Posts tagged as:

POLITICS

EGREGIOUS: extraordinarily bad, flagrant

March 25, 2012

NCAA basketball and the NBA have gone to great measures to distinguish a “foul” from a “flagrant foul.”  To most of us watching on television, the difference is clear, but the officials have a set of criteria they must apply in order to call the more egregious foul.  That is to say, the foul that [...]

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AUDACITY: boldness, courage

December 22, 2011

Three years ago the term audacity moved from the obscure to the common with the publication of then-Senator Barack Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope.  It was a declaration of intention on the part of Obama to establish an era which put away negativity and embraced hope.  His premise in the book was seen as [...]

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SACRIFICE: an offering of something of value as a benefit to someone or something else*

June 29, 2011

Let me start this posting with a list: David inconveniences himself regularly for his wife, Melissa, as a sign of love Mom and Dad forgo a special night out to attend a backyard drama staged by their children Dustin Pedroia hits into the hands of the left fielder so Jacoby Ellsbury can score from 3rd [...]

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FICKLE: casually changeable

June 28, 2011

To be fickle is to be inconsistent in decision-making.  Wanting to have it both ways.  Unable to choose between options.  Constantly changing your position on something. While being fickle is something which is almost winked at these days, its Old English derivation related to treachery!  A fickle person was one who swore allegiance to one [...]

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TAX: a method for a municipality to gain revenue to support the cost of services provided

April 15, 2011

I’m convinced that the writers of dictionaries are Republicans.   When I went to the dictionaries for a proper definition of the word tax I found that all the definitions were negative, indicating that taxes are burdensome nuisances imposed upon people with no recourse.  If I accepted those definitions as being universal and unable to be [...]

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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 [...]

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GOVERNANCE: a system of oversight

December 26, 2010

There are some who believe that “getting elected” or “winning an election” is all that it takes to become the head of a country, state or municipality.   If we were to live by that belief we would be placing the craft of politics at the top of the ladder … and we would be missing [...]

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CANDID: frank; outspoken; open and sincere

September 8, 2010

CAUTION: some of you have told me that you don’t like reading my politically-sensitive posts. This is one of them.  If you are serious, you may want to look away and come back tomorrow. I’m frustrated. I’ve been fooling around with political comments inserted into other posts over the past several weeks without coming out and [...]

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COLD: the absence of heat

February 19, 2010

My wife and I have a running issue over the definition of the word cold. I have to admit that the one I have given in the title to this posting is my own, based upon what I have claimed is a technical explanation for why we experience cold. I don’t know how much weight [...]

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BELLWETHER: 1. a wether or other male sheep that leads the flock, usually bearing a bell 2. a person or thing that assumes the leadership or forefront 3. a person or thing that shows the existence or direction of a trend; index 4. a person who leads a mob, mutiny, conspiracy, or the like; ringleader (Dictionary.com)

November 5, 2009

Who would have known? I didn’t even have the right spelling! Like many people, I suspect, I went after this word, spelling it bellweather. I had a suspicion that I knew what it meant, having read the word in lots and lots of published articles lately. But I was shocked when I pulled up my [...]

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