In These Times

Latest Comments view all 22

• • 22 Oct 09
  • 2:45 pm

  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 …

  Posted to BS at BU: The O'Reilly Factor

• • 22 Oct 09
  • 3:09 pm

  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

• • 17 Jun 06
  • 10:08 am

  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

• • 26 Mar 06
  • 6:55 pm

  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

• • 31 Mar 06
  • 1:07 am

  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