The history surrounding the history of Joseph McCarthy, the late Republican senator from Wisconsin, is enough to make a “freedom of speech” lovin’ woman like me shudder. I’m sure it is no coincidence that Senator McCarthy died right after I was born. He wouldn’t have stood a chance against me once I hit grade school.
Anyway, for my foreign readers, Senator McCarthy was a nasty, paranoid piece of work. Here’s Wikipedia’s take on him:
Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread Communist subversion.[1] He was noted for making claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the United States federal government and elsewhere. Ultimately, his tactics and inability to substantiate his claims led him to be censured by the United States Senate.
The term McCarthyism, coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy’s practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today the term is used more generally in reference to demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.[2]
I also learned that McCarthy was equally ruthless at “outing” gays.
Separated at Birth?
Google Image
When McCarthy claimed that someone was a communist, generally speaking, it ruined his/her life. There were many innocent victims of McCarthyism, whose professional and private lives changed. Folks were fired, not hired, scorned. It impacted people in government, industry and in the arts. Many of us have heard of the folks in show business in particular who were charged. And anybody who had had any dealings with the Soviets was fair game.
We all like to think that we would never cast spurious allegations against anyone or anything on our planet. We all like to think that we are good, kind souls, who would never malign anyone unjustly. That we would never spread rumors or false charges.
Friends, yesterday I learned that I had done just that. I “red-baited.” So while I can ‘splain, I must set the scene.
John’s sister sent us a link to a video:
Naturally I wrote back because I love animal videos, they make me smile.
It was only the next day, when deleting emails from my phone, that I learned of my crime. Because instead of typing “He’s So Cute!” as I had intended, instead I maligned that little guy. Accused him unjustly. Probably ruined his new life for ever:
“He’s a Soviet,” I, courtesy of spell check, responded.*
Fortunately, John’s sister does not succumb to hysterics. Or to the politics of fear. Or to spell check. In fact, she gave me the benefit of the doubt when I confessed my crime to her.
I was scratching my head. I thought, is this some old Russian film and Elyse recognized it?
For the record, please let me state that I have no inside knowledge of the political leanings of this moose, any members of the baby moose’s immediate family, or indeed, I have no information about moose politics in general. May I also state, unequivocally, that I have never actually seen a moose in the wild.
Lastly, let me state that as a reasonably well-informed individual, I also know that the Soviet Union is no longer a union, and even the folks in the former Soviet Union are not soviets.
*Clearly, there are communist infiltrators at work at spell check. We must seek them out and destroy their lives. Let’s get Ted Cruz on it.
FiftyFourandAHalf 
My phone is the worst offender of spell check. Sometimes my messages mean something totally different once its done with the corrections. Geez.
On a lighter note, my dog blames everything she does on the squirrels. Chasing one that had made it atop the bird feeder, she smacked into it so hard that she knocked the feeder off the post and spilled the entire cache of birdseed. Her little face as she looked back at me just made me laugh.
It was the squirrel’s fault.
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Hate when spell check insist the word is speloed wrong when it’s not.
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You seed it!
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I done!
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Clearly, auto correct was attempting to push you to the other side of the aisle. Stand you next to Ted and his evil ilk. Perhaps it is a conspiracy, maybe they thought they needed a sane person with them to make them look less insane.
Yeah, that must be it.
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Soviet, So So, So… I am SO glad for your presence on the interweb 😉 Spell check is out to get us sued for something or other that nobody intended. I love that whenever I need a laugh, I can hit your pages up and find at least a few things to giggle about. Your brain is so fantastic, my dear. 😀
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Thanks, Jani I have a disclaimer on my phone signature line saying please excuse typos. I would like to add “and/or nonsensical words inserted by spellcheck. Not sure all of my clients would be amused.
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And my spell-checker changes caregivers to carnivores. It’s a freaking conspiracy to make us look bad! 😐
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It Is! And my new operating system doesn’t allow me to say no to its changes. What, me proofread?
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I just got a new OS, too. Switched to a Macbook Pro after a lifetime of PC use. It’s a lot to get used to…but I like it. 🙂
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Don’t you just hate auto correct? Although yours takes the cake. But you might be onto something. A cute baby moose does grow up, and as I recently learned he can become a mean SOB. That is apparently what has happened to Cruz, Huckabee, Trump, et al. I wish we could banish them all to moose territory and let them go at each other. The moose would win and we’d be saved from all their future craziness. Sigh. A girl can only dream!
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Actually, I think I was on to something. Or spellcheck was. Because perhaps this moose and his mama were in Vermont — Bernie Sanders teritory. If so, they might not have been soviets, but they certainly could have been socialists (SHOOT THEM! say Cruz, Huckabee, Trump)
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I never trust those moose things… or the beavers…
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I’m so glad you’ve seen the light and mended your wicked, wicked ways, Joe! er, Elyse.
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That I have, Peg. They probably live in Bernie Sanders’ Vermont, so they’re socialists. 😈
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I’ve noticed that you lean on Wikipedia quite a lot. I would caution you to take a lot of what’s there with a fat grain of salt. It’s a notoriously unreliable source for accurate information. (Not that there was any inaccuracies about Joe McC.) My kids aren’t permitted to use it for research.
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I use it here because I usually don’t have time to go into more depth. And I used to close my door at work, surrounded as I am by PhDs. Then one day, I was working with my boss, and she said “let’s check Wikipedia”. She is one of the founders of our field. She (and I) in real life research use it for terminology, for a first couple of references. It’s a great diving board. But you are right that you cannot rely on it.
I often use it when I am familiar enough to know it’s right. And it usually is these days. But don’t tell the kids!
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You know, I hear there’s this tidy little spot in Siberia for people who enact crimes of this nature… I’m talking about that Cruz fellow. Or how about that Huckabee? Didn’t he just tell everyone that signing that Iran deal was like sending Israelis to the oven? I love it. Only I hate it. What a schnozzle.
Anyway, for the record, I think all moose are Communists.
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Yes. PLease send Huckabee there. Today now. And Cruz. Can you do that for me?
As for mooses, I don’t think you’re right. Because then the names in the Rocky and Bullwinkle show would be terribly wrong.
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They are terribly wrong!
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It seems auto-correct has clearly identified you as a Republican.
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Spellcheck obviously doesn’t follow my blog.
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Last year I sent a friend a text mentioning Lake Ostwego … of course, auto-correct knows I wanted to say Lake Osteoporosis.
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Lake Osteoporosis is not a place I personally would like to visit!
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But if you would have seen the accompanying pic!
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Ha! I’ve had some weird auto-corrects, but that one takes the prize. The only one that comes close is when I texted my husband to see if he was coming to bed (yes, I was too lazy to leave the bed and ask him). He replied with a text that said, “No, I’m lactating upstairs.” Well, that certainly got my attention. So I texted back, “Lactating? Really?” He was swift to respond, “No, I meant READING. I’m still READING upstairs.” 🙂
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THAT is brilliantly funny.
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Of course, I had to immediately take a photo of it and share it on Facebook.
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I’m sure he really, really appreciated that.
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He doesn’t care. He still barely knows what Facebook and Twitter are. 🙂
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Wow, not only did you red-bait, but you time traveled to before 1991. You are a woman of many talents, Elyse.
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Many talents, perhaps. But I may unintentionally lead to the demise of cisternization. Or Civilization. One of the two.
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Ever wonder how people mana des bed we had so check to make OJ Lin Bert and a so pled? (Non-spellchecked: Ever wonder how people managed without spellcheck to make our lives simpler and less complicated?)
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In those days, I never once accused anyone of being a soviet. Not once!
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Also, now I want a pet baby moose!
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Named “Otter”?
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Yes! 🙂
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“Political Leanings Of Moose” = my new band name!
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You’d have to be a Canadian band, I think.
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Or Russian! DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNN!
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Oh, SNAP!
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Remember, it was the Russians who couldn’t catch Rocky and Bullwinkle. 😀
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That blasted squirrel
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Awesome video Elyse – the closest and clearest i have ever seen of a mom Moose with her baby. The little guy is so cute staggering around on those spindly legs. I am amazed that someone actually got that close without a reaction from the Mom – they are very protective of their babies. You could tell that Mom knew the videographer was there as she kept looking in the direction of the camera.
I have seen many moose up close in my travels – actually bounced two off my truck. I had a friend Elroy who once told me that the only good looking moose was up to his knees in gravy and onions. Ha! I have seen as many as 12 on one trip across Newfoundland.
Cool post Elyse, great video and I wish Americans the best of luck choosing their new president.
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Glad you caught my subliminal “Don’t Vote for Cruz/McCarthy” message. I am evil.
As for moose, I am sad to say that I am moose-less. On our honeymoon in the wilds of Maine, the innkeeper told us there was a moose down the road. We went, waited for hours, “moose-ing”. No moose materialized. We have been looking to see one ever since. We got close once on Mount Dessert Island last summer when I was positive I saw one — only to find that it was a humongous buck deer with an impressive rack. Had I not been looking for moose I would have been delighted at the sight, but as it was, he was NOT Bullwinkle.
Not seeing a moose, though, is probably better than driving into one (or two) on the highway like you did. My car would fare more poorly than your truck!
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That would explain the time I saw the Moose with the binoculars watching the tourists. 😀
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Yup!
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Your post brightened my day, so thank you for that. It also made me that grateful that paranoid hatemongers are such a thing of the past. Nobody today, for example, would ever look at that cute baby moose, claim he was a secret Muslim extremist and demand to see his birth certificate.
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Donald Trump might.
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There may already be a chapter in his campaign book about the societal dangers of a moose calf. Cute isn’t always what cute seems. Just remember that, Elyse.
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OK. I am heading out now to register as a Republican!
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If we don’t act now, that baby moose may have antlers some day. As a great nation, we just can’t take that unnecessary risk.
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We have nothing to fear but an invasion of mammals from northern climes. ICI, will some day strike more fear into the GOP than ISIS.
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