Blog Archives

In 2009, the Park Slope Food Coop stopped selling the 1/2 gallon size Soymilk. I was like, WTF? I still decided to drink it, even though it may have killed me. In fact, I did many other things that may have killed me. But since the Coop’s decision to stop selling this stuff, I’ve seriously cut down on my Silk ways since discovering just how bad the Silk Brand is. And I thought other people should know too.

The Food Coop’s reasons were simple – or as simple as the Food Coop can be (I copied the text below directly from the Coop’s blog [link])

1. In January 2009, Silk – whose soy products were formerly 100% organic — reformulated their product line by converting almost all their products to conventional soybeans. They did this quietly, without telling retailers or changing the UPC code numbers on the products. Many retailers, including the Coop, didn’t find out about the change until consumers noticed and complained. The non-organic soymilks are labeled “Natural.” When we questioned Silk representatives about the change, we were told “there is a shortage of organic soybeans in North America.” However, it has been argued that Dean Foods (which owns Silk) “helped create these shortages by opting for cheaper organic imports instead of supporting domestic farmers with sustainable prices.1” (For the full report, please read the Cornucopia Institute’s Soy Report & Scorecard)

2. Silk does not guarantee that all of their soybeans are free from GMO contamination. Organic Valley’s organic soybeans are ‘Identity Preserved‘ – meaning each batch is tested to ensure there is no GMO contamination.

3. Silk is unwilling to share their sourcing information with consumers. Dean Foods “refused to transparently participate in the [Cornucopia Institute’s] study—depriving their customers of an independently verified review of their practices.” This stands in contrast to many other prominent soy food brands around the country that are fully transparent In their sourcing and production practices.

4. Silk brand is owned by Dean Foods - an agribusiness giant that owns over 50 milk labels around the country including Horizon Organic, a brand that heavily depends on factory farms each milking thousands of cows. Organic Valley is owned by CROPP Cooperative, a cooperative of organic family farmers. The Coop supports other cooperatives, wherever possible, and we try also to avoid companies that source from factory farms.

So – dear readers – do you do anything that might someday kill you? Have you been able to kick your Silk Soymilk habit? I’d love to know how you’re able to resist the smooth silky soymilk that goes oh so well with frozen strawberries and peanut butter sandwiches. I’m still struggling.

RELATED LINKS

• Download the report by the Cornucopia Institute
• Read the Coop’s statement
• Read this Village Voice Article about how Veggie Burger can kill you

I attended the inauguration with a great group of folks (about 2 million of them). We couchsurfed in DC with Dan, who hosted about 15 other couchsurfers from around the world. There were many other people in DC who hosted 10+ people.

Read this great CNN article on Couchsurfing + the Inauguration.

I’ve included a rundown of my own personal experience, along with a rundown of interesting takes on the inauguration from the mainstream media.

Personal Videos + Photos (shot by Rob Moon)

Photos of the Inauguration on Flickr

Video of the Inauguration on YouTube

I love this video – we saw this amazing woman from Memphis after the Inauguration speech. She sang to us.

My Photos on Facebook (uploaded from my iPhone)

I also shot video on my iPhone + uploaded it to the web using Qik. For more videos of the inauguration, visit the Qik Inauguration Page.

For a fascinating look at Obama’s speech, simply type in a keyword in the video player below, courtest of Delve Networks

Below is a tag cloud of keywords Obama said in his Inauguration Speech, courtesy of Read/Write Web.

Mainstream Coverage

And now a rundown of great inauguration mainstream media + resources

The Inauguration Speech on NYTimes.com

Washington Post’s Moving Video of the Inauguration and Beyond

Online Video of Inauguration Sets Records (NYTimes.com)

400 Newspapers across the world featuring the inauguration (going.com)

China Censors Part of Obama Speech (NYTimes.com)

CNN’s AMAZING Photo-Multimedia Collage of “The Moment” – a must view

Incredible Hi-Res Photos from The Boston Globe

And finally, a roundup of resources I found on AlumniBlender:

Data Visualization of the Inauguration speech

An analysis of CNN Live’s integration with Facebook

History.

Despite all the votes that are still coming in (provisional ballots, North Carolina, and countless other votes), our country has declared Barack Obama the next president. He has managed to win the seat of the White House by winning an overwhelming amount of Electoral Votes.

For those who don’t understand the electoral votes, I’ve pulled this graphic up to help explain things.

[via The Onion]

There’s tons of free stuff this election day!

In addition to the Free Coffee at Starbucks, Free Ice Cream at Ben & Jerry’s, Free Donuts at Krispy-Kreme, and Free Sandwiches at Chick-Fil-A, Babeland is giving away free sex toys.

[via the official Babeland site]

Babeland Rewards Voters with a Silver Bullet or a Maverick

If the Maverick rhetoric in the presidential campaigns is doing anything, we hope it’s motivating everyone to get out and vote. Which is why we’re giving away a real Maverick, absolutely FREE to all voters. All men, not just Joe Six Pack, love the Maverick sleeve($20 value) by Vibratex. He’s always there to lend a hand, he works for every man, and he bucks the status quo.Wait, it gets better. We’ve got one more enticement. A free Silver Bullet ($15 value), because that’s what our country needs right now, a magical solution to difficult problems. Babeland’s most popular compact mini-vibe feels fantastic and is a great stress-reliever during these troubled economic times!

Bring a voter registration card, ballot stub or your word of honor that you cast a ballot on November 4th and we’ll give you either a free Maverick sleeve or a Silver Bullet. This offer is good at any Babeland location in New York and Seattle November 4-11, while supplies last.

Store Locations

In New York City                    

Babeland Brooklyn, 462 Bergen Street        

Babeland LES, 94 Rivington Street

Babeland SoHo, 43 Mercer Street

In Seattle

Babeland Seattle, 707 E. Pike St

From the NYTimes

Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell endorsed the presidential bid of Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, during an interview Sunday on “Meet the Press.”

The former Army general, who served as Secretary of State during President George W. Bush’s first term said a number of factors contributed to his decision to support Mr. Obama over Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee.

“I think that Senator Obama brings a fresh set of eyes, fresh set of ideas to the table,” Mr. Powell said, speaking outside NBC’s Washington studio. “I think that Senator McCain, as gifted as he is, is essentially going to execute the Republican agenda, the orthodoxy of the Republican agenda with a new face and a maverick approach to it, and he’d be quite good at it, but i think we need more than that.”

Mr. Powell also said following the interview that the negativity of the McCain campaign was “over the top” and troubled him.

Conservative newspapers have also gone towards Obama.

According to Editor & Publisher, Obama now has a 3 to 1 lead over McCain in newspaper endorsements — 51 newspapers with a total 6,299,363 daily circulation. At least seven of those papers endorsed President Bush in 2004.

I got this in an email today – does anybody know the actual source?

Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known for ‘The Vagina Monologues’, wrote the following about Sarah Palin.

Drill, Drill, Drill

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it’s their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don’t like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them.. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story — connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God’s plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin’s view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, ‘It was a task from God.’

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist’s baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God’s name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack.. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don’t move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, ‘Drill Drill Drill.’ I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

Eve Ensler

September 5, 2008

For those who haven’t heard, John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his sidekick.
Many tout her as inexperienced.

DailyKos has touted her as Punky Brewster, while Wonkette touted her a snow dwarf, and a hot lego.

[ via DailyKos ]

watch the video

At the 2:55-ish mark Palin responds to Kudlow’s queries about her interest in being vp by saying “What is it exactly that the VP does every day?”

. . . She is flippant about the job and implies she has better things to do. It demonstrates McCain’s extreme recklesness to chose someone who has no respect for the office. These are serious times and require serious people who care enough to tackle the challenges ahead.