And Another Thing, PETA...
As long as I'm gonna rail, let's at least make an effort to rail at a relevant subject.
PETA, although they're a bunch of pains in the backside, are merely yet another indication of what is wrong with the world. If ya asked me, I'd tell you that what's wrong, simply, are that people have lost their sense of proportion, to begin with. I'd also tell you that people have become so selfish that it's becoming impossible to distinguish between pure greed, pure stupidity and mindless narcissism. Finally, for good measure, I'd also tell you that every human being on this planet requires a good, long enema with a high-pressure steam hose, because ultimately, we're all full of shit.
Some of us have more of a fecal retention problem than others. Take democrats , for example. Rules don't matter to them (especially when they helped put them in place), if it doesn't suit their needs. Can't win an election at the ballot box, then sue. Can't win in court, pout. Can't win in the court of public opinion, get paranoid and invent conspiracies to explain why you didn't get your way. The same thing is happening in Ukraine right now. The Russian Communists still have not gotten over their loss over a decade ago, and like good paranoids, they're striking out at those that hurt them or who mightpotentially hurt them --- Ukranians seeking political freedom.
You know people are ful of shit when Fox News, in the process of trying to cover the events in Ukraine, manages to bring Oksana Lada into the studio to talk about these things. Who is Oksana Lada, you ask? She's an actress whose claim to fame is that she played Tony Soprano's Russian slambag one season. This was the most famous Ukranian of some standing that they could find?
You can see the selfishness in this country reflected in the recent visit of President Bush to Canada this week. Tens of thousands of Canadians took to the street to engage in the kind of stuff that gets one a degree in "Social Consciousness" here. You know, parading around with pictures of Bush and Hitler, holding up signs with catchy slogans with lots of foul language, throwing garbage and riot barriers at the police. We saw the same thing here for the last three years, especially this past summer in New York during the Republican convention. No matter who gets interviewed during these things, the same crap is always recycled:
"America is hated. We're hated because we had the temerity to strike back instead of surrender. If we just stopped, everyone else would stop too."
Translation: I'd rather be popular than right. Stop this fighting before I either get my butt blown up, or God forbid, I get drafted and have to give up my X-Box and skateboard. Why can't we just take it on the chin and then pretend it never happened?
Response: If you care what the rest of the world thinks, then fine. Go live there. When you can't get Starbucks, cellphone service, the Gap, Survivor on TV or access to a hospital, don't cry to come back. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice for what you have and more often than not, you have an obligation to fight for it. If that screws up your cushy, metrosexual lifestyle, too damn bad about you. We don't ignore it because if we let 9/11 pass, then we're setting ourselves up for a bigger attack next time around. Don't think so? Check the history of 30 years of Arab terrorism against America and you'll find pinprick after pinprick until it finally ramps up: 243 dead Marines in Lebanon, Pan Am 103, Embassy bomnbings in Africa, Khobar Towers, U.S.S. Cole, World Trade Center, twice.
Perhaps if we just set ourselves up for another one, we could get lucky and have the terrorists blow up the Berkeley faculty lounge, but I doubt we'd have that kind of good fortune. Any major university would be a viable alternate. If we're going to get bombed, let's at least take out the low end of the gene pool. You know, the ones that in the wild would have been the easy pickings for the lions.
We've heard people screaming for years: I have the right to kill a baby in my eighth months, I have the right to screw little children if I want to, I have the right to marry a daschund, I have the right to shoot heroin, I have the right to be permanently paid not to riot, I have the right to be President because I said so, I have the right, I have the right, I have the right.
Sure, everyone has rights. But in excercising yours you must remember that others have them too. You may not like meat, but I'll eat it whenever I want to. I don't like homosexual behavior, but people have a right to their preferences despite my wishes. Rights come with repsonsibilities. Prime among them is the ability to recognize that just because you may have a right to something, it doesn't automatically follow that you SHOULD have that right.
Why is it that no one ever says I have the responsibility?
So, we get back to everyone being full of shit.
PETA can rail about cows being "mistreated" when the real reason they're in a slaughterhouse is to be killed in the first place. Makes no sense. I'll bet the same people who walk around waving signs shouting "Meat is Murder" don't have a problem with Arab men beheading human beings. Cows should have rights, people responsibilities, in this case. Unless assigning responsibilities (i.e. the responsibility to act like a civilized human being) interferes with your other political goals (i.e. trying to avoid having to take responsibility for fighting for your country and culture against murderous thugs).
Yes, I know hypocrisy amongst human beings is nothing new. But damn, is it tiring.
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
More Nonsense from PETA...
The Pantywaisted Eco Terrorist's Association (which tries to hide it's agenda through the clever use of an alternate definition for it's acronym - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), are all up in arms about, GASP!, cruel conditions IN A SLAUGHTERHOUSE.
Some people have too much free time on their hands, I know, but really!
Here's a link to the article, courtesy of Free Republic. com:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1291828/posts?page=18
Here was my response, written under my Freeper pseudonym of Wombat101:
The following is a public-service announcment:
Hello to all our friends at the Pantybunched Eco Terrorist's Association! Thank you for allowing me into your living room and for letting me give you this little talk entitled, "Meat; It's SO Damn Good..."
To begin with, you might well ask why is it that people eat meat? Well, typically because we have ethical and moral issues about eating anything that might talk back to us, for a start (which explains why you don't see parrot on many menus!). We also sorta-kinda have an aversion to eating anything that can either vote or shoot back at ya.
Now normally, since democrats can't vote properly or handle a gun, one might consider them fair game. However, it's been scientifically proven that democrat has no nutritional value. So, we're forced to look to other sources of food: cows, pigs, chickens, fish, etc.
Yes, they do look like very fine animals, don't they? Yes, a great many of them are cute, as well. However, one must understand that such animals were created and continue to exist as food sources. If it weren't for human beings taking the time to feed, provide medical care for and house and shelter these animals before slaughtering them, they'd be at the tender mercies of whatever four-legged predator might be out there. If given the choice, would you rather be torn to shreds by a mountain lion or clubbed upon the head until dead?
Now you can make all the arguments you want about slaughtering, and then eating, perfectly healthy animals -- the point is, we don't have to listen to them. We see the animals as food, and not as an individual entity with a consciousness. When cows start paying taxes, voting republican and programming VCR's on their own, I'll stop eating them.
Truth is, we love that last-minute, fear-induced rush of adrenaline that occurs in the animal just as it gets the death blow: it tenderizes the meat.
We also love all the wonderful animal by-proucts that make everyday life more livable; everything from shoe leather to glue, from baseball gloves to cowboy boots.
Killing animals for food is also enviornmentally sound, since on cow produces the same amounts of stomach gas, methane and carbon monoxide as the typical SUV. Removing cattle from the landscape reduces greenhouse gasses!
Slaughtering millions of chickens on a daily basis also prevents the potential spread of nasty avian diseases that affect humans, from SARS to Asian Bird Flu. These diseases kill hundreds in Asia every day!
What about all that animal waste that ends up in our water supplies? You think pesticides are the only thing that runs off a farm into the local streams and water tables? Why, right now, our water supplies are being threatened by incontinent sheep all over America!
So, you see, PETA, the business of meat is not just about getting us something to eat. It's about protecting the American way of life and promoting the promise of a better tomorrow. Now, go out there and get yourself a burger, and maybe you'll say: "Meat: it's so damn good!"
The Pantywaisted Eco Terrorist's Association (which tries to hide it's agenda through the clever use of an alternate definition for it's acronym - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), are all up in arms about, GASP!, cruel conditions IN A SLAUGHTERHOUSE.
Some people have too much free time on their hands, I know, but really!
Here's a link to the article, courtesy of Free Republic. com:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1291828/posts?page=18
Here was my response, written under my Freeper pseudonym of Wombat101:
The following is a public-service announcment:
Hello to all our friends at the Pantybunched Eco Terrorist's Association! Thank you for allowing me into your living room and for letting me give you this little talk entitled, "Meat; It's SO Damn Good..."
To begin with, you might well ask why is it that people eat meat? Well, typically because we have ethical and moral issues about eating anything that might talk back to us, for a start (which explains why you don't see parrot on many menus!). We also sorta-kinda have an aversion to eating anything that can either vote or shoot back at ya.
Now normally, since democrats can't vote properly or handle a gun, one might consider them fair game. However, it's been scientifically proven that democrat has no nutritional value. So, we're forced to look to other sources of food: cows, pigs, chickens, fish, etc.
Yes, they do look like very fine animals, don't they? Yes, a great many of them are cute, as well. However, one must understand that such animals were created and continue to exist as food sources. If it weren't for human beings taking the time to feed, provide medical care for and house and shelter these animals before slaughtering them, they'd be at the tender mercies of whatever four-legged predator might be out there. If given the choice, would you rather be torn to shreds by a mountain lion or clubbed upon the head until dead?
Now you can make all the arguments you want about slaughtering, and then eating, perfectly healthy animals -- the point is, we don't have to listen to them. We see the animals as food, and not as an individual entity with a consciousness. When cows start paying taxes, voting republican and programming VCR's on their own, I'll stop eating them.
Truth is, we love that last-minute, fear-induced rush of adrenaline that occurs in the animal just as it gets the death blow: it tenderizes the meat.
We also love all the wonderful animal by-proucts that make everyday life more livable; everything from shoe leather to glue, from baseball gloves to cowboy boots.
Killing animals for food is also enviornmentally sound, since on cow produces the same amounts of stomach gas, methane and carbon monoxide as the typical SUV. Removing cattle from the landscape reduces greenhouse gasses!
Slaughtering millions of chickens on a daily basis also prevents the potential spread of nasty avian diseases that affect humans, from SARS to Asian Bird Flu. These diseases kill hundreds in Asia every day!
What about all that animal waste that ends up in our water supplies? You think pesticides are the only thing that runs off a farm into the local streams and water tables? Why, right now, our water supplies are being threatened by incontinent sheep all over America!
So, you see, PETA, the business of meat is not just about getting us something to eat. It's about protecting the American way of life and promoting the promise of a better tomorrow. Now, go out there and get yourself a burger, and maybe you'll say: "Meat: it's so damn good!"
Going Commercial...
I hate to do this to y'all, but I must.
Starting later this week, this site will be connected to the Google Ad-Sense Program, and Your's Truly hopes to see some bucks out of it, please. So, when and if I get it set up, please click an ad or two and send Uncle Matt a lovely Christmas present!
I hate to do this to y'all, but I must.
Starting later this week, this site will be connected to the Google Ad-Sense Program, and Your's Truly hopes to see some bucks out of it, please. So, when and if I get it set up, please click an ad or two and send Uncle Matt a lovely Christmas present!
Monday, November 29, 2004
Boring Weekend, Boring Coverage...
I found it absolutely FASCINATING hearing about Dick Ebersol for three hours this evening on the television news. Now, I didn't sit there and actually WATCH the talk fest, I did jump to other channels, but when I came back, it was all Dick, all the time.
Let's get something straight. Even on a "slow news" day, we still have a war in Iraq. There are serious allegations being made about graft and corruption at the U.N. The Iranians are thisclose to declaring that their nuclear reactors are merely those famous Middle-Eastern "Baby Milk Factories" with anti-aircraft missiles stationed on the roof, and armed Revolutionary Guards on 24-hour foot patrol. There's political unrest in the Ukraine, where we are witnessing on television, the birth of a democratic movement. Dan Rather is being run out of town on a rail.
And all the news folks can talk about is Dick Ebersol. Give me a fucking break.
About 0.9 in 10 Americans actually know who the guy is, and that's being generous. Yes, the man is a legend in sports programming, but was it necessary to devote that much time to the story with the facts available (which were: plane crashed, he survived, his son survived, one son missing. Injuries unknown, we don't know anything else). Ten years ago, that would have elicted a "more on this story as it comes in" kind of comment, but not now in the 24-hour-a-day news environment. They have air time to fill, and rather than do something useful, like send reporters out to do stories about stuff they can air on a slow news day, it seems they sit around and wait for the newswires to spit something out, and then hastily assemble a bunch of talking heads to roll around the same information for two hours.
I'm sorry about Mr. Ebersol. No one should have to go through the ordeal of a plane crash, and I hope his sons, and everyone else on that flight is fine, God willing. But, please, spare me the empty air time and the fake sympathy "for one of our own" that occurs everytime someone from the media should have something unfortunate happen to them. It's so phony, and it's self-serving.
What you would really like to do, but won't, is what happened in New York about 15 years ago. A traffic helicopter for NBC crashed into the Hudson River one evening, during the 6 PM local news broadcast, I believe, and there, on everyone's TV screen, in living color, was the NYFD trying to resuscitate the female traffic reporter. Her shirt was opened, her bra exposed, and she was dying on camera. The anchorman that night, Chuck Scarborough I believe, was all in a huff about not showing that footage because his colleague deserved a "little dignity". But he was never in enough of a huff to actually quit or do something of consequence about it. Secretly, I'll bet he had an erection. It was Great Television, as they say. The first reality-based show.
But at the end of the day, a traffic reporter is small potatoes. This is the sainted Dick Ebersol. He must be beatified right now, as if he had died, and we all must sing his praises! No, you must fill up three empty hours of airtime on a Sunday because you're too lazy to go out and find real news.
I found it absolutely FASCINATING hearing about Dick Ebersol for three hours this evening on the television news. Now, I didn't sit there and actually WATCH the talk fest, I did jump to other channels, but when I came back, it was all Dick, all the time.
Let's get something straight. Even on a "slow news" day, we still have a war in Iraq. There are serious allegations being made about graft and corruption at the U.N. The Iranians are thisclose to declaring that their nuclear reactors are merely those famous Middle-Eastern "Baby Milk Factories" with anti-aircraft missiles stationed on the roof, and armed Revolutionary Guards on 24-hour foot patrol. There's political unrest in the Ukraine, where we are witnessing on television, the birth of a democratic movement. Dan Rather is being run out of town on a rail.
And all the news folks can talk about is Dick Ebersol. Give me a fucking break.
About 0.9 in 10 Americans actually know who the guy is, and that's being generous. Yes, the man is a legend in sports programming, but was it necessary to devote that much time to the story with the facts available (which were: plane crashed, he survived, his son survived, one son missing. Injuries unknown, we don't know anything else). Ten years ago, that would have elicted a "more on this story as it comes in" kind of comment, but not now in the 24-hour-a-day news environment. They have air time to fill, and rather than do something useful, like send reporters out to do stories about stuff they can air on a slow news day, it seems they sit around and wait for the newswires to spit something out, and then hastily assemble a bunch of talking heads to roll around the same information for two hours.
I'm sorry about Mr. Ebersol. No one should have to go through the ordeal of a plane crash, and I hope his sons, and everyone else on that flight is fine, God willing. But, please, spare me the empty air time and the fake sympathy "for one of our own" that occurs everytime someone from the media should have something unfortunate happen to them. It's so phony, and it's self-serving.
What you would really like to do, but won't, is what happened in New York about 15 years ago. A traffic helicopter for NBC crashed into the Hudson River one evening, during the 6 PM local news broadcast, I believe, and there, on everyone's TV screen, in living color, was the NYFD trying to resuscitate the female traffic reporter. Her shirt was opened, her bra exposed, and she was dying on camera. The anchorman that night, Chuck Scarborough I believe, was all in a huff about not showing that footage because his colleague deserved a "little dignity". But he was never in enough of a huff to actually quit or do something of consequence about it. Secretly, I'll bet he had an erection. It was Great Television, as they say. The first reality-based show.
But at the end of the day, a traffic reporter is small potatoes. This is the sainted Dick Ebersol. He must be beatified right now, as if he had died, and we all must sing his praises! No, you must fill up three empty hours of airtime on a Sunday because you're too lazy to go out and find real news.
More From Ukraine...
More stuff on the news from Ukraine, where a mass-movement is afoot to overturn the results of an election which most peop-le say is fraught with fraud. If Susan Estrich is watching, she/it might want to take notes because it seems the "liberal" side is winning, simply by taking to the streets.
The plight of Ukrainians willing to take to the streets to stand up for their political rights has garnered sympathy in places like Poland, for example, which have a recent history of civil unrest in the pursuit of democracy. Just ask Lech Walesa.
Now, let's be fair about this. There is a major difference between our election sour-pusses and the Ukranian version. For a start, ours lost fairly and squarely, and are merely misguided and delusional when they complain about how the process failed and delivered us G.W. Bush. On the other hand, in the Ukraine, the sour-pusses over there are complaining that the process REALLY DID fail and delivered them into the arms of a Communist-puppet. So far, anyone you talk to, anyone you get an opinion from, seems to say the same thing: The commies in Moscow cheated.
Commies are good for cheating in elections. It's one of the two things the old Soviet-style system produced that were worth their weight in gold; obviously fraudulent election results that had enormous comic value, and Yakov Smirnov. Well, at least he had comic value until the appeal of the "what a great country!" shtick had worn off.
I can almost feel the ground shaking. There are forces at work here that cannot be denied, and they are merely gathering, waiting for the time when they will explode and send the planet spinning off it's axis. No, I'm not talking about the day when Ukranians get whatthey want (another election), the force I'm talking about is the democratic talking point that will be made, ever so slightly, about how Ukraine has more democracy than we have. I expect Susan, Lanny, Pauly or Robert (Third) Reich, to make that claim any day now.
More stuff on the news from Ukraine, where a mass-movement is afoot to overturn the results of an election which most peop-le say is fraught with fraud. If Susan Estrich is watching, she/it might want to take notes because it seems the "liberal" side is winning, simply by taking to the streets.
The plight of Ukrainians willing to take to the streets to stand up for their political rights has garnered sympathy in places like Poland, for example, which have a recent history of civil unrest in the pursuit of democracy. Just ask Lech Walesa.
Now, let's be fair about this. There is a major difference between our election sour-pusses and the Ukranian version. For a start, ours lost fairly and squarely, and are merely misguided and delusional when they complain about how the process failed and delivered us G.W. Bush. On the other hand, in the Ukraine, the sour-pusses over there are complaining that the process REALLY DID fail and delivered them into the arms of a Communist-puppet. So far, anyone you talk to, anyone you get an opinion from, seems to say the same thing: The commies in Moscow cheated.
Commies are good for cheating in elections. It's one of the two things the old Soviet-style system produced that were worth their weight in gold; obviously fraudulent election results that had enormous comic value, and Yakov Smirnov. Well, at least he had comic value until the appeal of the "what a great country!" shtick had worn off.
I can almost feel the ground shaking. There are forces at work here that cannot be denied, and they are merely gathering, waiting for the time when they will explode and send the planet spinning off it's axis. No, I'm not talking about the day when Ukranians get whatthey want (another election), the force I'm talking about is the democratic talking point that will be made, ever so slightly, about how Ukraine has more democracy than we have. I expect Susan, Lanny, Pauly or Robert (Third) Reich, to make that claim any day now.
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