“Debunk” this

I think it’s time to say good-bye to the word “debunk.” Web sites such as Digg are filled with this god-awful word, from article titles to reader comments. Quite frankly, I’m sick of seeing it everywhere. I’m sick of seeing people use it to try and make themselves sound smart. I’m sure if I watched enough t.v., especially if it’s political commentary on CNN or Fox News, I’d be hearing and seeing it even more. It’s a word that just needs to go away.

According to Merriam-Webster Online, the word debunk means “to expose the sham or falseness of <debunk a legend>.” In other words, it means to disprove something. My question is, why not just use the freaking word “disprove” or use “prove” and “false” in such a way that you would be saying something like “I’m going to prove that statement to be false.”

If I’m to believe the Wikipedia article (who can truly believe those things these days) on my new favorite word to hate, someone who debunks (a “debunker”) is actually a scientific skeptic. Which begs the question: why are people using the word debunk (a little piece of me dies every time I type that word) more-and-more often when discussing political topics such as “truths” and “lies” about the Iraq war?

I suppose it could be worse.  I suppose I really shouldn’t complain until people start using it in every day conversations.  At that point, I’ll probably be forced to hurt those people.  But, I lay the initial blame for the common usage of this word on its supposed creator: a one William Woodward, a novelist, who first used it in 1923 “to take the bunk out of things.”  If I had a time machine, he’d be the first person I’d go back in time to “erase.”

Please.  For the sake of my sanity and for the sake of your health, stop using the word.

Ted Kennedy bashes Senate Republicans over minimum wage

The proposed federal minimum wage increase, the first in over a decade, easily passed through the House. So, what’s the problem in the Senate? Apparently, Senate Republicans are doing their best to stall, if not completely disrupt, the passage of this increase by tacking amendments onto the bill. So, Ted Kennedy (D-MA) lashes out asking Republicans, “What is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?”

It’s really quite unnerving to know that something as simple as a $2 raise in the minimum wage can be so difficult to get passed when Congress has been giving itself raise-after-raise for as long as they’ve been denying the working class people their due. Kind of pathetic, really.

You can read more from Bob Geiger.
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More proof women are crazy

As if us guys don’t have enough to worry about when it comes to the female species: A woman was charged with aggravated child abuse for putting her baby in an oven, then turning it on, and then leaving the apartment after a fight with her boyfriend, according to police.

There really isn’t much more to say about this. That one sentence description says all you really need to know. What I’d like to know, though, is why the hell this chick thought that putting her baby in the oven was going to get her anything other than jail time, let alone lose custody of the child?

Lucky for the mother, the oven wasn’t hot enough to seriously injure the baby (i.e. the oven is probably old and takes a while to heat up). I know me saying this is like the pot calling the kettle black, but, do people think things through? Hopefully, this woman is wondering what the hell her problem is and won’t be doing anything like this ever again. Hell, maybe she’ll even grow up and deal with the problems in her life rather than take it out on innocent people.

read more | digg story

9 Guilty of Attacks on 3 White Girls in Long Beach

This has been in the news for a day or so, but I figured I’d follow up to what I wrote the other week.

To make a long story short, a group of blacks attacked 3 white girls this past Halloween, apparently while some yelled such love-filled things like “I hate white bitches.” Well, the verdict is in on the kids arrested for what is being called hate-crime by the judge in the case.

Eight girls and one guy were convicted of felony assault in the attack on the girls and the hate-crime allegations against the attackers was in fact true.

While many people have protested the way the case was handled (which includes how quickly the whole process took), at least one of the parents of one of the defendants wants his daughter to apologize to the victims.

I don’t really know much more about the details than what I’ve read in the few articles, but I’m still somewhat peeved that one Jewish guy gets blasted nationally for losing his cool and calling some hecklers “niggers” (among other things) while violent acts like in this case are carried out all the time in a situation that is much more “racist” than Micheal Richards’. Alas, we probably wont be seeing Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson rallying to the cause of the white victims in this case who were truly hurt (more than just emotionally).

Hypocrisy is the American Way, isn’t it?

Classless Patriots? Hardly

I keep hearing the two words “classless” and “Patriots” get thrown together since this past Sunday’s playoff game between the Chargers and Pats. It’s kind of like the pot calling the kettle black.

As most sports fans, especially football fans, have heard, Ladanian Tomlinson (LT) bashed both the Patriots and their head coach, Bill Belichick, for what he deemed to be a “classless” act. What did the Patriots do that was so terrible?

They mocked a ‘roid popping “class-act” named Shawne Merriman by doing “his” celebration dance (the scuttlebutt is that Merriman actually stole his celebration dance from current Patriots player Junior Seau) at mid-field after they beat the Chargers in an ugly, ugly game.

Honestly, I haven’t seen the video of the celebration dance done by (from what I gather) a few Pats players. But, I do know that it was hardly “classless” as LT has been ranting about. I think LT is just a wee bit upset that their 14-2 team played an incredibly sloppy and undisciplined game and were quickly shown the exit to the playoffs.

LT seems to be forgetting that his team was talking smack about the Patriots the whole week leading up to this past Sunday’s game. He seems to forget that one of his own players was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct (I believe that was the call) after head-butting a Pats player which gave the Pats a first down and kept their drive alive. I believe LT ignored the fact that his boy Merriman did his little celebration dance for merely hurrying Brady (where he may have also managed to knock the QB down). I do believe that LT is the one who has been whining like a little girl because his team and his coach managed to act like boneheads the entire game and they lost because of it.

Some may argue that the Patriots should behave better and act like they’ve been there before (which they have). Well, that’s what’s different with the Patriots: they always act like it’s their first time and that’s probably why they’ve been so successful since the 2001 season.

LT called himself a “classy” guy. Wrong. A classy guy would never refer to himself as being classy right before he bashes the other team and their coach that beat his team. Sorry, guy, but you just need to shut up and realize that you’re going to get socked in the mouth after throwing enough punches yourself.