On Which We Stand

A gorgeous apex predator, just loving life.

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:46:27 +0100

A gorgeous apex predator, just loving life.

earthfirstjournal: Resistance Ecology Conference Disavows...

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:29:52 +0100

Resistance Ecology Conference Disavows DGR

The Resistance Ecology conference has released a statement formally denouncing and disavowing DGR,…
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A thousand times yes. This looks like being a wonderful conference.

Respect us, or expect us.

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:22:28 +0100

Respect us, or expect us.

Marineland Opening Day protest. Niagara Falls, Ontario LIVE STREAM

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:53:31 +0100

Marineland Opening Day protest. Niagara Falls, Ontario LIVE STREAM:

baringteethuk:

This is happening right now! WATCH!

creepyvegan: Made a little editing myself… pretty happy if...

Sat, 18 May 2013 09:45:18 +0100

creepyvegan:

Made a little editing myself… pretty happy if i don’t mind saying so myself

Now that’s what I call a righteous edit.

personstwo: myloveforyouwent-viral: risingwings: alexdwebber: ...

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:33:18 +0100

personstwo:

myloveforyouwent-viral:

risingwings:

alexdwebber:

littlewarrior-recovering:

just-a-skinny-boy:

If you’ve been a victim of rape or abuse of any kind, this is for you.

He’s amazing.

Holy crap. This is so inspirational.

Tears. I can’t stop crying. Your worth and your meaning is not defined by what they did and you did not deserve it.

Will forever reblog this, this is inspirational! Crying right now though..://

<3

This.

Truth.

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:13:10 +0100

Truth.

dépérir: Step Off: Trans women of color own these intersections; an inaugural post

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:09:53 +0100

dépérir: Step Off: Trans women of color own these intersections; an inaugural post:

trannypowah:

TW: transmisogyny, racism, violence directed at camab trans people of color

There is a place in this world full of horror, untranslatable. Here, in the midst of violence inconceivable, we struggle. Would you envy us, if you knew?

As trans women and camab trans people of…

I feel there should be an equivalent of Godwins Law for feminism, which is this: as soon as a man...

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:56:34 +0100

I feel there should be an equivalent of Godwins Law for feminism, which is this: as soon as a man decides to play “devil’s advocate” in a discussion about rape, the discussion is over.

No austerity for EU military spending (via @wwwcaatorguk on...

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:35:15 +0100

No austerity for EU military spending (via @wwwcaatorguk on Twitter)

Love feral cats, find out more. And as ever, please spay or...

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:09:32 +0100

Love feral cats, find out more. And as ever, please spay or neuter the animals you currently share your home with.

maniacwrangler: “But here’s the thing! I’m just trying to be...

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:55:58 +0100

maniacwrangler:

“But here’s the thing! I’m just trying to be good. Just shut up and let me go about my day.”

Vegan rant by Jamie Kilstein. If you’re in New York, come to his show on Monday night! I’ll be there! (Don’t murder me)

Definitely show the lovely and amazing Jamie Kilstein the vegan love.

Animals are amazing friends, (yet rubbish food).

Thu, 16 May 2013 22:37:48 +0100

Animals are amazing friends, (yet rubbish food).

"Isn’t man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife - birds, kangaroos, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes,..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:49:27 +0100

“Isn’t man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife - birds, kangaroos, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice, foxes and dingoes - by the million in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billion and eats them. This in turn kills man by the millions, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal - health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently, and once a year, sends out cards praying for Peace on Earth.”

- David Coats (via smilingsiarra)
Goodwill to all.

earthfirstjournal: Deep Green TransphobiaA statement from the...

Wed, 15 May 2013 21:14:21 +0100

earthfirstjournal:

Deep Green Transphobia
A statement from the Earth First! Journal Collective

On several occasions the Earth First! Journal
View Post

Thankyou lovelies.

bitemebeautiful: thosepeskydames: Also reposting Jenn’s video...

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:53:34 +0100

bitemebeautiful:

thosepeskydames:

Also reposting Jenn’s video about everything that’s wrong with “Save the Boobs” style breast cancer campaigns, in light of some people’s disgustingly sexist reactions to Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy.

Totally reblogging myself via kinks because I feel like in light of what has happened with people beings shits about Jolie’s mastectomy…those who didn’t get my anger in the first place might get it now.

Perhaps my favourite Pesky Dames video (though there are many amazing ones). Jenn speaks righteous fury and truth about breast cancer.

Not so astute....why we don't need more submarines

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:39:00 +0100

I had the chance to listen to BAE Systems Chairman Dick Olver’s speech at the company’s AGM last week.

Most of it was typical corporate stuff, but one announcement caught my attention. BAE, he said, had spoken with the Government, agreed a plan and had been expanding the manpower working on submarines at Barrow in Furness (and also, relevantly, on cyber warfare)

Probably, he was referring to Successor, the project designing the submarines and missiles intended to replace Britain’s Trident ballistic missile submarine, from which its nuclear weapons would be fired. But he might also have been talking about a potential alternative.

The Government is considering the option of replacing Trident with nuclear armed cruise missiles launched from BAE’s nuclear-powered attack submarines: the Astute class. The Government is conducting a review but this option is likely to cost less, even taking account of the need to upgrade the new submarines, and also mean that submarines capable of carrying nuclear weapons could also do duty as “simple” attack submarines.

The number of nuclear warheads would be greatly cut vs. a ballistic missile submarine system, there would be no need to design an all new submarine, and given the submarines would be lower cost, it would be possible to have many more of them and so keep a deterrent at sea more cheaply. The submarines could also look after themselves rather than, as Trident does, requiring expensive escorts to keep Russian attack submarines from finding them. For the cost of a new Trident system (capital cost £20bn) the UK could purchase another dozen Astute class vessels (capital cost 1.2bn) to go with the seven boats it expects to have come into service over the next decade. And here’s the problem.

Because the Astute class submarines, like all attack submarines, have a single aim. They don’t act as floating ambassadors, perform at-sea rescues, or provide visible ‘deterrence’ - the typical canard around naval forces - they do one thing only: waging war. Stealthy and fast, armed with torpedoes and missiles, even without nuclear weapons they are capable of destroying land targets, other submarines and shipping in a large area, landing special forces and acting as a command centre for a war. Many of the explosions seen during the “shock and awe” attack on Iraq in 2003 came from missiles launched by the current generation of attack submarines: the incoming generation is much more heavily armed.

There’s a tendency to mock incoming new systems (and rightly so, in the case of many previous BAE offerings which have been overpriced and under delivered) and Astute has had its share of snags. It runs too hot, too slowly, and there are quality problems with the build. Even so, the vessels do seem to be half a generation ahead of the incoming new American, Russian and French submarines, carrying more weaponry, moving more stealthily and with more accurate sonar. This makes them the most advanced weapons currently in the world: adding nuclear weapons to them would make them the most dangerous.

They are also not much talked about, either in the peace movement or outside it. This is worrying. For the next dozen years or so, these vessels will have few challengers at sea, and if they are the choice to replace Trident, then David Cameron or his successor would have many more of them, each one demonstrably capable of starting and prosecuting a small war.

Their predecessors are already being used for that. Attack submarines are at the hub of a new type of “networked” warfare, sometimes called “drone fare”: comprising submarines, and their associated missiles, drones, special forces, and cyber warfare/signals intelligence, tied together and geolocated by satellites. This is a type of warfare that has already killed thousands (more than five thousand by US estimates) without any real level of public knowledge or oversight. Unless it is stopped, it will kill thousands more.

It is a false choice to say that we have to choose between another generation of white elephant ballistic missile submarines or more Astutes, as if these latter were some kind of “cut down” version. Though not another Trident in cost terms, they will still be nuclear submarines, carrying nuclear weapons, while also providing very high levels of oppressive, conventional military power.

We need to decide as a country whether more military power and another generation of nuclear weapons is really what we need.

The Government needs to think again, divert the extra money to civil purposes, and tell Dick Olver to stand his people down. As anger against incoming cuts becomes more closely tied to an understanding of just how much Britain spends on lethal weaponry, we are likely to see a very long hot summer of protests in the UK. With the disruption caused at the BAE AGM last week, and anti arms trade protesters scaling the outside of the Department of Business Innovation and Skills yesterday, it is fair to say these protests have already begun. The run up to the large DSEi arms fair in London in September, another taxpayer funded arms industry jamboree, is likely to see determined, rolling action.

As a country we should use our commercial and engineering talents for far better purposes, and use taxpayer money to help people, not hurt them.

I said as much to Mr Olver last week, whereupon BAE threw me out of the meeting. Sooner or later, though, the Government and the arms industry are going to have to start listening to their critics.

Mark Leftly: How guerrilla tactics are forcing boardrooms to man the battle stations - Business Comment - Business - The Independent

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:46:49 +0100

Mark Leftly: How guerrilla tactics are forcing boardrooms to man the battle stations - Business Comment - Business - The Independent:

“Hopefully there are no implications for our nation’s defence capabilities that a throng of anti-war campaigners managed to seemingly catch BAE Systems unaware of their version of a surge, completely overwhelming the military aircraft and missile manufacturer’s meeting at its base in Farnborough.”

Well, it was a bit of a moment. Sorry I couldn’t stay for all of it…

animalcruelty-notok: Pierce Brosnan Leads Charge to Save Whales...

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:16:59 +0100

animalcruelty-notok:

Pierce Brosnan Leads Charge to Save Whales from Sonar and Explosives

Written by Frances Beinecke, President, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council)

The U.S. Navy has announced new plans for training and testing with sonar and explosives — plans that spell disaster for whales.

If the Navy proceeds, more than 1,000 whales and other marine mammals — including rare and endangered species — could be killed over the next five years. There will be more than 5,000 cases of serious injury — such as permanent hearing loss or lung damage — and tens of millions of incidents in which marine mammals are harassed or harmed.

What’s even more shocking? These numbers come from the Navy itself!

NRDC has joined forces with actor and NRDC Member Pierce Brosnan to launch a campaign aimed squarely at forcing the Navy to change course and take steps to protect whales during routine training with sonar and explosives.

In this video, Pierce explains more about the grave dangers that the Navy’s use of sonar and explosives pose to whales and other marine mammals.

The scope of the Navy’s plans is staggering — threatening entire populations of marine wildlife off the East Coast, Southern California, Hawaii and the Gulf Coast.

The Navy would detonate more than 50,000 underwater explosives each year off the coast of Southern California alone. Hundreds of these explosives pack enough charge to sink a warship, which is exactly what they’re used for.

And the Navy’s high-intensity mid-frequency sonar will bombard whales with noise so intense — up to 236 decibels — that it can actually cause their internal organs to hemorrhage.

This type of sonar has already been linked to numerous marine mammal deaths and mass strandings around the world — from Greece to the Bahamas, from Japan to the UK to the United States. Just this week, investigators concluded that a 2008 mass stranding of 60 dolphins off the coast of Cornwall, England, was most likely caused by naval exercises involving active sonar.

The Navy knows full-well that its indiscriminant use of sonar and explosives will take a terrible toll. So it’s all the more distressing that they refuse to put common-sense precautions in place that could protect whales during routine training — especially since taking such steps would in no way compromise our national security.

NRDC has called on the Navy to take a number of simple, proven measures to safeguard whales from the deadly impact of its sonar and explosives— for example, avoiding key habitats where whales are known to migrate and raise their young.

But it seems the Navy will not budge from its old way of doing things. And it will not do so until it hears a terrific outcry from the American public.

Make your voice heard! Join Pierce in sending a message to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, urging him to direct the Navy to put safeguards in place to protect whales during routine training.

Here’s the bottom line: Whales should not have to suffer and die for military practice. It’s up to us to make sure they don’t — not now, not ever.

Pierce Brosnan, you are an excellent human being.

will-potter: Tree-sits are “terrorism” according to some Oregon...

Wed, 15 May 2013 04:20:47 +0100

will-potter:

Tree-sits are “terrorism” according to some Oregon lawmakers.

Two new proposals have already passed the House. Would you mind REBLOGGING? Let’s raise some awareness and shut these bills down.

Read my new article at VICE for the full story.

They’rrre back!