Anyway, I’m sure most everyone can remembers some commercial that stayed with them – like Brill Cream’s “a little dab will do ya,” from the ads on TV and billboards for miles on the highway. People actually begin to repeat them to the point that they forget about proper English or using a word correctly. English teachers were outraged about the Winston commercial, not because people were attracted to cigarettes, but because the English was incorrect. It should have said “Winston tastes good, as a cigarette should.”
That one little difference created a sort of downfall in America’s use of the English language. I have noticed how so many people have used the word “elite” since Ms. Clinton said it about Barack Obama. The people seem to believe it means wealthy. Then when the video about Barack being “the chosen one” came out, some saw it as something very negative. (Perception and misinformation again I suppose – elite means “elected” or “select.” It obvious to me that Hillary was saying that their own party had chosen Barack as the elite.
Then the drumbeat went on from there. The word “audacious” isn’t a good thing at all, and yet because of The Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s choosing the word and his phrase “audacity of hope,” Barack decided it was catchy and it became the title for his book. It means “overbold in wickedness, insolent, impudent, shameless, unabashed.” (I can find “hope” in scripture, but not audacity, and if I find curses, those are definitely not directed in vain or in a simple sermon.)
If you look at the word “flatter” you can see it right next to flatulent and despite their being side by side, and similarly spelled, the meanings are different but if you combine “flatulent flatterer” you get a blowing that confirms ones own good opinion of themselves.
Today, I heard John McCain rightfully say that despite the greed that created the downfall of Lehman Brothers, “the fundamentals of the economy are sound.” Well, folks sure jumped on that word, wanting to believe “fundamental” and “sound” means all good, and looking for territory to criticize. They’ve made fools of themselves, since the word fundamental means – the part of the body on which one sits, groundwork, root, basis, foundation, truth, principle, rule, law,..
I choose to believe that our economy is sound – like the roots of a strong tree. Pruning is necessary to maintain a tree’s life, but its roots are good.
I have faith in God and I am an optimist.
Sincerely,
Jo Anne P. White
way.
Perhaps this is why so many physicians are conservatives or
Republicans.
Thoughtful Point of View
the Democrat Party has become the Lawyers' Party.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are lawyers. Bill Clinton
and Michelle Obama are lawyers. John Edwards, the other
former Democrat candidate for president, is a lawyer, and so
is his wife, Elizabeth. Every Democrat nominee since 1984
went to law school (although Gore did not graduate). Every
Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for
Lloyd Bentsen, went to law school. Look at the
Democrat Party in Congress: the Majority Leader in each
house is a lawyer
The Republican Party is different. President Bush and
Vice President Cheney were not lawyers, but businessmen.
The leaders of the Republican Revolution were not lawyers.
Newt Gingrich was a history professor; Tom Delay was an
exterminator; and, Dick Armey was an economist. House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer, not lawyer. The former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is a heart surgeon.
Who was the last Republican president who was a lawyer?
Gerald Ford, who left office 31 years ago and who barely won
the Republican nomination as a sitting president, running
against Ronald Reagan
The Republican Party is made up of real people doing real
work. The Democrat Party is made up of lawyers. Democrats
mock and scorn men who create wealth, like Bush and Cheney,
or who heal the sick, like Frist, or who immerse themselves
in history, like Gingrich.
The Lawyers' Party sees these sorts of people, who
pro vide goods and services that people want, as the enemies
of America. And, so we have seen the procession of official
enemies, in the eyes of the Lawyers' Party, grow
against whom do Hillary and Obama rail? Pharmaceutical
companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast
food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers,
and anyone producing anything of value in our nation.
This is the natural consequence of viewing everything
through the eyes of lawyers. Lawyers solve problems by
successfully representing their clients, in this case the
American people. Lawyers seek to have new laws passed, they
seek to win lawsuits, they press appellate courts to
overturn precedent, and lawyers always parse language to
favor their side.
Confined to the narrow practice of law, that is fine. But
it is an awful way to govern a great nation. When
politicians as lawyers begin to view some Americans as
clients and other Americans as opposing parties, then the
role of the legal system in our life becomes all consuming.
Some Americans become 'adverse parties' of our
very government. We are not all litigants in some vast
social class-action suit. We are citizens of a republic
that promises us a great deal of freedom from laws, from
courts, and from lawyers.
Today, we are drowning in laws; we are contorted by
judicial decisions; we are driven to distraction by
omnipresent lawyers in all parts of our once private lives.
America has a place for laws and lawyers, but that place is
modest and reasonable, not vast and unchecked. When the
most important decision for our next president is whom he
will appoint to the Supreme Court, the role of lawyers and
the law in America is too big. When lawyers use criminal
prosecution as a continuation of politics by other means, as
happened in the lynching of Scooter Libby and Tom Delay,
then the power of lawyers in America is too great. When
House Democrats sue America in order to hamstring our
efforts to learn what our enemies are planning to do to us,
then the role of litigation in America has become crushing.
We cannot expect the Lawyers' Party to provide real
change, real reform, or real hope in America Most
Americans know that a republic in which every major
government action must be blessed by nine unelected judges
is not what Washington intended in 1789. Most Americans
grasp that we cannot fight a war when ACLU lawsuits snap at
the heels of our defenders. Most Americans intuit that
more lawyers and judges will not restore declining moral
values or spark the spirit of enterprise in our economy.
Perhaps Americans will understand that change cannot be
brought to our nation by those lawyers who already largely
dictate American society and business.
Perhaps Americans will see that hope does not come from the mouths of lawyers but from personal dreams nourished by hard
work.
Perhaps Americans will embrace the truth that more lawyers
with more power will only make our problems worse.