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| Deadeye Dick and his “disease of kings.” |
At age 12, Armstrong shot a buck from a
custom-made hunting car with his uncle, Tom Armstrong, and the King Ranch's
Bob Kleberg Jr. “Both men looked at each other and said 'Nice shot, Bob.
Nice shot, Tom.' Then they realized I had shot it,'' Tobin Armstrong recalled.
Toasting Tobin with liquor that they kept in the back of the hunting car, Tom
Armstrong suggested they give Tobin a new rifle as a reward for his good shooting.
Kleberg said that a rifle wasn't good enough. He suggested Tom Armstrong's own
customized hunting car. Tom Armstrong agreed, and the young Tobin drove the
car from the King Ranch to the Armstrong Ranch. He used it for hunting for the
next 10 years. Future
of Texas ranches is hunting leases and tourism
Mr. Whittington just gave a gracious statement, hoping that Deadeye
Dick comes back to Texas. He sounded understandably frail. He even apologized
for all that Dick Cheney and his family is going through. He added that Deadeye
Dick has much more serious things to worry about than him. That was the case
right after Mr. Whittington went down. Dick went out to dinner.
Way back in 1999, Texas Department of Agriculture had statistics
reporting that hunting brings in over $1 billion annually to ranches across
the state. Back then there were about 40,000 farms and ranches leasing land
to hunters. About 90% of Texas land owners lease their land. But when it comes to the Armstrong's homestead, it's been around
for generations.
The article at the top of this post is compliments of a reader who also had this to
say about my post on the Republican
ultrarich versus us middle America, blue collar boys and girls.
It's an article detailing how when Tobin
Armstrong was a boy, hunting with his dad and friends, he shot a buck from the
“hunting truck” and then everyone had a celebratory drink from the
liquor supply in the truck. Yee-ha! Wheee! Drinkin', shoottin', and drivin'.
– reader Honest
Response
But the Armstrongs go way back, including into Halliburton
ties, Rove ties, well, you name it they've got it.
As Arianna
recalls today, bringing up the recent CNN info fest on all things have to do
with Cheney hunting under the influence, CNN had a very interesting discussion
on Valentine's Day.
Vice President Cheney delivered a eulogy
at his funeral. Anne Armstrong was a member of the board of Halliburton when
Cheney was CEO. Their ties go back to the Ford administration when she was
U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. Together, their hospitality became legendary
as they cultivated the family ranch into a private getaway where they helped
build a state Republican Party one relaxing weekend at a time. CNN
Let's just get serious. Most hunters don't have the luxury of
a weekend getaway at some “private getaway” that actually encompasses
around 50,000 acres.
I don't know of a single hunter that gets driven to his or her
prey. It's really pathetic that you have to load up a gun then be driven to
where you'll shoot. It's the height of elitism. It's also nothing short of drive-by
hunting. It's also an insult to every other hunter in the country.
This Republican elitism of drive-by hunting is anti-environmental
and anti-hunting, as hunting was meant to be. Teddy Roosevelt would call Cheney out for what he is, an elitist snob. The hunters I've known have a true
love of the land, not an entitlement to it. They have a true love of nature
and don't see it as a thing to be used and abused. The hunters with true ethics
understand and respect the animals and birds they are hunting. Real hunters certainly
wouldn't condone the raising of game and bird in domestic tranquility in order
for them to later be let out to the slaughter by some fat, middle aged, privileged
elite who didn't respect the sport enough to actually walk the ground on which
its prey lives and breathes.
Real hunters also don't drink and hunt. That's something only
done by disrespectful people who don't have any respect for the sport or the
dangers of firearms. I've said time and again, including in my podcasts, that
people do drink while shooting. But these people are the dregs of the hunting
crowd. Just listen to Tucker Carlson who was shocked that alcohol was involved.
And why is no one and I mean no one talking about Dick Cheney
drinking on top of all his pharmaceuticals? I brought this up days ago and it
went nowhere with anyone. It's really missing another part of this picture.
To top off Cheney's drive-by hunting appetite, reserved mostly
for the elite, Dick also has “the disease of kings,” also known as
gout.
It's all about his
big toe. Here's a description of Deadeye Dick's disease, from none other
than the Washington
Times.
Cut out the tongue “Regarding Vice President Dick Cheney
and his mysterious foot — ahem, big toe — ailment, I'm convinced he's got
the gout,” says John K. Putney, assistant vice president of McGuire Woods
Consulting in Richmond, who previously toiled as Republican Sen. George Allen's
Northern Virginia aide.“The White House's rationale for
not disclosing the condition? The liberal press will shriek, 'Aha! The King's
Disease!'” Mr. Putney tells Inside the Beltway. “Of course, they
will work overtime to further portray Cheney as an elitist: one-half of the
'Bush-Cheney Monarchy.'”Mr. Putney reveals that he, too, is “cursed
with this condition.”“It is a brutal, at times completely
debilitating ailment. And there is a real stigma associated with it. But Cheney
certainly fits the profile,” he said.
As its nickname suggests, gout was formerly associated with kings and nobles,
their sedentary lives made richer by diet and drink — thus the King's Disease.
The cause is uric acid crystals deposited in the joints, especially the big
toe. Leading culprits are foods high in uric acid, especially liver, kidney,
tripe and tongue.
Dick Cheney remains under a cloud of suspicion, so today he headed
off to Wyoming to speak to the home folk. He got a standing ovation. There are still many questions, not
the least of which is hunting under the influence, on which the doctors nor
anyone else will no longer comment, but that doesn't matter to the seduced. But it's easy to be seduced when you receive $2.7 million dollars to the local university, which is what the Lynn and Dick Cheney Trust gave in December 2005.
It's fantastic that Mr. Whittington is up and about, however frail
he may look. I just hope he didn't get up too soon in order to save the hide of his drive-by hunter buddy. The guy who has the “disease of kings.”
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