vegan judgement and cold jackets

that super-important link that i posted on friday, the one that i really hope you watch, made it through to a couple of friends of mine, at least one of whom is usually very much against these ideas and who found himself posting a "thank you" to dr. gregor in the comments section. curious, and for no apparent reason, i found myself idly scrolling down through the comments to find his, and i was irritated by a number of the others that i passed.

one commenter went so far as to make what i hope was intended as a joke about someone's tea-cup icon: "hopefully not coffee with MILK!!"

and another: "i mean all the meaty commercials make it so sexy... gotta have it! they'll go to their graves with meat in their cold dead mouths!"

seriously? please watch this (you can just skip on through to 4:16). you can replace "non-smokers" with "vegans". it's true - we're all going to die. and every human has the right to live his or her life in whatever manner they choose, even if that means dying younger. shit, if i had to choose between greater risk of a heart-attack or cancer and the kind of life that some online armchair commentators live, i'd stick with the former. there's nothing worse for humanity than excessive risk aversion.

concern for other people? it's not your business what other people do to themselves!

the bottom line is that preachy veganism is the primary turn-off for meat-eaters. there's nothing more offensive than self-righteousness prickery: are you preaching? are you dictating? are you crying out against the meat machine? then you're the worst promotion for veganism imaginable. just chill out, let everybody make their own choices, hopefully based on informed opinions. go do something practical with your noble intentions instead of harrassing people, like become an organic farmer or take on the meat industry directly instead of its customers.

to quote bill hicks: "i'd quit smoking if i didn't think i'd become one of you."
too damn right.

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in other news, it appears that germany is doing a really bad job of making the transition from fossil fuels. i think i bitched before about how counter-productive their halt on nuclear power is; regarding abundance, safety, and the environment, nuclear power is the best option we have at the moment (aside from thorium).

what we should be doing, in my opinion, is harnessing the effects of global warming. apparently we can convert heat into electricity, combining specialized solar cells and other fancy technology.

has nobody considered the possibility of heat-powered air-conditioned clothing yet? that would be awesome.