Alexi! Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts! Zorba Durbin is going to School You on Coming Clean?

Within this arena, which grows more stable night after day, generations work and love and hope and vanish. New generations tread on the corpses of their fathers, continue the work above the abyss and struggle to tame the dread mystery. How? By cultivating a single field, by kissing a woman, by studying a stone, an animal, an idea.

Nikos Kazantzakis from Zorba the Greek




"I believe he(Alexi) will be more forthcoming. There are some things we do know and should acknowledge. He (Alexi) has not been involved with his family bank for four years.The current portfolio of that bank, only 9 % of those loans reflect loans that were on the books when he(Alexi) left the bank 4 years ago, so the loan package out there now at that bank is substantially different. I think he should come forward. He's talked to me about it what happened there, he's very proud his father started this bank and built it up from nothing. The controversy there whether it reflects on Alexi himself personally or the banking practices remains to be seen, but I've encouraged him to answer all the questions." Senator Dithering Dick Durbin


Alexi, my south sider's response to the Senior Senator from Illinois, were I you, would be -

"Thanks So Mucking Fuch!"

Now! Click my Post Title and Dance! "Come on, my boy!"

Gents, Give Her a Box of Snaps This Valentine's Day

St. Valentine was a Christian Martyr *- don't be one yourself this St. Valentine's Days; Hell, the economy is killer and firing Fannie Mae's into Beautifica's Yap will only make dentists and Lady Plus Three Size Fashions happy. Snaps are economical as well as tastey.

As the eminent philosopher and Leo Motor Pool Chief Al Townsend tells me daily, when I ask, "What's Word, Al?"

"Save Your Money, Hickey!"


Gents, give your Sweetie a box or bag ( depending upon her capacities and general intake) of delicious and fat free SNAPS!

One wonderful Five Star Restaurant located in LaPorte, Indiana - The Heston Bar - offers a gigantic bowl of licorice SNAPS to one and sundry, while awaiting Prime Rib Dinner. These candy coated licorice rotini are the Cat's Nuts! The Offering of SNAPS. I find that most civilized and tastful tribute to their clientele.

http://www.judysbook.com/cities/laporte-in/Food-and-Dining/26658310/p1/t2/Heston_Bar_and_Grill.htm
Flowers wilt and Frango Mints be damned! Buy her a box a Snaps and take her out for a few scoops of ice cold draft beer! Now, you're talkin', Sport!


Snaps: The Original Classic Chewy Candy.

Snaps is the candy with the licorice center, pastel-colored candy coatings, and unique taste. Introduced in the 1930's, Snaps brand candy is the nostalgic confection with a legion of rabid fans. Many consumers remember Snaps bites in their 2-cent classic red boxes, especially eating them on the playgrounds of their youth.

Though attempts have been made to duplicate its proprietary formula, nothing matches the original. With its licorice center, unique flavor and colorful pastel candy coatings, the look and taste of Snaps candy has remained unchanged since the 1930's, making Snaps a true classic.


*

The first representation of Saint Valentine appeared in the Nuremberg Chronicle, (1493); alongside the woodcut portrait of Valentine the text states that he was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II, known as Claudius Gothicus. He was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner -- until Valentinus tried to convert the Emperor -- whereupon this priest was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stoned; when that didn't finish him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate. Various dates are given for the martyrdom or martyrdoms: 269, 270, or 273.[8]

The official Roman Martyrology for February 14 mentions only one Saint Valentine.

The Three Amigos Got a Huge Kick Out of Scott Lee!

President Obama -"Boy am I glad we did not step in that One! Gotta go - PlannedParenthood Meeting and Three-on three game with Andy Stern and Anna Burger. Let me know if you hear anything."

RMD - " I gotta send Mark Brown a Box of Lobsters!"

Milorod - " I'm on WLS . . .then I'm taking my books ( The Governor) down to a broker on 48th & Ashland - State Jewelry and Loans I think it is. Mike Madigan said I'd get a fair shake from the guy. God I hate crooks and bosses. I need a nap."

Denzel Washington - American!

Two Leo Men Bob Hylard and Paul Somers passed along this great story about a great American - Denzel Washington:


Denzel Washington, and Brooks Army Medical Center

Don't know whether you heard about this but Denzel Washington and his family visited the troops at Brook Army Medical Center, in San Antonio, Texas (BAMC) the other day. This is where soldiers who have been evacuated from Germany come to be hospitalized in the United States , especially burn victims. There are some buildings there called Fisher Houses.

The Fisher House is a Hotel where soldiers' families can stay, for little or no charge, while their soldier is staying in the Hospital. BAMC has quite a few of these houses on base, but as you can imagine, they are almost filled most of the time.

While Denzel Washington was visiting BAMC, they gave him a tour of one of the Fisher Houses. He asked how much one of them would cost to build. He took his checkbook out and wrote a check for the full amount right there on the spot. The soldiers overseas were amazed to hear this story and want to get the word out to the American public, because it warmed their hearts to hear it.

My question is: why do celebritty goofballs Brad Pitt, Madonna, Tom Cruise and other Hollywood fluff-a -Nutters make front page news with their ridiculous antics and Denzel Washington's Patriotism doesn't even make page 3 in the Metro section of any newspaper except the Local newspaper in San Antonio ?

Calumet Fisheries: James Beard Award Winner and Pride of the South Side!

"The Joint Near the Bridge - over by 95th!" are the directions to a wonderful family owned fried fish operation that has delighted and nourished Helots from all over the south side and northwest Indiana. Calumet Fisheries is a Chicago icon - forget Carol Marin, get boat of smelts!

This terrific fast fish carry-out joint was the back-drop to one of my fictionalized tales of the south side " " Bubs Murtaugh's Shrimp Snack" - enjoyed by tens of people.

Calumet Fisheries own the prestigious James Beard Award for local restaurants.

Here is Chicago Sun times Mary Houlihan's stirring report!

Fans know that the carry-out only Calumet, owned since 1948 by the Kotlick and Toll families, serves some of the best seafood in Chicago. Among its best-sellers are salmon and shrimp, smoked in its natural wood smokehouse behind the store.

"We serve good, solid food that the working guy likes to eat," Kotlick said. "People always come back."

Located at 3259 E. 95th on the west bank of the Calumet River, Calumet has gotten notice before. Anthony Bourdain stopped by in 2008 when he was filming the Chicago segment of his Travel Channel show "No Reservations." That notoriety brought in new business from the North Side, Kotlick said.

"We're hoping this award will bring in more customers who haven't tried us before," Kotlick said.

Kotlick says he plans to attend the May 2 awards event. He hopes there's a red carpet to walk.

"We'll be playing with the big boys that night," Kotlick said, laughing. "If I could sit with a Rick Bayless or a Rachael Ray, well that would be a fun, interesting evening."

Chicago Sun Times


http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/food/2035016,CST-NWS-beard08.article

Governor Pat Quinn Will Win With the Likes of Him! Keep Scott Lee.

Governor Pat Quinn should keep the millstone Scott Lee Cohen. Do not allow this goof to shift your priorities or message.

1. Keep Scott Lee Cohen in the shadows all through the Campaign for Governor.

2. Hammer away at Kirk Dillard who seems to to be creeping up on Bill Brady and might somehow manage to be the GOP nominee - Bill Cellini's guy is great way to deflect notice of the wife abusing, knife wielding mope. If Brady squeaks in - go Helot Working Stiff Trades Union Regular Guy on Him! Do not get near the Purple SEIU goofs - look how that worked out for Blago. Come to Jesus, Moses, Mohammad and Christian Non-Sectarian with the Operating Engineers, the Electricians, the Pipe Fitters, Plumbers, Hoisters, and independent contractors. Tea Party the Hell out of the GOP!

3. Do not get gulled into a Third Party run - it will be a disaster. Senator Stevenson had a different historical context for doing so.

4. Promise to work to eliminate the office of Lt. Governor. Vow to lower taxes and that will create jobs

5. Work with Speaker Mike Madigan on the Campaign and when you win. Speaker Madigan can only help you turn things around. Only Media Loudmouths hate him.

6. Treat the Media Pundits as they would treat you - and have. Give them short shrift and a wide path on the sidewalk. Treat them as you would a panhandler wearing only jock-strap and snow-shoes. Give the person his/her dignity and a very hale and hearty "Thanks for Stopping!"

7. Come back out to the neighborhoods, small towns, and villages. Ditch the Policy Gurus and University phonies.

8. Give Senator Durbin photo opportunities with you but for God's sake never allow him to speak - for you or about anything. Sen. Dick Durbin is about as voter attractive as Scott Lee.

Voters like you Governor Quinn. I like and admire you - I think that many of your associations with the Progressives are down-right goofy, but you are honest, loyal and smart.

Go Grassroots with the Helots.

Brown Journalism - Run, Duck, Dodge! Mark Brown and Carol Marin and More!

Thank you Anne Leary - Backyard Conservative

The Lemmings are following Mark Brown right off the lowest heights of Chicago journalism - Ring Lardner, Ben Hecht, Theodore Dreiser, Charles MacArthur, Nick Von Hoffman, Ray Coffey they ain't.

Anne Leary posted the MSNBC Flannelmouth Meathead Chris Matthews piece linked above (click my post title for shameless mess) where Lynn Sweet, a good reporter gets staked out in the sand needing to provide instant cover for Mark Brown's "Dude" ineptitude. That, by the way, was local neighborhood Yamhead CBS Mike Flannery's Noel Coward imitation when he finally got around to interviewing Scott Lee Cohen. Bon Mot!Oh, rather, Old Boy! I mean, Dude!

Mark Brown was handed Scot Lee's head on a silver platter by Scott Lee himself in the Cohenpawn shop located near where Self Promoting Icon Carol Marin spent her youth - -roughly 47th & Ashland.

Carol Marin, a practiced shameless scribe who can mock Lura Lynn Ryan's appearance during the trials of George Ryan ( Mark Brown kicked Governor Ryan only when he was down and out by the way)and avoid original thought and finger an elderly couple as an IRA hit team on the say so of an ambitious FBI feeder, is parsing Brown in the Sunday Chicago Sun Times and shifting blame on Mike Madigan, Pat Quinn and the Democratic Party.

There is no exoneration for us in the media -- with the exception of my Sun-Times colleague Mark Brown -- for absolutely blowing this story. But also no pass for the leadership of the Democratic Party. Was Quinn warned about Cohen before the primary? Did the all-knowing party chairman, Mike Madigan, really not know?

Clued in or clueless, they look awful.

No Carol, like you Mark Brown is a pompous jerk. Pompous jerks tend to sneer at people and make the very most of their difficulties - that is the reason why people detest the Media - not the reporters, Carol, the smarmy, over paid smiling hypocrites who create the news and refuse to report it.

Brown Journalism needs to take a quick and lively walk off what is left of Illinois high ground - moral or metaphorical.

Paladin Trumps American Idol, Pocket Pool for Those Who Can Not Understand Billiards

I watched a nano second of American Idol and my brain hurt. I saw Jersey Shore on a TV news piece and immediately took a shower.

The vast wasteland of television grows nothing but tumble weeds.

There can be very good television entertainment, but it must be too costly to actually amass talented writers and actors.

I enjoy playing eight ball, or nine ball and I have played snooker (our British cousin) and billiards. Billiards is to pocket pool as chess is to checkers. Both are very fun, but billiards and even snooker require greater physical and mental dexterity.

Americans want things simple and fast and nothing is faster than television.

I forced my twenty year old son to watch an episode of Have Gun Will Travel on Chicago's ME TV. The program appeared on American television sets from the late 1950's through the early 1960's.

Richard Boone, a craggy faced baritone with the physical grace of Baryshnikov, played Paladin - an Old West Knight Errant who righted wrongs for a price usually $1,000 in 1877-1880 valuation. The character was a disgraced ( gambler) West Point educated officer and gentleman, who developed his own moral code and sensibility based on personal redemption. The episodes were stuffed with historical, cultural and literary allusions and themes.

Together, 57 year old Dad and twenty year old lad watched and absorbed the less than thirty minutes of Old West Morality Play. In this particular episode, Paladin was hired to protect the visiting literary genius Oscar Wilde from a gang of kidnappers. Oscar Wilde successfully completed his much awaited San Francisco lecture, thanks to Paladin's skills and genius.

My son, a Jersey Shore aficionado, opined, "That was long."

Stick to pocket pool kid.

Scott Lee and History - Get Down with Mark Brown!

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

The problem for Cohen was that he made his announcement to me, and I wasn't taking him very seriously.That's why I told Cohen at the time that nobody even knew who he was, let alone cared enough to want to read about his dirty laundry, and I didn't see the need to go into it. . . . How was I to know way back then that the Democratic voters of Illinois would be so dumb as to elect him, brainwashed by millions of dollars in advertising about his job fairs?

Voters can't say they weren't warned Mark Brown


Ah, the Public's Progressive Watchdog! Let's see. We are in Weimer Republic* of Germany and Herr Mark Brown interviews an earnest, enthusiastic rhetorically gifted young war veteran paper-hanger:

Schiklegruber - I have had some brushes with the law and I want to get out in front of them. You see, Herr Brown, I have plan for getting our people back to work. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs! My commercials will have the public shouting and screaming for more! Commercials, Herr Brown! Now, I must have these scrapes with the civil authorities out in front!

Mark Brown - You are an Underdog.

Schiklegruber - Ja! My Papers, Herr Brown -

Mark Brown - Okay, lets have a look see Hmmmmmm.

1909 Adolf living in Hostel for Homeless in Vienna.
1910 In the Spring, fails to report for examination prior to military service.
1911 Death of Adolf aunt, Johanna Pölzl. Fails to report again for military, he is forced to renounce his orphan's pension
1912 Fails to report for the third time for military training.
1913 24th. May, Adolf leaves for Munich. In August he is posted as a military deserted.
1914 Rejected for military service in Salzburg.
1923 The abortive Hitler-Putsch.
1924 Bavarian authorities contemplate deporting him to Austria.
1925 30th April, Adolf deprived, at his own request, of Austrian citizenship

. . .I wouldn't worry about it.

Ladies and Gentleman, the Chicago News Media! Let's Give It Up for Mark Brown! Everybody!

So, so, wie ich dich liebe,
So, so liebe auch mich.
Die, die zärtlichsten Triebe
Fühl ich allein nur für dich.
Ja, ja, ja, ja,
Fühl ich allein nur für dich.

Once more!

Ja, ja, ja, ja,
Dass uns die Liebe vereint.

*

Before World War I Germany was a prosperous country, with a gold-backed currency, expanding industry, and world leadership in optics, chemicals, and machinery. The German Mark, the British shilling, the French franc, and the Italian lira all had about equal value, and all were exchanged four or five to the dollar. That was in 1914. In 1923, at the most fevered moment of the German hyperinflation, the exchange rate between the dollar and the Mark was one trillion Marks to one dollar, and a wheelbarrow full of money would not even buy a newspaper. Most Germans were taken by surprise by the financial tornado.

"My father was a lawyer," says Walter Levy, an internationally known German-born oil consultant in New York, "and he had taken out an insurance policy in 1903, and every month he had made the payments faithfully. It was a 20-year policy, and when it came due, he cashed it in and bought a single loaf of bread." The Berlin publisher Leopold Ullstein wrote that an American visitor tipped their cook one dollar. The family convened, and it was decided that a trust fund should be set up in a Berlin bank with the cook as beneficiary, the bank to administer and invest the dollar.

In retrospect, you can trace the steps to hyperinflation, but some of the reasons remain cloudy. Germany abandoned the gold backing of its currency in 1914. The war was expected to be short, so it was financed by government borrowing, not by savings and taxation. In Germany prices doubled between 1914 and 1919.

After four disastrous years Germany had lost the war. Under the Treaty of Versailles it was forced to make a reparations payment in gold-backed Marks, and it was due to lose part of the production of the Ruhr and of the province of Upper Silesia. The Weimar Republic was politically fragile.

But the bourgeois habits were very strong. Ordinary citizens worked at their jobs, sent their children to school and worried about their grades, maneuvered for promotions and rejoiced when they got them, and generally expected things to get better. But the prices that had doubled from 1914 to 1919 doubled again during just five months in 1922. Milk went from 7 Marks per liter to 16; beer from 5.6 to 18. There were complaints about the high cost of living. Professors and civil servants complained of getting squeezed. Factory workers pressed for wage increases. An underground economy developed, aided by a desire to beat the tax collector.

On June 24, 1922, right-wing fanatics assassinated Walter Rathenau, the moderate, able foreign minister. Rathenau was a charismatic figure, and the idea that a popular, wealthy, and glamorous government minister could be shot in a law-abiding society shattered the faith of the Germans, who wanted to believe that things were going to be all right. Rathenau's state funeral was a national trauma. The nervous citizens of the Ruhr were already getting their money out of the currency and into real goods -- diamonds, works of art, safe real estate. Now ordinary Germans began to get out of Marks and into real goods.

Pianos, wrote the British historian Adam Fergusson, were bought even by unmusical families. Sellers held back because the Mark was worth less every day. As prices went up, the amounts of currency demanded were greater, and the German Central Bank responded to the demands. Yet the ruling authorities did not see anything wrong. A leading financial newspaper said that the amounts of money in circulation were not excessively high. Dr. Rudolf Havenstein, the president of the Reichsbank (equivalent to the Federal Reserve) told an economics professor that he needed a new suit but wasn't going to buy one until prices came down.

Why did the German government not act to halt the inflation? It was a shaky, fragile government, especially after the assassination. The vengeful French sent their army into the Ruhr to enforce their demands for reparations, and the Germans were powerless to resist. More than inflation, the Germans feared unemployment. In 1919 Communists had tried to take over, and severe unemployment might give the Communists another chance. The great German industrial combines -- Krupp, Thyssen, Farben, Stinnes -- condoned the inflation and survived it well. A cheaper Mark, they reasoned, would make German goods cheap and easy to export, and they needed the export earnings to buy raw materials abroad. Inflation kept everyone working.

So the printing presses ran, and once they began to run, they were hard to stop. The price increases began to be dizzying. Menus in cafes could not be revised quickly enough. A student at Freiburg University ordered a cup of coffee at a cafe. The price on the menu was 5,000 Marks. He had two cups. When the bill came, it was for 14,000 Marks. "If you want to save money," he was told, "and you want two cups of coffee, you should order them both at the same time."

The presses of the Reichsbank could not keep up though they ran through the night. Individual cities and states began to issue their own money. Dr. Havenstein, the president of the Reichsbank, did not get his new suit. A factory worker described payday, which was every day at 11:00 a.m.: "At 11:00 in the morning a siren sounded, and everybody gathered in the factory forecourt, where a five-ton lorry was drawn up loaded brimful with paper money. The chief cashier and his assistants climbed up on top. They read out names and just threw out bundles of notes. As soon as you had caught one you made a dash for the nearest shop and bought just anything that was going." Teachers, paid at 10:00 a.m., brought their money to the playground, where relatives took the bundles and hurried off with them. Banks closed at 11:00 a.m.; the harried clerks went on strike.

The flight from currency that had begun with the buying of diamonds, gold, country houses, and antiques now extended to minor and almost useless items -- bric-a-brac, soap, hairpins. The law-abiding country crumbled into petty thievery. Copper pipes and brass armatures weren't safe. Gasoline was siphoned from cars. People bought things they didn't need and used them to barter -- a pair of shoes for a shirt, some crockery for coffee. Berlin had a "witches' Sabbath" atmosphere. Prostitutes of both sexes roamed the streets. Cocaine was the fashionable drug. In the cabarets the newly rich and their foreign friends could dance and spend money. Other reports noted that not all the young people had a bad time. Their parents had taught them to work and save, and that was clearly wrong, so they could spend money, enjoy themselves, and flout the old.

The publisher Leopold Ullstein wrote: "People just didn't understand what was happening. All the economic theory they had been taught didn't provide for the phenomenon. There was a feeling of utter dependence on anonymous powers -- almost as a primitive people believed in magic -- that somebody must be in the know, and that this small group of 'somebodies' must be a conspiracy."

When the 1,000-billion Mark note came out, few bothered to collect the change when they spent it. By November 1923, with one dollar equal to one trillion Marks, the breakdown was complete. The currency had lost meaning.

What happened immediately afterward is as fascinating as the Great Inflation itself. The tornado of the Mark inflation was succeeded by the "miracle of the Rentenmark." A new president took over the Reichsbank, Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht, who came by his first two names because of his father's admiration for an editor of the New York Tribune. The Rentenmark was not Schacht's idea, but he executed it, and as the Reichsbank president, he got the credit for it. For decades afterward he was able to maintain a reputation for financial wizardry. He became the architect of the financial prosperity brought by the Nazi party.

Obviously, though the currency was worthless, Germany was still a rich country -- with mines, farms, factories, forests. The backing for the Rentenmark was mortgages on the land and bonds on the factories, but that backing was a fiction; the factories and land couldn't be turned into cash or used abroad. Nine zeros were struck from the currency; that is, one Rentenmark was equal to one billion old Marks. The Germans wanted desperately to believe in the Rentenmark, and so they did. "I remember," said one Frau Barten of East Prussia, "the feeling of having just one Rentenmark to spend. I bought a small tin bread bin. Just to buy something that had a price tag for one Mark was so exciting."

All money is a matter of belief. Credit derives from Latin, credere, "to believe." Belief was there, the factories functioned, the farmers delivered their produce. The Central Bank kept the belief alive when it would not let even the government borrow further.

But although the country functioned again, the savings were never restored, nor were the values of hard work and decency that had accompanied the savings. There was a different temper in the country, a temper that Hitler would later exploit with diabolical talent. Thomas Mann wrote: "The market woman who without batting an eyelash demanded 100 million for an egg lost the capacity for surprise. And nothing that has happened since has been insane or cruel enough to surprise her."

With the currency went many of the lifetime plans of average citizens. It was the custom for the bride to bring some money to a marriage; many marriages were called off. Widows dependent on insurance found themselves destitute. People who had worked a lifetime found that their pensions would not buy one cup of coffee.

Pearl Buck, the American writer who became famous for her novels of China, was in Germany in 1923. She wrote later: "The cities were still there, the houses not yet bombed and in ruins, but the victims were millions of people. They had lost their fortunes, their savings; they were dazed and inflation-shocked and did not understand how it had happened to them and who the foe was who had defeated them. Yet they had lost their self-assurance, their feeling that they themselves could be the masters of their own lives if only they worked hard enough; and lost, too, were the old values of morals, of ethics, of decency."

The fledgling Nazi party, whose attempted coup had failed in 1923, won 32 seats legally in the next election. The right-wing Nationalist party won 106 seats, having promised 100 percent compensation to the victims of inflation and vengeance on the conspirators who had brought it.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/ess_germanhyperinflation.html

Leo High School Family Mourns the Loss of Jim McKeever -Leo '54

From Leo Alumni President Rich Furlong:

Date: Thursday, February 4, 2010, 3:37 PM


It is with profound sorrow that I need to inform you of the death of Jim McKeever '54. Jim was as loyal of a Leo man as I ever had the pleasure of knowing. He is irreplaceable here on earrth but a big addition to the Leo Alumni Association in heaven. Jim was a great Leo Man, a wonderful friend, a most loyal White Sox fan (for which I have forgiven him) and a wonderful family man. He will be missed.

The wake will be at Blake Lamb Funeral Home at 103rd and Cicero on Monday at 2-9 p.m. For as many of you for which it will be convenient I would like to meet in the lobby at 7 p.m. and do an alumni walk thru. There will be a funeral mass on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. at Queen of Martyrs 103rd and Central Park ave.

Rich

Way to Go, Brownie! Mark Brown's Screwed Pooch, or the Scott Lee Cohen Saga

I'm Mark Brown - Seen Me?

Mark Brown. What can be said? Mark Brown is a Progressive, Cop Hating true believer Olympian Look-Down The Schnozola At the Helots Scribbler!

It seems that Scott Lee Cohen gave Mark Brown an exclusive peek into his arrest jacket, but Newshound Brown knows better!

The problem for Cohen was that he made his announcement to me, and I wasn't taking him very seriously.That's why I told Cohen at the time that nobody even knew who he was, let alone cared enough to want to read about his dirty laundry, and I didn't see the need to go into it. ( emphasis my own)

I was only writing about him because of Cohen's line of work: pawnbroker. I'd never heard of a pawnbroker trying to break into politics, let alone aspiring to being a heartbeat from the governor's office.

But Cohen insisted he thought it was important to make the incident public right from the start, because he didn't want it to come up later and look like he was hiding something, a la Blair Hull or Jack Ryan.

. . . Gosh, yeah, Mark! After all that EXHAUSTIVE research you did on Bill Ayers /his odious Old Lady and Tony Resko and Crazy Uncle Jeremiah Wright and all those loose ends you tied up! Shockingly busy, have you been Brownie?

How was I to know way back then that the Democratic voters of Illinois would be so dumb as to elect him, brainwashed by millions of dollars in advertising about his job fairs?

Ask?

If a policy paper is not written by some think-tank mope, or he is getting political feed and 'who-to-hate' memos from drips like Rep. Mike Quigley, or Police Abuse tips from slugs like G. Flint Taylor, Jon Loevy and other bottom feeders, Mark Brown does not have much to write . . .or wrong.

The problem is that Cohen has no business being lieutenant governor, not to mention governor, which will only become more obvious in the days ahead.

Don't blame me. I didn't vote for him.

How's that again, Cupcake?

The problem is that Cohen has no business being lieutenant governor, not to mention governor, which will only become more obvious in the days ahead.

Don't blame me. I didn't vote for him.

Way to go Brownie . . .Jerk. ( emphasis my own)

" Scott Lee Cohen! Twister's A Comin'! Get Out That Trylar, Scott Lee!!" Lt. Governor Nominee Scott Lee Cohen - Illinois Jewish Redneck?

Scott Lee Cohen is endorsed by Planned Parenthood!
Dang, Scott Lee! That's some kind of hard copy coming out on your Hooker Dust-up and other venial sins - Mercy Sakes Alive.

You got the handle, there Son! Could you be Illinois's Jewish Redneck Demographic?


Click my post title for the link to Jewish Redneck! Kink Friedman and the Texas Jewboys or Dave Tarras? YEEEEEEEEEEE Haaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww!


Jewish Redneck Jokes
You Might be a Jewish Redneck if:

- You think that "KKK" means really really Kosher
- You have a gun rack in your Sukkah
- The only area on your lawn that is mowed is where you burned your Chametz
- You have ever fired a gun to the sound of Haman's name
- You know what Barach to say when you see a UFO
- You know which brand of grit is Kosher
- You think that a hora is a high priced call girl
- You wear cowboy boots to shul
- Your favorite Passover snack is spam on a sandwhich
- You don't ride on Shabbat because your car is up on blocks
- Your favorite beverage is a combination of Manischewitz and Mountain Dew, also called "Mountain Jew"
- You're disappointed when your son tells you he wants to be a doctor or a lawyer, and not a NASCAR driver
- You think Dolly Parton should have the lead role in Yentl
- You try to catch catfish with Matza Balls
- Gefitle fish is the most solid thing you can eat with your tooth
- Your yard has car parts lying around to Volvo's, BMW's, and Camry's
- Making your first deer is part of your Bar Mitzva's right of passage
- You use a fiddle and a banjo to play Hava Nagila
- You know that Santa Clause and the Elves must be Jewish. Who else would work on Christmas Eve?
- Your Seder plate has a picture of Elvis on it.
- You open the door for Elijah at Passover and have to chase away possums

Reform and Flying Lobsters

"A man that would expect to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic; but a man that thinks men can be turned into angels by an election is a reformer & remains at large." Mr. Dooley ( Finley Peter Dunne)

Reformation. Lovely word. It calls to mind the Council Trent in reaction to the Protestant wind that swept Europe and spilt Christianity right down its Middle Class.

Catholics got thumped by the Jesuits and the Jansenists and once they honed their skills lit up the Huguenots

The folks who did away with candles and smells and bells in worship produced zealots like Zwingli and Calvin who begat Oliver Cromwell, who begat America's Father of Reform Cotton Mather - the great grand daddy of Progressivism!

Old Cotton didn't cotton to uppity females, wild West Indian negresses, or Papist sluts and pronounced them witches:

Some were executed* and some died in prison. This Enthusiasm that begat Abolitionism, Suffragism, Prohibitionism and Abortionism coupled with good old Yankee Nativism in the Reform Fever that is rooted in American journalism.

The breathlessly moralizing earnestness that inks onto the pulp of our papers throughout every election cycle is cute: Cop bashing, political witch hunts that help ambitious prosecutors and hypocritical judges who do not feel that another judge gave a heavy enough sentence to a prominent politician, abortion parsing, listing the legitimate incomes of political people or tradesmen as if they were ill-gotten-gains are the media methods of Reform.


As Old Dooley said about Reforming Ink-Slingers -

"Th newspaper does ivrything f'r us. It runs th' polis foorce an' th' banks, commands th' milishy, controls th' ligislachure, baptizes th' young, marries th' foolish, comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th' comfortable, buries th' dead an' roasts thim aftherward".

Wow, and he never used the word snark.

Reform is refuge of the hypocrite, the hack, the really dumb person, the fired lightweight, and usually the Marxist.

God save us from Reform. Oh, and . . . keep reading the newspapers while you can.
















*The Dead
Nineteen accused witches were hanged on Gallows Hill in 1692:

June 10
Bridget Bishop
July 19
Rebecca Nurse
Sarah Good
Susannah Martin
Elizabeth Howe
Sarah Wildes
August 19
George Burroughs
Martha Carrier
John Willard
George Jacobs, Sr.
John Proctor
September 22
Martha Corey
Mary Eastey
Ann Pudeator
Alice Parker
Mary Parker
Wilmott Redd
Margaret Scott
Samuel Wardwell

One accused witch (or wizard, as male witches were often called) was pressed to death on September 19 when he failed to plead guilty or not guilty:

Giles Corey

Other accused witches died in prison

News Media Love Kiddie Diddler Roman Polanski and Hate Mel Gibson?

"I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable. I am deeply ashamed of everything I said"
Mel Gibson to Dean Richards of WGN

"A$$hole." -(sotto voce) to Dean Richards of WGN

Mel Gibson is a Catholic. The Press hate him. The camera and the fans love him, Sweethearts.

He seems like a good guy.


Dean Richards of WGN Radio and TV and Medill check casher tried to gotcha Mel about a drunk-driving, booze fueled Jew -baiting rant years ago. Is he an anti-Semite? Hell I don't know.

Shucks, Jeremiah Wright, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan are all getting quality press after some solid Hymie Yarmulke Yanking and threats of Genocide.

Jews and Catholics seem to get along here in Chicago. I get my Mick up whenever Jews are targeted.

One of my happiest memories was watching my cousin jump out of the car I was driving and cold-cock a Frank Collin American Nazi at 63rd and Kedzie in 1974.

Mel Gibson is a talented guy, a deeply flawed guy, a pretty sincere guy and he is a Catholic. Jim Caveziel a very talented guy and guy who seems to be pretty squared away is also a Catholic and he gets pretty dim treatment from the American Media that soft-soaps race baiters, lesbian psychotics, Abortion Happy harpies, dope snorting comics, and child molesters who mouth Progressive platitudes.

Mel Gibson seems like a good guy. No less a Jewish talent than Jackie Mason thinks so as well.

Dean Richards? Well, old disc jockeys need a shtick, too I suppose.

Leo Man, Sox Fan, Grand Catholic Gentleman Jim McKeever ( Leo '54) Mend Quickly

Photo by John Konstantaras/Chicago News Cooperative

Few people on earth have more wit, heart and happiness than Mr. James McKeever. He should be happy - he's married to Peggy.

Jim McKeever has been the leading voice of the Leo High School Fight Song for as long as I can rememeber - with a nod to the estimable pipes of Mr. Gene Earner of course.

Jim McKeever helped Leo Men the late E. Michael Kelly and Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Fitzgerald put White Sox great Nelson Fox in the Baseball Hall of Fame and spoearhead the efforts to the same for Billy Pierce.

Jim McKeever, Leo 1954, is Veteran and civic leader. He has helped White Sox Owner Jerry Reinsdorf indentify needy families and causes for charitable support, like the Kevin Dowling Scholarship Program.

Jim McKeever has attended nearly every White Sox Opening Day and is present at every hospital sick bed, wake, family benefit and Leo Meeting within his abilities to make an appearance.

Leo Alumni President Rich Furlong just informed me that Jim McKeever had a bad fall and that he is in Holy Cross Hospital in recovery. The thoughts and prayers and of the Hickey Family merge with the massive Leo High School Family for Jim McKeever's speedy return to his active and important life.


Jim McKeever, Séamas Mac Íomhair Abu!, Facta Non Verba!, Eamus O Tibliala!Alba*!

* Jim McKeever, Up and At 'Em! - Deeds Not Words! Let's Go White Sox!

Preckwinkle Campaign Calling!

“We take the support we can from every corner,” says Preckwinkle’s campaign manager Scott Cisek.

Toni Robo Calling - Hi, 19th Ward Resident, as you know . . .Toni Preckwinkle is brainy and really fun. A University of Chicago Policy Wonk who loves a great Abortion! . . .

Toni Robo is my name. I am not. I am as male as you are, Sir. Probably more so. I was a Naval Reserve Ensign. I write children's books. . . .Listen. . . .

Yes, I am calling from a phonebooth in Hyde Park . . .we are allowed to have them. and no this is not a Robo call - Toni hates them! . . .What else? . . .

Toni Hates Mayor Daley . . .No, wait aminute . . .Toni Preckwinkle Loves Mayor Daley. Yes. . . .Yes. . . .

Yes, It is a shoulder bag and not a purse. How can you know that? These? Where are you? Yes, I know that I am calling you , Sir! These are my own personal care products - Please, let me continue. . . .

. . . Cook County Needs Toni Preckwinkle . . .to take Todd Stoger's Seat and beat back the white Irish Power structure Terry O'Brien. No, I said Toni Loves Mayor Daley! . . .Well, she Hates that He is Irish of course, but he can't help that, but O'Brien can. . . .No, I am not trying to pick a fight with your daughters . . .Sir, let me finish. . . .

Toni and Zeus need your vote on February Second - Vote for Toni Preckwinkle for Cook County Assessor!
(Voice Over strirring Election Muzak)
I'm Toni Preckwinkle and I approve of my Candidacy.

En Iglese Press Dos. En Espanole . . .got czy nie macie

But is Alderman Toni Preckwinkle getting his endorsement by proxy?

A Preckwinkle fundraiser next week will be co-hosted by Marilyn Katz, a heavyweight Daley backer whose public relations firms handles city business.
. . .


The mayor has appeared at at least one of Preckwinkle’s fundraisers, too.

The Jan. 11 fundraiser, held at the home of Democratic high-rollers Lew and Susan Manilow, is co-hosted by a list of donors who figured prominently in Barack Obama's 2008 campaign.

One of them is Micheal Bauer, whose involvement in the Obama campaign stirred controversy in 2007. Bauer was accused of plundering a family trust fund of $300,000, and barred from practicing law for nine months, according to published reports.

Bauer said the money went to prop up a failing business, though records show at the same time he donated $300,000 to local and national political candidates.

“It’s a family dispute, and I don’t think it’s anybody’s business,” Bauer told the Sun-Times in 2007. “My brother consented to me taking the money out ... I had a business at the time that was losing a lot of money. It was to try to keep the business afloat until I could sell it.”

Angry Illinois Voters? Name One. Really.

Absolutely the Best Side of Carol Marin! Fabulous!

I only know of one really angry voter and this guy lived in Griffith, Indiana. This guy lived along Broad Street, just east of Cline Ave. and a 9 Iron shot south of Ridge Avenue, regularly painted his adobe white garage with aquamarine green paint - "Crooked Bastards! Snake Politicians! Die You Elected Scum!" or "Scum Sucking Leeches! Politicians! Die!"


No doubt this gent did wonders for his neighbors' property values.

He was genuinely non-partisan, but the Town of Griffith generally ignored this rock-ribbed sweetheart's fulminations. Occasionally, a new slap of aquamarine would specifically indict some scallywag, but primarily this Angry Citizen painted with a very broad brush.

Politico.com and other dedicated pundits are trying kick up some sand and interest in the Illinois Primary as some kind of bell weather for the general elections,"Widespread voter anger and unrest are confronting the Illinois political establishment as the state hurtles toward its first-in-the-nation primaries Tuesday."

Mercy Sakes! Speaking of which, Marque Kirque gets the lion's share of attention as he is running against three Democratic candidates without a Chinaman's Chance of winning - Alexi Giannoulias, Cheryl Jackson, and Dave Hoffmann.

I like Alexi Giannoulias, but he is colaterally damaged by the frags from Blago and the Rezko-shrapnel still wizzing around President Obama. Hoffman has a voice that sounds like steam escaping from a spilt pipe and Cheryl Jackson is not related to the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Carol Marin is a self-promoting Multi- Pay envelope News Icon and she shows her best side in the photo above from Politico.

Voter Anger? I work in the black community and live in a Close-Knit Ethnic ( Catholic) neighborhood. No anger. No spittle. No marches. No nothing.

People will vote their hearts and minds tomorrow and that makes political weasels wet their britches.

GOP Regulars - Dan Proft on the Issues

That about tells it.

Vote for Dan Proft - I voted for Pat Quinn in the Democratic Primary

I am a Democrat. I vote for my interests - Real Labor ( not SEIU Marxist PACs or ACORN friendly boondogglers), Anti-Abortion, School Choice for Reform, Lower Taxes - I would go for flat tax, Law and Order, Strong National Defense, genuine immigration reform.

The Democratic National Party is held captive by Progressives, Hollywood Arm-Chair Loudmouths, Academic Policy Frauds, and Abortionists. They have the money, Honey, and they have the Time.

Democratic voters are ensnared by the obligation that National Democratic operatives have made for local and State officials - if local folks want the Dough Ray Me, they must sing loudly for it.

I vote for my neighbors - Maureen Kelly for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and therefore I draw a Democratic Ballot. My neighborhood is festooned with Hynes for Illinois Governor. Fair enough.

Dan Hynes is great guy, really terrific, couldn't be better.

I voted for Pat Quinn. Pat Quinn is a wonderful man. He is loyal and honest. He believes in the Easter Bunny, Progressives, Danny Davis, Planned Parenthood, Ralphie Martire, and that Thomson, Illinois is a great place for Gitmo Terrorists. I voted for Pat Quinn in the Illinois Democratic Primary. Parse that, Muriel.

I wanted to vote for Dan Proft, because I believe that he would be the best Governor Illinois could have had since Dick Ogilvie - who gave Illinois its first Income Tax and created the Illinois boost in social services - ironic ain't it? Different Times, Sally. Dan Walker, a Progressive Goo-goo phony to beat the band defeated Ogilvie and embarked on building the long serpentine Illinois Government give-away machine - indebted to tax salaried Labor ( Teachers/AFSME/SEIU), Abortionist Planned Parenthood, Eco-Fascists, Tax the Middle Class Policy Gurus like Ralphie Martire.

The Progressive Doctrinaires own Illinois, not just in-the-bag crooks in elected office representing both Parties.

Dan Proft is a tough, smart, moral and honest guy. Dan is almost as smart as Mike Madigan.


Dillard and McKenna? As if. Jim Ryan is a champion human being, but got in the race too late and has the media against him.

Dan Proft is the real deal. I had an obligation to vote for a very close friend and the primary rules trumped my desire to see Dan Proft become Illinois Governor.

I voted early. To those who might glance at my blog. Vote for Dan Proft. I hope to see Dan Proft become Illinois Governor - it worked in Massachusetts.




MEDIA ADVISORY:

Proft Campaign Schedule

Sunday, January 31, 2010

10:00 am — America’s Outdoor Show

Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, IL


11:30 — Kane County GOP Chairman Brunch

Riverside Receptions, 35 N. River Lane, Geneva, IL


1:30 pm — Boone County GOP Lincoln Day Luncheon

Community Center, 111 W. 1st Street, Belvidere, IL

4:00 pm — Meet and Greet at Supporter’s House

Long Grove, IL


9:00 pm — 560 WIND-AM: Tony Peraica Show (In Studio)

25 NW Point Blvd., Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

Monday, February 1, 2010

7:30 am — 890 WLS-AM: Don Wade and Roma Show (In Studio)

190 N. State Street, Chicago, IL

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

7:30 am — Candidate Voting

Lake Point Tower, 505 N. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL



6:00 pm — Election Night Celebration

Ditka’s, 100 E. Chestnut, Chicago, IL

###

Gen. Tom Gerrity - Leo High School 1930: American Hero

Tom Gerrity after his escape from Bataan

Left to right:"THE LAST SLUG"
The 3rd Bomb Group had a club called "The Last Slug" located at 26 Aland Street, Charters Towers, Darwin Australia 1942.
Verandah: Rube Rubenstein, "Jim" Davies, James Smith and Tom Gerrity
Top step: Alex Salvatore, Scanlon, Zeke Summers
3rd step: Ron Hubbard, Oliver Doan
4th step: Harry Managan, Howie West, Frank Tally
5th step: Harry Galusha
6th step: Harry Rose, Bob Ruegg, "Pappy" Gunn, Bob Strickland
Bottom step: Leland Walker, Frank Timlin, Jim McAfee

In the winter of 1941 through the spring of 1942, Guam, Wake, and Midway Islands, the Singapore, Malaysia,Hong Kong, and the Philippines, and all shipping in between were targeted by Japan.

At Nichols Field in the PI, a 1930 graduate of Leo High School in Chicago, prepared to take off in an obsolete B-18 medium bomber. Lt. Tom Gerrity and most of the Far East Asian Air Force was caught on the ground. He and his crew chief were wounded and his plane destroyed.

Gerrity would then serve as Gen Wainwright's air liaison officer, fight as an infantryman, transfer to the six P-40's of the 24th Pursuit Group, contract malaria and dengue fevers, lose forty pounds, rebuild a shot up amphibious plane and escape to Australia when ordered out on April 8th, 1942.

Lt. Tom Gerrity would go on to fly almost fifty combat missions in a B-25, sinking 28 Japanese ships in the Bismark and Coral Seas. He would go on to become a four-star general in the Air Force.

He is a fit subject for students of history, as are the millions of average men who stood up to evil.

Thomas P. Gerrity helped develop the United States Air Force and was a key figure in America's Race for Space.

Please read Tom Gerrity's Phillipine War Diary - this is a treasure. The account preserved by the Linda Dow Family ( click my post title) is clear and compelling account of the heroism of Americans in a hopeless fight pages 119- 122). This is very compelling reading.

Thomas Patrick Gerrity American Manager. Born 8 December 1913. Died 24 February 1968. Head of Air Force ballistic missile programs 1960-1961.
Personal: Male. Born in Harlowton, Montana, USA.

Gerrity, son of a railroad boilermaker, grew up in Chicago, where his family moved before he was two. He attended the Armour Institute (later the Illinois Institute of Technology). He joined the Army as an aviation cadet in 1939. He was serving in the Philippines at the time of the Japanese invasion in December 1941, becoming commander of a bomber squadron in New Guinea after the American evacuation. In November 1942 he was assigned to the Army Air Forces Materiel Command at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, and worked as project officer on the B-25, B-26, B-29, B-32, B-35 and B-36 bombers. In January 1946 he was made Chief of the Bomber Branch in the Aircraft and Missile Section, and then later Chief of the entire Aircraft and Missile Section.

In March 1950 Gerrity commanded the 1lth Bombardment Group of the Strategic Air Command at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas. In March 1953 he went to the Pentagon, serving in senior staff posisions in procurement and production engineering. From August 1957 he commanded the Oklahoma City Air Materiel Area of the Air Materiel Command in August 1957 t Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma.

In July 1960 he was made commander of the Ballistic Missile Center of the Air Materiel Command at Los Angeles, California, reorganized as the Ballistic Systems Division in April 1961. During this period he oversaw the most intense phase of development and deployment of the Atlas, Titan, and Minuteman ICBM's.

In July 1962 General Gerrity was assigned to duties at the Pentagon, followed by a stint as the senior Air Force member, Military Staff Committee, United Nations. In August 1967 he became commander of the Air Force Logistics Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.