Life in "Progress" City - Chicago edition

Hey, you know you've got to get your murder on before school starts............

Nineteen people were shot across the South and West sides from Thursday evening through early Friday morning -- 13 of them wounded over a 30-minute period, authorities say.


The overnight shootings peaked between 9:15 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. That's when eight people, many of them teens, were shot at 79th Street and Essex Avenue about 9:30 p.m.

Then two men were wounded in the Ida B. Wells / Darrow Homes complex at about 9:25 p.m., police said. The men, 27 and 33, were shot in the 600 block of East 37th Street and taken to the University of Chicago Hospitals, police said. The younger man was shot in the head and the other in the right arm, Gaines said.

Around the same time, two other men were wounded in the arms in a drive-by shooting in the 2900 block of West 39th Place in the Brighton Park neighborhood.

  Maybe the city should consider setting up M.A.S.H. units around town.

More....

Romney "The Search"

The difference between Romney and Obama?

One wouldn't lift a finger to help an impoverished relative. The other would shut down a business to find a worker's daughter.

DNC Chair Torn To Shreds Over False Claims

Stephen Moore: We've Spent Over a Million Dollars For Each Green Job

Honor Flight photos

Some shots from our trip............

Flight with Honor

On April 29, 2004, the World War II memorial was completed in Washington DC.

In an attempt to get as many WWII vets to see the Memorial, the Honor Flight Network was established to transport these vets, free of expense, to see the Memorial as well as other memorials in their honor. Since it's getting harder and harder to find these vets, the program was expended to start bringing Korean War vets to the nation's capital.

The quote that captures the whole Honor Flight Day is this one from Will Rogers.......

We can't all be heroes. Some of us have to stand on the curb and clap as they go by.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of being a guardian on a flight from Cincinnati to DC.


A "Guardian" is a person assigned to a vet. My job was to make sure that the vet was taken care of; making sure they had taken their medications, taken to the bathrooms, making sure they were hydrated, load wheel chairs, etc.

It was a long day; I got up at 4:15 am and my head didn't hit the pillow until midnight..... but I would not trade that experience for anything.

My vet was Al. Al is now 82 and a Korean War vet. Al was originally from Cleveland so that was what his VFW buddies called him.

As Al and I went to each of the memorials, I would converse with he and the other vets. The one quality I picked up from all the guys was humility.

To talk to these guys, you would think that it was no big deal........ they simply did what they were asked to do.

It's really a stark contrast to a current pop culture that has people flaunting lack of talent and/or contribution all over reality TV shows and Youtube. Where a guy does a five minute dance for catching an eight yard out. Where there's an entire show devoted to identifying baby daddy's and the more outrageous you act, the more air time you get.

Tonight, The Gekko's will be attending a Linkin Park concert. What do you think culture shock is going to be there?

I'll post some photos of our trip when I get the chance.

But if you get a chance to help out the Honor Flight program, do it. Let's reward those who have done so much for us.

God Bless The Occupy Movement?

Life in "Progress" City - Detroit edition

Despite having no horses, the water and sewerage department for the city of Detroit employs a horseshoer. 

Yet even with a department so bloated that it has a horseshoer and no horses, the local union president said it is "not possible" to eliminate positions. 

Union rules have turned the department into a government jobs program, some critics say. 

The horseshoer’s job description is "to shoe horses and to do general blacksmith work … and to perform related work as required." The description was last updated in 1967. 

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) has a large debt, rising water prices and inefficient services — using almost twice the number of employees per gallon as other cities like Chicago.

More..........