Category: veganism

Inverting Pig Rectums for a Living

Rated V — Very vegan friendly post. May offend some non-vegan readers

Vegan Sayings and Cute Things

Every molecule of “meat” represents a return on investment in the multiple trillion dollar industry that scavenges the hide and the marrow of our barnyard friends. Meat and meat byproducts, mechanically separated flesh, slime pink, love pink.

why-vegan-bearing-witness

Workers eking out a living in inexpressibly incomprehensible “meat-processing centers” risk emotional evisceration. As a wise man never said: “if you can’t take the PTSD, stay out of the death camp.” 

Did I mention that those rectal returns on investment increase as processing technology drives down production costs? Where do those profits accrue?  To the workers? No. They are funneled elsewhere. Here’s a hint: think financial-market capital traders. New York City?

There are worksites where people invert pork rectums for a living.

boneless-pork-rectums-inverted

Consider spraying compressed air into pig skulls? What? This is done to prevent “resource waste.”   Remove brain before directing the skulls to the bone-crushing mills. 

Remove all brains and keep your brains right. I got my mind right boss. My factory floor poster suggestion. Display at the employee entrance.

swimming-pig
A vegan-friendly alternative. Here they have the run of the island.

Use squeegees to direct blood from the stainless steel cutting stations and slough it into the collection containers provided for that purpose. Remember — blood is the lifeblood of our prosperity.

Waste not — do not waste animal lives.

Go vegan.

Consumers enjoy factory-farm-fresh sausage served with factory-farm-fresh eggs. Healthy profits rely upon advertising campaigns, you don’t want to squander resources by sullying a good name with idle talk of screams, stench and pollution. “Bob Evans — down on the farm.“

3-batterychickens
Nine billion animals served annually

 

Take a look at the geography of animal processing. Contrast and compare with the geography of our prison-industrial complex. How are they similar?

See not, hear not, know not. Because complicity sucks — a lot.

Did any Soylent Green consumers know about rectal processing? It’s not just a camp classic.

Thanks for shuddering.

You Are What You Eat

A couple recent posts in  SocioLinguini struck a couple vegan themes that intrigue me:

  1. Confronting the slick and well-funded language meat marketers enjoy,
  2. A skin-thin bag of chemicals holds toxin-cleansing organs within and keeps them without.

snappy-answers-veganism

And, so

Confronting the slick and well-funded language meat marketers enjoy

Identity is the inalienable right of *all* sentient beings —  life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is not the domain of a single unusually arrogant specie. Veganism demands that one think critically about unethical behaviors, else becoming complicit in the business of death camps for manufacturing that slab of flesh between plastic stretch wrap and styrofoam tray:  “wholesome family friendly meat products.” Entree, s’il vous plaît

Now let’s check out the German for “you are what you eat”:

“man ist was man isst.” I like the great economy of that additional “s”

man-ist

I was a student in Germany during the early 70’s and once heard the following exchange between two German companions in the Mensa (Student Cafeteria):

Question: “Wer isst meine Suppe?” (Who is going to eat my soup?)
Reply: “Ich bin nicht deine Suppe!” (I’m not your soup.)

First hint: the verb ‘to be’ is one letter away from the verb ‘to eat’

Second hint: “Ich bin ein Berliner” contains that verb ‘to be.’

Here is something I’ve learned along the way that you might not find hopelessly boring: Saxons invaded Britain around 400 C.E. and brought their language with them, including words for meat in German fashion: name of animal + flesh, e.g. Schweinefleisch. Following the Norman Conquest (1066 C.E.) these words removed a layer of complicity, e.g. porc rather than pig meat.

As you may already know, BillZiegler1947 is a teacher by nature and a pedant by dint of character flaw, or something, oder so etwas.

“Hey, Saxony, that’s where the Anglo-Saxons came from.”

Unfortunately pedantry drives me to continue… the English letter “x” stems from the German letters “chs” — ergo die Sachsen (the Saxons). The English word ‘next’ originated with  nächste.(pronounced ‘nexte’). By the way, “Anglo-Saxon” is a bit of a misnomer; unfortunately mistranslations usually stick around forever.

A skin-thin bag of chemicals holds toxin-cleansing organs within and keeps toxins without.

Actually, skin itself is a toxin-excreting organ.

You really are what you eat, what you ingest.

everytime

That great phrasing captures the process quite realistically. The best kept secrets of veganism threaten the bottom lines of trillion-dollar industries. Once you commit to accepting meat as indispensable you impact consumers, jobs and many a staple cooking show. Imagine anyone who would dare foil the overwhelming plans of the respected captains of Meat, Inc. A heritage over many centuries that showcases animal flesh, hide, organs, marbled muscle, und, und, und.

chemical-shit-storm

More later.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

Nothing, or a Useful Pot?

Hariod Brawn has asked me to write my take on “nothing happening” and “nothingness”. So it is my every privilege to respond with something on nothing. For all and each, with sheer gratitude for simply being in the company of my readers.

Hello in there. Hello.

hello-in-there

Critics of composer John Cage are legion. His best known work 4′ 33″ is a quite quiet piece. Audiences chime in with coughs, traffic noise, sound absent upon the stage. Movements end with a drop of the piano-key lid, they begin upon opening the lid.

 

The most common objection to 4′ 33″:

“Why, anyone can do that.”

Cage’s reply:

“No one had before I did.”

Nothing doing, or doing nothing.

cage-against-the-machine

 

You may know of the Zen koan on the cup full and the cup empty. Some good nothing there.

That reminds me of something. Reading literature in original language is a way to avoid the lie of translation. All translations are variations on untruth. Poetry is highly susceptible to mistranslation. Reading Rilke in the original German is worth the effort.

Languages are subtle windows into culture. Deliberate mistranslation is a bludgeoning tool for propagandists.

Perhaps I digress.

“Yes.”

Oh well.

“Death to America” is a deliberate mistranslation from Farsi, inexcusable ignorance of ancient and marvelous Persian culture. The proper translation is “Down with America,” but the word “death” suggests “jihad” and feeds Islamophobia. Bomb ’em. 

Now, back to nothing.

Well, almost.

Die Unendliche Geschichte by Michael Ende quite accurately tells the universal tale of a nihilist threat: das Nicht (The Nothing). This tale is nothing like that empty cup or the useful pot. Milne wrote about a wonderful birthday present that Piglet gifted Eeyore: “The Useful Pot.”

useful-pot

Emptiness can be wonderful. It can be horrible. Another fantasy by Ende: Momo. A tale of time thieves who deviously steal hours at a time from unsuspecting, innocent hardworking people.  Give us the time of your life and we will invest it for you. Momo is a homeless waif who lends her time freely and with gratitude. A most rare quality.

michael-ende-momo-copy1

I proclaim that we are all existential, and by “all” I mean all sentient beings. We all exist, but some of us are exploited. To the victors go the history books — sometimes those victors also build expedient death camps for tasty or despised fellow sentients. Truth is not something generated by majority rule.

Do I again digress?

“Yes.”

Oh Well.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

 

A Möbius Twist Please

 

Hariod Brawn, a fellow I follow regularly on WordPress, recently posted “What is it like for nothing to happen.” Many, including myself, have found great mill for grist there. Please consider spending a moment or five there.

gahan-wilson-nothing-happens-next-this-is-it-new-yorker-cartoon_a-g-9172121-8419447

Such thoughts as these intrigue me.

What is the science behind the abrupt discontinuity and surprising continuity of a Möbius strip? You are on one side and simultaneously on the other, or is it the other way around. Or is there just one side? A simple twist of the two-dimensional surface is radical and beautiful to ilk like me.

moebius-strip

 

Calculus allows us to keep begging the questions on a seeming, and actual, infinity:

“Are we there yet? When are we going to be there?”

Meanwhile we march on asymptotically toward an axis or several axes, or three-dimensional, four-dimensional axes.

asymptote

I say “dare to divide by zero.” But thank me not —thank the unknown scholars who introduced the zero. Roman numerals are hard-headed and in-your-face hard-nosed to math fans.

But back to nothing (or zero or zed). Consider the weight of the universe. Then consider its opposite: absolutely absolutely nothing.

“But, but the big-ass weight of the universe is a whole lot of something. Or something.”

Some time ago a science fiction author (name unknown to me) imagined a planet with never dissipating cloud cover. At no time of the day or night could an inhabitant see anything but the underside of endlessly butting together clouds. The sun was a hazy bright spot visible during the day. At night, of course, no stars. What could the inhabitants know of the universe?

Thanks for reading.