Posts tagged as:

Mitt Romney

MACHIAVELLIAN [mak-ee-uh-VEL-ee-uh n] : characterized by subtle or unscrupulous cunning, deception, expediency, or dishonesty*

December 27, 2012

If there was ever a person in history who earned the title of infamous it has to be Niccolo Machiavelli, who lived at the turn of the 16th Century.  He was a politician in Italy who, believe it or not, is considered the founder of the study of political ethics.  Those of us who are [...]

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MEME: a reminder of a previous post

October 17, 2012

A number of weeks ago I published a blog posting featuring the word meme.  At the time I took a pretty academic approach to the word, not expecting it to crop up as dramatically as it has this morning. In numerous accounts of the presidential debate which was held last night in New York, the [...]

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ETIOLATE [EE-tee-uh-leyt] : to cause to become weakened or sickly; drain of color or vigor.

August 27, 2012

Yes, those are carrots in the photo to the right.   They are white carrots, which, I discovered, is the original color of carrots.  The article I read about them indicated that the Dutch wanted to create a vegetable that carried the color orange found in their flag, so they played with the genes of the [...]

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VEEP: a casual, abbreviated way of identifying the Vice President

August 12, 2012

Now that it’s official, Paul Ryan will be the Republican candidate for Vice President of the United States, things begin to get a little clearer in the campaign.   There’s been an awful lot of “mush” over the past several weeks and months, but Ryan’s selection clarifies what the rest of the election campaign will be [...]

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BEMUSED DUDGEON: confused resentment

August 11, 2012

In a very well written NY Times op-ed piece on August 10, Ta-Nehisi Coates, editor of the Atlantic, uses the term bemused dudgeon. The piece is about former Governor Romney’s commentary on the role of culture in attaining success. Having never heard the term dudgeon before, it led me on an investigative journey.  I discovered [...]

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ABRAHAMIC TRADITION: belonging to a community which traces its history to Abraham

June 13, 2012

In a very interesting op-ed piece in Wednesday’s New York Times, David  V. Mason, an associate professor of theater at Rhodes College, explains his unique understanding that as a Mormon he does not see himself as a Christian.   This flies in the face of numerous positions that have been stated over the past couple of [...]

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HETERODOXY: holding unorthodox beliefs

June 7, 2012

Yes, there are sects of Christianity who believe that there is something spiritual about handling poisonous snakes.  I don’t get it, but in some people’s minds there is a faith position demonstrated that indicates that God will not let anything happen to a person of faith who intentionally handles a venomous snake. As a practicing [...]

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JEANS: casual pants made from denim

February 21, 2012

I’m of  the generation that remembers when jeans were called dungarees.  In those days the word implied that the coarse, denim pants were designed for, and purchased for, something called “work.”   Because they were relatively inexpensive and easily cared for, they could be worn to muck out horse stalls, dig ditches, tame a horse, mow [...]

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THE ZED FACTOR: the last, final word

January 10, 2012

The term The Zed Factor is my own construction.  I’m using it as a way of describing that which The Penultimate Word is not.   This is not the final word, the definitive, the ultimate answer to a question.   To the contrary, it is an answer, an opinion, some thoughts on a topic. Zed is another [...]

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SENIOR MOMENT: when an otherwise-familiar word or name escapes you

November 11, 2011

Appropriately designated as a characteristic of aging, senior moment is a term that enters into one’s life more and more as the years pile up.  You don’t have to be elderly to have a brain freeze moment; it can happen to anyone.  But it sure seems to be more and more frequent as the hair [...]

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