Posts tagged as:

President Obama

GROUND ZERO: the point on the earth’s surface where an explosion occurs

August 17, 2010

Prior to 9/11/01 the term ground zero was a generic term, primarily military, which referred to any point on the earth’s surface beneath which a designated explosion took place.  It was first used, according to Wikipedia, to refer to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Since 2001, however, the term has become synonymous with that area [...]

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VITUPERATIVE: Using, containing, or marked by harshly abusive censure.

July 17, 2010

Over the past couple of days the media has been filled with commentary on the recorded “conversation”  allegedly between actor Mel Gibson and his ex-lover.  In highly-emotional situations like this, particularly in the entertainment industry, it is best to be cautious about jumping to conclusions about the veracity of the charges and counter-charges.
Consequently, I will [...]

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Dither: to act irresolutely; vacillate.

July 9, 2010

The word dither is used in its verb form, dithering … as in “dithering around.“  It usually means that the person is not accomplishing anything, but is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. In the form I have chosen to pursue it,  to dither, the word signifies the act of vacillating, unable to [...]

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PROGRESSIVE: opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are

July 5, 2010

Robert Kuttner, as I have said several times before, is a journalist for whom I have great respect.  He speaks clearly and without apparent concern for negative criticism.  I take this last characteristic to mean that he knows who he is, is comfortable with that, and has self-confidence enough to risk openly.  In addition to [...]

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ENCOMIUM: the heaping on of praise

July 1, 2010

In her  June 30 New York Times column, Maureen Dowd commented on the remarks General David Petraeus made prior to his confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate. In her column she described his words for his predecessor, General Stanley McChrystal as being an encomium.  I pulled out my BlackBerry, pulled up Dictionary.com, and typed in [...]

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GOT TO : to have as an obligation, as in “must”

June 16, 2010

It’s no surprise to anyone to hear me say that I think President Obama is bright and articulate.  He may well be one of the best orators to serve as President of the United States.  I don’t really care whether he uses a teleprompter or not; his delivery is effective.  His team of speech writers [...]

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800 POUND GORILLA: a very strong and/or menacing entity or issue that is obvious but not dealt with

June 14, 2010

You hear it all the time:  The conversation went all over the place, but nobody was talking about the 800 pound gorilla in the middle of the living room. I saw an ad on TV last week which showed a small convertible driving down the freeway with a huge gorilla in the passenger seat.  The [...]

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STOCKHOLM SYNDROME: A phenomenon in which a hostage begins to identify with and grow sympathetic to his or her captor.

June 4, 2010

I spent part of yesterday morning having a light breakfast with Robert Kuttner in Boston. Doesn’t that sound impressive?  Actually, I was one of a group who met him at the Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University.  It was a very intimate setting, however, and I felt as if I was sitting across the table [...]

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OIL SPILL: my take on it at this point

June 2, 2010

(NOTE: I had prepared another post for today.  It was clever, entertaining, and current.  But a restless night drove me back to the computer this morning.  I eliminated the post, which I will save for another day.  This is one of those times when I am following my “gut” rather than sticking to [...]

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OIL SPILL: a crisis no longer waiting to happen

April 30, 2010

The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and its resulting crisis for the residents of the Gulf Coast is a wake-up call to those pressuring for off-shore drilling.

If a similar crisis were to be occurring with a nuclear power plant there would be no excuses for a permanent moratorium on the building (and [...]

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