Posted on 12/11/2010 2:04:42 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
On her new TLC live-action show, Sarah Palin's Alaska, Palin bludgeons a gigantic halibut to death and then displays its still-beating heart triumphantly for the at-home television audience writes New York Times' David Firestone.
During an earlier episode, she gunned down a docile, unresisting female caribou with six shots, two rifles and help from her dad, recounts Maureen Dowd, also in the New York Times. "The poor caribou in the Arctic Circle, a cousin to Santa's reindeer, had to die so Palin could show off her toughness to voters," writes Dowd.
Of course Palin's point, that "if you want to have wild, organic, healthy food you're gonna go out there and hunt yourself," is sanctimonious and privileged.
"Does Palin really think the average housewife in Ohio who can't pay her bills is going to load up on ammo, board two different planes, camp out for two nights with a film crew and shoot a caribou so she can feed her family organic food?" asks Dowd.
It is also wrong.
Lead and wildlife diseases including the Mad Cow-like Chronic Wasting Disease make eating the caribou less safe than other meat, not more.
Department of Natural Resources officials increasingly warn against lead in hunted meat, some barely detectable, leading some food pantries to refuse donations altogether. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention detected "fatal degenerative neurologic illnesses in men who participated in wild game feasts," who all died, in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5207a1.htm
But do-it-yourself-slaughter to prove you're not squeamish or in denial about where your meal came from, is increasingly popular in warmer climes too, often coached by gourmet chefs and foodies.
Last month, New York Times City Critic Ariel Kaminer describes her decision to take the life of a turkey, "a beautiful bird, a Bourbon Red turkey whose rich brown feathers were flecked with white," at the Islamic slaughterhouse Madani Halal, in Ozone Park, Queens.
Imran Uddin, who helped hold the knife, "pronounced, 'Bismillah Allahu Akbar,' Arabic for 'In the name of Allah the great,'" recounts Kaminer. "Then, in one swift movement, we cut her throat. The bird's body went slack, and her head -- still attached -- sank slowly into the blood-lined tray beneath. After a few moments, she roused again for a quick bout of flapping."
Earlier this year, the New York Times' Christine Muhlke witnessed the first use of a mobile slaughterhouse in Stamford, NY. Even though she describes herself as a "meat hipster who serves pickled pigs' tongues," Muhlke registers horror at the frenetic "wild thrashing."
And last year a New York Times article about do-it-yourself slaughter recounts University of Illinois student Jake Lahne observing "Animals do not want to die.They can feel pain and fear, and, just like us, will struggle to breathe for even one single more second. If you're about to run 250 volts through a pig, do not look it in the eyes. It is not going to absolve you."
Killing your own meat could spare the animal the horrors of factory farming, inhumane transport and the disassembly line on the killing floor.
But while it more honest than letting someone else do it, the act is also not just about you.
"Enlightened carnivorousness," -- being okay with the deaths -- is irrelevant to the pain of animal, notes Pete Singer, the father of the animal rights movement, also in the New York Times.
While Palin delights in the fact that liberals "get all wee-wee'd up" about her baby shower, held at a shooting range, and her teenage daughter gutting salmon, is it really about liberal squeamishness?
Squeamishness implies necessary evils like giving blood, drawing blood, cleaning up noxious fluids or even euthanasia -- not voluntary and unnecessary cruelty.
After all, people could overcome squeamishness at watching a stoning too.
Or they would say that since more white people have cancer than black people her effort to cure cancer was racially unfair.
Well I guess it’s oatmeal and prunes for me from here on out.
NOT!
Dowd is so jealous of attractive women. It must be a complex left from her own heartbreak. What a sad, miserable woman.
I love Mr. Palin’s bumper sticker.
Vegetarian: old indian word for bad hunter.
Doh!
yes.
first rifle was not sighted in well
got a fresh rifle, one shot, right through the ticker
Do the Muslums “pronounce, ‘Bismillah Allahu Akbar,’ Arabic for ‘In the name of Allah the great,’” before they kill a daughter who is compelled to change to Christianity or before stoning to death someone convicted of adultery?
She was probably hot before Benny Goodman hit it big.
Wildlife has been save for thousand of years.
Wow that looks good
Pete Singer—animal rights activist. Is this the same Professor who says it’s OK to kill toddlers—if their lives are not going to be “productive”, or might be “burdensome”?
Wow! Looks like someone bludgeoned her in the face with a sack of nickles for the halibut!
Of course Maureen Dowd would never dream of going out in the wild to hunt, club, skin, gut and cook the hundreds of baby tofus she gobbles down each day.
Unless, of course, she eats meat. Then she should be given a pick axe, pointed at a cow, and told to butcher herself a steak for dinner.
Unless you are a vegetarian your meat is also from a killed animal. And feedlot cattle are vastly unhealthier than wild caribou, I promise you. Caribou meat has omega 3s because it was not fed nasty grains.
Thanks for taking time to answer my question.
Served on a bed of fried spinach and wild mushrooms,
w/ bacon-wrapped white asparagus and truffle cream sauce.
Shouldn't shoot Bambi but they are ok with killing people.
Because the first rifle was sighted wrong (as they later found out when they tested it). But don't let facts get in the way of your agenda, Martha.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.