JCC 2016 Celebrity Deadpool (Congratulations Ramza!)

My wife is 2 years vegetarian. Mostly because she loves animals and the guilt destroys her. She doesn't mind when I eat thick slices bacon a on cheeseburger.

 

Never argue with solojones if you value your time on this planet.

 

He has also spawned.

 

That's a pretty mean thing to say. I didn't see it as arguing all... Tom asked me some questions and I tried to give a thoughtful response. I'm sorry that you and Debo seem to think this is a great opportunity to be mean to me. I'm not quite sure what's so offensive to you about someone who puts thought into things.

 

I'm sorry, I take it back.

 

Thanks Watto, no hard feelings.

 

It says a lot about the insatiable bloodlust of 2016 that I'm relieved there was finally a long enough break for a nice derail.

 

I do that also! People think I'm crazy. They think I'm even crazier if I end up having to kill a bug because I will actually say a little apology. Like, "Oh, sorry, buddy." Yesterday, I was going to park my car and I was actively trying to make a fly leave so it wouldn't get shut up in the car and die. But I still eat meat. I mean, I know why I shouldn't, but it's definitely one of my vices. I get the whole cognitive dissonance thing; if I had to personally kill the animals I was going to eat, I would obviously just be eating leaves for the rest of my life. But it's a vice I just . . . it's one of the few areas in my life where I just consistently fall down on what I know the right thing to do is. I guess I frankly just live in a way I know I shouldn't and I try to minimize those areas of my life. But eating meat is one of them. I'm eating less now than I ever have before, which is good, I guess, but like you say, the dairy industry is pretty sketchy too and cheese is just not something I can give up either. Food is an issue for me in terms of self-control. But this is why I can't judge people too harshly for things like being addicted to heroin. I mean, look, if you're addicted to heroin you need to stop using heroin; that's true. However, just as a balancing point, I have never once been able to take the small serving size out of a bag of potato chips and then not eat anymore. So, I guess it keeps me humble. Or it should anyway.

 

One time I showered with a spider because it was in the shower and I did not want to remove or harm it.

 

The actual term for that is akrasia and I agree that it's a weird and annoying cognitive dissonance thing. I don't eat a lot of meat or animal products either, but I'm definitely not a vegetarian. And I have plenty of reasons to want to be different. I buy into the environmental argument and the argument that vegetarianism or at least a Mediterranean diet is on the whole healthier, and I have strong moral objections to killing anything for food besides (I really don't care about animal suffering before they're eaten. If we treat them well only to ultimately kill and eat them I think that misses the main point, which is that we're still killing and eating them.). But I was raised in an omnivorous household, and I like meat and dairy. Not all of it. Some things are easy for me to do without; I don't really like beef or pork or poultry very much, for example. But I love seafood, and I love lamb, and I love a good slice of Feta. I almost never buy/cook meat or even dairy (I use soymilk), but I'll certainly eat it when going out or when a guest somewhere, and quite frankly I don't really want to give it up.

So yeah, it's a hard thing, and I don't claim moral high ground. But I acknowledge that the arguments against it are still quite valid and I hope that eventually I'll cut more and more out of my diet and be done with it, but it's a journey.

 

I hope another celebrity dies soon.

 

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake and Palmer has passed away.

 

Seems legit.

 

A lawyer died?

 

One of the thrills of my life was meeting John Glenn at an event at COSI in Columbus, Ohio when he was still a Senator, after his Space Shuttle flight.

 

Yep, killed that vegetarian tangent. Mission accomplished.

Also, Buzz still hanging in there down here.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/87186700/buzz-aldrin-to-remain-in-christchurch-while-lungs-clear

 

May the good Lord ride with you all the way.

 

That's amazing. I've still never met an astronaut, but I did get to meet Apollo Flight Director Gene Kranz (aka Ed Harris's character from Apollo 13) last year at a talk he gave in Kansas City. That was pretty humbling.

All things considered, John Glenn had a pretty long and fruitful life. 95 years old, wow. When he was born, planes had only been flying for 18 years. Goddard's first modern, liquid fuel rocket wouldn't fly for another five years. And yet Glenn would go to space, including in his 70s. Then live almost 20 more years. Pretty incredible.

.... And now I'm realizing he was also portrayed by Ed Harris in The Right Stuff. I guess the secret to a long life if you're a space guy is to have Ed Harris play you in a movie.

 

Glenn and Armstrong were the two biggest heroes of U.S. manned space flight, now both gone. Their deaths are both symbolic of the end of the American Century, not that we needed any more symbolism for it now that we have Donald Trump.