Sunday
There is something truly horrible about our gastrointestinal system waging a mutiny. There are times that a little temper tantrum can be declared without much disruption to the day. I have been suffering from what really feels like food poisoning. Every fiber of my being is connected to my stomach making the act of breathing, blinking or feeling, the cause of extreme stomach convulsions. It goes beyond misery because you absolutely cannot engage in ANYTHING for more than a few minutes, maybe, just maybe, half an hour before you are back to your WC battle station. Eventually it just turns into some kind of cruel cosmic joke because there simply is nothing left in the stomach except its lining yet the urge to expel dominates. Next time I hear of some gastrointestinal virus running rampant in a refugee camp, I am so sending money and Imodium.
I have noticed though, that this is the only way I seem to be able to justify taking it completely easy. I wrestled and negotiated with myself until I caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror and realized that I was unwell, not the big slug faker I was making myself out to be.
We all need a day. Or maybe even two. To unplug. To veg. To withdraw. That doesn’t mean I am depressed or anti-social or harbor anger towards anyone. It just means I need a day or so. Especially when I have been as busy as I have been. And since I refuse to do it myself, something always comes along to ensure that I take a break whether I like it or not.
While in my state of wobbliness, blech! Friday I think it was I caught an end segment from one of the ABC newsmagazine shows. The one with Mr. John Give Me a Break Stossel. Mr. “I can’t stand b.s.” “Give us facts! Give us truth! Give us real situations or dilemmas not “myths” and fake data”. Right? You know the guy. Get this.
No. Seriously.
Get this.
Next week – Friday on 20/20 which is the show I believe he is on, he is going to get the FACTS on whether elephants are really afraid of mice. So, he’s going to go “where the elephants hang out!”
Where might that be?
Africa?India?In the wild?
In a sanctuary?
Oh.
No.
No.
They are going to the CIRCUS.
Yes.
That’s right.
Where all the elephants go and hang out. Where they do what comes naturally like stand on a stool and extend three legs.
Woo-ya! What a grand time they have being chained for hours on end and transported in railcars for days. Love those bull-hooks, too! Being whipped and stomped and abused and electrocuted – what special loving treats they get at the hands of their trainers. Golly, it’s almost like an elephant spa.
I’m sure that evaluating inherent behaviors of a highly social and cognizant being at a CIRCUS would be a lot like evaluating the behavior of a man in the natural habitat of Gitmo Bay.
I will be contacting the Stossal, and I will be telling him that he might want to try conducting his pseudo-scientific studies on animals closer to their natural habitats and not giving a barbaric abomination such as the CIRCUS any air time.
That freak show blows into town sometime in June or July. Can you believe this “circus” crap is still going on? I mean, seriously. I watched the HBO series, Rome, which ended just a few months ago. I guess the way they treated animals and people during that time was to be expected. I suppose I have a snobbery in that I do expect us to become better, more compassionate, more empathetic as a people. I want to believe that we have come so far in the fields of entertainment – gosh, it wasn’t all that long ago that beheadings and hangings were so highly attended because people simply had nothing else to do away from the grueling daily routine. We have entertainment on every conceivable level. So why do things like circuses still exist? Why do we allow massive animals, majestic and mighty animals to be enslaved and forced to perform unnaturally? Is this some kind of prowess thing? Some outward expression of the prevalence of the patriarchal society - the need to express domination in the most degrading and demoralizing way? Can we not free the animals from the snares, the chains, the cages, the steel straightjackets, the milking devices, the crates, can’t we just grant a reprieve? We have come up with so many alternatives – we are such an enterprising group of people. We simply don’t need to do this. Every animal in captivity kills a little bit more of our soul. It’s small, barely noticeable but the numbers are in the billions now. The small is turning large. I don’t want to be a soulless society. We can do so much better than this.
I emailed the Stossal. Here it is:
Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2006 9:00 PM
To: JohnStossel@abcnews.com
Subject: elephant myth
Wow. From the guy who is all about true and common sense and sensibilities and exposing idiocy- we get this. You go to check out an alleged "natural" behavior of an animal by going to a place where these same animals are bludgeoned, electrocuted, beaten, savaged by trainers, chained for hours on end, shipped around in railcars for days. A place where they are continuously forced to behave in unnatural ways, in dangerous and humiliating stunts. Where these highly socialized animals are isolated, separated and cannot perform natural bonding and social routine. This is where you go to dispel a myth? I wonder if you had been given the opportunity to study a natural behavior in man and chose to go to Auschwitz where people were tortured and enslaved and dehumanized.
With the opportunity to throw a spotlight on the elephant sanctuaries in America where these majestic gentle giants are allowed to live out the rest of their lives in peace, usually after a life of torment and enslavement, you instead chose to turn that spotlight to the shame of the three ring circus. Glorifying a national embarrassment. Well done, there, Stossal, great work.
Give me a break.
Penny Barrett Hornsby
PS if you really want to see what goes on in these places, go to the PETA website and click on the link to the circus. There is underground footage inside the elephant training facility.
Ever hear an elephant scream, Mr. Stossal?
Feel free to use the email address as that is what was on the website. Also, feel free to copy and paste my letter and adapt as you see fit. Feel free also to mention that the circus plays on our some of our most basic senses. Our love for animals. We love elephants. They are so friendly looking. They guard their little babies – even pull them out of the mud. They have babysitting and they will adopt if necessary. They are truly majestic. It goes without saying that the thought of seeing elephants is appealing. But seeing some scarred, terrified animal being forced to perform things that it is so painfully obvious that we are making them do something that is dangerous and so incredibly pointless. Why? Because we can! Because we are MAN! We rule everything! HAHAHAHA! I can make other beings do things that terrify them! HA! I make them do things for no apparent reason except to make me look like I have a large man-part.
That’s the best I can do. That’s the only reason I can think of that would be the root of this ridiculous spectacle. This has go to stop. The circus is a terrible place. It is a horrible barnacle from decades gone past. We can get rid of it now. It’s weighing us down.
There is something truly horrible about our gastrointestinal system waging a mutiny. There are times that a little temper tantrum can be declared without much disruption to the day. I have been suffering from what really feels like food poisoning. Every fiber of my being is connected to my stomach making the act of breathing, blinking or feeling, the cause of extreme stomach convulsions. It goes beyond misery because you absolutely cannot engage in ANYTHING for more than a few minutes, maybe, just maybe, half an hour before you are back to your WC battle station. Eventually it just turns into some kind of cruel cosmic joke because there simply is nothing left in the stomach except its lining yet the urge to expel dominates. Next time I hear of some gastrointestinal virus running rampant in a refugee camp, I am so sending money and Imodium.
I have noticed though, that this is the only way I seem to be able to justify taking it completely easy. I wrestled and negotiated with myself until I caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror and realized that I was unwell, not the big slug faker I was making myself out to be.
We all need a day. Or maybe even two. To unplug. To veg. To withdraw. That doesn’t mean I am depressed or anti-social or harbor anger towards anyone. It just means I need a day or so. Especially when I have been as busy as I have been. And since I refuse to do it myself, something always comes along to ensure that I take a break whether I like it or not.
While in my state of wobbliness, blech! Friday I think it was I caught an end segment from one of the ABC newsmagazine shows. The one with Mr. John Give Me a Break Stossel. Mr. “I can’t stand b.s.” “Give us facts! Give us truth! Give us real situations or dilemmas not “myths” and fake data”. Right? You know the guy. Get this.
No. Seriously.
Get this.
Next week – Friday on 20/20 which is the show I believe he is on, he is going to get the FACTS on whether elephants are really afraid of mice. So, he’s going to go “where the elephants hang out!”
Where might that be?
Africa?India?In the wild?
In a sanctuary?
Oh.
No.
No.
They are going to the CIRCUS.
Yes.
That’s right.
Where all the elephants go and hang out. Where they do what comes naturally like stand on a stool and extend three legs.
Woo-ya! What a grand time they have being chained for hours on end and transported in railcars for days. Love those bull-hooks, too! Being whipped and stomped and abused and electrocuted – what special loving treats they get at the hands of their trainers. Golly, it’s almost like an elephant spa.
I’m sure that evaluating inherent behaviors of a highly social and cognizant being at a CIRCUS would be a lot like evaluating the behavior of a man in the natural habitat of Gitmo Bay.
I will be contacting the Stossal, and I will be telling him that he might want to try conducting his pseudo-scientific studies on animals closer to their natural habitats and not giving a barbaric abomination such as the CIRCUS any air time.
That freak show blows into town sometime in June or July. Can you believe this “circus” crap is still going on? I mean, seriously. I watched the HBO series, Rome, which ended just a few months ago. I guess the way they treated animals and people during that time was to be expected. I suppose I have a snobbery in that I do expect us to become better, more compassionate, more empathetic as a people. I want to believe that we have come so far in the fields of entertainment – gosh, it wasn’t all that long ago that beheadings and hangings were so highly attended because people simply had nothing else to do away from the grueling daily routine. We have entertainment on every conceivable level. So why do things like circuses still exist? Why do we allow massive animals, majestic and mighty animals to be enslaved and forced to perform unnaturally? Is this some kind of prowess thing? Some outward expression of the prevalence of the patriarchal society - the need to express domination in the most degrading and demoralizing way? Can we not free the animals from the snares, the chains, the cages, the steel straightjackets, the milking devices, the crates, can’t we just grant a reprieve? We have come up with so many alternatives – we are such an enterprising group of people. We simply don’t need to do this. Every animal in captivity kills a little bit more of our soul. It’s small, barely noticeable but the numbers are in the billions now. The small is turning large. I don’t want to be a soulless society. We can do so much better than this.
I emailed the Stossal. Here it is:
Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2006 9:00 PM
To: JohnStossel@abcnews.com
Subject: elephant myth
Wow. From the guy who is all about true and common sense and sensibilities and exposing idiocy- we get this. You go to check out an alleged "natural" behavior of an animal by going to a place where these same animals are bludgeoned, electrocuted, beaten, savaged by trainers, chained for hours on end, shipped around in railcars for days. A place where they are continuously forced to behave in unnatural ways, in dangerous and humiliating stunts. Where these highly socialized animals are isolated, separated and cannot perform natural bonding and social routine. This is where you go to dispel a myth? I wonder if you had been given the opportunity to study a natural behavior in man and chose to go to Auschwitz where people were tortured and enslaved and dehumanized.
With the opportunity to throw a spotlight on the elephant sanctuaries in America where these majestic gentle giants are allowed to live out the rest of their lives in peace, usually after a life of torment and enslavement, you instead chose to turn that spotlight to the shame of the three ring circus. Glorifying a national embarrassment. Well done, there, Stossal, great work.
Give me a break.
Penny Barrett Hornsby
PS if you really want to see what goes on in these places, go to the PETA website and click on the link to the circus. There is underground footage inside the elephant training facility.
Ever hear an elephant scream, Mr. Stossal?
Feel free to use the email address as that is what was on the website. Also, feel free to copy and paste my letter and adapt as you see fit. Feel free also to mention that the circus plays on our some of our most basic senses. Our love for animals. We love elephants. They are so friendly looking. They guard their little babies – even pull them out of the mud. They have babysitting and they will adopt if necessary. They are truly majestic. It goes without saying that the thought of seeing elephants is appealing. But seeing some scarred, terrified animal being forced to perform things that it is so painfully obvious that we are making them do something that is dangerous and so incredibly pointless. Why? Because we can! Because we are MAN! We rule everything! HAHAHAHA! I can make other beings do things that terrify them! HA! I make them do things for no apparent reason except to make me look like I have a large man-part.
That’s the best I can do. That’s the only reason I can think of that would be the root of this ridiculous spectacle. This has go to stop. The circus is a terrible place. It is a horrible barnacle from decades gone past. We can get rid of it now. It’s weighing us down.
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