The Masala Dose

Summer + busy schedule + deep ambivalence about blogging = very little action here at the Dose.

Sorry, friends. Maybe I’ll get back to it soon. Then again, to quote Judy Blume, maybe I won’t. I’d like to talk more about this, but I have to pack for Vermont (20-year reunion! Woo-hoo!) and grab a few hours of sleep if I can. For now, I’ll let Nicholas Carr speak for me, as he does so accurately in his Atlantic piece, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”

A few quick thoughts, though. As someone who enjoys technology, I am nevertheless quite concerned–as Carr is–that my heavy use of the Interwebs has begun to rewire my brain in ways that may be advantageous when I need to know what Andrew Sullivan said about what Christopher Hitchens said about what John McCain said about Guantanamo Bay, but isn’t advantageous at all when it comes to thoughtful, prolonged engagement with a story or an idea. I’m currently taking stock of how much I use the net versus how much I really need to, and I’m starting to look at replacement activities for all those times I use the net for no purpose whatsoever except to carry out what by now has become a stale habit.

And then there’s the question of what kind of blog this is (was?) supposed to be. I never wanted it to be a collection of “look at this funny thing I found on the web” posts. Beyond that, I’m not sure. So I’ll ponder that while I read more books, pump more iron, and enjoy the glorious summer and its bountiful harvest. I hope you enjoy the activities of your choice, too.

Just walked past this house in Vancouver, right across the river from PDX. But don’t worry, there’s no racism here–just “heritage.”

Too bad I didn’t have an Obama lawn sign with me.

photo posted from my iPhone

Soy lattes at Stumptown Coffee on Capitol Hill.

photo posted from my iPhone

photo posted from my iPhone

Lovely evening to ride the rails.

photo posted from my iPhone

In the big story of the terrible flooding in the Midwest, an interesting sidebar has been the welfare of various animals caught in the rising waters. In Iowa, a dozen pigs managed to escape their flooded farm and swim to safety atop a levee–only to be shot by sheriffs’ deputies who were understandably worried that the pigs’ hooves would poke holes in the plastic.

There’s a saying in vegetarian and animal-rights circles that if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian. This story from Iowa reminds us that when given the chance, farmed animals will fight for their survival–and that anyone who sees them in the act of doing so is likely to feel a welling up of compassion. The story doesn’t mention bystanders, but it has a line from LeRoy Lippert, an emergency-management official in Des Moinees County, who seems to be responding to bleeding-heart lamentations that the pigs were cruelly struck down:

“It happens every day. My gosh, that’s what slaughterhouses do — that’s how we get bacon and pork chops. . . . It’s just one of the casualties of the flooding situation.”

Lippert is exactly right to find shock and pity misplaced in this situation. He’s calling people out on a glaring cognitive disconnect. To be fair, many people still don’t understand exactly what happens at livestock operations and in slaughterhouses. The industry, aided by lax regulatory standards, has drawn a heavy curtain around the brutality of meat production and has asked consumers to instead direct their attention to pleasing, fictional narratives like the “Happy Cow” campaign.

I don’t much care for the more extreme and confrontational tactics of PETA and certain other animal-rights groups–but I understand the anger and the urgency. The vast majority of meat animals spend their lives in abject suffering. We kill 10 billion of these animals in the United States every year (9 billion of them chickens). People deserve to know what happens to those animals, hence PETA’s efforts. The whole meat industry is propped up by public ignorance–not all of it willful–and would be badly undermined if people could see the animals for what they are: individual creatures who want to live, and who deserve at a minimum to live in accordance with their natural behaviors and diets.

Concerned about a possible outbreak of foodborne illness, McDonald’s has stopped serving…tomatoes.

That is all.

Metro Council President David Bragdon boards the #6 on MLK Ave. Bravo!

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

Dear Trader Joe’s: Ya blew it.

posted from iPhoneSlide.com