I Know it's In Here Somewhere...

James Taranto of the Wall St. Journal comes through again. 

Truisms and Tautologies Monthly, this humble blog, thanks Mr T. and appreciates his help in the sadly neglected sport of tautology-spotting. Hey, I should send him a link! 

Here it is: News of the Tautological

• “At Least Once per Lifetime, an Election Actually IS the Most Important”—headline, Washington Post website, July 28

Tautology = the same idea in different words...

An easy one for a Monday. 

James Taranto cherry-picks absurd stuff from the news for his Wall Street Journal column. He's a skilled tautology-spotter. Here's today's piece. 

News of the Tautological 
“Lost Zebra on Loose in Greene County”—headline, Times Union (Albany, N.Y.), May 15

Word of the Day, with guest host Bernie Sanders

"In other words, the convention will be a contested contest." --The Bern

T&TM, a blog that started as a joke, is open for business today!

Truisms and Tautologies Monthly is a blog that features circular statements by people who make headlines. 

"In other words, the convention will be a contested contest." 

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders kicks off May 2015 with his prediction that the Democrats' nominee for POTUS will still be a jump ball at convention time. 

In fairness to Bernie, who's new at this, it seemed more like a brain cramp than a purposeful political pirouette. It wasn't some lap taken through the English language to arrive at where it started without conveying any information. 

Doesn't compare to Hillary's punchy and emphatic tautology of last October, "I never took a position on Keystone until I took a position on Keystone!"

She performs as hard as she can, putting verve and strong intention into her meaningless statements. Makes the Bern look like a guy who just failed to see the end of the sentence coming and tried to put a pillow in front of the bumper to prevent crashing into the period at the end.

Happy to get suggestions from my FB pals. We need some Republicans to balance the canoe. Pompous statements without any content, circular reasoning, statements of discovery that are painfully obvious, like "gravity is like a force of nature," all that stuff is welcome. Even better if it's so ridiculous that it's funny. 

Signing off for May 2016, with six months to go in the presidential election. I'll be watching.

What position did she take, and when did she take it?

"I never took a position on Keystone until I took a position on Keystone!"

As October slips by, I had a few anxious moments wondering if TTM (Truisms and Tautologies Monthly) was going to get a post. Thanks so much to Hillary Clinton for saving our month!

Like the guy who comes into your family hardware store and makes your month by buying half a dozen window units to air condition his lake house, Hillary straightened us out about pipelines from Canada, and gave us our Tautology of the Month.

Thanks, Hill. You saved this little blog from a blank month! 

What happens if it's not an iPhone? Mystery solved!

The tautology bug has bitten the folks in Cupertino, California, and Apple is placing big bets on a nine-word tautology: "If it's not an iPhone, it's not an iPhone."

This is how they appeal to all those highly discriminating, hip people they respect so much--their customers! Or maybe, they just caved, and decided to 'fess up that it's been more of a status symbol all along. One thing's for sure--we'll never know what they meant. Because, you know...it's tautological.

http://9to5mac.com/2015/07/09/new-iphone-ads/

Day Two of Truisms and Tautologies Monthly!

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the "Enough Is Enough" measure into law Tuesday at New York University at an event that included U.S. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Charles Rangel.  --CBS New York / AP

Today, with great pride, New York passed legislation titled "Enough is Enough."  In follow-up interviews:

It's been a long-standing ambition of my public service career to answer the burning question, "what is enough?" I'm gratified today to say "mission accomplished!"  I just wish I had an aircraft carrier and a banner. 
                                                                                -- Governor Mario Cuomo

We hear "no means no," "enough is enough," "it is what it is," all these confusing statements. At last, people will begin doing the right thing, because we told them so. (waves hand)
                                                              --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

There is no reason a young person should have to pay for college education. Enough is enough!
                                                             --Representative Charles Rangel

PS: The follow-up interviews are fictitious.

Harold Fethe is reserving this space for possible use as an ironical newsletter. Its premise will be to cover statements by world leaders and other important people that are entertaining because they are meaningless due to circularity.