Here's the moment: Sarah Palin cocks her hunting rifle, steadies herself and fells a caribou on The Learning Channel. We covered the whole dramatic episode here. Unsurprisingly, animal rights groups object to the footage (there's also a curious response from hunters, who say Palin doesn't appear to know how to shoot).

In response, Palin posted a message on her Facebook wall saying this:

Tonight's hunting episode of Sarah Palin's Alaska 'controversial'? Really? Unless you've never worn leather shoes, sat upon a leather couch or eaten a piece of meat, save your condemnation of tonight's episode. I remain proudly intolerant of anti-hunting hypocrisy. :)

This is just a guess, but it may have been the smiley face that pushed West Wing/The Social Network scribe Aaron Sorkin over the edge. In a Huffington Post screed beginning with the words "You're right, Sarah, we'll all just go fuck ourselves now" the screenwriter notes that, yes, he does eat meat, wears shoes, and has leather furniture. But that doesn't mean he relishes "the idea of torturing animals." When the "phony pioneer girl" shot the caribou, he argues, she was doing so "for fun" and to make a point: "That was the first moose ever murdered for political gain." He calls Palin a "witless bully" who "knew there'd be a protest from PETA and ... knew that would be an opportunity to hate on some people. ... What a uniter you'd be--bringing the right together with the far right."

The moment was simply "heart-stoppingly disgusting," and Sorkin "can't make the distinction" between what the ex-governor got paid on her reality TV show for doing and "what Michael Vick went to prison for doing" (i.e. running a dog-fighting ring). And also--just to be clear--the screenwriter finds it blindingly obvious that Palin's rugged hunting excursion was a sham: "I'm in film and television, Cruella, and there was an insert close-up of your manicure while you were roughing it in God's country. I know exactly how many feet off camera your hair and make-up trailer was," he writes.

In conclusion, Sorkin summarizes: "I eat meat, there are leather chairs in my office, Sarah Palin is deranged and The Learning Channel should be ashamed of itself."

[H/T: Daily Intel]

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Erik Hayden