Last Throes

[MMMMMM]

Cyrus a lot goes over your head doesn't it?

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[Cyrus]

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A lot goes over your head doesn't it?

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Ann Coulter and her small brain doesn't, that's for sure -- unlike some parties I could mention.

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[Zeno]

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He must have a dictionary of which I am unaware.

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It's the unwritten political dictionary. It’s a ghostly and diaphanous work known only to our elected or appointed government officials.

Speaking of Rummy, I read an article about him in the recent Esquire, a magazine I somehow acquired at a coffee shop through sanguine means that can only be described as questionable. The more I read about this man; the more I like him.

'Last Throes'? Not even close. The timeline for all this goes back at least 5,000 years and will continue at least 5,000 years into the future, if we are still around in 7005 that is.

-Zeno

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
He must have a dictionary of which I am unaware.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's the unwritten political dictionary. It’s a ghostly and diaphanous work known only to our elected or appointed government officials.

Speaking of Rummy, I read an article about him in the recent Esquire, a magazine I somehow acquired at a coffee shop through sanguine means that can only be described as questionable.


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Sanguine

adj 1: confidently optimistic and cheerful
2: inclined to a healthy reddish color often associated with outdoor life; "a ruddy complexion"; "Santa's rubicund cheeks";

WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University



hmmmm......

Do you have that lexicon too? Or am I just looking at the wrong one?

[Zeno]

I was cheerfully confident of my means when I pinched the magazine.

Pinch (number 9 out of 11 possible verb usages), from the OED:

9 verb trans. a Steal (a thing); rob (a person) slang.

-Zeno

[wacki]

Well congrats. You've made me feel like an ass. So you're a sweet talking con. Good for you. For a second I wondered if you meant sanguinary but that would be a bit too much.

BTW, your location says Spitsbergen. Are you from there? Or is that where you were in that pic you posted? That is one hell of a remote location.

[Zeno]

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BTW, your location says Spitsbergen. Are you from there?

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No. Never been there. I chose that out of the way place as a joke, mainly to myself. It has to do with something I read in an essay by Bertrand Russell.

That pic I posted of myself was taken in the winter of 1989 on Harry's Ridge, near Mount St. Helens, Washington.

I, more or less, live somewhere in the SW U.S. I can't be more specific due to the questionable nature of my very existence and who I work for.

-Zeno

[ripdog]

I'm responding to wacki because I found the use of sanguine odd as well. I'm still wondering why wacki feels like an ass, though. I was going to change my location, but several posts in this thread have changed my mind. Still, I imagine that if Zeno were giving directions to his home, the instructions might read "go left when the road bifurcates". I offer Zeno a quote from Mr. Twain:

I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English--it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.
- Letter to D. W. Bowser, 3/20/1880

I'd have let sanguine slide if diaphanous had not occurred in the same paragraph. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[shots]

Instead of arguing semantics I would like to address the general point of your post. Why not set a timetable to leave if we know we won't ever totally wipe out the insurgents? Well mainly that it just doesn't make sense we have to keep reassesing the situation as we go along and when the job is done we can leave there's no magic day when this will be.Of course we won't completely wipe out the insurggents but we have to make sure that there's realative security and stability before we leave.

[andyfox]

The argument for not setting a pull-out date has been that it will embolden the insurgents; all they have to do is bide their time and wait for us to leave. This assumes that the Iraqi forces that replace us will be less competent than us. When does Rumsfeld think they will be able to do the job: in one year? eight? twelve? never?