Gaia Community: Ocean's Blog

Are you energetically sensitive?

http://Oceann.gaia.com — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:40:40 GMT

Everyone is, whether he or she is aware of it or not - from the tiniest lifeform to the hugest whales, all species are energetically sensitive, have many subtle senses usually not explored or heeded, and many can be consciously cultivated.

Or - it can be trained to be less invasive, as is needed.

Our pets sense far too much, and for their sake, we need to learn to control - to tame - our emotions, and to learn how to only generate harmonious energies around us.

Seen properly, our emotions are fuel to direct the will, but untamed, will control our lives. They, as, frankly, other unnecessary energies, circumstances, and thoughts, must be disposed of - handled - by methods like breathing, yoga, meditation, etc. - John Gray still has the best methods of ridding ourselves of wild emotions, and of finding ways to protect our subtle bodies against invasive emotions and energies thrown out by others.

For more, visit http://www.CosmicFix.com

Tags: Q&R, energy, emotions, sensitive, cosmic, meditate, Ocean, heal, pets

Circulate the Child-Free Pledge ! Let's Save Our World !

http://Oceann.gaia.com — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:23:14 GMT

Be an EcoHeroine or EcoHero.Take the EcoChildFree Pledge

EcoChildFree Pledge

Take the Pledge

I love the world, all its’ people, all other animals and our environment.

I love the seas, the mountains, the air, the fresh water and our resources.

I pledge to remain Child-Free – to make absolutely sure by utilizing vasectomy or by making sure any partners of mine have had vasectomies, and until then, to utilize more than two types of birth control at a time, regardless the convenience.

To take sex seriously and to o nly engage in it while completely sober.

Life and death are involved with sex. Mine, yours, and the potential for creating an innocent life.

I Promise to either remain Child-Free or to adopt o ne of the starving millions of children who need me.

By my life, by my choices, I promise to think of our world as a whole, to be compassionate and to seek to make the world a better place by my own presence here.

And - Thinking of Having a Baby ?

Ask Yourself These Imporant Questions First:

Thinking of having a baby ? Read ChildFix first and take the questionnaire.

Think of the world as one household. The house is small, the income fixed, and they cannot move. The family already has a child, and cannot feed another, and yet they think of having another child. Either the quality of life will suffer and each will have less food, they will put o ne out to starve, close the windows, and not heed his cries, or they will stop having children.
EcoChildFree
Stop Human Overpopulation
GetFixed.org

ChildFix Questionnaire

1. Do you have a stable household with a partner ? (Remember, it takes at least two stable, solvent people to raise a child in case one defaults, dies, or becomes incapacitated. )
2. Do you have at least several hundred thousand in the bank and insurance adequately covered to take car of that child and a substitute parent in case you die ?
3. Do you have alternate plans for a stable household in case you and your partner die ? You know, don't you, that our government will not take care of your child. It's up to you.
4. Have you decided who will take active care of your child if something happens and you need to work or if you work already ? Day care is not free, it's horrible, and unsafe.
5. Have you had hands-on experience of at least a week, twenty-four hours a day attending along with a new mother the care of a newborn ? Of a toddler ? Of a rambunctious eight-year-old ? Of an unruly teen ?
6. What exactly are your reasons for wanting a child ?
7. What if any expectations do you have of the proposed child ?
8. What behaviors do you demand of anyone in your proximity?
9. Have you finished with your traveling ?
10. Have you finished with your nights out and your partying ?
11. Are you ready – should circumstances dictate – to let go of all the fringe benefits of your life and donate all your time and resources for the rest of your life to someone you have not yet met and with whom you ight have personality conflicts, or who might meet with an accident and be an impediment needing all your time and resources? is your committment absolute and unconditional?
Remember – any personality may emerge from your womb or from the little face in the orphanage window.Remember, a special-needs child might be born.
Remember, your personality must bend to meet the needs of that child, not the other way around.
Remember, being a parent stops you from being a carefree person – from now o n, no trips, no toys for yourself, no nights out.
Remember, taking care of a helpless being is a full-time, two-decade proposition at best, and anyone can have a child who turns out to be autistic, retarded, deformed, troubled or unhealthy.
And you have a good chance of having personality conflicts with even a baby.
Remember, it’s your job to take care of that child’s every need yourself – possibly with no help – marriages suffer most when another party is brought in. Only very stable marriages survive the arrival of a child, (and they are very few ). You may end up being a single parent. Are you prepared for that?
Do you primarily want a partner ? A mate ? Then why are you contemplating bringing a child into your relationship? A third party ?

Three is a crowd, and a romance-killer.

For some odd reason, many women mistakenly think that a child will mend a relationship with a man. It's the very opposite for the vast majority.

We've all heard women use the phrase "give" him a child, as if it's some sort of gift to the male.

It's not the kind of gift a man craves. Rare is the man who grows up playing with baby dolls.

Think about it.

If what you want is a great marriage, then focus o n that.

If what you truly want is to parent a child, then adopt one.

If you think you want to have both a mate and a child, then find a mate who whole-heartedly wants a child more than anything else in the world and who also has all the other requirements for stability.

Don't bring a helpless child into an unstable environment. Care more for an innocent than that.

Think. Plan. Prepare.

In the words of Socrates, "Know thyself", and "To think own self be true."
Think about these things before you allow a mistake to happen.
If it does, own up and take responsibility, and receive the child as a gift, despite your misgivings, despite all.
Give, and you’ll profit long-term, but if you’re not prepared -not ready for this responsibility, make sure you prepare for the possibility and GetFixed.org.

Also, See EcoChildFree

Also, See Why Did I get Pregnant Anyway?

Tags: Ocean, child free, eco, green, human overpopulation, environment, starving children, get vasectomy, save world, Child Free Pledge

URGENT- Please Help Horses Now! URGENT, PLEASE HELP HORSES!

http://Oceann.gaia.com — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 20:19:31 GMT

MerHorses.com

URGENT ECOUPDATE!

Help Horses Here

NOW! TELL OUR NEW PRESIDENT OBAMA AND OUR NEW CONGRESS AND SENATE THAT WE LOVE HORSES AND WANT TO SAVE THEM!

Find out who your Senator or Congressman is and their contact info here
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html

Make the Call for Horses!

Check to see if your U.S. Representative is already a co-sponsor of The Conyers-Burton Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, H.R. 503.

If they are not, please call to urge your Representative to become a co-sponsor. You can reach your U.S. Representative by calling the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121, or click here to find their Capitol office phone numbers.

JOIN US WHO LOVE HORSES

AND HELP THE HUMANE SOCIETY

PROTECT HORSES!

We who adore horses must make this a part of every day.

Along with stopping the disgusting practice of slaughtering beautiful horses for food- we must stop the exportation of horses to slaughter plants in Mexico and Canada.

We just released new footage uncovering the cruelty of the Mexican horse slaughter industry and the utterly inhumane transportation methods used to ship horses to Mexican slaughterhouses.

Congress needs to act swiftly to pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503/S. 311) and end the export of American horses for human consumption!

Your voice for horses is critical. Here's what you can do:

Please check to see if your U.S. Representative is already a co-sponsor of H.R. 503 and if your two U.S. Senators are co-sponsors of S. 311. If they are, please thank them for their support. If not, please urge them to co-sponsor the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. You can reach your federal legislators by calling the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121, or click here to look up your your legislators and their Capitol office phone numbers.

Your call today will help highlight the new and urgent need for a ban now. Will you help us build support for a second massive National Call-In Day on October 16? We need you to take part in a nationwide campaign to pass H.R. 503/S. 311 -- and it's simple. Join thousands of other concerned advocates and take part in a National Call-In Day on Tuesday, October 16. Would you please spread the word about the Call-In Day? Just take this important flier and spread it throughout your community -- leave it at coffee shops, email it to all your contacts, and distribute it wherever you can.

All of your phone calls, emails and letters have carried us this far. Keep up the pressure, and help us end the slaughter of American horses.

Tags: urgent, help, horses, call, activism, compassion, save, animals, horse, laws

Send a Message to Be Kind

http://Oceann.gaia.com — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 02:56:18 GMT

For Dogs

IMPORTANT!
Please Go Here and Email the NFL Now To Tell Them That Sports Fans Want Dogfighting Added To Their Policies List for Violations !

http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/afalcons_vick_4

And Always Go To DogFix To See How We Can Help Our Closest Friends!

For candy, and for chocolate, please make your own, using compassionate ingredients, as in this article:

Vegan Desserts!
Yes, All Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies included!

Remember, Dairy is horribly cruel, so using delicious soy or rice or almond milk instead will save babies' lives. Read this article: Got Milk ?

If you do go the commercial candy route, please buy from Hershey's who have promised not to test on animals, rather than from Mars, and join us in writing, calling, and emailing Mars to ask them to adopt no testing on animals.

This is from Peta2:

Before stocking up on candy this Halloween, you should know that chocolate-maker Mars Inc.-creator of M&M's, Snickers, and other candies-continues to fund deadly animal tests!

Mars has funded cruel experiments in which mice were fed a candy ingredient and forced to swim in a pool of paint. The mice had to find a platform to try to avoid drowning, only to be later killed and dissected. In another gruesome experiment supported by Mars, rats were fed cocoa and then sedated with carbon dioxide so that blood could be collected through a needle that punctured their hearts!

Mars' top competitor, Hershey's, has pledged to PETA that it will not fund or conduct experiments on animals. Please urge Mars to follow Hershey's lead and immediately end all support for animal tests!

Thanks for everything you do for animals!

Sincerely,

Pulin Modi
Senior Street Team Coordinator
peta2

Tags: dogs, help, save, heal, compassion, animals, vegan, kindness, love, peace, health

Ocean's Plan To Save The World

http://Oceann.gaia.com — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 00:27:16 GMT

Greenize.com Green Your Food Logo

Ocean's Four-Fold Plan to Save the Planet

There is a four-fold plan that will absolutely save the world, if instituted universally very, very soon, while there's still time -

1. Veganize
2. Be Child-Free
3. Ecoize
4. Create Diplomatic Solutions Internationally - Think Globally

1. Veganize
Veganize to Save the Planet

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetabe-based diet."

                                                                                             -Albert Einstein

      "If Americans were to reduce their meat consumption by only 10 per cent for one year, it would free at least 12 millions tons of grain for human consumption - or enough to feed 60 million people... Indeed, if Americans were to stop eating grain-fed beef altogether the grain thus released would be enough to feed all the 600 million people in India. -Peter Singer, Author

Do you want the planet to survive? Do you want for all the starving childrn in the world to thrive? Do you want all the over-fed children to survive?
Do you actually care for the spiritual? For Compassion? For others? Do you care about the cruel suffering inflicted upon helpless, sweet beings?

    Veganizing from a Spiritual Perspective

    Suppose you met a soul who was unable to speak quite legibly, who was naive,
trusting, and not quite as bright as yourself.

Would you treat him with kindness? With respect?
What if he were in fact helpless. Would you offer sympathy, compassion? Pity, at least?
Treat him with mercy?
You meet him every day in many forms- this innocent, helpless soul,
As the innocent and helpless victims of the most horrendous aspect of our society, the most helpless of all beings, the victims of the meat industry.
The most shameful legacy of our shameful era, factory farming has taken the already cruel practice of eating fellow mammals and taken it to a level far beyond evil.
In the interest of profit for the handful of owners, every shred of decent behaviour extended to these utterly dependent and feeling beings has been stripped away.
Few laws protect them, and of those, most are ignored.
In many states, even inspection in to their torture chambers is not allowed.
Why would they - the growers, the ones who make profit off the untold misery of totally innocent animals - why would they not want for their warehouses, their transporters, and, particularly, their butcheries, to be seen? only if they are not complying with the minimal laws which are in place would they seek to hide their doings like criminals.
One does not act guilty if there has not been a crime.
The fact that they do not ensure either that the animals in their care are either raised humanely, transported humanely, or even killed humanely.
We, the people, we, the Americans, have a voice in this.
We must use it to aid the sentient, suffering beings at the very bottom of society- the animals raised and murdered for food.
We need to make sure that the cruelest of people are not allowed to continue their clandestine outrages against the ones who, in Issac Bashevis singer's words are 'totally inoffensive' animals.
We must be their voice.
'If ye have done it unto the least of them, you have done it unto me.'
The words of Jesus apply to all these souls, the very most helpless of our world. Jesus himself chose not only to be born among them- the barnyard animals, the least of society- our greatest victims, - but he also chose to be called ,'the Lamb'.

Veganizing from a Personal Life Enhancement Angle

Do you like to live? To be hot? To stay youthful? To be healthy and vital, energetic and attractive?
Do you want to be able to, with every part of your being, with your body, soul, mind, and heart, with your spirit, be able to say that you are aliened? Whole? That what your mind knows and your heart feels - that it's wrong, wrong, wrong to shove innocent fellow animals into horrible, small complexes that make the idea of hell a reality and then to murder them in atrocious conditions - that it's wrong to take the acres needed to grow grain that would keep countless starving children alive by growing grain instead of feeding grazing herds of cattle - would you like to have all of you - mind, soul, heart, body - aligned in knowing that by your every meal, your every day of being alive, that you are living in compassion and righteousness?
Your entire life will change into a glowing, beauteous exercise in power, stamina, energy, and spiritualness that you have never before had access to when you decide to go vegan.
http://www.Veganize.com
http://www.EcoEat.com

2. Be Child-Free and/or Adopt

    Think of the world as one household. The house is small, the income fixed, and they cannot move. The family already has a child, and cannot feed another, and yet they think of having another child. Either the quality of life will suffer and each will have less food, they will put one out to starve, close the windows, and not heed his cries, or they will stop having children, if they have any compassion or caring.
EcoChildFree
Stop Human Overpopulation
GetFixed.org
ChildFix

3. Ecoize
    Ecoize to Keep the Planet Alive
    Ecoize and You Will Thrive
http://www.ecoize.com/

With your heart, make every choice in life.
Choose to buy only planet-friendly, vegan, compassionate products.
Seek them out.
Get lists of who does and who doesn't test on animals, like these -
http://www.caringconsumer.com/

http://www.americanhumane.org/site/DocServer/CCIC_Shopping_Guide_2006.pdf?docID=3821

Boycott cruelty-based industries.
find lists here
http://www.thepetitionsite.org/

Find out how to use only green products and where to buy them.
Even with pests - learn how to deal with them respectfully and compassionately at
http://www.loveinsects.com/

Tread lightly during your stay on earth, your spirit will lighten too.

4. Create Diplomatic Solutions Internationally - Think Globally
    Insist on diplomatic rapport, on unilateral discussions, on peaceful conclusions to all problems in the world among nations, within nations, and other cultures.
   Insist that religiosity stay out of politics.
Insist on logical thought, problem-solving, and in finding answers.
   Find common denominators. Focus on what we have in common.
   Diminish the differences.
   Seek to communicate with all and insist that our governments do the same.

    Vote with your conscience.
    Vote with your determination to save our planet.
    Vote with your dollars and your voice every day. Boycott where necessary.
    Email and join campaigns, lobby, spread the word. Use your power.

    If you feel that war is wrong, voice your feelings and your morality.
    If you don't, then examine your soul, and follow the money - find out who war benefits and who it destroys.
    Find out which industries excel at making profits on war and basically, follow the themes, the threads, and decide how you want your tax dollars to be spent and how your conscience feels about it, and then become active in effecting change.

If you do not step up to create change, you are part of the problem - not part of the solution.
Become active.
Do something every day to help innocent victims, to help starving children, to help helpless animals, to help struggling adults, to help save trees and wildlife and wild lands, to help create green industries to take over from the cruel ones, to learn more and more about how your power right now can save the world - and by every meal, by every purchase, by every thought - be compassionate. Live your spirituality!

This will save the planet.
Act now!

ChildFix.com

Tags: Ocean, plan, save the world, save our planet, Earth, Sea, environment, air, overpopulation, child-free, veganize

On Katrina

http://Oceann.gaia.com — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:45:08 GMT

On New Orleans and Displacement

I can't help being mean-spirited and wishing that the loud-mouthed yuppie woman flapping her yap right now on Fox news, on a panel of merciless, (except for two, who still have humane instincts), so-called experts ?? who's just now proclaimed that there should be a film called "leachies", about the displaced people of New Orleans who were ousted from everything they knew and loved by the awful hurricaine, Katrina, - I can't help hoping that that lady's karma finds her and puts her, somehow, in their shoes someday.

It's human nature to feel that justice is being perverted, as I know, but it's not human, let alone humane, to fail to understand what it really feels to be berift of home, family, even of family members who were killed in that storm, and everything you knew and loved.

The real reason for all of it is, as we know, money.

The secondary and related issue is that yuppies like her want the region near the water that these less-than-well-heeled people used to live in.

Another heartless person, another woman, said that if they can't afford the expensive flood insurance, then others who can should live there.

Echoing the rim of soulless yuppies who've eaten up the Southern coastline like so many sharks in a ring, some of whom even discount the Federal law giving access to any and everyone to all American beaches at all times, trying to tell people that ,"oh, sorry, this is a private beach, you know...", and I've seen sad and embarrassed people even comply with their nefarious wishes to throw them off their own beaches!! - well, this is another case where we, the people, are kept wondering just who allowed the levee to break!

Hearing Howlin' Wolf's voice in my head, I now wonder what happened in the old days, when similar levees broke.

The poorer people tended to be amassed in the low-lying areas then, for just that reason.

They were given the hardest work - loading and unloading the ships - and the most dangerous housing, in flood zones.

And now, with the new breed of yuppies desperate for ever-shrinking coastal property, the situation has reversed itself.

Now those who have close ties to home, area, townships, and wish to be able to visit their loved ones graves are carted out, the way once children were first bussed for hours into new territories without their consent, forced to attend schools in distant regions, and yet now these people cannot go home again.

We are the richest nation on Earth.

Gluttonous. A nation of fat people.

Fat in many ways.

Our country used to stand up for its' own people.

Our government now reflects the health industry.

Emphasis on industry.

Government is now only a business.

Heartless and all.

Cold, orderly.

Hitler would be proud of America now.

Is that woman aware of the statistics that moving away from home and family is second only to loss of a close loved one on the ladder of grief?

That sadness of this nature, utter loss of this kind, engenders health loss too?

That by her coldness she's causing innocent people, kids who've lost their pets, family's who've lost their only photos of their fathers, their only connections to their past, the tools they needed to work with, their cars their clothing, and all their identity to be bussed away to entirely new areas and cities where they've never wanted even to visit?

To bad places?

Dangerous ones?

To cheap and cramped housing?

Unfamiliar surroundings?

Too often those who should feel pity and empathy instead throw everything away, push it away from them in anger and impatience.

These cold-blooded yuppies on TV - I still can't help wishing they were walking right now in their shoes - the shoes of the victims of hurricaine Katrina.

Justice is God's, we know, but aid is supposed to come from one's own government.

We all know that.

It's basic - or used to be - to America.

That is where I want my own tax dollars to go.

To help our own people in need, not to bomb others into homelessness and displacement.

Anyone with me?

Tags: Katrina, storm, hurricaine, justice, charity, aid, info

Compassion Is The Way of Enlightenment For All World Religions

http://Oceann.gaia.com — Tue, 08 May 2007 16:17:16 GMT

Compassion is the Way

All great world religions start with Compassion.
All the great world religions share one basic theme - Compassion.
Compassion is the healing wholeness that we all seek and that the survival-strategies that are based on separateness lack.
The soul seeks wholeness, universalism, and most of all - truth.
The truth is at the heart of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and every Holy person and Mystic who has had the so-called Right Hand Path has espoused this One Truth - that Compassion to All Beings is the Way to Enlightenment.

Being Vegan is being Compassionate.
First, Do No Harm.

Compassion is the Way.
We are All One.

Compassionize

Tags: QaR, religion, spirituality, love, compassion, animals, vegan, help, health, soul, heal

Vegans are Healthy!

http://Oceann.gaia.com — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:51:17 GMT

Go Dairy-Free with Me!

Do you want to be healthy? To live a long and happy, slender, fit, vibrant and beautiful and youthful life?
Then drop the dairy!
It's only for growing enormous calves!
Those fat cells go through life with you, and will refill and inflate your shape if you use dairy.
Try rice milk! Or soy milk!
Or the tasty and delicious nut milks!
Those plant milks are the only ones that are healthy.
Dairy from cows, goats, or sheep are mucus-forming, acidifying, phlegm-causing, artery-clogging toxins that are made of pus.
Did you know that? Milk is actually pus!
Yuck!
Try going dairy free for a week!
Buy yourself some marvelous rice, soy, almond and other kinds of nut milks instead!
Make a French toast like this one - below - avoiding dairy and eggs - and see how great it tastes!!
So much more awesome than the cruelty kind!
Be kind!
Be hot!
Be hip!
Be Vegan!

Fun Health Food

Veganize

Hunk Lunches

EcoEat

Frenchy Toast

For a healthy and delicious brunch, or dessert or a late-night sexy snack, ( are you trying to get that hot neighbor into bed? Try inviting him or her over for an after-hours treat )-

I make almond milk by soaking raw organic almonds overnight, then grinding
and shaking them with water. I often add this almond milk to a bowl, soak
ezekial bread in it, then bake into a delicious vegan version of French toast
Top with stevia and cinnamon, and you have a healthy and fabulous treat !

And - a compassionate one ! Treat your body and your soul with kindness
- Veganize !

It occured to me, while I was lazily being pulled through the water by my giant breed dog (rescued, of course, from a shelter), holding on lightly to his long fur, his huge webbed paws paddling us around in circles while I float and get pulled along peacefully, both of us blissfully happy, that being Vegan has made me so blissfully happy all the time, has done so much for me and others, and has made just being alive so spiritually meaningful, since with every meal I save innocent lives, that I just wanted to share that thought - that Veganizing has done more than anything toward making me align with my own soul, and that that is the very meaning of the word, bliss.
By the way, my Doggy used to insist on rescuing me all the time, blocking my way to go out surfing, or pulling me in from swimming in a pool, and now he only does that if he senses that I'm tire or if he thinks that the waves are too big - he surfs too, of course! He has his own big board!
Spending time with any and all fellow animals - as I've been blessed to do with cows, among many others, allows you to know them as individuals and to love them as a family - as part of our own big family.
Just opening your eyes to the fact that they are all just like us is healing- and to the fact that we do not need cruelty food, and in fact, the cruelty food hurts humans as it hurts the victims of cruelty - that it's true - all we need is Love - our food can be Love if it's Compassionate food - if it shares our love for all others by allowing them to live.
Loving food is healing.
Let Love into your heart and save beautiful, innocent lives with every meal!
Veganize!

Tags: vegans, veganism, vegan, health, fitness, diet, nutrition, milk, dairy, toxins, illness

Help All Animals Every Day and We Help Save the Environment Too!

http://Oceann.gaia.com — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 21:17:51 GMT

We are all animals, so helping all animals includes human people too!

I got these wonderful click links from Lotus' page -
Please click these every day to help!

" Help us preserve the world's dwindling rain forests, essential to create oxygen and maintain a balanced ecology. Every click helps the Nature Conservancy save square feet of this precious natural habitat! "- Also includes buttons for the American Prairie & Marine Wetlands.

"More than 319,000 harp seals will be clubbed or shot to death this year in Canada. Each click will support IFAW's TV campaign to build public pressure against this cruel and inhumane hunt."

"Saving the oceans is not only about saving species, but about protecting the health of the entire planet. Help Oceana save dolphins, whales and sea otters as well as help keep pollutants out of the oceans with a free click now!"

"Big cats, including tigers, snow leopards and jaguars are in danger of extinction. Click free to help the Wildlife Conservation Society protect big cat territory now!"

" Chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and other primates are threatened with extinction. Support the Jane Goodall Institute with your free click today. "

" Millions of domestic animals are starving or killed each year due to neglect. Please help support the The Humane Society of the United States' efforts to help pets in need with your free click! "

Help a local animal sanctuary feed the animals and continue to educate the public. Below is the email reply from Ann to Anna. Just email her at animals@threeringranch.org and provide your address and she'll mail you the addressed baggies to put the ink cartridges in to send to them instead of throwing them away.!

This is from Jen's excellent pod, Honor All Beings!
Please help our Horses!

Help ban horse-drawn carriages

Jen said Oct 20, 2006, 12:24 PM:

If you are motivated to help free horses from the danger of pulling a carriage alongside motorized vehicles in traffic, check out the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages http://www.banhdc.org/.

More information can be found below.

Pulling the Reins on the Horse-Drawn Carriage Industry

by Edita Birnkrant | Fall 2006

The sight of a horse-drawn carriage weaving its way in and out of Midtown traffic, amidst blaring horns, aggressive cabs and trucks, swerving bicycle riders and throngs of pedestrians, is, to New Yorkers, just another part of the urban landscape. The horses, pulling their antiquated carriages, are a beloved New York City tradition, some will say. Others insist that there is nothing more romantic than taking a moonlight carriage ride through Central Park with someone you love, while savoring the clip-clop of the horse's hooves on the pavement.

But every exploitative industry and practice in society exists with a wall of illusion before it.

In January 2006, Friends of Animals helped found a coalition whose goal is enacting legislation to ban horse-drawn carriages in New York City. The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages has drafted legislation to effectively phase out this industry, and seeks to have current horses adopted to protect them from kill auctions. The immediate necessity of such a coalition was evident on Jan. 2nd, 2006, when a horse and driver were on their way back to the stables, but the horse panicked, ran out of control, and crashed into a car on 50th Street and 9th Avenue.

The horse, Spotty was badly injured and later had to be killed. The driver, who had been thrown from the carriage, was critically injured as were two passengers in the car.

Many accidents have involved horse-drawn carriages over the years. In several of them, the horses were frightened by a loud, sudden noise - typical of New York City. The natural instinct of horses is to run when they are frightened, often unpredictably, by something that startles them. The incident involving Spotty received particular attention, due to its severity. Friends of Animals and other Coalition founders knew that the time was right to get the effort for a complete ban on the industry out to the public, and to seek support from New York City Council members.

Two more carriage disasters followed the January incident. On April 28th, in Central Park, a startled horse bolted into a 71-year old bicyclist-who sustained serious injuries as a result. Just one week later, on May 5th, a frightened horse collided with a moving car on 11th Avenue. The car overturned, its driver ending up in the hospital, and the horse sustained injuries.

By this time, the Coalition had received significant media attention, including cover stories in both Newsday and AM NY, quotes in the Daily News, the New York Post, and the New York Sun, in addition to my live radio interview as spokesperson of the Coalition, by Ellis Henican and Lynne White on 710 WOR Radio.

Our message is simple: Horses are not commercial vehicles.

The Coalition has been urging the public to boycott carriage horses until they are officially disallowed.

On Saturdays, Coalition members and supporters have been gathering at Central Park South, where the carriages are gathered to pick up passengers. We're engaged in an outreach effort to educate the public on the exploitation of the horses, in addition to the public safety risks the carriages pose. We have obtained endorsements from tourists and from New York City residents on petitions, to be delivered to the City Council and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, urging legislation that would ban horse-drawn carriages in New York City. We have also been distributing the informative ‘What's Wrong With Horse-Drawn Carriages in NYC' flyers to sustain the boycott and advise people how to advance the effort to enact a ban.

Many cities have ended the tradition of animal-drawn vehicles. Here is an inspiring list of the enlightened cities that have banned horse-drawn carriages:

Florida: Kenneth City, Key West, Deerfield Beach, Palm Beach, Panama City Beach, Pompano Beach, Treasure Island
Mississippi: Biloxi
Nevada: Las Vegas, Reno
New Jersey: Camden
South Carolina: Broadway at the Beach

Other cities that have banned horse-drawn carriages include Toronto, Canada; Beijing, China; Paris, France; and London and Oxford, England.

Action You Can Take
The presence of horse-drawn carriages in New York City sends a disturbing message that other animals are mere objects of entertainment for tourists. The positive response we've received from the public during our outreach efforts proves that not only is New York City ready to abolish this exploitative industry-it's long past due.

1. Boycott the Carriage Horse Industry. Educate friends and family to the reality of this industry.
2. Contact NYC Mayor Bloomberg at http://www.nyc.gov/ or call 311 and leave a message of strong support for the effort to end New York's horse-drawn carriage industry.
3. New Yorkers should contact their City Council member at: http://www.nyccouncil.info/ and ask them to support legislation that will end the horse-drawn carriage industry.
4. If you use the Internet, visit http://www.banhdc.org/ to find out about the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, and to get involved.

Help Dogs and Cats Now!

The federal Dog and Cat Fur Prohibition Enforcement Act, H.R. 891

kathleen said Tuesday, 12:16 PM:

The federal Dog and Cat Fur Prohibition Enforcement Act, H.R. 891, would require that all apparel containing any quantity of fur is accurately labeled-regardless of the fur's monetary value-and also ban completely the sale and import of fur from raccoon dogs, members of the dog family native to China killed in large numbers for their fur.

Under current law, products containing quantities of fur valued under $150 can be sold in American stores without accurate labels. Consumers with ethical objections or allergies to fur may think a lack of a label means that they're buying "faux" fur-but sadly, this is not always true.

What You Can Do
Please visit the ASPCA Advocacy Center today, where you can email a letter to your representative urging him or her support and cosponsor the Dog and Cat Fur Prohibition Enforcement Act. You'll also find additional information about how this Act will change current labeling laws for the better.

Thank you for supporting the ASPCA.

Tags: animals

also, i'd like to meet all who are Child-Free

http://Oceann.gaia.com — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:10:29 GMT

would all who are child-free please contact me?
we should be proud of it and become an allied group!

And Join
Child-Free Grown by Ocean

Also, Visit
Ocean's Ocean
Ocean's Ocean

My Main Blog!

And
http://www.OceanMusic.com

Tags: Ocean, music, vegan, eco, childfree, blog, environment, spiritual, compassion, animals

Vegans

http://Oceann.gaia.com — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 00:51:14 GMT

hi,
i always like to meet vegans and animal advocates.
is there a group here yet?

lemme know!

And
http://oceanmusic.com/

And Please Join My Veganize Pod!
Veganize Grown by Ocean

At the brilliant suggestion of a fellow - and very spiritual - Zaadster, I am posting my Love Letter to the Universe in honor of Valentine's Day!
My Passion for Compassion leads me to want to find the best ways to Compassionize all people, to Veganize everyone, and to open their hearts to the reality that We Are All One, including "the very least of them", the helpless, innocent fellow animals in our world.

I want to promote these goals and to find assistance for all of them now!

I have several connections right now that will expedite things for me - (naturally, a billion dollars is in the mix too! with it i would create eco, compassionate enterprises like vegan fast-food chains and in frozen food sections and catering, eco compassionate vegan clothing lines, and create wilderness habitats for wildlife and trees, among many other enterprises, like the eco, green communities i'm planning, other ways to promote veganism, etc.)

On the road to the billions-

1. I want to find ways to connect to all compassionate vegans in the world and all the child-free in the world (i wish to popularize being child-free and/or adopting the needy, starving children instead of having them - in the West, one child causes the pollution of a thousand in developing nations...i want all children to prosper, be cared for, etc.(Iam against abortion, by the way - I am pro birth control of other means)
( I want to have a giant pool of committed, active, compassionate vegans and child-free to encourage them to contribute their talents and resources to save the world! - getting a master list of vegans worldwide is one of the reasons I'm on the internet in general right now personally, rather than just on the Record Company's maintained official site - I have my own pages there and send them updates to do for me.)

2. I want to find the means to produce the many projects i have started - all of which help the world since i myself contribute time, energy, talent, projects and money to save the world and they all have percentages to help, charity is part of my nature - preferably angel investors who are like-minded, like vegans, committed to saving the world.
3. I wish to find vegan musicians who are interested in helping me to assemble my Concerts for Animals - musicians who care - soloists, groups, all types as long as they're into compassion for all beings! I also have songs to honor various animal groups and am about to record a CD of those songs, and I want to find those who have beautiful stock film of animals for that project. I plan to make my animal songs and videos available for free usage on TV and elsewhere to inspire people to help animals.
I also have other artists and friends who devote their lives to helping and I would like to help them connect to sources of assistance.

4. I am working with an architect/developer on eco, green housing ideas. I'm interested in building a working community of this type and any assistance would be great! I plan to work with and around trees and vegetation and encourage all of the industry to utilize the existing topography and terrain in designing their building, rather than doing what they do now - which is to destroy - I also aim to use the trees they fell now in terrible waste somehow. I have plans to transport and use them for building low-income housing. Now they just sit and rot or are hauled to landfills. I adore trees and if they are not allowed to stand, I want new trees planted immediately and I want the ones felled to be utilized.

5. Currently in America at least, restaurant food that is not sold is thrown out. It needs to be collected and distributed instead to those who need it. I also want to mobilize more assistance and awareness of the homeless.

6. I have plans for vegan, truly healthy, holistic hospitals especially for alternative care for ill children and the aged. I want any help with this idea. Now the ones in existence are only for the rich. I feel that there are enough people who would contribute to this idea and would happily donate to help this come about. It would also be a model for all hospitals and care units. (bearing in mind that something like sixty percent of people diagnosed with cancer get well automatically without any treatment and only twenty percent get well with conventional medical treatment.) ( Learning how to heal people and other animals is a passion along with my passion for Compassion!)

7. I have books, (some on Saving the World and Veganism), coming out as well as music, films I'm producing and other projects. I would appreciate any and all assistance in my projects, including information and expert advice. I am signed to a small label and publishing company, and I am happy with that, but it would be great to get additional distribution and promo !

8. I am interested in popularizing getting rid of the last isms - speciesism and ageism! Both will assist the world in adopting Compassion for all beings and in truly recognizing that we are all One!

I am interested in finding info, resources, people, ideas and help on all these projects now!
Please use this to contact me - info@OceanMusic.com

Thanks!
Ocean

Food and Overfeeding

I think food as entertainment and addiction is an idea we could discuss.
So many things feed us - that 's another theme - I mean, feed our souls, our brains.
The very words food, feed, consume...
There are so many other ways to feed our beings -
So many people eat so little every day - a handful of cherries, a few pieces of fruit - it doesn't take much at al to feed us.
We overfeed. That is the problem
Did you know that the Sherpas who take people and their heavy gear up the Himalayas reject Western food offered to them, eating only a handful of rice every day they are hauling loads up the mountains?
Why? Because that is enough.
Because any excess would tax their systems so much that they would not be able to do their strenuous work.
Food has become, for too many people, the addictive answer to other needs that could better be met in spiritual, intelletual, and especially, in active ways.
Brain-soaked media-blitzed people have been conned into consuming much too much of everything - especially of food, and most of it very bad food.

Try diong just one dinner like this - a fruit plate.
You'll feel magnificent!
The Diamonds who have written outstanding nutrition books eat only fruit for breakfast.
I think it's marvelous for dinner.
Others do a fruit day every week, and some do one kind of fruit, like grapes, which are very healing and cleansing, or mangoes, for instance.

We only need a very small amount of food, and most of our energy goes into digesting, leaving us strained, tired, and laid out like one of those big snakes, engogred and with the body so taxed in digestion that nothing else is possible!

Eat less, live long, live vibrantly, look young, and get tons of things done!

Tags: vegan, eco, Ocean, conservation environment animals, compassion, spiritual, music, green, world