Will Pitt: Going 'Nukular'

[Hissyspit]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050506Z.shtml

Going Nukular
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Friday 05 May 2006

OK, I'm freaking out.

It's a quiet freak-out, even a mellow one by comparison to ones I've witnessed first-hand and endured personally, but it is happening. I seize up like a poorly-oiled engine several times a day, and my teeth grate together so hard that it sounds like two icebergs colliding in the North Atlantic inside my head. It won't be long now before my body's ability to manufacture endorphins shorts out like an old fuse, and when that happens, I will probably collapse into a gibbering gob of pudding.

- snip -

Over the last few days, a strange theme has developed in my movie-watching. My ears perk up every time I hear a certain word. I heard it while watching "Deep Impact" the other day, again during "Seven," and again during "Thirteen Days." I hear the word, and that's when the freak-out kicks in. I can't control it, and all too often it sneaks up on me.

Before we get into the word, I should explain what I am not freaking out about.

I am not freaking out about the impending indictment of Karl Rove in the Valerie Plame investigation. I should be, but I'm not. The voices in my head tell me the indictment is coming soon, but I am holding it together. Hell, it's not like this is a big deal or anything. Valerie Plame was only running a CIA intelligence network dedicated to tracking the nuclear ambitions of Iran, and her exposure only annihilated a good portion of our ability to keep an eye on that situation. It's not like wrecking her career and exposing her position was a blow to national security or anything.

I am not freaking out about the fact that the Abramoff scandal is widening into a pestiferous vat of bribery and prostitution. I should be, but I'm not. They have taken to calling this thing "Hookergate," and a lot of people are smelling blood on the wind. Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham is currently enveloped by an eight-year prison sentence, and the scandal surrounding him looks to snare several other House members. It appears that a defense contractor was providing bribes and prostitutes to as many as fifteen Representatives so as to curry favor, including the Duke's favor.

WHAT IS WILL FREAKING OUT ABOUT? CLICK THE LINK TO SEE...

[DS1]

1. I'm wondering if I should point out that since Bush got in office

the powers that be have determined that 'nukular' is now a legitimate, if optional of saying the word....

:hide:

[Hissyspit]

2. The powers that be can suck my...

intercontinental ballistic missile.

The word is clearly spelled nu'*klee*ar.

[xultar]

3. Our troops are begging Iraqis for food. WHAT A MUTHAFUCKIN SHAME!

:cry:

[drm604]

6. Yea, that;s the part that caught my attention also.

Why haven't I heard that before?

[Sydnie]

9. I tried to google that

couldn't find an article out of Providence though. Anyone else find anything?

Damn it Will ... get back here and tell us the story! Please.

[xultar]

11. I'd like to do something in my local area to get them some food but

I need the specifics too.

[Alamom]

18. These are the 2 stories I had saved. I know there have been

more.

>
Nick told his mother that he and the men in his unit were all about 10 pounds lighter in their first few weeks in Iraq. They were pulling 22-hour patrol shifts. They were getting two meals a day and they were not meals to remember.

"He told me the two meals just weren't cutting it. He said the Iraqi food was usually better. They were going to the Iraqis and basically saying, 'feed me.' "

Karen started packing in that wartime tradition as old as mothers and sons. She packed a lot of the packaged tuna, not the canned.

She happened to mention her hungry son to people she works with at Greenwood Credit Union, where she is a teller and has worked for 30 years.
>

http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=TROOPS-HUNGER-05-02-06






Another story posted by Cindy Sheehan, Jan, 2006 From a friend who had been told a similar story from her son.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/1/9/165527/5738

[Sydnie]

24. thank you

I completely missed this story.

[Alamom]

13. There was a thread about this about 2 days ago and it's been

in the news or posted here before a while back. I can't remember the thread title. I'll scan a few days and see if anything rings a bell..it's heartbreaking.

[BeFree]

15. Many a thread

Ever since the troops got sent to Iraq they have been asking for the folks back home to send them stuff. Stuff like real food, toilet paper, toothpaste, etc.

There have been hundreds of threads on DU about this matter.

4. it is easy to freak yourself out - better take a chill pill

Nukuler.

Goblins running the country, oh my.

[papau]

5. Excellent rant!

:toast:

sadly all too true......

[zeemike]

7. You are not wrong to freak out about it Will

I started to worry when a few years ago I heard the talk about nuclear bunker busters being developed for tactical use.
If we or Israel use them it will open Pandora's box and we may regret it for years to come.

[mmonk]

8. Ha!

Just the right amount of satirical humor.

[tomp]

10. great writing. hysterical ending. nt

[bigbrother05]

12. Not defending, but maybe it's generational.

Grew up in the 50's and new-cue-lur was a common pronunciation, older dictionaries listed it as a second, coll. version. Jimmy Carter said (says) it that way. Heck, have a degree in nuclear engineering, but still have to think it through to get it correct even now.

Realize that dimson says nuke-lur, so he still mangles the archaic version with his "common man" drawl. It's hard for any of us to deal with what that twit says, regardless of his pronunciation.

[immoderate]

16. Good point.

My dictionary has both pronunciations. This type of thing is not uncommon. Take the word iron. In spite of the spelling, people say eye-yurn, except they say it right when it's in ironic.

Language changes over time. The dictionary is a journal of how words are used. The same word has different meanings, or can be used differently in different parts of the country. That's just a note on linguistics.

The meat of the argument is that there are those with responsibility that are thinking this way. Yes, I am afraid.:scared:

--IMM

[thecrow]

14. OMG Will, that freaks me out too!!

Everytime I hear it, I just cringe inside.
Can it be that all around * say that just to make him feel better?

[Canuckistanian]

17. I can never take anyone seriously who says that

I heard some Jennifer something from the Carnegie Peace Endowment doing a radio interview.

She must have used the pronounciation Nu-Kew-Ler about a dozen times. It grated on me so much, I had to stop listening because she sounded obviously intelligent but never said the word correctly.

Now I hear it everywhere and it drives me up a wall.

:grr:

[pauliedangerously]

19. Choreogaphy...

I think it's safe to assume that most everyone knows the proper way to pronounce nuclear, as well as Iran and Iraq. I'm certain that tv mannequins get coached on how to pronounce these words in order to appeal to a certain segment of the populace...specifically the "I ain't got nuthin'" crowd.

It is both amusing and disturbing to watch the lower echelons of American society get patronized this way. Amusing because in their ignorance they gobble it up like McDonald's french fries, not realizing that they are actually being insulted. Disturbing because it's another symptom of the anti-intellectual movement that undermines everything liberals have been fighting for.

sigh

[Leopolds Ghost]

26. Gosh I didn't realize the "lower echelons of american society"

were hamstringing liberals due to their ignorant, "I ain't got nuthin" attitude. As for the prononciation, who cares how it's pronounced? Intent is what matters... anyone who would overlook Armageddon to play their little cultural warfare games with memes, and words, truly has bought into the right-wing playbook hook, line and sinker.

( ^^^ Another idiom that was considered crass and barbaric before the inevitable forces of linguistics set in)

[stop the bleeding]

20. effing nominated

This word is something that I hear more and more everyday

[tatertop]

21. mentions both natterbrain AND nabob (I think natterbrain is a new word)

Reminiscent of Spiro T's nattering nabobs of negativity period.

[OneBlueSky]

22. I'm a hell of a lot more freaked out about Bush USING nukes . . .

than how he pronounces (mispronounces) the word . . .

although you'd think that after six years in office, someone would have given him a clue . . . maybe he's not all that good at picking up on clues? . . . :sarcasm:

[annabanana]

23. I am freaking out too...

but his mispronunciation isn't the problem. It's his even having a notion of their existence that freaks me out.

[Barad Simith]

25. best WRP article ever

history is going to look at this decade and just choke to death on its own spew