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!"
Thomas Friedman's latest piece, which bemoans the unhinged assault the right wing has launched on Obama, is quite good:
Our leaders, even the president, can no longer utter the word “we” with a straight face. There is no more “we” in American politics at a time when “we” have these huge problems — the deficit, the recession, health care, climate change and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — that “we” can only manage, let alone fix, if there is a collective “we” at work.
The great irony of Glenn Beck's idiotic 9-12 Project is that his relentless, conspiratorial attacks on Obama are doing as much as anything to prevent any sense of unity in this country at a time when we face profound challenges, like climate change, that require shared purpose and even sacrifice.
As Beck says in the mission statement:
The 9-12 Project is designed to bring us all back to the place we were on September 12, 2001. The day after America was attacked we were not obsessed with Red States, Blue States or political parties. We were united as Americans, standing together to protect the greatest nation ever created. That same feeling -- that commitment to country is what we are hoping to foster with this idea. We want to get everyone thinking like it is September 12th, 2001 again.
Yet not even a year after Obama won the election with a decisive majority, Beck is leading a movement to delegitimize the President of the United States based on absurd fantasies of impending Nazi rule.
