This is a defense and explanation of my diary from yesterday: "The Precendential Inawegrewnation of Balack Nobomba". Please forgive the indulgence.
I published yesterday's diary consisting primarily of portmanteau words, puns and wordpuzzles as a kind of linguistic celebration of the inauguration and first one-hundred days of the new Administration. For me, the diary was a positive and entertaining way to think about and write about politics. Whether the composition itself is good or clever or lame or not does not trouble me - de gustibus non est disputandum - but it was troublesome to find a dozen or more folks who thought the diary entry was racist and/or stupid. Should I continue to post under this pseudonym, I would not want this one diary entry to go misunderstood or insulting to the sensibilities of self-proclaimed Kossacks. (An appellation that is itself a made-up word, the result of wordplay ;) .
If you think about the possibilities of conjoining words and altering spellings to result in new words that contain more than one meaning, combining 'Barack' and 'Black' to make 'Balack' allow his name to express his race. Is there anything wrong with his race? No. Is is wrong or racist to identify President Obama as being black? No.
Am I black or white? Do you know my race from my words? Am I Blackfrican Amorican? (so many meanings - lame to you or not: does this mean 'africa + black' or 'black + frickin''? Does Amor+I+can mean 'I can love more'? If I change the play to Amoricon or Amoroncan are there more meanings and possibilities? Perhaps Amormoncan, (for swedes: Amormorcan - a mother's mother can)
Given the indignant outrage expressed by a few folks, I am surprised I was not attacked as being anti-Asian, because some Asians tend to pronounce 'r' as 'l'. Even if that were true and I was imitating the sound of a japanese speaker pronouncing english sounds, does that make the japanese speaker stupid? No. Sounds and words are interesting to those who care about such things - if you do not care about such play - that does not inherently make such play stupid. (stoolpud strewped schtupid (schtup+id - thank-your Freud books!) stewpeed - etc.)
Nobomba is another conjoined word that people apparently thought of as some kind of ebonics. It does sound vaguely ebonic, no? I didn't intend that, but suppose that I did? Is ebonics stupid? Is imitation of ebonics itself stupid or is such imitation stupid in context? (that I am guilty of - the context of DailyKos is finally not a place for this kind of writing, and even defending my diary is self-indulgent.)
The taxonomic urgency when reading unfamiliar words produces an intellectual stimulation that, for me, is exciting and rich. The same is true for me reading languages other than english - and combining those meanings is even better. Amor is, after all, from the Romance languages. For you, portmanteaus and other linguistic devices may just be pedantic or of no use, or you may think mine are just lame. I refer to the style of writing as Jomes Juician Prose Stool. (James Joycean prose style, or James Joyce juicy prose stool, for the juvenile in me.)
Nobomba is literally "no bomb" with the retention of the schwa 'a' at the end. Is the fact that President Obama not likely to bomb places, or himself be a bomb threat a bad thing? No. It is a positive expression of his character, as is the totally and unambiguosly positive statement embedded in the play on words for 'inauguration'. In+awe+grew nation. In many ways, this wordplay enriches the underlying eytmology'augur' - the latin word for persons in Rome who made authoritative decisions about future actions because of their skill in determining the outcome (whether you believe in their ability to interpret the movement of sacred birds or the favor of the gods is irrelevant - augurs had the power to decide) - because by adding 'awe' to a word that already means to be inducted to the status of one whose decisions about what to do have authority and power, the result is an aggregation of meaningful components that are more than the underlying word.
Making fun of political opponents with a fabricated lexicon of new words and puns (Gouge Wanker Bush - the Plentygone - the Mullethairy Inblastrial Cornplex (mullets, blasts, implications of ethanol economy)is just enjoyable. After all - how many people use 'Rethuglicans'?
I am not sure why I care about anyone's opinion, but I do. Otherwise I would not try at all to participate as a diarist. Reading comments here and elsewhere on the web has taught me that the anonymity of the web allows for the expression of contempt I do not hear in daily life, and that the overwhelming number of people who express their opinions attack without much thought or compassion. I think indignation and contempt are the primary emotions of most armchair generals and would-be activists, many of whom occupy the mindspace documented at DailyKos.