Venezuela’s government has urged citizens to see rabbits as more than “cute pets” as it defended a plan to breed and eat them – even as the opposition says this would do nothing to end chronic food shortages.
Venezuela’s so far down the pan that there’s nothing to feed the rabbits on…..
Also, as QI told us (therefore it must be true) if you only eat rabbit you will die as it doesn’t have key vitamins and/or minerals needed to survive.
Naming your pet rabbit “kulak” and branding it an enemy of the people will make it easier to eat it.
Who are the stupid? You would expect that the young people of the green and pleasant land, who are so open minded and enlightened would cease to shout “Oh Jeremy Corbyn!”
At least you hope
Serge, as its all the fault of the CIA and neo-cons support for Jeremy will only increase amongst the dim witted and wishful thinkers. He’s already got the support of the hard of the left.
Given the current government’s efforts he’ll probably pick up a sizeable “it can’t be any worse” vote as well.
I think you are right but I’m fairly sure that they are horribly, horribly wrong.
Bloke in North Dorset,
Why should neocons support him. He may be a socialist but at least he understood that going into Iraq was a bad idea.
Going into Iraq may or may not have been a bad idea. What was certainly bad is the way that it was done from the point of view of the regular Army etc. Corbyn didn’t make that distinction.
Iraq was yesterday and yesterday is done.
The people are saved! Dear Leader has spoken.
Jim2 – this is actually a thing, it’s called rabbit starvation or similar. The eating of rabbit meat strips a particular mineral from the body in Greater quantity than it provides. I can’t remember which one.
In the wild, this particular mineral is usually found in abundance in the very vegetation that the rabbits eat so survivalist types point out that it is very easy to overcome if you know your plants and eat ya greens.
Wish I could remember what it is now. Anyhows, I digress as none of this applies to Venezuela
BiND
He’s already got the support of the hard of the left.
He’s already got the support of the hard of thinking.
FIFY
Whatever happened to Chaz and Dave?
i think it nigh on certain that the way Brexit is panning out Corbin will prevail. Then those ‘deep thinkers’ lauding him at Glastonbury will be in for the shock of their lives….
Northern European countries, in Scandinavia, have been able to do well on socialism. So the right trying to use this as an excuse to beat down socialism is nonsense.
@ M Barnes
Scandinavia has generally done well *despite* having had “social-democratic” governments for most of my lifetime. So you have a point that we cannot just shout “Venezuela” when they shout “all Tories drink blood” – we need to point out that Norway’s wealth is built on hydroelectricity and North Sea Oil; Sweden made a fortune out of WWI and WWII and has dropped down the rankings since; Finland’s economy has vastly improved since it stopped being ruled by a KGB agent (or, more probably, a Finn who co-operated with the KGB to dissuade them from launching a military takeover); Denmark prospers because it has the freest and one of the most competitive economies in the world – so socialism has not taken hold of its economy.
Four semi-successes (as John77 points out, we never got to run the experiment with Swedes operating in a less socialist environment…) against how many failures, Mr Barnes? For instance, that other northern European country of Russia / USSR? A more direct experiment, in which the culturally and ethnically identical east- and west-Germans tried different systems – one socialist, one capitalist – with rather different outcomes over five decades and who knows how many business and technological cycles?
Venezuela has similar (actually, better) natural endowments to Norway in hydrocarbon reserves, and has managed to ball it up rather spectacularly. It is not the only “excuse to beat down socialism” – just the latest of many, and wonderfully useful since the paeans from the likes of dear Jeremy and little Owen (and perhaps yourself?) are so recent, and so amply documented.
Rabbit starvation or protein poisoning is a lack of fat. Rabbits are very lean meat (8% fat).
For those who think Denmark is a socialist country, not only are the means of production in private hands, but their benefits cap us 10% lower than the UK and Danish benefits are taxable.
@Harry Haddock’s Ghost, September 15, 2017 at 11:36 am
Congrats. Spot on: rabbit starvation
Scandinavians are sensible people – VAT on food, high taxes on domestic energy for example. Some OECD study that Tim put up once showed that after Pigou taxes, and LVT, then consumption taxes are your next best tax.
Friedman had a great line when a Sanders-type said there’s no poverty in Scandinavia, he replied there’s no poverty amongst Scandinavians in Minnesota either, and the average Scandi does a lot better in the USA.
Rabbit starvation comes from trying to get all your calories from protein and none from fat and thus overloading your liver and kidneys. There’s a maximum you can deaminate in a day. You need fat to build cell membranes as well. If you eat the entire rabbit, including the brains, you’ll probably be all right, but just the muscle and you’ll be in deficiency.
Too much protein plus excessive exercise, not hard in a poor, hot country, runs the risk of rhabdomyolysis, which is extremely bad.
Atkins Diet, anyone?
@ BiCR
*All* your calories from protein is quite difficult – a diet consisting solely of grilled lean meat?!?.
OTOH a diet that gets some of your calories from converting protein to energy where your energy consumption exceeds the energy supplied from the fats and carbohydrates in your diet can be quite healthy – in fact when I was at my fittest and healthiest I use a diet that involved burning some protein for energy.
Oh, I forgot to mention Scurvy!
You need some fruit (or a lot of raw vegetables) to avoid Scurvy so diet comporising solely lean rabbit meat fails on multiple counts.