Comment Re:yawn (Score 1) 618
Omnivores (from Latin: omni, meaning "all, everything"; vorare, "to devour") are species that eat both plants and animal material as their primary food source. omnivore
Exactly. Those who say the US can use mass transit have never been here.
San Francisco is not like Denton, is not like New York City, is not like Kansas City, is not like Conshohoken, is not like Phoenix, is not like Columbus, etc.....
You also can't use mass transit in farming communities.
umm...i live here. i live in los angeles, capital of sprawl. i've used mass transit for over 10 years to commute (normally, i don't like shameless self-promotion, but if you want proof of at least the last year and a half or so, check my blog.). i say we could use more.
you can always find places where it won't work (sorry, can't speak to whether denton and conshohoken actually fit the bill). but are we making the most of where it can work?
. beardo's point was simply that you can be healthy as a vegan, not that you can not be healthy without being vegan.
I'm not sure that your reading of it is correct. You seem to argue that he's saying that he's healthy DESPITE being vegan.
that's not at all what i'm arguing. actually, that's what i think you're arguing. if neither of us are actually arguing that, then let's drop it.
I guess you can interpret his post like that.
His argument, as I read it, was that he is vegan, healthy, and that being vegan is in part a foundation of that health.
right. to which you replied "a diet need not be vegan to be healthy." well, he never contended the opposite or even close. he just said you CAN be vegan and perfectly healthy, not that you MUST be vegan to be healthy. from my understanding of the term "straw man" (take something someone didn't say and refute it easily), this is a perfect example.
Seeing as HIS own follow up response didn't accuse me of straw men or other gross mischaracterizations of his argument, I'm not sure your reading is correct.
just because he didn't call you out on it doesn't mean you didn't do it.
maybe you're making the point that diet doesn't affect health?
You do realize I explicitly wrote that "a healthy diet is important." in the post you are accusing me of making the point that diet doesn't affect health right? I'm pretty sure your going to have a tough time reconciling that without some pretty irrational leaps of logic.
well, you did write "a healthy diet is important," of course, but you also pretty plainly said a vegan diet did not contribute to his health ("not this"). i'm not sure i'm the one that needs to do any reconciling here.
I eat a vegan diet
Not this.
nice straw man. beardo's point was simply that you can be healthy as a vegan, not that you can not be healthy without being vegan. of course, maybe you're making the point that diet doesn't affect health?
As is, people seem to think that it's either nuclear power or magical maintenance-free reliable windmills, rather than either coal power or de-industrialization.
I think you'd be shocked and disheartened by how many would prefer de-industrialization.
i'm actually shocked and disheartened by how many people consider cell phones a birthright necessary for life on earth.
What it boils down to is we have people who are butt-hurt that the majority of Americans don't care about the feelings of a fish or the feelings of the rat they are going to feed to their python. So these people are trying to push their worldview on everyone else - regardless of the fact that "treating animals like commodities" is something that humans have been doing since the first creature was domesticated.
i'm not sure who's doing the boiling, but that's not what it boils down to at all. what it boils down to is animals have feelings, thoughts and emotions. like humans, when treated like a commodity, animals will experience great stress that plainly amount to suffering. the results of common animal-breeding practices include premature death of the animal, premature death of its siblings that didn't make it to the shop and injury and death to the people who come into contact with an animal brought up under such duress.
maybe most americans don't care about the feelings of a fish. but maybe the ones who think an aquarium is an appropriate place for a fish to live should.
"If I do not want others to quote me, I do not speak." -- Phil Wayne