You're probably not going to see this on Martha Stewart.

British chef Jamie Oliver made a point recently about the way that chickens (and other animals) are treated and killed in the manufacture and processing of food. Oliver has been an activist for years and really wants people to understand where their food comes from. He brought out a bunch of fluffy, cute baby chicks and let a studio audience pet them and get to see how they cute they were. Then he took the baby chicks and gassed them, live on stage. Then he fed one to a big snake.

It's a little disconcerting, with the wacky music and the audience oooooing and ahhhhhhing. Then the killing comes and the audience cries (though I wonder if they know that you have to kill chickens and cows and other animals you see dancing in Pixar films to make the food we love to eat). Video after the jump (though you won't actually get to see the snake eat the chick, you ghouls).

By sheer coincidence, I'm having chicken tonight.

(S02E11)

As a change of pace, I asked TV know-it-all Paul Goebel to write a rebuttal to today's review. Goebel is an actor and comedian who appeared as the "TV Geek" on the short-lived Comedy Central quiz show Beat the Geeks and has appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ally McBeal, Will and Grace and other shows. He currently hosts a show at the UCB Theater in Los Angeles, and does a weekly podcast with his pal Jim Bruce called "The Paul Goebel Show." If you like TV, you should check it out. His response is after my review.

Ever since Linda Lavin helmed the CBS Schoolbreak Special "Flour Babies" in 1990, the idea of students being assigned fake babies has been spoofed numerous times. The winner for best spoof goes to the Strangers with Candy episode "A Burden's Burden" in which Jerri and her classmates are assigned actually babies. There's also the South Park episode "Follow That Egg" that manages to tackle both gay marriage and child custody battles when the kids are given eggs and told to treat them like real babies.

(S02E05) You can never predict what might offend some people. I've expressed opinions on this blog and elsewhere, convinced my views would raise the ire of certain readers, and been greeted by the Web equivalent of chirping crickets. In contrast, it's usually the stuff that seems completely innocuous that manages to stimulate some section of a person's brain dedicated to making everything sound offensive.