It’s a Chelsea marriage (also, a discussion about veganism)

Karl D. writes:

The Chelsea Clinton wedding seems to be a getting a lot more press in the UK then here. But the Daily Mail fact checkers do less than a stellar job. They keep putting Rhinebeck, New York in New Jersey and then back again.

This wedding is almost a perfect storm of liberal cliches. The groom is a Jew and Chelsea a Christian. So the ceremony will be held jointly by a rabbi and minister. By the way, doesn’t anyone get married in churches or synagogues anymore? Since Chelsea Clinton is a “vegan” the menu will reflect her dietary preferences with a vegan, vegetarian menu. [LA asks: is there a difference between “vegan” and “vegetarian”?] She threw in some beef choices it seems for those horrible carnivores including her father. The wedding cake is “gluten free.” Sounds appetizing does it not? The word on the street is that police are basically telling people who aren’t going to the wedding to avoid Rhinebeck altogether. I wonder how the local merchants feel about that. Since the town is overwhelmingly filled with wealthy New York liberals, I can’t imagine too much of a fuss. And finally there is the girl who unknowingly chose to get married on the same day. Due to road closures and such, it seems her special day will indeed be special.

What I find especially entertaining however is liberals fighting amongst each other as to whether or not the price tag of the wedding (reported to be 2 to 5 million dollars) is way over the top in such economically bad times. Some of the comments sound like phone in’s from the Rush Limbaugh show. “They earned that money honestly. They can spend it however they like,” or, “They are helping the local economy.” I guess as long as you are a liberal multi-millionare it is A-OK to spend money. As long as there is sufficient guilt attached to it.

LA replies:

But I thought that in bad times it’s good for people to spend money, as that generates economic activity.

Also, I intended to post something the other day about the remarkable fact that Chelsea, the daughter of two criminals, is marrying the son of a Congressmen who was just released from a five year jail term.

- end of initial entry -

Brandon F. writes:

Vegans totally eschew any products that use any animal parts whatsoever. No leather, cheese, jello, or anything else that can harm or use an animal.

LA replies:

Wow. So no cow’s milk even? No ice cream. No milk for coffee.

Which makes me think that “vegan” signifies, not that vegans are a type of vegetarian, but that they come from a planet circling the star Vega. In any case, they’re way out there.

It reminds me of a fellow I knew in Aspen in the early ’70s who felt uncomfortable with a job we were doing cutting long grass for hay, because, he said, he could feel the soul of the grass being wounded and crying out in pain as it was being cut.

LA continues:

The guy was called Red-haired Gary, for his long, amazingly thick head of red hair. Back then in that community of drop-outs and eccentrics we didn’t use last names; everyone was named for some descriptive feature or character trait, as though we were living in the Middle Ages. There was Blond James (a.k.a. James Aquarius), Bible Tom, Teepee Jim, Crazy Jeffrey, Bookstore Larry (that was me, because I worked in a bookshop, though Crazy Jeffrey also called me, not particularly affectionately, Library Larry), Scorpio Jane, etc.

Since the 1980s Aspen has been so famous as a place for the super-rich that people don’t realize that in the late ’60s and early ’70s it was, among other things, a kind of place for hippies, though hippie is not the right word. We were free spirits. Though I had long hair and no fixed abode, I wasn’t what you would call a hippie. I was too serious, didn’t take drugs, and spent most of my time reading.

July 31

Laura Wood writes:

If you walk into a working restaurant kitchen and ask the chefs what they think of vegans, you will hear some very colorful language. Vegans believe restaurants are morally obligated to cater to their restrictions. Knowing the enmity chefs hold for these dietary zealots, I wouldn’t eat a vegan entrée if you paid me.

LA replies:

What I have trouble figuring out is, how do vegans get enough protein? It’s one thing to refrain from meat, but still eat eggs and dairy—such a diet provides enough protein. But if eggs and dairy are excluded, where do you get your protein? From beans? How much beans can a human eat?

For heaven’s sake, they can’t even have yoghurt.

Brandon F. writes:

I saw a bumper sticker once that said: “If we’re not supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?”

Leonard K. writes:

Can a vegan be a cannibal? After all, humans are not animals…

Diane M. writes:

You left out the most glaring liberal cliche of all: the two have been shacking up together already in his apartment. But I suppose this won’t keep her from appearing in a white meringe gown, a symbol of chastity and purity.

Winston Smith writes:

“It reminds me of a fellow I knew in Aspen in the early ’70s who felt uncomfortable with a job we were doing cutting long grass for hay, because, he said, he could feel the soul of the grass being wounded and crying out in pain as it was being cut.”

This reminds me of a hilarious song.

Ever since hearing this I tell vegetarians that you can hear celery’s back break when you bite into it.

Ken Hechtman writes:

Vegans … Ugh … They should all be eaten and experimented on …

OK, how do vegans get their protein requirements? Two ways.

Soybeans and soy products like tofu and soy milk and TVP (textured vegetable protein, a meat substitute) have the same kinds of complete proteins as meat.

Fruits and vegetables and grains have some proteins, just not complete ones. That is, they don’t have all 22 amino acids. But in combination, they do. Rice and beans is the example everyone knows. Rice and kidney beans together have all 22 amino acids. You can live on that and a lot of Mexicans do.

If you’ve read Atlas Shrugged, there’s an extended riff about soybeans in it. The evil leftists destroy the American wheat harvest so they can force Americans to eat soybeans. That’s a personal shot at my grandfather. At the time that Ayn Rand was writing Atlas Shrugged, my grandfather was writing columns for the Daily Worker promoting soybeans as food for humans.

N. writes:

Brandon F. is correct. It is possible to be a vegetarian yet still eat milk, cheese and eggs: the term for this is “Lacto-Ovo vegetarian.” I know people from India who practice this, perhaps because they don’t want to give up ghee (a tasty form of butter). To be a vegan is more rigorous and strict, giving up not only all dairy products, but, as Brandon F. notes, gelatin products as well (except for vegetable gelatins), no leather, etc. and so forth.

Some health food people make up their own herbal capsules, buying things such as ginger powder in bulk and decanting small amounts into gelatin capsules. Vegans who practice this will buy vegetable-gel caps so as not to use any animal product. This animal-free concept can go to some interesting extremes; I know of people who only buy shoes made of plastic and fabric in order to avoid the use of leather, for example. In the case of Hindu people from India it is a religious issue, for others such as Chelsea Clinton it’s probably more of a philosophical thing, or even a fad.

The blogger OneSTDV writes:

I wrote a post earlier this week arguing that vegetarianism is ultimately a leftist political philosophy, reflecting the anti-white, anti-male zeitgeist, based on spurious science:

Real (White) Men Eat Meat: How Vegetarianism Went Mainstream

Jeannette writes:

I know a vegan, and she is typical of the species. She is all for “animal rights” but is pro-abortion.

Take a look here. It is in the discussion that a vegan thinks it is ok to kill babies.

LA replies:

Remember that group in California who killed themselves en masse some years ago so that they could be translated to space ships in outer space or some other planet? I forget the leader’s name. I’ll bet they were vegans.

The reason I thought of the connection is that vegans reject life on earth. The earth and everything in it provides for man’s life in all kinds of marvelous ways. It provides wonderful things like chicken eggs and milk and cheese. The vegans reject these things and think that the human consumption of them is immoral. They thus make mere survival much more difficult than it would ordinarily be, and put the health of their children at risk. That is going radically further than traditional vegetarianism (which I personally have no argument against) and becomes an anti-life cult.

Also, since using any animal product is considered verboten by the vegans, I suppose they don’t use wool either—this marvelous substance given by God to clothe man, which doesn’t require killing animals but merely cutting off their long hair. That shows a belief system which in gnostic manner rejects God’s creation, because God’s creation is “unequal.” Why should man be able to control sheep and use their hair? Why should we see ourselves as the lords and masters of sheep? It’s not fair.

Joseph C. writes:

I noticed in your discussion about vegans you refer to that mass suicide in California. That happened in April 1997. The cult was called Heaven’s Gate and the leader was Marshall Herff Applewhite. A weird name, and rather unforgettable.

As I type this, I am about to dig into some lamb chops. The vegans will be happy to know I am having plain broccoli but it has been steamed. :-)

LA replies:

That’s right. I was thinking something like “Applegate.” As I remember he had a shaved head and weird ascetic appearance—in fact, he looked much like Jerry Brown.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 30, 2010 06:07 PM | Send