Entries categorized as ‘Bad Karma’
Here is a good article from PETA.
Here is an article written by Charles R. Atwood.
Most people drink cow’s milk as adults because, well, they have been drinking the stuff since they were around 12 months old. If your body doesn’t reject it because of the lactose, what reason do you have to question its validity? Besides, our own government has been telling us that we need to drink cow’s milk for protein and calcium. What a bunch of bull.
Here is every reason you can imagine why you should stop drinking cow’s milk, today.
I hate to take the chance of offending anyone, but most people just don’t know about this stuff. I didn’t and drank the stuff for 32 years.
Here is a cow with mastitis.
Categories: Animals · Bad Karma · Nutrition · Vegan (Being a)
Tagged: calcium, cow milk, not milk, protein, soy milk
Everything I’ve been reading lately (Currently Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness”) tells me to accept things as they are. For example, if a driver cuts me off, the way to handle it is to simple accept this. Maybe the driver is in the middle of a personal crisis, who knows. Instead of cussing and screaming, possibly even offering a hand gesture, the best way to deal with it is to do nothing. Move on. Accept people as they are. Complaining is a waste of time. I have been working on this stuff daily and it has helped.
The dilemma I’m facing tonight is my urge to write about a subject without actually coming across as complaining. As I learn to be more patient, more calm, other people’s frustration and anger is becoming more obvious. I mean the stuff I’m fighting against is magnified in others.
Jennifer and I were watching the end of a soccer game, waiting for the start of Chloe’s, and we had the displeasure of sitting behind a soccer dad who was yelling and screaming at 8 and 9-year-old girls. This insane guy was visible angry at what was happening on the field. He would turn away in disgust with this look on his face, a look that would best be reserved for dealing with someone shooting his dog. It’s a soccer game, dude.
All I could think about is how this guy reacts to stuff around the house: fighting kids, a broken remote, etc.
The intensity of the parents this fall is something I’m still getting used to. This includes our own team. We have a great group of girls who play their hearts out. They’re fun to watch and the competition is pretty fierce. Chloe is still learning and her skill-level is still a bit behind her teammates, I believe. I’m probably over-sensitive, but it has become uncomfortable to sit within earshot of the most vocal of the other parents.
I’ve talked about this before, I think. Maybe I’m wrong, but I say: let the coaches do the coaching and if you’re going to yell, be positive. Be respectful to the people around you. If you insist on coaching from the sidelines, coach your own child. Reluctantly, I handle what they’re yelling towards the field, but what they’re saying to each other (sometimes in whispers) is what can screw with my enjoyment of the game.
Breath. Get centered. It is as it is. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.
After the game, despite the score, if Chloe walks off the field with a smile, it was a good game.
Categories: Bad Karma · My daughters
Tagged: jon kabat-zinn, mindfullness, soccer dad, soccer mom
“I believe that how we treat the least of beings among us determines our own humanity.”
- Oprah, 10/14/08
I was all jazzed up today about Oprah dedicating a show to factory farms, but I came away disappointed.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful that she tackled the subject. The goal is to open the eyes of all the people who either don’t care or just don’t know about how that nicely packaged meat ends up in the supermarket freezers.
The show focused on PROP 2, which is a California initiative that will be on the ballot in November that seeks to regulate the size of the cages, so the poor little animals have a little leg room.
I guess I just wanted Oprah to take a stand on this. I realize that the last time she said on her show that she would never eat another hamburger, she was sued by a group of Texas cattle producers. But this was way back in 1995. I believe that Oprah is coming around and will eventually elimate most meat from her diet. She’s on that path.
And that quote above, which is how she opened her show, cannot come from a meat-eater. I’m all for easing the suffering of these animals. One new law in California will bring new laws in other states. Still, lets look at how we treat the least of beings among us. We artificially breed them so that we can enjoy steak, bacon, etc. , fatten them up nice and juicy, slaughter them (We used to hang cows upside down, slit their throats, and let them “bleed out” nowadays I think we use a stun gun), and then we dine on them. Really, what’s so noble about adding a few square inches to their living area when the end result is always going to be a bloody mess anyway?
Aimed at the average American carnivore, this show may have accomplished something. But to all the people who already “get it,” fiddling around with the size of the cages is like…is like…okay, it took me a minute, but picture coming across an elderly man in the gutter, who has fallen, at night, can’t get up, maybe some blood streaming from his forehead, but he’s conscious, relieved by your presence.
It’s like putting a nice pair of festive Halloween socks on him and calling it good…going home.
It misses the point. The effort is misdirected. Help the guy up. Don’t support animal agriculture.
Categories: Bad Karma · Vegan (Being a)
Tagged: animal abuse, animal agriculure, Animals, cows, factory farms, pigs, Prop 2, Vegan, vegetarian
A comment on my last post brought up my upbringing as a possible cause of my social anxiety disorder. What can I say?
It’s possible.
I wrote a short story in a fiction writing class about a small boy in bed listening to his parents fight. His dad was most likely half-drunk. This little boy kept his head under the blankets with his hands pressed so tight against his ears that they would burn when the pressure was relieved. A kitchen chair scooting loudly across the linoleum punctuated this particular fight.
Some days later, this little boy was in bed again. Head above covers. Everything quiet. All of a sudden he hears the same sound, the kitchen chair scooting loudly across the linoleum. He jumped out of bed, crying, and ran into the kitchen to find his parents standing together in a way that he quickly recognized as cordial. Still, he wrapped his arms around his mother’s legs, as to protect her.
The boy’s parents were understandably puzzled and mildly amused at his behavior. He didn’t bother explaining.
I titled the story “Oblivious” and my instructor gave me an “A” on it.
Categories: Bad Karma · My Childhood
Tagged: Alcoholism, domestic violence, fiction writing, linoleum, short story, social anxiety disorder, social fear
Wow, it feels good. We took a trip to Goodwill last weekend and unloaded a minivan full of stuff. Most of it was toys and clothes that are now too small for the girls. Still, I managed to knock off 30 items from my list. First, I had to add a few items that I missed during inventory.
The shirt I was wearing in Myrtle Beach when I was forced into a car, driven around for an hour and robbed by a boyfriend/girlfriend duo was finally let go to Goodwill. It was a soft shirt, comfortable, but in the end it was too short for my taste. You would think that I would have chucked that bad-luck shirt a long time ago, but like I said, it was comfortable. In the end, those scumbags didn’t get much from me because my bank reimbursed about $500. I only had about $30 cash in my wallet and those two criminals were PISSED about that. So we went ATM hopping. They had a gun and threatened to kill me several times, but finally duct-taped my eyes and pull-tied my hands together. I’ll never forget the relief I felt when they pushed me out of the car in some half-decent residential area and drove away.
Let’s see, I also donated another 11 shirts, my old running shoes, two hooded sweatshirts, a shitty ice cube tray, a book about The Doors, a grammar book, a tangled mess of A/V cables, an old mouse, a jump rope that left welts on my legs, two leather belts, an old wallet, a pair of jeans, and a twenty-five-year-old can of baseball glove oil.
I’m down to 408 personal possessions. Still a long long way to 100.
Categories: 100 Thing Challenge · Bad Karma
Tagged: Duct Tape, Myrtle Beach, possessions, relief, Robbery, zip tie
