Words Mean… Stuff!

“This blueprint lays the right markers to help us reset the bar for our students and the nation.”

That’s Representative George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor (because schools and unions are the same thing, right?) on the administration’s proposed education reforms. Evidently the blueprint, which is really a brief policy document, has laid “markers,” which sounds to me rather like dropping buoys off a boat, to help us “reset the bar” which means about as much as “unhinge the doohicky.” On education, of course. Education’s doohicky needs unhinging.

It’s fun to strip words of any meaning, kids! You can try it at home.  Just take phrases you’ve heard on CNN and mash them together until a period looks necessary. For starters:

At the end of the day, the takeaway is the we’ve thrown setting a new paradigm under the bus.

Going forward, the nation requires a robust vision for the future.

Da Bears.

More bad English to titillate here.