Treacher on Palin’s Turkey “Gaffe”

Ah, yes. Sarah Palin’s latest “misstep.” The media are on her like poultry farmers on a hapless little chickie:

“If this had been Biden . . .”

I heard about it first; when I saw it, it seemed pretty mild. I’m of the mind that anyone who isn’t a vegetarian shouldn’t be complaining. Where do they think supermarket turkeys come from?—the turkey factory?

People who hunt, or who live on farms, are a lot earthier than folks who are disconnected from the origins of their food. I watched the video and simply couldn’t get upset about it, despite having been a vegetarian in high school and in college.

If you are that squeamish, perhaps you shouldn’t be eating meat.

Here is an interesting tidbit for you—so to speak: I see a lot less narrow-mindedness from hunters about “the vegetarian” who works at The Outdoor Magazines than I saw toward “the vegetarian” who worked at Bon Appétit when I was working at Condé Nast, down the street. (The last time I forced myself to eat fish was at a Bon Appétit tasting; I wanted to fit in. I needn’t have bothered. I like the fact that the food editor there admonished me to speak my mind at food-tastings, but she wasn’t available to shield me from the consequences therefrom. Ah, well: those who are too literal-minded in life get to pay the price.)

h/t: Down the Ticket.

UPDATE: Cassandra has more:

Well that’s it. Cancel Thanksgiving.

I will never eat another living thing thanks to Sarah Palin.

For years I looked forward to Thanksgiving as a joyous celebration of white AmeriKKKa’s ritualistic gang rape of gentle and peaceful indigenous peoples. But thanks to Sarah Palin, my innocent enjoyment has been ruined for all time. How can I sit down to a table full of homicidal maniacs, knowing the true nature of this festival of death?

Sarah Palin pardoned a turkey at an abbatoir today to celebrate Thanksgiving, a full week beforehand. After pardoning the turkey, Palin partook in her favorite post-election hobby — answering questions from the media — while a turkey butcher worked in the background.

SLAUGHTERING A TURKEY IN A DEATH GRINDER, while smiling, a la Fargo. It is hilarious. Equally hilarious are the MSNBC captions in this clip, such as, “Gov. Palin Not Realizing Incongruity Of Her Words Versus Her Backdrop.”

Had I realized, lo! these many years, that Governor Palin was personally grinding up helpless live turkeys (feathers, feet and all!) and then somehow reassembling them behind the scenes into the bland, Butterball frozen corpses in plastic bodybags we so casually toss into the grocery cart each November, I would NEVER have participated in this wholesale avian genocide. My God… how many of our poor feathered friends been slaughtered while still alive over the years?

And Tim Blair weighs in:

[MSNBC’s David] Shuster (who urges that young viewers be shielded from the interview) also seems appalled that Palin had “no worries” over being filmed at the tragic turkey massacre site. Even worse – bloodlusting bird-hater Palin admits she’ll actually cook a turkey for Thanksgiving. Among MSNBC’s captions:

• TURKEYS DIE AS GOVERNOR PALIN TAKES QUESTIONS FROM MEDIA
• GOV. SARAH KEEPS TALKING WHILE TURKEYS GET SLAUGHTERED BEHIND HER
• GOV. PALIN APPARENTLY OBLIVIOUS TO TURKEY CARNAGE OVER HER SHOULDER

What did they expect her to do? Intervene?

UPDATE. Shuster claims his network has “sanitised” the video, removing the “goriest parts”. Here’s uncensored vision. Take a look. Where are the gory parts? Can’t MSNBC nancies even cope with a bloodless background vision of a farm animal being offed? Just as well Palin never turned up on Iron Chef: “A lot of resistance being put up by that one!” Note that tiny Japanese actress Naomi Hosokawa is not nearly so squeamish as Shuster.

UPDATE II. NBC finds the video – shot by an NBC affiliate – “too grisly for some”. Meaning MSNBC pantyboys.

UPDATE II I added the video. I watched it one more time, concentrating hard on the background, and kind of trying to be grossed out. It was hard: I mean, I know there were some wiggly turkey legs in there, but when my parents were kids they saw chickens beheaded, and witnessed that nervous reaction that poultry carcasses display, over and over, with the birds walking around without heads. This footage seemed awfully tame, and I still don’t think anyone over the age of five who cannot handle it should be eating any meat of any kind.

You want gross? How about the fact that the birds most of us eat on our national holidays—and for Christmas—cannot breed, fly, or even stand up easily without the assistance of their “benefactors” in agribusiness? But we put up with it, because we’re all kind of hooked on the blandness of modern poultry. Que sera, sera.

UPDATE III: Darleen has more, including your Daily Dose of Steyn.

UPDATE IV: I like Desert Cat’s suggestion that she did it on purpose. Tough call: I’m sure she wasn’t fazed by the sight, but it certainly isn’t above her to undermine the stupidity of the “turkey pardon” tradition. If she was having a little passive-aggressive fun, she’s certainly earned it.

Tagged as: food, hunting, Media, publishing, Sarah Palin