WordPress still won’t let me change so much as a misplaced comma in the Lexicon. Actually, WordPress is only allowing me to read the site about 60% of the time this week, just in case anybody thought the secondary front-pagers got some kind of special access. Either the Red State Trike Farce Strike Force is being unusually modest, or John Cole should never have paid the NRO support team to upgrade Balloon Juice.
Here are some entries that will be added to the BJ Lex someday, I hope, along with DougJ’s latest, Wingerati…
27 Percenters – Those Americans who will predictably vote against their own best interests. In his seminal post on the Crazification Factor, John Rogers used the 2004 Obama/Keyes senate race as a measure: “Keyes was from out of state, so you can eliminate any established political base; both candidates were black, so you can factor out racism; and Keyes was plainly, obviously, completely crazy. Batshit crazy. Head-trauma crazy. But 27% of the population of Illinois voted for him. They put party identification, personal prejudice, whatever ahead of rational judgement. Hell, even like 5% of Democrats voted for him. That’s crazy behaviour. I think you have to assume a 27% Crazification Factor in any population.” Or, as commenter Davis X. Machina phrased it:
“The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of who will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesnāt even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it.”
Banana Republicans – The modern Robber Barons; individuals who dedicate their political efforts to turning America into an oligarchy where they assume they will be the rulers. Erik D. Prince, founder and sole owner of private military company Blackwater (now Xe), may be the foremost exemplar of the breed.
Bobbleheads – Derogatory nickname for television talkshow hosts and the pundits who use them — empty novelty items nodding in uniform approval of “their team”. See also Media Village Idiots.
Dean Scream, the, aka āI Have a Screamā 1). Dr. Howard Deanās enthusiastic bellow during the 2004 Democratic primaries, over-amplified both literally and figuratively by a press apparatus bent on demonizing an outsider to the Village groupthink who was threatening to gain too much popular support. 2). Any minor technical or verbal gaffe run ad infinitum and ad nauseum by a compliant press apparatus in order to make a popular political figure appear like a bug-eyed maniac when his or her ideas become more widely accepted than is comfortable to the status quo.
Editing, please – Once upon a time, Balloon-Juice had an editing feature, now abandoned, that allowed commenters to edit their posts to correct typos, etc., for a 4 minute window after posting. āEditing, please?ā, or variations such as āMy kingdom for the return of the edit button!”, have since become a common refrain from BJ commenters ā a crew better known for their thoughtfulness, wit, and snarkiness, than for their manual dexterity ā upon realizing that beautiful gems of prose are marred by an ugly typo.
Movement Conservative – the Adult Diaper division of the Republican Party. When they’re not soiling themselves over some imagined threat (from the Democrates, the DFHs, the Furriners, the Brown People, the Smart People, or the monsters under the bed), they’re taking a dump on the Constitution.
Warpr0n – entertainment that fetishizes war as patriotic, effective, and desirable; see William Kristol, Neoconservatism. (Per commenter Eks): The extra groinular thrill that comes from watching an ass kickinā action movie with the extra added knowledge that the bad dudes getting wasted are actually real people with friends and families who will miss them. Note: Works best when āhumanā is redefined to mean āfolksā (i.e., ‘Merikan), with the rest of the planet being populated only by strange and evil android beings.
Weekly Standard, The – One of Rupert Murdochās corporately-funded welfare cases that loses about a million dollars a year, TWS is the neocon echo chamber where founder/editor Bill āAlways Wrongā Kristol entertains those in the reality-based world with his invariably incorrect viewpoints and predictions. Kristol wanted to name his vanity project āThe American Standard,ā an idea scuttled when it emerged that American Standard is the famous brand name of a mass-produced toilet.
The Dangerman
Re: Keyes, it’s all Jack Ryan’s fault. At least 7 of 9 people will agree with that conclusion.
geg6
The Dangerman: And don’t forget that Seven of Nine was a part of that! Gawd, I’m a geek. And Anne Laurie, I can’t remember what the exact wording, but there was a suggestion about using that painter’s name in referring to wingnut arts in another thread. Someone will be along, I’m sure to suggest it correctly.
LD50
I bet much of that 27% can be attributed to elderly voters who didn’t know anything about either candidate, but who were scared of that weird, foreign-sounding name the other guy had.
Mojotron
to me this is the epitome of warpr0n:
Crashman06
@The Dangerman: No dude. According to the GOP, it’s Jerri Ryan’s fault. She should have totally banged him and four other dudes in the sex clubs he took her to. Think like them. It’s always the woman’s fault!
MikeJ
Are, you, implying, there, are, misplaced, commas,?
Kennedy
I still think this needs to be added, since it is a frequent Cole-ism:
(Break out the) Giant Foam Fingers: A term or phrase referring to the blind, ignorant, screeching wingnut defense and/or cheerleading of the status quo in the US, and the subsequent assertion that our policies and/or way of life are the best in the world. USA! USA! USA!
MikeJ
You would think that people with “odd” Polish or Croatian names wouldn’t be *that* influenced by a funny name. But there’s no telling.
Calouste
I have a recording of Mick Jaggerās voice where he admits killing the Kennedys.
As invented by the winner of the internets for the day, calling all toasters.
Midnight Marauder provides the definition: A snarky response to wingnuts and āconservativesā who fall for transparently obvious satire and openingly mocking rhetoric.
Also: wingnuts and āconservativesā falling for transparently obvious satire and openingly mocking rhetoric.
See: https://balloon-juice.com/?p=27936, Stephen Colbert
cokane
a thought:
The wingnutularity isn’t really going anywhere. The wheels are spinning. This new fangled Bill Ayers conspiracy is just a retread of bullshit during the campaign. In a few month will we hear about the “whitey” tape again?
I have a feeling that they’re running out of crazy conspiracies. Kind of like remaking Planet of the Apes or Psycho. Will the remaining years of shrieking just be a bunch of lame reruns? :[
The Dangerman
@Crashman06:
They think? Prove it!
Next you’ll ask me to act like them, but I’m more of a break dancer than a brachiator.
KCinDC
I think discussion of the 27-percenters and the crazification factor should also mention the BTKWB threshold, originally created by the Poor Man but presumably lost in some server crash and now preserved only in quotes at Slacktivist.
Colette
More proof that the wingularity is nigh: I was on a Southwest Airlines flight from Reno to Oakland last night, and the pilot came on the intercom and introduced himself as “Captain Buck Turgidson.” No one else seemed to notice.
Crashman06
@The Dangerman:
Point well taken. Maybe I should rephrase?
React like them! Scream in existential horror and run into the waiting arms of the nearest demagogue like them!
Better?
Brick Oven Bill
Goreinthian (n): One driving and /or riding in a large 4×4 pickup truck, commonly a newer Toyota Tundra, hauling large air-conditioned campers, to Burning Man. Also inclusive of those with large self-propelled motor homes with a bicycle rack on the back.
Most commonly found in California and New York, but widely disbursed through American urban areas.
cokane
I don’t even think this movement deserves these terms like Wingnut Event Horizon or wingularity. The movement doesn’t seem to be growing. Even mainstream TV conservatives are getting grossed out by some of the stupidity. I’ve been doing some more thinking on this, and I believe we will see lots of re-runs of Obama conspiracy tropes from our friends.
What we’re watching is more like Wheels-within-wingnuts than it is like the terms y’all use. It’s a more fitting metaphor for their world too.
mclaren
27 percenters should definitely be in the lexicon. Foam Fingers also sounds like a winner.
You have to wonder just what people will make of this lexicon 15 years from now, though. It’s almost like a private language.
SiubhanDuinne
Wow. Sorry to yank this open thread off topic, but holy shit, has anybody been listening to Keith’s hour-long signle-topic Special Comment on health care reform?
Passionate, personal, and purposeful.
Show repeats at 10:00 pm Eastern and once or twice more overnight. Watch it.
Svensker
@Colette:
I bet he was actually Bill Ayers.
(Love your story.)
The Bearded Blogger
I have always wondered… those spam ads for Rolex replicas, Cheney enhancement (I’m trying to be one step ahead of moderation), kenyan fraud.. must work on somebody, if there are so many of them…
Then I realized, they must work on 27% of the people!
SiubhanDuinne
@Brick Oven Bill 8:53 pm
Dispersed, Bill. Not disbursed.
Just Some Fuckhead
@SiubhanDuinne: It was very good. He should be in sales or revival meetings or something.
geg6
Rachel is reporting some hard ass whipping going down in Congress. Loss of committee chairmanships for supporting a GOP filibuster.
The Bearded Blogger
@mclaren: almost like a private language?
Fail! Pooties! Wingularity! McNaughton! Shiboleth!…
geg6
The Bearded Blogger: McNaughton! That’s the artist! Smacks self in forehead.
SiubhanDuinne
@Brick Oven Bill 8:53 pm
(Italics fail. Try again.)
Dispersed, Bill. Not disbursed.
John O
LOL, A.L.
As usual, the commentary is priceless, too.
I live in IL, and when Keyes got 27%, I had an opportunity to trademark “27%ers” or, “crazification factor” and passed on it, because I’m a terribly lazy blogger.
And BOB, to the extent that happened, it was a good one.
The Bearded Blogger
@geg6: “Artist” is an interesting choice of words…kitschmeister? harbinger of doom?
The painting was awesome, in that it produced in me a feeling of awe, combined with fear, bemusement and a je ne sais quois related to the desire to exchange planets with some other sentient lifeform somewhere other than Earth
geg6
The Bearded Blogger: LOL! Me, I just ROFLMAO. Kinda like a Rosetta Stone of the wingularity.
John O
Dudes and dudettes:
The wingularity will not happen without violence. Likely from both sides. We’re at least 2-3 years away, a generation if you want to look at it long-term.
In any case, we’re not close.
Ash Can
@The Bearded Blogger:
“Perp” is shorter and easier.
Seriously, that picture looked like it’d been dredged out of someone’s basement laundry room in one of the Eastern European ethnic neighborhoods around here. Or Peggy Noonan’s desk drawer.
HRA
“You have to wonder just what people will make of this lexicon 15 years from now, though. Itās almost like a private language.”
That was a quick 15 years. Seriously, I admire your inventiveness and it is a private language.
Molly
@geg6: “McNaughton! Thatās the artist! Smacks self in forehead.”
No, don’t hurt yourself, my dear. Just remember the McNaughton rule and the insanity defense when you’re trying to remember the name of the artist. Which I thinks needs to be added to the definition, personally. :)
SiubhanDuinne
@Just Some Fuckhead 9:04 pm
LOL, that post was a textbook example of “praising with faint damns.” I’m guessing Keith may not be one of your favourite teevee people, JSF.
And I agree, KO does sometimes come across as a bit of a snake-oil peddler, and much as I generally like him, he can just irritate the bejesus out of me now and then. But tonight’s show I found riveting, and his emotion genuine. The tearing up at the end was real; there was nothing of the Vick’s-in-the-eyes Glenn-Beckian weeping for the drama of it. Having spent two or three years as caregiver dealing with my own father’s long illness, multiple surgeries and ER trips, and eventual death, I think Keith displayed an understandable combination of outrage, frustration, worry, and fatigue along with a pretty good intellectual grasp of the issues.
I say again: worth watching IMO.
arguingwithsignposts
Watching the KO special comment now online. He is about as close to Edward R. Murrow as we have on TV today. Using adult words and everything.
cleek
i hereby declare the lexicon Last Week.
hate away.
The Bearded Blogger
@geg6:
@geg6:
The wingularity is just a substantivized expression of the hope that there will be an end to the ever growing wingnuttiness
Ash Can
@John O: I think my favorite part of Keyes’ campaign was that he was parachuted in from New York — after having spent all his time there complaining about Hillary Clinton being a carpetbagger.
lt shinysides
@Brick Oven Bill: @Brick Oven Bill:
I am new to fake hippiedome. Is that even a thing?
Alan
Anyone watching Palladia right now? It’s pretty entertaining–Taylor Swift and Def Leppard.
stickler
JohnO:
I don’t think we’re actually that far away from the Wingularity, as it were. But I think we won’t actually know it until it’s past. They’ll go out not with a bang, but a whimper. Oh, I agree, there’s a threat of violence that we should damn well take seriously. But If the Magical Unity Pony manages to pass health insurance reform with a big majority, and it doesn’t suck (big “if”s, I know), the right-wing nutcase crowd will be ever more isolated.
What we all want, and what we definitely won’t get, is some kind of catharsis. We sort of already had that moment, back last November, when the good old USA extended the middle finger of friendship to the whole Bush legacy. And yet all the wrongs were not Wrighted (!), and the same media crew babbles away as though nothing has changed. Still: imagine how things look for a right-wing loon. Ridin’ high in 2004, and reality then spends four years kicking you in the ass. Now a Nubian reincarnation of Lenin is in the White House, Communistifying the country, and NOBODY WILL SEE THE TRUTH!!!! Must be like looking out for Pod People.
arguingwithsignposts
OMG, this KO special comment is so sad and infuriating. I cannot believe ppl like Baucus and the conservadems and the GOPers are so oblivious to human suffering.
F the public option. We need single payer.
Just Some Fuckhead
@SiubhanDuinne: No, I’m not a big fan of Olbermann but I was serious about it being a very good show.
arguingwithsignposts
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I think KO is okay, but his questioning style (more comment than question), and the fact that he doesn’t have anyone on who doesn’t agree with him are problematic. Maddow is a better reporter, but KO does better with the outrage.
“Is this the country you want?”
I think it’s good to have some of both.
Brick Oven Bill
“And though only the best of them will be appointed by their predecessors, still they will be unworthy to hold their fathers’ places, and when they come into power as guardians, they will soon be found to fall in taking care of us, the Muses, first by under-valuing music; which neglect will soon extend to gymnastic; and hence the young men of your State will be less cultivated.”
Melodic Rebirth (n): A rediscovery, growing slowly but steadily in strength, of the Liberal Art of Music. A movement born in reaction to the synthesizer, which effectively eliminated this valuable Liberal Art for two decades.
Exhibit āAā is Coldplay, and their most excellent album Death and All its Friends. The opening instrumental is particularly impressive.
Here is Exhibit āBā, which I am proud to call my own.
gnomedad
@Colette:
Better than Major Kong.
gnomedad
I have noticed that
is flanked by
and
Oh, well.
JGabriel
John O:
All too true, most likely. If you think the wingnuts are nutters now, just wait till you see what happens in the likely event that Obama is re-elected.
.
JGabriel
@Ash Can:
I’m waiting for the black velour edtion — don’t want to shell out for the velvet.
.
Midnight Marauder
@cleek:
i hereby declare the lexicon Last Week.
hate away.
I hate you.
Balconesfault
The 27%er definition ignores the pro-life vote. There are a solid number of Americans who will always vote for the most anti-abortion candidate in the race – no matter what other issues are in play.
Hmmmm … wait. Batshit crazy.
Oh. Never mind.
Warren Terra
@ B.O.B.
I realize that debating BOB is just a bit pointless, but this is nuts on ever so many levels. Just to pick my favorite absurdity, the quip about the RV with the bike rack: if BOB stopped to think about it for even a moment, he’d realize that while a motor home can be quite a nice way to travel it’s very inconvenient for shorter trips around town once you’re at your destination. Hence many people with RVs either tow a car or carry bicycles.
Or it might just be that people enjoy riding bikes, and that some of them also like travelling in RVs. BOB seems to think all liberals are joyless scolds, I guess because that’s the stereotype used by Limbaugh et al.
Blogbytom
27%er unhinged in the House Of Representatives:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm_adM-14K4&feature=player_embedded#
Don’t know if that embedded. Copy. Paste. Et Cetera.
Amazing. Incoherent. Rueful?
Brick Oven Bill
I got to watch that particular parade from the west shore of the lake Warren Terra. It went on, and on, and on, and on, and on.
We had three blankets and studied the Liberal Art of Astronomy, among other things. You get kind of worried about snakes and coyotes, but nothing bad ever seems to happen.
Goreinthian. Noun.
Brother Maynard
Actually, I know atleast one conservative family that does something like this as well. In their case, the “best finishing spot” near their usual campsite is about a half mile away. It’s much easier to bike there through the woods then it is to drive. But that goes against the usual limbaugh stereotype as well.
LD50
Given how the last two election years went, I have no idea why conservatives seem to think that ‘culture wars’ rhetoric is so devastating to the Democrats.
New Yorker
Wait, Brick Oven Bill likes “Coldplay”? That’s it, parody troll.
Also, you’ll note that 27% is very close to 1/4, as in South Park telling us that one out of every four Americans are retards in its 9/11 “Truth” episode.
Speaking of which, it’s harder to figure out who is more detached from reality, beyond parody, and incapable of understanding sarcasm these days, the wingnuts or the truthers…..
Tattoosydney
@Molly:
Point of order. Without wanting to ruin a good joke, I note that the rule is generally referred to as the “M’Naughten” rule – although there is some dispute as to the correct spelling.
Leelee for Obama
@SiubhanDuinne: I thought it was his best program, EVAH! The empathy I felt for him with his Father’s health after the last two weeks was almost overwhelming and yet, I could still see the brilliance of the journalism. The side story about his old friend and his daughter almost destroyed me. Personal, heartfelt, on-point.
He is just that good!
Notorious P.A.T.
We should compile a list of all the major wrong predictions/judgments/proscriptions William Kristol has made.
Anne Laurie
@Notorious P.A.T.:
You’d run into the old ‘marching Chinese paradox’ — by the time you reached the end of the long, long list, Kristol would have committed a whole new series of crimes against reason. There may not be enough pixels on the intertoobz to catalog the wrongness that is Bloody Bill the K.
Midnight Marauder
I move that the concept of “performance art” somehow be incorporated into the Lexicon. I just wanted to pop in and share that. Hopefully, I can join the madness soon enough.
DaveInOz
Surely that’s oligarhy
JGabriel
Notorious P.A.T.:
We don’t have space for the entire Kristol oeuvre. And if it’s just a list, the most accurate description would be a list of everything Kristol has gotten right:
See?
.
AhabTRuler
@JGabriel: Well, I’m pretty sure that he can at least spell ‘oligarchy’. That’s gotta count for something.
Martin
Bill Kristol did say that the govt. could provide the best health insurance. He got that right:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-july-27-2009/bill-kristol
LTC
couch potato conservatives- wingnuts who don’t do their homework and just haul off and say nutty things. They have no interest in anything resembling the TRUTH!
SiubhanDuinne
@Leelee for Obama 10:51 pm
Yes, I agree. His old friend having to sell the farm (talk about a cliche come to life!) was heartbreaking enough — but I lost it in the next sentence when he asked if KO wanted to buy his baseball card collection.
The whole hour was stunning.
SiubhanDuinne
@DaveInOz 11:00 pm
Win!
freelancer
@cleek:
Shorter Cleek: IGMFU.
Just cause he’s mentioned in the Lexicon. He’s done with it.
mclaren
“An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older ā about one in four adults ā suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.”
The Numbers Count – Mental Disorders In America, National Institute of Mental Health, 2008.
This percentage coincides to a remarkable degree with the estimated 27 percent of the electorate who vote for lunatic candidates (like Alan Keyes or Sarah Palin) and insane policies (shutting down the IRS, replacing the constitution with the Bible, invading Iran and Syria while continuing our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, etc.).
I believe this explains the 27 percent figure of certifiable political crazies in the general population better than any other explanation to date. Occam’s Razor: they really are diagnosably mentally ill.
bago
<a href=”http://blog.ted.com/2007/08/redefining_the.php”>Appropriate.
raptusregaliter
A lot of things suck about being from the South. Here is one more:
NASCAR Glibertarians: I got mine, fuck you. Go Junior!
I have to deal with these people every day.
Sidslang
Again, I suggest:
Objectively pro-(whatever): A pernicious and wankerish rhetorical flourish meant to morally shame someone for holding a certain position by suggesting that holding that position also means holding a barely-related but wholly distasteful position. Often used by supporters of the Iraq war, who liked to argue that opponents of unilateral, unprovoked military action against Saddam Hussein’s regime were “objectively pro-Saddam”. Fundamentally grounded in intellectual dishonesty, it was coined/popularized by Andrew Sullivan, who generally considers himself a paragon of intellectual honesty.
If anyone can find the Sully post where he said that (or if another use predates his), please do add it…
Pangloss
The 27%ers are most likely the core of the 38% against keeping their children safe from the flu.
thomas
Wizdumb piss poor logic/thinking found on wingnut radio, intertube sites and from pundits such as Chuckles Craphammer
Pastafarian Follower of FSM
thomas
I give up, can’t get the bold to work properly
twiffer
@ Colette: what, you pay attention to the captain? i’ve flown enough that i only tune into screaming.
Desargues
May I modestly offer:
Banana Republicans = Gringo for ‘colonels with mirrored sunglasses.’
The Pale Scot
Somewhere I read about a poll that had 22% of Americans (or might be just Xtians) that said they expected to see Jesus return in their lifetime, and another 20% of so said it was only likely. Add in other categories like YECs, IDers and those hilarious people who think General Relativity implicates a moral relativity into some 5 dimensional Venn Diagram and that 27% is right in the center.
What is needed is some sort of reservation where the willfully deluded can live in peace without the insults that modern society puts on them. Off course, ALL modern tech would be withheld, except maybe Guttenburg printing presses to keep the paranoia high and stimulating. These people miss the Cold War. That along with WW2 really ignited the idea that America is engaged in a battle with evil. They just can’t accept the mundane issues of 21 century life. They need to be soldiers for Xist, or for Capitalism/ Democracy/ Heterosexuality/ Gun Rights/ Free Beer/ Whatever. The political process doesn’t relieve their bloodlust.
twiffer
@ The Pale Scot: fuck, i’ll be a soldier for free beer. will they take atheists into that war?
Anonymous At Work
Warpr0n needs some examples, such as Die Hard(s). I’d also add notes about the tendencies of the actors being Republican supporters and the bad guys using guns/weapons currently being defended by the NRA.
The Pale Scot
Alas, Twiffer,
I fear we would be overrun by the capitalist factions, the free brewers only active in places like alphebet city NY and trailer parks in across the south.
But I was over at the Danger Room and a commenter pointed me to Freddie Engels comments on Afghanis,
“The Afghans are a brave, hardy, and independent race; they follow pastoral or agricultural occupations only, eschewing trade and commerce, which they contemptuously resign to Hindus, and to other inhabitants of towns. With them, war is an excitement and relief from the monotonous occupation of industrial pursuits.”
jean
May I suggest ‘kumbayah’ for the Lexicon. I can only offer the wikipedia definition: “but more recently it is also cited or alluded to in satirical, sarcastic or even cynical ways that suggest blind or false moralizing, hypocrisy, or naively optimistic views of the world and human nature.” [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbaya. All reasonable definitions accepted. I think there are other permutations.
I forgot to check, are luddites listed?
I am not aware of all internet traditions. Did I get that right?