Hornswaggler | The culture, the humor, a bit of the sports, not so much the politics, and the workplace distraction
Hornswaggle is an alternate spelling of
hornswoggle, an archaic word that means to bamboozle or hoodwink. I take my
pronunciation from the late Harvey Korman in "Blazing Saddles" --
"I want rustlers, cutthroats, murderers,
bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits,
vipers, snipers, conmen, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers,
buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train
robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, shit kickers and Methodists!"
But Iraqis were not firing guns in celebration, according to the AP. And we know that if Iraqis are not firing guns into the air, then they're not really partying.
The same AP story has this bullshit detail, courtesy of the White House spokesman:
'Bush, whose Iraq policy has drawn criticism abroad and, more recently, at home, was passed a note from National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that put it this way: "Mr. President, Iraq is sovereign." Bush wrote "Let freedom reign!" on the note and passed it back, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan.'
Though "reign" makes sense, one wonders whether the president didn't mean to say "let freedom ring," which is how the saying is usually expressed.
For me, the one really interesting thing in this whole charade is the question: Will the violence in Iraq come to a halt? We're finally going to see whether all the neocons and the mindless shills in the media were right in saying that once the transfer of power occurred (even though to pretend it's anything more than nominal is to engage in self-delusion), the violence would die off, because the insurgents would realize they're only hurting Iraqis with their attacks.
You can guess what my opinion on the subject is.
An ominous sign, however from an Iraqi quoted in the AP story:
"The real date will be when the last American soldier leaves," Qassim al-Sabti, an art gallery owner, said after learning of the transfer. "Of course I feel I'm still occupied."