



As the holiday season unfolds, our thoughts on The Ticket turn to working not quite so hard for a few days. So we are re-publishing some of our favorite or most-read items from 2009. This item originally appeared on Nov. 17.



Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has never made any bones, if you will, about her culinary preferences. She's a carnivore, a hunter and proud of both.

So it's not really a surprise that her book, "Going Rogue," published today, extols the virtues of eating meat.

"If any vegans came over for dinner, I could whip them up a salad, then explain my philosophy on being a carnivore," she wrote. "If God had not intended for us to eat animals, how come He made them out of meat?”



But the former Republican vice presidential candidate did not stop there.

“I love meat," she writes. "I eat pork chops, thick bacon burgers, and the seared fatty edges of a medium-well-done steak. But I especially love moose and caribou. I always remind people from outside our state that there's plenty of room for all Alaska's animals -- right next to the mashed potatoes.”

A vegetarian from Cleveland took issue with Palin. In a blog on the Examiner, Daelyn Fourtney wrote that Palin's remarks "will surely receive a chuckle and thumbs up from many avid hunters and steak house patrons. It is a sad statement on our society when we applaud those who refer to animals as the centerpiece of their dinner plate."

Now, Fourtney is reporting that she has received a lot of hostile e-mails from conservatives assuming her to be a left-wing pinko. A sampling of her inbox:

* “The liberal/socialist media elites are terrified of America's new Reagan and it's so much fun to see their PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) on display...including this Fortney writer.” –freeperjim

“Politicizing Food now?...is nothing sacred? ... off, Alinksy Vegan Radicals.” – Tyler

“You liberals and militant vegs. apparently need a humor transplant.” –Keith

The Cleveland food writer -- in some quarters now known as the "Rogue Vegetarian" -- said her politics are separate from her eating habits.

"I have chosen to live a vegetarian lifestyle because I believe in the sanctity of life for all creatures," she said. "Assuming that one is left or right based on what they choose to eat is a dangerous road to travel."

Still, she said, she's not counting on a Christmas card from the Republican Party this year.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Palin with a caribou she shot in Alaska. Credit: Associated Press

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