Motley Moose – Archive

  Make sure you let your peeps know where to find you!  

(last year)

Declaration of Independence

You ever develop an image in your mind of what someone looks like based solely upon their writing? An image that forms over time as you read their words/thoughts/ideas? I do, I have done it A LOT since I started reading blogs.

The time limit imposed by the Egyptian military ran out at 4pm Egyptian time (10am EST). President Morsi had been given 48 hours to take actions to calm the massive protests roiling across the country. He failed to act and the military has now announced the suspension of the Egyptian constitution pending new elections.

It amazes me how quickly this has all transpired.

Once again, the world’s eyes are upon Egypt.

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

Island of the Sequestered Love Nun by Christopher Moore. Moore is one of the funniest writers alive, but I don’t think this is his best work.  I think his humor is so bizarre that it works better with a simpler plot (like, e.g. that of Lamb: The Story of Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal

Now reading

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.

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

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

Algorithms Unlocked  by Thomas Corman  A gentle introduction to computer algorithms

Robert Oppenheimer: A life in the center by Ray Monk  Oppenheimer was one of the most interesting people of the 20th century. In this biography Monk (a wonderful writer) attempts to cover both his physics and his many other interests.

Eminence: Cardinal Richelieu and the Rise of France by Jean-Vincent Blanchard.  Richelieu, best known to many from The Three Musketeers was a master of the dark arts of politics. And 16th and 17th century politics was no place for wusses.

Just started

A Question of Blood by Ian Rankin. Another in the Inspector Rebus series of Scottish noir police procedurals. A gunman has killed children in a school and then himself. Rebus and his colleagues are investigating. There’s also a question of how Rebus’ hands got scalded, while at the same time a lowlife who he was talking to burned to death.  

Interrogatories

Who is your favorite Republican (living or dead)?

If Sarah Palin starts her own political party, what should she call it?

Have you ever been emancipated in any way?

What are the best beans? What is the best way to eat them?

The Twitter Emitter

Ok GOP lets make a deal. national voting registry with ID card, along with national gun registry with ID card. #VRA

— adept2u (@adept2u) June 29, 2013

.sıɥʇ ɹoɟ ʇsnɾ uʍop ǝpısdn ǝuoɥd ɹnoʎ uɹnʇ noʎ ǝpɐɯ I ʎɹɹos os ɯ'I

— Josh Greenman (@joshgreenman) June 29, 2013

I must have a very good relationship with my wife, because she's never told me that I don't listen.

— Mr Roger Quimbly (@RogerQuimbly) June 30, 2013

TENNIS FACT: Tennis players are so superstitious that they only ever refer to Andy Murray as 'The Scottish Player.'

— Tom (@tdawks) July 1, 2013

DEAREST: My name is Edward Snowden and I weep to inform you I am trapped in Moscow's Airport. Please wire $1000 US to assist my plight.

— James Erwin (@jlerwin) July 2, 2013

"Forensic Artist Predicts What Royal Baby Will Look Like." It must be so hard for a forensic artist in a world without crime.

— Ben Greenman (@bengreenman) July 2, 2013

Sock puppets saying their secret identity has been slandered is like the Invisible Man complaining about paparazzi.

— Suzanne Munshower (@expatina) July 2, 2013

Hey, even if all the corporations drop her, Paula Deen can still be brought to you by the letter "N."

— Rob Kutner (@ApocalypseHow) July 2, 2013

Hell, a treadmill could be life threatening to George Zimmerman … doesn’t give him the right to kill someone who makes treadmills.

— Larry Madill (@larrymadill) July 2, 2013

My friend @jasontanz just invented the Schrodinger fact-check. As long as you don't open the magazine, the article is both true and false.

— Adam Rogers (@jetjocko) July 2, 2013

Edward Snowden will get asylum granted once he finds a world leader who doesn't have an embarrassing Internet porn history

— HAL 9000 (@HAL9000_) July 2, 2013

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.

Welcome, all ye who enter here, to a Lounge’y diary that really ought be titled: ‘Kysen is Bored’

While up to my eyeballs in the (ever so exciting) task of cleaning up my external hard drive…I came across an old set of answers to one of my favorite internet ‘quizzes’.

Since I was, as previously mentioned, rather bored…I decided I would take it again.

Join me below to learn more.

(come on…you know you wanna!)

When I saw that Oregon became the latest state to call on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United it caused me to begin thinking.  I know that in most civics classes we are taught how the Constitution is amended:  A proposed amendment must be passed by a two-thirds majority in each house and then ratified by three-quarters of state legislatures.  It seems straightforward and simple enough.  The truth, however, is that it is not.

There are two ways to amend the United States Constitution.  One is through the process mentioned above.  In fact, all 27 amendments to the Constitution have been proposed and ratified in this manor.  That said, there is another method, one which would allow proponents of a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United to bypass a congress highly unlikely to pass such an amendment.  Follow below the fold.

Nineteen year old Rachel Jeantel, witness for the prosecution in the George Zimmerman trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin became the center of an internet frenzy of hatefulness, simply because she stood her ground on the witness stand against the attorney for the defense Don West.

The attacks against her have been based on her skin color, her weight, her inability to read “cursive” writing (which they don’t teach in school where she is), and her use of and facility with the English language.

She is grew up speaking Haitian Kreyòl, French, and Spanish.  English is her fourth language.

Yet she is excoriated for being “dumb”.  

But her biggest crime in the eyes of many of her vicious and vocal critics is her physical appearance.  

The intersections of racism and sexism writ large.