WORDS WORDS WORDS

I love words.

I suppose every writer does and must.

I like poetry and non-fiction these days more than novels and short stories.

I remember in 12th grade, however, how much I enjoyed reading short story masterpieces.

I haven't found the paperback that my English teacher placed into my lucky hands, but sometimes I'll come across a few stories that I really liked.

Nowadays I look for poems that slipped by me or ones that I have overlooked.

I like to re-read the great poems; but I won't mention which ones or which poets right now.

My focus is on words.

I like to discover where words "come from".

The where and the how---

the when is important, too, but I enjoy the first two the most.

Over twenty years ago I bought Ernest Weekley's etymology dictionary called

An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English.

I suppose one impetus for purchasing this two-volume work, if not the main impetus, was because D.H. Lawrence had run off with Professor Weekley's wife Frieda.

I wanted something to connect me to D.H. Lawrence.

Simple words will do when writing.

It's how they're used, and not how big and fancy.

But I also like those big words.

Strange words.

I used two strange words last week to describe two of my students.

They were not complimentary words, but neither were the students.

Immediately after using these words which had been elicited by how my students were behaving, I thought to myself,

"Gee. I wonder where these words came from?"

I also thought,

"I haven't used these words in many years."

So...

Here...

As I type...

I will find and share with you the etymologies for these two words.

Oh...

The words!

They are pipsqueak and numskull (and later I will have a couple of bonus words).

pipsqueak: 1910, from the trivial noise a young or weak creature makes.

What a big disappointment.

I wanted to know more, and have more history on this one.

I'll look elsewhere and get back to you on this word.

numskull: 1717, from num (see numb) + skull. Numskulled (adj.) is attested from 1706.

This wasn't much better, but it says

Look up skull at Dictionary.com and gives this:

c.1225, probably from O.N. skalli "bald head, skull," a general Scand. word (cf. Swed. skulle, Norw. skult), probably related to O.E. scealu "husk" (see shell). But early prominence in southwestern texts suggests rather origin from a Du. or Low Ger. cognate (e.g. Du. school "turf, piece of ice," but the sense of "head bone framework" is wanting). Derivation from O.Fr. escuelle seems unlikely on grounds of sound and sense. O.E. words for skull include heafod-bolla.

At least one part of the word, skull, was specified.

I really like the O.E. words for skull: heafod-bolla.

"Can't you get it through your heafod-bolla!"

Now for the bonus words.

They are caucus and coccyx.

The Presidential primaries are in full swing, and so the word caucus is in the air and on the airwaves.

Strange-sounding word, isn't it?

Caucus...caucus.

When I hear it being said I think of the word coccyx.

I know that they aren't pronounced the same.

But now I’ll dig into their etymologies:

caucus: 1763, Amer.Eng., perhaps from caucauasu "counselor" in the Algonquian dialect of Virginia, or the Caucus Club of Boston, a 1760s social & political club whose name possibly derived from Mod.Gr. kaukos "drinking cup." Another candidate is caulker's (meeting). The verb is from 1850.

O.K. That's kind of interesting.

coccyx: 1615, from Gk. kokkyx "cuckoo" (from kokku, like the bird's Eng. name echoic of its cry), so called by ancient Gk. physician Galen because the bone in humans supposedly resembles a cuckoo's beak.

Voilà!

Very Interesting.

I hope that all of you have enjoyed this little exercise.

I just love words.

Don't you?

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

CLICHES CATCH PHRASES AND CANARIES ALREADY GOT ONE PAW ON THE CHICKEN COOP

I hate clichés and catch phrases as much as my dad hated cats.

He began hating felines after one killed his canary.

But I have lied, or at least have misled, when I said that I hate clichés and catch phrases.

I am constantly using them.

Here are some that I have used in the past month (I could also tell why I said them, but won’t):

We’re all in the same boat.

Beggars can’t be choosers.

Big Brother is watching.

Here is one my mom said a lot:

IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING NICE TO SAY, DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL.

The early bird catches the worm.

Quit horsing around!

Wishy, washy.

Bump on a log.

Cover my (your) ass.

When pigs can fly.

Zip it!

Button it up!

The long and short of it.

Bite your tongue.

See the glass as half empty or half full.

I am constantly repeating this one to my students:

Wake up and smell the coffee.

These are clichés I must like since I am always saying them.

There is one cliché I REALLY DON’T LIKE (and I’m not pulling the wool over your eyes):

Been there, done that.

Then there are some clichés I never knew existed.
A few of them are fairly obnoxious, and some of them border on the profane:

As horny as a three balled tomcat.

Tighter than a gnat's ass.

As useful as tits on a bull.

Busier than a one armed paper hanger.

Horny as a three peckered Billy goat.

A face like a bulldog chewing on a wasp.

Our world is filled with clichés.

Even the sentence "Oh, that's such a cliche" is a cliché.

All I want to say is:

Touché

To

The

Cliché!

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

HONEY-GLAZED CHICKEN SWIMMING ENHANCED TECHNIQUES AND AN ALTERNATIVE SET OF PROCEDURES

The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of a nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies, but would be ashamed to tell big lies.

Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" (1925)

"This government does not torture people."
George W. Bush

What makes lying so easy for Bush is his contempt-for language, for law, and for anybody who dares question him.... So his words mean nothing. That is very important for people to understand.

Justin Frank, MD, psychiatrist, professor at George Washington University Hospital, and author of Bush on the Couch.

GWEN IFILL: Let me ask Senator Bond a little bit about this issue of weatherboarding. And let me describe for our viewers first to remind them what it is. It's when there's a piece of cloth that's placed over the mouth of a person who's been strapped down, and water is poured on their face so they feel like they're inhaling water, and it gives a sensation of drowning. Do you think that's torture?

I just would like to -- but do you think that weatherboarding, as I described it, constitutes torture?

SEN. KIT BOND: There are different ways of doing it. It's like swimming, freestyle, backstroke.

[PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer/December 12, 2007]

Here are my ruminations about how a U.S. citizen views water boarding (In the thug voice of Jon Stewart):

You know, it’s like when water goes up your nose and you don’t want it to go up there, and you cough and you try to get the water out.

Yeah, it’s uncomfortable, but it won’t drown or kill you.

America can tolerate a little torture if it means a safer homeland; if it stops another terrorist attack.

It isn’t you or me being tortured, so what’s the big deal?

Now if 9/11 was not an Israeli or Saudi-Arabian sponsored “operation”, then the end (SAVING AMERICAN LIVES and STOPPING TERRORIST ATTACKS) might justify the means (water boarding).

But the above if remains an unsolved mystery. There are plenty of people who believe that it is not unsolved, only unrevealed and unexposed to the public.

I no longer disbelieve the diabolical possibility that 9/11 was foreknown and preventable.

A gathering "storm" of data will eventually show how 9/11 was not a fortuitous tragedy.

I don’t believe that this lying administration was that inept.

Inside job?

Probably not.

It was both outside and inside.
But that's another matter for history's posterior to uncover.

"Did the Bush administration know in advance about the impending attacks that occurred on 9/11, and allow these to happen, to provoke pre-planned wars against Afghanistan and Iraq? These questions demand immediate answers."
"We believe that senior government officials have covered up crucial facts about what really happened on 9/11. We believe these events may have been orchestrated by the administration in order to manipulate the American people into supporting policies at home and abroad."

Scholars for 9/11 Truth

[Scholars for 9/11 Truth is headed by Brigham Young University physics professor Steven E. Jones and University of Minnesota Duluth distinguished McKnight professor of philosophy Jim Fetzer. The group has 50 academicians and others. They include Robert M. Bowman, former director of the U.S. "Star Wars" space defense program, and Morgan Reynolds, former chief economist for the Department of Labor in President George W. Bush's first term.]

The Associated Press
April 12, 2004

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush was told more than a month before the Sept. 11 attacks that al-Qaida had reached America's shores, had a support system in place for its operatives and that the FBI had detected suspicious activity that might involve a hijacking plot. Since 1998, the FBI had observed ``patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks,'' according to a memo prepared for Bush and declassified Saturday.

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

PAUL WOLFOWITZ

Mr. Spitting-and-Licking his comb Paul Wolfowitz is back in the wolf pack at the White House.
A subservient, hard-working, tax-paying nation of sheep needs new shepherding and swindling.
(Mr. Wolfowitz fits the bill.)
I guess the illegal, ignoble, and fabricated Iraq war has left Mr. Wolfowitz with an empty feeling.
He needs to fill up his emptiness with more fabrications like the ones that he whipped up at the Office Of Special Plans.
Congressional confirmation is not needed, and thus no confrontation will occur about Mr. Wolfowitz's latest appointment as Chairman of the International Security Advisory Board.
This newly anointed and appointed position gives Mr. Wolfowitz new opportunities to be in charge of eschewing facts, manipulating data, and devising deceptions required to put the plans of Decider Bush and Shooter Dick back on track.
In other words...
IRAN…
HERE WE COME !

Prior to the Iraq war, Wolfowitz established the Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon to skirt the intelligence community and peddle the most egregiously false claims of Iraqi WMD. In a Jan. 2003 speech, Wolfowitz referenced “Iraqi efforts to procure uranium from abroad” despite the fact that the claim had already been discredited by the CIA. A few months after the Iraq invasion was launched, Wolfowitz admitted that claims of Iraqi WMD was used as a political tool to achieve consensus for the war:
The truth is that, for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on which was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason [to go to war].

IT’S THE OIL STUPID!

THE EAGLE THE DRAGON AND A BURNING WORLD

 Enigma by Gustave Doré

China and the United States want to continue their industrial expansion.

That is only natural…well, actually, it isn’t natural, but quite man-made.

They want to continue to be the biggest PRODUCERS, CONSUMERS and POLLUTERS.

I suppose both believe that future technologies will undo the present pollution.

Maybe.

But in the short term---not in fifty or even ten years---but now---

the earth's ice caps are falling into warmer water.

Super Storms are getting bigger.

Weather patterns are becoming weirder and wilder.

Wait and see.

Study the problem.

Like the Beatles said,

We can work it out.

While the earth coughs, sweats and drowns.

IT’S THE OIL STUPID!

China, U.S. reject binding caps on emissions

BALI, Indonesia (AP)-12/9/07-The world's top two polluters, the United States and China, say they are not ready to commit to mandatory caps on global-warming gases at the U.N. climate conference on Bali.

Its preamble notes the widely accepted view that industrial nations' emissions should be cut by 25% to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020, and that global emissions need to peak in the next 10 to 15 years and then be dramatically slashed to half of 2000 levels by mid-century.

The two nations are the largest emitters of climate-changing gases, though scientists do not always agree which tops the list.

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I appreciate the fact that the United States Senate is going to take up the free trade agreement with Peru today. This agreement will level the playing field for American goods and services. It will create new opportunities for investment. It will strengthen our friendship with a fellow democracy. The House of Representatives has passed this bill; I congratulate the House leadership. And I certainly hope the Senate will pass it, as well. This will be a very positive step.
But Congress still has a lot to do, and doesn't have very much time to do it.
[And neither do I.]

Congress expects Americans to pay their taxes on time, and the least the Congress can do is make sure Americans get their refunds on time.
Americans also expect their tax dollars to be spent wisely.
[But don't use my administration as an example.]

The holidays are approaching and the clock is ticking for the United States Congress.
[You might call it a ticking time bomb.]

Based on the record so far, Americans could be forgiven for thinking that Santa will have slipped down their chimney on Christmas Eve before Congress finishes its work.
[My Iraq war gave you the slip when I shoved it down your chimneys.]

Q:
Mr. President, a new intelligence report says that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago, and that it remains frozen. Are you still convinced that Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb? And do the new findings take the military option that you've talked about off the table?

THE PRESIDENT:
I think it is very important for the international community to recognize the fact that if Iran were to develop the knowledge that they could transfer to a clandestine program it would create a danger for the world.
[Just as the Internets transfer this information and it's a danger for the world.]

The best diplomacy, effective diplomacy, is one of which all options are on the table.
[Options that include Shock and Awe and Pre-emptive bombing.]

Q:
Mr. President, Iraq's WMD turned out not to be there, and now Iran halted its nuclear program in 2003. Are you concerned that the United States is losing credibility in the world, and now may be seen as the boy who cries -- who called wolf?

THE PRESIDENT: Actually, I am
[The wolf]---
I want to compliment the intelligence community for their good work.
[Except for 9/11].
Right after the failure of intelligence in Iraq [But its successful fabrication], we reformed the intel community so that there was a lot of serious considerations of NIEs in a way that would give us confidence
[And more cover for future cover-ups].

One of the reasons why this is out in the public arena is because I wanted -- and our administration believed that, one, it was important for people to know the facts as we see them.
[And the facts as we need them to be seen.]

Q:
Mr. President, when you talked about Iraq, you and others in the administration talked about a mushroom cloud; then there were no WMD in Iraq.
When it came to Iran, you said in October, on October 17th, you warned about the prospect of World War III, when months before you made that statement, this intelligence about them suspending their weapons program back in '03 had already come to light to this administration. So can't you be accused of hyping this threat? And don't you worry that that undermines U.S. credibility?

THE PRESIDENT: David, I don't want to contradict an august reporter such as yourself, but I was made aware of the NIE last week.
[Butter him up first before I lambast his credibility and then baste 'em with my own lies.]

In August, I think it was [I do think sometimes] Mike McConnell came in and said, we have some new information. He didn't tell me what the information was; he did tell me it was going to take a while to analyze. Why would you take time to analyze new information?
[To give me time to talk about WWIII.]
One, you want to make sure it's not disinformation. You want to make sure the piece of intelligence you have is real. And secondly, they want to make sure they understand the intelligence they gathered: If they think it's real, then what does it mean? And it wasn't until last week that I was briefed on the NIE that is now public.
[I wonder who really believes me anymore?]

And the second part of your question has to do with this. Look, Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous, and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.
[It's like a quote that says that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.]

And the best way to ensure that the world is peaceful in the future is for the international community to continue to work together to say to the Iranians, we're going to isolate you.
[And then bomb the hell out of you.]

Now, the Iranians -- the most difficult aspect of developing a weapons program, or as some would say, the long pole in the tent, is enriching uranium.
[I hate that word poll...long or short.]

Q:
Mr. Bush, how can you say nothing has changed? You may see it this way, but the rest of the world is going to see the lead as the fact that the nuclear weapons program was halted in 2003.

THE PRESIDENT: Right.
[But I don't give a damn about what the rest of the world sees.]

Q:
When you first saw this, weren't you angry? You didn't know about Syria. In 2005, you had the same assessment, "with high confidence that Iran currently is determined to develop nuclear weapons." And now, quite the opposite. How can you possibly think the rest of the world is going to continue -- to the degree it did -- to rally around you and your intelligence?

THE PRESIDENT: Because many in the world understand that if Iran developed a nuclear weapon, the world would be a very dangerous place.
[But the world is not a dangerous place when peaceful and freedom-loving democracies like ours, Great Britain and Israel develop nuclear weapons.]

And I think this is a -- it's a -- to me, it's a way for us to continue to rally our partners. That's why I'm working the phones and Condi Rice is working the phones.
I'm having such a good time, I forgot what passed.
[Was it gas?]

Thank you very much.

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

"Our badly misguided foreign policy has already driven this country's economy to the brink of bankruptcy with one war based on misinformation. It is unthinkable that despite the lack of any evidence of a threat, some are still charging headstrong into yet another war in the Middle East when what we ought to be doing is coming home from Iraq, coming home from Korea, coming home from Germany, and defending our own soil. We do not need to be interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and waging war when honest trade, friendship, and diplomacy are the true paths to peace and prosperity."

Rep. Ron Paul

12-11-7

BAD WINGED EUONYMUS

Bush has broken the US government. The US military was there to protect us. Bush has used it to fight a fascist-style aggressive war of choice. FEMA is there for emergency aid. Bush did not deploy it effectively for New Orleans. Social security lifted the elderly out of the poverty that had often been their fate before the 1930s. Bush declined to use Clinton's surplus to fix the system, and has essentially borrowed against the pensions of us all to pay for his wars. Government is there to ensure our security. Bush has used it to spy on us, to prosecute patently innocent persons, to manipulate the media and instill us with lies and propaganda.

Juan Cole

“You know, if you want to have a Third World War, you need only drop a nuclear bomb on Israel.”

George W. Bush

“This President appears to lack the desire, creativity and patience to engage in the most important diplomacy that a nation can face — with its enemies — over issues that could mean the difference between war and peace.”

Iran's Nukes: Now They Tell Us?

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1691625-1,00.html

Thursday, Dec. 06, 2007

By JOE KLEIN

Just Foreign Policy has estimated that 1,118,846 Iraqis have been killed since Operation Iraqi Freedom began.

The scale of death caused by the British and U.S. governments may well have surpassed that of the Rwanda genocide, making it the biggest single act of mass murder of the late 20th century and the 21st century.

John Pilger

We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War III about Iran at least six weeks after he had to have known that the analogy would be fantastic, irresponsible hyperbole, or we have a president too transcendently stupid not to have asked, at what now appears to have been a series of opportunities to do so, whether the fairy tales he either created or was fed were still even remotely plausible. A pathological presidential liar, or an idiot-in-chief. It is the nightmare scenario of political science fiction: A critical juncture in our history and, contained in either answer, a president manifestly unfit to serve, and behind him in the vice presidency an unapologetic warmonger who has long been seeing a world visible only to himself.

You, Mr. Bush, are a bald-faced liar.And moreover, you have just revealed that John Bolton and Norman Podhoretz and the Wall Street Journal editorial board are also bald-faced liars.We are to believe that the intel community, or maybe the State Department, cooked the raw intelligence about Iran, falsely diminished the Iranian nuclear threat, to make you look bad? And you proceeded to let them make you look bad?You not only knew all of this about Iran in early August, but you also knew it was accurate.And instead of sharing this good news with the people you have obviously forgotten you represent, you merely fine-tuned your terrorizing of those people, to legally cover your own backside.While you filled the factual gap with sadistic visions of, as you phrased it Aug. 28, “nuclear holocaust,” and, as you phrased it Oct. 17, “World War III.”My comments, Mr. Bush, are often dismissed as simple repetitions of the phrase “George Bush has no business being president.”Well, guess what?Tonight, hanged by your own words, convicted by your own deliberate lies....You, sir, have no business being president.

SPECIAL COMMENTBy Keith OlbermannAnchor, 'Countdown'Dec. 6, 2008

***

He's wagging

His wicked

Thumb

&

He's waging

His wicked war

That he’s addicted

To like a whore.

He is acting like

Napoleon

But he’s speaking like

Linoleum.

He’s not

Mabus

And

He’s not

Jesus.

He’s just the

Skull & Bones

Divider

And

Our Homeland’s

Long War

Decider.

He’s the

Faith-based

Denier-Deceiver

And

He’s the

Half-baked

True Believer

Who thinks a

Fact is a Lie

And

Truth is a Spy.

He’s a bad

Bush

Who thinks

War is Peace

And

Peace is War.

I wish that time-travel

Existed

So that I could unbend

All that Dubya has

Twisted.

By M. L. Squier

a.k.a.

Mad Plato

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

HUGO CHAVEZ

The sulfurous stench of Hugo Chavez's ego has dissipated a little.
The Venezuelan president lost his bid to acquire dictatorial powers.
The citizens of Venezuela (fortunately) still have the freedom to vote.
But Chavez’s quest will remain steadfast.
The stench of power is difficult to kill.
This puffed-up president will continue his pursuit to become a perpetual leader.
Venezuela---fortunately---won this one this time.
But Chavez won’t stop until he can rule unchallenged from his sulfurous throne.

DAYS OF INFAMY

IT'S TIME TO BRING THESE MEN TO JUSTICE BEFORE THE NEXT ELECTION

I am sick

Of

These

Liars

I am sick

Of

These

Deniers

I am sick

Of

These

Deceivers

I am sick

Of

These

Half-monster

Half-men

I am sick

Of

These

Dictator-like leaders

Who have desecrated

The

Constitution

I am sick

Of

These Cons

Who have bombed

America

Into

Destitution

I am sick

Of

These Cons

Who have damaged

America

With their

Shameless wars

And their

Deceitful

Deceptions.

It's time to

Bring these men to

Justice!

It's time to

Bring

Justice back to

America!

It's time to

Bring these men to

Justice!

It's time to

Impeach these men!

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

"There are several of us trying to put the crazies back in the box."

Admiral William J. Fallon

Commandeer of CENTCOM

THE NIE ASSESSMENT

GWB: Doggone it! How did we allow this NIE assessment on Iran to come out?
AIDE: Mr. President, we're looking into the matter.
GWB: You'd better and fast if Dick and I are going to pull the wool over the country's eyes again so that we can do some more bombing.
AIDE: Yes sir.
GWB: How is it looking for something bad to happen so that we can blame Iran for it?

AIDE: We're working on that, too, sir.
GWB: Good. Dick and I won't be in town much longer, and we need to leave a going away present.
AIDE: Yes sir.
GWB: O.K. Back to my soaps.
Honey, bring me some more pretzels and beer.

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

WHILE THINKING ABOUT THE ANNAPOLIS PEACE CONFERENCE

Dick Cheney is still a war criminal.
Don Imus
12-3-07

THE GREAT AMPUTATOR

Breaking a leg will be a more likely outcome than leaving any legacy.

The legs of America's reputation were amputated.

The legs of the U.S. Constitution were blown off.

The body of our republic has lost its legs.

You have no legacy.

You will leave no legacy behind.

You have left a nation

With no legs.

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

MUHAMMAD THE TEDDY BEAR

SOMEWHERE IN SUDAN

Teacher: Students, today we will choose a name for our school mascot.
Student: Miss Juliann, what is a mascot?
Teacher: Well, Abdul, a mascot is a person, animal, or object believed to bring good luck, especially one kept as the symbol of an organization such as a sports team.
Second Student: And what is our mascot, Miss Juliann?
Teacher: Our mascot is a teddy bear.
Third Student: Can we choose any name?
Teacher: Of course.
Second Student: How about Muhammad?
Teacher: Yes. That would honor the prophet. Class, are there any other names to consider?
All of the Students: (In unison): "No!"
Teacher: O.K. Then our mascot shall be called Muhammad.

OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL THE NEXT DAY

Reporter: Dozens of Sudanese citizens are outraged that the name of the Muslim prophet Muhammad has been given to a toy teddy bear.
One Citizen: This teacher should be executed. Our prophet is not a toy!
Second Citizen: Muhammad has been defiled! This teacher should pay with her life.
Reporter: Miss Juliann, what do you have to say?
Teacher: We should have chosen the name Jesus.