Before there were civilizations, we were tribes of nomadic hunter gatherers. Life was good. We, as a race, had spent the last 14 million years learning to live on land and evolving into creative, sentient little bipeds. Back then a man could go on a hunt and take a shot at being the tribe hero for a week, month, day, whatever the prey would allow. If he got hungry he could just reach down, reach up, reach and grab some foliage to chew on to hold him over. Aside from a few poisonous plants, the risk was minimal. The ground rule if it wasn't a poisonous species, it was all good.
A few years back I went to the grocery store looking for mung bean sprouts. The produce guy there told me they didn't carry them because they had a breakout of e coli virus. How does a plant get e coli? Flash back to early days of gene splicing and college biology 101. Here's how you hybridize a plant. E coli has a very basic genetic structure. It has a big welcome mat for genetic code. So you take a grapefruit plant, strip in some e coli, add some watermelon DNA and bam! You can feed the whole weight watchers meeting. The only problem is, It also welcomes nefarious DNA. Like viruses.
Earlier this year, some people got sick from an e coli virus in romaine lettuce. If there's any vegetable in the world that should be eaten raw, straight off the ground, it's lettuce. Seriously, how can you fuck that up?
Now let's talk about Monsonto. How does a company who has a history of inventing and producing chemicals, just to sell of those divisions a couple years before those chemicals were banned, get carte blanche over the worlds food? Typically money. Monsonto, before genetic modifications, produced bovine growth homone (banned) DDT (banned) Agent Orange (banned) PCBs (banned). Now they're allowed to fuck with our vegetation. It didn't need fucking with! Not only that, If you're not a part of Monsonto's farmer's guild, and, through the natural process of cross pollination, your crop produces strains of Monsonto's GMOs, the courts will order a cease and desist, put the farmer out of business and quite possibly fine them as well. Americans, contributing to what's wrong with America.
This! Is why you buy locally, support locally.
Earlier this year Monsonto chemicals was bought out by Bayer. While Bayer required their Frankenveggie division was sold to other company(s) it will be interesting to watch how big ag will shape the health of millions of people.
Saturday, September 15, 2018
Thursday, September 13, 2018
Drugs, medicine, money and life expectancy
I was watching a 28 year old version of Scrubs the other day. In it, one of the new interns was remarking about how he didn't expect that working in a hospital would be "like this" meaning mostly old people, often in and out of demetia, treating old people problems. The attending physician tells him the advances in medicine are allowing people to live much longer than they should have.
When I was younger I used to smoke cigarettes. Everyone would tell me all their matter of factly statistics like "you know it shortens your life expectancy by an average of 12 years?" Which my response would be "you mean 12 years off the end of my life. That old age you spend popping pills (not the good kind either) and hoping today's the day your shit comes out solid? I'm okay with that."
Why do we need to put band aids on our own mortality? Are we afraid of dying or are we doing it because some marketing genius at every pharmaceutical company has convinced us that senior citizens today are living active healthy lives today. Some are sure. But then why do we corral them into retirement communities and pidgeon hole them in the category or "senior citizens" instead of just "citizens" or "family?" The there are the others who are living miserably and in pain. Some bodies give out before their minds and some minds give out long before their bodies.
I have soul searched this a lot. I don't want to live any longer than my body, mind, or poor lifestyle choices allow. Especially when it only serves to line the pockets of some pharmaceutical company or terminal care facility. Although quitting smoking and drugs and alcohol (mostly by comparison to my younger years anyway) has made my mid-life easier and more prolific, I wonder where I'd be if I hadn't caved in to my momentary need for immortality. It seems life was much more fun when I got to choose the drugs I took based on want, not need.
Monday, September 10, 2018
Are you sure the asshole you're mad at is the only asshole in the room?
Read a post on Facebook. This guy goes in to a convenient store and starts ranting at the cashier, calling her "cat killer" and demanding she get her manager while continuing to berate her. When the manager comes out, he starts bullying her and verbally assaulting her, not giving her a chance to speak, not listening to what she has to say. Just yelling about his own issues. Eventually the video ends.
Here's the situation. The cashier was a cat killer. Her and her son drive around running over cats. They post their activities on Facebook. Yes, they are both pieces of shit. Yes they deserve to be called out on it. They deserve to be publicly shamed. They deserve to go to jail and be judged by a jury of their peers. If I had my way, it would be handled in ways that the public doesn't have to foot the bill for. Unceremoniously.
Here's the poop. This guy is understandably pissed off. So he walks in to a place of business where the woman works as a cashier. Makes a scene. All but drags the manager out. Talks to her like a second class citizen, bullying her, not giving her a chance to speak or be heard. Assuming that she is aware of what he saw on Facebook. And video recording the whole thing like he thinks he's some benevolent badass. He isn't. He's just another type of asshole just like the cat killer. You don't just walk in to someone's house and start treating them like shit. The manager just works there. She may not have even hired the cat killer. She doesn't have Facebook so she hasn't seen cat killer's posts. And she isn't required to either. She's not even under any obligation to take action once she is made aware of it. However, the guy had no right to walk in to someone's place of business, causing a scene, yelling at someone he doesn't even know or has nothing to do with his personal issues.
People like him who force themselves on others like they own the world because they wear their heart on their sleeve are just contributing to the problem. Those of us who are trying to advocate for rights of animals against mistreatment, abuse or neglect don't need to be lumped in with people like him who may not be abusive to animals, but are abusive to other people. The store manager didn't deserve his shit. Half the people who watch his video will think he's a hero, and half will think that he's just like all animal rights activists and we are all like him. When you present your argument with the same lack of respect for others that you are trying to prevent, you are only hurting your cause and have effectively made an argument for the other side.
Here's the situation. The cashier was a cat killer. Her and her son drive around running over cats. They post their activities on Facebook. Yes, they are both pieces of shit. Yes they deserve to be called out on it. They deserve to be publicly shamed. They deserve to go to jail and be judged by a jury of their peers. If I had my way, it would be handled in ways that the public doesn't have to foot the bill for. Unceremoniously.
Here's the poop. This guy is understandably pissed off. So he walks in to a place of business where the woman works as a cashier. Makes a scene. All but drags the manager out. Talks to her like a second class citizen, bullying her, not giving her a chance to speak or be heard. Assuming that she is aware of what he saw on Facebook. And video recording the whole thing like he thinks he's some benevolent badass. He isn't. He's just another type of asshole just like the cat killer. You don't just walk in to someone's house and start treating them like shit. The manager just works there. She may not have even hired the cat killer. She doesn't have Facebook so she hasn't seen cat killer's posts. And she isn't required to either. She's not even under any obligation to take action once she is made aware of it. However, the guy had no right to walk in to someone's place of business, causing a scene, yelling at someone he doesn't even know or has nothing to do with his personal issues.
People like him who force themselves on others like they own the world because they wear their heart on their sleeve are just contributing to the problem. Those of us who are trying to advocate for rights of animals against mistreatment, abuse or neglect don't need to be lumped in with people like him who may not be abusive to animals, but are abusive to other people. The store manager didn't deserve his shit. Half the people who watch his video will think he's a hero, and half will think that he's just like all animal rights activists and we are all like him. When you present your argument with the same lack of respect for others that you are trying to prevent, you are only hurting your cause and have effectively made an argument for the other side.
Saturday, May 12, 2018
Whenever we treat another human being in a way that is substandard, savage or demoralizing, we call it "treating them like an animal." Is it shameful that we should dare treat a human being this way or is it even more shameful that we should treat animals this way? It's sad that we treat animals in a way that we would never want to be treated ourselves.
I treat my people (animals) very well. They get fed well but not so much to make them unhealthy. I let them roam the house on counters, tables, wherever they want. I have accommodations that are focused around (cat) likes. And they respond well in return. They like me. They follow me around, they use their litter box, I almost never have to raise my voice with them and I never punish them physically. They are very well behaved. They are happy, healthy, soft beautiful little creatures. You can barely tell they were mistreated early in life.
People would want to be treated like animals by me. A friend told me she wants to be one of my cats when she grows up. sadly she doesn't have enough fur for the job.
Being treated like an animal is a bad thing because of they way people treat animals. Regardless if they are raised for food or other business, taken from their habitat for entertainment, or even kept as family pets, the conditions animals are housed and treated can sometimes be downright inhumane.
Humans are the most intellectual of the animal kingdom here on earth. We can easily design ways to destroy the entire planet in a short amount of time and often it seems we're trying to do just that. The ability to do something, doesn't mean we should. We have a responsibility to other species. By treating animals properly, this means not taking them from a habitat where they thrive, and are comfortable, for entertainment purposes. And if you do, put them in an environment where they can find some comfort, socialize with others like them, some place that reminds them of where they came from. Feed them. Take care of them when they need it. When you're done, retire them in a humane way.
When you raise them for food, keep them fed with natural food sources allowing them to develop naturally, let them graze or scratch in open spaces. keep their living areas clean and comfortable. I don't eat meat personally, but I often wonder how a person can eat something that was raised in it's own excrement, or drink milk that is full of blood and pus from festering sores and abcesses. Pasteurization can kill germs, sure but you still really want to drink blood and pus with dead germs in it? Mmmm. Does a body good.
Where pets are concerned, if you don't want to, or know how to take care off another living being. Don't do it. Plain and simple. If you're not willing to treat your pets better than your own family, then you don't deserve one.
I treat my people (animals) very well. They get fed well but not so much to make them unhealthy. I let them roam the house on counters, tables, wherever they want. I have accommodations that are focused around (cat) likes. And they respond well in return. They like me. They follow me around, they use their litter box, I almost never have to raise my voice with them and I never punish them physically. They are very well behaved. They are happy, healthy, soft beautiful little creatures. You can barely tell they were mistreated early in life.
People would want to be treated like animals by me. A friend told me she wants to be one of my cats when she grows up. sadly she doesn't have enough fur for the job.
Being treated like an animal is a bad thing because of they way people treat animals. Regardless if they are raised for food or other business, taken from their habitat for entertainment, or even kept as family pets, the conditions animals are housed and treated can sometimes be downright inhumane.
Humans are the most intellectual of the animal kingdom here on earth. We can easily design ways to destroy the entire planet in a short amount of time and often it seems we're trying to do just that. The ability to do something, doesn't mean we should. We have a responsibility to other species. By treating animals properly, this means not taking them from a habitat where they thrive, and are comfortable, for entertainment purposes. And if you do, put them in an environment where they can find some comfort, socialize with others like them, some place that reminds them of where they came from. Feed them. Take care of them when they need it. When you're done, retire them in a humane way.
When you raise them for food, keep them fed with natural food sources allowing them to develop naturally, let them graze or scratch in open spaces. keep their living areas clean and comfortable. I don't eat meat personally, but I often wonder how a person can eat something that was raised in it's own excrement, or drink milk that is full of blood and pus from festering sores and abcesses. Pasteurization can kill germs, sure but you still really want to drink blood and pus with dead germs in it? Mmmm. Does a body good.
Where pets are concerned, if you don't want to, or know how to take care off another living being. Don't do it. Plain and simple. If you're not willing to treat your pets better than your own family, then you don't deserve one.
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