Thursday, January 14, 2016

John Kerry addresses pentagon brass, f words

C-Span ran Kerry addressing what appeared to be U.S. Army brass, the men in their chairs arms folded and eyes held rigidly forward staring ahead emptily without moving, and no noticeable breathing when the camera is on them, each in their own internal world it seemed as they're hearing but not really listening. Thinking about something more real than the situation they're in and more real than the situation being described. There is nothing substantial in what they are hearing to seize upon, but being told it's amazing, and worse, they had all just been betrayed and are being told otherwise. They understand their place as pawns, high as they are, and they know the men under their command will head off into any adventure that they're directed, and they don't like what just happened to their men at sea. They are clamping down hard on their tongues, nearly biting them off were it not for opposing force jacking their jaws so their heads might blow their eyeballs though their eye sockets like canons. Their boss is a dope, and they are his spectacle and this is the price that they pay from their own integrity. Every one of them more acute than the Gumby person telling us through them how our world is, against evidence, he with the moving modeling clay face describing his stop motion world. Kerry selling his catalog of achievements is a painful itemized litany of concrete abject failures on an international scale.

Picture it: the Star Trek shape shifter Memory Alpha but much taller wearing an impeccably tailored suit and bending over the podium shifting around his vestige features forcing sound through his face holes forming words presuming to describe an evanescent reality to men made of granite.

Kerry urges one word they must all think, "progress … progress." One word said twice, for feeble emphasis, it needs two to stand up. None of the military trained men flinched but I did. It's like a key turned in my spine and I go full on retarded my arm flails violently off to the side and hangs in the air, my head tilts opposite my tongue goes floppy as if helpless and I spray with pronounced difficulty and intense feigned sincerity, "but what's the word I should think? "

How about F words?

Encountered online and looked up for some reason. It's a small group and they're all either known, easy or fun. A few even apposite to Kerry's idea of progress.

fantods: a. Am ill-defined state of nervous irritability. b. Nervous movements caused by tension. 2. An outburst of emotion; a fit.

fardel: a pack; a bundle. A burden

fatuity: absurdity: a ludicrous folly; "the crowd laughed at the absurdity of the clown's behavior"
 
fatuous: asinine: devoid of intelligence. Obnoxiously stupid, vacantly silly, content in one's foolishness

faute de mieux: for want of a better alternative.

favela: the generally used term for a shanty town in Brazil.[1] In the late 18th century. Even before the first "favela" came into being, poor citizens were pushed away from downtown and forced to live in the far suburbs. However, most modern favelas appeared in the 1970s, due to rural exodus, when many people left rural areas of Brazil and moved to cities. Without finding a place to live, many people ended up in a favela

feculence: foul with waste matter. Foul with extraneous or impure substances; abounding with sediment or excrementitious matter; muddy; thick; turbid

federalism: a system in which the power to govern is shared between national and provincial/state governments, creating what is often called a federation. Proponents are often called federalists.
 
Federalism in the United States is the evolving relationship between state governments and the federal government of the United States. American government has evolved from a system of dual federalism to one of associative federalism. In "Federalist No. 46," James Madison asserted that the states and national government "are in fact but different agents and trustees of the people, constituted with different powers." Alexander Hamilton, writing in "Federalist No. 28," suggested that both levels of government would exercise authority to the citizens' benefit: "If their [the peoples'] rights are invaded by either, they can make use of the other as the instrument of redress."

Feiler Faster Thesis: a thesis, or supported argument, in modern journalism that suggests that the increasing pace of society is matched by (and perhaps driven by) journalists' ability to report events and the public's desire for more information.

The idea is credited to Bruce Feiler and first defined by Mickey Kaus in a February 24, 2000 Kausfiles blog post and Slate online magazine article, "Faster Politics: 'Momentum' ain't what it used to be."

ferrule: (a corruption of Latin viriola "small bracelet," under the influence of ferrum "iron.") is a name for types of metal objects, generally used for fastening, joining, or reinforcement. They are often narrow circular rings of metal, or less commonly, plastic.

Most ferrules consist of a circular clamp used to hold together and attach fibers, wires or posts, generally by crimping, swaging, or otherwise deforming the ferrule to permanently tighten it onto the parts that it holds.

Stop the flow in its tracks by folding a small, absorbent cloth and taping it around the metal collar—known as the ferrule—of the brush.

Fiat justitia ruat caelum: "Let justice be done though the heavens fall." The maxim signifies the belief that justice must be realized regardless of consequences. According to the 19th-century abolitionist politician Charles Sumner, it does not come from any classical source.[1] It has also been ascribed to Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, see "Piso's justice".

fiduciary: a person to whom property or power is entrusted for the benefit of another. of or pertaining to the relation between a fiduciary and his or her principal: a fiduciary capacity; a fiduciary duty. of, based on, or in the nature of trust and confidence, as in public affairs: a fiduciary obligation of government employees. depending on public confidence for value or currency, as fiat money.

filet mignon: dainty cut

flak catcher: a slick spokesperson who can turn any criticism to the advantage of their employer

flat effect: A severe reduction in emotional expressiveness. People with depression and schizophrenia often show flat affect. A person with schizophrenia may ...

flechettes: a pointed steel projectile, with a vaned tail for stable flight. The name comes from French fléchette, "little arrow" or "dart", and sometimes retains the acute accent in English: fléchette.

flensing: flensing knife removes the outer layer of blubber from whales.

flid: spaz, chemical caused birth defects An insult usually meaning spacker, thick, incapable or physically challenged. Shortened term of Thalidomide, a German-invented drug which was used ...

Floccinaucinihilipilificate: pupils at Eton, combining a number of roughly synonymous Latin stems. The word was inspired by a line in the Eton Latin Grammar that listed verbs that govern a genitive noun: "Flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, assis, hujus, teruncii, his verbis, aestimo, pendo, facio, peculiariter adduntur."[1] Latin flocci, from floccus, a wisp or piece of wool + nauci, from naucum, a trifle + nihili, from the Latin pronoun, nihil (“nothing”) + pili, from pilus, a hair, something insignificant (all therefore having the sense of "pettiness" or "nothing") + -fication.

flop sweat: fear of failing

Forcas: described in the Goetia in the following terms: "He is a Knight, and appeareth in the Form of a Cruel Old Man with a long Beard and a hoary Head, riding upon a pale-coloured Horse, with a Sharp Weapon in his hand. His Office is to teach the Arts of Philosophy, Astrology, Rhetoric, Logic, Cheiromancy, and Pyromancy, in all their parts, and perfectly. He hath under his Power 20 Legions of Spirits."

Chiromancy or palmistry is the divinatory art of reading the lines of the human hand. Pyromancy is divination by fire. Great age is often associated in magic with arcane wisdom. For example, the ancient god Saturn presides over difficult studies and dark secrets.

force majeure: superior force, also known as cas fortuit (French) or casus fortuitus (Latin),[1] is a common clause in contracts that essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such as a war, strike, riot, crime, or an event described by the legal term "act of God" (such as flooding, earthquake, or volcanic eruption), prevents one or both parties from fulfilling their obligations under the contract.[2] However, force majeure is not intended to excuse negligence or other malfeasance of a party, as where non-performance is caused by the usual and natural consequences of external forces (for example, predicted rain stops an outdoor event), or where the intervening circumstances are specifically contemplated.

free-rider: in economics, collective bargaining, psychology, and political science, "free riders" are those who consume more than their fair share of a public resource, or shoulder less than a fair share of the costs of its production. Someone who obtains goods or services legally without paying; One who obtains benefit from a public good without paying for it directly

Freigabe die Hunde: free the dogs

freshnet: A flood resulting from heavy rain or a spring thaw. Whereas heavy rain often causes a flash flood, a spring thaw event is generally a more incremental process, depending upon local climate and topography. The term freshet is most commonly used to describe a spring thaw resulting from snow and ice melt in rivers located in the northern latitudes of North America, particularly Canada, where rivers are frozen each winter and thaw during the spring. A spring freshet can sometimes last several weeks on large river systems, resulting in significant inundation of flood plains as the snow pack melts in the river's watershed. Spring freshets associated with thaw events are sometimes accompanied by ice jams which can cause flash floods. A stream or river of fresh water which empties into the ocean, usually flowing through an estuary."Freshette", a female urination device.

frisson: a sudden, passing sensation of excitement; a shudder of emotion; thrill: The movie offers the viewer the occasional frisson of seeing a character in mortal danger.
Origin: 1770–80; French: shiver, shudder, Old French friçons (plural) < Late Latin frictiōnem, accusative of frictiō shiver (taken as derivative of frīgēre to be cold), Latin: massage, friction

frottage: The act of rubbing against the body of another person, as in a crowd, to attain sexual gratification. a. A method of making a design by placing a piece of paper on top of an object and then rubbing over it, as with a pencil or charcoal.b.A design so made.

fug: a warm, stuffy, or smoky atmosphere in a room."the cozy fug of the music halls"

fugue state: a rare psychiatric disorder characterized by reversible amnesia for personal identity, including the memories, personality and other identifying characteristics of individuality. The state is usually short-lived (hours to days), but can last months or longer. Dissociative fugue usually involves unplanned travel or wandering, and is sometimes accompanied by the establishment of a new identity. After recovery from fugue, previous memories usually return intact, but there is complete amnesia for the fugue episode. Additionally, an episode is not characterized as a fugue if it can be related to the ingestion of psychotropic substances, to physical trauma, to a general medical condition, or to psychiatric conditions such as delirium, dementia, bipolar disorder or depression. Fugues are usually precipitated by a stressful episode, and upon recovery there may be amnesia for the original stressor (Dissociative Amnesia).

fuliguline: pertaining to sea ducks.

fumet: a rich, concentrated broth made from bones of fish, chicken, game birds, etc. boiled with wine, herbs, etc., used in sauces, for braising various foods, etc.

fundament: a. The buttocks. b. The anus.2. The natural features of a land surface unaltered by humans. 3. A foundation, as of a building. 4. An underlying theoretical basis or principle: "All neighbor states ... must revise ... their policy fundaments"

fusillade: A discharge from a number of firearms, fired simultaneously or in rapid succession. 2. A rapid outburst or barrage: a fusillade of insults. To attack with a fusillade.

furshlugginer: From the Yiddish, an old, battered piece of junk. One of several words Anglicized and popularized by the original writers of MAD Magazine. The word comes from shlogn ("to hit") with the prefix far- which often indicates the one so described is taking on the quality named.

10 comments:

MamaM said...

Fo'shizzle

Along with a yes and a grateful rereading of the words in the first paragraph, containing some of the best writing on the web, painting a picture as clear and telling as a portrait.

edutcher said...

Lurch is not the boss of Army brass, although they probably had to sit quietly while he fouled the air with CO2 since he is a Cabinet Secretary.

And I only knew about 20% this time.

Jim in St Louis said...

Again I failed on most of the foreign words.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

fiduciary

good word. Our government should look it up.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

You know darn well the Iranians placed a gun to that Ship's commanders head.

ricpic said...

The key F word in the Progressives' lexicon is Forward! And why forward? Two reasons. History must be obliterated. The past must be disappeared. That way the screen is blank and any and every experiment imaginable can be performed on the featureless clay (us) in the making of the "New Man." Second, looking forward is a way of putting on blinders to the desolation spreading all around as the Agenda is enacted.

Titus said...

dear lord did anyone actually read this entire post?

Rabel said...

I promised an admission of a lifelong ignorance when the f words came up (and I know everyone has been waiting) so:

The word is "foolscap." I have seen it in print many, many times and always believed that it was a colorful way of referring to a high quality type of paper or perhaps to the material from which this high quality paper was made. I was reading on the Kindle and the word occurred twice in a single chapter so to clarify I did the tappy tap thing and pulled up the dictionary and - what the hey - I was wrong and had been wrong forever.

After a certain tightening of my fundament, a brief moment of frisson was followed by entry into a fugue state from which I recovered only after a second beer. Well fahrvergnügen me.

Oh, it means letter or legal sized paper.

MamaM said...

dear lord did anyone actually read this entire post?

Does anyone need to? The first paragraph alone was enough justify the energy that went in to creating and reading it. The rest extra.

As for dear lord, as deity or dignitary, the first questions a higher up supposedly regarded as important to ask the underlings in the Holy Writ were:

Where are you? and What have you done?

Neither of which I'd prefer to answer with "Hanging around blogs, scamming others and lampooning empty headed homosexual behavior", but then I'm a ex-Church Lady, with a fondness of anyone who relates with honesty and integrity, regardless of sexual persuasion.

Methadras said...

Titus said...

"homosexual"

very homophobic term for the fag.


In Titus-World a homophobe is anyone who turns you down. lulz. Bitch Tits.