The Clinton Mistaken Mistique

The world seems to think that Former President Billbo Clinton is a genius politician. I have never bought it. He did pull a rabbit out of a hat. Kinda. Once. He was elected the first time when Ross Perot mucked up the electoral process and the second time when the Republicans decided it owed a totally unelectable Bob Dole a run before he developed a personality and started doing Viagra commercials.

Now the world is abuzz with Clinton's slapping around of Chris Wallace. He was laying in the bushes many said, waiting for a procative questions that would allow him to jump the interviewer and lay waste to the official Republican mouthpiece, Fox News.

Well all I have to do is look at how the Democrats stood before Billbo was elected and how they looked about eight years later. Bill is all about Bill and even when he makes it look like he cares about any other individual or group, it is only to advance himself.

I believe the only naive people who buy into DemoThought fit one of these three, no four categories:

1. Those who believe that a country or culture can "affirm peace" by eschewing violence, even against wacked out religious fanatics who WANT to die in the process of killing innocent women and children
2. Those who either want a handout or want to hand out YOUR money
3. Those who want the votes of the previous two groups so they can run every aspect of your life through government control
4. A late addition - anyone to whom totally open access to federally funded abortion is the only issue, period.

I guess the unofficial fourth group includes those people who think Clinton has been, is, or will be the saviour of the Democrat Party.

Have at it gang. And bring in that slime, Terry McAuliff. And don't forget the Serpent from Louisiana and his partner, the Forehead. Reasonable people would rather listen to fingernails scratching a chalkboard than these "operatives."

The only thing Clinton will save, is every dime he ever makes from books and speeches. I'm pretty sure he has never had to spend a red cent for a meal or transportation or entertainment. He might have had to shell out a few bucks for his house in Chappaqua, and a few more for utilities, but that's it, I promise.

As far as saving his Party? Didn't happen before. To even get reelected he had to adopt all sorts of conservative policies and programs. So I say, Republicans should subsidize Clinton's efforts to lead his party back to majority. All it can do is help a single Democrat. The rest of the party will continue its slide into irrelevance. The only party leader who might be worse than Billbo, is a guy by the name of Howard Dean. Lord help them if he ever gets into a position of influence. Oh wait, too late. Have you caught the advance of this weekend's New York Times story in E&P???

Why Terrorists Terrorize

Terrorists don’t just hate our culture and our freedom. That goes without saying. What they’re really pissed off about and why they are pursuing their side of the war of terror with such fervor, is they are terrified that their own followers and adherents will like our culture and freedom so much they will desert Islam and become westernized with all the downside that implies:

For men, mullas think the downside includes:

• Unlimited economic opportunity
• Freedom of religion
• Reduced (at the very least) requirement for routine, one-off suicide bombing
• Jihads limited to “encouraging” lower gas prices
• Whiskey – on the rocks, neat, or mixed with Coke
• Topless bars
• Pork chops
• Allowed to wear deodorant
• (Interestingly, all these are apparently allowed if you’re in the U.S. taking flying lessons in preparation for a MAJOR suicide mission. Must be some kind of special dispensation for groups needing to infiltrate our godless culture, when in de West, descend into debauchery.)

For women, mullahs think the downside includes:

• No burkas
• Able to drive
• Able to go to the market alone
• Able to get a job
• Find the boy of your dreams and marry him
• Find the girl of your dreams, if you prefer
• Go to school; learn to read
• Able to be raped without being killed by relatives
• Other benefits way to numerous to mention, possibly numbering in the thousands (Knowing this, how can lefties possibly have any other goal than wiping this anti-woman religion off the face of the Earth?)

The mullahs’ primary interest is inflating their own importance and value to their “flocks."

Digression Alert 1: Can there be flocks of violent, bloodthirsty predators? I think the rule is that flocks have to be warm and cuddly things, like sheep. Christians are typically good about having warm and cuddly flocks of parishioners. So for the radical Islamists, maybe we should use the term “pride” except that pride, as in pride of lions, puts terrorists in an overly positive light. PACK! That's the word. Mad mullahs have packs of terrorists, not flocks or prides.

Back to the action – Mullahs do not want their recruited and brainwashed terrorists to be tempted to the paths of goodness and free-thinking and capitalism and McDonalds and Budweiser. It’s evidently hard to keep their boys from being tempted, so the next best things is to destroy those who would tempt the boys, and evidently, the girls. This does two things:

1. It whittles down the number radicals who might be tempted, and
2. It demonstrates to the rest of the pack that they better not even think of drifting from the narrowly defined path of the Prophet.

Digression Alert 2: This all reminds me of the whole idea of mafia thugs and why they stay in the business. I always wondered, growing up as I did in white bread, small town middle America – four hundred miles from the nearest gangster – where all I knew about organized crime was what I saw on television, why the bit player muscle guys stayed in the business knowing that as soon as it became convenient for Mr. Big, they would be whacked. Why didn’t they go and get real jobs where the likelihood of being killed or incarcerated was all but nonexistent. I didn’t get any real insight until the movie “Goodfellas” came out. But this is an entry unto itself.

Back to the action – There are obviously enough totally brainwashed and weak-minded individuals to "staff" the packs with an adequate number of enforcers or suicide / homicide bombers.

So to put a cap on this little rant, the mullahs think they have the final answer to getting to heaven, and their rules say that lying, cheating, maiming, killing innocents are all written in the Quran as the official rules of the game. Anybody bucking their system from the inside is playing with fire (in the form of a bomb's byproduct) and anybody on the outside that doesn’t hie to their rules is in danger although there is at least something less than 1-1 odds of death.

While I don’t believe, perhaps naively, that most of the radical Islamist leadership imagine they will actually take over the world, they are doing everything they can to keep their numbers from dwindling. And that’s all they really care about. Oh, and wiping Israel and all Jews off the face of the Earth.

Of course? Obviously yes! Naturally.

Some words we say every day and feel as comfortable as a pair of old sweatpants, just seem wrong when you think about the individual words and what you are actually saying. OR sometimes when you listen to the sound of the word, it just doesn’t seem to fit. The latest instance of this for me was, “of course.”

Day in day out, we see or hear this phrase. These are two words we use all the time by themselves that mean something a bit different when we put them together in the phrase “of course.”

Here is how The Free Dictionary by Farflex defines of:
of ( v, v; v when unstressed)
preposition
1. Derived or coming from; originating at or from: customs of the South.
2. Caused by; resulting from: a death of tuberculosis.
3. Away from; at a distance from: a mile east of here.
4. So as to be separated or relieved from: robbed of one's dignity; cured of distemper.
5. From the total or group comprising: give of one's time; two of my friends; most of the cases.
6. Composed or made from: a dress of silk.
7. Associated with or adhering to: people of your religion.
8. Belonging or connected to: the rungs of a ladder.
9.
a. Possessing; having: a person of honor.
b. On one's part: very nice of you.
10. Containing or carrying: a basket of groceries.
11. Specified as; named or called: a depth of ten feet; the Garden of Eden.
12. Centering on; directed toward: a love of horses.
13. Produced by; issuing from: products of the vine.
14. Characterized or identified by: a year of famine.
15.
a. With reference to; about: think highly of her proposals; will speak of it later.
b. In respect to: slow of speech.
16. Set aside for; taken up by: a day of rest.
17. Before; until: five minutes of two.
18. During or on a specified time: of recent years.
19. By: beloved of the family.
20. Used to indicate an appositive: that idiot of a driver.
21. Archaic On: "A plague of all cowards, I say" Shakespeare.

Now first of all, how the hell can a two letter word have 21 separate and distinct meanings????????????????????? (Note: 21 question marks) I think I use most of these meanings with the possible exception of perhaps 6 (this is something that might work in literature or if someone with a refined British accent was saying it but not for me) and 17 (I just don’t use that construction).

course (kôrs, k rs)
Noun
1.
a. Onward movement in a particular direction; progress: the course of events.
b. Movement in time; duration: in the course of a year.
2. The direction of continuing movement: took a northern course.
3. The route or path taken by something, such as a stream, that moves. See Synonyms at way.
4. Sports
a. A designated area of land or water on which a race is held: the course of a marathon.
b. A golf course.
5. A mode of action or behavior: followed the best course and invested her money.
6. A typical or natural manner of proceeding or developing; customary passage: a fad that ran its course.
7. A systematic or orderly succession; a sequence: a course of medical treatments.
8. A continuous layer of building material, such as brick or tile, on a wall or roof of a building.
9.
a. A complete body of prescribed studies constituting a curriculum: a four-year course in engineering.
b. A unit of such a curriculum: took an introductory course in chemistry; passed her calculus course.
10. A part of a meal served as a unit at one time: The first course was a delicious soup.
11. Nautical The lowest sail on a mast of a square-rigged ship.
12. A point on the compass, especially the one toward which a vehicle, such as a ship, is moving.

Okay, fine. I’m down with all these definitions except number 11 because I have never, personally, been what you might call Nautical. The first five letters maybe, but not nautical.

So, prepositionally speaking, how does “of” hook up with “course” to give you an idiom that means:

1. obviously yes. “May I use your telephone?” “Of course, go right ahead.”
Usage notes: often used in the phrase of course not obviously no: “Is she really going to leave without paying?” “Of course not.”
2. it is obvious. Of course you should call the doctor if she starts feeling worse.

I’m too lazy to do all the iterations –252 of ‘em in all, but none of them match up too terribly well.

So my point is, “of course” isn’t anything but a made up couple of words that doesn’t mean much other than to fill a few seconds and convey a message that is, at best, remotely related to the original two words. Just remember that the next time you use the phrase, “of course.” All you’re saying is (as Curly of the Three Stooges would say), “naturally.”

Next, we’ll discuss the inappropriateness of the word, food.

"Memoirs of a Failure" The Start of My Success

I just started my novel, titled "Memoirs of a Failure." I'm not proud of the absolutely descriptive title, but things is what they is. My goal, carved in stone, is to complete it by the end of the year and find a publisher by the end of the first quarter or 2007. I'm sure I don't have to even mention it's semi- autobiographical.

I just ain't gettin' it with my current job and I'm flat out tired of looking for new jobs and new careers. This is my 29th separate and distinct job since I graduated from college. Don't even ask me about jobs before then. I saw the one of the guys who are behind the whole Chicken Soup series of books speak recently, and even though motivational speakers by and large depress me, I guess it was like the alcoholic who finally hits bottom and is receptive to an intervention. I went figuring, what the hell, give a listen and take it from there.

He said (and I've heard this a million times and believe it to be true) you should do something you feel passionate about. (I haven't been really passionate about anything, other than golf maybe, more than a handful of times in my whole working career - and it didn't last more than a month or two.) Soooo ...

I'm rededicating myself to creative pursuits. One of my personal goals is to contribute to my blog no less than five times a week.

This is the first posting of the rest of my life. Or something like that. Stop back in a day or two and I'll start you out with something light - the real reason why terrorists terrorize.

I'm also taking a poll on a good sign off - you know, like Katie Couric is doing. I'm thinking something along the lines of Stay Perky.