In These Times

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• • 17 Jun 06
  • 9:08 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
  • 5:55 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
  • 12:07 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

• • 31 Mar 06
  • 11:32 am

  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

• • 04 Apr 06
  • 11:10 pm

  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