So, they grew meat...

Scientists grew meat from the stem cells of a cow.  Pasty white meat from an animal that was never really an animal, just something scraped into a Petri dish. It even has its own Wikipedia page. In Vitro Meat.  Seriously. This is the Internet. Of course, it has its own Wiki page, probably within minutes of it emerging in strands from the dish, just like our ancestors did eons ago on the banks of Lake Ooze.

Then, of course,  the scientists shaped it into a burger, because if its anything geeks know well, it's the shape of fast food. Sadly, even after mixing the pasty stem cell "meat" with bread crumbs, seasoning, and frying it in an heart-choking amount of butter, it tasted meaty in texture, but the flavor was nothing to get overly excited about.

But it is exciting to speculate on meat grown from stem cells. Bland meat that has no flavor. Pasty white meat that you'd never know was "beef." Many possibilities have been put forth since the meat hit the frying pan. People excitedly surmised this Frankenmeat had the potential to end world hunger. Space techies suddenly saw a solution to feeding the passengers and crew on unlimited space travel voyages. Animal lovers saw a way to save the cows at last.

That started me thinking. The meat is bland and therefore interchangeable. Why stop at beef? Why not chickens? Why not fish? It would all taste the same and the only differences would be in flavorings and added fat content.

Think about it. We could send people to explore the galaxy forever. They could continually generate their own meat from a tiny laboratory space. The only problem would be disposing of waste, clothing themselves as fabric wears out after awhile, water, and, because such voyages would be decades long, eventually each other.

Then I started thinking some more. All that bland meat that looked and tasted the same. Horrifying as it is for some to admit, the truth is if our stem cells were grown the same way, we could not be picked out from the crowd of other animals on the plate. We'd be just as bland, just as pasty, just as white, although I suspect our fat content might be a tad higher.

When we bury a body, we take up valuable real estate on a planet that is running out of resources. If we can reduce a cow to a mess of stem cells served up seasoned and fried on our plate, we've already set aside the ethics and moral arguments. It's not a cow anymore. It was never a cow even though it came from a cow. The same argument would apply to us in that situation. It wouldn't be us in that dish even though it came from us.

What it comes down to is we are not any different than that fried stem cell burger on a plate. That meat is us.  We ARE meat when you really do think about it. We are not vegetable. We are not gold. We are not holy. We are meat.

So basically this is the reality we are faced with: humans are greedy, consuming omnivores and I don't see us changing anytime soon. We're going to want our "meat" to taste different from other "meat." It's why we have multiple flavors of ice cream, multiple arrangements of topping on pizzas, multiple everything.

 But the resources are not endless and stem cell meat is just the beginning of new moral arguments over food and survival. Eventually the argument will not be what is meat and what is not meat, but what is Messy Meat and what is practical meat. And because it will all taste the same, some types of meat will have premium labels. And I'm guessing it won't be the cow with the expensive label stuck to its Petri-grown ass.

You can argue all you want, but Soylent Green is here. The minute the contents of that Petri dish ended up in the stomach of someone else, we officially became meat. Now it's a just a matter of adjusting to that reality.

From Ursine Logic's Child-Free By Choice shop.

So, they grew meat...

Some thoughts on Extremism

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but lately I'm coming to the realization that extremism is synonymous with stupid. You sure as hell won't see an Atheist come knocking on your door demanding you become an Atheist.

But every crazy ass christian thinks they have the right to bother me with their ridiculous fairy tales. They memorize a few phrases that suit their agenda and discard everything that doesn't (Do you hear me, you gay hating shrimp eaters?)

These same so-called Christians have read very little of the Bible and instead rely on some unholy intermediary to mainline them meaty chunks from the pulpit--along with an underlying political agenda cloaked in the dubious morality of religion. Atheists aren't nearly that stupid, and most of them can actually read an entire book all by themselves. And gasp! Think for themselves, which makes them mostly immune to religion.

As an Atheist who prefers to mind my own business, I have no desire to go invading their churches with my ideas and opinions of how the world should work according to me, but their intolerance and fear of anything different regularly sends them to my Godless Heathen store for no purpose other than to inflict their religion on me.

This is what I mean when I say extremists are stupid. Do they really think they can annoy me into giving up my ideas for theirs? Do they really think that by flooding my comments section with stupid crap (usually filled with "creative" spelling), they can convince me of anything?

They have done more to destroy religion with their intolerant and mean shit than any Atheist could have done, and yet they fail to see this. They fail to see when a church gets involved in politics, they are no longer a church. They are a political arm of lobbyists and proponents of agendas that see them as no more than tools to be used to gain wealth and power. No Atheist would allow themselves to be used so stupidly.

They've also pretty much destroyed the whole god is love argument with their use of religion to justify hatred, intolerance, bigotry, and the subjugation of the poor and helpless. Somehow they've convinced themselves that religion means keeping people from having things they don't want.

The idea that if you're against abortions don't have one, or don't marry a gay person if it freaks you out that much, is alien to them. How would they feel if I denied them the right to eat chocolate ice cream ever again because I prefer vanilla? How is it any freaking different than what they're try to inflict on everyone?

But this extremism doesn't stop with religion. Take this idiot for example, who wanders into a store for Child-Free by Choice and calls the store owner a douche bag. Does he think that's going to make those who've made that choice suddenly decide he's right and they should breed like fucking rabbits? Or does it more than likely say, as the response pointed out, that misery loves company and he can't stand that someone else is having fun he can no longer have?

Once again, rather than change anyone's mind, this extremist idiot has only succeeded in pointing out his intolerance, his misery, and his flat out jealousy over not knowing he had a choice until it was too late.

I have a mind and I'm not afraid to use it, nor do I allow anyone to do my thinking for me. That means I'll never succumb to religious dogma or embrace hate as my personal savior. I like having my own mind.

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I try and not let the extremists get to me because like all phases of existence, they too shall pass. One of these days they'll take that book written by people who believed the earth was flat, and ride off the edge of the planet like strings of lemmings following each other into the abyss. Once there, away from all the nice people in the world, they'll have nothing better to do than turn on each other and leave the rest of us alone.

Some thoughts on Extremism

Child-Free By Choice: What It Means To Me

I'm often asked about my reasons for remaining child-free. If I set aside the personal issues, what's left are the common experiences that defined my choice and continues to define it. First and foremost, it's about overpopulation for me. Here's a few places that do a good job of explaining exactly what the term means and some examples of how it contributes to the damage done to our planet.


What is Overpopulation?

"Overpopulation is not a function of the size or density of the
population only. Overpopulation is determined using the ratio of
population to available sustainable resources. If a given environment
has a population of ten, but there is food or drinking water enough for
only nine, then in a closed system where no trade is possible, that
environment is overpopulated; if the population is 100 individuals but
there is enough food, shelter, and water for 200 for the indefinite
future, then it is not." read more


From Why Population Matters October 20, 2008

"The population of the US is projected to reach 300 million by October -
a population growth rate comparable to that of China. Because of
immigration, the number of people in the US could reach 400 million by
2050. About 76 million people are being added annually. This year's
world grain harvest will fall short of consumption by 61 million tons.
That's the sixth time in the past seven years that production has
failed to satisfy demand. The world carry-over stocks of grain will
fall to 57 days of consumption by the end of this year, the shortest
buffer since a 56-day-low in 1956 doubled grain prices. Despite
continued growth in world food output, the developing world had 815
million hungry people in 2002, 9 million less than in 1990." read more

My other concern is the overall health of the planet. Humans are a greedy species and everywhere we go we destroy something, use up something, or wipe out the population of something. With an Obama administration we will see a reversal of some of the most extreme of the Bushies thieve and destroy mentality, but we need to look deeper and prevent problems from developing into future disasters. Here's an excellent series of articles on what exactly it means to destroy a natural resource.

"Human activity on Earth has always altered the land. When populations
were small enough, and productive and accessible land was abundant,
people could abandon land that had been damaged by overuse and move on.
While some countries still have excess land available, if population
growth continues at the expected rate, virtually all arable (fit for
cultivation) land will be in use.
" read more

Then there's the issue of war. It's usually about land grabs, resource looting, and profiteering off human suffering. But it's also the greatest manipulator of human spirit there is. Those who want war will play on patriotism, fear, and differences to fill their uniforms. But a prosperous society where most are fed and clothed don't pay as much attention to the propaganda as those who are hovering around the poverty line. The military seeks out these desperate people and promises them housing, medical care, benefits ranging from home ownership to job training, and a steady paycheck to lure them into war. In a society where there are enough resources to go around, peace takes on greater importance than war. Overpopulation almost guarantees a ready supply of cannon fodder.

"In 2003 the Pentagon spent almost $4 billion targeting high-achieving low income youth with commercials, video games, personal visits, enlistment bonuses, and slick brochures." read more

I came of age during the Vietnam War. I lost those I loved, those I went to high school with, those in my immediate and extended family to that war. I swore I would never give the government a child of my own for them to kill in their evil wars. I've kept my promise to myself.

Finally there's the issue of a rising religious extremism that has as little respect for individual beliefs as the Taliban have for those who believe differently than they do. This loudly obnoxious Christian Reich Wing wants to ban birth control along with abortion.

"Supporters have pressured insurance companies to refuse coverage of
contraception, lobbied for "conscience clause" laws to protect
pharmacists from having to dispense birth control, and are redefining
the very meaning of pregnancy to classify certain contraceptive methods
as abortion. In increasing numbers, women and men opposed to
contraception are marshaling health facts and figures to bolster their
convictions that sex for anything but procreation is morally wrong and
potentially deadly." read more

As a child-free by choice woman I believe it's way past time for those of us opposed to these absurd policies speak out and let the world know these loonies do not speak for us. Here's a couple designs I made that gets the message across that I'm not buying their crap and if they try to mess with my rights, they're going to get a real battle in return.

The Condom Cross

Fight back against the religious reich's war on reproductive freedom
with this unique design of two condoms in the shape of a cross. Tell
them birth control is YOUR religion. You can buy it on everything from sweatshirts to buttons here

Or you can buy this one that I turned into a statement on birth control and religion:

Looking for an in-your-face response to those who want to ban birth
control for their personal religious reasons? Cross made of condoms and
"Church of the Holy Birth Control." Buy it here on many different items including t-shirts and other apparel.

overpopulation, birth control, child-free by choice, vasectomy, tubal, condom, reproductive freedom, reproductive choice, pro-abortion

Child-Free By Choice: What It Means To Me