Photgnome sends this link to the Oklahoma Farm Report on the dismay being felt by cattlemen that Rush Limbaugh is doing commercials for the Humane Society of the United States.
Key paragraph in the OK Farm Report:
( to Rush) I know you believe in doing solid research. If you really check into what HSUS is up to, you will find that – despite having $200 million in assets – HSUS does not operate a single animal shelter nor provide financial support for local humane societies or shelters. HSUS is nothing other than a radical political organization determined to force all Americans to eat a vegan diet and forfeit the unique nutritional properties of beef.
HSUS web site.
Here is their page on farm animals, with an emphasis on reducing meat consumption and going vegetarian.
The lead paragraph on the HSUS farm animal web site:
Each year in the United States, nearly 10 billion land animals are raised and killed for food. Just like the dogs and cats we welcome into our homes, chickens, pigs, turkeys, and cows have their own personalities, inquisitive natures, likes and dislikes, and—most importantly—the ability to feel pain, suffer from boredom and frustration, and experience joy. As someone raised on a farm--cattle, sheep, hogs--this sounds like a paragraph written by someone without much experience around farm animals.
That is not to say I condone cruelty. Many poultry producers do overcrowd their stock, as do some hog producers for economic reasons. (Though overcrowd too much and the rate-of-gain loss due to crowding stress, acts to put an upper limit on crowding.) And, I do not eat "white veal", made from calves who are kept in crates too small to prevent much movement.
But HSUS seems to go too, too far, because it misunderstands animals--they are not people with feathers, four legs, or snouts.
Key paragraph in the OK Farm Report:
( to Rush) I know you believe in doing solid research. If you really check into what HSUS is up to, you will find that – despite having $200 million in assets – HSUS does not operate a single animal shelter nor provide financial support for local humane societies or shelters. HSUS is nothing other than a radical political organization determined to force all Americans to eat a vegan diet and forfeit the unique nutritional properties of beef.
HSUS web site.
Here is their page on farm animals, with an emphasis on reducing meat consumption and going vegetarian.
The lead paragraph on the HSUS farm animal web site:
Each year in the United States, nearly 10 billion land animals are raised and killed for food. Just like the dogs and cats we welcome into our homes, chickens, pigs, turkeys, and cows have their own personalities, inquisitive natures, likes and dislikes, and—most importantly—the ability to feel pain, suffer from boredom and frustration, and experience joy. As someone raised on a farm--cattle, sheep, hogs--this sounds like a paragraph written by someone without much experience around farm animals.
That is not to say I condone cruelty. Many poultry producers do overcrowd their stock, as do some hog producers for economic reasons. (Though overcrowd too much and the rate-of-gain loss due to crowding stress, acts to put an upper limit on crowding.) And, I do not eat "white veal", made from calves who are kept in crates too small to prevent much movement.
But HSUS seems to go too, too far, because it misunderstands animals--they are not people with feathers, four legs, or snouts.
21/04: Back Home
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
This story from back in my neck of the woods perhaps explains some things about me. It at least offers a glimpse into rural north Missouri attitudes.
Headline: "Shots Fired During Drunken Brawl"
key paragraph: When officers got there, they found two intoxicated men who had been assaulting each other.
“We weren't sure who assaulted who so we were trying to figure out who was going to be charged with assault. Upon determination that neither person wanted to be victim, they were both released,” said Wayne Winn, Scotland County Sheriff.
I'm homesick.
Headline: "Shots Fired During Drunken Brawl"
key paragraph: When officers got there, they found two intoxicated men who had been assaulting each other.
“We weren't sure who assaulted who so we were trying to figure out who was going to be charged with assault. Upon determination that neither person wanted to be victim, they were both released,” said Wayne Winn, Scotland County Sheriff.
I'm homesick.
15/04: Git-R-Done Values
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
Recently parts of Okahoma burned; over 200 houses becoming ash. In many cases families had no time to gather belongings.
This past Saturday two business owners in our town were talking about the families burned out, and decided to do something. They called all the churches in town, and asked that it be announced Sunday morning that clothing, furniture, bedding, etc. be brought to their businesses by Wednesday afternoon. They would donate the use of two trailers to haul the goods to the worst hit part of the state.
This morning I took some bags of clothing and bedding my wife and I were donating downtown. Between the two sites, our town has collected quite a pile of stuff on short notice.
Personal initiative, community spirit, and not a government dime or bureacrat. God bless America.
This past Saturday two business owners in our town were talking about the families burned out, and decided to do something. They called all the churches in town, and asked that it be announced Sunday morning that clothing, furniture, bedding, etc. be brought to their businesses by Wednesday afternoon. They would donate the use of two trailers to haul the goods to the worst hit part of the state.
This morning I took some bags of clothing and bedding my wife and I were donating downtown. Between the two sites, our town has collected quite a pile of stuff on short notice.
Personal initiative, community spirit, and not a government dime or bureacrat. God bless America.
07/04: The World Upside Down
We live in strange times.
We spend more money on weddings than ever before, and marriages are becoming temporary.
We have an abundance of time and labor-saving devices, and live more hectic lives.
We use more coarse language in public, but villify any speech that might offend certain groups.
And we exercise more moral discipline in regard to our eating, than in regard to our sex lives.
Food, Sex, and Conscience by James Tonkawich.
We spend more money on weddings than ever before, and marriages are becoming temporary.
We have an abundance of time and labor-saving devices, and live more hectic lives.
We use more coarse language in public, but villify any speech that might offend certain groups.
And we exercise more moral discipline in regard to our eating, than in regard to our sex lives.
Food, Sex, and Conscience by James Tonkawich.
04/04: The Call of Cthulu
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), an American writer of weird fiction for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 30s, created a body of work that has the touch of genius. Himself a materialist and atheist, he believed that modern readers could no longer be touched by traditional ghost stories. Therefore, he created stories that were given enough "scientific" language and explanation to aid the reader in the suspension of disbelief, in which the monsters were alien to earth, some even alien to our dimensional universe. These monsters were fit into a mythos, a cosmic story of great power.
The being that seems to have the greatest hold on the imagination of readers, and other writers who added stories set within the Lovcraftian mythology, is Cthulu. Cthulu is a sort of water elemental, living partly in our universe, while perhaps existing simultanously in other dimensions beyond our own. At the present time Cthulu is imprisoned within the sunken city of R'lyeh beneath the sea where he lies dreaming. His dreams can touch certain of the "weak minded" of the human race, who create a cult to worship and free their "god." When the stars reach proper alignment, Cthulu will rise again, ending humanity and reality as we know it.
Lovecraft's writing was rescued from oblivion by two friends, August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, who founded Arkham House to publish Lovecraft's work, and that of other writers of weird fiction.
H. P. Lovecraft biography.
List of Lovecraft's fiction.
Lovecraft also wrote a respected critical history of weird fiction, Supernatural Horror in Literature
The Cthulu Myth in song. While it is a parody of another song, it presents a good summary of Lovecraft's most famous creation.
Metallica: The Call of Cthulu.
Cradle of Filth: Cthulu Dawn
Septic Flesh: Lovecraft's Death
The being that seems to have the greatest hold on the imagination of readers, and other writers who added stories set within the Lovcraftian mythology, is Cthulu. Cthulu is a sort of water elemental, living partly in our universe, while perhaps existing simultanously in other dimensions beyond our own. At the present time Cthulu is imprisoned within the sunken city of R'lyeh beneath the sea where he lies dreaming. His dreams can touch certain of the "weak minded" of the human race, who create a cult to worship and free their "god." When the stars reach proper alignment, Cthulu will rise again, ending humanity and reality as we know it.
Lovecraft's writing was rescued from oblivion by two friends, August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, who founded Arkham House to publish Lovecraft's work, and that of other writers of weird fiction.
H. P. Lovecraft biography.
List of Lovecraft's fiction.
Lovecraft also wrote a respected critical history of weird fiction, Supernatural Horror in Literature
The Cthulu Myth in song. While it is a parody of another song, it presents a good summary of Lovecraft's most famous creation.
Metallica: The Call of Cthulu.
Cradle of Filth: Cthulu Dawn
Septic Flesh: Lovecraft's Death
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