MMM... Suicide!

It's hard to believe it's been almost three months since my last entry here. Largely it's been a combination of procrastination and having more pressing things to do. But also, there was the fact that while there have been many news items that piqued my interest I have had a hard time lately finding something to put a unique spin on. In matters from the stimulus plans to the War on Drugs, time and again Becky C. has said what I would have said had I thought of it first and had her eloquence. On the subject of the Octomom, Becky made some good points as well, though I think she glosses over extreme irresponsibility of both Ms. Suleman and her doctor to implant the 8 (EIGHT!) embryoes in the first place. Still, she's far from the only irresponsible parent, or the only person being rewarded for irresponsibility with taxpayer funded handouts. And while I think its in the best interest of all 14 of her children to be placed with people who don't see parenthood as a game, taking away someone's children should never be easy for the state.

But anyway, what finally brought me back to blogging was the discovery of a blog called Suicide Food. (I don't want to publicize the blog that led me to this, but you'll find if you look up anti-sex spinster cunt aunt). As a dedicated omnivore, I find the SuFoo site enjoyable in a way the author probably doesn't intend. See, while I understand that while creatures wanting to be eaten do not reflect the reality of today, I do hope that genetecists can make that happy vision a reality some time in the future. Interestingly enough, SuFoo's author, Ben is, like me, not only aware of but also a fan of the Ameglian Major cow from Douglas Adams' The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. While it does seem that Mr. Adams created the Ameglian cow mainly for satirical purposes, it is obviously more moral to eat a creature that clearly wants to be eaten than a vegetable or fungus that we assume has no feelings. Broccoli and mushrooms don't appear to have feelings but neither do clams and mussels (two of the few animal species I have harvested with my own hands).

This does, of course, present a dilemma, sure the Ameglian cow could scold Arthur Dent, and the rest of us, for eating a salad against the wishes of the vegetables but what did he eat (yes the creature was male and was called a "cow", not a bull or a head of cattle; Douglas Adams wrote that not me - so deal!) Even assuming that the cow ate other animals somewhere down the food chain something had to eat something that got its energy from photosynthesis. And, I would find an all an meat diet almost as unappealing as a vegan one. So I hope that someday some bioengineer will come up with plants that can express their wish to be eaten. And they should be able to express joy for having their embroyes eaten unless we never eat peas, corn, nuts or any kind of beans, including the vegan favorite soy beans (is it too much to ask for biotechnology to create plant embroyoes that could express their own desire to be eaten, obviously not all should have that desire since some we will want to grow into the next generation of plants). Otherwise eating seeds, or eating fruit containing seeds that one throws away, is just as immoral as eating eggs. Incidentally, the issue of eggs raises one of the biggest questions I have about the animal rights movement: There are people who are against eating meat and people against abortion. There are people who are against both. Generally I can respect all of their opinions, and can understand why people in the third category would be against eating eggs. But there are also people, from what I can tell a very large percentage of self-proclaimed vegans, who believe there should be no restriction on aborting human fetuses, but consider it immoral to eat the eggs of a chicken. Am I missing something, or am I justified in my desire to feed the people in this last category to the lions?

Well, since these ethical dilemmas have no solution in the foreseeable future, I guess the best that I can do is try to make sure whatever species my food comes from is treated as ethically as possible. To that end, I have decided to link to the Animal Welfare Institute (as for why I am so emphatic about making sure that people know I am not supporting PETA, the reasons are many, though here is a good place to start). I have also decided to link to the site of Temple Grandin. In addition to being one of the best self-help advisers for her fellow autistic people, Dr. Grandin has probably done more to improve the lives of farm animals than all of the people who have tresapassed on farms or broken into labs to "liberate" animals combined.

On the bandwagon

No not Obama's; my feelings about him haven't changed since the election. I'm talking about the Philadelphia Eagles. I use that title because I am not usually that much of a sports fan, my main interest in spectator sports comes from betting on them. My top 5 favorite athletes of all time are horses: Seabiscuit, Secretariat , Smarty Jones, Curlin, and Cigar (and I'll be damned if I can name their jockeys without looking them up, though I do remember that Seabiscuit's jockey was played by Tobey Maguire in the movie!)

Still as a lifelong resident of Montgomery County Pennsylvania it is hard not to get caught up in the excitement. It was similar when the Phillies won the World Series three months ago; an event that I wanted to mention here but never got around to at the time. True, the Eagles still have two playoff rounds to go before getting to the Superbowl never mind winning it, but I have followed the Eagles at least slightly both this season and in the past whereas I hardly knew the Phillies existed in recent years. The point is in both cases there is/was celebration in the air, a good cure for both post-holiday blues and the grimness of other events dominating the news of the day.

I do wonder if I'll still root for Philadelphia area teams when I move to New Hampshire, something I plan to do as soon as financial and job market conditions permit. Of course, in college sports I will still support my undergrad alma matter Villanova - I usually follow basketball there, especially close to and during NCAA tournament time, football not so much, though it is interesting to note that a school with a division I basketball team and a division I AA football team, should see its most successful graduate athlete be a professional football player (I mean no disrespect to Kerry Kittles by suggesting that Brian Westbrook has been a more successful pro-athlete than him, and I would certainly be willing to listen to someone who wanted to argue otherwise). As for my MBA college Drexel, its basketball team has occasionally been a contender and I would probably take pride if any of its teams did gain the national spotlight, though, I have not generally been inspired to root for those teams. I have had other fleeting loyalties to college teams but I'll save that for another post.

Getting back to New Hampshire, I do believe there are some college teams the locals root for but I don't know the details. There are the "New England" Patriots but honestly they are mostly a Boston team, a team that despite their name represents a place that is the antithesis of everything I love about New Hampshire. Anyway, while I do feel more of a sense of identification with the members of the Free State Project than the people who I share a location with by accident of birth in Southeastern Pennsylvania, my fellow FSPers to the extent that they are sports fans are just as likely to be fans of teams from the areas from which they originated as fans of NH area teams. Still, I have a dream of bringing pro-sports teams to New Hampshire in stadiums that are entirely funded by private money. Of course, this would require welfare queen team owners to agree to terms that might allow them to profit immensely but without ripping off the taxpayers which they believe is their birthright. One possibility would be to allow gambling within the stadiums and allowing private stadium owners and team owners to share that revenue. Of course, the sanctimonious pro-sports leagues would no doubt oppose that on empty moralistic grounds (officials in the MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL are, after all, in the pockets of organized crime, much like the politicians who make the laws regarding gambling, prostitution, drugs, etc., making sure those activities are kept underground where gangsters can take their cut; as for NCAA well, again, it will take another post to deal with the scum who run that vile organization).

Anyway "Go Eagles!", if for no other reason than I would like to see if Andy Reid can manage to grow a decent beard by Superbowl Sunday! (I do sympathize, I've grown beards twice before in my life, and when its in that scruffy state the itching it causes would most definitely constitute torture if it was not self-imposed).

PS This post like my last one was at least partially inspired by Renegade Evolution. As such, I have decided to add what appears to be her pet organization - Sex Workers' Outreach Project to my (so far very small) list of links on this blog. I will also be sending them a donation. I know it's not a whole lot but I figure it's a start, and I am giving SWOP priority over other causes I support besides the Free State Project, for now.

By the way, now that football has (or at least had) become a topic of blogging again, I wonder if this will bring any new blog entries from Jill Brenneman. I see she did comment on Ren's post on the subject. It is always good to hear from her. I once exchanged comments with her when she was known as Jill Leighton and was running a radical feminist site known as stopprostitution.org. Even then she seemed very nice and was able to disagree quite agreeably. Of course, a much more hardline antisex radfem chimed in and behaved the way that you would expect a hardline antisex radfem to behave. But Jill while not outright condemning or distancing herself from her vicious colleague made it clear that she did not speak for her. I was pleased, but not surprised when I learned that Jill had left the dogmatic world of antisex feminism behind her.

Sad But True

via Renegade Evolution

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
Yes! We Have No Bananas - Spike Jones

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Everything You Know is Wrong - Weird Al Yankovic

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Rescue - Eve6

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
Bathtub Gin - Phish

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight - Spinal Tap

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Fool in the Rain - Led Zeppelin

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Sick Again - Led Zeppelin

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Crawling - Linkin Park

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Scarlet Begonias - Grateful Dead

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Loser - Beck

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Godzilla - Blue Oyster Cult

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Volare - Dean Martin

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
The House That Jack Built - Metallica

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Jamming - Bob Marley

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Creeping Death - Metallica

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Peace of Mind - Boston

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Freewill - Rush

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Man in the Box - Alice in Chains

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Nitemare Hippy Girl - Beck

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Only Solitaire - Jethro Tull

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Cash on Delivery - Spinal Tap

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
You're My Home - Billy Joel

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Run to the Hills - Iron Maiden

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Rocks - Primal Scream

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Us and Them - Pink Floyd

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Big Balls - AC/DC

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Sad But True - Metallica

Election results - try to keep some perspective

I posted this to a forum discussion and thought it was worth reposting here:

I'm not an Obama supporter (I voted for Bob Barr) but there's no need for hysteria. This country's had lousy presidents before and survived. I would include the current occupant of the oval office in the lousy category even though I voted for him in 2000; at this point no one I know, including many die-hard Republicans think he did a good job. OTOH, the hysterical rants from the left about him being a Nazi, etc. seem silly to anyone not caught up in the hype.

Similarly, that one who won the election tonight is not a Communist. A Socialist maybe, but any socialist agenda he tries to implement will cause a backlash. Then there will be a major Republican sweep of Congress in 2010. And we can once again rejoice in having divided government. That is the best option we'll have until the two-party duopoly is broken.

Election ... zzzzzzzz

OK, since this blog is mainly about politics I guess I should make a commentary about this election before it's over. I said before that I was leaning toward writing in Ron Paul, but that was before he gave his endorsement to a member of the Christian Taliban. I also briefly gave very slight consideration McCain after he picked Palin as his VP, on rumors that she leaned libertarian, but I have since come to see her as just another cookie cutter Republican, and one who answers questions with even less substance than a Washington insider (something I didn't think possible before).

So of the douches and turds still left in the presidential election, it looks as if the least unappealing is Bob Barr. A phony libertarian to be sure, one the Libertarian Party helped defeat in his last senate race because of his excessive Drug War zealotry, he is nonetheless saying all the right things in this race as the LP candidate. Does he believe what he says? Probably not and that would be a problem if he actually had a chance of winning and of governing on an agenda very different from that which he campaigned on. But it is obvious that White House will go to one of the candidates of the two wings of the Ever-Expanding Big Government party, and the best freedom-loving voters can do this year (on the presidential level at least) is send a message. A vote for Barr, of all the candidates running, would send the best message. There are no doubt many good write-in possibilities but none of these is likely to get a large enough block of votes to get any attention. Barr, on the other hand could get a percentage that would tip the balance in some closely contested states. Even where it is not close, like my own home state of Pennsylvania, 2 or 3% of the vote could be enough to give the major parties something to think about, in 2012 especially if the race is tight then. Whether this would move the major parties to do more than give lip service to reducing spending or restoring civil liberties is uncertain, but it is the best chance we have of moving them in that direction. And it is the best chance we have of possibly in the distant future electing a real libertarian president (LP or otherwise).

The One Good Thing About the Election Season

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Never trust a Communist!

Well, it appears I was wrong when in my first post I described Renee from "Womanist Musings" as polite and civil. I was naive in my assessment. While I didn't know that she was a Communist at first, I should have seen the signs (such as her constant whining about "privilege"). Once she started referring to Marx, I should have known that any chance of a reasonable discussion was impossible, as it would be with a Nazi, or any other follower of totalitarian ideology. But I persisted hoping that if I couldn't reach her, maybe I could persuade one of her other readers of the wrongheadedness of her arguments. It's possible that I did and possible that I did not, though, I should have been prepared for what happened - being banned for life without warning, and then being trashed on her blog without any recourse to defend myself.

Now I will admit to crossing a line by bringing up her family. I was reacting to her mistreatment of a self-described stay at home dad seeking her approval. He was reaching out to her and she basically slapped him in the face, saying he because he is a privileged male, there is nothing he could do to earn the right to be treated kindly. Now, I suppose I shouldn't have cared, if this guy was trying to get compassion from such mean-spirited fountain of hate as Renee, I guess he should have known what to expect. Still, I did feel sorry for him and I did wonder if she treated her boyfriend and her sons this way. I also thought that she was being rather high and mighty condemning parents who spank their children, when she is so constantly filled with rage that it is hard to believe that some of that doesn't come out in her own parenting.

So, I made my comments which admittedly did contain some hyperbole. I guess I could have left well enough alone, my concern for the males in her life won't cause her to treat them any better than she does. Still, if she wanted no discussion of her family in her blog, she could have made that clear. It's not as if I attacked her family, just the way that I inferred that she treated them. I could understand a warning and maybe a temporary ban but then for someone following in the footsteps of Stalin, Mao, and Kim Jong-Il, I guess I should be grateful that I was allowed to speak my peace as long I was.