treehugger: July 2004

Kerry

John Kerry knocked it out of the park last night with his acceptance speech. Get your Kerry gear here at I Heart Kerry.

Democratic Convention

If you're interested in checking out all of the speeches at the convention, but don't actually have the time to watch them, the DNC is posting them online. Here's a link to them http://www.dems2004.org/site/pp.asp?c=luI2LaPYG&b=118014

And don't forget to watch Illinois' next Senator, Barack Obama!

Next Stop Iran?

Our military is overstretched and we’re setting record deficits paying for war and our President picks a new target? Bush is now accusing Iran of harboring al Qaeda leaders.

Apparently this all stems from CIA evidence that some of the 9/11 terrorists had passed through Iran. As USATODAY put it “ Iran let Sept. 11 plotters pass by.” Of course, no one has mentioned the obvious, USA let Sept. 11 plotters pas by. Hell, we even gave some of them flight instruction and visas. So it seems a little ludicrous to start pointing fingers at Iran for this. Especially when Bush hasn’t even drafted up an exit plan for his quagmire in Iraq.

treehugger, support our troops & anti-Bush gear

You can order your own snazzy treehugger t-shirts and a variety of political shirts here.

And just for fun, check out treehugger's sister store, Drunken Thoughts.

Gay marriage ban failed!

Whether or not you agree with gay marriage, the Constitution is not designed to limit rights, rather to grant them. Luckily, enough of our senators agreed and pulled the plug on the amendment this morning.

But here’s the argument Bush and company has been making that’s just irked me to death: that marriage is the “most enduring human institution.” I’m a supporter of marriage (probably because I’ve never been married :), but the history of marriage is more of a social contract to bind women that what it is today. From biblical times to a few hundred years ago marriage was generally not entered into for love, it was entered into for the economic benefits it would bring to the family. The history of marriage also includes, polygamy, arranged marriages, child brides, even “virginity tests” and female circumcisions—some still performed today. The idea of romantic love or courtship isn’t even believed to be introduced until medieval times.

While it is one of the oldest “human institutions,” marriage has not been the way we see it today for 1,000 of years as many proponents of the Amendment have suggested. For more info on the history of marriage, here’s a great article for further reading.

Fahrenheit 9/11

I recently saw Fahrenheit 9/11 and felt it deserves some discussion. First, let me say I thought it was great. I can completely see where some of the criticism has come from in creating some of the tenuous links in the film. Of course, when there aren’t hard and fast facts on a subject all speculations are subject to scrutiny, as some of Moore's links between the Saudi's and Bush should be. But this is not the focus of the film anyway, after seeing the whole film the beginning seems more of a side note or warm-up for the real act. All of the stories focusing on Iraq, and really honing in on the human costs of war, were very powerful. Having grown up in a military family, on bases around the world, I thought that he dealt with the issues that the men and women in uniform and their families were facing very respectfully, without pandering. There is, of course, some shocking footage in the film that I didn't particularly care to see, but I suppose that is the point - if you don't put a face on the pain and suffering it never becomes real.

“In time of war the first casualty is truth.”
--Boake Carter
“When the rich make war it's the poor that die.”
--Jean-Paul Sartre
“Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.”
--John F. Kennedy