One thing positive I'll say for Cory Booker: He has the courage of his vegan convictions.  Being vegan probably gets him some "green" points, too, and he has done it without government forcing him to make this choice.  It got me thinking what other aspects of "going green" might be doable without government intervention.

For example, there's no law saying you have to eat meat (or preventing you), so you can choose to be vegan like Sen. Booker.  Or you can choose to go him one better and eat raw food only.  You'll save a lot of energy by not cooking!  And you can shop every day or so and turn off your refrigerator and freezer.  Raw vegetables don't need cooking and shouldn't need to be kept cool if eaten within a day.

Now, a raw food diet doesn't require that you be vegan, as you can eat raw fish.  Sushi may contain cooked ingredients, so stick to sashimi.  There may be some health risks, so be careful.  The Inuit manage somehow.  Don't worry about overfishing.  You can always give up fish later if they run out.

Now that you've turned off the stove and fridge and unplugged them, where else can we save energy?  How about cutting off the heat and air conditioning?  We need to be careful to avoid burst pipes in the winter, but you can set the thermostat to 50 (or whatever the lowest number is on the thermostat, not the temperature below which pipes freeze in the winter).  Wear sweaters and thick fleece pants.  It'll be warmer indoors than outside, and you survive outside in winter, with a heavy coat, so wear that coat inside.  Actually, 50 isn't so bad.  In the summer, leave the A.C. off.  Those Phoenix temps of 100 degrees and over probably won't kill you, unless you're very old or very young.  It won't help your mood, but you do want to save the planet, don't you?

Now about water usage.  Buy a couple of five-gallon buckets and a plastic toilet seat.  Eliminate the water used for flushing.  What do you do with the waste?  Since you're a raw food vegetarian, you might as well start growing your own food.  Then set up a composting heap for the waste, and use the compost as a growing medium.  It may be illegal to put such compost on your plants, but the bacteria etc. are ones you already have.  And you can do this even if you live in an apartment.

You can do sponge baths instead of soaking or showers.  Cut your hair if it's long, and one of those buzz cuts will be easy maintenance, too.

Hook up a bike generator to power your laptop.  Get solar cells to charge your cell phone.  Sell your flat-screen television — nothing on worth watching anyway.  Ditto the other electronics — although, if you feel energetic, bike generators and solar cells can be used for other things as well.  Get a lamp that charges in sunshine, or go to bed early, at sundown.  It's not as if you'll be up late watching TV or surfing the net.

I wonder how many of these Sandy O is doing.  Or Al Gore.  We have the technology, so why aren't they using it?  Green for thee, not for me.

Next time someone says the world is ending and we have to go green, offer him some of the suggestions in this article.  He may turn green instead of going green.

I have a sudden craving for a bacon cheeseburger.