This has been a weird week for animal rights: Morrissey calls the Chinese a subspecies; Lady Gaga wears a flank steak to the VMA's; PETA makes waves because Joe Biden jokingly vends hot dogs to returning troops on The Colbert Report. Truly, the only way to capture the attention of a nation of meat eaters is to target a) the world's most populous race or b) celebrities who pose no threat to animal life.
But PETA has never been about picking their battles, and their condemnation of Joe Biden's September 8th appearance on The Colbert Report comes as no surprise.
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It's not easy to find this clip disagreeable, but somehow PETA did it:
"You can't expect the troops to be lean, mean fighting machines if you're stuffing them with fattening, artery-clogging meat, eggs and dairy products every day," PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman says. "These men and women have seen enough violence, so the nicest thing that the vice president can do is to spare animals from the violence of factory farming and turn our servicemen and servicewomen onto the lifesaving benefits of delicious vegan food."
Perhaps I'm in the vegan-food-loving minority, but I'm also in the come-on-this-is-a-comedy-sketch majority. Joe Biden – while hilarious and always all man – does not single-handedly power our big beef burger patriarchy. He's just making a joke.