I read the first several responses to the Singer article, and was surprised at the reactions.

The harsh reactions seem to be caused by a questioning of one's “right” to eat animals and their products.

Singer did say that the notion of “rights” is fuzzy, but this is something I know: every living thing has some aspect of desire, and even if that desire is as simple as a reflex, or instictual, oughtn't it be accorded?

One response called chickens “disgusting.” Do you realize the parallels between speciesism and racism? The labeling of another living thing as such shows ignorance of its “right” (as it were) to be the way it is. By this same token, then, oughtn't individual humans be allowed to be the way they are, eating other creatures? However, it is not the eating of meat that I find dispicable, but rather, the way that individuals treat one another in the world, be they human or non-human animals. Throwing a living being into a wood chipper, for example, could hardly be called acceptable, much less humane. When domestic animals are abused, it makes the news. Each type of animal is different, to be sure, but I hardly believe that some have more of a call to live than others. Cats are as chickens are as humans: they share common ground in that they are all living things which feel pain, and have desires.

Even if one were to disagree with this argument, that living things should not be made to feel pain if it can be avoided, there are the ecological effects of the factory-farming industry to be concerned with.

Just this morning, I was posed with the question “Do you feel unable to make a difference in the world?” I wondered about this, and right now, writing this, I have formulated this answer: If any one action I can do can relieve the suffering of a living thing, I will try my best to do it. There are, of course, an infinite number of paths one can take in her life to “help.” I have been a vegetarian for eleven years, vegan for nine. Surely in this time, my lack of demand for the animal product has done something, somewhere, for some living thing. Singer is not calling on people to make themselves feel pain for the good of the animal; I think this is misinterpreting his argument. What he is asking for is a conscious effort to change one's choices in life if it can matter for another. The choices for fixing the world are infinite, and to “fix” is, I think, what differentiates the human from the animal, and is our highest calling.

why would anyone think Hayden would stop following the orders of the White House once he is confirmed? That seems like delusional thinking to me. Are we to believe that he doesn't REALLY think warrentless wiretapping is ok? He just went along with it for a while but will come out against it once he's head of the CIA? Why on earth should we give him the benefit of the doubt? Would he really have been Bush's pick if he wouldn't be a yes-man for this administration? I doubt it, and I'm quite surprised Joe Conason feels differently...

I don't know why Ted Kennedy would spend his time criticizing the un-American actions of the Bush administration: he should be busy reminding us how bad Bin Laden is (someone someplace may have forgotten)! Otherwise we might forget that we should be giving away all our freedoms to corrupt and secretive right-wingers, lest the terrorists take away our freedoms.

Mr. D'Souza sees 9/11's roots in President Carter's ending support for a dictator in Iran. I suppose then that he feels we should support a dictator in Iran but not in Iraq...(though of course, if the countries are at war with one another, then we should ARM them both).

I wonder if D'Souza realizes that Iran wasn't actually behind or even involved with the attacks of 9/11? Does that even matter to him at all? Interesting that he's so protective of Saudi Arabia and Egypt when almost all of the hijackers (and their funding) came from these nations, but he seems to have no qualms with our attack on Iraq, who had no involvement with it. I bet he wishes we could have a nice dictator in Iraq to keep the peace...and one here (George Bush perhaps?) to snuff out those pesky liberals who are to blame for all our ills...

So...you say liberals are the most racist people on earth. Would you like to provide some examples of liberal racism; I think we could easily bury them under the sheer volume of "conservative" examples if you'd like. Or..maybe if one liberal is racist then all the rest must be too...like how all men are rapists and all kids gun down their classmates. Oh...and last I checked, your letter is still on this site too (though you seemed so assume it would be censored by the liberal thought police...)

but how many racists make a distinction between East African immigrants and West African descendents from slaves? If someone is scared of blacks I seriously doubt they are going to consider the geographical or biographical origins of the person who they are judging solely by skin color. Most racists probably wouldn't vote for any non-white person for President and certainly do not make decisions based on any guilt over slavery.