Shooting fish in a barrel

Has always seemed like an odd thing to say. Did somebody ever shoot a fish in a barrel? How about just pouring the contents of the barrel in a kettle. Fish soup. Or pour them out on some sort of easily cleaned surface and let the fish die in open air. Clean 'em. Cook 'em.

Cheney's got his own form of shooting fish in a barrel. Via Atrios. Atrios calls this mass slaughter. With a full chicken still in my digestive system, I can't blame anyone for mass slaughter. Mass slaughter plus a rotisserie rod plus hot sauce equals deliciousness. But the guys in the chicken slaughter warehouses usually aren't there for the fun of it. Cheney's got a weird hobby. For insight on this business in the arts, I suggest Anna Karenina for a sort of romantic view on hunting; and Renoir's The Rules of the Game for a little more of nuanced purposely ambiguous view.