A Bizarre Butcher Job

Broadcast news sources today have been looping the video of turkeys meeting an unpleasant end via an industrial bleeder on camera during a recent Palin interview in Alaska. I feel it necessary to defend the woman on this one. When I tell people in the lower 48 that things are different in Alaska, they don't seem to gather my meaning. This video shot of a farmer shoving the wobbly, broken head and neck of a large turkey into a funnel-like machine while Palin rambled on about something, though I admit I wasn't really paying attention to her statements, may have been a bit jarring to outsiders.

Indeed, vegetarians and vegans probably felt more like witnesses than viewers when that came on the screen. But this was a nice example of the difference between many Alaskan's mentality and the rest of the nation. Perhaps its the harshness of the climate, or the extraction-based economy, or the temperament of those drawn from elsewhere in the world to Alaska, but there is a clear-eyed way about those people (despite what their absurd political dramas indicate). Palin and some other Alaskans would figure that the reality of eating turkey on Thanksgiving is someone somewhere raised then slaughtered the bird. Having footage of reality might not seem like a big deal to many Alaskans, even if that footage happened to have the state's governor giving an interview in the foreground.

In fact, the press reported Palin's office was notified before broadcast about Nightmare On Turkey Street and they didn't mind it being in the shot. Of course, the story was about Palin granting clemency to one turkey perhaps lulling the viewer into wrongly assuming it was a fluff piece. But in an uncharacteristic nod to reality, Palin went ahead and allowed the truth to be demonstrated in the background, the bloody, bloody background. If only she'd been that intimate with reality when campaigning for VP. What kind of footage would they have gotten of McCain in the background I wonder?