> ironic No, I meant that it comes to be ironic (not that it was used ironically by the poster. > It's not impossible it's used differently somewhere, if so I

> ironic No, I meant that it comes to be ironic (not that it was used ironically by the poster. > It's not impossible it's used differently somewhere, if so I'd be curious to know I would gladly provide: in fact, I did check on my RSS DB before my last reply - but I had rotated it only days before, so it contained a fraction of the usual data. I only found an interesting occurrence on the National Interest, but it was ambiguous, and an ironic use on the Guardian, but again it was not exactly in the way that I meant. Let me assure you: there are authors that use directly the expression without the negative, e.g. "Populists always have silver bullets to propose". You can see that the expression makes sense: silver bullets work in tales, but this is reality. But the foremost example I have in mind does not write in English. I will check: if I can find a few references, I will post.