The Sierra Club Sold Out to Clorox

The first time I heard about the Green Works cleaning product line from Clorox was on TreeHugger, and attention was drawn to two factors, both of which comprised the 1% of Green Works that wasn't natural.

The preservative agent used, "Kathon," is made by Rohm & Haas. On their main product page, they show that they have tested on rats. On another product page, Rohm & Haas shows that they tested on female and male rabbits. These product pages also list side effects as well as possible long term impact in the water.

Now either this information was not made available to either Clorox or The Sierra Club, or there's some kind of Jedi Mind Trick being pulled here. Maybe Clorox does not use animal testing (or more specifically maybe Green Works doesn't use animal testing), but at least one of the companies that supply ingredients to Clorox does, so guess what? Green Works tests on animals.

Now let's take a look at the coloring, shall we? I suppose that Clorox feels that it's less important that a cleaning product does its job well, but that it smells nice and looks like a urine sample from The Incredible Hulk. Yeah, that makes sense. The manufacturer's website wasn't easy to find on a Dogpile search. What was easy to find was a lot of websites & news stories drawing attention to these colorants in Green Works. Milliken Chemical does not readily list their product information for their Liquitint line of dyes on their website, so it would be grossly unfair to them to assume that these dyes are either tested on animals or have dangerous side effects. However if they are evasive about providing this information or if they do not make it available at all, then serious issues are not being addressed, and we have the right to ask WHY.

Clorox and The Sierra Club have NOT acted in the interest of full disclosure and transparency. I can understand the reasoning behind The Sierra Club selling their support (after all, The Sierra Club was compensated for their endorsement) to Clorox. You want to have as much of an impact in fighting for the environment as possible. That's commendable. The question is which fighter do you support - the one most likely to win (who uses questionable ethics & tactics) or the smaller, lesser-known fighter who stays true to their beliefs and never wavers? We can focus on how much of a pain in the ass it is to spend significantly more money on organic, free trade, and vegan choices as opposed to conventional, plentiful, and cheaper choices. We can assuage any moral dilemmas with reasoning like The Sierra Club had in defense of their endorsement for Green Works. This really isn't so bad because Clorox has a huge market share and The Sierra Club can reach a broader audience with them than endorsing Seventh Generation, Method, or my personal favorite, Dr. Bronner's.

Or you can stop the nonsense altogether and fight for the future.

Yay! Another Reason to Hate Yoko Ono!

Sweet googly moogly, what the blessed fuck is going on with Yoko Ono?  It's not bad enough that this bitch of questionable talent is riding her dead husband's name (cough - Courtney Love- cough), and it's not bad enough that she's tea bagging of the memory of the Beatles with Cirque du Soleil Vegas glitter, but this bitch has to rape the environment as well.

Oh whoopee.  

I usually go to TreeHugger to see how I can help the environment, things to avoid, and products to support for their good karma.  They posted this wonderful reason (source: ContactMusic) to bitch slap Yoko so hard, she'll think she got fisted by Godzilla.  I guess giving peace and love a chance is cool with this dried up goat as long as she gets to rape the environment in her Bentley Armitage.  

Someone please dip this bitch in caustic lye, dump her in a compost pile, and take a shit on her.  Believe you me, I'm all for good karma, but for the way she's shitting on John Lennon AND her inability to understand that we must do what we can to save the planet, I hope Yoko Ono's last memory is trying to scrape the dough for meth.

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

I have a handful of things to work through for my next couple of posts, but I thought I'd stop for a moment to give y'all an idea of some of the things on my Mental Etch-a-Sketch.

Garth Ennis
He has been responsible for writing some of the best stories in comic books with a powerful run in Marvel Comics' brutal anti-hero, The Punisher. The "Welcome Back, Frank" storyline is credited with revitalizing The Punisher for Marvel as well as being the basis for "The Punisher" movie (the one that didn't suck). He's also responsible for some of DC Comics' brightest achievements through their Vertigo imprint. It would be insanely difficult to isolate one particular storyline in his run in DC Comics' John Constantine: Hellblazer. You could start out at the beginning with "Original Sins", but my favorite was "Dangerous Habits". "Dangerous Habits" reads like a well-executed and supremely funny dirty joke. What convinced me that Garth Ennis is not only one of the best comic book wrtiers, but one of the best writers I have ever read was "Preacher," co-created with long time collaborator, artist Steve Dillon. All I'm gonna say is that "Preacher" is about Jesse Custer, a Preacher possessed with an unholy spirit of unimaginable power. He's on a mission to find God - and make him answer for what Jesse has learned. "Preacher" is a phenomenal achievement in storytelling. I cannot say enough about this. Go to your nearest comic book shop and get the 9 softcover graphic novel collections and the hardcover collection of cover art. DO IT NOW. You'll thank me for it.

DrunkCyclist
I love this site. You don't have to be a cyclist or a bicycle enthusiast to understand that DrunkCyclist is about more than the Tour de France, chamois pads, and helmets. While DrunkCyclist is centered on anything related to cycling, there's a huge emphasis on domestic and international politics as well as on environmental affairs. Plus, DrunkCyclist has a great, brash sense of humor.

TreeHugger
I try to reduce the environmental impact of my life as much as possible as well as helping others with charities I strongly believe in. I thought that what I was doing was enough, and while it may not ever be enough, we all have to try. TreeHugger covers a wide variety of topics that affect us in some way or another. This is probably one of the most important websites you will ever visit.

UFCMania
MMA is changing and growing into one of the most visible sports. Hell, even the Oxygen Network is cashing in with their "Fight Girls" reality show focusing on female Muay Thai boxers (and yes, I know Muay Thai is not MMA, but just a part of it). While there are plenty of websites to get your MMA news fix from, most are happy to post speculation and rumor alongside bona fide news and their comment sections are littered with sub-juvenile users who feel it incumbent upon themselves to rant inanely about how they could kick Ken Shamrock's ass or similar bullshit. UFCMania focuses on the UFC (duh), and their reporting has been even, fair, and their site is updated frequently. On Fridays, they post fan-made videos that show off a great amount of editing skill.