Bush was Warned about Hurricane Katrina

Why I Have Pet Chickens

The most frequent question asked about my raising three chickens is, “Well, what are you going to do with them?” People are confused—what is the purpose of having chickens? Understandably, it does seem odd in the 21^st century to have three chickens roaming the backyard for no other reason than for the pleasure of their company. When a chicken is nothing but a commodity, to be used for flesh, for eggs, could there possibly be any other purpose?

Chickens are curious, adorable, social creatures. They are inquisitive, unique, and full of life. They have unique personalities. They enjoy open space, sunshine, dust baths, good food, and lazy afternoons. They are also creatures who can experience suffering, just like the family dog or cat. And my chickens are my pet chickens, just like your dog or cat. They exist to exist, and for nothing else. I do not plan on raising them for their meat, and being a vegan, I do not even plan to use their eggs. They are my pets, and they bring me joy every day.

9 billion chickens are slaughtered every year in the United States. From hatchery to slaughterhouse, chickens are most likely one of the most abused animals on the planet. From birth, they are pumped full of antibiotics to grow fat and full of meat by the target slaughter age of 45 days old. They grow heavy so fast that they become unable to support their own weight, and are unable to walk. Chickens are crammed into tiny cages, their beaks are cut off to prevent cannibalism which is brought about by their confinement and their inability to establish a pecking order. They live a short life full of suffering–they don’t even get to see the light of day.

My three chickens have no idea how lucky they are. They are the very rare and lucky few of their species that will get to live out their lives to the fullest and die a natural death. Factory farming causes myriad damage to our environment, our health, and unneeded suffering in millions of creatures. By raising pet chickens, I am making a statement against the hegemonic culture that accepts chickens for nothing more than consumer products. By raising pet chickens, I am putting into action my belief that sentient beings like chickens have the right to live without excessive turmoil by the cruel and brutal suffering we impose on them for our selfish appetite.

So to answer your question, what am I going to do with my chickens? I am going to let them live a long and happy life.

Beggar Robot

Food, Inc.

Green Porno

“Green Porno” is a series about the reproductive habits of insects acted out by Isabella Rossellini.

It is sexy, hilarious, educational, and a tad bit disturbing—a lovely combination of my favorite four things! Check out youtube.com for more.

Fall in Love

Hush. Calm yourself. Life is flux and change. The cost of existence is high. Think of the burning and sun converting four hundred tons of hydrogen into helium every second! Think of the bill to pay for human consciousness. Stop whining. It is all on loan. Accept your life with cheerful affection. Fall in love. Fall in love outward. Fall in love with this moment, with this earth now. In that response will be the seeds of right action or right nonaction. Fall in love and see what happens.

– Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist, Sharman Apt Russell

Life Disintegrating

Koyaanisqatsi. The perfect word to describe life for Americans in this, the 21^st century. Koyaanisqatsi. Life in turmoil. Life unbalanced. Life disintegrating. Koyaanisqatsil; derives from the Hopi language. Koyaanisqatsi: the name of a 1982 visual-musical poetic film by Godfrey Reggio, Philip Glass, and Ron Fricke. (A prophetic warning of days to come?) A film connecting the dots between technology and the destruction of our bloodline, our life. This film, made in the dawn of the rise of glutinous American consumerism, before being green was the cool thing, peels back the layers and slows down—this world we live in, all beautiful and destructive and chaotic and horrible and completely astonishing. Chaos. Chaos.

Koyaanisqatsi: a state of life that calls for another way of living.

Is it too late?

Mark Bittman: What’s Wrong with what we Eat

Palin, Eve and Polar Bears

The Buddhist in me wants to accept the fact that no matter who wins in November, suffering will continue. We must remember that grand change does not occur in four years, or eight years, or one-hundred. Real long-standing change is called evolution, and that only occurs throughout thousands of years. We are humans, and we have been making the exact same mistakes over and over again since the dawn of civilization. Can one elected president really stir up that much change?

The optimist in me wants to believe in hope and change, and that the American public is smart enough to vote for the best candidate. And that good will overcome evil, that things can and will get better.  But the cynic realist in me is beginning to accept more and more that McCain has a very good chance of winning, and if he does things could continue to get worse: my rights as a woman and a human being will be stripped away, the Judeo-Christian god will rule the land, national ID cards will be established, and unnecessary death, war, and destruction will continue.

All I know is that the stakes have never been higher. And never before has a presidential nominee used such a backhanded, conniving, and calculated choice for their VP. Choosing Palin was a strategic choice to rally the feminists, the Hillary enthusiasts, and the right-wing religious fundamentalists. This choice has lit McCain’s campaign on fire; he has effectively upstaged Obama.

Eve Ensler re-awoke me to the atrocities of this political theatre, with this essay which hits the crux of the issue:

The Fall of the Rational Species

In ethics today we talked about Paul Taylor’s life-centered environmental ethic. His basic argument is we as humans have no right to say we are any better than other life on this earth, because the criteria we use is rationality. This is unfair because most other creatures do not need rationality to survive. Actually, they would probably not last very long if they did have rationality. But we use this as our litmus test, which is completely unfair. Who decided rationality is what makes a creature so great? Why not use speed, or eye sight, or swimming capabilities as the test? Every species is great in its own way, and this needs to be so. We are interconnected with all other species in a complex web of life. Every creature needs to be good at what they do so we can be good at we do. There is no value to ranking creatures, and thus our whole attitude of dominance over non-humans is just plain wrong. Who says the bird’s life is worth any less than ours just because it cannot think rationally? It’s all a facade.