The two Americas.
There's just too much to say about the story of Cheney shooting his hunting partner, starting with the most obvious: Do you feel safer yet?. Then, let the smirk slide off your face as you go on to reflect on the basic truth that, accidents aside, the U.S. is run by the sort of people who drive around in trucks and shoot birds with pellets for fun, which I've always thought of as the sort of "sport" most men give up around the age of 15. (To clarify: My conversations with hunters suggest that most of them actually take more pleasure in the going-into-the-woods part rather than the shoot-to-kill part, or at least that one doesn't work terribly well without the other.)
But I think my favourite part is the wealth angle:
Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney from Austin, was in stable condition in the intensive care unit of a Corpus Christi hospital Sunday, said Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Health System.
...Armstrong told The Associated Press that emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington before an ambulance - routinely on call because of the vice president's presence - took him to the hospital.
...The 50,000-acre Armstrong ranch has been in the influential south Texas family since the turn of the last century. 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. He died in October. Cheney was among the dignitaries who attended his funeral.
These people are brutal dilletantes at work and at play. All of Katharine Armstrong's folksy talk doesn't change the fact that the sort of privilege, the sort of self-stratification by wealth we see on display in this episode, is absolutely antithetical to what Americans like to think about their culture and their government. The joys of juvenile, low-tech blood-sport may transcend class barriers, but the heirloom ranches, agribusiness connections, and private medical teams standing by in case the VP gets chest pains, most certainly don't.
There are two Americas, and, even if you're the type that thrill-kills birds at age 65, Dick Cheney doesn't live in yours.
But I think my favourite part is the wealth angle:
Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney from Austin, was in stable condition in the intensive care unit of a Corpus Christi hospital Sunday, said Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Health System.
...Armstrong told The Associated Press that emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington before an ambulance - routinely on call because of the vice president's presence - took him to the hospital.
...The 50,000-acre Armstrong ranch has been in the influential south Texas family since the turn of the last century. 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. He died in October. Cheney was among the dignitaries who attended his funeral.
These people are brutal dilletantes at work and at play. All of Katharine Armstrong's folksy talk doesn't change the fact that the sort of privilege, the sort of self-stratification by wealth we see on display in this episode, is absolutely antithetical to what Americans like to think about their culture and their government. The joys of juvenile, low-tech blood-sport may transcend class barriers, but the heirloom ranches, agribusiness connections, and private medical teams standing by in case the VP gets chest pains, most certainly don't.
There are two Americas, and, even if you're the type that thrill-kills birds at age 65, Dick Cheney doesn't live in yours.
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