Motley Moose – Archive

Everywhere I turn it seems Rush Limbaugh is. Much as I try and avoid the inanity, he is everywhere.  Say for instance even today, I was reading an article about Michael J. Fox and Parkinsons’s disease, and wouldn’t you know it…

I am still trying to keep up with the tubes, but will be going off line for the most part after next week, and am not sure when I will be back on at full capacity. I apparently can surf the net on my phone and hope to keep in touch that way, but the Daily Tubes may have to take a hiatus after this next week.

We are moving, and I expect that activity to consume all of my time for the immediate future. On the bright side, the move will be good once it is over. I realized that I have moved more times than I care to count. My family and I moved at least 10 times by my 18th birthday. Suffice it to say I am tired of relocating and hope to stay in our new home for a very long time.

Friday April 10, 2009 in 100 seconds.

Shaft! You’re damn right.

Thursday April 9, 2009 in 100 seconds.

Ahoy matey, please don’t give Pat and that other guy guns. Gotta love the armchair analysis. Do they ever get ashamed of being wrong so much?

Wednesday April 8, 2009 in 100 seconds.

So very true. Join my cult and we can all rule the world together.

During the Reagan years, I dated a woman that had two children from a previous marriage.  They adopted a cat and went through this lengthy process of naming the animal.  I really didn’t want to get involved, so I figured that I would offer a suggestion so bad that they’d just leave me alone.

“How about Separation of Church and State” I said.

Crickets.

(Cross-posted at The National Gadfly)

The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

On January 1, 2007, Yale Law School professor Heather Gerken  published a widely read article in the LegalTimes entitled, “How Does Your State Rank on The Democracy Index.” Gerken argued that just as the Environmental Performance Index (“EPI”) shamed countries such as Belgium to upgrade their environmental practices, a “Democracy Index” would embarrass state and localities into reforming their electoral administration through competition.

Since Bush vs. Gore in 2000, the debate about electoral reform has been dominated by anecdotes and overheated abstractions. Liberals like me have long suspected that states such as Ohio and Florida were deliberately disenfranchising minority voters sympathetic to Democratic candidates. Conservatives complained that voter fraud and urban political machines were allowing ineligible voters to cast ballots at the expense of Republican candidates. With her article, Gerken contended that a Democracy Index would replace a debate dominated by shouting with data driven arguments instead:

Quite simply when people are put in a situation where they are not only starving but are sick because of the dumping of TOXIC NUCLEAR WASTE, you get people doing what they can to survive while other countries have no disregard for their life, much less welfare. In the case of Somalia PIRATES–which I am not defending in any way–only one can imagine what you would do if you were forced to live in desperate conditions and your neighbors dumped nuclear waste started killing you and you fellow citizens.

Excerpt below from UNITED NATIONS REPORT:

Somalia is one of the many Least Developed Countries that reportedly received countless shipments of illegal nuclear and toxic waste dumped along the coastline. Starting from the early 1980s and continuing into the civil war, the hazardous waste dumped along Somalia’s coast comprised uranium radioactive waste, lead, cadmium, mercury, industrial, hospital, chemical, leather treatment and other toxic waste. Most of the waste was simply dumped on the beaches in containers and disposable leaking barrels which ranged from small to big tanks without regard to the health of the local population and any environmentally devastating impacts.

The baby didn’t cry this time; apparently, giant anthropomorphic rabbits aren’t as threatening as old fat men with white beards and red pajamas.

I hope that everyone, regardless of their religious beliefs, is enjoying today- be it with friends, family, or even a day to yourself. God Bless you and yours, and thank you for the friendship and community we have built here at The Motley Moose.

Over 10 years ago, Scott Simon and the public tv folk did a documentary on “voluntary simplicity”, living on only what is necessary, avoiding excess consumption, reducing stress and actually becoming “anti-materialistic.” They ran it again on the Documentary Channel this afternoon and it really caught my attention.

Here, in our economic pothole, with a government trying to restore the high debt spending system supported by banks, investment houses, auto manufacturers and most of the world’s producers of necessary and unnecessary products, we are all trying to get by from day to day with jobs disappearing and income tightening up.

Living a more simplified life in West Virginia is where Elly and I started heading before the blowout of the markets. It is somewhat less expensive here and the community has just about everything we need to survive as long as we can keep ma job. Elly’s teaching position is fairly secure (mine, however, never was and is about to end — leaving me back at freelancing in the web market… and fortunately I found my first local client on my initial entry into the market. One more account and I will be better off than I was teaching and have more control of my own time.)

The Farmer’s Market has started again for the season, giving us access to fresh, mostly organic produce tied to the season. We participate in the Town recycling pickup every Tuesday morning (although I don’t know where the plastic goes… hopefully not to landfills where they just add to the mess, but into new products or insulation or fabrics[?]… I saw an ad for men’s suits made of a recycled plastic fabric!) We garden in our back yard, eat what we grow and have very good grocery stores with new organic food departments springing up all over.

Intellectual stimulation comes through Community Theatre (now I’m involved with Full Circle and really enjoying it) and the free Friday night film society.

And we could still simplify our lives some more. The next year will be an interesting experiment.

Under The LobsterScope

Read an article in the Chicago Tribune this morning that piqued my curiosity.

Gay marriage: Much-maligned Midwest surprisingly surprising Iowa has a history of progressive politics, some say, especially when it comes to equality

I give Kudos to Iowa for legalizing gay marriage, but realized that I was totally unaware of Iowa’s legal track record.  

The article taught me a history lesson, and smacked me in my East Coast chauvanist face.

TEMPE, ARIZONA – Arizona State University President Michael Crow is saying that ASU will “honor President Obama in every way” just two days after student journalist Adam Sneed broke the story that Arizona State University (ASU) would not be conferring the customary honorary degree on President Barack Obama when he gives the commencement speech in May.

In a process that many consider a racket, universities typically confer an honorary degree on commencement speakers. When Sneed heard through the grapevine that ASU did not intend to bestow that honor on the President of the United States, he knew he had a story. He just didn’t know how big. He says university staff were very helpful when he went looking for details, adding, “I just don’t think any of us anticipated it getting this much attention!”

(Crossposted from the Huffington Post)

(cross posted at kickin it with cg)

Billy Bob Thornton, in perhaps one of the most entertaining moments in recent memory has become a viral hit.  The interview took place on Wednesday in Toronto on the Canadian Broadcast Corporation’s radio show “Q.”

In other news, the don’t-call-me-actor and his band the Boxmasters were loudly booed on Thursday at Toronto’s Massey Hall while opening for Willie Nelson. “Boo all you want, but I want to say something…. We’re really happy to be here, but I need to say something. I talked to this asshole yesterday,” Thornton told the crowd according to the Toronto Star.