Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Archive for January 2013

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid…Or Fight Back Against Fear-Mongering!

Have you been feeling fearful these days, as though the world has become a much more dangerous place, almost overnight? You’re not alone. Keeping populations in a state of heightened fear and dread is big business these days, and everyone wants a piece of the action.

Corporations who live and die by short-term financial metrics, want to find ways to grind out more profit per employee.  In a challenging economy, continuing layoffs and cuts to hours and benefits and ambiguous corporate communications keep employees from seeking raises or better assignments. Nobody wants to speak up about dangerous or illegal working conditions or crushing demands. Everyone’s just trying to “stay below the radar” and avoid being the next casualty.

Congress, where elected officials pledge their loyalty to the NRA, Grover Norquist, political caucuses, and the corporations that funded their election and re-election, is another bastion of fear-mongering. Truth in advertising suggests that instead of business suits, Congress-critters be forced to wear NASCAR-like jumpsuits with patches denoting each of their sponsors. But… I digress.  Congress likes to focus on vague fears like The Deficit That Will Force Your Grandkids into Economic Slavery, while the obvious, in-your-face fears like Climate Change Which Spawned the Superstorm That Washed Away Part of the Country go largely unremarked upon.  When Americans can be frightened by the looming perils of complicated issues, it’s so much easier to strip them of their freedoms and rob them blind.

Advertisers, always early adopters of any new revenue streams, have launched campaigns suggesting that “you may be eligible for [insert worthless scam here]”, drawing you in to learn about dreadful things that might happen.  Your car might break down. Your identity might be stolen. You might lose out on all life’s possibilities due to low testosterone. If you act now, and part with your hard-earned dollars, you might be able to forestall these apocalyptic outcomes… but only if you’re among our first 25 callers.  

Thursday Coffee Hour: Fighting Dragons

(Republished from the sane Street Prophets area of the orange fainting couch.)

Welcome to Thursday Coffee Hour this is an open topic thread so help yourself to the goodies and sit a spell and let us know what is going on in your life. I just finished an art piece the other night and I have to say it really resonates with what is going on in my life at the moment.

I am still trying to get all of my brothers finances cleared up. Still trying to get the house sold. Still trying to get through to Social Security to get Medicare drug help. Sometimes it feels like I am battling huge dragons with a nothing but a feather. Bureaucracy is just horrendous. Rarely do you get the help you need. Once in a while though someone actually believes that Customer Service means just that. Last Friday I got a letter from Social Security saying they were denying my application for help with the Medicare Drug Costs because they didn’t get back everything they asked for. The first time I got a letter saying they needed something back that I had already sent I called and was assured that our letters got crossed in the mail. I got a man named Jeffrey this time who actually went the extra mile. He looked up my record, said I was qualified for the help, and filed the appeal. He gave me the phone number to call for the appeals people. I left a message yesterday, got a call back today from someone whom I could barely understand, and then got a second call back from a lady telling me the appeal was in process and they didn’t need anything else from me. Yeah Jeffrey!

Yesterday I was trying to get through the confusing telephone prompt menu of the Department of Defense to get some answers on what paperwork they needed to get any unpaid Army pay to my brother Mike’s daughter. I got the wrong department and the man who answered took the time to find out what I needed. He asked to put me on hold for a few minutes saying he understood the phone system and would get the information for me. He came back a few minutes later with the exact information I needed.

So thanks to my two dragon fighters for taking the time to help me out. It is nice to know that their are people in this world who care and will help.

JB Swordfighter photo JBSwordfighter2_zpsdc64138b.jpg

Fursdai Furries

Those of you who already either know me or know of me know that I am a massive pootie person. We  moved into an apartment and now have a pootie, named Princess Ashley; however I grew up with both cats & dogs and I love both. I do not discriminate against any animal & love animal photos of all kinds. Please enjoy the following and add any photos that you think the community would like to see. Now, enjoy the photos & have some fun.





The Daily F Bomb, Thursday 1/31

Thursday already! Good morning, everyone! It’s National Popcorn Day, where is the Republican entertainment?

Today’s questions are: What is your favorite National Park? You don’t need to have been there, just want to go there, or simply love the idea of it. What is your favorite State Park? What is your favorite City park? Stealing a bit from Inside the Actor’s Studio, what is your least favorite word? What is your favorite word? What do you think is the most misused word today? What is your Pet Punctuation Peeve?

Selections From the Twitter Menu

Tubeworms

When I was young, we lived with some creative people in a very old house, who liked to do things like collect rocks and pile them up on the counters, and paint paintings that were sometimes excellent and sometimes deeply embarrassing, and occasionally get involved in something more complicated, such as saltwater aquariums.

We kids were not, to my recollection, involved with the actual maintenance of the aquarium. Our job was more literary. One Christmas, we made a song:

“Oh come, all ye faithful,

Living in a fishbowl,

Oh come ye, oh come ye to our a-quar-ium,

Come and behold him,

Born the king of seahorses

Oh come let us behold him

Oh come let us behold him,

Oh come let us behold him, Zorse, The Lord.”

Then there was the tubeworm meme. One of the critters in the tank lived in a long thin calcified shell she made herself, with her body and delicate tendrils spread out searching the currents, which were of course minimal, and awaiting whatever tubeworms await, other than dinner. Signs of other tubeworms, perhaps. We failed on that count as well.

Some of us, young and old,  took it upon ourselves to torture the tubeworm. We’d get a finger up close, gradually creep up…and finally touch her, upon which she’d whip herself back into her tube. Then we’d wait for her to come out again.

This turned into an actual meme for we humans in that karass. We’d call each other out for tubeworming, meaning stone cold withdrawal upon the receipt of triggering stimuli.

Funny the things one remembers. That tubeworm meme has lasted for me from well before I knew what a meme was.

Someone I knew for several decades and used to trust,once accused me of always taking a powder when the going got tough. Tubeworm.

Tubeworms gonna tubeworm.

There’s fingers out there. We tubeworms do what we gotta do.

mro

Wednesday Night News Bytes

I’d like to poll for time of day, but I don’t even know where to start with timezones.  Due to scheduling issues, this and more articles are cross-posted at the orange. (fix link when available)

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