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TV Discussion Fisto's Disco: The LACWAC Social Thread

Discussion in 'Star Wars TV- Current and Future Shows' started by G-FETT, Jul 1, 2007.

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  1. TaradosGon

    TaradosGon Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Feb 28, 2003
    Just ran out to the store to pickup hand soap and toothpaste. I've been trying to be more "Earth friendly" (something that started with an month long experiment to see if I could be vegetarian). So anyway I was looking for a non-antibacterial soap. Found one that I was looking over to see if it said "antibacterial" anywhere. I noticed on the back there were directions that said something to the effect of "use to wash your hands as you would with any other kind of soap." Which I translate as "Directions: It's soap... Don't be an idiot."

    As an aside about the vegetarianism: that started just to see how it would go (my brother is a vegetarian) after watching some documentaries on Netflix about the food industry. I really liked one called Food, Inc. But there was another narrated by Joaquin Phoenix called Earthling... The main argument of which was that "human beings are speciesists." I have NEVER heard that word used outside of the context of Star Wars discussions in reference to Imperial anti-alien policies. Now that documentary... using the word in a serious derogatory context in which factory farms are compared to the Holocaust and that humans feel entitled to exploit animals any way they see fit... It just makes me realize how stupid "speciesists" sounds when used outside of a fictional universe.
     
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  2. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

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    Mar 4, 2011
    I've been vegetarian in the past and I don't eat a lot of meat now, and I try to find sustainably-farmed meat when I can. Kudos to people who can go vegetarian; I like steak and salmon far too much to not enjoy them once in awhile.

    I do think the factory farming industry is evil but with the American diet being what it is, I don't see it disappearing. Read some of Michael Pollan's books if you haven't already.
     
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  3. SithLordPat

    SithLordPat Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2005

    I tried the whole "month of being vegetarian" fresh out of high school. It wasn't for me personally. I didn't do it based on any crusade to save the critters, I was just curious.

    Speciesist does sound absolutely ridiculous outside of fiction that you know...has other (literal) races of sentients. Also, don't let JUST one side sway your opinion. Make sure you're informed about what you're eating if you decide to keep up the vegetarianism (I for one loved food like Morningstar Farms fake-meat. I later heard it contained some not-so-good fillers) if you end up eating imitation or taking protein supplements. Good luck with going green, and MTFBWY.
     
  4. Jordan1Kenobi

    Jordan1Kenobi SWC Jedi Draft Champion star 6 VIP - Game Winner

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    Sep 30, 2012
    I don't think the factory farming industry will dissapear, if anything it'll just keep getting bigger, unless LOTS of people do something about it, which I doubt they will.
     
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  5. TaradosGon

    TaradosGon Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Feb 28, 2003
    The vegetarianism thing started out as an experiment intended for a month, but is going on three. I don't find it that hard plus it's also just not much of an inconvenience (I'm renting a room in Idaho for my zoo internship and don't really have good appliances for cooking things like steak up at the moment anyway). I'm sure it will get harder once my situation changes.

    It probably sounds awful, but I'm not doing it for the well being of animals either.

    Domestic cows, chickens, etc. exist for that purpose. Eliminate that purpose and they'll go extinct (it's not like you can just let them all go be free, they would devastate the environment). So if everyone tomorrow decided to be vegetarian, these animals would likely be slaughtered anyway and the meat go to waste (or into pet food), since no rancher is going to want to pay the money to sustain these animals that are no longer profitable. And yes, there are horrific videos of animals getting their throats slit and what-not in factory farms, but I really do think that dying is going to suck no matter how it's done. I mean there are things like Great White sharks that will take bites out of seals and wait for them to bleed to death, spiders that turn their prey's insides into a slushy, dholes (an Asian wild dog) that will disembowel their prey and eat it while it's still alive, etc.

    Dying is just going to suck for the prey animal no matter what. I believe it was Food, Inc that discussed stories of people being killed by tainted meat as the result of the overcrowded and disgusting conditions of factory farms. So animals sit in their own filth. If a disease breaks out, it will spread to other animals quickly, and can hit store shelves and infect people before the producer realizes there is a problem and can issue a recall.

    It's the pessimist in me, but short of an asteroid hitting the Earth like the one that killed the dinosaurs, I figure disease would be the likely killer of humanity (whenever humans go extinct). So that was what put me on the notion of trying vegetarianism. My brother was doing it out of concern for animals, which for things like egg laying chickens or dairy cattle, can still live in horrible conditions, even if not harvested for food. And if you have a dog or cat, chances are the food you buy for them is still supporting those industries. I think veganism is really the only way to go if you're concerned about the mistreatment of cows, chickens, sheep, goats, etc., and I did try veganism initially, but it just sucked (i.e. was too hard) too much.
     
  6. CT-867-5309

    CT-867-5309 Chosen One star 7

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    Jan 5, 2011

     
  7. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

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    Mar 4, 2011
    I haven't bothered trying veganism. I pretend to be vegan when I serve chocolate almond milk to my kid and put soy creamer in my coffee.

    I knew a couple of hard core vegans and asked how they kept from being hungry. The response was that they munched on nuts all the time. "Just graze; it works for the gorillas." Sure. We at least like to pretend we've evolved, right? And ain't nobody got time for that.
     
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  8. TaradosGon

    TaradosGon Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Feb 28, 2003
    Aw hell, nuts are high in calories for how little of them you can actually eat. I'm addicted to cashews in particular. Bought a large tub not long ago. I think the serving size was like 1/4 cup, calories per serving was like 280, with 30 or so servings per tub. Ate pretty much the whole thing across two days.

    If I remember correctly, if you eat 3500 more calories than you expend, you gain a pound. So that was about 2.5 lbs in weight gained in cashews alone, not including other meals of the day. Cashews are not my friend.
     
  9. Jordan1Kenobi

    Jordan1Kenobi SWC Jedi Draft Champion star 6 VIP - Game Winner

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    Sep 30, 2012
    Lol, munch on nuts all the time.
     
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  10. Ani501st

    Ani501st Jedi Padawan star 3

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2013
    Even in dreams, I will never try vegan or something like that, humans need meat. You do not need to be vegan to be Earth Friendly. And more, scientists have proved that vegetarians have

    deficiencies, they don't have what they should need.
    Being vegan, it is not about being Earth Friendly but about thinking you eat healthy but actually you do not eat healthy. To eat in a healthy way, you need to avoid chimical preservatives, additives ( only the natural food preservatives are good ). Then, you need to eat meat with pastas or potatoes or rice and with some vegetables. This is the only way to eat healthy. The best is to buy food to the little farmer or to a little market where they do good food.
    Earth friendly is recycling, using sun ( or water or something else that is good ) as energy ...
     
  11. TaradosGon

    TaradosGon Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Feb 28, 2003
    I don't pretend to know everything about nutrition, and there are many ways that veganism can be done incorrectly so that the person lacks essential vitamins and minerals. I think calcium, zinc and iron are the big three that I can think of that are most easily acquired by animal products. Though I know there are ways around it such as multivitamins or eating certain vegetables (I believe kale and spinach have calcium, you just have to eat quite a bit of it to equal an 8 oz glass of milk). Though there are also fortified foods or things like Silk soymilk and almondmilk that have more calcium than milk.

    Animals like cats and dogs have a gastointestinal chemistry supported by bacterial colonies that help kill things like parasites - enabling them to eat raw meat. Humans on the other hand need to cook their meat to kill any infectious agents. Eating meat, like drinking dairy, are behaviors I think were selected for in harsh conditions. I believe the theory is that lactose tolerance evolved because in pastoral communities during a particularly dry season, people would resort to drinking cow's milk. Those that were lactose intolerant would die of dehydration (either due to lack of fluids or diarrhea), those that remained tolerant into adult life survived because it helped them stay hydrated when water was scarce. And even today there are communities in harsh environments such as the arctic in which meat is essential to get the calories needed to survive and where sustaining life on plant material alone is not feasible.

    The argument, I think, is that we developed these behaviors to survive harsh conditions that no longer apply. And I think the veganism movement is mostly targeted at people in developed countries for this reason, that in the world of supermarkets, we have lost any kind of selective pressure to eat meat or drink dairy, and that it has become more of a cultural thing/because they taste good. Like the people that say they could never go vegan because they love ice cream too much (I could never go vegan for the latter reason, and because dairy based ingredients are in A LOT of foods).

    Reasons that some push for vegetarianism/veganism as well beyond cruelty to animals are that it is unsustainable (particularly the fishing industry); disgusting conditions leads to a higher frequency of contaminated meats (threat to human health); ranchers employed by the large companies tend to be perpetually in debt and paid too little such that they can never pay it off; and that texhose that work in the factories are subject to among the unhealthiest of work environments and yet offered terrible benefits (mistreatment of fellow man).

    Things like favoring small ranchers are short term solutions. Since if everyone turns to them, they will either have to expand into large factory farms to meet growing demand. If they don't, then they will just always be out of meat and unable to meet demand, forcing people to turn back to factory farms.
     
  12. CT-867-5309

    CT-867-5309 Chosen One star 7

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    Jan 5, 2011
    The solution is to just kill off half the world's population at least. We're all just background characters anyway.
     
  13. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    Jonathan Swift solutions aside :p...it is true that factory farming, GMOs, and other practices considered evil by many people (myself included) came about because we really can't feed seven billion people at affordable prices without them.

    I have bought grass-fed ground beef because I can, but it's at least twice the cost of grain-fed and if everyone wanted it, prices would go up more.

    Of course we Yanks could stop eating so damn much but yeah...good luck trying to enforce that without riots. We want our half-pound bacon burgers and unlimited fries, we want them for ten bucks or less, and we want them NOW.

    Not me. I only go to Red Robin for the Blue Moon on tap. Just sayin'.
     
  14. TaradosGon

    TaradosGon Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Feb 28, 2003
    This is like discussing religion or politics. I shouldn't have brought it up.

    In other news, at the zoo I'm interning at, all staff is designated a number with with to refer to themselves and each other when communicating over radio.

    E.G. "Z1 to Z3"

    I think the numbers go from Z1 to like Z30.

    Anyway, there I let slip "Z-95 to Z... wait.... *corrects self*"

    This is what happens when I come here.At least I didn't work "headhunter" into the transmission.

    [face_clown]

    Fortunately it's an obscure enough reference so that I just look like an idiot for being 65 off from any legitimate call number; rather than giving it away that I made an inadvertent Star Wars reference.
     
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  15. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

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    Mar 4, 2011
    LOL it's not that bad. I have seen the **** hit the fan in the YJCC when the subject was brought up but I thought we were doing pretty well here.

    I am enjoying your zoo stories though. At the very least I'm wanting to renew my membership to the NC Zoo.

    And we're boring at work. We just call each other by our last names.

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
     
  16. TaradosGon

    TaradosGon Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Feb 28, 2003
  17. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

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    Jun 29, 2003
    I WANT A RED PANDAAAAA
     
  18. Seerow

    Seerow Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jun 7, 2011
    Lol, I like the lion; "Son, you best move along and stop taking picture of my wife."
     
  19. AkashKedavra_93

    AkashKedavra_93 Moderator Emeritus star 4 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jan 8, 2011
    I just rewatched "The Rains of Castamere" and I am now out of Kleenex.
     
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  20. Paparazzo

    Paparazzo Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Jan 31, 2011
    Wait till you finish Mhysa, you'll be crying for a different reason. Other than at the start. That **** broke my heart. But the end?

    [​IMG]

    Luckily I had the warning of having read the books. :p
     
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  21. Ani501st

    Ani501st Jedi Padawan star 3

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2013
  22. Arrian

    Arrian Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 15, 2011
    So we all have those terrible morning shows, with the hosts everybody hates, but they don't realise, don't we?
    This is our most hated *** of a host, Karl:


    (I just really need to share this because it reminds me of Russell Coight)
     
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  23. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

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    Jun 29, 2003
    ...............well I wish our news hit those hilarious lows.
     
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  24. Seerow

    Seerow Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jun 7, 2011
    I got nothing to that one... so here is a local commercial instead.

     
  25. Arrian

    Arrian Jedi Grand Master star 4

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    Aug 15, 2011
    "In the box."
    *Stamps foot inexplicably weirdly*
     
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