CATAGORIES: REASONS TO BUY DUCT TAPE — FloridaBill @ 9:38 am

“I’m just saying” is a phrase that I am hearing more and more often lately. I am not at all certain that I understand its’ usage or popularity. Is it an excuse to say anything you want and then you end the insult or put-down by stating that “I’m just saying” as if that somehow relieves the verbal sin you may have just committed. “She’s not fat, but she has big bones. I’m just saying” translates into “She a fat pig and I am allowed to say so”?

Or is the phrase used to avoid prosecution for political incorrectness? If Dyngus Day Dumbass Dickhead Donny Imus had said “I don’t want to say they look like nappy headed hos, but I’m just saying”, would he have been in so much trouble as to lose his vaulted spots on MSNBC television and CBS radio in about 80 markets? Would that line have somehow saved him?

There are blogs with the phrase in their title (krupsjustsayin.blogspot.com, justsaying.biscuitpress.com,). Goggle has 52,500,000 hits for the term. There is a place called Phrasefinder that suggests that the term originiated in the 80’s or 90’s and is “an elliptical expression made intelligible by what precedes it in the conversation, that is, its antecedent”. I am not even sure what an elliptical expression is, much less in agreement with that defintion (since I don’t understand it). Glen Beck at Glenpedia.com gives us a working definition of the term: “I’m just sayin’: a phrase used to defuse potential embarrassment after saying something highly opinionated.” An example might be: “Fred Thompson should not run for President, he is just an actor. I am just saying…”. (How soon we forget.)

One of the local morning radio programs (Q101) even has a guy named James Van Ostel (spelling??) who does a segment called “I’m just saying” (apparently available on Podcasts somewhere) on a morning drive time show. This morning, it was about the Bush administrations termination of several Federal Prosecutors. He concluded his remarks by saying Patrick Leahy saying on the floor of Congress that the Bush administrations statement about losing the e-mails being the equivalent of “the dog ate my homework” would be giving the Bush administration too much credit because they don’t do their homework. He then ended the segment as he ends every one by saying “I’m just saying”.

I want to know what that means. I think it may stem from the colloquialism, “Know what I’m saying” that some American’s put on the end of every sentence. Or “Know what I mean”, when in fact we do not. I think the phrase has no real meaning or adds anything meaningful to a conversation or statement. Is this insidious or is it just me? Could it be that America has just grown even more fat and lazy in their speech patterns?

I’m just saying…