BEST OF THE "GOOD 'OL GOOD ONES"

Although expected, I was still shocked and saddened by the death Thursday, of 85 year old Chicago jazz DJ Dick Buckley. I invested a couple thousand hours or so of my life's journey listening to his magnificent deep voice spin the stories behind the jazz legends of his youth just as he spun the turntable calling forth from fifty to eighty years ago the three minute masterpieces that have yet to be equaled by today's aspiring jazz giants.

He started each program proclaiming he would swing out for us jazz fanatics the "good 'ol good ones", borrowing that phrase from "Pops", Louis Armstrong, who used it in every live appearance. Buckley ended each show with a simple one word sign off that summed up his life and the gift he gave us - "Happiness".

Also published in Chicago Tribune, July 26, 2010

HEART PUMP EXTENDS LIFE...MAY ENABLE PERP WALK

As a former Vice President, Dick Cheney is fortunate to have about the best health care plan any American can have, something he and his party worked tirelessly to forestall granting even a portion of which to over 30 million of their fellow Americans.

With five heart attacks on his resume, Cheney has tapped into his Rolls Royce health care plan for well over a cool million, including the $100,000 experimental heart pump he just received that will keep him going long enough to decide on a possible heart transplant.

Since he also has war crimes on his resume, Cheney's good medical fortune should inspire legal authorities to pursue war crime charges against him for his vicious campaign of lies, propaganda, intimidation and fear tactics used to instigate his criminal war in Iraq seven years ago. He can't use the imminent specter of the grim reaper to discourage his would be prosecutors. In fact, his new heart pump is so efficient Cheney will have plenty of stamina to survive the perp walk he has so richly earned.