Motley Moose – Archive

I searched the tags, and haven’t seen anything about this event Monday, and it is really huge. Lizz Winstead and lots of other fabulous people are going to do an online telethon supporting organizations in Texas that are trying to maintain access to reproductive freedom.

Here’s info about the event from their facebook page:

oin us on Monday November 18, 7-10PM EST as we come together to raise money and hell for the people of Texas! STREAM LIVE at http://www.ladypartsjustice.com/ and post here to find a watch party!

Sarah Silverman and Lizz Winstead are teaming up with the New York Abortion Access Fund and NARAL Pro-Choice America to host Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can Choose, a star studded streamed online telethon, with proceeds going to fight back against the attacks on abortion access in Texas.

Featuring: Amy Schumer, Emily Mortimer, Natasha Lyonne, Yael Stone, Jessica Pimentel, Lea DeLaria, Dascha Polanco, Jemima Kirke, Kathy Najimy, Kathleen Hanna, King Ad-Rock, Tennessee Thomas, Ambrosia Parsley, Holly Miranda John Fugelsang, Alysia Reiner, Zoe Kazan, Comedian/Writer/Musician/Man-About-Town Dave Hilll, Dean Obeidallah of The Muslims Are Coming, Lynne Procope, Joan Walsh, Sally Kohn, Anthea Butler, Phoebe Robinson, Sarah Sophie Flicker, Syreeta McFadden of Feministing.com, Angela McCluskey music, Alexa Chung and Sarah Slamen & Jessica Luther — Texas represented on our stage! And you never know who else might swing by….

We also have amazing surprises from sponsor organizations like Babeland Nyc….two words: giant vulva. And the number of organizations and businesses supporting this cause will blow your mind and lift you up!

This event is benefiting The The Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity, Texas Equal Access Fund, Whole Woman’s Health, and Fund Texas Women — Abortion Funds across the state of Texas that provide financial assistance, practical support and connections to other resources for Texans seeking abortion care.

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS! Host a watch party! This is a rare chance to have a front row seat right in your living room and be a part of an incredible event that will be hilarious, entertaining and moving while inspiring everyone across the country to help the people and families of Texas access the abortion care they need.

An online telethon allows you to join us from the comfort of your own home! You can stream the show online and you’ll have the opportunity to watch, enjoy and call in or donate to help folks in TX access the abortions they otherwise would not have been able to.

Here’s how the event will work: Lizz and Sarah will host the event in front of a live audience in NYC, but you’ll be able to join us no matter where you are! (that’s why the internet is the greatest). The hosts will be joined throughout the night by guests listed above (more to come), music will be played, jokes will be told, it will be a grand ol’ time! People from all over the country and the world will be able to WATCH and to donate to TX funds!, 7-10 ES

This is just so amazing — such a huge thing supporting women in Texas. I hope all Meese “tune” in. Here’s the website where you can find more information & watch on Monday: Lady Parts Justice. Look above at all the great people involved, this would be cool even without the great cause. Please watch on Monday!

From the White House – Weekly Address

In his weekly address, President Obama discusses progress in American energy and highlights that we are now producing more oil at home than we buy from other countries for the first time in nearly two decades. We reached this milestone in part not only because we’re producing more energy, but because we’re wasting less energy, and as a result, we are also reducing our carbon emissions while growing the economy.

Transcript: Taking Control of America’s Energy Future

Hi, everybody.  On Thursday, I visited a steel plant in Cleveland, Ohio to talk about what we’re doing to rebuild our economy on a new foundation for stronger, more durable economic growth.

One area where we’ve made great progress is American energy.  After years of talk about reducing our dependence on foreign oil, we are actually poised to control our own energy future.

Shortly after I took office, we invested in new American technologies to reverse our dependence on foreign oil and double our wind and solar power.  And today, we generate more renewable energy than ever – with tens of thousands of good, American jobs to show for it.  We produce more natural gas than anyone – and nearly everyone’s energy bill is lower because of it.  And just this week, we learned that for the first time in nearly two decades, the United States of America now produces more of our own oil here at home than we buy from other countries.

That’s a big deal.  That’s a tremendous step towards American energy independence.

But this is important, too: we reached this milestone in part not only because we’re producing more energy, but because we’re wasting less energy. We set new fuel standards for our cars and trucks so that they’ll go twice as far on a gallon of gas by the middle of the next decade.  That’s going to save an average driver more than $8,000 at the pump over the life of a new car.  We also launched initiatives to put people to work upgrading our homes, businesses, and factories so that they waste less energy.  That’s going to save our businesses money on their energy bills – that’s money they can use to hire more workers.

Here’s another thing.  Between more clean energy, and less wasted energy, our emissions of dangerous carbon pollution are actually falling.  That’s good news for anyone who cares about the world we leave to our kids.

And while our carbon emissions have been dropping, our economy has been growing.  Our businesses have created 7.8 million new jobs in the past 44 months.  It proves that the old argument that we can’t strengthen the economy and be good stewards of our planet at the same time is a false choice.  We can do both.  And we have to do both.

More good jobs.  Cheaper and cleaner sources of energy.  A secure energy future.  Thanks to the grit and resilience of American businesses and the American people, that’s where we’re heading.  And as long as I’m President, that’s where we’re going to keep heading – to leave our children a stronger economy, and a safer planet.

Thanks, and have a great weekend.

Bolding added.

~

Editor’s Note: The President’s Weekly Address diary is also the weekend open news thread. Feel free to leave links to other news items in the comment threads.

  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.

~

Let the greetings begin!

~

   

A look at someone whom I consider the best consumer audio innovator of his (post-1960) generation, after the jump ……….

Although not a tech-gear fanatic myself – my TV/audio equipment is not luxurious – I have long been interested in the whole phenomena, having played in bands through high school and college and first reading Stereo Review back in our high school library.

In earlier diaries, I have profiled Edgar Villchur (the founder of Acoustic Research, or AR) and James B. Lansing (the founder of JBL). They are part of what I refer to as the first wave of audio pioneers in the US: along with Rudy Bozak and Paul Klipsch (whose firms are named after them), plus Vincent Salmon of Jensen, Henry Kloss (of AR, KLH and Advent) and others who came to fame before the end of the 1950’s.

This profile is of someone who was among (if not the) best of his generation, Amar Bose – who died just a few months ago – and whose Bose Corporation began in 1964, among a new generation of audio pioneers. Unlike Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who were noted college dropouts: “The Doctor” – as he was known in his firm – had been a professor at MIT, his alma mater.

And thus he was ideally situated to become a purveyor of stereo equipment, with all of the college students that descend upon Massachusetts each year as avid customers – although as the sportswriter, best-selling author (and Brandeis graduate) Mitch Albom noted, lugging stereo speakers into dorms is becoming a thing of the past.

Amar Bose was born in Philadelphia in 1929, whose father Noni Gopal Bose emigrated from Calcutta during the 1920’s to avoid further imprisonment by the British colonial police for his anti-colonial activities. His mother was an American schoolteacher of European ancestry, but whom Bose described as being “more Indian than I was” ……. being an avid vegetarian/Hindu philosopher.

The young Bose repaired both model trains and radios during World War II, before earning a degree in electrical engineering from MIT. He spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in New Delhi and also a year at the electronics firm Philips in the Netherlands. After earning his PhD in electrical engineering from MIT, he began teaching there.

It was his 1956 purchase of (what was then) a high-end stereo system (to listen to the classical music he loved so much) that led to his career: the technical specifications sounded impressive …. but not what actually came out of the speakers. After years of research and testing he obtained two patents and attempted to license them to major audio firms. Finding no takers, he borrowed $10k to start his own company in 1964 … which he ran until his death this past July. Here are some of his products, in case the name does not ring a bell:

(Home audio speakers) – as noted, the reason he got involved in the business. His 901 speakers – first made in 1968 – are his high end line (photo left). A more modest product are his 301 bookshelf speakers that you may see in more homes.

(Professional PA systems) – time was that – for small venues – PA systems for musicians were bulky and lacked clarity. But you’ve probably gone into a bar, studio or other small room and heard quite clearly a folksinger, band or the like using equipment like this since the 1980’s.

In your Sunday newspaper, you can hardly pick-up a copy of Parade or USA Weekend magazine without seeing an ad for the Bose Wave Radio.

And for automobile sound systems, a writer for the Hartford Courant wrote:

Bose was the first company to design and mass-market upscale automotive audio systems that were installed while the car was being assembled at the factory. Up until then, people who wanted something more than the sound offered by the incredibly cheap, factory-installed 6-by-9-inch speakers … had to go to an aftermarket installation specialist.

As with Acoustic Research’s Edgar Villchur, Bose was an iconoclastic CEO who did things differently: he had a policy of “no eating lunch alone” – believing that researchers would share ideas more readily while having lunch together. Ever the academic – he remained on the MIT faculty until 2001 – his office whiteboard was covered with diagrams and equations (not sales figures). Nor was he a shrinking violet: filing lawsuits over a competitor’s ad and even one against Consumers Union (over what he felt was an unfair review) that was unsuccessful.

But his refusal to go public – directing all profits back into research and development – meant he could invest in decade-long projects (without immediate pay-back) and he believed that firms not answerable to Wall Street enjoyed an R&D advantage. His firm now employs about 10,000 and his products can be found in places like the Sistine Chapel.

He also funded what he called the Bose Endowment – which was dedicated to non-commercial scientific research. This had one public note of fame: in 1989, after scientists at the University of Utah proclaimed that they had sparked and sustained a nuclear fusion reaction at room temperature – so-called cold fusion – the foundation’s research into cold fusion ultimately found that the scientists’ claims were erroneous.

In 2011 (at age eighty-one) he donated a majority of his firm’s non-voting shares to MIT (stipulating that they never be sold). Although he was sometimes in the Forbes 400 richest people, he insisted that his great motivator was innovation. “I have one car, and that’s enough. These things don’t give me pleasure, but thinking about great little ideas gives me real pleasure.” Looking back at his career, he told Popular Science in 2004 that:

“I would have been fired a hundred times at a company run by MBA’s. But I never went into business to make money: (I did so) to do interesting things that hadn’t been done before”.

Amar Bose died this past July, and would have celebrated his 84th birthday last weekend. Besides his own legacy, later audio start-ups in the region (such as Fulcrum) are following in his footsteps. It was said that Amar Bose’s best invention was not a specific product but his company – which really refers to his business model, methinks. Current employees at Bose say that they don’t try to imagine “What would the Doctor do?” – a version of WWJD? – but rather, “What new things can we do … that would make him proud?”

   

Good morning, Moosekind. TGIF! Hope it has been a good week for everyone.

Friday Coffee Hour and 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?

On Wednesday, Health and Human Resources Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released the sign-up numbers for the first month of enrollments via the insurance marketplace. They were modest but hopeful: showing not as many signups as expected but a lot of people who have started the process of shopping for a policy.

Elsewhere in Washington D.C., Senate Democrats were preparing legislation that would destroy the Affordable Care Act and crush the spirits of those who are uninsured and underinsured and who desperately need affordable health care.  

Why do I call out Senate Democrats when Republicans have been just as guilty in this regard? Because Democrats should know better. Because the people who voted for the law should know something about the law. And because I am ashamed of them.

Polls released this week show that the generic Democrat and the generic Republican are now tied in the 2014 mid-terms. So two candidates who don’t even exist (and are an invention of the horserace-obsessed media) are tied in an election almost a year from now. Democrats, who had seen a double-digit gap in that mythical race as recently as a month ago, have decided to set their hair on fire and in the process torch the hopes of those who see affordable health care as a core Democratic Party principle.

How did we get to this point? Well, it started when the rollout of the most visible component of the new law, the federal marketplace website, was a grade A failure and when the 10-second-news-cycle media needed a story that would require little or no research (“I clicked and the web site was busy: Obamacare FAIL!!!”). Then when that stopped being interesting (computer code!! zzzzzz), the media pivoted to the story of cancellation notices from insurance companies and a “promise by President Obama” that was less a promise than an attempt to explain something without getting too deep into the weeds on policy. And, look! It was another story that needed little or no research (“I read somewhere that someone who had a crappy policy had their policy cancelled: Obamacare FAIL!”).

And then a former Democratic president with legacy envy who still holds a grudge against the man who is the actual first black president, decides to throw in his lot with that president’s political enemies; people who don’t understand or are willfully ignoring that you can’t keep a crappy insurance policy that does not meet the standards of a law passed by Congress, signed by the president, and affirmed by the Supreme Court.

The law is protecting people from those substandard policies, policies like the one in Florida where a woman was paying an insurance company $54 a month for a policy that does not even cover hospitalization. Insurance policies that FAIL at the emergency room door and whose failure leads directly to increased costs to everyone who uses medical care. And a law that needs all the pieces of the marketplace reforms, you can’t just cherry-pick those any more than you can delay the mandate … it is a package of reforms that hang together to achieve the goal of affordable health insurance.

When you purchase auto insurance, the state sets minimums for coverage for property damage and bodily injury. That is so that your insurance actually protects you from liability and actually pays someone who is injured by an accident you cause. Your policy also includes coverage for uninsured drivers in the event that the person who hit you has no insurance. And you have to pay for that!!! And the government requires you to!!! Insurance companies are not allowed to even offer an auto policy that does not include that basic coverage. And there are few screams about freedoms being trampled (although I suspect that Rand Paul hates it).  

So the people who are complaining that the government is setting standards, and that the law states that your crappy policy should be flushed away, need to get a grip on reality.

And former presidents whose legacy includes NAFTA and DADT and DOMA and the repeal of Glass-Steagal and that other thing, and who now has Dick Cheney agreeing with him should just shut the heck up. You don’t get to be president for life, this is 2013, and the politics of kumbaya were bludgeoned in a back room when that other thing led to an election in 2000 that was close enough to steal.

But I digress.

Our current president, Barack Obama, and HHS Secretary Sebelius need to know that we have their back.

Please, take your time to finish the job of implementing the Affordable Care Act. If you have to make changes, make changes that don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater, changes such as increasing the subsidies to help those whose policies were cancelled to transition more seamlessly into the new marketplace. Don’t make changes that could make the law fail in 2015 when the risk pools which don’t include healthy people cause spikes in premiums. We want this law in place for us and for our children and for our grandchildren.

Listen to your hearts and remember this part of why passing the ACA was such a Big Huge Deal (to paraphrase Joe Biden):

And we have now just enshrined, as soon as I sign this bill, the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care.

(Crossposted from Views from North Central Blogistan)

  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.

~

Let the greetings begin!

~

Kenneth Copeland, the controversial televangelist, made waves on Veteran’s Day by dismissing the reality of PTSD and demanding that those diagnosed simply “get rid of it” by clinging to a verse he plucked out of the book of Numbers.

To be fair, a Southern Baptist spokesman condemned the episode, proving that not all evangelicals are as bat-shit crazy as Copeland.

I went to the original broadcast, hoping to post a response right there at the source, but the only option was to sign up for his podcast. So I hit the “Contact” link and was presented with a choice to send in either a prayer request or a testimony. I arbitrarily chose “testimony,” but the resulting form will only accept 1500 characters.

As a last resort, then, I decided to post my response here, so I can provide him with just a link, if he’ll ever read it. And of course, I look forward to any comments from Meese!

Mr. Copeland, as a Christian for most of my life and a combat veteran, I feel compelled to address the comments you made on the “Believer’s Voice of Victory” program on Veteran’s Day. In it, you cite a passage from Numbers saying that warriors will be “guiltless before the Lord.” You then somehow twist this into an argument that veterans should never suffer from a specific medical condition!

Let me correct your Scriptural errors first. In the Numbers passage you cite, two tribes (Reuben and Gad) had gone to Moses and tried to weasel out of a commitment they had made to fight with the Israelites. “We just want to stay here where we’re safe and comfortable.” Meanwhile, the rest of Israel was moving ahead to conquer new territory. So Moses said to these tribes, “Fine, you can have the land you’re on, but at least you have to keep your promise, and send your troops to fight with the Israelites.” It was no glorification of war or warriors. It was about keeping a promise.

Mr. Copeland, I can tell you that I had many misgivings on the way to Iraq in 2003. I had heart-to-hearts with our chaplain in the laundry room about the moral justification for a pre-emptive war, and wrestled with the question privately many a time. This was before any of us knew that the intel had been doctored. My chaplain basically said the same thing as Moses said in the Numbers passage: “All we can do is what we are sworn to do, and as long as we have no evidence to the contrary, we bear no individual guilt.” In other words, when in doubt, keep your vows.

Of course, we now know that the war itself was waged on manufactured grounds and flimsy, skewed evidence. Many of us who went, who endured the heat, the constant physical threats and terrors, in many cases the bullying and abuse within our units, and everything else that goes along with combat, feel cheated. Our lives were stolen from us for the sake of corporate profits, not to “defend our freedom” or any such nonsense.

I wonder if I am still “guiltless before the Lord” for terrifying an Iraqi kid to where he almost couldn’t speak, because I had been called in to deal with him just as I was going to chow. He had been found scavenging our trash dump in search of usable items he could bring back to his family. I was just enraged that he was interfering with my dinner plans.

I wonder if the infantry soldiers who delighted in torturing mice in full view of anyone entering our base are still “guiltless before the Lord.”

I wonder if we are “guiltless before the Lord” for invading countries and homes, often killing at random, when those countries and citizens posed no direct threat to us, ever.

Perhaps you’ll tell me that all my sins are covered by the blood of Jesus. While I don’t wish to open a debate about the doctrine of atonement, I will simply remind you that Paul in his letter to the Corinthians warns that even a believer’s conscience can be wounded, and John’s letter seeks to encourage believers whose own hearts condemn them. Certainly we must all find ways to cope with whatever guilt we do feel, but is flat-out wrong to demand that PTSD survivors instantly “get rid of it” by believing a Bible “promise” that is actually taken completely out of context. That’s called victim-blaming, and it’s something Jesus never did or advocated.

And even if you do argue that we are, somehow, guiltless in all these things, I would remind you that PTSD is an actual neurological condition that can be detected with brain imaging. We can no more erase our PTSD by reading a Bible verse than a Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s sufferer can. To suggest that we are somehow to blame for our condition because we just didn’t do enough positive thinking or “believing” is a grave disservice and a shocking insult to all veterans. I think you owe the veterans’ community a retraction.