I'd like to say thanks to Green for her blog's in depth review of Everyone You Love Will Be Happy Soon. I'm very humbled and thankful that the record means that much to anyone. You always hope it does when you're making it but you never know if it will or not. So a very heartfelt "thank you" for the encouragement.
Harper is making all kinds of advances lately. She's laughed, she's rolled over, and her 200 page thesis on speciation was spectacular. What can I say? I'm proud.
Leah and I are still doing the "30 Day Shred" with dragon lady, Jillian Michaels. I don't think I've ever hated my life as much as I do in the 20 minutes it takes to do that workout. If I didn't have Leah, I know I couldn't keep this shit up, which can be said about several aspects of my life. So I've got that to look forward to tonight, and then its off to band practice.
We've got a few shows coming up that I'm really excited about. One of which is tomorrow. I think it will be a big show but I'm most pumped about it because our friends, The Rocketboys and Dignan will be there. Anyone in or around San Antonio tomorrow had better get their ass to Sam's Burger Joint, if they know what's good for them.
We've also got shows coming up with The Deathray Davies (of whom I am a fan) and What Made Milwaukee Famous. Both should be big, both should be fun.
I love animals, and in my many years of employment at Petco, I'm happy to have helped raise thousands of dollars for the SPCA and other local animal rescue groups. That being said, I can't stand PETA. Right now they are trying to circulate what they call "McCruelty Unhappy Meals" which look like McDonald's Happy Meals but feature pictures of Ronald McDonald holding a bloody axes and carving knives. They have really awesome toys too; chickens and cows covered in blood. All of this, of course, is geared towards scaring and traumatizing children into their delusional world view. I'm all for the humane treatment of animals and I'm all for fighting against corporations that don't do it, but traumatizing little kids is an atrocity in itself.
I don't think PETA will be happy until everyone agrees that its morally wrong to eat meat, which of course, is crazy. I have a lot of vegetarian friends that I respect and in fact, a long time ago, I gave being a vegetarian a shot (for about a week). I understand that there are a lot of viable reasons for wanting to be one but its not morally wrong for a lion to eat a gazelle because that's what they eat, so how can it be morally wrong for us to eat meat? Once PETA has convinced the lions to be vegetarians then I will happily jump on board.
I love the last sentence of this entry.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% with the PETA stuff! I'm a vegetarian and also really care for animals, but the tactics that they use are OUTRAGEOUS!
ReplyDeleteYeah, PETA is often extreme, and I'm not sure what they will actually accomplish with their scary gross-out toys. But, I would like to speak to vegetarianism/veganism as an ethical choice. You can argue all you want about whether humans are "supposed" to eat meat based on our physiology, and you can debate the health merits of different diets (truth be told, there are healthy and unhealthy ways to be both veg and un-veg), but as far as an ethical standpoint goes, I look at it like this: humans are lucky animals in that we have special cognition that gives us reasoning powers not available to the other animals. No, it's not immoral for a lion to eat a gazelle, but it's also not immoral if two animals of the same species have a fight over territory, food, young, etc. where one ends up killing the other. I think when it comes to killing, we should hold humans to a different standard.
ReplyDeleteNow there are some parts of the world where food is scarce, and I would not deem someone as unethical for eating meat when not much food is available. But that is not the case in many nations, and living in the US, I have access to a variety of tasty, healthy, nutritionally-complete food that does not require that another animal be slaughtered. Plus I know, due to the practices of modern slaughterhouses, dairy farms, and egg farms, and the documented shortcomings of the USDA as a regulatory industry, it is likely that any animal that is slaughtered for food, produces milk, or lays eggs for human consumption probably suffered for most or all of its life. Given that info, and the wide variety of food I have available, I believe a veg diet is an ethical choice (and this doesn't even get into the environmental debate and those ethical ramifications).
PS to my last comment: That's not to say I think meat-eaters are unethical. They may be uninformed, have different priorities, or just have a different view of the whole situation. To some people, the food we eat can be as personal a choice as religion and I didn't mean to imply any judgment.
ReplyDeleteI'm not fond of extremists in any form - PETA included. I just skimmed through Lindsey's response, and I think she about covered it. Your vegetarian friend, Jen
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