Turns out that Sarah Palin’s RNC speech was written by former Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully, who also happens to be the author of Dominion, a conservative polemic on behalf of animal rights. (An excerpt from Scully’s book that appeared in the American Conservative several years back actually helped set me on the path to vegetarianism.):

The Palin-Scully pairing is anything but a guaranteed fit, though. Palin is known as an avid hunter; Scully is best known for his vigorous defense of animal rights. A vegetarian who is regularly critical of the NRA and much of the hunting community, he is a passionate advocate for doing away with the more brutal versions of blood-sport, including aerial hunting, which Palin supports.

Personally, I’m ambivalent about hunting. I never hunted myself, but I grew up around hunters; every male member of my family and most other men I knew hunted. The first day of deer season was a de facto school holiday. And I think there are important distinctions between subsistence hunting (hunting to survive), sport hunting (hunting for recreation, but consuming the meat), and trophy hunting. It’s the last that seems most indefensible to me, especially as many of them are “canned” hunts where the animals are confined to a particular area and the hunter is virtually guaranteed a kill. How this is “sporting” is beyond me. And the same goes, best as I can tell, for “aerial” hunting.

(Time article link via Erik Marcus.)

p.s. See also Christopher for some wise words.