Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Thank You

To everyone who has ever supported this podcast :)

You can email me at jaywontdart@gmail.com , check out my current podcast at http://coexistingwithnonhumananimals.blogspot.com/

Best wishes to you,

Jordan Wyatt

Episode 49 This Is It (Final Episode)

Episode 49, This Is It (Final Episode)

To start with , here are my favourite vegetarian or vegan related clips from the No Agenda Podcast with John C Dvorak and Adam Curry.



Dvorak made a few mistakes with my message, I do NOT own NZ Vegan Podcast, I just asked for it to be mentioned, and Im not the only vegan who listens to No Agenda, I've met a few now.

Welcome to Episode 49 of Jay Wont dart's podcast. This Is It, both the Michael Jackson movie, and my final episode.

Thank you to everyone who has ever listened to my podcast. I'm no longer going to update this, Im focusing on my Animal Rights show, Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals. You can find that at coexisting with nonhuman animals . blogspot.com. I'd love to hear from anyone who has listened to this podcast, my email is jaywontdart @gmail.com.

If you would like to remove this podcast from your iTunes podcast section, you can just select it and hit delete. Or, if you'd like to keep the episodes for some reason, to make fun of me when I run for Prime Minister of New Zealand, you can select all the episodes, and "convert ID3 tags". That removes the bit that says "this is a podcast, keep it separate from normal music files". Right click on all the selected episodes and you will see "convert ID3 tags". Select "1.0" ok that. When you do that, you will lose the artwork for the episodes, you could always copy the picture from one of the episodes and then paste it back for all tracks after deleting the tags. You can then drag the tracks out of iTunes to your desktop, and then back to iTunes, they should just show up as usual music, not in the podcast section any more. This way, you dont have a dead podcast in your podcast section, looking for updates that will never come. I have little space left on screen, even with a 23 inch screen, because I have so many podcast subscriptions, so I remove any that are not updated and save the files the way I just described.

A few weeks back, I went to the movies. It was the first time in years, Probably the last movie I had went to would have been Lord Of The Rings, Return Of The King. I didnt think much of the movie theatre, in fact, it SUCKED! I had to wait for the ticketing clerk to get off the telephone, while another one sat there doing NOTHING at a closed till. After a minute or two of awkward standing and looking around at movie posters, I finally got to pay. The manager was further along, on another telephone, yakking it up about how great his theatre is. Something about digital projection equipment. Yet, our local theatre cannot afford to get 3D projectors. 3D movies are cited to be the new breakthrough in reversing movie theatre losses, because at home, you just cant get 3D, its going to be THE reason to go to a theatre. And, we just wont have it, because it costs so much. So, Invercargills local movie theatre is pretty much screwed. Like I said, it had been YEARS since I had last gone, and I really dont see myself EVER going to a movie theatre again. I normally just wait until things are out on DVD, and buy them, although I have friends who download movies from bit torrent, and its pretty impressive what you can get for FREE, BEFORE the movie is even OUT in THEATRES, let alone waiting months for the dvd version. I dont like stealing movies though, so I dont do it, although I think Digital Distribution is the way to go. I buy all my music through iTunes, and hope one day I'll be able to get movies the same way. I imagine someday you will be able to just get new movies on your computer, by download, at the same time they are released in theatres, because all the theatres will be long gone.

Before I tell you about what I thought of This Is It, I'd also like to mention, I wanted to own it on DVD straight after the movie ended, I wanted to be able to rewind certain bits and watch them again and again. Turns out, Sony was willing to have the DVD and Blu Ray versions out BEFORE christmas, makes sense right? So then everyone would be buying copies for christmas, thats the best time of year for sales, "for christs sake". But, oh, the movie theatres bitched and moaned, "oooh, you cant do that to us", and so Sony had to postpone the home release until almost FEBRUARY. Ok, so I could have this dvd in my hands in a few weeks, OR, I could wait MONTHS. Guess what I have to do! All because I want to legally buy the damn thing, I could have just grabbed a pirated copy of the movie from online, probably before it was even showing in theatres. The people who play by the rules always get screwed over.

So, it seems to be a long wait until I can own This Is It. Im not happy about it.

So, what did I think about This Is It? Heres the trailer.



As you probably know, This Is It were a series of concerts that were cancelled after Michael Jackson died, a very short time before the concerts were to begin. This Is It, the movie thats been released, is from footage filmed privately for Michael himself, it was never meant to be seen by the public. Some fans have thought it shouldnt be released, since its practice footage, and not finished. Im personally glad I got to see it.

Lots of interesting set designs were used, and actual computer graphics for the concerts are shown during the movie. One has a spider scurrying about, and then an actual giant spider comes out on stage, with its legs stomping about, and it opens up to reveal Michael inside.

Theres been all kinds of rumours about the movie too, some of them bizarre. I mean, the whole thing is a cash grab by the producers, trying to get as much money as possible of course, and they've succeeded doing that. The rumoured price for the raw concert footage was 60 million us dollars, and to date, the movie has taken in over 200 million dollars. It will probably do something similar to that again in merchandise and sales of the home media versions.

Then, rumours that body doubles were used, that not all of the dancing is done by the actual Michael Jackson, its someone who looks just like him doing it, because Michael was too sick to dance. Who knows if thats true or not. Even Joe Jackson, Michaels Father has said that its "mostly body doubles". I dont know, Joe Jackson says all kinds of things. Sony released a statement denying rumors that the film had rehearsal footage of Jackson body doubles. "This story is pure garbage and there are no body doubles. [...] Audiences will begin to see the film tomorrow [October 28, 2009] and every time they see The King of Pop they will know that every frame is unquestionably Michael [Jackson] as he rehearses and prepares for the London concerts that were to have begun this past summer." I dont know, thats a bit mean, to say "oh, the true fans will recognise its Michael", its a bit like the story of the Emperors New Clothes, we all want to believe its Michael Jackson, and so will just assume it is him. From what I saw, it seemed like him, sure.

Then, there are rumours of the actual singing too. For most of the movie, you dont hear Michael singing at full strength, he doesnt sing properly, apparently to save his voice for the concerts, this was just practise remember. So, he skips huge portions of songs, and what he does sing tends to be rather quietly, and he sounds out of breath, like hes forgotten parts, or is generally stressed. There were rumours that Michael was close to death as he performed, and that he could never have actually fulfilled all the concert dates. These rumours say they people around him were giving him drugs to keep him going, never caring about his health, and that they just needed him to perform. At least parts of the sound have been confirmed as being the original master recordings, with Sony confirming that some of the practise recordings were just not strong enough. Again, I dont know, maybe we will never know the truth.

From what I saw from the movie, Michael looked rather freaky, every time you see him, he looks like a different person, his whole face again looks different from just a few years ago. Now he looked "smaller" and even thinner, with large cheeks but nothing else to his face. He wears sunglasses for most of the movie, and some rather crazy looking suits. I didnt like the costumes very much, they are just bizarre.

I'll read from some reviews of This Is It.

"More important, however, is that we rarely witness Jackson giving 100%: He frequently comments that he is saving his voice and body for the actual performances. Jackson certainly can’t be faulted for this, but it’s questionable whether he would really want his fans to see him thus. Don’t get me wrong: 60% of Michael Jackson is still a pretty good thing [...] [Jackson] the noted perfectionist, at work, correcting others’ dance moves without missing a beat himself and giving notes, sometimes revelatory and other times inscrutable, to his music director and others"
—Marjorie Baumgarten of Austin Chronicle[
"We see Jackson as a perfectionist, a generous boss, a tough taskmaster and a playful child. Off guard and probably unaware that it would ever be seen by the public, we find Jackson pushing his band and production team to the limit with demands to "let it sizzle" and "make the music simmer". Obsessive Jacko fans may be shocked by his Diva-ish behaviour as he complains about ear-pieces, but it's heartening to finally view the late singer as a rounded human with regular failings and imperfections. Similarly a scene featuring Jackson screaming "weeeee!" with childish glee as he moves around the stage on a giant cherry-picker, will surely bring a smile to even the most cynical viewer"
—Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy[

I guess you just have to go and see the movie for yourself, if its still available where you are, if not, we have to wait until its released for home media. Im not enjoying this wait, theres so many scenes I want to watch again, to see if I can spot any signs of body doubles, or other unusual things.

Overall, Im really glad I saw This Is It, although it is rather weird to watch. You know Michael is dead, it briefly mentions that at the very start, before going through the process of auditions for the supporting cast. Who knows if Michael Jackson had the strength left to do all those live performances. Honestly, the majority of the movie has him "practise singing", not singing properly at full strength. It comes across as if hes forgetful or tired, although it could really be that he was just doing that because it is a practise, and he needed his strength for the real performances.

I really liked a lot of things about the movie, I hope you can see it.

Im going to end with the main song of the movie, that was released with the movie. This Is It was recorded many years ago, and just recently worked into a full song. Its always exciting to find "unreleased" songs of your favourite artist, especially after they have died, although the studios ALWAYS let them trickle out, to maximise their profits. Its going to be years before all Michaels best songs have been released, if they ever are.

Thank you for listening. Its been fun doing these podcasts. Im going to continue doing my animal rights podcast, Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals. You can find that a coexisting with nonhuman animals . blogspot.com I'd love it if you would listen to that.

You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it. I really, really would.

For the last time ever on this podcast,

Have a super happy day, bye.




Sources
=======

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson%27s_This_Is_It

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Episode 48 Always Blow On The Pie!

Episode 48 Always Blow On The Pie!


thats right girls, dont work hard at school, you're just going to end up at home cooking and cleaning for your husband! That was a 1960's commercial for Suzy Homemaker, a bunch of fake household items, ovens, blenders, irons etc. How could these have been the good old days, when girls were molded into housewives! I'd much rather todays commercials, for videogames where you kill prostitutes!

Anyway, welcome to episode 48 of Jay Wont dart's podcast, Always blow on the pie!

Im having fun having two podcasts, although Im not sure how often each will get updated, perhaps I'll get stuck in one or the other for a few episodes in a row.

This episode, a New Zealand pop culture moment thats exploded online. Always Blow On The Pie!

It came from the New Zealand police show called Police ten 7



In the famous clip, a police officer finds a suspicious looking man, and gives him some rather odd, rather New Zealand advice. Heres the full version of the clip.


Safer Communities together is a New Zealand police slogan.

I love it, so far the most popular youtube clip has had about 100,000 views, thats a lot for a New Zealand clip. Mr Vintage, a New Zealand online t shirt store has made a "Always Blow on the pie" t shirt. Remix songs have been made, and even mainstream media have covered the event.

Once more, heres the main part of the clip,



And here are some of the best remixes, taken from youtube. I've linked to these in the shownotes which you can see on my blog or in the lyrics section of this episode.

First, Blow on the Pie, the musical,


and my favourite of the remixes, the rap version.


I love the rap version best.

I just felt like I had to cover Always Blow on the Pie, its sure to become part of New Zealands pop culture alongside heavyweight boxer David Tua saying "o for oresome" on a gameshow



The policeman in the clip was found, and recently on tv, heres a clip from the Breakfast show.



Thank you for listening.

You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.

Have a super happy day, bye.





sources
========
intro Suzy Homemaker video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rAiii4LA3k

longer version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2oVTULyWZk

the musical
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvs8PNbGVdg

the rap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F7Gucl_FqI

safer communities remix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8PiVPRjujE

Mr Vintage T
http://www.mrvintage.co.nz/shop/Gender/View+All+Mens/SAFER+COMMUNITIES+MENS+T-SHIRT.html

breakfast show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cRkrF5dGyQ


O for awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaIZF8uUTtk

Friday, October 16, 2009

Episode 47 My New Animal Rights Podcast

Episode 47 My New Animal Rights Podcast



Welcome to an extra short episode of Jay Wont dart's podcast.

My intro was my latest mention on No Agenda, although Dvorak got my podcast wrong, I DO NOT own the NZ Vegan podcast :) I do enjoy telling people to search for "NZ Vegan" when they look for my podcast on iTunes, because searching for "NZ Vegan" shows up all the New Zealand Animal Rights podcasts. I almost uniformly love each and every one of the results.

I just wanted to let everyone know, I've decided to do all future animal rights, and Vegan related episodes under a separate designation. This will make it easier to just listen to the episodes you are actually interested in, if you want to only hear me talk about NZ news or movies, or if you want to only hear vegan topics. Or, ideally you could subscribe to both!

The name of my new podcast, chosen by my friend Sam Tucker, is Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals. I asked for help on Veganzchat, an email group, with a starting point of " living with animals ", asking for it to be improved upon. Sam kindly came up with Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals. I like it very much, although it is a long name. You can find that blog at Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals.blogspot.com. I'm not sure how often I'll update each podcast, just when I feel like it most likely.

To make up for this being a short episode, Im going to include some of my favourite outro clips. I have the autotuned Glorious Dawn, using clips of Carl Sagan, a famous astronomer, an american church which has banned Pepsi, and Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, on the iPhone before it were released.

Just to make it clear, you can find Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals on iTunes, by searching for it by name, although it shows up just fine if you search for " jay wont dart ", both my podcasts will show. You can also find the blog at coexisting with nonhuman animals . blogspot.com.

Thank you for listening.

You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.

I hope you check out Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals.

Have a super happy day, bye.




Sunday, October 11, 2009

My new podcast, Coexisting with nonhuman animals

Im splitting my podcast into two, Jay Wont dart's will be for general topics, and all future vegan/animal rights episodes will be under the new "Coexisting with nonhuman animals" banner :)

This makes it easier for you to listen to just the topics you are interested in.

the blog is up at Coexisting with nonhuman animals , or the introduction episode is up on iTunes, if you search for " NZ Vegan " you will see both podcasts, Jay Wont dart's and Coexisting with nonhuman animals :)

Expect the first episode soon :)

Friday, September 25, 2009

Episode 46 Stand By Me, Contact, American Beauty

Episode 46

Stand By Me, Contact, American Beauty



Hi, welcome to episode 46 of Jay Wont darts podcast. My intro was from episode 132 of No Agenda.

This episode, I'll talk about three of my favourite movies. Stand by Me, a coming of age flick, Contact, starring Jodie Foster and centred around aliens, and American Beauty, which is like a grown up Ferris Buellers Day Off.

First, Stand By Me.

Heres the trailer,



Stand By Me is a movie a lot of people will have seen before, and forgotten about. Its truly a classic. The movie, based on a Steven King book, came out in 1986. It has a lot of fairly well known scenes, the young boys walking along train tracks for most of the movie is quite memorable.

I'll read from the Wikipedia summary.


The film is narrated by an adult Gordie LaChance, known as "The Writer" (Richard Dreyfuss), writing the memoir about his youth. Set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon, over Labor Day weekend in September 1959, Gordie (Wil Wheaton), and his friends Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) and Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) learn from their friend Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell) that the dead body of a boy named Ray Brower, who was struck by a train while picking blueberries in the woods, has not been found. While under his porch looking for his buried jar of pennies, Vern overheard his older brother talking about finding the body while in the woods with a friend. The boys then embark upon a two-day journey across the woodlands near Castle Rock to see and find the body in hopes that the discovery will make them all famous.
Each boy has a physical and/or emotional burden. Gordie is a quiet, bookish boy with a penchant for telling stories and writing, rejected by his father following the death of his football-star older brother Denny (John Cusack) in a Jeep accident. Chris is from a family of criminals and alcoholics and, despite his intelligence and desire to break the generational curse, he is usually stereotyped accordingly. Teddy is an eccentric and physically deformed after his mentally-unstable father (whom Teddy sees as a war hero who "stormed the beach at Normandy") held his ear to a stove and nearly burned it off, thus forcing him to wear a hearing aid. Vern, overweight and timid, is easily scared, and thus often picked on.
Through the boys' misadventures and conversations, the viewer learns about each character's personality. Each of the boys, for varying reasons, lives in the shadow of their fathers and older brothers. Gordie's talent for storytelling pegs him as the most likely of the four to have a promising future.

Heres a clip of Gordie telling a story.



Stand By Me is a great movie, its been mentioned in pop culture a few times, such as the scenes of the adult writer reminiscing about his childhood friends. By the end of the movie, we hear him mention how he moved away from his friends, and the terrible fates that awaited each of them. Its terribly sad, to hear how they all end up.

The next movie is Contact, about finding a radio signal from outer space. Contact came out in 1997. Jodie Foster's character has been into radio all her life, and now she works with radio telescopes listening to signals from space. Eventually, she and her team manage to decode one such signal, and find out it has information inside, instructing them to build a machine.

Here is the trailer for contact.



I forget the total cost of the machines, but its actually quite low by todays standards, less than the US auto bail outs for example. A machine, or two, to teleport us through space, to meet aliens, and they cost less than keeping American cars around.

This is unrelated to the cost of the machine, but here is a clip of Jodie Foster asking for more funding.



Contact has a really interesting character, a ultra rich man near the end of his life, he shows up in a lot of interesting scenes, such as one as he floats inside a space station to prolong his life. Near the very end of the movie, as a question about him is brought up, we see his fellow space station friends put him in a body bag.

An interesting thing about Contact, the signal, and aliens, are from Vega, a star. When you mention this star , people from Vega are called "vay-guns". So, in the movie there are some GREAT clips to be made, as it sounds like they are saying Vegans! Observe.



Arnt they great?

The last movie is American Beauty. I love this movie, it features Kevin Spacey as the main character. American Beauty came out in 1999.

Reading from Wikipedia,
Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a middle-aged office worker who has a midlife crisis after becoming infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend.

After watching a high school basketball game at which Jane is a cheerleader, Lester develops an infatuation with Jane's sexually precocious friend and classmate, Angela . His fantasies entail a sexually aggressive Angela among red rose petals. Lester is informed he is to be laid off, but blackmails his boss, quits his job and takes up low-pressure employment at a fast food chain. He buys his dream car, starts lifting weights and begins running to "look good naked"—to impress Angela, whom he overheard telling Jane that she would find him sexually attractive if he had muscle. He also takes up smoking cannabis, which he buys from Ricky. Lester continues to fantasize about Angela and flirts with her whenever she visits Jane. The pair's friendship wanes and Jane becomes romantically involved with Ricky; the lovers bond over Ricky's camcorder footage of what he considers the most beautiful imagery he has filmed: a plastic bag blowing in the wind

Its a very odd movie, but definitely one of my favourite movies of all time. Heres the trailer for American Beauty.



here are some other clips, the main character Lester explaining his job



That job scene actually is reminding me of Fight Club, American Beauty is like Ferris Beuller meets Fight Club, but without the violence. Its emotional, but not a chick flick.

a tense dinner scene



and the most beautiful thing Ricky has ever filmed, a plastic bag





I highly recommend all three of these movies, Stand By Me, Contact, and American Beauty.

Thank you for listening. My outro is the New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, on the Letterman show.



You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.

Have a super happy day, bye.







sources
=======

stand by me

lardass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG2gjL-KUqw


contact

trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF3IZzXZ6Ig

funding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sds7hTlaNaM


american beauty

most beautiful thing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yk7b2uo0u8

my job
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqJ8zxV7Cjw

dinner scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRfZQN9cMfo

Friday, September 18, 2009

Episode 45 Earthlings

Episode 45 Earthlings



Hello and welcome to another fine episode of Jay Wont dart's podcast. This episode, I'll talk a tiny bit about Earthlings. I have two fairly long pieces of audio that will make up the majority of this episode. My intro is an old Australian news story of an animal who tried to escape from a zoo.

Earthlings is a very important movie to me, I think it says almost all that needs to be said on the side of veganism. Earthlings shows basically all the ways animals are used in todays society. It has graphic footage, from well known animal welfare groups such as PETA, and is narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, who is vegan. Instrumental music throughout the movie is performed by well known vegan musician Moby.

This is a few minutes of audio from Earthlings.



I first saw Earthlings because Elizabeth Collins, of NZ Vegan podcast told me to. I was lent the movie by an Invercargill SAFE member, who hadnt watched Earthlings because they had heard how graphic it is. Its true, Earthlings has a lot of violent imagery, but I think its our duty as human beings to see what we have done, and continue to do to the world. To talk a little bit about Earthlings, here is Elizabeth, in a clip she recorded literally MONTHS ago for me :)



I'd like to thank Elizabeth for taking the time to add to this episode. Its taken me long enough to make this episode, but its finally done! You can find Elizabeth on iTunes by searching "NZ vegan", or at nzveganpodcast.blogspot.com as well as NZ Vegan Podcast on Twitter.


Thank you for listening. My outro is a Seinfeld clip.

You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.

Have a super happy day, bye.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Episode 44 New Zealand Hunting

Episode 44

New Zealand Hunting






Then I'll never visit Las Vegas. Hello, welcome to episode 44 of Jay Wont dart's podcast, where I talk about sad parts of New Zealands culture. My intro was from This Week In Tech episode 211. Recently I've been covering a lot of New Zealand news stories, I hope to help this information get out. Right now there are a lot of "white baiters", people who go out catching tiny fish known as "white bait" in nets along riversides. What we in New Zealand call Whitebait is actually the juvenile form of a certain kind of fish, not sure how to say the name, Galaxiid. The babies, White Bait as they are known, look like slimy little white worms. In Southland, a fairly rural area, its a big thing to go out "white baiting", a bunch of guys will go out to "the river" and catch these baby fish in nets. I find it revolting, but it seems to be a cultural thing here, and its nearly impossible to get people to agree that they are standing about a river, getting drunk, all to catch tiny little baby animals in nets. The newspapers and local business market for White Baiters, its just an accepted part of Southland life.

In New Zealand, its fairly common, or at least portrayed in NZ popular culture to be common, to go out hunting. I doubt the average New Zealand bloke goes out hunting a few times a year, but its part of our image, as being tough hairy men, all New Zealand men are portrayed as big strong hunters, even when catching baby fish in nets. The most commonly killed animals would probably be deer, ducks and pigs. For this episode , Ill mention all three. I have opinions from two other vegans to play on this episode, as well as many sound clips from youtube and New Zealand news stories.




To start off, heres some great advice comes from fishandgame.org.nz , a government body regulating hunting.

"Now comes the fun part, gutting it, drawing the bird, eviscerating it, whatever you want to call it. Grab that sharp knife and make 2 cuts. The first is in the throat area. This is so you can poke the hose or tap into it and flush the cavity out. The second cut is from below the breastplate bone toward the anus" Sound like fun to you?

The fish and game site even has a youth section, its kind of like a rugged boy scouts image, the idea of kids who know how to live off the fat of the land, so to speak. Its pretty sick, getting kids indoctrinated that hunting=good at a young age. Its a shame these kids arnt playing more violent video games, otherwise they might have learnt that hunting isnt something to be proud of , . Well said Solid Snake.

My first clip, is about pig hunting, I'll play back some of the sounds.



In one form of pig hunting, a pack of dogs track down a wild pig, then bite onto it any way they can, to hold the pig. Then a so called "pig hunter" will walk over, and cut the pigs throat.

In some forms of pig hunting, the hunters shoot the pig, I guess they need to shoot the more dangerous larger boars. But, in many of the videos I saw on YouTube, the big brave hunters rely on a 5-10 dogs to find, chase and catch the pig, and hold it down for the big brave hunter, as he cuts its throat. Sometimes, the pig manages to fight back. When they do, I bet the hunters act as though the pig's broken the law "hey mate, you're not meant to defend yourself, you should just let us kill ya mate!"

Heres an example of that, some idiot hunter had his finger bit by the pig, and yeah, its bleeding quite a lot, but its hardly equal to the damage done to the pig. Listen to him bitch about it.



So, when hes surrounding a single Labrador sized pig with a bunch of dogs, with a bunch of his friends, and hes complaining that the pig bit him on the finger? Dude, you're trying to cut its throat, why should it make it easy for you?

I asked for some help making this episode, and my friend Linda sent me a few pictures of injured pig hunting dogs. Heres what Linda has to say.




Thank you Linda for helping me with this hunting episode.

Some of these hunting videos I've got from YouTube have good production, with titles and different effects edited in. Some are set to music, making out a good time with rock music, or a large dramatic piece you may recognise, set to southland duck shooters. Those are real gun shots, not sound effects.




When you are out hunting, you are not meant to be drinking alcohol, but I would assume that most duck shooters etc do. Even tv pieces have highlighted "the boys havin' a few" as they stand around all day in camo gear, waiting to kill a small bird. This is just one of many mainstream news pieces about hunting in New Zealand, I really dont know why people want to go out hunting if this is anything what its really like.



Another person to get back to me about this episode was my good friend Sam, from http://nzdairy.webs.com/ .



Thank you very much Sam, Im always glad to have you on my podcast. You can see one of Sams websites at nzdairy.webs.com.

I have two further clips. This one is from a local Southland TV station, Cue.



So that just goes to show that its a fairly traditional to hunt among many rural families, but that doesnt make it acceptable to me.

This is a Campbell Live piece about making your own meat, apparently more common because of meat being too expensive at the local supermarket. I honestly doubt that many people in New Zealand hunt for all their meat, but maybe to the hunters it seems that way.



Kinda sick hearing that resturant guy at the end promote wild game meat as "responsible, organic" and as "controlling pests". This is what animal welfare has given us, a load of ways to describe a nice way of killing animals. Some animals are pests? Why, because they want to eat a bit of grass, a couple leaves off a tree or two? Get real, its not like they are dumping toxic waste into rivers.


The point of this episode has been to highlight hunting in New Zealand. Its not a very normal thing in this country, I dont think most people go out hunting, but its still seen as something to be proud of, catching baby fish in nets, training dogs to viciously grab pigs by the testicles, and shooting at cute little ducks. I really hope our attitudes change away from this, and that we learn to give animals the respect they deserve.


My outro will be a remix of a certain clip from Trading Spouses, Bacon is Good for me.

Thank you for listening.

You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.

Have a super happy day, bye.





sources
=======

"now comes the fun part" fish and game
http://www.fishandgame.org.nz/Site/Harvest/Ducks.aspx

pig hunting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shPLfGjEF5w


cue tv footage duck shooting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeFCuaJ4K-0

kill your own dinner campbell llive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBwf1XzxNkw


pig bite
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cg-rPpQFoY

duck carnage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_Pao5GJYYI

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Episode 43 Horse Meat, Michael Laws Bullies Kids

Episode 43 Horse Meat ,Michael Laws bullies Kids.




Hello and welcome to another episode of Jay Wont dart's podcast, your number one source for New Zealand News.

My intro was a youtube clip about Gay Anarchists upsetting church goers.

This episode, the sale of Horse Meat intended for pets to people who eat it, and Michael Laws, a mayor and celebrity upsets some young Maori children.

First, Horse Meat.

Horse meat is not sold in New Zealand, at least not in a way that makes it safe for people to eat. This story covers people buying horse meat from a pet food abattoir, the meat is meant for pets to eat, and is sold in bags saying "not fit for human consumption". I really want to get some of those bags and use it for vegan activism, with toy chickens and cows inside of the bags. Maybe I could change the words to "not fit for HUMANE consumption".

So called Pet food meat is not prepared to the same standard as meat designated for people. It has a greater chance of causing food poisoning, from having higher numbers of bacteria and parasites. Its also probably not hacked up in as clean a facility, to save the factory owner from having to invest as much in machinery and processes. Basically, pet food grade meat is not as "clean" as meat designated for human consumption.

People are outraged about this, people eating Horse Meat in New Zealand, despite the fact that we kill horses for pet food, and I've heard we export horse meat overseas.

This is another case of people believing some animals to be too important, or too special, to be eaten. A lot of racist remarks have come up, because its apparently mostly Tongan people who are buying the horse meat to eat as a tongan specialty meal, called Loi Hoosi. However, in the video, one of the sellers mentions all sorts of people as buying horse meat from her.

Heres the first clip




I've stopped here to mention whats going to happen, when the slaughterer is approached, he hugs and kisses the reporter! Its very odd, but effective! I have a 3 minute video clip, the full footage of his response, but as its not very audio centric, I wont play it. Ok, back to the first clip.



Its somewhat difficult to find the difference between "pet food" grade meat and "human grade" meat. How is the average New Zealand meat eater, with pets, meant to feel hearing that pet food grade meat contains quote "more parasites" and quote "greater chance of food poisoning"? Would you really feed it to a cat or dog you consider a family member?

People are terribly upset that New Zealanders are eating horse meat. The people upset by it complain that its not a "new zealand" thing to do, we dont do that in this country. Well, tell that to the people who DO eat horse meat in this country. You cant control what people do, just because you dont agree with it. I must sound like a hypocrite now right?


I love to ask people what they think is in their pets food, oh sure the ad shows "lovely pure meat" going in, but thats an ad, it would make dirt look healthy, all the while claiming it promotes a shiny coat. In reality, Pet food grade meat is awful, by definition its "worse" than normal meat. If you buy pet food that contains "meat", its probably pet food grade meat, meaning its the absolute worst, most diseased animals you can think of, hacked up. I've read about some pet foods that claim to use "humane grade meat", but thats not a class of meat technically, so it could just be marketing speak! Heres a hint, if it says "not intended for human consumption" on the packet, its probably diseased. If it has a warning not to be eaten, then its probably not a good idea to feed it to your pets.




The other story I'd like to cover today is Michael Laws, and his reply to some 11-12 year old kids who wrote him a letter. Michael Laws is an outspoken Mayor, and hosts a radio show, amongst other things. Hes a right wing commentator type guy, the man on the street is meant to like him because he "cuts to the chase", "none of that Politically Correct garbage". An average Michael Laws comment will focus on race, that "certain races" beat their kids, or are all on benefits.

I'll let the clips speak for themselves.



Even when Laws is defending himself, he often brings up annoying things, like that the teachers MUST have put the kids up to it, or that kids that age are only into Harry Potter. Who is he to tell kids what to be interested in? If younger people are into politics good for them. Just because they are below voting age, doesnt mean they should only read children's fantasy books.


At the end of that clip, Michael Laws sounded apologetic, but on his own radio show, hes quite different. This is part of Michael Laws response on his radio show, hes always very sure of himself and comes across as boisterous.



So, thats Michael Laws.

Thank you for listening about two current events that are happening in New Zealand. My outro is an angry Scientologist talking, he swears a few times.

You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.

Have a super happy day, bye.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Episode 42 Anti Smacking Bill Fallout

Episode 42 Anti Smacking Bill Fallout

Hello and welcome to episode 42 of Jay Wont dart's podcast, where I talk about being one of the Invercargill 1915. I'll explain that later. My intro was a youtube video called Flight of the Hummingbird, I just ordered the book, about doing whatever you can, no matter how small, to make the world a better place.

Its been over for a while now, I'd decided to hold off covering the results of the Anti Smacking Bill Referendum, in hope that an answer would come at the end of it. So far, nothing has changed, the referendum has been for nothing.

To go over the Anti Smacking Bill again quickly, Sue Bradford, an MP of the minor Green Party proposed a bill, that the defense of "reasonable force for the purpose of correction"could be used by parents charged with assaulting their children. This was very upsetting to many parents who believed in physical discipline of their children, they were for smacking, and saw the law as taking away their right as parents to smack their children. The bill went into law 2007, a petition was to be held in 2009 once enough signatures were reached.

Ok, so that was simplified, but it gets us to this year at least. The question being asked was "Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?"

People have been very confused about what this actually means, and people against physical discipline have said that the question is very loaded, its designed to make you vote NO, that a smack is part of good parental correction, not something that parents should be recieve a lethal injection over. I totally agree, I think the question is over the top, its literally saying that something good parents do could now be turned into a "criminal offense", making good parents equal to murderers. I think a question like "do you think physical discipline of children is acceptable" would have been much better, although I guess people for smacking could say that "physical discipline" sounds scary, and that they would prefer smacking. I dont like the word smacking, because I see it as another loaded thing, in NZ, smacking generally means a light slap on the hand or the bottom of a child, people who believe in smacking dont agree that its violent, they see it as a correction thing and quite acceptable. The word smacking is a way of hiding the violent aspect of hitting another person, I think, so I'd prefer not to use the word "smacking". "Prime Minister John Key said of the question [The question] "could have been written by Dr Seuss - this isn't Green Eggs and Ham, this is yes means no and no means yes, but we're all meant to understand what the referendum means. I think it's ridiculous myself."

The referendum went ahead, and most of the country seemed very angry their right to smack their children was being taken away, most polls had about 80 percent support for smacking. I'll mention that people FOR the law change say that you could still smack your children, but others focus on moving away from physical discipline, so even I am confused as to whether smacking is banned or not banned! Sue Bradford, who came up with the bill, has been quoted mentioning "this doesnt make smacking illegal" but also "this makes smacking illegal" type comments, so who really knows what the bill means. For this episode, Im focusing on the "anti smacking bill" as meaning its against smacking full stop, as its physical discipline, and thats what the bill is focused on.

Most of this episode will be clips.

The first things I'll play will be people asking you to vote for their side in the referendum. I'll play two, this is Sue Bradford who wrote the law change, and Deborah Morris-Travers of Barnardos, a New Zealand child welfare group.



Here I have a radio debate I quite liked, remember, the Yes side is essentially against smacking, the No side is for smacking.




People generally were for smacking still, most polls were somewhere over 80 percent FOR smacking children, so thats a No vote. It became clear that the referendum would go the No voters side, allowing parents to physically discipline their children. This was mentioned in this news piece while the votes were being checked.



Things were not looking good for my side, against smacking, a Yes voter. Overwhelmingly , the final results of the nine million dollar referendum, that took place two years after the law was changed to supposedly ban smacking, were 87.6 percent voting No, for smacking, just amazing, absolutely overwhelmingly for smacking. Thats basically 9 out of 10 New Zealanders, who voted in this referendum. Voter turnout was 54%.





Just over 1.6 million votes were cast, about 1.3 million were for smacking. The places most against smacking, were Auckland and Wellington, the two largest cities in New Zealand, both had about 30 percent of people against smacking, only about 70 percent for smacking, which is VERY high compared to the rest of the country, where 80-90 percent were for smacking.

The places with the highest proportion of no voters, for smacking, were rural areas, including the Clutha Southland area, which is rural Southland, the province I live in. Invercargill city, where I actually live was different, but by less than a percentage point. My city, Invercargill, had 57.4% voter turnout, with 92.17% for smacking, and just a tiny 7.48% against. Amazing. 23,596 people for smacking, and just 1,915 against smacking here in Invercargill. So thats how I am one of the Invercargill 1915. I think I'll have to make "1 of the Invercargill 1915"t shirts, so we can recognise each other in public.

I knew this referendum would go this way, but its still shocking to see how outnumbered my position was. Im sure the question itself has much to do with this, but even then, people feel smacking is a parents right, and that not being allowed to smack children is giving the child yet another right, and taking away from the parents power. Thats a common feeling in New Zealand, that the bad people are running amok, and hard working people are being held back by a PC nanny state.

However, the big thing about this referendum, it was non binding, even if 100% of the voters wanted the law changed back, to supposedly allow smacking again, then the government of New Zealand didnt have to change anything! And, so far, John Key has said he wont change the law! People are VERY annoyed! Apparently, the no vote leaders are very upset, but looking out my window, 92% of my city hasnt formed a mob with pitch forks to get me, yet.

So, John Key, the new prime minister of New Zealand will no doubt have lost an enormous amount of support thanks to not changing the law. He says he feels the law is working, the man on the street says he is being arrogant and not listening to roughly 90% of the voting public.

However, even if the law were to be changed, would another referendum need to be held? How much would that cost? AND, the side for smacking, the leaders have different idea about what smacking should be, At least one right wing MP believes in using a tool, what I'd call a weapon, like a wooden spoon or ruler, as he believes it gives the attacker, or in his words, parent, better control of what they are doing, in my words, better striking abilities over the child they are hitting.

I'll play this news piece about a new possible law change.



This bill was thrown out, it came to nothing, just like the 9 million dollar referendum.

So, most people in New Zealand are for smacking, apparently, and yet the government wont change back the law that supposedly bans smacking your children. Nothing seems like it will change, except perhaps the people who voted right wing MP John Key into power, will not vote for him again, thats certainly what they are threatening to do. But, who will they vote for? Theres really only the minor ACT party against the law change, its hard to believe ACT getting in by itself. Who knows, its sure going to be interesting to see the government try and win peoples support again.

My outro will be special clip from Deborah Morris Travers.

Thank you for listening.

You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.

Have a super happy day, bye.














Sources
=======

http://www.3news.co.nz/Parents-not-being-criminalised-no-need-to-change-law---Key/tabid/419/articleID/117843/Default.aspx

Eating a Pigs head video !

Even people who eat meat generally dont like the idea of eating an animals face. The main Chef guy seems , not quite all there.

Eating a Pigs head Article with Video

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Episode 41 Chickens

Episode

Chickens

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken


Hello and welcome to another quality episode of Jay Wont dart's podcast, where I talk about things that live in my backyard.

My intro was from over population is a myth .com . I'd mentioned overpopulation as being a danger in an earlier episode, perhaps I were wrong, going to over population is a myth.com doesnt take very long, so why not?

My father recently bought home some chickens, two hens and a rooster. Im against having pets, but having spent time with these lovely birds, I'd find it hard to send these chickens on their way. I've never really liked cats or dogs, I find them noisy and messy, but birds and insects have always been very dear to me.

I'll read from wikipedia,

"Chickens are omnivores.[9] In the wild, they often scratch at the soil to search for seeds, insects and even larger animals such as lizards or young mice[10].
Chickens may live for five to eleven years, depending on the breed.[11] In commercial intensive farming, a meat chicken generally lives only six weeks before slaughter.[12] A free range or organic meat chicken will usually be slaughtered at about 14 weeks. Hens of special laying breeds may produce as many as 300 eggs a year. After 12 months, the hen's egg-laying ability starts to decline, and commercial laying hens are then slaughtered and used in baby foods, pet foods, pies and other processed foods.[13] The world's oldest chicken, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, died of heart failure when she was 16 years old.[14]
"


At the back of this house, there are a few brick sheds, a glasshouse and a chicken coup are the main ones. If you go to my flickr account, which I'll link to on my blog, jaywontdart.blogspot.com , you can see photos and even videos of the chickens and where they are living. I'll play the audio from the videos in this episode, but its much better if you see the chickens for yourself! I tried to record the noises they make by taking my laptop into the chicken coup, it was a little difficult, I didnt want to get smeared chicken poo on my PowerBook, but I somewhat pulled it off. They are very quiet, but you can make them out, they often make little noises to talk to each other, they like to stay near each other at all times.

This is one clip I made of the chickens talking to each other.

Here I am feeding the rooster grain, he pecks food from your hand.

Having just been moved here, they are still very nervous about where they now live. The chickens stay together at all times, and I think they must be very scared of us. I try and be as nice as I can to them, I call out before I go into the chicken coop, so I can get them used to my voice, so they know to expect someone to come crashing through the door that had been close for the previous hours. I feed them grain and chicken mash, and put water in a large saucer for them to drink from, although I still havnt seen them drink yet.

The hens in particular are extra scared, boy chickens, roosters, and girl chickens, hens, are very different from each other, its kind of like the 1950's, where women stayed at home and raised the children, while the men were police, chasing bad guys and protecting the community. The hens seem almost petrified if they are ever out of sight of the rooster, they really need him to lead them. I think this is because they trust him so much, and they are so very nervous at the moment, having just been bought here, I hope if future they will confidently walk further away from him.



On my flickr account, you can see this video, where I give a little tour of where these chickens live.




Looking up chicken care websites, many start off saying that chickens are lovely animals to keep as pets, and then once they get to a suitable size, you kill them for meat! Cripes! One site had a indepth tutorial on how to kill them, how to pull their guts out right. On the site, the ads were to do with
Grisley "related resources" panel

"
Related Resources
Meat Electric Grinder Meat Rib Brat Lamb Chop Lamb Eel Meat Grinder Oyster Wings Ostrich Brain Crabs Sushi"



I was reminded of a podcast episode debating veganism and a standard diet including animal byproducts. In this debate, the person who eats animal products defends it because he sees chickens as very stupid animals. This is from the Debate Hour podcast, which you can find a few free episodes on iTunes by searching for "debate hour".



What a load of rubbish, chickens are very much living, feeling animals. I do notice that they move oddly, every move a chicken makes is a jerk, they dont move smoothly, they whirr and click, as if they have gears with cogs inside their bodies, they have to stop at certain points, as the cogs catch. This looks pretty odd, the way they jerk so much, but its endearing, not something to hate them about. Its a bird thing. Chickens definitely care about each other, as I said, the hens really want to stay with the rooster. When a Rooster finds food, he will often call the hens over to eat, he looks after them. And of course, we all know how maternal hens are, its used as a description of mothers, "you're like a mother hen", as women age, they become "broody", when they want to settle down and have children. Chickens may not be as smart as some animals, but theres no doubt they feel just as well as any animal, including people. From being around chickens, theres certainly no reason I can see for eating them.

Thank you for listening.

You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.

Have a super happy day, bye.





Sources
=======

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Episode 40 Don Gorske: Big Mac Lover

Episode 40

Don Gorske Big Mac Guy




Hello and welcome to Episode 40 of Jay Wont darts podcast. My intro was from King Of the Hill.

This episode is about Don Gorske, I'll start by reading from Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia

"Don Gorske of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin is an American "Big Mac enthusiast" who has eaten over 23,000 Big Mac hamburgers in his lifetime,[1] winning a place in the 2006 Guinness Book of Records in the process. He claims the Big Mac constitutes 90% of his total solid food intake. He is featured in the documentaries Super Size Me (2004) and Don Gorske: Mac Daddy (2005). He is the author of 22,477 Big Macs (2008).

History
Gorske claims that after getting his first car, the first place he went was to McDonald's on May 17, 1972[1] he purchased and ate three Big Macs at lunch time. He then returned two more times that day to consume a total of nine Big Macs the same day he discovered the sandwich. He further claims to have eaten 265 Big Macs in the following month, an average of 8.5 Big Macs per day. If true, this would be equivalent to over 4,600 calories and 247 grams of fat daily, for a total of 143,100 calories and 16.9 pounds of fat in one month. He also claims to drink almost nothing but Coca-Cola and, according to Super Size Me, he rarely eats the fries. At first, Don kept all the boxes of Big Macs he ate in the back of his car.
In 2003, Don Gorske ate 741 Big Macs, an average of 2.03 Big Macs per day.
On August 17, 2008, Gorske ate his 23,000th Big Mac at his favorite McDonald's restaurant in Fond du Lac.[1] He claims that since he ate his first Big Mac, there have only been eight different days in which he did not eat a single Big Mac. One of these days was the day his mother died, and he did not eat a Big Mac to respect her request.[1] Other days included a "Snow Day" when McDonalds was unable to open due to snow, a Thanksgiving, days he was traveling and could not find a McDonalds, and various days Gorske had to stay at work past midnight. Gorske has since started keeping an "emergency stash" of Big Macs in his freezer for emergencies and snow days.[4] Don Gorske also records when and where he eats his Big Macs in a notebook that he carries with him all of the time. Gorske has kept every burger receipt in a box.[1]
"


Now, I want to mention a major reason why I chose to do an episode about Don Gorske. The guy eats all that fastfood, he says it makes up 90% of his food intake, so he basically eats just 2 burgers a day, along with liquids. The guy looks damn thin, he looks quite a lot like a hippie, if you imagine a hippie with "John Lennon" style round glasses, and brown hair in a bowlcut style, although he has a ponytail at the back. I'm mentioning Don because hes evidence that fast food is a sure cause of obesity, I really dont like hearing people who complain that big companies have forced everyone worldwide to become fat and lazy. I think what people eat is their own responsibility, although I have read books such as Fast Food Nation, and have watched Super Size Me, I'll play clips from that movie later. I do see a definite link between eating fatty foods and becoming fat yourself, but I really dont think its fair to blame mcdonalds when you choose to eat there 3 times a day. Don Gorske is a very quirky case, and I'd love him to go Vegan, but he sure isnt unhealthly from what I can tell, or from his health statistics that he tells people. I mention this because large animal welfare groups like PETA advertise going vegetarian as a way to lose weight, they often use the fact that vegetarians and vegans generally are slim, as if the only way you can be NOT FAT is if you dont eat animal products, apparently they have never seen Don Gorske.


I left this part out of the Wikipedia article, because I wanted you to think he weighed a metric ton.

"Gorske is 6 foot 2 inches tall, 185 pounds, and claims a cholesterol level of 140."

Im interrupting here, for every other country in the world, hes about 1.8 metres tall and weighs 83kg's. That makes his Body Mass Index, BMI, about 23.8, almost 24. A BMI is not amazingly accurate, very muscular people can be reported as being obese, for example, but its the best way to somewhat compare weights of people, to roughly group them as underweight for their height, average for their height, or overweight for their height.

Reading from the site I used to calculate Dons BMI,
• Underweight = <18.5
• Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
• Overweight = 25-29.9
• Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

At just under 24 he would be on the heavier side of a normal weight for his height, normal being 18.5 to 24.9 . He looks quite thin, so he could have a lot of dense muscle, he definitely doesn't look like he has a double chin or a fat belly.

Back to wikipedia,
"His claimed average daily consumption of two Big Macs amounts to 1,080 calories, according to the nutritional information published by McDonald's[2]; this does not take into account his energy intake from fluids. The USDA recommends about 2,200 calories per day.[3] Gorske consumes mainly calorie-rich food, and he maintains a stable weight by eating fewer calories than the average American."


Ok, I dont think thats a healthy way to eat, "sure you can eat anything you want, as long as you only eat half the calories that you are meant to", I dont think that sounds healthy. I dont recommend that anyone eat mostly hamburgers every day for years. Im talking about Don Gorske because I find him interesting, he has such a weird Guinness book of records style life.

My first clip is an AP news story about Don,



Don works as a Prison Guard. I've heard reports that Don is OCD, Obsessive Compulsive, and that perhaps he feels he needs to eat Big Macs every day, its a routine hes gotten stuck in and wouldnt be able to quit. However, he did apparently go without a Big Mac on the day his mother died, it was one of her wishes, so at least for major things like a parents death, he can go without Big Macs.

Reading about Fon du Lac, no doubt Im pronouncing the name wrong, it means Foot of the Lake in french, its a small city of about 42 thousand people. Another famous resident of the city is King Camp Gillette, his first two names are odd, but you might remember his surname, Gillette, he invented the safety razor and founded the Gillette company.


I also found two idiot guys talking about Don Gorske, they run a morning zoo type radio show apparently. you can find them at http://www.thefrickandfrackshow.com/ , its odd watching a video of these two fat american guys put down a thin american who eats almost nothing but fast food.

<2 guys talking clip>


My last clips will be from Super Size Me, a documentary about director Morgan Spurlock eating nothing but Mcdonalds for a month. These clips are about Don Gorske.




Before the end, I'd like to thank a second listener for contacting me, on Twitter, BigBadEd mentioned finding my podcast on iTunes while looking up No Agenda related podcasts, BigBadEd said hes not vegan himself, but was interested in what I talk about. BigBadEd is a British guy who lives in America, and who thought about moving to New Zealand. Well BigBadEd, I hope you come and visit sometime, I'd love to show you around Invercargill, population 50,000 on a good day, home to the southernmost Mcdonalds in the world, as well as the southernmost Vegans! I hope that cancels out the Fast Food vibes.

my outro will be about guns being given away in America when you buy a car.

Thank you for listening.

You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.

Have a super happy day, bye.







Sources
=======
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Gorske

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fond_du_Lac,_Wisconsin

http://everything2.com/title/Don+Gorske

Morgan Spurlock, Supersize Me
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Spurlock

BMI
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

AP story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsEC9OjOBwc

2 guys talking http://www.thefrickandfrackshow.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9T-vxNCrQo&feature=player_embedded

Monday, August 17, 2009

Episode 39 Dog Eating=Lamb Beheading=Cat Dissection

Episode 39


Dog eating = Lamb beheading = Cat dissection


Hello and welcome to Jay Wont darts podcast, where I cover shocking animal treatment worldwide, and that includes Nuclear Free, Gods Own, clean green New Zealand.

My intro was from episode 100 of No Agenda.

I'd been planing to talk about the topics of this episode for months, I've heard many stories of animal abuse that are all equally shocking, but I wanted to fit them together somehow. I've decided to do this episode now, because animal treatment has been in the New Zealand news. Just today, it was reported a Tongan man living in Auckland New Zealand had killed his dog. This has been on the mainstream news, and will be talked about for weeks to come. Also, a boys pet lamb had its head cut off, and he found it dead. This made national news. I would like to mention another shocking animal story, in America its apparently quite common to dissect cats, actual pussy cats, in high schools and universities. I cant imagine that happening in New Zealand, although its hard to imagine anyone cutting open cats.

First the New Zealand stories.


Lamb Beheaded

This story was reported on by a Taranaki newspaper, I dont know where exactly this happened, but its somewhere in Taranaki, New Zealand.

"Pet lamb beheaded in paddock

A little boy went out to cuddle his pet lamb and found somebody had cut its head off.

"Who could do such a sadistic thing?" his mother Mandy Kalin is asking.

The Dorset Horn ram lamb was about six months old and had been bottle-reared by the three children. Braith, aged 4 1/2 years, had claimed it for his own and named it Shaun (after the Wallace and Gromit character).

On Tuesday evening Braith went out with his dad Jason to feed the animals on their lifestyle block near Eltham. Shaun wasn't running about on his chain.

"Dad, why has Shaun got no head?" Braith asked. "Why isn't he moving?"

Shaun was dead and his head with its little horns was missing. They later concluded the head must have been wrapped in a towel taken from the clothesline, because there was no blood.

Nobody was home during the afternoon and Shaun had no fear of humans.

Mrs Kalin said she wanted the sick person responsible for the killing "to know that this was a little boy's pet and he made this horrible discovery himself".

"I want that person to feel bad about the terrible thing he has done.

"The kids are petrified. It's not something we can hide from them, we've had to tell them what happened. The other sheep in the paddock, which was also on a chain, wasn't touched. If the lamb had been killed for the meat while they were grazing on the roadside, I could possibly understand it, but not this."It's not something a normal, straight person would ever do."

Jason Kalin has told the police he suspects somebody with a grudge was responsible, but can't discuss the details. The police told him there have been no other such incidents in the area."


Ok, I feel this story is awful, so do most people. My point is, whats the difference between this baby sheep, and all the other sheep killed in New Zealand every day? That a little boy loved this particular sheep, and that he doesnt cry about all the other sheep in New Zealand who are slaughtered, I dont see that as a big difference. Im not heartless to the child being upset, but to me, this sheep is just one out of many who are horribly killed everyday. This was reported on in mainstream New Zealand news, we can all agree killing a pet sheep is awful. But, these same newspapers will advertise butchers, often I see ads in The Southland Times featuring the latest cheap meat at local butcheries. Theres an ad on the Golden Oldies radio station thats on at work, it has the Beef + Lamb Theme song, that Im told used to be a T Rex song, "dum dum dum we love to boogie", you know what I mean. Now whenever I hear that song, I think of meat. On this particular radio ad, the voice over guy uses a real Southern Bloke voice, he talks "kinda like this mate, a real tough southern bloke, not like those jaffas in auckland mate, nah mate, hes a REAL man who eats meat and drinks speights beer!".

The guy mentions the "bloody good meat prices, top quality, you pay, just less". Does anyone else hearing the ad notice the words "bloody" and "meat" the way I do? Its not a nice image, I dont want to buy something thats bloody, or meat. I know its just the kiwi slang, saying somethings "bloody" doesnt mean is dirty, its used like "damn", as in "damn good".

Also, how are these prices so low, how can a farmer offer cheaper meat at the same quality? Id assume the easiest way would be to care less about the animals needs, not spend so much taking care of an animal, instead reduce your costs and pass it on to the consumer.

This is why I dont agree with Animal Welfare, when the farmers are for Animal Welfare, you know its bad. When people who promote Animal Welfare eat animals themselves, its obvious its not going to eliminate people killing animals, is it? I dont know any Abolitionists who eat meat, so Animal Abolition must be a better, common sense position to take on these issues.




Tongan Man cooks his pet dog to be eaten.

I happened to hear about this through the TradeMe message board. I'll play a TVNZ news clip about the story.


aww isnt that nice, instead of eating their unwanted animals, now they will dump them at animal shelters. Real progress being made.

The story has been all over the internet, and I expect it to be bought up in newspapers nationwide in coming days, old media is always late to the party.

Basically the issue is, its apparently not illegal what the man did, he killed the dog "humanely", im doing quote movements with my hands as I say that, "humanely", with a bonk on the head. The dog was then cooked outdoors. I've seen photos of the dog, and it doesnt look like it were cooked at all, it has a couple of patches on it, but its not singed black from head to tail, and it doesnt look like it was even gutted. People online are furious, I often go to the Trademe Message board to see what the nation is talking about. On the Trade Me Message Board, you mostly see right wing racist remarks, blaming the government for making everyone too "soft", "everything these days is too PC, all this politically correct bullshit, in my day we beat our kids for reading books and getting smart, and now we have this internet thing and the violent video games have made all the toddlers into Charles Mansons, its those weed smoking hippies in the Green party who are to blaaaaaaaaame". You can never expect a serious discussion on the message board, its an auction site, not a dedicated forum, there are few tools on the forum, and yet it is by far New Zealands most popular local site, and the place people go to talk about politics and whats happening.

Im really impressed with the number of people who mention that dogs are no different than any other animal killed to be eaten. Its really made me feel like I have some support, like Im not the only one advocating leaving animals alone. Others have mentioned not eating any animals, but they dont get taken seriously. The other side blames all the Pacific Islanders and Asian people for eating dogs, and they cant seem to get it that when it comes to animals, all men are Nazis as Isaac Bashevis Singer said. I wish I could make them believe me when I say all animals are equal, all should have the right to live their lives, but they seem to deny any similarities. Some arguments I've seen are that "we dont do that in New Zealand", as if we are good people and people overseas who eat dogs are terrible. I dont understand how anyone can say things like that.

I also have the SPCAs view on this event, listen to what they talk about, they clearly mention animal WELFARE, and mention how difficult it is to change the law, as it could make all animals un killable. What an awful world that would be, if it were illegal to kill cows and chickens and pigs and sheep and dogs......



There we go, confirming animals are legally just peoples property, you own them, and can do anything you want to them. Yet another reason to reject animal welfare, and instead focus on creative vegan education, as the wise sage on NZ Vegan says.

Researching this episode I've found other websites that talk about eating cats and dogs. Apparently its common to eat dogs in Tonga. I found one website that had a tourists account of eating dog. I'll read the full post , the website url will be in my notes.

"Kai Kule – Eating my first dog. October 13 2007

Don’t come over for lunch, the dog we planned to eat has run off. We are looking for it.”

Mau, the talking chief of the village has arranged for me to “Kai kuli” or eat dog. His cousin has been fattening one up and today was the day.

Disappointed I ate lunch with my host family.

It was a few hours later that Mau called back. “They found the dog!”

My host mom, Sila bounced us over the unpaved road to Mau’s cousin in the four-wheel drive van. We could already smell roasting flesh rising from a hole dug in the back yard. A traditional Tongan umu, it’s fire fueled by coconut husks. All that remained were the coals and red-hot rocks heated by the fire.

A heap of steaming intestines lay on a banana leaf before dogs and pigs devoured them. The hide was already gone, only patches of dark hair remain. A bag made fro a leave held the chopped up heart, which along with the head went into the umu.

A layer of sticks supported another layer of leaves and an old carpet. Once the carpet covered the hole, one of the men shoveled dirt over it to complete the umu.

After a short trip to the beach we returned to the house. The men opened the umu releasing the greasy smell of roast meat. Banana leaves tossed into the yard served a our picnic table as the sizzling carcass was picked up with sticks and dropped in our midst. A few quick hacks with a knife to dismember the dog, a few shakes of salt into piles on the leaves and we were ready to eat.

A prayer in Tongan and everyone started to rip into the food with their bare hands. My host mother, Sila, announced that it was a “greasy dog”. I had just taught her the English word a few hours earlier.

It took only a few minutes and the ribs lay bare. One of the men ripped open the leaf bag and we all reached in to try the pieces of heart.

Grease covered my hands and face. Beneath my nails dog sat dog meat. No – there are no napkins here…

This was a great chance to share a cultural experience with some of the men of the village. I now have Mau’s phone number and am comfortable sitting next to him at the Kava circle. I am learning to network in Tonga."





Cat Dissection.

This article was in the Miami Herald, you can find this story at Miami Herald.com

A teen accused of killing 19 cats must be held for 48 hours as doctors conduct a psychological evaluation, a judge ruled
Alleged cat mutilator Tyler Weinman is no stranger to feline anatomy -- he dissected the animals last year in class at Palmetto High.
That revelation came Monday, the same day a judge ordered Weinman, 18, to stay in jail for 48 hours pending a psychiatric evaluation. He is accused of slaughtering 19 house cats across South Miami-Dade.
Palmetto High anatomy teacher Lynn Evans, a self-described animal lover, said she was shocked to learning her quiet former student had been arrested and charged with cruelty to animals.
''I don't know how we can bridge the gap between a controlled [classroom] situation, to what this disturbed young man has done,'' Evans said in an interview, adding that about 8,000 of her students have dissected cats during her 24 years of teaching anatomy.
The investigation into the mutilated cats -- found strewn throughout South Miami-Dade -- has for weeks riveted South Florida, terrorized pet owners and sparked massive media attention.
Weinman was charged Sunday with 19 counts of felony animal cruelty, and 19 counts of improperly disposing of an animal body.
Back at Palmetto High, students and staff were still stunned by Weinman's arrest.
Anatomy Class
Evans, the anatomy teacher, said that dissecting dead cats -- the packaged corpses are distributed by biological supply companies -- is common because the animals have an internal body structure similar to humans.
''Decades of people in the anatomy field have started with dissecting cats,'' she said.
Investigators, still chasing leads that could net more arrests, were mum on whether Weinman's classroom training played a role in the teen's alleged crime spree. Prosecutors say they have a suspected motive, but cannot release details.
''We are aware that he attended the anatomy class,'' said Von Zamft, who declined to comment further because of the ongoing probe.
"

As I mentioned at the start of this episode, its apparently common in America to dissect cats in high school and university. PETA wrote an open letter to the principal of the boys school. I'll read part of PETA's letter.

PETA's Open Letter RE Cat Killer

"You may also be aware of the well-established link between animal abuse in adolescence and
subsequent violent behavior toward humans. For example, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer
attributed his fascination with murder and mutilation to classroom dissections. In the last
interview before his death, televised on Dateline NBC, Dahmer stated, "In ninth grade, in biology
class, we had the usual dissection of fetal pigs, and I took the remains of that [pig] home and kept
the skeleton of it, and I just started branching out to dogs, cats." According to Dahmer, he enjoyed the excitement and power he experienced when cutting up animals and fantasized about
cutting up a human body.

This disturbing cycle of violence can be curtailed by instilling respect for animals in students at
Palmetto High. A good place to start is to provide them with humane science lessons in place of
lessons that teach students to treat animals as "objects" that can be used and abused at will. "



In America, companies provide dead cats, sealed in bags, to dissection classes. Large companies do nothing but procure animals, and prepare them to be killed.

I'll read from one companies websites, the Carolina company, links are in the notes.

"Why dissect a cat?
Computer-assisted learning and the use of plastinated specimens can supplement dissection, but they cannot give a complete idea of what an organ or organ system is really like. Dissection is the best way for students to obtain knowledge of tissue characteristics, such as strength, composition, color, and texture and to understand the 3-dimensional relationships of organs and organ systems.

One of the best specimens to use for exploring mammalian anatomy is the cat. It is large enough for its internal organs (which are much like our own) to be found easily and for its blood vessels to be traced, but not so large as to present special difficulty in storage and handling. Preserved cat specimens are also reasonably priced and readily available.

How does Carolina obtain its cats?
Animal shelters licensed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) supply us with euthanized cats that would otherwise be destined for the landfills were they not reutilized for science classrooms. The USDA, under the Animal Welfare Act, governs the procurement of animals. Carolina is proud to have an outstanding USDA inspection and compliance record, and we are committed to treating all animals in a humane manner.
"

Did you like the words used? "reutilized" is a good one, as in cats had an original purpose, are worthless dead, but oh wait! look! Carolina dead cat company to the rescue! They REUSE dead cats, isnt that great? Very green, Carolina really cares for our environment, because we only have one mother earth you know! Cripes, what a load of trash! Theres no nice way to explain a bunch of kids hacking up kitty cats.

I've heard reports from well known sources that many of these preserved cats are infact Mexican pet cats, that vans go about villages with a siren going off, alerting people to bring out cats to be sold. People will trap cats, knowing the van will be doing its rounds soon. These poor mexicans will sell cats for about a US dollar, and then companies that sell the preserved cats, will make much, much more than that. I've seen these preserved cats selling for about 50 US dollars, thats about 70 dollars NZ lets say. A lot of money really, there are some kits for a full classroom that are over 500 US dollars. Im told the cats are drowned, then are injected with preserving fluids, they are drained of blood and have resins injected into their ateries etc to make them more visible, easy for teachers to point out to students, as the cats are hacked at.

Carolina has a website where you can buy cats, dogs, and fetal pigs. They sell preserved sheeps organs, although i didnt see any full preserved sheep for sale.

Do you know what I find so odd about this? That Carolina is so open about what they do, as if this is totally normal, to be cutting up cats and dogs who were abandoned at animal shelters, left to die. They even have a Twitter account, shocking huh?

http://twitter.com/CarolinaBio

They have over 50 people following them.

In america, I'm told over 100,000 cats are dissected every year. Included in my notes are graphic pictures of how the cats are stored in bags, legs all stretched out as if in pain, and how they are cut up. I really hope you will look at these upsetting photos, because it really puts everything into perspective. Its all well and good talking about these problems, but I believe that these photos will really move you, its so obviously a cat in the photos, no different than all the other cats people have as pets. Looking at photos of animal abuse lets people decide for themselves whats happening, theres not any bias passed on by a story teller, instead you see the event frozen in time, as a photo.


I hope you've listened all the way through this episode, I know its a difficult topic. I wish people would see that cats, dogs and other pets are no different than any other animal, as these stories appear in the mainstream media, I hope to promote veganism. So far, I've only been met with ridicule, with people telling me Im nuts for not eating meat, but I'll keep at it, it doesnt take that much effort to be heard online, and if just one person decides to become vegan because of me, then its truly worth my time.

Thank you for listening.



You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it. My outro is from No Agenda 117

Have a super happy day, bye.













Sources
========

Tongan man cooks dog
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/no-charges-man-barbecued-dog-2919419

tv3 video
http://www.3news.co.nz/SPCA-concerned-after-dog-eating-incident/tabid/572/articleID/116902/cat/41/Default.aspx

eating dog in tonga
http://tongaadventure.blogspot.com/2007/10/kai-kule-eating-my-first-dog-oct-13.html


Cat Killer
http://blog.peta.org/archives/2009/06/does_high_schoo.php

Cat dissection photos etc
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Labs/Anatomy_&_Physiology/A&P201/Cat_Skinning/Cat_Skinning.htm

Carolina dead cat supply company (my words)
http://www.carolina.com/product/221481.do
http://www.carolina.com/category/teacher+resources/dissection+activities+and+resources/cat+dissection.do
http://www.carolina.com/product/455572.do


http://bio.bd.psu.edu/cat/

cat dissection facts
http://www.sniksnak.com/aavs3.html

PETA letter, from PETA

Cat Killer news stories from Miami Herald,

Monday, August 10, 2009

Episode 38 Animal Farm


Episode 38

Animal Farm



Hello and welcome to episode 38 of Jay Wont darts podcast, where I share my favourite books, kind of like a tall white vegan Oprah.

My intros were from No Agenda episode 117 and the song Optimistic by Radiohead, its one of the many songs that refference Animal Farm, I'll play another for the outro.

George Orwell is known most for his story Nineteen Eighty-Four, but I prefer his earlier work Animal Farm. Animal Farm is a wonderful book mostly aimed at the Soviet Union and Communism, basically all the main characters are based on real life political figures such as Lenin, Karl Marx and Stalin. Other Farms represent the US and UK, and several collective flocks of animals represent social classes of people.

In the preface of a 1947 Ukrainian edition of Animal Farm he explained how escaping the communist purges in Spain taught him quote, "how easily totalitarian propaganda can control the opinion of enlightened people in democratic countries." This motivated Orwell to expose and strongly condemn what he saw as the Stalinist corruption of the original socialist ideals.

In that preface Orwell also described what gave him the idea of setting the book on a farm

" ...I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat."

Thats a great quote that also relates to animals rights.

One night, Major, an elderly pig on Manor Farm has a strange dream, that the animals could better themselves, and live freely instead of being repressed by humans such as Mr Jones, their farmer. Jones often gets drunk and is not attentive to matters of his farm. The animals begin a revolution and rise up against their oppressor, the humans. And yet, by the end of the book we see things have not worked out so well for all the animals. I'll read part of Major's speech.




There are two main quotes best remembered from Animal Farm.

The shortest and easiest to remember is

"Four legs good, two legs bad"

Another is the original commandments given out by Major,

THE [ORIGINAL] SEVEN COMMANDMENTS:

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are created equal.


The last commandment is morphed by the end of the story into

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

I love the ending of the book, the way the pigs change is amazing, I really dont want to spoil the ending for you, its reason enough for you to read this short story.

In Animal Farm, the pigs are generally treated as the most intelligent animals, and probably the sheep are the most dim witted, the sheep act as cheer leaders, mindlessly shouting slogans taught to them by the ruling politician. The pigs start off as being rule by Napoleon and Snowball, Napoleon is more concerned about himself, while Snowball thinks up grand plans to better all animals. Napoleon gathers his own secret police, who on his command drive out Snowball, I love how the secret police come into being, I never expected it, and yet its so logical. I wont spoil that surprise for you.

Napoleon takes control as a dictator, he has the other remaining pigs work for him, there are a few named pigs such as Squealer who acts as second in command, and distributes propaganda and Minimus, who writes songs singing praise of Napoleon.

One of my favourite characters is the minor figure of Moses the Raven, he only shows up a couple of times in the book, but is very important symbolically. I'll read from novelguide.com's character guide, the webpage is in my shownotes which you can see on an iPod by going to the lyrics or you could go to my blog www.jaywontdart.blogspot.com to read my full notes which have sources at the bottom.
"
Moses: Moses is perhaps Orwell's most intriguing character in Animal Farm. This raven, first described as the "especial pet" of Mr. Jones, is the only animal who doesn't work. He's also the only character who doesn't listen to Old Major's speech of rebellion.

Orwell narrates, "The pigs had an even harder struggle to counteract the lies put about by Moses, the tame raven. Moses, who was Mr. Jones's especial pet, was a spy and a tale-bearer, but he was also a clever talker. He claimed to know of the existence of a mysterious country called Sugarcandy Mountain, to which al animals went when they died. It was situated somewhere up in the sky, a little distance beyond the clouds, Moses said. In Sugarcandy Mountain it was Sunday seven days a week, clover was in season all the year round, and lump sugar and linseed cake grew on the hedges. The animals hated Moses because he told tales and did no work but some of them believed in Sugarcandy Mountain, and the pigs had to argue very hard to persuade them that there was no such place."

Moses represents Orwell's view of the Church. To Orwell, the Church is just used as a tool by dictatorships to keep the working class of people hopeful and productive. Orwell uses Moses to criticize Marx's belief that the Church will just go away after the rebellion. Jones first used Moses to keep the animals working, and he was successful in many ways before the rebellion. The pigs had a real hard time getting rid of Moses, since the lies about Heaven they thought would only lead the animals away from the equality of socialism. But as the pigs led by Napoleon become more and more like Mr. Jones, Moses finds his place again. After being away for several years, he suddenly returns and picks up right where he left off. The pigs don't mind this time because the animals have already realized that the "equality" of the revolt is a farce. So Napoleon feeds Moses with beer, and the full-circle is complete.
Orwell seems to offer a very cynical and harsh view of the Church. This proves that Animal Farm is not simply an anti-communist work meant to lead people into capitalism and Christianity. Really Orwell found loop-holes and much hypocrisy in both systems. It's interesting that recently in Russia the government has begun to allow religion again. It almost seems that like the pigs, the Kremlin officials of today are trying to keep their people motivated, not in the ideology of communism, but in the "old-fashioned" hope of an after-life. "



I like Moses because he is one of only a few minor characters who dont directly speak, I dont remember him ever actually talking directly in the book, its always mentioned by the narrator what Moses told the other animals, but we never hear him directly speak. One other minor character is similar to this, the cat, who never does any work, but will show up when there is food, I dont think we hear the cat talk directly either, the narrator mentions her telling the sparrows just out of her reach, that they are all equal comrades after the revolution, and that if one of the sparrows wanted to, they could sit on her paw. I'm glad none of the birds take her up on her offer.




Another of my favourite characters is Benjamin the donkey. He is quite old, and never has anything positive to say, he doesnt speak much but is present at all the major events. Benjamin never believes the revolution will change anything, when asked why hes not enthused, Benjamin explains, "Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey." by which he means he has seen alot of how things work and that the future will not be in the animals favour. Another quote is "Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse— hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life." "


Probably the most tragic character in Animal Farm is Boxer, the strong work horse. He is not intelligent and has trouble remembering what he has learnt, he cant remember the alphabet and so cannot read or write, but believes in his leaders. Boxer has a personal motto of " will work harder!", which could be a nod to the book The Jungle, which is an expose on the meat packing industry of the early 20th century.

Boxer is by far the strongest animal, being the largest male horse, he pulls every heavy load and protects the farm with his strong kicks. He has an awful fate that almost makes me cry every time I read the book. Boxer collapses having worked himself to death. I'll read that passage now.






I'll play a clip that explains Animal Farms plot better.



I hope you've enjoyed this episode, I really do hope everyone listening decides to read Animal Farm, its only about 112 pages in length, you can read it at a leisurely pace over a weekend. There are even websites online where you can read the full text for free! One copy can be found on http://www.george-orwell.org , I'll include that in my notes, as well as the ebook I downloaded, the full text of Animal Farm on my computer, it takes up just one fifth of a megabyte. No doubt this episode of my podcast will end up being a hundred times that, sorry to waste your hard drive space! Theres so much to learn from Animal Farm, the best thing to do is just to read the story yourself.



My outro song will be the song Animal in Man by the rap group Dead Prez. You might recognise them from this songs backing music from Chapelles Show, I like political hip hop music, and started liking Dead Prez when I heard their message , at least one out of the two is vegan, the other is possibly vegetarian. At live shows they are known to throw out apples to the crowd. The outro has some harsh language in it, its a retelling of Animal Farm.


Thank you for listening to my humble podcast.

You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.com

If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

Have a super happy day, bye.





sources
======
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm

http://www.novelguide.com/animalfarm/themeanalysis.html

full story!

download html ebook here
http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100011.txt

or full story chapter by chapter here
http://www.george-orwell.org/Animal_Farm/index.html

animal farm synopsis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aybo5lYPx4s