# If you could apply the death penalty to the use of political rhetoric ..... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 4, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932 "2010-12-04T14:12:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/41 "2010-12-06T12:17:36Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > Nope… no way… there is at least a wisp of truth to the phrase. Indeed, we have death panels right now. They are administered by private insurance comapnies, and my wife is the victim of one. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/42 "2010-12-06T13:34:30Z")
Your wife “is” the victim of a death panel? How’s that possible? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/43 "2010-12-06T14:00:56Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Your wife “is” the victim of a death panel? How’s that possible? Her doctor got her into a stem cell transplant program, but the death panel at Blue Cross/Blue Shield denied her claim. Her illness is progressive, degenerative, and inevitably fatal. She will die from her disease without the stem cell transplant. This is for the benefit of other readers. I will not discuss this further with you. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/44 "2010-12-06T20:55:40Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Her doctor got her into a stem cell transplant program, but the death panel at Blue Cross/Blue Shield denied her claim. Her illness is progressive, degenerative, and inevitably fatal. She will die from her disease without the stem cell transplant. > > This is for the benefit of other readers. I will not discuss this further with you. No need to discuss further, but you have my sympathy. _Death panels_ is an irritating word designed to motivate folks by fear. But the reality of the death panel concept is as old as the history of humans. And they certainly do exist at present. Only now I think they would call it _cost effectiveness._ ---
**Author:** ![llcoolbj77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb9ed0/32.png) [@llcoolbj77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/llcoolbj77)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/45 "2010-12-06T21:32:54Z")
Any argument against same-sex marriage, that includes the phrase, “sanctity of marriage.” Or really the notion that any other person’s relationship in this world somehow has an effect on my marriage, either positive or negative. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/46 "2010-12-06T21:39:40Z")
“Drink/drank the Kool-aid” (yea, I know it was supposed to be Flavor-Aid. Shut up). Anyone who uses that phrase automatically marks themselves out in my book as someone who is not willing to engage in good-faith discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/47 "2010-12-06T21:45:37Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > “Drink/drank the Kool-aid” (yea, I know it was supposed to be Flavor-Aid. Shut up). > > Anyone who uses that phrase automatically marks themselves out in my book as someone who is not willing to engage in good-faith discussion. I rank that one right up there with telling your opponent he’s just being part of the “hive mind”. Pisses me right off, that one does. ETA: Not referring to _you_, of course. Just people in general. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/48 "2010-12-06T22:17:18Z")
Can we please take out and shoot “middle class”?! 85% of the country thinks they’re in the middle class. Politicians only use it as code for “you and yours”, as in “We’ll hurt someone, but not you and yours.” > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > It’s THE government. There’s only one of them in any theoretical paradigm, unlike industries, which can exist in the multiple. Federal, State, or Local? Or maybe Provincial? Please tell me which is THE government, so I know which are illegitimate. “The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the benefit of an individual or a party.” (John C. Calhoun, February 13, 1835) The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. (Abe Lincoln) It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. (Winston Churchill) Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets. (Ronald Reagan) > [@fuzzypickles](#): > > Well, that’s a shame. I was all set on _“You can see Russia from my house!”_ That was [Tina Fey](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXVIwo5fLYs) (Youtube. Hope I linked the right one). > [@Arcite](#): > > “Nation of Immigrants”: colonists are not the same thing as immigrants. > “Single moms”: conflates victims who deserve our sympathy and support, namely widows and abandoned wives, with women who deliberately chose to have a child out of wedlock or had the lousy foresight and judgment to spread their legs for some bad boy who never had any intention of sticking around. Pretty sure that refers to the post-revolution immigration, not the colonists. And “single moms” pisses me off because I know a lot of single dads out there. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/49 "2010-12-07T03:54:45Z")
How about “but it’s for the children!” ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/50 "2010-12-07T11:04:34Z")
ooh, here’s another one. “Katy bar the door.” It started popping up a lot in the health-care debate. I can’t be sure why this antique phrase started making a comeback, except to terrify people who are old enough to have heard it used unironically in the past. I cannot possibly take serious anyone who uses this phrase. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/51 "2010-12-07T14:53:42Z")
I’m surprised that no one mentioned “death tax”. Maybe the usual suspects are learning. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/52 "2010-12-07T17:23:00Z")
Well, now that you mention it, “death tax” is about as bad as it gets. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/53 "2010-12-07T19:15:16Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Well, now that you mention it, “death tax” is about as bad as it gets. How come **Dio**? It’s paid when you die. I know that everybody who dies doesn’t pay it… but neither does everyone with income pay income tax. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/54 "2010-12-07T20:12:02Z")
Because it’s not paid by the person who dies. It’s paid by the heirs. It’s not a “death tax,” it’s an inheritance tax – basically a windfall income tax – and it’s only paid on estates worth $1 million or more. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/55 "2010-12-07T21:10:02Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > How come **Dio**? > > It’s paid when you die. I know that everybody who dies doesn’t pay it… but neither does everyone with income pay income tax. Because it is the estate tax – which wasn’t a problem for middle class folks, because they thought, “Well, I don’t have an estate, so whatever.” But then the GOP surreptitiously re-dubbed it the “death tax” in order to provoke outrage from those same rubes with their gripes about, “Typical gubmint, they even charge you to die”. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/56 "2010-12-08T01:01:37Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Because it’s not paid by the person who dies. It’s paid by the heirs. It’s not a “death tax,” it’s an inheritance tax – basically a windfall income tax – and it’s only paid on estates worth $1 million or more. BFD … it’s paid by somebody because somebody died. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/57 "2010-12-08T01:16:07Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > BFD … it’s paid by somebody because somebody died. No it isn’t, otherwise every death wouold incur the tax. Since that does not occur, the mechanism of the tax is clearly not death, it is the transfer of income over $1 million. That happens every time. QED. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/58 "2010-12-08T02:10:44Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > I know that everybody who dies doesn’t pay it… but neither does everyone with income pay income tax. Yeah, but nobody goes around calling it the ‘life tax’ either. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/59 "2010-12-08T02:33:17Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Can we please take out and shoot “middle class”?! 85% of the country thinks they’re in the middle class. Politicians only use it as code for “you and yours”, as in “We’ll hurt someone, but not you and yours.” This. > [@What\_the](#): > > BFD … it’s paid by somebody because somebody died. Ah, yes. It makes perfect sense now. Wait, no, it’s still ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932/60 "2010-12-08T14:09:01Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > No it isn’t, otherwise every death wouold incur the tax. Since that does not occur, the mechanism of the tax is clearly not death, it is the transfer of income over $1 million. That happens every time. QED. The trigger is death. But I’ll agree to disagree … at least nobody is still trying to say that the government is giving somebody something when they are actually allowed to keep what is theirs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-apply-the-death-penalty-to-the-use-of-political-rhetoric/562932.md?page=4)