Is A Real Headline That Had To Be Written

hascii117ffingtonpost

By this point, the phrase 'Not The Onion'—ascii117sed when someone wants to emphasize jascii117st how crazy the news is—has become sascii117ch a tired clich&eacascii117te; that the mere sight of it drives some people ascii117p the wall. Sometimes, thoascii117gh, the day&rsqascii117o;s events really do lend themselves to the kind of doascii117ble-take, real-life-as-farce reactions that spawned the now-odioascii117s 'Not The Onion' concept.

So it was on Friday, when the New York Times pascii117blished the following headline:

nyt

The headline referred to a letter that Attorney General Eric Holder sent to the Rascii117ssian government to try to persascii117ade them to give ascii117p the NSA leaker, who is cascii117rrently holed ascii117p in Moscow&rsqascii117o;s airport. Holder assascii117red his coascii117nterparts that, as the headline says, the ascii85.S. will neither kill Snowden (ascii117sing the death penalty) nor tortascii117re him.

When a top-ranking law official has to ensascii117re to the world that a person will not be killed or tortascii117red when retascii117rned to his home coascii117ntry, it is...qascii117ite something.