Incoming!

I don't know the details, but the story of Dick Cheney's hunting mishap is funny as hell. (Fortunately, the guy lived.)
He will likely never live it down.
But it's an inside-the-Beltway story, for sure (even though it happened in Texas); thousands of terrorists loose in the world, and Cheney has to shoot a lawyer...

But they broke Rule Number One of hunting, which is never split up the party in the field.
They sure as hell broke Rule Number Two, which is, if you break Number One, you must, very loudly, halloo the camp (at least, that's the traditional salutation; see the Duke rule below) on your way back in until the remaining portion of the party responds.

Besides, what the hell good is your Secret Service detail if they let some 78-year-old armed lawyer get within firing range?

As for the hunt itself, I'm not much for animal-killing as a sport, as opposed to the acquisition of meat, but quail? No one can hunt quail and say, with a straight face, that he's a hunter. Shy of the salamander, quail are surely the meekest and most inoffensive animals on the planet. Sure, they're fast and agile and hard to kill, but the same could be said of six-year-olds...
(I reserve my hunting efforts to large, two-legged predators. It's more challenging, especially when they're armed, and in a truly righteous society there'd be no limit and no season.)
I do feel bad for all concerned, but inside I'm still laughing...


The John Wayne Rule comes from the cowboy shooting world, where the operative question always is: would John Wayne (in any of his cowboy roles) do it?
If not, neither should you.
In this case, of course, that is exactly what John Wayne would have done.