The Lobster Threads in the Lounge

[SemiCharmedQuark]

These make me sick. More obtuse remaarks from those who are unwilling to face the truth, lest it make them feel uncomofortable.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=2636136&mesg_id=2636136&page=

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x2636850

[livinginphotographs]

1. I saw those today and just steered clear.

I knew nothing good was going to come of them.

Off-topic: Everyday, I wait for your posts just so I can see which Futurama animated gif you'll have up. Sorry, just thought I'd point that out. :D

[AlienGirl]

2. The Dinner (an essay)

The fish is brought out, its flesh cut but still weakly alive. This proves that it is very fresh. A napkin covers its eyes so the diners won’t be disturbed by an expression of fear, or pain. The fish buckles, exposing bones and bleeding a little. The diners have chopsticks for the easy parts, and knives for skin and recalcitrant bits of flesh. The diners speak lightly of friends not present and accounts they’ve won. The fish’s gills shudder; the exposed side is eaten to the rib-bones. The diners open the tail. The fish survives almost until the meal ends, almost until all that remains are bones and guts and blood. The diners only notice that the fish isn’t trying to move any more. Satisfied and full, they put their jackets on and leave a tip before walking out into the upscale night.

How the fuck am I supposed to trust people, when this is considered a delicacy?

And yet I know, they can’t help it. Just as hyenas will eat a wildebeest alive, or a cat will play with a terrified mouse, human beings will commit small atrocities and large ones.

They are as blameless as a shark. All the Great Apes are, even though all species create horrors that even they find reprehensible. Like a shark, like a hyena, the Great Apes have no choice but to do these things. It’s somewhere in their instincts to savor the suffering of another. Even one of their own.

In a war on the other side of the world, winning soldiers line the children on the ground. Another soldier, a child himself, only thirteen, picks up the ax. His officers smile and crack jokes as he begins the process. The village children are made to stretch their arms flat against the ground. The kid with the ax aims for the middle of the arms. One girl screams when they pull her arm up to expose it. The soldier with the ax cuts her lips off as punishment. The officers pick up the hands; one gets silly and chases another with a hand stump-end out. Blood is everywhere. Some of the children will live. In a refuge for amputees one girl later says she hardly felt the blade; it was so sudden it didn’t hurt until later. But she used to enjoy drawing.

Blameless and pure as piranhas.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Lately I have less and less hope.

Tucker

[Maru Kitteh]

3. Is it OK if I save that and use it with credit?

It is sad but wonderfully done.

[AlienGirl]

4. I'd be honored!

My pen name's Tucker Estron.

Tucker

[LisaLynne]

5. Me, too.

Gosh, I'm so jealous of people who can express themselves like that. Painful piece, but extremely effective. THAT is why some of us care so deeply about animal rights. Why would anyone want to create anymore horror in the world, to animals, to children, to the Earth itself?

[ecstatic]

10. I just googled this topic--I never heard of live fish eating until your

post. Yuck!! That's just morbid!

[AlienGirl]

14. For anyone else who hasn't heard about it yet, here's a link

http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/dining/recommended/reviews/mmx-11792_lgcy,0,4091153.htmlstory?coll=mmx-dining_features

Here the definition of "alive" gets a little murky; the fish is out of water, its body cut open, but major organs are yet undamaged. On the plate, the fish's lips open and close; the head and tail bend slightly inward. The poor creature looks like a particularly mournful Billy Bass, sans music -- though at $150 per order, I'm not sure who should be sadder, the fish or the customer.

Tucker

[hollywood926]

6. why were those threads locked?

I really want to respond! argh!

It's funny how scientific findings always come up with the answer we want them to come up with. Just because a lobster doesn't have a backbone, it doesn't feel pain? Are they kidding?

[livinginphotographs]

7. Because it probably turned into a flame-war.

Those usually do.

[Catchawave]

8. I'm glad they were locked, but after

I got to post some "factual" information. I think I used articles from http://www.shellfishnetwork.org.uk/

I'm so tired of debating AR with close-minded people, so I've just been plopping articles in these threads, hopefully some people will learn something and make their personal choices in an informed way :)

I wish they'd ban Lobster tanks in grocery stores, they look so cruel, and those babies surely must be dying a slow death already.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

9. They weren't locked, they were archived.

[mzteris]

12. what does that mean, exactly?

Is that why I can't find some posts/threads that I *know* I made before?

[yewberry]

13. When threads fall off

the "active discussion" pages (like 1-20) they get archived and you can't post on them. You can probably find your posts by using the "search archives" function and searching by keyword/author.

It's kind of a pain, though, as you have to set date parameters for the search. x(

[mzteris]

15. I've searched

six ways from Sunday for a post I KNOW I put up and nada...... I know the thread got locked and all, but usually I can still access them.

[Raine]

11. 20/20 Friday night had a story about lobsters

and pain of boiling to death. They had a PETA member on and of course 'experts' who disputed the whole pain thing. Also they showed people chowing down on lobsters and in the end they made the whole thing into nothing but a joke. :-( :grr: