Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Wednesday Watering Hole: Check In & Hangout for the Herd

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Good morning, Moosekind.  


  PLEASE Do Not Recommend the check-in diary! 

        Recs on the weather jar comment are still welcome.

The common Moose, Alces alces, unlike other members of the deer family, is a solitary animal that doesn’t form herds. Not so its rarer but nearest relative, Alces purplius, the Motley Moose. Though sometimes solitary, the Motley Moose herds in ever shifting groups at the local watering hole to exchange news and just pass the time.

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The morning check-in is an open thread and general social hour.

It’s traditional but not obligatory to give us a weather check where you are and let us know what’s new, interesting, challenging or even routine in your life lately. Nothing is particularly obligatory here except:

Always remember the Moose Golden (Purple?) Rule:

Be kind to each other… or else.

What could be simpler than that, right?

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Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 20 Comments

20 comments

  1. iriti

    Today’s high in the low 90’s with humidity so high you could cut the air with a knife & serve it on a plate. ‘Strong thunderstorms’ this afternoon. Joy.

    On the other hand, we’re halfway through a four-day week, and the forecast for the weekend is clear skies, low 80’s and lower humidity all three days.

  2. JanF

    It is 59 degrees here on its way up to 68. Yay!! The hot spell has broken. I slept with the windows open and was not awakened by the sounds of thunder for the first time in what seems like a week (probably only 4 days).

    I have two days left in this short work week and I need to contact people whose projects I will be working on over the long weekend to make sure I have everything I need to complete the work.

    Does this surprise anyone? Supreme Court hits new low: Only 30% have confidence in justices. Good job, John Roberts!! And here is the Bush legacy: another institution that Americans have lost faith in:

    The ratings for the court mostly stayed in the 40s and 50s but took a sharp turn down to 34% in 2007 – a year after George W. Bush won Senate confirmation for Samuel Alito to the court.

    Appointing a political hack, and an incompetent one at that, to the Supreme Court demeans it.  Supreme Court justices taking free junkets from conservative organizations and having their families work for PACs and political parties demeans it further.

    The Roberts Court … worst in history. John Roberts should retire to spend time with his family. The Sotomayor Court has a nice ring to it.

  3. JanF

    I am going to dust off an old I Vote For Democrats celebrating that law (and Democrats) and repost it.

    I recommend this column by Leonard Pitts: Civil rights journey far from finished

    Sen. Richard Russell called it a work of “manifold evils.”

    Sen. Barry Goldwater called it a “threat to the very essence” of America.

    Rep. Howard Smith called it a “monstrous instrument of oppression.”

    It was the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and its “oppression,” “threat” and “evil,” at least in the eyes of those conservative men, were that it outlawed racial discrimination in public places. The Act was signed into law 50 years ago Wednesday by President Lyndon Johnson and if it is not the single most consequential piece of legislation ever passed by Congress, it is certainly in the top tier. With the stroke of a pen – actually, the stroke of 72 ceremonial pens – Johnson exploded the old America and laid the cornerstone of the new.

    Without the Act, Barack Obama is no president, Neil deGrasse Tyson is no celebrity astrophysicist, Shonda Rhimes is no hit TV producer, Juan Williams is no Fox pundit and, not to put too fine a point on it, yours truly is no Miami Herald columnist. More to the point, in a nation without the Act, somebody is legally required to enter McDonald’s through the back door today, somebody else must detour around a public park he is not allowed to walk through, somebody else has to decide if seeing 22 Jump Street is worth the indignity of having to watch it from the back row of the theater.

    We have come a long way in the last half century. That is our triumph. And also our challenge.

    ~snip~

    If America is anything, it is an implicit promise of fairness, a promise that you will not arrested, suspected, rejected, demeaned, denied, suspended, scapegoated, held back, pushed down or killed on account of the color of your skin. For 238 years, we have lurched in fits and starts toward fulfillment of that promise, periods of progress followed by periods of regress. We find ourselves in a latter such period now – mass incarceration rampant, the courts hostile, voting rights again under siege, black boys being killed for wearing hoodies and playing music too loud.

    The 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act is certainly a time for celebration and reflection. But let no one indulge the fantasy that we are “there” now and thus, may cease driving toward the fulfillment of America’s promise.

  5. Portlaw

    for the high eighties. Sigh.

    I saw a play last week, All the Way, about LBJ and MLK and the passage of the Civil Rights Act. I don’t have a TV so much of “Popular History” I get from other media. Looming and unspoken, but casting dark shadows, were the assassinations and the War.

    The play was interesting on many many levels. It reminded me, once again, that LBJ was not just a Vietnam War villain, that many of his compromises were not to gain power but to do something he really truly  believed in, and so on. At the end, when the bill was passed, LBJ knew that the Democratic Party had lost the South, probably for generations. Been thinking about that … are the values of the party more important than the party itself. Was it worth it to lose the South to pass the Civil Rights Act?  Yes. Yes. Yes. As for Civil Rights, there is a lot more to do.

  6. Diana in NoVa

    “They” are forecasting thunderstorms late in the day and indeed, it may rain all around us. It hasn’t rained here in two weeks. The garden looks desiccated and the raspberries aren’t bearing. Miss Pink Cheeks and I are going to do a rain spell this afternoon. We’ll include California, West Texas, and Arizona along with our neighborhood. Hope it works.

    I’ve read two or three volumes of Caro’s biography of LBJ and was riveted, despite the mass of detail. From my reading I’ve concluded that despite his flaws of character, LBJ will ultimately rank as one of our greatest presidents. What roils my stomach is that RR is venerated by the right. In my opinion he was our second stupidest president and as for being likable, what was there to like? Nothing, from what I could see. Even his alleged affability seemed phony to me.

    The short story is coming along. The main character’s name seems to be Owain. Had to look up how to pronounce it on YouTube. It sounds like “uh-wayne,” with the stress on the first syllable.

    This morning Miss PC and I will go to the farmers’ market down the road, then nip over to see my niece and great-nephew at their house. After that, Grandpa has promised us lunch at a Chinese restaurant.

    Hope everyone will have a good day! My head aches, thinking of politics. All I hope is that someone or something will change the national mood and drive everyone to vote Democratic in November.

  7. princesspat

    I finally had some time in the garden yesterday afternoon, and while it may not have been so wise for my (please) healing toe it was good for my soul. I have a few more plants to get into the dirt this morning, then I’ll rewrite the list for next year.

    Our daughter and her family arrive Saturday for a weeks visit so we’re getting ready….fans, plug strips, food and drinks, beds changed, and maybe even some fresh flowers in the house. But most importantly a semi rested me so I’ll be able to enjoy their company.

  8. bfitzinAR

    Yesterday was “do everything now” day – wrapping up fiscal 14 and starting fiscal 15 – so I didn’t get a chance to drop by at all.  Today obviously (since I’m here checking in) will be a bit better but still have a bunch of stuff to deal with.  Got a holiday Friday and I may take a vacation day Monday if I manage to get all the “start up” stuff done today and tomorrow.  Once all the forms, folders, procedures, etc. are in place things will actually slow down for a bit (like the rest of next week) before the next set of things start.  I can use some quiet at work next week as I’ve got 3 potentially very irritating QC committee meetings.  Oh well.  It’s a living, right? 🙂  Have a happy humpday in Moosylvania & {{{HUGS}}} bf

  9. anotherdemocrat

    I stayed home this morning, may not go in at all. My sleep has been really bad the past few days, I tried to get another couple of hours. Eating breakfast & watching Through The Wormhole. If I stay home, I swear I’m exercising today.

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