Riots at the RNC

I know that every blogger and their sister has something to say about the arrests on Monday at the excel center where the Republican National Convention was being held, but I most certainly had to put my two cents in and, hopefully, spread the word to a few friends and family reading my blog who otherwise might not know.

10,000 gathered on the first night of the convention to protest the Iraq war, th republican party, and McCain's campaign. McCain has repeatedly voiced his approval of the war and a plan to keep our loved ones there. The protest was peaceful until a group of gestapo showed up trying to stop the protests without any cause, thereby infringing on our constitutional right to freedom of speech and the freedom to gather peacefully.

After stopping a march held by some 300 college students by blocking their path, the students began playing "freedom" music and dancing in the streets. A barrier was formed around the students and, without warning, the gestapo suddenly started firing pepper spray. Several students were burned.

In front of the convention site a barricade of police with megaphones announced that everyone was under arrest, not even attempting to weed out the supposed trouble causers from those who were standing quietly by. Several news teams nearby rushed over to cover the arrests and were then also told that they would be arrested. They were forced to kneel on the ground with their hands on their heads- an uncomfortable and unjust position to have to hold for an extended period of time. Over 250 protesters were arrested and charged with "conspiracy to incite a riot".

Our rights, as Americans, are slowly being taken away. Some may call me unpatriotic, but we are a nation known for challenging those in power. The constitution guarantees us freedom from tyranny. The second amendment, the right to bare arms, was not put there for rednecks to shoot deer and squirrels or for paranoid creationists to protect themselves from the homosexuals. It was put in place so that we had a way to protect ourselves from the government! Of course, with the invention of more powerful weapons the need for guns in the hands of th people is no longer valid since a musket won't going to hold a flame to a tank, but that's a discussion for another post. Our government is one of checks and balances for a reason! To ensure that no one has too much power!

But what power do the people have left? Do we have the power to vote into office our leaders? Obviously not since Bush was not the elected president. The popular vote did not go to him, meaning that more people didn't want him than did. And yet he was placed in power. Why? What kind of system do we have that a candidate can so easily cheat to win, not win, and still be placed as the commander and chief of our country?

MLK made great changes to this country because of his peaceful protests. He was also stopped many times the the police. Protesters were unjustly attacked, arrested, or even killed. And we look back at that time now and how do we see the people who worked so hard against him? Bigots, racists, ignorants, hate mongers.

We look back at the women's right movement and how do we see those who stood against it? Bigots, sexists, ignorants, hate mongers. Controlling men who thought they were better and smarter.

We look back at Vietnam and the hippies and how do we see them? Thy are the heroes who stood against an unjust war and spoke out against war crimes and hate. Though they were hated in their time, they are now a symbol of goodness and morality.

And what do these bigots and hate mongers have in common? They all com from the political right. The left has always fought, throughout history, for human rights, for freedom, for most of the things that are taken for granted today.

I've often wondered if the conservatives of yesterday who protested equal rights now feel ashamed. And I think, in 20, 30, or 40 years how will the political left be remembered? I am certain they will be seen as they always have in our history books, as those who fought for what was right. When gay marriage is as commonly accepted as interracial marriage or as women's right to vote, those who stand against it today will be seen as wrong, immoral, and hateful.

Those protesters are the heroes of tomorrow. Hopefully, one day, I'll be able to look back on what's happening now and say "I protested. I fought for what was right. I helped stand against corruption and hate".

I also want to note that there were also several arrests during the DNC (about half as the RNC) although they were 90% people who were actually causing trouble, unlike at the RNC where people were arrested with no cause. However, regardless of whether I agreed with these protesters (and they can be compared to the anti-negro protesters of th 60's, meaning that they are protesting for restricting rights and creating a religiously controlled government) they have rights as well. These gestapo techniques are unacceptable, no matter how bigoted and intolerant the protesters are.

I'm sorry blog,I still love you

This poor blog has been pretty neglected. Tsk, tsk. That's because I've been incredibly busy. To read about what I've been so busy with visit my other blog: http://please-dont-feed-the-maniac.blogspot.com

A Spiritual Walk

As you may remember, in my previous blog I had taken notice of the fact that I no longer notice the world that I am living in. All of my passion for life or for living has ebbed away as I reached the ripe old age of 22.

So today I took action. I walked a path I've walked a hundred times before. In high school I used to walk, every morning, twenty minutes to my best friend's house just so that we could ride the same bus. My bus would have picked me up right in front of my driveway, but then I wouldn't have memories of nirvana, love spell body spray, and Jean's giggle while Beth applied foundation to her lips.

It was cold out, so I wore a tank top. I wanted to be able to feel the bite of the cold. I walked quickly, as I used to do, with my head down, glancing up occasionally to see kids on bikes or a lady walking her dog. I had my camera. I took pictures of plants and the street and my path. It didn't take as long as I thought it would to get there. It didn't take as long as I remembered. Maybe it was the lack of a 30 pound backpack.

At the end of a gravel road I saw a field. It was a corn field, though In February there was no corn , but rather lumpy rows of dirt and grass. I'd walked across that field a hundred times. More. I'd walked through it when it was only dirt, when it was grass and when the corn reached towards the sky. We had played hide and seek in that corn. In that field. I stepped onto it, afraid someone would see and yell at me for trespassing. The sun was sinking low in the sky. I laid on my belly to take a picture of the grass, green and tinted yellow at the tops from lack of rain.

I looked around. A car passed me, and then all was still. No one around. I double checked to make sure. And then I spread my arms wide, face upturned and I spun. I twirled in that field full of memories like a five year old. I felt like a five year old. I felt free and I felt connected. A single star shone above the tree tops and I did something I hadn't done in years. I made a wish.

I walked back home, the sun barely a streak of red in the sky. The world seemed to hold new meaning. I heard every sound, saw every flicker of light, smelled every scent. The world was more vivid and I was more alive.

Wishing on stars

"Star light,
Star bright,
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may,
I wish I might,
May I have this wish I wish tonight?"




When did I get too old to wish on stars? When did I become so pessimistic and cynical about the world? Even into high school my romantic heart fluttered at the thought of knights in armor, castles, faeries and true love. I used to lie on my bed, in my rose pink room, staring out the window at the miniature roses that bloomed there and think of of the wonderful things the world held for me. I imagined a world full of possibilities where people loved and helped each other. A world full of passion and grace and kindness.

Was it the death of my dreams that prompted my cynical view of the world? When I hurt my ankle in 2004 I not only came to the realization that I could not finish school for musical theater, but I realized that I wasn't good enough to sing professionally and I likely never will be. My love of and passion for music and the entire musical world was damaged knowing that I could not be a part of it.

Was it my broken heart? Realizing that the kind of love that existed in my head did not really exist in real life? Shortly after high school I found myself believing in knights in shining armor. Dark, mysterious, and passion filled relationships where everything always worked out. I wanted to be swept off of my feet with lavish and reckless abandon. I thought I had found that and my heart was shattered. Was this the beginning of my downfall?

Maybe it was simply the act of growing up and realizing that the world is a cold and cruel place most of the time. Yes, there are pockets of compassion, kindness, love, and passion. But no longer did I dance in the moonlight or twirl in fields of flowers. I no longer stood in the rain and shivered in pleasure at the feel of the heavy drops on my skin. These things now seem frivolous next to making sure the power doesn't get cut off or making sure the baby is fed. Maybe I'm simply too exhausted from just living to really enjoy things the way I used to.

Somehow I feel hollow. I have love, I have enough money for semi-comfort, I have family.. and yet I don't feel like I'm feeling love or happiness to it's fullest extent because I've managed to block out my passion and my sensitivity to the world around me. I'm numb to the world. Sure, I get hurt less, but I also live less.

Today is blog for choice day, so if you're pro choice, do your part and let people know.

Pro choice. Pro life. These terms are very misleading.. No one who's pro life is actually saying that people never deserve to have choices and, obviously, people who are pro choice still respect life.

Imagine, if you will, it's a hot, heavy summer night. Crickets sing in the fields just past your house where the grass is knee high and brown from the intensity of the sun. You're sitting on your back porch, thinking about your birthday party. You just turned thirteen and now, you feel, the world is at your fingertips.. you're finally growing up! You hear the screen door creek open as your mom's brother steps out onto the porch. You barely know him, but he's very friendly and likes to laugh. He starts talking to you about growing up, becoming an adult. Maybe you'll want a boyfriend soon. He asks, do you ever look at boys like that? He's touching your knee and suggests a walk in the field. You feel a bond with him.. like your dad maybe.

Congratulations. Two weeks later you find out you're pregnant. Fear, shame, horror. You never told anyone that he raped you, but you have to do something now. Not only do you fear the emotional and psychological pain from carrying a baby that was forced upon you so harshly, but you know there's a risk of deformities and a risk to your own life since you are so young.

This is why I am pro choice. Because I know how emotional carrying a baby is. I know the fear and the anxiety.. and I was actually trying to get pregnant! Yet I spent night after night in tears, wondering how I was going to do this. Can you imagine being raped? Can you imagine fearing for your life because of your age or other physical factors?

I consider myself a moderate pro choice because I don't believe in casual abortion. I think it should be a last resort, depending on circumstances. Rape, incest, danger to mother, or severe physical or mental deformities are all good and valid reasons for terminating a pregnancy. Do I think you should have it done because you just don't feel like it right now? Even if you're otherwise able to carry the child full term? No. I'm a huge supporter of adoption and I hope to adopt or foster someday even though I do want my own children (and already have one).

It's not black and white. It's not all or nothing. It's a complicated issue and a morally heavy one. Abortion isn't anything new.. it's been performed for thousands of years. In ancient greece there was an herb that worked so well for "casting out" children that the plant became extinct. A woman has power over her own body. We carry the child, we experience the pain, we get sick, we hurt, and we give birth... the whole experience is traumatic and painful, not even factoring in depression due to hormone changes or other outside psychological forces.

It's a shame that personal choices and freedoms and, indeed, basic human rights, should be anywhere near the slimy underbelly of the world that is politics, but here in the US it's a common issue and a hot topic for our elected officials. It's important to vote for officials that will uphold human rights because, let's face it, if a woman's freedom over her own body is compromised we will start a heinous backslide. How would you like to be arrested for being gay? Or for having sex in any position except the missionary one? (Oh, please, no!) . Most of society's so called "traditional values" are nothing but hatred and bigotry wrapped in a cross and a pretty bow.

Are you pro choice or pro life? Let me know what you think and why.

If you light one up, santa will bring you toys

I have to say.. I'm dumbfounded, outraged and disgusted at this Virginia mother who was arrested after posting a video to Myspace of her two year old daughter being forced to smoke a cigarette. What words could I possibly use to express my anger? If you know me, you know I'm not a violent person. I'm non confrontational and fights give me panic attacks. If I saw this bitch on the street I would knock her fucking block off. (if you know me, you also know I don't curse)

What was this woman thinking?! Did she think it was cute? Perhaps she saw one of Will Ferrell's videos with his little girl cursing and holding a beer bottle, pretending to be drunk. I'm sure most of you have seen those videos and maybe I seem up tight, but they weren't funny.
Obviously this idiot took it a step further by giving her child an actual cigarette (at least Ferrell didn't actually get his daughter drunk). The video showed her daughter, trying to light a cigarette with her mother using foul language and encourging her to get it lit and smoke it. I don't know why she thought it was a good idea or why she didn't think anyone would see it and call the authorities, unless she genuinely thought there was nothing wrong with it.

This is why I HATE smokers! They piss me off on a daily basis.. today they just piss me off more. Smoking should just be banned and be done with. It's not your god given right to pollute my fucking air or slowly kill your own child with second hand smoke (and later, probably first hand).

Perhaps the worst part is that she was NOT arrested for child abuse, bur rather for her excessive use of foul language and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She probably won't have her child taken away, as she should and her child will probably begin smoking at the age of eight, ensuring her early death and lower quality of life.

Smokers beware. Today I am on a rampage.

the geeks are breeding

As we all know there are nerds, geeks, and dorks. Which are you? I myself am a nerd (the kind who may be seen wearing taped up glasses, reading during recess an correcting my classmates' grammar and/or spelling), in addition to being a marching band geek and your typical fantasy/D&D geek. I was never a gamer, unless you count my profound love of pac man and the occasional game of paperboy.

However, as all nerds and geeks do I eventually grew up and married another geek. Yes, he was the too-smart-for-his-own-good type of geek, but he was also a gamer. At times I wondered if he'd rather make sweet love to his X-box rather than me (and if you're a gamer you would find this understandable). It is because of this unholy union of geekdome that I came to appreciate the world of gaming and sci-fi conventions. I now didn't find it odd at all that dressing like a blue alien and speaking gibberish could be a turn on or that knowing random video game facts could, in fact, get me laid.

In the merging of the marching band geek and the gaming geek I am truly able to appreciate and indeed, applaud this fine display:

glumbert - The geekiest marching band of them all

So stand up all ye geeks. Let the 54th level wizard stand up with pride. Hold your wii-motes high in recognition of this fine art of geekdome.

Violent America

How many of you have seen Michael Moore's movie, Bowling for Columbine? In it, he discusses the issue of gun control and, of course, the columbine shootings. After that awful tragedy, America looked at what would cause such a terrible thing to happen. Was it TV? Video games? I know! Marilyn Manson and the devil's music (rock and roll) . But wait... other countries such as Canada and England have violent TV, Japan has way more violent video games, and the lots of countries have plenty of rock and roll.

Let's look at England. No guns. Not even the police carry these deadly weapons. They have realized that, actually, guns do kill people. So do knives, but you have to be a hell of lot more committed. The gun is the coward's weapon. You don't have to look your victim in the face, you don't have to double think what you're doing... it's really very convenient . But what about Canada? More people own guns there than they do here and yet, where's their violent crimes? Where are their high murder rates? What makes them so different? Or rather, what makes us so different? Why do other countries have murder rates of about 200 a year, while ours are around 11,000? I have a theory.

There's a direct problem and an indirect problem. Let's talk about the direct problem first. America has the perfect mix of poverty, wealth, liberalism, and fundamentalism to breed a nation ripe with anger and full of crime. People in America are, generally, unhappy.

Let's say you're not wealthy. Maybe you're lower middle class, lower class or even impoverished. You can resent the wealthy an strive to be wealthy yourself at the same time. You can't afford health care, even if you're both working or, if you can afford health care, you can't afford good health care and therefore can't afford your deductibles. This is, I believe, one of the leading factors in our society which makes it so prone to violence. If we had a health care system like, say, Canada, the UK, Cuba, France, and pretty much every other industrialized country (and even some which aren't. i.e. Cuba) then quality of life would skyrocket. Healthy people are just happier. It would lower anxiety and worry among lower class Americans (what an awful term to use... lower class, as if the upper class were really better people). I know in my household, half the fights we have are because we're touchy or worried about money in relation to health, dental, and vision care.

Another factor that leads to a nation of unhappy criminals is a poor education system. Among industrialized countries, America has one of the worst. It's simply a statistical fact that less educated people are more likely to commit violent crimes and simply statistical that many African American children are more likely to have a poorer education. The Bush administration would like you to put more emphasis on private schooling in order to get your child a good education, but this is simply unrealistic. (Stay tune for my next blog about the No child left behind act which elaborates more on bush's idiocy) The reality is that most of our children are learning from public schools and these schools are just not doing their jobs, mostly because they're all poor. Schools are some of the first places to be hit by federal cut backs. In my high school, teachers had to buy their own paper, staples, dry erase markers, and other materials that should not have been their responsibility.

Other than the poor education received by students in grades K-12, many students cannot afford to continue their education. Many places around the world, including most of Europe, have a complete socialized education system. Socialized simply means the government pays for it. Many people are objectionable to socialized anything without realizing that most of our education system is already there (though poorly so). The next step is to create a free college education. Again, better educated people are less likely to commit violent crimes.

Now let's get a little more indirect. We know some of the problems in America that breed violence, but what causes these problems? My theory? Fundamentalism. Who's against socialize health care? Fundamentalists and Republicans (which are often one and the same), mostly. Who's against funding our public schools? You guessed it.. Fundamentalists and Republicans. The nice happy countries with lower violence rates are all more liberal than America. Most of the prisoners in jail system are devout Christians. Perhaps this is because Christianity advocates not taking responsibility for your actions (i.e. the devil made me do it or, it doesn't matter cause God will forgive me.). Monotheistic religions are the only religions which say you can be a horrible person in life and still be rewarded for it.

Many people will say, "But if you're really Christian you wouldn't break the law". Well yes, but as I said earlier, we don't live in a completely conservative society. Many Christians aren't very Christian at all. Unfortunately these people haven't learned to think for themselves because the real Christians don't want to fund education or health care.

I highly recommend watching Michael Moore's movies, Bowling for Columbine (which can be found on YouTube) and Sicko (a few parts of this movie can also be found on YouTube, though i'm not sure if all can).

Remember, think for yourselves. Love for yourselves.

Why I'm a Vegetarian

Someone on YouTube recently messaged me privately asking about vegetarianism. I wrote a reply and let my husband read it.. he told me it would make a great blog so here it is. Why I'm a vegetarian.



It's true that most vegetarians wouldn't eat meat regardless of how the animal was killed (even when talking about grown meat) because of health reasons. meat, for instance, (particularly pork and red meat) are linked to pancreatic cancer, heart disease, mental degenerative diseases, impotence, colon cancer, and stroke.. just to name a few.

The production of meat creates HUGE amounts of greenhouse gases. Eating meat not only destroys ourselves, but it destroys our home. A meatarian is not only directly killing an average of 95 animals per year but contributes greatly to the extinction of species every day. Rainforests are being cleared for cattle farming because meat is in such high demand. I try more and more every day to live green and being vegetarian is a great step towards that.

as far as plants and pain are concerned. right now our current knowledge of pain is that pain is defined as electrical impulses interrupted by the brain as pain or discomfort. While it may or may not be true that plants feel pain, and as of right now the evidence is towards the not since they lack a nervous system or a brain, it's almost certain it would not be the same kind of pain that we feel. All people must eat something in order to survive and until we create a super pill to take care of our daily dietary needs, we have to cause the least harm possible.

We know that animals feel pain, we know they feel fear, they love, get depressed and they create attachments. Despite what meatarians believe, most animals are nor killed humanely. Slitting a throat is neither painless nor instant. The "bullet" (not an actual bullet but i forget the name of the device) must be used very precisely to kill instantly which it rarely is. Most of the time an animal takes up to a minute to die while seizureing and suffering during that time. Chickens are commonly killed by putting them in individual cages with holes in the top through which their heads go through and a giant chainsaw (for lack of a better word) sweeps across the cages and decapitates them. While this may be efficient and quick, you can hardly call it painless.

In addition to looking at the cruelty of the animal's deaths, we must also look at the cruelty of the animal's life. They are often forced to live in stalls or cages with little to no room to move. Veal, in fact are put into tiny cages where they are not allowed any muscle movement in order to keep them "tender". While a happy cow living as free roaming can live 25 years, most in the milk industry live only 6. I personally eat eggs, but I buy cage free eggs. Piggs are often packed into cages many at a time so that they are literally crawling over each other. The cruelty of the animal's lives are true in the meat industry as well as the dairy industry (unless you're from an agricultural town with it's own dairy farms and you can inspect them)

as to it being human nature to eat meat. it is human nature to survive and yes, humanity has eaten meat in order to do that but that certainly doesn't make it healthy or good for you. Meat sits in the human stomach longer than any other food and is harder to break down. It's linked to more diseases than any other natural food. Other natural foods such as fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, etc all have health benefits and healing properties. Meat does not. I appreciate the need for meat to survive. If i depended on it for my survival I would eat it (i may not be able to kill it.. but that's what husbands are for).

From a spiritual point of view, Buddhists don't eat meat, Hindus don't eat meat, Jews and Muslims don't eat beef or pork. Why is Christianity the only major religion that does? These other religions must know something that they don't

Don't get me wrong, to be a healthy vegetarian you have to study.. a LOT and find out just what foods you need to eat. But once you do that, the rewards are vast and many. Vegetarianism has been around all throughout history. Such well known people as, Einstein, Pythagoras, Plato, Susan B Anthony, Gandhi, Buddha and many other intellectuals, spiritualists and leaders throughout time were vegetarians. The most beautiful writings, poems, and songs through time are about peace, love and the ability to live and let live.

xVenomFangx, I love you.

You make me laugh as I've never laughed before. You're cute, and absolutely unwilling to waiver on your beliefs.

For those of you who don't know mr xvenomfangx, he is a youtuber who has many many videos dedicated to proving Christianity. He is a creationist and also runs his own website, thewaythetruth.com. Now, for many of his videos, comments have been disabled, so i'll address them here.

the first video i'll address is Satan Invented Evolution, part one


First, you ask the question, do you believe that kissing a frog makes a prince? yes, I do believe that a frog can turn into a prince. Isn't that the only hope women have left? hehe.. no, but in all seriousness.. no.. no they can't.
2, here, you point out that the humanistic view supports the big bang (or similar) theories and the creationist view says that someone must have done this through magic and someone must be wrong. yes, someone is wrong... I think I know who...*wink, wink*
3, wait.. i'll be back after I eat lunch...
oh, that was yummy..where was I? oh yeah.. number 3. you pose some questions.
who am i? i am protoplasm with a personality and I can make the world a better place for myself, my family, and my community.
what am I worth? I am worth everything to my family and those who love me. okay, wait.. i agree with the pollution thing.. the more of us we get rid of, the better.
where did I come from? well, you see venom.. when a man and a woman love.. well... like.. okay.. are really horny, then one half of each of their DNA combines to make a baby.
next...WOAH!!! What the hell? Did you just say that people who believe in evolution might as well go murder someone? Dude.. you're seriously messed up. Do you really think that our morals are governed by God? In fact, when you do something good for another person, it activates parts of your brain associated with food and sex and releases those feel good endorphines. Even monkeys, those wonderful primates who share 99% of our DNA, have innate, hardwired morals.

anyway.. back on topic. where do i go when I die? well, an athiest will say into the ground. I am not athiest, i am pagan.. so I say reincarnated. (am i really only 2 minutes into this video? feels like a lifetime..)

4. you are saying the devil calls god a liar when he tells eve she won't die if she eats the fruit because god said she would die. But she ate it and she didn't die, did she? So.. God is in fact.. a liar.

5. Adolf Hitler said "if you tell a lie long enough, loud enough, and often enough, people will believe it" Kind of like how the sunday school teacher tells you loudly, often, and for a very long time that God is real and the bible is real and it's all very literal.

6. *in spooky voice* "four and a half biiiiilion years ago!" So.. just how old do you think the earth is?

7. you're saying that over a hundred years ago, people with little education who thought the earth was 10 thousand years old, know more than all educated people, all scientists and all scientific methods which now say the earth is 4.5 billion years old? are you saying that you can't believe something that you don't see? (ya know.. when you said, were you there? did you see it?) Well that's wonderful news! that means that I don't have to believe in God until I see him!

8. talking about the big bang.. "there's no way to observe it, obviously, and no way to prove that it happened" Wow.. how can you use logic like this on evolution but not on Christianity? No one has seen God and you can't prove that he exists! and AGAIN! when you talk about how we don't know how stars form.. saying that the theories aren't founded in fact, but in fantasy.. what do you call christianity?

8. on the subject of macro evolution.. "we've never seen a monkey give birth to a human" wow... i'm not sure you even understand the concept of evolution... so how can you be arguing it? Evolutionists do NOT think that one animal gives birth to another type of animal.

9. you ask where did god come from and point out that there has to be something that always existed.. so.. why couldn't the universe have just.. always been there? what makes that any more of a fairy tale than saying the flying spaghetti monster created the universe?

oh geeze.. i do love you venom... you make me laugh oh so much.. and you make me so confident and sure that there is no God. Thank you.

The skinny on being skinny, part 1

All across the world, men and women are obsessed with beauty. It's oozed and crept into every facet of our lives to the point that 1 in 5 Americans, including children have some sort of mental disorder. We see size zero models dance across our screen, magazines and billboards in a flurry of elegance, beauty and wealth. Men see these and say "wow.. i'd sure like my gal to look like that" and women see it and say "wow, if i don't look like that I'll never find love or be happy" and unfortunately our children think the same things. We have children as young as three years old developing low self esteem, poor body image and disorders such as depression, over eating and bulimia or anorexia. Our children are being told at younger and younger ages that they should look like these models. This is seen in Pre teen sensations like Hannah Montana and Hillary Duff, and with commercial products like Nair Pretty (so your ten your old's coochie can be nice and smooth). Children are having sex younger and younger, girls are getting their periods younger as well as their bodies react to the sexual stimulus around them. In one case in 1995 an eight year old girl got pregnant while having sex with another eight year old on the playground behind a tree. The baby, of course, had to be aborted because there's no way an eight year old's body can handle childbirth. But think about that for a second.. think about a nine year old mother. Can you imagine it? I can't.

Apart from the mental damage that's being done to the general population, there's the issue of the model's health. many models, striving to be that perfect size (size zero) develop eating disorders and drug problems. Cocaine is a nice fast way to shed a few pounds. So is speed. Models are literally dying to be thin.

Let's forget about models for a second and think about the average person. After all, I already did a piece on modeling. This is a piece on weight and health in general. Most doctors or nutritionists, when they want to see how healthy you are, check your BMI or body mass index. Underweight is defined as a BMI of less than 18.5, normal defined as up to 25, overweight up to 30, obese up to 40 and morbidly obese is anything over that. The biggest problem with judging a person's health based on this system is that it doesn't take into account bone density, muscle mass or fluid retention. Here's an example of someone, based on their BMI, who's morbidly obese: (picture to the right). Now that really doesn't seem right, does it? If that's morbidly obese then what's obese? Hell, what's normal? This scale, not only doesn't take other factors into account, but is also severely outdated. It doesn't matter how skinny or fat you are, your health is not directly related. For example, did you see the episode of Opera with the fat aerobics instructor? In fact, this is a growing trend all across the US. Personal trainers and aerobics instructors alike are no longer rail thin. Being trim and muscular has little to do with being cardiovascular fit. What is that? It means that your heart is healthy and your arteries are unclogged (which is the only reason that being overweight is supposedly a problem). There are many skinny-fat people in the world. People who are thin and look completely healthy but have little muscle and almost pure body fat with clogged arteries galore!

There's such a stigma in our society and weight and health are always 100% related and they're wrong. In fact, from an evolutionary standpoint, being skinny is about as unhealthy as you can get. If you're thin and eat tons then you have a racing fast metabolism. Good for you, right? But, if something were to happen where you had less food, you'd be out of luck. During a famine you'd be the first to die and if you were suddenly to become dirt poor with no help, you'd cost way too much to feed. In many places around the world fat is still seen as the ultimate beauty because larger women are better for baring healthy children and they're easier to take care of. (In a hunter gatherer society a fat person would have needed far less care than a skinny person, maybe this is why thin people today are still seen as high maintenance)

What's more, a study conducted in 2000 by the nobel prize-winning genetecist who was jointly responsible for discovering the structure of DNA, found that overweight men and women are generally happier and have better sex. Extra fat has the added bonus of boosting endorphines, those chemicals in the body that make you happy and stimulates sexual desire. Watson (our geneticist), theorized that long ago men would have spent most of their time looking for food. The reward for all this gathering would be eating and gaining weight, meaning that a thin man would need to spend more time hunting and was less successful. Watson concludes, that in evolutionary terms, thing equals discontent.

Think about it, who's ever seen a thin Santa Clause? Think about a grandma, isn't she usually plump and smiling, getting ready to bake fresh cookies? What's your idea of the typical grumpy old man? He's thin and bony, always scowling. There's a stereotype that fat people always have a good sense of humor and that they have better personalities. How many times have you heard someone say that if you see a knockout babe that has a good personality, she must have been fat at some point. (There's a good example in Shallow Hal)

One thing i'm not saying is that it's okay to be unhealthy at any weight. I'm not saying celebrate being fat no matter what. I'm sayig celebrate your health, no matter what. If you're fat and healthy then go with it! If you're thin and healthy then go with it! But don't think that your weight makes you unhealthy (within reason).

The skinny on being skinny, part 2

Every one of these girls is underweight and unhealthy. You cans see ribs and hip bones sticking out.

who wears short shorts?

Your 10 year old, that's who! Nair has come out with a new product called Nair Pretty, targeted at little girls between the ages of 10 and 15. "Because Pretty isn't a look, it's a feeling" is their slogan. According to the Q&A section " application is simple and removing hair (especially in hard-to-reach areas) is a snap! " excuse me? what hard to reach areas should a child just hitting puberty be removing hair from? Can someone explain to me WHY a ten year old needs to have a nice smooth hooha?

As if the world of pre pubescent beauty pageants weren't bad enough, perpetuating an image of your sweet little daughter as a grown up sex symbol. What mother in her right mind would encourage her daughter to use this product? The last thing we need in today's sex driven male society is somebody telling out daughters how unnatural body hair is and how ashamed they should be. My guess is the same women who are applying caustic chemicals to their child's hooha are the same ones dressing them in skimpy outfits and putting makeup on them. Is it any wonder that ramsy girl was raped and killed? It's like begging pedophiles to come and have a go at your kid.

Look at this kid to the left? How old is she? five? How old does she look? Fifteen? I could do a whole series of blogs about beauty pageant moms and the damage they're inflicting on their children, but this blog is only for Nair, which I am now boycotting.

“So you’re at an age when the childhood fuzz is becoming thicker and coarser hair. It’s time to give some serious thought to removing it.” One question: Why? When we were ten (i'm 22 now) I wasn't even thinking about body hair! Boys were still icky and had cooties! Ten years old is fifth grade.. not even out of grade school and already worrying about what'll happen if some boy wants to feel their "radiantly smooth legs" (quote from the Nair site) and they find *gasp* hair!

Everywhere our children look these days they see sex (pageants, bratz, media, and other kids to name a few), do we really need to make it worse by assuring them that they can be as smooth as all the beautiful people in cosmo girl magazine which gave this product the "kiss of approval". Seriously.. how sexy do you want your little girl to be?

700 club supports corporal punishment

I was watching the 700 club today, a christian tv show which I wouldn't normally watch but I figured I should so that I know what it's about. Knowledge over ignorance. Anyway, I was in the other room making lunch for my son (18 months) when I hear them talking about a proposed bill in Massachusettes to ban spanking. I heard several people talking about being in favor of the ban. Maybe it's a little bit harsh that I was surprised a Christian show would back something like no spanking, but I was and I rewound and watched the whole segment.

They had indeed interviewed several people, including psychologists, nurses and parents, who supported the ban on spanking, but don't be fooled.. this did not mean they supported it. Once the reporter signed off the host (an 80 something year old white man) simply shook his head and chuckled, saying that these "do gooders" didn't know what they were doing. God condoned spanking. He said that it said something in the bible about how if you spank you get a good child and if you don't you get an unruly one. (he never gave any verses or passages) This is yet another example of biblical teachings being irrelevant today. The bible also says you should stone disobedient children, but any parent who tried it would be arrested in a heartbeat. In biblical times I'm going to bet they didn't know anything about psychology because if they did then they wouldn't hurt their children.

As I was searching for a picture to use (I find this one particularly horrendous because the child being hit is obviously a toddler, probably about my son's age) I came across a pro spanking website. To spanking they say:

"God is smarter than man and he commands to spank with a rod! Proverbs 13:24; 23:13-14"

"The so called "studies" that supposedly prove spanking is harmful to the children are junk science, agenda driven, opinion papers sponsored by anti-spanking interest groups that dishonestly skew the data. The studies and those who report them are by anti-Christian, left leaning, liberal/democratic products of our immoral modern society. Anti-spanking groups are a cause the significant decay of society. Most of the young kids of these anti-spanking groups are very poorly behaved."

First of all, I'm glad they see liberals as non spankers. This is a compliment to me! Second of all, junk science? No, it's actual science. Every child psychologist will agree that spanking is more harmful than useful. And, no offense, but.. this coming from smeone who's following a book that isn't the least bit scientific? This coming from a person who believe that the world was literally made in 7 days and that there were dinosoars on the ark? Thirdly, Every parent that I know that does not spank their children has very well behaved kids. We (my brother, sister, and I) grew up in a spanking household and every one of us revolted in various ways. I became Pagan and liberal, my brother and sister got home made tattoos, smoked, drank and did drugs, this in addition to my sister who started having sex at age 12 and ran away from home every other day.

Living in a pro-spank home I do believe that it should be seen as child abuse. How many times to parents who spank accidentally cross the line into legal abuse? You can't do that if you don't spank at all. You can dicipline, you can love, you can nurture your kids.. but you cannot hit them.

Raw Foodism

This is a post copied from my DA account (faerykisses.deviantart.com) So the date written will not sync with date posted

At the beginning of the week I was meditating (a fiasco with a friend let me realize that I needed to do more of that) and soon I was floating in a peaceful black void. I could just feel the delta waves (lol). After a while I met a deer and soon I was in a peaceful field with a babbling brook, tall waving grass, butterflies, and that same little fawn. What does it say that my spirit guide is a fawn? I'm sure it means something or another. Anyway, The fawn suggested to me that for the next seven days I should eat nothing but raw fruits and vegetables. After only one day I felt incredible. I usually go to bed at 10 and wake up at 10 or 11 and I'm still tired all day, but after only one day on this semi-fast I stayed up until midnight and got up, refreshed and energized, at 7 AM. That has been the pattern all week.

Soon, a memory popped into my head from the 2004 sci-fi reality show, mad mad house, (which i really wish they'd do more of) and I remembered that they had a naturist on the show, avocado was his name and at some brief point on a single episode, he mentioned that he was a rawist. He didn't really explain this too much but the word stuck and I started looking it up on the internet.

I read dozens of articles for and against rawism. What it means, basically, is that at least 75% of the food that you eat is raw. Mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. The theory is that cooking these things destroys important enzymes, proteins, and fats in the food. I thought, hum, this is basically what I eat already, just without the processed foods and pasta. Now, a not so strict rawist can allow for up to 255 by weight of their food to be cooked so I've decided to still eat eggs, as they are a good source of protein. I've also found that there are a few very rare exceptions to the whole theory that raw foods are better. for example, cooking tomatoes ruptures the cell membranes which releases more licopene. It's also theorized, however, that cooking creates more free radicals, which we all know give us cancer. It's thought that by eating a rawist diet, you can cure and prevent a whole host of diseases, including allergies, asthma, diabetes, obesity (duh), and cancer.

There haven't been any good studies in the US on this type of diet, mainly because there's no profit to be made. God bless the US dollar, right? but there has been a couple of studies done in Finland and studies show that those who eat a rawist diet of high levels of lycopine, betacarotine, essential vitamins and so on. The only negative that was found was a very slow, but steady drop in B-12. This is easily fixed with a supplement. And, overall, the rawists were healthier than the omnivores.

But, you ask, how do you stay full on a diet of fruits and veggies? The answer? You eat more. A rawist has to eat an average of 6lbs of raw foods in order to sustain body weight assuming that you take in an average of 1800 calories. That's three times more than the average omnivore. But perhaps this is the problem with overweight Americans. They probably still consume a good 6lbs of food with way way more calories. Of course, if you're trying to lose weight, you don't really have to worry about that and you can eat less. Honestly, you get fuller than you think you would. Personally, I don't try to ear 6lbs a day, I just eat when I want to and it probably amounts to about half that.

Being Pagan, this rawist diet makes me feel much more in touch with my ancestors. I feel the spirit of the forager. I feel more like I"m living in harmony with the earth, and i'm creating less pollution since I'm no longer buying processed foods which require packaging which creates trash... not to mention the pollution caused by the factories which produce the processed foods.

Overall, I'm definitely pushing the 25% thing, but that's mostly because I'm still new to this diet and still addicted to all of the chemicals in the processed foods. I'm positive it'll get easier over the next couple of weeks.

The benefits of smoking

None, you idiot! There are no benefits to smoking.. not one. It doesn't make you look cool, it doesn't make you look more attractive, it definitely doesn't help your breath or your health. So why do you do it? If i see a normally attractive man or woman out and about they are instantaneously made hideous once they reach for that pack of cigarettes. I made my husband quit when we were dating under threat of leaving him.

Smoking has more than 50 ways of making life a misery through illness and more than 20 ways of killing you. In general, smokers endure poorer health than non-smokers. It has been estimated that, in England, 364,000 patients are admitted to NHS hospitals each year due to diseases caused by smoking. This translates into 7,000 hospital admissions per week, or 1,000 day. [i] In 1997/98, cigarette smoking caused an estimated 480,000 patients to consult their GP for heart disease,20,000 for stroke and nearly 600,000 for COPD. 1

Half of all teenagers who are currently smoking will die from diseases caused by tobacco if they continue to smoke. One quarter will die after 70 years of age and one quarter before, with those dying before 70 losing on average 21 years of life. [ii] It is estimated that between 1950 and 2000 six million Britons, 60 million people worldwide, would have died from tobacco-related diseases. [iii]
One in two long-term smokers will die prematurely as a result of smoking - half of these in middle age. The most recent estimates show that around 106,000 people in the UK are killed by smoking every year, accounting for one fifth of all UK deaths. [vi] Most die from one of the three main diseases associated with cigarette smoking: lung cancer, chronic obstructive lung disease (bronchitis and emphysema) and coronary heart disease. The table below shows the percentage and numbers of deaths attributable to smoking, based on the latest available detailed breakdown (2002 data).
Deaths caused by smoking are five times higher than the 22,833 deaths arising from: traffic accidents (3,439); poisoning and overdose (881); alcoholic liver disease (5,121); other accidental deaths (8,579); murder and manslaughter (513); suicide (4,066); and HIV infection (234) in the UK during 2002. [vii] World-wide, almost 5 million die prematurely each year as a result of smoking. Based on current trends, this will rise to 10 million within 20 years. [viii]
(http://www.ash.org.uk/html/factsheets/html/fact02.html)

Now, I'm sure you've herad of all that before and, if you're a smoker, ignored them. Now, I'm going to tell you what I think of smokers and what I think of smoking laws in the US. If you're a non-smoker or a smoker, let me know what you think and why you do or do not agree.

What I think of smokers: Smokers are some of the most selfish people on the planet. Constantly spewing poison and and ranting about how they have the right to smoke and no one can tell them what to do, they smoke with complete disregard of anyone around them be they men, women, the elderly, children, babies or pregnant women. Well, you're right.. you do have the right to smoke. But i have the right not to. You'll say, but i'm not forcing you to smoke! Well yes, you are. I have the right not to smoke be it first hand OR second hand.

I was addicted to cigarette smoke when I was six. Everyone in my house smoked- my grandmother, my grandfather, my aunt and my mom. When we finally moved into a house of our own (with just my mom) I was six years old and I went into withdrawl. My dreams were haunted with images of smoking those sweet, wonderful cancer sticks. In my dreams I enjoyed them, i loved them, i NEEDED them. I dreampt of my aunt handing me a pack of her brand and me smoking them with glee. Keep in mine.. I was six years old. These dreams continued for years, though I have never had the desire to actually smoke. Is it any wonder that such a high percentage of children with parents who smoke end up smoking themselves? How much choice do they have when they're addicted before they can walk or talk?

Which brings me to laws concerning smoking. There are aready many bars, resteraunts, and other public areas that have banned smoking. This is wonderful, but I'd like to take it further and ban smoking in ALL public areas, including outside of stores, in parks, parking lots.. basically anywhere that's not your car or your home. When I was pregnant I was constantly angered by walking into the grocery store and having to pass through a cloud of poison. Or trying to enjoy a day at the park with my newborn son and having some ass walk up beside us and light one up. My son does NOT deserve that.

Furthermore, I believe that smoking should be made illegal around ANY child of any age. Parents have their children taken away for all kinds of reasons, drinking too much, drugs, abuse, neglect. So why not cigarettes? After all, they're directly damaging their child's health. An alcoholic doesn't have to physically effect a child to have that child removed from the home. No exceptions, no excuses. No smoking within at least 20 ft of any child, whether that be at a private residence or in a car. It doesn't matter if the windows are rolled down or the fan is going or you've got your air purifier running.. none of those things help much.

No matter how nice the smoker is as a person, no matter how concerned or sweet or caring, they will still light one up with total disregard to you or your children. And no, blowing the smoke out the window does not count. To all of my smoking friends: I love you, I really do and my opinions of your filthy, disgusting habit has nothing to do with how much I love you. But I have never met a smoker that these things have not applied to... even my own mother who started smoking again after 15 years of being clean. Mom, that's the stupidest thing I've ever seen you do, and I wish I didn't lose a little respect for you.

Steps to better health. Part 3

Cancer has ravaged our modern society. Scientists and doctors struggle to find a cure, hoping to save the lives of millions. Wouldn't it be great if we could just change our diet and eliminate our risks? Of course, this is impossible owing to the outside influences on us such as various amounts of radiation, pollution, artificial medicines, etc. But we can make a difference. We can lower our risks. Cancer is shown to be linked with free radicals. These free radicals are hitting you all the time. You can never really be protected. But what causes free radicals?

Radiation: You are hit with radiation in varying amounts at all time. We know that radiation damages cells.. this is the principal behind radiation therapy for cancer patients. To destroy those damaged cells. It's well known that it damages healthy cells as well and this is what happens on a day to day basis. Radiation comes from a few basic sources. The sun for one. Your best defense against this is sun block. Enjoy your tans.. they're killing you. A second source is common background radiation. This comes from many industrial sources. Factories, radiology labs. X-rays from the dentist or the ER. There's not much you can do about these. Another place is your microwave. By irradiating your food, you are creating a greater risk of cancer. Free radicals have also been linked to aging, autoimmune diseases, arthritis, and mental degenerative diseases. Russia outlawed the sale of microwaves in 1976, realizing the problems that they cause. Microwaves have gotten better over the years, but it will never be good or healthy. Try cooking your foods on the stove or in the oven. It may take longer, but it's healthier and may help you lose weight as you can't eat as much or maybe you won't want to take the time to wait 20 minutes for a hot pocket. Not to mention you would eat less microwave meals, thus reducing your sodium.

Tobacco: Sorry, there's no way to get around this but to give up smoking.

Excersise: Sorry all you fitness buffs but it's true. Any process that produces stress and increases the intake of oxygen can lead to an increase in free radicals. I'm not saying that you should be a coach potato, but bodybuilding is not necessary to be fit. Nor is going to a gym every day as long as you control your caloric intake.

High fat food and sugar: Again, there's nothing to do but cut back or eliminate these from your diet.

Cooking: Even if you get rid of your microwave, cooking in and of itself causes free radicals (see my blog on raw foodism). What is considered cooking? If it's heated bove 116 degrees F then it's considered cooked. Again, in the first part of Steps towards better health, I talk about how early man would have mostly been a gatherer. In addition to eating vegetarian most of the time, this also would have been considered a rawist diet, especially since learning to cook your food came much later when weather got colder and meat was depended on more.

What are free radicals? A free radical is an unstable oxygen atom. The atom has a nucleus with two electrons circling it. A free radical is created when one of those electrons gets pulled away and the atom becomes unstable.

What can you do about it? Well, you can start by leading a healthy lifestyle. Stop smoking, use sunscreen, stop using the microwave and reduce your intake of cooked food by eating more raw fruits and vegetables which contain radical fighting antioxidants.

What are antioxidants? Antioxidants are any substances that prevent or slow the oxidation process. Free radicals cause oxidation. Antioxidants work by donating an electron to a free radical so it becomes a stable oxygen molecule. Antioxidants are found in most herbal teas, fruits and vegetables. (this is why a vegetarian or better yet, a rawist, diet is beneficial)

Steps to better health. Part 2

Health problems abound in modern day American and, indeed, much of the industrialized world. In part one, i talked about the health benefits of being vegetarian. Now I'm going to talk about the health effects of eating meat.

First, there's the obvious. Saturated fats. All animal fat is saturated and red meat is 70% fat. Even eating meat moderately, these fats build up in your system, clogging arteries and causing heart problems. Heart disease is alarmingly on the rise in America, mostly owing to our fast food lifestyles and out meat eating attitude.

Second: Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is caused by the breakdown of connections between damaged brain cells and eventual brain-cell death. It is estimated that more than 4.5 million people in this country suffer from Alzheimer's disease and that by 2050, 14 million Americans will have the disease. This disease is brand new. There are no reported cases of anything like this disease 100 years ago. So what's changed in the past 100 years? Studies have linked saturated fats and cholesterol along with the chemicals and hormones in meat products to this disease.

Third: Stroke. Again, this is linked with saturated fats and cholesterol. Though not strickly from meat, vegetarians are at a much lower risk.

Fourth: Impotence. Yes, that's right, impotence is linked with saturated fats. In the same way that arteries to the heart become blocked, so do arteries to the penis. Again, though this is not strickly from eating meat, it is linked. What is directly from eating meat is the hormone inbalances that meat can cause, leading to impotence.

Fifth, disease. Salmonella and e-coli are on the rise in meats such as beef and chicken. Why? The antibiotics given to animals are breeding resistant strains of these bacteria. Which means that if you do get sick from meat, chances are it's already resistant to the medicines the doctors are going to treat you with.

If the health reasons aren't enough to convince you, then think about the economic reasons. It's far more expensive for farms to raise animals than fruits and vegetables. Also, the food used to feed the animals would be much better and more efficiently used to feed people directly.

Also, there's the humanitarian reason. Eating cow or pig or chicken is no better than eating your pet dog or cat. Would you want to see them suffer horribly for your dinner? Would you want to see them take stab to the back of the head and watch them twitch and seizure until they finally die? Or perhaps have their heads cut off with a chainsaw? Or have their throat slit? Why do these other animals deserve it anymore? Would you keep them in tiny cages? Letting them crawl all over each other and crying to be let out? Animals feel pain. They bleed, they cry, they scream. They fear and they love. Killing an animal is no better than killing a person.

Steps to better health. Part 1

Obesity is an epidemic in America today. Studies show that 70% of children 10 years old have a 33% blockage in their arteries. That's a percentage used to not be seen until adulthood. Diabetes is no longer classified as adult onset since it's more and more common in children. What can we do about this? What can I, as a parent, do about this?

For starters, I and my son are vegetarians. Is that healthy? Is that safe? Yes. We get all of our protein, all of our vitamins and minerals.. ALL of our daily nutritional needs without eating dead flesh. Many people say, but people are meant to eat meat! We're naturally omnivores. To these people I say you are only partly right. In the early days of man, gathering was much more common than hunting. During most of the year a vegetarian diet sufficed with people only relying on meat during the winter months. Some recent studies show that early man may very likely have hunted very little on their own, mostly scavaging and even then they would cut the flesh from the bone and discard it, favoring instead the nutrition filled marrow in the bones. Even assuming that this is wrong and man did actually kill most of his own food during the winter months (and we know they did at least some of the time) the human digestive system never evolved to be able to handle this type of protein. Meat is one of the hardest foods for our bodies to digest. It sicks in our digestive tracts for up to eight hours. If you know anything about digestion, you know that this is a horribly long time. Is there any good reason NOT to be a vegetarian? If you have one, please, i would love to hear it.

I've also heard people say that they've never heard of a vegetarian doing anything great. Here's a short list of great vegetarins:
Einstein
Van Gogh
Da Vinci
Pythagoras
Hans Christin Anderson
Susan B Anthony
Buddha
Elvis
Charles Darwin
Ganhdhi
Whoopie Goldburg
Sarah McLachlan
Plato
Jesus- may or may not have been vegetarian. there's much debate on this subject and it's hard to know for sure since so much of the bible is either altered or later added parables., however, some other books such as the dead sea scrolls contain passages where jesus supposedly preaches about a vegetarian diet. (http://www.essene.com/GospelOfPeace/index.html)
Just to name a few

Mind, being a vegetarian means eating properly in order to get all of the nutrients you need. (note: eating meat does NOT mean you're getting all of your nutrients) so do your research.

The health benefits of a vegetarian diet is vast and many. Vegetarians all have lower risk of obesity, hert disease, kidney disease, mental degenerative diseases, cancer and stroke.

Humanity's Inhumanity

To start with, I'll say that i've always had a strong empathy with animals, being raised by a family who did exotic and domestic animal rescue. I've seen horrible things and heard horror stories about how these animals came to be with us. It makes you realize how horrible some people are, but you still retain the basic belief that most people are good. When I was 15 I became a vegetarian, though my friends and family believed it was a phase and often laughed at me, I stuck with it and now, after 7 years, i'm still a vegetarian. I've never been the type of vegetarian to tell other people that they were wrong, that they shouldn't eat meat. It was more like... I do my thing and you do yours. i never realized why a vegetarian, who is constantly persecuted, would try to shove their beliefs on another (puritan symdrome) but now, I believe, I understand. This video: Earthlings will show you why. Please, do not watch this is you have a weak stomach or are overly squeamish.. unless you eat meat in which case you should watch it no matter what.

In watching just the first quarter of this movie i started understanding that the term inhuman, generally reserved for such horrible people as Hitler, Stalin, and president bush, is really quite the opposite. These people aren't inhuman. They are, in fact, human. As much as i would like to believe otherwise, people are NOT generally good or kind.. they are horrible, cruel, and dominating. In this sense of the word it's people like I and other animal rights activists, vegetarians and vegans that are really inhuman. We somehow defy the inate cruelty that is in every human being. I'm sure EVERY person knows someone who is human in this horrible way. My husband' step father... he loves to regal me with tales of hunting and animal cruelty from his youth.

This video explains that speciesism is no better or different from racism or sexism and it results in some of the same genocides. Speciesism is the idea that any species is better than another and has the right to dominate other species. Those who eat meat are the perfect example. Men and women who work in slaughter hosues control every aspect of these animals lives and deaths. They control where they live, how they live, where they will die and how they will die. This holds true for many human=animal relations outside of slaughterhouses. In one clip from the video, two men toss a wounded dog into a garbage truck. The dog is still alive but not for long as the truck crushes it to death (as it does with any other garbage). Pounds and animal hospitals use gas chambers as a cheap alternative to humane euthenasia and in these cases the animals are packed tightly into a small box which is then flooded with poison and the animal dies, taking up to 20 minutes.

and all that is only from the first section on pets. This is only a small portion of how animals are treated by human hands. Humans tend to recognize the fact that other humans should have respect and basic rights but fail to bestow these same rights and respect on our fellow creatures of the earth. Watch the video. If you're not vegetarian/vegan already, this video may seriously change your mind.