Just a little news item, Actor James Cromwell (Zephram Cochrane) was arrested Tuesday in Fairfax, Virgina for protesting with other Peta members outside a Wendy's
------------------
All these worlds are yours, except Europa, which is a wholy owned subsidary of weownthattoo, Inc. (TM)
PETA is a bunch of folks who have anthropomorphized animals to the point they've evelvated them morally above humans. They have more connection to the fuzzies than their own kinds. There's a word for this: sociopathy.
Just another of many wacko groups that have gotten too much exposure and support around the world. There was a time when conservation meant preserving the environment for the health and enjoyment of PEOPLE. Now it has become a neo-Luddite attempt to deny people the use of land -- public and their own (check out the UN's Agenda 21 some time. You guys in California probably already know about it.)
These are the same idiots that protest against bioengineered food without a clear concept of how genetics works. Who protest nuclear power due to a paralysing fear that SOMETHING might happen; despite the fact there's been two accidents to date at a power plant...and gee, the other two reactos at Three Mile Island work just fine. The French have used it to provide 80% of their power needs, almost flawlessly.
Alternate fuel sources: all for 'em. But now the Greens are protesting that the wind farms -- once their big solution to everything -- endanger birds and prevent ground squirrels from having a home.
Hydroelectric. Doesn't get much cleaner. But it blocks rivers so salmon can't spawn. Tear 'em down (but notice that in the case of the Washington state Greens pushing this is a dam supplying most of the eastern half of Washington and a sizeable portion of the grid in the surrounding states. Not the one blocking the salmon. that's in Seattle, where they live. They want THEIR power.)
Their goal, pure and simple, is a regression of society to some half-witted pastoral wonderland that never existed. Where life was short, hard, and not all that fun.
Cromwell? Let 'im rot in jail, I've got no sympathy for him or his kind anymore.
[This message has been edited by qerlin (edited 07-06-2001).]
The people who complain about "unnatural" food are indeed silly. Man has been modifying plants throughout recorded history. And it is also ridiculous to place other lifeforms equal or higher than humans. There are even those who say that cows are abused by being milked, when they would be very uncomfortable if they weren't milked. I saw a cartoon with a woman holding a picket sign saying "Animal Rights Now", standing on a chair, whacking the sign at a mouse on the ground!
------------------
Games. The Final Product. These are the books of the Star Trek RPG. Their five year license. To explore strange new roles. To breathe new life into get togethers. To boldly play what no fan has played before!
I may get in trouble for this, but concidering SOME of their antics I think of both Greenpeace and PETA as terrorist organizations.
------------------
"This battlestation is now the ultimate power in...who's hailing us? I don't care who these 'Borg' are, THEY CAN WAIT!!!"
Admiral Motti, now Eighth Of Eight
Greenpeace is an organization that I used to respect (they used to protect endangered species like whales on the verge of extinction) but that was a decade ago. Now their current operation is nothing short of a terrorist organization.
PETA is an organization I cannot respect, if they cannot respect my preference as a meat-eater. I can respect any vegetarian and their dieting lifestyle, but if they cannot respect my dieting lifestyle as a meat-eater, then I will not acknowledge them. PETA is nothing more than a sanctioned group of prejudicial vegans set out to abolish meat-eating.
------------------ Anyhoo, just some random thoughts...
[This message has been edited by REG (edited 07-06-2001).]
Working in genetics as I do, the whole GM debate barely qualifies as a debate in my opinion. Not that I'm saying there aren't very valid arguments against certain aspects of the technology, but that those arguments don't even get discussed! There is a need to very carefully evaluate any technology before using it on a wide scale. Unfortunately, that means testing it via experimentation and (in the case of GM crops) field trials. Yet here in Britain the merest rumour of a field trial has hordes of white-clad protesters down in the fields uprooting the plants!
The frightening thing over here is that the public have been fed so much politicized science that they are now distrustful of it. No scientist can ever say that something is 100% safe - the world doesn't work like that. You could fatally cut yourself while opening a tin of beans, but no-one protests those. The problem is politicians want to be able to give clear-cut answers, and they're the ones the public listen to.
Protesters (as long as they're peaceful) are a good thing. They raise awareness of issues. The problem comes when the issues they're trying to draw attention to are based on wrong ideas because no-one wishes to let scientists (or whoever) put their side of the case.
Of course, another part of the problem is that most scientists aren't capable of explaining things to laypersons very well...
------------------
"Captain Hunter, you are clearly outgunned. I suggest you surrender your vessel": Romulan Commander Terev, Imperial Warbird Senex
"Cmdr.Terev, you clearly have no idea we're carrying quantum torpedoes. I suggest you duck!": Capt.Matt Hunter, USS Tempest
I'm not trying to stir up trouble here, so just bear (no pun intended) with me for a moment.
PETA isn't a bunch of lunatic Vegans that want to take burgers, chicken and steaks off your dinner table; for the most part, what PETA opposes is the brutalising experiments performed on laboratory animals by companies like Colgate-Palmolive, S.C. Johnson and Proctor & Gamble, as well as the horrific treatment of animals in circuses and "breeding" farms.
However, in any politicaly motivated organisation you're gonna get your tag-along screaming Willies who have no idea what "the cause" is about and just want to attract attention to themselves. "Hey, let's throw some blood on that person in the fur coat! That'll make the news!" The fact that PETA hasn't come forward and downplayed these kinds of idiotic displays more often leads most to believe that they support it--a bad "publicity" move in its own right on their part.
However, despite the fact that some so-called PETA supporters place animals on a deific-pedastal and believe we should immediately place all labortaory rats in comfortable suburban foster homes doesn't make the overall ideal of treating animals ethicaly a bad idea in and of itself. In fact, I think it's a keen idea.
I would, however, have more respect for PETA if I didn't see so many protestors wearing leather shoes and jackets on television.
Actually, and this may be older policy that changed, PETA doesn't want people to have animals as pets as well. "It's Slavery," according to one publication I got a few years ago.
They don't want us to eat them. They don't want us to keep them as pets. They don't want us to use them for anything.
But what do we do with the Animals that have had several thousand years of Animal Husbandry performed on them? We gonna let them cows run wild?
Places already have problems with packs of wild dogs.
As someone with a scientific background, I've talked to people who actually do tests on animals. Most of the pictures the PETA people use are old, and do not reflect current practices. But if they told everyone, "hey this stuff has stopped, congradulations" then money wouldn't flow into their little organization.
Wow, this has the potential to be more explosive then the Religion thread. My views? I don't want to be a vegitarian! Pure and simple, I like Steak, hamburgers and chicken...interesting how most animal rights groups don't protest the catching of ol' Charlie tuna or that poor slob of a lobster that gets tossed into the boiling water...hmmmm, I guess there is difference between "fluffy" and "Red" the Lobster, not cute enough I guess.
On the Topic of research, scientific or other wise: If it expands science and medicine I can live with it. As to the cosmetics problem...who do we really have to blame for that "new UltraSmooth shaving cream formula?" Yup, that's it boys and girls...US. The every day person who will waste their money on the fab fragrence of the week. If there wasn't money it then they wouldn't be doing it. Now, don't get me wrong I am for Animal Rights yes, but in todays society some things need to be done. But before you start slinging mud at Corporate American or Canada just think why they do (or did) that kind of research...Answer $$$$, and who has the $$$$. Think about it next time.
Don't mean to be forceful, but this is something of red button for me. Instead of complaining about policy why not come with a viable solution?
I don't see why people draw a line and say it doesn't matter what you do to things that live in the water. Remember that "vegetarian" on Survivor II? Excuse me, but cetaceans live in the water, and they're the smartest things other than humans! That girl was sooo annoying.
------------------
Games. The Final Product. These are the books of the Star Trek RPG. Their five year license. To explore strange new roles. To breathe new life into get togethers. To boldly play what no fan has played before!
Registered User
James Cromwell Arrested!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
