Pardon at the slaughterhouse: The obliviousness of Sarah Palin and the killing of turkeys

By Michael J.W. Stickings

As you may have heard already -- and you may even have seen the clip -- Sarah Palin (you know, the governor of Alaska), pardoned a turkey and then gave an interview to a local TV station with turkeys being slaughtered in the background.

How ironic. She's such an animal lover, but the only thing she loves is killing them. And don't think she doesn't -- remember that prank call from a couple of Montreal DJs pretending to be Sarkozy? "Sarkozy" told her he hoped to go hunting with her, perhaps even to hunt from helicopters. She actually laughed when "Sarkozy" said he loves "killing those animals" ("take away a life, that is so fun"). Sure, she may have been laughing out of awkwardness, at least in part, but she obviously likes killing.

It's no surprise that Palin lacks a sense of irony and no surprise that she okayed the backdrop to her interview. I suppose in-your-face, blood-and-guts slaughter plays better in Alaska than it does in the "unreal" America, or at least in the world I inhabit. Maybe she thought she was just being folksy, that the whole slaughter thing is folksy, the sort of things "real" Americans like to do, or at least have no problem with.

Whatever the case, she seems, as usual, utterly oblivious.

If you want to watch it, HuffPo has the clip here. Please note, however, that it's extremely unpleasant -- and, for once, Palin isn't the most unpleasant thing about it.