Friday, November 22, 2013

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY; BLOG NUMBER 106; NOV 22, 2013




THE MESSAGE:   Remembrance day should be every day. Take the time to remember those less fortunate.


THE GOOD!

A POEM WORTH READING

He was getting old and paunchy
 And his hair was falling fast, 
And he sat around the Legion,
Telling stories of the past.


Of a war that he once fought in 
And the deeds that he had done,
In his exploits with his buddies;
They were heroes, every one.



And 'tho sometimes to his neighbours 
His tales became a joke,
All his buddies listened quietly 
For they knew where of he spoke.



But we'll hear his tales no longer,
For ol' Joe has passed away, 
And the world's a little poorer 
For a Veteran died today.




He won't be mourned by many,
Just his children and his wife.
 For he lived an ordinary,
Very quiet sort of life.



He held a job and raised a family,
 Going quietly on his way;
 And the world won't note his passing,
'Tho a Veteran died today.





He was just a common Veteran,
And his ranks are growing thin,
But his presence should remind us
 We may need his likes again.




For when countries are in conflict, 
We find the Veteran's part,
 Is to clean up all the troubles
 That the politicians start.



If we cannot do him honour 
While he's here to hear the praise,
Then at least let's give him homage 
At the ending of his days.



Perhaps just a simple headline
 In the paper that might say: 
"OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING,
 A VETERAN DIED TODAY."




IRENA SENDLER

Died: May 12, 2008 (aged 98)
Warsaw , Poland

During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive.

Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried. She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids.





Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking which covered the kids/infants noises.  During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.


Ultimately, she was caught, however, and the Nazi's broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out, in a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family.

Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. 

Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming. SERIOUSLY?




JACK DONOHUE  (AMERICAN BORN, CANADIAN AT HEART )

Birth: New York, New York, June 4, 1931  
Died: April 16, 2003


For his coaching and teaching abilities and achievements, Donohue received many honours including the King Clancy Award for his work with the disabled, election to the New York City, Canadian, and Ontario Basketball Halls of Fame and, of course, induction into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame.


Jack Donohue coached the Canadian Men's Basketball team for 17 years . Jack was an unselfish and dedicated man who always worked so effectively with his assistant coaches and players. He was knowledgable, genuine and thorough in preparing the Canadian Team for International competition. His most famous attribute was insisting that his charges believe in their dreams. He would introduce most team practices by stressing this concept.



Donohue’s greatest contribution was his philosophy with respect to rounding out one’s playing with concentrated effort on living life off the court as an exemplary human being – that playing was only one part of a fulfilled life. In his words, “You can only be a good basketball player for a certain amount of time. You can be a good person for the rest of your life.”



Jack Donohue set a goal early in life and worked hard to achieve it. He toiled as an assistant coach in basketball while a student at Fordham University, and by the age of 20 he knew he wanted to be a coach for life. Following his undergraduate degree in economics, Donohue attended New York University, earning a Master’s Degree in health education. He was ready to begin his coaching career, but as happened in those days, Uncle Sam had other ideas. He spent two years in the U.S. Army stationed in Korea working on tanks in the Korean conflict.


When he returned to the U.S. in 1954, he started his teaching career at St. Luke’s Episcopal primary school in New York but transferred a year later to St. Nicholas of Tolentine High School where he had the opportunity to coach basketball. He remained at the school for five years, developing his unique approach to coaching that gave his players lessons in life as well as basketball. This served him in good stead when he moved to Power Memorial High School in Manhattan. It was here that he had the good fortune to coach a young player named Lew Alcindor, who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 


Donohue was able to guide the young superstar through his formative years, keeping him focused on becoming as good a person as he was a player. The results were outstanding.



This success earned Donohue an opportunity to become the head coach of Holy Cross University, a Division One school in Worcester, Massachusetts. During his career at Holy Cross, Donohue amassed a record of 106 wins against 66 losses. He was twice named NCAA Division One coach of the year.

In 1972, Basketball Canada was searching for a coach who could elevate the country’s basketball program to a world-class level. Donohue, who jokingly referred to himself as “The total loss from Holy Cross,” was the choice, and he did not disappoint. His coaching record through the next 17 years was outstanding – and, incidentally, the longest coaching tenure in amateur or professional Canadian sports.

Two years after taking over the program, Canada finished 8th at the World Championship. In 1975, it placed 6th at the Pan-American Games. His magic continued at the Montreal Olympics in 1976 with a 4th place finish. He added three more fourth-place finishes in international tournaments, then in 1983 Canada won the gold medal at the World University Games in Edmonton, defeating the United States in the semi-final and Yugoslavia in the final. The program had steadily reached its potential.


In the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Canada again finished 4th , captured a bronze medal at the 1985 World University Games, and finished 6th in Donohue’s final tournament before retirement after the 1988 Olympics.

In 1994, he co-chaired the World Cup of wheelchair basketball with another Canadian icon, Rick Hansen, in Edmonton. Donahue held impromptu basketball clinics outside of Skyreach Centre during mid-afternoons so anybody—regardless of size, age, or talent-could enjoy the game he so dearly loved.In 2004, Jack was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.  During that same year the Jack Donohue Public School was founded in Kanata, Ontario under the administration of the Ottawa Carlton District School Board. 


THE BAD!

MAYORS OF THE WORLD
Why are mayors causing so much trouble?


1. Peter Davies, a retired schoolteacher who was recently elected mayor of Doncaster, believes the UK should learn lessons in family values from the Taliban – saying they encourage order and enjoy decent "family affairs".



2. Two Mayors in Arkansas are facing charges after being accused of helping themselves to the town treasury.
3.  D.C.’s Crackhead Mayor Marion Barry served four terms as mayor before getting convicted on drug charges and serving jail time. He’s also pleaded guilty in federal court for failing to pay city and federal taxes and got in trouble for stalking an ex-girlfriend nearly half his age.

4. Lawrence Massachusetts Mayor, William Lantigua, is being sued for allegedly accepting several thousands of dollars in potentially illegal cash and corporate contributions.




5. Pennsylvania's big-city mayors have trouble with the law. There's a running bet among politics junkies across the state. Winning it requires the correct answer to this question: Who gets indicted first, Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy or Philadelphia Mayor John Street?


MEANWHILE IN CANADA....


1. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford



His follies, rants, abuses, denials, lies and apologies  have garnered global attention, 


Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion’s  reputation is damaged by conflict of interest charges. 



2. Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum 
Relinquished his office, setting off another search for a civic leader to steer a dispirited and embattled city through turmoil.

Standing in the same marble Hall of Honour where former mayor Gérald Tremblay resigned in disgrace only seven months ago, Mr. Applebaum announced he would step down to devote himself to fighting the raft of criminal charges announced Monday by provincial anti-corruption police.

News that Mayor Michael Applebaum, the city’s self professed Mr. Clean, was arrested and accused of offering political favours to real estate promoters to pocket or to funnel to an acquaintance a couple of thousand dollars dumbfounded Montrealers. After months of revelations on the collusion between top civil servants and engineering and construction firms, taxpayers thought they had seen it all.
3. Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz
is being sued by WOW Hospitality for allegedly breaching management and concessions contracts signed in 2000 and 2003. That's on top of Katz's existing charges of conflict-of-interest. Sam Katz's legal team had offered Joe Chan, a Winnipeg restaurant owner, a settlement in a conflict of interest case that he was pursuing against the mayor. Chan, who rejected the settlement offer, alleges that Katz used $2,900 of public money in 2011 to throw Christmas parties for city staff at a restaurant that the mayor owned at the time. If Katz is found guilty, he could be removed from office.


BACK IN THE USA...


The State of Wisconsin is making news lately as not one but TWO of mayors from the fair cheese state are currently making waves for being public drunkards. 


Mayor Bob Ryan from Sheboygan is under fire after having his own little “lost weekend” at the taverns in Elkhart Lake. Ryan apparently was making “sexual comments about a relative” on his cell phone, got into a fight with someone and then passed out at the bar. When he came to he did the most sensible thing he could – absolutely refuse to step down whatsoever, much to the chagrin of the city council who are considering asking for his resignation.


“Alcohol has never affected the way I do my job. Alcohol has affected my personal life greatly,” said Ryan. “I have never walked into a city meeting or council meeting under the influence of alcohol.”



On his three day binge Ryan says, “Did I pass out on a bar? Yes I did. I’ll admit that. Was I in a scuffle? Yes. Did I start it? No, I did not.” SERIOUSLY?





Mayor Robert Harbick,  Marinette Wisconsin.  City council members are hiring two different lawyers to oversee the case against Harbick who was busted for drunk driving on July 2nd after crashing his car into a light pole with a BAC three times the legal limit. Dorothy Kowalski, a long time Marinette resident filed the complaint alleging that the Mayor also struck a deputy with his car.



“I don’t trust him. I don’t think he’s a good representative for our community, and regardless of how much time he has left in office I guess at this point that’s not what’s important. He needs to go,” Kowalski said. The hearing is set to begin soon and could end up costing Harbick his job. Some critics note however that Harbick is already not seeking re-election after his term ends in April and that the hiring of attorneys to try the case is costing the city a lot of money.



SAN DIEGO
Mayor Bob Filner
Democratic Party bosses and elected officials from San Diego County planned to meet to decide whether to urge the embattled mayor to resign over allegations that he sexually harassed a former aide and at least two other women.

Since then, three women have come forward to publicly accuse the 70-year-old former congressman of making unwanted sexual advances and lewd comments to them, starting with a former press secretary who brought a sexual harassment suit against him.

KAMPALA, UGANDA - 

Erias Lukwago

The mayor of Uganda's capital has locked horns with the country's powerful, long-serving president.

A government tribunal declared Lukwago, whose title is lord mayor of Kampala, guilty of abuse of office, incompetence and misconduct. He faces being kicked out office.


The government tribunal was set up in May after local leaders wrote a petition seeking Lukwago's removal from office. Lukwago stood accused of inciting the public against payment of taxes, failure to convene meetings and to sign committee reports, and disobeying administrative directives.

THE UGLY!

CHILD MOLESTING PRIESTS

1. Eric Dejaeger,

A Former Roman Catholic priest, goes on trial for multiple sex-related charges involving Inuit children in a tiny arctic hamlet nearly 18 years after he fled to his homeland of Belgium to avoid prosecution.



He has pleaded not guilty to 76 sex-related charges and will be tried by a judge alone. The charges involve 41 complainants and 26 people from the hamlet of Igloolik on the Melville Peninsula are expected to testify.



Dejaeger was returned to Canada from Belgium in January 2011 for an immigration violation rather than on an extradition order. A Belgian journalist realized that Dejaeger had lost his Belgian citizenship in 1977 when he became a naturalized Canadian. He was kicked out because he had been living in Belgium since 1995 without a visa.



The charges against Dejaeger include allegations from February 1995 when he was originally charged with three counts of indecent assault and three counts of buggery, a charge no longer in the Criminal Code. They relate to his time as a priest in Igloolik between 1978 and 1982, where he was sent to serve the indigenous community by the Belgian Oblates, an order of Catholic priests.



In 1995, Dejaeger had just completed a five-year sentence, most of it served in a halfway house and on probation, on 11 counts of sexual assault and indecent assault against children in Baker Lake, where he was posted after serving in Igloolik in what is now Nunavut Province. He was scheduled to return to court on the Igloolik charges on June 13, 1995, but never showed up. By then, he was in Europe.
A top official of the Oblate order, Georges Vervust, alleged in a Belgian documentary that Canadian officials quietly allowed Dejaeger to leave the country.  "What I have heard is that he got advice from people from the Justice Department, off the record, that he should leave," Vervust said in the Belgian documentary.


He confirmed his comments to The Canadian Press. In an email to The Canadian Press, Vervust said: "I heard that Eric was told — off the record — to leave Canada by some persons of the police and his lawyer and some Oblates.


2. Ruben Martinez, a Catholic priest admitted to a psychiatrist he had molested more than 100 boys, including his 5-year-old brother, had sex with male prostitutes and visited gay strip clubs while serving in a Californian parish for years, according to explosive documents released overnight. 

His vile confessions are among nearly 2,000 pages of secret church documents on a dozen religious order priests, brothers and nuns accused of sexually abusing children while working in the Los Angeles archdiocese over several decades.

The papers, released under the terms of a $660 million settlement agreement reached in 2007, are the first glimpse at what religious orders knew about the men and women they posted in Roman Catholic schools and parishes around LA.

The LA archdiocese settled eight lawsuits over Martinez's actions in 2007, but had little documentation on him in its own files even though the priest worked in its parishes for years in the 1970s and 1980s.

However, his order file includes graphic details described in therapy notes and psychiatric evaluations. It also reveals the years of effort — and tens of thousands of dollars — the Oblates spent trying to cure him of his self-admitted pedophilia as it shuttled him between programs, including inpatient treatment.

In 1965, Martinez took his final vows for a religious order called the U.S. Province of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a nearly 200-year-old Catholic organization with roots in France. In 1969, he was ordained as a priest and assigned by his order to a small parish in Brawley, Caliornia.

In 2003, after a decade in at the order's California headquarters, Martinez was moved to the Oblates' offices in Washington, D.C., where he worked answering phones and in the archives. There, his files show, he was reprimanded for making off-colour  sexual jokes that offended several women and, later, for looking at sexually suggestive pictures of young boys on the Internet.
Archbishop of Los Angeles Archdiocese Cardinal Mahony (left),
QUESTION:   WHO ASSASSINATED JESSE JAMES?

MUSICAL QUOTE:
...."and I feel like a bullet in the gun of Robert Ford" -ELTON JOHN

LEMONS TO: 


THE ROBERT FORDS: 

THE FIRST BETRAYER NAMED FORD (ROBERT) was a member of the James Gang. He betrayed Jesse James by shooting him in the back to collect the reward money.



THE SECOND BETRAYER NAMED FORD (ROBERT) is the mayor of Toronto. He betrayed the City by using 'Crack' while in office.

CLIP OF THE WEEK:






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