When we poison the world...

we poison ourselves, as we are of it. It follows that we also poison our children.

I was part of a discussion earlier this afternoon about autism and its potential causes. Toxins, like mercury, were mentioned as one.

Nicholas Kristof, you shining star of the New York Times, you had a piece on this very topic waiting for me in my inbox. In it, he writes about new research establishing more explicit documentable links than ever before between deadly chemicals and developmental disorders.

It sucks that there has to be any investigation into this issue at all. How could it be anything other than logic? If you take poison into your body, whether you eat it, drink it, breathe it or it seeps into your skin, it's gonna fuck you up. It's also going to fuck up the children in you. This should not come as a shock. Really. Think about it.

I promise that it will fuck you up in some way, and it probably won't be obvious. It's not like you will suddenly have a third arm, or your skin will begin to fall off. Things like this are subtle.

Example - drink a gallon of antifreeze. You will die. Drink two drops of antifreeze, and you will likely not die, but it will have ill effects on your body. Drink two drops of antifreeze every day, and you will develop long-term health problems.

Think about children eating lead paint. Think about people working in a coal mine. Think about smoking cigarettes. Over time, sickness will come.

Our bodies are resilient, but there is only so much we can take and this world we've made poisons us with way fucking more than we can handle. Rates of cancer are no surprise. Autism on the rise, well that's no revelation.

Senator Lautenberg says that under existing law, of 80,000 chemicals registered in the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency has required safety testing of only 200. “Our children have become test subjects,” he noted.

Eighty thousand. Fuck. We're all test subjects. Unknowingly, unwillingly. Testing for no end.

Perhaps the worst part is that corporations have us paying them so that we may poison ourselves through our daily routines, especially ones of cleanliness:

Researchers measured the levels of suspect chemicals called phthalates in the urine of pregnant women. Among women with higher levels of certain phthalates (those commonly found in fragrances, shampoos, cosmetics and nail polishes), their children years later were more likely to display disruptive behavior.

What a deep irony.

So here we are, steeped in ignorance. It's a cultural and personal ignorance. I see several vectors behind this feigned blindness, all interconnected.

One is the intense desire for profit, profit at all costs. People in charge of manufacturing firms, chemical companies and drug corporations, almost always, do not give a fuck about the outcomes (not necessarily side effects, as they are often primary effects) of their endeavors. If they let such concerns get in the way of their money making, that would significantly hamper their money making. They figured out ways to make things cheaply and pay very, very little concern to anything that does not cut into their bottom lines. Until pollution and killing people significantly takes away from their profits, they will show no concern.

For fuck's sake, these people can hardly be bothered to pretend to care even when serious problems arise in the public eye. Once again, look at what's going on with Toyota. The people running that company should be on their knees, begging for forgiveness and mercy for being such heinous pieces of shit, but instead they're going around telling people about how hard they are working and trying to play it off as though they haven't done anything wrong.

Closely related to the greed aspect of these problems is the issue of a profound lack of knowledge. People simply do not understand most of what they create. Humans are real fuckin good at making things, but holy shit are there difficulties controlling them and knowing the full range of what they do. Again, and I will always go back to this, the human species has this biological flaw where if we can do something, we go ahead and do it to the furthest extent that we can with no concerns for repercussions. Atomic bombs/energy. Petroleum-powered global economy. Slavery. Cloning. Factory farming. On and on. We sure are curious.

Finally, there is the pathetic trust we put in others, especially our supposed superiors. What sorry supplicants we are, always deferring to those who tell us they know better. People simply don't believe that companies would make something harmful, and ESPECIALLY not knowingly. If it's bad for you, well then it wouldn't be in a store, right? Yeah. Pork rinds? And if these things were bad for you, then the government would take care of it! Yup. Check out the recent/current handling of the diabetes drug Avandia. Similarly, we willingly turn a blind eye to these kinds of things. We have ideas in the back of our heads. We know. How could it be ok?

One reason why this form of government is untenable

This is a from a New York Times article about hicks (who seem to comprise well over half the national population) fearing that Big Guvment or Uncle Scam or black people or immigrants or the ZOG or whatever will take their guns away:

That Mr. Obama signed legislation allowing guns in national parks and on Amtrak trains should not be seen as respect for the Second Amendment, Mr. LaPierre said. The two measures had been attached as amendments to larger pieces of legislation — a bill cracking down on credit card companies and a transportation appropriations bill, respectively — that the president wanted passed, Mr. LaPierre said.

Ok, so it's a problem that guns are permitted in national parks, definitely. BUT THAT THE FUCKING LAW CAME ATTACHED TO CREDIT CARD LEGISLATION? What the fuck. You hear about "pork" and "pork barrel legislation" all the time, but holy shit, if this isn't some next level shit. Legislators attach just about anything they want to a wholly unrelated bill, and there it goes, into law. Even if you believe in the concepts of government and nation states and so on, what kind of way is that to conduct legislative business in one?

Wow. Just wow.

"Whale that killed its trainer won't be isolated"

Good thing to see that common sense never steps in to get of the way of profit and "fun":

Trainers will continue working with a killer whale that grabbed one of their colleagues and dragged her underwater, killing her, but SeaWorld said Thursday it is reviewing its procedures.

Sea World. What a fucked place. Who can justify something like this? Good fucking god. However pretty they dress it up, it's a place of misery and confinement. I don't care how big the pool is. They exploit these animals (who are probably smarter than we are) in whatever ways they see fit. They "own" them.

Honestly, I don't feel bad for these people at all, any of them. Anyone who takes on such a job, "training" a large animal, especially a carnivore, whether it be a tiger, bear or killer whale, is a fool. You are also an asshole, but that is completely besides the point; it really is. The only surprise is that these people don't die more often. There is no tragedy here. We're not talking about someone getting hit by a car or trapped in a fire caused by a faulty appliance. Or, to put it in a most relevant context, hitting a wall at ninety miles an hour in their Toyota.

Nope. This is someone (or a host of "scientists", a corporation, or an industry) thinking she/they/it can subdue a wild animal and force it to interact with other people as a person. Ridiculous.

"We like to think we know 99.9 percent of the time what an animal is doing," he [Chuck Tompkins, who is in charge of training at all SeaWorld parks] told The Associated Press on Thursday. "But this is one of those times we just don't know."

YOU FUCKING MORON. You have NO IDEA.

Billy the cow

News from Farm Sanctuary:

He had only been in this world one day, but it was about to be his last. Billy, one of many male calves born into the dairy industry and considered worthless, was about to receive a fatal hammer blow to the head when a Truxton, New York man, Larry, impulsively intervened. Shocked by the brutality of what he saw, Larry decided to spare this tiny calf a painful death by persuading the farmer to let him take Billy home.

So home Billy went, yet while Larry did not wish to see the calf killed in such a horrific way, he still intended to have him slaughtered for meat once he had grown up. Sale negotiations were made and a buyer lined up. However, as Larry cared for Billy over the next eight months, something changed: he began to realize that Billy was not just a mere commodity but an individual capable of experiencing pain, pleasure and friendship just like us. No longer wanting to see his new friend be killed for food, Larry began researching alternative options for Billy.

That’s where Farm Sanctuary came in. Knowing that his backyard shed was not the most appropriate place for a calf during the winter, Larry got in touch with our National Shelter Director Susie Coston. After making the necessary travel arrangements, Billy arrived safely at our New York Shelter in early January. Here, he was given expert veterinary attention and has since gained a healthy amount of weight.

Our caregivers instantly opened their hearts to Billy: playful, affectionate and determined to make as many friends as possible, he is known to follow the shelter workers right to the end of the pasture as they leave the barn – as if guilt tripping them into letting him join them! His overtly friendly nature is perhaps best epitomized by one of his favorite pastimes: giving kisses. He currently resides in a section of our Rescue and Rehabilitation Center with two pigs, both of whom he appears quite enamored with as well. Life has certainly taken a dramatic turn for this sweet boy, and we are truly grateful for the change of heart that brought him to our door.

A sledgehammer. Fuck. People are so twisted and heartless, at a biological level. I cannot wait for the end of us.

Look at how loving and playful he is. Why would anyone wish harm upon such a beautiful creature? Because he is not profitable? Even for food, it simply cannot be justified beyond "I like how it tastes."

On a happy note, Billy is forever safe. No one will swing a hammer at him, nor will they be able to. He is so fortunate to be able to live out all the rest of his life in peace around many other animals like him, in the care of people who love him and respect his life and sentience.

"Police: Iraq vet abused daughter, held her head in water"

Big fucking surprise. A guy who was recently in combat, where shooting, beating and violating people is not just normal, it's the way of "life," abuses his daughter:

Seattle, Washington (CNN) -- An Iraq war veteran has been charged with assault on suspicion of abusing his daughter, whose head he allegedly held in water to get her to recite the ABCs, according to police in Yelm, Washington...

The child had "severe bruising on her entire back," "scratch marks on her back made in a downward motion" and "bruising on both of her arms, her legs and her buttocks," the police report said.

According to the report, the girl told police: "I don't know why he did it ... Daddy used his hands."

The child also told police that Tabor "put me in the water," the report said, so she "would say my letters."

"It was hot, the water was hot. I told him I would say my letters then!" the girl told police, according to the police report.

I guarantee you this shit, war-related abuse, happens EVERY FUCKING DAY. Every day.

How could you possibly expect people to come back from that shit and leave the war behind? You can't, that's how. They're fucking ruined. They're violent, they have been trained to be extremely violent. Methodically trained, in ways that are constantly refined through scientific analysis. You've made them killers, torturers, violators of sovereignty, people who have no respect for "them." You can't just forget that, cause it's not conscious. It's forced into you to become your default reaction. Perhaps it can be unlearned, but few people have the power to do that themselves. And no one is interested in help them. "Support" them, forget them. However fucking stupid they were for signing up, whatever kind of blind idiot patriot they are, we all have to deal with these people when they get dumped back into general population.

Back from Iraq and on the streets. Watch out.

So this guy I kind of know was on a train last week...

and got arrested for making terroristic threats on his cell phone. While wearing a blanket. He's also black. Check it:

LA JUNTA, Colo. -- An Amtrak passenger who alarmed fellow passengers by talking about terrorist threats on a cell phone was pulled from a Chicago-bound train and is being held in Colorado.

The 64-year-old man from Elizabeth, N.J. was arrested Tuesday on a train from Los Angeles to Chicago. Passengers alerted authorities after hearing the man mention al-Qaida and make threats in a cell phone conversation.

Police said in an affidavit that passengers overheard the man saying he hadn't killed anyone yet and talking about going to jail.

Passengers say the man said, "We have to work in small groups. They can hold you for 18 months. Do they have security on these trains? Are you with me or not?"

One passenger said he heard the man mention al-Qaida, saying, "17th century tactics won't work, we have 21st century tactics."

The conductor said the man had a tan blanket over his entire body so the conductor could not see what he was doing.

The man was taken into custody at the La Junta train station in southeastern Colorado. Police said he was not armed or carrying explosives. He was carrying propaganda for an anarchist group called Afrikan Liberation Army.

The man is being held in lieu of bond in Otero County.

-- Associated Press

A week later, the District Attorney dropped all charges. There seems to be no one who can testify that he actually said or did anything out of the ordinary, including the original complainant. I don't think this was a case of police intimidating "witnesses" into silence. Here are the laugh a minute pages regarding that (click to view the images if they don't load properly in your browser):

Whoops! Sorry guy, you were just black and had a blanket on! Free to go now!

Where's Danny? (formerly known as "picture brah")

Man, even his mom doesn't know. How the fuck is Frank supposed to get his hands on that treasured Sublime picture??

Have we spent out way out of world dominance?

I hope so. Alarm bells are sounding left and right that America is on its way down, for good:

WASHINGTON — In a federal budget filled with mind-boggling statistics, two numbers stand out as particularly stunning, for the way they may change American politics and American power.

The first is the projected deficit in the coming year, nearly 11 percent of the country’s entire economic output. That is not unprecedented: During the Civil War, World War I and World War II, the United States ran soaring deficits, but usually with the expectation that they would come back down once peace was restored and war spending abated.

But the second number, buried deeper in the budget’s projections, is the one that really commands attention: By President Obama’s own optimistic projections, American deficits will not return to what are widely considered sustainable levels over the next 10 years. In fact, in 2019 and 2020 — years after Mr. Obama has left the political scene, even if he serves two terms — they start rising again sharply, to more than 5 percent of gross domestic product. His budget draws a picture of a nation that like many American homeowners simply cannot get above water.

That last part is so significant - "a nation that...simply cannot get above water." I wonder how China will go about foreclosing on America. That will probably be rather ugly. No amount of patriotism or jingoism will get that bank off of your back.

In an uncharacteristically bleak assessment of the future, the New York Times says that we are basically fucked for good, that this is the end:

For Mr. Obama and his successors, the effect of those projections is clear: Unless miraculous growth, or miraculous political compromises, creates some unforeseen change over the next decade, there is virtually no room for new domestic initiatives for Mr. Obama or his successors. Beyond that lies the possibility that the United States could begin to suffer the same disease that has afflicted Japan over the past decade. As debt grew more rapidly than income, that country’s influence around the world eroded.

How about that. That big party we had for the last sixty years just foreseeably blew up in our fat, rich face. It's over. Time to walk around and drink what's left in the beer cans you find.

"Obama budget would cut NASA moon plan"

Incredible. Truly incredible. This shit is stupefying:

President Barack Obama is no longer shooting for the moon, with a budget plan that aborts a symbolic but expensive lunar program and spends $6 billion over five years to turn over space exploration to commercial companies.

Some members of Congress immediately promised a fight. One legislator called the plan a "death march" for human space flight. But NASA deployed astronauts and other experts to say the Constellation program, begun under former President George W. Bush to return humans to the moon, was too slow and wasteful.

The space agency's budget would grow to $19 billion in 2011 under the proposed budget released on Monday, with an emphasis on science and less spent on space exploration.

"What this does is open up (space) for more people to be going more places in a way that is not on the back of the taxpayers," NASA's deputy administrator, Lori Garver, told reporters in a conference call.

Could someone explain NASA to me? I've only seen it written about and heard it spoken about as though it is self-evident. I'm sure it's fun and all, but that really ain't enough to justify such endless expenditures.

Seriously? Nineteen billion dollars? For what benefit? I know the military benefits a lot from developing the bleeding edge technology necessary for space exploration, and I guess we have a lot more plastic things as a result. I really don't think anyone's life has been legitimately enriched by any of this, ever. I know lots of people have made fortunes off of this shit, but that doesn't count. I mean things that really make a difference in people's lives. Really, this is a case of money that could be much better spent elsewhere. They will blow nineteen billion dollars in one year, but it's not enough by their terms. I know they want more. Space travel is some patriotic bullshit. American flag on the fucking moon. Kill me.

"China Leading Global Race to Make Clean Energy"

For what? Towards what are they racing? Sustainable industrialism? Impossible.

We are talking about more consumption, more demand, more need for resources, more development, more land clearing, more ocean-emptying. This is insane.

It does not matter if it is done with "green" technology. Solar-powered homes where trees once stood is still the annihilation of an ecosystem.

But you can read all about it in this New York Times article from a few days back:

China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year.

China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants.

These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China...

Regulators have set mandates for power generation companies to use more renewable energy. Generous subsidies for consumers to install their own solar panels or solar water heaters have produced flurries of activity on rooftops across China.

China’s biggest advantage may be its domestic demand for electricity, rising 15 percent a year. To meet demand in the coming decade, according to statistics from the International Energy Agency, China will need to add nearly nine times as much electricity generation capacity as the United States will.

Do you see that all of this effort is orchestrated for no other reason than to keep industrial society and economies self-perpetuating? I promise that world leaders do not give a fuck about the state of the environment for its own sake. Clean air and water has no intrinsic value for these people. They value it only for its necessity to keep people alive so that they may continue to work, consume, reproduce, bolster the economy and fight in wars. Wild land serves a purpose only as a place to visit, on which to hunt and to keep sucking carbon out of the air. These people only regard things inasmuch as they perceive them to serve a purpose for people.

They have had, and continue to have, no problem whatsoever ruining land, air and water in ways and on scales unimaginable even one hundred years ago. This goes on every moment of every day, unabated. There will be no more new petroleum-related pollution only when there is no petroleum left. The remnants (all things plastic) will be here to remind us (but we won't care) and whatever may be left after us virtually infinitely.

All of this "green" commercialism is about conserving resources so that they do not run out too quickly. Battery-powered or assisted cars are still insanely toxic, but they provide a way to cut back on consumer oil consumption. That way, there is more left for industry and the military.

Government and industry do not, nor will they ever, put forth discussions of fundamentally changing our lifestyles into something remotely "sustainable;" we only hear about how to maintain what we've already got. There will be no profound change until we force our own hand by running out. Scarcity will be the force of the future. It is already shaping the present.

"Authorities Arrest Anti-ACORN Alumnus"

They sure did. Fucking brilliant. I wish I knew this guy.

This news is a few days old, but I've been super busy with more important things. I should be busy with those things right now, but I just had to post this. So good.

I didn't realize the guy who did the ACORN crap went to Rutgers, let alone is the guy who founded the Centurion. For those who don't know, which means anyone who may possibly see this with the exception of Alissa, the Centurion is the conservative paper at Rutgers. It is basically Fox News in print form, but dumber, while paradoxically appearing under the guise of an intelligent, thoughtful periodical. Even if you put aside the prominent spelling errors and repeated problems with spacing and layout, it's still of incredibly low quality. What you get in this magazine is the standard self-congratulatory group masturbation in which conservatives so often and gleefully engage. There is not really any news, just a lot of arrogant, reactionary commentary and a good amount of bellicose chest beating, fluffing out all their feathers as though there are more than ten of them on campus. They essentially hate everyone and everything that isn't them or their idols, want to harken back to a "golden age" that never was and mystifyingly proffer that global warming is a myth. Jesus.

If you take a look at their most current issue, you see that they accomplish such daring feats as banging on a black man who has been dead for more than thirty years, actually referring to Bill Clinton as "Slick Willy" and deriding women's studies. What they put forth as "news" is readily available in a more in-depth form at virtually any news outlet and their commentary is trite and simplistic. That's what you get from zealots, I guess.

Anyway, so yeah, the guy who started it is in jail. Funny stuff. I'm sure they will lionize him and talk about him as a political prisoner, but the reality is that what he was doing was patently illegal, regardless of political affiliation. The next issue should be incredible.

Here is another story about it that shows some of his other fearless exploits, armed with that conservative dogma and video camera:

Despite a pretty good run through four years at Rutgers, O'Keefe regularly attended student government meetings even after graduating, a former student who attended during O'Keefe's time at the school tells TPM.

"Most memorable" to her was in spring 2007 when he attended a meeting where members wanted to go into closed session to elect a new member for an open seat in government. She said leaving the room was standard polite/privacy measure for the candidates.

O'Keefe "refused to leave the room and took out a video camera, videotaping our attempts to have him leave the room," she says. She said he sat there and refused to move and "ultimately campus police had to escort him out of the building."

What a hero he is, fighting that good fight against the oppressed, heavily editing his interactions with low-level employees of communist groups or whatever he thinks they are, and even the newspaper he founded. I also like the fact that he seems to have been terribly reluctant to have to graduate Rutgers. I wonder if that's a violation of his "rights." Sounds like he would have stayed forever if he could have. Maybe they offer some correspondence courses he can take while in federal prison.

The Lucky Charms are still there.

Neon gear at JC Penney

Now it's easier than ever to look like you listen to MGMT without knowing who they are.

If you cannot read it, the shirt says "HELLO MY NAME IS ______ AND I'M A TEXTAHOLIC". Front page of the JC Penney circular. Damn.

This is strongly reminiscent of the "grunge" fashion wave that took the world by storm for a month in 1992. The main differences are that this shit always looked stupid and it never had any basis in anything.

A resounding victory on the way to corporate liberation

Thank mighty fucking Jah that the corporate rights movement has been able to advance past this inhuman hurdle of limiting their spending on political campaigns. If I can give, then why the hell can't they? It's WRONG, just as sure as god punished Haitians for drinking goat blood when they sold themselves to the devil so that France, which was on god's side, would leave them alone.

Overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.

Corporations have at least the same (and I would like to think more) rights that we do. I say hooray for corporate free speech! Spending money is free speech, obviously.

It's been a hard-fought battle, but finally, corporations are starting to garner their long-overdue rights.

The 5-to-4 decision was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said that allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace would corrupt democracy.

They need their rights more now than ever. Just look at what these FILTHY ultra-extremist commieliberals would have you believe:

Joined by the other three members of the court’s liberal wing, Justice Stevens said the majority had committed a grave error in treating corporate speech the same as that of human beings.

Better break out the aluminum foil helmets, boys. Those liberals are coming!

I tell you, I just cannot stand by while these corporations are repressed and silenced by the American people whom they serve so diligently and benevolently.

Onward corporate soldiers!

Some thoughts on Haiti to consider, especially if you deal with idiots

And most of us do. From today's New York Times. Thanks to Nicholas Kristof for another great, thoughtful article on the world outside.

Why is Haiti so poor? Is it because Haitians are dimwitted or incapable of getting their act together?

Haiti isn’t impoverished because the devil got his due; it’s impoverished partly because of debts due. France imposed a huge debt that strangled Haiti. And when foreigners weren’t looting Haiti, its own rulers were.

The greatest predation was the deforestation of Haiti, so that only 2 percent of the country is forested today. Some trees have been — and continue to be — cut by local peasants, but many were destroyed either by foreigners or to pay off debts to foreigners. Last year, I drove across the island of Hispaniola, and it was surreal: You traverse what in places is a Haitian moonscape until you reach the border with the Dominican Republic — and jungle.

Without trees, Haiti lost its topsoil through erosion, crippling agriculture.

To visit Haiti is to know that its problem isn’t its people. They are its treasure — smart, industrious and hospitable — and Haitians tend to be successful in the United States (and everywhere but in Haiti).

Can our billions in aid to Haitians accomplish anything? After all, a Wall Street Journal column argues, “To help Haiti, end foreign aid.”

First, don’t exaggerate how much we give or they get.

Haiti ranks 42nd among poor countries in worldwide aid received per person ($103 in 2008, more than one-quarter of which comes from the United States). David Roodman of the Center for Global Development calculates that in 2008, official American aid to Haiti amounted to 92 cents per American.

The United States gives more to Haiti than any other country. But it ranks 11th in per capita giving. Canadians give five times as much per person as we do.

As for whether aid promotes economic growth, that’s a bitter and unresolved argument. But even the leading critics of aid — William Easterly, a New York University economist, and Dambisa Moyo, a banker turned author — believe in assisting Haiti after the earthquake.

“I think we have a moral imperative,” Ms. Moyo told me. “I do believe the international community should act.”

Likewise, Professor Easterly said: “Of course, I am in favor of aid to Haiti earthquake victims!”

So, is Haiti hopeless? Is Bill O’Reilly right? He said: “Once again, we will do more than anyone else on the planet, and one year from today Haiti will be just as bad as it is right now.”

No, he’s not right. And this is the most pernicious myth of all. In fact, Haiti in recent years has been much better managed under President René Préval and has shown signs of being on the mend.

Far more than most other impoverished countries — particularly those in Africa — Haiti could plausibly turn itself around. It has an excellent geographic location, there are no regional wars, and it could boom if it could just export to the American market.

A report for the United Nations by a prominent British economist, Paul Collier, outlined the best strategy for Haiti: building garment factories. That idea (sweatshops!) may sound horrific to Americans. But it’s a strategy that has worked for other countries, such as Bangladesh, and Haitians in the slums would tell you that their most fervent wish is for jobs. A few dozen major shirt factories could be transformational for Haiti.

So in the coming months as we help Haitians rebuild, let’s dispatch not only aid workers, but also business investors. Haiti desperately needs new schools and hospitals, but also new factories.

And let’s challenge the myth that because Haiti has been poor, it always will be. That kind of self-fulfilling fatalism may be the biggest threat of all to Haiti, the real pact with the devil.

THE SUBLIME PICTURE HAS BEEN TAKEN

Sorry folks. My boy Frank went out to Quakertown last night to get it. All it took was the promise of one pound of "choice doobage" with orange hairs on it. Good thing picture brah had the wherewithal to suggest that Frank "GooglesearchMapquest it."

Unfortunately, we do not have the first two conversations, where picture brah told me that "I do love to smoke" and the second, where he declared to Frank that "If there is one thing in this world I love to do, it's puff nuggets."

"Sublime Photo Rare, Authentic 1992 - $500 (Quakertown)"

Get in touch with this guy, definitely. I've spoken with him, and he will absolutely trade the photo for a nice quantity of weed. I'm completely serious.

Authentic 5 1/2 x 7 Kodak. I have a Rare authentic photo of Bradley Nowell and Sublime. In the photo is Brad, Eric and Bud of Sublime. They are hanging out in the basement after a show. Brad is looking directly at the camera smiling, sitting on the couch. Bud is taking a nap on the couch behind Brad and Eric is sitting in a chair talking. On the wall behind Brad, written in black majic marker graffitti style is written "SUBLIME". It was taken by a friend of mine who knew them personally. Call for more infromation if needed. 215-536-1273. Must see to believe. Serious inquiries only!

If you don't agree with Pat Robertson,

you are a homosexual. Great stuff.

Peer Pressure - "Late Night Special"

Still fucking funny.

Pat Robertson on the Haitian earthquake

Wow, Pat. Just wow.

"True story." Again, wow.

It's funny, but then you realize why he's bringing this up, what he's saying about the Haitian people, how much he hates black people and how utterly indifferent he is to other people suffering.

"Calif. apartments evacuated as cliff crumbles"

Old news, I know, but I've been real fuckin busy the last four weeks. Anyway, I feel bad for these people, cause "apartments" doesn't tend to indicate extreme wealth, and I don't even know what wound up happening with this situation, but let me tell you, I cannot fucking WAIT for this shit to start happening to the rich, stupid fucks who have all their homes and vacation homes on the fucking beach.

It will happen.

They can build all the artificial dunes and walls they want, but there is a threshold above which people simply cannot stop nature.

I have lived by the ocean all my life, and see these shortsighted, arrogant people claim the plots of land closest to the open water for themselves, so that they may construct ostentatious, decadent homes for themselves and deny everyone else access to the water. They destroy so much habitat in this process, and it doesn't matter because they have money and the power that comes with it.

The best part is that they are profoundly stupid, in that they seem to honestly believe that they can keep the water where it is, as though that is where it has always been.

They think that just because they can buy a small parcel of land and that they want it means that they should buy it and they can do whatever they wish with it. It's as though most people don't understand the incredible risks that come with deliberately living so close to something as volatile as an ocean. Truly insane.

Sea Shepherd, twelve days ago

One of the Japanese whaling ships rammed and eventually sank a Sea Shepherd boat:

SYDNEY - The high-tech anti-whaling boat damaged in a collision with a Japanese whaler sank off Antarctica on Friday, but posed no threat to the pristine environment, a conservation group said.

The bow of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's Ady Gil was sheared off Wednesday in a collision with a far larger Japanese whaling ship, in the most serious clash in what has become an annual confrontation off the frozen continent.

The whaler, Shonan Maru No. 2, suffered no apparent damage. Both sides blame the other for the collision, which occurred as the Ady Gil harassed the Japanese fleet.

No, it's not the same thing, as the Japanese ships are engaged in poaching. They are not only hunting in violation of international law, but they also do much of their hunting in a whale sanctuary:

Japan kills about 1,200 whales a year in Antarctica under what it says is a scientific program allowed by the International Whaling Commission despite a moratorium on commercial whaling. Critics say the program is a front for illegal whaling, and Sea Shepherd sends ships to Antarctica each season to try to stop the hunt — an effort portrayed on the Animal Planet TV series "Whale Wars."

The whaling is conducted in international waters, but usually within the huge patch of ocean that is designated Australia's maritime rescue zone and that Canberra considers a whale sanctuary.

Also, Sea Shepherd doesn't ram speedboats.

Anyway, here's Rachel Maddow talking about the ramming, and then brings in Bob Barker who seems pretty awesome, especially for an eighty-six year old man:

Damn, Bob! Five million? That's something else. Good for him, good for Sea Shepherd. I hope they sink the Japanese whaling fleet physically and financially. Fuck them.

Sea Shepherd, eleven months ago

Paul Watson is a fucking hero.

People are so concerned with protecting everyone's "rights" and accepting the untouchability of a "traditions" defense that they are afraid to do anything aside from sit around and criticize others who actually do things.

Paul Watson and his crew get things done.

Yes, they ram ships. Yes, they have sunk ships. What do you do when no one will enforce the law?

I support them with no apologies. Paul is man whose courage makes me cry.

We can't even imagine what our world would be like if we had more like him in other situations.

Everyone else is doing it, so why can't we?

Don't question the need for it, just sate demand.

China is building a shitload of nuclear reactors, planning on about ten a year in the coming years.

The last country to carry out such a rapid nuclear expansion was the United States in the 1970s, in a binge of reactor construction that ended with the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979. And China is placing many of its nuclear plants near large cities, potentially exposing tens of millions of people to radiation in the event of an accident.

Good, good, they are in great company. Three Mile Island. That worked out so well. Isolated incident though, don't worry.

Westinghouse is helping out, and I would imagine General Electric is as well. I know they have built reactors for China in the past. They bring good things to life, (they manufacture the guns that fire the depleted uranium rounds) you know?

Do they have Indian reservations in China? If not, I guess they'll have to ship the spent fuel rods here.

Soon, the beach will be closer than ever!

Yet another great development brought to you by humanity:

New computer modeling suggests the Arctic Ocean may be nearly ice-free in the summertime as early as 2014, Al Gore said Monday at the U.N. climate conference. This new projection, following several years of dramatic retreat by polar sea ice, suggests that the ice cap may nearly vanish in the summer much sooner than the year 2030, as was forecast by a U.S. government agency eight months ago.

Soaking up the rays in Philadelphia? Sunning in Cleveland? Bodyboarding in St. Louis? I hope so. Think of the convenience! And we can be greener than grass, with all those people who survive living on an ever-shrinking land mass, making for increasingly shorter distances to the fun sun beach.

D.I.Y. eggs

sucks. I guess it's cool/trendy/popular now to raise chickens for eggs? Predictably, it's not working out so well for the chickens:

Backyard poultry flocks are growing in popularity all over the U.S. as more and more people decide to try their hand at raising chickens in their urban or suburban yards. Hobbyists may be hoping to cultivate their own local sources of fresh eggs, but animal sanctuaries nationwide are witnessing another product of this trend: homeless, mistreated and neglected animals. Farm Sanctuary has always received calls asking us to take in unwanted chickens, especially roosters, but recently the number of requests to place roosters has been on the rise. There are roosters wandering city streets, roosters stranded in the suburbs, roosters left at shelters across the country – all castoffs of the backyard flock trend and most with no prospects of reaching safe homes.

Compared to the factory farming system that produces most U.S. eggs, backyard raising may seem idyllic, but the practice is generally far from humane. Animal welfare abuses often start at birth for the birds involved. In fact, most chicks purchased by backyard raisers are born in the same sort of facilities as those slated for battery cages: large, industrial hatcheries.

Ideal Hatchery, just one facility of the many, touts its annual sales rate of 5 million chicks. Let’s think about that number. Because roosters do not produce eggs, and because most towns that allow chickens exclude roosters, those who patronize these hatcheries are overwhelmingly ordering hens. Half of all chicks born, however, are roosters. This means that, for 5 million chicks sold, another 5 million are either killed at the hatchery – often ground up alive – or used as "packing material." The majority of hatcheries pack male chicks to cushion the females who have actually been ordered, and customers therefore end up with unwanted roosters who are also often illegal for people to have in their communities. Large numbers of these roosters are dumped at municipal shelters, which are unequipped to handle the birds and usually either euthanize them or send them to farms. Others may end up at live markets, which are becoming increasingly crowded with roosters.

Whether male or female, all chicks sold by hatcheries to homes and feed stores are subjected to a harrowing journey. At one day old, they are shipped through the mail. Industry group Bird Shippers of America has their own lobby team working tirelessly to protect the right of its members to ship these fragile, young animals in this way. The group claims to follow self-imposed regulations that protect the birds, but we have seen evidence much to the contrary.

Fennel, one of our most popular roosters, was among many male chicks shipped from Iowa to Pennsylvania with 100 Jersey giant hens, packed around the females to keep them safe and sound. As we so often see, this strategy failed disastrously. The birds were not retrieved from the post office the day they arrived and so were scheduled to be shipped within 48 hours back to the hatchery – a trip they would never have survived. When a postal worker looked inside the box, he found that more than half the birds had already perished. The kind man called his local SPCA, who then called us. The box, clearly marked as containing 50 white jersey giant hens and 50 black jersey giant hens, contained 53 live chicks and 77 dead ones. The 30 extra were roosters. Of the fluffy peeps who were still alive, 25 grew into hens and 28 into roosters – "packing material" surviving the shipping at a higher rate than the actual "product." This is only one of many stories that every shelter that deals with birds could tell. Fennel and the other surviving chicks were lucky to be discovered by someone who cared enough to find refuge for them. Here with us, their amazing personalities can shine through, and they can educate so many people about the suffering behind backyard flocks – a very high price to pay for fresh eggs.

A coalition of sanctuaries, all of us seeing the consequences of the urban chicken trend, got together and wrote up our position on the issue. If your town is considering allowing residents to raise chickens for eggs, or for meat, please discourage this move by sharing our statement with your community and with town officials.

God, are people sick.

"Dark Side of a Natural Gas Boom"

Wow. And the bright side is? It's really something how the fundamental source (human existence aside) of environmental and planetary destruction, petroleum and natural gas extraction, is portrayed in the media.

In the end, I can promise you, very, very few people truly benefit from an economy based on resource superexploitation and environmental subjugation/annihilation. People who were born in the 1920s and 1930s, got rich as fuck off of oil and gas, and have already died or will soon, are the ones who had a good time with this stuff. They were the life of the party. They raged their whole lives. Not a whole lot of downtime for them. The economy kept expanding, and nobody gave a fuck about anything. However, their kids are going to suffer. Their grandchildren are going to SUFFER. In the days to come, it won't matter how rich you are nearly so much as it does now; you will not be able to stop the oceans from rising. Your money will be able to stave off the worst, but only for a time. Once the cash economy crumbles, you will be just like everyone else as far as resources go. You will be more resented than others and likely have less knowledge of how to do anything related to surviving.

Anyway, a bunch of people throughout the country, more than ever, are living with filthy water coming from their taps. In this instance, we can blame people extracting natural gas, "a very reliable, safe, American source of energy," through a process called hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing consists of "injecting huge volumes of water at high pressure to break shale rocks and allow natural gas to flow out more easily. The water is mixed with sand, chemicals and gels to lubricate the process and help keep the rocks open."

Well, I don't understand it. Incomprehensibly, the "chemicals and gels" being shot into the ground have apparently created some pollution.

Good use of water, too.

"U.S. Will Settle Indian Lawsuit for $3.4 Billion"

This is sort of old news, but I've been really busy. Lots of backlogged posts coming soon.

If you didn't know, Native Americans/American Indians are children. From a New York Times article on a recent settlement of a really long lawsuit:

The Interior Department now manages about 56 million acres of Indian trust land scattered across the country, with the heaviest concentration in Western states. The government handles leases on the land for mining, livestock grazing, timber harvesting and drilling for oil and gas. It then distributes the revenue raised by those leases to the American Indians. In the 2009 fiscal year, it collected about $298 million for more than 384,000 individual Indian accounts.

Fucking incredible. GIVE THEM THEIR LAND BACK ASSHOLES. At least some of it, fuck. And yes, even the rights to make their own decisions. What's hard? I don't get it.

The lawsuit accuses the federal government of mismanaging that money. As a result, the value of the trusts has been unclear, and the Indians contend that they are owed far more than what they have been paid.

Wow, not the federal government! Not to worry though, Obama's got a good perspective on the whole thing:

President Obama hailed the agreement as an “important step towards a sincere reconciliation” between the federal government and American Indians, many of whom, he said, considered the protracted lawsuit a “stain” on the nation.

That's a long reconciliation. Also, I'm pretty sure, that over the years, Native Americans have had bigger problems than this lawsuit.

Kim Peek died

Kim Peek, the guy on whom Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man was modeled, died yesterday. What a fucking incredible mind:

In 1988, the film “Rain Man,” about an autistic savant played by Dustin Hoffman, shed a humane light on the travails of autism while revealing the extraordinary powers of memory that a small number of otherwise mentally disabled people possess, ostensibly as a side effect of their disability.

The film won four Oscars, including best picture, best actor and, for Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass, best original screenplay. But it never would have been made if Mr. Morrow had not had a chance meeting with Kim Peek, who inspired him to write the film.

Mr. Peek was not autistic — not all savants are autistic and not all autistics are savants — but he was born with severe brain abnormalities that impaired his physical coordination and made ordinary reasoning difficult. He could not dress himself or brush his teeth without help. He found metaphoric language incomprehensible and conceptualization baffling.

But with an astonishing skill that allowed him to read facing pages of a book at once — one with each eye — he read as many as 12,000 volumes. Even more remarkable, he could remember what he had read.

Shit like that amazes me to no end. It's so crazy the capabilities human minds have, and how rarely we see them manifested. It's people like Kim Peek who show us that we know almost nothing about intelligence and brain functionality. No one can explain why or how he can do what he did. Incredible.

I'll leave it to people in "the movement" to write some measured, informed, patient and diplomatic response to this article:

December 22, 2009

Basics

Sorry, Vegans: Brussels Sprouts Like to Live, Too

By NATALIE ANGIER

I stopped eating pork about eight years ago, after a scientist happened to mention that the animal whose teeth most closely resemble our own is the pig. Unable to shake the image of a perky little pig flashing me a brilliant George Clooney smile, I decided it was easier to forgo the Christmas ham. A couple of years later, I gave up on all mammalian meat, period. I still eat fish and poultry, however and pour eggnog in my coffee. My dietary decisions are arbitrary and inconsistent, and when friends ask why I’m willing to try the duck but not the lamb, I don’t have a good answer. Food choices are often like that: difficult to articulate yet strongly held. And lately, debates over food choices have flared with particular vehemence.

In his new book, “Eating Animals,” the novelist Jonathan Safran Foer describes his gradual transformation from omnivorous, oblivious slacker who “waffled among any number of diets” to “committed vegetarian.” Last month, Gary Steiner, a philosopher at Bucknell University, argued on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times that people should strive to be “strict ethical vegans” like himself, avoiding all products derived from animals, including wool and silk. Killing animals for human food and finery is nothing less than “outright murder,” he said, Isaac Bashevis Singer’s “eternal Treblinka.”

But before we cede the entire moral penthouse to “committed vegetarians” and “strong ethical vegans,” we might consider that plants no more aspire to being stir-fried in a wok than a hog aspires to being peppercorn-studded in my Christmas clay pot. This is not meant as a trite argument or a chuckled aside. Plants are lively and seek to keep it that way. The more that scientists learn about the complexity of plants — their keen sensitivity to the environment, the speed with which they react to changes in the environment, and the extraordinary number of tricks that plants will rally to fight off attackers and solicit help from afar — the more impressed researchers become, and the less easily we can dismiss plants as so much fiberfill backdrop, passive sunlight collectors on which deer, antelope and vegans can conveniently graze. It’s time for a green revolution, a reseeding of our stubborn animal minds.

When plant biologists speak of their subjects, they use active verbs and vivid images. Plants “forage” for resources like light and soil nutrients and “anticipate” rough spots and opportunities. By analyzing the ratio of red light and far red light falling on their leaves, for example, they can sense the presence of other chlorophyllated competitors nearby and try to grow the other way. Their roots ride the underground “rhizosphere” and engage in cross-cultural and microbial trade.

“Plants are not static or silly,” said Monika Hilker of the Institute of Biology at the Free University of Berlin. “They respond to tactile cues, they recognize different wavelengths of light, they listen to chemical signals, they can even talk” through chemical signals. Touch, sight, hearing, speech. “These are sensory modalities and abilities we normally think of as only being in animals,” Dr. Hilker said.

Plants can’t run away from a threat but they can stand their ground. “They are very good at avoiding getting eaten,” said Linda Walling of the University of California, Riverside. “It’s an unusual situation where insects can overcome those defenses.” At the smallest nip to its leaves, specialized cells on the plant’s surface release chemicals to irritate the predator or sticky goo to entrap it. Genes in the plant’s DNA are activated to wage systemwide chemical warfare, the plant’s version of an immune response. We need terpenes, alkaloids, phenolics — let’s move.

“I’m amazed at how fast some of these things happen,” said Consuelo M. De Moraes of Pennsylvania State University. Dr. De Moraes and her colleagues did labeling experiments to clock a plant’s systemic response time and found that, in less than 20 minutes from the moment the caterpillar had begun feeding on its leaves, the plant had plucked carbon from the air and forged defensive compounds from scratch.

Just because we humans can’t hear them doesn’t mean plants don’t howl. Some of the compounds that plants generate in response to insect mastication — their feedback, you might say — are volatile chemicals that serve as cries for help. Such airborne alarm calls have been shown to attract both large predatory insects like dragon flies, which delight in caterpillar meat, and tiny parasitic insects, which can infect a caterpillar and destroy it from within.

Enemies of the plant’s enemies are not the only ones to tune into the emergency broadcast. “Some of these cues, some of these volatiles that are released when a focal plant is damaged,” said Richard Karban of the University of California, Davis, “cause other plants of the same species, or even of another species, to likewise become more resistant to herbivores.”

Yes, it’s best to nip trouble in the bud.

Dr. Hilker and her colleagues, as well as other research teams, have found that certain plants can sense when insect eggs have been deposited on their leaves and will act immediately to rid themselves of the incubating menace. They may sprout carpets of tumorlike neoplasms to knock the eggs off, or secrete ovicides to kill them, or sound the S O S. Reporting in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Hilker and her coworkers determined that when a female cabbage butterfly lays her eggs on a brussels sprout plant and attaches her treasures to the leaves with tiny dabs of glue, the vigilant vegetable detects the presence of a simple additive in the glue, benzyl cyanide. Cued by the additive, the plant swiftly alters the chemistry of its leaf surface to beckon female parasitic wasps. Spying the anchored bounty, the female wasps in turn inject their eggs inside, the gestating wasps feed on the gestating butterflies, and the plant’s problem is solved.

Here’s the lurid Edgar Allan Poetry of it: that benzyl cyanide tip-off had been donated to the female butterfly by the male during mating. “It’s an anti-aphrodisiac pheromone, so that the female wouldn’t mate anymore,” Dr. Hilker said. “The male is trying to ensure his paternity, but he ends up endangering his own offspring.”

Plants eavesdrop on one another benignly and malignly. As they described in Science and other journals, Dr. De Moraes and her colleagues have discovered that seedlings of the dodder plant, a parasitic weed related to morning glory, can detect volatile chemicals released by potential host plants like the tomato. The young dodder then grows inexorably toward the host, until it can encircle the victim’s stem and begin sucking the life phloem right out of it. The parasite can even distinguish between the scents of healthier and weaker tomato plants and then head for the hale one.

“Even if you have quite a bit of knowledge about plants,” Dr. De Moraes said, “it’s still surprising to see how sophisticated they can be.”

It’s a small daily tragedy that we animals must kill to stay alive. Plants are the ethical autotrophs here, the ones that wrest their meals from the sun. Don’t expect them to boast: they’re too busy fighting to survive.

All I will say is that if you buy this shit, if you think that pulling spinach from the ground can be equated in any meaningful way with stabbing a goat and the intense fear that strikes him before, that it has anything to do with the profound sadness a cow feels from having her child taken away at birth, kill yourself.

All I want for Christmas...

IS YOU

BRING THIS HOME

Rogue traders, law-abiding traders, whatever. Set up some guillotines on Wall Street.

China executes rogue trader, millions still missing

BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Tuesday executed a former securities trader for embezzlement, the first person in the industry to be put to death, but millions of yuan are still missing, a state newspaper said.

Yang Yanming was sentenced to death in late 2005 and took the secret of the whereabouts of 65 million yuan ($9.52 million) of the misappropriated funds to his grave, the Beijing Evening News said.

The report added that Yang was the first person working in China's securities sector to be executed.

"Preserve your moral integrity and don't set too much store by business results," Yang told the newspaper before the sentence was carried out.

He was the general manager of the Beijing securities trading department of the China Great Wall Trust and Investment Corp., which became Galaxy Securities, from 1997 to 2003.

Conscious that the growing gap between rich and poor could generate resentment, China is battling corruption and stock trading abuses. It has used the death penalty as a deterrent in serious cases.

($1=6.828 Yuan)

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Amagon

This is part of what we did at practice a few weeks back. More to come.

Sinead O'Connor - "War"

This is awesome. 1992. She was super popular at the time and was certainly not one to pass up an opportunity. How powerful, focused and intense.

"The real enemy" or not, certainly a piece of shit. Definitely some people's enemy. And when someone takes such a righteous, irreversible position, I am not going to be pedantic. That is SERIOUS shit. Kind of surprised no one killed her. Religious people are crazy.

I read that her most recent religious affiliation is Rastafari. Guess it makes sense.

"Monkeys Recognize Their Pals in Photos"

They also probably recognize that you are a fucking asshole when you drill holes in their heads, give them cancer or otherwise torture them. I am also sure that they didn't need you to confirm their abilities. They would much rather live somewhere outside of a lab, such as their natural habitat. You pieces of shit. If only karma were real...

FRIDAY, Dec. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Monkeys can recognize photographs of other monkeys they know, proving that they can both detect differences in faces and figure out if they've seen them before, researchers report.

The study also shows that capuchin monkeys can decipher the two-dimensional nature of a photograph, the scientists authors noted.

The findings, reported by researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, are published the week of Dec. 4 in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the study, the monkeys looked at four photos, including one of a monkey they knew. They also looked at another four monkey photos, including one of a monkey they didn't know.

"This required monkeys to look at similar-looking faces and use their personal knowledge of group mates to solve the task," lead researcher Jennifer Pokorny, said in a university news release. "They readily performed the task and continued to do well when shown new pictures in color and in grayscale, as well as when presented with individuals they had never before seen in pictures, though with whom they were personally familiar."

According to the researchers, previously, there hasn't been evidence that nonhuman primates can look at two-dimensional images and understand they represent things and animals from real life.

Definitely smarter than people. Why? Cause they haven't ruined the world. We did that one.

Good news!!

There are fewer species to go extinct than ever before. It's quite upsetting when an animal becomes endangered, which then of course induces anxiety as to whether or not it will make a recovery, languish in near-annihilation or get wiped out entirely.

As a relentless optimist, I advocate the following position: the more animals we kill, the fewer there are to be killed off. People will get in the way of extinction from time to time, of course, but that should only be a temporary block. Let us embrace extinction, so that we may one day no longer have to worry about the negative emotional consequences that come with its advent.

Take lions, for example:

Just 50 years ago there were close to a half-million lions in Africa -- about 450,000 in all. Today there are between 16,000 and 23,000. And yet, unlike elephants (a far more numerous species), lions have no protection under the international accord governing such matters.

Yes, that's the way! None of that red tape protection nonsense to impede us.

It's not just the exceptionally brave big game hunters working towards this goal, but also those daring enough to fool the animals into eating poison:

Extinction threatens by the year 2020. Then there will be no lions to hunt, or to protect.

Meanwhile another ominous development poses a further threat to wildlife. A pesticide is being used by poachers to kill lions and many other animals. Sprinkled on meat, it kills lions, hyenas, vultures and other creatures in minutes.

Hopefully, we can get this over in ten years as promised and say goodbye to the worry and handwringing that so unfortunately plagues us.

Unrelenting poaching

"Concerted action at the highest level is needed to stop this global crisis of rampant rhino poaching..."

Some things just make me so sick I cant speak... such as the skulls of endangered species.

I wish...

that this was what the world was all about, and nothing less. If only we could all be surprised kitties.

Gay people - fuck off, go to hell, YOU DON'T MATTER

Again. And again. And again. You aren't good enough, you are filthy, you are not one of us, you are not a real person. That's what they say, over and over. And that's what they said in New York today. And the people around you, they say, "Wait." They tell you to be patient. They say they're working on it. They tell you that your time will come. Like you should have to wait for some bigots to be pushed to the margins enough. Fuck. Just fuck.

New York state lawmakers voted on Wednesday against legalizing gay marriage, dashing gay rights activists' hopes it would become the sixth U.S. state to allow same-sex couples to wed.

The New York state Senate voted down the legislation by 38-24. Governor David Paterson, a Democrat who supports gay marriage, had said he would have signed the bill into law if it had passed.

"This is an enormous victory," said Maggie Gallagher, the leader of the National Organization for Marriage, which opposed the law. "What you saw was the will of the people. .... The culture really hasn't shifted on gay marriage."

Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont have legalized gay marriage, while 40 U.S. states have specific laws that ban gay marriage. Last month, voters in Maine chose to repeal a law that had legalized gay marriage.

Once again, in a familiar refrain, fuck this place.

Fuck every "save marriage" campaigner or whatever you want to call yourself. I hope all of your kids are gay and that each of you dies in a fire. Fuck all of you. You are nothing but hate. Fuck your religion. Fuck your god. Fuck the people who raised you. Fuck the people for whom you vote. Fuck your friends. You are shit.