Bacon Sandwich in hand vs. Logic

The web article Science, Reason, Critical Thinking, and Bacon Butties is an entertaining read. More importantly, it highlights how even those of us who try to lead lives according to values we've established through reason and critical thinking can fall short, especially when the smell of bacon hovers in the air like the promise of ambrosia.

I too "ate the bacon sandwich" for severals years after knowing the rational arguments why I shouldn't. But over time, eventually, I finally made the switch to a veggie lifestyle, with only a few falls from the wagon since.

On the other hand, I only did so because the argument took on an emotional component, one that appealed to my heart instead of my brain, or at least both in equal measure. So I'm afraid I still don't know that if in the face of a bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo sandwich, purely rational arguments alone would have finally swayed me.

Anyhow, upon reading the article, it looks like the author is going to come down like a hammer on people who refuse to accept overwhelming evidence (in the initial case, on evolution). But keep reading . . .

A snippet:

[...] I came across an anecdote about an educated, seemingly rational person who simply refused to accept Jerry’s overwhelming evidence for why evolution is true.

Living in a country where evolution is only a controversy amongst the hard lined religious fundamentalists, who do their best to stir up a controversy, it’s hard to understand why so many people can reject such solid science.

And so on.

Tofurky Kielbasa

You may recall my desire to find a substitute for kielbasa a few posts back. Though I have moved forward and bought ingredients to try some of the great suggestions I received in comments and in person, I also happened to see in my local grocer's isle a meatless kielbasa substitute: Tofurky Kielbasa.

Well, I picked it up and brought it home. Tonight I sauteed a couple links in olive oil with some green bell pepper. I cut the links into bite size pieces, and just prior to dumping them into the lentil-black bean-rice dish I had simmering, I tasted it.

AAAAGGHAAGGHH! "Ack!" and "Thbbbt!"

I can't believe this oh-so-sadly-familiar taste is still being pushed on an unsuspecting public.

Yuck. This is nasty. Stay clear, friends.

What Am I Going To Eat?

As I noted in my last post, I'm going to make another attempt to go meat-free.

As it turns out, I already eat no meat for breakfast and lunch; I eat an orange, half a banana, and a handful of blueberries for breakfast, and Jan 1 began eating a container of radishes, broccoli, carrots and apple slices (with at LEAST 2 tablespoons of peanut butter on the side) for lunch. For a snack before and after lunch, I usually eat a fruitbar, half at a time (Larabar).

But dinnertime is where I'm going to run into a problem. For instance, my favorite vegetable stew and rice-bean dish includes kielbasa as a crucial accent ingredient. I'm not sure what I can substitute for kielbasa. Some sort of roasted eggplant?

If you have a suggestion, I'm all ears

If you have a a favorite vegetarian recipe, I'm also eager to hear it.

My old friend Sean (who's been a vegetarian as long as I've known him) just posted a few weird food choices (his words) that he likes. I'm not sure about the saltine one, but I'll try the omelette :-).

Thanks!

Laughing Rats and its Consequence

I heard a story on NPR (probably the Radiolab program) about a guy doing research on rats.

Apparently, rats vocalize at too high a pitch for humans to hear, but special microphone equipment in a rat cage dials down the pitch enough to allow us to hear the occasional little chirps rats make at this frequency. After ten years of study that went nowhere, the idea came to the researcher to tickle a rat. Suddenly, the chirps came hard and fast and sounded oddly like . . . laughter.

Another rat, same thing. It turns out rats like to be tickled, and they laugh in a way that is eerily like a human baby being tickled. Check out this video:

Anyway, the thought immediately occurred to me that if rats can feel this very simple human joy, it's probably true that most mammals can. Even the ones we regularly slaughter and eat.

Which leads me inexorably to my next thought: I don't think I can morally justify personally eating higher order animals.

So I'm back to being a vegetarian. I'm afraid birds are out too--but I'll still eat eggs, milk (and cheese), and fish. This'll be the third time in my life I've tried to be a vegetarian. Maybe third time'll be the charm? My omnivore genes may power through my moral decision in the end, but I'm ready to give this another go.