modest musings

"he not busy being born is busy dying" -Bob Dylan To sum myself up in a few inadequate words, I like: literature and culture, anything Carl Sagan, politics, eastern philosophy, yoga, animals (but especially dogs), feminism, science, and education. My interests are fleeting and varying, but learning is always the goal.

[thegrrl-blog]

dream skates

[thegrrl-blog]

drinking wine with my professors on a Friday night and talking about literary theory

. . . is this real life?

[buttercupsky]

[thegrrl-blog]

buttercupsky:

All day long people have talked about Steve Jobs. Opinions on what he’s done to change things, Apple this and Apple that, game changing, revolutionary, etc.

However, it’s hard for me to contemplate any of that because I watched someone very important in my life die of the same cancer. And all I have been able to think about is Steve Job’s family and friends. They’ve lost a loved one way too soon. Regardless of the impact someone has had on the world, losing someone in this manner is fucking devastating.

 Pancreatic Cancer is one of the deadliest and most aggressive forms of cancer - the survival rate is a mere 6%. Treatment options are extremely limited and it’s often not diagnosed until late stages. Because of this, research is our greatest hope for earlier detection methods and better treatment options. But research needs funding. I hope that when the pain of this loss has eased a little bit, Apple considers becoming more involved in the fight against Pancreatic Cancer and contributes some of their profits to help funding.

 If there is one thing I want to see in my lifetime, it’s for people who are diagnosed with this disease to not be given a death sentence. As far as I’m concerned, that will be more revolutionary than any iPhone or fancy computer could ever be.

[thegrrl-blog]

Steve Jobs was a real human, with a real family, who died of a terrible disease way too soon. Mocking that doesn't make you cool or funny, it just makes you an asshole.

[latimes]

[thegrrl-blog]

mohandasgandhi:

latimes:

Sept. 12, 1953: Actress Lucille Ball laughs as her husband, Desi Arnaz, contemplates an answer during a news conference about Ball’s short association with the Communist Party in 1936.

“We’re lucky this happened to us in America, where newspapermen ask the questions,” Desi said. “In other countries they shoot first and ask the questions later.”

Continue reading about the news conference on Framework.

I laugh when people say the Red Scare/McCarthyism days are behind us. We’re experiencing a new form of McCarthyism that completely dwarfs the Red Scare. We’re experiencing J. Edgar Hoover’s ultimate fantasy and then some. Could you imagine what McCarthyism would have been like with The PATRIOT Act? The Department of Homeland Security? The ever-expanding NSA? A Department of Defense so vast that the U.S. government doesn’t even know how many individuals it employs? Foreign covert wars headed by the CIA set to hunt down unknown “subversives” under very broad and expanding definitions? Secret detention facilities? What about all of that with little to no oversight?

In the days of Lucille Ball, our media used to at least try to do its job. Now we’re lucky if a few brave journalists are willing to ask questions. There are other ways of making us shut up aside from showing us the barrel of a gun.

[fashionisendless]

[thegrrl-blog]

When you surround yourself with positivity, both internal and external, it is like a chain reaction that keeps linking good things to you. It’s the law of attraction. What you think will manifest it’s way to you. The simplest things you do can create a happier reality, wear flowers in your hair or count your blessings before you sleep, whatever will make you smile. 

[thegrrl-blog]

I really need to get back in class

if for no other reason than my own mental sanity!!!!

[thegrrl-blog]

Don't even think about searching on Tumblr for 9/11 posts. I know you wouldn't, but I did. Worst idea ever. The ignorance of people is ridiculous. No one knows what they're talking about and there are tons of pictures of people jumping out of the windows and being praised. "ALWAYS REMEMBER" or "NEVER FORGET". HELLO HUMANS THIS IS CALLED BRAINWASHING. Straight to fear and hate. It's completely frustrating. Argh arg

Ugh don't worry I stayed away. Facebook alone was enough to drive me to madness. PROUD TO BE AMERICANS, UH-HUH!!! Too much blind nationalism for me to handle.

[gay-whisperer-deactivated201308]

[ancientmelodies]

[thegrrl-blog]

verylittleanswers:

Quick Wilco cover…meh

My best friend has talent . . . check out her music here.

[thegrrl-blog]

meeting in the middle: a revision to my last post

Okay, so I've thought more about my post on vegetarianism from yesterday, and I don't think I was as clear and concise in presenting my point as I could have been. The heart of what I was trying to say is that I think the message "Don't Eat Meat" is very ineffective. Instead, if the vegetarian/vegan community really emphasized the message "Eat Less Meat," we would have a lot more people considering changes to their diet.

To use a personal example: I am not a vegetarian, but I eat very little meat. Over the last 8 months my diet has evolved from meat all the time (before I knew better), to meat once a day, and now I would say I have meat maybe once a month. I also don't drink milk, and pork is a complete no-no. This may or may not change in the future, as I become increasingly uncomfortable with meat -but my point is that the change was not instant.

So where does this leave me? That's not exactly a diet I can put an easy label on, but it's safe to say that I have gotten increasingly better at avoiding animal products. And while I 100% admire and respect vegetarians and vegans, for me personally, this is not the diet I choose right now. In a nutshell, if I'm presented with a completely new dish, I'd like to be able to try it. But this leaves me in the awkward position where

1.) Meat-eaters become uncomfortable when I choose vegetarian dishes (because they assume I'm a complete vegetarian) and proceed to tell me why humans have a right to eat meat, or

2.) the vegetarian looks at me like a poser and with disappointment because they find out I occasionally indulge in meat -which is just as bad (except it's not) as eating meat with every meal.

However, I think my approach is one that many more people would be open to considering than a strict no-meat diet.  Jonathon Safran Foer put it very nicely when he said:

I think this kind of dichotomous way of framing this -it does a real disservice to the conversation. Even the word vegetarian. You were talking about cutting things out of your diet, instead of cutting down. There are an awful lot of people who care about this stuff and for reasons good or bad just can't envision becoming vegetarian. So what do we do with that? Do we throw our hands up in the air and say that since I'm not going to be perfect about this I'm completely off the hook?

There is a very large middle ground between a meat-free diet, and a pound-a-day meat diet . . . but the issue is hardly ever presented that way. When you say, "don't eat meat," instantly there is a large group of people who stop listening to you. But if you say, "eat less meat" then the door opens to add "and here's why . . ."

[thegrrl-blog]

Cartoon Mishka

[thegrrl-blog]

let's talk about it -respectfully

There is something about eating animals that tends to polarize: never eat them or never sincerely question eating them; become an activist or disdain activists. These opposing positions - and the closely related unwillingness to take a position - converge in suggesting that eating animals matters.  If and how we eat animals cuts to something deep. Meat is bound up with the story of Genesis to the latest farm bill. It raises significant philosophical questions and is a $140 billion-plus a year industry that occupies nearly a third of the land on the planet, shapes ocean ecosystems, and may well determine the future of earth's climate. And yet we seem able to think about only the edges of the arguments -the logical extremes rather than the practical realities . . . many people seem to fall back on this all-or-nothing framework, when discussing their everyday food choices. It's a way of thinking that we would never apply to other ethical realms. (Imagine always or never lying). I can't count the times upon telling someone I am vegetarian, he or she responds by pointing out the inconsistency in my lifestyle or trying to find a flaw in an argument I never made. (I have often felt that my vegetarianism matters more to such people than it does to me.)

We need a better way to talk about eating animals. We need a way that brings meat to the center of public discussion in the same way that it is often at the center of our plates. This doesn't require that we pretend we are going to have a collective agreement. However strong our intuitions are about what's right for us personally and even about what's right for others, we know in advance that our positions will clash with those of our neighbors. What do we do with that most inevitable reality? Drop the conversation, or find a way to reframe it?

Excerpt from All or Nothing or Something Else (Eating Animals) -Jonathan Safran Foer

My greatest frustration around this issue is the difficultly in raising an honest discussion about it, and Foer hits at the heart of what I'm talking about. Factory farming is "radically unsustainable," and the number one driver of climate change, and yet the topic of our diets is off the table for a large discussion, because it's rude. I honestly believe that if we, as a society, are going to effectively address the issue of global warming, we need to make changes to our diet and stop supporting factory farms.

The problem is that so often, vegetarians try to argue that eating meat is inherently wrong, and you are not a compassionate person if you choose to do so. Not only is it condescending and ineffective, but I think it’s irrelevant to the immediate problems at hand. I have seen countless times on Tumblr vegetarians bashing meat-eaters for being cruel, and vegans in turn bashing vegetarians for consuming eggs and dairy. Where does this get anybody? Nobody likes to be patronized (whether it be from a religious perspective, political … or dietary), and rather than praising and encouraging people for considering alternative choices, the overall message is “not good enough” (as opposed to ‘good’, ‘better’, and ‘best’). It’s this attitude that gives vegetarians a bad reputation. Preaching from a moral pedestal is not the way to convert anybody.

So where does that leave us? While I applaud the commitment of vegans, I don’t think it’s realistic to expect a massive dietary conversion anytime soon (that will take generations). I also don’t think that animal cruelty is the most effective angle to start a conversation (don’t get me wrong, as important as I think it is … it’s also an ethical issue where we begin to enter the realm of condescension). Trying to convince somebody that eating meat is inherently wrong is just about impossible, but trying to convince them that factory farming is terrible (on pretty much all fronts), I think is much easier. And as consumers, we have the choice, everyday and every meal, to support these farms … or not.

Either way, I don’t think the conversation taboo is getting us anywhere. Thoughts?

[crimesagainsthughsmanatees]

[coverspy]

[thegrrl-blog]

If you ever need a book to remind you how lucky are to be born in the circumstances you were, this it. Truly inspiring.

[thegrrl-blog]

Most simply put, someone who regularly eats factory-farmed animal products cannot call himself an environmentalist without divorcing that word from its meaning.

Jonathan Safran Foer - Eating Animals

[thelittlesea-blog]

Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind. If you speak and act with a polluted mind, suffering will follow you, as the wheels of the oxcart follow the footsteps of the ox. Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind. If you speak and act with a pure mind, happiness will follow you, as a shadow clings to a form.

Buddha