In a shocking twist, we begin this week with a long discussion about a superhero cartoon that William’s watching. Then we get into questions provided exclusively by Azuretalon, so that’s… something. Also, we learn William’s secret struggles with freeganism? That’s what it’s called, right? It should be. Enjoy!
QUESTIONS:
Dear Dissonant and Confused Forced Voices of The Magical Talking Hat, What do you think of the practice of dumpster diving at supermarkets for discarded, but still technically safe and packaged food? — Azuretalon!!!
Dear Dissonant and Confused Forced Voices of The Magical Talking Hat, What is your happiest childhood memory, and what makes it so special? — Azuretalon!!!
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Tony, your microphone was clearly not working in this episode.
I was going to comment on the same thing, Tony was REALLY quiet this episode and it was hard to find a balance for listening where I could hear Tony, but William wouldn’t wake my wife up.
Also, on the topic of freegans, I asked specifically because I thought you guys would have a good conversation on the morals, laws, and logistics of such an act; and I was not disappointed.
Netflix has a documentary, called “Dive!,” on the concept that got me thinking about it. Here is the URL.
http://www.divethefilm.com/
Interesting.
Food “rescued” from dumpsters BY people who otherwise can’t afford good food and/or FOR people who otherwise can’t afford good food… that seems morally laudable to me. Even if it breaks the law. And maybe especially if it breaks the law.
If the “thief” is a person who can easily afford to buy good food but they dumpster dive just to save a few bucks… then my thinking on it goes the opposite way.
Again, in the end, I think the core problem in all of this is people going hungry while food goes to waste. Food waste does also mean negative environmental impacts, both in terms of the industrial processes that make too much food and in landfill impacts. But let’s say we simply produced less food to the point where we’re not throwing food away any more, with no other changes to our food system. The improvement to the environment, though important, would be slight, and we’d still have the same amount of people going hungry. Meanwhile, there are all kinds of huge things that need to be fixed with our food system, and if they were fixed the food waste angle AND the hunger angle would also get corrected in the process. If we don’t fix those huge things, then, from an environmental perspective, what we do or don’t do with dumpsters makes little difference. However, from a human perspective, it makes a huge difference if the food we’re pulling from the dumpsters goes to folks who wouldn’t eat otherwise.
And, actually, if I’m presented with a moral dilemma that pits human life against environment, I’ll pick human life every time without hesitation. But, in my experience, such dilemmas are bogus to their core, and one never really has to pick between human life and the environment. What’s good for one is almost always good for the other and what harms one almost always harms the other. I think if people realized that, we wouldn’t have so many problems in this world.
I remember reading several years ago that Food Banks were using expired food. And there’s actually a method for determining the safety of cans. You put them in a vacuum packaging machine and if there’s been any leakage, some of the content will get sucked out.
The President of Trader Joes also started a restaurant and grocery for low income folks in this are with TJ’s expired food.
I was one of those folks who stopped following the whole Wonder Woman debacle after issue#7. When I read about that it just didn’t seem like there was any redeemable story line for what those writers were doing.
Yeah, and you and I talked about this and the more I think about it the more I agree with you that this is what most feminists did. Then offensive stuff that came later wasn’t commented on much because… well, everything that needed to be said was said after issue #7, really.
It’s too bad. We can only hope that the film version of Wonder Woman goes a different way. I can’t say that I’m too hopeful about that, though.
I’m afraid I’ve already given up on that since Zack Snyder is involved.
Yeah. 🙁
Here’s one way I could see Snyder going with Wonder Woman in the upcoming film. There are rumors that the Amazons will turn out to be Kryptonians. So my prediction (given Snyder’s taking of male/female cultural roles and turning them into some kind of hyper/heroic natural state is that the Amazons will be a product of Kryptonian eugenics and that Wonder Woman will “discover” the error of this eugenic control through her “natural” attraction to Superman.
On a much more positive note–I think I’ve said here before that the Batman/Mr. Freeze movie (the animated one) “Subzero” is great. I highly recommend.
Mouse Fart: Maybe you should call the videos the Mouse Farts? Also as other commenters have noted, Tony’s is about as quiet as a mouse fart this episode. Maybe that’s why this came up?
Freeganism: While I do think the FDA’s recommended dates on food might be a bit too short at times; I’m not even slightly tempted to do dumpster diving for dinner.
The Magical Talking Hat videos: See my comment on the previous episode.
Hmm, just realized I didn’t have much to say this week (episode). Well flibberty gibbets!