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You are here: Home / We Should Also Rename Mississippi to Moronia

We Should Also Rename Mississippi to Moronia

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This is just painfully stupid:

Mississippi State Rep. Steve Holland, a Democrat, introduced a bill in the state’s lower chamber calling for the part of the Gulf of Mexico that borders his state to be renamed the “Gulf of America.”

They should just name it the Gulf of BP, since those guys made it their bitch a while back.

*** Update ***

Thank goodness, it was satire. And no, given the events of the last few years, I don’t feel even slightly foolish for thinking it was real. In the realm of our completely idiotic public discourse, this was entirely plausible and believable.

Reader Interactions

59Comments

  2. 2.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Someone tweeted today “Fuck it, let’s just call it America of America!”

    Also, “Good! I was tired of all that Mexican water washing up on our beaches.”

  3. 3.

    slag

    UPDATE: It was satire! The lawmaker, Rep. Steve Holland, tells Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s Daniel Cherry that he was just making a point, reports NPR:

    I, for one, thought it was funny.

    Didn’t we just go through this with the Onion discussion?

  5. 5.

    Triassic Sands

    And here I thought they were going to call it the Gulf of the Baby Jeebus. I’m disappointed.

  6. 6.

    JPL

    phew…I feel better
    update

    Holland told Daniel that so many of his Republican colleagues seem to want to push anything or anyone Mexican out of the state that he’s just trying to “embrace” their cause and help them out. In other words, he’s introduced a bill that he thinks will make a satirical point by being outrageous.

  8. 8.

    Mike S

    It was a joke.

    Turns out Holland has a bit of a goof streak going on. He called Gambit to tell us the bill is his tongue-in-cheek single-finger salute to mock his Republican peers obsessed with illegal immigration. “That’s exactly what it is,” he says. He’s throwing the bill into session with his Republican counterparts, who he says should be focused on helping “feed, clothe and educate children, take care of older adults, provide economic development and high systems in this state, and all the hell they want to talk about is running illegal immigrants out, and drug testing welfare and Medicaid recipients — all superfluous crap as far as I’m concerned. So I thought I’d just join them with a bill to chew on, saying the Gulf of America instead of the Gulf of Mexico, since everything Mexican and Hispanic is ‘so bad.’ Nothing but a ‘spamalot’ bill is all it is. Tongue-in-cheek.”

    I don’t blame you for believing it. I went to France right after the “Freedom Fries” idiocy and the laughter was contageous.

  11. 11.

    JPL

    It’s not even April fools day. The country has become so wacky, it is easy to fall for stunts like this.

  13. 13.

    patrick II

    I think rep Holland going along with Steve Colbert who said we should call it the Gulf of America since we broke it we own it.

    I don’t think Holland wants to change the name any more than Colbert does, but just wants to bring attention to owning the problem we have created. Considering this is about the third different site posting the story it may have worked — although for irony to work people have to realize its irony at some point.

  16. 16.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The thing is, it’s sad that he felt he needed to do this to draw attention to the very damaging crap his Rethuglican colleagues push out as actual, serious legislation.

  17. 17.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Thank goodness, it was satire. And no, given the events of the last few years, I don’t feel even slightly foolish for thinking it was real. In the realm of our completely idiotic public discourse, this was entirely plausible and believable

    I’ll bet you a plate of freedom fries with gravy that you’re over-reacting.

  19. 19.

    Linnaeus

    Turns out Holland has a bit of a goof streak going on. He called Gambit to tell us the bill is his tongue-in-cheek single-finger salute to mock his Republican peers obsessed with illegal immigration. “That’s exactly what it is,” he says. He’s throwing the bill into session with his Republican counterparts, who he says should be focused on helping “feed, clothe and educate children, take care of older adults, provide economic development and high systems in this state, and all the hell they want to talk about is running illegal immigrants out, and drug testing welfare and Medicaid recipients — all superfluous crap as far as I’m concerned…”

    Soshalism!

  20. 20.

    Martin

    @JPL: That’s the real question. How many Republicans thought “Holy shit! What a great idea! Why didn’t we think of that sooner!”

    I wouldn’t bet against it.

  21. 21.

    slag

    @patrick II: We do have a problem with wingnuts thinking Colbert is one of them. So, yeah, irony is getting harder and harder to appreciate.

    The Abortionplex, however, still pretty funny.

  22. 22.

    pragmatism

    mexico is almost a muslin country these days. with their anchor babies and bleeding the beast by stealing our stellar health care.
    over at the sadlynaughts i saw a commenter say, “the problem with anchor babies is determining where to attach the chain”.

  23. 23.

    Steve

    That’s too bad. I supported the bill. They don’t call it the English Channel in France, you know!

  24. 24.

    Martin

    @slag:

    We do have a problem with wingnuts thinking Colbert is one of them.

    My conservative mom thinks Colbert is dangerous because she says too many of her friends think he’s serious. I keep pointing out that doesn’t suggest that Colbert is dangerous, rather that her friends are.

  26. 26.

    pragmatism

    @JPL: he’s a reverse anchor baby. he could have mexican citizenship. i know where to attach the chain with him.

  27. 27.

    Spaghetti Lee

    Let’s be honest, you thought it was real because it was Mississippi, right? But you’re absolutely right-it could have been earnest, and there’s even stupider crap being pushed in statehouses across the country with total sincerity.

  28. 28.

    Spaghetti Lee

    Actually, I propose we rename everything ‘America’. It’ll be like the Bruce skit from Monty Python-we’ll adapt eventually.

    “So once you turn left on America street, keep going down America Avenue until you reach Lake America Beach. Take Route America and then Springville’s just around the corner.”

    “Springville? I’ll never remember that. Why don’t we just call it Americaville?”

  31. 31.

    pragmatism

    also too, i (don’t ask why) read Mr. MEgan McCardle’s ode to Rmoney’s ideological flexibility earlier. flip flopping is no vice in pursuit of kochwhoring.

  32. 32.

    JGabriel

    I started to post a comment about that Gulf of America bit earlier today, but when I realized the Rep. was a Dem, I figured it had to be satire. Glad to see my instinct was right.

    .

  34. 34.

    patrick II

    @slag:

    Abortionplex was funny, however Abortionplex outrage makes satire seem undoable. I wonder if we know Colbert is a satirist only because he started before we had wandered so far into the crazy.

  35. 35.

    JGabriel

    Steve Holland:

    I got to try and have some fun as best I can with all these jerks [i.e., anti-Hispanic Republicans].

    Heh. I sympathize, Rep. Holland, I sympathize.

    .

  36. 36.

    RP

    It’s not so uncommon, that sentiment. I’m told Arabs don’t use the phrase “Persian Gulf,” or Koreans “Sea of Japan” (it’s the East Sea to them).

  37. 37.

    GregB

    Rage against the machine while annoying a librul and visit the Gulf of America and eat freedom fries.

    Fight Sharia! Wolverines!

  38. 38.

    Petorado

    If you thought this was bad, Nancy Smash just launched a “Stop Colbert” campaign to rein in the comedian from attacking her “friend” Newt Gingrich.

    Reading comments about the video for her effort to move legislation forward regarding Super PACs shows how its getting harder and harder to satirize the righties. I wonder if this is all a coordinated effort to neutralize satire since humor has a well known liberal bias.

  40. 40.

    Steve

    @Petorado: The “Stop Colbert” video borders on genius. Nancy Smash has come a long way from warning Democrats not to go on the Daily Show.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’ve known Steve Holland for, probably, ten or twelve years — not well, but we see each other every year at a conference I attend on behalf of my employer. This doesn’t surprise me at all. He’s a funny guy and a good guy. Represents Tupelo, Elvis’ home town. They grow ’em quirky over there.

    He lost a metric shit-ton of poundage a couple of years ago and persuaded quite a few of his fellow legislators and staffers to join him in an exercise program, a kind of Mississippi Government boot camp. He told me he was inspired in part by FLOTUS’ get fit initiatives. (Also, IIRC, because his doctor diagnosed a pre-diabetic condition.) Steve is a good ole boy in many ways and has a drawl you could spread on a biscuit with a butter knife, but he’s one of the most decent and likable people I know.

  42. 42.

    Eoin

    Sure, I’ve now learned that X is not actually happening, but the fact that I believed that X could be happening is not, as one would think, a commentary on my foolishness and gullibility, but rather it is a scathing indictment of our societal decline.

  43. 43.

    bobbo

    @Eoin:

    Sure, I’ve now learned that X is not actually happening, but the fact that I believed that X could be happening is not, as one would think, a commentary on my foolishness and gullibility, but rather it is a scathing indictment of our societal decline.

    IOW: the fact that I’m wrong only proves my point.

    H/t: internet traditions

  44. 44.

    slag

    @Martin: Ouch. Your mom is hanging out with the wrong crowd. Have you performed an intervention yet? You never know where peer pressure might lead a person.

  45. 45.

    slag

    @patrick II: It is a tough one. But he still manages to make it funny for me even though I’m all too familiar with the kinds of people he’s satirizing. I look on that as a source of optimism.

  47. 47.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    Y’know, there’s a REASON that New Mexico license plates say “NEW MEXICO USA“.

    The same reason that the words “right winger” and “moron” so often get used together.

  48. 48.

    zoot

    good thing you don’t feel stupid for being stupid – the country needs more people like you: arrogant denial and self-aggrandizement…no shortage of that at this time in the US political sphere of fools, idiots, and morons.

  50. 50.

    Spaghetti Lee

    4 new commenters in about half an hour calling Cole stupid in basically the same way? Either that or Derf can’t decide on a new nym.

  51. 51.

    maya

    Republicans should also be encouraged to get behind a bill in Washington State to rename the Grand Coulee Dam the Jay Gould Dam since he was the American responsible for building all the RRs, not some high highfalutin pig-tailed Chinese guy.

  52. 52.

    Paul

    Gee, Sounds like a good idea. Then rename the Mississippi as the American River; from it’s headwaters in Minnesota Mall of America to the Gulf of America.

  53. 53.

    boss bitch

    And no, given the events of the last few years, I don’t feel even slightly foolish for thinking it was real.

    Uhm actually you should because a Democrat did it.Its right in line with that other Democrat who introduced an amendment in her state to have mandatory prostate(s) exams for men who want Viagra. Or something like that.

  59. 59.

    someofparts

    According to Molly Ivins, once upon a time the Texas legislature really DID vote to round pi off to 3. So yeah, if that’s what happens IRL, what does constitute satire?

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