Monthly Archive for December, 2005

PeaceChicken’s Vegan Holiday Dinner

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Peace Chicken
on December 21, 2005
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I just got this hilarious (and oh-so-true) email from PETA entitled “How to get through the holidays when your family eats animals” and it talks about how your relatives always want you to “just try a little” of the turkey or ham, and then proceed to ask you again why you’re not eating meat even though it was just explained at the last family gathering. Good to see I’m not alone!

The email has inspired me to compile all the yummy (and vegan) things I’ll be having for Christmas dinner just to show that I don’t have to be stuck eating rolls, potatoes (with no gravy), and salad.

  • First off, I will be enjoying my FREE Tofurkey that I got this past weekend for helping out with a PETA event downtown. Super excited to try that. It even has stuffing already in it. Plus no cholesterol, no saturated fat, and 26g of protein per serving, dang!
  • I just found this Green Bean Casserole recipe that will surely be yummy
  • Chickenless Gravy so I don’t have to eat dry potatoes and Tofurkey

Okay so it’s not a very extensive list. But I usually eat the basics anyway, so this is no exception. Of course I will still have a salad and at least three rolls, but that won’t be all!

Columbus board OKs 11 school closures

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Peace Chicken
on December 21, 2005
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Though both Second Ave. and Hubbard schools are City Year Service Partners, since i served at Second Avenue, i am far more attached to them and that’s the one i fought for. (here’s the article i wrote on Dec. 5th about the school closings for Columbus IndyMedia.)

i guess there’s nothing else to do but wait for january to come and hope the school board realizes the important differences between the schools. there’s more than what’s typed out on a piece of paper. simple logic is all that’s needed. maybe that’s why i’m still so worried…

ridiculous. to save the school system how much money?? probably a fraction of a fraction of a percent of what the federal gov’t. spends each day in Iraq. i guess they have their priorities. doesn’t mean i have to accept them though.

From The Columbus Dispatch:
Columbus board OKs 11 school closures– Hubbard Elementary might be 12th instead of Second Avenue

Emma Goldman’s Mother Earth

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Peace Chicken
on December 17, 2005
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a marvelous discovery awaited me at the Book Loft Thursday night… “Anarchy!: An Anthology of Emma Goldman’s Mother Earth” was just sitting there on the shelf, only $8 to take it home forever. i was only able to get through the preface and intro last night but i am already very intrigued and really excited to actually get into the original articles from the magazine (1906-1917).

my first thoughts: i am wondering why i never knew her name until now. she’s supposedly one of the most controversial women in the WWI era, deported in the beginning of the Red Scare, yet no mention of her in any education i’ve received thus far… though it seems that the more important a person or event is, the less likely it will be in a popular American textbook. especially if that person is a woman.

something i find very interesting, and the first paragraphs that prompted me to bust out my pen and start underlining, is a quote from Goldman’s closing statements in the 1917 trial that led to her eventual deportation:

“We simply insist, regardless of all protests to the contrary, that this war is not a war for democracy. If it were a war for the purpose of making democracy safe for the world, we would say that democracy must first be safe for America before it can be safe for the world. So in a measure I say, gentlemen, that we are greater patriots than those who shoot off firecrackers and say that democracy should be given to the world. By all means let us give democracy to the world. But for the present we are very poor in democracy. Free speech is suppressed. Free assemblies are broken up by uniformed gangsters, one after another. Women and girls at meetings are insulted by soldiers under this “democracy.” And therefore we say that we are woefully poor in democracy at home. How can we be generous in giving democracy to the world? So we say, gentlemen of the jury, our crime, if crime there be, is not having in any way conspired to tell young men not to register, or having committed overt acts. Our crime, if crime there be, consists in pointing out the real cause of the present war.“

i just find it hard to believe that was said over 88 years ago and it seems hardly anything has changed. you could take that quote out of the context of WWI conscription and place in today’s war(s) and it would still fit perfectly.

i found out that PBS made a movie in 2004 about Emma Goldman so i’m very eager to get that from the library… sure i’ll have lots more to say when i watch that.

societal snow days

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Peace Chicken
on December 15, 2005
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this morning it was snowing… a lot. i had to unbury my car before going to work. i was at a red light for a while and was looking around at all the cars trying to drive through this ton of snow and sleety rainy crap falling down. and for some random reason i thought about how nice it would be if we weren’t so glued to our economy and routines, and we could just stay home today. schools have snow days and as a result the kids stay home and get to enjoy playing in the snow, just being kids. i hate that our society doesn’t even consider doing that after you’re an adult, there’s too many obligations that force us to buy big trucks and SUVs so not even nature can stop us from going to work. just put a plow on your Ford F-25000 and you can get through anything. and thank goodness too because those TPS reports wouldn’t have been able to wait one more day!

i finally got to work and couldn’t get up the hill to the place i usually park, that was an adventure. i finally experienced something my little 17 yr old civic wasn’t capable of.

then as i sat there in front of my computer i thought, wow, i went to all that trouble, putting my life in danger, so i could be sitting here staring at this computer screen. it all just seemed ridiculous to me. was it really worth it?

i know most people will say this isn’t a logical idea because what would we do with nobody working at all? we couldn’t buy anything, go out to eat, go to a movie, go to the grocery store.. but hey, what would happen if we were forced to spend a day without requiring the services of others? what if we had to be self-sufficient for just one day. i think that should happen every now and then to give us some perspective… wouldn’t the executives love that? all the more reason to do it.

Peace, Justice, and Anarchy by Ryan Harvey

Published
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Peace Chicken
on December 15, 2005
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This country ain’t nothing but a company’s dream
A couple hundred million workers, that’s all that they see
Our hands on the tools, money writing the rules
From the sweatshop prisons to the cops in the schools

You got the middle class living like it’s gonna last
Working longer harder hours for less and less cash
Got the media spins, Republocrat twins
Got the war profiteer-corporate executive grins

You got the heroin running through the veins of the poor
Got the ghettos locked down, paying blood for the war
You got the cities decay, the dealers to pay
And the death squads working for the CIA

You got a million new jobs inside a thousand new jails
Outsourcing the unions, profits tipping the scales
Got a brainwashed youth, a trumped up truth
Got snipers armed with rifles on the factory roof

You got a 30 minute speech full of oohs and aahs
Got the cops armed tough out there breaking the laws
You got the front row seat, to your own defeat
You got the tear gas cannisters filling the street

You got the laws all written for the rich and the white
Trick the rest of them fools into the army to fight
In a dead end game, each war the same
Got a land and a people and a market to claim

You got a woman being raped everywhere that you look
In the courts, in the jails, in the schools, in the books
Got the TV set, sexisms outlet
Got a culture full of men taught to fall for that shit
Continue reading ‘Peace, Justice, and Anarchy by Ryan Harvey’

O’Reilly Factor addresses World Can’t Wait NY Times ad

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Peace Chicken
on December 13, 2005
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alas, i couldn’t find an official transcript of the truly balanced reporting that was done (on the World Can’t Wait NY Times ad) on O’Reilly Factor last night. so instead i watched it a few times and wrote down the highlights:

  • in his opening, O’Reilly mentioned Hillary Clinton and Ann Coulter being shouted down at recent speaking events. actually, he phrased it as they were “attacked by far left radicals”
  • he went on to explain the connection between the World Can’t Wait and the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) and since he’s not a member, of course he knew everything about the RCP’s beliefs:
    - “the RCP thinks the United States is an evil country.”
    - “RCP extremism is stupid.”
    - RCP is “using the same tactics as the Nazi Brown Shirts”
  • he then showed the WCW ad again and listed some of it’s notable signers, including Jane Fonda, Martin Sheen, and Cindy Sheehan. “what a lineup for the far-left Olympics!” he concluded.
  • some closing points in his monologue:
    - “the far left is helping the Bush Administration by reminding us all that there could be worse leaders”
    - “Radicals have no right to spread propaganda.”
  • O’Reilly then introduced NY State Senator Tom Duane, who signed the WCW ad. he was shocked to see Duane’s name on the list:
    - which led to my favorite O’Reilly comment of the night:

    “I’m surprised, you’re not some radical bomb throwing nut.”


    - he also told Duane that he was putting himself “in the company of radical communists, Anti-Americans who are rooting for the terrorists to win”
    - and when Senator Duane kept bringing up the illegal war that’s being waged in Iraq, O’Reilly kept interrupting him and saying “you shouldn’t be saying things that aren’t true.”
  • next came David Horowitz from the Center for Study of Pop Culture, some of his notable comments:
    - “the RCP is a dangerous organization that wants the terrorists to win”
    - “the RCP is helping Islamic radical groups and have declared war on America”
    - “Senator Duane is lending credibility to fascists, that’s the problem.”

i wish i had a running total of the number of times the words “communist”, “radical”, “fascist”, and “far-left” were said. those seem to be the buzz words of Fox News. say them as many times as possible so viewers will associate whatever the subject is with their personal definition of EVIL.

*here’s some more about the show from World Can’t Wait.

the Death Penalty + Christianity = will probably offend someone somewhere

Published
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Peace Chicken
on December 13, 2005
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i have a sticker on the back of my car that says:

why do we kill people who kill people,
to show that killing people is wrong?

and it’s the simplest way i can sum up my aversion to the death penalty. of course i am referring to the latest story to bring the debated topic into the news, the execution last night of Stan Williams. he was the founder of the Crips gang and was in jail for 24 years for being convicted of murdering 4 people in 1971. why kill him now instead of letting him serve the rest of his life in prison? “because he hasn’t shown remorse for what he’s done” so they say.

hmm… aren’t forgiveness and redemption some favorite buzz words in Christianity? huh. funny how those principle ideas are thrown out the window when it comes to the death penalty. [or should i call it "Capital Punishment" so it's easier to swallow?] to justify being a pro-Capital-Punishment-Christian, suddenly they decide not to take Biblical quotes word for word and give it some meaningful context.
Continue reading ‘the Death Penalty + Christianity = will probably offend someone somewhere’