Why, young whippersnappers, I'm old enough to remember when satire meant Terry Southern and Larry Gelbart. These days, "satire" is your last refuge when your leftwing hyperbole goes too far, and you'd like a get out of jail free card without the demeaning hassle of having to utter the even more shopworn "I'm sorry if you were offended" line. Or as Ace wrote a few month ago, back when an earnest Rousseauvian primitive was called on her lunacy and also played the "satire" card:

Ah, well. Let's just chalk it all up to nuance. Lefties want a free reign to speak in absurdities, but also want us to go along with their calling verbal mulligans when their absurdities become punchlines.