Reasonable Outrage

My friend Andy told me tonight that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is not associated nor shares money with local Animal Shelters or Animal Societies. He also said that they may just be a front for PETA and other activist organizations that want us to stop eating animal products.

So I did what any questioning person does when they want to research a subject, head to the internet. Here are some articles of what I found.

From activistcash.com, I read the following. “HSUS is big, rich, and powerful, a “humane society” in name only. And while most local animal shelters are under-funded and unsung, HSUS has accumulated $113 million in assets and built a recognizable brand by capitalizing on the confusion its very name provokes. This misdirection results in an irony of which most animal lovers are unaware: HSUS raises enough money to finance animal shelters in every single state, with money to spare, yet it doesn’t operate a single one anywhere.”

Go to the website to read more. Reading this site and more shows something that I never would have imagined and obviously it outrages me. They may well have changed an organization’s mission legitimately but the idea of banking on the Society name or the past use of donations to continue to raise money is reasonably outrageous.

Corn-utopia.com has this on their site, “ The HSUS split away completely, dropping financial support of all the smaller state ‘Humane Society’ groups. But they did it quietly to leave everyone with the logical impression they were now just the national headquarters coordinating all ‘their local chapters’. ”

From a post on topix.net, “Your local humane society is not a member organization of the Humane Society of the United States, although HSUS would like you to think they are. In fact, if your local HS wants direction or consulting services from HSUS, they will be charged for them.

HSUS is not a parent or umbrella organization for local Humane societies in general although some may align themselves with politically or philosophically.

The majority volunteers I have met from local humane organizations including local humane societies are often extremely resentful of funds essentially stolen from them by HSUS as people send money to HSUS under the very wrong belief that somehow their local society and it’s animals will be the beneficiaries while in actuality nothing is farther from the truth.”

It has been reported that the HSUS charges consultation fees between $4,000 and $20,000 instead of using donations to help.

The Animal Society Of Silicon Valley says, ” We receive no United Way or government funding – we are entirely privately funded.” Now I am slightly surprised after looking at a couple of local Humane Society websites that they don’t specifically say that the HSUS doesn’t help. It would seem prudent. Eventually the word could get out. (Update: I found a local chapter that does explain that HSUS doesn’t help out locally)

Here are a few more sites with very interesting articles.

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/2879

FBI may be investigating the HSUS for it’s fundraising practices,

http://www.cooldoghalloffame.com/dogs/fbi-investigating-hsus-fundraising/509

As with most charities or help, I believe in helping locally first. Build your family, community and then bigger. With the deceptive nature of this organization I suggest you think twice before donating.

See, isn’t that worth being outraged?

The news is as bad as the newspaper.  So much advertising.  But to make it worse, the news constantly teases the same stories throughout a half hour wasting time.

I have yet to find anyone who is interested in the weather beyond what is going to happen in the next few days.  Shut the hell up about the fronts and pressure systems.  If you want to keep me interested in the weather show tornadoes and blizzards.

Even worse is where they tease a 30 second story at 6pm for the 11pm news.  I understand what they are doing and why but so do so many others.  It loses effectiveness.  They need to rework it and quit dumbing everything down.  And then maybe I will come back and watch instead of getting everything off of rss feeds.

Except for the action of dialing or looking up a number, using a cell phone is equivalent to most other distractions in the car.

I had a girlfriend who was the worst driver when someone else was in the car. She would be so engaged in conversation that she would stop for green lights and continue with red lights. After a couple of close calls and me screaming, “It’s red!!”, I did all of the driving.

There are good drivers and bad drivers. Bad drivers shouldn’t be driving, much less driving distracted. Distracted driving includes, eating, smoking, talking to a passenger, listening to the radio, changing the station, daydreaming, looking at the scenery, etc.

These are all of the things that distract drivers. I have driven upwards of 400,000 miles in my life (I am in my mid-thirties). I drove with no radio for a month and found my mind wandering as I drove. My mind wanders when I listen to the radio to the point that I don’t hear the song anymore or remember driving through the last couple of miles.

We want to point to one thing to solve a problem. And when we point, we want to point at others. Cell phones aren’t the problem but it is a single thing that “other” people do wrong. Bad drivers are the problem.

I know there are studies that say that cell phones are a distraction. But I need to see a study that compares it to the other distractions. We need better drivers training than what my school provided.

Many people do not know how to merge. Some almost stop at the end of a freeway on ramp. Others wait until the very end and then look to see if there is space. Dangerous. I watch this continuously when I am driving.

Many cross three lanes of traffic to get to their exit, don’t know what to do when traffic lights are out and flashing red and so many other mistakes. I don’t want them on cell phones.

Now women driving and putting on make up, come on! I mean, they’re already women drivers.

I have what I believe to be a simple solution to a huge problem.

In some countries they have it so that the loser of a lawsuit has to pay legal fees of both parties. I doubt many in America find this fair. This hinders too many reasonable lawsuits.

I propose that lawsuits are filed and then, if not already included, is a limited explanation of the lawsuit by the plaintiff. This limited explanation is reviewed by three judges. If at least two of the three judges believe it to be frivolous, then the plaintiff would have to pay legal fees if they decided to continue and lost. The presiding judge would not be aware of the decision of the three judges.

This would actually stop many lawsuits giving the judges time to read the complaints. The attorneys roll the dice taking a cut of proceeds of any settlement or award. Most deals do settle because the legal fees and that is the reason attorneys roll the dice.

Of course attorneys wouldn’t want this resolution but I think it would be best.

http://gothamist.com/2007/08/05/bus_driver_beat.php

I am guessing the conversation went something like this:

Driver: Get up so the elderly lady can sit down.

22 year-old: No

Driver: That’s the rules, now get up.

22 year-old: Make me.

Driver: I will if I have to.

22 year-old: You can’t touch me. I will sue you and the city if you touch me.

Driver: I am tired of you selfish punks thinking the rules aren’t for them unless it protects you.

Driver walks back and chaos ensues.

Do I think the bus driver should have gotten into a fist fight? No. Do I think there is most likely more to the story? Yes. There always is.

Of course if he had called the cops and refused to move, most people would be pissed that they were late. I would have liked to have known if anyone else on the bus supported the bus driver in trying to get the 22 year-old to move.

Is this an important issue? Yes. This was a rule on the bus as shown by the picture in the article. This is a rule in our culture. This was someone who didn’t have the concern or generosity to give a seat to an elderly person.

I know there are concerns about the government and our civil liberties but this is important too. The erosion of little rights helps the erosion of the larger rights.

There is too much hype and histeria.  To get attention, media, acitivists and advertisers yell fire when they see a match.  Some things don’t deserve your attention and outrage.  The things I list in this blog are items that I feel do deserve your outrage.

Occassionally I will have superfulous items but that is the way it should be.  Sometimes they will be super serious and may piss you off.  Either at the item, or at my point of view.  Tough, get over it.  Any easy simple world may be the reason we have become soft as a country.