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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Early Morning Open Thread: Lexi-conning

Early Morning Open Thread: Lexi-conning

by Anne Laurie|  October 28, 20094:23 am| 50 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Previous Site Maintenance, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing

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I have finished polishing the latest round of edits, corrections, and additions — even a stolen cool epigraph! — to the first section of the new tripartite Balloon Juice Lexicon (A – H). Your revisions, suggestions, and links are hereby solicited.

Specifically: I could use some good links for ACORN that would give a better flavor of the whole mishagaus than Wikipedia’s blandly correct entry. I’ve been told there is such a thing as a Cavuto Mark, but its meaning is not clear to me. I know people had some wonderful snarky links to explicate the Doughy Pantload, but the list has been lost and my google-fu is not strong enough. If there is to be an entry for Freeping, and there probably should be, someone is going to have to explain its history.

And finally, perhaps there should be some explanation of why accusations of goat molestation are so popular, but I’m not even gonna try googling that meme!

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50Comments

  1. 1.

    Ruckus

    October 28, 2009 at 4:45 am

    Goat molestation, goat roping, goat fucking (I mean that’s where we’re going to end up anyway)
    Not man (cowboy) enough to work with steers.
    Not man enough to actually have sex with a woman.
    Derogatory term used by a texan about anyone beneath them in the social order.
    Used here to mean someone for whom barnyard animals are a step up, in that barnyard animals are the only mammals that would associate with them.

  2. 2.

    Keith G

    October 28, 2009 at 4:49 am

    Anne, I, for one, quite appreciate your efforts with this – really cool.

    Now, if I could just get back to sleep.

  3. 3.

    2th&nayle

    October 28, 2009 at 4:50 am

    Sorry Anne, as a person quickly approaching geezerhood, I can hardly be of much help with this newfangled cyber-hipster talk. But as someone who has worked the graveyard shift to the point of developing somewhat ‘Nosferatu’ sleeping habits, I’d just like to say ‘thank you’ for all your efforts.

  4. 4.

    The Dude Abides

    October 28, 2009 at 5:41 am

    Leave Mickey Kaus alooooone! He’s a human!

  5. 5.

    MikeJ

    October 28, 2009 at 5:49 am

    Mickey Kaus was the original blogospheric goat fucker. He believes it’s ok to say whatever you’d like about how sleazy any politician is, as long as he’s a democrat. Proof is for little people. See Yglesias on the episemology of gloat blowing. Note also the irony that the person Kaus was attacking was John Edwards.
    Edwards turned out to be a scum, but it doesn’t really justify Kaus.

    An interesting aside: a few weeks ago John Oliver on The Daily Show called all the CNN hosts goat fuckers. The guest on that night’s show was Kathleen Sebelius. On his podcast for the

    Times

    , Oliver related that Sebelius was amused by the phrase and even called him a goat fucker. This made him feel more secure. If one of the most powerful people in the world, a woman who could have him killed with the snap of her fingers could call him a goat fucker, things are probably going all right. He posited that there were probably many people John Ashcroft wanted to call goat fuckers, but he could never do it.

  6. 6.

    MikeJ

    October 28, 2009 at 5:50 am

    Times of course was was supposed to be ital, not blockquote, and I seem to have lost my edit function.

  7. 7.

    null pointer exception

    October 28, 2009 at 5:55 am

    Have you guys seen this recent speech by Obama? It was pretty cool.

  8. 8.

    Brick Oven Bill

    October 28, 2009 at 6:10 am

    Velcro Glover (noun): A man with goat tendencies, who is not into oral. See also John S.

  9. 9.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    October 28, 2009 at 6:23 am

    My definition of a goatfucker is one who says something outrageous in the hope of roping in the suckers (goats) and riding them for personal enjoyment (fucking the goats raw). Mickey Kaus is one major well known goatfucker. According to John Oliver, CNN only exists to fuck goats. A minor goatfucker of BJ infamy is myiq2xu GoatBoy, who likes cross-species interplay as he is a goatfucking PUMA.

  10. 10.

    arguingwithsignposts

    October 28, 2009 at 6:44 am

    Traveling. thanks to all the BJers for the positive vibes last night. peace. will comment later.

  11. 11.

    Michael

    October 28, 2009 at 6:46 am

    freeping – poorly planned and ill advised and outwardly stupid demonstrations of a vague and unfocused rage brought about by excess participation in the racist, sexist, Christianist, creationist and homophobic echo chamber called Free Republic.

    *disclaimer* – I used to be one of them, and actually participated in real life events and planning until I got wise to it several years ago. Met more of them than I care to remember – and yes, by and large they are as bad as all that.

  12. 12.

    Earl

    October 28, 2009 at 7:04 am

    Swift Boat Veterans for Truth- definition needed.

    Lying liars?

    I go for simple explanations…

  13. 13.

    WereBear

    October 28, 2009 at 7:59 am

    I’m just reading Idiot America by Charles P Pierce, and he said Liberal Fascism “appeared to have been written with a paint roller.”

    I enyoyed that.

  14. 14.

    Michael

    October 28, 2009 at 8:02 am

    OT, but it looks like Hadassah Lieberman is into healthcare consulting with a phat contract from Hill and Knowlton.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/28/5533/7518

    The twunt is carrying the pimpstick on this one.

  15. 15.

    Ed in NJ

    October 28, 2009 at 8:03 am

    @Michael:

    My understanding is that freeping is encouraging those idiots over at Free Republic to seek out obscure online polls, and after influencing the results of that poll, claiming some universal mandate based on said outcome.

    A Cavuto mark would be using a question mark to speculate on a false claim, thus allowing Fox News to run incendiary chyrons without needing any facts to support the claim.

    For example:
    http://mediamatters.org/blog/200908270032

  16. 16.

    Ted the Slacker

    October 28, 2009 at 8:14 am

    The “Cavuto” is the use of punctuation to cover for what would otherwise be a baseless (and libellous) accusation.

    “Dick Cheney hunts black men” would be wrong. “Dick Cheney hunts black men?” is okay.

    99% sure Jon Stewart did a segment on Neil Cavuto’s cunning use of punctuation to this very end.

    Goat blowing started with Atrios. Kaus was running some National Enquirer level innuendo, so Atrios went back with, “Got unconfirmed reports that Kaus blows goats. Have no proof or anything, just saying it is being rumored.” For a brief while, Wiki carried a line on the Kaus bio that he was rumored to be a goat-blower. But the legend lives on, because we still have no proof to the contrary, that Kaus ain’t a goat-blower.

  17. 17.

    Cat Lady

    October 28, 2009 at 8:22 am

    @WereBear:

    I’m lucky that I get to see Charlie comment on sports and politics in my local media. I believe he coined the expression C plus Augustus as well – he’s pretty good with words.

  18. 18.

    Ash Can

    October 28, 2009 at 8:37 am

    @Michael:

    until I got wise to it

    ::applauds::

  19. 19.

    Michael

    October 28, 2009 at 8:45 am

    My understanding is that freeping is encouraging those idiots over at Free Republic to seek out obscure online polls, and after influencing the results of that poll, claiming some universal mandate based on said outcome.

    That’s how it started, but it morphed.

    I never did like the practice. I thought it dishonest. That sort of thing really screwed with online self-selected polls in Europe, where manners dictate that you wouldn’t try to skew results. It took a few years for those who conducted them to realize their worthlessness.

  20. 20.

    Ash Can

    October 28, 2009 at 8:48 am

    And on the subject of goat molestation, those lovely and talented House Republicans introduced a resolution yesterday to commemorate the 9/12 march of the equally lovely and talented teabaggers on Washington.

    Can’t you just hear what Alan Grayson would say about this?

  21. 21.

    Tommy

    October 28, 2009 at 8:50 am

    I think the Yiddish word you are looking for is mishegas:


    Mishegas (n.)
    Craziness: The fact that she refused to go to college is mishegas.

    Normally I refrain from correcting spelling but we are discussing the Lexicon.

  22. 22.

    daveX99

    October 28, 2009 at 9:04 am

    The Cavuto Mark is from a Jon Stewart bit — somebody just had a link to it in the last week or 2 (here? Kos? digby? etc?)

    As described above, it is the use of the Question Mark to ‘pose a question’ – perhaps rhetorical, perhaps slanderous (you decide!).

    I just googled and went to Comedy Central and I can tell you it was aired on September 13, 2006 (episode #11113). You can’t watch it there, though because you get a ‘404 page not found’ if you go to their link. For some reason, they are moving everything around and their search hasn’t caught up.

    It’s one of his best bits, ever. Money quote:

    “…Cavuto’s not saying these things. He’s just asking, like, ‘Is your mother a whore?’ What? I’m not saying she’s a whore. I’m just wondering out loud if she is a whore. All I’m saying is that reasonable people who have banged your mother for money can disagree.”

  23. 23.

    gogol's wife

    October 28, 2009 at 9:15 am

    Thank you so much! I’m so happy to see Edmund Burke instead of Edmond.

  24. 24.

    You don’t believe exactly as I do, so just shut up

    October 28, 2009 at 9:34 am

    @Tommy: You’re right, but I think John was referring to a crazy bell-shaped curve, also known as an abnormal distribution.

  25. 25.

    You don’t believe exactly as I do, so just shut up

    October 28, 2009 at 9:35 am

    @You don’t believe exactly as I do, so just shut up: Sorry, that was Ann, not John. It’s early for me. Or late. Or something.

  26. 26.

    Chad N Freude

    October 28, 2009 at 9:38 am

    @You don’t believe exactly as I do, so just shut up: It’s Anne, you idiot.

  27. 27.

    Incertus

    October 28, 2009 at 9:48 am

    Here’s the link to the Daily Show bit where Stewart explains the Cavuto.

  28. 28.

    fmbJo

    October 28, 2009 at 10:23 am

    Wanted to add that in military lingo, a Goatfuck is a SNAFU of a much greater magnitude.

  29. 29.

    southpaw

    October 28, 2009 at 10:30 am

    I find it somewhat epistemically problematic that Kaus turned out to be right about the whole Edwards thing. Next we’ll find out Mickey really does fellate goats.

  30. 30.

    slippy

    October 28, 2009 at 10:39 am

    On the topic of goats:

    This is best told in a thick Scottish brogue, but I’ll just write it out for you’s to enjoy as is.

    A man walks into a bar in Scotland, and behind the bar is MacGregor. They get to drinking together, and MacGregor is unusually bitter. He says, “you know, I built this bar. That’s right. Built with my own hands. But do they call me MacGregor the Bar Builder?”

    MacGregor silently shakes his head, answering his own question “no.”

    “I helped build the town wall. It’s a fine wall, beautiful, in all the tourist literature. Do they call it MacGregor’s Wall?”

    The patron shakes his head no.

    “That’s right!” says MacGregor. “But you fuck one goat!“

  31. 31.

    Death Panel Truck

    October 28, 2009 at 10:57 am

    @Chad N Freude:

    Before shooting off your mouth and demonstrating what an asshole you are, why not try reading the comment posted directly under the one you have such a problem with?

  32. 32.

    daveX99

    October 28, 2009 at 11:10 am

    @Incertus:
    Cool. How’d you find that? I notice that it shows the 404 after it plays (I had to watch it again – it’s funny ’cause it’s true!). Thanks for posting the link. -dave.

  33. 33.

    Warren Terra

    October 28, 2009 at 11:23 am

    It’s important to distinguish /blowing/ goats, w/hichI’ve heard Mickey Kaus does (cf Atrios, Yglesias) from /fncking/ goats, which John Oliver says CNN does and Janet Napolitano says John Oliver does.

  34. 34.

    Warren Terra

    October 28, 2009 at 11:30 am

    On the subject of Kaus’s proclivities, there were some amusing Bloggingheads episodes in which Bob Wright asked Kaus about the rumors.

  35. 35.

    margarita

    October 28, 2009 at 12:08 pm

    I think 101st Chairborne goes a step beyond ‘chickenhawk.’ A chickenhawk loves war but won’t fight. The Keyboard Kommando types, though, are chickenhawks who imagine themselves as actually striking blows on “the front line in the War on Terror.” See, e.g., Hugh Hewitt broadcasting from his bunker in the Empire State Building.

    In the entry for Bobo, there is still a typo in ‘portmanteau.’ And technically, ‘Bobo’ is the portmanteau, not ‘Bourgeois Bohemian.’

    And “Did you know that John McCain was a POW?” is missing some context. The reason it was remarkable was the media cliche that McCain was too principled and modest to ever, ever bring up his POW status, even though he and his campaign brought it up all the time.

  36. 36.

    Robert Johnston

    October 28, 2009 at 12:47 pm

    The easiest way to understand the Cavuto Mark is as a rephrasing of the much maligned “some people say that [defamatory statement]” construction into a question. So, instead of “some people say that Mickey Kaus has intimate relations with goats” Niel Cavuto would say something along the lines of “Mickey Kaus has intimate relations with goats? Some people say so. Up next we examine the controversy.”

  37. 37.

    CS Lewis Jr

    October 28, 2009 at 1:04 pm

    According to Urban Dictionary, the nickname “Doughy Pantload” for Jonah Goldberg was “Coined May 2004 by norbizness of norbizness.com.” I have not been able to confirm this.

  38. 38.

    sglover

    October 28, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    Just be sure you put “google-fu” in there. I’ve never heard it before, but I’ll sure be using it from now on.

  39. 39.

    asiangrrlMN

    October 28, 2009 at 2:26 pm

    Anne, thank you so very much for all your hard work on the Lexicon. I really appreciate it.

  40. 40.

    Kit Smith

    October 28, 2009 at 3:36 pm

    Cavuto Mark: A punctuation mark similar to the question mark. Identified first by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, the Cavuto Mark is used to imply a loaded statement by posing it as a question of actual debate. Pioneered by Neil Cavuto of Fox News Channel where the headline banners for his show ask questions such as “#1 President on Mid-East Matters: George W. Bush?” and “Is Obama a Marxist?” This sets the terms of the discussion being held with any guests and reinforces the assumed answer of the question.

  41. 41.

    Kit Smith

    October 28, 2009 at 3:58 pm

    Thrown under the bus: Phrase used to describe the politically expedient rejection of a supporter by a candidate, campaign, or elected official, especially during times of scandal. The phrase is often abused by the MSM during campaign season because every prominent person the campaign fires or distances themselves from must have been thrown under the bus, even if said person was incompetent or not suited for politics. See:

  42. 42.

    Kit Smith

    October 28, 2009 at 3:59 pm

    See: Time to Hit The Brakes on that Cliche

  43. 43.

    smiley

    October 28, 2009 at 6:21 pm

    Via Neiwert at C&L, something new:

    Then he blurted this out:

    Beck: I mean, at this point, you have to try to not pay attention. I mean, you have to be working to miss the pattern here. There’s so much anti-free-market rhetoric from Obama and his top officials, you’d either have to either be living in a cave in Afghanistan next to Obama, and you can’t hear anything that Ob — uh, Osama is saying because of the goats going, ah-ah-ah, or you’re so deeply in love with Obama that you can’t detect a single flaw in him.
    This is what we’ll call a Beckean Slip: An apparent slip of the tongue that is most likely intentional, and at the bare minimum clearly exposes the desire to confuse the public.

    I have no idea if that’s formatted correctly. Sorry if not. Follow the link.

  44. 44.

    smiley

    October 28, 2009 at 6:22 pm

    Blockquote fail.

  45. 45.

    Steeplejack

    October 28, 2009 at 11:27 pm

    Testing nested blockquotes:

    Nested blockquote para 1.
    __
    Nested blockquote para 2.

    __
    Outer blockquote para 1.
    __
    Outer blockquote para 2.
    </blockquote

    Back to regular text.

  46. 46.

    Steeplejack

    October 28, 2009 at 11:37 pm

    Testing nested blockquotes (again):

    Nested blockquote para 1.
    __
    Nested blockquote para 2.

    Outer blockquote para 1.
    __
    Outer blockquote para 2.

    Back to regular text.

  47. 47.

    Steeplejack

    October 28, 2009 at 11:38 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    All is good. That is all.

  48. 48.

    Ecks

    October 29, 2009 at 2:14 am

    Actually I believe the goat blowing thing goes back even further than Yglesias.

    In the 1992 Mike Myers movie Wayne’s World, at one point main character, Wayne, is forced by his evil producer to have a scuzzball guest on his talk show, and to read this guest approved puffball questions from cue cards. He rebels by writing rude things on the back of the cards for the cameras to see, while he reads the things off them he has to off the front of them.

    One of the cards says “This man blows goats. I have proof” with an arrow over to the bad guy.

    I wish I could find a picture of this online, but the googles are letting me down. Anyway, I would bet any money that Yglesias was dropping an old school reference to that film. It was huge in its day :)

  49. 49.

    Mfasano

    October 29, 2009 at 9:04 am

    A couple for the lexicon;

    JAFR – Just Another Fuck’n republican

    capitalist tool – Steve Forbes.

  50. 50.

    norbizness

    October 29, 2009 at 11:13 am

    @CS Lewis Jr: It’s ever-so-true. Now sing “Blew Moon.”

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