Petty Piper's blog

Everyone knows the Tragedy of the Commons, right? (If you don't, click http://www.bunnygame.org/ to play a game demonstrating the concept. And even if you do know the concept, play it anyway. It's cute.)

Well, it would appear that our old friend Garett Hardin may not have been so correct about individual owners protecting and preserving their privatized land. At least, this much can be said for Brazil. The Amazon in Brazil is being deforested at a ludacris rate. According to mongabay.com, between '03 and '04 "...26,000 square kilometers of forest - an area larger than Israel and since 1978, over 530,000 square kilometers of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed"  Read More »

The following is a paper I wrote for my International Relations class, focusing on the contradictions and common grounds of democracy and Islam, using the cases of Turkey, Egypt and Palestine as examples.

Islam and democracy appear, at first glance, to contain inherent contradictions, both in morals and in modern practice. Islam is a religion that emphasizes conformity to one's community and, in the recent past, has come into violent conflict with democratic proceedings. Still, there may be hope for a combination of the two ideals. Tolerance and acceptance, on both the behalves of Islam and Democracy, has proven almost successful in the case of Turkey, and remains to be seen in Palestinian elections. So it can be said, perhaps, that Islam and democracy are compatible with the proper amount of comprimise.  Read More »

...and for some folk, the correlation between limbs and obesity is even closer.

In an article from about.com, I recieved the following information:

"Almost half the people would give up a year of life, rather than be fat. In the study, between 15% to 30% respondents also said they would rather walk away from their marriage, give up ever having children, be depressed, or become an alcoholic rather than be obese.

Five percent said they would rather lose a limb and four pecent would rather be blind than be overweight."  Read More »

Thank you, Condy.

Rewind. Play.

"The Palestinian leadership has every obligation to get control of this."

Or what.

We'll bomb them? Like we did Iraq?

American arrogance can be so painful sometimes. There are clashing factions in Palestine, people on the corner with guns, and things are tense. Some might say that politically Palestine is at the brink of a civil war. But, y'know, it's just that easy to "get control of" as Ms. Rice so eloquently put it. Just flip a switch, and suddenly your government isn't halfway in the hands of an ex-terrorist organization.  Read More »

Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott gathered together at Seneca Falls NY in the year 1848, along with 300 other people, and signed what is now known as the beginning of the femminist fight: the Seneca Falls Declaration of Women's Rights. When it was first signed, all issues mentioned were serious and applicable. But now, many of the goals that these women (and men) strived for have been achieved. I've taken a few and noted on progress.  Read More »

Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott gathered together at Seneca Falls NY in the year 1848, along with 300 other people, and signed what is now known as the beginning of the femminist fight: the Seneca Falls Declaration of Women's Rights. When it was first signed, all issues mentioned were serious and applicable. But now, many of the goals that these women (and men) strived for have been achieved. I've taken a few and noted on progress.  Read More »

This post goes under "better future" as a relevant progressive principle because I have a fantasy of the future. I hope that maybe, one day, textbooks will go down in price.

Woah, hold it there, that's some mighty racy dream you've got, Piper!

Yeah, I know, CRAZY as it may sound, I think that maybe the price of textbooks should, y'know, be lowered? Just a little? So that we starving students can, y'know, do that thing...what's it called...gosh, I can hardly remember, it's been so long since I last...oh yeah! Buy food.  Read More »