Vast Left-Wing Kleptocracy ®

Susan Olasky reports in the current issue of WORLD magazine ('Own that phrase') that a blogger named Leo Babauta

received a letter from a lawyer advising him that he had infringed the copyright of the lawyer's client by using the phrase "Feel the fear and do it anyway" in a post on his website. It turns out that the phrase is also the title of a book written by the lawyer's client. ... According to Babauta, the lawyers "asked me to insert the ® symbol after the phrase, in my post, and add this sentence: 'This is the registered trademark of Susan Jeffers, Ph.D. and is used with her permission.'"

Babauta's having none of it, but this little episode did get me to thinking. As someone who is involved in Oklahoma's vast right-wing conspiracy, and as someone who is disturbed by the practice of government officials and left-wing activists taking your money and then using it to lobby for more of your money, there's a phrase I've used for years which I think I should trademark: Vast Left-Wing Kleptocracy.

If someone coined the phrase first I'm not aware of it, but I'm sure I'll be hearing from their lawyer soon enough.