Monthly Archive for May, 2006

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Cockfighting in Columbus

May 11, 2006 0 Comments Tags: , .


From the Columbus Dispatch:

Four people were arrested and more than 60 birds were recovered in a raid on an illegal cockfighting operation in Prairie Township last night.

Franklin County deputy sheriffs and the Capital Area Humane Society raided the home at 6601 O’Harra Rd. at 7:42 p.m. after neighbors complained about cockfights being held in the basement, authorities said.

Arrested on charges of animal fighting, a fourth-degree misdemeanor, were Girido I. Carmona, 28, Dionico Garcia, 23, and Sergio Castaneda, all of the O’Harra address, and Rene Garcia, 23, of Birmingham, Ala. Each is expected to make an initial appearance in Franklin County Municipal Court’s environmental division this morning.

In addition to the game fowl, which included 31 baby chicks, deputies found cockfighting magazines, veterinary medicines, commercially produced cockfighting videos, razorsharp knives that are attached to the birds, blood-soaked carpet as well as a camcorder and tape showing the suspects allegedly engaging in cockfighting.

Investigators think the chicks were being shipped through the U.S. mail. All of the birds were impounded by the humane society.

I can’t believe people still do this. I know Ohio can be boring sometimes, but is there really nothing better to do than attach knives to poor innocent birds and make them fight eachother? Ranks right up there with dog fights. With all the new videogames and the plethora of reality television out there, this is still how people entertain themselves? Okay, I know people gamble on this crap. But come on, go learn poker or something. These people are sick.

The Capital Area Humane Society has information on their website from research focusing on the relationship between animal violence and human violence:

  • Where there has been animal cruelty, human violence will follow. Violence against animals is a predictor or even a training ground for future violent acts against people.
  • Most criminals who have been violent toward people share a common history of excessive and repetitive cruelty to animals during their childhood.
  • In a home where there is animal cruelty, there often will be child abuse and domestic violence.
  • Intervention at the point of animal cruelty will prevent future human violence. Early intervention is more likely to reduce adult crime than criminal sanctions applied later in life.

Reporting Animal Abuse

All reports of cruelty to animals are taken seriously by the Capital Area Humane Society. To report cruelty, please contact the Capital Area Humane Society at (614) 777-7387, ext. 250.

A Civil War math lesson

May 10, 2006 1 Comment Tags: , .

1,091 / 5,948,800 = 1.8
Pretty simple math so far, yes?

  • The population of the United States is 295,734,134.
  • If the same percentage of people killed by this “non-existent Civil War” were to be applied to our own population, the number would be approx. 54,237.

I bet we’d call it a Civil War then.

“Everybody’s talking on the thoroughfare, about Over Here and Over There. There must be something that I just don’t see, because these two places look the same to me.” Evan Greer // Over Here & Over There

Muscio’s Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil and Arawak City

May 9, 2006 0 Comments Tags: , .

I am enthralled with Inga Muscio’s Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil: My Life and Times in a Racist, Imperialist Society. The introduction alone could serve as my personal bible, but that’s another post for another day.

The first chapter is about Christopher Columbus and what a crock of $hit it is that we place so much honor in his name. It serves as the falsified beginning of history on this continent and thus makes an excellent launching point for the book. And it has inspired me to use the name Arawak City instead of Columbus. To call this city after who was really in “America” first, not the genocidal white man who never set foot on the mainland.

A quick look at the real story of Columbus’ arrival in 1492:

Columbus, in his log, noted: “They brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and may other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned . . . they do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance . . .. Their spears are made of cane . . . they would make fine servants . . .. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

Estimates of the Arawak/Taino population range from 100,000 to 400,000 at the time of Columbus’ arrival, but by the 1500s their numbers had fallen to a few hundred, at most. The main reasons for the Taino’s massive decline was their lack of resistance to disease introduced by Europeans, especially smallpox, and their being mercilessly overworked and tortured by the Spanish in mines and on farms. The Spanish also murdered the Taino in countless massacres to try to create obedience through fear.

I am in love with this book. I want to underline just about every line in it. It’s one of those books where you think to yourself “this is exactly what I need to be reading right now.”

It makes me want to become a history teacher. Using Muscio’s book along with Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States and Lies My Teacher Told Me as the curriculum.

Hmmm…

May 6, 2006 0 Comments

I’ve been messing with the stylesheet for the site and somewhere in the process I’ve made it look completely crazy in IE but not [totally] in Firefox. Which I thought was pretty hard to do but I did it. So yeah, I’ll get it cleaned up eventually, I’m def. aware of the issues. Good excuse for a redesign anyway.

// Update : I know I definitely want to do another custom theme. But I want to be really inspired by something, not just force something into existence. So until that happens I’m reverting it to the default Word Press theme so I can quit worrying about it not rendering properly. It’s making me get back to writing correct XHTML again which is not a bad thing. I was getting a little crazy with the DIV’s and that should’ve been a sign that my CSS wasn’t cutting it anymore!

International Respect for Chickens Day

May 4, 2006 1 Comment Tags: .

“A Day to celebrate the dignity, beauty and life of chickens and to protest against the bleakness of their lives in farming operations.”

two chickens

Today May 4, activists the world over will be celebrating International Respect for Chickens Day—an event organized by United Poultry Concerns—to take action for the most abused animal on the planet.

Here are a few fascinating facts about chickens:

  • Chickens understand sophisticated intellectual concepts, learn from watching each other, demonstrate self-control, worry about the future, and even have cultural knowledge that is passed from generation to generation.
  • Chickens comprehend cause-and-effect relationships and understand that objects still exist even after they are hidden from view. This puts the cognitive abilities of chickens above those of small human children.
  • When in their natural surroundings, not on factory farms , chickens form complex social hierarchies, also known as “pecking orders,” and every chicken knows his or her place on the social ladder and remembers the faces and ranks of more than 100 other birds.
  • People who have spent time with chickens know that each bird has a different personality that often relates to his or her place in the pecking order—some are gregarious and fearless, while others are more shy and watchful; some chickens enjoy human company, while others are standoffish, shy, or even a bit aggressive.

The United Poultry Concerns’ holiday is another reminder that today, and every day, is a great day to go vegan.

Just call me Debbie Downer

May 3, 2006 0 Comments Tags: .

Long time no post. A few notable things have happened in the past week. May 1st was May Day, of course. It was also Un Dia Sin Immigrante which had an impressive turnout. Stephen Colbert stood up against Bush (it’s about time someone did!!) on live TV and gave the speech of his life at the Whitehouse Press Correspondents’ dinner.

Since these stories have been featured very prominently in the news I don’t feel bad for skipping over them. Well, I do, but my philosophy about this site is that it’s more of a personal journal/record and I never want to write out of obligation.

I do have some sad news to report. So, I voted in the Primaries yesterday, right? The sad news is that doing so officially put me on record as a Democrat.

Doh! I’d prefer to have no affiliation because neither is doing much/anything for the real problems of our country. Yeah I voted for Strickland but I also signed the petition to get Fitrakis on the ballot for Governor in November.

Radical times call for radical measures, our system is so outdated, we need something new or else this is just going to drag on forever. We need to quit the ridiculous arguing, I’m so sick of the bickering. Yeah so Congress is split up unevenly which is why the Democrats say they can’t get anything done, but isn’t that always the case? They need to get over it and figure out how to work together, it’s not an excuse for years-long periods of inaction and indecision. That would never fly in a real job. I know people more educated in political workings will have plenty to say about my simplification, but I’m a simple person and believe too many things are unnecessarily complicated. Like that last sentence, didn’t need to be so long.
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