The Reasonable Activist

One Last Time

The night before the burial of her husband’s body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time.  The Marines made a bed for her.

I would like to take a moment to remind everyone that we are still at war, and that we still have soldiers fighting overseas.  Whether you believe in their mission or not, the job they do is an honorable one.  So as we buckle down to deal with more pressing issues such as the economy or swine flu, don’t forget that somewhere the most pressing issue for one of our own is a bullet or an IED.  Blessings to everyone.

THIS IS A CROSS-POST FROM AN UNRELATED SITE, FOR THE FULL ARTICLE VISIT:
http://shock.military.com/Shock/images.do?displayContent=101062#

Image linked from http://www.positivenation.co.uk/

Think the HIV/AIDS epidemic is over? Check out this game to see if you can tell who is HIV positive.

http://www.posornot.com/

Comment back here if you’d like, to show how well you did or how you felt about it.  The game doesn’t keep track of ‘score’, but it only takes one wrong to fail!

(This has been cross-posted to its sister website http://healthsneak.com.)

REFERENCE:
http://www.positivenation.co.uk/issue130/features/feature1/feature1.htm – great article about disclosing your HIV+ status

Fiji’s military government says anonymous pro-democracy bloggers are a “threat to national security.”

READ FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-04-28-voa11.cfm

This article is cross-posted with my sister site, http://jadxia.livejournal.com. LJ is my personal weblog.

The Supreme Court yesterday sharply limited the power of police to search a suspect’s car after making an arrest, acknowledging that the decision changes a rule that law enforcement has relied on for nearly 30 years.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/21/AR2009042102125_Comments.html

MY OFFICIAL COMMENT ON THE POST:
It is a hard line to draw beween safety and freedom. Part of me wonders how many dangerous criminals will not be found out because no one knew about the guns in the trunk. The other part remembers riding home from work late at night with some coworkers and being stopped for no good reason, forced to sit on the curb, and wait thirty minutes in the cold while police searched the car and didn’t find anything.

I would love for police to have the right to conduct a reasonable search, but as with any privilege comes responsibility. Too many power-tripping officers have abused this right, and like any bad apple they have made things harder for the good, responsible men and women of law enforcement.

Image linked from http://www.ecorazzi.com

As a self-styled carnivore I would be hypocritical to rally against the evils of fur.  After all, responsible animal husbandry includes not wasting any part of an animal which has died for food.  I wear leather.  Wearing an animal which was not eaten goes a little more against my grain, but mink is probably gamey for the average gourmand.  Rabbit, on the other hand, is quite tasty, and I am quick to separate ‘rabbits as pets’ from ‘rabbits as food and glove liners’ in my thought processes.  Yes, I eat rabbit.  Yes, I will wear things trimmed in rabbit fur.  Yes, I used to be a member of the House Rabbit Society and I hope one day to live in a place where I can foster bunnies which will be loved and not eaten.  It helps to know that, when threatened, mama bunny will not hesitate to cannibalize her young.  If a rabbit can eat another rabbit, why can’t I?

Still, it is shameful to think of how poorly farm animals are treated, even here in America.  This is especially true for animals raised primarily for fur.  We have regulations about clean air and water, but not many in regards to humane treatment of fur animals.  Through popular consumer demand, the fur industry is finally being forced to ‘voluntarily’ regulate.

Introducing the Origin Assured (OA) label.  The OA label does nothing more than provide basic product transparency.  It denotes that the fur in question comes from a country where there are some standards regarding fur production.  Now, I cannot fully endorse this new label as guilt-free fur.  Some of the standards, most especially in the United States of America, are woefully inadequate in regards to cruelty-free treatment of animals.  However, this is an exciting first step.  Hopefully one day, every fur ranching nation will have enforced regulations regard the treatment of all animals, be they pet or product.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT:

http://originassured.com

http://www.nafa.ca/

For every problem, there is a solution which is simple, neat, and wrong.  — H.L. Mencken

I wanted to draw attention to this recently published FBI perspective on “school shooters”, which is a succinct term for students who suddenly snap, go to school armed, and kill their fellow classmates and/or school faculty.

http://www.fbi.gov/publications/school/school2.pdf

As an interesting FYI, there is also a terrorism newspaper archive now available to the general public.

http://www.theterrorismarchive.com/Home.aspx

While dull, assessments can be invaluable for the everyday layperson who suddenly wonders “Why did the government or authority in charge do such-and-such instead of so-and-so?  Doesn’t anyone have common sense?”  These perspectives give us insight into the general bureaucratic thought processes that may lead to policies appearing illogical on the outside.