Hank Fox tallies the words used in Bush's state of the union speech…which I missed. Which I won't bother to listen to. The only word I want to hear him say is "Goodbye," but apparently his speech was all about "Terra'."
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Word count
Category: Politics
Posted on: January 30, 2008 2:37 PM, by PZ Myers
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Comments
Posted by: Tom | January 30, 2008 2:49 PM
Sorry, PZ, the term is "terrr." It's pronounced (or "pronouncified," if you're GWB) with exactly one-and-one-half syllables.
Posted by: June | January 30, 2008 3:00 PM
Fascinating how Bush threatened several times, with sternly pointed finger, to veto the vote of the People, and then lectured Congress on how important the People are to him.
Just once, I'd like to see Congress rise and yell back "and we will override your effen veto".
Posted by: Gary | January 30, 2008 3:05 PM
He must have been talking about Tara. She has a great blog. I didn't even know Bush liked to read blogs.
Posted by: david winter | January 30, 2008 3:18 PM
style.org has a neat tool to parse this and other other state of the union speeches. With pretty colours even
Posted by: Prillotashekta | January 30, 2008 3:35 PM
Bush may not have used the word "science" at all, but he DID call for a "complete ban" on the "buying, selling, patenting, or cloning of human bodies" which got a standing ovation from the Republicans.
Posted by: bernarda | January 30, 2008 3:35 PM
Besides his war crimes, his tax cuts for the rich, Baby-Killer Bush will go down for his veto of SCHIP, which a minority of Retuglican think-alikes upheld.
Praise Jesus for compassionate conservatism for insurance companies.
Posted by: zer0 | January 30, 2008 3:49 PM
That tool is amazing #4. I parsed out of curiosity Terror vs. Israel. Since 2004, Bush has mentioned Terror 105 times. In that same time span, he has mentioned Israel 5 times. So Bush is far more concerned with scaring the shit out of the American public, and sweeping his sick desires for a Jewish State and the Rapture etc etc under the rug. Sick Zionist fuck.
Posted by: qedpro | January 30, 2008 3:54 PM
are you sure he wasn't talking about terror?
Posted by: Mooser | January 30, 2008 4:03 PM
I have terrorist laminate in my kitchen! It's "green Terra"
Who knew Formica had connections to Al Queada?
Posted by: Paholaisen Asianajaja | January 30, 2008 4:18 PM
How many "sorry"-words were there?
Posted by: mothra | January 30, 2008 4:18 PM
And the production of that laminate is. . .formication- of course the republicans are against it.
In his SOYU speech, GW called for vouchers so inner city kids could attend private and alternative schools and more money for alternative education and faith based organizations. As has been posted by others, he, and other rethuglicans, are out to destroy public education. He needs his vetoes overridden, i.e. slapped down so hard his pen hand is a bloody stump. Hmmm. . . maybe he could be charged with theft (in addition to war crimes) after he leaves office and renditioned to Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: mothra | January 30, 2008 4:24 PM
For any FBI or Chenybots reading, the above was an example of hyperbole. I am disgusted with, disgraced by, and ashamed of the leader of our nation.
Posted by: Wes | January 30, 2008 4:27 PM
Out of curiosity I parsed "threat" versus "diplomacy". As can be expected, "threat" peaked with 16 mentions just before the Iraq war, then tapered off as the war went to shit. Mentions of "Diplomacy" don't outnumber "threat" until 2007.
http://style.org/stateoftheunion/parse/?q=threat&q2=diplomacy&wordsize=2x3
Of course, just parsing those two words doesn't prove anything by itself, but it is interesting that it fit the pattern I thought it would be.
Posted by: Cephus | January 30, 2008 4:37 PM
That's easy, Bush has never said he was sorry for anything. I checked it out on the style.org site and the word "sorry" has never appeared.
Anyone surprised?
Posted by: Infophile | January 30, 2008 5:06 PM
Not surprised. Closest Bush ever came to apologizing was after Hurricane Katrina when he admitted fault for handling the situation poorly. Didn't apologize for it, though, and I don't think he's ever admitted fault for anything else.
Posted by: Ebo Tebo | January 30, 2008 5:07 PM
Cocksucker! I(We)can't stand the Bastard!!
Posted by: Bride of Shrek | January 30, 2008 5:24 PM
Weird, I parsed "wanker" and "George Bush" and came up with nothing. Now, if you parsed some of my speech I think the results would be somewhat different.
Posted by: Tom | January 30, 2008 5:29 PM
PZ sez: The only word I want to hear him say is "Goodbye." In my fantasy world, we'd also get to hear him say "Guilty, Your Honor."
Posted by: alex | January 30, 2008 5:38 PM
did he mention "vegans"?
no?
he doesn't mind after all?
Posted by: Peter Ashby | January 30, 2008 5:56 PM
So did he mention us folks in Yurp at all?
Posted by: Peter Ashby | January 30, 2008 5:57 PM
Oops, sorry that should have been ultra loyal airstrip one.
Posted by: CrypticLife | January 30, 2008 6:00 PM
"God" wins out over "science", 19-12, using #4's tool.
Which is kind of a surprise. I didn't think the score was going to be that close.
Posted by: CrypticLife | January 30, 2008 6:01 PM
update: "faith" beats "science" 31-12. Much more Superbowlish.
Though I'm hoping the Giants will win this year.
Posted by: Robert Thille | January 30, 2008 6:06 PM
This should probably be anonymous, but I'd like to hear Bush say, "Please don't waterboard me a tenth time."
What's the matter, don't you like "swimming"?
Posted by: Stu | January 30, 2008 6:45 PM
Bush covered all Four Horsemen in this SotU. I counted 20 variations of "terror", 6 surge, 1 famine, 1 genocide and 1 disease.
Posted by: MarcusA | January 30, 2008 7:11 PM
I didn't listen to the speech either. What's the point? His words and actions are rarely ever connected. And I feel sickly ever time I see his stupid smirk.
Posted by: MAJeff | January 30, 2008 7:16 PM
And I feel sickly ever time I see his stupid smirk.
It's not just that. There's something about his "s"...bugs the shit out of me; can't listen.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | January 30, 2008 7:25 PM
Here's the corresponding tag cloud
Posted by: PeteK | January 30, 2008 8:16 PM
"We gotta liberatize those Eye-rackinians!"
Posted by: Brian W. | January 30, 2008 9:58 PM
Um, Bush DID use the word science.
"On matters of life and science, we must trust in the innovative spirit of medical researchers and empower them to discover new treatments while respecting moral boundaries. "
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/01/20080128-13.html
He also used the words "sciences" and "scientists".
Certainly not trying to defend him or anything but it makes me not really trust Hank Fox all that much.
Posted by: Shigella | January 30, 2008 10:25 PM
"On matters of life and science, we must trust in the innovative spirit of medical researchers and empower them to discover new treatments while respecting moral boundaries. "
Moral boundaries defined by religious fundamentalists who have neither the intelligence nor the education to understand what it is that scientists really do all day in those mysterious labs.
By "empower" he means threaten with fatal funding cuts (or no funding to begin with) if said medical researchers don't play by the religious rights' rules. And while I agree that cloning human "bodies" (dead bodies? partial bodies? what does he mean exactly?) may not be a particularly ethical path for current science to take, I am all for the cloning of human organs/stem cells for transplant and research purposes. Too bad he didn't have two functional neurons to rub together so he could address the difference, but in Jeebus's eyes, it's all an abomination anyway, right?
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | January 30, 2008 11:47 PM
None applauding more vigorously than Senator David Vitter, you may be sure.
Posted by: hinschelwood | January 31, 2008 3:32 AM
Christopher Morris cut up Bush's speeches and pasted them back together so that he actually told the truth:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushwhacked_MP3
The video of the 2003 State of the Nation address is pretty well done.
Posted by: MBL | January 31, 2008 8:02 AM
I didn't see the word dezhizhunzh on the list either. He used that like eight times.
Posted by: Nan | January 31, 2008 8:28 AM
My reaction to Bush's speeches is always to think basically, how nice, POTUS can read (more or less) at a 5th grade level. I doubt he has much actual input into what he's going to say other than to nod his head in agreement as Cheney dictates to the speech writers. I do wonder how many rehearsals they go through making sure he doesn't stumble over too many big words.
Incidentally, I read an analysis a few years ago that speculated that the less interested Bush is in something the more he stumbles as he talks. Apparently, he's quite articulate when the subject is something he actually cares about, like professional baseball or what type of chew toys Barney prefers.
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | January 31, 2008 9:30 AM
Barney schmarney - Dubious speaks clearly and in complete sentences when he's ordering or threatening violence (at least according to Mark Crispin Miller's The Bush Dyslexicon, iirc).
Posted by: Hank Fox | January 31, 2008 10:49 AM
My bad, Brian. I'm another of those Americans who can no longer bear to hear Bush speak. I used the word list from the Time Magazine site, trusting that it would be complete.
I've added a correction to the post.
Posted by: Nan | January 31, 2008 10:49 AM
"Dubious speaks clearly and in complete sentences when he's ordering or threatening violence"
And he trips over his own tongue any time he tries to claim being interested in helping the poor, improving education, fixing the health care mess, ending the war in Iraq rather than prolonging it. . .
Posted by: gerald spezio | January 31, 2008 12:27 PM
Bush is a murderer, and our Congress cheered him again and again.
Hilarious and/or McCain will continue the murder.
Posted by: Phineas | January 31, 2008 12:50 PM
If you don't want to read or watch the actual thing, I wrote up a useful clarified summary.
Posted by: llewelly | January 31, 2008 1:51 PM
Brian W. (#30) :
Hank Fox relied on Time's list of all words used at least 3 times. Words used only once or twice (note variants such as 'sciencetist' are counted seperately) were not listed. This is obvious to those who followed the links.
Posted by: Arnosium Upinarum | February 1, 2008 5:27 AM
MBL, #48: LOL!!! My monitor is now drenched with tea, much of it delivered through my nose.