In a rare display of sanity, the FDA has, for a third time denied Merck’s applications to sell Mevacor over the counter. They noted that “high cholesterol is a chronic condition lacking overt symptoms, unlike other health problems that are currently treated over the counter.”
Actually, there is usually a clear symptom: that sausage you’re shoving down your gullet. Knock it off and you won’t need to pay Merck for dangerous chemicals.
While looking up some things about cholesterol on Wikipedia I found someone complaining that “people have been frightened and badgered into eating a tedious and flavorless diet…” I think that person is tedious and flavorless. And, of course, clueless. My diet has had more flavor since I became vegan. I actually learned to cook, rather than toss a slab of dead animal onto my plate and call it done.
This passage is from a recent op-ed by David Brooks:
The high point of his campaign, so far, has been his energy policy, which is comprehensive and bold, but does not try to turn us into a nation of bicyclists. It does not view America’s energy-intense economy as a sign of sinfulness.
While I seriously doubt that any mainstream candidate intends to turn us into a “nation of bicyclists,” I have to ask… what’s wrong with that?
The leading causes of death in this country are, for the most part, caused by poor diets and lack of exercise, so bicycling would fix half of that problem. The leading cause of death for young people is automobiles, bicyclists wouldn’t pose the same threat to our kids. Recent studies have shown that particulates emitted by vehicles contribute to heart disease and strokes, bicycles don’t emit such particles. I fail to see any negatives there.
When I envision the city streets around me filled with bicycles instead of cars, I see nearly empty streets with happy people socializing with one another instead of being isolated inside several tons of steel. I see people living closer to their workplaces, grocery stores and schools. I see people talking to one another, building communities, rather than focusing their frustration and isolation on others in the form of road rage.
I will grant you that a bicyclist may arrive a bit sweaty, but installing shower rooms at workplaces is not beyond our technological know-how. I think humans have a fair grasp of indoor plumbing.
The only downside is that we have structured our lives around automobiles and virtually free energy, and that bicycling may be difficult for some of them. But this structure is doomed, and a forward thinking energy policy will face these hard facts and help these people and their communities rebuild.
But if I’m wrong about this and, after doing the work rebuild our landscapes to human scales, we discover endless supplies of cheap oil, the world will be a better, happier and healthier place. What if you’re wrong, Mr. Brooks?
Years ago I went to a bicycle legal clinic where I first heard cyclists called an “embattled minority”. Since that time I have ridden many thousands of miles in many cities and found it to be true in a variety of minor ways. One of them is parking. The condo complex where I live has such a policy. Let’s review… here’s what car drivers get:
Here’s what bicylists get:
I don’t know about you, but that looks like a second-class situation.
My wife, who is on the condo board, made an attempt to change this, but it became clear that residents here are neither willing to allow bikes to be parked on decks, nor give up a single uncovered parking space for a bike rack. What’s truly sad about this is that we live in a downtown area, and most necessities of life are within a mile or two. Most everyone here could use a bike for much of their transportation, but few will because they don’t want to have their bikes in their living room or undertake the effort (as I do) of shoving their bike into a small closet.
Yesterday morning there was a segment on NPR about “vat grown meat” and a few days earlier it was discussed on VeganFreak Podcast. Of course a vegan wouldn’t eat it, but why not?
Let’s review the three main reasons for being vegan: for the animals, for the environment and for your health.
The health argument seems obvious: whether the cells are grown in an animal or in a test tube, they are still animal cells, with all the well known health risks that go along with that. Of course, by carefully engineering the cells, it may be possible to reduce these harmful components, though it is unlikely that a profit-driven enterprise will do this. Furthermore, a number of chemicals will undoubtedly be involved in the production, and at least some of those will be in the end product.
The environmental issues are less clear. Reducing the number of factory farmed animals would certainly be good thing for the environment. But there are many unanswered questions about the production process, but they are the same questions asked of any industrial process: What sort of chemical inputs will be required? Where will they come from? How much energy will required? What sorts of chemical wastes will be generated? The process may be slightly better for the environment than animal agriculture, but it will always be far better to simply to eat plants.
What about the animals? Reducing the number of farmed animals would certainly reduce suffering. But the original animal cells have to come from somewhere, and even if these cells can be gathered painlessly, there would still be animals in captivity. But in the end, whether the meat comes from an animal or a vat, it still reinforces the idea that animals are simply property, a disposable resource, and not living, breathing members of our moral community.
Let’s think of the ethical issue in another way: What if a company was able to culture human cells to produce human “meat”. Would you eat that?
So wherever meat comes from, it is still harmful to our health, the environment and our ethics. And the sole reason we would do this is because we like the taste. That is the only reason. And that is never enough of a reason.
I spotted this on http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/grist/daily_grist/~3/285422414/index.html
“Imagine if one out of every three cows, or one out of every three chickens, were dying. That would raise a lot of alarm.”
Uh, no it wouldn’t, that happens every day. 10 billion animals are killed every year in the US alone… granted, that probably doesn’t represent the one out of three statistic, but it should “raise alarm.”
The other day I was watching an episode of Law & Order SVU. The perpetrator in this case was outwardly a clean-cut pillar-of-the-community, but behind that mask was a psychopathic killer (which is an apt metaphor for many corporate executives, but that’s a different rant). But one of the clues someone noticed was that he never referred to his wife or son by their names, it was always MY wife and MY son, and it was clear he meant those in the possessive sense.
This reminded me of something that has been lingering in the back of my mind for some time. Many years ago I knew someone who’s husband published a book which did not contain the verb “to be”, this was done for a specific reason which I forget and didn’t quite get at the time. But this got filed away in the back of my mind and years later it popped back up and I though that “to be” isn’t the problem, “my” is the problem, that is, “my” in the possessive sense. Ever since then, this idea has lingered in the back of my head and whenever I am about to use the word, I try to think of ways to avoid it, and do so when possible. But, as is so often the case with english, the word has two senses: possession and relationship, e.g. “my computer” versus “my uncle”. The latter is almost impossible to avoid. I know this is a weird thing to contemplate (let alone do), but language and culture go hand in hand, and one can influence the other. So maybe avoiding the words that imply we own other beings may help to get our culture to a place where such ideas are repugnant. Maybe wishful thinking, but it can’t hurt to try.
I’ve heard about this video going around, and No Impact Man points out that we are Forced to face the big questions.
His only mistake is saying “Don’t watch it if you are queasy”. If you eat meat you must watch it. You must be able to look at all parts of the production of your food and be prepared to not only watch but to participate. If you are not willing to hold that captive bolt gun and watch it slam into a cow’s head, if you are not willing to gut that chicken, if you are not willing to cut up that corpse, then you are a coward and a hypocrite. The vast majority of people in the developed world are happy to let others engage in this horrible, brutal (and dangerous) work so that they can pick up their meat, neatly wrapped in plastic, from their grocery store, and remain blissfully and willfully ignorant of the full reality of what goes on.
Speaking for myself, I grew up on a farm, I’ve worked in the fields and harvested the fruits and vegetables. I would be happy to do that for any of the food in my kitchen. I am a member of a CSA, I have visited the farm and I wouldn’t mind working in the fields. Can you say the same about what is in your kitchen? If not, maybe you should reconsider what you eat.
Now that I have completed my 41st orbit around the sun, I figured it was about time I got my act together and got a blog going. I have been waffling between wikis and blogs for some time. This site was a blog about 4 years ago, and recently I’ve been messing with wikis. Neither of them is the ideal solution for collecting and organizing the various ideas and things a person runs across. It seems to me that the wiki doesn’t work so well for random little thoughts and such, but the blog doesn’t do much for helping organize things. But, it’s been years since I last tried blogging, so we’ll see.
Anyway, this blog is simply a way to sort out and store my thoughts on subjects that interest me. Who knows, there’s a small chance there may be other people who think like me out there.
The Vegan Militia is a group of six-toed hillbillies who love animals in ways not permitted in 46 states… well, not really.
This blog is the ramblings of a recumbent bike riding leftist abolitionist vegan nerd and all-around weirdo. This blog is just a place to put my random thoughts, meditations and rants about things of interest to me. Whether anybody else finds them of interest remains to be seen.
My fossilized web pages can be seen at http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent
Here are some other places you can find me: