progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital
Or: “Everything I Needed to Know About Political Speech Came From Watching the Sopranos.”
Shakesville writes regarding the TPM headline Full Firing? Or Just Gelded?:
I find it difficult to believe that a man of your intelligence doesn’t know that “to geld” means to castrate, and I find it similarly difficult to believe that a man of your experience doesn’t know that powerful women are routinely cast as castrating bitches, and I further yet find it difficult to believe, in light of your constant reminders that you’ve spent a good part of your adult life defending the Clintons, that you are totally unaware of the existence of “hilarious” novelty items like the Hillary Clinton nutcracker. So where exactly is the disconnect, Josh, that allows you to use such disgusting language in reference to a sitting senator and presidential candidate? Or any woman, for that matter.
As a regular reader of TPM I also saw the headline, but saw it as more the kind of talk that I often heard among competitive types in business. I’m pretty sure that its origin is as a polite version of language you’d see in a Hollywood mob movie. It’s use in the vernacular would go something like this:
A: I hear Joe’s making a play for the Friedman account.
B: He tries to go around me, I’ll personally rip his dick off and stuff it down his throat.
There’s a lot of variations on this theme, but you get the idea. I’m certainly not going to argue that this is a nice thing to say. I heard things along these lines mostly in the Northeast Corridor, and, I do think it’s likely the language of mob movies used in highly charged areas of business.
I wouldn’t say that there’s an implication that the character in the dialog above is castrating. It’s more the law of the jungle in the place of business that’s at issue.
I’ll add that I don’t hear expressions like that outside of NYC, New Jersey and Boston.
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hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.
95. Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)
— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Some speculate the Senator Clinton would want the spirit-killing Vice Presidency because she would be willing to wait for two terms so as to be the likely nominee in 2012. I believe that she could well contemplate this scenario. [Link]
A subsequent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that gas prices fell by 3 percent, meaning that only three fifths of the savings from reduced taxes was passed on to consumers. [Link]
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is filing a complaint with the IRS today challenging the conservative group Freedom's Watch status as a non-profit. [Link]
For Barbara, Hillary has become the screech on the blackboard. From First Lady to Lady Macbeth. [Link]
So what's changed? I asked Reich. "I saw the ads" — the negative man-on-street commercials that the Clinton campaign put up in Pennsylvania in the wake of Obama's bitter/cling comments a week ago — "and I was appalled, frankly. [Link]
Otherwise cites other (mostly right-wing) writers, adding a few words—or one word (usually heh, indeed, or ouch)—to denote approval. This style is, probably purposely, hard to engage. [Link]
Before you tie 'em, you have to lace 'em — and you can choose from among 43,200 perfectly legitimate ways to do it. [Link]
“He doesn’t have the appearance of a tax-and-spend liberal . . . but if the essence of being a tax-and-spend liberal is a lot of taxes and spending, that’s what he comes down to.” [Link]
Before an audience of liberal bloggers last fall, Hillary Clinton defended Washington’s advocate class. “A lot of those lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans. They actually do,” she said. [Link]
As things currently stand, it appears that the 39 delegates from DC will include 19 Obama supporters and 14 Clinton supporters. The positions of the remaining 6 — the 4 undeclared DNC members and the 2 add-ons — are unknown. [Link]
But to understand what Obama is proposing, it's important to ask: What, exactly, is the mind-set that led to the war? What will it mean to end it? And what will take its place? [Link]
Clinton's prayer group was part of the Fellowship (or "the Family"), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to "spiritual war" on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship's only public ev [Link]
"It's quite clear that the Bush administration officials who were around in the 1970s are settling old scores now," said Tim Sparapani, senior legislative counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union. [Link]
Raelyn Campbell has a wild story. She bought a computer at Best Buy. It malfunctioned. She took it back to be repaired. They apparently lost it -- lied about it -- and lied about it -- and lied about it -- and then. . .lied about it. [Link]
When Feinstein pressed, Johnson admitted that "I don't know the answer to that," but offered he himself is working on it, determining "what are the next steps." [Link]
All of this might suggest that the new Executive Order was designed to prevent the IOB from re-emerging as an effective oversight body under a future president. [Link]
What about Congressman Darrell Issa of California? ("`Isa&quo~ means Jesus in Arabic). Former cabinet secretary Donna Shalala? (Shalala means "waterfall&~ in Arabic). [Link]
The filmmaker who won an Academy Award Sunday night for best documentary is next turning his attention to the Jack Abramoff scandal, including GOP presidential candidate John McCain’s role in investigating the affair. [Link]
Today, the House has just approved H.Res. 982, which provides for the adoption of H.Res. 979, recommending that the House of Representatives find Harriet Miers, former White House Counsel, and Joshua Bolten, the White House Chief of Staff, in contempt of [Link]
Looking at Clinton’s statements during critical moments in the war underscores her obscurantism on the most important issue of U.S. national security—a stance that makes sense only in the related contexts of strategic confusion and political expedienc [Link]
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April 8th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I didn’t get worked up over it but I think that Shakes can add this example of sexism to her list without worry. The sort of language you cite is more common and so less meaningful than “gelded,” which specifically means “castrated.” Maybe Josh thought he was being polite - of course then the question becomes why not use the term “marginalized” or “demoted”? And would he accuse Obama of gelding anyone? I can’t see that happening but if it did, I’d love to watch the fall out.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Indeed, I have never heard the word “gelded” used in a political context. The language certainly calls attention to itself, doesn’t it? I for one would like to hear Josh explain the usage.
Perhaps this is a situation where it would make sense to ask the blogger in question (Josh) what he meant? I still see this as a politer version of the macho posturing language that’s common in business, or in any area involving money and power. This isn’t Jonah Goldberg we’re talking about, I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt. It just seems cleaner to ask him what the intent was.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
The online media don’t have quite the constraints of print, but I think they still worry about headline length. That’s probably one reason to prefer “geld” over some alternatives, though it does seem like a strange term.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Hm. I thought of that headline the way AltHippo did, which illustrates my own blind spot when it comes to sexist language in this context, or at least that my sexism-detection antennae are not tuned as well as Shakes’s. “Gelded” has been used this way by writers before in male-male interactions of the sort; should it not be allowed for Clinton-Penn on suspicion of sexism?
I think JM was going both for brevity and color, which “marginalized” or “demoted” doesn’t do. “Spanked”? Probably no good either, I suppose. “Slapped on the wrist”? A bit long. Are there phrases that are both short, colorful, and noncontroversial that can be used to describe how a powerful woman and feminist icon punishes-yet-arguably-doesn’t-maximally-punish a male subordinate? Tough to do, I think.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:32 am
As a point of information, here’s the Webster’s online definition. Yes “geld” primarily means “castrate”, but it also has an accepted secondary meaning to “deprive of a natural or essential part “. On the other hand, just from a writing standpoint, I’d still give Josh’s word choice a “C” in that he clearly meant something less than that happened to Mr. Penn.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Hm. There’s a prior comment of mine still hung up in moderation that I wish had come before the last one. Maybe it eventually will.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Sorry Thomas about the moderation delay. I’ve got a bunch of filters happening because of the massive determination of spammers to sell me, umh, “enhancement” products.
Anyway, I was just thinking of our conversation from last night. I’ll try to post something along those lines soon.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
No problem, of course. I had just figured they’d *both* get delayed. Look forward to your post, if you have time to put something together.