Motley Moose – Archive

A very iterative thread in my life is the belief that people don’t suck. Through continuous experience with areas where the factuality of this philosophy has present and practical application this position remains reinforced despite common consensus to the contrary. There may not be anything more defining of my experience other than a consistent resistance to the idea that only by the overbearing hand of God or Law does humanity unwillingly refrain from Perpetual Evil.

Yesterday as in many other typical days there was a conversation much to this point. Talking with a group of industry analysts about “Information Sharing and Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity” (points at the shirt he is wearing: Geeky and Proud) the summary of an hour of challenges and risks comes down to the reality that these systems are not constantly attacked by folks who want to kill Gramma in her old-age home:

Because people just don’t suck that much.

Today, another little artifact crosses my bow which makes me think again of the fallacy of negativity, and to share this note with you here. With a lovely twist of recursive logic on topic the Linkedin Open Source group I manage passes 100,000 members today. This forum for the free sharing on the topic of sharing freely flourishes in the looming absence of almost any of the controls imposed on similar forums. Through the diligent application of virtually none of the effort common wisdom dictates must be exercised, it performs its purpose more effectively and efficiently for a larger population than almost any comparable peer.

In the first significant incident of injury and damage involving a major meteor, six cities in the Ural region of Russia were hit this morning by the concussion and fragments from a large strike.

Al Jazeera has this:

This incident will no doubt cause international attention to the issue of Near Earth Objects (NEOs. While there is no more immediate concern than there ever has been in human history, the threat is one which we can not take idly.

David Frum is compiling videos of the event on the Daily Beast.

Well, President Obama is getting set to present the traditional State of the Union address. The GOP is set to respond out of both sides of their divided mouth.

There is an Executive Order on cybersecurity expected tomorrow. What will the President say about that?

The economy continues a fragile fifth year of recovery, sequestration looms ahead.

As Chris Dorner remains (?) in a burning cabin after killing a police officer today, wounding another, and killing others including a young couple guilty of having a father in the LAPD, the issue of guns is on the table.

What will our President have to say tonight, about the state of our Union?

Consider this a live thread and ongoingly Open Thread (here comes Michelle, and damn she looks sharp!).

News has just reached me that a long-time Moose, btchakir (Bill Tchakirides) has had a brain tumor removed and is recovering.

I would like to see how many of the herd can leave a note of love and support on his beloved Under the Lobsterscope  blog (also found in the Moose With Blogs list on the right bar under his Moose name). His family is watching it for him at the moment and I am certain that it would give him and them some warmth knowing there are others out there thinking about him.

With classic humor under fire, bill posted this note before going into surgery.

Bill’s wife Ellen has posted some updates on his progress, most recently on January 20:

Hello – I am updating this page for Bill. We are in our second week at Bill’s daughter Penny’s house in Williamsport, MD.

It has been quite a change and adjustment for us. We had to change our doctors and activities from Frederick, MD to Hagerstown, MD. Bill does need someone with him at all times since he is a fall risk. He has completed 20 sessions of radiation and 20 days of chemo. When the Chemo and Radiation are complete, we will have to wait two more weeks. Then they will do an MRI to see how he has responded. He is enjoying Penny’s cooking, and watching cable TV. He misses his dogs and friends and posting to his BLOG. I hope he will be updating this BLOG himself soon!

Ellen

Please, take a moment to love bomb Bill.

Spread the word if you can.

As Vice President Biden continues his work in an attempt to move the gun issue forward and the NRA continues its work to arm teachers, the country as a whole is advancing the topic in small and large ways. Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe once again this morning provided, at least to the largely liberal MSNBC audience, an example of a very conservative former politician who understands the realities of the issue in America today.

Meanwhile, Moose Bill McGee (bam) was on the Ed Show on MSNBC representing the position of parents who would rather not have armed teachers in their children’s classrooms. Bill does a very Moosely job of respecting the other opinions but nonetheless providing well articulated reasons why armed teachers in classrooms is not a viable solution to gun violence. Bill’s interview begins right at the 6-minute mark in the video below.

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This issue is not going away, no matter what the NRA has to say about it. 85% of Americans today want to have universal background checks for gun purchases, 75% want restrictions on the size of magazines. Regardless of the mechanisms agreed to attempt to address the issue it seems apparent that the usual roadblocks to discourse are coming down.

On Meet the Press this morning, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre stated plainly that the NRA will not take part in any conversations concerning limiting access to weapons or the types of weapons that are legally available. The NRA will talk about locking up criminals, but will not talk about limiting their access to weapons once they are released.

Mr. LaPierre refused to answer any questions or to provide any comment as to whether or not it was in any way possible to talk about any potential changes to the types of weapons that are generally available for sale, and he refused to give an answer of any type to whether it would be possible to have any form of conversation about requiring anyone to prove they are not a convicted criminal, on the terrorist watch list or in any other way legally restricted from purchasing firearms.

None of us know for certain what could or should be done to address gun violence. Many of us have our opinions. Many of us believe adamantly that we need many more guns, many of us believe adamantly that we should have none. Many, like myself, are deeply conflicted on the topic and – while we have strong opinions in one or several directions – believe we first and foremost have to agree to remove all barriers to conversation and engage openly and honestly with each other.

In a recent press release from the NRA, gun manufacturers and dealers say that due to the high rate of gun sales people need to buy more guns.

“These things are selling like hot cakes,” said Rand Triggersmith, CEO of AR-10000 maker Happy Firearms, “and you should see some of the people we sell them to. I wouldn’t trust a lot of these people with a hammer.”

Noting that he sells high-powered firearms to questionable people at gun shows across the country, weapons dealer Frank Obliviun cautions Americans to arm themselves. “At every show I go to I sell high-capacity assault weapons to folks I would not want on the same planet with my children. Just yesterday I sold enough firepower to start a small war to a guy who was so twitchy he could barely get his wallet out.

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said that his membership are arming “the monsters and the predators of the world” as fast as they can, therfore the only sensible move is for good guys to arm themselves even faster.

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Mr. LaPierre said at a news conference Friday morning.

LaPierre went on to suggest that in response to the murder of twenty small children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT a week ago, every school should be guarded with the weapons and ammunition sold by NRA members.

The GOP House chose not to vote on Rep. Boehner’s “Plan B” proposal tonight, choosing instead to leave for the holidays with no solution to the fiscal cliff.

Watching a bit of each channel tonight I turned on FOX long enough to watch Sean Hannity, gleeful that the country is now on the verge of going over the fiscal cliff, saying: [sic]”we need to punish American voters for their decision in November”.

In the next hour Newt Gingrich is on, smiling and laughing.

Are they serious? Is it truly the strategy – as much as a party with a speaker who cannot get his own members to even vote on their own bill – to “punish” American voters for exercising their franchise, by turning a 3% Q1 2013 economic growth into a 3.9% economic contraction (as per the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office)?

Consider this a flabergastedly Open Thread.

The price we pay for our fears is greater than the price we would suffer if our fears were realized. The tragedy is that our fears are usually groundless, so we choose to pay endless terrible costs in our minds and with our bodies to protect ourselves from nothing at all. We choose to put aside riches in our lives and instead don shackles that burn our skin and our souls.

We have it in ourselves to be free of these shackles. The cost is infinitely less than nothing, the reward is more than we could ever hope for.

In the wake of the terrible price we just paid for our fears we have, perhaps, an opportunity to choose to stop paying the fees for maintaining our fears. We could, perhaps, find it easily within our grasp to begin addressing the misconceptions which lead to the need to continue paying so dearly.

I posted the following on Facebook yesterday. A number of friends and family joined in the conversation that followed. It was, I think, a very healthy discussion.

The conversation helped me work through my emotions on the broader topic, though in all honesty I have still not managed to think much about the specific tragedy that triggered it. Each of the instances of violence this conversation is about are horrific in the true sense of the word, but what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary is so painful to think about – it inspires such stark horror to imagine – that I am not sure I will ever be capable of encompassing the event itself in my own mind.

If we can find it in ourselves to begin the process of becoming free of the cause of this tragedy, though, the tragedy itself may in time be honored with actions worthy of such an unthinkable cost.

I ask you to begin a similar conversation with yourself. To honor those who have paid the ultimate price for our chance at freedom by having this conversation with those around you. To take the small risk of testing your fears by exposing them to those you love, and perhaps help them save themselves from paying more than they have already.

Having finally read some about the Sandy Hook tragedy there is something I would like to say. This is not about this incident alone, it is not about just the shootings we see too frequently, it is about how we all together come to be living in a world where these things happen far too often.

We need more than better access to mental health care, though I believe we need that. We need more than fewer guns, though I believe we would be better off without them. What we need most is to stop feeding our fears, stop withdrawing, stop thinking the worst of ourselves and others.

The world is not getting worse, it is getting better in almost every way. The people we see around us are not intrinsically evil, they are intrinsically good.

This is the truth. This is what I see around myself. The human race is worthy and wonderful. The future of our species is more full of joy than sorrow. You can trust both those you know and those you do not.

If you are conservative, do not believe that liberals are evil, they are not. If you are liberal do not believe that conservatives are evil, they are not. Do not believe that mankind is a cancer on the earth, it is not. Do not believe that mankind is doomed, we are not. Do not believe that we cannot solve every single challenge we face, we can. Do not believe you have to fear the world, you do not have to.

These beliefs we hold and repeat – across and within political boundaries – are lies. They are untrue. They lead to despair, they lead to violence, and they are false.