Good day, bloggers!

   One thing before I get to what I have to say, I’d like to make an announcement: it’s Ben’s birthday today! Felicitous wishes of another year of life passed to you, cherished acquaintance. I’m sure he’d appreciate it if you contacted him in some way and wished him a happy birthday, but only if you mean it.

   Now, on to my topic for today.

   There seems to be a mathematical equation involved in everyday life. It affects me, you, everyone around you, those we interact with, etc. It is like the Matrix: it is all around us, penetrating everything. Here it is, first as an equation, then the explanation: f(O) = 1/M+K. The strength of an opinion is inversely proportional to the openness of a person’s mind and the amount of knowledge they have. In other words, stupid people (or people with very little seeming knowledge) have the strongest opinions, and evidence cannot sway them. (I hope I did the equation correctly. I’m sure someone will tell me if I didn’t.)

   There are people in my family, on which side I refuse to say, that are of the opinion that Valerie and I being vegan is an evil thing to do. We hear 3^rd person accounts, from reliable sources, that we are seen as ‘mentally deficient (my interpretation)’ or deluded, or weird. Of course, these same people won’t come and talk reasonably to us. No, they have to vehemently disavow and distance themselves from us in order to keep themselves...clean, somehow. If we make something to eat, inevitably the question arises ‘Is it vegan?’ If it is, they won’t have anything to do with it. Never mind that we have gone to great effort in order to make something suitable for EVERYONE, and not just the flesh-eaters. Nope, it is classed as trash and dismissed just as quickly.

  The infuriating part is that the people who hold these opinions are the most vocal in their disdain of anything different, i.e. they are the loud-mouths in the family. So, rather that others coming to Val or I with questions about veganism, they hear the blabber-mouth and decide that she is right. These people are a closed-minded lot, but extremely sure that all that they say and do is correct. There is no second chance for us to make yummy food for them in order to show them that they are mistaken that vegan food is better than lesser food., because they are staunch in their bastion of thought.

   It also doesn’t matter that I could quote scripture and verse to them in order to support my position; no, I learned in the mission field that fighting verbally with someone in order to prove a point is useless, at best. So, I am left with no other alternative except to blog-post, and simmer in silence.

   However, the people who are the most open-minded are the ones who are more educated, and have had opportunities to encounter situations that help them to see things from a different point of view. Seeing things from a different perspective is called consideration, isn’t it?

  My challenge to you who read this, and to myself, is to educate ourselves so we can be more understanding of people. Rather that making an immediate blanket dismissal of something, find out first what the motivations are for the behavior, then see the effects of the behavior, and then judge accordingly. After all, ‘By their works shall ye know them’.

 

   OK, a few things to link today.

   On a sad, depressing note: Richard Wright, keyboardist for Pink Floyd died yesterday from cancer.  Son of your mother!!!!! He was only 65?!?!?!?! GAAAH! I honestly sat here for 5 minutes, at work, and did nothing as I tried to digest that he was gone. In my heart I hoped that the Floyd would tour one more time. Now it won’t happen.

   Second thing is a link that Ben sent to me about the effect of eating rotting, decaying flesh on the environment and global warming. Here it is.

   I will echo Ben’s sentiment when I say “DO IT BECAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO!!!!!!”

   Now I will propose something to reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses being expelled that is so shocking in its simplicity that it will confound, stymie and otherwise make your cognitive functions grind to a smoking, shuddering, wheezing halt: we make people pay full price for the carcasses they consume. So, no government subsidies to animal torturers, no water benefits, no tax breaks, no anti-defamation laws (which by the way are illegal. What happened to the first amendment? Free speech and all that...). People pay the full price for their putrefying skin and muscle. If they want it, they can pay for it.

   If they had to do that, there would be no more meat industry, because the cost would rise so high that it would be unattainable to anyone, even Bill Gates. Know why? Because if you factor in the cost of land that has been destroyed by grazing, and the water pollution caused by the feces (ßI changed that word from what I had there previously. You should be proud of me for my restraint.) of cattle being hosed in to our waterways, and the air pollution from the fossil fuels burned, and the methane from cow farts, there is no unreasonable price that could be set. I don’t know about you, but I like having clean air to breathe, and clean water to drink. Can you put a price on that last lungful of air you just inhaled? How about when you are thirsty, but all you could get is a glassful of tap water that has fecal particulates and bovine antibiotics in it? Sounds great, doesn’t it?

   If they want it, they can pay for it. Oh, the cost is priceless? I guess you won’t get your burger then, will you?

   Well, here is an update for all of you blog-readers out there:

   I now work from 5PM until whenever, so I don’t have a lot of time to post anymore. It’s very frustrating to see or read things and have neither the time nor the inclination to write a scathing, rage-filled diatribe. I also don’t want to just post a link to something and say “This sucks and it really makes me mad...” I want to do justice to the topic I choose. It also bites that I can’t post pictures from work. *blah*

   Now, it is time to choose a suitable topic for today...

   Ah yes...

   “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine...”

   The Large Hadron Collider goes online today. True, it is only starting to send a hyper-accelerated beam of particles in one direction. Soon it will be creating 2 or more streams in opposite directions and then colliding them to study Planck/quantum events and leftovers...

   "I don't know how you can say that. Although I will admit that the possibility of a resonance cascade scenario is extremely unlikely, I remain uncomfortable with the---"
   "Gordon doesn't need to hear this. He's a highly trained professional. We have assured the Administrator that nothing will go wrong."
   ...
   I think I’ll keep my aluminum T-ball bat close at hand just in case they open up an inter-dimensional portal and the headcrabs (from the game Half-Life, where the above quote is from. That quote makes me smile, because I know what happened after...) or the legions of Hell (Doom) come spewing forth. Maybe right now would be a good time to stock up on semi-auto rifles and powerful handguns...Food and water also...