THE MAN WAS A SAINT

Surnames are received, not chosen, and it’s a measure of sophistication to not get too excited about unusual last names.

Some bloggers express amusement at my Supervisor’s name, Ed Jew. Sophisticated people know that Jew is a common Chinese surname.

Sometimes, though, we have to notice.

I once came across a software marketing type, a woman, named Death, Joyce Death, or something. She pronounced it “deeth,” rhymes with grit your teeth.

I tend to notice Dickensian names, like the congressman named Swindell (second syllable gets the accent).

Today, thanks to my weird interest in the Jesuits, I came across the most remarkably Dickensian name ever: Father John Hardon, S.J.

(Click on the pic for a bio.)

See the RenewAmerica story about a sainthood bid for the late Jesuit.

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WHEN FATHER IS A FATHER

Jesuit priest refuses to pay child support. Pleads poverty.

Joke, right? Nope. Look at the sordid mess in the latest post, FATHER DEADBEAT, S.J., on the scintillating new blog Jesuit Watch.

It’s pretty humorous actually—an organization that vows solemn celibacy having to deal with child support issues.

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WHERE DID ALL THE STRAIGHT PRIESTS GO?

In San Francisco many straight women complain about the shortage of straight men. Imagine the plight of women who are attracted to Catholic priests!

It’s difficult to get a straight man to be a priest. Hell, it’s hard to get a straight man to play one on TV.

Ever wonder why so many Catholic priests are creepy?

Sfwillie breaks it down for you in Celibacy Math, his latest post in the sensational new blog, Jesuit Watch. Check it out.

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ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

San Francisco's St Ignatius High School (SI), now called a college prep, is part of a not so secret plan to rule the world.

Conceived in the renaissance as a way to increase and perpetuate the power of the infamous Borgia family, this plan is code named Society of Jesus, or Jesuits for short.

This, and other themes Loyolan will be explored in the new blog Jesuit Watch, a second offspring of the sfwillie/Pudinhand Wilson mosh.

SI certainly has it’s hooks into San Francisco’s power structure. We SF political junkies should remember that we’re only a small part of the overall (Jesuit) scheme of things.

Visitors to Jesuit Watch will learn that the Company (the Society’s original, more ominous name) is also educating the offpring of Wheeling, West Virginia’s ruling class. And many bright kids in between.

We’ve had two more SI alumni in the news:

Lt Governor Leo McCarthy, died recently. He was an SI grad, 1942. Mr McCarthy is pictured below in the most recent issue of SI’s Alumni Mag, Genesis.

Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House of Representatives, her husband, Paul Pelosi is an SI grad, 1958. According to wikipedia, Paul supplied the money.

BTW: Mr Pelosi graduated the same year as Jerry Brown, formerly a two term California governor, presidential candidate, mayor of Oakland, and now State Attorney General.

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Alumni Notes: KEVIN SHELLEY

The ops center for SFWILLIE’S BLOG is located in the southwest corner of San Francisco. In the past fifty years the population here has gone from 100% white lower middle class to about 50% Asian.

The most racist statement I’ve ever heard uttered by a person in authority came from a multiply-indicted Asian resident of my district, Julie Lee.

She was in the news again yesterday regarding some additional suspicious invoices she sent on an SF city contract.

When Julie Lee was first caught, three years ago, in an elaborate State of CA contracting and kickback fraud, her initial response was the race card.

She said that white people just don’t understand how Chinese people do business.

Say what?

Bribery, lying, and fraud are how Chinese do business? And it’s racist for white people not to understand and accept that?

Ms Lee probably also figured that, since she was ripping off her own Chinese people, white people had no business poking their noses.

Here’s how it allegedly worked.

A State Legislator from this district, Kevin Shelley, pushed for a half-million dollar state grant for a non-profit headed by Julie Lee, to set up an Asian immigrant assistance center out here in the avenues.

Julie Lee got the money but the center was never set up.

A large portion of the State money was kicked back to Kevin Shelley, the legislator who pushed for the grant, through campaign donations laundered in fraudulent real estate deals.

Ms Lee has court dates with the State, and with the Feds.

During that time, Ms Lee sat on San Francisco’s Housing Authority board, which administers federal housing assistance dollars, an appointee of that supreme race card shark, Willie Brown.

This sordid story never appeared in Genesis, St Ignatius High School’s quarterly clay paper alumni fund raising mag.

Besides acknowledging and encouraging donations, Genesis touts success stories of current and past Ignatians. This glorification of pagan worldly success is leavened by stories of student social service and a little bit of Jesus bs.

Kevin Shelley is a graduate of St Ignatius. The Keeping in Touch section of Genesis has noted the steps in his political ascendancy—Board of Supervisors, State Assembly, Secretary of State.

Kevin Shelley is the son of former San Francisco mayor Jack Shelley, himself an abject Democratic hack.

So Kevin Shelley got caught accepting some of the proceeds of Julie Lee’s fraud. He claimed ignorance. High paid, yeah. But ignorant. Here’s a good summary from the Chronicle.

Maybe there really is some racism here. Julie Lee is facing trials on multiple felonies. Kevin Shelley was forced to resign a Secretary of State, not for the Julie Lee deal, but for much vaguer reasons. As the shit was flying, members of Shelley’s staff came forward saying he was an extremely abusive boss. It looked like they were going to rat him out on innumerable petty improprieties, so he resigned.

Wiki says he’s currently practicing law. I’m sure he’s practicing something.

Another fine product of Jesuit education!

[Julie Lee photo Paul Chinn, Chronicle]

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THE DRAFT: MY CHOICE

I was at the tail end, agewise, of my grade in school, so I didn’t have to register for the draft, when I turned eighteen, until I was a freshman in college.

I pretty much had decided not to register.

The war in Vietnam was a horrible crime. The Selective Service System was part of the armed services and I was required, morally, to resist it.

In hindsight I was correct. But friends, especially a former teacher at St Ignatius, Mr McCurdy, S. J., worked hard to convince me to do otherwise.

McCurdy’s argument was duty to my parents.

If I resisted the draft I’d be convicted of a felony, go to jail, and have my future prospects ruined (I think by “future prospects” he was referring to financial success). This would cause extreme pain to my parents.

So, McCurdy argued, did I have the right to inflict such pain on my folks, based upon a seventeen-year-old’s undeveloped world view? My opinions might be subject to change but the consequences of a federal felony conviction would be permanent.

If it were only my own feelings involved, McCurdy said, the decision would be different.

Another part of McCurdy’s argument was that cooperating with the draft wasn’t as bad as participating in the war itself. Plus, I could apply for conscientious objector status and, if granted, I’d never be asked to join the military anyway.

If I failed to get CO status, and if my student deferment ran out and I actually received an order-to-report, then would be the time when I maybe might have to make a moral decision.

Looking back on it, McCurdy never mentioned, not once, the feelings of the people of Vietnam, or prospects they might have for a successful future. Also, I’d bet money that Mr McCurdy S.J. never applied the same scrutiny to my peers who chose to go over their and do some killing.

Richard McCurdy, S.J. had a kind of beatnik persona. He was a little eccentric and artsy—a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

A few years later I received in the mail a “holy card” announcing now “Father” McCurdy’s ordination. On it he wrote, “Willie, I love you.”

For a moment I thought, Is this sexual?

Of course not. It was simply an expression of the overflowing agape he felt.

Still, it made me feel a little creepy.

I tore it in half and tossed it.

Only recently do I understand that McCurdy was just trying to protect St Ignatius High School’s investment in me. They had provided me an excellent education, and they expected in return that I would become successful and would use the power and influence I might accrue to protect and further the interests of the Jesuits.

Absolutely shameful.

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"EVERYBODY DOES IT"

It looks like the people responsible for raising and educating the perps in San Francisco’s shameful Gleegate attack are resorting to the world’s most pathetic defense: everybody does it.

A defense attorney hired by alleged perp parents refers to a “mutual brawl,” as if mutual brawling is SOP. Like, oh yeah, it was one of them mutual brawls.

Yesterday’s Chronicle article quoted a spokesperson for St Ignatius High School, Paul Totah, as saying, “Teenage boys all across America get into fights. That’s natural, though unfortunate.”

Isn’t it strange that the Jesuit fathers of St Ignatius would have a lay person, an English teacher, fronting for them on an important issue of public morality. Also, since the alleged perps are not from St Ignatius, it’s interesting that SI would come to their defense.

The Jesuits publish their own guide to English usage (the Brown Beast) which contains a section titled COMMON FALLACIES AND THEIR REFUTATIONS.

Mr Totah’s statement (besides being incredibly sexist) is an argument from common practice, a variant of the “Argument from Common Knowledge.” As the Brown Beast says, this argument is the easiest to refute—one simply states one’s own disagreement.

So, when someone says, “Everyone loved Ronald Reagan,” I can prove that assertion to be false simply by stating my own opinion, that the man was a scumbag.

And, when Mr Paul Totah tells us that all teenage boys do a little curb-stomping, I can personally refute that one. Sfwillie is no saint, sfwillie has much that he’s ashamed of, but sfwillie has never kicked anyone in the head when they were lying on the pavement.

If you exclude pre-pubertal stuff, I would aver that less than 3% of adult American males have ever been in a serious fistfight.

There are and always have been a certain small percentage of teenage boys who find physical intimidation useful, or who actually enjoy fighting.

OJ Simpson tells stories about his street fighting when growing up in San Francisco as a form of amusement. Interestingly, St Ignatius had a basketball star at the same time, who also had a reputation for brutal street fighting.

We’d be at a teen club dance on a Friday night and kids would come in all excited with accounts of how this basketball star nearly killed a guy, stomping his head on a curb. Poor kid, he was socially awkward, and the best he ever did was warm a couple of NBA benches.

So I refute Mr Totah’s assertion. Very few teenage boys get into fights. We’re talking about bullies, not normal teenagers.

I wonder what an actual Jesuit priest would have to say about this.

Pud thinks the administrators of Sacred Heart and SI should come off the defensive and put a positive spin on the situation. Something like, “Catholic Education: Keeping our city safe from visiting choirboys.”

Saint Francis looks a little sad.

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