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Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 13:27
by Lionel Horsepackage
Eru wrote:Freakzilla wrote:I see plants as really slow moving animals.
I agree. "Poor defenseless animals" people say. Well, I say those plants are pretty defenseless.
PETA = "People Eating Tasty Animals"
Or at least, that's how a couple of my relatives characterize it, whenever we're over for holiday functions and what-have you.
It makes things far more....interesting...especially where family dinners are concerned. At least, living where we do, there are plenty of good vegan/vegetarian dining options and grocery stores, so it's not
too bad, most days.
merkin muffley wrote:By the way, I love that Fear and Loathing reference. One of my favorite books and HST is one of my favorite writers.
Benicio del Toro, Colonel Depp, (and Terry Gilliam) were awesome.
Hell yeah -- and I think the only person who's a bigger HST fan on the face of this planet is my brother, who started reading his stuff religiously in high school. Love that Gilliam-movie.
(BTW, big
Strangelove fan, here, incidentally.)
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 13:34
by Lionel Horsepackage
A Thing of Eternity wrote:My girl was on the fence with honey for a while, on the one hand she loses the respect of some vegans (who cares?) and on the other hand, supporting beekeepers is one of the most ecologically positive things you can do. I'm a mead maker (honey wine) so I talk with bee keepers lots, they all love their bees and take excellent care of them. As far as I'm concerned humans and bees have formed a very mutually benificial relationship. We get honey and crop pollination (many of the crops we grown simply cannot pollinate without extensive bee hives in the area), and our bees also pollinate wild plants and help out the local ecosystem. The bees get an excellent healthcare program, and good nutritional suppliments. Plus bees generally make about triple the honey they need for the year, and beekeepers never over harvest the honey, their number one concern is the bees making it through the lean times with plenty of honey for themselves (or else they don't last long as beekeepers!). I've seen keepers cry when they find a dead hive, those guys truly love their bees (and their money in all honesty). The environment gets people working their asses off to save the bees that the ecosystem so desperately need.
I do have total respect for people who choose not to eat honey, that's fine by me obviously. But boy will I win an argument over whether or not the over-all ethics end up on the positive side! I totally respect if someone is personally uncomfortable with taking the honey (bees do sometimes get injured or killed in this process too).
It's cool!
As a matter of fact, I actually have several non-meat-eating friends who still eat honey, and they've pointed out several of the beneficial points you mention, there -- as these things go, beekeeping
is pretty ecologically-balanced and non-footprint-inducing (compared to other animal-derived activities out there), so I definitely support anyone who chooses to go this route.
Like you say, it's very symbiotic and earth-mother-friendly, with fewer of the adverse environmental stresses (especially on a local basis) than you tend to see with, say, cattle-raising or pig-farming, going from what I've read on the subject. My spouse and I both decided to eschew as many animal-derived products as possible in our lifestyles, but I agree that honey is very much on the far-less-harmful end of that whole spectrum, cruelty-wise.
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 13:37
by SandChigger
Um ... you mean there are actually people who object to keeping bees and harvesting their honey?
I had NO idea.
(No! Seriously?)
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 13:40
by Freakzilla
One of my sister-in-laws keeps bees. They say if you eat local honey your allergies won't be as bad. The wife just got a bear of her sister's honey but I have yet to try it. I'm not a big honey fan but my whole family just had strep throat and I'm just getting over sinus, chest and ear infections. I'm willing to give anything a try.
It's good on carrots.
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 13:40
by Freakzilla
SandChigger wrote:Um ... you mean there are actually people who object to keeping bees and harvesting their honey?
I had NO idea.
(No! Seriously?)
Fuckin' communists.
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 13:56
by A Thing of Eternity
SandChigger wrote:Um ... you mean there are actually people who object to keeping bees and harvesting their honey?
I had NO idea.
(No! Seriously?)
Some people have thought it through and decided not to eat it, which I respect, but a lot of people just follow blindly the original definition of vegan, which says no honey.
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 14:07
by Lionel Horsepackage
Yeah, there are some real avant-poseur hipsters out there who follow a vegan diet, not out of any type of legitimate concern for animal welfare or whatever, but simply because it's "cool." The "trendy" thing to do.
You see them around all the time in the vegan restaurants, vintage music stores, and other places near where I live, just waiting for a scene to happen, and it makes my bitchslap-hand start trembling.
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 14:28
by A Thing of Eternity
I know the feeling.
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 14:31
by Freakzilla
Vegan posers... I HATE vegan posers.
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 15:31
by Serkanner
Do vegans drive cars? ... Talk about cruelty to animals, at least a thousand insects are killed when smashed on your windscreen every time you drive to your specialized vegan store.
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 15:38
by Omphalos
Damn tourists, messin' with the true believer's mojo. What a downer.
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 15:56
by Lionel Horsepackage
Serkanner wrote:Do vegans drive cars? ... Talk about cruelty to animals, at least a thousand insects are killed when smashed on your windscreen every time you drive to your specialized vegan store.
This is true. Every "mindful" act I attempt somehow always seems to get balanced out by mass slaughter.
That said, I try not to even step on ants and the like whenever I'm walking, if you can believe it (being a practicing Buddhist for about the last nine years).
Although, I
am sorta tempted to quote that one joke:
Q: "What's the last thing that went through the bug's mind as it hit the windshield?"
A: "Its ass!"
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 16:00
by Freakzilla
What did the Buddhist say to the hot dog vendor?
Make me one with everything.
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 16:40
by DuneFishUK
If god didn't want us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?
Welcome!
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 16:43
by A Thing of Eternity
DuneFishUK wrote:If god didn't want us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?
Welcome!
Tisk tisk, there's no god in Buddhism!
(I know you're kidding anyways, atheist aren'tcha?)
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 17:02
by Freakzilla
If God didn't want us to eat animals, why give us canine teeth?
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 17:29
by inhuien
To test your faith.
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 17:33
by Freakzilla
inhuien wrote:To test your faith.
Ah, another one of his cruel jokes, eh?
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 17:46
by Lionel Horsepackage
My favorite Buddhist one-liner:
“A Zen master once said to me, ‘Do the opposite of whatever I tell you.’ So I didn't.”
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 17:59
by Freakzilla
Lionel Horsepackage wrote:My favorite Buddhist one-liner:
“A Zen master once said to me, ‘Do the opposite of whatever I tell you.’ So I didn't.”
That's giving me a headache.
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 18:04
by Lionel Horsepackage
Yeah, I don't think I've quite got it figured out, either (and I double-majored in Philosophy)...
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 18:41
by SadisticCynic
Lionel Horsepackage wrote:My favorite Buddhist one-liner:
“A Zen master once said to me, ‘Do the opposite of whatever I tell you.’ So I didn't.”
I love it!
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 11 May 2010 18:42
by SandChigger
Freakzilla wrote:What did the Buddhist say to the hot dog vendor?
Make me one with everything.
You only told half the joke.
So the vendor makes the dog and hands it over, takes a ten-dollar bill from the Buddhist and turns to the next customer.
The Buddhist waits until the vendor's done with that customer and asks, "What about my change?"
"Change," the vendor replies, "is an illusion."
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 12 May 2010 13:26
by Eyes High
Re: New Guy says "Hola!"
Posted: 12 May 2010 13:59
by SandRider
Eyes wrote:Papa, I like him. Can we keep him?
aww ... well, alright ... but
you're gonna have to feed him and clean up after him
and remember that time you forgot about Sloey and left him out in the snow for
three days and he ended up under that fat lady's porch up in Canada ? you cried
for a month after that, I don't wanna go thru all that again ....
just remember to divide up your attention evenly,
so AToE doesn't get jealous and go around peeing
on stuff (again) ....
