Posts tagged as:

President Obama

RECOVERY: a transitional stage following a crisis

November 7, 2011

Given my history of hospitalizations over the past year or more, when I hear the word recovery my mind moves directly to the recovery room.  It’s that very important location in a hospital where you are moved for a temporary stay directly after having surgery or some other procedure.  The main reason they take you [...]

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BENIGN PRAGMATISM: a non-aggressive way of using theory and practice compatibly

October 1, 2011

  A recent article about President Obama referred to him as one who practices benign pragmatism.   It is a perfect term to describe someone who employs a method without it becoming a weapon. That article to which I referred, by Former Governor Mario Cuomo, makes the point that Obama and President Lincoln share a similar [...]

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PRAXIS: action, not just theory

September 17, 2011

A friend of mine was studying for her doctorate in theology at Boston College and kept talking about praxis.  I went for the longest time pretending that I knew what she was talking about before I took the time to look it up and discovered that it is a very important word which describes the [...]

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BALKANIZE: to divide an integrated body into smaller, competing, ineffective groups

September 9, 2011

While the word Balkanize makes a specific reference to a geographic region the use of the term has expanded to be applied to any large organization that is divided into smaller entities.   Many, if not most, times the act is undertaken to weaken the power of the larger body. I have seen the term used [...]

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ANXIETY: apprehension about an uncertain future

September 7, 2011

I love the television ad for Traveler’s Insurance which features the dog who worries about the security of his favorite chewing bone.  The accompanying song, Trouble , is by Ray LaMontagne, whose voice is perfect for the theme of the ad. The dog attempts a variety of options for securing the bone, including placing it [...]

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INDECISIVE: a state of being incapable of making a decision

August 19, 2011

When someone is frozen and unable to make a decision, they are said to be indecisive. It is a state which carries with it great anxiety and stress, particularly if the person is at a point of needing to make a clear decision in order to resolve an issue.  Being indecisive is not a matter [...]

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BULLY PULPIT: a highly visible political position from which a person can present an opinion

August 17, 2011

There’s been a lot of talk in the news lately about the bully pulpit various candidates have from which they can profess their views. Not surprisingly, the term was coined by President Theodore Roosevelt, for whom the term bully was a positive.  It meant strong, forceful, and aggressive, terms that would naturally apply to the [...]

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SOPORIFIC: sleep-inducing

August 15, 2011

Someone asked Mike Barnicle about his reactions to the Iowa Straw Poll.   His answer was that he was really disturbed that the Red Sox lost 2 out of 3 games to the Seattle Mariners.   I can resonate with his response. Sunday’s TV pundits are all over the place with their reports of enthusiasm, excitement, and [...]

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BRINKMANSHIP: the diplomatic feat of pushing an issue to the edge of disaster in order to win a matter

August 1, 2011

John Foster Dulles was  Secretary of State under President Eisenhower in the 1950′s.  Among other accomplishments he was acknowledged as the master of brinkmanship, a term crafted to mean that he was willing to take a diplomatic matter to the very edge of war in order to scare his opponents into concession.    It depends upon [...]

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CHICKEN: a dangerous game in which opponents “stare down” each other

July 14, 2011

Who can forget the scene in Rebel Without a Cause in which James Dean, playing the lead character, is speeding head-on toward his rival in souped-up cars?  They are playing “chicken” to see which one of them will blink first before the cars smash into each other, probably killing both of them.   The basic principle [...]

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