What would Buddha or Jesus eat, burgers?

Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Adolfo Flores (LA Times, Aug. 11, 2014)

Hey, you<'re right; this veggie temple food is pretty good! - I told you, brother. (Japan, compassionate, cruelty-free diet, "Saintly Young Men" manga/Mr_Walker/flickr.com)

Israel: A kosher abomination? Serving cheeseburgers, too? (cowyeow/flickr.com)

.

This beautiful "Buddha" burger is all vegan

Well, when you think about it, his father loves the sacrifice of helpless animals, particularly babies. He used to command the sacrifice...but not so much the son.

ISLA VISTA, California (site of Christian terrorist carnage near UC Santa Barbara) - In a college town that's seen its share of violence, the Jesus Burgers house serves up a spiritual message.

I wouldn't order that. You? - If it's kosher...

[No f'n way! You gotta be bull shytza-ing me, Wimpy! - It's true, it's on the front page of the LA Times today, and if you can just loan me the money until tomorrow...]

Angela Boyd bounced on the balls of her feet as the smell of sizzling [flesh] pierced the ocean breeze. The 19-year-old and her friends were about to celebrate her birthday in Isla Vista, but they were making a pit stop at the Jesus Burgers house. More

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National Burger Day, U.S.A.

Amber Larson, Xochitl, Dev, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly (TEST KITCHEN); Lassens.com (LassensLoves.com, LivingNaturally); Moonbeam (FollowYourHeart.com); YF

There are yummy vegetarian things our families eat (that we unabashedly love)!

The Moosewood Collective says, “Our all-time favorite, luscious burgers the way we make them now: Vegan and wheat-free. “Tofu burgers have been a favorite at the restaurant since we can remember. Our customers often call to ask, “Are tofu burgers on the menu today?” In the early years, we served them on a thick slice of whole wheat toast with lettuce, tomato slices, and Russian dressing. Now we serve them... (Jim Scherer)

 

Wednesday, May 28, 2014, more than a month before it's needed, is National Burger Day. Presumably we're celebrating carnage like that of the Battle of Hamburger Hill.

Now, what if it were possible to have flavor, health, and compassion? What if National Burger Day could be celebrated in style free of heart attacks, cancer, obesity, bad karma, a jump in cholesterol (as our body tries to protect itself against the free radicals we're dumping in with animal flesh, acrylamides, and fermented toxins used in flesh burgers), or harm to the environment?

It is possible! We do it all the time. There are so many center "patty" options, and the best we've found is the amazing new Hilary's Hemp & Greens Burger at Lassens (online).

10 Meat-free Grilling Tips

Lassens edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Grilled blocks of barbecue-flavored tofu (SH)

The start of summer is the perfect time to enjoy delicious, sizzling meals straight off the grill! As we get set to fire up our BBQ grills, instead of the ugly and likely germ and GMO-contaminated flesh fare, cook up some grilled veggies instead. Going flesh free means opening up a world of many more options with smoky barbecue flavor.

 

The world of vegetables is amazing on the grill -- squash, tofu, hemp seed, onions, tempeh, garlic, quinoa, tomato, lettuce greens, chives, gobo root, chia seeds, lentil, eggplant, zucchini, potato, green jack, bell pepper, beet, portabello 'shrooms, and so much more! Plus, meat-free grilling is an easy way to add nutrient rich, fiber rich, healthy seasonal produce to our diet, which reduces disease.

"Eating [any] meat, particularly red and processed meat, can increase risk of heart disease, diabetes, and various forms of cancer," says Allison Righter, MSPH, RD, Meatless Monday science adviser at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.

And it's not just the amount of animal flesh someone eats -- it's also how someone cooks it. "Cooking meat at high temperatures, like pan frying and grilling/charring over an open flame, forms [toxic] chemical compounds in the meat that have also been linked to cancer," Righter says.

Kids love it -- vegan, hypoallergenic, cruelty-free, dairy-free cheese (followyourheart)

 
The good news is that many of these chemicals are NOT formed when grilling vegetables or fruits. "So [people] can enjoy their grilled flavor worry-free!"  So get grilling and take a break from toxic flesh with these 10 easy summer grilling tips: More

Golden potatoes are an excellent complement to cruelty-free burgers with all the fixins.

• Go meat-free one day a week: Meatless Monday
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• World's Best Veggie Burger (Hillary's Eat Well)
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• May shopping specials
• RECIPES from Hillary

Sexually aggressive, not because HE's drunk

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Maanvi Singh "If he's sexually aggressive in bars, it's not because he's drunk" (NPR.org, 3-3-14); DemocracyNow.org

She's probably not thinking that she wants that guy to grab her (Iurii Davydov/iStockphoto).

Who let the dawg out? - Rrrrr, woof!

Young women are often the targets of aggression when they are out in bars, but the problem isn't that guys are too drunk to know better.

Instead, men are preying on women who have had too much to drink.
 
When researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of Washington observed young people's behaviors in bars, they found that the man's aggressiveness did NOT match his level of intoxication. There was no relationship.
 
Instead, men targeted WOMEN who were intoxicated.
 

We're young and wild, and we love to party (drink) in nightclubs with no panties.

 
The researchers hired and trained 140 young adults to go into bars in the Toronto area and note every incident of aggression that they saw. They found that 25 percent of all incidents involved sexual aggression. And 90 percent of the victims of sexual aggression were women being harassed by men.
 

Violating the fifth precept (iStock/npr.org)

Almost all of the aggression was physical, with about two-thirds of the aggressors physically touching women without consent. About 17 percent threatened contact. And 9 percent verbally harassed their targets.
 
Men may perceive intoxicated women either as more amenable to advances or as easier targets who are less able to rebuff them because they don't have their wits about them, the researchers say.

"There's no reason that women should be touched against their will," says Kate Graham, the study's lead researcher and a senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health at the Univ. of Toronto. Women wouldn't accept that kind of behavior at school or on the street, she notes, but it seems to get a pass in bars, she tells Shots [Health News from NPR].
 

No means yes...but yes means maybe.

The study was published online last Monday in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
 
The researchers also wanted to look into whether unwanted sexual advances were intentional, or just a matter of misperception. This study points to the former, Dr. Graham explains.
 
"If you walk through a bar and grab a woman's breasts and then disappear into the crowd, that's probably not a misunderstanding," she says. "You don't actually think that she wants you to do that."
 
And fact that men were more likely to take advantage of intoxicated women shows that most of these incidents aren't well intentioned, Dr. Graham says.
 
And the bar staff rarely stepped in and stopped the sexual aggression. "There should be training for staff on how to intervene," Dr. Graham says. "If [a bar] wants to have female patrons, they ought to make it more female friendly."
 

I want a divorce. She went to a bar and came home drunk.

Efforts have been launched in Washington, DC and around the country to do just that. They provide bar staff with free training on how to respond when they see sexual harassment.
 
The research was observational, so it doesn't let us know what either the aggressors or their victims felt. And since the observations were made in public places in or around bars, the study doesn't tell us much about sexual assault or rape that might occur out of public view or after women leave the bar.
 
But the takeaway, Dr. Graham says, is that "people should stop believing that [Robin Thicke] song. The lines really aren't that blurred." Comments?

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(Democracy Now, March 10, 2014) U.S. military sex crimes from the top down

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Study: cheese, meat, eggs = Cancer (audio)

Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Stephanie O'Neill (scpr.org, 3-4-14)

Vegan beauty Alicia Silverstone wants moms to loan their breasts (news.softpedia.com)

Winner: "Best Vegan Pizza" using melting, dairy-free Daiya cheese (peta.org)

One Burger King Triple Whopper has 49 grams of dead animal protein, which is the maximum recommended daily total for a 130-pound adult (Joe Raedle/Getty Images).

  

Big Macs are made of cancer-causing flesh.

Middle-aged people with diets high in animal flesh protein -- such as meat, poultry, eggs, milk, and cheese -- face a dramatically increased risk of dying from cancer compared with those who eat low animal protein diets, according to a University of Southern California study published today in the journal Cell Metabolism.

If only cows lived on a compassionate planet

The study found 50 to 65-year-olds who consumed a "high-protein" diet -- meaning they got 20 percent or more of their calories from animal sources of protein -- were four times more likely to die from cancer, compared with those who consumed less than 10 percent of their daily calories in animal protein.

• AUDIO: LISTEN NOW (download)

Lines at Vegan Pizza Contest, Animal Advocacy Museum, Throop UU, summer 2013 (WQ)

  

Vegan pizza rules (WQ)

A press release accompanying the study called that "a mortality risk factor comparable to smoking." The risk of early death from all causes soared by 74 percent among the high-protein consumers, researchers found.
 
But the picture changes for those over 65. For them, it appears that a moderate-to-high protein diet [not necessarily from animal sources] actually reduces cancer and overall mortality and is helpful in preventing age-dependent weight loss and malnourishment.
 
Researchers focused their study on a national cross-section of 6,381 people 50 and older who were tracked for nearly 20 years.
 
They also found that among all the age groups studied, a diet high in animal protein increases insulin production and the risk of dying from diabetes-related causes.
 

The higher risk of cancer and overall death among the middle-aged and the increase in diabetes deaths were "either abolished or attenuated if the proteins were plant derived," the study said.
 

Go veg for bliss (WQ/Larson)

Various health agencies recommend that daily intake of animal protein should be about 0.8 grams per kilogram. So a 130-pound adult should eat [no more than] between 45 and 50 grams of animal protein per day. A 160-pound adult should eat between 60 and 65 grams per day.
 
How much protein is that? It sounds like a lot. Here is some help in calculating:

• 1 oz. of cheddar cheese: 7 grams
• 1 egg: 6 grams
• 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast: 31 grams
• 1 Burger King® Whopper: 22 grams
• 1 Burger King® Triple Whopper: 49 grams

Los Angeles bans e-cigarettes in smoke-free areas

Electronic cigarettes will be prohibited in L.A. parks, restaurants, and "meat-market" pick up bars under an ordinance approved today (3-4-14) by the Los Angeles City Council.

Raw Living Expo (video)

Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; RawLivingExpo.com

The Raw Living Expo comes to Thousand Oaks, California, Jan. 31-Feb. 2, 2014

  

"Vegetarian" does not derive from the word vegetable but from the word vegetus (Latin "lively"). When we enjoys fresh life-giving foods, our health, clarity, and longevity increase. It is not enough to be be alive when we could be living instead. What does it mean to "live" with verve and sparkling effervescence? It's like the rap song says, "Everybody dies, but not everybody lives." So long as we live and strive for the ultimate, for the highest, for the summit o four dreams, Max De Pree reminds us, "We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are."

• 2014 PRESENTERS
• RAW LIVING RADIO
• MOVEMENT AND YOGA
• VIDEO: 101 REASONS TO GO VEGAN 

(VRC) When Oprah (and 378 staffers) went vegan and to a slaughterhouse

Peace Yoga Party (gallery)

Big Fat Crisis: Why are we getting so fat?

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Richard D. Wolff (DemocracyAtWork.info, TruthOut.org, rddwolff.com, "Economic Update," 1-19-14, 9:00 am); Wash Post; LATimes.com

Go on. I'm listening.

Deborah Cohen wrote a book -- A Big Fat Crisis: The Hidden Forces Behind the Obesity Epidemic — and How We Can End It. Our obesity can be treated as an economic matter, explains Professor Richard D. Wolff, if we are to overcome it.

• LISTEN: PLAY NOW (Prof. Wolff, UMass, Amherst, MP3)

A Big Fat Crisis

Matthew Hutson (WashingtonPost.com, Jan. 10, 2014)

The commercial says I'm lovin it

The causes of the obesity epidemic -- a plague afflicting 150 million Americans, plus the remaining 150 million who help shoulder $150 billion in annual medical costs and must suffer colleagues and loved ones succumbing to disability and early death -- can be crystalized in one telling statistic: 

 

Around one in two hardware stores sells food. They mostly offer candy bars and other treacherous snacks near the checkout line. Thanks to an aggressive food industry, we cannot go anywhere without the temptation to make bad dietary decisions.

Besides keeping us alive, food is a nexus of many deep concerns -- philosophical, spiritual, political, sensual. We have strong feelings... More

 

Rich get thinner, POOR get fatter

Melissa Healey (latimes.com, Jan. 13, 2014); PNAS (nasonline.org)

Ma, tell the other kids not to stare at my boobies!

As in so many matters of health, obesity more seriously affects [poor] adolescents in families with lower incomes and educational attainment and, researchers say, the trend is getting worse. 

From many corners of the United States -- Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Mississippi -- recent years have brought [a little good] news about the rise in obesity among American children: 

 

Several years into a campaign to get kids to eat better and exercise more, child obesity rates have appeared to stabilize and might be poised for a reversal.

 

But a study published Monday (1/13/14) in the journal PNAS [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America] suggests that among adolescents, the hopeful signs are LIMITED to those from better-educated, more affluent families.

Among teens from poorer, less well-educated families, obesity has continued to rise. Nationally, rates of obesity among adolescents 12 to 19 did not rise between 2003-2004 and 2009-2010. But during that period, obesity rates among adolescents whose parents have no more than a high-school education rose from about 20% to 25%.

We're rich and thin.

At the same time, the teenage children of parents with a four-year college degree or more saw their obesity rates decline from 14% to about 7%.

 

"The overall trend in youth obesity rates masks a significant and growing class gap between youth from upper and lower socioeconomic status backgrounds," the authors of the latest research wrote. More

• HOW TO: More than modest proposals for fighting fat

The First Thanksgiving (cartoon and dinner)

Ashley Wells and Editorial Team (confessions) Wisdom Quarterly; dinner organizers Dave, Adam, Allyson, Justin, Kristina, Lisa, Prabhat, Tony (L.A.V.G.) HAPPY THANKSGIVUKKAH!

(JM) Instructions on how to prepare a proper cruelty-free Thanksgiving meal are given below.

Hungry Alicia Silverstone was raised to love ALL kinds of living beings like these:

Kind food tastes good (WQ)

A few years after coming onto the human plane, my mother said to me, "You know you were an accident?" "Thanks," I shot back. That was the first time I gave thanks. Been saying it ever since. How about you, Ash?

I was born just outside of wedlock to parents too caught up fighting about waspy matters to take much notice of me. I, apparently, led to their marriage and therefore their unhappiness, which didn't keep me from being a bastard. (Is that the feminine form of the word, or is it the other B-word?) We were Christian back then, obviously, through no fault of my own. Other than choosing it, pre-birth, all part of my divine plan to graduate to a more sublime teaching.
 

(Simpsons) Lisa became a Buddhist on Xmas.  Bart ruins Thanksgiving.

Thank you. That's nothing. My dad used to yell, "You kids are going to drive me to the insane asylum!" I always wanted to go out and start the car, to make a statement. I would have been punished. We didn't have nice, neat "groundings" like everyone else. We had punishments. Wow. You're dark. Next? That's not all! He also used to say, "You don't s--t from Shinola!" And I would ask, What's Shinola, dad?" "I'll show you what it is!" he would threaten. He drank a lot. How about you, Sands?

I was asked once, seriously, if "my people" celebrated Thanksgiving. Like we're not American enough to celebrate the same holidays. (It's like the time Joseph got asked on "King of the Hill"! Did you guys used to celebrate it?) Not really, not because we never did, but because it was too much trouble for my mom. I used to go over my girlfriend's house. Hey, just like Joseph. *Laughter*

I was raised without parents. So I guess that would technically make me an orphan. Worst thing about it was they were there. Physically. They were "checked out" in every other way. One drinking, the other spacing out. One emotionally distant, the other smothering. One aggressive, the other passive. One yelling like a lunatic, the other too brow beaten to speak up. So, essentially, we can agree, We were all raised by a Homer and a Marge?

What if the Griffins were America's first family, the Simpsons?

 

Native American Joseph is cheating with the asker's blond wife.

So is everyone going to a Vegan Thanksgiving (veganevents.org) this year? Unless you guys are planning to harass and hurt animals with paint balls? *Laughter* No, we'll be there, and I'm making California guacamole, which everyone loves all year long.

 

Everyone welcome to the potluck!

FREE Vegan Potluck Picnic on Thanksgiving

Vegan pizza (Animal Advocacy Museum)

When: Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013, 11:00 am-4:00 pm. Where: Rancho Park, 2551 Motor Ave., L.A., CA 90064. (Enter at the first entrance south of Pico on Motor Avenue or see this nice map). 

What: Veggie feast attended by hundreds because it is promoted all over the county, and most people do not RSVP. See Facebook.

 

There may be similar events all over the country, but this is the annual Vegan Thanksgiving Day Potluck Picnic. It continues for its third decade at the same Rancho Park location. Invite friends. Non-vegans are more than welcome, they are encouraged to attend. This is LA's longest-running single day vegan tradition.

 

It's a potluck to look forward to every year with hundreds in attendance. Join a peaceful, turkey-friendly Thanksgiving. Share delicious food, desserts, and drinks. Connect with beautiful people. Enjoy the outdoor environment with music, live performances, and an open mic! So feel free to bring drums or other musical instruments, a Frisbee or a ball to toss. It's a great place for children. Well behaved animal companions like dogs (on leashes) are welcome. More
 

Punk rock Thanksgiving means a mess in the kitchen and fun loud music.

(MS) Giving back to the community and our large impoverished homeless population

in megalopolises across the US. Give praise to giving, karma that does everyone good!

How to make cruelty-free treats

(Michelle Taylor/VeganBreak.com) Step 1. Go veg. First clean the fridge. Refill with a vegan version of everything. It's a cruelty-free life. Why put another living being through misery. Here are five more easy steps. Facebook
 

 
Compassionate Thanksgiving gratitude 

 

(Colleen Patrick-Goudreau) Bestselling author, podcaster, speaker, and creator of The 30-Day Vegan Challenge™ offers helpful suggestions for creating a beautiful, healthful, compassionate, traditional Thanksgiving meal (without paying someone to kill a turkey!) Let's remember the TRUE meaning of the holiday: gratitude, community, seasonal abundance, and generosity!
 

Vegan Ellen [who read Skinny Bitch then forced herself to sit through Earthlings (earthlings.com) looking into how edible flesh is made] interviews "veganist" author Kathy Freston (Quantum Wellness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Health and Happiness).

• The Buddha on meat-eating
• 30-day Vegan Challenge
• Vegan Starter Kit (FREE)
• The Last Thankgivukkah
• Rancher Al Gore finally goes vegan (NPR)
• Warlord Obama pardons two turkey (that'll die soon)
• Vegan Break: Bite-sized videos
• "A Life Connected" (veganvideo.org)
• Colleen Patrick-Goudreau podcasts
• VIDEO: NBA Star John Salley is a turkey-free vegan
• Brooklyn construction worker Eddie Lama
• VIDEO: Why vegan? Gary Yourofsky explains (adaptt.org)
• World Animal Day Evening of Kindness
• SKINNY BITCH - With a sassy cover featuring a drawing of a slender young woman wearing a tight-fitting body suit and hoop earrings and holding a pair of oversize sunglasses, the book, by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, promises a “no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls.” That brazen attitude and cussing makes this the best diet book ever.