How Do You Like Them Veggies?

Ok.  After a bit of updating on the Mudflats situation, I am going to blog about something that’s been bothering me for a while.  There is a tangential tie-in, but not really.  There doesn’t have to be; it’s my blog.

AKM wrote a beautiful parable today.  Read it here.  I want to follow-up on my uppity women post of yesterday.  In many of the blogs which have dealt with the outing of AKM, I keep reading a common thread that if you are a blogger, you should expect to be outed.  If you can’t take the heat, as the saying goes, get out of the kitchen.  What is even worse is that some of these commentors (mostly male, I must point out) dismiss the fact that AKM might be in very real danger because of this outing.  One yahoo even said that any blogger would pay money to get the free pub AKM has gotten because of this.  This was on the liberal blog, Balloon Juice (though, admittedly, he used to be a rabid conservative–the blogger, I mean), to boot!

First of all, AKM already has all the pub she needs.  Second of all, bullshit.  Again, a man deriding the very real dangers that females face.  Remember, she isn’t even the one who is doing most of the blogging about the outing, and this idiot is saying that AKM is ‘whining’ about being outed.   Third, some pro-Palin website has dedicated itself to publishing all of AKM’s personal info, including her home address (complete with Google map) and place of business.  I bet even this idiot might be able to see how that could pose a possible threat to AKM, if he ever decided to engage his brain.  Please read Choolie’s comment from yesterday’s post to see the read dangers female bloggers can face.

Back to the commenter from Balloon Juice.  In addition to the aforementioned idiocies,  he throws another of my conversation-enders into the mix.  He says that now she will know how Joe-the-Plumber felt–and my brain shut down.  I have heard this meme, as well.  What happened to AKM is the same thing that happened to Joe-the-non-Plumber.  If a person really believes this, then there is no room for conversation.  Not-Joe the Not-Plumber PUT himself in the spotlight, and MCCAIN chose to hold him up as the example of your average Joe.  If someone did break into private files to find out more about him, then that person should be punished.  If, however, the right are saying that trying to find out more about Not-Joe the Not-Plumber in order to verify what he is saying is an invasion of his privacy, then I have no desire to talk to said people.  

Anyway, things will progress from here.  Alaskan politics are still mucky, and AKM is still muckraking.  

Here, however, I am going to poke my stick at something else.  My cousin said that in a message to me.  Actually, she said she was glad I was still poking sticks at people.  When I asked her to expand on that because I loved the image, she said I liked to poke sticks at people and observe their reactions.   My only quibble is that I would say I poke sticks at people, knowing there will be a reaction.  I don’t think I’m trying to provoke said reacion; I just know there will be one.

So what is pissing me off?  Vegans.  Why?  Do I have something against not eating animals?  No, I have nothing against vegans who want to be vegans.  What I do have something against is the all or nothing mentality that some vegans (and more extreme vegetarians have).  It all came to a boil when my friend, Natasha, set her status on FaceBook as something like, “Just went to the farm.  Brought back calf liver, calf heart, and an old rooster.  What should I do with it all?”  There were some other offals mentioned, but I don’t remember which.

One woman said not to eat the calf heart because it would make her very sad.  That was a bit odd, but not too strange.  I wrote down that I loved liver–which I do–and to invite me to the innards party.  The next day, another woman told Natasha to change her status out of consideration to her vegan friends.

That’s what flipped my switch.  I wrote, “It’s YOUR status.  Keep it!”  I thought that was too mean, though, so I changed it to, “Mmmm, liver.”  Which, in a way, is even meaner.  I have also heard vegetarians claim that it doesn’t matter if an animal is free-range or not because it’s still murder.

To me, that’s like saying it doesn’t matter if you are kidnapped, tortured, brutalized, sexually assaulted, flayed alive, and burned to death or shot once through the heart.  They are both murder.  Well, yeah, but the first is a whole lot worse.  

Here’s the other thing, some animals are carnivores.  We are one species that eat flesh.  Sure, we can eat other things, too, which makes us omnivores, but that doesn’t mean don’t have the urge to eat a bit of meat now and then. 

I have to give a little background.  Many years ago, I decided to host a holiday party.  Why, I have no idea, but I did.  I was taking tai chi at the time (different teacher than the one I currently have), and many of the people I invited to my party were from the tai chi group.  In the mix, there were vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores.  I made two set of dishes–one with meat and one without.  Sticky rice, long life noodles, and dumplings  (I think).  I also made Kung pao chicken–one batch spicy and the other not spicy.  I did this over the course of two days.

I found out from one of the vegans that he didn’t like sticky rice because it stuck to his teeth.  I think I might have told him to fuck himself.   When I told Natasha what he had said, she brought a metal toothpick for him to the party.  Heh.  Anyway, he brought something of his own to make for him and the other vegan.

After that party, I vowed never to host another party again.  It’s not all his fault, but he certainly didn’t help.  Oh, he didn’t like mushrooms, either, which made things even more difficult.

Anyway, I don’t have any vegan friends right now.  If I did, I would have no problem going to a vegan restaurant when I ate with her.  I would have no problem with her not wanting to eat meat.  I would have a problem with her telling me never to mention eating meat or writing about it on, say, my blog.  I used to hang out with the APLB back in the mid-nineties (Asian Pacifica Lesbian Bisexual), and they had a potluck one day.  Of course they did.   We’re Asian.  That’s what they do.  They decided to make it vegetarian which meant that no one could bring meat dishes.  Needless to say, I didn’t go.

Here is my point.  I don’t like anyone telling me what to do, especially not someone who wants to present him or herself as morally superior for whatever reason.  I can’t stand anybody saying if I do not support his/her cause completely, then I am not a moral person.  

I love animals.  I hate the thought of all the unwanted animals in the world or all the cruelty we bestow upon them.  However, I do recognize shades of gray.  Animals that roam freely around Natasha’s family’s farm who are then quickly killed and eaten are not the same as animals that are forced into positions of inactivity for most of their lives (and other inhumanities) so their meat remains tender.  If someone can’t see the difference or acknowledge that mammals are omnivores, well, then, there’s another conversation stopper for me.  I am willing to discuss the issues as long as their is an exchange of ideas.  If either or both sides are one-hundred percent certain as to his/her/their stance, then debate is useless. 

P.S.  I just want to make one point.  I eat 9-11 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, so obviously, I am not anti-vegetables.