Since 1975, the wordmeisters at Lake Superior State University have submitted for the world’s edification and delight an annual “List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.”
For additional commentary that accompanies each entry, check out the university’s Web site.
And now, without further ado, the 2010 list of banished words:
SHOVEL-READY — “Stick a shovel in it. It’s done.”
TRANSPARENT/TRANSPARENCY — “I just don’t see it.”
CZAR — “We have appointed a czar of such-and-such; clearly that’s better than a ‘leader,’ ‘coordinator’ or ‘director’!”
TWEET (and all of its variations: tweetaholic, retweet, twitterhea, twitterature, twittersphere …) — “People tweet and retweet and I just heard the word ‘tweet’ so many times it lost all meaning.”
APP — “Is there an ‘app’ for making this annoying word go away? Why can’t we just call them ‘programs’ again?”
SEXTING — “Any dangerous new trend that also happens to have a clever mash-up of words, involves teens, and gets television talk show hosts interested must be banished.”
FRIEND AS A VERB — “‘Befriend’ is much more pleasant to the human ear and a perfectly useful word in the dictionary.”
TEACHABLE MOMENT — “This phrase is used to describe everything from potty-training to politics. It’s time to vote it out!”
IN THESE ECONOMIC TIMES — “Overused and redundant. Aren’t ALL times ‘these economic times’?”
STIMULUS — “Everything in the news is about the stimulus packages…it is no longer a grant, it’s stimulus money, stimulus checks, etc. I think it is just being over-used.”
TOXIC ASSETS — “Whatever happened to simply ‘bad stocks,’ ‘debts,’ or ‘loans’?”
TOO BIG TO FAIL — “Does such a thing exist? We’ll never know if a company is too big to fail, unless somehow it does fail, and then it will no longer be too big to fail. Make it stop!”
BROMANCE — “I am sick of combined words the media creates to make them sound catchier. Frenemies? Bromances? Blogorrhea? I’m going to scream!”
CHILLAXIN’ — “Heard everywhere from MTV to ESPN to CNN. A bothersome term that seeks to combine chillin’ with relaxin’ makes me want to be ‘axin’ this word.”
OBAMA-prefix or roots — The LSSU Word Banishment Committee held out hope that folks would want to Obama-ban Obama-structions, but were surprised that no one Obama-nominated any, such as these compiled by the Oxford Dictionary in 2009: Obamanomics, Obamanation, Obamafication, Obamacare, Obamalicious, Obamaland … We say Obamanough already.
It’s going to be a lot harder for Tea Baggers to claim they’re not racists now that a photo has emerged of Dale Robertson, who calls himself the “president and founder of the Tea Party,” holding a sign that reads,”Congress = Slave Owner; Taxpayer = Niggar.”
Robertson is the operator of the Tea Party website (teaparty.org). Here’s what he wrote about himself on the website’s “About Us” page:
A Word From The Founder;
Dale Robertson is a man of courage and conviction, a rare commodity in today’s topsy-turvy world. Dale, is the Founder of the modern day Tea Party and also President of TeaParty.org
Dale Robertson, a public speaker, a family man with a wife and 5 children, has lead [sic] Tea Party rallies across America from its inception.
A little later, Robertson talks about this educational background:
Dale Roberson’s academic background includes extended training in theology, as well as excelling in the field of Engineering at Southwest College, San Diego, California. He went on to earn a second degree in Political Science at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
So what we know so far is that he is a racist and a poor speller.
Rush Limbaugh used his brief press availability upon his release from the hospital in Honolulu on Friday to prop up his party’s propaganda on health-care reform.
“I’ve been treated to the best health care the world has to offer,” he told reporters, “and that is right here in the United States of America. Based on what happened to me here, I don’t think there’s one thing wrong with the American health care system.”
The heartless disregard for the 45 million of his fellow citizens who aren’t rich, fat white guys who are supplied with Rolls Royce insurance plans by their employers was not just typical latter-day, right-wing, “let them eat cake” decadence, it was utter bullshit.
In describing events that led to his being rushed to the hospital on Wednesday, he said, “The pain was real and they don’t know what caused it.” It was “like [nothing] I have never experienced before.” (Emphasis added.)
After arriving at the Queens Medical Center on Wednesday, he was given an angiogram, but no arterial or coronary disease was detected. Presumably, there were other tests but, when all was said and done, his doctors couldn’t tell Rush Limbaugh what caused this excruciating pain. Their collective hunch is that he experienced an arterial spasm.
Let’s stipulate that the hospital probably provides top-notch medical care. But the fact is, they weren’t able to diagnose his condition. Perhaps it was nothing, a one-time event — or he could have a fatal condition that is ticking away like a time bomb on “24.” No sane person would be happy with that outcome.
Even for Limbaugh, his session with the press was a shockingly graceless performance. A person with character would have humbly thanked his fans for their messages of support and his doctors for their efforts and saved the politicizing for his next show. His broadside at health-care reform was carefully crafted to outrage his enemies — many of whom had not been wishing him well, not unlike the C Street Christianist cult member Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) who prayed that 92-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) would die or fall ill last month so he couldn’t cast the 60th vote to open debate on the Senate’s health-care reform bill.
One wonders how many of Limbaugh’s own Dittoheads are laid-off workers who don’t have insurance. Or maybe he knew he wouldn’t offend his base because of demographic data that shows that the average age of his listeners is 67, which makes them beneficiaries of the government-run socialist Medicare system and are so in the sway of their Supreme Leader that they are blind to his and their own grand hypocrisies.
Of course, we don’t know what really sent Limbaugh to the hospital on Wednesday. He didn’t take questions from reporters — although Ed Henry from CNN shouted a question, asking Limbaugh if he’d been taking any painkillers for his back. Limbaugh reported chuckled and said, “no.” And Digby noted that Oxycontin can cause chest pain and wondered if they did a tox screen.
The real reason Limbaugh was hospitalized could be any number of things:
Acid reflux caused by, say, wolfing down a third cheeseburger so fast that he forgot to chew.
He could have had a bout of anal poisoing or a flare-up of the anal cyst that helped him dodge the draft during the Vietnam War.
He could have had an emergency cardiectomy, similar to the one then-Vice Pres. Cheney allegedly underwent in 2006
And remember, this is the same Limbaugh who regularly cites a 20-degree daily high in, say, Cleveland as proof that global climate change doesn’t exist. By a similar rationale, his hospital experience was great — he didn’t have to wait at all, no bureaucrats got between him and his doctor, he didn’t face a death panel — therefore 100 percent of the rest of the system gets the Limbaugh seal of approval.
Looking at the big picture, it’s puzzling why corporatist stooges like Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly and their ilk are still fighting health-care reform. After all, their side, the Republicans, have won. The Senate “reform” bill contains an enormous gift of 30 million government-mandated new customers for health-insurance companies.
The answer is they simply want the president and the government to fail, so that they can take control again and finish the job George W. Bush and minority leaders Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rep. John Boehner started — handing over the resources of the U.S. economy to corporate interests.
It would be nice to think that one day Limbaugh’s rhetoric will catch up with him — that the folks we used to call the “decent people” will notice that he’s not just a blowhard and a clown, he is a degenerate who should be shunned.
If and when that happens, maybe his statement about the health-care system on New Year’s Day at the Queens Medical Center in Honolulu will join the pantheon of famously heartless and clueless quotes, like:
Let them eat cake.
— A French princess reacting to news that the poor had no bread, via Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1769
Portly Gentleman: At this festive time of year, Mr. Scrooge, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time.
Ebenezer: Why? Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?
Portly Gentleman: Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.
Ebenezer: If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.
— Charles Dicken’s Christmas Carol, 1843
What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) — this is working very well for them.
— Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 5, 2005
The fundamentals of our economy are strong.
— Republican presidential candidate John McCain reacting to the stock market crash that caused the Bush Recession, September 2008
Based on what happened to me here, I don’t think there’s one thing wrong with the American health care system.
Pundits say that Trump’s $5,000 midterm bribe was an overreach,
And they agree that if lies were a crime, he’d be impeached.
Despite all the dividend promises he’s made,
The fact is, not one has ever been paid,
So even before the midterms, he already owes us $8,000* each.
*$5000 stimulus checks via “DOGE dividend”; $2000 stimulus checks via a “tariff dividend”; $1000-plus checks via “savings” from expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies
“The man is afraid of the voice of the people and that the people understand and know what he’s doing. He’s trying to stifle the ability of journalists to let the people of America know what’s really going on with their government.”
— “Kamala Harris called President Donald Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House ‘absolutely abhorrent,’” The Wrap reports.
“Not one of them is trained in technical skills. Not one research PhD, as opposed to China, where half the cabinet is science and technology PhDs. We’re led by grifters and fools.”
— Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs, on X, on President Trump’s 35-person cabinet.
“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far… The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”
— Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), breaking with President Trump in a direct-to-camera video.
“Donald Trump made over a thousand stock sales and purchases worth between $79m and $270m in July,” The Guardian reports. “His two largest sales were of Amazon and Microsoft stock, selling between $5m and $25m each on 20 July. That same day, he also sold up to $5m worth of Oracle and Costco stock, $500,000 to $1m in Nvidia, and bought up to $5m worth of shares in Intuit and Salesforce, among dozens of other transactions.”
“The unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting for the U.S. House has changed the congressional districts for one-tenth of Americans and significantly altered the makeup of at least one-fifth of districts, according to a new study,” the Associated Press reports.
A new Fox News Poll finds 71% of voters think the Trump administration lacks a clear strategy for ending the Iran War, including 95% of Democrats, 83% of independents, and 43% of Republicans. Sixty percent say U.S. military action against Iran was the wrong decision, while just 37% say it was right.
“The Trump administration last year spent $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave for federal workers as part of its plan to shrink the government and save taxpayers money, according to a new estimate by a congressional watchdog,” CNN reports.
Reuters has documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership – from federal employees and prosecutors to universities and media outlets. The list illuminates the sweeping effort by the president and his administration to punish dissent and reshape the government.
It’s going to be a lot harder for Tea Baggers to claim they’re not racists now that a photo has emerged of Dale Robertson, who calls himself the “president and founder of the Tea Party,” holding a sign that reads,”Congress = Slave Owner; Taxpayer = Niggar.”
