A recent study by Japanese scientists claims that eating beef is more harmful to the environment than driving a car.

Taking into account all the processes involved, they said, four average sized steaks generated greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to 80.25lb of carbon dioxide.

This also consumed 169 megajoules of energy.

That means that 2.2lb of beef is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions which have the same effect as the carbon dioxide released by an ordinary car travelling at 50 miles per hour for 155 miles, a journey lasting three hours. The amount of energy consumed would light a 100-watt bulb for 20 days.

I’m sure you won’t hear much about this from cattlerancher Al Gore, but it raises some very interesting points.

How much of a lifestyle change should we expect society to make in defense of the environment? Gas prices are up, but so is fuel demand. If we ask our carnivorous nations to give up porterhouse and McDonald’s, green advocates can expect a full-fledged mutiny on their hands.

The alternative? Should we all become vegetarian electric car drivers with solar powered homes?

Telegraph.co.uk: Eating beef ‘is less green than driving’

As if the NSA and CIA spying on Americans weren’t enough…

Justin Rood of ABC News reports that the FBI plans to “recruit thousands of covert informants in the United States as part of a sprawling effort to boost its intelligence capabilities.”

Many US cities now have cameras that watch our every move. Between RIF chips that can be planted in our clothes to our cell phones spying on us, to our neighbors ratting us out as part of the TIPS Domestic Spy Program, which supposedly didn’t go into effect (yeah, right)…

Can y’all just stay out of my business???

ABCNews.com - The Blotter:
FBI Proposes Building Network of U.S. Informants

Originally published in The Michigan Citizen

For the last 40 years, the city of Detroit, the state of Michigan and the United States as a whole have struggled to come to grips with the week of anger and violence that ravaged the city on those hot summer days and nights in July 1967. Was it riot or rebellion? Why did it happen? Who is to blame? What has changed and what hasn’t?

These questions and many others have been asked and answered for decades now, but somehow the questions remain. The answers begat more questions. The frustration and fury of that time linger for many, mostly lying dormant, but rearing their ugly heads from time to time.

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On Monday, July 23, activists in Detroit and Washington DC plan protests and demonstrations at Congressman John Conyers’ district and Capitol Hill offices, and citizens all over the country will converge on the district offices of other Congress members. Their demands? Impeach Bush and Cheney now.

But on the eve of this highly publicized action, David Swanson of AfterDowningStreet.org reports that Conyers may be ready to impeach against the wishes of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Or so he says…

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has said that if three more Congress Members get behind impeachment he will start the impeachment proceedings.
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The nation’s most influential newspaper, The New York Times, has made news once again by calling for the United States to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

This is a dramatic turn of events for two reasons. The first is because the Times wields a great deal of influence among mainstream US news organizations and thus among the public. As journalist Michael Massing observed in Bill Moyers’ documentary “Buying The War“,

The New York Times is just– remains immensely influential. People in the TV world read it every morning, and it’s amazing how often you’ll see a story go from the front page of the day’s paper in the morning to the evening news cast at night. People in government– of course read it, think tanks, and so on.

The second reason this is a critical development is because The New York Times was one of the mainstream media outlets that helped sell the invasion of Iraq to the American people. In fact, The New York Times was a significant supporting player if not a leading character in the tragic melodrama that led this nation to war.
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The following post is from www.playahata.com. It offers a searing commentary on the irony and dichotomy of what it means to be a “Black American”.

Patriotism: Red, White, Black & Blue
by Morpheus

“What to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? … To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, and unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass- fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings; with all your religious parades and solemnity, are to him, mere bombasts, deceptions, and pious and hypocrisy–a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.” - Frederick Douglass

Such were the words uttered by Frederick Douglas on the eve of the Civil War. They were the sentiments of a Black man, escaped from slavery, who dedicated his life to championing the cause of his fellow race yet held in bondage. They are a stinging critique and seeming rebuke of America, denouncing it for its contradictions and falsehoods. Douglas words were militant. They were fiery. They speak with righteous indignation.

And yet, Douglas was a patriot. He openly denounced ideas, led mostly by whites, to colonize freed slaves in foreign lands. Douglas backed Abraham Lincoln in his bid for presidency, openly involving himself in the American political system. Douglas heartily welcomed and backed the Civil War, which to him represented a battle against slavery. He would strongly lobby and fight for Black troops to be allowed into the Union ranks, to carry the red, white and blue. In newspapers he called “men of color to arms”, urging Blacks to “end in a day the bondage of centuries:” to fight for their equality, show their patriotism and take on the Union cause. His sons Lewis and Charles were among the first to enlist, and they would be sacrificed for the cause of freedom.

(a.) Odd contradiction? (b.) A seeming dichotomy? (c.) Patriotic yet cynical? Yes to all of the above. To be red, white, blue, & Black. It has been a recurring theme since the founding of the United States.
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William Clay Ford and Bill Ford, Jr. weren’t named the worst NFL team owners in Sports Illustrated’s ranking this year, but that’s probably because the list seems more based on writer Michael Silver’s mood than on the owners’ record and lack of productivity. The pair did drop from #22 last year to #29 this year, which is a little closer to reality.

Their inexplicable inability to fire failed General Manager Matt Millen ranks at the top of reasons they should be listed at the bottom. Not to mention their failure to fire defensive line coach Joe Cullen after he was arrested twice in one month - once for drunk driving, a second time for a late night fast food run in the nude.

The Lions’ defense ranked #28 last year, the offense was #22 and the team itself finished #31 out of 32 teams. Do we see a pattern emerging here? The only consistency the Lions have shown is that they consistently field mediocre or terrible teams.

This year the organization couldn’t decide whether they should celebrate the 50th anniversary of their 1957 NFL Championship. Why? Because that was the last time the Lions won a championship. Do you really want to call attention to that fact? It was finally determined that the 20 surviving players will be honored during Sept. 30’s game against fierce rivals the defending NFC Champion Chicago Bears. Talk about adding insult to injury.

The Pistons, Red Wings, Shock and now the Tigers are all winners. Aren’t the Fords embarrassed enough to start changing their ways? Or are they happy to be at the top of at least one list - the fans’ pick for worst franchise in all of sports?

According to a recent study, white folks don’t understand the Black experience.

The study, titled “The Cost of Being Black: White Americans’ Perceptions and the Question of Reparations,” was facilitated by a postdoctoral fellowship from Ohio State’s Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and appears in the fall 2006 issue of Harvard’s Du Bois Review, a journal on social science research on race. It was designed to gauge whites’ understanding of the hardships faced by Americans of African descent, and to examine their attitudes toward the idea of reparations for slavery.

During most discussions about the disadvantages that are faced by Blacks, many whites ignore the history and legacy of slavery, legal segregation and Jim Crow. They believe civil rights legislation has completely leveled the playing field, and that people like Oprah, Michael Jordan and Bill Cosby demonstrate proof that disadvantages no longer exist. The results of this study, however, show that when they are presented with hypothetical problems that mirror the real obstacles faced by Black Americans, whites relent, and believe that reparations are in order.
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