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

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

http://www.onlineeducation.net/bottled_water/

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.

Thanksgiving or Turkey Day???

We ain't a eatin' no old dead birds for Thanksgiving this year!
 

We've got much more to be thankful for than the death of a bird just so we could eat it. The pilgrims and Indians didn't eat turkeys for the first Thanksgiving, so why do we? Marketing, man! The turkey farmers, just like the milk pushers are lying to you about the fake benefits of eating dead, rotting, pesticide and hormone filled bird bodies. Why do you think they clearly post the numbers to the Turkey Hotline on each bird? so you won't poison your family! Sheesh! But then, many of you go ahead and smoke cigarettes despite warnings, too!

God designed our bodies to operate at peak efficiency on a vegetarian diet (did too! see Genesis 1:29 for proof), so putting dead animal bodies and guts into your stomach is tantamount to putting diesel into a gasoline engine - NOT a good idea!

Here are some more reasons to skip the turkey this year:

 **************

No Turkey?! Why Not?

For the Animals

Abusing and killing an innocent bird betrays the life-affirming spirit of giving thanks for our life, health, and happiness. The nearly 300 million turkeys killed each year in the U.S. spend their entire lives crammed in large sheds with little room to move. Artificially inseminated and selectively bred to gain enormous amounts of weight, they suffer heart attacks, broken limbs, lameness, and death from their genetically-induced accelerated growth rate. Most of these same conditions apply to "free range" turkeys.

Click here to continue reading and learn more about atrocious animal farm practices or watch undercover investigations of turkey facilities.

For Your Health

Turkey flesh is loaded with cholesterol and saturated fats, which have been linked conclusively with an elevated risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic diseases that kill 1.3 million Americans annually. Turkey flesh is also contaminated with deadly pathogens and antibiotics.

Click here to continue reading about the negative effects of turkey on our health.

For the Globe

In addition to threatening personal health, factory farming is a global problem. Much of the 10 billion pounds of manure generated by 7,300 turkey farms in 33 states ends up in our drinking water. Grain fed to turkeys is denied to millions of starving people in the world's most impoverished nations.

Click here to continue reading about how animal farming ruins the earth.

Want More?

Find out the Top Ten Reasons to drop turkey from your holiday menu!

Original source: http://www.gentlethanksgiving.org/index.htm

Prevent Swine Flu - Good Advice

Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS,DRM,DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist) having clinical experience of over 20 years. He has worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital , Bombay Hospital  ,  Saifee Hospital  , Tata Memorial etc.. Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre, Malad (W).
       
The following message given by him, I feel makes a lot of sense and is important for all to know
       
The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it's almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.
       
While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).
   Really scrub those puppies - especially around your fingernails and knuckles and between your fingers. Then get a paper towel without touching anything else and dry your hands well. Then use the towel to turn off the water and open the bathroom door. (Or else you'll pick up all the germs from the cretins who didn't wash before you!)
   
2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or slap).
3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt).
   H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method. 
4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water.
   Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.
5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption. 
6. Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can.
   Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.
   

The Cost of Eating Meat

According to a new report by LiveScience (http://www.livescience.com/environment/080505-chicken-beef.html), the most damaging part of carnivorism (ecologically, that is) is the "production" part - you know, the part where the cows, chickens, pigs, or whatever else is eaten are crammed together and slaughtered, then chopped into mouth-sized pieces so they can be eaten.

Wow!

Their report states: "

The production phase is responsible for 83 percent of the average U.S. household's greenhouse-gas burden with regard to food, while transportation accounts for only 11 percent, the new study found. The production of red meat, the researchers conclude, is almost 150 percent more greenhouse-gas-intensive than chicken or fish."

Did you get that last bit: 150% more harmful to keep/kill/eat cows than other animals!

I am so glad I don't eat them anymore.
Aren't you?!