Bhai Harmandir Singh is now the second victim of Ram Rahim’s killing mobs in India. It is no suprise that the Indian government has not yet responded to the problem, and Ram Rahim is still driving his motorcade around India untouched by the law. Let there be justice, or there shall be no peace.

         My prayers are with his family, and I trust that justice will be served with or without the government. It is starting to look grim and bleak that the Sikhs will have the central government’s help to put this mobster behind bars, because it is evident throughout recent history that the Indian government cares very little about the status of the minority Sikhs.

            Ram Rahim is a money laundering liar hiding behind the fake facade of religion. He has made a mistaken declaring a clash between the Sikhs. Let the government prove that they do not want stability in Punjab again. The Hindustan government raises the anti-Sikh elements/ cults, and then kill the Sikhs under the label of “terrorism”. We have seen this in the late 1970s into the late 1990s. I pray to Waheguru that the violence and hate ends in Punjab, and the criminal gets what he deserves.

           Bhai Harmandir Singh is now the second victim of Ram Rahim's killing mobs in India. It is no suprise that the Indian government has not yet responded to the problem, and Ram Rahim is still driving his motorcade around India untouched by the law. Let there be justice, or there shall be no peace.

         My prayers are with his family, and I trust that justice will be served with or without the government. It is starting to look grim and bleak that the Sikhs will have the central government's help to put this mobster behind bars, because it is evident throughout recent history that the Indian government cares very little about the status of the minority Sikhs.

            Ram Rahim is a money laundering liar hiding behind a fake facade of religion. He has made a mistake defaming Sikhs and their fragile sentiments for Sikhi. Let the government prove that they do not want stability in Punjab again. The Hindustan government raises the anti-Sikh elements/ cults, and then kill the Sikhs under the label of "terrorism". We have seen this in the late 1970s into the late 1990s. I pray to Waheguru that the violence and hate ends in Punjab, and the criminal gets what he deserves.

"a video clip documenting a soldier firing a rubber coated steel bullet, from extremely close range, at a cuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainee. The shooting took place in the presence of a lieutenant colonel, who was holing the Palestinian's arm when the shot was fired.

Ref: B´Tselem

See the movie if you need yet another proof of how ethnic cleansing in it´s 60th year
looks, sounds and acts like. "Purity in slaughter"

Israel is death and an example of human recession and racisim. From day one...

* Including custody

From Jan. 1989 to June 30, 2008

Real men are still around but they are few and far between. Real men, are men who uphold real values, like alcoholism, being bitter, closed from their emotions, smoking, being epic and of course, being manly through the medium of all these things, violence and more.

What makes a man manly? To be honest, it can be anything, from a fabled neck breaking, “face-fuck” kick, (See Norris, Chuck), to violently and gruesomely destroying the living dead, (See Campbell Bruce), to cutting your own arm off in order to live (Ralston, Aron). Or even just something as simple as fighting mother nature, and God’s many creatures in drunken states (Cash, Johnny).

Manliness comes in many forms, sometimes, it comes from the simple things, in small doses, like smoking a cigarette, or drinking a beer in under 20 seconds, and sometimes it comes in big doses of vulva-kicking episodes of facial rape, like when a man fights a shark, just because he can.

Most of all though, it’s the name that says “manly.”

Names like Chuck, Bruce, Johnny, Aron, Rocky, Ethan Hunt, Rambo, Sue, Clint, Russell, "Face-fuck Al", Tommy Gunn, Tom the rapist, and Kurt are all pretty damned manly. So what makes a name manly? Basically, a manly name sounds like a rock, type of metal, or something you use to cut somebody’s head off or shoot somebody with. Names that aren’t manly tend to sound like something two feminists, a member of Coldplay, or Britney Spears would name their adopted kid. Names like Tristan, Berty, Milton, are all pretty weak in terms of manliness.

Names that have connotations to killing or fighting tend to be pretty damned manly too, names like “Ethan Hunt,” which combines the best of both worlds, a short first name that sounds rougher than shaving with blunt rusty knives, and hunt, which implies murderous rage. Which is fucking awesome. If you can imply that you’re going to main and/or kill people, with little more than your name, you know you’re a man.

So now we know what makes a man manly, where did the “manly man” go? It’s simple, they’re a dying breed, being slowly killed off by political correctness, Feminist-Neo-Nazis, over-protective mothers, crappy music, being pussy whipped, and just a complete lack of demand for heroes in society.

Political Correctness has killed off the manly man’s ability to make incredibly judgemental, apathetic, and somewhat obnoxious generalisations about religions, metro-sexualism, women, the youth, politicians and pretty much anything we’d like to make obnoxious generalisations about.

The Feminist neo-Nazi, took away the manly man’s greatest tool, his complete disregard for women and their rights. It is this fundamental aspect of being a man that makes them “manly”, it is this pure lack of a desire to care for anybody, or have them care for you, that makes a man. (See Eastwood, Clint)

Metrosexualism has destroyed the manly man’s pleasing aesthetic, a beard that looks like you just shaved with a blunt rock and used gun powder as opposed to the less manly “shaving foam”, right after fighting a bear, and a voice so gritty it could only be emulated by rubbing granite down your throat while you talk.

Children drinking in the streets have ruined the attractiveness of being a whiskey swigging cowboy, since pretty much every 12 year old in this shitty nation already drinks anyway, it’s just not cool anymore. So now real men are forced to drink paint stripper (which probably accounts partially for their decline) or move on to harder things, like heroin.

Over-protective mums raise their little boys to believe that if they’re just themselves women will like them. Which would work if they weren’t blubbering imbeciles who fumbled their words and said ridiculously un-manly things like, “you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. You’re like a flower, only infinitely more perfect and sweet smelling.” Real men don’t act themselves in front of women, and they certainly don’t compliment them, they say things like,
“Go away woman,” and “Make me a damned sandwich,” or “Iron my shirt, bitch.”

They don’t pander to the egotistical desires of maniac women who thrive on crushing men in front of their friends just for a cheap laugh. If you’ve ever said something nice to a woman on first meeting them, you’re a fucking pussy and it’s because of people like you that men in general have become so fucking needy and weak. Grow a pair. Women hate you, because you need them.

Crappy music has led to a decline in the manly man’s urge to kill… You can’t kill without good music to back you up, you want to know that when you kill a man using nothing more than a toothpick and a button, that you have some fucking badass music behind you. Not this fucking rap or metal bullshit. Don’t get me wrong, both can be good, but it’s just not quality killing music. The music you kill to should sound like shitting razors while vomiting anthrax all over the faces of small orphaned children.

One of the major contributing factors to the decline of "manly" men, is the lack of need for stealth/guerrilla warfare, with the creation of new weaponry that means entire cities can be destroyed at the push of a button and the turn of a key...

Remember when war was manly? When men shot out 16 rounds of lead into each other in the name of protecting their women from the enemy...

Or when they fought in a cloud of tear gas, bleeding from their pours, with people of different nations, using nothing but their fists...

We need another fucking war... But a real one, with some proper heroic "defending my homeland and family" man fighting.

Another major contributing factor, around all the others pivot around, is religious nut job men disregarding all that is manly in the name of peace...

First off, if you disregard man laws, you're demoted to fucking man bitch. As such, Ghandi is a man bitch. No argument, no discussion, he just is, as decided in the court of man law held by Virgil Hart on this day.

Secondly, peace is fucking queer.
Real men kill each other.
War is manly.
End of story.

Like I've said before, Ghandi was a pussy and probably a communist. Other weak men include but are not limited to Paul McCartney, Prince Harry, any man who's liberal about anything.

She looks you in the eyes when she says:
I've got something to offer you.
And I've got to tell you, it's not pretty.
I look at myself point blank
And still I can't tell you what kind of monster I am

Yes, she's moving on looking for direction
It's a disease, a cancer that that pulls her
Perfect for the art of execution

And still she cries "Protect me!" as her eyes close
And still her knuckles turn white hot
Squeezing out the life that demands entrance into her veins
She does not want warmth.
No, she's looking for easy redemption.

She thinks to herself:
Yes. At least I am justified.
______________________________________________________

This has nothing to do with what's written above.
FYI.

I just realized I'm on placebos. I'm not on hormones.
Jesus Christ. I was wondering why the fuck I even cared.

I turn into such a disgusting emotional tardface.
Ugh. I mean, I've realized it now. So I've got it kind of under control.
I still feel emotional. I just don't really feel LIKE being emotional.

Fuck drugs, man. If I didn't have a condition, I would be off this shit in a second.

I can't even enjoy my music right now. It's like every song is rubbing the wrong nerve.
It's just so irritating. I don't like that it makes me weak.
I care about things I'll laugh about in a couple days.
It just intensifies every emotion I've got a hundred fold.

I'm totally not even myself.

At least I'm not crying over pizza anymore.
That first week was ridiculous.

When Uncle Jimbo and Chef get into a heated argument about the South Park flag and whether or not it's racist (4 white men are depicted hanging a black man), the mayor decides to base her decision on the outcome of the children's school debate on the issue. Though the whole episode is funny and poignantly dramatic - Chef's wrestling with the fact that no one he knows supports his fight to have this flag changed - it is the conversation between Chef and Kyle at the actual debate that's so moving.

Spoiler Alert

It is absolutely one of my favorite moments in South Park history when Chef realizes that the children are so not-racist, despite his previous assumptions, that they never even saw the issue surrounding the flag as one of race because they never saw the color of the people on the flag. They just saw people killing people and thought that the whole issue was about murder. Chef is amazed at this wonderful turn of events and it brings him back down to earth, exercising reason and resolving to handle the problem more thoughtfully.

In typical South Park fashion, the happy conclusion of the entire episode is derived by creating a compromise and finding the Middle Ground, a message much emphasized in The Zen of South Park.

I think the religion on the whole breeds less tolerance, but I'm not sure it really is the cause of wars, people naturally seem to want conflict and religion is just a natural cause.

Anything that you can unconditionally believe in as an absolute truth is asking for trouble.  Especially when there are other people that unconditionally believe in their absolute truth that is contradictory to yours.

As a defiant atheist I find it hard to comprehend the concept of unconditionally belief, especially in a way that would make me violent enough to fight my neighbour.

Most religions in my limited opinion teach of tolerance and of peacefulness, but from the dawn of time those concepts seem to have been ignored when it comes to actual disagreements on the religion itself.

From the bible, "Thou shalt not kill", from the Qur'an "And do not take any human being's life - that God willed to be sacred".  Unfortunately my lack of familiarity with other religions means I do not have quotes, but most religions seem to follow this premise.

So why, with these very basic concepts is the world determined to kill each other?

Is it religion or is religion just an excuse for violent people to be more violent?

This brings me to my second point.  Why do people feel that being religious, or in this area, attending church, make them immune from basic human courtesy?

I see so many people on a day to day basis that would sooner tread on a fallen person than offer them a hand up, but decide they are good people because they went to the church service on Sunday.

At least I am not the only person to notice this, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/7497411.stm

I wonder some days whether the various religious leaders should all get together and cancel religion.  Make people responsible for their own actions rather than following the teachings, but this would never work.

Some people require the moral compass.  Overall (once again from my limited knowledge) these teachings provide a good solid basis as to what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad.  But is that moral compass worth all the killing?

                  the means of the age

So, Kassandra the work wife took great exception to my review of

Okay, so I know that GunMonkey already wrote a review of Wanted. It started out okay, but then he went all off the reservation at the end. I don’t know what the hell he was talking about with SUVs and houses and what that has to do with the goddamn movie, but he does tend to ramble. Usually only his first couple sentences have any real content, and the rest pretty much just becomes white noise to me. You know, like the hum of an air conditioner. I tune out completely when he starts in on why squid are better than octopuses (or vice versa…whichever).

So, I don’t know what his deal with Wanted is. He’s been bitching about everything lately, not just movies. And he has this weird obsession with his sideburns. He emailed me pictures of them (I kid you not). He totally needs to get laid—like in the worst way possible. Anyway, the movie’s pretty kick-ass. I mean, you have this movie in which people are emptying guns at one another and a shitload of people get dead by the end. What’s not to like?

It probably helps that I was in a bad mood when I saw it. That evening I’d noticed somebody lurking in the bushes in the backyard of my townhouse, looking in the patio door. I was going to send a few rounds their way, but after clipping the neighbor’s kid in the shoulder last month, I’m trying to minimize my exposure to local PD (and the kid’s mom, who still can’t give me an adequate explanation of why the kid needs two workable shoulders to play soccer). Their patience with me is wearing thin. So, I do what I figure is the smart thing and sic Ator, my German Shepherd, on him. Turns out it’s one of my exes stalking me. Weird thing is, it’s not one of the three that usually stalk me. It’s this guy that I dated a couple times back in, I dunno, 2003 maybe. Friends was still on TV, I remember. Well, I think it’s kind of cute that he’d still be carrying a torch for me and I’m kind of curious about what’s been new with him. Only he’s all like “Ow! My femoral artery is nicked!” So I gotta make a makeshift tourniquet with the nylon rope he had with him and then I call 911. We wait, and it’s kind of hot outside, so I invite him inside where its air conditioned. Only he’s all like “I think my Achilles tendon is broke!” And I feel kind of bad, since I did train Ator to bite to cripple, so I try to drag him inside, only I can’t get a good hold on him, since he’s slathered himself up with Vaseline for some reason. So we’re outside in the summer heat, and Ator’s snarling at him, and he’s whimpering, “I didn’t want anyone else to have you,” over and over again—which would be kind of sweet except for the linoleum knife he brought along—and I think he’s getting sunburned because of the Vaseline, and the EMTs are taking their own sweet time getting here…

(Wow. It’s really easy to get off-topic, isn’t it? No wonder GM rambles so much in these reviews. Hey, at least I didn’t mention squid or get all pervy about chicks with glasses or Orion Slave Girls.)

Long story short, I had to vacate my place until the forensics techs finished with it. So I saw Wanted. Like I said, I thought it was cool. Yeah, the plot’s predictable, but so what? I knew Iron Man would be be playing grabass with some monster at the end, and it didn’t stop people from loving that movie. Besides, sometimes you just need a movie that doesn’t want you to think a lot. This was that movie.

Okay, I concede that the whole curving bullets thing is bullshit, but so are all the ninja moves and flying in those Asian chop-socky movies. Doesn’t keep them from having a healthy fan base. Besides, it all looked real cool on screen. I’m sure people who do martial arts still like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon even though the combatants glide and swoop through the air like a couple of flying squirrels. I liked Wanted’s slow bullets and long camera tracks and reverse-time exploding skulls. Makes it seem like the director earned his pay. If I have to pony up 11 bucks for a movie ticket, the director goddamn well better have made someone’s skull explode. If I have to drop an additional 10 on popcorn and a soda, he better put it back together.

But what I really loved about the movie is Angelina Jolie. Okay, I don’t have a crush on her like GM (who’s probably Photoshopping her into an Orion Slave Girl outfit and horn-rimmed glasses as we speak), but I think she kicks ass in this movie. Especially compared to the men. Look at what fine specimens of masculinity we have here: the dweeby main character who I could stomp into the pavement without breaking a sweat; his douchebag best friend; some anonymous Fraternity guys; and Morgan Freeman (who’s cool, but also the villain). Yeah, dweeby guy’s supposed to be the hero, but it’s Angelina who mows through this movie like Ator through a flock of geese. She attaches a video-thingee to her gun, so she can fire around corners. She plugs away the bad guy with a shotgun while riding on the hood of a car! And when the time comes to make the tough call, she does it—and ventilates everyone in the room. Yeah, dweeby-boy can talk big at the end (“this is me taking control…”), but he didn’t take control of anything. He was out to save his own skin. He didn’t make a choice. Angelina made a choice (well, so did Morgan Freeman, but he chose to be evil). There’s a reason that she carries a slammin’ customized .45 Strayer-Voight 1911 with Yanek compensator and high-capacity mags, while dweeby-boy carries a (snicker) Beretta.

And that’s why I liked the movie. Because in it, as in life, the ass-kicking hot chick is the one who makes the tough choices and makes everything happen. The douchebaggy guys can pump themselves up all they want to—men have such fragile egos—but it’s clear who the king of this particular mountain is: the hot chick with the gun.

So that’s why liked Wanted. Now, I don’t know what the hell GM is talking about with SUV and oil prices and whatever. All I want to know is who do we need to invade to get gas prices down and how soon can we start carpet bombing? I practically have to take out a new mortgage every time I fill up the Jeep. Goddamn it, this is America not Europe. We didn’t fight a shitload of wars to pay five bucks for gas…

And it goes on that way for several more paragraphs. Anyway, there you have it: the work wife’s counterpoint to Wanted. For the record, I am not obsessed with squid, chicks with glasses, Orion Slave Girls, or my sideburns. Though I am rocking the sideburns out here.

Saturday night, we went to Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw’s Jesus For President Book Tour on its stop here in Fresno.  There was definite anticipation in me, as it was my first time to see Claiborne or Haw in person.  The program was essentially a quick sketch of a masterpiece, as it were- a highly condensed version of the book.

Mimicking the artistic style of the book, Claiborne and Haw traded back and forth reading from a script, walking through the history of an Israelite people whom constantly trade off ultimate trust in Yahweh for lusty flings with power and empire.  To the side of the stage are the two Psalters, one of which looks like he is straight from the 1850’s (playing the banjo and other such instruments to back that up) and the other of which, the percussionist, who judging from looks alone does indeed look like he could be a Satanic occultists.  These two men add a tribal flavor music background to the narrative that Claiborne/Haw present. 

I was afraid going into it that there would be a partisan political feel to it.  That was probably my biggest fear, and one that I happily found unwarranted.  Claiborne lobbed underhanded remarks at Republicans and Democrats alike, at Obama and Bush.  And being no respecter of nations, their were jumping to offer criticism of the violence of the U.S. and Iraq insurgents alike as well.  All this came under the meta-narrative they were offering… the weren’t talking about non-violence or poverty or anything else as abstract issues, but instead they presented the Gospel story, the story of ancient man, up through Abraham and Israel, all the way through Jesus, tying similar themes into the overall construct.  And this Gospel story will naturally have political edges for us to consider in our own contexts.

After intermission, the program moved from Israel’s history to Church/world history since Jesus.  The second half opened with a reading of perhaps twenty to thirty quotes from the Church Fathers, on how they pledged allegiance no longer to any nation or Ceasar, but instead to an alternate Kingdom that they would be persecuted for following.  Claiborne/Haw told the story of Constantine, the wedding of the Church and State, and of their experience with Iraqi Christians during the opening bombing of Baghdad.  They talked about what it means to love your enemies, and can we truly do that with bullets and bombs? 

Claiborne told one story of speaking at a church and then being asked to pray for the men going off to Iraq to fight soon.  At a loss for what to pray, he began to pray the fruit of the Spirit… God give them love for enemies, give them peace, and joy, patience, let them be kind to all, let them be good, let these soldiers be gentle people and self-controlled.  One soldier began to stream tears from his eyes, as he realized this was not who he was becoming.  I thought of a friend of mine in the military, and how he too has exhibited the opposite of these fruit since joining.

They discussed the Amish response to a murderous attack in their community a few years ago, which ended in the death of many school-children and the suicide of the attacker.  And afterwards, the world watched in awe as the Amish adopted the killers family, offering financial support for them, forgiving them, going to the killers funeral, and creating scholarships for the killers kids.  It was a beautiful expression of the Kingdom breaking into the world, taking Jesus at his literal words.  As a side, they suggested the hilarity of having the Amish take over the Homeland Security department, laughing that any politician who likewise presented Matthew 5 as a security plan would be laughed out of his first debate. 

They talked about the, not an technical draft, but an economic draft.  They told of soldiers who had come to them saying that they had thought they were fighting and killing for abstract concepts such “freedom” or “hope” or “democracy,” but really they were killing because it was the only way they could go to college.  They were feeling the tension of being motivated to join and kill for money for college.  So Shane talked about creating scholarships for the urban poor to create alternatives to joining the military so that they might go to college.  And I thought about the many friends I’ve had tell me they are joining the military to be able to pay for college.

I kept hearing Claiborne/Haw refer to it being anti-Kingdom to return violence for violence, referring to Matthew 5 (“Do not return evil for evil…”), but I kept thinking isn’t that a bit of an alteration on the verse; it says “evil,” not “violence.” But then I though to myself, isn’t it at least interesting that we don’t equate violence or killing with “bad”- we see violence or killing as amoral.  Not good or bad, just neutral.  And so we want to think there can be good killing (which is what we do) and bad killing (which is what everyone else does.

As I walked out to my car afterwards, I overheard a lady in an upset rant against two other men that had attended.  She yelled “If we lived like they think we should, caring for the poor and all, then the economy would crumble!” 

I thought about how odd it was that she would think that, because Claiborne/Haw weren’t rejecting Capitalism.  They were saying that capitalism is a good thing, so long as we find ways to help the poor within a system that tends to step on toes.  Neither Claiborne/Haw nor the call of Jesus purports that we cannot make money.  But I thought this about the women’s statement: in her view, capitalism cannot be made to work with helping the poor (as Claiborne/Haw suggest), so she says we must keep it how it is and not tamper with it, because the economy would crumble.  So she admits it tends to marginalize the poor (which it does, even though they can rise out of it, granted) but she would rather keep oppressing the poor than try to change it.  What is the advantage of her mythological-poor-omni-oppressing capitalism?  Why would she want to oppress for her own benefit?  Selfishness?   I do hope that I communicated my point here well enough.

There is much more to say about this message.  Most of my negative critiques would slam the presentation, not the message.  I did find myself thinking that if I had not read his books, other material he’s put out, podcasts, etc., I would think there were glaring holes in Claiborne/Haw’s theo-philosophy.  So if you are just picking up Jesus For President or going to see the tour, I hope you’ll give them grace in that they sincerely live out what they preach, and the wholes in a 2 hour tour or pages of a book are more than explained elsewhere. 

Let us constantly remind ourselves that the Kingdom is no nation, that it is here and now, that it is beautiful, can be brought about by no amount of power.  It is a divine insurgence, breaking out from the grassroots, as a people reject the simple either/or options that the would gives us, instead seeking to for a poor Galilean rabbi, who loved his enemies so much he that he died for them, and who had something to say to the world.

* DAS has done the best job of commenting on the latest round of press killings in Cambodia. I'm not sure why these don't get more press than they do - perhaps no press killings get much press? Perhaps it's because the Cambodian press is not more respected? Perhaps it's just third-world racism? Or perhaps it's just because there's no way you could ever give sufficient attention to this sort of murder - the kind where they not only shoot the target, but then murder the man's son as he comes to give aid to his dying father. Khem (Khim) Sambo and his son Khat Sarinpheata were cremated today.
* Not sure yet what to think about the recent set of news reports on the slowdown (or feared slowdown) in Cambodia garment factories. These stories have a cycle, tied to the renewal of quotas and trade agreements, but there's always a lot of genuine fear and worry. This one's pretty heartrending.
* Some jackass thought it would be a good idea to use the final line of a Khmer proverb for the title of his dissertation. Nicholas Farrelly over at New Mandala quoted it. Nice of him. But isn't using the last line kind of like titling your dissertation "There once was a man from Nantucket"? (I know, that's the first line - but you really expect me to put the last line in a blog post?
* Also over at New Mandala - a good post (actually, a couple) on the supposed exceptionalism regarding takes on the Burmese Junta. Nope, they probably aren't any more thuggish or ignorant than other regimes. Maybe just worse at PR? (see also, Charles Tilly, Warmaking and Statemaking as Organized Crime)
* And yet another example of the end of civilization. Oprah reaction shots.

• DAS has done the best job of commenting on the latest round of press killings in Cambodia. I'm not sure why these don't get more press than they do - perhaps no press killings get much press? Perhaps it's because the Cambodian press is not more respected? Perhaps it's just third-world racism? Or perhaps it's just because there's no way you could ever give sufficient attention to this sort of murder - the kind where they not only shoot the target, but then murder the man's son as he comes to give aid to his dying father. Khem (Khim) Sambo and his son Khat Sarinpheata were cremated today.
• Not sure yet what to think about the recent set of news reports on the slowdown (or feared slowdown) in Cambodia garment factories. These stories have a cycle, tied to the renewal of quotas and trade agreements, but there's always a lot of genuine fear and worry. This one's pretty heartrending.
• Some jackass thought it would be a good idea to use the final line of a Khmer proverb for the title of his dissertation. Nicholas Farrelly over at New Mandala quoted it. Nice of him. But isn't using the last line kind of like titling your dissertation "There once was a man from Nantucket"? (I know, that's the first line - but you really expect me to put the last line in a blog post?
• Also over at New Mandala - a good post (actually, a couple) on the supposed exceptionalism regarding takes on the Burmese Junta. Nope, they probably aren't any more thuggish or ignorant than other regimes. Maybe just worse at PR? (see also, Charles Tilly, Warmaking and Statemaking as Organized Crime)
• And yet another example of the end of civilization. Oprah reaction shots.

Warning: one cussword

A few weeks ago I was surfing the web and came across a blog from India. The subject, the murder of a young _______ boy, caught my attention so I read the whole thing.

Seems a young man who's family was _______, which is fairly uncommon in India, was flirting with a ******* girl. The town this happened in was predominately ****** and they watch their young women quite closely.  There were lots of murmurings and whispers from those who watched the young man and his demeanor with the girl. This went on for a few days and apparently his parents, and others, warned him to stay away from the girl.  One evening he met up with the girl on the road and started talking with her, unaware that a group of men were watching nearby.

They men rushed up to the couple and grabbed the boy and started beating him, as the girl ran away.  Later that evening the boy's dead body was found lying beside the road...he had been beaten to death.

The police were called and they investigated for a few days, but ultimately said they had no evidence against anybody, and there was nothing they could do.  This was despite there being several eyewitnesses to the beating.  They said they couldn't see who had done it. The blog writer managed to convey an impression that the police weren't really doing their job.

The person writing this blog was related, and heartbroken by the death, and was pouring out her sorrow in the blog. I was stricken by the story and thought about the waste that happened here, not only for the loss of an apparently honorable and upright young man, but the loss of an opportunity for two cultures, in however small a way, to approach each other in peace and show humanity to each other. A small rapprochement if you will, that could lead to more friendships and peace between rivals.

Feeling as I do about religious arrogance and the stupidity they show in many matters, I was moved to write a reply to the woman, where I kind of got carried away and called the people involved in the killing some pretty bad names.  Now I did sink my teeth into the *******'s, because its known that ******'s think it's OK to kill ________ if they cross a very fine line...try to convert a ******* to _______ and its open season on your hide...literally.  ****** in this case really condones murder.  Pretty much the same outlook applies to a _______ man trying to get too friendly with a young ******* woman.

I don't care what kind of logic or reason you try to apply in making this OK in the light of your religion...it is totally wrong.  There is no real God anywhere who would allow this to be the norm.

Anyway, it took about three days for the woman who wrote the blog to answer back.  I forget the actual words (I deleted her reply), but the gist of it was, I was talking ‘hate speech' and she couldn't, or wouldn't, put my reply on her blog. For a split second I was mad, but then I got to thinking that the rules for public speech and writing were not the same in India, and my bad reply could/would put her in harms way if she published it.  So I tried to dismiss the matter from my mind.  But it wouldn't go away.  I didn't dwell on it, but my subconscious chewed on it for days and days.

Finally a few days ago the thoughts burst forth, fully formed in my mind.

Yes, I had written some bad things about a religious group and called it and the men who hid murder behind it some bad things, and yes by today's standard of PC'ness, I was wrong...totally wrong.

I ask you though, who was more hateful and did more to upset the public order and well being of the citizenry?  Was it me, who called the men and their religion out for what they are...a murderous bunch of half-wits and imbeciles, and the religious mandate they think they were working under barbaric and hideous in its teachings?

Or, were the men who ganged up on, and murdered a young innocent boy in cold blood... the more hateful.  If I see or hear someone doing a totally wrong thing to a fellow human being, I will not say nice things about them. And I will not stand silently by knowing a particular religion seems to give some men the moral authority to kill the innocent. This is not right no matter what you say.  If the men and religion they practice that empowers them is not lashed out against, they will keep doing it...over and over.

In a "civilized" :-) world, one does not allow the citizenry, or a religious representative, to go around and kill people by their whim for religious reasons. Any Religion that allows this should be banned.  There is no room in today's world for such a thing.

Do you think we should stand idly by and let such things happen without speaking out against them?  We know that the ******* religion allows murder of innocents.  Should we not speak against this?  Should we speak nicely about matters such as this...or should we rip them a new asshole?

Continuously give in and be nice to that kind of behavior and we all know who wins the game of life.

more cat pictures

For latest post go: Here

The right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions. Hina Jilani, lawyer and human rights activist

An honor killing is a murder, carried out by a family to punish a female family member who has supposedly brought dishonor on the family. The acts which are the cause of dishonor can be

• refusing an arranged marriage
• being the victim of a sexual assault or rape
• seeking a divorce, even from an abusive husband
• committing adultery or fornication
• pre-marital sex
• flirting
• etc.

(source: http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/04/un_oral12_0405.htm)

Men can also be targeted by honor killings, but more rarely (for example in the case of homosexuality).

Causes:

• The practice is mostly associated with Muslim cultures (sometimes in minority Muslim groups in the West), although there is no support for the act in Islam. And it does occur in other cultures as well. In India, more than 5.000 brides are killed annually because their marriage dowries are considered insufficient. (However, one can argue that honor is not the main motivation in such cases). It also occured in some Latin cultures ("crime of passion" is often still a "mitigating circumstance"). In Muslim countries, the practice is seen by some as a justified enforcement of religious rules, and therefore not strictly a matter of honor. This is corroberated by the fact that sometimes the killings are perpetrated against women by individuals who are not close relatives, but who claim enforcement of religious rules as their motive. In Iraq, for example, honor killings are conducted by armed insurgent groups on politically active women and those who did not follow a strict dress code, and women who are perceived as human rights defenders.
• There is a strong correlation between honor killings and illiteracy rates.
• Men often use honor killings to assert their dominant patriarchal status. Women in the family may support the practice in order to preserve the honor of other female family members and to preserve their chances of getting married in the community. It's a kind of purge or purification.
• Some claim that the practice goes back to ancient motivations based on anxieties about reproductive power. Women, who were considered by the tribe to be a factory for making men, were forced through "honor" killings to obey the man's family planning and not to reproduce outside of the tribe or the extended family.
• In a society where marriages are arranged by fathers and money is exchanged, a woman's desire to choose her own husband is a financial problem, one which can be "translated" in terms of honor.

Consequences:

Apart from the obvious consequences (death or lifelong disability), the practice of honor killings also forces women to stay in abusive marriages or to avoid reporting rape. If the women are killed, they are burried in unmarked graves and the community denies that they ever existed. And if they don't die, the chances of receiving justice are minimal as many governments fail to prosecute the crime. And even when there is a trial, it's the woman's behavior that becomes the focus, not the defendant's. As a result, the women sink deeper into shame and often don't take the trouble of reporting the crime.

Numbers:

Because the murders frequently go unreported and the perpetrators unpunished, it is difficult to get precise numbers on the phenomenon. Estimates range between hundreds and thousands of women each year. In Pakistan, it is estimated that every day at least three women are victims of the practice.

What can be done?

Some say that the backwardness of the tribes where most killings take place makes it very difficult to do anything. However, education can work. The fact that the Koran does not prescribe the practice should be explained and taught. Honor killings are just one instance of gender discrimination and education should focus on women's rights and the equality of women. Where the practice is linked to arranged marriages and dowries, one should first tackle these problems.

The judiciary and the police should be forced to intervene. Penal codes should be modernized, and the economic dependence of women should be dealt with.

Related phenomena:

Related phenomena are acid attacks (instead of killing women, acid is poured on them) and honor suicides. People can be forced by their community or by their feeling of guilt to kill themselves. Relatives thereby avoid penalties for murder.

Pakistani women hold protest rally to condemn an honor killing; copyright Khalid Tanveer/ AP Photo
(source)

A screen shot from a cellphone video posted on an Internet site allegedly shows Iraqi Doaa Khalil Aswad, a 17-year old girl who was stoned and kicked to death in 2007 after she offended her minority Yezidi community - an old Iraqi sect that is neither Muslim nor Christian - by eloping with a Muslim man, thereby violating the taboo on inter-faith marriages. Her execution lasted two hours. Her killers were members of her extended family, mainly cousins and their friends. Several local people interviewed subsequently expressed support for the stoning, and only few said it was wrong.

(source)

More on gender discrimination.

I am aiming to be somebody this somebody trusts
With her delicate soul
I don't claim to know much except soon as you start
To make room for the parts
That aren't you it gets harder to bloom in a garden of
Love love love love
Love Love love love

Only thing I ever could need, only one good thing
Worth trying to be and it's

Love
Love
Love
Love
I do it for Love
Love
Love
Love

We can understand the sentiment you're saying to us
Oh,
But sensible sells so could you kindly shut up
And get started
At keeping your part of the bargain aw please
Little darlin'
You're killing me sweetly with love love love love
Love love love love

Only thing I ever could need only one good thing
Worth trying to be

Love
Love
Love
Love
I do it for Love
Love
Love
Love

Started as a flicker meant to be a flame
Skin has gotten thicker but it burns the same
Still a baby in a cradle got to take my first fall
Baby's getting next to nowhere with her back
Against the wall.
You meant to make me happy make me sad.
Want to make it better better so bad.
But save your resolutions for your never new year
There is only one solution I can see here.

Love you're all I ever could need only one good thing
Worth trying to be and it's
Love
Love
Love
Love
I do it for love, love, love, love
Oh, only gonna get get what you give away,
So give love, love
Only gonna get get what you give away
Love.

All level one Paladins had to be PVP flagged inorder to run the race. The route started in the Exodar -> to the ship to Darkshore -> then another boat to Menthril Harbor -> run through Wetlands to Dun Morogh to Ironforge tram station -> to the King's chamber in Stormwind.

I had such wonderful plans for it too. I had made some Goblin Sapper Charges to throw at the group right as they were to make it to Ironforge. But I missed them :(

Oh well. I did have fun with them in the Exodar before the race began. I stood on a box and killed a bunch of them with my thrown knives. See the pictures below. After I picked off three of them the sight of the mass panic and watching some of them jump off the railing still makes me laugh :)

Lots of thanks to <Batdogi> for putting the event on. Too bad more Horde couldn't participate to ruin it.

So, some things I learned about fish:

1. Fish are a lot smarter than people think.  I sometimes lied to myself, thinking that fish had tiny brains and it wasn't a big deal.  But, studies have come out that fish have the same brain capacity as dogs.

2. Fish flesh today is badly contaminated with toxic chemicals that are known to cause cancer and brain degeneration and is also the most likely of all foods to make you sick from bacterial contamination. Yum!

3. Fish accumulate toxic mercury in their flesh as a result of industrial pollution, and the side effects of mercury posioning include finger curling, cognitive impairment, and coordination problems.

4. You can still get omega-3 fatty acids from foods like walnuts and flaxseeds, which are a lot safer for you.

5. Fish are still tortured when caught. Which makes me so mad is that there are no regulations or rules based on how to treat fish.  They have no rights at all.  So, fishermen are allowed to hook a fish and gut it while it is still conscious without even a slap on the wrist. That is appalling! They are frozen to death, or crushed by the weight of being piled on top of one another.

6. And finally, "dolphin safe" is about the biggest crock.  Even if they are not caught in nets, they may be hit by propellers while trying to feed on fish, they may be driven into shallow water, and fishermen may slaughter them anyway.

From pictures I've seen on how fish a treated, don't think I can eat another sushi roll (unless it's vegetarian!) =) My next step will be to become vegan... but I think that will take more time.

The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 568

“In a regional workshop organized in Jakarta on 11 July 2008, the European Commission discussed its proposal for a new Directive (European legislation) on renewable sources of energy, including biofuels.

“Participants from all ASEAN countries attended this event. This workshop was chaired by Ambassador Alistair MacDonald, the Head of the European Commission Delegation to the Philippines, and important speakers in this workshop were senior experts from the Energy, and from the External Relations Directorates-General of the European Commission in Brussels. Also, officials of four ASEAN countries presented their countries’ policies about renewable energy and biofuel.

“The drafts Directive, which is expected to be adopted early next year, has set the policies for renewable energy for all states which are members of the European Union, so that the use of renewable energy among the use of other energy resources in the European Union will increase. This Directive is part of the climate change policies of the European Union, and it aims to define renewable energy goals on the national levels, setting joint obligations in order to achieve a use of 20% of renewable energy, and setting minimum goals to use at least 10% of energy in the form of renewable energy, such as biofuel, in transportation, by 2020, which has to be accomplished by all member states.

“Consequently, it is expected that bioenergy production in Europe will increase, and the import of plant oil used in biofuel in Europe will also increase.

“Therefore, this Directive also sets requirements for the environmental sustainable production of biofuel, to guarantee that biofuel, which is part of the renewable energy policy of the European Union, is produced by using sustainable methods which do not harm the environment. The European Commission will regularly check and report on the influence of bioenergy production on the prices of food, although recent analysts showed that there is only little impact.

“Southeast Asia is a region which produces a lot of plant oil, especially palm oil. This Directive will create many new opportunities for all of the Southeast Asian Countries, because it will likely lead to increasing imports from oil producing countries into the European Union.

“With the price of oil at current levels, more use of renewable energy is seen as a good choice for the economy. Moreover, these forms of energy also contribute to guarantee the security of energy supply, and they contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emission.

“However, some hazards for the environment were also pointed out regarding the use of biofuel. The sustainability requirement has to guarantee also that the biofuel policy is not against the goals of environmental protection. The same requirement will be implemented for biofuel produced in the European Union as well as in other countries outside of the European Union. Therefore the same requirements everywhere do not present an obstacle against trade. This requirement aims to achieve a minimum level of the emission of greenhouse gas, and it aims to follow some other required conditions related to the environment, especially to protect bio-diversity.” Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.7, #1691, 12.7.2008

Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Saturday, 12 July 2008

Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.7, #1691, 12.7.2008

• New Measures of the European Union for Biofuel Were Shown to ASEAN Countries
• [Minister of Foreign Affairs] Hor Namhong: Khmer Artifacts Stolen from the Preah Vihear Temple by Thailand Will Be Reclaimed Back [he stated during a press conference on 8 July 2008]
• Metered Taxis Started Their Business in Phnom Penh [by Global (Cambodia) Trade Development Co. Ltd., a Chinese company] [on 11 July 2008]
• Pailin Has Still 207.8 Square Kilometer of Land Infested with Landmines [according to Mr. Heng Ratana, deputy director of Cambodian Mine Action Center - CMAC]
• [Former Thai Prime Minister] Thaksin Ranks Sixteenth among the 40 Richest People in Thailand

Khmer Machas Srok, Vol.2, #197, 12.7.2008

• [President of Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association] Rong Chhun Asks [Minister of Education] Kol Pheng to Intervene in the Case of Lost Salaries of Teachers in Remote Areas
• “The Line of Those Who Steal from the Nation” and Some Dishonest Businesspeople Are Cleaning Their Names through the Preah Vihear Temple [by distributing money to help citizens and soldiers there]

Khmer Sthapana, Vol.1, #47, 12.7.2008

• Only 200,000 [of 340,000] Workers Will Go to Vote [because of the rise of the price of goods and of transport – according the head of the Cambodian Free Trade Union of Workers Mr. Chea Mony; but the secretary-general of the National Election Committee Mr. Tep Nitha Rejected this number]
• Khmer Citizens Are Disappointed with the Flow of Thai Pigs into the Country
• Situation in the Middle East Is Tough after Iran Tested Its Missiles

Koh Santepheap, Vol.41, #6395, 12.7.2008

• [Mr. Khim Sambou] A Reporter of Moneaksekar Khmer [a Pro-Sam Rainsy Party newspaper] and His Son Were Shot by [two] Unidentified Men after Returning from Exercising at the Olympic Stadium [the father died after he was referred to hospital while his son is in a serious condition – 11 July 2008]
• Director of KCBN Travel [Oknha Heng Tola] Plans to Spend His Company’s Money to Gather Tourists and Bring Them to the Preah Vihear Temple [every week in order to help the people living at the mountain, after the border-crossing was closed by the Cambodian authorities]
• The United Nations Asks for US$300 More for Burma

Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.16, #4639, 12.7.2008

• President of the Puea Pandin party [which is part of the coalition government of Mr. Samak] of Thailand Escapes from an Arrest Warrant [over a corruption case] to Hide Himself in Poipet [according to Thai media on 11 July 2008 – he and another candidate were found guilty, after the Thai Election Commission had asked the Thai Supreme Court to revoke their electoral rights, after they had been found to have arranged transport for people to attend their campaign rally, and had handed out cash to voters]

Samleng Yuvachun Khmer, Vol.15, #3357, 12.7.2008

• Civil Society Wants to See Khmer Politicians to Be Brave like Siem [Thai] Minister of Foreign Affairs [Nappadon Pattama] Who Resigned from His Position

Have a look at the last editorial - Without freedom of information AND an active use of this freedom, emotions can easily lead to dangerous misunderstandings.


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Having visited Mt. Kumgang, I'd bet all I'm worth that the most sensitive thing that grandma would've seen was run-down houses or thin, poorly dressed kids.

Even if the poor woman had glimpsed a tank or machine gun, so effing what? "Hey Americans, I have the exact coordinates of one of their machine guns. Time to attack! Go kill my relatives!"

Unbelievable. North Korea is the most paranoid, autistic nation ever.

Wanted is about Wesley Gibson (James McEvoy), a 20-something office drone, put-upon by his sadistic boss, emasculated by his cheating girlfriend, broke, until one day he learns that he has super powers and a destiny which requires them, and Wesley becomes Spider-Man!

Wait. That’s not right.

Erase the Spider-Man part and the rest still pretty much works. Instead, Wes learns that he is the son of the most accomplished assassin in the world and heir to membership in a guild of super-assassins known as “The Fraternity.” I’m going to stop here and warn you: Wanted does not put much creativity into its names or titles (or much of anything else, for that matter), so bear with me here.

Wes learns this while being dragged through a firefight in a drug store by Angelina Jolie who plays an assassin named Fox (insert joke here). It’s Fox who introduces Wes to Sloane (Morgan Freeman) the leader of the Fraternity, who promptly begins training Wes how to be a super-assassin. Goodbye castrated cubicle-dweller lifestyle, and hello new life of money, glamor and danger!

It requires a lot of work in a dingy textile mill and a lot of lacerations and broken bones. When grievously injured, Wes recovers in spa-treatment-type goop bath, which magically heals him. All the while he learns from characters with names like The Gunsmith (who teaches marksmanship), The Exterminator, and The Repairman (don’t say I didn’t warn you about the names). Among other things, Wes learns that, like his father before him, he too is a Jedi—er, I mean, he can slow down time. It has something to do with his heart beating 400 times per minute and not killing him. He also learns how to curve bullets around obstacles into a target (you just need to think real hard about it).

The Fraternity, Wes learns, kills people to maintain “balance” in the world. What exactly this means is not explained, but no one seems to mind this, so why should we? The Fraternity takes its orders from a code in the stitching of a loom known as The Loom of Fate (I am so not making this up).  So Wes goes about dispatching some dudes whom the Loom (giggle) wants dead, before graduating to his final exam: hunting down and killing the renegade Fraternity member named Cross, who is slowly, inexorably eliminating Fraternity members—including Wes’s father.

So Wes goes forth to do battle with the mysterious Cross, only to learn that things are not as they seem. The Fraternity harbors a dark secret. Sloane may not have told him the whole truth. To survive, he must unravel the shadowy purposes of The Fraternity and discover the truth about his father. Honestly, this all sounds pretty compelling, but if you haven’t figured out what’s what by about two-thirds of the way into this movie, you've probably been lobotomized. You may want to check on that.

All said, Wanted is a stupid, stupid action movie given a superficial gloss of visual overkill by director Timur Bekmambetov, who’s Russian-language films Daywatch and Nightwatch put him on the cinematic map (I found them somewhat incomprehensible, but I watched them on DVD and was oft-distracted during them). Bekmambetov dresses up a fairly rote movie with so many visual flourishes and CGI-created impossible action sequences, it makes you yearn for the realism of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Bekmambetov pulls out off the stops with this movie—bullet-time, spinning cars, bullets colliding in mid-air, even a keyboard used as an impact weapon (the dislodged keys stop in mid-air, spelling out FUCK YOU).

Unfortunately, none of this is particularly fresh or original. We’ve seen it before in The Matrix, Shoot ‘Em Up, Fight Club, and countless music videos and video games. Memo to Bekmambetov: Giving us huge doses of what we’ve seen before isn’t the same thing as originality. Still, they do provide a kinetic energy that’s largely lacking from the rest of the film.

For a summer blockbuster, it’s sort of surprising how amateurish much of it looks and feels. Wes’s harpy of a boss is such a broad caricature that she murders the credibility of her scenes. Much of the movie is shot in grubby warehouses or generic trains (only a few scenes take advantage of its Chicago locations). And someone should have clued screenwriters Michael Brandt and Derek Hass into the fact that your tough/hot/cool chick needs a cool introduction. Meeting her in a freaking CVS pharmacy is not a cool introduction. 

On top of that, Wanted’s plotline could have been lifted from any one of a thousand genre pictures, and its higher pretensions of destiny and specialness are just juvenile. It’s true that these themes are timeless, but in most treatments they carry some weight for the protagonist to shoulder. Peter Parker learned that with great power comes great responsibility. Luke Skywalker learned that sometimes you need a traumatic amputation to make a man out of you (and that you really should check into a chick’s genealogy before you start macking on her). In Wanted, Wes basically just has it all handed to him. Hate you job and your boss? Good news: you’re actually a super-assassin and we filled your bank account. And you get to hang with Angelina Jolie. Did you do anything to earn this? No, just being special little you is good enough.

Wanted puts Wes in a largely consequence and discipline-free world. Get critically injured? Just bathe in the magic goop. Why do we kill people? The Loom says so, and that’s good enough for us. Need to slow down time? Just think real hard about it. Need to curve bullets? Just forget that they obey the laws of physics. This has got to be the only movie that mixes gunmen with the self-help book The Secret (I haven’t read the book, but if there’s anyone out there who has, can you tell me if there’s a chapter explaining how the Jews didn't happy-think themselves out of the camps?) Wanted is a self-actualization movie for the supremely entitled.

It’s probably a mistake to read too much into stupid movies, but I have to believe that most movies are a product of their time. The Matrix tapped into the zeitgeist of the New Economy, a time when the dot-com business model would liberate all of us office drones from the Matrix of old-fashioned business with their stodgy suits and cubicles and foosball-less offices. One of the reasons the sequels were such a let down (aside from the fact they kind, you know, sucked rhinos) is that by the time they were released, this brand of thinking had been revealed for the foolishness that it was. Likewise, Fight Club tapped into the millennial identity-crisis of the American male, who had been given everything he wanted and hated himself for it.

If this is the case, then Wanted must represent the last gasp of the American attitude of the first decade of the new millennium. It’s a time when the suggested response to a national tragedy was not a full-scale mobilization of our society to combat the forces that had acted against us, but merely to consume more. A time when we seldom used force wisely, but often in furtherance of vague ambitions and with no regard to consequences or morality. When we bought up SUVs without thought to their practicality (wow, do they make me feel like a man…and gas prices will never go up), and purchased McMansions with money we didn’t have and couldn’t pay back. 

Wielding this bankrupt worldview like a club, Wanted makes a feeble attempt to throw down the gauntlet of manliness in its final scene, as Wes says via voiceover “This is me taking control…What the fuck have you done lately?” Tough guy’s line had me laughing well into the nightly artillery barrage.

UPDATE: My work wife took issue with this review. Read her counterpoint here...

I guess some people might be in a state of suffering or pain..and yet be unable to express themselves and would want to be put to sleep for good!
If you couldn't talk, but you were being tortured in pain, and perhaps couldn't move it, would be too much suffering and it would suck.

Pros
-ending the suffering

Cons
-Perhaps the suffering could end by natural ways, and they die naturally
-They might actually be living some sort of life and be happy with it
-- many people can't get pregnant they are impotent , so if life is so good, should we really end one?

Science Daily reports that

Members of the Southeast Regional Marine Mammal Stranding Network successfully removed a black rubber strap Tuesday that was wrapped around the head of a juvenile bottlenose dolphin, averting a life-threatening injury.

This is just such a sad story to me even though I am happy that the dolphin was rescued.  This just points to the issue of pollution in our oceans.  Animals are hurt all the time by floating debris in the ocean.  Our coral reefs are dieing because of debris damage, as well as aquarium fish hunter bleaching coral reefs to stun fish and thus catch them to put into their fish stores.  The NOAA has a Marine Debris Program which works to put a stop to marine debris and does outreach and education. 

What I think needs to be done is cracking down on fisher man who apparently thinks its ok to throw away their fishing lines by putting them in the oceans.  It would also be helpful it tire dumping or junk yards weren't near lakes and oceans.  I mean does that make any sense.  Also more beach clean up and crack down on beach polluters.  I can't tell you how many times I go to the beach and there's trash sitting in the sands.  We should also change our wasteful lifestyles.  I would argue that we are slowly doing this because our current views on global warming.  But, instead of changing our lives just because of global warming lets do this because of animals like this.  Animals that get stuck in debris all the time, and this dolphin is the lucky one because most animals don't survive.  Its not just America but, the newly developed countries need to practice environmental safety and awareness as well as, more sustainable ways of developing their countries.

This is not just for the benefit of animals but, humans.  I would like to think that us humans love nature and its beauty.  But what will our future children see when they become older.  Are they going to see a world where they won't see dolphins or sea turtles, I mean would you want that for them?  Do you want to leave behind a mess for them to deal with, knowing that it might be too late?  I don't and I hope as human beings we start to show our intelligence and put a stop to this.