Poking a Bit of Fun...

I am not usually a big fan of TheYoungTurks on youtube, but I found this video to be quite funny. The sad part is, it's all true.

Did You Know?

Did you know that rats are genetically modified to have excess skin just to test your anti-aging creams?

Did you know that rabbits are constantly blinded by having a vast array of products inserted into their eyes? And did you know that this "test" does not even guarantee safety of a product? It is only used to prevent law suits.

Did you know that there are over 300,000,000 animals born to suffer each day? There are 400,000 human births every day.

Did you know that only 5 to 25% of the animal tests and human results are agreeable?

Did you know that scientifically speaking, there are 400 alternatives to animal experimentation?

Did you know that, on average, thirty-three animals die in a laboratory every second?

Did you know that most animals are only used in one experiment and are euthanized after their "contribution"?

When you buy a product, know the pain that goes into it.

We've Got a Long Ways to Go

This political cartoon is courtesy of Bob Al-Green's Cartoon Blog.

Michael Moore on Health Care

Michael Moore was on Larry King Live and spoke about the oh-so-famous Health Care Bill that has just recently been passed. As a radical, Moore's point of view will not be shared with a huge mass of people, but he does make some good points. He realizes that there is a ways to go and as a true progressive, he is not happy yet. However, the point he makes towards the end about giving a right to only part of the population is a bit...well wrong. He makes the point that not all people are currently covered and won't be until 2014, but when he makes the comparison to freeing the slaves or giving women voting rights, he forgot about a chunk of history. Moore suggests that it is not fair to leave out a portion of the population for the next four years and contrasts it with slavery. He states:

"When we decided to get rid of slavery, we didn't say 'well you know, we're going to free 32 million of the slaves, but 15 million of those slaves are still going to have to be in slavery.' "

In fact, we actually did do something very similar, which was to make one African American male the equivalent of three fifths of one White male. You gotta love Michael Moore's radicalism, but he needs to get all of his facts straight if he's going to argue it out.

Dog Fighting

This is a very toned down video of what is happening in the lives of literally millions of dogs.

One such case, is the case involving three men: Donaver Jones, Melvin Trent, and Timothy Norris from Chicago. Although it happened a in mid November 2008, these three men will appear in court this month. They are charged with holding a dog fight. Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart stated:

"What we interrupted Saturday night was both disgusting and disturbing. So many times, we hear about fights after the fact or find the discarded remains of a dog involved in one of these fights."

When officers came to intervene, they found a cowering dog that was so injured, it could barely stand in the middle of fighting ring covered in blood. There were about 50 people attending this spectacle. As the court update states:
Officers confiscated a tackle box filled with steroids, amphetamines, syringes and an IV drip.

"They also found a staple gun used to close wounds so the dogs could keep fighting, as well as thick wooden stakes used to drive apart the dogs' jaws after they had locked down on the other dog."

This is not only completely and utterly wrong, but it reaches a point of despicableness that can not even be described by the English language.

Where are Our Moral Centers?

Recently, I stumble upon a website dedicated to the education of people on animal cruelty. Although it is quite underdeveloped (I'm pretty sure it's a brand new website), it holds some quick facts that will easily leave an impression on someone. This made me think. Why would someone ever do such terrible things? Of course, there are many people who have done things that would astound others (Abu Ghraib, serial killers, genocides, etc.), but why would someone inflict pain upon a completely innocent being that is even incapable of communication? According to Kellert, S.R. and A.R. Felthous, there are nine reasons:

to control an animal

to retaliate against an animal

to retaliate against another person

to satisfy a prejudice against a species or breed

to express anger through an animal

to enhance one's own aggressiveness

to shock people for amusement

to displace hostility from a person to an animal

to perform non-specific sadism

Even so, it still manages to astound me how cruel people can be... How a person can actually retain pleasure from forcing two dogs to fight each other to the death... How a boy can giggle at a cat crying out while being burned to death... How a hunter can kill an endangered animal to make a fur coat... All of this is happening. It's all around us.

Bad Timing

We have all been at the wrong place at the wrong time, but hopefully none of us will ever walk in front of a camera during a presidential speech...

Gotta Love Fox News

In this video, news anchors on Fox talk about vice-president Biden's slip of the tongue. I think it's interesting how they mention how this is the only thing that everyone is talking about instead of the health care bill itself. To that I say, "Are you crazy?" Everyone is buzzing with the news that public health care is now being put into affect, and how they feel and what they think about it.

Even stranger is the fact that they rag on Biden so much for his use of language, although this doesn't matter when it comes to a man from their own party: Rush Limbaugh. During the whole drama-fest that happening between Palin, Emmanuel, and Limbaugh with the usage of the words "fucking retards", no one mentioned that Rush is being disrespectful and it is "embarrassing" for him to use such language (but that's what they said about Biden!).

Health Care Situation

I think that at this point, not too many people are sure what is going to happen with health care and if it will be any good. I know that I am not confident about the bill that is being debated over in the House of Representatives, and I know that under our current system there are too many people going without the treatment that they need. There will always be problems in any system that we have.

Arthur Delaney from the Huffington Post wrote an article on how the middle class is losing heath care the fastest. Seeing as how he does write for the Huffington Post, I think he has credible sources, but the fact that health care is eating away at the largest piece of the pie, we are not in a good situation so something has to change, though what, I am not sure.

Cyclone in Fiji

First a disaster in Haiti, then a violent earthquake in Chile, now a cyclone in Fiji. It seems as though the Earth is trying to tell us something.

Many scientists agree that natural disasters such as these are not getting more frequent, as some people are concerned, but instead they are becoming more destructive than ever before.

Think about the actions you take in your daily routines and how they affect our planet.

A Bit of Humor

This is actually a picture of Rahm saying hello to someone, but as all artists know, PERSPECTIVE is what makes art (or in this case, a funny picture).

The Truth Comes Out!

So we COULD have an excellent public health care, but... we don't deserve it.

Failing Economy

Even with a good education, jobs are hard to find.

Community Service Project

So I know that I have been talking about working at animal shelters and all the problems with animal cruelty (a subject a feel strongly about), but there has recently become available an opportunity to help students for two hours a week at the brand new library downtown. Helping students with homework will definitely be a serious help when all of our schools go down the drain and teachers are no longer available to give individual help. I have been thinking about changing my school project to this one since it seems to pertain more to economics and government issues instead of moral ones.

How will today's children be able to provide the solutions for tomorrow's dilemmas when are classrooms are this crowded?