Pacific Free Press was launched in March 2007 by Dutch-Canadian Richard
Kastelein of V.O.F. Expathos, in the Netherlands along with Chris Cook- CFUV radio journalist and Editor in Chief of Pacific Free Press. Cook is based in , Victoria, British Columbia.
The site is a sister to Atlantic Free Press and Brick Ogden an American Expatriate in Amsterdam has been a key supporter of this project.
The mission of Pacific Free Press is simple: to dig out nuggets of truth from
the slag-heap of lies, ignorance and witless diversion that has buried
public discourse today. Pacific Free Press provides a new venue for
disseminating hard news and insightful, fact-based analysis of the
harsh realities too often ignored or distorted by the mainstream press.
Evidence in Plain Sight
by Mickey Z. There I was, walking along 30th Avenue in Astoria, NY. Just a few steps in front of me, two men and a little girl were strolling at a casual pace. The men, in their late 20s, were deep in conversation but one was clearly keeping on eye on the girl.
She was no more than five but, wow, she had "it." Precocious, confident, charming-you could see it all in a glance. As we all passed an Italian deli, Cool Kid looked to her left and then turned to one of the men.
"Dad," she said, giggling uncontrollably. "The sign on that store over there said 'We carry frozen snails'."
Before I had more than a millisecond to appreciate how easily and
quickly Cool Kid was able to read the sign while walking past, her dad
turned to her, and with comic timing that would make any
Vaudevillian drool, he replied:
"I bet their hands are cold." (insert
rimshot here)
And dig this: Cool Kid got her father's pun. She was
laughing her little head off the rest of the way down the block.
Slapstick
aside, the tragic realities of the standard American diet are
unavoidable yet often as invisible as a frozen snail. As I continued my
way down 30th Avenue, I saw a butcher standing in front of his
shop-chatting amiably with passersby... his white frock stained deep
red with blood.
Essentially nobody noticed the crimson splatter and
those that do, well, they won't even flinch.
Behind the butcher,
sheep carcasses hang from large hooks in the window...their bulging
lifeless eyes seemed to stare accusingly at the butcher's back. He
didn't appear to notice.
Essentially nobody noticed and those that do,
well, they won't even flinch.
The next block brought me in
contact with the fish store. Wet cardboard boxes filled with marine
corpses piled in front... the street smelled like death.
Beyond the
stench, essentially nobody noticed and those that do, well, they won't
even flinch.
Looking into the fish store window, I saw a tiny
aquarium tank. At least a dozen doomed lobsters were piled atop one
another...their claws taped.
Essentially nobody noticed and those that
do, well, they won't even flinch.
Do you know what happens when
a writer points all this out, refuses to participate, and urges others
to do the same? You can be sure plenty of folks will notice and, ladies
and gentlemen, the flinching will begin.
When asked what he'd
want people to believe, British biologist Richard Dawkins replied:
"I
would want them to believe whatever evidence leads them to; I would
want them to look at the evidence, judge it on its merits, not accept
things because of internal revelation or faith, but purely on the basis
of evidence."
But what happens when evidence is doled out on a need-to-know basis?
"We
act according to the way we experience the world," writes Derrick
Jensen in Thought to Exist in the Wild: Awakening from the Nightmare of
Zoos.
"We experience the world according to how we perceive it. We
perceive it the way we have been taught."
How we've been taught helps to cultivate our beliefs. Or should I say McBeliefs?
The
news about McDonald's "brainwashing" broke in Summer 2007. A study
showed that children prefer food-any food, in fact-that comes in a
McDonald's wrapper. Identical foods were served in name brand and
unmarked wrappers and the children were asked which tasted better. The
food adorned with the Golden Arches won every time. Even a hated veggie
like carrots tasted better to the kids when served in a McDonald's
wrapper.
"You see a McDonald's label and kids start salivating," said
childhood development specialist Diane Levin.
"Advertisers have
tried to do exactly what this study is talking about-to brand younger
and younger children, to instill in them an almost obsessional desire
for a particular brand-name product," said Dr. Victor Strasburger of
the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Dr. Tom Robinson, the study's
author, said the kids' taste perception was "physically altered by the
branding."
I'll bet even Cool Kids find it hard to resist the branding.
Writings 
There I was, walking along 30th Avenue in Astoria, NY. Just a few steps in front of me, two men and a little girl were strolling at a casual pace. The men, in their late 20s, were deep in conversation but one was clearly keeping on eye on the girl. 
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