Fuck you, U.K. Kennel Club

I agree completely. I would definintely eat meat if it was required for my survival. I choose not to eat meat when it is a realistic option. Which is almost always.

@Muro Lightning: True, but it is not that big a problem. As for anyone, not just vegetarians, balancing your diet is always important.

@rosenshyne: Why thank you. I feel much enlightened now that you have reminded me of my place in the cosmos. I do not, in fact, have kids of my own, but that does not mean I can't have valid opinions on the subject. Being the child of someone myself, and having a lot of friends who are too, I can see what effects different attitudes in parents have on their children.

It is always pleasant to discuss with perceptive individuals like yourself.

 

If you are referring to the iron problem, I disagree. I just mentioned a problem I know about firsthand. My GF was a vegetarian because of her outlook on life, but she had to stop it because she developed anemia and the combined forces of red meat and iron pills were the only way for her not feel like a zombie for most of the day.

Indeed, but for vegetarians it is a much more difficult task. We are omnivores as a species and the way our body works, we need both flesh and plants in our diet to keep up working correctly.

 

Things have been way, way too wordy around here of late.

Xiao, does not eating meat affect your asthma though? I had severe asthma as a kid although it's cleared up in the last couple of years. I'm probably eating worse (albeit more) then back then, too...

 

I refuse to give blood. Not because I think it's a bad thing to do, but because the doctors always want to take more because I'm O negative. I need my blood too, damnit!

 

Same with me. I donated once, and only once because of that. The cost of trying to be a nice and decent person was several days dizziness, vomitting, and the shakes.
I view any potential children I may have as a retirement fund, so it'd be in my best interest to make sure it's a fund well raised, secured, and profitable.
Animals are just that. There's no practical benefit to causing them needless suffering. Besides, all that negative genetic mutation they're doing will only destroy a potential future food supply if China conquers the world.

 

Charonte: Trust me when I say that anemia and asthma is an incredibly painful, unpleasant and potentially lethal combination. My anemia developed quite rapidly in the months immediately after my mum and sister went veggie. The lecture my doctor gave my mum was... strangely pleasing.

Having said which, I'm a chronic asthmatic and always will be. Yes, it's improved as I've gotten older - it does in the majority of cases of childhood asthma - but it's never going to go away and the best I can hope for is to control it. And diet definately makes a difference. I eat a lot of red meat and chicken (chicken having a reasonable amount of iron) and a decent amount of greens, plus lots of pasta, and I'm better than I've been in quite a long time.

 

What sort of medication do you use for your asthma? I use this crappy symbicort inhaler combined with large doses of cortisone and weekly spira treatments. While it doesn't work particularly well, it's better than the standard asthma medication most sufferers apparently get.

 

Yup, I had symbicort for a while... Before that I was on a ufo-type device along with some other click-up thing that they bloody stopped making. Then there was the twice-daily nebuliser which I've forgotten the name of. My last 'puffer' expired a couple years back and I haven't needed to use one since, not that I've been doing much.

Xiao, reason I asked was that I wasn't aware diet made any difference to asthma, I remember not being able to walk around the block without needing medication but I never realised my (awful) eating habbits made any difference. Good to know, anyway.

 

The medication that the Marine Corp gave were straws. I had to keep telling them that straws only heal everything else except asthma.

 

To those requesting information about my medication: Ventolin or Asmol (depends on what the pharmacist has in when I pick it up) for emergencies, Seretide (combined reliever/preventative) once a day, and prenisilone (sp?) tablets when I get really bad. (And yes, those tablets are a mild form of steroid, hence why I'm banned from offical archery competitions.)

Diet is important for asthmatics because it's increasingly easy to develop anemia these days, and anemia in an asthmatic is a Very. Bad. Thing.

 

A full fucking liter and a half, minus what was spilled from pulling the funnel from my arm. This happened when I was 19 and still lived in Hickscunt, Indiana. It was sheer illegal stupidity...if stupidity could be illegal. They first tested my blood as they do any newcomer. Perfectly reasonable for them to do so. Then a nice young nurse took me to one of those nice reclining chairs. I felt relaxed. They're nice people, nice comfy chairs...what could go wrong? Well the first nurse (she wasn't the only one sticking things in me) took three attempts to get the vessal. While that perturbed me a bit I wasn't worried. However, after 15 minutes my little 0.5 liter bag was filled. The nurse came around and collected it. She gave me a cold orange juice. Not sure why, but it was nice. Maybe a minute or so later, another nurse comes by. I thought, at first, that she was collecting my orange juice box. Nope. She was the new shift. I tried telling her that I already gave blood but nope, her giant black ass wasn't listening. In went yet another vampiric needle. To cut a long story short, this happened a third time and was only stopped when I fell off the torture chair.

 

Jaysus Key-rhist! I'm amazed you didn't come back and extract a protracted and messy revenge once you were feeling better. God knows I would have.

 

Lucky you somehow escaped or was rescued. Normally after they would pour all of your blood, they would turn you into cutlets, bone meal, soap and leather shoes.

 

And sell off the kindneys, liver and the occasional eyes to the local organ mafia.

 

I could only watch about 11 minutes of that video without shutting it off in sadness and disgust. The dog writhing in pain near the beginning was heartbreaking to watch as well.

I'm more of a cat person, but we had a very friendly and well behaved dog for most of my childhood; and before that my mom actually owned his mother. (the father was probably a stray dog somewhere) I don't think he had a specific breed, but he looked most like a german shepard.

He lived for about 14 years and the only medical problems he had were seizures, which totally went away after we put him on a single pill for him to take every morning and evening. No dog should have to take 5 or more pills a day, like in that video.

Maybe I can find some pictures of him to post. He was the sweetest, friendliest dog I have ever seen, RIP. :cry:

 

Hello Narmy, welcome to the House of Lords!

I only just made it through that first ten minutes (I was squirming in my seat and whimpering, the seizure made me outright cry), but I feel that it was completely worth it. The ABC here is doing a follow-up as part of their Catalyst science show tomorrow night, and I assure you that I'll be watching it.

We're cat and dog people in my household. We've always, ALWAYS had cats, and apart from a short stint during my childhood when we were living in a rented house that didn't allow dogs, we've always had dogs too. At the moment we have a dog who belongs to my sister, a cat who belongs to me, and a family cat.

I'd love to see pictures of your dog.

 

Thanks for the welcome!

Don't have access to a scanner at the moment, but I just remembered my sister and mom made a remembrance video on youtube. It's a little dramatic but here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raQtEhG0GJg

Yeah his name was "puppy". Me and my sisters were just toddlers when he was born and the nickname kinda stuck, hehe.

 

Awwww, cute puppy. I wish I had a scanner so I could show people my beloved much-missed Maltese. Portia was a cutie...