links for 2008-07-01
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Hey, vegans, you might want to return that case of “BEEF WHOLE HEAD” you have in the basement.
links for 2008-06-28
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Meat makes people do stupid things… [via Obscure Store]
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Police shoot a bear cub and the people that witness it are all over them for it. Police really need better training on how to deal with animals (as I’ve seen).
Eat to Live
It may not be explicitly vegan, but the video for Talib Kweli’s “Eat to Live” hits a lot of the right notes:
links for 2008-06-18
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Dooce is following Oprah’s lead and doing the vegan (er, strict veg) cleanse, with one difference: “‘m also thinking that after the 21-day period is over that I may continue to abstain from meat, for many reasons, the main one being that I can no longer j
Vegetarianism in Pop Culture: June 2008
You’ll remember Morgan Spurlock from his movie Super Size Me, but you may have missed his very similar TV show, 30 Days. On 30 Days, someone (occasionally Morgan) spends a month doing something completely foreign. On the first episode of the third season, Morgan worked in a West Virginia coal mine for a month. This week, a former pro football player lived life in a wheelchair. You’ll want to set your DVR to record FX next Wednesday Tuesday night to catch a hunter’s attempt to live as a vegan for 30 days (installment 3).
The scenario sounds like something we’ve seen on awful shows like Wife Swap, but it’s made more interesting when you remember that Morgan is married to Chef Alex Jamieson, who is vegan (plug: I interviewed her in issue 10 of Herbivore). I suspect that this, combined with Spurlock’s respectful and non-exploitative tone, should turn out to be relatively balanced, even if they do have the hunter protesting KFC in a chicken outfit. During the 30 days, he lives with a PeTA staffer and spends time at the Animal Acres Sanctuary (the one run by Farm Sanctuary co-founder Laurie Bauston), even rescuing a calf from a factory farm operation. Should be interesting.
Another show I’ve been watching is Last Comic Standing, an American Idol for stand-up comedians. The first few weeks of this season have seen some really, really terrible vegetarian jokes. They’ve all been really unoriginal or, worse, outright misinformed, like the woman who joked that eating lunch with her vegan friend was annoying because she’d order her tuna sandwich without mayo.
Her tuna sandwich? Really? And, no, I don’t think that was part of the joke.
Thankfully, this week there was a comedian who said he was dating a vegetarian. “A real vegetarian,” he clarified. “Because it’s amazing to me how many people claim to be vegetarian but then say something like, ‘But I eat a little chicken.’ I respond to them, ‘Oh, so you’re not a vegetarian, then. You’re a liar.’” Awesome.
I have no problem with jokes at our expense. But for heaven’s sake, be original and informed. There’s plenty that’s funny about us beyond the obvious stuff.
Lastly, Veg Blog reader Brian wrote to let me know about the comic strip Lio, which featured an animal liberation theme at the end of May. You can read it starting here and going forward through May 30th.
Anyone else spot a veg references in pop culture this month?
Veg Bloggy Awards
I joked around last year about how it was odd that The Veg Blog didn’t win a VegNews Veg Bloggy Award* based on the name alone. Well, this year it did! (It won, I mean. I don’t think it was for the name alone.) Along with 20 other great blogs, this humble l’il site will be featured in the July/August 2008 issue of VegNews, on newsstands in a few weeks. SuperVegan has the scoop on the full list of winners.
Like Eric, I’m not sure exactly what VegNews said about the site, but I’m looking forward to seeing the issue and want to welcome all readers from VegNews. If this is your first time here, let me point you to a few posts to get you started so you can get a feel for what I do around here:
About
My about page gives a good intro to who I am and how I transitioned to veganism. I’ve been meaning to update it for a while now, but it’s not like any of it is untrue now.Why Veganism Is Not Extreme
I got tired of hearing people claim that they could understand being vegetarian but that veganism was just “too extreme.” I argue that it’s meat-eating that’s really extreme, because veganism explicitly opts out of the death and torture.Why We Need to Rethink Welfare
My thoughts on why claiming welfare changes as “victories” is doing more to hurt the cause in the long-term.On Fishing and Entitlement
When I hear someone say something like, “The fish just eat and eat and eat because there’s no one there to catch them” to their kid, I can’t just let it go.Know Thy Enemy Week
As activists, we need to know more about who we’re working against. This 5-part series takes a shot at it.
I love the fact that there are enough veg-themed blogs out there that they’re able to choose 21 without any trouble. Thanks to VegNews for the award and congrats to all of the other great sites mentioned.
* Though they told me that this was the “First Annual Veg Bloggy Awards,” I could swear they did something like this a year or so ago with the same name…
links for 2008-06-13
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So the video was real, it seems. Pathetic.
links for 2008-06-12
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Isa breaks down potluck etiquette for all you chip-bringers.
Three Reasons Why Miso Rules the Planet
Sometimes miso gets overlooked. That’s sad. Because miso rules the planet, and here’s why:
- Forget chicken soup, miso rules when you’re feeling under the weather. And it doesn’t require dead chickens.
- Eating miso will ensure you survive the fallout from a nuclear attack. You can share some with the cockroaches. (Yeah, so maybe this is overstated a tad.)
- Refrigerated miso has no expiration!
Here’s an introduction from NPR to the world’s greatest fermented soybean paste, our beloved miso.
links for 2008-06-11
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Are you the type that enjoys shaking your monitor and screaming, “WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?” Yes? Then read this article and the ensuing discussion.
