On rodeo cruelty

Vancouver is right; Calgary is wrong!

More from SHARK.

About global land grab

A blog with “news reports about the global rush to buy up or lease farmlands abroad as a strategy to secure basic food supplies or simply for profit.” – [via Body on the line]

The coming storm: changing demographics

“[T]he population of the developed world will become increasingly religious and conservative in the long-term, reversing decades – even centuries – of liberal secularisation. [...] For anyone concerned with the fate of the ideas of the Enlightenment, contemporary demographics pose a striking challenge that demands urgent investigation.” – Link

For just treatment of trans people

From Queers United:

Transgender New Yorkers report experiencing verbal harassment, disproportionate arrests for ‘quality of life’ offenses, invasive and unlawful searches for the purpose of determining gender, and housing placement in NYPD custody that could expose them to harassment and violence while in NYPD custody. Activists are urging people to sign this petition insisting the NYPD adopt a fair policy towards transgender people in custody. – Link

Some thoughts for the times

… at links generously provided by Rhisiart Gwilym:

“Astyk/Greer/Wallerstein: Concentrated comfort and encouragement if cash is short and job is going –

http://sharonastyk.com/2009/05/07/barter-baby-barter/

http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/

http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/commentaries/3857

Remember: Don’t neglect the comments; they further deepen the reward of these practical-insight articles.”

On the Af-Pak “crisis”

“You could easily drown in the tsunami of recent semi-hysterical pieces about the Pakistan or Af-Pak situation.” – Tom Engelhardt on “the everyday extremism of Washington”

Related material

Also from someone on the ground – link to cut and paste in browser: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=
2009\
05\
08\story_8-5-2009_pg3_5

[via Sic Semper Tyrannis]

The GOP eccentrics

An unlikely pair. May be worth watching.

I’ll miss Youngfox

Youngfox Canada blogged its ‘end’ on February 24.

It’s a sad and poignant farewell that also came with a warning of sorts:

The true terror of the human condition is a hard thing to awaken to and if you start down the road to discovering the untainted true nature of our reality, you will find a need to redefine what “happiness” means to you.
If you ever come across “The Tale of the Evil Magician” * and apply it to humankind, you have begun to scatter the dense fog within which humanity labours.
With burgeoning knowledge of the hidden past and an eye toward the open future, never forget to live in the moment.
Question everything and never be satisfied with easy answers.

I truly hope this turns out to be only a short hiatus.

————–
* “There is an Eastern tale which speaks about a very rich magician who had a great many sheep. But at the same time this magician was very mean. He did not want to hire shepherds, nor did he want to erect a fence about the pasture where his sheep were grazing. The sheep consequently often wandered into the forest, fell into ravines, and so on, and above all they ran away, for they knew that the magician wanted their flesh and skins and this they did not like.

“At last the magician found a remedy. He hypnotized his sheep and suggested to them first of all that they were immortal and that no harm was being done to them when they were skinned, that, on the contrary, it would be very good for them and even pleasant; secondly he suggested that the magician was a good master who loved his flock so much that he was ready to do anything in the world for them; and in the third place he suggested to them that if anything at all were going to happen to them it was not going to happen just then, at any rate not that day, and therefore they had no need to think about it. Further the magician suggested to his sheep that they were not sheep at all; to some of them he suggested that they were lions, to others that they were eagles, to others that they were men, and to others that they were magicians.

“And after this all his cares and worries about the sheep came to an end. They never ran away again but quietly awaited the time when the magician would require their flesh and skins.

“This tale is a very good illustration of man’s position. – George Gurdjieff

A nonpolar world?

… Or just messy and complex?

9/11: Bush failed to keep America safe

“That was a day that saw the worst terrorist attack in American history – an attack that the Bush administration was pretty explicitly warned about in memos and warnings. And it’s not just 9/11. The Bush administration didn’t keep us safe during the anthrax attacks, and it’s Iraq invasion didn’t keep us safe, either (and that’s according to our intelligence agencies).” – David Sirota