Stop eating meat, 'cuz I want y'all ta live

At the end of his song "Colors," rapper Ice-T made a plea to Stop the Violence where he said, "please stop, cuz I want y'all ta live." Here's my own plea, for y'all ta stop dyin' from eatin' all that meat, excerpted from this story: Eating Too Much Red Meat May Shorten Life



Diets high in red meat and in processed meat shorten life span not just from cancer and heart disease but from Alzheimer's, stomach ulcers and an array of other conditions as well, a U.S. National Cancer Institute study has found.

U.S. National Cancer Institute researchers reported that a quarter-pound hamburger or a small pork chop eaten daily could put you at increased risk for a variety of cancers.

[guess what?]...the American Meat Institute objected to the conclusion...[but the sobering facts say...]

Dying from cancer also was more likely among those eating the most red meat: 22 percent higher for men, 20 percent for women. The risk for death from cancer increased 12 percent for men and 11 percent for women who ate the greatest amount of processed meat.

Similarly, the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease was higher by 27 percent for men and 50 percent for women; for processed red meat, the risk was 9 percent higher for men and 38 percent higher for women.
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In Time Magazine, a nutrition epidemiologist who directs the interdisciplinary obesity program at the University of North Carolina said cutting back from a Big Mac every other day — (7.5 ounces of red meat, the highest quintile of meat consumption in the study, or, in other words, the typical American diet) — to one Big Mac a week would yield "dramatic health benefits."

I'll go even further and say, go vegetarian, buy organic, ban foie gras, and stop killing animals. Too radical? Well, also, stop pestering your vegetarian friends and family about how they are not getting enough protein, or about how their habits are messing up your traditional Palin-style Thanksgiving death-fest. They will give you a nice eulogy at your funeral, with "Colors" by Ice-T playing in the background.

Take Over GM and Make Better Cars

Suddenly these Detroit auto CEOs are eco-friendly, and sweet-talking in DC. But where were you ten years ago? What about your famous Hummer brand? Sure, now that you want free money, you'll promise this and that, but as soon as you're back on your feet, it'll be, "Oh, well, the market's not quite there yet, and oh, it's so expensive, but we're making 50 test models, and oh, we're doing all that we can by investing in R&D, and oh, we have plans to release a hydrogen car in 2025." I've heard it all before.

A few months ago I said let's bail out the auto companies and include contracts saying that they'll green their fleet etc. Now I'm thinking the government should actually take over the companies, fire all the people who sued to stop California's Clean Car Regulations (I mean go through their email archive, and every single person who said yes let's sue - fired!), hire some people from Silicon Valley EV start-ups, and let them run the companies. Oh, and the new contracts will all say they they won't sue to stop new climate regulations, they won't fund climate denial groups, they will support gas taxes and fuel surcharges, and they will green their fleet, or else the company reverts back to the government, and they go to jail.

Sounds fair.