Well, one, actually....


A woman stood by her dog at the World Dog Show in Bratislava, Slovakia, Friday. More than 20,000 entries from more than 50 countries competed for awards. (Samuel Kubani/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

--source--"

That's what I have tried to do with everything I've posted from here down. Too much death, destruction, and division out there.... it takes its toll on your soul.

"My Recent Photos with Wild Animals
(full resolution for printing purposes, click here)

A tremendous thank you to Ben Heine Art

This next item should need no explanation:

"Endangered Gorillas Join Facebook


KAMPALA, Uganda — He's hairy, his table manners are atrocious, and he wants to be your friend on Facebook.

No, it's not the ex-boyfriend. It's Muhozi, an endangered Ugandan mountain gorilla, who's appearing online as part of a fundraising program the Ugandan Wildlife Authority launched Saturday to help save the species. Around 340 mountain gorillas — nearly half of the 740 remaining worldwide — live in Uganda's lush Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park and 40 more live in another Ugandan reserve. The rest live in the Virunga mountain range, which stretches from Uganda into Rwanda and the war-ravaged Congo.

Despite their size — a male silverback can reach over 7 feet (2.1 meters) and weigh 400 pounds (180 kilogram) — the gorillas are threatened by poachers who kill them for meat, farmers and charcoal-burners who encroach on their habitat, and the indiscriminate bullets of rebels on the run. They must be protected by rangers with automatic rifles. The Wildlife Authority is hoping that fans will befriend a gorilla on Facebook or MySpace or follow it on Twitter in return for a minimum donation of $1. The money will be used to hire extra rangers to protect the gorillas and safeguard their habitat.

In return, gorilla friends will receive regular updates about their chosen gorilla, have their gorilla's picture on their home page and receive gorilla trivia — like the fact that the name is derived from a Greek word, gorillai, meaning "hairy women." Wildlife Authority spokeswoman Lilian Nsubuga said she hoped the program would give people who could not afford to travel to Uganda themselves the chance to feel closer to the animals.

About 10,500 tourists visit Uganda each year to see the gorillas. An entry permit for the park is $500 per person. Last year Uganda earned $600 million through tourism and more than 90 percent of the money was from gorilla tourism. "Why visit Rome to see ruins or Egypt to see mere piles of stones called pyramids, yet you can go to Bwindi and see your next of kin?" asked Uganda's Minister of Tourism, Kahinda Otafiire, pointing out that gorillas share more than 95 percent of their DNA with humans.

Thomas Slater, the director of the gorilla Web site, said Internet users would be able to befriend any individual from one of seven groups habituated to human contacts. "You will be able to learn more concerning the particular gorilla, its character, family and relationships," he said.

___

On the Net:

http://www.friendagorilla.org

--Endangered Gorillas Join Facebook--"

--source--"

As for my favorite domestic mammal, there is one little cat that loves me. I'll take their approval over a human any day.

"House’s foreclosure puts its feline residents at risk" by Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondent | September 29, 2009


An Attleboro foreclosure left about 50 cats with no place to go, and an animal shelter scrambling to find homes for them.

An Attleboro foreclosure left about 50 cats with no place to go, and an over-capacity animal shelter is scrambling to find homes for most of them.

“We had to do something,’’ said Ellaina Knight, the feline-care coordinator at the Friends of Attleboro Animal Shelter. “These are nice cats; we don’t want them to be euthanized.’’

The cats began multiplying in the home two years ago, after their former owner lost his job. Then his wife died unexpectedly 18 months later, leaving him in a deep depression, Knight said....

Firefox swiped up my link!

Bigger cats:

"Despite campaign, tigers dwindling" by Associated Press | October 28, 2009


A Sumatran tiger awaited surgery for injuries it received when it was caught in a snare. It died Monday before being treated. (AP Photo/ Heri Juanda)

KATMANDU, Nepal - The world’s tiger population is declining fast despite efforts to save them, and new strategies are urgently needed to keep the species from dying out, international wildlife specialists said yesterday....

An estimated 3,500 to 4,000 tigers now roam the world’s forests, down from the more than 100,000 estimated at the beginning of the 20th century. All the remaining tigers are in Asia. Participants at the conference, which also includes the World Bank, the World Wildlife Fund, and other groups, plan to discuss strategies for tiger conservation....

I just want to know how you globalists that designed everything and have been running this planet let this happen -- and why we should trust you to "preserve" things now?

In a recent case, a Sumatran tiger died after being caught in a pig snare last week in Indonesia, the country’s news agency, Antara, reported Monday. The report said the tiger died as it was being prepared for surgery Monday. Only about 250 Sumatran tigers remain in the wild.

Didn't Indonesia just suffer tremendously from earthquakes, landslides, and floods?

Residents in the West Java town of Tasikmalaya surveyed the damage from the earthquake yesterday. (Gede Bagja/AFP/Getty Images)

Oh, things are returning to normal, are they?

So HOW ARE THEY DOING, Globe? Where are the globalist saviors, anyway?

“Despite our efforts in the last three decades, tigers still face threats of survival. The primary threat is from poaching and habitat loss,’’ Nepal’s prime minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, told the conference. He said extreme poverty has also challenged efforts.....

The 13 countries where wild tigers are still found include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

--more--"

You know, it is really sad when a person loves animals more than his fellow humans. Not because I'm some sort of misanthrope that wants humans to go away; because ANIMALS DO NOT LIE or KILL EACH OTHER for MONEY and CONTROL! Animals are NOT DECEPTIVE or SELF-DECEIVING, and when they kill it is for food or self-defense.

Actually, this should sum it up nicely:

"Lawrence, 2 pesky beavers wage war; Dam near roadway at heart of battle" by David Abel, Globe Staff | September 29, 2009

Beavers have long battled humans over the flow of water, and they usually end up on the losing side. But a pair of the aquatic rodents plying a patch of wetlands in Lawrence were so crafty that they apparently outwitted state officials, at least briefly.

In the past few weeks, a dam built by the long-residing duo in the wetlands adjacent to Den Rock Park sent water flooding onto nearby Route 114. Officials from the Massachusetts Highway Department moved in with backhoes and breached the dam to drain the flooded road, which was experiencing dangerous driving conditions. But as often happens in such struggles with beavers, the numbers of which have increased dramatically in the past decade in Massachusetts, the animals quickly rebuilt their dam. The smart-thinking officials decided to fight back by sticking a long, plastic pipe through the dam, which accomplished the same goal as before, again draining the road and lowering the water level in the surrounding pond.

But the indefatigable beavers weren’t fooled. They ripped off some tree branches and used mud to clog the pipe’s small opening.... “I have never taken as much grief over anything as I have with beavers,’’ Tennis Lilly, chairman of the Lawrence Conservation Commission said. “They are very unpopular animals.’’

Beavers have multiplied since the state banned leg-hold traps in 1997. There are now an estimated 60,000 to 90,000 beavers in Massachusetts, up from about 10,000 a decade ago, Lilly said. The rise in their population has created more conflicts as they encroach on development. But Lilly has a responsibility to preserve the ecosystem and notes that the dams beavers build help attract more wildlife to the area. He said Den Rock Park is now home to more swallows, herons, wood ducks, mallards, spotted salamanders, wood turtles, frogs, river otters, and mink, among other wildlife, than it had been in years.

“Beavers have an impact well beyond their presence,’’ he said. “The key is we need to learn to coexist.’’

I look around and I ask "How?"

Maybe we "superior" humans need to take lessons from animals:

Polar bears and dogs playing

ORIGINAL Elephant Painting

When you take a look at the magnificent creatures and watch the video, you realize elephants are very special creatures.

I watched an Animal Planet show on them, and they remember where their herd mates die.

In fact, one died during their journey on the show, and the other elephants had a devil of a time getting the mother to move along.

It was heart-breaking to see the mother elephant wailing, not want to leave her dead calf!

The narrator even pointed out that the elephants were SHOWING EMOTIONS!!!!

And now they are SELF-AWARE ENOUGH to PAINT!!!!

LIFE is PRECIOUS, world!!!

Can't we all SHARE THIS PLANET in PEACE??!!!!!!!!!

And on a personal side note, there is a chipmunk

living under the stone steps of the house. I expect he is trying to bed down for winter;

"The sleeping quarters are kept extremely clean as shells and feces are stored in refuse tunnels."

however, there is a stray cat in the neighborhood eying him. I've chased it away on several occasions, but it still lingers around. The little bugger better be ready to move. I can't be out there all the time.

Pigs are fourth on the intelligence scale; they should not be treated this way, nor eaten.


Workers wear masks to prevent spreading disease to pigs at a farm in Iowa. The industry is being studied for clues on H1N1 flu. (David Brown/ Washington Post).

Giraffes have returned to southern Sudan since the war ended. It is now the site of one of the largest mammal migrations. (Miguel Juarez/ Washington Post)."

A bear forages for food in a tree in Aspen, Colo. Nine bears have been killed by wildlife officers in that region this summer. (David Zalubowski/ Associated Press)

"Thai elephant hurt by mine gets artificial leg" by Apichart Weerawong, Associated Press Writer | August 15, 2009


Motola, a female elephant who stepped on a land mine 10 years ago, uses its trunk to lean against the bars at its enclosure at the Elephant Hospital in Lampang province, northern Thailand Saturday, Aug. 15, 2009. Thai experts are making an artificial leg for the 48-year-old pachyderm which will be attached later on Saturday. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawongi)

I haven't gone anywhere, but I did get these shots:


Villagers looked at the remains of a house belonging to supporters of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan. Reports of Mehsud’s death were unconfirmed. (Ishtiaq Mehsud/Associated Press)


Children took refuge yesterday in a police office after clashes between security forces and Islamist radicals in Maiduguri. Fighting in the northern Nigerian city raged for a second day. (Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images)


Somali women who have been forced from their homes by violence in Mogadishu protested the lack of water near a camp for internally displaced people. (Mohamed Dahir/ AFP/ Getty Images)


Only craters and rubble remain of the Khazna village near Mosul after truck bombs exploded yesterday as residents slept. (Khalid Al-Mousuly/ Reuters)


Followers of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, seen on a poster at center, attended prayers in Baghdad yesterday. (KARIM KADIM/ASSOCIATED PRESS)


This undated photo showed Lynndie England holding a leash connected to a naked detainee at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. (Washington Post/ File)


Josh Habib (far left), a 53-year-old translator, along with two Marines, spoke to Afghan villagers. He has hiked in extreme heat, and said this is not the job he signed up for. (David Guttenfelder/Associated Press)


An egg seller in Kabul stood by a campaign billboard yesterday for President Hamid Karzai. A recent poll financed by the US government indicated that the race was tightening. (Paula Bronstein/ Getty Images)



A U.S. soldier reacts after a suicide car bomb explosion which occurred near the main gate of NATO's headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday Aug. 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das7 die, 91 wounded in blast near NATO HQ in Kabul)



--Gaza children shatter world record--"


Bai Yun (right) is pregnant again. The 17-year-old panda has given birth to four cubs since arriving at the San Diego Zoo. (Associated Press/ File 2007)

"Pen pals: Giraffe and goat form unlikely friendship when kept in same enclosure

By Daily Mail Reporter
August 1, 2009

They'll always have a very different outlook on life.

But even though Gerald the giraffe is rather lofty and Eddie the goat is more down to earth, they are the perfect pairing.

They have formed an unlikely bond after Eddie was placed with 15ft Gerald as a short-term solution to keep the giraffe company at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm in Bristol.

Four-legged friends: Gerald the giraffe and Eddie the goat became inseperable after keepers placed them in the same enclosure at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm in Bristol three years ago.... 

 

--MORE--"

Also watch: Polar bears and dogs playing

ORIGINAL Elephant Painting

We are not as superior to the animals as you think, human.

How come they can get along and we can't?

Four-year-old Mark Griffin (right) looked through the glass yesterday at Kitombe, a gorilla at Franklin Park Zoo in Dorchester. (Maisie Crow for The Boston Globe)

Do you like a camera in your face when you are eating in your cage?  Then why would she?


Gigi, one of the gorillas at Franklin Park Zoo, celebrated her birthday early yesterday. She is 37. (David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

Related: Gigi the Gorilla

Because I view them as equals.

They are LIFE FORMS WORTHY of RESPECT in this all too callous, cruel, and cold world -- and WE CELEBRATE LIFE and LOVE HERE at TRUTHROCKER!!!!!


A dozen mallard ducklings are being cared for by Christine Ponte and her family after the mother duck was struck and killed in a parking lot (Gretchen Ertl for The Boston Globe)"

I'll tell you a little story: when I was going to college the school had a duck pond and I walked by it every day.

You quack at the darn things and they quack back at you!!!!

Sigh. If I have to look at one more picture of Arab children digging through or living in rubbish.... (Blog author apoplectic)

The Shawki clan and many of their neighbors in a cliffside neighborhood of Cairo survive by collecting garbage. They also raised pigs until the government ordered 300,000 swine killed amid concerns - now dismissed - that the animals spread the epidemic. (Asmaa Waguih for The Los Angeles Times)."

Yeah, one more cost of that man-made bio-weapon.

But it gets worse:

"Women kneel in piles of trash outside their homes, their hands smeared; their tunics, embroidered with beads, somehow stay clean. They seem not to notice the flies, spinning in funnels around them, as tides of trash wash in to be divvied, recycled, or burned."

That's an ALLY and we are SCOLDING "Taliban" and the like?  Trillions for wars and bank bailouts, and yet.... ??

And have you ever wondered where certain images and stereotypes originate, especially here in America and why certain (perverted) things are either scrubbed or rewritten for American consumption. 

Ah, forget the Zionist influence on the culture for a bit; I'd rather you look HERE to see the BEAUTY of CAIRO!

Hey, don't believe in me, trust the cat:

And you know what? 

It's not just the Arab or Muslim kid:

Streams of raw sewage flowing near homes such as the one above are among the problems the money would help combat (Philimon Bulawayo/ Reuters)."

Ah. I'm not gonna get all mushy on you now.  I know what I see above and what I care about in this world -- although it's getting harder to see through the tears!

Take a tour through my tags for more (or just scroll down my page).

This blog celebrates love and life wherever it may be found:


Mei Xiang, with her cub Tai Shan, five months after his birth in summer 2005.

I could do without the captivity part, but....

It's the first thing I think of when I see it.... 



.... and now to suffer this effrontery? 

Related: Happy Belated Birthday, Ann Darrow

Look, I'm not a big fan of Hollywood for a variety of reasons, but this! 

"Empire State Building set to go green" by Associated Press | April 7, 2009

NEW YORK - The Empire State Building has loomed high over the city for decades, and now it will stand for something new as it gets a green makeover intended to serve as an example to the world.  The $20 million project is expected to save the building's owners $4.4 million annually in energy costs, and will reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 105,000 metric tons during the next 15 years, equal to the annual emissions of 17,500 cars. 

Bill Clinton and Mayor Michael Bloomberg attended the announcement on the Empire State Building's 80th floor yesterday and said they hope the environmental changes at the iconic skyscraper will serve as a model for buildings around the world.  Clinton, whose foundation is helping with the environmental upgrades, said the only way to get property owners worldwide to make over their buildings is by setting an attention-getting example.

--more--"

Related: Climate Change Causes Power Blackouts

Speciesism is offensive.

You've seen the photos from Abu Ghraib and other places, right (take a look at the second item down from here, folks)?

\
Employees of the Norwegian Polar Institute captured a southern elephant seal on Bouvet Island, in the South Atlantic Ocean, as they prepared to attach a data-collecting device. (Associated Press via Norwegian Polar Institute)

Why would the seal feel any different about a shock to its system (note the seal on the right barking; he knows something isn't right)? 

All so some lying, agenda-pushing do-gooders can rig him up with some sort of GPS spy tracker? 

But they don't want to set up a global grid and chip every human, animal, and plant or anything; this is all for your own protection.

Just like ALL the UNENDING LIES and WARS are FOR YOUR OWN GOOD and PROTECTION!!!!

And the GLOBAL-WARMING FRAUD?

PLEASE!!!!

Children looked at penguins in Simons Town, South Africa. Overfishing and pollution have posed a big threat to penguins. (Schalk Van Zuydam/ Associated Press)."

"Kitties are worth more than babies??

 

WRITTEN BY Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza

Take some kittens, some tender little moggies in a box", said Jamal, a surgeon at the Al Shifa, Gaza's main hospital, while a nurse actually placed a couple of blood-stained cardboard boxes in front of us. "Seal up the box, then jump on it with all your weight and might, until you feel their little bones crunching, and you hear the last muffled little mew." I stared at the boxes in astonishment, and the doctor continued: "Try to imagine what would happen after such images were circulated. The righteous outrage of public opinion, the complaints of the animal rights organisations…" The doctors went on in this vein, and I was unable to take my eyes off those boxes, sitting at our feet. "Israel trapped hundreds of civilians inside a school as if in a box, including many children, and then crushed them with all the might of its bombs.

What were the world's reactions? Almost nothing. We would have been better off as animals rather than Palestinians, we would have been more protected."

At this point the doctor leans towards one of the boxes, and takes its lid off in front of me. Inside it are the amputated limbs, legs and arms, some from the knee down, others with the entire femur attached, amputated from the injured at the Al Fakhura United Nations school in Jabalia, which resulted in more than fifity casualties. Pretending to be taking an urgent call, I took my leave of Jamal, actually rushing to the bathroom to bend over and throw up....

--MORE--"

For my part, ALL LIFE is PRECIOUS!!!

That is why blogging has been such a stressful, hurtful, painful experience; to see the LACK of RESPECT for ALL CREATURES and LIFE FORMS is something that has hollowed out my soul -- that, and the lies that accompany and enable them.

Related: Please Be Kind to Animals

"We must decrease animal populations

December 26th, 2008

12/26/08

So-called “no-kill” policies at the local shelter may make euthanasia numbers look good, but they put animals in grave danger when needy dogs and cats for whom there is no room are turned away, condemning them to unknown and often-terrible fates away (“overburdened with cats, shelter makes plea, “The Daily Star, Nov. 4).

Animals who are rejected from shelters that are already a last resort for people faced with re-homing their companions are often dumped on the streets where they starve, contract diseases and are hit by cars; remain with people who don’t want them and keep them chained or locked in cages; or worse. And animals who are accepted into “no-kill” shelters may be caged indefinitely, becoming depressed, withdrawn or aggressive, and even less adoptable. PETA’s office routinely receives heartbreaking complaints about massive warehouses filled with unadoptable animals who sit hopelessly for years on end, in cages and runs meant to house them for just a few transitional days.

“Free to a good home” ads are also a frequent torture and death sentence. Many unscrupulous individuals obtain animals through ads and sell them to laboratories, use them as “bait” for dogfights or torture them.

Giving animals away and slamming the door in their faces when there is no more room aren’t solutions to the overpopulation crisis. Spaying and neutering are. Please, help reach the day when there is a loving home for every animal by boycotting breeders and pet shops and adopting animals from shelters, and always spaying and neutering. To learn more, visit www.HelpingAnimals.com

Daphna Nachminovitch
Norfolk, VA

Nachminovitch is vice president of the cruelty investigations Department for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

****************************************************

Dear Daphna Nachminovitch:

I read your letter to the editor today posted in yesterdays Oneonta Daily Star. While I agree with the litany of wrongs to animals you list, I mostly disagree with your conclusions and have written a letter in rebuttal to the editor.

Let me tell you a little about myself in respect to PETA. I was an avid supporter of PETA for several years. I wrote many letters on behalf of animals in causes brought to light by PETA. I learned much from PETA and eventually wrote letters on behalf of PETA and PETA’s “Ask Carla” column. In a Christmas universal note to friends, almost none of whom were animal rights advocates, I wrote that Ingrid Newkirk should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

My disagreement with your letter has a personal aspect to it. About four years or so ago I got involved as a volunteer for a local shelter. It wasn’t long before I learned it was a kill-shelter and that they were unnecessarily euthanizing (killing) cats. I waged a terrific battle against this shelter and statistically proved that my accusations were true. About this time I began getting hints that PETA would not have backed me up and would not have been on my side if I had needed to call on PETA to ask for help in fighting this shelter. Not long after that I learned about PETA’s euthanasia program which I found repugnant and repulsive.

While I continue to admire the work that PETA does, the only way that I could register my opposition PETA’s euthanasia program was to drop out of PETA and stop supporting it. That is what I have done....

--MORE--"

I'm going to love my friend's cats that much more today.

They are going to get anything they want.

My beef -- pun intended -- is with the MSM, not the animal rights advocates.

Related: Gigi the Gorilla

Birds Gotta Fly

Alaskan Elephant

Elephant Paints Self-Portrait

Polar bears and dogs playing

The point? ALL LIFE is to be RESPECTED for the UNIQUE BEAUTY that EACH CREATURE brings to this planet!!! Now....

"Ready to Attack Animal Rights Activists? Consider This First

December 22nd, 2008

by Stephanie Ernst

December 16, 2008

Simulposted with Animal Rights

This is an impossibly busy week for me in my work world outside Change.org, allowing little time for even sleep and meals, and so I am struggling with the fact that there are several detailed, thoughtful posts that I want to write–and that I want to write right now–but that I cannot and should not write just yet because I cannot in the next few days give the depth of thought and attention that they require and deserve. So I will leave them for another period of days.

Today I’m not going to write about the animals; I’m going to write about the activists, the ones so many animal rights detractors and commenters on this blog get their kicks criticizing.

 

This blog receives its share of sarcastic, offensive comments (worry not–there will be a whole post on this topic soon). And these days, the comments appear both here and on the pages for the various ideas in the Animal Rights category of the Ideas for Change project. I could devote entire workdays to responding to them; I already spend too much time reading them. I will have some things to say about those comments and what they indicate in another post. But this post is about the advocates whom those opposed to, or made uncomfortable by, animal rights enjoy attacking so much (and I am referring not just to commenters on this animal rights blog and others, but to detractors in general).

Here are some simple truths: There is no glamour in sanctuary work. There is no money in grassroots animal advocacy. There are no health care benefits and long paid vacations in vegan outreach. There is no corporate ladder to climb here.

And animal rights advocates have (and are) sisters, brothers, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, friends, coworkers, partners, and spouses. We have responsibilities, struggles, jobs, bills, dreams, plans, hobbies, and interests. We have joys, sorrows, frustrations, and lives just like you.

There are thousands of things on which we could spend our time and our money–traveling, fixing up the house, taking in every art show or museum exhibit, visiting family, catching up on movies, writing that novel we’ve always wanted to write or learning that instrument or taking that class or getting that degree. But many animal rights advocates don’t do a lot, if any, of those things; many of them–like advocates working to eliminate injustices in other areas–eat, sleep, and breathe the work they do, sacrificing much for it.

So the next time you’re geared up to tell animal rights advocates to get a life, to ridicule their activism and way of living, or to dismiss what they’re trying to say to you, stop. The next time you’re ready to presume that you know more about animal issues just because you’re in the majority, and the people who devote everything they can to learning about and speaking for the animals just must be crazy, stop. Stop and ponder whether you really know what you’re talking about. Consider that many, if not most, of us were once where you are in terms of how we lived day to day and how we saw animals–that we were as certain as you about the way things should and could be–and that we must have realized something extraordinary to get to where we are now.

Consider that all the time and energy we’ve put into learning about animals, considering various perspectives, questioning our assumptions, digging through the layers, reflecting on the truths and implications, and fighting on the animals’ behalf just might give us a little clearer, deeper perspective on nonhuman animals, their experiences, and their place in this world than someone whose beliefs and habits are simply inherited, unquestioned, and what they’ve always been–just the beliefs and habits handed down from and reinforced by parents and society. Tradition–even centuries-long tradition–doesn’t make something right or true. And a new way of thinking and living isn’t inherently wrong just because it’s new to you and different from what you’ve known before.

When your instinct is to attack and ridicule, instead stop and ask yourself why we’re doing what we’re doing, what we’re getting out of it. Why alienate ourselves from friends and family who don’t understand our stances? Why subject ourselves to ridiculing remarks, name-calling, and “extremist” labels? Why willingly struggle each day to change this world instead of sitting back and taking life easy, instead of doing all the other things we’d love to be doing? There are even dozens of other noble causes to which we could devote our time and energy and be commended rather than ridiculed. So why choose this? Mustn’t we have seen and learned things impossible to ignore? Mustn’t there be overpowering reasons for making the changes we’ve made and for taking on this fight?

Animal rights advocates spend their time, energy, and resources speaking out for animals not because it’s fun, not because it’s lucrative, not because we get lots of praise for it. We are compelled to engage in this struggle because it’s right, because what’s happening every second of every day to millions of animals is wrong, because it has to change, and because we were once where you are, and we know that you have kind souls and the capacity to get where we are now, to a place of compassion, a place where you can envision a more peaceful way of living.

The struggle for animal rights, for animal liberation, isn’t about winning something for ourselves. The heart of animal rights is not about power, politics, or money. It’s not about exerting control, violence, or superiority. It’s certainly not about what people think of us. This struggle on behalf of nonhuman animals is about love and compassion and living in a way that is peaceful and just and without contradictions. It’s about opening our eyes and hearts to the possibility of a new and better world, new and better not just for the nonhuman animals on this planet, but for us too. There is a better, less violent, more loving and peaceable world out there, and we’re just trying to get to it. And maybe that is a possibility and a goal worth considering and investigating rather than attacking and dismissing.

Stephanie is a vegan, a tree hugger, a freelance editor and writer, and an animal rights advocate. She lives in St. Louis with a motley pack of three dogs and two cats as well as the world’s most adorable foster pit bull.

--MORE w/tipocap--"

I thank both bloggers for that outstanding and moving essay.

SMACK!

"About a billion birds - die each year by crashing into buildings they cannot see.... building collision is the second biggest cause of death to birds after habitat destruction.... But even for many ecoconscious building owners and developers, the price of preventing bird kills is too high"

MURDERERS!!!!!!!!  Those are SENTIENT BEINGS that FEEL PAIN and DESERVE as MUCH RESPECT for THEIR LIVES as you would have for OURS, you enviro-cultists frauds!!!!

YOUR LIES CAUSE DEATHS, you and your FART-MISTING FARCE of FASCISM!!

"Fatal reflections; As 'green' architecture advances, glass buildings pose hazard to birds" by Bina Venkataraman, Globe Correspondent | December 15, 2008

Boston is striving to become a leader in green building. But glass siding and atriums, common features of green architecture, carry an unintended side-effect: a mortal danger to birds.  An estimated 5 percent of the country's bird population - or about a billion birds - die each year by crashing into buildings they cannot see, according to Daniel Klem, an ornithologist at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania who has studied bird collisions for more than 30 years. Migratory birds, including songbirds whose populations are already on the decline, crash into glass in especially large numbers.

While environmentalists often express concern about the effects of wind turbines and oil spills on birds, few realize that building collision is the second biggest cause of death to birds after habitat destruction, said Karen Imparato Cotton of the American Bird Conservancy.  And that danger is increasing as cities, Boston among them, erect buildings that emphasize natural light, and as improvements in the energy efficiency of glass increase its use.

Two properties of glass that make it so appealing - the way it reflects light and allows us to see through it - are the very reason that birds crash into it. In the windows and glass facades of buildings, birds see mirror-images of trees, sky, and shrubs they want to fly toward, or they may see food, water, or habitat inside or beyond atriums.

The effect of such architecture "flies in the face of conscientious green design," said Hillary Brown, principal for New Civic Works in New York....  Marcia Fowle, a board member of New York City Audubon, said that years ago, she told her husband that a building that uses recycled material and runs on solar power is not green enough. "You can't be green and kill something," she said. "It's a contradiction." 

For once, I AGREE with an environmentalist!

--more--"

You know, until the war-promoting, agenda-pushing papers and the enviro-cultists start PROTESTING the WAR MACHINE and NASCAR, well, I don't want to hear the.... what's that? Whatcha say?

"NASCAR coverage was also expanded on the cable channel New England Sports Network, which is owned by New England Sports Ventures, the parent company of the Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group. The New York Times Co., which owns The Boston Globe, holds a 17 percent stake in New England Sports Ventures."

Yeah, TELL ME AGAIN about GLOBAL WARMING and the ENVIRONMENT!!

What a CAST of F****** HYPOCRITES!!!!!!

Related: Institute for Critical Animal Studies

"Protest targets horse carriages" by Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent | December 7, 2008


Massachusetts Animal Rights Coalition members quietly protested yesterday at Faneuil Hall. (Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff)

Faneuil Hall bustled yesterday afternoon as tourists and shoppers roamed the stores and performers danced, played instruments, and posed for pictures. But the horse-drawn carriages, many of them covered in tinsel and Christmas decorations, stood motionless.

About two dozen protesters from the Massachusetts Animal Rights Coalition, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the humane treatment of animals, held signs and handed out fliers that called for banning horse-drawn carriages in Boston. The protesters gathered at the corner of Chatham Street and Merchants Row, where hansom cabdrivers park, waiting for business....

--more--"

The fact is, I have no problem with the protest and I wholeheartedly agree with the aims of the protesters! The problem I have is the SELECTIVITY of the MSM in deciding WHICH PROTESTS merit attention.

What I noticed quite clearly was the sign "How Many Have to Die?," and -- I'm sorry to be such a one-trick pony, readers -- the first thing I thought of was the WARS in IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN (as well as what is happening in Africa and Palestine).

And a tremendous tremendous hat tip to that blogger.

And don't get me wrong, readers; I understand the difference between fantasy/fiction and real life. That's what makes the real life abominations and atrocities even worse, and why the film aspect gives them that much more meaning and depth.

And here is one more thought: that movie I like so much? How come it is hardly played in syndication? Forgive me for stepping out of line, but TNT bought it, chopped it, and canned it. Is it the message the film conveys? I mean, they run Lord of the Rings enough without the whack-whack!

Some men are WORSE than rats.  Therefore, I would rather not insult the rats.

"Mankind's new best friend?; Trained giant rats sniff out land mines, tuberculosis" by Colin Nickerson, Globe Correspondent  |  November 23, 2008

Reviled as vermin through the ages, rats are becoming unlikely soldiers in the struggle against two scourges of the developing world: land mines and tuberculosis. In Mozambique, special squads of raccoon-size rats are sniffing out lethal explosive devices buried across the countryside, remnants of the country's anticolonial and civil wars of the last century.

In neighboring Tanzania, teams of rats use their twitchy noses to detect TB bacteria in saliva samples from four clinics serving slum neighborhoods. So far this year, the 25 rats trained for the pilot medical project have identified 300 cases of early-stage TB - infections missed by lab technicians with their microscopes. If not for the rodents, many of these victims would have died and others would have spread the disease.

"It's fair, I think, to call these animals 'hero rats,' " said Bart Weetjens, the Belgian conceiver of both programs.  The rat squads, at first derided by some international aid officials as ridiculous, have won support from the World Bank and praise from the UN and land mine eradication groups. Now there are plans to deploy the creatures to Angola, Congo, Zambia, and other land mine-infested lands. 

You mean, like LEBANON? 

"Memory Hole: Hezbollah and the Bomblets

(Updated: Originally published October 22, 2006)

The figures came from a report in the Boston Globe, presumably to counter an earlier story on Israel's use of the "bomblets."

Let alone Israel's use of chemical weapons.

According to the report (citing human rights groups), Hezbollah also used cluster bombs, so everything is relative now.

Bloody Muslims as bad as us (geez, isn't that a self-incriminating statement on our free society)!!

Then the #s:

Lebanese civilians killed: 1,200

Israeli civilians killed: 119

That's a 10:1 ratio!!!

Usually signifies the AGGRESSOR nation, which in this case happens to be WHOM , reader?

Cluster bomblets delivered:

Israel: 1,400,000

Hezbollah: 4,400

An astounding and incredible 318-to-1 ratio!

Talk about LITTERING!!!!!

Oh, and those were all taxpayer-financed and approved, Amurkns!!!!

Israeli deaths due to CBs: 1

Lebanese deaths due to CBs: Unknown

Amount of time to clear munitions:

Israel: "quickly cleared most of the unexploded bomblets."

Lebanon: UN "still tallying... unexploded ordnance in southern Lebanon."

Yeah, expected to take about TWO YEARS!!!

Which means they are HALFWAY DONE, hanh?!

How many INNOCENT LEBANESE KIDS have gotten BLOWN UP in the interim?

And HOW MANY WILL in the next year?

People under assault from us deserve no recriminations.

It is WE OURSELVES who need to look into the mirror -- or paper -- first and foremost before we critique others.

Can you now see the PRO-ISRAEL BIAS delivered to our doors everyday, folks?

****************

Although rats make almost everyone's short list of horrors - associated with filth, disease, and destruction of food crops - they "are really nice creatures," according to Weetjens.  "They are organized, sensitive, sociable, and smart," said the former product engineer in a telephone interview from Antwerp, Belgium, home base for Apopo International, the nonprofit organization that trains and deploys the rats.

In the 1990s, he journeyed to Africa to study land mine clearance techniques. He put his engineer's mind to the expensive, clumsy, and often risky methods employed to detect the lethal contraptions of metal and explosive that detonate underfoot. Land mines claim casualties for decades after the last shot is fired in a conflict; millions are strewn in former and present fighting zones across Africa, Asia, and Europe.

But NOT the MIDDLE EAST, huh, jewsmedia? 

And think of ALL THIS TIME, MONEY and LIFE WASTED on WAR, folks!!!!

The wickedly durable antipersonnel devices kill or maim thousands of people every year, mainly in the poorest of countries. Removal of the weapons is a priority of the United Nations and other groups.... 

******************

Rats don't form deep emotional attachments to a single handler. A rat will happily work with anyone who gives the right commands and provides the correct payoff - a few peanuts or a nice ripe banana for locating a land mine, said Andrew Sully, Mozambique program manager for Apopo. The rodents are hitched to a light leash and scamper in tight grid patterns in suspected land mine sites. When they scent explosive, they signal with furious digging motions. They typically work from 5 to 9 a.m., quitting when the ferocious African sun gets too hot....

For both TB and land mines, the rats are trained to respond to the sound of a clicker; when the rat makes the scratching motion that means it has detected an explosive or the odor of disease, the handler or trainer responds by snapping the clicker, which means a nut or fruit is on the way. So why don't the animals just scratch every few minutes to win a treat?

"That would be human behavior," said Weetjens. "Rats are more honest." 

Good Lord, people, they are BETTER than us!

--more--"

For the record, I always thought dogs were idiots for being our friends.  What sentient life form would want to be friends with a plunderer of habitats and a mass-murderer of species?

Will we NEVER LEARN? Isn't the tinkering with the plants and food enough of a lesson?

"DNA in hair balls could give life to woolly mammoth; 80% of Ice Age species' genetic code revealed" by Seth Borenstein, Associated Press | November 20, 2008

WASHINGTON - Scientists for the first time have unraveled much of the genetic code of an extinct animal, the Ice Age's woolly mammoth, and with it they are thawing "Jurassic Park" dreams. Their groundbreaking achievement has them contemplating a once unimaginable future when certain prehistoric species might one day be resurrected....

You know, that didn't turn out to good in the movies. Maybe you guys want to rethink playing Frankenstein?

Related: The Globalist Globe Advises You to Eat Poison

*************

Soaring improvements in genome sequencing and the still embryonic field of synthetic biology - are inspiring scientists to envision a science-fiction-like future.... And it doesn't have to be a full resurrected mammoth. Scientists could examine what makes the mammoth different from its closest cousin, the African elephant, and create a hairy hybrid to sit in zoos, said George Church, director of computational genomics at Harvard Medical School: "People would like to see a hairy elephant." --more--"

Speak for yourself, mad scientist!!! I don't want to see some hairy elephant!!

Related: Alaskan Elephant

Go ahead, America; take a BIG BITE from that BIRD!!!

Related: What You Will (and Will Not) Find on the Thanksgiving Day Table

"Hidden video alleges turkey abuse

LEWISBURG, W.Va. - Global poultry grower Aviagen Inc. said yesterday it has suspended a supervisor and will investigate a video an animal rights group released that appears to show horrific abuse of turkeys at the company's West Virginia farms.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said the video, which includes workers stomping on turkeys' heads and twisting their necks to kill them, was shot by an undercover investigator who worked on the farms for more than two months.

The undercover worker, who was not identified, described stifling, dusty barns where the animals were kept and caught video of several workers killing turkeys, slamming them into metal cages and bragging about previous abuse of the animals.... --more--"

The cruelty and sadism is beyond me, readers.

Bad enough to kill them, but the DISRESPECT and ABUSE shown to a SENTIENT LIFE FORM is APPALLING and HEARTBREAKING!!!!!

Go vegitarian this year, America!! I am (I'm staying in this year)!!!!

I guess that's why he wants to KILL THEM ALL!!!

"the roundups became aggressive under the Bush administration"

This might be a reason why: Bush is Afraid of Horses

Did you know animals can sense the Anti-Christ?  Maybe that's why Bush is afraid of them.

"For West's wild horses, a dramatic rescue; Pickens couple negotiating to adopt animals" by Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post  |  November 19, 2008

WASHINGTON - The unwanted horses seemed destined for death. The wheels had been set in motion to put down about 2,000 healthy mustangs, those in a federally maintained herd of wild horses and burros that no one wanted to adopt.

The Bureau of Land Management knew that euthanasia was a legal alternative, but officials were proceeding slowly, afraid of an intense public outcry. The wild horses had become too expensive to maintain, and cattlemen argued that turning them loose would be a drain on the already scarce grazing lands of the West.  Then Monday, at a public hearing in Reno to discuss the issue, a solution arrived on a white horse, so to speak.

Madeleine Pickens, wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens, made known her intentions to adopt not just the doomed wild horses but also most or all of the 30,000 horses and burros kept in federal holding pens. Lifelong animal lovers, the Pickenses a few years ago led the fight to close the last horse slaughterhouse in the United States. 

Madeleine Pickens is looking for land in the West that would be an appropriate home for the horses.  She is working with the BLM staff to adopt the horses, said Henri Bisson, the bureau's deputy director, while the agency persuades Congress to shift $20 million in funding to feed and protect the horses now in captivity for another year..... 

Not that I don't want the horses cared for (I do); however, Americans can't get any mortgage relief, yet we got millions to take care of wild horses?

**************

The federal government has been rounding up wild horses since the 1980s, putting them in holding facilities and offering them for adoption to horse lovers, who promise not to sell them for slaughter. But the roundups became aggressive under the Bush administration. As of June, BLM was holding 30,088 animals, more than triple the 9,807 held in 2001.... Meanwhile, the pace of adoptions has been falling as the cost of feeding and caring for the wild horses has skyrocketed. --more--"

Personally, I don't care what the reason, nor do I know the answers. What I DO KNOW, however, is I AM SICK of DEATH!!!  I am TIRED of the KILLING and SNUFFING OUT of INNOCENT LIVES -- be they human, animal, or plant!!! 

They are ALL SENTIENT LIFE FORMS and DESERVE RESPECT!!!!!!!! 

Can't trust the U.S. food supply anymore, America.

"US revises rules on cow grazing for organic dairies; Loophole aided huge feedlots" by Steve Karnowski, Associated Press  |  November 19, 2008

MINNEAPOLIS - ....   The issue started to boil over a few years ago when it emerged that a handful of large dairy farms with thousands of cows, mostly in arid Western states, were feeding their cows organic grain but keeping them largely confined to feedlots while selling the milk as organic. 

What, a CORPORATION LIED?  You're kidding?

The Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute helped lead the charge, mainly against two companies: Aurora Organic Dairy, which produces private-label organic milk for national and local retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Costco Wholesale Co., and Safeway Inc....  --more--"

Can you hear me now?

One wonders why the government needs military commissions when they already have a military court. 

"Supreme Court OK's sonar use; Some say Navy sound tests harm whales" by David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times  |  November 13, 2008

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court dealt a defeat to environmentalists yesterday and cleared the way for the Navy to use high-powered sonar off the Southern California coast even if it poses a threat to whales or other marine mammals....

Chief Justice John G. Roberts.... in his opinion... emphasized the military threat posed by modern subs. 

"Modern diesel-electric submarines . . . can operate almost silently, making them extremely difficult to detect and track." Potential adversaries have at least 300 of these subs, he said.  Navy leaders had said training exercises were vital, and "we give great deference to the professional judgment of military authorities concerning the relative importance of a particular military interest," Roberts said.  --more--" 

Yeah, WHO CARES about the ANIMALS and THEIR RIGHT to LIFE?!!

In a strange way, might this not be a good thing? 

See: Meat makes the rich ill and the poor hungry

"Worst drought in decades forces Calif. cattle ranchers to downsize; Severe dry spell puts squeeze on beef producers" by Terence Chea, Associated Press  |  November 8, 2008

GILROY, Calif. -  ....  California, the country's fourth-largest beef cattle producer, is downsizing at a time when US beef production is shrinking amid higher fuel and feed prices. The herd reductions spell bad news for consumers.  "Six months from now, there's not going to be the flow of animals out of the system, so you're going to see prices go up," said Alex Avery, research director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Studies in Washington. 

"The Hudson Institute gains financial support from many of the foundations and corporations that have bankrolled the conservative movement.

Known funders listed in the institute's 2002 annual report include:

• Ag Processing Inc
• American Crop Protection Association
• American Cyanamid
• Archer Daniels Midland
• Cargill
• Ciba-Geigy
• ConAgra Foods
• Conrad Black
• CropLife International
• DowElanco
• DuPont
• Eli Lilly and Company
• Exxon Mobil
• Fannie Mae
• General Electric Fund
• Heinz
• IBM
• Lilly Endowment
• McDonald's
• Merck
• Microsoft
• Monsanto
• National Agricultural Chemical Association
• Nichols-Dezenhall Communications Management Group
• Novartis
• PayPal
• PhRMA
• PriceWaterhouseCoopers
• Procter & Gamble
• Sunkist Growers
• Syngenta Crop Protection
• United Agri Products
• Westfield Corporation

Also take a look at who serves on the boards.   Among them:

Conrad Black

Richard Perle

Norman Podhoretz,

How does that grab you, American?

Well, back to the ranch.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought in May after the state recorded two years of below-average rainfall, a sharp reduction in Sierra Nevada snowpack and its driest spring on record.  Late last month, state water officials warned local agencies that their water deliveries could be cut by as much as 85 percent next year.

Why do I keep thinking EndGame?  Also see: Kissinger's 1974 Plan for Food Control Genocide

The drought has drained many reservoirs, left lawns and golf courses brown, stranded fish in dried out creeks and forced homeowners and businesses to cut their water usage.  It also contributed to an unprecedented wildfire season that scorched hundreds of thousands of acres of forest and rangeland this year. --more--"

Funny how those fires either went out or faded from the news coverage.  I guess they only get covered when they flare up.

Covering this item for obvious reasons.

"Gigi, age 36, becomes zoo's first gorilla to undergo colonoscopy; Aging animal had digestive problems" by Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff | November 7, 2008



Physicians assist in procedures at the zoo several times a year. Two noted gynecologists, for example, assisted in the treatment of Mandy the mandrill, a primate who died in March after developing a uterine tumor.

Those same gynecologists were on the team of more than 20 medical doctors, veterinarians, and zookeepers who helped perform a battery of tests on Gigi, which included the colonoscopy, an abdominal ultrasound, and X-rays. The lowland gorilla had some digestive problems last week. --more--"

Maybe the CAPTIVITY has something to do with the HEALTH PROBLEMS?

How would you like to be in a cage and probed, Americans?

Also see: Memory Hole: The Globe's Gorilla

Happy Belated Birthday, Ann Darrow

"Fulfilling a Destiny: Indulgence, Indulgence, Our Future for Indulgence!

By Haralambie Athes

9/21/08

Using the word “strange” to describe the contemporary world is already overrated. Supposedly, we all live in a cultural environment where anyone is allowed to speak his/ her mind, has the right to protect property and individual freedom, and, above all, has the right to a future. And not only a future for him/her, but for the next generations. This is what nowadays is called “sustainable development”, and it is a highly praised concept in almost all fields of environmental research, as well as in the business area. Yet, one minor detail seems to have been lost along the way. The vast majority of the human population is too inept to think for themselves, let alone acting. Drowned in the everyday media propaganda, millions of individuals undergo the same routine existence every single hour, every single week, summing up a sad way of “fulfilling a destiny”.

Celebrating a meaningless way of life, based on consumerism and endless (and usually hopeless) attempts to rise up to the demands of society, lost in a sea of clichés and mottos, they try so hard to build a future that they forget an essential aspect of the whole matter: their inability to get out of their petty space-time-money continuum (meaningless movements meant to carry them “from rags to riches”, to adequately fit into the perversely designed image of success described by contemporary propaganda). What people ultimately forget is this whole “theater” of becoming someone and climbing up the ladder of social (read financial) success has one basic need, beyond all human-constructed rules, needs and strategies: it needs a stage.

As unbelievable as it would seem based on the humanist and anthropocentric views which coordinate people’s existence, we still need a proper place to make whatever dreams come true, a spacious environment for being able to pursue our ideals. Shockingly, the human heaven still needs the earthly ground, even though this basic fact is overviewed on a daily basis by obtuse, simple-minded, TV-addicted crowds, who seemingly have one primary goal, one final purpose: to consume as much as possible. In fact, the whole contemporary economic culture is based on a media-induced need to consume as much as possible, regardless of what we are leaving behind. That is, billions of tons of garbage, and a natural environment that starts to look like a wasteland.

While making every effort to make sure their children will have a “good life” (the degree to which life is good being calculated with a rather simplistic formula, generally involving money and nothing else), they actually deny their children and their grand-children the simple right of living a decent life, in a functional natural environmental. The arrogant detachment from nature has led to an ever-broadening disaster all across the planet, and things are changing for the worse with each passing second. Our relationship to the natural world (including animals) has never been so twisted, and its effects will soon become too potent to be mended by our highly praised science.

--MORE--"

Just a lovable old elephant!

I love elephants because I watched Animal Planet, and had no idea that ELEPHANTS FEEL EMOTIONS!!

The reaction to a calf that couldn't continue the trek and died had me in tears.

The mother tried to get the baby on its feet with its tusks, but couldn't. And yet it stayed for hours next to the corpse, until the other elephants had to bray and trumpet her to move on.

Each elephant came over and sniffed the body, saying goodbye. And even then, the stopping, the looking back, it was difficult to watch.

That's why I have an animals tag. Such sentient beings are just as worthy of respect as you or I.

"Out of Alaska: Zoo Seeks a Move South for Elephant"

ANCHORAGE, Aug. 25 (AP) — A proposal is on the table to move Alaska’s only elephant out of the state, a plan that has found favor with both the Alaska Zoo and animal rights groups.

The Performing Animal Welfare Society, or PAWS, located in Galt, Calif., has offered to take the elephant, named Maggie, and pay for her relocation costs, including air transportation, veterinary evaluations and professional training to prepare her for crate travel, zoo officials said Friday.

The group would also pay for Maggie’s keepers to travel with her to her prospective new home, 30 acres where she would live with nine other elephants. In May, calls for Maggie’s departure intensified after she fell twice and needed to be hoisted to her feet by fire crews. Mr. Lampi said she may have been suffering from a bout of colic."

Oh!! Get her healthy if she is sick!!!

And see to it she gets a new home where she won't fall down and will have company!!

"What next? Peace activists arguing we drop fewer bombs?

by Alison Banville

8/7/08

There is something strange about today’s environmental movement. Something is not quite right. Passionate argument pours forth from the mouths of the ecologically aware - and yet there is something missing. There is a ‘Twilight Zone’ quality to the discourse, and the disturbing whiff of what the more cynical amongst us may even label a conspiracy.

What’s wrong? What is making a small, but very concerned, number of green campaigners so uneasy?

The answer lies in the stubborn refusal by the wider movement to confront, honestly, one of the most compelling issues at the heart of the debate - the disastrous environmental impact of meat and dairy production. Never has something so central to the causes of everything a movement is fighting to remedy been so willfully ignored by that same movement. But what can the reasoning be behind such an omission? Why on earth would intelligent, knowledgeable people, from grass roots campaigners to esteemed experts, disregard an issue as crucial as this in their fight for environmental justice? The answer is very simple - most environmentalists just adore a juicy steak, a bacon sandwich, a Sunday roast, a cheese toastie or a grand latte!

That is the inconvenient truth. It is the truth of the self-delusion of those who consume meat and dairy and yet congratulate themselves on their environmental awareness. These impassioned campaigners have found they are even more passionate about their pleasures. How annoying to find that the two conflict! And conflict they most certainly do, because as hard as it may be to digest, if you are a green who consumes meat or dairy - you are a walking environmental disaster.

--more--"

I've noticed the same thing about their stand on the war machine and NASCAR, too!

The so-called altruistic enviros are nowhere to be found.