A Rascal of Boys

The tradition of using collective nouns that are specific to certain kinds of animals is at least 300 years old. More formally known as "terms of venery" these collective nouns were actually taught to the children of nobles and the ruling class as a means of distinguishing themselves from the commoners.

Sometimes the term used will apply to a group only in a certain context. A group of geese on the ground are referred to as a "gaggle" while, in flight, it is a "skein". Ironically, a group of Baboons is referred to as a "congress".

Some examples:

A mimsy of birds
A rascal of boys
A kaleidoscope of butterflies
A stumble of drunks

The coining of such terms is also a popular "parlor" or car game. So we're announcing a contest
today to come up with one or more terms for the following across three different websites. The prize for each is a signed Mindscape image from our Mindscape photo blog, valued at $295.

Please suggest a term for each or any of the following:

1. A gathering of [name of any public figure]____________ supporters.
2. A friendly gathering of "talking heads" on "Hardball with Chris Matthews"
3. A screaming, blathering group of disagreeing "talking heads" on "Hardball with Chris Matthews"
4. A group of expatriot Obama supporters
5. A gathering of Sarah Palin supporters
6. A group of Florida voters
7. A group of Minnesota voters
8. A group of Bill O'Reilly viewers forced to watch Keith Olbermann
9. A group of Keith Olbermann viewers forced to watch Bill O'Reilly
10. Add your own group!

Submissions may be by email or as a comment added to this or any related post. Winners will be announced February 14, 2008.

Birdhouse Beachfront

While visiting one of the best bead shops in America, Gemstar Gemstones in Enfield NH, I had the opportunity to photograph this group of birdhouses that resembled a bunch of colorful houses on a beachfront. Thus was born Birdhouse Beachfront!

Order this image

Curious about this? Visit Wayne King's "Mindscapes" photoblog here.

A Connecticut Checkmate

I raised some ire among a few folks yesterday with my suggestion that Obama should demonstrate his magnanimity by welcoming Lieberman back into the fold. By 8pm this evening news had broken that Obama himself had let it be known to Harry Reid that Lieberman should be allowed to caucus with Democrats.

Having taken my stand and then having it reaffirmed by Obama, I would hasten to say that this does not mean that Lieberman should be welcomed back without having to accept some responsibility for the policy positions that he took during the campaign which are inconsistent with the visions of the new President. Lieberman has plenty of skills but on national security issues he has proven himself unworthy of the leadership roles that he previously held. Just as he should be welcomed back because we are better than those who would shun him. He should not be given a leadership position on national security because we are better than the vision that Senator Lieberman expounded in his support of the McCain ticket.

It is a matter of both accepting responsibility for his actions and acknowledging that his vision is inconsistent with that of our President-Elect.

But would Lieberman hold out for his old chairmanships to spite the new President irrespective of Obama's olive branch? Perhaps. That's why I would urge President Obama to offer a second olive branch to another Connecticut resident. Former Representative Christopher Shays. Representative Shays is a decent man who is widely respected as a moderate republican. The first Republican to break with the shameful ethical practices of the disgraced Tom Delay, Shays was also the first Republican to call for a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

Shays would be an ideal member of Obama's governing coalition in any one of a dozen possible positions - including national security. He would also, conveniently, be the ideal counterweight to Lieberman as the Republican most likely to be able to beat Lieberman out of his Senate seat. By offering Shays a place in the Obama administration, President Obama gets a quality person with an independent spirit and creates added incentive for Lieberman to do the right thing.

Leading with Lieberman

OK, let me start by saying I’m no fan of Joe Lieberman. In fact, I think that Saturday Night Live missed a great opportunity to portray him as Elmer Fudd during this, their most auspicious political season. But the recent political ranting and raving about punishing Joe Lieberman for endorsing McCain seems to me to present an ideal opportunity for President-Elect Barack Obama to demonstrate the power of forgiveness and unity, while at the same time strengthening the hand of Democrats in the Senate.

 

Let’s face it, while Lieberman may have jumped ship on the Democratic party from the perspective of hard core members of the party and “leadership” types. He only did what Barack Obama asked other Americans to do – to place party second to their loyalties to the country. So he came down on the wrong side of the fence but on the right side of the argument.

Say what you will about Lieberman, he’s certainly not a coward. The choice he made in endorsing John McCain could not have been an easy one for him. He isn’t so naïve as to believe that the mere act of standing before Republicans at the convention was going to ingratiate himself with most of them. After all, at his core Joe Liebermans principles are Democrat principles. The base of the Republican Party – at least as represented by the 28% who continue to support President Bush through thick and thin, was never going to accept Joe Lieberman, and many of the folks that would have accepted him jumped the other way in this election. Whether his decision was based on a powerful friendship or a misguided belief that Israel’s future would be more secure under a McCain Presidency, or some other factor that we will likely never know, his decision to stick with John McCain was an act of political courage with almost no upside.

Joe Lieberman is a complicated fellow.  But in his complexity and contradictions can be found a model of the complexities and contradictions swirling through many of the issues that we face as a country. Building a post-partisan coalition will be a tall order to begin with, leading with Lieberman would send a powerful message that Obama intends to make it happen.

Wayne King is a former State Senator and publisher. He Blogs from  his spot in the Blogosphere, Unified Visions www.UnifiedVisions.Blogger.com

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Hanging Out with Project Laundry List

Changing the World Through Clotheslines – One Household at a Time

Alex Lee is on a mission. A mission to restore the clothesline and to save the planet. Project Laundry List uses words, images, and advocacy to educate people about how simple lifestyle modifications, including air-drying one’s clothes, reduce our dependence on environmentally and culturally costly energy sources.
www.laundrylist.org
Project Laundry List Blog

The Fourth Wave - The Green Revolution is Upon Us

Wayne D. King

A new age has dawned . . .

First there was the Agricultural Revolution; then came the Industrial Revolution; then, the Information and Technology Revolution; now we are about to enter what I believe historians will recognize as a Fourth Wave of civilization . . . call it the Green Revolution. If we are wise and fortunate, succeeding generations will define this as the time in which sanity and environmental awareness was brought to all of the gains of preceding eras.

The skeptics will suggest that this is nothing more than the peace, love and waterbeds crowd trying to reprise the Agricultural Revolution. 

But the skeptics are wrong. Green has come to the mainstream. 

Something revolutionary is happening here and it’s about moving forward not backward. It’s about comfort, not discomfort; it’s about doing better with what we have not “doing without”; and, its about sharing this unique and wonderful place we call Earth.

A Revolution

The Green Revolution has all of the historic and social characteristics of previous revolutions – though its transformational possibilities also point to an interwoven conceptual framework quite different from previous revolutions. 

Similarities with Past Revolutions
In each of the preceding historic waves a period of gradual change preceded the revolutionary changes that heralded the new era. Each began with changes that seemed outside of the mainstream of logic and what was considered to be “common sense”. Business tycoons around the country scoffed at the revolutionary ideas of Henry Ford regarding workers rights and production - and he ate their figurative lunch; While Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were busy setting the table for the information revolution, Digital’s Ken Olsen was trying to cut the legs off it by ridiculing the notion that the personal computer would play a pivotal role in anyone’s home – Olsen, too, became grist for the mill ; US Senator James Inhofe, who characterized the concerns of scientists and advocates over global warming as  the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," is well on his way to joining this hall of shame in the current era. Like Olsen, he’s doing his share of backfilling trying to lessen the historical impact of his remarks, but the damage has been done.

Stephen Hawking, in his extraordinary Science in the New Millennium speech, said“. . . common sense is just another name for the prejudices that we have been brought up with.”. Each new revolution has faced its own set of nay-sayers and troglodytes, yet, gradually the prejudices of the day yield to the power of an idea . . . and of course a new set of temporal notions developed, ready to be overthrown by the next revolution. 

Likewise each revolution drove dramatic economic activity. It is commonly accepted that civilization, as we know it, grew out of the simple act of planting crops in the rich flatlands of the Fertile Crescent along the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates basins. Subsistence farming turned the previous life-model of those Neolithic people on its head, eventually leading to trading economies created by surplus production. The Neolithic Agricultural Revolution brought about the shift from a nomadic existence to a structured society with economic systems, domesticated plants and animals and many of today’s hallmarks of civilization.  

As for the Industrial Revolution and the Information Revolution – besides the vast cultural and social changes, nearly every child graduating from a school anywhere in the world knows about the economic changes and growth that accompanied these revolutions. The Green Revolution will be no different. If you are an entrepreneur and you’re ahead of the curve, you are in the “sweet spot”. 

What’s different? Dominion versus Stewardship

If there is one difference between this revolution and others – and that remains to be seen -  it will be manifest in our relationship with the earth and its other living inhabitants. Previous revolutions revolved around the biblical notion that “man” was given dominion over the earth and all its creatures. The Green Revolution, recognizing humanity’s cerebral advantages and concomitant responsibilities, is focused on humanity’s place within the tapestry of all life. This is not a rejection of the religious admonitions, but rather a reading that recognizes stewardship as a more appropriate interpretation of the biblical context. In this way, the Green Revolution is deeply spiritual and consistent with the fundamental tenants of all religious philosophies. It is a unifying vision – something that we have far to few of these days.

The Possibilities

What is most exciting about this Fourth Wave, are its possibilities for humanity. Far from rejecting previous revolutions and the advance of civilization and the human spirit it embraces the very best of these revolutions while challenging us to tread more lightly. In so many ways it takes the respectful view of the earth – manifest most clearly in Native American peoples connection to the earth - and blends it with the best of each succeeding wave of change. An optimists view . . . my view . . . is that humanity is entering a Fourth Wave of civilization where a conscientious consumerism brings all the previous revolutions into balance with the planet. Let the Revolution Begin!

 

About the Author:

Wayne King is a former NH Senator and 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor and lives in Rumney, NH where he flies both the American and Iroquois flags proudly.