Things You Should Be Reading

23 Jan '08

Posted by: ryan in: Miscellaneous

H.R. 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (Deb’s take, Will Potter’s take)
Deb’s been telling me about this act which has already passed in the house with only six nays. It takes the screwy mentality of the AETA to new extremes.
Gary’s “To Meat-Eaters: Easy Ways to Reduce Meat Consumption While Retaining Your Comfort Foods” series
No link to just the series, but at this point there are 14 parts and you can’t miss ‘em.
Facts About Animal Cloning (via AnimalBlawg)
The ethical arguments against animal cloning, brought to you by the American Anti-Vivisection Society. Worth reading since the FDA won’t require labeling of meat derived from cloned animals.
Thinking Critically About Animal Rights (PDF)
Mary Martin’s very good eight-page introduction to animal rights. My only criticism is that it deals with the abolition v. welfare issue too early in the document.
The Naked Vay-gun Podcast
Don’t try reading it, because it’s just a bunch of zeros and ones, but do subscribe to the latest vegan podcast for all the insanity you’d expect from Hooten and Moskowitz. But, whatever you do, don’t listen to the slanderous pilot episode!
Vegcast 36
Ditto above. This edition of Vance’s podcast features a great interview with Mike Hudak, who refutes the “diets with some meat are the most efficient” conclusion drawn by the press release issued about the Cornell University study.

4 Responses

K
23|Jan|2008 1

`(9) Certain governments, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia have significant experience with homegrown terrorism and the United States can benefit from lessons learned by those nations.

Seriously? Canadian terrorism? When was this?
Marcy
24|Jan|2008 2

K, as someone who was stuck in the meat-and-potato area of Canada (aka anywhere other than Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal), and caught a lot of flack for being both American and French-speaking, I would have to say the French-Canadian “terror”. The rest of the country is pretty Anglophile and to hear then discuss the problems of dealing with Quebec province is to think that the whole place is a seething mass of depraved, English-refusing individuals. To me, they were just folks who spoke French with a hilariously clipped accent. Et voila.
Mike
25|Jan|2008 3

(9) Certain governments, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia have significant experience with homegrown terrorism and the United States can benefit from lessons learned by those nations.

Sure, Canada has had problems with terrorism (I assume the reference is to the FLQ, a Quebecois liberation movement from the 70’s). But to suggest that the US has in any way learned from our experience is laughable. Equally laughable is the implication that Canada has a homegrown terrorism problem so bad that Americans should fear they might one day be in the same situation (and that they should therefore let their government run roughshod over their constitution to “protect” them.)

Canada is increasingly an open, free, equitable society, while the US is increasingly a police state. It’s sad how Americans need to pretend they’re freer than everyone else and that they’re fighting to give everyone else the same degree freedom. If I had the low level of freedom most Americans “enjoy”, I’d emigrate. Yeesh.

The above-quoted sentence is, to me, so bizarre as to constitute the kind of propaganda I’d expect from China or Iran. It’s as if the US government is trying to tell its people that the US is really just bringing its security policy in line with that of other countries, so no one should be scared about it or anything. Aren’t Americans curious enough to check and see whether their govenrment is lying to them?
the vegan blog tracker
03|Feb|2008 4

Great list. And good choice on including a couple podcasts (reading while driving…not so good…so this helps!).