Oil of coal, course, is is a fungible commodity and they don’t flag, ya know, the molecules where, where it’s going to where it’s not but and in the, in the sense of the Congress today they know they are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first. So I believe that what Congress is going to do also is not to allow the export ban to such a degree that it’s Americans who get stuck holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here, it’s gotta flow into our domestic markets first.
The YouTube description transcribes the opening as: ""Oil and coal? Of course, it's a fungible commodity..."
I think she meant to say, "Oil, of course,..." but accidentally said, "Oil of coal..." and then corrected herself with " course".
Now, what is that fungibility stuff? Wikipedia says:
Fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are capable of mutual substitution.And then there's the phrase
they don’t flag, ya know, the molecules where it’s going to where it’s not...
Here's my guess at what she was trying to say, based on attending the AGIA conference in Anchorage this summer. Critics
My guess is that this is what she was thinking, even though she didn't articulate it very clearly. Maybe she thought if people couldn't understand her jargon they'd think she was really smart. Some academics do that. Also, I'm not sure if the same is true for oil. We know that there are different grades of oil and they sell for different prices, so they wouldn't be fungible. But there are different qualities of natural gas as well, so I'm not sure on this. Next.
"...what Congress is going to do also is not to allow the export ban to such a degree that it’s Americans who get stuck holding the bag without the energy source..."
Grammatically, let's see if we can make this work:
"Congress is not going to allow the export ban to such a degree that Americans get stuck without oil."
It seems to me that if she meant oil wouldn't be diverted from the Lower 48 and exported to other countries, then Congress SHOULD allow the export ban.
If you haven't seen the video, you can below.
She has to be running on half a tank and I feel bad for her with how tired she must be, but a VP should in theory be able to function without sleep if need be, like med school students. I cannot function without 8 hours of sleep and would not try this.
ReplyDeleteThe next George Bush. I wonder how she says nuclear?
ReplyDeleteShe says "nu-cu-lar."
ReplyDeleteOh dear--what IS the correct pronunciation?
ReplyDeleteSorry folks, this is, for me, a non-issue. This is a regionalism or dialect issue. Alaskans say Artic instead of Arctic. It doesn't mean they are stupid, or uneducated, it just means that here we say it differently. Just like New Yorkers and Bostonians have their own peculiar way of saying things.
ReplyDeleteThese differences make things interesting and challenge us to be flexibile and not be so full of ourselves.
So true Steve...my very educated and intelligent husband (MS in Environmental Mgmt) says "acrosst" all the time as he grew up in rural PA. I stopped correcting him years ago. ;-)
ReplyDeleteIt's important that those who aspire to office on the international stage speak a form of English which is at least intelligible. The audience whose English is learned without exposure to regional dialects can reasonably expect to hear language that relates to the one they have been taught. That may be "American" rather than "Oxford" English in view of America's dominant role in the English speaking world.
ReplyDeleteThis is not to say that statesmen need to be perfect, merely that their role demands that they make every effort to be clear in the way they express themselves. Not to self-correct errors like "nucular" is not to display lack of education or intelligence (although it may provoke ridicule) but laziness and an indifference to the needs of listeners which borders on contempt. It may go down well in the speaker's home constituency, but not on the wider stage of politics and certainly not on the international one.
In her case, she is not smart, period, end of statement....she is a beauty school drop out.
ReplyDelete