Our Founding Fathers

Washington didn't actually say this, it was Joel Barlow (Treaty of Tripoli)

The left side of this photo is quite common to those who, let's face it, don't know what the hell they're talking about. Excuse me, unenlightened well-meaning Christians. So let's get down to it and clear a few things up:

Thomas Paine wrote The Age of Reason, a book which criticizes established religion and challenges the Bible. He famously called the Bible "mythology". He did believe in God but didn't hold to Christian beliefs, he was a deist. He was an immigrant from England and it was actually Benjamin Franklin that suggested he emigrate to America.

John Adams was a Unitarian, which means he didn't believe in the Holy Trinity, he only believed that God was one person, not three (He was raised as a Congregationalist). He was very much against orthodox Christian dogma. One of his most famous quotes, "This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it”. In contrast however, he said this about Thomas Paine's criticisms of Christianity, "The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity, let the Blackguard Paine say what he will."

James Madison was an Episcopalian "During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." Context - Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments (1785)

Thomas Jefferson coined the phrase, "separation of church and state" in 1802. He called the gospels "defective" and "doubtful" and made many references that make it clear that he, like Thomas Paine, believed in God but didn't hold to Christianity. "Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law."

The Pledge of Allegiance was originally written in 1892 by a man called Francis Bellamy. It read: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." The phrase "under God" wasn't added until 1954. Bellamy was a Baptist minister and a Christian Socialist.

These men were all secularists and all supported the separation of church and state. They were some of the most important men in the history of the United States. And if you just so happen to hear someone saying things like the late Jerry Falwell did, please refer them to the First Amendment.

The Virtual Battery Cage

Here is a link to see the virtual battery cage through the eyes of a battery cage hen:
http://www.animalvisuals.org/empathy/virtualbatterycage/index.php

1. In the United States, an estimated 95% of egg-laying hens are intensively confined in battery cages.
2. As of December 2008, about 300 million birds are confined in battery cages, almost one for every U.S. citizen.
   USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service. (2008). Chickens and Eggs. Retrieved December 16, 2008. page 1.
3. Each cage confines 5 or 6 birds on average, but sometimes up to 10 birds.
   USDA/Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Veterinary Services. National Animal Health Monitoring System. (2000). Layers '99. Part II: Reference of 1999 Table Egg Layer Management in the U.S. Retrieved December 16, 2008. page 22: The average number of chickens per cage is about 5.6.
   
   Shields, Sara, and Ian J.H. Duncan. (2006). An HSUS Report: A Comparison of the Welfare of Hens in Battery Cages and Alternative Systems. Retrieved December 18, 2008. Under "Cages and Alternative Systems," it states that the most commonly used cages hold 5-10 birds per cage.
   
   Compassion Over Killing. (2005). New COK Investigation Leads to Criminal Charges of Animal Cruelty: Excerpts from the Investigator's Log Notes. Retrieved December 18, 2008. Notes from Wednesday, November 30, 2005 at Ebenshade Farms in Pennsylvania, investigator noted that most of the birds were overcrowded in cages, with as many as 10 birds per cage.
4. Voluntary industry guidelines specify a minimum of 67 square inches per hen. This is an area smaller than a standard sheet of paper.
   United Egg Producers. (2008 Edition, published 2003). United Egg Producers Animal Husbandry Guidelines For U.S. Egg Laying Flocks. Retrieved November 15, 2008. page 11, paragraph 1.
5. Like any animal, chickens are highly motivated to perform natural behaviors. These behaviors include nesting, perching, scratching, foraging, dust-bathing, exploring, and stretching. Caged chickens are denied all of these natural behaviors, causing them severe frustration.
   Shields, Sara, and Ian J.H. Duncan. (2006). An HSUS Report: A Comparison of the Welfare of Hens in Battery Cages and Alternative Systems. Retrieved December 18, 2008. This document provides a summary of natural chicken behavior and how it is frustrated by battery cage confinement.
6. Battery hens suffer from serious health problems, such as respiratory disease from constant exposure to ammonia fumes and fecal dust; osteoporosis, bone fractures, and prolapsed uteruses from being bred to lay eggs at an unnaturally high rate; and foot disorders, sores, and injuries from contact with the cage wire in outdated cage systems.
   Shields, Sara, and Ian J.H. Duncan. (2006). An HSUS Report: A Comparison of the Welfare of Hens in Battery Cages and Alternative Systems. Retrieved December 18, 2008. This document provides a summary of diseases and health problems battery chickens suffer.
   
   The Humane Society of the United States. (2008). An HSUS Report: Welfare Issues with Selective Breeding of Egg-Laying Hens for Productivity. Retrieved December 19, 2008. More detail on osteoporosis and cloacal prolapse resulting from selective breeding.
7. As a response to the lack of foraging opportunities in the barren cage environment, chickens sometimes engage in feather-pecking of their cagemates. So, before they are 10 days old, the ends of their beaks are seared off with hot blades.
   United Egg Producers. (2008 Edition, published 2003). United Egg Producers Animal Husbandry Guidelines For U.S. Egg Laying Flocks. Retrieved November 15, 2008. page 4: Guidelines for beak trimming.
8. Beak mutilation causes acute and sometimes chronic pain.
   Shields, Sara, and Ian J.H. Duncan. (2006). An HSUS Report: A Comparison of the Welfare of Hens in Battery Cages and Alternative Systems. Retrieved December 18, 2008. page 5: "Abnormal Behavior: Cannibalism and Feather-Pecking."
9. For every egg you buy, a hen will be forced to endure these conditions for over 32 hours.
   USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service. (2008). Chickens and Eggs. Retrieved December 16, 2008. page 1: Egg production for October 2008 was 2,276 eggs per 100 layers. This is 22.76 eggs per month per bird, which translates to 32.68 hours per egg, given that October has 31 days.
10. Chickens are confined for about a year and a half before their ability to lay eggs declines, then they are killed.
    USDA/Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Veterinary Services. National Animal Health Monitoring System. (2000). Layers '99. Part II: Reference of 1999 Table Egg Layer Management in the U.S. Retrieved December 16, 2008. page 23: The average age of laying hens entering battery cages is 17.5 weeks. Page 29: The average age of laying hens at slaughter is 101.5 weeks. 101.5-17.5 = 84 weeks, or about 19 months.
11. Eggs are not a necessary part of a nutritious diet, and there are many healthy, affordable alternatives that make it easy to leave eggs off of your shopping list for good. Some good egg alternatives include applesauce, bananas, commercial egg replacer powder (such as Ener-G Egg Replacer or Bob's Red Mill All Natural Egg Replacer) ground flaxseed, tofu, or vinegar and baking soda. 
    For more information about how easy it is to replace eggs, see the following links:
    

    • HSUS: Endless Eggless Options
    • EggIndustry.com: Egg-Free Products & Recipes
    • About.com: Egg Substitutes
    • Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: Cooking Without Eggs
12. The egg industry cannot be trusted to make responsible decisions regarding the welfare of chickens, because it has a profit motive to sacrifice their interests. There are currently no U.S. federal laws that protect the interests of chickens used for food.

Animal Quotes

The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but rather, "Can they suffer?"  ~Jeremy Bentham

God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages. ~Jacques Deval (Though I'm not religious/spiritual, this is very true in a metaphorical way, depending on what religion you are.)

Support your right to arm bears.  ~Cleveland Amory 

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.  ~Albert Schweitzer

Hunting is not a sport.  In a sport, both sides should know they're in the game.  ~Paul Rodriguez

I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls.  They always say because it's such a beautiful animal.  There you go.  I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her.  ~Ellen DeGeneres

When a man wantonly destroys one of the works of man we call him a vandal.  When he destroys one of the works of god we call him a sportsman.  ~Joseph Wood Krutch

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.  ~Mark Twain

Wild animals never kill for sport.  Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.  ~James Anthony Froude

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons.  They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.  ~Alice Walker

Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals "love" them.  But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more.  ~Edwin Way Teale

There will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is.  ~Isaac Bashevis Singer

One farmer says to me, "You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make the bones with;" and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying himself with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Recognize meat for what it really is:  the antibiotic- and pesticide-laden corpse of a tortured animal.  ~Ingrid Newkirk

I will not eat anything that walks, runs, skips, hops or crawls.  God knows that I've crawled on occasion, and I'm glad that no one ate me.  ~Alex Poulos

All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals. ~Peter Singer 

I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men. ~Leonardo Da Vinci

 

About 2,000 pounds of grains must be supplied to livestock in order to produce enough meat and other livestock products to support a person for a year, whereas 400 pounds of grain eaten directly will support a person for a year. Thus, a given quantity of grain eaten directly will feed 5 times as many people as it will if it is eaten indirectly by humans in the form of livestock products. ~M.E. Ensminger, Ph.D.

Shō sakana 小魚 (little fish)

This evening on the news there was a story about ice fishing. Living in Minnesota, it's very common and being the land of 10,000 lakes (we actually have over 20,000), it's many people's past time. Of course we all know that most people all over the world love to fish.

Anyway, I was watching this broadcast and something struck me as quite odd. There they all were: men, women and children, gathered around this hole in the ice, waiting for someone to reel in a fish, any fish. Once that fish flopped onto the ice and began thrashing about, trying to get away, everyone started cheering.

I suddenly became sad and had to look away. There it was, this fish, dying as people around it watched and clapped and smiled. Why would they be so happy to see a creature struggling with a hook in its mouth? No doubt wondering and asking itself why these people were so delighted to watch it die. 

Why is it acceptable to show someone killing a fish on TV but it's not acceptable to show someone killing a pig or a cow or a dog or cat? And don't give me that crap about "companion animals vs. food animals". There are plenty of people that own pet cows and pigs just like there are plenty of people that eat cats and dogs. Or that our ancestors fished so it's ok for us to as well. (They fished to survive, you fish to have fun.) 

Why a fish? Is it because it doesn't make any noises as it dies? Because it doesn't scream or cry when it's hurt and afraid? Because it doesn't have the same fluffy ears and button nose of a cat? Because when it looks at you it's unable to give you those "puppy dog eyes"? 

There seems to be no bond between fish and humans whatsoever. 

When we were children most of us had a goldfish. We fed it, we watched it swim, we admired its remarkable coloring and thought how cute it was when it opened and closed its mouth. It would seem that we cared about it. But did we really? I hear the argument made all the time, "I had a dog/cat when I was growing up and I could/would never eat one of them." You also had a fish.

Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you any more.
Franz Kafka, while admiring fish in an aquarium

Mr. Kittles

My husband and I were walking down the hill from our hotel in Spain. It was sunny and warm that day (don't be fooled, it was winter) and we decided to have a look around. Suddenly, I spotted a little black cat walking along the wall on the other side of the street. I previously had some bad luck with another cat that hissed at me when I approached it on our first day in Benalmadena. But nonetheless, I walked up to this one without any fear as it was much smaller. He meowed and let me pet him. I was so happy! I'm very fond of animals (ok that's an understatement) and was glad he was friendly. I don't know if he was a boy or a girl because I forgot to check but I immediately dubbed him "Mr. Kittles" like I do with so many cats (every cat).
It saddened me when I pet him, he was very thin and hungry. Strays are quite common in Spain, really we only saw cats. I could feel the vertebrae in his back. Of course I wanted to feed him but we had no food for him. So we decided that we probably wouldn't see him again and we would have to leave him be.

I know this sounds mean and it was hard for us to do, but we both agreed that we couldn't save every stray as we were just tourists and we had nothing to offer him. I so badly wanted to scoop him up in my arms and take him to the hotel. We would have let him have a warm place to sleep and food to eat until we could find a good shelter for him or at least have him undergo the TNR (Trap-Neuter-Release) program.
However, our hotel did not allow pets so we had no choice but to leave him where he was. He seemed chipper enough, although he was too skinny for how young he was. I wish we could have done more for him.

A couple of days went by and I would call for him when we went walking about, but he never showed up.
We talked about how funny it would be if we were to see our little friend while we were out. We then decided to try this grocery store we had passed by several times. We were hesitant to go in because we didn't know if you had to be a member to purchase items. Our delay turned out to be for the best...
All of a sudden, a little black cat walked up from behind the corner and looked at us. It was Mr. Kittles!
We were both surprised as we weren't expecting to see him again, but there he was, friendly as can be.
And very hungry.The automatic doors opened as we were about to walk in and Zoom! Mr. Kittles dashed in before we could stop him. I ran after him as the cashiers and a woman were trying to get his attention.
Finally I was able to catch up to him because he walked up to who I believe was the manager and began meowing. I picked him up and the man asked me if it was my cat but I tried to tell him no even though I didn't speak Spanish very well. I took him outside and the woman who was trying to get his attention was waiting out there with my husband. She was holding a bag of cat food and some little containers of wet cat food as well. She opened one of the containers and set it down next to him. I have never seen a cat eat so fast in my life. My husband and I were so happy and told the woman "Thank you". We walked away and let him enjoy his meal. We hugged each other and smiled and hoped that he would be alright.

I'm very grateful, and still am, to this wonderful woman. Kindness is not something given out spontaneously, even though it should be. So few people in this world would have done the same for this hungry little cat.
To be kind, just for the sake of it, is one of the best qualities a person can have. That woman had cats of her own and she was able to be sympathetic to this poor kitten because of that. I cant say if she would have done it regardless, but of course having cats of her own might have made her all the more sympathetic towards him.

We never saw him again, but I hope he is doing alright. I hope that people are being friendly towards him.
I hope he knows that even though he's what so many would call "just a stray", I love him and there are many of us that feel the same.

Procrastination U_U

Watching Seikon No Qwaser. Supposedly its meant to be ecchi but its dangerously close, if not just stepping over the line of becoming a hentai. I was hoping on finding more comedic ecchis but this is just the first episode so I'll see how I like it.

(10 min later...) Ok, I'm done with it. Its basically hentai and ecchi rolled into one but with no comedy. Its sad cos I really wanted to watch it, the story line is really good but its hard to concentrate when you have naked girls all over the place. I really liked DearS and was hoping to find something similar to it.

I actually don't like the popular anime (Bleach, FMA, Naruto), but I guess those are more boyish anime and I'm into the more girly anime lol ^_^

Ugh, I really need to get a move on with a couple of things I've been putting off:

✽ Health Insurance

✽ Legal Aid

It was open enrollment, idk if it still is, for health care. And I need to go to the clinic becos my knee is bothering me. I've had a series of subluxations (at least I think so) over the years and now my knee seems to be damaged from so many of them. I'm sort of just waiting for the next one. 

The legal aid is something I've been putting off for months and I really cant afford to do that anymore, not like I could before either but esp. not now since I'm so close to being with Drew. I'll be able to finally put in my settlement visa to the UK. I feel like a disappointment to my husband becos I cant get my ass into gear. I don't want him to think idc about being with him, that's not it. I need to stop making excuses and just do it. Right! Tomorrow I'll call the legal aid place and mail the health insurance papers. You'd never know I was 21 lol

`*•.¸¸.•ღLe Premier Blogღ•.¸¸.•*´

Not sure how often I'll actually write in this thing, but we'll see.

Current frustrations:

⋆Can't sleep (I did this to myself, I took a nap late in the evening and I suppose staying up later and later each night isn't helping my situation. Ugh, I frustrate myself)
⋆Internet connection is bad (Can't watch anything because of bad internet connection)
⋆Have a headache (Again, my fault for not taking my meds like I should)
⋆Shirking responsibilities for no apparent reason (I have things I really need to do and I procrastinate to the point where I get mad at myself and people get mad at me)