Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Archive for April 2013

Woozle Wednesdai

Those of you who already either know me or know of me know that I am a massive pootie person. We have just moved into an apartment and now have a pootie, named Jenny; 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, Wednesday, 4/17/13

Interrogatories

Please (pretty please, with whipped cream on top) write us a Haiku for National Haiku Day?

For National Cheeseball Day, what kind of cheese is in your cheeseball?

What was the destination of your first plane trip?

Do you remember what airline?

The Twitter Emitter

What are you reading? April 17, 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

The Butcher’s Boy by Thomas Perry. A suspense novel pitting a hit man known only as the “Butcher’s Boy” against the Department of Justice and others. Lots of violence, some gruesome. Well written with lots of twists.

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.

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.

Visions of Infinity by Ian Stewart. A nontechnical look at 11 famous problems of math. So far, it’s a little too nontechnical for my taste.

Woodrow Wilson by John Cooper, Jr. A fairly admiring look at Wilson.

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 book on teaching math ever written.

Just started

See just finished

Wednesday Watering Hole: Check In & Hangout for the Herd

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

The common Moose, Alces alces, unlike other members of the deer family, is a solitary animal that doesn’t form herds. Not so its rarer but nearest relative, Alces purplius, the Motley Moose. Though sometimes solitary, the Motley Moose herds in ever shifting groups at the local watering hole to exchange news and just pass the time.

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The Crisis in the Developed World

By: inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

I recently had a conversation with a college student hailing from the great country Spain. After talking about my summer activities, I asked him about the internships and jobs he had available in Spain.

He said that there was nothing. No jobs, no internships for anybody his age in Spain. No work at all. It was a crisis that had become normality. A global crisis.

More below.

Updated: Boston Marathon Explosions

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Continuing the discussions/information from this diary.  176 people were injured (17 in critical condition), and 3 killed in the explosions yesterday.

President Obama gave a press conference this morning:

Obviously our first thoughts this morning are with the victims, their families, and the city of Boston.  We know that two explosions gravely wounded dozens of Americans, and took the lives of others, including a 8-year-old boy.

This was a heinous and cowardly act.  And given what we now know about what took place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism.  Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terror.  What we don’t yet know, however, is who carried out this attack, or why; whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual.  That’s what we don’t yet know.  And clearly, we’re at the beginning of our investigation.  

It will take time to follow every lead and determine what happened.  But we will find out.  We will find whoever harmed our citizens and we will bring them to justice.

We also know this — the American people refuse to be terrorized.  Because what the world saw yesterday in the aftermath of the explosions were stories of heroism and kindness, and generosity and love:  Exhausted runners who kept running to the nearest hospital to give blood, and those who stayed to tend to the wounded, some tearing off their own clothes to make tourniquets.  The first responders who ran into the chaos to save lives.  The men and women who are still treating the wounded at some of the best hospitals in the world, and the medical students who hurried to help, saying “When we heard, we all came in.”  The priests who opened their churches and ministered to the hurt and the fearful.  And the good people of Boston who opened their homes to the victims of this attack and those shaken by it.

So if you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil — that’s it.  Selflessly.  Compassionately.  Unafraid.

Full remarks available here

The Daily F Bomb, Tuesday 4/16/13

Interrogatories

Did you ever star in a school play?

Have you ever joined a fan club, and if so, whose?

If you came with a warning label, what would it say?

It’s National Stress Awareness Day. What is your biggest stressor these days?

Mushrooms – Sauteed, raw, or not at all?

The Twitter Emitter

Explosions at Boston Marathon

photo Boston_zps79de2ad9.jpg

Live coverage on Bloomberg TV.

April 16 Update:  

Bloomberg reports that FBI investigators are asking residents and spectators for photos and videos they may have from the event.  176 people were injured (17 in critical condition), and 3 killed in the explosions yesterday.  Previous reports that the police had found unexploded bombs are incorrect according to Governor Patrick.  Federal & local authorities searched an apartment in Revere, but have not disclosed any further information.  Federal officials are treating this as a terrorist attack since it involved multiple explosive devices, but a connection has not yet been made to any specific group.  

I imagine that there are likely blood shortages in the area, given the number of injuries.  If you are in the region, and would like to donate blood to help out, the Red Cross suggests scheduling an appointment (mine is for Thursday).

/End Update

Explosions at the Boston Marathon, near the finish line.  Reports of injuries; 4 people being treated at Mass General.  Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has suspended service.

According to MSNBC, runners who had not yet completed the race were being stopped and directed elsewhere.  

Update: 3:49 EDT – Bloomberg TV says Boston Globe is reporting that secondary devices are still being found.

Update: 4:03 EDT – Bloomberg TV says NY Post is reporting 12 people killed.  No official confirmation.

Update: 4:05 EDT – Bloomberg TV says Twitter update from Boston PD says 22 hurt, 2 killed.

Update: 4:53 EDT – Boston Police Press Conference – there was also a third explosion at JFK Library about a half hour ago, so they consider the situation to be ongoing and ask residents to stay at home.  JFK Library was an unrelated fire.  h/t JanF

Update (h/t Denise):

Don’t panic if you can’t call someone who is in Boston – all cell phone service has been shut down in downtown Boston

tips number – 800 494-8477

number to find loved ones

617 635-4500

Update: 5:14 EDT:  Harvard has cancelled classes tonight.

Update (h/t Nurse Kelley): Google Person Finder

Obama Is There For The Children

Over at Smartypants this morning I found this excellent piece, “How the Obama administration is taking on the achievement gap,” it took me back in time to the struggles my children went through in school.


Last year I wrote about the fact that Obama’s Department of Education had begun to collect information on civil rights and education – something that had stopped during the Bush administration. We now see that experts are studying that data and highlighting remedies. What they have found is that one in four black students have been suspended from school. And here are the consequences:

   These findings are of serious concern given that research shows being suspended even once in ninth grade is associated with a 32% risk for dropping out, double that for those receiving no suspensions.

But the Obama administration isn’t just collecting data. You might have heard that the Department of Justice investigated the school district and law enforcement systems in Meridian, Mississippi for their gross violations of student’s civil rights in disciplinary practices.

To have a minority child in the school systyem means as a parent you have to investigate closely what the situation was. Who was involved, what exactly was my child’s involvement, how consequences were handed out to others that were involved? . It meant balancing between not protecting your child from natural consequences and making sure those consequences fit the act and were dealt out evenly between all parties involved.

By the time they were in middle school it became glaringly apparent to me the reality of the disparity in discipline between white students and minority students.

As a parent of bi-racial children I was diligent about teaching them what “playing the race card” was, and that it was not cool. If you broke the rules there were consequences, crying out “it’s because I’m black” was bullshit if indeed they had acted inappropriately.  They had seen this take place, tried it a couple times themselves, but when the whole story came out and they were dead wrong I condoned their consequence and hoped lessons would be learned. Sadly, most of the time it was quite the opposite.

A couple of examples, out of many I could share are these:

   Daughter A is riding home on the bus. Another girl, white and in middle school, starts  picking on a young kindergarten student. Calling her names, throwing paper at the back of her head. After telling her to knock it off several times my daughter and the girl start exchanging words, they get to their bus stop, one where a large number of students get off. The verbal exchange continues and my daughter starts walking ahead with her sister and a couple other friends. The older girl catches up with my daughter and the argument starts again. This time the girl gets up in my daughter’s face, pushes her and calls her a nigger. My daughter pushed her back hard enough to send her butt flying onto the ground. Given the large number of students getting off the bus the driver was still sitting up at the corner and saw this happen.

The next day I get a call from school, my daughter is getting suspended for three days. Up I go to the school office. My first issue is that this happened on private property quite a distance from the bus, not on the bus. “Well it started on the bus, so it’s a school matter.” Okay, I was hesitant but willing to accept that, until I found out that the other girl was not even called to the office, let alone being suspended. My protests finally led to the driver and other students being questioned about the other girls part in the incident. At that point the girl was given one day in school suspension, my daughter’s punishment was still going to stand at a three day out of school suspension. Even though I had issues with the school being involved in an act that actually took place off of school property, I was willing to be flexible enough to agree that both girls put their hands on each other and needed a consequence for that, but a fair and impartial one.

I ended up having to take this issue to the district Supervisor’s office.

Daughter B has her sister put a relaxer in her hair, unfortunately without my supervision, the outcome was that we had to get her hair cut clear down. She was in 7th grade at the time and inconsolable about her appearance until I came up with the idea of buying her several very pretty scarves to use as a head wrap until her hair had grown out a bit more. Now I’m not talking bandanas, I’m talking about nice scarves, ones that cost enough to blow the hell out of our very slim budget. But it was more than worth it to give her peace of mind, that didn’t last long for either one of us. Her first day at school in one of these scarves got her sent to the office. It was “gang related attire” What? When did prints and flowers being come gang colors and/or signs? They were actually going to suspend her if she didn’t quit wearing them. Eventually I raised enough hell that the Principal finally granted permission, but there was one particular teacher who kept sending her to the office claiming they were positive it was gang related. The only hand sign she knew in seventh grade was giving someone the bird, a sign I had to sit on my hands in order to not give to that teacher.  This was no inner city school district, although our income was nowhere close to it the median income in that district of +$80,000.00.

Gangs in the sense of what inner city schools contend with were non-existent in this district.

My entire day could be taken up writing one example after another of the blatant disparities, the assumptions that “if you’re black and in my classroom you’re trouble.” Um, yeah,when you start from day one treating a child with suspicion and scorn while having a warm and positive attitude towards others, that teacher is creating a problem where should never be one.

Looking back on the situations my children were fortunate I was in a position to go to the school to advocate and when necessary fight for them. Many children weren’t for multiple reasons. Those reasons ran a spectrum from the parents who do care have to choose between losing a job to take time during the day to go deal with the school, to the parents in the grips of substance abuse who barely provided minimal care for their child let alone paying attention to how they were being treated at school.

Whatever the reason, not only can parents not always be there, as parents of minority children we  shouldn’t have to constantly monitor how our child is being treated by teachers and school administrators. The educators shouldn’t be the people who show that prejudice, racism, and bigotry are still a part of our society.

For all those children who have so many gifts, so much potential, but yet have so many odds against them from the jump I am grateful that the Department of Education is active on this issue again.

As the author of the article points out, the “Cradle to Prison Pipeline” does exist. As parents, teachers, and taxpayers, we have an obligation to stop the destruction of our children.  

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