Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

The Daily F Bomb, Thursday 12/12/13

Tags:

Interrogatories

Do you decorate your house inside for Christmas? If yes, how?

Do you decorate the outside for Christmas? If yes, how?

What have you done this week to aid in the effort of the War on Christmas?

Do you ever make your own decorations, or aid children in theirs?

The Twitter Emitter

On This Day

In 1787, Pennsylvania was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution.

In 1870, Joseph H. Rainey was sworn in as a congressman representing South Carolina, becoming the second black congressman (he was a Republican, but that was back when they were an entirely different party).

In 1901, at the appropriately named Signal Hill in Newfoundland, Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic radio signal.

In 1941, Adolf Hitler announced his plans for mass murder of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery.

In 2000, the United States Supreme Court released its decision in Bush v. Gore. Anti-depressant sales skyrocketed and internet traffic spiked.

Born on This Day

1753 – Jean-Claude Naigeon, French painter (d.1832)

1753 – William Beechey, British portrait painter (d. 1839)

1799 – Karl Bryullov, Russian painter (d. 1852)

photo KarlBryullov.jpg

1805 – William Lloyd Garrison, American abolitionist (d. 1879)

1805 – Henry Wells, American banker (d. 1878)

1821 – Gustave Flaubert, French writer (d. 1880) (a Red Letter day for him!)

1854 – Thomas Cooper Gotch, painter (d. 1931)

photo ThomasCooperGotch.png

1863 – Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter whose most famous work, The Scream (which he did several versions of), is much parodied. (d. 1944)

photo EdvardMunch.jpg

1856 – Henry Moret, French impressionist landscape painter (d. 1913)

photo HenriMoret.jpg

1872 – Heinrich Vogeler, German painter (d. 1942)

photo HeinrichVogeler.jpg

1874 – Leonard Campbell Taylor, British painter (d. 1969)

photo LeonardCampbellTaylor.jpg

1881 – Harry Warner, American studio executive (d. 1958)

1893 – Edward G. Robinson, American actor (d. 1973)

1900 – Sammy Davis, Sr., American entertainer (d. 1988)

1909 – Karen Morley, American actress (d. 2003)

1910 – Richard Sagrits, Estonian painter (d. 1968)

1915 – Frank Sinatra, American singer and actor (d. 1998) (See Sammy above)

1918 – Joe Williams, American singer (d. 1999)

1919 – John Henry Wilde, U.S. surrealist painter (d. 2006)

1923 – Frank Wesley, Indian painter who worked in Australia (d. 2002)

1929 – John Osborne, English dramatist (d. 1994)

1940 – Dionne Warwick, American singer

1943 – Grover Washington, Jr., American saxophonist (d. 1999)

1944 – Rob Tyner, American singer, songwriter and activist (The MC5) (d. 1991)

1949 – Bill Nighy, English actor

1957 – Sheila E., American musician

1968 – Rory Kennedy, American documentarian

1970 – Mädchen Amick, American actress (Twin Peaks)

1972 – Brandon Teena, American murder victim (d. 1993)

1975 – Mayim Bialik, American actress

Died on This Day

1694 – Filippo Lauri, Italian painter (b. 1623)

1787 – Jean Valade, French portrait painter (b. 1709)

1793 – Michel-Bruno Bellengé, French flower painter (b. 1726)

1860 – Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen, Dutch animal painter (b. 1795)

photo HendrikvandeSandeBakhuyzen.jpg

1889 – Robert Browning, English poet (b. 1812)

1923 – Raymond Radiguet, French author (b. 1903)

1939 – Douglas Fairbanks, American actor (b. 1883)

1968 – Tallulah Bankhead, American actress and character (but not a character actress!) (b. 1902)

photo TallulahTippling.jpg

1970 – Natan Altman, Russian Constructivist painter (b. 1889)

1978 – Fay Compton, English actress (b. 1894)

1985 – Anne Baxter, American actress (b. 1923)

1998 – Mo Udall, American politician (b. 1922)

1999 – Paul Cadmus, American artist. (b. 1904)

1999 – Joseph Heller, American author (b. 1923

2008 – Van Johnson, American actor (b. 1916)

photo VanJohnson.jpg

Today is

Poinsettia Day

Ding A Ling Day

Gingerbread House Day

Festival of Unmentionable Thoughts

National Ambrosia Day

National Popcorn String Day


Categories: General.

/ 14 Comments

Thursday Morning Herd Check-in

Tags:

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

   


    PLEASE Do Not Recommend the check-in diary

        Fierces on the Weather Critter Comment are obligatory welcome.

The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.

For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.

The important stuff to get you started:

– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.

– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)

– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce, … or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).

– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”

– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”

(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)

You can follow the daily moosetrails here: Motley Moose Recent Comments.

~

Let the greetings begin!

~


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 20 Comments

The Daily F Bomb, Wednesday 12/11/13

Tags:

Interrogatories

Have you, or has anyone close to you, ever fallen for a scam?

If you’re on Facebook, what percentage of “friends” is people you actually know in real life?

Did you ever have a trampoline?  A swing set? When you played outdoors, what did you play on, and what kind of games?

Is your local infrastructure in good or bad condition?

The Twitter Emitter

On This Day

In 1816, Indiana was admitted as the 19th U.S. state.

In 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States when the Americans’ declared of war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States, in turn, declared war right back on Germany and Italy.

In 1968, the Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus began filming. Featuring such artists and the Stones (duh), The Who, Jethro Tull, John and Yoko, Taj Mahal, and Marianne Faithfull. It was never shown, though it was finally released on VHS and Laserdisc in 1996.

In 1972, Apollo 17 was the sixth and final Apollo mission to land on the Moon.

In 2008, Wall Streeter Bernard Madoff was arrested and charged for masterminding a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Born on This Day

1599 – Pieter Jacobs Codde, Dutch genre painter (d. 1678)

1656 – Johann Michael Rottmayr, Austrian Baroque painter (d. 1730)

1668 – Domenico Maria Viani, Italian painter (d. 1711)

1781 – Sir David Brewster, Scottish physicist and inventor of the kaleidoscope. (d. 1868)

1803 – Hector Berlioz, French composer (d. 1869)

1805 – Carl Ferdinand Sohn, German painter (d. 1867)

photo CarlFerdinandSohn.jpg

1830 – Kamehameha V, Hawaiian king (d. 1872)

1838 – John Labatt, Irish-Canadian brewer (d. 1915)

1841 – Antonio Montemezzo, Italian animal painter (d. 1898)

photo AntonioMontemezzo.jpg

1852 – Alfred Zoff, Austrian landscape painter (d. 1927)

1872 – René Bull, Irish illustrator (d. 1942)

photo Rene3010Bull.jpg

1876 – Ricardo Canals y Llambi, Spanish painter (d. 1931)

1890 – Pierre de Belay, French painter (d. 1947)

photo PierredeBelay.jpg

1904 – Felix Nussbaum, German Jewish painter (d. 1944 in a concentration camp)

1905 – Gilbert Roland, American actor (d. 1994)

photo GilbertRolandTippling.jpg

1911 – Val Guest, English film director (d. 2006)

1912 – Carlo Ponti, Italian film producer (d. 2007)

1913 – Jean Marais, French actor (d. 1998)

1918 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and Soviet dissident, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2008)

1919 – Marie Windsor, American actress (d. 2000)

1922 – Maila Nurmi, Finnish-American actress (d. 2008)

1923 – Betsy Blair, American actress (d. 2009)

1926 – Big Mama Thornton, American singer (d. 1984)

1927 – Dovima, fashion model (d. 1990)

1927 – John Buscema, American comic book artist (d. 2002)

1931 – Rita Moreno, Puerto Rican actress

1932 – Anne Heywood, English actress

1938 – McCoy Tyner, American jazz pianist

1939 – Tom Hayden, American politician and activist

1941 – Max Baucus, American politician, senior senator of Montana

1943 – John Kerry, American politician

1944 – Brenda Lee, American singer

1954 – Jermaine Jackson, American singer (Jackson 5)

1961 – Dave King, Irish singer (Flogging Molly)

1964 – Justin Currie, Scottish singer and songwriter (Del Amitri)

1964 – Dave Schools, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (Widespread Panic, Stockholm Syndrome, and J Mascis + The Fog)

1973 – Mos Def, American rapper who has grown into a fine actor as well

Died on This Day

1513 – Bernardino Betti di Biagi, best known as Pinturicchio, Italian frescoe painter (b. 1454)

1737 – Nicolas Vleughels, French painter (b. 1668)

1738 – Johann-Rudolf Byss, Swiss painter (b. 1660)

photo Johann-RudolfByss.jpg

1845 – Roger Joseph Jourdain, French painter (d. 1918)

photo RogerJosephJourdain.jpg

1872 – Kamehameha V of Hawaii (b. 1830)

1885 – Niels Simonsen, Danish orientalist painter (b. 1807)

photo NielsSimonsen-1.jpg

1942 – Séraphine de Senlis, French painter who allegedly died insane (b. 1864)

photo Se3010raphinedeSenlis.jpg

1957 – Musidora (Jeanne Roques), French actress (b. 1889)

1964 – Sam Cooke, American singer (b. 1931)

1968 – Richard Sagrits, Estonian painter (b. 1910)

1975 – Lee Wiley, American jazz singer (b. 1908)

1989 – Louise Dahl-Wolfe, American photographer (b. 1895)

2008 – Bettie Page, legendary American model (b. 1923)

Today is

National Noodle Ring Day (I believe these are those spaghetti-O things)

International Mountain Day

National Tango Day (Buenos Aires)


Categories: General.

/ 14 Comments

Wednesday Watering Hole: Check In & Hangout for the Herd

Tags:

Good morning, Moosekind. Greetings from the frozen Northlands of Virginia, where we have decided to have actual winter here. Only in the late fall.


  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.

photo Moosewateringhole_zpsfce12127.jpg

The morning check-in is an open thread and general social hour. Come back when time allows through the day – the conversation continues.

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?

photo aaaaasnow_zpsc843b010.jpg


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 39 Comments

Nelson Mandela. Memorials, Militancy and the ANC movement




photo Mandelaraisedfist_zps7f792329.jpg

Anti-apartheid leader and African National Congress (ANC) member Nelson Mandela raises clenched fist, arriving to address a mass rally, a few days after his release from jail.

South Africans and supporters world-wide continue to pay tribute to and honor Madiba, Nelson Mandela. You can visit the official SA government site for memorial and funeral events. From heads of state, to young schoolchildren, there has been an outpouring of condolences and sentiment.

The media coverage has been extensive-I’ve tried to look at as much as I can find-but so far the best and most comprehensive, imho, has been the live coverage from SABC TV, South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Coverage here in the U.S. has been varied, from laudatory to much of the usual carping and racism from the right, and many media outlets are already posting overly sanitized versions of his life and history, disconnected from his role and part in a struggle larger than one man, no matter his greatness. For those of you who may have missed it, please read shanikka’s Farewell Madiba, Who We Once Called Nelson Mandela

I found responses to the Mandela New Yorker cover to be particularly interesting.

photo MandelaNewYorkercover_zps568948d1.jpg

The BBC has an interview with the artist, Kadir Nelson, who is also the author of Nelson Mandela, for children ages 4 – 8 years.

I wandered into the New Yorker blog comments section, and found some remarks particularly telling. Like this one:

jmen 3 days ago

Are there actually photographs of Mandela in that Black Power/Black Panther pose? It seems to me that no one was less about Black Power than he was.

As De Klerk said yesterday, “Nelson Mandela’s biggest legacy was . . . his remarkable lack of bitterness.”

Black power pose? A raised arm and clenched fist? The answer of course is yes-there are many such images-images that simply represent a struggle over decades that took the lives of so many who were fighting for freedom.

Another commenter posted from a very different perspective. It has been shared by thousands (with audio)

Mandela will never, ever be your minstrel.

Dear revisionists, Mandela will never, ever be your minstrel. Over the next few days you will try so, so hard to make him something he was not, and you will fail. You will try to smooth him, to sandblast him, to take away his Malcolm X. You will try to hide his anger from view. Right now, you are anxiously pacing the corridors of your condos and country estates, looking for the right words, the right tributes, the right-wing tributes. You will say that Mandela was not about race. You will say that Mandela was not about politics. You will say that Mandela was about nothing but one love, you will try to reduce him to a lilting reggae tune. “Let’s get together, and feel alright.” Yes, you will do that.

You will make out that apartheid was just some sort of evil mystical space disease that suddenly fell from the heavens and settled on all of us, had us all, black or white, in its thrall, until Mandela appeared from the ether to redeem us. You will try to make Mandela a Magic Negro and you will fail. You will say that Mandela stood above all for forgiveness whilst scuttling swiftly over the details of the perversity that he had the grace to forgive.You will try to make out that apartheid was some horrid spontaneous historical aberration, and not the logical culmination of centuries of imperial arrogance. Yes, you will try that too. You will imply or audaciously state that its evils ended the day Mandela stepped out of jail. You will fold your hands and say the blacks have no-one to blame now but themselves.

Well, try hard as you like, and you’ll fail. Because Mandela was about politics and he was about race and he was about freedom and he was even about force, and he did what he felt he had to do and given the current economic inequality in South Africa he might even have died thinking he didn’t do nearly enough of it. And perhaps the greatest tragedy of Mandela’s life isn’t that he spent almost thirty years jailed by well-heeled racists who tried to shatter millions of spirits through breaking his soul, but that there weren’t or aren’t nearly enough people like him. Because that’s South Africa now, a country long ago plunged headfirst so deep into the sewage of racial hatred that, for all Mandela’s efforts, it is still retching by the side of the swamp. Just imagine if Cape Town were London. Imagine seeing two million white people living in shacks and mud huts along the M25 as you make your way into the city, where most of the biggest houses and biggest jobs are occupied by a small, affluent to wealthy group of black people.  There are no words for the resentment that would still simmer there.Nelson Mandela was not a god, floating elegantly above us and saving us. He was utterly, thoroughly human, and he did all he did in spite of people like you. There is no need to name you because you know who you are, we know who you are, and you know we know that too. You didn’t break him in life, and you won’t shape him in death. You will try, wherever you are, and you will fail.

My question is-will the traditional media fail? Will we wind up with yet another saintly Martin Luther King Jr. known only for “I have a dream” and “content of character”? Will it be like the historically incorrect images of that “tired older woman” who sat down on a bus one day-Rosa Parks?

Bloggers, educators, parents and teachers have to ensure that the life of the individual-Nelson Mandala-is firmly seated in an historical context, as well as part and parcel of the continuing struggle in South Africa to deal with not only the continuance of racism, but also of the severity and inequality of economic apartheid.

A good place to start is with the African National Congress (ANC) History, at their website, which is important to review if you don’t understand how long this struggle has been underway. It has nine sections:

1. The African Kingdoms are defeated 1860s – 1900

2. The ANC is formed – 1912

3. Working for a Wage

4. The ANC Gains New Life – 1940s

5. A Mass Movement is Born – 1950

6. The Armed Struggle Begins – 1960s

7. Workers and Students Fight Back – 1970s

8. The Struggle for People`s Power – 1980s

9. The ANC is Unbanned

While there, for visual images and video please visit the ANC archives

photo 1951ANCposter_zps2b47ff63.jpg

Poster: 1951 Defiance Campaign

Poster published by the ANC in 1984; designed by Thami Mnyele; printed by Caledonian Press, London. The photograph shows blind trade union leader Violet Hashe addressing a crowd in Johannesburg at the start of the 1951 Defiance Campaign; picture from Drum Magazine. Poster: … to organise our womenfolk into a powerful, united and active force for revolutionary change. This task falls on men and women alike – all of us as comrades. FORWARD WITH THE YEAR OF THE WOMEN!

I was struck by this poster, from 1951 simply because it not only pictures a female trade unionist, but it references the Defiance Campaign.

The Defiance Campaign in 1952 was the first large-scale, multi-racial political mobilization against apartheid laws under a common leadership – by the African National Congress, South African Indian Congress, and the Coloured People’s Congress. More than 8,000 trained volunteers went to jail for “defying unjust laws,” laws that had grown worse since the National Party came to power in 1948. Volunteers were jailed for failing to carry passes, violating the curfew on Africans, and entering locations and public facilities designated for one race only.

In early 1953, the government imposing stiff penalties for protesting discriminatory laws, including heavy fines and prison sentences of up to five years. It then enacted the Public Safety Act, allowing declaration of a State of Emergency to override existing laws and oversight by courts. Although the Defiance Campaign did not achieve its goals, it demonstrated large-scale and growing opposition to apartheid. Furthermore, the use of non-violent civil disobedience was part of an important international tradition – from the independence movement in Indian two decades before to sit-ins and other non-violent protests in the United States civil rights movement more than a decade later.

Struggle is a long journey. Something we need to stop and remind ourselves of at times. And none of this history of the struggles in South Africa can be separated from other anti-colonial African independence movements and liberation struggles on the continent-from Kenya to Algiers, through Angola and Mozambique. The acronyms are not well always known here-but many of us who were fighting in the movement here in the U.S. paid close attention to groups like MPLA, FRELIMO, and PAIGC.

I remember the Black Panther Party closing off streets in Harlem and screening films like The Battle of Algiers for the community as part of “community PE (political education)”

I think back to my own “becoming aware” in the 60’s and 70’s and as the time approaches for me to return to Africa (trip delayed till the spring) I can remember burying my head in books back then, reading the works of and about Amilcar Cabral, Frantz Fanon, Léopold Senghor, Kwame Nkrumah, Walter Rodney, and Patrice Lumumba, among others.

We can barely correct the distortions of U.S. history still taught in our classrooms, and it is asking a lot for us to undertake an understanding of a continent as vast as Africa, with a complex and multi-faceted history and present day relationship to global capital and its multiplicity of internal conflicts, but perhaps, with the world’s eyes now centered on the passing of Madiba, we can make a start.

He would ask that of us.

Cross-posted from Black Kos


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 13 Comments

The Daily F Bomb, Tuesday 12/10/13

Tags:

Interrogatories

What is your favorite book that you HAD to read for school?

Are you a poetry person? Who is your favorite poet?

Who do you think (living person) should get a Nobel Prize?

Do you know the Dewey Decimal System?

The Twitter Emitter

On This Day

In 1817, Mississippi was admitted as the 20th state.

In 1868, near London’s Westminster Palace, the very first traffic lights were installed.  I haven’t found when the first ever traffic ticket was issued.

In 1884, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was first published.

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to win a Nobel Prize (the Peace Prize).

In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

In 1976, the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques was  adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. I guess they couldn’t agree on a shorter title.

In 1978, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat were awarded a shared Nobel Peace Prize.

Born on This Day

1610 – Adriaen van Ostade, Dutch painter (d. 1685)

photo AdriaenvanOstade.jpg

1613 – Isaac van Oosten, Flemish landscape painter (d. 1661

1654 – Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole, Italian painter (d. 1719)

1691 – Cornelis Pronk, Dutch etcher, porcelain designer (d. 1759)

1787 – Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, American pioneer in the education of the deaf. (d. 1852)

1807 – Niels Simonsen, Danish orientalist painter (d. 1885)

photo NielsSimonsen.jpg

1815 – Francesco Bergamini, Italian painter (d. 1883)

photo FrancescoBergamini.jpg

1830 – Emily Dickinson, American poet (d. 1886)

1851 – Melvil Dewey, American librarian and inventor of the Dewey Decimal System. (d. 1931)

1859 – Peder Mork Mønsted, Danish painter (d. 1941)

1867 – Ker-Xavier Roussel, French Nabi painter (d. 1944)

1870 – Adolf Loos, influential Austrian architect (d. 1933)

1870 – Ferdynand Ruszczyc, Polish painter (d. 1936)

1884 – Zinaida Serebriakova, Russian-born painter (d. 1967)

photo ZinaidaSerebriakova.jpg

1886 – Annie Bos, Dutch actress (d. 1975)

1886 – Victor McLaglen, British actor who won the Best Actor Oscar in 1935 for his role as Gypo Nolan in “The Informer.”

1903 – Una Merkel, American actress (d. 1986)

Myrna Una and William photo UnaMerkelTippling.jpg

1907 – Rumer Godden, English writer whose novels I highly recommend. (d. 1998)

1914 – Dorothy Lamour, American actress (d. 1996)

1941 – Chad Stuart, English singer (Chad and Jeremy)

1952 – Susan Dey, American actress

1957 – Michael Clarke Duncan, American actor (d. 2012)

1960 – Sir Kenneth Branagh, Northern Irish actor and director

1964 – Bobby Flay, American celebrity chef and restaurateur

1965 – J Mascis, American musician

1972 – Brian Molko, Belgian-born singer and songwriter (Placebo)

1974 – Meg White, American drummer (The White Stripes)

Died on This Day

1475 – Paolo  Uccello, Italian painter  (b. 1397)

1630 – Orazio Riminaldi, Italian painter (b. 1586)

1761 – Johann Georg Platzer, Austrian painter  (b. 1704)

photo JohannGeorgPlatzer.jpg

1763 – George van der Mijn, Dutch painter (d. 1726)

1880 – Theodor Leopold Weller, German painter (b. 1802)

photo TheodorLeopoldWeller.jpg

1884 – Jules Bastien-Lepage, French painter (b. 1848)

photo JulesBastien-Lepage.jpg

1896 – Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor, Nobel Prize founder (b. 1833)

1910 – Seymour Joseph Guy, English/U.S. genre and portrait painter (b. 1824)

photo SeymourJosephGuy.jpg

1920 – Horace Elgin Dodge, American automobile manufacturer (b. 1868)

1928 – Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish architect and illustrator (b. 1868)

1946 – Damon Runyon, American writer (b. 1884)

1967 – Otis Redding, American singer (b. 1941)

1978 – Edward D. Wood, Jr., American filmmaker (b. 1924)

1979 – Ann Dvorak, American actress (b. 1912)

1986 – Susan Cabot, American actress (b. 1927)

1986 – Kate Wolf, American singer and songwriter (b. 1942)

1987 – Jascha Heifetz, Russian violinist (b. 1901)

1991 – Greta Kempton, American artist (b. 1901)

1991 – Headman Shabalala, South African singer (Ladysmith Black Mambazo) (b. 1945)

1999 – Rick Danko, Canadian bassist and singer (The Band) (b. 1942)

2000 – Marie Windsor, American actress (b. 1919)

2005 – Eugene McCarthy, America politician (b. 1916)

2005 – Richard Pryor, American comedian and actor (b. 1940)

Today is

Shareware Day

Day of the Horse

Human Rights Day

National Lager Day

Festival For The Souls Of Dead Whales

Dewey Decimal System Day

Nobel Prize Day


Categories: General.

/ 8 Comments

President Obama to South Africans: ” … the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us”

Tags:

President Obama speaks, along with other world leaders, at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela.

President Barack Obama: “To the people of South Africa – people of every race and walk of life – the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us. His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your triumph. Your dignity and hope found expression in his life, and your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy.”

Transcript (updated):  From the White House:

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you so much.  Thank you.  To Graça Machel and the Mandela family; to President Zuma and members of the government; to heads of states and government, past and present; distinguished guests — it is a singular honor to be with you today, to celebrate a life like no other.  To the people of South Africa — (applause) — people of every race and walk of life — the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us.  His struggle was your struggle.  His triumph was your triumph.  Your dignity and your hope found expression in his life.  And your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy.

It is hard to eulogize any man — to capture in words not just the facts and the dates that make a life, but the essential truth of a person — their private joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities that illuminate someone’s soul.  How much harder to do so for a giant of history, who moved a nation toward justice, and in the process moved billions around the world.

Born during World War I, far from the corridors of power, a boy raised herding cattle and tutored by the elders of his Thembu tribe, Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century.  Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement — a movement that at its start had little prospect for success.  Like Dr. King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed and the moral necessity of racial justice.  He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War.  Emerging from prison, without the force of arms, he would — like Abraham Lincoln — hold his country together when it threatened to break apart.  And like America’s Founding Fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations — a commitment to democracy and rule of law ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power after only one term.

Given the sweep of his life, the scope of his accomplishments, the adoration that he so rightly earned, it’s tempting I think to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men.  But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait.  (Applause.)  Instead, Madiba insisted on sharing with us his doubts and his fears; his miscalculations along with his victories.  “I am not a saint,” he said, “unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”

It was precisely because he could admit to imperfection — because he could be so full of good humor, even mischief, despite the heavy burdens he carried — that we loved him so.  He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood — a son and a husband, a father and a friend.  And that’s why we learned so much from him, and that’s why we can learn from him still.  For nothing he achieved was inevitable.  In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness, and persistence and faith.  He tells us what is possible not just in the pages of history books, but in our own lives as well.


Mandela showed us the power of action; of taking risks on behalf of our ideals.  Perhaps Madiba was right that he inherited, “a proud rebelliousness, a stubborn sense of fairness” from his father.  And we know he shared with millions of black and colored South Africans the anger born of, “a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments…a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people,” he said.

But like other early giants of the ANC — the Sisulus and Tambos — Madiba disciplined his anger and channeled his desire to fight into organization, and platforms, and strategies for action, so men and women could stand up for their God-given dignity.  Moreover, he accepted the consequences of his actions, knowing that standing up to powerful interests and injustice carries a price.  “I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination.  I’ve cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and [with] equal opportunities.  It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve.  But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”  (Applause.)

Mandela taught us the power of action, but he also taught us the power of ideas; the importance of reason and arguments; the need to study not only those who you agree with, but also those who you don’t agree with.  He understood that ideas cannot be contained by prison walls, or extinguished by a sniper’s bullet.  He turned his trial into an indictment of apartheid because of his eloquence and his passion, but also because of his training as an advocate.  He used decades in prison to sharpen his arguments, but also to spread his thirst for knowledge to others in the movement.  And he learned the language and the customs of his oppressor so that one day he might better convey to them how their own freedom depend upon his.  (Applause.)


Mandela demonstrated that action and ideas are not enough.  No matter how right, they must be chiseled into law and institutions.  He was practical, testing his beliefs against the hard surface of circumstance and history.  On core principles he was unyielding, which is why he could rebuff offers of unconditional release, reminding the Apartheid regime that “prisoners cannot enter into contracts.”

But as he showed in painstaking negotiations to transfer power and draft new laws, he was not afraid to compromise for the sake of a larger goal.  And because he was not only a leader of a movement but a skillful politician, the Constitution that emerged was worthy of this multiracial democracy, true to his vision of laws that protect minority as well as majority rights, and the precious freedoms of every South African.

And finally, Mandela understood the ties that bind the human spirit.  There is a word in South Africa — Ubuntu — (applause) — a word that captures Mandela’s greatest gift:  his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.

We can never know how much of this sense was innate in him, or how much was shaped in a dark and solitary cell.  But we remember the gestures, large and small — introducing his jailers as honored guests at his inauguration; taking a pitch in a Springbok uniform; turning his family’s heartbreak into a call to confront HIV/AIDS — that revealed the depth of his empathy and his understanding.  He not only embodied Ubuntu, he taught millions to find that truth within themselves.

It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailer as well — (applause) — to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you; to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion and generosity and truth.  He changed laws, but he also changed hearts.

For the people of South Africa, for those he inspired around the globe, Madiba’s passing is rightly a time of mourning, and a time to celebrate a heroic life.  But I believe it should also prompt in each of us a time for self-reflection.  With honesty, regardless of our station or our circumstance, we must ask:  How well have I applied his lessons in my own life?  It’s a question I ask myself, as a man and as a President.

We know that, like South Africa, the United States had to overcome centuries of racial subjugation.  As was true here, it took sacrifice — the sacrifice of countless people, known and unknown, to see the dawn of a new day.  Michelle and I are beneficiaries of that struggle.  (Applause.)  But in America, and in South Africa, and in countries all around the globe, we cannot allow our progress to cloud the fact that our work is not yet done.

The struggles that follow the victory of formal equality or universal franchise may not be as filled with drama and moral clarity as those that came before, but they are no less important.  For around the world today, we still see children suffering from hunger and disease.  We still see run-down schools.  We still see young people without prospects for the future.  Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs, and are still persecuted for what they look like, and how they worship, and who they love.  That is happening today.  (Applause.)

And so we, too, must act on behalf of justice.  We, too, must act on behalf of peace.  There are too many people who happily embrace Madiba’s legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality.  There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people.  (Applause.)  And there are too many of us on the sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard.

The questions we face today — how to promote equality and justice; how to uphold freedom and human rights; how to end conflict and sectarian war — these things do not have easy answers.  But there were no easy answers in front of that child born in World War I.  Nelson Mandela reminds us that it always seems impossible until it is done.  South Africa shows that is true.  South Africa shows we can change, that we can choose a world defined not by our differences, but by our common hopes.  We can choose a world defined not by conflict, but by peace and justice and opportunity.

We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again.  But let me say to the young people of Africa and the young people around the world — you, too, can make his life’s work your own.  Over 30 years ago, while still a student, I learned of Nelson Mandela and the struggles taking place in this beautiful land, and it stirred something in me.  It woke me up to my responsibilities to others and to myself, and it set me on an improbable journey that finds me here today.  And while I will always fall short of Madiba’s example, he makes me want to be a better man.  (Applause.)  He speaks to what’s best inside us.

After this great liberator is laid to rest, and when we have returned to our cities and villages and rejoined our daily routines, let us search for his strength.  Let us search for his largeness of spirit somewhere inside of ourselves.  And when the night grows dark, when injustice weighs heavy on our hearts, when our best-laid plans seem beyond our reach, let us think of Madiba and the words that brought him comfort within the four walls of his cell:  “It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”

What a magnificent soul it was.  We will miss him deeply.  May God bless the memory of Nelson Mandela.  May God bless the people of South Africa.  (Applause.)


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 45 Comments

Tuesday Morning Herd Check-in

Tags:

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  


    PLEASE Do Not Recommend the check-in diary!   

        Fierces on the Weather Critter Comment are obligatory welcome.

The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.

For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.

The important stuff to get you started:

– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.

– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)

– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce, … or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).

– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”

– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”

(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)

You can follow the daily moosetrails here: Motley Moose Recent Comments.

~

Let the greetings begin!

~


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 39 Comments

The Daily F Bomb, Monday 12/9/13

Tags:

Interrogatories

Do you like popcorn? Plain, buttered, or other? Air popped, microwave, popped in oil? What’s your favorite popcorn-eating activity?

Have you ever attended the services of a religion that is not your own? How was it?

Did you ever pose in a photo booth? Post pics, please.

Did you ever burn yourself on a stove, motorcycle, or iron?

The Twitter Emitter

On This Day

In 1872, P. B. S. Pinchback became the first African-American to serve as governor of a U.S. state (Louisiana). He was the first elected Lieutenant Governor and filled the Governor role for 35 days while the current Governor was being impeached (the governor ended up being acquitted).

In 1875, “America’s Oldest Active Gun Club”, the Massachusetts Rifle Association,  was founded. Who knew those librul people in Godless Massachusetts could handle guns (which were, of course, invented by God).

In 1905,  the law separating church and state in France was passed. Kind of late, but I suppose if they had done so a few centuries before, my ancestors would never have made it here (Huguenots).

In 1946, the “Subsequent Nuremberg Trials” started. The “Doctors’ Trial” prosecuted those doctors who were accused of experimenting on humans.

In 1953, General Electric bragged that they were terminating all of their communist employees. How they determined which ones were communist is not known.

In 1958, the John Birch Society was founded by Robert Welch Jr., the guy who invented Junior Mints, and Daddy Koch (among others).

In 1962, Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park was established.

In 1979, the smallpox virus was certified and being totally eradicated, making it the first and only human disease driven to extinction so far. Next up: Republicanism.

In 2000, in another day that shall live in infamy, the Supreme Court stayed the sixth Florida recount.

In 2008, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested by federal officials for a long list of crimes, among them attempting to sell Obama’s vacated Senate seat. He never should have posted it on eBay, that was a dead giveaway. 😉 The only advantage gained by the governor in all this is that everyone finally learned how to pronounce his name correctly.

Born on This Day

1608 – John Milton, English poet (d. 1674)

photo JohnMilton.jpg

1829 – Théodore Gérard, Belgian genre painter (d. 1895)

1847 – George Grossmith, English actor and writer (d. 1912)

1853 – Laurits Tuxen, Danish painter (d. 1927)

1868 – Fritz Haber, German chemist, Nobel laureate whose discoveries aided in fertilizing crops worldwide and developing explosives and chemical weapons. (d. 1934)

1886 – Clarence Birdseye, frozen vegetable guy (d. 1956)

photo clarence-birdseye.jpg

1896 – Josef Scharl, German-born US painter (b. 1954)

1897 – Hermione Gingold, English actress and the reason I knew how to pronounce “Hermione” before Harry Potter movies came out. (d. 1987)

1901 – Carol Dempster, American silent film actress who became D.W. Griffith’s favorite (in more ways than one) after Lillian Gish had moved on to better things. She retired from film to marry a wealthy banker. (d. 1991)

1902 – Margaret Hamilton, American actress best known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in Wizard of Oz.  (d. 1985)

1905 – Dalton Trumbo, American writer, remembered now for being one of the Hollywood Ten, blacklisted for alleged communist ties. (d. 1976)

1909 – Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American actor (d. 2000)

photo JoanandDougJr.jpg

1912 – Tip O’Neill, American politician (d. 1994)

1911 – Broderick Crawford, American actor (d. 1986)

1911 – Lee J. Cobb, American actor (d. 1976)

1914 – Ljubica Sokić, Serbian painter (d. 2009)

1916 – Kirk Douglas, American actor

photo KirkDouglas.jpg

1918 – Joyce Redman, Irish actress best known for the famous eating scene in Tom Jones. (d. 2012)

1922 – Redd Foxx, American comedian (d. 1991)

1925 – Dina Merrill, American actress and socialite (one of those Huttons)

1929 – John Cassavetes, American actor and director (d. 1989)

photo cassavetesrowlands.jpg

1930 – Buck Henry, American actor/writer/director

1934 – Dame Judi Dench, English actress

1934 – Junior Wells, American musician (d. 1998)

1941 – Dan Hicks, American musician

1944 – Neil Innes, English singer and songwriter (Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, The Rutles)

1947 – Tom Daschle, American politician

1950 – Joan Armatrading, St. Kitts-born English singer-songwriter

1953 – John Malkovich, American actor

1958 – Nick Seymour, Australian bassist (Crowded House)

1966 – Kirsten Gillibrand, American politician

1969 – Jakob Dylan, son of Bob, American singer-songwriter (The Wallflowers)

1972 – Tre Cool, German-American drummer (Green Day)

Died on This Day

1641 – Anthony van Dyck, Belgian painter (b. 1599)

1678 – Robert Nanteuil, French engraver and printmaker (b. 1623)

photo RobertNanteuil.jpg

1678 – Jürgen Ovens, German Baroque painter and engraver (b. 1623)

photo JurgenOven.jpg

1681 – Giacinto Gimignani, Italian painter (b. 1606)

photo GiacintoGimignani.jpg

1715 – Benedetto Gennari II, Italian painter (b. 1633)

1870 – Louise Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont, French painter (b. 1790)

1895 – Charles Meer Webb, British genre painter (b. 1830)

photo Webb_The-Toast.jpg

1909 – Hermann Kaulbach, German history and genre painter (b. 1846)

1943 – Georges Dufrénoy, French painter (b. 1870)

1964 – Dame Edith Sitwell, English poet and critic (b. 1887)

1972 – Louella Parsons, American gossip columnist. She and rival Hedda Hopper held ungodly levels of power in their heyday, and the fact that they hated each other made the stars’ dealings with them quite a balancing act. (b. 1881)

1975 – William A. Wellman, American movie director (b. 1896)

1982 – Leon Jaworski, American prosecutor (b. 1905)

1996 – Patty Donahue, American singer (The Waitresses) (b. 1956)

1996 – Mary Leakey, English archaeologist and anthropologist (b. 1913)

2002 – Ian Hornak, American photorealist painter (b. 1944)

2003 – Paul Simon, American politician (b. 1928)

2010 – James Moody, American jazz musician (b. 1925)

Today is

National Pastry Day

Christmas Card Day

International Anti-Corruption Day

Weary Willie Day (I don’t want to know what this is)


Categories: General.

/ 15 Comments

Motley Monday Check in and Mooselaneous Musings

Tags:

photo funny-pictures-snow-kitten.jpg

  Good morning Motley Meese! Hope your weekend was lovely. We had snow all day yesterday followed by ice overnight. Accidents and interstate closures galore. Supposed to warm up this afternoon – meanwhile, I’ll stay right here, thankyouverymuch.


  PLEASE Don’t Recommend the check-in diary! 

        Fierces on the weather jar comment are still welcome.

The check-in is an open thread and general social hour. Come back when time allows through the day – the conversation continues.

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?

photo whitewitch.jpg


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 25 Comments

Previous

Next