Odracirys

If someone comes across my Google+ page or my blog and only views one of my posts, that person could determine from that post that I am a tree-hugging liberal, an über-nationalist, or a supporter of foreign dictatorial regimes, among other things.  The reason for this is that I call things as I see them.  80% of the time, I may support one group, but I may not support them that other 20% of the time when I think they're wrong.  I try to be as objective as possible.  My views sometimes confuse those around me, but the thing to remember is that I am consistent with what I believe to be the best position based on the evidence I have at hand, instead of merely latching on to one group and mindlessly accepting every position they advocate. You may remember my recent posts, " Propaganda in the West " and " More Propaganda in the West ".  Those were both about how the United States is messing things up and actively trying to create enemies out of nations that ar...

In case you missed my first installment of "Propaganda in the West", here is a link: http://odracirys.blogspot.com/2014/06/propaganda-in-west.html If you read that, you will notice that I'm not saying that the West has the most propaganda.  Far from it.  However, it does exist and I often notice it.  Therefore, I like to call it out once in a while. This installment focuses on the article, "Pentagon cites 'dangerous' Chinese jet intercept". ( http://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-cites-dangerous-chinese-jet-intercept-165354051--politics.html ) This was a news story about China, and even before I read it, I knew that it was going to be an American overreaction to something either trivial, or something that would have been called a Chinese provocation if the tables were turned.  The US media loves making China into the bad guy, no matter what the truth of the matter is.  Sometimes, China is the bad guy and deserves the criticism it gets.  However, that do...

My previous post on Google+ contained the video "If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls".  Below is a link to that post, and below that is a link straight to the YouTube video. My Post:  https://plus.google.com/u/0/100881434227795038077/posts/a3uEEBomwDE YouTube Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2UMp9fsAJo The post outdid all of my expectations and became by far my most viewed post on Google+ up to this point.  I am extremely happy about that, because it is a post about the most important issue for me, which is animal rights.  Below are some statistics as of the time I am posting this on August 22nd. +1s:  1178 Reshares: 304 I sincerely thank everyone who +1ed and/or shared my post!  It really shows the power of a post.  I am sure that on top of those who +1ed it, there were other people who saw it and didn't do anything, either because they didn't like the idea of showing that they "liked" such a violent video, or for oth...

  What a horrible tragedy!  You probably know by now that a passenger jet full of approximately 300 passengers was shot down over eastern Ukraine.  Although this article states that non-state actors don't usually have access to missiles that can go up past 10,000 feet, I wouldn't be surprised if Russia gave rebels in Ukraine some advanced weaponry.  (If it is true that this was shot down by a military, then that is completely outrageous.) If Russian-backed rebels are the culprit, then this is one more reason why rebels should never be supported by any side in (nearly) any conflict.  Rebels are not like states.  Rebels can do as they please without the consequences that would befall a national government.  This goes for almost all rebels everywhere.  Of course, Russia is trying to dictate what Ukraine can and can't do.  On the other hand, the United States is supporting rebels in Syria because Russia has its only Mediterranean military port...

You all know Cecil Rhodes, right?  He was a British Imperialist (living from 1853-1902) who founded the De Beers diamond mining and trading company.  Just this morning, I came upon a post comparing him to Adolf Hitler, and claiming that Cecil Rhodes killed at least 60 million Africans.  It has been shared 99 times.  Here is the post: https://plus.google.com/+TonyJefferson/posts/CZ6HW3AxDo6 Unlike many, I decided to do some research on it.  That is my nature.  I don't accept things without evidence given, and even when no evidence is provided, I search for evidence.  If after looking, no evidence is forthcoming, then I discount the claim unless compelling evidence does surface.  After my research on this topic (taking up about an hour of my day and 28 open tabs on my browser...but still an enjoyable time because this is what I like to do), I found that my initial skepticism was well justified and that this comparison is incorrect.  Adolph H...

We take it for granted that the media can't be trusted in countries which are not "free".  However, there is no doubt that what we read in so-called "free" countries is also heavily biased, and has an agenda.  I'm not just talking about the most blatant sources such as Fox News.  I'm talking about nearly everything. Each news outlet has an agenda.  They pick sides.  It is often great to pick sides.  For example, supporting the fact that humans are changing the earth's climate is what news outlets should be doing because all of the evidence points to that.  When problems arise is when news outlets pick a side and then go with it, no matter the countervailing evidence.  Some of it might be related to pleasing the "free" governments that look over them, and some of it might be due to one of the most destructive beliefs ever - that good always battles bad (and thus, "bad" and "bad" or "bad" and "worse"...

According to the recent referendum, 95.5% of Crimean voters chose to leave Ukraine and join Russia. [1]  Upon learning of such a high percentage, two thoughts passed through my mind...that this vote was unfair and also that even if it were fair, the choice to join Russia would have probably still gotten a majority. The demographics of Crimea are as follows: [2] 58.32% Russians 24.32% Ukrainians 12.10% Crimean Tatars Elsewhere, I've seen that 77% of Crimeans speak Russian, and I'm not sure if this conflicts with the previous demographics or if many ethnic Ukranians and Tatars speak Russian.  Here is a map of the native languages of Ukraine, showing clearly the Russian majority in Crimea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UkraineNativeLanguagesCensus2001detailed-en.png At any rate, Russians make up a majority, but not such an overwhelming majority.  Even with groups abstaining from voting, the results seem skewed. But assuming a fair election with nobody abstai...