“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Category: passions
PLEASE: Help stop these atrocities
The video is mislabelled. It’s hidden camera footage of the real deal of the Chinese dog and cat fur trade. PLEASE: Refuse to buy ANYTHING made in China until this is absolutely stopped forever.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BUiCSjuigY
It’s Christmas, and, Well, We’re Still Fighting
It’s Christmas–a holiday Christians use to celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth (who was actually born sometime in October, btw), Jesus of Nazareth whose teachings inspired the founding of the Christian faith…for good, but mostly resulting in evil.
Christmas is celebrated by non-Christians, as well–Yuletide and the Solstice…or just an excuse to celebrate, remember friends and family, and to enjoy a feeling of goodwill and peace.
But, guess what? In Christams 2009, what are we doing? Well, in the U.S., we’re still fighting–Republicans versus Democrats, liberals versus neoconservatives, and all of them pissed off at moderates and independents who don’t hold their “party” lines. And, around the world, we’re in wars, wars, and wars. We’re standing by while people, animals, and Earth itself continues to suffer harm by mankind’s UNKIND hands–cruelty, hardship, misery, decimation….
I’m sick of humans. Yes, really. As a species, despite supposedly being “civilized” and blessed with (repeat, SUPPOSEDLY) superior intelligence, it is WE–humans–who blight the planet with our greed, our fear, and our oh-so-primitive “us versus them” tribalism. We are the most violent, most vile, of creatures, yet, simultaneously, we exhibit the ability to rise above that and be the kindest, most caring. Unfortunately, in this our 21st century of counting our existence in the West, we seem to be a civilization devolving back into a hate/war society of intolerance…and have been since the turn of the Millennium. (Thanks, G.W.B./Cheney, fuckers both.)
Hope? Hope is a Christmas theme. I’m losing it. I can’t see us ever getting clear of our fear, greed, and unhealthy lusts. Still, Christmas IS the one time of year in the West when, for just a moment, for just a day, SOMETIMES, anyway, the world knows PEACE. This is especially evident at the stroke of midnight between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, worldwide.
So tonight I will celebrate that one precious moment of PEACE that happens only now, thanks to a man born long ago in a land far, far away.
Thank you, Jesus. That’s one small piece of good that came about because of a religion founded in your name, though most everything else that’s come about because of Christianity (along with most everything that’s come about because of Judism and Islam, all brother/sister religions that lead back to the seed of Abraham) only perpetuates more evil upon the planet.
Be still, Humans. It’s Christmas Eve. A breath of stillness, a moment of peace….
The Plant
I have an Angel Wing Begonia that’s OLD. Very OLD. It was given to me by Mom, and I kept it for many years. When it outgrew my house, I gave it to Undean, who had it for about ten years, then gave it back when it outgrew her house. I put it in the garden for the summer, because it really was too big for anywhere in the house I lived in, and, come Fall, a lady who loves plants indicated a desire to own it. So I gave it to her.
Under her care, it got even BIGGER. And it bloomed like crazy. Then, a year or so later, times got tough for them and, ultimately, they moved to a very small, unfinished house that had few windows. The plant had to go, and it went to her mom’s house, but not before losing a couple of it’s numerous shoots.
Helping with the move, I snagged the one that hadn’t been walked on and stuck it in water, hoping I could save a small piece of the heirloom plant. Sure enough, it rooted for me, and, holding my breath, a year later, I put it in soil.
Moving a plant from water culture to soil culture is hard on the plant. Very. I did it in stages, adding soil to the water (mud), then, finally, moving it into a legitimate pot of soil. And it survived…and thrived. And now it’s big enough that it outgrew the living room window (which it loved). I’m holding my breath again because the only place for it is a rather dark corner with no morning sun, fitted with a tall, artificial daylight lamp.
If it doesn’t do well there, I’ll move it back to the big picture window, even though that’s going to take some major redecorating to accomplish. We’ll see what happens after a few weeks. The plant may be okay. Then, again, I might be calling on hubs to disassemble the bookcase/sill under the front room window.
This from The Grist, Polar Bears & Whales vs. Navy Sonar
Ursine of the Times
U.S. study says two-thirds of polar bears will be gone by 2050
The U.S. Geological Survey released a grim study of polar bears on Friday, concluding that two-thirds of the world’s polar bears will be gone by 2050. Polar bears in Alaska and other areas outside the very far north will be most out of luck, according to the study; it forecasts that precisely zero polar bears will be left in Alaska by 2050. “Sea ice conditions would have to be substantially better than even the most conservative computer simulations of warming and sea ice” for the bears to avoid the forecasted steep drop in population, the report said. For those desperately seeking an upside to all this, the survey team said the polar bears’ fate was likely only 84 percent linked to the extent of sea ice, which means the remaining bears will only theoretically be 84 percent screwed when all of it disappears from the Arctic. Phew! Meanwhile, for just $35,000 or so, kick-’em-while-they’re-down types can pay to go on polar-bear safari and bag a trophy kill. But hey, for an extra $100,000, we know a guy who can arrange a cage match with a polar bear and your own remote-controlled robot. Just let us know.
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Play It Again, Uncle Sam
Appeals court overturns ruling, allows Navy to test underwater sonar
It’s the controversy that keeps on controversing: The U.S. Navy wants to test underwater mid-frequency sonar. Marine advocates say such testing effs up whales and other marine mammals. Repeat. (Grist has been writing about this issue since 1999, and we have never reused a headline. Thank you.) Anyhoodle, here we go again: last month, a federal judge ordered the Navy to stop using mid-frequency sonar off the California coast through 2009; a federal appeals court has now put the kibosh on that decision. “The public does indeed have a very considerable interest in preserving our natural environment and especially relatively scarce whales,” wrote Judge Andrew Kleinfeld. “But it also has an interest in national defense. We are currently engaged in war, in two countries.” And we can’t be too careful — what if the whales are working for the terrorists?