Wednesday, June 6, 2007
PeTA's latest goofiness: Tax breaks for vegetarians
This story actually broke last week, and I intended to comment on it then, but I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off since about the end of last week. It's a little late, but hey, it's just so darn much fun when Ingrid, Bruce, and company come up with a really dumb idea, which seems to be most of the time. Since people get a tax incentive for purchasing a hybrid vehicle, the brilliant folks at PeTA thought that it would be a good idea to write to the leaders of Congress to ask for a tax break for vegetarians as well. According to PeTA's claims, vegetarians do more for the environment than those who switch to a hybrid car, and since hybrid owners get a tax break, they figure vegetarians should as well. The astute reader will recognize quickly the most glaring problem with this: how does one actually prove to the IRS that one is a vegetarian? It's easy to prove you've purchased a hybrid car: you've got your bill of sale, your proof of insurance card, your registration, etc. . But there is no way to provide proof that one is a vegetarian. Food receipts don't work because how does Uncle Sam know you're not hiding the ones for baby back ribs and pepperoni pizza and only producing the ones for Brussels sprouts and tofu? I know this is heady stuff for PeTA, but somebody has to call a spade a spade. It also seems to me that common sense would dictate that we need LESS red tape and bureaucracy in the tax code, not more. If PeTA is really serious about helping the American taxpayer, how about they write to Congress and ask them to stop wasteful pork barrel and entitlement spending, and to stop funding idiotic, expensive foreign policy blunders like the Iraq war. Don't hold your breath. As a footnote to this story, there is a clip from CNN of this story being read on their newscast. Scroll down to the line about PeTA wanting tax break for vegetarians, click it and it will play. The anchor woman's sarcasm after the story is read is nothing short of priceless.
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6 comments:
Great, how about a tax break for us virgins, too, since we don't do all that expensive reproduction? I SWEAR my kids are adopted...
I wonder how vegetarian and vegan environmental impact compares to that of a meat eater who hunts for most of the meat he or she consumes. I'm betting out-of-season fruits and vegetables being shipped from far away have a much worse environmental impact than than that.
"I wonder how vegetarian and vegan environmental impact compares to that of a meat eater who hunts for most of the meat he or she consumes. I'm betting out-of-season fruits and vegetables being shipped from far away have a much worse environmental impact than than that."
A very astute point, anonymous, I would agree. Given the fact that modern wildlife management methods, including managed hunting, are ecologically beneficial, and the fact that funds generated by license sales are put back into conservation and habitat, one could argue that the hunter is actually having a net positive environmental impact. This, of course, would be ignored by the animal rights industry who like to use environmental concerns only as a tool to push their greater agenda, and fail to recognize anything that is ecologically or environmentally sound that happens to run afoul of their "rights for animals" ideology.
I wonder if something could be done in making the AR movement a religion. The movement certainly does have to makings of one. Then seperate church and state and not let them have a say in ANY law that is made. Christians and Muslims don't get tax breaks based on their beliefs, why should vegetarians.
Hi Isaac
Nice to hear from you. I have thought a lot about the similarities between AR-ism and religion, particularly radical, zealous, fundamentalist religion. I'm planning on exploring that line of thought here in the near future. BTW, I saw how Eric chose to play artful dodger in response to your question about sportsmen-based conservation organizations. I'd give him a 9.5 out of 10 for his intellectual lateral arabesque.
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