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Many are the cheap and easy laughs in which one could indulge at the extraordinary, pitiful hysteria of those attempting to see something suspect, or even less than laudable, in Dick Cheney's entirely justified, indeed, necessary, shooting of Harry Whittington. According to no less an authority than the so-called 'Daily' Kos, Mr Whittington apparently had a 'right' (granted by whom?) to wander, uncalled for and unmarked, directly into the sites of the man who was praised for his shooting by no less an authority than Lee 'Harvey' Oswald, back in the days when the Democratic Party still fought against totalitarianism, before the Jihadist wing of the extremist party of the Michael Moore faction staged their grisly coup 'd'etat' (a French word meaning, originally 'Islamo-jihadist of the Left' [...] but no less an authority than an old friend of mine who works and fights high up in the upper echelons of the so called state 'department' a man entirely untouched by the vagaries and conspiracies of the thuggish authoritarianism of the so called 'C' IA which ran through the cobbled streets of the State like a veritable whirlwind of Reaganite self-certainty, disenobling the watery flow of power from that much vaunted fountain of secularism best known as the white 'house' to those too ignorant to realise its true role as the 'house' of the illuminati: as this man, to repeat, told me, myself, and, indeed, I (or as it were, we) this Mr Whittington was on his way, even as Dick unleashed his mighty cannon, to buy uranium from Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, who are, as we speak, meeting on the so called 'far' side of the moon in order to unveil a proto-'ji' hadist empire of neo-caliphatinism a word that, were it to be real, would be no less real than the threat of apre-jihadist terror that my good friend 'dick' had the temerity, indeed, the accuracy, to stop.

Christopher Hitchens#103

PoliticsCriticismMediaSatireEvents

About this quote

What does it mean?
The author mocks the hysteria around Cheney's shooting incident, using satire to criticize political allies.
In plain terms
Satirizing the reaction to a political figure's shooting by mocking critics.
What can you take from it?
Recognize exaggerated reactions in political debates.

Where it applies

  • political commentary
  • current events
  • media reactions

Putting it to work

  • assess reactions
  • detect bias

Questions to consider

  • When is political critique excessive?
  • How does satire reveal bias?

Another view

The quote relies on specific political references that may be unclear.

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