Guilt-Free Eating (Cross Posted From Hometown USA)

Since I've decided to turn Hometown into a cult of personality blog, it's important that any unsuspecting victims who wander through here are aware of the what and why of my diet. We're all narcissists now anyway, otherwise Twitter and selfies would not exist. Would they?

For the past 3 months, I've been subsisting (well, apparently, since I've lost only 7 pounds) on a, 99% of the time, vegetarian diet. Initially the reason was to lose weight and 7 pounds is better than nothing. But, this is an inactive time of the year and that was mostly during the cookie season. So many cookies between Thanksgiving and New Years! So we'll see how it works out when the freezin' season is over and gardening begins. Aside from wanting to appear buff for the beach this Summer there are health considerations. With that in mind I'll throw in a plug for Forks Over Knives, a DVD full of vegan propaganda, if you'd like some convincing of the health benefits. I love to eat meat. Bill Clinton Loves to eat meat. If Bill and I can do it, anyone can become an herbivore. But don't think just of yourself, or in this case myself, since this is my cult here.

You don't have to have the sensibilities of a PETA devotee to appreciate that animals raised for food in this country don't have the best lives. Bluntly stated, they're tortured from birth to death. Buster's Law does not apply to them. I've known that for a long time, but have happily rejected the cognitive dissonance. Admittedly this was not my overriding reason for the change in diet, though, and I'm not going to try to shame anyone into giving up meat. And besides, those animals are getting their revenge through the saturated fat, hormones and antibiotics you're ingesting. So, rather than harp on how cruel we are to these creatures, I'll get back to why it's important for you, my "follower," to abstain.

I want to live in a country and a world that's not polluted beyond hope of renewal. I've moved beyond the urge to copy and paste large swathes of the internet and basically claim it as terra incognita. So, just go to the link. In short, as your beloved leader, I implore you to make this planet healthier for me and for yourselves as well.

 

 

Jake Tapper - "I don't really think..."

Political Punch or "Tapper's drunk too much wingnut Kool-aid, again..."

TAPPER:

"In a long, and interesting speech, [Clinton] characterized what the US and other industrialized nations need to do to combat global warming this way: "We just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions 'cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren"

At a time that the nation is worried about a recession is that really the characterization his wife would want him making? "Slow down our economy"?

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Compare that with what Clinton actually said, in context:

CLINTON:

"And maybe America, and Europe, and Japan, and Canada -- the rich counties -- would say, 'OK, we just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions 'cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren.' We could do that.

But if we did that, you know as well as I do, China and India and Indonesia and Vietnam and Mexico and Brazil and the Ukraine, and all the other countries will never agree to stay poor to save the planet for our grandchildren. The only way we can do this is if we get back in the world's fight against global warming and prove it is good economics that we will create more jobs to build a sustainable economy that saves the planet for our children and grandchildren. It is the only way it will work."

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See the difference? Tapper obviously can't... & that's a problem.

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What did Jake Tapper mean by the confession "I don't really think", which appeared in his blog yesterday?

In a short entry with a misleading headline and complete distortion of a quote of former President Bill Clinton, Tapper confessed "I don't really think."

In an update published later, Tapper said "I understand," which seemingly contradicts his earlier confession.

Or perhaps he just misspoke.

We here at Wingnuts & Moonbats cannot be certain.

For the full text of Tappers comments--full, proper, & undistorted by creative editing--please follow the link above.

-- comment on Tapper's blog by Ida Noe, on 2/1/08, at 9:22:15 AM (I rewrote it, a little, both for style & so it'd make sense here)
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A few comments later I wrote a comment of my own in support of "Ida's" & blasting Mr Tapper a bit more, but it was removed shortly thereafter... (There was a place to add my site url, allowing other readers to click my screen name & end up here--which I did--& now I'm wondering whether that was the problem... There are many comments blasting Tapper, but no comments at all that link to the blogs of those making the comments...)

As far as I can recall, it went something like this:

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Ida Noe (2/1/08, 9:22:15 AM) was right on target.

I once thought you were a reliable reporter, but this blog entry makes me question whether you ever were...

As was obvious to pretty much everyone who saw or read the whole passage (except you, obviously), Clinton was expressing an example of what NOT to do to solve Global Warming, and your careful editing of the video & subsequent blog post gives a patently dishonest impression of what he actually said.

You claim not to understand Clinton's meaning, but that doesn't wash for a major network's Senior National Correspondent for their Washington bureau. Whether by ineptitude or design, your failure to comprehend simple English (& if you did understand more than you're letting on, creative license with this story) makes you a poor reporter unworthy of your position.
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And now:

Instead of apologizing, Tapper is now defending his egregious post by insisting that addressing global warming will in fact slow the economy, whether Clinton said it or not:

"This is the much more important issue here. Any serious effort to reduce greenhouses gases will have an impact on the economy and, initially, that impact could be negative."

- Think Progress � ABC Publishes Hit Piece Against Bill Clinton, Peddles Right-Wing Misinformation On Global Warming

Typical.

Rock the Debates!

What is Rock the Debates?:

Never before in American history has it been more vital to have an open, honest, and innovative examination of America’s problems and solutions.

The best way to sparking the minds of Americans is to open up the presidential debates beyond the Democrat and Republican parties. Rock-the-Debates seeks to include third parties who will energize the presidential debates placing their ideas into the mix, without endorsing or opposing any particular candidate. We just want the ideas out and let the American people decide.

You can play a key role in this unprecedented, historical endeavor.

The idea is to get the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates to commit to debate third party candidates.

How? We’ll ask them to debate, get the clip on video, and place it on You-Tube. Folks in places like New Hampshire can play a key, historic, pivotal role in making this happen.

Follow the link above for more details.

Follow the following link to see where it stands, to date:
Third Party Watch - Seven Major Party Candidates Respond to Open Presidential Debates (so far)

Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: The New Liberal Menace in America

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Wolves in Sheep's Clothing:
Back to the Future:

"One of the more complex phenomena of the modern American political scene is that while the ideological divide between presidential candidates seems to be ever diminishing, the partisan mudslinging and animosity between the two parties is increasingly hateful. It's a weird paradox. But it's not uncommon to hear critics of the two-party system decry a choice between Tweedledum and Tweedledee just as the highest rated television news programs are driven by raucous debate between right and left.

For Daily Show host John Stewart, it isn't a paradox at all. There is no disconnect between the professional politicians and the activists that drive those debates. In fact, it's exactly the way they want it. Because a polarized public, focused on hot-button issues like abortion, tax cuts and school prayer, keeps their focus off the fact that the two parties have essentially become the servants of one very important class of voters, the corporations."

There's more of this excerpt at the book's website: here
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A very interesting article, indeed... While I don't agree that partisanship is a bad thing, I do think the viciousness between the parties (including between the major parties and their respective minor party cousins) is counterproductive. We are a nation full of diverse ideas, and it is from that diversity that all good things will come. We need to listen more, and judge less quickly.

Most interested in reading the book from which it comes. Adding it to the list.