Monday, February 13, 2006

Dickie's Quickies

The Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) is threatening iPod owners who don't wipe their disks clean before they sell their iPods. At least they're being consistent, if being consistently idiotic is a virtue. Hey, I think they should subpoena President Bush's or Ted Stevens' iPods next to see if they own all of the albums from which the files are taken.

Editor and Publisher asks why it took so long to report that V.P. Cheney shot a man. I'll bet that they were waiting to see what the prognosis was first, but it will be the focus of questions over the next day or so. In a related posting, Taylor Marsh notes that her husband is a gun expert and trainer. His thoughts:
The killing zone for a shotgun, without knowing the barrel length, is roughly 30 yards. So there is no way Cheney could not have seen the other hunter IF he'd been paying attention. My husband's parting shot was this: "If Cheney was shooting at a bird and he loses sight of it because a hunter was standing between him and the bird, you have to have your head up your ass to pull the trigger."
I know nothing about such matters as I've never owned a gun. This sounds reasonable. Does someone else have more knowledge?

Heartbreaking story about starvation and hunger in Kenya by The Guardian.

Over the past decade, Africa's ability to feed itself has steadily declined. There are now more than 40 million people needing emergency food aid across 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Climate change is one factor - Kenya has seen a steady decrease in rainfall over the past 10 years. However, the crisis is also to do with politics and a lack of development.

2 comments:

Scott said...

I've not hunted quail. I do know it is a challenging and fast type of hunting. As I recall the birds typically break low and very fast.

I've read several accounts of the shooting, and some said Dick shot his friend while he was trying to join them, others that he was trying to retrieve a bird when Dick shot him. I agree, though he'd have to be an ass to shoot someone in bright orange garb at 30 yards. Maybe the reality is Dick was feeling overly competitive towards Mr. Whittington.

Seriously, if he can not react fast enough to avoid shooting a large day-glo orange object, he should not be participating in a potentially deadly sport which requires good reactions -- unless he is by himself.

Even more troubling to me is for Dick to be hunting at all. He has to have his cadre of secret service and medical support personnel trailing him in the field like a panoply of attendants and sycophants for a deranged maharaja. Jesus, couldn't those medical folks be placed somewhere they can provide medical care for people less selfish than Darth Cheney? I guess the old Dick can't bear foregoing any of his elitist activities.

Damn good thing for Mr. Whittington they weren't duck hunting, where they'd likely be using the much larger 12 gauge shotguns, with bigger pellets, longer barrels, and a tighter pattern -- all producing a much longer lethal range. They'd have had to go with a very discreet shallow grave in that case. (Remember Eastwood's movie Absolute Power?)

Damn sad thing for the U.S. Dick missed Scalia last time around. I suppose that is a mean thing to think. Hey, I'm not the only one who thought Dick's adventures with firearms would be fun to link. http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20060213/cheneys_last_hunting_disaster.php.

So while Dick was shooting at his alleged friends, who was running the country into the ground?

It is certainly fun to write about Dick, so you can stress Dicks's name over and over, because it is so descriptive of the true man, "The Big Dick."

B.D. said...

I've been reading some blogs where they refer to him as Deadeye Dick. Perhaps Mr. Whittington said "Quail" and Dick thought "Quayle?", then fired. I heard this morning that Bush was told of the incident on Saturday night, but that no one told him who fired the gun until Sunday morning. Of course, that shouldn't trouble anyone since Bush is hardly in charge of the government, but it's still a protocol thing. Cheney isn't commenting on the shooting suggesting some rouse about respecting his friend's privacy. Funny, he was more than willing to discuss Valerie Plame or so-called weapons of mass destruction, but to discuss this is heresy. Hell, the CIA wouldn't even let the Texas state police talk to the Dickster about the shooting.