Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

Here are some words being used a lot in Blogistan's political discussions that I could do without:

"Idiotarian", of course.

"Shillary", "Shrillary", "Hitlery", and any other cutesy misspelling of Mrs. Clinton's name. (BTW, I'm not sure when we all got to be on first-name basis with her in the first place.)

"Shrub". I'm guilty of using this in the past, although I think that was on Usenet and not here. I hope not, anyway. I don't like the guy and hope fervently for his defeat, but he's the President of the United States. (I give "Dubya" a pass, since I've seen that one used as an affectionate term for the man by his supporters and it strikes me as a playful jab at Texas pronunciation as opposed to a slur on the President's stature. I'm likewise unbothered by calling Bill Clinton "Bubba", for some reason -- it's such a mild insult that I'm not always sure how much of an insult it's even intended to be.)

"Wing nut". This one's moderately cute, admittedly, but I'm not wild about attributing insanity to either side of the political debate. (Well, there are the Libertarians, but that's it.)

"aWol". This one's just a turn-off, folks. If all the half-assed accusations of "draft dodging" didn't hurt Bill Clinton, this issue's not going to hurt Bush. Neither are the shadowy accusations of his onetime drug use.

"Demmie". Oh, how cute -- like we shortened "Communist" to "Commie", we can shorten "Democrat" to "Demmie"! Ick.

"Rethuglican". Come on, folks. If you want to call Tom Delay a thug, that's one thing. All of them, though?

"Trekkie". It's "Trek-ker", dammit.

Yup, that coffee ought to kick in any minute now....