happy beltane! happy may day!

I can't imagine any reason one would be sad or upset about the arrival of May. In honor of Beltane i'd like to share one of my new favorite songs, which i discovered not long ago, despite being a long-time fan of Jethro Tull. Heavy Horses was never one of my favorite albums, and so for years i missed this gem, which i discovered almost by accident a couple of months ago. I am aware that "Cup of Wonder" is more commonly thought of as their Beltane song (although there was an outtake titled, plainly, "Beltane"), but i like this new one better than either of those, and anyway it's about outdoor fucking, so who can argue. So here, without further ado:

Jethro Tull's "Acres Wild"

May Day is also the International Workers' Day, except in the United States where we celebrate Labor Day at the beginning of September. That's so no one confuses *our* labor day with that other, more red-hued, labor day when the Commies used to hold their parades.

factory farming and you

A certain wing of the media has gone out of its way to make some, let us say, interesting claims and speculations on the origin of Swine Flu.

That's right -- they are claiming it was created by terrorists, who then spread it around in Mexico so that illegal immigrants would bring the flu to the United States. It's the right-wing trifecta.

But then along comes science to rain on their parade of hate and xenophobia.

Within days, the genome of the Swine Flu virus had been mapped -- and it tells an interesting tale. A/H1N1 is indeed a primarily swine-borne flu virus which is a direct mutation of a swine flu virus which evolved over the last ten years in United States. See also here, at the Aetiology blog, some technical stuff about the relation between the new A/H1N1 and a previous strain of flu seen in Ohio in 2007.

So maybe that's why Mexicans are dying and not U.S. residents -- because there's already been widespread exposure to the virus here, and so many of us are already naturally immune.

The Humane Society of the US is pointing to the operations of Smithfield in North Carolina as the ultimate point of origin for A/H1N1 in 1998. They mention, interestingly, that "More than five years ago, in 2003, the American Public Health Association, the largest and oldest association of public health professionals in the world, called for a moratorium on factory farming" because of the risk to public health presented by factory farming. How so?

Last April, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production released its final report. The prestigious, independent panel ... concluded that industrialized animal agriculture posed "unacceptable" public health risks: "Due to the large numbers of animals housed in close quarters in typical [industrial farm animal production] facilities there are many opportunities for animals to be infected by several strains of pathogens, leading to increased chance for a strain to emerge that can infect and spread in humans."

Specific to the veal crate-like metal stalls that confine breeding pigs like those on the North Carolina factory from which the first hybrid swine flu virus was discovered in North America, the Pew Commission asserted that "[p]ractices that restrict natural motion, such as sow gestation crates, induce high levels of stress in the animals and threaten their health, which in turn may threaten human health."

So, to put it in plain language, cramming thousands of pigs together, where there is not adequate ventilation to prevent them from breathing in ammonia from their offal, which in turn is not adequately drained, is not just a factory for cheap pork but a factory for superviruses. And public health researchers have been warning us about this danger for years now.

Tristero has a lovely compendium of writings at Hullabaloo about Smithfield and why their factory will never become a popular tourist destination.

So, yeah, the culprit is not terrorists or undocumented immigrants. Imagine that.

why it's not helpful to put someone down for being offended on the internet

As a feminist and a leftist i get this a lot: the implication that if i find something offensive which they did not -- or especially if it is something they found funny or amusing -- that i am overly sensitive and, if i am so easily offended, maybe i shouldn't be using the internet.

Look, please don't say this to people. It's not helpful.

If i say i found something offensive, or even say i can see why someone might be offended, i am not implying that you're a horrible person for finding that same thing amusing. If i happen to think someone is a horrible person, i'll say so, but it takes a lot for me to think that.

But, here's why this upsets me.

Reaction A: "Oh, that offended you? Huh. I was actually amused by it."
Reaction B: "Oh, that offended you? Huh. I was actually amused by it. I guess you must just be really sensitive. If you're so sensitive, maybe you shouldn't even be on the internet where people can hurt you."

Reaction A is a simple expression of "Okay, i didn't have the same reaction." It's fine for people to not agree on things or have the same reaction.

Reaction B goes further and belittles you. It's is exactly the same as, "Why can't you take a joke?" But someone who says this may as well also be saying, "If people can hurt you by doing/saying X, maybe you shouldn't do anything you find fun or even leave the house." Because it's not just a game or an internet forum where someone might be triggered, it's anywhere and everywhere you go.

Reaction B is victim-blaming because we don't choose what triggers us. "Triggering" is when something random and unexpected reminds you jarringly of a traumatic event in your life. It's especially frustrating when something insensitive done or said by someone else triggers you. Again, we don't choose to be triggered by something. Also, not everyone is triggered by the same thing.

So when you say Reaction B, you are blaming someone for being triggered by something. They aren't going to read your comment and say, "Oh, gosh, you're right, i'm choosing to be offended by something so little and silly," because their response wasn't a choice in the first place.