Women’s March

Tom Toles Editorial Cartoon

Human Rights Records: Let’s Compare

The Unbridled Powers of Cartoonists

DailyKos

Argentina court grants human rights to Orangutan…

An amazing court decision by a high-level Argentine criminal appeals court has granted an ape named Sandra from the Buenos Aires Zoo the same basic rights as humans.  This is the first time any animal has been considered as anything other than property in the eyes of the law.

In Argentina, at least, Sandra now has the right to life, liberty and freedom from harm. “The ruling was historic because before a nonhuman primate like Sandra was considered an object and therefore there was no dispute about its captivity, says Andrés Gil Dominguez  of the Association of Professional Lawyers for Animal Rights in Argentina, which filed a habeas corpus petition for Sandra, asserting that she had been unjustifably denied her freedom.”

Having been born in captivity over 20 years ago, it is unlikely that Sandra will ever be able to live in the wild, but she will probably be set free in an animal sanctuary after a lengthy training period.  This ruling will initially affect both Orangutan and chimpanzee apes in zoos and laboratories in Argentina.  It’s expected that this decision will eventually spread to the rest of the world.  How many species of animals that this ruling might free is unknown but probably staggering.

The groundswell of support for freeing animals grows out of 40 years of primate research. “Studies such as those by Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall and other scientists helped to position the great apes as people,” [primatologist Aldo Giúdice of the University of Buenos Aires] says. “Seeing them in zoos today recalls human exhibits from other regions of the world in the World’s Fairs in Paris in the 19th century.”

“Scientific research,” he adds, “has shown that they are sentient beings with reason, self-consciousness and individuality. We cannot be accomplices and let them suffer in prison.”

And about time too.  Now if Jane Goodall will only meet with baby bear, I think we can get bears included in that group as well…

Sources: Scientific American, UPI

GOP Selfie

Does anyone get the impression that the Republican Party is aging itself out?  They seem to be stuck in the 1950’s, or before, while the younger people in this country are becoming more and more accepting of such things as gay marriage and marijuana legalization.

Unfortunately, we still must be ever-vigilant.  The right-wing types still have a strangle-hold on the GOP, the Democrats have moved way too far right of center, themselves, and given the age of our elected representatives, the continuing gerrymandering of Congressional districts, and the dependence of politicians on huge amounts of corporate money (and let’s face it, corporations are by their very nature conservative and opposed to workers’ rights), the current situation will not change immediately.  Keep on fighting, voting, and supporting the causes you believe in, people!

Crimea and……Which Excuse?

 

We hardly have much moral standing to object to this, do we?  Sadly.

Conversation on Race

Truthdig.

We will not stop having this conversation anytime soon.  I would have hoped that we would be beyond this by now, but as the Trayvon Martin case, and others, show, we are not anywhere near that yet.

I just wish that people could accept others as just people, not seeing them and categorizing them as a whole race, ethnic group, sexual orientation, gender, or what have you.

It’s a man’s world — unfortunately…

If you can vote on them, I guess they’re not really “rights”…

Source: Daily Kos

Peace and goodwill for EVERYone…

Source: Cagle Toons