Althouse: "Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate," tweeted Palin.

July 19, 2010

"Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate," tweeted Palin.

She's never going to hear the end of this, but pls don't misunderestimate her.

200 comments:

Right is right! said...: What people need to understand is that Sarah Palin is attacked not because she is a conservative but because she is a Christian. Those who control the mainstream media like Bloomberg will not tolerate that. In fact they need to bring her low so that they can acheive their real aims.; 7/19/10, 4:01 PM
David said...: Hey, if it were Obama, he'd blame his typist.; 7/19/10, 4:03 PM
Hagar said...: .... than 3 syllables.

Idiot?; 7/19/10, 4:04 PM
AllenS said...: "I've been in 57 states, (with) I think one left to go." -- Barack Obama.

"Look, John (McCain) last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S," -- Joe Biden; 7/19/10, 4:05 PM
rhhardin said...: They're both labials, p and f.; 7/19/10, 4:06 PM
holdfast said...: It was was "refute" no "refuse".; 7/19/10, 4:06 PM
Hagar said...: and "refudiate" is sort of appealing and could come in handy sometimes.; 7/19/10, 4:06 PM
Scott said...: It's not a typo. "f" and "P" are not next to each other on the keyboard.

She's reasonably smart but not that literate. She probably typed "refudiate" because it sounded about right.; 7/19/10, 4:07 PM
roesch-voltaire said...: I think it should read 'stab you in the heart as it does us, not ours-- keeping it in the objective case, but she is hardly objective in describing where the mosque will be situated and what it will include. And I suspect we will all make our subjective modifications of this.; 7/19/10, 4:10 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: It is an eggcorn. Very common.; 7/19/10, 4:10 PM
Ann Althouse said...: @Hagar Typo corrected. I don't think typos are stupid (just careless). Typo is option 2. Idiot is option 4. I think there should have been an option for: She mistakenly believes it's a word. That's likely the truth. Throwing in "she's an idiot" made it too hard for people who like her to pick that one. I regret that.

When I write these polls, I adopt a different personality for each option, but I don't mean to leave out an important option. (I do mean to leave out "all of the above" and "none of the above" because those are boring.); 7/19/10, 4:10 PM
Anonymous said...: For crying out loud, it's Twitter- it's meant to be quick and casual, not precise. If you read my facebook status updates (or my tweets), you'd see a lot of misspellings, typos, and errors, too.; 7/19/10, 4:10 PM
Phil 314 said...: As was said in a previous thread:

when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing is to stop digging

ex-Gov Palin needs to drop the shovel.

PS: "f" and "p" are not near each other on the keyboard nor on the phone numeric pad.

I believe she's misspoken.; 7/19/10, 4:11 PM
Right is right! said...: Will everyone agree with me that there should not be a mosque or a temple (Buddhist or jewish) at Ground Zero. There should be a non-denominational Cathedral like the one they have in Washington D.C?; 7/19/10, 4:11 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "It's not a typo. "f" and "P" are not next to each other on the keyboard."

Maybe she handwrites things that somebody else types. F and P are very close in handwriting.; 7/19/10, 4:11 PM
David said...: Typoz r a lerning dishabbility.

Knot funnie.; 7/19/10, 4:12 PM
Phil 314 said...: For crying out loud, it's Twitter- it's meant to be quick and casual, not precise.

Exactly, so don't make dangerous political statements on Twitter.; 7/19/10, 4:13 PM
Right is right! said...: Will everyone agree with me that there should not be a mosque or a temple (Buddhist or jewish) at Ground Zero? There should be a non-denominational Cathedral like the one they have in Washington D.C.; 7/19/10, 4:14 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/19/10, 4:14 PM
A.W. said...: btw, for everyone who calls her stupid, i will be running a spell check on your comments for the last 6 months. we'll see if your claim that she is stupid has been refutiated.

Seriously, I wonder how well you would do if 20 million chattering monkeys looked for the tiniest mistake.

And, yes, for the record, you can typo even across the keyboard. sigh.; 7/19/10, 4:15 PM
Scott said...: "Maybe she handwrites things that somebody else types. F and P are very close in handwriting."

You really are a lawyer, aren't you. :); 7/19/10, 4:15 PM
Anonymous said...: Wow... while there are enormous, serious problems going on in America, including the attempt by Obama to establish a permanent socialist authority, former V.P. candidate Palin is encouraging the public to pay attention to her and engage in two minutes of hate instead.

Perhaps she is a Democrat plant?

And, yeah, we should all take a stupid and simplistic view of Muslims, refudiating their treatment as individuals. We need to stereotype and assume that they can't possibly be peaceful people just like us who unfortunately live under generally oppressive regimes.; 7/19/10, 4:15 PM
tim maguire said...: Of course it's No. 2, typo. Although it's almost certainly not the correct choice, No. 1, portmanteau, should be regarded as true anyway.

And we should start using it wherever appropriate.; 7/19/10, 4:16 PM
Unknown said...: she didnt mean repudiate. if she did, she would not have compared herself to Shakespeare.; 7/19/10, 4:17 PM
Scott said...: Yes, it is a portmanteau, but you'd really have to be Melvin Belli to convince anyone that she was being clever or creative when she wrote it.; 7/19/10, 4:21 PM
Synova said...: There's different sorts of typos. There's finger macros and brainos and taking the root you mean and adding a suffix according to the "rules" but one that is not correct.

Refute and repudiate are close enough together that it's easy to see someone thinking "refute" and fixing it so that it fits the sentence grammatically.

It's something that would be caught with time to edit or even a spellchecker.

refudiate ... yup...; 7/19/10, 4:22 PM
Right is right! said...: Dear Dead Julius you are a victim of political correctness. Muslims are not peaceful people because they practice a religion that has hate and violence as its core message.

Please do not speak unless you have at least a little bit of knowledge about the topic!; 7/19/10, 4:23 PM
Mattman26 said...: Sadly, the "typo" theory does not hold up at all. The WaPo version of the story, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/07/palin-invents-word-compares-he.html, includes a video clip of her using "refudiate" quite clearly. It's flustrating, I know.; 7/19/10, 4:24 PM
Hagar said...: dbq,

Where did you come across that one?

BTW, I think that by "individual loans," they mean the micro-loan market, which may be getting to be a worry both for the banking industry and the Government micro-managers.; 7/19/10, 4:26 PM
chickelit said...: Althouse wrote: When I write these polls, I adopt a different personality for each option,...

Hmmm, now that's interesting.

"Refudiate" is already in the Urban Dictionary.Link; 7/19/10, 4:27 PM
Sprezzatura said...: Folks questioning Palin's smarts are "numbskulls. She's proven her smarts; they've disproven theirs."; 7/19/10, 4:28 PM
chickelit said...: They're both labials, p and f.

pff-t.

oops! excuse me.; 7/19/10, 4:30 PM
Original Mike said...: It was an homage to Bush.; 7/19/10, 4:31 PM
Irene said...: Maybe she dictates into a recorder. Her speaking patterns might blend "p" and "f."

(Form over substance.); 7/19/10, 4:31 PM
Unknown said...: REFUDIATE is the best word to use if you want to be the lead item on every news show for the next 3 days. Otherwise the MSM would have ignored her.

Now Ms Dumb Dumb will have caused the democrats to shout her message from the roof tops, promising that no true Democrat would ever dream of preventing Moslems from building a Mosque at ground zero. And she has rallied all loyal Americans to the cause of keeping Ground Zero untainted by Moslem victory celebrations.; 7/19/10, 4:32 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/19/10, 4:33 PM
Once written, twice... said...: Well Ann,

The ugliness that is your blog continues.

You and Meade must be so proud!; 7/19/10, 4:35 PM
GMay said...: If only the President of the United States could get as much scrutiny.

I was going to go with typo, but I chose portmanteau because I thought it might help make lefties lose what little they have left.

I'm a giver.; 7/19/10, 4:37 PM
Anonymous said...: Can these polls get any more lame? They often omit one logical answer and I am forced into refudiation regarding Althouse's ability to construct balanced sets of options. Palin obviously heard refudiate as a word in her head and then tried to bluster/joke her way out of this mini-mini-mini mistake.; 7/19/10, 4:37 PM
Damon said...: Good job Ann - make a bigger deal about Palin's use of non-words than the substance. We are talking about a mosque at Ground Zero. Why is there even a discussion about Palin?

I wish I had something snarky, but I am so saddened that I probably won't come back and visit this blog for a while. Yes this is your blog, but this is a poor choice of a post.

Very wrong priorities Ann – they are way wrong.; 7/19/10, 4:38 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: I take it back....brain fart and confused memories. Probably that "old timers" syndrome kicking in.

I must have read it on this blog which is on my favorites list.; 7/19/10, 4:39 PM
Richard Dolan said...: Whether it was a word before Palin's tweet, "refudiate" is one now. And it's not bad -- right up there with the best of Bush's and Eisenhower's neologisms.

All the lefty Palin-haters out there can't claim anything nearly so creative. Good for you, Sarah, even if you didn't mean it.; 7/19/10, 4:42 PM
rhhardin said...: Al Franken pronounces roman a clef with the f.; 7/19/10, 4:42 PM
ricpic said...: The LeftStreamMedia will of course attempt to make this another potato moment. What The LSM don't get is how much more distrusted they are in peasant country than was the case a quarter of a century ago.; 7/19/10, 4:44 PM
AllenS said...: I heard John Kerry pronounce the word idea, idear.

WTF?; 7/19/10, 4:45 PM
chickelit said...: I wish I had something snarky, but I am so saddened that I probably won't come back and visit this blog for a while.

Does that spell flounce or plounce?; 7/19/10, 4:47 PM
AllenS said...: It's on par with someone like HDHouse saying: ya'betcha.

When, and everyone on the face of the earth knows this, that it should be: ya, you betcha.; 7/19/10, 4:47 PM
Beth said...: I'm no Palin fan, but I love new words. It's a nice little portmanteau, and I have no reason to believe she's not witty enough to enjoyed coming up with it. It's the kind of thing one might even create with a typo or a misspeak, but that's how creation happens, and I like it. It works, too, unlike a simple bungled or garbled usage. Yes, I have "misunderestimate" in mind. Also funny, but I doubt its intentionality much more.; 7/19/10, 4:47 PM
Right is right! said...: Jake, aren't there some camel butts you should be out sniffing right now?; 7/19/10, 4:47 PM
garage mahal said...: It can't be a typo as she admitted she "coined" a new word, just like Shakespeare. You got to celebrate!

LOL; 7/19/10, 4:49 PM
Beth said...: I can imagine she didn't intentionally come up with it, thinking "Ha, I've a lovely portmanteau here!" but did go ahead and hit "tweet" when she saw it, having fun with it.; 7/19/10, 4:52 PM
Anonymous said...: C3 said (quoting me):For crying out loud, it's Twitter- it's meant to be quick and casual, not precise.

Exactly, so don't make dangerous political statements on Twitter.

I don't see how that follows at all. It's about ideas, in the form of statements, not language.

Also, "dangerous"? Really?; 7/19/10, 4:55 PM
bagoh20 said...: Typos are "interesting"?
Ann, please follow the blog guidelines.
And from Twitter? Double violation.; 7/19/10, 4:56 PM
Ned said...: Not in the same league as an "idiot" who would vote for obama...look what that "typo" is costing...; 7/19/10, 4:57 PM
Anonymous said...: I agree that we should not get all wee-wee'd up about this.; 7/19/10, 4:57 PM
Hagar said...: Follow Dustbunny Queen's link, and it seems that "refudiate" has a long history of being created. It must indeed be a natural "eggcorn" (another wonderful word!).

"Whatever is not permitted is forbidden."; 7/19/10, 4:57 PM
Phil 314 said...: Maybe she handwrites things that somebody else types. F and P are very close in handwriting.

Not a particularly encouraging defense.

It is reminiscent of this SNL bit.; 7/19/10, 5:05 PM
BJK said...: Wait...people spell things wrong on Twitter?

Since when?

For the record, is the official character-shortening version of 'please' 'pls' or 'plz'?

kthxby; 7/19/10, 5:08 PM
Phil 314 said...: I don't see how that follows at all. It's about ideas,

Twitter..ideas

WHAAAAAAATTTTTTT!; 7/19/10, 5:16 PM
chickelit said...: Garage Mahal wrote: You got to celebrate!

Here you go Garage!; 7/19/10, 5:16 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Let me pretend I am Garage or Alpha when they scream "but Bush did it too".

President Obama loves to use "inartful" which is not a word! And everyone says he is an intellectual.; 7/19/10, 5:19 PM
Phil 314 said...: And I WON'T refudiate,repudiate or refuse "peaceful Muslims".

That's what she meant wasn't it? I mean, how many Muslims, peaceful or otherwise, follow her Twitter feed.; 7/19/10, 5:26 PM
Paddy O said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/19/10, 5:26 PM
Paddy O said...: I'm pretty well read and I on occasion say the wrong, but similar sounding, word when I'm tired or distracted or just absent minded.

Indeed, spellcheck has caught more than a few of such in my writings.

It's not really a typo. Because it's not a mistake of the fingers.

It's more of a mento.

Refudiate is a good word.

If we use it enough as a clever portmanteau it'll eventually get a mention in the OED, and Palin will be credited with the first use.

It's a bit silly to get bent out of shape about word usage. Words are, and become, how we use them, and how we make them up. This happens inessantly.

(A fine word suggested by the word verification that I'm going to use more regularly--meaning is understood in the context, of course).; 7/19/10, 5:27 PM
Sprezzatura said...: Let's put aside the issue of "refudiation" for a moment; the larger issue here is the intent of the Cordoba Initiative, which is trying to build the mosque. I know the people who run the initiative; they are, for lack of a better term, "peace-seeking Muslims." I spoke at a program co-sponsored by Cordoba last year, and I came to understand that the organization is interested mainly in battling extremism within Islam, and in building bridges to non-Muslim faiths. It seems to me that its mission makes Cordoba an appropriate fit for Ground Zero. One of the ways to prevent future Ground Zeroes is to encourage moderation within Islam, and to treat Muslim moderates differently than we treat Muslim extremists. The campaign against this mosque treats all Muslims as perpetrators. This is a terrible mistake, for moral and strategic reasons. I'm afraid that Sarah Palin, if she were ever to become President, would help create what Muslim extremists have so far unsuccesssfully sought to provoke: an all-out clash of civilizations.; 7/19/10, 5:29 PM
traditionalguy said...: To Refudiate is a well known descriptive verb for what Bugs Bunny does to Elmer Fudd. The spell checker on my computer obviously has never watched Saturday cartoons. This clever usage by Palin gives me a hunch who ghost writes for Palin...it seems to be Bob Dylan, the respected Christian song writer. Everyone knows that a woman cannot write creative stuff like Dylan's song, "Man Gave names to the Animals".; 7/19/10, 5:32 PM
Big Mike said...: Most people are missing Palin's subtlety here. The word "refudiate" doesn't exist, nor do "peaceful Muslims" exist.; 7/19/10, 5:32 PM
Paddy O said...: "I'm no Palin fan, but I love new words."

Hooray for Beth! See, irregardless of one's opinions on politics we should celebrate the creative explorations of English.; 7/19/10, 5:33 PM
Hagar said...: "Inartful" is not in the dictionaries, but it certainly is a word being used enough that is should be (see The Volokh Conspiracy).

Were Robert Gibbs' remarks on CBS[?] "artful" or "inartful?"; 7/19/10, 5:35 PM
Phil 314 said...: What people need to understand is that Sarah Palin is attacked not because she is a conservative but because she is a Christian....

Jake, aren't there some camel butts you should be out sniffing right now?

Tidy;
speaking as one, I'm sure glad you're standing up for Christians.

(PS , in case you missed it that was sarcasm); 7/19/10, 5:36 PM
Matt said...: It was not a typo. She has used the word 'refudiate' before. She thinks she is using the right word. On a later tweet she even mentioned how Shakespeare liked to coin new words. Look, it's not a big deal but it doesn't help her win more supporters.

I think the substance of what she was saying about the Mosque is far more a contentious point and one worth debating.; 7/19/10, 5:37 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: I thought "discard" was "disgard."; 7/19/10, 5:39 PM
Trooper York said...: 1jpb said
I'm afraid that Sarah Palin, if she were ever to become President, would help create what Muslim extremists have so far unsuccesssfully sought to provoke: an all-out clash of civilizations.

Right.; 7/19/10, 5:46 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: If some Islamist group can't build a 15-story mosque at Ground Zero to preach "Death to America" in, then the terrorists will have won or something.; 7/19/10, 5:46 PM
Meade said...: I thought surprise was suprise, turmeric was tumeric, and sherbet was sherbert.

So shroot me.; 7/19/10, 5:47 PM
former law student said...: Wouldn't "reconsider," or even "retract," be more apt in that sentence?; 7/19/10, 5:51 PM
traditionalguy said...: BTW @ Tidy, the blogs pretend defender of Christians: St Paul's Episcopal Church is 200 feet from ground zero. The Church and its worship has been going on there since 1766 and is the oldest public building in existence in New York. One fact may trouble you...its patron saint, Paul, started out as a Jew who felt that he needed to kill to protect culture from a new group of religious believers. He was straightened out by the Christ.; 7/19/10, 5:51 PM
Meade said...: Also, I thought Noam Chomsky was Gnome Chomsky.; 7/19/10, 5:53 PM
Phil 314 said...: Let me pretend I am Garage or Alpha when they scream "but Bush did it too".

I didn't see them saying that on this thread.; 7/19/10, 5:54 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: "It's not a typo. "f" and "P" are not next to each other on the keyboard."

Maybe she handwrites things that somebody else types. F and P are very close in handwriting.

Oh Good God what rationalization.; 7/19/10, 5:57 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/19/10, 5:57 PM
Meade said...: El Pollo Real said... "Refudiate" is already in the Urban Dictionary.

Good catch, King Chicklit!; 7/19/10, 5:57 PM
Cedarford said...: I'd go with Scott's assessment. Palin is "reasonably smart, but not that literate" (or well read).

Most people not "groomed" in a language-skills intensive degree have some holes in their vocabulary, misspelled or mispronounced words..even some made up words that they have rolled with uncorrected for years because they "sound right" to the person and others. Engineers and scientists are notorious word butchers - and computer spell/grammar check gave me and many others in the "hard knowledge sector" an education in words we butchered, mispelled, had thought were real words since childhood, or words used in grammatically incorrect ways.

Now, Palin spent 6 years at various "non selective" schools the Ezra Klein sort sneers at to get her undergrad degree in sports broadcast journalism - but that is the sort of non-challenging liberal arts degree where English language versatility and skill does not have to be a graduation requirement.

It's not that big a deal. Most normal people are like Palin and even Mr Harvard Elite himself, "The Perfessor" - has word use holes and mispronounciations that are common.

Corpsmen is NOT said Corpse-Men but Core-Men. Obama wasn't in the military, it is not a word in common usage outside the military, and it is a centuries old word that has Euro roots that make it a pronounciation exception. I wasn't surprised he couldn't say it right. Most outside the military don't. And even those of us in the military stumble on words in the lexion of another Branch.
"Boatswain's Mate" is not pronounced even close to how it is spelled.

PS - Since most people in nuclear power in the USA started in the military, and most of them learned the way to pronounce nuclear down in the South as the most common denominator - nuclear is indeed pronounced by most nuke power plant workers, national security people, even in most university grads from the South and MW as "nukular". "Nu-clee-ar" is an East Coast affectation.; 7/19/10, 5:58 PM
Sprezzatura said...: Trooper,

I forgot the quotes, but those were J Godberg's comments. I did include a link.

Nothing personal, but imho your ability to pull up 9-11 images is less noteworthy than Goldberg's years of covering terrorism as a journalist.

But, whatever floats your boat (or cruise ship).; 7/19/10, 5:58 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Meade's link gives us an idea of what Professor Mooseburger's been reading:

With a couple of exceptions -- Mr. Bellingham among them -- interviewing pot sellers is unlike interviewing anyone else in business. Simple yes-or-no questions yield 10-minute soliloquies. Words are coined on the spot, like ''refudiate,'' and regular words are used in ways that make sense only in context. One guy kept saying ''rue'' as though it meant ''reluctant,'' as in ''I think the state was rue to act.''; 7/19/10, 6:03 PM
garage mahal said...: Why are peaceful muslims supposed to refudiate plans for a mosque when they didn't have anything to do with 9/11? Otherwise, they wouldn't be peaceful.; 7/19/10, 6:03 PM
Methadras said...: That actually sounds like a real word. Webster english adoption? I refudiate you. Catchy.; 7/19/10, 6:03 PM
Will Cate said...: We;re complaining about a typo on Twitter? Twitter is nothing but one big, fucking typo.; 7/19/10, 6:04 PM
Blue@9 said...: I'm guessing it's a mistake of some sort, but regardless it's still a good word.; 7/19/10, 6:06 PM
JAL said...: refute + repudiate = refudiate

Clever? Typo? Slang?

(Not all slang is found in the Urban Disctionary. But that's the only acceptable stuff, right?)

Here in the South "flustrated" is not uncommon.

The same people who think it's awful probably think "axed" for "asked" is just hunky dorey language diversity.

wv faling
falling without the "l"
failing without the "i"
Who knows?; 7/19/10, 6:10 PM
The Scythian said...: The first reason that I don't want to see Palin ever elected is that she's a total dipshit.

The second reason is that the Palindroids take every incident of obvious dipshittery and try to spin it away or claim it's a sign of her fitness for office.

I had to deal with eight years of that with President Bush. Then there were months of the same bullshit during President Obama's campaign, and since he has been in the office, it's not getting any better.; 7/19/10, 6:10 PM
Trooper York said...: 1jpb, nothing personal...I don't have to pull up images of 911....they are indelibly burned in my mind. I haven't forgotten what happened.I will be going to memorial services for fireman who died that day this September.

I don't make excuses for the terrorists and their friends regardless of what mealy mouth lies they tell to get what they want while they laugh up their sleeves at us. I don't want to give their supporters a place of honor at the site of so much death and destruction caused by the people that they support and succor and finance and hide in their ranks.

But, whatever floats your boat.; 7/19/10, 6:10 PM
Cedarford said...: On the actual topic of Palin though - I think she is being dumb and selectively nativist yahoo about the Mosque.

The building is a small 2-story thing two blocks away from what was called during the 9/11 Mourning Orgy 9 years ago as "Holy ground, sacred soil". Not visible from the Pit that still is there since we can't show we can effectively rebuild after and attack. The Pit is a bigger disgrace than any group so long after the fact seeking to fill one of Lower Manhattan's many building vacancies.

Palin wouldn't have said a peep if it was Jews setting up an AIPAC office to lobby well-heeled Wall Streeters to in turn threaten pols to do as Israel wants or they won't get big bucks from NYC bankers.
Palin wouldn't have said a peep if it was terrorist rights ACLU lawyers setting up shop anticipating an ops center needed for their work in Holder's civilian trials for enemy combatants in Lower Manhattan.

Palin wouldn't have said diddly if the building was rented by members of the India Lobby working to influence Wall Street and needing a Hindu Temple.

She is making a dumb labelling of "All Muslims are Terrorists" by conflating an Islamic religious center with 9/11.; 7/19/10, 6:10 PM
former law student said...: Most people not "groomed" in a language-skills intensive degree have some holes in their vocabulary

Journalism -- essentially learning to describe and analyze events in words -- is not a "language skills intensive degree" program?

Did Palin major in makeup or something?; 7/19/10, 6:14 PM
chickelit said...: Younblood wrote:

Then there were months of the same bullshit during President Obama's campaign, and since he has been in the office, it's not getting any better.

I love how that sounds out of context! Right on brother!; 7/19/10, 6:15 PM
chickelit said...: Michael Haz on Twitter:
Ho de effing hum. Palin made a typo, and it's the end of the world as we know it. Her ankles attract Lilliputians.; 7/19/10, 6:18 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: In one fell swoop, Cefardord equivocates between an AIPAC office and planes being flown into the buildings that employed thousands of people working to keep the nations finances afloat, among other things.

You are truly a weird one, aren't you?; 7/19/10, 6:22 PM
chickelit said...: @cedarford: Can you link to an actual photo or drawing of the proposed "Islamic religious Center"?

I saw the crescent-moon-facing-Mecca -plans for the Flight 93 Memorial in PA and found that deeply offensive. It took an effort to stop that bullshit.; 7/19/10, 6:23 PM
Darcy said...: Yeah, I think she typed it and recognized it as a word, especially since she's apparently used it before. So what? She's not an intellectual? Is this news? (I think it's charming, natch.)

Also old news is that we hired the smartest intellectual evah to run this country. Oop. :); 7/19/10, 6:24 PM
garage mahal said...: If she made an honest typo, she would have just said "oops", like anyone else, admitted it, and moved on. But that wouldn't be Sarah Palin now would it.; 7/19/10, 6:25 PM
RightGirl said...: Maybe she made up the word, because "peaceful Muslims" don't exist any more than the word "refusiate" does.

RG; 7/19/10, 6:25 PM
Gabriel Hanna said...: I can sympathize with Sarah Palin; for about a year I was using "obfusticate" instead of "obfuscate", and a snide liberal internet rival had much amusement at my expense.

Crow is a healthy and nutritious dish, regardless of how it tastes. Smile and choke it down, and do better next time.; 7/19/10, 6:25 PM
Trooper York said...: Rashid Baz was a moderate Muslim.; 7/19/10, 6:25 PM
JAL said...: @ rh -- nice. Heh.
@ C4 -- I was never in the military. I didn't go to Columbia or Harvard and I know how to pronounce "corps" and "corpsmen."
@ Beth -- :-) That's why I like you.
@ el pollo -- I just assumed it *wasn't* in the Urban Dictionary! Ha!

I love the word "strategery" even if GWB never did say it.; 7/19/10, 6:28 PM
Unknown said...: People fat-finger words all the time. Some of the spelling errors from our Leftist elite clearly surpass reFudiate.

Problem is, the Lefties fat-finger a lot more than keyboards.

1jpb said...

Let's put aside the issue of "refudiation" for a moment; the larger issue here is the intent of the Cordoba Initiative, which is trying to build the mosque. I know the people who run the initiative; they are, for lack of a better term, "peace-seeking Muslims." I spoke at a program co-sponsored by Cordoba last year, and I came to understand that the organization is interested mainly in battling extremism within Islam, and in building bridges to non-Muslim faiths. It seems to me that its mission makes Cordoba an appropriate fit for Ground Zero. One of the ways to prevent future Ground Zeroes is to encourage moderation within Islam, and to treat Muslim moderates differently than we treat Muslim extremists. The campaign against this mosque treats all Muslims as perpetrators.

Maybe they are all perpetrators if they stand by and let the terrorists do what they want without raising a finger of protest. Let them build the mosque someplace else, like, maybe, Afghanistan, where they can take a stand against the Taliban.

Let them speak out against the cutthroats who killed those people in Uganda or the regime in Iran. Let them do something that's going to have a fatwa laid against them.

You want to prevent another 9/11? Let these Moslems stop acting like 'good Germans' and put their necks on the line. They know nobody will hurt them in midtown Manhattan. Let them try it in Teheran.; 7/19/10, 6:31 PM
Sprezzatura said...: I don't make excuses for the terrorists and their friends regardless of what mealy mouth lies they tell to get what they want while they laugh up their sleeves at us. I don't want to give their supporters a place of honor at the site of so much death and destruction caused by the people that they support and succor and finance and hide in their ranks.

To imply w/o evidence that these Muslim folks are friends of terrorists seems dumb. I'm not some softy on Islam (e.g. I frequently tell friends that Islam is the only major religion that was founded by a warrior), but I've known plenty of totally non-terrorist Muslims. Of course I'm sure I've had contact w/ plenty of undeclared-US-hating Muslims when I travel abroad. But, I've also run into non-US-hating Muslims (e.g. earlier this year I met some Muslim folks in Turkey who were mostly unconcerned by the US, but they did despise the activism of their own government.); 7/19/10, 6:31 PM
Phil 314 said...: Ritmo vs Cedarford

Clash of the Titans

(PS Cedarford, every time I see your name and remember your recurrent theme I keep wanted to spell your name Sedarford

shalom); 7/19/10, 6:34 PM
Sprezzatura said...: El Pollo,

Here is a link that shows the building these folks want to move into.; 7/19/10, 6:35 PM
Trooper York said...: Ever since I was a kid I have had many and varied contact with Muslim and Arab people on Atlantic Avenue just a few blocks away from where I live. I probably talk and interact with more Arab and Muslin people in Brooklyn in a day than some of these “scholars” and pundits do in a year. Regular people. Deli-counter men. Gypsy cab drivers. The guy that sells coffee from the alumin cart. Not scholars and academics and “clerics” who are smooth criminals.

I couldn’t possibly count the number of anti-american and anti-semitic comments I have heard. They were as numerous as the grains of sand on Coney Island. They thought that since I was a big fat Irish looking guy I had to hate the Jews so they felt free to talk smack. Much like a bigot would do about black people when he was surrounded by white faces.

I remember when I used to hang at some of the bars on Atlantic. Quite a few of the younger dudes would come in to hit on the American Girls and drink away from the eyes of their fathers who were asleep because they had to open the shop at six in the morning. They were pleasant until they got a few drinks in them and then they would tell you how they loved the PLO and couldn’t wait to take up an AK and go to Borough Park.

All that stopped after 911. They went underground. They didn’t change their attitudes. They just got a lot better at hiding it.

You can call that anecdotal evidence and dismiss it out of hand. I call it reality. The reality I see every day as they mutter under their breath. The reality of the street. If you think that anything has changed for the better you are just fooling yourself.; 7/19/10, 6:51 PM
Troy said...: She's trying to up her Tea party cred by using "f" for other letters like the Founders did in the original Constitution -- using "f" for "s" in "Congress".

Come on now don't poke the Mama Griffly.; 7/19/10, 6:51 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: The Cordoba Initiative, eh? What chutzpah these Muslims have. Invoking Moorish Spain as some kind of super-tolerant utopia that we all need to learn from and admire is really something.

And there's no shortage of useful non-Muslim idiots defending their intellectual dishonesty. Amazing.; 7/19/10, 6:55 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: People who point out Sarah's spelling are just acting white ;); 7/19/10, 7:03 PM
Jason said...: Sheer trudgery.; 7/19/10, 7:03 PM
former law student said...: I frequently tell friends that Islam is the only major religion that was founded by a warrior

I guess so but Jesus made a couple of provocative statements:

“Do not think that I come to bring the peace upon earth: I came not to send peace but the sword." Matthew 10:34

He said to them, "When I sent you forth without a money bag or a sack or sandals, were you in need of anything?" "No, nothing," they replied.
36
He said to them, 12 "But now one who has a money bag should take it, and likewise a sack, and one who does not have a sword should sell his cloak and buy one.
37
For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, namely, 'He was counted among the wicked'; and indeed what is written about me is coming to fulfillment."
38
Then they said, "Lord, look, there are two swords here." But he replied, "It is enough!" Luke 22; 7/19/10, 7:06 PM
rhhardin said...: Palin might be avoiding words with the root L pudere, to avoid upsetting Andrew Sullivan.; 7/19/10, 7:12 PM
Sprezzatura said...: Trooper,

For what it's worth, my anecdotal experience has been that I've only had non-Jew-hating Muslim friends. Their accumulated vices were drinking, ladies, selfishness, and piss-poor business ethics. But, some of my Jewish friends (especially the ones that have gone on sort-of visits/pilgrimages to Israel) have been extremely hard core anti-Islam. [Of course, they need to be for survival in the neighborhood.]; 7/19/10, 7:14 PM
Trooper York said...: I guess we are overly influenced by our personal experiences.

That's only human.; 7/19/10, 7:24 PM
Martha said...: David said: Hey, if it were Obama, he'd blame his typist.

Obama would blame his TELEPROMPTER.
If teleprompter prompted REFUDIATE Obama would read/say it.; 7/19/10, 7:26 PM
Justin said...: Does anyone really believe that she came up with this intentionally? Talk about rose colored glasses...

The obvious (and only reasonable) explanation is that she made a mistake. Got a little confused, didn't proofread, whatever. It happens to all of us - I think everyone can agree on that.

The problem here is the inflated response. Why not just admit you made a mistake? Just say, "Oops, sorry!" I think that response would have made Palin's detractors look childish and petty for calling her out in the first place. It was not a big deal when it happened, and shame on the liberals for trying to make something of it.

Instead, she claims to be making up new words and compares herself to Shakespeare. The sad thing is, she's totally serious about it. What an inflated sense of self! Show some humility! (A virtue Palin lacks.) For that, she deserves to be mocked.; 7/19/10, 7:28 PM
MadisonMan said...: I think it's charming, natch

I think it could have been charming if she hadn't tried to tie herself to Shakespeare.

If you make up a word (unintentionally in this case, I think), you look foolish if you later claim to have done it purposefully. A better tactic (IMO) would have been to hearken back to other wordy boners.

Of course it's a word, I heard it in our 57th state just yesterday!

Of course it's a word, I misunderestimated its impact on people is all; 7/19/10, 7:33 PM
The Scythian said...: 1jbp,

"To imply w/o evidence that these Muslim folks are friends of terrorists seems dumb."

When asked if he agreed with the State Department's designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf said:

"Look, I'm not a politician. The issue of terrorism is a very complex question. There was an attempt in the '90s to have the UN define what terrorism is and say who was a terrorist. There was no ability to get agreement on that."

When pressed, he said:

"I am a peace builder. I will not allow anybody to put me in a position where I am seen by any party in the world as an adversary or as an enemy."

So here we have the guy who's going to head this mosque saying that he refuses to even identify terrorism, because that might cause some parties to view him as an adversary.

Sure sounds like a friend of terrorism to me! Shit, even supporters of terrorism offer more of a condemnation of the practice than he does!; 7/19/10, 7:38 PM
DaLawGiver said...: Thanks for the set up Meade.

Gnome Chomsky.; 7/19/10, 7:39 PM
Meade said...: Of course it's not a real word, try not to get all weewee'd up over it; 7/19/10, 7:40 PM
MadisonMan said...: In other words, as always, it's the cover-up that kills you.; 7/19/10, 7:45 PM
Darcy said...: MadMan: I think she was laughing at herself (and her haters) with the Shakespeare stuff. You really don't think so? I didn't for a second think she was doing anything but making light of it.; 7/19/10, 7:45 PM
DaLawGiver said...: Look!

It's Darcy and Lem!

Sorry, there is only one Trooper York.; 7/19/10, 7:45 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Most people have voted for #2 when they really wanted to vote for #1.. as I did..

Its a shame some people have to hide their love and admiration like that ;); 7/19/10, 7:46 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Thanks for the set up Meade.

Gnome Chomsky

@Lawgiver.

Bwhahahah... I so had to make one too on my alliance server.

Chomsky the Gnome Rogue ...sneaky little shit even if he is level 1..for now.; 7/19/10, 7:55 PM
Darcy said...: Hee. Lawgiver. That's cute!; 7/19/10, 7:59 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Thanks Lawgiver..

I think.; 7/19/10, 8:02 PM
Henry said...: She meant to write: "Feacepul Muslims, fls repudiate."; 7/19/10, 8:07 PM
Michael said...: FLS is back to explain that Christianity is just like Islam. He has the quotes to prove it. But even FLS, armed with his newly purchased passport to enable travel to Canada, would have the good sense to leave a Bible behind if he ventured out to, say, Saudi Arabia.; 7/19/10, 8:12 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Didn't Palin have a problem saying Joe Biden?.. or something?; 7/19/10, 8:15 PM
Charity said...: It wasn't a big deal that she made the mistake. Who hasn't accidentally combined two words or mistakenly thought a word was something similar? But, she made it worse by playing it off as some sort of intentional Shakespearean contribution to the English language. Give me a break! Why can't people just admit their mistakes anymore?; 7/19/10, 8:22 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: From now on we all should refudiate and not repudiate..

I mean, isn't that what they do all day at the UN?.. since 1948?

Where has all that 'repudiation' gotten anybody?; 7/19/10, 8:27 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: I'll admit that in a flight of furious passion and verbosity, I was once tempted to reach for a word like "refudiate". But I somehow managed to stop myself. Poor Professor Mooseburgers. Politics ain't beanbag. Nor is it the Althouse comments section.

Twitter's best left to fomenting revolutions in Iran. But I'm all for it if Prof. Mooseburgers wants to lower herself to exercises in "messaging" of 140 characters in length.; 7/19/10, 8:33 PM
Sprezzatura said...: Youngblood,

Maybe I'm a dope but I don't think that this guy saying that he is "a peace builder"
is the same as someone being a friend of terrorists. To my mind a peace builder is the opposite of a terrorist.

But, I will 100% agree that this guy is a pie in the sky fool for trying to be a so-called neutral mediator between terrorists (or whatever the "neutral" euphemism for terrorists is) and non-terrorists.

As long as it is not extra-legal, I'd like to have these folks disclose to the public where their funding comes from. If this disclosure is not a legal requirement, I'd count on the gov's intelligence agencies being able to suss out where, if at all, these folks have financial ties to terrorist organizations/folks that are under observation.

But, this guy being a peace nut alone is not enough for me to oppose his right to move into this building a couple blocks from ground zero.; 7/19/10, 8:38 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: The Cordoba Initiative, eh? What chutzpah these Muslims have. Invoking Moorish Spain as some kind of super-tolerant utopia that we all need to learn from and admire is really something.

And there's no shortage of useful non-Muslim idiots defending their intellectual dishonesty. Amazing.

Good point, Maguro. The Inquisition that followed was much more tolerant.

Methinks someone needs a history book. Or maybe even a Wikipedia article.

What the hell are you smoking anyway?; 7/19/10, 8:38 PM
Mary Beth said...: She certainly gets the silly puckers talking about her.; 7/19/10, 8:40 PM
Matt said...: Meanwhile,
Sarah Palin is waging a battle inside the Tea Party movement to exempt defense spending from the group's small-government, anti-deficit fervor.

Yes, small government is all well and good except when it comes to defense spending and top secret infrastructures that cost us millions. Big government? You betcha!; 7/19/10, 8:47 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: 8:07 --- heh.

I remember when I used to hang at some of the bars on Atlantic. Quite a few of the younger dudes would come in to hit on the American Girls and drink away from the eyes of their fathers who were asleep because they had to open the shop at six in the morning. They were pleasant until they got a few drinks in them and then they would tell you how they loved the PLO and couldn’t wait to take up an AK and go to Borough Park.

IMHO, the biggest flaw in Islam is that these guys are technically forbidden from imbibing - and along with it, I suppose, acquiring the ability to forget about one's grievances and let bygones be bygones.

They've been jealous of Jews since their prophet tried to rip their religion off them.

And the pride thing. And the fighting (jihad as struggle). And the division of the world into two spheres and the merger of power (government) with spirit (religion) and the rivalry with the West rather than incorporation in it. Yep. It's a challenge. That's for sure.

There. I'm done. You guys take up the mantle. You already know my take on how well culture wars tend to go down...; 7/19/10, 8:55 PM
Unknown said...: "refute" + "repudiate" is much more clever than "misunderestimate."

However, I'll acknolege that latter is no where near as grating as "guesstimate." 'Here it is used in context: When Obama launched his bid for the Illinois Senate in 1995,convicted slum-lord Rezko was his first substantial contributor. Obama said it was his "best guesstimate" that Rezko raised $10,000 to $15,000..." The number turned out to be more like $250,000 total. Rezko was involved in a questionable land deal that helped the Obama buy a mansion in Chicago.; 7/19/10, 8:56 PM
JAL said...: Matt --

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Maybe Palin understands what "provide for the common defense" means in this day and age.; 7/19/10, 8:57 PM
dick said...: Funny that the Urban Dictionary mentions that the NYT Business Section came up with this word on June 27.; 7/19/10, 9:02 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: btw, for everyone who calls her stupid, i will be running a spell check on your comments for the last 6 months. we'll see if your claim that she is stupid has been refutiated.

Seriously, I wonder how well you would do if 20 million chattering monkeys looked for the tiniest mistake.

One of the things that is great about Firefox is that you can install a spell checker (which, BTW, showed up "refutiated" and one of the suggested spellings is "repudiated"). I am OC enough that I very rarely post anything in a blog comment that has spelling errors in it.

That said, I am sure that someone could find plenty of other grammatical errors in my postings, as they could with any of the rest of you.

wv: Mispotok - drop the "t" out, and you almost have what I think Ms. Palin did.; 7/19/10, 9:04 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: Good point, Maguro. The Inquisition that followed was much more tolerant.

That would be a good point, Ritmo, if this were the 16th century. But the Inquisition has been over for a while now, champ. And Moorish Cordoba can't really compare to to present-day America when it comes to religious and ethnic tolerance, can it? The Muslims of the day might have been more tolerant than their Christian equivalents, but they still subjugated their non-Muslim subjects. So enough of the Moorish "Golden Age of Tolerance" propaganda.

What the hell are you smoking anyway?

Quit smoking a while ago. Had a nice bottle of Australian Cab Sauv tonight, though. I highly recommend it, you should do the same.; 7/19/10, 9:05 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Bruce, she didn't misspell a word. She made one up. Unintentionally. She was confused between two different, real words and blended them into a portmanteau subconsciously.

Just be honest about what this latest nothing episode really consisted of so that we can focus on what to do about people who don't drink and still do crazy things.; 7/19/10, 9:09 PM
knox said...: I pronounced "banal" like "anal" for a long time. It sounds more like what the word means than the actual pronunciation, which sounds more hoity-toity.

I can't believe anyone thinks Palin was serious and defensive with the Shakespeare remark. She was obviously joking.; 7/19/10, 9:09 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: That would be a good point, Ritmo, if this were the 16th century. But the Inquisition has been over for a while now, champ. And Moorish Cordoba can't really compare to to present-day America when it comes to religious and ethnic tolerance, can it? The Muslims of the day might have been more tolerant than their Christian equivalents, but they still subjugated their non-Muslim subjects. So enough of the Moorish "Golden Age of Tolerance" propaganda.

I'm not aware that it is propaganda. The fact that they were somehow more tolerant than their contemporary Christian rivals is significant. I'm well aware of how they don't compare to America today. So I'll make you a bargain: Let's agree with the historical fact that they're less tolerant than modern Americans if you stop with the innuendo that suggests they were incapable of tolerance.

Come on. Give us something to work with. One way or another we're going to have to find some way to live with these fervent pseudo-temperance supporting unreformed non/anti-Westerners.; 7/19/10, 9:13 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: "refute" + "repudiate" is much more clever than "misunderestimate."

I have always loved some of Bush's malapropisms. I like "misunderestimate" so well that I have entered it into my spell-check dictionary. If Gov. Palin keeps using this one, I may do the same with it.; 7/19/10, 9:14 PM
Ann Althouse said...: @knox That's the correct pronunciation.

We heard a famous old professor talking about environmental stuff and pronouncing "compost" comPAHST.; 7/19/10, 9:16 PM
jimspice said...: Sorry vast majority of you. It's not a typo. She's used the word on camera before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pXaK30qNBM; 7/19/10, 9:17 PM
Matt said...: JAL
Yeah, but people either want small government or they want big government with Democrats running the show or big government with Republicans running the show. This whole Tea Party thing is a bit odd because, in fact, the size of the government expanded under Bush. It did not shrink. Yet the Tea Party is hardly anti-Bush. But they pretend like Obama invented deficits.

Also, note that right after provide for the common defence it says promote the general Welfare, which ties right into the Health Care bill.

It really comes down to an interpretation [I'll grant you] but is the defense spending we have today somehow more important than general welfare? I think both are pretty important.

Just don't say you want small government. Won't ever happen unless we cut everything including defense.; 7/19/10, 9:18 PM
The Scythian said...: 1jpb,

I've seen no indication that this guy seems himself as some kind of neutral mediator.

Immediately after September 11th, he said that Americans must acknowledge that they were accomplices in the crime. A few years later, after the Madrid bombings, he said that President Bush must make an 'America culpa' speech to stop angry Muslim youths from attacking the West.

When asked about Islam and violence, he equivocated, pointing out that during World War II, Christans dropped bombs.

When weighing in on the violence in Malaysia between Muslims and Catholics, he condemned the violence softly while blaming the provocative actions of the Catholics (using the word 'allah' to describe their God) for the violence.

I'm not convinced that he's simply a muddle-headed peacemaker. Like many people who have claimed to oppose violence in the past, he's against the other side's violence.; 7/19/10, 9:21 PM
Meade said...: "We heard a famous old professor talking about environmental stuff and pronouncing "compost" comPAHST."

Yeah, and I'm pretty sure I even overheard him talking about having ay-NAHL sex with himself.; 7/19/10, 9:23 PM
Rialby said...: “As I heard it, my chances of surviving the surgery were certainly better than fifty-fifty,” he wrote. “But the chances of waking up with serious deficits to my mental faculties were more significant.”

Joseph Biden; 7/19/10, 9:23 PM
former law student said...: But even FLS, armed with his newly purchased passport to enable travel to Canada, would have the good sense to leave a Bible behind if he ventured out to, say, Saudi Arabia.

Nothing keeps you from taking a Bible to Saudi Arabia. I wouldn't stuff a suitcase full of them, however -- proselytizing is frowned upon.; 7/19/10, 9:26 PM
Pastafarian said...: Interesting. In the thread for the post about Obama lying about whether forced insurance purchases are or are not a tax, there were almost no liberal commenters contributing to defend the indefensible.

But in this thread, there are 8 or 10 of them, leaping about and shooting loads of jizz through the bars of their cages, shrieking "Pain is teh stooopid!!!11!"

Meanwhile, unemployment is somewhere north of 10% (hard to peg an actual number because the administration fudges the numbers every month); oil is spewing into the Gulf and media coverage has been blacked out, by the administration; GM is now owned by the government; we've funneled billions of dollars into the retirement funds of public employee union members, and we're getting ready to funnel billions more into it; and we've run up trillion, with a t, dollar deficits.

The US is on the brink of ruin. That's no hysterical exaggeration.

But Palin is stupid. Because she combined the words "refute" and "repudiate".

Not the people who voted this socialist shithead into office -- no, we're not criticizing them. Not the socialist shithead himself.

Palin.

I need another margarita. Have I mentioned how good Patron tequila is? Compared to this stuff, other tequila is donkey piss.; 7/19/10, 9:29 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Right. Why criticize the intelligence of someone who doesn't even recognize two of the most important words for rejecting an argument or a philosophy? It's only the fucking presidency we're talking about@!!!1!1!1!1!!! Why should they know what that means!!11!!1!!!!!!1!

Give it up. If Obama regularly shot wolves from a helicopter in Alaska you wouldn't be half as invested in this trivial refudiation of him.; 7/19/10, 9:37 PM
Eric said...: Meh. It's twitter. She was gonna write refute, and changed it to repudiate. Or vice versa. I do that myself in blog comments and see other people doing it all the time. Sometimes I even out the verb.; 7/19/10, 9:44 PM
Adam said...: I think I understand the historical dialectic that undergirds this thread.

Dwight Eisenhower spoke in unintelligible syntax. Adlai Stevenson was a witty intellectual.

Richard Nixon craftily considered his every lawyerly word. John F. Kennedy was a witty intellectual.

Ronald Reagan spoke in homespun Hollywoodisms. Jimmy Carter was an earnest intellectual.

George H.W. Bush was a clueless preppy wimp. Bill Clinton was a witty intellectual.

George W. Bush was a strutting cowboy-wannabe. Al Gore was a wooden intellectual.

Sarah Palin speaks like my nextdoor neighbor, who's a complete ditz. Barack Obama is too intellectually advanced to communicate with the rest of us, except for the people who hear voices in the night.; 7/19/10, 9:44 PM
Phil 314 said...: Ritmo;
Let's agree with the historical fact that they're less tolerant than modern Americans if you stop with the innuendo that suggests they were incapable of tolerance.

Please reassure me you're not comparing 16th Spain, you know the monarchy with the official-state sponsored religion with a 21st country United States, the world's oldest democracy and the country that to its progenitors shame (you know Europe) thought state-sponsored religions would be a big problem, even though it held deeply to its religious roots.

So please tell me you recognize the difference and then we won't have to argue over all of those enlightened middle east democracies.; 7/19/10, 9:51 PM
Anonymous said...: Maybe it's an Austrian word.; 7/19/10, 9:59 PM
The Scythian said...: Pastafarian,

My opposition to President Obama does not have to manifest itself as support for Palin. My opposition to Palin does not have to manifest itself as support for Obama.

Palin is a dipshit. The cult of Palindroids who bronze the shit that spews from her lips are just as annoying (and potentially as dangerous for the country) as the Obamabots who tingle and swoon at the sight of his awesome visage.

They're really two sides of the same coin: pathetic partisan hacks who fixate on ideological avatars.

The whole lot of them could go fuck themselves for all I care.

The sad unfortunate truth is that they're going to double-team the country without lubrication or even the courtesy of a reacharound.; 7/19/10, 10:01 PM
Howard said...: Trying to out-Cedarford the great one.

As much as Palin makes me want to hurl because the so-called repug men swoon over her bad-mommy Jocasta shtick, I can relate and respect refudiate.

It's a mechanical guy thing. Wordsmithing is women's work.

Also, I halfta tip my cover to Trooper York. His experience is genuine. The smart, mod "clean" Americans are never really exposed to the nitty-gritty reality of non-wasp socio-economic and/or ethnic groups. People like 1jpb only see the creatures at the zoo and not in the wild.

1jpb unknowingly expressed the old nostrum similar to "some of my best friends are black" by claiming that all of his rag-head friends (really just acquaintances who thought him a putz) are "normal". Sounds like he still likes the taste of the bait they were trolling.

If you can pass as blue collar white, reality comes into a sharper focus.

In any event, as a Celtic Viking mongrel, I don't respect the middle east god spawned by nutballs with brains cooked by the unrelenting desert heat. Those mono-maniacal freakshows (Moses, Jesus, Mohammad) were the spawn of the folks who failed to migrate north when all the ice melted. Why should we respect their superstitions?

FLS can pull some nasty Jesus quotes because of the nature of his backward geography, but you gotta admit that the enlightened Pagans saw something in the prince of peace that the bacon shunning angry god dolts did not have.

Jesus is hard to refudiate, but the rest of the Semites can go pound sand.; 7/19/10, 10:12 PM
Beth said...: Portmanteau isn't that elite of a concept; any non-English major who manages to pass my sophomore poetry survey (from Beowulf to Brooks, in 15 weeks!) will define it on the midterm, and get a couple extra exam points for making one up. Now, I'd be more inclined to believe Palin wrote her own defense of the word if she'd cited Lewis Carroll, but yeah, even state university Comm majors might read a little Shakespeare.

Back to grading papers for me. As Popeye would say, Pardon me for protrudin'!; 7/19/10, 10:17 PM
Methadras said...: garage mahal said...

If she made an honest typo, she would have just said "oops", like anyone else, admitted it, and moved on. But that wouldn't be Sarah Palin now would it.

Oh, as if your hero, Captain Kick-Ass isn't a human typo unto himself? Is there a floor level where your stupid goes to?; 7/19/10, 10:22 PM
Henry said...: Nothing keeps you from taking a Bible to Saudi Arabia.

But leave your Jack Daniels at home.; 7/19/10, 10:26 PM
Methadras said...: Frankly, muslims should come anywhere near Ground Zero and frankly, they should have been ejected out of New York and Michigan. Fuck them, their moon god, and their bearded pedo-prophet.; 7/19/10, 10:26 PM
Methadras said...: former law student said...

Nothing keeps you from taking a Bible to Saudi Arabia.

Ever been to Saudi Arabia? If they even see one bible, I can almost assure you that you won't have it long and you might be taking a walk down a long hallway. Stop being a contrarian moron.; 7/19/10, 10:28 PM
traditionalguy said...: Refudiation is the state that results from a quick internet refuding of an opponent's message that takes Sarah Palin's political skills for granted. It is similar to being swatted by a roundhouse from a Grizzlie bear that is wearing lipstick and disguised as a woman that knows her place. That's entertainment folks. Win or lose, Sarah Palin will go down in history as the Greatest counter-puncher since Ali.; 7/19/10, 10:35 PM
Methadras said...: Scott said...

Yes, it is a portmanteau, but you'd really have to be Melvin Belli to convince anyone that she was being clever or creative when she wrote it.

Or Johnny Cochran. If the P don't fit, you must AquiFt.; 7/19/10, 10:36 PM
knox said...: I heard "flustrate" many times when I lived in TN.

Also, lots of folks down there say "kindly" instead of "kind of." That's one of my favorites.; 7/19/10, 10:39 PM
jr565 said...: Ok, so Palin mixed up words. What a dummy!
But lets hold Obama to the same standard huh libs?

Obama thinks there are 58 states
Obama thinks there's a state called Au Claire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7gXEQmE_SI&feature=player_embedded

Obama thinks inhalers are either called breathalizers or inhalators and can't complete basic sentences without a teleprompter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omHUsRTYFAU&feature=related

Lets parse the syntax of the following sentence. See if you can make sense of it. "It would cost about, it would cost about the same as what we would spend...over the course of ten years it would cost what it would cost us... heh...allright..,ok...we're going to...(Ok, now Obama is back on track) "It would cost us about the same as it would cost..for about...hold on one second...I can't hear myself but I'm glad you're fired up though.. I'm glad (maybe not)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omHUsRTYFAU&feature=related

Then of course OBama thinks Sioux Falls is called Sioux City and he says it in front of residents of Sioux City.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/05/obamagaffe-1.html

Then of course Obama thinks a P/E ratio stands for Prices and earnings ratios.

Then of course his bungling of votes while a senator where he apparently hit the wrong button multiple times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyfyJMOR90A&feature=related

Obama talks about his Muslim faith and has to be told about his Christian faith by George Stephanopolous:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMUgNg7aD8M&feature=related

OBama thinks Austrian is a language:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAmaGgBrDAs

Obama didn't know what committee he was on:
" “Just this past week, we passed out of the out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee — which is my committee — a bill to call for divestment from Iran as way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don’t obtain a nuclear weapon.”
–Barack Obama, Sderot, Israel, July 23, (was Obama a member of the banking committee?)

I could go on,and on covering such varied topics as economics, math, grammar, geography, but why? It's like shooting fish in a barrel.; 7/19/10, 10:51 PM
David Clayton said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/19/10, 11:01 PM
David Clayton said...: Looking back at Palin's Twitter feed, you'll see she's corrected the tweet to say "refute", which implies it was an unintentional mistake: that she actually believed "refudiate" was a word. Had it been a typo, she'd have just swapped the f for a p. Had it been a clever, intentional portmanteau as Althouse character #1 suggests, well, it wouldn't have been that clever, just confusing and damning, but she would probably have left it alone.

It's highly absurd of course that mainstream media outlets are publishing stories about a mere tweet (Tweet!). Nonetheless it does reveal something about Ms. Palin's, uh, challenges with the English language.; 7/19/10, 11:04 PM
Pastafarian said...: David, I think it reveals more about the media covering it.

jr565, you racist bastard. Expect a visit from the IRS, the Justice Department, and the Department of Agriculture in the morning.; 7/19/10, 11:09 PM
jr565 said...: Former Law Student wrote:
I guess so but Jesus made a couple of provocative statements:

“Do not think that I come to bring the peace upon earth: I came not to send peace but the sword." Matthew 10:34

He said to them, "When I sent you forth without a money bag or a sack or sandals, were you in need of anything?" "No, nothing," they replied.

You clearly don't know the difference between Mohammad and Jesus do you? See, because even if you can find some words of Jesus that sound violent you wont find any instances of Jesus, for example, telling his followers to murder his critics, being involved in multiple massacres of his enemies raping and murdering children and being personally involved in 26 expeditions of murder; not to mention his career robbing and killing merchants during holy months and then justifying it by saying he had revelations that justified his murder. Can you?

Google The Well of Badr, where Mohammad and his followers robbed a caravan, then after killing 200 or so ransomed off survivors, any who couldn't be ransomed had their head chopped off. Mohammad then had the bodies chopped up and thrown into a pit and mocked them by saying "o people of the pit, have you found what Allah threatened is true now?"

Or look up the names "Abu Afak" and "Ama Bint Marwan" two poets in his day who had the temerity to criticize the prophet. When hearing of the criticism Mohammad said (of Marwant) "Will no one rid me of this daughter of Marwan?" His followers then went to her house, and took her newborn baby and hacked him to death before her eyes, then made her watch as they killed her 4 other children before finally raping and repeatedly stabbing her. And Mohammad's response after hearing the news was "You have done a service Allah and his messenger, her life wasn't worth even two goats".

And the worst thing is that this isn't the stories told by critics of Mohammad, these are stories told by Muslims about Mohammad in their hadiths which chronicle his life. Can you find stories of Jesus personally having his followers raping and murdering critics? I didn't think so.

Jesus and Mohammad are NOTHING alike, and; 7/19/10, 11:23 PM
former law student said...: Ever been to Saudi Arabia? If they even see one bible, I can almost assure you that you won't have it long and you might be taking a walk down a long hallway.

Friends of ours were stationed there for years. Stop pretending to knowledge you don't have.; 7/20/10, 12:29 AM
former law student said...: OBama thinks Austrian is a language

Quite right, too. Austrian is further subdivided into dialects, like Weanerisch.

http://www.karanitsch.net/w6/vfa.htm; 7/20/10, 12:35 AM
Methadras said...: former law student said...

Ever been to Saudi Arabia? If they even see one bible, I can almost assure you that you won't have it long and you might be taking a walk down a long hallway.

Friends of ours were stationed there for years. Stop pretending to knowledge you don't have.

Geez, I guess you better talk to the 3 guys I sent to Saudi on a project for the government who all emailed me and told me and my upper management about one of them were confiscated at customs and had extensive interviews with Saudi security even after their purpose was stated and with our designated Saudi liaison that works for Saudi state security.

Maybe it didn't happen to your friends, but it happened to one of mine just 2 weeks ago. Now, he will be reprimanded for breaking protocols when he gets back and I've told him as much, but don't tell me what I already know otherwise I wouldn't have said it, you dead-bolt mouth breather.; 7/20/10, 2:06 AM
The Scythian said...: FLS wrote:

"Friends of ours were stationed there for years. Stop pretending to knowledge you don't have."

The situation for American military, intelligence, and diplomatic personnel is very different than that for natives, which is different than the situation for foreign workers.

You might want to do a little research on that before you pretend to have knowledge that you clearly don't have.; 7/20/10, 2:21 AM
former law student said...: The situation for American military, intelligence, and diplomatic personnel

None of the above.; 7/20/10, 2:30 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Why did Palin write "refudiate"?

Is that like when Obama called a Navy corpsman a 'corpseman'?; 7/20/10, 6:26 AM
Anonymous said...: No Tidy Righty, I won't agree with you that a mosque or temple at Ground Zero is more inappropriate than a cathedral.

Moreover, the National Cathedral? NOT NON-DENOMINATIONAL, YOU LUNATIC! It's an Episcopalian church. For that matter, it's the seat of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Lastly, Sarah Palin is being attacked for being a hyperpartisan idiot. She's not attacked for being Christian. President Obama? He's a Christian. Vice President Biden? He's a Christian. Nancy Pelosi? She's a Christian. Keith Olbermann? Christian. Rachel Maddow? Christian.; 7/20/10, 8:40 AM
former law student said...: Geez, I guess you better talk to the 3 guys I sent to Saudi on a project for the government who all emailed me and told me and my upper management about one of them were confiscated at customs and had extensive interviews with Saudi security even after their purpose was stated and with our designated Saudi liaison that works for Saudi state security.

Sure, post their email. I'll turn on follow-up comments. Was the Bible printed in Arabic, per chance?; 7/20/10, 8:59 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: You can take a bible to Saudi Arabia but just don't be seen reading it in public.

They're only tolerant to a point.; 7/20/10, 9:13 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: They really frown on alcohol though which is why there isn't a dollar figure you could pay me to go there.

I mean anyplace that won't let me eat baby back ribs and drink beer is my version of hell on earth.; 7/20/10, 9:15 AM
Michael said...: FLS: OK, I'll change it up a bit. Take some pork chops to Saudi Arabia, or better yet have your many pals in Saudi Arabia take some for your consumption when you visit. You spend more time trying to find the one piece of fly shit in the pepper than anyone I have ever seen. A trait of crappy lawyers, I might add.; 7/20/10, 9:54 AM
Dark Eden said...: This is a news story but the Black Panther case isn't.

Thank you One Party Media.; 7/20/10, 10:29 AM
Your Correspondent said...: P and F are the same letter in several languages. You have to know which from the context.

Other languages often have one but not the other.; 7/20/10, 11:21 AM
JackOfClubs said...: I actually think it was a typo, but, considering the possibility of a portmanteau: surely the better option would be "refute" not "refuse"?; 7/20/10, 1:08 PM
ken in tx said...: I read that the word ‘normalcy’ was invented by a presidential candidate. What he meant to convey was that his administration would be a return to normality after the excesses of the Wilson administration. He was lambasted by some academics, but he was elected anyway; and the word entered the dictionary. His name was Warren G. Harding.; 7/20/10, 1:34 PM
dave1310 said...: Someone made "refusnik" a word (described a form of soviet protester, I believe) and no one squawked. There is a symmetry to the word5$ refuse what is being proposed and repudiate those making the proposal. Yep, works for me. But then again, I don't have PDS.; 7/20/10, 3:32 PM
Robert Cook said...: "What people need to understand is that Sarah Palin is attacked not because she is a conservative but because she is a Christian."

Oh, for Christ's sake!

Let's get it straight: Palin is attacked not because she is conservative or Christian, (which every damn American politician has to swear to being), but because she's shallow, lazy, and ignorant, and she willingly panders to those in the polity who ask nothing more of those who would represent them than shallow ignorance and lazy pandering to their biases and received ideas.

BTW, I think Ms. Palin represents the worst of our political and celebrity culture, but it's evident that "refudiate" was probably a typo and nothing more.; 7/20/10, 4:08 PM
Ralph L said...: It's an Episcopalian church.
So it's barely denominational and barely Christian.; 7/20/10, 4:15 PM
rhhardin said...: Quite right, too. Austrian is further subdivided into dialects, like Weanerisch.

Named after the city of nursing mothers, Wean.; 7/20/10, 4:22 PM
rhhardin said...: Palin can get things done through not being wise in the way things have to be done, but she does have some interesting gaps in her education.; 7/20/10, 4:25 PM
Big Mike said...: Post about Palin, get 200 comments. It hardly ever fails.; 7/20/10, 5:20 PM
Anonymous said...: Nothing keeps you from taking a Bible to Saudi Arabia.

My parents lived in Saudi Arabia for seven years. I could not send them a religious Christmas card. Or pork chops. Or alcohol.

Look at what the US Post Office says is not allowed in mail to the kingdom:

Prohibitions (130)

Arms, munitions, and war material.

Books and prints contrary to the Islamic faith.

Coins, banknotes; currency notes (paper money); securities of any kind payable to bearer; traveler’s checks; platinum, gold, and silver (manufactured or not); precious stones; jewelry; and other valuable articles.

Perishable infectious biological substances.

Radioactive materials.

http://pe.usps.gov/text/imm/ps_022.htm; 7/20/10, 6:34 PM

Why did Palin write "refudiate"?
	She was creating a clever portmanteau out of "refuse" and "repudiate."
	Get a life. It's a typo. She meant "repudiate."
	She makes stuff up and making up words is the least of it.
	She's an idiot who's out of her league with words of more than 3 syllables.

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