But I don’t want to talk about Scientology today.  Instead I’d like to talk about another group of batshit crazy people,  PETA. 

PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,  are a group of psychotics who for whatever reason believe that animals are sacred and should be treated with respect normally reserved for the divine.

They’re also a endless source of amusement (depending on your point of view, I suppose), as they propose some truly batshit insane ideas.

Two of my favorites:

PETA wants higher insurance premiums for meat eaters.   They are arguing that since meat eaters are susceptible to sickness from E. coli, since some meat can (sometimes) become contaminated with it, they should have higher insurance premiums than vegetarians.   They also argue that vegetarians should have their premiums reduced.    

So, why is this batshit crazy?    Well, let’s start by examining their argument:   Meat is bad, it causes obesity, heart problems, and can make you sick because of E. Coli.      Vegetables, and vegetarianism is safer and healthier and few vegetarians are obese.  

Well,   what she’s NOT saying is that vegetarians, unless they supplement their diet with Iron and other nutrients that they’re missing out on from not eating meat,    will likely become anemic (Iron-Deficiency Anemia).  Going further, some breast-fed infants of women who are strict vegetarians show signs of a vitamin B12 deficiency, leading to Macrocytic anemia.   Some studies have also shown that excessive leanness and slow growth have been observed in vegan and vegetarian infants and young children.

That said – yes, there are ways to remain vegetarian and eat a healthy diet – just like it’s possible to NOT be vegetarian and likewise maintain a healthy diet. 

The other part of their argument is that E. Coli is a danger that should make meat eaters have a higher premium.  I guess they’re completely ignoring the recalls of all sorts of vegetables in the not so recent past…. (here are three:Link, Link, and Link) Gotta love double standards.    The fact is:  no matter what you eat, there’s a chance it COULD make you sick.   Deal with it and move on.

The second thing that they proposed, which I deem to be equally Batshit Crazy,  is request that Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream  stop using cow milk and start using human breast milk in their ice cream products.

They make the claim that it’ll be healthier for everybody,   especially for the cows.   While I can’t seem to find any statistics one way or another that suggests human breast milk is better for you than milk from a cow, I also can’t find anything that says it’s bad for you.  It DOES, however, have a pretty nasty stigma associated with it, is unlikely to even be possible to sustain a great enough supply, and there are significantly better alternatives they could have suggested (like, I don’t know, SOY milk?).

I love the part of the article that quotes PETA’s Tracy Reiman:   

“The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn’t make sense,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Everyone knows that ‘the breast is best,’ so Ben & Jerry’s could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk.”

 So, their proposed alternative – to save the cow milk for the baby cows – is to use human milk instead, depriving many a infant of their mother’s breast milk so that adults, who don’t need it, can have it instead.

Good to know PETA has its priorities straight….  

So, PETA,  you’re officially on my list of “Batshit Crazy” groups.  Congratulations.   

I found a version of the theme I had been using (Hemmingway) that supported Wordpress 2.5, and thought I’d give it a go with Wordpress 2.6 – and it works just fine (so far).

Unfortunately, the upgrade from 2.2 to 2.6 broke quite a few things in my wordpress database,  most notably it erased my link categories and my post categories,  at least, it got rid of the text for them – the categories are all still THERE, but display no text.  Awesome.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be going back through my posts and re-categorizing them.  That’s not such a bad thing though, as it means the categories should (theoretically) be accurately categorized, and it allows me to also go through and tag posts too which is something I previously couldn’t do.

The good news is that the look and feel of the site won’t really change much, the exception being the addition of navigation to the front page – you can now navigate to older posts without having to search for them.  That *IS* awesome, and a much liked new feature.

Things will get cleaned up over the next couple of days/weeks as I have time,  in the meantime – enjoy!