The media’s ability to gin up phony outrage never ceases to amaze me. The Tampa Bay Times’ PolitiFact blog saw fit to “fact check” a tweet by Fred Thompson:
Report: Obamacare could raise ins premiums by 200%. It’s the “A-Ford-able Care Act” – your insurance costs as much as a new Explorer.
They actually ran the numbers and declared it false.
All I can do is let my jaw hang open for a moment and say in my most befuddled voice, “um… you just fact-checked hyperbole that was obviously made in service of a groaner of a pun. You are dumb.”
Un.
Be.
Lievable.
It’s seldom worth discussing anything with people that can’t understand jokes.
@1 – That’s just it, they actually acknowledge that it’s a joke, but THEY FACT-CHECKED IT ANYWAY.
Somewhere, an on-line editor needs firing.
The worst thing is — their fact check calls him out as wrong when in fact it PROVES HIM RIGHT.
In their example, a premium jump of $700/mo->$2200/mo => 200% jump is what Thompson claimed and they verified.
They then claim that this is less than a Ford Explorer because that’s less than $30k/yr and Explorers cost $30k.
Last I checked, most car loans allow you more than 1 year to pay off your loan. If you can buy a Ford Explorer on $1.5k/mo, then THOMPSON IS DEAD RIGHT.
Stupid Obamacare Stupid liberals.
My health insurance premiums are a far, far higher outlay every month than the payments on both of my cars; and the car insurance premiums on said cars. I’ll eventually get to stop making payments on the car when they’re paid off. Not so much with the health insurance premiums. Additionally, I still owe money from health issues (my wife broke her foot) that the insurance didn’t cover (Co-Pays, deductibles, etc)…
I’m not sure I see the point of their point – so if you fact-check a joke and it turns out to be an exaggeration then it’s not funny?
guess I can cross off all those “yo mama so fat” and Blonde jokes I was going to try out.
Also explains why I almost never get on the “punchline nuker of the day” list – apparently my punchlines aren’t factually accurate.
Well, now I know
oh, and also, my healthcare premiums have gone from $75 a month for my wife and me to over $500 in the last 3 years….that’s almost doubling of my premiums EVERY YEAR…and every year when HR called us in for our annual “here’s how we’re going to screw with your benefits this year” meeting they blamed Obamacare every time.
“We tried to locate any bar which was patronized simultaneously by a priest, a rabbi, and a duck, and have been unable to do so. We declare this joke totally BUSTED!”
Is Obama a Muslim, as his school records all indicate? Not important. There is no way Obama could have been granted the Social Security number he has presented. Not important. Obama attended two extremely expensive universities while working at no job. Who paid? Not important. We’re told Obama was a brilliant student, yet in his own book he says he was a terrible student. Where are his school records? Not important. Obama supposedly served as editor of the Harvard Review, yet no editorial written by Obama ever appeared in the Harvard Review? Not important. What is Obama’s history with his close friend and neighbor Bill Ayers, a convicted domestic terrorist? Not important. Obama repeatedly claims he’s cut spending, yet no one can find any cuts he’s made to any budget? Not important. Would a projected 200% increase in Obamacare equal the cost of a Ford Explorer? We need to get everyone on this right away!
@Blarg “guess I can cross off all those “yo mama so fat” and Blonde jokes I was going to try out.”
Racist
” your insurance costs as much as a new Explorer.” According to the numbers would be false. Your health insurance will cost MORE than a Ford Explorer.
Maybe Fred was using the portion of life spent working vs freedom lost to govt. mandate conversion rate incorrectly, for once he forgot to carry the fist and some idiot dared to check out a Fred Fact. It does seem as if the lefties have been trying to make ever more ridiculous things into scandal or controversy, such as taking a drink of water.
You are the humorless ones! You! YOU!! You hatemongering, oppressive, imperialist, deathlovers wouldn’t know humor if it struck you the same way you love to strike women!
Now don’t go saying I don’t know humor because I worked with Ben Stiller and Ben Stiller is known for funny! When you can fill Mitzi Shore’s place and leave them crying, then and only then will I deign you worthy and permit you to question my knowledge.
Then again reptile-brain humor is probably different from evolved, enlightened humor. I wouldn’t know. I’m not regressed like right wingers are. Maybe I need to drop an anvil on my head and then conservative humor–ugh, is there a bigger oxymoron–will start to make sense to me. I mean I’m sure cavemen told jokes to each other about the bugs in their fur, but I don’t care to know, it wouldn’t make me laugh.
@Janeane: being on the other side of the internet makes it fun sometimes to read rants while munching popcorn, and the irony is nice that your contribution here can be described as BOTH “humorless” and “amusing.” You are, in fact, funny, though I couldn’t say if that’s a prefrontal cortex or limbic system response to your work.
I’m going to recycle one of the “open mic” jokes:
Pointing out reality to an Obama voter is like a positive attitude… it won’t solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
Now the $64 question is … would you find that funny if you just substitute in “Republican” where it says “Obama” ?
Huffy attitudes are a sure sign of fear …. what are you afraid of if your position turns out to be wrong?
The only thing funny about wing nuts is their constant contributions to unintentional comedy. I mean, “Capitalist B”? Yeah, another one just hoping and praying that Reagan comes back and saves them from the bogeyman they think Obama is. Wingnuts are like little children not getting what they want when they want it. They cry and pout and stomp their feet hating the necessary change that they are powerless to stop. Their tantrums taking the form of monster truck shows, Ted Nugent concerts, waving the confederate flag, smoking their cigars-ugh- and drinking their beer while over compensating and putting down women while grilling meat on a barbecue-double ugh!
Positive attitude? I’ve never seen so much whining and crying about one lone president and you people think you’re so macho? Jeeze, get a box of tampons already.
Whoa. Who let the wookie in?
WOOKIE?? What kind of mindless, sexist shot is THAT?? Oh, well, Bullibrat’s name says it all. Probably overcompensates for shortcomings by beating the snot out of his life partner just so he can, for a very short time, feel like an alfa male. Bet Bullibrat likes his life partners all shaved and hairless like 12 year olds and gets all fumfery and awkward around real, natural, empowered women. Yeah, Bullibrat, go shoot your assault rifles and crank up your country music and wave that confederate flag so you can feel all macho.