No Relations to Aaron Burr...

Greetings and welcome to The Un-Zone, the semi-regularly updated site for all things related to Un. Ah...nothing like history in the making. It's been a while since we've had vice presidents shooting at other people while in office. Think Aaron Burr killing Alexander Hamilton. Yeah, 200 years ago. There might have been other Vice Presidents behaving badly, but newspaper coverage was notoriously bad back then. Politicians paid newspapers to keep these things hush-hush...not that I'm trying to insult ethics in newspapers.

Well, now you can add Dick Cheney to this list as he accidentally shot one of his hunting companions while hunting for quail. The incident, according to the story, happened as follows. Items within brackets were added in by the blogger for context:

She [Katharine Armstrong] said Whittington went to retrieve a bird he shot. Cheney and the third hunter, whom she would not identify, walked to another spot and discovered a second covey of quail.
Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," said Armstrong, who was in the car.
"The vice president didn't see him," she said. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."

The victim of this accident, Mr. Harry Whittington, is a 78 year old lawyer in Austin, Texas, is reported to be in stable condition. All the members of the hunting party were wearing the requisite bright-orange hunting vests.
Not that I find this particularly interesting(actually, I do), but this incident was not reported by the Vice-President's office for nearly 24 hours. It wasn't known until a local newspaper reported this incident on their website.
Some other interesting things that may be noted about this incident and the people involved.
1. The ranch is owned by a longtime friend of VP Cheney and President G.W. Bush. Katharine is the daughter of Tobin Armstrong, a politically connected rancher who has been a guest at the White House and spent 48 years as director of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. Her mother is Anne Armstrong, who was a Halliburton director when that corporation hired Cheney.
2. Mr. Whittington is a regular, too, but it was supposedly the first time the two men hunted together.
3. Mr. Whittington has long been active in Texas Republican politics. He's been appointed to several state boards, including when then-Gov. George W. Bush named him to the Texas Funeral Service Commission. Note the irony about the last statement. Member of the Texas Funeral Service Commission.
One can see the many humorous possibilities one can milk from this story (From BoingBoing.com):

1) *Are* lawyers in season right now?
2) Was the lawyer at least a ]4-point?
3) Was Cheney within his permit limit?
4) Was the Cheney aide misquoted about the lawyer's hunting suit having a target on the back, or that he'd bought it at Target a while back?
5) Will Disney adapt this into a cartoon about a baby lawyer having to adjust to living in the wild without his parent?
6) Is this what you should expect if you don't contribute enough to a political reelection fund in the future?
One more: Or is this the administration's new plan for tort reform, No Lawyer Left Behind?

Well, in other news, this is related to the protests about the cartoons. But first, I would like to preface this with a few statements. Most followers of religion, whether it be Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, or whatever belief known in this world, are not violent radicals. They are nice, honest, kind people that you would want to have as friends or neighbors or future spouses. The extremists, those who twist and distort religion and use it for violent means, are not representative of adherents of religion.
Anyways, this imam in England, chose the wrong words and perpetuated the myth that followers of Islam are violent radicals. Basically, to sum up his statements, he praised the suicide bombers as they brought attention to Muslims and their acts were good.

One thing you should not say to a police officer, most likely armed with a weapon: "You ain't the only one with a Glock. If it wasn't for your gun and your badge, I'd kick your ass." Add to this the fact that you've been given probation for a weapons conviction. Not smart at all. Well, if you're a famous Chicago Bears football player, it's something you would say. Go figure.

Yeah. KU plays Oklahoma State in men's college basketball. Go Hawks.


That's all for now.