(Disclaimer/Note for Mark: Some of this is meant to be read in a sarcastic, “can’t believe our country is coming to this” tone. Several examples I use are, as far as I can tell, apparently not explicitly included in the proposed legislation, but I’m ranting here, and sometimes getting a little carried away helps to make your point, or at least makes you feel a bit better. If you’re not in the mood for such a thing, please skip or come back to this later. As always, this is only my opinion, and though I’ve tried to research this as best I can, I can’t find anything except the same AP article circulating around, in various forms of completeness. I’m sure there’s more information out there I couldn’t find.)
Via Supervegan, legislation is under consideration to outlaw targeting not only individual employees of firms under protest (shouldn’t this already be covered under laws against stalking and harrassment?), but also pressure against economic partners of those firms — and “campaigns of virtual harrassment over the Internet.”
Taken broadly, and according to what’s in the article (I haven’t been able to find drafts of the actual proposed bill to see what it says), the law seems to attempt to outlaw basically any form of protest that could hurt a company financially, which would outlaw basically any form of demonstration, you’d think. If this makes it into law and is broadly interpreted — and how likely is it that it would be narrowly interpreted, anyway? — then mightn’t it make holding “Kentucky Fried Cruelty” signs and distributing pamphlets outside KFC stores illegal? The intent is certainly to affect business, and thereby bring about a change in business practices. Would organizing boycotts count? What if you used inflammatory language? Wore outlandish costumes of animals used for cosmetics experiments? Lay naked with other people in a big pile wearing bear masks?
How exactly are you supposed to register disapproval and urge change if this law passes? There are no examples of suggested approved protest methods; would participation in HSUS animal welfare e-mail campaigns then count as virtual harrassment over the Internet? Is there going to be a set quota for how many times you can legitimately contact your Congressional representatives — beyond which you become either a spammer or an Internet threat?
I personally don’t approve of violence or intimidation in demonstrations. To me, it’s self-defeating, to say nothing of rude, and I feel that being rude to those whose actions we find worthy of disapproval is ineffective in the long run. However, there can be a fine line sometimes: one person may consider holding placards with photographs of what happens inside a slaughterhouse to be provocative but reasonable to use in a protest, whereas another might consider that intimidation. In our ligitious society, I can just see a KFC customer becoming upset that protesters drew his attention to particularly unsavory allegations about how his meal was prepared, and filing a lawsuit for mental anguish and lost wages because he was “terrorized.”
A fuller version of the article appears at Monsters and Critics. At the very end, the president of the Biotechnology Industry Association says that the intent is not to block holding signs outside of business. Well, that’s a relief. 9.9 Because laws never are interpreted in any way other than the original intent, ya know.
I think my main problem — besides the apparent lack of specificity and talk of “economic damage” being a crime — is that there seem to be laws already in place to deal with the illegal acts that some protesters take. There are laws against stalking, harrassment, vandalism, etc. (none of which, btw, I manage to see as actual terrorism — they’re bad, but surely terrorism is something rather different and altogether worse?*). I fail to see why we need a law that covers these exact same things — but only when they’re being done as part of a political action, and for a specific cause. If an AR activist posts the names and ages of the children of a company’s CEO, I can certainly see that might be endangerment of the children — but how exactly is it worse than if a pro-life activist does exactly the same thing for the children of an OB/GYN at the local Planned Parenthood?
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*Is it just me, or is this word kind of losing its meaning through overuse, anyway? I’m waiting for the laundry detergent commercials that promise to save you from terrorism by grass stains and mud, pizza delivery commercials that offer escape from the terrorism of cold pizza.
How could you see this face and not buy him a new toy?
The beloved penguin is beyond grubby and into the realm of filthy, but happily the electronic screaming chip has died, so it should be safe to wash now. In the meantime, Nigel’s got a brand-new moocow to keep him happy:
(Note: Not to scale.)
Aside: With Nigel, I feel okay giving him animal-shaped toys because (1) the ones he likes, though they do have realistic animal-like noises, tend to be animals he wouldn’t encounter as possible prey in real life — horses, penguins, cartoon frogs, and gorillas have all been past favorites — and (2) he really seems to have missed the critical period for developing a hunting/predatory tendency. He’s found baby birds trying to learn to fly and done nothing more than lead me over to them with a worried expression, expecting me to fix whatever’s wrong. His response to meeting kittens is to lick them all over, much to the kittens’ disgust. He’s a little wary of full-grown cats, having received a few whacks on the nose after unwelcome social advances, so he usually just wiggles in place about ten feet away from them and whimpers excitedly.
However, even with Nigel, I’d be a little wary of giving him toys like the AKC’s plush toys, particularly the smaller toys like the chipmunk and, oddly enough, skunk. They’re a little too realistically designed, and I wouldn’t want Nigel to associate something that looked like a real squirrel or duck with something that he should bite and enjoy the resulting squeak. I admit that his favorite toys tend to make somewhat realistic sounds (e.g., the moocow moos, the cartoon frog ribbeted), but they hardly look realistic. Even with his cataracts, I hardly think Nigel would be confused.
Aside #2: “Moocow” is the toy’s official name, by the way. All toys must have two-syllable names, or he’ll refuse to pick them up when he takes them on walks. Not entirely sure why. “Penguin” handled the syllable requirement nicely; I think the worst I’ve ever had to resort to was “ribbet” for the giant cartoon frog.
Let me just say that I lurrve Fenric the iPod. I find myself listening to a much wider range of my music, rather than just the 20 or so CDs I happened to have stuck in the carrying case, or the five or so I was able to fit on my PDA’s SD card. I’m taking advantage of my current vacationing status to rip some more CDs; right now I’m concentrating on more ambient-ish groups — just finished the Cocteau Twins, starting on Love Spirals Downwards and Dead Can Dance, and thence downward through today’s stack into Celtic-ish and 1930s jazz. Also working on putting together some mood-based playlists, rather than relying on shuffle. Trying to rely on the preset genres is useless, because iTunes has rather weird ideas about what groups go together. I for one find it rather distressing to have Bjork, the Dead Kennedys, and Michelle Shocked all grouped under “Alternative and Punk.” It’s way too broad a classification.
This does bring me to the evaulation I’d kinda sorta promised a while back, of Over the Rhine’s “Drunkard’s Prayer.” Although iTunes blithely classifies them as just “Rock,” that never would have occurred to me. They still sound like Janis Ian to me, if she sang in a folk-bluesy-rock sort of style with a somewhat more rural accent. So, not really all that much like Janis Ian at all, then. Several of the songs are, to me, quite beautiful, particularly “Born” (which was featured a couple of weeks back on the rather good TV show, Bones), “Spark,” “Who Will Guard the Door,” and the previously mentioned “Hush Now,” and . . . well, actually, I’m kind of hard-pressed to name a song that I didn’t like, at least on some level. This particular album is supposed to be more meditative than the rest of their work, and it certainly isn’t something that fits my every mood, but it’s the sort of album that makes me want to open all the windows and sit gazing out at the trees rustling in the wind, sipping mint tea and feeling the breeze and just sort of being there in the moment.
The other use I’ve put Fenric to is podcasts, mostly those from Greenpeace, the Vegan Freaks (love their musical tags, and when their senior dog Mole decides to make an appearance in the podcast), and Eric Marcus. I’m on the lookout for new podcasts, but want to add them slowly — I don’t want to get into a podcast overextension situation, where I have too many to keep up with, as I’ve done with my RSS feeds. While the weather has been reasonably mild, though, it’s been delightful to go out and sit in my car over lunch, with the windows down and in the shade, listening to podcasts and eating my pasta salad or hummus or whatever I brought. Not sure what I’ll do now that the weather is getting too warm for car-sitting; maybe I should start bringing a blanket and hat, and have picnics under the trees at the far corner of the parking lot.
My comment spam load is, I’m sure, nowhere nearly as bad as it is for lots of people, but lately it’s been getting worse, and my blacklist doesn’t seem to work terribly well for the current generation of gibberish stories with links randomly embedded. Thus, in the hope of saving myself from the nuisance of having to moderate gibberish spam several times a day, I’ve just added Spam Karma 2.
If this should cause untoward inconvenience or nuisance to legitimate commenters, please let me know: [my domain name, up to but not including the dot], care of Sir Yahoo of the House of dotCom should work. (Sorry for the unclickability, and for the lack of a “Contact” link in my header; I have as yet not taken the time to investigate how to make these easy for users but inconvenient to spammers, beyond the old “take out the ‘trash’” approach. Mea culpa. Mea maxima lazy.)
Honestly, I do not need a cookie jar, having gotten this far in life without one, but if I were to need one, this is the one I’d have to get. Or possibly the one shaped like a Cyberman’s head.
Beyond that, nothing much to report lately. I’m taking the next week off from work, mostly to faff about the flat and be lazy and on one occasion, actually go to the theatre on a weeknight (thank you, Clarke and your kind willingness to share free passes!) and partially to visit the parents next weekend. Today started off the vacation on a somewhat uneven note: woke up at the ungodly hour of 7:00 A.M., but actually managed to get both some cooking (latkes, and then later some sausagey seitan) and a bit of a nap in.
Yes, this is the exciting life I lead when left to my own devices. Food, naps, and coveting Dalek cookie jars. Meh. It’ll do.
Just finished watching both “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” tonight.
Is it just me, or does Jack Harkness remind anyone else of a more pansexual and ever-so-slightly less (no pun intended, really) cocky version of Ace Rimmer, with better gadgets?
Also, how is it that a guy raised, per Wikipedia, in Joliet, Illinois, winds up with a decided “British guy doing what he thinks is an American accent” accent? He was apparently born in Scotland and holds dual British/U.S. citizenship,* but his intonation strikes me as a decidedly U.K. version of an American accent. Maybe it’s an intentional choice, something character-based. I haven’t gained enough familiarity with the character yet to be sure.
One thing I am sure of, though: at this point, I am hotly anticipating the Harkness-centered spinoff Torchwood. If the writing maintains the same whimsy and snarkiness, it should be quite good indeed.
Oh yeah, and Amazon.co.uk just shipped my region 2 Eccleston DVDs today. Woo hoo! I’m finally getting my Doctor Who DVDs! Yeah, baby!
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*Lucky devil.
Why is it that I get most of my Atlanta-centric vegan/animal-welfare news via Food Fight? Not that I don’t love them to bits, but they’re in freakin’ Portland, Oregon, all the way on the opposite side of the country. Is there some Atlanta/Georgia-centric blog or listserv I’m missing? I’ve Googled and Yahoo’ed until I’m dizzy, but maybe I’m not using the right search strings. Any ideas, anyone? Links, listservs, or blogs I’ve missed? Return to Eden does a pleasant, friendly mostly-monthly newsletter, but it’s mainly concerned with store events, not with the scene in general. I’ve tried checking Craigslist and Meetup for vegan potlucks, gatherings, demos, and other events, but precious little luck so far. (Admittedly, I find Craigslist’s vaguely retro forums style rather tiring and tend to give up pretty quickly, so it might just be me.)
If there is no Atlanta equivalent to Food Fight’s blog, or to NYC’s SuperVegan, then this is definitely a gap in the market that needs to be filled. I do what I can, in an extremely modest and unimpressive fashion, but I simply don’t have the time to do the research and sorting through even more RSS feeds and similar needed to be a proper clearinghouse for national, international, and local news and goings-on. National and international are easy to get; local Atlanta stuff, not so much.
Really, if anyone out there has any sites or mailing lists I’ve missed, please let me know. I’d love to be more informed about local stuff.
(Please forgive any typos or incoherence in this. It’s nearly midnight, and way past my bedtime. Can’t seem to get to sleep. Not sure why.)
