Daniel

I can't be the only person thinking: Where's the good news? It sound like Burger King is still exploiting chickens, pigs, and cows and reproductively manipulating, enslaving, and slaughtering them for human use. Thus, Burger King's philosophy is still that nonhumans are commodities. Where's the progress? If the goal is to transform society towards the vegan ideal then this isn't progress at all. To summarize, the Burger King announcement is, as cartoonists Chris Harback and K Harback say, "Totally Not Vegan!" From "American Vocies" (The Onion): Burger King announced that it would begin buying pork and eggs from farms that do not cage or crate their animals. What do you think? "As a regular Burger King patron, I don't think I could make it any more clear that I don't give a flying fuck what I put into my body."

I had a friend who got the word "strength" tattooed on the back of her neck in Sanskrit. A lot of us wondered if it really said strength. The tattoo artist was a known bigot, so there was a lot of skepticism about what it might actually say. I think if you have a familiarity with a text -- like if a marital art student got the name of their school or art form -- that would be different. But it is questionable why someone would get text that they are unfamiliar with tattooed on their body. Additionally, I think you'd want to have the tattoo done by someone who knows the language. Would you trust a tattoo artist who couldn't spell English to just copy words off a computer print out? I don't think it is any different for other languages.

They had a number of wheat and gluten-free cupcakes at the contest. I think they were made with spelt. Tasted just as good if you ask me. I was told afterwards that one of the organizers from Little Vegan Monsters is seriously allergic to gluten.

Right, there's no such thing as cupcake intoxication. It was the beer and milk I was thinking of. If you ask me even in small doses milk and beer are poisons. Are you sure about never? Everyone dies. Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido, attibuted his illness in later life to salt water drinking contests from when he was a young man.

Wow, veganpotter, you like to live dangerously. Remember that person who died couple months ago because of that water drinking contest?

I like to grill tofu, bell peppers, summer squash, onions, mushrooms, corn, garlic, and tomatos, to name a few. Here's a recipe for grilled tofu that I make about once a week: 1 pound (extra) firm tofu 1/4 cup olive oil 1 lime, squeezed 1/4 cup tamari 1 tsp minced fresh ginger (or 1/4 tsp powder ginger) 1 clove minced garlic Dash of cayenne peper Preperation: Cut tofu lengthwise into four filets. Mix together olive oil, lime juce, tamari, ginger, garlic and cayenne pepper. Marinate tofu in mixure for at least four hours.

Ha, ha. I just posted before I saw those pictures. Of course you're right, Crystal. Now I'm curious to see how veganpotter does under timed conditions, because chewing tends to slow you down. Grimes: (talking about Homer) God, he eats like a pig! Lenny: I dunno. Pigs tend to chew. I'd say he eats more like a duck.

veganpotter, I can't argue with that. You know better than me what you can eat. I was just making an observation about my own experience, which wasn't meant as an evaluation of your own ability. Are you at all interested in robert's YouTube challenge?

Odidnetne, that's true enough. I'm sure veganpotter would do really well in a cupcake eating contest. But we all boasted about our eating prowess on the day of the contest. As someone with a reputation for eating myself, I found the experience very humbling. robert, they have these cupcake eating contests in Portland all the time. That's where the organizers of the New Haven event got the idea. Even if you don't want to compete you should check it out.

It's harder than you might think. I could have gotten at least eight if I had more liquid to wash them down, but I ran out of soy. I doubt anyone could down eight cupcakes in two minutes unless they liquified them first. The person who got 11 cupcakes soaked them in water.

The cupcake eating contest was a lot of fun. The New Haven Independent covered the event here. Here's a couple pictures of me (foreground, left) during the contest with a gob full of cupcake. http://farm1.static.flickr.com/187/434472634_4e92a1de24.jpg http://farm1.static.flickr.com/165/434461882_cab31e0f6d.jpg I got seven cupcakes down in the allotted time. The winner got down 11! (I'm told that 11 is a new world record in vegan cupcake eating contests.)

I wish I knew German, too. (Took over a year of classes and can't speak or understand a lick of it.) Even without understanding the language it still looks like an awesome pro-vegan video. Congratulations, Daywalker. Like the beard.

Alas, I'm back in Connecticut where hugh trucks are still working to clear the roads.

Michael, it was great meeting you and Tiffaney. Thanks for letting us crash your potluck, and congratulations on such a successful Vegan Meetup group. I hope to make it to another one in a couple months. -Daniel

Sweet, sweet cupcakes. Mmmm... http://farm1.static.flickr.com/185/375457607_a11a625de9_o.jpg I hope to attend this. I know there aren't a lot of you near New Haven. (More cupcakes for me . Ha-ha-ha!) But the Little Vegan Monsters folks met at an animal right meet up in Corvallis, Oregon. Anyone here know them?

Cool, maybe we can meet up in the city. I'm actually moving in a couple weeks, but I want to get in another trip or two to the city before I do.

I made a post about this video a few weeks ago in my personal blog. It's very offensive. The video basically makes a joke out of vivisection and uses racist stereotypes about drug use to do it. The following are some of the ways stereotypes like those attributed to the "crack spider" fuel the racist and unequal punishment of people of color: * Although crack and cocaine are virtually the same thing, Congress has assigned far harsher penalties to crimes involving crack, a drug primarily associated with people of color. In 1988, Congress passed a law that created a 100:1 quantity ratio between the amount of crack and powder cocaine needed to produce certain mandatory minimum sentences for trafficking and created mandatory minimum penalties for simple possession. In order to receive a five-year sentence for possession with intent to distribute for powder cocaine, a person must possess 500 grams or more. To receive a five-year sentence with crack cocaine, a person need only have 5 grams in their possession. * Crack is the only drug with a mandatory prison sentence for a first offense simple possession. The maximum sentence someone can receive for simple possession of powder cocaine is one year. * Stereotypes regarding who uses crack cocaine and who uses powder cocaine make mandatory minimums racist. Not only are crack and powder cocaine simply different forms of the same drug, but crack is primarily thought of as a drug used in Black, urban areas. Powder cocaine, on the other hand, is far more expensive than crack and is associated with wealthy White users. * Even though the majority of crack users are White, most people imprisoned because of crack offenses are Black. Roughly two-thirds of crack cocaine users are White or Hispanic, but 84.5% of defendants convicted of crack possession in 1994 were Black, while 10.3% were White and 5.2% were Hispanic. The majority of persons charged with crack trafficking offenses in the federal system have also been African American (88.3%). * Because of this, a disproportionate number of Blacks are in jail. In 1998-1999, Black Americans consisted of only 15% of all U.S. drug users, yet they were 36.8% of those arrested for drug violations. In 2000, Blacks were 53% of those convicted by state courts for drug offenses. From the Political Research Associates fact sheet on "How the Criminal Justice System is Racist," see: Defending Justice: An Activist Resource Kit

I wish. No, I live in suburbia. Rober, thanks.

The first modern vegans were the founding members of the Vegan Society in the 1944. There may have been people similar to vegans before that time, but they weren't vegans because veganism as a philosophy and way of life didn't exist. Thus, first modern vegans were people like Donald Watson and Elsie Shrigley. Watson just passed away earlier this year at the age of 95.

I'm leaving tomorrow and traveling a lot in the next week: Form New York City I'm going to Las Vegas, L.A., Catalina Is., San Diego, Baja, and Utah. Robert, you said you'd send me some info on vegan traveling. Guess you forgot. If you have time, maybe you could send me something before tomorrow.

Hi Merched Figan, I think it is wonderful that you're a feminist, an anarchist and a green/ecology activist, and that you work towards a fusion of those values and practices. I also identify with all the above, although I'm opposed to individualism. (I believe that sexual, political and ecological equality and justice requires transcending the individual ego and identifying with a broader Self that includes all beings.)

dandylioness, you might want to check this out: Iron in the Vegan Diet

amen to that!

Hi VG'06, Thanks for the welcome. -Daniel