Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Archive for March 2013

The Duping of the Left by Rand Paul

Last week’s filibuster by Rand Paul, the #standwithrand twitter tag, and controversy of whether or not progressives or liberals (take your pick, IMO they are pretty interchangable but I know that not everyone feels that way) should indeed “stand” with Rand got me to thinking about when and if it is every OK to stand with someone who is against everything that you stand for simply because you happen to agree with one thing they are currently doing.

The Daily F Bomb, Wednesday, 3/13/13

Greetings and happy Wednesday, Bomberinos. Let me say that I loved everyone’s responses to yesterday’s nosy questions. Too bad work keeps me from hanging out and really getting into the discussion.

Interrogatories

What is your biggest regret in your life? Would you want to be immortal? If you were, what would you do with your time? If you had a friend who talked to you like you sometimes talk to yourself, would you still be friends? (What do you mean, you never talk to yourself?) Here’s an old question: If you had one wish that could be granted in full, what would you wish for? If you suddenly had a huge financial windfall, what would you do with it?

The Twitter Emitter

What are you reading? Mar 13, 2013

For those who are new … we discuss books.  I list what I’m reading, and people comment with what they’re reading.  Sometimes, on Sundays, I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.

If you like to trade books, try bookmooch

I’ve written some book reviews on Yahoo Voices:

Book reviews on Yahoo

Just finished

Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith. A light and funny short novel featuring Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfield, a professor of Romance philology in Regensburg, Germany. A send-up of academia and its discontents

(started and finished) Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis. The world of competitive Scrabble and some of its top players. A good book that captures the lure of the game, but Fatsis spends too much time on some of the more unusual characters (and their more unusual characteristics).

Now reading

Cooler Smarter: Practical tips for low carbon living  by the scientists at Union of Concerned Scientists, a great group. These folk make sense, concentrating on the changes you can make that have the biggest impact with the least effort.

Thinking, fast and slow  by Daniel Kahneman.  Kahneman, most famous for his work with the late Amos Tversky, is one of the leading psychologists of the times. Here, he posits that our brains have two systems: A fast one and a slow one. Neither is better, but they are good at different things. This is a brilliant book: Full of insight and very well written, as well.

What hath God wrought? by Daniel Walker Howe. Subtitled “The transformation of America 1815-1848. I am reading this with the History group at GoodReads.  This is very well written, and does a good job especially with coverage of the treatment of Blacks and Native Americans.

The hard SF renaissance  ed. by David G. Hartwell.  A large anthology of “hard” SF from the 90’s and 00’s. I think Hartwell takes SF a bit too seriously, but the stories are good.

On politics: A history of political thought from Herodotus to the present by Alan Ryan. What the subtitle says – a history of political thought.  

He, she and it by Marge Percy. Near future dystopian SF set on Earth.

A Most Dangerous Book  by Christopher Krebs. How a short book by the Roman Tacitus had a dangerous life, culminating in its use by the Nazis to support their ideas of lebensraum and “Ein volk, Ein reich, ein fuhrer”.

The Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven. The sequel to Ringworld in which Louis Wu, Chmee and the Hindmost return to Ringworld, which has become unstable.

Measurement by Paul Lockhart. About mathematics and, especially, how it should be taught and learned. Lockhart is wonderful; his first book A Mathematician’s Lament was, in my view, the best books on teaching math ever written.

Just started

Nothing this week (but see above)

Wednesday Watering Hole: Check In & Hangout for the Herd

Good morning, Moosekind. Don’t forget to let your peeps know where to find you.

photo moose2_zps78305346.jpg

Today is day two of “so many meetings I can’t get any work done”. The hardest part about meetings for me is not letting the other participants see that I’d rather be in the dentist’s chair. Anyway, I’ll be around for a while this morning, then will check back between ordeals.

A Brave Man Died Today

The scene was portrayed in War & Remembrance and again in Mr. Cruise’s  Valkyrie.

Here is the real man from this story, who escaped with his life.  The last survivor has died in Munich.

Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist, who volunteered to assassinate Hitler with suicide bomb, dies at 90

Despite his family’s opposition to the Nazis, younger von Kleist joined the German army in 1940, and was wounded in 1943 in fighting on the Eastern Front.

During his convalescence, he was approached in January 1944 by Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, another officer from an aristocratic family, and presented with a plan to kill Hitler. Von Kleist had been chosen as the officer to model a new uniform for Hitler, and von Stauffenberg proposed that he wear a suicide vest underneath, and detonate it when he stood next to the dictator.

Years later von Kleist remembered explaining the suicide plot to his father, who paused only briefly before telling his 22-year-old son: “Yes, you have to do this.”

Raise a toast of your choice to the bravery.  

And remember, Hitler was Hitler.  Don’t make Mike Godwin make another meme.  

cross-posted in orange.

Serious Mental Illness and Violence

There is rampant hysteria today about the mentally ill being dangerous and having access to guns. To some the mentally ill are the major problem with gun violence. Take for example, Ann Coulter’s recent headline: “Guns don’t kill people, the mentally ill do”.  

Too often government policies are based on these erroneous beliefs as legislatures are spinning off new laws to constrain the mentally ill. New York state passed a law dirercting therapists to report any client thought to be “likely to engage in” violent behavior to the police. Such prediction is very difficult to do accurately and results in many false positives.  

Senator Gladys Pyle and the March of Women’s Progress

We celebrate women’s history one month a year. Though most of us could argue that women should be celebrated every day, perhaps it is fitting that the designated month is March. March, with the beginning of spring, the symbolism of birth and growth. March, whose very name implies strength and unity and progress. March is a month that symbolizes women well.

Today I bring you the story of a woman who led in the arena of politics, much before her time, a woman named Gladys Pyle. Senator Gladys Pyle was the first woman elected to the Senate without having been appointed first. Of only 44 women to serve in the U.S. Senate, including 20 currently serving, she was the fifth. In addition, she was the first woman Republican to serve in the Senate.

The Daily F Bomb, Tuesday 3/12/13

Good morning, bombshells! Have you found that lost hour of sleep yet? Have some coffee, you know driving sleepy is just as bad as driving drunk, just less stigma.

Interrogatories

Who was the first President you voted for? Were you raised by Liberals or Conservatives? If the latter, where did they go wrong? 😉 What was the turning point where you realized that you had a different set of values? What was the first volunteer work you ever did? How many U.S. States have you visited?

The Twitter Emitter

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