The pot calling the kettle black, and other fun things.

In my research of the goings on in the world, I tumbled upon two unrelated items I thought I'd share with you.  The first comes from an article on World news (wn.com) by a contributing writer named Dallas Darling.  Who is Dallas Darling?  Well, his basic bio is that he was a Master of Divinities from the Assemblies of God, who became an anti-imperialist after watching alleged atrocities by the US of A in the overthrow of Manuel Noriega.  His scorecard further reads that he was de-frocked lost "several careers", and received death threats that have caused him to move several times. Commentators about him have ranged from "...displays a kind of intellectual freedom sorely lacking in American politics..." and "...his subversive literature is necessary to confront the American Empire and globalization of the world..." to  " ...a left wing loon. A true Blame America First nut case..." and "  While it is all well and good to examine the options, it seems Mr. D's issue relies on a pragmatic approach to pragmatism. Using circular logic and employing the functionality of a particular issue to dismiss its functionality is incoherent. My beef is not that I am on the other side of most issues as Mr. D but that the argumentation used to justify his position is intellectually unsound. Mr. D needs to go back to school and learn the fundamental laws of logic...for the first time obviously..."

For my part, I can only (and hopefully will only) be able to judge on the basis of the article I read here Which discusses how "dishonest and intellectually lazy" Republicans are for coming up with words like Obamacare to perjure the health care act and other such things.  First thing I would ask Mr. Darling (no apparent relation to Briscoe Darling) is, if "Obamacare" is a perjorative, does that mean that health care has been perjured by connecting the Obama plan to it?  He goes on to various other (if I may be so lazy and intellectually dishonest) wooly-headed ideas as the Columbine massacre being blamed on liberalism, Republican domination of "basic idioms, phrases, and even complex issues" (One of these things is not like the other...), and "What if Democrats started saying 'Romneyneglect'?"

But the thing that caught me was this line, which puts his "intellectual argument" in its true light, was this bon mot:

Not only have Republicans weaved a web of intellectual (and emotional) dishonesty, but using the idiom "Obamacare" is a lesson in intellectual laziness. (Recall that "idiom" means idiot. It is an expression having a meaning that cannot be understood from the combined meanings of its actual words nor individual meanings of its component words.)

Did you catch that?  ""Idiom" means idiot.  Let's take a look at the definition of idiom, from Dictionary.com:

noun

1.

an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements, as kick the bucket or hang one's head, or from the general grammatical rules of a language, as the table round for the round table, and that is not a constituent of a larger expression of like characteristics.

2.

a language, dialect, or style of speaking peculiar to a people.

3.

a construction or expression of one language whose parts correspond to elements in another language but whose total structure or meaning is not matched in the same way in the second language.

4.

the peculiar character or genius of a language.

5.

a distinct style or character, in music, art, etc.: the idiom of Bach.

---

Origin:
1565–75; < Latin idiōma < Greek idíōma peculiarity, specific property equivalent to idiō- (variant stem of idioûsthai to make one's own, appropriate, verbal derivative of idiós; see idio-) + -ma noun suffix

 

So, while he used the fraction of the definition that pertained to his argument- which is okay- he also appended his OWN definition, contained in neither the ACTUAL definition nor the etymology of the word.  Hmmm, what was he saying about "intellectual dishonesty?"  Not to mention that he goes on to lament that Republicans not dominate idioms, thus working both sides of the street.  Using circular logic and employing the functionality of a particular issue to dismiss its functionality is incoherent, yes?

 

Reminds me of an old episode of Family Affair where Mr. French is trying to explain classical idioms to young Buffy and Jody, and Jody, innocently interested, asks, "Can you tell us any more classical idiots?"  Well, Jody, I think I can.

 

 

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Scrappy has had a couple of incidents worth mentioning in the last few days.  We had been taking late night walks, and discovered we are not alone.  One night we encountered 5 dogs being walked, a guy sitting under a tree with his laptop, at least one person doing... something... in the exercise room WITH THE LIGHTS OFF, and a person changing his oil... all at 10:30 PM.  At any rate, We went out two nights ago, met a 6-month-old puppy named Oliver, and on the way home, Mr. Skunk was going down the street not thirty feet in front of us.  Which caused a rapid deceleration on my part and an equal-but-opposite acceleration on the part of Scrappy.  Mr. S noticed us and crossed the street- just as a car was coming in from behind us.  As I prayed aloud "Don't hit 'im, don't hit 'im", the car slowed.  Mr. Skunk saw the headlights and OF COURSE (Much like Mr. Darling's logic) headed right for them.  Fortunately, the car was able to adjust and Mr. S finally crossed the street and made for cover, tail straight up the whole way.

 

The other incident happened yesterday morning as we walked along "dead tree road".  I had seen two squirrels from down the road a ways; one headed as fast as his fat little butt could move for the woods, the other scrambled up a tree.  By the time we got to where they had been, I was searching the trees (and seeing nothing) and Scrappy was sniffing the scene.  Suddenly the dimwit squirrel FELL out of the tree- about 3 1/2 feet right in front of Scrappy. Scrappy's ears went, SPROING! and the squirrel just managed to vacate the area ahead of him, climing another, presumably safer, tree in which to change his underwear.

 

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Finally, I tumbled upon this culinary treat in perusing the same news source the other day.

 

'Cannibal cult members' arrested for murder, eating raw brains and making penis soup

 

Authorities in Papua New Guinea have arrested 29 members of a suspected cannibal cult accused of killing seven people before eating their brains and making soup from their penises.

The accused are alleged to have been part of a 1000-strong group which was formed to take on suspected witch doctors.
They believed their victims had all been involved in 'sanguma', or sorcery, and that they had been demanding sex and money from villagers in return for exercising their spiritual powers.
A Madang Police Commander, Anthony Wagambie, confirmed reports that the cult members had eaten the victims' brains raw and had made soup from their penises.
“They don't think they've done anything wrong; they admit what they've done openly,” Wagambie said.
The group claimed witch doctors had begun charging large fees of 1,000 kina or $475 for casting out evil spirits and providing other services.
The accused also claimed the alleged witch doctors had begun demanding sex as payment.
The cult members believed that by eating the witch doctors' body parts they would attain their spiritual powers, and become bullet-proof.


Once again, another of those cultures I am glad God didn't decide to birth me in.