The Veganza Diaries

Vegan mama to 2 mini-humans & 2 rescued kittehs.
Writing, reading, studying, renovating, husband-wrangling, & taking photos.
This is my filthy hipster scrapbook. I also have a not-so-filthy vegan blog.
~ Sunday, November 27 ~
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Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds?… It is certainly not lions and wolves that we eat out of self-defense; on the contrary, we ignore these and slaughter harmless, tame creatures without stings or teeth to harm us, creatures that, I swear, Nature appears to have produced for the sake of their beauty and grace. But nothing abashed us, not the flower-like tinting of the flesh, not the persuasiveness of the harmonious voice, not the cleanliness of their habits or the unusual intelligence that may be found in the poor wretches. No, for the sake of a little flesh we deprive them of sun, of light, of the duration of life to which they are entitled by birth and being.
— Plutarch
Tags: speciesism human rights animal rights meat animals veganism vegetarian
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~ Monday, November 7 ~
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Conservatives believe in the ties that bind us; that society is stronger when we make vows to each other and support each other. So I don’t support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I’m a Conservative.
— David Cameron, UK Prime Minister
Tags: UK England politics marriage equality gay marriage gay rights human rights FU Tony Abbott
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~ Tuesday, September 6 ~
Permalink Tags: birth pregnancy australia health medicine homebirth prochoice choice human rights
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~ Tuesday, May 17 ~
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Happy unoppressed piglet is happy.

Happy unoppressed piglet is happy.

Tags: buddha buddhism happiness nonviolence oppression piglets pigs privilege violence animals animal rights human rights humans are animals biology 101
203 notes
reblogged via veganslove
~ Saturday, May 7 ~
Permalink Tags: vegan parenting vegetarian family children health ethics animals animal rights human rights babies toddlers veganism interviews lifestyle
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~ Tuesday, April 5 ~
Permalink Tags: japan tsunami human rights onagawa earthquake charity
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selahwrites: Celebrate all mothers this May 8th. Go vegan.

selahwrites: Celebrate all mothers this May 8th. Go vegan.

Tags: mother's day vegan veganism vegetarian human rights animal rights ethics animals love compassion deer
190 notes
reblogged via selahwrites
~ Friday, April 1 ~
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Must watch! Worth every second. “Best Speech You Will Ever Hear” - Gary Yourofsky

Tags: vegan veganism vegetarian ethics animal rights human rights oppression bigotry feminism racism speciesism ecoterrorism environment health diet compassion religion holocaust activism Gary Yourofsky lecture speech inspiration love animals plants culture cooking
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Permalink Tags: veganism vegetarian vegan animal rights human rights food ethics animals
162 notes
reblogged via treekisser
~ Saturday, March 26 ~
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Veganism, Privilege, and Race (links)

Veganism, Privilege, and Liberation:

In practice, veganism means renouncing the benefits that come from the exploitation that speciesism is constructed to naturalize. Theory and practice are one; you can’t “renounce absolutely … the right to use” without, at the same time, renouncing the actual use and the benefits of that use. In other words, renouncing speciesism means renouncing privilege – human privilege. This is why vegans don’t consume anything derived wholly or in part from animals or support other practices that contribute to the exploitation of other animals.

Is veganism another white privilege? - Happycow

Vegans of Color - an impressive collaborative blog written by Vegans of Color. From that blog, a discussion (see comments): Explaining Racism to White Veg*Ns and Speciesism to Non-Veg*N POCs + see their awesome blogroll/collection of links.

Veganism and (white) Privilege - Vegan Soapbox

Privilege: The U.S. Vegan Movement, Whiteness, and Race Relations - part 4 in a series at eco-health

& an old/interesting blip: Stuff White People Like: #32 Vegan/Vegetarianism with a photo of well-known vegan, Bob Torres of Vegan Freak fame. Who isn’t white.

(I didn’t find the stats showing more non-white vegans than white vegans in the USA, either. Where’d they get to? May have been on the Vegan Freak forum many moons ago… Anyone?)

Tags: veganism privilege race liberation animal rights human rights links racism speciesism feminism
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If you don’t like my opinions leave. But just remember, the animals can’t leave the cages that hold them. They are captive and suffering. As you cozy into your bed tonight, try to imagine the pain and the suffering that they endure day after day and night after night. Next time you get some soap in your eyes, try to imagine that pain for 3 or 4 days at a time. Next time you have a stomach ache, try to imagine liquid plumber being poured down your throat till you puke so much blood that you bleed to death. Next time you bump your head, try to imagine being a monkey and getting a steel plate smashed into your skull at 50 miles per hour. Then, only then should you feel compelled to tell me that I’m wrong about my opinions. For all these things have happened in the name of science. They continue in abundance till this day.
Rikki Rockett (via jettavegas)
Tags: animal rights human rights science veganism vegetarian
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reblogged via jettavegas
~ Monday, March 21 ~
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Making choices, or taking choices?

Make choices more connected with your values, more connected with others, more connected with the planet, and more connected to protecting your health.

“Live your values. Change the world. It’s that simple.”

Tags: people planet earth animals humans human rights animal rights vegan vegetarian choices honesty compassion
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~ Thursday, March 17 ~
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treekisser:

This video profoundly affected my soul.  Within 60 seconds I was sobbing on the floor of my hotel room, and it’s not even that sad of a video (nothing graphic happens, and it’s been confirmed that the two dogs were rescued and at least taken to vets/shelters).  Maybe it’s the fact that I’m alone (by choice) in a foreign country and have too much freedom to focus inward and dwell in thought, thus enabling me to overanalyze and become absorbed by things I would normally scroll past.  For me, the message of this video is so powerful and so clear- suffering is suffering, and animals are just as capable of love, loyalty, fear, and grief as humans are.  I cannot comprehend how so many humans refuse to believe this.  I cannot comprehend how so many humans are happy to ignore that their daily choices in diet & fashion are forcing this pain and loneliness upon billions of other beings.  I cannot comprehend how so many humans find it easier to dismiss those who make compassionate choices as extremists or irrational hippies rather than considering making a meaningful change in their own lives.

I assume this video will tug at your heart strings, as you’ve most likely been conditioned to feel more sympathy/empathy for dogs than for most of the world’s other species.  Please, I beg you to take a step back and consider that maybe, just maybe, the meat you’re eating, the milk you’re drinking, and the leather you’re wearing came from living beings who care for one another just as these two dogs do.  And that maybe, just maybe, it’s not worth it.

The correct response is always love.

Tags: oppression diet fashion loneliness love compassion animal rights human rights
31 notes
reblogged via treekisser
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To me, the parallel was simple and plain: oppression is oppression. We can rationalize all we want about how animals and humans are different, but at the heart of the quandary are certain undeniable truths: that animals really do suffer; that they have rich emotional and physical lives not so different from our own. If you’ve lived with a dog or cat, you already know this.

So it saddens me to see so many social progressives — gays included — who scoff at the idea of animal rights and veganism. In the fall of 2008, my husband and I volunteered feverishly for the NO on 8 campaign here in California. During a phone bank shift, one of the higher-ups, a gay man, approached me. He wanted to know why I wore an animal rights t-shirt every time I showed up to volunteer. “We get it,” he said. “You’re vegan.” “You don’t get it at all,” I replied. “Because if you did, you’d be vegan yourself.”

— Excellent piece at the GirlieGirly Army: Being Vegan is SO Gay
Tags: vegan animal rights human rights gay rights equality oppression
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~ Monday, March 14 ~
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All glory to the (vegan!) interwebs

An oddity I’ve encountered a few times is being accused of an unreasonable amount of compassionate or sympathetic feelings being afforded to animals instead of to humans in need. Why are they mutually exclusive? I’ve found quite the opposite: more compassion leads to more compassion leads to more again. And even so, vegan ethics are generally grounded by the concept of necessity rather than feelings: why cause harm when it’s easy not to, and just not necessary? But I digress.

Inevitably, accusations of feeling end up with the phrase “I need to eat meat to feel healthy.” So the initial accusation of me feeling too much is to offset the accusers own feelings, not grounded in ethics or research or reason. Every. Time. I have had this discussion it follows the same pattern. At least that means I can have a response ready to go… or, if I’m in a Mood, unkindly shout “BINGO!” ;)

And this also brings me back to another post I made here recently: don’t blame veganism for your alleged lack of vitality. Blame your poor food choices, or even a placebo effect from your negative feelings towards habit changes… And, for goodness sake, ask for help! That’s what the interweb and its extensive network of various vegan activists, health nuts, and eco-terrorists is here for! :)

Tags: vegan veganism animal rights human rights ethics