# Stupid Republican idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 688
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13741 "2014-03-26T18:36:10Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > :mad: Heretic! The thread-or-glue-bound speckle-covered kind are The Only True Notebooks! The thread or glue bound notebook pages do not readily lie flat when you flip the page, the spiral bound notebook pages do. Therefore, inferior, unless you have a desk or other large flat surface to place them on, which is rarely the case when one is out and about. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13742 "2014-03-26T18:48:05Z")
> [@AHarris](#): > > Are notebooks that support printing hard to find where you live? Where I live they’re so ubiquitous that they don’t go to the trouble of mentioning it on the label. If by “support printing” you mean, “can be written on” I suppose you can learn to write on even the flimsiest notepad without aid of a desk or other large flat surface, but really, have you looked at handheld notepads? Most have very thin cardboard backing that bends easily, which can be annoying when you are trying to write. A good stiff cardboard backing makes it nice and easy, the only ones I have ever found that really work in that respect are the Wired notepad sold at a lot of stores (I buy them at Kroger’s school supply section and at Target) and a Target notepad that had even stiffer backing than the Wired one … forget what it was called, it had a picture of an old manual typewriter keypad on the cover. It’s probably a minor point to someone who does not write on a notepad a lot. I keep a Mead 3 12x5 1/2" 5 -star notepad on my desk for shopping lists and writing down phone numbers, etc. It’s smaller than I like and a little too bendy, but it has lots of pages and serves my needs just fine. But I’ve currently got over 60 pages of addenda for a book I’m working on in the Wired book, when you use a notebook that much, details matter. Which Stupid Republican Idea was this in reference to? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13743 "2014-03-26T18:53:06Z")
Ummmm… the one about trees being bad for the planet? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13744 "2014-03-26T18:55:19Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Meanwhile, over in the TP wing:](http://www.salon.com/2014/03/26/the_great_tea_party_swindle_how_to_make_lots_of_money_off_the_naive/) This is all the more delicious that from what I can see, most ardent Tea Party types were cast in the dumb “abolish every regulation ever, all the time, freeeedom !” mold. And isn’t it fitting that P.T. Barnum’s legacy of fleecing suckers be carried on in the political circus ? Among voters of the so-called Big Tent party, too ? Oh, this is too good. The jokes not only write themselves, they also score themselves with a full philharmonic orchestra and a slide whistle. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13745 "2014-03-26T19:51:26Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Ummmm… the one about trees being bad for the planet? Hell, yeah, they’re always shedding crap on it! Ever park your car under a tree?! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13746 "2014-03-26T20:28:59Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > :mad: Heretic! The thread-or-glue-bound speckle-covered kind are The Only True Notebooks! Does it come with those dotted lines through the middle, for the correct sizing of capital letters as compared to “small” letters? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13747 "2014-03-26T21:00:47Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Does it come with those dotted lines through the middle, for the correct sizing of capital letters as compared to “small” letters? Only if you’re Reform. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13748 "2014-03-26T21:12:26Z")
While we’re on the subject for some reason, what the hell is with the uppercase Q that looks like a 2? That always felt wrong to me. Typesetting, maybe, if you lost the Q sort somewhere and had a deadline to meet, but handwriting? You can’t run out of Q’s. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13749 "2014-03-26T21:47:00Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > While we’re on the subject for some reason, what the hell is with the uppercase Q that looks like a 2? That always felt wrong to me. > > Typesetting, maybe, if you lost the Q sort somewhere and had a deadline to meet, but handwriting? You can’t run out of Q’s. I think if you extend the top down to form a loop it would look pretty much like a Q. Over time, someone probably said “oh, all upper case letters simply must start at the top”, and it evolved to look like a 2. There are greater problems in the world to deal with than this. In my entire adult life, I can’t remember ever writing a cursive Q. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13750 "2014-03-26T21:54:22Z")
My cursive capital Q is a capital O with the stroke continuing through the O to join up with the next letter. I think some of my nieces and nephews have books that have cursive capital Q that looks like a print Q. You just join up the tail with the next letter. Not a widely used letter! ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13751 "2014-03-26T21:59:45Z")
If we’d like to assign a team of scientists to update the English alphabet and spelling rules, I’ll vote for it. No more cursive? Get off my lawn! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13752 "2014-03-26T22:04:20Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > If we’d like to assign a team of scientists to update the English alphabet and spelling rules, I’ll vote for it. We could use [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet). ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13753 "2014-03-26T22:05:42Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > If we’d like to assign a team of scientists to update the English alphabet and spelling rules, I’ll vote for it. > > No more cursive? Get off my lawn! Didn’t Germany go through Orthographic Reform recently? Got rid of that gothic font, and that double-S letter that looked like a “b”? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13754 "2014-03-26T22:16:25Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Didn’t Germany go through Orthographic Reform recently? Got rid of that gothic font, and that double-S letter that looked like a “b”? Eh, read the original Declaration of Independence someday; it’s about “life, liberty, and the purfuit of happineff”. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13755 "2014-03-26T22:16:56Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > If we’d like to assign a team of scientists to update the English alphabet and spelling rules, I’ll vote for it. > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > We could use [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet). I prefer [the approach first proposed by Dalton Edwards back in 1946](http://www.angelfire.com/va3/timshenk/codes/meihem.html). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13756 "2014-03-26T22:24:14Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Didn’t Germany go through Orthographic Reform recently? Got rid of that gothic font, and that double-S letter that looked like a “b”? I don’t know, but I have heard (from a Russian-language prof) that when the Bolsheviks came to power they cut a couple of obsolete letters out of the Cyrillic alphabet, with the result (so people said at the time) that _"War and Peace_ became three-fourths as thick." (Written Russian as it is now, BTW, is almost perfectly phonetic and needs no simplification. The actual **language,** OTOH . . .) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13757 "2014-03-26T22:34:59Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Didn’t Germany go through Orthographic Reform recently? Got rid of that gothic font, and that double-S letter that looked like a “b”? In the 1990s, they went through another round of spelling reform, which included clarifying when “ss” and when “ß” (“ess-tset” or “s-z”) should be used. Definitely didn’t get rid of it. Also clarified when “e” and “ä” are used. In both cases it had to so with making spelling a little more tied to phonetics and pronunciation. As for Fraktur, that hasn’t been popular since the 1940s, but there’s no way to “get rid” of it. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13758 "2014-03-26T23:08:51Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Didn’t Germany go through Orthographic Reform recently? Got rid of that gothic font, and that double-S letter that looked like a “b”? Yup. Russians did it too. Russian is a pretty sweet language to read. Mostly. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13759 "2014-03-26T23:13:27Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > We could use [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet). **FUCK YOU !** (no, not really. But Phonology was the bane of my existence for three long, long years ; in large part because of fucking IPA and the fucking accentuation marks and their fucking stupid inconsistent rules and who needs this shit I _know_ how it’s pronounced and GAWD JEEZUS **FUCK**. Never again.) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/13760 "2014-03-26T23:15:13Z")
China simplified its writing system after the Revolution, too. Taiwan and Hong Kong retain the old system, but they’re mainly mutually comprehensible. That, and the Russian reform, were attempts to improve literacy among the working classes by making it easier to read, as I’ve been told. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=687) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=689)