Practically Moral

This site no longer updated

2010-01-07T02:43:00.001-05:00

My blog on beauty standards here.

My day-to-day blog here.

Visit me elsewhere! :-D

2009-06-26T00:00:00.001-04:00

Well, I think I'm going to be able to let my Practically Moral, my writing, and my music blogs rest. I initially created them so I wouldn't post loooong bits about veganism or album covers or plotting on my regular blog, but I've since learned to write shorter entries. I won't delete these, in case the need for loooooong self-involved posts arise again, but otherwise I'm spending my time on my home page and on A Great Attraction.

Hm!

2009-05-20T00:45:00.002-04:00

From New York Times. Sad for peeps like me who pay their bills! But, they also want to push for clearer language and less deception when changing rules, which is good:

Now Congress is moving to limit the penalties on riskier borrowers, who have become a prime source of billions of dollars in fee revenue for the industry. And to make up for lost income, the card companies are going after those people with sterling credit.

Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.

Blog Revision! Chaos ensues...

2009-05-12T03:54:00.004-04:00

THE SKINNY: To see regular updates on food issues, check out my Great Attraction blog. Otherwise I will only be updating this blog when the speechify mood hits.

So, like, I have a lot of opinions. On just about everything. And because I'm a writer by nature, I like getting them out of my system, which is how I ended up with 4 topical blogs. From the start I decided to focus on just getting my ideas *on paper* without worrying whether anyone read them. But my sense of organization led me to being more and more org'd, and posting on specific days of the week, bla bla bla. And now it's time to pare down again.

So the moral/music/writing blogs will return to being randomly updated. 4 postings one day... and then none for 2 months... whatevah. And I'll continue my casual posting on my Home blog.

But the only topic blog I'll update at regular intervals will be the "ahhh we're so superficial!" one. Any Practically Moral topics that I think will go well with the "ahhh we're so superficial!" blog, I'll post there instead.

So... farewell until I have something to say!

Oh you pesky water bottles.

2009-05-10T01:50:00.003-04:00

I'm in for this "Federation of Canadian Municipalities" group who are encouraging municipalities from selling bottled water--in part just to educate people on how safe tap water is here, and how much tax money is spent dealing with water bottle waste.

When I strangely listened to my father, in Cegep, and took a MATH course (I still can't believe I did that!) and of course FAILED (though it was the best math teacher I'd ever had, and I enjoyed listening to the lecture part)... I had to take an extra course in the summer. A counsellor suggested Chemistry of the Environment, which I loved, so I've never regretted the math thing.

Anyway, he spent a whole section on bottled water. (This was in 1992.) He said the only thing to be found in bottled water, other than tap, was the minerals--potassium and such. If you're not checking that out, there's no other reason to be drinking it.

(He also dissed Brita filters.)

So I never got into the whole bottled water thing. Thanks to early Cegep science teacher brainwashing. Yay for higher learnin'!

Up on the soapbox: A tip on leading an ethical life?

2009-05-03T16:15:00.005-04:00

According to this New York Times science article, some studies have found correlations between self-control and religion. That is, religious people have more of it. And this is not the case for someone who just goes to church for the prestige or some other extrinsic motivation, or for people who are "spiritual."

I must say, this sounds true to me. From the age of 15 til about 23 I went to a somewhat strict church, and for most of that time this church followed the Old Testament laws. In other words, we kept the Jewish holidays and food laws (though sometimes interpreted a little differently.) For about 7 years I didn't eat pork or shellfish, and I kept the Sabbath from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.

While I don't have any sort of organized religion in my life anymore (and that church underwent a radical change to become more mainstream--in a good way), I don't regret the years I spent following strict rules, which I had internalized and believed in. Because what I walked away with was this value: That if you really believe something is true, then your only moral choice is to follow that to the best of your ability. It's what I think of as integrity: The disparate parts of my life need to be brought in line with my core beliefs.

So I agree with the author and scientist in this article, that you don't need to be a church goer, or believe in God, in order to have self-control. But you need (to quote the article) to give "your personal goals an aura of sacredness." Which doesn't mean you can't challenge and question what you believe, but in the meantime, you actually practice what you preach.

And in the end, I think this lends you a certain sort of happiness or sense of peace, because you feel comfortable in morally ambiguous territory, and content that you're doing your best to live life the way you think it ought to be led.

...And that's the word. Yo. [Because White People Life self aware hiphop talk.]

Joseph Campbell, and What Did I Learn in Schoolz?

2009-04-29T05:25:00.004-04:00

I wrote earlier that I wanted to get back to my Book Club of One (you'll see I've even made a tag for it.) And one thought was... have my thoughts or ideas changed since studying developing areas for 5 years since the last time I read these books. Not that I wasn't thinking about issues of development before, but, my knowledge is better fleshed out now.
So. Before I went back to school I believed you need to keep a proper perspective on both the individual and the group. But I'd say that schoolio has given me a deeper perspec on this. My awareness of just how extremely individualistic western society is has been heightened--everything from the way we build to "Human Rights" language.

I think what many westernee people really miss when thinking about issues of women's property rights, clothing, legal rights, whatever, in say Muslim societies (but not restricted to-) is how strong your identity can be in the group.

Since the Enlightenment we've been on a one-way track to the individual, and we take it as a gien that individual identity and therefore rights is always the best thing. Certainly I think it comes with a lot of Great Things. But we're so entrenched in it that we end up on this Moral High Horse about the way everyone else lives or thinks or legislates, and it's almost impossible for us to understand.

In postcolonial studies we talk a lot about The Other: Ways in which we make other people/societies into something so different, apart from, and foreign to us that we can then stand outside and judge, or feel superior to, or use, or stereotype, or steal from. Well the ultimate examples of Othering might be the way the Nazis portrayed the Jews, or how Americans (and I mean all, from South to North) saw Africans when they enslaved them. That's where this thinking will get you--you dehumanize people.

I think we do some automatic dehumanizing when we read a Scandalous Headline about a stoning in a North African country, and we see the men involved as monsters. I'm pretty out for stoning people but... what the hell do I know about having a collective sense of identity, where one person's acts might shame everyone else's? Having been raised by young, not really religious, white parents, I have no concept of this. I don't mean I no longer have the right to believe it's wrong to kill someone for having sex outside of marriage, but I think there's still a difference between my beliefs, and my ability to understand and have compassion for other human beings. To not be so fucking judgmental.

And maybe I don't always have the right ideas on how to balance the personal and the collective. The thing that struck me most when I read a travel diary of a Canadian woman in Iran (Honeymoon in Tehran) was the collective nature of everything. She'd be arguing with a cab driver about a fare, and half the passerbys would stop and take sides. It usually ended with someone taking her away to their own car so they could drive her for free, but while she's at it she should come for supper, and come meet my family, and next thing she knew she'd have spent the day with strangers rather than at some monument.

Now imagine immigrating from a society like that, to a Canadian city. How cold we must seem! (Except my husband, who does talk to strangers and take them around town. Which is one reason I love him.)

So that's one thing that's changed. I like it when Joseph Campbell expresses the idea of being simultaneously an individual, and part of the whole world; and people who still live in strongly communal societies are surely much better at conceiving the "with the world" side of that equation than I am.

***The Campbell Portion of This Posting***

In Hero With a 1000 Faces Campbell writes about this idea, re. the hero journey. The hero Theseus was given a thread to unravel as he walked through the labyrinth, so he could find his way out again after slaying the minotaur. But Campbell argues that although the last step of the Hero Journey is always taken alone, you're never really alone:

"Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; and where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world."

Ah. My FAVE Campbell quote of all time.

Science applied, but maybe not so pure

2009-04-26T15:57:00.002-04:00

From a piece in the New York Times science section, the Tierney Lab, about mixing politics with science:

What would honest brokers tell the president about global warming? Dr. Pielke, who calls himself an Obamite, says he’s concerned that the presidents’ advisers seem uniformly focused on cutting carbon emissions through a domestic cap-and-trade law and a new international treaty.
It’s fine to try that strategy, he says, but there are too many technological, economic and political uncertainties to count on it making a significant global difference. If people around the world can’t be cajoled — or frightened by apocalyptic scenarios — into cutting carbon emissions, then politicians need backup strategies.
One possibility, Dr. Pielke says, would be to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the future. He calculates that it could cost about the same, in the long run, as making drastic cuts in emissions today, and could be cheaper if the technology improves. It could also be a lot easier sell to the public.
Yet research into this strategy has received little financing in past budgets or the new stimulus package because it doesn’t jibe with the agenda of either side in the global-warming debate. Greens don’t want this sort of “technological fix”; their opponents don’t want to admit there’s anything to fix. And neither side’s advocates will compromise as long as they think that science will prove them right.

Oh Lawd, the idiots strike again. Go away!

2009-04-22T00:31:00.000-04:00

Those Skinny Bitches make me bitch bitch bitch!

2009-04-19T02:20:00.000-04:00

I can't read people's diet blogs and judge whether they sound unhealthy or not, because I've never had an eating disorder. My analysis tends to be more along the sophisticated lines of: That's stoopid. So it interests me when others can bring that sort of light to their critiques.

I was reading amazon reviews of Skinny Bitch the other day (because I wanted to revel in the low-star reviews, of which there were many), and one commenter said the entire book sounded like the diary of an anorexic. (See below.)

...Whereas when I read the book, all I could think was: What a bunch of unconscionable, unsupported BULLshit. Most of the negative reviews on amazon simply say: This is veganism, which is fine, but (a) they shouldn't disguise that fact, and (b) it's a shitty book about veganism. Which was my opinion too when I read it.

I work at a bookstore and whenever a customer buys it, I TELL them it's a vegan diet. "Really??" (And from the cashier next to me: Really??) And I make sure to stress our 14 day return policy.

The other day I had the absolute pleasure of dissuading a woman from even looking at Skinny Bun in the Oven, their Shitty Vegan Pregnancy Book. (Grrrrrrr!!!!!!!) When the woman learned it promoted a vegan diet, she was uninterested... as well she should be. I'm a vegan, but if I were pregnant I'd at least go vegetarian for the duration. I don't believe in risking another person's life for my political choice.

I then helped her pick out books on pregnancy nutrition, and recommended a Michael Pollan book.

*

As an ex-anorexic friend of mine said, this book is awesome for people in the throes of the disease because it basically gives you permission to food-restrict and negatively self-talk all you want, two of the behaviors that therapists try to eliminate in eating-disorder patients.

I truly believe this book is not about veganism. This book is about how to practice a special brand of anorexia in which you view food as evil and avoid putting it into your body, but you still eat enough of certain things to avoid criticism from friends and family, under the guise of this pro-animal-rights philosophical viewpoint. The language they use is very similar to the language you see on pro-anorexia websites maintained by women whose goal is to trade tips for how not to eat and reinforce each other's philosophy and behavior. Those websites have the same "us against the world" and "other people think we're crazy but we're doing the right thing" tone. [Gadgetchick on amazon.com]

More worms! More dirt! More more!

2009-04-15T06:49:00.000-04:00

I read a recent article (don't remember where) about the detrimental effects of eliminating peanuts from the public space--that it may instead result in more or more severe peanut allergies. It reminded me of a study I'd heard of years ago, that children who grow up on farms have less asthma and such than kids who grow up in cities; that a little dirt goes a long way.

Apparently there are more and more studies supporting this latter fact. They're especially finding that not enough exposure to worms might be causing "inflammatory diseases — multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and asthma," and they're using worms to lessen people's symptoms. (From NYT article.)

Oh the weird relationship to the foods...

2009-04-12T01:53:00.000-04:00

I happened across a blog about an opera singer whose been losing weight and tracking it. I haven't read the details, but I gather she had Type II diabetes, and has managed to reverse that.

But I came across a posting where she Confesses to having binged. This is her idea of a binge: She made cookies, ate "too much" of the batter, and then ate one of the cookies.

She goes on and on, in the post and in her comments, that this isn't about having eaten dessert--it's that she ate when she wasn't hungry, and in an unplanned manner, and didn't listen to her body, etc. Whatever. But quel use of the word "binge." ...It's like an alcoholic having one drink and calling it a Lost Weekend.

Book of Negroes and Expectations

2009-04-08T04:10:00.003-04:00

*I originally wrote this on my writing blog... but it's really themed more around romance and humour. Whereas this site is for the depressing topics. So I transplanted it here. ;-)

__

One of the best books I've read on writing fiction is actually a dense and difficult little volume called The Fiction Editor, the Novel and the Novelist by Thomas McCormack. I've read it twice, and will read it again, because his ideas require a certain amount of unpacking; but there are some good ideas that have stuck.

Among other things, he goes into great detail about setting up reader's expectations, and then fulfilling them. In a more sophisticated way than the classic Gun Introduced In Act One example. And I'm thinking about that right now, and about the expectations I have as a reader before I even open the book. Expectations set by the cover art, the reviews on the back, whether the book won awards, what genre it is, whether it's been recommended to me, etc.

If I start reading a book that's won literary praise or awards, that's the bell that sets off my Pavlovian panting for a rich reading experience. The characters can have every sort of horror happen to them, or all die by the end, but I expect (a) strong writing; and (b) to be moved, or have something deep to think about, or for the book to stay with me for awhile, etc.

I'm thinking about all this because I finished The Book of Negroes this week, and experienced a mild letdown. After seeing all the 5 star reviews, and its winning Canada Reads, and after having it recommended to me... I expected to be left with a stronger impression. Like... a heavy meal in my stomach, lots of digesting still to be done.

I suspect Oprah has this kind of sense, because the two Oprah picks I ever read were fantastic: Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible and Mistry's A Fine Balance. I recommend the latter all the time, because I just loved those characters so much, and really really cared about what happened to them.

But Book of Negroes has left me feeling mildly indifferent. The book starts off strong, and it was as page-turning as a thriller. Hill obviously researched the bejeezuz out of this material (the Atlantic slave trade, slavery in Southern Carolina, the lives of free blacks in Nova Scotia, and the colonization of Sierra Leone), and the wealth of detail is what makes the first half of the book so engrossing.

The last half or quarter, however... meh. I was really interested in the lives of freed slaves in Nova Scotia, since I'm Canadian and so is the author. I mean, we all sorta *know* how horrific slavery was in the American south, but I've never studied the early black communities in Canada. And I've never studied the colonization of Sierra Leone, or other Back to Africa movements. But it feels like, by the time he got to these sections, he was exhausted or overcome by the breadth of the novel. The Sierra Leone section is especially rushed.

And through all this rushing from one city to another, one decade of this woman's life to another, I lost touch with her. Not to mention she's--I hate to say it--what in Fantasy circles would be called a Mary Sue. I understand the desire to show a smart, educated black protagonist, suceeding despite her circumstances... but after awhile she became so exceptional, so universally loved, so accomplished, I sort of stopped worrying about her. "Aw whatevah, she'll be fine. But what happened to this woman? Let's follow her instead!" I missed many of the characters who dropped away because the heroine moved on, or the author randomly killed them off.

And when a book is this long (it's not long in terms of pages, but in terms of how much time is covered), I expect a heavy-deep ending to creeeep up on me. If anything, the theme of the book was too obvious to be interesting. The author used one of my fave Bible quotes at the beginning: I hate set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life," and the theme was present throughout. It was about surviving no matter what; about clinging to life even when death is so tempting. But I feel like the message could have been more delicately interwoven through the book; or the idea could have been challenged by other characters; or it could have been an idea the heroine really struggled with. And it's the same with the other themes--about having a recognized identity, and origin. I felt sort of bludgeoned over the head with them.

I've never read Toni Morrisson, but I watched the movie version Oprah made of Beloved, and which people didn't exactly flock to see because it's a long, dark, creepy and difficult story. And even though the book takes place sort of post-slavery--it's about a horrible act committed by a woman to keep her children from being enslaved, and the after effects of that--it left a much deeper impression on me than Book of Negroes. Ah well... maybe it's not fair to compare anyone to Morrisson.

Anyway. Just needed to think this out. ;-)

Can't afford your friends?

2009-04-05T01:22:00.002-04:00

I can't imagine my social life being affected by how much money I make. I mean, yes in terms of where (or whether) I could eat out, perhaps. But to actually "part ways" with friends because we're not in the same social group? That's too weird for my to contemplate.

[from a NYT article about executives taking low paying jobs]

After applying for more than 100 jobs, mostly director-level and above in marketing and branding, and getting just two interviews, Ms. Arlt said she realized last fall that she had to do something to “close the monthly financial hemorrhage.”
Her new job at HometownQuotes pays $10 to $15 an hour and has mostly entailed data entry. But even though she has parted ways with some friends because she is no longer in their social stratum, Ms. Arlt said she was glad she was no longer sitting at home, “thinking, ‘Who have I not heard from today?’ ”

No fish for kitteh!

2009-04-01T01:09:00.002-04:00

This article is a little strange.

The author is talking about the use of "foraged fish" in the animal feed industry--they're fed to farmed salmon, pigs, chickens, and pets. Pet food constitutes 10% of the industry. So he concludes people should hesitate before taking in a dog or cat--we should instead have vegetarian pets, like hamsters.

Or, he suggests, feed your cat a vegan diet, with supplements. Meanwhile, he suggests it's still ok to feed fish to salmon, because that's what they naturally eat anyway.

Like... cats don't eat fish naturally? In a household with humans, dogs and cats--the cats are the only ones who are true carnivores. Wild cats do not eat carrots. It's my understanding that the switch to dry kibble, which is mostly made of grain and carbohydrates, is the cause of most kitty health problems.

What I don't get is why the dude would recommend making Fluffy a vegan, but not recommend humans become vegetarians (or eat less meat, or eat animals raised on proper feed) --since feeding fish to cattle constitutes a bigger part of the industry than pet food.

I can think of other moral arguments for not owning pets... and I care about the fishies (and those who depend on them to live) but... this article was just weird.

Back to the books!

2009-03-29T03:48:00.002-04:00

When I finished school a year ago I was in the mood to re-read a few of my "core" books, or the core books of friends that I had read and got something out of. I think after studying developing countries for five years, I wanted to go back to Yea Aulde Texts and see how I would now see them.

I decided to go in chronological order. So I started with a piece a friend wanted to read--an essay (on the brevity of life or something? For some reason I can never remember the title or author.) Then I re-read Walden (the best parts version) and some other Thoreau essays. Totally loved that. In for a lot of Thoreau. Next I re-read Siddhartha, but then I stopped, and I haven't gotten back on track.

Just now I was making a blog post and needed to check up on a Joseph Campbell quote, which reminded me of my Book Club For One--since it was leading to Campbell. Next on the docket was actually Ayn Rand's Virtue of Selfishness (should be an interesting re-read in the light of the current econ crisis)... I'll either stick to the Rand, or jump straight to Campbell. Either way, I think I'll make my next read a non-fiction one.

As I was flipping through the Campbell I kept coming across great bits. Here's one:

"There is a definition of God which has been repeated by many philosophers. God is an intelligible sphere--a sphere known to the mind, not to the senses--whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. And the center, Bill, is right where you're sitting. And the other one is right where I'm sitting. And each of us is a manifestation of that mystery. ... What you have here is what might be translated into raw individualism, you see, if you didn't realize that the center was also right there facing you in the other person. This is the mythological way of being an individual. You are the central mountain, and the central mountain is everywhere."

( The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers 111-12)

More AIG: This is long, so I've separated it into chapters

2009-03-27T01:54:00.006-04:00

(I've gone off schedule, posting these AIG things. But... some stories need to be posted when still au courant!)

Chapter One: The Newest News!

Oh my gosh, this AIG thing... it's like a great soap opera! The latest (in the NY Times): "The following is a letter sent on Tuesday by Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit, to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G."

"I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage." (Read here, it's worth it.)

It's whiny sounding, but the dude does give more detail into what's going on. And I get the dude's point that Liddy reassured these peeps they would get these bonuses. And I get his point that not everyone in that department was responsible for the shit that went down. On the other hand... he probably could have defended himself a little, without all the details that will now make us mock him too. For example: "Just for the record, not all of us in the department were ALSO the ones who did The Shit! Yo! Just sayin'!" (Oh wait... it's only middle class liberal pseudo hippies like me who use Self Aware Hip Hop References. This commentor says it better.)

But when you start trying to tell us how hard off you will be now... come on... what sort of lifestyle are you leading that requires this level of income just to get through the week? This is the part where I feel like Wall Street Peeples are massively out of touch. They could lower their standard of living even to, say, West Island Middle Class... and they'd have enough to live on for how long? They could have all hit early retirement before any of this went down, if they cared to live like the Commoners. (Barring the things the you need to spend money on in order to work in certain circles... the suits... the business lunches... but I'm sure that's a small %.)

Chapter Two: Comments by NYT Readers!

When you're done, read some of the 917 comments. You can sort them by Editor's Picks, or Readers' Picks etc. Here are the highest "I agree with!" readers' comments:

"I wonder if he is aware that across the country, workers making less than one-tenth of his bonus in annual salary are agreeing to pay cuts, reductions in hours, and withdrawal of promised perks in order to save their coworkers' jobs."

"I'm sorry to say that your email reveals less about why you deserve your bonus and the moral rightness of your argument than the sense of entitlement that has blinded you to your company's practices and your role in benefiting from them."

[This is my fave:]
"The company where I was a janitor went out of business. It wasn't my fault, I kept the floor clean. The taxpayers should be paying my salary."

[And for a different, but still popular opinion...]
"Dear AIG I quit" is a brilliant letter. If the publicity-seeking Attorney's General, who shot their mouths off for their own political gain, had only taken the time to comprehend the facts, they would not have fed the out-of-control frenzy that emanated from the American public which, taken as a whole, is poorly educted, won't read and learn or understand, and can be played like a banjo by those who would seek to smear the current administration. Bravo Mr. DeSantis."

...And Editor's Choice:

"Hint: If your company accepts tens of billions of dollars from taxpayers, consider your bonus renegotiated."

"If the shipping department screws up and costs the company money, then the warehouse guys are not getting a raise. If the doctor makes a mistake and causes a huge lawsuit for the hospital, then raises for nurses and janitors goes down the drain. In this economic climate, how can you expect otherwise?
Wow - you got over $700K for one year of work? Couldn't you have lived on a half of that? Do you realize how lucky you are to even make half as much?"

"So he was shamed into an epiphany. Well at least he had one."

Chapter Three: The Mature Comments!

Seems someone had to Be the Adult and make reasonable points, reasonably expressed...

Adult 1
"Instead of positioning yourself as a victim of the consequences, you might (collectively) have predicted the government and public reaction to your pay structure, and suggested more equitable and sustainable pay in October.

"Rather than quitting and charitably donating what you believe was fairly earned, you might be continuing to provide invaluable services to AIG, and more importantly, to the national and international economic recovery. Your industry desperately needs people with your ability to work constructively within a compromised system and devise practical solutions.
More importantly, it needs people like you who can factor in the actual social and political variables in our country without capitulating to fear and threat."

Adult 2
"When you say that last fall many of you stayed at A.I.G. precisely because you were told that your contracts would be honored, can you understand that some of us wish that many of you would have stayed on simply because of your sense of pride in your work, and because of your sense of duty and patriotism?

"Please understand: I do not question your patriotism, nor do I condone the wanton attacks on your profession. I have no doubt that the situation was mishandled, in part because we are all panicked a little, and in part because politicians are politicians.
But, Mr. DeSantis you are not like the plumber who should be paid for his work because it was the electrician's fault that the house burned down. It's a lot more like we've got bombs dropping on our heads and many of us are getting killed, or living in bomb shelters. The lines at soup kitchens are growing, we've got ghost towns where people have had to abandon their homes, we've got an entire generation of people who don't know if they will ever get jobs, because they are not quite as brilliant and hard working as you and I are. That in itself is not a crime, and people don't deserve to be homeless just because they are ordinary folks. Last time the world financial situation resembled the present one, the world went so crazy that millions of people were murdered in a war that engulfed the world!

"You should not be vilified because you are working in the financial world, but nor should you behave as if all that's happened was that one house burned down. Our entire world is in danger of burning down. Come and join the rest of us in asking what you can do for your country and for your fellow human beings..."

Chapter Four: The Adults Get Me Thinking...

I appreciate the Adults, because I believe those are the people who can actually reach the intended audience. If this DeSantis is reading the NYT comments (who wouldn't be??) he's only going to feel defensive over the ones that amuse us the most. But the people who give polite, patient, reasoned answers might actually mean something to him.

I think what Adult 2 said is what little Tommy Friedman was trying to say. I don't think he was defending Rich Folk, so much as pointing out a possibly more effective way of facing the bonus scandal. When Obama was running for Prez, a lot of what people liked about him was that he inspired, and made many people *want to be better people.* I heard that over and over. So if anyone could have said something inspiring, yet subtly shaming, and gotten away with it, it would have been him. ...Whereas my initial approach of calling AIG folk Unsexy Vampires... maybe less effective.

It reminds me of that old experiment, where students who were treated as smart and gifted excelled pretty much for the rest of their lives, versus students who were told they were slow. If you call on people to be Heroes! by working for little pay to restore AIG (see the next comment), then maybe you'll evoke their better natures. Rather than putting them in a position of defending themselves from being crooks.

Maybe I'm being unrealistic. Well... optimists are less in touch with reality, but we stay afloat longer because of it. (The rats!) ;-) I know I'm channelling Joseph Campbell here:

"Solo was a very practical guy, at least as he thought of himself, a materialist. But he was a compassionate human being at the same time and didn't know it. The adventure evoked a quality of his character that he hadn't known he possessed. ... Our life evokes our character. You find out more about yourself as you go on. That's why it's good to be able to put yourself in situations that will evoke your higher nature rather than your lower."

So... is it not possible that we can also put other people in situations that will evoke their higher nature? As opposed to the Wall Street atmosphere they're used to, that probably evokes lower natures on a daily basis.

A little more AIG

2009-03-25T00:51:00.002-04:00

Here's a little of NYT columnist Thomas Friedman on AIG. Hmm I wonder if this is true. Well, the thing I have some confidence in is--Obama is probably the type who listens to Wise Counsel and learns from mistakes. As opposed to Bush.

Had Mr. Obama given A.I.G.’s American brokers a reputation to live up to, a great national mission to join, I’d bet anything we’d have gotten most of our money back voluntarily. Inspiring conduct has so much more of an impact than coercing it. And it would have elevated the president to where he belongs — above the angry gaggle in Congress.
“There is nothing more powerful than inspirational leadership that unleashes principled behavior for a great cause,” said Dov Seidman, the C.E.O. of LRN, which helps companies build ethical cultures, and the author of the book “How.” What makes a company or a government “sustainable,” he added, is not when it adds more coercive rules and regulations to control behaviors. “It is when its employees or citizens are propelled by values and principles to do the right things, no matter how difficult the situation,” said Seidman. “Laws tell you what you can do. Values inspire in you what you should do. It’s a leader’s job to inspire in us those values.”
Right now we have an absence of inspirational leadership.

Batwoman is gay!

2009-03-22T23:49:00.003-04:00

I never knew. She's Jewish too. She wasn't one of the superheroes women I grew up on (I was into She-Hulk, Spiderwoman, Isis, and of course Wonder Woman.) probably because her comics were only sporadically produced, until she was relaunched in 2006.

Apparently she's in the closet, though. Hopefully she'll come out at some point.

AIG lolcat

2009-03-22T00:42:00.002-04:00

Since Friend Paul suggested this phrase in comment to my last posting...

Millions are still millions

2009-03-21T05:16:00.005-04:00

So the new commentary I've been seeing re. the AIG bonuses is that people are blowing it out of proportion. That is to say, that the millions in bonuses is very small, compared to the billions given in bailout money. So, like, "Hey it's only a small percentage of your bailout money... so chill!"

I feel like this massively misses the point, especially in light of the fact that the bonuses went to the division guilty in large part for the economic mess. To me, the scandal isn't that bailout money is going to bonuses, but that these people are getting bonuses at all.

First: What is the point of giving bonuses that aren't tied to performance? Oh I remember... to retain talent. Ah. If they're so durned talented... won't they show great results, and still earn performance-based bonuses?

Second: Even just one million dollars is totally obscene to the overwhelming majority of Americans who make Ordinary Incomes, pay taxes, and are being affected by this depression.

The income disparity between Wall Street Fat Cats and Ordinary Folk is obscene at the best of times... but for the WSFCs (who are in part TO BLAME) to still be taking home millions, when the OFs are losing their jobs and homes...

As Judge Judy would say: Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining.

Multivitamins are not food

2009-03-18T19:49:00.000-04:00

Results from a well conducted study of 161,808 women:

"While research shows that people who eat nutrient-rich diets filled with fruits and vegetables have lower rates of heart disease and cancer, it hasn’t been clear whether taking a daily supplement results in a similar benefit. After following the women for about eight years, they looked at rates of various cancers and heart problems among the 42 percent of women who were regular multivitamin users, and compared them to those who didn’t take vitamins. The researchers found no evidence of any benefit from multivitamin use in any of 10 categories studied, including no differences in the rate of breast or colon cancer, heart attack, stroke, blood clots or mortality."

This sounds just like the tests where they found that beta carotene in carrot form provides benefits, but beta carotene added to food or taken as a supplement does zilch.

Surpriiiize surpriiiize.

AIG!!! The frontline is everywhere

2009-03-16T19:07:00.006-04:00

I was going to post this story, about AIG giving out billion dollar bonuses to the very people who helped create the financial crisis. But today I see there's already been an update--Obama calling for the Teasury secretary to find any legal means of blocking them.

The government dude who argued, reluctantly, that the bonuses have to be paid out said it was for two reasons. First, that the bonuses were promised long ago, and were legally binding. Second, that they still have to retain talent, in order to make AIG profitable again (for the tax payers who now own it.) But question is... what talent?? These are the mf's who sold the derivatives in the first place!

These people really are living on another fucking planet. This is the reason why Brahm Stoker envisioned the aristocrat as bloodsucking, amoral and afraid of the light. And not to belittle those who died on Sep 11, but even Al-Queda didn't pull off something this destructive. And now... the poor little boys need their bonuses. ...So that their talent can be retained.

Rage Against the Machine: No Shelter
Because: I love the line "the frontline is everywhere"

Which is why I am not anti-abortion

2009-03-11T00:29:00.002-04:00

I think some people approach abortion a little too cavalierly. One friend compared an abortion to cutting off your arm, but your arm will never grow into an independent human being. You're not growing an arm, you're growing a thing which has the brain and nerve capacity to grow its own arms. I don't know of any realistic analogy you can make--the act of growing a baby in your body is in a class all its own (as I'm sure any woman who's had to carry and birth one would attest.)

So, like, I try to be, generally speaking, in for living things, which makes me pro-animal protection, and against the death sentence as well.

However. I'm against making abortion illegal. And I would never be all judgee against someone who had one, and I can't say I wouldn't ever choose to have one myself.

And of course, a 9 year old who is pregnant because of being molested, and who would probably die if she gave birth because she's so slim, is one of those obvious *extreme cases* which show why abortion should be legal.

I am referring to this story out of Brazil, though the abortion in question was not illegal--it was just anti-Catholic church. The doctors and mother involved have been excommunicated. Possibly this is a sad thing for them; but the really barfy part of the story is this:

Upon learning of the abortion, the regional archbishop excommunicated the doctors, as well as the girl's mother. He did not excommunicate the step-father, saying the crime he is alleged to have committed, although deplorable, was not as bad as ending a fetus's life.
"The law of God is higher than any human laws," Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho said in an interview on Globo television. "When a human law is against the law of God, that law has no value." (CBC news)

The Catholic Church... has become so unspeakably out of touch with this planet... I... I... they render me speechless. Well, almost speechless: AHHHHHH!

Want to know how The Other Half lives?

2009-03-08T17:18:00.003-04:00

In detail? From a NYTimes article on the lifestyles of the kind of people who would be affected by Obama's proposed $500 000 salary cap:

If a person is married with two children:

1. Weekly deductions on a $500,000 salary are:

federal taxes, $2,645;
Social Security, $596;
Medicare, $139;
state taxes, $682;
and city, $372,
bringing the weekly take-home to $5,180, or about $269,000 a year

2. Living expenses:

2 vacations a year, a winter trip to the sun and a spring trip to the ski slopes: Total minimum cost: $16,000.

three-bedroom apartment (purchased for $1.5 million)
monthly mortgage $8,000
co-op maintenance fee of $8,000 a month

summer house in Southampton (cost $4 million)
monthly mortgage payments of $20,000.

cars and drivers:
chauffeur’s pay: $75,000 - $125,000 a year (the higher end for former police officers who can double as bodyguards)
garage for car: $700 a month.

A personal trainer at $80 an hour three times a week comes to about $12,000 a year.

Charity galas: $10,000 - $15,000 on a dress --> 3-4 dresses/year

Each Brooks Brothers suit costs about $1,000

Children:
private school $32,000 a year per student.
additional tutoring (needed for those private schools) $125-175 / hour
SAT tutors are about $250 an hour.
Nanny: $45,000.

$425 every 10 days on groceries

Restaurants.
Dry cleaning.
kennels for the dog when the family is away
summer camp,
spas and other grooming for the human members of the family,
donations to charity
frozen hot chocolates at Serendipity ($8.50 each)
TOTAL: about $790,750

Institutional Racism

2009-03-01T05:00:00.000-05:00

Did I ever write up this story? Many years ago I was having a conversation with a fairly new friend and John Singleton's Higher Education came up. The movie wasn't perfect, but I really liked it and took away one particular idea that I'll share another time.

If you haven't seen the movie: It's about a small town white boy who goes away to college, and he's a bit awkward and misfitty. He tries to befriend chicks, his Jewish roommate, the Black guys, etc. and they all think he's weird and tell him to fuck off. So when he's befriended by a gang of skinheads, he finally feels welcome, and like he belongs, and special. I think Singleton was trying to, somehow, realistically show how someone could go as far as joining a white supremacy group and killing people.

New Friend, who saw a lot of movies, didn't enjoy it at all. New Friend didn't like the fact that there was no sympathetic white male character he could identify with. (Besides the Jewish dude, the only other White guy ends up raping a girl.)

I remember this conversation clearly. We were a small crew working an overnight shift--we were near the elevators, pulling returns and conversing. And I was (as I love to quote the cop in Casablanca) shocked--Shocked!

New Friend was a tall, athletic, good looking, blonde white male. I mean, he was The Man! I said: "But 99.9% of every other movie you've ever seen has a sympathetic White lead you can identify with!! You can't sit through one movie where you're not represented??"

I don't know if the point got across. But anyway--that's the best personal example I have of institutionalized racism. Of the realization that you are SO immersed in your superior societal position, you can't see it. And I can't point fingers--as a White, average-weighing, blonde (if fake) I take that societal position for granted all the time. Only once in awhile does my being female give me the Other experience.

Anyway--here's a list called The Daily Effects of White Privilege. I'll just list a few--the full list is at the link. I think you can replace race with a few other things, like sexual orientation. It's less replacable with gender. Some even apply to being overweight (like "I can shop without being harrassed.")

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair.

15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.

20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race. (Ouch!)

21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.

24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.

26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.

31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices. (Like arguing about gay marriage when it will never apply to you!)

34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.

36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.

45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race.

46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin. (Well, I do believe Crayola changed the crayon.)

47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us.

This April on PBS: We Shall Remain

2009-02-23T22:24:00.001-05:00

HOLY CRAP! Swis style.

2009-02-22T17:18:00.003-05:00

"In the hush-hush world of Swiss banking, the unthinkable is happening: secrets are spilling into the open.

UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland, agreed on Wednesday to divulge the names of well-heeled Americans whom the authorities suspect of using offshore accounts at the bank to evade taxes. The bank admitted conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and agreed to pay $780 million to settle a sweeping federal investigation into its activities."

(from the New York Times)

Test: How to know if you're a feminist

2009-02-15T00:04:00.000-05:00

I occasionally catch Mad Men, but it's hard to watch. The next time a 20 year old woman says she isn't a feminist I'll tell her watch this show. "If you don't like the way men talk to women in this show... then you're a feminist."

You know you've lived in a war zone too long...

2009-02-08T05:10:00.005-05:00

If you know how to whip up a fire and boil your tea when your house has been bombed. In Survivor that's, like, the hardest skill they have to master.

(From a series of photos of Gaza.)

Really, really good column

2009-02-01T16:51:00.005-05:00

Great David Brook's column, this week in the New York Times. (And I guess I'm not the only one to think so, it got 400+ comments. And they're even sorted so you see the good letters first! The ones the editors thought most interesting.)

...This approach is deeply consistent with the individualism of modern culture, with its emphasis on personal inquiry, personal self-discovery and personal happiness. But there is another, older way of living, and it was discussed in a neglected book that came out last summer called “On Thinking Institutionally” by the political scientist Hugh Heclo.
In this way of living, to borrow an old phrase, we are not defined by what we ask of life. We are defined by what life asks of us. As we go through life, we travel through institutions — first family and school, then the institutions of a profession or a craft.

...Institutions do all the things that are supposed to be bad. They impede personal exploration. They enforce conformity. But they often save us from our weaknesses and give meaning to life.

Not worth the brain cells

2009-01-25T01:16:00.003-05:00

When I saw the preview to The Bride Wars I was immediately turned off. I didn't even need to think Long and Hard about why I would hate such a movie--there's a part of my brain that just says "Block it out, T-Scone--it's so sexist, you don't even need to waste brain cells on it."

But I'm still glad there's a film reviewer who put it into words:

"We can’t always understand why these things happen. All I can say is: it is a kind of insidious evil writ cute, and it’s OK to be angry. It’s OK to be infuriated by the revival of the archaic idea that women’s feral drive to couple up will eventually eclipse rational behaviour, professionalism, friendship."

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2009/01/08/f-bride-wars-review.html

My pen! They took my pen!!

2009-01-18T04:03:00.003-05:00

"Starting Jan. 1, the pharmaceutical industry has agreed to a voluntary moratorium on the kind of branded goodies — Viagra pens, Zoloft soap dispensers, Lipitor mugs — that were meant to foster good will and, some would say, encourage doctors to prescribe more of the drugs."(from New York Times article)

I'm in for the moratorium, even if these things aren't on the same level as the big money the pharms give to doctors--the fancy trips to tropical islands in order to watch an Education Presenation, for example. And I'm in, even if many doctors scoff at the idea that these pens influence them. Let's at least preserve some sort of veneer of impartiality.

A little political humour for ya...

2009-01-11T23:38:00.006-05:00

Watching author Khaled Hosseini being interviewed on Colbert. Colbert is suggesting Afghanistan just needs a new name, to make it sound better. Like: Laughghanistan!

But I also liked Hosseini's line re the idea that Afghanistan will need a lot of time to turn around, Americans must be patient. "You gave Axl Rose 17 years, so..."

And then when he said: "It's a marathon, not a sprint." Colbert replied: "So we need to send the Jamaicans!"

Knowing fo' shizzle.

2009-01-04T18:07:00.001-05:00

At the end of Oprah's magazine each month she has a column called "What I know for sure." Last month she listed her top 20 and asked other people for theirs'. The ones from other people are mostly stupid, or too long, or Don't Get the Point. So let's just look at Oprah's:

1. What you put out comes back all the time, no matter what. (This is my creed.)
* Disagree. What could a person possibly put out in the universe that requires them to be kidnapped by a serial killer, raped, mutilated, and then killed? What on earth could a child put out there, that comes back in the form of death by dirty water at age 5? Ease.

2. You define your own life. Don't let other people write your script.
* In. I mean, things happen to you outside your control, but you still have possession of your brain, and you get to decide how you'll perceive what's happening and how you'll respond to that. Since Victor Frankel came to this conclusion while in a concentration camp, I feel pretty comfortable agreeing.

3. Whatever someone did to you in the past has no power over the present. Only you give it power.
In.

4. When people show you who they are, believe them the first time. (A lesson from Maya Angelou.)
In.

5. Worrying is wasted time. Use the same energy for doing something about whatever worries you.
In.

6. What you believe has more power than what you dream or wish or hope for. You become what you believe.
In. I mean... if you believe you're a wizard, I don't think you'll turn into one. But within the laws of physics, I'm in for this one.

7. If the only prayer you ever say is thank you, that will be enough. (From the German theologian and humanist Meister Eckhart.)
Not very deep, but alright, I'm in.

8. The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you give.
Hmm... define happiness? I'm all in for the big L -- but it won't always make you happy, except maybe in some deep-peace sorta way.

9. Failure is a signpost to turn you in another direction.
I guess so. I mean, you don't have a choice but to try something else, non? I guess the other choice would be to give up.

10. If you make a choice that goes against what everyone else thinks, the world will not fall apart.
Definitely IN.

11. Trust your instincts. Intuition doesn't lie.
Hmmm... hhhhhmmmmmm... well, I think intuition is based on your own experience, so how good your instincts are probably relates to how wise you are. Maybe not everyone should depend on it. ;-)

12. Love yourself and then learn to extend that love to others in every encounter.
In.

13. Let passion drive your profession.
...Or your hobby. We still need garbage collectors.

14. Find a way to get paid for doing what you love. Then every paycheck will be a bonus.
We still need garbage collectors.

15. Love doesn't hurt. It feels really good.
Uhhhh in? Is this news? Love does invite hurt, though. Cause you make yourself vulnerable to those you love. It's part of the deal.

16. Every day brings a chance to start over.
Meh.

17. Being a mother is the hardest job on earth. Women everywhere must declare it so.
Probably true.

18. Doubt means don't. Don't move. Don't answer. Don't rush forward.
In.

19. When you don't know what to do, get still. The answer will come.
In. (Yoda taught me that one.)

20. "Trouble don't last always." (A line from a Negro spiritual, which calls to mind another favorite: This, too, shall pass.)

So depressing...

2008-12-29T17:50:00.002-05:00

Ohhh what lovely news. Why are people so shortsighted??

[From a Thomas Friedman article in New York Times]

How many times do we have to see this play before we admit that it always ends the same way?

Which play? The one where gasoline prices go up, pressure rises for more fuel-efficient cars, then gasoline prices fall and the pressure for low-mileage vehicles vanishes, consumers stop buying those cars, the oil producers celebrate, we remain addicted to oil and prices gradually go up again, petro-dictators get rich, we lose. I’ve already seen this play three times in my life. Trust me: It always ends the same way — badly.

So I could only cringe when reading this article from CNNMoney.com on Dec. 22: “After nearly a year of flagging sales, low gas prices and fat incentives are reigniting America’s taste for big vehicles. Trucks and S.U.V.’s will outsell cars in December ... something that hasn’t happened since February. Meanwhile, the forecast finds that sales of hybrid vehicles are expected to be way down.”
*

Plant-a-card. So cute.

2008-12-21T04:15:00.003-05:00

Well... often when we face restrictions, that's when we become more creative. So it's interesting to see the various eco ideas people are coming up with. Like the company (apparently from Manitoba) which makes cards (made of recycled products) you can then plant and get wildflowers.

I'd like to think Thoreau would approve

2008-12-14T22:12:00.003-05:00

Polar bear dip at Walden Pond to promote awareness of global warming. "Keep winter cold!" Mum and I always wanted to do the polar bear dip in Vancouver, but we could never get up early enough. They'd have to hold it at, like 8 PM, for me to feel awake and ready.

What have they done to the paperrrr...

2008-12-09T05:44:00.002-05:00

Uh oh... well... this is why the first R is REDUCE.

"The economic downturn has decimated the market for recycled materials like cardboard, plastic, newspaper and metals. Across the country, this junk is accumulating by the ton in the yards and warehouses of recycling contractors, which are unable to find buyers or are unwilling to sell at rock-bottom prices.
...

One reason prices slid so rapidly this time is that demand from China, the biggest export market for recyclables from the United States, quickly dried up as the global economy slowed. China’s influence is so great that in recent years recyclables have been worth much less in areas of the United States that lack easy access to ports that can ship there.

The downturn offers some insight into the forces behind the recycling boom of recent years. Environmentally conscious consumers have been able to pat themselves on the back and feel good about sorting their recycling and putting it on the curb. But most recycling programs have been driven as much by raw economics as by activism." (NY Times)

A Blue Christmas

2008-12-01T04:23:00.005-05:00

I've been hiding out from the news of the world all month, doing Nanowrimo (write a novel in one month.) Having gone to political science, I know a lot of news junkies--people who couldn't get away from their newspaper reading if they tried. I've never been like that. I like to know what's going on in the world, but I also accept that if I escape from it all for a little while, they won't notice I'm gone. What's sort of depressing is when I tune back in and find everything's the same!

The stories I couldn't avoid were the Mumbai killings and the shopper rampage at Walmart. Not a very merry start to the Christmas season.

:-(

On the other hand, withdrawing from the negative can sometimes help to refocus on the positive. No matter what anyone around me believes or tells me, I still think humans are just as capable of beauty as they are of ugliness. But we kinda hafta make that choice every day.

On that note, I'll post here The Most Depressing Christmas Song I Know. (It's not overtly Christmas, but it appeared on Judy Collins' Christmas album.) I had to upload it to youtube myself, and for all I know it'll get taken down--depends how Princelike she is. ;-)

The L Word

2008-11-22T02:45:00.003-05:00

I guess "liberal" is sort of a bad word in the US, or so I get the impression. Because it's a party here--and I guess because of Canada's more leftiness in general--I'm not used to thinking of it as something terrible.

But some people dislike liberalism for a different reason (different from "oh those fucking hippies" I mean) -- that is, because liberalism is about changing the world a little at a time, and they believe that never works.

I'm not sure how I feel on the topic... and I don't have a particularly well researched viewpoint here. (And I don't plan on researching one, cause I'm trying to write a novel darn it!) But my first thoughts are... (a) Not sure I know of any examples where radical change did more good than harm--including for the people it was supposed to help. At the very least they've brought about changes that are not really better or worse than in countries where change happened more gradually. (Eg. French revolution versus Britain's path to democracy.)

(b) Radical changes are often brought on by nature, or even hard-to-control things like the economy (almost a force of nature). But the poor and disenfranchised are the ones most vulnerable to those things.

(c) Maybe there's some sort of middle ground between radicalism and the sort of gradual change which is so gradual it's standing still. I'm thinking of the Civil Rights Movement in the US. People would say "Be patient, wait, change doesn't come overnight" so in the beginning there was perhaps too much Waiting. Then people got fed UP of waiting and started pushing the boundaries of Acceptable Protest. But I would still consider the actions people took as "liberal." Maybe... insistent liberalism. Most people weren't trying to overturn the system, they were trying to broaden it to be more inclusive.

So at the moment I'd have to say... liberalism seems like the only realistic, viable alternative to the status quo. It might sometimes be used to serve the status quo, it might be manipulated, it might allow for a zillion loopholes and for there still to be a wide gap between the top and bottom, but I'm not sure there's something better to put in its place.

South Africa is a good example. The end of apartheid hasn't brought a Utopia, there are still inequalities, and problems with how things are run, or who owns what, and there is a lot of criticism over how the transition happened and whether justice was really served. But I don't think you can say things are "worse." Having equal rights on paper is still better than institutionalized inequality.

I don't know... just some percolating thoughts. And now that's 457 words that went into this blog instead of into my book! I'm outta here.

Oh California...

2008-11-17T00:48:00.003-05:00

Why dost thou leave me with such mixed feelings! You are *in* for Proposition 2, which aims to raise the welfare of confined animals. But you are *out* for Proposition 8, disallowing same-sex marriage. Sadness.

What do we know about Tough Times?

2008-11-10T06:14:00.002-05:00

Here's an interesting thought from NYT columnist David Brooks re. the Obama win:

"Barack Obama is a child of a child of the 1960s. His mother was born only five years earlier than Hillary Clinton. For people in Obama’s generation, the great disruption had already occurred by the time they hit adulthood. Theirs is a generation of consolidation and neo-traditionalism — a generation of sunscreen and bicycle helmets, more anxious about parenthood than anything else....

This cohort will soon become the ruling class.

And the irony is that they will be confronted by the problem for which they have the least experience and for which they are the least prepared: the problem of scarcity."

I can't wait to see who his cabinet is, because that's where a president has the opportunity to gain from the wisdom of others--such as people who've seen harder times than he.

"The one thing we did right..."

2008-11-05T06:44:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm pretty happy about this Obama win. (a) Because--Hallelujah--the Republicans have been given a much deserved smack-down. (Not McCain so much... he's a good guy. But our hegemon neighbour does not need another Republican in office... give us all a chance to breathe first.)

(b) And of course, because of the historic significance. I was very moved, watching Obama's acceptance speech. Who knows what sort of influence this will have on generations of African-Americans to come, in terms of what children aspire to etc. It's hard to be a cynic when you see pics like this (from a church in Harlem):

Think about it... in the span of 40-50 years, from this (see below) to a President. It's not the end of racism, but it's a pretty nice marker along the way. As Martin Luther King and others have said, no one's going to hand you justice or equality on a plate--you're going to have to step up and demand it. So for all the people who stepped up, over hundreds of years, this is a pretty sweet day. "The one thing we did right was the day we started to fight. Keep your eyes on the prize--hold on."

(For a lovely Bruce Springstein "Eyes on the Prize" click here. And make sure to watch the Eyes on the Prize documentary if you've never seen it!)

Buy cheap or buy green?

2008-11-02T05:40:00.003-05:00

With the whole up-and-coming recession thing, I'm seeing two retail trends.

1. Recessionista: Making it trendy to pay less for stuff. [Pictured here: Coco Chanel in the 30s. Buying accessories was one way to make dresses last longer during the Depression.]

" Grant Barrett, a lexicographer who specializes in new words and slang, said the word is being used to give Americans an excuse to buy more stuff. “It’s kind of permitting consumers to have justification for their spending habits,” he said. Mr. Barrett included “recessionista” as an up-and-coming catchphrase earlier this month on his Web site, DoubleTongued.org. “The idea is, because they are spending less or getting more value, it is still O.K. to shop,” he said in a recent phone interview. “It’s a very self-serving message.”

2. High End Eco Brands: The other trend is putting out super-duper eco friendly products, which cost more (with the idea that people are more willing these days to pay the *real price* for Christmas cards, wrapping paper, and such. Click here for example.)

[Pictured here: A dissolvable dress!]

Not sure how I feel about both. On one hand, they both continue to promote buying more stuff than you need. Crap in landfills is still crap in landfills. Or even if it's recyclable, it still requires money and energy to recycle-- the first R in the green trio is "reduce" (reduce, reuse, recycle.)

I guess I still lean slightly more towards Option 2--pricier goody-tqo-shoes stuff--since pricier usually means you'll buy less, won't buy impulsively, and the products have a smaller footprint to begin with. And then for things you need to buy more frequently, perhaps the Recessionista option works better. I've switched over to higher priced products in my goal to go greener, organic and vegan--ee-er, but I can't afford to buy everything this way.

Option 2 is also, more often, made locally. Making stuff that's eco-forward and local is where many western politicians are trying to move their countries as a way out of the financial crisis. For example, the US economy was once built on Ford Motors--can the economy be rebuilt on green technology imagined and built in the US? Option 2 would support that kind of innovation and job creation.

Anyway... interesting!

The horror, the horror

2008-10-26T15:57:00.003-04:00

Come on guys, a little healthy anti-Americanism, please.

From a New York Times article:

The fact is that the Mediterranean diet, which has been associated with longer life spans and lower rates of heart disease and cancer, is in retreat in its home region. Today it is more likely to be found in the upscale restaurants of London and New York than among the young generation in places like Greece, where two-thirds of children are now overweight and the health effects are mounting, health officials say.

“This is a place where you’d see people who lived to 100, where people were all fit and trim,” Dr. Stagourakis said. “Now you see kids whose longevity is less than their parents’. That’s really scaring people.”

...

In Greece, three-quarters of the adult population is overweight or obese, the worst rate in Europe “by far,” according to the United Nations. The rates of overweight 12-year-old boys rose more than 200 percent from 1982 to 2002 and have been rising even faster since.

O Federal Government, Where Art Thou?

2008-10-19T13:56:00.002-04:00

Despite my general left-ee-ness, I'm not anti-capitalism, or anti-markets. But I believe very strongly that it's the federal government's job to protect us from dishonesty. Markets only work if there are appropriate limits on what people can do, and if there are rules and ways of enforcing those rules.

With the latest mortgage based credit brou ha ha in the US, it's hard to believe that the Federal Reserve Board "recently put into effect rules barring a lender from making a loan without regard to the borrower’s ability to repay it." (New York Times article) Oh, like, maybe lenders have responsibilities too? Shocking.

The article explains that creditors today have raised their fees, and treat those as the assets, rather than the loan itself: "because so much consumer debt is packaged into securities and sold to investors, repayment of the loans takes on less importance to those lenders than the fees and charges generated when loans are made." That's messed up.

So while I think we are responsible for our own decisions and shouldn't be borrowing indiscriminately, I also think it's dishonest to profit by someone's ignorance. The market is based upon confidence, and if a lender doesn't have confidence in the loan applicant, they shouldn't grant the loan. While I'm reassured that "some bankruptcy experts and regulators are beginning to focus on the responsibilities of lenders, like requiring them to make loans only if they are suitable to the borrowers applying for them," I'm sure many a foreclosed-upon American is wishing it happened sooner.

Selling out like a rock band baby!

2008-10-12T16:07:00.003-04:00

I'm a big believer in gradual change. I didn't become a vegetarian or vegan overnight, and I don't believe that if I'm not doing something Perfectly (being vegan or eco-friendly etc.) I should just throw in the towel. By tuning out, we don't have to change a thing about the way they live -- wee!

The argument against making small changes is that the changes we make won't make a difference (to animals, the environment, poor peeps....) I've never understood this argument for two reasons:

(a) What if--in theory--everyone else also wanted to make these changes to their lives, but didn't because they think the same way you do. It's silly. Be the change you want to see in the world;

(b) What about having principles? Why can't you do something because you just know it's right, even if things never change? It's called having integrity--trying to bring your actions and beliefs in line with each other.

Again, I think it's just an excuse we give ourselves so we won't have to be Uncomfortable. If you're not at least trying to live a life in accordance with how you wish the world was, then you're--in rock and roll terms--selling out.

Instead of swinging between the extremes of Perfect Person and Slacker Dude, try what the Green Living Tips blog calls: Transitional Ethics. I think it's better to make little compromises that get you closer to the end goal, than the one big compromise of trading in your values for material comfort.

"I've gained the world and lost my soul
Maybe it's because I'm getting old
All the people that I know
Have gained the world and lost their souls"

Flaming on the CBC! I flames! (Not really, I was very polite)

2008-10-05T03:16:00.003-04:00

CBC has a little food blog, and one of the writers wrote about whether falling in love with carnivore will influence a veggie to give up vegetarianism. Naturally opinions on vege-ism are being posted, including the mandatory Self-Righteous Vegetarian. I ignored the SRV, but did respond to two others:

By Johnny Ramsoda: "I agree with your [previous person's] comment, except for one tiny thing. Humans are not omnivores. That is a myth perpetrated by the food industry. It's true, we can survive on meat (example: Eskimos can live on whale blubber and polar bear meat), but they would thrive if their diet was strictly vegetarian. Just because we humans are "opportunity eaters", doesn't mean we are not designed (evolved, if you like) to eat only plant material. The plant world has everything we need."

Dear Mr Ramsoda (I love your last name, by the way) -- anyone who can digest and get nutrition from meat has evolved to eat meat. That's not a myth, it's just logical.

It's true that we can choose not to eat meat, though it's not much of a choice if you live somewhere in the world where you take whatever calories you can get. (I'm a vegan, and I count myself very lucky to live in the Land of Abundant Canned Chick Peas.)

By Nathan: "I was vegan for a number of years; during that time I felt well, and I was healthy. But in retrospect, many of the socio-political reasons for being a vegan stripped my enjoyment of food. Politics has no place in the bedrooms, or on the tables of the nation. By the by, my conversion moment was in a restaurant in Beijing when I had turtle (that arrived intact - head, feet etc.) and pigeon. Also intact."

Dear Nathan: I absolutely sympathize with the idea that we should take pleasure in food, and most vegan cookbooks today emphasize this. But I won't live my life blocking out the suffering of others, human or animal, just so they won't spoil my day. Everyday we make choices that hurt others in this world--surely it's not wrong to want to minimize the harm we do? If politics doesn't belong in the bedroom or at the table, surely compassion does?

Nicely Put

2008-10-01T15:13:00.002-04:00

I'm very interested in how the current financial crisis in the US is spurring on a lot of conversation and thought about debt and consumerism. Here's a nice passage from David Brooks' New York Times column:

We’re living in an age when a vast excess of capital sloshes around the world fueling cycles of bubble and bust. When the capital floods into a sector or economy, it washes away sober business practices, and habits of discipline and self-denial. Then the money managers panic and it sloshes out, punishing the just and unjust alike.

What we need in this situation is authority. Not heavy-handed government regulation, but the steady and powerful hand of some public institutions that can guard against the corrupting influences of sloppy money and then prevent destructive contagions when the credit dries up.

Yay! Less dieters! Amaaazing!

2008-09-28T04:08:00.003-04:00

Excerpts from a nice good-news story in the New York Times about the decrease in dieting, and increase of home-cooking. Especially interesting is this idea that cooking is a practice we've lost and need to pick up again. I used to think I was "not a good cook" (except baking!) until two summers ago when I said to myself: Self, you is an academic. And if academics are good at anything, it's learning the basics of ANYTHING... from a book.

So I started picking up vegan cookbooks that were well reviewed on amazon, and that looked quick, and I taughts myself how to cook well. I've been so amazed at the results, Eating Out doesn't hold much allure for me anymore, because good vegetarian food is so hard to find--even what I cook is usually better. And I've followed the books enough now that I can experiment a little without things going horribly wrong. (I toyed with a black bean salad recipe this week and it worked! I toyed with spaghetti sauce and it worked!)

The bottom line is... if I can learn to cook decent (and often delish) meals in one summer, so can any fool. It can't be that much of a lost art. I will add, however, that it requires lots of base ingredients to be on hand, and to have an organized kitchen.

*

AFTER decades of obsessing about fat, calories and carbs, many dieters have made the unorthodox decision to simply enjoy food again.

... The percentage of those consumers who are on a diet is lower than at any time since information on dieting was first collected in 1985. At the peak in 1990, 39 percent of the women and 29 percent of the men were dieting. Today, that number has dropped to 26 percent of women and 16 percent of men.

The diarists also report eating more organic foods and whole grains, said Harry Balzer, an NPD vice president.

...In May, the market research firm Information Resources reported that 53 percent of consumers say they are cooking from scratch more than they did just six months ago, in part, no doubt, because of the rising cost of prepared foods.

...“We need to demystify cooking,” Ms. Waters said. “It creates feelings about food that make you feel cared for, and that’s the kind of food that really changes habits.”

The cookbook author and television personality Rachael Ray has attracted both loyal followers and harsh critics for creating food that doesn’t focus on calories, fat, carbohydrates or even portion control. She intentionally doesn’t include calorie information with her cookbook recipes.

“I think that puts your head into science and away from what I think the experience of food should be,” Ms. Ray said.

...“If everyone ate more plant-based and more whole foods and unprocessed foods, that would be major,” said Arlene Spark, associate professor of nutrition at Hunter College in New York. “But that would mean people going back to cooking, and what we’ve lost is people’s ability and knowledge of how to cook.”

...Last year, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported on a study of 97 obese women, all of whom were avoiding high-fat foods. Half the women were instructed to increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables. By the end of a year, the women who were focused on adding vegetables lost an average of 17 pounds, 20 percent more than the women who were just paying attention to fat consumption.

Also, the more time people spend on tasks like food shopping, cooking and kitchen cleanup, the more likely they are to be of average weight. The Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture found that people of normal weight spend more time on meal-related tasks than people who are overweight or underweight.

Palin hates bears too

2008-09-23T04:10:00.000-04:00

Well... doesn't Ms. Palin sound just wonderful. Why anyone who supported H Clinton would even think of transferring their vote to McCain because of this woman, boggles me. She's SO conservative. Who cares if she's a woman--she wanted to ban books from the local library! Ease.

From: Grizzly Bay

"Palin supports aerial hunting of wolves and bears even though Alaskans voted twice to ban the practice; Palin used $400,000 of state money to fund a media campaign in support of aerial hunting; Palin approved the hunting of black bear mothers and cubs with the goal of killing 60 percent of the black bear population west of Anchorage; Palin herself instituted the $150 bounty on wolves; Palin is a champion for big oil and supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; Palin opposes listing polar bears as an endangered species and is suing the federal government over it; and Palin believes global warming is a farce.

It is not just a vehement disregard for the environment and biological science that makes Palin’s policies so antiquated. Palin believes creationism should be taught in public schools; Palin opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest; and Palin is presently under investigation in Alaska for abuse of power."

I am BEYOND impatient with the Republican fuuls

2008-09-23T02:58:00.005-04:00

How can I have time for the Canadian Conservative fuuls when I'm sidetracked by the US ones and their FUCKY economy, scheduled to hit us any day now? I won't be happy with a Democratic win at the next US elections, I want a LANDslide. As if the Republicans hadn't already trashed their country in so many ways, this economic meltdown is beyond ridiculous. And they don't know fuck all what to say about it.

And on a side note, how can we get undergrads to write simply and elegantly when Palin's throwing around "verbiage" like an aide just handed her a thesaurus? And what a bad choice of words too, considering that we usually mean it in the "profusion of words usually of little or obscure content" sense, rather than Merriam Webster's definition #2: "manner of expressing oneself in words."

*

HANNITY: Let's talk about, Governor, obviously, the economy is on the minds of many Americans. We've got Lehman, we've got Merrill, we've got AIG. Senator Barack Obama yesterday was attacking Senator McCain for saying that the "fundamentals of the economy are strong."

Do you believe that the fundamentals of our economy are strong?

PALIN: Well, it was an unfair attack on the verbiage that Senator McCain chose to use because the fundamentals, as he was having to explain afterwards, he means our workforce, he means the ingenuity of the American. And of course, that is strong and that is the foundation of our economy.

So that was an unfair attack there, again, based on verbiage that John McCain used.

And for another lovely Republican...

From wiki: William Philip "Phil" Gramm

He was John McCain’s presidential campaign co-chair^[8] and his most senior economic adviser^[9] from summer 2007^[10] to July 18, 2008.^[8]

His fundamental economic theory is described by his critics as "Reverse Robin Hood and Little John Economics". This theory assumes that to improve the quality of people's lives you must impose the burden of tax on the middle class and poor, while providing tax relief to the rich or wealthy. It is believed that the lives of the middle class and poor will then improve when a portion of their original taxes trickles down to them. While advising the McCain campaign, Gramm was being paid by UBS to lobby Congress about the U.S. mortgage crisis. During this time, "the mortgage industry pressed Congress to roll back strong state rules that sought to stem the rise of predatory tactics used by lenders and brokers to place homeowners in high-cost mortgages."^[11]

In a July 9, 2008 interview explaining McCain's plans in reforming the U.S. economy, Gramm downplayed the idea that the nation was in a recession, stating, "You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," and "We have sort of become a nation of whiners, you just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline."^[12]Gramm was one of five co-sponsors of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000^[3]. One provision of the bill was referred to as the "Enron loophole" because the House Agriculture Committee drafted it and it was later applied to Enron. Some critics blame the provision for permitting the Enron scandal to occur.^[4] At the time, Gramm's wife was previously on Enron's board of directors.

Phew! There are other vegans like me out there...

2008-09-21T17:37:00.003-04:00

Tidbits from a Washington Post interview with Karen Dawn, author of Thanking the Monkey.

"You're not a bad person if you're not thinking about the animals. I don't believe in bad or good people. I think people make choices, and you can always choose again."

"My vegetarianism didn't happen overnight. . . . I'm still a cheating vegan: If I'm dying for Doritos -- and I know they have a bit of whey in them -- I still eat them. But I think if I wasn't a cheating vegan, I might not even be engaging in this lifestyle at all. It's not an all-or-nothing thing."

"Some things are better than others. . . . it's better to eat an occasional piece of steak than an omelet every day, both health-wise and also because of the amount of cruelty involved."

"I was sitting on the grass [at a rescue organization], and this turkey -- whose beak and toe ends were sheared off when she lived on a turkey factory farm -- comes hobbling over to me. And I put up my hand to stroke her, and she crawls into my lap. I was just flabbergasted. She was so soft and so clearly loved being stroked and petted. She fell asleep in my lap. And I don't think people expect that of turkeys."

"It's interesting when you meet chickens: They are sentient beings and not particularly stupid at all. And you suddenly don't want to be contributing to the battery cage industry."

The Art of Showing Off

2008-09-14T16:54:00.000-04:00

I guess I should add feminism to the list of isms I talk about on this blog.

Around the time I finished my first BA and was looking to enter Work Land on a full-time basis, I happened upon an article about why men tend to succeed more than women at the office. One of the problems mentioned is that women are socialized, when girls, to worry about being Polite and Humble. We're taught that tooting one's own horn is "showing off" and showing off is distasteful. Men, on the other hand, are more vocal about their achievements--they inform their superiors about the work they're doing, and about their desire for advancement.

Around this time I started work at a small bookstore where I was trained by a very nice woman who'd worked in the store a long time. When the current manager left, another woman was promoted to her job--and not the Very Nice Woman. VNW was angry and quit. But I remember the outgoing manager expressed surprise because VNW had never expressed any interest in being promoted.

Tooting the Horn is a piece of advice I've passed on to many of the women working in various supervisor and manager positions in my present store. Don't wait for people to recognize how wonderful you are, because they won't. They're busy with their own goals, and much of the time our successes are achieved alone--there's no one standing there as you create a new system for organizing product, or as you build a great display, or when you're handling a crisis at 9 PM on a random Wednesday night running the store on your own.

The New York Times has just published a new article on this topic, which I highly recommend. It covers the above issue, and many others.

"In my own case, I realized that I needed to develop a thick skin, feel comfortable promoting myself, learn how to negotiate, stop being a perfectionist and create a professional network — abilities that men are just more likely to have already. ... 'By and large women believe that the workplace is a meritocracy, and it isn’t.'"

Sniff sniff!

2008-09-07T14:27:00.000-04:00

The number 1 top reason I'm a vegan really goes back, way back, to the Childhood Love of Animals. My total and utter suckee-ness... my total falling apartness at the thought of them suffering. BWAAAAAAH. At the heart of it, it's not about logic or politics, it's just pure emotion.

Evidence: That this god damned Pampers commercial, using a song I had never previously liked, makes me weepy every time.

Contaminated Food for Thought

2008-09-06T13:22:00.003-04:00

"A cabinet document leaked to the media during the summer outlined a plan to shift from a "full-time presence" of veterinarians and inspectors at abattoirs in Canada to an "oversight role" that would allow the meat industry "to implement food safety control programs and to manage key risks.

...
The crisis is reminiscent of the poison water scandal that rocked Walkerton, Ont., in 2000. It was caused in part by government cutbacks and a deliberate weakening of provincial inspection and safety procedures adopted by another Conservative government - the Ontario regime of Premier Mike Harris. Seven people died at Walkerton and more than 2,000 cases of illness resulted.

Charlie Bagnato, the mayor of Walkerton, added his voice this week to the call for an inquiry, describing the listeria outbreak as "outrageous" and noting that Harper's cabinet includes some of the same ministers that were in the Harris government.

“There are currently three federal Conservative cabinet ministers shaping policy for the Harper government who also sat around the Mike Harris cabinet table when decisions were made to cut programs, privatize and regulate. They include Health Minister Tony Clement, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Environment Minister John Baird," he said."

From nupge.ca

Cruelty free hair?

2008-09-04T23:02:00.003-04:00

Over the past few years I've slowly tried to cut out animal-tested (and preferable animal-igredient) products such as shampoos, cleaners etc. Luckily it's getting easier all the time to find these kinds of products at common stores, and not too expensive. And once you know what to buy, and where, you never have to think about it again.

I've added a photo album to the right, showing the labels of some of these products--ones that I've found at the local pharmacy or grocery store or Zellers. I'll add to it when I can.

One of the main sources for hair products is Belvedere International. Today I bought a ginormous bottle of Down Under Natural's shampoo for just under $6, at Maxi. Their stuff is labeled "never tested on animals" and here is the response one vegan got when emailing the company:

hank you for taking the time to contact us, and for your concerns on
Animal Testing.
None of Belvedere International Inc. products are tested on animals, nor
do we contract this testing out.
Also, the ingredients used (as confirmed by our suppliers) are not
tested on animals either.
Hope this information is helpful.

Yours truly,
Patty Turnbull
Consumer Relations Dept.
Belvedere International Inc.
July 24, 2006

Weddings and money and vegans oh my!

2008-09-01T01:06:00.000-04:00

Ooo Portia DiRossi and Ellen Degeneres had my kinda wedding--19 guests, in the back yard, with dogs, both mothers wearing slacks, and all vegan food.

My wedding had about the same number of guests, and also featured doggy guests (though, sadly, not my cats). It was a double wedding with my brother, held in my parents' back yard, and I too was platinum blonde! No white, though--I wore a vintage 1960s turquoise polyester gogo mini and platform heels. My husband wore jeans and my Charlie Chaplin tie. All the food was homemade and vegetarian (I wasn't a vegan yet), except my brother's then-father-in-law who barbecued chicken. The cake was chocolate, with Star Wars action figures on it.

I was glancing through a book the other day about the Wedding Industry, and how they convince people to spend OBSCENE amounts of money. Not including the amounts of money that people expect others to spend at their weddings, such as on gifts, or bridesmaids dresses, etc. Somewhere along the line we've come to believe that an experience can only be special if we spend money on it?

Thermodynamics and Local Eating

2008-08-26T04:34:00.004-04:00

I've never been against international trade, though I believe the playing field needs to be equalized in order for the system to be just. I also thought that increasing world trade was inevitable, and therefore "making the best of the situation" seemed like a more realistic approach than "down with foreign trade." However the heightened cost of fuel is calling that inevitability into question.

Here's an interesting article in the BBC that measures the economy in terms of energy put into production:

"Even before its sea voyage, the calorific value of US wheat is only twice the amount of calories expended to produce it. Compare this with cassava production in Tanzania where 23 times the calorific value is gained for each calorie of human energy input.

Is it energetically sound, socially advisable and economically sensible in the long term to encourage and sustain such long two-way supply chains that evolved in a low-cost energy ere? ...

Could it be more sustainable and cost effective for donors to pay farmers a "fair" price to develop food production for local markets - based on costs of fuel, importing food, the risk of the supply chain collapsing or moving to another country, and so on?" (Dr Peter Baker is a commodities development specialist at CABI, a not-for-profit agricultural research organisation)

Heavens the world is ending!

2008-08-19T00:50:00.002-04:00

So things are falling apart in Eastern Europe, and I've been ignoring it.

Unlike the people I went to school with, I'm not a politics junkie. I get sucked up into other interests, and can go for weeks at a time reading no more than the headlines. But the headlines have been piling up (Georgie, Poland, and Musharraf? Really?) and I must admit it's time for me to catch up.

Anyway, I never got the opportunity to take the much-lauded course on post-Soviet politics, so I'm not very knowledgeable about that part of the world. But one can always rely on the trusty BBC Q&A... off I go...

Next up for corn--kangaroooo

2008-08-10T01:39:00.003-04:00

Apparently you can save the planet by eating kangaroos instead of cows, because they produce less methane gas. As opposed to just... eating less meat in general? If there's some sort of Kangaroo Ranchers Association, I can only assume the dude recommending this (Dr Wilson of the Australian Wildlife Services) is *in their pocket*?

"Dr Wilson is keen to see that population dramatically increased to produce the same amount of kangaroo meat as that currently produced by conventional livestock."

Sooo take an industry that is probably already functioning at a reasonable level--at the kind of level other meat industries should be at--and make commercialize it further? Not cool, dude. Not cool.

All the cool kids are doing it!

2008-08-02T03:18:00.009-04:00

So this whole anti-industrial-food movement really revved up while I was in the last year of my MA. I noticed the "Grown in Quebec!" signs appearing over veggies at the grocery store. Provided you find a good author, I doubt you need to read more than a book or two, or maybe a few articles on the topic. I recommend Michael Pollan, but there's Mark Bittman and others who are saying the same things. (Local eating, the problems with industrializing food, how animals are poorly treated in the process, how worker safety is compromised, food safety is compromised, and nutrition is compromised.)

But it's really gathering steam. While the popularity of the topic must in part be because of fuel costs, the books would have been written, accepted, and put into publication before this topic hit. So it's interesting to see the sheer of number of books out there.

I just hope this isn't a passing fad, but some sort of substantive change that will work its way through our societies. I think it's far more likely for these sorts of ideas to spread than for vegetarianism to spread. And for good reason--this sort of thinking is more practical and realistic than, say, veganism, and it's just as compassionate; this approach includes eating much less meat, which is all I've ever wanted.

For Cat Owners: the best in food

2008-07-30T21:02:00.005-04:00

I've been improving my own diet, but I've got to turn some attention to the kitty-tudes. I've finally found a good book, by a kitty vet and former cat food company pres, on how to feed them.

Hodgkins says: (1) cats should live to be 20 years old if they have the right food -- you should not consider a 10 year old cat *old* as most vets do; (2) cats eat the same diet from when they're weaned til they die, they just might eat a bit less--most of the *age appropriate* foods and *special diets* are based on poor science; (3) a raw food diet is best, but short of that only soft foods have high enough protein levels to match what cats eat in the wild.

To calculate the protein etc. in softy food you have to calculate it in "dry matter" terms. A small mammal such as cats eat in the wild is made of 55% protein (DM), 35% fat, and less than 2% carbs. She says, in buying soft food, to aim for 40% and up (DM) in protein, 25-35% (DM) in fat, and 10% or less (DM) in carbs.

To make the calculation yourself:
100 minus the protein % listed on the can, minus the fat, minus the water, minus the fibre, and minus the ash. What's left is, roughly, the carbohydrates. To understand the carbs more accurately, you then turn it into a % of the dry matter--she recommends dividing it by 25 (and then X 100).

The food I bought a the grocery store wasn't too bad, but I can't be sure of the quality of the ingredients since the industry is basically unregulated. My cats don't like the "mature formula" from the vet, which is too high in carbs. Today I went to Pitou Minou & Compagnons (Global Ryan's Pet Foods) and chose a few brands, to see what my kitties will like.

Here are the comparisons I made:

Medi-cal (Mature formula - from vet): as listed on can
protein 7
fat 7
fibre 1
moisture 78
ash 1.3
Bottom Line: 28% Protein, 22% Carb

President's Choice Finicky Cat
protein 10
fat 5
fibre 1.5
moisture 78
ash 2.7
Bottom Line: 40% Protein, 11% Carb

President's Choice Nutrition 1st
protein 10
fat 6.5
fibre .8
moisture 78
ash 1.9
Bottom Line: 40% Protein, 11% Carb

Wellness (no grain) : as listed on can
protein 10
fat 5
fibre 1
moisture 78
ash 1.95
Bottom Line: 40% Protein, 16% Carb

Go! (no grain): as listed
protein 12
fat 8
fibre .5
moisture 78
ash not listed
Bottom Line: 48% Protein, 6% Carb

Evo (high protein)
protein 12
fat 8
fibre .5
moisture 78
ash 3
Bottom Line: 48% Protein, Carb = doesn't register

So hopefully the kitties will like one of the last two. The gal at the store recommended Wellness because it has no grain, but I didn't have the heart to point out to her that carb-filler is still carb-filler, even if it's apples and cranberries rather than corn.

We'll see how the cats do. Sherry has colitis and anytime we've tried any food other than his lamb-and-rice based niblets he's gotten diarrhea, blood in his stool, and then goes off his food. But so far, with the increased softies, he's been fine. It's probably the carbs creating part of the problem anyway.

Nombly's belly and coat have already gotten better. (We was down to eating junk food treaties, having gone off crunchies.)

Haley... well she's still young, so there's no change. She runs around and beats everyone up and sings her own praises as usual.

Save the bees!

2008-07-30T20:23:00.002-04:00

Just read an article on the bumblebee decrease in North America. As usual, industrial food production is one of the suspects. There's a pathogen killing native bees, introduced by imported European bees used "to provide industrial pollination services. Wild bumblebees, which have never experienced this pathogen before, began declining severely by the late 1990s."

Researchers from U of Toronto found higher numbers of infected bees near these imported bee centers (we import bees??) And apparently the solution is pretty easy--to fix any of the little gaps where bees can escape or get in. So. Easy-solution-happy-ending for once.

yet another randomly discovered reason for eschewing factory meat

2008-07-27T05:30:00.002-04:00

Oh yay, more reasons to be a vegetarian. Sigh. Once you involve huge numbers of animals in industrial production, many many bad things are going to happen.

*

"Ascites—a common condition in factory-raised broilers—causes severe distress...

Forcing meat chickens to grow quickly, which is standard industry practice, can result in heart failure or "ascites." The underlying problem is that the chickens develop so rapidly that their heart muscles cannot keep pace. Ascites kills millions of birds worldwide and costs the industry an estimated $500 billion per year.

The toll is not just financial. Canadian researchers investigating the course of the disease determined that during the final stages of ascites, birds are severely distressed. "In advanced stages, the birds are unable to reach the drinkers and become dehydrated. Death is usually preceded by prolonged agony, and is likely a result of dehydration, starvation, respiratory failure, and heart failure. Given the severity of symptoms and chronic nature of this condition, the ascites syndrome must be addressed as an animal welfare problem.""

("Ascites in Broiler Chickens from a Welfare Point of View" A. A. Olkowski and H. L. Classen. Department of Animal & Poultry Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5B5, Canada)

http://www.eatwild.com/animals.html

Where is all my peeps?

2008-07-17T23:44:00.004-04:00

I haven't attended church in many moons... maybe about 10 years? I've always thought I'd go back to one--or to some spiritual gathering type meeting up thingy--if I ever came across Just the Right Thing. I'm not going to go looking at this point.

But I'm starting to feel, for the first time, like I need a Hippie Gathering. Where are all the old hippies, and gray-haired vegans? I know lots of people in their 20s who are concerned about ethical issues such as extreme income disparities and such (I was studying developing areas after all--the campus is full of them) but where are the people who are still trying to live with these ethics in mind in their 30s? 40s?

When I told a school friend that I was vegan she was surprised because: "I've never met someone over 25 who was a vegan."

I know they're out there. They write cooking blogs.

Drug Store Health Food

2008-07-16T03:41:00.004-04:00

I never understood why women I knew got excited about drug stores, until I realized it must be people who buy makeup and beauty products.

But I'm starting to warm to my Pharmaprix. Shopper's Drug Mart (Pharmaprix in Quebec) has introduced a line of affordable organic foods. The cookies happen to be vegan. Yay! And made with can sugar. Yay! And they are SO good. I've tried the graham teddies and the chocolate chip, but I'm open to checking out other things.

I also took a close look at the groceries in Zellers, and realized they carry some things I can't find elsewhere, like stuffed grapevines and whole wheat fettuccine noodles.

Nothing's better than More?

2008-07-09T04:19:00.004-04:00

When I was shopping in the village a couple weeks ago I ran into a woman who used to work with. She'd just returned from a trip to South America and was still adjusting. I asked her what was the weirdest thing about being back.

She said--as soon as she got back to Toronto she noticed that, though we have so much here, everyone is so stressed. Whereas in the countries she visited (I forget which ones) so many people have so little, but she found they were much more easy going.

Certainly goes with the Thoreau pieces I've been re-reading this month. He tried to figure out how little you can live with, and still enjoy life, and he found it to be very little. I'm not trying to imply that poor people are happy cause they're poor--I have no personal experience of poverty. But I think I can say with confidence that, your basic needs having been met (regularly), there is no direct correlation between Money and Pleasure. (Which according to this book, is backed up by studies.) And maybe it's in part because of what my ex-coworker noticed... that we stress out over everything. What's the point in having more, if you just worry more?

Local chemist *answer guy* Dr Joe Schwarcz made a similar point in a recent article addressing the "toxic shower curtain" scare:

"While most of the scares about living in a "chemical soup" are exaggerated, the stress they cause is real. People have become so scared of dying they forget about living. And if worrying about trace amounts of chemicals being released from shower curtains makes news, then living today is pretty good. So relax."

***

Reminds me of this tongue-in-cheek Stephen Sondheim song:

I got rhythm, music too, just as much as before
Got my guy and my sky of blue
Now, however, I own the view
More is better than nothing--true
But nothing's better than MORE MORE MORE
Nothing's better than more.

The Residential Schools Apology

2008-06-25T05:48:00.003-04:00

cbc.ca asked readers who went to a residential school, or had family members who did, to write in about their experiences. I’ve just been reading some of the 134 comments, and it's interesting how similar many of the comments are.

If you think about the fallout that comes when any one person is abused—the effect not only on their lives, but their parents, siblings, family, spouses, children—it’s staggering to think of the damage that has been done to entire communities. Even if you just think of children being raised, perhaps from the age of 6 until 16 (with maybe one month back at home per year), in a cold and non-family environment, imagine what kind of parenting skills they would have. It's really a case of the state/church raising society's children, like a sci fi story.

As one woman wrote, speaking of her mother: “She was never shown how to care or love others, not even her own children. This is what was robbed from us - a caring and nurturing family, and the knowledge of who we were and pride in that.”

Below I pasted some of the comments along these lines. Obviously it's a bit long to read, but I posts anyway... if only for myself to reread in future.

***

“I never understood why my mother could never show affection, and never said she loved us, her children. Her problems with alcohol, depression and anger I now know were fueled by her lonely, regimented, and cold-hearted, childhood experiences. …I honor my Mother and all of her siblings, who also endured the residential schools- my uncles with the biggest 'hearts' and the kindest smiles but saddest of eyes,who ruined themselves with alcohol. It is a similar story with almost all aboriginal families. And I ask for strength for all; to rise above the vices that have been used to hide or mask the deep pain so that our people can again be proud and have dignity.”

From a social worker in a native community: “I had many clients who attended this residential achool, and I heard many accounts of sexual and physical abuse. The most frequent and most hearbreaking stories came from the long buried stories of acute loneliness, and feelings of abandonment….Much of the media coverage has focused on elderly survivors, and the early days of residential schools. But this young women and many others like her still struggle to raise their families with damaged self esteem issues and long burried anger and despair.”

“My mother has taken these words from the federal goverment very hard.... her wounds have been exposed again and her pain is real... she is far from understanding how to heal...the only way i know to heal, is to forgive and this I know can be trying, but its based on the individuals choice to do so. I am responsible to my children and thier children not to allow the legacy of the residential schools have any more power over our lives. If I was to feed into the pain i would only be giving this tragidy momentum to contiues to destroy more generations within my family, I must break the chain of disfunction and sorrow rise above to be proud of who and what I am... and for this I am responsible...”

“the legacy it has left our family, is that we, the seven children, don't even talk to each other anymore. We all have such deep hurts, we don't talk about it, we don't support each other in any way. We are all educated and do very well in our jobs, but we do not have a complete life. … I have been a victim of sexual abuse. I have three grown children now, all have excellent education, excellent careers, and yet, tho proud, I am not truly happy with my life. I was an alcoholic, and now I gamble my life away, quite literally. I have lost so much, yet I still keep on this path of destruction. I cannot stop myself. I have been suicidal many times. I wish I was dead still.”

“The day I felt in my heart that it finally happened was June 11, 2008. The chains have been broken because for the first time someone other me had taken responsibility for the years of abuse at the hands of my entrusted family members that attended these schools.”

“I am a "survivor" but not in the familiar sense. I didnt attend residential school: My family members did. I have to reconstruct who I am daily as a result. Key to his message should have been meaningful recognition of youth like me who have the burden of putting the pieces back together. Key to this picture is the intergenerational impacts of residential school.”

“The common characteristics most families like mine all share are that there has been a lack of love and affection, there were no 'I love you' words, no hugs and no kisses…. I am the last child in my big family, I am now 40 years old and I never had children of my own because I feared I could not love them properly.”

“I got wipped, beaten, hair pulled, and thrown around many times as a kid for no God damn reason, because this is the kind of Discipline they were taught.”

“I have seen my mother, destroy herself and have never known the parent she was meant to be... for she did not aquire the skills of parenting, because she had never been parented herself. I've watch her try to live up to expectations pushed on her from years before- she would wash the floors and would be sure to get into the cracks "WITH A TOOTHBRUSH" like she had been taught in her childhood. No matter what she did she would never be enough and this was instilled in her, just for the simple fact that she was NATIVE.”

“I myself suffered many horrible beatings (practically daily) and mental abuse as well as sexual abuse from relatives who attended residential school…. I myself had passed on abuse to my children when they were young, until I had sought therapy. …Between the depression and working, my kids knew that they had a mother that just existed and was not really living life. … My family didn't know how to apologize so they didn't apologize to each other. …Accepting someone’s apology doesn't mean that you condone the behaviour or actions that the person or people have done but that you forgive yourself for holding on and release yourself from the ties that bind you to the misery. It means freedom inside of you. This is just my opinion.”

“My aunt told me that the schools wouldn't let them even touch each other and yet they would stare at each other across the room, longing to hold each other and feel some element of family love that was so strongly absent in that place.”

“I'm a product of the 60's scoop, where Native kids were all taken from their families, and put into foster care or adopted by white families, because either their parents were inadequate or they were "deemed" inadequate …I wound up in care. I was raised in care, 21 homes by the time i was done...before 16.”

“One thing I am waiting for is an apology from the Roman Catholic Church. The priests and nuns took away my family. My younger brother committed suicide in 1968, followed by my sister who committed suicide in 1974. My mom died of alcoholism in 1979. She went to residential school. My older brother could not handle being abused by a priest. He drank and was run over while crossing a highway and many say that was suicide.
No Roman Catholic priest or nun has ever come to me to apologize. “

[My understanding, from a brief Google, is that other churches have apologized in the past, and the Catholic church has left it up to each diocese to apologize.]

“These priests and nuns represented God to these children (although a false one) and therefore it was spiritual abuse as well; how many children suffered and died believing that even God hated and disapproved of them.”

Banana Woes

2008-06-18T09:10:00.004-04:00

So I've been eating bananas now, which is all very New to Me. But now their price is going to go up! Hmph!

If curious, read the NYT article on the history of banana-eating. ;-) (Or see an excerpt below.)

On the side... I found a funny blog all about bananas. They report a story about some high school seniors who called in sick to school, and then showed up (in costume) as a bunch of bananas being chased through the hall by a gorilla. And they got suspended for a week! What's with that! Harmless and hilarious, what more could you ask?

*
"Once bananas had become widely popular, the companies kept costs low by exercising iron-fisted control over the Latin American countries where the fruit was grown. Workers could not be allowed such basic rights as health care, decent wages or the right to congregate. (In 1929, Colombian troops shot down banana workers and their families who were gathered in a town square after church.) Governments could not be anything but utterly pliable. Over and over, banana companies, aided by the American military, intervened whenever there was a chance that any “banana republic” might end its cooperation. (In 1954, United Fruit helped arrange the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Guatemala.) Labor is still cheap in these countries, and growers still resort to heavy-handed tactics.

...bananas have always been an emblem of a long-distance food chain. Perhaps it’s time we recognize bananas for what they are: an exotic fruit that, some day soon, may slip beyond our reach."

Some apology

2008-06-13T04:54:00.003-04:00

What can we make of Harper finally apologizing (on behalf of the country and previous govts) for residential schools, when one of his MPs made racist remarks only hours before? Ease. The minister has apologized, but it's obvious he meant every word, so I don't know that he's apologizing for anything but poor timing.

From CTV:

"Now along with this apology comes another $4 billion in compensation for those who partook in the residential schools over those years,'' said Poilievre. "Now, you know, some of us are starting to ask: 'Are we really getting value for all of this money, and is more money really going to solve the problem? My view is that we need to engender the values of hard work and independence and self reliance. That's the solution in the long run -- more money will not solve it."

Poilievre also told CFRA News Talk Radio that aboriginal chiefs have too much control.

"That gets to the heart of the problem on these reserves where there is too much power concentrated in the hands of the leadership, and it makes you wonder where all of this money is going.

"We spend 10 billion dollars -- 10 billion dollars -- in annual spending this year alone now, that is an exceptional amount of money, and that is on top of all the resource revenue that goes to reserves that sit on petroleum products or sit on uranium mines, other things where companies have to pay them royalties.

"And that's on top of all that money that they earn on their own reserves. That is an incredible amount of money.''

Show me the money-garden!

2008-06-12T01:41:00.003-04:00

Guess I'm not the only one wishing I had a veggie garden. The NYT reports that more people are starting or growing their gardens because of food prices. "Seed companies and garden shops say that not since the rampant inflation of the 1970s has there been such an uptick in interest in growing food at home."

Fastforwarding through the mundane

2008-06-11T03:23:00.003-04:00

I watched the movie Click today. It was a decent tv viewing--not genius, but it raises an idea I think is important.

In it the hero (Adam Sandler) gets a remote control that allows him to fastforward through his life, or pause, turn off the sound, etc. The main thing he starts doing is fastforwarding through the boring bits, and then through the hard parts, trying to get to the next goal without experiencing all the crap it takes to get there.

I think we live life that way, sometimes. We put our all on the next goal, and see our day-to-day lives as something we have to grudgingly get through; everything is about the next raise, or job, or university degree, or getting a boyfriend, or getting married, or buying a flat screen tv, etc. etc.

I don't mean we shouldn't set goals or anticipate fun things, but not at the expense of the present. Can you be happy if you see the present as just a bunch of chores to get through? Brushing your teeth, going to the bathroom, eating, getting dressed, getting undressed, getting up for work, sitting in traffic, over and over and over.

You have to seek the beauty and enjoyment tucked in amongst the chores.

Politics and Food

2008-06-08T05:38:00.003-04:00

"if you want to talk to me about animal rights, or supporting small farmers, or boycotting irresponsible corporations, or minimizing environmental damage, then sure, we can discuss food in moral terms. It makes sense in those contexts. But the morality of your diet has jack shit to do with how many calories you consumed or how many chocolates you didn’t eat in a given day, all right? Depriving yourself does not make you a better person, and eating what you feel like eating does not make you weak." (Kate Harding - from a blog post here)

Veganing on vacation

2008-06-08T01:58:00.003-04:00

I'm on vacation. The first week I was at my dad and stepmum's. Of course I stick to my veganism, and my folks (all 3) are very respectful of this, but I was back on the corn grid. ;-)

No big deal, I'm not fanatic about this. I decided to just enjoy the peanut butter (I think of it as icing-peanut-butter, as opposed to the peanuts only kind) by eating something I haven't had since childhood: a spoonful of peanut butter. I also ate a lot of Corn Flakes, which I hadn't bought in years.

This week I'm at my mum's, which presents other challenges. Her home is in a transitional phase, so there's only a mini fridge (no freezer) and a microwave. I went on a small shopping trip and bought just a few fruits and veggies, hummus, pita bread, rice, canned veggies, individual servings of soy milk, and natural peanut butter. We'll see what I can do with that. Tonight I made avocado sandwiches.

CBC Calories

2008-06-05T05:30:00.004-04:00

30% of people count calories (well... at least, 30% of CBC Online readers... who read articles on calories.)

Question at cbc.ca: Do you count calories?

Stop sending me paper!

2008-06-05T04:14:00.004-04:00

The "no flyers" sign on (and in) my mailbox seems to be working. Yay! But it took three emails to get Bell to stop sending me "come back to us!" begging mail. Oh well... Bell is capable of worse. I'll probably start getting someone else's letters.

*

EMAIL NUMBER 1
Please stop mailing me requests to sign up with Bell / return to
Bell's service (or any other kind of mail.) It's a waste of paper.
Thank-you.

Miss Mabel
my address

THEIR REPLY:

Greetings Miss Mabel,

Thank you for visiting Bell's website. My name is X, from
the
Bell Canada eContact Centre and I am pleased to help you.

I read your e-mail with interest concerning to stop mailling in
order to
sign up with our compaign.

However, the form you completed did not transfer your telephone
number
and without your telephone number I cannot access your file. Please
provide me with your residential telephone number and I would be
pleased
to address your e-mail.

I hope you will find this information helpful. Should you have
additional questions or concerns, please send another e-mail to my
attention. Your business is appreciated and I look forward to serving
you again.

Thank you for using Bell's Online Customer Care Centre.
Sincerely,
X
Bell Canada eContact Centre

EMAIL #2 (my phone number)
xxx-xxx-xxxx

THEIR REPLY:

Dear Miss Mabel

Thank you for your reply. This is X again, from the Bell
Canada eContact Centre, and I am happy to be of further assistance.

After having verified your account, I noted that your service has been
deactivated for a long time. So, I couldn't process your request
relative to signing up in electronic bill.

I hope you will find this information helpful. Should you have
additional questions or concerns, please send another e-mail to my
attention. Your business is appreciated and I look forward to serving
you again.

Thank you for using Bell's Online Customer Care Centre.
Sincerely,
X
Bell Canada eContact Centre

EMAIL NUMBER 3:
My original request was not for electronic billing.

Your company keeps sending me letters, asking me to re-sign up with
Bell. I do not want ANY letters sent to my home address anymore please.

THEIR REPLY:
Greetings Miss Mabel,

Thank you for your reply. This is X again, from the Bell
Canada eContact Centre, and I am happy to be of further assistance.

We have removed your adresse from our Bell Offer's data base. In
further, you will not receive any other letters for this subject.

I hope you will find this information helpful. Should you have
additional questions or concerns, please send another e-mail to my
attention. Your business is appreciated and I look forward to serving
you again.

Thank you for using Bell's Online Customer Care Centre.
Sincerely,
X
Bell Canada eContact Centre

KFC not the devil after all!

2008-06-02T03:15:00.002-04:00

I haven't eaten at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in at least ten years. But KFC Canada is now going to ensure it buys better treated chickens, and offer a vegan item on its menu. Yay KFC Canada! Atsa nice.

*
Canadian Press

"Following a five-year roasting by animal-rights activists, KFC Canada is promising improved welfare for the chickens it buys for its fast-food outlets in exchange for an end to a boycott campaign that will continue in the U.S. and elsewhere. ...

Among other things, the deal obliges KFC Canada to begin buying from suppliers who use gas to kill their chickens painlessly, considered to be the least cruel method of slaughter.

The company is also promising to insist on other "animal-welfare friendly" measures relating to how the birds are kept, including a maximum on crowding and phasing out non-essential growth-hormones and other drugs.

Customers of the popular restaurant chain will also be able to order a vegan "chicken" item."

Shame on you Bell!

2008-05-28T05:43:00.006-04:00

Well I put up the no junk mail sign on my mailbox a week or two ago, and so far the Post Person hasn't left anything. They're not supposed to, but I've heard of people having trouble with it, so it may be Post Person Dependent.

Because I'm in an apartment building, I read that you should also put a sign on the inside where the PP will see it when they open the face panel. And of course I made it bilingual... French first. No sense pissing off the postal worker!

I also emailed my credit card company to stop sending statements. My next step is to email Bell and tell them to stop wasting paper trying to GET ME BACK. I've had only bad experiences with Bell, I'm not interesting in re-signing with them. Yet they keep sending these stupid letters, apparently written by beavers. They're not fooling me with their Animal Cutesiness!

I should add that they always use unmarked envelopes, I assume because there are some laws about contacting ex-customers that they've been constantly tiptoeing around.

Bliss-ness

2008-05-21T03:19:00.003-04:00

My friends/family and I have often had the discussion, over the years, about whether it's possible for everyone to work in a career that is also Soulfully Fulfilling. Or do you get a job that's nice, that's fine, and be Souful in your spare time? Or is that settling? Ahhhh!

I recently sent my brother another article on this topic. And he really liked one of the comments that was posted in reply:
*

Comment #12 by Venecia (reply)

April 23rd, 2008 at 3:29 pm

I think there’s a big dose of missing the point here.

The advice is to “follow your bliss” not “follow your bliss to the exclusion of all else while they turn the heat off and you can’t feed your kids.” Maybe some of those janitors aren’t following their bliss at work, but are following it in their off hours. Maybe their bliss is fathering four healthy, happy kids or maybe they do stand-up comedy on the weekends.

And it’s about following, not reaching. It’s the journey, not the destination. FINDING your bliss is just as much a part of following it. Discovering who you are and what you love (and how that’s changed over time as well) is part of the following.

Finally, let’s not confuse bliss with success. Unless money is your only bliss (in which case go ahead and work for the highest bidder to the exclusion of all else) you can follow your bliss without talent or major sacrifice or going bankrupt. Painting is your bliss? Well, you can paint with a minimal outlay of cash for supplies. You can paint in the evenings and weekends. You can paint even if you suck. You can paint if you never get famous. You can paint if no one ever buys your work (like Van Gogh before he died). There’s no commandment that says “thou shalt not do things unless they bring approval / cash rewards.”

So follow your bliss. It isn’t just good advice, it’s a critical component to living.

"Follow your bliss" was coined by one of my fave mentors, Joseph Campbell. He's not talking about getting a job, he's talking about your life:

"...if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going they to be."
The Power of Myth

The genetics of comfort food!

2008-05-21T02:47:00.002-04:00

Apparently higher status female monkeys eat more than lower status monkeys, who are always stressed out by their status. But when offered junk food (sugary banana pellets) the higher status females will munch on a few, whereas the lower status females will binge.

!!

(New York Times article)

We aren't All Bad after all...

2008-05-15T00:22:00.001-04:00

Oh. My. God.

Change really is possible.

"Colorado’s Governor just signed a bill that will outlaw veal crates in four years and pig gestation crates in ten. Additionally, negotiations are currently being set up regarding making progress against battery cages." (From vegan.com)

Lavage Vert

2008-05-14T05:00:00.002-04:00

While I was still in school this past year I bought two "greenie" products from Presiden't Choice, even though they were more expensive: laundry detergent and toilet paper.

I wanted the tp ("TP for my bunghole! Bungholio!") because it was made of 100% recycled paper, and also the rolls are doubled up so less of those cardboard rolls used. One week The Husband bought regular cheapee and paper, and I was all: But it's not the recycled stuff! Then I looked closely at the label. 100% recycled. And cheaper. Hm.

So this week (now that I have tiiime lovely time on my hands) I examined all the different papers, and found the one that was recycled, double-rolled, and cheapest. It was NOT the Pres Choice brand.

Which made me suspicious about the laundry detergent, which has the following advantages: can use in cold water, phosphate free, perfume free, and concentrated (so less packaging.) This week I examined all the different concentrated brands, and found (1) they're all phosphate free; (2) I use any detergent in cold water, so I didn't look at that; (3) the cheapest one was also perfume free: Sunlight for sensitive skin.

Honeybun on the cob! Yum.

2008-05-14T03:36:00.004-04:00

I worked a bit more than usual this past week (also--one day on, one day off, which is not ideal). And sure enough, even one extra shift and I see the dishes start to creep back, which makes cooking harder, etc. Hence my goal to remain part-time for life!

But I'm still keeping up with my homemade food (last night: chick pea sandwich spread, beans and rice in the slow cooker, and banana cake), and recycling, and trying to stay off the corn grid.

I didn't buy my favourite Snapple drink when at work (made of corn) or make Crystal Light (made of corn), but have been drinking Red Zinger tea instead.

I managed to avoid buying any honeybuns. This is the *treat* I like to get when at work, from the store next door. I've long suspected it's mostly made of petroleum, but I suppose corn and soy, two of the most subsidized US products, is more likely...

[In Bold: possible corn or soy ingredients]

enriched wheat flour, water, palm oil, sugar, yeast, dextrose, mono/diglycerides, calcium carbonate, salt, soy flour, agar, baking powder, extract of annatto and turmeric, cinnamon, ethoxylated monoglycerides, diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono/diglycerides, soy lecithin, dried honey, soybean oil, flavours (??so mysterious), calcium sulphate, calcium iodate, calcium propionate, sodium propionate, potassium sorbate

As far as veganism goes, I've never been 100% off the honey (though I'm close to that now) but... well I never would have suspected that dried honey is more than... dried honey. It's a processed ingredient, and usually has corn syrup added to it. That is hilarious. That is tooo much. [Source: The National Honey Board.]

Ahh! The Devil Corn strikes again! Ah! Ah!

2008-05-14T03:32:00.002-04:00

To get the low-down on whether biofuel is a good idea, I thought I'd turn to my old friend Michael Pollan. After all, studying corn has been his Thing for a couple books now. I easily found a NYT article on the subject. He basically points out that making biofuel from corn requires a lot of fuel to begin with (both to grow corn, and then to process it).

"So why the stampede to make ethanol from corn? Because we have so much of it, and such a powerful lobby promoting its consumption. Ethanol is just the latest chapter in a long, sorry history of clever and profitable schemes to dispose of surplus corn: there was corn liquor in the 19th century; feedlot meat starting in the 1950’s and, since 1980, high fructose corn syrup. We grow more than 10 billion bushels of corn a year in this country, far more than we can possibly eat — though God knows we’re doing our best, bingeing on corn-based fast food and high fructose corn syrup till we’re fat and diabetic. We probably can’t eat much more of the stuff without exploding, so the corn lobby is targeting the next unsuspecting beast that might help chomp through the surplus: your car."

Cyclone-ness

2008-05-07T03:35:00.001-04:00

Oh la. Poor Burma. I wonder how recovery efforts will work out, considering this is one of the strictest military governments in the world.

How to change!

2008-05-05T22:24:00.004-04:00

A nice NYT article on how to make change in your life.

“Whenever we initiate change, even a positive one, we activate fear in our emotional brain,” Ms. Ryan notes in her book. “If the fear is big enough, the fight-or-flight response will go off and we’ll run from what we’re trying to do. The small steps in kaizen don’t set off fight or flight, but rather keep us in the thinking brain, where we have access to our creativity and playfulness.”

I Don't Wanna "Grow Up"

2008-05-05T17:49:00.005-04:00

When I see the price that you pay
I don't wanna grow up
I don't ever wanna be that way
I don't wanna grow up

12 years ago I was rooming with a friend, and we both made just-above-minimum wage. I always had money.

I worked 5 days a week, but it wasn't a job I took home with me, literally or mentally. I made a fair amount of homemade food and ate simply. When Roomie and I moved into a new apartment, we used cast-off furniture, we decorated the walls of the livingroom with photos from a discounted book, and instead of buying curtains for the kitchen we hung up a line and clipped colourful scarves to it. When our second hand TV broke, we didn't miss it.

We tend to refer to this kind of decorating as "first apartment" decorating. It's not for Adults. Adults buy their furniture new. They don't rent, they buy. And they don't own bus passes, they own cars. And they don't work part-time.

It's funny that we see these things as adult-ish, though, because cutting money and trying to live a healthier life requires (1) a lot of initial work, and then (2) organization. The time I no longer spend in either a stressful management job, or being a student, I spend on researching homemade cleaners, cooking homemade food, and reorganizing my apartment. And while I'm concerned about saving up money for retirement, there are two ways to collect money--you can make more, and you can spend less. I'm re-focusing myself on the latter.

This Childish lifestyle of mine is better for my health, better for my pocket-book, and better for the environment. So in the words of the Great Tom Waits: I don't wanna grow up.

Getting off the grid... the Corn Grid

2008-05-02T17:28:00.003-04:00

Side Project: Finding an alternative drink.

Right now I drink Crystal Light, not for diet reasons, but for sugar-sitting-on-the-teeth reasons. But I've always known I need to find an alternative, and now that I'm conducting my anti-corn experiment, this must be The Time. Corn dextrin is the main ingredient.

I know, I know, I should just drink water. Well... I can't. It makes my stomach glurgly! And I can't just add some lemon to water, because I'm allergic to citrus--I get cankers like a moze-foze. So I'm experimenting with herbal tea, and then I'll experiment with adding a little sweetener (agave or maple syrup)... juuuust enough to give it some pizazz. Will keep you updated.

I've got to work on my hot drinks too. Right now I use faux sugar (probably made from CORN!) to sweeten my hot chocolates or chai lattés, but I think I'll switch over to Stevia. It's a real sugar, but doesn't rampage through your blood sugar the way refined sugar does.

It's all very exciting.

You gotta spend money to lose money: organic veggies

2008-05-02T17:16:00.004-04:00

Current Problem: How to set up organic veggie delivery from the Jardin des Anges.

This is one of those services that source organic produce--local or otherwise--and bring you a mixed bag of fruits and veggies for a set amount each week. I like the idea for two reasons:

(1) I always need to eat more F&V and I figure, if I'm paying $35 a week, I'll be motivated to eat/cook it all. If not, I can always cancel the service.

(2) Even with time on my hands, I don't tend to shop with specific recipes in mind. I usually just buy whatever I'm in the mood for, and look for recipes that I have the ingredients for. So I'm not bothered by the Veggie Surprise! element of this system.

But they need you to leave out a cooler somewhere, in case you're not home when they deliver. I'm thinking a cooler outside the door of my apartment, in the hall. Fernando only agreed if it was locked, so I think I'll need a trip to Canadian Tire to pick up both a cheap cooler and a lock that I can install on it.

Hmph! Getting off the Military Industrial Cornplex costs time and money!

Humus for the Masses

2008-05-02T17:11:00.004-04:00

As I walked home last night, singing "Bat Out of Hell" because my ipod battery was dead, I figured out the answer to my composting dilemma.

Throw the compost out with the garbage.

If I put it in biodegradable bags (I know they exist for the leaves you rake up) then... not too much harm done to the landfill, methinks. A little rich humus here and there. Can't hurt. Might help.

So when I'm ready, I'm going to go ahead and get a composting system. Between that, my recycling, and my re-using, I should have very little actual garbage.

Composting still requires some work, though, and doing it indoors or on the balcony can pose some problems (Eg. needing a place for water to runoff.) The tidiest solution is, well, the manufactured one: The NatureMill, which is $400. A composting robot! Uh ya. I'm not that rich.

Anyway, I'll either think about this later in the summer, or next summer. My current dilemma is getting set up for organic veggie delivery.

My Carbon Footprint in Cute Graphics

2008-05-01T00:38:00.003-04:00

The most detailed carbon footprint calculator I've yet seen. I'm not doing too badly... if everyone were to live my lifestyle, we'd only need half another planet. (Though Fernando's response was: "Ya, but where are you going to find it?")

Visiting my folks in Vancouver/Nanaimo always kills my footprint. But I fly standby, so it doesn't really count right? BrotherPablo says I can transfer that part of my footprint to the people who bought tickets.

Book / Site recommend: For ecologikizing

2008-04-30T23:13:00.003-04:00

Skimmed through the book Big Green Purse at work the other day, and as enviro books go, it was really good--lots of tips, interesting, easy to use format etc. But, better yet, she has a web site which is also attractive and well organized. Here is its purpose:

"We're unique in our focus on women because women spend $.85 of every dollar in the marketplace. That's a lot of power packed in a purse...but only if it's used in a way that can't be ignored. That's why Big Green Purse is encouraging A MILLION WOMEN to shift at least $1,000 of money they already spend for an initial $1 billion Big Green Purse impact. Want to join us? Here's how.

Added bonus:

Big Green Purse saves you time. We've strolled the shopping aisles and browsed the search engines so you don't have to. We've found products that are really green (not just "green washed") at prices you can afford. Where possible, we've pinpointed goods that are not only green but "fair trade," meaning people are paid a fair wage for their work and no child labor is involved."

Those nutty environmentalists

2008-04-30T22:37:00.004-04:00

What the-!

You can donate your cut hair to clean up oil spills! Apparently human hair is great for making mats to clean up these spills. Much easier (and less traumatizing) then the whole Locks of Love concept. And they collect old nylons, and fill them with hair, to contain the spills.

They also collect old french fry oil to run school buses. These crazy environmentalists... what will they think of next!

I Have No Mind and I Must Eat

2008-04-30T18:10:00.002-04:00

Besides reading my book on the Evils of the Military Industrial Corn Complex (I just finished the chapter on organic farming), I picked this up for free:

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansick

This is the guy who actually did the studies on how people eat unconsciously, with the refilling soup bowls, and the stale popcorn. (All the Good Diet Gurus are quoting his studies, like Bob Greene and Paul McKenna.)

It's just a fun book full of scientific studies, including some of the things that go wrong with them. (For example... subjects are bound to be suspicious when their chicken noodle soup is making gurgling and sucking noises.) Very entertaining.

Some of the studies are summarized here.

Write Diet Books for Fame and Fortune!

2008-04-30T17:31:00.007-04:00

Peter Walsh, the throw-out-your-junk guy, has a book out on weight loss: Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? He says he wrote it because he noticed that after helping people de-clutter their homes, they often lost weight, and we wanted to explore the connection between the two.

Alright. Sensible enough. But I was in the Self Help section of the bookstore I work at, and I'm noticing a new trend... applying your Self Help Expertise to weight loss. The two books that struck me were:

The Four Day Win: End Your Diet War & Achieve Thinner Peace by Martha Beck
"Breaking down the weight-loss marathon into 4-day intervals, Dr. Beck provides effective strategies for changing the behaviors that make us fat."

The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size by Julia Cameron
"Cameron illuminates the relationship between creativity and eating to reveal a crucial equation: creativity can block overeating."

Martha Beck is a life organizer, and Julia Cameron has for years written books about freeing your creativity. Innnteresting. Are these 3 writers just trying to ride a trend--take the same basic advice from your other books, and give it a food twist? Will the Dog Whisperer write a diet book next? Money managers? Anyway, I'll try to follow up with some book reviews.

Side Note: Every time there's a new bestselling self help book, just watch out for the deluge of related books that follows. My favourite one these days is David Bach, who takes his advice from The Automatic Millionaire and applies it to every conceivable situation:

The Automatic Millionaire Workbook
The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner
Smart Women Finish Rich
Smart Couples Finish Rich
Start Late, Finish Rich
Finish Rich Workbook
--and his latest?-- Go Green, Live Rich

I'm still expecting: Live Rich, Die Thin, Smart Pets Finish Rich, and The Automatic Millionaire Cookbook.

High Fructose Corn Syrup: The Devil's Baby?

2008-04-26T18:25:00.000-04:00

I'm reading Michael Pollan's previous book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. I borrowed it from work, but I'm going to have to buy it because it is blowing my little pea sized brain.

I have so many thoughts about this... I don't know where to start. Aiiiieeee. I'll try to post short thought-updates on my Practically Moral page, where I like to blab about politics and food. If you don't read them... well... you'll just have to suffer through me speechifying you every time we meet. ...I'll have to carry a script around with me, so I don't forget all my speechify points.

But here's one.

1. The US government (under the influence of food production industries) encourages farmers to grow as MUCH corn as physically possible.

2. Farmers grow corn like mozefozes.

3. There is so much corn on the market, that its value is low.

4. It costs farmers more to produce corn than the price it sells at, which is why the government has to subsidize them; this is also why farmers need to produce tons and tons of corn, to make back enough money to stay afloat.

5. The beneficiaries of cheap corn are the food producers--those who take corn and turn it into corny weirdo products; and then those food companies that buy the corny weirdo products to make new breakfast cereals.

7. SO: If you're an American, your taxes (about a quarter, I think he said) to subsidize farmers aren't really subsidizing farmers (at least re. corn and soy beans, the biggest sector of the industry) -- you are really subsidizing corporations.

8: And added to this, the glut of cheap corn means that every industry possible tries to use corn every which way they can, which is why beef cows are fed corn even though it makes them so sick, they also have to be fed antibiotics with their feed.

And presumably this is the same in Canada. And this type of economy is affecting the countries the US sells corny weirdo products to. They sell corn to MEXICO for God's sake, the home of corn! Because no small farmer can compete with this, growing corn the old way, or the old old way. (Old way=growing less corn, using chemical fertilizer. Old old way=using farm animals and bean crops to enrich the soil, on self-sufficient farms with multiple animals and crops.)

Dr Oz has been on Oprah a lot in the past couple years denouncing high fructose corn syrup, which is found in almost every processed food. I wasn't too freaked out because when you eat vegan you naturally gravitate away from processed food, so what little I consume probably isn't that bad for my health. The only change I made was to increase the amount of food I cook at home.

But now I see high fructose corn syrup as demon spawn! I'm not anti-corporation by default, but what the industrialization of food has done to animals, peoples, economies, and the environment is just immoral. I'm sure there are many, many lovely people who work in the food industry... but ah! ah! ah! Ahhhh!

Cornholio in Canada

2008-04-26T18:24:00.002-04:00

From a CBC article
Why exactly are we picking a fight with King Corn?
January 27, 2007

***

Collectively, our farmers produce about nine million tonnes of corn a year, a meagre 3.5 per cent of the 260 million tonnes produced by their U.S. competitors.

Canadian growers do not supply enough to meet demand here from the major users such as livestock producers, who use corn as feed, and food processors, who use it in everything from cookies and candies to pet food and soft drinks.

The result is that Canada is a net importer of corn and the bulk of those imports come from the U.S. Looking down the road, those imports are likely to increase as more and more ethanol plants are built in Canada to try to make cleaner burning fuel from such plants as, well, corn.

...

Just about all the groups with an interest in corn in Canada, producers and users alike, agree that U.S. farm subsidies are a bad thing because they distort prices and trade. But when it comes to deciding what the Canadian government should do about this, the consensus falls apart.

In 2005, at the urging of the corn producers, the Liberal government imposed a temporary duty of $1.65 a bushel on imported U.S. corn. This meant that Canadian producers could raise their prices accordingly and still compete.

But livestock producers and food processors were unhappy because their costs rose. Hog producers predicted an exodus of piglets across the border to cheaper fattening pens. Food processors said they were at a disadvantage because they had to pay a higher price for corn products like syrups than their U.S. competitors.

The duty was removed in 2006 when the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, a quasi-judicial body that investigates such matters, ruled that other factors, such as a rising Canadian dollar, were mostly responsible for the corn producers' woes.

From our own "developing area"

2008-04-24T14:53:00.002-04:00

Some passages from:

An open letter on residential schools to the Prime Minister from Chief Phil Fontaine

Apr 22, 2008 04:30 AM

Phil Fontaine

In the Oct. 16, 2007, Throne Speech, your government promised to apologize for residential schooling for First Nations, Métis and Inuit children which led to profound harms. Every expression and word of the apology will be of great importance to our peoples and will be carefully studied, as will its timing and place. After 150 years of waiting, nothing less than a complete, unencumbered and honest apology for this dark period in our shared history will do.

An apology acceptable to survivors must be offered in the House of Commons where the Prime Minister will address Parliament, the nation and the world. It must be an event as significant and meaningful as the apology to our brothers and sisters of the Stolen Generations of Australia, and our fellow Japanese Canadians. It must incorporate the ceremony and dignity that such a symbolic and historic occasion requires. The galleries must be filled with survivors, their families, as well as church and government representatives who will bear witness.

It should specify that several generations of children were deprived of day-to-day parental love and support; that mothers, fathers, grandparents, extended family members and communities were equally deprived of their children; that health care, nutrition and emotional needs of the children were neglected; that many lost the ability to speak our languages, practise our cultures; that thousands were scarred for life from deliberate physical, sexual and psychological abuse; and that some never returned home leaving their families to mourn their passing not even knowing where they were buried.

Canada must apologize for ignoring our treaty rights and our ancestors' pleas for a good education for their children, acknowledging they were provided inferior education which detrimentally affected employment opportunities and livelihoods for generations.

As National Chief and a residential school survivor, I sincerely hope that by Canada saying sorry for all of these wrongs, my residential school brothers and sisters will be able to move on with their lives. I hope they will be able to accept the apology and find it in their hearts to forgive. I hope that as a result of the apology, the residential school era may eventually be remembered by all of us without bitterness.

Sincerely,

Phil Fontaine
National Chief
Assembly of First Nations