Speaking of turkey, this video of Sarah Palin pardoning a bird and taking some questions while a slew of turkeys are gruesomely slaughtered behind her has been making the rounds.
Another odd chapter in the continuing political circus that is Sarah Palin. But in a broader sense, I agree with Aaron Kagan here, "If Palin had been standing in front of a nicely browned and stuffed bird with those little frilly things on its drumsticks, there would have been no controversy," he wrote. "But stick her next to a killing cone and it's a different story. The interview was a mistake on Palin's part, but with Thanksgiving around the corner it serves as a necessary reminder that a turkey doesn't turn into 'turkey' by magic." Imagine an America in which consumption of meat required viewing a quick video of the animal's slaughter. That's a world in which PETA is funded like the AARP. It's not that people don't intellectually understand that meat comes from dead animals, but if they had to face the fact, industrial farming operations would probably die off in a day. We have sufficient abundance that a fair number of folks would happily substitute other food sources than be confronted with the reality of a chicken breast. But we don't live in that world. So every year we happily watch the president pardon a turkey. That Palin pardoned a turkey while its cousins were slaughtered in the killing cones behind her is the single most honest thing she's done since arriving on the national stage.
