Motley Moose – Archive

Good morning, Moosekind.

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.

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?

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

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.

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Let the greetings begin!

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I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”. For example …..

By Request DIRECT DESCENDANTS from lineatus – “Lost in Space” anti-hero Dr. Zachary Smith and Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky. Whaddya think?

   

OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted.

ART NOTES – an exhibition of photographers exploring their medium by turning to the window as a framing device or conceptual tool is at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles to January 5th.

TV NOTES – this past weekend’s CBS Sunday Morning had a nice segment on cat videos from its (resident) humorist Bill Geist.

QUOTE for today from Duncan Black, a/k/a Atrios:

You’re the party of gay marriage, abortion, and Obamacare –  whether you like it or not – and it’s better to convince your constituents that you’re going to do good things for them than to try to convince them that you’re not a real Democrat.

They can already vote for someone who isn’t a real Democrat. He or she is called a Republican.

THURSDAY’s CHILD is Joy the Cat – a New York kitteh who was rescued after Hurricane Sandy – and has just been adopted by another storm survivor. Joy was the last (of 300-plus animals) cared for in the ASPCA’s special temporary storm shelter, following Sandy.

LEGAL NOTES – victims of Spain’s Franco regime are hoping that recent legal moves made in Argentina will help bring justice in the crimes committed during the dictatorship.

RIGHT NOW there is a series to determine the world championship of men’s chess – between the defending champ (43 year-old Viswanathan Anand of India) and his challenger (the 22 year-old Magnus Carlsen of Norway) …….

…. but not-so-you’d-notice, laments a Guardian chess-lover, about the lack of coverage.

BRAIN TEASER – try this Quiz of the Week’s News from the BBC.

THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at the first audio pioneer of the post-1950’s, Dr. Amar Bose – in many ways, the best of his generation.

SEPARATED at BIRTH – International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde and the Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius.

   

GOOD LUCK to the 31 year-old Englishman Levison Wood, who will set-out on December 1st to become the first person to travel the entire 4,250-mile length of the Nile River – going north from Rwanda through seven countries – which he believes is medically (and politically) possible for the first time.

HAIL and FAREWELL to Barbara Cheeseborough – who was featured on the cover of the first issue of Essence magazine (at age 67), longtime CNN correspondent Robert Vito (age not listed), former NFL star Todd Christensen (at age 57), and the Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing at age 94.

FRIDAY’s CHILDREN are a mama cat w/four kittens – found in a box (next to a dumpster) near Pittsburgh by two construction workers – who brought them to a shelter, where they are recovering … and up for adoption in a few weeks.

……. and for a song of the week …………………………………………… it is always interesting to hear a band in concert years later, to see how things change. I have enjoyed the music of The Pretenders these past thirty-three years, seeing them live in  1980 and a different band in 1994. The one constant is, of course, lead singer Chrissie Hynde – and while they have become something of a legacy band this past decade, wotta legacy it is: birth in the New Wave/punk era and becoming a mainstream rock band over the years.

Chrissie Hynde was born in Akron, Ohio (later to spawn punk bands such as The Cramps and Devo). She was a student at Kent State on that fateful 1970 day, and relocated to London two years later. She had two interesting jobs in that time: writing for the the New Musical Express weekly, and part-time at the clothing boutique SEX owned by Vivienne Westwood and the late Malcolm McLaren. And since this was ground-zero of the oncoming punk movement – well, she was in the right place at the right time.

After recording some demos, she was encouraged to form a band and did. Named after The Platters tune The Great Pretender – the band included:

* Guitarist James Honeyman-Scott (right in 1st photo below) whose suspended chords and syncopation would be very influential years later …

* Bassist Pete Farndon (left in 1st photo below) and …

* Drummer Martin Chambers (2nd from left in 1st photo, far left 2nd photo) of whom Chrissie Hynde says of his audition, “as soon as Martin started playing with us, I knew this was it”.

They made their first Top 40 – a cover of “Stop Your Sobbing” by the Kinks – in late 1979, and had subsequent hits with “Kid” and Brass in Pocket which was (to Hynde’s surprise) an early MTV hit, and a staple of their sets ever since. Their eponymous debut album in 1980 is considered a classic, and Rolling Stone named it #155 in their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Their 1981 follow-up Pretenders II wasn’t nearly as well-received, but did have hits with Talk of the Town – reflecting Chrissie’s relationship with The Kinks’ Ray Davies – and “The English Roses”. I had a chance to see the band before this release in New Jersey and thought their future unlimited. But as “Behind the Music” would say ……..

In June of 1982, Hynde fired bassist Farndon (whom she had dated years earlier) due to his unreliability due to drug problems. A mere two days later, guitarist Honeyman-Scott died of of a cocaine/heroin overdose. Chrissie Hynde went into seclusion, as she was then pregnant with Ray Davies’ child. Only two months after giving birth in February, 1983 she learned that former bassist Pete Farndon – who was trying to begin a band with former Clash drummer Nicky Headon (also dealing with drug issues) – died of a heroin overdose.

Hynde remade the band with bassist Malcolm Foster and Scottish guitarist Robbie Mcintosh. Their album Learning to Crawl garnered some good reviews and had hits with Back On The Chain Gang and a song which later helped finance her social activism (environmentalism and vegetarianism).

When your-friend-and-mine Rush Limbaugh began using the music-only from My City Was Gone two results were:

(a) the irony of him using a song about Akron suffering from corporate downsizing and

(b) Hynde donates the royalties to PETA that Rush was forced to pay.

(Chrissie Hynde maintains her ties to Ohio; singing the Star Spangled Banner at the 1995 World Series in Cleveland).

Meanwhile, the band’s personnel began changing often, with Hynde even firing drummer Martin Chambers, her sole remaining original band mate in the mid-1980’s. But still more fan favorites followed, such as Don’t Get Me Wrong plus “A Thin Line Between Love & Hate” as well as Hymn to Her throughout the 1980’s and early 1990’s.

Hynde was married for a time to Jim Kerr – the Scottish lead singer of Simple Minds – from “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” fame. Fifteen years after the band’s founding, drummer Martin Chambers rejoined for the 1994 Last of the Independents album … which spawned a single in Night in My Veins and a nice cover of Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young”. I saw them in Albany, NY and discovered band no longer playing large venues but with a a mature sound that served notice they could still rock.

Their most recent studio album is 2008’s Break Up the Concrete and this is also included as a second disc along with a Greatest Hits compilation in 2009.

Then came 2010’s Live in London CD/DVD set that showcases the current line-up. They are not currently active – although they did perform at the 2011 Super Bowl party with Faith Hill – but The Pretenders were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005 and one would be advised not to close the book on them yet.

   

While my favorite Pretenders tune remains “Mystery Achievement” from their debut album: at the 1994 concert I attended I sensed that I’ll Stand by You would henceforth be a fan favorite. Uncharacteristically co-written by a pair of tunesmiths (Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg) – rather than by Chrissie herself – it was later performed by Patti Labelle, Rod Stewart, Shakira and two talent-show stars: Girls Aloud in 2004 and Carrie Underwood in 2007.

And below you can hear the original.

Oh, why you look so sad?

Tears are in your eyes

Come on and come to me now

Don’t be ashamed to cry

Let me see you through

’cause I’ve seen the dark side too

When the night falls on you

You don’t know what to do

Nothing you confess

Could make me love you less

I’ll stand by you

I’ll stand by you

Won’t let nobody hurt you

I’ll stand by you

There is a big political scandal surrounding the rollout of the latest phase of the Affordable Care Act. It is real and it is encapsulated in this quote:

“Republican hostility toward the poor and unfortunate has now reached such a fever pitch that the party does not stand for anything else …

– Paul Krugman, economist and author

Yes, there are web site glitches at healthcare.gov and cancellations of sub-standard health insurance policies (and in some cases, insurance companies choosing to leave the health care market altogether). Yes, people who the media like to talk to are angry and upset. But who is giving a rats patootie about the people in the states with negligent governors who refuse to expand Medicaid? And a Congress that is so focused on their ideology that they deny their humanity?

Who cares about these people?

From Tara Culp-Ressler, ThinkProgress’ Health Editor: Hurricane Katrina, The Obamacare Rollout, And Allowing Privilege To Shape Our Politics

… as Republican lawmakers continue to stoke outrage over the people who have been harmed by Obamacare’s troubled rollout – the people who are still struggling to sign up for coverage on the exchange websites, and more recently, the people who are receiving cancellation notices from their insurance companies – there is one obvious point of comparison. It doesn’t have anything to do with the political career of the sitting president, though. It has to do with the privilege that continues to dominate the United States’ political priorities.

It’s about who is worth rescuing.

Here are those that the Very Concerned Congressional Republicans have no interest in rescuing:

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, about five million poor Americans will have no access to basic health benefits under Obamacare because they fall into a “coverage gap” created by this fight over Medicaid. Without expansion, they make too much money to qualify for their state’s Medicaid program, but too little money to qualify for subsidies on the individual market. […]

“Blacks are disproportionately affected, largely because more of them are poor and living in Southern states,” the New York Times reported last month. “In all, 6 out of 10 blacks live in the states not expanding Medicaid.”

Millions of people locked out of Obamacare? Hardworking Americans struggling to get by who can’t realize the promise of affordable health coverage? That seems like a political scandal.

The author concludes that it does tie back to Katrina, but not in the way that Republicans and their captive media are spinning it:

… the single mother who’s working two part-time jobs in Louisiana and still doesn’t qualify for Medicaid probably hasn’t had enough time to keep up with the raging Obamacare debate, let alone feel like she has a voice in it. She’s not launching a campaign to get on Fox News, and they’re not calling her, either.

If we must draw comparisons between Obamacare and previous national disasters, consider this one. As a collective society, we still haven’t really learned the lessons of Hurricane Katrina – but not because of a broken website or a broken promise about keeping your plan. We haven’t figured out how to prioritize that Louisiana mother’s life.

Under the stopped-clock principle, even the Washington Post editorial board has noticed the problem:

The latest estimate by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reckons that 55 million non-elderly people in the United States lack health insurance; after the law phases in fully, there will be around 31 million. Last year, the CBO figured that the number of non-elderly uninsured after the phase-in would be lower – 27 million. […]

But a factor that the law’s authors couldn’t foresee was Republican intransigence combined with last year’s Supreme Court ruling. The justices proclaimed that states could opt out of an expansion of Medicaid, a partnership between states and the federal government that provides health care to poor people. The law aimed to cover a larger percentage of low-income people by raising Medicaid’s eligibility limits across the country, with the federal government paying for nearly all of the cost. It was a bargain that no state leader should have passed up. Yet Republican politicians have blocked Medicaid expansion in half the states.

In 2012, the famously reality-challenged Supreme Court struck down the part of the Affordable Care Act that provided affordable care to the working poor, claiming … I am not sure what they are claiming. That poor people should just get sick and die if they live in a state with Republican legislatures? That death panels are a good idea as long as they are run by Republican governors? That States Rights override common decency?

I wonder who will address this political scandal and this unfulfilled promise of the Affordable Care Act. Probably not the privileged members of Congress who are focused only on fulfilling their promises to their Tea Party masters: to obstruct President Obama’s agenda at all costs.

Much easier for them to address complaints about web site clicks that generate an error and the “injustice” of a junk insurance policy being canceled than to find a way to address the real needs of 5 million Americans who are being denied affordable health care on purely ideological grounds.

By the way, this is something We The People can fix and it won’t take an administrative order or an Act of Congress. In 2014, many of those states which refused the Medicaid expansion will have governors seeking re-election or retiring. We can fix that and we can fix Congress by electing members who will work to find solutions to the real problems with the Affordable Care Act, not spend time on the tempests in the Republican’s tea(party)pots.

Elections Matter. Your vote counts. Make it count in 2014.

Crossposted from Views from North Central Blogistan)

  Good morning Motley Meese! Hope your weekend was lovely.

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?

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

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.

On weekends (and holidays), you may find the check-in thread earlier or later than normal because … it is the weekend! Moosies need their beauty rest:

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.

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Let the greetings begin!

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