The Breathtaking Effects Of Cutting Back On Meat

by Kathy Freston

From the Huffington Post...

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:

• 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;


• 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year;


• 70 million gallons of gas--enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare;


• 3 million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware;


• 33 tons of antibiotics.

Everybody gets upset when somebody raises this point. They are afraid that somebody is going to take their steak away from them.

This isn't the case at all. Anybody can argue the validity of the statistics, or the health benefits of vegetarianism, or any other nit-picky thing that they can come up with.

Unfortunately, the point of arguments like this isn't to convert everybody to this dark religion known as vegetarianism. Rather, the idea is that when you consider the impact that the food you eat has on the world around you, you begin to make more careful decisions about what food you put on your table and in your mouth.

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I rarely agree with Catholics...

I have to applaud John Dear's article in the Catholic Reporter titled, "The Only Diet for a Peacemaker Is a Vegetarian Diet." He makes arguments based upon Jesuit thinking that fall flat for me, but his thinking related to vegetarian lifestyle and its positive effects on agricultural sustainability, the environment and my ethical well being hit the mark. I'll be sure to give up meat for Lent next year if the Catholic Church stays this progressive.

Factory Farming: As bad for the environment as it is for you

Don't take it from me. Listen to the experts who say that non-sustainable farming practices hurt public health, drain small communities, abuse animals and pollute the environment according to 2 and 1/2 years worth of research performed by Pew and Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health.

This report doesn't point out the notion that everybody should be vegetarian overnight. I can wait at least a few years before you join me on the dark side. What it does highlight is that you should have a better understanding of how the food you eat impacts everybody's health. It can impact species by creating drug-resistant bacteria strains. It can pollute the planet. It also can damage the soil.

The phrase goes, "Think globally; act locally," and nowhere is this rationale more appropriate than on your dinner plate. Just say no to the slop from the McCorparations. The impact extends beyond the quality of food in your kitchen and impacts the quality of life across the planet, from water and air quality to considerations of your karma after you have decided to eat an egg salad sandwich sourced from the above pictured torture den.

The factory farms that thrive today can't sell a product that nobody is buying. Take care in the manner in which you eat, because the law of unintended consequences says these seemingly innocuous decisions can lead to a disastrous conclusion. The impact from deciding to eat local items farmed by capable artisans producing veggies and (gasp) meat can indeed influence the quality of life for future generations. Click the links in the article to see what a bunch of people with far more education than myself think about the issue.

A Pun in Hand is Worth Two in George Bush

You're either with us or against us. Never has this statement rung more true than when the entire party ran away from Bush and his policy as quickly as possible. Maybe the Republican Party is full of terrorists, because it seems they're all against Mr. Bush.

Christopher Hitchens penned a tremendous piece for Slate about the impending crisis for the Kurds in Iraq. On the heels of regional strife comes a new enemy straight out of Turkey. Kurdistan is as unlucky a proposal as it gets. It gets even worse that they (unluckily) have to depend on a U.S. President who couldn't spell Kurdistan if you gave him the first five letters. I say give the Kurds Kansas and make those people move elsewhere. They haven't done much with it in the 145 years its been a state. It's time for a new beginning.

That aforementioned President is proposing a 50+ year plan in Iraq that mirrors the U.S. involvement in Korea. Here's hoping the Democrats have a plan that will get us out of Iraq in 48 years at most (just in time for the Chelsea Clinton Presidential campaign).

Doctors have successfully turned mice skin cells into stem cells, and they believe they could perform this transformation on human cells. This takes the stem cell debate out of the pro-life arena and gets it into a more manageable forum. Hopefully they can work on some islet cells to fix my diabetes and some nerve cells in the brain to fix Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's Disease. While they are brewing up these brain cells, it might be helpful if they give some of them to our mentally deficient President and let him pass them around to the administration. The extra brain growth might help Gonzales and Libby remember some things, to be sure.

One of those pesky things that the administration will have to remember is whether or not they have secretly imprisoned 39 people on a human rights list. I keep hoping that blog journal entries are not the type of activity that gets one sent to secret prison. If anybody deserves secret prison, it's Paris Hilton, who is now out on house arrest instead of being scared straight in an unidentified cell in Afghanistan.

The immigrant legislation plodded on with its tenuous support, built upon a 49-48 vote that cut key measures out of the bill. It is interesting that the vote even might have changed if a couple other Senators showed up to vote. I vote that Congress should stop wasting time with immigration legislation and start tackling some real issues. Hopefully some of the newly recognized immigrants can come up with a better plan for an Iraq exit strategy. I'd vote for them if they could.

Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel continued their feisty little tango over global warming at the controversial G-8 conference in Heilgendamm, Germany. The odd couple have vastly different approaches to addressing climate change. Perhaps a ninth voice could talk some reason into W, because Merkel's aggressive German is not soothing the savage beast and his brutish reason.

The daily dose of weird news starts of with renowned architect Frank Gehry designing a playground in New York City. The creator of the Guggenheim Museum in Spain should add a whimsical twist on a childhood favorite. If I go, I'm definitely using some of the newly developed Dutch powdered alcohol before I get on the crazy slide.

Randy Savage and Oysters--The Ultimate Afrodisiac

The truth is that if I had a pet monkey, I would probably either teach it to smoke or attack Green Bay Packers fans. What better way is there to show your love of the Animal Kingdom than by teaching wildlife how to puff away on tobacco while attacking cheeseheads? (Go ahead, PETA...I dare you to challenge this irrefutable fact!)

Many news outlets led with news that Emperor Bush is proposing goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. My first suggestion would be reducing the hot air coming out of your mouth about the war on terror, a move that undoubtedly would put the U.S. in compliance with the Kyoto accord. At a minimum, one can hope that it would be a more productive move than California's effort to eliminate fireplaces in new houses.

Chances are if you have checked your e-mail in the past that you received some form of spam from the King of Junk Mail Robert Soloway. Spam Master Jay was charged by federal prosecutors with multiple felony counts. He should spend the rest of his life clicking through Viagra ads and offers to split a Nigerian widow's inheritance by wiring his account number over the Web.

Jack Kevorkian is returning to civilian life after his eight-year prison sentence for participating in assisted suicides. He is returning to society a little late to assist people like Don Imus and Michael Irvin in their already orchestrated career suicides.

Video footage of kidnapped reporter Alan Johnston surfacing gave new hope to those who worried about the his safety. Alex Rodriguez was first in line to volunteer himself as trade bait after his past week topping the tabloids, so hopefully something works out for a courageous man who put his life on the line to report the truth.

Slate today covers the ascendancy of wine and the rapid decline of beer sales. The clip made by Milwaukee's Best that features a few doofuses blowing up a bottle of wine with a Beast cannon is hilarious. Influential wine critic Robert Parker and his oak-loving palate adorning U.S. Airways tray copy is one of many signs that ramming mass produced Milwaukee and St. Louis swill down our gullets isn't the most effective way to market your product.

In conclusion, the CBS clip covering Viagra-laden oysters might be the funniest clip I've seen in some time. Possibly the only thing funnier that that would be the left-channel/right channel mix-up of Justin Timberlake and "Macho Man" Randy Savage. The only thing that could top those two would be Savage delivering his signature elbow drop right to the middle of Timberlake's smarmy face.

Fed Up with the New Hippies

Miss U.S.A., like much of the rest of America, is falling down on the job. Luckily she picked herself up and ignored the boos. Watch the above video and see if she did as well as Joe Torre at shrugging off criticism.

Lawmakers in Washington are aggressively pushing to turn the old big-bad polluter coal into a new eco-friendly fuel of the future. Who knows if robbing Peter to pay Paul will work? Why it's none other than the same parties who promised to get America out of Iraq (a.k.a Democrats) and to win the War on Terror (a.k.a. G.O.P.). If they say it works, then by golly it must work.

George Bush (he of the fighting variety) has decided he can't wait for months worth of U.N. approvals to go to war in Iran. Instead, he's going to try something he should have tried long ago and turn up the pressure on Sudan. Obviously, based upon his performance in Iraq, Bush is going to spend at least two weeks reading about the troubled region before rushing headlong into an invasion.

Speaking of happenstance invasions and semantic blockage, U.S. military commanders in Iraq are drawing back on the effusively praised accomplishments promised by Commander in Chief Bush, settling instead for more modest measures of accomplishment. It will be interesting to hear them explain the "Mission Accomplished" banner. My suggestion for the euphemism that best refers to the situation is, "Not the worst possible fuck up."

If the Bush camp can count one single victory out of the war effort, they can at least say that they defeated Cindy Sheehan. You can't win them all, George, and sometimes when you win, you still lose.

On my never ending quest to separate the wheat from the chaff, the L.A. Times published an editorial criticizing the sincerity of Eddie the Ambulance Chaser (a.k.a. Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards). Any report that cuts on a guy getting paid $55,000 to lecture on poverty in America deserves a mean-spirited attack on character. One down, Giuliani and company to go.

Salon is overloaded with cool topics that typically get overlooked. They have a great dialog with a panel of experts on colony collapse disorder and the honeybee problem. They also gave everybody more reasons to hate Republicans detailing millions of dollars worth of money made from inflated student loan interest rates. The only thing the Republicans have going for themselves at this point is that many people were so crippled by student loan debt that they will be forced to join the military in lean financial times. The G.O.P. is hoping that their voting constituency will be overseas and/or out of their voting district during the coming election, keeping the Republicans in office. This should help explain their unwavering support of the war effort in Iraq.

In media news, photographer Jahangir Razmi was given a Pulitzer Prize he was awarded 27 years earlier for anonymously taking a photograph of Kurds being executed in Iran. This inspires me to keep pulling for Buck O'Neil (and my personal favorite Ron Santo) to get the better-late-than-never vote this year, and I'm disinterested in whatever rules are keeping them out. There is a commissioner and a veterans committee for a reason.

The funny stories burn like fire, led by the wife of Google's founder spearheading an effort to test through DNA evidence provided by a CEO in a spittoon whether Warren Buffet and Jimmy Buffet were actually related. Some people really do have too much money.

The old hippies that live in Haight Ashbury district in San Francisco where they used to do drugs are fed up with the new hippies and their rampant drug use in the old hippies' new investment neighborhood (or something like that). They should try sending them to Indonesian prison, where police shut down a fully operational methamphetamine laboratory. And they say people don't learn to work in prisons!

Smile When You're Down

No matter how bad the circumstances (being arrested), nor how atrocious the haircut (killer mullet, dude), it's always good to be able to smile in times of adversity. Smile on while the blog dishes out the skinny on a world full of adversity.

Slate leads with deeper analysis of testimony by Monica Goodling. The Slate take is that Goodling handled herself well in testimony in front of a mob of bloodthirsty lawyers and made both parties look like buffoons. It's amazing when an inexperienced young lawyer does a better job in a legal quandary than does Alberto "Convenient Amnesia" Gonzales, the highest ranking attorney in the land.

Despite all the wrangling in Congress, Americans are strongly behind the proposed immigration reform that currently sits before your local Representatives and Senator. Based upon the waning (if non-existent) support for the war in Iraq coupled with continuing government incompetence, expect the legislation to be shot down.

Every college and high school kid on the planet should be excited by the new customizable options that are expected to be allowed for inclusion at the social networking site Facebook. Now, instead of wasting 14 hours a day blathering on about how they hate their economics teacher, discussing how sweet their significant other is and announcing their weekend plans in a static, pre-determined social network, users will be able to blather on about how they hate their economics teacher, discuss how sweet their significant other is and announce their weekend plans in a user-generated social network. How refreshing!

One of the stranger stories of the day hands down is the Village Voice story about eco-bar Habana Outpost. Apparently, according to the pictures and the story, people help save the environment by wearing nipple slips and smoking cigarettes. NYC is trend-setting in the love of fads that are so ironic that few people realize how ridiculous they really are. I'd go at least once.

I'll finish with another piece in Slate that detailed how federal prosecutors estimated the value of an enormous drug bust. This tool may also be valuable in calculating the price of Jason Giambi's speed habit.

Luol Deng torches Heat...film at 11.

Luol Deng torches Heat...film at 11.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates stopped just short of setting a withdrawal date for Iraq. As soon as Iraq gets the sectarian violence under control, trains troops to patrol and protect the country and finds a cure for Chagas disease, Gates pledges the American forces will leave (a welcome addition after their performance in Haditha). He refuses to mark the calendar because he wants your children's children's children to be paying for this exercise in democracy for years to come.

The Iranian high court exonerated six individuals who killed five people that were deemed to be "morally corrupt." If that defense were permissible in the United States, how many Baldwin brothers would we have left, really?

Speaking of Iranian/U.S. relations, part-time musician and full-time comedian/conservative war monger/Presidential candidate John McCain was winning friends and influencing people when he delivered an impromptu rendition of the Beach Boys' song "Barbara Ann" with the lyrics "Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran." That's a great way to win the voters who won't vote for John Edwards after his vigorous campaigning in Second Life video games. You can't win them all, and with these masterminds vying for office, everybody involved loses.

Apparently it was illegal for a deranged psychopath with a propensity for stalking college girls and a history of writing literature with references to incest and murder to purchase a hand gun. It was also illegal for him to buy two hand guns after his stint in the care of mental health professionals. Of course, these factors plus the Virginia Tech mass murder are not enough to get the Republicans or the Democrats to talk about gun law reform. Oh well. At least they'll still carry voters in the South.

Ohio University continues to dominate the (bad) news. OU graduate James Filiaggi sent in a last minute appeal for clemency after the governor refused his appeal from the murder of his wife. I haven't seen a Bobcat get beat up by the legal system like this since...football season.

In environmental news, a Stanford study determined that ethanol-powered vehicles would pose a threat to human health if widely used. They suggest moving out of the L.A. smog and to keep burning fossil fuels like a good little consumer.

In governmental news of the strange, NASA is becoming the new Post Office with a standoff that ended with a Nasa-employed gunman killing an engineer before turning the gun on himself. This comes a month after the diaper incident, so I'm thinking that the ranks of NASA aren't much better than the ranks of Republican Presidential candidates.

I don't know much about this particular case other than the fact that the guy is accused of some heinous crimes. Just looking at his mug shot, something tells me he will be found guilty.

Finally, I haven't spent any time hyping Pitchfork Fest, but since Slint, Sonic Youth and the GZA will be performing entire albums on Friday while a host of other indie mega acts fills up Saturday and Sunday, I should start now. As somebody who went last year, I guarantee it will be $50 well spent.

When Satire Bites, Bite Back

With times more trying then ever, Americans need to find more outlets for relaxation. Leave it to our leaders to find a way to smile with pain and pitfalls surrounding their every move.

It only took $400+ billion and 60,000 casualties for the Washington Post to figure out that there was no connection between Hussein's Iraq and al-Qaeda. In other startling news, the Post also determined that the world is round, that the pope is Catholic and that Elmer Fudd will never catch that rascally rabbit.

America is planning to release the five Iranian diplomats it captured in Iraq according to a New York Sun report. The gentlemen will be sent back with specific instructions not to take over Iraq until after the United States abandons the country.

The military went on another of its strong recruiting efforts. Corey Andrew Powell, an openly gay man, was approached by the U.S. Army because of a resume he posted on Career Builder. After inquiring sarcastically about whether gays were allowed to serve in the military, Powell received back caustic e-mails that included remarks in the incendiary all caps format that read: " YOU ARE DEFINITELY UNQUALIFIED, NOW TAKE YOU GAY SELF SOMEPLACE ELSE WE DO NOT TOLERATE GAY PEOPLE LIKE YOU IN ANY PART OF THE MILITARY." and " YOU HEAD OF FTO THE GAY LAND OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO MORALS AND GET RID OF YOURSELF. PERSONALLY I THINK BEING GAY IS DISGUSTING AND IMMORAL." That was definitely not an Army Strong response.

In Somalia, European diplomats were investigating allegations of war crimes levied against participants in a battle between Somali and Ethiopian forces in the capital city of Mogadishu. President Bush plans to step in and lend assistance after he conquers Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea and Sudan. He also might take time to eat lunch before he jumps into the fray.

In the great United States Florida is beginning a policy to allow all felons but " convicted murderers, sexual predators and 'violent career criminals'” to vote in upcoming elections. The sex offenders, while they can't vote, help showcase Florida's commitment to rehabilitation for criminals in their fancy housing facilities for offenders under causeway bridges. At least the Bush White House will have somewhere safe and democratic to go in 2009.

On the other coast, the L.A. Times forecasts drought and Dust Bowl-like conditions in the Southwest because of global warming. This means that by 2050, Los Angeles will not only seem like the shittiest place on Earth; it actually will be the shittiest place on Earth. At least you'll be able to keep track of the change with the Christian Science Monitor's handy dandy Global Warming Web site.

Big automotive business is struggling in Detroit, which has prompted billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian to bid for the Chrysler portion of the German Daimler Chrysler. Reports indicate he is paying one-eighth what the German company paid for the automaker. I don't know how you say "I'll take that disaster off your hands while you slink away into the sunset" in German, but I'm sure Kerkorian's translators have that covered.

Baseball season brings the story of Creighton pitcher Pat Venditte, an ambidextrous pitcher who gets batters out throwing right handed and left handed. Chances remain that Venditte could strike out Reds outfielder Adam Dunn right handed, left handed or merely by kicking the ball in the general direction of home plate. In Cincinnati, the town is in need of better pitching after the Wild Thing Vaughn performance of Mayor Mark Mallory.

Desecrating all that is sacred is part of the music business. However, let me be the first to say that the plan for Oasis, the Killers, the Kaiser Chiefs, the Fratellis and Razorlight to record a tribute version of the Beatles' magnum opus " Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is a bad idea. Oasis already tried being the Beatles once...and failed. Let poor John and George rest. What's next, Carrie Underwood and Clay Aiken re-recording "Billie Holiday Sings"?