Daniel, as a journalist, I think you're misreading the meaning behind the award. The award comes from the College of Communication, not specifically from the Department of Journalism. Bill O'Reilly is not a journalist, he is a communicator. Like the PR folks who tell you that toxic sludge is good for you, O'Reilly tells people what his boss wants him to in return for a paycheck. The message he often communicates is a load of vile, hate-filled, misogynistic, disgusting, self-righteous, gay-bashing, racist, self-serving crap on a shingle from a bigoted, fanatical, intolerant, egotistical, power-abusing, pandering, vindictive, war-mongering, ideologically-driven, pro-big-oil, anti-environment, out-of-touch …
All 22 comments by...
nyvegan
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Excellent article and great reference to a favorite site, thestoryofstuff.com. But I have to take issue with one comment: comforters filled with down should no longer be made. As described in the Story of Stuff, the process of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal applies to animal products as well as consumer goods. But with animal products, there is one very important distinction: the animals are sentient, unlike ore or petroleum taken from the ground. In a period of fifteen years, the Japanese slaughtered five million birds--mostly albatrosses--for headdresses of Europeans and Americans and down for pillows and comforters. Five million …
Posted to Built to Trash
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As valuable and timely as these insights are, Mr. Kinzer's views do not address what is happening both (I) inside our own country and (II) outside of the context of physical borders of sovereign nations. (I) Our "leaders" are turning this country into a fascist state. In the fascist view, the state is the end and the individual is the means. This is the exact opposite of the democratic philosophy. For e.g., see: http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm and http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14_pts_2.htm How are they getting away with this? One example: There are 4 elements in making decisions, whether it's which shirt to wear to a party, …
Posted to Overthrow, Over and Over
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The author, Mark Winne, does a fair job of covering the environmental issues, and articles like this are, of course, always welcome. But the article does suffer from some shortcomings. To name a few, it (1) ignores the moral issue of exploiting animals for our purposes, (2) pays slight attention to the shamefully cruel nature of the business of raising non-human animals for consumption (or entertainment, clothing, experimentation, and so on), (3) ignores the health effects on humans of eating meat vs. a plant-based diet, (4) ignores the fact that methane is the leading contributing factor towards global warming (see, for …
Posted to Meat-Industrial Complex
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RE: Comments by "spayced", in response to my posting of March 26. First, our laws are based on the Constitution, not the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Talmud, the Book of Mormon, Dianetics, or any other religious scripture or work of faith says – nor should they be. Futhermore, the Bible is an unchanging text, while our cultural is constantly adapting. If we put aside what we know about our legal system and the sciences to pursue this argument, we learn from Gen. 1.29f that the giving of dominion over animals is not a touchstone for any abuse we wish …
Posted to Meat-Industrial Complex
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RE: J. Petersmith’s comments of March 31 – US beef exports have incresaed sixty-fold in the last 3 decades (Source: USDA, certainly not an “animal rights” source). Almost no grain from these countries went to livestock 30 years ago, but now more than ¼ of their grain supplies are used to produce meat (Source: Worldwatch Institute, not an “animal rights” source). From your first class in economics, you should know that prices vary as a result of a balance between product availability at each price (supply) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand). As the rich …
Posted to Meat-Industrial Complex
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RE: Spayced, April 3. Regarding the Constitution, it was written by and for animals. Humans are part of the animal kingdom. As a reminder, humans and chimpanzees are between 95% and 98.5% genetically identical. But, as you suggested, that similarity doesn’t (at present) offer non-human animals legal rights as used in the context of human rights. They are currently regarded as the property of their human owners – as were human slaves. Fortunately, as with slavery, child labor, criminalized child abuse and women’s rights, the Constitution provides flexibility. Under the Commerce Clause, Congress can pass laws regarding human behavior not specifically …
Posted to Meat-Industrial Complex
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RE: Cabdriverinchicago, April 2. My turn to repay the compliment – very insightful comments. I do think that our attitudes and consumption habits form the foundation for the fundamental wrongs in our exploitation of animals, our poisoning of the environment and our bodies, and many of the ills in our food chain. When people buy meat, they cast votes for factory farms and the assorted ills (institutionalized cruelty, health problems, environmental destruction, inefficient use of vast quantities of water and grain, global warming, and more). But the globalization of food production greatly compounds those wrongs, further patronizes the corporations behind these …
Posted to Meat-Industrial Complex
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RE: Citizen, Apr. 6. Please visit http://www.vegsource.com/esselstyn/ . Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, one of the leading cardiovascular surgeons/researchers from the The Cleveland Clinic, the leading clinic for cardiac care (per US News & World Report), has had the most successful results ever recorded in the reversal of coronary disease, and his treatment includes low or no statin medications. Patients become "heart attack proof" (Dr. Esselstyn, American Journal of Cardiology, 8/99) by getting cholesterol levels to below 150 (the avg vegan cholesterol level is 128), the level below which no one has ever been documented as having died from a heart attack. A …
Posted to Meat-Industrial Complex
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RE: Citizen, April 10. In Albert Einstein’s words, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” Anything you can do to educate others will pay huge dividends in ways that are hard to fully appreciate. Sadly, your hospital experience isn’t unique. I was hospitalized after a bicycling accident, and the nurses, who didn’t understand what a vegan was, had me speak with the nutritionist. Nutritionist (after “confirming” that she knew what “vegan” means): Can you eat eggs, cheese, and fish? Me: No, as a vegan, I …
Posted to Meat-Industrial Complex
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From the Independent, a leading British paper, we see another group attributing the spread of avian flu to factory farms: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article356440.ece So add bird flu to the list of negative externalities such as chronic diseases, world hunger, global warming, malnutrition, and the poisoning of bodies and our ecosphere that are brought to us by factory farms. The disjuncture between marginal and social costs is not solved by the free market, as is clearly evidenced when consumers buy “cheap” meat without regard to their health, the health of their environment, or the lives of the animals trapped in this ugly business. …
Posted to Meat-Industrial Complex
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A friend asked me if unfertilized eggs from free-range chickens are “OK” in the eyes of vegans. Below is a summary of my response to him, reproduced here in part as a reply to a poster in another worthy but not directly relevant forum (http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/discuss/2444/P800/). “Free-range” hens may be stuffed into a barn and never get near a door, or the weather may be too cold for a door to ever be opened. Most free-range hens still don’t have room to stretch their wings, they are de-beaked, and are painfully slaughtered. They are not free, and their treatment is “humane” only …
Posted to Meat-Industrial Complex
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RE: David, 5/25 1. We are animals. Is it OK for all animals to eat all animals? Some human cultures practice cannibalism. Since they do it, is it morally “right” for us? Maybe we should just eat cannibals. Or did you mean that we should only eat other species? Humans cannot be justifiably denied rights for arbitrary, prejudicial, or morally irrelevant reasons. Race is such a reason. If you eat animals, that makes you a speciest, who behaves differently toward others species just as racists do toward other races. Some cultures eat dogs and cats, so are you suggesting that they …
Posted to Meat-Industrial Complex
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RE: David, 5/25 Biologists, the authorities on the animal kingdom, would disagree that we are “more than animals” (but that has nothing to do with the validity of my arguments – a validating argument is one in which it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion false). We share more than 95% of our DNA sequence with chimpanzees, which may belong on the hominid family of species (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0520_030520_chimpanzees.html). Through prospitious genetic mutations, we have developed greater thought processes than our “cousins”. With knowledge comes responsibility. We can easily find vegan food, yet many sit down to foie …
Posted to Meat-Industrial Complex
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RE: Skipper7 post on 12/23/05 Here is a link to this compelling video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8260059923762628848 Worth 82 minutes to see this. The onus is now on others to answer some very sensible questions raised by this work.
Posted to What's the 411 on 9/11?
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RE: skipper7 on 12/23/05 Here is a link for viewing the compelling video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8260059923762628848 Worth 82 minutes to view it. Now the onus is on others to answer some credible questions.
Posted to What's the 411 on 9/11?
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Penn and Teller paid tribute to a core concept of critical thinking – “a real skeptic demands to be convinced with evidence”. Unfortunately, they don’t practice it, instead using a series of logical fallacies. I counted more than 10 such fallacies (including the arguments tied to the distaste of adverse consequences, argumentum ad baculum, argumentum ad populum, argument from authority, arguments appealing to viewers’ ignorance, half truths, creation of straw men, and more). The ad hominem attacks (i.e., attack the messenger) are clearly their favorite tactic. But they don’t offer a single piece of evidence to counter the claims they so …
Posted to What's the 411 on 9/11?
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RE: Natalie, Apr. 22 The "reality" of 9/11 is certainly not simple to understand, nor can (or should) we assume that the “brainwashed murderers” were those our government tells us they were. The Loose Change video offers a great deal of evidence from publicly available sources that directly contradict the official story. The events on that day were not coincidental. If a party was behind one of the events, it was almost certainly a factor in the others. If the Pentagon was hit by a missile, then the whole story about hijackers falls apart. If the “hijackers” are alive, the whole …
Posted to What's the 411 on 9/11?
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As I read these posts, I am reminded of a quote: “Small minds discuss people; average minds discuss events; great minds discuss ideas.” It is not entirely accurate, as many in this forum have demonstrated remarkable insights and critical thinking to express concepts that few in this country have begun to ponder. Moreover, all minds are capable of discussing each. My goal in submitting the quote is to encourage all to elevate their minds to “greatness” by using the forum to discuss ideas, not people. Our Republic and our world face grave challenges, and we can help, or we can be …
Posted to What's the 411 on 9/11?
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Frog - You may remember me from several posts under the story "Meat Industrial Complex", or earliers posts in this forum. If you recall these posts, you may also recall that I think too much of this community to give the posts only 'cursory glances'. I prefer to remain respectful in my comments and on-topic, as suggested by this site. My post was in response to other posts on DU, and to the digression from the topic of our government’s alleged complicity in the events of 9/11. For this forum, the detail behind any individual epidemiological study on DU is secondary …
Posted to What's the 411 on 9/11?
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wileywitch - Thank you for www.informationclearinghouse.info. I quickly found this: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12980.htm, and was reminded of the death and destruction I saw while participating in animal rescue in New Orleans after Katrina. I met two cops whose full-time job was retrieving dead bodies. In just their two precincts, they had almost as many as the total "official" body count for the entire city. They also had some great insights on the Administration's lack of preparedness (I'm referring here to post-Katrina, not the lack of preparedness after 9/11, Iraq, container shipping, infrastructure protection, energy sources, etc.). The video reminds us that the "statistics" …
Posted to What's the 411 on 9/11?
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As tragic as this story is, it refers only to the post-invasion ground battles, and doesn’t speak to the vast majority of the crimes committed in the semantically absurd “War on Terror” or the underlying drivers. Recall that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan “… stated unequivocally that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (or was trying to produce or obtain them), links to Al Qaeda, or both. This concerted effort was …
Posted to When We Were Psychos
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