I don't really have energy for a long response so I'll be somewhat quick, but I just wanted to thank you for a good post with alot of valid points.
About the allergy, I know there are nut and soy free vegan alternatives but it isn't quite easy as that. I have a super strict diet and mainly have to avoid certain sugars, but alot of the times I have to test a bunch of stuff and see what works. I feel like I've tried every seed available but nothing works. I tried vegan alternatives for 8 months straight but I ended up just living on potatoes and carrots (with occasional pill-eating, but they also made me feel like shit) which led to a 10 day streak of b12 shots in the asscheek every morning at the hospital, I got really fucked up vitamin-wise.
However, I'm not completely sure I'd be 100% vegan even if I could (although I would certainly eat less meat). I know justifying meat-eating with saying that cows are stupid isn't a great reason, but it's the same as the bug one and I guess I draw my line after the cows... for now. If the excuse for killing different kinds of bugs are just that they can't feel pain, what about instant death with no suffering - would that be considered ok for a cow or another bigger animal? As iiiin.. hunting.
(This is purely for discussion purposes and not my personal opinion)
If a moose's family won't miss him when he gets painlessly shot and then eaten - what difference does it make from a completely objective standpoint? Is it just a matter of morals?
All good, I realize my response was a huge fucking wall of text and probably not the most easy one to respond to.
okay, your experience sounds like a fucked up one and while I harp on about animals, defs put your own health above them. If I had a condition where I absolutely had to consume animal products to survive, I'd fuck up a cow real quick!
insta death = no suffering - sure, I had this debate with Moe on hear way back and he said, "what's better: straight bolt gun to the head vs. breaking a cows legs and then boiling it alive?" and yeah, in that situation of course you want to cause as little "suffering" as possible which was also highlighted in Soda Jerk's post; he's in a situation where has has enough $$$ to chose the more ethical options. The majority of meat and dairy we see on shelves though doesn't come from that world and I think both you and I know that. The suffering debate comes up with Halal too and they justify it by saying "well we use a big fuck off sharp knife to to sever the main arteries nice and quick so there's no pain/ suffering". Yes ... but do know what would cause even less pain? NOT actually killing the animal in the first place.
I guess this comes to individual's will to live, and while I'm not sure if science has proven it yet, I'm guessing most living/ sentient creatures possess this trait? Like you're not just going to let some murder you as long as they promise to make and quick and "ethical". Obviously, you'd like a pain-free death, but before that not dying would obviously be the most desired outcome in that situation no?
I guess that links into your moose hypthotecial too. Okay, say science can prove that Moose's family won't miss him and you give him the cleanest death possible, then what's the objective problem right? Sure, from certain standpoints you could justify it (certainly not from the moose's standpoint though) but then you get into a grey area of who decides when it is/ isn't okay to take the life of another sentient being.
I don't want to get too out there with the whole name the trait thing either, but usually it's a test of whether that action could be justified in the case of humans too. So say some aliens (okay, this is out there) fly down to earth and their scientists deduce that you have no family and that if they kill you quickly and painlessly you won't suffer anyway. Would you accept their justification in this case? If you say no and many people would, that's fine but it shows that there is a logical inconsistency between your actions and your way of thinking.
Okay, I'm talking about aliens and shit now so I think I better sign off...
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From a purely skating point of view, it will be interesting to see where Geoff ends up; he was an integral part of Flip ever since they moved to the US and any other company that was going to pounce on him probably should have done so by now. Historically, I guess him and Ed would make sense but Ed only gave him a guest board so idk
Who else would want him? FA? I couldn't see him and Dill getting on for some reason.
Also, whatever happened to the board company he was going to start?