Posted on 02/18/2006 9:16:15 AM PST by indcons
It seems more like a dream a vice president might have than something that might actually befall one. It might also inspire a great fairy tale someday. I imagine it being recited to the children of a magical, peaceful world to come — a utopia of enduring gentleness that accounts for its origins with the following fable:
"And so, after decades at the heights of power helping to mount and administer great battles that caused many thousands of deaths and injuries, the aging leader set out one afternoon into the fields of his beloved homeland in pursuit of a bird that meant no harm to him and which showed him at last — unintentionally, in a twinkling, and in a way that forever changed his heart and, over time, the hearts of all our leaders — what it was actually like to shoot a man."
It's no wonder we're spellbound by Dick Cheney's hunting accident despite the fact that no one died and the responsible party apologized (though not, perhaps, as promptly as he might have). It may be a small story in an age of big ones — an odd minor scene in history's bloody pageant — but if you let it sink down inside your mind and resonate there for just a little while, you have to confess that it’s potent, mythic stuff.
But maybe you're too annoyed by the reporting. I know I've been. For a westerner who likes to hunt and knows about the pastime's risks (I almost shot a friend once while stalking mule deer), watching the Washington press corps cover a story that hinges on a chaotic Texas quail shoot is like watching Prince Charles attempt a native dance. Because they're so good at doing so many other things, the talking heads think they're good at this thing too, even though many of them don't know the difference between a twenty-eight gauge shotgun and an any-caliber rifle. The chief difference, of course (and the relevant one here) is that a shotgun of this modest size barely constitutes a serious weapon when loaded with birdshot of the type that Cheney used. Its hard enough for such pellets to pierce a quail's heart, let alone penetrate a man's, and the fact that one did so is a testament not to Cheney's gross negligence (that question still needs more exploring)but to his supreme unluckiness.
What's made this awkward reporting not merely annoying but socially and politically divisive is that it insults the intelligence of some people who already feel insulted in other ways by the very same class of urban journalists. Outside of DC, LA and NYC, the only time folks get to meet a correspondent from a major television network or a writer from a leading newspaper is when a storm has just destroyed their neighborhood. And when the big shots do vist the outland, they always dress wrong, covered in either condescending denim or some haughty blend of wool and silk. Then they call the tornado that struck the place a "cyclone," even though the place is Minnesota and Minnesotans don't use that word.
For me and for lots of westerners I've spoken to, the greatest failure of the accident coverage has been its inability to convey, let alone fathom in the first place, just what goes on when people are chasing birds out in the middle of nowhere, in the brush, with dogs and other hunters on every side and adrenaline pumping through everybody's veins. It's a jittery, fluid situation. The coveys erupt without warning and they don't fly straight, meaning hunters don't only have to be prepared to raise their barrels at any instant, they need an awareness of the potential arcs through which they can safely swing them before they fire. Or hold their fire, as the case may be.
In the field, there are hundreds of cases that may be — and a wide range of penalties for misjudging one, from the social embarrassment of missing a bird (quail hunting has an aristocratic tone that fosters a lot of ribbing about poor marksmanship) to the mortal anguish of hitting a human being. The sport is dangerous, which heightens its thrill, but it's a civilized level of danger that's usually manageable through good equipment, experienced companions, and traditional codes of conduct. The emotions behind these codes are old and fixed: pride and shame. Like a mountain climbing expedition, a hunting trip is an excuse-free zone. Once a person picks up his gun, he is that gun. And whatever that gun causes.
It's like war, I've suggested, but it's also unlike war, mostly because the quarry poses no threat. In a time of actual war — and when one of the hunters helps to run that war — the playfulness of the sport may seem distasteful. To shoot at feathered things while obliging other folks to shoot at much larger creatures that shoot back doesn't seem right somehow, or wise. At some poetic level it tempts the gods, and the gods are always armed. For Cheney, that's the painful, humbling part. For the public, it's the engrossing, mythic part. The press may be mauling the story and prolonging it, but the accident's strange allegorical allure is beyond its power to affect.
This has got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever read. Where's the barf alert? This article is a disgusting piece of cr*p from another scum sucking, whiney, loser leftie. But what did I expect from Time? My fault for reading it. End of rant, now.
I didn't get past this crap. I'm sure Cheney apologized to his firend immediately, profusely and sincerely. It just wasn't in front of David Gregory and his ilk.
What IS it about "Journalists", people who have NEVER done anything meaningful in their lives, that gives them this pompous arrogance to lecture everyone else about their lives? Say Time, when you have done 1/1000th of the good Dick Cheney has done with his life, then you MAYBE can presume to lecture him.
"Once a person picks up his gun, he is that gun. And whatever that gun causes."
Is he implying that people kill people, not guns? The horror.
Please add Flush the Koran Newsweak to your "lazy journalist" line up. People need to be continually reminded that NO one was every held accountable or that by our Junk Journalists. That bit of journalistic malpractice has, and will continue, to get Americans killed. Newsweak could NOT of come up with a more damaging propaganda lie to damage US National Interests if they had been working for Al Qeda intentionally. Yet the Junk Journalists have neither apologies nor made restitution for this will lie. Same Same Boston Globe and their front page story about GIs "raping" Iraqi women sourced from a PORN website!
Where was "the people's watch dog" on any of dozens of out right false reporting by the Junk Journalists from Flush the Koran to Rathergate?
He could have turned his head.
I'm not a hunter but, in thinking about your comment, it stands to reason that you would not want to use a heavy guage shotgun (e.g., 12-guage) to hunt small birds like quail so as not to 'atomize' them.
Yeah you bet Z. This sort of self laudatory crap about people with NO accomplishments or resume is really "Good writing". Hard to decide who is kidding themselves more, YOU or the Junk Journalists
Well considering YOU obviously didn't read the whole thing or even THINK about it before leaping on the same dead horse whining you post on EVERY thread, I suspect it makes it 99%
Wow! your nick is sure appropriate to this discussion! :-)
This too could be said of most Washington bureaucrats, who I can assure you are mostly liberals.
Apologized to whom? How does this clown know that Cheney wasn't apologizing to his friend as soon as he rushed over to him? Oh, he must mean "apologized to the American people" (or to the press corps). As if that needed to happen. Sheesh.
What mystical hold does this idiotic bimbo have on the Republican Party? Next time Cheney feels like .....etc. etc.
Well, no. You do it because it's a bit more challenging or you prefer a lighter recoil. The 12-gauge doesn't hit the bird any harder, the shot pattern is simply bigger and there's more shot in it. Unless you manage to hit the little bugger before the pattern has spread, that is, in which case you're reeeeal close.
What you do do is adjust the size of the shot you're using to fit the size of the game. You wouldn't hunt geese with number 9 shot, nor would you hunt quail with number 3. That would atomize them.
Thanks. Like I said, I'm not a hunter but do appreciate your explanation.
That our veep had to go such a trauma was really sad. I don't know how he manages to put with all the bull that passes for politics in D.C.
People out here in real America get it!
Those inside the beltway just don't get it and never will.
And sadly, for the most part, that includes FNC.
The writer may take shots at the press coverage, but his 'allegory' is anti-war, anti-Bush/Cheney, and anti-American.
Very nicely written poppycock.
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