And you are dead right. But our closest relatives among primates, gorillas, chimps, orangutan and (to a less closely related extent) gibbons, all eat actual meat, not just insects and grubs. So even if the great bulk of primatekind were totally vegan our closest relatives are not and that kind of closes the argument.

Lots of other primates eat meat. It seems to be the trend more than the exception.

Yeah chimps TOTALLY don't eat meat, no meat at all. Thats indisputable.

Oh wait... http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~stanford/chimphunt.html

Neither do orangutan.

Oh wait... http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21364-vegetarian-orangutans-eat-worlds-cutest-animal.html

And surely not gorillas.

Oh wait... http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100305-first-proof-gorillas-eat-monkeys-mammals-feces-dna/

And of course gibbons don't eat meat. Being omnivores.

I like the way Facebook say they don't use HVAC... yet their entire BUILDING is a huge HVAC unit!

Efficiency of scale works nicely with HVAC, if you can afford to get the building made to your specs.

Thats because the foundational principle of the modern democracy is to keep the mass of people believing that they have some say in things and to preserve this illusion by presenting the face of a chaotic, randomly changing elected government. Democratically 'elected' government is about as organised as Brownian motion.

The reality, which is where the extreme stability comes in, is that the elections are a sham and the real power is wielded well behind the scenes by powers that can make or break any elected politician at a whim.

Ie its not amazingly stable and successful because Joe Public is allowed to have a say in how the country is run. Its amazingly stable and successful because Joe Public is kept well the fuck away from running the country.

Good thing, bad thing, I don't know. Not going to make a value judgement on that yet.

Oh wow ok then, I really feel that I need to be taken seriously by some Anonymous Coward on Slashdot!

First let me say, I never mentioned North Korea. Second let me say, WHY THE FUCK should I care whether you take this seriously?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22524597

I'm sure the Saudis would be interested in people seeking to free slaves as well.

Sooner than that, I think. The succession passes brother to brother among the sons of Abdulaziz. The youngest was born in the mid 1940s. The available heirs are getting older and older very very fast.

When the brothers are all gone, Saudi Arabia will fall into chaos and that could happen in the next few years.

Theres also political. I've known many vegans and the ones I've known treat it more like a political movement than a dietary discipline. I guess you might put that under 'ethical' but I think they get so carried away on their ethics that really it becomes political.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/29/alleged-honor-killing-suspect-yaser-said-could-be-hiding-in-plain-sight-as-new/
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/55330/another-muslim-honor-killing-in-america-arab-muslim-bro-murders-muslim-sis-in-obamatown/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aasiya_Zubair

though admittedly its not legally sanctioned in the US. It will happen wherever these people go because to them domestic abuse IS the law.

The point is that you can't pass laws that will have any affect on these people because they believe that the law internal to their culture is always more righteous than the laws of the country they are living in.

Actually, sometimes sexual assault is enforced as a way to preserve family 'honor'

This depends very much on where this happens or in what cultural/religious context.

In SOME parts of the world, if a woman calls the cops after being raped she can expect to be arrested, thrown in jail and raped some more.

In SOME parts of the world, if a woman tells her parents she has been raped THEY will kill her.

Some of us are halfbreed Neanderthals, Denisovans or Homo-erectus. I guess the only people who are in a position to be properly racist are Africans.. the only real pure blooded humans.

The problem is that most of the time the hatred of people who are labeled 'antisemites' is not directed at a race but at something more akin to a geopolitical entity. I can't say they hate the Jewish religion as thats almost entirely racial (at least according to the rabbis in Israel who maintain that you can't be 'a Jew' unless your mother is Jewish). Rather, the 'antisemites' hate something thats more political/economic than religious/racial or even ethnic. For example, I bet most antisemites would hate white European Jews as much as they would hate black African Jews or Middle Eastern authentically semitic Jews (who anyone would have difficulty telling from an Arab).

The use of the term is further watered down by Jews who use it as a generic insult; I have even heard a Jew calling ANOTHER JEW an 'antisemite', in much the same way as a British person might call someone 'a cunt'.