Joe the Asshole

*Cross Posted at Is It Luck*

His name isn't Joe, he's not a plumber, he doesn't own "his" business, yet he is John McCain's role model. I wonder if that extends to child rearing advice. If so, the little McCains had better avoid the gays. Here's an exchange between JtP and Christianity Today:

In the last month, same-sex marriage has become legal in Iowa and Vermont. What do you think about same-sex marriage at a state level?

At a state level, it's up to them. I don't want it to be a federal thing. I personally still think it's wrong. People don't understand the dictionary—it's called queer. Queer means strange and unusual. It's not like a slur, like you would call a white person a honky or something like that. You know, God is pretty explicit in what we're supposed to do—what man and woman are for. Now, at the same time, we're supposed to love everybody and accept people, and preach against the sins. I've had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn't have them anywhere near my children. But at the same time, they're people, and they're going to do their thing.

I included his entire response lest I be accused of taking his sage words out of context. As you can see, there is no context (unless "I don't want [the decision to legalize gay marriage] to be a federal thing" is context). Nope, this is unadulterated homophobia.

But his unabashed bigotry is not what concerns me most. He's just a moron on the wrong side of history. What troubles me is the catastrophic failure that occurred during this man's education. He seems to be entirely ignorant of the role of homophones in English.

Webster's Online Dictionary defines homophones as, "one of two or more words pronounced alike but different in meaning or derivation or spelling." Even when words have the same derivation and spelling, they can be homophones if their meanings differ. For example, when the British were developing armored vehicles during World War I, they disguised the weapons as water carriers, and the name "tank" stuck.

It is unlikely that anyone would insist that an M1-A1 be understood as the largest part of a hot water heater, despite their identical derivation. But this is exactly what Joe the Plumber asks his audience to do in the service of his bigoted non-ideas. Sorry, Joe; before you start lecturing me on the dictionary, perhaps you ought to consult one. If you can read.