# This week's obligatory Bush gaff. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 27, 2004, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259 "2004-04-27T11:18:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/21 "2004-04-27T21:34:41Z")
> [@](#): > > If it was a mistake, his staff would have corrected him. If it \*were \* a mistake, his staff would have corrected him. Subjunctive mode. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2004, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/22 "2004-04-28T11:56:09Z")
Bah! This Chinee englishes goodlier than you does anyday! But yeah, you’re right ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/23 "2004-04-28T16:59:14Z")
> [@Libertarian](#): > > If it \*were \* a mistake, his staff would have corrected him. Subjunctive mode. Subjunctive _mood_. God. Don’t we have anything better to do??? ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/24 "2004-04-28T20:45:21Z")
> [@BJMoose](#): > > Subjunctive _mood_. > > God. Don’t we have anything better to do??? It’s “_Haven’t we_ anything better to do?” No. We clearly don’t have. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/25 "2004-04-29T02:25:53Z")
> [@Jurph](#): > > It’s “_Haven’t we_ anything better to do?” This should have a comma: _It’s, “Haven’t we anything better to do?”_ ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/26 "2004-04-29T02:38:25Z")
> [@Libertarian](#): > > Idiocy is as idiocy does. When you’re the President of the United States, get back to us. My daddy’s working on it as we speak. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/27 "2004-04-29T04:32:50Z")
“10 spots too low?” Maybe he means we should be 20th. Aw, never mind. He probably thinks “broadband” means The Donnas. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/28 "2004-04-29T11:27:25Z")
> [@BJMoose](#): > > Subjunctive _mood_. No, mode is superior to mood. It is the expression’s _modality_ to which the term refers. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/29 "2004-04-29T20:29:48Z")
> [@Jurph](#): > > It’s “_Haven’t we_ anything better to do?” > > No. We clearly don’t have. It’s “No. We clearly don’t haven’t.” Actually, since this is the Pit, it’s “No. We clearly don’t haven’t, you fucking excuse for a dingleberry, who only posts when he gets tired of masturbating the dog.” It’s the aorist pluperfect past indicative. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/30 "2004-04-30T00:30:18Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > It’s the aorist pluperfect past indicative. Actually, they don’t use that term anymore. It’s the aortist formerly known as the pluperfect past indicative. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/31 "2004-04-30T00:33:40Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Actually, they don’t use that term anymore. It’s the aortist formerly known as the pluperfect past indicative. Ah. The plupurple one. ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/32 "2004-04-30T00:48:59Z")
> [@](#): > > **Futile Gesture** said: > With Bush, USA is #0. > > What an idiot the man is. What Bush doesn’t know, and what a lot of non-hardcore geeks don’t know, is that #0 is typically the ‘first’ item when counting in computer related fields. Coming in #0 isn’t exactly bad to a geek. People like myself take a different kind of humor in this brain fart. Course, as others have said, even if he got it right, we’d have a large number of people going ‘Why’s he want us to be second?’ ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/33 "2004-04-30T01:01:47Z")
Getting GeeDubya when you call Tech Support. The mind boggles. Then cringes. This just in…nominee for gaffe of the week. In Karen Hughes stellar act of journalistic fellation, she mentions an incident when Vlad “the Impaler” Putin was visiting GeeDubya in the US, Putin flattered him with a reference to his Yale athletic days on the rugby team. Whereupon GeeDubya interrupted him to point out that the was on the _varsity_ rugby team. Of which, of course, there was none such (suffer, grammar geeks, suffer…) To date, the White House has refused to disclose documents relating to Mr. Bush’s athetic tenure at Yale, citing national security concerns. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/34 "2004-04-30T07:52:46Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > To date, the White House has refused to disclose documents relating to Mr. Bush’s athetic tenure at Yale, citing national security concerns. They won’t confirm he played intramural sports?!? :eek: My world is falling to pieces!!! ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/35 "2004-04-30T18:31:49Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > . . . intramural sports?!? :eek: What the hell kind of game is played inside a mural?? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259/36 "2004-04-30T18:36:00Z")
> [@BJMoose](#): > > What the hell kind of game is played inside a mural?? Tag. I mean, _duhh._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-obligatory-bush-gaff/242259.md?page=1)