Meditation: Art - The Last Refuge For This Scoundral

 "The president is a study in intelligence, thoughtfulness and the ability to articulate and express himself in a clear and concise manner. " Thomas Frisbie, Sun Times Editorial Writer

Long Tom Frisbie is consistent and the Sun Times always delivers lip-service to citizen-taxpayers and rump munches for the oligarchs who ascended in 2008, blazed wildly and pop-fizzled into irrelevance on November 8th.

Cook County, the soil that seeded, cultivated and harvested the Obama Age Apogee( 2008-2016) that included the rise and fall of Pat Quinn and Rahm Emanuel, remains unaffected by the events, the messages and the spirit caused the Progressive Apogee to fall.

Like the Chicago Tribune ( Bruce Dold ed.), the Sun Times pretends that Obama ruled Camelot, when it fact it was merely Hollywood Squares.

Unlike Tom Frisbie, or Bruce Dold, I have not been anything but underwhelmed by Barack Obama, from my first encounter with him at Woods Funds, through his hack-work as a pass-along  seat occupier in the Illinois and U.S. Senate and his rather sad Presidency.

I remember more than a few of these public moments. when Barack Obama truly revealed exactly who he happens to be - kind of a dope:




Then there was this valediction for a Mass Murderer.

" At this time of Fidel Castro’s passing, we extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people. We know that this moment fills Cubans - in Cuba and in the United States - with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him.
For nearly six decades, the relationship between the United States and Cuba was marked by discord and profound political disagreements. During my presidency, we have worked hard to put the past behind us, pursuing a future in which the relationship between our two countries is defined not by our differences but by the many things that we share as neighbors and friends - bonds of family, culture, commerce, and common humanity. This engagement includes the contributions of Cuban Americans, who have done so much for our country and who care deeply about their loved ones in Cuba.
Today, we offer condolences to Fidel Castro's family, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Cuban people. In the days ahead, they will recall the past and also look to the future. As they do, the Cuban people must know that they have a friend and partner in the United States of America." President Obama upon the death of a Dictator

Today, at Mass I thought about a story my late wife related to me.  Mary was an art teacher.  She told me a story that is probably apocryphal, but passed from one teacher to her.

An Art Teacher gave her class the opportunity to draw and color whatever they wanted.  The guys did dinosaurs eating jet fighters and the most of the girls smiling studies of themselves outside of their homes.  One little girl who did not care for art at all perked up and excitedly went to work.

The teacher walked over and asked, "Molly, what are you going to draw?"

"God."  was the answer.

The teacher said, " People don't know what God looks like, Molly."

Molly continued, " They will."

Art only works for the childlike.  Michealangelo, Duccio, Dali and Mary's Molly were all as children, like George Bernard Shaw whose death resulted from a fall from a ladder while pruning an apple tree.

You will never hear of Bob Costa, Chris Matthews, or Tom Frisbie doing the same.

Art gives us meaning in the same way faith directs our actions. Belief in nothing requires nothing of us - YOLO notwithstanding.

Read books; not the New York Times Review of Books. Enjoy a musical and not make a statement by gushing over Hamilton.

We will not find comfort among hacks.  We will not find meaning among hacks.  We can go very far towards meaning, by being like Molly.

We can study the childlike musings of Dr. Samuel Johnson who wrote the most prophetic study of the Obama Apogee in his poem London, 1738 : An Imitation of Juvenal's Sixth Satire.

 Since Worth, he cries, in these degen'rate Days,Wants ev'n the cheap Reward of empty Praise;In those curst Walls, devote to Vice and Gain,Since unrewarded Science toils in vain;Since Hope but sooths to double my Distress,And ev'ry Moment leaves my Little less;While yet my steady Steps no Staff sustains,And Life still vig'rous revels in my Veins;Grant me, kind Heaven, to find some happier Place,Where Honesty and Sense are no Disgrace;Some pleasing Bank where verdant Osiers play,Some peaceful Vale with Nature's Paintings gay;Where once the harass'd Briton found Repose,And safe in Poverty defy'd his Foes;Some secret Cell, ye Pow'rs, indulgent give.Let —— live here, for —— has learn'd to live.Here let those reign, whom Pensions can inciteTo vote a Patriot black, a Courtier white;Explain their Country's dear-bought Rights away,And plead for Pirates in the Face of Day;With slavish Tenets taint our poison'd Youth,And lend a Lye the confidence of Truth.

  from London 1738 by Samuel Johnson

I must remember to turn to Art and take the journalists for poisoners of Youth that they be - people who will never fall out of an apple tree.

Chicago Wants, Voted For and Fully Supported Rahm's ChiRaq

Here malice, rapine, accident conspire,
And now a rabble rages, now a fire;
their ambush here relentless ruffians lay,
and here the fell attorney prowls for prey;
here falling houses thunder on your head,
and here a female atheist talks you dead....
This mournful truth is everywhere confessed,
Slow rises worth, by poverty depressed. Samuel Johnson -London



Our local, state and Federal government was handed over to fools, thieves and petty tyrants (bullies) via policy, lazy and apathetic voters and, also, people wanting to help neighbors and strangers and feel good about doing so.

Chicago re-elected Rahm Emanuel - black voters, white ethnic Catholic voters, Jewish voters, Hipster voters, CTU Karen Lewis Fan voters, All of Chicago labor and people 'doing a solid' for their neighbors holding political jobs.

Try and find someone who will say, " I'm With Rahm!"

Rahm Emanuel did not shoot Laquan McDonald sixteen times, nor did the Chicago Police Department.



Many of the people leading Mag Mile protests and paying that 'stare-down' kid to goad police officers into giving him a well-deserved slap in the puss, had "I'm With Rahm' lawn signs, or sat with Mayor Emanuel in seats reserved for Progressive Democrat and GOP oligarchs at BlackHawks, White Sox and Cubs games.

Chicago has killed off people of 'worth' in politics and replaced the Ed Kellys, Tom Murphys, Paul Vallases and so many others to clear the way for Forrest Claypool, Mike Quigley, Rahm Emanuel, Toni Preckwinkle and Barack Obama.

Our schools of education helped a great deal.  Teachers and students are ignorant of shared truth, because shared truths are verboten.

Dead Old Men like Shakepeare, Chaucer, Cicero, Dryden, Thackeray and Samuel Johnson have no place in the canon of American education.

Instead, public officials are allowed to make idiotic indictments of shared truths in the media and remain completely unchallenged, unaccountable and perfectly acceptable. Several years ago, when then -Alderman Toni Preckwinkle was encouraged by the University of Chicago mafia to seek high office, she said this in print in reaction to a request to make Saul Bellow's name get the same treatment as Joel Hall "    "In a city whose streets commemorate fascist pilots and other controversial figures, it should have been a rubber-stamped request . . ."   Toni denied the request to give Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow a brown Honorary Street Sign based upon and equally idiotic article  - Oh, that's right. . .I forgot the Chicago Tribune put Toni Preckwinkle's comment into the Orwellian Memory Hole  - like I said Chicagoans ( Bruce Dold Editor et al) 'doing a solid' for a friend.

Worth means nothing and therefore the worthless get moved into public office.

A worthless class of executives, legislators, educators and policy engineers have created a city that proudly spears "I'm With Rahm" lawn signs into the homey grass and then marches down the Mag Miles chanting tired Marxist 'Hey-Hey, Ho- Ho, Rahm has gotta go!' platitudes.

Had shared truth been of any concern for Chicago voters, our children would be learning from Milton, Bellow, Booker T. Washington, Juvenal and Samuel Johnson

The Bronzeville/Canaryville Express: Leo Transportation: A Daily Giggle Mission

"I love the young dogs of this age, they have more wit and humour and knowledge of life than we had; but then the dogs are not so good scholars." Samuel Johnson from Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

I leap out of the sack every morning, hit my knees to the floor and pray the Memorare and the Novena to St. Teresa, in anticipation of my tasks and the fun the day brings to this old high school teacher.

I get to transport the lads from Bronzeville and Canaryville neighborhoods to Leo High School. The Ford van gets stuffed like a Christmas goose with teenage lads. At 35th & Dr. Martin Luther king Drive's BP station, I pick up the giant Daylon -14 years of 300 + lbs. of muscle, bone and more than few layers of baby fat; the lean and athletic Joe who racks up football field yardage like Willie Moscani on a nine ball felt.  Then the two stops in Canaryville at Pizza Nova for AJ, Nick, Brian, Ryan and Sean and Graham Elementary at 44th & Emerald for Jeff, Mitch, Tommy, Sal and Bryan.

The patter is wild, the consumption of Dunkin Donut holes (glazed only) furious past human understanding, and the teasing of this Methuzalah behind the wheel a thing of beauty - Hip-Hop, Novice Blasphemies, pleas, male malodorousness and beefy good fellowship.

Now, I must $#$%, shower and shave and get about  to my morning's obligations and delights.  

President Obama's Debate Performance Mirrors His Presidency - Dennis Byrne Explains

Obama's presidency was based purely on hope, change and hot air. Never did he demonstrate executive ability or leadership. He was called brilliant and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize purely on expectation. The debate showed how he has failed to grow into the office.Obama's presidency was based purely on hope, change and hot air. Never did he demonstrate executive ability or leadership. He was called brilliant and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize purely on expectation. The debate showed how he has failed to grow into the office. Dennis Byrne, Chicago Tribune

Barack Obama spent his entire adult life being told that he was the bees-knees for so long that he has become Capt. Yossarian who explains with Biblical certainty at every waking moment  “I am miracle ingredient Z-247. I'm immense. I'm a real, slam-bang, honest-to-goodness, three-fisted humdinger. I'm a bona fide supraman.” ( Catch 22, Heller) 

Barack Obama has become what flattery made of him.

He did not wish to govern Illinois; wanted to govern America.

The debate last week made the vanity of human wishes pretty obvious to all but those who flattered the man to this permanent  human condition.

In today's Chicago Tribune column, Dennis Byrne presents the Barack Obama as the man in the debate in full.

Samuel Johnson remarked on what we saw in Barack Obama a two centuries and change before the match-up in Denver 2012:

Remark each anxious Toil, each eager Strife,And watch the busy scenes of crouded Life;Then say how Hope and Fear, Desire and Hate,O'erspread with Snares the clouded Maze of Fate,Where Wav'ring Man, betray'd by vent'rous Pride,To tread the dreary Paths without a Guide;As treach'rous Phantoms in the Mist delude,Shuns fancied Ills, or chases airy Good. (Vanity of Human Wishes line 3-10)

Chicago -Meet Samuel Johnson's "London"

 Not too much has changed in human nature and in politics. The virtuous people get the shaft and the artful dodgers get more pie.  There has always been group think and wormy acceptance of public frauds and their policies. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is very much like Jack Wilkes.

Jack Wilkes, Lord Mayor of London, was journalist/demagogue of the 18th Century, who used radical rhetoric to become a political icon and autocrat.  London was a pest hole of corruption vice and gang-violence.  "Wilkes and Liberty!" was the shout of the day and murders were as common as flies on an uncollected corpse.

Dr. Samuel Johnson was a lexicographer, poet, scholar, wit and Tory.  A Tory was a conservative who believed in God, King and Country.  Tories arose from the Cavalier Party which took the side of the Monarchy over Oliver Cromwell's progressive dictatorship.  In modern sensibilities, President Obama is much akin to Oliver Cromwell.  The word Tory comes from the Irish word - tóraidhe; - which means Outlaw.

How's that for irony?

If you believe today that abortion is murder, you are an outlaw.  If you believe today that marriage is between a man and woman, you are an outlaw.  If you believe today that the sweat of your brow is your capital, you are an outlaw.

Jack Wilkes as Mayor of London encouraged an Occupy Movement that railed against King George, his wars in America, and Catholics.  In 1778 and act to end anti-Popery Laws in England against Roman Catholics ( which were not unlike Obama's HHS Mandate), angered the 18th Century MSNBC-like pamphleteers and they the mob.  The words King Mob became the 99%ers of London.  The Gordon Riots against Catholics, the King and the Bank of England broke out in 1780.

Guess what; when the Mob ( 99%er OWS of London) marched on the Bank of England, Rahm Wilkes ordered the militia to fire of the crowd.

Dr. Johnson wrote of his London:

Besides, with Justice, this discerning Age
Admires their wond'rous Talents for the Stage:
Well may they venture on the Mimic's art,
Who play from Morn to Night a borrow'd Part;
Practis'd their Master's Notions to embrace,
Repeat his Maxims, and reflect his Face;
With ev'ry wild Absurdity comply,
And view each Object with another's Eye;
To shake with Laughter ere the Jest they hear,
To pour at Will the counterfeited Tear;
And as their Patron hints the Cold or Heat,
To shake in Dog-days, in December sweat.

How, when Competitors like these contend,
Can surly Virtue hope to fix a Friend?
Slaves that with serious Impudence beguile,
And lye without a Blush, without a Smile;
Exalt each Trifle, ev'ry Vice adore,
Your Taste in Snuff, your Judgment in a Whore;
Can Balbo's Eloquence applaud, and swear
He gropes his Breeches with a Monarch's Air.

Those are Chicago Values, kids!

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/london.html
http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/summer03/wilkes.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Riots

Happy New Year! Samuel Johnson's Poem: To Myrtilis - The New Year's Offering

Dr. Samuel Johnson, like me, tended to equate worth with wealth and though a poor man, - impecunious, Tapioca, short of the long-green-difference - offered the target of his manly heart his hoard of love-loot. I offer the very same, with the Great Doctor's lines.

I offer this to those I love ( agape, philia, as well as eros) this new year.

Happiness - it can't buy you money, but it's pretty damn good!


To Myrtilis - The New Year's Offering

Madam,
Long have I look'd my tablets o'er,
And find I've much to thank you for;
Outstanding debts beyond account,
And new - who knows to what amount?
Though small my wealth, not small my soul:
Come, then, at once I'll pay the whole.
Ye powers! I'm rich and will command
The host of slaves that round me stand;
Come, Indian, quick disclose thy store,
And hither bring Peruvian ore:
Let yonder Negro pierce the main,
The choicest, largest pearl to gain:
Let all my slaves their art combine
To make the blushing ruby mine,
From eastern thrones the diamonds bear
To sparkle at her breast and ear.
Swift Scythian, point the unerring dart,
That strikes the ermine's little heart,
And search for choicest furs the globe,
To make my Myrtilis a robe.
Ah, no! yon Indian will not go,
No Scythian designs to bed his bow,
No sullen Negro shoots the flood:
All, all my empty power disown,
I turn and find myself alone;
'Tis Fancy's vain illusion all,
No Moor nor Scythian waits my call.
Can I command, can I consign?
Alas! what earthly thing is mine?
Come, then, my Muse, companion dear,
Of poverty, and soul sincere;
Come, dictate to my grateful mind
A gift that may acceptance find;
Come, gentle Muse, and with thee bear
An offering worthy thee and her;
And though thy presents be but poor,
My Myrtilis will ask no more.
A Heart that scorns a shameful thing,
With love and verse is all I bring;
Of love and verse the gift receive,
'Tis all thy servant has to give.
If all whate'er my verse has told,
Golconda's gems, and Afric's gold;
If all were mine from pole to pole,
How large her share who shares my soul!
But more than these may Heaven impart;
Be thine the treasures of the heart;
Be calm and glad thy future days
With virtue's peace and virtue's praise;
Let jealous pride, and sleepless care,
And wasting grief, and black despair,
And languor chill, and anguish fell,
For ever shun thy grove and cell;
There only may the happy train
Of love, and joy, and peace remain:
May plenty, with exhaustless store,
Employ thy hand to feed the poor,
And ever on thy honour'd head
The prayer of gratitude be shed!
A happy mother, may'st thou see
Thy smiling, virtuous progeny,
Whose sportful tricks, and airy play,
Fraternal love, and prattle gay,
Or wondrous tale, or joyful song,
May lure the lingering hours along;
Till death arrive, unfelt, unseen,
With gentle pace and placid mien,
And waft thee to that happy shore
Where wishes can have place no more.

Samuel Johnson