I grew up on a farm. It's a small, family-run operation--my dad and my grandpa both raise crops and beef cattle. It's not a factory farm by any means. No extra antibiotics, the cattle are grass-fed, they're free to roam great swathes of South Dakota prairie, acting like cows and eating whatever they like.

This may sound like a lofty ideal--animals being treated well! Lots of grass and sunshine!--but I've been getting the "OMG HUNTER SARAH IS HEARTLESS AND BLOODTHIRSTY LOL" things too, so I sympathize. This is what happens if you want to eat meat. Meat is made out of dead animals! If you eat meat, something died.

No matter how humane the method of killing, no matter how well that animal was treated, no matter how well that animal was cared for, no matter how easy and painless its existence: something died to feed you.

I am consciously aware of this. It doesn't turn my stomach to know that our food animals twitch and bleed unceremoniously as they expire. Hell, I've seen it.

Sarah Palin was completely tone-deaf and clueless, however, to choose to speak in front of a turkey execution. I know she hunts and kills her own food, so it might not bother her that a turkey is bleeding out not ten feet behind her, but for Pete's sakes, you don't give an interview in front of that if you have any clue how squeamish most people are about meat.

To be honest it didn't bother me that much. I'm fully aware of the lifecycle of most of my food. I won't defend Sarah Palin, because I find her absolutely reprehensible in other areas, but I just can't get too worked up about the turkey slaughter behind her. There's a big turkey breast thawing in my fridge. Its original owner probably suffered the same fate, bleeding and twitching. I'll still eat it happily.

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