Althouse: “Why would you become a slave to a vegetable? Why?"

March 2, 2015

“Why would you become a slave to a vegetable? Why?"

"Why would you do it?"

30 comments:

Lewis Wetzel said...: The left thinks that this is newsworthy because . . . ?
Silly Christian man thinks alcohol and pot are bad for you? And because they are plants?; 3/2/15, 6:58 PM
sojerofgod said...: Call any Vegetable!
Call it by name!

Rutaba-ee-yaga!
Rutaba-ee-yaga!
Rutaba-ee-yaga!
Rutaba-ee-yaga!

Some of you may know what I mean.; 3/2/15, 7:02 PM
Rob said...: Why would you become a slave to a vegetable? Because otherwise you'd be beet? Or choked? Or beaned?; 3/2/15, 7:07 PM
Rob said...: And let's not forget, there's a mini-series about being enslaved to a vegetable. It's called "Roots."; 3/2/15, 7:09 PM
Bob Boyd said...: Laslo? Anything to add?....since we're on the subject?; 3/2/15, 7:25 PM
Curious George said...: Robertson continued: “Cocaine is the product of a vegetable, alcohol is the product of a vegetable, marijuana is a vegetable. And yet, people are enslaved to vegetables."

I'm thinking the 700 Club viewership is enslaved to a vegetable.; 3/2/15, 7:36 PM
Bob R said...: ..and the chances are good...that the vegetable will respond to you.; 3/2/15, 7:45 PM
Bob R said...: Hey, Pat. Try not eating anything for a month or so, and we'll find out who is a slave.; 3/2/15, 7:52 PM
buwaya said...: Technically (most) alcohol is the product of fruits. There are exceptions of course. So also Opium and its derivatives.
You could argue about mushrooms, but as they are often found in salads, they get a pass.
The larger (rhetorical) point remains - addictions are stupid. People who get addicted have destroyed themselves for ridiculously trivial reasons.

The best drugs are caffeine (fruit), and nicotine (vegetable), which wont make the mind work worse than it already does, arguably it improves performance, and which will (generally) only kill when we have outlived our usefulness.; 3/2/15, 7:56 PM
Revenant said...: Why would you become a slave to a vegetable?

Please don't tell me we're talking about Terry Schiavo again.; 3/2/15, 8:09 PM
Revenant said...: Technically (most) alcohol is the product of fruits.

Technically, fruit is a subset of vegetables.; 3/2/15, 8:10 PM
JSD said...: Pat Robertson is too fucking old. Comedian Bill Burr has a great spiel on stupid shit that old people say. (See netfilx special I’m Sorry You Feel That Way.) In his brutal wise-guy Boston townie logic, age is the biggest factor in the level of stupidity in any given statement, i.e. Donald Sterling.; 3/2/15, 8:19 PM
mezzrow said...: No one will know
If you don't want to let 'em know
No one will know
'Less it's you that might tell 'em so
Call and they'll come to you
Covered with dew
Vegetables dream
Of responding to you
Standing there
Shiny & proud by your side
Holding your hand
While the neighbors decide
Why is a vegetable
Something to hide?; 3/2/15, 8:23 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Ha! I like it. A strange, funny, memorable bit of rhetoric.; 3/2/15, 8:23 PM
n.n said...: There is no probable cause to suspect that a vegetable will ever acquire or regain consciousness.; 3/2/15, 8:24 PM
clint said...: Bizarre. Tons of more direct Biblical injunctions against drunkenness -- deriving it from Genesis 1 is more than a little strange.

It's like looking at the Constitution and trying to establish the right against self-incrimination as a penumbra of the 3rd amendment.; 3/2/15, 8:47 PM
traditionalguy said...: The biological evolution scientists say that life on planet earth developed as a fungus first. The stramenopiles were the fungus that flourished in the shallow seas for enough years to remake the atmosphere by releasing oxygen replacing enough nitrogen for life as we know it to develop. The Oxygen we live on is still a poison to ancient anaerobic bacteria such as that contained in our colons.

Pat Robertson is not an uneducated man at all. He founded a well known University in Tidewater, Virginia called Regents University where evolutionary biology is taught.

And surprise, surprise; his messsage on addiction was spot on. Can a man help it if he's right.; 3/2/15, 8:59 PM
traditionalguy said...: I have one question. What was The Blob?; 3/2/15, 9:00 PM
Michael K said...: I thought we were back to the Schiavo case for a minute.; 3/2/15, 9:05 PM
ken in tx said...: The blob was a large single cell amoeba with very strong gastric enzymes.

Next question?; 3/2/15, 9:10 PM
Revenant said...: The biological evolution scientists say that life on planet earth developed as a fungus first.

Life existed on Earth for two or three billion years before fungi evolved.; 3/2/15, 9:39 PM
Revenant said...: And surprise, surprise; his messsage on addiction was spot on.

The funny thing is that Christianity is based in, among other things, the idea that humans have free will.

Fears of plants "enslaving" people are based in the idea that humans don't actually have free will -- that we're just biological machines.

If you believe that humans actually have free will, any and all addiction must be the result of moral failure on the part of the human. Blaming the plant is silly.; 3/2/15, 9:44 PM
Anonymous said...: According to this, he is equating a mere user or imbiber with an enslaved addict, which is silly unless he's including all those enslaved addicts at the Cana wedding.

We also know a little too much about brain chemistry at this point to be cavalier about why it is that some are more likely to fall prey to addictions than others.; 3/2/15, 10:29 PM
buwaya said...: He is saying it is moral failure.
The quip just points out just how contemptible this particular moral failure is. This is not self destruction through some grand sin such as Satanic pride.; 3/2/15, 11:20 PM
traditionalguy said...: Strangely the religious arguments on free will and morality is coming from the Christian haters, but old Robertson only challenged addicted men to see themselves differently and accept deliverance from God as men worthy of being set free by a higher power.

Hope is the message where before there was no hope.; 3/2/15, 11:59 PM
Revenant said...: old Robertson only challenged addicted men to see themselves differently and accept deliverance from God as men worthy of being set free by a higher power.

Weak-willed people are excellent candidates for religious conversion, it is true.; 3/3/15, 2:46 AM
Brando said...: That poor crazy old man. Of course we are "enslaved by" (or "dependent on", if you prefer) vegetables. All food we consume is either vegetables or itself dependent on vegetables (if by "vegetable" you mean plant life, grains count). Maybe he's upset that we cannot simply harness the sun's energy on our own, like our vegetable overlords.; 3/3/15, 6:20 AM
Truthavenger said...: Actually, I'm enslaved to little chocolate donuts.; 3/3/15, 8:29 AM
n.n said...: God sets people free from narcissistic indulgence, but only if his religion recognizes individual dignity and intrinsic value.; 3/3/15, 9:31 AM
Cynicus said...: If he had said Why would anyone become enslaved to a fruit? It would have been homophobic.; 3/4/15, 6:32 AM