Playing Word Detective- Proofers

Perhaps it is because I watched the PBS series "History Detectives" and listened to a podcast of the NPR talk show "Way with Words," but I've tried to become a word detective today.

While I was reading the current issue of "Wired" magazine, which is not one of the eight or nine magazines I subscribe to (and that is not a joke!), at Bean Traders, a coffee shop on 9th street in Durham, NC, yesterday, I came across the term 'proofers' in a column called "Jargon Watch" by Jonathan Keats.

Apparently like birthers, proofers are people, most of whom we presume are on the right, who want to see the photographs taken just after Osama bin Laden's killing in Abbotabad, Pakistan, on May 2, which President Barack Obama steadfastly refused to release to the media. And, one doesn't need to be Hillary Clinton to realize that such a move could have lead to major uprisings in Kandahar, Afghanistan, among other places.

Proofers thus believe that because there is no 'real proof' that Obama has lied about bin Laden's death, and is using it to win over voters in places like Eau Claire, Wisconsin, during the 2012 presidential election.

We have to wonder if the proofers think that bin Laden is serving up slurpees at a
7-11 in Provo, Utah.

Among these people are a Cleveland talk show host Chuck Booms (pictured above), who has also been a stand-up comedian.

We can not verify the exact moment that the term 'proofers' came to be, but David Weigel, a reporter for slate.com ,said a man named Matthew Hurt, tweeted the term just days after the bin Laden killing (sorry proofers, we are not going to use the term allegedly). Weigel mentioned this in a May 5 article he was writing for slate.com from Greenville, SC, where most people on the street thought releasing the photos would indeed be an unwise thing to do.

Nevertheless, it is safe to assume that if proofers become as widespread as birthers, Obama could face the prospect of showing the photos just to shut crazy right-wing idiots up as he did when he released his birth certificate that proved he was born in Hawaii.