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China bans consumption and trade of wild animals

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Re: China bans consumption and trade of wild animals

#111

Post by krrrh »

nicoburns wrote: post #81
salawat wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting. How would you change it? The Executive having the power to pardon (or to refuse to prosecute) for crimes is meant as a check on legislative power to make life miserable through imposition of bad law. Just throwing that check away seems a bit destabilizing. I mean, I'm with you on the the American justice system being capricious in terms of minor crimes being able to ruin a person's civil standing…

I think it's less about what formal powers the different branches of government have, and more about how they use them in practice. As a parent comment said, the USSR constitution was good on paper, but not so much in practice. On the other hand, here in the UK, the queen technically has supreme power over everything (and even ignoring that, our Prime Minister is head of both the executive and the legislature), and y…

The UK is a bit weird though because of its “unwritten constitution”, which acknowledges that the Queen’s power is in fact very limited (to the point where she doesn’t even publicly express opinions). It mostly works due to the specific history and culture of the UK.

TL;DR Politics is downstream of culture.

Re: China bans consumption and trade of wild animals

#112

Post by unishark »

vraivroo wrote: post #39
JakezRock wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i have got to ask, i understand the sugar part, but the meat? Are you referring to the red meat or the fat in meat? Could you elaborate on the meat part?

Cholesterol, saturated fat, weight gain, etc. Meat is not a healthy food.

Isn't it interesting that meat provides all essential amino acids and fatty acids. And not some complex combination of various food groups like a vegan diet must include, just red meat. Meanwhile there are no essential carbohydrates.

Re: China bans consumption and trade of wild animals

#113

Post by siruncledrew »

someperson wrote: post #24

I can't see how this can be successfully enforced without a massive education campaign and actual enforcement by authorities, including moving the so-called "wet markets" (which are outdoor butchers that are very important to the food supply chain in many areas of China) into modern indoor facilities for improved food safety. Older people in China (the so-called lost generation) are set in their ways: remember that i…

It’s not just about enforcing but also about convincing the public to abandon harmful practices.

Yao Ming, already known as a basketball star, helped a lot with spreading awareness about shark fin soup in China and compelling people to no longer eat it.

That’s not to say it will 100% stop a practice from happening, though using the right people as figureheads for a message is still effective at changing behaviors.

Re: China bans consumption and trade of wild animals

#114

Post by mdemare »

nradov wrote: post #101
mdemare wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just that meat and sugar are unhealthy, but also that presence of meat and sugar correlate with absence of healthier foods, such as vegetables, legumes, seeds, fruits and nuts.

Referring to particular foods as "healthy" or "unhealthy" is reductionist and unscientific. All foods have both positive and negative effects. Certain meats are generally quite good, at least in moderation, particularly for getting high quality protein. Eating too many Brazil nuts can cause acute selenium poisoning. Be more specific. If you want to convince anyone here then please cite high quality studies which actu…

If you’re claiming that it is unscientific to say that vegetables are healthier than sausage then I don’t know what to tell you, but to everyone else, vegetables are much healthier than meat, this is scientifically uncontroversial, eat lots of vegetables and a little meat.

Re: China bans consumption and trade of wild animals

#115

Post by nradov »

mdemare wrote: post #114
nradov wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Referring to particular foods as "healthy" or "unhealthy" is reductionist and unscientific. All foods have both positive and negative effects. Certain meats are generally quite good, at least in moderation, particularly for getting high quality protein. Eating too many Brazil nuts can cause acute selenium poisoning. Be more specific. If you want to convince anyone here then please cite high quality studies which actu…

If you’re claiming that it is unscientific to say that vegetables are healthier than sausage then I don’t know what to tell you, but to everyone else, vegetables are much healthier than meat, this is scientifically uncontroversial, eat lots of vegetables and a little meat.

There is still much scientific controversy and no real consensus. Much of what passes for nutrition "science" is basically junk. To be more specific, hardly any studies justify an "A" grade recommendation according to evidence-based medicine criteria.

https://guides.library.stonybrook.edu/evidence-based-medicin...

There are many people who follow carnivore diets who seem quite healthy. It's ridiculous to assume that we know the right answer when so much research remains to be done.

As for sausage versus vegetables, you'll have to be more specific. Those are two very broad categories of food and the exact effects will vary tremendously depending on specific ingredients, cooking, the eater's genetics and microbiome, etc.

Re: China bans consumption and trade of wild animals

#116

Post by nate_meurer »

Aside from the disease risk, remember that the Chinese appetite for wild animals as "traditional medicine" is contributing to the disappearance of entire species. Notable and well-publicized examples include tigers and rhinos, but there are many others.

Stupid shit like using rhinos horns and tiger genitals as aphrodisiacs are still widely held beliefs in parts of China. Xi Jinping's administration has actually been encouraging this nonsense, and in Fall of 2018 they proposed lifting restrictions on the trade and sale of endangered animal parts.

This tragedy has been extensively reported for my whole life. As a little kid I remember being brought to tears by accounts of the cruelty of Chinese traditional medicine, and the appetite of east Asian countries for exotic animals in general. Documentation is plentiful. Just an example, this Nat Geo article came in near the top of my search results just now:

https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2014/04/29/tigers-in-tra...

Re: China bans consumption and trade of wild animals

#117

Post by the_watcher »

LyndsySimon wrote: post #94
the_watcher wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While pardoning friends is certainly distasteful, that power is explicitly defined in the Constitution and is plenary. The only potential exception is a self-pardon. There are plenty of examples of embarrassing pardons, but it's not a rule of law failing.

> The only potential exception is a self-pardon. I believe the exception is impeachment. Articles of Impeachment can be brought against any civil official. There's nothing stopping Congress from impeaching and removing the Ambassador to China, a Supreme Court Justice, or pretty much anyone else operating under the authority of the federal government. It's rare for this to happen of course, but this list of impeachmen…

Self-pardon's have never been attempted, but I believe there's some dicta suggesting it would raise Constitutional issues (though it's true that it's not explicitly barred by the Constitution). There's a whole separate issue over whether or not you can actually charge a President, but it wouldn't prevent a President from being charged with a crime related to actions taken prior to assuming office (or the extreme case of a President who had been convicted prior to assuming office, although I think that may prevent running in the first place).

Impeachment isn't a criminal process. It's a political process that rests entirely within the Legislative branch. So it's not as much an exception as a wholly separate proceeding.

Re: China bans consumption and trade of wild animals

#118

Post by bad_user »

8note wrote: post #106
vezycash wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything has become more abundant recently - clean water, vegetable, meat, fat, sugar, even clean water. And less hunger too. I remember yawning repeatedly / feeling faint when I was younger but didn't know what I hungry until my mum pointed it out. So you can't point to one or two food groups and claim their current abundance cause obesity. Well, except white sugar lol.

id instead point to high fructose corn syrup. even more sugary than white sugar, and it's in basically all junk food instead of white sugar

Show us a reliable study comparing table sugar with HCFS that can confirm what you're saying.

You won't find any.

Re: China bans consumption and trade of wild animals

#119

Post by dang »

pozdnyshev wrote: post #89
cat199 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a popular party representing backward, anti-scientific POVs Fairly certain that china is ruled by the chinese communist party, last I checked.

Compare the CPC's position on climate change to the oval office's, I'll wait.

Please don't use HN for political or ideological flamewar.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: China bans consumption and trade of wild animals

#120

Post by afjl »

blackrock wrote: post #56

There is a lot of stupid and non-sense talk about how the coronavirus was created, because of Chinese people eating bats. There is no scientific evidence to support this! Instead, this exposes the deep-seated biases and prejudices, that Westerners (white people) have of Easterners, and specifically, the Chinese, in this case. It also didn’t help that the Trump Administration went on a negative media assault for the p…

> Do people in the Middle East eat camels? No, I don’t think so.

I've eaten camel. It was offered during multiple meals to us during the trip. Seems somewhat common.

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