As noted in a previous post, Governor Sarah Palin made a derogatory comment that has actually been embraced by the media. During her speech at the Republican National Convention, Palin quipped, “Do you know the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.”
Seems like a pretty innocent joke. Yet when Verizon Wireless presented a commercial depicting pit bulls as brutal beasts requiring chains, the Humane Society, the ASPCA and PETA viciously attacked the advertiser, forcing the removal of the spot. Plus, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society went so far as to post comments at Adrants defending the disdain.
So where’s the moral outrage now? Sarah Palin has negatively labeled pit bulls—and created far more publicity than Verizon Wireless could ever hope to match—but the animal activists are quiet as a mouse. Although not the screeching mice used in obscene lab experiments that immediately receive support from the Humane Society and others. Besides a vague blog entry at a site called fetchdog.com, there are virtually zero complaints from the typically irate dog fans.
Maybe the animal lovers are plotting upcoming strikes, and we can expect to see protestors at the next Palin campaign stop. Or PETA will run print ads comparing Palin’s words to slurs and atrocities against women. The possibilities are endless.
Or more likely, the groups realize that confronting Palin would be a bad political move, potentially leading to a backlash that might adversely affect donations.
Slamming an advertiser is easy game, like shooting fish in a barrel. But the Humane Society, the ASPCA and PETA are not about to bite the hands that feed them.
Which just makes them full of shit—excreted from all animal buttholes.
Cartoon above by Dana Summers, Orlando Sentinel.
It's interesting to read this now, from the remove of a couple of years, in the atmosphere after the Michael Vick case, it's good to see that some of the old prejudices against particular breeds are eroding, and that the dogs are presented and understood properly—as victims of criminally negligent handling. But there's always a need for more and better information. Fear comes from ignorance; and as long as there are discriminatory breed bans in place, the job is not yet done.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, too, to revisit these comments in light of what we now know a little more about Sarah Palin. If she meant to compare herself positively to a pit bull, implying she shared its qualities of tenacity, toughness, and good temperament, well... the record speaks for itself on that one.
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