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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

Turkeys

Well, what do you know? I agree with PETA for once:

It’s a White House tradition with a century and a half of history behind it, but PETA is asking the White House to skip it this year.

Tomorrow President Obama is set to pardon two turkeys –  Cobbler and Gobbler – just as every president since George H. W. Bush has. The tradition finds its roots in a moment of sympathy Abe Lincoln’s son, Tad, had for their table’s turkey back in the 1860s.

Now Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, says the turkey pardon has got to go.

“It makes light of the mass slaughter of some 46 million gentle, intelligent birds and portrays the United States’ president as being in some sort of business partnership with the turkey-killing industry,” Newkirk wrote in a letter sent to President Obama today. “Turkeys do not need to be ‘pardoned’—they are not guilty of anything other than being born into a world of prejudice. They are innocents who should be respected for who they are: good mothers, smart birds, and interesting animals.”

That is, I agree with them that the "pardons" are a bad idea but not with their reasoning. PETA is trying to call attention to "mass slaughter." On the other hand, I think the pardons are wrong because they demonstrate the casual "let's pretend" delusions always peddled by government.

Don't even answer them, Mr. President, there are plenty of other ways to occupy your mouth tomorrow:

For the most part, the menu consists of your typical, traditional turkey day dishes, with many ingredients coming directly from Mrs. Obama’s Kitchen Garden. In addition to the turkey, a honey baked ham is prepared. Sides include cornbread stuffing and oyster stuffing, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and dinner roles.

In the past, the White House has shared recipes  for its whipped sweet potatoes, the sweet potatoes and greens and for the cauliflower macaroni and cheese, but this is the first year the recipe for the White House kale salad is being released.

And since the president is such a pie-lover, the White House Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses will be preparing six different kinds of pies. The White House apple pie, cherry pie, White House huckleberry pie with blueberries, White House sweet potato pie, banana creme pie, and pumpkin pie will all be served.

God, just reading that makes me ravenous. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Comments

Harl Delos
Wed, 11/21/2012 - 4:23pm

PeTA has pretty unrealistic "let's pretend" ideas of their own.

 

 

tim zank
Wed, 11/21/2012 - 7:24pm

Happy Thanksgiving Leo...

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