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The Machinery of Hopelessness
2009-05-23 02:40:00
By David Graeber 5/17/09We have reached an impasse. Capitalism as we know it is coming apart at the seams. But as financial institutions stagger and crumble, there is no obvious alternative. Organized resistance is scattered and incoherent. The global justice movement is a shadow of its former self. For the simple reason that it?s impossible to maintain perpetual growth on a finite planet, it?s possible that in a generation or so capitalism will no longer exist. Faced with this prospect, people?s knee-jerk reaction is often fear. They cling to capitalism because they can?t imagine a better alternative.How did this happen? Is it normal for human beings to be unable to imagine a better world?Hopelessness isn?t natural. It needs to be produced. To understand this situation, we have to realize that the last 30 years have seen the construction of a vast bureaucratic apparatus that creates and maintains hopelessness. At the root of this machine is global leaders? obsession with ensuring t...
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Minding the Animals: Ethology and the Obsolescence of Left Humanism
2009-05-16 01:10:00
By STEVEN BEST[Also published in The International Journal of INCLUSIVE DEMOCRACY, Vol. 5, No. 2 Spring 2009]"We do not regard the animals as moral beings. But do you suppose the animals regard us as moral beings? ? An animal which could speak said: 'Humanity is a prejudice of which we animals at least are free.'? --Friedrich Nietzsche What does it mean to be ?human?? The question, though it has occupied some of the greatest Western minds of philosophy, science, history, and political theory, could not have been answered with any plausibility until recently, for we have only begin to acquire the scientific knowledge necessary to provide an informed response. At the same time, recent scientific and technological developments have produced radical and vertiginous change. The possibilities of artificial intelligence, robotics, cloning, pharmacology, stem cell research, and genetic modification pose entirely new challenges for attempts to define ?human? in fixed and essentialist rathe...
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All innocent life is sacred
2009-05-16 01:09:00
Editorial Note: The views expressed by the authors we publish are not necessarily those of TPC's editorial collective. In this instance, we endorse the uncompromising attitude and approach to total liberation of nonhuman animals and the Earth, but not the homophobic, anti-abortion, and puritanical positions.---Jason Miller, Senior Editor for TPCBy XlarsX[This piece is the Hardline Manifesto and was probably written by Sean Muttaqi of Vegan Reich]6/18/07The time has come for an ideology and for a movement that is both physically and morally strong enough to do battle against the forces of evil that are destroying the earth (and all life upon it). One that cannot be bought, nor led astray by temptation. A movement free of the vices that sedate the mind and weaken the body. An ideology that is pure and righteous, without contradictions or inconsistencies. One that judges all things by one standard and emphasizes personal responsibility and accountability above all else. An overall vie...
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Teressa Groenewald-Hagerman poses over magnificent elephant she downed with
2009-05-16 01:08:00
Smiling proudly over her vanquished "prey," the huntress displays a nonhuman animal murderer's typical delight in her cowardly act....By Alex Millson5/7/09Simulposted with UK Daily Mail OnlineA woman hunter clutches a bow and grins as she poses next to the body of an elephant she has killed with a single arrow.In a scene that will sicken animal lovers and anti-hunting groups, proud Teressa Groenewald-Hagerman stands over her kill after becoming the first woman to kill an elephant in such a manner.The 39-year-old, from Overland Park, Kansas in the U.S. travelled to troubled Zimbabwe where she could hunt the creature legally.She shot the creature then left it to die overnight before plucking up the courage to approach the carcasse.After creeping up on the herd she drew back the bow and fired the arrow into her target - from just 12 yards away.The injured creature staggered 500 yards,leaving a bloody trail, before crashing to the ground.The sick image of her so-called 'achievement' ...
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Inside the Diabolical Mind of Trent Loos
2009-05-16 01:05:00
By Camille Marino and Dave Warwak5/14/09Designed to increase sales amidst the ?not-going-away? Smithfield Swine Flu Virus panic, the Devil is using his own child in a promotion featuring a picture of her munching on the mutilated carcass of a diseased pig---in his devious plan to rally support for his murderous cohorts in hopes of selling the idea that feeding young corpse-holes pig parts somehow equates with wholesome family values. I am not buying it."Our nation?s pork producers are in desperate straights. I am 100% about using the law of supply and demand but I think the answer to this situation is to find a way to increase demand and do it immediately. It just so happens that I have an idea."---Trent LoosThe trickster or tempter figure, Trent Loos? real entity is in reality the Devil. Think about this: If you were the Devil, where would you live in 2009? I would choose the most evil awful place on Earth ? the USA. And what better role to destroy all of humanity than an Animal Ag...
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The Dreams of Grant Park
2009-05-12 06:35:00
By Paul A. Moore 5/11/09It was the night of November 4, 2008 and each of the half-million human beings in Grant Park in Chicago represented thousands more around the world. The dreams rushed up in a violent torrent. The tears flowed like a mighty river.It had been so long since dreaming made sense.There had been the Reagan Revolution and the enshrinement of greed, rapaciousness, and materialism as the state religion. There had been the beginnings in 1991 of the long war to gain control of the planets oil supplies. There had been the period of the most "Republican" Democrat ever to occupy the White House, a man so vapid and devoid of character that he sought nothing of his office beyond his own sexual gratification. There had been the eight years of the most utter hopelessness and despair as the United States of America moved as close to fascism and the end of constitutional government as it has ever been.Today, the dreams of Grant Park were assaulted.Today, a U.S. soldier in Iraq us...
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Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons
2009-05-12 06:34:00
Savaged by dogs, Electrocuted With Cattle Prods, Burned By Toxic Chemicals, Does such barbaric abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors that were committed in Iraq?By Deborah DaviesFirst posted March 28, 2005They are just some of the victims of wholesale torture taking place inside the U.S. prison system that we uncovered during a four-month investigation for Channel 4 . It?s terrible to watch some of the videos and realise that you?re not only seeing torture in action but, in the most extreme cases, you are witnessing young men dying.The prison guards stand over their captives with electric cattle prods, stun guns, and dogs. Many of the prisoners have been ordered to strip naked. The guards are yelling abuse at them, ordering them to lie on the ground and crawl. ?Crawl, motherfuckers, crawl.?If a prisoner doesn?t drop to the ground fast enough, a guard kicks him or stamps on his back. There?s a high-pitched scream from one man as a dog clamps its teeth onto his lower leg.Another...
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The Next High
2009-05-12 06:33:00
By Sylvain Lamoureux 5/10/09Why is it that we do not question? Why is it that we simply accept? Are we still waiting for a hero, for someone or something to come along and magically change everything; to make things better for all? We say that we must all take control of our own destinies, that we are subsequently responsible for ourselves, but where does that leave humanity as a whole? What are we ultimately responsible for? Are we not ultimately responsible for the world and the civilization that we leave for future generations? Are we not to be responsible for the balance of nature and its perpetuation towards a future?What I have witnessed in my short but insightful life is that we seem to 'binge' on life, especially those in 'western' society. We love our gadgets, our toys, the abundance of food, water, entertainment, relationships (be it lovers, friends or family), we are constantly on the lookout for our next fix of the new, latest and trendy items to purchase, eat or exp...
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Invisible Paths
2009-05-12 06:32:00
By Charles Eisenstein5/3/09"You are here because you know something. You don't know what it is, but you can feel it. Something is wrong with the world."-- Morpheus, The MatrixSimulposted with After Armageddon (a fantastic site)As the age turns, millions of people are pioneering a transition from the old world to the new. It is a journey fraught with peril and hardship and breathtaking discovery, a journey irreducibly unique for each of us. Because we are stepping out into the new, it is also profoundly uncertain and at times lonely. I cannot map out the details of anyone's individual path, but I can fortify you as you walk it and illuminate some of its universal features. My purpose is to give voice to what you have always known (without knowing it) and always believed (without believing it), so that you may breathe a sigh of relief and say, "Ah, I was right all along."In a sense I am not describing a path at all, since there isn't one in the new territory of the pioneer. Indeed,...
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GETTING PERSONAL
2009-05-12 06:31:00
"Insurrection in the USA! Yes, but not the one we of the Left like to imagine. Instead, an insurrection of the lethal combination of fundamentalist Christians, defenders of the white race, poorly educated rural people and states? rights ideologues unhappy with the outcome of the Civil War, who, supported by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News and people like Lou Dobbs, Michael Savage, Rick Perry and Sarah Palin, form the insurrectional BASE."On Turning Points, Change, Action and the Universal By Gaither Stewart5/10/09(Rome) One of my favourite writers, Paul Bowles, lived much of his life in Morocco. His major theme is the clash between civilized man and an alien environment. His Westerner is inevitably defeated by so-called primitive man. In the jungle or in the desert the Westerner is not only lost but also a victim of the primitive environment. Natural man is superior and defeats the neurotic product of technological society. The Westerner searches for ?primitive? society, loves it, needs ...
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Pro Gay Marriage - Why gay marriage should be legal
2009-05-12 06:29:00
Why we dont need a Constitutional banBy Kathy BelgeCarla and Miriam fell in love and decided to get married. Last summer they held a lavish ceremony on the coast. All of their friends and family attended. Carla?s dad, a minister, officiated. Miriam?s dad wrote and sang a special song. After the reception, the two headed off to their honeymoon.When they returned, they felt like a married couple. They moved in together, opened their gifts and started talking about having a baby. Even though, the couple feels committed to each other, they have none of the legal rights that protect other married couples. If Carla becomes ill, Miriam is not guaranteed the right to be with her in the hospital. If Miriam dies, her distant nieces and nephews have more of a claim to her belongings than Carla does. They file ?single? on their tax returns and are not allowed to be on each other?s health plans.The Canadian government ruled on June 10th 2003 to overturn the laws that prevented same sex couples f...
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He no longer heard the cries of the animals or saw the flowing blood?.
2009-05-09 10:06:00
[Author's Note: I'm dedicating this piece to the courageous animal defenders and rescuers comprising the ALF, the Justice Department, the Animal Liberation Brigade, and the other militant direct action groups who are taking the fight to vivisectors and the rest of their ilk comprising the animal exploitation complex. Given the relentless nature of the systemic torment and slaughter of millions of other sentient beings that take place day after day, violent responses from nonhuman animal lovers are inevitable and are a morally acceptable means of extensional self-defense on behalf of the voiceless, defenseless victims. As my close colleague, Dr. Jerry Vlasak, surmised---and I back him 100% on this---the assassination of a vivisector or two would probably save millions of nonhuman animal lives. And given the escalating situation at UCLA, who knows what may happen? Employing myriad tactics and strategies, those of us pursuing empty cages will prevail, and, as another steadfast ally o...
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Children as Unlamented Victims of Bush?s War Crimes
2009-05-09 10:05:00
By Michael HaasSimulposted with Information Clearing HouseMay 01, 2009 -- -- Torture has received the most attention among the many war crimes of the Bush administration. But those who support Bush?s pursuit of the ?war on terror? have not been impressed by recriminations over torture. Worse than torture are the murders of at least 50 prisoners in Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo, but again the hard-hearted are unimpressed when those whom they perceive as terrorists receive illegal extrajudicial capital punishment.The case for abusing children, however, is more difficult to support. The best kept secret of the Bush?s war crimes is that thousands of children have been imprisoned, tortured, and otherwise denied rights under the Geneva Conventions and related international agreements. Yet both Congress and the media have strangely failed to identify the very existence of child prisoners as a war crime. In the Islamic world, however, there is no such silence. Indeed, the prophet ...
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The First Hundred Lashes (er, I Mean, Days)
2009-05-09 10:04:00
By Vi Ransel5/7/09Obama's coterie of courtierssings his praises as he picks a fightwith the "formidable" powerof organized labor,knocking the UAW to its knees.He was supposed to bethe people's savior.The press and the pundits laud his skillin handling the betrayed expectationsof the "common" people,as if the people, unionized, or not,were the power pulling the stringsin Washington and not the Ministersof MOLOCH and MAMMON dwelling on Wall Street,and beyond them, the invisible menbehind the Davos, Trilateral,Bilderberger and CFC curtains.Obama was electedto protect and serve state capitalism,to provide a curtain of legitimacyfor the undemocratic supremacyof a savage class systemundergirding the privileges of the plutocracy.Their president took in 38 million.He set a record for campaign contributionsfrom F.I.R.E., the finance,insurance and real estate industries,since G. Sax and Morgan Stanleyweren't putting the reins into anyone's handswho wasn't wholly ownedby the Empire of Fin...
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Gaza is Israel's Warsaw
2009-05-07 07:07:00
Zionist Lobby Targets Another Tenured ProfessorBy Doug HenwoodSimulposted with Information Clearing HouseMay 05, 2009Doug Henwood: We're now joined by William Robinson, who is a Professor of Sociology at the University of California in Santa Barbara, someone I met about six or seven years ago at a conference and, although I've disagreed with him on some issues, I though he's a serious and thoughtful guy. I was very distressed to learn, reading Insider Higher Ed, the website, today that he's being persecuted by the Zionist lobby for an e-mail that he sent around to some of his students. Welcome William Robinson, tell us the story of what you sent and what's been happening.William Robinson: Yes, good afternoon to everyone. I included some material which was highly critical of the Israeli invasion of Gaza as part of the reading material for a course on globalization and global affairs, and this was in January. And I am now facing charges, here at the university, of anti-semitism a...

Silence & Complicity
2009-05-07 07:05:00
By Camille Marino5/6/09This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism.--Albert EinsteinIn order to trade in death, agribusiness demands a compliant and malleable social order. In fact, one needs to step back and appreciate the diabolical nature of indoctrination; the fine art of sacrificing individual thought in favor of a collective social psyche.A corpse -- by definition, harvested from a once-living flesh-and-blood individual -- elicits a profoundly-disconnected programmed response in the mainstream: flesh... A-1 Steak Sauce... yummy. The cemented indoctrination of a culture. The youngest child knows that sacrificing non-human animals for human animals is a noble pursuit: sending monkeys into space; sacrificing insignificant lab rats; milk-mustache posters advocating stealing secretions from other species; and, of course, pet ownership to bring home that biblical concept of dominion. And adult humans -- their lives measured from one type of flesh fix to ano...
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Eating Misery: Contamination and Cruelty are Linked in Chickens Raised for
2009-05-07 07:04:00
[Protest Oprah's Giving Away KFC Chicken MealsOprah made this offer to her millions of viewers on yesterday's show (May 5). She said she was helping everyone during this recession by collaborating with Kentucky Fried Chicken in offering a free meal to all who download the coupon from her website.Please contact Oprah at https://www.oprah.com/plugform.jsp?plugId =220 and tell her what you think.]Essay by Karen Davis, PhD 5/6/09Chickens raised for food are treated horribly and they are very unhealthy. They are crammed by the thousands into filthy, dark buildings loaded with bacteria, bird flu viruses, toxic funguses, and poisonous gases that burn their eyes, their skin and their lungs. With no sunshine, fresh air, or normal activities, chickens develop painful skeletal deformities, soft watery muscles, pus-filled lungs, and heart disease. Their immune systems cannot cope with the toxic load. Some people argue that when we eat the flesh and eggs of creatures who are treated so badly, w...
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NFL Player Dhani Jones and Sadistic Speciesism
2009-05-07 07:04:00
By Suki Falconberg5/6/09American football player Dhani Jones , a linebacker for the Cincinnati Bengals, has a show on the Travel Channel called Dhani Tackles the Globe. The premise: he visits different countries to learn their sports.In the Cambodia episode which just aired (4 May 2009) , this big football player laughs and jokes around as he offers a helpless chicken with its legs trussed up to a snake. The pathetic bird, which looks ill and listless and unhealthy, just lays there?until the snake startles it and then the poor thing tries desperately to fly away. In its ill state, and with its bound legs, it flaps desperately but cannot make it far. It lands on the ground a couple of feet away. An audience of Cambodians laughs at the bird. The football player continues to joke around about the situation.As an animal-rights activist, I have seen much cruelty to animals; but this segment with the chicken on the Travel Channel show made me cry for some reason. I think it was because of ...
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Misunderstanding Marx: Brad Delong
2009-05-06 04:30:00
By Thomas RigginsMay 2, 2009The blogosphere has lately witnessed some interest in a lecture, "Understanding Marx ism" posted by Professor Brad Delong of the University of California and a former Clinton administration official. Delong calls himself a neoliberal economist and his lecture is such a confused jumble of misrepresentations and misunderstandings of even the most elementary rudiments of Marxism that its refutation will serve the two fold purpose of clarifying some elementary ideas of basic Marxism 101 and of exposing the absolute insipidity of neoliberal thinking.The first thing that struck me about this article, "Understanding Karl Marx" by Brad Delong, besides how poorly written it was, is how uninformed the author appears to me on both the origins of Marxism and just what Marx thought. It takes a lot of CHUTZPAH to write an article when you don't yourself appear to understand what you are writing about.Take the opening sentence of the article: "In the beginning was Karl ...

Good Ol' Humans Club
2009-05-06 04:28:00
By Steve Best5/5/09In April 2009, the Left Forum was held in New York City. It used to be the Socialist Scholars Conference, and Stanley Aronowitz and others broke off and started the Left Forum. Here is the list of panels and presenters:http://leftforum.org/?q=2009/p anelsSee any animal liberation or vegan panels? Don't strain your eyes; they are not there, not one. You will find queer issues, sex workers' rights, and spiritual politics, but not a damn thing on the most urgent issues of the time.Good conference, some brilliant and important speakers, but this is just one more nail in the coffin of the relevance of the Left to these urgent times.A prestigious Left forum, full of old party coats, aging academics, and Paleolithic humanist dogmas that are Not Ready for Prime Time Revolution yet.And should a panel on the crucial need for animal rights and vegan politics have squeezed through the Good Ol' Humans Club , it would have been attended by 5 people, at least 4 of whom would ha...

Who?s Afraid of Jerry Vlasak?
2009-05-04 06:16:00
Photo and caption courtesy of the Guardian: Dr. Jerry Vlasak of California chooses jail over paying fine for seal hunt violation. One of 11 seal hunt protesters convicted earlier this year of coming illegally close to the 2005 seal hunt has surrendered himself to authorities to begin serving a 22-day jail term. [Editorial note from Jason Miller: Who?s Afraid of Jerry Vlasak? Not TPC! I am proud to announce that Dr. Jerry Vlasak has joined our editorial collective as senior editor of animal liberation!]By Dr. Steven Best5/3/09Dr. Jerry Vlasak is known for many things. He is a trauma surgeon in Los Angeles, a militant animal rights activist, a former vivisector turned renowned critic of vivisection, a scientific advisor to groups like Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) and In Defense of Animals, and a founder and Press Officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office. He also has a lot of "former" roles on his resume, such as former spokesperson for the Physicians Comm...

First, get off your knees: The Motionless Movement
2009-05-03 18:49:00
by Larken Rose4/28/09First, the good news: The pro-freedom "movement" is seeing a dramatic growth spurt. All sorts of people, from all walks of life, are coming to realize that our "protector" government is the main thing that we need to be protected from. In fact, by all appearances, the movement is growing by leaps and bounds, especially among the younger generations. However ...What I see in the movement, including what I saw at Saturday's "End the Fed" event, leaves me with mixed emotions. In my brief comments there, I didn't want to be too blatant, lest I offend both the organizers and the spectators of the event, but the truth is, most of what the "movement" is focusing on is pointless and doomed to fail. The problem is this: Most people have been trained to view obedience as a virtue and have been taught to take pride in the fact that they are "law-abiding taxpayers" who "play by the rules." And this is just as true of most of the people in the "movement." As a direct resul...
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Green Scared?
2009-05-03 10:06:00
"Is it fair for a person whose complicity in the status quo is rewarded with financial stability and social status to accuse someone who has risked everything to abide by his conscience? of cowardice?"An excerpt from Preliminary Lessons of the Green Scare as it appears on CrimethInc.5/2/07[Back-ground information from Support for Daniel McGowan: Daniel McGowan is an environmental and social justice activist from New York City. He was charged in federal court on counts of arson, property destruction and conspiracy, all relating to two actions in Oregon in 2001. Until recently, Daniel was offered two choices by the government--cooperate by informing on other people, or go to trial and potentially spend the rest of his life in prison. His only real option was to plead not guilty until he could reach a resolution of the case that permitted him to honor his principles. Now, as a result of months of litigation and negotiation, Daniel was able to admit to his role in these two incidents, w...
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World War III: It?s Happening Today
2009-05-03 10:04:00
By Chuck Burr4/27/09Simulposted with CulturequakeWe are just not using nuclear weapons. Resource war, class war, drug war, gang war, terror war, trade war, plus war on all other species is global. Is this the culture you want to say you belong to? Is your lifestyle worth it?When you look at anything from our modern culture, think of war. Car, computer, toaster, light bulb, money, water, food, population, government, media?think of war. The more people, the more competition, the more war. Modern Taker culture is inseparable from war.Our culture was founded on war 10,000 years ago when one group of people in the fertile crescent decided they had a better way to live, population growth supported by totalitarian agriculture-based civilization. It is now almost universally accepted that civilization is unsurpassable and must continue at all costs.The world now wastes over $1 trillion on military spending. When you add in everything the US spends on present defense, debt on past defense s...
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Animal Liberation Front Claims Responsibility for Los Angeles High-Rise Eva
2009-05-03 10:04:00
Husband of Notorious Primate Vivisector Edythe London is Tenant in MGM BuildingSimulposted in Solidarity with NAALPO5/1/09Los Angeles , CA: In an anonymous communique received by the Press Office, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) claims to have delivered fake bombs to a Century City high-rise building last month, causing the LAPD bomb squad to evacuate the building. In the communique, the ALF claims the action was committed because Abraham Wagner, the husband of notorious UCLA non-human primate vivisector Edythe London, is a tenant in the building. London is well-known for addicting primates to nicotine, amphetamines, and other drugs before killing them in her laboratory; she was exposed for accepting funds from the Phillip Morris tobacco company in 2007 used in primate addiction studies.According to the Los Angeles Times, "Police evacuated several floors of a Century City high rise on Avenue of the Stars this afternoon [April 23] after a suspicious package was found in one of the b...
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Smithfield's Swine Flu Virus could exterminate millions
2009-05-03 10:00:00
A photo of rotting pig corpses taken at Granjas Carroll de Mexico--owned by Smithfield FoodsBy Dave Warwak5/1/09How infuriating to find the World Health Organization (WHO) eagerly complies (as does the USA meatia in their hopes of hiding the truth and ultimate solutions) at the request of Smithfield Foods - their fellow corpse-munchers who work so hard abusing their privilege of life on this planet by "harvesting" pigs.The World Health Organization shamelessly admitted they would stop using the term "swine flu" to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs (really to help keep the criminal pig industry alive). The WHO will instead now refer to the Smithfield's Swine Flu Virus as H1N1 influenza A. Corpse-munchers stick together ... just ask Obama, Gore, and Oprah ...just watch the meatia's coverage and how they follow suit and abandon the term, "swine flu" in favor of "H1N1 influenza A."The gall of Smithfield Foods---responsible for the Smithfield's Swine Flu Virus which could ...
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Getting away with Murder: Whatever happened to 'above all, do no harm'?
2009-04-28 06:44:00
Graphic: Time To Turn The Tables by ~m7By Jason Miller4/27/09?The moral is that animal model systems not only kill animals, they also kill humans. There is no good factual evidence to show that the use of animals in cancer research has led to the prevention or cure of a single human cancer.? ---Dr. Irwin D.J. Bross, Ph.D., 1982, former head of research design and analysis of the largest cancer research institute in the world, the Sloan-Kettering InstituteVivisection, the anachronistic practice of condemning nonhuman animals to the sterility, isolation, and confinement of laboratory cages and subjecting them to cutting, poking, sticking, burning, poisoning, and addicting, bears a much closer resemblance to medieval torture than to 21st century scientific research. Fittingly, vivisection?s history is rooted in medieval religious edicts that forbade the dissection of human cadavers.[1] And anthropocentrism is so deeply inculcated into our psyches that despite living in an ?enlightened?...
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Those weaker than yourself cannot be subjugated...
2009-04-26 18:56:00
Jerry Vlasak, representing Sea Shepherd, examines a brutally murdered seal on Prince Edward Island in 2005.And here he is after one of the sociopathic sealers punched him in the face....."Animal rights activist Amanda DeMattio's interview with Jerry Vlasak"4/25/09[Brief biography: Jerry Vlasak, MD is a board-certified surgeon specializing in trauma and critical care and a press officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office. He is a former vivisector who has seen the agony of animals in laboratories. He debates the scientific invalidity of animal experimentation around the world, speaks out about the benefits of a vegan diet and offers lectures on the right of all sentient beings to live free of pain and suffering.His essays and interviews have been published in numerous journals and magazines and he has been interviewed on radio, TV and in print by journalists worldwide regarding animal rights. He resides in Los Angeles.You can reach him at press@animalliberationpre...

On the Unmasking of Demons: Yes We Must
2009-04-26 18:55:00
Dr. Bee Z. Bywydd"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."-- Carl SaganWe are a species of superstitious monkeys, in insectoid mutational phase, armed with mass-incineration weaponry, at the edge of a teeming galaxy. All of us are possessed by demons, a lying Legion of deceptions and delusions. Our Earth has maxxed-out on demonic monkeys and now She's coughing out storms to flush our fires away.So we're all in a Panic. Or running for our lives, shivvering in the deep freeze, slogging through toxic flood waters. Deep in the Voodoo, shite out of luck, over the falls in a Titanic barrel of insane monkeys. Because our society is an onion of lies within lies, all ruled over by ominous wargods and mass-incineration weapons. We chatter on about superstitions and pseudo-news, nearly cut off from any natural identity. Our instincts have been hijacked and most of us are living like serfs in Roman-occupied city-ghettos. Being entrained to think we m...
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Consumerism: an Historical Perspective
2009-04-26 18:54:00
by Sharon Beder21 February 2009The Pacific Ecologist, whence this article came, provided this editorial note: Sharon Beder explores the history of consumer societies from the 1920s when over-production of goods exceeded demand. Instead of stabilising the economy, reducing working hours, and sharing work around, which would have brought more leisure time for all, industrialists decided to expand markets by promoting consumerism to the working classes. The social decision to produce unlimited quantities of goods rather than leisure, nurtured wastefulness, obsolescence, and inefficiency and created the foundation for our modern consumer culture. People were trained to be both workers and consumers in a culture of work and spend.Consumption was promoted through advertising as a "democracy of goods" and used to pacify political unrest among workers. With the help of marketers and advertisers exploiting the idea of consumer goods as status symbols, workers were manipulated into being avar...
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