Vegetarianism

[Malawry]

What do you make out of vegetarianism?

If you had been a vegetarian for many years and decided to start eating meat again, what meat would you start with and why?

[Mister_Cutlets]

Bacon! Not a few vegetarians have told me that its heavenly smell, so redolent of smoke and salt and aromatic pork fat, was as a siren song to them in their years in the grassy void, and that their first re-entry to the world of meat came with a crispy slice at their local diner. Of course, nothing could be more impossible than to imagine Mr. Cutlets as a vegetarian.

Still, I have great sympathy for vegetarianism as a moral crusade. It is a horrible thing to kill a young animal, even in the most painless way. To kill them the way they do in modern slaughterhouses is something akin to evil. And yet I wouldn't forego meat for even a single meal if I could help it. Meat really is murder, just like Morrissey said. But I am in so far in blood that sin will pluck on sin, as the bard says.

What gets me is vegetarians who claim that they are heathier than meat-eaters. Why do they all look like cancer patients then? When pursued for its own sake, Malawry, vegetarianism is a perverse creed. Its proponents are haughty and sanctimonious, and must surely lack basic human passions. Even when they don't feed the baby lettuce, something sinister is always brewing -- and I don't mean potlikker.

Leave the dark side, Malawry! Come where the meat is sweet!

your pal,

Mr. Cutlets

[Malawry]

Oh, I am not a vegetarian, I haven't been one for some time now, but I am still deeply interested in the subject.

Over the course of the decade or so that I was a vegetarian, I never once looked like a cancer patient. But then I believe it is possible to be a decadent vegetarian. Indeed, I identified as one.

[beeblebrox]

It's true there are some vegetarians that look like cancer patients, but it's mostly because they don't know how to eat. Just like there are some carnivores that look morbid for the same reason. I know a vegan and it doesn't look like he's dying. Stereotyping is a bad thing.

I'm a vegetarian but still would eat bacon, the real thing. I don't consider that a recidivism rather than eating what I want. I just happen to eat less meat than others do, once a month on average, and I think I appreciate them more. It seems most carnivores eat them just by rote. I also eat higher quality meats than many I know... no insipid boneless chicken breasts for me.

[Pan]

I know some very fat people who are strict vegetarians.

[Fat Guy]

I know some very fat cancer patients.

[Cusina]

HA, fat guy... I was just thinking of all the beautifully robust and vibrant cancer patients I know too. Especially those who are a few years out from treatment, many look much better than carnivore me. Can't tell me Lance Armstrong is whimpy looking.

Social crusades that include food are very interesting. Food choices are so much at the core of being human. Having the ability to make your own choices is cool. Having a philosophy and sticking to it is good too. It's even better if it makes some sense. What I can't deal with is the woman I occasionally see (and try to avoid) who feels it is her duty to convert EVERYONE to a veggie state. She assumes all meat eaters are just ignorant of the gory details. Enjoy your beliefs, I can respect them, just respect mine too.

mmmmm Bacon.

[Pan]

Roger that, Fat Guy. I'm sorry to say that I understand that there's some correlation between being overweight and getting cancer. But I don't want to go too far off on a tangent here.