The self righteousness of your post almost made me feel sick. Vegetarianism SHOULD be a stepping stone to veganism? It SHOULD be whatever the hell you want it to be - for example a temporary situation for when you SHOULD return to eating meat.

Now i'm not going to do what you did and reel off the standard list of reasons why veganism is bad for you, they are well documented and discussed but we all know that it is very possible to have a varied and sufficient diet regardless of what you limit yourself to.

As for your comment about milk, i did a quick bit of research - most of the sources i can find saying that milk causes calcium to be ejected out of the body sourced from the bones and/or cause osteoporosis are new age blog style websites written by a vegan who - like you - clearly has some serious agenda.

As for decent sources, here is what i found:
- Several scientific papers noting that though some observational studies have shown more alkali diets being beneficial to bone health in pre- and post- menopausal women, it has yet to be proven in any definitive clinical trial
http://osteoporosis.org.za/general/downloads/dairy.pdf
(and other sources, but not as scientific)

- The Harvard School of Public Health state that it is not clear what the best source of calcium is for bone health. However the consumption of dairy products has more beneficial effects than just bone health - protection against colon cancer for example, also other vitamins, proteins and minerals that are present.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/calcium-full-story/#calcium-from-milk

Job losses may seem irrelevant to you, but i suggest that's because you have a very very tenuous grasp on the farming profession and don't rely on it for your income. No, you can't simply replace any and all dairy farms/farmers and workers with plant-based farming alternatives. There are a huge number of reasons for this which only a farmer would be able to tell us in detail, but for example - the equipment is different and requires a huge investment (both for acquisition and storage and transport and so on), the land and buildings are not necessarily interchangeable, the skills and knowledge are often built up since childhood and are not instantly transferable, the connections within the industry for logistics and business dealings are different. These are just a few that i thought up.

Yes, some animals are poorly treated in the farming industry and it makes me very sad to think of. However if you are careful and attentive you can ensure that you do not consume any products that were unfairly treated. This is like saying that a minority of clothes sold in shops are made in sweatshops by exploited child labour, therefore we should ban all clothes from the planet.

I could go on and on and on, and even begin my own dissertation on how "everyone going vegan" would be detrimental to overall public health and prosperity; if we grow more crops, more animals must be killed to ensure the crop is healthy and full.. we are not able to process celulose because we evolved.. there are things you can't get from plants that your body needs.. etc. But this comment is already very long, and i think i've broken the backbone of your argument already.

I will mention though that your crusade could end up being very damaging to the health of people who have auto immune diseases and/or allergies that rely on meat to have a balanced and varied diet. I recently discovered that i have coeliac disease (auto immune response to gluten) and secondary lactose intolerance, and i really wish i could explain to you just how difficult it is to avoid gluten containing grains and lactose.

For you it is a choice to not eat anything that comes from animals, for me it is a necessity that i have to avoid gluten and lactose otherwise i get debilitating pain within half an hour. If i did not have access to meat and eggs, there would be very little that i could eat. Wheat is added to almost everything, or almost everything is made in the same vicinity as wheat products resulting in cross contamination. Meat and eggs are sometimes the ONLY thing that i can be sure are safe to eat, and yet some self righteous do-gooder like yourself sits there on a high horse telling me how terrible it is that i inevitably, medically do what our ancestors have been doing for hundreds of thousands of years of human prosperity and ascendance.

If you'd had a bit more of an open mind when you wrote that comment, if i hadn't found out i have these medical conditions, if you'd said things in a debatable way, presented your sources (you provide none), offered it up for discussion rather than a commandment written on a stone tablet, then i probably wouldn't have replied like this. But when i'm forced into doing something and an interfering busybody strolls along and shrieks "oooooooooh you shouldn't be doing that!!!" it really does wind me up.

Tags for this video have been changed from '38, Common Spelling, Grammar Errors, mentalfloss, episode, ep, nineth, nine, English' to '38, Common Spelling, Grammar Errors, mentalfloss, episode, nine, English, menopause' - edited by doogle

Since I am post-menopausal, if that Crazy PMS comment was directed at me, it misses the mark. No PMS. Menopause is behind me.

I'm practically a man now, hormonally.

>> ^SevenFingers:

Wow... Such a stupid debate on what girls/boys/men/women mean. Since Girls/Women are the same sex and Boys/Men are the same sex, wtf does it matter if one was used and not the other? What about Guys/Gals? Ladies/Germs? Dicks/C nts? Rational-doesn't-use-his-emotions-to-control-his-thoughts-asshole/Crazy-PMS-Over-reacting-Bitch?

*length=1:25

Muscle off! [upvote for the menopausal groupie set!] =o)

I was listening to this in the background feeling good about Richard and then he went into his usual histronic theatrics. Richard, don't address the nation in the tone of a menopausal woman throwing a hissy fit for attention.

>> ^peggedbea:
choggie, are you going through menopause or something honey?
the video was up for discussion, which is a completely fair process.
hobbling is
1. ineffective 2. unnecessary 3. dickish 4. an abuse of power itself 5. an attempt to start shit, using a member who will not even participate 6. lame


re: lame. Choggie used to have a dress made of lame.

choggie, are you going through menopause or something honey?
the video was up for discussion, which is a completely fair process.
hobbling is
1. ineffective 2. unnecessary 3. dickish 4. an abuse of power itself 5. an attempt to start shit, using a member who will not even participate 6. lame

I think his presence postpone menopause for her briefly and made her more attractive.. Yah, she's definitely an OHWILF...

My least favorite scene from that great movie. Seems pretentious and menopausal.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'hotflash, nightsweats, cooljams, menopause, babyboomer' to 'banned, redacted' - edited by Zifnab

^I must admit that ever since your mother hit menopause I do masturbate more regularly

Okay, apparently this has to be baby-step explained for everyone here.

Reason 1: People are not against using objects to improve themselves, turning oil into a synthetic fibre for clothing, or taking medication to prevent pregnancy. All of these things are unnatural, yet accepted by society. Air conditioning could be considered one of them. How many of you want to give up air conditioning/central heating, or for that matter, the internet?

Reason 2: The will of God is not viewed as a valid reason to ban homosexuality. I believe if it exists, God willed it to exist, and since there are homosexuals, God willed them to exist. Anyone who quotes Leviticus at me is an idiot. Also, other religions believe in other gods who may pardon or support homosexuals. Banning what their religion deems appropriate in favor of another religion is indeed theocratic.

Reason 3: The consumation of a marriage and resulting pregnancy is no longer viewed as a requirement of matrimony. There are 2.5 million infertile couples in the United States, and are incapible of producing children. Millions more have menopausal females and are unable to produce children. The people who fit in those two categories clearly outweigh the number of gays.

Reason 4: This may occur, but it is merely an optical illusion of statistics. More people seem to be getting cancer because people are more willing to talk about themselves and others who have the often terminal disease. If gay marriage and homosexual relations were allowed in society, more gays would identify themselves as homosexual because they don't fear public torture and death. In fact, straight people will not turn gay because it is legal.

The only scientific evidince connected to homosexuality is that it is genetic. Genetic "diseases" or "abnormalities" are not contagious by external contact, or internal contact for that matter.

Reason 5: This is a paradox. Children are born to a man and a woman. This is a fact. However, gays are born to straight men and women, meaning that it is impossible for straight parents to only raise straight children, because gays have been born and are being born as we speak. Tough break.

Reason 6: The reference to interracial marriages refers to periods of time in the 50s, 60s, and earlier, when interracial couples were deemed distasteful or wrong. Parents feared their children coming home with a 'colored' significant other, or thier lovely darling baby choosing a white for a spouse. Those lines have finally begun to blur, and interracial marriages have mostly been left alone, because a new scapegoat has appeared: gay marriages.

Reason 7: I assume many of you support single working parents. They're appallingly common in the United States, with divorce rates so high. The children of such parents don't have two role models. I grew up with mostly just my mother; my father spent a lot of time away on business. I don't consider myself 'deprived' or 'poorly raised' because I didn't know what men were 'supposed to act like', which is what a role model teaches.

"What is popular is right" Let's all jump off bridges. It'll be totally cool. What? We'll all die? No biggie, at least we'll all die together. And why don't we ban gay marriage while we're at it, and drill in Tennessee, because clearly there is oil in Tennessee. Right under Graceland.

If you didn't get anything before that, you won't get the end.

Final points:
- Just because it was said before doesn't mean we can't say it again. Hearing it out loud gave it a larger impact for me.
- America has a reputation for tolerance and freedom. Our direct policy is "The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". A consensual marriage is an inalienable right under those terms.
- This is the ultimate sarcastic slam. When listening to these 'reasons' to disallow gay marriage, you sit there, stop the video, and think; "something's not quite right about that logic..." and you know why. Because there is no logic.

Call me a fag, call me a prick, call me whatever string of meaningless letters pops into your head. But lay off of alien_concept. Because she's in support of gay rights, and she's absolutely right.

In reply to this comment by thepinky:

Taxpayers (including single mothers) pay for government waste, pointless wars, and yes, the occasional freeloader. We pay for the National Wildlife Turkey Federation in South Carolina, for transit centers for minor league baseball teams, for halls of fame and a million other ridiculous things. Wouldn't t be better to fund those sorts of things at a more local level instead of wasting so much money on overhead?

So, basically you think that the idea of taxes and providing a good social network should be thrown out because the current government isn't doing it right? No government is going to get it 100% correct, but the idea is sound, and the public has to vote in, and then lobby, governments to use the money in their best interest. You can't leave it all up to local areas to handle, because that means the small cities/towns will never have much money and slowly die, while the large cities get more and more money as everyone has to move to them as they're the only places with amenities because no-one was there to spread the country's wealth around to all the areas that need it. You need to have everyone pitching in, and then people that have been voted in, supposedly because the voters thought they were the best people to handle it, fairly divvy up the proceeds.

The problem with not having taxes, and having everyone supposedly giving money to where they think the money should go is that it never works... even the most good hearted of people will have times when they go "I just can't afford to give $x to Y, I need that money now for a, b and c"... but if you already have that money taken out of their wage, then they seem to get by just fine without it, and the money can be put to good use.

And that's assuming that everyone is good hearted in the first place... which is not the case, and the wanting to give money to others seems to decrease with one's wealth usually, such that the majority of the rich would keep all their money for themselves.

It would never, ever, in a million years, work.

Yes governments need to handle the money better... for one thing stop spending so darn much on the military, spend more on renewable electricity generation and electric cars (I mean, come on, we could ALREADY be powering ourselves via renewables and driving electric cars... humph)... but just because they're not doing things right now, doesn't mean the answer is to stop taxes altogether.


I don't care about Joe Shmoe's birth control. It is not a neccesity. I don't care how good his sex is. I intend to use birth control pills. I never had my teeth straightened. I still have my wisdom teeth. I'm not complaining about my quality of life. A vasectomy is a luxury, plain and simple.
Hmmm, so you plan to use the pill after you've had kids, all the way until menopause? I think you may wish to look into the health issues with that. The pill does some pretty bad things to a woman, and the longer you use it, the worse it gets. here, here and many other places besides.

And thinking of a vasectomy as a luxury is dead wrong. Having the state pay for it SAVES the country money. You avoid many, many unplanned pregnancies that lead to more social welfare and other problems. By the cheap, safe, effective vasectomy, you eliminate a whole host of costs associated with extra, unplanned/unwanted kids.

Also, not having your wisdom teeth out... come on... for many people (like myself), they were causing excruciating pain and problems in my mouth... you think it's a luxury to have that pain stopped do you? You're falling into the trap again of 'well, I didn't use X service, why should I fund it?'... well, I'm sure you have used many services I would never use, why should I fund them? It's a case of "We all chip in so that everyone can afford the things they need".