Motley Moose – Archive

We voted on this series name.  If you want to host, please leave a comment.  I have been remiss in my cross-posting so one link still goes to the orange place.  

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?  

The Making Location is the Motley Moose community spot for all things handmade, homemade, created, from any material using any technique.  You are all welcome to share what you have been making.  In progress, planning, UFO’s, or finished items all welcome.  

The legwarmers I started during early March are finished, and I wove in the ends during a kid-appointment yesterday.

Welcome to the Making Location, the Moosely place for all things hand-made, home-made, crafted, fashioned, done yourself, hobbified, cooked, written, etc.  This is where we share, admire, and we can try to problem-solve too.  

I have a few things from around the tubes to share, and updates to my Lenten project, described in my previous WAYWO.  

Daughter, in her newer, better, fuller pioneer skirt.  I must love her a lot for letting her use that beatiful Northcott-Monarch fabric from Jennifer Wheeling’s Victorian collection.  😉

I also want to apologize for my lapse.  Baseball season started, and it has thrown the carefully  balanced chaos in Casa Jenn for a horrible loop.  Beading has all but stopped.  Suppers around the table are rare.  I am hoping the scheduling gets a teeny bit better after Easter, but this next week will be challenging.  

Oh hai!

I have overuse and tension in both shoulders and across upperback.  After a knock-down drag-out tension headache over the weekend, I have iced, stretched, and started some very specific exercises with weights.  

Do you create for others?  For family members, for charity? I recently reflected on for whom I create, and I have a special project for the Lenten season, which I celebrate before Easter.  

Welcome again to your weekly open thread!  I kept looking at last week’s and NO ONE chatted after the first day.  That gives me a sad.  So I took pictures of 5 active projects!  

Here is a ruffly scarf I just finished knitting last night, and it needs the ends sewn down and can go live with its new owner.  



The yarn is Sashay in color Boogie, and I used 6 stitches and knit every row, keeping the ruffles all on one side.  This short row length curls into a tube when worn.  

Welcome to the Motley’s Moose’s Weekly Gathering for all things made by us!  No matter your methods, you may share!  

I have 3 knitting projects on needles, one swatched, and one abandoned one to pick up.  

Also, brownies are coming out of the oven right now.  

I only have photos of one item to share:

Greetings once again oh creative people!  

I have a new poll.  After this we should probably poll for day of week.  

Cross posted at the Progressive Zionist (www.progressivezionist.com)

Hat Tip to Jed Lewiston and his Front Page Diary at Daily Kos: Remember when Paul Ryan blamed the attack in Benghazi on the sequester?

In reading Jed’s diary something struck me in one of Paul Ryans quotes:

We should always stand up for peace, for democracy, for individual rights.

Ok… on it’s own sounds fine.

Then Ryan goes on to say:

And we should not be imposing these devastating defense cuts, because what that does when we equivocate on our values, when we show that we’re cutting down on defense, it makes us more weak. It projects weakness. And when we look weak, our adversaries are much more willing to test us.

And this is where Ryan channels Big Brother. Allow me quote from George Orwell’s Masterpiece 1984:

WAR IS PEACE

So… what Ryan here is directly saying is… (In my words): “Let’s stand for PEACE and the way we stand for PEACE is to build up our WAR machine to a point where no one will be able to challenge us, because if they do, we will utterly destroy them.”

Now, aside from the facts that Guerilla movements in SouthEastern and Central Asia give lie to his commentary (after all, we outgunned the Viet Cong and Taliban 10,000 to one and we were able to wreck complete destruction upon their relative nations and yet that didn’t stop them). This is a dangerous fallacy that has infected the American Polity in a number of ways.

OH, and before we go on I want to make it clear that I am not an isolationist, I am not a Green, and I have no issue with the United States having a presence around the Globe (though I am certainly not a supporter of “Empire Building”). Further, I fully support the notion that the U.S. and our allies should have what I term a “Stout Defense”. But, that said, I also support an honest commentary on what that means and NOT use of Orwellian terminology to create a false meme.

But here… Here is a chart of our Defense Spending relative to the rest of the world

1. United States          711.0    

2. China                  143.0    

3. Russia                  71.9

4. United Kingdom          62.7

5. France                  62.5

6. Japan                   59.3

Now, notice… IF the U.S. Cut it’s military spending by over $ 400 BILLION per year. That’s right… you saw it $ 400 BILLION PER YEAR, we would STILL outspend the next five countries on the list added up together.

Let’s break that down even further. IF we cut our Defense budget by $ 500 Billion for one year we would still almost outspend our main rivals Russia and China together (they would have us by $ 3 billion).

NOW, does anyone in their right mind think that Al Qaeda for one second looks at our defense spending and says: “HOHOHO America cut it’s spending – well they must be weak” and further does anyone even further out really think that our main allies, Britain, France, Israel, Australia, etc… think that we are somehow “weak” even though we are outspending the next five nations (Nations 3 2-#6) collectively???

No.. What this is, is a blatant Orwellian Chant of “War is Peace”, “We destroyed that village to save the village”.

Paul Ryan’s words are hypocritical. His party stands firmly against Democracy (look at his party’s efforts to not count the popular vote), his party party stands firmly against individual rights (Marriage Equality, voting rights, civil rights). Ryan talks about Peace but in this, he is only talking about the Peace that comes from utter destruction left in the wake of War.