Aging Out
1. The inescapable "tipping point" where people lose their sex appeal, status or eligibility because of advancing age.2. The process now affecting most Baby Boomers in the United States.3. Why the...
View ArticleRejectionism
1. The belief that you should reject anything proposed by another political party or group, no matter what it is or how it might benefit others.2. A kneejerk reaction to anything that isn't...
View ArticleTwitter Critter
1. A person who spends WAY too much time on Twitter, to the detriment of his or her job, family, friends and/or mental health.2. A cell-phone Twitter texting maniac.3. Someone who believes they are...
View ArticleHealth Care Riot
1. An angry, sometimes violent, demonstration against health care reform at the local level.2. A mob that turns out at a Congressional "Town Hall" meeting to oppose the President Obama's health care...
View ArticlePalinoid
1. A version of paranoia associated with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who recently announced that health care reform will create "death lists" of people to be killed by the government.2. Anyone who...
View ArticlePop City
1. A city with widespread and pervasive gun violence.2. A dangerous neighborhood or part of town.3. A place where young people get "popped" on a regular basis by rival gang members or criminals,...
View ArticlePodnesia
1. A form of amnesia common among iPod and mp3 users. "Podnesiacs" have downloaded so many songs that they can't remember what's already on their device.2. The mental condition that propels people to...
View ArticleChain of Lies
1. An e-mail chain containing defammatory or false information that is spread far and wide by partisan believers in an attempt to paint a negative image of the opposition.2. The act of forwarding...
View ArticleOrphan Key
Many people have a stash of old keys in a drawer or cabinet for "future use." Some keys have been there so long that you no longer remember what they're for. A bike lock? An old car? A cabinet at...
View ArticlePixel Envy
1. Envy of another person's higher-resolution camera or flat-panel display screen.2. The sudden realization that 8 Megapixels no longer cuts it in the digital photography world. "Daryl has a bad case...
View ArticleYoop Loop
1. A scenic route around Michigan's Upper Peninsula, which is also known as the "U.P." or "Yoop." Motorcyclists are especially fond of this semi-wilderness experience.2. An alternative route from...
View ArticleHouse Heckler
1. A politician who openly heckles, threatens or attacks the President of the United States on the House Floor during a joint session of Congress.2. Any person who brazenly violates the code of...
View ArticlePre-Abandoned
1. A building or military installation that is never intended to be used, but which must be constructed anyway for political reasons.2. A public space that planners know will never be occupied or...
View ArticleComp Call
1. A compensation foul in football. The officials sometimes "call" a foul on team B in order to make up for a questionable foul against team A earlier in the game.2. The unwritten law of refereeing:...
View ArticleNuke Crib
1. A secret storage place for illegal nuclear weapons or nuke technology.2. A nuclear weapons development facility that is purposely kept hidden from IAEA inspectors.2. Iran's secret nuke plant...
View ArticleReployment
1. The act of re-employing someone (who was previously laid off) as a temp worker, usually at a lower wage scale.2. What happens to many people who have lost their permanent jobs following the crash...
View ArticleGifted Child
1. An average student with insecure parents.2. The elitist notion that only some children have "gifts" or talents worthy of attention.3. A hollow form of "self-praise by proxy" that snobby parents use...
View ArticleUnderlord
1. A low-level official who wields great power in a bureaucratic system -- the opposite of an "overloard."2. Someone who can make your life miserable by enforcing obscure rules and regulations in a...
View ArticleDegifting
1. A mutual agreement to suspend holiday gifts for at least one season, usually within a single family or circle of friends.2. The act of replacing useless and pointless merchandise with something...
View ArticleFootball Withdrawal Syndrome
1. The agonizing mental process of accepting that football season is finally over.This serious mental disorder afflicts millions of Americans every year, usually in the second week of February....
View ArticleTalibanned
1. The act of banning any Taliban member from a specific area or activity.Examples include: Crossing a border, entering a city, serving on a tribal committee or boarding an airplane. In some cases,...
View ArticleiSlate
1. The next wave of personal computing from Apple.Set to be introduced in late spring or early summer 2010, the Apple iSlate is a new tablet computer with a high-resolution touch screen and sleek...
View ArticleHate Radio
1. A broadcast radio program that promotes hatred, bigotry, fear and dehumanization.Hate radio is usually found on the AM dial. Key modern practitioners include Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sean...
View ArticleHaiti Test
1. A major news event that reveals someone's true values and personality.2. How people react to a massive disaster, such as the Haiti earthquake of January 2010 -- with compassion and care, or sarcasm...
View ArticlePraytheist
1. An avowed atheist who (secretly) turns to prayer during times of serious illness, extreme danger or personal crisis.2. The theological equivalent of a strict vegetarian who will eat a steak...
View ArticleBrees Bomb
1. A lightning-fast, incredibly accurate pass from Drew Brees, quarterback of the New Orleans Saints.2. The weapon that propelled the Saints to victory in Superbowl XLIV. The Colts thought they had...
View ArticleTuition
1. An imaginary number invented by college administrators to inspire fear in middle-class parents and new students.2. An enormous fee that automatically rises at 3 times the rate of inflation.3. The...
View ArticlePaygo
1. Shorthand for "pay as you go." This zippy little term was used by President Obama in February 2010 to describe his new approach to federal spending and fiscal discipline.2. The opposite of "buy...
View ArticleSupreme Stupidity
1. An act of extreme stupidity by the U.S. Supreme Court.2. An attempt to undermine democracy or destroy human rights through judicial fiat.3. What happens when a bunch of clueless lawyers pretend to...
View ArticleSnow Leopard
1. "Snow Leopard" is the nickname of Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, the first Olympic skier from the nation of Ghana. He became a world media sensation in 2010 when he qualified to ski in the Vancouver...
View ArticleAndroit
1. A person who is especially "adroit" at using the Android operating system from Google -- a powerful OS designed for cell phones and other mobile devices.2. Showing talent, skill or cleverness in...
View ArticleSlumburbia
1. A derisive term for older suburbs that are declining into poverty. The word is a combination of "Slum" and "Suburbia."2. The bleak future for many aging American suburbs.3. What happens when people...
View ArticlePrius Panic
1. A sudden feeling of intense dread associated with the Toyota Prius hybrid automobile.Owners of the formerly chic enviro-friendly car now live in fear that their vehicle will suddenly accelerate out...
View ArticleDunk Flunk
1. What happens when an over-confident basketball player tries to make a spectacular flying "dunk" but fails to score.2. The kind of show-boating that enrages college coaches.3. An embarrassing act of...
View ArticleHutaree Militia
1. A radical right-wing militia group based in Lenawee County, Michigan, about 30 miles southwest of Ann Arbor. The word "Huntaree" means "Christian Warrior" in the group's secret language. (A related...
View ArticleGreenspanning
1. The act of blaming someone else for your own mistakes.2. Refusing to take responsibility for anything BAD while always taking credit for anything GOOD.Greenspanning was pioneered by Alan Greenspan,...
View ArticleRepublic
Contrary to right-wing propaganda, a Republic is indeed a form of representative Democracy in which ordinary people elect officials to represent them in a legislature or parliament. Simply put, a...
View ArticleHate TV
1. Television that encourages viewers to hate, despise and fear "the enemy." George Orwell predicted the rise of Hate TV in his novel "1984." Usually found on the cable channels, Hate TV is the...
View ArticleCompletely Unfounded
1. A legal term that means: "We did it, but you can't prove it. And even if you CAN prove it, we'll drag out the litigation until your great-grandchildren are dead."Corporate attorneys frequently use...
View ArticleNew Economy
1. An imaginary economic system that will magically replace millions of jobs lost to outsourcing, downsizing and low-wage overseas competition.2. A feel-good term used by politicians to distract...
View ArticleDoom Plume
1. A massive undersea oil plume that threatens to destroy marine life for thousands of square miles, even though it's not visible from the surface.2. The biggest environmental threat from the BP oil...
View ArticleRand Paul
1. A conservative Republican with libertarian views, Rand Paul is running for the U.S. Senate in 2010 to replace outgoing KY Senator Jim Bunning. Rand is the son of Texas Congressman Ron Paul....
View ArticleCategorically False
1. A term frequently used by politicians when accused of something scandalous. It means: "I did it, but as long as there's no smoking gun I will deny it completely." Most such scandals involve illicit...
View ArticleSpillonomics
1. A scientific way to calculate the true costs of massive oil spills, such as the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.Spillonomics was conceived shortly after the 1989 Exxon Valdez...
View ArticlePad Lad
1. Someone who constantly flaunts his ownership of the new Apple iPad. Pad Lads feel compelled to "demonstrate" the system complete strangers, whether they're interested or not.2. One of Steve Jobs'...
View ArticlePropaganda Village
1. An idealized town, hamlet or village built solely for propaganda purposes -- usually by a totalitarian or autocratic government.The most famous example is Kijŏng-dong ("Peace Village"), a mostly...
View ArticleTake back our country
1. A rallying cry for people who think the United States has been "taken over" by anti-American socialists, foreigners, liberals, Marxists, minorities, etc.The phrase is typically used by white male...
View ArticleMushroom Method
1. A public relations strategy frequently used by government agencies, corporations and law enforcement officials. It means "feed them manure and keep them in the dark."The goal is to delay any public...
View ArticleOverton Window
1. A political theory invented by arch-conservative Joseph Overton, VP of the anti-tax Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Michigan. (Overton died in 2003 when his ultra-light airplane...
View ArticleBlackberry Ban
1. The banning of all Blackberry smart phones by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Republic starting in late July 2010.Because Blackberries use data encryption for transmitting text over the airways,...
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