The food finger-waggers were out in full force in Los Angeles yesterday. At a committee hearing more akin to a three-ring circus, state senators “explored” a supposed link between sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity. The hearing, called by state senator Alex Padilla, featured “Twinkie tax” creator Kelly Brownell and a gaggle of other public health activists lining up to “prove” the link while congratulating the panel for its “historic” hearing. The senate panel members played the part by showing their shock and outrage, with one senator absurdly declaring that “I would like to end the Pepsi Generation.”
read more here »Vegetarian Book Makes Meatless Arguments (Thursday, 11/5/2009)
When even a vegetarian calls your anti-meat book a “screed,” you know you’re in trouble. But that’s just what happened in today’s Washington Times review of Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book, Eating Animals. As reviewer A.G. Gancarski puts it, Foer’s book is lacking some flesh on its bones:
read more here »All Hail the Supreme Master! (Of Anti-Meat Propaganda) (Wednesday, 11/4/2009)
What do you get when you combine two obnoxious animal rights groups (the ridiculously misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and the phony-baloney Humane Society of the United States) with a self-anointed “Supreme Master” cult leader? This Sunday’s climate change conference in Washington, DC. Speakers include reps from both animal rights groups, and the keynote address will be delivered by the “Supreme Master” Ching Hai. Ching who, you ask? Having attained “full enlightenment” in the Himalayas, she’s a cult leader out to spread a tofu-laden meditation gospel. You can find out all about her at websites called “God’s direct contact” and “God’s immediate contact.”
read more here »Marley and Meat (Tuesday, 11/3/2009)
If you follow the animal-rights movement, you might have caught wind of novelist Jonathan Safran Foer’s first attempt at polemic in his new book, Eating Animals. In the tradition of Michael Pollan and Food Inc., Foer is trying to whip celebrity activists into an anti-meat frenzy. In a Wall Street Journal essay this weekend, he got one thing right: Our food choices are more a function of cultural identity than the culmination of a tortured logic exercise. Which is why omnivorous Americans universally reject his suggestion that we should just eat the family dog.
read more here »
|
 |