What does it mean “to preside?” The Online Etymology Dictionary says, among other things, that it comes from the Latin for “to sit in front of.” What a multitude of sins we have hidden behind that facade!
Category: Words Poorly Used
Words Poorly Used #79 — Waste
It seems that POTUS and his minions believe that if the foursome contains a critical number of peeps with presidential business, then it must be appropriate. I wonder if Arnold Schwartzenegger was canned on the back nine.
Words Poorly Used #77.1 — Impeachment
Isn’t “(legal) impeachment” a redundancy? Aren’t “hinder” and “impede” obvious? Oh, oh, oh! Maladministration??? Never!!!
Words Poorly Used #76 — Communication
As we try to communicate, we frequently learn that communication is difficult. Today, Kilgorette and I had the following push-me-pull-you.
Words Poorly Used #75 — Evolution
We make way too many assumptions about the nature of evolution, without questioning true, false, or irrelevant. I will talk here about three.
Words Poorly Used #74 — Education
The experience of school teaches the same thing as prison does, that survival is dependent on maximum control of the hierarchy. The warden/principal must make sure that all aggression goes down the structure, not up. Neither bullies nor rapists are of any real concern, to the upper tiers, since the lower in the hierarchy a victim stands, the higher the penalties for upsetting the order.
Words Poorly Used #77 — Impeachment
I saw my first instance of a partisan calling for impeachment (of POTUS) today. When I was a kid, I thought impeachment was like drawing and quartering, and that only 1 POTUS had actually been thusly dispatched. Nowadays, we only have to look back four decades, and change.
Words Poorly Used #73: Avoiding War
There were a post and a thread of discussion on Facebook today covering the POTUS-Elect’s nomination for Secretary of State. Someone ventured that we (the USA, I suppose) would “avoid war with Russia.” One, we never avoid war, it is the health of the state (per Randolph Bourne), and it is the wealth of the oligarchy. And it is the joystick of the powerful. Two, haven’t every POTUS and SOS always avoided war with Russia, or did I miss an episode? Give a little, take a little, but don’t break up the game.
Words Poorly Used – Another Devil’s Dictionary #1
I particularly want to say thanks to my Writers Group friends who sent links that brought about quite a bit of thought in the Forelle cranial vault. Emerging is an homage to Ambrose Bierce, the author of The Devil’s Dictionary.
Words Poorly Used #72: Oligarchy
I got in trouble last month for using the term “oligarchy” in, admittedly, a pejorative sense. Here’s what I wrote on Facebook: “No matter how one votes tomorrow, the winner will be oligarchy A or oligarchy B (where A = B).” Very good friends called me to task for this logic fallacy, justifiably so since I had committed several logic fallacies, the worst of which was the fallacy of begging the question. My premises assumed their own truth without establishment. Is the USA really run by an oligarchy?