A new relationship with animals, nature and each other.

Posts from the ‘Special Comments’ category

  • Is the Stock Market a Global Ponzi Scheme?

    Well, everything seems to be back to normal on Wall Street after a rocky start to the week. So what happened? Are we OK? We’re certainly back to “normal” if your…

  • The Growth Monster

    “Six years on from the financial crash that brought the world to its knees, red warning lights are once again flashing on the dashboard of the global economy.” That…

  • King Lear, Nature and the End of the World

    “The possibility of genuine chaos, real cannibalizing barbarism, is closer to the surface than we can possibly imagine.” Oscar Eustis, artistic director, New…

    Cecil Is the Least of It
    End These Religious Festivals Now!
    How SeaWorld Is Like Scientology
    An Emerging Consciousness

    The Freaks (not dogs) of Westminster

    No, I’m not referring to those poor dogs, with all the health issues of inbreeding like squashed faces and crippling joint diseases. They’re as loving and lovable as any abused dog. I’m referring to the people who would do this to dogs, turning them into deformed shadows of their true canine nature.

    Cloning Cats, Cows and Neanderthals

    When Prof. Church and others offer, as a reason for cloning Neanderthals, that this may help save the human race from extinction, they simply betray their deeper anxieties about their own mortality.

    Hunting Twinkle

    I was scrambling up the side of one of the dips after standing in the shade of some pine trees. Twinkle had reached the top ahead of me, peered back down and then ran off to play with one of the other dogs. Then a single shot rang out and I heard a single yelp.

    It took me a moment to realize what had happened.

    Are Religions Bad for Animals?

    While religion itself is not in itself bad for animals, religions that seek to separate humans from the natural world are indeed a problem.

    (And, incidentally, there’s very little difference between a fundamentalist religious believer and an atheist transhumanist worshipper of technology.)

    Why the Gun Lobby Always Wins

    It’s hard to argue that murdering children with an assault weapon is what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they said that a “well-regulated militia” could protect a “free state” at a time when the newborn nation was fighting for its life against the British Empire.

    But this is not about rational arguments. Something much deeper is going on. Why are so many Americans afraid of losing their “right” to carry around practically any weapon of their choice? Why are they so emotional about it?

    On the End of the World

    A few months ago, a friend of mine, Janet, asked me if I thought the world would really end on December 21st. I asked her why she would be more concerned with a supposed “Mayan apocalypse” than with the much more down-to-earth reality that we’ve entered a time of growing ecological disaster.

    “It’s easier to imagine the Mayan apocalypse,” Janet said. “After all, you know it’s imaginary, like zombie apocalypses and all that good stuff, so it takes your mind off the real thing.”

    Mother Nature’s Extra Vote

    Last week, Mother Nature cast an early vote, with Hurricane Sandy reminding us all that there’s just one overarching priority for the next administration and the next Congress. This week another storm is brewing.

    Last night, when President Obama spoke to his supporters and to the nation, he laid out his priorities for the next four years:

    How the World Ends – in Silence

    Proverbially, the world ends either with a bang or with a whimper. But last night we learned that it will end, instead, in silence.

    In a debate that was all about how we relate to the rest of the world, neither President Obama nor Gov. Romney ever mentioned the global devastation being wrought by climate change, the mass extinctions that are unfolding, the multiple pandemics that can break loose at any moment, the poisoning of the land, the oceans and the air we breathe, or any of the other enormous threats we face.

    Which Is Worse: Sex or Death?

    A farmhand in Florida’s horse country is on trial for having sex with a donkey. At around the same time this man was arrested, a museum in Texas bought two mules, killed them, had them stuffed, and put them on display in an exhibition from which the museum will make money. Which is worse?

    Food, Life and Liberation

    When people ask me what they can do in the face of what’s shaping up to be a mass extinction of species, I always say that switching to a plant-based diet is the single best thing any of us can do. Not only is the food delicious and healthful; eating it becomes an act of solidarity with your new friends, the farm animals.

    Animal Sacrifice and the Day of Atonement

    It sounds like something out of some weird “primitive” religion in an “underdeveloped” country. But it’s going on right now, as it does at this time every year, in New York City, Los Angeles, Jerusalem and other cities around the world that have orthodox Jewish populations. In the “tradition” known as “kaporos”, you buy a live chicken, tie her up, wave or swing her around your head or someone else’s, and then kill her. This supposedly transfers your sins to the chicken, who then conveniently dies for those sins.

    The Massacre in Denver

    If you want to see a deranged adult killer in the making, watch out for a young animal abuser. In each of five school massacres that took place in the year and a half leading up to the Columbine case, the kids who opened fire on their fellow students, teachers, and family all had a history of killing or hurting animals first.

    ‘I Am Not an Animal!’

    For thousands of years, we humans have sought to separate ourselves from the rest of nature, to see ourselves as superior and “exceptional.” We don’t even like to be reminded of the fact that we are animals. They are animals, we are humans.

    So, what is it about being an animal that we so very much don’t want to be? What frightens us about the fact that we’re animals? How does this affect the way we treat other animals? And how could the answers help us get a grip on why we humans are on a path to disaster and self-destruction – and taking a lot of other lives on this planet with us?