Instead of starting my own blog, which is actual work, I would be very grateful to post here, which is actually fun, if I ever can think of something. This is my first one:
Powell as a Verb
John McCain out on the campaign trail stumping for Bush is one of the saddest sights in American politics.
The half-hearted jokes, the forced enthusiasm, the rote thank-yous; all unspeakably sad, knowing the history between the two.
McCain only comes to life during a brief and idealistic justification for the Iraq morass; the light of democracy spreading across the Arab world, America reaching out to the less fortunate, our values transcendant, etc, etc.
I can't listen to it anymore without seeing dead Iraqi children and Allawi's hard Brezhnevian stare.
Our current language has no word to describe the damage that loyalty to this Bush administration does to one's credibility, what havoc it must wreak on the soul.
And so I propose one; powell.
pow-ell, v., powelled, powelling, to powell
- To destroy one's own credibility in service to an unworthy cause.
- To debase a reputation gained over a lifetime of decency out of loyalty to an inferior.
The word is thought to have been derived from the appearance of Colin Powell before the United Nations, wherein he waved a small vial of white powder he claimed to be anthrax, a stunt so cheap that many didn't notice it was only a reprise of one performed by the first George Bush, who claimed the vial contained crack cocaine purchased across the street from the White House.
(June 2008-AP) "Many expected McCain to run for President this year, but he was so powelled by the previous administration that his candidacy is no longer taken seriously."
"Madeline Albright was powelled by President Clinton when she told the press she was sure he had never had sex with 'that woman'."
"My friend asked me to tell his wife he was out with me last night, but I told him, don't try to powell me, man, make up your own lies."
As Osama Bin Laden addressed his followers, he invoked the name of Allah and was suddenly struck by lightning. "It don't pay to powell the Lord God Almighty," remarked one observer.