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Jul. 6th, 2009 @ 10:39 am
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Gah, for one glorious day I thought my computer was fixed. Then it wasn't. I have some rather excellent photos that I took at the Inavale Horse Trials that are stuck on my backup harddrive because I insist on shooting in RAW format which can only be viewed/edited in photoshop which was only on my computer... blah blah blah.
In other news, I have a request for everyone who utilizes the English language. Please no longer refer to anything you have to say as "not PC". This is simply code for "something I'm about to say is completely douche-baggish" OR "Somebody, somewhere might possibly have a different opinion than I do, and I guess disagreeing with someone isn't, um, nice or something? And someone might be mad at me if I disagree with them?"
I have yet to see the term used correctly. Ever. No really, I mean EVAR. I mean, really, prefacing something totally jerkwad with "tee hee, this is totally not PC, but..."
does not get you off the hook. Also, politically correct has nothing to do with having a different opinion than someone else.
So please, no more using this term. No one seems to know what it means anymore, anyway.
Thank you for your attention.
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Feb. 17th, 2009 @ 07:02 am
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There is a certain breed of pesticide manufacturer who is in denial that they manufacture pesticides. They are the type that call us and act, frankly, snooty. They are are soooo much better than those soulless CHEMICAL pesticide manufacturers who sell products with scary, unfamiliar names like glyphosate. Oh no, their ALL NATURAL product is safe. It's made from acetic acid. That's practically just like the vinegar you use in cooking! The normal (expensive) pesticide laws shouldn't apply to THEM. Everyone should just trust them that they're selling a SAFE product and there shouldn't be any sort of oversight for them.
Right. Never mind the fact that their 'vinegar', or essential oil, or 'orange peel' product ... none of them are risk free. There are plenty of essential oils that are quite toxic, (did I ever tell you the time I used lavender hand lotion as paint stripper for a coffee table?) and acetic acid is corrosive. CORROSIVE, people! Glyphosate, even though it's unfamiliar and has a scary chemical name, and comes in a scary package that says 'herbicide' on it, at least it won't BURN YOUR EYES OUT OF YOUR SKULL. Glyphosate, and other scary-sounding chemicals, manufactured by those soulless chemical manufacturers, is actually lower risk than a lot of these so-called 'natural' products.
You don't get a free pass from the labeling laws and required health testing just because you extracted your chemical from a plant instead of making it in a lab.
Natural does not mean 'safe'.
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I've been watching it unfold with interest. For various reasons. When the pet food recall happened last year, we got a bunch of calls on it at work, and I also found myself frantically checking my pets' food labels. Ever since, 'melamine' is one of those words that grabs my attention if its in the news.
Recently, one of my bosses sent out a link to this article , and IMHO, it is by far the best media report I've seen. It might be because, I dunno, they actually interviewed a scientist?
Anyway, I have more to say about this thing. But I had to get up at 5:15 today to come to work, so I'm too tired right now. Mostly, I'm thinking that people in general aren't very good at evaluating risks in their lives. Parents are even worse.
Most will happily strap their kid into a car and take a drive on the freeway without second thought. And yet, reveal that there's trace amounts of a scary 'chemical' in their kids food - a chemical that's probably been there in trace amounts all the time and has never shown to cause any effect - and suddenly they freak the fuck out.
I deal with it every day at work. And I often find myself in the odd position of defending the EPA or FDA. Odd because I'm as critical of them as anyone - probably more so, in fact. But I hate hate hate people who expect the government to wrap them and their precious kids in silk covered bubble wrap.
Here's my half-awake take home message - and this goes out as well to those parents who use sanitizer on everything before allowing their kid to touch it - there are going to be trace contaminants in your life. This is unavoidable. Learn to choose your battles. Look around and access ALL the risks in your life. GET SOME PERSPECTIVE. Also, don't expect some kind of extreme, extensive government oversight without a huge cost. Science takes money. Pony it up, and maybe we can talk about that bubble wrap you think you want so badly.
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Edited to add: Yeah, my little rant seems so quaint, doesn't it? I meant to keep it updated, but oh well.
Dear family and friends, (and lady at the store overheard saying "...that Muslim Obama..."),
I don't like discussing politics. The main outcomes of political 'debates' are strife and indigestion. I do, however, try to stay fairly updated on current events so that I may cast an informed vote come November. Therefore, every time I hear an ill-informed opinion about the current presidential candidates the urge to correct it wells up in me. I can only suppress these feelings for so long. I needed an outlet that wouldn't start a dinner table fight, elicit a rant from a co-worker, or force me to start mainlining Tums.
( Read more... )
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Random notes while watching the reality show "30 days" where a bow hunting meat-eater lives for 30 days with a family of vegan animal rights activist. (Aired June 17th, but didn't watch it until tonight). Tom turned it on, and I immediately started bashing PETA (biased? Me? Nooo...), so he told me to keep comments to myself until the show was done. My laptop's right here, so I'm taking notes, instead.
Right from the start, I identify more with Mr. bow hunter.
PETA sure does try to make itself look good (as always). I can't tell if the activists are being dishonest (both with themselves and the cameras) or if they truly don't know that PETA's overall goals are not to improve animal welfare, but to cause the extinction of all domestic animals so that humans can never use them.
(OK, I have to admit: I'm having a hard time distinguishing between the well-meaning people who happen to be PETA activists, and PETA itself. I just wish they'd chosen a different club to join)
PETA / PETA members / vegans try to frame a dichotomy: either you're a vegan, or you support factory farming. There's no room for sustainable, ethical animal products.
It only took about 5 minutes for a PETA member to compare people eating animals to Nazis killing Jews. Tally of the use of that analogy so far: 2
Seeing Mr. bow-hunter dressed in a chicken suit pretending to kill a woman dressed as Colonel Sanders = LOLZ
Even after seeing some horrific images, bow hunter is very reluctant to reject factory farming. The dichotomy that PETA frames in the beginning works on him: he thinks he has to choose between factory farm animal products or veganism, and he does love him his meat. No one explains that you can choose different types of animal products. You can CHOOSE humane food. That's never mentioned. It's either "you eat factory farm meat" or "you don't eat meat at all".
Bow hunter visits a farm that specializes in rescuing animals from factory farms ("rescuing" = "stealing"? Not sure... There's a sequence where they "rescue" a sick veal calf at 3am that makes me wonder). Owner lady goes on and on about how humans don't have the right to keep animals for food, and don't have the right to force animals to do what we want, etc, etc. Yet, I see a lot of fences on her property. She treats her animals very well, but she's still keeping them captive "against their will", she still forcing medication on them, even though they obviously don't want it - who is she to force them to do what SHE wants?
Cue images of a factory milk farm. OMG. Factory farms are bad. Wow. Only PETA could have given us this revelation.
(It's actually good to see, on a mainstream cable show, images of a commercial milk farm - but having PETA take credit for exposing these practices makes me mad. Like they're the only one's doing anything about it.)
Image: bow hunter walking the family's small dog. The small dog pulls on the leash like crazy.
Owner of the dog: "Don't choke him!"
Tom: "Then leash train him, lady!"
Me: "lol"
PETA lady also implies that PETA is behind important spay and neuter campaigns. Yup. They're certainly the only ones who send out THAT message.
Cue sequence where they visit an animal shelter and show a healthy, friendly, young pit bull being taken to the back room to be euthanized, all the while talking about how this could have been avoided if only people spayed and neutered their pets. The hypocrisy kills me. PETA's official stance on pit bulls is that they should all be euthanized, anyway (well, they think all pets should be killed, but ESPECIALLY pit bulls). How horrible to use the tragedy of this dog's life to further their agenda.
I like bow-hunter even more by the end of the show:
"Am I going to hunt again when I go home? Yes I am. But I do believe animals have rights. Animals don't deserve to suffer or be abused."
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Final thoughts:
Every time I see something about "animal rights", I feel left out (and usually angry). I rarely see anything even close to my views portrayed in the media.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love animals (even the ones that PETA forgets, like bugs). Pretty much the only time I act "girly" is when I'm around a dog (or frog. or beetle.) My life, actually, pretty much revolves around animals. My art and photography centers mainly on creatures great and small. I volunteer at my local shelter. All my pets are rescues of some type. I want to be a vet tech. One of my main life goals is to own a small farm and have a huge garden and rescue un-wanted dogs and horses.
I also want to raise my own chickens for eggs and meat, goats for milk, and maybe a pig or two for meat. I also hunt and fish. I have no trouble kiling and butchering animals. I have a freezer full of elk meat right now and I know exactly where it came from, how it died, and how the carcus was handled and cleaned. I also saved the hooves and bones for future artwork, and I'm in the process of tanning the hide for leather.
I see nothing wrong with eating meat, or using animal products. I feel that my views of food and animal welfare are pretty enlightened and well-balanced, but I rarely see them in the mainstream. Here on campus, yes. In books, yes. In blogs I read, hell yes. But PETA's false dichotomy is very pervasive. I often think they do more harm than good.
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Yes. We must be ever vigilant lest they flood our country with highly skilled artists. Because that's exactly why our economy is so shitty right now - if only we'd stopped foreign photographers from visiting earlier, we wouldn't be in this mess!
I'm so glad the border patrol spent so much time and effort on such a potentially dangerous person. I feel so much safer.
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AKA the "I'm-at-work-on-a-Saturday-and-stupid-people-are-calling-me" rant. I don't mind ignorant pet owners. Ignorant I can deal with. I've been an ignorant pet owner myself. Ignorant means you don't know something and often that you don't even know that you don't know something. Unlike stupidity, it's a curable condition. A smart ignorant person knows to listen to advice from someone more knowledgeable. Here's an example, wildly, just off the top of my head… your dog eats a pesticide you just put down in your yard. You saw the "keep dogs away from area" on the label, and let your dog out there anyway. A few hours later, the dog is vomiting and shaking, and you think "huh, I wonder why" and, on the off chance it might be related, you call the number on the pesticide label and get me. I tell you, um, wow, your dog could totally DIE in the next hour, you need to take him to the vet right away. If your response is, "oh, I guess I'll grab a shower and make an appointment" I'm going to be very, very pissed. It's easy to tell the difference between the ignorant pet owner and the stupid one. In this situation, the response of someone who's simply ignorant is to become immediately concerned and say they'll take their pet in right away. You just called THE EXPERT. I told you to go the vet right away. That means now, as in emergency treatment, not after your shower, not at an appointed time. Now. There is no stronger language I can use than "death" or "fatal", the only explanation for your cavalier attitude is that you're a careless and stupid pet owner and shouldn't have responsibility for anything with a brain stem. I once had a lady call in the middle of a hair dressing appointment. She'd left her little dog at home with muscle tremors and severe diarrhea and gee, it's been bothering her, so she'd thought she'd call while she was under the drier. Just to, you know, make sure it wasn't serious. I tell her it IS serious, and the dog needs to go to the vet asap (if your pet is that sick, this should be a no-brainer, whether the cause was a pesticide or not). Her response? "I can't go now, my hair isn't dry!" WTF, people? If this was her son or daughter, child services would be all up in her ass in a heartbeat. Neighbors would intervene, police would take action, newspapers would report about it. But no, it's just a dog. A dog who probably died a horrible, but quiet death alone in the house, the replacement puppy purchased before the dirt on the backyard grave had completely settled.
I've lost count of how many times I've finished a call and said "well, that dog's going to die. Stupid owner strikes again." And it kills me that I can't call them out on it over the phone. That would be an excellent thing to do if I wanted to get fired. Grr, I say.
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I've decided that the theory of gravity is a conspiracy.
For years I believed in it, just like most folks. Then I met this really smart, charismatic homeless man down by the river. He explained the conspiracy to me. How the reason that we're pushed towards the earth is that there's a big invisible alien ray canon on the moon that generates an force field that holds us down. How the government and big corporate shoe companies are covering it up.
I was skeptical at first, but so much of what he said makes so much sense! The government could easily destroy that alien ray canon and set us all free, but they refuse to even acknowledge that it exists! All you have to do is follow the money trail and you'll see why. Who would need shoes if there wasn't gravity? You wouldn't have to walk any more! Big shoe companies would be out of business if the truth came out.
And if anyone speaks out against this conspiracy, the big companies or the government shut them up good. Like my homeless mentor, who lost his job because he tried to educate people about this important issue. His boss gave some lame excuse about how it was because he was constantly drunk at work and slapped his female co-workers on the ass, but we know the truth; his boss was bribed by one of the big, rich, corporate shoe companies.
Ever since I had my revelation, I've been trying to get the truth out, but my ideas are censored at every turn. No scientific journal is willing to take the risk of going against the status quo to publish my paper, "You Can Totally See The Invisible Alien Ray Canon If You Squint Just Right At The Full Moon". Every time I go to one of their blogs and try to convince them to open their minds to both sides of the issue, I'm ridiculed by them and their mob of butt-kissing sycophants who aren't even willing to admit the possibility that their precious "theory" could be wrong!
I've been debating with them for months, and still no one can give me any proof that gravity exists! That's because there is no proof. "Gravity" is just a fantasy made up by the government and perpetuated by all the so-called "physicists" (gravitationists is more like it!) in their ivory towers who are on the shoe companies' payroll.
It's crazy that people will believe in something, without a shred of real proof to back up their belief, just because someone else told them it was true.
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The caller is a lawyer, usually. They think they’re smart, and they probably are in many ways. Good for you, Mr./Ms. Lawyer, for getting through lawyer school. I’m sure it was difficult, and involved a lot of studying.
However, I have news for you. I’m smart, too. I, too, went through difficult schooling that involved lot’s of studying. I’m willing to give you slack during the first few minutes of the call if you assume I’m a secretary. But after I’ve corrected your fourth misconception about pesticide regulation, and educated you about a subject you know nothing about, maybe then it’s time to stop treating me like a McDonald’s serving wench who’s deaf in one ear.
If you ask me one more time if you can speak to someone “knowledgeable,” AFTER I’ve showed you exactly where on the EPA’s website to find the answers to your questions, I’m going to reach through the phone line and slap your silly lawyer face.
Me toxicologist, you lawyer. It’s not my job to wade through the entire FIFRA or Label Review Manual or antimicrobial registration kit to find the paragraph you want. That’s your job. That’s why you get paid the big bucks. My job is to know where those documents are and direct you there so you can do your own research and educate yourself.
Don’t treat me like an 8th grader because I haven’t memorized the entire EPA antimicrobial website, and don’t ask to talk to someone who’s “knowledgeable”. There is no one else who’s going to take your simple, ignorant questions and do anything else then what I’ve done.
Go ahead and call every number on the EPA’s “Contact Us” page (the link to which you found directly below that document containing the answers to your questions. You know, that document you ignored because it wasn’t shown to you by someone who’s “knowledgeable”). I’ve just told you that none of them are appropriate people to answer your question, but I’m sure you know best.
They’re either going to direct you to the exact same document I just did (after you leave a message and they get back to you in a few days or a week, because they don’t have regular office hours like we do). Or, (and this is the funny part), they’ll give you our number. Because we actually get paid to help people with questions JUST LIKE YOURS.
I usually have a lot of patience. And I don’t at all mind answering ignorant questions (it’s my job!). It’s when the condescending prick who’s asking the ignorant questions won’t actually accept the answers and ignores me when I’m trying to educate them. And I have a feeling that, in at least some of these cases, part of the problem is I sound like a cute girl over the phone. (I definitely wish for a dime for every time I get called ‘honey’ or ‘darlin’ at this job.)
It wouldn’t even matter if I were an 8th grader, however. If I know more about a subject than you, and if you COME TO ME with a question, then it is time for ‘mouth shut, ears open’ as my 1st grade teacher liked to say.
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Jun. 6th, 2007 @ 09:49 pm
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It's been a bizarre evening. Tom's allergies have taken up residence in his lungs, so about an hour before it's time to take the next pill, he's weezing and gurgling like a broken coffee maker. Today, this happened to coincide with him picking me up at work, so when I came down, he asked me to drive home (this involved him gasping and gesturing at the driver's seat - speech is apparently difficult when your trachea is constricted to the diameter of one of those red stirring straws they have at coffee shops).
Anyway, I spent the trip home convincing him to go to the doctor, (I finally won this weeks-old argument - probably by virtue of the fact that he couldn't really talk all that well). Forgot to stop by the store to buy vegetables for the potluck at work tomorrow. Got home, slathered Tom's chest with Vic's vapor rub, shoved a cup of 7-up into his hand, and walked to the nearby (and only) grocery store in town.
While in line to pay for my over-priced broccoli heads, I see a man wearing riding chaps and helmet in line ahead of me... and carrying a riding crop. "That's strange," I thought, "I wonder why he didn't leave those in the car-" and then I look out the window and see the horse that's tied to the cart return in the parking lot. I love Philomath.
Got home and opened the door just in time to see the dog deposit the uncooked chicken breast that was going to be dinner in the middle of the living room carpet. (I'm guessing the cat knocked it off the counter). I cursed, cleaned up slimy trail of chicken juice, of course getting some on my only clean pair of work pants.
To steady my nerves, I got out the chocolate cookies I made yesterday and munched on one while I rummaged around the kitchen looking for alternative dinner arrangements, leaving the cookies open on the coffee table in the living room. Started an easy box dinner. Went to check on Tom, who's taking a steamy bath. Still alive, I can hear him breathing from the hallway. Go back to the kitchen and feed the dog a few scraps from dinner. Looked at the clock and cursed some more, as I realized she's supposed to get spayed the next morning and isn't supposed to eat anything after 7pm. Think to myself, it'll be fine, it wasn't very much. Start a load of laundry, so I have salmonella-free pants for tomorrow. Come back to the living room for another cookie. The container is empty. Go to Tom, who's still in the bath. "Uh, did you eat the rest of the cookies?"
To which he replied, "Nope, haven't moved."
Found the dog in the kitchen and felt her belly. It's noticeably distended, and I didn't give her that many table scraps. Cursed some more, as I thought about how chocolaty those cookies were. Dinner was boiling over at that point, so I took it off the burner and serve some to Tom. Then got out the hydrogen peroxide and funnel, and took the pup to the back yard. Ten minutes later, and my suspicions were confirmed as the puppy puked up all seven of the cookies, all the while staring at me with betrayal and disbelief in her eyes. (On the other hand, it's good to know the hydrogen peroxide trick actually works).
I'm too tired and bewildered right now to even stay in the same tense as I write. I go to sleep now.
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DDT debate halts Rachel Carson honor
The Associated Press
Sen. Benjamin Cardin's resolution had intended to honor Carson for her "legacy of scientific rigor coupled with poetic sensibility." But Susan Sullam, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Democrat, said he delayed the bill because Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., signaled he would use Senate rules to halt it.
In a statement on his Web site Tuesday, Coburn confirmed that he is holding up the bill. He blamed Carson for using "junk science" to turn the public against chemicals such as DDT that could prevent the spread of insect-borne diseases such as malaria.
DDT has had a sort of resurgence in the public mind ever since last year when the World Health Organization WHO stated they would actively support using DDT as part of their malaria eradication program. Suddenly, it's in vogue for conservatives to wax poetical about the good ol' days before DDT was banned and nary a mosquito or crop pest was to be seen, or so they want to believe. This Coburn fellow is a shining example. Despite being a doctor, he doesn't seem to have a clue about either Rachel Carson or DDT.
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My friend (who is getting a Masters in library science, I would like to point out) had an interesting rant on his blog about, among other things, English majors and genre fiction versus “lit fic”, from which I quote most gleefully:
“Contrast people having weighty moral issues and physical travails while fishing with people having weighty moral issues and physical travails on spaceships. You should be keeping a simple fact in mind here, which is that fishing, to be perfectly honest, is REALLY FUCKING BORING, and that flying around in spaceships fighting aliens is REALLY COOL.”
It is funny and it reminded me that I myself have not ranted about this subject (in writing, anyway).
( Read more )
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