Plumbing the depths of Joe the Plumber's "dictionary

[Ronald Butters]

Sounds like word games to me. This is no different than if he had said, "It's fine to call them faggots, because that just means a stick of wood." "It's fine to call them niggers, cuz that just means black."

> I can't judge Joe's response fully without seeing his original statement
> about "queer."  If it was entirely innocuous, he could have said "Yeah, I
> stand by my statement because all I meant was...."
>
> If the original had included Ron's explanation, I'd agree that Sambolin was
> "playing word games." Otherwise no.
>
> What I heard Joe say on CNN yesterday boiled down to:
>
> "Homosexuals are Americans and should be allowed to work too. Just keep
> 'em away from my kids because...you know.  And it's fine to call 'em
> 'queers,' because that only means 'unusual.' It isn't a slur. Also, just
> because I'm running for public office and consented to appear on your show
> to boost my own candidacy doesn't mean you can ask anything you
> damn-well please about public statements of mine.  What is this, another
> left-wing-liberal media lynching?  You know, I think it is!"
>
> In a different interview, the new editor of the late Andrew Breitbart's
> blog suggested strongly that Soledad O'Brien is a black racist.
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 5:36 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Plumbing the depths of Joe the Plumber's "dictionary
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/73772.html
>>>
>>> Things only got worse when Sambolin cited some of Wurzelbacher's
>>> previous statements about homosexuality, including his claim that the
>>> word "queer" is not a slur, as well as his declaration that he would
>>> not allow homosexuals "anywhere near my children."
>>>
>>> "Have you changed your positions on this at all?" Sambolin asked.
>>>
>>> "So this is TMZ, this isn't CNN, is what you're saying," Wurzelbacher
>>> shot back.
>>>
>>> "Of course it's CNN. These are things that you said, that I would like
>>> to know if you still stand by them or if you have changed your
>>> positions on them."
>>>
>>> "Listen, in my dictionary, and everyone's dictionary in the 1970s, the
>>> word queer did mean strange and unusual. There was no slur to it. Do
>>> you challenge that?" the congressional candidate said, before adding,
>>> "Come on, you're trying to do a 'gotcha' moment, it's quite obvious."
>>>
>>
>>    VS-)
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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