I am finally back. Southern funerals are strange events in general, particularly in my family. If for no other reason than dietary. A good number of us are at least vegetarians, but those that aren't are all old-school flesh eaters from the south. For example, on the day that my Grandmother died, someone called my Aunt (with whom my grandmother had been living with), and said she was going to bring over a ham, because, "Hams are easy to make, and everyone likes hams." And that was just the first of the many flesh offering made in condolences to the family after my Grandmother's death. It was particularly sad for me to that my Grandmother's death became a time to also add the deaths of animals. I don't have much more to say on that subject, except if you are Nashville there is a great vegetarian Indian restaurant named the Woodlands, I was really impressed. The food was a great, and easy enough to be made vegan.
Speaking of being back, hats off to Greg for doing such a great job in my absence. I've invited him to keep blogging here as long as he wants, but you all should encourage him to keep blogging somewhere! I think we can all agree on that.
Lastly, we talked before about Cass Sunstein, whom Obama appointed to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Well, now it seems that Saxby Chambliss (senator from the state I grew up in, GA), has decided to place a hold on that nomination because Sunstein supports rather moderate animal rights. I don't really have any immediate comments, except this clearly highlights that animal rights is still far from the mainstream. But we all knew that, anyway.