Raw Milk Bans

The Raw Milk Party vs. the Party of Pot and Veganism


Do you hate pot-smoking vegans but love raw milk? Have I got a website for you. On its face, Thoughtful Living is meant to be a refutation of two pernicious cultural trends: the belief that cannabis is harmless fun and the belief that a diet free of animal products is healthy. But it is actually an exercise in distinguishing subtle satire from earnest crankiness. Here are a few reasons why I favor the latter interpretation:

1) The anti-pot propaganda is not as over the top as it could be. Yes, there is the obligatory anecdote about the guy who got hooked on the reefer because he mistakenly thought it was not addictive, the criticism of medical marijuana laws as covers for recreational use, and even a call to boycott Progressive Insurance because of its founder's support for marijuana reform. At the same time, however, Thoughtful Living concedes that cannabis has medical applications and even holds up New Jersey as a model because it is "taking steps to make sure that medical marijuana, when available, will only go to the chronically sick patients." The site says "some [but not all!] advocates are using medical marijuana as a backdoor excuse to full legalization" and worries that people may "believe there are no other remedies for certain illnesses" while overlooking marijuana's "harmful [but unspecified] side effects." All in all, the writer sounds more tolerant and compassionate on this subject than the Obama administration.

2) The site's concerns about the risks of veganism seem largely well-founded, although overemphatically stated. In particular, the diatribes against soy are a bit unhinged, although I was amused by the charge that supposedly all-natural vegans who rely on soy for protein are committing the sin of eating highly processed food.

3) The faith in raw milk as an elixir of life, warding off "the many epidemic of allergies, autism, ADHD and auto-immune diseases our children have from the increasingly processed food supply," seems sincere, if strangely at odds with Thoughtful Living's ridicule of "pot magic." Raw milk is so powerful, in fact, that it leads the author, who otherwise does not seem inclined to a live-and-let-live philosophy, to embrace the libertarian cause of resisting heavy-handed bureaucratic interference with distribution of the stuff. In short: pot raids, sí; raw milk raids, no.

4) Judging from the comments (assuming they are real), readers interested in these subjects are taking the site at face value.

5) The T-shirts inveighing against pot and veganism are wonderfully lame if they are for real but not that funny if they are meant as parody.

What is the unifying theme that links these superficially unrelated causes? I'm not sure, but the combination makes at least as much sense as the platforms of the two major political parties.

[Thanks to Paul Armentano for the tip.]

NEXT: Sheldon Richman on Corporatism vs. the Free Market


  1. So wait, they’re pro-meat and anti-pot?

    Basically they’re Republicans.

    1. But they’re also pro-raw milk, apparently.

    2. ^This^

      It’s a “raw milk, just like granddad use to drink, is part of clean country livin’, along with Christian home schoolin’, NASCAR, and country music; but marijuana is alien to our culture, having been brought here by those damn Mexicans and popularized by those infernal city-slicker Negro and Jewish jazz musicians!” thing.

      1. …and the Chinamen taking white wimmen’s virtue in their opium dens.

        1. Don’t get me started on those China-men, what with their hair all up in a queue and takin’ railroad buildin’ jobs away from good honest folk.

          1. Even if they had written all of that, it still wouldn’t be as bad as Ron Paul’s epistles…

        2. China-men is NOT the preferred nomenclature dude. Asian American, please.

          1. Are you daft man? The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 clearly prohibits Chinese immigration and naturalization in these United States.

            Next you’ll be telling me that we should support women voting or Popery or some such nonsense!

            1. It’s a quote from a movie about a rug that really tied the room together. Am I wrong? Am I WRONG?

              Also, I get get you a toe, dude.

              1. You’re not wrong Walter, you’re just an asshole.

              2. Ah, damn. That’s what I get for only watching the movie once.

      2. Louis Pasteur was French. ’nuff said.

        1. Hey, even the French can get shit right once in a while.

          Having driven a Peugeot turbo-diesel, however…

    3. One would think, given the recent DEA-ish raids on raw milk scofflaws, that the two groups would have at least a bit of common ground…

  2. Thanks much for the link!

    Wow, I made the terrible, terrible mistake of witnessing an auto accident a few years back and volunteering as a witness. The driver had Progressive Insurance.

    What a mistake to get involved with Progressive Insurance! Progressive is a company that didn’t know their own phone number with a law office that didn’t know their own phone number. They couldn’t even spell their own clients name! I could make a long, long list of the regular things a profession insurance company does that Progressive failed to do, but it’s a waste of time. After much trouble with Progressive and their idiotic law office, I concluded that they must be on drugs (or something).

    Tripe Wow! (Wow-wow-wow) Notice the mispelling on Progressive (spelled Progessive below)!

    from http://www.thoughtful-living.org
    ?Progessive Insurance Connection to Marijuana
    …Thoughtful-Living.org encourages Progressive’s Chairman donated $219,005 to the 2010 campaign to legalize marijuana in California….

    Don’t ever, ever, ever volunteer to be a witness of an accident if the driver has Progressive (or Progessive) Insurance.

    1. You do reailze that you probably just got several people here to switch to progressive, right?

      1. …reailze…switch to progressive….

        I reailze that Progressive (or Progessive) has cheap deals and a super TV ad campaign. I reailze that tehy cant spel wurds good, both at the Progessive (or Progressive) office and at teh law office, that tehy cantz spel teh clients name, and that tehy screwz up numbers. Fer those that wantz a cheap deal on insurance, caveat umters (or howz ever ya wantz to spel it).

        1. Yeah but. Bruh. Flo, bruh. Flo.

        2. Interesting response to a typo. People must love you at parties.

          1. I would allow Flo to cook my breakfast the next day AND hang around afterward.

            1. I wanna see Flo getting tag teamed by a bunch of black dudes. She is all progressive, you know.

    2. You concluded that they must be on drugs. I see.

  3. “Flo, bruh.” …Hugh Akston

    She does not work in the claims department or at the law office.

    RE: Progessive (versus Progressive)

    Looks like ‘Thoughtful Living’ are the ones that cantz spel ‘Progressive’.

    ….Maybe too much raw milk?

  4. Question: how does anyone become addicted to weed? Caffeine has worse withdrawal symptoms than marijuana. I assume you have to be a pretty weak willed person.

    1. I’ve seen several people I know become addicted to it- but in the same way they can become addicted to any bad habit. Also, I don’t care that they’re addicted to it as long as it doesn’t hurt me.

    2. It’s not so much addictive as it is habit-forming. Just like those Coke bottles slowly gather up on your shelf, you tend to gradually smoke more pot (if you happen to have it) because it’s just that fun.

      The key to quitting is having external stimuli, though – not willpower. If you have no challenges, goals or activities in life, boy does weed fill that hole nicely. When you get comfy in your armchair with some videogames, ice cream and a bong, and no other worries (because if you’re bothered by something, weed will shine a spotlight on it), you’re not thinking “Woe is me, I really wish I could stop this agony but I simply can’t!” Instead

  5. ….typo…. People must love you at parties…. Coeus

    Last party I went to was a pre X-mas party a couple of years back. People did not love me. Quite the opposite. I showed up with a copy of an e-mail from law offices of Progressive Insurance. I asked for help to contact the law office (in Kirkland WA). The folks at the party could not reach them.

    1) The folks at the party were actual real-life progressives
    2) They had big (like you know super big) degrees and taught in the school system
    3) They couldn’t get through to Progressive Ins. or their law office with the information provided. Too many screw-ups (or typo’s if you want to go easy on Progressive Ins.)

    I was not able to reach Progressive myself, with over a week of failures. My ‘normal’ friends could not reach Progressive ins. My progressive friends could not reach Progressive Ins.

    In three weeks of trouble (volunteering to be a witness) I lost a bunch of money and a whole bunch of friends.

  6. PETA: People Eating Tasty Animals. Now THAT;s a tshirt. Just sayin …..

  7. I want the vegan shirt, but throw a tardis on it for good measure.

    1. You should capitalize “TARDIS”, lest any liberals get the wrong idea and think you’re making fun of ‘tards.

  8. ‘Thoughtful Living’ has had a day to fix the typo on their website.

    …Progressive remains progessive…

    I believe that correct spelling is part of thoughtful living. I now consider that website Less-Than-Thoughtful-Living. I have no choice but to condemn them to an acronym, LTTL, and will punish them with this acronym-title until they correct their spelling mistake.

    It is my personal opinion that before you take pot-shots at Progressive for their pot program, you should first correctly spell the word progressive.

  9. Typo Corrected!

    Thank you, non-profit organization called ‘Thoughtful Living’. I have taken you off acronym-title status.

    I personally have absolutely no problem spelling ‘progressive’. In the three weeks of pure hell dealing with the law office e-mail from Progressive Insurance, Kirkland WA, I used city librarians at three different branches in Seattle:

    1) downtown branch
    2) International branch
    3) Sally-what’s-her-face branch (east of downtown)

    ….all to try to figure out the corporate structure of Progressive Insurance to get a correct phone number for their claims department and/or law office. None of those librarians (City of Seattle) were able to figure out a good phone number for resolving a problem with Progressive Insurance.

    The city librarians at three branches have had lots and lots of practice spelling the name ‘Progressive’.

    ‘Thoughtful Living’, if there is anything I can do to help you in your attack against Progressive Insurance, please let me know. I’m just here to help!

  10. A new blog was published on the
    Thoughtful-Living website:

    By George, He Did It Again

  11. RE: Thoughtful-Living website

    “The website you are visiting is currently offline due to system maintenance”…? HostMonster.com

  12. RE: Thoughtful-Living website

    Disregard the comment above. The website is back up-and-running.

  13. The common thread is that these issues concern health, and that they are aimed at making the very young adopt their viewpoint.

  14. Thoughtful Living concedes that cannabis has medical applications and even holds up New Jersey as

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