Wednesday, November 9, 2011

A New Definition of Cruel & Unusual Punishment

Soy protein.  From November 8, 2011 CBS Tampa:

CLERMONT, Fla. (CBS Tampa) – A Florida inmate is suing the state’s prison system for pulling the pork from his meals.
Eric Harris, a 32-year-old convicted pedophile who is serving a life sentence, suggests Lake Correctional Institution’s policy of serving a vegan diet is seriously affecting the quality of his life sentence.
I confess, I would not want a vegan diet.  But pedophiles are in no position to whine about their diet.  He should consider himself fortunate that this isn't 1791, when he might have been hung instead.

The Weston A. Price Foundation, a special interest group against soy products, will pick up the case’s legal expenses, and announced it has class-action ambitions including other prisoners, prison guards and taxpayers.
 There's an advocacy group for and against everything!  I would never have guessed.

5 comments:

  1. Hate to burst your bubble, but nobody would've given two flips about pedophilia in 1791, as long as he kept it reasonably low profile and selected victims carefuly.

    In contrast, these days "convicted pedophile" means absolutely nothing. Everyone is rounded up and convicted: manga readers, fanfic writers...

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  2. I've read the statutes of the period. It remained a capital crime to have sex with a child in Maryland, for example, as late as 1809.

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  3. The protagonist in Alistair Maclean's "Ice Station Zebra" said something that stayed with me all these 40 years since I read the novel: "You name any form of human activity and I'll show you a Doctor who's against it."
    Everything is on the internet now. Anti-soy isn't the strangest. I forget what I thought was stranger, but it's close.

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  4. The "Weston A Price Foundation" is an advocate of traditional foods and nutrition. Their campaign against soy is directed at modern processed soy products and such; it is not the Foundation's major mission and is but one of three current campaigns listed.

    http://www.westonaprice.org/
    http://www.westonaprice.org/abcs-of-nutrition/health-topics
    (… ignore the homeopathy stuff)

    Cheers

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  5. ISTM that a vegan diet could be considered "cruel and unusual punishment". The complete omission of animal products result in nutritional deficiencies. There are many people who became seriously ill from trying to follow a vegan diet.

    Also, ISTR reading a post by you about the great increase in the last generation of consumption of soy products rich in Omega-6 fatty acids (which obstruct the ingestion of essential Omega-3 fatty acids), which could be linked to some widespread health problems.

    So I applaud anyone who is challenging the unthinking incorporation of large quantities of soy in the diet.

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