You cannot compare Michael Vicks to Sarah Palin and we look stupid for trying to

[LynneSin]

I come from a family of hunters; Pennsylvania sportsmen & women who have hunted for decades. Mind you, no one in my family had a helicopter but I know a thing or 2 about hunting and it's not easy. For most hunters, you're going after a moving target which is difficult to do. Add in the concept that for Sarah Palin she is also in a helicopter and that adds to the challenge. I'm not saying using a helicopter is fair nor am I keen on hunting animals that are endangered. But you cannot try to compare her to Michael Vicks.

Michael Vicks shot and killed animals that were living in cages. There was no way these animals could escape or hide. These dogs were also used for dog-fighting - again placed in cages where there was no hope for escape or hiding. These dogs were forced to live a cruel & painful lifestyle and spent years suffering for this sport.

I know we have many animal rights activists out there that do not see the difference and I do appreciate your stance on the issue of hunting (not dog fighting - I think all DUers agree it's bad regardless of how we feel about hunting). But alienating hunters by comparing them to a person who used pets for dog fighting and killing those point-blank is not a smart thing. Believe it or not, not all hunters are card-carrying republicans even if they do belong to the NRA.

[msongs]

1. when animals can shoot back with guns, only then will hunting be a sport nt

[BklynChick]

2. it was just a joke.... and funny at that! I hate all hunting and don't claim to really understand

it. But I wouldn't compare the two.

[KittyWampus]

3. there's no way those wolves running across WHITE TUNDRA can be missed. It's slaughter

and frankly, your post reads like you are simply trying to prove yourself, like you know something about hunting.

What Palin engages in and enables is SLAUGHTER.

[LynneSin]

9. Actually I do know something about hunting

I don't know alot about Helicopter hunting since our family did not engage in that (not even sure if it's legal to do in Pennsylvania, wouldn't be safe since our state is much smaller). I come from 3 generations of PA State Game Commission employees including 2 who were cadets out in the field (my father was a surveyor for the Commission.) I use to spend deer hunting season working with my father at a deer weighing station and could actually tell the age of deer with the teeth thing (I spent a few nights counting deer teeth - that was fun). When I go to my parents house I still catchup on my reading of the PA Game News magazine. I have tried hunting but it wasn't really for me, but I've been around it for most of my life.

I realize that the Helicopter bit sounds unappealing but still nowhere near as disgusting as raising dogs for fighting and killing them point blank. And although I could be proven wrong, as long as Sarah was within the legal limits of what she killed I am not even questioning the legality of what she did. However I do question the fact that she has wanted to loosen regulations to allow hunters to go after endangered species and that does challenge me.

[Enrique]

4. you can in a joke

is anyone trying to make that joke into a real argument?

[EffieBlack]

5. Oh, please - it was a joke by a standup comedian, not a statement from the Democratic Party

[LynneSin]

10. Yeah I know, but now we have DUer jumping on it like "hey what's up" type stuff

It's crazy!

[southpaw]

6. Here's my take on this... copied from another thread on this subject.

Flame away:


Chris Rock makes yet another sad attempt at relevance by using yesterday's headline (Vick) and today's headline (Palin) as bookends in yet another predictable Black vs. White joke, but his comparison is ignorant.


Hunting moose in Alaska is legal. You may dislike hunting, as I do, but it is still legal.

Dog fighting is sick, sad and very illegal.

Rock could have used Palin's areal wolf hunting as the other end of his argument and it would have made sense, even if it still relies on his tired old 'comedy of racial divisiveness' routine.

Rock blew this one.

Congratulations, Chris! You've become the African American Yakov Smirnoff.

[TeamJordan23]

7. Hunting is part of the culture in some areas. Dog fighting is part of the culture in some areas.

It is no different. Both kill and hurt animals. And to the OP, animals can only escape or hide only after the 1st shot has been fired.

[southpaw]

8. Culture be damned!

Dog fighting is illegal, as well it should be.

Hunting, as much as I despise it, is not.

[LanternWaste]

11. very distinct and relevant difference

Although I truly do not like hunting, and avoid hunters when possible for my own reasons-- there seems to me be a very distinct and relevant difference between dog-fighting and hunting...

In one case, violence is merely one of many means to an agenda.
In the other case, that same violence, magnified over many times, is the actual agenda itself.

[uponit7771]

12. Shooting wolves from a plane is somehow morally better than dog fights?!? Come on, you're stretching

[Johonny]

13. yeah Vick had some talent that he blew

I still waiting to see any talent at all from Palin

[ShortnFiery]

14. Hey, Chris Rock should have consulted us and used the "Aerial shooting of wolves" instead of

the hunting of moose. I grew up in South Dakota and have gone out hunting with my older brothers and father. Albeit I only choose to shoot "clay pigeons", I did help gut and clean the pheasants that were legally shot.

I know moose hunting is legal and that "the vast majority" of hunters are humane, in that, they wish to minimize the suffering of the animal. The culture of hunting goes back generations in my family and I respect them and my cousins who still reside on the plains.

NOPE, I don't think any hunter with a semblance of a moral compass would consider "aeriel shooting" of wolves HUNTING, but merely a sport for cowards with small d**ks. :blush: But I digress.

IMO, Palin's promotion of this barbarous slaughter of wolves from planes and helicopters should have been the ROCK's more apt comparison to Vick's equally detestable pseudo-sport of Dog Fighting.

[Pithlet]

15. I do think it was just a joke that people are making too much of, but since we're discussing it.

I think there is a big difference between the two things. I also think an argument can be made that it is a difference in degree and not in kind, because hunted animals do suffer greatly and die. I also see a lot of people who make a stink about hunting who are not vegetarians and who shop for their meat at the local grocery. They need to realize they are supporting something far more cruel than anything any hunter participates in. It's a very complex issue.

I grew up around hunting, too, though I'm personally not the biggest fan. I don't think it should be made illegal, though. I don't think it raises nearly to the level of cruelty that dog fighting does, and I think as long as our country practices factory farming, we have no business outlawing hunting when it is not nearly as cruel and doesn't impact the ecology nearly as much as factory farming does. Hunters also tend contribute a lot to environmental causes. They aren't all lunatics like Palin. I'd feel better about jailing Michael Vick if our country cracked down more on the cruel practices of our food industry. I feel like a big old hypocrite cheering on the jailing of Vick, when I eat meat. I do feel he belongs in jail. What he did was animal cruelty, and it was about as bad as it gets, and there should be severe penalties for animal cruelty. I also feel we need to do a lot more to make sure the animals who feed us are treated more humanely. There is imbalance and inequality in how we view animals and how they should be treated.

ETA that I think that the whole helicopter hunting thing does approach the level of cruelty that dog fighting does, which is why I wish Rock had used that in his joke, and it would have made the point a lot better. I think Moose sounds funnier, which is why he went with that. But, like I said in another post, it was a joke meant as a slam at Palin, which is why I loved it.

[QC]

16. It's disgusting to see people defending Vick here.

Who ever imagined we would see it, but it's a way to praise someone who criticized someone for whom many people here bear a pathological, obsessive hatred for, so now DUers are defending dog fighting.

Unbelievable.

[jody]

17. Kerry went hunting and killed animals during the 2004 campaign. n/t

[wyldwolf]

18. Well, as Chris Rock said on Letterman "I ain't that smart."

[Egnever]

19. um Chris Rock looks stupid for doing so

I think most people here like it just cause he was slaming sarah.

His slam was stupid but we are still allowed to like the fact that he dislikes her.

[rvablue]

20. I totally agree....

...and posted on another thread saying so.

Killing the wolves from a helicopter is different IMO than killing the caribou, which they eat and has been done for thousands of years. I don't hunt and it makes me sad, but I have always held the belief that if you eat what you kill, then it's none of my business.

The "joke" Chris Rock made was about the killing of caribou and making helpless, innocent dogs maul each other to death for financial gain and sadistic pleasure.

I am only sad to see that your post is so low on the list and the other posts saying Chris Rock's joke was reasonable are higher up.

Gonna rec. this post!