Clearing all the forests

just to wipe your ass. With old growth trees, nonetheless. I suppose we all need TP for our bungholes, but not like this. Americans once again leading the need for luxury category.

 The national obsession with soft paper has driven the growth of brands like Cottonelle Ultra, Quilted Northern Ultra and Charmin Ultra — which in 2008 alone increased its sales by 40 percent in some markets, according to Information Resources, Inc., a marketing research firm.

But fluffiness comes at a price: millions of trees harvested in North America and in Latin American countries, including some percentage of trees from rare old-growth forests in Canada. Although toilet tissue can be made at similar cost from recycled material, it is the fiber taken from standing trees that help give it that plush feel, and most large manufacturers rely on them.

Customers “demand soft and comfortable,” said James Malone, a spokesman for Georgia Pacific, the maker of Quilted Northern. “Recycled fiber cannot do it.” 

You can't have your meat

and your planet too. Ethical concerns aside, (see the free range chickens above) if people keep eating animal products, seeing as we number nearly seven billion, we won't have a planet on which to debate ethics, morals, or anything else. It will be a dead land. It doesn't matter if it's grass-fed, it doesn't matter how free range it is. There is not enough land to exploit, there are not enough resources to keep supplying enough animals for people to eat like they do.

   Food from animals is so resource intensive. There is no way around it.

Here is an excellent article with all sorts of facts and statistics to back these contentions up:

More and more, people are also realizing the troubling connections between human starvation and eating animal products. It takes approximately 16 pounds of grain and 2,500 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat (thus feeding one or two people on meat versus approximately 16 people on grain). Much of this grain is grown in developing countries, where a large percentage of their land is used for cattle-raising for export to the United States, instead of being used to grow staple crops, which could feed local people directly. In a world where a child starves to death every 2 seconds, it seems impossible to justify such waste...

These farms [organic/free range] are described as ethical because of the fact that they are small, sustainable and have kinder animal-husbandry practices. As many people have pointed out, these farms can individually produce meat in a way that is arguably just as "green" as eating vegan.

However, it is an inherent part of the ethical foundation of these farms that they cannot produce on a massive scale. As we've seen numerous times, the organic farms that do try to do this, very often become virtually no better than factory farms, despite the labels they often still get to keep.

For example, many cage-free or free-range chickens still live in devastating conditions -- they simply aren't technically kept in cages in the first case, or, in the latter case, are kept in huge, crowded and perpetually dark buildings, with a single opening leading to a few square yards of bare earth.

The question of methane pollution may also make it hard to raise animals on a massive scale, regardless of whether the farms could be sustainable in other ways.

The question is not, "are a few people eating local, sustainable, free-range pork worse environmentally than a few people eating vegan?" The question needs to be, "can we feed the world's entire growing population sustainable animal products?"...

Many people within this "new meat movement" argue that it is suffering, not killing, that is unethical. Can unnecessary killing ever be completely separated from suffering? Besides the obvious difficulty in assuring a life and death free from trauma, there are the FDA regulations, which send all larger meat animals to the same slaughterhouses that are used for factory-farmed animals -- facilities notorious for the suffering of both the animals and the employees.

Even if the animals die quickly on their home farm, what justifies this killing? Having foreknowledge of death is not a prerequisite for the right to live, or else killing an infant would not seem unethical. How are we justified in ending a life of happy contentment to satisfy a passing craving?...

Culture and tradition are never sufficient justification to continue unethical practices -- if they were, we would still have slavery and public torture. Traditions have to adapt with our changing values and ethics, although these changes may be uncomfortable and unwelcome.

Report to distort

No analysis provided this time, just headlines and the first few lines of the article. Are you ready? OK. This is yesterday's big news item:

13 civilians killed in Afghanistan: US military

KABUL (AFP) – The US-led coalition in Afghanistan confirmed Saturday that 13 civilians were killed in an operation against insurgents, with such casualties a major source of tension between Kabul and its allies.

The US military at first said that 15 militants were killed in air strikes in the western province of Herat late Monday but local officials said six women and two children were among the dead.

Now, with seemingly no acknowledgment of the previous day's news, here is today's:

14 militants killed in southern Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A battle just outside southern Afghanistan's largest city has killed at least six Taliban fighters, while an airstrike against militants elsewhere in the south killed eight, officials said Sunday.

Oh, capitalist media, YOU SO FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An eye for an eye

will hopefully leave at least one man blind. As CNN reports, Ameneh Bahrami, an Iranian woman was blinded when a relentless stalker, Majid Movahedi, threw acid on her face about four years ago. In a measure of respect for women that surprises me, he has been imprisoned since then, awaiting further punishment. As far as I know, these attacks, which are not uncommon throughout the Muslim world, often go unpunished.

Ms. Bahrami has insisted that her attacker receive the same sentence he gave her - blindness. Supposedly, he will be blinded within a few weeks, his appeal having been recently rejected.

Good.

I do not support capital punishment, but this is different. Men carry this out with impunity. They believe, generally correctly, that they can do whatever they like to women. Here is an example of that in Pakistan. "Because women usually don’t matter in this part of the world, their attackers are rarely prosecuted and acid sales are usually not controlled."

This is a very specific behavior that could be severely curtailed if men thought that they would face the same punishment in return. It needs to stop. By any means necessary.

Fuck every liberal "human rights advocate" who looks at this and makes some blanket declaration about violence being "bad" or "immoral." Fuck every one of them who says that these women are wrong. Fuck their senses of superiority that tell these women what they should do. Fuck their arrogance, fuck their condescending attitudes. Sometimes, violence does work.

You are not in control

Business is. Fact. Below you will find the latest use of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. This FBI press release includes a laundry list of charges. Some of them are factual, some of them are exaggerated, and some of them have no basis in reality. Which ones, I do not know. I do know that the FBI has been intently dedicated to defaming movement after movement throughout its history. Communists, civil rights workers, Black Panthers, civil rights leaders, non-radical liberal environmentalists, feminists, so on and so forth. Just remember, haha, as the press release states way down at the bottom, these four "extremists" are presumed innocent. You can tell from the tone of the release, right?


FBI Press Release:

Four Extremists Arrested for Threats and Violence Against UC Researchers

On February 19 and 20, the Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested four animal rights extremists suspected of terrorizing University of California researchers. A complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco on Thursday alleged Adriana Stumpo, 23, of Long Beach, California; Nathan Pope, 26, of Oceanside, California; Joseph Buddenberg, 25, of Berkeley, California; and Maryam Khajavi, 20, of Pinole, California used force, violence, or threats to interfere with the operation of the University of California in violation of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.

Mr. Pope and Ms. Stumpo were arrested Thursday in Charlotte , North Carolina by the FBI and members of the Charlotte Joint Terrorism Task Force as they returned to the United States from Costa Rica . The two appeared in federal court in Charlotte this morning, and will be extradited to California to face charges.

San Francisco Joint Terrorism Task Force members, University of California Berkeley Police officers, and FBI agents arrested Mr. Buddenberg at the Alameda County Courthouse this morning. Ms. Khajavi was also arrested this morning in Oakland . Both appeared before United States Magistrate Judge Nandor J. Vadas in federal court in San Francisco today.

The arrests stem from a series of threatening incidents beginning in October 2007:

On Sunday, October 21, 2007 a group of approximately twenty people, including Mr. Buddenberg, Mr. Pope, and Ms. Stumpo, demonstrated outside a University of California Berkeley professor’s personal residence in El Cerrito , California . The group, some wearing bandanas to hide their faces, trespassed on his front yard, chanted slogans, and accused him of being a murderer because of his use of animals in research. The professor told police he was afraid, and felt harassed and intimidated by the extremists.

On Sunday, January 27, 2008, a group of approximately eleven individuals, including Mr. Buddenberg, Mr. Pope, Ms. Stumpo, and Ms. Khajavi, demonstrated outside the private residences of several University of California Berkeley researchers over the course of the day. At each residence, extremists dressed generally in all black clothing and wearing bandanas to hide their faces marched, chanted, and chalked defamatory comments on the public sidewalks in front of the residences. One of the researchers informed authorities he had been previously harassed and the incident had caused him to fear for his health and safety.

On February 24, 2008, five to six individuals including Mr. Pope, Ms. Stumpo, and Ms. Khajavi, attempted to forcibly enter the private home of a University of California researcher in Santa Cruz . When her husband opened the door, a struggle ensued and he was hit by an object. As the individuals fled, one yelled, “We’re gonna get you.” The professor and her husband both told the FBI they were terrified by the incident.

On July 29, 2008, a stack of flyers titled "Murderers and torturers alive & well in Santa Cruz July 2008 edition" was found at the Café Pergolesi in Santa Cruz . The fliers listed the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of several University of California researchers and stated “animal abusers everywhere beware we know where you live we know where you work we will never back down until you end your abuse.” The investigation connected Mr. Buddenberg, Mr. Pope, and Ms. Stumpo to the production and distribution of the fliers. Distribution of the fliers preceded two firebomb attacks outside researchers’ Santa Cruz homes, both of which are still under investigation by the FBI.

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (Title 18 U.S.C. § 43) states that whoever uses or causes to be used any facility of interstate commerce for the purpose of damaging or interfering with the operations of an animal enterprise, and in connection with such purpose, intentionally places a person in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury to that person or an immediate family member, or conspires or attempts to do so, by a course of conduct involving threats, acts of vandalism, property damage, criminal trespass, harassment, or intimidation, shall be imprisoned for not more than five years.

“With so many legal options to make their voices heard and to effect policy change, it is inexcusable and cowardly for these people to resort to terrorizing the families of those with whom they do not agree,” said Charlene B. Thornton, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Francisco office. “The FBI intends to pursue those involved in this sort of extremist activity to the full extent of the law.”

“This sends a strong message that our community won’t tolerate this type of senseless violence. You have absolutely no right to attack a family in the sanctity of their home. We are proud of the collaboration with our law enforcement partners on this case and look forward to those involved being held fully accountable for their actions,” said Santa Cruz Police Department Chief of Police Howard Skerry.

"We are very grateful for the efforts of federal law enforcement officials whose persistence has led to these arrests," said Mickey Aluffi, police chief at UC Santa Cruz. "The Santa Cruz Police Department has also worked tirelessly on the cases involving our researchers, and we are very appreciative of that office's commitment and support."

The Santa Cruz Police Department, University of California Santa Cruz Police Department, University of California Berkeley Police Department, Costa Rican Organismo de Investigacion Judicial, Costa Rican Attorney General’s office, United State Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, and the Interpol National Central Bureau in Costa Rica provided invaluable assistance throughout this investigation and contributed to the successful apprehension of these individuals.

Like all defendants, these individuals are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. A complaint contains only allegations and is not proof of guilt. However, each defendant could face up to five years in prison if convicted.

Media inquiries may be directed to Special Agent Joseph M. Schadler or Public Affairs Specialist Patti Hansen at 415-553-7450.

Greece is not quiet

Here's a list of brief news stories about what's going on in Greece. The open rebellion in the streets has subsided, but it seems that day-to-day revolutionary actions are at a fairly high level. Crazy shit.

While all of the actions are noteworthy and remarkable, the last one is quiet creative and a different kind of revolutionary, in that it is a long-term project. The people occupying the building seek to maintain a legitimate base for radical expression, thought and living that is open to the public.


Update On Greek Revolt

Thursday, February 19 2009 @ 03:21 PM CST

Contributed by: Anonymous

A small anarchist group has claimed responsibility for 17 firebombings
carried out last week and threatened further attacks. All but one of the
attacks with makeshift bombs were carried out in Athens on Wednesday and
Thursday, and they targeted people such as a top anti-terrorism
prosecutor, a prominent politician and a judge.

ATHENS, Greece: A small anarchist group has claimed responsibility for 17
firebombings carried out last week and threatened further attacks.

All but one of the attacks with makeshift bombs were carried out in Athens
on Wednesday and Thursday, and they targeted people such as a top
anti-terrorism prosecutor, a prominent politician and a judge.

No injuries or serious damage resulted, but the firebombings were carried
out during the day, making them very unusual for arsonists' attacks in
Greece.

"Our attacks are not symbolic, they are acts of war. ... We will be back
soon," Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, a self-described "urban guerrilla"
group, said in a statement published on a leftist Web site Saturday.

It said it dedicated its attacks to "authentic revolutionary" Dimitris
Koufodinas, a prominent member of the terrorist organization November 17,
who was arrested in 2002 and is serving multiple life sentences.

The litte-known Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei group only surfaced last year,
and police have said they know little about it but take its threats of
sustained urban guerrilla action seriously.

"This is a new development," Deputy Interior Minister Christos
Markoyiannakis told Greek media Sunday, referring to the claim of
responsibility. "We must be vigilant."

------------------------------

-----------

Friday, February 6, 2009

ATHENS, Greece: Authorities in Greece say a police station and a luxury
car dealership in Athens were targeted in overnight arson attacks, causing
damage but no injuries.

Police say 14 luxury cars burned up in the Halandri area after small
cooking gas canisters were set off at the dealership and started a fire.

In Wednesday's second incident, small gas canisters exploded outside a
police station in the Aegaleo area, causing minor damage.

Greek anarchist groups frequently carry out arson attack in Athens.
Attacks against police have also risen since December riots were triggered
by the police shooting of a teenage boy.

Another police station in Athens was damaged Tuesday by automatic gunfire.
Suspicion fell on a far-left domestic terrorist group.

-------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Group Claims Attack on Greek Police Station

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities said Wednesday a previously
unknown group has claimed responsibility for a gunfire and grenade attack
on an Athens precinct.
The statement was found in a computer disk left on the grave of a teenager
whose shooting by police sparked massive riots last year.

A police statement said a group calling itself Sect of Revolutionaries
claimed it carried out Tuesday's pre-dawn attack, which caused no
injuries.

Police spokesman Panayiotis Stathis said the disk was found on Alexandros
Grigoropoulos's grave in Athens. Officers found it after an anonymous call
to an Athens newspaper.

Stathis said police were taking the claim seriously, and the group seemed
linked to the Revolutionary Struggle extremists who shot a riot policeman
last month.

"It seems to be genuine; it's a group that has not appeared before but the
methodology seems to be the same as that of Revolutionary Struggle," he
told The Associated Press.

Three unknown assailants in hoods and helmets opened fire on the police
station in the suburb of Korydallos. They also threw a hand grenade that
did not explode.

The attack came nearly two months after Grigoropoulos was shot dead in
central Athens after an argument with two policemen, sparking the worst
wave of anti-authoritarian violence Greece had seen in decades.

Although the rioting subsided before Christmas, attacks on police targets
have increased.
Last month, the Revolutionary Struggle claimed responsibility for a Jan. 5
shooting that seriously wounded a 21-year-old riot policeman in central
Athens.
The group is best known for firing a rocket-propelled grenade into the
U.S. Embassy in Athens in 2007.
Stathis said the Sect of Revolutionaries proclamation was "aggressive"
against the police.

"It gives the impression that they have declared war on the police, that
is their term," he said.

--------------------------------------------------

Monday, February 2, 2009 Bank attacked in Athens

A branch of Emporiki Bank in Ambelokipi, central Athens, was seriously
damaged early on Saturday when assailants threw petrol bombs and camping
gas canisters inside the building. Police said that the attack took place
at about 1 a.m. Nobody was hurt.

---------------------------------------------------

Occupation of Greek National Opera House
OO
Last week the National Opera House (Ethniki Lyriki Skini) was occupied by
dancers renaming the historic Athens building "Insurgent People's .
Opera". Since the Opera has been functioning as a free space for
revolutionary workshops and forums in solidarity to K. Kouneva and the
arrested insurgents of December, as well as against the police state and
the culture of the Spectacle.

The occupation of the National Opera House in one of Athens most busy high
street (Akadimias Bulevard) last week by dancers has created yet another
center of resistance and counterinformation in the greek capital,
receiving the active support of the entire range of insurgents including
the Cleaner's Union (PEKOP) who continues to receive death threats from
the OIKOMET bosses behind the murderous attack against K. Kouneva on
December last year. The Opera now renamed "Insurgent People's Opera"
functions on a 24h bases as a space for workshops, film projections,
performances and forums regarding art and the body in relation to the
resistance against the police state and the society of the Spectacle.

What follows is the first Communique of the occupied Opera:

December’s rebellion, while drawing strength from all previous social
struggles, laid the ground for a generalized resistance against everything
that offends us and enslaves our lives. It triggered a fight for life that
is being disparaged on a daily basis. As an answer to those who understand
rebellion as a short lived firecracker, and discard and undermine it by
simply saying “life goes on”, we say that the struggle not only continues
but has already set our lives on a new basis. Nothing is finished; our
rage perseveres. Our agony has not subsided; we are still here.

Rebellion in the streets, in schools and universities, in labour unions,
municipal buildings and parks. Rebellion also in art.

Against art as a spectacle that is consumed by passive viewers.

Against aesthetics that exclude the ‘Different’.

Against a culture that destroys parks and public space in the name of profit.

We unite our voices with all those in struggle.

In solidarity with Konstantina Kouneva and those arrested during the
rebellion.

With our struggle and our own culture, we respond to state oppression,
social exclusion and to the attempts of the mass media to terrorize and
misinform.

With this initiative that originated in the ‘Arts’ (considering
everybody’s life as art), we re-claim a space for the art of living of
each and everyone to unfold and for exploring the reformation of culture.
We aspire to an unmediated art; open and accessible to all.

We liberate the Greek National Opera because by definition it belongs to
all of us.

We feel the need to take things from the beginning and to reinvent the
role of art.

Through self-organized processes, we propose free creative actions by
everyone and for all those who consider culture as a product of collective
creativity.
To recover and reclaim the culture that has been stolen from us.

OPEN GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE LIBERATED OPERA
EVERYDAY AT 9.00 PM

STREETS ARE OUR SCENE
REVOLT IS OUR ART

Free opera-tors

If this photograph is somewhat representative of how you spend your days , you will most likely not like our band . Don't show up at our shows.

Please note: Wearing a leather jacket, a bullet belt and/or eye make up does not make you punk. Thank you for your time.

Yours,
Write Back Soon

22 years in prison for torching a genetic modification seed lab in Michigan

Yesterday, Marie Mason was put away for almost 22 years for torching a lab that was making crops with altered genes, research almost certainly on the behalf of some agribusiness giant like Monsanto. She's an "eco-terrorist" now. Watch out.

It's funny, cause I would say that the people who would unleash this fake food, these doctored seeds unto the world are terrorizing the environment. It scares the fuck out of me. And they get their ways through fear - they say that we're all gonna starve if they don't get to sell their patented superseeds. They tell us that nature's not good enough. They say we need them to live.

As greenisthenewred points out, four white guys who went around Staten Island the evening of November fourth randomly beating black people, or in one case, someone they thought was black, will only be serving up to 10 years, while another gets 12. From the FBI:

At the plea proceeding, Nicoletti admitted that on Nov. 4, 2008, the night of the presidential election, the defendants decided to assault African-Americans in Staten Island after President Obama was declared the winner of the election. The defendants targeted African-Americans believing that they had voted for President Obama. Nicoletti drove the group to the Park Hill section of Staten Island, a predominantly African-American neighborhood, where they came upon an African-American teenager and assaulted him. Nicoletti struck the teenager with a metal pipe and Garaventa hit him with a collapsible police baton.

Nicoletti then drove to the Port Richmond section of Staten Island, where the defendants assaulted an unidentified African-American man. During that assault, Garaventa tripped the victim and pushed him to the ground.

The third assault was against an individual whom the defendants mistakenly believed was African-American. The plan was for Contreras to hit the victim with the police baton as the defendants drove by him. Instead, Nicoletti deliberately drove his car into the victim’s body. The victim was thrown onto the hood of the car and hit the front windshield, smashing it. The victim was seriously injured and remained in a coma for several weeks after the attack...

“The crimes these defendants have now admitted to were violent assaults that in one case nearly killed a man,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Demarest of the New York Field Office...

You can beat the shit out of people for no reason, you can run people over, you can put someone in a coma, and you will maybe get ten years. You can do things that you believe will likely kill people, you can not care if you kill them, and you won't go away for too long.

Get in the way of corporate earnings and you're through. Especially if you've got principles behind it. The two combined are lethal; they'll punish you so severely for putting principles into practice that legitimately impinge on capital.

These sentences were only three days apart. Pretty good for comparison. Same political climate, both federal crimes.

Also, fuck Mason's ex-husband. That dude ruined so many other people to shave a few years off his own sentence. Yeah, they still put him away. For nine fucking years. Way to go.

Animal-human clones don't work, U.S. company finds

Once again, I give to you sick fucks trying to play god.

The best quote:

We got beautiful little hybrid embryos, but it didn't work no matter how hard we tried.

With the most dedicated sense of devotion to progress for its own sake, these scientists would not allow repeated failures to give way to questioning their actions. No, they relentlessly pursued their goals because they had imagined them.

Also, I could have told them before they spent all their money, time, and inflicted unnecessary pain on the animals who once held these eggs that their efforts would most likely be in vain.

They act like this is some kind of fucking revelation. As though, every indication showed otherwise, but for some unknowable reason, human/non-human hybrid clones just don't work.


Animal-human clones don't work, U.S. company finds

Mon Feb 2, 2009 2:47pm EST

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers who tried to use mouse, cow and rabbit eggs to make human clones said on Monday the effort failed to produce workable embryos but added that they showed human cloning should work in principle.

Mixing human and animal cells does not appear to program the egg properly, said Dr. Robert Lanza of Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology.

But using human cells did reprogram the egg cell or oocyte and activate the genes needed to make a viable embryo, Lanza and colleagues reported in the journal Cloning and Stem Cells.

Several teams have tried to make animal-human hybrids as a source of embryonic stem cells, the master cells of the body. Because human eggs are scarce -- it requires a surgical procedure to get them from a woman -- some scientists came up with the idea of using animal egg cells.

The cloning technique is called somatic cell nuclear transfer. The nucleus is removed from an egg cell and replaced with the nucleus from another type of cell from the donor animal or person who is to be cloned.

Done right, the process starts the egg growing and dividing as if it had been fertilized by a sperm, but the resulting embryo carries mostly the DNA of the donor.

"The idea was to simply to plunk a patient's DNA into an empty cow or rabbit egg -- and presto -- you reprogram the DNA back into a stem cell," Lanza said in a telephone interview.

But teams that have tried to do this have always ended up with what looks like a cell dividing over and over to become an embryo, but which eventually fizzles out.

"For the last decade, we've carried out literally hundreds of experiments trying to create patient-specific stem cells using animal eggs," Lanza said.

BEAUTIFUL HYBRIDS

"We got beautiful little hybrid embryos, but it didn't work no matter how hard we tried."

A mouse-human hybrid petered out after just one division. The cow and rabbit human hybrids went further, but stopped at the point when maternal DNA is supposed to kick in and turn the ball of cells into a proper embryo, Lanza said.

Lanza's team used a new method called global gene expression analysis to see which genes were turned on and off as the eggs grew.

"We never had the tools before to actually look inside the cell and see what's going on," Lanza said. It appears that using the egg of another species turns off the genes needed to make an embryo instead of turning them on, he said.

But the human-human clone did turn on the right genes, although it, too stopped dividing before it could produce stem cells, Lanza said.

"We see exactly the same genes turned on in a normal embryo are actually turned on in a human clone," he said.

Ian Wilmut of the University of Edinburgh, one of the scientists who cloned the first mammal, Dolly the sheep, and editor of the journal, called the results disappointing.

"This very important paper suggests that livestock oocytes are extremely unlikely to be suitable as recipients for use in human nuclear transfer," Wilmut said in a statement.

But Lanza said it might be possible to use other methods to create "banks" of stem cells that match the several hundred tissue types found among humans.

This could include cloning humans, using a single cell from growing embryos used for fertility treatment, or a new method called induced pluripotent stem cells, made by taking a sample of skin and reprogramming the cells to act like embryonic stem cells, Lanza said.