2008-08-25

Thvlog VIII: I’m really bad at killing things. Specifically, I’m really bad at decapitating things.

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(Note: this video does not appear on YouTube because they threatened to cancel my account over it. I guess those 106 people in the first couple hours didn't like it.)

12 comments:

  1. That is disturbing. I couldn't watch the whole thing but scrolled through it to get the gist. Eeeewwww. And the song at the end gives it quite the touch.

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  2. .

    Killing animals is pretty far removed from our daily lives, even though most of us still eat dead animals regularly.

    I wonder if YouTube wouldn't have blocked it if I had included all the philosophizing Lady Steed and I did about eating meat and our willingness or unwillingness to participate in what eating meat means. My sister ate it, but refused to come outside while we were butchering it (ask LS to post pictures of her skinning it).

    Speaking of YouTube though, what bugs me about their deleting the video is that I never was allowed to argue the point. In fact, I didn't even have access to the site until I acknowledged that I had broken the rules, which bothers me deeply. Now, granted, YouTube is a private business and they can act that way if they want, but a government entity that operated that way would be wildly unconstitutional.

    Anyway, I'm mostly bemused. Except that in only a couple hours this video had as many hits as anything I've ever uploaded. That's what's annoying.

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  3. We used to raise chickens when I was a kid and I never had any trouble eating them after helping to kill them. I do find it interesting that most people don't want to think about where meat comes from.

    In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Barbara Kingsolver points out that she's had vegetarian friends who actually decided it was OK to eat meat after spending time on a farm and realizing that romanticizing animals is lame. I thought that was an interesting point--once you get to know chickens, it's a little easier to eat them.

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  4. .

    Funny. I wonder if that tends true with mammals as well? Because my family couldn't eat our pig--my family ended up giving all the meat away.

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  5. Uh, I stopped eating meat for 10 years after realizing that the chicken on my plate and the chicken running around my friend's farm were one and the same. On our pioneer trek we were supposed to pluck and decapitate a chicken, but I just couldn't be a part of it. It just freaked me out too much. It's not even the whole animal rights thing, I just couldn't stomach it. I'm actually quite shocked that L.S. was able to hold it while you butchered it. Why a rooster, by the way? And when/where was this?

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  6. .

    Roosters are noisy and troublemakers. They can't like in the 'burbs.

    This was at my parents' house last June. My brother and sister-in-law were going to do both, but then it was decided I should do one. And, like I said, I think it's ethically inconsistent to eat meat yet refuse to butcher, so I said yes. And I sucked (as documented).

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  7. .

    Excuse me. They can't live in the 'burbs.

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  8. We had to kill turkeys on pioneer trek, but our preferred method was sticking a knife up their gullets and scrambling their brains. (Charming mental images, I know)

    It was more bloody but surprisingly less complicated. And I'd be terrible at decapitation, too . . . skewed depth perception does that to a person . . .

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  9. .

    Yeah, watch your fingers.

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  10. Dear Theric,

    I am slightly traumatized now.

    Not enough to make me go vegan, of course (hello, I'd starve to death), but enough that I couldn't watch all of it. Sorry. I have a week stomach.

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  11. Theric,

    Thanks for the comment. I'm still in the rejection process with Glimmer Train. One day.

    Sure, the video was disturbing, but your commentary definitely made it . . . well, personable is too friendly a word.

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  12. .

    I think that might be what offends people.

    Although I can't really watch the 'live' portions myself....

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