Oh, For Pete's Sake!

PETA blasts Michael Moore for eating meat

Had Michael Moore made a movie skewering obese people, yeah, maybe then they'd have a leg to stand on. But since Moore is the first person to admit he's not a particularly fine specimen of fitness, good eating habits, or health AND since Sicko is about the messed up, for-profit health care system we have here in the US ...

... maybe PETA would be wise to steer away from the fat insults (Why is it still OK to discriminate and denigrate on the basis of body type anyway?) and join Mr. Moore in investigating a health care system which focuses almost solely on treating preventable illnesses while giving huge rewards to Big Pharma and Insurance companies. Sure, people need to also take personal responsibility for their own habits, but that is not what this movie is about.

As always, while I share some of PETA's core beliefs, I find the way they go about things so absurd and often offensive. I believe that they often lose sight of the forest for the trees, and do a lot to discredit their own message and turn off potentially sympathetic listeners.

I'm shaking my head.

(I once witnessed a local PETA activist verbally attacking a small-time organic goat/chicken farmer at the Farmers' Market. This is a farmer who ran a CSA, as well as selling homemade goat milk soaps and raising endangered heirloom varieties of chickens. In other words, he was practicing sustainable agriculture, and she was on his case about keeping animals in servitude, etc. When she walked away, the farmer looked at me and said, "She just doesn't get it. We're part of the solution, not the problem. I had to agree.)