BigSqwert

Interesting read on this topic that someone just sent me. Has a brutally honest look at the factory farm system in the embedded video.

QUOTE (balfanman @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 02:51 PM) I'm not one to get into name calling and I have never met Dave Wilder nor have I heard much about him. That said, unless he is being set up and taking the fall for someone else, in my book he is one "scumbag" of a human being. How far has he set the White Sox organization back with this? He has at least drug the reputation of the White Sox organization through the mud. We share the same sentiments.

Welcome to the club! I love being married to my best friend. I hope you enjoy your life with Chase as much as I do with my wife.

One-time high-ranking Chicago White Sox executive David Wilder today pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges that he solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from impoverished Latin American prospects hoping to make it in the Major Leagues. via Not sure if it needed it's own thread.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 11:36 AM) You may be interested in this book. The first reader review is excellent.

best tweet so far:

For those not at a TV: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlJazeeraEnglish

Nasty yelp reviews don't hurt either.

Rights to party need to be fought for, they once crooned.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 10:44 AM) So I think i found a websites for hunting humans It has to be fake or illegal.

What a great day. This is absolutely fantastic.

Please. You aren't familiar with the Beastie Boys?

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 10:32 AM) I imagine it added to the flavor I dunno. My eyes got all watery and I had to pretend that it was delicious.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 10:22 AM) Oh, but I did spit in your pita thingy you had at the bar that one day. Sorry!

Gameloft selling Android apps 50% off

The Jeter pick automatically makes this list rubbish.

QUOTE (G&T @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 07:10 AM) My wife's company laid off a bunch of people yesterday. Thankfully she wasn't among them, but it looks like we might be searching for new digs soon. I want to move south but taking another bar exam sounds awful. Ugh. This job market is so damn stressful right now.

No. He was doing his best King Ad-Rock impersonation.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 08:59 AM) What's really going to decide if they can keep him or not is if they can keep packing their brand new stadium. If that stadium stays packed like last year (possibly because they stay winning) then a gigantic payroll, $120 million even, is certainly possible. If that big attendance boost they got from the stadium drifts away, they might not be able to handle their current payroll level. I don't see their attendance taking a hit this year. It's still a new stadium and they just won the division.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 08:54 AM) I applaud your lifestyle choices, not criticize them. But I think you see why people took some offense at being equated with people who intentionally torture animals for pleasure now. I apologize to those that I offended in anyway.

God I don't even know where to begin. I just find it astonishing that the lifestyle I lead is deemed by some as being hypocritical. Let me provide you a little more insight as to the way I view the world and the actions I take to minimize my negative impacts (and I’m not stating these to be some kind of show-off): I do not participate in the direct, intentional killing on any animal for the purposes of my diet or clothing. There are literally billions of animals intentionally killed for these purposes each year in the U.S. alone. By doing this I also am not contributing to the enormous amounts of food, water, and land used to maintain this system of billions of animals. My paycheck does not contribute to the enormous amounts of animal waste product and methane gasses that pollute our air and land. I make all attempts to walk, bike, or take public transportation whenever possible. My wife and I put less than 5K miles on our car each year. We purchase an CSA share from a local organic farm to provide us with fruits and vegetables. We also proactively purchase as many local, organic, and fair trade products that we can. We donate to multiple charities that range from wildlife preservation, animal rescue, and doctors without borders. For someone to insinuate that my views and actions are nothing but hypocritical because the very impactful decisions I make don’t go far enough because I don’t live in a clay house under an apple tree and only subside on apples that fall from the tree and consume nothing else...well that’s preposterous. These actions I take dramatically reduce my carbon footprint and minimize unnecessary suffering of animal life and shouldn’t be easily dismissed because an animal has been unintentionally run over by a tractor when my corn was picked. For someone to equate that run over animal with the factory farm system of intentional pain and suffering and ultimately death is absurd. These are not apples to apples and you're being disingenuous by stating that. This whole argument reminds me of the early debates in the filibuster about climate change. The climate change deniers completely dismissed everything because Al Gore has a large house. That’s it. He has a big house so that means climate change doesn’t exist, no one should take steps to reduce their footprint, and the theory is automatically false because he is a 100% hypocrite. So I might as well eat tons of meat, purchase fur coats, kick dogs in the head (because they might not really feel pain anyway), and drive an H1 everyday to the corner post office instead of walking because I am nothing but a hypocrite right now because I eat fruits and vegetables (they might feel pain!) and use the Internet. It’s an all or nothing proposition. Unless I live in that clay hut under the apple tree then everything I’m doing is meaningless. And I apologize if sharing my viewpoints come off as preachy to everyone. That is not my intention. I have not demanded that any one of you change anything in your lifestyle.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 10, 2011 -> 08:34 PM) Yeah, I understand that, and I can understand how others would dial-in on that distinction as some sort of line to try and avoid crossing. But I just don't think that line is really relevant for the very large judgment you are making. In the grand scheme of what is the ecosystem and the natural order of things on this planet, I have a hard time identifying the ability to communicate pain or fear in a way in whch we can recognize as the key distinction for what is morally right or wrong. As KHP has pointed out, other organisms react or change the course of their behavior based on how we interact with them, but they do so in a manner which is less evident or recognizable to humans. So what you're ultimately saying seems even more hypocritical to me than what many others are saying, in that your viewpoint depends simply on your perception of their suffering, rather than on whether suffering is actually occuring. So if you can perceive it, it somehow holds more weight and value to you, however, if you are ignorant of it, it is morally acceptable to overlook that suffering. One more critical point here. The reactions of sentient beings are those evolved into their genetics as a tool for survival. They developed the instinct to flee or let out cries of suffering as a tool to help them evade death. The reason those reactions manifest themselves in a manner in which we can recognize is to accomplish their purpose. Behaviors and instincts don't evolve if they are ultimately ineffective or accomplish nothing. In fact, they do precisely the opposite. So the very reason we can recognize the pain and the desire to flee expressed by sentient beings is the very reason for their presence. On the other hand, plant life has evolved to react in ways that are more relevant to their ability to survive, whether that be moving in and out of sunlight, or secreting a substance which attracts insects to fertilize them, etc. These actions, while not necessarily recognized by humans, are just as important to that organism's survival. It just so happens that that organism's survival does not so much depend on it's ability to interact with humans or other predators, but instead, some other source of danger or necessary life-giving source. Let me put this as succinctly as possible. I choose to not intentionally harm anything in the animal kingdom. Period. I need to sustain my own survival so I have to consume plant life. We know for a fact that animals, whether they be dogs, bats or kangaroos, feel pain. This is indisputable even though you seem to imply that we're just somehow guessing this to be true. We need to nourish ourselves to survive. Consuming animals is not a requirement to achieve this. Animals are sentient. Plants are not. This entire paragraph seems to be a complete contradiction to everyone's argument that what Vick did was wrong. So the dog might not actually feel pain? Then why is everyone in an uproar? Why are there animal cruelty laws?

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 10, 2011 -> 06:53 PM) Sand and plastic are made from microorganisms and dessicated plant and animal material. Alright then...lava.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Feb 10, 2011 -> 06:32 PM) You were eating trees before today? No, but for some reason KHP thought it was relevant to discuss some unusual theories about trees to prove some point as if people actually ate them.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 10, 2011 -> 04:59 PM) Why is the presence of a central nervous system some signpost at which we stand and say, "enough is enough"? Because we have central nervous systems and know what it's like to have pain inflicted in us. That is why I, and many others like me, do not wish to inflict pain an animals. These are creatures that feel pain. They attempt to flee when you hurt them. They squeal in pain when injured. When you accidentally step on you're dog's foot and he yelps loudly it's because it hurts them and you feel bad. That feeling of compassion in that instance is the same feeling I have for any animal because we all share very basic things like pain receptors and the need to survive.