The SimpsonS (no apostrophe) had an episode of the basement's Bender a few episodes ago too!

Where are our hoverboards, flying cars, auto-tying Nike shoes, growing pizzas, etc.?

If vegans are getting into arguments with you about whether their food is healthier than yours, well, maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong. I listen to my buddy extolling the benefits of his paleo diet. If he's quick about it, I don't see the harm, whether he's right or not. If he won't shut up about it, or tries to push it on me, he's being a jerk. It sounds like you might have met some vegans who are jerks. So have I.

I also don't think your final question was genuine. You've clearly thought about this long enough to see how avoiding animal products reduces the amount of mistreatment. If you don't think it's important, or you don't think it's worth it, that's fine. The population of dairy cows is large enough that the 1-2million vegans in this country certainly affects how many are bred and subjected to the treatment they receive.

But telling me I shouldn't want meat is just bizarre. It should be pretty clear by now that I'm a vegan because I object to needlessly killing or mistreating animals, and try to reduce that number. I'm not offended by eating meat, just what has to happen to get it on my plate. If Nike used child slave labor to make its shoes, and I didn't approve of child slave labor, would you criticize me for buying another brand of shoes because I "shouldn't want shoes?" Meat tastes great. I don't like killing animals. There is no contradiction between those two sentences.

It sounds like your issue is with the "tells you all the time" part of your analogy, and that's tricky. On the one hand, people who sermonize and try to vilify your decisions are being jerks. On the other hand, if a cause is important enough, it's clearly worth being a jerk. It's a sliding scale. Civil rights campaigners were moralizing jerks too, but in hindsight, we mostly feel they were justified. The inquisition, less so. Some animal activists feel they fall reasonably well on the scale.

There's a long history of people trying to make other lead moral lives. And there's a long history of people getting various degrees of pissed off about it. I would encourage you to tell individuals who actively annoy you to stuff it, and to just relax about the rest of us.

And if you want moralizers to leave you alone, I'd also encourage you not to call their moral choices "stupid" on the internet. Counter-intuitive, I know, but give it a try.

All he was missing in that motivational...speech(?), sideshow...was the whole shooting Fireballs ability...

/oh and a Nike logo at the end...
//for those too young to know why the fireballs are important, please watch a movie called Braveheart, damn Millenials...

*meme

Shia seriously needs to work for Nike.

"Just do it." --Nike

We've been on a bunch of dates
I weigh debates that this creates
And hate that state of forced introspection
We traded wit, we swapped some spit,
You fingered me a little bit
But we never really had a connection

You did nothing wrong, I have no excuse
Just my intuition telling me we shouldn't reproduce

I know I have to end it
But pretend to just suspend it
By contending that I'm busy all week
I let the foregone linger on
Text back with an emoticon
Withdraw from you by being oblique

Inside I know my tactics just delay it
But I'd do anything so I don't have to say it

I'll draw this out forever like it's Vietnam
Then one day I'll be gone like Bambi's mom Awww

Cause there's the right thing to do
Then there's what I'm gonna do
There's so much I should say
But instead... I do the fade away

Now I'm fading like chalk on a sidewalk
Or the polio virus after Jonas Salk
Like a Jewish guy at Sizzler on Yom Kippur
The Whig party post Millard Fillmore

The erection of a man on antidepressants
The cast of Diff'rent Strokes after adolescence
Reproductive rights below the Mason Dixon
Native Americans after the barter systems
Your thyroid gland after Hashimoto
The family in the Back to the Future photo
Yeah I fade away

We say that men are asshole who don't communicate
We revel in our victimhood and amplify our hate
We find ways to be indignant like it's a sport
Then dissect their malignance with the views we distort

The way men break up may be sloppy and terse
What they do is bad, but what we do is worse

We pretend to ourselves it's the nice thing to do
To let you down gently by just not ever telling you
And deep down we know it's the worst way to play it
But we are what we have... huge pussies

And women are hypocrites
Especially ones in comedy bands
We see your faults but not our own
Then we wonder why we're all alone

We fill you up with maybe's, excuses and stalls
But like a baby in China... it's better to have balls

Not the Good Wife type like Christine Baranski
So I'll pull out and leave like I'm Roman Polanski

Cause there's the right thing to do
Then there's what I'm gonna do
There's so much I should say
But instead... I do the fade away

Like Verbal Kint fading into Kaiser Soze
The rights in Arizona for a guy named Jose
Opportunities for a college grad
The love between your mom and dad
Gonna Peter out like a gay Cetera
Iranian relations since the Regan era
Black Nike sales after Heaven's Gate
Summer Camp attendance at Penn State
The name Adolph after World War Two
Like Debbie Gibson's pop career, Out of the Blue
Yeah I fade away

Cause I don't wanna get to know you
I just want to blow you... off

That's awesome. Since 13 is typically the middle-to-beginning of puberty for girls and, assuming she has control of her 70mph fastball (probably) and can field too, I'd bet she'll be hanging tough with the boys for another three to five years at least. It will be very interesting to see where it takes her.

Kudos to her for enduring the obstacles, putting in the hard work, and most importantly for setting an excellent example for future generations.

I would like to see a shift in the general public's interest towards sports where finesse, coordination, and mental acuity can totally supersede brute strength and speed. Unfortunately, race car driving is the only competitive sport that immediately comes to mind, but surely there are others.

edit: Oh, and I apologize for using this as a soapbox, and I don't mean to detract in any way from her accomplishments or to imply this newscast or SI is evil, but as a counterpoint, I also always feel a little disgusted when the media (with their Nike, Reebok and Gatorade funding) draws a direct analogy to gender equality through athletics. It's a dangerous straw man... but meh, not everything on TV and magazines is responsible for solving serious social problems. It's just entertainment, so I'll shut up about it now.

Why would you consider a child who obviously loves to perform, having such a high level of eidetic ability with so obscure a choice of a piece by such a youngster exploitation? It's not like she can do anything but develop more confidence and vocal skills having done so. Is she making NIKEs in some sweatshop in Kuala Lumpur or involved in child prostitution in Dubai? Fuck no, she's entertaining a huge audience with her performance of music.

Jeeez artician, over-thinking it a bit aren't we?

Agreed, these shows are crap for the most part, but I have a hard-on for hating television because so many people are programmed by it to become human mushrooms.

Dammit eric, take a cue from the Nike® advert
*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/White-supremacist-discovers-hes-part-black

@kevingrr
who said anything about feelings?
while i actually share your optimism and am nowhere near the nihilistic philosophy that carlin is bemoaning in this clip,i also have my eyes wide open.

i realize that the computer i am using to converse with you was due to the exploitation of workers on the other side of the globe.that some 15 year old indonesian worked 16 hours so he/she could buy a bowl of rice and live in an apartment with 20 other people.or that the 5$ pair of nike shorts i am wearing was made by some worker in bangledesh who made 27 cents and sleeps in a tin shack covered with plastic bags.

i live in a country where ones self-worth is directly related to what they can buy.people are judged by what they own.how they look.how they make their living.

when you compare the social attitudes,in regards to community, from 50 years ago to now the radical changes are immense.

this is what carlin was addressing.
that basically your only redeeming social value is your ability to buy useless crap.

argue all you want about which pair of shoes is better,or whats the best toilet paper but dont ever question the system.

carlin is just lamenting the willful ignorance of an american populace that has been brainwashed into believing that they are the center of the universe.

and you are right.there has been improvement,but in other countries.
it is america that is circling the drain.