80,000 Jobs in California Potentially Lost...

Because of a stupid fish.

Actor and comedian Paul Rodriguez, a Democrat, went on Hannity's show to talk about how, because of the Endangered Species act, farmers in Fresno, CA -- a place where the majority of our fresh food comes from -- can not get water for their crops because the Delta Smelt, which is on the list of Endangered Species, lives in the creek where these farmers were getting their water.



Usually the Endangered Species Act is used against private homeowners, so it didn't get as much play. But with the local government not wanting to compromise with the farmers, we are about to lose a whole industry. I hope that you like apples from Chile, because food prices are going to go up if we can't get local food.

I'm trying to find the episode of Penn and Teller: BS! that they did on Endangered Species Act. If anyone knows where I can find it, I'll embed it here or link to it.

Mark Your Calendars

May 4 is International Respect For Chickens Day.

An animal rights group is recognizing the month of May as 'International Respect for Chickens Month,' with May 4 designated as 'International Respect for Chickens Day.' United Poultry Concerns launched the effort in 2005 to "celebrate chickens and protest against the bleakness of their lives in farming operations."

Make sure to eat a chicken wing or breast in celebration!

For those wondering, United Poultry Concerns is an animal rights group specifically aimed at chickens and other domestic fowl. The president, Karen Davis, is apparently so crazy about her chickens that they sleep in the house with her.

Another Reason To Like Bobby Jindal (R-LA)

He's been promoted as a possible VP pick, although some blogs wisely say that at this stage it wouldn't be a great idea because he needs more experience. But if I were living in Louisiana right now, I would go straight to the Governor's Mansion and shake his hand because of this story.

PETA has sent letters to ten governors to get them to promote a vegetarian diet because they were listed as the "fattest states" by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In the letters, they encouraged the governors to promote a vegetarian diet for "healthy living" (despite the fact that recent incidents have shown that a vegetarian diet is no healthier than a meat diet, especially with several kids suffering the ill effects of being on one for years because of their child's beliefs).

The money quote from Jindal:

"If they will endorse an all-chocolate-chip-cookie diet, I'll give it a try," Jindal said in an e-mail response for a comment. "But until then, I'm not giving up my Louisiana shrimp and crawfish."

I wish I could vote in LA right now... *sigh*

Animal Rights Activists Harass Family For Shooting "Wild Pig"

The pig, which was 1050 pounds and known affectionately as "Hogzilla," was killed last May by 11 year old Jamison Stone. When you read further into the story, you find out that the pig wasn't wild but a domesticated pig that had been released into the wild. After an investigation, the local Fish and Game declined to prosecute citing that they had not broken any laws.

However, some animal rights nuts are STILL harassing the family a year after the pig has died and been turned into sweet, sweet pork products.

"It is unbelievable what my family has been through over the past year," Mike Stone, Jamison’s father, told the Birmingham News. "It has taken 10 years off my life."

An online petition has garnered more than 800 signatures from around the world demanding prosecution for what activists are calling animal cruelty, according to the newspaper.

Rhonda Roland Shearer, a New York City organizer who investigated the incident, said the pig suffered a "cruel and painful death," the result of 16 shots from a low-velocity weapon, nine of which hit the hog.

Shearer said that no charges are being pressed against the hunters, as the Alabama statute of limitations on animal cruelty has already elapsed.

Yet the Stone family is feeling the wrath of some critics.

"You should see some of the emails and hear some of the calls we have received," Jamison’s father said. "They are explicit. They tell how they are going to kill my son, like cutting his head off.

"It has had us scared to death ... All I did was to take my son on a legal hunting trip."

You're going too far when you start threatening children. I would trace the numbers of these bastards and report them for criminal threatening.

(h/t Nice Deb)

PETA Needs A Calendar

The Center for Consumer Freedom is sending a leather bound day planner to PETA campaign manager Ashley Byrne for this little blunder.

Every year the animal rights group stages a veggie-dog protest on Capitol Hill to express its anger at the annual celebration of National Hot Dog Day inside the halls of Congress. Only this year, PETA’s press release—and its Playboy-bunnies-serving-tofu-dogs stunt—came a week too early. So while PETA was trying to force its fake wieners on Washingtonians, there was no real hot-dog event going on inside the Capitol.

Not everyone understood PETA’s blunder, however, The Washington CityPaper covered the event as though it were a real head-to-head face-off, issuing an apologetic retraction hours later when reality set in.

Oh, so funny. I wonder if they are going to try to do the counter event on the actual day now that they have been thoroughly embarrassed by their blunder? (The event is this coming Wednesday, if you happen to be in the DC area)

PETA Reaches A New Low

PETA has issues with people using animals for any purpose. But they don't see an issue with exploiting a 12-year-old girl for their purposes.

CONCORD, N.C. -- Some parents say a PETA protest at a Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus in Cabarrus County went too far by including a 12-year-old girl in a cage.

The girl volunteered and her mother gave permission.

PETA says it represents the suffering animals encounter traveling with the circus.

Circus production manager Jason Gibson says he’s seen hundreds of PETA protests in his 11 years with the circus.

"This is the first time I've seen anything like this,” Gibson said. "It's very disturbing to see it like that."

(h/t Center for Consumer Freedom)

Unbelievable.

"Meatless Like Me"

Taylor Clark of Slate wrote an editorial on the misconceptions of vegetarianism. Mainly, that all vegetarians are not vegan-warriors who will berate you for eating animal products.

Every vegetarian remembers his first time. Not the unremarkable event of his first meal without meat, mind you. No, I mean the first time he casually lets slip that he's turned herbivore, prompting everyone in earshot to stare at him as if he just revealed plans to sail his carrot-powered plasma yacht to Neptune. For me, this first time came at an Elks scholarship luncheon in rural Oregon when I was 18. All day, I'd succeeded at seeming a promising and responsible young man, until that fateful moment when someone asked why I hadn't taken any meat from the buffet. After I offered my reluctant explanation—and the guy announced it to the entire room—30 people went eerily quiet, undoubtedly expecting me to launch into a speech on the virtues of hemp. In the corner, an elderly, suited man glared at me as he slowly raised a slice of bologna and executed the most menacing bite of cold cut in recorded history. I didn't get the scholarship.

I tell this story not to win your pity but to illustrate a point: I've been vegetarian for a decade, and when it comes up, I still get a look of confused horror that says, "But you seemed so … normal." The U.S. boasts more than 10 million herbivores today, yet most Americans assume that every last one is a loopy, self-satisfied health fanatic, hellbent on draining all the joy out of life. Those of us who want to avoid the social nightmare have to hide our vegetarianism like an Oxycontin addiction, because admit it, omnivores: You know nothing about us. Do we eat fish? Will we panic if confronted with a hamburger? Are we dying of malnutrition? You have no clue. So read on, my flesh-eating friends—I believe it's high time we cleared a few things up.

Maybe it's just the ones I've encountered in college that have been the vegan-warriors?