SuperWeed

SuperWeed

communications from an eco-anarcha-feminist animal

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Huh?

So, Barack “Let’s bomb Pakistan” Obama has been given the Nobel Peace Prize.

Let’s review his record, shall we?

In the days leading up to his inauguration, Israel was in the midst of a flat-out massacre of civilians in Gaza. Obama said nothing. There was no doubt, as it was ongoing, what was happening. If there had been any doubts, those ought to have been resolved by the recent report on war crimes committed during the Gaza offensive. Instead of being instructed by that report, Obama’s administration has condemned it as unbalanced. Of course it is unbalanced! Most of the crimes were committed by one side! The only way to make it “balanced” would have been to distort the facts, which is what Obama does every time he worries about Iran’s hypothetical future nukes while ignoring Israel-s all-too-real, already-existing stockpile of nuclear bombs.

Which brings us to the next point: War-mongering. Last week, Obama raised false alarms about Iran that sounded suspiciously like the false alarms Bush raised about Iraq.

But war-mongering is not as bad as actually perpetrating unprovoked warfare, which Obama also has done. Immediately upon taking office, Obama authorized and escalated drone attacks across the Afghan border into Pakistan, thereby inflaming tensions in that nuclear state to a crisis point for which World Food Program employees recently paid with their lives.

Let me get this straight: When Palestinian renegades protest Israeli occupation of their land by launching rickety, hand-made rockets across the border into Israel, killing nobody, that is a war crime the equivalent of the Israel army launching mass reprisals in civilian areas, killing thousands. But when the Obama-led U.S. military lobs bombs across a border into a country that has not aggressed the U.S., killing hundreds of civilians and escalating armed conflict within that country, that is… behavior worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize?

And then there is Afghanistan itself, a country that the U.S. attacked without provocation seven years ago and still occupies by force today. Much has been made of Obama’s purported opposition to the war in Iraq, but little is said of his quite explicit support for that ongoing atrocity.

It’s just… I can’t … [descent into incoherent sputtering].

I truly cannot imagine what those Peace Prize people were thinking. They’ve made a mockery of the award, forever tarnishing it for those who truly earned it.

Boycotting Marriage

Earlier this year — or was it last year? — I got into a lot of trouble for telling a reporter that I hope my heterosexual friends who are financially able to do so will boycott marriage until such time as it becomes available to everyone. I’m happy to report that a group of students has launched the National Marriage Boycott. Their slogan is “We won’t — until we all can.”

Me, I’m busy prepping classes for fall. SuperWeed will return to its regular broadcast schedule soon.

International Nature Writing


The August issue of Words Without Borders has got a lovely selection of innovative nature writing from eastern Europe, central Africa, South America, and some imaginary places. Check it out if you’re looking for something interesting to read on a sultry August afternoon wherever you happen to be. Think about place, time, circumstance, and how these intersect; how everyplace is sometime and, as Delmore Schwartz wrote, “all are circumstances.” I’ve just moved and am consequently even more aware than usual of place and time. More soon, once I get settled.

Against Vivisection (redux)

Still here at AR2009. As an adjunct to today’s “Commonalities of Oppression” talk, let me offer this link to last year’s talk on the same topic. Check out the intersections category for more posts on this topic; visit the connections page of the Eastern Shore Sanctuary website for even more ideas, essays, and links.

Nurturing Activism (redux)

I know, I know, I still need to post summaries of my talks at TLOV in June. But here I am in LA at AR2009, getting ready to appear on the “Nurturing Activism” panel, and so this seems a good time to share the link to my account of my 2007 talk on that topic. Here it is.

Mickey Z Interviews Me

As a way of helping the Eastern Shore Sanctuary get some publicity in the midst of our more expensive than anticipated relocation, Mickey Z wrote up an interview with me for OpEd News. It covers trauma and recovery, rooster rehabilitation, the social construction of gender by way of animals, and the origins of the sanctuary. Read it. Rate it. Share the link. Thanks, Mickey!

What We Can Learn from Sonia Sotomayor

The right-wing rhetorical flap over the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court puts me to mind of the failed nomination of Lani Guinier to the position of Assistant Attorney General back in 1993. As I wrote at the time,

One minute, [Lani Guinier] was a respected law professor and Justice Department nominee; the next minute, she was the “quota Queen.” Never mind that she had never advocated quotas; it was a catchy phrase, so the name stuck. In short order, Guinier was history. The truth was no defense against the orchestrated perception of her as a quota-slinging “reverse racist” hell-bent on destroying the very fabric of democracy.

Then, as now, liberals rushed to correct the record, clarifying and contextualizing Guinier’s positions on race-related questions. Then, as now, such efforts mattered not at all in the realm of right-wing rhetoric.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed to the Supreme Court. But that will be because, unlike Bill Clinton in 1993, Barack Obama has sufficient political capital and is willing to spend some of it on supporting his nominee. When Sotomayor ascends to the bench, it won’t be because Rachel Maddow won the argument with Bill O’Reilly. Nor, as we have already seen, will well-documented corrections of the record in any way dissuade opponents of Sotomayor from making misleading and even counter-factual claims about her.

I mention this because liberal defenders of Sotomayor — using facts, quotes and video clips to prove that Republican presidents have valued empathy too; that conservative Supreme Court nominees have said that their ethnicity and life history matters; and that, um, yes appeals court judges do “make law” routinely, whenever they issue precedent-setting rulings — remind me so strongly of advocates of veganism rushing to seize every opportunity to point out the ethical, environmental, and health benefits of plant-based diets.

All of that is necessary and important. But it’s not enough. When powerful political and economic forces are at play, rational suasion only goes so far. That’s why I and the Eastern Shore Sanctuary have always advocated a multifaceted, knowledge-based approach to the long-term project of converting a world-food system currently dominated by animal agriculture to the cruelty-free world of food for everybody we all want to see. Please visit the agriculture reform page of the newly renovated sanctuary website for details. And please do support the sanctuary generously if it is within your means to do so.

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