Humans or Subhumans - Re Live Cattle Exports to Indonesia

As the title says....and I know what my opinion is.   This just makes me so angry, disgusted and disappointed in humanity.....all over again.   I also make absolutely no apology for my opinions expressed here.

After just seeing a graphic video on the news an hour ago about what's happening to live cattle exported from Australia to Indonesia, I can't help feeling a lot less respect for the human race than I have had in recent times.  Which isn't much, I can tell you.

I'm by no means saying this sort of thing doesn't happen in my own country because it does, by individuals mainly, not abattoir workers, and not on this kind of scale unless we just don't hear about it.  That wouldn't surprise me as some of the cattle farmers interviewed are more worried about their livelihood than the cattle they send to be tortured.   The Govt covers up things the public don't need to hear until it's too late, like importing beef from Argentina that has been exposed to Mad Cow's Disease.  Why do we even need to import beef when we have our own industry?    I know, I know, because the best goes out of the country to bring money in.  Duh!

Then there's the battery chicken industry, and the way pigs and other livestock are farmed.  Genetically altered crops and irradiated food, things that will eventually come back to bite the human race.  Human greed just never stops.  How about more humans in overpopulated areas practice birth control?    The trouble is people in poor overpopulated countries aren't being fed and are starving while the rest of the world wastes, wastes and wastes yet wants more and more.  It just goes on and on, but that's another story than what I started with.

There are hunters who do the same to kangaroos and other animals as is happening to these cattle, and others (teenagers) who do things like cut off a two month old puppies' ears, front paws and tail leaving it to die, setting kittens alight in a public mall, restraining a cat in the boot of a car connected to a battery so it gets severe electric shocks (adult perpetrator,) and other terrible things.   And these are just recent, over the past year or so and were discovered.   Both the puppy and cat were rescued and fortunately have been re-homed.

I just can't find a word to describe how low and base this kind of thing is.   People who do these things are just a step away from doing it to children and other people if they don't already..   The saddest thing is it's often teenagers or younger kids who are the cruelest, but not always.

This is a news article dated May 30th related to the cattle exports. 

http://www.theage.com.au/national/slaughter-suspended-over-indonesian-cattle-cruelty-20110527-1f8ci.html

Frankly I don't know how the people involved working in those abattoirs, and others I very much expect, call them selves anything but disgusting, subhumans and deserving of the same treatment they gave those animals.   But that would never happen would it because some of us are civilized humans and try to behave like it.

This is not ignorance.  It's deliberate, sadistic cruelty.

I fully realize these cattle were sent for slaughter to feed humans, but this blatant cruelty should be seen as horrific to any sane thinking person.  However, knowing a bit about human nature and being exposed to the opinions of this kind of scum on the Internet leads me to think otherwise in a LOT of cases.

Poking live cattle in the eyes with blades, kicking them in the head multiple times, sawing their throats with blades over long periods instead of using the proper methods, dismembering them while alive....and more... all while the beasts are alive and conscious.  Is this acceptable?

If there are people who don't find this unacceptable there is something very, very wrong.   This isn't just over reaction.  This is wrong on so many levels.  There was huge controversy a number of years ago and is probably still happening regarding live sheep exports from here to Saudi Arabia where sheep were practically boiled to death in the holds of transport ships during the hottest months without any care at all.  No feed, no water.  Then they were often rejected by the recipient because of the poor quality on arrival and sent back or just died.   What is it with people that they behave this way?

These are links to the actual video footage and I believe it needs to be seen by all right thinking people so these types of things can be stopped.  This is the main reason I'm linking them.

I won't embed them from Youtube, if they are there, or other sources.   They show torture and targeted cruelty and are just too horrific.  This is the Four Corners expose with video links.  Click "iview" or the ABC link at the bottom and the videos are there.   I warned you so be prepared, and I would make sure children DO NOT see these images.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2011/s3228880.htm

Or here.  The video link at the top left of the page which may expire as stories change.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20110530/cattle/

I said elsewhere on this blog that I wouldn't disrespect anyone's religion and I'm not starting now with any specific one....

BUT, I just bet this human scum and others like them all over the world perpetrating acts like this on animals, children and other adults every day, go to their churches every week or however they practice, and pray to their benevolent God believing they are good and humane, well behaved citizens.  Such hypocrisy makes me sick, and there's no explanation that could possibly justify it to me.

The human race is devolving morally at a smart pace and the good will never inherit the earth while the balance is so tipped in the opposite direction.   We might be getting smarter, but at the other end of the scale we are a very flawed and damaged race, generally speaking.   I'm glad I won't be around to see the future, if there is a liveable one, unless there's some monumentally drastic change.

There's so much I would like to discuss and talk about on all these subjects but I'll leave it for now.   Besides, I only have myself and my dog to talk to so .........this is why the blog exists.

Layout

I was going to change the layout of this blog so Youtube videos fit better and don't overlap, but none of the other options work very well with my other preferences so it's staying as is....as much as it irks me.  

Other than the video thing, I like my current layout even though I realize it might be hard for some to read anything with the flowery background.   I like it though, for the time being anyway.

Desiderata - a poetic inspiration for everyone

I ran across this today and it reminded me of how I used to listen to it often back in my younger days.   I even had a poster of it on my bedroom wall.

The actual poem, Desiderata, which means Things to be Desired in Latin, was written by Max Ehrmann in the 1920's.  It was once believed that it was "found" in an old church in 1692, but that's been proven otherwise.  As often happens with great works whether it's art, sculpture or poetry this poem was never well known until after the death of the author.    Anyway there's info here for anyone interested.
http://www.fleurdelis.com/desidera.htm

 I found this image as a free wallpaper at this site. 
http://www.sacredart-murals.co.uk/

Click to enlarge (if you like) so you can read the words.  It's worth it.

I trimmed it a bit for this post, but kept the website name at the bottom.  The trimmed part was a plain coloured background.  As requested by the author I've also added a link to the site in the Sidebar under Links.   There's a lot of very nice artwork and murals there as well.

In 1972 Les Crane had a top ten hit with his spoken version of this poem.   I don't know if anyone else has done it, but I like this for it's simplicity and non modernization. 

Something to think about

A friend sent me a link to this awesome clip and song called Right Where It Belongs by Nine Inch Nails.    I don't think it really needs an explanation. 

It's a bit wide for my layout. Maybe it's time to change it around a bit.

Judgement Day - Saturday 21st May

Well, I must have been hiding under a rock because supposedly this has been in the news for awhile now, or I just don't watch the right news channels.  However, it's all over the TV and internet news today.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/opinion/post/-/blog/australianskeptics/post/1142/comment/1/
According to U.S. evangelist Harold Camping at 6pm tomorrow, less than 24 hours from now where I live, the Rapture is going to happen as he predicted by decoding passages of the Bible.   Approximately three million believers will be saved and the rest of us, as well as millions of other believers I imagine, will suffer unimaginable torment until some date in October this year.  Three million out of the current world population is a small number, but I'm not bothered enough to find out what the criteria is for being saved according to Camping.  It's probably too late anyway.

The trouble with his scenario is he's predicted the end of the world three times previously and it never happened.   An interviewer on TV tonight asked him if he could have a followup interview on Sunday if it doesn't happen, to which he replied he wouldn't be here, so it wouldn't be possible.  He's an old man of 89 years, so it's quite possible he won't be for other reasons than his predictions.
 http://judgementday2011.com/

Correction:  Seems I was wrong about how many times he's already predicted the end.  I don't know where I read it was three times, but it seems it was only once.

Notice at the above link (and others) a lot of people are making money out of people's beliefs and fears.  No surprise really.  That site is selling mugs and T-shirts and it's supposedly a serious site and not a parody.

I'm not a religious person in any shape or form, but I think this is fear mongering and profiteering of the worst kind by misguided individuals targeting vulnerable people and even causing panic in some cases.  As far as I'm concerned people should be free to believe what they like, but when it hurts others and takes advantage of their faith it should be a criminal offense. 

Of course if it happens a lot of others besides myself are in for a torrid five months before the End of Times, starting on Sunday.   The weather bureau has forecast very heavy rain and wind here at least for the next few days so who knows.  Then again, it is the beginning of winter.

Just to note...
It's not my intention to ridicule anyone's religious beliefs, but these doomsayers and TV evangelists have a lot of power, (and money), invested in what they do.  I hope they have a conscience and pay taxes, which they probably don't being a religious organization.  Not to mention they'll need a good reason why it didn't happen...again.  But I can pretty much guess what that will be.

People should keep an open mind, stick with what they believe and gain comfort from, and seek guidance from their normal spiritual sources instead of listening to nutters predicting doom and gloom as they have since the dawn of time.   Unfortunately, the vulnerable living in countries without full access to differing opinions and freedom of faith are the ones who will suffer through this kind of misinformation and fear mongering.

UPDATE:  Sunday May 22nd at 1:30pm...
Well, it seems the Apocalypse was averted, as expected, and Harold Camping is unavailable for comment.  Who could have predicted that would happen?

Oblivion Screen Shots Two

A modern girl out of time

Warrior

Princess

Back in blue

Blue dancer

New character Nina Proud.     

Sideways Pipboy In Fallout New Vegas

Well this is wonderful.   

Just after I say I have no issues with Fallout New Vegas I have the first crash in 20 plus hours after installing the new patch and creating a new character I really like, and now my Pipboy is rotated 45 degrees when I reload the game.  It's happening with all saves so it's not embedded into the most recent one.

I use the Readius mod, however if I remove it according to instructions and get the default Pipboy back it is also rotated so I can't see the screen.

I've researched everywhere I can think of including the Readius mod page where a couple of other people mention the same issue, but no solutions have come up.  I'm going to be very, very annoyed if I have to reinstall the game and have to download a ton of data in patches and updates.

I get really sick of having to tweak and fix problems with newer games and long for the days when games just worked.  I can fix any issues with Oblivion myself or usually find the info to do it if I can't, but with Fallout NV I have no idea.

Here's a pic of the issue and if I ever find out the solution without having to reinstall I'll be sure to post it here for others to use if they have this happen.

 

UPDATE:  Thanks to some helpful suggestions  from a nice person I've got my game back to normal.

When I had the crash it was after 4 in the morning and I was more than a little annoyed with the resulting problems and trying to find solutions on the Net without a result.

However, tonight I started a new game with a test character (as I haven't had time earlier today) and with no mods at all enabled and the Pipboy was back to normal.  Out of a sense of hope I also retried my existing character saves and they now work as well with all mods enabled including the Readius.  They didn't previously and I tested all 30 of them which a was painfully long experience.   I've also deleted the saves closest to where the crash happened and have been back now to the same area and done everything again with no problems...so far.  Fingers crossed.

Another thing I did was go online with STEAM (I always play offline) and got it to verify the file cache after I tried the new game so I'd know which fixed the problem.  There were two files that needed to be re-downloaded which were obviously small as it only took a few seconds.

It's probably a wild guess but I wonder if starting the new game changed something in the ini.  The files from STEAM seem to have been co-incidental.  No idea really, but I'm glad I don't have to start over...again.

Thanks to MadCat221 for the helpful suggestions.