Motley Moose – Archive

Spring time is Rhododendron time around the world. These prolific bloomers are native to Asia, North America, Australia, and Europe. They are members of the Genus Rhododendron  and the Family of Ericaceae (Heaths). The name is derived from ancient Greek (rhódon “rose” or “red“) and déndron “tree”). There are some 800 to 1,000 species and 28,000 cultivars listed by the Royal Horticultural Society. Azaleas are a subgenera of Rhododendron.

The President’s Weekly Address post is also the Weekend Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

From the White House – Weekly Address

In this week’s address, President Obama discussed new actions by the Environmental Protection Agency to cut dangerous carbon pollution, a plan that builds on the efforts already taken by many states, cities and companies. These new commonsense guidelines to reduce carbon pollution from power plants were created with feedback from businesses, and state and local governments, and they would build a clean energy economy while reducing carbon pollution.

The President discussed this new plan from the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he visited children whose asthma is aggravated by air pollution. As a parent, the President said he is dedicated to make sure our planet is cleaner and safer for future generations.

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

Good morning, Moosekind. TGIF!

Yesterday:

From the White House Blog: “”America Must Always Lead”: President Obama Addresses West Point Graduates

This morning, President Obama traveled to West Point to congratulate the newest officers in the United States Army and to reflect on America’s foreign policy agenda. In the President’s remarks, he acknowledged that our world is changing with accelerating speed and that America must be equipped to respond to an increasingly dynamic environment.

   It will be your generation’s task to respond to this new world. The question we face; the question you will face; is not whether America will lead, but how we will lead, not just to secure our peace and prosperity, but also to extend peace and prosperity around the globe.

The President spent most of his speech outlining his vision for how the United States, and our military, should lead in the years to come. The four elements of American leadership included:

1.   Using military force when our core interests are at stake or our people are threatened

2.   Shifting our counter-terrorism strategy by more effectively partnering with countries where terrorist networks seek a foothold

3.   Continuing to strengthen and enforce international order through evolving our institutions, such as NATO and the United Nations

4.   Supporting democracy and human rights around the globe, not only as a matter of idealism, but one of national security

President Obama articulated that the United States is a global leader – a nation that “must always lead on the world stage.”

   Ultimately, global leadership requires us to see the world as it is, with all its danger and uncertainty. But American leadership also requires us to see the world as it should be – a place where the aspirations of individual human beings matter; where hopes and not just fears govern; where the truths written into our founding documents can steer the currents of history in the direction of justice. And we cannot do that without you.

"Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail." -President Obama on U.S. leadership in the world

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 28, 2014

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

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.

In 2012, Natasha Trethewey was appointed as State Poet Laureate of Mississippi and also   became the 19th U.S. Poet Laureate. In 2013, she was appointed for a second term.

In June, a new poet laureate will be appointed, but before Trethewey leaves, I wanted to take a moment to say “thank you”.

Thank you for your poetry and prose.

Thank you for representing so much of what we as women, as black women, as Americans face in today’s world.

Thank you for weaving so much history into what you write.

Thank you for exploring the complexities of race, racism and identity and oppression.

Thank you for portraying those who are often forgotten.

His 15 minutes are over, but he apparently does not realize it.  He’s written an open letter to the parents of the victims of the mass shooting in California.  I do not think that he has done himself any favors.

300 schoolgirls.  300 schoolgirls.  300 schoolgirls…stolen from their classrooms, kidnapped by men.  300 schoolgirls kidnapped by men who have publicly announced their intention to sell them as slaves.  To sell them into slavery.  To sell them to men who would rape them and terrorize them into drudgery.  No more school.

This morning I kissed my daughters as they went off to school.  I didn’t remember the 300 schoolgirls waiting to be sold.  I didn’t remember them until I read a headline on a left-wing blog and I think I know why.  And it’s the ugliest of reasons.  It’s a reason I only impute to others in the most severe situations.  It’s the reason that people were stolen from Africa and sold into slavery for centuries.  It’s the reason that stands behind slavery, murder, torture, humiliation, lynching.  It’s the reason that 6 million members of my own community were exterminated.  Racism.