Dick Cheney, hunter extraordinaire

From the pages of The Onion... er, no... from the pages of the Post:

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets.

Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney from Austin, was "alert and doing fine" in a Corpus Christi hospital Sunday after he was shot by Cheney on a ranch in south Texas...

What can I possibly say in response to this? Hunting itself is quite ridiculous, in my view, but hunting quail is pretty much as lame as it gets. Is it really that challenging, that much a reflection of one's masculinity, to shoot defenceless little birds?

And then to shoot a hunting companion in the process?

Pathetic. Truly, utterly pathetic.

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Update: For more, see The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune's The Swamp, Editor & Publisher, Talking Points Memo, The Carpetbagger Report, TBogg, Booman Tribune, Firedoglake, and The Left Coaster.

As usual, The Moderate Voice has a great round-up (with updates).