“What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.” Sarah Palin said,  ad libbing during her RNC speech. But America as a whole failed to acknowledge the importance of that line and what it meant for our future. With that short sentence, Sarah Palin took full ownership of the word lipstick. 

Having the sole owner and copyright holder of the term lipstick on his staff, John McCain was upset when Barack Obama used it during a speech in Virginia. The phrase that Obama used had been one of the most popular American colloquialisms for decades but that does not negate the Palin patent of last week. 

What Obama said: 

“That’s not change,” Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said of what Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is offering.

“You know, you can put lipstick on a pig,” Obama said. “But it’s still a pig.”

Because of Palin’s ownership of the word lipstick, logic dictates that the “pig” was a thinly veiled, misogynistic gibe at her expense. Because that phrase had never been used in a public forum by a politician prior to her legendary speech. It certainly wasn’t used last year by John McCain in reference to Hillary Clinton: 

While he said he had not studied Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s health-care plan, he said it was “eerily reminiscent” of the failed plan she offered as first lady in the early 1990s.

“I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” he said of her proposal.

Rules being rules, from now on the term lipstick can only be used in a context of praising Sarah Palin. That RNC statement is legally and culturally binding so there’s no use fighting it. Unfortunately, this means that the following terms must also be removed from general usage: what, the, difference, between, a, hockey, mom, and, pit, bull. To be on the safe side, it is recommended that you also refrain from using contractions involving is.