In the 1987 movie “The Untouchables,” Sean Connery’s character, Officer James Malone, gives a brief, but to-the-point lesson to Federal Agent Elliott Ness:

They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That’s* the *Chicago* way!

It’s with a bit of twisted pride that I tell you that most Chicagoans know that “way” by the time they’re 16.  It’s kind of built in.  You either learn it, or you wind up in serious hurt.  I know, outside of Chicago it seems almost psychotic.  I keep telling people, there’s a reason why I retired out West.  There’s an inherent psychosis that goes along with living in a city that has a million plus population.  You seriously don’t KNOW you’re crazy until you get out of it.  And then you kind of look back and shiver, thankful that you made it out alive and un-indicted.

John Kass in today’s Chicago Tribune, tries to explain to the rest of the country why Governor Blagojevich isn’t crazy, he’s just a Chicago Machine Politician.  I’m not even going to try to excerpt it, it’s too funny/sad/true to cut up.  Just go read the whole thing.  And no, I don’t agree with him, I think they’re all nucking futs (sic), I don’t care how good the pizza is.