GIVING THANKS TO TURKEYS

Nature is a puzzling mother. She imbues her children with a strong instinct for survival, but to do so they must prey upon and consume others. We will always fail when we try to embed human morality to the ways of nature. Nature is not human, though humans are a small part of nature.  We are not likely to change the fact that big fish eat small fish. “Eat and be eaten” is nature’s decree.

I think that in the long-term we might understand this better from physics and the idea of fusion. Fusion in the Sun creates the light and warmth that bathes the Earth. Fusion is perhaps more than a combination of elements that destroy themselves to create something larger than themselves. Fusion creates the energy needed to make to the universe itself work. Fusion must be an evolutionary process of building from the old to create the new. Fusion likely works its way down to predator and victim. From the consumed elements of another, life is born and maintained, then recycled once again.

Seven years ago I responded to this video about being thankful for our Thanksgiving turkey in a manner not unlike the views held by ancient native peoples who blessed their kill and reverently consumed the flesh. The argument turned into vegan vs non-vegan views but is worth reviewing.  I am KHF333 in the below comments.

COW TO HUMAN
DRAWING BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN, GORDON, OHIO

KHF333 25 NOV 2010 7:54AM

What no one said but the woman in the video is that the turkey in the video has a purpose. It was raised to be slaughtered and then eaten. That was the purpose of its life. Had that purpose not been there, that turkey would not have lived at all! So is it a blessing for the turkey to experience a life it never would have had? Actually, I think it is.

John Carbonaro 25 NOV 2010 9:03AM @KHF333

That is what slave owners used to say to rationalize their procreation and self-serving ends. “A slave’s life is better than no life at all… I prefer this quote from a commenter:
“You believe that because we are in some sense responsible for the existence of certain animals, we have the right to treat them as a resource to be exploited (in this case, for their flesh).” Vegans believe that since they would not exist if not for our actions, we are ethically obligated to allow them to continue existing since they prefer life over death. I feel an overwhelming ethical obligation to those individuals that already
exist. I feel no ethical obligation to those who will never exist.

KHF333 25 NOV 2010 3:58PM

Yeah, John, but there is a BIG difference. The commercial turkey is not a born wild bird. It was bred for the food chain. Nor do they have the kind of rationality that humans do, so comparing them with slaves is not a valid comparison. Nature has devised the system of the big fish eating the little fish. I doubt seriously if human compassion can ever turn this around. The vegan will not even eat fish or cheese… out of some incongruous respect for a nature that does not respect them. Nature is out to kill us, you know. It is the way it is. Mammals drink milk when they are infants and eat whatever their generic nature tells them is food.

John Carbonaro 25 NOV 2010 8:04PM @KHF333


Intelligence is not a criterion for making a decision about whether a being lives or dies, or it would be fine to consume infants and people in comas. The slave comparison is valid since you were specifically making the argument that serving a purpose to a group that exploits them gives them the reason for being in the world. Animals have their own purpose and right to fulfill their own meaning, and it isn’t for you to decide their ‘worth’.

There is no ‘food chain’ for humans. We decide what we are going to eat. “chain’ suggests a closed-loop system. We are capable of making ethical decisions. That gives us a freedom that most animals do not have. If a capacity for having morality makes the human race special or ‘bigger’ we should be using it to defer harm from innocents. We haven’t done a very good job of proving that we are competent to be considered integral to the earth.

You are just using ‘Nature’ to hide/fit in your actions into a convenient rationalization. Nature does a lot of things that we as humans would never do to others.

By your original statement, perhaps kittens and rabbits get a chance to be in the world because they serve a purpose for some humans-crush entertainment.

We don’t need ‘commercial’ animals to continue to be in the world. It would be just fine when the demand for flesh goes, so do those animal’s production

KHF333 @John Carbonaro

Because grazing animals and animal husbandry take so much space and cause such environmental harm, it may be on the way out of fashion in some areas of the world. As the ultimate predator, humans make most of the decisions about what survives and what does not. There is as much life in a carrot and a potato as there is in a cow and a turkey. To blindly hold ourselves up as more righteous than others because we only kill vegetables seems to me to be the ultimate in self-deception.

John Carbonaro 26 NOV 2010 10:31AM @KHF333
If you think there is as much life in a carrot/potato as a cow or turkey, there is no rational conversation to be had here. 
Instead of putting on an animal mask and playing ‘ultimate predator’, grow up and be the ultimate person you are capable of. Humans need not be ‘self-righteous’ when it comes to our behaviors towards the nonhuman animals that we share this planet with. There is no cosmic caste system.

KHF333 @John Carbonaro


I have lived a lot more years than you, John. I guarantee that. However, I think vegetarians are fooling themselves about the quality of life in vegetables and grains. Who are you to decide that one thing is more sacred than another? I, like nature before me, do not believe in the sacred or the profane. They are human values only. And all humans will never have the same values.

LTD_Farm 26 NOV 2010 8:53PM

I wanted to post a response to everyone… we are all life, and we need life to live. Vegan or other. Pick a life force well lived, loved, and nourished to sustain yourself, whether it is animal or vegetable. Reverence for life is ultimately the most important thing in all our choices and how we live, but it all comes down to eating since we must do this to continue living. Hard to sum up a total response to each person, but that is what it is all about it. Life needs life to live. How about that? Choose the best lives you can, and be thankful.

Fake meat is tasty, but can you tell me the resources needed to produce those items are more sustainable for the world than a turkey roaming a pasture? Each turkey (all 23 of them) living their life here is SO much better off than any thanksgiving bird that was served over this supposedly grateful holiday. They aren’t scared out of their minds being hauled away on trucks to a factory slaughterhouse. They die peacefully where they are comfortable at home. Just as many of us would like to die. I think a lot of the fear of facing where meat comes from is based on a fear of our own mortality. So if you could choose a peaceful death at home, you would right? No one will live forever. Our society despises that concept and markets MANY products to you to keep you thinking that way. Life and Death, it is all one big circle we live in.

What we’re doing at LTD Farm is NOT growing a million animals to try to feed the world, we’re raising a few, for a few, making a small dent in animal consumption overall. We’re doing this because it is a way to do it much better than the factory farm setting. We supply our own, and our appreciative, conscious consumers. We are compassionate, sustainable carnivores. Don’t eat meat all the time. Eat it with gratitude and reverence when you do. Appreciate life in all it’s contexts. Be thoughtful about all the life it takes to sustain your own.

John Carbonaro 27 NOV 2010 6:31AM @LTD_Farm

“pick a life force”?? “reverence for all life”?? “we need life to live”??

“fear of facing where our meat comes from”? “die peacefully at home”??

All platitudes to support a business that is not necessary at all. You don’t have to pick a factory farm or small farm. Both profit/prosper on unneeded harm to lives.

PLANTS ARE NOT SENTIENT, so there is much less harm than ‘choosing’ factory over small. You grow fewer plants directly feeding humans than feeding plants to animals that become food for humans.

The mindset that says that it is OK to eat animals makes animal ‘farming’ possible-––factory size or small. That is where ‘meat’ comes from. It still amounts to propagating the myth about eating animals and using them ‘nicely”.

You have to make money and you are commodifying ‘love-as-welfare” as much as you are commodifying the lives you needlessly take.

I acknowledge my mortality, that is why I respect a being’s right to live in this world and not have their lives cut short because someone thinks that their flesh is tasty or off on some self-serving, free moral passageway fantasy that we are all ‘one’, that conveniently clouds our ethical responsibility to do no unnecessary harm to others.

Your farm isn’t ‘Living The Dream’… you are exploiting the fantasy.

LTD_Farm 27 NOV 2010 10:19AM @John Carbonaro

Without going through the harvesting experience yourself here on the farm it is impossible to really understand what is going on here. Discussions about this topic are very important but ultimately don’t seem to lead anywhere unless we are all open to having our preconceived notions challenged. A theoretical understanding of this issue is good, but the actual process is an entirely different thing. It’s like the difference between planning to build a house and actually building it.

It is possible to give thanks to something that doesn’t respond back, and it is possible that the animals are giving their lives over. We have relationships with the animals so we know them best. Again, to actually be a part of the process is to begin to understand it. If you want to abstain from eating meat that is fine, but that doesn’t stop the millions of people on this planet from eating meat. Every customer who chooses to eat one of our happy and healthy animals as opposed to a terrified, abused and malnourished factory-farmed animal is making a decision to be part of a beautiful food relationship with the plants and animals of our farm as opposed to participating in the horrors of factory farming. We offer an alternative to “mainstream meat”, thus allowing a small fraction of animals on this planet good lives and a respectful end.

John, you obviously have some deep feelings about this and that is a good thing! But we feel that the “exploiting the fantasy” comment is not respectful at all, so we will limit any further responses to you.

To care for and have empathy for all animals is our goal as well. The difference is that we choose to look at them in practical terms as well as idealistic. It used to be that animals were essential to our survival. As we work toward self-sufficiency on the farm, we can clearly see that animals play a large part in our farm organism, and especially here in these northern climates, animals provide essential food for us over the winter months. If we couldn’t ship tomatoes and lettuce, not to mention olive oil and capers, from California, how would we eat sustainably here in Wisconsin? I can tell you how because we already do if you are interested.

We continue to give thanks to the animals on our farm, for their beautiful lives and for the nourishment they provide, and we know they understand in some way.

KHF333

As we can see from the discussions above, there is no one morality that can fit all. Humans live in all kinds of conditions and form their viewpoints from a vast array of experiences and individual realities. Many of us would prefer to design a universe and nature with a different set of rules if it were possible. We cannot all be sustained by light and water alone, as can some botanical entities. We cannot all be carnivores nor vegans. The instinct for survival, the customs we inherit from our culture, and changing economic realities all play a great part in forming our philosophies of coping, and our personal ethics for dealing with our individual survival. My personal preference is toward the attitudes exhibited in the farm depicted in the video. Others obviously have differing opinions. The one thing honest thing that I have learned is to beware of those who think they have a monopoly on truth and morality, as truth and morality changes with circumstance.

travtastic 30 NOV 2010 7:33PM @KHF333:

As we can see from the discussions above, people holding different opinions does not imply that they are both right. You are just wrong. No offense, I’m sure you’re a pleasant enough person, but you’re just wrong.

KHF333  1 DEC 2010 9:50AM @travtastic

No one ever said life and nature were fair. I am wrong because I am not a vegan? The vast majority of the people in the world are not vegans, They are also wrong? I understand and even sympathize with the vegan feelings of compassion, but the world is not going to make an about-face because of a few. If people change their eating habits is will be because of economic pressures, not moral pressures, because moral arguments are something a farce. What people would do if they knew they would never get caught would truly surprise you.

John Carbonaro 27 NOV 2010 6:16PM @KHF333

Precisely the same arguments that Hitler used. And by your standards, you cannot judge him.

KHF333

HITLER? Come now. Find those words in Hitler’s writings or speeches. You cannot. You lie for convenience to make your point. I can understand your wanting to be a vegan. It serves you well. Preaching the vegan gospel is not really your forte. You are not balanced enough for honest debate. Example: Personally, I have a very shortened bowel and cannot digest most vegetables. They run right through me undigested. It gives me a little sustenance. I could not sustain my body that way. By the same token, many vegans are lacking in necessary nutrients. You have to be very careful when you do not eat meat, as humans have developed a system that relies on animal and fish nutrients.

So nothing is as simple as you seem to want to make it. You are not superior to others because of that you eat, nor is your morality of a higher caliber. You are, however, right that the farming of animals is not good for the earth on the massive scale that presently exists. But then, nature has not exterminated humans in mass yet. A 100,000 years ago humans almost went extinct. If we pull nature out of balance, it surely will happen again

John Carbonaro 27 NOV 2010 10:03PM @KHF333

KHF33 said these gems :

* “..as truth and morality changes with circumstance”.

* “…I, like nature before me, do not believe in the sacred or the profane.”

* “..Nature is out to kill us..”

Here KHF33, read this, see your words from your various posts repeated, and also see how often Hitler comes up, then… ponder.

KHF333  NOV 2010 9:25AM @John Carbonaro


Actually, that is a good article. I read it. It said nothing about Hitler. It is about moral relativism and makes some good points. However, moral absolutism absolutely has to fail. It cannot be a correct position since it does not allow for change and learning. That only leaves us with relativism. Like existence and spacetime itself, there is an inherent contradiction when all things are relative. Yet, this is the way it is. We must learn to swim in that ocean and still have strong enough beliefs and values to hold a culture together.

Meet James McWilliams, meat-industry defender—and aggrieved vegan?

KHF333 8 DEC 2010 10:59AM

The problem with the vegan moralistic argument is that there is no universally standard moral code. People do what they must to survive, including cannibalism if necessary. If the world adopts a vegan diet it will be due to economic necessity and not a moral choice. If all life is all sacred, then so are germs and bugs and vegetables and wildlife as well as farmed animals. One cannot even breathe in the air without killing and consuming something. The idea that there are levels of killing that are acceptable because these life forms are not capable of reasoning or moral choice is quite laughable. Only humans make these choices, and humans can run up against some pretty hard times when the only thing they have to eat is their own kind.

eriqa 8 DEC 2010 12:29PM @KHF333,

While that’s true, I know few vegans who labor under the illusion that it is possible to cause *no* suffering. Rather, they seek to reduce the suffering they cause to the greatest extent possible. Of course, the degree to which we can avoid causing suffering depends on circumstances (what philosophers call “moral luck”). A starving person has fewer options than the average middle-class Westerner. As you mentioned, there are some circumstances in which cannibalism is morally defensible. That doesn’t mean we should feel free to indulge in it in normal times. Relative morality is not necessarily meaningless.

As for McWilliams, perhaps he is going on some sort of Marxist “let the state destroy itself” crusade? More people are likely to find factory farming repugnant than small farms, so let’s eliminate the small farms so that people turn away from meat altogether?

Nah, too clever by half.

Ian Logsdon 9 DEC 2010 9:31AM @KHF333

I don’t know any vegans who assume the world will magically go vegan, we as a community are focused on outreach, on changing culture, only through this can our goals be achieved. There are schisms within the community itself, just look at vegetarian vs vegan infighting, or vegans sparring over honey, it’s a complicated, multifaceted world we live in, and none of the vegan people I know are naive enough not to acknowledge that.

That doesn’t mean we don’t have a moral responsibility to cease doing things we feel are wrong. My morality isn’t based on anything handed down, it was objectively derived from rational awareness of life, suffering, and the consequences of my actions. I believe all morality can be deduced rationally, and any morals that are not based on rational self-awareness are just fragments of ancient superstition handed down by those who seek to control others. Thus, I reject all morality but that which is most basic, do no harm, take nothing that is not yours.

But hey, I’m a far leftist with a penchant for Ayn Rand, so you’re gonna get some weird philosophy out of me ;).

KHF333 8 DEC 2010 5:35PM @eriqa


“Moral luck.” That’s a good one. I cannot say I have heard that before, but it is exactly what I was talking about. I don’t think most people really like the factory farm process… even those who work them. The small farm is a little better. The hunter is even closer to the kill. I do respect vegetarians, but, unfortunately, I cannot digest too many vegetables. The vegan philosophy, however, seems totally out of sync with the natural way of things to me. I cannot imagine a diet without cheese and fish. Nor do I understand what the objection to milk products could possibly be when we mammals are born to drink milk.

Toodleloo 8 DEC 2010 9:39PM @KHF333

Mammals are born to drink milk—the milk provided by their mother. Is dog milk, pig milk, cat milk, or horse milk a natural part of our diet? Most of us would be a bit disgusted by that prospect and it would be difficult to convince them that drinking it was essential for their health. Not so with cow’s milk. Believe me, for many Asian people not raised to drink cow’s milk, the prospect is just as revolting. In short, drinking another species’ milk is more cultural than it is natural.

KHF333 8 DEC 2010 10:14PM @Toodleloo

Many would find adults drinking human milk disgusting as well. Goat milk is regularly used by humans as well as cow milk. Cultural? Probably, but you have to stretch a point to call it disgusting. And these products make other fine foods and are ingredients in many nutritional products. It might be bad for those with lactose intolerance, but it is quite a stretch to label these products ‘unethical’ or unfit to eat. It has been human nature to keep milk cows or goats for their milk for hundreds of thousands of years. Suddenly, vegans know better? I think not. I prefer cat milk myself.

Toodleloo 8 DEC 2010 11:38PM @KHF333

I don’t wish to enter a long debate with you about the ethics of veganism. You either get it or you don’t.

That being said, I could defend quite a few unsavory acts (like war, rape, oppression, and slavery) by claiming that they have been part of human heritage for hundreds of thousands of years. I could even claim that they have some beneficial utility to the species. However, I don’t let ancient history determine my personal ethics. That seems like it would be an abdication of personal responsibility—and quite frankly, an excuse.

I know that change is unsettling to many people—especially when it involves broadening our definition of who is worthy of “rights.” However, the reality is that many people are living perfectly happy, healthy lives, from birth to death, as vegans and vegetarians. In doing so, they are making the world a more peaceful place.

You’ve attempted to discount veganism because you feel threatened by it. You even seem to be implying that eating meat is a matter of your own survival—likening it to cannibalism in dire scenarios. Killing sentient, intelligent individuals because I like the taste of their flesh isn’t necessary for my survival, so I choose not to.

KHF333 9 DEC 2010 10:49AM @Toodleloo

Good reply. But I am certainly not threatened by vegan ideas, I just do not agree with them. I have never abdicated what I consider my personal responsibility. However, I think burying good human meat could someday be considered a great waste of human resources. I am not about to eat my brother, but I am sure he would taste great if I did. What I do not GET with vegans are the fish and milk and egg taboos. It seems like right-to life-fanatics arguing about being human at the moment of conception and gets in the way of REAL reform of animal husbandry, which we all agree really sucks. Even the term animal husbandry is a sexist idea leftover from ownership of the female. Most people have a VERY LONG WAY to go philosophically before they can grapple with such issues.

YB 9 DEC 2010 12:02PM @KHF333


I agree with your assessment of “animal husbandry” and wonder what solutions you, as a meat-eater, envision. I’m not trying to bait you; I think ANY progress in this arena is a GOOD idea. My point below about people who eat lamb should switch to puppies was intended to provoke discussion about the cultural decisions concerning what gets eaten as well. Just a point of information, though—all vegetarians eschew the eating of all “meat” which includes fish. Think of it as anything with a face. Vegans avoid eating animal products, such as eggs, dairy, honey, etc.

KHF333 10 DEC 2010 7:28AM @YB

I am glad there are vegans. It leaves all the more for me. ; )

I think most people understand vegetarianism. The vegans, though, have turned their diet into a religion. The result is that, as a religion, the vegan message has become like any other traditional religion based on half-truths, legends, and unproven beliefs. Vegans are true believers and their beliefs are no more true than any other set of beliefs. Vegans seem to consider themselves more moral with a higher calling that the rest of the world, which alienates 99.9% of the population immediately. Their spokespersons sound a bit like Scientology recruiters. They have failed to convince because they come across as believing themselves to be superior. Most people do not like that.

To most people, not eating honey, fish, eggs, and animal products simply because they believe it to be immoral is truly hilarious and somewhat pitiful. These vegan ideas tend to take man OUT of nature instead of making man a part of nature. It is a separative philosophy instead of an inclusive one.

Humans have destroyed so many predators that it is necessary for our institutions to regulate hunting in order to cull animals and prevent overpopulation. Humans have taken a place at the top of the food chain and thus bears a moral responsibility for the welfare of those life forms that he has displaced. In upsetting the balance of nature, it is our humanistic duty to restore that balance. Most people can agree with this kind of thought and attitude. Most people can accept the native American model of thankfulness to the tree for its shade and its wood for building and heat. This then becomes thankfulness and additional regulative and more humane spiritual care for those species raised by us for food or whose byproducts are used for human purposes. I think that is as much cooperation as a vegan is going to get from the world any time soon.

Ian Logsdon 10 DEC 2010 7:51AM @KHF333

“These vegan ideas tend to take man OUT of nature instead of making man a part of nature. It is a separative philosophy instead of an inclusive one.”

This is flawed logic, either there is morality, or there is not. Everyone can choose their own morals, but if you’re arguing laws of nature then might makes right and there is no right and wrong. Animals don’t trade, most don’t help the weakest amongst themselves, they don’t ask for consent to sexual conduct, they don’t have the foresight to see when they are over-consuming their food sources. Should we so limit ourselves because these behaviors are common?

If, on the other hand, you believe in some form of morality, then you are operating on an inherently judgmental framework. If you believe human lives are worthy of protection and not animals, isn’t it you who thinks you are superior? In my view, I would not treat any creature differently than my own family, as you cannot make suffering relative. Does that mean I have no impact? Of course not, the world is a chaotic place, as a Christian would say, no man is free from sin, but that doesn’t make the moral framework invalid.

You are creating a strawman of veganism, particularly since most of the vegans I know object to the fact that buying milk and eggs contributes to the suffering and death of animals because our food system now is cruel to even those creatures who aren’t being consumed for meat. In reality, there isn’t much of a difference between the life of a chicken raised for meat and a chicken who lays eggs on a factory farm. The cows who provide much of the milk in America are just as mistreated as the ones that go to the slaughter. The only way to stop these practices is to stop funding them, if you pay someone for a product that was created unethically, the unethical behavior is your behavior.

I was a vegetarian for a long time before I became a vegan, and the only reason I was able to maintain that behavior was I was by lying to myself about the conditions animals are kept in.

KHF333 10 DEC 2010 8:38AM @Ian Logsdon

I understand and somewhat sympathize with that you say above. But you are still spouting the religion of veganism. Your beliefs and lifestyle are only made possible because you live in a time of plenty and a country blessed with enough to eat. You assume ALL animals suffer and are mistreated, which is not really the case. Do you really think the wild bird has an easier and happier time than the well-treated domestics? Granted, there are bad farmers, but proper regulations and better technology could solve that problem.

You say either there is morality or there is not. This is not so. There are gradual levels in anything in nature. If this were true, then my answer would be that there is no morality, as it is a but a frail human conception, and humans are newcomers in the universe. But there are layers and levels in anything natural. There is at least the rudiments of human morality in the purpose that brings people to shore and the whale and the elephant.

Instead of not eating eggs and honey you could have chosen to be a humane beekeeper or raise your own chickens in a ‘moral’ manner.

But that is not what you are actually objecting to, is it. You believe that keeping any animal is enslavement, yet their natural life in the wild and untamed world is so much harder and brutal that your values make very little real sense.

Ian Logsdon 10 DEC 2010 9:02AM @KHF333

You’re actually wrong, I am in the process of founding a community garden and one of the first things I want to do is establish an apiary. I am completely in favor of beekeeping (I eat honey, there is much disagreement about this in the vegan community), and when I move out of an apartment, I plan to have a chicken coop. I may not be able to call myself a vegan after that (I guess? Maybe I still will), the issue is that regulation right now is controlled by agencies dominated by industry insiders who care more about protecting the status quo. That is why I took myself out of participating in the industry. Even the term free-range has a legalistic definition that has a huge range of implementations. The lack of transparency is a huge problem. As well, chicken waste in my state has caused massive environmental problems in the Chesapeake Bay, so participating has other externalities I don’t agree with as well.

Veganism isn’t black and white, and I have a “religion” or at least a belief system that is related to, but external from my dietary habits. I certainly agree that animals exhibit remarkable traits that include compassion, but that doesn’t make the law of nature argument more valid, animals engage in behavior humans would not, we should judge ourselves based on human standards. Morality is by nature, a human-created concept, but I don’t think everyone has to follow my moral system. I certainly don’t think it’s my business to tell you what to do.

KHF333 10 DEC 2010 9:57AM @Ian Logsdon

Actually, I agree with much of that, Ian.

I especially agree that our system has gone off the rails, but I think there are better ways to get it back on track than denying yourself the foods that nature fully intended for you to eat. This self-denial works for some, I am sure––like Gandhi’s tactics worked for India.

After the big egg recall, California is developing much more humane and sanitary egg production. I will believe these animals raised especially for human purposes and use would not have existed without human carnivores and could easily live better lives than their wild counterparts with humane regulation and control.

I have very much enjoyed talking to vegans about their ideas, but I have a MAJOR suggestion. What has been described here is a strong moral repulsion to the way animals are raised and treated, enough to change their diets to express their non-support of that system. What this really amounts to is something we have already been through as a society. Vegans are following, perhaps unknowingly, the hippie age “TUNE IN, TURN ON, DROP OUT” ideas.

Those techniques did not really work then and they will not work now.

That hippie generation actually did affect world change, but only after they dropped the anti-society game and began to change the world from the inside. That is what needs to be done now. On local, state, and federal levels we have to regulate and change the corporate food production system. We have to demand humane treatment for animals and have inspectors with some teeth. We need better laws. We have to buy and produce food locally.

We can start very locally and get an interest in humane conditions brewing in our cities and counties and states. Changing the diet ONLY is the equivalent of ‘dropping out’. One can never effect injustice by dropping out of the game. Go ahead, be a vegan if you really believe that is the way to go, but you will not affect change for those animals you seek to protect by ignoring them completely as you are doing now. The change will come as a result of getting rid of the inhumane conditions that feed the majority of the world, whether or not one eats meat or eggs.

Remember, not enough people will ever change their diet to effect real-world change, so vegans––unless they are especially active politically––will not improve these conditions because they will never have the numbers to do so. They are simply contributing to the problem by dropping out of the race.

HOLDING A MIRROR TO THE SUN

SKULL

HOLDING A MIRROR TO THE SUN

(In memory of William Kenneth Finton)

Is it the ghost of him I see in the restless dreamscapes of a hollow night? The ghost of him … or my own flawed impressions? Twenty years ago my world quaked violently when he passed so suddenly from our lives, so quickly there was barely time for tears.

A sudden shock… a stunning loss… and life moved on without him. With childhood’s end, the world could never be the same.

Twenty years … so long ago I barely recognize that younger, wandering self. Yet, in those silent dreamscapes of the night he comes to visit still.

A near sighted old neighbor said he saw him walking through the tall grasses of the abandoned yard years after we left the old Ohio homestead.

“Bunk,” I said, not prone to thoughts of spirits, yet encounters of a kind have occurred in the darkness of many a restless night since.

I remember those long evenings in the family home, the easy chair whose arms held up a crude wood shelf flowing over with papers and notes, my father seated behind this rude table in his oily green work suit, lost from the present in the remote past of other peoples lives.

The black and white TV that connected us with the world blared endlessly, while mother ironed the clothes and I shook my head in wonder.

How bored I liked to be on those hot and muggy summer days when Dad’s idea of a good time was to walk through silent graveyards, writing the names from time-worn stones on yellow legal pads.

Yet, caught up in his enthusiasm, I learned to hold a mirror to the sun, reflecting shadows upon those faded letters. Quite often we were rewarded with a touch of heartfelt sentiment inscribed upon the crumbling stone.

Often Saturday would find us in some distant library, digging through piles of dry old books of facts that smelled of yesteryear, but all was not studious and dull escape. All was not the dark, outmoded past, as I feared in the leafy green and anxious days of youth… the family trips brought new, inviting places we ran to once a year, croquet with friends in the evening breezes of the green Ohio grass.

Is it the ghost of him I see in the restless dreamscapes of a hollow night? The ghost of him … or my own flawed impressions?

His choice in music bubbles through my mind. His choice in pastime rumbles through my mature years like the distant drone of a passing freight.

Through the years I’ve come to know him more than yesterday, when I was but his child. And most of all, I learned to hold a mirror to the sun.

© 1993 Kenneth Harper Finton

North Korean Water Park Fun

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Munsu+Water+Park/@39.0395952,125.7788709,1223m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m15!1m7!3m6!1s0x8c0296261b92a7f9:0xf336ec2818049b1a!2sPuerto+Rico!3b1!8m2!3d18.220833!4d-66.590149!3m6!1s0x357e0288fd25a6d3:0x18b5aa84806e657d!8m2!3d39.0395947!4d125.7810652!9m1!1b1

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There is a water park in North Korea that can be seen on Google Maps called Munsu Water Park. It has reviews … and here are a few.  Very strange. These reviews must be satire. The reviewers have western names.

Hugh Lawlor

1 review

★★★★★ 3 months ago

Lovely place. I love the red water. The sharks following you on the water slides were a cool touch, although (sorry to moan) I would like my leg back please. I don’t know why I had to share the shower with a Kim lookalike…..bizarre to say the least, especially the soaping up

Tom

★★★★★ 3 months ago

Took the kids after the mornings great-leader-worship and boy was it worth it!  We got to go on all the latest rides like “Totalitarian Tidal Wave”, “Kim’s Big Kahuna”, “Dictator Deluge”, “Fascism Falls”, “Socialism Splash”, “Nuclear Niagara”, “Gulag Geyser”, “Red Rapids”, and “Wild Waterboarding”.  The reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is due to a beating I received when I stepped out of line for “Gulag Geyser”.  A 2 month forfeit of my family’s rations would have been MORE than sufficient.  To add insult to injury the idiot with the brass knuckles hit my glasses so now I have to wait for the great leader to materialize a pair with his sacred hands.  ANNOYING!  THEN, meanwhile, as I’m in the detention room for like 45 min, my son was considered orphaned and was shipped to a military camp.  Communication guys!  Other than that it was an enjoyable , family-based, water park, for which I now gladly owe my life and 2 generations of my family to the great supreme leader.  Re-visit likelihood: 8/10

Gavin Russell

13 reviews

★★★★★ 3 months ago

Our dear leader invented water parks just after he killed off the last of the dinosaurs (which he also invented). I loved the “die western pigs” Rapids! I thought the dead bodies we used instead of rubber rings was a nice touch. Daily executions by shark (also an invention by our dear leader) were fun to watch. I’ll definitely be back here! Siam park doesn’t come close.

Aiden Szostek

6 reviews

★★★★★ 2 weeks ago

Glorious leader needed a water park to rival the capitalists, he commissioned me to make the water park, adjacent the the dog of Weiner stand, for 3 days of hard fun labor, I finished and got meal’s for 5 days!

jel toko

6 reviews

★★★★★ 2 months ago

I definitely had a great time and enjoyed the water and all the slides a lot. Quite a shame I broke my neck and all of my toes when I flew out of the yellow “Seoul Supreme” slide, but medical support offered a few very rare bandaids and I’m okay now. I can’t move my neck though, but that’s fine. Had a great time and that’s all that matters!

 

kyle wiggington

Local Guide ·56 reviews·22 photos

★★★★★ a week ago

Loved coming here had some pretty sexy ladies there me and my boy kim jong hooked them up for later.

 

Mason Moore

1 review

★★★★★ a month ago

Beautiful Scenery. The daily fertility check is done while you are being waterboarded, very theme appropriate. The  ambiance is really boosted by the use of Gray and Gray. It was a creative color scheme that made it stick out as we trudged up the street, carrying the great officer’s wagon. Although we didn’t get to do anything, the slides sure were fun to look at. There were pictures of our great leader to stare at while our masters went down the slides. My wife tried to sneak onto the lazy river and was given a lethal injection. Very gentle security, when I screamed as my wife was murdered, they grabbed me by only one arm on my way to the firing squad. My last wish before death is to give this place a five star rating. Overall 11/10 Kid friendly and 60% Casualty rate for us peasants is a definite plus. Would go again if I wasn’t about to die for our great nation. This is Pyongyang Travel Guru, signing o– GACK!

Ethan Hunt

Local Guide ·79 reviews

★★★★★ 3 weeks ago

Amazing water park!

Despite the water’s greenish-yellow tint, and Kim Jong Un cutting in line all the time, it is a wonderful experience for all the family!

You may get shot a couple times by the guards, and may experience eternal bleeding, it’s all worth it.

THE BIG BANG EXPOSED

by Kenneth Harper Finton, ©2017

big bang

It is sound that causes a bang. Sound needs something through which to travel to be heard. There is no sound in the vacuum of space. Sound also needs a sense of hearing. Since none of these things were present for the Big Bang, we have to conclude that the Big Bang had no sound at all. It was neither a bang nor was it big.

The reason it was not big is simple. The Big Bang would have been everywhere because that is all that existed. The singularity from which it came was supposedly an infinitely dense single-dimensional point. Being unstable, we are told, it exploded violently.

Despite the anthropic descriptions we hear about universal theories, the appearance of infinite energy instantly occurred, without a sense of time, without a sense of space. The place it occurred had to be everywhere as that was all there was. Before that, no universe existed.

Existence is a strange and heady subject. To exist means to have objective reality or being, an actual being; it means being present in a particular situation or place. The word ‘exist’ was not even coined until the 17th-century and was likely an abbreviation of existence.

But if no universe existed before the Big Bang, then what was there? What was in its place when there was no place? Nothing? But nothing cannot exist because it has no being. The ‘it’ we seek cannot be anything.

Whatever it was, it did not exist because without objects it had no objective reality. An observer and an object for the observer to perceive is essential to objective reality. No thing can be present in a particular space or time without an object and an interaction [observer].

With no time or space into which a reality could be actuated, space would need to be created instantaneously for energy to have a place to go when it was released. The Big Bang explanation posits the expansion of the universe from a singular point. Space came into being as radiating objects that found dimensions to inhabit. Time came into being as these objects expanded outward in all directions, becoming vibrating strings that created virtual fields and brought to the observer a sense of duration in time.

And what of this observer?

What is the qualia of the observer? Observers are generally thought of as being people, but they can also be a system built from awareness. An observer is a person or a system that observes.

The quality essential for observation is awareness.

Awareness must actually precede observation as awareness needs to be present for an observation to be recorded. Awareness comes before time, comes before space, comes before the universe, and comes before existence. Awareness without objects is similar to that proposed singularity from whence the universe sprang. It is present before anything is actualized into being is present without time and space as an eternal and infinite zero-point dimension from which the dreamscape of reality is constructed. All things are made manifest within eternal awareness, the essential foundation of all things.

I posit that all things are awareness in its myriads of localized forms. All things are formed and made of the eternal and non-material awareness which has always been present in the eternal now.

The one-dimensional point is where awareness identifies itself and gives birth to space by releasing universal fields where simultaneous events can occur—abstract fields of possibility. Actuality can be built, piece by piece, as awareness actuates universal mental conceptions that become the scope of our reality.

Assuming the Big Bang occurred, that which was initially released by the Big Bang would be an unformed virtual energy. Radiated energy is measured by the frequency of its vibrational waveforms. Virtual energy has no vibrational components, the first step to physical actuality.

Dimensional realities occur when the infinite becomes finite. When a dimensional limitation is placed upon virtual energy, vibrational fields are created. Because this occurs in the first-dimension, beyond and before space and time, mathematical patterns are created which nature can later emulate. These patterns last and sometimes repeat through eternity. They are precursors to the sense of time.

When virtual radiation slows to a vibrational state, a sense of time and duration is created. Since this radiation is awareness—as all things are composed of awareness in one of its many forms—the observing system can identify the frequency of these vibrations as an entity of substance. Awareness becomes aware of its own being, awakens from its great sleep, dreams of its own experience, and posits its own being into conceptual existence. Only then can nature begin the evolutionary process of universe building.

Seen from an infinite point, there is no time nor space in the lower first and second-dimensions. Everything existent is a part of an eternal now. Awareness, formed of its own being, creates time and space in localized pockets of consciousness. These local entities become networks that communicate and stores the information gleaned from observations.

Virtual radiation transforms into increasingly complex forms of light energy—like photons and cosmic rays—which vibrate in diverse patterns and frequencies as new dimensions are added to the primordial soup. The information recorded is encoded to become physical actualities.

Before spin and mass comes to exist, bosons—which have little or no spin and mass—crystalizes into the elemental hydrogen and helium as they pass through a universal Higgs field created by the timeless second-dimension which adds the spin and mass and begins the processes that form the great clouds of dense gases which fills the primitive universe. New dimensional senses evolve and come into existence. All the while, this new universe remains connected to the eternal awareness from which it was formed. Each new sense creates a different dimensional reality and adds additional limitations upon this eternal awareness.

We know nothing of these natural processes at the time of our birth.  Our personal selves are a very tiny part of the unconscious and conscious  processes that awareness develops. Our growth as a person follows the hereditary patterns laid out in our DNA. We are not conscious of the awareness behind our appearance in the universe. This awareness precedes consciousness and is lost in the misty visions of our personal identities. Our lives are similar to coming into the world in the middle of a motion picture we have never seen, except that we write the plot though our own free choices with the help and the hindrances of all the other playwrights that come to influence us.

We expand and extend our universe through consciousness. It is not that distant galaxies and black holes have no a priori existence of their own. They have an existence outside ourselves. The moon is present whether we see it or not. Our consciousness is like a moving snapshot of a moment in the now, different for everyone and every thing.