I enjoyed viewing the photos. Put a big smile on my face and makes me miss New York even more. I was sent the link by an old friend who participated in the Veggie Pride Parade. I thought the parade was marvelous -- exercising the great concern for our health and our environment in such a "fun", "light-hearted" way.

You can't always judge a person by a photo, a first impression. These are some of the most serious, movers-and-shakers around town. My friend serves as Chairman of the Environment Committee and leads Emergency Preparedness efforts in association with New York University.

Besides, the more we learn along the way, the better choices we can make for a brighter and healthier future. It's always nice to hear the knowledge and opinions of everyone.

great closing statement from the anti-vegan front. you've really articulated your point sonyactivision!

Right then, sod off you sad vegan tosser.

Wow...I graduated college in '94, business school in '05 and worked in Wall Street for about 12 years. Perhaps I know a thing or two about the role exploitation and slavery has played in economic development? Anyway, I guess I'm not jaded if I'm coming across that starry-eyed; thanks.

In my collegiate-esque opinion it all comes down to choices, and one can either make compassionate choices or not. Given what I've seen and researched - the health, environmental and dehumanizing implications of the current "use" of animals, it's maddening to me that a vegan lifestyle and animal-rights ethic is seen as subversive and twisted. So I do not see myself as superior; I'm trying to debunk some prevalent myths and misconceptions. Perhaps that's your personal definition of being looked down upon?

Interesting expression too that you've chosen - telling me to get off my "high horse" - with its patriarchal, abusive and militaristic origins. It first appeared around the 1700s likely from noblemen literally looking down from enormous horses bred to accommodate the considerable weight of a knight's full body armor.

And with that I've said all I'd like to say. This has been entertaining; be well.

Let monxo "shout and call names". These people are hysterically self-divulgent, much like that 'colon costume', when I see these shitbags, all I see is bowel.

Monxo, I actually have nothing against vegans and vegetarians. I dated a vegetarian for a while, and when she and I were together, I did not eat meat. When I was not in her presence, I did eat meat, and she had no problem with that.

My problem is when someone thinks they are superior to me for one reason or another. And that's what I'm getting from this. It feels like I'm at the end of someone's nose while they're looking down it. Just because I eat meat does not make me inferior or stupid or mean or cruel or lazy or whatever.

This issue also reminds me a bit of the abortion debate. It's something that is never going to be answered to everyone's liking.

Vegcityrobyn, please come down off that high horse before you fall and hurt yourself. Without every having seen you, I can see you as a 20-something college student, who believes everything their professor has told them and completely ignores the fact that without certain things (paper production, the use of animals in farming and just about every other area where human strength was not enough, a cure for polio from animal testing, mass communication which started on the back of a pony, production of plastics to make Frank Zappa albums) we would not be here today typing on computers to debate this topic. I understand your passion, but please just try to balance your hubris with a little humility. People are more likely to listen when you're not shouting at them and calling them names.

sonyactivision:

you are so fucking dumb it is laughable. you don't make ANY sense at all. your sentences do not follow any kind of logic. your punctuation sucks; your ideas are impossible to follow (cause there are no ideas in there!). ha ha ha.

you are beyond salvation...even if you turned into a block of tofu you would keep on being dumb.

i'm not even signing this...dumb dumb dumb....

This kind of compartmentalization and justification of a twisted nature ethic is interesting but dangerous. The mountains are not here to have the tops of them lopped off to extract coal. The forests are not here to be slashed down and cleared for grazing livestock, paper production and so forth. And animals do not belong in battery cages, pinned into gestation and veal crates...are not here to have machines hooked up to them pulling out pussy secretions to pour over cereal - or to be killed, skinned, trapped, hunted, fished, used for entertainment, breeded, experimented on or for any other reason but their own - which is simply to live a life free from torment, abuse and exploitation. The pursuit of power through the destruction of nature and the subjugation of humans and non-humans is a product of patriarchy and extreme bigotry. So I choose a lifstyle as free from cruelty as possible. And yes, perhaps that is subscribing to a form of social psychosis - but as Frank Zappa said, without deviation from the norm, there can be no progress. Bring it on!

(By the way, cows are very sweet and make lovely companions. This cow in particular is incredible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH_c7JljsaM)

In the words of some wise folks...

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men. ~Alice Walker

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures. ~Albert Einstein

This has nothing to do with food, does it? It's really a social psychosis about defending animals that simply wouldn't exist if people didn't raise them for their meat. You want to see cows dissappear? Stop drinking their milk and eating their meat. They make shitty pets ( even shittier than militant vegans )and they only produce noxious gasses and manure (just like militant vegans). Same for most of the livestock category. As to "feces and E Coli", eaten any bagged spinach lately? As to the rainforest, the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso is now the world's largest single source of soy. Don't split hairs about how much of that soy is diverted to biofuels either as the Brazilians prefer sugarcane for their biofuels...How stupid do you people have to be?

howboutdemcowboys:

glad you came back! listen, we are not holier-than-thou. we have a moral position that requires militantism...you might agree that in something as profound as taking the life out of other sentient being to eat it, when you can eat beans, tofu, seitan, pasta, rice, etc, is something that should not be a matter of relativism (I have my position, you have yours...and let's leave it at that). this should be discussed aggressively, and the very fact that many meat-eaters attack us as holier than thou is a tacit acknowledgment of the moral threat we pose to you.

the grown-up thing will be for you to be open to discuss this, and be willing to change when you see how out of bounds meat-eating should be. I, for one, am not a purist...I will be willing to eat road kill for example, or to eat cheese if the goat or cows are house-animals, for example. So I have nothing holy on me, on the contrary.

I used to love meat. But it is not about what I like. I have sometimes felt like stabbing someone in the subway!!!! But, we are living in civilization, and morality rules. It is about doing what is right. The mature thing, the difficult thing, is to change one's views and to muster the courage to do it in a fulfilling way.

To put it bluntly: either you are right or I am right on this one. Open up and argue intelligently and we should see where to go from there.

Mnx.

And this is why no one listens to vegans. Most of you are a bunch of holier-than-thou douches who believe your way is the only way. Even Moby relaxed his militant stance once he realized just how big of an ass he had become.

Vegans attack!!!!

This bunch of morons don't deserve any kind of mercy.

You 'don't-eat-tofu' (sonyactivision) arse: soybeans are mostly grown for soybean oil for food and as a bio-diesel; not for my tofu, but for your doritos, and oreos and whatever other nasty stuff you eat, cause it is evident you don't eat healthy cause you are not thinking right or are morally blind.

Give yourself a break, go vegan or keep being a moron. As a moron you could even get to be President!!! As a vegan you can get to do the right thing AND get laid.

Mnx

OK, I have to say something about "we alpha humans will need something to gnaw on when global warming destroys all plant life"...what do you think livestock eats? (Anyway, global climate change will wipe us out before plant life, but go on deluding yourself there.)

And what is an alpha human? We're so alpha with our flimsy fingernails, dull teeth, alkaline saliva and long small intestine we need to go after beautiful, empathetic and sentient creatures for sustenance?

All that artery-clogging flesh you're eating has clearly blocked some vital blood flow to your brain.

The "soy lifestyle" has wiped out the rainforest? HUH? Please, please, please get a clue. Reducing or ideally, eliminating consumption of animal products is the most powerful thing someone can do for the environment (plus your health, alleviating poverty and extending the circle of compassion).

FYI: Forests are destroyed to clear the way for

grazing livestock. To support a meat-centered diet it takes 3 1/2 acres of land and 4,000 gallons of water for a day's worth of food, to

support a vegetarian diet (lacto-ovo) it takes 1 1/2 acres of land and 1,200 gallons of water for a day's worth of food and to support a VEGAN diet, 1/6 of an acre and 400 gallons of water for a day's worth of food! Also, the animal agriculture causes toxic ground pollution due to chemicals, pesticides and run-off waste.

And by the way - as a vegan, I actually rarely eat tofu. There are thousands of grains, legumes, nuts, fruits and vegetables out there that support a healthy lifestyle and can be prepared for delicious and satisfying meals.

First they came for the cows, but I wasn't a cow, and said nothing.

Then they came for the chickens.....

Then, Soylent Green.

Sorry, I just couldn't resist, and it's late & I'm really busy so I couldn't look up a more literal paraphrase.

Dadoc

Fucking militant groups! Your soy lifestyle has singlehandedly wiped out the rainforest with a countless toll of plant and animal life for what? One species: the soybean plant! Enjoy your tofu, morons.

yadda yadda...meat. yadda yadda...vegetables. who cares.

all i want to know is: how did i not know about a costume parade until after it took place? was this another secret parade??

advertise people!!

baby, i am 220pnds, go to the gym 4 times per week and practice martial arts (ckm)...so believe me, as far as vegans go, i could kick your arse. but i am not physically violent, so let's leave it at that.

however, how easy you ran away from my gentlemanly duel!!! ha ha ha. my point is very very simple: get serious and think about choices, don't improvise moral positions and above all: intellectual honestly, mostly if it concerns the life of others.

sincerely. mnx

baby, i am 220pnds, go to the gym 4 times per week and practice martial arts (ckm)...so believe me, as far as vegans go, i could kick your arse. but i am not physically violent, so let's leave it at that.

however, how easy you ran away from my gentlemanly duel!!! ha ha ha. my point is very very simple: get serious and think about choices, don't improvise moral positions and above all: intellectual honestly, mostly if it concerns the life of others.

sincerely. mnx

Actually, mnx, you win. Because there sure as hell isn't any way for you to loose... unless it's your belt after eating a soy burrito.

No, scratch that, you're probably thinner than your argument and would lose any battle that put us up against each other.

So, tighten up your belt - at least as tight as your ass seems to be - and keep eating your vegetables and soy products. We alpha humans will need something to gnaw on when global warming destroys all plant life.