10 Reasons to Hate Veg*ans

It's continually amazing to me how intense are the feelings of meat eaters when they become aware they've come into contact with a veg*an (vegetarian/vegan). Rarely do they ask pertinent questions: "Why did you decide to abstain from animal products?"; "Have you found your diet/lifestyle to be beneficial?"; even, "How are you doing with your decision?"

Instead, they either step back, aghast and fearful of infection with the disease, or they attack: "What're you some kind of hippy nutcase?"; "There's nothing in the Bible that says eating meat is a sin - IN FACT! God tells us to eat meat!"; and the fake caring, "Oh dear! How do you get your protein? Aren't you afraid you'll get sick?" (Like they go around counting how many grams of protein, etc. they eat!)

So many of them wind up getting all confused and tangled up in their false claims and fears, it's rather sad to watch them. Therefore, I thought I'd help our my carcass-eating friends with a list of good, solid reasons to hate veg*ans:

1. Them durn veg*uns are always tellin me how meat and good stuff will hurt me! How dare they stick their ol noses in my business? If I want to ruin my and my kids' health, that's my own business! I can push any dangerous substance on my kids I want to, like hamburgers, hot dogs, cigarettes, beer, meth, milk, sodie pops. They're my kids!
2. Looking smug while sitting there all skinny and healthy and all! If I want a 52 inch waist line, I'll durn sure have one! I don't need your ol pink cheeks grinnin at me when I try to get up from my chair.
3. They don't hold up their end on supporting the healthcare industry. Why is it, me and my kids have to be sure the doctors and hospitals and clinics stay in business? Stoopid veg*ans don't have to go to them near as much as we*uns do. Just ain't fair! (Where's my heart pills, Mother, I'm a gittin worked up!)
4. And how come I have to pay more for life insurance then them? If I'm gonna die sooner, seems like mine should cost less!
5. They don't have to walk near as far as I do when they go grocery shopping! There dumb ol produce department is always at the front of the store, while my meat, cheese, and budder is all the way at the back! Don't the grocery store people know we get short of breath quicker?
6. They make me sick, goin on and on about how my beloved meat is hurting the environment. Who cares about the chicken, cow, and pig poop anyways? That's just good fertilizer to grow more crops to feed my animals. Who cares if it takes a whole lot more veggies to make a little bit of meat? Ain't like people's starvin, is it?
7. They make me feel uncomfortable with all their talk about sufferin and tortured animals. I can't help it if animals gotta be penned up tight all their lives so I can eat a big ol greasy burger. It ain't none a my business how the food gets to my plate, just so long as there's plenty of it!
8. If they're so concerned about the starving children in third world countries, let them kids raise their own cows and pigs and chickens! I don't know what they'll feed their animals! Send them some food for the animals! Starvin kids across the world ain't my concern, as long as my kids get hot dogs and pertater chips!
   
9. It also annoys me when they start off talkin about God meanin for us to be veg*uns in the beginning. That was then, in the Garden of Eden. I don't care what God wanted us to do. I ain't never killt no body - not directly, anyways. I CAIN'T LIVE WITHOUT MY MEAT!
10. When we all get old, I've heard them veg*uns will be stealing our wives and husbands in the nursing homes! It ain't fair! Not only will they live longer, they'll be in better shape! Stoopid veg*uns! Wow! muy hearts a'poundin outta my chest! Mother! where's them heart pills? Better call 9-1-1 agin, Mother. I'm having another one of them attacks!

Feel free to pass this along to your meat eating friends. Just don't wait too long - you may be too late!

.. and God Said It WasGood!

Let's not even get on the issue of clubbing baby seals (oops! there I said it!), and just look at this sweet animal who is clearly delighted to find a new friend. I watch this and I think of the years (or days, or millennia, or whatever) that Adam and Eve lived in the garden in peace with their animal companions. (Gen. 1:25-31; 2:18-20) This young elephant seal just seems so happy to have connected with a human who is as willing as she is to be friends. When she throws her head back, could she be saying, "Oh praise You Creator! What joy!"?

Please remember, our first duty (the "oldest profession") was to take care of the garden and the animals. We were never released from that responsibility, were we?

Be good to each other!
STEPcoach Bob

A good friend passed these along to me and they were so good I had to share them with you.
According to her notes, this is a wild deer that comes into this private yard to visit their cat. Apparently, they're pretty good friends, even though we would consider them natural enemies.
Animals are wonderful.

 

greeting each other

 

"WHERE have you been?"

 

"see, first I'd grab your bottom ...

 

... then I'd jump up on your neck like this."

 

"You're just being silly, my friend!"

FDA approves poison in food

We give so much credence to the FDA and their decisions regarding our health. But issues like the following keep popping up. It is good to keep in mind that the FDA is very open to outside influences, including those by producers of dangerous substances.

"WHY HAS THE FDA ALLOWED A DRUG MARKED 'NOT SAFE FOR USE IN HUMANS' TO BE FED TO LIVESTOCK RIGHT BEFORE SLAUGHTER?:" 02/02/10: "While researchers and scientists investigate the cause of our diabetes, obesity, asthma and ADHD epidemics, they should ask why the FDA approved a livestock drug banned in 160 nations and responsible for hyperactivity, muscle breakdown and 10 percent mortality in pigs, according to angry farmers who phoned the manufacturer... Though banned in Europe, Taiwan and China--more than 1,700 people were "poisoned" from eating Paylean-fed pigs since 1998 says the Sichuan Pork Trade Chamber of Commerce... How does a drug marked, "Not for use in humans. Individuals with cardiovascular disease should exercise special caution to avoid exposure. Use protective clothing, impervious gloves, protective eye wear, and a NIOSH-approved dust mask" become "safe" in human food? With no washout period? The same way Elanco's other two blockbusters, Stilbosol (diethylstilbestrol or DES), now withdrawn, and Posilac or bovine growth hormone (rBST), bought from Monsanto in 2008, became part of the nation's food supply: shameless corporate lobbying. A third of meetings on the Food Safety and Inspection Service's public calendar in January 2009 were with Elanco, a division of Eli Lilly--or about ractopamine...

...Nor can we overlook the effects of "adding these drugs to waterways or well water supplies--via contaminated animal feed and manure runoff-- when this class of drugs is so important in treating children with asthma," says David Wallinga, MD of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy...."

Original story: http://www.alternet.org/story/145503/

Arguments against an Alternate Lifestyle

While I accept that eating meat is a personal choice, and that it is not considered a "sin" by God or His church (just as smoking cigarettes isn't), it is also true that flesh eating is not what our bodies were designed for. We were created with a specific diet (fuel source, if you will) in Mind - vegetables, fruits, nuts, and legumes. Carnivorism, or carrion eating, is an alternative lifestyle choice some may choose over the recommended, natural way we were intended to live.


Whether you choose to avoid dead flesh and blood for religious, environmental, or health reasons, here are some facts which may help you explain your choice to others if they pester you - which scavengers tend to do when their own unnatural lifestyle is challenged. And for some reason (conscience perhaps?) just by being a vegetarian, they feel we challenge their alternative lifestyle.


Thoughts?

The Hunger Argument

Number of people worldwide who will die as a result of malnutrition this year: 20 million
Number of people who could be adequately fed using land freed if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%: 100 million
Percentage of corn grown in the U.S. eaten by people: 20
Percentage of corn grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 80
Percentage of oats grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 95
Percentage of protein wasted by cycling grain through livestock: 90
How frequently a child dies as a result of malnutrition: every 2.3 seconds
Pounds of potatoes that can be grown on an acre: 40,000
Pounds of beef produced on an acre: 250
Percentage of U.S. farmland devoted to beef production: 56
Pounds of grain and soybeans needed to produce a pound of edible flesh from feedlot beef: 16

The Environmental Argument

Cause of global warming: greenhouse effect
Primary cause of greenhouse effect: carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels
Fossil fuels needed to produce meat-centered diet vs. a meat-free diet: 3 times more
Percentage of U.S. topsoil lost to date: 75
Percentage of U.S. topsoil loss directly related to livestock raising: 85
Number of acres of U.S. forest cleared for cropland to produce meat-centered diet: 260 million
Amount of meat imported to U.S. annually from Central and South America: 300,000,000 pounds
Percentage of Central American children under the age of five who are undernourished: 75
Area of tropical rain forest consumed in every quarter-pound of rain forest beef: 55 square feet
Current rate of species extinction due to destruction of tropical rain forests for meat grazing and other uses: 1,000 per year

The Cancer Argument

Increased risk of breast cancer for women who eat meat daily compared to less than once a week: 3.8 times
For women who eat eggs daily compared to once a week: 2.8 times
For women who eat butter and cheese 2-4 times a week: 3.25 times
Increased risk of fatal ovarian cancer for women who eat eggs 3 or more times a week vs. less than once a week: 3 times
Increased risk of fatal prostate cancer for men who consume meat, cheese, eggs and milk daily vs. sparingly or not at all: 3.6 times.

The Cholesterol Argument

Number of U.S. medical schools: 125
Number requiring a course in nutrition: 30
Nutrition training received by average U.S. physician during four years in medical school: 2.5 hours
Most common cause of death in the U.S.: heart attack
How frequently a heart attack kills in the U.S.: every 45 seconds
Average U.S. man's risk of death from heart attack: 50 percent
Risk of average U.S. man who eats no meat: 15 percent
Risk of average U.S. man who eats no meat, dairy or eggs: 4 percent
Amount you reduce risk of heart attack if you reduce consumption of meat, dairy and eggs by 10 percent: 9 percent
Amount you reduce risk of heart attack if you reduce consumption by 50 percent: 45 percent
Amount you reduce risk if you eliminate meat, dairy and eggs from your diet: 90 percent
Average cholesterol level of people eating meat-centered-diet: 210 mg/dl
Chance of dying from heart disease if you are male and your blood cholesterol level

is 210 mg/dl: greater than 50 percent

The Natural Resources Argument

User of more than half of all water used for all purposes in the U.S.: livestock production
Amount of water used in production of the average cow: sufficient to float a destroyer
Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of wheat: 25
Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of California beef: 5,000
Years the world's known oil reserves would last if every human ate a meat-centered diet: 13
Years they would last if human beings no longer ate meat: 260
Calories of fossil fuel expended to get 1 calorie of protein from beef: 78
To get 1 calorie of protein from soybeans: 2
Percentage of all raw materials (base products of farming, forestry and mining, including fossil fuels) consumed by U.S. that is devoted to the production of livestock: 33
Percentage of all raw materials consumed by the U.S. needed to produce a complete vegetarian diet: 2

The Antibiotic Argument

Percentage of U.S. antibiotics fed to livestock: 55  (70% today)
Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1960: 13
Percentage resistant in 1988: 91
Response of European Economic Community to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: ban
Response of U.S. meat and pharmaceutical industries to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: full and complete support

The Pesticide Argument

Common belief: U.S. Department of Agriculture protects our health through meat inspection
Reality: fewer than 1 out of every 250,000 slaughtered animals is tested for toxic chemical residues
Percentage of U.S. mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT: 99
Percentage of U.S. vegetarian mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT: 8
Contamination of breast milk, due to chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides in animal products, found in meat-eating mothers vs. non-meat eating mothers: 35 times higher
Amount of Dieldrin ingested by the average breast-fed American infant: 9 times the permissible level

The Ethical Argument

Number of animals killed for meat per hour in the U.S.: 660,000
Occupation with highest turnover rate in U.S.: slaughterhouse worker
Occupation with highest rate of on-the-job-injury in U.S.: slaughterhouse worker

The Survival Argument

Athlete to win Ironman Triathlon more than twice: Dave Scott (6 time winner)
Food choice of Dave Scott: Vegetarian
Largest meat eater that ever lived: Tyrannosaurus Rex (Where is he today?)

Source = "Diet For A New America" by John Robbins

Food for Thought for Food

Plutarch taught: Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind did so, the first man touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived.

How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds?

It is certainly not lions and wolves that we eat out of self-defense; on the contrary, we ignore these and slaughter harmless, tame creatures without stings or teeth to harm us, creatures that, I swear, Nature appears to have produced for the sake of their beauty and grace. But nothing abashed us, not the flower-like like tinting of the flesh, not the persuasiveness of the harmonious voice, not the cleanliness of their habits or the unusual intelligence that may be found in the poor wretches.

No, for the sake of a little flesh we deprive them of sun, of light, of the duration of life to which they are entitled by birth and being.
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We consume the carcasses of creatures of like appetites, passions and organs with our own, and fill the slaughterhouses daily with screams of pain and fear.
-Robert Louis Stevenson
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I don't eat chicken anymore. I won't eat it. I won't allow it in my house. -Rodney Leonard - U.S. Poultry inspector

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Based on my experience in Los Angeles, my advice to the public is not to eat meat. - Gregorio Natavidad - meat inspector

MY Letter to IHOP

Most of you are aware of the Humane Society of the United States' campaign to stop the International House of Pancakes from using cruel, unsanitary battery caged chickens for their eggs. I joined over a million other concerned Americans and wrote (emailed) directly to IHOP about my concerns. Here is what I said to them:

Many of your concerned "customers" are not raving do-gooders. Many are common sense business persons like me. I run my own business, hold meetings and mini-conferences at local restaurants, and patronize eating establishments with my family and friends during my leisure time. 

I also am one who will not support your business while you continue unacceptable business practices. If your kitchens were filthy, your employees inconsiderate, or your menu unsavory, I would shun your restaurant. Since your procurement practices are very objectionable, I will avoid contact with your fare and I will encourage my associates, business and private, to go to other restaurants.

Please make life easier for both of us. Please refuse to purchase your foodstuffs from suppliers who exercise filthy, inconsiderate, unsavory practices. Free range eggs cost more. But free range eggs are much, much more flavorful and much healthier than the contaminated eggs you are foisting on your trusting (and discriminating) clientèle. 

Please choose better.
Sincerely,

You can view undercover investigative video of the supplier, Michael Foods, HERE.

Do you think this is a trivial problem? Or do you agree that this is a matter to be addressed? Why?
PLEASE COMMENT so others may get this information.