michaelhobson

With the current state of our nation, there isn't much to celebrate.

You've got a good memory Rob. Hard to believe that was only 3 years ago, seems like a lifetime. It probably does to you too, that's just how it is when you make sure your life is full to overflowing, 3 years can seem more like 10. http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b79/michaelhobson/Charlottesville%20Veg%20Fest/Michael.jpg

haha, you haven't seen me cook! Ha, I've seen pictures though! When are we all heading over to your house for dinner?

You're on the right track, learn to make these at home so you can control the fat and sodium. Restaurant curries often contain more fat and sodium than you would ever even consider putting in at home.

The way I look at it is that if someday we have eliminated all human and animal suffering in the world, and it's time to sit down and seriously discuss the potential of plants and single-celled organisms, it will be a great day for the world. In the meantime I will continue to work for animal's rights, respect and nurture the life of plants, and not spend much time worrying about single-celled things with no brains that are too tiny to see.

Thanks Rob, it's going pretty well so far: Total posts 779 -Total topics 107 - Total members 26 I remember those days on VB&F.

Yeast are single-celled organisms. Plants are much more complex and interesting. Why extend rights to single-celled organisms before plants? Or are you going the breatharian route?

I'd reccomend adding Vegecat to anything you make http://www.vegepet.com/forcats.html Read their recipes and instructions here http://www.vegepet.com/vcatinstr.pdf

I don't know why, but they do just seem to love those yeasty smells, as they will also eat fresh baked bread.

yeah, I was thinking of trying some out on my "baby", Mojo-jojo Haven't met a cat yet that doesn't love the stuff. They will even rub their face in it and roll around in it coating their fur. They treat it like catnip.

(Puts pride in pocket) Wow, I'm jealous really! A vegan communal living situation is a serious ambition of mine, but really in the long-term plan stage right now. I'ts much harder to pull off with kids and step-families etc., but I will eventually get there. My ultimate goal is a city converted apartment building and a country retreat, with the opportunity to move freely/live/work from either as a member desires. Looking at between 15 and 100 members as ideal. Now back to planet Earth. You guys and your communal house rock. Keep us in the loop on how things progress, especially love little tidbits of daily life and candid photos like Marcina recently posted.

Hm, good stats Richard. I would go with the U.S. Department of Justice stats over any other http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/tables/weaponstab.htm They show gun homocides for 2005 at about a 2:1 ratio, so double the number commited with guns as compared to all other methods. Honestly though, I don't think guns are the real issue here. I'm with "I'm Your Man" on this one. Some people in this nation are just determined to kill each other and they will continue to do so with or without guns. Other nations like Canada have the same or more guns and just don't kill each other with them.

Choose "Crime" in the first dropdown, and then there are various stats available titled "Gun violence > Homicides >" The overall rates are here http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_gun_vio_hom_ove_hom_rat_per_100_pop-rate-per-100-000-pop

The overall homocide rate in the U.S. is 9.1 out of 100,000, with 3.6 by firearms and 5.5 non-firearm. So, really "logic" here does not hold up to statistics. * www.nationmaster.com is a great site for all sorts of international stats.

Compare it to here in England or France, Germany, Australia as examples & I think you'll find peace must mean something different to you than to me. DaN, have you ever been to the U.S.? At over 9million square kilometers (compare to the UK at 241,000) and 300million residents, you really can't just make general statements that apply to the entire population or land mass. Areas with high rates of violence, gun and otherwise, are concentrated in tiny ghetto pockets in big cities. Unless you happen to live on one of those areas, you will find gun violence and violence in general isn't some daily worry or part of everyday life. It's like taking London's worst neighborhood, and saying that is what England is like. It just isn't the complete picture at all. I've spent a couple of weeks in Manchester, England and found it very much comparable to my city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania here in the U.S. It's obviously just a very limited observation, but life in the two post-industrial cities is very similar in my opinion.

No, it's not a given at all. I'm not talking about simply the number of gun crimes, but the per capita rates and percentages of people affected. Clearly you've never lived in a rural area if you think people do not have contact with each other. People still get together, there are still small towns where people congregate.

Wow! Thanks for the pics! Top of the world feeling really. I think you have to really be at peace with yourself to experience that sort of thing and understand the serene peaceful beauty of it all. It says something about your character. Awesome!

Damn, I'm pretty well crunked tonight and that's just scary!

Simply not true, the U.S. is internally a very peaceful country, with far higher per capita gun ownership in rural areas than in urban areas, and the rural areas have very near non-existent gun crimes. Canada has much higher per capita gun ownership than the U.S. and far lower gun crime than the U.S. I'd reccomend Bowling for Coumbine, a film by Michael Moore as a good starting point for understanding guns and gun violence in the U.S. and Canada.

Thanks for the thoughtful post Rob. I don't think any more can really be said about this subject. There was my original indignation at Potter's disappearance that started this thread, and you have now explained your position(a 2nd time) as best as is possible. Some folks may catch this thread late and have something to add, but really I consider it settled. Personally, I'm neutral on it at this point. Potter is still your friend and mine. There was some issue, apparently ongoing, that a lot of us just didn't see or know about. A decision was made and life goes on. Potter is not hard to find if you want to keep up with him. I do want to clarify something for DV, I don't know if it was said in this thread or the other. My new forum at theveganpeople.com was not created by or for angry ex-VB&Fers. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I've been tossing the idea of a new forum around for years and just recently got around to it. It was up and running before I had any idea Potter had been banned. I have another forum that has been up for almost two years, http://vegan.meetup.com/399/boards/ which is very successful, but also doesn't meet all of my needs. So, in no way is my new forum related to any negative aspect of this forum, other than a few ex-members taking up residence there. My real inspiration to start a new forum now was the SUCCESS of this forum. After years of trying to become a bodybuilding and fitness forum, it seems to really be succeeding in that. This is a GREAT thing for Rob, I know how hard he has worked, I've been here since day one. I'm just not as in to fitness any more, which makes 90% of the content here irrelevant to me, so I created another outlet for myself.

...Astrocat's account has been deleted too. I won't say a damn thing about it, because I'd just be over-reacting without knowing the whole story, right?

My diet is based almost entirely on rice, beans, vegetables, fruits and nuts. I do eat some bread, some tofu and processed soy and even seitan on occassion. I self-limit because I feel better when I don't eat large amounts of these foods. I do use fortified soymilk daily. I think Beforewisdom hit the nail on the head here, Mike Mahler has fallen in to the current soy hysteria. He has even blamed soy for making men in to whimps and homosexuals. That and he reccomends milk to some of his clients and has used his web site to promote certain milk producers that he thinks are treating their cows nicely. You can read the endless torrent of Mike Mahler nonsense on veganfitness.net http://www.veganfitness.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7484&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You're right on this Lean. I started this thread, now if you would all just let it die a peaceful death.

Mr. Sensitive is in the house. Trying to pick up where Potter left off?

I didn't like the fake meats at first, not to mention there weren't many around. But after 20 years, meat is such a distant memory that it doesn't bother me at all. Some of the Chinese stuff can be a little freaky but I love it, don't live in an area any more where that stuff is much available, so really enjoy it when I get the chance. There isn't really a moral issue with it. I did worry that my kids would have trouble, having grown up eating Boca Chick'n patties and burgers, veggie dogs and stuff. But our girls are 5, 7 and 8 now and haven't ever had an issue with it, a LOT of questions around age 4 for all of them, but no real issues. They are all well aware that the stuff they see their friends eating at school may look the same, but they are really eating dead animals.