Press Action ::: Woody Guthrie: A Little Recession Music, Please

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Woody Guthrie: A Little Recession Music, Please

By Mickey Z.

If you were to open your mouth and belt out the words “this land is your land,” you could rest assured that someone nearby would add: “this land is my land.” The chorus to Woody Guthrie’s 1940 classic is common knowledge…as are the first couple of verses. But it ain’t until you get to the later verses—those often omitted from official versions—that you start comprehendin’ what good ol’ Woody had in mind:

As I was walkin’ I saw a sign there
And that sign said “No tresspassin’”
But on the other side, it didn’t say nothin’
Now that side was made for you and me

In the squares of the city/In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office, I see my people
And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me

Woody sez: “This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, ‘cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.”

Let’s not forget that Guthrie penned “This Land is My Land” in response to Irving Berlin’s saccharine “God Bless America.”

And let’s not forget the words Woody scrawled on his guitar: “This machine kills fascists.”

Let’s also not forget the power and prescience of Guthrie’s lyrics, like this from “Jesus Christ”:

Jesus was a man who traveled through the land
A hard working man and brave
He said to the rich, “Give your money to the poor,”
But they laid Jesus Christ in His grave

And this from “Pretty Boy Floyd”:

Yes, as through this world I’ve wandered
I’ve seen lots of funny men
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen

And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won’t never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home

Woody Guthrie laid the foundation for generations of American singer-songwriters to use their music and lyrics to challenge the prevailing platitudes of popular music…and to provide a Greek chorus of protest and outrage to keep us all more honest and aware.

With the stakes having never been higher and the denial never deeper, what we choose to do with this awareness and outrage—right now—is genuinely a matter of life and death…

Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.

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Incoming: Seed bombing in the name of green

Seed bombs are “compressed balls of soil and compost that have been impregnated with wildflower seeds. Jettisoned onto barren, abandoned, or otherwise inhospitable land, including construction sites and abandoned lots.” Liz Christy—who started the “Green Guerillas” in 1973—coined the alternative term, seed grenades. Smaller versions are commonly called seed balls. No matter what you call them, seed bombs are a vital part of the ever-increasing international trend of guerilla gardening.

For some folks, the intrinsic desire for green spaces is an art form. For many others, it can be a way to feed a family. For environmentalists, seed bombing is political expression. Whatever your individual motivation might be, seed bombing is a method of direct action in which just about anyone can participate.

You might find kindred spirits here

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Obama’s haiku

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Wednesday, December 03, 2008

New Mickey Z. interview: "Don't expect change"

Excerpt: “New York activist and writer Mickey Z. says that we’re all responsible for looking after Earth for future generations.”

Full interview here

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When leftists attack:

Yesterday, I came across a blog post by Michael Albert at ZNet. In it, he takes The Nation to task for having so many ads on its website. But it was not the obvious being stated that caught my eye, it was this: Albert also wrote that essays published by The Nation are “barely progressive much less radical or revolutionary.”

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Baghdad poem

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Obama exploits liberal denial

Why is anyone still trusting the entrenched Left on anything? Thanks to their archaic tactics and dogma, we now face four years of genuflecting before the Pope of Hope as he blatantly spits on every effort toward peace, justice, and solidarity. It’s gotten to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if Lord Obama announced that he’s decided to keep Dick Cheney on as vice president…you know, in the name of bipartisanship and all. What would be most amusing is how quickly 90% of those on the Left would find a way to justify it (and call me “cynical” for not being stoked).

Full article here

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Hey, I’m one of the Press Action Dynamic Dozen

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Dreamy poem

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Monday, December 01, 2008

Political 'Monsters' Make Peace

"In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio’s the only place they can win. She is a monster, too—that is off the record—she is stooping to anything." - Former Barack Obama campaign adviser Samantha Power speaking in March 2008

Barack Obama announced today he will make uber-hawk Hillary Clinton his Secretary of State and retain current President Bush cabinet member Robert Gates, another uber-hawk, as his Secretary of Defense. Those announcements should finally put to rest any hope that an Obama administration would bring substantive change to the White House on foreign policy issues.

Samantha Power’s “monster” is now located in Chicago in the form of the Obama presidential transition team. Obama and his advisers are stooping even lower than many of the most skeptical political observers believed they would go in terms of creating a business-as-usual approach to governing, one that closely resembles its predecessor’s fundamental policies.

The fact that this “monster” of an administration will have the backing of the U.S. Congress, mainstream media and American people, including many liberal and left-wing activists, on key foreign policy and national security state issues makes the next four years even more frightening.

On the liberal Web site Daily Kos, the reaction to Obama’s selection of Clinton and Gates was generally positive. Many Daily Kos readers said Obama should be admired for inviting his former rival, Clinton, to join his cabinet. Here’s what one Daily Kos reader wrote in response to Obama’s announcement:

“I think Obama has figured out the peace-making thing, which as Lincoln, Gandhi, and MLK said, is to make your enemy your friend. Obama has helped me to get over my Bush hatred, and now with Clinton, he’s showing us how to really get over competition and infighting. I can’t say enough how much Obama’s leadership-by-example has helped me deal with my political, unhelpful anger.”

This is a common reaction among liberals to the business-as-usual makeup of Obama’s incoming administration. And it reveals how many Bush bashers only hate him—or hated him in the case of this Daily Kos reader—because he’s a Republican or because he’s inarticulate or because he doesn’t exude hope. They aren’t Bush policy haters. Because if they were, they would be up in arms over Obama’s plans to make it a smooth transition from Bush to his administration, keeping many of the same policies and some of the same leaders in place when he assumes power in January.

With regard to Obama welcoming Clinton to his administration, the two Democrats were enemies only in the sense of competitors vying for the same prize—their party’s nomination. They weren’t political enemies in the real—and deadly—way Martin Luther King and the racist politicians and business leaders across the United States were in the 1950s and 1960s. Obama and Clinton share identical worldviews. Since Obama’s election on Nov. 4, it has been the hope of the delusional left that Obama would pick a liberal-leaning cabinet to balance his rightward-leaning policy positions. Of course, Obama did not grant them their wish.

By Mickey Z.

By now, we should expect the soft Left (and more than a few radicals) to gleefully guzzle the Democrat Kool Aid every four years. In 2004, it was Anybody-But-Bush. This year, it was Attack of the Obamatrons. Hey, when you’re a liberal, harboring multiple delusions comes with the territory, e.g.

* Sooner or later, the Democratic Party is gonna wake up and help us “take back” the country.

* No matter what we think of war, we must always support the troops because sooner or later, the men and women in uniform are gonna wake up and help us “take back” the country.

* There’s a mysterious mass of Americans out there—just sitting on the proverbial fence as they wait for us to convince them we are right so they can wake up and help us “take back” the country.

* There was once a time when the people actually “had” the country.

During presidential election years, of course, the most contemptible liberal lie is this: We shouldn’t vote for the third party candidates who actually represent our deeply held values because (drum roll please) they can’t win. It should be obvious that the only reason a third party candidate “can’t win” is because almost everyone who claims to be progressive votes for a Democrat instead.

This self-fulfilling prophecy comes courtesy of the same folks who apparently believe that marching with giant puppets might help end a war.

The same folks who apparently believe that holding a candlelight vigil might help end hate crimes.

The same folks who apparently believe that a giant rock concert might help end global warming.

The same folks who apparently believe that adhering to state sanctioned free speech zones is a legitimate method of expressing dissent.

I could go on but I’d rather ask this simple question: Why is anyone still trusting the entrenched Left on anything? Thanks to their archaic tactics and dogma, we now face four years of genuflecting before the Pope of Hope as he blatantly spits on every effort toward peace, justice and solidarity.

It’s gotten to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if Lord Obama announced that he’s decided to keep Dick Cheney on as vice president … you know, in the name of bipartisanship and all. What would be most amusing is how quickly 90% of those on the Left would find a way to justify it (and call me “cynical” for not being stoked).

To paraphrase a certain Mr. Diderot, the planet will never be free (or detoxified) until the last politician is strangled with the entrails of the last liberal.

Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.

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When did Z Net become South Park?

(Wise Timmy just loves the Pope of Hope)

After the election, the increasingly irrational Z Net favorite Tim Wise wrote an article that lambasted anyone daring to not feel warm and fuzzy in the wake of Lord Obama’s ascendancy. Here’s an excerpt:

Let me say this, to some of those on the left - some of my friends and longtime compatriots in the struggle for social justice - who yet insist that there is no difference between Obama and McCain, between Democrats and Republicans, between Biden and Palin: Screw you ... Those who cannot appreciate what has just transpired are so eaten up with nihilistic rage and hopelessness that I cannot but think that they are a waste of carbon, and actively thieving oxygen that could be put to better use by others.

Hmm, I guess that’s what legendary political philosopher P. Diddy meant when he created the infamous slogan: VOTE OR DIE.

Wise Timmy’s most recent article includes this poignant gem:

Being a father, I have to temper my contempt for this system and its managers with hope. After all, as a dad (for me at least), it’s hard to look at my children every day and think, “Gee, it sucks that the world is so screwed up, and will probably end in a few years from resource exploitation...Oh well, I sure hope my daughters have a great day at school!"

So, the next time any of you wanna talk - perhaps over a vegan organic meal - about 80% of the world’s forests being gone or 90% of the large fish in the ocean being gone or 200,000 acres of rain forest destroyed each day or 100 plant and animal species going extinct each day and so on, can you please keep it down? We don’t want Wise Timmy to hear because it might depress his daughters and dampen his sense of hope.

Wise Timmy also sez: Fatherhood hasn’t made me any less radical in my analysis or desire to see change. In fact, if anything, it has made me more so. I am as angry now as I’ve ever been about injustice, because I can see how it affects these children I helped to create, and for whom I am now responsible. But anger and cynicism do not make good dance partners. Anger without hope, without a certain faith in the capacity of we the people to change our world is a sickness unto death. It is consuming, like a flesh-eating disease, and whose first victim is human compassion.

To which, I’ll invoke a certain Mr. Shaw: “The power of acute observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.”

P.S. to the Wise Man: Hope is for suckers...

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Up and Down poem

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Press Action Dynamic Dozen 2008

Press Action celebrates the most dynamic reporters, authors and commentators of 2008.

Derrick Jensen

Jensen leads the 2008 class of Press Action’s Dynamic Dozen based on his tireless efforts to inspire us — through his books, essays, speeches, correspondence, etc. — to save the planet. This honor may not rank as high as Utne Reader naming him one of the “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.” Utne Reader says Jensen is the “green thinker and writer who’s out to tell us not what we want to hear but what we need to hear.” Press Action agrees.

Pattrice Jones

“One of my favorite people, the blackest white woman I know, the author I quote the most, the lady who turned me out and into a black vegan,” Thefreeslave writes on Afro Spear, describing Jones. Jones also is one of Press Action’s favorite writers and thinkers. Check out the excellent work Jones is doing as a teacher of composition at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Mickey Z.

Mickey Z. continued to work nonstop in 2008 as an essayist, blogger and speaker. He alerted us to the perils of humans dominating nature, the perils of the Republicrats dominating American politics and, in the spirit of Emma Goldman, the perils of avoiding laughter and joy as we struggle to make the world a better place. If all of those activities weren’t enough, Mickey also published two books in 2008: CPR for Dummies and No Innocent Bystanders: Riding Shotgun in the Land of Denial

Paul Street

Unlike many of his fellow commentators on Z Net, Street did not get duped by the Obama hype. In one of his columns since the election, the straight-shooting Street explains: “Obama is a ruling-class candidate with the mission of restoring democratic legitimacy to a rotten and authoritarian state-capitalist American System and Empire. … Our supposed ‘left’ President-Elect’s first statement was NOT a call for peace, justice, and equality. It was a declaration bolstering the American plutocracy’s ridiculous claim that the U.S.—the industrialized world’s most unequal and wealth-top-heavy society by far—is home to a great democracy and limitless opportunity for all.”

Stephanie McMillan

The Minimum Security cartoonist and coauthor of As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial penned a strip a couple days after the November elections that said it all about the Obama mania.

Bananabelle: I can’t believe you won’t let me tell you who won.
Bunnista: All I care about is that the long nightmare is finally over.
Bananabelle: The Bush regime?
Bunnista: The election. Boring politicians, preposterous speeches, and fools who take them all seriously.

Viva Bunnista! Viva Stephanie McMillan!

Margaret Kimberley

In one of her many incisive pieces leading up to the 2008 presidential election, the Freedom Rider essayist and blogger lambasted progressives for fawning over Obama after he received Colin Powell’s endorsement in October. “A Powell endorsement ought to be the kiss of death, but liberals have silently colluded with Obama all year long. Why should they stop now? So what if the architect of death and destruction in Iraq has endorsed their beloved leader. They just want to win,” Kimberley wrote.

Adam Engel

As one of Press Action’s favorite writers, Engel did not disappoint in 2008. His writing is offbeat and gripping. In his essay on Obama’s victory, titled “The Irony of the Ecstasy,” Engel describes the raucous celebrations outside his house in New York City. “I couldn’t help thinking how ironic it was that thousands of people expressed ‘political commitment’ not by gathering together to soberly plan the Next Move (i.e. putting the president elect in the hot seat), but by behaving like a bunch of typically arrogant, indulgent, selfish, drunk, overbearing Americans,” he writes.

Naomi Klein

During a recent trip to London, Press Action saw a billboard alongside a street near Hyde Park advertising Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine. Now that’s an advertisement you’d never see on any billboard in the United States. The other members of the Press Action Dynamic Dozen may not have a Shock Doctrine-size PR machine promoting their writings and work, but they shouldn’t be jealous. Klein provided an important service in 2008, especially during the fourth quarter, dissecting the U.S. government’s giveaway to Wall Street and how the Obama regime will carry on the neo-liberal economic tradition of the Bush/Clinton era.

William Blum

During another presidential election year, when many liberals, progressives and leftists supported a business-as-usual Democrat, Blum described how Barack Obama’s foreign policy positions would not veer too far from the “Bush Doctrine.” In his regular Anti-Empire Reports, Blum dissected many topics aside from U.S. foreign policy, including the worthlessness of presidential debates, the make-believe world of financial capitalism and … sports. In his Oct. 1 Anti-Empire Report, Blum commented on the 2008 U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York. Blum focused on the jingoism and militarism that accompanies sporting events in the United States, even those events in which the overwhelming majority of competitors, especially the competitors in the upper echelons, are not American.

Ali Abunimah

Abunimah, one of the founders of Electronic Intifada, is the author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, a recently published book that offers a refreshing vision of the future: one democratic state for Palestinians and Israeli Jews, living side by side with equal rights. In the meantime, the Palestinians will be forced to cope with another staunchly pro-Israel regime in Washington. Abunimah finds some reason for optimism in the short term. “Israel will find it increasingly difficult to justify its policies to global public opinion and will face a growing challenge from the international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. Efforts to pursue Israelis accused of war crimes in the occupied territories through universal jurisdiction will intensify and may begin to bear fruit. Palestinians in Gaza will refuse to remain besieged. Palestinian citizens of Israel will continue their own struggle for democracy,” Abunimah writes in an essay following Obama’s victory.

Jeremy Scahill

The investigative journalist is exhorting liberal and left-wing bloggers who scrutinized the appointments and policies of George W. Bush during his first term to be similarly aggressive in their treatment of Obama. On a recent episode of Democracy Now!, Scahill said: “I think the time is now to call the question on the involvement of some of these people, that this is the precise moment when this kind of journalism matters, when we have to remind people of the history and the previous policies implemented by the people that are at the center of Obama’s foreign policy team right now, because we’re going to be living with these people for the next four years running the show. And I think it’s incredibly important to be all over this right now, before they’re named.”

Jeffrey St. Clair

Earlier this year, soon after Sarah Palin spoke at the Republican National Convention, the CounterPunch editor once again reminded Press Action of the magnificence of cow punk diva Maria McKee.

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Saturday, November 29, 2008

Mr. Z Goes to Washington

It’s way too early to offer more specifics but I wanted to share the news that I will be speaking at an event in the Washington, DC area on May 2, 2009. Designed to coincide (somewhat) with May Day and the first 100 days of the Pope of Hope, the event will feature yours truly and only one other speaker: some guy named Derrick Jensen.

So, mark yer goddamned calendars and stay tuned for more details.

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I don’t think I’ve ever posted this image of me from an article I wrote about being a writer and a personal trainer:

Cool, huh?

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Delusional poetry

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Friday, November 28, 2008

Humans vs. Oceans, Part III

Bottom trawling (also known as Benthic trawling) is “a fishing method that involves dragging trawl nets along the sea floor. The fishing method is a highly non-selective one and comes with a large amount of bycatch and destruction in the trawled path.”

Greenpeace explains that bottom trawlers “will destroy deep sea species, before we have even discovered much of what is out there. Think of it as driving a huge bulldozer through an unexplored, lush and richly populated forest and being left with a flat, featureless desert.”

(The aftermath of bottom trawling as seen from space)

Take a look for yourself at the devastating impact of bottom trawling. If this practice is allowed to continue, the ocean—where 80 percent of all the life on Earth can be found—will become nothing more than a watery landfill.

Peter Benchley sez: “If we kill everything in the ocean, and if we pollute the ocean to a point where it can’t sustain life, we’re committing suicide.”

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Germ poem

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Thursday, November 27, 2008

Are you thankful for Saint Barack?

(It’s Thanksgiving at the Church of Obama)

Thanksgiving Prayer, by William S. Burroughs

Happy Un-Thanksgiving

500 Years of the white man in just 8 minutes
(Thanks, Rick)

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March of the Wooden Soldiers: A new perspective

A couple of Thanksgivings ago, I went to the gym in the morning and found myself watching March of the Wooden Soldiers as I pedaled on the LifeCycle. Viewing this 1934 film was a Thanksgiving tradition in my family...but it had been years since I’d seen it and this was the first time I trained a critical eye on the particulars. All I say is: Yikes.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Laurel and Hardy but March of the Wooden Soldiers essentially tells the tale of an idyllic white community being threatened by dark bogeymen from deep inside the bowels of the earth. Just when it seems the dark ones—who, by necessity, are led by an evil white man—are about to not only take over the white town but also kidnap the pure little blonde girl, L&H choose the military option and unleash legions of soldiers to save the day.

Another fine mess...

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A daily dose of my poetry

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He saved the best for last...

Bob Marley’s final words: "Money can’t buy life."

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Humane Society Flexes Its Muscle

Ed Duvin writes at Cyrano’s Journal Online:

Given HSUS’ (the Humane Society of the United States) vast resources and media savvy, they are increasingly perceived by the public as the movement’s voice. There is immense danger in one organization unduly influencing the agenda, as diversity in thought and tactics is the sine non qua of a vibrant movement. Grassroots activists, intellectuals, artists, radicals, students, and all who strive for justice offer a unique language, placing weight on the multifarious pressure points of an apathetic culture. It is difficult to hear other voices when one organization owns the preponderance of microphones.

In pursuit of ever-increasing stature and access, HSUS unapologetically ingratiates itself to the powerful—seemingly without discernment or regard to principle. Their effusive embrace of Matthew Scully serves to illustrate, a man who not only wrote speeches for Bush and Cheney, but made Sarah Palin appear semi-literate at the convention. Yes, Scully supports our cause and is well-connected, but his ideology is an affront to egalitarian ideals. We need to reach all demographic segments, but not in an indiscriminate fashion that eviscerates our moral foundation. Does HSUS suggest that we supplant our values for those of corporate America? I raise this issue not self-righteously, but with the conviction that compassion is not divisible. Injustice is one monster with many heads.

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The Obama Nation

Bill Van Auken at the World Socialist Web Site writes:

The increasingly right-wing character of the transition being organized in preparation for President-Elect Barack Obama’s inauguration in January has elicited expressions of concern from the middle-class “left.” This milieu, whose views are reflected in publications like The Nation magazine, played a significant role during the election campaign in promoting Obama’s candidacy and the Democratic Party as vehicles for fundamental political and social change. ...

With the political assistance of the trade union bureaucracy and the Stalinist Communist Party ... the Roosevelt administration did succeed in staving off the threat of socialist revolution.

That period holds stark lessons for the coming struggles of the American and international working class. Unless working people are able to advance their own, socialist alternative to capitalism, the “solution” to the present crisis will be found along simil ar lines of a re-division of the world market through mass slaughter.

This is what makes the politics of The Nation and similar political tendencies so pernicious. The struggle against war and deepening attacks on social conditions can be advanced only through a decisive break with the Democratic Party and the political illusions promoted by tendencies such as The Nation.

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Humans vs. Oceans, Part II

Stand a whale upright and it could reach the height of a 10-story building. Its heart is bigger than your hybrid compact. You and 49 of your closest friends could stand comfortably on its tongue. Unfortunately, since 5000 B.C., humans have seen fit to hunt these magnificent marine mammals. The results, predictably, have been disastrous for whales and the ocean. Greenpeace reports: “The blue whales of the Antarctic are at less than 1 percent of their original abundance, despite 40 years of complete protection.”

(If you’d like it spelled out in graphic detail, watch this video)

P.S. Don’t fall for the oft-repeated myths, e.g. whaling is cultural, whale populations are rising, whales are destructive to the food chain, etc.

As the author Farley Mowatt once said: “Whales never needed a technology.” Unfortunately for whales, they got stuck on a planet with a species that thinks it does.

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Happy Birthday to my wife, Michele (Nov. 26)

Mmmmm...vegan birthday cake...

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Peon poem

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Sunday, November 23, 2008

Obama Preserves Our Way of Life

By Mickey Z.

Awakened by the muffled, distant howls of slaughtered Indians, Uncle Sam rises from his bed and hits the light switch…blissfully, purposefully unaware of how valley fills enable him to gain access to that electricity day after day.

***

Here’s how The Sierra Club begins its discussion of mountaintop removal mining: “In places like Appalachia, mining companies blow the tops off mountains to reach a thin seam of coal and then, to minimize waste disposal costs, dump millions of tons of waste rock into the valleys below, causing permanent damage to the ecosystem and landscape.” That is a valley fill.

Then comes word—on October 18, 2008—that the Interior Department has “advanced a proposal that would ease restrictions on dumping mountaintop mining waste near rivers and streams, modifying protections that have been in place, though often circumvented, for a quarter-century.” This from a New York Times article, which continues: “The department’s Office of Surface Mining issued a final environmental analysis Friday on the proposed rule change, which has been under consideration for four years. It has been a priority of the surface mining industry … The proposed rule would rewrite a regulation enacted in 1983 that bars mining companies from dumping huge waste piles, known as “valley fills,” within 100 feet of any intermittent or perennial stream if the disposal affects water quality or quantity.”

***

Like any good American, after subconsciously blocking out the faint sounds of slave chains clinking and bull whips cracking, Uncle Sam’s first chore of the day is to check e-mail. No time for him to contemplate e-waste, now is there?

***

E-waste (discarded electronics and electrical products) has some potential in supplying secondary raw materials to keep the entire system afloat, when not properly treated properly it becomes a major source of carcinogens and toxins.

“A whole bouquet of heavy metals, semimetals and other chemical compounds lurk inside your seemingly innocent laptop or TV,” adds Jessika Toothman at HowStuffWorks.com. “E-waste dangers stem from ingredients such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, copper, beryllium, barium, chromium, nickel, zinc, silver and gold. Many of these elements are used in circuit boards and comprise electrical parts such as computer chips, monitors, and wiring.”

According to the EPA, in 2005, “used or unwanted electronics amounted to approximately 1.9 to 2.2 million tons. Of that, about 1.5 to 1.9 million tons were primarily discarded in landfills, and only 345,000 to 379,000 tons were recycled.”

***

Uncle Sam decides he wants eggs for breakfast and what Uncle Sam wants, Uncle Sam gets. Not even the din of doomed chickens can slow down this hungry man.

***

Karen Davis of United Poultry Concerns has written a narrative of what a battery hen might say if it could speak human language. The narrative begins: “I am battery hen. I live in a cage so small I cannot stretch my wings. I am forced to stand night and day on a sloping wire mesh floor that painfully cuts into my feet. The cage walls tear my feathers, forming blood blisters that never heal. The air is so full of ammonia that my lungs hurt and my eyes burn and I think I am going blind. As soon as I was born, a man grabbed me and sheared off part of my beak with a hot iron, and my little brothers were thrown into trash bags as useless alive.”

Battery hens produce the vast majority of eggs you’ll find in your market.

***

With food now in his stomach, Uncle Sam joins the vast majority of Americans who take at least one form of pharmaceutical drug each day. Choosing to ignore the agonized screams of tortured animals, Uncle Sam gulps down his pills.

***

Aysha Z Akhtar, M.D., M.P.H., is a senior medical advisor and Jarrod Bailey, Ph.D., is a senior research consultant for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. “The more we study the relevance of animal tests, the more apparent their shortcomings become,” Akhtar and Bailey state in a Feb. 9, 2007 letter published in the British Medical Journal. “Even subtle physiological differences between humans and animals can manifest as profound differences in disease physiology and treatment effectiveness and safety. For example, numerous differences in spinal cord physiology and reaction to injury exist between species and even strains within a species. These differences likely contribute to the repeated failure of spinal cord treatments that have tested safe and effective in animals to translate into human benefit.”

“Results from animal tests are not transferable between species, and therefore cannot guarantee product safety for humans,” agrees Herbert Gundersheimer, M.D. “A major shift in our research paradigm is long overdue,” declare Akhtar and Bailey. “The move away from animal experiments toward more accurate methods of studying disease and intervention is scientifically superior and more ethical for humanity, as well as for animals.”

“Ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer is: ’Because the animals are like us,’” writes Professor Charles R. Magel. “Ask the experimenters why it is morally OK to experiment on animals, and the answer is: ’Because the animals are not like us.’ Animal experimentation rests on a logical contradiction.”

***

Uncle Sam’s medicine is washed down thanks to store-bought water. As he packs his water bottle in his work bag, he could swear a cruise missile has soared past his house but instead nods his head in disbelief.

***

“Americans buy 30 billion single-use water bottles every year, the majority of which end up in landfills,” writes Dominic Muren at TreeHugger.com. “In fact, 845 bottles end up in the land fill every second. All these water bottles are made from petroleum, and require petroleum to be shipped around the world. All that, and there’s no evidence that bottled water is any cleaner than tap-water.”

Catherine Clarke Fox of National Geographic adds: “But all those plastic bottles use a lot of fossil fuels and pollute the environment. In fact, Americans buy more bottled water than any other nation in the world, adding 29 billion water bottles a year to the problem. In order to make all these bottles, manufacturers use 17 million barrels of crude oil. That’s enough oil to keep a million cars going for twelve months. Imagine a water bottle filled a quarter of the way up with oil. That’s about how much oil was needed to produce the bottle.”

***

Tired of getting animal blood on his socks, Uncle Sam reaches for his leather shoes…courtesy of the $1.5-billion-and-100-million-animal-skins-per-year U.S. industry.

***

“Leather is not simply a slaughterhouse byproduct,” says animal issues columnist Carla Bennett. “It’s a booming industry and an important part of the slaughter trade, since skin accounts for approximately 50 percent of the total byproduct value of cattle.” Leather is also made from slaughtered horses, sheep, lambs, goats, and pigs. “When dairy cows’ production declines, for example, their skin is made into leather; the hides of their offspring, ‘veal’ calves, are made into high-priced calfskin,” adds Bennett. “Thus, the economic success of the slaughterhouse (and the factory farm) is directly linked to the sale of leather goods.”

Another tactic for procuring animal skins is hunting. Species such as zebras, bison, water buffaloes, boars, deer, kangaroos, elephants, eels, sharks, dolphins, seals, walruses, frogs, crocodiles, lizards, and snakes are murdered solely for their hides. These animals are often endangered or illegally poached—and death is rarely swift or painless. Alligators are clubbed with axes and hammers and may suffer for hours. Reptiles are skinned alive to achieve suppleness in the leather and may take days to die. Kid goats are boiled alive.

A clever diversionary tactic of leather makers is to label their products “biodegradable” while pointing out that synthetic versions are usually petroleum-based. However, says Sally Clinton in Vegetarian Journal, the tanning process acts to “stabilize the collagen or protein fibers so that they are no longer biodegradable.” In turn, the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology explains, “On the basis of quantity of energy consumed per unit of product produced, the leather-manufacturing industry would be categorized with the aluminum, paper, steel, cement, and petroleum-manufacturing industries as a gross consumer of energy.” The primary reason for this is that over 95 percent of U.S. leather is chrome tanned. “All wastes containing chromium are considered hazardous by the EPA,” writes Clinton. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the incidence of leukemia among residents in an area surrounding one tannery in Kentucky was five times the national average. According to a study released by the New York State Department of Health, more than half of all testicular cancer victims work in tanneries.

***

Uncle Sam heads for his beloved SUV, trying his best to not only find his cell phone but also to avoid stepping on the thousands of dying frogs that litter his driveway.

***

The South American tree frogs’ population is declining and biologists are blaming global warming. These frogs, it seems, have the very un-froglike habit of basking in the hot sun (most frogs normally avoid prolonged exposure to light due to the risk of overheating and dehydration). According to a research team at the University of Manchester, “global warming is leading to more cloud cover in the frogs’ natural habitat. This, in turn, is denying them the opportunity to ‘sunbathe’ and kill off fatal Chytrid fungal infections, leading to many species dying out.”

Andrew Gray, Curator of Herpetology at the Manchester Museum, says: “With a third of the world’s amphibians currently under threat it’s vitally important we do our utmost to investigate the reasons why they are dying out at such an alarming rate.”

***

Uncle Sam starts up the engine and plugs in his cell phone headset, ready for a drive’s worth of important, essential, and utterly crucial business calls…but how can he hear over the sorrowful primate calls echoing off the SUV’s interior?

***

Here’s how the United Nations describes it: “Columbite-tantalite—coltan for short—is a dull metallic ore found in major quantities in the eastern areas of Congo. When refined, coltan becomes metallic tantalum, a heat-resistant powder that can hold a high electrical charge.” Tantalum from coltan is used in consumer electronics products such as cell phones.

Why would the UN be involved in describing a component of your cell phone? Well, coltan is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an African nation besieged by a brutal civil war. The mining and sale of coltan is used by both sides in the conflict to fund their military mayhem. In addition, the UN explains: “In order to mine for coltan, rebels have overrun Congo’s national parks, clearing out large chunks of the area’s lush forests. In addition, the poverty and starvation caused by the war have driven some miners and rebels to hunt the parks’ endangered elephants and gorillas for food.” Within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the number of eastern lowland gorillas has declined by 90% over the past 5 years, and only 3,000 now remain.

***

Uncle Sam (on the phone): “Yeah, I’m on my way. (pause) I’m fine. Just got a headache. So much damn background noise lately. (pause) Ah, stop your worrying. It’s all gonna be fine. What could possibly go wrong now that Obama is in charge?”

(To be continued?)

Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.

More from Mickey Z.

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Obama preserves our way of life

Awakened by the distant howls of slaughtered Indians, Uncle Sam rises from his bed and hits the light switch…blissfully unaware of how “valley fills” have enabled him to gain access to that electricity. Here’s how The Sierra Club begins its discussion of mountaintop removal mining: “In places like Appalachia, mining companies blow the tops off mountains to reach a thin seam of coal and then, to minimize waste disposal costs, dump millions of tons of waste rock into the valleys below, causing permanent damage to the ecosystem and landscape.”

That is a valley fill.

Full article here

Click here and scroll down for some commentary on this article

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As Voltaire sez: “The human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe.”

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More subway poetry

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Saturday, November 22, 2008

A New Stone Age or the Same Old Stonewalling?

Myron Ebell, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s point man on energy and environmental issues, thinks we’re heading back to the Stone Age if the climate change legislation proposed by Henry Waxman, the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is adopted.

“This should provide a loud wake-up call to American business leaders that the 111th Congress is not going to play nicely with them on energy rationing policies. The cap-and-trade bill that Chairman Dingell proposed this fall would dramatically raise energy prices for American consumers and producers. Chairman Waxman, who represents Beverly Hills, introduced a cap-and-trade bill in this Congress that would send us back to the Stone Age,” Ebell said in a Nov. 20 statement after the Democrats voted to replace automobile industry water boy John Dingell with Waxman as head of the committee.

Why does Ebell make this startling claim? Because Waxman introduced a bill, the Safe Climate Act (pdf), which calls for an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050. Specifically, the bill would freeze greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 at 2009 levels. Beginning in 2011, it cuts emissions by roughly 2% per year, reaching 1990 emissions levels by 2020. After 2020, it cuts emissions by roughly 5% per year. By 2050, emissions will be 80% lower than in 1990.

What about the cap-and-trade portion of Waxman’s proposal? First of all, as with all climate change bills introduced in Congress in recent years, it includes a so-called “market-based” approach to cutting emissions. As stated in the bill, Waxman proposes to “impose a cap on the greenhouse gas emissions of sources and sectors” and “allow emissions trading among covered entities.”

What are Waxman’s goals for his cap-and-trade program, which Ebell says will send the United States “back to the Stone Age”?

* Maximizing public benefit and promoting economic growth.

* Mitigating the effect of any energy cost increases to consumers, particularly low-income consumers.

* Providing equitable transition assistance to any workers and regions affected by a transition away from high carbon-emitting energy sources.

Does this sound like legislation that will take U.S. society back to the Stone Age? Hardly.

Waxman’s bill is a modest and likely ineffective proposal to avert environmental catastrophe, which itself could send those of us who survive back to a pre-Industrial Revolution way of life. But Waxman’s bill is definitely more aggressive, compared to other bills introduced the last couple years, in its goal of reducing GHG emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 and its incremental approach to achieving these cuts.

Rather than setting goals that would need to be met 30, 40 or 50 years into the future, like other bills do, Waxman’s plan would set incremental deadlines, forcing pollution emitters to make cuts at shorter intervals, thereby making it easier to reach the longer-term, more ambitious GHG reduction target.

Even with Waxman installed as the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and with Barack Obama entering the White House, the odds of Waxman’s climate change bill or similar legislation getting passed remain slim. The business community—led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and second-tier anti-environment groups like the Competitive Enterprise Institute—the energy industry and labor groups will wage aggressive campaigns to thwart passage of Waxman’s plan.

As the U.S. economy slips into a major recession, Democrats and Republicans might be reluctant to push hard for the passage of climate change legislation, fearing they could get blamed by the mainstream news media for driving the economy deeper into ruin.

With or without passage of climate change legislation, U.S. economic policies—albeit muted by a recession—will continue to devastate the natural world. Global fossil fuel reserves remain sufficient to spur U.S. economic growth once credit markets get unlocked in the next couple years. When this happens, it will be full steam ahead with the destruction of the living planet.

While free-market environmentalists lobby hard for the passage of Waxman’s “Stone Age” cap-and-trade legislation or similar proposals, others will work on dismantling a political and economic system that gives polluters credits, or allowances, for poisoning the planet. Rather than supporting legislation that promotes economic growth, as Waxman’s Safe Climate Act does, other activists will work toward ending human domination of the natural world and building a sustainable relationship with the environment.

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Humans vs. Oceans, Part I

Let’s start with the word from the Humane Society International: “According to some estimates, between 50 and 100 million sharks are killed each year around the world. Many of these sharks are unintended “bycatch” by vessels fishing for high-value species such as swordfish and tuna, but every year, millions of sharks are increasingly a target for their extremely valuable fins.”

This practice involving catching sharks, cutting off their fins while they are alive, and tossing the maimed fish back into the ocean (often still alive). Why? SharkFriends.com explains: “Shark fins, once they are harvested, are then dried to be sold in markets to individuals and restaurants to be made into shark fin soup and sold to the public (especially tourists) for as much as $350 per bowl!”

To make this even more despicable, the shark fins don’t add flavor to the soup. They are added solely for texture.

Sonny Rollins sez: “I think we are in the midst of this period where we are committing suicide on the planet and everybody is just using up all of our natural resources like a bunch of insane people. That’s what I worry about more than I worry about jazz.”

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A photo Michele took of me last week at my Bluestockings talk:

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Red cape poetry

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Friday, November 21, 2008

Barack Obama Photo Caption Contest

Who’s got a caption for this image of the Pope of Hope in his shiny new sweatshop sneakers?

First Prize: A jug of some of that change you can believe in
Second Prize: A shotglass of hope
Third Prize: Joe Biden

Post your caption in the comments section…

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Time travel poetry

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Thursday, November 20, 2008

'Vegetarian' Vampires Show No Mercy

Imagine if Stephanie Meyer had written about a family of vampires who feed only on the blood of merchants of death, those sinister types found in corporate offices, on military bases and in other places of ill repute in Washington state. What a powerful message Meyer could have sent her millions of female teenage readers: the good vampires of the Cullen clan neutralize the Pacific Northwest fat cats, defense contractors and environmental despoilers, making the region a safer and more livable place for future generations.

Instead, Meyer thinks the best way to make her “good” vampires more likable to her rabid teenage fans is to turn them into “vegetarian” vampires — in the case of the Twilight series of books, though, vegetarian means the vampires only abstain from hunting humans. The wild animals that roam the woods of the Pacific Northwest, however, are fair game for the “good” vampires’ next meal.

Meyer sacrifices the wild animals for the sake of selling the tale of a 17-year-old girl named Bella who falls in love with Edward Cullen, a member of the family of “vegetarian” vampires. As with general society’s treatment of nonhuman animals, Meyer’s message through this plot development is the lives of the nonhuman animals are cheap and not worth exploring. There’s no hint of reverence by the Cullens for the animals whose blood they drain and whose bodies are left behind unceremoniously. There’s no meaningful, lasting sense of emotional involvement or satisfaction with the animals who give the Cullen vampires their food for life. There’s no respect or giving of thanks for the life the wild animals give to sustain the lives of the vampires.

The lack of respect for the nonhuman animals is in contrast to the real relationship between Edward and Bella. Too bad in the movie version of Twilight, which opens at midnight tonight, we won’t get to see Robert Pattinson’s Edward using his vampire super-powers to hunt down the suburban developers who are plundering Washington’s environment. Pattinson’s Edward could take a heroic turn by becoming an even paler version of Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne, who battles the powers-that-be on behalf of his dear Marie and Nicky.

Instead, Edward becomes the guardian angel of clumsy and self-absorbed Bella. To resist sacrificing Bella, Edward often takes leave from school to go hunting with his family in the woods. If only Edward could show the same restraint he displays with Bella in his conduct toward the wild animals.

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Obama and the Great Depression

No, I don’t mean that Great Depression. I’m talking about the inevitable moment—maybe next week, maybe next year—when the Kool Aid wears off and the Obamatrons wake up to realize their hero offers nothing even approximating hope or change.

“Yes we can”? Merely the first three words of this phrase: “Yes we can continue to work, consume, and obey authority without question.”

Full article here

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Street fight poetry

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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Obama and the Great Depression

By Mickey Z.

The carefully calculated speeches—which have always been filled with empty, hollow phrases—will no longer soothe a battered and desperate populace and the Obamabots will suddenly recognize that the Pope of Hope has never been anything more than a human marketing strategy, a product. This year’s iPhone.

“Yes we can”? Merely the first three words of a longer phrase: “Yes we can continue to work, consume, and obey authority without question.”

A great depression, so to speak, will set in. According to Depression.com, some people say this condition feels “like a black curtain of despair … Many people feel like they ha