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Videotaped MSNBC interview with Governor Palin showing an operating turkey farm slaughter pen in the background. Horrors, doesn't she know that turkeys are people too?

This is my traditional Thanksgiving essay from WarOnGuns. Attacks by roving flocks of wild turkeys are on the increase around suburban Boston--AP Time was, the turkey was considered a game bird. The Pilgrims at Plymouth feasted on them. Generations later, Ben Franklin considered it such a useful fowl that he nominated it for the national bird. Of course, this was in the days when the right to bear arms was taken for granted, when free people hunted turkeys for sustenance, all the while honing marksmanship that would serve them well in time of need. Flash forward to present-day Boston, a...

It is not just in people and places that cultural divisions raise their ugly heads. It also happens in weather. In my first fifty years, spent largely in Maryland and D.C., there were maybe five times that the weather was so bad I was trapped in my home. Now that I live on the top of a mountain in the Blue Ridge, being trapped at home by the weather is an ordinary circumstance that happens several times a year, and we prepare for it, routinely. People in most parts of the nation may consider the Weather Channel as not particularly...

WASHINGTON -- Tuesday morning in the Rose Garden, President Bush promised May the turkey that he would not be served with a side of yams on Thanksgiving. Nor would May's pal Flower. Oh, happy day. The Thanksgiving presidential turkey pardon. It's a tradition, major newspapers have reported for years, that began in 1947 with President Harry Truman -- a sentimental reprieve from the man who had thumbs-upped two atomic bombs. "To paraphrase Harry today," Bush said, "you cannot take the heat -- and you're definitely going to stay out of the kitchen." Americans gobbled up this annual parable of mercy....

Turkeys take to cities, towns On a recent afternoon, Kettly Jean-Felix parked her car on Beacon Street in Brookline, fed the parking meter, wheeled around to go to the optician and came face to face with a wild turkey.

BROOKLINE - On a recent afternoon, Kettly Jean-Felix parked her car on Beacon Street in Brookline, fed the parking meter, wheeled around to go to the optician and came face to face with a wild turkey. The turkey eyed Jean-Felix. Jean-Felix eyed the turkey. It gobbled. She gasped. Then the turkey proceeded to follow the Dorchester woman over the Green Line train tracks, across the street, through traffic, and all the way down the block, pecking at her backside as she went.

Bird flu found on British farm By Bonnie Malkin and agencies Last Updated: 5:35pm GMT 03/02/2007 Government vets are investigating an outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm after thousands of turkeys died. Police have cordoned off the farm Experts were called to a Bernard Matthews site at Holton near Halesworth, Suffolk, late on Thursday following the outbreak of an "unexplained" illness. Around 2,600 turkeys are thought to have died from the virus. The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said preliminary tests had confirmed a bird flu outbreak. Later, the EU Commission confirmed the potentially deadly...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061123/ap_on_fe_st/turkeys_train

AN Ankara court fined an elderly man 10,000 lira ($8929) for criticising Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in a visitors' book at the former home of Kemal Ataturk, revered founder of modern Turkey. Fethi Dorduncu visited the house in the Greek city of Thessaloniki in May and wrote in the visitors' book that Mr Erdogan was a "traitor" bent on destroying Ataturk's secular republic and building an Islamic state in Turkey. Mr Erdogan ripped the page from the book in anger when he later visited the house, which is now a museum, in the city where Ataturk was born in 1881...

Turkey's foreign minister asks the EU for blasphemy laws to protect Islam By David Rennie in Brussels (Filed: 13/03/2006) Deep divisions have appeared among European union governments over suggestions that they should alter their blasphemy laws to protect Islam, and not just Christianity. Abdullah Gul, the Turkish foreign minister, sparked disagreement among his EU counterparts at a weekend meeting in Austria, when he called for European nations to review existing laws, to ensure they outlawed the "defamation" of all religions. Mr Gul told a meeting of EU and Balkan foreign ministers in Salzburg that many Muslims believed that European laws...

There's something about Thanksgiving that truly brings out the hate in America's most miserable extremists. Some of the most notorious fresh examples: From Bill Schechner at San Francisco's KPIX: Arab-Owned Liquor Stores Attacked In Oakland OAKLAND Security tapes from the San Pablo Liquor Market on 23rd and San Pablo Ave. in Oakland show 11 men dressed in the manner of members of the Nation of Islam walking into the market at about 11:30 Wednesday night. After confronting the clerk behind the counter they push him aside, topple some groceries, open the wine, soda and alcohol coolers and throw the goods...

While certainly a perplexing holiday to many outside America, Thanksgiving's meaning isn't always clear to those stateside, either. I'll leave the history lessons to California Conservative, except to say it certainly is a major day around this neck of the woods. Can it partly be seen, however, as a day to reflect on that uniquely American way of overcoming life's obstacles? This week, I was interviewed for an entertainment industry trade publication, where I happened to mention two former coaches as influences. In the online article that appeared, there were links added to their own stories, that make this point...

On this glorious Thanksgiving day, the Radio Equalizer thanks Air America's Janeane Garofalo and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann for providing top-quality holiday entertainment. Only Olbermann would have the nerve to choose the likes of Garofalo to provide alleged "insight" into columnist and former CNN commentator Robert Novak's recent troubles. How about credibility, does this matter at MSNBC? What does this actress and would-be political activist know about Bob Novak? In a seven-minute Countdown segment, Garofalo provided no insight, factual material, research or anything that even suggested she had particular expertise regarding Novak. It was pure hot air. Top top it off,...

Turkeys Away Johnny: Gripping music, huh? Mr Carlson: Yeah, that's good all right. What's the name of that orchestra? Johnny: Pink Floyd. Mr Carlson: Oooh, is that Pink Floyd? Do I hear dogs barking on that thing? Johnny: I do. Mr Carlson: What's really going on, Travis? Andy: Nothing! Mr Carlson: Well, I don't like it. It's too quiet. Andy: D'you think the Indians are gonna attack? Andy: You are the boss. You're the boss! And you do, uh, boss stuff. Mr Carlson: Such as? Andy: Well, you, uh, uh - well, then again you, uh - well, let me...

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Maybe they knew what was coming. Two dozen live turkeys bound for Thanksgiving tables fell off a truck Friday on the New Jersey Turnpike, briefly snarling traffic near Newark Liberty International Airport. "I think we should be investigating this as an escape attempt," said Joseph Orlando, a spokesman for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. The two crates fell as a truck was leaving the highway, and a toll booth supervisor who spotted them contacted authorities. The birds, which survived the fall, will presumably be returned to the trucker - if the driver notices they're missing, Orlando...

One side effect of the obesity epidemic in America is rarely noted: Women's chests are expanding nearly as fast as their bellies. Poor eating habits, as well as breast implants and the estrogens in birth-control pills, have led to an increase in the past 15 years of more than one bra size for the average American woman—from a 34B to a 36C. For many women, this has been a burdensome trend. A pair of D-cup breasts weighs between 15 and 23 pounds—the equivalent of carrying around two small turkeys. The larger the breasts, the more they move and the greater...

Group of turkeys causes trouble in Menominee 4/2/2005, 11:38 a.m. ET The Associated Press MENOMINEE, Mich. (AP) — A group of turkeys has been trotting around the city, chasing kids, startling motorists and loitering at people's homes. Authorities were notified, the EagleHerald reported, and after a slew of complaints, a hunt ensued. "It's been keeping us on our toes," said Mike Baker, public service officer for the Menominee Police Department. Two turkeys were captured by state Department of Natural Resources employees and turned loose in Menominee. One disappeared. Another turned up as a carcass on a city street, the newspaper...

Ohio Officials Chase Problem Turkeys 1 hour, 46 minutes ago Strange News - AP ELKHART, Ind. - Police officers and animal control workers trying to corral wild turkeys were not looking for early Thanksgiving dinner. The men, instead, were using big nets to chase the birds after complaints that they had harassed students at a nearby elementary school. But the quick fowl eluded them. The wild turkeys a week ago also obstructed traffic on country roads surrounding Jimtown North Elementary School, forcing cars that were traveling 50 mph to drive around them, said Janice Keltner, a teacher at the school...

Throughout the 1990s, Turkish foreign policy analysts had an easy job. After all, Turkish foreign policy was predictable. Ankara cooperated enthusiastically with Washington, whether in the Middle East or in the Balkans. Turkey aligned itself with Israel and kept at arms length from Middle Eastern neighbors such as Syria and Iran. In Europe, Ankara traded heavily with the European Union (EU) but did not allow the EU to dictate foreign policy. The European Union's frequent allegations and criticism of human rights abuses in Turkey, especially with regard to Turkey's fight against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK, Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan) terrorists, soured...

(English-language translation) As part of a week-long operation, the [Puerto Rico] Department of Consumer Affairs (known by the Spanish acronym DACO) yesterday ordered the Sam's Club store in Mayagüez to remove over 1,000 turkeys because their weight was less than that labelled and the price was incorrect. DACO Secretary Noemí Giralt-Armada explained that the agency's weights-and-measures inspectors visited a number of retailers by surprise to ensure that the sale of turkeys was proceeding in compliance with the Department's rules. The inspectors also cited Amigo supermarkets in Carolina, Vega Alta, Fajardo, Luquillo, Salinas, Caguas, and Guayama, Pueblo in San Germán, Pitusa...