Obama’s speech-writers and publicists are lazy.

Before we explore the assertion, let us give thanks to Wild Bill for passing along a link to Carol E. Lee’s Politico essay on the Obama administration’s excessive, improper use of the words “unprecedented” and “historic.”

Here is a LINK.

Lee does a good job of playing fairly, acknowledging that some aspects of Obama’s presidency and of the problems it faces may legitimately be characterized as historic or unprecedented.

She notes, however, that the Great Depression and the New Deal serve as precedents for the “unprecedented” economic crisis and the stimulating package (goodness gracious!) of the Obama Era. One might quibble a bit with this observation, as Bush left Obama with two wars, in addition to an economic crisis, and Clinton left Bush and Obama with the deregulation of investing and lending, so that the monstrosity of the “derivatives” market may have been unprecedented. “Bubble” doesn’t quite describe that vicious scheme.

(We might note that, to a thinking person, “derivatives” are about as economically appealing as Reagan’s “trickle-down” economics. By all means, give me something that is, at best, derived to invest in! And yes, even when prosperity is “trickling,” it is ONLY trickling, for heaven’s sake! “Oh, joy, I feel some economic moisture from above!” If you are one of the few who recall Hell In the Pacific with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune, you may recall the trickle-down scene.)

But back to our historic an unprecedented analysis of Obama’s word-people: Their use of “historic” and “unprecedented” has a long history and innumerable precedents, and Lee’s examples are excellent. Therefore, the word-people need to pay more attention to their words, if indeed they see themselves as communicating not just with the True Believers.

Let us call it “The ‘Unique’ Rule.” Unless something or someone is, in fact, one-of-a-kind (difficult to achieve this status), do not describe it, him, or her as “unique.” Try “distinctive,” and then ask if, indeed, that is too much to say. If any event, decision, or policy is generic–of a type often seen–then do not describe it as “historic” or “unprecedented.” –Unless, of course, you are just bullshitting and enjoying yourself. As Lee does, apply the “‘Unique Rule’” to what you hear and read–and have some analytic fun of your own.

A productive day.

Spent hours bulling my shoes for the Navy. Took a long time but it’s worth it. Washed all my clothes for away weekend too – takes fucking ages!

Attended a workshop on negotiation. Really interesting, as it taught me some new things and further clarified some NLP topics I was unsure about. Some great books reccomended to, particually Paul McKenna: I can change your life in 7 days

Was supposed to see Blondie tonight, but that didn’t happen in the end. Was a bit of a flake, but honestly didn’t bother me. I’m not sure i’m really in the mindset to be dating again, and the more I get to know her – the more she actually seems a bit weird! Who knows how things will turn out. Will see her tomorrow night at the dinner.

This evening I was so tired, but hit the coffee and kept going -GO BIG OR GOME HOME! Right?! I got alot of stuff organised which is nice. Always helps me to feel like i’m more on track.

Began reading the book by Penny Power: Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me. Definately an interesting read. Some notable Points:

• The twentyfirst century demands engagement and conversation [with consumers] (e.g. it’s a continuous conversation)

• Modern business needs to be low-cost, highly adaptable and totally customer focused. (Time for big offices gone possibly? – Fuck where’s my fountain??!!)

• The most common phrase [she] hears is, ‘I want purpose, I need to feel my work is making a difference.’ (I’m not the only one it seems!)

Too tired to finish reading the rest of it, but it’s shaping up as pretty interesting.

Talk soon.

Once again the Agudah is meeting. Once again they continue to obstruct progress. Fresh from their victory in defeating the Markey Bill they don’t even feel obliged to put the issue on their program. We need to send the message, this issue will not go away. We need to picket, wear buttons, drive our cars in with bumper stickers, and distribute literature. Since the events are free why not let the word go forth. Let everybody know that the fight continues. Everyone who attends has chances to ask questions, speak to others alongside him/her, leave literature on tables, or stuff it inside the official literature. Let everyone know that the grass roots support for survivors is growing. Let people know that Agudah is losing its base.

I am offering these slogans off the top of my head. My strength is writing long stuff not advertising copy. So I am sure there are many of you that can do better. I am just offering these slogans to get us started. Please add on your ideas in the comments. I will fold them into the list. Lets hear from you on what you like. It really doesn’t matter which one you choose as long as you choose to stand up and let others know the views of erliche yidn. Our biggest problem is not with those who are covering up. The problem is that too many decent people are staying silent. If you take the step, it may lead the person next to you to do a little more. Eventually everyone will know that most decent Jews are demanding change. Then it will really start to happen

USE: Feel free to use without copyright and all that nonsense. Reproduce these in any forms that work: buttons, bumper stickers, flyers, signs, flyers, etc. While you are at it, make extras and give them out.

DON’T LET AGUDAH LEAVE PEOPLE WITH THE IMPRESSION THAT THE ISSUE HAS DIED OUT.

• Markey Might Have Prevented Motty’s Death
• Why Isn’t Molesting On The Program
• Stamp Out Home Grown Toevah
• Rabbonim Who Care, Declare! “Go To The Police”
• Motty Borger, A’H
• Save Our Children
• Lashon Horah Shouldn’t Protect Pedophiles
• They Usually Do It More Than Once!
• Its Time To Beg Mechilah From The Victims
• Support Our Victims And Listen To Them!
• Listen To Shua
• Rabbonim Who Care, Dare!
• Passaic Is Clean!
• Therapy Is Good: Agudah Should Go!
• There Are Gravesites From Which We Must Beg Mechilah
• Nezek, Tzaar, Ripui, And Boshes
• Listen To Nuchem
• Kasher Our Mikvas: Kick Out The Molesters!
• Keep Our Schools Kosher: Kick Out The Molesters
• I Am A Machmir On Pikuach Nefesh: I Fight Molesting
• No Hechsherim For Molesters
• Children First!
• Molesting Is A Shonda Fahr De Yidn
• Don’t Sweep Molesting Under The Rug
• The War Against Toevah Starts At Home
• Yeridah For Mondrowitz, Not Aliyas
• Stop The Suicides
• Let The D.A. Do His Job
• Prosecuting Molesters Is Not A Power Grab

In a relatively recent typical bit of Huffington Post 12X12 fluffery (for those of you who can stomach this kind of substance-less crap: AA: The Magic of Bill Wilson — no fucking kidding, that’s the post’s actual title), author Jeff Witzeman prattles on about the ‘magical’ wonders of Bill, Bob, the 12X12, and the modern day miracle that is Alcoholics Anonymous.  Witzeman leaves no cliche unturned, no baseless quote uncited (the apocryphal Aldous Huxley quote about Bill being the “greatest social architect of our time” which — oddly enough — can’t be found in any of Huxley’s writings or published or recorded interviews), and no line of absurdist logic unapplied.

And why not?  Mr. Witzeman is by his own account is a ‘former’ (i.e., failed) actor, musician, a patent holder (for a ‘putter’), and a freelance writer.  Oh yeah, he has a blog, too … which will go unlinked to on this page.

Now those are some qualifications, huh?  He’s no doubt a true-believing member of the AA tribe as well, but we here at Stinkin Thinkin respect the principle [/snark] of anonymity and so will leave that character defect alone.  Being someone who can construct a sentence in the English language and has a soft-spot for all things AA and 12X12 appears to be more than enough for ardent step proponent Arianna Huffington and her faux-liberal bit of WWW real estate.  ’Freelance writer’ Witzeman has a basic grasp of grammar and syntax and the decidedly non-medical credentials to digress on the ‘disease’ of alcoholism.  That’s more than enough to ring the Pavlovian bell of the editors at Huffington Post.

Rather than go into a lengthy rebuttal of Witzeman’s tired, cliche-ridden, utterly unsubstantiated claims (the only source cited is Tom Hartigan’s “Bill W” biography — how’s that for objective, exhaustive research?), I will simply say this in response: Rather than being one of the “greatest social architect of our time”, Bill Wilson was probably one of the biggest dicks of the 20th century and Alcoholics Anonymous is the premier non-solution for a non-disease.  The ‘magic’ of Bill Wilson was his ability to convince a highly devoted — even if a distinct numerical minority — group of people mostly here in the United States but sprinkled here and there in other western  countries that a vaguely non-denominational, quasi-religious version of tent-show Protestant Revivalism (very popular at the time of AA’s founding in the mid- to late 1930’s) was the “solution” for alcoholism.  In the process, Wilson managed to make himself relatively wealthy, screw over more than a few close friends, literally screw more than a handful of female AA’s, and create an organization that reviles individual thought while lauding the “[g]od consciousness” of an ever ambiguous “we”.

Yessiree … that’s one helluva trick!

Witzeman regurgitates every outright lie (Bill’s walking “by the bar” at the Mayflower Hotel [see:orange-papers.org -- top of the page]; the ‘correspondence’ with Carl Jung which consisted of exactly one exchanged letter with a near dead and senile Jung) and far-flung bit of pseudo-history he can into his hagiography. But in what has to be the most arrogant and ill-informed bit of freelance writer/golf-afficianado gone psychological/medical expert, he lets loose with the following:

“Extrapolating this wisdom [Dr. Silkworth's still completely unsubstantiated diagnosis of alcoholism as "A physical allergy combined with mental obsession."], we can see that “challenging” someone to give up smoking is like challenging someone to quit having diabetes. “C’mon” someone may say, “go on a diet, I challenge you to take off 50 pounds,” which may work for a couple months only to see the weight put right back on again. Why? Because there is an illness at work here, not a matter of flipping on a switch and changing behavior. But the illness, once a light shines on the underlying reasons can be arrested.

Or how about depression? Now there’s a misunderstood disease. How many articles do we read about depression being something where you can think your way into a positive outlook? For Wilson, he suffered deeply from depression after AA got on its feet and people accused him of “not working the program.” But depression functions very much like addiction, as many of us in recovery can attest, in that it too is an illness, that has it’s own unique recovery process.”

I’m not going even going to try to rebut that.  It is so fallacious and stupid that I’m stunned that anyone would even think about printing it.

Witzeman conflates everything but natural disasters with a state of ‘disease’.  And of course every ‘disease’ requires only the ‘light’ of the 12 steps shone upon  it so that it might be arrested.  So all the people I know who died of AIDS, one of my best friends who spent a year and a half fighting leukemia, my father-in-law whose got pancreatic cancer … all they needed (or need) is the 12 steps in order to arrest their ‘disease’.

Pardon me, Mr. Witzeman, but fuck you in the ass with one of your ‘patented’putters.

I guess the upside to this tripe and Roger Ebert’s self-outing death rattle is that 12X12 is becoming aware of just how utterly irrelevant, pointless, and sometimes genuinely harmful it can be in an age of epi-genetics and rich, consistent, deeply researched theories of mind.  Speaking as a person who has suffered with severe recurrent depression for 15 years, I can tell you that I never once read or heard anyone suggest that I could simply “think” myself into a more positive outlook.  Like most of his 12X12 brethren are prone to, Mr. Witzeman is just plain lying in order to serve the purposes of promoting his beloved program.

Just like his ‘magician’ idol, the great bullshitter Bill Wilson.

We must no longer tolerate the phrase “at the end of the day.” First, it is used too much and too automatically. Second, it does not refer to a 24-hour period or to daylight. Third, it adds an air of inevitability to an argument, and usually to an argument that is bereft of evidence. I watched Barry Levinson’s okay enervated documentary on celebrity and politics, and at on point he “argued” that, at the end of the day, television was a terrible development because it blurred politics and entertainment. He didn’t elaborate on the argument, but “at the end of the day” added a whiff of authority and inevitability to his weary opinion. Moreover, the episodes of “The Honeymooners” alone (not to mention other crucial classics) are well worth the decline of American politics, which were bound to decline anyway. –As if politics needed the assistance of TV to disintegrate! Please.

I suggest a replacement phrase, chiefly to reawaken napping speakers and listeners: “At the beginning of the night.” “At the beginning of the night, Congress may experience increasing darkness,” and now we must tip the cap in the direction of George Carlin’s spirit and of Carlin’s embodiment of an absurdist weatherperson. The Hippie-Dippy weatherman.

In the meantime, any time you hear anyone on TV or the radio utter the phrase “at the end of the day,” turn off the broadcasting instrument for a minimum of 60 seconds.

• Century: Smokin’ Hot!
• Feel the Power!
• Shock Your System with Century
• Electrify Your Education at Century
• Get the Spark at Century
• Set Your Mind on Fire
• Now with half-day Fridays

Steve Pagliuca is one of the candidates for the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts left open after the recent passing of Ted Kennedy. MRP just spotted this advertisement for his campaign. I’m sure Pags is an endearing nickname among those who know the candidate, but it’s hard to take seriously as a campaign pitch:

Call me fussy if you like, but I prefer my candidates to have a certain amount of gravitas. “Building a Bridge to a Better Bubba”? “Poppy for President”? “Dubya=Compassionate Conservative”? They’re just missing a certain je ne said quoi.

INDIAN SLOGANS WITH A DIFFERENCE ……………..

#Sign on a railway station at Patna :
Aana free, jaana free,
pakde gaye to khana free.

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#Seen on a bulletin board:
Success is relative
More the success, more the relatives.

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#Sign at a barber’s saloon in Juhu, Bombay:
we need your heads to run our business.

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#A traffic slogan:
Don’t let your kids drive if they are not old enough – or else
they never will be…..

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#Sign in a restaurant:
All drinking water in this establishment has been personally
passed by the manager

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THE BEST ONE :
Its God’s responsibility to forgive the terrorist organizations
such as Jaish, Lashkar etc.
Its our responsibility to arrange the meeting between them and god.”
- Indian Armed Forces

The next generation. Taken in Iran, December 2008. [Inserted by blog editor, not writer of this post

From Iran today:

November 5, 2009 War Stories from Shiraz

More news is rolling out about the experiences of 13 Aban.  One 6^th grader reported that he wasn’t even aware that yesterday was Students’ Day as his school did not celebrate the day or in any way acknowledge yesterday’s date, although he knew something was going on as he passed the security personnel on his way home from school.

I heard about a young 6^th grade girl who reported that 20 of the girls from her class decided to wear green to school yesterday as a sign of protest. Her father warned against it, but she told him she was not afraid.  During their school’s march the teacher led a “Death to America” chant. While some girls repeated it, many did not. So the teacher turned to them and asked what they wanted to chant. One girl called, “Obama, Obama, ya ba oona, ya ba ma!” (Obama, either with them, or with us!) To which the rest of the girls in the class responded, “Obama, Obama, ya ba oona, ya ba ma!”  They also chanted “Ma Hameh Be Ham Hastim” (We are all together). The teacher got scared and told the girls, “Alaan mekoshanemoon – bereem!” (They’re going to kill us – let’s get out of here!) So they all headed back to school. Along the way they were confronted by the Basijis. The men reported the green-wearing middle school girls on their walkie-talkies and asked the powers that be what to do. The men on the ground were given the order to attack and beat the girls. So they did. This little girl ran away and escaped a beating by hiding under an older womans’ chador. Some of her friends weren’t so lucky and were hit by batons. When they got to their school the school personnel were angry and called the girls’ parents, telling them to pick their daughters up. It seems the school got low points for the day because their students wouldn’t chant state slogans and were wearing green!

Last night (11/4) it seems there were protests on Mollahsadrah Blvd in Shiraz.

On NIACInsight blog protests were reported from Shahe Cheragh Mosque. An eyewitness says that a few hundred Green protestors gathered at the official government-sponsored events at Shahe Cheragh that day, including a significant number of green-wearing high school students. This time, instead of grouping in one big formation as protestors had this summer, the protestors scattered themselves throughout the crowd in groups of 5-10. When one small group would chant green slogans and the Basij would lunge toward them, another group further away would start the chants, and so on. That way they avoided getting caught by the Basij for the most part while they kept up the anti-government protest. Tear gas was fired. A handful of protestors were eventually arrested.

Things have certainly changed. I have heard from people, who were in NO way politically motivated or involved before this summer, that they are joining or ready to join the protestors.  It is heartening to see that people from all socio-economic backgrounds, all walks of life, all religious persuasions, are united in their demands. They want a significant say in their government; they want the rule of law to apply; they want basic civil and human rights upheld; they want a realistic and workable economic plan for the country; they want good relations with other countries; they want a separation of religion from government. It was not like that during the late Shah’s time when various factions united in an uncomfortable alliance to help get rid of him. This government has been so thorough in eliminating any opposition groups that most people do not belong to any. The result is that they are all united in their demands for basic and common freedoms and rights.

November 8, 2009 Hmmmmmm.

A fourth grader came home and said that at the beginning of an exam that the entire 4^th and 5^th graders were sitting for today, one of the boys stood up and said, “Mousavi….” To which other boys added, “Mousavi, Mousavi, Hemayatat Meekoneem!” (Mousavi, we will support you) According to him most of the boys joined in, while the pro-Ahmadi family boys did not. When the proctor for the exam entered the room and told them to be seated (in a loud, booming voice) they all scrambled into their seats and quieted down. Later he himself was overheard repeating the slogan.

A 6-year-old, close to my heart, wants to create a potion by which to shrink the security forces so we can then step on them all. She also wants to have wings like a flying horse to get away from the bad men beating people with batons.

One fourth grader’s class (in a different school from above) was preparing for an Olympiad. When the question, “Who is Iran’s President?” was asked, the kid answering hesitated, put his hand to his mouth, said, “Ahmadinejad,” then proceeded to giggle uncontrollably along with the rest of his classmates.

University sources say that between 40 to 60 Shiraz University students were rounded up by security forces on November 4; their whereabouts are unknown. University students and professors are scrambling to find them and get them released. But since this is all considered subversive, they have to conduct their investigations in secret, for fear of being caught themselves.

According to mowj camp website (check it out), 30 Shiraz University students were beaten and arrested on 13 Aban (although the official local papers said about a total of 50 people were arrested in Shiraz that day). The students are being held at Adel Abad prison in Shiraz. One student, Kazem Rezai (who has been banned from further studies at the university) has been moved to the intelligence prison, unit 100 and as of Monday had started a hunger strike.

Peiknet.com website states that this time some of the girls in Shiraz were loaded on to motorcycles by security forces and driven off – to who knows where. University students think that is rumor as no girls have come forward verifying the information.

November 9, 2009 More News Trickling In

I overheard someone talking about her brother’s experience on the 4^th. He is a university student who was corralled into a dry cleaning shop along with many other students after their demonstration. There they were beaten soundly and tazered until they could barely move. They were released however after they begged for mercy and some other university personnel pleaded on their behalves. He reported that some poor people from the south of the city had infiltrated the student groups. These people had knives and were attacking and stabbing the Basisjis. When the Basijis got a hold of these young people they beat them into unconsciousness and dragged them off to the vans taking people to prison.  When this student was asked by his sister to stop participating in these demonstrations, he responded, “If I don’t fight for our freedoms, who will?”

November 12, 2009

I heard from one woman, whose 3d grade daughter attends the Shiraz University Girls’ Elementary School, that on 13 Aban she was prevented from picking up her daughter because of all the security forces around the dormitories. The girls’ school is up on the hill, close to the dorms. The little girl found her second grade teacher and clung to her for the day. She, along with the other girls, was terrified of the security forces. This particular mom said that when she tried to enter the area the security forces just kept cursing at her and using profane language to make her go away. They wouldn’t let her enter the gated area of the dorms to go to the school. I suggested she keep her daughter home on Azar16 – University Students’ Day!

On Film-making is one of the better books that I’ve read about screenwriting and the directorial process.  Its writer, Alexander Mackendrick, was a veteran of the Hollywood and British film industry, responsible for such classics as The Man in the White Suit, The Ladykillers (the original, not the dreadful remake … yes, I used the word dreadful), and The Sweet Smell of Success.  What follows is a list of slogans from the book.  Post them on your wall and write that Great American Screenplay:

Movies SHOW … and then TELL.  A true movie is likely to be 60 to 80 percent comprehensible if the dialogue is in a foreign language.

PROPS are the director’s key to the design of ‘incidental business’: unspoken suggestions for behavior that can prevent ‘theatricality’.

A character in isolation is hard to make dramatic.  Drama usually involves CONFLICT.  If the conflict is internal, then the dramatist needs to personify it through the clash with other individuals.

Self-pity in a character does not evoke sympathy.

BEWARE OF SYMPATHY between characters.  That is the END of drama.

BEWARE OF FLASHBACKS, DREAM SEQUENCES, and VISIONS.  In narrative/dramatic material these tend to weaken the dramatic tension.  They are more suited to ‘lyric’ material.

Screenplays are not written, they are REWRITTEN, and REWRITTEN, and REWRITTEN.

Screenplays come in three sizes:  LONG, TOO LONG, and MUCH TOO LONG.

Student films come in three sizes:  Too Long, Much Too Long, and Very Much Too Long.

If it can be cut out, then CUT IT OUT.  Everything non-essential that you can eliminate strengthens what’s left.

Exposition is BORING unless it is in the context of some present tension or crisis.  So start with an action that creates tension, then provide the exposition in terms of present developments.

The start of your story is usually the consequence of some BACK-STORY, i.e. the impetus for progression in your narrative is likely to be rooted in previous events – often rehearsals of what will happen in your plot.

Coincidence may mean exposition in the wrong place, i.e. if you establish the too-convenient circumstances before they come dramatically necessary, then we feel no sense of coincidence.  Use coincidence to get characters into trouble, not out of trouble.

PASSIVITY is a capital crime in drama.

A character who is dramatically interesting is intelligent enough to Think Ahead.  He or she has not thought out present intentions, but has foreseen reactions and possible obstacles.  Intelligent characters anticipate and have counter-moves prepared.

NARRATIVE DRIVE:  the end of the scene should include a pointer as to what the next scene is going to be.

Ambiguity does not mean lack of clarity.  Ambiguity may be intriguing when it consists of alternate meanings, each of them clear.

‘Comedy is hard’ (last words of Edmund Kean).  Comedy plays best in master-shot.  Comic structure is simply dramatic structure but MORE SO:  neater, shorter, faster.  Don’t attempt comedy until you are really expert in structuring dramatic material.

To be continued …

How can science help build a better future?

A Grã-Bretanha está discutindo isso, agora!

Tradução livre do parágrafo de entrada:
“Da forma como pensamos em reinventar a Grã-Bretanha, a ciência deve ser a base para um novo ativismo industrial – não focado em mineração, estradas de ferro e produção mecanizada, mas em energia renovável, redes digitais e engenharia genética.”

O governo britânico está em campanha para criar uma sociedade mais consciente sobre as Ciências, destacando como as indústrias do futuro tem as ciências como base. O nome da campanha: “Science [So What? So Everything]” (algo como: Ciência [e daí? Daí tudo]). Mais informações no site da campanha.

How can science help build a better future?

A Grã-Bretanha está discutindo isso, agora!

Tradução livre do parágrafo de entrada:
“Da forma como pensamos em reinventar a Grã-Bretanha, a ciência deve ser a base para um novo ativismo industrial – não focado em mineração, estradas de ferro e produção mecanizada, mas em energia renovável, redes digitais e engenharia genética.”

O governo britânico está em campanha

How can science help build a better future?

A Grã-Bretanha está discutindo isso, agora!

Tradução livre do parágrafo de entrada:
“Da forma como pensamos em reinventar a Grã-Bretanha, a ciência deve ser a base para um novo ativismo industrial – não focado em mineração, estradas de ferro e produção mecanizada, mas em energia renovável, redes digitais e engenharia genética.”

O governo britânico está em campanha para criar uma sociedade mais consciente sobre as Ciências, destacando como as indústrias do futuro tem as ciências como base. O nome da campanha: “Science [So What? So Everything]” (algo como: Ciência [e daí? Daí tudo]). Mais informações no site da campanha.

Belo poster retrô que diz tudo…

Autor: Paul Sizer – CC-By-NoDeriv-NoComm

KFC’s classic ‘Finger Lickin Good’ topped a recent survey of Vha, China’s most recognizable advertising slogans.

So a few months back, I remember reading an article about a new baby range brought out by Cotton On Kids. They’d released a whole heap of t-shirts for babies with slogans such as “I’m a tits man,” “The condom broke,” and “They Shake Me”. Oh the controversy! Punching it into Google brought up all the blogs of enraged parents protesting the offensive t-shirts…but as one daddy blogger says:

Welcome to big whoop whoop, I say. Babies can’t read; only dopes will buy them anyway, thereby telegraphing their idiocy to the world. Why not just ignore the damn things?

Good point, Daddy Blogger. However, what does all this uproar say about us? That we don’t have a sense of humour? That parenting is wrapping itself up in the cotton wool of political correctness? Speaking of cotton wool, don’t even get me started on those damn kids who will be wrapped up in that shit til the day they die.

But I digress. Who gives a shit about the t-shirt? Isn’t the main thing that the kid turns out alright, regardless of what they’re clothed in?

Oh, and for the record, Cotton On pulled the whole range of offensive t-shirts in August, so the only place you’ll be able to see them is on the blogs of up-tight fuddy-duddy parents talking about how angry the whole debacle made them. See more of them on the Slogans page.

I’m both really amused and also incredibly tempted to get one of these (click on pic to link to online shops):

]]> http://snarkandboobs.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/snark-contest-at-iowntheworld-time-to-throw-obamacare-under-the-bus/ Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:15:33 +0000 snarkandboobs http://snarkandboobs.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/snark-contest-at-iowntheworld-time-to-throw-obamacare-under-the-bus/

Latest post at iowntheworld:

[SNIP]  – Read full story here

Granted, I know we are just simple conservative rubes and don’t have the vast experience of Community Organizing from which to draw, but still, I have faith in us. Some of us are magic and have managed to escape victimization at the hands of nefarious Doctors, desperate to sink their clutches into our apparently rare and invaluable tonsils!  Thus, here are a few of my proposed slogans.  POST YOUR PROPOSED SLOGANS, PLEASE! (in the Comments Section at Iowntheworld)

Obamacare: It’s really Obama’s sneaky way to “save” Social Security by getting rid of all the pesky elderly.

Obamacare:  Obama’s own Grandma isn’t the only one he’s willing to throw under the bus!

ObamaCare: Life saving surgeries for our most vulnerable citizens? Meh.

ObamaCare: Deciding whose life is cost-effectively “worth” saving is NOT above his pay grade.

ObamaCare:  Only bitter, greedy folks “Cling” to life. Let them eat pain pills, with “dignity!”

ObamaCare: As I’ve said before, let me be clear here, we have to do this because Shut Up. And George Bush.

ObamaCare:  This Is The Moment Your Tonsils Have Been Waiting For

Obamacare:“This committee has decided that you aren’t ready to be “punished” by a baby.”

Obamacare:  An Obama-y Bureaucrat who says “oh, just take a pill” will be in charge of your Epidural decisions.

Obamacare: Do you trust the Government with a speculum? (am I right, Ladies?!)

It is time to analyze the political slogans that have come to my attention. Since no cared enough to bring any slogans to my attention, the burden falls upon me to provide all the material. I am aided in this task by the vacuousness of the typical candidate’s mind. Still, this being an off year, the picking, like the candidates, are pathetic.

One lady, running for county legislature, in her latest mailing to sully our mail box, compares herself to some “political boss” of whom I have never heard. She claims that the said boss had never proposed a job creation program. She says that she supports such (undefined) program. I guess that she, having never before held elected office, never proposing any such program is not germane to the election.

The same candidate’s mailing states that she believes in strong community relationships. I am not sure what these are, but I suspect that these relationships are a good thing. If she is elected, I will look forward to having one–I think.

There it is. It is now up to you. Go vote, or not, and hope for the best. Something is sure to happen sometime.

Life experience doesn’t depend on your age, or on how much you’ve worked, or on how fast you have lived..

It depens on how intense you have felt and undergone your life.

Lebenserfahrung ..

hängt nicht vom Alter ab.

Sie ist ein Zeichen dafür .. wie intensive man sein Leben erlebt und gelebt  hat ..

It seems that over the years, even some of the largest corporate advertising executives didn’t always do enough investigative research in their “homework” when it came to marketing American products in other parts of the world. Some of their marketing campaigns turned into embarrassing fiascos during translations from English into local native languages in other parts of the world. Checkout some of the more notorious as well as humorous examples below.

• In China, the Coca-Cola name was initially read as “Kekoukela”, which meant “Bite the Wax Tadpole” or “Female Horse Stuffed with Wax”, depending upon the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent – “kokoukole”, which translates into “Happiness in the Mouth.”

• General Motors had a notoriously famous fiasco when they tried to market the car model, Nova in Central and South America. Seems that “No va” in Spanish means, “It Doesn’t Go.”

• The Dairy Association’s huge success with the campaign, “Got Milk?” prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention that the Spanish translation read “Are You Lactating?”

• When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class seats in the Mexican market, it translated its “Fly In Leather” campaign literally, which meant “Fly Naked” (vuela en cuero) in Spanish.

• Remember the Pepsi advertising campaign back in the 60’s, “Come Alive, You’re in the Pepsi Generation”? Well, that didn’t go over too well when translated into Chinese. What it meant was, “Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave.”

• Coors put its slogan, “Turn It Loose,” into Spanish, where it was translated as “Suffer From Diarrhea.”

• Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, which just happened to be the name of a notorious porno magazine.

• When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the United States, with the smiling baby on the label. They later learned that companies in Africa routinely put pictures on the product label of what’s inside, since many people are illiterate and can’t read.

• In Germany, Clairol introduced the “Mist Stick,” which was a curling iron, only to find out that “mist” is slang in German translation for manure. Not too many people had use for the “Manure Stick.”

• Frank Perdue’s chicken slogan, “It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken,” was translated into Spanish as “it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate.”

• Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: “Nothing Sucks like an Electrolux”.

• An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market that promoted the Pope’s visit. Instead of “I saw the Pope” (el Papa), the shirts read “I Saw the Potato” (la papa).

• When the Parker Pen Company marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to have read, “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” The company thought that the word “embarazar” (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”

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Andrew Klavan/PajamasMedia.com

Something for all of us to enjoy!

Daniel Goodman, blogging as “The New England Patriot” in 2006, rightly connects Orwell’s observations about political euphemisms to 21st century American politics:

[ from How Political Language Distorts Reality, Wednesday, October 25, 2006]

Political “orthodoxy…seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style.” So wrote George Orwell in his essay “Politics and the English Language”, among other insightful remarks he made about political language. The first problem with political language, Orwell says, is that it’s bland and repetitive. If you want to be in politics, you have to master the art of speaking in a “lifeless” style where you have to be excruciatingly careful with everything you say lest you say something ‘politically incorrect’ or anything that could potentially be politically harmful.

President Obama, in most cases, seems to be a careful speaker; his remarks soon after Professor Gates was arrested appear to be an exception, for example. Moreover, as the N.E. Patriot might suggest, President Obama is careful partly because he doesn’t want to a make a political mistake. However, it is also possible that the president and other politicians (from different points on the political spectrum) who choose words carefully are simply behaving like adults in a political arena that now seems dominated by excessive rhetoric, adolescent exaggeration, and insult. (Lindsey Graham seems to choose words carefully, to select just one person who disagrees with Obama.) Additionally, I am still in search of a satisfactory definition of “politically incorrect,” partly because it seems as if one person’s assessment that a word, phrase, or term is “politically incorrect” may be another person’s assessment that the same word, phrase, or term is simply more discerning. Not that many years ago, a lot of my colleagues (at the time) howled when they were asked to change “Chairman” to “Chair” in departmental documents, and they alleged political correctness was the culprit behind this outrageous request. Now “chair” not only seems reasonable but more elegant.

It’s no doubt true, as the N.E.P. and Orwell suggest, that politicians still attempt to bore us into submission by speaking dully. “We’re making progress,” they say, or they say, “We support hard-working Americans.” Or, “We believe in freedom.” Snore.

The more dominant strain of popular political discourse now, however, may be the incendiary, exaggerated kind. Radio talker Mike Malloy likes to refer to “the Bush Crime Family.” Glenn Beck and others hurl “communist,” “fascist,” and “Maoist” at almost anything that moves, including a call to support volunteerism. Beck also called Obama a “racist” who “hates white people.” Keith Olbermann reduces Bill O’Reilly to “Bill-o,” and Bill reduces Newsweek or the New York Times to “the far Left fringe”; he must mean that curious species of the far Left fringe: media controlled by large corporations, but no, that can’t be right because that would include Fox “News.”

A Democratic Congressperson from Florida accuses Republicans of wanting those without health-care to die, and Republicans claim health-care reform will create “death panels.” Laura Ingraham claims the Obama administration treats Fox News like “Islamic Jihadists,” and . . . so it goes. Interestingly, Ingraham and others seem now to despise folks like Lindsey Graham, Newt Gingrich, and Bob Dole as much as they despise members of the Democratic Party–a curious development.

In any event, the insults, slurs, and wild accusations may not be matters of fact, but neither are they euphemisms, nor, at first, are they dull. They are foolish at best, vicious at almost-worst, and frequently repulsive. To the extent that they might induce someone to do something really stupid and harmful, they may qualify as indirectly dangerous–but they still qualify as protected “free speech,” of course. Orwell may have anticipated this kind of language when he complained about such cookie-cutter terms as “jackboot” and “lackey,” but his essay does not seem fully to have anticipated how raw, unbounded, puerile, inaccurate, and excessive language would become even when something as policy- and detail-oriented (and, arguably, pragmatic) as health-care reform was under discussion.

Euphemism or slur: pick your poison? One longs for a mythical time when those who disagree might agree simply to disagree, without the aide of verbal slashing and burning. A sober, civil debate: that seems like such a refreshing–and unlikely–alternative.

Have you seen signs/logos/headlines that make you stop, and not because you are intrigued, but rather because you are confused? If you have, you know what I mean.

I just say a delivery truck with the following sign:

Sanford Foods

Poultry Distributor

Pork Beef Supplies

The “Poultry Distributor” part was highlighted. So I thought to myself, what is it?  Poultry or pork? Yes, I know they distribute all of it, but why highlight poultry? My point is that there is too much contradictory information in a few words. It is not clear. They could have said: Sanford Foods: Distributors of Fine Poultry and Meats. And that would have been fine.

My advice is to have one overarching message in your logo or slogan. Too much is confusing.

Thoughts? Or better yet, examples?