Jerry Boyle

Tavern sign for Old Style beer, with footer: ZIMNE PIWO

As a boy growing up isolated in Irish neighborhoods, I thought Zimne Piwo was the guy who had the monopoly on taverns in Polish neighborhoods.

YouTube video by Larry Coryell - Topic Polish Reggae

This one’s always my earwig on Pulaski Day.

Was the Revolutionary War Hero Casimir Pulaski Intersex? A new Smithsonian Channel documentary may affirm long-standing suspicions about the Polish fighter’s identity

I’m conflicted about this one. On the one hand, if this was his identity, we should absolutely celebrate it. But in recent years I worry about “transvestigation” of folks with gender-ambiguous physical features.

I don’t know if it’s still true, but when I was growing up it was said Chicago had more Poles than any city outside Warsaw.
We’re an immigrant town, but immigration has always been an issue here. Each succeeding wave of immigrants faced resistance.

Street sign from the dividing line between bigotry and humanity, Showing Crawford Avenue one way, and Pulaski Road in the other.

In the suburbs, it’s still Crawford Day, the fucking bigots.

Can’t blame the Poles for doubling down with an honorary street designation on a street already officially named after Pulaski.
It took a hell of a fight to overcome prejudice against Poles to get that road named after Pulaski.

Street signs in Chicago: N Pulaski RD Honorary Casimir Pulaski Way Footer: OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR

The first Monday in March is when Illinois and Chicago observe Pulaski Day, for the Polish founder of the US Cavalry. He came here to fight the Brits in the Revolutionary War. What’s not to like?

I say better than Patrick because all he did was convert Irish to Christian, and whether that was a good thing remains controversial in some quarters of the Irish community. I’m Christian, but acknowledge the ambivalence of Patrick’s legacy.

Columbus Statue In Little Italy Park To Be Replaced By One Of Mother Cabrini, Park District Says Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint, easily won a public vote to determine a replacement for the Columbus statue that was controversially removed by the city in 2020.

A recent positive development was replacement of one of the Columbus statues. I told my Italian friends: “Do like Irish. Pick a Saint, a good one, and you’ll never regret it.”
Mother Cabrini is a beloved figure here, a champion of the poor and oppressed, even better than Patrick.
I voted for her. 🙏

It was unfortunate that, just as Italian immigrants here were struggling to gain acceptance, the politics back home in Italy were fascist. So an Italian fascist aviator, Italian Balbo, landed in Chicago to much fanfare. That was before WW II broke out, of course. Doh!

It’s so controversial it was moved to an obscure corner of the campus of our Police Memorial, perhaps the most heavily-surveilled piece of real estate in town. Cops didn’t object to having a fascist monument with their memorial. I wonder why?

Yes, we have a monument to an Italian fascist. We have a short street named after him too. Mistakes made by the Italian community here back in the day, like the Columbus statues (since removed.) 🤷‍♂️

Balbo Monument in Chicago, a Roman column on a plinth

Please, Iran, if you're forced to retaliate in the US, leave the Balbo Monument alone.
That's the Balbo Monument, Lakefront Trail, Chicago, 41.8615° N, 87.6136° W, right behind our Police Memorial, 41.8827° N,
87.6630° W.

“The peace of the dead is dearer than gold, no one can rob you.” — Jeffers

Judging by the head count, I’m guessing they’d prefer Larijani as the devil they know. But that’s betting on two wild cards, one institutional, the other personal.
It’s risky af, odds aren’t good.
It’s why the use of force should be constrained.

Screenshot of front page. SUN TIMES MARCH 1 2026 KHAMENEI KILLED Iran's supreme leader is dead following major attack by U.S. and Israeli forces a COMPLETE COVERAGE, PAGES 28-11 IN CHICAGO: PROTESTERS CONDEMN ATTACK: WAR IS NOT THE SOLUTION

The Head Of State Doctrine, making it a crime to kill a head of state, is founded upon ruthless pragmatism, not morality. Better the devil you know. . .

My Irish eyes trick me, make me read ‘BRITISH’ for ‘BRUTISH” 😜

“The individual mirrors in his individuation the preordained social laws of exploitation, however mediated.”
— Adorno

Schumer looking asleep/dead. “If Chuck Schumer were alive this attack on Iran wouldn’t have happened.”

Be careful what you wish for. This choice should be up to the Iranian people, not the US government, which has its own agenda.

People wore paper bags over their heads at protests so they wouldn’t get ID’d and attacked, or their families back home tortured.
You’d better believe I supported them.
But, though leftists and bourgeoisie provoked the revolution, religious reactionaries ended up in charge.

You never know what will come of regime change. I was young, but remember the stream of leftist refugees we got under the Shah. Savak, the secret police, followed them here with permission from the US government.

Trump gets that. Hit ‘em from every angle, all at once. See what sticks, and keep hitting. Swarms are stronger than flying columns.

It’s not an either/or. It’s both, and lots of other things too.

“No, you’re right. US military doesn’t belong in that part of the world. That’s what we’re for.”

So I did a sanity check, made a call to a guy who was retired Israeli military: “Everyone’s saying invading Iraq is illegal and immoral, but I’m saying it’s stupid. Am I fuckin’ nuts?”

I think of the run-up to the Iraq War. Everyone was denouncing it as illegal and wrong, and they were right. But the bad guys take legal and moral constraints as dares to be taken.
So I was denouncing the war as stupid. But that registered with no one, right or left. I doubted my sanity.

Before those Nazis got tried at Nuremberg, they lost a war they never should have started, and their people suffered horribly for it. Stupid.

Operation Epic Furry