Veggie Nuggets

I think I mentioned a long time ago that I once posted long ramblings on my Fantasy Sports message boards...only to see all my nonsensical effort disappear year after year. At least it gets "saved" here on the ol' blog. So I am now transferring a current discussion on a vegetarian/vegan diet...Not saying you should care, but I at least want to save it here. Names have been changed to protect the innocent...

It started with my version of a eulogy for George Carlin...an excerpt from his book Brain Droppings on animals. You can read it here...
http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Saints/Authors/Essays/GCarlin.htm

[Luigi] wrote:
meat is good

My response:
Condomless sex with an HIV-positive prostitute might feel good, too...
but it is probably a bad idea.

Ahhh, yes. Another fine example of human fearlessness to long-term risk...
versus the fear of immediate risk.
(Covered well in the book "Freakonomics")

Like [Princess Toadstool] once posted, we are all a bunch of guinea pigs. (Unless you choose not to be.)

For the first time in history, humans are consuming a different kind of agriculture, and we have yet to witness the long-term impact.
(Although "agri-business" and the healthcare industry are probably well-aware, and are salivating over our sick, consuming bodies while they [romantically love each other])

Heart disease and cancer are the 1 and 2 killers in America.

So I stand firm is believing that meat is "not good" when I can eliminate all stomach-ingested threat.
(Meat is carcinogenic, or at least when it is over-consumed and vegetables are under-consumed...and I don't have to cite anything when there are dozens of books on the topic. Google works, too.)

And the whole, "You can't live forever, so enjoy life! [Screw] it!" argument is for [dummies] looking for some macho excuse for their bad habits. They're the same ones that would kill somebody to drink from the Cup Of Life.

Choose.....wisely.
(that was clever, wasn't it?)

[Luigi] wrote:
meat is good

[Mario] wrote:
I'm with [Luigi] in that I love meat. Hamburgers, steaks, hotdogs and bacon. Do I know they're loaded chalk full of hormones and preservatives. Yes. Do I care? Yes, somewhat but I love me some meat.

Wes, lets not forget that you too were a carnivore up until what, 2 years ago? I know this whole meat thing was a simple excerpt from the late, great George Carlin but you catch my drift.

Me and [Luigi] will be eating steaks until the day we die at the age of 45. :)

My response:
So if you ever ate meat you can't promote a vegetarian diet?

I don't think vegetarians worry about who has been doing it the longest. That is beside the point. Whether it was last week or 20 years ago, it's all the same. People have different journeys to reach that decision. From everything I have read, I take that most vegetarians get that way from an evolutionary process...like we did. No one just wakes up one day and stops eating meat.

Most vegetarians have experienced the joys of a filet mignon or July 4th hamburgers and hot dogs. So I think it lends =more= credence to one's argument. I never said hamburgers are now icky and gross because they are meat. I know what a hamburger tastes like, they are delicious. But a cost-benefit analysis forces me to not eat it.

After all, you can't be a vegetarian from birth unless your own parents share those values. So then it is just when it first confronts you. Whether it be peers, location, a book, part of your learned or genetic personality, etc.

And I don't say this stuff to get people to be vegetarian (it is stupid that it even needs a label, I just don't eat or use animal products, nuff said). I side with Carlin in that people need to chill out. I don't think people that eat or use animal products care to seek out information on the effect of such rampant consumption. Environmental, economical, dietary, which all tie into theology reasons. So it goes well beyond your own innards.

How can you not care that the food you eat has hormones, preservatives, pesticides, and other unnatural chemicals you cannot pronounce? Fact of the matter is, you have a choice. You can eat meat that doesn't have hormones or preservatives, so why wouldn't you? It is right next to the "conventional" stuff in the cooler. Why would you buy genetically engineered produce grown with pesticides? Most people think organic vegetables are much more expensive. Fact of the matter is, about half of it costs the same...and most of the rest is less than $1.00 more. And lets all agree that we spend much more money on much less important things.

Let's say you stick with the meat with hormones, chalk it up as a loss. That's fine, and we will move on. It tastes good. But what else is in the pantry? How much food do we consume that comes in boxes and bags, and how long is the ingredient list? So you can be OK with the meat, but the problem is that almost everything you consume has the same shit. That adds up over a lifetime, eating every day, 365 days a year, for 60 years.

I think everyone should expose themselves to the way the food business operates in the 21st century (via book, internet, documentaries)...instead of poo-pooing vegetarians and people that buy normal, organic foods as elitist wackos...just know your information and make educated decisions. It can be the same decision you have always made, just make it educated.
The uninformed, turn-your-head-the-other-way mentality is what got George Bush elected "twice".
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So that is all for now.

In case you couldn't gather it from my other blog entries, Julie and I are vegetarians. I don't think I have ever posted anything about it. For a blog being like a personal journal, that is sort of strange. I might post more personal insights on the subject later...since I never have before.