Are chicken wings vegetables?

A smirk ran across my face when I read a recent post by The Mayor of Awesometown. He spoke of Pseudo-Vegetarians. While I agreed with his particular story (dude bitching about the cruelties of eating meat, and then following this up with a drunken meaty-treat), I can't help but feel that many find me to be lumped into this same group.

What an annoying group. Think they're so special (or maybe not!)...but yet get weak and eat meat.

Or maybe they just had a change of heart. Bacon tastes good. Chicken wings taste good (just found that one out this weekend -- I cannot believe I forgot how amazing they are!).

I never preached to anyone about the politics of eating meat. I just chose not to eat it myself...and now I've chosen to convert (sort of).

There's nothing wrong with having a dietary preference. I've decided that calling oneself a "vegetarian" is useless. Not that you can't be a veggie -- but why label it? Labels are moronic and unnecessary. If you don't want to eat meat, don't. That's your dietary preference. If you (read: I) want to eat mostly tofu and soy products but then supplement that with fantastic salty bacon and fatty spicy wings, then do so (and I will, thank you very much).

Labels just give people an excuse to gripe and bitch when you change your mind. "Ooh I thought you were a vegetarian" (in a sing-song voice). I was. Now I've changed my mind. There's nothing wrong with that. If people were forced to maintain the same mindset forever, the world would be full of morons. Adapt or die (as my husband says).

Adapting can mean learning about new political ideologies, or it can be as mundane as adapting one's tastes to enjoying the odd meaty dish.

(Crap -- my boss just walked in while I was typing this -- must learn to be more discrete -- he laughed, and asked "what stupid thing I did today" -- can I insert that getting caught blogging at work is a seriously stupid thing to do?!)

Anyways -- my point is: no more labels. They just cause people to feel that they cannot make changes without getting grief for it. I am no longer a vegetarian. I have some peculiar dietary preferences. That's all.

If you don't like it, beat it.