- Anything Else -

My 2 cents worth...

Posted by: Carolyn ( Sunny Oz ) on June 23, 1999 at 18:55:22:

In Reply to: My thoughts on vegatarianism, and other issues... posted by Mike Bacon on June 15, 1999 at 11:35:10:

: Well let's get to it... I'll say it again, meat eating is NOT a sin.

Of course it isn't. However, neither is NOT eating meat!

:As for the "inhumane slaughter of animals", what about the much-revered American Indian?

As far as I can see, the point is this. Native peoples (I'm sure there's a politically correct term now, but buggered if I can remember it) a)Aren't generally into the mass slaughter thing. b) tend to use far more of the carcass and c) understand the relationship between animals and land far better than others. Part of the reason for my becoming vegetarain was the over grazing, erosion and clearing of land in order to support the meat industry.

: Let us not forget that animals kill certain other species of animals for their food source. Pet owners, your dog loves meat and eats meat. If it's OK for him to do so, then it should be OK for us.

Great point, might I say, but can I just disagree for a second? Thanks. The human body can process both meat and not meat (there's a word for that) equally well. We aren't designed in a way that makes us almost fully dependent on one kind of food the way most other species are.

:While we're on this, I remember reading elsewhere in McSpot about a lady trying to turn her dog into a vegatarian. My belief is THAT'S animal cruelty. Dogs are designed to eat meat.

YES YES YES, they are! Their whole system is designed purely for meat. My dog gets meat every day, and occasional pasta and vegetables when she's a bit unwell. I have heard of many people doing this with their dogs, and it's worrying. I mean, I'm a vegetarian because I choose to be. That's no reason to inflict a non-natural diet on my dog!

: Now I'm gonna further pick on vegatarians for a minute. I just don't see how this group gets by without beef, pork and poultry. I've been to salad bars before, mainly to save money, and while veggies are good, they are only part of a meal. They are not enough to fill you up, at least that's the case with yours truly.

True, fruit and vegies are fabulous, but not overly filling. However, go totally mad with a packet of pasta, start your meal with a huge bowl of soup and finish the whole deal off with the biggest hunk of chocolate cake you can fit on a plate, and you're full!

:Lastly on this issue, "health food" SUCKS!!! [except bran.]. Soybean and alfalfa sprouts just don't strike me as appetizing.

Dreadful, aren't they? It's quite a common misconception that vegetarians are also health food junkies. Like on some airlines. Order a vegetarian meal and get that brown fruit salad while everyone else tucks into something terribly gooey and sweet. Sure, some health foods are OK, I quite like cous cous etc, but tofu makes me want to run screaming for the hills. When given the choice between something very brown from the health food shop and a great big coffee cream bun type arrangement, it must take me, oh, about a millionth of a second to decide! So, yeah, I'm pretty much with you on the health food front.

: Promiscuity: Not a good idea, regardless of whether you're heterosexual or homosexual.

OK, totally agree with you on this, so let's move on.

: Finally, politicians need to be told to leave the Second Amendment alone. Gun control laws only inconvenience (and in some cases, wrongfully punish) good citizens who are nowhere near a threat to their community or others.

After months of gun control battles here in Oz as a result of the Port Arthur Massacre, I can't agree. Semi-Automatic weapons were the focus here. Hand guns are pretty much fine (according to the law, that is). But yes, there are people who own guns who would never DREAM of pointing that gun at any living thing. Shooting as a sport (target shooting, I mean, not hunting) strikes me as a skillful game.
However, I live in a semi rural area, and not a night goes by without gun shots. People are aiming at rabbits (which is fair enough, rabbits are in plauge proportions here and are squeezing native wildlife out). Most of the land in this area is between 5 and 30 acres. The guns some are using are capable of firing a bullet up to 2 miles. A lot of horses, dogs, cats etc are hit accidently, and quite a number of people have been grazed by bullets or had non-fatal injuries. This is my reasoning then, it makes a lot of sense to limit the kind of gun someone is able to own for shooting rabbits on a hobby farm to one that can't shoot to such distances. Doesn't that make sense? When it gets to the stage where you expect to be hit when you walk from your car to the house, something has to be done.

Carolyn




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