Drive-by Blogging - Stupid Cliches

Some folks use terminology that irks the crap out of me and some folks use cliches incorrectly or in circumstances where those cliches simply sound dumb. Let's look at a few of them, because today I have seen one reoccurring with startling regularity. And Bean knows about my hatred of that one, because she used to say it all the time.

"Think outside the box." I have heard this phrase so many times TODAY that I couldn't posit an intelligent guess the number. And DAMN, that is a stupid saying. The very statement attempts to motivate you to use your brain in creative ways, but if you even remotely use your brain, why would there ever be an image of a box at all? Doesn't this mental picture deny the activity of any intellectual thought from the onset?

"Closed-minded." Or its equally stupid step-sister, "Open-minded." Of course "closed-minded" is supposed to mean that someone is unable to accept new knowledge, and "open-minded" is supposed to represent someone that is receptive to new things. If you view knowledge as a solid, then a closed mind would be unable to receive anything new, and an open mind would be unable to retain it. Two sides of the same coin, no new knowledge is learned or retained either way. Unless those two terms are not opposites. And the way that they are consistently used, they are not supposed to be.

"It takes one to know one." Sorry, I can acknowledge a murderer without having murdered. (No matter how many times that I have wanted to.)

"Questioning my patriotism." Shut up, just shut up, that is a stupid to thing to say because it makes no sense. If you burn a United States flag, you are not patriotic. No one questions that at all, we see your anti-Americanism.

"Redistributing the wealth." While wealth is certainly a tangible thing when viewed from the standpoint of MONEY, there is certainly a mental process that must be undertaken to produce that which creates wealth. You cannot take the intelligence that created that wealth from someone and give it to another that shall spend the profits of that intelligence. Again, it is just flat out stupid to say that, because it only acknowledges the end result of the mental processes that produced the surplus of money. The proper term is STEALING. When "wealth" is used in its proper definition, it means quality of life. Sorry, taking something from me will not FORCE someone to improve their quality of life. You cannot remove my ambition and motivation and place it in the care of another person.

"The United States does not participate in acts of torture." Well, yes certainly it does. I currently have 53% of my income taken from me to give to people that did not earn it. This is by definition, "torture." Just over half of the time that I am engaged in work is time that I work free of charge to finance things that are patently against my personal philosophy. Maybe you do not cane me, but taking what is rightfully mine and giving it to my mortal enemy kinda defines torture.

"Anti-Abortion" or "Anti-Choice." According to the people that kill babies for a living, those of us that do not support killing babies are referred to by this term. And then they turn right around and state that no one wants abortions to happen. Seriously, a four year old can see the direct contradiction in the Pro-Abortion crowd's terminologies. Also, if you stoop to the ultimate stupidity and use "anti-choice," you assert that there is already ONLY one choice. Choose between this ONE option? Good argument.

"Tax cuts for the wealthy." According to Barry Obama's tax cuts proposals, we are now down to 64k as the cut-off for those that shall receive "tax cuts." This one little problem keeps coming up with this risky scheme from the really stupid people on the left. Those folks that are really wealthy do not need an income. Barry is also only talking about INCOME taxes. If you make zero in income, you pay no taxes to begin with. So, those that are the most wealthy do not benefit from tax cuts anyway. Again, and again, and again, tax cuts can only go to those people that actually PAY TAXES. If you take money from one person and give it to another, that is called STEALING.

Perverting the language performs no beneficial service to anyone except morons. A good way to get back to protecting individual freedoms would be to respect our language and force folks to say what they mean. Furthermore, when they say what they mean and it is something as evil as "redistribution of wealth," call them on what they are advocating.

Please take the time to comment.