Punching Away Despair - Gordon Marino and Dicky Eklund Spar with Leo Men

Gordon Marino instructing at St. Olaf's.
Dicky Ecklund and Gordon Marino worked the boxing paddles for two Leo Boxers on Friday












I have the greatest job on this our planet. I take credit for other people's generosity, as Director Development for Leo High School; manage to teach with out the burden of class sizes, lesson plans, or holding myself accountable for student progress, mingle with tough, smart, willful, earnest and happy souled young men, write proposals and draft strategies for improving the school's financial health and institutional growth and get paid every two weeks.

Those are only the meat and spuds of the job. Here's the gravy - I work with a journalism legend and Leo Alumnus Dan McGrath, President of Leo High School. Dan McGrath is a prose practitioner of the purest ore; longtime sports writer in the tradition of Ring Lardner, Arch Ward and Dave Condon; an editor of unparalleled discernment and Catholic gentleman to the backbone.

Likewise, Leo Alumnus Mike Joyce, an attorney, former pro boxer, and Leo Board Member is my friend. Mike Joyce and Dan McGrath are magnets. They attract people to their hearts, their minds and their hands. Like most Leo Alumni, these gentlemen are so because they treat every human being as the most important person on the planet. Dan McGrath knows every student in the school and has a very powerful grip on each young man's progress. Dan McGrath leads from the front, because he gets behind each of the young men in his charge.

Mike Joyce, likewise, is more than hands on with his boxers. Mike Joyce once said, "these kids need people who really paying attention to them, even if that means chewing their asses." Mike knows all about that. He related a story to me and two visitors to Leo on Friday.

Mike told us, "One of my first amateur bouts nearly ended my love of boxing. I was lured into sparring with a guy who had an upcoming fight, by these two jerk managers. I could barely, hold my hands up in the ring, but thought because I was a street fighter that I was a boxer. I knew nothing. I was torn to pieces. I was bleeding and bruised and had to take the bus from Fuller Park back home. One of the Murphy Brothers watched what happened to me, talked to me and took me under their care. I was not just someone to be used by some louse who was making his boy look good - a punching bag. That is what I try to do with our kids. From the start, all they learn is the basics - how to stand, how to guard themselves, how to jab, how to hook . . .months before they put on headgear. Most of all they get in top shape and know that someone has their back."

The two visitors were Dicky Ecklund* and Gordon Marino**. Dicky Ecklund is the brother of Irish Mickey Ward and was played by Christian Bale in the recent Oscar winning film The Fighter. Gordon Marino is the former Yale and Virginia Military Institute (VMI) boxing coach, author of “Kierkegaard in the Present Age,” “Ethics: The Essential Writings,” co editor of “The Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard,” writer for New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post and is director of the Hong/Kierkegaard Library at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.

On Friday, Leo High School was ginning up spirit with Notre Dame great and Leo Alumnus Jay Standring in the the iconic third floor gym in anticipation to that night's football game with our brothers the Crusaders of Brother Rice.

Mike, Dan and I joined boxer-trainer Dicky Ecklund and Gordon Marino on the second floor's boxing gym, while Jay Standring schooled the Lions on Leo Traditions. Also joining us were Leo students Marlon Claybrooks and Eddie Cooper.

Both Ecklund and Marino put on the Paddles and hand sparred with our guys and both boxers impressed the visiting dignitaries. Eddie Cooper displayed the best poise, balance and preparation. Though with the mournful sloth of his sport slowing him, Football player Marlon has what Dicky Ecklund called " Heavy Hands." The kid hits very hard.

Our kids were given a tutorial that would cost another boxing student a lung. Dicky Ecklund admonished the 'heavy-handed' Marlon about keeping his eyes on his opponent's gloves and hips and not turning his head in a follow-through.

After the lessons, we went to the gym with Leo student body. Our three visitors needed a ride to the Sheraton on Illinois and I offered to drive. When we were leaving the gym we were chased by Darius Gaddy, who shouted to Dicky Ecklund -"Hey, was that you who jumped out of all those windows in the movie?" Ecklund affirmed.

I had read Gordon Marino in the past - he is a warrior poet philosopher. While Dicky Ecklund has the contemporary street cred, Professor Marino pulls what we do at Leo into philosophy - the discipline of leading a good life.

Ecklund and Marino were in town to celebrate Boxing legend Angelo Dundee's nine decades at the Italian American Hall of Fame on Taylor Street that night, while Leo Lions fought for inches, feet and yards at Brother Rice ( Br. Rice 45; Leo 40). I had the privilege of spending a few hours with these fine teachers.

It was on the Dan Ryan that Mike Joyce told the story of how a boxing manager had abused him, how another manager had sensed his pain and picked up his desire to box, and his own doctrine for the ring.

Gordon Marino offered some sensitive insights on Despair and the inner city kids that we serve. I could not capture his articulate words with any accuracy nor duplicate them with any real clarity. Here is what Gordon Marino wrote in the New York Times about the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, and modern life's muddled sense of what it truly is -

The spirit is one thing, the psyche another: The blues one thing, despair another.

How might Kierkegaard have parsed the distinction for the Doubting Thomas who will only believe what he can glean on an M.R.I.? Perhaps he would describe it this way.

Each of us is subject to the weather of our own moods. Clearly, Kierkegaard thought that the darkling sky of his inner life was very much due to his father’s morbidity. But the issue of spiritual health looms up with regard to the way that we relate to our emotional lives. Again, for Kierkegaard, despair is not a feeling, but an attitude, a posture towards ourselves. The man who did not become Caesar, the applicant refused by medical school, all experience profound disappointment. But the spiritual travails only begin when that chagrin consumes the awareness that we are something more than our emotions and projects. Does the depressive identify himself completely with his melancholy? Has the never ending blizzard of inexplicable sad thoughts caused him to give up on himself, and to see his suffering as a kind of fever without significance?

If so, Kierkegaard would bid him to consider a spiritual consultation on his despair, to go along with his trip to the mental health clinic.

Despair, it seems to me, comes from a belief that one is all alone. For far too many people, that just might be the case.

Our kids might not become the next Ali, Fraser, or Sugar Ray, but they will know their stance, how to guard and how to hit back. A defeat is not necessarily a failure. A win is not necessarily a triumph. Balance, Poise and Preparation is everything. More importantly, our kids will know many people are in their corner,

This was only a few hours of my life on Friday, at the greatest job on the planet.




*

Dicky Eklund is the man portrayed by actor Christian Bale in the upcoming movie “ The Fighter “. He is a former 3 time golden Gloves champion with over 190 victories as an amateur. He is best known as a professional boxer for having faced Sugar Ray Leonard in a bout televised on HBO in 1978.

Dicky’s talent as a trainer is also legendary, having trained his brother, Irish Micky Ward, for dozens of dramatic ring victories, including two that were voted fight of the year by Ring Magazine. One of those victories, over the great Arturo Gatti, is considered by most boxing insiders to be the “ Fight of the Century “

As a trainer, Dicky is known for his tremendous insight into the boxing game, his ability to motivate fighters and his challenging workout regimens. These are traits that helped his brother Micky push through grueling opponents while on the road to winning a world championship title.

Dicky is now a full time trainer, working with competitive boxers and MMA fighters. Dicky also has training options for people who are simply looking to get in shape, learn boxing basics or even a one time workout challenge.

http://dickeklund.com/bio/

**

A former boxer, Gordon Marino
was head boxing coach
at Virginia Military Institute
and now runs a boxing program
in Northfield, Minn.,
where he teaches philosophy
at St. Olaf College.
He also writes about boxing
for the Wall Street Journal.

http://www.ringsideboxingshow.com/GordonMarinoBLOGDundee.html

Tales of the South Side: Bubs Murtaugh Goes to Mission

Bubs Murtaugh had issues, as do we all, I know. Murtaugh's issues were legion. Bubs came from what was known back in the day as Scottsdale Area, after the Shopping Center with the Goldblatt's at 79th between Pulaski and Cicero.

As my legion of reader will recall, Bubs Murtaugh lived near Durkin Park in St. Bede the Venerable Parish, played football for Tom Cavanagh at St. Laurence High School in Burbank, got a full ride for football to St. Procopius College ( now Illinois Benedictine University) in Lisle, IL, guzzled Schlitz Tall Boys and reefer-ed his way out of that, got a job with Streets and San and lived with his Mom and Dad. N.B. - click my post title for more earnest and poignant yarns of this sort.

Bubs Mutaugh survived his parents and a savage lust affair with a babe - a busty graduate of Emeryk Zajack's Bartender Academy on Archer in Garfield Ridge and who worked intermittently at the Swap-a-Rama in Alsip. He had title to raised ranch of his parents in St. Bede's and kept up with the growing property taxes and the devaluation of the home and property. He was laid off his work on the trucks by the City and pensioned up. He had nothing but time and some cash to kill.

Taxes were not anywhere near the Centurion's in Murtaugh's Problematic Legion. His boozing and frequent brawls earned him a universal invitation to take his business to establishments east of Cicero, and then Pulaski, and nowhere between 111th & 63rd Streets. Bubs Murtaugh's welcome was as worn as the foreskin on an uncircumcised dry-humper locked in a porn shop. He was losing his teeth due to poor dental hygiene and pops in the choppers and was now at age 59 a poster child for dental implants.

When he and his paramour parted company for keeps, Bubs took stock. He still liked his cocktails, but he wanted a change in his life, but, like St. Augustine, not quite yet.

Bubs Murtaugh went on a toot in Blue Island, Il that became the stuff of legend. Bubs boozed , befriended, borrowed from, betrayed, beat up, and was beat down, by nearly every carbon footprint on New Western Ave. and Old Western Ave. between 119th Street to the north to across the tracks on Western to the trailer park on the other side of Our Lady of Sorrows.

When not closing or awaiting the opening of a joint, Bubs Murtaugh caught a few dreamless winks in bars at closing time, or on the CTA. It was an Odyssey fueled and sailed upon the amber waters provided by the good folks of the Miller Brewing Company.

One night,incidit in scyllam cupiens vitare charybdim*, or between Vincennces and Vermont Street, the sea-monsters and whirlpool of pilsner got the best of the booze blind Bubs. His sense of awareness returned in the lock up of the Blue Island police station at 13031 Greenwood Avenue. He was taken to Markham Courthouse and charged with robbery.

Bubs was in a genuine jackpot. Blacked out he had robbed a young couple of $ 45 and a take-out meal from Restaurante Tenochtitlan (Desayuno Tenochtitlan... $9.50: Steak topped with 2 eggs and a Choice of Salsa(red,green or chipotle),Served with Rice,de la Olla Beans,One Grilled Jalapeno Pepper and Tortillas)and was transported to Cook County Jail.

His cousin from his Mom's side received the plaintive phone-coded message and bonded Bubs out three days later. His court date was thirty-days in his immediate future.

The man dried out. He paced his basement, watched his Boxed Set DVD Collector's edition of the great Matt Helm Series because the cable was shut off, slept fitfully and prayed. On floor of his living room under the front door's mail slot were piles of bills, ComEd and People's Gas red cards notifying him of impending utilities terminations and gorgeously painted presented cardboard notice of a mission given by a Capuchin who had the power of healing. Father Payton Hester ,O.F.M. Cap., at St. Bede's. Bubs could stand a miracle. Bubs stepped in and was prepared to step-up!

Th young and muscular Capuchin said, "Anyone with 'special needs" who wants to be prayed over, please come forward to the front by the altar."

With that, Bubs got in line, and when it was his turn, the smiling scion of Fra Matteo Bassi 1495-1552 - founder of the Capuchins wlecomed Bubs. The smiling Preacher asked, "My son, what do you want me to pray to Our Lord and the Virgin Mary about for you?"

Bubs replied, "Father, I need you to pray for help with my hearing."

The brown cowled friar put one finger of one hand in Bubs's ear, placed his other hand on top of Murtaugh's head, and then prayed and prayed and prayed. He prayed a "blue streak" for Bubs Murtaugh, and the packed pews of St. Bede's joined in with great enthusiasm.

After a few minutes of enchanting and uplifting quiet, Father Payton Hester, OFM, Cap. removed his hands, stood back and loudly and angelically asked, " Bub's Murtaugh, how is your hearing now?"

Bubs answered, " I don't know. It ain't 'til next Thursday."

Ita fit verum et fertur

Hat tip to Max Weismann of the Center for Great Ideas

*Scylla and Charybdis
Ulysses had been warned by Circe of the two monsters Scylla and Charybdis. Also can be meant as 'between a rock and hard-ass.'

ObamaCare/Planned Parenthood as Cute as a Chinese Baby . . . a Dead Chinese Baby.

“The Obama administration’s mandate that all health plans must provide to women, with no charge, all government-approved contraceptives, has already reignited debate on the federal role in health care,” Fleishman writes. “Ah, how I remember “Every child a wanted child,” our motto at Planned Parenthood. And I do welcome this legislation.

Fleishman goes on to condemn the world’s population growth and says the Obama mandate and the one-child policy is needed to stem that.

“Unless we act (this legislation, along with China’s “one child” policy, is a start), the world is doomed to strangle among coils of pitiless exponential growth,” he concludes.

Now, that is what being an a$$hole is all about!



The first comment on the Chicago Tribune's paste-up of the Reuters story is from a genuine Progressive who equates the cold disdain for a toddler crushed by not one but two drivers and ignored by 18 adults to Herman Cain's comments OWS protesters.

Not so, Slim Wit! The death of this baby following a week of struggle to live is a tribute to Planned Parenthood, Progressives and Planned Parenthood's 1st President of the United States.



Give that a good viewing and then try to write a check to Planned Parenthood. Worse, Senator Dick Durbin and other elected lackeys take coin from Planned Parenthood spout their bull$shit and legislate for them.

In Ireland, they call people like Durbin Cute 'Hoors*. Women are never called Hoors (Whores) in Ireland, only men; especially political hacks.

One Child -One Wanted child is the very Novocaine to America's soul.

The murder of children, after conception or in a nursing home eighty years later, is murder. ObamaCare is all about control. Nothing controls like termination.

The same clowns who weep over the death of a lamprey eel, pee-in-their-pants with joy over abortion.

What is appalling is Planned Parenthood and anyone connected with those murdering dowagers, from aldermanic office, to the White House.

Cute Hoors . . .as cute as a Chinese baby.

*Cute Hoor – Someone who tricks other people without being discovered. Clever or sneaky.

Now, attention, Ye Cute Hoors, Ye.




http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/10/ex-planned-parenthood-director-praises-chinas-one-child-policy/

http://saynsumthn.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/does-planned-parenthood-approve-of-chinas-brutality-forced-sterilization-policies/

http://www.missionariestopreborn.com/planned_parent.html

Eric Zorn is the Water Boy! He's Carrying Water for Anti-Catholic Progressives Who Want Chicago Transformed to an Urban Center

You will do your work on water,
An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it. Rudyard Kipling


Nothing smells as bad as water-soaked newspapers. I had an uncle who saved newspapers in the corner of his basement, going back to the Mayor Edward Kelly Administration. The problem was that Tupperware technology jumped over Uncle Mossie and he kept his treasures bound in twine. Compounding that problem was the fact that Uncle Mossie's basement leaked like Congressman Mike Quigley to the Sun Times.

When Uncle Mossie shed his mortal husk, I was tasked with cleaning out the old guy's basement - the smell would gag a maggot. Decades of seepage soaked the Daily News, Chicago Sun, Herald American, Kerryman, Southtown Economist, New World and their offspring. There were no Chicago Tribunes, as the Trib was a Scab, anti-Catholic rag. Uncle Mossie was a daily Communicant and rock-solid member of the Lather's Union.

Water and newspapers don't mix, unless one is going into the Homegrown mushroom business. Worms love newspapers soaked in water.

Change of Subject!

You kids been reading Eric Zorn lately? The banjo-plucking ink-slinger Progressive columnist is knee deep in the wet-stuff. Late this summer Eric was busy lugging the garbage out for Mayor/Coach Rahm on the Garbage Grid Plan that passed with the City Budget. Eric loves the Grid!

What passes for journalism in Chicago is a person with keyboard, a phone, Blackberry, or a lot of time on his/her hands to take lunch and an elected official, activist, Good Government appointee, or unelectable appointee with a deal.

These holier-than-a- cheapskate's -undies columnists roll out the ink with the agenda leaked into their ears by the above-stated scammers.

The Catholic Church is an obstacle, or should be, to Progressives. Progressives love Abortion, government hand-outs to designated groups and individuals, Homosexual Marriage, and Public Education . . . Oh! And Taxes! Lots and Lots of Taxes forked out by the middle class helots with all of those damn children!

The Catholic Church is one big-assed mainstream faith with many, many, many members in Chicago. The Catholic Church is very visible in Chicago. The Catholic Church operates the very best schools in Chicago for no public cost to Atheists or Progressives. Catholics no longer need to be courted much less appeased about anything in Chicago.

Progressives have a vision for Chicago, a smaller, cleaner, more efficient, Green, childless, and really fun Urban Center, and that vision is taking place. The problem is getting rid of the middle class homeowners and their rotten kids. Garbage collection and water go hand-in-hand. The Garbage Collection Grid is coming, middle class Wards will be re-mapped and smart sized, and water is going to cost families a lung. It's all there in the University of Chicago Urban Planning chit-chat linked by clicking my post title.

Rahm Emanuel is the Progressive Mayor and all he needs is a water-boy. Like a good coach it seems that Coach Rahm has an energetic pencil-necked go-getter in the always dependable Eric Zorn.

Today, Eric the Water Boy continues the coach's management of water distribution and finds an easy target in Alderman Ed Burke. Alderman Burke, it seems to me, views the new water mandates to be what they are - overture for the exit of the middle class from the planned Urban Center Chicago.

Alderman Burke takes issue with the two edged sword soaked in the wet-stuff. You see not only is the water issue a dodge to squeeze the middle class out of Chicago, it is also a swell hammer to bash in the head of Cardinal George for objecting to Gay Marriage, Abortion and all of those other nasty Catholic doctrines.

I believe that taking away the free Chicago water from Catholic ( and others) Institutions is the threat by Rahm to Cardinal to lay-low until President Obama is re-elected, Gay Marriage gets enacted in Illinois, and Planned Parenthood can kill babies without being called on it

Here's the Waterboy -Eric Zorn!

And if the City Council wants to start diluting the proposal by handing out exemptions, it ought to start with institutions that don't proselytize and don't mix so many babies with so much bath water.

If they give churches favored status over charitable groups, lawsuits will be sure to follow and all the potential savings will go swirling down the drain.

This dandy imprimatur for Rahm's Water Torture came last Saturday - Saturday, October 15, 2011

He's going to get that question a lot in the coming weeks. Last week, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced an aggressive schedule of annual water-rate hikes as he rolled out next year's city budget. The increases, he said, are necessary to pay for badly needed repairs to our aging pipes, catch basins and pumping stations.

On average, he said in his speech to the City Council, the extra cost in the first year "will equal about five cups of Dunkin' Donuts coffee a month," a clever, middle-brow way of expressing $120 (a medium cup of joe at Dunkin' Donuts is $1.96 in my Northwest Side neighborhood).

But Emanuel suggested that residents could significantly dull the pain "by switching to a free water meter, as Amy and I have done. In fact," said the mayor, "those who switch to meters will pay less next year — even with the fee increase. Let me repeat: Switching to a free water meter means you can pay less next year — not more."

Two Days prior that moist towelette for the Coach was this sensitive whiff of weakness on the part of City Council Council Floor Leader Pat O'Connor.

I think what he was trying to say is when we exempt churches, all of us must pay slightly higher water bills to compensate the system: We pay for our own water, then we all chip in a bit more to cover the cost of giving churches water at no charge. Paying twice, as he puts it.

So if we charge our houses of worship for water, those houses of worship are going to have to ask us for more money. So we'll still be paying twice.

The critical difference, however, is that, under the current system, those city dwellers who don't attend a city house of worship -- those who go to the suburbs are who simply aren't churchgoing people -- are compelled to chip in.
If I'm understanding O'Connor correctly, his idea that "it's the same pockets that are paying for it anyway" makes no sense whatsoever.

Oh,Damn them Catholics!

Eric Zorn the Water Boy! Why, you little squirt, you!

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/10/burke-all-wet-in-his-request-to-keep-free-water-for-churches-and-church-schools.html
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/08/grid.htmlhttp://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/10/thats-still-a-latte-money-for-water.htmlhttp://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/10/free-water-word-salad-from-ald-oconnor.htmlhttp://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/10/water-meter-pitch-may-not-be-such-a-bad-deal-after-all.html

SXU Hears Voices and Sees Visions - Give Gibbs a Fee; All Will Be Well

There are a few things I have learned while stomping on the terra these near three score years of breathing and staying awake.

1. Never take a whiff of Ammonia Concentrate

2. Never drink excessively while Sturgeon fishing

3. Never valet park three blocks from Comiskey Park

4. Never loan your debit card to a Romanian homeless man for a few minutes

5. Never work with electricity when your wife is in the basement where there is a washer and dryer

6. Never pet a snarling dog

7. Never try to reason with a skunk


Life's verities stop cold with those seven. Everything else may have metaphysical outcomes.

To that list I might add, If the Obama Administration strips your University of its standing as a Catholic religious institution, it may not be a great idea to invite Robert Gibbs to speak for some handsome fee, in the hopes that the Dept. of Labor may reconsider its decision.

That said, Baghdad Bob Gibbs, former Obama White House Press Secretary, parser extraordinaire, Stephen Root look-alike, and Obama 2012 front dude, will speak tonight at Chicago's oldest Catholic university ( until April 2011 that is) as part of the Voices & Visions Speaker series. Click my post title.

The stated mission of the SXU Voices and Visions notes "In spring 2007, Saint Xavier University began the SXU Voices and Visions Speaker Series as part of the school's yearlong 160th anniversary celebration of education, faith and service. The series is dedicated to bringing respected public figures and the highest level of discourse to the Chicago area."

Cokie Roberts, Kofi Anan, Colin Powell, Elie Wiesel, Jim and Mary ( Matalin) Carville, Madeline Albright were past speakers.

Baghdad Bob?

This was the gent who said that Ahmadinejad was the elected leader of Iran following the Green Massacres in that disputed election. There are some Islamic Seasons of the Year that Obama's White House does not recognize - just like Easter, Christmas, . . .& etc.

Most of all, Robert Gibbs was an adept in making Obama Care the stealth vehicle for Planned Parenthood's continued American genocide.

SXU can invite any one they please. As they are no longer recognized as a Catholic university by the Obama Administration, why the hell not invite Bob Gibbs, Ahmadinejad, Vernon Supreme of the Occupy Wall Street Journal, or the gals of Planned Parenthood themselves?

Saints heard voices and visions. The odd thing is that Saints never heard "Abortion is a Woman's Choice," or saw visions of a world without children, or the unhealthy and bothersome elderly.

The persons who heard, "Let's have Robert Gibbs!" might be the type of persons who think sniffing ammonia concentrate, boozing while ice fishing, valet parking at 36th & Lituanica, waiting for the sparks when wifey throws the circuit breaker,loanin the Visa to troubled-soul Dragos, petting a pitbull while its choppers are bared, and reasoning with skunks.

Who's to say?

St. Xavier University: Why Robert Gibbs, Now? Why Anytime? Dick Walsh and Americans for Life Will Ask These Question on Thursday Night -October 20

St. Xavier University sits in the middle of Chicago's Catholic Ground Zero - a blue collar, ethnic land of tax-paying helots who still pack the pews every Sunday.

This neighborhood is about to witness a diminished 19th Ward due to remapping. There is about to be enacted an ordinance that takes what little autonomy aldermen still retain - the Garbage Grid debacle, that will lay off hundreds immediately and thousands more up the street, not so much to save pennies, but to chase the middle class out of Chicago.

Catholics keep having children and that is anathema to the Transformative Progressives.

Only a very few months ago, St. Xavier University, in this Chicago neighborhood, was slapped out as a Catholic University by Planned Parenthood's 1st President of the United States, Barack Obama's Department of Labor. St. Xavier University, they determined, should Not be considered Catholic, because non-Catholic students attend and there happens to be a Rainbow of Diversity on its staff.

Not only that, there are too few Sisters of Mercy on its Board.

The Obama Administration, not the Ordinary of Chicago, Cardinal George, determines what is Catholic. Why have a bishops, when Captain Hope and Change is doing pay-back to Planned Parenthood?

To some baptized Catholic Democrats this is a "No Biggie." deal. All the White House wants is for adjunct faculty to unionize. Adjunct faculty are part-timers.

To celebrate this installation of Planned Parenthood's 1st President and his transformation of America, St. Xavier University has invited former Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to collect and pocket $200 a pop (ticket) speaking fees and shill for more transformation.

I am sure that Bahgdad Bob will be . . . Bahgdad Bob.

You can't fault Baghdad Bob, as the gent was known by the White House Press Corps, after all a buck is a buck in this lousy economy.

What is St. Xavier University thinking?

Make nice and the White House* will reconsider? Sisters, Please!

Robert Gibbs was an adept at keeping the Obama Transformation at chameleon levels of transparency.

Here is Gibby, at his best from November 9th, 2009. I have done a kind of intrusive way-back machine and interrupted Gibby's exchange with a reporter (Chip) with the actual Transformation from Jeff Zelney of the New York Times and William Saunders of the National Review.
Okay, set way back dial to November 9th 2009. The White House Press Room - Here's Gibby!!!

. . .Mr. Gibbs: Yes,Sir!


Q Thank you. On the health care bill, does -- the President supports, endorses, whatever you want to call it, the House bill. He's made that very clear. Does he support the abortion funding restrictions in the House bill?

MR. GIBBS: The President, Chip, as you know, went to Capitol Hill to rally support for the bill. That bill is now through the House, which we're quite pleased about. The Senate, once we get budget numbers from CBO, will become -- that will move to the Senate floor. I don't doubt that you'll have a somewhat different bill. That's the way this process works, and we'll iron out differences as they come.

Fast Forward to January 5, 2011, 9:56 am

(

Gibbs to Leave as White House Press Secretary
By JEFF ZELENY
10:30 a.m. | Updated Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary and close confidante to President Obama, said Wednesday that he was stepping down to become an outside political adviser to the president and his re-election campaign.

The New York Times)

Yep, I remember,now; Gibby is working to re-elect Planned Parenthood's 1st President of the United States. Back to 2009.


Q What's his position on abortion funding restrictions?

MR. GIBBS: I think you heard the President in front of Congress several months ago, and we'll continue to make progress.

Q So then he wouldn't support anything like the provision that's in the House bill?

MR. GIBBS: I'm not going to become a negotiator from Capitol Hill -- on Capitol Hill from the podium.

Q Would he accept something that goes beyond what the Hyde amendment does?

Obamacare passes! Now let's see how Gibby did. What Happened:


(

The answer is yes, Obamacare did mark a significant expansion of abortion. It violated one plank of the “Hyde Amendment principles” (Hyde itself does not apply, since Obamacare is funded outside of Health & Human Services appropriations): no federal funding of insurance plans that provide abortions. The state exchanges established under Obamacare will certainly include plans that cover abortion. These plans will receive federal subsidies, thus violating Hyde principles. The meaningless “restriction” in the law is that the subsidies go to the insurance provider, not the individual, and that the abortions are paid for from a pool established by mandatory monthly payments by insurees. And even this restriction lapses if Hyde itself is not renewed (it is subject to yearly renewal).

Beyond this, there are virtually no restrictions on abortion in Obamacare. Funding streams such as those through Community Health Centers were thus unaffected. And while that particular problem was addressed in Obama’s executive order, the order failed to address anything else.

Saunders National Review)

But back to Bob Gibbs 2009-

MR. GIBBS: We will wait to see what health care reform brings.

Gibby resigns and remembers -(Jeff Zelney NYT: “This has been an extraordinary journey, an amazing privilege to serve the country and to serve this president. It’s an opportunity, quite frankly, of a lifetime,” Mr. Gibbs said. “But it’s important to take a step back and recharge, ahead of 2012, when we transition to the task of re-electing the president.”)

Back to Chip's question in 2009

Q So there could be something then in the end that goes beyond current law in restricting abortion funding?

As we know for sure from William Saunders-

For instance, one loophole left open by the EO involved the high-risk pools. In fact, HHS would have directly funded abortion thereunder but for the protests of pro-life advocates. But HHS’ initial decision came as no surprise. As both the Congressional Research Service and the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights pointed out, there was no legal restriction against HHS approving such funding since neither the law itself nor the executive order forbade it.

Another loophole left unclosed by the EO is the meaning of “preventive care,” which must be covered by all private insurance plans under the new law. The government can define it to include abortion. If so, every insurance plan — not just those on the state exchanges — would have to cover it. This is a hole wide enough to drive the proverbial truck through.

Finally, one thing we know from court decisions in many circuits is that unless abortion is expressly prohibited, courts will read it into laws providing for health-care services.

In short, Obamacare marked a decisive pro-abortion shift. Representatives who voted for it should not be surprised if their constituents hold them accountable for doing so.

Yet, Gibby got giggles to Chip's question in 2009-

MR. GIBBS: Chip, I wish we were having this conversation as the last part of this process, but as your network and others have pointed out, there are miles to go before we sleep.

Back to Jeff Zelney's article in the New York Times -a quote on Gibbs' departure from Planned Parenthood's 1st President's Transformative Administration:

(“Robert, on the podium, has been extraordinary,” Mr. Obama said, declining to answer questions about who he intends to hire for any position. “Off the podium, he has been one of my closet advisers. He is going to continue to have my ear for as long as I’m in this job.”) You may say, Sir.

The long sleep. Abortion, Euthanasia and more attacks on Catholic institutions are getting voice from Robert Gibbs, by invitation from St. Xavier University.

For Christ's sake, wake up.

Americans For Life, led by Dick Walsh, a Lion for the Unborn, will be outside of St. Xavier University to question the University's decision to invite Planned Parenthood mouthpiece in purple.

I am going to get off of my comfortable rump and join them. Click my post title and Occupy your hearts and minds with the link to Americans for Life.




* Also three ago - Obama ordered Georgetown University to cover up all crucifixes -

Obama requested no crucifix in sight before he spoke at a CATHOLIC university?
http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.p…

I cannot figure out which is worse...the stupidity of the university..or the arrogance of obama..


either way...this is very disturbing

You think?

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2011/10/robert_gibbs_speaking_at_chica.html

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/gibbs-to-leave-as-white-house-press-secretary/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/briefing-white-house-press-secretary-robert-gibbs-11909

http://www.nationalreview.com/critical-condition/250356/obamacare-and-abortion-facts-william-l-saunders

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2011/10/robert_gibbs_speaking_at_chica.html

Thank You, Mr. President! May We Have Another Slap? St. Xav's Thanks Obama Administration for Stripping Its Catholic Identity -and They Helped!

Notre Dame positioned itself as the gelding Catholic University, not only when it invited Planned Parenthood's 1st President of the United States to parse and get an Honorary Degree, but more so when it sic'd the cops on an elderly priest and others for saying a rosary for the unborn.

Not to be outdone, Georgetown University, purportedly a Jesuit University, took down the crucifixes and covered IHS with a shroud to please Planned Parenthood's 1st President of the United States.

Last April, Planned Parenthood's 1st President of the United States had his Labor Department strip Chicago's St. Xavier University ( the oldest college in Chicago) of its Catholic identity, because there were not enough Mercy Nuns on the Board.

That was done in order to clear the path for adjunct instructors, like Planned Parenthood's 1st President himself, to organize into a union.

In response, St. Xavier University invited Planned Parenthood's 1st President of the United States's former Chief Parser - Bob Gibbs.

The Catholic Church is anathema to Planned Parenthood's 1st President of the United States, because the Catholic Church refuses to say that Abortion is Ok and that Homosexual Marriage is not acceptable. Abortion and Homosexual Marriage is not Ok.

It is OK with too many politicians, who only get Catholic when it is St. Paddy's Day and they need to press the flesh, Vatican II cupcake clerics -priests who preach on Sundays about Gary loves Barry. or "Who's To Say" and goofy old nuns who work for Planned Parenthood, Hamas, and anything but their vocations.

Get this nonsense - St. Xavier was stripped of its Catholic Identity;yet, it will bend over backwards to help the very White House that has it in the cross-hairs



Robert Gibbs speaking at Chicago's Saint Xavier University Thursday. By Lynn Sweet on October 17, 2011 2:55 PM | No Comments
WASHINGTON--Former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs hits Chicago on Thursday, to speak at
Saint Xavier University, 3700 W. 103rd St. Tickets are still available.

Gibbs, who is advising the Obama 2012 re-election campaign headquartered in Chicago, will be back behind a podium earlier in the day, in a press conference Saint Xavier is arranging. 9emphasis my own)
Gibbs joined the Obama operation during then state Sen. Barack Obama's 2004 general election campaign for the U.S. Senate. He is now on the speaking circuit and is a top surrogate for the Obama team.

Tickets for the 7 p.m. Gibbs talk start at $20. From Saint Xavier: "A limited number of $200 priority tickets are available, which include priority seating and admission to an exclusive post-lecture wine and cheese reception with Gibbs. Tickets may be purchased online at www.sxu.edu, keyword: voices or by calling (866) 468-3401."

Yet, Catholics for the most part are coming to understand that not only is President Obama and his folks no friend of Catholics, no friend of any people of faith.

Planned Parenthood stands only for killing unwanted children and everything else is mascara. Planned Parenthood paid good money to get Barack Obama elected and he is acting accordingly.

Catholics voted for President Obama. Catholics might want to re-think that vote.

In the past year, Obama's Justice Department has argued in court that defenders of traditional marriage — the most visible segment of which are observant Catholics and bishops — should be regarded in law as the equivalent of racists. His National Labor Relations Board has issued rulings against two Catholic schools, St. Xavier University in Chicago and Manhattan College in New York, saying that they are not sufficiently Catholic to warrant religious exemptions from federal labor law —a stunning breach of the precedent in which religious bodies, not government officials, decide who qualifies as a member of a particular church. Those rulings followed on the heels of a highly publicized crusade by Obama's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to punish North Carolina's Belmont Abbey College for removing contraception coverage from its employee health plans, a move the Catholic school made to conform to church doctrine.

When someone kicks me in the nuts, I tend not to ask him over for a snack, an ice cold bottle of pop, a Netflix or two and another leggy wind-up and kick to the gents.

Elizabeth Warren Wants the Hick Vote - I'm Hick, but I'm Registered in Chicago, Bessy

EWwwwwwwwww, why you're Colored, I was looking for the Hicks. You may let go . . .now!

Were the daffy and naturally smug Ms. Warren aware that the "Hick" vote is highly prized and tough to get, she would not seek that demographic in the Bay Play Ground of the Affluent WASP Progressive. Shucks, Missy, you are in Massachusetts and Hicks are fewer than callouses in Harvard Yard. Do click my post title for Elizabeth Warren's Abortion Happy Voters and their habiliments.



Well, as The Hick on this blog, I must say, Elizabeth Warren is not only Uglier than a lard bucket full of armpits, but she is dumber than a cat covering crap on a marble floor, bless her heart.

How Many Terrorists Does It Take to Free One Israeli?

Shucks, it appears it takes 1,000 terrorists to free one Israeli.

Do the math, as the snarky say. The Clueless about Gaza, like Marxist International Solidarity Movement, the media, academic charlatans, and big-hearted goofs who do not read, need to do some cipherin'.

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and hundreds of Palestinians crossed Israel's borders in opposite directions on Tuesday as a thousand-for-one prisoner exchange brought joy to families but did little to ease decades of conflict.

Sergeant Shalit, 25, returned home to a national outpouring of emotion in Israel after five years in captivity in the Gaza Strip, while the first few hundred of over a thousand Palestinians being freed in stages from Israeli jails were greeted with kisses and flags in Gaza and the West Bank.

Moshe Dayan was once asked, "How is that you win every battle you fight?"

Dayan cocked his good eybrow and rejoined, " I fight Arabs."

My goodness, some might call that response 'hurtful'. . .well, not as hurtful as was to gents who attacked Israel.

Let's see now, let's tally up the wars, not to mention the conflicts and Raids on Entebee and such -


•The 1948–49 War
•The 1956 War
•The 1967 War (The Six-Day War)
•The 1973–74 War (The Yom Kippur War)
•The 1982 War

Israel 5 and Pan Arab Attackers 0 - That's Five to Naught.
Must be something to that. . .well, not to a Progresive John Dewey Hegelian.

Welcome home, Sarge!

God Bless Israel!

OWS - Obama, Dumbledores, Vampires, Zombies and Trolls

"By all means continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many." Albus Dumbledore
"I think when you spread the wealth around it's good for everybody." Barack Obama



President Obama needs a lift, a boost, some peeps, some street cred and some magic.

What better demographic than the vast, white, affluent, bored, Harry Potters now occupying the media, but not really America.

Judging from the OWS kids, Commies, and professional activists President Obama, who once enchanted a majority of Americans with his Olympian charms, can find a forrest of enchanted dreamers occupying their idle months with role play, bongos, chants and marches.

These are largely the Harry Potter Generation. They have absorbed the whimsy of enchament like a souse a free kegger.

For the last ten years, America's youth, including those who have attended Ivy League Universities and Blue Chip colleges, demonstrate an addiction to enchantment.

Generation Potter, begat the V -Kids; begat Generation Twilght Vampires, begat Generation Zombies, begat Generation Werewolf . . . Magic, Fanatsy, Obama, Dumbledore, Redistribution of Wealth, Trolls, Michael Moore, Van Jones, . . . beats reading or viewing anything of substance.

I wonder if any of the young Communist Party America (CPA)dilletants who linked up with the lads of Aryan Nation and Nazi Parties recall the Hitler/Stalin Non-Agression Pact. Have any of the wee-Wobblies read about Big Bill Haywood,or Big Jim Larkin? Big Bill embraced Stalin's Communism died a bitter, lonely drunk in Moscow.
Big Jim Larkin repudiated Communism -James Larkin died in his sleep on 30 January 1947. His funeral mass was celebrated by the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, and thousands lined the streets of the city as the hearse passed through on the way to Glasnevin Cemetery.

A wave of a wand is preferable to toil. The wages of toil is success. Wands are something to hold in one's milky and soft hands.

Magic! Whimsy! Remotes! Aps! Redistribution of Wealth! Dilectical Materialism! Dwarfs! Paul Krugman and Robert Reich!

The Harry Potter Generation Post Grads are living with Mom and Dad - the Old Muggles!

Capitalism Sucks! Dad, My ATM Card has lost its magic!



http://www.mugglenet.com/books/quotes/dumbledore.shtml

The Fist of Worker Solidarity OWS Chicago & A Working Man's Hand

If the Occupy Wall Street Movement and its rehearsal the Madison Wisconsin Sideshow last year have done anything it is making us all aware of the importance of bongos, drums and other percussion instruments.

Though I expect that there will not be a wild revival of Sandy Nelson, Buddy Rich, or Gene Krupa record sales, those kids can beat.

But consider Sandy Nelson:



And the OWS In-a-gadda-davidas!



More significantly, the fist thrust heaven-ward has become an all too frequent semiotic tool.

There is nothing so impressive as the calloused hands of a man who actually works for a living with skill, professional piety, and determination.

There is nothing so laughable as the milky white digits of a latter-day Hero of the Proletariat.

Man, put them back in the pockets of your North Face, son.





http://www.redbubble.com/people/dickmanchester/art/5580602-working-mans-hand

Lions of Laughter -Leo H.S. Alumni Stand Up Night at Beverly Arts Center

May your troubles be as few and as far apart as my Granny's teeth. An Old Irish Toast

You can major in communications in college, but it's better to learn it by six or seven
Leo Alumnus Paul Kelly

I applied for admission at Leo, because it was easy to spell. An anonymous Leo Alumnus - now a $ 500 an hour Personal Injury lawyer

Leo High School is home to captains of industry, military heroes, sports legends, men of the cloth, civil servants, and four of the funniest men in America. On Saturday, November 19th at 8 P.M. the Beverly Arts Center will roar with humor sparked by Four Lions of Laughter. Chicago's own Paul Kelly, Bill " Soups" Campbell, Kenny Howell and John Caponera will give one night tutorial on Stand Up Comedy. Each gifted man entered the crucible of high school years, through the portals of Leo High School.

Joseph Addison wrote that laughter is "the bringing together of images which have contrary additional ideas…” My all time favorite joke that never fails to get me giggling like the class jerk runs," An elegantly dressed woman walks into a loud crowded bar with a mallard under her arm. The bartender shouts above din and roar, 'Hey where'd you get the pig?'
The grand dame frostily replies with dignity, ' This is a Canadian Mallard, you lout . . .a duck.' The bartender waxes chastened . . .for moment, while the noisy bar quiets and awaits his snappy rejoined. 'I know, Toots, I was I talking to the Duck!'

Some days, it takes every once of human will to manage a smile. Thank God for the people in our company who not only coax the corners of our mouths heavenward, but also squeeze the bladders of our humors so hard that not only laughter gushes forth, but every muscle is taxed to keep human fluids where they belong.

The four Leo Lions of Laughter are as different as our senses and sensibilities.

John Caponera is not only a great Canaryville Wit ( tall task that in itself), but a spot-on mimic:




Bill "Soups Campbell, now settled in Boston, MA, offers a family friendly cerebral consideration of laughter:




The youngest and the edgiest of the four Lions of Laughter is Kenny Howell. Kenny has comic chops honed sharp and is everywhere



Beverly Stand Up Stand out Paul Kelly is known as the comic laureate of Chicago is known for his offbeat perspective and a unique physical style. Audiences see themselves in his hilarious real life routines. Paul is a master story teller and a quick ad-libber. He is the winner of the WGN Comedy Bowl and is proud to have a bratwurst sandwich named after him.

The Chicago Tribune recognized Paul Kelly's genius -

"A lot of comics know what they're going to say before they get on stage, but I don't," added Kelly, who said he likes to start a show by "spritzing" (Yiddish for making it up as you go along).

"I try to clear my mind of all thought before I get started," said Kelly. "I have routines I do over and over again, but I'm always looking for the optimum way to do them. I believe in something James Wesley Jackson (a Chicago comic) once told me. He said, `Being a comedian is not the study of what makes people laugh but the study of the laughter itself.'

"I want to get to the laughter that comes from way down inside," added Kelly. "I don't do a lot of snappy one-liners because I want the laughter that comes out of a relationship or an emotion. Why sit around trying to think up jokes? Simple everyday reality is funnier."

Much of Kelly's stage persona came from growing up a South Side Irish Catholic. "I come from a family that had a lot of humor," said Kelly, whose sister Elizabeth Dadd of Los Angeles married another standup comic, Terry Dadd.

After graduating from Leo High School in 1966, he saw a different view of the world when he attended Michigan State University in East Lansing. "The main thing that was shocking to me when I first left the South Side was finding out that St. Patrick's Day was not a day off from school," said Kelly, whose family used to celebrate the holiday at St. Sabina Catholic Church.

Paul Kelly was the mixmaster of the Lions of Laughter and helped Leo Alums, John Gardner -Alumni President, Bob Standring, Mike Nix - Director the Beverly Arts Center, Public Relations Mogul Bill Figel and Leo President Dan McGrath offer a night of laughs and love for Leo High School.

This Stand-up, Knock-down, Drag-Up howl fest begins at 8 P.M. in the Beverly Arts Center on November 19th.

Lions of Laughter: A Night of Comedy wiith Leo H.S. Grads:
John Caponera, Kenny Howell, Soups Campbell & Paul Kelly

At
Beverly Art Center
2407 West 111th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60655
7 P. M.
November 19th 2011
Tickets - $40 in advance and $ 50 at the door



Tickets Available at Beverly Arts Center -Call (773) 445-3838, or buy them on-line
www.beverlyartcenter.org/

Leo High School ( 773) 224-9600, or from a Leo Graduate with a wad of them in his mitts.
For added ease, join the Leo High School Family in honoring our Veterans on Friday November 4th at 11 A.M. for the Annual Leo Veterans Observances in the courtyard War Memorial on 79th Street

Elite Class Warriors Hang a Strawman in Effigy

"Cheers: Coach Buries a Grudge " (1984)

Tom: Let's hang him in effigy.
Ernie 'Coach' Pantusso: To hell with that. Let's hang him right here in Boston.


I am neither the sharpest bulb in the box, nor the brightest knife in the drawer, but know not to dance a fine jig in a steaming and teeming cow pasture, in order to pick up an ice cold gallon of moo juice. I step lightly and nimbly on the concrete streets of my neighborhood and go directly to the dairy case of County Fair Foods.

Call me crazy, call me lazy but $ 2.24 for a gallon of Kemp's 2% is preferable to spending untold hours with a trowel or sharp stick de-defecating my boondockers.

Likewise, I enjoy a paycheck that will clear upon deposit at Beverly Bank.

When 516 City workers (laborers, bus drivers, Streets and Sanitation workers, clerks and crossing guards) stand a solid chance of layoff, I know that fewer families will be able to afford Catholic school tuition. The economic mess that is the American economy hurts the people who Ivy League Academics, MSNBC, Editorial Boards, Brahmin Appointees like Forrest Claypool, and the DNC play at helping.

The Elites build many strawmen - Chicago Progressives like Toni Preckwinkle and Forrest Claypool stay employed by attacking powerless workers in their budgets, Machine Bosses ( try and find one), Skilled Trades Leaders and middle class helots. the mantra is always It is not our Policies that Fail, You People Don't Pay Enough!

Kids and glue-sniffers love that.

The Occupy Everything Movement nonsense and the toddler Obama Administration are fast and furiously Hell bent on stringing up A Strawman. The Strawman is the mythical Rich. This strawman is a caricature like 19th Century cartoonist and anti-Catholic bigot Thomas Nast's cartoons of plutocrats.

The plutocrats in fact are creating the Strawman that people on the Left are burning in effigy. The real Plutocrats are the trust funded, insulated activists who have colluded with Bill Clinton, Goldman Sachs, Fannie & Freddie Mae, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Barney Frank and Chris Todd to force the myth of Real Estate Mortgages as a Civil Right.

Here in Illinois ten or more years ago, smart legislators saw a problem: if a man had no or almost invisible income per his Income Tax returns, how could he afford a mortgage? Former Illinois State Representative Kevin Joyce pointed that problem out. Zip codes that were home to the most impoverished Illinois residents were a signal. Rev. Jesse Jackson tossed the race card in reply. Remember?

People qualified for mortgages without any discernible proof of an ability to meet those mortgage payments. Soon, homes purchased on a promise went into foreclosure and property values took its continuing nose dive. That mortgage bubble built by the Elites burst in 2008.

Plutocrats never tend to be pipe fitters, carpenters, millwrights, machinists, cops or firemen.

Plutocrats are Kennedys, DuPonts, Rockefellers, Buffets, Gates' and Oprahs. They are unaffected by the collapse of the economy and they are just fine with Class Warfare.

The Class Warfare targets today are Capitalists, whoever they might be; billionaires with jets; 'sFat Cats and Dry Cleaners.

The Middle Class was shrunk, not because of Bush, or Pipe fitters, it has shrunk because too many of us are not only charging into, but rolling happily through the endless cow pasture, in the mistaken notion that by milking organically fed cows, one can get an ice cold gallon of pasteurized 2% Milk of Amnesia.

Click my post title for Joel Kotkin's lucid and far less cranky presentation of this very topic

Don't Forget Forre$t Claypool, Fran, or is ForreSt Claypool Working for Free?

Sometimes being left out is a good thing. Being absent from a list of top salaried City Officials in a Sun Times red meat piece tossed to us helots in order to stoke up the time honored Pitch Fork and Torches Parades, is a perq for Forre$t Claypool - CTA BOSS.

Now, as far as I know, CTA buses and trains run in and through the great City of Chicago. Bus drivers and train engineers will not get pee breaks, on Boss Forre$t Claypool's watch! Penny wise, dollar Progressive.

You'll recall that following another electoral defeat, Forre$t Claypool was appointed to yet another high profile policy postion by Mayor Rahm Emanuel - Boss of the CTA. One report had it that the Rula Lenska ( What exactly can Forre$t do? Never mind; enjoy) of Chicago political life has an undisclosed salary with City and Sho 'Nuff!!! you can't find Claypool among the salaried, Garzas, Newmans, O'Briens, and Zielinksis on the City Salary Spreadsheets.

Today, Fran Spielman offers up the big salary Titans, but no Forre$t Claypool.

Even with 517 layoffs, $417 million in budget cuts and $220 million in higher taxes, fines and fees, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s first city budget rewards a handful of top mayoral aides.

Harrumph!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then we get the top cops, fireman, transportation, city services and a Hynes, which are all non-Progressive Shakman Exempt Targets.

Where's Forre$t?

I am given to understand that Forre$t rakes in at least $185,000 and change sans perquisites - there's always perquisites.

Why leave the poor lad unheralded, Fran?

Boss Claypool had no problem banning potty breaks and lunch from bus drivers. Now that's Progressive.

That's Forre$t in the City!

OWS Movement, A Serious Consideration: Consider Vernon Supreme and The Fogartys

Finx -Vernon Supreme

“We’re here for justice — our sign says it all, and our sign says, ‘Stop government crimes,’” said Chris Fogarty, as he stood with his wife, Mary O’Sullivan, on LaSalle Street. “And the other side says, ‘Restore our laws.’” Chicago Tribune Oct. 5, 2011




For weeks we have been treated to daily infomercials about the Occupy Wall Street Movement in the media, salted and sugared with proclamations from Nancy Pelosi, Eric Zorn, and Kanye West attesting to the sober and serious activism of our youth and even younger greybeard activists.

I had occasion to witness OWS Chicago at the Federal Reserve Dugout Campsite in the Loop. The only serious activists present were septuagenarian Human Rights legends Chris and Mary O'Sullivan-Fogarty. Chris and Mary are the real deal. I was hoping to catch-up with these two on-level and warm people, but Chris was making a statement for WGN TV. I had Leo business and needed to occupy different pavement.

The Fogarty's were charged with murder by the FBI in 1995. Pan-media icon Carol Marin (NBC 5, Sun Times, WTTW) made her 'bones' with her breathy report that Mr. & Mrs. Fogarty were an IRA ( Irish Repbulican Army) hit squad who murdered a couple in Wilmette. The Fogarty's had their fortune depleted clearing their good names and the murderer turned out to be a teenage goof Ala-Columbine who lived next door to the couple. Carol Marin has yet to apologize to the Fogarty's but that is merely blood under the bridge. Carol's mill grinds other corn.

Aside from Chris and Mary Fogarty, the OWS Chicago activists were kids bedecked in the very best quality Hipster fashion-wear and outfitted with camping gear that would make Babe Winkleman tear up with envy. They were earnest and that is what is really sad. Aside from that poignant reminder that American suburban youth seem unable to articulate a complete thought themselves, I was amused by them.

Yesterday, again in the downtown area I had occasion to kill some time with the Southtown Star - the south side Sun Times Lite. The take on the OWS saga featured a true believer - a man from Baltimore - a coiner of a neo-logism - a pot growing master agrarian and hawker of the Occupy Wall Street Journal: Mr. Vernon Supreme.

When I got home last night, I occupied an hour or so to the work of Vernon Supreme and I was delighted to see that no flies land on this active activist.

Ladies and gents the prodigious Vernon Supreme!

Mr. Supreme offers gardening tips, as well as insights to growing herb.

Vernon Supreme Harvest Pics
"Not too much of a harvest, but it's some bud to tide me over. I left for spring break with my grow not ready to be harvested. My buddy didn't water my plants and I came back to find some dead looking piles of leaves. My furthest matured planted was the one that really broke my heart. It looked kinda ready to be harvested though, so I cut the top of it off and put it in my bong. It was a pretty decent taste with a very trippy high that lasted for about 1.5 hours. I'm sure that will improve with curing though.

Total dry weight is 3.5 grams.

BTW, my other plants are starting to come back to life...they are looking somewhat alive now. I need to get some bigger containers for them and we might be able to pull them off in the end. Lookout for a full hydro grow next go-around. already popped the seeds for it."

A veritable Johnny Appleweed, no slouch Vernon be.


http://www.gardenscure.com/420/visual-inspirations-success-stories/66284-vernon-supreme-harvest-pics.html

When not Occupying Wall Street or growing weed, Vernon Supreme coins a neologism ( that's singular) for the Urban Dictionary

1 definition by Vernon Supreme Finx (n):A person who could equally be described as a fox and a minx.

No, she's a finx!
buy finx mugs & shirts
fox minx mischevious coquette republican by Vernon Supreme Mar 8, 2011 share this add a video

http://www.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=Vernon+Supreme

How does the man get through the day? The labors of Hercules! The Man in Full!

Vernon and I seem to be about the same age (58 and change) and to have sprung from the decade of the 1960'.

Temperment might attest to the paths taken in life. Vernon stopped in the Frosty Woods of a snowy evening and took some herb and other brain-pan lunricants and eventually the path less travelled leading from Baltimore to NYC and that has made all of the difference. I have never in my life shouted for the shot-gun seat and that has made all of difference.

Chris Fogarty built bridges in Honduras as an engineer, fights for a united Ireland, battles all torture, government abuse and historical ignorance, writes a monthly column for Irish American News and has a history book in publication.

Occupy Wall Street? Why the hell not? Knock yourselves out, kids!

However, to employ the south side vernacular as far as activism goes - You Could Never Carry the Fogartys' Jockstrap.

Chris and Mary Fogarty protest American Foreign Policy and Human Rights Issues on Michigan Avenue every week, wind, rain, snow, or sleet . . .right after Sunday Mass. They have been there for decades.

Don Flynn Way is not just an Honorary Street - It is the Heart of Catholic Giving and the Blood and Soul of Leo High School

On Monday, Columbus Day, Leo President Dan McGrath and I took a group of Leo students to the Parade. We were marching with The Big Shoulders Fund, a private charity that supports inner city Catholic schools and eases the financial strain on families who want their sons and daughters to receive the best education in Chicago.

Catholic schools provide the best education, not because of dollars, but because of Faith. Faith is the spine of good living. Along with our brothers and sisters of St. Rita, Mount Carmel, St. Francis De Sales, Maria, Mother McCauley, Gordon Tech, Queen of Peace, St. Benedict, Our Lady of Tepeyac and St. Gregory high schools, we celebrated the accomplishments and contributions of Italian Americans.

Leo High School is largely African American as a student demographic though there are now a few white and Hispanic students returned to the Miracle on 79th Street.

After the parade, we fed the Lions at Schallers Pump one of Chicago's oldest family restaurants, owned by Leo Hall of Fame basketball legend, Jackie Schaller ( Leo '43).
Along with the great feed, the young gents were schooled by a real Lion. Jackie Schaller played for the great Leo Basketball teams that won consecutive National Basketball Titles in the early 1940's. Most importantly, the life-long tough guy commanded, " Stick to your business. Learn as much as you can. Don't be smart-asses. Stay in Leo." Nothing passive agressive in those imperatives.

I drove three of the guys to their homes in South Holland, Brainerd and Ashburn. The second drop-off was between 87th and 88th & May Streets - the very block that was home to arguably the most successful graduate of the Leo High School Class of 1957- Donald F. Flynn ( 1939-2011).

I drove my last charge home and headed home myself. The minute I got in the door, I received a phone call from Mr. Bill Plunkett, who had worked with Don Flynn at Waster Management. " I have some very sad news; Don Flynn passed away in sleep last night,"

Mr. Plunkett and I talked for some time. I related the stories that I heard about Don Flynn from the great Bob Foster '58, the man who kept Leo open by dint of his heroic presence alone.

Bob told the story of a game against Gordon Tech. Helmet face guards were new to football and very few Catholic League teams sported them. The Rams had a few. Leo had none. Don Flynn, a guy that Bob Foster said, 'transformed from a studious and sweet guy into the Incredible Hulk the minute he stepped into the locker room' had a broken arm and was wearing plaster cast.

Flynn was a lineman and great field goal kicker. At some point in the game, the guy over whom Don Flynn was lined up, begged the referee to do something about the madman Flynn. " He is going to kill me!!! He said, so; ' I am going to kill you.'

The referee, probably the immortal Frank Strochia replied, "This is the Catholic League Kid. Kill him back."

A few plays later, the same referee stopped the action and signalled the sideline to take the kid out. He noticed that in fact, the young man's brand new face guard was not only in serious disrepair, but it was caked and crusted with not only young man's blood and field turf & sod, but plaster - lots of plaster.

The Leo Alumni reproduced every yearbook going back to 1931. I have posted Don Flynn's page. Note his high school accomplishments and his stated ambition in 1957 Click that yearbook photo, please and get a good look.


Don Flynn -Top row;second from leftDon Flynn and Bob Foster played on the 1956 City Championship team together. That was last time Leo won what is now called the Prep Bowl.

Don Flynn # 91 top row extreme right; Bob Foster #56 Front Row second from the left. Coached by the legendary Jimmy Arneberg & Bob Hanlon.Flynn went on college; played football and a knee-injury ended his playing days. He transferred to Marquette University and then lit the business world afire.

Bob Foster, a year later, went on to play for Purdue and returned to Leo as a history teacher and coach.

Thirty years later, when the Irish Christian Brothers departed, Bob Foster took the helm of his beloved school. Leo High School needed a great deal of help.

Don Flynn, along with Frank Considine '39 and Andy McKenna '47 buckled up the monetary and moral chin-straps.

Don Flynn made payrolls, pumped in tuition support, funded capital improvements, because he had made what many consider to be a fortune. That was only money.

Don Flynn's fortune was made between 87th & 88th and May Streets, at St. Kilians, in the classrooms of Leo, and on the broken beer bottle and cinder strewn grounds that were Leo High School's Shewbridge Field.

I had the privilege to meet Don Flynn a few times. Like every Leo Man I have ever met he was sweet-natured, witty, uncompromisingly generous and suffered no fools gladly.

Bob Foster, like Don Flynn and all Leo Men, looks for no tributes; therefore, it is always important to give tribute to the team. Foster petitioned the Alderman of 17th Ward Terry Peterson to have 79th & Sangamon designated 'Don Flynn Way.'

Don Flynn's way is followed by every person with a Heart and a Hand.

Heavenly Harps are plucking the Leo Fight Song!

Leo Fight Song
Oh, when those Leo men fall into line,
And their colors black and orange
are Unfurled,
You see those Brawny stalwarts wait
The sign,
And then their might against the foe
Is hurled
For then the foe shall feel the lions might,
And spirit of our team’s attack,
For with every heart and hand,
We will fight as one strong band,
For the honor of the orange and black!
RAH! RAH! RAH!

Boss Toni Preckwinkle's Vindictive Firing of John O'Sullivan

Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage. Saul Alinsky Rules for Radicals

Okay, so let's take a page out of Old Saul's playbook. Progressives ridicule. They ridicule anyone and everything in order to gain power. Once in power, hold the phone.




I'd have to call Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle a real Progressive, because all of the Progressives call Toni a Progressive. More so, Toni Preckwinkle acts and speaks like a Progressive - fell into an open sewer on the way to City Hall, called Nobel Literary Laureate Saul Bellow a racist, after he died, begged Regular Democrats for help in getting her elected and then turned on one like rabid skunk with the miseries. Progressive.

A Progressive is not a politician, even when a Progressive uses politics to get elected. A Progressive uses elected office and the power that comes with office to make Policy in order to build more power - civil unions, no goose guts, bullying mandates, abortion and contraceptives for pre-schoolers - all the real meat and potatoes issues that improve our little lives.

Toni Preckwinkle's public costume ( like Lady Liberty in the photo above) is that of a person who shuns the old ways of the Bossism in politics and operates only with the purest of motives and without any personal opportunity to make money, or influence.

Yet, we voters not only read, but we also work, play, worship, love and share our small gifts and fortunes under the rubrics of policy.

I read last week, in Abdon Pallasch's October 4th Chicago Sun Times article, the saga of the Cook County Democratic Party's slating festival.

The Cook County Democratic Party may decide to endorse one of the three Wednesday.

In the past two weeks, Mayor Rahm Emanuel headlined a fund-raiser for Justice Mary Jane Theis, and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle headlined one for Justice Joy Cunningham. Justice Aurelia Pucinski is gathering signatures and has not scheduled a fund-raiser yet.

Theis serves in the seat now by appointment. Cunningham and Pucinski sit on the state appellate court where Theis served for 17 years before being appointed to the high court last year.

Emanuel was joined by state Senate President John Cullerton at Theis’ fund-raiser at the Berghoff Restaurant, along with current and former members of the bench. Former Mayor Richard M. Daley has also endorsed Theis. He was represented by his brother Michael Daley and his nephew Patrick Thompson, who co-chairs Theis’ campaign.

“Mary Jane Theis and I co-chaired John Cullerton’s first campaign for state representative,” Thompson’s co-chair Tom Moore said in introducing Theis. Cullerton said he met Theis when they both applied for jobs at the Cook County Public Defender’s office after getting out of law school.

( emphasis my own)

The next morning, Voila! Abdon Pallasch reported the votes of the Committeemen.

A Cook County Democratic Party committee Wednesday recommended the party endorse Mary Jane Theis for the state Supreme Court in the March primary election.

Theis was appointed by the other six members of the court last year to fill out the term of Justice Thomas Fitzgerald. She is running with the support of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Mayor Richard M. Daley, and, based on Wednesday’s vote, the support of enough Democratic committeemen to run as the official party candidate.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle supports Justice Joy Cunningham for the slot. She made a motion to endorse Cunningham or make no endorsement. But as it became clear that Theis’ supporters had more votes, the committeemen opted for a nominally “unanimous” vote for Theis. (emphasis my own)

The full party is expected to ratify the decision Thursday.

They did and Judge Theis won and Joy Cunningham joined Aurelia Puchinski for some sour grapes. Looks like Boss Preckwinkle fired John O'Sullivan more for the way he 'didn't vote' than for what didn't show up on a well-vetted resume.

I have not spoken with John O'Sullivan. He has enough on his plate, having been fired for political reasons. I wonder if Shakman is awake? Nah, not his rice bowl taking care of helots.

Okay, let's jump to Friday. Worth Township Democratic Committeeman John O'Sullivan was fired by Cook County Board President Toni "The Boss" Preckwinkle. The story of the firing was smeared by Dane Placko of Fox Chicago all over the evening news and the narrative was continued over the weekend. Dane Placko used all of the euphemisms employed by Progressives to ridicule people.

Chicago - Political clout may have helped him land a county job. But in the end, clout couldn't save him.
FOX Chicago News has learned Worth Township Democratic Committeeman John O'Sullivan was ordered to resign today from his 85-thousand dollar a year job at the Cook County Forest Preserve.

Last June Fox Chicago broke the story of O'Sullivan's questionable hiring.

The former state lawmaker got an 85-thousand dollar a year supervisor's job despite having been fired by the county a couple years ago for time card fraud.

Forest Preserve Superintendent Arnold Randall says they looked further into O'Sullivan's background and found discrepancies in his work history, which led to his termination.

Progressives and their media hacks always ridicule little people, never powerful folks. They'll go after a Todd Stroger, once they get green lighted and he is already politically dead, but they'll never take on the powerful. They use the powerful.

Dane Placko and other media hacks go after truck drivers, plumbers, cops, firemen and political foot soldiers in their EXPOSE!!!! of corruption. While they get the 40 Watt intellectuals snarling and snapping, the real thives are taking not only the vaults of loot, but the fixtures and toilet paper rollers.

Well Dane, John O'Sullivan, a working man, challenged the charges and was not only re-instated to his job, but received all of his back pay.

It sure does look like John O'Sullivan voted for Justice Mary Jane Theiss. I would not know. I am sure there were plenty of folks who do know - John O'Sullivan knows.

It is not about a resume, or being the 'right fit' for the job with Cook County Forest Preserve - Boss Preckwinkle said that Johnny O' was just swell for the job from June all the way until the vote at the Democratic Slating Party. Shuck's Boss Toni even compared John O'Sullivan to Forrest Claypool - I told you she was mean; John O'Sullivan actually worked for his pay.

I have known Committeeman John O'Sullivan for a very long time and I know him to be a generous, thoughtful, and hard-working man.

I have known about Boss Preckwinkle for even longer and consider her to be a model Progressive - angry, smug, arrogant, not real bright, ill-humored, vindictive, petty, and lousy at whatever task lands in her lap.

Progressives can mouth platitudes, but never ever speak with people.

The Democratic Party lost its effectiveness and integrity, when it opted to play ball with Progressives. Progressives always end up taking home the ball, the bats, the bases, the coolers, the chalk-liners, the wads of gum stuck under the benches, the benches and the grass.

Toni Preckwinkle is as much of an angry, vindictive, daffy hack as Todd Stroger could ever dream to be.



http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/7996099-418/democratic-primary-for-illinois-supreme-court-a-three-woman-race.html

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/john-o'sullivan-resign-cook-county-forest-preserve-job-worth-township-20111007

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-14/news/ct-met-toni-preckwinkle-hiring-20110614_1_preckwinkle-state-lawmakers-regional-superintendent

Happy Columbus Day! Felice Columbus Day, Viva l'America! Columbia the Gem of the Ocean

This is a photo of an Italian America couple who scratched, fought and saved for the America we all take for granted at best and at worst scorn. This man and his beautiful wife worked in Chicago's lumberyards along the Chicago river and when unemployed worked the Illinois bean fields. Jane Addams and her girlfriends put on presentations of Sophocles at Hull House, in order to help them out.


I read a couple of snarky scribbles about Columbus Day by Chicago and national media types. The usual stuff. Genocide, White Supremacy, Religion bashing, a few nods to the trust fund babies spending a few weeks in Eddie Bauer and Abercrombie and Fitch tents playing Occupy America.

Today, Italian Americans celebrate America. Pietro Ceasari Alberti, a Venetian sailor is recorded to be the first Italian to settle in New York in 1635, a few years after Giovanni Verranzzano mapped New York Bay.

Thomas Jefferson established the oldest military band - The President's Own U.S. Marine Corps Band in 1798 staffed largely by Italian musicians.

Italian-American women, like our first American Saint Mother Cabrini, get ignored in favor of Jane Addams, Eugenics Abortionist Margaret Sanger, or Gloria Steinem.

Contributions of Italian Americans are largely ignored, as are those of most assimilated ethnic groups. Example how many high school kids learn of Enrico Fermi, as oppossed to Robert Oppenheimer? Oppie hated the bomb and became a darling Progressive icon.

Chicago's Mario 'Motts' Tonelli was a pro football rookie, Notre Dame All-American from Chicago who out his country before his career, went into the Army, to the Phillipines just before Japan decided to celebrate diversity world wide. Motts survived Bataan, the Death March, Coffin Ships, Genuine Grassroots Torture and Starvation. He returned to Columbia - a euphemism for America, the land discovered by Christopher Columbus, a Genovese sailor and devout Roman Catholic.



Columbia, The Gem of the Ocean!

Cathy O'Connell with Kathleen Keane and Jimmy Moore at Skokie Theatre - October 16th

Catherine O’Connell, Kathleen Keane & Jimmy MooreSunday, October 16, 2:00PM
Skokie Theatre
7924 N. Lincoln Avenue (Lincoln & Oakton)
Skokie, IL 60077
Phone 847.677.7761
Email: info@skokietheatre.com

Tickets $20 in advance, $25 at the door

Please join us for an afternoon of 'whatever suits our fancy'!

If you have anything you would like to hear, email a request, we will take it under advisement! NOTE the time 2:00PM we would like everyone home (or your favorite pub) for dinner and the Bears game!

INTERESTED IN BOOKING CATHERINE FOR A SPECIAL EVENT? CONTACT HER AT CATHERINE@CATHERINEOCONNELL.COM