(Brief background for the non-American readers: tomorrow is a national holiday called Thanksgiving. A turkey feast is the traditional offering.)

Slate has a wonderful article on how they manage to have so many turkeys ready at one time (The Turkey-Industrial Complex). The most popular turkey is the White Broad Breasted Turkey which has been bred for large size. So large, in fact, they are unable to reproduce; the species is kept around by artificial insemination (WARNING: some of you may not enjoy this video very much)

As a bonus, here’s MSNBC mocking Palin during some turkey pardoning event. She’s doing an interview while turkeys are being terminated in full view in the background.

(Uncensored version is here.)

Enjoy your turkey, people.