June 1, 2018

Let's look at the front end of "feckless c*nt."

I'm only using the asterisk because I know it will literally cost me money (in Google ads) to put the written out "c" word in the post title. My preference would be to write it out, and the whole fuss over it...



... strikes me as stupidly retro, phony feminism. I don't even like "The Vagina Monologues," but, good lord, the "Reclaiming Cunt" scene is hellishly relevant today:
I call it cunt. I’ve reclaimed it, “cunt.” I really like it. “Cunt.” Listen to it. “Cunt.” C C. Ca Ca. Cavern, cackle, clit, cute, come-closed c-closed inside, inside ca-then u-then cu-then curvy, inviting sharkskin u- uniform, under, up, urge, ugh, ugh, u — then n then cun — snug letters fitting perfectly together — n — nest, now, nexus, nice, nice, always depth, always round in upper case, cun, cun-n a jagged wicked electrical pulse-n (high pitched noise) then soft n-warm n — cun, cun, then t — then sharp certain tangy t — texture, take, tent, tight, tantalizing, tensing, taste, tendrils, time, tactile, tell me, tell me “Cunt cunt,” say it, tell me “Cunt.” “Cunt.”
I thought that was a bit coyly old-fashioned when the play first came out in 1996, but apparently Americans still haven't gotten comfortable with "cunt." I've had it with the bullshit puritanism of present-day American politics. If you can call someone an "asshole," you should be able call them a "cunt," but it's just too easy in social media to latch onto a word, to snatch the "cunt," grab that pussy, and see if you can destroy somebody today.

Well, I wasn't going to say all that, but I did and I mean it. I just wanted to give some attention to the "feckless" part. Why "feckless"? It's not a common word. To ask the question is to have the answer pop immediately into your head. Perhaps Samantha Bee already revealed the reason for "feckless." I don't know. I didn't listen to her routine. I don't even like her. She annoys me. Too much loud sassy politics that assumes you're on a particular side. I'm so bored with that. But I did a google search to see if my understanding of the reason for "feckless" was right, and I can see that many others have arrived in the same place:



"Feckless" stands in for "fuckless." And that does deserve a feminist swat. To use "fuckless cunt" as an insult means that you think that a vagina that does not receive the male organ is a pathetic, lesser place that the one that gets the male organ inserted even in the least loving satisfying way. The cunt should get fucked or it's totally worthless. That's just horrible feminism, Samantha Bee. Just apologize for "feckless."

In case you're wondering what the fuck "feck" even is that we should feel bad about the lack of it, it's just another way to say "effect." So to be "feckless" is to be lame, without effect. Obviously, there's no reason to say that about Ivanka.

189 comments:

Etienne said...

Note - Your blogging about Jewish stuff that doesn't matter.

Cunt is Yiddish for birth canal.

Michael K said...

The fury of the left is almost equal to "driving your enemies before and listening to the lamentations of their women."

I get the image of the frog puffing itself up to frighten its enemy.

MadisonMan said...

Points for the phrase 'to snatch the "cunt"'

From Merriam-Webster: And what, you may ask, is feck? Feck is a Scots term that means "effect" or "majority" and comes from an alteration of the Middle English effect. So something without feck is without effect, or ineffective. In the past, feckful (meaning "efficient," "sturdy," or "powerful") made an occasional appearance. But in this case, the weak has outlived the strong: feckless is a commonly used English word, but feckful has fallen out of use.

Lawrence Person said...

Mental typo: "your on a particular side." should be "you're on a particular side."

tim in vermont said...

Are we back on the Trig thing now where her baby was secretly born from somebody else?

Ann Althouse said...

@Etienne

The OED has "Etymology: Probably the reflex of an Old English form *cunte that is not securely attested (see note), cognate with Old Frisian kunte, Middle Dutch conte (Dutch kont), Middle Low German kunte, Middle High German kunt, Old Icelandic kunta (only as a byname), Norwegian kunte, Swedish regional kunta, kutta, Danish kunte; further etymology uncertain."

Ann Althouse said...

I find the term "birth canal" ludicrous.

Tank said...

Feck can also mean fuck as in The Feckin World of Everything Irish (it's a book).

Rob said...

Not only is it okay to call someone an asshole, it’s fine for women to call a man a prick or a dick. Synecdoche for me but not for thee.

Temujin said...

'Feckless' is a word that was often associated with Pres. Obama during his 8 years of smiling, taking selfies, and playing golf.

Ann Althouse said...

@Lawrence Person

Thanks.

For the record, I caught the error and had already corrected it.

Homophone typos are so easy to make, and I have the impulsive and ridiculous habit of publishing my first draft of a post, then proofreading and editing it. So if you click on a post that just went up -- like in the first minute or 2, you'll always find errors. "Your" for "you're" looks so stupid, that you'd think I'd proofread first, but I'm just an optimist playing with low stakes. I think it might be all just fine, and if (when) it isn't, I fix it.

rhhardin said...

I disagree. Bee is saying, clearly to me, that Ivanka is doing the cunt role (bringing the feminine into the group) in the enemy camp but not doing the enlightened feminist job she should be doing there if she were a proper female.

Nothing about fuckless. She's a mother so it wouldn't even work if she wanted it to.

Temujin said...

I gut it.

rhhardin said...

Love canal is good. Fed Sue Hooker to Clean Love Canal.

rhhardin said...

If she wanted to say fuckless she'd give a "visual" like smelly cunt, a reason for it.

Ivanka's obviously pretty so fuckless would take a lot of fending off.

Shouting Thomas said...

Feminist women talking dirty to demonstrate their liberation is even stupider than their pretense that they ever needed to be liberated from anything.

This spoiled brat charade by our little princesses is insanely dumb.

Women are mostly boring. There are few individuals among them. Even Althouse is interesting and sensible until she wanders onto the idiot subject of feminism, and then she feels compelled to demonstrate that she belongs to the herd.

Feminism is the most boring and stupid herd practice of women. It's all play acting. It's all nonsense.

daskol said...

Nailed it.

rhhardin said...

Cunt is rarely used for the genitals. It's always metonymuy. Cunt for woman for woman's role.

I mean it can be used for the genital, but it's not useful in many situations that way. Let me see your cunt, to stripper. Pussy and cunt would be identical there.

Pussy stays with the sexual aspect of woman in metonymy, cunt generalizes to nonsexual roles.

David Begley said...

Geraldo Rivera just said that the C word is the equivalent of the N word. That settles it.

Curious George said...

"...I have the impulsive and ridiculous habit of publishing my first draft of a post..."

Me too. But I do it with most things most times. Comments here, emails to clients, ...

alan markus said...

C C. Ca Ca. Cavern, cackle, Clinton, clit, cute, come-closed c-closed inside, inside ca-then u-then cu-then curvy,...

Now it's fixed.

rhhardin said...

Feminist women talking dirty

They're not talking dirty. They're regular words and have well defined performances, created by interest in those preformances.

CStanley said...


I find the term "birth canal" ludicrous.

Does it also bother you that the entire apparatus from ovaries theough vulva (or testicle through penis) is called the reproductive system?

rhhardin said...

Typos - even if you proofread, when the thing is reformatted by publication you'll see new typos that had been hidden by inconspicuous position in draft.

daskol said...

The workplace has become a casual place in which casual use of profanity is tolerated. There isn't a list of words you're allowed to use, but we all know what they are. HR officers around the country keep a mental list of totally unacceptable words that should not be said. The existence of this list is not a secret, exactly, but since it's a list of words that must not be said, is it a list at all? It's not published anywhere, but we all know about the list. This word is top of that list.

rhhardin said...

Does it also bother you that the entire apparatus from ovaries theough vulva (or testicle through penis) is called the reproductive system?

Not specifically in humans. It has to cover all animals and plants for that matter. Start with the name and enumerate the parts for the life in question.

Unknown said...


Feminists want the "c" word to be their "n" word, a word they, but no one else, is allowed to use.

n.n said...

Crevice is geographically correct (GC) and more attune with Gaia's sensibilities.

Paco Wové said...

Seems like America could use an insult guideline scorecard:

Blacks – CANNOT be associated in any way with monkeys/apes
Women – CAN be called cunts
Whites – *wildcard*; CAN be called anything
Jews – CANNOT be associated with money/power
Mexicans – ???

etc.

rhhardin said...

George Carlin on words you can't say, "They must be really bad."

daskol said...

The word that always bothered me the most is gash. That's a wound. Why would anyone think of a cunt as a wound?

Shouting Thomas said...

Fame has become incredibly cheap, shoddy and, mostly, uninteresting.

Our celebrities are mostly bores screaming at the top of their lungs to be heard over the din of digital media.

If you want to rebel now and take refuge from the dumb crowd, go to Mass every Sunday and listen to classical music.

This Samantha Bee is a dumb bore. I'd never heard of her before. I hope not to hear about her again.

rhhardin said...

Random House Webster's College Dictionary scores each word on how offensive it is.

You might, for example, want to find maximum offensiveness in only N words, for varying N.

rhhardin said...

There's no good classical music by cunts. A lot of second-rate composers. Amy Beach.

daskol said...

rhhardin, my friend's son is starting college in the fall. can you please provide a link for him? he's a sensitive boy, playful with language.

daskol said...

fortunately my boys are younger, and I'm hopeful that by the time they go to college, if they do at all, it won't be such a hothouse.

n.n said...

Orifice is gender neutral and has applications in both sexes and the transgendered (homosexual, bisexual, transvestite, etc.)

Canal has "man-made" connotations, which is a reproductive segue, which implies fetus or offspring, conventionally known as baby, which demands abortion rites, which normalizes an unprecedented violation of human rights (ethics or situational values), scientific inquiry, and moral (axiomatic principles) corruption, which leads us to National Socialists, final solutions, liberal and progressive sects, wicked solutions, female chauvinist pigs, Planned Parenthood, selective-child, recycled-child, and the circle of life and politics is complete.

MayBee said...

Again, all of this because Ivanka Trump posted a photo on Instagram of herself and her baby.

But sure. Everyone just wants Melania to make a public appearance because they are concerned about her health. Not so they can attack her in some similar way.

rhhardin said...

rhhardin, my friend's son is starting college in the fall. can you please provide a link for him? he's a sensitive boy, playful with language.

Wm. Empson, The Structure of Complex Words.

daskol said...

n.n. explains how samantha bee has become a cultural icon. weimarish.

n.n said...

Why would anyone think of a cunt as a wound?

It's a characterization of morphology from an undifferentiated clump of clay. A gash is feminine gendered and characterizes the female sex. A protrusion is masculine gendered and characterizes the male sex. That said, the logical progression: cognitive dissonance, dodo dynasties, and planet of the apes.

David Docetad said...

"I thought that was a bit coyly old-fashioned when the play first came out in 1996, but apparently Americans still haven't gotten comfortable with "cunt.""

And they should? If I am invited to dinner at your house, you would be comfortable with me using obscene language" (or is that a silly old fashioned term that will bring down ridicule upon me?). How about if your hypothetical 10 year old daughter is at the table?

To be comfortable with a word is use it, and use it often, to use it in casual conversation, to use it where it can easily be overheard by anyone around, to use it almost without thinking.

The decline in common decency in language is no doubt linked to men wearing shorts.

daskol said...

thanks. long past college myself, but never came across that one. looks good.

daskol said...

thanks n.n. my question, phrased better: what kind of person thinks of and refers to a cunt as a wound?

daskol said...

it was more judgmental than inquiring. but I have an idea about the answer to that as well. I just don't like it.

MayBee said...

It's a crass word. You can "reclaim" any word of course, because words only have the meanings we give them. But the user looks lower class for having said it, always.

wbfjrr2 said...

I’ve seen no mention that the second part of Bee’s rant implies that Ivanka and her father are in an incestuous relationship. Nobody seems to mind that this stupid moron thinks the President of the US commits incest. Including the network, her brain dead”celebrity” supporters who’ve come to the idiot’s defense, The media, or Althouse, who goes off into another of her boring paroxysms of word game trivia rather than flagging what is actually the more disgusting comment by the dumb shit.

n.n said...

daskol:

Weimarish (nightmarish) as in prelude to national socialism, [color] diversity, wicked solutions, final solutions, female chauvinism? A logical and, perhaps, inevitable, progression of rites and ridicule.

clint said...

This thread reminds me why I read this site. Thanks!

Special thanks to Rob for "Synecdoche for me but not for thee."

Bruce Hayden said...

Just FYI - I have used "feckless" in the comment section here on multiple occasions to describe the economic policies of Obama and the Demsnthat that caused a regular cyclical recession to essentially extend throughout his entire eight years in office - what many call the "Great Recession". This was the slowest economic recovery since the last time the Dems had the power to royally screw up the economy all by themselves - in that case, FDR's Great Depression.

Digging a bit deeper, the definitions online are not completely consistent. There seem to be several strands. Historically, it appears that it originally meant lack of "feck", which is apparently a Scottish derivation from the same root as "effect". Essentially ineffective. But that is where the split comes in. On the one hand, some definitions seem to lean towards incompetence, and others towards lack of effort. And maybe the combination of the two is why I picked "feckless" over "incompetent" or "ineffective" to describe Obama's economic policies.

And according to the NY Post (June 27, 2014), my understanding and usage seems to coincide with that of Crooked Hillary Clinton, who apparently said of her old BFF: Hillary Clinton called President Obama “incompetent and feckless", and charged that he had “no hand on the tiller half the time” during a boozy reunion with college pals, a new book proclaims.

Bay Area Guy said...

If "feckless cunt" means "fuckless cunt", then the unfuckable Ms. Samantha Bee is obviously trying to double slam Ivanka, Sally Field is entymologically all wet (not in the good sense), Roseanne Barr's Ambien-induced slam against Valerie Jarrett is not nearly as bad as Ms. Bee, and Donald Trump is still President.

In other words, "Winning!"

daskol said...

the morphology explanation, however, is quite useful. went to arizona over the winter and visited the grand canyon. the weather sucked. there are jokes in that, and you've helped me find them.

rhhardin said...

The Brit usage of cunt, unpleasant or unreliable person, probably came from an idea like "no good for fighting." So still metonymy from woman but not applied to women specifically.

Professional lady said...

When I was a kid, it was a subject of much kid discussion and speculation how babies got out of their mother's bodies. I asked my Mom and she told me they came out though the birth canal. I imagined this as something like the Erie Canal.

daskol said...

yes, n.n. nightmarish. I used to be able to turn on the tv and find people funny. it's really hard to find that anymore. what a fucking nightmare. full of samantha bees. now I need the internet for laughs.

daskol said...

CNN and MSNBC were funny for a little while after the election, but now it's just sad.

n.n said...

what kind of person thinks of and refers to a cunt as a wound?

A female chauvinist pig disparaging the lesser feminine woman, transgendered who deprecate the masculine and feminine gender (i.e. physical and mental traits), and, of course, male chauvinist pigs subordinating chauvinist and feminine women. Then there are the transhuman, possible of alien sensibilities, and origin? Thus the progress of wicked solutions, debased human life, dodo dynasties, and a dysfunctional convergence.

Professional lady said...

Bee and Fields have demeaned themselves and no one else.

daskol said...

rhhardin, we started doing business in england about 4 years ago, and I'd forgotten how commonly used cunt is there. it was jarring to my american ears, especially in such an otherwise comparably polite society. thanks for clarifying why.

daskol said...

n.n. my experience of hearing gash is more: scared little boys terrified of the grand canyon.

MayBee said...

I lived in London and rarely heard c*nt, except as a crass put down. " Twat" is another thing- much more common and playful. OTHOH, "Fanny" is not a polite word for "butt" there, but crude slang for, well, c*nt. But why are we talking about the UK? Samantha Bee isn't British.

We aren't seriously going to pretend that c*nt is actually an acceptable thing to call women here in the US now, are we?

David Docetad said...

"I thought that was a bit coyly old-fashioned when the play first came out in 1996, but apparently Americans still haven't gotten comfortable with "cunt.""

What good is a language if it does not have words you can't say?

For example, if, in your house and marriage and family you use the words fuck and cunt all the time, everybody is comfortable with them, what do you call your wife when you are so angry you want to kill her? You need to express some serious outrage to defuse the urge to murder. A common, comfortable word will simply not do. "Oh honey, your a nincompoop, I'm so gosh darn mad at you!"

Common, comfortable usage of obscene words, devalues the language. You now have no words with which to express your anger. If you don't have words, you are left with actions, bashing furniture at best, or giving your wife a black eye or worse.

daskol said...

MayBee, in England, that's a putdown from one man to another. They're far too polite to call a woman that. That only happens in America, from one woman to another.

daskol said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
wwww said...


feckless cunt is a Scottish-ism. "feckless cunt, feckless cunting."

Below quote is from twitter. This is NOT me. I don't use vulgarity. I do live outside of the USA. I've heard it before. Don't know where.

"It's like a Sie/du thing where your have to be invited to say it by some senior to you. "Jones, you are about to marry my daughter, it's high time we started feckless cunting". That sort of thing."

It can be an insult, but it's not only an insult.

Americans and America:

In the USA, cunt is never used like that. In America it's strictly pornographic. Americans won't hear the same thing, they'll hear the pornographic term.

I am American but I am not resident in America. There are huge cultural differences between the US and Commonwealth Countries. The differences are subtle, so you won't notice at first.


daskol said...

I mean, that's apparently the only acceptable use case for the word here in America. In England, guys call other guys cunt, but not in front of women. Here, famous liberated women call out other women for behaving badly with that word. Those are the rules.

Anonymous said...

I've had it with the bullshit puritanism of present-day American politics. If you can call someone an "asshole," you should be able call them a "cunt," but it's just too easy in social media to latch onto a word, to snatch the "cunt," grab that pussy, and see if you can destroy somebody today.

What took you so long?

And are you really fed-up up with the bullshit puritanism and purity purges, or just a select subset?

n.n said...

daskol:

First, consider what you would normalize, tolerate, or reject. This approach expands your world, and will necessarily reduce the clutter. Sometimes, you will need to apply this filter in real time in order to separate the wheat from the chaff. You may also get lucky, and discover people, books, programs, etc., that are universally conforming with your perception, but they may be few and far between. Still, it could happen. It does happen. The Internet merely increases your venues and reduces travel time.

Francisco D said...

I appreciate people pointing out the obvious double standard when it comes to liberal and non-liberal "offensive speech." However, I think it's a mistake to play the leftist game of being victimized by speech or micro-aggressions.

Leftists need to be victims to sell their bullshit. Conservatives need to emphasize their confidence in having clearer ideas based in logic and experience.

wwww said...

"But why are we talking about the UK? Samantha Bee isn't British."


Americans are free to be insulted. Americans are free to fire Bee.

Bee wasn't paying attention to cultural differences. Americans hear it in 1 way - like a horrid pornographic term, not as in "he's acting cunty" or "whatta feckless cunt" or "hello cunts who wants a drink?"

She's Canadian and has been to Scotland. There's a much larger Scottish influence in Canada. People look more Scottish. Lot more Scottish accents.

Loren W Laurent said...

The Dennis Hopper character in the movie 'The River's Edge' was named Feck; his main companion was a blow-up sex-doll.

The movie was a kind of 'pre-Columbine' movie: the high-school kids go to view a dead body -- a girl from the school who was strangled by another student --but do nothing about it. It was loosely based on a true story; from Wiki:

"While the screenplay is fiction, it draws from the November 3, 1981, murder of Marcy Renee Conrad, who was raped and strangled by Anthony Jacques Broussard in Milpitas, California.[7] Others have noticed similarities between the film and the 1984 murder of Gary Lauwers by his friend, Ricky Kasso.[8] Broussard bragged about the crime, showing the body to at least thirteen different people; despite this, the crime went unreported for two days.[9] "

My memory seems to recall that the film-makers later added scenes of drug-taking for Crispin Glover's character to explain his jittery performance. This was also the period of Glover's infamous appearance on the Letterman show.

I think I'm going to have to rewatch it this weekend...

-LWL

n.n said...

Is it crevice or crevasse?

daskol said...

thanks n.n. I'm getting more discerning indeed, and that is a flattering comment inasmuch as I recognize the process you describe.

however, I think TV has gotten a lot worse too. re-runs of old shows still make me laugh. SNL in the 80s was really funny at times. there is, I think, a secular trend of the degradation of our mass culture. I'm not just yelling at kids to get off my damned lawn. the kids really aren't alright, at least not as alright as they were a generation ago.

Anonymous said...

Also, I think you're over-analyzing Bee's use of "feckless". In her context it doesn't make any sense either in its non-slang meaning or as slang for "fuckless". Occam's razor suggest that she used it because she's dumb and of limited literacy and thought it meant something else.

MayBee said...

She's Canadian and has been to Scotland. There's a much larger Scottish influence in Canada. People look more Scottish. Lot more Scottish accents.

Are you trying to tell me this is why Samantha Bee used this word on a US Television show to describe Ivanka Trump? In a jokey way like she's a lad at the pub?

Marcus said...

daskol said...
The word that always bothered me the most is gash. That's a wound. Why would anyone think of a cunt as a wound?

Rudy Ray Moore, AKA Dolemite: "Pussy is the wound that never heals, the more you rub it, the better it feels."

MayBee said...

If Samantha Bee is a Canadian who so misunderstands American culture, why does she have a political comedy show in the US?

I'm trying to think of any regular comedy shows in London (are there any in Canada?) where American hosts regularly put down English culture and politics. Trying to remember if there were any where they used crude Americanisms to do so.

wwww are there any shows like that where you live?

Unknown said...

For educational purposes only, how to use the f-word and get away with it, Cheap Flights, https://youtu.be/HPyl2tOaKxM

James K said...

The OED has "Etymology: Probably the reflex of an Old English form *cunte that is not securely attested (see note), cognate with Old Frisian kunte, Middle Dutch conte (Dutch kont), Middle Low German kunte, Middle High German kunt,

Yiddish is closely related to Middle German, and I wouldn't put it past the OED to have overlooked the Yiddish angle. And it's not unlikely that the 'c' word would have crept into English via the Yiddish, if it's more of an American usage.

As to "feckless," I thought SB used it as "useless," but also just liked the sound of it as similar to "fuckless."

tcrosse said...

She's Canadian and has been to Scotland. There's a much larger Scottish influence in Canada. People look more Scottish. Lot more Scottish accents.

Another reason why immigrants should learn our language.

daskol said...

now dolemite is a funny movie. thanks marcus.

Amexpat said...

If it's OK to call a guy a "dick" then it should be OK to call a woman a "cunt".

Tim said...

The Left is just vile and hateful of all things normal.

MayBee said...

Last night, at a Television Awards party that did not allow media, Samantha Bee received an award and said she sometimes did not use filters and explained she was incensed by the treatment of immigrant children by President Trump and previous administrations.

Yet she did not call Michelle or Malia Obama this slur. And we all know if she had, today would be the day all Republicans had to answer for it.

Samantha Bee should be furious at the groups that organize these migrant caravans and encourage parents to send their minor children to America.

daskol said...

She should have just said she'd taken Ambien. Now that would have been funny. But Samantha Bee is not funny.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

And, suddenly, no one is talking about Roseanne. I loathe political correctness and social media in equal measure, but the way they combine to show the utterly lightweight, unserious, thinking of the Left is a delight to behold.

daskol said...

The digital age has definitely accelerated the cognitive cycle of the collective hive mind. That way optimism lay.

Martha said...

During the 2008 campaign McCain was accused of calling his wife Cindy a cunt.
That must be how Obama won.

Bilwick said...

This is where Instapundit's "That's different, because shut up" applies.

chickelit said...

Wwww wrote: “She's Canadian and has been to Scotland. There's a much larger Scottish influence in Canada. People look more Scottish. Lot more Scottish accents.”

Let’s stipulate that Samantha Bee dabbles in scotch.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Written, scripted, accepted, filmed, aired. ooooo - but she's sorry.


daskol said...

Scotch and ambien are a wicked combo.

daskol said...

Guess those network honchos like to party.

tim in vermont said...

I was told when I was working in Oz that fannie means cunt,with all of the tactile, olfactory, and mythical connotations. A fannie pack is a different thing there, I was told.

I say we accept both women's explanations at face value and move on, or cancel both their shows, but a pretext to cancel Rosanne was too much to pass up, I guess.

wwww said...

"If Samantha Bee is a Canadian who so misunderstands American culture, why does she have a political comedy show in the US?"

MayBee,

I do not justify the difference. I am explaining a linguistic cultural difference.

It was on her to discover that in the States "Cunt" is a taboo word never used. It has 1 meaning -- a pornographic, misogynistic, taboo meaning.

It's not like saying "feckless dick" or "ignorant slut" in the USA.

The word is so taboo in the US, it's possible she didn't figure it out until she used it on the show.

Sebastian said...

"Obviously, there's no reason to say that about Ivanka."

Except, of course, that progs always have reason to say any vile thing about any non-prog.

As demonstrated here. Only difference now is that some non-progs are fighting back and calling the left on their double-standard BS.

"Random House Webster's College Dictionary scores each word on how offensive it is."

Can't be done: prog linguistics is situational. N's using the N word, e.g. in "music," is fine; non-N's using it anywhere is the sin of all sins.

chickelit said...

MayBee said...”Last night, at a Television Awards party that did not allow media, Samantha Bee received an award and said she sometimes did not use filters and explained she was incensed by the treatment of immigrant children by President Trump and previous administrations.”

So, basically, you called it right from the get go. And rhhardin is onto something too even though he overplays his hand. I’ll go further and propose that Samantha Bee is supremely jealous of Ivanka.

Sebastian said...

Sam vilifies Ivanka: give that woman an award!

Roseanne vilifies Val: cancel her show and nail her a**.

Fritz said...

Blogger Shouting Thomas said...
Fame has become incredibly cheap, shoddy and, mostly, uninteresting.

Our celebrities are mostly bores screaming at the top of their lungs to be heard over the din of digital media.

If you want to rebel now and take refuge from the dumb crowd, go to Mass every Sunday and listen to classical music.


Google Rita Ora singing at Mother Theresa's funeral

n.n said...

The Purposeful Cunt (PC)

Politically correct (PC) has been deprecated in favor of geographically correct (GC) in deference to neo-females. However, politically congruent (PC) is a progressive construct (PC). PC forever.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Hillary lost and the leftwing bitches of Hillarywoodland are forever bitter, jealous, and butthurt.

I can live with that.

Molly said...

It's not clear to me why the S. Bee comment is being referred to as a "joke". Jokes are funny. Like this: "A Trump supporter walks into a bar. The bartender says, 'You're a dickhead.'" (Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha)

Michael K said...

The left is doing a good job of distracting attention from the best US economy in 30 years.

wwww said...

"Can't be done: prog linguistics is situational."


It's situational and cultural but also in the sounds. It's the tone and facial expression and the way you say it. Some people cannot pronounce the N-word in the way that some people use with friends. Some people can't hear the tonal difference or get the different delivery.

I'd never suggest that an American should go to Australia or Scotland and start calling people Cunts. He might end up getting punched.
You gotta know how to do it according to custom.

Likewise, Samantha Bee needs to talk like an American because she has an American show.

Wince said...

The left has been trying to turn the word feckless around since Obama's photo was posted next to it in the dictionary.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I've always been fascinated by the strange aspect of feminism that requires directed HATRED at certain women for (almost always) hazy and confusing reasons. The PowerLine blog has a look back at some really offensive cartoons of Condi Rice from back in the Bush 41 era. She was hated for being Black AND a woman. There’s just too much hate in modern feminism. And from the same people who EMPOWERED and kept in power Harvey Weinstein. Strange times, man.

rcocean said...

So anyway, Althouse is ballsy, earthy, chick who doesn't mind profane language.

Well, plenty of peeps do. And that's why there's an asterisk.

Why offend them? We don't write out Nigger or Kike either. Because it offends people. Some papers don't write out God Damn or even Son of a Bitch - for the same reason. What could more childish then writing "N-word"?

So, lets have one standard. Either we offend most everyone with our plain speaking, or we don't.

Amadeus 48 said...

I accuse Samantha Bee (who she?) and her ilk of feckless cant. I'll guarantee that that social change awards ceremony the other night (from which the press was excluded) was full of feckless cant. In fact, Samantha Bee, who I believe is Canadian, should whisk her tail back to Canada, where PM Shiny Pony specializes in feckless cant, and spout her feckless cant up there. She can get into a cage match with Jordan Peterson. President Trump and Michelle Goldberg could MC it.
Samantha Bee (is that a clown name?) swims in a sea of feckless cant.

rcocean said...

Its interesting how the Brits love to use the word "Bloody" "Cunt" and "Sod off".

Which always struck me as an effeminate way of swearing.

wwww said...

"It's not clear to me why the S. Bee comment is being referred to as a "joke". "


It wasn't a joke, it was a insult. In the USA it's a level 10 Beyond the Pale insult. In other English speaking places it sounds more like a level 5 or level 3 insult. More along the lines of "feckless dick." The more north the less vulgar it sounds?

Kind of like the SNL, "ignorant slut" sketch.


On the Bee thing and Rosanne: Both are a VERY American response.

Political discourse in the US is entertainment. Politicians are in the fray and it's a big reality TV show. People get insulted a lot. Lots of talk about insults. Lots of talk about celebrities. Lots of talk about cultural stuff, particularly sex. Much less focus on policy. In other countries, politics and politicians is a lot more boring with a lot more discussion of policy.

rcocean said...

TBS needs to fire Samamtha Bee-itch.

She deliberately called the First Daughter a "Cunt" on national TV. What is "funny" about that?

If you're going to fire Rosanne for an off-work Tweet, fire Bee-itch.

chickelit said...

Sebastian said...”Sam vilifies Ivanka: give that woman an award!

Roseanne vilifies Val: cancel her show and nail her a**”

It makes perfect sense if you assume that the people behind firing Roseanne were staunch allies of Obama or key Obama donors. There is a strange whiff of Obama revival in and on the air. It’s almost like he’s hoping for his “miss me yet?” moment.

Gahrie said...

The word that always bothered me the most is gash. That's a wound. Why would anyone think of a cunt as a wound?

Perhaps because it bleeds 7 days a month?

wwww said...

"So, lets have one standard. Either we offend most everyone with our plain speaking, or we don't."



Yeah but it's also how you say it and delivery it. The tone the expression. Like all language. It is possible to say it as a extreme insult in a Commonwealth Country.

chickelit said...

@Amadeus 48: “feckless cant” — bravo!

roesch/voltaire said...

Bee crossed the line just as Barr did in a slightly different way: one used pejorative word against women (daughter of President does not deserve this) and another against race,I condone neither of them. But Ted Nugent who called Hillary a cunt got invited to the Oval Office so maybe Trump could invited Bee and Barr to discuss what counts for PC in this administration?

Ken B said...

I had not even thought of this. But it's right. Feckin' is how fuckin' sounds in many British accents. And googling, the phrase is used in Scotland.

I still think the incest part is the most important, and revealing of Bee's character.

Greg P said...

Remember Chimpy McHilter? I sure do. And I don't remember anyone being punished for calling Bush that.

So
1: I have no sympathy for the whines by the people going after Rosanne for calling VJ a monkey. Treating people differently based on their skin color is racism, and I'm opposed to that

2: But if we're going to destroy people's careers for saying racist things, then we should be destroying people's careers for saying sexist things.

And "FC" was a sexist attack on Ivanka.

So it's time to nuke Bee's career

Ken B said...

Hardin misses the point by a mile. Bee isn’t saying Ivanka is unfucked. She is comparing to a cunt that is unfucked. It's the difference between being and having. Chuck is a fool, only King Lear has a fool.

buwaya said...

She was just ritually denouncing the enemies of her tribe.

These things are religio-cultural rituals, in a way substitutes for attendance at churches.

They have a less than orderly liturgy and the formulas of denunciation are not yet standardized.

Since it is not a conventionally religious society, being as it professes a hatred of religion, the forms are ostensibly not religious - a comedy performance on stage or a late-night tv show may seem odd, but religion expresses itself where it can. Its a corollary I think to Chestertons observation. If you won't go to church some odd things are going to turn into churches.

Since their enemies are human and real and not a supernatural concept the rituals are often inapt.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"There is a strange whiff of Obama revival in and on the air. It’s almost like he’s hoping for his “miss me yet?” moment."

Given the employment numbers, we're probably not quite there yet.

Seeing Red said...

So Samantha actually insulted lesbians and some tranz going after Ivanka? Lolololol

I thought she was using the actual definition of feckless. Thank you Professor I think(?) for my new word of the day.

Would someone please remind me who the Vulgarians are again? Thank you, too!


: weak, ineffective She can't rely on her feckless son.
2 : worthless, irresponsible
a feckless maneuver that could only serve to strengthen the enemy —Simon Schama
— fecklessly adverb
— fecklessness

(Those Harlequin romances I read in the 70s were good for something!)


buwaya said...

The US MSM drives most of this.
Not because it draws viewers, it does not, really, but because they have an agenda.

MayBee said...

Political discourse in the US is entertainment. Politicians are in the fray and it's a big reality TV show. People get insulted a lot. Lots of talk about insults. Lots of talk about celebrities. Lots of talk about cultural stuff, particularly sex. Much less focus on policy. In other countries, politics and politicians is a lot more boring with a lot more discussion of policy.

I agree with this, and wish it were not that way here in the US. It's boring and unhealthy.

Seeing Red said...


Blogger MayBee said...
If Samantha Bee is a Canadian who so misunderstands American culture, why does she have a political comedy show in the US?

It’s all about the benjamins.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The leftwing proggy award show. do they ever stop?

rhhardin said...

In Brit, feckless cunt says the same thing twice.

hombre said...

Isn’t the furor on the right just Alinsky: “RULE 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules?”

It’s difficult to imagine an accomplished, beautiful, rich woman like Ivanka who seems to have it all and do it all caring what a feckless c*nt like Bee says about her.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

"Feckless cunt." That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase.

A.A.: "So to be "feckless" is to be lame, without effect. Obviously, there's no reason to say that about Ivanka."

OK, "feckled cunt" then?

Would it be improper to refer to V.J. as a "cunt?"

Cunt we put this whole thing to rest now?

buwaya said...

Politics has been entertainment since cave-women gossipped about the tribal headman.

Really, consider the subjects of ancient literature and drama. Aristophanes was not writing romantic comedies or family sitcoms.

The only places where this is suppressed are where speech is suppressed; or where there is a democratic deficit, as in Europe, where government is much more bureaucratized and impersonal, and near-impervious to public opinion. Grey people deliberately hiding behind institutions, using process as a smokescreen.

Sebastian said...

"Would it be improper to refer to V.J. as a "cunt?""

Considering that the Urban Dictionary would treat them as synonyms . . .

buwaya said...

The American problem is partly a set of MSM monopolies created by several decades of corporate consolidations (as also happened with Internet venues).

And the finality of Gramsci's "long march", which has created a hegemony as he predicted. It is not however sitting as well as he would have liked.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Dana Loesch says:

"I will never call for a network to cancel someone’s show or to restrict speech. That’s what progressives do. I love free expression more than I loathe Sam Bee or progressivism's double standards."

boom

daskol said...

Gahrie--that is quite literally true, which makes it the stranger to mr given the context I've heard it used, which is sexually (used to hang out in weird places):

"check out all the gash in here," or "you should see the gash I had last night."
yuck.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Media on Barr: RACIST RACIST MIND CRIME MIND CRIME ERASE HER ERASE HER ERASE HER.

tcrosse said...

My cunt, my cunt, my country 'tis of thee.
- Doug Clark

Bad Lieutenant said...

The cunt should get fucked or it's totally worthless.

Well, duh! I thought you believed in evolution. And reality.


Etienne,

Been drinking turpentine again, coupé?

Bad Lieutenant said...

Hemingway wrote of the wolves riding the rails on Michigan who sang,

Oh, gash may be fine, but one eye for mine,


Which Gertrude Stein told him was inaccrochable.

wwww said...

"I agree with this, and wish it were not that way here in the US. It's boring and unhealthy."

Me too. The news is boring. And stupid.

Policy discussions about trade are boring in a different way, but at least it's not so unrelentingly stupid.

But it was fun to talk about commonwealth countries. Made me think about Australians versus Scotts and Irish.

Charlie said...

Most of my friends avoid using coarse language. They self-censor, because they're empathetic and recognize that language can offend, and that it isn't necessary to offend (except rarely) in order to communicate effectively. Samantha Bee is just one tiny example of how self-censorship, kindness and empathy have disappeared as values in our political and social discourse.

I enjoy reading you, Althouse, but I'm disappointed that this post has embraced the modern standard that we should be able to speak as coarsely as we wish in public discourse and others just need to deal with it.

Comanche Voter said...

If you are looking for meaning and logic in a leftist rant (or a rant by Samantha Bee) I'd suggest that you go out in a chicken coop and scratch amidst the manure. You're more likely to find meaning and logic in that pile of chicken poop, than in any statement by Samantha Bee.

Anonymous said...

wwww: Political discourse in the US is entertainment.

No, the MSM is entertainment. Serious political discourse goes on elsewhere. It is certainly true that the U.S. MSM is essentially a short-bus hen party attended by shrieking harridans of both sexes. But a news establishment that restricts policy discussion to a narrow range of "acceptable" discourse isn't all that much of an improvement, regardless of how "adult" and "serious" and "boring" its tone. (The non-American press could better demonstrate its seriousness by not going along with whatever fads and idiot ideas American elite progressives come up with, while pretending that the represent some kind of meaningful opposition to American-made ideological bullshit.)

And despite the usual suspects doing everything they can to de-platform wrongthink here, we can still, for the most part, have an intelligent, informed free-for-all (or even a dumb, ignorant one) without expecting a visit from the police or the opportunity to get ministry-of-loved by "public servant" thugs from the local Human Rights Commission.

Much less focus on policy. In other countries, politics and politicians is a lot more boring with a lot more discussion of policy.

Contrary to your belief, an enormous amount of serious "political discourse" goes on among Americans, on an enormous variety of sites. E.g., I frequent several high-readership sits where years and years worth of trade policy discussions have gone on, regardless of your claim that nobody discusses trade policy - because, lol, Althouse doesn't discuss it, and you haven't seen it on our freakshow MSM. If you're taking all your "serious policy" info from any country's MSM (as you appear to be doing), you ought to spread out a bit more.

walter said...

Blogger Ken B said...I still think the incest part is the most important, and revealing of Bee's character.
--
Yeah..that part is conveniently excluded from some of the reports.
I think Ivanka was the Left's big hope..less questioning her role when they thought it would benefit them more.

Seeing Red said...

Now I have America in my head. Thanks everyone!

William said...

It's possible to overthink cunt. It's probably inevitable, however, to think too much about pussy. Pussy is a sexier word than cunt......If we could say Carlin's forbidden words with reckless abandon would our lives in any way be more liberated?.....I don't think this will do Samantha's career any lasting harm and, indeed, we will live to see her host the Academy Awards.

walter said...

BTW, is her show live? If not, was it recorded after the Rosanne uproar?
Just thinking of Bee's insinuation of Ivanka's mit baby pic being tone deaf.

Bay Area Guy said...

The modern day female comedienne/political commentator:

1. Kathy Griffin
2. Michelle Wolfe
3. Samantha Bee

Common denominator?

All loud, shrill, leftwing, feckless cunts!

And, I haven't even touched on the roster at MSNBC.

Amadeus 48 said...

Hamlet famously said, "I mean, with my head upon your lap...do you think I meant country matters?"

The rest is silence.



rhhardin said...

Robert Frost "The Need of Being Versed in Country Things" is the same Shakespearean pun.

wwww said...

Angle-Dyne,

Yes, I agree some Americans are tuned into trade policy. There are more then 300 million Americans. It's possible to find lots of people talking about serious issues. In the general political discourse, Americans are more focused on sex and sexuality and arguments over social and cultural identifiers.

Today from The Globe and Mail: "Neighbourly relations with the U.S. are over" published today. by Lawrence Hermans, "a former Canadian diplomat who practices international trade law at Herman & Associates. He is also a senior fellow of the C.D. Howe Institute"

"The Trump administration’s announcement of punitive tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum means we’re into a full-blown economic and political war with the Americans."

"All of this heralds a long, bitter and painful battle with the Americans and ominously darkening relations on a scale broader than tariffs, a destabilizing and destructive situation unprecedented in more than 150 years of shared history.

"There have been periods of tense political relations between the two countries before"

"These earlier episodes can be chalked up to bilateral irritants and divergent interests that emerge from time-to-time in a complex relationship. But these were of an order materially different from the open anti-Canadian hostility, contempt and disregard exhibited by the White House in announcing the tariffs."

"Beyond American bilateral relationships, actions by the Trump administration denigrate the multilateral rules-based system and disregard U.S. obligations under that system. Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland repeatedly described the duties as illegal, which is correct."

"Recourse to rarely used WTO national security exceptions is only permitted in time of war or other international emergency, a situation that requires objective fact, not some unbridled right of unilateral declaration. Using the guise of national security, as Ms. Freeland has said, is “specious and unprecedented” in trade law terms."

"Mr. Trump is pillaging the temple of the global trading system so painstakingly constructed over decades, largely as a result of U.S. pressure – sometimes more benignly and ironically described as American leadership."

"Where do we go from here? In the immediate term, Canada will proceed to retaliate with its own surcharges against $16-billion of U.S. imports, as Mr. Trudeau stated. We will need steely (forgive use of the word) resolve and steadfast political will at all levels as we move down this perilous path."

"Turning to NAFTA negotiations, there’s no doubt the American actions have jeopardized any residual amount of good will at the negotiating table, an element requisite to cementing any mutually agreed trade deal. The NAFTA exercise thus could be irredeemably harmed by this latest U.S. move."

"Should negotiations be suspended, whether the three countries can get back to the table will be an open question. This leads to the possibility of Mr. Trump triggering the U.S. intent to withdraw, compounding the increased political and commercial uncertainties facing Canadian business."

"As to broader political matters, the conduct of neighbourly relations with the U.S. under these unprecedented circumstances (a term used by Mr. Trudeau several times during his news conference) will be challenging. By turning aside all of Canada’s representations, Mr. Trump and his cohorts have jettisoned the idea that allies are important, especially ones that have been as remarkably steadfast as Canada over the years."

"It will require teeth-clenching and diplomacy of the highest order for Canada to maintain any semblance of a friendly relationship with Washington during the remaining years of the Trump administration."

"At the same time, Canada needs to be armed and girded for the vicissitudes of trade and economic war with our largest trading partner, because that’s where we’re heading."

rhhardin said...

We have Mike Hunt on line three. What's on your mind, Mike?

FIDO said...

Shrug.

One used to aspire to being able to use lofty language to enlighten or castigate in equal measures. Being 'common' was a horrible thing.

Then came iconic (And Althousian favorite) George Carlin and his Seven Words schtick.

Then came a bunch of feckless cunts of Ms Althouse's age who thought violating boundaries by lacing all their (way) off broadway plays with every bit of colorful invective that they found scribbled on men's room walls was 'nouveau art'.

Well, invective MIGHT be art occasionally but it taught a whole generation of leftists that social convention destruction was an easy and merry way to get attention. A lesson that four year olds also instinctively know. However, generally, one relied on parents to smack a few manners into their kids. Alas, the Baby Boomers had soft hearts and hands.

And now that every single social barrier has been violated by Oscar the Horny Grouch by Ms. Althouse's ilk, now kids of my children's generation are seeking new ways to garner attention.

So they want to destroy Civilization because 'what is left' (with the occasional bit of mass school shootings as a canape). And if they succeed, they deserve what they get, as do the Academy idiots who egg them on, thinking that they will somehow be immune to the results.

Well...they won't.

Meanwhile, I don't play double standards. So if we fire a Rosanne, Bee doesn't get a pass. And if we are lowering the Barr, Fields gets fucked up too. She can't trade on her Norma Rae to get out of criticism.


rhhardin said...

News is a business. Its product is you. They sell your eyeballs to advertisers.

There's no market for hard news. Think city council meetings.

There's an endless market for soap opera. Soap opera women will tune in every day, news or no news, so long as there is soap opera.

Dress soap opera as news, and the soap opera women feel serious about themselves as well. Win-win!

Soap opera women is 40% of women, a minority but a big enough one to support the business.

So that's what you get. The tastes of soap opera women govern every public debate, and that's that.

The rest of the population reacts in disgust, and that's the support of alt-right sites and Althouse and Instapundit and so forth. They're actually parasitic on soap opera too, by counting on the reaction against it for their readership.

Things changed in the 70s when the networks stopped taking news as a public service and made it a profit center. That was that.

tim in vermont said...

"Neighbourly relations with the U.S. are over"

What Canada was calling "neighbourly" was adding a couple of welds or rivets to cheap Chinese imported steel, then dumping it on the US market bypassing our tariffs with China. That doesn't sound very neighborly to me, unless you think, for example, that you should overlook it when your neighbor is cheating at cards and you are playing for money.

Seeing Red said...

"All of this heralds a long, bitter and painful battle with the Americans and ominously darkening relations on a scale broader than tariffs, a destabilizing and destructive situation unprecedented in more than 150 years of shared history.

"There have been periods of tense political relations between the two countries before"

"These earlier episodes can be chalked up to bilateral irritants and divergent interests that emerge from time-to-time in a complex relationship. But these were of an order materially different from the open anti-Canadian hostility, contempt and disregard exhibited by the White House in announcing the tariffs."


Hooey. Isn’t this also just a bilateral irritant?

I have an idea! Let’s build a pipeline or 2! One for oil, one for water!

Seeing Red said...

Feminism. Equality. Just other words to mainstream locker room talk. Next stop —swearing like merchant marines.

tim in vermont said...

Neither is it the fault of the US that Canada announced to "refugees" (economic migrants) from places like Haiti that they could come to Canada and get benefits and free health care. Oh, and BTW, you can get off the train at the last stop before the border and walk a half a mile across a border lightly marked with little monuments, and bingo! And we speak French!

That can be blamed on the pretty boy the Canadians elected who is not all that bright.

tim in vermont said...

Funny how Soviet Canukistan is mad at Trump for calling them out on all but smuggling Chines steel into the US around the tariffs, but it didn't bother them a bit when the Obama administration killed Keystone. It's almost as if it is the press in Canada that is mad.

Matt said...

I love that this whole thing started because of a simple photo of a mother and her child. The left got outrageously outraged over a photo of a mommy and baby. Lol

Has there ever been a more perfect example of the left's 'How dare you enjoy your life when there is someone somewhere who doesn't have it as good!! Reeeeeeee!!!" than this? No, we must all be miserable because a relative handful of people are feeling the consequences of their freely made choice to break another country's laws.

Such stupid c*nts!

Bay Area Guy said...

Would I get fired for calling Robert Reich -- a feckless runt? He is pretty short.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Shorter Globe and Mail-The days of taking advantage of the chumps to our south are coming to an end.

tim in vermont said...

Softwood tariffs are gone too.

The harm in Canada is focused on companies that found a way around US tariffs on Chinese steel. I don't think that anybody would have a problem with steel from iron mines in Canada and made in Canadian steel mills by Canadian with actual labor rights being paid a decent wage and adhering to first world environmental standards. Neighborly Canada.

This is just so much gas and the reason think tanks exist is so that their funders can order up editorials like this, that are no more unbiased than your lawyer's arguments on your behalf would be. It's the other guy's problem to make his arguments, right?

The naiveté of people who imagine they are critically reading the news is stunning sometimes.

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim in vermont said...

I admit that I didn't read the entire editorial because I assumed that it was utterly predictable. I was right to have skipped it, but now that I have wasted my time confirming what has been confirmed so many times before, I can say that he never once mentions the issue of bypassing tariffs on Chinese steel. It's almost as if it might weaken his argument! All he talks about is "You Americans agreed to this lousy deal, so fuck you and live with it!"

Yancey Ward said...

It is just hilarious watching all the torpedoes taking out the ones who fired them.

jeremyabrams said...

The language will always need to designate some ultimate, forbidden words that stand in for "the worst thing you can say about a person." The C word does as good a job at this as any. You won't be able to retire it without designating a replacement.

Earnest Prole said...

I have no fecks to be given.

Rick67 said...

In the last few months it seems we have a series of public figures (including celebrities) who say or do something outrageous and then apologize. When perhaps they should not be saying and doing these things in the first place. It's significant that Bee's comment was scripted and approved. Whereas Roseanne Barr's tweet was something by a rogue individual. We need to ask some hard questions about what kind of micro-culture (Turner Broadcasting) thinks it's okay even funny to describe a woman as "feckless c*nt". I thought Obama was a dreadful president, and never used an expletive to describe him.

And people can say "hey it's a good word, let's reclaim it" but that's not the point. The point is how it was being used, with what intent. It was being used to insult and demean. And an entire organization thought "sure, that would be good, let's do this".

wwww said...


Tim,

Don't worry about it. My point was that American news discourse will not discuss it or the reaction in France or the UK.

My point was not to talk about the editorial. My point is that a shift in relations with major allies is not going to make it into the news media.

Today the discourse will be 100% on domestic cultural politics. Prob. focused on a scandal or a pardon or a comedian. Maybe Rosie O'Donnell will be the subject of political discussion. Or Kayne. Or a model. Or a porn star. The discussion will not be focused on trade or relations with allies.

tim in vermont said...

That shift in relations was dictated when Trump won Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, etc. States that the Democrats had taken for granted as a "Blue Wall" Plus it happened when Canada voted for the pretty boy. Trump has to deliver for those states to win them back, and maybe Minnesota too.

There's a new sheriff in town. But I don't think it is that big of a deal as Trudeau is making it. His cronies are getting bruised up, is all. We are approving pipelines, no tariff on softwood. Etc. The US has to have a steel industry. Same as we have to have a shipbuilding industry, and Canada playing fast and loose with NAFTA was a threat to that. I would love to see the press take this issue on, but they won't because it would help Trump. Where are the news stories about historic lows in unemployment and wage gains?

The jobless rate inched down to 3.8% in May, another sign of the strong economy and tight labor market. That tied the lowest unemployment rate since 1969. Since then, the only other time unemployment was this low was in April 2000. The economy added 223,000 jobs, better than economists expected. “The US economy has this incredible head of steamsaid Josh Wright, chief economist at the software firm iCIMS. The economy been expanding for almost nine years, the second-longest streak on record. And employers have added jobs every month for seven and a half years. Wages grew 2.7% in May compared with a year earlier. - CNN

How do you bash Trump with news like that?

Anonymous said...

wwww: Yes, I agree some Americans are tuned into trade policy. There are more then 300 million Americans. It's possible to find lots of people talking about serious issues. In the general political discourse, Americans are more focused on sex and sexuality and arguments over social and cultural identifiers.

To repeat myself, "political discourse" does not equal "what they're screeching about on CNN".

Today from The Globe and Mail: "Neighbourly relations with the U.S. are over" published today. by Lawrence Hermans, "a former Canadian diplomat who practices international trade law at Herman & Associates. He is also a senior fellow of the C.D. Howe Institute"

wwww, this is getting tedious. You're approaching Inga levels of merely repeating your original assertions, and copy-pasting non-supportive materials while ignoring what anybody's said to you. Major U.S. newspapers do, as a matter of fact, have as many articles on current trade issues as foreign ones. So citing what the Globe and Mail is printing doesn't demonstrate anything.

Copy-pasting stuff from MSM organs doesn't demonstrate anything about "general political discourse".

Also, repeating opinions published by media organs, or copy-pasting stuff about trade from MSM organs, doesn't indicate that *you*, personally, are any more informed about trade and trade policy than the average American yahoo riveted to Kim Kardashian's ass.

On the contrary, that you take everything you read about the subject in major MSM outlets at face value is pretty good indication that you aren't. I think Mike tried to explain this you in an earlier thread, but it didn't sink in.

Jim at said...

“Full Frontal” ratings had dropped 34 percent among adults ages 18-49, while her ratings among millennials ages 18-34 were down 47 percent versus 2017, according to Nielsen data. In total, Bee’s show was down 29 percent “year over year,” The Wrap reported. “Full Frontal” is currently in its third season.

Who knew desperation started with the letter C?

Jim at said...

The word is so taboo in the US, it's possible she didn't figure it out until she used it on the show.

Bull. Shit.

She knew exactly what she was doing.
You're better than this.

Seeing Red said...

My point is that a shift in relations with major allies is not going to make it into the news media.

When has it ever really? Only those people who care.

Or when the msm needs a cudgel against Republicans. But every Ortega-like dictator is love.

Seeing Red said...

Bee actually used 2 words that Americans don’t use.

Who uses feckless in conversation?

Somewhere George Carlin is laughing. It’s all falling by the wayside.

wwww said...


Jim,

It's your privilege to judge me however you like. Personally, I don't think one ought to ever use vulgarity.

On the cultural differences? That's my take on it as someone living outside the country. The differences are subtle but can be dangerous. You might not see them until they hit you like a brick wall.

Nevertheless, the American reaction is on her. That's her audience. It's on her to know her audience. The show shares some blame, as they could have bleeped her or warned her.

I have never watched the show. Don't plan to do so and don't care if it's cancelled.

wwww said...


Angel-Dyne,

Apologies for over-posting excerpted material.

If we misunderstand each other, that's ok. If it's tedious then let's stop talking about it.

wwww said...
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Jim at said...

The show shares some blame, as they could have bleeped her or warned her.

The entire thing was scripted. It was written. It was taped.
Everybody knew what they were doing.

Come on.

wwww said...


Jim,

That's true. I don't know. Her production staff should have flagged it or bleeped it. It's a business liability.

Last night, talking to my husband, who has lived in multiple Commonwealth Countries-- we both came to the conclusion that someone from a Commonwealth Country could be confused until it is too late. Precisely because it is so taboo. That's just our opinion. I'm not a linguistic expert and it's not a hill to die on.

My opinion is less about this comedian and more a comment about Commonwealth countries and linguistic errors. I'm uninterested in in Bee & her show.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

Cunt is not taboo. It's merely vulgar. The semantic reduction of a female to the sum of her parts, the volume or of her clump of cells, a life deemed unworthy and trivial, a device to be exploited by pornographic humanitarians and Mengele clinics.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Double A,
are you trying to lure Our Dear Laslo back to the blog with these latest topics?

Matt Sablan said...

I see that Samantha Bee has now unpologized. I honestly wonder why she bothered with the fake apology to begin with.

tcrosse said...

It's not easy being a cuntless feck.

rcocean said...

"I see that Samantha Bee has now unpologized. I honestly wonder why she bothered with the fake apology to begin with."

Easy. Because Conservatives are stupid and easily satisfied.

rcocean said...

BTW, Cuckservative David French has some sort of blather up at NRO about Sam Bee-itch. Evidently, like most liberals he was really pissed over Rosanne but doesn't care too much about Sam Bee-itch, cause "real life is HS" or something.

Jonah and Bill Kristol are maintaining radio silence, between they can't attack Trump or help the Left. Although, I'm sure Jonah and David Brooks are writing "Why can't we all get along?" while George Will is writing his "who the hell cares? Trump is destroying America" screed due out Sunday.

Jon Burack said...

I only read the first thirty or forty comments here, so maybe others have made this point. In any case, my point is I find it odd to focus on the general cultural functions of the word "cunt" in the context of this story. It may be the culture should normalize or even give a positive tone to the word. But that is not what Samantha Bee was doing with it, was it? She was using it to express the depth of her contempt. She was relying on, not challenging, the negative and harsh and thoroughly sexist significance of the term in order to be as negative and harsh and, yes, sexist in her despicable attack on Ivanka.

Moreover, since Ivanka in fact has nothing to do with her father's immigration policies, which on deportations do not differ much from Obama's, Samantha Bee's attempt to cover her contempt with the glow of some policy issue is false. Her rage at the photo of Ivanka was the rage of seeing Ivanka as a mother. The weak link to immigration was a way to cover up (no doubt to herself as well as the rest of us) what the true source of her rage was. I suspect that true source has more to do with motherhood than either immigration or the President. Her totally conventional and insulting use of the word "cunt" (and "feckless" as well) was a typical liberal feminist disgust at a woman who would define herself as a mother. It is the profound sexism of this form of feminism that makes Samantha Bee's insult as bad as Roseanne's.


But for the record, I don't think either one of them should have been fired.

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