While the Gulf Coast deals with a real hurricane, Michele Bachmann told a group of wingnuts (a gaggle? what is the proper term for a group of wingnuts?) that America is being hit by a “spiritual hurricane” and that they must prepare for Godly battle to fight against it:
“At this moment in time we’re quite literally looking at a hurricane here in Florida. We’re looking at a political hurricane in this country. We are looking at a spiritual hurricane in our land. And it is time for each one of us to show up and suit up and stand up and realize that in this time and in this day we pour it out for Him,” said Bachmann, a tea party activist, at the event organized by the Florida Family Policy Council.
Now here’s the funny part. Last year she said that a real hurricane was a message from God:
Bachmann’s speech may jog political memories of comments she made last August, suggesting 2011′s Hurricane Irene was an act of God.
“Washington, D.C., you’d think by now they’d get the message,” Bachmann said at a town hall in Florida last August while campaigning for the GOP presidential nomination. “An earthquake, a hurricane, are you listening? The American people have done everything they possibly can, now it’s time for an act of God and we’re getting it.”
Well, this is the second straight election that the Republican National Convention was disrupted by a hurricane. Maybe God is trying to tell them something?
50 comments
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uncephalized
August 30, 2012 at 11:06 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’d vote for “a waggle of wingnuts” to be the official group plural.
uncephalized
August 30, 2012 at 11:06 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It just sounds cuter than “lynch mob”.
brucecoppola
August 30, 2012 at 11:07 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
An ignorance of wingnuts
A fume of wingnuts
A froth of wingnuts…
matty1
August 30, 2012 at 11:08 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A convention.
blf
August 30, 2012 at 11:10 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re proper term for an asylum / gibberish / bag / wasteland / giggle /… of wingnuts: There were some great suggestions the last time Ed asked.
MikeMa
August 30, 2012 at 11:12 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
a cesspool?
a black hole?
Bachmann can really generate an image. Right up there with the local elementary school.
richardelguru
August 30, 2012 at 11:12 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What about a wank of wingnuts?
Hey … alliteration!!
eric
August 30, 2012 at 11:14 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Sounds like SyFy has their next made-for-TV-movie. Just when you thought ‘Megashark vs Giant Octopus’ was the height (depth?) of camp, along comes….’Political Hurricane vs Spiritual Hurricane!’
-SEE Tiffany and Debbie Gibson throw down, as the avatars of these forces of unnature clash!
-WATCH as those urban muslim atheist intellectuals get their comeuppance!
-GASP as Jesus descends to save the day!
This Saturday, following the marathon of all our crappy ghost-hunting shows!
Michael Heath
August 30, 2012 at 11:16 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
OT, but related to the level of seriousness the GOP demonstrates while projecting their own lack of such on others as Rep. Bachmann does here.
GOP VP Nominee Paul Ryan about the Romney-Ryan ticket:
Paul Ryan on humanity’s greatest threat:
mommiest
August 30, 2012 at 11:16 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A tool of wingnuts. Obviously.
DaveL
August 30, 2012 at 11:17 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Otherwise known in Florida as “late summer.”
Sastra
August 30, 2012 at 11:17 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A “spiritual hurricane?” Must have been caused by the New Agers: they’ve got all that “energy,” and it always seems to be whirling into vortexes.
piscador
August 30, 2012 at 11:18 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A guano of wingnuts (with a tip of the hat to Bill Maher)
Larry
August 30, 2012 at 11:21 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If her sky fairy is trying to send a message to WDC, THEN SEND THE FUCKING HURRICANE THERE! Stop sending it to Florida, or New Orleans, or Galveston. Its a god, right? It can churn up the weather anywhere it wants! Why does it always have to come up out of the gulf? Why not just poof it up on the Potomac River or the Reflecting Pool?
Geez, do I have to think for these people?
Attila
August 30, 2012 at 11:31 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I personally think a bolt of wingnuts would be appropriate.
dingojack
August 30, 2012 at 11:34 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A tea-party of wingnuts.
Dingo
bbgunn
August 30, 2012 at 11:36 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
John Kennedy Toole said it best: A Confederacy of Dunces.
Abby Normal
August 30, 2012 at 11:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
They’re only a gaggle on the ground. In the air they’re a skein. And in the strip clubs they’re lousy tippers.
Of course we could just go full-on Godwin: a Hitler of wing-nuts.
Gregory in Seattle
August 30, 2012 at 11:41 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think the collective noun for wingnuts depends on the context.
Flock (as in sheep, goats or birds of a feather)
Drove (as in pigs)
Nest (as in ants, snakes or toads)
Crash (as in rhinos)
Mob
Hate
Frenzy
Extreme
dingojack
August 30, 2012 at 11:41 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
See here for much. much more.
Dingo
slc1
August 30, 2012 at 11:45 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re Michael Heath @ #9
The e-mail scandal has not only forced the resignation of a number of discredited scientists, but it also marks a major step back on the need to preserve the integrity of the scientific community.
Mr. Ryan should be asked to identify those “discredited” scientists. AFAIK, not a single scientist identified in e-mailgate has either resigned his position or been fired. For instance, Phil Jones is still at his previous employer, as is Michael Mann.
dingojack
August 30, 2012 at 11:46 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A clutch of right-wing nuts, a gaiety of anti-gay bigots, a plethora of fucktards or a facebook of fuckwits.
Dingo
azportsider
August 30, 2012 at 11:47 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Larry@#14: yes, it’s a god, I suppose, but a singularly incompetent one. In particular, it seems to have very poor aim, and seems not to mind destroying thousands of lives to get the handful it’s after.
richardelguru
August 30, 2012 at 11:50 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@Michael
I was a bit confused (mainly by the different font sizes), but was everything after the start of the second quote said by Ryan?
Particularly “The e-mail scandal has not only forced the resignation of a number of discredited scientists” seems not in accord with what I remember: I thought that Phil Jones just stood aside as director of the Unit until the the reviews were complete. Was anyone actually ‘forced to resign’?
BCat70
August 30, 2012 at 11:53 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
‘Wingnut’ is a slang term for lunatic, which I think (cant really remember)
is a Bedlam of lunatics.
Can I get a cite?
azportsider
August 30, 2012 at 11:53 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Nearly forgot: I personally like a hysteria of wingnuts.
Hercules Grytpype-Thynne
August 30, 2012 at 11:55 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A frothy mix of wingnuts.
dugglebogey
August 30, 2012 at 12:07 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It may be a “gaggle” of wingnuts. We definitely know it’s not a “horde” we learned yesterday that a horde is definitely a group of darker skinned individuals, that that FOR SURE isn’t wingnuts.
dugglebogey
August 30, 2012 at 12:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oops, that was a “herd” yesterday, not a “horde.” My bad.
Michael Heath
August 30, 2012 at 12:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
richardelguru asks me:
My previous post is correctly formatted. So everything blockquoted below the second link is from Rep. Ryan’s article. You can validate that by clicking on that second link which will take you to the article from which I quote.
Randomfactor
August 30, 2012 at 12:19 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A “grove” of wingnuts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterocarya
baal
August 30, 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’m a bit late but a felafel of wingnuts?
d cwilson
August 30, 2012 at 12:26 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
How about we give credit where credit is due?
A bachmann of wingnuts.
Taz
August 30, 2012 at 12:36 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
How about a “screw-full”?
Hank Fox
August 30, 2012 at 12:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Suggesting both the nature of wingnuts and the way the eponymic originals work, I suggest …
a TWEAK of wingnuts.
mattsmith
August 30, 2012 at 1:17 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’d like to suggest “a pandering of wingnuts.”
Brain Hertz
August 30, 2012 at 1:27 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What about a “toolshed”?
John Pieret
August 30, 2012 at 2:26 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A “spittle” of wingnuts.
dan4
August 30, 2012 at 2:54 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What’s a “spiritual hurricane” (sorry, my “religious-fanatic-to-English” translation book hasn’t yet arrived from amazon)?
tricycle
August 30, 2012 at 3:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’d suggest a “grab-bag” of wing nuts.
kermit.
August 30, 2012 at 4:54 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
BCat70: ‘Wingnut’ is a slang term for lunatic, which I think (cant really remember)is a Bedlam of lunatics.
Can I get a cite?
If so, this has a tidy and circular history. The word “bedlam”, meaning loud confusion and chaos, was originally a hospital in 18th and 19th century London devoted to the keeping (not exactly care) of mental patients. This may be what you are half remembering.
kermit.
August 30, 2012 at 5:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A cacophony of wingnuts?
A bargin-bin of wingnuts?
A clown-car of wingnuts?
A whine of wingnuts?
Don’t want to use any term that implies competency, or strength. Not, for instance, a storm of wingnuts.
vmanis1
August 30, 2012 at 5:54 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The canonical collective noun is of course `exaltation’, as in `an exaltation of larks’, the title of James Lipton’s classic book on collective nouns.
Staying in this mode, I would suggest `a frenzy of wingnuts’. Bonus points to those who cite the Hitchcock film.
arbor
August 30, 2012 at 7:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
As the term of venery for ‘wingnut’, I prefer ‘weasel’.
A weasel of wingnuts.
I am happy now.
philipp
August 30, 2012 at 9:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A nimrod of wingnuts.
Crip Dyke, MQ, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden
August 30, 2012 at 11:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
a “party” of wingnuts…
Or, I suppose, a murder of wingnuts.
Crip Dyke, MQ, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden
August 30, 2012 at 11:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wait…
a waterboard of wingnuts?
Crudely Wrott
August 31, 2012 at 1:22 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
. . . a cross thread of wingnuts?
fifthdentist
August 31, 2012 at 1:40 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That’s easy: A conniption of wingnuts.
2-D Man
August 31, 2012 at 10:11 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Late to the party, but I was thinking:
An alabaster of wingnuts.
Though I’m partial to a cross-thread.