Q. Which of these fundamentalist nutbags is scarier?
Bill Donahue of the Catholic League
Osama Bin Laden of Al-Qaeda
A. If you’re John Edwards, apparently Bill Donahue is the scarier entity after seeing Edwards fold this week. So, for any of you Edwards supporters out there, please ask yourself how Edwards could stand up to Bin Laden, if he can’t even stand up to Bill Donahue.
All I can is, it’s about time Saddam was executed. That’s the face of a REAL DICTATOR. Too often times we throw terms around like “fascist” and “dictator” to show our displeasure with our own president’s bad policies. Saddam was the real deal, and we’re better off with him dead.
It appears, that despite the pronouncements of desperate Democrats and scared Republicans, that there is a plan for handing over control of the Iraq over to the Iraqi Army. You can read all about it
here.
I would guess that this agreement has been in the works for a number of weeks, but hasn’t been giving much press. Also, two days ago I saw a story on CNN about how bad the violence in Iraq has been since May, but failed to mention that since a strategic change in August, there has been a significant drop in deaths in Iraq.
I’m not accusing the media of left leaning bias per se, but it seems that a sort of “group think” has set in with the media and the “experts” in proclaiming Iraq as continually getting worse with no sign of improvement. This new agreement with Iraq and the success of the strategy change in August indicates that failure, despite the Democrats’ biggest wish, is not inevitable.
(I’ve been trying for the last fifteen minutes to add something of value to the post below. See, my wife Kelly has written a great article on the animal situation during, immediately after, and one year after Katrina. I found myself spending a good twenty minutes going back and forth over all the pictures, and rereading the statistics. She’s done a far better job than I could do. I urge everyone to read this, and pass it on. –Shane)
1836 people dead (and counting). 705 missing. 770,000 displaced. An estimated $96 billion in property damage. Approximately 100 square miles of coastal wetlands destroyed.
Hurricane Katrina was the third-deadliest storm in U.S. history. In hours, it transformed New Orleans from a multicultural mecca of 485,000 into a Third World city, and created the “biggest refugee crisis since the American Civil War.” A year after the fact, I’m still horrified by the images borne of Katrina. It’s a scene you’d expect to see in Sudan, maybe, or perhaps India. Not in a developed nation, a world superpower.* Not here. Surely not in 21st century America.
Gross negligence and utter incompetence at all levels of government - local, state, and federal - helped transform Katrina from a destructive force of nature into the shame of a nation. Evacuation efforts were long overdue and woefully deficient. While a city drowned, our FEMA director set dinner dates, mulled his media appearances, and admired his Godly wardrobe. While a city drowned, our Dear Leader talked Medicare, strummed a gui-tar, and had him some cake. While a city drowned, 20,000 residents packed the Superdome, the “refuge of last resort.” While a city drowned, evacuees were given an impossible ultimatum: leave the city without your animals - or don’t leave at all.
In the chaos of last-ditch mandatory evacuations and rising floodwaters, tens of thousands of companions animals were left to fend for themselves. Some never had a chance: cats trapped in crates and dogs tied to fences drowned, alone. We’ll probably never know how many animals perished in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The Louisiana SPCA estimates that 15,000 companion animals were rescued in the months after the storm. The lucky ones - 20%, at most - have been reunited with their families. Others found new homes, scattered across the nation. A significant number sit in foster homes and shelters, waiting for their new lives to begin. On this one-year anniversary of Katrina’s landfall, hundreds of stray and abandoned dogs and cats still roam the streets of New Orleans.
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
Concern for animals does not negate one’s concern for humans, no more so than does recognizing the equality of women to men lessen the lot of males. Rather, the recognition of the intrinsic worth of all beings elevates our moral status. By protecting and caring for the most vulnerable among us - children, the poor, the mentally ill, the elderly - we’re showing our humanity. It’s easy to make a beneficiary of one who is (or will some day become) your benefactor; harder still to extend your circle of compassion to the weak, the vulnerable, the powerless. And there is no group more vulnerable than non-human animals.
They are our guardians, our protectors, our confidants. Our friends and companions. For many, they are family.
Yet, more than any other disenfranchised group, animals were tossed aside like so much property. Along with bikes and toaster ovens and television sets, they were left to Hurricane Katrina. They were sacrificed so that their “owners” might live.
To anyone who’s ever loved an animal, it’s a foolish proposition: either abandon your animal, or die with him. Many New Orleanians chose to stay. Perhaps Katrina’s death toll would not have been so devastating had people been allowed to evacuate with their “pets.” Besides, it’s not as if the Snowballs of New Orleans would have taken seats that otherwise would have gone to human evacuees. No, there’s no excuse for our government’s cruel and inhumane “no pets” policy. To abandon an animal in any other situation is a crime; in the state of Louisiana, such neglect is considered cruelty to animals, punishable by up to six months in jail. Yet, for the United States government, it is a matter of policy.
Almost a year after Katrina, and shortly before the passage of the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act, evacuees were again forced by the US government to leave their animals behind. The setting: the war zone of the Israeli/Lebanese border. Though other nations allowed their citizens to flee the bombing with their beloved animals, Americans were told to leave their furry family members behind. To this. Clearly, talk about “lessons learned from Katrina” is so much lip service. Our politicians** have learned nothing.
If it’s true that “the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” - and I believe it is - then the US has a long road to travel before we can rightly call ourselves a “civilized”, “developed” nation.
———-
On this anniversary of Katrina, I’ll be spending the day with my four furry “children,” tossing the tennis ball, tugging on a knotted sock, maybe reading in the North field while the red one digs for moles. In the months after the storm, Shane and I volunteered to foster a few displaced animals, but Best Friends never took us up on the offer. I suppose two open spots in Kansas wasn’t terribly helpful. If our landlords allow it, though, we’d love to open our home - and our hearts - to one or two dogs, permanently. Every adopted animal opens up another spot; maybe for a Katrina survivor, maybe not. It doesn’t matter to me either way - even your run-of-the-mill abandoned, abused, and neglected strays need a family of their own.
And hey, if they say no, the least we can do is donate the money we’ve budgeted for adoptions fees and rental deposits to a Gulf Coast animal rescue group. Or two or three.
It’s time for me to wrestle up some sloppy wet kisses from my animals. If you’d like to make a donation of time, money, or supplies, skip to the end of this post for a list of candidates. Otherwise, read on.
———-
* This isn’t to suggest, of course, that such a tragedy is acceptable when it happens to The Other. Suffering is suffering. Rather, the failure of our government to protect its own citizens is, well, shocking. And disillusive. Shockingly disillusive. I’d never call myself an optimist, but even I was taken aback by the massive failure of our politicians in the face of Katrina. How are we supposed to help other, less fortunate countries when we can’t even protect our own from a foreseeable disaster? Clearly, we can’t, as evidenced by the current mess in the Middle East.
** Democrats and Republicans alike, because speciesism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, and “ism” in general, are all non-partisan failings.
Hurricane Katrina: In Pictures
Hurricane Katrina on August 28, 2005, 1:00 PM EDT.
August 29, 2005 - Aerial of a flooded N.O. neighborhood.
August 29, 2005 - President George W. Bush joins Arizona Senator John McCain in a small celebration of McCain’s 69th birthday, after the President’s arrival at Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix. The President later spoke about Medicare to 400 guests at the Pueblo El Mirage RV Resort and Country Club in nearby El Mirage. *
August 30, 2005 - Stranded.
August 30, 2005 - Our Dear Leader.
August 30, 2005 - The American Flag remains in front of a home flooded by Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans is being evacuated as a result of floods caused by Hurricane Katrina.
August 31, 2005 - Three dogs waited for rescue in Pass Christian, Mississippi, one day after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast town. The dogs were later saved by a local police officer.
September 2, 2005 - A fire burns in the distance in a neighborhood impacted by Hurricane Katrina.
September 3, 2005 - A dog swims through flood waters in a neighborhood affected by Hurricane Katrina.
September 3, 2005 - Surrounded by litter left by refugees, a dog remained tied to the railing of a highway ramp in New Orleans six days after Hurricane Katrina. Like many of the city’s newly stranded pets, the dog may have been refused passage by rescuers as they evacuated its owners.
September 3, 2005 - A giant message board helps people locate friends and loved ones at the Reliant Center in Houston, Texas.
September 4, 2005 - This man refused to evacuate the French Quarter because nobody would let him take his 40 chickens into the shelters. New Orleans is being evacuated as a result of flooding from hurricane Katrina and is still 60% under water.
September 4, 2005 - A lost pet receives care from the V-MAT at New Orleans airport where FEMA’s D-MATs have set up operations.
September 5, 2005 - People who were trapped in their attics by floodwaters had to kick out the windows in order to escape and call for help.
September 5, 2005 - FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force members and local rescue workers and US Coast Guard, search for residents in neighborhoods impacted by Hurricane Katrina. **
September 5, 2005 - This part of Slidell was flattened by Hurricane Katrina.
September 6, 2005 - Near New Orleans, a small oil-slickened dog was seen wandering in Chalmette, Louisiana, as cleanup crews recovered oil from a ruptured refinery tank. Tens of thousands of barrels of oil had spilled and mixed with receding floodwater from Hurricane Katrina.
September 8, 2005 - A pig and a dog displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
September 8, 2005 - Some residents were convinced by troops to evacuate ten days after hurricane Katrina. ***
September 8, 2005 - Stray dogs found in areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina are placed in carriers to be brought to a main location by the humane society. The FEMA Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams are helping out.
September 9, 2005 - Many animals lost during Hurricane Katrina were taken here to the Lamar Dixon Expo Center where they will be looked after by veterinarians. Hundreds of lost dogs are among the animals sheltered here, and many need medical attention. Every attempt will be made to locate the owners before they are adopted out.
September 10, 2005 - Rescued animals from New Orleans arrive at New Orleans airport where FEMA’s DMATs have set up operations.
September 16, 2005 - This neighborhood remains flooded two weeks after the storm came through. The foul smelling flood water is contaminated with petrol chemicals, house hold chemicals and biological hazards.
September 16, 2005 - Roy Krueger from the “Missouri Boon County Urban Search & Rescue Task Force 1″ rescued this kitten from an empty house. It’s now on the way to animal rescue.
September 17, 2005 - FEMA Urban Search and Rescue workers wait in line with their rescue dogs to see a veterinarian that has come to do checkups on dogs going into areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina. ****
September 18, 2005 - Damage to homes and property in Lower 9th Ward due to Hurricane Katrina. Markings on house were from the Search and Rescue teams searching for survivors following the storm - the date searched, time, who the search party was, survivors found and animals still in the house.
September 2005
February 10, 2006 - Former FEMA Director Michael Brown testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. *****
February 19, 2006 - Members of Best Friends Rescue join the parade down Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras with some of the animals abandoned and rescued from Hurricane Katrina. This organization rescued about 4,000 animals. Hundreds were reunited with their families and most of the rest placed in foster/adoption homes and in the care of humane groups around the country.
May 26, 2006 - True or False: It is not possible that anyone could be still looking for a pet at this point in New Orleans, eight months after Hurricane Katrina. “Bigtime FALSE!”, says Pee Wee, who was recently reunited with the Pelas family…
June 25, 2006 - Dark Water Rising: The Truth About Hurricane Katrina Animal Rescues, available through Amazon.com.
July 25, 2006 - Not Left Behind: Rescuing the Pets of New Orleans, available from Best Friends Animal Society.
August 22, 2006 - A note left behind by residents, is seen pinned on the wall of a house destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, next to a portrait of Jesus, in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
August 24, 2006 - As you can see from this recent screenshot, animal rescue efforts are still underway in the Gulf Coast - nearly one year after Hurricane Katrina hit. Local groups were devastated; Hurricane Katrina destroyed many of their facilities, and left them with thousands of abandoned and orphaned animals to care for. If you can, please consider donating your time or money to an animal rescue group such as Animal Rescue New Orleans or the Louisiana SPCA today.
August 24, 2006 - From the beginning, Kinship Circle (led by Brenda Shoss) was one of the go-to sources for Katrina-related animal rescue info. A year later, and their work is far from over. To learn what you can do, please visit their Hurricane Katrina resource page, and be sure to download their Animal Rescue New Orleans Disaster Relief Manual (.pdf). At the very least, print out a full-size image of one or more of their Katrina posters and hang it in your library, community center, college dorm - you get the idea.
August 28, 2006 - Rescued: Saving Animals from Disaster, available from Amazon.com.
———-
* Gives the phrase “Let them eat cake!†a whole new meaning, dontcha think?
** This photo is one of three nearly identical shots on FEMA’s site. The captions on each are identical, and none mentions the stranded canines. I wonder if the poor guys were rescued, or left for dead? Quite telling that the caption-writer didn’t think that this was an important question to address.
*** Full FEMA caption:
“Some residents were convinced by troops to evacuate ten days after hurricane Katrina. They have been here without electricity or tap water. New Orleans is being evacuated due to flooding by hurricane Katrina.â€
Well, you douchebags, if you had allowed residents to evacuate with their pets, this man probably could have been “convinced†to leave ten days ago. How disingenuous – can we say “blaming the victim�
**** The FEMA photos of working dogs are especially egregious. After refusing safe passage to thousands of companion animals, our government has the stones to send search and rescue canines into areas “contaminated with petrol chemicals, house hold chemicals and biological hazards,†thus putting their health in danger. Given our lack of consideration for non-human animals, where the fuck do we (as in the collective “weâ€) get off, making such huge demands on them?
***** Michael Brown, Fashion God.
****** My entire Hurricane Katrina photoset can be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smiteme/sets/72157594242443232/
Hurricane Katrina: In Pictures (Commentary)
With few exceptions, the above pictures were taken directly from FEMA’s web site. As I browsed through the thousands of Katrina-related photos, two facts became glaringly evident.
First, Katrina’s animal victims were almost completely missing from the picture: not only were there very few photos of abandoned and/or rescued companion animals, but the captions on these photos told little, if anything, of their fate. Of those pictures that featured an animal of some sort, a significant portion either 1) included a human, who was the primary subject of the photo, or 2) depicted a working animal (for example, canines involved with the search and rescue teams or, less commonly, police horses), not an animal victim of Katrina. Given the government’s failure to consider non-human animals during their (half-assed) evacuation efforts, this is hardly surprising. Just as FEMA officials didn’t give two shits about animals before, during, or after the crisis, neither did FEMA-sponsored photogs. (As an interesting side note, almost all of the animal photography is credited to the same few photographers; whether this is a consequence of the photographers’ assignment or interest, I have no idea, but it makes for an engaging topic for follow-up.)
Secondly, FEMA’s photography - particularly their more recent photos - paints an overly-rosy picture of the Gulf Coast. Though I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they’ve whitewashed the tragedy, they do seem to feature an overabundance of positive photography - that is, pictures and captions that highlight the success of rescue efforts in the immediate aftermath of the storm, and speak to a Pollyannaish view of reconstruction efforts to date. Clearly, there are plenty of grim pictures: boats of refugees, elderly residents evacuated from homes surrounded by floodwaters, stray animals roaming the streets. Many of these are shown in the above selection. Yet, the most negative pictures I posted - particularly those involving animals - I’ve gathered from other sources. Some images that I found were simply too disturbing for me to include. Bloated human corpses floating among debris. Dogs feeding on their deceased owners. Stray pets with chemical burns. “Backyard dogs” who were strangled on their tethers when Katrina hit. No, you won’t find any of that on FEMA’s website. And the view from WhiteHouse.gov is simply conspiratorial.
“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.”
(With no disrespect meant to real sheep and wolves, of course. I don’t want to stereotype or anything.)
This November, take the images of Katrina to the polling booth with you. A change of leadership is long overdue.
Hurricane Katrina: ‘Round the Net
Luckily - and bear with me while I toss out yet another quote - the truth is out there. If you’d like to browse through more Katrina photography - pre-, mid-, and post-Katrina, there are plenty of citizen-journalists willing to oblige.
Here are just a few web sites and/or online collections that caught my attention:
City Pages: New Orleans - Survivor Stories
ABC News: Katrina Devastation - One Year Later
The Psychotic Patriot: What Do You Remember About Katrina?
WaterThread: Katrina - The Gathering
Additionally, online photo-sharing sites have become a great tool for animal rescue groups. The following individuals and groups on Flickr are dedicated to animal (and human) aid in the Gulf Coast:
Yepitsme770 (59,589 photos and counting)
Spirits Mom (22,903+ photos uploaded)
Operation Bring Animals Home (a grassroots search and rescue group)
Hurricane Katrina (a pool of over 4,854 photos)
Katrina 2005 (a smaller pool of 885+ Katrina images)
New Orleans (a group dedicated to shots of NO)
Hurricane Katrina: Lending Support
It seems fitting to conclude this post with a list of resources for those of you who’d like to donate your time and/or money to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina. Because animals are my thing, it’s only natural that I focus on animal rescue organizations.
“Caring about innocent animals caught in Katrina’s wrath doesn’t diminish human suffering. It makes us human.”
Groups Involved in the Rescue Effort
American Humane Association
http://www.americanhumane.org/
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)
http://www.aspca.org/
Animal Rescue New Orleans
http://www.AnimalRescueNewOrleans.com
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary
http://www.bestfriends.org/
Dogs Deserve Better
http://www.dogsdeservebetter.org/katrina.html
Houston SPCA
http://www.spcahouston.org/
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
http://www.hsus.org/
International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
http://www.ifaw.org/
Kinship Circle
http://www.kinshipcircle.org/
Louisiana SPCA
http://www.la-spca.org/
Noah’s Wish
http://www.noahswish.org/
Psychology Volunteers for New Orleans Animals and Their People
http://www.psychologyvolunteers4animals.info/
United Animal Nations (EARS)
http://www.uan.org/
(In other disaster-related news, many of the above groups are also involved in current animal rescue efforts in the Middle East, should you prefer to make a donation benefiting animals overseas. On the other hand, if you’d like to support an indigenous animal rescue organization, Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (BETA) and Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI) are both good choices.)
Additional Resources
My archive of Katrina alerts (on KellyGarbato.com; dates back to August 2005)
http://www.kellygarbato.com/katrina
My archive of Katrina alerts (on easyVegan.info; dates back to June 2006)
http://www.easyvegan.info/category/natural-disasters/
Best Friends Network: Hurricane Relief Community
http://network.bestfriends.org/hurricane/news/
Kinship Circle: Help for Katrina’s Forgotten Victims
http://www.kinshipcircle.org/katrina/katrina.html
Pet Finder: Hurricane Katrina Animal News
http://www.petfinder.com/disaster/
PETA’s Helping Animals.com: Rescuing Katrina’s Forgotten Victims
http://www.helpinganimals.com/f-katrina.asp
Unconditional Friends: The Pets of Katrina, One Year Later
http://www.unconditionalfriends.com/
The Carnival of Hurricane Relief
http://www.cehwiedel.com/cohr/
As always, feel free to share your comments / questions / resources below.
Note: Speciesist and otherwise trollish comments will be summarily deleted. Today, especially, I’m in no mood to tolerate the bs.
(Crossposted at KellyGarbato.com and easyVegan.info.)
The USA Today reported today that the United States NSA has been keeping a database of all phone calls made inside the country domestically. The contents of the calls have not been stored, just the phone numbers on either side of the connection. While Bush has "assured" us that the NSA has not been mining data to intrude on the private lives of Americans, that seems like little comfort to me when the NSA answers to just about no one.
I was able to go as far as the NSA wiretap program which professed to only deal with telephone calls where one end of the connection originated outside the country. If terrorists are making calls to anyone in this country, our intelligence agencies should know. However, this latest program, crosses a line that I cannot defend. Under no circumstances should our government be collecting phone logs and trying to determine patterns to "help fight the war on terrorism." It’s smacks too much of "1984", and to give it a more modern spin, "V for Vendetta - The Movie".
Of course, the program is a typical Washington politician program. Don’t think voting Democrat will suddenly give you back your privacy. Don’t forget the mass amounts of wiretaps the Clinton adminstration used to fight the "War on Drugs", or how the Clinton adminstration also used Echelon to spy on citizens. Even beyond the two parties, don’t forget that the United States and England routinely spy on each other and pass along the information to get around most spying laws. No, the solution to programs like this NSA phone database, requires new politicians, not just a new party in power.
Our government is so big and inefficient, all it can think to do, is collect more and more information, run it through Microsoft Excel and read the tea leaves to try and find Bin Laden. Intead of focusing on HUMINT, our government is now obesessed with information collection on the populace of 300 million, to root out a few hundred terrorists that may or may not be in this country.
We need a need new vision, new leadership, and a new generation of people to get involved in government. The current Congress is considering legislation to ban MySpace in libraries, restrict instant messaging, and eliminate "net nutrality. They have no clue how to do anything but form committee upon commitee, and get nothing done.
Why are our ports still not secured? Why are our borders not secured? Why have we spent over six months trying to figure out why Katrina went wrong without a single concrete plan? Why do we still not have adequate screening at airports?
The nasty truth is that our federal government doesn’t know how to do anything right anymore. Whose fault is this? Ours. We’re the ones who vote in these people, and we’re the ones not holding them accountable. Instread of voting for people who will conduct themselves responsibily and admirably in government, we vote for who panders to us the most, who promises the most dollars back in our pocket, and who sounds like, shucks, they really know us.
I’m just tired of being embarassed for this country every time I turn on the television and have to hear Bush fumble through his words, Schumer lie through his teeth, Kennedy speak, and any god bagger Republican from the South go on and on about the evils of gay marriage. I have never registered for a political party, and I never will as long as I live. I’m looking for a credible third party. The time is right, and the country is ready. All it will take is, as Stephen Colbert would say, some balls, America.
I caught this on Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy blog. Utah is moving its state even farther back into the dark ages, with a clumsy attempt to bring religion into the science classroom.
Here is Phil’s post, and here is the original article.
We’re becoming a nation of ignorant, channel surfing, couch potatos, so ignorant of science that we treat scientific theories like “That’s, like, just your opinion man!”. We’re going to be passed by another country, probably China, before I die, and it’s depressing to be watching the death spiral.
I’m going to the Amaz!ng Meeting this weekend in Vegas, where I’ll be surrounded by intelligent people and my brother. Maybe that’s what I need to get back the “faith”.
Two more West Virginia miners have died due to another accident in a coal mine. Since 1999, 234 people have died because of coal mining accidents, according to USA Today. In addition, there are no definitive studies describing the number of people who die from mining related diseases, but the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health estimates that 1 million have a risk for Black Lung disease, 100,000 that are high risk, and 59,000 that are expected to have adverse effects. If coal mining hadn’t been around for as long as it has, would we still be doing it?
Enter nuclear power. Wired magazine has done a couple articles on nuclear power in the past year, and how advanced it has become. However, it’s been over thirty years since a nuclear power plant came online in the United States. In Europe, nuclear power plants are common, and there haven’t been any accidents. Events like Cherynobl are unlikley to happen here in this country because of the reactor design, and forget Three Mile Island. That will never happen again here.
As for spent fuel rods, Jimmy Carter made it against regulations to reuse spent fuel rods, even though they retain most of their energy. It was a clumsy attempt to discourage nuclear weapons proliferation. Nuclear waste would still be an issue, however, it’s only a problem for probably a hundred years or so. Right now, we can’t do much with it, but surely technology in the future will.
Don’t believe the “store it for 10,000 years” crowd. We will solve the nuclear waste problem at some point. Right now, we have people dieing from coal mining, we’re dependent on oil from a bunch of corrupt OPEC nation, and we pollute every time we burn coal or oil. I can’t see one logical reason anymore for not having nuclear. It’s time to kick up the research, ignore NIMBY complaints, and get some self-sufficiency.
Christmas has always been a secular holiday for me. Growing up in a non-religious home, I just assumed Christmas was about giving gifts and seeing family. However, my school always made us sing (in music class) religious themed Christmas carols. The Jewish kids always were excused, and if I had known better, I would have opted out as well. In band, we always played Christian themed songs, though, I have to admit, I really liked playing them. I didn’t know any of the words, but when you’re playing in a group, it’s very rewarding to see it all come together. The music is of a style that no one writes in any more, and some of the the music is written by some of the greats, such as Handel. It was fun a lot of times, and I never even thought about the Christian themes, and it never had an impact on me.
So today I found myself listeming to the Classical Christmas channel on XM radio, simply because I really enjoy the old style songs. You don’t hear much harpsichord these days. I also have to respect the vocal arrangements. Truly great stuff.
Now while this might sound like I’m being sympathetic to the Christian side of Christmas, I would like to point out this just is reserved to the musical construction of these songs. Bill O’Reilly would consider me part of the War on Christmas, since I say “Happy Holidays.” I don’t go to church, and I think it’s an awfully big coincidence that Jesus would be born at the same as the Pagan feast of Saturnalia of early Europe. So if you catch me listening to Handel’s Messiah, don’t wish me a Merry Christmas. Either leave me alone or wish me a Happy Holidays.
I am a dietary vegan, and so this Thanksgiving, my fiance and I will be enjoying a tasty Tofurkey this evening. In addition, we will hopefully be having a sweet potato pie, some delicious steamed vegetables, and a pound cake for dessert. All vegan items, and all tasty.
Many people assume I became a vegan because my fiance has been a vegetarian for over nine years and vegan for over three. They couldn’t be more wrong. I became a vegetarian and then vegan because of an evolution of personality. It all started on a flight back from Kansas City. A couple days earlier, I had indulged in an orgy of Kansas City barbecue, and my stomach felt like I had a large cancerous lump waiting to kill me. I was sweating what felt like grease. My asthma seemed to be acting up. I felt terrible, and it hit me like a flash: It was time to stop the meat.
Ever since then, I’ve been a vegetarian, and haven’t missed meat. My cholesterol has dropped over sixty points, my asthma is the best it’s ever been, and I’ve feel pretty good overall. Now that I have three dogs, a cat, and live on a farm where I regularly see cows and baby cows, the thought of eating meat grosses me out. I’ve seen a baby cow try to play with one of my dogs. I’ve seen cows playing with each other. On occasion, I’ve seen some wild turkeys gather in my front yard, gobbling up a storm. How could I eat the same animals I see every day, playing and frolicking like any dog or cat one might consider a part of the family.
So while its probably too late to change anyone’s mind for this holiday, I hope for Christmas, more people can take a second thought and consider something like Tofurkey. Just start simple, by saving one animal. See how it feels to know, no animal was harmed to give you a full stomach.
This week, Bush and Cheney haters delighted in a recent report concerning alleged overcharging by Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root. The report by the International Advisory and Monitoring Board outlines how 208 million dollars should be returned to the Iraqis because Iraq was overcharged. The total value of the contracts are 1.4 billion dollars. So in effect, we have a 14% overcharging. Not totally outrageous, but very serious.
However, I am amazed at the reaction of people here in America over 208 million dollars. We have billions of dollars funneled to programs that have no accountability, we have a three TRILLION worth of missing inventory at the Pentagon, andwe’re worried about 208 million all of a sudden? As John Stossel would say, Gimme a break! We’re wasting more money to build a bridge in Alaska to connect 50 people to the mainland. This is nothing but demagoguery to distract from real problems.
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