Wednesday, April 18, 2012

SINCE WE'RE TALKING ABOUT DOG-EATING, WHAT ABOUT ROMNEY'S ANCESTORS?

A lot of people have mocked Mitt Romney for once setting out on a family vacation with Seamus, the family dog, strapped to the roof of the car. Now, as you probably know, the right has gotten (or thinks it's gotten) its revenge:

The Daily Caller noted that in President Obama's best-selling memoir, "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," the president recalls being fed dog meat as a young boy in Indonesia with his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro.

"With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chill peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy)," the president wrote.


This story has gone viral, particularly on Twitter. (Among those joining in the #ObamaDogRecipes fun? Yeah, you stay classy, Jennifer Rubin.)

But, um, what about the Romney ancestors who may have eaten dog?

You see, Mitt Romney traces his family history to a great-grandfather named Miles Park Romney. His family was one of the so-called first families of Mormonism, the ones who left the early Mormon settlement in Illinois for the journey west along the Mormon Trail to what ultimately became the state of Utah.

So I'm looking at an officially sanctioned LDS Church publication called Church History in the Fulness of Times, specifically Chapter 27. And what do I see?

...the winter of 1848–49 was very severe and created serious needs among the people. It snowed frequently, and the snow remained on the ground throughout the entire winter, making it difficult for the cattle to feed. Heavy snowfall in the mountains made it difficult to gather wood. Excessive cold and violent winds often made life miserable for the settlers.

Food was again so scarce that the people ate wolves, hawks, crows, dogs, and animals that had been dead for some time.


So it's quite possible that some of Mitt Romney's storied ancestors ate dog, too.

Hey, Republicans, if you're going to pursue a ridiculous line of attack, I'm going to pursue it, too.

6 comments:

  1. Of course the Obama-eating-dog (when he was 10 years old, at most) story isn't about cruelty to animals at all. It's a dogwhistle (pardon the expression) to the xenophobes, another sign of just how foreign the black guy is.

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  2. Oh for fuck's sake.

    Eating dog meat - in Indonesia, Korea, in Mormon pioneer days- is just not a big deal, unless you're a vegan hippie type, and I doubt the wingnuts want to go there.

    Taking your PET and abusing it for convenience is another thing entirely.

    Romney is a bastard for treating his family pet like luggage. I could not care less if he or his ancestors ate dog, cat, or turtle scrotum, and why would anyone else?

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  3. So if we're now judging a person by their ancestors, let's take a closer look at Barack Obama's father and his behavior, as detailed in Obama's very own biographies.

    Barack Obama, Sr, who had more of a direct impact on Barack Obama than Romney's great-grandfather ever did, was a drinker, abused his children, got in many car accidents, was possibly married to multiple women at one point, and was a full-out socialist. I'm not sure what sorts of foods he ate, but there is quite a bit in here to cause concern, if you are going to hold what someone's ancestors did against them.

    You're probably not going to though- like most liberals, you're a liar, and pretends to believe something but really doesn't and is just using it for political gain.

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  4. Next up: What do Mitt Romney's lower-order primate ancestors say about him?

    And seriously, I love the way you just say this, with zero evidence except perhaps some rant you saw on Glenn Beck's show a few years ago: "Barack Obama, Sr, who had more of a direct impact on Barack Obama than Romney's great-grandfather ever did..." As demonstrated by what? A drunk polygamous socialist has a son he hardly ever met, a son who now has a great monogamous marriage and who bails out Wall Street, all while taking, as far as we can tell, a social drink at most. Impact? Show me.

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  5. Shorter A Conservative Teacher: Obama is a Big Scary Black Exotic Socialist Foreigner!!1!!11!

    Also: fuck off and die, dumbfuck.

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  6. Tastes just like chicken. Last time I checked, republicans taste like pig. Any questions, teacher?

    Oh, and while we're at it, show my your green card, white dog.

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