Confession App - Our Digital Dystopia Goes Nuttier

Last night, my lady love and I enjoyed a few hours of quiet, polite, lively and, for me anyway, enchanting communication using words and body language across the table from one another in Bacchanalia Italian Restaurant* in the Heart of Italy neighborhood. This restaurant is a charming time machine that transports diners to a much better time of human interaction and dignity ( BTW -the tucker and the mutuels are outstanding).

Over a brimming platter of antipasti, Chicken Vesuvio for the Elegant Lady and Porterhouse Vesuvio for this trencherman swain, and ala 'Ferme Auberge' salad -after the main course, we spoke to one another. We talked about the work week, Egypt, Wu and Al Swearingen on Deadwood, the incivility of our electronic world - texting teens and adults, robot customer service, endless cellphone usage. Cable television and the internet have buried the morning newspaper readings that once brought fathers and sons together in the race for the box-scores and mothers reading the funnies to toddlers; yet, we lament the breakdown of the American Family.

Early this morning, I was treated to a wonderful article- yes, via the internet - by Philadelphia journalist Christine Flowers on one of the goofiest additions to our Electronic Communications Crap-pile - The Confession APP. Christine Flowers offers a human and delightful introduction to a child's First Confession and the Sacrament of Penance - click my post title for that serene passage.

Here is the caveat against our growing Techno-Dystopia:

. . .I was so deeply offended to hear that someone had created a "Confession" app for the iPad. Patrick Leinen created Confession: A Roman Catholic App to, as he put it, "invite Catholics to engage in their faith through digital technology."

And my response is: Are you kidding me?

Generations of Catholic kids were forced to go to catechism and CCD classes to grasp the solemnity of the sacraments and appreciate their role in our lives.

Sure, a lot of those mini-Catholics have since left the church because it became too onerous for them to practice their faith with honor and respect, but there are enough of us left who think that reducing the relationship between a penitent and his confessor to a button on some handheld gadget is ridiculous, wrong and a slap in the face. (I wonder what would happen if someone came up with a bar mitzvah app, by which you could do interactive Torah readings and register for presents at the exact same time.)

Or maybe we could be treated to Mecca.com, which, with a click of a button, you could convert to Islam (it would of course have to have separate Sunni and Shia versions of the program since you don't want to have to then click on HolyWar.com).

Not pretty when someone starts playing around with your faith, is it?

Fortunately, the Vatican has come out forcefully against this travesty. As a spokesman in Rome noted, "It is essential to understand that the rites of penance require a personal dialogue between penitents and their confessor. . . It cannot be replaced by a computer application."

Of course it can't. I mean, just imagine if your computer malfunctioned and you downloaded the wrong penance? Eight hundred thousand Our Fathers would be cruel and unusual.

Christine M. Flowers is a lawyer. E-mail

cflowers1961@yahoo.com. She blogs at philly.com/philly/blogs/flowersshow.

Lucifer's Laugh Bag!

I can not imagine how, in the name of Sts. Cyril and Methodius,it would be possible to Confess to an I-Pad the fact that my mere presence, let alone utterance of a syllable, often has an emetic effect on people I love due to my follies and inclinations.

Only the direct communication with one of Christ's ordained priests can I manage to articulate the thoughts, words and deeds that offended others and Christ.

Oh, Yeah! I simply download the APP -You can get the application here: https://market.android.com/details?id=appinventor.ai_jamorrow.PenanceProject

"OMG I am Heartily sorry . . ." - I detest all my sins & etc.



Hickey's Sin Menu:

Sexual Thoughts = 24 X 365@ 1 per nano second?

Lies = Has anyone seen my Honorary Degrees from Yale, Harvard and Bob's Theological Seminary; I returned your call of 2/11/2011 @ 9:45AM; Let me be perfectly honest . . . & etc.

Anger: See Sexual Thoughts and multiply by a factor of 5

Pride: I have Irish Alzeimer's

Envy: Well my eyes still work!

Sloth: We get graded on Neatness?

Gluttony: Porterhouse Vesuvio!

Let's put away the toys and devices and get back to human contact . . .just a minute . . .let me get this call.














*Bacchanalia Italian Restaurant
2413 South Oakley Avenue
Chicago, IL 60608
(773) 254-6555

Rahmses Uno- Pharaoh Dealer of Old Chicago!

Now that Hose Knee has taken it on the Arthur Duffy - exite stage left -from his toils in the shadow of the pyramids; let's imagine a film ( yeah, I know, Movie) about the advent of Emanuel -not found in the reeds - but in New Trier - who danced his way into the power and the glory that is Chicago. Imagine all of the genius and money available to preserve that thought in an epic film to rival Avatar and The Hangover. Well, imagine no more Lucille!

I spoke with Chicago Independent film-maker Fay Accompli who is doing a bio-pic/documentary on the all but media-assured election of Rahm Emanuel. Fay Accompli has scads, literally scads, of money.

Fitting this coupling of real Chicago pipe is earnest and Progressive Cecil B. Demille-in-Drag, Fay Accompli's treatment will be wrapped in old timey splendor and CinemaScope and Technicolor with a cast of millions and funded by a grant from the Pritzker Foundation, Arianna Huffington Industries and the Chubb Group. Chicago icon Sugar Rautbord, author of the best smelling novel The Fifth Floor which she is promoting everywhere, is on the project.

Ms. Fay Accompli gushed, " The Chicago Tribune says it all, 'No other candidate combines Emanuel's candor about the threats facing Chicago with the will to take necessary steps -- some of them unpopular -- to tame those threats,' and no one threatens threats like a Pharaoh. Look at Mubarak! Rahm will threaten threats with threatening threats. I see Rahm as Pharaoh - like Yul Brynner. I wish I get him to do the picture, but I'll use Jeremy Piven. He's so Chicago. or John What's is Name? The one whose sister does the phone ads , you know." I do not.
Ms. Accompli fleshed out a scene that I will offer to you, Dear Reader

The scene is Pharaoh's palace on the 5th Floor surrounded by eunuchs from the Chicago Media and horny dowagers who all look like Sugar Rautbord

Rahmses I -
Jeremy Piven, or that John What's His Name as Rahm Emanuel

Ald. Ed Burke -
erst-while Moses the Law Giver played by Richard Deacom

Monied Dowager Sugar Rautbord -
played by none other than author, socialite, wit, shrinking violet Sugar.

Media Eunuch Bruce Dold - Bruce Dold will be played by Chi-panda whose bamboo stuffings are only match by the papier mache substance of Chicago Tribune's Editorial Board.

Rahmses Deuce -
played by scenery chewing Rep. Mike Quigley - short of nothing, but all of that virtue stuff.

Here with just two weeks before the polls close like a maiden's knees at the approach of a bounder, Fay Accompli's Ramses I - the screenplay.

Rahmses I - The Commandments: And You Thought Ten Was a Lot!

Scene: Fifth Floor of City Hall

Rahmses[to Sugar Rautbord] You will be my wife. You will come to me whenever I call you, and I will enjoy that very much. Whether you enjoy it or not is entirely your own affair... But I think you will.

[To Bruce Dold] You will be mine, like my dog, or my horse, or my falcon, except that I shall love you more - and trust you less.

[banishing Ed Burke to the desert] Here is your king's scepter, and here is your kingdom, with the scorpion, the cobra, and the lizard for subjects. Free them if you will. Leave the Hebrews to me.

[ to Mike Quigley] My son, I shall build your tomb upon their crushed bodies.
[to Ed Burke again]Come to me no more, Ed Burke, for the day you see my face again you will surely die! So let it be written, so let it be done...authenticate here, here and here - Move! For @#$%^'s sake! Get it #$%^ing Notarized and #$%^&ing take it to Dave Orr!

The score by Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra - if he's up to it.
My Preview Review: It'll be the Cat's Nuts!

Nun gives papers to DePaul - More Air than the Blue Demons Shoot

Death-Row Demon Nun, Sister Susan Sean Sarandon-Penn tosses her papers to the winless Blue Demons. When DePaul stopped being Catholic, the late Ray Meyer pulled his intercessions - it seems.

" . . .Demons’ losing streak in Big East play to 23 regular-season games." By Toni Ginnetti Staff Reporter/tginnetti@suntimes.com Feb 9, 2011 05:09AM



Enjoy the read Blue Demons.

Actor Michael Moriarty on Literature, Existentialism and The Fragile Minds of American Youth

The mind of a young person is God's marvel. The more the young mind encounters the more it absorbs; however, what that supple organ makes use of what it takes in can be dangerous. Parents, priests and pedagogues are best agents to direct the and chennel the course of experiences and epiphanies taken in by young people. There are very bad ideas - drinking mercury, diving off of a water tower, or basing one's actions upon seductive principles founded on misery.

The Danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard built a theology on dread as the basis for making decisions. Abraham agonizing over his pact to sacrifice Issac as the blood bond of God's covenant was the spark of existentialism - a negative philosophy that morphed Kierkegaard's sermons into a Romantic precis of Satan's wildly idiotic battle with God. Knowing full well God's omnipotence, Old Scratch never-the-less gave it the old Ivy League try - again, and again. Byron's Childe Harold in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, lines 1031-1102 whines:

I have not loved the World, nor the World me;
I have not flattered its rank breath, nor bowed
To its idolatries a patient knee,
Nor coined my cheek to smiles,-nor cried aloud
In worship of an echo; in the crowd
They could not deem me one of such-I stood
Among them, but not of them- in a shroud
Of thoughts which were not their thoughts, and still could,
Had I not filed my mind, which thus itself subdued.

What teenage girl girl could not go weak in the knees ( Vampire, Matrix-caparisoned dark eyed, pale and pasty dreamy non Jock) over the sentiments of this brooding youth? J,D. Salinger's Holden Caufield - the quintessential American Teenage Male - narrates his negative world view and spits ironic scorn at the phonies of the ordered world. Young minds are attracted to the dark - death - dread and the Gothic.

The greatest generation and their Korean and Vietnam heirs had their bellies full of death and dread and created a lifestyle and standard of living that was the antithesis - a life affirming ethic and commitment to service - for their children. The American brooding generations had the luxury to hurl defiance at order and life itself with parsing nods to dim authorities found in books and spouting semiotic nonsense from the plush podiums of the Academy - whatever the hell that is.

Chicago-rooted actor, composer,essayist and anti-abortion activist Michael Moriarty wrote a sound study of the dangers of toxic doctrines ingested by young minds without the rigorous oversight of parents, priests and capable pedagogues - that's teachers. Mass murderer Jared Lochner seems to be a case study of toxic thought unchecked . . .and most likely unsupervised.

American Existentialism: Jared Loughner

By Michael Moriarty
web posted February 7, 2011

While Jared Loughner's list of favorite writings run from Hitler's Mein Kampf and Marx's Communist Manifesto to George Orwell, Hermann Hesse and Ernest Hemingway, a mysteriously missing set of fashionably well-respected names are the French Existentialists, such as Abert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre.

By the time I had finished that relentlessly compelling tale of gratuitous murder and vague redemption (Albert Camus' The Stranger which ends with the words, "all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration,") my sense of the world had been shattered into a thousand pieces.

The essentials of this quote are from Stranger In A Strange Land – The Enduring American Appeal Of Existentialism, Nick Gillespie's still startling review of George Cotkin's Existential America.

With the endearing confession I can share with Mr. Gillespie about existentialism – "I still never quite understood it" – I suddenly began to comprehend a few things I had not even dreamt of during Freshman year at Dartmouth and the existential labyrinths of Philosophy 101. The course was taught devoid of the endless examples of senseless murder available even then. Somehow the anti-hero of Albert Camus' The Stranger was held to be examined in an a-historical vacuum. The ghosts of Jack The Ripper and Lizzie Borden were just begging to attend class; but the Professor would not even utter their names.

After this past week, however, and the nightmares rolling out of Tucson, Arizona, with the massacre there, the insane slaughter handed out to all of America by one Jared Loughner?

Cotkin's most original insight is something that escaped Camus and the others: "Existentialism, American style ... jibes well with American antinomianism, that willingness of the lonely individual to rebel against entrenched authority in the name of his or her most intense beliefs. Antinomianism, like existentialism, challenges easy certitude, entrenched religion, and moribund political assumptions."

Scary?

Quite possibly.

This is Jared Loughner, as attorney pro-se, defending himself in court.

The crime in Albert Camus' The Stranger is merely a small example of the massacre in Tucson which America may never recover from. Yet the obscenely joyous anticipation within the murderer that "a huge crowd of spectators … should greet me with howls of execration"?

This, for an existentialist apparently, is not insanity.

This is classic anti-heroism.

"L'enfer est les autres!"

"Hell is other people", as a profoundly existential character proclaims in Jean Paul Sartre's No Exit. The brilliant critic, Walter Kaufmann, encapsulated existentialism as defined by the 4 D's: "death, despair, dread and dauntlessness". According to the likes of Jean Paul Sartre, Jared Loughner is the quintessentially existential anti-hero.

To a French existentialist, Jared Loughner is not insane.

He is "dauntlessly" addressing "death, despair and dread" with a defining existential act, multiple versions of that apparently liberating but cold-blooded killing in Albert Camus' The Stranger.

Is existentialism a true philosophy?

Or is it merely a rationalization for the "enlightened despots" of France, from 18th century Robespierre to the 20th century's Jean Paul Sartre, to either commit mass murder or openly relish the shameless homicides of Jared Loughner, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, et al?

I believe Existentialism is the 20th century effort of French intellectuals to rationalize their horridly bloody, 18th century revolution. Existentialism was, and still is for many Frenchmen and women, the effort of intellectual supremacistsin Paristo defend what is the heart of the French Revolution and the rationale for the French Guillotine: it was the Existentially justifiable thing to do at the time.

Death, despair, dread and dauntlessness!

This is the moment in which I must remind my readers of the true enemy of the French Revolution. The ultimate and permanent enemy of the French Revolution was not the aristocracy nor even the bourgeoisie.

It was and still is the Catholic Church.

In addition and more to the point of this article, the number one enemy of the Progressive Revolution or the Obama Nation's "Fundamental transformation of the United States" is not the Tea Party but the Catholic Church. Rome's unflinching and unwavering condemnation of abortion strikes at the very cornerstone of Progressive philosophy, strategy and visions of the future. While the very black attire of Catholic priests similarly signify the very existential themes of dread, death and despair, the antidote, however, is not a mindless or homicidal dauntlessness.

It is Life!

Life, life and more life!

Life that is even more dauntless, forceful and abandoned than the mad eyes of Jared Loughner.

Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com.

The American classroom could use Michael Moriarty.

Why You Will Not See Me On Craigslist -A Cautionary Tale

To: [redacted]@yahoo.com
From: Pat Hickey
Date: Friday, January 14, 2007, 2:41 PM
Subject: Will Someone Prove To Me Not All CL Men Look Like Toads - 34 (DMV)

Hi,

Hope I'm not a toad. :) i'm a very fat fun classy guy. Live in Morgan Park area. 5ft 190lbs Yellow/brown. 55. .. Hobbyist. I promise not to disappoint.

A Republican Congressman is in the Jack Pot, over a photo and what appears to be a shameless plagiarism of an ad that family and friends discouraged me from sending into Craigslist some years ago - I was lonely.

To: [redacted]@yahoo.com
From: Christopher Lee
Date: Friday, January 14, 2011, 2:41 PM
Subject: Will Someone Prove To Me Not All CL Men Look Like Toads - 34 (DMV)

Hi,

Hope I'm not a toad. :) i'm a very fit fun classy guy. Live in Cap Hill area. 6ft 190lbs blond/blue. 39.. Lobbyist. I promise not to disappoint.

Meet women at wholesome church sponsored events, the Museum of Oriental Art, or at showings of Post-Impressionists artists at the Chicago Art Institute. The librarian at your neighborhood branch, just might check out more than your request for Das Buch vom mönchischen Leben , Rainer Maria Rilke - Cologne edition of 1899 -natürlich. Nothing sexier than a willowy blond in a tight skirt sporting a black turtle neck sweater with an elegant single pearl necklace - lavendar eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses. Gotta go!

Good Night Sweet Prince - Charles, Philip, Arthur, George

“Mummy was ever so kind – where was I . . .Balderdash – I’m as pissed as a fart, yet my command of the Queen’s grows exponentially. That notwithstanding, however, Biffois almost certainly no liar – I merely had proper use of the language bludgeoned into me from a very, very young age.

On that note, to bed. Said hard graft requires a man at the helm bright and early in the morrow!”

Boys, the Prince! Prince, the Boys!



Charles Philip Arthur George, KG KT GCB OM AK QSO CD SOM GCL PC AdC(P) FRS by Grace of God Prince of Wales once and future King of the United Kingdom He'll be here all week, Folks! If you do not get BBC on Cable, wait for it!

Click my post title for more chilling insights ( Global Warming no less - I wonder who told him?) from the Prince of Wales. Testors, or was he left in the marinade far too long?

H/t Weazel Zippers.com

The Genius Ben Stein Rolls The Fatuous Mayor Bloomberg's Salt-Free Abortions

Ben Stein is a gentleman to the backbone. Mayor Bloomberg is a parsing dweeb with billions of dollars. One is a mensch and a half and the mayor a nebish squared. . . or as Skinny Sheahan might say, "Ben's a Pair and Mike's Lacking Both."

I read this brilliant piece by Ben Stein in the The American Standard - published and edited by Fenwick Friar Bob Tyrrell.

I am endlessly amazed at how backwards we humans get things in our lives. Just let me give you two very basic examples, one of which is a crime against humanity.

I keep reading in the New York Times that Mayor Bloomberg, a billionaire health nut, is on a campaign against having too much salt in foods in New York City restaurants. His belief is that New Yorkers and visitors shorten their life spans by eating too much salt and therefore raising their blood pressure in a dangerous way. If he took control over the salt content in New York restaurants, he could save a few dozen lives per year, he believes.

But, wait a moment. I also read in the New York Times that New York City is one of the abortion capitals of the nation, with a much higher rate of abortion than most other parts of the nation. And Mayor Bloomberg is a great fan of "…a woman's right to choose…" to abort her baby.

As I calculate it in a rough way, New York City has about 8 million persons living there, or about (very roughly) 3 per cent of the nation's population. And New York has a much higher abortion rate than the rest of the nation. So it is possible that New Yorkers have about 50,000 abortions per year, or maybe a lot more.

That is 50,000 killings of totally innocent children every year. Does Mayor Bloomberg think that his anti-salt campaign means much compared with that number? If he wants to save lives, why doesn't he throw his tiny weight and his huge purse behind right to life? That's a truly life-saving act.

This whole subject endlessly fascinates and horrifies me. We campaign against obesity -- and we should -- because it shortens life. But nothing else makes life as short as abortion. We campaign for more exercise -- and I heartily agree -- because it lengthens life. But, again, no amount of exercise would offset the over 1,000,000 excess American deaths each year caused by abortion of the totally innocent. We want safer cars. We want cleaner air. We want cleaner water. All to save life. But there is nothing we could do that would save more lives than to truly stop abortion in all but the most extreme cases of need.

Why? Why are we so blind to the mass murder of the innocent?

It do give one pause, Ben.

Rahm is Mayor Daley's Guy? Well, Hush My Beak!

After a sobering weekend of Chico endorsements by real labor and a daffy TV ad, it appears that Rahm's Campaign of a Full Press Court nodded news-sleuth in the direction of the place where everyone else in Chicago arrived months ago.

"I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson," said he. "When your round is a short one you walk, and when it is a long one you use a hansom. As I perceive that your boots, although used, are by no means dirty, I cannot doubt that you are at present busy enough to justify the hansom."
"Excellent!" I cried.
"Elementary," said he. "It is one of those instances where the reasoner can produce an effect which seems remarkable to his neighbour, because the latter has missed the one little point which is the basis of the deduction. The same may be said, my dear fellow, for the effect of some of these little sketches of yours, which is entirely meretricious, depending as it does upon your retaining in your own hands some factors in the problem which are never imparted to the reader.
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1893)

This morning I was treated to a singular news flash from Mark Brown, the guy who gave Scott Lee Cohen ( The Pawn Star Guv Guy) a long pass. This morning Mark Brown wrote that Rahm Emanuel is Mayor Daley's 'guy.' for mayor of Chicago.

While Daley has indeed publicly refrained from making an endorsement, it has been universally recognized in political circles that the mayor would prefer Rahm Emanuel to be the next mayor of Chicago. In the almost magical way these matters are communicated, Daley’s people got the message early and lined up accordingly, not to suggest they necessarily needed coaxing.

Astounding! How ever did he arrive at this conclusion? Why he asked someone with the full operation of his cranial think box - Gery Chico told him. Be astounded, dear reader!

Chico first acknowledged Daley’s support for Emanuel — albeit obliquely — over the weekend at a candidates forum sponsored by the 49th Ward political organization of Ald. Joe Moore. No reporters were there, but word got around.

“Gery said: You can’t change the status quo if you’re the guy who the status quo is lined up behind,” confirmed his press secretary, Brooke Anderson. “He said the status quo isn’t working, that he’s running for mayor to take Chicago in a new direction and that he has a record of challenging the status quo to get big results.”

Chico was asked about this Tuesday, leading to his further remarks about Daley backing Emanuel. I said that’s what’s been told to me to be the case. If it’s not, then the mayor can say it’s not,” Chico said.

“

Now, Mark Brown is even with the most notorious retired glue-sniffers and bust-outs in every Ward of Chicago - they picked up on the trail of the Napoleon of Chicago and his machinations as early as September, 2010 - and many long before. I was moved to write this sober assessment on September 25, 2010. for you here - on the hoary pages of With Both Hands, dear reader. Thus!

Michael Sneed got a scoop of WHUP Ass for her Friday Column - the word that Terry Peterson will be Rahm Emanuel's Campaign Manager. Terry Petersen ran Mayor Daley's recent wildly successful stomping of candidates. I imagine that it knocked Tom Dart back on his pins a bit, but Dart is a smart tough guy, from tough stock and training.

Tom Dart worked under the only person that I can think of who did not make any money in public service - former Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan. Michael Sheahan was one of the very first recipients of the Axelrod/Emanuel school of Policy assault. They barely ruffled his whiskers, but since Sheahan retired they have honed their craft on Republicans, recalcitrant Blue Dog Democrats, House Speaker Mike Madigan and Ohio Plumbers.

The signing of Terry Peterson is a coup. Mayor Daley is sitting this one out? I think not.

Tom Dart had a great mentor in Mike Sheahan. He'll stand the blows, but they will shower down like rains of this past summer. Michael Sheahan stuck his neck out and helped Mayor Daley get elected as Cook County States Attorney and as Mayor.

Mayor Daley has hosted the National Democratic Convention, made Chicago look like Paris and act like Somalia, placed his close aides in positions of national power ( David Wilhelm, Bill Daley, David Pouffe, Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarret, Desiree Rogers, Arne Duncan and most importantly David Axelrod), brokered the ascent of President Barack Obama, and has retired.

Retired but obviously not out of game. Mayor Daley represents the triumph of Policy over Politics. I believe that Richard M. Daley eschewed Ward level politics for Policy in order to distance himself and his works from the people of Chicago.

I can not remember the last time Mayor Richard M. Daley set foot in the 19th Ward - one of the last powerful Wards along with the 47th, 11th, 13th, and the decimated 10th. These were the Politics Wards that gave Richard M. Daley the 5th floor.

All other Wards are mere geographic delineations of racial and ethnic boundaries, or centers of tourism. They are Policy Wards.

Policy Wards require State and Federal tax-dollars. They operate by dint of media propaganda and rallies of angry folks. Policy uses anger. Politics uses obligation.

Obligation is much more difficult, rather inconvenient.

For all of the mythology about the power of these Politics Wards ( 11th, 19th, 13th, 47th and the decimated 10th), they are little more than minor baronies of public service, until an election requires foot soldiers.

These Wards made Rahm Emanuel a United States Congressman, Mike Quigley a Commissioner and managed to keep County Government moving despite the daffy meanderings of Todd Stroger.

Like Mayor Daley, Rahm Emanuel does not to set foot in a Ward. He will operate out of treasury and via NPR, WTTW,Columnists, Chicago Magazine, Oprah, the BGA already stocked with Andy Shaw,SEIU National and Illinois, UNITE, home and away and our transient Agenda voters.

Unlike Mayor Daley, Rahm Emanuel will need Post-Shakman door bell ringers, shoulder punchers and back slappers, palm card hustlers and therefore is no doubt worming into the ears of Committeemen and disaffected, frightened non-Shakman City Workers. Mayor Daley retained Politics and political operatives for elections.
Terry Petersen is the key and, to my way of thinking, Daley's endorsement of Rahm Emanuel for a continuation of Government via Policy. CAPS trumps Cops, Wrought Iron and planters over snowplows and garbage trucks, Pritzker Pavillions over safe streets.Tourists love the look of Chicago, until they leave a Bucktown bar at 2 A.M. and then it is the cops fault.

Mayor Daley's guy is Rahm. Circles are 360 Degrees. Ice is cold. Western Avenue runs North and South. Tapioca also means broke.

Elementary . . .school kids knew this, Sherlock Brown.

Chicago Code Reviewed

I caught the Chicago Code on Fox last night. I was not adequately dressed and caught a huge dose of the Chicago Code and took 12 ounces of Nighttime Nyquil- I passed out, but did not have night terrors. Tender Mercies!

I went out to the garage this morning and fired up my fliver - Man it was Chicago Code. 15 Degrees and dropped to 8 by the time I reached Dunkin Donuts and waited in line behind real Chicago Cops heading to Englewood, Gresham and Area 2. I remembered The Chicago Code and dressed accordingly.

Here is my review of Chicago Code from the eight to twelve minutes that I caught of the Chicago Code, before I poured the NyQuil into my 12 ounce Leo Mug and cannonballed the contents.

The Chicago Code -Mondays on Fox 32 at 8 P.M.

Cast: Jason Clarke as Jarek Wysocki
Devin Kelley as Vonda Wysocki
Jennifer Beals as Teresa Colvin
Matt Lauria as Caleb Evers
Todd Williams as Isaac Joiner
Billy Lush as Liam Hennessey
Delroy Lindo as Alderman Ronin Gibbons

Let's see - a super High Speed chase going the wrong way under the L Tracks on Lake Street and ending at a flower shop on the multi-cultural West Side so that the guy waving the 'Nine' at the cop so that he can ask for the hand in marraige of the woman he loves before he goes to the iron hotel . . .(click)

Review - The Chicago Code
. . . what does the wind do?
. . . what's the sound a drain makes when you pull the plug?

Chicago Code smites the scary bandana. This is a sure fire hit! Polish up the Emmys!

De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum!

I Remain a Hopeless Romantic - Best Love Song Ever

"She's dark and lovely and passionate. And very, very kind."
"And exclusive as a mailbox," I said.
---The Little Sister , by Raymond Chandler(Chapter 19)

With six days to go until the Feast of St. Valentine and Cupid's darts fall softly on the old pump, I thought that I'd offer a dandy love song to my kind of gal -"What kind of a dish was she? The sixty-cent special--cheap, flashy, strictly poison under the gravy."

The Town Of Ballybay

V 1: In the town of Ballybay there is a lassie dwelling

I knew her very well and the story is worth telling

Her father kept a still and he was a good destiller

And when she took a drink, well, the devil wouldn't fill her


Ch: With me ring a do a dum, with me ring a do a daddio

With me ring a do a dum, whack fol da daddio


V 2: She had a wooden leg that was hollow down the middle
She used to tie a string on it and played it like a fiddle
She fiddled in the hall, she fiddled in the alleyway,
She didn't give a damn, she had to fiddle anyway

Ch:

V 3: She said she couldn't dance unless she had her wellie on,
But when she had them on she could dance as good as anyone
She wouldn't go to bed unless she had her shimmy on
But when she had it on she would go as quick as anyone

Chorus:

V 4: She had lovers by the score, every Tom and Dick and Harry,
She was courting night and day, but still she wouldn't marry.
And then she fell in love with a fella with a strammer
When he tried to run away, she hit him with a hammer

Chorus:

V 5: She had childer up the stairs, she had childer in the brier,
And another ten or twelve, sat roaring by the fire
She fed them on potatoes and on soup she made with nettles
Or lumps of hairy bacon that she boiled up in a kettle

Chorus:


V 6: She led a sheltered life eating porridge and black pudding
She terrorised her man until he died right sudden
And when her husband died, she was feeling very sorry
She rolled him in a bag and she threw him in a quarry

Chorus:

One Day March 30, 1981- President Reagan Saved By Tim McCarthy: Leo '67

Yesterday marked the 100th Birthday celebration of President Ronald Reagan. I did not vote for President Reagan, twice, but I thought that he was a personally wonderful guy and an absolutely great politician. In fact, I believe that President Obama has many of Ronald Reagan's attributes - good rhetorical skills, a solid presence and wonderful smile. The only attributes that seem to be missing from President Obama are executive experience and personal warmth. Ronald Reagan was a very warm guy and he exuded his love of people. I did not vote for President Obama, either.

A Leo High School wrestler from the Class of 1967, Tim McCarthy* of St. Denis Parish, saved the life President Reagan.



This is from a CBS Interview with Tim McCarthy in 2004.

Video of the event shows McCarthy throwing himself in front of the president; he was shot in the right chest. Syler pointed out that "it would seem that one's natural reaction would be to duck. And yet, you jumped in front of the president. Was that as a result of the training you go through?"

McCarthy replied: "That's exactly right. If you saw the big picture out there, a lot of people – police officers, military -- were ducking and looking for cover. That's the training that they received. They did exactly what they should have done.The day he was leaving the hospital with his wife and a couple of his children, the family got word that the president would like to see them. Mrs. Reagan also was there.

"We had a nice visit," McCarthy recalled. "The president was commenting about he was going to miss springtime in Washington, the Cherry Blossom Festival. We had a real nice conversation. My kids were young, 2 and 4, getting restless. They didn't understand the significance of any of this. I was just about to walk out the door. We'd said our goodbyes. I was right at the door.

"He said, 'Tim, hold on a minute. Wait a minute. Listen. It was McCarthy, Reagan, (Washington police officer Tom) Delehanty, (White House press officer Jim) Brady. What the hell did this guy have against the Irish?' You have to wonder if the leader of the free world could already maintain a perspective on this, as serious and critical as it was, he certainly had gotten over it already, and it was a great example for me to get beyond this and move on."

On June 10, 2004, the day before Mr. Reagan's funeral, McCarthy had the opportunity to visit Mrs. Reagan.

"She looked great, under a great deal of stress, as you can imagine," said McCarthy, though he declined to give details about their private conversation.

"We talked about the president quite a bit," he said. "We talked about the fact that, over the last number of years, she has been there almost day and night with the president, and what it was like.

Tim McCarthy - American Hero.

*

Timothy J. McCarthy (born June 20, 1949) is the current police chief of Orland Park, Illinois and a former member of the United States Secret Service.[1] He is most famous for turning into the line of fire, shielding President Ronald Reagan and being wounded by one of John Hinckley, Jr.'s .22 caliber bullets in the 1981 Reagan assassination attempt.[2][3] Surgeons at George Washington University Hospital successfully removed the round from McCarthy's abdomen, and he fully recovered. McCarthy received the NCAA Award of Valor in 1982[4] in recognition of his bravery.

After Hinckley began to fire, McCarthy deliberately put himself in the line of fire and spread his body in front of Reagan to make himself a target.[3] Although all Secret Service agents are trained to take a bullet for the President, only four have actually done so. Besides McCarthy, officer Leslie Coffelt of the Secret Service Uniformed Division was killed during the 1950 Truman assassination attempt, the others, Donald Birdzell and Joseph Downs, were also shot during the Blair House attack of 1950.

McCarthy graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1971 with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and joined the United States Secret Service shortly thereafter.

His career included eight years assigned to the Presidential Protective Division in Washington D.C. and fourteen years as a criminal investigator in Chicago. McCarthy was the Special Agent in Charge of the Secret Service Chicago Division from 1989 until his retirement in October 1993.

McCarthy has served as Chief of the Orland Park Police Department since May 1994, and, in 1997, he unsuccessfully ran for Illinois Secretary of State as a Democrat.[5] In 1999, he earned a Master of Science degree in criminal/social justice from Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois.

He is married and has three children.

McCarthy also played football at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is currently Orland Park Police Chief.

Muslim Brotherhood - Just Middle Class Guys Trying to Get By.

Thanks to the American Progressive News Media ( NPR, Public TV, NYT, NBC, CBS, ABC & etc.), my fear of the Muslim Brotherhood's designs on destroying our Zionist/Crusader/Colonialist/Satan Western Ways, belabored by years of reading about the Muslim Brotherhood in history, have been assuaged - but not entirely Assange'd. But, I'm getting there.

Mohamed Ghanem, one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, calls Egypt to stop pumping gas to Israel and prepare the Egyptian army for a war with it’s eastern neighbor.

Speaking with Iranian television station Al-Alam, Mohamed Ghanem blamed Israel for supporting Hosni Mubarak’s regime. Ghanem also said that the Egyptian police and army won’t be able to stop the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

There are doubts about the loyalty of the Egyptian army to president Mubarak. If the brotherhood takes control over Egypt, it will be very messy from the whole region.

See, that stuff seemed consistent with my reading of the history of the Muslim Brotherhood. Now, after watching on CNN that sweet robot-guy Fareed Zakaria I have learned that the Muslim Brotherhood are no more a threat than the Shriners. Fareed seems like the kind of guy that no waiter wants to spill Sanka on his Van Heusan's - dead eyes. Not only will the waiter be . . .eliminated shall we say, . . .but his entire food chain will be eliminated . . .shall we say?

Fareed's talking to a Nobel Prize Winner! Take a knee; listen up!

ZAKARIA: If there were a democratic government with Muslim Brotherhood participation, do you believe that Egypt would still be at peace with Israel?
ELBARADEI: Of course. I mean, I – again, the whole issue of peace in the Middle East is an issue which everybody – nobody wants to go to war, Fareed.

Shucks during the last few days Muslim Brotherhood sweetie-pie's have told us to chill, Dude! -

Fareed's chat was on January 31, 2011, but by today things are are just a stone-groove!

I am sure that there will be reports forthcoming like this collection of bon mots from Nobel Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei.


"The Muslim Brotherhood, again, it's one of these bogus fictions that have been created that they are after establishing an Iran-type religious state, that they are extremists, Al Qaeda. The Muslim Brotherhood, you see them in the streets, they are religiously conservative but they are ready to work in a civil state context under a constitution which ensures equal rights and obligations."

- Wall Street Journal, February 2011

"The Muslim Brotherhood are religiously conservative, they are in no way extremists they are in no way using violence.... You have to include them in the government like evangelical groups in the US, like orthodox Jews in Jerusalem."

- ABC News, January 2011

"The Muslim Brotherhood has nothing to do with extremism... I have been reaching out to them. We need to include them."

- CNN, January 2011

We can expect to hear from academics and activists inThe Nation, Salon, Huffington Post and other leading laundries of history, explain that Egypt is really no different than Winnetka in its celebration of diverse points of view and the Muslim Brotherhood do so much good.

I can not wait until Debra Shore of the Chicago's MWRD writes a glowing eco-caveat ripe with rain barrels of plans to reverse the flow of the Nile to diminish man's footprint on Egypt's water ways and, thank Allah, that the Suez is now closed to eco-terrorists from Shell, BP, and Texaco.

Yes, sir, them Muslim Brotherhoods is Shriners in Vegas.

Streets and Sanitation Heroes Take Public Guff, While Taking the Snow Away

Last night, I attended a beautiful wedding ceremony at Temple Rodfei Zedek at 52nd and Hyde Park Boulevard. There were lines of snow removal vehicles and Chicago Police cars all along Lake Shore Drive in the northbound lanes from 47th Street to McCormick Place. They were being marshaled to move out into the side streets. Hyde Park Boulevard was as clear as a baby's eyes, by the time we hit the exit at 51st Street and the route to the Temple was wide open. Rabbi Elliot B. Gertel, a really sweet natured guy from Springfield, Mass., greeted guests and prepared us for the nuptials and blessings. The gents, including three Micks from Little Flower and St. Justin Martyr and Visitation, donned yarmulkes. The ceremonies took a little under an hour and guests headed back north to Bistro 110 on Pearson.

I exited at Navy Pier and went west to Rush Street. Just south of Erie, there was pause in traffic and there were two cars ahead of me and nothing behind. At the corner was big blue snow truck removing show and two white managers and crew vehicles. In a nano second of stopping the horn started. The guy two cars ahead of me must have had a vital organ, heart, liver or such in a red emergency cooler that he needed to rush to an ER, or had crucial information about an Al Queda plot against the nation, because he laid his palms on the horn with a will.

Out of the white vehicle with flashing orange lights, stepped a very tired looking guy. He wore a vest. He was about six foot and looked like he had wrestled 167 in high school and could probably still go all three periods on the circle in the mat.

He walked slowly and leaned into window of Harry the Horn. The Horn stopped. Within seconds of the delicious quiet, the huge Blue Plow backed away and traffic moved. The supervisor did not display and contempt, nor anger; rather, stoic professionalism. I nodded a thank you to him. He nodded back and I crossed Chicago Ave. behind Harry the Horn. He went straight on Rush Street, when I took the left past the Chicago Archdiocese Quigley Pastoral Center and up to Bistro 110.

We went in for a fabulous dinner that featured a Choral presentation of an Anglican Hymn before dinner, by the twenty friends of the bride and groom who had sung with the Kings Choir and the Apollo Chorus. Back on Rush Street, the crew of Streets and Sanitation snow removal pros were clearing streets and taking guff from varieties of Harry the Horn.

We are what we do.

Last year, John Schmidt presented a great feature on Chicago Snow Removal from 1907 -Click my post title for the full tale.

This is from John R. Schmidt of Chicago Now's Unknown Chicago -12.15.10

On this date in 1907, Chicago was just getting through a major snowstorm. Clearing the streets of the First Ward--downtown--was a priority. The ward superintendent had hired 312 day laborers to remove the snow. Their job was to shovel the snow up into the back of horse-drawn wagons.
Once the wagon was full, the teamster would drive the wagon to the end of Van Buren Street, then dump the snow into the lake. The wagons were also hired on a daily basis. They were paid for each trip they made.
That was the problem. The drivers were "nursing their work along." Instead of dumping all their snow into the lake, they were coming back to the job site with part of the load still in the wagon. They'd have to make more trips, and get paid more money.

No 'nursing it along' by Snow crews now and no Harry the Horns either.

Read more: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/unknown-chicago/2010/12/let-it-snow-12-15-1907.html#ixzz1DBfLYNH3

Rally for Matt O'Shea in 19th Ward at Cork and Kerry on February 10th

Hello Neighbors, Friends and Family,

We are hosting a rally/fundraiser for our friend Matt O'Shea,candidate for Alderman of the 19th Ward, City of Chicago, this coming Thursday, February 10th at Cork & Kerry , 7-10 p.m.
The attached invite has all the details. The election is coming up quickly and we want to make sure Matt has all the resources he needs to be victorious on February 22nd. We believe that Matt O'Shea is the right choice for our next alderman of the 19th ward.

Please join us and let your friends and neighbors know as well.

Thank you,

The Winters Family and Brian Hickey

-- THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2011
7:00 P.M. ! 10:00 P.M.
Cork & Kerry
10614 S. Western Ave.
Hosted by
Brian Hickey
Bart Winters
Brendan Winters
John Winters
Jack Winters
Liam Winters
Marty Winters
Nat Winters
Tim Winters
Vince Winters
Willie Winters

Tickets: $30
RSVP: willie.winters@gmail.com

Send Planned Parenthood Packing - Put the Cosmetic Holocaust ( abortion) Back in the Purses of the Dowager Class!

The Dowager Class owns Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood has been unmasked for what it is - a mascaraed butcher shop of horrors endowed by aging women of wealth.

Planned Parenthood doesn’t use government money to provide abortions; Congress already prohibits that, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. (Another anti-abortion bill that’s coming up for hearing originally proposed changing the wording to “forcible rape,” presumably under the theory that there was a problem with volunteer rape victims. On that matter at least, cooler heads prevailed.)

Really?

The aging feminists and the long in the tooth abortion happy monied class warriors, like Gloria Steinem, Katha Pollitt, Katrina Vander Heuvel, Joy Behar, Diane Sawyer, Joan Walsh, dumb nuns, most Media Medeas and Democratic Women in elected office are Planned Parenthood's Dowager Class. They are the shrill and powerful Medeas who willfully kill children to get back at the perceived Gender Jasons, or merely want to cosmetically rid themselves of 'Baby Bumps,' as well as the cellulite build-ups that come with age.

So unhappy is the American Dowager that she unleashed the hounds on the real journalists (independent of course - no such animal at MSNBC,NPR or NYT)beefing that the new women who fight abortion are . . .well, pretty.

“Planned Parenthood aids and abets the sexual abuse and prostitution of minors,” announced Lila Rose, the beautiful anti-abortion activist who led the project. The right wing is currently chock-full of stunning women who want to end their gender’s right to control their own bodies. Homely middle-aged men are just going to have to find another sex to push around.

Gail Collins NYT.

Well, this ugly-as-a-bald dog middle age gent has no problem with a gal controlling her own body . . .so long as it does need, or require the application of forceps, scalpels and hammers on an infant.

Dowager is an economic term that first came into public discourse in 15th Century France:Middle French douagiere, from douage dower, from douer to endow — more at endow
First Known Use: 1530

A dowager was commonly propertied widow and now as a stand alone noun can mean any powerful financially robust woman - usually unmarried.

The American Dowager Class and its allies ( every Progressive Solidarity Coalition Activist PAC and the DNC) is struggling with the truth. Americans are seeing the horror that is abortion - not choice, but slaughter. The Dowager Class has long argued that the aborted persons are mere 'tissue.' Science and medicine has long disproven the Progressive lie about 'Choice'(via Ultrasound & etc.) - life begins at conception, but, like pathological drunks, the Dowager Class sees the problems elsewhere - society, racism, poverty, gender identity issues and unwanted tissues.

NPR and the Media are going flat-out to mop up the blood of Kermit Gonsell in Philadelphia and erase the documentation of Planned Parenthood's ACORNish activities of helping pimps work their way around laws so teenage sex-slaves can kill children in the womb.

My Congressman is a Democrat, Dan Lipinski ( D., IL, 3rd) and he is heroic anti-Abortion legislator. Dan Lipinski is what being a Democrat is all about - serving his constituents from womb to tomb, preserving American Exceptionalism, and fighting to ease the tax-burdens. Dan Lipinski keeps me voting Democrat for the most part.

It is well past the time for Americans to drive a stake through the heart of the Cosmetic Holocaust that is abortion.

If the Dowager Class demands 'choice' make it open their private and bloody purses.

NY Times 'We Are All Egyptians!' Really? 82% of 'We' Want to Stone Women?

The weak kidneys of America's Media cause it to micturate down our legs and proclaim a rainstorm.

Nicholas D(Cousin Weak Kidneys)Kristof's idiotic and gushy proclamation that We are the World; We Are Egyptians! is another such trouser moistening announcement of the Heavens about to Open.

The lion-hearted Egyptians I met on Tahrir Square are risking their lives to stand up for democracy and liberty, and they deserve our strongest support — and, frankly, they should inspire us as well. A quick lesson in colloquial Egyptian Arabic: Innaharda, ehna kullina Misryeen! Today, we are all Egyptians!

Now, hold there, Hoss! I'm agin stoning women, but 82% of your "We" thinks that is just dandy. Shake hands with an Alsatian! Bump booty with Botswannan! Have a hoe-down with a Hapsburg! Love a Laplander!

Gee, let's all sing the Marseilles like in Casablanca and confound the Wehrmacht, Nicky! What do mean WE?

The most recent Pew Polling of Egyptian Opinion states: -

Well, take a gander!

ON ISLAM IN POLITICS

-- Is it good that Islam plays a large role in politics? 95 percent said "yes" and 2 percent "bad."

-- Is Islam's influence in politics positive or negative? 85 percent said "positive," 2 percent said "negative."

-- How much of a role does Islam play in Egyptian politics now? 48 percent said "large" and 49 percent said "small."

-- Is there a struggle between groups that want to modernize Egypt and Islamic fundamentalists? 31 percent said "yes." Of them, 27 percent described themselves as modernizers and 59 percent called themselves fundamentalists.

ON ISLAMIST EXTREMISM

-- Are suicide bombings justified? 46 percent said "never," 34 percent "rarely," 12 percent "sometimes" and 8 percent "often." (NOTE: Support for suicide bombing has dropped since 2006, when 28 percent said they were justified sometimes or often.)

-- Are you concerned about Islamist extremism in the world? 70 percent said they were "very concerned" or "concerned."

-- Are you concerned about Islamist extremism in Egypt? 61 percent said they were "very concerned" or "concerned."

ON FOREIGN ISLAMIST MOVEMENTS

-- What do you think of Hamas? 49 percent were favorable.

-- What do you think of Hezbollah? 30 percent were favorable.
-- What do you think of al Qaeda? 20 percent were favorable.

-- Do you have confidence in Osama bin Laden? 19 percent said "some" or "a lot," 73 percent said "not much" or "none." (NOTE: Confidence in bin Laden has fallen from 27 percent in 2006).

ON TRADITIONAL MUSLIM PRACTICES

-- Should men and women be segregated in the workplace? 54 percent said "yes" and 44 percent "no."

-- Should adulterers be stoned? 82 percent said "yes."

-- Should apostates from Islam face the death penalty? 84 percent said "yes."

-- Should thieves be flogged or have their hands cut off? 77 percent said "yes."

ON DEMOCRACY

-- Is democracy preferable to any other kind of government? 59 percent said "yes."

-- Can a non-democratic system be preferable in certain circumstances? 22 percent said "yes."

-- Is it irrelevant to you what kind of government you have? 16 percent said "yes."

(Compiled by Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor)

Irish Independent writer Kevin Myers mocks the wee-wee spilling goofs of the European Press.

One of the striking features of the pro-Mubarak demonstrators was that none seemed to speak English, which suggested a certain closeness to the grassroots of ordinary Egyptians. One elderly man (apparently) said in Arabic that Mubarak was a strong man, and Egypt needed a strong man, and he didn't want to see Egypt going the same way as Iraq, with beheadings. Quite so. We all know that Mubarak ruled with the torture chamber and the secret police, which everyone deplores. But is there an Arabic Denmark upon which Egyptian social democrats can model a new political regime for their country, a Copenhagen on the Nile?

Because our European media are so deeply-anti-Israel, their instinct has been to show its Arab neighbours in a favourable light -- which partly explains the non-stop images of the anti-Mubarak intelligentsia, with auburn highlights and beautiful English. They no more speak for Egypt than the citizens of Ballsbridge speak for Kerry South. The recent Pew survey of Egypt tells another story, without tonsorial highlights or Anglophone urbanity. Some 54pc of Egyptians can justify suicide bombings in some form or other, with 20pc supporting al Qa'ida. Additionally, 54pc believe in segregation of the sexes in the workplace; 82pc think adulterers should be stoned to death; 84pc think apostates from Islam should be killed; and 77pc think thieves should have their hands cut off. Doesn't sound much like Denmark.

Egypt has received billions of dollars in aid in the last 30 years, and much of which has gone into buying Park Lane apartments in London for the kleptocratic crooks who run the country. Meanwhile, Egypt's population is growing at an unsustainable 2pc a year, making it about the same size as Germany's -- but not for long. Germany has eight births per thousand; Egypt has 25 births. And to give you a sense of the appaling economic prospects ahead for Egypt, German GDP (remember, with the same population) is about 1,700 times greater than Egypt's.

The government-in-waiting in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood -- "the Ikhwan" -- is supposedly not in favour of terrorism, well, for the moment anyway. But then was not Sinn Fein a supposedly pacifist movement? Nationalistic pacifisms tend be conditional on the complete absence of an opponent, which is not very passive at all. Either way, the Muslim Brotherhood is certainly not non-violent in its utter opposition to Israel.

The gushers have ruined America's britches as well as lied like Egyptian rugs.

MazelTov, Doug and Christine!

I love weddings. My own in 1983 was a dandy - I married the lovely and strong Mary Elizabeth Cleary at St. Mary's Church in Kankakee, Illinois. My tall red-headed French/Irish bride was stunning in an old fashioned bridal gown that might have been worn in the 19th Century by a French bride in Martinton, or L'Erable. Mary was crowned with a garland of white flowers. My God she was beautiful. Lisa Goodman, of Brides Compleat in Kankakee decked me out in a cut-awys black tux, but I still managed to look like Riddles Barlow. My massive southside Irish family arrived by the bus loads from Chicago and packed the tiny Church on Washington Street, behind the Dean's Ice Cream plant and south of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.

My cousin, Father Bart Winters officiated along with Fathers Ken Yarno, and Irwin Savela of the Viatorians. Follwoing the Sacrement of Marriage and the wedding Mass we repaired to the Knights of Columbus, St. Viator Council across the street from the Kankakee Court House for a wedding party that danced well into the following day. It was reported that several guests maintained the festivities for a good 48 hours. My Kankakee and Chicago families merged and bonded in way that launched fifteen of the happiest years of my life. Mary went home to Christ in 1998. My three kids periodically brouse the wedding pictures.

Tomorrow, I will attend the wedding of my friends Doug and Christine who will be blessed in the dual Jewish ceremonies of the erusin and the nissuin - the former sanctifies the couple and the later launches their life together. This takes place under the Huppa -the Bridal canopy. The last Jewish wedding I attended was between my cousin John and Robin. That one raised the bar on fun and beauty.

Doug is Jewish from birth and Chritine was bpatized a Catholic but converted to Judaism. Christine was from St. Justin Martyr, over the tracks at 75th Street from my house in Little Flower, and hung out with the 69th Street Loafers. The beautiful woman who allows me to be seen publicly in her company sings Choral Music with Doug and Christine.

Tomorrow the wildly happy couple bonds with God, family and friends. Any God centered activity launches a happy outcome - happy in the purest of meanings - not Charlie Sheen happy. Happiness requires effort, humility, and selfless love. we are most unhappy without those virtues, it seems to me. God blesses our pain, as well as our pleasure. The Seven Blessings recited by the rabbi and friends seals the deal. Doug will smash the wine glass with his right foot to approving shouts of Mazel Tov, in remembrance of life's twists and turns and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. "If I foget thee, O Jerusalem . . ."

Not a chance. Mazel Tov!

Like Gay Activists Against Catholics, Chicago's No Dibs-ers Activists React and Take the Parking Spots

Marc Felion, Andy Thayer and Fausto Fernós at the Recent Feast of Fun sans Breeders


Like Gay Activists planning to shut down Mass at Holy Name Cathedral on February 13th, No Dibs-er Activists staged a protest on 108th Street Between Artesian and Rockwell. To chants of I Steer! We're Here! Get Used to it! No Cairo Chicago!Freedom!!!!!!!!! No Dibs-er Activists grabbed spots cleared by helot homeowners following the Blizzard of Ought Eleven. Tensions mount! M.O.N.T. E. Mount!

Lisping Utility Activist Andy Thayer* is calling on the massive throng of Gay Lesbian Transgender, Bisexual, Mule Lovers, and Questioning Chicagoans to stop Catholics and their . . .galling worship and Faith. Andy Thayer is an energetic and ubiquitous microphone and bullhorn aficionado (Gaza/Gay/Guacamole you name it and Andy is on it like a Chimp on Oreos) objects very, very strongly to Roman Catholic teaching. Andy Sayer. . .I mean Thayer. . . should be sure to bring along the throngs of devout Gays of Gaza membership to be sure to have a veritible Rainbow of Inclusion - The millions of Muslim Fans of the Gay Lifestyle. Then it will be a real Gay Marriage of Faiths and just not Unitarians and the usual assortment of faux-Catholic glue-sniffers.

I like Civil Unions. Andy Thayer has not even taken the bows off of that legislative package and demands Marriage. Patience, Prudence.

Get this -

The leadership of the Catholic Church has opposed every LGBT rights measure ever proposed in this state - whether for equal employment, housing, access to public accommodations or marriage. We find it galling that heretofore they, as a non-tax paying entity receiving millions of tax dollars for its social service agencies, received special rights against those attempting to exercise our 1st Amendment right to protest. The City's refusal to enforce this unconstitutional ordinance against most picketing of religious institutions is a welcome victory for LGBT rights and civil liberties in general.

The February 13th protest will focus on three demands:

*** Oppose the anti-LGBT bigotry of the Catholic hierarchy; support the many pro-equal rights Catholics organizing for change within the denomination

*** Demand full equal marriage rights in Illinois

*** Demand that tax dollars no longer go to tax-exempt religious groups that refuse to commit to equal rights for LGBT people.

For more information about the February 13th protest, email the Gay Liberation Network at LGBTliberation@aol.com

Have fun, Son, but do behave. There's little kids at Mass on Sundays and they might be questioning the goofs using naughty language and so shrill about it.

Andy Thayer is co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network (www.GayLiberation.net), a Chicago-based LGBT direct action group which has been a local leader in gay rights, anti-police brutality and anti-war organizing. As a leader in the local anti-war movement, he's helped organize most of the city's large anti-war protests for the last several years, including a march of 15,000 on Lake Shore Drive at the start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He's been arrested numerous times in various protests and was recently found not guilty of two felony counts from a January 2008 protest against the Chicago visit of President Bush. Last May he was among 30 LGBT activists arrested in the 4th annual gay pride demonstration in Moscow, Russia.

Not Cairo, Andy? Seriously. Well, sort of. Not really.

Chicago's Third Big Blizzard Day 2 - Neighbors 1: Weather 0

The thirty below Hawk froze the starter on the ancient but reliable MDT Snow-blower. Fifty- eight year old muscle and lard hefted chunks and blocks of white cake along with the younger bones and sinews of my fireman neighbor. Together we opened parking spots and driveways.

Western Ave. is as open as an old man's fly.

108th Street is open, thanks to 19th Ward Streets and San Superman Steve Riordan. The guy never sleeps. Troops of St. Cajetan eighth graders picked up some dough doing the stoops and stairs and gangways of the elderly and St. Rita bound 8th grader Joe Rohan's crew cleared driveways of single moms and folks caught out in the suburbs who have yet to make it home.

Morgan Park/St. Cajetan 1; Blizzard 2011 ain't no thang!

Neighbors take care of one another and kicked the Weather's Rump . . .again.

Blizzard February 02, 2011 - 108th and Rockwell -CPD and CFD Neighbors Went to Work!

Hickey of Rockwell -“with his broad and jetty eyebrows; his square forehead, made squarer by the horizontal sweep of his black hair. I recognised his decisive nose, more remarkable for character than beauty; his full nostrils, denoting, I thought, choler; his grim mouth, chin, and jaw—yes, all three were very grim, and no mistake. His shape, now divested of cloak, I perceived harmonised in squareness with his physiognomy”



My neighbors, Sgt. Stan Salabura, CPD and Jimmy Foster CFD, did all they could to get to work for us on this snow packed and gale force winndy day - The Blizzard of 2011. Young Brian Hogan of the 107th & Maplewood block used a snow-mobile with a plow attachment to open 108th and 107th Streets at about 5 AM this morning. My son Conor and I are digging out our way to the garage in order to fire up the mighty MTD snowplow. We will be at it all day.

Firefighter Jimmy Foster is a member of the House that lost two heroes - Corey Ankum and Edward Stringer - on December 22nd. Sgt. Stan Salabura is the head of Area 2 Violent Crimes Division - his beautiful bride Becky (stunning in Red and Snow!), Vice- Principal of St. Cajetan Grammar School was out seeing Stan off. These are our 1st Responders. Nothing stops them.

I, on the hand, get distracted brushing my teeth and find no task too important not to find an excuse to make a tub of hot buttered popcorn and watch vintage Japanese monster movies.

Two Calumnies in less than a month: DA: Wife Killed Husband After Finding Hickey

MEDFORD (CBS) – A woman was ordered held without bail Monday charged with killing her husband in Medford.

Police found 34-year-old Troy Burston wounded outside a home on Exchange Avenue at 10:40 p.m. Sunday. He was not wearing a shirt and had been stabbed in the chest.

He was rushed to Lawrence Memorial Hospital where he died.Police arrested his wife, 39-year-old Shawntina Burston.

Investigators say the two had come home from a party and began arguing and hitting each other. She allegedly found a hickey on his neck and stabbed him with a cooking knife.

“This is another troubling incident of domestic violence turned fatal,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said in a statement Monday.

“We allege that the victim was fatally stabbed by his wife during an argument, sadly leaving two young children behind.”

Shawntina Burston pleaded not guilty at her arraignment Monday in Somerville District Court.

I take a back seat to no man as a selfish sinner and banished child of Eve. Nevertheless, I protest the dual calumnies printed and broadcast in the media, these last thirty days.

I have been on people's backs due to my follies, but never on a soul's neck! This I swear! . . . et ne nos inducas in tentationem; sed libera nos a Malo
A few weeks back Hickey was said to have caused a woman's stroke and now a Massachusetts couple's marital harmony has had the dagger of jealousy plunged into the heart of trust, because of Hickey.

I have not been to the Commonwealth since 1982 and I am and always have been a devout and dedicated monogamist. My affections and attentions are limited one woman - in courtship and or the sacrament of matrimony.

Moreover, I would never put asunder what God has wrought. Never!

Law in that Small Commonweal- The 19th Ward and Mayoral Blizzard

Election officials said that as of 4:30 p.m., more than 6,100 people had voted — a total only surpassed on the first day of early voting in the 2008 presidential election, when more than 11,700 people voted.

Jim Allen, a spokesman for the city's election board, said the number dwarfs the 831 on the first day of early voting in the last mayoral election four years ago. He said that suggests not only that more people are becoming accustomed to early voting but also that Daley — who typically won by huge margins — is not running. He said the widely anticipated storm might have played a role, because people see they may not be able to get to the polls later this week.

"We'll probably break 7,000," he said.

I voted yesterday. Yep, exercised the public franchise. After delivering an Ad celebrating for 100th Anniversary of the founding of Maria High School from the Men of Leo ( Sveikiname, Maria!)and chatting with my counter-part in the Office of Institutional Advancement at the great girls school in Marquette Park, I drove to 22nd District Police Headquarters to vote, but learned that the early voting was moved to Mount Greenwood Park Field House on 111th Street.

In the parking lot, I found 19th Ward Committeeman Matt O'Shea, candidate for Alderman, greeting voters and all and sundry. Matt O'Shea is model of what I like in government service. There is not a day in the week that I do not see Matt going door-to-door, attending one of the almost daily benefits for suffering families at Bourbon Street, Beverly Woods, or a local parish hall, watching grammar school sports at Beverly, Kennedy, Ridge, Monroe or Mount Greenwood Parks. The young guy is ubiquitous. Matt asked about my kids and Leo High School. It was colder than a well-digger's rump and it was clear that Matt had been out there sometime.

Politicians talk about working families, in the same way that Disney Corporation does - Family means more money for them. Matt O'Shea is a public servant. There is a huge difference. A public servant knows whom he serves. Matt greeted people by their names -"Mrs. Janusias, I saw Albert at Jewel last week! Congratulations Grannie!; Hey, Jimmy vote your heart. Yeah you too, pal and the horse you bet on - Jerk."

Jimmy was one of few people who seem to believe that every unhappiness - his fat shrewish wife, lazy kids, drinking problem and collection calls on his house phone can all be traced to the 19th Ward.

I voted my heart and head. I read the papers and more importantly I talk to my neighbors - Jimmy included: " They are all crooked, lying, thieving, pension robbing, one way bastards. Can you spot me a twenty? I'm going up to Dingers for a few. Thanks, gotta drown my sorrows."

We all snow. I am an accomplished snow-thrower myself and the real deal is fixin' to drop on us around noon. All we can do is shovel and vote. No one else will or can do it for us.




The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less

by Gerard Manley Hopkins


The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less;
The times are winter, watch, a world undone:
They waste, they wither worse; they as they run
Or bring more or more blazon man's distress.
And I not help. Nor word now of success:
All is from wreck, here, there, to rescue one—
Work which to see scarce so much as begun
Makes welcome death, does dear forgetfulness.

Or what is else? There is your world within.
There rid the dragons, root out there the sin.
Your will is law in that small commonweal...

My Cousin Bart Hickey -B.A.T. Bart's Automotive and Towing -Blind as Bat!

"Intimidator" from Jim Quattrocki on Vimeo.

My cousin Bart Hickey never had sight and never had a beef about anything. His father, Bart Hickey, trained his blind son to fend for himself - " Take out the garbage and then vacuum the basement." I remember watching my tall, tough Marine Korean War sergeant uncle with tears in his eyes, while chuckling with pride as Bartie stumbled with an arm-load of trash out to the alley at 85th & Wolcott.

Watch this video - Bart's brother Brian helped Bart name his automotive business - yes, Bart is a blind garage mechanic. " Bart's Automotive and Towing -Yeah, you know! Blind as a Bat." Bat is often used by the Irish in place of Bart or Bartholomew. Bat or Bateen.

Film maker Jim Quattrocki did this sweet video. Sweet as in nice; not like my son Conor terms something or circumstance to be 'sweet' meaning his full approval. That is for your determination.

Huge Hat tip cousins Deirdre and John.