Jesus Said, "Carry Your Cross:" Nothing About Strolling on Hot Coals

I read where Twenty-one (21) unfocused souls were treated for second and third degree burns after their 'Peak Performance Strategist' ( read Guru Grifter) talked them into Doing The Stroll  over glowing hunks of Kingsford. The injuries took place during the first day Thursday of a four-day event at the San Jose Convention Center hosted by Robbins called "Unleash the Power Within." Most of those hurt had second and third degree burns, said San Jose Fire Department Capt. Reggie Williams. Walking across hot coals on lanes measuring 10 feet long and heated to between 1,200 to 2,000 degrees provides attendees an opportunity to "understand that there is absolutely nothing you can't overcome," according to the motivational speaker's website.  Have you ever taken a gander at this Robbins cat? Man, I wouldn't take seconds on lobster tails and drawn butter, if he thought it was a great idea. If one is unfocused, lost, overwhlemed, guys like this James Bond villain can lift their wallets and make them like it. The best teachers, Catholic, Jewish, Evangelical and Muslim, tend to stay underpaid, but never overwhelmed, let alone unfocused. They require hard work from their disciples, but never seem to require a stroll over hot coals.       Jesus and the guys worked on vacation - Mark 6: 30 - 34
30	The apostles returned to Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.
31	And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
32	And they went away in the boat to a lonely place by themselves.
33	Now many saw them going, and knew them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns, and got there ahead of them.
34	As he went ashore he saw a great throng, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-burns-suffered-at-tony-robbins-event,0,4469568.story

Verisimilitude: Batman, Books, and Byronic Monsters

Sometime in late January 1977, I argued with an older colleague about a novella that I chose to teach.
The chap with two years more class time than me, was a corpulent omnivore with a Hemingway fixation; sported a beard a la Papa; smoked a pipe and never graded the papers he assigned.  Instead the pretentious gent 'stored' them in his classroom and distributed slips of paper with grades never lower than a B-.  Odd That. However, Father Jim Fanale,CSV, our department chair, ordered the three years of ungraded papers freed of their bondage the following month and began the paper trail to jettison an Illinois Certified (K-12) payroller. But, that was to be.

I had ordered Edward Everett Hale's 1863 classic Man Without a Country faux-Hemingway made sport of this dusty golden-oldie, " What's next the Molly Pitcher?"   Not long enough really ; 24 lines in 6 stanzas of four; I may, however, offer Barbara Fritchie by John Greenleaf Whittier. I loved the closed couplet.  I love when that old broad gives M'arse Robert his Reb Comeuppance.

'Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,But spare your country's flag,' she said.
A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,Over the face of the leader came;
The nobler nature within him stirredTo life at that woman's deed and word;
'Who touches a hair of yon gray headDies like a dog! March on! he said.

Nope, the kids will love Man Without a Country.

Hemingway had his kids read Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky.

Needless to say, following the Inauguration of Jimmy Carter and his immediate pardon of the Vietnam draft-dodgers, Man Without a Country was poignantly tonic to high schoolers. The novella is wonderful well-written example verisimilitude (Fictive Truthfulness).  Edward E. Hale, used the actual cry of an Ohio Democrat Copperhead who worked against the Union in the Civil War and paraphrases "D——n the United States! I wish I may never hear of the United States again!" through the voice of the fictional Phillip Nolan, an American Army officer serving in "Legion of the West ( Texas)" who takes up with Aaron Burr in his attempt at Empire.


Phillip Nolan gets his wish in a punishment that fit his crimes - he is imprisoned about Naval ships for the balance of his life without ever hearing another human voice say anything to him of or about the United States of America.

President Jimmy Carter has just pardoned young men who deserted America for Canada in order to avoid being drafted or serving the military in Vietnam.

The kids loved the story of the young romantic Phillip Nolan whose dreams of Empire required treason to his country,  Hemingway Fats required his students purchase the Notes from Underground, at the end of the school year I picked a dozen or more unopened and untouched copies of that Jerk Manifesto, I n fact, I re-read this work the other night.

Dostoevsky's novella is a tough read.  The first half of the book is a complete Hegelian mishmash of society's wrongs and justification for complete isolation - sort of an ASSHOLE for Dummies. Underground Man, the narrator protagonist, is someone who lives on spite, grudges, pay-back, insults, and self-pity.

Yesterday, our country was slapped with another madman's carnage.  At 4 AM, when I woke up, I read about the massacre of the innocent that occurred hours before; my son Conor, was taking a flight  out of Midway to Denver with four of his friends.  We talked about the massacre at the movies.  Conor departed with Joe Logan.  They were meeting the other three at Midway as they had gone to see Dark Knight Rising just like poor souls in Aurora, Colorado.  This quintet of south side Irish Catholic Chicago twenty somethings were going to Denver and then on to the old silver mining town of Georgetown, once home to the famous Poker Annie.  They would actually live on a ranch as their base-camp in the shadow of God's great architecture - five gregarious Catholic League football has beens rooting through abandoned silver mines, white water rafting and quaffing the malted grain beverages three meals a day.

Hours before, a gifted kid slaughtered strangers and wounded the heart of our nation. What did this kid read; what ideas were put in his head?

I took a pass on teaching Notes from Underground to high school kids. It's a work of genius, but it is essentially a manifesto of evil.  Crime and Punishment, ditto.  I was blessed by great mentors and teachers who impressed me with my obligation as a teacher -don't teach what you like; teach what kids need.  Thank you, Nick Novich, Dave Raich, Father Fanala, Father Sheridan and Mr. Kerrigan.  Thank you, Loyola University.

Literature, ideas, creeds that isolate us, from one another and grade chasing science ventures -my God, Neuroscience  - that are not community building, self-absorbed and purposely destructive are as dangerous as the one hundred round drum-clip purchased by a Byronic monster who wrote in blood the other night -"The notes of this paradoxalist do not end here, however. He could not refrain from going on with them, but it seems to us that we may stop here."


Man Without a Country and Notes From Underground Texts:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/600/600-h/600-h.htm
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15868/15868-h/15868-h.htm

Chicago's Thug Comfort Zone Devours a Great Cop - God Bless Sgt. Eddie Howard of the 6th District

Sgt. Eddie Howard with TAC Officer Bill Murphy fighting gangs, guns and drugs in Pullman, Roseland and Altgeld Gardens.

Real Chicago Motto- Victima Urbem et Urbem de Percussores/Victim City a City of Thugs!

Three teens and a women were shot in the Gresham neighborhood only hours after a bench trial before Judge Clayton Crane declared Sgt. Edward Howard guilty of slapping a spitting thug.

Despite the loudly trumpeted and hosanna-ed enlistment by the City of Chicago of the gang-banger pensioners who are CeaseFire and the phalanx-ed precision marching bow ties of Calypso Louis Farrakhan's Fruit of Islam through the streets of Auburn Gresham on Monday, three teens and a woman were shot in the Gresham neighborhood.

On October 10, 2010, a nineteen year old waste of DNA was arrested and cuffed for trespass on private property at 7904 S. Vincenses, a corner intersection known for its history thuggery.  This waste of DNA spit at Sgt. Eddie Howard, CPD. The sergeant gave him a couple of slaps in self-defence( HIV;Hepatitis/ TB/Air-borne pathogens of all variety) and  the thug and his Mamma called the Independent Police Review Authority and Chicago's Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers - that is standard operating practice for thugs in Chicago. Get a slap and get a payoff. Mayor Daley was always happy to pay.  Superintendent Jodi Weiss loved to play with thugs and had an afternoon tea with Gangster Royalty in the Garfield Park Conservatory. Daley and Weiss tossed a twenty five year veteran to the jackals.

Why not?  It got Chuck Goudy, Frank Main, Mary Mitchell and community organizers off of Daley's back.  In fact, Daley did all he could as Mayor to geld police authority and cozy up to Progressives.  Progressives hate cops and love thugs.  You will never hear of G. Flint Taylor, Locke Bowman, or Jon Loevy taking up the cause of an Officer Mette, when they can Free Mumia!

Chicago thugs are free to murder, so why not spit in the face of police officers?  Call the Independent Police Review Authority! 


There is also a Police Board comprised of lawyers, consultants, and a Reverend. Here is their charter:

The Police Board's primary powers and responsibilities include:

• Deciding disciplinary cases involving allegations of police misconduct.
• Holding monthly public meetings that provide an opportunity for all members of the public to present questions and comments to the Board, the Superintendent of Police, and the Chief Administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority.
• Nominating candidates for the position of Superintendent of Police to the Mayor

I see nothing about support for police officers (link below).

In 2007, the Chicago Police Department was gelded by Mayor Daley's Chicago City Council following wildly publicized cases of individual police misconduct.  The City of Chicago Independent Police Review Authority was established.  Since 2007, Chicago's murders have dominated the news, with the exception of a few days in May.

 Chicago Police were allowed to conduct themselves, as they have always done so, with professionalism and courage in order to make the investments of City Chicago's NATO Summit remain free of any negative focus. Supt. McCarthy became  George Washington and his troops Sons of Liberty, until the NATO folks took their goody bags home and then they became Hessians again.

Chicago Cops are between a $hit and a sneeze.

The Chicago Police Officers are targets with bulls-eyes on their backs manufactured by Cadillac Commie lawyers, academic frauds with piles of money looted from family foundations through Northwestern and University of Chicago,  later-day IF Stones and John Reeds writing smarmy and fatuous columns about rogue racist cops and systemic racism and provided to the thugs with tax-dollars, from the cops themselves, as well as the citizens of this City of Victims, by cynical, or stupid politicians.

The killings will mount, not just continue, because the nodders and the ninnies who eat up the nonsense poured out daily by the media and the university mouthpieces with easy money in their wallets, have louder mouths than the millions of citizens of this our City of Victims.

Sgt. Eddie Howard, CPD, like so many other good people in this City of Victims, might have helped prevent the shootings in the Gresham neighborhood last night. Sgt. Howard, until he was entrapped by a video that tells only the redacted version of incident at 79th & Vincennes last April,  and the officers of Gresham 6th District protect the neighborhood.  Sgt Howard was tossed to hyenas who created Chicago, The Victim City  by Mayor Daley and Jodi Weiss - October 2010, when the incident occurred -

That is far more plausible than the Million Dollar March to Pay CeaseFire, or the Jew-baiting Fiddler in the Bow-Tie helping anyone but themselves.

http://www.coachwyatt.com/chicagocops.htm
http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/search?q=thug+comfort+zone
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/04/15/police-sergeant-charged-with-hitting-handcuffed-man/
http://www.iprachicago.org/
http://www.cityofchicago.org/dam/city/depts/cpb/AnnualReports/PoliceBoard2010AnnReptEng.pdf

Dude, The Obscure

I have been posting on the Internet, information highway, blogs, Al Gore's invention # 107, web magazines and newspapers, since the dawn of this our millennium.  I got me a computer. To date, I have published 2,065 blog posts here on With Both Hands.  These posts cover everything that I find interesting, disturbing, poignant, hum-bugging and amusing.  I am never bored. 

This follows a practice of morning daily prose-ing with pen and ink, pencil, lipstick and crayon on paper (typing, legal and notebook) going back to my college days. It's fun and at times it pays cash money.

Yesterday a pal in California who possess one of the finest Blog sites going - The Scratching Post - commented on one my Dick Simposn posts . KTCat posts insights and observations with a wicked wit, underscored by a feline soul. Take a gander at this cat's blog which I link below.

This week, two of my posts opened their claws on Thundering Dick Simpson ( former Chicago Alderman, Political Science Prof at UIC, and Progressive Tax-dollar jackal) over his recently media ballyhoo-ed Cliff's Notes of Corruption - Green Grass and Greed: Corruption in the Suburbs.  This latest work is intended to 

1. Fire up the usual dependable media gas-bags to howl about Corruption universal and squeal like a hog on gelding day about suburban political ne-er-do-wells
2. Get Pat Quinn to use more phantom Illinois tax-dollars to have Thundering Dick's associates compensated for panel-time in the endless work of rooting out Bosses, Bagmen and Blackguards in the 'Burbs -publicly execute the Girodins( Regular Dems and Tassled Loafer GOP-ers) - Dick's Committee for Public Safety from Suburb Corruption-COMITÉ de la Sécurité publique de la corruption en dehors de la ville
3. Get more Progressive branded goofballs, ninnies, grifters, nutbags and abortionists elected to public office

Thundering Dick Simpson used to be hilarious, but time and memory loss have made him dangerous.

My pal from the sinister coast ( facing true-north, west is left and right, or dextra is east) sent this note to me here in centralis ora - you know, over by the Lake: 

K T Cat said...
Your topics are obscure and your writing is splendid. I loved it!
7:12 AM 

The chap believes my offerings to be Obscure and Splendid.  I do not know about the splendid part, but I be obscure.

Obscurus in Latin means Dark.  The word now tends to mean ambiguous, mysterious, or not easily known.  Beginning with Edmund Spencer, who married the daughter of an Irish chieftain, the renaissance English poets valued the dark conceit, allegory - the darker the better.

Allegory is used to explain something metaphysical ( love, marriage, courtship, patriotism, or Faith) by using a bunch of physical objects - a heart becomes a hand grenade under the pen Abraham Cowley (1618-1687).  

Dude, Obscure I must remain.

The heart is dark.  The mind is clouded.  The voice, though certain, stutters attempts at truth.

Let me explain.

It all had to do with a train ride from Madrid to Seville, or was it Seville to Paris? I was trying to distance myself from this young girl,  Conchita. As my train was ready to depart I  found that a bruised and bandaged Conchita was pursuing me. From the train I  poured a bucket of water over her head. I  believed this might deter her, but she climbed aboard.

My  fellow compartment passengers witnessed this rude act. These included a mother and her young daughter, a judge who is coincidentally a friend of Thundering Dick Simpson, and a psychologist who coincidentally is a dwarf - looked a great deal like Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Lakeview). They inquired about my motivation for such an act and I then explained the history of my tumultuous relationship with Conchita.  

I'm a middle aged, widowed, white guy, who when sporting a beard bears a strinking resemblance to that great actor Fernando Rey - Frog One from the French Connection. Women find me attractive for some reason, in part due a my boyishly Celtic self-deprecating manner with the dark eyes of Tyrone Power if he had lived as long as me and because I keep my pockets full of spending loot and change my "vines" nine times a day.  Conchita was drawn to me like flies to a crowded Archer Avenue bus in August  - that and the fact chicks dig the obscure.

Conchita, claims to be 18 but looks older, vows to remain a virgin until marriage. She tantalized me with sexual promises but never allowed me to satisfy sexual desire, which I was plenty used to, let me tell you.   Conchita's antics caused us to break up and reunite repeatedly, each time frustrating and confusing this middle-aged widow guy.

Eventually, I  found Conchita dancing nude for tourists in a Seville nightclub. I was enraged. Later, however, I  forgave her and bought  her a house - a nice raised ranch like my own back in the States, but drier during rain storms, because there were no Goddam #$%^ing Tree Roots raping into the sewer ejection pipe going out to Rockwell Street thanks to the sonsobitchin' parkway trees. 

Soon after moving into the house, Conchita refused to let me in at the back door, tells me that she hates me, and that kissing and touching me make her sick. I get that alot. Then, to prove her independence,  she takes up with a hair-dresser who sings in the community male chorus and dances in summer productions of Pippin.

After this, Conchita attempted , insisting that the sex was fake and that her "lover" is in reality a homosexual friend. However, during her explanation, I decided to  beat feet and  then says "Now I´m sure you love me,", causing her bandaged and bruised state spoken of earlier.  

I jumped trains, while she slept and when once the train's lights were fading toward Paris, I remembered that I had not had anything to eat and went to one swell Tapas joint and me a big old plate-fulla Queso con anchoas, pulpo de gallegos,papas bravas ( love them spuds) and pinchos de encurtidos. Mighty tasty.

Them flamenco dancers got nothing on a big old plateful of Tapas.

.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/that-obscure-object-of-desire/731

http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com/

Shakman Begat Simpson - Corruption, or What's in Your Wallet?

Corruption!  Like household mold, the very thought of it sends crowds of folks scurrying for the last boat out.  Corruption, like house-hold mold Stachybotrys (chartarum/atra), allows panels of experts to prove with scientific certainty that "it must be!" even though only in court is that true.  Science finds it very hard, if not impossible,  to prove a negative, but judges do so all the time.  The mold epidemic grew out of the hysteria of early 1990's in the Cleveland era, when insurers were brought to court and forced to pay huge damages to folks who purchased homes where molds were detected - causing them life-threatening harm.  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) needed back off the Cleveland hysteria - toxic mold just ain't*  Nevertheless, lawyers find judges and judges make judgments.


Only in court can one prove a negative, to wit,  Michael Shakman :

Shakman filed suit against the Democratic Organization of Cook County, arguing that the patronage system put nonorganized candidates and their supporters at an illegal and unconstitutional disadvantage. Politicians could hire, fire, promote, transfer—in essence, punish—employees for not supporting the system, or more particularly, a certain politician. The suit also argued that political patronage wasted taxpayer money because public employees, while at work, would often be forced to campaign for political candidates.
In 1972, after an exhaustive court procedure and much negotiating, the parties reached an agreement prohibiting politically motivated firings, demotions, transfers, or other punishment of government employees. A 1979 ruling led to a court order in 1983 that made it unlawful to take any political factor into account in hiring public employees (with exceptions for positions such as policy making). Those decisions along with companion consent judgments—collectively called the Shakman decrees—are binding on more than 40 city and statewide offices. Encyclopedia of Chicago

Yea!!! Patronage Bad!!!!! The Progressive Lexicon grows like household mold! Mold is determined by climate -just the right of moisture with the right temperature and mold goes gangstah!

N.B. - Here is a political bonbon doillyed and dropped by Dan Kelley on Progressives and Patronage:

Berny Stone relates a story about dealing with a (future) Progressive politician:
I was in charge of 8 precincts with guys like Dick Elrod and Howard Carroll. I made sure everything ran smoothly in their precincts. Dick Elrod ran for Alderman and lost. But then he ran for Sheriff and won. I worked for him when he was Sheriff. For two years prior to the special election (Stone succeeded 50th Ward Alderman Jack Sperling resigned  when he was appointed to a judicial position) I was his Assistant Chief Deputy Sheriff and I handled all of the foreclosures of the office. At that time the amount of foreclosures that we had in one year we have now in a month. Dick asked me to take the job. We lived very close to each other. My specialty as a lawyer was real estate and he knew he could trust me.

In my opinion it was about picking a good qualified person. A young lawyer came to me who never handled foreclosure before so I helped him. I took him all the way through. Later I met him again when he became an Alderman, his name was Larry Bloom. I said Larry you rail against patronage but I was a patronage appointed employee and I helped you.

Yea, Patronage begat Bosses who begat Racist Bossism which begat Systemic Torture, which begat Systemic Racism, which begat Pan-Sexism, which begat Homophobic Bullies ad infinitum.

Michael $hakman and $hakman industries ( decrees, monitors, consultants, media stooges, lawyers and tax-funded panels) were the moist climate that gave us our unique Chicago brand of Progressive government. The day that Richie Daley, while in political exile circa 1980's after defeating the Shakman Decree signing Republican Bernie Carey as Cook County States Attorney:

 By what rules had the 11th Ward machine always lived? Now that Daley and company were out of power for the first time in half a century, were patronage hiring and firing no longer nice?
The Tribune wondered aloud, "How far will the 11th Ward carry its campaign for civic purity?" Suggesting that Daley embrace the Shakman ruling against political firings, the paper sneered, "Stranger things have happened, though we can't at the moment think of any."
But the strange thing did happen. Shortly before leaving office, Bernie Carey had agreed to sign a second Shakman decree. The original decree, signed by Carey in 1973, banned political firing; the new decree would ban political hiring as well. Soon after taking office, Daley became the first county official to sign the new decree. During the campaign--in which he had also come out in favor of merit selection of judges, a machine curse--he had pledged, "This office will be professional. I will not take a letter from any ward committeeman."
According to John Schmidt, who has served since 1980 on Daley's professional advisory committee, Daley has kept that pledge. Daley did have to settle a lawsuit brought by five former Carey employees whom he had fired (including Carey's brother-in-law); they had held policy-making positions exempted from Shakman restraints, but they contended that they had first been demoted to nonexempt positions, and then fired, so that the decree was violated. Daley has also hired some politicians not known for their professional skills, like former alderman and now state representative Miguel Santiago. However, the Shakman decree does not mandate that public officials hire only persons of consummate professional skill; it merely prohibits political hiring and firing of non-policy-making employees. And Daley has apparently never been found in violation of the Shakman decree.

Only a few years before hugging $hakman, while giving a talk at University of Chicago, Richard M. Daley bemoaned the fact that "One of the real problems of government is (was and continues to be) the decline of patronage" (parentheticals my own). While an Illinois Legislator, Daley began to play soft ball with and for Dawn Clark Netsch, literally and figuratively, as team mate of Don Rose, Dr. Quentin Young, Marty Oberman and Thundering Dick Simpson.  Daley opened the doors of power to people who really knew how to not only wield it but hang on to it. The Hyde Park Mafia killed the Cermak Machine: The City that Worked, became the City that Shrinks.

Dick Simpson waddles through the corridors of power like a later day Sir Robert Cecil.  In fact, the Richard M. Daley years often reminded me of Elizabeth Tudor's reign - the complete and utter destruction of the Catholic aristocracy and the ultimate ascendancy of a singularly secular state. Dick Simpson, like the patiently sebaceous and splenetic Earl of Salisbury, followed his political pops Abner Mikva - identical the transformative and conniving Sir Francis Cecil, 1st Baron of Burghley.  Daley's Good Queen Bess Reign were marked by public executions of loyal kinsmen, competitors and courtiers ( Ald. Pat Huels, Miriam Santos & Paul Vallas e.g.) and odd alliances ( President GW Bush was not unlike the Virgin Queen's friendship with French King Henry IV).

The New Stuart, Rahm Emanuel, is very much like Scottish-born King James I, who was a Renaissance chameleon like no other.  The Progressive Stuarts will prove to be as toxic and ultimately self-destructive as their historical parallels.

The toxic shock value works wonders as long as their is an unpinched mu$hroom growing out of this political mold.  Corruption!

Thundering Dick Simpson is poised to contaminate the Chicago suburbs to fight Corruption - whatever the hell that is supposed to mean - with lawyers and judges who will determine Dick's terminology and prove his negative.

Shakman begat Simpson.  Household mold begets mushrooming household insurance rates.

History works. Science?  Nice for making better cheese, beer and Progressive nonsense. Courts give us the mandates, taxes and confusion we live with everyday.

*The term "toxic mold" is not accurate. While certain molds are toxigenic, meaning they can produce toxins (specifically mycotoxins), the molds themselves are not toxic, or poisonous. Hazards presented by molds that may produce mycotoxins should be considered the same as other common molds which can grow in your house. There is always a little mold everywhere - in the air and on many surfaces. There are very few reports that toxigenic molds found inside homes can cause unique or rare health conditions such as pulmonary hemorrhage or memory loss. These case reports are rare, and a causal link between the presence of the toxigenic mold and these conditions has not been proven.In 2004 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) found there was sufficient evidence to link indoor exposure to mold with upper respiratory tract symptoms, cough, and wheeze in otherwise healthy people; with asthma symptoms in people with asthma; and with hypersensitivity pneumonitis in individuals susceptible to that immune-mediated condition. The IOM also found limited or suggestive evidence linking indoor mold exposure and respiratory illness in otherwise healthy children. In 2009, the World Health Organization issued additional guidance, the WHO Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality: Dampness and Mould [PDF, 2.52 MB].
A common-sense approach should be used for any mold contamination existing inside buildings and homes. The common health concerns from molds include hay fever-like allergic symptoms. Certain individuals with chronic respiratory disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, asthma) may experience difficulty breathing. Individuals with immune suppression may be at increased risk for infection from molds. If you or your family members have these conditions, a qualified medical clinician should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment. For the most part, one should take routine measures to prevent mold growth in the home.

 http://www.cdc.gov/mold/stachy.htm

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1138.html

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&case=/data2/circs/7th/951929.html

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/is-rich-daley-ready-for-reform/Content?oid=873372

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cecil,_1st_Earl_of_Salisbury

The Most American Movie - Bang the Drum Slowly

 

The Best Years of Our Lives defines the essence of what American courage is versus the disastrous proposals and delusions that brought the entire human race into the Second World War. The film also portrays the essence of an American goodness which, now more than ever, is like no other in the world. Michael Moriarty - Ottawa Life Magazine 7/15/2012

       "Genius is a web into which poor, normally mortal humans inevitably fly!" - Michael Moriarty - Ottawa Life Magazine        

Bruce Pearson ( Robert DeNiro): Everybody'd be nice to you if they knew you were dying. Henry Wiggen ( Michael Moriarty: Everybody knows everybody is dying; that's why people are as good as they are. from Bang the Drum Slowly - 1973

I beg to differ with a man of true genius, only this once; Michael Moriarty wrote that The Best Years of Our Lives, which presents the the physical, mental and spiritual anguish of three WWII veterans upon homecoming,  might just be the greatest American film ever produced.   Moriarty, whose grandfather was reputed to be the one of the most fiercely competitive men to ever play professional baseball, the most American of sports, George Moriarty, feared by the legendary Ty Cobb and respected by the profession as an umpire once he retired from play, is an athletic actor who brought the soul of baseball - a tragi-comic drama itself- to life in the film Bang the Drum Slowly (1972)*.   I'd offer that this film is the genuine American movie.

It is American because it is youthful, hopeful, energetic, profane, respectful, witty and courageous.  Play is serious business.  Games ( in Greek agonistes ) are man's recognition of God.   In pure sport, man enacts his course of life.  The goal is to come as close to perfection as possible, without allowing ones self to become ensnared in pride (hubris)  -that is what tragedy is all about.   The Games that we play are very serious.   The struggle required in living well is our mortal art.  Baseball is often agreed upon to be an example of perfect sport - requiring patience, energy, charity, deft physicality and self-deprecating humor.

The manager of the fictional baseball team of Mark Harris's novel and screenplay, Dutch, offers this summary of his time on earth -" When I die, in the newspapers they'll write that the sons of bitches of the world have lost their leader."  

Dutch Schnell's aphorism stands as tall  his memorable "Skip the facts, just gimme the details."  The devil dwells in the details:

This is the story of a star-pitcher Henry " Author" Wiggen ( Moriarty) attempting to give dignity to the last months  of dying catcher Bruce Pearson ( DeNiro) and in so doing draws every spark of humanity from a clubhouse full of idiosyncracies, egos, appetites and grudges. Death has no sting.

Here is what Moriarty and Wiggen hath wrought.

The agony ( the struggle) of dying young is the American gift to God.  The Game is everything, because the game reflects God's love of man.

Bang the Drum Slowly is the American film.

* Chicago Note -America's Montaigne, Joseph Epstein**, sent this Chicagoland fact along:

Maury and Lois Rosenfield, the couple who produced Bang the Drum Slowly, both of them now dead, were dear friends of mine. They lived in Glencoe. Maury was a successful lawyer, who became interested in the movies through a friendship with Ben Hecht. The Rosenfields acquired the services of DeNiro for this movie for $10,000. Of Michael Moriarity, Maury used to say that no actor had ever done less to advance his own career. . . . Keep tapping away.
Best, Joe

Joe noted that Mr. Rosenfield had great respect for Moriarty's selflessness.

**

Joseph Epstein (born January 9, 1937 in Chicago) is an essayist, short story writer, and editor, best known as a former editor of the Phi Beta Kappa Society's The American Scholar magazine and for his recent essay collection, Snobbery: The American Version. He was also a lecturer atNorthwestern University from 1974 to 2002. He is a Contributing Editor at The Weekly Standardand a long-time contributor of essays and short stories to The New Criterion and Commentary. The late William F. Buckley, Jr., in his review of Snobbery, called Epstein the wittiest writer alive.

Epstein's body of work reveals his fascination with common everyday situations, amusing trends and small pleasures that he brings to his reader's attention. He also specializes in essays that shed light on the musings and ideas of famous and forgotten authors and writes short stories that prominently feature the city of Chicago and the characters that have populated his 70 years as an observer of the city.

http://www.ottawalife.com/2012/07/the-best-american-film-of-my-life/

Thundering Dick Simpson Demands More . . . of The Same Only More!

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is on the phone.

“Hi, Lisa. How are you?” asks Dick Simpson, head of the UIC Department of Political Science, as he sits in his book-lined office in the Behavioral Sciences Building. UICC - Street Cred of Thundering Dick Simpson

The Progressive way  to rid a home of raccoons, horse flies, tics, bed bugs, Norway rats and the odd timber wolf would be to tap a few reporters armed with studies from UICC, demand time on WTTW, make tour of the Dane Placko, Mike Flannery gas-and-nod shows, demand a tax-payer funded home inspector and a blue ribbon panel consisting of Dr. Quentin Young, Deb Mell, Deb Shore, Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon ( 5-String Banjo), Boss Terry Cosgrove, Forrest " Ho Gauge Rail" Claypool, NU(a)TO Andy Thayer, Ralph Martire, Dawn Clark Netsch, Slim Coleman and of course the ubiquitous Chris Kennedy to confab and vigorously  note that the home owner should 

• close doors
• fix screens
• toss food waste in plastic bags and place them in the black plastic gondolas provided by Waste Management or the Ward Office
• Be Sure to Re-cycle cardboard, plastics and metal and place them in the Blue Re-cycle bins
• Prepare to move once home ownership is lost, due to failure to meet the basic mortgage obligations
• Apply for Affordable Housing

Yep, Thundering Dick Simpson is setting the table for Progressive Knit-Hat, Gender Ambiguous, Childless and generally disagreeable candidates to flourish in our suburbs. How about small towns too?  Think Custer Park, Diamond, Eileen, Reddick and Papineau Illinois Machine Politics and Mossback Graft -" Clel, I'll vote for you, if'n I get two jars a stink bait." Done and done.

With the full push of Chicago's media, Thundering Dick is getting full cooperation to the very same thing to suburban government as the City of Chicago and the mythical homeowner above with his latest UICC paper written by a bunch of kids at Cement City University and under the supervision of Thundering Dick, his own bad self.

Thundering Dick earned his Progressive spurs from Abner Mikva and went on to a long and inconsequential career as an office-holder - Alderman - before becoming a 40 Watt academic at Stanley ( Terrorist Bill Ayers' career laundering Rabbi)Ikennberry's Circle. Thundering Dick's Green Grass and Greed: Corruption in the Suburbs is a wow-read for folks who do not read very much.  Thundering Dick leads with his jowls on this one -

The obvious and potentially most effective method for dealing with corrupt officeholders
would be to elect new public officials dedicated to ethical behavior and governmental reform. Such candidates, if elected, can help change the culture of corruption in these suburbs. Voters should support candidates committed to fighting corruption.

Thundering Dick-King Maker

Well, I'll be dipped and rolled!!!!!!!  Ain't that a wonderment!!!!!!! Vote for new folks!  Well, that must mean a whole new line of folks trotted out by old Thundering Dick, his own bad self!

The Study is a Cliff's Notes of old news stories and attendant graphs about incidents of corruption in the suburbs - some going back to the 1970's when Thundering Dick brought the Democratic Machine under Old Man Daley to its knees . . . with laughter. That was then and this is now.


Back then, when everyone and everything still worked,  folks like Thundering Dick were laughed out of the room; these days, we elect the likes of Blago, Burris, Joe Moore, Sheila Simon, Pat Quinn, Mike Quigley, Jan Schakowsky, Toni Preckwikle and other ninnies and grifters.

I am sure that Thundering Dick has a rapt audience for his summary.  Folks just don't take the time to read, connect dots to dimwits, and are much too kind and polite to tell Progressives to go pound sand.  Some folks, anyway.

http://www.uiaa.org/uic/news/uicalumni/0911a.html

http://www.uic.edu/depts/pols/ChicagoPolitics/SuburbanCorruption.pdf
http://www.uic.edu/depts/paff/clips/06-26-2012.pdf

Second City CeaseFire Blog

They paid their debt and now they get paid - the watchful eyes of CeaseFire. 


Welcome to Second City CeaseFire, where the felonious mentor felons and take credit for police work without the sore ankles and abuse.

July 13, 2012 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- The anti-violence group CeaseFire helped orchestrate the surrender of a teen police wanted to talk to about a shooting that left two young girls wounded.CeaseFire accompanied 18-year-old Jermaine Lewis, his attorney and family as he met with Chicago police.
"I cannot say whether he is innocent or guilty," said Bob Jackson of the Roseland CeaseFire. "We just want to make sure there is no retaliation on his life today." Huge Shout Out to ABC 7 always CeaseFire Friendly and Rahm Snuggly! scc(f).con(vict).

Chicago wants to give CeaseFire the job of community policing.  Mayor Rahm gave us  a million reasons to be the police.

The Police think they all that.

This is Second City CeaseFire -SCC(f),con(vict).  Chuck Goudy, Brian Knowles, Phil Ponce got our back. Know this, unlike them police, CeaseFire will never be in Jon Loevy or Flint Taylor's crosshairs - them drive-by gangstahs is on!

Be Positive, Be Strong, Be Silent -CeaseFire Don't mean start snitching y'all.

Office Tio Wanna, CeaseFire Chicago

Comments welcome:

Did Pat Fitzgerald Resign Because Holder Deep-Sixed Any Probe of Congressman Jackson?

 

With Fitzgerald stepping down, there is a good chance a political hack will be appointed to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago. That appointee will be an order taker. He or she will do what they are told and keep quiet about it. Sort of like Eric Holder. Peter Bella Washington Times May 23, 2012

Jackson also allegedly directed a fundraiser, Raghuveer Nayak, to buy plane tickets for a woman described as Jackson's "social acquaintance." Jackson and his wife have called that a personal matter.
Days before Jackson announced the medical leave, Nayak was arrested and pleaded not guilty to unrelated medical fraud charges. At Blagojevich's 2010 corruption trial, prosecutors said another Blagojevich fundraiser was ready to testify that Jackson instructed Nayak to raise money for Blagojevich's campaign to help him secure the Senate seat. The same witness later testified he attended a meeting with Jackson and Nayak.
Jackson was not charged and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. Huffington Post 7/11/2012

 Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D., Ill.) is undergoing inpatient treatment for “physical and emotional ailments” that are more serious than previously thought, his office said in a news release Thursday.The congressman’s office had said on June 25 that the 47-year-old son of civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson had begun a leave of absence on June 10, citing exhaustion and providing no timeline for his return. NY Daily News July 5, 2012

Eric Holder is the wildest General of the Justice Department ever.  There is law and then there are laws and then there are things to be ignored.  More important than enforcing Federal immigration law is bringing suit against states like Arizona, Mississippi, Florida and Texas over voting statutes. More important than looking into the armed Black Panther poll-watchers of 2008, was Holder's note that America is a Nation of Cowards.  The guy is on his own, because he has President Obama's back on all things, legal, political or cultural. Eric Holder will be here for the full tenure of President Obama's stay in the White House. Holder is the Crypt Master and the One-Man Star Chamber.

One Justice Department employee resigned only days before the announcement that Democrat bundler, Congressional panderer and accused medical care wallet-lifter Raghuveer Nayak* was about to wear a Federal jacket, none other than Patrick Fitzgerald.


No sooner had the Chicago Office of the Feds announced the Nayak indictments than head-scratchers nation-wide asked "Where's Jesse Junior?"  The question is loaded with buckshot - where on earth is the Congressman and where is the forthcoming Federal probe of scion of Rainbows for his part in the Blago/Rezko/ et al Federal purge?


This begs my humble question, ' Did Patrick Fitzgerald resign because Eric Holder deep-sixed any probe into Congressman Jackson's active and vigorous Federal mousetrap?


Given Eric Holder's penchant for clarity and transparency, as well as his snappy good-humor, it will blizzard on Luzon before anyone in the media will ask the same. 












Federal Indictment - completely laundered of political stains and any mention of Congressman Jackson

*Nayak’s facilities did not accept patients covered public health insurance programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and instead accepted patients insured by private health insurers, such as BlueCross BlueShield, or patients who agreed to pay the entire fees themselves. Private insurers treated Nayak’s facilities as “out-of-network” when paying bills submitted for patient services.

Between 2000 and December 2010, Nayak allegedly defrauded patients by paying and arranging to pay bribes and kickbacks in the form of cash and other hidden payments to physicians who would refer their patients to Nayak’s facilities for medical treatment. Nayak paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to different physicians in exchange for patient referrals, the charges allege, adding that the physicians deceived their patients by not disclosing that they were being paid for making referrals to Nayak’s facilities.

http://www.fbi.gov/chicago/press-releases/2012/raghuveer-nayak-owner-of-area-surgery-centers-charged-with-fraud-and-tax-offenses-for-allegedly-paying-physicians-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars-in-bribes-for-

Success, Wealth and Achievement Creates Mean People ? Honor Bright?

em·pa·thy  
n.1. Identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives. See Synonyms at pity.
2. The attribution of one's own feelings to an object.

---

[en- + -pathy (translation of German Einfühlung)].The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Empathy is over-rated.  Some of the rottenest, self-absorbed, manipulative and tight with a buck people I know are  appointed  hogs with snouts in the public trough and each one is empathetic.  These ladies and gents have made careers at tax-payer expense spouting high-minded policies that will ensure their snot-lockers a place in the public bucket for years to come. The human heart can only be measured by the spike in  taxes imposed on the public and they can be heard to shout, "Keep Your Rosaries off my Ovaries." 


The empathetic public lungs bellow for or against these policy initiatives:

•  Living wage -- An artificially high wage that minimally benefits some individuals and creates unemployment for the rest
• The Common Good -- A phrase used by a small group ruling in the name of the majority in order to enact laws that abrogate an individual's rights
• Gun control -- Confiscation of legal firearms from law abiding citizens
• Universal health care -- Access to affordable health insurance
• Public assistance programs -- Government programs
• Plight of the homeless -- People who are victims of their own poor choices with the exception of the mentally incompetent
• Entitlement programs -- Taxpayer funded appropriations
• Taxes -- Legal plunder
• Social Security -- The largest Ponzi (pyramid) scheme in history.
• Tax cuts for the rich -- Tax cuts for the economy or A proven economic stimulus plan that produces 65% of all new jobs.
• The rich need to pay their fair share of taxes – Legal plunder where the top 10% of taxpayers pay 70% of all income taxes and the bottom 50% pay 3%.
• "Do you want to get rid of Social Security?" -- "Do you want to continue unchanged the largest Ponzi (pyramid) scheme in history which is going broke?  The same scheme that sent Bernie Madoff to jail?"
• It's free money (federal grant/stimulus money) -- Funds that are actually paid by taxpayers or are put on our children's credit card and have a limited life so whatever is started will have to be paid for in a few years by local and/or state taxes.
• Unions are for the workers -- Unions are for unions.  Just like corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians.  The goal is to increase the union's power not the worker's power. 
• Unions and the Government have increased the standard of living -- Businesses that invest in capital equipment increase the productivity of workers which lowers the price of their products and increases the standard of living. 
• Social Justice – The revocation of Natural Rights so government can use legal plunder to steal property and give it to those who have not earned it. 
• Fairness – using legal plunder to steal property from individuals who have earned it in order to give it to individuals who have not earned it.
• Spread the Wealth – using legal plunder to steal property from individuals who have earned it in order to give it to individuals who have not earned it.
• Shared Sacrifice – using legal plunder to steal property from individuals who have earned it in order to give it to individuals who have not earned it.
• It’s Free Money (Federal grants or stimulus money) – Funds that are actually paid by taxpayers or are put on our children's credit card and have a limited life so whatever is started will have to be paid for in a few years by local and/or state taxes.
• Price Gouging – Simple supply and demand in a scarce marketplace which results in the fairest distribution of goods and services.

 The New York Magazine's Lisa Miller has trotted out a 'scientific' study' that proves empathy only rests in the hearts of dedicated lay-abouts, bust-outs, slackers, mouth-breathing job-dodgers, or people who depend upon the public teat for self-esteem and biological sustenance:

 Wealth may give you a better brain. It may make you a more strategic thinker, a savvier planner. (Research has shown that the more a ­person is able to imagine himself in the future, the more cash he is likely to have in his savings account.) And the cognitive benefits of affluence may accrue incrementally, speculates Dovidio, so that very rich people have better brain functioning than moderately rich people. These hypotheses are at the untested frontier of the new science: “I think in ten years we’ll have a compelling story on this,” says Dacher Keltner, the psychologist who oversees the work of Piff and his colleagues. But already the outline is becoming clear. Princeton University psychologist Eldar Shafir has shown that in environments of abundance, people make better financial decisions—it’s not that rich people tend to be better educated and can afford better advice, but that people living paycheck to paycheck don’t have the mental space to make the smartest long-term moves. The efficiencies of the affluent brain may trigger the shutting down of what the researchers call “pro-social” impulses and lead people toward the kinds of behaviors that a hedge-fund manager I spoke to characterized as “ruthless.” “They’re more willing to hurt others in their quest for money,” he said. “When you look at people who’ve done exceptionally well, it tends to be the difficult people.”. . .  (Research shows that the rich tend to blame individuals for their own failure and likewise credit themselves for their own success, whereas those in the lower classes find explanations for inequality in circumstances and events outside their control.) But the truth is much more nuanced. Every American, rich and poor, bounces back and forth between these two ideals of self, calibrating ambitions and adjusting behaviors accordingly. Nearly half of Americans between 18 and 29 believe that it’s “likely” they’ll get rich, according to Gallup—in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Those who have already gotten wealthy wrestle openly and with real anguish over how to raise children who are productive, community-minded, and hardworking. Jamie Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, made a documentary in 2003 called Born Richand, since then, has become a kind of confessor to the anxious wealthy. “Everyone says, ‘I don’t want my kids to turn out to be the next Paris Hilton,’ ” says Johnson, “It’s weird. You know they want their kids to be superior. They want their kids’ lives to reflect the wealth and the position they have in society. But they don’t want their kids to be elitist and arrogant.”

Wealth may give you a better brain?  Wealth begets brains?  Have any of you ever met a really dumb rich person? Sure you have.  All the wealth in the world can not do a damn thing for the present generation of the Kennedy Clan.  Likewise, based on human observation of the likes of the late Old Teddy, Dr. Billy 'Landmine' Smith the acquitted rapist, Patrick, Joseph the Deuce or any other Kennedy males, I'd prefer my daughters marry tattooed, meth-addled Carnies than Kennedy males linked by DNA to Old Joe.

Wealth does not mean that you will become a louse of the first order, either.  Sts. Francis of Assisi, Mary Seton and Blessed Edmund Rice were all born to wealth and dedicated their lives to the poor.  Lord Bertrand Russell, a celebrated atheist and author of Principia Mathematica, was, not only a cat with nickels to toss around, but also a very nice man.

I have had the privilege of knowing $1%-ers here in the Midwest and the City of Chicago - the late Don Flynn, the courtly and thoughtful John Buck, Tom Owens, Andy McKenna, Frank Considine, Dick Landis, Dick Walsh, Patti Bidwill,  Mary Ellen 'Mel' Cooney, Dan Walsh, Ron Gidwitz, John Powers, Joe Power and especially the very sweet and heroic James O'Connor.  These ladies and gents, Christians and Jews, are great people and very generous.  They do not mouth platitudes or build monuments to themselves with words - they are doers and self-made accomplished tireless workers.  They do. The empathetic talk.

Wealth does not make one smart, pretty, or fun to be around.

My daughter and I witnessed US Congresswoman and professional empathy spout-er, Jan Schakowsky scream at a little Asian girl who was helping co-ordinate the sign-in of guests for Alexi Giannoulias when he ran for Illinois Treasurer - it seems that this political blowfish was not on the list that included my Alderman, Senator Barack Obama and bunch of others.  " You little idiot!," screamed Jan, " I am supposed to up there next to Obama! Don't you know who I am? I  can't believe that someone so stupid . . .IIII"  Empathy positively rang through the halls of Conrad Hilton that day. The little Asian volunteer fought back tears of embarassment.   I sure  loves me that there Empathy!

My daughter asked me, " Dad, what's wrong with that woman?"

All I could say was , " She's  Jan Schakowsky, sweetie."

The New York Magazine presents yet another scientific justification for Jan Schakowsky and other empathic public truffle snuffle-ers/

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

http://nymag.com/news/features/money-brain-2012-7/index4.html

http://drjohnlilly.com/politics/issues/liberalterminology