In These United States

"That neighborhood was one endless drunken football riot party deck date rape booze fest police state jock fraternity nightmare." --commandercranky, comment in a locked post, talking about state universities.

( What American accent do you have? meme )

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Willie Nelson sez to U.S. Senate, don't slaughter horsez for human consumption. (via mhalachai) I sez, so what? 100,000 horses is a drop in the bucket. I was trying to figure out if Willie is vegetarian, and my google-fu led me to this:

We, Christian vegetarians, are probably asking: what is the difference between a horse and a cow or any other farmed animal? Why is the public so against the consumption of horse meat but keep supporting the cruelty involved in raising and slaughtering the rest of the animals for food? Willie Nelson is right in that horses need not to be eaten; however, it’s not because they are part of the American Heritage, but because they’ve been created by God to glorify him and share the earth with us.

Edited: While I don't think that animals were "created by God" or even "to Glorify him", I share the general sentiment that asking not to eat horses while eating other animals is somewhat hypocritical.

(I mean according to the Christian logic listed above, weren't plants created by God to glorify him too? I'm just in the environmental and nervous system harm-reduction camp.)

I need a veg*n icon.

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Conservatives nominate anti-Kyoto lobbyist to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the main funding body for science research in Canada.

Maybe I should rename this LJ the "Chronicle of End Times"

'A world without seafood'

The diversity of species in the world's oceans is being so severely depleted that most stocks will collapse within decades while the water itself grows sicker[.]

...species are disappearing at such a rapid rate that all wild seafood could collapse by 2048.

"If we don't change the way we do things, we will literally run out of species in our lifetimes"

THIS is what I'm refering about when I'm saying that the ban on horse slaughter doesn't really matter.

"We really see the end of the line now. . . . Our children will see a world without seafood if we don't change things."

The Conservatives aren't defeated yet

Les conservateurs amassent des millions [cyberpresse.ca, will post English version when someone publishes it.]

So far this year, the Conservatives have raised $13,3 million, the Liberals $4,1 million and the NDP $2,8 million. The Conservatives, like the NDP, have good experience raising multiple small contributions, whereas the Liberals were more reliant on fewer, larger donations. I don't know if Liberal leadership donations are counted in the Liberal total or not, but whichever way, the total annual limit a contributor is allowed to give a party includes leadership race donations, so people who have donated the maximum contribution to a leadership candidate this year cannot give to the party as well. I *hope* for the Liberals that that explains a part of the lopsided income, compared to the Conservatives.

The parties also rely for their income on $1,75 per year per vote gathered in the last election.

(Sorry for the multiple postings today, there's just a lot of stuff to talk about...)