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So Digby writes a pretty funny - and ominous for its parallels - response to the Deadeye Dick Cheney shooting incident:

OK, folks, I think I got enough information here to tell you about the contents of this fax that I got. Brace yourselves. This fax contains information that I have just been told will appear in a newsletter to Morgan Stanley sales personnel this afternoon... What it is is a bit of news which says... there's a Washington consulting firm that has scheduled the release of a report that will appear, it will be published, that claims that this shooting took place in an apartment owned by Lynn Cheney, and the body was then taken to the ranch.

This needs to be looked into. And if it's determined to be an accident it needs to be looked into again. And again.

The link right at the beginning of the paragraph would reveal that this is a parody of something Rush Limbaugh said about the suicide of Clinton lawyer Vince Foster, which he thought was a murder committed by Hillary, a subject which he spent years on his radio show talking about. Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings added to the fun:

I'm not a rumor-monger. And I know that a lot of commenters -- some disguised as pediatricians from Memphis -- will write in objecting to what I have to say. I know about them; they've been given their marching orders. They'll say that there's no evidence that this was anything but a hunting accident. But what would you expect? These people are very good at hiding or destroying evidence. But anyone who thinks this was just an ordinary hunting accident, when the only people who have investigated it are law enforcement officers -- and we know how thoroughly they have been politicized -- probably thinks that you could blast your way into an airline cockpit with a pair of exploding sneakers.

There were an awful lot of black helicopters flying over southern Texas yesterday. There's a Masonic Temple in Corpus Christi. Sex offenders roam free there. And only a few hundred miles away, hundreds of women have been killed and abducted, and no one knows why. Coincidence? I don't think so.

But you won't find this anywhere in the mainstream press. You just don't do this. You don't call out Dick Cheney. You don't call out the Vice President like this. Not, not when you're supposedly on his side.

Mark my words, though: the Harry Whittington hunting accident was not a hunting accident. Sure, it will never be "proved". What would you expect? If Patrick Fitzgerald or James Comey or anyone else tries to do anything about it, someone will just take them aside and ask them one little question: "Do the words 'the Armstrong Ranch' mean anything to you?" And simple as that, their investigations will just disappear. That's the way these guys operate, folks. Welcome to their world.

Again, links are liberally sprayed about to explain the satire.

Wasn't enough for this guy:

I dont’ know why this is such a big story though. It’s an accident, not an incident. There are no political angles here. But that won’t stop both sides of the aisle from making it into one (mostly the Left side making fun of Cheney for it, and then the Right coming to Cheney’s defense and reacting to the idiocy from the Left).

For instance, the tinfoil hat brigade on the left is already charging that the shooting actually occurred at Lynn Cheney’s apartment, and the body of Whittington was then taken to the ranch as a “cover up”.

This nut claims that there were “an awful lot of black helicopters flying over southern Texas yesterday.”

Oh dear. Someone's got a sarcasm imbalance. I think Pfizer's got a pill.

It gets all the funnier when you scroll down to the comments, where Hilzoy and others start setting the guy straight and he STILL doesn't get it.

Was he lampooning that incidident? Because that wan’t clear.

After reading all the links — was he making fun of Digby?

And no, I’m not familiar with Hilzoy’s blogging style — is he a satirist like IowaHawk? A quick read of all the post on the main page didn’t seem to reflect that.

When I read, “Mark my words, though: the Harry Whittington hunting accident was not a hunting accident. Sure, it will never be “proved”. What would you expect?” I took him at his word — if he was being sarcastic, satirical, or just being glib, I didn’t pick it up.
Could I be wrong about Hilzoy? Perhaps. But his own words and my opinion of them stands. Nothing embarrassing about that at all. Even if I am wrong — there’s nothing embarrassing about that either.

Left by Robbie on February 13th, 2006

[...]

If you still haven’t gotten the joke then irony is truly dead. Long live irony.

Here’s an example of one of Hilzoy’s links. Denounce him for not being funny, but if you go after him for partisan sniping then
you’re throwing a boomerang.

Left by Tim F on February 13th, 2006

[...]

Looks like someone’s going to have to say the VF word for Robbie to get it.

Oh, btw, hilzoy’s a she.

Left by Swoof on February 13th, 2006

[...]

To show you how much I didn’t get it (and — perhaps sadly — still don’t), Im not sure what “VF” word you’re referring to. Very Funny? Voter Fraud? Variable Frequency? Something in Latin, perhaps?

Tim, I respect and enjoy your writing quite bit, and you and others are obviously more versed in Hilzoy’s writings and style than I am — so if you say that I’m misguided on calling her a partisan hack (your words, not mine, but I clearly alluded to such), there’s a good chance I am wrong.

Yeah, I vaguely get the piece now. If it was intended as “funny”, my humor meter must be off. I’ll make an appointment and get it checked out shortly.

My point that this entire accident is being overly played and dramatized still stands — perhaps that’s what Hilzoy was doing too?

Wow. Piercing that skull with reality took another SEVERAL comments before he corrected himself.

I've had trolling commenters on this site who've completely misunderstood obviously satirical posts of mine, thinking I was writing literally, and then, when I called them on it, claimed that satire IS NOT SATIRE if they don't get it. Everybody thinks they have great taste in clothes and a great sense of humor, and when you burst that bubble, they'll do anything to refuse to admit their mistake. The sad truth about this side-splitting escapade is that it's all too familiar.