PETA Phishes for Phonics

PETA has decided to fight "speciesism" by trying to modify our language to exclude casual references to animals. Mock them if you will, but maybe they just didn't go far enough? Think of all the harmful things that can affect our health and well being. Obesity is a major cause of heart failure. What if we further modified our language to eliminate some of those references to foods that are harmful to us?

Instead of "That's the way the cookie crumbles", we go with "That's the way your 401K crumbles."

Instead of bemoaning the loss of a cookie, we mourn for a real loss of our retirement nest eggs.

How about instead of "You can't have your cake and eat it too", we substitute "You can't have your significant other and your paramour, too"

"Like taking candy from a baby" becomes "Like taking carbon credits from a gross polluter."

"Easy as pie" becomes "Easy as rewriting aphorisms to accommodate current nonsensical kooky fads."

Hmm. Cookies...cakes...candy...pies?

I'll finish this later. Right now I have a case of the munchies you just can't believe!

Weird Words to Help You Win at Scrabble

Because the Internet is nothing if not instructive, (and totally believable), I give you Mr. Language Person!

Thank you, thank you! It's great to be here again! Well, to be anywhere, actually. But I have a couple of new words to add to your vocabulary. (Eat your heart out, Bill O'Reilly!)

The first word I actually ran into on the Interwebs: Feorirling , which, contrary to public opinion is not a Swedish sex act! It was a coin that circulated in the Republic of Ireland between 1928 and 1962. It was equal in value to 1/960 of one Irish pound. (A feorirling for your thoughts??")

The second, was in an old volume of poetry:  Coign
As in,

"In a coign of the cliff between lowland and highland..."

So I looked it up in the dictionary, which gave me the following translation:

archaic spelling of quoin.

Well! That certainly settled that! So then I had to look up quoin: 

a projecting corner or angle of a wall or building. (or maybe, a cliff!)

The next time you're playing Scrabble and end up with an extra G or Q, see if you can work one of these words into the game. People will marvel at your depth of knowledge...after you have the fun of seeing them incredulously challenging your word and getting schooled by you.

And if you ever find a feorirling at a coign of a building, wall or cliff, you'll know exactly how to describe it!

You're welcome!

Recent UC Berkeley Validictorian

Poster boy for not skipping classes.

A Brief History of Profanity

This will not be comprehensive, nor will it be explicit. But I believe that profanity has been a major contributor to the degradation of American society and culture, so a brief view...

I like to pick 1939 for the first slippery slope of our downward trajectory. 1939 gave us, among others, The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and the iconic Gone with the Wind. You never heard profanity in the big studio movies until Rhett Butler told Scarlett O'Hara,

"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!"

He didn't coin the word. Sailors and others used that and far worse on a daily basis, but this was a shared cultural experience that somehow made it more acceptable. But still it was somewhat scandalous and Hollywood spent the next few decades dancing around the words the best they could. In westerns, prior to bar fights, the villain would start to insult the hero, only to be rewarded with a punch in the mouth before he could finish.

"Why you dirty..." POW! [Punch in the face.]

Sometimes they got as far as

"You dirty son of a ..." POW! [Punch in the face.]

How rude of our hero not to let them finish their sentences! Sometimes film makers would go to ridiculous extremes not to use a word. In one Dragnet movie, Joe Friday tells the bad guy the difference between you and me is:

"My mother didn't bark".

See what he did there? He called him a son of a... never mind!

(Writer Owen Wister illustrated in his 1902 novel, The Virginian, the good-natured use of insult and profanity between men wasn't necessarily a bad thing, so long as you "Smile when you say that.")

Late sixties, early seventies, while Isaac Hayes was telling us "Shaft was a bad mother...", the chorus cuts him off! Telling him to shut his mouth! Too late! Most of us had already figured out what came next. The late Sammy Davis Jr. used to tell of a trip to London, where he met the Queen and the Queen Mother.

"Over there, it's not half a word"

And all the adults knew what he meant. They also knew what the bad guy in the bar was about to say, and what Joe Friday was implying.

Fast forward to 1981, The Greatest American Hero, broadcast on a major TV network, every scene our hero would attempt something and not quite succeed was punctuated with the word "Damn". From scandalous utterance to comedy punchline in just 40 years! Broadcast TV is replete with the words "bastard", "son of a bitch" and others that were probably also considered scandalous not that long ago, but, I too, have become so inured to them, they just don't register anymore.

Fast forward to the present with the ubiquitous "F-bomb". I know people who use it like punctuation in their sentences, or as the only noun or adjective they've ever learned. Once the purview of R rated movies and cable TV, the "f-bomb" echoed through darkened theaters and living rooms...and spilled out into the street!

I think the first time I recall being shocked by such language was back in the early '80s. I was at Cal State Hayward at the time, and remember walking along the street, passing within earshot of three boys, about twelve, walking along the same street, and they were calmly, matter-of-factly cussing like little sailors. They weren't angry or upset, they were simply using "f-bombs" as filler...punctuation in their conversation.

It struck me then, as it does now, that the words lose whatever power or shock value they may have had, from constant misuse or overuse. Personally I have been of the opinion that people who are constantly given to profanity are exhibiting a poverty of vocabulary. It ought not be surprising how creative one can actually be in crafting an elaborate insult by ones self. Still, there are times when, as they say, "No other word will quite do!" and I have used them myself, albeit sparingly. Certain vocations, they seem to provide a means of clear communication! If profanity is a large part of your vocabulary, say it loud. F'ing A, bubba!*

Still the idea of dropping "f-bombs" casually and indiscriminately, or putting "f-bomb"" signs into the hands of small children at political protests, doesn't seem right to me. It must, of necessity, either lessen their power or numb us to their use.

Such language has thus lost much of its shock value. Again, I personally do not typically use that language in lieu of more creative uses, but if you use such words daily, frequently, and for the most trivial of things... then what are you left to say when you get really angry? When a person or a situation is really bad? Is there anything left? Or do you just say it a little louder??

Will the F-bomb join "Gosh, Doggone it, Shucks, Geez, Darn, Gee Willickers, Horse Puckey, H-E-double toothpicks" and the like in its soon to be newfound blandness?

Sheesh!


*It used to be de rigueur for Southern gentlemen to lower their voices when uttering profanity or speaking of unpleasant things. It seems there was nothing they couldn't say, so long as they dropped their voices, to spare any women or children who might be within earshot from hearing it

Obama's Nothingburger Eulogy of Fidel Castro

Why do people always say "it goes without saying", and then proceed to fill the air with words? What's worse, is to fill the air with meaningless words. Case in point: Barack Obama.

I'm sure Barack Obama would love to be remembered as an outstanding orator if not a statesman. I think he pays his speechwriters extra if they throw in some bit of unusual and flowery language that someone else might find profound, but mostly sounds stilted. But then, since he has said he's a better speechwriter than his speechwriters, there's reason to believe that this particular bit of nonsense may have been penned by the President himself!

"History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and the world around him."

Really? Really?? This may be profound in the "water is wet" school of oratory, but, please! This particular bit of nothingburger could have been written about virtually any national or world leader, good or bad, throughout history. You could say it about Churchill or Mussolini. You could say it about Pol Pot or the Pope. You could say it about Henry VIII or Idi Amin. You could say it about Hitler or Stalin. Or even Obama! Change the gender of the pronoun and you could say it about Maggie Thatcher, Mother Teresa and Joan of Arc!

"History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and the world around him" reaches new depths of shallow. Plug in any of the names above or supply your own, and tell me it isn't true.

I suspect the President has a copy of "How to Say As Little As Possible in As Many Words As Possible With a Straight Face or Condescending Look For Dummies."

Or maybe he wrote the book???

Be Wary of What You Read on TV

I was listening to a presumably British newscaster telling us the President was wary of Saudi Arabia's military assistance. And I'm reading across the bottom of the screen that Washington is weary of Saudi Arabian operations. Generally, the crawl tends to be a summary of what the speaker is saying, so I backed up the live broadcast (thank you Xfinity!), turned on the Closed Captioning & ran it again. The CC person heard it the same way I did.

No big, but if I had to venture a guess, I'd say the unwary product of our government schools was either unfamiliar with the word "wary" or was unfamiliar with the lilt of the Queen's English when spoken by a native.

"I Think it’s Baked In" - Mr. Language Person

"I think it’s baked in"

-Charles Krauthammer

The great Charles Krauthammer succumbing to the latest trendy, overused turn of phrase: 'It’s baked in'.

I think I heard it the first time a week or two ago. Someone was discussing one of the candidates and said that this thing or that thing about the candidate was 'baked in'. It seemed rather clever, self evident... a different way of expressing the fact that something was 'part and parcel' of another. Not bad. Or, as some might say, "It's not a bug it's a feature!"

But then a second person used it. And another. And another. Until it seemed as if some pundit every hour on the hour was describing something inherent to some person or policy as 'baked in'. And then the mighty Krauthammer piles on! Actually, I was hoping to use the magical 'baked in' buzz phrase myself one day, but too late! It has already become a cliché. Let me be the first to pronounce it trite, if I'm not able to celebrate its passing.

Now I'm not one of those guys who call for certain words or phrases to be banned. This one is clever and deserves its place in the sun. Maybe above the Arctic Circle where the sun doesn't shine for six months?

All I'm asking for is a little restraint. If you use the phrase 'baked in' to describe something inherent in a person, place, or thing, mark it on your calendar, and three to six months from now, see if you can work it into the conversation again. Is that too much to ask?

Unless, of course, it's already baked into the language!

Any Resemblance is Purely Coincidental, Redux

boor
[boo r]
1. a churlish, rude, or unmannerly person.

Synonyms

1. lout, oaf, boob, churl, philistine, vulgarian.

See also, Trump

In Defense of Samuel L. Jackson

I like to think of myself as a pretty mainstream conservative. Other than, perhaps, my choice of a presidential candidate for 2016, I am used to my views being at least tangentially close to that of my fellow conservatives. That's why it's just a bit unsettling to be out here by my lonesome on this issue.

Consider poor Samuel L. Jackson. Okay, that was intentional. He's anything but poor. He could probably buy and sell me thirty times over, but he's catching an awful lot of flak for a comment he made that just doesn't seem all that terrible to me.

“When that thing happened in France, we were sitting there going, 'Oh, my God, these terrorists!' And I can't even tell you how much that day the thing that happened in San Bernardino — I was in Hawaii — how much I really wanted that to just be another, you know, crazy white dude, and not really some Muslims, because it's like: 'Oh, s**t. It's here. And it's here in another kind of way,'”

First of all, he was honest. A failing I suffer myself most of the time. And I can identify exactly with what he said. Before you assign a motive based on racial prejudice, think back to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. A black youth was shot in the street, apparently resisting arrest, but the identity (and race) of the police officer was not immediately revealed. I can very specifically remember thinking, "Man, I hope it was a black cop". Not because I wished any of the emotional trauma that so often accompanies even justified shootings, to be visited upon him, but because I did not want the race baiters and poverty pimps to turn what may have been (and was proven to be) a justifiable shooting into some occasion to stir up racial unrest.

I hoped it wasn't a white guy, because of the implications that would cause, not only in Ferguson, but nationwide. It was not racism on my part, but hoping there would be no cause for rioting.

If you are a pro-life conservative, you should be able to relate to this as well. Just recently there was a shooting incident in Colorado in and around a Planned Parenthood facility. Look me in the eye and tell me that it didn't at least go through your mind that you hoped that maybe the guy was a bank robber, chased into the PP, or "some crazy white dude" with no affiliation with any pro-life organizations whatsoever. You didn't want a righteous cause to be smeared by an unrighteous act.

It's honest. In today's culture, every shooting has been politicized to the extent that, before the bodies are cold, before any investigation has begun, some group is trying to cram this into their political agenda. If the San Bernadino shooters were some random "crazy white dudes", or even a gang shooting, then, terrorism has not come to the heartland. 'Oh, s**t. It's here.'

Has Samuel L. Jackson ever said anything else that colors your opinion of him? (Pun intended). I don't know. I'm saying that we can give the man the benefit of the doubt on this one. His was the honest expression of a regret that terrorism had come to the heartland, much like my desire was not to see racial strife in Ferguson, or yours was not to see pro-lifers smeared by one unstable individual.

From the stand point of those who did not want to see terrorists active in the homeland, can't you see that point of view? On the morning of 9/11/2001, as I was sitting at my desk, I heard that "a plane had hit the WTC". My first thought was that maybe some elderly pilot in a Cessna had had a heart attack and crashed into a building. I can assure you that, although I do not wish any harm to elderly pilots, of any race, I really wanted that plane crash to be some "old white dude", rather than a terrorist attack.

It wasn't that long ago, that some of you were quoting Mr. Jackson for his reasonable tone on gun control.

"I don't think it's about more gun control. I grew up in the South with guns everywhere and we never shot anyone. This [shooting] is about people who aren't taught the value of life."

I think we should cut Mr. Jackson some slack on this one. Just sayin'.

Adventures in NSFW Marketing

I was strolling through my local Orchard Supply Hardware the other day, as I passed this display:


If you look at it from a bit of an angle, as I did in passing, the bottom of the "L" in FLICKER seems to blend in with the bottom of the "I". Closure takes over.

A suggestion? Use lower case. Problem solved!

A Brief History of the Bus*

*with apologies to Stephen Hawking!

Consider the implications loaded into that one tiny word: bus.

As we learned throughout the tumultuous political campaign of Barack Obama, it was something to be "thrown under". I myself, when talking about the uncertainty of the future, sometimes tell people I could get "hit by a bus". But, then, why does it have to be a bus?? Of all the modes of transportation available to us, taxi, subway, train, plane, motorcycle or streetcar, what is our singular fascination with the bus?

Sometimes, as a metaphor of bad things happening to other people, I speak of hitting a "busload of nuns". Some speak of disaster as a "busload of nuns going over a cliff"! When some people want to express their opinion of your low intelligence, they speak of you riding on the "short" bus. What is the commonality of all these metaphors but the lowly bus?

And in pop culture, if not for the bus, how would we ever have had a "Bus Stop"? The Partridge Family drove a bus. Sandra Bullock had a close encounter with her own bus. The word "Greyhound" as in bus, is the subject of any number of jokes and songs.


When Ray Nagin was mayor of New Orleans, he was criticized for not utilizing the fleet of buses he had to evacuate the city during hurricane Katrina. Who can forget the image of those poor drowned buses??


Perhaps our fascination with the bus, lay in it's similarity to another short word: buss, which  means to "kiss", but in Welsh and Gaelic it is..."bus".

Could it be that part of our association of the bus with our own mortality is the proverbial "kiss of death"?  Inquiring minds want to know...

Editor's note: Virtually no thought or research has gone into this post, I merely found it interesting. And doesn't Marilyn look nice?

"Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge"

Original art by John Cox. More at John Cox Art

Hillary Behind Bars

...serving drinks?

...throwing up in dumpsters?

...serving time!


The American Dream means different things to different people!

A Post to Warm the Cockles of Your Heart

And, like most of us, you're wondering, "What in the #*@! is a cockle, and as long as it doesn't raise my cholesterol, why do I care if it's warmed?? I'd heard the expression for many years, but today, I just decided it was time to find out exactly what a "cockle" was. The first few definitions did not encourage me.


The primary definition, is of a sand burrowing, bivalve mollusk. Okay that makes sense. There was a song I remembered from my youth:

In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty,
'twas there that I first met sweet Molly Mallone.
She'd wheel her wheelbarrow through the streets broad and narrow,
crying "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh"

So, if cockles are shellfish, why would there be any in your heart to warm? This wouldn't be like that chest burster in "Alien" would it? (Shudders) I don't think so, so let us bore on... (That's element number 5!) A cockle can also be...a weed. "any of several plants, esp the corn cockle, that grow as weeds in cornfields". Wow. That'll warm the weeds of your heart! Hmm. Still not quite the impact I was looking for!

It could also be the wrinkle or puckering of cloth and paper. "Pucker up! I'm warming your cockles!" No. Still missing something!

Then, down towards the bottom of the definitions, I saw this: "a small furnace or stove". That would be something to warm! And if, metaphorically, your heart were growing colder, something to warm it would be pleasant indeed.

If your heart seems a little colder this Christmas season, seek out those individuals and those activities which are known to warm the cockles of your heart, now that you have a slightly better idea of what they are!

No need to thank me. I consider it a public service.

Proof Positive Glossary

Apostrophobia: (apostrophobic, adj.) Fear of putting apostrophes in the correct place. A rare mental disorder causing one to omit apostrophes where needed and insert them mindlessly where they do not belong. A cure for Apostrophobia can often be found by completing the third grade!

Avatar: Gives a whole new meaning to "feeling a little blue" now, doesn't it?

"Avatard": Someone who sits on the couch, watching a non-biodegradable disc on his big screen TV, sucking power out of the grid, dreamily thinking about the "simple life".

"Avatard Meister": Someone who releases a new version of "Avatar" on Earth Day, to profit from the gullibility of "Avatards".

"Baracollapse": The S&P rating, the stock market, the economy...

"Barama": Short for "Barack Obama".

Blogger Siteosis: a condition in which there is a greater than normal number of hits on a blog or website. (See "cytosis")

Blogjam: The opposite of blogger siteosis, generally caused by software upgrades, software glitches, or software.

"Capital Beyond the Control of the Capitol": The fear that government has, that somewhere, someone might have some money that is not under government control!

"C.C.C.P.": Church of Climate Change Progressives - "Faith in tearing down capitalism since 1968"

"Celebritician": Celebrity/ politician See: Barry & Michelle

"CFL": Catastrophic Failure Lamps (see also: Exploding Mercury Bombs)

Chappaquiddick Inactivity Syndrome: The ability to ignore the life and death peril to others while you contemplate how it may effect your own 'political viability'.

"Chicago Math": Two plus two equals...when counting votes, what would you like it to be?

"Claustrophobia": Fear of saying "Merry Christmas"

"Congress Critter": Any member of the House or Senate

Corruptocrat: Any blatantly corrupt member of a party which shall remain nameless. At least, in the MSM stories about them, it remains nameless.



Cowardly Lyin': Virtually any member of the current administration.

"Damnocrat" : Not a rank and file Democrat...I was one of those once! Damnocrats are typically found in the leadership (and socialist meetings when no one is looking!)

"D- bauchery": Any sexual scandal that would sink a Republican, but is a résumé enhancement to Democrats.

"Delusioncrats": Similar to Damnocrats, but more likely to be found following Damnocrats.

"Dog whistle Racism": Only liberals can hear it!

"Droit de Seigneur": Where a man gets his 72 virgins the old fashioned way...one at a time!

Edjumacation: What liberals receive when they are educated beyond their intelligence!

El Jefe Cypher: Barack Obama II

Fauxcumentary: Art form developed by Michael Moore, using dishonest editing to propagandize whichever cause he feels will make him the most money. Sometimes abbreviated "Faux cu".

Full o' bluster: Typically a politician that simply will not stop talking.

From your keyboard to God's email! : A variation on "From your lips to God's ears!"

Global Warming Precipitate: We used to call it "snow".

Gooberfletcher: An irrelevant, but mostly harmless person. "One who puts feathers on peanuts".

He Who Shall Not Be Re-elected™: See "(the) Least Serious President in the History of the Republic™"

Keith D'OH-lbermann: A talentless hack who receives more attention from people on the Internet for the outrageous things he says, than have ever watched his show on MSLSD.

King George Obama III: Known for raising taxes and passing legislation contrary to the consent of the governed.

(the) Least Serious President in the History of the Republic™: Barack Hussein Obama II (see: "He Who Shall Not Be Re-elected™")

Marxheimers: The inability of Marxists and socialists to remember that Marxism has never worked anywhere.

Massage-gynist: Someone who rubs women the wrong way

Midas Touch: With Obama, it's like the muffler: Lots of noise, hot air and mildly toxic fumes.

Mooove On dot org: The not so gentle lowing of cattle and sheep prodded by the nipping and yapping of its herd dogs.

"Morning Sedition": NPR programing for the Left of Left of Center.

Nonument : Bridge or high speed rail to nowhere, etc.

Nostradumbass: Rather than actually reading what you write, some liberals use their Amazing Kreskin power of mind reading to divine what you really, really think about something!

Obamacon: I think you can break it down to its component parts: Obama con.

"Obama Justice Department": See: "Oxymoron"

"ObaMonopoly": Game where government controls health care, auto companies, student loans, etc.

"Obamoses" : (via Michael Ramirez) One who leads the Children of Israel back into Egypt

"Our Time, Our Talent and Our Treasure": What we need to give to take this country back!

"Oxymoron": See: "Obama Justice Department"

Paulbotulism: While extremely small amounts can paralyze the brain, taken in large quantity, it can kill a political movement.

Premature Espeechulation: When the climax of your speech precedes any actual accomplishment.

Potemkin President: Barack Obama, carefully staging events with hermetically sealed, friendly audiences as props.

Proglodyte: A term coined by @ChrisLoesch. Since so many libs never provide evidence for what they bleat, I speculate it's because they're missing links.

Progressieves: Since none of their arguments really “hold water”.

Repetitive Eye Rolling Motion Injuries: RERMI for short. Endemic during the Obama Administration

RomneyCare: The Morass in Mass.

"Sarcoid": Sarcasm on steroids.

Second Hand Liberalism: Spread primarily through cable network and MSM news and talk. Warning: Do not operate motor vehicles under the influence of Second Hand Liberalism.

(shot) Across Obama's Bow: Likely to miss, what with him bent at the waist all the time!

"Sybil" Shepherd: A police dog with multiple personalities.

Uncle Sammy Claus: The beneficent person who bestows gifts on every little girl and boy in America, whether they've been bad or good, by extorting taxes from...elves, I suppose!

Unemployment: Five words that I first heard in reference to a third world country:
"Government employment is hidden unemployment."

VATheads: (Say it quickly!) People who think the American public isn't taxed enough!


This piece formerly occupied the sidebar, but took up a lot of real estate.

Radicals For Rules?

What do you think of when you hear the word "radical"? Sixties radicals like Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground robbing banks, setting bombs and blowing themselves up? How about the Tea Party? Do you think Tea Partiers warrant the same designation as the Weather Underground? Some people think so. Consider, for example, just recently, an anchor at CNN referred to "Tea Party radicals".

To dimmer Left wing trolls, radical is just another pejorative, like "fascist". They don't necessarily know what the words mean, but they sound like insults when they are on the receiving end of them, so the ever "Green" Left recycles the epithets for the Right.

But, could there be an element of truth there, where both parties are correct? The key is just how you look at the word "radical". The word radical has to do with "getting to the root" of things. For those of us who still remember long division, that symbol for finding a square root, is coincidentally called the "radical sign". But what does it mean when it comes to politics? The sixties radical was typically anti-government, anti-capitalist, and anti-war, believing that the establishment was corrupt and needed to be destroyed...right down to the roots. Only then could things be rebuilt from the ground up. Perhaps, in a more egalitarian fashion?

Does that sound familiar to you? Can you think of any movement from the past few years that might apply to? How about "Occupy Wall St" and its many offspring? They were going to rebuild society, one squalid camp at a time! The solution to the disparity of income was for the poor to "eat the rich". If you wanted to live on land that didn't belong to you, well, possession is 9/10ths of the law! If there were rapes or sexual assaults, the neoanarchists of "Occupy" didn't want to involve established authority, so they formed loose knit bands of guards and vigilantes to try to keep order in the new World Order. They weren't very good at curbing theft, either, as people were surprised (stop laughing!) to find their laptops and smart phones mysteriously disappearing in the midst of such a grand egalitarian company of people! They planned for communal meals, sharing with everyone of the so called 99%. Well, everyone except the ordinary bums and self admitted freeloaders who started showing up for the free lunches. Then, somehow, the splendid egalitarianists (dare I say, "communists"?) awakened to the harsh light of reality and folded their tents. If you saw the photos of any of those camps when they finally "Moved On", though, you can see that they did a pretty darn good job of destroying those parks right down to the roots!
Say what you will about those guys, but no one could poop on a cop car like they could!

However, there is another sense to the word radical. Yes, it can be applied to those who want to destroy everything down to the root in order to build something else in its place, but it can also carry with it the sense of foundational beliefs, getting down to basics as it were, getting down to the roots of a Constitutional government. Constitutional 'radicals' do not want to tear down or abandon the rule of law, as does the anarchist, but seek to conform the law to its founding document. To repair and rebuild the foundation, as it were, so that the structure will continue to stand for generations yet unborn.

The Constitution is the root and foundation of our Constitutional government. The peaceful, generally law abiding people of the Tea Party want to see the Constitution re-established as the foundation and cornerstone of our Republic. Returning the country to its Constitutional roots is considered radical by some.

The primary differences are in the means that each group will use to achieve the end they hope to achieve. The literal bomb throwers and anarchistic Molotov cocktail makers of the sixties have moved into government and academia. Not surprisingly, they are big fans of the ends justifying the means. The law abiding 'radicals' of the Tea Party, on the other hand, constrain themselves to lawful means. It may put them for a time at a disadvantage, but by no means counts them out.

Calling a conservative a 'radical' is not necessarily an insult. Calling a progressive a 'radical' is definitely not a compliment.

Original art work created for Proof Positive by John Cox
Cross posted at LCR

Eloquence is in the Eye of the Beholder

“Remember the Alamo!” -1836


“Remember Pearl Harbor!” -1941


“Sometimes what we’ve seen is that folks will call for immediate action, jumpin’ inta stuff, that does not turn out well, gets us mired in very difficult situations.” –Obama, 2013

"jumpin' inta stuff"? As concise as he is eloquent!

Obama: "We Take This Very Seriously"

What's that we should take seriously, Mr. President? Apparently, everything.

Cross posted at LCR.

Language Tortured in Aftermath of Marathon Bombing

One of the casualties in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing and terror spree, is language, or at least common sense in regards to language. Rush Limbaugh today played a montage of news anchors and commentators referring to the Boston Marathon bombers as "kids". It was unreal. There must have been at least two dozen, if not more, newspeople and talking heads using the word "kids" to describe two cold blooded killers.

FYI, These are "kids":


Kids brainwashed and blinded by hatred, but kids, nonetheless. Nineteen and twenty-six year olds, who plot and plant bombs designed to maximize death and dismemberment, and get in shootouts with police are not "kids". Not sure what the endgame of this particular meme is here. Maybe to make Dzhokhar Tsarnaev more sympathetic to those who see him more as an enemy combatant, subject to interrogation, rather than a "first time offender" in the criminal justice system, entitled to full Miranda rights...

The second thing that bothered me was in today's news coverage, a statement by the surviving bomber about the motivation of his brother:

The surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect has told investigators that his brother orchestrated the attacks because he 'wanted to defend Islam from attack'...

"He 'wanted to defend Islam from attack'...". And the 30,000 runners, 8,500 volunteers, 1,100 media members and 500,000 spectators of the Boston Marathon were the primary enemies of Islam? What? Had they just run 26.2 miles to desecrate a mosque?? Passed out cartoons of Mohammed to wear in lieu of numbers???

This is not a reason. A rationalization, perhaps, but, this is only an excuse. Nothing more. Random murder to make a political statement is not a "defense" of anything. This seems to me to be the groundwork for a variation of SODDit. Some Other Dude Did it. My dead brother was the mastermind. He talked me into it. I was just some dumb "kid" who looked up to his big brother. Blame the dead guy, not me!

Kids a lot younger than 19 have been tried as adults. Kids who acted without as much premeditation or planning as this attack. I don't care if this guy wasn't the ringleader. He participated in a deadly bombing and shoot out which killed and maimed people, scarring them for life. He is clearly old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. His careless disregard of human life prior to the attack, through his attempt to escape, so that he could kill again, makes this guy a candidate for lethal injection. Whether or not the Obama justice department, which fumbled a case as simple as the New Black Panther voter intimidation case, can obtain justice for the victims of the Boston Marathon and its aftermath, remains to be seen.


Cross posted at LCR.

Puns in the News™

There was a local TV report in Sacramento, tonight, on someone vandalizing and opening three fire hydrants along a certain street there. The residents or developer who named the street may have been history buffs, or punsters (or both).

The street is named Lily Mar Lane.


Incidentally, Lily Marlene, and her song were famous (or infamous) during both WWI & WWII.