Posts tagged as:

Egypt

MEGALOMANIA: a symptom of mental illness marked by delusions of greatness, wealth, etc

February 24, 2011

Following the events in Libya these days it is easy to become confused about the logical process if I forget that the leader of the country, Col. Al Qaddafi, is a megalomaniac.  That may sound like a negative, judgmental  thing to say about someone, especially a head of state.  But it is less a personal [...]

Read the full article →

REPLICATE: to duplicate

February 17, 2011

Whenever someone comes up with a great idea the question arises: “How can we replicate this?“  It seems like a knee-jerk reaction.  If something is so good, so useful, so valuable, why wouldn’t we want to make more of them?  I suppose that’s part of the American system of economics.  The idea is to continue [...]

Read the full article →

TORQUE: any force or system of forces that causes or tends to cause rotation

February 14, 2011

I’ve admitted to you before that I have no skills when it comes to things mechanical.  My favorite saying is that I have trouble distinguishing between an Allen Wrench and a Phillips Head Screwdriver.  The fact that they both have proper names in them is confusing to me. So when I focus on a very, [...]

Read the full article →

REVOLUTION: an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.

February 11, 2011

There have been all kinds of euphemisms employed over the past two weeks to describe the activity in the central square of Cairo and in the other cities of Egypt.  But the reality has pushed through those euphemisms:   what is happening is a revolution. The people of Egypt have lived under the organized dictatorship of [...]

Read the full article →

BATED: to restrain or hold back

February 4, 2011

The only way I’ve ever heard this word used is in  reference to bated breath.  It is a common term, meaning to face a situation that requires one to show restraint in anticipation of the result. “We watched with bated breath as the truck careened down the highway.” The implication of the use of the [...]

Read the full article →

DEMOCRACY: a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

February 2, 2011

Sometimes we Americans can be  myopic, especially when it comes to political issues.   We have been raised in a system which teaches us that our way of government is excellent, and that we are fortunate to live in a country where democracy is understood to be the superior way of conducting a nation.  From the [...]

Read the full article →

CONTRARY: the opposite position

January 30, 2011

“Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?  With silver bells and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row.” It was a childhood nursery rhyme, and like most of them, the words didn’t mean anything out of the ordinary to me.  It turns out that most of the nursery rhymes we learned [...]

Read the full article →

FOREFRONT: the position of greatest importance or prominence

January 28, 2011

This morning I was watching an early morning news show, absorbed in the discussion of the unrest in Tunisia, Egypt, and now Yemen.     One of the commentators mentioned that selecting the primary news of the morning is tricky; a lot depends upon one’s perspective.   Some will be focused this morning on the selection of a [...]

Read the full article →