Motley Moose – Archive

This is the letter I sent to my congressman, Michael Grimm, a Republican.  It’s a bit of an unfortunate reminder that for the first time in my life I’m represented in Congress by a Republican thanks to redistricting.  Before this, I was represented by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a good liberal Democrat.

Dear Congressman Grimm,

I write to urge you to support the common sense proposals put forth today by President Obama. They are measures designed to curb gun violence without infringing upon the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners. Each and every one of us has the right to safe streets, safe schools, safe workplaces and safe public areas.

The weapons that President Obama seeks to have banned are in no way related to self-defense or hunting or any other legal and legitimate purpose. Such military-style assault weapons are designed solely for the purpose of killing and injuring other human beings. There is no reason such weapons should be legal. Similarly, high-capacity magazines are designed to fuel those weapons and make it easier to kill people. As with the weapons, there is no reason such magazines should be legal.

As for universal background checks and registration, I cannot imagine any logical reasons to oppose them. We require a similar system, including licensing, when it comes to automobiles to demonstrate proficiency and safety. Why should guns be any different?

I ask you to put the safety of your constituents, along with those of all Americans, first. That is more important than receiving a high rating from the NRA and other organizations in the gun lobby. Enough people have died over the years because their extreme points of view have too long held sway over too many of our elected officials despite the majority of Americans support common sense gun laws. Please let them know that enough is enough.

Sincerely,

Ryan Mets102

These 180 House members (179 Republicans and 1 Democrat) deserve to have their name emblazoned upon the wall of shame for opposing the expanded Sandy relief package that passed the House of Representatives this evening:

New York State is on the verge of becoming the first state to pass new, and stricter, gun control legislation after last month’s massacre in Newtown, CT.  It looks likely to head to a vote either today or tomorrow, with Governor Andrew Cuomo waiving the usual three-day waiting period before legislation can be voted upon.  According to the details reported in The New York Times, the legislation will:

1. Ban any magazine that contains more than 7 rounds (current limit is 10)
2. Expand background checks to include most private sales and ammunition sales
3. Establish statewide handgun license database
4. Require mental health professionals to report any individual deemed dangerous and such persons firearms license could then be revoked
5. Mandatory sentence of life without parole for anyone convicted of killing a first responder

Explaining his support for the legislation:

Senator Jeffrey D. Klein of the Bronx, the leader of an independent faction of Democrats that has allied with the Republicans to control the Senate, said: “I think when all is said and done, we’re going to pass a comprehensive gun bill today. And I think it’s important, and this is an issue that shows we can work together, Democrats and Republicans.”

“Republicans, it’s very clear, wanted harsher criminal penalties for illegal guns, which is something I agree with,” Mr. Klein added, “but on the other hand we’re also going to ban assault weapons and limit the number of rounds in a magazine. So I think putting those two things together makes it a better bill.”

Full text is here.

So, yes, I’m back to writing again.  I know this is largely a political site and all, but this isn’t a political diary.  This is about the fact that the eligible members of the Baseball Writers Association of America did not elect a single member to the Baseball Hall of Fame this year.  Some of their vote certainly makes sense.  There are players on the ballot who do not belong in Cooperstown despite their gaudy statistics.  There are, however, victims too — players who never had their names linked to scandal and players that there were just whispers about, but no concrete evidence.

I write this diary about both those players.  These are the players of the Steroid Era.  These are the players from an era where many were artificially enhanced and where all the players — both clean and cheater — are tainted by that fact.  Some of those players will inevitably get into Cooperstown, while it is clear that certain players will not.  What is certain is that the bottleneck will only get worse as more and more candidates from that era come up for hall of fame consideration.  These words, however, aren’t specifically about those players, but, rather, about those players that were rejected today.

Note that this diary is only about first-ballot candidates and other players from the Steroid Era.  It is not about players such as Jack Morris or Lee Smith, who are part of an entirely different debate.

Does this line sound familiar?

widely panned by liberals as a watered-down sellout

Am I discussing any of the various pieces of legislation passed by Congress and signed into law President Obama?  Actually, I am not.  I am discussing a man considered a liberal hero and the president that many of President Obama’s critics on the left wish he would emulate:  Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

When FDR created Social Security in 1935, the program offered meager benefits that were delayed for years, excluded domestic workers and other heavily black professions (a necessary compromise to win southern votes), and was widely panned by liberals as a watered-down sellout. Only in subsequent decades, as benefits were raised and expanded, did Social Security become the country’s most beloved government program.

Those words are written in “The Incomplete Greatness of Barack Obama,” an article by Paul Glastris in the most recent edition of Washington Monthly.  The article is a long read, but is well worth it, detailing some of President Obama’s most important actions and accomplishments, and their ability to transform our country in the long run.

Sour cream or apple sauce, that is the question:

Whether ’tis to eat our latkes milchigs* or fleishigs**.

For with applesauce they are parve*** and we may enjoy them

And it matters not what we have alongside,

Then we may have pizza or steak with our latkes,

Although we may not have both of them together.

But when we choose sour cream,

Our die is cast,

Latkes become milchigs,

And we may enjoy steak with them no more.

This question is existential,

And yet it is rarely asked.

We go through the remainder of the year,

Never asking how we will eat our latkes,

For many of us the die is cast by heritage

How to eat our latkes being a tradition spanning generations.

Whether we eat sour cream or apple sauce,

That question was answered by our great-grandparents’ great-grandparents.

We just carry on the traditions,

How best we can,

And we hope to pass those traditions on to future generations.

Tonight, and for the next eight days,

We face that question.

We shall light candles,

We shall sing songs,

We shall spin our dreidels,

We shall eat our gelt,

We shall gorge ourselves on our latkes.

The only question is:

Shall we have sour cream or apple sauce while we do so?

That’s what someone scrawled on the car of a Jewish family in the Marine Park neighborhood of Brooklyn.  This is the latest in a string of reported incidents that have come throughout the month of November.  First, there was the firebombing of cars and antisemitic graffiti in the largely Jewish neighborhood of Midwood.  Then there was vandalization of a sign at the Avenue J train station to read “Avenue Jew.”  Last week, vandals scratched swastikas into an elevator in a building in Williamsburg.  Now there’s this; “G-d don’t like Jews.”  According to WCBS, this is the sixth antisemitic incident in Brooklyn this month alone.

Swastikas were found in an apartment building elevator on Friday afternoon in Brooklyn’s latest antisemitic hate crime.  This time, the incident occurred in Williamsburg, a mixed neighborhood with a large Hassidic Jewish population.  This incident comes on the heels of the firebombing of cars and antisemitic graffiti in Midwood and graffiti changing a sign at the Avenue J train station to “Avenue Jew” earlier this month.  Moreover, this is the second such incident in this particular building this month.

That is what some vandal or vandals changed a sign at the Avenue J train station in the Midwood neighborhood in Brooklyn to read.  As of now, the sign has been removed and police are investigating this as a bias incident.  This is the second incident in Midwood in less than a week.  Last Friday, antisemitic vandals firebombed several cars and spray painted swastikas and “KKK” on other cars and benches less than a mile away (also see fizziks’ diary about the incident and the neighborhood).

In principle, I still support capital punishment.  I still believe that is a just punishment for those guilty of the most heinous homicides.  In theory, all those executed would be guilty.  Unfortunately, we live in the real world, and not one merely of theory and principle.  And, in that real world, my position on capital punishment is informed by the risk of executing an innocent person.  There have been instances where it is strongly suspected an innocent person may have been executed, most notably that of Cameron Todd Willingham.  The case of Troy Davis, though, is even more egregious.  In fact, it has changed my mind when it comes to capital punishment.

Most people say their worst nightmare, when it comes to capital punishment, is that it would be learned after an execution that the condemned was innocent.  That is not, and never has been, my worst nightmare.  My worst nightmare has been that a state would execute a person it knew to be factually innocent, or have a high probability of innocence, at the time of execution.  This is what is happening in the case of Troy Davis.  It represents the complete failure of both the executive and judicial branches.

This, unfortunately, is not even the most egregious aspect of what is happening.  It turns out such executions might not even be unconstitutional.  Yes, that was read right.  It might not violate the Constitution to execute a person who is factually innocent, and, at the time of execution, it is already known, and admitted, by the state that the person is factually innocent.