A Suggestion

Pretty much every week I get advertising fliers and letters from various food companies that promise better prices, better products and of of course the current most favoured buzz word of the ad-man, solutions, solutions, solutions.  Well here is a solution I would actually like.

Next week we have a double bank holiday.  Bank holidays are times when many catering businesses and quite busy, Christmas, New Year, May Day, and of course this bank holiday for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.  All of the food companies, who spend so much time and effort trying to persuade the catering industry how wonderful they are, will be closed for the bank holidays.  This means that we have to take our deliveries for fresh food for Monday and Tuesday (and perhaps Wednesday if it is food for breakfast/lunch service) on Saturday, or even Friday if it is one of those 'solution' based companies whose solution is not to work on a weekend.

My solution then is for the food supply industry to be more flexible, get their arses into gear and deliver food when we actually need it.  It isn't just a question of freshness, although I gather some butchers are warning customers not to order fresh chicken products as they would fall outside the 5 day safety margin. It is often a question of refrigerated storage, many catering businesses simply do not have enough cold space to carry goods for a busy 4-5 day period.

I'm going to give Lishman's of Ilkley a plug here.  Lishman's will be open on Tuesday, which is vital to me as I have a large order placed with them, which I could not possibly carry in my cold storage over the weekend. So thanks to David for opening, and thanks to Stuart and the team who will be making hundreds of burgers and sausages for me on Tuesday morning, I appreciate the effort, thank you.

Stupid Ilkley People

I had gone to Golden Butts Recycling centre, my car filled with half a dozen bin bags of cans and plastic bottles and as I was unloading my car a black 4WD pulls up and a lady gets out with a carrier bag.  The lady stopped to read the instructions on the side of the plastics container, which clearly states "No yoghurt pots" and then proceeded to  post dozens of yoghurt pots into the skip. Stupid.

Just as stupid is the lady I once saw there pulling up in her Toyota Landcruiser Planetdestroyer, who then got a single empty bottle of Ty Nant from the boot to recycle.  1 trip to recycling centre in giant petrol guzzling 4WD to recycle a single bottle = stupid.

While I am having a general rant about the people who live in my town, how about Mums driving their children to school.  I often hear people say that the roads are far busier than they used to be and that consequently it isn't as safe as it used to be for children to walk to school.  Well, if you stand at the Dalesway traffic lights in a morning as all the Ilkley kids are being driven to school you will be able to see for yourself why the roads are so dangerous - it's Ilkley Mums talking on their hand held mobile phones while driving through town with a car load of kids.  Seriously folks, who can afford a Lexus RX450 but cannot afford a hands free kit to go with it ?

A Plague on Evangelical Vegetarians

Image by robpurdie via Flickr

I appreciate that almost all of us have things we believe in, or traditions we have carried on for years, or political or social goals that we believe, deep down, if the rest of the world thought and did the same the same as us then the rest of the world would be a far better place. Personally, I would like to see a much broader appreciation of hard rock music, the introduction of Neal Gaiman's Sandman as a compulsory part of all English literature courses and the police to be allowed to arrest any adult caught wearing a tracksuit in public when the wearing of said clothing is not immediately related to a sporting event. But that's just me.

I know a lot of people get upset at people who have faith, they hate proselytizing. The very worst single belief people though are the ardent vegetarians and associated animal rights folk. Theirs is the one and only true path, they have achieved perfection and nirvana in their views and all others, meat eaters and leather weathers in particular, are unthinking souls lost in the limbo of uncaring and harmful ways. Yet, they can be saved, especially if you bang on about it for long enough.

My views on vegetarianism and its ultra orthodox relative veganism are the same as my views on religion. I am quite happy for you to hold whatever view you want, but once you have stated your view and someone else has stated they are not in agreement you should not persevere with explaining your viewpoint until the cows come home – of their own accord, only if they wish to spend the night in a barn, and not to be cruelly exploited for the purposes of extracting the precious gift that is mother’s milk.

Militant vegetarians always try to claim a moral high ground by continually pointing out the various cruelties involved in meat production. They do so though by always taking the most extreme examples they can find. Whilst engaged in a rather one sided ‘discussion’ recently I was repeatedly informed that if I would only watch a particular YouTube video showing chicken factory workers being cruel to their flock then I would never want to eat chicken again. This is false and fuzzy logic, I have in fact seen the footage in question and what I desire after seeing it is for nasty people to stop being unnecessarily cruel to chickens and using them as footballs. Not for a moment does this sort of thing turn me off from being a meat eater; a ‘lovely roast hen with Yorkshires and gravy’ is still on the menu for me.

If you wanted to show the health and farming benefits of being wholly or partly vegetarianism I would be much more willing to listen. I think the Meat Free Monday movement is quite a decent idea, there are lots of us who should perhaps eat less meat and less extensive and intensive animal rearing would be beneficial in parts of the world. Perhaps the idea could be extended into Fish Only Friday and Tofu Thursday, but only if people want to join in.

I dislike the way some vegetarians try to demonise meat eating, the whole Meat Is Murder moral high ground thinking is rubbish. People are not evil because they enjoy a bacon butty or Big Mac. They might not be particularly well educated about the meat they eat though, so there is always room for education.

People should be allowed to eat meat, meat is wonderful. Last night chef Rob and myself made some slow honey and chilli slow braised belly pork with crackling and it was truly wonderful. As some fundamentalist vegans would have it though, this was the act of two evil men; an innocent animal lost its life just to provide a family with a meal.

I will be quite honest here, and this is the bit that might upset some people. I hold that animals and people are two different things. Animals are not people, they do not have to be accorded the same rights and respect that I would grant to any human. However, I see no reason at all why any food animal should be put to any unnecessary suffering. Beasts farmed for food should live decent lives free from pain and suffering and the killing should be accomplished in the most humane manner possible.

Many of us should perhaps eat less meat, bought from less intensive farming styles. Yorkshire Dales lamb would be an example of a good choice due to its non-intensive farming methods, while artificially fattened beef is less good. Neither of these, nor hardly any other meat choice is evil. The moral high ground claimed by the militant vegetarians is not a high ground at all; they have taken a value judgement and made a decision based on their own moral standards, as I have done. Neither of us stands above the other in moral terms, it only looks that way from your narrow point of view.

Feminists Rant ~ Rudov’s Sexism Strikes Again – Takes On Shriver’s “Woman’s Nation”

A new post on a Feminist propaganda site lambasting Marc Rudov and my observations.

Here is a little dose below of the greater than "equality" you have and at the same time you have the impudence and audacity to call a man sexist for challenging you on it. Where are the good old days when feminism was about equality not advantage.

There are imbalances in the gender equation favouring women and you do nothing to try and stop the gender war but keep adding flame to the fire. You still use your outworn, outmoded and tiring shaming tactics to call men misogynists for challenging female advantages and feminists. You equate people like me who have absolutely no use for your feminist propaganda as hating women. Not so girls - I just hate your ideology based on victim hood. Some day you will actually grow up and be able to stand on your own two feet without the nanny state as your new patriarch.

Have a peek here and see if this is equal.

Professor Mark Perry at UoMichigan shows the following:


Associate’s degrees: 167 for women for every 100 for men.

Bachelor’s degrees: 142 for women for every 100 for men.

Master’s degrees: 159 for women for every 100 for men.

Professional degrees: 104 for women for every 100 for men.

Doctoral degrees: 107 for women for every 100 for men.

Degrees at all levels: 148 for women for every 100 for men.

That is just the tip of the iceberg. Equality is a two way street but if I were a man I would start taking notice of the clear swing of the pendulum in education and elsewhere.

Posted by Catherine Epstein on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
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Fox News regular Mark Rudov has taken on Shriver’s recent “A Woman’s Nation” report in a sexist, demeaning column at Accuracy in Media on Monday (hat tip to Media Matters). In an extended sexist rant, Rudov gripes about legislation that protects women from rape, domestic violence, and harmful workplace practices, arguing that they have come about only because “spineless men fear retribution from feminists and sexual retaliation from their wives for writing, passing, enforcing, and adjudicating gender-neutral laws.” In his “analysis,” Rudov illustrates his relentless misogyny yet again and conveniently ignores the millions of American citizens that support protections for women, as well as a history of violence against women that has made such legislation a necessity.

In a snarky closing, Rudov offers a “silver lining in your estrogen cloud” which states that America is a “matriarchy, a gynocracy. Women are in control. They no longer need, and therefore cannot require, men to support them financially — at any time, in any way, for any reason.” However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

While the Shriver report marks an historic turning point in the American workforce – which is now half women – it also outlines some of the ways we need to grow as a country, many of which Gloria Steinem wrote about in her exclusive for the Women’s Media Center, “It’s Not a Man’s World or a Woman’s Nation.” And with nearly 20% of cable-watching Americans claiming it as their main source for national and international news, Rudov’s frequent appearances on Fox News spread misinformation and sexism which is destructive to these goals.
Have you witnessed sexism on your television, computer screen, newspaper, or radio? Help the WMC monitor the media, and tell us about it.

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