I’ll be happy if I never have to hear the term ‘failure to connect the dots’ again in my whole life.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Belated congrats on the baby. (Love the name Finn!)
I just got back from a two week trip out of the U.S., and I did not miss the media-induced terrorism hysteria one bit.
Anyone who follows the history of intelligence failures knows that “whoopsadaisy” not only is useful but seems to be a strategy of intelligence agencies (and I include Homeland Security and all its iterations under that term).
If you read enough about the Oswald saga you know that the oversights and failures to report or “connect all the dots” were all designed to reach the planned ending. The President who said he’d tear the CIA into a thousand pieces was himself murdered. Stansfield Turner was sabotaged by rank and file CIA agents (attention: Leon Panetta) because he tried to take apart the black ops section of Langley. Bogeyman bad man Saddam was a CIA asset early in his career. Osama bin Laden was financed by the CIA early in his career. Mo Atta, whose time in Germany was spent among Western intelligence folks, went to a flight school owned and run by guys tangled up in the CIA drug business, and a few of his co-conspirators were “overlooked” by the FBI in Cali and Minnesota. Oops. The Fort Hood shooter was part of a “national security” conference/seminar and then was allegedly swapping emails with that death cult in Yemen and yet was overlooked by the FBI, CIA and military intelligence. Oops. Then he showed up on time to embarrass Obama.
Point being, accidents can happen, free will and all, and not every terrorist attack can be predicted, infiltrated and stopped. However, the terror game is played not only by people who want to attack America but also by people whose livings are made continuing the terror while posing as our great defenders. And as many have proven, fear and hate are great to promote careers and make fortunes.
A friend of mine on LiveJournal lists his words and phrases that he never, ever, wants to see again:
[adjective] [noun] is [same adjective].
Accessorizing
AIG bonuses
Ask your doctor if __ is Right For You!
Bipartisanship
Birther
Blue dog “Democrat”
Boba Fart
Boosts your immunity!
Bromance
Canadians swarming across the border to pay for our health care
Child Enrichment Specialist
Death panel
Douchebaguette
Edubator
Glen Beck
Government takeover of our health care system
Hardwired into our genes
I can’t be racist because I’m 1/48 Cherokee (actually, “I can’t be racist because” any reason)
I’m sorry for your loss
In this economy
Incentivize
___ is in the house!
Mankini
Megafile
Mocktail
Moving Forward
Multicrastinating
Off the reservation
On steroids
Our Savannah Ancestors
Palin
Preggertini
Rape-rape
Sandwiches With Attitude (actually, ANY food “with attitude”)
Sent you a request using “Mafia Wars”
Sheeple
Shovel-ready
Sparkly vampires (also “sparkly elves”, “sparkly Ewoks”, any sentient being with sparkles)
Spearhead (used as a verb)
Successorize
Teabagging
That smells me
Too big to fail
Tweeper
Unobtainium
Unprecedented
Vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity
We don’t have the votes
Wise Latina
Yo, Imma let you finish, but….
—————————————–
and one of his respondents added:
Grow the business
Our calls were not returned (alternately, “blah-blah could not be reached for comment”)
Filibuster-proof
RINO (Republican in name only)
anything-fail
Octomom
The American people are 100% (against or for) it
Thanks for reminding me how out of it I am — I don’t even know what half these deprecated phrases mean. I suppose I’ll start spouting them around 2018.
Meanwhile here are a couple more that pop to mind:
throw….under the bus
He went to jarods
homeland security
insurgency (referring to groups defending themselves from US attack)
I’ve never heard some of these, so I guess I should consider myself privileged.
I’d also like to keep
American values
good guys
bad guys
out of the national discourse. I feel like I’m supposed to respond with a wet diaper.
You forgot:
sides (as in restaurant side dishes)
factory clearance
the perfect is the enemy of the good
Godwin’s Law
framing (except in building houses)
Y2K
collateral damage
gated community
exclusive community
we’ve got [x number of] [product] that we have to move by [date]
liquidate
credit default swap
CDS
FOIA-ize
redacted
stop-loss
Here’s my list of some phrases I’m sick of:
“at the end of the day” (unless it’s a context like, “At the end of the day I go to bed.”
“_____is the new black”
“dodged a bullet”
I’m sure I’ll think of others….
How about anything like
__ is the new __
as in: 40 is the new 20, 80 is the new 50, beans are the new fish, death is the new retirement
And of course the evergreen “the bottom line”.
Bringing to mind “the free market” and “the wisdom of the market”. And the hopelessly corrupted “American dream”.
War on Terror
Soft on…
addendum: “At the end of the day . . .”
Y’all have a nice day…
Hey! That’s just how some of us say good-by 😉