Sknydpr

I have no "junk". Sorry. I just despise that euphemism. I'd do it, even if I weren't in relatively good shape. But then, I'm a nudist.

Does it have to be a band, specifically? I like a lot of bands, but I couldn't live without Beethoven. I could hum or sing everyone else (has horrible mental image of singing Dazed and Confused at the top of his lungs), but the Ode to Joy is a little too complicated for that.

Yeah, they're both very dark, both literally and figuratively. I like Proyas enough to forgive him for I, Robot.

Thanks, it's one of my favorites.

It's a good movie. Directed by Alex Proyas, who directed the original The Crow. (The good one. ) But then he also directed I, Robot, which I didn't much care for.

And I thought you liked mine! http://sknydpr.com/images/kilt.jpg I don't care what other people think, one way or the other. I wear it because it's comfortable. (Good god, I'm glad I don't have a full beard anymore...)

I don't think you understood him, he's putting non-vegan vegetarians in the same boat as everyone else, again. Must be nice being perfect. I'm sure all the animals I didn't eat the six or seven years I was lacto- appreciated my efforts.

I thought some of you would enjoy this brief article, I know I did. My ex-fiancé, who knows firsthand how I can be when asked if I eat fish, sent it to me. Some vegetarians are queer fish August 4, 2005 Michael O'Reilly has a message for all you fish-eaters out there. Most writers like to build up to the point they're trying to make, but what I've got to say is so important that I'm just going to bung it into the second paragraph so you don't miss it. Are you ready? Here goes. Vegetarians don't eat fish. There. I've said it. And most readers are now going, "what's the big deal, I knew that". But an annoying percentage of you are saying, "well, SOME vegetarians eat fish ..." Sure, and some teetotallers drink beer and wine. Look it up in the Macquarie dictionary. The entry goes on about vegetable and farinaceous matter, before stating "refusing meat, fish, etc" - because, and I'll whisper it here, a fish is not a vegetable. Now it's true that, by the dictionary's definition, the true vegetarian is a vegan, someone who eschews all animal products. Many vegos stray towards dairy or even eggs. But a fish, which you catch with a hook, which fights to remain in its environment, and which then flaps and gasps its last in a layer of bloody water at the bottom of the boat? Not very vegetarian. Nevertheless, vegetarians are always being asked if they eat fish. The word is becoming so debased that you can go to dinner at a friend's house, having warned them of your diet, to be told, "Oh, I made a tuna bake especially for you". It's pretty awkward having to decline, especially when your host says, in bafflement, "Well, a lot of vegetarians eat fish", as if you're just being unnecessarily unreasonable. So who is to blame? Meat-eaters can be blamed for a lot of things (supporting animal cruelty and the destruction of Australia's fragile environment are two things that spring readily to mind), but they're in the clear on this one. No, the fault lies with the wannabe vegetarians, the people who think it's something cool to claim, but who couldn't be bothered to go the whole hog, as it were, by forgoing the whole animal kingdom. There are other words they can use to describe themselves. Vegaquarian is clever and catchy, or even pescatarian (peskies for short). "Dietary poseur" is perhaps too vague. Or how about just, "I don't eat meat"? Although it can be argued that fish is a meat, "meat" and "fish" are separate on most menus, so we can live with this differentiation. But please, can we keep the fish out of vegetarian? The next thing we know, similar words and phrases will cease to have meaning. "I'm a non-smoker, but I always puff on a cigar after dinner." "I'm sedentary, but I go for a run every morning." "I'm celibate, but I have sex now and again." You see how annoying it can become? Seriously, I've had enough. Sooner or later, some waiter in a restaurant with nothing but animals on the carte is going to respond, as they so often do, to my query about vegetarian options by asking me if I eat fish, and it's going to be the last straw. I'm a pacifist, but I might throw my menu at him.

Damn, lost another friend. At a vegetarian conference I attended in Portland several years ago, I witnessed a man smack a mosquito. I leaned over and whispered in his ear (jokingly), "Sorry sir, you have to leave now." Sorry guys, mosquitoes, ticks, fleas and other parasites exist only to weaken the herds that they infest, including the human herd. If they get within reach of me, they die. And I will chase a cockroach down. I don't honestly believe ANY of them are self-aware, and I'm certain that hive-mentality insects (bees, ants, etc.) are not. Non-parasitical insects and arachnids I leave alone, even if they're annoying me. Spiders get escorted back outside.

Yeah, I keep hearing about this certain case of a family be charged with child abuse for malnourishing their kids on a vegan diet. Just seeing if anyone knows whether it is actually true ... I don't think you clicked the link.

This case?

No. What is it? Well, in a nutshell: Cassandra was a person in Greek mythology who had been given the power of prophecy by one of the gods. However, another god was angry with her, so while they couldn't take the power away, they cursed her so that no one would believe her. Cas·san·dra (kə-săn'drə) pronunciation n. 1. Greek Mythology. A daughter of Priam, the king of Troy, endowed with the gift of prophecy but fated by Apollo never to be believed. Someone with a Cassandra complex is someone who feels that they have something important to say, but can't get anyone to listen to them. I strongly believe that eating animals is completely unjustifiable in this age and society, but when I tell people why, they essentially just shrug their shoulders and turn away.

Oregon, where the official state animal is the banana slug.

You forgot one! If you correct people's pronunciation of Oregon with the tagline "...it hasn't GONE anywhere!"

Good on ya, Topher! I found this baby Mourning Dove on Monday and kept it safe 'til I could take it to a wildlife rescue center. I actually expected them to tell me to leave it out to die, since Mourning Doves are a dime-a-dozen down here, but they were as concerned as I was. http://sknydpr.com/images/birdy.jpg I volunteered to help out at the center, while I was there.

in stupidity. From a body modification (piercings, tattoos, other) website I belong to: "I'm vegetarian and a member of PETA, but I'd like to raise my children [future-children of course] meat eaters, however I'd like to find an independant farm to purchase meat from as oppose to mass." Ya gotta just hang your head sometimes, don't you?

Actually Cgirl was quoting me, and I don't believe I made that inference. I was stating that carnivorous animals are incapable of doing wrong because they are incapable of making moral decisions.

So, then, what you are suggesting, is that if lions were capable of making moral decisions, then they would choose not to eat meat? They would die, because their bodies are designed to eat meat. And if frogs had wings, the wouldn't bump their asses on the ground. Come on, guy. Even ignoring the hypothetical, that's a poor argument. Lions are, as you've said, strictly carnivorous. Humans are not only fully capable of living solely on plant matter, rather the current level of flesh consumption in developed countries is far beyond what our bodies are designed to be able to handle. Which is precisely why I specified "people that I come into contact with". Yes, there are people who live in climates that won't support plant life. The Inuits are a prime example; their diet is almost completely animal-based. Are they immoral? Not in my opinion. (And I'll leave it at that.)

I must say that I give a great deal more gravity to the word "evil" than apparently others here do, but I do not hesitate to tell people that I come into contact with, and therefore have the same resources available to them as I, that eating animals is wrong. Undeniably, indefensiby wrong. No matter the intellect or education level, the response always boils down to either "I don't agree," or "I don't care." Neither are defenses. You don't need flesh to survive, ergo you are killing simply out of selfishness, ergo you are doing wrong. This question always annoys me. You should know, and probably do, that non-human animals are not capable of making moral decisions.

10. The Goonies 09. The Goonies 08. The Goonies 07. The Goonies 06. The Goonies 05. The Goonies 04. The Goonies 03. The Goonies 02. The Goonies 01. The Goonies Just kiddin'. Saw Chesty logged on and had the urge to tease her for some reason. The Goonies would only be one of my least favorite movies, not all ten.

Yeah, I was noticing that. I'm old; what's you're excuse? Actually, I think it's just proof of the quality of some of those bands. I got my ex-fiancée into AC/DC, Led Zep, Pink Floyd, and Tom Waits, and she's not even as old as you are. How'd I forget any Pink Floyd?! I can't pick any particular favorite songs, Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall would be my favorite albums by them.

Songs Kashmir - (the one and only) Led Zeppelin Rock and Roll - " " Paradise City - Guns and Roses Locomotive Breath - Jethro Tull The Kids Aren't Alright - The Offspring Thunderstruck - AC/DC You Shook Me All Night Long - " You Oughta Know - Alanis Morissette damn near anything by Tom Waits any and all symphonies, sonatas, and concerti by L. v. Beethoven, but especially the Ninth Symphony. The world would be incomplete without the "Ode to Joy". Kinda cheated at the end there. Movies To Kill a Mockingbird The Godfather The Godfather Pt. 2 The Crow Heat Raising Arizona Donnie Darko Creator (80's romantic comedy, kinda hard to find) Ragtime Pulp Fiction

Anyone familiar with this group? I just was reading a little about them in an article concerning the owners of the Houston Rockets (who are AR supporters), but I can't find a website, or much of anything else, on them.

I'm sorry, I tried doing broader searches and still nothing. I have to say that I was skeptical about this stuff in the beginning, and more so now. But I got the impression that this is kind of a last resort, so I don't know what I would do in your position.

Koll, I barely know what supersets are, that's a bit more advanced than I've gotten this early. I just work those two groups, in individual exercises, on Monday. I think I'll just finish what I didn't get to, tonight. I like Michael's advice, too. Thanks, guys.