April Fools: Rahm's Mag Mile and Forrest Claypool's CTA: Nobody to Help Stop Well-Accessoried Teens

"There was nobody to help. There was no time, really. We were surrounded it happened in one stop, and then they got off the next stop, at Lake,'' she said. 27 year old woman victimized on Forrest Claypool's CTA

Was it a 'melee' as the Sun Times reports?  An altercation over smoker's rights?  A 'wilding'? 'Flash Mob?  

No, this was behavior rooted in the sad, secular, systemic mess we call public education.  This was not a storming of the Bastille, or Bolivarista Peoples Revolution that is so much a part of 'elementary education expert' Bill Ayer's doctrine.

The kids were well-clothed, nutritionally robust, energetic, focused and more than moderately accoutered with the latest Apple or Microsoft entertainment and communication applications and devices that would make Jobs and Gates glow with appreciation.  Both techno Edisons are icons of public education.

More so, from most accounts, these kids who look like the cast of a Disney series availed themselves of public transportation - the CTA.

The Sun Times feature leads off with the word melee, an innocuous sounding term for 'beating the supreme shit' out of another human being for no earthly good reason.

At least the Chicago Tribune account presented the facts of the attack as provided by the victim.

Now, a melee is a combat between two willing opponents - it is a term that arose from Middle Ages when knights and other men-at-arms squared off according to the rules of combat - most Catholic school kids know that.

The attack of a woman on the west side L smacks not of a melee -

A 27-year-old woman said she was returning home with her mother Saturday night on the Red Line after a dim sum dinner when a group of girls got on the train at the Monroe station and appeared to want to pick a fight.
"This girl started blowing smoke in my face, and she flicked her cigarette ashes at me,'' said the woman, who asked not to be identified. "I said: 'You need to put that out,' and the next thing I know there's all these girls that jumped on top of us.''
They began punching her face and then went for her hair. She believes their attackers had knives or box cutters and padlocks possibly placed inside socks."I put my head down between my legs so they would stop beating me in the face, but they were trying to pull my face up and hit me more,'' she said. "They ripped out chunks of my hair, and I've got a black eye and bruises on my face, and all over my back and shoulder.''
The 11 teenagers arrested in that incident at the CTA's State/Lake station in the Loop about 6:35 p.m. were among a total of 28 people arrested downtown Saturday night for disturbances that ranged from bumping into passers-by on sidewalks to the attack on the CTA train, authorities said.

The attackers were teenage girls, who have been taught under an educational rubric of entitlement.  I believe that these confused kids act out because they believe that they are entitled act out - after all they were encouraged to cheer on Occupy  idiots, NATO bomb-makers and their teachers who abandoned them last summer.  These kids have been taught, not the etymology and application of a word like melee, that personal empowerment is entitlement - what are they supposed to do?

What are you supposed to do?  Move.  Move out of Chicago.  It is all about real estate, Neighbors.  Real estate to be developed for green spaces, cultural entertainment and dining venues, fitness centers, and certainly no homes, apartments, or dwellings beyond the planned Urban Center Chicago  Urban Center Chicago is not for Stash, Wanda, Tony, Maria, Nacho, Teresa, Paddy, Nora, Clifton and Carmesha and their damn kids. It is for Aprile, Dak, E. Morton and Misty Salt, Spencer and Seth.

When public safety has lost all meaning; when basic city services are denied, or diminished by executive fiat, when schools become training grounds for thugs, it might be time to move.

That is why public safety has been purchased at the hands of the G. Flint Taylors, Jon Loevys, Locke Bowmans and the GDS, Vice Lords, Four Corner Hustlers, Mikey Cobras, and Latin Kings, as well as a grant or two for Ceasefire, while any and all public confidence in Chicago Police has been eroded.

That is why more people are alright with Privatizing Sanitation with the Garbage Grid. Seth and Spencer want those over-paid snoring louts fired. Seth and Spencer would be perfectly happy if the Fire Department were hired out and those tubby Mc911 heroes would leave for Romeoville.

That is why an otherwise unemployable good like Forrest Claypool keeps popping up and handed the wheel and throttle of public transportation - he is about Bombardier purchases, Red Line contracts and Ventra Cards and not the safety of a young lady and her mother who foolishly believe that riding the L should be violence free.

Don't think for minute that Forrest Claypool* gives a fat rat's ass about CTA riders, otherwise the CTA would  have addressed thuggery on public transportation long ago. Smart guy like Forrest could do just about anything to reform anything, if he really wanted to; at least that is what the news media always says.

That is why Mayor Rahm Emanuel can sleep nights after putting the bite on President Obama for a loan of $100 million buckeens to gussy up the Riverwalk, rather than hire more cops, improve their working conditions and really do something about melees by the kids.

He might even really try to improve public schools by demanding Vouchers.

Nope.  It is easier to wait for the frustrated, the frightened and the families to move the hell away, while his cheerleaders in the media wring-hands.


*

Happy Easter, Christ Has Risen! Now, Let's Roll Back the Big Stone Keeping Schools in a Cave

Kids believe only what is taught to them.  Last night 28 kids, most under the age of 18, were arrested on Chicago's Mag Mile for intimidating people and another bunch were arrested following an assault on a woman who asked that the kids put out their cigarettes. I do not believe that the youngsters were engaged in civil disobedience demanding that CPS keep failing schools open, nor were they concerned with the plight of LGBTQ citizens.

From this same edition of the paper, the Opinion section of the Chicago Tribune was thick with opinions on both issues as being fundamental to life on our planet.  The school closings?  I see them them as part of the overall Rahm Plan to shrink the City of Chicago ( services) down to an Urban Center.  Likewise, the abhorrent incivility tolerated on Chicago Transportation systems by the Mayor and CTA Boss Forrest Claypool is a component in this plan.  Why else would a Mayor not do his utmost to light a fire under his appointee to interdict such behavior and provide the necessary police officers at his disposal to correct the situation?  Answer.  It is not part of the Plan.

The Plan includes a $ 100 million dollar loan to gussy up the River Walk, but not seek a loan to hire more cops.

Back to the schools. The closed schools, the largest school closing in American history, are  real estate.

Take a look at who is protesting the school closings ( CTU's Karen Lewis & Jesse Sharkey)  - they worked with Mayor Emanuel to engineer the closings.  Their Red-shirted Dragon Dance through the Loop last week provided Bill Ayers and opportunity to be described as an "elementary school expert' in the Chicago media, as well as swell venue for SEIU to play civil disobedience for cameras without the possibility of arrest.  Tickets were issued.

For the last thirty years Bill Ayers* and the well-camouflaged Mike Klonsky have trained a generation of radicals who now control Chicago Teachers Union through CORE.  Chicago Public Schools have nose-dived deeper into the tax-dollars from the moment the Annenberg Challenge was boarded and looted by Bolsheviks and took command of the Education Department at University of Illinois at Chicago.  Here's a challenge.  How many UICC disciples of Billy Ayers are CPS teachers?

The idea of schools has been entombed in a cave behind the boulder rolled by Ayers and Klonsky.

Schools should reflect the neighborhoods they serve.  Catholic schools most certainly do just that and graduates of Catholic schools, black, brown and white manage to avoid massive arrests on Mag Mile and intimidate passengers on the CTA.

Ayers and Klonsky made small schools (cadres) wholesome to lazy and not very bright editorial boards and columnists.   Schools fail, because they are supposed to do just that.

Chicago is a Catholic city.  No matter how much Eric Zorn, Mary Schmich, Neil Steinberg, Carol Marin, Clarence Page, Dawn Turner Trice, or WTTW try to obscure that fact, Catholics rub up against Baptists, Unitarians, AME, Lutheran, Jewish, Greek Orthodox, Dutch Reformed and atheist neighbors.  Schools should reflect that fact, but they are not allowed to do that.

Christ died on Friday, busted Hell's prisoners out on Saturday, and triumphed over death today, when he rolled back the big rock.

The big rock blocking real schools and the idea of a school is still wedged in pretty deep.   Kids are taught what to fear and given no means to conquer fear.  Behavior reflects what people are all about.


*"Elementary education expert and professor Bill Ayers — who has sparked controversy on the national political scene with his ties to President Obama — was in the crowd in support of teachers.
" 'The assault on public education and abandonment of these communities has to be resisted,' Ayers said." Chicago Sun Times

The CPS/CTU Raccoon & Skunk Fight is On! Catholic Schools Open for Business

“We have failed to reach an agreement that will prevent a labor strike,” Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said. “No CTU members will be inside of our schools Monday.” - Tribune

I am here at the Eight Seven Years Young Leo High School, a college preparatory school for young men of the Archdiocese of Chicago.  Proco Joe Moreno and Mayor Rahm noted this summer that Catholics share not their Chicago Values.

The CTU is Chicago Values 2012.  CPS is Chicago Values 2012.  Together, Chicago Values 2012 have given parents and their children the fruits of Chicago Values.

Leo is a four story brick and mortar facility with more re-bar than Fortress Europe.  It is a solid building built upon a deep and thick foundation and the Gospels of Christ.  There is no central air-conditioning and the old structure retains heat like sponge.  In Chicago's winters, the Sangamon Wind whips the The Hawk through the portals and keeps the 1921 twin Kewanee Boilers working like Poblano with two shovels.

Our students receive a quality education and learn to be competitive and caring men.  It costs money - their families, our teachers, our Alumni and our partners work to pay the bills.  More so, the school, like all Catholic schools, is rooted in Catholic Values, not Chicago Values 2012,

These are the fruits of Chicago Values, 

At a raucous House of Delegates meeting last month, teachers yelled “strike!” and “hell no!” as union leaders discussed the district's latest contract offer. Days later, the union filed its legally required 10-day strike notice and set the date for a walkout on Sept. 10, the beginning of the second week of school for the majority of CPS students. Over the course of negotiations, Lewis emerged as a powerful voice for teachers' rights and a lighting rod for criticism. A veteran science teacher and activist, Lewis took over the union's leadership in 2010 amid uncertain times.
 With little movement in contract talks heading into summer, Lewis was credited with channeling teacher angst with a historic strike vote. The June vote strengthened the union's position at the bargaining table and ratcheted up opposition to Emanuel's reform agenda.
 As contract talks pushed into their final days, Lewis was front and center, calling Emanuel a “bully” and “a liar” in front of thousands at a massive rally at Daley Plaza on Labor Day.
 And on Sunday, Lewis led the teachers in a strike.

The mask is off this being a Labor Issue, as Karen Lewis and CTU's  public salaried brothers and sisters of SEIU will scab, cross their picket-lines and draw pay.  Those are Chicago Values 2012. " Condoms for Kids and Abortion for when the condoms fail". Kids, stay away from Chick Fil A and school for the next few days!"

Public education is a mess. This strike is being portrayed in the Chicago Tribune as " well it is about time we had a strike."  They are running a swell retrospective on Teacher Strike's past.  There is a "Teachers are Swell" sympathy piece by a parent in full solidarity with CTU, while SEIU comrades cross picket lines without losing a wink of sleep.

Chicago Values 2012?

Not if my life depended upon it.

Up Date:

7:55 AM. - I passed scores of Red T-shirted CTU members at Bronzeville Academy on 35th; Hendricks Math and Science Academy at 43rd & Princeton and Graham Elementary at 44th & Union -  I picked up Joe S at 35th & Kind Drive; then Nick, AJ, White Chocolate, Ryan & Sean at Pizza Nova on 43rd and then
Mitch, Sal, Tommy and BK at Graham.

We did not honk, but smiled and waved.  Faces dropped when they saw the Leo High School Logo and van full of Bronze and Canaryvillains off to school . . .A Catholic School.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-public-schools-chicago-teachers-union-contract-talks-strike,0,1578458,full.story

Our Rahm-Shackles - Chicago's Covenant of Debt

Huzzah!  Two coal fired ComEd Plants are shut!

Neighborhood and environmental activists are celebrating as Chicago’s last two coal-fired electricity plants enter a three-month decommissioning phase. But the closings are leaving dozens of Midwest Generation workers without a job.

The company, a subsidiary of California-based Edison International, says its Crawford station in the city’s Little Village neighborhood burned its last lump of coal more than a week ago after operating since 1924. The Fisk station, constructed in 1903 in nearby Pilsen, shut down Thursday night.

Real Estate opportunities abound! (Well, at least until January 2013 when President Flat-line begins work on his museum) Allison Davis get to dealing; call Valerie Jarrett, while these opportunities for Federal Green grants can be converted like a lazy Catholic into a Unitarian!   

Yes, Sirree Bob!!!!   Glad them coal burners went south; kept me sleepless some days.

Obvious is irony is sarcasm, the gateway drug to cynicism.  Passed through them portals sometime ago, but scratch a cynic and reveal a tender hearted sweetie-pie.  I recall another such cynical Catholic Hillaire Belloc, who refereed the bouts between GK Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw in their wholesome debates over socialism v. capitalism.  Belloc poetically predicted,  in 1928,the joy of our Community Activists who brought down Old King Coal and cleared the properties for Allison Davis and Val Jarrett 2012-

    "Our civilization
    Is built upon coal.
    Let us chant in rotation
    Our civilization
    That lump of damnation
    Without any soul,
    Our civilization
    Is built upon coal.

    "In a very few years,
    It will float upon oil.
    Then give three hearty cheers,
    In a very few years
    We shall mop up our tears
    And have done with our toil.
    In a very few years
    It will float upon oil."

Belloc understood the nonsense of polemics and the progressive Fabian need to caricature not only people but inanimate objects.  Wittily skewered the faux outrage and pious claptrapping with this -

We Chicagoans are Rham-shackled, rickety, near collapse. Ramshackle is a distortion of the word ransacked.  You know, Looted.  A condition of unbalance due to a sacking of what is within.

Much of the Rahm-shackle condition was created by the Daley Regime -post-Pat Huels Daley; the University of Chicago vintage Daley.  Rahm is merely the full fruition of this organically grown Man-eating plant.

The murders reflect the Thug Comfort Zone created by this alliance of real estate bandits, academics, media pawns, and lawsuit Lotto lawyers.  Chicago is what the catoonist-satirist Jules Feiffer created in his play Little Murders*(1967) - an urban dystopia of random killings, rampant feminism, emasculated males, overwhelmed and undermined police, garbage strikes and power outages.  People, Feiffer predicted would be isolated, afraid and desperate because the society through government wanted it that way.

The public schools will open under threat of strike, but open they will, in order to get the school head-count tax buckeens. CTU loudmouth,Karen "Foghorn Leghorn" Lewis makes the late Tony " Big Tuna" Accardo seem like a Hubbard Street dancer and has the Obama White House ( Valerie Jarrett, LLc) tying Rahm's leash-like for Foghorn Leghorn Lewis' Rahm Rump Challenge:



Make no mistake, as President Flat-line likes to say, Rahm wil shuttle twixt Charlotte and Chi-town with a bundle of boodle for Foghorn Lewis. Strike? I think not.  Valerie Jarrett and Allison Davis are no where near finished developing slum properties for future government subsidized gambits.  Praise Jesus!


Here in my own back yard, Rahm and the real estate rangers are getting their oily fingers on the keys to the soon to be abandoned Beverly Art Center: a Personal PAC approved and abortion friendly real estate transaction in the making with Fifth Third Bank!

We are Rahm-shackled. Wobbly, looted and hooked to this condition as long as we vote badly.  Show me a Democrat with the heart of lion or Kevin Joyce and I will vote for him.  Show me a Republican who is not shod in tassled loafers and I may vote for GOP.  Show me more Pat Quinns, Sheila Simons, Dick Durbins, Toni Preckwinkles, Rahm Emanuels, Mark Kirks, Forrest(s) Claypools, Deb Shores and Jans Schalowsky and I will show you the door with great force, as well as the big blue recycling bin in my alley for your paper products.

Val Jarrett and Allison Davis have more real estate to parlay into slum housing with the two coal burners knocked out and another on the way in Morgan Park.  Rahm Shackled - it's a Chicago Value. So is random killings, abortion and isolated people.

*Little Murders (1967) Jules Feiffer
Patsy Newquist is a 27-year-old interior designer who lives in a New York rife with street crime, noise, obscene phone calls, power blackouts and unsolved homicides. When she sees a defenseless man being attacked by street thugs, she intervenes, but is surprised when the passive victim doesn't even bother to thank her. She ends up attracted to the man, Alfred Chamberlain, a photographer, but finds that he is emotionally vacant, barely able to feel pain or pleasure. He permits muggers to beat him up until they get tired and go away.

Patsy is accustomed to molding men into doing her bidding. Alfred is different. When she brings him home to meet her parents and brother, he is almost non-verbal, except to tell her that he doesn't care for families. He learns that Patsy had another brother who was murdered for no known reason. Patsy's eccentric family is surprised when she announces their intention to wed, then amazed when their marriage ceremony conducted by the atheistic Rev. Dupas turns into a free-for-all.

Determined to discover why her new husband is the way he is, Patsy coaxes Alfred into traveling to Chicago to visit his parents. He hasn't seen them since he was 17, but asks them to help with a questionnaire about his childhood at Patsy's request.
Alfred ultimately agrees to try to become Patsy's kind of man, the kind willing to "fight back." The instant that happens, a sniper's bullet kills Patsy, again for no apparent reason. A blood-splattered Alfred goes to her parents' apartment, New Yorkers barely noticing his state. He descends into a silent stupor, Patsy's father even having to feed him.

A ranting, disturbed police detective, Lt. Practice, drops by, almost unable to function due to the number of unsolved murders in the city. After he leaves, Alfred goes for a walk in the park. He returns with a rifle, which he doesn't know how to load. Patsy's father shows him how. Then the two of them, along with Patsy's brother, take turns shooting people down on the street.

http://www.wbez.org/news/activists-rejoice-coal-fired-plants-shut-down-102129
http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/debate.txt
 http://www.amazon.com/Little-Murders-Penguin-plays-screenplays/dp/0140481184

CPS v. CTU - I Don't Have a Skunk in This Fight

I had plenty of opportunities to become a public school teacher.  I took a pass.   From 1975 right up to this Sunday Mass, I thank God I did not.

I know hundreds of public school teachers, union members all; nevertheless, many are great people who teach kids with authority, great kindness and limitless patience.  Their patience is shredded by the bureaucracy for which they labor, be it Grayslake District # 127 or Chicago Public Schools and the Teachers Union to which they must belong as a legislated condition of employment.

In the words of my salty-tongued departed Dad, they are "between a $hit and a Sneeze."

That's the nature of Public Education.

My neighbors in Chicago Public Schools are taxed with goofy policy that in no way has anything to do with academics and labor fakirs playing with their paychecks and working conditions.  They love teaching and universally despise CPS and CTU.  It's a paycheck.

I predict that the Strike will be used to arm-twist Rahm "Mayor Coon-Eyes" Emanuel with Karen "Big Tuna" Lewis threatening to withhold an endorsement of Obama 2012 and a ubsequent cave-in by Rahm, Jean Claude and all sundry at CPS. Huzzah! It's all about the $$$$$$$$$$$ and political hoopla.

I get a paycheck and love going to work everyday.  I never work a day.  In fact I rarely use the word work with reference to my vocation.  I go to school.  That is the difference between teaching in public education and a Catholic School.  I learn as well as impart the little that I know.

Yesterday, I took my love to the Soul Bowl ( Hales v. Leo) on the site of Chicago's oldest college - St. Xavier College(University) - the one that Obama's White House declared no longer a religious insititution.  One building remains from that old Sisters of Mercy college for women on the west side of the Hales Franciscan Campus -just beyond the athletic field.  It was a very long day for Leo High School - our JV Team lost 24-12 and our Varisty bowed to Hales 20-12. Hales Franciscan is celebrating its 50th Anniversary as a Catholic prep school for African American young men and no better way to do so than besting Mighty Lions.

The elegant and lovely young woman with whom I spend my quality time has as much interest in athletics as I would exploring the history and influence of scent -parfumare (through smoke in Latin). However, this opportunity to stand behind the Leo bench and take in the sights and scents of young manhood in energetic combat with opportunity she found enchanting.

MS. S met the Canaryvillains and Bronzevillains, whom I transport to Leo each morning and witnessed their athletic heroics that fell short of victory.  Skinny little tough guys like Brian, Mitch and BK and brawny stawarts like Tommy and the gargantuan Daylon.  BK weighs as much as one of the cheeks of my rump and by dint of courage attention to detail was 'going both ways', recovered two fumbles and made several tackles during crucial downs.  Little Mitch confounded receivers and pushed the play to the sidelines.   Brian weighs less than BK and Mitch and is a wide receiver who snagged several hard fired pigskins from the clutches of two Hales deep-cover agents.
Big Daylon was felled by an ankle injury in the second half and his loss to the offensive line is reflected in the final score. Hales is a quality program and like Leo and every Catholic school in Chicago will not go on strike.

The motto of Leo High School is Facta Non Verba -Deeds Not Words.  That seems the universal motto of Catholic and private schools as well.  Picket signs are not needed to tell the cameras and the media that its is "About the Children."  That is a given.

" We will pay you $ 21,000. . . "  You will like hell, Adios Father!  Good luck filling the spot.

Since 1975, I taught at Bishop McNamara ( '75-88), La Lumiere School ( '88-94), Bishop Noll Institute('94-95) and Leo High School ( 1995-Present) and parted fair-friends and remain most happy.

Nope I chose to take my resume to Catholic teaching, because I am a Catholic and because I find slogans and memes tiresome.  The John Dewey public education doctrine that replaced Truth with Inquiry has always seemed educational poison to me.  I am a professional.  Never been fired. Teaching is my trade and my vocation. Ms. S saw some of the handiwork in the eager, frustrated, baggage-burdened, financially challenged faces of the young men in hard combat on a football field.  She noted the respect and genuine affection each student athlete reflected on their coaches, teachers and administrators. More so, she was over-whelmed by the presence and beefy tactile of the recent graduates who thickened the sidelines.  These guys ( Akim, T.O., Steve - all playing college football) hug hard and mean it even though they had endured and understood the ass-chewings and character remonstrances meted out by us greybeards over the previous four years.

"They really love you guys ( Mike Holmes, Noah Cannon, Dan McGrath, Pete Doyle and even me). You are so lucky to do what you love. It must be great to work at Leo." Or any Catholic School, really. If the pay is too low, exit smiling.

We do not work, we go to school.



http://www.perfume-training.com/Self-Study-Perfume-Courses.html

Cardinal George Schools Rahm - Complete and Untouched from Chicago Catholic Blog

Recent comments by those who administer our city seem to assume that the city government can decide for everyone what are the “values” that must be held by citizens of Chicago. I was born and raised here, and my understanding of being a Chicagoan never included submitting my value system to the government for approval. Must those whose personal values do not conform to those of the government of the day move from the city? Is the City Council going to set up a “Council Committee on Un-Chicagoan Activities” and call those of us who are suspect to appear before it? I would have argued a few days ago that I believe such a move is, if I can borrow a phrase, “un-Chicagoan.”
The value in question is espousal of “gender-free marriage.” Approval of state-sponsored homosexual unions has very quickly become a litmus test for bigotry; and espousing the understanding of marriage that has prevailed among all peoples throughout human history is now, supposedly, outside the American consensus. Are Americans so exceptional that we are free to define “marriage” (or other institutions we did not invent) at will? What are we re-defining?
 It might be good to put aside any religious teaching and any state laws and start from scratch, from nature itself, when talking about marriage. Marriage existed before Christ called together his first disciples two thousand years ago and well before the United States of America was formed two hundred and thirty six years ago. Neither Church nor state invented marriage, and neither can change its nature.
Marriage exists because human nature comes in two complementary sexes: male and female. The sexual union of a man and woman is called the marital act because the two become physically one in a way that is impossible between two men or two women. Whatever a homosexual union might be or represent, it is not physically marital. Gender is inextricably bound up with physical sexual identity; and “gender-free marriage” is a contradiction in terms, like a square circle.
Both Church and state do, however, have an interest in regulating marriage. It is not that religious marriage is private and civil marriage public; rather, marriage is a public institution in both Church and state. The state regulates marriage to assure stability in society and for the proper protection and raising of the next generation of citizens. The state has a vested interest in knowing who is married and who is not and in fostering good marriages and strong families for the sake of society.
The Church, because Jesus raised the marital union to the level of symbolizing his own union with his Body the Church, has an interest in determining which marital unions are sacramental and which are not. The Church sees married life as a path to sanctity and as the means for raising children in the faith, as citizens of the universal kingdom of God. These are all legitimate interests of both Church and state, but they assume and do not create the nature of marriage.
People who are not Christian or religious at all take for granted that marriage is the union of a man and a woman for the sake of family and, of its nature, for life. The laws of civilizations much older than ours assume this understanding of marriage. This is also what religious leaders of almost all faiths have taught throughout the ages. Jesus affirmed this understanding of marriage when he spoke of “two becoming one flesh” (Mt. 19: 4-6). Was Jesus a bigot? Could Jesus be accepted as a Chicagoan? Would Jesus be more “enlightened” if he had the privilege of living in our society? One is welcome to believe that, of course; but it should not become the official state religion, at least not in a land that still fancies itself free. Surely there must be a way to properly respect people who are gay or lesbian without using civil law to undermine the nature of marriage.
Surely we can find a way not to play off newly invented individual rights to “marriage” against constitutionally protected freedom of religious belief and religious practice. The State’s attempting to redefine marriage has become a defining moment not for marriage, which is what it is, but for our increasingly fragile “civil union” as citizens.

Francis Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago

 http://www.archchicago.org/blog/comments.aspx?postID=276

Rahm's "Start-Up" City Plan for Chicago - Fresh Air in a Can?

Mayor Emanuel with the electoral losers on Carol Marin's Crone Circle WTTW-Chicago. I mean Chicago Tonight . . .and every night.

So, Mayor Emanuel is making Chicago Start Up City?  What is that?  A Real 'fix-er-up' for first time home buyers? Nope.  We have enough Stans, Cliffords, Ignatios, Mikes, Stellas, Beullas, Dotties, Gerts, and Kareems and it seems Rahm and the Smart-Sized Set of Urban planners want them the Hell out of the City limits between the hours of 7 P.M. and 5 A.M. and welcome scores of  Calis, Hadleys, Khloe's, Myas' Paisleys, Chens, Daxes, Jaxes. Kians, Kylans and Lennons with math and techn-dweeb credentials to make non toxic, expensive, digitally non-essential services and goods for disposable incomes.

Last year, 50 outstanding seniors from schools in Illinois and seven Midwest state were invited to Chicago for an action-packed weekend that mixed business and fun.
They visited Chicago businesses and firms with offices here, such as Groupon, Google, Grubhub, Microsoft and Accenture, to learn about job opportunities.
They attended panel discussions with industry leaders on topics ranging from innovation and tech entrepreneurship to how to start a career in Chicago.
The seniors even sampled Chicago’s rich cultural institutions and pulsating night life and got passes to Chicago Ideas Week, a seven-day event featuring marquee speakers and interactive sessions that Emanuel and Groupon co-founder Brad Keywell hope will someday take its place among the best known idea symposiums in the nation.

Kewell!  I mean Cool, I mean Brad Keywell. Group on!!!!!!!!!  At what cost and to whom? This dramatic and historical boondoggle was announced at 1871 -Remember?  Chicago Fire? Random Big Blaze the Micks started?  Dying Embers and all that? Of Course one might, if of course one is not graduate of Chicago Public Schools.

1871—(1) catalyzing moment in Chicago history, when the most brilliantengineers,
architects and inventors came together to build a new city; (2)where Chicago’s brightest digital designers, engineers and entrepreneursare shaping new technologies, disrupting old business models
andresetting the boundaries of what’s possible 

This year, ThinkChicago will double—to 100 students—with half the slots reserved for outstanding juniors and seniors from the University of Illinois.Emanuel made the announcement at 1871, a new start-up center at the Merchandise Mart that helps connect entrepreneurs to would-be investors, mentors, partners and peers.He noted that there is “an energy” in Chicago today that “did not exist” when Groupon was starting out.“Remember You Tube? Pay Pal? They started here, but they thought they had to get to the coast. If those companies were around today in this type of venture position, they would not have to go to the coast.They would have all the pieces: talent, capital and innovation,” Emanuel said.“We have over a thousand digital tech companies now in the city of Chicago. 128 start-ups launched in Chicago last year alone. Our venture capital--$1 billion—is up 50 percent. That’s in just a year. There is a new energy. The Second City is becoming the Start-Up City. That’s our goal.” 

Who is the WE in that OUR?  Let's begin with thinkchicago.org/. Click the old mouse-eroo and . . .

The page you were looking for doesn't exist.

                           You may have mistyped the address or the page may have moved.


Shucks, you can not find any information on that source launched August 3, 2011.  Totally . . . expunged.  You can find Congressman Jesse Jackson easier than info on ThinkChicago.org.
A digital Solyndra Mayhaps?


Groupon's site is Oooops, Down! as well.

http://www.groupon.com/chicago

By Gad those kids are smart fellers! or is it the other way around? Random Irony, Dude.


Ironically enough, and the Smart-sized Urban Center Chicago denizens of the future like Kali and Dax love irony, Chicago's owned Crone Columnist Carol Marin has another heart-tugging-Where-in-the Hell -is  Carol- Going -with-this-One, yarn about laid-off janitors and the smart sizing of Chicago.  

Fifty Chicago janitors lost their jobs this week.. . .They all lost their jobs because the City of Chicago, which long ago privatized much of its janitorial work to outside firms, rebid its janitorial contracts. And 20 percent of the new contract, unlike the old one, went to a nonunion firm called Dayspring, a minority- and woman-owned company in South Holland.
Dayspring, while promising to pay the prevailing rates for janitorial work, is under no obligation to keep the current employees. And by hiring new workers at entry-level wages and turning some full-time work into part-time work, they can save money and charge the city less.
Is there a villain in this story? It’s not that simple.
In a wretched economy with state and local governments drowning in red ink, city procurement officer Jamie Rhee said, “As stewards of taxpayer money, we put out the bid to get the best price for the city. We keep it open and competitive. . . . [There are] tough choices . . . to make sure the city is on a sustainable financial track.”
The new, nonunion company that got the bid argues it shouldn’t be cast as a villain either.
“I know you have to report this story,” said Dayspring owner Anita Harris, “but this is a dream for us. Talk about small businesses growing. . . . We are not doing a bad thing, we are doing a good thing.”
SEIU contends that with this new contract, the city is trying to kill the union.

SEIU created the Union Busting, Carol!  Rahm is an SEIU, Dude! So is Forrest Claypool who times the pee-break for Rahm's CTA.  So is Pat Quinn. So is Jan Schakowsky. So is Wee Mike Quigley. So is President Obama.  SEIU will be fine - remember they are now "organizing the unemployed." This City layoff of janitors is only the itching sensation - the real bleeding is yet to Garbage Grid & etc. Carol's cynical Boo-Hoos for the laid off Chicago 50 rings way hollow, as there has not been a Progressive boon-doggle to come down the pike that she has not lapped up with gusto.


During the early days of WWII, Mayor Ed Kelly was as tight as a tick with FDR.  Rahm and President Obama more than likely exchange tighty whities they are that close.  Ed Kelly got General Motors to build a massive series of plants on the south west side to build engines and components for the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. Immediately, 17,000 people went to work.  General Electric owns a huge part of the Obama Regime, just saying.  President Obama made General Motors a part of the Obama Regime, while Mayor Rahm was Chief of Staff.  Now, get this - Boeing is headquartered in Chicago . . .honor bright!  Here is the beauty part - the CEO of Being is James McNereny.  Guess what?  Mr. McNereny is an Almnus of New Trier High School - the alma mater of Mayor Rahm. Not only that, but also this, James McNereny is reported to be a huge Obama and Rahm money dropper and a member of the Mayor's inner-circle.


Those nuggets plucked from the stream of consciousness - would one not venture a notion that were Rahm, or SEIU, or Carol, in any way, shape or form inclined to really, really, really make a difference to the people of Chicago by way  getting Boeing, GM, GE, or any huge, established captialist on-going concern, just might . . .might mind you . . .bend an interested ear or two and invest?  Hmmm?

Silly Goose Island goslings!  A corporate possiblity such as industrial opportunity for skilled, educated and work-ethical people is not in the Urban Center "Start-up" Plans of Rahm Regime.

Stan and Stella over by Ford City -pack your bags and call Mayflower,

Dax and Kia, down in Urbana - hook up the UHaul and get thee to Bucktown.  Rahm is calling the White House for some investment capital, Kids! Not only that, you can fire up some quality weed without a trip to the Bridewell.

Invest now has come to mean taxes, after all.

Naw, we have our supine Media doing hand-stands and Huzzahs over nothing in a sweet, random package.

FORD CITY* has space aplenty and Chicago is already packed with smart, practiced, skilled and willing workers. The problem is - one can point out the piles of horse-shit cast upon our ground, but it takes genuine human effort to refrain from rolling around in it.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/13489965-418/mayor-intent-on-making-chicago-a-start-up-city.html
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/10537450-418/rahms-inner-circle.html

http://www.suntimes.com/news/marin/13481481-452/delicate-balance-city-budget-workers-lives.html
http://www.1871.com/2012/05/opening-day-for-1871/


By the Way FORD CITY:

Construction started in 1942. The purpose for construction was to build a defense plant. Approximately 17,000 workers were employed. This caused the southwest side of the city to become more populated as more people were moving there for work. By October, Building No. 1 was finished. Testing of aircraft engines to be used for the B29 bomber began. Throughout the winter, they continued building. By the spring of 1943, 10 buildings, made of steel, concrete and wood, had been constructed. The building covered approximately 6,000,000 square feet (560,000 m²). The largest building was Building No. 4. It covered 62 acres (250,000 m²), and it was built out of reinforced concrete. The plant consisted of 7,000 miles (11,000 km) of underground piping and 15 miles (24 km) of cables and wires for water and power.

By December 1945, the building was left vacant due to the end of the war. The government attempted to sell it without success. It was later retrofitted for automobile production for Tucker Corporation and then Ford Motor Company.

The building remained a white elephant until the Korean War, when it was reopened to build airplane engines for the war effort, under contract from Ford Motor Company. The Ford company modernized everything inside the building, employing nearly 12,000 people. The building closed again in 1959.

In 1961, the government sold it to Harry F Chaddick, along with other Chicagoans. They had a vision for the greatest commerce center in Chicago. Some buildings were torn down to make room for parking lots. The buildings that remained were remodeled to attract retail tenants.^[2]

Developers divided the building into a separate portion for the mall. The mall opened in 1965 as Ford City.^[3] The mall consists of two halves - a strip mall and enclosed mall. The strip mall portion is connected to the enclosed mall by a tunnel called "The Connection". It utilizes the basement between the severed halves of the buildings directly below the parking lot. The Connection was originally called Peacock Alley from the late 60s through some time in the 1980s. Wieboldt's occupied the western-facing space until 1987 when Carson Pirie Scott moved in. The southern-facing space was last occupied by Montgomery Ward until that chain's bankruptcy. JCPenney occupies the eastern facing space.

Until February 2008, the mall was managed by General Growth Properties Inc. for a private investment company.^[4] The Mall is now managed by Jones Lang LaSalle.

In 2009-2010, Ford City Mall began a multi-million dollar long term capital redevelopment program undertaking North Mall infrastructure work, Cicero Avenue frontage and North Mall parking lot resurfacing. During this time new tenants such as Conway’s, US Cellular, Rodeo, Amici, Star Diamond Jewelers, a new GNC, She Bar, Eldorado Fine Jewelers, Avon, China Max, US Sprint and others opened for business at Ford City Mall.

Early 2011 – Phase 2 of the long term capital redevelopment plan began with refurbishment of the Cicero Avenue Pylon signs enabling large square footage use tenants the ability to gain maximum store signage exposure along the heavily trafficked Cicero Avenue roadway.

As part of the 2011 capital redevelopment program, Ford City Mall is in the process of demolishing several small outparcel buildings and a former vacant anchor store, leading the way to future development options under discussion at this time.

[edit]Transportation

[edit]CTA Buses

• #54B South Cicero
• #67 67th/69th/71st
• #79 79th

[edit]Pace Buses

• #379 Midway-Orland Square
• #382 Central/Clearing
• #383 South Cicero
• #384 Narragansett/Ridgeland
• #385 87th/111th/127th

[edit]Orange Line Extension

Original plans for the Orange Line was called for the terminus to be at Ford City. Due to lack of funding the city decided to end the line at Midway with a layout allowing for future expansion.^[5] The CTA recently undertook an Alternatives Analysis for the Orange Line extension to Ford City and determined that the project currently stands at an estimated $200 million.^[6] On August 12, 2009, the CTA approved the extension plans.^[7] The extension will open in 2016.

I'm With Rahm! Don't Blow Town -Send the Kids to Catholic Schools

Mayor Rahm snug with Leo Catholic High School Heroes!

“Don’t head for the doors when your kid’s in fifth grade or sixth grade — for the suburbs — because the city of Chicago is going to give you a high-quality life with a high-quality education for your children,” said Emanuel, speaking in his office and flanked by Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard.

Chicago's mayor wants Chicago's middle class to stick around and fears they are hitting the road south, west and north out of town because CPS stinks.

The middle class ( cops, firemen, CTA drivers,Postal Workers, UPS folks & etc.) will never come up with the scratch to go to Chicago Lab, Francis Parker, Latin School, or even St. Iggy. Most Catholic Schools are not as expensive as St. Ignatius and are affordable. Leo High School's student body is comprised of kids from low-income families and every senior soon graduate has been accepted into a college program.


I agree with Mayor Rahm and Jean Claude, stick around, but send the kids to Catholic Schools -Chicago is packed with Catholic Schools -that is unless Obama gets his HHS Mandate shoved down our throats.

There's Catholic Schools aplenty. The cost of re-locating is brutal. There is as much crime in Hill Crest, Country Club Hills or Orland Park as there is in Englewood, or Scottsdale these days - did you read about motorcycle goof?

Chicago Public Schools stink on ice, Mayor Rahm and Jean Claude just admitted as much, Catholic schools (grammar and secondary) outperform CPS hands down at a fraction of the cost it takes not to have a kid graduate from high school, much less read above a 5th grade level.

Chicago is a great town! Stick around and send the kids to Catholic Schools - they'll get educated and learn not to do wildings and flash mobs at Rock & Roll McDonalds.

What sort of education do you want for your child? What sort of future do you want? It isn’t easy to answer those questions, but the answers really matter. And the school you choose can make a real difference.

Our schools provide many things that other schools don’t or can’t. We invite you to take some time to see what we believe in, see what we believe is important, and visit some of our schools before you make a decision.

We look forward to meeting you, welcoming you, and introducing you to the faith, focus, and achievement that Catholic Schools offer.

If you would like to speak with Catholic school parents near you to hear how their children are benefiting, fill out this form and we'll make that connection for you.

John Dewey - The Father of Stupidity in Education

The Lab School at the University of Chicago is prestigious and pricey, but I would send my kids to Moses Montefiore, before I'd send them there. As I sent them through Catholic schools the point is as moot as it is root. Nothing against the good folks at the Lab School who come armed to instruct with degrees and certifications that would make the founder's moustache quiver with delight. More so, I would hazard a guess that most of the staff of Baronet Moses Montefiore,Kt ( British Jewish Financier.Philanthropist and Sheriff of London 1784-1885) High School on Ashland Ave. were trained in the methods and philosophy of John Dewey. That said, all American public schools are fostered in Dewey/Hegelian non-sense.

As I have posted many times, John Dewey bullied his way into American Education by dint of his intellectual gifts and membership in the American Brahmin Class. Dewey clicked with good old American contrarian ways and means. Dewey made inquiry and not the pursuit of truth the core of American public education. The Lab School at University of Chicago mandates inquiry as play and play as power. You can arrive at any pre-conceived outcome so long as that outcome fully agrees with the point that inquiry begins. e.g. All police officers are brutal agents of systemic racism - Alpha and Omega. President Obama is the greatest President Ever! Our Economy is Better Now Than Under George W. Bush. The Debt Debate is a crisis leading to the aversion of the crisis created by the the very crisis itself. A family consists of any human beings. The Act of Sex is a Civil Right. The New York Times said it and that settles it. More Tax Dollars Poured into Public Education Will Save Tax Dollars.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is sending his kids to Chicago Lab School and they will follow the intellectual and professional paths of Arne Duncan, the Obama kids, and Valerie Jarrett. They will be fine. Their self-esteem, personal growth and life-long associations will blossom.

Founded in 1896 by pre-eminent American educator John Dewey, the Lab Schools are known as one of the most diverse of the nation's elite private institutions; about 35 percent of its students are people of color. It's also known as one of the best: its high school is one of the top feeders in the country to America's elite colleges and universities, and its extracurriculars, from newspaper and yearbook to Model U.N., are regular winners of regional and national awards.

Such prestige doesn't come cheap: the lower school costs $21,060 per year, while the upper school is just shy of $25,000 annually. That means that the Emanuels will be forking over more than $60,000 each year for their three kids' tuitions.

Huffington Post - The Hollywood Squares of Journalism

Hey, Catholic schools are diverse. Leo High School for example in the heart of Gresham has 90.9% persons of color and a growing number of Mexican kids and now several white ethnic Catholics from Canaryville. There is greater diversity, to be sure, at Mount Carmel, De LaSalle, St. Rita and Marist, but Leo is a very happy campus.

One thing is certain, the kids at south side, west side and north side Catholic schools come from very homogeneous financial backgrounds - Mom, Dad, Auntie, Gramma and Alumni are President Obama's working stiffs: cops, firemen, nurses, public school teachers, skilled tradesmen, industrial workers, Unlike the Lab young 'uns, these kids will not have the path of inquiry festooned with placement, nor will they have the grease and juice backing their play necessary to waltz into Harvard, Columbia, Yale and Oberlin. Catholic kids will scratch their way into those same schools by dint of achievement. Lab School kids get cache with a diploma.

Cache is okay, but core values are much better. Here is a recent commentary by an American Academic and covert to Islam. The guy knows that Dewey is as dangerous to his Faith as it is to Jews, Catholics, Lutherans, Unitarians and Wiccans. In writing about the idiotic neologism THE ARAB SPRING coined by New York Times Dewey-boy Thomas Friedman

Truth, however, cannot exist in a culture with an educational system that denies the possibility of its very existence. Without truth and justice, there is no such thing as a moral disaster. The root cause of most of the injustices in the world, however, is the moral disaster of secular utilitarianism. The wielders of financial and political influence in America have imposed this utilitarian philosophy as a paradigmatic monopoly in the American educational system and with it infected the entire world.


In a compartmentalized system of education, where there is no coherence in anything, the products of this system necessarily are too narrow to value knowledge exogenous to their field of expertise or even to sense that a system of morality can even exist.

The spread of this moral disaster has been going on within the American educational establishment for more than a century, especially since John Dewey. Dewey was born before the American Civil War and set the standard for modern education in America and throughout the world a hundred years ago in his many books, perhaps especially in his Depression-Era book, How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process. Dewey invented the school of “philosophical pragmatism” which is associated originally with John Stuart Mill, but was further developed at Harvard by others who defined all meaning in life and all morality as the maximization of net utility based on pain versus pleasure. Avoid whatever gives one pain, and embrace whatever gives pleasure, which, in turn, is associated with the philosophy of hedonism. One can argue with this approach pro and con, but the major distinction is that in modern secular education there is no truth and no justice, because even the concepts of truth and justice are thought to restrict rather than maximize human freedom.

Dr. Robert D. Crane*

Back at you, Doc!

*DR ROBERT D. CRANE Chairman, Center for Understanding Islam, and President, The Center for Policy Research. Earned a doctorate (J.D.) at Harvard Law School (1959) in international investment and comparative legal systems. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (1981). Principal da’ii (religious instructor) at the Islamic Center, Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D.C. (l983-86). Director of Publications, International Institute of Islamic Thought (1986-88). Founding member of The American Muslim Council and Director of its Legal Division, 1992-1994. He has published 10 books and 50 professional articles on comparative legal systems, global strategy, and information management. Languages include English, German, Russian, Spanish, French and Arabic.