Mt. Rushmore, Black Hills, South Dakota
“Tulsi Gabbard 4 hrs · Today we have shown the power of people’s voices standing together to protect our water. Water is life. We cannot live without it. While we celebrate today’s news, we cannot be complacent. We must continue to protect our water and preserve our land. #StandWithStandingRock#WaterIsLife” https://www.facebook.com/VoteTulsi/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE&fref=nf
How about the invisible radioactive threat to land, air, and water from the proposed Dewey Burdock uranium mine in the area of the Sacred Black Hills and Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota? Not only the mining, but how about the invisible legal and illegal radioactive discharges from the Nuclear Industry that uranium feeds? And, the radioactive waste, some of which will be there for longer than humans have even existed? Will that be the next stop for everyone? “If the toxic radiation emitted daily from every nuclear reactor and other…
CANNON BALL, ND – DECEMBER 04: Fireworks fill the night sky above Oceti Sakowin Camp as activists celebrate after learning an easement had been denied for the Dakota Access Pipeline near the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on December 4, 2016 outside Cannon Ball, North Dakota. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Protesters across the United States celebrated today after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it would “explore alternate routes” for the Dakota Access Pipeline instead of granting an easement the pipeline. Over 2,000 U.S. military veterans had joined the thousands of protesters at the site to protect them from the authorities, and federal officials had given them until tomorrow to leave the site .
Native American tribes began last April to block the part of the current 1,172-mile-long pipeline’s $3.8 billion project designed to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota at the confluence…
Dark Side of the Sled Dog Industry Exposed in New Film
By: Alicia Graef
December 3, 2016
In 2011, the public was shocked when a story broke about 100 sled dogs who were brutally executed and dumped in a mass grave in Whistler, British Columbia. Now, a documentary about the dark side of the sled dog industry is, ironically, set to premiere in that very same town this weekend.
For some, there may not be a better combination than dogs and the wilderness. The sled dog industry has played on that fantasy, and garnered a lot of support for events like the Iditarod – an annual race in Alaska that spans a thousand miles of rough terrain. Unfortunately, the dogs being used by this industry are paying the ultimate price.
Following a dog sledding trip in Ontario, award-winning documentary filmmaker Fern Levitt’s curiosity about the industry was sparked after she saw where the dogs lived, and was told some would soon be “culled” if no homes could be found for them.
Almostfive years later, her research into the industry has led to a new documentary, Sled Dogs, which is making its world premier at the Whistler Film Festival on Dec. 3, 2016.
“This film comes at a critical moment when the public is waking up to the treatment of animals and demanding change. The audience will be outraged when they discover the legal abuse of ‘man’s best friend’ under the guise of sport and entertainment. This is a timely documentary and a definitive call for action,” said Levitt. “I am thrilled that our film will premiere at the Whistler Film Festival as it was here that the world first learned the truth about how dogs are treated in the tourism industry.”
According to the synopsis, the film follows “a rookie Iditarod musher who sleds 1000 miles from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska; the training of Lydia, a sled dog puppy at six-months-old; a dog sled operation that was under investigation in 2013 in Snowmass, Colorado; and the 2010 sled dog cull in Whistler, B.C. after which cries of outrage by the dog-loving public forced the provincial government to enact tougher legislation to protect these animals.”
Disturbingly, if the Iditarod were held in almost any other state in the nation, it would violate animal cruelty laws intended to protect animals from being overworked. While it’s still going on in Alaska, dozens of major companies have already withdrawn their support and sponsorship thanks to public pressure.
Hopefully, a behind-the-scenes look into this industry will help raise more awareness about the sad and abusive lives these dogs are living and will lead to more changes that will protect them, along with getting more people to rethink supporting either the Iditarod, or this industry as a whole.
“The power of documentary film in today’s world is about educating the audience on a variety of issues. In the case of Sled Dogs, after audiences watch the entire film and see what our cameras discovered, they will be able to decide for themselves what the truth is about commercial dog sled operations,” added Producer Arnie Zipursky.
Today, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it would not be granting an easement under Lake Oahe for the Dakota Access pipeline to cross the Missouri River a half mile upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe reservation. The Corps further stated that it plans to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for alternative routes. These actions trigger a new round of public involvement processes to permit the final piece of the pipeline as required by the National Environmental Policy Act.
“He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” - Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
