Leo Boxing Night Will Support Leo High School Officer Eric D.Lee Memorial Scholarship

Boxing legend Emanuel Steward gives life lessons to Leo Men in October 2010.


Today at noon, Baltimore Ravens Safety and Heavyweight Boxing Pro Tommy Z - Tom Zbikowski will hold a workout in the Leo High School Boxing Gym. Leo Boxing coach Mike Joyce has guided Tommy since the Pro NFL Star and Boxer was nine (9) years old. This workout will be filmed by the NFL Network for an upcoming broadcast. Attending this event will be Leo Boxers, local press, and most importantly Mark Lee and his mother, Mrs. Anna Lee.


Mark Lee is a Leo Alumnus. In 2001, Mark's brother Officer Eric D. Lee was killed in the line of duty. Mark established a Memorial Scholarship in the name of Eric D. Lee to benefit families in need of help meeting the costs of tuition.

Tommy Zbikowski has boxed with the Leo Boxing Club, while a high student and athlete, through his great career as an All-American at Notre Dame and trained for his first professional fight at Madison Square Garden in New York in 2006, right here in the gym on the second floor of Leo High School. Tommy Z has supported both the Leo Boxing and Leo football programs.

The school is literally alive with ongoing academic, mentoring, college placement and career counselling programs. This Catholic high school for boys has been serving young men like Officer Eric D. Lee, CPD, who was a member of the Leo Track Team and Class Valedictorian. Eric Lee gave his life defending his community.

Mark Lee and the Lee family are pumping more energy into this 86 year old young school. The Lee Family lives by the Leo Motto of Facta Non Verba - Deeds Not Words.

Get active and come and support the Eric D. Lee Memorial Scholarship for Leo High School and take in some great boxing on May 10th at 115 Bourbon Street - Chicago's Charity Venue!

Leo Boxing Night at Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park on May 10th which will benefit a Scholarship in the Memory of Fallen Chicago Police Hero - Officer Eric Lee (Killed in the Line of Duty).

Leo Boxing Night 115 Bourbon Street 3359 West 115th Street Merrionette Park, IL 60803 (708) 398-8881

Donations $ 20 at the door Contact Leo Boxing Coach Mike Joyce ( 708) 227- 8425 for more information or to pre-order reserved seats.

Name: Lee, Eric D.
Star: 16947
Rank: Police Officer
District / Unit: 007 District (Englewood)
End of Watch: 19-Aug-2001
Incident Details: Officer Eric D. Lee was shot and killed as he and two other tactical officers attempted to aid a citizen.

Officer Lee and his partners were on a special patrol in the Englewood neighborhood when they spotted a man being beaten in an alley. They rushed to assist the victim and announced they were police. One of the fleeing assailants unexpectedly fired, striking Officer Lee in the head.

Several suspects were apprehended and held for questioning. The shooter was charged with the murder of a police officer. On January 23, 2004, Officer Lee's killer was found guilty of first-degree murder. On September 17, 2004, he was sentenced to life in prison. On November 22, 2005, following many continuances, the Cook County Criminal Court judge balanced the scales of justice and denied Officer Lee's killer both motions for a new trial.

Officer Lee was a 9-year veteran officer, a former Marine with a magna cum laude university degree, whose personnel file spoke to his nine years of good judgment on the job. He had volunteered to be a tactical officer, an especially dangerous line of police work. He had passed up his once-every-month options to “bid out” of Englewood for easier duty in a less stressful district. Friends said he liked the people of Englewood, enjoyed the uphill struggle to make their lives safer. Eric Lee became the 4th tactical officer to be shot to death in Chicago in 2 years.

His wife, 6-year-old daughter, parents, two brothers, and a sister survive Eric Lee.


http://www.cpdmemorial.org/fallen_hero/po-eric-lee-16947

As Game as Christy Ring - Pure Athleticism

Last night, at dinner before the Leo Alumni meeting, I ran into an old friend Joanie Brennan. Joanie is now Mrs. Kevin Sullivan. Joanie and her many sisters were the best athletes in Little Flower Parish ( the parishses along 79th Street were thick with Cork, Kerry and Clare natives). We hated to see their approach as these pretty girls could fire a football spiral, or chuck a Clincher more accurately and with more power than any male within the vast parish limits. Their father is great Kerry footballer named Danny Brennan. County Kerry won the most All Ireland football ( caid in Irish) - 55 Titles in all.

Danny Brennan was a neighborhood legend having come to America preceded by stories of his athelticism on the football pitches of Ireland in the editions of the Kerryman Newspaper delivered to Kerrymen or picked up by the Salt-water Irish at the tobacco store on southwest corner of 79th & Ashland. My grandfather was a huge fan of Danny Brennan - who now resides in Smith Village in Morgan Park. Danny Brennan was football equivalent of the great hurler* Christy Ring.

My grandfather and his pals had an expression that stuck with most of us. If someone were considered to be a great athlete or even a skilled person at some small level that person was " As Game as Christy Ring, so!"

E.g. So, in Kerryman is an intensifier - You ( twenty -thirty grandchildren shouting at once) are a shower of bastards, so!" or " The collective lot of you are the nails in Chrit's hands and feet, so!" - indicated a heightened level displeasure in Grandpa Hickey.

As game as Christy Ring* refers to the great Cork Hurler Christy Ring. So great were this man's feats and feets that a song was inspired to be sung to the air of The Bold Tady Quill Here is the great Christy Ring





*

Christy Ring was born less than a mile from the small village of Cloyne in County Cork,in 1920.
As a fourteen-year old he played in goal for Cloyne's junior team, however, due to the absence of a minor team in Cloyne he joined a team in nearby Midleton. As a player with the St. Enda's club Ring was spotted by the Cork minor selectors and quickly made the inter-county team. Subsequently, Ring won his first All-Ireland medal in 1938. After moving to Cork city he joined the local Glen Rovers hurling club in 1941, winning a County Cork Championship medal in that year.
Ring's record at all levels of the game speaks for itself. During his career he won 8 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship medals (1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1952, 1953, 1954) and 4 National Hurling League medals (1940, 1941, 1948 and 1953) with Cork. He won 18 Railway Cup medals with Munster, appearing in 22 finals between 1942 and 1963. At club level Ring won 14 county championship medals with Glen Rovers.The incomparable Christy Ring 1938-1961


Christy has won
minor all-Ireland 1938
Junior county 1939
11 senior counties 41, 44, 45, 48, 49, 50, 53, 54, 58, 59 & 60
Senior county football 1954
Senior all Ireland 41, 42, 43 & 44
Munster senior championship 42, 43, 44, 46, 47, 52, 53, 54, & 56
Railway cup 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, & 61
National league 39-40 40-41 47-48 52-53
Senior all-Ireland 46, 52, 53, & 54

Heaven bless our greatest hurler,
for his is the glory none can claim,
skippers came, but never greater,
in the annals of the game,
Golden records, cork had many,
But for these we cherished thee,
You won eight all-Ireland medals, for the city by the Lee.

*Hurling - Athletic Manslaughter

The Bottled Voyage of Morgan Keaty, CPA (ret.)

But at the corner I stopped to take my last look at the crew of the Narcissus. They were swaying irresolute and noisy on the broad flagstones before the Mint. They were bound for the Black Horse, where men, in fur caps with brutal faces and in shirt sleeves, dispense out of varnished barrels the illusions of strength, mirth, happiness; the illusion of splendour and poetry of life, to the paid-off crews of southern-going ships. From afar I saw them discoursing, with jovial eyes and clumsy gestures, while the sea of life thundered into their ears ceaseless and unheeded. And swaying about there on the white stones, surrounded by the hurry and clamour of men, they appeared to be creatures of another kind—lost, alone, forgetful, and doomed; they were like castaways, like reckless and joyous castaways, like mad castaways making merry in the storm and upon an insecure ledge of a treacherous rock.

Joseph Conrad


Morgan Keaty retired as an accountant in 1999, after thirty five years with the City of Chicago. Morgan spent his days puttering around the classic Chicago bungalow at 106th & Claremont in Beverly that he purchased in 1965 for $35,000. Morgan and the beautiful Grace Keaty (nee Walsh) raised four daughters in that warm and lovely home.
The nest had been empty for some time, save the monthly family feasts following a Sunday Mass at St.Barnabas. Morgan and Grace delighted in their grandchildren and lavished love on the little ones.

Morgan also built ships in a bottle. He had a collection of over forty frigates, corvettes, galleons,clippers, timarans, barquentines, dhows and dinghys of all sizes and shapes on the mantles, tables, sideboards and in cases, curios and even the buffet. Grace boxed away many of the nautical themed ewers, at first with bridal good humor and eventually the direct and commanding efficiency of a Xanthippe.

The dignified accountant's virtues became grayed and dusty with his active manipulation of sails, mizzens, booms, gunwales, and poop decks. " Why don't you give the shipyard a rest, Morgie, there's no more space! For the love of God walk up to Keegans and have a beer with the Murphy Brothers like a retired gent had ought."

With as much dignity as he could muster the septuagenarian shipwright, put down his tweezers and cleared the hobby desk of tools and turned out the magnified light. He put on a windbreaker, grabbed six twenties from the top dresser drawer, kissed Grace on both cheeks and wandered west of 60643 to 60655 and at 6:37 PM into Keegan's Pub at 10618 S. Western.

In the warmth and welcome of this neighborhood watering hole Morgan reacquainted with friends of his youth and young manhood. He quaffed cool pints of Smithwick's and learned of grandchildren, games and God Awful villainies.

At 1:45 AM, the young bartender Joe announced last call and Morgan accepted. It was time to go and Morgan's sails were full!

Young Joe walked Morgan Keaty to the corner traffic light on 107th at Western and pointed the saturated gentlemen eastward. " Make a left on Claremont, Mr. Keaty, safe home!"

With careful gait, the shipman numbers cruncher, father of four, Catholic Forester, KC 3rd Degree, and pensioner navigated the stormy sidewalks and gamely grabbed the the nearest arboreal capstan to keep him aboard his concrete deck and out of a pitching sea of grass. The decks awash with briny foam? Well, yes they were. In this passage from hobbyist to aleman, Morgan Keaty had swallowed the brewers bounty and clung to the parkway trees as his ship of state seemed destined for Davy Jones' Locker.

A pattern of Blue and White light signalled the arrival of rescue.

" Hey, Dad, you have a load on," said the handsome African American blue-coat who appeared before the the befogged eyes of Morgan like James Wait aboard the goodship Narcissus of Conrad's novel The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle, now bowdlerized for political correctness.

Human concern is Conrad's theme and Officer Newell helped the aging hobbyist to unburden himself of the tree. Officer George Newell of the 22nd District ( Morgan Park) asked of the besotted sailor, " Hey, where he are you going at this time of night?"

Morgan Keaty cleared his cobwebs and replied,"“I am going to a lecture about alcohol
abuse and the effects it has on the human body”.

Officer Newell then asked,“Really? Who is giving that lecture at this time of night?”

Morgan replied, “My wife Grace and it will be a dandy.”

Rescued from the storms on the sidewalk Officer Newell piloted Morgan Keaty in the safe harbor of Hurricane Grace.

Morgan Keaty is in drydock.


Huge Hat tip to Mike McQuade of California!

Light - The Paradox in Verse and Inverse Verse: The Foundation for Light Verse

Poetry is hard work. I am lazy. It is not something that one tosses against the Frigidaire to see if it sticks, unless of course you are a fatuous and self-absorbed ninnie with a microphone in front of you at some Slam, or other.

The best poetry seems easily done. True ease in writing comes from Art not chance/ as those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.

Too many poets dance varese like the fits, wiggles and epilepsy of t'weenage south side Irish males at an 8th grade graduation basement party. . . too ugly to imagine, let alone describe. Like WWII Pacific combat . . .you had to be there.

I recently was gifted with a volume of poesy that honors the form made famous by Ogden Nash here in America. I am now a subscriber to Light

Light is a volume of the very best light verse by great American poets like these folks Dan Campion, Timothy Murphy, Philip Appleman, William J. Middleton,Melissa Balmain, Henry Harlan, Bruce Berger, Gail White, J. Patrick Lewis . . .and X. J. Kennedy.
Here's a sampling -

COCKTAILS FOR TWO?


John Ciardi
liked Bacardi
but drank Chianti
with his Auntie.
— E.M. SCHORB

WEDNESDAY MATINEE

The scent of old lady;
A gal 85.
Sherry and mothballs;
Chanel No. 5.

—Terrence M. Bennett

In Praise of Bachelorhood

Of kisses and captivity, of flings
and flight I know one thing:

It's only once the fly has settled
that the Venus flytrap springs.
— AMIT MAJMUDAR

These jewels are cut by masters - simple and satisfying.

They are tight, witty, rhythmic, rhyme-postive, balanced and exact. Get on the same page, Kids!

Foundation for Light Verse is a Non-profit corporation created

In February, 2008, the IRS granted Light Quarterly tax-exempt status. All donations to Light Quarterly are now exempt from Federal tax. Contributions are needed to continue publishing this magazine, and to ensure its growth.

Please send your checks, made out to The Foundation for Light Verse, to

Light
PO Box 7500
Chicago, IL 60680

Light Quarterly is also urgently in need of volunteers. As we grow, the work-load has grown beyond what our staff can handle. If you have any open time in your schedule, and you live in the Chicago or near west suburban area, consider donating your skills to getting this magazine out. You’ll be listed on the Masthead, and you’ll learn publishing and printing in an ideal environment, where it actually happens. Call or e-mail with your contact information. Ours are 1-708-488-1388, and info@foundationforlightverse.org.

BarMoochian Economics - "We Ain't Broke! Gimme a Jackson."

With his back to the wall -Dr. Short-arms Lanigan explains that there is plenty of wealth to be tapped. Not his, of course, ours.

World Class Economics Solons like Journolista Ezra Klein of the Washington Post crack me up. The current mantra coming from leaning lefty columnists, commentators and , of course, celebrities is the call for more taxes! Ball of Confusion!!! The Tempting Ts - the Temptations warned all of us tail-end Charlie Baby Boomers of this pattern of thought.

Air pollution, revolution, gun control,
Sound of soul
Shootin' rockets to the moon
Kids growin' up too soon
Politicians say more taxes will
Solve everything
And the band played on

Pay your fair-share! YOUR - possesive pronoun - meaning YOU possessing that share. YOU is ME too. You never hear our bloated bolshevik Michael Moore demand that the Federal Government dig into his gelt. Moore, like every Progressive that I have encountered in this Vale of Tears, is tighter than the pockets on a fat man's pants.

Imagine coming up with a Hollywood Tax? An 80 percent tax of every Celebrity Super Star, Rock Star, Rap Star, Writer, Movie Star, Producer, Agent, Lawyer and Mogul earning over $ Million a year would shut the mopes up.

Robert Reich, Michael Moore, and David Plouffe must have all studied at the feet of
"Short-arms" Lanigan - Dr. of Redistribution of Your Wealth Economist at the University of the Bar Stool Near You. Dr. Lanigan studied the Wimpy School of Economics from the old Popeye cartoons - 'I will gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today' and took things to the next level.

The eminent Dr. Short-arms has his First Communion money, to paraphrase Mike Houlihan. His dictum - Let the Other pay - works in taverns and in many other situations that require immediate payment for product and services: lawncare, plumbing, and meeting tuition - 'I'm a little short at the moment. Tough economy ain't it?'

Short-arms has deep, deep pockets and very short arms. Why spend his money, when you have your's already on the bar. The trick is knowing that one must take advantage of the fact that most people are intrinsically generous, hospitable, and welcoming and that timing and positioning is everything.

If there are twelve people at the bar engaged in conversation and beefy goodfellowship, Short-arms immediately engages the most popular and conversive of the group and compliments him/her on the latest achievement by the individual or his spawn - "That is one beautiful Hostis row along the south end of your home, Burlington, Old Man!" or " Your kid made a great catch in the 9th up a Kennedy to win the game, too bad you were here sucking back Old Styles . . .I just came from the Park; helping Brian Tansey with the T-Ball kids."

Gee That's great. Moira, get everyone from the street to the shithouse! Have one, Short Arms!

Accept! Each man and woman will shoulder the tariff of drink. In theory. Follow Dr. Short-arms Lanigan's dicta -

1. Determine the direction that the liquid assets of largesse will take in, rolling credit, to one and all - save one.

2. Do not stay immediately next ( sinister et dextra) to the boon chum, but, immediately move to the end of the line - in the direction of the rolling largesse n'cest pas.

3. Once someone has called to pay, interject an offer to toss coin into the hazard and await the sanctions and protestations - 'First caller buys.' wait your turn.

4. Wait indeed. Once satisfied. Make a strategic exit - have a cell phone and pretend that it is on BUZZ. 'They're towing my car! Can you believe them bastards?' or, 'The Cat's on fire! Emergency Hemlick call at Olde Country Buffet on Ridgeland, I'm a volunteer EMT - you all knew that; didn't you? gotta bustle! Next Time!'

5. Come back in three days and repeat.

There is enough wealth! Short-arms and deep pockets will diminish that.

Hope and Change and more than a few rolls of folding money.

Victor Parra - Mambo Maestro

After a very long gospel and short homily on Lazurus, a sultry 85 Degrees, a long trip to Food For Less on Pulaski, Leo correspondence with Alumni heroes, and sound sweeping of the garage floor, I took a trip north on Harlem to River Forest. I was treated to the voices of two of my favorite Chicagoans - Victor and Connie Parra.

They are the hosts of each Sunday's Mambo Express and leaders of the like named orchestra. I wanted to lose twenty pounds, buy a white linen suit, get a coup going down south somewhere, drink a lime based beverage and dance like I knew what I was doing.

Alas, I grooved on the steering wheel. Good enough by far!

When I was teaching at La Lumiere School, we hired Victor and Connie for an Alumni event in the Marsch Gym ( designed by Helmut Jahn) and it was fantastico!

Catch Mambo Express on The great College of Du Page FM station - 90.9 on your FM dialon Sundays between 3-5PM.

Better yet! For your next event hire Victor and Connie Parra and the Mambo Express.



CONGO MULENCE @ KENYA - MACHITO

Victor Parra grew up the youngest of 15 children on Chicago's Westside. His father was a barber and musician who played at weddings, baptisms, and whatever neighborhood functions called for traditional Mexican music. While Victor acknowledges Mexican music as his background, he eventually discovered the drums and rhythms of Cuban music. After being stationed in Panama during a brief stint in the Army, he bought himself a conga drum. Thereafter he devoted himself to collecting and playing Afro Cuban music. Some of his favorite performers include Benny More, Tito Puente, Machito, and the Orquesta Aragon.

Victor leads the Mambo Express Afro Cuban band, specializing in the sounds that came from Cuba, he fell in love with the rhythm. With skilled instrumentals and rich vocals, they bring the history back in their performances. In addition to leading the band, Parra hosted a Radio Show on WBEZ 91.5 FM's weekly for over 15 years."The Mambo Express."

Parra explains his favorite music as follows, "Mambo came out the Danzon, the slow-paced Cuban music of the middle 40s. Danzon was a rhythm that kept repeating itself while staying in one place. Innovative musicians changed the bass line in the middle of songs and gave it more syncopation. Then someone came along and put some swing into it. Once you got into the swing, that was called the Mambo. Blackness came into the music with the conga drum." The Mambo Express, has performed at The Jazz Fest, Taste of Chicago, Summer Dance, to mention a few.
With The Mambo Express, you will be greeted by the rich and original sounds of Afro Cuban music. Close your eyes as the ever-changing rhythms play in your ears. Nothing quite soothes the soul like music rich in origin and timeless style.

The Mambo Express not only plays a wide selection of favorite jazz music but includes the knowledge and experience of Victor Parra's commentary. Combined with his favorite collections, he discusses the historical importance of Afro Cuban music, the similarities in the sounds of today's Afro Cuban music as compared to the rhythms of the past. Parra also compares Charanga and Conjunto music. His intimate familiarity of the music provides for three hours of passionate music and knowledge, not found on any other station. Hop aboard "The Mambo Express" for sweet sounds, and great history! THE ONLY MAMBO IN TOWN!

Joseph Epstein - America's Montaigne Sheds Cranial Cellulite and Shreds Susan Sontag

A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.
Michel de Montaigne (1533 -1592)

Sontag was an aesthete and held that "the wisdom that becomes available over a deep, lifelong engagement with the aesthetic cannot, I venture to say, be duplicated by any other kind of seriousness." Some might argue, though, that she gave aestheticism a bad name and that hers fed nicely into her political foolishness. Joseph Epstein April 1, 2011 - Wall Street Journal Book Review

Enough ain't near a feast, Hickey - Larry "Tri-State" Monahan ( dec.) N.B. the late Mr. Monahan was 5'6" in height and weighed 294 lbs.

Michel de Montaigne was a Renaissance statesman, skeptic, and introduced the genre of the essay a unified consideration of a thought, concept or topic. Montaigne influenced Sir Francis Bacon, Blaise Pascal, and Mark Twain who showered humanity with keen insights within graceful sentences. Sadly, faux thinkers and loudmouths like Rousseau, Emerson, Thoreau and Nietzsche aped Montaigne and are much more widely read, canonized in schools texts, and dropped from the tongues of dimwits.

America is yet blessed with Montaigne's spiritual and technical son - Joseph Epstein.

I read anything by Joe Epstein with equal gusto in the same manner that I can blindly point to any item on Gene & Georgetti's menu - it is always the best selection and most satisfying. I can not choose better - each item is uniquely mouthwatering.

Joseph Epstein lives in Evanston and is completely immune from that locale's penchant for political, ideological, environmental, moral, legal and critical snobbery. Mr. Epstein is as immune from cant, as I am prone to slinging the horseshit.

I try to shed the skin of my prejudices, but not real hard. I am not about to get a massive grabber doing the work that that exercise would entail. I embrace my baggage - more pity me.

Joseph Epstein on the other hand works 24/7 at Montaigne's dictum - Que sais-je?' -What the Hell do I know?

Jospeh Epstein is an intellectual, moral, and cultural athlete. I am a fat-head. Perhaps morbidly obese.

I am not alone. Most of us have rolling, waves of lard between our ears because we swallow Super-sized bags of junk-thought. We dine at Oprah's buffet and nod with conviction to NPR, Glen Beck, or Jason Biggs. We accept what the New York Times, The Atlantic, Salon, or any editorial offers and toss it whole into our precious spiritual and intellectual bloodstreams.

During the Renaissance, Montaigne labeled the packages for consumption and today Joseph Epstein does the same for us.

The other day, Joseph Epstein wrote about the celebrated lesbian, essayist, Ho Chi Minh apologist, feminist and exhibitionist Susan Sontag.

Susan Sontag, like Steve Sondheim, are names that register with all of us, but most of us really do not know why. At a cocktail party, someone usually bullies us into a corner by dropping the Sontag bomb - "Of course, you know, Susan Sontag said, wrote, filmed and dismissed your very position on the existence of concrete. Just because you stand on a sidewalk, does prove anything; the will to accept the outre point of view is what frees you from being a racist and a sexist. Don't you think?"

Uh, huh. Hey, is there anymore of those toast points with fois gras? I gotta try some more of those, excuse me.

Joseph Epstein can not always be physically available to bail us cranial lard-asses out, but we can fend off those empty calories heaped on our plates. Try this serving of Joe Epstein:

Rounding her political career off nicely, when the Twin Towers were destroyed and nearly 3,000 people murdered, Sontag, in the New Yorker, wrote that the attack was "on the world's self-proclaimed superpower, undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances and actions"—and so America, in other words, had it coming. "Some ideas are so stupid," Orwell said, "that only an intellectual could believe them," and Susan Sontag seems, at one time or another, to have believed them all.

Sontag was an aesthete and held that "the wisdom that becomes available over a deep, lifelong engagement with the aesthetic cannot, I venture to say, be duplicated by any other kind of seriousness." Some might argue, though, that she gave aestheticism a bad name and that hers fed nicely into her political foolishness. Apropos of Sontag, Hilton Kramer remarked: "Aestheticism is not, after all, primarily a philosophy of art. It is a philosophy of life." This woman who eschewed morality and judgment in art never had the least doubt about her own moral superiority and the righteousness of her views.

In literature Ms. Sontag's taste in ideas ran to the dark, the oblique and the violent. As Camille Paglia put it, she "made fetishes of depressive European writers." One is reminded here of the Romanian writer E.M. Cioran, who, when young, felt a special partiality to writers who had committed suicide. Antonin Artaud, Roland Barthes, Samuel Beckett, Walter Benjamin, Elias Canetti and Cioran himself were among the writers about whom Sontag wrote most enthusiastically.

Enthusiastically but not convincingly. Walter Benjamin, one of her enthusiasms, must surely be among the 20th century's most overrated writers. Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Karl Kraus—Benjamin could render the juiciest of subjects arid. In her essay on Elias Canetti, Sontag notes his admiration for the novelist Hermann Broch and "those great patient novels 'The Death of Virgil' and 'The Sleepwalkers.' " Anyone who has read Broch's books will know that the burden of patience chiefly falls on the reader, for Broch's heavily longueur-laden novels are proof yet again of Santayana's discovery that the Germans are utterly devoid of the emotion of boredom.

Mighty Tasty and good for you!

Cleanse your palate and burn off some lard, Kids! Click my post title for Jospeh Epstein's brilliant dismissal of the Big Mac 'N Cheese that was Susan Sontag, God rest her.

Northwestern Professor Protess , Our Tweedy Fagin of Medill

Fagin: Clever dogs, clever dogs. Never blowed on old Fagin.

David Protess:

Maybe the Chicago Innocence Project will be going great and I won't want to go back (to Northwestern) because of the hassle ... Maybe it won't succeed and I will want to go back. Or maybe I'll want to go somewhere else, go to some other university. All of my options are on the table.

Chicago Tribune Editorial April 9, 2011:

If Protess misled administrators and attorneys in this case—and it appears he did—what does that say about all those cases he has worked on with students? That question will linger at least until prosecutors and McKinney's lawyers resolve what happened in his case.

That day can't come soon enough.

Had Anita Alvarez caved to the limitless media enabling of Professor David Protess, the Fagin of Medill, all would be just dandy and it ain't. I have long suspected that David Protess was a later-day "kidsman." A Kidsman was a 19th Century recruiter of children for training and guiding pickpockets and cut-throats. The vicious Bill Sykes was one of Fagin's students. The Artful Dodger, who befriends the naive orphaned child of privilege Oliver Twist, is on his way to the next level of crime. Fagin beats and threatens his "children" with warnings of dire consequences for "peaching," or "blowing" on Fagin's activities.

The "children" are rewarded for doing Fagin's bidding.

When Anita Alvarez initially petitioned for Fagin Protess's student e-mails, notes and records pertinent to the McKinney case, the academic, journalistic and legal communities marshaled a formidable army of protest and calumnies leveled at Anita Alvarez.

CNN, Huffington Post, Salon, The New York Times, MSNBC, joined the Chicago Tribune editorial board in terming Cook County States Attorney Alvarez a Gestapo bully. A former Federal Judge, of dubious record and achievement, wrote frequent attacks on Alvarez and defences of Fagin Protess. Click my post title and view a few.

Most telling were the star Protess pupils, now rewarded with CNN, AP, and other blue-chip journalistic postings. The kids did alright by Medill, The Innocence Project and old Fagin himself -Professor Dave Protess.

The Innocence Project and Northwestern University have been besmeared by the very advocacy they demand - outcomes be damned. That is as old as John Dewey, the bespectacled avuncular father of generations of Progressive Fagins.

Fagin was the leader of gangs of children, in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, patterned on the historical 19th Century criminal Ickey Solomon of London.

What does American philosopher and granddad of American public education have to do with David Protess's Procrustean pedagogy? Plenty.

John Dewey holds that Inquiry is Truth - play, if you will, the root of the Laboratory Method in education that established the Lab School of University of Chicago - play long enough and arrive at the original point of inquiry.

The start of an inquiry is an indeterminate situation, usually coming from some practical matter ( convicted felon we want out of jail to raise a the larger issue of systemic failure of American Justice). The first step is to getting a clearer and more specific picture of the problem; the indeterminate situation becomes a “problematic situation”. The inquiry then proceeds by coming up with possible solutions to the problem That is, hypothesis that might help to act upon in the problematic situation. Evaluation then takes place; possible consequences of different solutions are considered, and by doing this the relative value of the solutions are estimated. The final test is when a solution actually is tried as a guide to action. The question of truth and falsehood come into play at this last stage of inquiry, and it is dependent on whether the consequences of acting upon the hypothesis under test are such that they resolve the problem and settle the indeterminate situation. Here, it is important to keep in mind the fundamental that role that Dewey ascribes to the indeterminate situation. It is our conceptions of this situation that guide the rest of the inquiry, and that determines how to evaluate and praise ideas and hypotheses. The indeterminate situation is the beginning of an inquiry, but also controls it throughout [p.207]. Coming back to the correspondence relation, it could be said to hold between the between the first and last stage of inquiry.

The opposite of John Dewey was the mathematician and philosophical historian Bertrand Russell whose rigorous methodologies eschewed "play" for study. Russell takes apart Dewey's playful assertions that begin and end in the very same place. Dewey, and his child Fagin Professor Protess "look" into the assertion that the American Justice System is flawed, because it is sytemnically and intrinsically racist, brutal, dishonest, lazy and corrupt - "What do you think, kids?"

Here is Bertarnd Russell's deconstruction of Dewey in summary by Swedish student of philosophy Björn Östbring:

His (Russell) version of the ( Dewey) correspondence theory is the classical one: the relation is between statements, propositions or beliefs to an independent reality, to empirical facts. A statement is true if what is referred to also posses the properties that the statement asserts. Dewey’s theory is obviously radically different from this, and in Russell’s view it does not even deserve to be called a correspondence theory. Russell’s description of Dewey’s whole theory of inquiry and truth is as follows (2): individuals engage in inquiry with the purpose of better interacting with their environment. In an inquiry, “assertions” are tools, and these assertions can be “warranted” to different degrees. The degree to which an assertion is warranted is determined by their ability to produce the desired results. During inquiry assertions can come to be replaced by better assertions, and sometimes they are the very means that lead to better assertions. The term “better” simply means that it produces more of the desirable results, lets us cope better with our environment, and hence “better” could basically be substituted with “more warranted”. An inquiry does not end; no assertion is the best for all times. The important point in this summary is that an assertion is warranted if it produces the desired results, and that the idea of truth thus loses its static and privileged nature.

Dewey and Protess begin inquiry with the conclusion and all the rest in between is just "play." What student would not rather play than work? Bertrand Russell's logical positivism is damned hard work.

Deweyesque inquiry is tailor made for a Fagin and advocacy journalism and education provides the charming "Master" with high moral ground and an embracing protective laissez faire attitude

Unlike the probity of Russell, the Dewey trained journalists, scholars, and academics will apply no further "inquiry" to other Fagins. Protess, now in disgrace with Fortune and Men's eyes will be an anomaly. A freak.

While the Medill engine will trot out more Heater cases and our Justice System will be further deconstructed in the advocacy playland that is John Dewey's Progressive America, David Protess will disappear into the shadows. Nothing to see here, folks! Inquiry? We don't need no stinkin' Inquiry! Right, Judge Stinky Sarokin?

Police, prosecutors, judges and juries will be villainized and criminals will always have much more benefits than doubts and greater Fagins than David Protess will threaten and reward more students - so long as they don't "peach," or "blow" to the cops.

Americans are fair-minded, but not really all that stupid. No one wants an innocent man punished, but no one wants any and all faith in our justice system destroyed by Fagins and an equally culpable media. We can thank States Attornney Alvarez for sticking to her guns during this entire shabby inquiry.

*

Fagin is described as "disgusting" to look at. He is the leader of a group of children, the Artful Dodger and Charley Bates among them, whom he teaches to make their livings by pickpocketing and other criminal activities in exchange for a roof over their heads. At the time of the novel, he is said by another character, Monks, to have already made criminals out of "scores" of children who grow up to live—or die—committing the same crimes as adults. Bill Sikes, one of the major villains of the novel, is hinted to be one of Fagin's old pupils, and Nancy, Sikes' girlfriend and sex worker clearly was.
Whilst portrayed as relatively humorous, he is nonetheless a self-confessed miser who, despite the amount he has acquired over the years from the work of others, does very little to improve the squalid lives of the children he takes in, allowing them to smoke pipes and drink gin "with the air of middle-aged men". In the second chapter of his appearance, it is shown, albeit when talking to himself, that he cares less about those children who are eventually hanged for their crimes and more about the fact that they do not "peach" on him and the other children

http://bjornostbring.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/dewey-vs-russell-on-truth/

American Hero Tim McCarthy Would Be A Great Chicago Police Leader

The Chicago Tribune thinks that Jody Weis was 'right man at the right time' for Chicago Police Department.

Like its choice of Dewey over Truman, the editorial board at the Trib couldn't find a boxcar at 59th & Kostner, or a trucking outfit between Ashland and Halsted.

I live among many police officer ( CPD, County and Federal) and universally they thought the Weis Years were unqualified disasters.

Interim Superintendent Terry Hillard,CPD (ret.) is as universally admired as Jogy Weis is scorned.

Mayor Emanuel would do well to appoint an unclouted hero - Orland Park Police Chief Tim McCarthy would be ideal.

He comes from a Chicago police family and respects the culture. Tim McCarthy runs to the gunfire and has the wounds to attest that fact.




McCarthy is credited with saving the life of President Ronald Reagan. McCarthy has executive experience and political finesse.

If Rahm Emanuel is anywhere near as smart as the media attest him to be, he will appoint an American hero as his Superintendent of Chicago Police.

Mount Carmel Names Rev. Tony Mazurkiewicz, OCarm. President - A Brilliant Choice!

Mount Carmel of Chicago, one of the greatest schools in America, named Father Tony Mazurkiewicz to be its President.

This remarkable young priest is a brilliant homilist and helps out at St. Cajetan Parish from time to time. Father Tony is a Carmel Man himself and is a graduate of Yale.

As only the weakest voice in the Leo High School extended family, I am confident that Leo Men roundly applaud the Mount Carmel's choice of leader!

The Caravan will be in high gear with Father Tony's hand at the wheel!

A Southlander who started on two Mount Carmel state champion football teams, graduated from Yale University and later became a Carmelite is set to lead the school.

On June 15, the Rev. Tony Mazurkiewicz will take over as the president of Mount Carmel High School, 6410 S. Dante Ave., Chicago.

Mazurkiewicz, a Glenwood native, will succeed fellow Carmelite the Rev. Carl J. Markelz on June 15. In his new job, he will be responsible for overseeing marketing, fundraising and finances at the school

“The Carmelites have been serving Mount Carmel High School school for 111 years,” Mazurkiewicz said. “It’s good to be a part of that tradition of educating men for a lifetime.”

Markelz served as the school’s president and principal from 1996 to last year when John Stimler took over as principal.

Mazurkiewicz teaches junior moral theology and works in the school’s enrollment and admissions office.

At Mount Carmel, Mazurkiewicz was a starting defensive back for the 1989 and 1990 state championship football teams. School officials said he recorded 115 tackles and eight interceptions during his varsity career.

He graduated from Mount Carmel in 1991 and was third in his class. He played football at Yale, where he was later named captain of the Bulldogs.

Mazurkiewicz graduated from Yale in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in history. He returned to Mount Carmel in 1997 before leaving for Boston, Mass. He worked there for three years in schools set up by Edison Project, a for-profit education firm run by a former Yale president.

In 2000, he once again returned to Mount Carmel and then left to join the Carmelite order. In 2009, he earned his master’s of divinity degree from Washington Theological Union in Washington, D.C. and was also ordained in that year.

He served the associate pastor at Saint Raphael Parish in Los Angeles before coming back to Mount Carmel at the beginning of this year to work at the school and continue his studies.

“I discerned for awhile and said ‘there’s some great stuff going on at Mount Carmel and this would be a good ministry I could serve in,’” Mazurkiewicz said. “I put my name in and that’s what happened.”

Edward J. "Spike" O'Donnell Talks Crime and Politicians Go All PC - October 1933

Jack, that Cat was Clean!

Edward J. "Spike" O'Donnell* was the only gangster from the Capone era to retire from the rackets, make money as a coal/oil executive, pioneer the Chicago paving of streets, maintain his political clout and die of natural causes.

Spike O'Donnell was an elder statesman of the sidewalks on 79th Street at Loomis, where he held court with White Sox great Buck Weaver and other worthies.

He never used 'salty' language, was courtly to women, kind to children and maintained life-long frendships with actors Spencer Tracy, Frank McHugh, George Raft and Jimmy Cagney. Spencer Tracy attended his funeral mass at Little Flower Church in 1962.

* from Mario Gomes great site -click my post title for more on Chicago's Gangsters

James Edward O'Donnell, known as "Spike" was the eldest son of Patrick J. O'Donnell and Ann Mahoney. He was born on Novemeber 29,1889, and died on August 26,1962, from a massive coronary thrombosis. He had eight brothers and two sisters as follows;

Ellen 11-7-1891. Baptized at St Rose of Lima
John Joseph 7-1-1894. Baptized at St Rose of Lima
Thomas Francis 1-24-1896. Baptized at St Rose of Lima
Stephen 8-5-1898. Baptized at St Rose of Lima
Walter Anthony 3-21-1900. Baptized at St Rose of Lima
Patrick Henry aka Percy 10-2-1902. Baptized at St Rose of Lima
Charles Basil aka Chauncey 7-6-1904. Baptized at St Basil
Raymond P 3-10-1906. Baptized at St Basil
Annabelle Joy 7-22-1909. Baptized at St Basil
Philip Leo 12-28-1911. Baptized at St Basil - The only brother without an arrest record. Spike forbade his youngest brother from hanging around gangs.

Manifesto of Conscious for the UnEvolved - Us . You and me. Them Guys over by there, too,

I was beset with appeals. Following my mid morning post of Conscious Men lisping their Manifesto and feminist mea culpa.

'Hickey! WTF? Translate, you string words.'

Here is the Manifesto and I will translate it in a pithy succinct vernacular familiar to us aboriginally unevolved, albeit good hearted gents.

Avec traduction anglaise! The Manifesto of Conscious Men - by two metrosexuals.

Dear Woman:

• As a man, I feel sorrow that women and feminine energy have been suppressed for so many thousands of years on our planet. Everywhere we look, women have been disenfranchised. Throughout history, we have raped and abused you, burned you at the stake, bought and sold your bodies for sexual pleasure, barred you from religious and political office, relegated you to subservient chores, forced you to hide your faces and even cut off your organs of sexual pleasure.

Although I may not have done these things personally, I am aware of the forces in the masculine psyche that are responsible for dishonoring the feminine. I take responsibility for those forces and choose no longer to be run by them. I do this on behalf of all men, in order to usher in a new era of co-creation.


I commit to treat your heart as the sacred temple it is, and I commit tocelebrating the feminine in my intimate relationships as well as in myrelationship to all life.


• As a man, I acknowledge that the religions of the past several thousand years have been mainly founded by and propagated by men. As men, we have often acted as if we have the last word on God and the spiritual life, when all we have really known is the masculine expression of those things. I honor your pathways of spiritual awakening. I commit to the celebration of feminine spirituality.


• As a man, I honor your deep connection to the earth. As men, our relationship to our planet, its resources, its weather, its oceans and its forests has for too long been motivated by acquisition and dominion. I commit to listening to the intuitive sense you have of how to heal our planet and make it thrive.


• As a man, I honor your intuition and your ability to feel. As men, we have often devalued feeling and intuition in favor of a view dominated by data and logic. I commit to respecting the arts of feeling, intuition and wisdom of the feminine heart, so that together we can integrate them into a balanced view of life.

•As a man, I love the beauty of your body. I feel sorrow that we men have used your beauty as a form of commerce: in prostitution, pornography and the sale of products through advertising. I take a stand against any form of commercialization of woman’s beauty, and I respect that your body belongs to you.


•I honor your capacity for peaceful resolution of conflicts. We men have waged endless wars over our disagreements; by contrast, it is rare to find an invasion or war instigated by a woman. We welcome your wisdom in creatinga world that can get along.


•I honor your capacity to listen to your body and its needs for food, rest and playtime. As men, our preoccupation with goals and results has often driven us into a burn-out mentality. I know we have often drawn you into that as well. I welcome your reminders to maintain balance in our bodies.



•I honor your sense of compassionate justice. In our justice system,, men have dominated as judges and police, built prisons, and set punishment as a higher value than restitution. I welcome you to bring the return of the heartto our system of justice.



•I honor your capacity to enjoy and pay attention to what is here, right now. As men, we often get overly-focused on reaching the next milestone. We place so much emphasis on progress — what is new and better and faster — that we often forget to enjoy what we already have. I know that together we can co-create in bringing forth the wisdom of sufficiency.


I know that in joining hands, and leaving the past behind we can create asynergy of our strengths. I know, and I know that you know, that then there is nothing then we cannot do together.


NOTE from LoveCoach: This ties in with the Quest I am passionate about at the moment. Join these guys if you feel inspired!

Okee Dokey! Let's take a randon pargraph - Pluck! Here 'Tis.

I honor your capacity to listen to your body and its needs for food, rest and playtime. As men, our preoccupation with goals and results has often driven us into a burn-out mentality. I know we have often drawn you into that as well. I welcome your reminders to maintain balance in our bodies.

That would be an estrogen packed-play on the time-honored and hoary 4F's - Find 'em, Feed 'em, F#$% 'em, Forget 'em.

Let's try another -

• As a man, I honor your intuition and your ability to feel. As men, we have often devalued feeling and intuition in favor of a view dominated by data and logic. I commit to respecting the arts of feeling, intuition and wisdom of the feminine heart, so that together we can integrate them into a balanced view of life.

This senstive mewing might be construed as our nocturnal interogation -'Hey! You 'Wake?' Okay. I think we got it rolling, gents - One more . . .a toughie -

•I honor your capacity to enjoy and pay attention to what is here, right now. As men, we often get overly-focused on reaching the next milestone. We place so much emphasis on progress — what is new and better and faster — that we often forget to enjoy what we already have. I know that together we can co-create in bringing forth the wisdom of sufficiency

Once you stop laughing . . .I mean it. There okay this one would translate to:

'Quit your grinnin' and drop that linen! Come on, baby! Who's up for a punch in the trunks?'

I think that we can live with the Manifesto.

For All of My Hound Neighbors, Friends, Colleagues - "Dear Woman!"

I was whacking down a bowl of Leo HS cafeteria chili, liberal portions at conservative prices, I was treated to this video mea culpa to Women!



The next time I see a great set of knockers with gams up to there and a firm back porch that won't quit, I will think of the pilgrim soul within.

Really. Where did they find these worthies?

Now, a trip home to change my shorts.

A Hearty Hat Tip t Miss Caroline May of The Daily Caller

Planned Parenthood's President Obama Will Veto Budget Bill

No, Mr. President, they're not there. As you have just proven to one and all.

President Obama will shut down the government, because he has pledged himself to Planned Parenthood and the American Dowager Class.

President Obama is threatening to veto a temporary Republican budget measure that would ensure the troops are paid through September and and keep the government running for another week, but would not resolve the bitter standoff between Democrats and Republicans.

Obama 2012 Slogan - " You Might Want To Think About a Trade-in!"

When asked about the sorry state at the pump, President Obama remembered the pump.

Then things went south -

“Gas prices? They’re going to still fluctuate until we can start making these broader changes, and that’s going to take a couple of years to have serious effect,” Obama said.

Obama needled one questioner who asked about gas prices, now averaging close to $3.70 a gallon nationwide, and suggested that the gentleman consider getting rid of his gas-guzzling vehicle.

“If you’re complaining about the price of gas and you’re only getting 8 miles a gallon, you know,” Obama said laughingly. “You might want to think about a trade-in.”

Bet that guy love that response. Well, context is everything - ain't it?

Cambridge, MA Cops Act Stupidly = A Teaching Moment



Here's some more from the the man that Politico's Roger Simon called 'The Greatest Orator of Modern Times" -


1. I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go.
Barack Obama
At US presidential campaign event in Beaverton, Oregon.

2. Why can't I just eat my waffle?
Barack Obama
Asked a foreign policy question by reporter while visiting a diner in Pennsylvania during 2008 US presidential campaign .

3. It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Barack Obama
Explaining his troubles winning over some working-class voters during 2008 US presidential campaign.

My own personal Fave!!!!!!! Coming Up!

4. Let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel's. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under a McCain...administration. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under an Obama administration. So that policy is not going to change.
Barack Obama
Amman, Jordan, July 22, 2008.

Aldermanic Scorecard - Joe Moore Hold's The Template : Gobble The Fois Gras

In Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel's political war room, there's an aldermanic scorecard to determine who's with him, who isn't and who falls between. . . ." and YADDA YADDA YADDA YADDA - Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, one of the council's leading independents, lauded Emanuel for seeking out the views of individual aldermen.

"The mayor and City Council leaders will have to spend a lot more time cajoling and convincing the aldermen to join them on policy initiatives," he said. "And I think the new mayor, Rahm Emanuel, understands that."

from the fine Kristen Mack and Hal Dardick, Tribune report this AM.

I redacted it - a summation if you will and what the Rahm Emanuel Term of Office portends. Policy, Kids! No Politics! Policy 24/7! Meet Your City Council Floor Leader - Joe "Goose Guts" Moore! Policy is the Emanuel Template.

Policy is what really lazy and dumb people turn to when they find themselves elected to public service. Policy means Tasks Forces, Blue Ribbon Study Groups, Tax Paid Consultants, Hearings, Andy Shaw. All the stuff that dweebs are made of! Chicago's Shoulders will go from a hirsute and manly 48" to the smart, shaved and metro-sexually ambiguous 28" in the next four years.

Policy works for 'Ain't She Great?' dimbulbs like Congressman Jan Schakowsky. Policy is Politics for Dummies and it is very effective - in getting revenue streams to disappear, taxes to soar, crime to spike, property values to plummet, public education to vanish, and the population to shift to greener pastures.

All one needs is The Joe Moore Template. Progressive Policy - more money for public education via raised taxes; a gelded police force; more free T-Shirts; reform that targets individual City workers only; Green Scams; Diversity Proclamations; Gay Marriage Fast:

Here's some of Joe Moore's Template:

•INCREASING THE POWERS AND INDEPENDENCE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE
•CREATION OF AN OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS
•CTA SERVICE BREAKDOWNS
•BIG BOX LIVING WAGE
•SOURCE-SEPARATED RECYCLING (Replace the Blue Bag Program)
•UNIVERSAL SCHOOL BREAKFAST PROGRAM

Okay let's bread and butter the Old Policy Template - Progressive's Policy to Get the CTA Buses too Run - VIOLA!

This resolution was introduced by Alderman Joe Moore (49) and Alderman Ricardo Munoz (22) and calls for CTA President Frank Kruesi, CTA Board Chairman Carole Brown, and other appropriate CTA management officials to appear before the Chicago City Council to address the increasing number of derailments, mechanical breakdowns and service interruptions

CTA Service Breakdowns will vanish because Joe and Ricky Munoz will whereas the CTA appointees for a nano second spot on NBC, ABC, and CBS.

Here's how it looks kids. Mayor Rahm will have Joe Moore, Mike Quigley, and other sad-sack opportunists kick much stuff out of the City Council Sandbox and tell the media that it is Fois Gras. They will gobble it up, until after the ONE BILLION Dollar Re-Election Campaign ends.

Fois Gras - the real kind - will be revisited; we will agree that Jon Burge is a really, really, really bad guy, increased taxes are the only way to improve public education, Planned Parenthood helps eliminate Food Deserts, One Man's Gangster Disciple is amnother Man's Urban Translator, Unions are SEIU, Ceasefire does more to make people happy than the Chicago Police Department, fires are caused by Systemic Racism, Crime Ends when G. Flint Taylor and Jon Loevy take the very last nickel out of Chicago, the CTA buses do not run because George W. Bush went into Iraq, and if you have anything to say about anything, please Twitter.

President Obama's Tweet To Me - We Me's Our Us's

For years, I would send my widower's mite in support of the Democratic National Conference. I was weened in Democratic Party principles and history at home and in the 18th Ward. We were the Party of the Working Man, of Al Smith, FDR, Harry Truman,JFK and LBJ.

As a baby teacher in Kankakee, I was asked to run for City Clerk by Milton "Mimi" Shapiro, brother of Governor Sam Shapiro. We lost to the Kankakee GOP of my father-in-law and Ed McBroom. It was fun and educational. The GOP in Kankakee had wonderful people running for office including my City Clerk opponent Gene Glenzinski, the father of one of my Bishop Mac wrestlers. We got along famously. I stayed loyal to emerging Saturday Night Live Democratic Party which used ridicule of President Ford as its intellectual and moral fulcrum in lifting a Democrat up to the White House -Jimmy Carter. Subsequently, I voted for Walter Mondale, Mike Dukakis, President Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry. The Saturday Night Live Democratic Party had gotten humorless and top-heavy with strident Leftists.

When John Kerry wind-surfed into Boston Harbor to the palms and hosannas of America's Dowager Class bedecked in pink 'I Had and Abortion' T-Shirts. That was it. I sent in one last contribution and was treated to Howard Dean and Attic Ascendancy of the executive director of the Woods Fund, which turned down Leo High School's request for $ 5,000 to support the African American kids attending the school under the signature of Barack Obama, in 1996. '97. '98 . . .& etc./ Barack Obama became an Illinois State Senator. I thought that he might try being governor of Illinois, but he had audacious dreams.

I supported John McCain. John McCain, it seemed to me, laid down in September 2008 when the American economy tanked.

President Obama won.

On Monday, I received this note.

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2011 11:43:51 -0400 [04/04/2011 10:43:51 AM CDT]
From: Barack Obama
To: Patrick hickey
Reply-To: democraticparty@democrats.org
Subject: 2012
Patrick --

Today, we are filing papers to launch our 2012 campaign.

We're doing this now because the politics we believe in does not start with expensive TV ads or extravaganzas, but with you -- with people organizing block-by-block, talking to neighbors, co-workers, and friends. And that kind of campaign takes time to build.

So even though I'm focused on the job you elected me to do, and the race may not reach full speed for a year or more, the work of laying the foundation for our campaign must start today.

We've always known that lasting change wouldn't come quickly or easily. It never does. But as my administration and folks across the country fight to protect the progress we've made -- and make more -- we also need to begin mobilizing for 2012, long before the time comes for me to begin campaigning in earnest.

As we take this step, I'd like to share a video that features some folks like you who are helping to lead the way on this journey. Please take a moment to watch:

http://my.barackobama.com/2012d

In the coming days, supporters like you will begin forging a new organization that we'll build together in cities and towns across the country. And I'll need you to help shape our plan as we create a campaign that's farther reaching, more focused, and more innovative than anything we've built before.

We'll start by doing something unprecedented: coordinating millions of one-on-one conversations between supporters across every single state, reconnecting old friends, inspiring new ones to join the cause, and readying ourselves for next year's fight.

This will be my final campaign, at least as a candidate. But the cause of making a lasting difference for our families, our communities, and our country has never been about one person. And it will succeed only if we work together.

There will be much more to come as the race unfolds. Today, simply let us know you're in to help us begin, and then spread the word:

http://my.barackobama.com/2012d

Thank you,

Barack


Please donate: https://donate.barackobama.com/launch-donate3

Thank you, Mr. President, but we are not interested again. We still do not care for abortion, government health, government auto industry, government radio/TV, the Muslim apology tour, and teaching moments.

All the Best, Sir! But no dough and no vote.

April 5, 2011 - Happy Birthday to Michael Moriarty - Actor, Musician, Essayist and American

Happy Birthday to Michael Moriarty! This Chicago-rooted American actor, jazz musician, essayist and patriot is a thoughtful critic of American folly and powerful voice for the unborn. I am very proud to correspond with this wonderful man of principle, wit and courage. I first witnessed this man's talents at the Chicago Theatre in 1973, when he starred along with Robert De Niro in the poetic baseball film Bang the Drum Slowly. Mr. Moriarty portrayed a self-interested pitcher who restored his soul by caring for a dying catcher whose career had been notable only for his being the butt of jokes, pranks and ridicule for his team mates. At the end of the film Moriarty narrates a closing sentiment that is one of most heart-wrenching epiphanies in film - " From here on in, I rag nobody."

Michael Moriarty (born April 5, 1941 in Detroit, Michigan) is an Emmy winning American actor. Tall and lanky, this 6'4" actor is known most for his role as Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Stone on the long running TV series Law & Order. He attended the University of Detroit Roman Catholic High School, and then matriculated at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire in 1963, where he was a theatre major.

After he received his degree, he left for London, where he enrolled in the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, after receiving a Fulbright Scholarship.

In 1973, Moriarty was cast to play the egocentric Henry Wiggen in Bang the Drum Slowly, a film about friendship between two unlikely baseball teammates (the second being Robert De Niro, a slow thinking catcher who becomes terminally ill). Moriarty had a strong baseball background on which to draw for the role, as his grandfather George Moriarty had been a third baseman, umpire and manager in the major leagues for nearly 40 years.

In 1973, Moriarty starred in a TV movie adaptation of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie with Katharine Hepburn. Coincidentally, the film also featured Sam Waterston (who replaced Moriarty as the Executive Assistant District Attorney on Law & Order in 1994.) Moriarty's role in Menagerie won him an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actor of the Year (see ).

Moriarty's career on the screen was slow to develop, while his theater career was flourishing. He starred as a Nazi bureaucrat who degenerates into a coldblooded murderer in the miniseries Holocaust (which earned him another Emmy). Through the 1980s, Moriarty starred in such Larry Cohen movies as Q, The Stuff, It's Alive 3, and A Return to Salem's Lot, as well as Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider and Hanoi Hilton.

From 1990 to 1994, he starred as Ben Stone on Law & Order. He ended up leaving the show in 1994, alleging that his departure was a result of his threatening a lawsuit against then-Attorney General Janet Reno, who had cited Law & Order as offensively violent. He moved to Canada, declaring himself a political exile, and lived for a time in Halifax and Toronto before settling in Vancouver. Recent projects he has acted in include Courage Under Fire, Along Came a Spider, Shiloh, Emily of New Moon and James Dean, for which he won his third Emmy.

Moriarty today lives in British Columbia, where he still acts and has become politically active, describing himself as a "centrist", which will prove questionable (see http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/1105/1105eugenics.htm]]) to the reader of Enter Stage Right or MMUUUHP (Michael Moriarty Unofficial, Unauthorized, Unsanctioned Home Page).

Moriarty has recently announced his intention to run for President of the United States in 2008. He also has been a frequent contributor of numerous political columns to the ESR (Enter Stage Right) on-line Journal of Conservativism.

He has a website, the allegedly unauthorized MMUUUHP, and his recent blogs there and on ESR contain scathing denunciations of Bill Clinton, Thanaticism, abortion, embryonic stem cell research, anti-Catholicism, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, George W. Bush, both major U.S. political parties, Halliburton, the College of Cardinals, and most of Catholic theology, although he states that he had a Jesuit Catholic upbringing.
[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Michael Moriarty ]

Michael Moriarty is also a fine jazz pianist and a cat of quality:

He sees, why Nature plants in man alone
Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown:
(Nature, whose dictates to no other kind
Are given in vain, but what they seek they find)
Wise is her present; she connects in this
His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss;
At once his own bright prospect to be blest,
And strongest motive to assist the rest.
Self-love thus pushed to social, to divine,
Gives thee to make thy neighbour’s blessing thine.
Is this too little for the boundless heart?
Extend it, let thy enemies have part:
Grasp the whole worlds of reason, life, and sense,
In one close system of benevolence:
Happier as kinder, in whate’er degree,
And height of bliss but height of charity.
God loves from whole to parts: but human soul
Must rise from individual to the whole.
Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake!
The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds,
Another still, and still another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace;
His country next; and next all human race

Alexander Pope Essay on Man

Henry Wiggins - "From here on in, I rag nobody."

Libyan Lysistrata - Barry's Girls' War

Lysistrata.: There are a lot of things about us women
That sadden me, considering how men
See us as rascals.

Calonice.: As indeed we are

Aristophanes - Lysistrata

In order to conclude the endless warfare between Athens and Sparta the gals get together and conspire to withhold the nookie from the gents. World Peace!

That was how Aristophanes, the only Attic dramatic comedian to survive in literature, spun the story.

In our confused orientation ( sexual and geopolitical) world, What's a body to do?

What happens in Libya will not stay in Libya. This is cluster . . . coalition copulation of cosmic proportions.

If I recall my history, Italy owned Libya. In WWII the Brits and Rommel and the Italian Afterthought Armies tore up the deserts between Tripoli, Tobruk and Benghazi.
That was a man's war what am a man's war.

For most of my life Gaddafi's owned Libya. Jimmy Carter's brother Billy carried water for Libya as did the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Ronald Reagan bombed Libya and Tom Cruise got a hit movie out of Libya.

Now, Sec. of State Hillary Clinton and UN Ambassador Susan Rice are following the Samantha Power playbook. Libya is a girl's war. We are bombing, but not bombing - sans boots. We are People Saving and not Nation Building. When the emery board gets dropped, its over!

Here is Irish Independent's Kevin Myers on this Libyan cat fight:

Libya is now the focus for the raw emotional self-gratification that typifies the woolly "logic" of R2P. So where does R2P stop? Does it rescue the whites and Ndebele of Zimbabwe? Does it intervene in east Africa's endless and incomprehensible wars? What about the Congo? And might not the European left-liberal anti-Israeli Alli-ance use the most emotional trump card of all, and call for American armed intervention in support of Hamas against Israel in Gaza? That Libya and the Palestinian territories are not remotely comparable is irrelevant when an R2P moral mania is allowed to corrupt all military and political decision-making.

War should not be about the unpredictable and imprecise moral yearnings of politicians and their advisers, but about measurably advancing the cause of national self-interest

The United States has no business, historical, political, moral, or economic anywhere in continental Africa.

It will be a Man Sized undertaking and there are bugger few men stepping up in American political leadership.

Hollywood's Jail-bait Pimp to the Stars and Royalty Revisited

Chicago has some shady history, but it is as pure and sweet as honey-dew vine-water compared to Hollywood, Washington,D.C. and Buckingham Palace - stop-overs in the Big Apple, of course. Chicago has always had its cap set for out-of-town rogues, blackguards and swindlers: Edward Prince of Wales, Charles Tyson Yerkes, and Brooklyn Al Capone.

Last night, Chicago Rubes hailed Charlie Sheen's trodding of the boards at the venerable Chicago Theatre. Charlie Sheen is a sad creature bringing his Torpedo of Truth to the youthful Mensa members with Mom and Dad's ready cash. Not a shocker that. Folks stood in line to purchase tickets to see Tiny Tim, Bill Maher, Glen Beck, Andy Dice Clay and Blue Man Group ( I could never get my tiny brain around that one!).

However, Alexandra Wolfe's Daily Beast article on plutocrat-pimp Jeffrey Epstein and his gushing posse of pals that includes, of course, Bill Clinton, Katie Couric, Woody Allen, George "First Rat Off" Stephanopoulos and Prince Andrew is a head scratcher.

I admire people who stick by their friends - Harry Truman and Tom Predergast, Jim Carville and Bill Clinton e.g. and generally speaking I am sicked by rank opportunists who abandon people who have made them what they are e.g. Jane Addams and Ald. John Powers et al and Judy Barr Topinka and George Ryan.

There is always a Rubicon for our individual ethical and moral feet when it comes to friendship and loyalty - do we get our toes wet or keep our panties dry?

Cardinal Law hide pedophile priests - not out of any sense of personal loyalty for a stumbled runner, it seems to me, but to hike his ecclesiastical skirts and avoid further inquiry.

Retired Bishop Imesch of Joliet was hounded by the media and greedy lawyers for not divulging information taken in sworn depositions years before, in order to make more money for Jeff Anderson and Associates.

Huge difference.

Now, a pedophile like Jeffrey Epstein gets a celebrity pass. I would not be seen in the same Zipcode with a louse like the above handsome and toned gent my contemporary, let alone attend a gala bash in support of his pimping out under-aged girls to celebrities and English nobility.

Here is another spin on the Epstein/Prince Andrew BFFEs:

While "Randy Andy's" antics with wannabe "It Girls" have long been the stuff of prurient tabloid fodder, it is his cretinously ill-advised choice of associates that is causing the present rumpus. The duke has been a frequent guest at the Florida residence of Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire who served a 18-month jail term after pleading guilty to soliciting a prostitute. More recently Virginia Roberts, a masseuse, alleged sexual encounters with Epstein and his friends (but not the prince) when she was 17-years-old. The British Mail on Sunday reports the FBI is re-opening the Epstein case. Though no allegations of direct impropriety have been made against him, the duke did receive a massage at Epstein's home 10 years ago, and was photographed with him as recently as December 2010. His impecunious ex-wife, Sarah Duchess of York, who was recently caught out in a cash-for-meetings scandal when she claimed she could broker encounters with her former husband for a fee, accepted £15,000 from Epstein to pay off debts, apparently at the duke's instigation.

Prince Andrew, nicknamed Air Miles Andy because of his lavish use of publicly funded travel, is providing a blessed distraction from the prospect of quite so many worthies being caught with their hands in Libya PLC's till, but surprisingly no one seems the least bit grateful. Both Prime Minster David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague have expressed their continued confidence in the duke, yet elsewhere in the Tory ranks the tumbrils are rumbling about whether he should resign his post as U.K. Special Representative for International Trade and Investment.

I like the tone of this writer's prose. Prince Andrew was married to the equally loathsome lard ass Sarah Duchess of York, or Fergie the Shakedown Artiste.
Yes, 'confidence in the duke!' Kids meet the Prince, Prince meet the kids!

I believe that Long-John Wentworth, a pal to honest rogues and roues, would have kicked Epstein and Andrew's collective asses up and down De Koven Street.

Hollywood Hails Jail-bait Pimp - "Well, Too Bad About You!"

A healthy self-doubt or conscience if you will, evolves from being told that somethings that we have, done, said, or intended to do, or say happen to be unacceptable - universally and dogmatically unacceptable. Some of the very first words that had an impact on me came from my parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and neighbors and they were all first and second generation Irish Catholics on the south side of Chicago. The words were 'Well, too bad about you.'

'Well, too bad about you' had a marvelously thick inflection honeyed with obvious irony. Those very intention deflecting words usually followed my plea for more candy, cookies, or Dixie cups; the stated desire to repaint my Grandfather's garage floor with benzine; or, my circa 1958 swaggering into Lou's Saloon at 77th & Ashland to see what uncles Bart, Donnie, Sy, and my Dad, if he were off-shift from the State and on his way to the Beverly Theatre, were drinking for lunch.

"What in the hell are you doing in here, Padgin (Pat-sheen in Chicagoese)?"

Well, Uncle Bart, I thought I'd grab a root-beer and play with the German cowboys( a Budweiser Beer Wagon set behind the bar) , I was in yesterday.

" Well listen here, Bub, your Dad brings you in or it's nix, get me? How old are you, again?"

Six.

" And who brought you in?"

Dad

"That's right. You want to get Lou shut down by Capt. Hennessy?"

Shut down how?

" Shut down fast. You walk all the way here on your own from Granpa's?"

Well,Lou's right next to Jack's car store.

" Well, this is your last trip in. Uncle Donnie will drive you back. Your Old Man will tan your rump."

I like coming to Lou's , Uncle Bart.


"Well, too bad about you."

I learned that I could not walk into a saloon unescorted at the age of six. I was only a guest, if there was no other possibility for my Dad's refreshment, while I was in his charge. I learned that my place was predetermined by my elders and betters. I had already learned at Little Flower Grammar School that I could not get up out of my seat and have a chat with Larry Fiscelli, Al McFarland, Billy Cullina, or Judy Lawlor. The Sisters of Mercy applied the exact same dictum -'Well, too bad about you.'

I learned that I could not steal, abuse animals ( withing reason -crayfish from the Wood Street viaduct, ants, especially huge black carpenter ants, the odd snake or alley rats could, in fact be mistreated); or lie . . . well, that got worked out with a deft rhetorical apprenticeship and the application of strategic omissions - 'Oh, that pack of smokes!'

Telling small lies, actual fabrications and omitted truths, is the foundation of hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy is how we evade the inner voice, 'Well, too bad about you.'

Last night, I read a disturbing article about a millionaire celebrity bankroller and pedophile with Hollywood closing ranks in his support. Here is the marrow of one from the Daily Beast:

Despite the pedophile mogul's conviction for soliciting underage prostitution, his circle is standing by their man. Scientists whose research Epstein funded also back the billionaire, writes Alexandra Wolfe.
On the evening of December 2nd, 2010, a handful of America's media and entertainment elite—including TV anchors Katie Couric and George Stephanopoulos, comedienne Chelsea Handler, and director Woody Allen—convened around the dinner table of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It wasn't just any dining room, but part of a sprawling nine-story townhouse that once housed an entire preparatory school. And it wasn't just any sex offender, but an enigmatic billionaire who had once flown the likes of former President Bill Clinton and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak around the world on his own Boeing 727. Last spring, Epstein completed a 13-month sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in Palm Beach. Now he was hosting a party for his close friend, Britain's Prince Andrew, fourth in line to the throne."In the Midwest, where I am from, he would be a social pariah," says Lorna Brett Howard, a political activist and wife of Irving Post Capital CEO and Aeropostale director John Howard. "What I see here is if you have big money or are famous then you get a pass."
“A jail sentence doesn’t matter anymore. The only thing that gets you shunned in New York society is poverty.”
Sure enough, that December night no one mentioned that their handsome host, a gray-haired 58-year-old financier with tanned skin and a joker smile, had just doled out millions of dollars in civil settlements to seven girls who allege that he paid them to perform erotic massages and demeaning sexual acts when they were underage. They are among the 40 victims turned up by an FBI investigation. But at the time, this particular swath of Epstein's elite Rolodex had no idea that the feted royal would soon renounce Epstein as a friend, nor that the royal's ex-wife, Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, would hysterically apologize for letting Epstein pay off some of her debts.

Let's see. I was a long-time high school teacher of English. My sexual inclinations are solidly in the hetero-breeder camp. I started teaching at 22 years of age - that is exactly sixteen years after uncles Bart, Sy and Donnie gave me the bum's rush from Lou's Saloon at 77th & Ashland. I was teaching at Bishop McNamara High School which is a co-educational secondary school. I was, therefore, four or five years older than the oldest of my students. I was wearing a tie and in colder weather a jacket. The tie and jacket were distancing objects - I was not 'Pat, Paddy, Padgin, Hickey, Hick, Dipshit, Numbnuts, or Hey, You'. I was, and remain to my students now in their forties, or very early fifties, Mr. Hickey and they were at that time Mr. Boudreau, Miss Schafsma, Miss Hoekstra, Miss Kell, Miss Purcell, Mr. Whitman,Miss Pelletier Mr. Raines, Miss Regnier, Miss. Nugent, Mr. Coy, and Miss Cardosi and etc.

The girls were students. I treated students with affable distance, but welcoming tutelage. I came to teaching fairly well-armed with a command of my subject, but learning the art of teaching came from observation and good counsel. I had learned from watching and listening to wonderful teaching mentors like Nick Novich, Dave Raiche, Jerry Krieg, Jim Frogge,Rich Zinanni, Fathers Ken Yarno, Jim Fanale, and Bob Erickson, Sisters Theresa Galvan, Helen Kavanaugh, and others that respect for the vocation demanded a constant exercise of respect for my charges -in loco parentis.

High School girls are beautiful, but they are kids and it matters not whether a teacher is male, or female, gay or straight, long-in-the-tooth, or youthfully attractive -mind, words, deeds and hands off! Violate that cardinal rule and be damned to you.

We had several cases of Humbert-Humbert and Lolita and no Nabokovian parsing - cashiered on the spot and shunned by colleagues. Too bad about you - nothing a coronary can't make right, Old Chum!

We, as a people, allow some really obnoxious and dumb people to scratch out our societal moral high ground - the "Who's to Say-ers" The heart wants what the heart wants - TS! Too bad about you.

Our hypocrisy is making a case for understanding people who never fully grasped the commandments of God or the sound ethical dictum shot out of a singe sentence by our elders and betters -'Well, too bad about you.'