Lackhead here. I haven’t posted in a long time, mostly due to being overwhelmed by my upcoming trip to Tours, France, and spring climbing season. I’m sure the entire Interwebs have missed my virtual smiling face these long weeks (should that be “has missed”? Is “Interwebs” plural?). I have toyed with doing a Friday News Roundup, collecting links that I’ve stumbled upon in my week’s journey, but is anybody but me really interested in why McCain is a neocon? Yeah, thought so.

But, whilst traipsing across the Intertubes this morning, I read a post by Steve Benen, one of my blogo-faves, noting yet another LABCAR (“Ludicrous Assertion by Bush, Contradicting All Reality”):

First, the majority of our defense spending is devoted to the war in Iraq. Dick Cheney’s palaver notwithstanding, Iraqis did not “actually attack our homeland.”

Bonus points that he put the period within the double-quotes (grammar counts). I had come across palaver before, and I could certainly piece together a meaning from context, but I decided to look up the definition anyway:

unctuous

1. talk intended to deceive, charm or beguile; flattery
2. loud and confused and empty talk; “mere rhetoric”

Lo and behold, I could have found this definition under “modern media.” sigh Oh right, I was going to steer clear of contemptuous and depressing commentaries about today’s society. Anyway, I think it is a good word and a handy one to have in the ‘ol tool belt these days. Nota bene- it can also be used as a verb, meaning “to dole out the palaver” if, like me, you have a soft spot for self-reference.

And thusly, I return to blogitudinal tendencies. I should get in form before going over to France, so that I can bloviate online about my trip!

Until next time,

-c

PS- thanks, mcq, for the following quote:

The major problem — one of the major problems, for there are several — one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

And so this is the situation we find: a succession of Galactic Presidents who so much enjoy the fun and palaver of being in power that they very rarely notice that they’re not.

And somewhere in the shadows behind them — who?

Who can possibly rule if no one who wants to do it can be allowed to?

– Douglas Adams. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe