On hiatus

SanityInjection will be on hiatus for the rest of the month and will be back the first week in December.

On Vacation

Sanity Injection will be on vacation for the rest of this week and will be back with more new content after Labor Day.

Consumerism and Diet: A New Case for Temperance

Something a little different for you all today. For the first time at SanityInjection, I offer you a guest column, written by “tubby”, who regular readers may recognize from his many thoughtful comments here. I am neither endorsing nor opposing the opinions “tubby” presents – in fact, I’ll probably post a comment of my own in response. But I will say that I think his post is an interesting springboard for discussion, and that’s why I wanted to present it here.

Without further ado, here’s “tubby”:

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The current economic climate has brought with it a kind of “green revolution”; an age when the ideas of conservation and environmentalism are no longer confined to hippie communes and San Francisco head shops. We’re concerned – about the banks who guard our hard-earned assets, about politicians who don’t have our interests at heart, and about nature’s seemingly increasing chaotic temper. Every day we see the effects of corporate greed, climate change, urban sprawl, and irreversible ecological damage. To some, these events lead to a moderation in lifestyle choices; to others, they lead to a necessary adjustment of their priorities. This “age of circumspection”, as it were, has led me recently to ponder certain lifestyle choices.

 Since moving to New England I have met many people who have made me question the choices I face every day. For full disclosure: I chose to remain here after college in part because the Southern back-slapping, beer-chugging, good ol’ boy mentality never quite suited me. I’ve always been one who places a certain emphasis on reason, balance, and conservation. (Heck, I was a Philosophy major – I have formal training!) So after a while, life in New England started feeling right. Recycling became a way of life. A friend’s gift of a plastic yard bin got me started composting. I try to reuse as many household items and containers as I can. At the same time, there are ways in which I, as everyone, fall short. During renovations, I could have required environmentally-friendly disposal of old equipment and cabinetry. I could have insisted on buying only new “green” materials. Instead of throwing stuff out, I could “freecycle” or simply have more yard sales. 

But the basic lifestyle choice I’d like to address now – one that we must satisfy every day in order to live – is our diet. Since I moved up east, I’ve come to know a few vegetarians. I must confess that all too often, I’ve not fully understood (or simply failed to ask) why each one chose his or her dietary preference. In most cases, I chalked it up to the animal-rights movement. I find this cause to be a noble one, providing a necessary counterweight to the thoughtless treatment of animals in our age of industry, whose mechanized efficiency has eclipsed sound judgment. Factory farms are a tragic reminder of the contemptible actions taken by big business on its inexorable march to meet consumer demand while reaping a profit. Some take the argument further, saying human beings possess no real moral superiority over other animals, that their lives are just as precious as ours. I’m not prepared to say that animals below us on the food chain are bound by the same moral framework on which we pride modern civilizations. From an evolutionary point of view, our species is blessed with opposable thumbs, advanced brain function, the ability to perceive time, and self-awareness. Is it not natural that we use these faculties to our advantage, in order to preserve our species the best that we can?

 To the environmental point, the impacts of business practices will have effects lasting far beyond the expiration of a single human life. Cattle farms and intensive pig farms produce inordinate amounts of ammonia and methane, the latter of which contributes greatly to the greenhouse effect currently warming our planet. The overfishing of blue fin tuna in the Mediterranean has caused that fish group to become a near-endangered species. Pesticide-ridden crop runoff has created Gulf of Mexico dead zones, where algal bloom has choked off many other types of life. Over and over, we see the ugly effects of a species trying to sustain itself within the bounds of capitalism. Isn’t it reasonable – economically and sentimentally – that we balance good business with a long-term consideration of our surroundings? As a dominant species using our higher faculties to maintain a respectable quality of life, we should aim to so in ways which humanely and responsibly preserve the habitats of our neighboring plants and animals.

 Many vegetarians assert that health is the main reasoning behind their lifestyle. They have understood that a disproportionately heavy diet of red meat and animal fat can lead to heart disease, so they wisely avoid these foods. However, non-“vegan” vegetarians also consume dairy products and often foods high in refined sugar – both of which can lead to heart disease and diabetes when overused. The vegetarian diet offers inherent health benefits, but should be followed judiciously: It implicitly eliminates many foods rich in protein, a fundamental building block for muscle repair and basic cellular function. Vegetarians must exercise additional, often creative, effort to assemble meals which offer not only ample “good fats” and protein, but also a regulated portion of carbohydrates.

 My personal dietary lifestyle choice incorporates all of these concerns, and is one based upon food group balance and portion moderation. The credo “everything in moderation” has become a cliché, but if you pause and think, applying this idea to our daily consumer ritual could address some of our pressing environmental concerns. A blanket “no meat” policy is a respectable, principled view. Yet couldn’t an equally principled position endure in a policy of dietary temperance? By sourcing meat from animals raised on local, sustainable farms, a consumer is supporting the virtues of health, environmental stewardship, and sound ethics – by listening to the Earth, his health, and his conscience. Moreover, when I buy grains and veggies from my local farmer, I am paying respect to my land and community, and (perhaps most importantly) shunning monolithic agribusiness, which in the name of profit begets environmental pollution, large-scale waste, and political influence.

 In closing, I would like to individually address each dietary lifestyle group.

 To the die-hard carnivores: I urge you to consume your substance in greater moderation. The Wendy’s sandwich you had for lunch was about ten percent of a chicken which in all likelihood was raised in a 2′ x 2′ cage and mistreated until its slaughter. A single cow grazing for a year can produce up to 200 cubic meters of greenhouse-gas producing methane, requires over two acres of cleared land, and consumes 14 tons of single-use grain which could have landed on the plate of a starving third-world child. The 16-oz steak you ordered at your Friday night restaurant ritual is a non-trivial portion of that cow, and let’s face it – probably gave you heartburn. What is more, you couldn’t finish it all, so a third of it went to waste!

 For the vegetarians: Consider not only the sentiment, but also the rationale behind your dietary choice. If it is primarily for ethical reasons, consider the irony that the dairy and egg products you crave for your protein intake portends the same cattle and poultry abuse we typically associate with the consumption of meat. If your reasons are politically or environmentally-driven, consider that large farming conglomerates like Archer Daniels Midland, who provide your wheat and corn products, are significant polluters of our waterways and a key reason the persistent Farm Bill drains billions of our tax dollars every election season. Last (but not least), if you cite health reasons, think of all the valuable nutrients of which you are depriving your body. Consider a wild-caught salmon: it poses no major ethical or environmental questions, and provides valuable protein and essential fatty acids – the latter of which offer brain function and immune system benefits found to prevent or mitigate the advancement of several diseases.

 Maybe certain aspects of human nature can’t be changed. There will always been businessmen who think of themselves before their fellow man, as will there be companies that abandon principles of environmental stewardship in the name of profit. Nature will always bestow on us disasters for which we must prepare. Yet lest we forget, there are individual and communal needs we dare not compromise. Love, joy, and physical health are and should remain essential elements of a balanced life. Perhaps the best way we can cherish them is by striving to preserve the natural balance around us. My humble hope is that a tempered consumer lifestyle can accomplish just that.

On vacation

Sanity Injection will be on vacation for the rest of the week. Two new posts up today to help tide you over, and I’ll be back next week. Until then, try to stay sane!

Quote of the Day

“Adam is a prototype. Eve is better designed and more elegant.” – Professor Ross King

Now there’s a scientific conclusion that I heartily agree with.

Of course, Professor King was referring to two laboratory robots named Adam and Eve, but still…

Back on Monday

No new posts here until Monday. I’ve been called to serve on a trial jury, where I will do my best to provide our justice system with a Sanity Injection!

Sanity Injection reaches 10,000 hits!

I’m happy to announce that Sanity Injection has officially reached 10,000 hits today (actually 10,108 as I write), after just about 8 months have passed since I began this project. I’m guessing that’s probably pretty average for a blog of this type. I’d like to thank everybody who’s read Sanity Injection and helped us get to this point.

I think the best part for me has been the comments posted by you, the readers. I’d like to encourage everyone to post comments and share your thoughts and opinions with us. To me, it’s that opportunity for discussion and exchange of ideas that makes the whole enterprise worthwhile.

I’ve also been surprised by which posts seem to be the most popular. Obviously during the election my analyses got a lot of hits, but almost as widely read have been some of my more tangential musings on public sex, NFL coaches, serving alcohol on planes, and Saudi Arabian princesses.

I made a promise to myself when I began SanityInjection that I wasn’t going to pursue it as an ego trip. This blog only has value if you, the readers, find it informative/entertaining/infuriating/whatever. As such, I remain reluctant to be too aggressive about promoting it. So I leave that up to you. If you like SanityInjection, Buzz it up, Digg it, make it Del.icio.us, link it on your site. If you like a particular post, or maybe you hate the post but like the comments that followed, e-mail the link to your friends. The more people that read and participate, the more we all learn and enjoy.

For my part, I will try to keep providing new content on a regular basis. While the focus will continue to be mostly on politics, I may add more items on current events, sports, and anything else that seems like it could benefit from an Injection of Sanity

Thanks again for reading and commenting!

Put your best foot forward!

When faced with the challenges and setbacks in our lives, it’s only natural to sometimes feel a bit sorry for ourselves. Sometimes we will remind ourselves of the host of reasonable excuses for why we didn’t live up to our expectations of ourselves.

After that, if we have successfully internalized what our parents taught us, we may recall that no matter how bad we think we have it, there is always someone who has to deal with greater challenges than we do. It might be someone we know, or it might be a total stranger in a country far away.

Today I have learned about someone like that who has tackled life’s challenges with an attitude that puts a lot of us to shame. Her name is Jessica Cox and she lives in Arizona. The first thing that people notice about Jessica is that she has no arms. In fact, she was born without arms. As a result, Jessica has learned to do everything with her feet, including mundane tasks like dressing and putting on makeup, as well as driving a car and most recently, flying a plane! More importantly, however, Jessica has had to learn two very important life lessons. The first is that there is nothing she can’t accomplish, no matter what anyone tells her. The second is that she is always going to be the focus of stares and attention throughout her life, so she has learned to embrace her difference and revel in her nonconformity.

I would encourage you to take a few minutes to poke around Jessica’s website. In addition to the inspiration of her example, Jessica is a good writer and her accounts of her exploits are really entertaining to read:

http://www.rightfooted.com/index.htm

If any of my readers are searching for a New Year’s resolution, let me suggest that we all try harder to approach our own lives with the positive and confident attitude that Jessica does.

In honor of Pearl Harbor Day

Pearl Harbor Day, which is this coming Sunday, December 7, doesn’t get quite as much attention anymore since 9/11 sort of eclipsed it in terms of memorable atatcks on US soil. So I offer a couple of tidbits today in observance of the day (I rarely post on Sundays.) Interestingly, the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941 also occurred on a Sunday.

When I was growing up, we were all taught that the Japanese deceitfully executed a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor without declaring war first, something America would never do. While this notion seems a bit passe in today’s age of undeclared wars and the obvious value of surprise in limiting the attacker’s casualties, it is also not entirely accurate. The Japanese were actually big believers in observing the diplomatic niceties. Their intention was to have their formal declaration of war delivered to the US government immediately before the start of the attack, so their attack would be a surprise but still allowed under international law. As it happened, the Japanese Embassy in Washington delayed transcribing and delivering the message, while US codebreakers who had intercepted the message also failed to get the information in the right hands quickly enough – it was, after all, a Sunday.

It is also not true, as some rumors insist, that President Roosevelt knew in advance that the attack was going to happen. The Roosevelt Administration and the War Department were expecting a Japanese attack at some point in the near future, but did not know exactly where or when.

During the attack, the Japanese concentrated on wiping out the US battleships and airplanes. They thought that with the Pacific Fleet neutralized, they would be able to win quick victories in Asia and end the war there before the US could recover. As a result, they largely ignored the following targets: Fuel depots, dockyards, the submarine base, the codebreaking office. Also, none of the three US aircraft carriers was present. Of the ships that were hit, only three were permanently lost (and much equipment was salvaged from these), with most being rebuilt or refitted with more modern equipment. Thus, in hindsight the attack proved to be a failure for Japan.

It was also unnecessary. Japan believed that it was necessary to neutralize the Pacific Fleet in order to keep the US Navy from intervening if Japan attacked US or British possessions in Asia. In fact, US military doctrine by this time did not call for immediate counterattack in the Pacific, but favored remaining on the defensive against Japan in order to concentrate on preventing Britain from falling to Hitler’s Germany.

The attack was planned by Admiral Yamamoto. Yamamoto was educated at Harvard and, although portrayed in the American media during the war as an evil aggressor, he was opposed to his country’s invasion of China, alliance with Nazi Germany, and war against the US. He did not believe Japan could win a war with the US because of the latter’s superior economic resources. Nevertheless, with his enemy General Tojo in charge of the Japanese government, he knew war was inevitable, and felt that Japan’s best chance was to win quickly before the US could fully marshal its resources. Yamamoto was an extremely capable military leader, and his death in 1943 during a US ambush targeting him specifically was a huge blow to Japan.

There was no attempt during the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese to target civilians.  A few dozen civilians were killed, mostly by US anti-aircraft shells that failed to explode until they landed in civilian areas. Nearly half the 2400 US fatalities during the attack happened when the ammunition magazine in the front of the USS Arizona exploded.

The greatest impact of Pearl Harbor was a psychological one. There had not been a major attack on US soil in 125 years. The attack destroyed the isolationist and pacifist movements in the US by shattering the notion that America was safe from the wars on the other side of the oceans, as well as the racist idea that the “little yellow people” were not advanced enough to take on a Western power.  In a matter of days, Pearl Harbor brought a sense of unity to the American people where none had existed before, much as 9/11 did for a more brief amount of time.

On Hiatus

Your Sanity Injection is on hiatus for a much-deserved vacation. I might have something up for you middle of next week, then we will be back full blast in December.

Thanks to all my readers and commenters! Till next time, find your sanity where you can