Who can it beeeeeeee now?

[matthew]

I can't kill bugs, spiders, etc. (on purpose). Not because I'm grossed out, but because I'm getting flakier and flakier as I get older. Luckily only a hippie on the inside and glam on the outside.

That's the thing... I understand the motivation because I am a obsessive compulsive that worries about everything... I used my hatred of big industry to help me get off the booze (even stewed I was terribly conflicted about helping support such a particularly cruel segment of the capitalist system)  ...


I do not kill bugs. Ever. Except by accident.

Okay, I will kill mosquitoes when they are trying to bite me. But that is it.

[matthew]

Part of my ethos--and this isn't meant as a challenge to anyone, just as an explanation of where I'm coming from is that I'm just another animal in the food chain. I eat some animals. Some animals would like to eat me.

Of course, it would be nice if we could treat the animals we raise for food better. I view that as a situation that will improve incrementally. I could probably make a better effort to make choices that would nudge that along. But like a lot of people who live paycheck to paycheck, the idea of being able to fret about the living conditions of chickens I might eat is just a Portlandia sketch.

I don't fault anyone who does. In fact, I hope to have enough money to be able to afford to do that myself one day.

I recommend a book to all (that I only recently read) titled "The Vegetarian Myth" by an ex-twenty-year vegan named Lierre Keith. (the veggies HATE her, but she remains a radical animal rights activist/environmentalist/feminist who raises most of her own food, and has not changed her opinions concerning industrial food production)

Anyway, in some discussions about how plants and the earth eat and require death, there are some great lines in there about how 'Animals in a food chain aren't exploiting each other, we are only taking turns.' and 'We are all predators and then prey'.


Reminds me of why I love Isaac Brock's lyrics... "Some day you will die somehow and something's gonna steal your carbon"

Also makes me think of this song somehow...
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/A37jnw4DQls" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/A37jnw4DQls</a>

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

Soy (which I eat in moderation, but once ate far too much of) is actually quite awful for you and should be avoided by almost everyone not trapped in pre-industrial villages facing famine.

What about fermented soy products like tofu, miso, and tempeh?

[Tripp]

http://soundcloud.com/tripp-lamkins/honeypatch

Matt Besser has been using Dragoon songs on his podcast IMPROV4Humans..  we figured he might be running low on songs so we decided we're gonna try to give him something new to use every week..  First up is a REALLY old BOB song that our buddy Harwell wrote when he was about 12.. Somehow we've always stayed in touch with the song and Bobby loves playing it.. So...

[Just Some Girl]

Soy (which I eat in moderation, but once ate far too much of) is actually quite awful for you and should be avoided by almost everyone not trapped in pre-industrial villages facing famine.

What about fermented soy products like tofu, miso, and tempeh?

And actual soy beans, edamame, etc.?

I'm guessing Matt's referring to texturized vegetable protein (TVP), the fake bacon, etc. stuff, but could be wrong.

I'm not a big fan of a lot of vegans (and vegetarians for that matter) if they're the pontificating sort. I do what I do because it's right for me, my own personal politics/ethics (which are none of anyone's business), because I believe in doing as little harm to others and the world as possible, not because I want to feel superior. I just am. I simply don't talk about it. Deal with it.

[Just Some Girl]

Given that I smoke and take prescription meds and so on, I certainly can't say I'm not contributing to Big Tobacco/Pharma and more. I really can't say anything to anyone that is judgmntal.

And, yes, i realize this contracdicts "little harm to the world" post above.

I'm a mass of contradictions.


And I'm probably totally deluded to boot, and am totally judgmental.

[Just Some Girl]

http://soundcloud.com/tripp-lamkins/honeypatch

Matt Besser has been using Dragoon songs on his podcast IMPROV4Humans..  we figured he might be running low on songs so we decided we're gonna try to give him something new to use every week..  First up is a REALLY old BOB song that our buddy Harwell wrote when he was about 12.. Somehow we've always stayed in touch with the song and Bobby loves playing it.. So...

Awesome fun!

[Just Some Girl]

This is a collection of empties from a period of approximately three months. (Just to give you an idea of how much I feel I should not judge anyone, ever.)

The two garbage bags are full of cider and beer cans (mostly cider). I decided when my prescriptions indicated "avoid alcohol" it meant avoid a lot of alcohol, so in the fall I started drinking cider (6%) instead of wine (minimum 12%) or the hard stuff. So even two cans of that a night can add up over the course of a few months...   (When I ran out of my prescription in December, I decided I had a free month of drinking whatever I wanted, but mostly still tried to be reasonable, with cider.)

Anyway, there were 160 cans (mostly cider) at 10 cents each, the bottles are worth 20 cents. Jeff and I got $38.10 in total. Which doesn't come close to the cost to buy the booze in the first place, not to mention the cost to our livers.

[Just Some Girl]

Is that photo depressing or what? I should go out to drink more often, so the accumulation is not so obvious

[matthew]

Soy (which I eat in moderation, but once ate far too much of) is actually quite awful for you and should be avoided by almost everyone not trapped in pre-industrial villages facing famine.

What about fermented soy products like tofu, miso, and tempeh?

And actual soy beans, edamame, etc.?

I'm guessing Matt's referring to texturized vegetable protein (TVP), the fake bacon, etc. stuff, but could be wrong.

I'm not a big fan of a lot of vegans (and vegetarians for that matter) if they're the pontificating sort. I do what I do because it's right for me, my own personal politics/ethics (which are none of anyone's business), because I believe in doing as little harm to others and the world as possible, not because I want to feel superior. I just am. I simply don't talk about it. Deal with it.

I meant to write tofu. Soy (in any form) is terrible for my own digestive system (wicked gas almost every time I eat it - and I am otherwise stinky flatulence free), but the way tofu is processed makes it a pretty dreadful food that is only really been eaten in slight moderation...except by the extremely poor of Asia (hence the famine line). The idea that it is some sort of magical Asian wonderfood is mostly a marketing ploy.

I never accused you, dearest Karen, of being one of these assholes. Again, I am a near-vegan vegetarian myself... and I don't think that I would be so bold to deny that I am a preachy asshole in a lot of regards...   but I don't jump on people for their food choices.

I love miso and edamame. Miso doesn't really give me gas...edamame I tend to overeat, so it sometimes does, but not as much as the TVP/TSP shit, most of which is cut with wheat gluten these days, anyway. And I cannot eat gluten. 

[matthew]

Is that photo depressing or what? I should go out to drink more often, so the accumulation is not so obvious

I don't know, I'm mostly impressed.

"This." "It's complicated."

[Moetown]

I guess one reason I get pissed off at Matthew is that he makes me have to reassess the way I'm perceiving the world. I actually appreciate that that.

[matthew]

Damn, that's an awfully nice thing to say, Ev. I can assure you that it is a reciprocal relationship. I wouldn't be friends with any of you if you did not stimulate or challenge my preconceived notions or prejudices. My greatest fault is likely that my feelings tend to override my thinking and my statements tend to find their origin in one extreme or the other, and I often present myself as intolerant or a aggressively rigid thinker (which I am often ashamed of being). I think back to how I was in 1999 (near the beginning of the "Grifters board" era) and I am horribly embarrassed. Embarrassed at the same time that I am proud of how I have grown... "moderating" sounds like an ugly word, but I credit everyone here for their moderating effect that they have had on me... because I was being a damned fool.

Not to say I am not still a damned fool a lot of the time. But less so, perhaps.

[matthew]

Oh, and I meant to say that I HIGHLY recommend Steve McQueen's Shame. I also recommend his film, Hunger, but Shame is a superior work.

[matthew]

Oh, and...shit: