News Roundup for 6/17/10

Smart TV man make us feel dumb, sad

-Headline of the day-
"Our discourse has come to this..."

CNN went to an expert to find out what exactly was wrong with Barack Obama's first Oval Office address. Too vague, without any real specifics about his alternative energy plans? No, that's not it. Too much focus on the problem, too little on the solution? Wrong again.

The problem, says Paul J.J. Payack, president of Global Language Monitor, was that this Barack Obama fella is smart and you are dumb. Let me put that to you in a way that Dr. Payack seems to believe you'd better understand: Obama use big words. Sentences too long. He not aware of your stupidity.

See, the speech was "written to a 9.8 grade level," which is bad. Why? Because you're dumb. Really, try to keep up here. CNN reports "the president used slightly less than four sentences per paragraph," while "his 19.8 words per sentence 'added some difficulty for his target audience,'" according to Paul J.J.

Get it now? You are dumb. Way to dumb to understand any of this.

"One of the things I've always liked about Obama is that, as a rule, he treats the public like adults. During the campaign, when he talked about changing the nature of politics, one of the underlying points was about the way in which leaders would communicate with the electorate," writes Steve Benen. "Apparently, communicating at a 10th-grade level will draw rebukes. Our political discourse is just that bad."

Yeah, whatever Poindexter. Save your fancy-talk for someone who can understand it. (Political Animal)


-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, Knuckles is back! Yay!


Click for animation

And everyone thought his show was canceled... (MarkFiore.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"Alvin Greene Asks Time Magazine For 'Man Of The Year' Award."

See, he doesn't do any of that there fancy-talk, so he deserves it. (Mediaite)