Monday, November 21, 2005

That 23-5 meme thing.


Oh, man ... so Timmy the G tags me with the "23rd post, 5th sentence" thing. I guess I can dig back through the archives and figure that out but, if memory serves, I think it had something to do with describing Pete Rempel as a total dickwad. But if you really insist, I'll go back and check.

Man, you people are needy sometimes...

OK, here you go, with full context and the fifth sentence highlighted in bold:

Is anyone else just plain tired of the number of times members of the White House administration address an issue or answer a question with a totally (by definition) content-free tautology? The latest example is from Maureen Dowd's recent column, in which SecDef Donald Rumsfeld (Dr. Strangefeld), describes the deteriorating situation in Iraq with:

"We're trying to explain how things are going, and they are going as they are going,"

They are going as they are going. He said what he said. I mean what I mean. Does it get any more vacuous than that? Particularly in Rumsfeld's case, where he seems to think that nonsensical statements like this are somehow incredibly profound. Note to The Donald: there's a real difference between profound and inane.

"I mean what I mean." Somehow, when dealing with the Bush administration, that sentence seems so right, doesn't it?

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