Fois gras, a sort of goose liver pate, is a delicacy originated by the French. The process of readying the liver gets animal rights activists goosy. As described by Wikipedia:

In modern foie gras production, force feeding takes place 12-18 days before slaughter. The duck or goose is typically fed a controlled amount of corn mash through a tube placed in the animal’s esophagus…. [T]his force feeding procedure [creates]… an enlarged liver…. [I]ts flavour is described as rich, buttery, and delicate, unlike that of a regular duck or goose liver.

With no more urgent matters pressing, the Chicago City Council banned the sale of foie gras there in April 2006 (although it is currently reconsidering, much PETA’s consternation).
All of that was to set up this rich comment received at Illinois Review on my column, “Those onerous barriers to abortion,” by John Coonen of The Coffee Group:

It’s a shame how few so-called leaders step out of the shadows any more to say they are pro-life.
Talk to most pro-life advocates in either party, and you’ll hear the same retort: “It’s a divisive issue.”
Ah, brilliant rationalization for one’s reticence to articulate the truth you know in your soul. Divisiveness.
And illegal immigration – is that “divisive” too? Road funding; casinos to cover our debt-load?

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Or how about Foie Gras? Charging airlines a tax to fly over the land of Lincoln? Is that more your baileywick? That’s where you’ll take a stand and hold the Peoples’ sword high?
Twirl my finger in the air, and whoop-dee-doo, Braveheart.
A divisive issue. Is that all it takes to scare off the Republican party? Is that all it takes for Democrats who are pro-life to not dare to even mention it on their websites?
What’s the matter? Partisans got your tongue?…

“Hope is not a strategy” to get things done, is it? It’s going to take bold, honest persuasion by some Legislators to finally end the senseless convenience-killing that’s been literally robbing our society of good people.
1973 was the year. If nothing else, imagine all the young energetic and optimistic campaign volunteers you’d have to choose from if 3,500 people a day weren’t being slopped into the trash cans and intermingled with other souls’ earthly bodies. They’d be 24 years old today and out of college. As a campaign manager, that’s the ideal age to recruit optimistic young idealists who want to change the world for the better. They’re not here, folks.
Look around your next GOP convention… count how many folks you’ll see who are 24 or younger. They’re not here.
The trepidation of our elected leaders to address “divisive issues” for fear of electorate reprisal is precisely the evidence we have to prove two main points: Legislators and would-be legislators are far more interested in a career in politics than achieving change; and that partisanship continues to replace citizenship as the driving force in our capital cities….
Those who stood up and finally took a stand on “divisive issues” ended slavery. Those who overcame the fear of losing power and chose rather to lead the People ended fascism in Europe and obliterated a tyrannical empire in Japan.
Power and leadership are mutually exclusive, folks. Lead and you may gain legitimate power. Impose your power upon others and you may be called a leader; however the leadership is illegitimate. Run from the divisive issues and you’re no leader at all….

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