LSSU Banished Words List: The American people refudiate the Mama Grizzly!

Each year around New Year's, Lake Superior State University releases a just-for-fun List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness." Originally designed as a publicity grabber for this small university of about 2,500 students (as of 2009), this tradition is now in its 36th year.

A couple of words and phrases inspired by Palin and McCain - "maverick" and "First Dude" - were banished two years ago following the election.

Well, thanks to (ahem) the American people, "Mama Grizzly" Palin has been "refudiated" twice more, as "Mama Grizzly" and "refudiate" have been included for the 2011 Banished Words List!

Here's the complete list:

• Viral
• Epic
• Fail
• Wow Factor
• A-ha Moment
• Back story
• BFF
• Man up
• Refudiate
• Mama Grizzlies
• The American People
• I'm Just Sayin'
• Facebook and Google (when used as verbs - "I'm going to Google this")
• Live Life to the Fullest

I'm just sayin', let's man up and make this viral so that everyone can have an a-ha moment when they Google or Facebook Palin's latest epic fail!

(Oh, and why not submit a word for banishment in the 2012 list? ;-) )

Bits of Tid: January 12, 2010

• It is Universal Letter Writing Week and Cuckoo Dancing Week. Can you celebrate both at the same time? :-)
• I cannot believe it, but I am beginning my final semester as an undergraduate student at Central Michigan University. It simply does not seem possible that in 116 days, I will be a bachelor in more ways than one!
• President Obama is getting high marks for his handling of the attempted terror attack on the plane near Detroit.
• You know, Sarah Palin has been an author, a governor, a TV anchor, a beauty pageant queen, and now she'll be on Fox News. So why doesn't Palin just jump right ahead and become an actress? Oh, wait - she was acting during the 2008 campaign.
• Dick Cheney has been unfair in his criticism of President Obama; so says Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN).
• wizardkitten at Blogging for Michigan has both the good news and the bad news surrounding Michigan's economy and state budget.
• Want to get in touch with top advisors in the White House?

  As the first year of the Obama Administration concludes with the State of the Union, we thought it would be good to sit down with the public and take stock of what we've done over the last year, where we are now, and the tremendous amount of work that remains to bring the change the Americans want and need. That's why every day this week we're going to start the morning with a blog post from one of our top policy people looking over the past year, to be followed up by an online video chat in the afternoon.

  Check out the details here.

Bits of Tid: November 18, 2009

• Today is Mickey Mouse Day, Married to a Scorpio Support Day, and National Education Support Professionals Day.
• From Daily Kos:
  

  Steve King (R-IA) chose to miss his son's wedding so could vote against health care reform -- that he knew was going to pass. What an ass.

  
  
• I'm not the biggest fan of polls, but if this one is to be believed, then Sarah Palin just might be the Democrats' dream opponent. Also.
• Palin will be in Roswell early next month. Sometimes the jokes just write themselves.
  
• 
  

Bits of Tid: October 3, 2009

• Brianne Hovey, whom I knew from CMU's College Democrats, passed away this week. She had such a warm smile, and her personality always made it delightful to be with her. I am grateful to have known her. My thoughts and prayers are with her and her entire family.
• From a letter in The Wall Street Journal recently:
  

  If a corporation is indeed a "person" under the law, then let's just elect Goldman Sachs as president and the Fortune 500 to Congress, and eliminate the middleman.

• There's a great rant on Daily Kos about those who say they're patriotic, but celebrated the fact that the Olympics won't be in the USA in 2016.
  
• Speaking of which, whaddya say we bring the Winter Olympics to Wasilla, AK, in 2018? I'm probably the first person to toss that idea around. Still, how can you not say 'You Betcha!' to that idea? :-)
• Here's a humble suggestion: At least once a year, check out a high school football game. Not necessarily one in which your alma mater is playing, just any high school game. I had the chance to go to a Mt. Pleasant game last weekend and a Sacred Heart Academy game this weekend. Both were pretty neat.

Bits of Tid: October 3, 2008

Happy New Month! Edition

• A belated Happy October to you! And in Washington and Lansing, it's Happy New (Fiscal) Year!
• I turn 21 this month!
• Yours truly is the new Deputy National Communications Director for the College Democrats of America!
• Holy $#!^!
• CMU faculty just might be about to strike soon.
• Hi, I'm Mounty Bat Palin. Nice to meet you.
• Since we have just three months left in the year, now's the time to think about what words you want to see banished by LSSU (if you haven't thought about them before)! Here's my latest pick:
  

  Bailout - Is there any word more deserving of banishment than this one?

• Coming soon on GLGTGS: I'll be working on a compilation of late-night jokes as well as a photo gallery of sorts. Look for them soon!
  

Double standards

From an email I just received:

Black teen pregnancies? A 'crisis' in black America.
White teen pregnancies? A 'blessed event.'

If you grow up in Hawaii you're 'exotic.'
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you're the quintessential 'American story.'

Similarly, if you name your kid Barack you're 'unpatriotic.'
Name your kids Trig and Track, you're 'colorful.'

If you're a Democrat and you make a VP pick without fully vetting the individual you're 'reckless.'
A Republican who doesn't fully vet is a 'maverick.'

If you spend 3 years as a community organizer growing your organization from a staff of 1 to 13 and your budget from $70,000 to $400,000, then become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review,create a voter regstration drive that registers 150,000 new African Amerian voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, then spend nearly 8 more years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, becoming chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, then spend nearly 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of nearly 13 million people, sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you are woefully inexperienced.
If you spend 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, then spend 20 months as the governor of a state with 650,000 people, you've got the most executive experience of anyone on either ticket, are the Commander in Chief of the Alaska military and are well qualified to lead the nation should you be called upon to do so because your state is the closest state to Russia.

If you are a Democratic male candidate who is popular with millions of people you are an 'arrogant celebrity'.
If you are a popular Republican female candidate you are 'energizing the base'.

If you are a younger male candidate who thinks for himself and makes his own decisions you are 'presumptuous'.
If you are an older male candidate who makes last minute decisions you refuse to explain, you are a 'shoot from the hip' maverick.

If you are a candidate with a Harvard law degree you are 'an elitist 'out of touch' with the real America.
If you are a legacy (dad and granddad were admirals) graduate of Annapolis, with multiple disciplinary infractions you are a hero.

If you manage a multi-million dollar nationwide campaign, you are an 'empty suit'.
If you are a part time mayor of a town of 7000 people, you are an 'experienced executive'.

If you go to a south side Chicago church, your beliefs are 'extremist'.
If you believe in creationism and don't believe gobal warming is man made, you are 'strongly principled'.

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years with whom you are raising two beautiful daughters you're 'risky'.

If you're a black single mother of 4 who waits for 22 hours after her water breaks to seek medical attention, you're an irresponsible parent, endangering the life of your unborn child.
But if you're a white married mother who waits 22 hours, you're spunky.

If you're a 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton, the right-wing press calls you 'First dog.'
If you're a 17-year old pregnant unwed daughter of a Republican, the right-wing press calls you 'beautiful' and 'courageous.'

If you kill an endangered species, you're an excellent hunter.
If you have an abortion you're not a christian, you're a murderer (forget about if it happened while being date raped)

If you teach abstinence only in sex education, you get teen parents.
If you teach responsible age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

Bits of Tid: September 3, 2008

• I hope you will consider helping those affected by Hurricane Gustav. It wasn't nearly as bad as I feared it would be, but they would still appreciate your help.
• So the year is starting off alright at CMU. I went to the first half of CMU's win over Eastern Illinois but left in the third quarter to see the speech.
• Okay, I'm not gonna lie, I love the music behind one of Barack's newest ads.
• What are you doing this weekend? I hope to attend the Michigan Democratic Party State Convention.
• Honestly, why should it be my business that Sarah Palin's teen daughter is pregnant? I have other reasons to believe Palin would be ineffective (more on that in my previous post).
• And speaking of which, what if the Republican VP hopefuls IM'd?
• Palindromes!

Is Sarah Palin the best McCain can do?

A 3 1/2-year member of the US Senate and 8-year State Senate alum who has shown high character, sound judgment, and selflessness is not as qualified to be President as a former beauty queen whose political experience includes being mayor of a town of 6,500 and governor of the third-least-populous state in the union.

At least that's what the McCain campaign wants you to think.

Meanwhile, here are some other things to think about regarding the Republican candidate for VP:

Here's a compendium of problems and controversies surrounding Palin.

Palin was nearly recalled as mayor of Wasilla.

McCain's pick has been criticized by Paul Begala...

For months, the McCainiacs have said they will run on his judgment and experience. In his first presidential decision, John McCain has shown that he is willing to endanger his country, potentially leaving it in the hands of someone who simply has no business being a heartbeat away from the most powerful, complicated, difficult job in human history.

...and plenty of conservatives:

It doesn’t seem as though McCain knows Palin well. Do we have much reason to think they would work well together?

She is younger and less experienced than the first-term Illinois senator, and brings an ethical shadow to the ticket. Just 20 months ago, she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town of 6,500 where the biggest issue is controlling growth and the biggest annual worry is whether there will be enough snow for the Iditarod dog-mushing race.

She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?

And here's the Daily Show's perspective:



But really, folks, what does it say about the Republican Party today when John McCain thinks Sarah Palin is the best person to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency?