seeing our shadow

ward egg ranch, san diego, california, february 2003: 15,000 hens, "spent" laying hens, their bodies so depleted of calcium they are useless for egg laying, are thrown, alive, into a wood chipper to die

chickens genetically altered to grow twice as large and twice as fast as they would naturally, according to a poultry industry journal says "grow so rapidly that the heart and lungs are not developed well enough to support the remainder of the body, resulting in congestive heart failure and tremendous death losses."

turkeys and chickens, stacked in crates atop one another, or sometimes kept four to a crate, often must be debeaked--the burning off of a portion of the beak, to make it less sharp--so as not to damage each other in their cramped quarters

birds that fall off the slaughterhouse conveyor belts are left to die, as taking the time to pick them up would delay production

dairy cows are impregnated so as to give birth every year and, through genetic manipulation and intensive production technologies, it's common for them to produce 100 lbs of milk a day (10 times more than they would naturally produce). like with the abovementioned hens, these cows often suffer from calcium depletion (more being taken out than their diet can put back in). and, their high energy diets (so as to get more milk produced) can cause serious metabolic disorders

newborn calfs are separated from their mothers, the females to be raised to be dairy cows like their mothers, the males to be raise for beef or crated to be raised for veal

the cia uses the following tactics (many used in abu ghraib):

• forced nudity and sexual situations (intended to violate muslim moral codes)
• use of unmuzzled dogs to threaten prisoners
• exposure to extremes of hot and cold
• sleep deprivation
• use of stress positions (binding in contorted or painful stances for long periods, or forced standing in one place)
• water boarding (tying the prisoner to a board and either dunking him in water or suffocating him with a soaking wet cloth, repeatedly to the point of near-drowning)

four young men died in california youth authority prisons last year. publicized reports had guards isolating young people in 6' by 9' cement cells for months at a time, abusing kids with chemical weapons and failing to provide basic levels of educational, medical and mental health care. a videotape of guards beating two youths made national news

yet, still we make war, we torture, and we shove generation after generation of animals into the factory process of the meat industry, generation after generation of humans into prisons or into armies. the catholic church pays millions to settle child abuse cases, our new attorney general promotes torture as a reasonable course of action

and, at gobbler's nob this morning, punxsutawney phil saw his shadow--or was pulled out of his fake stump, held up for the crowd to ooh and ahh and his pronouncement was made regardless of his involvement--so 6 more weeks of winter... but how many more weeks, months or years of abuse, imprisonment and violence do we get?

of course, who cares? we've got valentine's day coming up, then the oscars, st patrick's day, easter, and the occasions keep coming... and, no one bothers to fix anything or acknowledge anything bad for any moment long enough to distract them from picking out new cell phones or drooling over the new suv behemoth or fretting over what's going on over in the oc or on csi or law & order or desperate housewives

and, today we get the state of the union, bush's attempt to justify all the shit he's going to put us through rather than an honest appraisal of the union or her state