Words that are a foot-and-a-half long?

While reading a bit of commentary from north of the border, I came across a word, a big word unknown to me, sesquipedalian.

So I had to look it up, and Douglas Harper and his Online Etymology Dictionary don’t disappoint.

1610s, “person or thing a foot and a half long,” from Latin sesquipedalia “a foot-and-a-half long,” from sesqui- “half as much again” (see sesqui-) + stem of pes “foot” (from PIE root *ped- “foot”). As an adjective 1650s. Meaning “sesquipedalian word” (1830) is from Latin sesquipedalia verba “words a foot-and-a-half long,” in Horace’s “Ars Poetica” (97), nicely illustrating the thing he is criticizing.

Words that are a foot-and-a-half long? That certainly describes Conrad Black. But I do like him and his writing. His insights are a good perspective of whatever he’s commenting about.

Black’s trial and imprisonment is a case of the power of vindictive bureaucrats using the State to pursue their perverted senses of justice. Far too many people, from Martha Stewart to thousands of black men, have been wrongly caught up in the corrupt, highly profitable justice system.

There’s a lot of money in prisons. And we must demand reform! It’s time to reduce the prison population.

ajh

Trumpenstein Lives!

“THEY CREATED THIS MONSTER.”

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone had some commentary on Trump and the Republicans awhile back. I missed it at the time because I do my best to avoid reading Rolling Stone anymore. It’s so rabidly political and way left-of-center nowadays.

Why so much shilling for Democrats? Why so many diatribes? Can’t I just read about music, art, the culture, TV and movies.

But I digress. Let’s get back to Taibbi, who blames conservatives — on talk radio, in the blogosphere, on TV — for the rise of Trump. He should just come out and name names. He’s talking Rush, and Drudge, and O’Reilly, and Hannity, and The Five.

“The Republican party and its allies at Fox, on afternoon radio and in the blogosphere have spent many years now whipping audiences into zombie-style bloodlusts.”

Yes, of course, conservatives are all zombies. We are too stupid to think for ourselves. We need help to rein in our wayward passions and jealousies.

Of course, his diagnosis, as usual, is wrong. It’s precisely because Republican leaders and politicians have been so willing to go along, so willing to adopt Democrat policies and budgets, so fearful of government shutdowns that the people had few options. So they turned to an apparent outsider, Donald Trump.

“Now all of that paranoia is backing up on them. They created this monster, and it’s coming for them now. Trumpenstein lives. He is loose in the town and on his way to the doctor’s castle. We may not be laughing two years from now, but for the time being, man, what a show.”

If you campaign as a conservative, then by-god behave and legislate like one. Or we will come after you. We will primary you. We will replace you. That’s one of the messages of Trump’s success.

ajh