• Zen Palate owner James Tu is launching a fast food chain, Zen Burger, and a frozen food line. Hopefully they'll have a lot of vegan stuff. If nothing else, Zen Palate got better at labeling their vegan offerings after Tu took over the chain.
• Only cause we've touched on it before, it's worth noting that UK Mars bars have lost their Vegetarian Society seal of approval because they use battery-farmed eggs. Silly vegetarians with all their weird distinctions!
• The state of Florida has stopped serving special kosher and halal meals to prisoners. Instead, observant convicts will have to make do with vegan food. "Either you have a choice of violating your own religion beliefs or you're coerced to only eat vegan." Awwww.
• On a related note, BBC TV show "Casualty" has been forced to make a script change - replacing a politically incorrect Muslim bomber with an apparently more socially acceptable animals rights bomber. At least both terrorists would eat the same food in Florida prisons.
• And speaking of kosher, SuperVegan reader Catres let us know about Sacred Chow's upcoming Rosh Hashanah dinner, which will be held on Friday, September 14. It's a prix-fix communal table deal which includes vegan challah, and pitchers of kosher vegan wine, cocktails, and beer.

It's a widely held belief that every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten. As we vegans conscientiously muddle our way through National Masturbation Month, it seems worth investigating if there's any truth to this maxim.

The most complete study to date uses fairly conservative metrics and measures the deaths of American kittens (any gender, up to one year old) agaist the masturbation habits of American human males. Doing the math, it's determined that there are well over 5000 acts of masturbation for each kitten death:

"The average American man can masturbate regularly for 22.5 years before he is responsible for the death of a single kitten. Indeed, with a life expectancy of less than 75 years, the average man will be responsible for only two or three kitten deaths in a lifetime of vigorous masturbation."

So have fun at your Masturbate-a-thons, but do spare a thought for the kittens. (All these links are work-safe, believe it or not.)

Well, for a couple days anyway. In honor of Vesak (Buddha's birthday), the government of Sri Lanka decreed that no animals could be slaughtered, and no meat could be served. The extra-big deal this year was that meat was banned in tourist hotels, not just locals' shops and restaurants.

Here's some pictures of the festivities, none of which feature the crazy-awesome vegan food that I'm sure was in abundance. But I'll take that as an excuse to trot out this years-old New York Times article about Sri Lankan food that still makes my mouth water.

For many, Easter Sunday, already an exceptionally eggy holiday, is a celebration of meat as well, as it marks the end of Lent, during which many Catholics abstain from eating meat. But Slovenian President Dr. Janez Drnovšek doesn't think such celebration is appropriate. He explained in an Easter address: "Do really so many animals have to die when we celebrate higher consciousness and try to develop spiritually? The answer is clear: of course not." Drnovšek has been vegan since 2005, and is an outspoken critic of animal testing and the E.U.'s livestock farming subsidies. He's also a Christian, and never balks at combining religion and animal rights. As he said in an interview in 2005, "Jesus would be turning in his grave if he knew that mass slaughter of animals is carried out every year in his name." Now that's something to celebrate with chocolate eggs.

I have a dream that one day my vegan child who does not exist and your carnivorous kid will sit down at the table of brotherhood and be able to eat the same exact crap. I have a dream that one day I will live in a nation where I will not be judged by the content of my simulated food products but by how successfully it recreates what's left out.

I have a dream that one day little Cheetos-eating girls and boys will be able to join their day-glo orange powdery hands with little Kitov-eating girls and boys as sisters and brothers in junk-foodilism.

Let freedom ring from your local kosher market! Let freedom ring from the internet! And when you devour your first bag sing, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank SuperVegan, we are free at last!"

It's Passover time and thanks to the interweb this no longer has to mean fashioning a Passover meal out of charoset and part of the seder plate, i.e. bitter herbs/parsley, salt water, and a football field length of matzo.

Isa Chandra Moskowitz has posted a matzoh ball soup recipe and also guest blogged at Heeb 'n Vegan to serve up seder plate alternatives to lamb and egg. Here's a site with potato kugel and charoset recipes, and PETA has created a Passover site that includes lots of recipes and reading. Also, the Vegetarian Resource Group sells the small cookbook Vegan Passover Recipes. And finally, there's my personal favorite, chocolate-covered matzo.

A Christian sect led by Rev. George H. Malkmus is redefining "vegangelical," though their motivations are health-related rather than ethical. Today's St. Petersburg Times features a profile of the Back To Eden Health Ministry Lifestyle Center, a vegan Christian health institute in Plant City affiliated with Malkmus's Hallelujah Acres. Hallelujah HQ estimates more than 2 million people worldwide follow the vegan and 85% raw diet Malkmus claims cures "cancer, body odor, hair loss, diabetes and high cholesterol;" one of Eden's owners says it cured his MS. The center attracts about 200 believers a year, who each pay $1,200 for a week of carrot juice, Bible study and gentle exercise.

Of course it can be tough going vegan at first, but if you're looking for a low-cost alternative, you could buy Malkmus's book, a Bible and 20 five-course dinners at Pure Food and Wine for less than a week at Eden.

Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism From 1600 to Modern Times, (previously discussed on SuperVegan here, here , and here) proves to be an extensively researched book of the history of vegetarianism, with an emphasis on the merging of Western Christianity and Eastern philosophy. Tristram Stuart has published a valuable tool for those looking for the historical roots of much of the philosophical and religious reasons for vegetarianism.

As a vegan having read this book, there is no possible way a simple book review could do justice the the immense wealth of information Stuart has compiled. A critical understanding of the origins of vegetarianism serves several purposes, not the least of which is a reassurance that we are not alone, and that intellectuals have been promoting vegetarianism for centuries. Additionally, the book addresses the more controversial angles of vegetarian advocacy, be it the personal pitfalls of particular spokesmen for the cause, or the refutations and critiques brought forth against the advocates. Having an understanding of the battles already fought for the movement provides groundwork for the ongoing battles faced today.

"Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality." That's the word today from self-described health-food fanatic Jim Rutz (best known for documenting miracles for Evangelical Christians) in "A devil food is turning our kids into homosexuals" over at the reliably repulsive WorldNetDaily.

I'm surprised he doesn't accuse China of conspiring to emasculate the USA by turning our boy babies gay.

The wires are abuzz with reports of Babia, a vegan crocodile who acts as guardian of Ananthapura Lake Temple in Kerala, India.

While the priests only feed the sixtysomething year-old Babia large quantities of boiled rice and jaggery, accounts differ as to whether the croc supplements this austere diet with the local fish.

(What, you don't know what jaggery is?! Here, I looked it up for you.)