The Wood Brothers, Chris on bass and Oliver on guitar

Every few years, I stumble upon a band or musician that totally rocks my world and leaves me a changed person. At their intimate concert last Saturday night at The Media Club, The Wood Brothers did just that.

The tiny space becomes packed easily, so we decided to get comfy and claim a spot on the floor, only feet from the stage where the incredibly talented brothers would be performing. Chris Wood, one-third of the musically progressive (not to mention popular) jazz-funk trio Medeski Martin & Wood warmed our hearts with his mad upright bass-playing skills, while his singing, guitar-strumming brother Oliver (guitarist and vocalist for Atlanta-based King Johnson) wooed us with his raspy-but-rich voice.

The Wood Brothers have joined forces once again after being separated by thousands of miles and the pursuit of each of their dreams, and boy am I glad they’ve found their way back to one another. The have a unique bluesy-folk-rock sound and have captured the perfect combo of soul, sweetness, funk and fun on their 2008 album Loaded.  The only thing I don’t like about this band is that they’re not ridiculously rich and famous (as they very well should be) and therefore I can’t find a video of adequate quality on youtube to do justice to their abilities. However, you can check out a bunch of their songs right on their website: http://www.thewoodbrothers.com/. And better yet, you can support fantastic talent and encourage these boys to continue to make beautiful music by purchasing one (or all!) of their cds.

The Wood Brothers’ songs are playing on repeat in my head, and I’m making their music the new soundtrack to my life.

Origin Assured label furs claim to be a "responsible" and "ethical" choice, but nothing could be further from the truth.

I was flipping through the October issue of VOGUE when I came across a four-page ad for Origin Assured (OA) label furs, complete with cheesy slogans like “LABEL ME fabulous” and misleading claims from fashion designers, such as Roberto Cavalli’s “The OA label assures customers that they are making a stylish, responsible choice.”

The OA label claims these furs come from a “well-regulated industry that adheres to strict animal standards.” Funny that this campaign, if I may call it that, is the brainchild of none other than the International Fur Trade Federation (IFTF) and its industry partners. The IFTF professes OA was born of a “desire to heighten awareness about ethically sourced fur,” but I say this is a slimy, ill-intentioned ploy to trick caring but generally naive consumers into feeling good about supporting an unethical product.

The Origin Assured label claims to assure customers the fur they’ve purchased comes from a country where national or local fur production regulations are in place.  But how can we trust an organization with its sole interest in making a buck to be completely honest about the origin of the fur its promoting? The international auction houses that sell the majority of the world’s fur (and who are in collaboration with the IFTF) are responsible for sorting, invoicing and labeling furs with the OA mark. Wouldn’t it be extremely easy to simply slip the OA label on a dog fur coat from China?

Okay, so let’s give these noble furriers the benefit of the doubt for a moment, and say all of the furs marked with the OA label really have come from responsible countries concerned with animal welfare. Like here in the Great White North, for example, the leading producer of seal pelts, where newborn seals are routinely hooked in the eye and dragged across the ice squirming and squealing, then beaten senseless until they’re dead enough to be skinned. Or in Japan, where thousands of dolphins and whales are killed every year, either by being barbarically harpooned or having their throats slashed with large knives. Or perhaps in the United States, where millions of historically wild animals (mink, for example) are kept in tiny, unsanitary cages on fur farms, literally going mad in captivity and resorting to self-mutilation and even cannibalism.  Even Hong Kong Fur Factory Ltd., which lists China United Fur Industrial Ltd. as one of its subsidiary companies made its way onto the list of OA approved manufactures. Curious, says me.

An injured fox suffers in his cage

The fur trade rakes in an estimated $15,000,000,000 annually, all stemming from the cruel slaughter of 50 million animals worldwide. What you can be assured of is that the IFTF is keen on keeping profits up and will tell consumers whatever they need to hear in order to ensure that happens. Don’t believe everything you read. There is nothing “ethical”, “humane”, or “responsible” about the fur trade. Spin doctors will weave a wild web of lies and only need you to perpetuate their agenda.

Learn the facts at PETA’s media center. To see a full list of designers who use fur in their lines (and avoid their clothing at all costs), visit http://www.fur-style.com/en/designers/?pagination=5&cHash=f076441d4b.

German Shepherd is all the rage in Beijing. And how 'bout a kitty accessory?

Last month The Canadian Press reported that Ottawa would not support a ban on dog and cat fur imports, simply because doing so might undermine Canada’s position on the banning of seal products to other countries.  After the EU voted overwhelmingly to ban Canadian seal imports this summer, our Conservative government threatened to appeal the ban at the World Trade Organization. Now Canadian officials believe their case could be compromised if they don’t stand in solidarity for the barbaric slaughter of helpless animals, regardless of species. Hey, we bludgeon newborn seals like there’s no tomorrow, so who are we to say you shouldn’t slaughter puppies and kitties by the truckload? Hell, we’ll even sell your dog coats and cat scarves in our stores, since we don’t have any laws here that require us to label our furs accurately. Hound is the new fox.

But where are these furs coming from? China, Thailand and the Philippines, mainly. In these countries, animal rights (not to mention human rights) laws are extremely lax, and apparently it is cheaper and easier to abduct and slaughter dogs and cats to make fur garments than it is to produce synthetic fur. Undercover footage from the Humane Society of the United States and PETA has revealed the gruesome practices at dog and cat fur factories in these Asian countries, where millions of animals — some strays, others clearly pets — are savagely beaten, strangled, bled to death and bludgeoned, all in the name of fashion. These poor animals are scooped off the streets and stuffed into tiny cages with dozens of other dogs and cats on their way to slaughter. If they make it through the transport, they can look forward to being starved, drowned, hanged with a wire noose, and likely skinned alive. Many of them still have collars on. If you think you have the stomach to see this footage for yourself, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alRW1sz_jeg.

On the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade’s website, it states approximately two million dogs and cats are killed for the fur trade every year, and further reports it takes about 24 cats or 10 to 12 dogs to make one fur coat, more if they’re using puppies or kitties. These fur factories often dye and mislabel dog and cat furs to pass them off as the pelts of other species.

The existence of dog and cat fur factories is utterly appalling, but so is the existence of the fur trade itself. It should not be acceptable to kill any animal for its fur, wild or not. Every year, 40 million animals are brutally murdered for the fur on their backs. They are either caught in barbaric leg-hold traps, suffering unimaginable pain and tormented by panic until the trapper finally arrives to put them out of their misery, or worse yet, raised on factory farms, where they go mad anxiously awaiting their demise, often mutilating themselves or others in a futile attempt to escape the torture.

What can you do? Refuse to support the fur trade. The only surefire way to ensure you aren’t purchasing dog or cat fur is to avoid anything resembling fur entirely. Even fur that appears fake could be real. To find out more about dog and cat fur factories (as well as other fur trade-related facts), visit http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=56. For more information on what you can do to help stop the sale of fur, go to http://www.furisdead.com/getActive.asp and The Fur-Bearer Defenders website.

COMPASSION IS IN FASHION; FUR IS DEAD.

Bagheera Kiplingi - My arachnid hero

I’ve always thought spiders were pretty darn interesting creatures, but this freakishly awesome-looking arachnid from Central America just took top spot on my Cool Spiders list, thanks to its dietary choices. Turns out this particular population of Mexican jumping spider, which was named after everybody’s favorite panther from Kipling’s The Jungle Book, chooses to dine on (mostly) vegan nosh, making it the only species of spider known to man with a primarily vegetarian diet.

The  Bagheera kiplingi lives and dines on the Mexican acacia tree, avoiding his red ant neighbors and only occasionally stealing their larvae (eek! babies) when his vegan diet becomes a bit of a drag. However, scientists studying this herbivorous arachnid reported that out of 140 meals BK dined on, 136 were vegan.

If you’re not totally convinced of the Bagheera kiplingi’s kindly nature, perhaps the fact* that BK baby daddies are the only breed of spider that stick around after knocking up their female counterpart to help with baby duty will do the trick.

We should all follow (spidey) suit and adopt a mostly vegetarian diet. Just don’t steal your neighbor’s babies.

Such a loving father

*“Herbivory in a spider through exploitation of an ant-plant mutualism.” By Christopher J. Meehan, Eric J. Olson, Matthew W. Reudink, T. Kurt Kyser, and Robert L. Curry. Current Biology, Vol. 19, Issue 19, October 13, 2009.

The Butterfly Circus was the very deserving winner of The Doorpost Film Project 2009, which had filmmakers create 20-minute shorts on six different themes: hope, forgiveness, freedom, humility, joy, and redemption. Check out the runners up and the other entries at http://www.thedoorpost.com.

(Fun Fact: Doug Jones, the actor who played the contortionist in The Butterfly Circus is also the same guy who played the nightmare-inducing, child-eating, eyeballs-on-hands-wearing creature (The Pale Man) in Pan’s Labyrinth; he also played the less-creepy Faun in the same movie. Mr. Jones seems to have an affinity for playing atypical or fantastical characters, as he was cast as the Silver Surfer in Fantastic 4, and was transformed into both Abe Sapien and the Angel of Death for Hellboy.)

Elizabeth Jacobson worked at Wells Fargo for nine years and was one of the top loan officers in the subprime division of the company for two years, but she put in her resignation after discovering the corruption and illegal lending practices within Wells Fargo.

Elizabeth, along with another former Wells Fargo employee, filed a sworn affidavit in June of this year in support of a lawsuit by the city of Baltimore accusing Wells Fargo of pushing high-interest, subprime loans onto African Americans, forcing hundreds into foreclosure and leaving their families homeless.

Elizabeth explains how loan officers at Wells Fargo were encouraged to sell subrpime loans to their customers, even when a customer’s credit rating had qualified them for a prime loan. She says loan officers were rewarded with much higher commission for selling a subprime loan than they were for selling a prime loan. She further explains that loan officers were taught how to make a subprime loan seem like the better option by leaving out important bits of information about rate adjustments and the repayment process.

Elizabeth discusses the allegations of Wells Fargo targeting minorities in their subprime lending scheme:

“A lot of this was information that I would receive on conference calls as a sales manager. And people on the call, the management there, would encourage the loan officers, the subprime loan officers, to go into Baltimore city and target the churches, the African American churches, to get a relationship going with the minister or the reverend at the church and try to get that person to schedule some sort of meeting. They would call it a “wealth-building seminar” to get the parishioners of the church to attend. And any loan that was funded by Wells Fargo, whether a purchase or a refinance, $350 would then be donated to the church. And so, that was the incentive for the church to want to have these seminars there.

But what would happen is the only loan officers that would attend these seminars were generally the subprime loan officers. And on these conference calls, at one point, somebody made a joke who happened to be a white loan officer and said, “Well, will I be able to go to these seminars?” And they were told right there on the conference call, unless you were of color, you could not attend these conferences, these wealth-building conferences. So it seemed me—Wells Fargo didn’t come right out and say this; this is just what I saw—is that they wanted the African American Wells Fargo loan officers to sell loans to the African American community.”

A new documentary called American Casino examines the subprime crisis in America, and is playing in select theatres across the USA. Unfortunately, it will not be showing anywhere in Canada, but you can sign up on the website to be notified when the DVD becomes available.  Watch the trailer below.

70-year-old Mimi Kirk, named Sexiest Vegetarian Over 50

Mimi Kirk has been vegetarian for 40 years, and says that (along with “green drinks and a little peroxide!”) is the reason she looks and feels so fabulous at her age. In the Ramona Sentinel newspaper, Mimi says, “[There’s] no doubt that I’m in such good shape for my age because of my diet. I swear I feel like I’m in my 20s!”

Mimi, who is actually vegan, says she didn’t make the switch to a plant-based diet for health and beauty reasons; rather, she says she chose to nix meat from her diet because she didn’t want to support the inhumane treatment of animals in the meat industry. When asked if she thinks vegetarianism is sexy, Mimi replied, “Well, yes, it’s sexy. To be 70 and still [wearing] a little jean miniskirt … you bet I feel sexy.”

If Mimi isn’t proof enough of the sexy benefits of going veg, check out some of the other finalists in PETA’s Sexiest Vegetarian over 50 contest.

Colleen Ferro is 55-yr-old real estate broker from Florida. Her doctor says she has the bloodwork of a 16-yr-old! Colleen says she loves to work out and still wears a bikini to the beach!

Debra Merskin is a 51-yr-old associate professor of communication studies in Eugene, Oregon. She has been vegetarian for 34 years. Debra says she's an avid dancer and runner and weekly yoga practitioner.

Michael Blott is 53-years-old and from Poway, California. He says being vegetarian makes him feel healthy and he no longer experiences "normal" aches and pains.

Anthony Antich is a 53-year-old opera singer from Key West, Florida. He has been vegetarian for 20 years, and says he enjoys swimming and scuba diving in his free time.

PETA also ran a contest for the Sexiest Vegetarian Next Door in 2009, and Amber and Monty took the crowns.

Amber, 29, Minnesota

Amber is a 29-year-old from Minnesota who says she feels mentally and physically stronger now, and also feels good about reducing her environmental impact by switching to a vegetarian diet.

Monty, 33, L.A.

Monty said he made the switch to a vegetarian diet for health reasons, but recently decided to go vegan after learning more about factory farming.

This video is often gruesome and graphic and horrific, but it simply depicts the truth behind the meat industry, and being a responsible human being means educating yourself on the origin of the food you eat and refusing to contribute to animal suffering. It may give you nightmares, turn your stomach and make you cry. It may also make you reconsider your meat-based diet.  Meet your meat. You gonna eat that?

Find out more at meat.org.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the last 20 years as a prisoner, though she has not committed any crime.

She is the pro-democracy leader of the opposition party in Burma (Myanmar), the National League of Democracy (NLD). She was arrested in 1989 by the military junta and put under house arrest, preventing her from assuming Prime Minister’s office in 1990 when the Burmese people voted (in the first “free and fair” election in 30 years) for 80% of the contested seats to go to the NLD. Burmese citizens had overwhelmingly voted for a democratic goverment, but the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) refused to acknowledge the results of the election and would not hand over power to the NLD.

Aung San Suu Kyi was originally arrested in 1989 and held under the 1975 State Protection Act, which grants the government power to imprison people and detain them for up to five years without trial. She continues to be held under house arrest under this martial law, as well as the Law to Safeguard the State Against the Dangers of Those Desiring to Cause Subversive Acts, as the government claims Aung San Suu Kyi is “likely to undermine the community peace and stability”.  She was initially released from house arrest in 1995, then arrested again in 2000 and put under house arrest until 2002.  In May 2003, Suu Kyi was travelling to meet members of the NLD party when she and 250 0ther party members were allegedly attacked by the Burmese police and military.  She was put under house arrest once again, and remains so to this day.

On August 11, 2009, after her trial had already dragged on for months, Aung San Suu Kyi was found guilty of violating her sentence for allowing an American who swam across the lake to her house (uninvited) to stay with her for two days, and her house arrest was extended for an additional 18 months. Critics of the sentence argue the charge is unwarranted and the government is simply keeping Suu Kyi locked up so that she may not participate in Burma’s coming election next year.

This man is holding a camera, not a gun

Aung San Suu Kyi, like 2,100 others, is being held as a political prisoner in Burma by an unjust government in an attempt to maintain the status quo of oppression, fear mongering and violence. Burmese citizens are not granted freedom of speech or political freedom, and pro-democracy protesters may be sentenced to up to seven years in prison for participating in peaceful demonstrations. In the 2007 uprisings in Burma, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in a peaceful protest lead by monks, but the demonstration was quickly broken up by the military and hundreds of innocent citizens were beaten or shot.

The Burmese people have suffered countless human rights abuses by a tyrannical military government for decades, including forced labor, human trafficking, and State-sanctioned torture. The military frequently uses sexual violence against the people of Burma, raping and kidnapping women to be used as sex slaves, and has also been accused of kidnapping children to be used as soldiers. (Reports claim approximately 70,000 of the 350,000 soldiers in the Burmese military are children.)

Aung San Suu Kyi represents peace, freedom and change. Burma deserves the right to democracy, and Aung San Suu Kyi deserves the right to freedom.

Visit http://www.amnesty.ca/indiv_at_risk/cases/aungsansuukyi_act.php to send a letter to the Burmese government requesting the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Also go to http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/ and http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA16/011/2008/en/d80800e0-3248-11d%20d-adb0-a55f274f1a5a/asa160112008eng.html to learn more about the human rights abuses in Burma.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper dines on seal meat on August 18, 2009, to show his support for the Canadian sealing industry

The Canadian Prime Minister’s office recently released a photo to the media showing Mr. Harper – along with Human Resources Minister Diane Finley, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl – munching on seal meat during a recent visit to Iqaluit, Nunavut.

The Globe and Mail reported spokesperson Andrew MacDougall sent an email to the press announcing: “The Prime Minister said, ‘I really enjoyed eating seal meat and look forward to having it again.’”

In a shocking and symbolic political statement earlier this year, Governor General Michaëlle Jean publicly carved a freshly slaughtered seal in audacious opposition to the E.U. ban, then turned to the woman beside her and asked, “Can I try the heart?” Defence Minister Peter MacKay christened her “Canada’s new Braveheart” for this brazen act of defiance, and added, “I would encourage all Canadians to try seal. It’s a wonderful product.”

Harper argues that the sealing industry adheres to the “tightest standards” of any industry involved in the sale of animal products. If these standards assert that sealers must bludgeon the skulls of baby seals and drag their squirming bodies across the ice before skinning them (often while still alive), then I suppose he’s right.

According to PETA, “…sealers routinely hook live seals in the eye, cheek, or mouth to avoid damaging the fur, then they drag the seals across the ice. Many of these gentle creatures may not even have eaten their first solid meal or taken their first swim before they are slaughtered for their skin.”  99 percent of all seals killed for the hunt are between three weeks and three months old.

In a 2001 study commissioned by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, it was reported that many Canadian sealers were not using the hakapik properly, which contributed to “considerable and unacceptable suffering”, and added that in 17 percent of cases observed there were no visible lesions in the seals’ skulls, which means approximately 55,000 seals may have been skinned alive.

In a recent news conference, Prime Minister Harper addressed the European Union’s ban on the import of Canadian seal products that was finalized this July: “There is no reason the seal industry should be singled out for discriminatory treatment by Europeans or any other nation.” The Canadian government has already launched an appeal of the E.U. ban to the World Trade Organization.

Mr. Harper has always been an outspoken supporter of the Canadian seal hunt, claiming this industry is essential to the survival of communities in Northern and Atlantic Canada. However, the E.U. ban would not affect the Inuit populations in Canada, as it would still allow the trade of seal products derived from hunts carried out by indigenous communities that contribute to their sustenance.

The total allowable catch (TAC) of seals in Canada for 2009 is 280,000 harp seals, 8,200 hooded seals, and 50,000 grey seals, which amounts to 338,200. There are also a number of seals that are “struck and lost”, which the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association reports is approximately 16,250 annually.

It would appear that the sealing industry is a Canadian gold mine, judging by all the fuss from the government to stop the E.U ban on seal product imports from Canada. There is virtually no market for seal meat, so these fluffy babies are being killed for the coats on their backs. The startling truth is that the life of a Canadian seal is reduced to a mere $14, the current value of a single pelt.

The Canadian seal hunt is a barbaric practice that causes unimaginable suffering to thousands of baby seals every year. Despite public outrage and pressure on the government to stop the hunt, the massacre continues. Please speak out against this cruelty and urge the Canadian government to stop the seal hunt.

A young seal witnesses the bloody remains of his murdered mates

For more information on the Canadian seal hunt and to find out what you can do to stop it, visit:
http://www.canadiansealhunt.com/ , http://www.harpseals.org/about_the_hunt/pelts.html