St. Patrick, Shield Me " Against the Heart's Idolatry"

St. Patrick's Breastplate is the name given to a litany composed by the saint. The significant human verses beg Christ to shield us.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me these holy powers.
Against all Satan's spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart's idolatry,
Against the wizard's evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave and the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

If you lack demons, well you just aren't Irish.  You just aren't a flawed, or, like me, deeply flawed human being.

My favorite verse begs protection against " the heart's idolatry."

That is a good one.  The heart can be a human warehouse of flaws, as well as the store of best in men and women -compassion, loyalty, honor, piety, dignity and courage.  The heart can also be an emporium of regret, pride, anger, lust and gluttony.  The self-medication first aid kits we turn to in times of doubt.

Idolatry comes in many forms - self-worship, mistaking good for gold, pleasure as liturgy.

St. Patrick was a guy who woke up to himself after decades of sin and it took boatloads of Scotii ( Irish sea-pirates) who snatched him from a life of comfort and dragged him into slavery.

I am still an idolator and want to quit the club.

St. Patrick shield me the idolatries in my heart.

I Believe in Neighborhood People and Not Polls Conducted By and For Pols Who Don't Care About People

Polls are conducted by 'scientists' - rather number crunching hired guns.

The Chicago Tribune conducted a poll that give Rahm Emanuel a 12 point lead over the winner of the April 7th 2015 Mayoral Election, Jesus "Chuy" Garcia.

Polls, are said to be random samplings taken from snatches of would be voters.

Okay.

If I conducted a random sampling of people with whom I come in contact with everyday, you see a diverse cross-section of Chicago demographics.

I start my day at Dunkin Donuts located near my house and operated by a gentleman from Morocco and staffed by a lovely couple from Bangladesh and a gorgeous graduate student from India. The manager lives on 103rd just west of Western Avenue in what most people call St. John Fisher parish.  The manager is Muslim. He is voting for Chuy.

The couple who work with Kareem live in Homer Glen and can not vote in the City election - they are Hindi

The young graduate student lives on Walden Drive in Beverly and is Muslim as well. She has not registered to vote.

Of the this random sampling of persons - Chuy Garcia has 100% of the vote.

Polls.

Now, let's talk people.  I work in Auburn Gresham at 79th & Sangamon in Chicago's 17th Ward.  Guess what?  Rahm's and Father Pfleger's hand-picked candidate of Alderman was beaten by David Moore.

David Moore was told to back Rahm, or else.  David Moore told the messengers to go pound sand, some other similar message. Looks like Alderman David Moore is an independent voice.  An African American Alderman in Ward 17 goes off the Pfleger P . . .Reservation.  Chuy?  I'd say so, but that is not very scientific.  I know the man who helped David Moore win the aldermanic and he is also instrumental in helping Chuy Garcia take the 5th Floor.

I live south of 103rd Street and west of Western Ave. and our homes are somewhat modest and match our incomes ( usually two incomes as Mom and Dad both work).  East of Western around 103rd Street sit pricier big bunglow's for families earning bigger incomes.

Of my neighbors, thick with public pensions and long association with the Chicago, Cook County and State Democratic Organizations there is great distrust of Rahm Emanuel and Governor Rauner.  Tough times and a tougher vote.  From chats with my 19th Ward neighbors ( firemen, cops, CPS teachers, skilled tradesmen, City, County and State office workers), we won't see a sea of red, white and blue Chuy signs on lawns, but we should see my precinct (23rd, 19th Ward) go for Chuy.  Raised ranch and Georgian dwellers, as well as modest apartment dwellers all.

West of the cemetaries sits Mount Greenwood and that will go overwhelmingly for Chuy.

The precinct immediately to the east of Western Avernue and hugging 103rd Street will go again for Rahm.

There are many families in that precinct with 'this close' ties to City, County and State Demographic power-that-be as well as some heavier than whale poop lobbyists living in the bungalows - like Rahm, or not, they will go with the current flow.

Like my Dunkin Donuts poll, very unscientific and all too human.  I see the 19th Ward, like the 17th Ward shifting away from Rahm.

In the end, Chuy will beat Rahm by a whisker, but whisker is all it takes, Rahm will need to do a Deb Mell to win.  That might fly in the 39th Ward of Blagostahn, but no way city wide.

The Tribune, the Big Cat money bags, the Progressives and the academics want Rahm on Five, they need Rahm on Five.  They can't handle the truth.

The truth is that Chicago is about to redeem itself from decades laissez fair civics and lazy-ass voting.

Basta Rahm!  Enough Rahm, Daley, Durbin, Mell, Quinn, Rauner, Marque Kirque Chicago!

Viva Chuy and Chicago might live again.

On PBS -Reading is Fun With Errol Flynn -'Well, Sport, Here is One About Hillary Clinton and a Duck!'

Hello, Little Sports!  I'm your Old Uncle Errol here to bring to life words and punctuation to delight even the grumpiest little truant among you to love the written word.

As I told Big Boy Guinn and Alan Hale in every Warner Brothers Adventure - 'Boys, words matter . . .sure the get-ups are nice and Olivia was never lovelier, but it is the words that make the story.

Now, gather round my Elfin Chums . . .and try not to eat those, Young Michael Houlihan! . . .no, they're not real fruit . . .we call them props, here, around the lot . . .get comfortable Ladies and Squires . . .that's it!

Now, here is a story about young lad in Tasmania. That's an island south of the OZ the land down under the Southern Cross . . .Australia Mates!  This lad was asked to do chores . . .even if the chores are just a might too . . . well, give a listen!

“All I had to do was stick my face into this gruesome mess and bite off the young sheep's testicles. Dag a hogget. I had good teeth. I put my nose into this awful-smelling mess, my teeth solidly around the balls of the six-month-old sheep, and took a bite while I held him upside down. My nose was in fur and ordure. I bit and spat out the product into a pile of what they called prairie oysters. We have them in America too: delicious to eat, but not delicious to remove. They said this was the most sanitary way to de-ball a sheep. After I was done, I passed the sheep onto the next man, who put a little coal tar on the same spot for purposes of cleansing and closing up the wound.  The sheep never let out a bleat.. . .”  

Where has the time gone? You see, Young Michael?  It's wax fruit . . .now, try and learn from that unpleasantness, Old Sport.

That's about all for today, My Hearties!  Next time Uncle Errol will tell you about the time he met this beautiful young girl . . .she looked all of twenty . . . well, Until that Time, People of Sherwood!

Reading is Fun with Errol Flynn was presented on PBS in part with grant from Planned Parenthood and the Council of Questionable Living 

Mary Schmich, Trib Pulitzer Winner and Irish Bigot Has Advice for Your Breeder Micks

 

For distinguished commentary, using any available journalistic tool Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
Awarded to Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune for her wide range of down-to-earth columns that reflect the character and capture the culture of her famed city. Pulitzer Citation 2012

Well, you know the Irish and those who emulate them on St. Patrick's Day, are all ignorant beer swilling sots. My Gawd, all they do is swill beer, beat black children, breed and whine about Catholic school tuition for their spawn. Homophobic priest pawns is all they are, Don't you think?

Don't You? Mary Schmich certainly does and wants you to know it!

Mary Schmich won the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism a few years ago, 'because she is just such an authentic Chicago voice' in much the same manner that Rahm Emanuel was an authentic Chicago Resident before the Burt Odelson challenge.

Well Ms Schmich has the prize and Rahm the fifth floor and St. Parick's Day gets two parades preceding the Feast of Saint Patrick on Wednesday March 17th.

Some years ago, the south side Irish called a halt to its parade, which I thought was foolish, due to the fact that the drunken brawlers were those persons who boarded buses from fern bars on the northside and JJJ MC Whatever's in Schuamberg and celebrated the Catholic saint by defecating an urinating on lawns, in gangways and in full view of little kids and then engage in brawls with home owners in the Beverly, Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood neighborhhoods - home to Catholic breeders.

Instead, the Parade should have equaled the Dioynsian celebrations enjoyed on Gay Pride Parade -unchecked, unabted and uncriticized, but every bit as 'extreme' as any south side Irish Parade I have eve witnessed ( 1950's-Present)




Note the depravity absent in both, Mary Schmich.

We shut down the South Side Parade and I think it was a bad idea and sent exactly the message bigots love -Drunks and pigs.

Organizers might have limited fern bar buses to 83rd & Western, asked the Corinthian revelers to discard any and all booze and enjoy a vigorous up-hill jaunt to the parade start at 103rd & Western.  What do I know?  It might have caused some uncomfortable socio-political feathers to wilt, or some extra manpower from Daley/Rahm City Hall.

The South Side Irish Parade is the only self-enforced zero-tolerance no booze event in this bullshit addicted city.

Downtown?  There's beer cans and hip-flasks aplenty.  Yet, a minimum of violence and no deaths. The south side Parade is as WCTU as any bull dyke reformer of the 19th Century could demand and almost as dignified as Swedish Day.

That said, Catholics and especially Irish Catholics remain the only punchline available for unchecked PC scolds, like Mary Schmich. Here is Pulitzer worthy prose?

 The annual drunkfest known as St. Patrick's Day is coming soon to a Chicago street near you.
If you're not eager to be blotto by 11 a.m. Saturday, if you don't like mobs, brawls and people puking on the sidewalk, you may as well hide at home with Netflix until the middle of next week.
Did someone say "party pooper"?
Did someone say "old fart"?
Aye, lads and lassies, drunken name-calling is a time-honored St. Paddy's Day tradition. 

Eric Zorn the pencil neck geek pen pal of Mary Schmich might scold me -"Ha'e you no sense of Humor?"

Yes, I might reply, when something has wit and is not cheap and cowardly shot at people who are pretty damn tolerant for all of their history and the crap tossed their way.

The Tribune was founded by Joseph Medill who hated Irish Catholics to the very marrow of his being - the culture of the Tribune, which won many honors due to the employment of Irish Catholics, by the way, is exactly the same as it was in 1871.  

Ridicule is only appropriate when it is deserved and should be limited to the powerful.  Mary Schmich is powerful and appropriately deserves 'lashins and lavins' of it. Mary Schmich will not warn us to avoid the St.Joseph's sweets table on March 19th, anymore than tell Chicagoans of all colors to leave the Glock at home on Bud Billiken Day, or to dress with some dignity on Pride Day and remember to wear a condom - we are stronger than AIDS.

Southsiders, Irish and others, are respected and reviled for their frank, heart-on-the-sleeves rejoinders, Mary. Mine sounds like Buck Hugh.

Leo Man Frank Considine '39 - Chicago's Greatest Business Leader Fought for Meigs Field

         

Frank and Nancy Considine  " One of the best liked "fellows" in Leo" The Oriole 1939

Richie Daley's Progressive vandalism

Frank W. Considine is a Leo Man*.  Frank played on the 1937 football team that attracted more than 125,000 fans to Soldier Field.  He was a tackle.  His grades at Leo are impressive, especially when one considers that the Irish Christian Brothers who staffed Leo in its infancy were outstanding scholars and exacting teachers. Frank played for the great Whitey Cronin ( F. Considine front row l.) on the football squad that played before the largest crowd to a attend an America football game( Pro, College, Semi-pro, high school) in history. Leo was trounced by Austin High School 26-0.

Frank Considine learned team in football, but it was the extra-curricular work he performed as a Caddie at South Shore Country Club, where Mr. Considine's business acumen was honed.  He learned the value of human association - contacts, "I Know A Guy!"  More business is conducted on the links than in the board rooms of American commerce, than any meeting conducted with a stenographer present - today it would be a recorded disc, chip or some other techno gizmo. Back then it was a man's word, followed up with deeds.

Frank Considine was already formed by the Leo Testament - Facta Non Verba: Deeds not Words. He was ahead of the game and learned to walk away from the guys whose honeyed words could never match future deeds.

After taking his degree at Loyola of Chicago, Frank Considine went to war as a Navy officer aboard a WWII destroyer.  The deeds, like so many combat veterans, were enough.

You can link on to a Loyola University tribute to Frank Considine that chronicles his brilliant career in business from glass to aluminum.  Considine was genius at bringing the American canning industry to businesses overlooked by his less astute predecessors.  So great was Considine's influence in American Commerce, that President Jimmy Carter tapped Frank Considine to lead the Egypt-US Business Council.  Frank Considine helped Anwar Sadat westernize Egypt's economy after the death of Soviet-allied Nasser. In fact two other Leo Men joined Considine in those efforts.

If you take a look at the Forbes biography that I have pasted below, you will note the many boards, religious, charitable and civic, chaired by Frank W. Considine. That is impressive. However one incident in Chicago history most defines Frank W. Considine and that was his clash with Richard M. Daley over the closing of Meigs Field.

Daley's Progressive Alliance demanded Chicago go Green, as well as undermine cops, take down the projects for the sake of Valerie Jarret, Allison Davis and the hogs at the trough and turn its back on the breeders in the neighborhoods.

Green Space is easy - vandalize a municipal resource ( Meigs Field) used by affluent people and say it will be a Peoples Park -Northerly Island. . In the process, put the Chicago business community that this in no longer Richard J. Daley's Chicago.  Daley started to agitate for the close of Meigs in 1994, while Frank Considine who negotiated the McCormick Expansion sought another compromise with Daley. Progressives never compromise, it's a John Dewey thing concerned with 'outcomes.'

In 2003, on a bright March morning, pilots flying into Meigs Field with dollars were diverted.  There were huge Xs torn into the concrete by back hoes operated by at least two Leo HS graduates and members of IUOE Local 150.  No kidding.

Meigs Field was no more. Frank Considine was outraged.  He is Leo Man, but one tempered by Catholic charity and business grace,.  Frank Considine was gracefully outraged over this malicious vandalism. Frank Considine knew that Chicago's economy would never recover from this act of radical socialism and juvenile hubris.  He acted with a team.  His was the first voice condemning Daley for this idiocy.  He did so without my colorful bile, mind you.

The Civic Committee's action came in the form of a mid-July letter to Mayor Daley by Frank Considine, chairman of the group's Airport Task Force. A copy of the letter was obtained by CRAIN'S from outside sources.
Initially, the committee had intended to remain neutral on the Meigs plan, Mr. Considine wrote. "However, many of our members are concerned that the closing of the airfield, which is a valuable amenity for Chicago, will have a negative impact on Chicago's overall commercial attractiveness."
The letter goes on to argue that Meigs serves 150,000 business travelers a year, many of them headed for conventions at McCormick Place. "Keeping Meigs open will send an important message that you are committed to maintaining Chicago's downtown business vitality and accessibility," it concludes.

Here is what I find fascinating - Daley had already 'become' a Progressive and the green space vision was only a feint; the real thumb in the eye was a provocative Screw You to the powerful businessmen and nothing more.  It is interesting to note that Daley's SDS WeatherGirl and PR Maven Marilyn Katz and the career grifter and public money mooch CTA President Forrest Claypool took the lead in this effort:

Katz - Marilyn Katz, a media consultant who is spearheading the city's public relations campaign for the park plan, said she's in the process of contacting hundreds of civic groups-and argued that such an effort is both needed and proper.
Lost patronage
Most Chicagoans don't know that Meigs has lost 40% of its patronage in the last 15 years, and is shut down all or part of 100 days a year, she said.
"The administration didn't wage a public relations war (before), so nobody knows anything," Ms. Katz said. "I don't think they understood how the governor was going to use this issue," she said, charging that many letters from CEOs were prompted by Mr. Edgar

Claypool - "We thank them for their concern, but there are two conflicting visions, and there can be no compromise on a park," said Chicago Park District Supt. Forrest Claypool, whom Daley designated to speak to reporters.

Claypool bristled when asked why the administration was adamant about ruling out any compromise, even one that could involve softening of positions on a new Bears stadium."This is fatally flawed. The mayor isn't interested in trading chips to support a state tax-subsidized stadium for the Chicago Bears," said Claypool, whose agency now manages Soldier Field.

Daley would never trade chips?  Really Forrest?  The oily Claypool is still on the public tit.

Marilyn Katz and Forrest Claypool did more to damage Chicago business than any Guy Fawkes Mask wearing anarchist ever dreamed of doing by lighting tire fires.  Rahm, Daley, Claypool and Katz are all part of Progressive pack of jackals that sold off Chicago's assets, destroyed its neighborhoods, gelded a once proud and independent news media and continue to reap millions of dollars while Roseland, Englewood, Austin and Gresham reap the whirlwind.

Frank Considine tried to keep Meigs open.  The Meigs vandalism took place in the shadow of Soldier Field, where Bill De Correvont  and Austin HS rolled over Leo in November 1937.  Considine fought Daley and legions of Mammon the Progressive.  Like Leo against Austin the score told some of the story.

Frank Considine has pumped millions of dollars in support of Leo High School - he funded the Frank and Nancy Considine Caddie Scholars Program, funded a computer based algebra program that was state of the art in 1998, and tuition assistance that has graduated hundreds of African American kids from Leo, who went on to great college and vocational careers.

Frank Considine, kept Chicago's Civic Opera running out of his own pocket.

Frank Considine helped found the Big Shoulders Fund

Frank Considine fought to keep Meigs Field in operation

Frank Considine learned to walk away from the honeyed words of grifters who never intended to match their words with deeds.

God Bless Chicago's Greatest Businessman.  

God will take care of the grifters and so will Chicago voters very soon.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-12-07/news/9612070084_1_mayor-richard-daley-meigs-field-million-park

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-01-13/business/8803220076_1_texas-instruments-triangle-industries-william-n-sick

*Mr. Frank W. Considine serves as Vice President for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Mr. Considine served as the President of Rexam Beverage Can Americas Inc. from 1969 to 1988 and Chief Executive Officer from 1973 to 1988. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Loyola University, Chicago. He served as an Honorary Chairman of American National Can Company since 1990. He served as Chairman of the Board of American National Can Company, a subsidiary of American National Can Group, Inc. from 1983 to 1990. He served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Loyola University Chicago (LUC) and of LUHS/LUMC. Mr. Considine serves as Director of IMC Global Inc. He serves as the Board of Trustees of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. He serves as a Director of SEI Information Technology. He has been Director of Rexam Beverage Can Americas Inc since April 14, 1999. He serves as Member of the Board of Directors at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. He served as a Director at Loyola University Health System (LUHS) since 2006. He served as Director of Scotsman Industries, Inc. since April, 1989. Mr. Considine served as a Director of American National Can Group, Inc., a packaging manufacturer in April 14, 1999. He serves as Vice Chair of the Archdiocese of Chicago Finance Council. He was the recipient of LUC's Damen Award in 1982. In October 1985, he was inducted into the Chicago Business Hall of Fame. He received the National Distinguished Service Award of Hull House in 1986. In 1987, he was presented with the Sword of Loyola, LUC's highest award. Also in 1987, the Boy Scouts of America recognized him with the Distinguished Citizen Award. The Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry honored him in 1988 with its first City of Chicago Volunteer Leadership Award. Mr. Considine earned his doctorate from Loyola in 1943. He was awarded an honorary doctor of law degree from LUC in January 1986 and received an honorary degree of humane letters from Northwestern University in 1987.

Ask Yourself, "Do I Really Swallow This Nonsense?"

Onthe day of the great 2015 Blizzard. Mike Houlihan and Jesus Garcia began attracting Chuy-lligans at Cork and Kerry.

Question: Who said the following?  Was it Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Dick Durbin, former Governor Pat Quinn, Rahm, or some old dude with beard and BO? More importantly, do you swallow this stuff?

“Constant revolution in production, uninterrupted disturbances of all social conditions, ever-lasting uncertainty and agitation, distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen prejudices, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions are swept away, all new formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.”

Hey, Kid!  have a shiney new Saccagewea Gold Coin for the first kiddie who can tell me who uttered the idiocy above posted - it was not Muriel Abbott.

If you do not, you know that

• Rahm Emanuel is Toast on April 7th
• Barack Obama is sad disappointment to most folks, but can't stop working his gums.
• The South Side Irish Parade will be packed with Chuy-lligans
• Elizabeth Warren is a daft grifter
• The News Media is only loud
• Most Academics Can't Spell Academics
• Schools Are Empty of Scholars
• Your Neighbor Knows More than Eric Zorn, Carol Marin and WTTW Under Torture
• Cars are better than Bikes
• Bike Lanes on the south side are hilarious ( do travel Vincennes south of 63rd) and empty
• Parking should cost no more than $0.25 per half hour
• City Transit should allow all forms of American currency 
• Forrest Claypool (CTA Boss) should find his own means of employment
• Rahm's two brothers will provide him with Golden Parachutes - we are now off the hook
• Bruce Rauner will wish that he was Pat Quinn
• Dick Durbin is a walking euphemism  
• Your voice, your vocation and your vote matter to all of us

April 7th 2015?

If God Were a Soft-hearted Slob . . .Oh, That's Right He Is. . .Seventh Promise of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

                                         

                                        “Tepid souls shall become fervent.” 

I go to Sacred Heart Church at 116th & Church Street in Washington Heights just east of Morgan Park in Chicago.  The Mass is traditional and unself-absorbed and sung in English.  The Saying of the Memorare after the Nicene Creed was and is a huge selling point in my attendence at Sacred Heart - that and the people who attend.

It is a kid friendly place of worship free the more pious scolds who skunk-eye and 'hush and shush' families with little kids (infants -toddlers) who interrupt the sanctity of the liturgy, while celebrating the sanctity of Life. Little guys screw around and Mass can be brutal. Among the faithful in the pews there is nothing but simple dignity and smiling tolerance for the little guys.

Sacred Heart parishioners are salt of the earth blue-collar working women and men. A State of Grace after Mass includes a dose of pride knowing that you have been numbered among these people. No hand tossing Hosanna-types of the Church of Happy Horse-#$%^.   People who know hard work, hard times and hard prayer have a dignified

Sacred Heart worship is Divine -thanks to the likes of Father Gallagher, Father Vanecko and etc. Gallagher and Vanecko are brilliant and succinct homilists.  They do not need to hear the sound of their voices.  Mass is never like attending a Wagner Festival.  Thanks be to God.  The church building is understated beauty.

The French immigrants who paid for and built Sacred Heart at the turn of 19th Century did a great job on the stained glass windows that feature St. Margaret Mary Alacoque's 12 Promises of the Sacred Heart of Christ. My favorite is Olde # 7  “Tepid souls shall become fervent.”

I am about as lukewarm/tepid/less than hot a soul ,as God ever cranked out. Mind you; nothing wrong with the parts and labor going into the making, but really poor maintenance by the owner.

If God were more of shiftless, lazy, excuse-laden slob, He'd allow me to be and act more like Joe Epstein, Skinny Sheahan, or Dan McGrath.  They are a Trinity of nice guys who toil at it.  God does too.  I do not.

I like to think that with a little more prayer and great deal more effort the Sacred Heart will deliver. Fervent beats tepid hollow.