Vegetarians looking for carnivore converts Things have gotten out of hand, according to the old Asian Vegetarian Union. Young people in Asia have turned away from their vegetarian roots and have teamed up with decadent Westerners to eat dead animals. Affluence has a way of refining the appetite, doesn't it? Tofu and turnips no longer suffice. "Apart from being a matter of compassion, it is in humankind's interest to adopt a vegetarian diet if we are to avoid starvation, disease, pollution and ecological damage on a vast scale,'' said one congress official, Nitin Mehta. All that for eating vegetables and eschewing animal food. It's proving to be a strong and convincing message to the young, the ignorant and animal-worshipping neurotics in general. "We still live in a non-vegetarian world. In a way, vegetarians are aliens, like Martians," said Maxwell G. Lee, the union's deputy president, a vegetarian since the age of 12. I agree with Mr. Lee. Man has been eating animal food on this planet since the beginning of time. But the vegetarians landed from Mars only about 112 years ago. That's when they were first sighted in the Far East, in the hinterlands of Thailand, where they planted their first soy and humus. A lot of carrot juice has been passed since that historic event. They have been working their way west and down the food chain since 1889. These determined vegetarian Martians have now invaded the citadel of capitalism and carnivorism, the United Steaks of America. The National American Vegetarian Party cannot be far away. "Lee and others agreed that vegetarianism has grown rapidly in North America and Europe, with most converts giving up meat for health rather than ethical or environmental reasons," reports Denis D. Gray of the Associated Press. Denis, like all the other reporters in the world, thinks he is a nutritional expert. "Giving up meat for health reasons" means meat is bad, right? The Martians have reporter Gray in the bag. "…early coronary artery bypass graft (CABG -- "cabbage") surgery is an independent predictor of stroke…" report researchers in the medical journal, Circulation. In doctor-ese this means, preventive bypass surgery may cause you to have a stroke. The doctors pointed out that "cabbage" surgery was not a minor predictor of stroke but the most important predictor of stroke. One theory is that bits of diseased arteries pass through the pump and flow into the patient's brain. Studies indicate that advanced age, a previous stroke, diabetes and high blood pressure increase a patient's risk. | 
