the best ideas for addressing this urgent problem. We're not interested in just scratching the surface or focusing on generalities, and as we delve into this problem we're not going to protect any sacred cows. We're here to learn firsthand what's happening on our streets so we can devise effective solutions."

As long as you treat violence, drug/alcohol addiction, vicious behavior, etceteras as the problem, instead as a symptom of a moral problem, you are not really addressing the crisis.

Whenever there is something bad or wrong in our communities, cities, states, it is because we (citizens & parents) let it get that way.

Most Americans have lost their moral compass and we are in lock-step with the cultural trajectory of ancient Rome.
When the word education is used today, vocation is meant. Only a true liberal education can save us and that is not even a guarantee.

Our schools are not turning out young people prepared for the high office and the duties of citizenship in a democratic republic. Our political institutions cannot thrive, they may not even survive, if we do not produce a greater number of thinking citizens, from whom some statesmen of the type we had in the eighteenth century might eventually emerge. We are, indeed, a nation at risk, and nothing but radical reform of our schools can save us from impending disaster. Whatever the price we must pay in money and effort to do this, the price we will pay for not doing it will be much greater.

Cordially,

Max Weismann,
President and co-founder with Mortimer Adler, Center for the Study of The Great Ideas and Chairman, The Great Books Academy (3,000+ students)

Cc: Eric Holder
Mayor Richard M. Daley

Red Baiting Tribune - and that ain't all bad. 1934 Cartoon

Given "the context" of criticism of the President, it is charming to note that now the Chicago Tribune has the full-time White House cheerleaders of the The Swamp ( Mark Silva) whirling dervishly for President Obama. Thanks to Max Weissman of the Center for the Study of Great Ideas.

Max writes:

Chicago Tribune cartoon from 1934

Here is an editorial cartoon 75 years old! Seem familiar? Most all of us know what happened and how long it took to get things straightened out. Most of those in DC weren't even born then!

Look at this cartoon from 1934, and look especially at the plan of action.
Remember the adage, "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it". Looks like we could be in for difficult times.

Max Weismann's Letter to George - Orwell

Letter to George Orwell

RE: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)

Dear George,

Many of us Americans scoffed at your book when it came off the press in 1949. Now 60 years later, events are occurring that sadly give us pause and respect for your early vision.

Alas, your terms "Big Brother" and "Newspeak" reflect the direction of our current society of excessive governmental paternalism, control and the dangerous absence of a real press.

Unless we wake up as citizens, I'm afraid we will end up as your Winston Smith.

Best regards,

Max Weismann

Hillel's Angels ! Would the Sun Times Editorial Board Actually DoThis? A Rhetorical Question

A tough looking biker was riding by Lincoln Park zoo, when he saw a little girl leaning into the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabbed her by the cuff of her jacket and tried to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The biker jumped off his bike, ran to the cage and hit the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.

Whimpering from the pain the lion jumped back and let go of the girl. The biker then took her to her terrified parents, who thanked him endlessly.

A reporter saw the whole scene, and addressing the biker, said, 'Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I saw a man do in my whole life.'

'Why, it was nothing,' said the biker, really. The lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, and acted as I felt right.'

'I noticed a patch on your jacket,' said the journalist.

'Yeah, I ride with a Jewish motorcycle club, Hillel's Angels' the biker replied.

'Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist with the Sun Times, you know, and tomorrow's papers will have this on the front page.'

The following morning the biker bought the paper to see if it indeed brought out the news of his actions. On the front page was the headline:

ISRAELI GANG MEMBER ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH.

H/T - Max Weismann -Center for the Study of Great Ideas

We Have a Problem! Burr Oak Cemetery and Someone Else's Troubles

Father Dan Mallette blesses the desecrated grounds at Burr Oak.


So I asked the undertaker what it took to make him laugh/when all he ever saw is people cryin'

first he hands me a bunch of flowers that he received on my behalf/he said, "Steve business just gets better all the time
Steve Goodman -Somebody Else's Troubles



Max Weismann of the Center for the Study of Great Ideas is an architect and a philosopher.

He designs. Max Weismann thinks. He thinks because he reads and he reads what is great. Max wrote to me in response to the horrific desecration of the dead Americans at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, IL

"We are under Siege!Aside from the plethora of current inequities and iniquities being perpetrated on the citizens of this nation, we have now reached the nadir--Congress now passes massive bills of profound and long lasting consequences, without even reading them.

That said, we are ultimately at fault--whenever something is wrong in our communities, cities, states or country, it's because we let it get that way."

We are responsible. Max Weismann is using the 1st Person Plural in its archaic form. Thanks to Progressive PC obfuscation of the common language ( O, Let's Ban Midget!)The first person plural however now means You. Thanks to Victimhood and Identity Politics. Many thanks. Like the name of that old Hippie/Yuppie bar Fred Holstein's - Somebody Else's Trouble , people like to talk of the revolution that someone else fights and spreading the wealth that someone else pays for.

I grew up in a blue collar world where free lunch ends when Mom stops making it. If someone at the bar buys me a beer, I am duty bound to buy the next one. It all evens out, unless you happen to be the type of louse who stands around caging drinks and smile with your short arms and deeper pockets when the round comes to you. I don't do those things, because I have had my ass kicked repeatedly and with great gusto by my elders and betters. You don't get away with that too much around Western Avenue, though I have seen it done. I called such a person a louse, an insect who feeds on others; but, who's to say? One man's louse is another man's cause celebre.

The bane of my outlook in all things over the last four decades has been a dominance of earnest people who speak in hushed measured tones and affect a look of pained recognition but intolerant disgust with all other people. Joan Walsh a Progressive writer and editor of Salon and all too frequent guest on MSNBC ( the Tool Shed) comes to mind. Joan Walsh and folks like her have a mantra - 'Who's to Say?'

e.g. Michael Jackson was not only the greatest entertainer of all time, the 21st Century Dionysus who danced in a Golden Age; a John the Baptist who announced Barack Obama. Who's to say?

Me. I don't do group think and neither do most Americans. I voted for Barack Obama when he ran against Bobby Rush in my Congressional District - Obama lost. I like Barack Obama.

I worked for John McCain. John McCain lost, because he seemed to want to lose, after September 19th 2008 - the day the American Economy tanked. My Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, Aunts and my hundreds of cousins voted for Barack Obama.

Barack Obama is my President. I still feel that he was no where near ready to be President and that he will be the Jimmy Carter of the New Millennium - too bad. Nice guy.

I belong to the We - 99% of the Hickey/Winters/Brennan/Donahue/Cleary family voted to make Barack Obama Our President. Pronouns matter. Possessive Pronouns really matter. My guy lost, We won. That is America! Thanks be to God!

Who's to say? Me. I read and seem to understand history. I read and seem to understand poetry,drama, fiction and essays. I taught literature with some success for decades. I occasionally even get paid to write something, because I have something to say. Somethings I managed to learn on my own -from great books.
The rest I learned by getting the odd slap when needed, or from the silent treatment for being a jerk.

I work for and with black teenagers at Leo High School in Gresham neighborhood - in fact a black kid was shot over at 1400 W. 78th Place early this morning by a clown in dred-locks firing from the sun-roof of the car in which he was riding. Some mother has a kid at Advocate Hospital in Oak Lawn with his guts shot out and tubes in every orifice - my kids are asleep. This kid could be a Leo Man, I hope and pray not. The Kids at Leo High School are all black, but the guys helping pay their tuition are nearly all white guys.

Race relations issues are talked about by Joan Walsh-like head-shakers on WTTW who never drop a dime to help kids at Leo. Race Relations happen every day and race relations are pretty damn good. Leo High School is a safe place for Black Kids - they study, meet old white guys, play sports and succeed. Their folks pay heavy tuition bills and old white guys buck up plenty to ease their pain.

Gresham District Chicago Cops protect the kids once they are out of the school and help to see that they get home, without some clown throwing shots at them.


Sheriff Tom Dart unearthed the horrific desecration of My Neighbors at Burr Oak Cemetery. We have a problem. We are under siege, as Max Weismann wrote to me with heartbreakingly succinct clarity.

A Joan Walsh can write for Salon and shake her jowls with disgust at all of us, while making a case for Abortion about white on black systemic racism on MSNBC. Great.

The bones of a child are as precious to me as the bones of Emmett Till, Ezzard Charles, Dinah Washington and the hundreds of people who struggled and laughed and provided for their children and were back-hoe-ed by three morons at the bidding of some others.

We have a problem. Sheriff Tom Dart and all of us are now doing something about what was done. We need to start taking care of Someone Else's Troubles by calling out the dopes who continue to say 'Who's to Say?' We Do.

We need to Read what is Great and not just what is rammed down our throats, by Group Thinkers. We can read Dead White Men and still honor the thoughts of living women of color - honor bright; it can happen.

We need to say that killing Children is not a Woman's Reproductive Health Issue; murder is not the result of systemic racism, but an individual act selfish contempt for everyone else; suffering is not Some Else's Trouble; help is not always the result of more taxes.

Who's to say? Me. I don't need to be right; I just need to live like I might be correct.


Go to The Center for the Study of Great Ideas and get some Great Ideas from people who had them.

The CENTER has two primary missions:

One, to help awaken citizens from their moral and intellectual slumbers and to help them understand why philosophy is everybody's business: the possibility of finding sound and practical answers to questions about the good life and good society. And philosophy's ability to answer the most basic normative questions, WHAT OUGHT WE SEEK IN LIFE? And HOW OUGHT WE SEEK IT?

Two, to promulgate the insights and ideals embedded in Dr. Adler's lifelong intellectual work in the fields of Philosophy, Liberal Education, Ethics and Politics. To continue functioning as THE resource for, access to, and the on-going interpretation of his work.

Quigley and Claypool - Southern Illinois University - Early Eighties - with a Sears Catalog

An imaginative fictive turn* of the lives of the Self-absorbed:

Roosevelt University student Mike Quigley visited Forrest Claypool of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale for the summer where both worked as fry cooks for Dave's 'Every Picture Tells a Story -Donut!'

Both chaps were engaged in the study of Government and how government can best separate the wallets from citizens. They learned well. Nevertheless, the ardent Progressive scholars busied their days at Dave's dropping dough - the flour, egg and soda variety.

Their evenings were spent in mutual salvos of political tactics and strategies, and in the wistful exercises of jejune male fantasies.

The Sears Catlog arrived at the trailer Claypool.

FC- "Mike did you see how beautiful these models are in the Sears Catalog?"

MQ - " I did, Forrest, and they are not all that expensive!"

FC- "It says, 'Immediate Delivery' - Let's Order, today!"

The winsome youths pooled their coppers and silver and Rushed a Money Order to Sears Roebuck & Company Headquartered in Mike's hometown of Chicago - at the newly opened Sears Tower.

Days passed and quality Donuts were scooped from the bubbling cauldron in Dave's 'Every Picture Tells A Story -Donut' and nights melted in dreamy expectation.

Mike Quigley worked the late shift and received a Call from his buddy landlord -"Packages Here!"

After work Mike stumped his way to the Rolling Cloud Trailer Park outside of Carbondale on the road to Cobden.

Moist with anticipation, the future Cook County Board Pit Bull and U.S. Congressman shouted to his equally ambitious and horny pal, " Are the Girls Here, Yet?"

The tall and stylishly attired Progressive Cub Scout replied, " No Mike, but they should be here soon! Their clothes arrived!"

. . .and Illinois was the better for these earnest youths!

* Many thanks to Max Weissmann of the Center for the Study of Great Ideas! Also, click my post title for other ripping yarns.

Pentecost,Memorial Day and a Young Man's Death

Veni, Creator Spiritus is the hymn that Terry McEldowney will sing at today's 10:30 Mass for Sacred Heart Church at 116th & Church here on the south side.

Terry McEldowney has one of the most powerful and rich baritones in Western Civilization - he is especially poignant when remembering our Fallen Veterans and in reminding weak Catholics like me of the power of the Holy Spirit.

Max Weissmann is the Director of the Center for the Study of Great Ideas at University of Chicago. Mr. Weissmann, an architect and philosopher, helped Mortimer Adler develop the Center. Max sent me the photos posted above.

Terry and Max know loss. Terry and Max know the power of Faith. I am proud to call each man my friend.

This is the Feast of The Ascension of Christ.

Next Sunday is the Feast of the Pentecost, which memorializes the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon Mary the Mother of God and the Twelve Apostles. This might be considered a more powerful Feast than Christmas or Easter to Christians, as it recounts the sense of loss experienced by the Apostles and Christ's Mother following the Ascension of Christ. All of us lose those we love. The saddest of us are the ones who lose themselves - forget our roots, our family, our obligations and our place in God's Hands.

Tomorrow, we also celebrate the loss of men and women who have given their lives for our Country. My Dad was a seventeen year old who went to the Solomon Islands in 1943 with the 3rd Marines, and then fought at Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima and mopped up Guam some more until he was mustered out of the service. He is now a seventeen year old octogenarian, who has witnessed the ascension of his mother, father, brothers and sisters, friends, and daughter in law ( my wife Mary). He will be at 9AM Mass in Orland Park with his bride. He will hear Veni, Creator Spiritus

A family near me, lost their baby. Jack Callahan was a big strapping eighteen year old Marist football player who died following a seizure hours before his graduation from high school. ( click my post title for Mark Konkol's touching story)

My baby son, who worked at Di Cola's Fish Market until late last night, is sleeping. My baby girls are sleeping.

On the Pentecost, God sent his Spirit to revive us. On Memorial Day, we as a nation recall the babies who sacrificed themselves for Liberty.

Tell me God does not know what He is doing. Tell me that God not only sent the Holy Ghost, but also Terry McEldowney and Max Weissmann, outside of His Plan. Faith happens, when we let go of what is meant to return to Him according to that plan and also, when we try to make sense of the beautiful, as well as the terrible, sent as a gift to each of us.

Veni, Creator! We'll remember.

Veni, creator Spiritus
mentes tuorum visita,
imple superna gratia,
quae tu creasti pectora.

Come Holy Spirit, creator, come
from your bright heavenly throne,
come take possession of our souls
and make them all your own

Pooh! Swine Flu.

America! before MSNBC and Its Obsession with Self-Loathing

Long before American Military would be pilloried on the nightly news, abused by the screeching of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, David Schuester and Rachel Maddow; before Ward Churchill, Bill Ayers and SEIU became the templates for Community Service. Americans proudly jumped at the chance to valorize Patriotism.

America has had its head shoved downward to contemplate re-constituted American History by academics, politicians in the pockets of Advocacy Agendas, and compliant journalists.

Max Weismann of the Center for the Study of Great Ideas founded, ironically enough at the University of Chicago, by America's greatest Thomas Aquinas scholar, Mortimer Adler, sent me this remarkable photo from World War One Era America.

The troops at Fort Dodge, Iowa created this remarkable photograph - without the aid of PhotoShop.

CLICK THIS PHOTO FOR A STUNNING VIEW!

FACTS: Standing Tall for Liberty 1918 -Fort Dodge, Iowa

Base to Shoulder: 150 feet
Right Arm: 340 feet
Widest part of arm holding torch: 12 1/2 feet
Right thumb: 35 feet
Thickest part of body: 29 feet
Left hand length: 30 feet
Face: 60 feet
Nose: 21 feet
Longest spike of head piece: 70 feet
Torch and flame combined: 980 feet
Number of men in torch: 2,800
Number of men in right arm: 1,200
Number of men in body, head and balance of figure only: 2,000

Total men: 18,000

Congressman Mike Quigley Wows Washington D.C. Quigley Plans to Sleep It Off In D.C. Office!

Rep. Barney Franks and his significant other were awakened at 3:00 am by a loud pounding on the door.

Chairman Franks gets up and goes to the door where a drunken diminutive stranger, standing in the pouring rain, is asking for a push.

'Not a chance,' says the husband, 'it is 3:00 in the morning!'
He slams the door and returns to bed.

'Who was that?' asked Barney's Life-Partner.

'Just some drunk little guy asking for a push,' he answers.

'Did you help him?' asks the Cohabitant.

'No, I did not, it is 3:00 in the morning and it is ppppppouring rain out there!'

'Well, you have a short memory,' says his thoughtful Concubinista.

'Can't you remember about three months ago when we broke down, and those two delightful young sailors helped us? I think you should help him, Barney, and you should be ashamed of yourself!'


The Congressional Puffer Fish does as he is told, gets dressed, and goes out into the pppppppppounding rain. Barney calls out into the dark,

'Hello, are you still there?'

'Yes,' comes back the answer.

'Do you still need a push?' calls out the Banking Committee Genius.

'Yes, please!' comes the reply from the dark.

'Where are you?' asks the husband.

'Over here on the swing, I'm Congressman Mike Quigley!' replied the drunk.

h/t Max Weismann!

Max Weisman Warns! - Don't Allow Dangerous-Breed Dogs and Small Children Alone!

Please read!!!If you are an owner of a dog that belongs to a 'dangerous breed' category and you also have a small child please take this as a warning. Don't leave your dog with the child unattended under any circumstances.Only a little moment was enough for the following to happen.

This warning comes from Max Weisman - Philosopher, Architect, Free Market Venture Capitalist and Patriot.

An Enchanted Encounter - from the Files of Max Weismann

Having already downed a few power drinks, she turned around, faced him, looked him straight in the eye and said, "Listen here good looking, I screw anybody, anytime, anywhere, your place, my place, in the car, front door, back door, on the ground, standing up, sitting down, naked, or with clothes on, dirty, clean... it doesn't matter to me.I've been doing it ever since I got out ofcollege and I just love it!"
Eyes now wide with interest, he responded,"I'm a lawyer too, what firm are you with?"

Palin Responds - 'Rudolph Asked the Right Questions - Anyone from Salon or Huffpo Around Wasilla?'

Now, that's Executive Conviction!

I received a notice from Max Weismann of the Center for the Study of Great Ideas, which will soon be on Huffington Post without citation.


Dear Members, Colleagues and Friends of the Center,


Thanks to your continuing support, we are pleased to announce our eighteenth anniversary. The Center was founded on Mortimer Adler's birthday, December 28, 1990.


Although we will publish a special tribute on his birthday, we will be on hiatus from today through January 6, in memory of Dr. Adler and a holiday respite.


Dr. Jonathan Dolhenty, Senior Fellow; Ken Dzugan, Senior Fellow and Archivist; Dr. Jay Gold, Senior Fellow; Paul Harrison, Senior Fellow; Dr. Alan Iliff, Senior Fellow; Dave Peterson, Webmeister; Robert Sutherland, Senior Fellow and I wish you and your loved ones, a Joyous Holiday Season and a Healthy, Prosperous New Year.


Max Weismann


Max also passed along the above photo indicating that members of Tanked Up Media might have an answer to idiotic questions and follow-up like

GIBSON: National security is a whole lot more than energy. You think, Charlie?

Illinois 12 Gauge Slug Round, Governor? Oh, I hope! Right between Charlie's Pinz Nez's - metaphorically speaking of course - 'Tis the Season and All.

Well, its seems that Rudolph, Pathfinder for S. Claus Christmas/Holiday Delivery Systems, stuck his big red nose in where it did not belong.

Governor Palin, I would like to introduce you to Illinois Governor Extant Rod Blagojevich.

One step, Mr. Blago, get to runnin'!

Merry Christmas to Max and all the crew at Center for the Study of Great Ideas!