Why I'm Vegetarian

I think it is about time to talk about why I am vegetarian.

In truth I was never really not a vegetarian, my "meat eating" days consisted of Chicken McNuggets, Fish Sticks, and Hebrew National Hot Dogs... I just never liked eating things that tasted like Meat. I couldn't eat KFC because there wasn't enough bread to meat. I have had one piece of steak, three hamburgers, bits and pieces of various other flesh... Tuna Fish has always made me throw up....

My parents used to think I was just picky and I would "grow out of it." But instead when I grew up, I decided I didn't want to eat meat anymore. And sometime around my 13th birthday I one day just stopped eating meat.

I am a vegetarian, because I do not want to live off of the flesh of another sentient being. From childhood, something my mother now lists as the reason for my vegetarianism... I never wanted to kill anything; always took out bugs instead of crushing them, never used bug killer, never put ants under magnifying glass... I just don't like killing things unless I have to (my policy is simple, if they are using me to feed on or hurt me, they are dead otherwise live or let live).

My morality prohibits me from benefiting from death, from gaining sustenance on death. I don't have a problem with meat eaters, vegetarianism is right for me, it allows me to sleep at night, but I don't believe that it is for everyone or the morality for everyone to accept...

I wish that we did not treat animals so terribly, putting them into small cages, cutting off beaks, torturing them... But I also do not believe that the world should all become vegetarians.

That being said it is important part of my life. The lack of eating flesh makes me feel healthier, both physically and emotionally

Say Goodbye to Roe...

In 5 to 10 Years Roe will be gone... With Roberts for some reason cruising to successful nomination and Rehnquist lucky to hang onto another term, there is nothing to stop the court from overturning Roe v. Wade.

The conservative court will not want to just overturn rights to privacy even to protect the almost alive (the only beings Conservatives seem to concern themselves with protecting) so they will of course make it states rights issues... invalidate Roe. They can stand on the precedence of defending women's health by making exceptions only when the life of the women is in danger.

Some states will quickly act to protect people's rights to their bodies, but some will not and we will have a scenario where Women in Virginia will be driving up to New York just to make already tough decisions...

Roe will be GONE IN 5 to 10 years

But that is just the beginning. Even if Robert's upholds some sort of Roe protections looking at his limited Judicial Record we can be assured that any environmental protections will be gone.

Roberts wrote against the Endangered Species Act... cause why would you want to defend almost extinct species... As well as always siding with Corporations when environmental protections stood in the way of possible development.

Affirmative Action... he has been admittedly against that. Gay marriage... yeah right... Separation Church and State... that will be a joke.

This court and the federal courts are in trouble from Judicial activism, unfortunately it is not for the protection of American Citizens. Roberts nomination is the climax of Bork's inspired Federalist's Society which is part of the right's strategy to corporatize and exploit the American People.

PS. I have not talked about the Rove treason because while it is fun and I am sure he will go down it is honestly just a distraction. If this Administration has proven anything it is that being found guilty of treason is not going to stop him from serving in future Republican administrations. The Supreme Court appointment of a 50 year old closet Scalia is much more pressing for the future of this country.

Scotty Died

Scotty Dies

I know it s late, but I have to comment on the very tragic death of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott from Star Trek.

This may have just passed by most peoples' radars, for the son of a Trekkie this was big and tragic news...

Scotty was always my favorite, not just cause he lovingly gave the best catch phrases "I'm giving her all she's got..." "Beam me up Scotty..." But he was also the fat guy...

See in 30th century space according to the rules set out by the show, the food generators created perfectly balanced food both tasting good and giving daily balance. And yet there stood Scotty, barely fitting into his tight Star Trek outfit. It was that loveable ability to outwit the future's technology and be that cuddlie fat man that just mad him endearing to a tag along trek fan (when your young you don't have a lot of choices on what you do for fun with your parents, especially when you are an only child)

So here is to you Scotty... while all the other characters on the show where ok... you were always the one I knew I could hang out with out of the show...

From Yahoo:

Once, at a convention of astronomers,

James Doohan was asked what it felt like "to be beamed." The actor who'd abided by the order, if not the exact words, "Beam me up, Scotty," countless times on the Star Trek set reported that it was "very pleasurable."

"You end up beaming all over the place," Doohan said, per StarTrek.com.

Doohan, who sweated it out in the engine room of the USS Enterprise as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on the original Trek TV series and, indeed, found himself beamed all over the world via reruns, videos and DVDs, died Wednesday at his home in Washington state. He was 85 and had been battling

Alzheimer's disease and, most recently, pneumonia.

THIS JUDGE NEEDS TO BE STOPPED

All we need to know about Bush's nominee Judge John G. Roberts which by the way could not sound more menacingly like "the man," is that he is in the Federalist Society...

This perked my interest because all of Bush's controversial and very luny tune nominees like Janice Rodgers Brown and the like were federalist society members...

So I did some digging and this is scary stuff...

THIS JUDGE NEEDS TO BE STOPPED

According to their website (which is sadly deceptively mainstream)

"Law schools and the legal profession are currently strongly dominated by a form of orthodox liberal ideology which advocates a centralized and uniform society."

Further

"The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order. It is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be."

Something they repeat often

But the website does not do justice the breading ground for this extremist thinking. We need only look at its backers to understand and the thinking it has produced...

This group first came to prominence during the Clinton impeachment because the Prosecutor Ken Star (a member) used his network of lawyers through the organization to win judicial reviews (by fellow members) and lawyers supporting Tripp, and Paula Jones all (members) through the organizations efforts they were able to push the impeachment case...

In 2000 the Washington Monthly did a look at the organization, the article is scary:

Jerry Landav writes, "...now one of the legal theories the Federalists are pushing could make regulation by federal agencies unconstitutional in some cases and--if carried to its logical extreme--be the Federalists crowning achievement in their unspoken campaign to change the face of law and politics in America."

The organization was founded by lost tribe member David Horowitz. And now led by Sen. Orin Hatch and Former Federal Judge Robert Bork. Need to know more here is what they say...

"The Federalist Society has made important contributions to the nation's understanding of our constitutional heritage." Vice President Richard Cheney

"The Federalist Society has done more for the health of the law than any organization I have witnessed in my career." Judge Robert Bork

"[T]his organization has played an important part in sparking a dialogue between lawyers and judges, and even at times amongst judges themselves...by assiduously avoiding the temptation to take positions, or to lobby and engage in political advocacy. Resisting that temptation takes discipline, I am sure, but rest assured that you have made the right choice and are providing a genuine and unique service in so doing. Stay the course!" Justice Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court

Sounds nice but what did he say at a convention for the Federalist Society?

"Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas attacks the American Bar Association for being too socially conscious--advancing a slate of liberal positions 'that go beyond representing the interests of lawyers as a profession.'"

What we can expect to see:

"Perhaps the networks most far-reaching victory in recent years was a 1999 decision by a Federal appellate panel of DC Circuit judges in a case called American Trucking v. EPA , which stunned clean-air advocates by rolling back EPA standards covering smog and soot. The decision was based on the principle of "non-delegation," a rigid and archaic reading of the Constitution, which holds that Congress retains all legislative authority, but not the power to delegate regulatory power to executive agencies. C. Boyden Gray, a member of the Federalist Societys Board of Trustees, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in American Trucking. Gray was also good enough to share his insights on non-delegation with the Federalist convention in November when he moderated a panel discussion entitled: "The Non-Delegation Doctrine Lives!"

One extraordinary thing about the American Trucking decision was just how well it served private industry at the expense of the public interest. A commentator writing in a Federalist Society newsletter crowed that American Trucking will save industry "in the neighborhood of $45 billion per year." Perhaps that is true--and perhaps industry would save even more money if the courts decide to eliminate, for example, the Food and Drug Administrations jurisdiction over food and drugs. But the social costs would be enormous."

Being Home

I went home to PA to see my parents for my Birthday.

To make the occasion even more special one of my best friends Jen Best who shares the most important day in the year, July 12th as her birthday as well came home. Her now longtime boyfriend (it seems weird to even say that) had a party in honor of his parents 25th Anniversary.

Jen's Boyfriend Jeremy said something that was so striking.."he is like you are part of the family and I am glad your here." Now I have been best friends with Jen since the 9th grade. I was already part of her family. Close friends with her younger sister, loving to hang out with her mother... they had always been more generlous and open than I deserved. But here isthe boyfriend and he embraces me as family. It was more touching then I could ever describe.

And it hit me... for allI bitch about the racism and smalltown feel to New Triploi and fogelsville my hometown, I really love it there.

Beign in DC with all the fake people, let me back up... Jacquie and I were discussing what we disliked about DC and one of the things I hate most are the transplant people. People driven here because of the seat of power ebing situaated in the city. That is fine, that is why I came to DC, but they are so fake and unintelligent. Not impressive considering they are the leading minds running our great country. Most importantly they are all to often self-0bssessed and over inflated.

Not the case when I was home. Jeremy's family was warm and truely welcoming. They enjoyed themselves... they understand what is important... beer, good times and family... I am sure they have their own problems like the rest of us... but it was such a welcome change from DC...

When you live in a place like Fogelsville, its understandable why you want to get away when you can. But now that I am gone I really appreciate the beauty of my comunity and the people who inhabit it. Its kinda funny how that works

Birthday Week

The Birthday Week is Over,

But Here are some Highlights

http://feedlindsay.com/

http://www.beawitness.org/index.php

London Attacks: Call on Bush to Actually Do Something

I a good citizen of the US call on my President George W. Bush to actually do something to protect me and the American people.

In truth nothing has been done... not because we have failed to secure scores of nuclear materials now floating around the black market; the ports are still unchecked; the borders poris; or Iraq has created a pool of men and women training to kill Americans. I mean those and the very real sad truth that at any time what happened in London could happen here in DC (maybe NYC as well, I don't live there)

I believe the Terrorists are just lazy or stupid, becuase the so called "security" for the majority of us city dwellers (and really all americans) is non-existant.

For example, after the bombings they put dogs at our subway systems's center... metro center. But if the dogs smell a bomb at metro center I guaruntee you its to late, cause that bomb is going to go off. There should be dogs at major entry points at the tend of the lines where a terrorist would get on, not where they would set off the bomb. NY Transit Authority is putting cops on every train and bus, that at least makes sense....

I heard a guy say that tye have technology to quickly screen for bombs as people pass or on the mass transit systems, but it is to expensive... well this is a matter of protecting the American citizenry...

Either they make the technology affordable for governments or, the US govenrment uses imment domain as a need to protrect us, and puts the technology out there...

This is just one example there are to many to name... but all I am saying is...

I AM TIRED OF TOUGH MEANINNGLESS WORDS... I WANT SOMETHING TO ACTUALLY BE DONE

UPDATE FROM THE AP: "US Security Found to be lacking"

London Terror

In the wake of the London Terror attack I really wondered what the hell the terrorist where thinking... No really... (I know that for most conservatives such a thought seems ridiculous as Karl Rove would say "we need to kill the fuckers not give them therapy", but just as I don't believe that the President is a stupid man bound only by a rigid ideology that blinds him to any logic, I to believe that the terrorist are not stupid and can have an end game and ideas on what they want to accomplish regardless of how misguided and sick it is)

After Live 8 and continued efforts to alleviate poverty, the world was united... Although the G8 has lots of faults, and the plan floating around for debt relief was just a first step in real progress, the opportunity for that step was right in front of us.

Poverty that effects some of the poorest Muslim nations, and here is a chance to alleviate that pain.

Why detract from this possibility? Why put all this work of world unity to the back burner it makes no sense.... I guess I will never understand it.

I will never understand trying to change the world through violence(for what I am not sure... No one really believes they want this free wielding anarchic world yet dictatorship or however Bush describes it... I think they probably want less western influence and the spread of Islam as the world religion but not the stupid rhetoric that is dragged out around these times) What message has not been conveyed by the world during the Live 8?

We want a say... We want an end to inequality... We want the world community to come together and we want you to listen...

What did the terrorist do except distract from that message... make saving their Muslim brothers that much harder...

I just don't understand... and all these innocent lives and a city reeling and for what...

My heart goes out... I hope they catch the stupid bastards... and I hope we find out why... why they are so stupid

I'm Back

Christian Coalition?

Was the President Talking about the Christian Coalition?

"murder in the name of a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom, rejects tolerance and despises all dissent. {sounds like the right-wing to me}

Their aim is to remake the Middle East in their own grim image of tyranny and oppression by toppling governments.... "

Ok now he is talking about the neo-cons here right?

Sometimes its so sad its just funny....