Posts tagged as:

health care

POLITICAL DENIAL: rejecting a previous action to gain voter support

May 13, 2011

There is an onerous practice among professional politicians which I call political denial.  It takes place when a politician running for office denies a legislative success, speech, or other public action which characterized (his) previous political life, but which is currently embarrassing.  It represents a “flip flop” in principles and is employed primarily to gain [...]

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CONUNDRUM: a perplexing problem

May 21, 2010

I used the word conundrum in a post the other day, causing two people to ask me what the word meant.  It is a word which has several meanings, including the use of a pun to state a situation.   But as I used it, I was referring to the idea that the answer to a [...]

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PETARD (as in “hoisted on one’s own”): hurt, ruined, or destroyed by the very device or plot one had intended for another.

March 24, 2010

I don’t think I ever have enjoyed an etymological search as much as I have this one.  In trying to get to the source of the term “hoisted on one’s own petard” I discovered that the origin is  a French word, “peter,” which means (literally) to break wind, or fart!  It was adopted in military [...]

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LANDMARK: a distinguishing landscape feature marking a site or location

March 22, 2010

When the 216th Member of the House of Representatives clocked in with a “yes” vote on the heavily-debated Health Care legislation last night, it was tantamount to becoming law.  There are a couple of U.S. Senate steps remaining to firm up the decision, but for the most part, the United States now has a Health [...]

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PENULTIMATE STAGE: the last surge before voting on Health Care bill

March 13, 2010

The reactions of the people in the crowd differ during the final stretch.  Some people scream instructions to the jockey.  Some just scream.  Others hold their breath, afraid that if they say anything they will jinx the outcome.  I’ve seen some people turn their backs to the finish line, afraid to see the result. The [...]

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RECONCILIATION: the act of bringing resolution to a debated issue

March 5, 2010

Reaching across a great divide is not a bad image to accompany this blog posting.  It more than adequately represents the phenomenon of reconciliation as we experience it now in Congress.  In order for Congress to accomplish the act of legislating health care reform it is necessary for Members to come to a common agreement.    [...]

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