Thursday, September 18, 2008

Palin the Barbarian

I don't know if I would recommend the most recent New Yorker's profile of Sarah Palin or not. It does, however, contain one unforgettable passage:
At one point [Palin] said, "We love our polar bears." She had just got through explaining why she opposed a ban on aerial wolf shooting. In the past decade or so, Alaska's voters have twice rejected this practice--the chasing and gunning down of wolves from small planes--and on both occasions the state reauthorized it. Now the anti-wolf-shooting crowd had forced a third referendum on the issue and Palin, who kept a pair of wolf pelts hanging on her office wall, behind a cradle swing for Trig, was keen to see the initiative fail."
"The chasing and gunning down of wolves from small planes...." That's a phrase you don't come across very often. Not often enough, certainly.

For the record, I have ALWAYS been part of the anti-wolf-shooting crowd.
Always.

4 comments:

JMW said...

My girlfriend seemed to imply that the piece makes clear that Gourevitch was in Alaska, reporting on the state's politics, BEFORE Palin was nominated. It was then turned into an Alaska/Palin piece. I find this an extraordinary coincidence. It's all I really have to say, since I haven't read the piece yet.

And you're right about that planes/wolves sentence. It's a beauty.

Anonymous said...

I lived in Alaska all my life.

I have heard about wolves being shot from planes for most of my life. It gets quite tiring.

Here in the New York area, they seem to have slightly less of that.

What a relief.

Johannes said...

.""The chasing and gunning down of wolves from small planes...."

Incredible.

I feel like i need to spend a weekend locked in a cabin in the moutains with canned foodstuffs, cases of Moosehead beer, and a box of yellow legal pads to formulate a adequate yet succinct reaction to that.

I will say this however:
Poor wolves.

Anonymous said...

Um. Aren't wolves the enemy of man? Do they not steal our babies from cribs to devour them, or, perish the thought, turn them into horrible man-wolf atrocities? It's in the bible right? Stupid naive liberals.

PALIN! HUZZAH!
-L