CHESSNOID

I read a great article in the Huffington Post.  They have great independent writers that make you think.  You may not like what they say or be offended, but sometimes the truth does that to you.

If you ever had a dog, cat or hamster as a pet, you wouldn’t think of them as food.  You think of them as a member of the family.  When my golden retrievers had passed away, I cried my eyes out.  They were a part of my family for almost 15 years after we rescued them from the local animal shelter.

It wasn’t until recently did I realize all animals can have personalities that you can grow to love.  So why do most people make the connection to some animals as pets but not as their food?

Getting back to the Bullying article, I think you might get some insight from reading it. Check it out below:

Huffington Post:

Here is the definition of the word bully: “A person who uses strength or power to harm or intimidate those who are weaker.” Many of us know firsthand what it’s like to be bullied. We know what it’s like to be vulnerable and scared, and to have that be taken advantage of. I never considered animals to be a part of that equation.

Then, a few years ago, a random discussion on a talk show led me to research factory farming, a practice that produces 99 percent of the animals we consume in the U.S. I not only read about the horrors of these places, but, thanks to countless undercover investigation videos posted online, I saw them. I saw baby calves being screamed at and punched in the face by desensitized farm workers. I saw turkeys being kicked and thrown against walls until their wings broke. A saw a baby pig having its head bashed in with a brick. These poor animals were being abused, tormented, and killed by merciless beings many times their size. They were being bullied.

Even though I was never in situations this extreme growing up gay, many LGBT people are. They are regularly verbally abused, physically assaulted, and even killed. And while there undoubtedly is a difference between people and animals, the question must be asked: when it comes to things such as fear, pain, and suffering, aren’t animals much more like us than they are not like us?

I know we all love a good burger or turkey sandwich, but isn’t our consumption of these foods perpetuating the power-hungry and cruel attitudes we so strongly oppose? Is it really such a stretch to ask that all those who feel be liberated from the suffering caused by bullying? Because whether you want to admit it or not, that’s precisely what it is. This realization, subconscious at the time, led me to become a vegan. By choosing to avoid animal foods, I feel I’m sending a strong message that I won’t be a party to bullying in any form.

I know it’s difficult to imagine giving up some of your favorite foods (you’ll discover new ones, trust me) but I invite you to learn the truth about where those foods come from. Really think about it. Sit with it. Be honest with yourself. Does knowing that you pay other people to treat animals this way feel good in your soul?

A brilliant writer, Laura Moretti, once said this about animals:

Animals are the most victimized living creatures on earth; more than children, more than women, more than people of color. Our prejudice enables us to exploit and use them, as scientific tools and expendable commodities, and to eat them. We do to them any atrocity our creative minds can summon. We justify our cruelties; we have to or we can’t commit them.

Chew on that.

There is going to be another UFC this weekend. It seems like it is like that every weekend. Unfortunately, it will not be a free event. Will it be worth buying? Just depends on your interest in the fighters.
I like watching Nick Diaz fights because most times they are entertaining. But he is not worth buying the PPV. So you have to decide if this card below is worth it.  Last week’s free fight on TV was a bit on the boring side.  Will this week’s card be less boring?  I see a few wrestling matches on this card too.

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view)
Carlos Condit vs. Nick Diaz (for interim welterweight title)
Roy Nelson vs. Fabricio Werdum
Josh Koscheck vs. Mike Pierce
Renan Barao vs. Scott Jorgensen
Ed Herman vs. Clifford Starks
PRELIMINARY CARD (FX)
Max Holloway vs. Dustin Poirier
Jorge Lopez vs. Matt Riddle
Alex Caceres vs. Edwin Figueroa
Matt Brown vs. Chris Cope
PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook)
Dan Stittgen vs. Stephen Thompson
Rafael Natal vs. Michael Kuiper

ABC News:

Start filling out your applications, boys! Emily Maynard, a fan favorite from Brad Womack’s season of “The Bachelor,” will be the next “Bachelorette,” ABC officially announced today on “Good Morning America.”
“I think she’s America’s sweetheart and I think it will be a home run,” host Chris Harrison said on “GMA.”
Maynard, a single mom from Charlotte, N.C. who ended her tumultuous relationship with Womack, 38, last summer, has signed on to star in the eighth installment of the hit reality show, which will premiere this spring. She will be the first single mom to star in the series.
“Emily feels incredibly grateful to have found her first love when she was very young, and despite not having dated a lot, knows what it’s like to be truly in love,” ABC said in a press release today. “In the past seven years, she has been looking for someone with the same spark she has for life, and she believes that she will find her soul mate on ‘The Bachelorette.’”
Twenty-five-year-old Marynard quickly won over Womack and fans of the show with her southern charm and emotional back story. Maynard lost her fiancé NASCAR driver Ricky Hendrick in a 2004 plane crash, just before she learned that she was pregnant. Their daughter Ricki, now 6, was born in October 2005 and is the “apple of Emily’s eye.”
On the show, Womack wooed Maynard and then proposed to her in true “Bachelor” style, in the fairytale setting of a South African vineyard. Off camera, their romance quickly unraveled, plagued by distance and jealously according to tabloid reports.
“The day that Brad proposed was one of the happiest days of my life,” she told “Bachelor” host Chris Harrison in a July 2011 interview on the breakup. “Not a day will go by that I won’t regret how things turned out.”
Soon a new crop of 25 men will contend for the blonde beauty’s heart, and the competition could be cutthroat, given the buzz surrounding Maynard. (Remember that season 7 contestant Bentley Williams admitted that he’d been disappointed to learn that Ashley Hebert was “The Bachelotte” instead of Maynard, so we know interest is high).
Maynard is “looking for someone who makes her laugh, doesn’t take himself too seriously and can be her best friend,” ABC said in the press release. “Emily is hoping that the third time is the charm.”
What do you think of the Maynard as the next Bachelorette? Will she be better than the last Bachelorette Ashley Hebert? As popular as Ali Fedotowsky? As lucky in love as Trista Sutter?

I believe tonight is the episode everyone wants to see these two going naked into the ocean.

Bachelor Ben Flajnik and Courtney Robertson skinny dip video.

For the Bachelor Ben Spoiler post click here.