the truthiness hurts

“Truthiness” encapsulates the deception and/or idiocy perpetrated on the American public by their government so effectively, it’s almost too good to be true. The comedian Stephen Colbert coined the term in the premiere of his TV show, The Colbert Report. This guy has brass balls. To illustrate the physical make-up of his balls and what the word essentially means, this is him speaking at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner (well worth the read), with Bush sitting only a few meters away:

"Right sir, that's where the truth lies, right here in the gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than your head? You can look it up ... now I know some of you are gonna say, I did look it up and it's not true. That’s cause you looked it up in a book. Next time look it up in your gut."

He was, of course, alluding to the non-existence WMD’s (incidentally a previous word of the year) amongst other issues.

This word gets to the core of why the political world is currently leaning towards the wrong side of fucked up. It's not even funny. It’s a good start to at least have come up with a word for it. So it comes as no surprise that “truthiness” was voted as the Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society. George Bush probably can’t tell the difference. Bush fully grasping the “fine” distinction is analogous to a man born blind comprehending the meaning of blindness.

And let’s not forget poor old James Frey, another reason it was such a relevant word last year. He was given a harsh lesson on this very subject by none other than Oprah. That must surely be the last person you want to be crapped on by. I think instead of the death penalty, one must be sentenced to being crapped on by Oprah. The death penalty is a lame deterrent compared to the everlasting shame of sitting in auntie Oprah’s corner. Nothing can top the wrath of the mother of all aunties.