Both theWall Street Journal’sJames Taranto and Powerline’sScott “Big Trunk” Johnson have complained about me referring to the president as “Chimpy” in this blog.
I feel I owe them an explanation.
25 thoughts on “Why We Call Him “Chimpy””
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The one on the bottom looks smarter
Tell ’em we’d have called him Alfred E. Neuman, except that name was taken by someone more respected.
I’ll see your chimp, and raise you aguenon.
Oh, now I get it. thanks. All this time I thought it was because he can ride a bicycle in a circle without falling off (most of the time).
I complained about it too, but it’s not because I don’t see the resemblance.
It’s because public name-calling is playground behavior, puerile.
Name-calling is utterly convincing to the worst among us (see any right-wing blog for examples); it appeals to our worst instincts rather than to our reason or our ideals. Mr. Bush is justly famous for his own name-calling, and it’s puerile and despicable when he does it.
If you want to end the war and establish a just society, you’ve got to convince people who don’t agree with you.
Public name-calling makes that goal impossible.
Mighty lame of them to complain since they obviously substitute your obession with the gaggle with reading the full transcript from the White House. Taranto and Johnson are poo flinging wankers who crib HOWTG and then complain about how it’s presented.
Joel me lad, I believe you are at the wrong website.
How DARE you not respect the office of the President?
Oh and if you are making an evolution crack pointing out that man evolved from apes I will point out that if humans evolved from apes how come apes still exist? Answer me that! And if men evolved from apes how did it happen in 6,000 years? You are just lucky that the President has a thick skin and a good sense of humor otherwise he would be with in his rights to tap your phone calls to your enemy combatant friends and stuff you in a free speech zone.
Mocking the President is easy a real America would never disrespect the office of the President and call the President names. You can be darn sure that *I* will never call a new Democrat President names. I won’t call Senator Clinton names. I will not question her personal relationships with others. I will respect the office enough to give her the benefit of the doubt first and ask polite respectful questions about her history during the President William Clinton’s terms.
Because that is what good Americans do.
/Spocko channeling Wingnut
One time, a long time ago, my friend Ross and I were watching the orangutans at the Vilas Park zoo. One of them was hanging on a tire swing when he spotted some food (it may sound cliche, but I think it was a bunch of bananas). So he tried to reach the food, which started the tire to swing. As the swing swung, he reached with both hands, but still couldn’t get there. So he tried again, with both hands and one foot. But he STILL couldn’t get there, So he decided to try with that other foot, too.
CRASH!!
Chimp, orangutan…close enough.
Joel, with all due respect, get bent. You don’t like name-calling, don’t call names. Quit trying to be the bossy kid that doesn’t know how to have fun on the playground…mmmmkay?
I would enjoy it even more were we referring to his royal hiney as “Hague Inmate” or “The Accused” or “War Criminal”…
Merci beaucoup!!! Buh bye and don’t let the door hit you in the bum on your way out – you are looking for the “Holier than thou, no name calling, please” Seminar that is on the next hall around the corner…
Elspeth
If you want to end the war and establish a just society, you’ve got to convince people who don’t agree with you.
Public name-calling makes that goal impossible.
Yes, because anyone in marketing will tell you thatname calling andslightly scandalous slogans don’tbecome conventional wisdom orinfluence elections in any way. Certainly not in our well-grounded, overly-polite, reality-based public discourse, anyway.
Joel me lad, I believe you are at the wrong website.
It appears so. Too bad for me, really; I enjoy the gaggle excerpts (ridicule without namecalling, using the opponent’s own words to expose his defects; excellent juijitsu) and much of what Athenae writes. I understand the uses of satire and the ways that making fun of the Emperor’s clothes can shake the foundations of empire. And I don’t mind invective when it’s well-grounded in thought; I was a big admirer of Billmon, and when Doghouse Riley or Driftglass catch fire, I enjoy the heat.
Chimpy is at least printable, unlike the names I usually call him.
Joel: I can see your point, but the thing here is that we call Mr. Bush “Chimpy” because we have absolutely no respect whatsoever for the man. Zero, nada, zip. People take the higher ground and avoid name-calling when they have some kind of respect for their opponent. But if you really want to convey how little respect for a person you have, you give them a nickname. Which is another reason to not respect Bush–he LURVES him some nicknames. When he “dubs” someone with a nickname, he is making sure that person knows he’s got very little respect for him or her. How despicable is that?
Joel: Now of course I did a satire piece above because well, I’m a hilarious Vulcan who hides his human emotion. If you know anything about me, you will know that I too dislike name calling. Intensely. And I also know that the people on the right love to pretend the people on the left are so TERRIBLE because of THEIR name calling. And that is why I pointed out with my satire just how full of it that talk is. They will “respect the office” if Hillary is elected. Hypocrisy
thy name is “conservative”.
I’ve been exceedingly polite and I played by all the rules, I kicked the right-wing in the pocket book but that didn’t stop them from saying that I was a name caller (which I wasn’t) and from calling me names.
We all have different methods to deal with the outrageousness of the Bush Presidency. Frankly the name calling is tame compared to the one thing we don’t dare even write about because of the fear of having our phones tapped and being arrested. And I will allude to that because I know you are smart enough to figure it out. (And just to remind the people who are reading this from the SS. *I* have no intention to bring harm to anyone via physical violence. I merely bring up an issue to illustrate a point in a intellectual context. If you want to look at who DOES want to bring harm to people check out the ones who have all the guns and are filled with hate toward the liberals and democrats. Thank you.)
If you ask me there isn’t that much of a resemblance. The eyes are the giveaway. You can see curiosity, intelligence, and compassion in the eyes of the creature in the second picture.
I can almost understand what that second creature says.
Not to digress, but I listened to the GOP front runner talking to a reporter on TV last night. I was struck dumb by the thought that we may face another 4 years where that aforementioned second creature seems to embody the ultimate in articulate commentary.
In a just and wonderful world, we would all be calling ourselves by our first names and dance around the maypole singing ‘Kumbaya’ making with the happy skipping and the frivolity. Everyone is happy and gay and there are no frowns or sad things. Tra-la-la-la-freaking la…
Face it, homey. This country sucks. It sucks, not because we Americans suck but because we put into the greatest office in the land a soulless, cruel, mean and nasty imbecile. It sucks to be an American with this vapid excuse for a primate at the helm. So, just give it up with the ‘let’s all just get along and sing happy camp songs together in bipartisan communion’ bullshit.
This bastard trashed the good name of America (and Americans) from one side of the earth to the next. Hell, Spocko’s proof that he’s even reviled on other planets. Happy talk about this bloodthirsty cretin went out the window when he took the collective world-wide sympathy and compassion generated by 9-11 and used it to make his cronies billions of dollars and kill a million brown people in the Middle East.
Personally, calling him a chimp is an affront to all chimpanzees and other supposed ‘lower’ primates.
Because “Mr. Chimpy” shows too much respect for the very bad human that he is.
I complain about it too, but only because it’s disrespecful to chimps.
I enjoy the gaggle excerpts (ridicule without namecalling,
Tony Blow and Dana Peroxide don’t count as name calling?
ooh, i bet qWayle is fair game.
Clearly they’ve never seen “Bush or Chimp.com”
Assholes.
A chimp with a “yes”, a “no” and a “punt” button could have run the country better. It’s an insult to chimps I tells ya.
Hahahaha! Well what can I say, I think that everyone here has just about covered it.