Death Panels and Trollumnists

After getting the term trollumnist out there, I came upon this article over at 3QD which clearly points out a few examples of trollumnists. Unlike the original article which coined the term trollunist, these aren’t Australian examples, but really good American ones.

The first example of a trollumnist is is none other than Betsy McCaughey, who’s infamous for coining death panels and being the architect behind the idea.

Betsy McCaughey – architect of the widely rumored “death panels” idea – that Obama’s health care proposals would create government sponsored draconian consultations imposing conditions upon both patients in end-of-life circumstances and doctors treating said patients to decide which patients were worthy of living.

Here is where the trolluminsm comes in:

James Fallows of the Atlantic Monthly described her role in the healthcare debate as: “She has brought more misinformation, more often, more destructively into America’s consideration of health-policy issues than any other individual. She has no concept of “truth” or “accuracy” in the normal senses of those terms, as demonstrated when she went on The Daily Show¹. Betsy resigned from the board of directors of Cantel Medical Corporation the next day.

Bill Kristol is another fine example of a trollumnist.

But Jon manages to rise past the agendas of his guests – conservatives and liberals alike – in the most ingratiating manner. When he peppered Bill Kristol – editor of Weekly Standard, a right-wing opponent of health care reform that includes a public insurance option – he even managed to steer him into complimenting government run health-care².

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Top 50 Dumbest Bush Quotes

My wife was laughing about these Bush quotes for about 6 hours. She told me that it was the gift that kept on giving. I’ve never liked him as a President and by God, does he look dumb in these quotes.

Favorites include [best ones are at the bottom!]:

I couldn’t imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah.

“I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound largemouth bass in my lake.” –on his best moment in office, interview with the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, May 7, 2006

“Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.” –in parting words to world leaders at his final G-8 Summit, punching the air and grinning widely as those present looked on in shock, Rusutsu, Japan, July 10, 2008

“The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him.” –Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001

“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.” –Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on –shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” –Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002 (Watch video clip)

“Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.” –Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004 (Watch video clip)

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” –Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 (Watch video clip)

 

Mac and Charlie Die

And, Mr. Kelly, in your sworn statement to police, you claim that the prisoner told you that if you didn’t, and I quote, “jam a bunch of stuff into your butt,” he was going to “rape you so hard the room would stink.” (Mac and Charlie nod) And he was going to, quote, “eat your butt and his son’s butt in the stink until his stomach was full of … your butts.” Is this correct?
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Mac and Charlie Die Part 1 & 2 S04E05-06

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Sue Sylvester in Glee

Unless you want to lose your man to a mentally ill ginger pygmy with eyes like a bush baby.
Coach Cheerio in Glee Vitamin D S01E06

Quotes from Psych’s Bollywood Homicide

-You know guys, my grandmother makes her food a little spicy, you might want to take it easy.
-Please, I’m one quarter Jamaican.
-I’m also one quarter Jamaican, says Sean, who’s white.
[...]
-I’m sorry, was this chicken seasoned with molten lava?
[...]
-Really, you’re just fine?, asks Sean to Abby.
-I taught English to children in Mumbai for a month, this is very authentic. What’s the matter Sean, you don’t like it?
-No, no, I think I like it too much. It’s so authentic. Dude, I can’t see anything out of my left eye.
-I see dead people, replies Gus.
(both Gus and Sean take a sip of cumin flavored water)
-My God, even the water is spicy.
-Who does that?

-He’s like a puma.
-We need to get out of here.
-How did he get up on us so fast?
-I don’t know, I blinked and he was there.

Scalzi on Creation

Doraemon, image via Wikipedia

Creation is a biopic on Charles Darwin. The producers are whining because they aren’t getting a wide release from distributors.

The major US studios are no longer really tuned to distribute films like this in any event. Maybe if Charles Darwin were played by Will Smith, was a gun-toting robot sent back from the future to learn how to love, and to kill the crap out of the alien baby eaters cleverly disguised as Galapagos tortoises, and then some way were contrived for Jennifer Connelly to expose her breasts to RoboDarwin two-thirds of the way through the film, and there were explosions and lasers and stunt men flying 150 feet into the air, then we might be talking wide-release from a modern major studio. Otherwise, you know, not so much.

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That robot sounds like Doraemon, the robot cat from the future and even though Jennifer Connelly is so sexy that it hurts, I can never quite forgive her for getting rid of her puppies.

Twitter to Adults

Twitter is to adults what Tourette’s is to children.
— Brendan

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This made me laugh out loud. It’s totally true though.

Raul Gutierrez and the Lies He Tells His Children

I like this one:

Before your eyeballs fall out from watching too much TV, they get very loose.

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and this one:

There are 71 flavors of snow, but only 63 flavors of water.

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(via cf)

Heading East

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August 11, 2009

Lies I’ve told my 4 year old recently

The mole men live in the subways.

The bird men live in the skies.

The monster doesn’t actually live under the bed (he’s hiding somewhere else nearby).

There are 71 flavors of snow, but only 63 flavors of water.

Strawberry Fields

A CIA nickname for Gitmo. Just like the lyrics from the song, the detainees at Guantánamo Bay will be held there forever.

Eventually, the agency’s network would encompass at least eight detention centers, including one in the Middle East, one each in Iraq and Afghanistan and a maximum-security long-term site at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that was dubbed Strawberry Fields, officials said. (It was named after a Beatles song after C.I.A. officials joked that the detainees would be held there, as the lyric put it, “forever.”)

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Monoceros Ring

Monoceros Ring, image via NASA

The Monoceros Ring is a proposed ring of stars around the Milky Way which consists of a stellar stream torn from the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy as it merges with the Milky Way over the course of billions of years. It is a complex ringlike structure which wraps around our galaxy three times, formed from the long filament of stars pulled from the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy by tidal forces as it orbits the Milky Way. The ring has a mass of 100 million solar masses and is 200,000 light years long.

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It’s come up a few times in the last few weeks.