The thing about torture...

This has been on the table for far too long. My guess is that torturing someone who is willing to martyr themselves for a cause is pretty ineffective. Maybe this is just my way of thinking, but death is not the worst thing that can happen. Pain will subside and annoying stimuli will eventually cease. If the best way to extract information that we have is torture, then we are a sad people, indeed. (By the way, my favorite form of torture is 24/7 FOX News. That might actually get to someone.)

I wonder...

If speeding laws were more strictly enforced, would that slow people down? If the price of getting caught littering was higher, would it prevent our roadsides from being so filthy? I'm not sure it would modify everyone's way of thinking (or not thinking, as the case may be), but it might persuade a few.

Why I am a vegetarian...

Well, I haven't written yet this year, and while that fact does not seem to be a disappointment to anyone, I figured I'd remedy that today. My New Year's resolution (or one of them, at least) is to complain less, so I am going to try to hold good to that one, at least.

I started my transition to vegetarianism probably back in high school, or at least college, when I stopped eating meat during the season of Lent. I was raised Catholic by my mother, and we at least observed most of the major rites/holidays of the religion. Probably the most important of these was/is Lent. Forty days and forty nights (not including Sundays, apparently) of giving up a vice. In my latter years of observing this season, I started giving up meat.

After college, I got a job in Washington, D.C., and moved out on my own. I worked with a bunch of guys (there were about six of us when I started) and every time at lunch we'd go out and get something. Burgers, fish, pizza, pho, you name it. It was a great time in the late 90's for food. I could eat whatever I wanted because I was making good money and I had a great metabolism. I'd take my burgers extra rare, and I'd eat cheese steak subs. I had gone out to a Christmas party with my younger sister's college roommate, and she told me about how meat was an inefficient way to get nutrients, but I didn't care, because I knew what I liked to eat. The following year, though, I met my future wife, and I took her to the Christmas party, and while she did nothing other than tell me she didn't eat meat... a few months after I got sick from a burger and decided I was done with it.

She and I were not seeing each other at the time, so I don't think that counts as giving up meat for a woman, but I decided to stop eating meat because I figured there was something wrong with the way they raise the animals just to kill them and feed us. I didn't know the whole story at the time (probably still don't) but I reckon it can't be too pleasant. I still ate fish, because I figured the fish probably lived a better life and were a healthier alternative. Last year I discovered both suppositions were false, so I stopped eating fish, as well. I feel healthier, though.

In the years that have followed my cessation of carnivorism, I have encountered many people trying to persuade me to begin eating animal flesh again. I have fended off these attempts with simple things like 'I feel healthier now' or 'I don't really care for the taste of meat, anymore' or 'I get ill when I eat meat anymore.' All of these statements are true, but that doesn't stop people from telling me that I have to eat animals to be healthy. The thing is, my sister's college roommate was right, meat consumption is an inefficient way to get nutrients. I have found out that I am correct in thinking that animals are abused when they are raised solely to be slaughtered. Last year how many tons of meat were recalled because of tainted practices?

Simply said, going vegetarian is better not only for the environment, but for your body, as well. Everything gotten from meat can be found lower down on the food chain, and the closer you get to the source, the better off you'll be. That's my take on it, anyway. Eating meat may be easier, but easier is not necessarily better. After all, would you rather drink the water from the mouth of the river, or from further downstream (after the towns and the factories)?

The way it is

I don't really understand religion. I thought it was something created to assist people in getting along, create communities, pass along values, and help people determine what is acceptable and what is not, but the older I grew, the more disenchanted I became with the religious. I attended mass all the way through college (almost every Sunday), trying to make peace with what was being preached, but in the end, I found that my own spiritual journey was deeper than what I was getting inside the church.

I don't understand people who interpret the Bible literally. As if it was written by the hand of the Creator. I don't understand how folks who are nice enough to other people cannot accept different religions as being legitimate faiths. I was born and raised Catholic, which I learned translates from Latin as 'universal'. Why can't Catholics accept other faiths? It makes no sense to me. (Not all Catholics I know are like that, but a fair few are.)

Other people, so-called 'Christians', are unable accept to other faiths, as well. What's the deal with that? Did Christ not teach acceptance, to love others as you love yourself? People with different beliefs, or different values are not the enemy. As long as they mean no harm, what is the point in labeling them as such?

I think many of the problems today stem from language. People use words and other people interpret what they think the words mean. Quite often, the meaning is lost in translation, even with people who speak the 'same' language.

If you need proof of what I am saying here, open up your computer manual and start reading.

Me, me me...

What is the deal with the 'me first' attitude these days? Not only do people seem to think that the world revolves around them, but that other people are thoughtless and clueless. You can catch a glimpse of this by driving on just about any highway where there is any kind of traffic present. It seems that too many people want to be in front, must get wherever they are going five minutes ago, or must inspect your tailpipe from two inches away.

Problem is, too many old folks feel that this is an attribute primarily of the younger folk. I live in a community where the Centrum Silver crowd outnumber the youth, and have either forgotten what it was like to be young, or have never made it past puberty in their developmental process. We have folks parking on too narrow streets, folks letting their dogs run off-leash, and folks driving like they have a death wish: too fast and driving in the middle of the road around blind corners. I suppose the taking wide turns thing could be to account for the nimrods parked on the street, but driving too fast? Maybe they are perpetually twenty minutes too late....

I am not saying that all of the older folks I know are like this, or that the elderly are the only idiots in my neighborhood, but you have to figure that when they outnumber the young here like they do.... Well, something isn't right with blaming it all on the 'not quite over the hill' crowd

Anyway, I know this guy whom I visit with almost every weekend. I suppose you could call him a friend. He is elderly, and, well, he seems lonely, so I like to walk to the park to give him someone to talk to. He sometimes has interesting stuff to say. Other times he talks about 2012 and the Mayan 'end of the world' prophecy. I think it might be because he is in his mid seventies and believes the end of his life should mean the end of the world. He says he talks about it to warn me, but what the hell? If we are all going to die on that day, does it much matter? When I bring up that argument, he tells me that all the plankton might be killed that day, and we all might slowly suffocate, or that we will pass through a radiation burst from the sun and we will all slowly die from radiation poisoning. Cheery guy, eh? Even when I point out that essentially means I don't have to lose anybody, since we all are dying at roughly the same time, he counters with another horrible scenario. (By the way, I think he also voted for McCain, as he always had something negative to say about Obama. Not that I hold that against him -- the voting for McCain bit, as I was considering it for a while in the primaries, myself -- but it does say something.)

So, now that I have given a small introduction, I want to give an example of someone not thinking that other people are capable of, well, anything, apparently. It was in the springtime, I think, but who can tell in southern Nevada? I can't remember what we we talking about, but somehow we got on the subject of fighting and he tells me that he could kill me before I knew what was coming. I found it hard not to laugh, as this guy was sitting in his car, and, as I said before, is quite old. I wanted to ask if he was planning to do that before or after I made his kneecaps and elbows bend the wrong way, but I refrained. See, I enjoy walking my dogs to the park, and every now and then I get useful information from this him. Also, I kind of like the guy, and I suppose that if he wants to believe that he could kill me, I should let him. However, now that he has said that, I don't believe that I will be disregarding any hostile movements from him.

The Everything

The world is changing. It has been for at least as long as it has been in existence. It will be for as long as it is around. While on this planet we call the Earth, our home, we affect this change along with everything else, for good or ill. Our society has become a wasteful one, and unfortunately, a good number of people believe that it would be too hard to be otherwise.

I do not understand.

Why drive a pickup when a car that gets better gas mileage will suffice? Why in the world do so many people drive Hummers? Are low gas mileage cars status symbols?

I am seeing a lot of Honda Civics on the road, lately. Very cool car, but why not throw in the extra couple thousand and get the hybrid version? I have a 2003 model, and it is still the greatest car I have ever driven. Also, after five years of owning it, we have only had one bill of more than $100, and that was to get the (non-rechargeable) car battery replaced. Our best mileage came in last fill up at a little over 46mpg. I think it had to do with using synthetic oil (the last oil change was our first time using a synthetic, apparently; Honda's CVT motor oil, I am told, isn't) and driving at or just below the speed limit. Pretty wild, when you take into account that that was a 10% mile per gallon increase.

Anyway, the point I am trying to make here is that the world would be a better place if we all just tried a little bit to be less wasteful. We'd cut down on pollution, and cut down our expenses as well.

Happy daze...

I must admit, I am finding more and more to be happy about, these days. First, we are hearing news of the government's plans to conserve energy. Also, all the talk about finding renewable ways to generate energy? Wonderful. Hybrid cars? Getting cooler. Electric cars? Awesome time. I hope all of this great stuff keeps up as gas prices go down. Around here I see people in their pickup trucks and SUVs speeding around again, moreso, at least, than they did while the gas prices were pushing 4 dollars. Maybe the government should inflate the gas price. Put a tax on dirty fuel so we conserve, and then raise it more when electric cars come mainstream. That, and lower the speed limit to 55 mile per hour. Remember those days?