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

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From: In Defense of Animals - takeaction [at] idausa.org
Date: Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 4:25 PM
Subject: Fourth of July Animal Safety Tips

Keep Your Animals Safe On July 4th!

Photo via Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton

The Fourth of July can be one of the most dangerous and frightening holidays for animals. Loud explosions are terrifying to animals who don’t understand them.

With proper planning and some common sense, your companion animals can remain safe and secure on Independence Day. Here are some tips:

* First and foremost, leave your companion animals at home when you go to see fireworks! Resist the urge to take them to fireworks displays.

* Before you leave home for the fireworks, make sure your animals are indoors in a sheltered, quiet area. Some animals become destructive when frightened, so be sure that you’ve removed any items that your companion animal could destroy or that would be harmful if chewed or swallowed. Leave a television or radio playing at normal volume to keep him/her company.

* Make sure your animals are wearing identification tags (and it’s even better if they’re also microchipped!) so that if they do become lost, they can be returned promptly.

* Do not leave an animal in your car. With only hot air to breathe, your animal friend can suffer serious health effects, even death, in a few short minutes. Partially opened windows do not provide sufficient air or cooling, but they do provide an opportunity for your animal to be kidnapped.

* If you know that your animal becomes seriously distressed by loud noises, consult with your veterinarian before July 4th for ways to help alleviate the fear and anxiety he or she will experience during fireworks displays.

* Never leave your animals outside unattended, even in a fenced yard, and especially not on a chain. With explosions occuring, animals who normally wouldn’t leave the yard may escape and become lost, or become entangled in their chain, risking injury or death. (There are lots of other reasons to never leave your dog chained! Contact us if you want more information about the negative effects of chaining dogs.)

* If you find somebody else’s companion animals running at-large, either take them to the address on the tag, if you feel comfortable doing so, or bring them to the local animal shelter, where they will have the best chance of being reunited with their human families.

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You know you want more doggehs!

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Saluting Animal Moms on Mother’s Day

According to writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the trials of motherhood make moms the great vacationless class. Although she may have been talking about the human variety—the moms who are near and dear to us—other animals show the same tireless dedication to their children. PETA hopes that this Mother’s Day, while you are praising your family’s matriarch, you’ll also remember that some of the best moms in the world are found in the animal kingdom.

Northern Fur Seals

Human mothers tuned in to Channel Mom may find themselves responding to anybody’s child when they hear someone calling the M word, but fur seals never make this mistake. Fresh from foraging for food, moms have to find their young quickly in a sea of hundreds—or possibly thousands—of seals, so both mother and pup depend on their uncanny powers of vocal recognition to find one another. Both will call out and answer, responding selectively to one another until they are reunited.

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getcher grist ecard here!

Call be an eco-grouch, but I’m finding it hard to get into the Earth Day spirit this year. I woke up feeling a bit ambivalent; caught a bit of Living with Ed during breakfast, and then discovered that HGTV’s airing a slate of “green” programming all day. Crank level rose. “Ooooo, if I’m near the teevee at 6, I can watch some yuppie couple shop for an ‘environmentally friendly’ vacation home (Um, is there such a thing? Doesn’t the sheer wastefulness of owning a second home trump the recycled cork floors?) in Hawaii.” Like, O-M-F-G. (That one’s for you, Mike Galanos. Your fainting couch should be arriving via Fed-fucking-Ex any day now.)

Time for work. While shuffling some files around and otherwise procrastinating, caught this blog post over at The Boiling Point.

If I see one more article about a gazillion pieces of fancy overpriced “organic” or “recycled” designer crap we can cram into our lives to pretend we’re doing something significant to save the planet, I’m going to shoot some (organic!?) steam out my ears.

With every Earth Day there comes a flood of special newspaper and magazine “Green Issues,” all generally pushing the same deluded feel-good idea that if only we replaced non-green products with slightly more green products, we’d really Make a Big Difference and Save the Planet. We don’t really need to change our consumer culture or hold corporate polluters accountable or enact sweeping and drastic environmental legislation–we just need to change our lightbulbs and wear organic cotton T-shirts. […]

Anyway, here’s the thing: buying more fancy stuff you don’t need (no matter how organic or recycled it is) is fundamentally an anti-green act. If you replace your perfectly good couch with some fancy organic or more sustainably produced designer creation, that does not mean you are saving the planet. It means you are buying a nice couch that is slightly less destructive than another couch. You’re still consuming, and you’re still creating waste. You are not a hero, and you are not an activist, you’re just a less destructive shopper.

And shopping is not a substitute for action. Buying a red sweatshirt or red iPod that donates 1% of its profits to a poorly-run AIDS charity that spends all its money advertising red sweatshirts or red iPods is not real action for change. A lot of this feel-good, do-nothing shopping as “activism” (ActivismTM) crap is just an excuse to give yourself an excuse to BUY MORE CRAP YOU DON’T need.

Ambivalence clear now.

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Tagged: bbc documentary penguins

Here’s wishing y’all a happy Sunshine Week from the dreary depths of the midwest.

Via the Bill of Rights Defense Committee*:

“Sunshine is the best of disinfectants,” said Judge Louis Brandeis about the power of public scrutiny to scrub clean the dark corners of government abuse. The American Society of Newspaper Editors has named March 16-22 of this year “Sunshine Week”, a week-long assertion of the public’s right to know what its government is doing.

The week’s events include:

* March 14 - A National Freedom of Information Day Conference, sponsored by the First Amendment Center;

* March 17 - A National Freedom of Information Day Celebration, sponsored by Collaboration on Government Secrecy;

* March 18 - Remarks by Associated Press President Tom Curley at the National Press Club;

* March 19 - Webcast Government Secrecy: Censoring Your Rights with Mickey Edwards, from the Aspen Institute, and former Republican member of Congress from Oklahoma; Ann Beeson, from the Open Society Institute, formerly with the American Civil Liberties Union; and John Podesta from the Center for American Progress, formerly president Clinton’s Chief of Staff. From 1 to 2:30 p.m. EST at the Washington Press Club, and also available online.

* March 20 - Professor Lawrence Lessig on corruption in government, sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation.

In 2007, Sunshine Week marked an effort by Congress to pass “sunshine” legislation, such as:

* A bill protecting whistleblowers (H.R. 985), which passed the House 331-94 on March 14, 2007. The bill has not made it out of committee in the Senate.

* A Freedom of Information Amendments Act (H.R. 1309), which passed the House 308-117 on March 14, 2007. H.R. 1309, however, was unable to make it through the Senate, so in mid-December, Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Kyl (R-AZ) pushed through a moderated version (S. 2488) on voice votes, which became law on December 31.

What You Can Do:

* Ideas for local Sunshine Week events can be found in Bright Ideas, an assemblage of insights first published in 2007.

* Campaign resources, including public service announcements, brochures and opinion editorials, are available by clicking here.

You can find out more at www.sunshineweek.org.

* They’re like the ACLU, but with principles n stuff.

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Tagged: action alerts sunshine week politics government government transparency holidays observances bordc Bill of Rights Defense Committee aclu american civil liberties union civil liberties george w. bush war on terra Freedom of Information Freedom of Information Day Freedom of Information Act FOIA

Get blogging, bitchez!

A few weeks ago, I was chatting with my little sis online while the (seemingly never ending) CNN campaign coverage droned on in the background. At 24, Michelle is only five years younger than this featherhead - but sometimes, the gap seems so much wider.

Though I took some women and gender studies courses while majoring in psychology in college, it was only in the years after graduation that I really discovered and embraced feminism. Not that was an anti-feminist in college, not at all; I just didn’t question, criticize, and examine the patriarchical culture in which I was - am - immersed. Like most women my age, I took hard-earned rights such as reproductive rights and the right to vote for granted, and casually threw around misogynistic terms such as “bitch” and “slut” - and not with the end goal of reclaiming them for the feminist side. Even though I was receptive to my feminist professor’s teachings, it took the internets to introduce me to patriarchy-blaming, I guess. Age and maturity most likely greased the old vagina, too.

Looking at Michelle, I see much of my teenage self in her; just, exaggerated. She’s also studying psych, but she’s veered towards more marketable psych skills - think occupational psychology. She’s never had the benefit of women or gender studies courses - not even a one! - and she’s not exactly politically active, either. In fact, she’s so indifferent to current events - particularly women’s issues - that it’s a little alarming, actually. Even as a little kiddo, I read the local newspaper.

Which brings me back to our conversation. At the time, the election issue de jour was the sexist attacks on Hillary and her subsequent “breakdown”. Half-listening to the coverage in the background, and suddenly a bit curious, I asked Michelle who she planned on voting for in the primaries. She was non-committal; “anyone but Hillary” was her reply. “Why not Hillary?” asked I, knowing full well what her answer would be. “Just don’t like her.” No reason, just a visceral reaction.

Assuming (ok, hoping!) that Michelle’s indecision only extended to the primaries, and that surely (please?) she’d vote Democrat in the national election no matter what, I asked her whether she’d vote for Hillary if she was the Democratic nominee…or if she’d rather vote Republican than support Hillary. “Eh…I’d probably vote for the Republican.”

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Molested by pasghetti…the Pastafarian equivalent of a Catholic Church scandal?

Well, FSMas has come and gone, and I never quite got around to blogging all of the decorations I made. Or making all the decorations I’d wanted to, for that matter (lasagna house, where art thou?!). There’s always next year - and I promise to start earlier, since our festivities will actually be planned in advance. Shane’s already drawing up specs for a motorized pirate ship!

Given that 2008 is dubya’s last year in office (theoretically, at least), the liberal bloggers are all aflutter with hope and optimism and all that fluffy stuff. But not this featherhead. Oh, no. Especially not after the past few weeks’ election coverage.

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