Of Course Plants Like to Live

The title of this article reminds me of the time someone told me in high school that broccoli screams as though that would somehow undermine my recent choice to become a vegetarian.  Of course, the whole "eat animals, save the plants" argument is ridiculous because eating meat causes the death of far more vegetation than a vegetarian diet would.  Not to mention the fact that a person can live without eating meat, but not without eating vegetables.

However, the lesson to take away here is that one cannot treat plants as though they are inanimate and without moral weight. I am not suggesting some sort of plant liberation movement, but rather that we should think twice before carving our names into living trees.

Am I a Jerk?

Probably, but this isn't really about me. This article from Slate discusses the possibility that people trade in on moral credit.

They failed to mention some other types of credit that may affect decision making in these instances: namely, credit cards. When someone spends more money to buy organic/local/fair trade/other socially responsible item, they may feel like they have less cash to flat out give to charity. The same can be true of energy expenditures: the harder you work to try to make ethical choices a part of your everyday life, the more burnt out you may feel when it comes to volunteering your time.

So readers, if you do actually exist, do you think you cash in on "moral credit?"

Gender Wars and Objectivity

This piece in XX Factor is interesting and scary.

What I think is also interesting is an issue I see coming up in the comments that goes along with what I wrote when I came back from Australia a couple of years ago: the lack of trust in the objectivity of the journalist. Though I do not have objections or doubts about what has been presented by Katheryn Joyce, it has become so expected that journalists are writing (and scientists are researching) from their own inherent biases that people can dismiss any evidence that goes against their own preferred notions as being the presentation of people trying to unfairly sway the argument. For example, when confronted with the fact that all peer-reviewed articles found in scientific journals support the conclusion that there is extreme anthropogenic global warming, the naysayers argue that there is conspiracy within the scientific community to reject any evidence that goes against global warming and that any who dare to argue are immediately and unfairly blackballed. Conservatives don't trust the Washington Post and Liberals won't rely on the Washington Times for information. I for one have difficulty trusting anyone to give me a completely objective reporting and end up being swayed by personal pathos and whatever empirical observations I am able to draw from my own limited experience to decide where I stand on an issue, which makes any sort of open debate difficult.

Hautelook link

I've added a new link to the side, "hautelook." It's to my personal invitation page. If you're wondering why I posted it as a "Just Living" link, it's because they occasionally have sample sales by eco-designers. Considering the high costs of some of them, 50% off is pretty exciting.

There Is No Sex In Your Violence

I have a fantasy wherein I write frequent posts and people read them and leave insightful complimentary comments.  

Item 1: So, the new incarnation of the H1N1 virus, popularly (and somewhat inaccurately) still referred to as swine flu, is big in the media now.  It is actually a hybrid of avian, porcine, and human viral strains. I haven't read anything but the subject lines yet, but I can see that PETA is sending out emails about how this is more proof of how factory farming in particular and meat-eating in general are great evils that should be stopped.  I said the same thing to my parents before I heard it from PETA (Yay! The frequently irrational crackpots at PETA back me up!).  The unhealthy conditions that abound in slaughterhouses and the "farms" that supply them are ideal incubators for virulent diseases.  Even the factory farm owners know it, since they pump their animals full of preemptive antibiotics.  I guess they should have used antivirals as well.  Granted, the bird flu originated in small, family-owned fowl coops, but these were also homesteads of people with antiquated sanitation systems (or no sanitation systems at all).  And of course, meat farming is devastating to the environment, which threatens wild species and ultimately biodiversity, which increases the likelihood that new contagions will adapt to humanity as they lose their former hosts.  I realize as a formerly struggling vegetarian and a currently struggling (and frequently failing) vegan that giving up animal products is hard (and perhaps not even entirely possible: book bindings, as well as other seemingly innocuous, everyday items are manufactured with animal by-products), but we really all should be making an effort to decrease our dependency, even if it is only by incremental amounts.

Item 2:  I encounter someone who pronounced vegan as "vay-gan."  This is incorrect.  Even if Merriam Webster does recognize several pronunciations, the originator of the word released a pronunciation guide soon after coining the term to clarify that the word is vee-gan.  Long E, hard g.  Knowledge is power.

Item 3: Last week two of my coworkers and I went to see Disney's new Earth movie, a collaboration with the BBC.  It was mediocre.  The footage was stunning, but according to my coworker, much of it was recycled from the Planet Earth series, Discovery Channel's collaboration with the BBC.  I have not yet seen any of this series, much to my chagrin, but I don't have any reason to doubt her word on this.  The documentary's story line/unifying theme was weak, and they showed the typical American view that violence is less offensive (and less corrupting of children) than sex and birth.  While I recognize that violence and death are part of the natural world, the scene of the Great White Shark snatching a seal up in its jaws shown in slow motion from three different angles seemed excessive.  

Item 4: I've been spending the last 7 months working for Americorps via the Maryland Conservation Corps (and will continue to do so into August).  I have the very best intentions of writing a post in the near future about my experiences and impressions.

Cultured Meat

Here is an article I wrote for Helium about cultured meat.  Check it out, give me props. 

Ferraro Fiasco

To paraphrase Mark Twain, rumors of my retirement have been greatly exaggerated.  Also, rumors that anyone has bothered to spread rumors of my retirement have been greatly exaggerated.  

This is old news, but I have to comment on the fracas surrounding Geraldine Ferraro and the comment she made this past winter: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position.  And if he was a woman of any color, he would not be in this position.  He happens to be very lucky to be who he is.  And the country is caught up in the concept."  I don't care to comment on the veracity of her statement, mostly because I just don't have the energy for it.  I have become worn out on the finer points of rhetoric, and I only can make so many cogent(and in this case I am applying the term rather liberally) arguments anymore. Most of the time, I simply find myself wanting to call people names and stick my tongue out at them.  

Anyway, what I want to say is that Ferraro's comments were not racist.  She was stating her opinion about the way race and gender sway the voting populace and the political decisions of this country.  To say that one doubts a man of Obama's accomplishments could have catapulted to the top of the political heap this quickly without benefit of "affirmative action" for his skin color is not prejudicial against people of color.  Nor is it beyond the pale to suggest that sexism is more pervasive that racism (a casual observance of what passed as acceptable political commentary during this primary race might easily lead one toward that conclusion).  You may not agree with her interpretation of the situation, but it is not racist to say that the color of a person's skin matters to large portions of the US population.  It is not racist to say the certain powerful politicos in the Democratic party deliberately moved Obama into the party spotlight because they are aware of this.  

All right, I can't think of a good conclusion.  So let me just end with this: skidush!