Catholic Worship - "not a syllogism, but a poem" H.L. Mencken - The Faithful Skeptic

"Let the reverend fathers go back to Bach. If they keep on spoiling poetry and spouting ideas, the day will come when some extra-bombastic deacon will astound humanity and insult God by proposing to translate the liturgy into American, that all the faithful may be convinced by it." H.L. Mencken - Holy Writ

Last night, I read H.L. Mencken's article Holy Writ.

This morning, I checked my sump pump. Everything is A-Ok! Thanks be to God and Zoeller Cast Iron Quality!

I know what packing a pump is, but I can not pack a pump. I know who the Achaeans are in Homer's Odyssey, but knowing that they were the Greave Wearing Greeks pitted agin the Sons of Troy does not get a pump packed.

First of all who would pack a pump? Anyone who might need a fluid sealing pump in a building or industry. A pump that conveys water, oil, or anti-freeze needs to be packed in order that the seal be tight and thus fluid flow like a river.

A great number of my family know how to pack a pump ( male and female; many of their spouses, or immediate family members have heard the term. As children, it was an accepted part of the mystery of labor, just as the Transfiguration, Consecration, and Pentecost ring recognition in the soul of the collective Catholic Faith of the family. The Faith is practiced in ritual - we participate in Mass. The priest officiates - he transforms bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ and we all consume at the hands of the priest and his Deacons and Eucharistic Ministers. A skilled tradesman understands that fluids must be conducted to essential moving parts and reservoirs in order to heat,cool and transfer fluids as required. The arcana of the packing of the pump is understood by me and accepted on faith, having participated in its rituals. I am no pump priest. I screw things up, by not paying attention, taking short cuts, or not having the proper set of tools.

Likewise, Vatican II turned the pumps over to screw-ups. By that I mean - liturgy since 1966 has been erased: The Word of God and Worship is amateur hour. Priests are preachers and social engineers. Really. The Mystery of Faith? What Mystery? All can and should be known - ask any Kennedy Clan member, or cradle Catholic suburban columnist. Faith is fashion.

What has fashioned faith has been skepticism -"Who's to Say?" The Who's To Sayers are the High Priests of Dialog. We must dialog. Always?

What I know could be fit into a gnats-ass. I know that I can not pack a pump. I my Zoeller Sump Pump looses its seal and goes out - I replace the pump with a spare and take the Cast-Iron Zoeller to be re-packed.

I attend Mass officiated by a priest who understands liturgy is mystery and prayer and ritual must match the sublime nature of Transubstantiation - "that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the Body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the Blood ."

For Centuries, the Transubstatiation was celebrated by the greatest music and poetry Mankind was capable of producing. Vatican II cashed that in for "Sons of God/Hear His Holy Word . . . gather round the table of the Lord" and other Sesame Street ditties. Oh, Hell, Yeah! Kick up stool, Cuz! Jesus is pourin'! That Man from Gal-A-Lee!

Prior to that a Ugandan could go to the universal Mass in County Kerry, Stausbourg, Gooli-Barranga, Queensland, and the Solomon Islands. Latin was debunked. I still find myself transported from the gangways and alleys of Chicago to a much better place than a liturgical Fred's Dance Barn, with a Latin Missa Papae Marcelli.

Funny, so did HL Mencken, a Baltimore born and baptized German Catholic who became the icon of American Skepticism. Mencken wrote this -

The Latin Church, which I constantly find myself admiring, despite its frequent astounding imbecilities, has always kept clearly before it the fact that religion is not a syllogism, but a poem. It is accused by Protestant dervishes of withholding the Bible from the people. To some extent this is true; to the same extent the church is wise; again to the same extent it is prosperous. Its toying with ideas, in the main, have been confined to its clergy, and they have commonly reduced the business to a harmless play of technicalities—the awful concepts of Heaven and Hell brought down to the level of a dispute of doctors in long gowns, eager only to dazzle other doctors. Its greatest theologians remain unknown to 99% of its adherents. Rome, indeed, has not only preserved the original poetry in Christianity; it has also made capital additions to that poetry—for example, the poetry of the saints, of Mary, and of the liturgy itself. A solemn high mass must be a thousand times as impressive, to a man with any genuine religious sense in him, as the most powerful sermon ever roared under the big-top by a Presbyterian auctioneer of God. In the face of such overwhelming beauty it is not necessary to belabor the faithful with logic; they are better convinced by letting them alone.

Preaching is not an essential part of the Latin ceremonial. It was very little employed in the early church, and I am convinced that good effects would flow from abandoning it today, or, at all events, reducing it to a few sentences, more or less formal. In the United States the Latin brethren have been seduced by the example of the Protestants, who commonly transform an act of worship into a puerile intellectual exercise; instead of approaching God in fear and wonder these Protestants settle back in their pews, cross their legs, and listen to an ignoramus try to prove that he is a better theologian than the Pope. This folly the Romans now slide into. Their clergy begin to grow argumentative, doctrinaire, ridiculous. It is a pity. A bishop in his robes, playing his part in the solemn ceremonial of the mass, is a dignified spectacle, even though he may sweat freely; the same bishop, bawling against Darwin half an hour later, is seen to be simply an elderly Irishman with a bald head, the son of a respectable saloon-keeper in South Bend, Ind. Let the reverend fathers go back to Bach. If they keep on spoiling poetry and spouting ideas, the day will come when some extra-bombastic deacon will astound humanity and insult God by proposing to translate the liturgy into American, that all the faithful may be convinced by it.

Mencken knew that Everyperson is no pump packer. Why pretend.


Pump packing prevents leakages. There are four main factors that affect its functionality: quality, packing material, mechanical condition and installation and lubrication. Poor quality materials may damage equipment. Packing material should correspond to working conditions. Good mechanical condition of equipment ensures packing's longevity. Proper installation and lubrication ensure efficient operation of the pump. Basic packing types are: flax (low-quality), non-asbestos (medium quality, common in irrigation pumps), Ameri-lon (high quality), GFO (for industrial pumps), chemical resistant (high quality) and high-temperature (high quality).


InstructionsThings You'll Need:
Protective gloves
Packing hooks
Emery cloth
Meter
Pencil and paper
Mandrel
Lubricant
Cloth
Follower - N.B.

Get what you need for every
project at HomeDepot.com
1
Use packing hooks to remove the old packing. Do it carefully to prevent damage to the shaft.

2
Clean the shaft and stuffing box with Emery cloth.

3
Inspect the shaft for damage. If there is any damage, replace the parts in accordance with manufacturer's directions.

4
Measure the shaft and the stuffing box bore diameters with a meter, and write down the dimensions.

5
Subtract the shaft diameter from the bore diameter, and divide the result by two to get cross-section size. Write the size down. Consult the measures when choosing packing materials.

6
Cut the packing into rings with a mandrel. The mandrel should have same dimensions as the shaft.

7
Lubricate the rings. Use a clean cloth and a lubricant to do this.

8
Insert the first ring into the stuffing box using the mandrel. Repeat the procedure for all rings.

9
Install the follower with your hands. The follower is an oval metal component with a hole in the middle. The hole accepts the shaft. Follower's purpose is to transmit shaft motions to valve motions.

10
Start the pump and watch for leakages. Tighten the bolts to decrease leakages to a minimum, but do not stop them completely. That may damage the package. Pump package prevents leaking, and keeps waste out of water.

11
Reduce the leakages gradually during the first hour or two after installation of the packing material.

Mike Houlihan Celebrates 35 Years of Boz O'Brien's Reilly's Daughter Pub -Oak Lawn and Midway Airport

The Great Boz O'Brien and son Brendan

I was not a fast bartender' nor, was I a slow bartender; Boz O'Brien said that I was a "Half Fast Bartender." At least that was how I recall James "Boz" O'Brien's assessment. I was part of the early crews ( 1975-77) pouring, uncapping and mixing wholesome beverages to fine folks at Reilly's Daughter Pub.

Irish American News presents Chicago Renaissance Man and Brasseuse on the Loose, Mike Houlihan's penning of a poignant paen to one of the great Captains of the Counter - Boz O'Brien on the 35th Anniversary of the Birth of Reilly's Daughter

Here's a shot -

It was June 16, Bloomsday, 1976 when Boz O’Brien opened his saloon, Reilly’s Daughter, in Oak Lawn at 111th and Pulaski. A shopping mall seems a strange place for a tavern but it had plenty of parking and it became the most popular watering hole in Chicagoland for anybody coming of age in the final three decades of the last century.

If ever there was a place where everybody knew your name, this was the place.

Boz tells me the secret of his success has always been the people who work at Reilly’s, but his talents as the PT Barnum of bar owners never hurt.

Boz once booked a pair of CTA cars for a 3 hour pre-St. Paddy’s train ride all over Chicago on the EL It was 1977 and on Feb. 7th of that year four cars had derailed and fallen off the track at Lake and Wabash. Somebody at the CTA figured that having these Irish kids party on the EL only a month after the crash might show Chicago that there was nothing to fear. It was a public relations stroke of genius and Reilly’s Daughter sold out all 200 tickets for the ride.

Click my title for a full swallow!

Chicago's "King of Canaryville and the Stockyards" -Father Maurice Dorney

Illinois Progressive History chose to ignore Col. James Mulligan, Senator for three States James Shields, the only Union general to defeat Stonewall Jackson in the field, and the most energetic, brilliant and courageous activist of the 19th century, Father Maurice Dorney founder of St. Gabriel's Parish in Canaryville and the King of the Stockyards when labor first got its legs.

Catholics are given scrutiny only when causing scandal or smearing people as racists, bigots, and deviants. Read Huffington Post and the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times for a daily litany of priest scandals, or loggerheads with Gay bullies and Planned Parenthood.

Mother Cabrini is being ignored and soon will be about as memorable as the man for whom Shields Ave. and Shields Elementary is named.

The St. Vincent DePaul Society, Misericordia, Mercy Home for Boys, Little Brothers of the Poor, and Poor Clares, have no homosexually rooted or abortion friendly parallels. Only when a nun gushes for abortion, or a priest preaches for the ordination of women will a media profile make nice with the nomenclature of Catholic. There are some Catholics who make a Progressive smile and they are generally elected officials.

Justice icons tend to be lesbian activists of the 19th Century like Jane Addams and Frances Willard, which is nice but much too exclusive. Don't you think? No?

Well, let's take a look at the life of Fr. Maurice Dorney, shall we?

Maurice Dorney was born in 1851 at Springfield, Massachusetts. His father, John, left his home at Longhur near Limerick, Ireland, in 1846 as the plight of the Irish was about to worsen. Taking work in Troy, New York, John met Mary Toomey there and made her his wife. From Troy to Springfield to Chicago, John Dorney's work as a lumber inspector landed him a job with the Illinois Central railroad. The family moved into a home along Cottage Grove Avenue and 25th Street on Chicago's Southside. His elementary school days were spent at Mosely School and St. Patrick's Academy, the Christian Brothers academy near Adams and Des Plaines. His university education took place at the University of St. Mary of the Lake under the tutelage of Father James J. McGovern. Maurice enrolled in Our Lady of Angels Seminary at Suspension Bridge (Niagara), New York, in 1867. He concluded his seminary studies in 1870 at the Catholic Theological Seminary (St. Mary's) in Baltimore, Maryland. Bishop Foley conferred the priesthood upon him at St. James Church on Prairie Avenue in Chicago, January 27, 1874. In his youth Maurice had knelt before the tabernacle in this very church as an altar server.

The first parish to receive Father Dorney's ministrations was St. John the Evangelist in Chicago. He served as assistant to Reverend John Waldron, a venerated veteran of the chaotic, early formative years of the diocese.

At this time Chicago was rebuilding from the Great Conflagration of '71. St. John's parish, having been effected by the fire, as was most of the city, was home to many of the rebuilders of the city. Father Dorney's dynamic presence proved inspirational to these survivors to maintain the "I Will" spirit born of the great fire.

Bishop Foley knew full well the measure of man he had assigned to the church at Lockport. Father Eustace's departure to St. Louis was probably directly or indirectly related to the aftermath surrounding Bishop Duggan's mental illness. St. Dennis needed a strong, progress-minded pastor: "The importance of this charge [St. Dennis] can best be understood by the realization of the fact that at the time the scope of this 'parish' embraced the territory extending from the city limits of Chicago to those of Joliet." [Charles Ffrench. Biographical History of the American Irish in Chicago. Chicago. p.799] Laboring at St. Dennis and the Illinois and Michigan Canal missions provided Father Dorney with a contrasting outlook to the one he developed while growing up within the city.


His most definitive call was to occur next. On the 11th of April 1880, by appointment of Vicar-General John McMullen, Father Dorney established living quarters at the Transit House, a lodging building. Hiecome St. Gabriel parish. From these quarters Father Dorney charted the construction of a temporary wooden church to be built on part of twenty lots purchased on Sherman Street. From this landmark point Father Maurice Dorney would build the legends new home was near the bustling Union Stockyards in the town of Lake, just outside the Chicago limits. The yards, which would soon become synonymous with Chicago, were located in an area known as 'Canaryville'. Wild pigs that roamed the area as scavengers were referred to as 'canaries' - hence the affectionate nickname. At the Transit House, a rented room served as a chapel for the growing congregation that would b he became associated with. He was to become "The King of the Stockyards".

His interest in the temporal well being of his fellows led to a crusade for temperance and against the proliferation of saloons throughout the residential areas of St. Gabriel parish. By skillfully presenting his impassioned plea, Father Dorney inspired others across the Archdiocese to adopt the cause of sensibility in relation to alcohol. Over forty saloons filled the area between 40th Street and 45th Street along Halsted Street. Father Dorney's persuasive powers can be gauged by the reaction of tavern owners in his parish. When Father Dorney proposed that all saloons be closed during hours that a weeklong mission for men was taking place, local saloon keepers 'Gambler' Jim O'Leary and R.M. Donkin were in concert. Said Donkin: "You can say for me that whatever Father Dorney wants he can have." 'Gambler' Jim O'Leary concurred: "We always do what Father Dorney wants us to do down here." His lectures on temperance such as one that took place in 1896 at Annunciation Church were in the spirit of Father Matthew and were a precursor to the larger Prohibition Movement that occurred at the beginning of the 20th century.

Father Dorney's excellence in elocution won the admiration of employers and employees at the burgeoning meat packing houses. He was able to act as a broker for jobs at the yards. Immigrants and people out of work petitioned Father Dorney for assistance in securing work in the packing plants and meat industry. In days before organized labor at the yards, he would mediate strikes and disagreements, going down to the 'killing floor' if need be.


Father Dorney's influence was felt as much at city hall and corporate board rooms as it was within the church walls. In fact, at one time his influence had an impact on houses of parliament across the sea. The politics surrounding agitation for Irish home rule brought Father Maurice Dorney into the international spotlight. Father Dorney met with Charles Parnell, organizer of the Irish Home Rule Party, in the British House of Commons at a time in 1889 when Parnell was under fire on many fronts. Richard Pigott, publisher of the newspaper, "The Irishman", and not sympathetic to the Home Rule Party, submitted a forged letter to the London Times slandering Parnell. In the letter, Pigott had insinuated that Parnell was a co-conspirator in the 1882 murder at Dublin's Phoenix Park of Lord Frederick Cavendish, the Irish Secretary appointed by England, and Thomas Henry Burke, the Undersecretary. This assassination had been carried out by a secret society referred to as the "Invincibles". Through papers received from the president of the Irish National league of America, Alexander Sullivan, and its onetime treasurer, Patrick Egan, Father Dorney aided in the exoneration of charges of terrorist activity brought against Parnell by Pigott.

Father Dorney had a long association with an Irish-American organization called the Clan Na Gael, also known as the" United Brotherhood". "In age it dated back to 1869, its cardinal objections being to establish in Ireland an Irish republic, to bring about fraternal feelings among Irishmen in the United States, and generally assist in the elevation of the Irish race."[Henry M. Hunt. The Crime of the Century. 1889. Chicago] His association with the quasi-secret organization was quite controversial for in many parts of the country clergy were discouraging their flock from joining the group. He was considered an insider in the highest levels of the organization having attended the 1881 Chicago convention as a delegate. His close association with Alexander Sullivan, one-third of an inner realm known as the "Triangle", would lead to friction with the church hierarchy, the press and the judicial system. Alexander Sullivan, a lawyer and a journalist, was the head of the American division of Clan Na Gael. He founded the Irish National League of America, an umbrella organization which united the majority of Irish fraternal and self-help organizations in America. During what was termed by the press as the " Trial of the Century" Father Dorney was subpoenaed to give testimony relating to Doctor Patrick Cronin's [another Clan Na Gael insider] murder and the suspected plot involved in the murder. Father Dorney received criticism in the press due to Sullivan's alleged role in the murder. Dr. Cronin had opposed Sullivan within and without the organization on various issues. A Tribune article in June of 1889 suggested that Archbishop Feehan "send Father Dorney to a quiet country parish where he could give no further scandal."

By actively venturing into the political area Father Dorney was a harbinger of the activism that the Church in the later 20th century has become associated with. His strong sense of ethnic pride and commitment to civic progress brought accolades to him from some and criticism from others.

The value of knowledge and education did not escape Father Dorney. Parents were encouraged by him to send their children to complete their education. From his experience, the road to success led away from the 'towpath' of the canal and the 'killing floor' of the stockyards. He concentrated large amounts of energy and money into schools at St. Gabriel. By his own example he provided inspiration to his flock by returning to school at fifty years of age receiving a degree in law. In addition, he was afrequent contributor to the Chicago Catholic newspaper, the Catholic Home.

He also provided guidance to the Archdiocese in evaluating students for the priesthood. Along with former St. Dennis pastor John Mackin and a few others, Father Dorney participated on a panel in charge of reviewing candidates for ordination. The St. Dennis 'stamp of approval' was on many of the priests chosen for the Archdiocese in the late 1800's.

On March 15, 1914, after a short illness, Father Maurice J. Dorney departed this life at 63 years of age. Archbishop James E. Quigley celebrated the final Mass attended by Father Dorney.


The silver-tongued orator was rightfully eulogized by the Bishop of Rockford, the Right Reverend P.J. Muldoon, at what was described in the 'New World', the diocesan paper, as "one of the most impressive funeral services ever witnessed by Chicago..." Every funeral limosine within the city of Chicago was utilized in the procession. In attendance were the families of the captains of the packinghouse industry - the Armour's, the Swift's and the Morris's, Chicago's politicians led by Chicago's Mayor Harrison and legions of parishioners, citizens of the city and Father Dorney's two sisters. "From the announcement of his death to the funeral on Wednesday, flags flew at half-staff over the International Amphitheater and the big plants of the yards. In tribute to Father Dorney, on the day of the funeral the stockyard companies suspended business for five minutes." [St. Gabriel: 1880-1980 (parish centennial publication).

Jane Addams has a nice stretch of highway and more pedestals than the Pantheon for serving bologna sandwiches and presenting Aristophanes to starving Italian, Greek and Jewish kids for only a penny, while Alderman Johnny Power put their Dad's to work.

Let's try and remember that Diversity should include breeders and folks who think its wrong to kill a baby.

James "Bro" Farrell and Leo High School 1941 National Basketball Champions

I got a call from Iggy Richards one of the all-time great Chicago Cathoic League Basketball heroes. He let me know that fellow Leo Hall of Famer James William "Bro" Farrell is residing at the Meadows of Glen Ellyn a senior retirement center. Bro Farrell played on both the Leo Lights and Heavies in his four years and Captained the last National Catholic Championship Team in 1941. After WWII, the Loyola University National Title ended forever, due to the costs of travel. These pages from the Oriole - The Leo High School Newspaper from 1941 tell the tale of Bro, the Lions and their great coaches Heavies Vince Dowd and Lights Brother Rupert Francis Finch, Irish Christian Brother.


Click on the pages for a closer and easier read.


The Leo Alumni behind the sweat equity of Tom Lynch preserved Leo's Yearbooks and many of the best pages of Oriole. Click my post title for a genuine history lesson.

Happy Fathers Day Gents!

Here are two versions of the Catholic hymn Faith of Our Fathers, by Father Frederick William Faber*. The first is the Irish/English version sung by Frank Patterson




Here is the more familar American Catholic version sung to the air St. Catherine by the Great Bing.

Faith of our fathers, living still,
In spite of dungeon, fire and sword;
O how our hearts beat high with joy
Whenever we hear that glorious Word!

Refrain

Faith of our fathers, holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death.

Faith of our fathers, we will strive
To win all nations unto Thee;
And through the truth that comes from God,
We all shall then be truly free.

Refrain

Faith of our fathers, we will love
Both friend and foe in all our strife;
And preach Thee, too, as love knows how
By kindly words and virtuous life.

Refrain

NOTE: Re­flect­ing Fa­ber’s Ca­tho­lic roots, the orig­in­al third stan­za was:

Faith of our fathers, Mary’s prayers
Shall win our country back to Thee;
And through the truth that comes from God,
England shall then indeed be free.

Thanks Dad!

* Faber attended the grammar school of Bishop Auckland for a short time, but a large portion of his boyhood was spent in Westmorland. He afterwards went to Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1835, he obtained a scholarship at University College. In 1836, he won the Newdigate Prize for a poem on "The Knights of St John," which elicited special praise from John Keble. Among his college friends were Dean Stanley and Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne.
In January 1837, he was elected fellow of National Scholars Foundation. Meanwhile, he had given up the Calvinistic views of his youth, and had become an enthusiastic follower of John Henry Newman. In 1841, a travelling tutorship took him to the continent; on his return, he published a book called Sights and Thoughts in Foreign Churches and among Foreign Peoples (London, 1842), with a dedication to his friend the poet Wordsworth.
In 1843, Faber accepted the rectory of Elton in Huntingdonshire. However, there was a strong Methodist presence in the parish and the Dissidents packed his church each Sunday in an attempt to ridicule his Catholic leanings. Many of his parishioners were reputed to be living in sin and the village was notorious for its double standards.[1] Few people were surprised when, after a long, drawn out mental struggle, he left Elton to follow his hero Newman and join the Roman Catholic Church in November 1845. He translated Saint Louis de Montfort's classic Marian book True Devotion to Mary into English and was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1847.[2]
He founded a religious community at Cotton Hall, also known as St Wilfrid's, in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, called Wilfridians[3] (which ultimately merged in the Oratory of St Philip Neri, with John Henry Newman as Superior). In 1849, a branch of the oratory—subsequently independent—was established in London, first in King William Street, and afterwards at Brompton (Brompton Oratory), over which Faber presided until his death. In spite of his weak health, an almost incredible amount of work was crowded into those years. He published a number of theological works, and edited the Oratorian Lives of the Saints. [4]
Even as a Roman Catholic, Faber was a firm supporter of using the Authorized King James Version of the Bible. He wrote: "It lives on in the ear like music that can never be forgotton, like the sound of churchbells, which the convert hardly knows he can forget."[5]
He is the great-uncle of Geoffrey Faber, co-founder of the publishing house "Faber and Gwyer" which later became "Faber and Faber".[

Mark Helprin's Novel "Freddy and Fredericka"-Homunculi/ae,Read This Book

Last winter I read a wildly comic, touching and savage novel by Mark Helprin - Freddy and Fredericka. This novel takes a Royal Couple, imagine if Prince Charles loved Lady Di, and parachutes them into the United States without passport, cash or a heads up to the American government on a mission to re-capture the Colonies for the Crown.

The novel reminded me of Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman . Sterne was an early 18th Century Church of Ireland parson from Clonmel, County Tipperary. As with any man of talent, Sterne was removed from Ireland and established in a vicarage in Yorkshire and later moved among the great and politically important people during late reign of Queen Anne and the ascendancy of the German family that now occupies the throne of England.

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman pretends to be a memoir. This memoir is a howl. Tristram can never get to the point of anything, without narrative 'roads less taken.' His story meanders, winds, hops fences, swims and dances around every topic, in fact the details of his birth do not take place until the Third Book. That in itself is a wet-your-Haines and Dockers Moment. At the instance of shall we say 'conception' - that magic moment as it were, Mrs. Shandy asks her lover "Did you remember to wind the clock?" And President Obama calls Weiner a distraction.

Shandy life begins and continues as a series of delicious interruptions. Tristram is so named by Old Dad because of 'interruption' at conception caused a displacement of humours. The little human, or as Sterne calls his character Tristram from the Latin Tristis meaning sorrowful, continued with a parade of physical and psychological mishaps: His long and manly nose is mashed by the Doctor's forceps, later Tristram is inadvertently 'circumcised' while urinating out a window that is closed with great force.

Great force, wanted or unexpected, is what gives us "homunculi," or literally 'little Homos' the push and pull of living. That is why Mark Helprin's great novel Freddy and Fredericka so reminds me of Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy.

I gave my copy of Marl Helprin's Freddy and Fredericka to my neighbor Molly some weeks ago. I therefore must turn to others for help in presenting some synopsis and of course my favorite passage: This first os from Mr. Mark Flanagan:

Freddy and Fredericka is just such a book. It is a modern day tale of the Prince of Wales and his princess, a royal couple known for their generosity with the media, each in their own manner. Prince Freddy, though he resembles no one so much as Alfred E. Newman, is nobody's fool. He is an erudite and honorable prince devoted unswervingly to the kingly ideal. Unfortunately, he often finds himself bumbling squarely into the embarrassing end of a misunderstanding, and the media is never far off when this happens.

In a particularly scandalous incident, Freddy is sent off in the night by his wife to chase down her dog, a pit bull with the unfortunate name of Pha-Kew (The dog was named after his former master, Fredericka's deceased Chinese nutritionist, who died of malnutrition). As usual, it is precisely when Freddy is chasing the dog through the British countryside yelling "Pha-Kew! Pha-Kew!" that he happens upon a wedding party and their concurrent video cameras.
Fredericka's contributions to the media are of a more appealing sort. It is with her golden tresses, sapphire-blue eyes, and unparalleled beauty, that Fredericka captures the nation, indeed the world. And perhaps England's Queen, Freddy's mother, wouldn't find this so disagreeable, if she didn't then hold the world rapt with her amply displayed cleavage. ( here follows the passage taken from At a Hen's Pace Blog spot)

“A bosom?”


“Yes, a bosom.”


“But Freddy, why do you say that? You know I’ve got two.”


This shut Freddy up like a stun grenade. “Two what?” he finally said.


“Two bosoms.”


“No, you don’t. You’ve got one bosom. One, only one.”


“No, I don’t. I’ve got two,” she said proudly…”One here, and one here.”


…”Sorry, Fredericka, but the fact is, and I know it for sure, and would stake my life on it, that you have only one.”


“The h*ll I do!”


“Yes, you’ve got one bosom, two teats (spelled t-e-a-t-s and pronounced tits), and two breasts. And that’s a fact.”


“Oh! So now I’ve got five!”


“Five what?”


“Five bosoms.”


“No, you’ve got only one.” Freddy and Fredricka


The novel, like Sterne's Tristram Shandy is one wild ride that includes Republican Candidates, Bikers, Mobbed up Burglars, Medieval Times Ne'er-Do-Wells, Forest Firefighters, and a nasty little prick of a Scottish kid who becomes a member of the House of Lords.


Any novel that is willing to descant upon the nature and nomenclature of a Babe's Knockers is aces with me.


http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/fiction/fr/fredyFredericka.htm

Abortion Kills - Planned Parenthood Provides Abortions and Illinois Lacks Honest Reports from Planned Parenthood

I once asked a girl out on a date in the early to mid- 1970's when I lived in Kankakee, Illinois. I was a baby teacher at Bishop McNamara. The girl in question was easy on the eyes, working on a Masters Degree at University of Chicago and lived in the Lakeview neighborhood. Because she was a more than physically fetching woman and I am and remain a shallow and goatishly inclined ID-impelled male breeder, I was attracted to say the least. My better angels were awakened later in the evening.

I drove into Chicago in my 1968 reptilian green Chevy Chevelle and picked the young woman up on Sheridan Road. She worked as a volunteer at Planned Parenthood situated across from my Alma Mater Loyola University of Chicago. I took her to an Indian restaurant on Clark Street - The Bengal Lancer I believe -great tandoori chicken. Immediately conversation turned to a Woman's Right to Choose. I was against it. How could I? Easy. My uncle Larry Hickey welded shut the doors of an brand new incinerator at Cook County Hospital used solely to burn the bodies of aborted children. Cook County Board President George Dunne was pissed but he later promoted Larry "Bud" Hickey to Chief Engineer of Cook County. " They are not children; they are unwanted tissues." The girl got uglier and it was not the lighting. Few things put me off my feed, but an ugly woman tops the pile.

Prior to her grilling about Women, Choice, Patriarchy, and Tissue, I had thought that this broad resembled Faye Dunaway. My post-prandial opinion was that she was about as sexually and spiritually appealing as Bela Abzug with a cold sore.

I was never a strident Pro Lifer. Abortion is murder and no amount of Hegelian parsing and hair-splitting can make it anything else. America accepted the killing of unwanted children. That seems to have been the beginning of our problems as a people. If you can swallow a fetus, you can eat anything. Never acquired the taste myself.

Today Megan Twohey of the Chicago Tribune wrote a stone-cold sober piece on the fact that the State of Illinois is not getting reports on abortions. I do not know where Ms. Twohey stands on the issue, but she writes a clear and cold-blooded report.

Why does the information matter?

The confidential reports are "very important from both a demographic and public health viewpoint," according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which surveys abortion data collected by the states.In addition to illuminating trends in unplanned pregnancies and documenting access to abortion, the reports have helped to reveal that certain procedures carry higher risks of complications and that dangers increase exponentially as the pregnancy progresses.

In Illinois, reporting also provides an opportunity to monitor all doctors who perform abortions. Not all abortion providers are licensed as such. The Department of Public Health has licensed 14 providers as ambulatory surgical treatment or pregnancy termination specialty centers.

But licensing is different in other settings where abortions are performed, including at clinics where surgeries account for less than 50 percent of their business and at private physicians offices.

It is unclear which providers are making reports.

The New York-based Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights research organization, conducts its own accounting across the country. Its information is widely viewed as more accurate than what is collected by state regulators because the organization makes extensive efforts to identify abortion doctors and follow up with them.

It was Guttmacher that located 37 providers in Illinois in 2008, and it is Guttmacher that has consistently counted thousands more abortions per year than the number recorded by state regulators.

A Tribune examination of the reporting data collected by the state revealed missing information.

Providers often did not specify, as required, whether a complication was a tear of the uterus or another specific problem.

In certain medical malpractice cases reviewed by the Tribune, women said they were never informed by their provider that the abortion was unsuccessful and later underwent challenging pregnancies, painful deliveries and other complications.

Others suffered anesthesia-related problems, hemorrhaging and infections, according to the suits.

The federal government also identified gaps in Illinois' abortion surveillance system, saying that more than 15 percent of reports in 2007 did not specify how far along pregnancies were and what type of procedure was used.

Jakubek said the numbers of abortion providers documented by Illinois regulators and Guttmacher are different because they use different counting methods. The research organization's tally includes hospitals, clinics and physicians' offices. Jakubek said the 26 providers identified by state regulators "only includes facilities," but declined to elaborate on her definition of facility.

The problem of underreporting isn't limited to abortion, said John Lumpkin, who left the Department of Public Health in 2003 after serving as director for 12 years. But the agency lacks the funds to address it, he said.

"Whether it's flu, food poisoning or pregnancy termination, we knew there was underreporting going on," said Lumpkin, who now directs the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Care Group. "The health department doesn't have the resources to follow up with every doctor's office that is reporting food poisoning or flu, nor did it have resources to follow up with every provider of pregnancy termination."

Stanley Henshaw, a Guttmacher researcher, has explored abortion reporting problems and "lax enforcement" across the country.

Some providers feared that reports would fall into the hands of anti-abortion protesters or competitors, even though breaches of confidentiality are rare.

Today, Henshaw theorizes it is the shoddiest operators who are not reporting the abortions they perform. Either they refuse to comply or are so off the radar they are unaware of the requirement.

Abortion's Dominatrices Planned Parenthood are some cold blooded parsers:

"It is useful public health information. … We'd hope all providers would comply," said Carole Brite, president of Planned Parenthood of Illinois.

At the same time, Planned Parenthood could not confirm for the Tribune whether it had reported the 2002 death of Stevenson's wife, only that it had reported the 2008 death of another patient. The organization said it had no reason to believe the 2002 death was not reported but that the records were in storage.

And Family Planning Associates said it could not confirm whether it had reported three deaths, in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

A woman who identified herself as a manager of the Women's Aid Clinic of Lincolnwood would not comment on a 2009 death.

The Tribune identified these deaths as part of its review of malpractice suits.

Providers are required to report all abortion-related deaths to the state, not just those in which the death was directly caused by abortion or those involving wrongdoing on the part of health care workers.

Megan Twohey of the Chicago Tribune may be opening a can of gore like the one spilled all over Philadelphia. This article might shed some light on the subservient elected chattel in the service of Planned Parenthood - most elected officials and nearly all Democrats.

Planned Parenthood has a history of fronting its blood letting with well-made-up and fashionable women. What they do really makes them as ugly as a bald dog playing in pile of bloody guts.

Theological Conundrum in a Fabuleaux Fableux

In Old Chicago, the Everleigh Sisters had a fine relationship with a parish priest - Young Father Pat Molloy of St. Clementine's Mission at Cermak and Clark.




Ada and Mina Everleigh, the most successful Madames on the Levee, were bird lovers and had two parrots. The parrots became a problem, so Mina went to see Father Pat. "I have two talking female parrots," she tells him. "All they can say is 'Hi, we're Hookers. Do you want to have some fun?'"

"That's awful," the priest agreed, "but I have a solution to your problem. I have two male parrots whom I've taught to pray, chant Latin and read Scripture. If we put your parrots with mine, I believe yours will stop saying that awful phrase and will instead learn to recite the word of God."

The next day, the Everleigh Girls brought their parrots to the run-down rectory of St. Clemmie's and put the two brassy birds in with the pious parrots, who were holding rosary beads and chanting in Gregorian in their cage -"Deus, ut aliquid nobis duabus puellis sexus eorum. Sacerdos . . . nos custodit."


"Hi, we're prostitutes," say the females. "Do you want to have some fun?"
One male parrot looks at the other and squawks, "Close that Bible, Frank! Our prayers are answered!"

Haec est via quae semper in Chicago!
vadis ad ecclesiam

History? Just a Bunch of Stuff That Already Happened - American Education Fails Fabulously!

Of all the studies by which men acquire citizenship of the intellectual commonwealth, no single one is so indispensable as the study of the past. Of History -Lord Bertrand Russell

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.
John Dewey

Life without even a basic understanding of the past has been accomplished by John Dewey the Progressive Hegelian Father of American Public Education. Sadly, even some Catholic schools and far too many universities ape Public Education and have cashed in classical learning for Dewey's shell game.

Here are the results of Mr. Tests & Measurements' handiwork:

The overall lackluster performance is certain to revive the debate about whether history and other subjects, such as science and art, are being pushed out of the curriculum because of the focus on math and reading demanded under the No Child Left Behind federal education law. The federal law mandates that students be tested in math and reading.

Sue Blanchette, president-elect of the National Council for Social Studies, a national association of K-12 and college social-studies teachers, called the results disheartening and said history education has been marginalized in the last decade.

"Everyone is going to participate in civic life by paying taxes, protesting against paying taxes, voting, and we must teach our children how to think critically about these issues," she said. "Clearly, we are not doing that."

Click my post title for the Wall Street Journal's report on the American social studies shame.

Sue Blanchette is 'disheartened' that is Progressive speak for "more tax dollars."

Here is a critical thought, Sue, how about teaching civics and history. Here is another gem from Johnny Dewey - "Education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living." John Dewey and Jane Addams and Mary McDowell and other turn of the 20th Century Hegelian's bullied educational methods into place that eroded public education and murdered America's sense of History.

The History Channel is a monument to John Dewey. History is series of Nostradamus, Ice Road Truckers, Pawn Stars, Swamp People, American Pickers ( "Fabulous Bric-a Brac!") Larry the Cable Guy and UFO's. Reality TV as History.

The American public school classroom is no different. A coach (of whatever sport is necessary) pops in a disc of Glory and accepts a paper posing the question of why they didn't use flame-throwers or call in airstrikes. No teacher would consider recording the Sunday Morning lectures from the Pritzker Military Library on every Sunday on cable, because the lectures might be too boring.

Dewey demanded that education be play! He built the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago upon that very dictum.

Education is preparation and our students are unprepared.

Teaching should be harder than learning and learning is everything that it is cracked up to be.

History was written by 'Dead White Men' we are told by Educators. White Guys like Berossus of Babylonia which is now called Iraq, St. Augustine the Bishop of Hippo, a suburb of Carthage which is in North Africa; Ban Zhao of the Han Dynasty - not the Swedish Zhaos mind you. There were a few skirts too, like Mary Bonaventure Browne, Poor Clare 16th Century Irish historian.

How many Chicagoans could tell you why Comiskey Park was built on Shields Ave*.? That is a leading question. All good teaching is leading. Education comes from a Dead Language - educere - to lead away from . . .that would be from ignorance. John Dewey encourage education to be contrarian -that is Progressive: No exceptionalism!

Here, in essence, is American Eduction ala John Dewey:


I'm not kidding.

Ignorance is temporary but stupid is forever. It seems Education in America is Dewey forever. We can do and have done much better, but that would require a sense of history and John Dewey helped kill that with a great deal of help.

* James Shields Elementary School in Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood is named for Senator/General james J. Shields the only American to be elected a United States Senator from three states ( Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri), who nearly fought a dual with Abraham Lincoln, was a hero of the Mexican American War and the only Union General to defeat Confederate General Thomas Stonewall Jackson in the field at 1st Battle of Kernstown in 1862. Likewise Shields Ave. is named for the same man. Charles Comiskey's father served in the Union Army and prior to that was a member of the Shields Guards Militia which partly formed the 23rd Illinois Irish Brigade. History is a big deal made of very small things.

Update from Mr. Dan Kelley, historian/journalist/attorney

Honest John Comiskey was also a Chicago alderman. His son was tipped to the fact that street car lines were going to be routed towards the area where the ballpark was eventually erected (on the site of a former dump) and this was a valuable consideration for the site of the Baseball Palace of the World.

Oddly enough, the same architect worked on both Comiskey Park and Weegham Park (later remodeled and renamed Wrigley Field), but Charles Comiskey scaled back on Zachary Taylor Davis' plans and cut expenditures whereas the Northside Park was built on a more liberal basis.

The Compleat Anglers - on the Mighty Kankakee River

Piscator And upon all that are lovers of virtue; and dare trust in his providence; and be quiet; and go a Angling. "Study to be quiet." Sir Issac Walton

The hours that I spent with my rod parallel to the green waters of pond and roiling torrents of the mighty Kankakee. Often waist deep in the bubble and flow, with my Converse Chuck Tailors protecting my heels, soles and toes from shards of beer bottle and pop-tops atop the shifting limestone home of catfish and river clam. I saw sunrise and sundown bookending my hours transifixed upon the lessons of Heraclitus and wall-eyed quarry below. Bass-Yanker, I!

The magnetic pull of God's own torpedoes with my Twister Tails hooked through their lips and gills darted my soul with them and meditations on my hours on earth as so much plastic line to be pulled in vain from God's Will. Vanitas, Vanitatum ominia vanitas!I drank a lot of beer too.

One Day while casting and reeling with colleague and boon chum Charlie Olson a Compleat Angler and River Ranger, just west of Momence we listened to two rough sons of the spillway and millrace - not far from our places in the flow. A funeral procession snaked along the banks of Kankakee River toward St. Patrick's Cemetery. One of the men stands up, takes off his hat, and bows.

"That was a very nice thing to do," says the second man.

"Well," sniffles the first, "we were married for 25 years."

Charlie and I were moved to toast his gallantry with a couple of stout swallows of Rhinelander.

Fish On!

Now for the Art of catching fish, that is to say, How to make a man that was none to be an Angler by a book, he that undertakes it shall undertake a harder task than Mr. Hales, a most valiant and excellent fencer, who in a printed book called A Private School of Defence undertook to teach that art or science, and was laughed at for his labour. Not but that many useful things might be learned by that book, but he was laughed at because that art was not to be taught by words, but practice: and so must Angling. And note also, that in this Discourse I do not undertake to say all that is known, or may be said of it, but I undertake to acquaint the Reader with many things that are not usually known to every Angler; and I shall leave gleanings and observations enough to be made out of the experience of all that love and practice this recreation, to which I shall encourage them. For Angling may be said to be so like the Mathematicks, that it can never be fully learnt; at least not so fully, but that there will still be more new experiments left for the trial of other men that succeed us.

But I think all that love this game may here learn something that may be worth their money, if they be not poor and needy men: and in case they be, I then wish them to forbear to buy it; for I write not to get money, but for pleasure, and this Discourse boasts of no more, for I hate to promise much, and deceive the Reader.

BEST AREAS TO FISH: In town of Momence, below Kankakee Dam and Wilmington Dam are best spots - whole river system is experiencing slightly higher than normal but falling water levels. Fishing conditions are fair and improving with and moderate water clarity. The spring rains are here...check water levels. Remember...April showers brings big fish in May and June! Go Fishing!

WATER CONDITION: Water levels are higher than normal for this time of the year. Water levels are falling and with low to moderate clarity, 50 degrees.

FISH: Walleye ... rated fair, post-spawning most anglers who are catching fish are below dams and along rocking shorelines. Spawning activities should begin the first 2 weeks of April. Best success with drifting and casting floating jigs and minnows and lead heads with twister tails tipped with minnows, boat/bank, below dam in tailwaters, rocky shorelines, and woody structure along banks are best areas. Fish caught range from 3 to 8 pounds.

FISH: Crappie .... fair, spawn conditions, some anglers are catching small fish. Best fishing with casting to cover and structure with lead heads tipped with twister tails and or minnows, casting twister tails, minnows with a slip bobber are also producing, both boat and bank anglers are finding crappie

FISH: Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass .... rated fair, spawn conditions, most anglers are catching fish. Best fishing with casting to cover and structure with inline rooster tails and safety pin type spinner baits, lead heads tipped with twister tails and or minnows, casting twister tails, minnows with a slip bobber are also producing, both boat and bank anglers are finding some largemouth and smallmouth bass. Fish caught range from 1 to 3.5 pounds.

FISH: Northern Pike ... spotty, post-spawning activities have begun, most anglers who are catching fish are below dams and along rocking shorelines. Best success with drifting and casting lead head with twister tails tipped with large minnows (golden roaches, suckers), in backwaters, boat/bank, below dam in tailwaters, rocky shorelines, and woody structure along banks

FISH: Rock Bass .... spotty, spawn conditions, anglers are catching fish. Best fishing with casting to cover and structure with lead heads tipped with twister tails and or medium sized minnows, casting twister tails, minnows with a slip bobber are also producing rock bass
Carp, suckers, buffalo, and catfish have started to wake-up to spring.



Information provided by Franks Bait Shop in Momence and The Dam Bait Shop in Wilmington

Tacitus:Economy in Writing - History Without Whiteout

I am re-reading Tacitus' Annals. This history is a study of the surrender of freedom by a people who pretended to live in freedom, while giving up their principles and dignity by managing to ignore their past. The Annals is a study of monsters created by the very people who abhorred monsters -Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero. Tiberius was Emperor contemporary to Christ's crucifixion.

Tacitus was a senator who understood Rome's capitulation to tyrants and madmen. He was born during the reign of Nero. From the time of Julius Caesar's death ( 44 BC) up to the birth of the historian, Rome's patrician, aristocratic families were obliterated in purges - murdered and their property redistributed. Patrician families allied to the Julians, Claudians & etc. prospered. Octavian became Rome's first Emperor (Imperator or Commander) Augustus Caesar; though he never led legions in battle and had his pal Agrippa win all of his battles for him and had none of the qualities of his uncle/adoptive father Gaius Julius Caesar, August boiled out propaganda and paid off those he did not murder. From Augustus through Nero, Rome went downhill.

What struck me most about the Annals was the opening paragraph. Here is pure economy in words.

A.D. 14, 15

Rome at the beginning was ruled by kings. Freedom and the consulship were established by Lucius Brutus. Dictatorships were held for a temporary crisis. The power of the decemvirs did not last beyond two years, nor was the consular jurisdiction of the military tribunes of long duration. The despotisms of Cinna and Sulla were brief; the rule of Pompeius and of Crassus soon yielded before Caesar; the arms of Lepidus and Antonius before Augustus; who, when the world was wearied by civil strife, subjected it to empire under the title of "Prince." But the successes and reverses of the old Roman people have been recorded by famous historians; and fine intellects were not wanting to describe the times of Augustus, till growing sycophancy scared them away. The histories of Tiberius, Caius, Claudius, and Nero, while they were in power, were falsified through terror, and after their death were written under the irritation of a recent hatred. Hence my purpose is to relate a few facts about Augustus- more particularly his last acts, then the reign of Tiberius, and all which follows, without either bitterness or partiality, from any motives to which I am far removed.

In one paragraph, Gaius Cornelius Tacitus explains how a Republic devolved into a tyranny through butt-kissing, bribery, and cowardice. We wonder where elected goofs like Congressman Tony Weiner spring up; how legislatures continue to turn our way of life into kleptocracy run by the same crowd; where will things turn-around. Tacitus wondered the same damn thing. We vote for it.

St. Cajetan Mass for Veterans and Serving Heroes Today at 2 P.M.

The religious ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday at St. Cajetan Church, 2445 W. 112th St. There will be a brief Mass, or blessing, followed by a ceremony complete with Chicago Fire Department bagpipers and World War II Rangers and veterans leading the pledge.

Retired military serviceman Mike Vasko, who served 21 years in the Navy and three years in the Army National Guard, said he also wants to take time to thank spouses from back home.

“I just want to say ‘thank you’ to our wives and kids, they should get the rewards as well,” Vasko said.

Chicago-area military families who lost loved ones will be presented with flags that flew in combat and then at Ground Zero in New York City.

A New York City firefighter, who was in the World Trade Center when it collapsed, will present those honors.

“Our goal is to fill up the church and really show these guys how much we love them,” McCauley said.

The McCarthy Group is a group of Chicago police and firefighters, New York City firefighters and several combat veterans formed in honor of Col. Joseph McCarthy*, McCauley said. McCarthy was a Chicago firefighter and World War II veteran.

Joseph Jeremiah McCarthy (August 10, 1911 – June 15, 1996) was a mustang officer in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, who served during World War II and the Korean War. He was also the Superintendent of Ambulances in the Chicago Fire Department,[1] however, with respect for his wartime heroics, firefighters continued to address him by his wartime military rank of "Captain."[2]
Historian Bill D. Ross would write about him in 1985:
McCarthy was thirty three; overage for a company commander. He was Irish and he looked it: husky, red complexioned, pug nose. Superior officers sometimes found his manner abrasive, but unlike many Irishmen, he wasn't talkative. He was, in fact, laconic and tight-lipped. "I don't like malarkey or bullshit," the Chicagoan often said. But Joe McCarthy knew the uncompromising business of battle; he had the Silver Star for leading his company up a savagely contested hill on Saipan and his men called him "the best damned officer in the Marine Corps."[3]
The building that houses the headquarters of 2nd Battalion 24th Marines in Chicago is named in his honor. Lieutenant Colonel McCarthy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery[2] following a funeral mass at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago.[4]Medal of Honor citationMarine Corps service

McCarthy first enlisted in the Marine Corps on February 20, 1937 in Chicago and served for four years. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he re-enlisted and returned to active duty in February 1942. In June of that year, he was discharged with the rank of first sergeant in order to accept a commission in the Marine Corps Reserve.
McCarthy joined the 4th Marine Division shortly thereafter, and went overseas in January 1944. While deployed, he took part in the Roi-Namur, Saipan-Tinian, and Iwo Jima campaigns. He was awarded the Silver Star for heroism as a rifle company commander on Saipan in 1944. He received the Purple Heart with Gold Star for wounds received in action on Saipan and Iwo Jima.
On February 21, 1945, as a captain, he earned the Medal of Honor on Iwo Jima, while leading an assault team across exposed ground to wipe out positions holding up the advance of his company. "I was scared all the time," McCarthy said later. "Any man tells you he wasn't scared was an imbecile. But you dealt with it."[4] President Harry S. Truman presented the Medal of Honor to McCarthy in ceremonies at the White House, held on October 5, 1945. As Truman presented the Medal, he told McCarthy, "I'd rather have one of these than be President."[4]
Released from active duty following the war, he held the grade of lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve.[5]
[edit]After the war

In 1949, McCarthy drove from Maine to North Carolina visiting the families of 26 Marines who had been killed in action on Iwo Jima. Each one of them, he told the families, had been just as brave as he was, just not as lucky.[4]
McCarthy was the Grand Marshall of the City of Chicago's St. Patrick's Day Parade in 1959.[6]
McCarthy retired from the Marine Corps Reserve in 1971 and from the Chicago Fire Department in 1973. Thereafter, he and his wife split their time between homes in Wisconsin and Delray Beach, Florida. His wife, Anita, died in 1978. The couple had no children.[4]
"I would hope and pray there never be another Medal of Honor issued," he said in a 1992 interview. "I hope and pray there's never any more wars."[4]


The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pride in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR to
CAPTAIN JOSEPH J. McCARTHY
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE
for service as set forth in the following CITATION:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of a rifle company attached to the 2d Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces during the seizure of Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, on 21 February 1945. Determined to break through the enemy's cross-island defenses, Capt. McCarthy acted on his own initiative when his company advance was held up by uninterrupted Japanese rifle, machine gun, and high-velocity 47mm. fire during the approach to Motoyama Airfield No. 2. Quickly organizing a demolitions and flamethrower team to accompany his picked rifle squad, he fearlessly led the way across 75 yards of fire-swept ground, charged a heavily fortified pillbox on the ridge of the front and, personally hurling hand grenades into the emplacement as he directed the combined operations of his small assault group, completely destroyed the hostile installation. Spotting 2 Japanese soldiers attempting an escape from the shattered pillbox, he boldly stood upright in full view of the enemy and dispatched both troops before advancing to a second emplacement under greatly intensified fire and then blasted the strong fortifications with a well-planned demolitions attack. Subsequently entering the ruins, he found a Japanese taking aim at 1 of our men and, with alert presence of mind, jumped the enemy, disarmed and shot him with his own weapon. Then, intent on smashing through the narrow breach, he rallied the remainder of his company and pressed a full attack with furious aggressiveness until he had neutralized all resistance and captured the ridge. An inspiring leader and indomitable fighter, Capt. McCarthy consistently disregarded all personal danger during the fierce conflict and, by his brilliant professional skill, daring tactics, and tenacious perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds, contributed materially to the success of his division's operations against this savagely defended outpost of the Japanese Empire. His cool decision and outstanding valor reflect the highest credit upon Capt. McCarthy and enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.[1][7]

Now Crowd Sourcing: WaPo and NYT Request for 'Help' With Trash-Bin Journalism Make Weiner Look Like Harry Truman

I was laughing at Anthony Weiner months ago. Like Illinois embarrassment Congressman Jan 'Turkish Bath' Schakowsky, this goof kicks his way up to any microphone and howls non-sense.

To me, Schakowsky and Weiner are what Progressives are all about. I admire liberals, but have yet to encounter a Progressive who was ever anything but a dull, mean-spirited opportunist. Liberals like Don Rose and Jim Carville always do the heavy-lifting cleaning up the mess created by Progressives.

However, the corporate media gives Progressives their scripts - Hegelian/John Deweyesque memes for group think.

Today, I read about a story I heard at earlier in the week that the New York Times and Washington Post were recruiting 'volunteers' to read Sarah Palin's e-mails from before 2008. President Obama has no more Osama Bin Ladens to sic Navy Seal Teams on and his "I Shot the Shariff" bump in the polls is under water. Well, time to go after the woman again.

Sarah Palin gives Progressives the heeby-jeebies and really brings out their natures. Sarah Palin had the Audacity to bring a Downs Syndrome baby into the world and she manages to be a very happy person. That galls the Hell out of progressives, more than the news that Cop, or Fireman won the Illinois Lottery.

Weiner was a disaster waiting to happen - it did. However, this crowd sourcing by the lazy yet smug Media makes Anthony Weiner
look like Harry Truman.

Today at 9 a.m. Alaska Time (1 PM EST), the Alaska state government released some 24,199 e-mails between Sarah Palin, Todd Palin and Alaska public officials from Palin’s days as governor—the emails were on paper and in boxes, still needing to be scanned. Sites across the web, from the New York Times (NYSE: NYT) and the Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) to Mother Jones and MSNBC, swung into action. Details from the e-mails hit Twitter within minutes and the first batch was scanned within half an hour. Already, we’ve learned that the Palins wanted to install a tanning bed in the governor’s mansion in Juneau.

But there’s something else—beyond the salacious nuggets—that’s notable about the Palin e-mails.


UPDATE: We have had a strong response to our crowdsourcing call-out on the Palin e-mails. We've reconsidered our approach and now would like to invite comments and annotations from any interested readers.

Here’s how to participate:Over 24,000 e-mail messages to and from Sarah Palin during her tenure as Alaska's governor will be released Friday . We’ll be posting them here, and are inviting you to comment on the most interesting or most noteworthy sections. Please include page numbers and, where possible, a direct excerpt. We'll share your comments with our reporters and may use facts or related material you suggest to annotate the documents displayed on The Post site. We may contact you for further details, by way of your registered e-mail with the Post, unless you specify otherwise in the comments.

For micro-updates as tomorrow unfolds, check out our new Twitter feed .

--

Over 24,000 e-mail messages to and from former Alaska governor Sarah Palin during her tenure as Alaska's governor will be released Friday. That's a lot of e-mail for us to review so we're looking for some help from Fix readers to analyze, contextualize, and research those e-mails right alongside Post reporters over the days following the release.

We are limiting this to just 100 spots for people who will work collaboratively in small teams to surface the most important information from the e-mails. Participants can join from anywhere with a computer and an Internet connection.

If you need inspiration before getting started, take a look at what to expect from the e-mail drop. For micro-updates as tomorrow unfolds, check out our new Twitter feed.


Index of e-mails (in chronological order):

- Alaska Records Request

- Alaska Records Request

- December 4th, 2006 to February 20th, 2007

- February 20th, 2007 to March 9th, 2007

- March 9th, 2007 to March 30th, 2007

- April 27th, 2007 to May 4th, 2007

- May 4th, 2007 to May 14th, 2007

- May 14th, 2007 to June 1st, 2007

- June 1st, 2007 to June 13th, 2007

- June 13th, 2007, to June 19th, 2007

- June 19th, 2007 to July 3rd, 2007

- July 3rd, 2007 to July 17th, 2007

- July 17th, 2007 to July 30th, 2007

- July 30th, 2007 to August 9th,. 2007

- August 9th, 2007 to August 21st, 2007

- August 30th, 2007 to September 7th, 2007

Click here for the updating list of e-mail documents and stories.

Have you read the Palin emails? Share the interesting or noteworthy sections in the comments below, including the date of the e-mail and an excerpt.
By Ryan Kellett | 10:56 AM ET, 06/09/2011

Mom and Dad can be real proud there Ryan! Why not join a flash mob and beat up kids from Misericordia?

Well, the response form Americans is less than approving. Here's a few ( all unedited and as they appear).



Top Comments (158)All Comments (2536)
Newest first Oldest first Most Recommended first

NoVAHockey
Greg was noting that Post is seeking help in reading the emails. I'm not sure what they're paying.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/h...
6/10/2011 1:33:02 PM CDTRecommendRecommended by 1 readerReplyReport
1 more (expand)


tina5
It is pure sexism the way Palin is being attacked. I remember how Hillary was attacked, too. The idea of calling on readers to dig through her emails is outrageous. Why don't you do your own job? And why don't you dig through Obama's past in the same way? I guess you're afraid of powerful women.
6/10/2011 8:09:12 AM CDTRecommendRecommended by 53 readersReplyReport
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markandbeth92
Y'all liberals sure do go to a lot of trouble to try and smear someone you consistantly say is an idiot.
Why are y'all so afraid of Sarah Palin?
6/10/2011 5:32:12 AM CDTRecommendRecommended by 61 readersReplyReport
28 more (expand)


Yoki
So we're going to spend our valuable time (in my case - $370/hr consulting fee) doing WAPO's job, for no monetary return? Why? I'm way left, have no patience with moron Palin, but I wonder why you think we'll all work for you for neither credit nor money.
6/10/2011 12:57:26 AM CDTRecommendRecommended by 22 readersReplyReport
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kitchendragon50
Rake your own muck. Disgusting that you call on readers to join in your festivities.
6/9/2011 2:04:25 PM CDTRecommendRecommended by 238 readersReplyReport
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Kevin Myers - Why One Writes, Yet Sales Stink Out Loud

I have written two books, articles, reviews, rants, confessions, obfuscations, grants, proposals, love notes and many, many apologies. I am blessed to have received payment for the books, articles and reviews. Go figure.

Those payments went immediately to debtors - Peoples Gas, ATT, ComEd, Cook County, The City of Chicago, and the great folks at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Some spare shillings and shekels went to entertainment and my snappy habiliments.

Great writers practice the art. I too practice the craft with the love of the game of a fourth-stringer. There are so many wonderful writers. Some of my favorite writers practicing today are not the best-selling political pundits and hacks, nor the plugged-in lawyers, let alone the socialite dabblers who pen less than meaty bestsellers, and columns. In my helot's opinion the very best writers are:

Joseph Epstein - America's Montaigne: Joe Epstein is to Pat Hickey as Tartar of Kobe beef with Imperial Beluga caviar and Belons oyster is to a Slim Jim.

Beachwood Reporter Publisher/Editor and moral titan Steve Rhodes who has more integrity than Gates has nickels

Actor/journalist/musician Michael Moriarty - God did overtime pumping talent, grace and courage in this fierce defender of honesty

Literary critic/activist Camille Paglia - The Total Woman

Lawyer/journalist Christine Flowers of Philadelphia - A Superb Person

Sports writer and Leo HS President Dan McGrath the King of the Declarative Sentence

Chicago historian Richard Lindberg If it happened Richard reports on it without varnish

Chicago attorney/journalist/historian Dan Kelley who is exact and poetic in presenting his prose

Jazz critic/journalist Stanley Crouch he writes with the soul of a sailor

Bloggers John Ruberry and Anne Leahy who keep Illinois wide awake to common sense

Novelist/historian Kevin Baker - read Baker's historical novels and understand America: Paradise Alley, Dreamland and Strivers Row better than Dos Passos.

Tribune columnist John Kass - Royko couldn't carry John's jockstrap, nor would care to

Sun Times Reporters Natasha Korecki and Mark Konkol Hope for Journalism

Second City Cop - The Flat-foot can sling prose

Humorist/actor/Film Maker Mike Houlihan: The Man is Pure Gold

18th Century Chicago Genius the late Tom Roeser

Journalist Dennis Byrne a reminder of Ray Coffey's honest prose

Demographer/journalist Joel Kotkin

Political Pundit Don Rose - Maybe the only Progressive who parts with a nickel

Crime Biographer/historian Rose Keefe - tougher than Smash McKenna after a full meal

Priest/Homilist -Father Tony Mazurkiewicz,O.Carm. & Father Gallagher of Sacred Heart Church

At the top of this talented tree, is Irish Independent columnist Kevin Myers. The man can line up words like Napoleon lined up Tirailleurs, Grenadiers, and Chasseurs at Austerlitz. Today, Kevin Myers presents a golden insight to writers in the face of reality.

Spilling ink does not portend a bankable pot of gold.

Wednesday June 08 2011
Few things so thoroughly test the will to live of Writers of Unsuccessful Books (such as this columnist) as the inexcusable success of others, and why they are so favoured.

Any tour of a bookshop by us WUBs reveals slain pine trees groaning beneath the weight of the pink-covered works by authors who may simply be described: TOP: Twenties, Ovaried, Photogenic. And if they're not T or P, but are still O, then there's always the Orange prize for women writers only (which is announced today: imagine the outcry from those well-known literary feminists Fallopia Whynge and Ovaria Fume over a man-only literary award).

The 'Daily Telegraph' last week gave a half-page splash to the first novel of a TOP named Georgina Bloomberg. The author is 28 and already famous, being the very successful show-jumping daughter of the even more famous Michael Bloomberg, the Wall Street billionaire and mayor of New York. Moreover, no doubt emboldened by family success, her sister nurtures serious political ambitions. Georgina Bloomberg's debut work of fiction is about -- well whaddya know -- a successful show-jumping daughter of a Wall Street billionaire, with a politically ambitious older sister. The fair Miss Bloomberg has even been interviewed at length about her "writing" by the 'New York Times', dear God almighty. So how was this possible? All was revealed in the 'Telegraph' story: "Bloomsbury, the publisher, said the idea for the book came from an agent."

Of course it bloody did. (Pause to vomit).

Traditional publishing is dying, and the market-driven, agent-led TOPification of books is one reason why. However, market distortions are not just at the TOP level of pulp fiction. It is now the norm for established writers to gushingly review one another's books: in Ireland, it is Colm/Sebastian/Joseph/ Anne, in Britain it is Julian/ Ian/Sebastian/Martin, interlocking literary torcs upon whose burnished gold the sun of mutually warm critiques never sets.

Which is why at this time of year, I almost welcome the annual outbursts of toxin from VS Naipaul, at whatever festival he is attending. Last week he announced at Hay that no woman writer would ever be as good as him -- to an entirely predictable fury. He is a quite refreshingly horrible man. He doesn't write to be successful or to be popular. He has no eye for a market, or an idea of what a market is. This is not a touching and beguiling naivety, so much as ignorance about the real world, which in scale is probably every bit the equal of the ignorance of the delightful Miss Bloomberg. But presumably unlike her, Naipaul exults in his ignorance as proof of his superiority, where in reality it is simply a pathological disorder.

Naipaul is a monster. His monstrousness is not made in any way more charming by his lack of guilt or shame. By his own account he repeatedly betrayed his young and vulnerable wife with prostitutes.

He is the kind of vile man who is murdered in the opening pages of a whodunit, and at the end we find that every single character we have met in the book, including the investigating police officers, plus Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Roger Ackroyd and Sherlock Holmes, have all entered the general and thoroughly deserved conspiracy to kill him.

Yet Naipaul is a sublime writer. No living novelist comes near him. It is an inexplicable paradox. The only other "modern" novelist who was so unpleasant was also perhaps the only English writer over the past century who was his match: Evelyn Waugh. He too was a monster: a posturing snob, a sneering bully and -- like Naipaul today -- an alpha male whom no one could ever best in social interaction, merely because of his status in the human hierarchy. This is a fact of life that confirms our condition as exalted chimpanzees: it is always impossible for lower status animals to defeat higher status animals in social conflict. No one left Bismarck's or Hitler's or Stalin's or Churchill's or Cheney's or Rumsfeld's offices slapping their thighs and chuckling triumphantly: "By God, I got the better of that dormouse."

WAugh's misanthropic life came to an end just as Naipaul's literary career was beginning, almost like a transmigration of abominable souls. Nonetheless, wise observers ought to judge the literary merits of both men solely for their written words, whereas their spoken utterances, full of hatred, bigotry and snobbery, should be treated with contempt.

But of course, the world is not wise, which is why Naipaul's recent and very silly boast, that no woman writer would ever be as good as him, has been making predictably loud headlines, with a drearily predictable indignation from Fallopia Whynge and Ovaria Fume. This is stupid: his opinions are neither worth repeating, rejecting nor reacting to, in any way. They should, like Miss Bloomberg's literary ambitions, and those of all her fellow TOPs, be totally ignored. Alas, that is not the way life on this planet works, which is what we poor weeping WUBs know all too well, as we watch Bloomberg make No 1 in Tesco, while Naipaul is the overall bestseller in Hodges Figgis, and Writers With Ovaries enjoy the Orange.

Irish Independent

Ain't it true though.

A Toast to Tom Roeser from Dan Kelley

A Toast to Thomas F. Roeser
By Daniel J. Kelley

I am finding it hard to mourn Thomas F. Roeser.

Yes, I am saddened by his recent demise and I will certainly miss his company and his op-ed columns and radio programs. I also feel for his many friends and family members who will miss him so much. I am not ashamed to say that I have wept for other persons who have left us, especially those who to have been taken at an early age, but not for Tom.

I am finding it hard to feel empty. I do regret the conversations that we did not have time to hold when the game was called, but my strongest reaction to Tom’s death is a sense of gratitude. I feel that Tom’s life is the subject for a celebration. I am confident that he is in the presence of the Risen Lord.

The Requiem Mass held for Tom at St. John Cantius was beautiful and moving. It was eloquent in its simplicity. The selected Gospel reading related the familiar account of Jesus comforting Martha and Mary following the death of their brother Lazarus in which Christ reveals himself as “the Resurrection and the Life.” The choice of this reading was perfectly appropriate, but, when I reflect upon Tom’s life, I am also reminded of the Parable of the Talents. I truly believe that Tom merited commendation as “a good and faithful servant.”

Tom Roeser lived a full life and remained amazingly active and engaged up until the last. His last broadcast aired on WLS 890 AM on May 15th; his final column was posted on May 16th. His radio retirement was announced only a few short days before his death. The truth of the matter is that Tom maintained a vigorous schedule up until the time of his last hospitalization. I hope and pray that I may still be so vital and engaged as I grow older. It was wonderful to see how many of Tom’s many friends were decades younger than he was.

In recent years, Tom had to make some adjustments due to a variety of medical complaints associated with his age, but I somehow thought that it was quite possible that he would spring back into action as soon as his doctors released him from the hospital as he had done so many times before. While this was not to be, I can say without hesitation, aches and pains aside, Tom would be the first to admit that he had been enjoying himself and having plenty of fun during his “retirement.” In addition to his radio appearances, he published his first full length book, “Father Mac,” a marvelous biography of Father Ignatius McDermott, the founder of the Haymarket Center which provides services to recovering addicts and alcoholics.

For many years, Tom Roeser and I were like the proverbial ships that passed in the night. We occasionally interacted with some of the same people, sometimes attended the same series of luncheon talks, supported the same charities and not for profit organizations, but otherwise did not associate frequently. Like many Chicagoans, I knew of Tom Roeser primarily through his appearances on panel discussion programs such as “Chicago Tonight.”

Initially, I was confused as to why Tom was regularly asked to speak on behalf of the Republican Party on Channel 11 inasmuch as he was not an elected official or a party officeholder. Later, having heard a few of the official spokesmen of the Illinois Republican Party, most whom were entirely clueless as to why they were Republicans apart from legislative district geography or regular paychecks, I came to appreciate why John Calloway preferred to have Roeser on his live broadcasts. Some of the official flacks could not articulate coherent opinions or begin to defend the Reagan Revolution or the Republican platform.

While I was familiar with Tom through these television appearances and his weekly columns in either the Chicago Sun-Times or the Tribune, I did not know him personally. All of this changed due to the Internet. Tom had begun his own web log and I found myself reading his daily posts and responding with occasional comments. Eventually, I sent him a complimentary letter and this resulted in my being invited to join Tom for lunch at the Chicago Athletic Association. I was surprised and delighted when Tom encouraged me to begin writing for “The Chicago Daily Observer” while we were dining in the Cherry Circle lounge. The next few years were such great fun!

I do think that Tom showed me a trifling amount of partiality once we became better acquainted solely on account of the fact that we were both educated in Minnesota; Tom attended St. John’s under the Benedictines; I studied with the Christian Brothers at St. Mary’s. While I was an undergraduate, former US Representative Albert H. Quie served as the Governor of Minnesota. I was to learn later that Tom had worked for Quie at the start of the Republican politician’s congressional career.

I am grateful to Lillian Roeser and the entire Roeser family for patiently sharing Tom with all of us for so many years. For a man who never held an elected office, Tom led a very public life. My hope is that someday in the not too distant future, Tom’s autobiographical essays are gathered together and edited into a full length book.

As a final observation, I am most thankful to the anonymous registrar who slated Tom Roeser for the Theology class taught by the Reverend Ernest Kilzer, O.S.B. This simple act may have made all of the difference for those of us who had the privilege of coming to know and love Tom and his manifold works.

Daniel J. Kelley is a regular contributor to “The Chicago Daily Observer” who was recruited by Tom Roeser.

Joel Kotkin on The Green Environmental Mullahs Beheading Common Sense

" So, I deal with the folks that invented the Zero and Mother Earth will shower blessings on Illinois? Well,Domo Arigato!" Illinois Governor Rube Quinn in February,2011

Illinois is a rube state - that is part of its charm. Trends come late, but warts seem to go away quicker. I remember seeing Leisure Suits at weddings well into the New Millennium and just the other day a guy asked if I had ever seen that TV show called the Soprano's what's on cable, but the swears are bleeped out, but you know what the guy is saying. You know? Only vaguely.

Illinois is all Gay Marriage, Green Friendly, and Twitter Savvy now. In recent years, thanks to our media and elected legislators who do exactly what editorial boards tell them is vital and that immediate attention required, Illinois has aped the twin Coasts East and West and banned cigarette and cigar smoking ( water pipes would have been anti-Muslim), movie popcorn butter that tastes good, bullying, and encouraged every snake-oil idea from Bullet Trains to Peotone to Green Everything.

Abortion Fans, Environmental Advocacy Groups and Gay Advocates joined forces and helped elect more than a few from the "yammering classes" to positions of policy power in Illinois - Terry Cosgrove, Debra Shore, Ralph Martire and others.

Illinois is taking itself as seriously as California, New York, and Massachusetts - costs be damned! Illinois will take decades undoing itself, like guys wearing mullets to LaLapalooza.

Joel Kotkin has had his thumb on the pulse of American folly for years -Kotkin long ago identified the American Progressive as affluent, urban/faux urban, often unmarried, childless, degreed, professional, physical fitness junkies, concerned with issues that immediately impact on their lifestyles. Kotkin long-ago warned of the SEIU Bubble bursting local and state economies. Today, in Forbes, Joel Kotkin likens Environmental Secularists to Iranian Theocratic Mullahs and their impact on the economies of both localities.

Then there’s California, rich in everything from oil and food to international trade and technology, but still skimming along the bottom of the national economy. The state’s unemployment rate is now worse than Michigan’s and ahead only of neighboring Nevada. Among the nation’s 20 largest metropolitan regions, four of the six with the highest unemployment numbers are located in the Golden State: Riverside, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. In a recent Forbes survey, California was home to six of the ten regions where the economy is poised to get worse.

One would think, given these gory details, California officials would be focused on reversing the state’s performance. But here, as in Iran, officialdom focuses more on theology than on actuality. Of course, California’s religion rests not on conventional divinity but on a secular environmental faith that nevertheless exhibits the intrusive and unbending character of radical religion.


As with its Iranian counterpart, California’s green theology often leads to illogical economic and political decisions. California has decided, for example, to impose a rigid regime of state-directed planning related to global warming, making a difficult approval process for new development even more onerous. It has doubled-down on climate change as other surrounding western states — such as Nevada, Utah and Arizona — have opted out of regional greenhouse gas agreements.

The notion that a state economy — particularly one that has lost over 1.15 million jobs in the past decade — can impose draconian regulations beyond those of their more affluent neighbors, or the country, would seem almost absurd.

Governor Pat Quinn gets many of his ideas from the same crowd of folks who have policied Illinois into near bankruptcy. Energy Initiatives are tailor made for Rubes. There is always the hidden cost. However, once the Green Mullahs have convinced Governor Rube to buy Mitsubishi I-Cars because it will not only lower Man's dirt Carbon Feets-Prints, it will create JOBS, JOBS,JOBS with State Tax Dollars!

NORMAL, IL – February 4, 2011. Governor Pat Quinn and Mitsubishi Motors North America (MMNA) today signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to support the advancement of electric vehicle and renewable energy technologies in Illinois. As part of the agreement, Illinois will receive a limited number of Mitsubishi Motors “i” battery electric vehicles (i MiEV) on a temporary basis to evaluate the new electric vehicle (EV) technology on the state’s fleet.

“We are continuing to make strong investments in our green economy, which are putting people to work across Illinois. This partnership reflects our mutual commitment to the EV industry here in Illinois, and our common interest in bringing the jobs and environmental benefits these innovative technologies will deliver to our state. In Illinois, we are doing everything necessary to stabilize our economy, and this partnership is an important step toward securing our long-term economic growth.” Governor Pat Quinn said.

http://www.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=18&RecNum=9201

Okay fellow Rubes, read Joel Kotkin's parallel study of trendy California and then read Pat Quinn's Energy Initiatives. Mitsubishi I-Car will be touted as costing under $ 28,000 dollars - but . . .

ShareMitsubishi Sets $27,990 Price for Electric i Car, But Read Fine Print
By Brad Berman · April 22, 2011

Welcome news about EV affordability, but premium trim levels bring price close to Nissan LEAF
Mitsubishi announced Thursday that its “i” electric car—formerly named i-MiEV—will have an MSRP of $27,990 (excluding destination charges), making it the most affordable mass-market electric vehicle available to U.S. consumers. This price is for the base ES trim level.

Read the Fine PrintWhile the base level i sets a new lower benchmark for EV affordability, a closer look at features and trim levels shows a price relatively close to the LEAF (and probably the Ford Focus Electric)—vehicles with more space, power and range. Focus Electric pricing has not yet been announced. . . .

The base model Mitsubishi i ES includes speed-sensitive electric power steering (EPS), LED rear tail lamps, driver seat heater, electric air conditioning with micron filter, remote keyless entry, 3-spoke sport steering wheel, an on-board recharging system with 120V portable 8 amp charging cable, and a 4 speaker, 100-watt AM/FM/CD audio system with MP3/WMA playback.

The price for the i climbs from $27,990 to $29,990, when adding a 360-watt, eight-speaker sound system, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, upscale upholstery, two-tone interior, 15-inch alloy wheels, and fog lamps. Add another $2,790 for the SE premium package—putting the price to $32,790—to get a navigation system, a rearview camera, Bluetooth, steering-wheel-mounted audio controls, and a quick-charge port. An available "Cold Zone" package will be offered on both the ES and SE trim levels of the Mitsubishi i for $150. It includes a battery warming system and heated outside mirrors.

The i SE package is 10 bucks more than the base-level Nissan LEAF SV, with an MSRP of $32,780, which offers a navigation system, Bluetooth, satellite radio, and stability/traction control. The LEAF SL goes to $33,720 when including a photovoltaic solar panel spoiler, rearview camera, automatic on/off headlights, cargo cover, and Homelink universal transceiver.

The key difference in cost between the two EVs could be the onboard quick charger, which is included in the Mitsubishi i’s $32,790 SE premium package—but the quick charge port is only available on the Nissan LEAF’s premium SL package at an additional $700, lifting the price to $34,720.

The other major distinction could be availability. Mitsubishi’s Yokozawa said the initial goal is to deliver about 2,000 units of the i, and later expand to between 20,000 and 30,000 units per year. Nissan is already delivering that quantity in the U.S., plans to steadily ramp up production, and aims to sell 500,000 units globally in the next few years.

Like I said, Read Joel Kotkin and remember what he wrote when you read upcoming mandates a-coming in our Rube Legislature to be signed by Governor Rueban Quinn.

Thank Mother Earth but take care of the old brain pan, Rubes.