After September 11, some people said that irony was dead. Irony will never die, but for some people, maybe it never existed in the first place. Like Fox News, who--in a lawsuit against Al Franken--has determined that Franken's use of irony is a copyright infringement. Franken's book title, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right employs a clever twist on Fox's own claim. Fox has a copyright on the term "Fair and Balanced," it says; therefore, Franken cannot use the term.

That, as any scholar or attorney will tell you, is nonsense. The ironic use of a copyrighted phrase--especially a very common phrase--is perfectly acceptable. Especially if the use of the phrase is for something other than the product or entity for which the phrase was copyrighted.

Of course, the lawsuit isn't about the copyright. It's about Bill O'Reilly's pique that someone called him the liar that he is.

And if you like irony, here's some more: Isn't it the "fair and balanced" I-Love-Fox-News conservatives who are always ranting against frivolous lawsuits?