Oh, yays! Today marks the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade – and it’s also the fourth annual Blog for Choice Day!

Over at easyVegan.info, I spent quite a bit of time examining reproductive rights as it relates to animal advocacy, but I fear I only scratched the surface. Volumes can be – have been! – written about the exploitation of women’s and non-human animals’ sexuality separately; methinks we’d need an entire encyclopedia set to fully examine the parallels and intersections between the two together.

For example, I didn’t even touch upon Nestle’s exploitation of new mothers in impoverished nations by convincing them that unaffordable, dairy-based formula is better for their babies than mother’s milk; dairy-based formula, of course, necessarily involves the exploitation of female cows.

Anyhow, this year’s topic is “What is your top pro-choice hope for President Obama and/or the new Congress?” Easy, peasy as (vegan) pie!

I have so many hopes, that it’s hard to choose just one. If forced, I’d have to get vague: Be progressive in words and actions.

But that doesn’t make for a very interesting post, so instead I’ll name my most immediate pro-choice hope for Obama: Repeal the Global Gag Rule. While this is only one of many pro-choice hopes I have for the Obama administration, I would love for it to be the first he enacts – because in so doing, he’ll send a strong, clear, pro-choice message, not just to the nation, but to the world.

Also known as The Mexico City Policy, the Global Gag Rule is a policy which

requires non-governmental organizations to “agree as a condition of their receipt of [U.S.] federal funds” that they will “neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations”. The policy has exceptions for abortions done in response to rape, incest, or life-threatening conditions.

Referrals to abortion providers – indeed, even broaching the subject of abortion – qualifies as “actively promot[ing] abortion.”

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Spoiler alert! – Namely, for Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005). Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

OK, so perhaps this post is six days late, but I’ve been busy enjoying the last throes of warm, sunny weather here in the Midwest. Plus, there was this minor matter called the presidential elections on Tuesday…maybe you’ve heard of it?

As I mentioned previously, Shane & I have a longstanding (three years now?…maybe four?) Halloween tradition: namely, we spend the day watching horror movies and scarfing junk food. This H-day was no exception, although we didn’t get though as many scary movies as we usually do; we watched three flicks, compared to the normal five or six. Probably because the first film, Peter Jackson’s King Kong, ran three and a half hours! Also on the roster were Identity and Untraceable.

Aside from some dreadful “primitive tribal heathen” stereotyping early on, King Kong is an incredible film. There’s definitely a strong (albeit most likely unintentional) animal welfare message underlying Kong’s story, and it’s handled beautifully by director Peter Jackson and actor Naomi Watts. Jackson’s Kong is the last of his (her?) kind, living a life of solitude and loneliness on Skull Island – that is, until Carl Denham (Jack Black) and crew arrive in order to film a movie. Leading lady Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) is kidnapped from her ship by the island’s natives and sacrificed to Kong (cue awful stereotypes), presumably to keep the “beast” happy, content, and out of their camp. Kong, instead of devouring Darrow, initially keeps her as a sort of “pet.” (Kong is taken with her comedic vaudeville stylings, it seems.) Darrow soon escapes, but finds herself lost on a prehistoric island filled with rampaging dinosaurs and giant bugs. Kong, distraught at his only companion’s disappearance, tracks Darrow down, just in time to save her from two raptor-like dinos. Once Darrow is safe, Kong skulks off, injured both physically (from the battle) and emotionally (at Darrow’s desertion). Whether from fear or compassion (or, most likely, a combination of both), Darrow rejoins Kong.

Meanwhile, in the face of stampeding brontos and an angry Kong, Denham’s crew has abandoned their search for Darrow. Instead, they leave Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) to continue the search for Darrow (with whom he’s fallen in love), while the crew heads back to the ship in order to set a trap (unbeknown to Driscoll) for Kong, who’s sure to pursue the pair. Driscoll manages to find Kong’s den, which is littered with the bones of Kong’s long-dead relatives. Darrow is asleep in Kong’s palm; the two, who have formed a reciprocal, interspecies bond, watched the sun set and then nodded off together. Driscoll wakes Darrow, and the two attempt to sneak away without rousing Kong. Kong awakes in time to see the two creeping away together, and in the ensuing scuffle, a hoard of bats stir from their cliffside perch and attack the trio. Driscoll and Darrow manage to hitch a ride on one of the bats’ backs, and Kong runs after them in frenzied pursuit.

Naturally, this is where the story becomes a tearjerker. Kong is tranquilized, captured and caged during his attempt to retake a regretful Darrow. Back in NYC, Kong becomes part of a grotesque monster display, wherein Darrow’s sacrifice to the beast is reenacted for the entertainment of “horrified” audience. Darrow, who during her time with Kong had come to recognize his humanity, intelligence and sentience, wants nothing to do with the circus act, so director/showman Denham hires a Darrow lookalike to play the part. Kong begins the show partially sedated; as he comes to, he initially starts at the blond actress: I know her! Kong reaches out to Ann – only to become enraged when he realizes that it’s an impostor. Now furious, he rips free of his shackles and storms New York in search of his Ann. On the streets, he scoops up any and every thin blond he can find, only to toss the women aside when he realizes they aren’t the ones he wants.

Performing in a small, low-budget vaudeville hall, Darrow hears the commotion and runs towards Kong while throngs of flee in the other direction. Once Kong is reunited with his Jane Goodall, the two enjoy a few brief moments of reconnection. Kong, who hails from a tropical island, has never before seen ice or snow, and he delights in skidded across a pond in Central Park with Darrow perched safely in his hand. This playful scene is interrupted by a hail of gunfire; Kong, though he hasn’t intentionally harmed anyone (and is in fact a captive slave in the city, there against his will), must be destroyed! You probably know the rest: Kong is pursued by the police and military to the top of the Empire State Building, from which he is eventually gunned down.

Kong dies for our stupidity, greed, selfishness and speciesism.

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Crossposted from yesterday’s VeganMoFo entry.

Shane picked up some Kalamata olives from Wild Oats’ salad bar yesterday, so I asked him (demanded is more like it!) to make me some olive bread this afternoon. Which was really a double bonus – yummy olive bread for me, plus a day’s rest from veganmofo recipes!

Shane adapted the “Classic French Bread” recipe in our Sunbeam Breadmaker manual to create this Kalamata Olive loaf. The original recipe lists a bunch of machine-specific steps, which I’ll skip; after all, if you already have a bread machine, chances are you know how to use it! And if you don’t have one, check out your local Goodwill or a family member’s attic – it’s a kitchen gadget no carb-loading vegan should be without.

Shane’s Kalamata Olive Bread

Ingredients

1 cup + 2 tablespoons water (75-85 degrees)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/4 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
3/4 cup chopped Kalamata olives

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Update, 10/19/08: I left my squares in the fridge overnight, and the goo’s mostly congealed. Upon further reflection, I think I may have used too much egg substitute. The original recipe calls for six egg whites; I substituted for six whole eggs. So…maybe just use enough egg replacer for two to three eggs?

Either way, it’s super yummy.

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Today’s VeganMoFo recipe was really good, so I’m crossposting over here. Now, if you’ll ‘scuse me, I do believe I’m about to lapse into a sugar coma.

I’m too tired to write an introduction, so without further adieu, Pumpkin-Applesauce Squares, via Deseret News. Made with slight modifications, as explained below. Enjoy! (I sure did.)

Pumpkin-Applesauce Squares

Ingredients

Egg replacer for 6 eggs
1 cup unsweetened applesauce [I used fresh-out-of-the-pot pumpkin applesauce]
1 1/2 cups sugar [I reduced to 1 1/4 cups]
2 cups canned pumpkin
2 cups all-purpose flour [I used 2 cups wheat flour]
3 teaspoons low-sodium baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice

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In the wake of the current credit and banking crises, many pundits have been predicting that the presidential candidates will have to curb their proposed spending plans drastically when the winner takes office in January. With home foreclosures skyrocketing, pumping money towards renewable energy may seem like a luxury. Yet, an investment in these technologies could create jobs and set us on the path to energy independence. Though the initial investment might be high, the cost of feeding our oil addiction may prove much higher.

Aside from voting and petitioning our state and federal representatives, there’s little we can do as individuals to impact federal spending on eco-friendly options. However, on a micro level, we have a chance to save both money and the earth through the many little (and the few big) choices we make on a daily basis. Just as with the federal government’s expenditures, being “green” may cost a little more up front, but could save us money in the long run.

In a recent piece at Grist, Miles Grant observes notes an obvious parallel between tips to help you save money – and tips to help you save the environment:

Who are you to deny me my two-car garage filled with junk, an elegant dining room I’ll never use, and massive heating/cooling bills?

That’s the basic response from critics when greens question McMansions in particular and our consumer culture in general. I mean, isn’t newer, bigger, better the American way? Didn’t President Bush urge us to go shopping more?

But one financial advisor says trying to look rich by buying so much stuff is keeping some Americans from being rich. And while he never once mentions the environment, his prescriptions for building your savings have a lot in common with tips for cutting your environmental impact.

Being green and being frugal aren’t mutually exclusive, you see. Oftentimes, the two go hand in hand.

This year’s Blog Action theme is poverty; because I’m all about intersecting oppressions (such as classism, environmental destruction and the role of the megatheocorporatocracy in each), I thought I might offer some food-related tips for positively impacting your cash flow and your ecological imprint. Since we’re in the midst of the Vegan Month of Foods – for which I’ve been baking, cooking, drying and otherwise experimenting like mad – I’d like to focus on food, specifically, how one can eat green to save green.

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…I gave my true love 53 birthday biscuits!

(Crossposted from easyVegan.info, of course.)

As you can most likely infer from the post title, today is the Ralphster’s birthday. My little man, my first-born and -adopted, turns a gray old 11 today. He’s like the Wilford Brimley of the doggeh world, minus the dia-beddies.

I have plenty of Ralphie pix after the jump, of course, but first a recipe for Peanut Butter ‘Nilla Biscuits from Yummy for Dogs. If you like what you see, check out the website and/or order a copy of webmistress Veronica Noechel’s Yummy for Dogs: A Cook Book for Canines. Hey, it’s on my wishlist. I mean, Ralphie’s wishlist. Yeah, Ralphie. (Hint, hint, wink, wink!)

Peanut Butter ‘Nilla Biscuits

These smell incredible!

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup oil
3 tablespoons peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup oats

* In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, and oats.

* Stir in oil, peanut butter, vanilla, and water.

* Knead till smooth, adding more flour or water as needed.

* Roll out on a lightly floured surface.

* Cut with cookie cutters.

* Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

I stuck to the directions, but added some extra flour and rolled oats, as the dough was initially a little oily. I think I also used more like 5 tablespoons of peanut butter, since my “tablespoons” were heaped to overflowing. The dogs love the pb, though!

I have this cute little bone-shaped cookie cutter that the doggies’ grandmother bought for them/me, so I used that to cut the dough. I rolled the leftover scraps into a faux long rawhide bone with the cute little tied ends (for the birthday boy, natch!), as you can see in the photo. All in all, the recipe produced 53 cookies (40 long bones, 12 short bones and one “rawhide”), which fit on two sheets, no problem.

The dogs loved the treats, but don’t place too much trust in their critique; four out of the five of them eat their own poo! (And the fifth eats the cat’s poo – Rennie, I’m looking at you.) I did try the dough before rolling it into cookies, and it was on a little the bland side (for humans), but edible; and yet, definitely yummy for dogs!

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UPDATE, 10/7/08: For today’s VeganMoFo recipe, I used some of the leftover applesauce in a bread recipe to make Sweet Strawberry Applesauce Bread. Check it here. Also, the fruit leather? Way yummy – better than the applesauce, even! When rolled up for storage, it resembles salami, which is a bit disconcerting.

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I’m cross-posting today’s VeganMoFo post because this strawberry applesauce recipe is soooooo ridiculously sweet and fruity and yummy and you simply must try it!

For more vegan food blogging, you can view my entries here, or check out the PPK blog for daily roundups.

Now that the season of the zucchini is winding down, I’m slowly turning my attention to using those 120+ bags of apples I picked in September. (OK, so I gave most of them away; we only have about 20 bags left, not counting the 20 or so that are still on the trees. But I digress.) While hunting around the internets for an apple-heavy recipe this afternoon, I stumbled upon a super-yummy strawberry applesauce recipe from www.recipezaar.com:

Applesauce With Strawberries

Ingredients

3 lbs macintosh apples or apples (about 9 apples)
10 large frozen strawberries
1/3 cup sugar
1 lemon, juice of
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon allspice

Directions

Peel, core and slice apples 1/4-inch thick. Place apple slices in a large saucepan. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until a sauce consistency, about 45 minutes. Use a potato masher, if necessary, to break up any lumps, but leave slightly chunky.

I more or less stuck to the recipe (I have a difficult time following directions – canyatell?); it’s both easy and insanely delicious. The sauce comes out on the sweet side, so if you prefer your applesauce tasting more like apples and less like candy, you may want to go a little easy on the sugar. If you love strawberries like moi, throw in a few extra berries. Don’t worry, I won’t tell.

This snack is best served warm, but I’m sure it’s quite good cold or at room temp, too.

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For those not in the veg*n know, fall is the time to be a veghead! Not only is today World Vegetarian Day (happy World Vegetarian Day, peoples!), October 1 also kicks off VeganMoFo, i.e., the Vegan Month of Food, organized by veg*n culinary genius (and #1 domestic terra-ist) Isa @ Post Punk Kitchen:

Join us for VeganMofo – the Vegan Month Of Food. The idea is to write as much as you can for the month of October about vegan food. The blog entries can be about anything food related – your love of tongs, your top secret tofu pressing techniques, the first time your mom cooked vegan for you, vegan options in Timbuktu – you get the idea.

Last year we didn’t come up with strict guidelines for how often we wrote, but I think the idea is to shoot for every weekday, or about 20 times in the month. Don’t forget to tag your stuff “veganmofo” and you can use the VeganMoFo banner (^up there) on your mofo posts. If you’d like inspiration or would just like to whine about how hard it is, check out the MoFo forum on the PPK message boards.

As the world catches on that vegan food really is the best choice for animals (suck it, humane meat!), the planet (bite me, melting ice caps!) and people (piss off, heart disease!) let’s show them what vegan eating is all about.

One last thing – you may remember that VeganMoFo was in November last year, well, this year it’s in October because there’s more produce and stuff. Also, I’ll be in NYC this November and not really near a computer.

To be included here, just leave a comment on this blog entry with a link to your URL. I will then include you in the RSS feed, once I remember how to update it. You can also join the VeganMoFo Flicker group. Happy writing everyone! If you’re feeling at a loss for how to start this off, why don’t you make your first entry about that?

If you want to participate, it’s not too late. Head on over to the Post Punk Kitchen to register your blog, join the Flickr group, and grab a banner.

I’m taking part over at my AR blog, easyVegan.info (just jump to the VeganMoFo category to view all the posts). I may occasionally crosspost an entry over here, but I don’t want to flood the place with all-veg*n posts, all the time. So hop on over to easyVegan to read my first entry, which focuses on X-Treme Local Eating (otherwise known as, ahem, “gardening”).

If you’ve got a veg*n issue you’d like me to address, drop a comment below. I’m open to suggestions, especially since I don’t have any recipes saved up for the carnival. As of this writing, I’ve only thunk up enough ideas to fill a week – and I’ll be here through 10/31, folks.

Oh, and tomorrow: World Farm Animals Day. Getcher free veg starter kit to commemorate the day here.

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Tagged: veganmofo vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism blog swarm october food carnival eating locally garden gardening fruits veggies flickr photos world vegetarian day events ppk post punk kitchen wfad world farm animals day

Via Elaine, I discovered that today is Bloggers Unite: Human Rights day…and a bit belatedly, at that. Since it’s almost midnight, and I need to get to bed like 30 minutes ago, I thought I might post three very specific actions you can take on behalf of human rights causes. (For more resources, check out my Get Active! page. Keep scrolling for the human rights resources…they’re there, I swear.)

1. Write Yahoo! to protest their aiding and abetting in human rights violations.

Via Amnesty International: “Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist, is serving a ten-year prison sentence for sending an email to the U.S. Yahoo! helped put him there. They provided information to the Chinese Government, which led to his unjust imprisonment. Yahoo! needs to hear from people like you and me in droves. Corporations like Yahoo! are very sensitive to public outcry. We must tell Yahoo! that we won’t stand for violating privacy and ask them to use their influence to secure Shi Tao’s release.”

2. Save Darfur

Visit www.savedarfur.org to learn more about the conflict in Darfur and take action. Two good places to start: the current initiatives (Urge China to help end genocide; Secure helicopters for the Darfur peacekeepers; and Get peacekeepers get on the ground) and activist resources pages.

3. Infiltrate a vegan potluck.

Waste the FBI’s anti-terra funding on TVP chili and chocolate-on-chocolate vegan cupcakes (they’re taking over the world, dontchaknow?), have a terra-ific veg*n time and report back nothing. It’s a win-win, my ski-masked friends.

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Tagged: human rights civil liberties bloggers unite save darfur yahoo green is the new red green scare genocide

By way of Elaine, I discovered that today is Blogging Against Disablism Day. (There are so many blog against/blog for/blog about days, it’s hard to keep track. Anyone know of a roundup or a calendar something? Similar to The Truth Laid Bare’s Ubercarnival? Which has been giving me a database error like forevah? Anyones?)

Initially, when Elaine mentioned Blogging Against Disablism Day, I wasn’t planning on participating; not because it’s an issue I don’t care about, but because I wasn’t sure what I might contribute to the conversation. In today’s post, Elaine discusses mental disability, more specifically, depression, generalized anxiety disorder and borderline personality disorder, which got me thinking.

As an undergrad, I majored in psychology (I know, *groan* – not another one of those human resources assholes. But I was *serious* about my classes, dammit!) and, aside from the required courses, was given some degree of latitude in my psych studies. Between my psych major and my honors classes, I was even allowed to earn six credits through independent study projects – two fairly comprehensive literature reviews, one of social anxiety disorder (“The Identification and Etiology of Social Phobia”) and another on personality disorders (“Assessing Axis II: Issues & Controversies Surrounding Personality Disorder Diagnoses”). Even cooler, the lone clinical psychology professor at my college was also heavy into women’s studies, so I was able to take several of her courses – while she supervised my projects. As a result, one semester I had the opportunity to tackle the same topic for two different classes, both with my totally awesome feminist prof.

So my last semester of college, I literally spent half my time researching and critiquing personality disorders – categorical vs. continuum models, the Axis I/II distinction, problems with diagnostic instruments and criteria, the biased application of personality disorder diagnoses, etc. By far the most fascinating topic – perhaps because I was simultaneously taking my first and only women’s studies course, Psychology & Women – is the amount of gender bias inherent in Axis II diagnoses. That is, in most of the personality disorder labels.

For my contribution to Blogging Against Disablism Day, I thought I might excerpt a portion of “Sex & Gender Bias in Personality Disorder Diagnoses” (2001 – my, how I date myself!), my final paper for the Psychology & Women course. Why, you ask? Well, it’s important to recognize that the psychiatric and medical communities are just like any other, warts and all; even supposedly objective professionals bring personal agendas and biases to the table. These color both the research and application of mental disorders and their diagnoses, such that a seemingly scientific condition such as depression can serve to reinforce (or enforce) gender roles. In the past, the DSM identified homosexuality as a mental disorder, and in the ’50s, lobotomies came into favor with the families of women who did not, or could not, fulfill their gender roles satisfactorily. In short, medical professionals don’t always operate with the patient’s best interests in mind.

While there are a number of ways in which personality disorders reflect sex and gender bias, tonight I’ll focus on the criteria itself. The very symptoms one must exhibit to “earn” a personality disorder diagnosis oftentimes reflect gender roles, such that a woman (or man) who conforms too closely to her or his stereotyped gender role may be diagnosed with a personality disorder.

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