About a month ago, the finance director at my church asked me to do some research for her on restricted donations. I did do the research and sent her the research by e-mail. The next day, the finance director sent me a mildly nasty e-mail saying she didn't want to hear from me since I was not part of the finance committee and since I wasn't the church's lawyer or treasurer. Now, I realize it is hard to detect what a person is thinking when they write an e-mail. So when I responded I did mention to her that she was the one who asked for my research. She sort of apologized, but she has left a bitter taste in my mouth. I hate church politics! No wonder I stopped sitting on board meetings. I go to a bookclub instead!
 | Zoos. | Jan 16, '08 9:42 PM
for everyone |
In theory I am not opposed to well-managed, conservation-minded zoos that give animals the space they need. However, this does not seem to be the case for many zoos, including the one in my hometown of Peoria, IL. I just got done reading In Defense of Animals' latest e-mail regarding the mistreatment of animals in zoos. St. Louis is on their top 10 list of zoos that are bad for elephants. I have been to the St. Louis zoo, and I thought the elephants were kept in a horribly small enclosure. The calf was cute, but its mother had rejected it. Maybe the calf's mother didn't want to raise a baby in such conditions. Then I read that the San Francisco zoo almost had a polar bear and a snow leopard escape within the last week. So in theory, while I am not opposed to zoos, I guess in practice I am opposed to almost all zoos. l have moved up my video of the elephants at St. Louis zoo in the video section of my Multiply page. The compound is divided into two small sections, and the ground is hard.
This January 11, The local Amnesty International group and the local peace group hosted a film screening of The Road to Guantanamo. The film is a dramatic depiction of how three British Muslims wound up in Guantanamo and their harrowing experiences with the U.S. injustice system. After the film, we signed and sent letters to various government officials. I hope that one of the first things the next president of the U.S. does is shut down Gitmo! On a related note, a quote of mine from a January 11, 2007 Guantanamo protest wound up in the December 30, 2007 issue of the Peoria Journal Star as a top quote. I can't give you the link, because the Journal Star removes all internet articles for public-viewing after two weeks. Here's a partial quote from the article: "A toast to the top quotes of 2007... 'It's a stain on America's moral fiber that needs to be stamped out," Terri Brink said...
| Diet | Jan 4, '08 10:07 AM
for everyone |
I went to the doctor yesterday, and besides my cholesterol being too high (probably the Christmas treats) I am a borderline diabetic. Yikes. It's a good thing I started a low-fat diet on December 30. I told my housemate the news and he said he'd help me on my quest too. His blood sugar results weren't took good either. So we both are going to try to avoid sweets as much as possible. He also said that he would cook low-fat. I am on the myalli.com diet. I really don't care about the pill, but the online tools that come with the plan are really fantastic. I might check out the Oklahoma City weight loss site to see what it has to offer. I'm not at all enthusiastic about taking more pills.
I hope everyone has a great 2008. I plan to be more attentive in how I spend my time. I want to read more, work more efficently, and lose some weight. I started the My Alli Plan. I've just started it. I am impressed. The online tools that My alli have given me are very cool - on line menu - nutrition chart - physical activity chart. Well, wish me luck on the diet.
Well, my blog communications have been dismal recently. Work has been rather hectic and I guess I have been in a blog slump lately with work and computer problems. For several months I had trouble woth my AT&T DSL service, but now that I have dry loop/naked DSL I have no problem accessing the internet, so I should be blogging more in the future. So to all my blog buddies, "hi." I'll be visiting you all real soon.
recently, Gloria, a close friend, and I attended the Amnesty International Midwest Regional conference in Omaha. I really learned a lot and am now more invigorated for human rights work. I found out that Amnesty International was very influential in the formation of the International Criminal Court and that in the near future, Amnesty will be tackling poverty issues.
 This past month I was sick from work twice. The last time, I was nauseous to the point of vomiting and I had a headache and the back of my left eye hurt. I also had a dry, unproductive cough that was a result of my nausea. In fact, for at least of couple of weeks the back of my left eye hurt constantly. My left eyelid was swollen. Then it dawned on me, could my medication have something to do with my illness? When I called the doctor's office I was told to stop taking lisinopril and start taking hyzaar for my high blood pressure. Well, I do feel better since I have stopped taking it. Well, I hope this fixes things and that my cough will eventually disappear completely.
 Photo is in the public domain. I've heard the argument several times that if livestock are so detrimental to the environment (re: greenhouse gas emissions of methane), then what about buffalo? Well, I did a bit of research and found out that at one time there were 60,000,000 buffalo the current cattle population is (get ready) 1.3 billion worldwide with over 100,000 million in the Untied States. And don't forget all of the pigs. There are other environmental problems with livestock such as overgrazing, deforestation, and pollution. Further thoughts: I also have other questions regarding livestock and methane. For example, I am curious about total, by species, ruminant population from around the 1800s until current. I also am interested in the quantity of methane emitted by each different species of ruminants. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to further research this. Is it even if it is possible to research this? So for now, since the UN's climate report was concerned about the livestock industry and global warming, I will be concerned about it. If some one has research on this, please tell me and provide a link. Thanks! Now that I'm vegan, I guess that I have done my bit to reduce those methane emissions. I read several places (not just from vegetarian sources) that going vegan reduces more greenhouse gases than changing your mode of transportation. I still am going to work on other ways, besides veganism, to reduce my greenhouse gas emissions. I went vegan for philisophical/religous concerns, but the greenhouse gas reduction for going vegan is a great perk!
 Tonight from 7 PM until 5 AM I will be holding vigil at my local Federal Building. I want Ray LaHood to know that I and many people like me (over 70% of his constituents) are against the war and want the U.S. to pull out its troops. Since this is LaHood's's last term he does not need to worry about going against Dubya. I hope he votes to pull out U.S. Troops. Well, I got to get going. I have several things I need to do before I stand vigil at the Federal Building.
 Yesterday after finishing up an audit in Woodford County, I stopped by the local farmers' market to buy some fresh, organic produce and visit with my friend, Jack Ryan who works part-time for a local organic bread company. After visiting with Jack and buying some delicious sweet corn and green peppers I left for Taste of Peoria. Tracy Turner of the Iraq Summer campaign needed volunteers to hand out fliers for a town hall meeting on Iraq. When I finally found Tracy I started handing out fliers and anti-war stickers. I managed to pass out all of the fliers and all of the stickers. Very few people made unfavorable comments and those who did were not nasty (well, how could they be too nasty with all the cops around). Which leads me to the title of this post... I was at the parking lot nearest to the entrance of the Gateway Building. People had to go through this entrance in order to get into the Taste of Peoria. This parking lot was reserved for emergency vehicles (i.e. cops) and handicapped parking. shortly after I arrived at my spot to pass out fliers, a police lieutenant asked me what I was doing. I showed her a flyer and asked her if she wanted to come to the town hall meeting. She said "no", and stated that she was concerned about all the motorcycles. She didn't even have enough room to back out since there were many motorcycles parked behind her police cruiser. Furthermore several of these motorcycles were in an handicapped parking space. So after about an hour, she finally found some officers who had a book of parking tickets, one officer took photos of the bikes in the handicapped parking space, and another one spent about an hour writing tickets - $15 for the ones that were double-parked and (yikes) $350 for parking in the handicapped spot. Moral - Be careful where you park your vehicle. The cops love to give out $350 parking tickets.
Please don't support him. He is a libertarian and as such, even though he does not support the war effort and is a civil libertarian, he has many positions that are non-progressive. Here are some major issues I disagree with him on: 1. He does not support the right of same sex couples that want to marry (how unlibertarian of him). 2. He does not support universal health care. In fact he would like all health care to be privatized. 3. He supports the wall that would cut off Mexico from the United States. 4. I bet he is against gun control. 5. As a libertarian, he would probably try to give corporations a free hand in doing what they want. Bush is bad enough on deregulation, Paul would probably be much worse.
 Link back to photo: http://images.groundhogcat.multiply.com/image/1/photos/upload/orig/RydNTgoKCmgAAC4zR-c27/1.jpeg?et=o2bNMdOC0amMK2RVyp3Zjw This weekend I went to Clinton Lake with Gloria. After finishing our swim at the beach, I noticed a barn swallow nest at the shower house. I waited for one of the parents to show up and got the shot above. While there is some blue eye on the parent bird, I was elated to realize that I had caught the bird in flight. I used to live in a complex that knocked down the barn swallow nests because of the bird poop, but fortunately the Illinois Department of Natural Resources doesn't agree with my former landlords at Haymeadow. After all the birds are just trying to make a living.
 photo from the following story from National Geographic: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/060524-global-warming.html I am going to talk about my father since he and my mom are the two right-wing Republicans I know best, and this blog is about the right-wing in the United States. Last night over the phone, I was telling my dad how I am hosting a Party for the Planet party (in conjunction with MoveOn, whose name I didn't mention to him) and how I was going to the local global warming action group meeting that night. He then proceeded to say that he thought Al Gore probably had something to do with the concert and that he'd make sure he wouldn't watch it. So far, so good, everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, the next thing out of his mouth was that he had no respect for Al Gore since he was a liar. The proof? Al Gore's supposed claim that he invented the internet. Not wanting to get in another political discussion over the phone, I let the matter drop. However I did send him something from Snopes.com regarding how Al Gore never claimed that he invented the internet. My dad refused to open it. He didn't want to know the truth. In fact he spoutted out another lie about Al Gore. So I guess (well, I actually suspected it many years ago), that is how many people on the right can continue to spout lies, they refuse to look at the truth! The link: http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp If the "truth will set you free", and many religious right -wing conservatives refuse to examine the truthfulness of statements they make, then I guess they aren't free. And guess,what? Many of them aren't free. Many of them are so tied to their miserable dogmatic lives, that I almost feel sorry for them.
 Above picture found on the following interesting blog entry: http://gspence1173.wordpress.com/2007/03/10/anne-coulter-possessed-by-spirit-... I saw Ann Coulter on Hardball last night. Is this woman supposed to be funny? I thought she definitely wasn't very funny at all. She certainly was wrong-headed about political issues. I'm not sure what her fans see in her. Perhaps, her fans like her outrageous comments. Joe Scarborough is much funnier than Coulter. I didn't even think she was especially beautiful, although, she acted like she was so gorgeous. She looked rather cheap to me. Perhaps that is her persona/act. Now Condi, there is a snazzy dresser. Condi is rather sexy too. I don't like Condi, but I have to give her her due in the good-looking department. Ann is definitely not good looking. Blah! Any comments, either pro, neutral or anti- Coulter, on this blog entry will be greatly appreciated. Update - Why did I mention Coulter's looks? Because she makes a point of making fun of other women's looks! She also had a thing against chubby legs.
Warning - A very personal, stupid rant about my family. So tonight I call my parents and while speaking to my father, I mention that I am part of this central Illinois coalition on global warming and that we are planning to try to convince city officials to go green when it comes to energy use. There are lots of great environmental organizers in the group with many years of experience in working on the environment. Well, on thing leads to another and before I can get a word in my father starts talking about how great nuclear energy is and that if my group wants to help the environment that we should promote nuclear energy. Gee thanks dad. Anyway, this is not the first, and I am sure not the last time, that my dad has burst my balloon. I finally got fed up and chewed him out. Of course he denies that he talks down to me. But what am I to think, I can hardly get a word in and the only reason he listened to me at all is because I made an issue of it. I know that my complaint is a common complaint of adult children. Parents, listen to your adult children, sometimes they do have good ideas and might know what they are talking about. Well, it is a sad conclusion. Dad apologized for the fact that I felt he was putting me down. Of course, he could never acknowledge that there is anything to my complaints. He also has me in a hard place because if I offer examples, he'll say (and did say), that what I am talking about happened too long ago to be worth being concerned about. And of course implying that I am sort of damaged child who holds on to things too long. Parting shot - If my dad really cares about stopping global warming so much, why did he vote for Dubya twice!. Damned if I do. Damned if I don't. I guess that's life. End of personal complaint. I'm better now.
 Photo above: a scene from "Knocking." Last night I watched the Independent Lens episode called "Knocking". It was about the Jehovah's Witnesses and how their uncompromising faith also helped civil rights in the United States. I also learned that many of the German Witnesses did not support Hitler and many perished in the concentration camps because of their faith. I wish the mainstream German Christian churches had also refused to go along with Hitler. I'm going to remain a very liberal Christian, but I have a new found respect for the Witnesses. By the way, if you get a chance, watch Independent Lens. The hour long stories are usually very, very interesting. Next week's documentary is going to be about the parrots of Telegraph Hill. Here's a link to "Knocking": http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/knocking/
 NOAA photo in public domain
From a newsletter article I wrote:
Whales in Danger
Whales are in danger. This winter Japan assigned itself a Southern Ocean quota of 935 minke and 10 fin whales. Because the Japanese whale meat processing ship caught fire, the Japanese whaling fleet had to head back home early. The Japanese government continues to hunt whales under a loophole in the IWC (International Whaling Convention) that allows for âÂÂscientificâ whaling. The IWC has requested that Japan stop its âÂÂscientific researchâ killing of whales, but Japan still continues to hunt whales for its meat market. Much of meat from the whales slaughtered by Japan (and Norway and Iceland) ends up unused. According to figures released by the Japanese government and analyzed by the Japanese Whale and Dolphin Network, Japan has huge stockpiles of whale meat. For the 2005/2006 whale hunt, the amount of unused whale meat was the equivalent of 50 minke whales! Whales are threatened. Not only do they have to deal with commercial whale hunting, but they also have to deal with the effects pollution, overfishing, ship strikes and noise, and climate change. Since the IWC meeting takes place in the US at the end of May and the US is chairing the meeting, US politicians should be prodded to exert diplomatic pressure to end the commercial whale hunts of Japan, Iceland and Norway. The time to end the commercial hunt is now! Suggested websites to learn more about how to help the whales: Greenpeace: http://whales.greenpeace.org/ Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS): http://www.wdcs.org/ âÂÂIf conservationists and world opinion are unable to even protect the great whales of our oceans in this new century what hope can there be for the planet?â - The Honorable Sandra Te Hakamatua Lee, former New Zealand minister of conservation Suggested reading: Mulvaney, Kieran. The Whaling Season: An Inside Account of the Struggle to Stop Commercial Whaling. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2003. IâÂÂve just started this fascinating book that is written by a scientist and Greenpeace activist who has been on the frontline of fighting commercial whaling. Mulvaney is a founder of the WDCS. HereâÂÂs what the bookâÂÂs dust jacket says about the book and its author: "The Whaling Season recounts the extraordinary efforts to intercept that [Japanese Southern Ocean] fleet and halt the slaughter in one of the EarthâÂÂs last great wilderness areas. Kieran Mulvaney has led four expeditions to stop whaling. In The Whaling Season, he offers a vivid account of the voyages in all their drama, disappointment, strains, and elation, giving readers a behind-the-scenes look at the hazards and triumphs of life as an environmental activist...Kieran Mulvaney is the author of At Ends of the Earth: A History of the Polar Regions, and of more than 200 articles on science and the environmentâ¦â Greenpeace video on whales and commerical whale hunting (some footage is graphic):
 Illustration from Southern Poverty Law Center article on Frank Weltner, owner of Jew Watch website. About a week ago I received a link to a horrible site called Jew Watch. An activist sent it out promoting it because the site mentioned Israel's human rights crimes in Palestine (which are numerous). I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. I suggested that she use other sources that are reputable -Jewish Voice for Peace, for example. Today, I got an e-mail from her asking why she shouldn't promote the website on her blog. She could see nothing wrong with it. I wrote her back and I told her that I didn't want e-mails from her anymore. I could not believe that she could not see anything wrong with the site. For example, one section of the site is "Jewish Mind Control Mechanisms." The site also refers to Z.O.G. which I found out means Zionist Occupied Governments. Well, I won't go into it anymore, I find this whole subject very distasteful. I found it very distasteful, to have to read my former activist friend's email supporting the site. Well, I am definitely of the opinion that the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. It's entirely possible that the enemy of my enemy is my enemy too. To clear any confusion, the Israeli State is not my friend, but I am am not anti-Jew! Similarly, I am not a friend of the U.S. government , but I love the United States in all her natural glory. I just hate the U.S. empire.
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