Alfonso Ponticelli at the Green Mill Every Wednesday Night

Please.  Let me never hear another Chicagoan beef -"There's nothin' ta due."






Green Mill of Chicago
4802 North Broadway Street  Chicago, IL 60640
(773) 878-5552


Alfonso Ponticelli, guitar 
Steve Gibons, violin 
Jason Miller, rhythm guitar 
John Bany, bass 


http://www.swinggitan.com/

Wrong Again, Chubalito! Founding Fathers Refute Michael Moore

Ben Franklin - " Single shot, my derriere, Thomas!"

Thomas Jefferson - "Indeed, Citizen Ben, at the first report from British Brown Bess, I intend to ride the 9 down their Limey-ass!"



I never owned a gun in my life; nor, do I believe that I ever will; nevertheless, Michael Moore, the guy who ate Flint, has his opinion and history another.

Last night on Piers Morgan, liberal filmmaker Michael Moore suggested that if the founders knew about modern weaponry they would probably have supported more gun control.
Moore noted that when the founders wrote the Constitution, they had guns that took 15 minutes to load a firearm that could fire one shot.
“Now, if the founding fathers could have looked into a crystal ball and seen AK-47s and a Glock semiautomatic pistols, I got a feeling they would want to leave a little note behind and probably tell us, ‘you know, that’s not really what we mean when we say bear arms.’”
During the segment, Piers Morgan said he startled by the “flawed gun culture” as people in Colorado started to purchase more weapons.
“It angers me that people are reacting like this.” Morgan said insisting that the answer was not to flood the country with more guns. Washington Examiner

http://washingtonexaminer.com/michael-moore-if-founding-fathers-saw-an-ak-47-they-would-support-gun-control/article/2503101

Baseball and Orestes Brownson Meet Tacitus and Darwin - Sox in 1st Place Again!

I was reading the Annals of Tacitus last night, as I could not get the Sox Game on Cable. I read until Clare came home and checked the web - Sox Win!  11-4 and back in 1st Place AL Central!


Had I not known that the Sox played the Minnesota Twins at home and relied solely upon my beliefe that that they, had, in fact played, the Chicago Tribune account would not have satisfied with conclusive evidence that that had been the case. The article is joyfully exuberant, but lacks a small but essential verity -Who Played????


Nowhere in the report by Chicago Tribune's Mark Gonzales are to be fund any veriable evidnce that Chicago White Sox had played the Minnesota Twins at Sox Park ( AKA The Cell to Sheep) on the evening of July 24, 2012. -By Mark Gonzales, Chicago Tribune reporter

11:51 p.m. CDT, July 24, 2012

Absent is any idenification whatsoever to the professional baseball team from Minnesota:  the reader will not find the words Twins, Minnesota.  Other teams are mentioned: Detroit, Yankees, and Texas Rangers.  There is a hat-tip to Josh Willingham who plays for the Twins, but this was something that I believed prior to game itself, but could not verify upon reading the Tribune account of the Dunn,/Konerko/Ventura Victory Troika:

Konerko, who is 7-for-8 over his last two games and batting .536 with two doubles, two homers and six RBIs in his last eight games, gave plenty of credit to Dunn.

As I said above, I read Tacitus while game was played.  Tacitus wrote Roman history and the Annals
concentrate the reader upon the Empire -dominated by the Julio Claudian family.  Augustus (Octavian) was the first emperor. While he ruled Jesus was born. Tacitus talks about the Jewish carpenter's kid  when he gets into telling about the reign of Tiberius ( Tiberius Nero).  When old Augustus was about to die, all of Rome fretted that this would signal the start of a bloody fight for power.


August was married to a horrific old bitch who was a combination of revolutionary Bernardin Dohrn welded to hack loud-mouth Jan Schakowsky.  Livia was not above killing her step-children and grandkids to advance her agenda.  Livia and Tiberius( her son by a previous marriage) plotted to bump off the next in in line -Agrippa.


Give this long passage a read.

Thus thus the State had been revolutionised, and there was not a vestige left of the old sound morality. Stript of equality, all looked up to the commands of a sovereign without the least apprehension for the present, while Augustus in the vigour of life, could maintain his own position, that of his house, and the general tranquillity. When in advanced old age, he was worn out by a sickly frame, and the end was near and new prospects opened, a few spoke in vain of the blessings of freedom, but most people dreaded and some longed for war. The popular gossip of the large majority fastened itself variously on their future masters. "Agrippa was savage, and had been exasperated by insult, and neither from age nor experience in affairs was equal to so great a burden. Tiberius Nero was of mature years, and had established his fame in war, but he had the old arrogance inbred in the Claudian family, and many symptoms of a cruel temper, though they were repressed, now and then broke out. He had also from earliest infancy been reared in an imperial house; consulships and triumphs had been heaped on him in his younger days; even in the years which, on the pretext of seclusion he spent in exile at Rhodes, he had had no thoughts but of wrath, hypocrisy, and secret sensuality. There was his mother too with a woman caprice. They must, it seemed, be subject to a female and to two striplings besides, who for a while would burden, and some day rend asunder the State."

While these and like topics were discussed, the infirmities of Augustus increased, and some suspected guilt on his wife's part. For a rumour had gone abroad that a few months before he had sailed to Planasia on a visit to Agrippa, with the knowledge of some chosen friends, and with one companion, Fabius Maximus; that many tears were shed on both sides, with expressions of affection, and that thus there was a hope of the young man being restored to the home of his grandfather. This, it was said, Maximus had divulged to his wife Marcia, she again to Livia. All was known to Caesar, and when Maximus soon afterwards died, by a death some thought to be self-inflicted, there were heard at his funeral wailings from Marcia, in which she reproached herself for having been the cause of her husband's destruction. Whatever the fact was, Tiberius as he was just entering Illyria was summoned home by an urgent letter from his mother, and it has not been thoroughly ascertained whether at the city of Nola he found Augustus still breathing or quite lifeless. For Livia had surrounded the house and its approaches with a strict watch, and favourable bulletins were published from time to time, till, provision having been made for the demands of the crisis, one and the same report told men that Augustus was dead and that Tiberius Nero was master of the State.

The first crime of the new reign was the murder of Postumus Agrippa. Though he was surprised and unarmed, a centurion of the firmest resolution despatched him with difficulty. Tiberius gave no explanation of the matter to the Senate; he pretended that there were directions from his father ordering the tribune in charge of the prisoner not to delay the slaughter of Agrippa, whenever he should himself have breathed his last. Beyond a doubt, Augustus had often complained of the young man's character, and had thus succeeded in obtaining the sanction of a decree of the Senate for his banishment. But he never was hard-hearted enough to destroy any of his kinsfolk, nor was it credible that death was to be the sentence of the grandson in order that the stepson might feel secure. It was more probable that Tiberius and Livia, the one from fear, the other from a stepmother's enmity, hurried on the destruction of a youth whom they suspected and hated. When the centurion reported, according to military custom, that he had executed the command, Tiberius replied that he had not given the command, and that the act must be justified to the Senate.

As soon as Sallustius Crispus who shared the secret (he had, in fact, sent the written order to the tribune) knew this, fearing that the charge would be shifted on himself, and that his peril would be the same whether he uttered fiction or truth, he advised Livia not to divulge the secrets of her house or the counsels of friends, or any services performed by the soldiers, nor to let Tiberius weaken the strength of imperial power by referring everything to the Senate, for "the condition," he said, "of holding empire is that an account cannot be balanced unless it be rendered to one person."
Meanwhile at Rome people plunged into slavery- consuls, senators, knights. The higher a man's rank, the more eager his hypocrisy, and his looks the more carefully studied, so as neither to betray joy at the decease of one emperor nor sorrow at the rise of another, while he mingled delight and lamentations with his flattery. Sextus Pompeius and Sextus Apuleius, the consuls, were the first to swear allegiance to Tiberius Caesar, and in their presence the oath was taken by Seius Strabo and Caius Turranius, respectively the commander of the praetorian cohorts and the superintendent of the corn supplies. Then the Senate, the soldiers and the people did the same. For Tiberius would inaugurate everything with the consuls, as though the ancient constitution remained, and he hesitated about being emperor. Even the proclamation by which he summoned the senators to their chamber, he issued merely with the title of Tribune, which he had received under Augustus. The wording of the proclamation was brief, and in a very modest tone. "He would," it said, "provide for the honours due to his father, and not leave the lifeless body, and this was the only public duty he now claimed."

As soon, however, as Augustus was dead, he had given the watchword to the praetorian cohorts, as commander-in-chief. He had the guard under arms, with all the other adjuncts of a court; soldiers attended him to the forum; soldiers went with him to the Senate House. He sent letters to the different armies, as though supreme power was now his, and showed hesitation only when he spoke in the Senate. His chief motive was fear that Germanicus, who had at his disposal so many legions, such vast auxiliary forces of the allies, and such wonderful popularity, might prefer the possession to the expectation of empire. He looked also at public opinion, wishing to have the credit of having been called and elected by the State rather than of having crept into power through the intrigues of a wife and a dotard's adoption. It was subsequently understood that he assumed a wavering attitude, to test likewise the temper of the nobles. For he would twist a word or a look into a crime and treasure it up in his memory.
On the first day of the Senate he allowed nothing to be discussed but the funeral of Augustus, whose will, which was brought in by the Vestal Virgins, named as his heirs Tiberius and Livia. 

Tacitus, like your humble scribbler here, is limited by what he knows and yearns for what is knowable; when that is denied, like Mark Gonzales' account of the 11-4 victory over the Twins, who remain unmentioned, we must hold onto faith - Josh Willingham is on the Twins and my head is still attached to my neck.


History, Science and  Baseball  can be reduced to faith -belief a priori truths ( I knew Josh was a Minnesota Twin) and ontologogical issues. Consider this -

Does anyone really doubt that he has a head? Notice that the mere possibility of error is not enough to defeat this belief. Just because I could be a brain in a vat deceived by a mad scientist doesn’t give me any reason to think that I am. Until you give me some compelling proof that I do not have a body, I am perfectly rational to believe in a properly basic way that I have a head.
Similarly, the theist would need some compelling reason to think that God is deceiving him in order to abandon the belief that he has a head. Brian, turn the tables on the sceptic by asking him to give you a proof that theism gives you a defeater of your properly basic beliefs. About all he can say is, “God could be deceiving you.” But that provides no reason to think that He is. We could be deceived by a mad scientist; but that possibility is not sufficient to defeat our properly basic beliefs. At most, it shows that one cannot prove inferentially that one’s foundational beliefs are true. That’s right; that’s the lesson of Descartes. But that doesn’t imply that our properly basic beliefs are therefore irrational or unwarranted

Perhaps but Darwin said Descartes was wrong. Darwin is the Progressive pivot point and ontological prime mover.  If  you are au courante, have the New York Times delivered to your door daily, watch only PBS, and are so much smarter than everyone else ( Rubes, Tea-People, Catholics, devout Jews, Evangelicals, and working stiffs), Darwin trumps God.  In the 19th century, an American former-Transcendentalist and Catholic convert, Orestes Brownson, argued against Hegalian-Darwinian theology.  In 1873, Brownson wrote  

Say what you will, the ape is not a man; nor, as far as our observations or investigations can go, is the ape, the gorilla, or any other variety of the monkey tribe, the animal that approaches nearest to man.  The rat, the beaver, the horse, the pig, the raven, the elephant surpass the monkey in intelligence, if it be intelligence, and not simply instinct; and the dog is certainly far ahead of the monkey in moral qualities, in affection for his master and fidelity to him, and so is the horse when kindly treated.  But let this pass.  There is that, call it what you will, in man, which is not in the ape.  Man is two-footed and two-handed; the ape is four-handed, or, if you choose to call the extremity of his limbs feet, four-footed.  In fact, he has neither a human hand nor a human foot, and, anatomically considered, differs hardly less from man than does the dog or the horse.  I have never been able to discover any of the simian tribe a single human quality.  As to physical structure, there is some resemblance.  Zoologists tell us traces of the same original type may be found running through the whole animal world; and, therefore, the near approach of the ape to the human form counts for nothing in this argument.  But here is the point we make; namely, the differentia of man, not being in the ape, cannot be obtained from the ape by development.

This sufficiently refutes Darwin’s whole theory.  He does not prove the origin of a new species either by natural or artificial selection; and, not having done that, he adduces nothing that does or can warrant the induction, that the human species is developed from the quadrumanic or any other species. . . .Two-thirds of his work on the “Descent of Man” is taken up with what he calls Sexual Selection.  . . .
Mr. Darwin, though his theory is not original with him, and we were familiar with it even in our youth, overlooks the fact that it denies the doctrine of the creation and immutability of species, as taught in Genesis, where we read that God said: “Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the earth.  And it was done.”  “And God created the great whales and every living and moving creature which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to its kind.”  “And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and cattle, and everything thing that creepeth on the earth.” Genesis I, 11,21,25.  Now this doctrine, the doctrine of the whole Christian world, and which stands directly opposed to Mr. Darwin’s theory, is, as say the lawyers, in possession, and therefore to be held as true until the contrary is proved.  It is not enough, then, for Mr. Darwin to set forth his theory and ask us as Christians, as believers in Genesis, to accept it, unless able to disprove it; nor is it enough for him even to prove that it may be true.  The onus probandi is on him who arraigns the faith and convictions of the Christian world, which are the faith and convictions of enlightened and living mankind.  He must prove his theory not only may be, but is, true, and prove it with scientific or apodictic certainty, for only by so doing can he oust the Christian doctrine from its possession, or overcome the presumption in its favor; and till he has ousted and made away with that doctrine, his theory cannot be legally or logically entertained even as a probable hypothesis.  This he hardly pretends to have done.  As far as we can discover, he does not claim apodictic certainty for his theory, or profess to set it forth for ant(sic) thing more than a probable hypothesis, which he leads us to suspect he hardly believes himself.  But in the present case we must prove it to be true  and indubitable, or he has no right to publish it at all, not even as probable; for probable it is not, so long as it is not certain that the Christian doctrine in possession is false.
This principle, which is the principle both of ethics and logic, is disregarded by nearly the whole herd of contemporary scientists.  They make a point of ignoring Christianity, and proceed as if they were perfectly free to put forth as science any number of theories, hypotheses, conjectures, guesses, which directly contradict it, as if they were under no obligation to consult the universal faith of mankind; and theories too, not one of which, even if plausible, is proved to be true, or deserving the name of science.  We by no means contend that the general belief of mankind, or the consensus hominum, is in itself an infallible criterion of truth; but we do maintain that it is, as the lawyers say, prima facie evidence, or a vehement presumption of truth, and that no man has the moral right to publish any opinions, or uncertain theories or hypotheses, that are opposed to it.  It can be overruled by science that is science, by the truth that is demonstrated to be truth, and which cannot be gainsaid.  He who assails it may plead the truth, if he has it, in justification; but not an uncertain opinion, not an unproved theory, or an unverified hypothesis, however plausible or even probable it may appear to himself.  Sincerity, or firmness of conviction on the part of the defenders of the adverse theory or hypothesis, is no justification, no excuse even; and no one has any right to assail or contradict the Christian faith, unless he has infallible authority for the truth of what he alleges in opposition to it.  And this no scientist has or can have. (emphases my own) Brownson 1873 - Dawin's Descent of Man

Thanks to Mark Gonzales, I knew the score -Sox win 11-4 . . .over somebody.

Unlike your humble servant, Orestes Brownson knew not only the school but he really knew who was playing.

http://www.orestesbrownson.com/24.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/ct-spt-0725-white-sox-twins-chicago--20120725,0,2458913.story

http://reasonablefaith.org/does-theism-foster-scepticism

http://lamar.colostate.edu/~jgaughan/primarywebpages/courses/Tacitus.htm

The Racism of Sleep - I got Mine!

" Now, what in the wide world of sports were you doing asleep?"

Mayor Richard M. Daley will not depose, descant, opine, chat, gab, wax-eloquent, posit, or spill-it in matters Burge, thanks to another in the endless City of Chicago payoffs to G. Flint Taylor Industries (AKA -  Some Peoples Law Office).  Did we expect anything less than millions more dollars tossed to Herr Flint? Hmmm?  Not this Hairpin, anyway. Thus,

The city on Monday moved to settle the latest round of lawsuits involving former police Cmdr. Jon Burge, bringing the total cost to taxpayers for alleged victims and lawyers in the torture probe to an eye-popping $40 million.
But under the settlement, former Mayor and State's Attorney Richard M. Daley will avoid having to give sworn testimony.
The city's action came when the City Council Committee on Finance accepted the recommendation of Corporation Counsel Steve Patton to settle for $7.2 million two cases that had been headed to court. . . . Flint Taylor, an attorney for Mr. Tillman, had a slightly higher figure for taxpayer costs to date: roughly $45 million. He released a statement from Mr. Tillman saying that while "no amount of money can fix" what happened to him, "I am pleased that the city . . . (has) finally recognized that their people did me wrong." ( emphasis my own)

G. Flint Taylor will be sucking up tax-dollars so long that he asks and that they last in celebration of Jon Burge and the mythical Midnight Crew.  Don't waste a minute's sleep with worry on that score.

Systemic Racism leads to the arrest, torture,  confession, indictment, conviction, sentencing, incarceration, media scrutiny and re-evaluation of the process, subsequent pardon, or re-trial, release, hefty-pay-off and public celebration of any African American career-criminal. There, but Fortune . . . & etc.

I imagine that G. Flint Taylor sleeps like a champ. Why?  One could, were one cynical helot like myself,  imagine that G. Flint is a dedicated Cadillac Commie and devouted Marxist intent upon destroying not only the local government budgets, but eroding any and all faith in Law and Law Enforcement.  Or, one might say that G. Flint Taylor is a sho'nuff Atticus Finch-like advocate of the damned and self-less hero of the Peoples.
However, there just meigh* be another reason - the Dude's a White Boy!

The average amount of time people sleep each night varies from race to race, according to a study of 500 Chicago-area adults by Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.
Whites sleep the most, followed by Asians and Hispanics. Blacks sleep the least.
The study also said that blacks have the worst quality of sleep, while Asians have the highest amount of daytime sleepiness.

How about that for Systemic Racism taxonomy!

White Folks - Counting Dollars  

Asians = Too much Study?
Hispanics =Well . . . 




African Americans = Five Minutes are Up! Break Time's Over! 

This study was concluded by Northwestern University School of Medicine - Northwestern University, where the Center for Wrongful Convictions, Berardine Dorhn's  Two Decades of Children and Family Justice Center, the Bluhm Legal Clinic, Roderick MacArthur Center for Justice ( formerly at University of Chicago)

In no time at all - The Systemic Racism Sleep Disorders Institute of Northwestern Law and Meds and Some Peoples Law Office will trot out the Post-Burge Conviction for Only Perjury Disorders  and really level the old agenda playing fields.

Them White Folks can sleep in court!


*Meigh (from Irish: Maigh/an Mhaigh, meaning "the plain")^[1] is a small village and townlandnear Slieve Gullion in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 444 people in the 2001 Census. It lies within the Newry and Mourne District Council area.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-x-0725-racial-sleep-20120725,0,6095844.story
 Read more: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120723/BLOGS02/120729946/taxpayer-tab-in-burge-torture-cases-hits-40-million-mark#ixzz21XTfkIyK 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-x-0725-racial-sleep-20120725,0,6095844.story

Planned Parenthood Chicago Not Only Kills the Child but the Mom as Well

Tonya Reaves, 24, died late Friday night at Planned Parenthood at 18 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL - home of Personal PAC and our Abortion Friendly Illinois Government


Now here is a woman's choice gone worse thanks to the Dowagers of Planned Parenthood Illinois and Personal PAC's Boss Terry Cosgrove

A young woman has died after having a second-trimester abortion at a Chicago-area Planned Parenthood clinic. Tonya Reaves, 24, died late Friday night, according to a local CBS television station, of hemorrhage, with a cervical dilation and evacuation, according to the medical examiner’s office following an autopsy after the abortion that claimed her life.

CBS Chicago said Reaves died after the abortion she had at 18 S. Michigan Avenue Planned Parenthood facility. The woman was transported from the Loop Health Center Planned Parenthood abortion clinic to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where she was pronounced dead at 11:20 P.M.An autopsy conducted Saturday determined that she died from hemorrhage following a Dilation and Evacuation abortion. The D&E abortion method is one employed in pregnancies that have advanced beyond the first trimester. In involves opening the cervix and removing the pre-born baby by dismembering him or her. The Loop Health Center Planned Parenthood advertises abortions up to 18 weeks. (emphasis my own)

Having bought an Illinois Supreme Court Justice this last spring should but the butchers in good stead. Gov. Quinn, Boss Terry Cosgrove - you and the Dowagers own this one. No guns or bullets were involved in these homicides.


 Huge Hat Tip to Pundit and Pundette


http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/07/21/woman-dies-following-abortion-at-planned-parenthood-clinic/
http://www.punditandpundette.com/2012/07/safe-and-legal-young-woman-bleeds-out.html

Follow Me Up to Carlow - A Great Song

Memorial to the 1580 rebel Fiach McHugh O'Byrne, Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow. 

I was getting coffee this morning at the White Hen on 103rd & Artesian.  In line behind me was a young Irish painter humming a tune very familiar to me.  In fact, I played the song for years on banjo and guitar and sang it as well as my baritone allowed.  While getting change, I turned to the young man, " Great song."

" Brilliant, " said he.

The tune was a piper's aire from the 16th Century with lyrics added during the 19th Century about a defeat of Elizabethan armies at Glenmalure, in County Wicklow Ireland.  Elizabeth was ethnic-cleansing the native Irish Catholic population in order to plant good Saxon Protestant stock on Irish soil.  It never took for many reasons.  Try as well as they could the monarchs and dictators ( Cromwell & Son) of Perfidious Albion failed to stamp out the Catholic Faith in its western occupied territory and kill of the Celtic inhabitants.

The best version - Planxty -Christy Moore (vocals, acoustic guitar, bodhrán), Dónal Lunny (bouzouki, guitars), Andy Irvine (vocals, mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, hurdy-gurdy, harmonica), and Liam O'Flynn (uilleann pipes, tin whistle)

( "A fine melody to start the morning, but kindly explain the picture of a sunny shore with a palm tree that made it into the slide show presentation" ;-) Dan Kelley, Chicago attorney, wit, gad-about and spend-thrift

N.B. - Palm trees flourish in Ireland due to the gulf stream.

Lift Mac Cahir Og your face,
You're broodin' o'er the old disgrace
That Black Fitzwilliam stormed your place
and drove you to the ferns
Gray said victory was sure,
And soon the firebrand he'd secure
Until he met at Glenmalure
with Fiach McHugh O'Byrne
Chorus
Curse and swear, Lord Kildare,
Fiach will do what Fiach will dare
Now Fitzwilliam have a care,
Fallen is your star low
Up with halbert, out with sword,
on we go for, by the Lord
Fiach McHugh has given the word
"Follow me up to Carlow"
See the swords of Glen Imaal,
They're flashing o'er the English Pale
See all the childer of the Gael,
Beneath O'Byrne's banner
Rooster of the fighting stock,
Would you let a Saxon cock
Crow out upon an Irish Rock,
Fly up and teach him manners
Chorus
From Tassagart to Clonmore,
There flows a stream of Saxon gore
And great is Rory Og O'More
At sending loons to Hades
White is sick and Gray is fled,
And now for black Fitzwilliam's head
We'll send it over, dripping red
to Liza and her ladies

 http://www.planxty.ie/
http://homepage.eircom.net/~nobyrne/Feagh_McHugh_%20Forgotten_Leader.htm

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/