Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.
Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).
The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.
So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?
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NOTE: The comments page will now split off after 20 or so left margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the link.
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Good morning, Motley Meese! The week begins …
It is 46 degrees in Madison WI, on its way up to 60. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
President Obama will now start using “Daesh” to refer to the terrorists. From Turkey last night:
I hope that helps end the “Islamic terrorist” meme which ignores this:
John Scalzi on the ridiculousness of 1.2 billion Muslims being required to apologize for what the terrorists are doing:
Last night, the CBS debate moderators tried to goad the Democratic Party candidates into declaring that the problem is “radical Islamic terrorists”. The problem is, as Secretary Clinton said, “radical jihadists”, period, and “Islamic” adds nothing and only incites anti-Muslim bigotry and violence.
Isn’t Scalzi great? I found him because of something he wrote before the 2012 election, then found his fiction. But I love his blog posts. And I do wish Hillary had been more specific.
At least she refused to accept the “Islamic terrorists” and “radical Islam” memes. Conservatives were livid! It really underscores their “crusader” mentality, “one true religion” worldview.
Scalzi did an excellent job of framing it. Several people tweeted that link last night.
Saw on GOS that someone said “Daesh” is pronounced daa..age, like the end of “garage,” but you say it fast. That way it sounds like a derogatory term.
I found something this morning when I was puttering around that had an audio of the word and the end sound was a blend between a soft g and an sh. They also said that it is a difficult “word” for us and that Westerners should think of it as Da’ash. I say “word” because it is not a word but an acronym that people are trying to pronounce. It is like the “word” EBCDIC, a computer acronym that I pronounced eb-chi-dik and some of my colleagues pronounced eb-see-dik. There really is no official way.
I am going to go with die-esh because I want to think of it as dying.
Good morning Meese – I missed the debate – settled in to watch it and fell asleep.
Getting ready to dive into my Sunday chat at orange.
Haven’t even had a chance to scan the news.
Will be back later.
I decided to wait and watch it off the videos because I have no patience for live TV.
The YouTubes and CBS links are in our debate post if you are looking for them: The D-bate … and then there were three – UPDATED with video links
The debate was … interesting. One thing is certain: our candidates discussed issues that Republicans are not confronting in their primary that will come back and bite them in the general election. Our nominee will be well vetted.
Here is the link for our peeps: Enslaved African ancestors and their Wall Street legacy
Thank you for sharing the story and this image of the monument:
“For all those who are not forgotten” … thanks to you!
And because I am a Shameless Sharer of Stuff Found on the Internets, here is the movie:
FIXED: There is no way to turn off Autoplay so here is the link:
United States of Hoodoo
My workout group has changed Sundays to meeting at 8, which is too late for me to do & get to church. I’m going to have to have the self-discipline to walk on my own. That is not this day.
Today: church, groceries, cooking. I volunteered to get Tofurkey for any fellow veg-heads for our holiday luncheon Thursday. I asked for a head count & as far as I know, there’s only 1 other, so I’m buying the small one. Right now, just hanging out.
Morning all! Thanks for all the debate news – I cannot get enthused about watching it, so I will rely on the summaries here, thanks so much for those.
I’m really afraid of how European governments will react to the news that at least one of the Paris attackers got in by free riding with a refugee wave into Greece – I think that’s probably one of the things Daesh hoped to accomplish, to undercut Europe’s willingness to provide a haven for those they are terrorising the most, by associating their terror with innocent people fleeing for their lives. Words cannot express how disgusting this group is – although of course, they must also be relying on young men and women who’ve grown up in poverty and disaffection in the various European countries, to carry out many of their plans. It’s just going to be a mess now – the right wingers in Europe are going to have a field day playing on people’s fear. And I still want to know how our modern surveillance state, which we were told would protect us and keep us safe if we just surrendered our rights to privacy, somehow missed any hint of this plot. The words of US security people that there are no “credible threats” against the US ring a bit hollow. Not that I’m advocating going further with eroding our privacy – far from it – but it all seems to underscore again the words one of my old bosses on Capitol Hill, Andy Jacobs from Indiana (back when Indiana sent Democrats to Congress) had on his official stationery: The Road to Peace is Paved With Justice.
Despite it all, hope everyone has a good day.
Yes, I kept hoping that they would find that the Syrian passport (traced to the Greek refugee camp) was going to be someone elses (an Egyptian passport they found turned out to be from one of the victims). It appears that he did arrive in the flood of refugees and used that to mask his entry into Europe. A couple of others used forged passports so, really, I am not sure that “refugee” is the key word here … it sounds like it is too easy to get fake credentials.
I don’t know what this does short-term to our accepting refugees … Canada said their plans are unchanged. The reaction of the right-wing, their claims that this is Good News for
John McCainTheir Candidates requires that they keep the fear ratcheted up to Hair On Fire level for 11 months. I am not convinced they can. And since they are really only speaking to their choir now – folks who were never going to vote for a Democrat anyway – I am not sure it changes much electorally. We shall see, as they say.Good morning, all! It’s 49 F. on a beautiful November morning, going up to 61 F. today, which will be nice. I’ll be outdoors this afternoon.
Watched most of the debate last night and found myself clapping for Bernie twice. One time was when he said the USA should be ashamed of itself for not providing health care as a right for its citizens instead of a privilege. I forget what the other time was, but probably it was something to do with Big Pharma.
Secretary Clinton seemed to me much more grounded in reality concerning the minimum wage, which she insisted should be indexed to inflation, and possibly more realistic about reinstating Glass-Steagall. I’ve always supported the idea of the latter, but she says it doesn’t go far enough.
In sum, although I like Bernie’s ideas, he’d never get them past the kind of Congress that prevails now. Secretary Clinton has no illusions about the nature of Rethugs, and that’s why I think she’d be a far better president than he. That’s just my two cents.
Still upset about France. Wonder if Portlaw’s French relatives live in Paris. If so, hope they’re safe. Miss Pink Cheeks and I will be going to a Girl Scout cookie tasting this afternoon. Hope everyone will have a good day!
I wish we knew how Portlaw was and if her relatives are okay. I thought of her immediately when the terrorists struck. I am not sure if she told us specifically where she was when she visited there last fall. I hope she is not there right now!
This may be an election season where the Overton Window moves slightly to the left and many of Bernie’s ideas are no longer seen as unthinkable or radical but are seen as sensible and popular and maybe must maybe get a chance to become policy. THAT is how we make progress. But the reality of governing with a less than 60 vote majority in the Senate and most likely GOP control of the House requires that we nominate someone grounded in the doable not the wish-we-could. A revolution sweeping out the bad old days and sweeping in the new is not going to happen in 2016. And unilaterally disarming in the Campaign Finance Wars is simply foolish. Until both sides can’t do it, our side has to use every resource available to us to promote our candidates, our policies, and our GOTV.
Good morning, 42 and raining in Bellingham today. I tried to really listen to the debate last night but after a day of putting the basement back together I was to tired to retain much. It was good to hear and see a reasonable conversation though, with crazy scary R’s involved!
I’ve got more house tending to do today, bills to pay, and a family Thanksgiving to start thinking about so next week will be busy too…..just no more moving things please.
It’s chilly (58) and overcast – started drizzling about daybreak (12 hours ahead of forecast) which is why my clothes are on racks in front of the wood stove – and still not dry 6 hours after being hung there. More rain forecast for tomorrow and Tuesday.
I did not watch the debates – have read the Live Blog over at DK (I do not like the new format) and figured I don’t need to go into any of the diaries for the sake of my blood pressure if nothing else. (Read, rec’d, and tipped Dee’s story/diary or whatever we’re calling them these days while I was there. Excellent, as usual.) No, Hillary’s vote on AUMF was not a mistake but since she’s explained it lebenty-billyun times and still gets the same question, I guess she gave up. But then I remember in 2008 when she said Social Security wasn’t broke and saying so was a RW meme – she got slammed every which a way, so she went with the program of saying she’d “fix” it (by leaving it alone if you pressed her further). sigh. And no, Glass-Stegall would not have prevented the 2008 melt down – she is absolutely right that we need to address the whole problem. sigh.
Anyway, I baked cranberry almond muffins (dried cranberries and sliced almonds – toppings for salad – left over from a lunch presentation Friday) this morning. Made chicken veggie and pasta soup for lunch next week (made the stock yesterday). The house smells good – muffins and soup and clean laundry (no perfumes in the detergent). Hope everyone is safe (holding good thoughts for portlaw wherever she is) and comfortable. {{{HUGS}}}
Yeah, its probably time to ignore the repetitive attacks … just shake your head and move on. Positions are pretty hardened already and rebuttals are simply white noise or the sound that adults on a Peanuts cartoon make.
President Obama is not going to endorse anyone but hanging over this election is that his active campaigning for the Democratic nominee will be important because the Democrat will not be able to win without the Obama Coalition. Candidates who run away from his policies or whose supporters are loud and proud Obama-suxxers have no path to victory. It is no shock to me that the worst Obama=Bush voices on the lefty blogs are berners (it would trouble me greatly to be rubbing elbows with them, btw). That is not necessarily Bernie Sanders’ fault but when you start with the premise that everything sucks right now and we need a revolution to fix it, you ignore everything that the current Democratic administration got right. It will be a tough needle to thread.
Baked oatmeal is cooling, veggies in the quinoa are blending flavors. I’ve watched 2 week’s worth of Walking Dead & Talking Dead. Still don’t know if Glenn is alive or dead. WD is easier to watch than coverage of Paris.
Gotta do laundry & figure out what I’m wearing next week. I wonder if it’ll be so cold I need to wear long pants — I’ve still been wearing capris. And, sigh — I suppose this means actual shoes.
Good morning, meese! Monday …
It is 50 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 56. Cloudy skies with afternoon rain in the forecast.
So “Boots on the Ground” Lindsey Graham still won’t say where exactly the boots will go to defeat a stateless enemy … just that sending troops “somewhere” will fix stuff so we won’t have another 9/11. Perhaps “paying attention to the intelligence” is the best way to prevent another 9/11, something that the last Republican president failed to do. Sorry but America is not buying the Republicans Keep Us Safe meme. Republicans keep us in wars which actually makes us less safe.
And Ted Freaking Cruz says that Christians never commit acts of terror. When history is filled with too many pesky facts, the Republican position is to simply ignore them. Makes it easy, I suspect, to get through class when you only have to remember 10% of the course material. Jeb! also wants to check people’s religion at the border to make sure only Christians are allowed into the country because only Christians are victims of Daesh. Good lord these people are insane.
That’s enough. I need to go find a bucket of brain bleach and start my day.
See all y’alls later!
Brain bleach is right. Timothy McVeigh.
We had a discussion about terrorism in class today.
I had a shock – none of my students know the name Timothy McVeigh, and most didn’t know anything about the Oklahoma bombing.
They had never heard of Pol Pot/Khmer Rouge either. One student said Pol Pot was in Vietnam.
They knew nothing ondeath squads in Latin America
Or how many people died under Stalin.
They did know about Nazi’s atrocities against Jews – but had no idea about all the other millions killed under Hitler…like Gypsies.
Sigh.
Morning Meese.
Headed off to school. Avoiding the news because of teh stoopid dangerous crap being spouted by clown car occupants.
Have a good day.
The stupid could be ignored if it didn’t come with an overwhelming helping of dangerous.
BTW – the film I told you about last week was “Black White” an episode of FX (and recommended by one of the professor’s T.A.s who is black).
Good Monday morning! It’s 32 F. on a beautiful day here in NoVa, going up to 67 F. this afternoon.
I’m still grieving about Paris, as well as Beirut and Kenya, which received no coverage in the U.S. press that I can see. Only heard about the loss of life on Facebook.
Have an unpleasant morning ahead, during which I have to tell the sales people at Ashby Ponds that we will not be moving there after all. The person I really feel sorry for is our realtor, who has worked very hard to bring about the sale. I feel as if I should offer to work in her office free until I’ve repaid her efforts. We are not sorry to be staying, as we love this house and neighborhood. I’ll still be able to see my grandchildren frequently, Monty will still have his huge backyard to play in, and we’ll still have our beautiful view of the woods. It would have been nice to move to AP, where there would have been no need to drive (an especially desirable feature as one ages), but “it is what it is,” as my son (irritatingly) says. Who knows? A year from now we may look back and say, “Gosh, it’s a good thing we didn’t move when we wanted to.”
Hoping for a good day for all the Pond and Beyond!
Some of the stuff on social media about Beirut and Kenya is wrong. There was a recent Beirut bombing but they are referring to the Kenyan attack from last year. Facebook in particular is weird and recycles old stories which then go (wrongly) viral. It is still distressing but maybe not breaking news.
Don’t feel too badly about your real estate person – brokers spend a lot of time doing uncompensated work and they are used to it. In a perfect world, they are building goodwill for when you, or your family, eventually put the house back on the market (which will have to happen someday); more likely they will not be in the business when you are ready to sell (there is a LOT of turnover).
I hear you on the driving. My next move will be to a place where I can park my car in underground parking and take it out once a month to make sure it still starts. I want to be able to walk to what I want to do, take mass transit … and stay home a lot!!
What a wonderful goal, Jan! Truthfully, we could walk to our local grocery store if we didn’t mind wails from the dog for leaving him behind and the ice cream melting on the way home. It’s an 18-minute walk, a 3-minute drive.
The appeal of AP is that everything is in ONE place: one’s apartment, the gym, the walking trails, the social clubs, the restaurants and pub, the billiards room (not that I’d bother the latter much). If one wishes to visit grocery stores, the little AP shuttle will take one to different stores five days a week. Well, perhaps one day…
Ooops! I forgot about the grocery store. I might need a car for that. When I first moved to Milwaukee, I lived in the downtown area, a half dozen or so blocks from work. I enjoyed being able to walk to work and area restaurants. But the first time I went to the grocery store, I did the kind of shopping I usually do, checked out … and then realized I had a 5 bags of groceries that I need to get to my apartment 4 blocks away. I ended up “borrowing” a shopping cart but it was not easy getting it up and down the pre-ADA curbs. After that, I took my car.
I hope today goes well Diana. Unpacking and settling into life in your newly refurbished old home is a good option to have.
Thanks, princesspat. We think so too. :)
Eating breakfast, drinking tea. The baked oatmeal is working out good. A layer (or 2) of sliced apples, layer of berries, oatmeal mixed with soymilk & eggs, roasted nuts — last week was almonds, this week walnuts. Divided in 5 containers, ready to nuke in the morning.
And, I hate to tell y’al northerners — but I’m still wearing sandals! I might have to wear shoes on Thursday & Friday, but for now it’s still capris & sandals.
One song that my head has been playing at me a lot this weekend is Until The End Of The World.
Specifically the part where he’s singing “love, love” over & over. But I think my subconscious also picked it because it’s written from Judas’ point of view. Bono had read a book (sorry, I don’t remember the title) written from his point of view, and it sparked this song –and it’s about how Jesus/God still loves him and will wait till the end of the world:
In my dream, I was drowning my sorrows
But my sorrows they’d learned to swim
Surrounding me, going down on me
Spilling over the brim
Waves of regret and waves of joy.
I reached out for the one I tried to destroy.
You, you said you’d wait till the end of the world
With all of the calls for war & reprisals — with these attacks coming, no doubt from our drone strikes that are “necessary” because of the previous atrocity that’s because of …… Anyway, a song about love that’s always there waiting for us…. something my head wants me to hear right now.
Has anyone heard from Portlaw? I’m concerned….
She’s been commenting on DK5 from time to time. Other than that, no.
If you see her, tell her we miss her! I hope she is not upset with us for being more pro-Hillary than she can abide. We should probably make an effort to focus more, here in the Welcomings, at least, on the things we all agree on, and not trumpet (too loudly) those issues that we disagree about. I think we all want a safe world, a more fair economy that doesn’t ignore the contributions of the working class, and social justice; we simply see different ways to get there. I am more inclined to accept slow steady progress with imperfect leaders rather than push for a revolution. I think in some places revolution would be possible but I am frightened at the prospect of losing the presidency if we don’t find 270 electoral votes.
Oh I hope that isn’t it. I know I’m seriously a Hillary supporter but I like Bernie. I just want him where he is. That was my attitude about Hillary AND Obama in 2008 – don’t take progressives out of the Senate. And I most certainly don’t want to be making anyone uncomfortable.
Second that, Jan and bfitz. It’s my own theory that she no longer feels comfortable here, even though we are far less contentious than the anti-Hillary people on GOS. I do like Bernie, and even clapped twice during his debate statements. I simply feel that Secretary Clinton is more qualified in every way and it would mean a lot to an old woman like me to see a woman POTUS.
It is still early in the primary process and passions are running high. I remember when I had my choice made around this time in 2007 I would not have been easily dissuaded. We have a shared history of being on a blog site that is very combative about politics so it would not be surprising to prefer to rub shoulders with like minds at this stage.
I hope that after a clear front-runner emerges that we can all come together to elect the Democrat and support him or her in promoting Democratic Party values.
I have a short list of things I want my candidate to change her mind on. Some of them match up with Portlaw’s.
Morning all – yes, down here in Florida of course it’s still sandals weather – it will be back into the low 80’s this week, but at least it will be cool at night, in the 60’s, so nothing to complain about.
I can’t do more than glance at headlines today – I can’t stand it.
Diana, I agree, your realtor is used to this, it’s part of the cost of doing business – and I’m sure the folks at Ashby Ponds are as well. Enjoy your house – now it’s spruced up and your “stuff” has been pruned, so enjoy! It will all eventually work out.
Have a great day everyone.
Thanks, Geordie!
Good morning, 38 and cloudy in Bellingham. Between going to the pool, paying the bills, and getting a pre Thanksgiving shopping list ready for RonK I will have a busy day. He does the Costco shopping and for some reason today is his chosen day…..seems a bit early to me.
It’s a quiet news day in the PNW……the local rasberry harvest is down, the Orca whales needs a more robust Chinook Salmon run, and a survey of fish in the Salish Sea has added a number of new species.
Study adds 37 species to Salish Sea’s fish list, bringing total to 253
The description of how the the artistic drawings of the fish are made is especially interesting.
Starting from this morning’s low of 48 we’re inching our way up to tomorrow’s high of 63, as weird as that sounds, and drizzly at the moment. We’re pretty much going to stay wet for the next 48 hours (at which point it will clear off and the temps will start dropping) – at least that’s the forecast.
Diana, I think what’s been going on is this was the only way the goddess(es) could get you folks to do some work on the house for your health and comfort. :) Now it’s done and you are staying in the house you love/have invested a lot of spiritual energy. The real estate folks are used to this kind of thing – not saying they like it, but used to it.
I’ve got piles of stuff on my desk that I have to sort out enough to figure out what to do with it. At least most of the Criminal Justice side of the department have left town for the week so I should have some time to do it. Have a lovely day at the Moose Pond. {{{HUGS}}}
Thanks, bfitz! Gotta admit, we like the new look upstairs. Downstairs…not so much. But we’ll worry about that later.
The president held a press conference today from Antalya Turkey where he is attending the G20 meetings:
USA Today:
Activism works: Students Successfully Convince Georgetown To Rename Buildings Named After Slaveowners
What is particularly distasteful is that the slaveowners were Jesuit priests. Yikes! The Catholic Church apparently has been very good at cherry-picking the bible when it came to the doings of their priests.
Thanks – had not seen that!
I had not heard a peep about this story until it crossed my newsfeed that the students had won. The part that should be intensely embarrassing to the university and the Society of Jesus is that the sale of the slaves was not done in the 1600s or 1700s when there were still countries enslaving people … but it was in 1848 when slavery had been outlawed in many countries and was under attack in the United States. From the clueless president’s statement about seeking “reconciliation” instead of immediately disavowing Mulledy and the permanent blemish on the souls of those who did this:
“Let’s sell these people to erase our debt! Quickly, before it is outlawed and we lose the value of our property!!”
Good morning, meese! Tuesday …
It is 47 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 54. Rain is in the forecast.
This is just embarrassing:
In better news, state sanctioned murders are down to the lowest point in 20 years. There are a number of reasons for the drop: the inability to access killing drugs, better access to legal resources, more lawsuits leading to higher costs for states:
Let’s flip the Supreme Court and make the execution rate 0.
See all y’alls later!
Good morning Meese.
Supporting our POTUS – and ashamed of the loud voices of haters.
Don’t have much else to say.