Heroic "vandals" at Ohio farm release 25,000 mink, 10,000 go free into wild, sheriff angry (fox7austin.com). Vandals schmandals! Animal liberators concerned with the welfare of tens of thousands of tortured animals being prepared for slaughter in Ohio took to direct action to liberate them. They left the writing on the wall, literally, to show who and why it was done. Maybe an impersonator did it. Maybe it's an insurance scam by the owners. Maybe Nazi youth trying to make the local hippies look bad spray painted that message. Maybe a neighboring farm is trying to destroy Lion Farms. Who knows. The mink are out now, and that part of Ohio is not likely to be the same. Some are sure to go feral, survive, thrive, and invade the local ecosystem. Did the torturers ever think of that when they imported these animals from another habitat and kept them in cages their whole lives before being slaughtered for the fur trade? What if these carnivores made it to a chicken farm? It might mean financial disaster. The solution by local yokels? Guns. It's open season on these curious creatures trying to survive in a foreign land, yet all the cruelty is being blamed on the liberators who saved these souls from certain death by their torturers and captors.
(OL) "If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front" (Marshall Curry, Sam Cullman)
On December 7, 2005, federal agents conducted a nationwide sweep of "radical environmentalists" involved with the Earth Liberation Front -- an organization the FBI has called America's "number one domestic terrorism threat."
"If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front" is the remarkable story of the group's rise and fall, told through the transformation and radicalization of one of its members, Daniel McGowan.
Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film interweaves a chronicle of McGowan facing life in prison with a dramatic investigation of the events that led to his involvement with the ELF.
Using never before seen archival footage and intimate interviews -- with members and with the prosecutor and detective who were chasing them -- "If a Tree Falls" asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we are told to define terrorism. "May I Be Frank" (mayibefrankmovie.com)
Fat Frank Ferrante is a 54 year old Italian from New York living in San Francisco, who loves life, great food, beautiful women, and a good laugh. He is also a morbidly obese drug addict, who is pre-diabetic and fighting Hepatitis C. Estranged from his daughter, single, and struggling with depression, Frank is a typical American.
"May I Be Frank" is a true story documenting his transformation after he stumbles into Café Gratitude -- a raw organic vegan cafe. The staff asks, “What is one thing you want to do before you die?” And Frank replies “I want to fall in love one more time, but no one will love me looking the way I do.”
Inspired, the staff set out to make it so, saving his life, restoring his health (with vegan food), and giving him gratitude. Three 20-something men (Ryland, Conor, and Cary) commit to his healing, coaching him physically, emotionally, and spiritually: Frank will eat only raw food, practice gratitude, visit holistic health practitioners, and get a weekly colonic. Frank gets a new chance at life -- a new body, a clearer mind, and a soaring spirit in 42 days.
In setting out to help him lose weight and gain health, no one anticipated the impact this one person’s journey would have on the lives of countless others. Frank’s story documents the essence of the human condition and what it means to fall in love again.
The gender-bending world of female pandakas (transgressive homosexuals) is not limited to America. The wild west of San Francisco and other American cities may get the most attention, but gays live everywhere.
The impulse, choice, or innate inclination seems rooted in the results of karma (vipaka), but individuals will certainly have their own explanations. Whatever the reason, tolerance and acceptance are called for.
We judge to our detriment. We discriminate and this becomes our karma -- leading in the future to our own discomfiting inclinations. We reap what we sow, and face what we have been: If we discriminate, we will be discriminated against; if we judge, we will be judged; if we hate, we will be the victims of hate.
(K2) The not-so-sexy face of real lesbianism in America
Lesbians are less understood and somewhat less despised than male homosexuals, but the root issues are the same for us as a culture accommodating all individuals. Some yearn for a pure society free of all "undesirables." It exists when ALL are desirable. It does not exist when some are labelled, but striving for it creates a great deal of turmoil.
Our police hypocritically seek out "miscreants" and "rejects" the society creates (such as traumatized children who turned to drugs, obesity, or crime when they grew up), and everyone suffers for it. Lesbians may be strange or fascinating enough to most people to bring up the larger issues we normally cannot bear to confront as other "repulsive" counter-culture activists demand attention.
And these Nordic women, who may look "American," are in fact Dutch (and butch) Scandinavians from liberal-loving Denmark, the land of dikes (not to be confused with dykes). Left out of the conversation, however, are the xenoestrogens in plastics and other environmental (chemical) impacts on the unborn which affect gender expression later in life. Body and mind (and karma) interact.
Yoga is truly for everyone -- from those who are mildly curious to those who are deeply into the yoga lifestyle, kids included. Need more strength? Maybe better concentration? Or what about connecting body, mind, and spirit? Need to be elevated and taken into a new dimension? Whether we practice yoga in the comfort of our home, at a neighborhood yoga center, or on Sundays at the Inner Harbor, there is no escaping a phenomenon that has swept through the country. More
Bhutanese dancers on 3/8/09 in the peaceful Himalayan Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan
THIMPHU -- On [6/20/09] Bhutan assured India that there was no United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) presence in the Buddhist mountain kingdom. “I have no knowledge [of the presence of ULFA here]...
"This is something what we also read in Indian papers, but we do not have any presence here, it should be made very, very clear. Where, [from], and how these reports had come, we also do not know,” Foreign Minister Ugyen Tshering said after signing a memorandum of understanding with External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna.
He was replying questions by journalists on Indian intelligence reports of the presence of ULFA units in the bordering areas of Bhutan. There were intelligence reports that ULFA activity was still witnessed along the Indo-Bhutanese border, resulting in violent attacks by the insurgent group in those areas. “But I can very categorically say that the purpose of the previous activities was not to have a situation where there is any presence of ULFA cadres here,” Mr. Tshering said. (PTI) Source
United Liberation Front of Asom
ULFA is a terrorist group from Assam[1] among many other such groups in North-East India. It seeks to establish a sovereign Assam via an armed struggle in the Assam Conflict. The Government of India banned the organization in 1990 and classified it as a terrorist group, while the U.S. State Department lists it under "other groups of concern" [2]. More>>
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