In a letter to Ben & Jerry's (the ice cream company) PETA recently suggested that they should replace cow's milk with, and I swear I'm not making this up, human breast milk.  Apparently that would reduce the suffering of the cows. I would like to meet the genius at PETA who came up with this idea... I mean, first of all, it's pretty gross. Second, did they even pause to consider the logistics of this? How many women would you need to get enough milk to produce the millions of litres of ice cream Ben & Jerry's produce every year? I hope this makes people realize how incredibly insane PETA is. 

Everyone knows that 'the breast is best,' so Ben & Jerry's could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk. - PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman

But the folks involved in PETA have always had a screw loose. See, my dog is not a human. He is my property. He has no soul. When my dog gets sick, I say "we'll wait it out". Sore on his leg? He's a dog. He'll get over it. My dog got hit by a huge truck once. I gasped in fear but he got up and ran home. When I arrived just minutes after he did I immediately began calling him names for running away. (I later begrudgingly took him to the Vet. See, I'm a great pet owner.) My guess is that the vast majority of people who support PETA (unequivocally, that is--not just a little bit like I do vis a vis my first paragraph) don't have children. 'Cause once you have kids, you realize how animal-like your animals are, even if you thought they were your "kids" before. Because animals aren't humans. They're animals. And we know the difference because if we applied the same standards we have for dealing with our pets to our kids we'd all be abusive parents.

"What's that Jimmy? You've got a sore throat?  Suck it up.  I made it and so can you."

"Is that an open wound on your leg little Sally?  Deal with it you woos."

It's not even worth mentioning what I would do if one of my kids got hit by a car, even if it was just a slight brush like happened with my dog. I'd scream in fear and run after my child and cry like crazy. Once I found out they were okay, then I'd pull the driver out of the car and beat him or her senseless.

So when I read the following, I realized that PETA has officially crossed the line from "quirky" to "insane":

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is asking the ice cream maker to begin using breast milk in its products instead of cow's milk, saying it would reduce the suffering of cows and calves and give ice cream lovers a healthier product.

Go ahead and read the full article here.

So the idea here is that for thousands of years we, as a society, have been enjoying the milk of beasts but thankfully for us, in the year 2008, PETA has finally opened our eyes to how cruel it is that we would milk a cow. (Which of course is completely absurd in and of itself. I've watched the Discovery Channel & Animal Planet. It doesn't hurt the cow. In fact, modern pumping systems are like cow massages, and they get an udder cleaning before and after. It's quite advanced.) So rather than be cruel to cows, PETA has proposed a new solution: lets strap women up to the machines instead.

I wonder how a breast-feeding mother would respond if you stopped her in the mall and asked if you could grab a pint to take home with you so you could mix up some home-made ice cream?

I'm guessing that the same people supporting the Feminist Movement are not also on the board of PETA. I'm pretty sure as a Feminist you couldn't support a motion to replace cows with breast-feeding women. I mean, pregnancy-fat jokes aside, this is just horrific in any number of ways.

So thank you, PETA, for proving what we already suspected: that you are, in fact, insane.

Ice cream is my favorite dessert and Ben & Jerry's is my favorite ice cream.  Needless to say, I darted in and picked up a pint of this guy:

They could have charged me 200 NOK and I wouldn't have complained (actual price: 59 NOK).

It's funny, just last week I was wondering about Ben & Jerry's and I checked their website:

• Sweden.  Check.
• Denmark.  Check.
• Finland.  Check.
• Iceland.  Check.
• Norway.  Nope.

I remember wondering if Norway some how lost the Nordic ice cream lottery.  I mean, Iceland?  Really?  Iceland doesn't even have a fully paved interstate!

All is good now though...even if they don't know how to name the flavor properly. 

PETA obviously did not think this through. In order to produce enough milk for their ice cream, I think they would have to use tens of thousands (at least) of women at a time, rotating them so that their babies are not deprived of their mothers' milk for an extended period of time. They would have to test the milk to insure its purity. The end result would be that only Bill Gates and Warren Buffett could afford their product...

Congress reached agreement over the weekend on a plan to help solve the U.S. financial crisis. So The most popular option consists of everyone packing up their things and moving to Canada.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers on Tuesday that they will see a recession if they don't approve President Bush's bailout plan. Or if they just look out the window.

Following John McCain’s suspension of his campaign to work on the economic bailout plan, Sarah Palin announced that she too was suspending all campaign activities. Still no word on how anyone would be able to tell.

Sarah Palin will donate to charity over $1,000 in campaign contributions she received from two Alaska politicians implicated in a corruption scandal. The charity is called The Save John McCain's Dying Campaign Fund.

After a three-year break, Lance Armstrong will return to professional racing by competing in the Amgen Tour of California. Armstrong had planned to return to cycling last year, but didn't have the ball to do it.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao claims his country is well on its way to achieving the UN-mandated Millennium Development Goals. Also hoping to achieve development by the next millennium: the women on the Chinese gymnastics team.

In a two-hour special Wednesday night, ABC aired the finale of David Blaine’s stunt where he hung upside down from a cable in Central Park for sixty straight hours. Blaine not only cheated death, but also cheated millions of viewers out of two hours of their lives.

David Letterman lashed out at John McCain for cancelling plans to appear on his show Wednesday night. He then lashed out at viewers for cancelling plans to watch his show for the past ten years.

A judge has dismissed assault claims filed against Keanu Reeves by a photographer who said that Reeves hit him with his Porsche. While the photographer claimed that Reeves was lying about his innocence, the judge knew Reeves was not a good enough actor to do that.

Shakira plans to make her children's charity in Colombia into a worldwide foundation. The charity will teach poor children that they too can grow up to be really, really skanky.

The release of Britney Spears's new single is being delayed due to a problem with the mix. The mix's main problem is that you can hear Britney's voice.

The third season of ABC’s “Ugly Betty” premiered Thursday night with the first episode shot in New York after the show’s move from L.A. With the move, ABC plans to change the name of the show to “Moderately Attractive Betty!”

Nicole Kidman claims that swimming in an Australian waterfall contributed to her recent unexpected pregnancy. Also contributing to Kidman's pregnancy: Finally having a husband who’s heterosexual.

Researchers at Harvard recently discovered a way to regress adult cells into an embryonic state. The regressed cells then moved back in with their parents and refused to get a job.

Forty-four people were killed when a fire broke out last weekend at an illegal dance club in China. Authorities say despite announcements that it was not a drill, patrons exited the club, ran around the building, then went back inside.

Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a test that can determine if a person is a shopaholic. The test consists of a single question: "Do you have a vagina?"

Members of PETA have sent a letter to the founders of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, urging them to replace the cow's milk they use with human breast milk. Ben and Jerry agreed to PETA's plan, as long as they get to do the milking.

According to a new study, chimpanzees prefer cooked food to raw food. Scientists came to this conclusion after observing chimps heating up their own feces.

The Detroit Lions have fired president Matt Millen after Millen led the team to a league-worst 31-84 record since 2001. Upon being fired, Millen congratulated President Bush for winning their “keeping a job that you suck at” contest.

And finally, Paul Newman died Friday at the age of eighty-three. Newman succumbed to injuries sustained after raindrops kept falling on his head.

While the idea is enough to provoke shudders of revulsion from your average ice cream lover, dairy farmers reacted angrily to the stunt yesterday, claiming that the group is undermining the dairy industry.

But the animal rights group Peta claims that breast milk would be "better for both consumers and cows", pointing out the nutritional benefits of breast milk and highlighting the animal welfare concerns over dairy farming.

Bizarre as this sounds there is a precedent:

In a letter to Ben & Jerry's co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, it cites the example of chef Hans Locher, who recently announced that he will be serving soups and sauces made from 75 per cent breast milk in his Swiss restaurant. Mr Locher posted adverts in local villages appealing for donors, offering a rate of £3 per 14 ounces (398ml) for their milk.

 Even if the women had the same checks on their health as our cows do, fresh from the breast  cuisine wouldn't tempt me.

I thought this photo to be a perfect portrait of the cheese state.  A cheese tent right out front of the capital building in Madison.  This was shot during the fantastic farmer's market all encompassing the capital square.

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Then there was more cheese...and more cheese....

BUT!  I also discovered:  great wineries...

Botham Winery --->

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...fantastic lakes....

wonderful concentrations of art communities and interesting soulful artists....

....and i.e., the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.....

freaking caves even?!

Not only all that but also a few breweries, incredible architecture, pleasant and polite people, great 1/2 price bookstores, the Sundance Cinema in Madison which I fell ABSOLUTELY in love with (thank you Robert Redford!).  I saw an ok movie (The Women) at the Sundance Cinema and there are Ben & Jerry stores everywhere!  It's no wonder Madison is so fitness-oriented.  I can't imagine people's mass otherwise!

Now granted, I abhore cold weather and I've not yet heard back about the job I originally applied for but, it was just so impressive, I applied for 2 more positions up there.

Oh!  And I did happen to be in Wisconsin the day Bret Favre left the Green Bay Packers.  I got to see just how we Nebraska Cornhusker fans must look to outsiders. LOL But I'll take it!  I like to think of it as one important historic moment (to someone anyway).

The idea, based on the AP story I just read, is that "PETA said the health of consumers and cows would benefit from the switch."

I want to know what is going to happen to the women who get crammed into some booth somewhere and hooked up to a gas-pump-sized breast pump.  How will they be doing?  Can you spell "stress hormones?"

This is definitely good news for cows, but how could consumers insure that that their breast milk came from women who were vegetarian, vitamin-chugging, locavores instead of Big-Gulp-swallowing, drive-through-super-sized-meal-#10 gals?

This idea was, thankfully, nixed at B&J's Vermont headquarters.  Cooler heads prevailed in the ice cream wars.

PETA is urging Ben & Jerry's to use human milk in their ice cream rather than cow's milk.

According to the story by the Associated Press, "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is asking the ice cream maker to begin using breast milk in its products instead of cow's milk, saying it would reduce the suffering of cows and calves and give ice cream lovers a healthier product."

Mm-hm...

"PETA wrote a letter to company founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield on Tuesday, telling them cow's milk is hazardous and that milking them is cruel."

Milking cows is cruel. Is that kind of like how riding horses is cruel?

"Ashley Byrne, a campaign coordinator for PETA, acknowledged the implausibility of substituting breast milk for cow's milk, but said it's no stranger than humans consuming the milk of another species.

"We're aware this idea is somewhat absurd, and that putting it into practice is a stretch. At the time same, it's pretty absurd for us to be drinking the milk of cows," she said."

Ahem. Absurd and just plain WRONG!

What is with these people? You'd think we were consuming baby kitten fetuses or something.

Doesn't PETA have anything better to do? Like...I don't know...rescue abused chickens from KFC?

I'm just askin'...

You can read the full article here.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26892950/wid/11915773?GT1=31037

PETA proposes that Ben & Jerry's use breast milk in its ice cream

Now, I can see where people might actually think this is a good idea and all...but one thing I think PETA is forgetting is that first and foremost there are still a lot of people that won't even feed their own children breast milk because of the ick factor.  And while PETA says that dairy has been "linked" with quite a few health conditions, it is has also been linked with quite a few health benifits as well.

I am not a vegetarian, or a vegan...I like my meat now and again.  I am also all for humane treatment of those animals that we use for our food supply, including dairy cows.However, I think suggesting this is just being silly and they are trying to prove a point...and all that kind of stuff does is make those of us who do want animal rights to be important to people seem like wackos.

PETA wrote a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield expressing the concept that cow's milk is hazardous and milking them is cruel. The PETA spokesman noted that while substitution of breast milk for cow's milk may be implausible it is no stranger than humans consuming milk from another species (MSN, "PETA to Ben & Jerry's: Make ice cream from human milk", September 26, 2008 ).

I'm not a big fan of PETA but I realize that they have done some good in advancing the humane and proper treatment of animals. I personally believe in buying the eggs of farms that gather them from free-range chickens and I also strongly believe that animals should be treated with respect and kindness. On the other hand, I certainly think that PETA is way off their rocker when they advocate that humans should not consume the products of other animals. I'm not a vegetarian yet (although I'm moving in that direction) but I also realize that milk from cows provides benefits to humans and if the cows are treated humanely and with consideration then we can benefit from their milk.

What next? An offshoot of PETA called PETOP? -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants? Maybe they'll advocate the human consumption of crops is cruel and we should all stop eating?

The popular ice cream maker has come under fire by protest groups upset with the company's use of human breast milk in its products. Ben & Jerry's made the switch from cow's milk to human milk at the request of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) group, which advocates on behalf of cows and other mammals.

FBI spokesman Mark Tanner said members of the group Back Off My Boobies (BOMB) were protesting outside Ben & Jerry's company headquarters in South Burlington, Vermont yesterday when the incident occurred.

"BOMB members were there to protest what they feel is exploitation of women for corporate profit," he said. "They were protesting working conditions there and the use of hormones to get herds of women to lactate. Jonathan Williams, a Ben & Jerry's employee, emerged from the building and two lactating women in the BOMB group fired breast milk at him. By alternating the squeezing of their breasts, they shot at him in machine gun fashion. They gunned him down pretty quick. He never had a chance."

Tanner said that Williams fell to the ground after several volleys hit him in the eyes, temporarily blinding him. Nearby police called in backup and the BOMB protesters fled the scene. Williams is recovering in a Vermont hospital.

BOMB spokeswoman Rita Bigtita said the group doesn't condone the actions of the two lactating women, but can understand their frustration. Many of the women who are milked for Ben & Jerry's ice cream products experience terrible working conditions, she said.

"Many of them are forced to take dangerously high levels of hormones to make them lactate large quantities of breast milk," Bigtita said. "And they are not allowed to graze naturally, but instead are given a reconstituted protein-like feed that the human body was not designed to process. And a disproportionate number of them are migrant workers from Mexico. It's exploitation, pure and simple."

Ben & Jerry's declined to comment on the matter.

Apparently they've written a letter to Ben & Jerry's asking them to use human breast milk in their ice cream because and I quote, "cow's milk is hazardous and that milking them is cruel." Yet milking human women isn't cruel?

As a mother who Exclusively Pumped for seven months, I can attest to how difficult breastmilk is to extract. Not only would it be cruel and unusual to milk women, the price of Ben & Jerry's would sky-rocket if they were to use breastmilk.

Here's a link to the PETA site with their side of the story.

I am disgusted with this recommended course of action, even if it is just some sort of attention grabbing ploy. How absolutely disrespecful and misunderstanding of the nursing relationship does one have to be in order to even CONSIDER suggesting such a ludicrous action? Apparently cows rank higher in importance to the folks over at PETA than Nursing Moms.

???

In any case, the freaks at PETA have sent a letter to the co-founders of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, urging them to replace cow's milk used in their product with human milk. Apparently, they got the idea from some restaurant owner in Switzerland who has started using human milk as a substitute for cow's milk--I wonder if his customers are aware of this?

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Since Bob, who I told I'd try not to blog about (oh well!), has proven time and again to be one of my most jocular friends, I shall oblige his request.

Here's my reaction:

[1] "'The breast is best!' wrote PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in the letter to the company." Hilarious. And Genius. Say what you will about PETA and their ridiculous marketing campaigns/tactics, but this was comedically brilliant. It's like they dug up Johnny Cochran and hired him to their marketing staff. If they didn't go on to spew their as-usual nonsensical logic to try to get people to bend to their cause, and "The breast is the best!" was all they said about why breast milk should be used for ice cream, I might've actually considered jumping on board. (Okay, not really.)

[2] This Tracy Reiman lady should be the first to have to get pumped for donation purposes. And she should be the only one to get pumped for at least a full production load, however much that is.

[3] Would we really know if Ben & Jerry's -- or any other ice cream company -- switched from cow milk to breast milk? I'm not sure. And that disturbs me.

[4] Isn't this like one step away from cannibalism? C'mon, seriously. I always thought breast milk was for babies of a particular mother only. I mean, isn't that why moms lactate only for so long? I wasn't a human biology major or anything, so I'm not sure how much more milk can be pumped from humanoid females, especially at a level conducive to mass production, but, dude, that's not even the point -- beyond feeding babies, breast milk as a snack is just creepy. Next thing you know, PETA's gonna be proposing that human meat is not only acceptable, but healthier, as a means for food. Then they'll tell us we can't keep pets at all because it demeans the animals, and that the purpose of humans is only to praise the plight of animals, to satisfy their needs, and to put in place an organizational structure that would allow the world to be run for and by the will of the animals. Like Planet Of The Apes, but weirder.

I guess, like most things, my ultimate bottom line on this is, if you don't want to drink milk or eat cow milk ice cream, just don't. Do what you want, but don't get in my face about it.

PETA is on the attack again. The website that protests abuse against animals named PETA sent a letter to the Ben & Jerry's company begging them to use baby breast milk from a human mother instead of using milk from cows. They feel that using milk from cows is abuse to them as well.

More on it here:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1060925/breast_milk_ice_cream_idea_proposed.html?cat=3

Can PETA become more insane? I wonder what breast milk would taste like at an adult age. The people at PETA must enjoy drinking breast milk if they want Ben & Jerry's to use it that bad.

Maybe milk from cow farms should be banned in the USA and all milk bought from grocery stores should be breast milk instead.

Kev

Alors voila, les furieux de chez PETA (que j'apprecie tant qu'ils se contente de faire faire des trucs dignes des bizutages les plus idiots a d'assez jolies filles) veulent que la fameuse marque de glace Ben & Jerrys remplace le lait de vache par du lait maternel.

Au dela de la debilite de l'argument selon lequel les vaches ont d'autres choses a faire que de se faire engrosser pour fournir du lait (il me semble justement que les vaches laitieres fournissent du lait de toutes facons) il est quand meme franchement inquietant que des gens nous proposent sans rire de consommer du lait maternel... Je ne sais pas quoi, ca me semble quand meme etre assez tabou et pour d'excellentes raisons. Oedipe a quand meme pas souffert pour rien!

Allez, pour finir sur de la legere gaudriole, voici une vanne sorti du monde de Monsieur Fred, toute ma jeunesse...

Si j'etais une femme, et que mon mari me demandait de me traire, je pense que je serais... Comment dire... Flattee!

Do you believe that evolution by means of natural selection is a sufficient explanation for the variety and complexity of life on Earth? Should intelligent design, or some derivative thereof, be taught in science class in public schools?

Obama: I believe in evolution, and I support the strong consensus of the scientific community that evolution is scientifically validated. I do not believe it is helpful to our students to cloud discussions of science with non-scientific theories like intelligent design that are not subject to experimental scrutiny.

A McCain candidacy may mean not a penny for science research & education

I feel embarrassed for anti-vaccinationist David Kirby - A few days ago, I posted about a review in Salon Magazine of Dr. Paul Offit's book about the anti-vaccinationists. Well over at Age of Autism David Kirby wrote a childish and insulting rebuttal to the review. This only led to an even greater bitch-slapping at the hands of the original reviewer.

I haven't seen the pilot episode of the new show, The Mentalist, but it's got the Dr. Phil Plait seal of approval, so it's worth checking out. Though Phil's not the best entertainment critic in the world. The guy didn't like Revenge of the Sith or the recent War of the Worlds. But it sounds like this show is super pro-skepticism. So I can't wait to watch it on the internet.

OTHER CREATIONIST NEWS:

Answers in Genesis endorses ironically named "Kids4Truth" and apparently Lego for putting humans and dinosaurs together. Though to give them a little credit, at least AiG aren't delusional enough to think Lego intends any deliberate endorsement of the ridiculous notion that humans and dinosaurs actually lived together:

"I’m sure the Lego people are not intentionally promoting a biblical worldview—but I had to smile when I saw this Lego set with people and dinosaurs together. The evolutionists must grind their teeth when they see this."

And I had to smile that a company from famously secular Denmark meets with Ken Ham's approval. And while I still am not entirely sure what an "evolutionist" is, if it means people who accept the reality of evolution then I have no objective to Lego's years of service contributing to children's imaginary play and encouraging creativity at an early age. You see, some of us who played with Legos as children learned how to distinguish reality from fantasy. I think The Bible says something about that:

"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways." (1 Corinthians 13:11)

EPIC FAIL!

In case you need more proof that PETA is insane - The executive vice president of PETA wrote an open letter to the ice cream giant Ben & Jerry's suggesting they consider replacing the cow's milk used in their ice cream with . . .

Can you guess? Yeah, human breast milk . . . seriously! Somehow I think if the people at PETA had gotten their breast milk as children in the first place maybe they wouldn't be such total freaks. If implemented Orac thinks it'll require human farms to produce that much milk. If so, I'll volunteer some of my time to do the milking.

And here's an EPIC FAIL on the part of the media:

That whole recent acupuncture study suggesting acupuncture helped women with hot flashes - Yeah, that was bullshit. Big surprise. And Steve Novella takes on this study here. I've also included a link to both responses on my original blog about this study here.

AND NOW FOR A MOMENT OF SCIENCE:

Formula Discovered For Longer Plant Life - "Molecular biologists from Tuebingen, Germany, have discovered how the growth of leaves and the aging process of plants are coordinated."

Dark Chocolate Helps Check Heart Attack Risk - "Though the news is still good for them: 6.7 grams of chocolate per day represent the ideal amount for a protective effect against inflammation and subsequent cardiovascular disease.

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