Poll: What is more useful??

[orygun]

They are cute and cuddly, plus they won't stick around for years!

 

[RainMan_PNW]

They're both vegetardians...but one is such by evolution while the other by some twisted sense of either ethics or health concerns (both of which can be proven falsely derived).

As someone else mentioned, they eat what food eats...follow that logic and you'll draw the eventual conclusion they could both be used for food themselves. Now, when the SHTF, that vegan is going to provide a lot more food for me (a few meals at least) than the little tiny hamster (maybe an appetizer). And there are much more uses for the rest of the larger bodied herbivore as well...sort of like how our ancestors used the entire mammoth or bufallo from teeth to bones to skin to organs.

Now, in terms of having to put up with one or the other for dinner conversation...the hamster would win hands down!

EDIT - oops...I'm wrong. Only ONE of them is a vegetardian. I still stick with my position - herbivores should be raised for food.

 

[RainMan_PNW]

This is hardly funny to me. My son's fiance is a vegan and she's turned him into one. I wanted to put a couple of Slim Jim's in their stockings this last Christmas just for giggles, but the wife nixed the idea.

I pity you Cougfan2. You might want to slip the book "The Vegetarian Myth" into their stocking...or sooner if you value their long term health (all kidding aside - I am serious about that one).

 

[Mothra]

Wow, that's a lot of defensiveness. I'm a vegetarian and gun owner, and while I'm not surprised at the derision I can see, I am disappointed. The second amendment applies to everyone, and I don't see why advocates should give any group of people a hard time, unless what you want is an exclusive club to insulate you from anyone different. And LCBrewing, I hope you're growing your own food, or you missed the point of "The Vegetarian Myth" entirely.

I want to vote hamster, but I saw my friend's hamster break its leg jumping out of the cage, taking a month to heal. First thing it did when it could walk again was jump out and break it again.

 

[Cougfan2]

I think a lot of people miss the point that being a vegetarian and being a vegan are two different things. Jump in here Mothra if you disagree with me. To my understanding vegetarians are essentially making a dietary choice not to eat meat. OK by me. Vegans are almost militant about it.

This last Thanksgiving my son and his fiance invited us up for Thanksgiving. To give background, we have had them at our house a couple of times for dinner since they made the choice to become vegans and while my wife and I ate what we wanted, we respected their choice and helped them prepare a vegan meal. When talking about joining them for Thanksgiving I asked my son if he would be bothered if my wife and I brought up a small ham to eat along with the vegan dishes they were serving. He said sure, we had accommodated them and he didn't see a problem with that UNTIL HE TOLD HIS FIANCE. He called back, I could tell embarassed, and said that they did not want any meat in their house and they don't kill animals. I won't go into the hypocrisy of my son who grew up hunting and fishing with me, but it created some ill will between us. His fiance views it as a quasi religion.

 

[RainMan_PNW]

A study of the biochemical processes of the human body and the pathways of how our bodies process what is taken in and how it is used to either help or harm us show that while it is possible to survive on a non-supplemented (no processed supplements of vitamins, nutrients, or other essential amino acids) vegetarian diet, it is not possible to physically thrive. Millions of years of evolution supports the same position. It's not religion (to me)...just simple science, further supported by a pretty exhaustive amount of anecdotal evidence that I've read and witnessed first hand.

My comment above (about the usefulness of vegans) was meant to be tongue-in-cheek in the same vein as the OP. Guess that's why I've always stayed completely silent on the topics of religion and politics in my life...someone will always take it for more than that.

As for the book recommendation - I can respect anyone's choices (the beauty of the country we live in is our ability to make those choices) without agreeing with them. I have friends and relatives who are also vegetarian and we have enough respect for each other's choices to be accomodating to the other...given that we don't "push" our own choices onto the others. I do expect people to be fully informed - to both sides of any choice - before making the choice, and that is something most people won't bother to do when it comes to health, politics, or religion.

I do hunt for or raise as much food as I can, and that which I can't, I get through local sources where I have physically met and know on a personal level the person who is raising it (be it livestock, veggies, etc).

 

[jimwsea]

Vegatarians avoid meat. Vegans avoid meat as well as animal products like eggs, cheese and milk.

 

[orygun]

Vegatarians avoid meat. Vegans avoid meat as well as animal products like eggs, cheese and milk.

Thanks! (seriously)
My nieces are vegetarians and I was trying to remember what the difference between them and vegans was.
I will never, ever understand the reasoning behind any of this, but don't care to worry too much about what someone else wants as long as they don't try to "inflict" their views on me.
Personally, I thought this whole post was just for fun, not meant to be serious or make someone "butt hurt".

 

[Stomper]

If we shouldn't eat animals, then why are they made out of meat?

I won't go into the hypocrisy of my son who grew up hunting and fishing with me, but it created some ill will between us. His fiance views it as a quasi religion.

Take pity on him Cougfan, he's not a hypocrite... he is merely under the influence of the mysterious working of the "power of the poonannie". All men come from womans' womb, then they spend the rest of their lives trying to get back in there.

 

[Redcap]

I think a lot of people miss the point that being a vegetarian and being a vegan are two different things. Jump in here Mothra if you disagree with me. To my understanding vegetarians are essentially making a dietary choice not to eat meat. OK by me. Vegans are almost militant about it.

This last Thanksgiving my son and his fiance invited us up for Thanksgiving. To give background, we have had them at our house a couple of times for dinner since they made the choice to become vegans and while my wife and I ate what we wanted, we respected their choice and helped them prepare a vegan meal. When talking about joining them for Thanksgiving I asked my son if he would be bothered if my wife and I brought up a small ham to eat along with the vegan dishes they were serving. He said sure, we had accommodated them and he didn't see a problem with that UNTIL HE TOLD HIS FIANCE. He called back, I could tell embarassed, and said that they did not want any meat in their house and they don't kill animals. I won't go into the hypocrisy of my son who grew up hunting and fishing with me, but it created some ill will between us. His fiance views it as a quasi religion.

Your son made a piss-poor choice in women then.

 

[Stomper]

Your son made a piss-poor choice in women then.

I beg to differ... its "out of his hands" (so to speak... LOL). He's under "the spell of the poonannie", and three things will come of it... either he will snap out of it before he gets married and she can say, "I want half"... or he will get married and then eventually divorce (because over 50% of marriages fail these days) and she'll say, "I want 75% and alimony"... or they will grow old and shivel up together because they lacked the essential amino acids and other required good stuff you get from eating animial products (and the "suppliments" they take to make up for it are STILL made from animal products, just compressed into a pill).

 

[Mothra]

I think there are some myths to dispell here. Vegan supplements can and do contain absolutely no animal products. If an animal has a nutritional chemical, it can be derived from non-animal means. If it couldn't; the animal wouldn't have been able to get it. Cows don't just magically produce B12; it is present in their body from bacteria. As for taking supplements; what's wrong with that? We have developed tools that allow us to thrive; why should nutrition be excluded from that?

As for the concept that it's impossible to "physically thrive"? Tell that to vegan MMA fighter Mac Danzig. Tell it to Mike Tyson --also a vegan. Tell it to the vegan bodybuilders. Here's an incomplete list of people you're going to have to tell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan_athletes#Athletes

And Cougfan2, I'm sorry your son's wife is a total jerk.

 

[Bazooka Joe]

I'm fine with vegetarians and vegans. It's the preachy ones who get on my nerves - be they vegetarian, vegan, Christian, pagan,et cetera.