Comments on: Just Stupid

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:50:35 +0000

It is a Southern thing, and was propagated by the preponderance of Southerners on the House and Senate Armed Services committees during the 50s and 60s. The Pentagon switched, rather than risk offending anyone.

The “good ol’ boys” made a practice of mispronouncing certain words to prove they were just small town common folk, like Sam Ervin’s “ol’ country lawyer” description of himself.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:39:08 +0000

Michael, I don’t remember Clinton’s and Gore’s speeches all that well; I’ll take your word for it that they mispronounce the word. I don’t understand it; if it were a difficult word, I’d surely have trouble with it myself.

When I was in college, nuclear research on campus was done at the Bonner Nuclear Lab (since repurposed; no one needs a van de Graaff generator today). Rice University students being who they were (and surely still are), one morning we awoke to find the sign out front of the facility modified to read “Bonner Unclear Lab.”

No, I was not one of the perp’s of that particular prank. I refuse to say about some of the others… 🙂

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:06:10 +0000

I think there may have been some discussion I remember during the Clinton years where someone was explaining the difference between nuk-yu-lar and nu-cle-ar, according to whom the correct (latter) pronunciation is used for “nuclear power” or the “nuclear family” but the stupid pronunciation is used for weapons.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:00:41 +0000

Nu-ku-lar is a particular peeve of mine too, Steve. It’s been going on for as long as I can remember. Bill Clinton did it too, and so did Al Gore.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:56:03 +0000

It’s no surprise that there are idiots among the public who are willing to shout “bring it on.” But up until the current crew, our leaders were at least a bit smarter than that… not much, but enough to avoid a nu-ku-lar war.

BTW, I heard another Bush administration official use that pronunciation of “nuclear” in an interview recently. If that [expletive] succeeds in changing the typical public pronunciation of a perfectly good English word, I’m not going to be very happy with him. Who does he think he is, anyway, George III? Oh, wait… Dubya is the third prez of that name…

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:43:53 +0000

You would have hoped that after the last time they said “Bring it on” they might have noticed that many are more than willing to oblige.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:35:19 +0000

[what are these shoes of which you speak?]

It’s just amazing how many governments think you can threaten aggression and then get upset when the target of the threatened aggression responds with its own hostility.

it’s absolutely jaw-dropping. you’d think these people would have learned back in their playground days how that works. but perhaps the problem with those born with silver spoons in their mouths, can’t let them run around like that, they might trip and fall and accidentally swallow those spoons.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:30:47 +0000

Wow, are you lucky, ‘Tux, they do it on your shoes instead of in them.

It’s a terrible thing when your leaders start believing their own propaganda.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:21:11 +0000

Admiral Cosgriff might as well have said that my cats shall not be allowed to hack up hairballs in my shoes. His statement would have had the same effect on the outcome.

– Badtux the Snarky Penguin

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:50:51 +0000

And some of those “less sovereign nations” have Shahab-3’s with 5 warheads per missile that can reach out and touch someone 2100 km away, as well as a catalog of other nastiness.

It’s just amazing how many governments think you can threaten aggression and then get upset when the target of the threatened aggression responds with its own hostility.