Thanks for the Volt link; you're right about my tech taste.

Finally, I'm guessing you don't watch Bill Moyers' Journal — his guest last Friday? Michael Pollan. I am still tempted to quote him from it on the topic of the department of agriculture. That “airy-fairy” reference (which I have now used twice) is lifted from a Slate Book Club discussion of The Omnivore's Dilemma. The left-leaning group deemed Pollan over the top. I honestly find here in Goergia foodies on the left and the right. Georgia Public Broadcasting preempted Moyers so I had to watch the interview on the web. You can, too, here.

Don't forget that many of us are capable of all kinds of sophistication but come to prefer simplicity as we get older, as a form of evolution. (No fair accusing us of Scrooginess just because we may also become more cynical and jaded with experience at the same time!)

Was the film aimed at rural midwives, particularly in the South, so it used rural Southern dialect of that time (probably early post-World-War-II; it was a black-and-white film), with heavy rural dialect? (Aimed at Southern blacks as well as whites)

P.S. In addition to the humaneness, while the environmentalists and the activists have tained things, do we really want food filled with garbage and chemicals, not only preservatives and appearance enhancers (or concealment means) but antibiotics and _hormones_?

I know you like tech to the point of “tech for tech's sake” sometimes, so I thought I'd provide that. It may be more pleasant than contemplating animal slaughter, say, or meeting Newt Gingrich in person.

I grew up across the street from a chicken farm and in my life and experience the lives of chickens — and the slaughtering methods — have dramatically changed. I waited tables in some of NY's finest restaurants in the late 70s and 80s. We like to see into restaurant kitchens because we know what goes on in there. Opening up the kitchen is a sign of trust. We like windows into the prep areas of supermarkets. The people I know are not aware of CAFOs. The one who lived near one in TX is now a vegetarian. So long as we're swapping links, here's one for you:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/1284...

Elsewhere I've acknowledged Pollan's airy-fairy culinary flourishes, but you know what? We need people who outline the extremes so we can find the comfortable middle. Those on his side are a distinct minority today. We can afford and would benefit from moving a ways in his direction.

I grew up across the street from a chicken farm and in my life and experience the lives of chickens — and the slaughtering methods — have dramatically changed. I waited tables in some of NY's finest restaurants in the late 70s and 80s. We like to see into restaurant kitchens because we know what goes on in there. Opening up the kitchen is a sign of trust. We like windows into the prep areas of supermarkets. The people I know are not aware of CAFOs. The one who lived near one in TX is now a vegetarian. So long as we're swapping links, here's one for you:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/1284...

Elsewhere I've acknowledged Pollan's airy-fairy culinary flourishes, but you know what? We need people who outline the extremes so we can find the comfortable middle. Those on his side are a distinct minority today. We can afford and would benefit from moving a ways in his direction.

As for the issue of seeing food, I agree with that. I fall into the only slightly guilty meat eater category. I don't really feel terrible about eating meat per se, but I do feel very uncomfortable with the idea of mistreated and cramped animals being miserable their whole lives before their death. To what extent I can I try to eat foods that reflect that (free range chickens etc.). It's a very good deal all in all. It's more expensive, which forces you to eat less meat, which is good for your health anyway. I don't object to either omnivorous or vegetarian diets (though I do believe that it is not permissible to subject a growing child to veganism because of the health risks), but I do think we would benefit from a closer acquaintance with the food we eat, not just the killing part but also the raising part.

Stockster, what's noteworthy about teevee violence and more is how the Left's principal idiots and hypocrites prattle about this or that wrongdoing, but then cynically exploit base instincts and emotions and throw mindless programming at us that features all kinds of violence, including innumerable gun crimes. That never has gone unnoticed, over decades.

As far as the video of Palin with the Turkeys in the background…. that's not something I would prefer to watch, especially after one turkey is pardoned. It seems to just highlight the absurdity of turkey pardons….. The video of turkeys being killed cheapens and relegates to teh irrelevant pile the whole idea behind the turkey pardon story anyway. I understand where my food comes from (and as a kid having spent summers in rural Alabama I know lots of hunters… and our neighbors had a slaughter plant… which was very interesting, including two small blood red “ponds” (I'm sure there's some official word for them, but it escapes me) where the waste was dumped…. (How's that for gruesome?) But I really would rather not be reminded about where our food comes from so graphically when I watch the news.

What's interesting is that Americans seem to have an insatiable appetite for violence on TV and video games. I guess it is to Americans' credit that they can separate violent fiction from violent reality. But obviously some people are more inured to this sort of violence than others. But we should at least be less cruel when we kill animals. And we should certainly not run them down with helicopters, running them to the point of exhaustion. I still can't get that image (and that cruelty) out of my mind. Hunting is a sport which I understand (though I don't care for it myself, though I would never make it illegal). But running animals down in helicopters ragged is just plain cruel.

Pollan brings with him so much crappy political baggage and nonsense…

New Agey vegeterian and vegan books (or contemporary books that discuss “plant-based” diet and foods, to use new lingo) with their often-requisite ethics-and-morality chapter(s) would be much better.

This guy isn't describing things people haven't known for ages, Joe. Please try to realize that, in addition to intelligently fearing the wackiness if people like him got his way in government policy. (Fortunately for civilization, not merely the USA, it is highly unlikely.) Hell, while in an _art_ class in college one film we all got to watch was a film about slaughterhouses and slaughtering techniques. (We also got to see a childbirth film, by the way, a film created for and aimed at a poor, rural audience that was meant to be shown by midwives.)

There's nothing new here — any hype over any Amazing Discovery! about this is like one Californian earlier in this decade or late in the last one (adding to the degree of insult, as I was a Californian asset who left on my own earlier, and knew about what someone else Discovered and wanted to make a Big Deal about), who relocated to Eugene, Oregon, and then, in the late 1990s or early to mid 2000s, Discovered (with capital D) the late Steve Prefontaine.

NEWS FLASH: What's reported here has been known for decades.

If you're really enamored of the guy, and you think he may have something good to tell you (in addition to enjoying getting to meet the guy for real), by all means have fun. It's like you and tech for tech's sake:

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/volt-center-st...

Just try to put, then keep, everything in perspective.

And yes, I admit meeting this guy would probably be more interesting than “having to face” Newt Gingrich in Athens, you poor bastard in the latter case. (If you go to Athens, anyway. try a real-world exercise. Try to see what younger female is with Gingrich, and learn if it's his third wife or if he's already going after Number Four in advance of Number Three's serious illness.) Just put it into perspective. Maybe start reading older vegetarian books. Hint: you're missing much of life if you ignore books for just the Net (and Kindle is a gimmick!). Take it from a voracious non-fiction reader whose two trucks have been modified to haul his nearly-100 boxes of books — used book stores are gold mines. It's “local, small” business worth supporting, without having to be political about it, just … motivated. Go read some vegetarian books and animal rights books, maybe older movies or TV series and books about slaughterhose exposes if you are up to it.

Happy turkey (meat) day.