Motley Moose – Archive

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

People of a certain age may remember September 1957, when nine black students were escorted to the “whites only” Little Rock Central High School in compliance with the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education. The ensuing crisis filled the national and international news for weeks. Who can forget the iconic photograph of 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford, delicate as a summer blossom in her freshly ironed dress, clutching her schoolbooks as she walked past a crowd of bigots screaming at her?

But there’s another Little Rock story, one that was never told. To read it, please follow me below the fold.

OMG, it’s almost 2015! January is almost over.

Interrogatories

It’s National Compliment Day! Say some nice things.

But, since it’s also Talk Like a Grizzled Prospector Day, try to say those nice things like a grizzled prospector might. (Why am I imagining early Walter Brennan?)

What is the best use of peanut butter?

Would you know a Justin Bieber song if it grabbed you by the throat and tried to strangle you?

The Twitter Emitter

@lizzwinstead The only thing that can stop a bad teen millionaire with an egg is a good teen millionaire with an egg.

— Thee Alan Smithee (@TheeAlanSmithee) January 23, 2014

This Bieber kid is a great example of the Canadian menace and why we need to shutdown our northern border

— john r stanton (@dcbigjohn) January 23, 2014

A fifth scheduled State of the Union response has just accidentally shot itself.

— David Waldman (@KagroX) January 23, 2014

Every time a conservative describes basic necessities like health care, housing, and food as "sugar", I worry about their insulin levels.

— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) January 23, 2014

I"d let Beiber go for the DUI then lock him up again for aggravated auto-tune & lip-synching.

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) January 23, 2014

I'm fairly certain the GOP strategy is to drown us in stupid until our collective head explodes.

— Imani ABL (@AngryBlackLady) January 23, 2014

I'm not going to talk about Justin Bieber's arrest, because it's obviously a FALSE FLAG by Obama to distract us from Bengahzi.

— Top Conservative Cat (@TeaPartyCat) January 24, 2014

@TeaPartyCat Damn liberal media liars, Bieber wasn't drag racing, he was trying to escape the Obamacare death panels that were pursuing him

— Kerby Forges (@KBR_37) January 24, 2014

If you don't like income inequality, stop whining & buy yourself some Senators.

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) January 24, 2014

Good morning, Moosekind. TGIF! Temperature is supposed to be well above freezing here for the first time this week. I think we should all get matching “I survived the Polar Vortex of 2013” shirts. Except you live somewhere warm. Unless your wind chills went below zero, no T-shirt for you.

The results of the last midterm congressional election, in 2010, were termed a “shellacking” by President Barack Obama. Some pundits said it was “not as bad as it could have been”, and also pointed to the 1994 midterm election when another first-term Democratic president lost control of Congress. That was little comfort for those of us who wanted to see President Obama’s agenda (our agenda) advanced.

The Democratic Party lost 63 seats in the House of Representatives, the biggest midterm loss since 1938 and the largest seat exchange since 1948. John “Big Gavel” Boehner became Speaker of the House and progress towards implementing the president’s agenda came to a screeching halt. The 112th Congress passed less legislation than the Do Nothing Congress that Harry Truman ran against in 1948. (The current Congress, the 113th is on pace to do even less).

The Congress that the 112th replaced, the 111th Congress was one of the most productive in recent history. Fifty years after President Harry S Truman first talked about universal health care, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Democratic majorities gave us the Affordable Care Act of 2010. That legislation affects the lives of every American by putting in place a structure to allow purchasing health insurance that is not just affordable but which provides minimum standards for coverage and does not punish policy holders for getting sick.

The “problem” with passing the Affordable Care Act was that in 2010 it put a big target on the backs of many Democrats who had been elected in the wave election of 2006. That year, another midterm election year, Democrats and other sentient beings were motivated to vote in order to create a firewall against the abuses of the Bush Administration. Democrats picked up 31 seats … and the majority … making Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives.  

Interrogatories

It’s National Pie Day, who would you like to see get a pie in the face?

What famous person that you should like (or all your friends like) rubs you the wrong way for no good (or very superficial) reason?

How are your feet? Too big, too little, high arches or flat, easy or hard to fit shoes on? Do you attract foot fetishists?

Do you have any imaginary friends? Did you when you were a child?

The Twitter Emitter

Still trying to understand why someone counting divorce from the time their marriage ended rather than when it was finalized is a scandal.

— Jesse Taylor (@jesseltaylor) January 22, 2014

I'll be plagiarizing all Shia LaBeouf's tweets so I apologize if you see something you wrote.

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) January 22, 2014

In my humble opinion, my opinions are the best.

— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) January 23, 2014

You're against abortion AND birth control coverage. Then I'm not going to ask your opinion on chastity belts.

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) January 23, 2014

Calling me pretentious is hardly the ne plus ultra of insults.

— Mr Roger Quimbly (@RogerQuimbly) January 22, 2014

There's actually nothing I can think of about keeping a brain-dead pregnant woman alive as an incubator that comports with "God's plan"

— David Waldman (@KagroX) January 23, 2014

Why send your child to school when we have factories?

— kara vallow (@teenagesleuth) January 23, 2014

The ancient Egyptians stopped worshiping Cats as Gods over 2500 years ago. Nobody told the cats.

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) January 22, 2014

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

Despite not being constitutionally eligible to seek the office of President of the United States, Alexander Arefyev, the coach of the Russian men’s ski jumping team, staked out a position that would certainly give him a claim on the nomination.  Explaining his opposition to women’s ski jumping, an event being added to the Olympic program for the first time this year, Arefyev said:

“I admit, I do not advocate women’s ski jumping,” he said in Russian. “It is quite heavy and traumatic sport. If a man were seriously injured, it is not fatal, but for all women may end up far worse. If I had a daughter, never would give in jumping – it’s too hard work. Women have a different purpose – to have children, do housework, to create a family home. (emphasis my own)“

I guess that means women should be off to pop out the babies, cook dinner, wash the dishes and clean the floor?  Given the high level of social conservatism in Russia, is it any surprise that he would feel so free to make this statement about women’s “different purpose,” by which it’s really meant that women shouldn’t stray from their “proper place?”

I don’t know about what other people might think, but that sounds a lot like what many Republicans would like given the degree to which they want to regulate women’s bodies.  The only difference is that very few of them are that explicit about it.  And if a Republican candidate was explicit about it, I sadly have no doubt that he would immediately shoot to the top of the polls for saying what so many were already thinking.

They’re all wrong about the fact that a woman’s place is in the house.  Nope, a woman’s place is in the House (and, hopefully come 2016, the White House too).

So I am going to work out with a trainer until I get back into the gym thing. Guess what his name is? :::drum roll, please::::   DRONE!

No, really.

Interrogatories

What is the answer to “Meow?”

What was your favorite recurring bit on “Laugh-In?”

Are there any childhood games (not board games) that seem to have been forgotten by subsequent generations?

What is your browser and why?

The Twitter Emitter

Today, cold air is stopping Washington from working. Usually it's hot air that does it.

— Peter Flom (@peterflom) January 21, 2014

darmok, when the stores were out of milk #darmokweather

— myownpetard (@myownpetard) January 21, 2014

Thigh Reduction Creme? What the Hell does it do to your fingers when you rub it on?

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) January 21, 2014

BREAKING: People of Illinois surprised to learn newly indicted Gov. Bob McDonnell NOT from Illinois.

— Joe Schmitt (@joeschmitt) January 21, 2014

More: "A woman can't be trusted w/ decisions about her own body, but multinat'l corps. can make decisions affecting mankind w/o regulation"

— GottaLaff (@GottaLaff) January 21, 2014

I eagerly await the next Wendy Davis scandal, wherein we learn that sometimes her husband would cook dinner while she mowed the lawn.

— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) January 21, 2014

I'm a Right Wing Tea Pot, Short and Stout. Here is my outrage, Here is my pout."

— Suzanne Munshower (@expatina) January 22, 2014

Bob McDonnell had a state, E-I-E-I-O

— Ian (@iboudreau) January 22, 2014

I've always admired David Vitter's firm belief that marriage should between a man and a woman who will forgive your prostitution scandals.

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) January 22, 2014

Make sure to check on neighbors to be sure they are warm and see if they have better snacks and maybe get their WiFi password if you can.

— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) January 22, 2014

Good morning meese! Happy happy Wednesday!

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.