Motley Moose – Archive

Today is my birthday.  47 years ago, in a small college town in the Midwest, a young married couple had their first child.  Dad was in between his sophomore and junior years.  Mom was a secretary.  They had their 2nd anniversary earlier that spring.  

Please consider giving $10 to Heifer International.

I have been rather iffy on my birthday since my parents died.  My life is kind of crazy right now (yes, still), and I wanted to try to do something a little positive.  So I am going to ask here, and on Twitter, and Facebook, to raise money for Heifer.  My goal is $480.  

I am not tracking anything, so unless you tell me in comments or private message, I won’t know.  

Oh, let’s make this sweeter.  Every $10 gets you a ticket, and I will draw for a prize winnter and knit a hat for them.  Deal?  I am also really good at knitting baby socks right now.  

My small plans today include a stop by the yarn store (sock yarn for my son, consulting on legwarmers for my daughter), the pet food store (so the kitties don’t eat me alive), and taking the kids to their dad’s for the afternoon/evening.  I am trying to take a break from politics for a couple days.  These plans are much bigger than I have had the last couple of years.  So it’s a start.  

I had some open tabs.  Now I am sharing.  

Please comment, share, and enjoy.  

This monument to Nelson Mandela is by Marco Cianfanelli.

Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning for 2013

CCRI announcement

Mr. Joel Pett, President of the Board of Directors of the Cartoonists Rights Network International announces that the recipient of the Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning for 2013 is Syrian cartoonist Akram Raslan.

Mr. Raslan was arrested by Syrian authorities at the offices of his newspaper, Al-Fida in the city of Hama, Syria approximately 6 months ago.  He has been held incommunicado since then.  A reliable source reports that he has been tortured and abused, deprived of any legal counsel, and is now to be put on trial in a special court that has been created for enemies of the state.

CRNI gives Akram Aslan our annual Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning in recognition of his extraordinary courage in confronting the forces of violence with cartoons that told only the truth.

The cartoonists are coming!  The cartoonists are coming to my town!  

AAEC 2013 Convention  The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists

Pat Bagley: Editorial Cartoonists Convention On his process, the convention and cartooning in Utah

City Weekly; Rachel Piper

Brace for scrutiny, Salt Lakers: The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists is holding its 2013 convention here at the end of the month (June 27-29, EditorialCartoonists.com).

You’ve been on hiatus from your daily cartoon in preparation for the conference. Is it odd?

I was listening to the radio on the way over, and I heard something about Nelson Mandela. And I was thinking, “If he dies, and I’m not there to do a cartoon about it, that would be bad.” There are things that could bring me to do another cartoon.

What’s your process for generating a cartoon every day since 1979?

As you go through life, you stash away information-whatever you read, whatever you watch on television, what you see in the movies, it’s just more material that goes in your attic. The messier your attic is, the more material you’ve got to go through. You think about this and that, and you can maybe make some odd connections. But it’s hard to say what makes that connection. All I can say is, expose yourself to a lot of stuff, intellectually. I like history, and I read a lot, and I think that helps.

I do it all kinds of ways. Sometimes I just want to draw a dinosaur that day, and I’ll doodle until I come up with a caption.

Has there ever been a day when you’re just like, “I got nothin.”?

Oh God, yeah. It’s only happened four times in the 30, 40 years I’ve been there. You can always do a bad cartoon.

National Archives, US Gov’t.  Navajo man and family.  

All The News is a semi-regular feature here in purple.  I select articles from news sites around the world, and use other social media for possible stories too.  Please share stories you find interesting or comment on anything included here.  

Judge: Obama sex assault comments ‘unlawful command influence’

Stars & Stripes; Eric Slavin

Two defendants in military sexual assault cases cannot be punitively discharged, if found guilty, because of “unlawful command influence” derived from comments made by President Barack Obama, a judge ruled in a Hawaii military court this week.

Navy Judge Cmdr. Marcus Fulton ruled during pretrial hearings in two sexual assault cases – U.S. vs. Johnson and U.S. vs. Fuentes – that comments made by Obama as commander in chief would unduly influence any potential sentencing, according to a court documents obtained by Stars and Stripes.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Fulton approved the pretrial defense motions, which used as evidence comments that Obama made about sexual assault at a May 7 news conference.

…

The judge’s pretrial ruling means that if either defendant is found guilty, whether by a jury or a military judge, they cannot receive a bad conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge. Sailors found guilty under the Uniform Code of Military Justice’s Article 120, which covers several sexual crimes including assault and rape, generally receive punitive discharges.

The ruling sets the stage for defense attorneys to use the same arguments in sexual assault cases throughout the military.

Obama makes policy comments.  Defense lawyer says “oh noes!!!!”  Judge rules no one may be discharged for bad conduct?  #wtf  

A few small finishes.  Two big projects who could not be closer to being “done”, and a brag for my daughter.  

All photos in this diary are by me, the diarist.  

Would you like to host The Making Location?  Once a week would be lovely!  I am just not organized enough, or don’t have fresh photos of weekly progress sometimes . . . Anyone?  

Walt Stoneburner.  

On Memorial Day the flag is displayed at half staff until noon and at full staff from noon to sunset.

GO! RIGHT NOW!  OUTSIDE!  LOOK TO THE WEST!  ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE IN CALIFORNIA!  

Memorial Day Planet Parade: See Jupiter, Mercury & Venus

Grand Canyon, from space shuttle – credit to the astronauts.  I don’t understand the perspective though, there are heavy pine forests near the rim.  

Disclaimer:  In case it is not already abundantly clear, the stuff inside the blockquotes are NOT my words.  I provide links to the full content just above each blockquote.  I give full attribution to photos from news sites and normally copy their own attribution directly.  If I use my own words, they are in plain text, and outside of the blockquoting and orange links.  

Commander Chris Hadfield took this from the ISS and shared it on twitter.  

Here is your Sunday night news.  Please add stories you like, or from where you are, in the comments.

Disclaimer:  In case it is not already abundantly clear, the stuff inside the blockquotes are NOT my words.  I provide links to the full content just above each blockquote.  I give full attribution to photos from news sites and normally copy their own attribution directly.  If I use my own words, they are in plain text, and outside of the blockquoting and orange links.

Looking south from the Shoreline Trail just south of University of Utah section.    

@thatsearth Ocean Sand 250x magnification.  

Lead story:

Gun Violence Since Newtown

Bill Moyers; John Light and Lauren Feeney

Take a look at gun deaths, school shootings, public opinion and the Senate vote on gun control in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, that killed 26 people, including 20 children.

The Victims



Number of people killed by guns in the first 98 days post-Newtown: 2,244

 There are info-graphics & data.  Read and weep.