Motley Moose – Archive

… could become as important a journalistic tool as the Freedom of Information Act.

– Time Magazine

Wikileaks is the world’s #1 resource for publishing secret documents that are in the interest of public good.  This site is a colossal pain in the ass for corporate criminals, corrupt governments, tax cheats and anyone out to abuse the general public.  The site allows anyone in the world to submit secret documents anonymously so that the whole world can know what the criminals don’t want you to know.  Whistleblowers and people of conscience who come across powerful secret information are able to make it public through Wikileaks.  It is the only site of its kind.

(Cross-posted at The National Gadfly

This post is not about Sexism or Feminism, it is about my experience in talking about them. I have had several conversations lately about how people engage in debate over sex / gender / body (SGB) identity issues. I am launching a blog that supports dialogue on those issues and in the communities that they create. As I frame the terms of the conversations and the goals of the site, I have begun to articulate my view on the structure of dialogue itself.

Simply put, I have been thinking about how we treat each other inside a conversation about SGB issues and identity. I noticed some patterns of how we seem argue with each other inside these conversations. This post is not about something specific to SGB issues, advocates themselves or the conversations. This is about how we speak to each other about those issues. SGB issue conversations are not somehow different from other conversations. I simply care about them more. This applies to Racism, Classism, TG discrimination or any other conversation regarding society and individuals.

(Cross-posted at The National Gadfly)

There are a million reasons to be awake in the middle of the night in New York City.  Something magical happens there after dark.  The city changes.  It looks different.  It sounds different.  It has different people.

When it’s 3am in New York, you can suddenly find yourself in a quiet place with your body tired and your mind awake.  That place may be your car, your room or where you work.  It could be a food counter or on a sidewalk seeking shelter from a downpour.  Or, you could simply be lying in your bed waiting for sleep to come.  In those places, there is a feeling unlike any other city in the world.  In the dark quiet, you suddenly feel like the city and you are aware of each other and you catch your breath together for a moment of that deep silence.

Cross-posted at The National Gadfly

Hi all, John Allen brought out some points (below) on the 1000th Diary thread this week – about the site's direction. I had seen some news about Soapblox going down a while back, which was about the time I discovered The Moose.  Over at MyDD, some threads started by Shai Sachs about a creating a Drupal solution for collaborative blogging:

• Soapbox Meltdown and Drupal
• A Drupal-based DailyKos
• Roadmap for a Drupal-based progressive community blog platform 
• First release of Drupal progressive blogging platform
• Blog-based project groups and Drupal

N’en déplaise à ces fous nommés sages de Grèce,

En ce monde il n’est point de parfaite sagesse;

Tous les hommes sont fous, et malgré tous leurs soîns

Ne diffèrent entre eux que du plus ou du moins.

– BOILEAU

Whatever these crazy appointed sages of Greece,

In this world there is no perfect wisdom;

All men are mad, and despite all their care

Differ among themselves as more or less.

So reads the somewhat cynical inscription to Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, written in 1841 by Charles Mackay.  It was a book about bubbles.  The first two chapters are about financial bubbles.

Cross-posted at The National Gadfly

Wikileaks just notified people that they are releasing over $1 billion dollars’ worth of reports gathered by the Congressional Research Services (CRS).  These reports are provided to members of the US Congress and are legally in the public domain.  However, they are only released to the public with the permission of Congress in a complex system of permissions and protocols and ass-covering politicians.  Needless to say, attempts to free this information from the ‘red tape’ that keeps it from actually being released to the public have been met with resistance.Well, leave it to Wikileaks to strike a blow for transparency.

Cross-posted at The National Gadfly

(Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

On December 22, 2001 this man changed the world.  He assaulted an airplane with his shoe.  Ever since that day and every day since, anyone who travels by airplane can count on long security lines with no shoes on.  It was a breakthrough move, both in choice of weapons and the sheer number of people effected.  Mr. Reid took a size 15 Air Jordan from the discount rack at Nine West onto the pages of Jane’s Weapons Index.  His invention generated hundreds of millions of dollars in security revenue worldwide, legislation in thousands of national and local governments and a name brand recognition that is truly global.  Unlike other Intellectual Property (IP) pioneers who are rewarded with lucrative IPO’s and multi-million dollar contracts, Mr. Reid sits in a jail cell, alone.

(Cross posted at The National Gadfly)

Image courtesy of ABC News.

According to this well written piece from David Porter, also carried at HuffPo – US Army General David Petraeus is working to override US President Barack Obama.  

(Cross posted at The National Gadfly)

"The only good union is a dead union!" Osama bin Laden stated in prepared remarks today.

DATELINE MUSCAT, OMAN: Another shocking revelation of anti-Union plotting and scheming today, but this time it was not CEO’s of TARP Bailout recipient banks.  The attendees?  Senior Al Qaeda management, including Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and over two dozen more senior managers.  It marked a historic first time for so many senior managers from Al Qaeda to be in one place at the same time. Under normal circumstances and for security reasons, Al Qaeda leaders are not allowed within 50 miles of each other but desperate times call for desperate measures.

(Cross posted at The National Gadfly)

I’ll start:

Minutes turn into hours and add up to days, weeks and months of my life on the phone.  That said, the absolute bane of my telco experience is The Phone Bridge.