Verbal Diarleah (The Diary of Leah)

I haven’t heard about (or sought out information on) Peta in a while nor veggie-fascists. I unfortunately came across this commentary on Guardian today from my ‘favourite’ atheist-bus-campaigner. Setting aside her whole ‘there’s probably no God’ malarkey it was a good article. I was intrigued by this sentence: “Despite the best efforts of Finding Nemo, A Shark Tale and the Peta marketing team who brought you “sea kittens” ”

Basically good old Peta have got their proverbial knickers in a twist about fishing. It’s probably been going on for some time seeing as their ultimate goal is the liberation of all animals. They are campaigning to outlaw fishing and are doing so by equating fish with their new term ’sea kittens’. The logic seems to be ‘you wouldn’t hurt a kitten, why hurt a fish?’

I would expect Peta to campaign against fishing; they are, after all an animal rights group. I suppose what made my blood boil the most was the inane nature of this campaign. Calling a fish a ’sea kitten’ does not make me any less likely to pluck it from the water, bash it on the head, fry it up and eat it; or stick it on some vinegared rice with a side of wasabi and soy sauce. As Shakespeare so eloquently put it (thank you complete works of Shakespeare iPhone application): “that which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.” That which we call a ’sea kitten’ smells just as fishy and tastes just as good.

And finally, if you go to the Peta website, please visit the Create Your Own Sea Kitten section. Someone out there explain to me why, under the Accessories tab, there are floaties? Fish swim; why the hell do they need arm flotation devices?! I can’t figure out if this campaign ’game’ is actually aimed at children or animal rights activists really have that low of an IQ.

Grrrrrrrrr my blood is boiling as I read this article on why even ‘humane’ meat is not humane because we’re killing animals unnecessarily, blah blah blah. Needless to say this woman is a director for PETA.

You can raise animals in better conditions, remove the drugs from their food and slap organic or free-range labels on their carcasses, but in the end, if you are eating meat, you’re paying someone to kill animals – unnecessarily.

It’s not unnecessary. It’s necessary to feed people! Think how over-run this planet would be if animals were allowed to ‘roam free’ like PETA wants. Now, look at another ‘excuse’ to go vegetarian:

 A vegetarian diet is less expensive than a meat-based one – nutritious and delicious fruit, vegetables, nuts, grains, faux “meat” and other staple choices of the world’s vegetarians can be cheap to buy – and it’s also the kindest choice for our environment and for animals.

Bollocks! Have a look next time you’re in the store at some of the prices on the Quorn, Linda McCartney and other veggie meals and ‘faux’ meat selections. They are by no means cheap. And I doubt that most of them contain that many vegetables, just stuff to make it taste good that isn’t meat. And as for fruit and veg being cheap: again, bollocks! I was just in the store the other day and saw white and red grapes for £3.98 a pack! Four pounds for a pack of grapes?! I don’t think so.

Oh, I hate veggie fascists. I will never stop, but then again they won’t stop hating me for being a meat-eater so it’s a vicious cycle. But as long as annoying veggie-fascists like this woman and the organisation she works for are writing articles like this, I’ll keep responding with blog posts like this. I’ve even added the category Vegetarians to this blog so I can file posts accordingly.

I have known several vegetarians in my life. I’m related to one and have another as a good friend here in London. My cousin is veggie simply because she just never really liked the taste of meat whereas my friend is veggie for the whole animal cruelty/moral reasons. My friend has more reason to say something about my carniverous ways than does my cousin; but she doesn’t, and never has. Never has she looked down her nose at me because I’m diving into a big fat, juicy steak. She’s not that type of person with anything; but more importantly she’s not one of those veggie-fascists you hear about.

Like this lady for instance. Gordon Ramsey is a rather popular TV chef/personality. My husband really enjoys watching him and his cooking. Mr Ramsey has guts and gusto; he says what he likes, when he likes with plenty of expletives thrown around for good measure. He is fairly entertaining to watch and, yes, a damn good chef.

This Michele Hanson does make one good point when she says

“In the new series of his TV show The F-Word, Gordon Ramsay plans to plug horsemeat. He’ll be having a horsemeat barbecue at Cheltenham races. Rub peoples’ noses in it, why don’t you?”

I have to admit, barbecuing a horse at a horse race is in somewhat bad taste; but that’s just Gordon Ramsey really. The other more infuriating paragraph, however, states

“The French eat it, so why not us? But who cares what the French do? They vote Tory and they give their kiddies wine for dinner. If we give our children alcohol we may soon be thrown into the slammer. Horse is no worse than cow or pig, you may say. Quite right. But why bother to eat any of them? Be a vegetarian instead, like me. Feel good about yourself, give your bowels a break, cut down on methane gas and deforestation, reduce global warming, end cruelty to animals and save the world.“

I HATE VEGGIE FASCISTS!!!! Now, perhaps she was trying to be ironic or sarcastic with this remark. Certainly Britons are known for their dry wit. I just saw it as veggie posturing and it really annoyed the crap out of me. So much so that I felt I needed to share it with you as well as my Ramsey-loving husband.

I highly doubt that my turning to vegetables over meat is going to save the planet. As for the gas bit, I have to admit I experience a hell of a lot MORE gas once I’ve had a big ol’ plate of vegetables rather than when I’ve had a nice burger. So meh Ms Hanson. Take your veggie fascism elsewhere. I’m having none of it. I’ll take a half-pound burger with extra blood to go please…