Palin Pardons Turkey Then Gives Interview While Turkeys Are Slaughtered
November 20th, 2008, 11:30 PM EST
As Huffington Post says, this is surreal.
Some videos you just have to see to believe. On Thursday, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin appeared in Wasilla in order to pardon a local turkey in anticipation of Thanksgiving. This proved to be a slightly absurd but ultimately unremarkable event. But what came next was positively surreal. After the pardon Palin proceeded to do an interview with a local TV station while the turkeys were being SLAUGHTERED in the background!! Seemingly oblivious to the gruesomeness going on over her shoulder, she carries on talking for over three minutes. Watch the video below to see for yourself. Be warned, it’s kind of gruesome.
Wow! to be frank,i like PALIN,but not her polices. The lady is human and not perfect. The sad part thou,she is a major public figure. Other wise,i know alot of folks like her and myself as well.
November 20th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Note to city slickers: this is part of where turkeys come from. The Butterball didn’t just sprout from nothing in the frozen food aisle at Krogers.
If you want to see something really gross, take a walk through a slaughterhouse and get a good look at where your Big Mac came from.
November 21st, 2008 at 12:28 am
Ya know, everyone likes steak but nobody wants to work in the slaughter house.
November 21st, 2008 at 12:29 am
Those who have never pulled a tomato from the vine probably don’t realize they scream horribly when the stem breaks.
It’s kind of gruesome but dealing with the horror is a small price to pay if you like a really fresh ‘mater on the cheeseburger.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:24 am
Shows just how far removed from everyday reality people are, they eat meat but are appalled that it comes from a slaughtered animal.
They walk through life oblivious to the obvious.
Not that I’m better than anyone else, but I appreciate where my food comes from and am thankful.
But that’s just me, I think about stuff besides what beer might be on sale today.
Funny how much we take for granted, huh?
November 21st, 2008 at 1:43 am
Nah, I love meat.
I used to have a vegan friend who tried to show me some video PETA made of a pig slaughterhouse. She asked me what I thought of the ‘horrible things they’re doing’.
I said it was a slaughterhouse and I was suddenly hungry for ribs.
What irritates me is that some so called environmentalists take that vegetarian outlook and claim being a vegetarian means they’re more in touch with the earth.
No it doesn’t, it means you’re eating the earth.
Meanwhile I’m eating methane producing animals, and leaving more plants around to convert our poisonous gasses to oxygen. Vegetarians are eating the solution to global warming.
Not that it matters a whole lot, even if we nuked every living plant and animal off the face of the planet, the environment would recover in a matter of decades. The animals would take longer to get back, and I doubt mother nature would make a mistake like humankind again for a long time.
Kill more turkeys, It’s Thanksgiving soon, and I’m thankful that they are tasty, and full of triptophane to help me relax with my milk and pecan pie during the football games.
Gobble Gobble indeed.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:59 am
Scuse the misspelling, I’m a bit tired and wonky at the moment.
“tryptophan”
November 21st, 2008 at 2:00 am
Are you worried someone might think you’re not as smart as ya’ll might want them to think James?
Do you think you’re being scrutinized?
Don’t worry, we know you have it all figured out.
Why do you still cling to your agnosticism?
Where are you at now on the Dawkins scale, I’m just curious.
Good night Jimmy, thanks for choosing me, good luck with that.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:23 am
No,
no,
what are you talking about,
because there is no evidence to lead me away from it,
around 5-6, depending on the day,
I had to choose someone, Frank said I was gay. I can explain the wife. I was apparently confused.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:29 am
And y’all is the plural of you (at least in Tennessee, Arkansas and Florida). I’m only one person, just to help you. (I’m fat, but I don’t think that qualifies me as two people)
November 21st, 2008 at 3:31 am
Jim:
The logic of vegetarians eating the solution to global warming is flawed(but not absurd logic).
The flaw in your logic is the following 2 facts,which you hopefully wont deny:
1.Meat consumption as compared to Plant consumption is “energy inefficient”: This is very old stuff.You need 100 calories,you need to consume X amount of vegetarian food,Y amount of meat food,to produce Y you need Z amount of vegetarian food(to raise the animals),and granted Y may be less than X,the true cost to the environment of “noxious and CO2 gas cleaning plant matter” of consuming meat is Z,which is documented through scientific studies for EVERY meat food as being larger(typically a TEN scale for each level you go up:You consume a plant eating animal,your Z:X is typically around 10.You consume a meat eating animal which consumes(say) only plant eating animals,your Z:X typically is around 100) than its corresponding X
2.Apart from the above efficiency factor,consuming meat as an Industry creates a new “life cycle” for the consumed animals,which is different from what their life cycles would have been HAD YOU chosen to consume vegetarian food.You consume X amount of meat,say you chose to consume vegetarian food instead,the amount of meat you chose to not consume translates to an animal not being killed,not being raised for slaughter.It lives normally for N years.Raised for slaughter,it lives normally for M years.M is expected to be less than N.With a lower expectancy of years,man still tries to maintain the species population of that animal same(to sustain his meat consumption,obviously,and also for argument purpose,to keep ‘all other things constant’):This leads to a greater food consumption PER head of animal population sustained,of the animal being raised for slaughter.So Not only is X less than Z, Z itself is larger than it would be had the animals not been raised for slaughter.
Bottomline:I advocate you consume meat,but raise them yourself.Making this an industry is passing on a ridiculous cost to future generations.Just like printing currency is passing on cost of (wasteful) government spending to the general public as an indirect tax.
Karthik
November 21st, 2008 at 5:31 am
“surreal”
How, then, do you think turkeys get to your supermarket?
Really, the whole thing is an oblique Ted Stevens allusion.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:44 am
Must of really been a slow day for Alan. Really kinda nutty if you ask me. I think I might take a picture of my golden brown, throughly baked turkey and send it to PETA. You think it will make them hungry? lol
These people need to get a hobby or something, don’t you think Alan?
November 21st, 2008 at 8:07 am
I am not against slaughter house/farms or anything but the obvious question is why would you go pardon a Turkey (save its life) and then do an interview with a Turkey being SLAUGHTERED in the background? What other political figure do such a thing? She were asked by the interviewer about the background choice and apparently she thought nothing of it. Clueless.
November 21st, 2008 at 8:33 am
Alan you are such a city guy. Do you think turkeys come out of the egg baked, do you think the meat you eat is sliced into chops, stakes, ground beef, prim rib and roast when it is born. Lay off Palin she is a real country girl who would survivor if the stores closed tomorrow, you would parish or may she will be the one serving you moose soup in a depression soup line.
November 21st, 2008 at 8:40 am
Donna,
You nailed it. Alan would never survive on his own. I don’t know why he has to nit-pick such things as to the turkeys being slaughtered in the background. Apparently he hasn’t a clue about rural America. He is so tied up in Big City New York that he has become an elitest and is completely out of touch with everyday life of normal Americans.
November 21st, 2008 at 8:50 am
Karthik, I live in a small apartment. I don’t have the room to raise livestock. I do live in a relatively rural area in New Jersey though, so meat comes from local farms at some stores.
November 21st, 2008 at 9:05 am
“Lay off Palin she is a real country girl who would survivor if the stores closed tomorrow…”
Well, she’d be ok till the supply of bullets runs out. But what happens then, who knows?
November 21st, 2008 at 10:01 am
Jim,
Have you considered the amount of food that is raised to feed your “steak” instead of directly feeding people? Do you think that the resources it takes to raise livestock (grain, alfalfa, water) is an even exchange for the amount of meat you actually get when you butcher a cow? Most ranchers graze cattle as a way to reduce the amount of hay they have to purchase, but would that land be better used to actually raise food for people instead of cattle/sheep? As the population of the world is growing where are the increasing amount of food animals getting the grains/hay they need? It is coming from farmers/ranchers clearing more land of trees and putting in fields of legumes/clover/alfalfa. I would recommend you do some research, you are not “leaving more plants around to convert our poisonous gasses to oxygen.”
I make no claims about being closer to the earth than you are, but I do claim that I am probably healthier. I also have never met an obese vegetarian.
Interesting that so many posters to this thread have not seen the irony in the interview…that is the only reason it is newsworthy. I don’t think it has anything to do with people not knowing where their turkey (food) comes from, it is another example Palin’s lack of intelligence.
November 21st, 2008 at 10:20 am
Dont worry Jim the talking plant couldnt read the scale accurately anyway according to his response a few weeks back… right bushy? I agree with the observation of the post.. pardon a turkey then give an interview in sight of killing off its buddies. Well maybe they’re not buddies that was a loose term, fellow turks.
November 21st, 2008 at 10:58 am
All the Palin defenders seem a bit tired today, if ‘that’s how animals are slaughtered, omg you elitist liberals are so stupid!’ really is the only talking point you can come up with.
It’s not the slaughter itself that makes this outrageous, it’s the fact that Palin isn’t killed by the irony of the situation at any point during that interview.
When she started talking about how much fun she was having, while the bird was convulsing, I thought I might cry from the beauty of it. I’m not disgusted or mortally offended, I can’t stop laughing!
November 21st, 2008 at 11:26 am
THANK YOU, Cecilie. As soon as I saw Alan had posted the newest Palin-Screw-Up du jour, I couldn’t WAIT to find out how the Palin defenders would play this. Couldn’t WAIT for the snotty, outraged, “Well, Alan, wheredoya think turkeys cume frum, huhhhhh?”
Completely averting their eyes from the irony and carnage! Ha! I love it.
Wonder how many neocons will take their children on field trips to the slaughterhouses, in defiant support of their newest and prettiest ideological mascot?
November 21st, 2008 at 11:57 am
She is Irony Challenged. Why did she all of a sudden call a media event for herself? Is this tradition for Alaska Govs. , or is she just trying to be “Presidential”? I am embarrassed for her. What an example of a not very bright elected official in way over her head.
November 21st, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Jeffro, I just searched the archives of Anchorage Daily News and found NOTHING about prior turkey-pardoning by previous governors of Alaska.
I really don’t want to believe she’s commandeered a ceremony that’s most famously conducted at the White House (although many other governors also pardon turkeys, I just can’t find evidence that Alaska’s done it before).
So, I don’t know….Does anyone else know if this is a tradition in Alaska?
November 21st, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Kuvas, I get my protein in an enjoyable form. Most of the cows out here eat grass and hay, and the deer eat whatever’s growing around.
And to be quite honest, I’m not all that much of an environmentalist. I’m a conservationist, to be sure, but in reality, this world will survive us. Earth will shake us off like a bad cold when we screw up too much. Hence Ebola, HIV etc. Just nature’s own method of population control. We’ll cure something and something else will come along.
Do I think we’re hurting the planet? Sure, we threaten other species a lot, we’re causing a warming effect, etc. But Earth is in no danger of destruction. Just the humans on it, and really, who’d miss ‘em?
November 21st, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Jim, I agree with most of what you say, just wanted to point out how much land and feed is required to raise those protein sources. The world will survive us, but unfortunately, a lot of species won’t.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:18 pm
HELL! WHAT THE FROC. I WANT SOME TURKEY NEXT THURSDAY.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I don’t like Turkey. The taste of the bird, that is. The country’s alright, I guess.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:49 pm
This looks just like an SNL skit, I can’t stop laughing. I think the Turkey ‘Slaughterer’ in the back was thinking the same thing. Why is this being videotaped? Is she insane? Watch him use his body to shield the parts from the camera where the Turkey started violently beating. I grew up on a farm with chickens so I have no problem with it, but would never think to videotape it for the world. Especially when she supposedly came to pardon one. This is pure comedy.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Understood, and yeah I know. I’ll stop eating burgers when cows get on the endangered list, I promise.
As for now, I think our old coal and oil energy sources are causing way more damage to our environment than Mickey Dees.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Jim:Its a free country,its a free world. You dont have to justify to me why you eat meat or dont eat meat.Meat could be much more inefficient than I pointed out,and you can still eat it because you LIKE it so much.And of course you dont have to produce it to eat it,that again is your right,to buy from market. I merely pointed out that your argument about meat eating fighting global warming effects (less CO2) while vegetarian diets cause global warming effects (more CO2) is flawed
November 21st, 2008 at 3:42 pm
And as far as cost goes,Jim:You hit the nail on the head.
Where I come from,Grain,plant based food vs animal,meat based foods cost in proportion to X and Z.USA is simply amazing on this score. A wonderful subsidy setup leads to meat being cheaper per unit vegetable mass used for production, as compared to the plant matter based foods, even though meat takes MORE plant matter based inputs to produce per unit! THIS is why as you yourself admitted you eat meat so much. Sure,back home in India, people eat meat.Once a week,as their ‘weekly celebration’. Because the price of meat there isnt supported by subsidies.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Eh, yeah maybe I’m not so environmentally friendly by eating meat. I figured I was doing good by cutting down on cow farts.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I gas not, Jim.
November 21st, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Oh my! Is that where are turkeys come from? I had no idea. I guess I’ll have ham instead.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Wow Alan, I couldn’t believe this! This is terrible!
November 21st, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Yeah it probably was not the best place to conduct an inverview, but the turkey in the background never got slaughtered on camera! The guy was waiting until the interview was over because he has some common sense in knowing that most people probably don’t want to see a turkey get slaughtered! Why is this even posted on this page? It must have been a slow day and people can’t let Sarah Palin just be. She didn’t choose the camera angle. Why are we not criticizing the camera guy for keeping the “slaughtered” turkey in the scene? Could have moved two feet and the “horrible, gruesome” scene would not be in the picture. I can’t believe that I am even ranting about this! Well it must be a slow day for me too.
November 21st, 2008 at 6:08 pm
this should of come as no surprise because its not like palin has done this stuff before.
Remember during those interviews with the press, she would be talking to the reporter while in the background you could see John Mccain’s presidential campaign being slaughtered in front of the cameras before our eyes…!
lol
November 21st, 2008 at 6:50 pm
actually i think palin wanted to send a message to the terrorists that cross her state that if she would of been the next VP, she would be talking to the press while the terrorists would be killed behind her in the background….
right???
DAMN I MISS THE SARAH ‘the flight attendant’ PALIN!!!!
GO PALIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…
go home and stay there and dont come back.
November 21st, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Why are you libs so stuck on her? Please. Don’t you have better things to do?
November 21st, 2008 at 7:26 pm
because its fun picking on palin!
she was the worst VP pick since…. well Cheney!
naw, i think she is worst than cheney.
November 21st, 2008 at 8:25 pm
What?….
So, the Huffington Post therefore is suggesting that the tradition of the Thanksgiving ‘pardon’ of the turkey means that no one should eat turkey on Thanksgiving.
The Huffington Post needs to stop being such a girly-man blog!
November 21st, 2008 at 8:32 pm
This circus is a perfect parallel to John McCain’s continued assertion that he economy was in great shape while all around the Republicans were grabbing the country’s silverware and stuffing it in their back pockets.
November 21st, 2008 at 9:59 pm
This Palin crap comes from the party that claimed the moral high ground in this last election? Give me a break. The liberals bash Palin, Bush ANYONE who is a conservative but cry foul if anyone dares to say anything against obama, clinton, etc. etc. etc. No that’s tolerance for ya.
That spells H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E no matter where you come from.
November 21st, 2008 at 10:31 pm
T. Mason, it’s a bit different if you’re telling the truth instead of right wing disinformation propaganda.
Sarah Palin doesn’t have the knowledge for the job she was nominated for, it was a proven fact, she couldn’t even answer the job description correctly.
Obama is NOT a Muslim (not that it should matter) but he did have a Muslim father. Obama is a PROVEN natural citizen, yet the right still tried to seed doubt and disinformation, and uses the easily led sheep that eat the lies up and spew them all over other people.
As for Clinton, he was a great president. I was making more money, the country was in great shape when he left, and the budget was balanced and we were reducing the national debt.
Hmmm. Oops. Something happened. You wanna talk about him getting a hummer from a chubby intern? Irrelevant. Did not affect the economic state of the country, or endanger us politically or militarily. Who cares about that, that’s his and hilary’s business. Tripp should be ashamed for putting Chelsea through the trauma of finding out her Dad had a fling, not on a personal quiet level, but NATIONALLY.
Love those idiots.
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:15 am
The people who should be most mad about this are the vegetarians – they should be mad at MSNBC for censoring the turkeys tail when it was twitching.
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:35 am
this interview demonstrates Sarah Palin’s cunning ability to use the media for her own ends. For example, the turkey in the background is designed to appear accidental… in reality she put that flailing bird directly behind her to warn anyone who might oppose her rise to power: Submit now or die.
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:50 am
You know those shoes on your feet? Betcha at least a part of them are made of leather. Know where leather comes from? Betcha do. How about that belt holding up your pants? Betcha it’s leather.
Can all you bleeding hearts out there assure me that the vegetables you eat don’t suffer great pain when you callously pluck them from their vine? Aren’t you mean to never have thought of that?
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Jim,
Having turkey next week?
I don’t know what bill clinton has to do with sarah palin, but knock yourself out if it makes you feel better.
Obama isn’t even in office yet. Let’s wait and see what kind of “change” takes form over the next 4 years.
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I just can’t believe this. I mean Sarah Palin hasn’t stopped bothering many liberals. I hope those of you who never tire of putting down this lady don’t eat turkey. I can’t believe there are people out there who lack common sense to know that a turkey has to go through the natural process as allowed by USDA for mass human consumption. Can’t escape the dirty politics the leftist would go to in their vile effort to continue smearing Ms. Palin. Even the Turkey YOU’LL ENJOY EATING ON THANKSGIVING!
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:51 am
Actually, I won’t be eating turkey this year, THANKS to Palin’s nice little “turkey pardoning.”
And for all you rubes who keep harping, “Well, WHERE do you think things COME from?!”, let me ask you something:
Do you actually ENJOY going to the slaughterhouse to see your future shoe leather? Do you LOVE to watch the process of making hot dogs?
Please. It was a stupid move on her part. Pure and simple.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Good Lord. Wear ‘em but oh sweet Lizzie don’t ask where they came from. Stuff your face with it, but God forbid you actually see where it came from and how it got on your plate.
I grew up KNOWING where my food came from. And yes, I have helped slaughter chickens and turkeys. There is no sin in that. NONE. Where do you think it comes from?? The food fairy?
I am assuming all the hypocrites who are screaming about this don’t own a leather couch or any other piece of leather furniture including in the car your drive, don’t eat ANY animal meat or foods that are animal by-products, don’t wear nice leather shoes, no down comforters or feather pillows.
Give me a freakin’ break. Now pass the turkey
November 24th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
GO SARAH YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 25th, 2008 at 12:33 am
JIM FROM JERSEY- you made a few good points, but cows would either be extinct or entirely different if they weren’t bred the way they are. Therefore, they would not be producing methane. Also, forests are cut down to allow for pasture for food animals. If you want to eat animals, you should pay a carbon offset tax by having fewer children.
November 27th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Dodes, I was mistaken in a few things, but that doesn’t change my overall opinion. They’re cows. They’re made (in this country) to be milked and eaten. And Jackets.
November 27th, 2008 at 9:56 pm