Thaddeus McCotter 2012- Anti-Abortion Catholic, Pro Real Labor, Sensible on Free Trade, Plays a Fender Telecastor and has a Great Name

Thaddeus is a great name. It comes from the language only known by Biblical scholars and Mel Gibson -Aramaic. Aramaic is the language that Jesus spoke, a kind of Greek and Hebrew in a blender. Thaddeus means heart in Aramaic; Therefore, the purchase of thousands of bumper stickers sporting red faux ticker in place of the transitive verb following the nominative singular personal pronoun and preceding Thadeus would be redundant ( note to McCotter Spin Merchants).

Thaddeus in the Roman Catholic Faith is St. Jude Thaddeus the son of Cleophus and Mary, who stood with Mary Mother of God at the foot of the Cross, and is revered as the patron of hopeless causes.

Thaddeus McCotter is a Congressman who entered the Republican Presidential lists this 4Th of July Holiday Weekend.

Rep. McCotter arguably is the least recognized name in the very broad field. He has an odd name to be sure, but certainly one less exotic than the one on the mailbox at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. - Barack Obama was one term Senator from Illinois, when he challenged the power of Dean, Edwards, HR Clinton, Biden, & etc.

Here is a blue collar guy who will say, "With God's help, we can prevail." This is 180 degrees from the Mosh Pit Mantra of "Yes, Can We Can!" Yes, we can what? Bankrupt the nation? Abandon our Allies? Bow to tyrants and princes? Cash in the future? Keep killing the innocent? Yes, he do.

President Barack Obama plays a Rock Star, but he has no chops. Going on three years of Air Guitar Hero In Chief, perhaps it is time to listen to one who took the time to learn how to play. Here is Thad McCotter doing Norwegian Wood



He plays well with Democrats -The Second Amendments here at Farm Aid:



McCotter is married to a nurse, always a solid. MSNBC has no use for him and that is always a plus. Thad McCotter takes dung from no one - get this!



Thaddeus McCotter has the chops. Maybe, things are not as impossible as they seem.

http://www.ontheissues.org/MI/Thad_McCotter_Abortion.htm

Independence Day Prep Music - Great Wedding Photo by David Ettinger and John Fogerty Live in London

Groom wearing U.S. Marines dress uniform reclining and holding a child. Wedding photographed 8/21/10. Photo by David Ettinger. The wedding of Catherin and Ryan was photographed by David Ettinger right here in Chicago. The above seems to have been shot near Lizzie McNeil's Irish Pub on the Chicago Riverwalk, where the Skinny and Houli Show 'debriefing's*' take place.

John Fogerty lets loose in Perfidious Albion!




Skinny and Houli return to AM Radio -WCEV 1450, 3(M today. Do dial in!

* Houli and Skinny have yet to debrief me, as it is my habit, custom and wont to sport Boxers.

I was Born This Way and Worked on It - Christine Flowers Serves up the Progressives

I have been blessed to know some great people. Christine Flowers is a Philadelphia attorney and journalist who happens to be one tougher-than-calculus and gorgeous woman.

Today, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Miss Flowers offers takes a a rhetorical cutlass to the thin-witted rapiers of Progressive meme-enschanz.

Christine M. Flowers: My right-wing views are part of my DNA


By Christine M. Flowers
Philadelphia Daily News
I'VE COME to believe that conservatism is genetic, not environmental.
After all, to take a page from the gay community, why would I choose a lifestyle that subjects me to criticism, discrimination and general vilification if I wasn't born that way?

Now, allow me to dislodge my tongue from cheek, and I'll explain how social conservatives have become the new Nazis for some people. In fact, we've been lumped together with the SS by disgruntled citizens from Wisconsin to New Jersey, most of whom pay union dues and seem to have a particular penchant for depicting their governors as Hitler.

(And don't get me started on Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann, either of whom can't make a slip of the tongue without the New York Times, MSNBC and the rest of the media lynch mob turning them into a cross between Aimee Semple McPherson and Leni Reifenstahl.)

Some like to say that a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, but that's simply a way to denigrate those of us who believe in personal responsibility. Liberals tend to sympathize with the mugger, and have a hard time waking up to the fact that not every miscreant on the street is a Jean Valjean looking for bread to feed his starving family. Sometimes, if it walks like a thug, talks like a thug and looks like a thug, it is a thug - and no amount of social engineering will make the thug sympathetic.

Social conservatives, as opposed to their fiscal and foreign-policy neocon cousins, have had a particularly hard time of it.

While the mainstream media drums up grudging appreciation for a guy like Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who says we should abandon our fixation on social issues - and even had a (temporary) crush on Rudy Giuliani, who balanced his law-and-order creds with moderate views on abortion and gay marriage - anyone who is pro-life, anti-gay marriage, supports religion in the public square and thinks that the Equal Rights Amendment was a savvy scam is anathema to the Fourth Estate.

And when the media is agin' ye, thee has a problem, Pilgrim - because most of the Pulitzer-winning opinionators out there are unabashedly liberal, and seemingly incapable of believing that a rational being can ever be against abortion, same-sex unions, institutional atheism and anything else opposed by evolutionary amoebas like me.

So that's why I'm convinced social conservatism is a matter of DNA, not GOP, since anyone with a sense of self-preservation wouldn't willingly choose to live a life where you are considered a bigot, racist, misogynistic or, my very favorite, hopelessly stupid. Even those of us with advanced degrees, like Bachmann, a tax lawyer, are ridiculed as clueless simply because we don't sound like subscribers to Ms. magazine.

Our brothers and sisters in the gay community have made great inroads with the idea that they were born with their particular sexual orientation, something they neither acquired nor necessarily desired. They just "are," which helped reach the recent decision legalizing same-sex marriage in New York.

And while I used to struggle against that interpretation, given my strong belief that we are not slaves to biology, I have to admit that it makes life an awful lot easier if we can just say, "Hey, it's not my decision that I'm this way, so don't hate me for it!"

That's why I've decided that the next time someone writes a snarky comment after one of my op-eds calling me a mean-spirited "rhymes-with-witch," I'll try to convince them that believing in the sanctity of life from the moment of conception is as much a part of me as my attraction to men.

And the next time I get an email telling me I'm a coldhearted "rhymes-with-punt" because I don't think that the homeless should be able to use the sidewalk for a toilet, I'll argue that wanting to keep innocent citizens safe from unpredictably dangerous mental patients is as much a part of me as my Italian heritage.

And the next time I get a voice mail wondering why the Daily News employs a disgusting "rhymes-with-trucker" like me, I'll leave a return message explaining my belief that you can't give constitutional cover to same-sex marriage is as much a part of my inherited identity as my brown eyes and freckles.

I'm not sure it will work. But given the recent results in New York, I'm optimistic.

Christine M. Flowers is a lawyer.
philly.com/philly/blogs/flowersshow.

There is nothing sexier than a smart woman!

Today, Gov. Quinn Kills the Illinois Death Penalty, but Abortion is Okay - Is This the Language of Love?

Everything should be just jake, now!

Gov. Pat Quinn signed the ban on capital punishment March 9, but the law didn't take effect until July 1.At the time, the governor also said he would commute the sentences of those on death row to life in prison. Quinn wanted to avoid the inconsistency of having a death penalty ban for future crimes but still having inmates awaiting execution.

The reprieve cleared death row at Pontiac Correctional Center, where 15 condemned inmates were imprisoned.

Five days after Quinn signed the ban, the inmates got the commutation orders.

From that point, each inmate was evaluated for the most appropriate prison. All but one were sent to maximum security prisons, and most were placed in double cells with other inmates in the general population.

Teodoro Baez, a convicted samurai-sword murderer from the West Side, was placed at Dixon Correctional Center, a medium-high security prison with a mental health facility, officials said.

Over several weeks, decisions were made that scattered the other 14 inmates among Stateville, Menard and Pontiac. One inmate who stayed at Pontiac but moved into the general population was Brian Dugan, the killer in the 1983 attack on 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico, of Naperville.

Hey, glad to hear that these fine folks are cozy. Terry Cosgrove's Guv Pat Quinn* is deeper in Illinois Planned Parenthood's pouch than a new born baby Joey in Perth; therefore unborn kids will be facing the knife and forceps. Makes sense to a Progressive.

Murder, He says? Solid, Jackson!



*

Governor Pat Quinn's appointment of the head of a pro-choice political group to a spot on the Human Rights Commission.

Terry Cosgrove is president and CEO of Personal PAC, a group that is dedicated to electing pro-choice politcians. His confirmation passed the Illinois Senate by a vote of 30-25 Thursday, with Republicans vehemently opposed and debate getting so heated that two senators had to be separated, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Huffington Post

Harvard Study Finds Parades Are Too "Right-Wing"

"Fourth of July celebrations in the United States shape the nation's political landscape by forming beliefs and increasing participation, primarily in favor of the Republican Party," said the report from Harvard.




"The political right has been more successful in appropriating American patriotism and its symbols during the 20th century. Survey evidence also confirms that Republicans consider themselves more patriotic than Democrats. According to this interpretation, there is a political congruence between the patriotism promoted on Fourth of July and the values associated with the Republican party. Fourth of July celebrations in Republican dominated counties may thus be more politically biased events that socialize children into Republicans," write Harvard Kennedy School Assistant Professor David Yanagizawa-Drott and Bocconi University Assistant Professor Andreas Madestam. [Enjoy political cartoons about President Obama.]

Now, I ask you, what is more American than Cowboys -Windy City Cowboys!

Same Folks Who Buy Gender Neutral Probably Bought Pajama Jeans and a Hummer

Them ain't cowboy-boots, there Par'd! But, they will take you as far as Miss Kitty's Long-branch and all you might possibly dream!


John Kass beat me to the punch -sorry about the pugilist tropes this early.

Beat me like a four-fingered cousin from Scartaglen, staying with us until she gets her Green Card, because the Prendeville's in Ontario had no room for the poor homely thing.

Kass jumped all over the news about the Swedish Pre-School dedicated to gelding little boys and butching up little girls.

Gender neutrality is the ideal at Egalia, a Swedish preschool that made huge news recently. And it's the kind of news that makes American dads spew their oatmeal at breakfast.

"Society expects girls to be girly, nice and pretty, and boys to be manly, rough and outgoing," Jenny Johnsson, a 31-year-old Swedish teacher, said in an Associated Press story. "Egalia gives them a fantastic opportunity to be whoever they want to be."

I get it, girls shouldn't be nice and pretty. And boys must not be rough and outgoing. It's all laid out by relentlessly progressive experts and bureaucrats, aided by so-called gender pedagogues who hunt down gender differences and blot them out.

Unleashing the gender police on children to snuff out dangerous proclivities toward gender roles tells me one thing.

It tells me that Swedish bureaucrats don't have kids.

It tells me Brother John, if I may call you by that hirsute and sweaty appellation, that these morphadites rarely get out of the bureaucratic cubicle, much less get any such opportunity to pro-create.

The Swedish school will fly, for a while, because America has provided a surplus population of affluent nit-wits with the ready cash to buy Pajama Jeans, Hummers (ever watch a moron try to parallel park a Hummer around 31st & Princeton to avoid paying for White Sox Parking?), Keurig B3000 coffeemaker which lasts about six months, or the Home Juicers at $1,400 a pop. Disposable income and really dumb ideas, like Progressive politics, go hand-in-hand.

The gender neutral, we are all the same, meme is the coin of the realm of the laughable. The laughable are always dead-serious, The rest of us are just too damn polite to scream "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR $%^&ing MIND?" while hosing coffee and bottled water out of the old snot-locker at the latest presentation by Marque Ozzoro and Lotte Vuhlsheet at the recent CAPS, LSC, Altar and Rosary, or League of Women Bowlers meetings.

Let's get serious and start laughing at loud at these mopes. We have a sane world to restore and giggles be a great recuperative implement. John Kass' article is real kidney tickler.

Same Sex Marriage Demand - Using Race to Obfuscate

There are huge differences between men and women, thanks be to God! I am no Maurice Chevalier but I thank Heaven for Little Girls! That is not to say, that one might hold the opposite view - some do. Vive la difference!
Each time I see a little girl
Of five or six or seven
I can't resist a joyous urge
To smile and say
Thank heaven for little girls
For little girls get
Bigger every day
Thank heaven for little girls
They grow up in
The most delightful way.
Those little eyes
So helpless and appealing
When they were flashing
Send you crashing
Through the ceiling
Thank heaven for little girls
Thank heaven for them all
No matter where,
No matter who
Without them
What would little boys do
Thank heaven
Thank heaven for little girls.

What would little boys do? Now, I do not think that Maurice Chevalier, let alone Messieurs Lerner and Lowe were homophobic bigots. They were answering the question that has plagued man since the Fall of Adam. The answer was Eve. To be sure my position is rather less sophisticated than Lady Gaga's anthem, but the human species requires the old X & Y to propagate - have kids - Test-tubes, and biochemistry break-throughs not withstanding of course.


Marriage is between a Man and a Woman. Two men can and do fall in love with another, but they can not procreate; two women can and do have sexual yearnings for one another, but they will never need birth control. The great hue and cry of this summer's key media issue, which is always a politically manufactured crisis, demands that everyone accept that marriage is something that it is not and never can be.

The Catholic Church will forever be the target of hatred and derision in America and elsewhere, until the day that mitred cupcakes cave-in and agree that abortion is a Woman's "choice" and that homosexuality is a norm. One cannot find comment section on any web-article dealing with any subject employing the word Catholic that does not have a litany of

First off, if no one ever challenged their church, the Catholic church would still be killing the rest of you so why not let's leave that "they should leave" argument on the sidelines now, okay?

Second, Gay people are not "just like adulterers?, murders, liars. . .".We're people who love other people. . . . So, there has ALWAYS been only ONE and they are Catholic and Orthodox? So, is this the 15th century we're in?
Adoption is a civil not a religious issue, so getting the Catholic church (and their anti-gay bigotry) out of this business is a step it the right direction.
Maybe the Catholic church hopes the courts will overlook the fact that they also teach that only Catholics go to heaven (Yes, they do as this ex-Catholi?c and veteran of Catholic school can attest). It follows then that their paramount concern all along should have been with placing children exclusively?y in homes where they will be raised as Catholics. But they've never raised that issue with the state of Illinois. Need any more evidence that this is all about anti-gay bigotry and NOT, as they claim, about upholding general religious principles?? . . .
How nice that the church is willing to hold children hostage to their antiquated beliefs. . . .These priests always put the children last . . .
not the ones they rape." ( all from recent Huffington Post thought pieces)

The problem for the Catholic Church in America is one of leadership and courage. The problem for America is acceptance of group think.

The lawyers working for Gay Marriage are very good. They have welded Civil Rights and Race to the same-sex marriage meme. Homosexuals are Millenium Blacks in America.
The Chains are the laws of lifestyle slavery and The Stonewall Bar in New York is the bridge at Selma.

Not really, but it works rhetorically. Logically, historically, legally and biologically a man and man will never produce a child - the same for two women.

Today in the Boston Globe, there is a powerful article by Jeff Jacoby. I do not know if Mr. Jacoby is a Catholic or not but he writes a very clear constitutional law argument into the issue.

There is no disputing the emotional power of linking the campaign for gay marriage to the struggle over anti-miscegenation laws in the civil rights era. I agree that the two are connected. But not in the way same-sex marriage advocates think.

When the Supreme Court ruled in June 1967 that Virginia’s law penalizing interracial marriage could not stand, it was not changing the fundamental and enduring meaning of marriage: It was affirming it. It was upholding the integrity of marriage by protecting it from irrelevant — and unconstitutional — racial manipulation. Virginia had interfered with the core elements of marriage in order to promote white supremacy, a value completely alien to marriage. Marriage is designed to bring men and women together; anti-miscegenation laws frustrated that design, and could not stand.

Same-sex marriage, too, interferes with the core elements of wedlock in order to advance an unrelated goal — the dignity and equality of gays and lesbians. The fact that many decent people ardently embrace that goal doesn’t change reality: The essential, public purpose of marriage is to unite male and female — to bind men and women to each other and to the children that their sexual behavior may produce. It is rooted in the belief that every child needs a mother and a father. Gay marriage, whether enacted by lawmakers or imposed by judges, disconnects marriage from its most basic idea. Ultimately, that isn’t tenable either.

Here in Chicago last Sunday the issue of same sex marriage hissed out of the slashed tires in a warehouse on 48th and Halsted and the activists immediately cried hate crime - civil rights. Let's not confuse civil rights with personal and community pride - that is what Sharia Law is all about.

I don't believe that the nature of marriage needs to be challenged as a political dodge in order for two people to be happy together. Civil union up a storm, but let's not make a barnacle goose out of log in the water*.


The Gay Marriage issue has been brought to you by the very same folks who made the Big Box Ordinances a civil rights issue that blew up on its own merits. Gov. Andrew Cuomo looks good this summer.

Read the full article by clicking on my post title.

*

Bishops and religious men (viri religiosi) in some parts of Ireland do not scruple to dine off these birds at the time of fasting, because they are not flesh nor born of flesh.... But in so doing they are led into sin. For if anyone were to eat of the leg of our first parent (Adam) although he was not born of flesh, that person could not be adjudged innocent of eating meat.

Giraldus Cambrensis Topographica Hiberniaehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/16/agency-takes-over-foster-_n_878411.html

Christ Welcome Home Lura Lynne Ryan! God Bless You, George and the Kids.

I just learned of the passing of Lura Lynne Ryan. This wonderful and kind woman suffered for a very long time. The treatment she and her family had at the hands of the politcal hypocrites, especially those of the news media, made her fight with cancer seem like a day-spa.

Yesterday, justice caught up with a former Illinois Governor.

Law put George Ryan in prison. Through all of the political and legal troubles, Lura Lynne Ryan was gracious. I posted this some time ago:

I first met George Ryan, in 1975 when I was a baby teacher/coach at Bishop McNamara in Kankakee - a Chicago 18th Ward Democrat in Republican Land. In Fact Mimi Shapiro asked me to run for City Clerk as a Democrat - I figured what the hell -good way to learn the town. George’s brother Tom was the Mayor. The GOP slated Gene Glenzinski for City Clerk and the Dad of one my wrestlers and a better man never pulled on socks.

The Race was a blast and we had frequent ‘debates’ and run-ins with the Machine. George Ryan was a lovely guy. One day while walking to work, up Brookmont from my apartment in White City near Washington Park. I saw guys replacing Democratic signs that had been knocked down. I asked one of the guys ‘What gives?’ He said, ‘ George said to get them back up. You guys are gonna get waxed anyway.’ Laughed my butt off.

The Democratic slate was slaughtered, in fact I got the most votes -novelty votes for the kid, I imagine.

George Ryan was present wherever anyone from Kankakee, especially his political opponents, were in a jam or suffering. I saw George Ryan at St. Mary's Hospital visiting dying relatives of people who hated him politically. George Ryan had time for everyone. He was the reason why the Kankakee GOP was so successful and it was because he genuinely cared for people. The only person nicer than George Ryan is his bride Lura Lynn. That woman was everywhere!

I never once voted for George Ryan. Oh Hell, I'm a Party Democrat . . . I was anyway. I backed candidates who wouldn't give a penny to starving blind man . . .they would enact Programs for Hungry Blind and Indigent . . .once elected.

I have met George Ryan at many wakes and weddings, in Kankakee and Joliet. He is a very nice man. I’d buy the man a steak any day, at Ken’s in my neighborhood, or Krapil’s, or Franconello’s or some such homey place reminiscent of Kings Court and Town and Country in Kankakee, if he’d allow me. George Ryan did not seem to match Gibson’s or Tavern on Rush or the other news-ghoul & hustler eateries. These other fore mentioned places are where George Ryan’s people eat.

The type of people who go to Ken’s and other neighborhood dining spots are the people George Ryan connected to - not political allies, hangers-on or opportunists, but people like Ryan himself. I witnessed quite a few of George Ryan’s many acts of kindness to people who could never do any political boon for anyone - let alone George Ryan - too numerous to catalog. He treated Joe Blow from the docks at Tenney Sales on 5th Ave. in Kankakee like he was a Sam Zell with an ink wet contribution check.

Conversely, I have followed the words of many familiar voices in print that have universally called for a mighty punishment on George Ryan - most of the people writing those words seem like people that I can do without. John Kass and Tom Roeser are the only two valid voices of anti-Ryan sentiment in my opinion - there are others to be sure, mostly regular folks and I respect their feelings.

However, there are many more, mostly media creatures. who are stone hypocrites -DuPage GOP ‘almost weres and fatuous Polka Partners like Judy Topinka who could not get snug enough in George’s back pockets when he was flush with clout and now stomp on his crippled limbs.

It seemed to me that Ryan’s Judge and Federal Prosecutors were going to get George Ryan come Hell, Highwater, or the lady with the blindfold. and they did - the voices in print ( paper and electronic) - sock-puppets or anonymous back-shooters for the most part - howl in genuine agony that George Ryan has the same rights as other citizens. ‘The quicker he is in jail the happier I’ll be’ read one such post, or ‘Ryan can rot in Hell’. Must be a lovely people . . . to avoid.

God be good to your husband and children Lura Lynne, because I know He is glad to see you.

Frankly, Blago, No Else is Stunned.

"When the gap between ideal and real becomes too wide, the system breaks down."
— Barbara W. Tuchman (A Distant Mirror The Calamitous 14th Century)




Blagojevich on verdict: "I, frankly, am stunned"

From the Chicago Tribune archives:

Vallas vote
By Kathryn Krumsee | November 2, 2002
I'm with John Kass on this election. I am going to write in Paul Vallas with no care that my vote has gone to waste because I cannot with any conscience vote for either of the two clowns on the governor's ballot. If term limits are the solution to this terrible fix our state and city have gotten into politically, then we need to start working now to put them in place.

In the closing hours of the 2002 Gubernatorial Primary, March I believe it was, several goons from the Blagojevich Campaign vandalized the home of Paul and Sharon Vallas down the block from me. It was in the very early morning hours. Paul was out campaigning and Sharon was home with their three boys, Paul, Gust, and Mark.

A crew vandalized the yard sign, which is de rigueur in urban politics, but took it one step better - they terrorized a woman and her three kids. This was pure Milorod Blagojevich. Some of the political geniuses in the 19th Ward had made a pact with Blago, for whatever Byzantine notions of fortunes to come, and turned the cold shoulder to neighbor Paul. The Joyces and the Sheehans stood with Paul Vallas, as did most of the 19th Ward. The cowards who tried to spook Sharon picked on the wrong woman. Sharon Vallas is as tough as Calculus. Sharon tried to confront them herself, but they bolted - never to be caught. That is also politically de rigueur in this our urban jungle and the Reformer IVO-IPO Progressive Blago squeaked out a primary win and Illinois lost the talents and integrity of Paul Vallas.

Rod Blagojevich, whom our supine news anchors and blow-dried beat reporters called 'Charming' yesterday after Mr. Pistachio racked up 17 of 20 charges.

The Charms of Blagojevich were long lost on this helot voter and most of his neighbors. We viewed Rod Blagojevich as a shameless gate-crasher and serial dope.

Politics is loaded with shameless gate-crashers and serial dopes, but Blago is not just one rotten apple - he is the whole orchard.

This clown was willing to send his bride into the jungle to eat bugs in order to squeeze a few more dollars out of a culture that equates Larry the Cable Guy to Barbara Tuchman and a soul-patched, head-shaved mope like Howie Mandel to Paul Schofield. Why not a Blago over a Paul Vallas? Why not? Who's to say?

Illinois accepted Rod Blagojevich - Mr. Pistachio. He won the 2002 Democratic primary against one solid candidate and the National joke who would take Senator Obama's seat Tombstone Roland, the general election against another solid man Republican Jim Ryan and yet another term against the clownish Illinois Treasurer Judy Barr Topinka in 2006. I wonder who voted for Blago?

WLS tossed this disgracefully 'Charming' bully a few bucks, when his clown act, following the impeachment, in 2009 went National. Having a guest host who would devour used Depends at State and Madison at high noon would have been more dignified.

Blago is going to the Federal iron hotel for many, many, many semesters. His wife and kids will be on their own. Sharon Vallas and her three boys were on their own that night before the primary.

The Porcelain Unicorn - A Short Film That Says It All

This summer, Philips and the renowned director/producer Ridley Scott launched a global filmmaker competition dubbed “Tell It Your Way” following its Cannes Lions award-winning short-film project “Parallel Lines.”

The entrants were given freedom of expression and could take up any theme they wanted; still there were two strict rules—there had to be the exact six-line dialogue as it was in the Parallel Lines films, plus the entries could last no longer than three minutes.

Here's the prize-winning entry in Phillips' "Tell It Your Way" competition. It gets my vote for winning entry also. I can easily see how it impressed and touched the judges. Watch it here:



Thanks to the link from Max Weismann

George Babbitt Lives! And He'll Again Vote for President Obama, Support Abortion, and Gay Marriage

Yet Babbitt was again dreaming of the fairy child, a dream more romantic than scarlet pagodas by a silver sea.
For years the fairy child had come to him. Where others saw but Georgie Babbitt, she discerned gallant youth. She waited for him, in the darkness beyond mysterious groves. When at last he could slip away from the crowded house he darted to her. His wife, his clamoring friends, sought to follow, but he escaped, the girl fleet beside him, and they crouched together on a shadowy hillside. She was so slim, so white, so eager! She cried that he was gay and valiant, that she would wait for him, that they would sail—
Rumble and bang of the milk-truck.

In 1922, Sinclair Lewis had his comic novel Babbitt published. Warren G. Harding placed the first radio in the White House; construction began on Yankee Stadium in the Bronx; The Red Army captured Vladivostok; Sergei Diaghilev, James Joyce, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Proust and Igor Stravinsky dine together in Paris, at the Majestic hotel;The Mandate of Palestine is approved by the Council of the League of Nations; Joseph Stalin is appointed General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party and George Babbitt became an America metaphor against conformity.

George Babbitt conformed and fought his dreams. Babbitt embraced the American Secular religion of Boosterism. Boosterism helped anything and everything that kept things moving. Boosters were the shoulder punchers who wanted everyone to know the worth and value of their towns, affiliations, congregations and associations. Today, boosterism is called grassroots. It is based upon 'stay-on-message' group think.

When I read Babbitt for the first time in Father James Sheridan, OSA's American literature class in 1967, Babbitt was viewed as a two-dimensional hypocrite, a conservative, and a square, by many of us junior year close readers. Father Sheridan helped us read deeper. The guy was sincerely trying to do right by his family. Doing right by his family required that George Babbitt think like everyone else.

In Sinclair Lewis' presentation George Babbitt belongs to everything in his mythical town of Zenith, in the mythical Tri-State formation he calls Winnemac forged of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

Today, George Babbitt would belong to Planned Parenthood, Better government Association, Sierra Club, League of Women Voters, Move On.org and contribute to Public Broadcasting and Television, as well as serve on several bank boards, United Methodist boards.

Babbitt would be a 46 year old, suburban, well-schooled, affluent Progressive. Babbitt would be a cash-cow bundler for the DNC.

If he lived anywhere near Chicago, George F. Babbitt he'd be in the thick of every reform panel, anti-police study group and the Make Chicago Safe for NATO Committee. George F. Babbitt would have ridden aboard one of the Pride Floats that he made sure were not stored at 48th & Halsted and he'd be helping build a memorial to police torture victims. George Babbitt is a booster - in 1922 and 2011.

"Sarah Palin Is America," Michael Moriarty Calls It Correctly

Any people who agree that the killing of a child is choice, will also agree that two gentleman can procreate, that America can only win by losing, that up is down and round is square have been educated pretty badly.

When Washington sent Cornwallis and his redcoats out of the trenches at Yorktown, the Crown forces bandsmen played a song -"The World Turned Upside Down." The Monarchy was sent packing. The colonists fought to become Americans. The Americans fought the British again, as well as Napoleon's Navy and the Barbary Pirates to maintain a flawed but free democratic republic that eventually ironed out the slavery issues with the blood of Americans.

After two World Wars, a catastrophic economic and climate disaster in the 1930's, the America meant to be was built in the 1950's - a revolution in life style. That lifestyle brought ease and comfort to the Nation. Wars were no longer declared, but remained horrific. Korean and Vietnam war veterans returned to comments from neighbors and even family members, "Where have you been?" Bleeding.

"No matter, we have a new two-car garage, color TV, and free college tuition. Only dummies go in the Service."

Perhaps that ease gave us too much time to worry about ourselves. I know that I am about self-absorbed as one can get - well, maybe not always.

We allowed Roe v. Wade. To me that is akin to question asked of returning servicemen -"Where have you been? Out of sight; out of mind." Out of mind can mean madness.

Actor, musician, journalist and defender of the innocent unborn Michael Moriarty wrote a powerful endorsement of Sarah Palin in Big Hollywood. I agree with Mr. Moriarty.

Lincoln predicted that America would not be destroyed by a foreign power. If she dies, it will be by suicide.
Sarah is the only life raft America has right now. Any other candidate for the Republican Party, Romney in particular, will eventually be in the back room cutting deals with a virulently Progressive Democratic Party, a radically Leftist’s poison that has, with Obama, proven its own promise: “the fundamental transformation of the United States of America.”
After four years of Obama, the Dr. Jeckyll of America has already become Mr. Hyde. This radical experiment with a known Marxist in the Presidency?
Suicide.
Ms. Palin has said she will announce in the near future.
Should she even announce her withdrawal, I trust these words and those of others might help her to reconsider.
Sarah Palin is America.
America at her most beautiful, her most honest, her most simply eloquent and her most resilient.
Resilience is what America needs now.
Without Sarah Palin as President, America cannot bounce back.
Many might call a President Palin “bold medicine”.
With America on the edge of suicide, Sarah Palin is the “shock treatment” needed by the entirely moribund, self-defeated and suicidally depressed world.
The human race must either be pro-life or pro-death. Those “enlightened despots” who think otherwise and are certain we can “split hairs” into whole crops of Progressive New World Order Thinking?

Sarah Palin reminds me of the women that I admire. She is a happy person. She is happy because she is honest and unafraid. I always thought that Barack Obama was a pretty good politician, until he ran for President. He was elected to be sure. You can't take that from the man. Why he was elected will be the subject of history.


Well stated, Mr. Moriarty. I do not believe that Michael Moriarty is too much concerned about criticism. We still have the vote.

Miss Terry Sullivan Sings Real Jazz at Chicago's Serbian Village - June 27th

Miss Terry Sullivan will be the featured vocalist at the Serbian Village on Irving Park Rd. with some of the greatest jazz musicians in Chicago - Rich Armandi on bass, Tom Muellner pianist, and the great Rusty Jones on drums to name a very few.

I received this lovely note from Miss Sullivan and had to send my regrets due to Leo High School affairs.

Friends,

I will be singing JAZZ for one hour this Monday (June 27), 9 to 10 p.m, at the Serbian Village , 3144 W. Irving Park Road —the first set of what will continue in to the wee hours.

If you received this note, you are invited. If you know any jazz-lovers, please share.

The place is what jazz people refer to as a “fun hang.” It is decidedly un-yuppie and vaguely reminiscent of a low-end supper club. The owner is a genuine jazz lover and the food, if you want it, is terrific. The street parking is easy.

If you are free, come and toast the beginning of summer. No reply necessary.

All the best!

Terry

Chicago Entertainment Czar Nick Novich, of Nick's Biergarden, Nick's in Uptown, The Flat-Iron & etc., likens the stylings of Miss Sullivan's alto voce to the legendary Blossom Deary. See for yourselves.

This Canary can sing!

The Feast of Corpus Christi - The Body of Christ

I had a perfectly lovely day with Miss Terry Sullivan. Together, we searched for hardware to fix her blinds and picked up another useful household item at Sears on 111th Street in Worth. One of the parts needed could only be found at Mount Greenwood True Value and so we hooked around back east.

After, finding the requiste blind fitting, we light- lunched at a new restaurant Joseph's* on 111th Street, The soup, salad and red pepper Italian sausage with garlic flecked bread was just the ticket.

I took a long stroll through Mount Olivet Cemetery** with the lady I love yesterday afternoon. Mount Olivet is a history lesson on the south side. It is one of the oldest Catholic burial sites in Chicago.

Mount Olivet brings together families and history. It contains the tombs of Chicago giants, like Monsignor Maurice Dorney, the King of the Chicago Stockyards; Michael Cassius McDonald, the founder of not only Chicago organized crime, but as historian Richard Lindberg reminds us, the Cook County Democratic Organization; the victims of the Chicago Fire and numerous Lake Michigan sailing wrecks, the bodies of strikers who fought for the eight hour day in Pullman and the Stockyard Strikes of 1904, 1912 and 1919; Captain Francis O'Neill, the Chicago Police Superintendent who meticulously preserved centuries of Irish music. There are gangsters and Carmelites buried close to one another, but the striking feature for me is the litany of familiar south side Chicago family names - Stanton, Parker, Sheehan, O'Donnell, Bransfield, Enright, Blakey, McAullife, McGrath, Dowling, Brackin, Nash, Burke, Cullen, Ahern, Capriotti, McNamara, Capangna, Casto, Gurgone, Pilon, Gately, Foster, Arneberg, Jennings, Donahue, Moriarty, Testa, Angone, Antonelli, Morganelli, . . . at one time Capone.

They are all brought together - living and the buried - at Mount Olivet,on sacred ground and our precious history. There are rolling hills and trees. Mount Olivet is a great meditation.

Today, is the Feast of Corpus Christi - The Body of Christ. We celebrate the union of God and Man in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary and especially in the transformation, consecration and communion of His Body and Blood in the Mass.
John 6: 51 - 58

I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you;
he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.
This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever."

There is much to remind us of others. I generally need a whack with a two by four between the eyes to snap me out of my contemplation of my navel. A stroll with one I love through Mount Olivet had a much more salubrious effect.

*

Joseph's Restaurant and Bar
3123 W. 111th Street, Chicago, IL 60655
Google Map
(773) 445-5637

Phone : (773) 445-5637
Email : josephsrestaurantchicago@gmail.com

We are located on 111th street just east of Kedzie Avenue in Chicago - Mount Greenwood, IL

**

Mount Olivet Cemetery, 2901 West 111th Street
Opened 1885

Mount Olivet Cemetery was the first Catholic diocesan cemetery to serve Chicago’s southland. Established in 1885, the burial ground is one of the city’s most picturesque and was once located outside of the city limits. Catholics in Chicago were immigrants, and not surprisingly, city cemeteries reflect ethnicity. While there were German and Polish National cemeteries, the Irish tended to be buried in diocesan cemeteries. Mount Olivet Cemetery buried mainly Irish, reflected in its family plots and monuments of Celtic crosses and Irish names. Not surprisingly, a statue of St. Patrick is found amongst the graves.

Irish Nationalists of Chicago Obelisk at Mount Olivet Cemetery

Dedicated September 30, 1888

Rising 81 feet above Mount Olivet Cemetery is the first monument in America erected by the Irish Nationalists Society. In 1888, this Egyptian obelisk of Barry gray granite features a seven foot pedestal. At each angle are four Corinthian columns. The obelisk was erected in honor of those Irish patriot heroes who died in Chicago, yet had no family in their new country.

The face of the monument reads:

“Erected August 20, 1888 to the memory of departed brethren. God Save Ireland.”

Rascal Flats? Girls, I Like Flat Rascals

The Real Rascals!
The guys that hired them for a show at Orchestra Hall in the late 1960's -Peter Max and the Swami.

My daughter Clare and the Entourage of St. Cajetan's ( Now Mother McAuley, Marist, & St. Ignatius Prep Debs) are going to see Rascal Flats at the Music venue in Tinley Park, Illinois that changes its name every other week ( Tweeter, World Music, Eddie Carroll's Roofing Palace of Stax o' Wax e.g.) this evening. They have saved up a considerable amount of cabbage from baby-sitting local breeder clans, digging and potting plants at Olivia's Garden on Western, hostessing at The Great Beverly Pancake Haus, or waitressing at Ridge Country Club.

Rascal Flats is some kind of cleaned-up hillbilly band -"Life is a Highway."

I am a Rascal Fan! The Original Rascals Eddie Brigatti, Felix Cavaleri, Dino Danelli and the Irish guy on guit-box Gene Cornish and etc. These guys were very much like our Italian buddies from north of the tracks - the 69th Street Loafers.

These Rascals are New Jersey Soul guys -urban rangers. I was blessed to witness these guys and get paid for it at Chicago Symphony Center -it was Orchestra Hall back then.

Peter Max the psychedelic artiste and the bearded Yogi -Swami Satchidananda who was on Mike Douglas Show and Dick Cavett every other day, wanted to put on the concert of Flowers and Love! They did. Orchestra Hall smelled like Sheehy's Funeral Home after the promoters trucked in more flowers than a gangster's funeral. Peter Max had the place looking like a glue sniffer's nightmare.

The one thing that was cool- the promoters hired a bunch of Jersey tough guys to play.


The Young Rascals! They were good guys as I recall - drank beers - and we were as weird-ed out by the goofy set-up and theme as everyone else. Hell, a job is a job. I cleaned ashtrays and the Rascals rocked! Ticket sales were . . .modest - the show went over like a turd in a punchbowl. The Hall was emptier than MSNBC.

However, the Rascals were pros! They put on a great show.

John Murtagh - A Bombing Victim of Bill Ayers is Running for Mayor of Yonkers

One of the good guys is running for Mayor. Chicago elected Rahm Emanuel last April, by a huge majority. Yonkers, NY has an opportunity to elect one of the good guys -John Murtagh.

Like my Alderman here in the 19th Ward of Chicago, Matt O'Shea, John Murtagh is a young guy who has served his community out of a genuine sense of public service. In America these days we too often go for the packaged product - people of whom other people say are 'really great,' These yolks tend to make careers of public service via the back-door - they get appointed to positions of power, because they are endorsed by PACS, or come from politically approved families - Brahmins, like Chris Kennedy, Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon, Forrest Claypool & etc.

Good people learn public service from the sidewalks up to the porches and eventually are welcomed into the homes of real people. Grassroots, for politically naive, is made up of concrete and flagstones.

John Murtagh and I have maintained a respectful dialog for the last three years - he still cannot understand my loyalty to the Democratic ticket. My loyalties are tribal. I vote for good people, like Matt O'Shea, because I see the results of their labors and know their stories.

John Murtagh's family was targeted by retired distinguished professor of education and terrorist Bill Ayers. The Murtagh family home was fire-bombed, while I was a student at Loyola University.

Though no one was ever caught or tried for the attempt on my family’s life, there was never any doubt who was behind it. Only a few weeks after the attack, the New York contingent of the Weathermen blew themselves up making more bombs in a Greenwich Village townhouse. The same cell had bombed my house, writes Ron Jacobs in The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground. And in late November that year, a letter to the Associated Press signed by Bernardine Dohrn, Ayers’s wife, promised more bombings.

As the association between Obama and Ayers came to light, it would have helped the senator a little if his friend had at least shown some remorse. But listen to Ayers interviewed in the New York Times on September 11, 2001, of all days: “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.” Translation: “We meant to kill that judge and his family, not just damage the porch.” When asked by the Times if he would do it all again, Ayers responded: “I don’t want to discount the possibility.”

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0430jm.html

Since that time, John Murtagh studied, married and entered public service. Now, his neighbors have tapped John Murtagh to run for Mayor, like we used to do here in Chicago.

Mayor Phil Amicone and former Republican gubernatorial candidate John Faso will join Westchester Republican County Chairman Doug Colety and Yonkers Republican City Chairman John Jacono as Honorary Co-Chairs of a “Unity for Yonkers” Reception for John Murtagh.

Former Yonkers City Councilwoman Dee Barbato, Councilman John Larkin, and Councilman Dennis Shepherd will serve as the Co-Chairs of the Reception.

The Reception Committee includes Republican Ward Leaders Henry Sershen, Helen Calabrese, Mike Ramondelli, Justin Tubiolo, Rich Barbato, Stan Alexander, Mike Breen, Pat Dickerson, and Geri Esposito.

The “Unity for Yonkers” event will be held on Thursday, June 23 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM at Byrne & Hanrahan’s, located at 640 McLean Avenue in Yonkers. Ticket prices are $150, $250, $500 and $1,000. You may purchase tickets using a credit card online right here or at the door on June 23.

We in the Murtagh campaign are delighted to have such a broad-based coalition of Republican leaders and activists coming together to support John Murtagh’s candidacy.


Meet John Murtagh

John Murtagh has been the voice of civic reform and transparent government in Yonkers for nearly two decades.

He co-chaired the Committee for Term Limits in 1994, leading the successful fight to make Yonkers one of the first municipalities in New York State to impose term limits on elected officials.

As a first-term Councilman in 2004, Mr. Murtagh refused to accept a “free” city car, making it clear from his first day in office that he would not participate in the go-along-to-get-along politics that has marred Yonkers government and overburdened Yonkers taxpayers for decades. Over the past seven years, he has fought to cut spending and end overtime abuse, and has been the leading conservative voice in local government.

Getting Results

Councilman Murtagh is the author of the tough new Ethics Code for the City of Yonkers and the Board of Education, and he successfully amended the Rules and Procedures of the City Council to increase public participation.
As co-chair of the Real Estate and Economic Development Committee from 2004 through 2005, Councilman Murtagh represented the community’s interests in a number of major development projects. Since winning re-election, he has introduced cutting edge “Green Building” legislation; legislation to protect property owners from eminent domain abuse, and to reform unethical lobbying practices in Yonkers.

Councilman Murtagh was elected Republican Minority Leader of the Yonkers City Council in 2010, and serves as Chairman of the Municipal Operations and Environmental Sustainability Committees. He is a member of the Real Estate and Economic Development, Budget and Rules committees.

Serving the Community

Mr. Murtagh is a former Chairman of the Four Rivers District Boy Scouts of America, and currently serves as a member of the Executive Board of the Westchester Putnam Council Boy Scouts of America. He is a former Chairman of the Board of Pregnancy Care Center, a counseling and residence program for expectant Westchester mothers.

Mr. Murtagh, an attorney with Gaines, Gruner, Ponzini & Novick LLP, is a graduate of Fordham College (B.A. 1982) and Fordham Law School (J.D. 1986). He served as an Adjunct Professor at the Fordham College of Liberal Studies, where he taught courses on urban policy and government. He is a frequent lecturer on open government and the Freedom of Information Law. His political and legal commentary has been featured in The New York Times, The Journal News, City Journal, National Public Radio, WVOX Radio, The Westchester County Business Journal and NY Habitat Magazine. Mr. Murtagh has been a featured guest on Hannity & Colmes, Fox & Friends, Inside Edition, and the Greta Van Sustren Show.

He has been married for twenty-four years to Margaret Murtagh, a nursery school director. The Murtaghs have two sons – John, 23 and James, 19.

BTW - I made a drop to the John Murtagh Unity Campaign. My widower's mites helped Matt O'Shea, perhaps the lucky nickels will help John Murtagh.

Click my post title for more on a fine young man!

What's Next for Whitey? I See Him on the History Channel -WHITEY BULGER"S TRAVEL TIPS

James "Whitey" Bulger was captured by the F.B.I. this week. Way to go, G-Persons! The fugitive gangster went on the lamb in the Land of Free three days after my daughter Clare was born. In that time, Whitey traveled more than the late Charles Kuralt, inspired a great movie with a boffo soundtrack, morphed from being a working class hero bandit to the most dangerous man alive and gave the FBI the miseries. Whitey outlasted Osama bin Laden on the trail and seems to have had a much better quality of life on the road than the Saudi cement heir.

At 81 years of age, Mr. Bulger surrendered to G-Persons without a struggle, much less unnecessary carnage. What now?

News poseurs in Chicago, like the consistently wrong Chuck Goudie of ABC 7 News, act like they were hot on Whitey's trail,

Chicago has a rich history of Irish gangsters from the time they faced off with Al Capone's Italian mob for control of the city's bootlegging business.

There was so much suspicion that Bulger was hiding in Chicago that the leaders of a historically Irish-run union were questioned.

The FBI Bulger task force descended twice on Chicago, Labor Day in 1999 and June of 2006, when agents questioned top officials of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union about whether they were helping to hide Bulger, delivering subpoenas and seizing a handheld computer.

And???? Bupkis, Chuckie! But why should that stop Goudie?

This ninny couldn't find an ugly girl at an IVI-IPO convention.

I think that Whitey Bulger's sunset years will feature another wonderful series on the History Channel, not unlike Larry the Cable Guy's America, Miley Cyrus' Dad Talkin HillBilly, Swamp Diversity, Pawn Shop Pros, or the Flea Market Cupcakes - the two gentlemen, as sweet as bear meat, who find DARLING collectibles around this great country of ours.

In this cash-strapped and privacy bankrupt culture of ours, Whitey Bulger's American Travel Tips will be more boffo than Donald Trump firing Charlie Sheen!

Whitey Bulgers Travel Tips:

Take a Friend: Travel requires companionship. If you can not enjoy the splendors of the Grand Canyon, the whimsy of Disneyland, or the breath-tacking beauty of the Kankakee River with one you love, why not rent travel DVD's and sit in the basement with Orville Reddenbacher?

Go where You Want to Go - Don't fall prey to Orbitz, or the Travel Gnome. Make your own plans,

Plan Ahead -make sure that you have unmarked, untraceable cabbage salted away in better cities.

Be Public to Stay Private - Avoid the press, if you must; or, better yet, tell Chuck Goudie exactly where you are.

Tacitus on History and Economy of Truth

Last night I watched the White Sox save grace from the hands of the Cubs. A.J.
Pierzynski's triple was the touchstone. Man, is that kid a tough hombre. Following the 2-1 Crosstown Series win, I returned to the Annals of Tacitus.

The Annals focus upon the Roman world following the death of Ocatvian-Augustus Caesar. Their were two powerful families -dynasties not unlike the Kennedys or the Bush Family. Families were joined to consolidate power. The two most powerful families at the time of the death of Augustus were the Julians ( The line of Gaius Julius Caesar) and the Claudians: The Romans passed the family name down from the father, but if a family was with a son an adoption could take place. Julius Caesar had no male heir so he adopted his nephew Ocatavian - a Julian. Ocatavian became Caesar's heir; thus, locking in the power for the Julian Family. Octavian married Julia, as foul an old bitch as ever drew on a skirt. She had previously been married to a Claudian and had a son Tiberius, who in turn was adopted by Octavian, Now Augustus Caesar and so Tiberius - Julio/Claudian - is Caesar.

Tiberius was a mope, but a good soldier and an able administrator who wanted only to swim naked with little boys and murder anyone he perceived to be a threat to him. His mom Julia encouraged Tiberius to be all he could be, while being what he wanted to be - a sexual and moral deviant.

This was the time of the Pax Romana - the Peace of Rome. There were plenty of slaughters and genocide going on in Germania (Nato), Armenia (Turkey), Judea (Gaza/Israel), and Parthia (Iraq), but Tiberius was more than happy not to extend the borders of Rome any more. He wanted to "focus on nation-building here at home," They had five wars going on and were putting down Arab Springs all over the Mideast. The professional army had suffered many setbacks - competent generals were removed and replaced by yes-men. The wars were fought politically in order to maintain power at Rome (home).

Nation building to Tiberius and those who succeeded him meant having his Chief Law Dog - Sejanus and later Macro under Nero - the attorneys general, if you will, get and keep folks in line. Taxes were killing the economy, but thepowerful maintained a velvet rope lifestyle. Books were burned and history carefully maintained by those in power. Tacitus knew how dangerous it was to present the truth.

Here is a wonderful passage:

33. For every nation or city is governed by the people, or by the nobility, or by individuals: a constitution selected and blended from these types is easier to commend than to create; or, if created, its tenure of life is brief. Accordingly, as in the period of alternate plebeian dominance and patrician ascendancy it was imperative, in one case, to study the character of the masses and the methods of controlling them; while, in the other, those who had acquired the most exact knowledge of the temper of the senate and the aristocracy were accounted shrewd in their generation and wise; so to‑day, when the situation has been transformed and the Roman world is little else than a monarchy, the collection and the chronicling of these details may yet serve an end: for few men distinguish right and wrong, the expedient and the disastrous, by native intelligence; the majority are schooled by the experience of others. But while my themes have their utility, they offer the minimum of pleasure. Descriptions of countries, the vicissitudes of battles, commanders dying on the field of honour, such are the episodes that arrest and renew the interest of the reader: for myself, I present a series of savage mandates, of perpetual accusations, of traitorous friendships, of ruined innocents, of various causes and identical results — everywhere monotony of subject, and satiety. Again, the ancient author has few detractors, and it matters to none whether you praise the Carthaginian or the Roman arms with the livelier enthusiasm. But of many, who underwent either the legal penalty or a form of degradation in the principate of Tiberius, the descendants remain; and, assuming the actual families to be now extinct, you will still find those who, from a likeness of character, read the ill deeds of others as an innuendo against themselves. Even glory and virtue create their enemies — they arraign their opposites by too close a contrast. But I return to my subject.

( emphases my own)

You gotta love the classics and not just the Cross-town Classics.

Leo Advisory Board Member Named to Top 30 Hottest ( Most Fetching -God I hate the term Hottest unless you are a 7th Grade Male) Political Women in USA

Leo High School added a wonderful young woman to its Advisory Board last school year - Attorney Tamara Holder, a Fox Television Legal Analyst, journalist and activist.

Prior to her arrival, the Leo Advisory Board consisted of African American and Irish American middle aged males - think of a collection of Cedric the Entertainer/John C. Reilly stand-ins.

Ms. Holder has worked for Operation Push and specializes in expungement/criminal law. More importantly Tamara Holder invests the few hours of her free time making sure that the young guys here on 79th Street get a great education.

Click my post title for the Washington Times's celebration of beautiful women with political impact.

Hottest, is just so . . .what's the word . . . rhymes with dip-stick. It'll come to me. Click my post title for the full story.

Tamara Holder is a beautiful woman and would be so even if she looked like Mike Holmes, Mike Joyce, Rich Finn, Bob Sheehy, Ken Mason, Curtis Cooper, John Linehan, Bill Holland, much less Jack Fitzgerald- beauty is in what you do for others -Facta Non Verba!

Bishop Sample's Example - Limit Homilies by Deacons! Now, About Them Liturgical Impressarios. . .

They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues - Steely Dan

Marquette, Mich., Jun 21, 2011 / 05:54 am (CNA).- Permanent deacons should not preach at Mass often. Rather, they should preach at other services and serve the Church in the course of their daily witness to Christ, Bishop Alexander Sample of Marquette, Mich. has said in a new pastoral letter on the deacon’s role in the Catholic Church.

Bishop Sample’s 19-page letter, titled “The Deacon: Icon of Jesus Christ the Servant,” cited the principle that the one who presides at a liturgical service or who is the principal celebrant at Mass should also give the homily.

“This should be the ordinary practice,” he said.

Deacons should preach the homily at Mass “for some identifiable advantage for the faithful in the congregation, but not on a regular basis,” the bishop wrote.

My kids all played parish sports for the Catholic grammar schools that they attended. Very often, we would need to hit Mass before a game. My neighbors and their kids in Blue/White for St. Mary's or Gold/Black of St. Cajetan's would crowd the pews. The Order of the Catholic Mass is this:
Entrance procession The Catholic Mass begins with the entrance procession. Father in full liturgical vestments follows the altar servers, lectors, possibly a Deacon - often in a get-up that would make a Coptic Bishop seems like an LL Bean Summer Poster Boy. One of the servers ( usually the top miscreant in his class -God Bless him!) is the Cross bearer. The cross must be present at or near the altar of the Sacrifice. The cross depicts the sacrifice of the cross and made present in the altar. There is an entrance hymn sung by the parish liturgical clique.Often we were very late and kept other teams waiting, due to the excesses of Liturgists and Deacons. Liturgy should elevate and not enervate.

Greetings

After the hymn, with us standing, the priest and the faithful make the sign of the cross and the priest greets the faithful, usually with the traditional, "The Lord be with you." Chorus: En Also Wit Chew. The lector might announce which day of the liturgical year it happens to be, or announce for whom the Mass may be celebrated.


The Penitential Rite or Rite of Blessing and Sprinkling Holy Water:

Here is where, my kids look at me. Yes, I know, "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy."
Kyrie: the Greek Orthodox Church and of the Roman Catholic Church.
GloriaGloria in Excelsis is Latin meaning, Glory to God in the Highest

The Collect, the priest now invites us to pray in silence,

Liturgy of the Word

The Lectionary - we all sit.
Here the lector, or reader ( usually Bruno at Sacred Heart Church who looks like he could tear a New York Phone Directory in Half) reads from Scripture -Old Testament Psalms, Prophet, or Wisdom readings and then the Epistles, or Acts of the Apostles.

Then, Bruno reads
The Responsorial Psalms usually the first verse gets read followed by an Alleluia sung with great force and majesty by Terry McEldowney's baritone (AL -LAY- LOO-YA X Three)at the 8:30 Scared Heart Mass, or a full operetic production that can last five to ten minutes at too many Parishes dominated by Liturgical Impressarios. Remember the kids in the uniforms and the Moms and Dads that need to drive to Tinley Park, or Flossmoor for a sound beating from the kids at St. George or Infant Jesus of Prague?

Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John)

Everybody up! We stand for the Gospel read by the priest.

Everyone takes a seat. Here it's a crap-shoot;especially, if Deacon Elmer was in the procession make book he's going to Billy Sunday It Up!


HomilyIn the Homily, or the Sermon, Priests are professionals - ten minutes tops for the Homily. They get paid and well they should. Homiletics can be brutal. A bum priest will phone-it-in or talk down at the ignorant pests in the pews. A good priest will recap the three readings from Old and New Testament. A great priest will succinctly present the message of Christ's love for his neighbors and friends with wit and humility.

Then there is the Deacon. Deacon's are ecclesiastical substitute teachers. We go to Mass expecting Father Tony, or even better Father Gallagher; but are not too put off by visiting Oblate Father Jonathan Ugalandoora from Uganda who offers a strict warning to be Goot Poisin Squirrels . . . EACH Dey, Nut Joost SahnDay.

The wheels can come off when Deacon Elmer majestically mounts the Oratory - that's the old time concrete mini-cathedral in older Churches that are rarely used for Homilies, unless a Deacon is present.

Deacon Elmer lays into it with a will and Testament! You hear about his childhood desire to be a priest and how it was his special task each Christmas to sprinkle the Lux laundry flakes over his sister Gwen's vanity mirror that the family placed in the the pillows of cotton under the Christmas Tree's Nativity Scene that young Elmer and Gwen turned into that great scene from It's a Wonderful Life with tiny painted metal ice-skaters placed on the mirror pond that Elmer showered with those Lux laundry flakes . . . leading up to Easter when they used Popsicle sticks to make three Crosses of Calvary and placed army men on each with the Lt. as Jesus . . .in the 3rd Grade Elmer was asked by Sister Dolorosa to monitor the cloak room and MONITOR he did! . . .( next 15 minutes -The Years of Triumph!!!) . . .Elmer became an altar boy in 1967 and continued to serve through high school at Quigley and all of the louses on Wood Street from Leo, Little Flower, and St. Lawrence would arch pop bottles from Hite's Candy Store when he got off the bus . . .in College . . . William Faulkner would blow his brains out, if he had to finish Elmer's homily.

By the time one and all reach the conclusion of WhateverThe#$%^ElmerWasTalkingAbout and the . . .

Profession of Faith - The Credo- "We Believe in One God the Father the Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth and please give this windy SOB a grabber!"

General Intercessions and Prayer of the Faithful - Generally are silent prayers for storms of righteous misery upon Deacon Elmer and all of his kin. What follows is a blurr:

Liturgy of the Eucharist
Preparation of the Gifts The Offertory LavaboThe Rite of Hand Washing, or Lavabo, Father is really cleaning his mitts, more in anguish and penitence over his numbness caused by Deacon Elmer

Prayer Over the Gifts"Pray, Brethren that my sacrifice andyours may be pleasing . . ." sacrifice? Absolutely!

Mass has been going for a good forty-five minutes now;thus in a somewhat quick succession"

Eucharistic Prayer/Sabctus
The Consecration

Bread and Wine become the Body and Blood of Christ! This is what Mass should be all about the TransubstantiationDuring the epiclesis or invocation, God is called upon to send the Holy Spirit and transform the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. "This is my Body!" The Bread/Christ/Faithful/Church are One!

Remembrance Death, Resurrection Ascension & etc. We have all of that going for us!

Offering With the priest we offer our lives up to Christ.

IntercessionsThe priest intercedes with the Father. We pray for those who have departed and we pray "for us sinners."

Final Doxology Father lifts the Host and the Chalice proclaiming the doxology, the words of praise linking the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
Communion Rite

The Lord's Prayer The absolute best prayer of any religion.

The Communion Rites continue and you look at your watch because you are supposed to be at St. George in twenty minutes. Gonna be late.

Agnus Dei
"Lamb of God." Qui tollis peccata Mundi! Who takes away the sins of the world? God, the burglar of sins! Pay attention.

Communion

We file up and take the Body of Christ from Father, Deacon Elmer, and the Eucharistic Mininsters on tongue or in palm. Some of us "pull a Murphy" and hot-foot it out of Church once Communion has been received. Most of us return to our pews in silnce and kneel in prayer until after Father has taken his chair for reflection.

Concluding Rite that used to be called the Last Gospel.

Announcements: "There's a benefit for the Santorini Family at Bourbon Street on July 25th. There will be a special collection after Mass for the next three weeks for those of you goin' on vacation and can't make on july 25th. See, Mike Thomas and Jimmy Finn . . .don't make them come and see you. Some of you could stand to part with some of your 1st Communion money. Oh, there's donuts after Mass next week."

Greeting and Blessing Father blesses us and might offer a commentary on our attendence or lack thereof, but after Deacon Elmer . . .maybe not.

Dismissal:Exeunt Omnes! One hour and twenty minutes and change with Deacon Elmer taking up the lion's share of the Ordinary. Without, a devout and fulfilling 40-45 minute Liturgy or weeks seem empty, but we are not Greek Orthodox or Two-A-Day Baptist and our kids are representing the parish a long way away. Father shakes hands and Deacon Elmer does his Pope Pius XII to one and all. The common-most-of-us avoid direct eye contact and the very best of us will ask Elmer, " All that Testor's glue you sniffed as kid really seems to have paid off, ther Elm."

Bishop Sample of UP Michigan has done us pew birds a real solid. Click my post title for the whole story.






http://www.mycatholictradition.com/catholic-mass.html

Fishing Saugany Lake, Indiana with Fareed Zakaria

One thing I have learned in the last few years is there is nothing Fareed Zakaria does not know. The guy is everywhere, like a kind of unblinking and soul-less William Shatner.

Fareed Zakaria can tell you how he advises President Obama and how to pull in a string full of Smallies, Largemouth, Crappies, and Catfish from the Great Saugany Lake in La Porte County, Indiana.

Hop into Fareed's BBC - Bass Boat Central!

Hello, I am Fareed Zakaria. Today, is the first day of summer at 12:31 PM Central Standard Time and that means it's time to wet your line and drown the old nightcrawlers, if they don't come up with keepers, in Saugany Lake. First I'd like a good old Hoosier Shout out for Owen F. Smith, of Fairfield who hooked a record Smallmouth weighing in at 10 lbs. 8 oz. at Wheeler Dam on a shiny tailwate! May the draw-down in the Iraq and Afghanistan be as fruitful.

Speaking of fruitful, have you been to the Heston Bar lately? Located on 1000 North at Fail Road this Northwest Indiana icon is a never-fail stop for a Man's Fill of the finest steaks, chops and cuts of fish. I always grab a huge handful of the complimentary licorice SNAPS in the big brass bowl, because they help me back-out the meal that blocks my colon like Netanyahu and the Zionists block Mideast Peace. Believe me a Prime Rib with all the trimmings gives a four chapter session in the thunder-box. Knowledge is Power and a fine feed is the path to knowledge. Be sure to grab a handful of licorice SNAPS- two handfuls - yourself after a few toddies, a feed beyond dreams and the post-prandial red, green, white, and orange sugar coated tubes of joy.

Well I recently filled the spare bait-well in my Ranger with fresh water beauties from Saugany Lake: Follow my instructions! Now, here's my take:


Smallmouth Bass Tips for Current Conditions:Smallmouth bass are generally their most active at 69 degrees F. Baitfish are much more active in this water temperature and the smallmouth bass will be feeding aggressively throughout the day, But as the arms-control scholar Thomas Schelling once noted, two things are very expensive in international life: promises when they succeed and threats when they fail”


Largemouth Bass Tips for Current Conditions:69 degrees F. in the largemouth bass prime water temperature range and fishing should be good right now. Baitfish are much more active in this water temperature and the largemouth bass will be feeding aggressively throughout the day. This is a great time of year to be on the water. Some of these forces have gained strength because of a lack of other alternatives. For decades the Middle East has been a political desert. . . . In much of the Muslim world Islam became the language of political opposition because it was the only language that could not be censored. This pattern, of dictators using religious groups to destroy the secular opposition, has played out in virtually every Arab country.”


Crappie Tips for Current Conditions:Crappie prefer this water temperature and will be actively feeding and staying in solid patterns. which is not to pick sides but to explain what I think is happening on the ground. I can't say, 'This is my team and I'm going to root for them no matter what they do. Baitfish are more active and schooling in all parts of the lake in this water temperature.

Walleye Tips for Current Conditions:This is the water temperature of choice for walleye. They are feeding well and moving in patterns that should be fairly easy to pick up and capitalize on today. Baitfish are not at the peak of activity but they will be in good supply in the deeper water. Like I told Politico,“Occasionally, I have had the honor to talk to the president, My gut is that those conversations should be private, and they should be off the record, you know, because it helps me enormously with my work. … It’s mostly the policymaker trying to tell me how they are thinking about the world and giving me an insight into how they think.”The lake is really turning on this time of year and the fish should be biting well.


Catfish Tips for Current Conditions:“I occasionally find myself reluctant to be pulled into a world that's not mine, in the sense that I'm not a religious guy. That said, the entire catfish family is very active and actively feeding in this water temperature. All catfish including blue catfish, flathead and channel catfish will be looking for their next meal. It’s perfect time to get on the water and fill the freezer. Good luck out there. Now, hook 'em in the mouth and string 'em through the gills! Time for dozen ice-cold Old Styles with Doo-Dah at Nowhere Bar and Grill! Doo-Dah! It's payback time for Ship/Cap'n/Crew! Here Comes a real Post American World Butt Thumping Doo-Dah!

Catch my syndicated column in Newsweek and my wonderful cable show on CNN!

Fareed Zakaria is host of CNN’s flagship international affairs program—Fareed Zakaria GPS, Editor at Large of TIME, a Washington Post columnist, and a New York Times bestselling author. He was described in 1999 by Esquire Magazine as “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation.” In 2010, Foreign Policy named him one of the top 100 global thinkers.

Since 2008, he has hosted Fareed Zakaria GPS, which airs Sundays worldwide on CNN. Dr. Zakaria’s in-depth interviews with the Dalai Lama, heads of state including Barack Obama, Manmohan Singh, King Abdullah II, Dmitry Medvedev, Moammar Gadhafi and Lula da Silva, as well as countless intellectuals, business leaders, politicians and journalists have been broadcast in more than 200 million homes in over 210 countries. Within its first year, GPS garnered an Emmy nomination for an interview with Premier Wen Jaibao.

Dr. Zakaria was introduced as TIME Editor at Large in October 2010 after spending 10 years overseeing all of Newsweek’s editions abroad. His cover stories and columns—on subjects from globalization and emerging markets to the Middle East and America’s role in the world—reach more than 25 million readers weekly. While his columns have received many awards including a 2010 National Magazine Award, his October 2001 Newsweek cover story, “Why They Hate Us,” remains the most decorated. Before joining Newsweek in October 2000, he spent eight years as managing editor of Foreign Affairs, a post he was appointed to at only 28 years old.

The Post-American World, which is Dr. Zakaria’s most recent book, was heralded in the New York Times book review as "...a relentlessly intelligent book" and The Economist called it “…a powerful guide” to facing global challenges. Like The Post-American World, his previous book, The Future of Freedom, was a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into over 20 languages.

Born in India on January 20, 1964, Dr. Zakaria went on to receive a B.A. from Yale College and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has received honorary degrees from numerous universities including Brown, the University of Miami, and Oberlin College. He currently serves as a Trustee of Yale University. He lives in New York City with his wife, son and two daughters.