Artificial Productivity

To Cage a King

2009-11-10T13:32:00.000-08:00

An interesting article I read today reads as follows: LINK

SILVER SPRING, Md. (WUSA) -- Rob Ephraim was holding a small point-and-shoot digital camera as he walked around the National Zoo in Washington with his girlfriend on Sunday.

While the pair were passing through the lion exhibit, Ephraim said there were shouts and a splash as something fell off a 13-foot high concrete wall above the moat surrounding the enclosure where two female lions were lounging in the sun.

"Everybody is freaking out thinking that a kid has just fallen into the lion exhibit and all of a sudden, out pops a little deer head," Ephraim recalled.

Relieved to see a deer rather than a child swimming in the moat below, attention went immediately to the lions.

"They reacted right away," Ephraim said. And the 25-year-old was prepared with the camera.

The resulting video, posted to YouTube, has been seen around the world.

First, the lions shadow the deer as it swims to one end of the moat. One lion jumps in to get the deer, but breaks off the attack.

Later, the lions corner the deer in a stairwell as concerned zookeepers look out a window safely behind steel doors.

"Everybody pretty much thought the deer was done but maybe five minutes went by and you all of a sudden heard some yelps and the deer literally came flying out," Ephraim said. The lions again chased the deer across their yard as it jumped back in the water.

"They were like big house cats toying with a bird that flew in the house," Ephraim said.

Shortly thereafter, police showed up and cleared the area.

Zoo officials say the lion keepers were then able to lure the cats to their secure indoor enclosure.

With the yard safe, staffers tried to rescue the deer.

It was so badly injured, a veterinarian was forced to euthanize it.

The deer most likely entered the zoo property from the adjacent Rock Creek Park and took a wrong turn in a panic, according to zoo officials.

Ephraim said the deer "appeared out of nowhere" and jumped through a crowd of people as it leapt over the concrete barrier blindly down to the moat.

"This is what they do," Ephraim said about the lions. "Seeing them in a caged enclosure is not that interesting. Seeing them actually go after something in the wild and use their instincts is very interesting. I'd pay to go to Africa to see this!"

Written by Scott Broom 9NEWS NOW & wusa9.com

I had to think about this for awhile to figure out what my take on it was. I obviously felt horrible for the lions, as I do for any animal kept unwillingly in a captive situation. I also felt bad for the deer, since its own natural habitat had obviously been so encroached upon that, horrified, it ended up in a zoo and ultimately in a lion’s cage.

I don’t think that there’s an easy answer for what should have been done by humans in this situation since creating the situation in the first place was a mistake.

I find it sad that the lions still remembered (at least slightly) how to hunt, but not how to kill their pray. The deer still knew to try to run, but not to avoid humans in the first place (which would have kept it out of the zoo). Euthanizing the deer after the lions had attacked it seems like a strange move. Many people that commented on the article said that there were “children watching” who didn’t need to see an animal killed and eaten by wild animals.

How sheltered are children these days? It’s okay for them to watch it on Animal Planet but not in real life? Children need to know that in what’s left of the wild animals don’t go shopping at Pick N’ Save for meat, they hunt it.

I guess I’m pretty much disgusted by the whole situation. I don’t think that killing the deer and tossing its body was the solution. Letting the lions at least eat what they had hunted would have been fine.

What the Caged Bird Isn't Singing

2009-11-04T12:22:00.001-08:00

Why our nation is doomed....

Two words:

Big Bird.

Now you may all be laughing right now, shaking your heads and wondering how on earth a cuddly yellow bird could possibly be responsible for the eventual downfall of America. Well, friends, I intend to tell you.

It’s really quite obvious when you think about it. Sesame Street has been around since 1969. That should make the characters that have been on it the entire time (Big Bird included) 40 years old this year. Did the beloved birdie turn 40 however? Definitely not.

Instead of having their characters age like normal individuals on any other street that isn’t Sesamied on earth the Sesame Street gang have decided that Big Bird should turn the same age each year. Until 1991 Big Bird had been four years old for quite some time. In 1991 he turned six (jumping two years somehow). So now, there’s a 40 year old giant bird with a creepy sounding voice pretending that he’s 6 influencing the children of America and around the world.

No wonder our country is going to hell! We have entire generations of children growing up thinking that aging doesn’t happen. When I was young and pointed the enraging fact of Big Bird not aging out to my mother, do you know what she did? She sent me to my room for a nap! We keep sleeping on this major issue and LOOK WHAT HAPPENS. Ice caps melting, rainforests, gone, unnecessary wars!

Don’t even get me started on the fact that the poor bird lives in a city with barely any grass in sight…

When Ethics is Taught by Capitalists...

2009-10-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

Is a life without pain any more of a life than one without pleasure?

I read this article the other day and was truly amazed that this is even a consideration. People are so cold sometimes, most times, I suppose. It still amazes me that there is such a disconnect between the individual in modern society and other living beings on this planet, both human and non human.

Pain free animals? You have got to be kidding me. Couldn’t we just strive not to hurt animals? Making them not feel pain is in many ways a higher level of cruelity than inflicting the pain to begin with.

From the Article:
"If we can't do away with factory farming, we should at least take steps to minimize the amount of suffering that is caused," says Adam Shriver, a philosopher at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. In a provocative paper published this month, Shriver contends that genetically engineered pain-free animals are the most acceptable alternative (Neuroethics, DOI: 10.1007/s12152-009-9048-6). "I'm offering a solution where you could still eat meat but avoid animal suffering."

The fact that this “philosopher” just assumes there is no alternative to factory farming makes me wonder how much research he has done. He acts like there really is no other choice but to torture animals, and that to ‘improve’ this ‘unavoidable’ situation he wants to genetically take away the ability to feel.

Perhaps looking at the human equivalent of this phenomenon will shed some light. Let’s take a look at Gabby Gingras. Here’s a CNN article on her.

From the article:

She has a disorder known as CIPA -- congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis. Although she can feel touch, her brain doesn't receive signals that she's experiencing pain, and she hardly sweats. If Gabby broke her leg, or put her hand on a hot plate, or if her body was overheating, she wouldn't know.

It is an extremely dangerous condition, and very rare. Gabby's doctor, Dr. Peter Dyck at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, estimates there are only 100 documented cases of CIPA in the world.

"Not being able to feel pain is a terrible disadvantage," Dyck said.

Steve and Trish Gingras first noticed something was wrong when Gabby was 4 months old. She was biting her fingers until they bled. By the time she was 2, her teeth had to be removed so she wouldn't hurt herself. Now, she must eat very small bites of soft food -- and like everything else she does, she eats with gusto.

The problems with not being able to feel pain start small but grow into a huge issue. At least in Gabby’s case her parents can communicate with her and when she was 5, in 2006, she understood (at least to an extent) her condition.

Taking away an animal’s ability to feel pain is a danger to both the animal and to the handlers of the animals. Lameness will be much more difficult to detect in animals along with other medical conditions. I have no idea how the lack of pain would effect birthing in mammal breeds.

There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathize with the colour, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life's sores the better. --Oscar Wilde

All of those practical problems hold nothing compared to the fact that removing pain from any living thing is fundamentally wrong and not humanity’s right. Humans would never truly know if the animals’ ability to feel pain was gone. I had a discussion with a woman that lives and works on a dairy farm a little over a week ago and she was convinced that non-modified cows do not feel pain. There is no limit to the ability of people to blind themselves to things when they choose to. Genetically eliminating the ability to feel pain will probably do nothing more but increase the unfit conditions that are factory farms.

Direct Deposit

2009-10-23T05:02:00.000-07:00

Only in Western Civilization would this article ever exist: Should You Sacrifice Love for Work?

The fact that such an article not only exists, but that a “reputable” news agency like CNN ran it makes me sick. Love or work? Really?! There are very few people I know that actually love their jobs. Most of them are simply putting up with them so they can pay their bills and finance happy hour. Some people I know actually hate their jobs. The ones that love them are few and far between and seem to mostly be business owners.

(Most)People get jobs for one underlying reason, to make money. People want to make money for all sorts of reasons. To pay off school debt (my main reason), have a nice house, a nice car, show off, travel (which I do wish I could do more of), and many others. Why people justify their jobs is not what I’m particularly interested in however. What I am interested in/disgusted with is the fact that it is mainstream to choose a job that you likely don’t even love over a person you do.

I don’t care if you work for a fortune 500 company and have an office with a view. If you meet the man/woman that you love it shouldn’t matter. If having them in your life requires you to drop the job that pays you six figures, do it. I could pull on about 1,000 clichés right now discussing never putting money over love. I won’t do that, but keep in mind that old wisdom often becomes cliché over time.

This society is so based on being solitary. It’s quite frowned upon for people to work together that have a romantic relationship, yet this is something that essentially used to happen all of the time. In many, if not most, indigenous societies people lived in thriving, functioning communities unlike anything we see often today. Men and women in love and not in love worked side by side. They may have had different tasks that separated them on some days by several miles, but they were a community, and were never too far apart. I highly doubt they had any discussions about whether to go gather food or be in love, they were things that existed together and wouldn’t make any sense to separate.

The careers of the twenty first century, however, are all about separation. Separation from ownership and the employees. Separation between the office workers and those in the factories. Separation from the factories and the results of their production.

Profiting off of both human and non human pain and suffering REQUIRES separation.

This separation then leaks into other areas of our lives, including relationships.

Don’t let it. Never be the one who gave up love for a dependable direct deposit.

Artificial Communities

2009-10-21T05:12:00.000-07:00

I was driving to work, per the usual, early this morning when I realized that I see the same group of cars/people at a certain intersection during each commute. There’s the large mail truck that takes the turn too slowly, the biker in all yellow who looks nervously at the cars, the woman in the black coup doing her makeup. As this realization struck me I felt comforted that I held a place in this commuting community. I felt comforted, that is, until I put some more thought into it.

This “community” I’d experienced was an artificial one. Our society is full of such artificial communities and even goes so far as to market them as real ones. As humans it is natural for us to want to belong, to have a network of people that make us feel safe. I live with two roommates I found on Craigslist. I did this partially to save money, but mostly to establish a living community that I’d been missing while living alone. While I do converse with the two women I live with, they barely know me. Compared to the people that live downstairs, however, they know a lot. My downstairs neighbors make us women feel safe. There are there men that we occasionally say hi to on passing. We take comfort in knowing they are there. We feel like they are part of our community, but they aren’t. All that we know about them is that they seem to bike everywhere and listen to music with a lot of bass until around 10:30pm.

"We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race." -Cicero

Genuine communities don’t seem to exist much anymore, at least not in cities. People can live for years next to one another and never spend more than ten minutes in conversation. This disconnect wasn’t always the case and I’m sure in some smaller communities that it doesn’t exist at all.

I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin. I knew my neighbors, as did my parents, and it wasn’t unheard of to run to one of their houses within a two block radius and ask to borrow something. Be it the cliché cup of sugar or an air compressor or tool of some sort. We all borrowed things to one another without question. I would spend hours playing with the neighborhood children, laughing, having a blast. We varied in age by over five years but we were still the best of friends. But now, over 15 years later, we have all drifted apart. The neighbors my parents would spend hours talking to on back porches have moved away, their houses have been torn down. New houses all from the same mold and builder have taken their place with neighbors they might mumble a hello to in passing.

What destroyed the community? What is the culprit? I could go ahead and blame Western Society without even blinking as I so often do for problems such as this, but I believe it’s necessary to go deeper. It would be naive to say that Western Society wasn’t around 15 years ago when I was busy playing sports with my neighbors. I’m sure that some children still have similar experiences, somewhere, today. What I think it comes down to is understanding Western Culture as a disease. The disease has many stages that slowly progress to total decimation. When I was a child we were in a stage several before the stage we now sit in. Although a community existed then it was still quite watered down compared to communities in the 1800’s, which were watered down compared to communities 200 years before, and so on and so forth.

"There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community." -M. Scott Peck

This society is slowly sweeping away our connections with each other and with the land we live on. We no longer blink when we find out a low income housing complex will be torn down to build condos. We do not borrow sugar from our neighbors, we chain our doors against them. We establish artificial communities in our commutes, online, and in our minds.

Let’s get over this block we’ve created (or had created for us) against meeting and knowing people. Perhaps I’ll go visit my downstairs neighbors today, bring them some cookies and get to know them. It would be a start, at least.

Good, Better, Best, Never Let it Rest, Until the Good is the Better and the Better is the Best!

2009-10-20T06:34:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I ran Cross Country and Track in high school, but when I decided to start running competitively again this summer it had been five years since my last race. I had no idea what to expect, all I knew is that my competitive spirit was still very much intact and that I’d keep pushing myself.

"Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must move faster than the lion or it will not survive. Every morning a lion wakes up and it knows it must move faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn't matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better be moving." - Maurice Greene

I entered my first race, a 5k to push myself to start running regularly again. I didn’t anticipate being competitive in the overall top finishers, and had no idea what to expect for a goal time. I ended up being second in my age category and winning a hat (random I know). We mapped the course to figure out our slow times and realized it was an extra 1k! After that, I was hooked. I remembered everything I loved about running in high school and knew that not much would tear me away now.

"I always loved running...it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs." - Jesse Owens

Over the course of the summer I ran several more races, placing each time and getting more and more hooked. I ordered some awesome road race shoes and realized that even without a team like the one I loved in high school I could have a blast running.

The last race I ran was on October 7 and I ended up getting a PR. Granted I’ve only been running 5ks this season, but improvement is improvement.

"The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep." - Robert Frost

My goal now? Well, I signed up for two trail races in November, the much loved Turkey Trots. One is in my current city, the other in my home town on the trails I ran in high school. I will be breaking out the spikes that haven’t seen the light of day in five years and pushing out what I hope will be the best times of my 5k career. I am going to start concentrating on training how I should be. No more 3mi runs each day and calling it quits. I will incorporate intervals, long slow distance days, hills, and even some 800 repeats (just need to find a track around here to use for that).

Knees: All through high school I had horrible issues with tendinitis in my knees. It’s still there, for sure. I have been wearing Cho-Pat straps under the kneecaps however and that seems to be solving most of my problems. If they really start to bother me I’ll take a day or two off (something I would never have dreamed of doing in high school). Hopefully they will continue to hold up, I’m not sure I could give up running again.

Birch and Fern

2009-10-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

I miss the stars of the north. The way that they were everywhere I looked at night, bright and shining as if they could still remember their purpose when not disturbed by city lights.

I’ve always loved northern Wisconsin. I’ve longed to go there from time to time since my life got so busy that it never seemed to happen more than once or twice a year. Until a month ago I hadn’t spent more than three days in a row up there since I was 14. I think the three day limit was keeping me safe from the constant longing I’m now struggling with. Three days was okay, it was enough to continue my affair with the birch and fern, but not enough to lead to true love. The north was a mistress and nothing more. But the nine days I spent up there in September led to love—and love leads to irrationality.

"In the woods we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life--no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Last week Tuesday I took a sick day and actually considered driving four hours north at 6am, spending the day at my parent’s place up there, and driving back at around 8pm. After quite the struggle I talked myself out of this gas and money-guzzling adventure. The fact that I even considered something as irresponsible as this, however, shows how much I miss it there.

I wonder sometimes how it is that I ended up living in the city. I love the culture of this town and the accepting nature of most people here…but all I want is to live in the country these days. Although I’m sure as soon as I got there I’d miss everything being so close. I remember when I was around twelve I wrote a poem called Country and City Girl showing my conflicting viewpoints on where I’d like to live. Those conflicts haven’t really been resolved.

I want to go to grad school next year but I’m not sure the idea of living in an even bigger city than the one I’m in now is a good one. I will be further north, but a north filled with sound barricades and traffic isn’t one I particularly look forward to. I guess I have some more thinking to do.

“The richness I achieve comes from Nature, the source of my inspiration.”

-Claude Monet

When Peace Isn't Given A Chance

2009-10-09T05:23:00.000-07:00

Alright everyone—this morning I am confused. As I’m sure most of you have already heard, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

I’m trying to wrap my head around how any United States President (or any governmental leader in any country) could win this award.

OSLO (Reuters) “The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for ‘his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.’ But critics -- especially in parts of the Arab and Muslim world -- called its decision premature.”

Maybe I’m missing something but I thought that America was AT WAR? Perhaps a short review of things America has done (and is doing) since Obama has been in office will shed some light on this?

Maybe we need to look at the Nobel Peace Prize itself, and what it is supposed to represent? According to their website On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, giving the largest share of his fortune to a series of prizes, the Nobel Prizes. As described in Nobel's will, one part was dedicated to "the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

10/4/09 “President Obama is overseeing a review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, with his top general in that country, some other military leaders and opposition Republicans pressing him to act quickly to increase the present 68,000-troop level by up to 40,000 troops.”

Deaths in Afghanistan :

There have been 1,435 coalition deaths -- 865 Americans, 11 Australians, one Belgian, 219 Britons, 131 Canadians, three Czech, 25 Danes, 21 Dutch, six Estonians, one Finn, 35 French, 30 Germans, two Hungarians, 20 Italians, three Latvian, one Lithuanian, four Norwegians, 13 Poles, two Portuguese, 11 Romanians, one South Korean, 25 Spaniards, two Swedes, two Turks and one NATO/ISAF -- in the war on terror as of October 8, 2009, according to a CNN count. Below are the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors whose deaths have been reported by their nation's governments. The list also includes one U.S. Defense Department civilian employee. The troops died in support of the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom or the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. At least 4,178 U.S. personnel have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon.

Obviously not all of these deaths occurred while Obama was in office, but he has failed to end this war and the death toll continues to grow. In September of 2009 alone CNN lists 70 deaths in Afghanistan. Obama is not directly responsible for any of these deaths but his leadership and continuing the war did lead to most of them. Yet he deserves a peace prize?

Perhaps we should define peace. Here’s what Merriam Webster has to say on the topic: Main Entry: ¹peace

Pronunciation: \ˈpēs\

Function: noun

1 : a state of tranquility or quiet: as a : freedom from civil disturbance b : a state of security or order within a community provided for by law or custom
2 : freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions
3 : harmony in personal relations
4 a : a state or period of mutual concord between governments b : a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity
5 —used interjectionally to ask for silence or calm or as a greeting or farewell

It’s possible I’m missing something, but I don’t think America in the last year (or Obama’s leadership of it) fits into any of these definitions. Let’s go through examples of why (and where) it hasn’t.

State of tranquility or quiet, freedom from civil disturbance (Iraq, Afghanistan)
Freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions (G20 Protests )
Harmony in personal relations (I don’t know much about Obama’s family life, MAYBE he qualifies here).
a. A state or period of mutual concord between governments (it doesn’t say it needs to be ALL governments here, so maybe Obama squeaks past with America’s “allies”.

b. a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity (hasn’t happened with Iraq or Afghanistan)

5. Used interjectionally to ask for silence or calm or as a greeting or farewell. (I don’t think this much applies, but perhaps Obama would qualify here).

I better congratulate Obama however, I wouldn’t want all of his “Peace Keeping Forces” (with guns) to get mad at me or anything.

What the Fuck, Chuck?

2009-10-01T06:29:00.000-07:00

So, I decided to take a non-credit creative writing class this fall at a local technical college. I wasn’t expecting much when I signed up, was just hoping for a few good prompts to get me writing regularly again. I was pleasantly surprised to find a group of intelligent people in the class and an awesome professor with a respectable syllabus. We even had homework! (The nerd in me was definitively in heaven).

There is only one problem with the respectful awesome class—and that problem is Chuck. Chuck has an MFA in writing, which at first made me excited to have a classmate that had experience writing in the professional realm. That was, of course, until I found out that he was the gloating type. Not only did he try to take over the class (interrupting the professor and preaching about how she should teach) but he also managed to wave his own book around so that we’d all notice he had one.

The first class period we had a writing prompt where we had to write a list-type thing. Most of us shared ours—I’ll probably post mine on here as an example when I get home. He, of course, shared his. I hate to be judgmental, but it’s all too easy to judge a guy who is obviously judging everyone else. I said a nice comment about what he read because he complimented what I wrote—but his writing isn’t all that good.

Last night was the second class, and true to form Chuck was his own pretentious self. Our assignment was to read a paragraph or two from our favorite author and talk about why we liked them. It was great at first. People sharing from authors I’d never heard of but definitely wanted to read. It was great, of course, until Chuck decided he needed to interject. He started name dropping authors and analyzing what each person said. If he didn’t ‘approve’ of people’s choices he would look obviously annoyed. His comments made us almost not finish in time before the class ended. People in the class were obviously just as annoyed as me. I wish the teacher had said something. The woman across from me was covering her mouth to keep from laughing.

When it was Chuck’s turn to share, his holier than thou attitude continued. He decided to share a poem. He HANDED OUT copies of the poem effectively killing a few trees for his dumb ass superiority complex. The poem wasn’t very good. On top of that he then analyzed the poem like we would in one of my 400 level writing classes in college if it was an assignment. Only, he was the only one analyzing. He talked for over ten minutes about this poem and why it was so great, dropping literary definitions like they were candy in a parade and we the eager children waiting on the sides of the road. (Only we weren’t children and were far from eager to listen to his lecture).

Next week we are critiquing writing people handed out at the end of class. We only have about 5minutes per person to critique. I hope to god Chuck doesn’t get called on. If he does and tries to take up all of my critique time I’m going to interrupt him and tell him I want a few other opinions before my time runs out.

I Really Cannot Believe I Have To Do This

2009-09-29T04:53:00.000-07:00

I was talking to a friend yesterday who was honestly convinced that the environment was better off now than in the past. I decided the best way to combat this strange, and untrue, assumption was with photos. I gathered all of these via Google Images (or referenced where I got them).

Above is an image of clear cutting in the Boreal Forest. Destruction continues to this day.

Above is an image of a whale beached and dead. It was killed by navy sonar use, which continues.

Whaling continues year after year even with depleted populations and a public outcry from many for it to stop.

Depleted Uranium Birth Defects (Above). "Also in 1999, a United Nations subcommission considered DU hazardous enough to call for an initiative banning its use worldwide. The initiative has remained in committee, blocked primarily by the United States, according to Karen Parker, a lawyer with the International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project, which has consultative status at the United Nations." See this article.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Polar bear populations in and around Alaska are declining due to continued melting of sea ice and Russian poaching, according to reports released Thursday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Space Trash. "It is estimated that hundreds of millions of pieces of space trash are now floating through our region of the solar system. Some of them are as large as trucks while others are smaller than a flake of paint. There are a couple of relatively famous pieces of space trash. One is the glove that floated away from the Gemini 4 crew during the first spacewalk by U.S. astronauts. The other is the camera Michael Collins lost during the Gemini 10 mission. Rocket boosters, pieces that came loose from spacecraft, and fragments and particles created by space collisions or explosions are other examples of the types of trash whizzing around Earth at speeds of up to 36,000 km per hour."

Oil Spills. Oil continues to be accidentally spilled into waterways around the world. With each spill environments are destroyed. Here are some links to more recent oil spills (there are obviously many more):
Pine River
Brazil
Queensland
West Cork, Ireland
Des Plaines River

Coffee Farming. This requires people to clearcut their land to create space to grow coffee, which in turn destroys the soil. (Picture from WWF article).

Manatees. "The population of manatees in Florida (T. manatus) is thought to be between 1,000 and 3,000, yet population estimates are very difficult. The number of manatee deaths in Florida caused by humans has been increasing through the years, and now typically accounts for 20%-40% of recorded manatee deaths.^[10] There were 417 manatee deaths in Florida in 2006 with 101 attributed to human causes according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission."

I could go on and on, but this (The 15 most toxic places to live) article seems to sum it up pretty well.

-Amelie

My Great Nine-Day Adventure

2009-09-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

Day 3
Soaking up the sun this morning as well, there are more fishermen out now than there were yesterday however. It’s 10:20am and the loons are already singing. I’m not sure I ever want to leave this place. I think the north is where I want to buy a house, not here, there are too many houses, but somewhere like this place likely was one hundred years ago.

The loons are my alarm clock calling strong as they mourn, requesting another day’s protection from the motors, from the scorn.

If you go an entire summer without a mosquito bite in Wisconsin you most definitely need to get out more. Last night alone I think I ATE about ten of them on my run.

I saw a squirrel fall out of a tree this morning and calmly paddle back to shore. I think it was my pissed off little friend from yesterday who with a morning starting with a fall from a tree will likely not be any more friendly today.

I love how everyone waves up north. I was running yesterday and each car I passed waved, each boat that drives by the pier I now write on waves. Hell, I have conversations with strangers up here. A man was walking his dog yesterday during my early morning run and I STOPPED RUNNING to discuss the unreasonably warm weather. I’ve told friends before that morning people everywhere are more friendly—seem more trusting of those that get up at six in the morning than those that stay up until 4am.

Up north people are morning people all of the time. I think it’s the winters up here that do it. We all know that in two months we might be relying on a stranger to pull us out of a tough place (namely a ditch). In four months the ditches will be so full of snow that they won’t be distinguishable—but the snow BANKS then prove an even bigger danger because when it goes from “warm” (about 32 degrees) to “chilly” (about ten degrees) they freeze into solid walls of ice. At this point going into the ditch can result in the same amount of damage (and injuries) as a front end collision. You had better hope you waved to your neighbor in September.

My hands might be shaking a bit from the caffeine but I feel GREAT. I heard two gunshots this morning. I wonder what they were shooting at.

As you zoom through the water in your high-fangled state-of-the-art speed boat you fail to see the loons floating gracefully upon the bay. The loons have been there for hours—teaching their young one how to hunt on his own, calling encouragement at his failures and successes.

But you don’t see. Your boat is too fast to notice—the motor too loud to hear the mournful calls that mark their alarm at your fast approach. You fail to see. Spend several hours, days, years on the bay with no motors and no speed. Then tell me of the loons. I will tell you of the silence broken by the unnatural wake of your boat. I will tell you of the floating cigarette butts that washed upon shore after your departure. AND I WILL TELL YOU how close the loons came to bid their thank you to a friend who told you to stop and listen.

Later, 4:30pm:
I was taking a nap upstairs in the house when I heard the loons calling, I didn’t see them on the bay at first. I saw a mink running along the shore, but now I see a loon about one hundred yards from the pier. The loons really are my alarm clock this week.

I now understand all of the grooming I’ve seen them doing and the strange activity of the loons. It looks like they are molting their summer plumage for winter feathers. Their backs are more dull right now than usual, it probably itches. I’ve never been up here at this time of year so it makes sense that I’ve never seen it before.

Wildlife seen today:
Loons
Vultures
Squirrels
Mink
Blue jays
crows
Chipmonks
Wildlife heard today:
Loons
Crows
Ducks
Squirrels

My Great Nine-Day Adventure

2009-09-26T13:44:00.000-07:00

Day 2
I put some corn out last night and this morning I’m watching all of the critters prepare for winter as they bury it all around the yard.

Just gathered two buckets full of kindling for the winter-would gather more (there’s plenty for the taking) but I’m not sure where I’d put more of it. I’m sure it’ll be much appreciated when the ground is covered with four feet of snow in a couple months.

Came within a foot of a little chipmunk that had his cheeks packed to the max with corn I’d set out. He looked at me as if to say “thank you”.

I’m beginning to wonder if the loons have gone for the year already. I have yet to hear or see th em. Perhaps just the young are left here now. I’m not sure if the babies would call out at all—even if they did have a sibling on the lake.

I’m now sitting on the pier up north with a tray table, Endgame, a banana, a camera, a phone, and binoculars (oh, and a water bottle). I suppose that the phone is a breach in the ‘cut off from technology’ security—but I justified it by saying my mother would be worried if she called and I didn’t answer. It really is amazing how sound travels on this lake.

I haven’t seen any mammals larger than squirrels yet up here, but there are some strange droppings in the yard that make me think something larger—a badger or something of comparable size—is nearby.

I’m wearing a tube top-trying to get a last ditch attempt at a tan before the six month winter sets in. I think I’m still in denial about summer being almost over.

I was just thinking—how many mascots are endangered in their home states? The Badgers for instance—I’ve lived my whole life in this state and have not once seen one in the wild—not that running into one would be a fun filled experience per say. But, it would be one I should have had by now if they were so prevalent as to name a team in my state after them.
There’s a Musky fishing competition today so there are more boats than usual on the lake. I can see two right now in our small bay alone.

I sat, peaceful, serene, on the aluminum pier—not considering at all how unnatural the metal was—then with a glance toward the brown water lake I saw, clearly and without question the top from a soda or beer can about four feet down. What careless individual would go through the trouble of pulling the top off just to toss it into the lake and where is the can?

An airplane sounds so out of place in these woods, yet there it goes heading somewhere north of here.

“Even the trees in cities are in cages” Derrick Jensen

They are cutting down trees across the lake from me. Two have crashed to their deaths so far and they are working on a third. All I can see from here are their top branches as they fall and then I hear the crash as they touch the ground for the first time. The leaves would have fallen naturally in about two weeks, but now at least 30 years of growth lies dying on the ground. What purpose does this serve? Likely nothing more than a better view. Yet I myself write these words on a processed downed tree.

2:50pm Day 2
I got my answer to the loon question. There’s at least one I just heard it.

There are now two mature loons in the bay and one is acting quite strange. I’ve seen them “dance” before but this is different than anything I’ve ever seen. It will sink partway under water then flap its wings like mad as if to swim or take off but at the wrong depth for either. At first he was actually rolling in the water and I thought something like a musky might be attacking him. I was really worried but then I saw what I can only assume is a mate in the bay too—about one hundred yards from him and I felt much better.
Later: Two parent loons and a full grown baby-still in his/her adolescent plumage. That’s who they were calling to earlier I assume.

They may have stayed in the bay for hours if not for the asshole boat of fishermen that basically drove right at them. Grr! Motorboats, another way we are fucking up nature. The row boat promoted fitness, didn’t pollute—and didn’t scare the shit out of wildlife.

“The best and most courageous and most sincere of our efforts are never sufficient to the task of stopping those who would destroy.” Derrick Jensen

Red squirrels are far from quiet as they move about in the early fall. I just saw one in the yard behind me (I tried to film this with my camera but messed something up). I turned around and he froze, looking at me. He then rose to his hind legs (all five inches of his height) and started making these high pitched chirping sounds at me. He sprinted to the tree overlooking the lake by me, ran up and down it continuing his noises and glared at me for a good two minutes!

Later yet: WOW is all I can say. Who in their right mind drives a pontoon boat directly at an animal? ESPECIALLY a protected animal like a loon? What the fuck, I’m livid. I wish I had a boat right now so I could go fucking punch that guy driving the two jackasses that were and the boat who didn’t tell the driver to stop. The poor loons dove at the last minute.

Two hours later: I just sat for two hours watching the loons in our bay, always from a distance, smiling and totally at ease. They never went near a pier and then, just now, the mates came up within 20 feet of me. They looked at me, spread their wings for me and with one short call from one to the other they dove away. I feel that somehow they knew that even if it took swimming out to that boat that I would have kept them safe one way or another.

The squirrel is chirping to me again as if to tell me that I am right.

I love it when it’s no challenge to imagine a place as it was one hundred years ago. It’s so simple here. Remove the piers and you’re pretty much there. The loud motor boat and water skier that just almost took out the loons would have to go as well. I wish this was a non-motorized lake. Or one with an idiot test to enter.

Wildlife seen today:
Red Squirrels
Loons
Blue Jays
Grey Squirrels
Wildlife heard today:
Ducks
Loons

My Great Nine-Day Adventure

2009-09-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

Day 1

Got up here at around 4pm today and already (it’s 8:30) I find myself settling in. The simplicity of the days ahead of me is exciting. A jigsaw puzzle, perhaps a swim, early morning runs. Not opening a computer for days—ah—it’s like I’ve finally exhaled after two years of holding it in.

I’m alone up here (not counting the neighbors who are up now too). It will be my first time up here entirely alone as well as my first time doing a lot of things alone. I don’t feel alone in this house though. There are too many happy memories filling it up for that.

I look to the backyard and don’t see an empty lake—no—I see luges coated with water while our parents weren’t looking. I see my Little Mermaid saucer sled zipping down the luge at the front of a train. (The way that memory ends isn’t particularly happy, but with over ten years to dull it, it’s funny now).

I sit now at the dining room table and I don’t see three empty chairs. To the contrary—I see it full with a blue Fischer Price table nearby holding several more bodies. I hear laughter at the first play through of Apples to Apples—I hear my younger brother’s cries as he tries to explain he broke his arm on a four wheeler.

I see all of this and so much more. I’m far from alone. I have twenty years worth of memories to fill these walls.

I think that this will be a fruitful week as far as writing goes. I hope to get some amazing photography as well—both passions that I have allowed to lay dormant for far too long.

I also need to think about what I plan to do next year. School in Minnesota? Or the more drastic choice to move west to Oregon—a state I have never been to but somehow know is a place I belong. I need to stop even considering staying in Wisconsin in my wage slave technical writing job as an option. I need to remember to dream before I forget how to altogether.

Wildlife seen today:

2 Bald Eagles

2 Blue Jays

3 Bats

Animals heard today:

Ducks on Lake

Vacation Withdrawal

2009-09-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

As most of you know I just got back from a nine day retreat north a few days ago and since I have been going through the typical vacation withdrawal I’m sure all have experienced. I now sit at a desk in an office with no windows. A week ago I sat on a pier on a northern lake watching the loons teach their young to fly.

I now write manuals about an industry I’m not sure I agree with. A week ago I was working on an environmental novel that made me feel truly alive for the first time in what feels like years.

I get home from work and I take a nap, then maybe go outside for a run, or a little reading. A week ago I was only inside after dark, up until then I was outside listening to the languages of nature and learning more about life than I could ever find in a fluorescently lit room.

I wrote a lot while I was up there and I’m going to start (hopefully tomorrow) posting my musings from the north.

Thanks,

Amelie

Die Willy Die

2009-09-08T12:05:00.000-07:00

I recently saw a commercial for the U.S. Navy that was promoting how environmentally friendly they were. I have searched for over an hour and can’t find the ad anywhere online. If you watch TV with any regularity however I’m sure you have seen it or will soon. (There’s a jogging woman talking about how great the Navy is). First of all, the only premise they seem to base this on is the use of nuclear power in their ships and submarines. Don’t even get me started on how bad that is. The waste product of nuclear power (spent fuel rods) remain toxic for thousands of years and we have yet to know what to do to detoxify them.

I am not so much here to talk about why nuclear power is horrible and no reason to call yourself green (yes, I’m talking to you US Navy) but here to talk about the other atrocity they have been a part of for years—killing marine life. I’m sure you all remember Keiko and your love for the character, Willy, he played in the box office hit Free Willy. Well, how would you feel about a bunch of dead Keikos? We all cheered as they freed him in the movie yet we sit passively by while whales and other marine life are killed for unnecessary training exercises.

Here’s a video about the danger to marine life from these loud noises (sonar) used by the Navy.

There was a temporary ban on these harmful uses of Sonar that were killing marine life, but that ban was lifted in November of 2008.

Here’s an excerpt from the article linked above:

“For the [environmentalists], the most serious possible injury would be harm to an unknown number of the marine mammals that they study and observe,” he wrote. “In contrast, forcing the Navy to deploy an inadequately trained antisubmarine force jeopardizes the safety of the fleet.”

In an important caveat, the chief justice added: “Military interests do not always trump other considerations, and we have not held that they do. In this case, however, the proper determination of where the public interest lies does not strike us as a close question.”

In a dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the court-ordered mitigation measures were “manageable” and justified. She said the Navy’s own assessments predicted “substantial and irreparable harm to marine mammals.”

So, I’m just wondering how exactly the U.S. Navy is so environmentally responsible?

Here are some more articles you should check out:
US Navy Admits Its Sonar Killed Whales

Whale Killed During Navy Sonar Exercises

Sonar from Navy likely killed whales in the Bahamas

Just Friends? Oh Please.

2009-09-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

I know you have all heard it before (and lived it for that matter). The girl who has been friends with a guy for years—feels like she knows him well enough that there’s absolutely no chance in hell he’ll “like like” her. Then, surprise, surprise, he confesses his love in one way or another. This not only ruins the “great friendship” but forces the girl to hurt one of her friends. Awkward, unwanted, unwarranted—all of the above. Yet guys seem to be watching too many chick flicks to realize that guy friends shouldn’t be more.

So here’s a list for those guys who are desperately in love with one of their girl FRIENDS to refer to when deciding whether or not to make the leap and go for them.

If you have known her for more than six months and you have both been single and she has yet to make any sort of move let it remain just a friendship.
Just because she asks you about you and your girlfriend doesn’t mean she has a thing for you.
She comes to you when guys hurt her? Yeah, she goes to her girl friends too—this doesn’t mean she has a thing for you.
She gets along just GREAT with you and your guy friends. Why not just have her fit in as your girl? Yeah, that’s a horrible idea. She fits in great because she doesn’t feel the pressure of being in a relationship. It’s probable that she just likes to kick back with you (and I don’t mean kick back the sheets).
You tried it once and it didn’t work. She said it was “weird”. Take her hint, don’t try it again.
She flirts with your friends. Okay guys, I highly doubt she is trying to make you jealous, quit justifying it that way. She wants to make it clear to you she’s not interested.
You did it, you made the move—and she ran away (literally). Please just let her be for a month or two, you just messed with her view on the world. Her processing the fact that you like her does NOT mean that she secretly loves you and is preparing for a relationship.

If you decide not to take my advice and, heaven forbid, tell her you like her. Don't do it during a night out with friends. If alcohol is involved, even worse idea. Do it sober, and alone. Not with a ton of people to witness her ignoring you.

Remember Roller Slides?

2009-09-03T07:36:00.000-07:00

I was talking to my best friend last night about her new neighbors who put a Tupperware looking swing set outside her window. We started talking about the awesome swing sets we had as children that weren’t built to prevent injury, but almost to promote it. Swing sets used to teach lessons. I then started thinking about the playground my brothers and I used to beg to go to as children. It was at the local public elementary school (we went to private school) and we actually took field trips to it sometimes.

The playground had a stand up teeter-totter and a roller slide (among many other awesome things). If you don’t remember the roller slide, or never experienced it, you were missing out. It was a slide that was filled with a series of medal tubes that would rotate to propel you down. The tubes would get scorching hot in summer and would pinch your legs if you even thought of wearing shorts while careening down them. The slide was wide enough for two to go down side by side. It was extreme playing, and we LOVED IT. I know they took the roller slide out a few years ago—and I am afraid to go examine the playground now. I suspect it will be another Tupperware replica that makes playing so cautious it’s barely fun.

We wonder why children don’t want to be outside anymore. Playing isn’t fun if it’s totally safe.

Let’s bring back the roller slide, the stand up teeter-totter, the swings with concrete underneath them. Let’s bring back the pain of playing, the skinned knees. My younger brother broke his arm while playing on monkey bars in winter. It was an injury to be bragged of. Let’s bring back cast signing as a regular activity in classrooms.

I’ll Take Another Shot of That

2009-09-02T07:50:00.000-07:00

Intoxication is the only way I know to describe it. It started happening almost a year ago when I first opened Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Before that point I had never known that there were people that thought so much like I did. With each word I read I slowly found myself almost falling in love with the concepts. It was like everything that had been abstract for so long fell into place perfectly, a jigsaw completed. I finally realized I wasn’t alone, crazy, or naive. Or maybe I was all of those but alone.

With that book I continued on a quest to read more like it, and I started pummeling through them like they were Fudgescicles in July. How was I supposed to stop when each page opened my eyes and heart wider—I was having an affair with a genre of books. I found myself nearly in love with authors I knew nothing about—except that they agreed with me. For the first time in far too long I wasn’t the only “crazy” one.

I am still reading books by these authors, and others like them. Now it is not so much the shocked love I experienced when reading them at first, but a type of reverence. I know that this knowledge is not only useful, but necessary. I have a request list about three pages long at the library and six unread books at home from them. I have one being shipped to me from half.com right now. I just cannot stop. But could you?

If you opened a book that reflected back at you all of your deepest secrets, hopes, fears, and dreams would you put it down and walk away? Some may be addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex; I am addicted to books that seem to be written by my future self.

What if I Don’t Want to Ride the Mother F'ing Drive?

2009-08-31T20:08:00.000-07:00

The City of Madison had this “brilliant idea”. Why not close down a bunch of roads and seem mega progressive to our towns’ people? We will let them take their adorably progressive children and ride their bikes down the roads we won’t let people drive on. A great plan! Let’s do it on a Sunday because that is a day of rest (and riding a bike is more restful than driving a car…kind of).

Even better yet—let’s just not tell anyone who lives on the streets that we are closing them. Most people that live downtown are progressive too, progressively hung-over on Sundays that is. They probably won’t even notice.

This is the thought process I am assuming led to my stressful morning on Sunday. I woke up to find that there were dozens of annoying bikers clogging up my one way street and that there were barricades on both ends of it. I had heard they were shutting down the main road near my apartment and had planned an alternate route—but driving the route of course required leaving my driveway (onto a closed street). Annoyed, and now late for a family gathering an hour away, I called the Madison Police Department. This was after I checked the website for the event and found no contact information or information for people living on the closed streets. I was then transferred, twice, both times by people that said “I don’t think you can leave” when I asked. To this I replied “just watch me”. They then let me leave a message for an officer that was conveniently not there and didn’t call me back.

I will never let someone trap me in my own apartment and walking fifty miles didn’t seem very doable at the time. Finally I donned a serious face and marched down to the barricade that was blocking my way. There was a woman there who said she’d move it for me. (Couldn’t someone have just told me that from the beginning?) At that a cop pulled up and asked if I was “The woman from [my address]” when I said yes he told me I could leave. Well, thank you. I have now been granted a basic freedom by a police department that doesn’t even solve crimes. Now I know what they have been busy doing—closing down streets to let bikers ride. Murders can wait—Madison now is your time to RIDE THE DRIVE.

When Will Enough REALLY Be Enough?

2009-08-31T09:28:00.001-07:00

I sit here wondering about what it will really take. As most of you already know I am reading Derrick Jensen’s Endgame Volume 1. The book touches on a very real question that I am ashamed I cannot answer in any way that makes me proud. Jensen asks what it will really take for people to take action to preserve the environment and change the way we live. He then starts to list all of the horrible things that have already happened to the environment and are currently happening—all of the devastation has not been enough as of yet. His premise is that the collective whole of society will not willingly change their way of life to a more ecologically friendly one. I have to agree with him.

I look at myself, for instance. I am prepared to be harsh here to make a point. I consider myself an environmentalist. I talk about the environment every day, how bad of shape it’s in, and how to save it. I dream of living in the mountains off the land and having no contact with the outside world. As you saw in my last post I could “pull a Chris McCandless” without much hesitation, yet enough isn’t enough for me yet. I know that the planet is struggling; I know how bad things really are. I read books and watch shows and talk about it all the time. Yet I haven’t been pushed over the edge to actually DO something. If someone as far gone as me hasn’t been pushed, how can I expect others to be?

I feel that this culture has so corrupted us that even I, someone who refuses to be blinded, am. I wince at the thought of dammed rivers and clear-cut forests yet I smile at sales online and order shoes I don’t need with little hesitation. I talk about conserving threatened fish yet don’t speak up while out to dinner when someone orders something I know is struggling to survive. It would be “improper” you see, to do so. When am I going to say “to hell with what is proper” and start making a difference? What will it take? I think I’d have to cut all ties with this society and go live on that mountain for awhile first. Otherwise I’d just keep getting sucked in by emails talking of free shipping and restaurants with a classy client base.

If I took all the time I spend preaching about recycled toilet paper and spent it actually contacting the press and companies that are clear-cutting for fresh pulp, maybe I’d make more of a difference. Or, perhaps, chaining myself to a tree is the only way. I need to change the way that I live if I expect people less ardent about this than I to do so. I need to stop living the life of a hypocritical dreaming hippie and start being the revolutionary I am in my heart.

I need to actually say Enough is Enough and start living my life like I mean it. Maybe then people will listen to me and things will change. Or maybe not.

Supertramp

2009-08-28T05:26:00.000-07:00

I was walking down the sidewalk with a friend the other day, musing over the beauty of our state capital when I saw a squirrel skittering across the walkway in front of us. I slowed to a mere crawl and relayed a story about how I had to do the same thing earlier in the day.

I had been running on a bike path in my often progressive city when a squirrel decided to cross in front of me. There were two people walking in the other direction and the squirrel became “trapped” between our two groups. I stopped in this situation to let him reach his tree without a heart attack.

After I relayed this story my friend looked at me, frowned, and said “I worry about you sometimes”. Now I have friends that are far from progressive, couldn’t give a shit about a squirrel, and would have been laughing at me. This friend wasn’t like that though, so I was thoroughly confused. When I asked for clarification he told me that he was afraid one day I would “pull a Chris McCandless” and just disappear. I don’t think he appreciated my response “I’d be happy doing that, why is it a bad thing to go off like that?”

I would obviously not seek the outcome of McCandless’s adventures, but what is so wrong with having some of my own? Revolutionary Road did a great job showing a more run-of-the-mill crowd what can happen when dreams are crushed. I refuse to wake up when I’m 50 and realize I never did go off on my own for a year or two, travelling the world—or what’s left of it.

So perhaps I will “pull a Chris Mccandless” and I’ll be happy to say I did.

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."
— Chris McCandless

Disgusted by Passivity

2009-08-26T06:11:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to check into the recycled content of the toilet paper at my workplace since I started here. I have told myself to research the brand over and over again, but have just been too lazy to check into it (and now it’s been over a year). Finally, today, I did. I was surprised and impressed to find out that it is incredibly Eco-Friendly paper and isn’t just marketed that way. They use 100% recycled pulp in the paper. This made me feel better for not doing anything for so long. Then I realized feeling better is the opposite thing I should be doing. My passivity on the issue disgusted me.

I consider myself an environmentalist. I read Derrick Jensen like his works are the books of the Bible, I preach up and down about the problems in our society and in nature. I talk constantly about it. Yet, I don’t DO much. I do not do a hell of a lot of things. I don’t drive much. I don’t leave my computer or TV plugged in when I’m not using them. Sure, these things are good. But when’s the last time I researched a company on my own (without the work done for me by Green Peace of the Sierra Club) and contacted them about their harmful practices?

I have wanted to email the restaurant Egg Harbor about their Styrofoam to go cups for over a year. I have meant to email the Sheraton about their use of Kimberly Clark products. (I waited so long on that one that Kimberly Clark has actually pledged to stop clear cutting before I sent an email).

That is the problem with the environmental movement. We are all too damn passive. We have been sucked into this society like everyone else and although we see the problems, we refuse to step out of the cave. How scary would it really be to get our feet wet? I preach about conservation yet work a full time job on a computer. My company isn’t the worst when it comes to environmental practices but it isn’t the best either. Yet I do nothing, because I must pay the bills. I refuse to admit that there would be far less bills if I lived in a place where I didn’t have to commute and could grow my own food.

I don’t know what it will take, a question that Derrick Jensen asks, to get people to actually do something about the destruction of our planet. Forests cut to the ground, global climate change, widespread starvation—none of this has been enough for me. Maybe I just need to admit to myself how bad it has gotten. Perhaps I need to travel to the forests that can no longer support even plant life because their soil is ruined by clear cutting. Perhaps I need to embrace a wolf pup and try to explain to it why there will be no supper now or ever because his entire family was shot dead from an airplane. Perhaps I need to leave the protective bubble of the 9-5 grind and get out there.

But that would be hard wouldn’t it?

Rape Culture

2009-08-25T05:24:00.001-07:00

I know that every blog writer claims they will start posting again and that they never do. I am going to make the same claim and try to hold myself to it. There really is no excuse for me not to post at least every other day throughout the work week. This post is going to be in response to an article/blog post I read here: http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-do-we-live-in-a-rape-culture/?obref=obinsite

I understand that the target reader of The Frisky isn’t necessarily the most intelligent of folks, but this article seems to touch on a concept the writer hasn’t known about previously and then uses a poorly made YouTube video to prove the point.

Rape Culture? There are numerous books and essays about this very concept that touch on societies that DIDN’T have rape within them. Why not mention those? How about you actually do research before writing a response piece?

Here’s some good reading material on the concept (or that touches on the concept) that the writer of this article should have read before posting and trying to sound enlightened and intelligent.

The Culture of Make Believe-- By: Derrick Jensen

People of the Deer—By: Farley Mowat

Rape And Society: Readings On The Problem Of Sexual Assault --By Patricia Searles

Strange Piece of Paradise—By Terri Jentz

Living Against Evolution

2009-05-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

When was it exactly that we forgot how revitalizing it can be just to simply, fundamentally, have hope? Since when has “this is the best of the worst” become the motto to live by? Why is it so hard for us to imagine that perhaps the way we are living that leads to such a high murder and suicide rate may possibly, maybe, be the wrong way? Other cultures have been studied throughout history, cultures that are descendants of the same distant ancestors as those living in western society. Many of these groups of people have been untouched, or nearly untouched, by “civilized man”. Is it so hard to imagine that perhaps they are happier than we? They live in a way that until 2,000 years ago our ancestors also lived, and always had lived. They live in the way that humanity evolved to live. When we live against evolution destroying rather than respecting, how can we expect anything other than destruction to greet us in return?

We leave our children alone in rooms to cry themselves to sleep and then wonder why it is that they have issues trusting later in life. We pass from job to job in a constant search for happiness, and never find it. We take two days out of seven to actually live and end up fretting about the other five for half of the weekend. We can go for months, and for some, perhaps years without feeling a cool rain on our faces. Constantly hitting the refresh button we check the weather in our windowless offices feeling a longing we cannot define—a hopelessness that seems out of place in a nine to five society. We pop Vitamin D supplements because we are never outside enough to absorb it naturally. We avoid human interaction by emailing and doing everything possible online.

Some of us realize that life should not be a monotony of meaningless days occasionally punctured by actual living. Some of us rebel against the norm and read books about true life while surrounded by the cubicle walls that smother. Some of us wonder if the life of those untouched by our kinfolk is possible for us. Some of us attempt to spread the word that happiness is but a few simplifications away. Yet few listen and most are repulsed. To admit one is wrong is a long undertaking for an individual, but to admit that an entire society is mistaken could take centuries. The problem? It will be too late by the time western society admits their errors, if ever they do.

So perhaps a reflection is in order. Perhaps someone needs to tell those brainwashed by typical Christianity that humanity is far from inherently evil. Humans are just very talented at teaching their flaws to offspring at a speedy rate. How many nights alone in a bassinet does it take a child to realize that only with constant sobbing will human interaction result? Children are born knowing more about the intricacies of life than the average western adult. They need no books to know how to behave, no television to shape their vision of themselves. They are pure. It is their upbringing that adds the sin so many faiths claim is “original”.

So what now? What action or vision could re-teach humanity what they knew as infants but forgot as children? How does one go about teaching the art of hope? Perhaps this economic downturn will educate westerners of the fact that understanding arms can be just as comforting as a cushiony paycheck. Perhaps the giggle of a toddler as they play peek-a-boo will bring back the inner desire to pick them up and run about out doors. Or perhaps even with the challenge of limited means our society will find its own way to squelch the urge to return to a simpler and happier way of life.

Maybe it is too late for a society when internet is seen as a need and companionship as merely a desire.

It's Been Awhile

2009-05-14T04:33:00.000-07:00

The winter doldrums got me this year. I promise I will have a new post for you within a week. Also, check out my other blog: Life's Little Technicalities to check out some new comics I have been working on!