If you're gonna have a cow, the least you can do is feed her grass.

A couple of weeks ago, Jon directed my attention toward a blog-post on Liberadio's (Vanderbilt University's left-wing radio show) website about how everybody's favorite eco-documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, had a couple of sizeable holes in its message. The hole about which I found myself feeling a little incredulous, despite my rather gung-ho and monastic views about eco-agriculture and gastronomic consumption, is the one about how animal agriculture is causing about 18% of our current global climate change problems. The study to which Freddie O'Connell (one of the Liberadio commentators) refers in this post is put out by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Ostensibly, I imagine the UNFAO is a pretty well-funded and relatively objective organization... but 18%? That's, like, a lot, right?

So, I emailed my mom. She's my go-to food guru. She's been a food writer, in some capacity or other, for most of my life and I know that she's probably even more passionate about eating well and eating responsibly than I am. Plus, well, she's like the angel on my right shoulder. Truly, it's difficult having such a damn virtuous mother (especially when one is as deviant and diabolical as I am), but the when I need a reliable source, she's about as immaculate as they come. Mom confirmed that, yes, she's been reading some similar studies that confirmed that all you meat-eaters out there are exacerbating global warming with your food choices as well as your Hummers. Yes. I really do think all meat-eaters drive Hummers. Demons. All of you. But anyway, Mom sent me this link. And indeed, it's another article supporting the notion that cowpies are taking over the world.

And then today, I was slogging through my daily rollcall of blogs and I stumbled upon this article on The Plank, the blog written by contributors to The New Republic. And just when I was resigning myself to the moral turpitude of meat-eaters everywhere, it seems there's hope! If you choose *organic*, grass-fed beef, emissions are significantly reduced! I mean, I'm not sure why anyone would want to eat non-organic meat in the first place... All those antibiotics are busy raising your own body's immunity to antibiotics and that's not real good. And all those growth hormones are busy giving you zits, making girls start puperty earlier, making boys start puberty later, reducing sperm counts, causing several assorted reproductive-organ cancers in humans, making your boobs hurt, making you fat... really, rBGHs are the work of the devil.

I know, people. I know you're gonna tell me that organic beef is too expensive. But wise up! Would you rather leave a liveable, intact planet for your inevitable offspring and enjoy a functioning body well into your golden years, or would you rather save a couple pennies now? Instant gratification ain't all it's cracked up to be, folks-- and I say that as something of a hedonist, albeit one who likes to thwart her own hedonism for the purposes of self-righteousness (and masochism?).

I do so miss being instantly gratified now and again... *sigh*

How to forward my career

How could I become an extra in indie-neo-porn movies? Or an origami-vagina-maker? Clearly, I have missed my calling.

It's no WONDER I'm so unhappy in my current job if there are opportunities such as this abounding.

Traffic of the weird

Ever since my post about The Urim and Thummim a couple of days ago in which I briefly mentioned my feelings about circumcision, I've been getting in inordinate amount of traffic from folks either looking for information about or pictures of said ritual. And, apparently, it's something of a hot button because a bunch of other bloggers are railing against it, too.

So I figured I'd post a link to this review in The New Republic about a documentary about a Jewish spy who was able to operate undetected among Nazis in Egypt primarily because his parents had the foresight to allow him to keep his foreskin. I don't know how many stories there are about people's lives being saved by the status of their genitals-- and this film looks completely fascinating for a slew of other reasons --but I figured the existence thereof merited a heads-up post all of it's own.

For now, I'll be, um, breathlessly (?) anticipating the mainstream release of The Champagne Sky.