Primate Wars at KU Med: Anatomy of an Intense Grass Roots Campaign by Jason Miller

by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner
Sept. 28, 2010

At the request of Anthony Nocella II, I have composed a summary of Bite Club’s campaign to stop primate vivisection at the University of Kansas Medical Center. This summary will also appear on Lib Now!

In late 2009, I became aware that the University of Kansas Medical Center (aka KU Med or KUMC) had a primate vivisection program. While the census of their “test subjects” (primarily macaques and squirrel monkeys according to information available through the USDA and KU Med’s website) is relatively small compared to other vivisection facilities, what cried out for Animal Rights activist intervention was the fact that they had been cited by the USDA for 160 violations of animal welfare laws, a staggering number.

Responding to the call of conscience… Jennifer Bowman interviews Jason Miller

by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner August 26, 2010
Sept. 2, 2010

Jennifer Bowman: So let’s cut right to the chase. In some of your recent writings, you’ve indicated that you’re dealing with some serious challenges in your life right now. What are they?

Jason Miller: Aside from the systemic backlash resulting from my vigorous activism, I’m dealing with a number of serious personal issues. Some of these were self-inflicted and some weren’t. Either way, I need to deal with them.

I was so absorbed in my activism for about a year that I let certain aspects of my life get away from me, in a manner of speaking. As many of you may have already read, I’m a recovering alcoholic (since 1992—hence my straightedge beliefs). However, I got away from some of my spiritual and intellectual efforts to manage my passion and set aside working the Twelve Steps, which tends to land me into trouble. Fortunately, I’m back on the path I need to follow, which still includes veganism of course, and have turned to the painful task of cleaning up my messes.

Because we must… for their sake by Jason Miller

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by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner June 26, 2010
June 28, 2010

Banging out this essay on my laptop as Delta Airlines ferries me from Kansas City to Portland, I’m once again preparing to table for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office at the Let Live Conference. It was about this time last year that I attended this same conference and met fellow press officers Jerry Vlasak and Camille Hankins for the first time. I also attended several demonstrations with some local Portland activists (for whom I have a great deal of admiration) and listened to several inspirational talks by powerful activists.

“What are you going to do about it?” by Jason Miller

by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner
June 12, 2010

Two weeks ago, as I was figuratively staggering through the worst existential pummeling I’ve endured since my self-imposed sentence to Dante’s Inferno in the early 90’s, I had a profound (recovering) alcoholic’s moment of clarity.

Spiritual determination finds ways to overcome obstacles and adversity by Jason Miller

by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner
June 1, 2010

MLK embodied the immense power that spirituality brings to a social justice movement….

Preface: While I recognize that there are many atheists in the Animal Rights Movement who adhere to veganism, and that people of many different religions and philosophies advocate and fight for nonhuman animals, my personal spirituality is the backbone of my veganism and my activism. I want to make it clear that I’m not questioning the commitment of vegans or activists who aren’t spiritual and I also want to clarify that I am not a theologian. I merely want to use this essay as a vehicle to comment on the nature of my spirituality and to express the immensity of the strength it provides me.

The illness that twists and perverts the psyches of billions of people… by Jason Miller

by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner
May 21, 2010

At long last, the mental health community has identified, analyzed, and classified the illness that twists and perverts the psyches of billions of people, resulting in intense suffering and death for over 70 billion nonhuman animals each year. Look for it in the DSM-V, which is expected to be released in 2013.

And thankfully, there is a cure. It’s called veganism.

Anti-Animal Personality Disorder

Diagnostic Features:

While I walked away with my freedom, the primates at KUMC remain imprisoned… by Jason Miller

by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner
Apr 9, 2010

Devin Listrom, Kyle XVX, Judy Junior, and Jason Miller in a Bite Club protest against vivisection at KUMC….

Meat-eating, racist, homophobic, capitalist-loving white men can openly tote guns and threaten violence if the government dares to spend tax money on “Socialist” health care reforms (ironically, the same angry white men are fine with hundreds of billions of dollars more of our money going to our murderous, imperialist military industrial complex).

And yet an unarmed, calm and rational-acting Animal Rights activist faces police harassment and the threat of arrest for disseminating provocative (yet legal) fliers that promote an end to cruel, barbaric, and torturous experiments on primates by a public university using our tax money.

Victims of US state repression: Of Oppressed Souls, Political Prisoners, and Nonviolent Offenders… by Jason Miller

by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner
Apr 2, 2010

The SHAC 7 are 6 activists and a corporation, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA Inc., found guilty of multiple federal felonies for their alleged role in campaigning to close down the notorious animal testing lab, Huntingdon Life Sciences. They were not accused of actually smashing windows, liberating animals or even attending demonstrations, rather reporting on and encouraging others to engage in legal demonstrations and supporting the ideology of direct action.

Why not join us, your natural allies? by Jason Miller

by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner
March 25, 2010

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“Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.” —Sun Tzu

Most of the so-called “progressives” (like the impotent keyboard warriors at Daily Kos and the myriad other smug and self-satisfied “liberal” blogs littering the Internet landscape) don’t even know themselves, let alone knowing their enemies. They are oblivious to the fact that they are centrists on the political spectrum in a nation teeming with seething social conservatives–patriarchal, “Christian” (read institutionalized hijackers and subverters of Christ’s messages of love and compassion), racist (whether it be overt or covert), speciesist, homophobic caricatures of human beings who sold their souls for God, country, and the almighty DOLLAR and who are pissed off at the wrong people for the wrong reasons.

We’ve become our own predators…. by Jason Miller

by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner
September 9, 2009

“As we devour them to satiate our appetite for power and wealth, we devour ourselves, making for a bizarre act of self-cannibalization.”

Our dominant culture, in which I fully admit to participating (despite my significant efforts to minimize my involvement) is wreaking havoc on this “pale blue dot” we call Earth. Climate change, scarce and tainted water, devastating levels of toxins in the environment, rampant consumerism that generates truckloads of fetid refuse per second, massive deforestation, and the Sixth Extinction[1] implicate humanity, and our socioeconomic/cultural construct we euphemistically call “civilization,” as nothing short of the living embodiment of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Our species, by virtue of our chosen ways of interfacing with the world, personifies Death, Famine, War, and Pestilence. Despite our numerous worthwhile attributes and accomplishments, humanity specializes in slaughter, mayhem, abject cruelty, genocide, ecocide, and all manner of destruction.

In the face of unspeakable evil, is it even possible for me to go too far? by Jason Miller

by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner
July 27, 2009

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated, allied, aligned, or connected with the Transformative Studies Institute, the Institute for Critical Animal Studies, Anthony Nocella II, or Richard Kahn. While I am a press officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office and am an associate of Jerry Vlasak and Steve Best, I am penning this piece independently of NAALPO and all of my allies. This essay is philosophical in nature and is not intended to incite or encourage illegal or violent acts.

Immersion in an emotionally intense experience impacts the human psyche in a poignant and profound way. Marginalized as we are by the war my fellow activists and I are waging against the dominant culture, it’s an elating and uplifting experience to meet and engage those fellow activists, comrades, and allies. My six days of nearly constant interaction with similar-minded individuals and the chanting, shouting, and raging at primate torturers and their enablers at the nexus of the UCLA vivisection wars in a raucous, vociferous, militant demonstration served both as a cathartic outlet and a source of potent spiritual and intellectual inspiration.

Fuck Compassion: We whack ’em and stack ’em! by Jason Miller

Warning

Graphic photos depicting the reality and horror of war on animals/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner
June 21, 2009

Despite pleas to save the animals, Johnson County officials will employ sharpshooters and bow hunters to solve the problem of too many deer in Shawnee Mission Park.

–The Kansas City Star, June 17, 2009

Daniel Whitesel says he is forced to traverse a “literal minefield of deer poop” when he plays golf nearby.

He can watch from his home office as whitetail deer devastate his flowers and shrubs. “They walk down the street like taxpayers,” he said.

–The Kansas City Star, February 5, 2009

They’ve opted for the “whack ’em and stack ’em” approach, to quote that great conservationist Ted Nugent.

–Mike Hendricks, columnist for The Kansas City Star, June 11, 2009

Johnson Co. To Cull Park’s Deer Herd: Sharpshooters, Bow Hunters To Reduce Deer Population In Shawnee Mission Park

LENEXA, Kan. — Johnson County officials have approved an answer to the deer dilemma in Shawnee Mission Park.

The county will hire sharpshooters and bow hunters to take care of the population problem.

After a hearing Wednesday that drew more than 100 people, the board voted to use hunters to reduce the park herd from about 200 deer per square mile to 50.

–Kansas City News, KCTV 5, June 18, 2009

My letter to the Johnson County Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners dated 5/25/09:

All,

As a home/vehicle-owning (hence tax-paying) resident of Johnson County and as a relentless activist for nonhuman animals, I am writing to express my strong objection to the use of any lethal methods to manage the deer population in Shawnee Mission Park. I am a vegan animal liberationist, so I am ardently opposed to humans exploiting, torturing or intentionally killing other animals.

Heresy of the First Order: We are the “Third Chimpanzees” by Jason Miller

by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner
June 3, 2009

Image: Bleeding Earth by =Psy-XX

“On this dot, tiny lumps of impure carbon and water, of complicated structure, with somewhat unusual physical and chemical properties, crawl about for a few years, until they are dissolved again into the elements of which they are compounded.”

–Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) from “Dreams and Facts”

Russell’s nihilistic characterization of Homo sapiens injects some much-needed perspective into a world in which our species of intellectually evolved primates suffers a collective delusion of grandeur. In “Dreams and Facts,” Russell further savages our God-complex with the powerfully humbling reminder that our solar system is but “an infinitesimal speck” and the Earth a mere “microscopic dot.” He does apply some soothing salve to our wounded egos with the observation that, “No man can achieve the greatness of which he is capable until he has allowed himself to see his own littleness,” but his decimation of our grossly-overinflated sense of importance remains intact.

While I don’t suffer from deep-seated self-hatred and I’m not an alienated misanthrope who has isolated himself from the rest of humanity, I’m penning this brief jeremiad as a deconstruction of our species. And I’m not going to dilute my critique by extolling the real and imagined virtues of Homo sapiens. Pollyanna has fled the building. If you are too deeply immersed in our culture of narcissism to take a moment to gaze upon a collective image of humanity far more hideous and repulsive than Dorian Gray, stop reading and sprint for the television. You might get lucky and catch Paris Hilton’s latest escapade.

So who are the terrorists here? by Jason Miller

by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner
May 31, 2009

Julie Leyva recently submitted some questions to the North American Animal Liberation Press Office. Jason Miller wrote the reply.

What is your occupation and for how long?

There are four of us serving as press officers for NAALPO:

Jerry Vlasak is a board certified trauma surgeon, a former vivisector, and a seasoned animal liberation activist who speaks, writes and debates on behalf of nonhuman animals. Jerry co-founded NAALPO and has been a board member of Sea Shepherd and the spokesman for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

Camille Hankins has over 20 years of corporate marketing and management experience; co-founded Win Animal Rights (WAR), a group dedicated to shutting down Huntingdon Life Sciences, in 2004; founded the New York Animal Liberation Front Supporters in 2003; and is heavily involved in outreach to educate the public about the underground animal liberation movement.

Lin Bingham works as a writer and graphic designer. He is a vehement advocate of total liberation, including humans, nonhuman animals and the Earth. He specializes in “propaganda and agitation” and is willing and available to speak anytime one or more persons are willing to listen.

Jason Miller started with NAALPO about two months ago and is the newest press officer. I have worked as a supervisor in a call center for nine years where I’ve cultivated respectable problem-solving, conflict resolution, and communication skills. An ardent and seasoned animal liberation activist, I also founded the notoriously radical blog, Thomas Paine’s Corner, in 2004. TPC has become a popular site for activists to go for education and inspiration and to interact via comment threads. Like Lin, I too am a writer who specializes in “propaganda and agitation.”

He no longer heard the cries of the animals or saw the flowing blood…. by Jason Miller

Warning

These pictures may contain images depicting the reality and horror of violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

by Jason Miller
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Thomas Paine’s Corner
May 09, 2009

[Author’s Note: I’m dedicating this piece to the courageous animal defenders and rescuers comprising the ALF, the Justice Department, the Animal Liberation Brigade, and the other militant direct action groups who are taking the fight to vivisectors and the rest of their ilk comprising the animal exploitation complex. Given the relentless nature of the systemic torment and slaughter of millions of other sentient beings that take place day after day, violent responses from nonhuman animal lovers are inevitable and are a morally acceptable means of extensional self-defense on behalf of the voiceless, defenseless victims. As my close colleague, Dr. Jerry Vlasak, surmised—and I back him 100% on this—the assassination of a vivisector or two would probably save millions of nonhuman animal lives. And given the escalating situation at UCLA, who knows what may happen?

Employing myriad tactics and strategies, those of us pursuing empty cages will prevail, and, as another steadfast ally of mine, Dr. Steve Best, stated in a speech he gave at Oxford in 2005, “wipe vivisection off the map.” I yearn for that day.]

“The physiologist is not a man of the world, he is a scientist, a man caught and absorbed by a scientific idea that he pursues; he no longer hears the cries of the animals, no longer sees the flowing blood; he sees only his idea: organisms that hide from him problems that he wants to discover. He doesn’t feel that he is in a horrible carnage; under the influence of a scientific idea, he pursues with delight a nervous filament inside stinking and livid flesh that for any other person would be an object of disgust and horror.”

–Claude Bernard