Alright... maybe there is a group that I hate more than fat activists.

Nobody gets more free media for less effort than PETA. Instead of whining and bitching, you all should watch and learn. Maybe put some of that PEAT magic to use in the service of your favorite cause.

Just kidding. That would be hard; do the easy thing instead. Boo hoo hoo I hate PETA wahhh waaaaahhh! I hate them! I hate them! I hate them! I hate them! I hate them!!!!!!

Election Day will be murder on these turkeys.

PEAT magic... PETA magic, whatevs...

@2: You know who else gets a lot of free publicity? Amy Winehouse.

PETA sees meat eaters as perpetrators of an ongoing Holocaust... McCain's campaign (or some of his supporters, anyway) sees Obama as the bringer of Holocaust II...

So much in common... *shudder*

Yeah, that is really odd timing by PETA. I'm totally sympathetic to PETA, even though I think their tactics can sometimes be puzzling. But hey, like I have any better ideas how to get people's attention about cruelty to non-human animals...

Anyway, if you care enough about animal rights/welfare to be standing at an overpass on Aurora on November 3, you might actually care enough to schlep down to California and help out with Proposition 2. Or you might even wait until November 5 to start the Thanksgiving turkey campaign because you care enough about some other issue that might actually be influenced by the November 4 ballot.

Which leads me to what I'll be obsessing about November 3. Well, besides the presidential election. That would be our own state's Proposition 1.

They're a month too late in Canada.

They already had Thanksgiving there.

Amy Winehouse is killing herself. You call that free? Seems like a pretty high price to pay if you ask me.

Buy a free range turkey from the farmer's market and spare me the histrionics.

This year, I'm going to brine my murdered turkey and then smoke it with cherry chips on my Webber. Delicious, but it you try it, be sure to make a separate stock from the giblets since the drippings are too salty for gravy.

Cruel, inhumane torture makes the meat just that much tastier.

Meat IS murder, pure and simple. Slog posters pretend to be liberal, and then they boast about eating dead corpses. It's disgusting.

Aren't all corpses dead?

I'll save a turkey by eating ham.

earnestness is so goddamn unappealing.

does the free publicity that PETA gets actually matter though? I think not.

Boasting about eating meat is just the opposite side of the same coin of vegans telling us their meatless, fake cheese, glutenless, pizza is absolutely delicious. it simply is there to annoy the opposite side.

I'll be obsessing over the ALANIS MORISSETTE CONCERT that will be happening 2 days from Monday!!

The only murder of a turkey is when it comes out of the oven dry. But a moist turkey is never murder; it is just tasty!!

i had a rabbit last thanksgiving. it was yummy. this year we're having goat.

My neighbours are turkey farmers, so I've had my eye on those plump birds for a while.
And, as a plant biologist, eating vegetables is plant murder! Plants release stress hormones in response to cuts and burns, and are often STILL LIVING when you put them in the pot... oh the humanity!

Yeah, personally I'm annoyed/turned off by the whole "I'm a rampant carnivore, vegetarians are lame! Yeah steak!!!" rejoinders, but I guess when the same people joke about a guy lighting himself on fire and dying horribly, one can't expect much.

i love the ludicrous extrapolations one could make.

They suffer debeaking and declawing without any pain relief. That's why we advocate morphine for turkeys.

Millions die from heat exhaustion, freezing, and accidents during transport. that's why we advocate turkey limo service and mandatory safety belts for safe transport.

Apparently turkey has some natural chemicals in it that help for recovering from an ecstacy high. I think the turkey farmers should do an ad campaign with this as the central message to combat the evil party pooper PETA peeps...

Fuck you leek. Yeah steak!

I will not eat anything that cannot be killed.

Hay Carolin,

It's this "all or nothing" bullshit that makes people hate liberals. I'm a liberal, and I eat meat. Is that so hard to believe? And give all that "murder" talk a break. You vegans are worse than the pro-life folks. Animals eating other animals is the law of nature.

I'm going to eat my damn turkey on Thanksgiving and love every second of it without any guilt. Quit your proselytizing and take pride in the fact that you refrain from a practice you think is wrong. But don't get all high & mighty with the rest of us.

I'm racist against animals.

Way to Generalize, BC. Because obviously ALL vegans are holier-than-thou public whiners, and all liberal meat-eaters are...I don't know what you'd call yourself.

NapoleonXIV: I've got some mighty tasty soylent green, if you're interested.

Every Slogger is voting for Obama, and most likely already have. You can stop telling us to do the obvious now.

I should point out that scientific studies have shown that most plants scream and send fear chemicals when you murder them, so let's get real about this vegetarians.

Heck, Switzerland even gives plants rights to protect them from roaming murderers.

But .... your impact on the world's energy and other supplies is much lower if you eat less (or no) meat ...

@29

I think BC is spot-on AND managed to say exactly who she was addressing; no generalizations there.

For me the strongest evidence that proves how effective PETA is, and how much guilt has taken root among meat eaters is the reflexive, nearly compulsory need they have to chant "meat is tasty" at the slightest suggestion that perhaps animals ought not to be killed. They way they protest so vehemently that they will go on eating meat -- that they're going to run out and eat some right now! -- well, let's just say methinks the carnivores doth protest too much.

If you really didn't feel guilty, and if the whole thing wasn't eating (!) at you, you'd ignore PETA, you'd ignore blog posts about vegetarians, and you'd go about your business enjoying your beloved meat, without such a deep need to try to cheer yourself up over the whole thing.

Admit it. This issue is just as huge to you all as it is to the most strident vegan. Why? Because you're afraid other people might give up eating meat too? What's it to you? Afraid it might get kind of lonely? Or what? Guilty? Worried? There must be a reason.

If it were the case about commercial turkeys having huge bodies relative to their bone structure, wouldn't "I'll have the broken leg" be a more common request at Thanksgiving dinner?

"Genetically bred." I love it when people/groups who know jack squat about technical subjects make pathetic attempts to use technical terms to impress other people/groups who also know jack squat. Maybe next we'll hear about how vegitarianism is a "quantum leap" in our social "evolution."

@15: I agree. I hate turkey.

elenchos, actions speak louder than your fallacious logic games. And I do ignore peta except when it comes to blog posts, but thats because i like commenting on all posts period.

the claim that omnivores protest by going out and eating meat belies the fact that omnivores would most likely eat meat irrespective of what a vegetarian says, protest or not. It's not like any one of us omnivores all meet up at a steakhouse afterwards and highfive one another on putting up the good fight. there simply no omnivoral community or structure and there never will be. it's a function of living life.

The idea that people would ignore issues on a blog just belies selection bias on your part. most people that frequent slog comment on everything for entertainment. the fact omnivores comment on vegetarian themed posts is a function of people commenting on blogs period. Most omnivores don't actively seek out vegan or vegetarian blogs to post on, we're mostly a self selecting captive audience here.

if more people give up eating meat, bully for them. The key social difference between vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores is that the first two groups of people find solidarity among one another based on choices they make. Meat eaters don't identify with one another over meat socially and we arent a social club that feels peril by someone breaking away from the status quo. On the contrary, eating a wide range of foods isn't part of our identity. it is for vegans and vegetarians. It is presumably more of a blow to the minority non meat eaters, both in options and socially, when they lose a place like that one vegan place with the crazy owner. Globe?

The fact you don't understand omnivores or project the idea that omnivores have the same social structure as the minority in this case seems to be indicative of how insular your lifestyle choice makes you.

tl; dr

I have a date with a really cute guy Monday night. That's what I'll be obsessing about Monday. :)

Who the hell cares what other people do or do not eat? Good Lord, of all the things to waste one's time obsessing about - if you don't like the treatment of factory-raised livestock, work on THAT issue, don't waste your time trying to guilt people into not eating what they want.

I could give a rat's ass if people are fruitarian, breatharian, exclusively carnivorous, don't eat nuts, whatever, so long as they aren't cannibals actively shopping for fresh supplies. FWIW, I haven't eaten red meat in 25 years, but it's not out of some moral imperative or in some attempt to get validation from others. It's a personal choice. Who cares?

PETA works in a strictly evolutionary sense: it does enough to keep itself alive. It generates enough publicity to make enough money to generate more publicity. It sure doesn't help animals. Fuck a lot of PETA and give your money to the SPCA.