I’ve been on airplanes most of the week, and several of the flights the internet was down completely, while on the others the internet “worked” with all the blazing speed and connectivity of 1995 dial-up. So I’ve been out of touch more or less. Anything happening this week? What did I miss? Oh . . . Really? That happened? (It really helps to have the odd talent of being able to ignore CNN telecasts in airports. Remove those screens and CNN’s viewing audience would be measured in nano-fractions.)
Well let’s hold off on all those stories for the moment, because Green Weenie Awards are important.
Really, sometimes I think PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals, er, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) exists mainly to make fools of themselves and offend as many normal people as possible. We reported back in June how Friends of the Earth (with PETA along for the ride) had come out against the new “meatless” burgers that actually taste like burgers. Can’t have that! Veggie-burgers have to taste like. . . well, like veggie-burgers, because what’s the fun of being an environmental scold if you can’t make life miserable.
PETA’s latest stunt is this billboard in Baltimore—the capital of crab cake country:
The locals are not amused, according to the Baltimore Sun:
PETA put up a billboard urging Baltimore to stop eating crabs. It didn’t exactly go over well.
PETA is coming after Baltimore’s beloved crab. The animal rights group selected the local crustacean as the mascot for its latest pro-vegan campaign. A billboard in Baltimore pictures a crab with the words, “I’m me, not meat. See the individual. Go vegan.”
Locals took to Twitter to share their reactions to the billboard that was erected yesterday on the corner of East Baltimore Street near the Shot Tower. Jimmy’s Famous Seafood chimed in, too.
“I thought it was fake, honestly,” said Tony Minadakis, owner of the restaurant. “I was shocked. It was pretty tone-deaf.”
Kelly Diaz, 35, said she found the billboard “funny,” though she agreed it made a bold statement given its location.
“This is Baltimore and we are a city that has had great pride in our crabbing industry,” she said.
Well, at least PETA has liberated animals from the cruelty of Animal Crackers packaging:
Animal crackers’ animals “freed” as boxes get new look
After more than a century behind bars, the beasts on boxes of animal crackers are roaming free. Mondelez International, the parent company of Nabisco, has redesigned the packaging of its Barnum’s Animals crackers after relenting to pressure from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
PETA, which has been protesting the use of animals in circuses for more than 30 years, wrote a letter to Mondelez in the spring of 2016 calling for a redesign.
“Given the egregious cruelty inherent in circuses that use animals and the public’s swelling opposition to the exploitation of animals used for entertainment, we urge Nabisco to update its packaging in order to show animals who are free to roam in their natural habitats,” PETA said in its letter.
Herman Cain had the best riposte on Twitter:
It would take a former pizza man like Cain to note this, which reminds me that I have the ideal outtake from my Week in Pictures pile that I think Sabo or someone ought to put on a billboard outside PETA headquarters:
Chaser, from The Telegraph:
McDouble is ‘cheapest and most nutritious food in human history’
Stephen Dubner, who co-authored the best-selling book, hosted a debate on his blog after a reader suggested the McDouble packed a better nutritional punch for the penny than is often assumed.
The double cheeseburger provides 390 calories, 23 grams of protein – half a daily serving – seven per cent of daily fibre, 19 grams of fat and 20 per cent of daily calcium, all for between $1 and $2, or 65p and £1.30, The Times reported.
Kyle Smith, a New York Post columnist, threw his support behind the McDouble’s nutritional value for money.
“For the average poor person, it isn’t a great option to take a trip to the farmers market to puzzle over esoteric lefty-foodie codes”, Mr Smith wrote. “Facts are facts – where else but McDonald’s can poor people obtain so many calories per dollar?”
Mr Dubner added: “The more I thought about the question, whether the McDouble is the cheapest, most bountiful, and nutritious food ever, the more I realised how you answer that question says a lot about how you see the world, not only our food system and the economics of it, but even social justice.”
A 2007 University of Washington survey found that while junk food costs as little as $1.76 per 1,000 calories, fresh vegetables and healthier foods can cost more than 10 times as much.
I think this story deserves both a Nobel Prize for science and a Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Stuff this, PETA!
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