i'm tired of PETA now

i've never blogged before, so let's start small. PETA sent a letter to karl rove today. here it is, from the washington post:

"Dear Mr. Rove," began the letter from President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "From your frequent hunting trips to your bizarre little rap at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner ("I like to go home, get a drink, and tear the tops off of small animals"), it is clear that you lack the ability to empathize with other living beings. You consistently prove that you care less about animal welfare than Alberto Gonzales cares about habeas corpus."

Newkirk notes that the first thing Rove plans to do upon leaving the White House at the end of his month is "go dove hunting, i.e., kill little birds who are the international symbol of peace. You will leave politics to spend more time with your family only to destroy the families of other species."

Her last line: "I have just one suggestion: Please take Dick Cheney along on your hunting trips."

fuck you, ingrid newkirk, for making us vegans look bad.

you care about animals? spend some time where they live. come out here and watch bison migrations. find some elk. sit and watch a wild bear, hundreds of miles away from the nearest place to buy soy milk. do you know what a dove sounds like, or do you care only about what it symbolizes? you might know how it sounds to wake up to dove calls. honestly, i hope you do, it's a beautiful thing.

there are places in this country (and this world) where hunting and fishing are valued as highly as anything but god and friendship. as highly as i value walking in wilderness, these people value the art of killing and eating other species. and i am convinced that these values are well founded. they indicate an unusual willingness to confront the complicated questions we all have about death, questions most of us run from. hunting, killing, and eating an animal allows for primal and basic connections that urbanized americans eschew for the convenience of microwave dinners.

ingrid, you might disagree. maybe you'd say the primal connections are base rather than basic. fine. but consider whom you're alienating with this letter. you're alienating people who care enough about food to perform each act of food preparation themselves. many of these people show more interest in the origins of their food than most vegans. and they're often environmentalists, too.

some of them would even refrain from insulting the way of life of millions of people.

do what needs doing -- help shut down CAFO's

and bash karl rove all you want, he deserves it; just don't bash hunting in the name of veganism