Motley Moose – Archive

I just heard Representative David Dreier, Republican of California and Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, say that the $50 Million in the Stimulus Bill allotted to the National Endowment for the Arts was “not stimulative.”

I have to take issue here, and, as an example, I will point to my little village of Shepherdstown, West Virginia (at the last census with a population of 800). We’re about an hour and a half from Washington DC or an hour from Baltimore, and our local Shepherd University is the home of a wonderful arts event, The Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) which will enter its nineteenth season this year.

Inspired by ItStands’ diary on the dangers of entitlement (among the super rich), I thought it might be worth exploring the nuances of American self-help ethic from the other side of the Atlantic with the help of some eye candy…

This pic is not entirely gratuitous. Two issues in the news (and hot topics on the Moose) actually help to illuminate where self help ends and subsidy or support begins: the success of British Theatre and USTV drama.

In response to the “public” outcry from some of my fellow left-leaning bloggers, I am now reporting on my extensive investigation of the Bush administration and their tactics from 2001-2009.

I am not amused.  

Saw this story and it gave me pause over my morning coffee yesterday.

PETA dresses in KKK garb outside Westminster Dog Show

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals knows how to grab attention. And show off its laundry.

The animal rights group, which every year stages a protest at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, had two of its members dress in Ku Klux Klan garb outside Madison Square Garden on Monday.

Their goal, according to a post on the PETA website, was to draw a parallel between the KKK and the American Kennel Club. “Obviously it’s an uncomfortable comparison,” PETA spokesman Michael McGraw told the Associated Press.

But the AKC is trying to create a “master race” when it comes to pure-bred dogs, he added. “It’s a very apt comparison.”

The group passed out brochures implying the Klan and AKC have the goal of “pure bloodlines” in common.

N’en déplaise à ces fous nommés sages de Grèce,

En ce monde il n’est point de parfaite sagesse;

Tous les hommes sont fous, et malgré tous leurs soîns

Ne diffèrent entre eux que du plus ou du moins.

– BOILEAU

Whatever these crazy appointed sages of Greece,

In this world there is no perfect wisdom;

All men are mad, and despite all their care

Differ among themselves as more or less.

So reads the somewhat cynical inscription to Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, written in 1841 by Charles Mackay.  It was a book about bubbles.  The first two chapters are about financial bubbles.

Cross-posted at The National Gadfly

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Whether in comments or in email, above all, be fair, consistent, and level-headed.

Tuesday February 10, 2009 in 100 seconds. I gotta tell you, I was getting really worried because TMPtv hadn’t posted The Day since Thursday. I am glad they are back.

Give me a freaking AMEN sisters and brothers!

Just when I was ready to give up on the Buffoon, he does this.

Say Jughead, how’s the crow today?

Building consensus within America’s body politic and national security establishment for a new way forward with Muslims worldwide is a formidable challenge. Many Americans still don’t appreciate the complex nuances of Muslim society and remain stubbornly Islamophobic almost seven and half years after 9/11. Equally formidable is earning the goodwill of Muslims worldwide following the Iraq War as well as American atrocities perpetrated upon Islamic detainees at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Hopefully, President Obama’s historic election has finally opened a path for constructive conversation about how America can most effectively engage the Muslim world.

The CIA’s former point man on Islam, Emile Nakahleh, has vigorously entered this conversation with his new book, A Necessary Engagement: Reinventing America’s Relations With the Muslim World (Princeton University Press). From 1991 to 2006, Nakahleh served as the director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program in the Directorate of Intelligence at the CIA. He holds a PhD in international relations and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.