Ralph Nader, independent presidential candidate, made some thought provoking statements to Grist.org, when asked by interviewer Amanda Griscom Little what animal George W. Bush would be. His response:

“I wouldn’t demean any animal species that way. It’s easy to say coyote, but that’s a stereotype of animals. What carnivore has ever, as a species, done what Bush has done to the Iraqis?”

There are two impressive things about this statement:

Nader obviously realizes that we actually *can* demean animals through our speech, and that it’s not the other way around (as in, referring to serial killers as ‘animals’).

Second, do I smell the hint of vegetarianism in that last part? Most people don’t give much thought to their odd placement on the food chain – that we humans are not ‘carnivores,’ first of all, and don’t even need to be omnivores. Most people don’t, for example, think about how what we do in factory farms is not ‘natural’ and that we’re not doing the environment, and therefore ourselves, any favors by manufacturing farmed animals.

Even if Nader wouldn’t agree with the above paragraph, he at least is aware that carnivores in the wild are still more peaceful than humans in civilization.

The rest of the Grist interview, with the unsnarky title of Nader on the Record, is all about pollution tax this and solar energy that.

JSYK, this is not an endorsement of Ralph Nader for Prez.