Dick Cheney shoots somebody.
-
Bennett Cerf
- Posts: 739
- Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2003 7:54 pm
These guys at the top are despicable characters, aren't they?
I know, everyone's making a big deal of this, but I honestly don't care that Cheney accidentally shot a fellow hunter. People do make mistakes, and hunting is a risky sport with dangerous devices—I simply don't see it as saying much about his character or capability that he made a potentially tragic error on a hunting trip. At best, it says that maybe he's getting too old and careless to be armed and in public.
On the other hand, this says volumes about Cheney's character.Monday's hunting trip to Pennsylvania by Vice President Dick Cheney in which he reportedly shot more than 70 stocked pheasants and an unknown number of mallard ducks at an exclusive private club places a spotlight on an increasingly popular and deplorable form of hunting, in which birds are pen-reared and released to be shot in large numbers by patrons. The ethics of these hunts are called into question by rank-and-file sportsmen, who hunt animals in their native habitat and do not shoot confined or pen-raised animals that cannot escape.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported today that 500 farm-raised pheasants were released yesterday morning at the Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier Township for the benefit of Cheney's 10-person hunting party. The group killed at least 417 of the birds, illustrating the unsporting nature of canned hunts. The party also shot an unknown number of captive mallards in the afternoon.
What the hell…?
I'm not some knee-jerk bleeding-heart animal lover; I think living things should be respected and treated honorably, but that killing is part of the pattern of life. I don't hunt myself, and I don't think it is an unquestionable privilege, but I can respect the skill and intentions of someone who does a little game hunting.
But this…it's simply sickening. Blowing away a horde of pen-raised animals, released in front of you to scurry into your gunsights, is not a sport. It's disgusting bloody-mindedness, a lazy, cowardly, vicious sort of abuse.
They say that torturing and killing helpless animals is one of the signs of a sadistic sociopath. Somehow, it's fitting that our vice-president is the kind of guy who takes glee in unfeeling butchery.
-
Bennett Cerf
- Posts: 739
- Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2003 7:54 pm
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp ... 1001995823
Presumably Cheney would have had another member of the hunting party take the fall if the guy had died. I mean, seriously, is there any other plausible explanation for leaving out that detail when giving the president the news?
McClellan also said Monday, according to The Associated Press, that "Bush and senior aides were told Saturday night by the staff of the White House Situation Room that somebody in the Cheney's hunting party was shot, but he said he was not told until Sunday morning that Cheney was the shooter.
Presumably Cheney would have had another member of the hunting party take the fall if the guy had died. I mean, seriously, is there any other plausible explanation for leaving out that detail when giving the president the news?
-
Bennett Cerf
- Posts: 739
- Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2003 7:54 pm
No...wait, it got used.
By Alan Colmes, though:
http://www.newshounds.us/2006/02/21/ari ... g.php#more
By Alan Colmes, though:
http://www.newshounds.us/2006/02/21/ari ... g.php#more
-------------
"Fuckin' Koreans" - Reno 911
"Fuckin' Koreans" - Reno 911
Monday's hunting trip to Pennsylvania by Vice President Dick Cheney in which he reportedly shot more than 70 stocked pheasants and an unknown number of mallard ducks at an exclusive private club places a spotlight on an increasingly popular and deplorable form of hunting, in which birds are pen-reared and released to be shot in large numbers by patrons. The ethics of these hunts are called into question by rank-and-file sportsmen, who hunt animals in their native habitat and do not shoot confined or pen-raised animals that cannot escape.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported today that 500 farm-raised pheasants were released yesterday morning at the Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier Township for the benefit of Cheney's 10-person hunting party. The group killed at least 417 of the birds, illustrating the unsporting nature of canned hunts. The party also shot an unknown number of captive mallards in the afternoon.
As I type, the Daily Show is doing a brilliant parody of this. Hopefully a video pops up on the net.
In the meantime:
The Shot Heard Round the World
Cheney told Hume that hunting has "brought me great pleasure over the years," but that "the season is ending, and I'm going to let some time pass over it and think about the future." Cheney's hunting friends, who describe him as a crack shot (the veep has downed as many as 70 pheasants in a single day) as well as a by-the-book and safety-conscious hunter, don't believe he will permanently lay his gun down.
Chuck thinks that I look to good to be a computer geek. I think that I know too much about interface design, css, xhtml, php, asp, perl, and ia (too name a few things) to not be one.