I saw this yesterday on the Guardian site...and watched it twice trying to see the "horror" that was going to take place behind the Governor.

I grew up with the end of summer ritual of dispatching the year's chicken harvest. The camp stove would be set up for hours getting the water hot enough to steam off those feathers. And then? Hours of family fun as pin feathers were pulled.

Oh, and linkage to the Latest Palin Pics.

http://tinyurl.com/6qfe3r

"A Midsummer Nights Dream Act 3, scene 2, 110–115."

Just how the hell else was the turkey to understand what a gift it was being given -- a gubernatorial pardon -- without it having to witness the poultry holocaust that otherwise would have awaited it? This was just the ruthless Gov. Palin (or "Mayor Palin," as the left liked to call her) instituting that avian equivalent of the classical warrior-king precept of taking 10 prisoners, chopping the heads off of nine and having the reprieved one become your most loyal servant. That bird will now be Gov. Palin's most loyal Feathered-American servant.

Or else this shows the failure of the left-wing media's Palin Derangement Syndrome to dissipate post-election.

PS: Wonkette has needed to be bitch-slapped for some time now, hasn't it?

Political correctness is continually creeping up on us. The fact that common-sense-persons have to posit arguments exposing the frivolous nature of the attacks on Sarah Palin is a sign that common sense is on the defensive. And yet, you cannot ignore it. This is a sad state of affairs indeed.

Looking on all this idiocy, I become convinced that Palin did this in full knowledge. After all, you cannot take seriously people who are offended by a picture of turkey killing. Anyone protesting this interview has his idiocy certificat forever recorded on the web.

Bush lied... Turkeys died.

Urban-dwellers, candy-asses, animal rights activists, PDS sufferers (but I repeat myself) - I hope none of these 2-faced idiots eat turkey and stuffing Thursday, never visit McDonalds or KFC even with their kids, etc. I do think Obama could slaughter turkeys in primetime (puppies, even) and his followers would cheer. This is nominally about sensitivity about the slaughter of our protein but in reality it's more lefty garbage to bludgeon a wonderful female politician with.

In the meantime all urban and suburban kids would benefit from field trips to farms. Too many of us live lives totally divorced from reality - another explanation for loony lefty ideas. Lefties hate anyone grounded in reality because the Left is all about subverting and denying reality. The reality of the slaughter of our food is just one more item on the list.

Take a look at this sign for "Harold's Chicken Shack", which Obama nostalgically mentioned in his 60 Minutes interview, and tell me it's any less gruesome than the Palin interview. The carnage is everywhere!

http://twurl.nl/b1n87z

Things like this are what make even moderate red-staters like myself -- not at all socially conservative -- start to think that blue staters are going to turn out to be too stupid to survive.

The MSM is fine talking about the 'turkey slaughter' but talking about Islamist beheading videos is not in their remit.

Here's a head line for you:

"MSM discovers where food really comes from: Blames Palin"

What cracks me up about this is the leftard assumption that Palin was unaware of her context. BS. She was perfectly aware, and realized that it was a perfectly fine situation that, 1) Demonstrated the power of her pardon (Just look at what happens to those she doesn't pardon! LOL!), and, 2) Was something well-adjusted people would not think twice about, which means that she also knew, 3) That the scene would function as a great f**kwit detector.

I really want her interviewed on my hunting lease while we're making feral hog and venison sausage in the background. That's some hands-on messy work, right there, but well worth it. Mmmmmm!

There is no more maladjusted group than city-dwelling leftards. That's why I call them, "the alternate reality/parallel universe based community."

Sarah Palin must scare the pants off Keith Olbermann and his ilk. Her reality based calmness simply doesn't compute to these soft-handed wusses. They are doing their best to make her the buffoon.

Meanwhile, Biden -- the certified buffoon in the actual VP slot -- is still locked away in his padded cell, where he's been since a month before the election.

'lanched.

Reality Based Community meets Reality, starts to scream.

Could these critics be any more metrosexual? And really, these same critics raised no objection to Obama's family friend Bill Ayers talking about imprisoning millions of Americans when his Weathermen won the revolution and mass-exterminating twenty-five million capitalists who resist their re-education? Savor the irony. Turkey lives trump human lives for liberal journalists.

This story reminds me of the time a Chinese woman bought a live chicken in San Francisco's Chinatown and then boarded a MUNI bus with the chicken. The bus driver informed her that live animals were not allowed on the bus, at which point she promptly snapped its neck and took her seat. A non-Asian bus passenger then lost her lunch on the bus.

When i was a child in MA I could see into the backyard of our neighbors from our pantry window and used to look forward to watching the Smiriglio family grandmother sacrifice the Sunday dinner chicken, positioning it on a big tree stump, wielding her hatchet, tossing the head into her bucket, and waiting until the rest of the bird stopped racing around the yard. My glee at the spectacle did not turn me into a serial killer or even a cruel op ed columnist like Maureen Dowd.

When my husband worked for the Forest Service in a mountain community in the South, one of his technicians asked to be dropped off early at his home because he had not had time to kill the hog his family planned to include in their winter larder. When they reached his home, they discovered that his petite blond wife had already started, had offed the hog, and had the water just about to the boil to continue the process.

When i was a child in MA I could see into the backyard of our neighbors from our pantry window and used to look forward to watching the Smiriglio family grandmother sacrifice the Sunday dinner chicken, positioning it on a big tree stump, wielding her hatchet, tossing the head into her bucket, and waiting until the rest of the bird stopped racing around the yard. My glee at the spectacle did not turn me into a serial killer or even a cruel op ed columnist like Maureen Dowd.

When my husband worked for the Forest Service in a mountain community in the South, one of his technicians asked to be dropped off early at his home because he had not had time to kill the hog his family planned to include in their winter larder. When they reached his home, they discovered that his petite blond wife had already started, had offed the hog, and had the water just about to the boil to continue the process.

Mmm. Harold's Chicken Shack. They put a slice of white bread at the bottom of the pile of chicken parts that soaks up all the bbq sauce and other juices. Delicious.

The reactions you see from the candy-ass metrosexual crowd is abject fear of their inadequacies and neuroses...

...they intuit that they could not survive without the Sarah Palins of this world...they just want them out of sight.

And we've raised a generation with no knowledge of how food, energy, buildings, and tools are produced and made. But they know that the U.S. is a racist, colonialist society...

Uh oh, the liberals will get squeamish over a photo of Obama eating fried chicken -- racist insinuations from the vast right wing conspiracy and all that.

Harolds was greasy, the better alternative was Ribs 'n Bibs. Check it out with a google search.

As per form, here is a picture of Obama masticating in public, and nary a mention in the media.

And what are they going to eat when they realize, at last, where all of their foods come from? Are they, at last, going to join the Jainists? (No living thing is worth eating. Not even bugs.)

Sorry, but tofurkey doesn't cut it! Gimme my roasted turkey, gravy and all the fixin's.

Have you also noticed that they have also downgraded Thanksgiving Day to such a point that many just call it "Harvest"? They no longer want to give credit to the Pilgrims, or even their belief in God.

It may be that this outburst of stupidity on the part of those loons is just part of the result of their total abandonment of God. Chesterton once said that, once you stop believing in God, you end up believing anything.

Let's be honest about all of this.

If it were anyone else but Sarah Palin in the front of that scene, would the media and their hack lefty blog allies have even given it a passing mention?

This is about Sarah Palin. The media and the left are deranged about her because they're deathly afraid of her. So she must be destroyed at all costs.

This has nothing to do with turkey slaughtering.

TV (Harry)

If it were anyone else but Sarah Palin in the front of that scene, would the media and their hack lefty blog allies have even given it a passing mention?

I suspect what's even more likely is they would have shooed the guy away while they finished the interview, or picked a slightly different camera angle, putting him out of frame.

The problem with the "MSM" is that it allows individual writers, headline writers and editors to remain unidentified and therefore uncriticized in their opinon.

Even the on camera "talent" just say someone else wrote it or reseached it.

In the blogosphere, anonymous idiotic comment comes from "trolls" and is correctly dismissed. Perhaps we need an adequately derisive term for these unidintified MSM trolls.... Any ideas??

Maybe anonymous MSM bad writing needs to be prefaced with "An unnamed NYT editor wrote....." or "An AP editor not proud enough of their work to put their name on it wrote...."

During the Cold War, West Germans chipped away at the East German state by calling it the "So-Called German Democratic Republic."

The problem with the "MSM" is that it allows individual writers, headline writers and editors to remain unidentified and therefore uncriticized in their opinon.

Even the on camera "talent" just say someone else wrote it or reseached it.

In the blogosphere, anonymous idiotic comment comes from "trolls" and is correctly dismissed. Perhaps we need an adequately derisive term for these unidintified MSM trolls.... Any ideas??

Maybe anonymous MSM bad writing needs to be prefaced with "An unnamed NYT editor wrote....." or "An AP editor not proud enough of their work to put their name on it wrote...."

During the Cold War, West Germans chipped away at the East German state by calling it the "So-Called German Democratic Republic."

I can't believe no one has noticed how racist that picture of Obama is. I mean, a black man eating fried chicken!!! What's next, watermelon?
/sarcasm

The MSM is addicted to the ratings Palin brings and the left is terrified that another Reagan has risen.

It's only common sense that if Palin were the hapless buffoon they claim she wouldn't still be eclipsing Barry in the news cycle.

That the left is consumed with destroying the bottom half of a losing ticket makes little sense unless they are very afraid of her return.

I don't think they understand that this sort of nonsense makes her appeal stronger, not weaker.

Do these people not hear the potato scream when it is peeled? How can they endure the agony of an arugula leaf being torn asunder?

How can a feeling person enjoy the taste of the fresh blood of a blueberry or the fermented blood of a grape?

Oh, the hip ocrazy.

In my brief sojourn with lenses and microphones long ago, factors such as positioning, camera angle, and background were chosen, not by the interviewee, but by the crew. Has this changed?

Also, if you watch the video, you see that everyone except Ms. Palin is facing the bleed stand, and has a clear view of what was going on. Ms. Palin had her back partially to it, and so would be the least likely participant to have moved away.

This was a setup, pure and simple. Check out who produced the segment.

The fermented blood of a grape goes great with turkey, a nice chardonnay perhaps.

Is there anymore proof needed that two separate temporal universes intersect someplace along the coasts of North America? Each with a different set of 'normal' physics, chemistry, mathematics, and biologies. Interaction occurs between the inhabitants of the separate universes, but each only can perceived the nature of their own universe which is alien to the other and incomprehensible as a point of reference.

What is it about lefties and turkey's anyway? Remeber the "plastic turkey" fiasco circa 2005 where they were so enamoured of their rightious indignation they couldn't be reminded of the simple fact Bush was holding a display turkey in a mess hall in Iraq not a plastic one. Like most of their outrage its manufactured and quickly forgotten about another "lie"

The common assumption being made about this story is that anybody who eats meat and objects to what goes on at a turkey processing plant is a ninny. But it goes beyond that. Anybody who eats and objects to killing animals is completely ignorant of where his or her food comes from.

This is from NRO - a farmer emailed them about this silly Palin story:

Killing is what happens on farms. Seriously. I'm saying this as a farmer.

City people think that farms are "where life happens." Nonsense. Farming is about killing stuff. I don't even raise livestock or poultry and I have to kill stuff.

I can get crops to grow by simply putting seed in the ground. The rest of my job is to kill, kill, kill. Kill weeds. Kill insect pests. Kill vertebrate pests. Whether by herbicide, pesticides, shooting, trapping, stomping, you name it — I spend far more time killing than I do making something grow. Mother nature takes care of the growing. I have to remove the competition. There have been days when I've trapped 50+ pocket gophers and shot 100 ground squirrels - before lunch. They needed killing, and the next day, more of them were killed because they needed killing. At other times, I've shot dozens of jackrabbits at night and flung them out into the sagebrush for coyotes to eat.

And none of that starts in with helping neighbors slaughter steers, lambs, chickens, etc.

That's farming: killing. Lots of it.

Want to know why this nonsense is 'news'?

Because an increasingly large cohort of America in the lower 48 (and probably Hawaii) are p—-ies. They have no clue where their food comes from, they don't hunt, they don't fish, so they get to act all high and mighty about scenes like this.

In Alaska, they have critters that consider humans food. Absent high powered rifles, humans are not at the apex of the food chain in Alaska. That will tend to give people a different perspective than the silk pantywaists in the lower 48

Next time you run into one of those holier-than-thou vegeterians who likes to believe they are so much more evolved than us meateaters, ask them if their organic produce comes from "kill free farms" - and watch their faces go blank.

The world is not divided into meatkillers and vegans, but those who kill their own food and those who depend on others to kill for them. No exceptions for vegetarians.

The common assumption being made about this story is that anybody who eats meat and objects to what goes on at a turkey processing plant is a ninny. But it goes beyond that. Anybody who eats and objects to killing animals is completely ignorant of where his or her food comes from.

This is from NRO - a farmer emailed them about this silly Palin story:

Killing is what happens on farms. Seriously. I'm saying this as a farmer.

City people think that farms are "where life happens." Nonsense. Farming is about killing stuff. I don't even raise livestock or poultry and I have to kill stuff.

I can get crops to grow by simply putting seed in the ground. The rest of my job is to kill, kill, kill. Kill weeds. Kill insect pests. Kill vertebrate pests. Whether by herbicide, pesticides, shooting, trapping, stomping, you name it — I spend far more time killing than I do making something grow. Mother nature takes care of the growing. I have to remove the competition. There have been days when I've trapped 50+ pocket gophers and shot 100 ground squirrels - before lunch. They needed killing, and the next day, more of them were killed because they needed killing. At other times, I've shot dozens of jackrabbits at night and flung them out into the sagebrush for coyotes to eat.

And none of that starts in with helping neighbors slaughter steers, lambs, chickens, etc.

That's farming: killing. Lots of it.

Want to know why this nonsense is 'news'?

Because an increasingly large cohort of America in the lower 48 (and probably Hawaii) are p—-ies. They have no clue where their food comes from, they don't hunt, they don't fish, so they get to act all high and mighty about scenes like this.

In Alaska, they have critters that consider humans food. Absent high powered rifles, humans are not at the apex of the food chain in Alaska. That will tend to give people a different perspective than the silk pantywaists in the lower 48

Next time you run into one of those holier-than-thou vegeterians who likes to believe they are so much more evolved than us meateaters, ask them if their organic produce comes from "kill free farms" - and watch their faces go blank.

The world is not divided into meatkillers and vegans, but those who kill their own food and those who depend on others to kill for them. No exceptions for vegetarians.

Amen, Donna V.
I love the organic food only vegetarians.
They think their sh*t don't stink.
I know some organic farmers, and they have to trap and shoot vermin on their farms just like the regular farms. If they didn't, they'd either lose tons of crops, or be liable for fecal coliform contamination of their crops.
You simply cannot buy any foodstufs produced in the US that was produced without killing mammalian life of one form or another.

Speaking of humans not being at the top of the food chain without a high-powered rifle, add a plexiglas cube to the arsenal.

I watched a documentary on bears where they set out a "bear buffet" to see if the bears had food preferences.

Muffins, a salmon, hot dogs, rice krispie treats, and trail mix were set out. The observers locked themselves in a plexiglas cube and the bears came.

The first bear snagged the salmon and headed to the bushes with it, chased by another bear. The second bear gave up, came back, sniffed the muffins, scarfed down the hotdogs, sniffed the trail mix and had the rice krispie treats for desert.

The last bear to arrive had a choice -- muffins and trail mix. He sniffed both, then ate the muffins and left. Another bear showed up, sniffed the trail mix and then the plexiglas cube (which of course had holes in it so the observers could breathe).

The bear obviously knew that if could just figure out the wrapping that there was a tasty morsel inside.

He left eventually, after sniffing and rejecting the trail mix once again. None of the bears ate the trail mix.

The moral of this story is to wear eau de trail mix while in the woods. This can explain why some vegetarians hikers are still alive.

About ten years ago I participated in a food network message board. On one of the meat forums there had been a person went hunting for the first time in their life and killed a goose - they knew no one else that hunted and had no idea how to turn the whole animal into a form that they could cook and eat it.

Being a life long hunter I knew how and gave a detailed reply. Recall, this was *specifically* on a meat forum and when the 'net still wasn't *that* big. There was an explosion of activity about how cruel that was, it was disgusting, no animal should have to go through that, and so on.

It still amazes me today that many people who were long time writers in the board (so I know they ate and prepared meat) were *that* for removed from the reality of how it went from a cow to a steak in the market.

For the most part the ones defending it were professional chefs and as part of their training had learned to butcher animals. The ones complaining mostly shut up when the others asked how they thought the cow died, was gutted, skinned, and cut into small pieces for us to eat. I figure those arguing (I didn't bother much) were lucky if they had 1% of the people do anything more than shake their heads in disgust at those cruel people (while they happily ate their hamburger).

I've also known some that think that Organic food is somehow killed in a nice pristine way. So far I have not seen any method of removing "life" from anything that was pleasant and the animals happy to go to it (in fact, things like what we see in the above video are the fastest and, therefore, tend to be the most humane). Nor have I found anyway that doesn't involve cutting, lots of blood, and generally looking bad to get the animal into parts that we eat.

This was pure genius for Palin. Would she have gotten even an off-hand mention had her Turkey pardon been antiseptic. Just look at how many other governors got national buzz from their pardons to find the answer to that question.

As far as hurting her politically, I doubt it very seriously and even believe it helps her. Everyone who is over the age of 7 knows that turkeys are killed before we see them on the dinner table. That she wasn't the least bit squeamish performing the pardon at a slaughter ranch continues to promote her real world mystique.

All I have to say is that Chuck Norris has got to be worried about the new kid. He'd be wise to keep looking over his shoulder and, maybe, get an eye patch to hide that nervous twitch he has developed.

...factors such as positioning, camera angle, and background were chosen, not by the interviewee, but by the crew.

Judging from the way Gov. Palin is a little to the left of center, and the contraption in its entirety can be seen behind and a little to the right, I'd say the choice of camera angle and positioning was a very conscious decision.

Years ago I used to host students from Japan in my home for the summer. One year I had a sweet young teenaged girl who very much wanted to learn to cook "American". She loved US supermarkets and the wide variety of foods.

But she was totally unnerved when I roasted a whole chicken. Her only experience with chicken was buying it in a Japanese market, individual pieces carefully packaged and wrapped. She had never seen one "whole".

She understood intellectually where it came from, but emotionally it hit her.

How weird would it be for these same hysterical "modern" urban Americans to ever contemplate the old tradition of holding the viewing of your newly dead relatives in the front parlor? Or death photos?

It's a strange kind of cultural amnesia that over comes each generation.

Outraged over slaughter of animals that are used for food, but why not outrage over slaughtered human beings by mothers and their abortionists.

Decapitation of a turkey is far more important than decapitating your infant son or daughter of 12-16 weeks.

Hypocrites.

Sorry about the double post above.

One last thought: maybe the self-righteous sissies at the NYT ought to check out what goes in some of the alleyways and kitchens of Chinatown (come here, Rover, nice doggie!) before waxing indignant about the barbarians out in Jesusland.

I don't think the negative reaction had much to do with the turkey slaughter. To me, what was really unseemly for someone who wants to run for president was to be presenting herself in such an unattractive environment, including with one really goofy looking man, with blood running all over.. and, her hair is back to looking as if it is done at the Beehive Beauty Parlor. Total lack of polish.
Just a lack of interest in "image." She already "owns" the red state base, she needs to appeal more widely. This is not going to do it. She looks way too "down home."

I don't think the negative reaction had much to do with the turkey slaughter. To me, what was really unseemly for someone who wants to run for president was to be presenting herself in such an unattractive environment, including with one really goofy looking man, with blood running all over.. and, her hair is back to looking as if it is done at the Beehive Beauty Parlor. Total lack of polish.
Just a lack of interest in "image." She already "owns" the red state base, she needs to appeal more widely. This is not going to do it. She looks way too "down home."

The NY Times harrumphing editorial was especially rich, coming from a paper that is perfectly at ease with offing infants by sucking out their brains while they are in the birth canal, and that proudly displays the Pulitzer Prize its mendacious reporter earned while helping Stalin keep a publicity lid on his murder-by-starvation of several million Ukrainian peasants. Another case of straining out gnats and swallowing camels.

Jeez Louise!

It's funny/stupid because Palin was PARDONING a turkey, while other turkeys were being slaughtered a few feet away.

It's a political joke because Palin is such a ditz.

The only way it could have been funnier would have been if she had turned to the turkeys still waiting in the pen and said, "Hiya, Ah'm Sarah, Ah'm from the gubmint and Ah'm here to help."

Jeez Louise!

It's funny/stupid because Palin was PARDONING a turkey, while other turkeys were being slaughtered a few feet away.

It's a political joke because Palin is such a ditz.

The only way it could have been funnier would have been if she had turned to the turkeys still waiting in the pen and said, "Hiya, Ah'm Sarah, Ah'm from the gubmint and Ah'm here to help."

you mean all my favorite vegetables (pork, beef, fish, and smoked turkey) DON'T come dead to begin with?!?

oh heayll!

If we get the tests Biden was warning us about come 2012 Governor Palin will be a shoo in. Most of America will want a president who is perfectly willing to kill.

> unless they are eaten alive ... animals have to be killed before being eaten.

Savage! I only eat meat from animals that have died of old age. In a hospice. A free range hospice. With music. And scented candles.

The most hilarious post: "This story reminds me of the time a Chinese woman bought a live chicken in San Francisco's Chinatown and then boarded a MUNI bus with the chicken. The bus driver informed her that live animals were not allowed on the bus, at which point she promptly snapped its neck and took her seat. A non-Asian bus passenger then lost her lunch on the bus."

The other day, I went through a market in a Chinese city, and what did I find? A line of dogs, slaughtered, skinned, and hanging from the line all ready for customers to come and buy. On the cutting board (more a piece of a tree stump, really), was a rib of dog. I know because I asked. In the cages were a couple of mutts looking very unhappy with their lot.

If the Moron Stream Media knows what's good for itself, they'll leave Palin alone. In their zest to make her radioactive, they're looking remarkably silly. Palin is media savvy and she'll use them to stay in the spotlight. Meantime, they'll take a dive for ragging on her for nonsense like this turkey of a story. She, in the meantime, comes off as a practical and tough woman.

I'd like to take them turkey hunting, so they can see how a man "gets in touch with nature." And by that, I mean "shoots a turkey's head off with high-velocity shot at close range from a 12 gauge because they are mean, vicious birds who are nearly-immortal, but taste oh so good."

If you have not converted, personally, a higher vertebrate from the state 'alive' to the state 'in pieces and steaming on a plate', you are de facto not allowed to have an opinion on animal husbandry. By which I mean you can still have an opinion, but the rest of us are free to point at you and mock you while pulling silly faces.

It's funny/stupid because Palin was PARDONING a turkey, while other turkeys were being slaughtered a few feet away.