I have made the dramatic decision to go vegetarian, taking in as little dairy as I can and allowing a little fish during the tranisition. It all started with hearing that Oprah is doing a 21-day Cleansing Diet that is vegan, plus caffeine-free, gluten-free, and sugar-free. She is using a plan promoted by author Kathy Freston. I read this onCompassionate Cooks:

Recently, Oprah announced - on her show, on her site, and on her blog - that she is adopting a 21-Day Cleanse outlined in Kathy Freston's new book, Quantum Wellness." Some of you may be familiar with Kathy, whose popular article "Veganism is the New Prius" made its way around the web about a year ago. She is a beautiful and eloquent ambassador for veganism, and I'm thrilled she will be guiding Oprah on her journey. This cleanse includes avoiding gluten, sugar, alcohol, and animal products, but it's not just for health reasons that Oprah is giving this a try.

More below the fold.

Hey there. I'm new here, and I've done a lot of commenting, written a couple of silly diaries, and generally kinda eased into this whole DailyKos experience. So now I'd like to have an actual, reasonable conversation.

I'm going to talk about why I think we should all be vegetarians (and not vegans), and I'm going to try and do it in a calm, reasonable manner without resorting to cheap stunts like labeling our treatment of animals as murder, shocking you with how cruelly we treat our food, or basically getting all high-and-mighty at you.

I just want to talk, that's all.

The political season just got absurd. It reminds me of a Halloween movie. Freddy Krueger just will not die (I'm in now way calling Hillary Clinton Freddy Krueger. While it remains that she probably has no chance of winning, I cannot blame her for giving it a shot. She does have an argument). I remember sitting out in the cold at Nashua South High School in New Hampshire, waiting for Obama to speak. There was a palpable sense that it could nearly be over.

And now, April 22nd is the EARLIEST it could end. And I am done with it. I don't have any more emotions or time or money to pour into this thing. I'm sick of arguing with my colleagues on blogs. I'm sick of the anger, the hostility. This election was supposed to be about Hope and Change. Now it's about race baiting and accusations and delegate counts and tax returns. So I'm done. I'm moving on. I don't want to read into a single more advertisement or interview. I can't take it anymore. I'm moving on. Let's talk about something important instead of this damned stupid spectacle of politics. I hope you'll all appreciate a diary about something OTHER than politics for one.

Sick cattle destined for consumption in the school lunch program and fast food restaurants were forklifted in the slaughterhouse.

Federal officials suspended operations at Westland/Hallmark after an undercover video surfaced showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts.

It is illegal to use these "downer cows" in the food supply because they are more likely to cause disease in humans than healthy cattle. However, the USDA hasn't reported any associated disease outbreaks with the recalled beef.

Barack Obama was an employee of Baskin Robbins. Its founder, and the man Obama ultimately owes that job to, is one Irv Robbins. In 1947, Irv and his wife Irma gave birth to John Robbins; John Robbins turned against the dairy industry to advocate a plant-based diet in a popular and influential series of books that some have said, "epitomized vegan greatness."

So why did Barack Obama choose to work part-time eating Ice Cream for a company that's clearly been founded by a man who gave birth to a child who later advocated for animal rights?

It's important to state right off that nothing in Obama's record suggests he harbors anti-Vegan views or agrees with The Baskin-Robbins Corporation when it comes to their opposition to veganism. Instead, as Obama's top campaign aide, David Axelrod, points out, Obama often has said that he and the companies he had summer jobs at in his youth sometimes disagree. Opposition to herbivores, Axelrod told me, is one of those issues.

    This is an emotional protest, but I do post it in the interest of setting wider, more reasonable parameters for discussion about Veganism vs. Omnivorism. I would like to post a few opinions regarding those who vehemently insist, (from supposedly moralistic high ground), that "meat eaters" are consciously/unconsciously supporting all manner of cruelties, environmental degradations, (to include global warming), and a plethora of societal ills. Apparently, most of these arguments appeal to beliefs that animals are 'legal persons' that 'think and feel' exactly as we Cro-Magnons and that the methane emissions from cattle are a major cause of Global Warming, amongst other issues.
   

A friend of mine who leans conservative made a comment to me on friday that Liberals were more likely to Vegetarian, because we're all "basically hippies". I stopped to think about it...and you know what? He's right. I don't know ANY conservative vegetarians or vegans.

And now, I want to know.....are you? I would ASSUME that a good number of Kossacks ARE vegetarian (at least to an extent). Please, satiate my curiosity.

I love to eat. I love to cook. And for a number of years I've done everything in my power to not pay attention to the problems with how we treat animals, genetic engineering of food, you name it. I just refused to listen, would cover my ears and say la, la, la I am not listening.

Then I heard a segment on Air American yesterday that was the straw that broke the camels back. Click below the fold for more.

Dennis Kucinich, everyone's favorite nerdy vegan elf, has announced he will run for the Democratic nomination for president.
so in the spirit of Francis Holland's diary on the white male monopoly on the presidency, i have decided to write about the meat-eaters' monopoly.

In my previous diary, detailng a delicious mushroom quesadilla, Madame Poopsy comments:

For what it's worth: Some years ago a mushroom hunter told me that a friend of his who was a mycologist advised him to stay away from all agaric mushrooms (of which the portabella is one of the largest) because they were very carcinogenic (cancer causing). Unfortunately most of those little white ones in the grocery stores are all agarics, too. He said his friend was warned to stfu about his research.

I don't want to rain on anyone's picnic--but just to toss this out there. By the way, the friend said some mushrooms seemed to have cancer-fighting qualities (e.g. shitakes) so it depends on the 'shroom.

I too had heard that mushrooms contain carcinogens, so I did some internet investigation, so as always, take it with a grain of salt.

You'd have to be a half-bright to characterize the Dems' performance this past November 7th as pathetic: it was almost perfectly average for the out of power party running in a President's 6th year. Slightly below average in the House, slightly above in the Senate, and the first time both houses of Congress switched during a 6th year mid-term election in 88 years. For the first time in 6 years George W. Bush will be subject to the oversight and scrutiny of Bill Clinton and perhaps popular measures that have been ignored by the Republicans such as raising the minimum-wage, sky-rocketing college tuition, and stem-cell research will be addressed.