N&O

Holy shit! Is someone asleep at the switch over at the Old Reliable? How else to explain the sheer idiocy of Ruth Sheehan's paean to irresponsible driving in today's edition?

Here's a clue - your car is only your private property when it's sitting on your driveway. Once you take it onto a public roadway, where its 3000 pounds moving at 40+ miles per hour is more than capable of killing and maiming, the rest of us have the right to tell you what you can and can't do when you're behind the wheel.

Yeah, i know. N&O columnists get paid to generate controversy. It pulls in eyeballs. I didn't realize that they got paid to write Teh Stupid.

Meanwhile, my friend (and former N&O editor RH) alerts me to this story, which is almost a text book case of irresponsible journalism.

North Carolina's meat industries are battling a bill the Humane Society of the United States and its vegan president say is meant to protect puppies, warning instead that it is the first step toward ending meat eating as we know it.

First, here's the one piece of factual information presented in the article.

The House agriculture committee is expected soon to hear a bill pushed by the national Humane Society that regulates and imposes licensing for commercial dog breeding. Some dog enthusiasts oppose the bill but its proponents portray it as a crackdown on puppy mills, such as the one that was raided in Goldsboro in February because of unsanitary conditions. Officials from both Wayne County and the Humane Society of the United States removed about 300 dogs and puppies.

Somehow, from this and the fact that the director of HSUS is a vegan, the pork lobby is convinced that "(t)he public is very unaware that the Humane Society of the United States has a very direct agenda to eliminate the use of animals for food."
(emphasis added)

Well, actually, the reason why we're unaware of this, is that it's not true. But that doesn't stop staff writer Mark Johnson from making it the top quote in his article. He also misses completely when he writes "(Amanda) Arrington's arrival last year signaled the group's elevated interest in the state." Actually, Amanda's been here for a number of years, putting her money where her mouth is by founding and leading the Coalition to Unchain Dogs, a group we've been highly supportive of at DE. Her work in the local community far predates her position as director of the Humane society for North Carolina. But why let some facts get in the way of a good fear mongering session?

Finally, what the fuck does it even mean to say, "ending meat eating as we know it?" Does Johnson expect that we'll start growing synthetic protein in backyard fermenters? Or maybe he thinks that Soylent Green is going to be the next big thing.