The Definition of Irony

The old definition…

an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.

And the new, confusing version…

Joshua Hoge, a schizophrenic confined to Washington state’s Western State Hospital, is claiming at least part of his late mother’s estate even though he’s the one who killed her in 1999. Washington law prevents profiting from the “unlawful” and “willful” taking of another’s life, but Hoge was found “not guilty by reason of insanity,” and the legal issue is still unsettled. Furthermore, according to a January report in the Seattle Times, it appears the mother’s estate consists almost totally of the $800,000 the estate won in a lawsuit against a county health clinic because it was negligent in delaying Joshua’s medications, which probably led to him killing her.

This is irony on steroids with a triple dismount. I feel like I’ve just got done programming the VCR and doing calculus. At the same time. It hurt my head. No one could make this up.

Curb Your Schizophrenia

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2007/10/29/071029ta_talk_ward

He drives the rest of us crazy, though.

The Wreckx-N-Effect Effect

Regarding GW Bush

The Perception

The term is also used to describe a perceived tendency to treat children as “special” in order to boost their self-esteem, even though the children may only be average or even underperforming

The Reality

1. Incompetent individuals tend to overestimate their own level of skill.
2. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skill in others.
3. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy.
4. If they can be trained to substantially improve their own skill level, these individuals can recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill.

The combination leads to a new syndrome called the Wreckx N Effect effect. For lack of any other logical explaination for his level of stupidity, this has got to be it. It took about 5 minutes of research. Same amount of time it took George to research the WMD info. Doesn’t make it any less true though, does it?

Hope this wins that grant I’ve been looking for.