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Unqualified Offerings

Looking Sideways at Your World Since October 2001
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November 21, 2008

Grange We Can Believe In

BERJAYA

Yes. The website of the poultry farm where Palin had her video op makes clear that it’s an artisinal local producer whose husbandry practices shame the commercial chicken and turkey industry by contrast. The video itself tends to confirm the claims of the website. The owner processes a single bird at a time, with care and attention. If you’re not a vegan, you have no quarrel with this man or his operation. As for Palin using it as a backdrop for the interview, I admit it has its amusing aspects, but it’s a guy working, is what it is. Why shouldn’t he be the backdrop of an interview?

Posted by Jim Henley @ 11:09 pm, Filed under: Main

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24 Responses to “Grange We Can Believe In”

  1. Comment by sab
    November 21, 2008 @ 11:50 pm

    Thanks for the post. Where do these folks in NY think dead turkeys for holidays come from?

  2. Comment by Jim Henley
    November 22, 2008 @ 12:02 am

    The store!

  3. Comment by ari
    November 22, 2008 @ 12:36 am

    My favorite part of the video is the occasional gobbling and the look on the guy’s face, which seems to be saying: “Can I behead this bird now? Or is that going to cause me trouble with the governor?”

  4. Comment by buermann
    November 22, 2008 @ 5:11 am

    I was impressed, myself. When I was growing up we just had a trunk and a hatchet and feathers, everywhere.

  5. Comment by josephdietrich
    November 22, 2008 @ 11:28 am

    Why shouldn’t he be the backdrop of an interview?

    Oh, I don’t know, maybe because it’s incredibly distracting? But that’s just my impression.

  6. Comment by geeno
    November 22, 2008 @ 12:09 pm

    It’s just the raw funny that makes this. She pardons one turkey in a kid-friendly gesture, then stands there giving this stupid interview while the guy kills the rest of them. It’s Palin’s almost surreal cluelessness about how things look that is just flat out hilarious.
    I agree that anyone feigning offense at this is just looking for something to bother themselves about, but c’mon – it’s funny.
    BTW – I’m from NY and we get wild turkeys around here all the time. It’s not hard to do the math from there.

  7. Comment by geeno
    November 22, 2008 @ 12:14 pm

    Commenter at John Cole’s
    “You wouldn’t do a Mother’s Day interview in front of two people f*cking and defend it by saying ‘Where do you think babies come from?’”

  8. Comment by Avram
    November 22, 2008 @ 5:00 pm

    My favorite part is the reporter asking if there are any programs “on the chopping block”.

  9. Comment by kid bitzer
    November 22, 2008 @ 6:18 pm

    wait, how come i have to be a vegan in order to have a quarrel?

    why a vegan?

    (why a duck?)

    can’t ovo-lacto vegetarians decry the killing of animals for food?

    (and geeno–that comment from john cole’s thread is killer funny!)

  10. Comment by Thers
    November 23, 2008 @ 2:37 am

    Well, I’m in NY, and I can tell you exactly where the chicken in our basement freezer comes from. Our backyard.

    Yeah, I don’t know who’s “offended” by the video, as opposed to people thinking “this is not really very astute political theater.”

    If Palin had thought this through and were making an argument about factory farming etc. in the video that would be one thing, but I kinda don’t think she had that in mind.

    The guy should be the *subject* of an interview. I’d be interested. Palin, not so much.

  11. Comment by excathedra88
    November 23, 2008 @ 3:06 am

    Most folks seem to be missing the point, which is not the ludicrous degree of hypocrisy demonstrated by those that sup on fowl decrying the brutality of the great turkey murder video, nor the apparent political naivety of the Palindrome.

    Nope, the point is she plays to her base, which ain’t liberal bloggers, vegans ( or lacto-ovos), progressives, or even creative anarchists. Good old ‘red blooded’ ‘Mericans! ( notably, older hetro males, and the women who subordinate themselves to such).

    Remember F. Thompson’s field dress a moose comment? The ones applauding and laughing at that comment – them be her base, and the entire episode at the turkey farm plays right to them ( personally, I prefer a pol who knows how to field dress a Washington lobbyist, and eagerly await such a video).

  12. Comment by Chuck Butcher
    November 23, 2008 @ 6:08 am

    The issuing of plutocrat tags would make for interesting field dressing and probably very long lines.

  13. Comment by Steve
    November 23, 2008 @ 7:33 am

    She was just introducing America to Joe the Turkey Processor. He will be on stage with her during the next election.

  14. Comment by Jim Henley
    November 23, 2008 @ 10:44 am

    @kid bitzer: For serious, it depends. Specifically on where the eggs and milk come from. Laying hens are probably the most abused animal in the industrial system – pigs give them a run for the title, I’ll grant you – and dairy cows can fair nearly as poorly.

    Cruelty-free eggs are readily available, though. Milk is a tougher issue.

    The above presupposes the Jim value system that subjecting an animal to life-long torture is worse than simply killing it.

  15. Comment by Libby Spencer
    November 23, 2008 @ 10:46 am

    Having spent 15 years on the farm and seen chickens beheaded with an axe, I wasn’t offended. Actually I was pretty impressed with the cone of decaptitation. Much less messy.

    I was somewhat offended by her shameless display of naked ambition though. If it’s customary for governors to pardon turkeys, I’m unaware of it. Rather arrogant co-opting of a presidential tradition, I thought.

  16. Comment by Jim Henley
    November 23, 2008 @ 10:53 am

    Yeah, cones are the standard now for the small producer. The farmer who raises the bulk of the Henley family chickens has them. Not sure who brought the innovation when.

  17. Comment by Jen
    November 23, 2008 @ 12:37 pm

    While reading the proclamation inside the turkey enclosure:
    “I, as governor, a friend to all creatures big and small…”
    “in Alaska, where we don’t even have the death penalty”

    “I was happy to get to be invited to participate in this. For one, you need a little bit of levity in this job, especially with so much that has gone in the last couple of months that has been so political obviously that it’s nice to get out and do something to promote a local business and to just participate in something that isn’t so heavy-handed politics that it invites criticism. Certainly we’ll probably invite criticism for even doing this, too, but at least this was fun.”

    And also because then ya know too I also enjoy drinkin’ my latte also while doin’ the interview then watchin’ the turkeys get their blood drained. You betcha!

  18. Comment by tjproudamerican
    November 23, 2008 @ 2:48 pm

    For those who think this video is not a disaster, do you anticipate other politicians being interviewed while animals are slaughtered in the background?

    Mark Steyn says this video is so impressive that it is Palin’s first ad in her 2012 race. Are we, thanks to he men Conservatives like Sarah, in for an honesty in advertising run? Will we see beef ads showing CEO’s on the Slaughterhouse Floors?

  19. Comment by tjproudamerican
    November 23, 2008 @ 2:55 pm

    One more point:

    I never joined the chorus who denounced Michael Vick. I think “animal cruelty” laws are a joke. It isn’t just “liberals” who get weepy-eyed over animals. Conservatives were also denouncing Michael Vick.

    As a meat eater, I say who cares how the animals die. As long as they taste good.

    But Palin looks stupid with someone upstaging her and Americans don’t want to know how their food is processed.

  20. Comment by Kurzleg
    November 23, 2008 @ 7:37 pm

    TJPA –

    On the contrary. I think a growing number of people want to know how their food is processed, and I think food processors want to keep that hidden from view as much as possible for obvious reasons. It is a problem when people are kept uninformed about how their food is raised because it prevents them from making better choices about what food they buy.

    As for your comment about not caring how animals die, I truly feel sorry for you. If you can’t empathize with the fate of a fellow living creature, then you’re truly an emotionally impoverished human being.

  21. Comment by joe from Lowell
    November 23, 2008 @ 8:20 pm

    I agree, this seems to be a decent, reasonably humane type of meat-raising, much better than the nightmarish factor farms. Uh, so?

    Why doesn’t she just do the next interview while taking a shit?

    It’s just an ordinary bodily function. There’s nothing wrong with it at all. Where do people from New York – who, apparently, are extremely stupid – think the food they eat goes?

    What are you, kidding me? What’s wrong with giving a press interview while livestock is being slaughtered in the background? What are you, kidding me?

  22. Comment by dhex
    November 24, 2008 @ 10:32 am

    eh, i still don’t think it’s that big a deal.

    and i’m from new york, where turkeys come from whole foods at 11 bucks a pound.

  23. Comment by Jim Henley
    November 24, 2008 @ 11:11 am

    Wow. I thought the $4/pound 22-pounder I got from Mrs. Bolton on Saturday was an expensive bird!

  24. Comment by Mike
    November 24, 2008 @ 12:33 pm

    It’s pretty obvious what she’s up to here – it’s simply theater, put out there hoping someone makes a big deal about it so the base can be treated to comments about the sissy liberals from NY who don’t have a clue where their food comes from. The base can laugh at the weeny liberals. Yawn.

    She’s busy running for president in 2012. Hopefully, her 15 minutes will end long before that.

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