(More below the fold…)

…she’s having three more teeth extracted today, for a grand total of nine since we adopted her in September of ‘06.

She’s a tough broad, but I still worry with the anesthesia and all. Not to mention, the dental specialist doing the surgery is located an hour and a half from our house; he’s on the south side of the city, while we live up north. So. Shane drove her down there this morning (she had to be there by 7:30 AM - yeeks!), and is hanging out at the nearest McDonald’s, working off his laptop, while she undergoes and recovers from the surgery. Since he’ll be gone so long - probably upwards of 12 hours - we decided it would be best if I stayed home with the other four. (Lest we come home to, I dunno, feces on the walls? These dogs are seriously spoiled.) So I am really freaking out. If something goes wrong - ugh, I can’t even be there. I’m so worried about Kaylee, the backed up kitchen sink and leaky roof aren’t even bugging me.

Sigh.

This is gonna be a looooong day.

UPDATE, 9 PM: Kaylee’s back home, snuggled in bed and doing well. She ended up having four teef yanked instead of three. Turns out her super-fang had a fistula, which connected it to her nasal cavity. The vet found out when he squirted some liquid teeth cleaning solution in her mouth during surgery…and it came out her nose. So it had to go. So long, Eva Fangoria.

Photos after the jump.

(More below the fold…)

Oh Hills, your campaign has already disgraced itself with some ugly race baiting. Now ya’ll are hopping on the sexist/homophobic bandwagon, too?

ABC News’ Eloise Harper Reports: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton received the endorsement of North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley Tuesday morning in Raleigh, NC. After touring a bio-manufacturing training center, Gov. Easley, First Lady of North Carolina Mary Easley and Clinton held a ceremony at NC State University. The Governor formally expressed his support saying that there was “nothing I love more than a strong powerful woman.” Easley concluded his remarks saying Clinton — “makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy”. (Via ABC News.)

“Hillary ‘08: She makes Rocky look like a cock-sucking, vagina-having girlyman faggot.”

Way to stay classy, Dems.

——————

Tagged: 2008 elections Hillary Clinton Rocky Rocky Balboa homophobia sexism misogyny North Carolina Mike Easley

Wear a mask in public, go to jail. The fashion police have spoken:

On Saturday, April 12, an FBI agent arrested an animal rights activist at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. The activist was charged with wearing a mask in public—a Class 6 felony in Virginia.

On April 5, the arrested activist attended a protest at GMU and wore a mask. After the GMU Police Department identified the activist, a warrant was issued for his arrest. When he appeared at a protest one week later, he was identified and subsequently tackled and arrested. The arrested activist was protesting Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus for their history of animal abuse.

The FBI agent who arrested the activist is part of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and is based in Prince William, VA. His name is Vincent Antignano and his badge number is #1035. He was stalking the arrested activist after he protested on numerous occasions against a private company, Huntingdon Life Sciences, which conducts medical tests on animals.

The activist was arrested for violating Virginia’s law on face masks, which states “it shall be unlawful for any person over sixteen years of age while wearing any mask, hood, or other device whereby a substantial portion of the face is hidden or covered (§18.2-422 )”

Via Will Potter, who adds:

I spoke with the activist arrested, and I think it’s critical to note that neither he, nor the other protestors, were charged with anything like property destruction. He simply wore a mask at a lawful protest.

No doubt Special Agent Vincent Antignano with the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the F! B! I! received a shiny gold star from his corporate overlords at Acme Animal Abuse ™, subsidiaries of which include HLS, Ringling Brothers and Bulladelah Douchebags, Inc….but I wonder what became of the activist in the pink fro wig? If donning freakay funkay headgear isn’t already criminal, I’m sure the great state of Virginny will soon come up with a nice slice of retroactive legislation to outlaw such atrocities. Watch out, my fuzzy pink sister - teh manz should be coming for you any day now.

(Crossposted to.)

——————-

Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare activism civil liberties protest first amendment police harassment terrorism war on terra war on terror

Hunting is not “fun” or “enjoyable“, nor is it a “sport”;

If hunting was just about honing your shooting skills - challenging yourself, your aim, steadiness and sight - and hitting a target (stationary or not), then you could shoot at non-sentient targets - pieces of paper, bottles, clay discs.

If hunting was just about the joy of tracking, finding and surprising an animal in its natural habitat, you could shoot your targets with a camera.

But it’s not, so you don’t.

Hunting is about asserting your power over the less powerful, about dominating “others”, about getting your rocks off through sadism, in a legally and culturally sanctioned way.

It’s about taking your lack of power out on creatures less powerful than yourself. What better way to relax at the end of a long workweek than to gun down unsuspecting woodland creatures, all the while pushing thoughts of the abuses inflicted on you by the evil megatheocorporatocracy to the back of your mind.

Hunting isn’t about “having a good time”; it’s about exerting control when you might otherwise have none (or less so) at the expense of others. It’s about lashing out at those with less voice than your own, much like so many forms of human-on-human violence that we abhor today.

But Hillary, you’re right when you say that hunting is “part of culture…part of a way of life.”

Spousal abuse, child abuse, hate crimes against racial, ethnic, and sexual/gender minorities; all used to be “part of [our] culture…part of [the American] way of life”, yet time has proven(or perhaps more accurately, is proving) them barbaric, inhumane, unacceptable.

Like these, hunting will one day be seen as the patriarchal pathology it is.

That is all.

(Crossposted from.)

———————

Tagged: hunting hillary clinton 2008 elections guns parallel oppressions the patriarchy animals animal rights animal welfare

As part of their Earth Day Lite ™ coverage, CNN solicited suggestions on saving money in this tough shitty economy. What this has to do with Earth Day, I know not, other than that saving money and “being green” sometimes intersect. They could have elaborated, really.

Anyway, Cheryl from New Mexico kind of irritated me:

DON LEMON: Here’s what Cheryl from New Mexico writes: “I no longer shop online, and I don’t use credit cards except in an extreme emergency. And that is almost never.”

Zum, what’s with all the hating on the credit cards and the internets? As long as both are used responsibly, they can help you save money.

Let’s start with the credit cards, since they’re a wee bit more difficult to defend than the internet. As long as you know how to play the system, credit cards can be pretty durn useful. For starters, don’t charge more on a card than you can easily pay off - in full - the next month. Inexplicably, banks are exempt from usury laws, such that 36% interest rates are the norm. So I’m definitely not saying that you should run out and charge expensive items that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. Overspending, bad. Interest charges, bad. Greedy banks, bad. No argument there.

But as long as you stay within your budget, charging everyday items is a good thing. You can increase your credit score and earn rewards from your credit card company. (I earn $25 Amazon gift certificates, usually to the rate of 1-2 a month. How do you think I fund all those book piles?) And I’ll only pay with credit when shopping on eBay - if the seller ends up being a fraud, I can contest the charges. Not so much if I pay via a cash transfer from my bank, something that Paypal always seems to be pushing, the the point of harassment.

The “Credit cards, evil!!!1!!” meme is especially annoying, perhaps because this is something I’ve been hearing lectures about since I got my own card. Back when I first moved in with Shane, when I was still in college, I worked at a local grocery store part-time. Since I was already there, and I hated wasting time with the unpaid, forced half hour lunches I had to take during every shift six hours or longer, I did all the grocery shopping for us, usually during my lunch break. I could not believe the admonitions some of the guys (they were always guys) in the grocery department would give me about paying for groceries on my credit card! As though I was going to blow my paycheck on shiny glass jars of peaches or something. We wimmins, just can’t be trusted with plastic. We have an extra special femaley spending gland, located somewheres down near the ovaries, donthchaknow?

In retrospect, my store was filled with Nice Guys ™, probably of the concern troll variety. I just didn’t have the blaming skillz to call ‘em out harshly as I should have. Patriarchy-blaming is yet another gift the internets has bestowed upon this featherhead.

(More below the fold…)

Yes, he did:

Republican Sen. John McCain, campaigning through poverty-stricken cities and towns, said Wednesday he opposes a Senate bill that seeks equal pay for women because it would lead to more lawsuits.

Senate Republicans killed the bill Wednesday night on a 56-42 vote that denied the measure the 60 votes needed to advance it to full debate and a vote. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had delayed the vote to give McCain’s Democratic rivals, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, time to return to Washington to support the measure, which would make it easier for women to sue their employers for pay discrimination.

McCain skipped the vote to campaign in New Orleans.

“I am all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation, as is typical of what’s being proposed by my friends on the other side of the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems,” the expected GOP presidential nominee told reporters. “This is government playing a much, much greater role in the business of a private enterprise system.” [...]

McCain stated his opposition to the bill as he campaigned in rural eastern Kentucky, where poverty is worse among women than men. The Arizona senator said he was familiar with the disparity but that there are better ways to help women find better paying jobs.

“They need the education and training, particularly since more and more women are heads of their households, as much or more than anybody else,” McCain said. “And it’s hard for them to leave their families when they don’t have somebody to take care of them.

“It’s a vicious cycle that’s affecting women, particularly in a part of the country like this, where mining is the mainstay; traditionally, women have not gone into that line of work, to say the least,” he said.

In other words, women on average aren’t earning less than men because of gender (and racial) discrimination; we’re earning less because we’re stupid and uneducated. We deserve it.

Way to woo the ladies, Johnny boy.

Oh, and regarding his asinine comment that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act would “open us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems,” I’ll echo what Cara said: “um, assholes, that’s the point.” Fucking. Duh.

CREDO Action has a petition to McCain here. Be nice.

[Previous stops on the Straight Talk Express: one, two and three.]

————————

Tagged: john mccain 2008 elections straight talk express women feminism misogyny fair pay gender discrimination civil rights fair pay act Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

Friday Activist Vlogging = Friday Veggie Vlogging, but with extra awesome inclusiveness. In addition to animal-friendly musak, I’ll be posting feminist, green, pro-GLBT, anti-racist, -sizeist and -ageist, and otherwise librul/progressive songs. Hopefully in multiples every Friday.

Fridays through Sundays are also awfully mofo busy for me, so this should be much easier than trying to cram in a substantial post or a link roundup. Again, we’ll see how long this lasts. And if you don’t hear from me again ’till Sunday, it’s because I’m busy doing first time homeowner stuff, like cleaning up the junk pile the old owners left in the back of the property. (There’s literally a kitchen sink back there, no lying.)

Suggestions? Send ‘em to me! Dog knows I could use ‘em.

This week’s entry is inspired by the site Stuff White People Like and, more specifically, Elaine’s series of posts on their posts on veganism, dog-love and other so-called white yuppie concerns. Because, like, only privileged white people can be bothered to exercise compassion through their food choices.

Like, um, this guy:

Who’s “kickin’ it” to a song by…dead prez, “a critically acclaimed underground hip-hop duo…they are largely known for their hard-hitting style combined with Socialist and pan-Africanist lyrics, focusing on revolution, institutional racism, critical pedagogy, police, capitalism, education in the United States, prison systems, religion, activism against governmental repression, and corporate control over the media, especially hip-hop record labels.” [Via Wiki]

Oh, and a vegetarian lifestyle, borne from the silly idea that “oppression is oppression.”

(More below the fold…)

Oh yays! The lovely Kara from Lantern Books sent me two ARCs (Advance Reading Copies), and I’m psyched about them both: Strategic Action for Animals by Melanie Joy and Social Creatures: A Human and Animal Studies Reader, edited by Clif Flynn.

Strategic Action looks as first glance as though it will make a nice supplement to Striking at the Roots, and Social Creatures is an anthology of essays on anthrozoology. So, yays all around!

Lantern Books has a pretty interesting selection of new releases, not all of which deal with animal advocacy issues. For example, there’s a book on male aggression (Boys Will Be Boys) and another about the Columbine school shootings (No Easy Answers). So, go check ‘em out. As of last month, they’re also on Library Thing - so if you’re an Early Reviewer (and, um wtf wouldn’t you be, you silly bird?), maybe you’ll be able to snag a Lantern book via LT. Last go-round they offered up 15 copies of Aftershock, with 321 members requesting a copy…not too shabby!

I also treated myself to a few early birthday presents - a subscription to Veg News (The two-year subscription comes with a free tote, which is friggin massive. I should be able to cram an entire Whole Foods trip into it. Well, almost. All that Purely Decadent ice cream might put me over the top.), and three more books: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (I was reading a library copy, but I ran out of renewals!), The Caged Virgin by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary, another anthology of essays.

Oh mans, I love book piles. Maybe a little too much.

(Crossposted from.)

—————-

Tagged: books shout out lantern books strategic action for animals social creatures activism animals animal rights animal welfare animal activism animal advocacy anthrozoology flickr photos

What will Ofwarren give birth to? A baby, as we all hope? Or something else, an Unbaby, with a pinhead or a snout like a dog’s, or two bodies, or a hole in its heart or no arms, or webbed hands and feet? There’s no telling. They could tell once, with machines, but that is now outlawed. What would be the point of knowing, anyway? You can’t have them taken out; whatever it is it must be carried to term.

From Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Which, unbelievably, this curmudgeonly feminist is only just now getting around to reading.

—————–

Tagged: the handmaid’s tale margaret atwood verbatim quotes books feminism misogyny pro-life abortion