Police investigate The Onion's congress spoof

[Serika]

The Onion is in the news today for their spoof of the US congress. Long story short, they make fun of the ongoing budget war by talking about members of congress taking school children hostage. The police were called to investigate, because apparently, people don't understand what "satire" means.

BBC has done a report on the investigation.

I can see the humor in this. Threatening to shut down the government unless certain conditions are met is pretty much the same as taking schools hostage. If people are going to get mad over this it should be at congress, at all the reps and senators who drag their feet like Mr. Boehner does. But what does everyone else here think about this?

[FallenStar]

Offensive or not, it should be protected by the First Amendment - the Right to Free Speech.  After all, let's not forget Mad TV, Saturday Night Live and a whole host of late night TV shows that basically survive on making parodies of political figures.

As a matter of fact, when debating with my own mother on the merits of the political system, she told me flat out - "Hey, at least you can complain about them."

Looking at things like this and seeing how McChrystal was forced out of his job for people working under him talking bad about the president, it seems quite clear that no one cares about the Bill of Rights anymore.

Also, I don't believe it's fully Boehner's fault - he is just caught in a very bad position between the Tea Party bullshitters and the Democrats who try to compromise but can't since the Tea Party is full of Jack Thompson-brand idiots. 

As Don Corleone might say:  Politics... is a dirty business.   

[Yog-Sothoth]

>2011
>Thinking the Onion is a literal news site
I seriously hope you guys don't do this.

[Mydnyght Edgeworth]

>2011
>Thinking the Onion is a literal news site
I seriously hope you guys don't do this.

The sad, sad truth is.... there are people out there making that very mistake. And here's proof:
http://failbook.failblog.org/2011/05/22/funny-facebook-fails-the-onion-strikes-again/

WARNING: I strongly advise NOT looking into the comments section. I don't know if you'd survive to the end.