Meat (over)consumption

Americans eat 10 billion,

10,000,000,000
animals each year!

Holy cow! Learn more: watch or read.

Acting in Triplicate?

Seeing triple?


Michael Bluth (aka Jason Bateman)


Malcolm Reynolds (aka Nathan Fillion)


Marty McFly (aka Michael J. Fox)

Also, all of the characters names start with 'M'. Coincidence? I think not.

The Story of Stuff

I just received an email from a friend with this link in it: http://www.storyofstuff.com/ ...I watched it and I love the movie. If you want to bypass it and go directly to their action steps, click here. What follows is an excerpt from a 20 minute video, jam-packed with facts in a really easy to digest way. There's a lot we could talk about regarding this video, so if it gets you inspired, comment or email me!

I do have one suggestion for the website and movie makers, which I outline in an email I just sent:

Hi -

I just watched The Story of Stuff. I think it does an amazing job at explaining complex problems in an engaging and simple way. I've already sent the links to many of my friends and family and I'll probably end up blogging about it a little later.

But I have one question, why not mention the other 3 "R"s? Sure, recycling is great, but it's on the bottom of the hierarchy of the other R's. I was recently working on a project to network sustainability efforts in Costa Rica and learned about the 4th R, "rechazar" in Spanish, or "reject" in English. In this hierarchy, rejecting products comes first - never buying those which are toxic, disposable, or otherwise harmful. Next would come "reduce," then "reuse," and, finally, "recycle."

We seem to have become obsessed with only the last R, the lowest on the hierarchy, the one with the least potential to change the linear system Annie Leonard spoke of -- to the neglect of the other 3, more helpful Rs. These 4 "R"s can be guiding principles, in addition to the 10 steps you have already outlined on the website. I think your website, and the organization of people behind it, could surely use it in a productive and educational way.

So, though I was disappointed to hear Annie only speak of recycling, and forget about its counterparts, I really enjoyed the video. I appreciate the work you're doing to bring these kinds of facts, statistics, and big picture problems to the computer screens of so many people in such a well-done effort.

Thanks, and keep up the great work,
Ari Sahagun

This particular issue, the over-focus on recycling to the neglect of the counterparts, has been on my mind lately. Writing this email-letter makes me want to write to some of the local papers around here and tell them about it. I think I just might.

I truely believe that...

...everyone should watch this:

It's from youtube's early days...and has 5,000,000+ views. That's crazy.

Two Intense Movies

The past two nights I've watched two movies: The Price of Pleasure and The Constant Gardener. They were both pretty depressing but at the same time thought provoking. Here are some of my thoughts:

The price of pleasure was about pornography and it's impacts. The aim of the documentary was not to provide a bias or be preachy, but rather its aim is just to get people talking about it, something we usually do not do, no more than the "porn is bad" or "I like/watch porn." The movie included a lot of quotes from porn "users," producers, and actresses. It described a study done to analyze some of the top rented flicks - from the violence in it to racial content. I wouldn't have guessed this but about 90% of the films they analyzed had violent content. (Though I don't know their working definition of violence.) The movie included several porn clips as well, and nothing out of the ordinary, as far as I can tell. It was certainly interesting to see it removed from its normal context.

Seeing the clips out of context, it was even more clear how big a role male dominance is in the scenarios of standard porn. The movie pointed out that when sex is attached to these socially unacceptable (politically incorrect) ideas they can be extremely overt and we don't seem to care as much or at all. The male dominance is one facet, but race (gendered) is also a factor. Extremely over-sexualized black men, docile Asian women, demanding white men, etc., the standard racial stereotypes, but on steroids and very obviously tied to gender. These politically incorrect ideas are overlooked and more acceptable in porn. Why is that?

To me the most interesting phenomenon is how the concept of "normal" is completely altered by watching pornography. For many men*, porn (videos and magazines) is one of the first and perhaps only source for information on sex and relationships. (*I say men here because they are the overwhelming majority of porn consumers.) How then will they ever develop a frame of reference on sex outside of that? In other words, their views on sex are created by the world of porn, and these ideas are too often brought into the world of the bedroom. With no anchor on normality outside of porn, this fundamentally changes what will register as violence, or as rape, in a man's mind.

I do not blame the men who watch porn. Though I think there are healthy alternatives to using porn (like not using it), I find it hard to place blame on the individual men. How so? I think it has something to do with how the concept of normal is altered - it's not conscious. They're not thinking "I'd like to see violent porn and change my perception of violence and then act violently toward my significant other." Furthermore, demonizing or shaming men for doing this would tend to make them more resistant to change. So, though I do not think these individuals are to blame, I do think they are the ones who need to change. Once they realize that their views of sex and relationships are affected by porn, they should question that. It is their responsibility as a part of an intimate relationship to be aware of their ideas of sex and what they bring to that relationship.

And in a free market system where we are not allowed to blame a company for producing porn, I believe we shouldn't put the responsibility on them either, i.e. ask them to censor themselves. I do think it is the responsibility of individuals to have control over themselves. Men need to find a masculinity that is not derived from a dominance over women, and their free market demand should thus requisite less supply.

OH, and HERE'S the bibliography. (It's a PDF file from the Price of Pleasure website.) (There's a lot else at the website, including a trailer and interview w/ Noam Chomsky.)

Ok, well I've been rambling a bit more than I thought I would so I'll come back to the other movie another time. Let me know what you think.

organization

thoughts from the movie blow

it's odd how the drug trade works very well against the current of mainstream society. not only is the underground market highly organized and maintains to be efficiently covert, it also tends to benefit people in less developed communities. further, these people in third world countries are benefitting off of our (first world) need to drown away our problems (i.e. through drugs) which are created and maintained by taking advantage of other third world countries.