Newt and Mitt: Irony Sharpens Irony
Watching Newt and Mitt try to out-hypocrite one another over being career politicians is hilarious. Mitt hypocritically says he’s not a career politician and Newt correctly points out that the only reason he isn’t one is because he has lost elections along the way. And then Newt tells Mitt to “drop the pious baloney.”
Two things come to mind. First of all, “dropping the pious baloney” sounds like a perfect euphemism for “family values” politicians getting caught putting their penii where they don’t belong — yes, I’m looking at you, Newt. And David Vitter. And Ed Schrock. And Mark Foley. And John Ensign. And Mark Sanford. And Larry Craig. And about a thousand others.
Second, Newt Gingrich is saying this? The guy who has been criticizing other candidates for negative ads about him when he is the undisputed champion of negative advertising? Talk about pious baloney!
Didaktylos:
January 10th, 2012 at 11:08 am
So this comes under the heading: “Dear Pot: thank-you for your insightful comments. Your very good friend, Kettle.”?
Michael Heath:
January 10th, 2012 at 11:16 am
Ed writes:
I’d argue that Newt Gingrich really distinguishes himself in a different way given negative ads are almost as old as dirt (assuming you’re a YEC). Mr. Gingrich was the architect of getting his caucus members to exploit their bully pulpit in the media and throw rhetorical bombs themselves. He’s like the Beatles of bomb-throwers. Some came before, but he created the predominant style and niche industry.
John Hinkle:
January 10th, 2012 at 11:16 am
The Pious Baloney would be a great name for a Christian rock band.
Marcus Ranum:
January 10th, 2012 at 11:24 am
dropping the pious baloney
Isn’t that what got Anthony Weiner in so much trouble?
nescio:
January 10th, 2012 at 11:39 am
Oh, Ed, I thought you were better than this.
The plural of “penis” is “penises.” “Penii” and “peni” are not words, please don’t use them.
Thank you.
Pierce R. Butler:
January 10th, 2012 at 11:54 am
Foley & Sanford don’t belong in such a list, in that their scandals came only from failed attempts to put their pious baloney in inappropriate buns.
Pierce R. Butler:
January 10th, 2012 at 11:55 am
Oops – in # 6, that should read “Foley & Craig don’t belong…”
richardelguru:
January 10th, 2012 at 12:57 pm
Isn’t the Lat. plural ‘pene’
(Latin is a looooong while ago, and we didn’t tend to decline our penises in school—well not too often.)
Even as a humorous usage it’s a bit too common as a pretentious error to be successful, so you are safer going the English route.
Now ‘octopodes’ and ‘platypodes’ are are in a different category altogether…
nescio:
January 10th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
The Latin nominative plural is penes. 3rd declension.
Just because a Latin word ends in “S” doesn’t mean the plural ends in “I.”
richardelguru:
January 10th, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Sodding Muphry’s law stole my ‘s’
for ‘pene’ read ‘penes’ throughout.
nescio:
January 10th, 2012 at 2:19 pm
I think chopping the “s” off of “penes” counts as a multiple circumcision.
richardelguru:
January 10th, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Ouch!
That hurt!
:-)
exdrone:
January 10th, 2012 at 5:52 pm
Personally, I prefer self-righteous summer sausage, but the pious bologna is good if you fry it up with some chopped onions. As Homer would say, “Hm-m-m, pious bologna. It’s scrumpti-monius.”
(Sorry, nescio. Scrumpti-monius is not a word. I’ll stop using it immediately.)
dingojack:
January 10th, 2012 at 6:40 pm
richardelguru – “Now ‘octopodes’ and ‘platypodes’ are are in a different category altogether…”
Uh, yes – GREEK.
:) Dingo
——–
CASCA: “… but, for mine own
part, it was Greek to me.” – JULIUS CEASAR. Act 1, Scene 2.
dingojack:
January 10th, 2012 at 6:51 pm
Surely the issue is the nomlative and accusative plurals of ‘Πέος’.
Dingo
—–
PS The ablatitive is ‘peni’
Dr X:
January 10th, 2012 at 9:26 pm
Speaking of pious baloney, Newt Gingrich on gay marriage:
So many things wrong with that, I hardly know where to begin.
nescio:
January 11th, 2012 at 4:11 pm
exdrone-
I don’t mind made-up words or neologisms. I just have a pet peeve against using pseudo-Latin plurals, especially incorrectly. “Penii” is just totally wrong.
I do hate one recent neologism, “ginormous.” I’ve never been able to discern its popularity. I fail to see the use of combining two words that mean the same thing (“giant” and “enormous”) into another word that also means the same thing. Unfortunately I heard it got into the OED anyway.