# I always knew Cheney was quick to temper after that, "Go fuck yourself,"... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 12, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164 "2006-02-12T21:45:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/41 "2006-02-13T02:08:33Z")
> [@Hentor the Barbarian](#): > > And when you combine driving around and jumping out to shoot at stuff, you are doubling your risks? Two pictures emerge from your choice of words: One has barrels pointed out of windows and hunters leaping out while the vehicle is still in motion, blasting in every direction. The other is the vehicle being used as a means of conveyance from A to B while engaging in the sport of game hunting. In the absence of hype, the latter is likely closer to the truth. This may fail to support the picture you desire, but if so, too bad. If you really don’t like it, then Mr. Cheney has already put it well. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/42 "2006-02-13T02:10:37Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Or is anyone in this thread ready to seriously claim they’ve _never_ done anything stupid? No, I’m just relying on hard-line partisans to defend me blindly when I do my stupid things. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/43 "2006-02-13T02:18:18Z")
> [@Maureen](#): > > Didn’t get in his eyes? He was shot, you numb gint! It isn’t like the buckshot was coated with draincleaner. I think that’s a reference to the fact that the buckshot could have done permanent damage if they had hit him in the eye. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/44 "2006-02-13T02:26:12Z")
I admit, I’ve done plenty of stupid things. I once let my oil light blink for two days before I did anything about it. I microwaved a dish with a fork still on it. I can confidently say, though, that I have never shot anyone while aiming at a bird. I’m also pretty sure that it wouldn’t be explained away as “just one of those things” if I had. Most people think endangering lives is a _bad_ thing. OTOH, considering how many lives have been endangered because of the policies the VP endorses, I guess getting “peppered” by a little shot ranks rather low on the scale, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/45 "2006-02-13T02:27:48Z")
> [@Steve MB](#): > > I think that’s a reference to the fact that the buckshot could have done permanent damage if they had hit him in the eye. I think it could’ve done permanent damage just by hitting him, but then what do I know? I think the oil light in a car should be a warning, not a sign that it’s too late to do anything about it. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/46 "2006-02-13T02:36:51Z")
> [@Maureen](#): > > I admit, I’ve done plenty of stupid things. I once let my oil light blink for two days before I did anything about it. I microwaved a dish with a fork still on it. I can confidently say, though, that I have never shot anyone while aiming at a bird. I’m also pretty sure that it wouldn’t be explained away as “just one of those things” if I had. > Most people think endangering lives is a _bad_ thing. OTOH, considering how many lives have been endangered because of the policies the VP endorses, I guess getting “peppered” by a little shot ranks rather low on the scale, doesn’t it? I don’t know, I’m not a hunter of fowl but from what I’ve heard it’s probably one of the more dangerous forms of hunting. Hunting accidents are uncommon in the U.S. by any means. The person who explained it as “just one of those things” is some yokel that owns a ranch, I’m not sure why we’re introducing her comments as having any real importance. If I get in a car accident and total my car and almost kill someone I won’t consider it “just one of those things” but I also wouldn’t consider myself a dumbfuck over it. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/47 "2006-02-13T02:49:29Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t know that it’s perfectly reasonable to assume anything. How many people died in those Firestone-defective tires accidents? The vast majority of those people had no idea anything was wrong until their tires exploded. Well, they were driving SUVs, from Ford. - ::: g, d, & r ::: \* ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/48 "2006-02-13T02:52:53Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > Two pictures emerge from your choice of words: One has barrels pointed out of windows and hunters leaping out while the vehicle is still in motion, blasting in every direction. The other is the vehicle being used as a means of conveyance from A to B while engaging in the sport of game hunting. > > In the absence of hype, the latter is likely closer to the truth. This may fail to support the picture you desire, but if so, too bad. If you really don’t like it, then Mr. Cheney has already put it well. Consider the picture that is being painted by Cheney’s defenders: he’s out there hunting, being the very model of probity and safety in his technique and his gun handling, and this guy Whittington hurls himself iin front of Cheney as he fires, giving Cheney no chance to avoid shooting him. Sounds pretty farfetched to me. A much more LIKELY explanation is that both Cheney and Whittington were to some extent culpable in the accident – Whittington did something stupid, but so did Cheney. In which case, the years’ long roasting Cheney is going to get over this is fully deserved. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/49 "2006-02-13T02:54:28Z")
I can accept this as a pitting of an unpopular Veep, he deserves it. I take exception to the anti-hunting, anti-Western, anti-gunsport tone to the discussion. Remarkably, not everyone lives the same way you (all) do. Some of us like living on a ‘ranch’(or ‘ranchette’) that does not make us a yokel. Some of us like to hunt. That does not make us fools. Some of us like to shoot. That does not make us brutes. (Although other actions might.) Besides, don’t these side issues dilute the pitting of the Veep? (Still, I have to wonder what the Secret Service people did when this happened. It sounds like a Saturday Night Live skit.) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/50 "2006-02-13T03:03:04Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > (Still, I have to wonder what the Secret Service people did when this happened. It sounds like a Saturday Night Live skit.) I’m sure it will be. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/51 "2006-02-13T03:04:42Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > I can accept this as a pitting of an unpopular Veep, he deserves it. I take exception to the anti-hunting, anti-Western, anti-gunsport tone to the discussion. Remarkably, not everyone lives the same way you (all) do. Some of us like living on a ‘ranch’(or ‘ranchette’) that does not make us a yokel. > > Some of us like to hunt. That does not make us fools. Some of us like to shoot. That does not make us brutes. (Although other actions might.) I’m not anti-hunting. What Cheney does isn’t hunting, however. It’s akin to fishing from a stocked pond. That’s hardly sportsmanlike. He has animals rounded up so he can shoot them. That rather defeats the purpose, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/52 "2006-02-13T03:05:12Z")
Times do seem to have changed a bit. Used to be a politician can, in his past, have shot dead a little girl in a tragic gun accident, and not only did this not impede his nomination by a major party to run fro President (twice!) but no questions were ever asked about the incident at all. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, and it does remain an obscure incident, just Google the name “Ruth Merwin”. ---
**Author:** ![JonScribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3be4f8/32.png) [@JonScribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonScribe)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/53 "2006-02-13T03:08:22Z")
Alert Secret Service agents grabbed the quail and wrestled it to the ground. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/54 "2006-02-13T03:11:11Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > Times do seem to have changed a bit. Used to be a politician can, in his past, have shot dead a little girl in a tragic gun accident, and not only did this not impede his nomination by a major party to run fro President (twice!) but no questions were ever asked about the incident at all. > > If you don’t know what I’m talking about, and it does remain an obscure incident, just Google the name “Ruth Merwin”. [You mean this?](http://www.leinsdorf.com/stevenson.htm) > [@](#): > > When Adlai Stevenson was 12 years old, at a Christmas party given by his parents, he accidentally killed a girl named Ruth Merwin when the rifle he was asked to take back to the attic accidentally discharged while he was imitating an older boy executing the manual of arms. Oh, right, the parallels to Cheney’s shooting are downright amazing. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/55 "2006-02-13T03:14:26Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > Times do seem to have changed a bit. Used to be a politician can, in his past, have shot dead a little girl in a tragic gun accident, and not only did this not impede his nomination by a major party to run fro President (twice!) but no questions were ever asked about the incident at all. > > If you don’t know what I’m talking about, and it does remain an obscure incident, just Google the name “Ruth Merwin”. **Mr. Moto** , for some reason coyly, refers to [Adlai Stevenson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adlai_Stevenson). > [@](#): > > When Stevenson was a child, there was a tragic incident that haunted him for the rest of his life. While showing off with his brother’s hunting rifle, he accidentally shot and killed a young playmate named Ruth Merwin. Stevenson rarely discussed the incident but many have theorized that his dedication to causes may have been due to the terrible burden of guilt he carried. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/56 "2006-02-13T03:24:36Z")
I was coy about it because Ruth Merwin isn’t well known. And I think we all ought to remember why that is so. It is so because politicizing what is essentially an accident used to be considered bad form. Yet lots of folks on these boards are doing just that. I offer no excuse for what Cheney did, but I won’t join the pile-on, and I do hope I’d extend a similar courtesy to a Democrat in a similar fix. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/57 "2006-02-13T03:26:08Z")
I can’t believe the Democrats of 1952 and 1956 didn’t deny Stevenson the nomination because of an accident that occurred when he was 12 years old. Have they no decency? :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/58 "2006-02-13T03:27:17Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > Times do seem to have changed a bit. Used to be a politician can, in his past, have shot dead a little girl in a tragic gun accident, and not only did this not impede his nomination by a major party to run fro President (twice!) but no questions were ever asked about the incident at all. > > If you don’t know what I’m talking about, and it does remain an obscure incident, just Google the name “Ruth Merwin”. Do you know how old Stevenson was when that happened? Did you know that Laura Bush once killed a guy? Have you heard much about that in the mainstream media? Lighten up. This isn’t political. It’s not some forgotten accident from the past. A sitting Vice President shot some poor old coot with a shotgun. Come on…it’s FUNNY (well maybe not for the guy who got shot, but for everybody else). What bothers me is how quickly the WH spin machine (after initially refusing to even verify that the incident had occurred at all) has now decided to totally blame the victim. “He got in the line of fire.” (No, Cheney wheeled and shot without looking). “He walked up behind them without telling them” (Give me a fucking break). “He’s not that hurt, he’ll heal up fine” (nice compassion, there fucko’s, He’s a fucking old man). I was perfectly willing to dismiss this as a comic accident, humorous but not evil. Nothing worth getting angry about. However, the callousness of the victim blaming and the unapologetic tone of Cheney’s mouthpieces shows us all once again that this administration lacks any human decency, humility or compassion. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/59 "2006-02-13T03:28:15Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > [You mean this?](http://www.leinsdorf.com/stevenson.htm) Oh, right, the parallels to Cheney’s shooting are downright amazing. :rolleyes: Seeing as someone was shot, the parallels are certainly there. Whether you’re twelve or 65, anyone handling a gun has the responsibility to handle it safely. Both of these incidents illustrate that. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/60 "2006-02-13T03:29:02Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > I offer no excuse for what Cheney did, but I won’t join the pile-on, and I do hope I’d extend a similar courtesy to a Democrat in a similar fix. Yeah, [one would hope.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=198728&highlight=Kennedy) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164.md?page=4)