"...as they sweetened their tea with sugar produced at brutal slave plantations on islands far, far away."

How, exactly, is this situation materially different from the way Americans live today? We prop up brutal dictatorships in the Middle East so that we can get cheap oil to fuel our SUVs. Our malls are filled with garbage manufactured in Chinese prison camps. The money we pay for the African diamonds in our wedding rings goes to support wars where millions of children get their limbs hacked off with machetes. The soy beans that feed our priggish vegetarians are grown with petroleum-based fertilizer, often on land that used to be Amazon rainforest. And let's not even mention our hugely disproportionate contribution to global warming.

But do we care? Hell, no. We go about our lives in our comfortable little bubbles, unconcerned about the externalities of our behavior. We're no better than the English matrons who stirred their tea with slave sugar 250 years ago. In fact, we're probably worse, because we think we're actually "morally evolved". Granted, there are no longer slave markets in Charleston. But otherwise we're like children who "clean" their rooms by stuffing everything under their bedspreads.

But I eat meat anyway. Animals are living creatures with thoughts, feelings, and souls. Most of them are pretty dumb, but so are babies, disabled people, people in comas, etc. but we don't think it's all right to eat them.

But y'know what... I'm just trying to live my life. If it were up to me, I'd make society more vegetarian. But it's not up to me, and so being vegetarian is hard work. If it were up to me, all meat would be organic, free-range, and not pumped full of antibiotics and hormones, but it's not up to me, and so if I want some clean chicken I have to drive across the state to Whole Foods and pay 9 bucks a pound.

I have better things to do than possibly give myself some kind of vitamin deficiency. I'll eat whatever they put in front of me, I don't care enough to raise a fuss. American's have enough nutrient deficiencies (iron, zinc, copper, iodine, vitamin d, folic acid, fiber) without cutting out food groups completely Being vegetarian correctly is healthier, but having a little meat doesn't hurt either (hence the veggie burger with a little bit of bacon).

Hey vegetarians, if you want to encourage others to be vegetarian, you have to make it easier. Set up more (affordable) vegetarian restaurants, invent more tasty food. Invent some gourmet soy cheeses, the world is sorely lacking in them. Give me a recipe that makes tofu taste not-awful. Set straight the sickly ones of your ranks that live off of french fries and jelly-wonderbread sandwiches.

But I don't fully agree with the moralizing. If I were stuck on a deserted island with nothing to eat but my dead traveling companion, I'd eat them. I'd do it with full appreciation that that used to be a person. That's how I eat all meat, and vegetables too, with appreciation of how it came to my plate. It's part of what is called "conscious eating"... a Buddhist/Hermetic/mystic/New-Agey type practice.

But right there I'm getting into religious territory, and those ideas cannot be demonstrated with words, only with experience. So I'll just say I believe that although death and killing is not something to take lightly, it's not the end of the world. I think killing and eating animals is not such a sin if a person does it with good intentions, without callousness. I think last night's KFC is either up in chicken heaven or maybe it'll get reincarnated and end up eating me in another life for karma's sake.

And if the unsustainability of raising meat causes the downfall of civilization, good! It'll be a good opportunity to start from scratch and create a new, better civilization.

[Some of you may have seen these points in a letter I wrote about a WayLay cartoon some time ago. They're very applicable here, so forgive me for the repetition.]

Addressing the omnivore/tooth structure debate:

We are most certainly omnivores by behavior. Dogs are as well. Dogs, however, are true carnivores (taxonomically speaking) because they have carnassials. These are the large, triple-rooted, pointy-yet-broad teeth in the back, designed for breaking and crunching bones, and humans have nothing like them in our mouths.

Having taken vertebrate zoo. I can tell you we're a lot closer to herbivores than to meat eaters. Look at a tiger or wolf's mouth; those are teeth designed to (a) pierce and (b) tear flesh. Now look at a horse's mouth, or a rabbit's. There you see flat incisors and molars, just like us. Flat incisors are perfect for grasping and tearing foliage, or carving off chunks of vegetable matter from fruit, vegetables, or nuts.

If you study the teeth of typical omnivores such as bears, they tend to have more fang-like teeth in their mouths than we do, and more separation between individual teeth. The cuspids (canines) are the closest thing we have to meat-piercing and -tearing teeth, and they're not very pronounced; a recent article in New Scientist described this as evolving away from needing them for mating competition. Cuspids are not particularly associated with carnivores, but they are with omnivores.

A link to a herbivore's teeth:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/GreekScience/Students/Andrea/teeth2.html

A link to a carnivore's teeth:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/GreekScience/Students/Andrea/teeth1.html

A link to an omnivore's teeth:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/GreekScience/Students/Andrea/teeth3.html

Carnassial teeth:

http://rawfed.com/myths/carnassials.jpg

Still, cats and dogs eat grass and humans eat meat, so functionally we're adaptable and our bodies have learned to extract nutrition from a variety of sources. I just wanted everyone to be speaking from an informed perspective.

I tried vegetarianism for 3-4 years. For the (supposed) health benefits, not for animal rights. Most of the dishes were good, some were outstanding, but I got tired of the often laborious food preparation at home, and only being able to eat one, maybe two, menu items at restaurants. Often the meals were pretty boring. Plus, I found I was hungry a lot, so I ate more often, and I therefore didn't lose the extra weight I needed to shed. Alas, I came across arguments (based on academic studies) that showed vegetarians are not healthier and do not live longer than meat-eaters. I then re-converted to eating meat several years ago.

I recall having acquired a sense of moral superiority with regard to meat eaters. I also do not recall being badgered by others regarding my vegetarianism, although I do recall being somewhat obnoxious/imperious toward meat eaters.

Nowadays, after having a good meat-based meal, I often realize how SATISFIED I feel. I don't remember ever having such a thought while eating vegetarian. My satisfaction was more in how good I had been, not in the food itself. I've come to believe people need animal foods -- that the satisfaction one feels after eating a medium-rare steak, roast turkey, fried chicken, grilled fish, boiled shrimp, etc., is a primal indicator of the goodness of such food.