Ask any archaeologist and they will tell you that trash is the back door to a civilization’s true identity. Examine a city’s trash pit and you learn what they valued, respected, and well, threw away. What is true of ancient anthropological analysis surely is applicable to modern day societal self-diagnosis. Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to dig through your bathroom trash can and embark on a paradigm shifting adventure to discover who you really are. Nor am I suggesting you talk to your calculating psychologist or “mushy feely” sociologist about what your brand of toothpaste says about you. Rather, I’d like to take us down a different path and look at the words we, the American people, (the glorious lot that we are) have trumped up and thrown away over the years.

I’m sure you’re now conjuring up a plethora of high school adjectives like “groovy,” “narly,” “phat,” “sweet,” and “dope.” These were some pretty popular words. Of course, use any of these now and you instantly peg yourself to the era from which they rose and died. The 50s, 60s, 70s… 90s all have their own flavor. You don’t need a doctorate in linguistics to recognize that adjectives are the colors adolescent creativity uses to paint their world - at least those adolescents that have enough of a vocabulary to avoid the crutch of cuss words. These new words shift and curve like a flowing river, bending and eddying around the events of the day, like “nuclear” meaning more than radioactive.

But adjectives are temporary - momentary flashes of what often seem to be the rising generation’s resistance to Read the rest of this entry »

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When I heard that retired General Wesley Clark was questioning whether 5 years as a POW makes McCain any more qualified to be commander in chief it was a vindicating moment because I’d had a similar thought weeks earlier. More importantly, the tactful way he went about explaining his position was a nice breath of realism. When a former top-brass general talks about the tests of leadership that come with actually commanding troops, I for one think we should listen. Sadly, but predictably, all of the nuance, and for the matter the truth of what Clark said, was flattened into a catch-all bludgeoning reply by McCain’s campaign staff. It was something along the lines of, ‘if they want to question John McCain’s service to our country, let them, because the country knows McCain’s heroic story, and furthermore this shows they are willing to run a negative campaign, when Obama says he wants a different type of politics.’ Forgive me for not finding the exact quote because it’s 2am, our readership is in it’s infancy, and I’m knew to the blogoshpere. The undertone here is a familiar one, question anything related to the military, and you’re unpatriotic.

Exact quote can be found here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25479327/

I think the point Clark makes is a good one. Getting shot out of the sky, tortured, and held captive in Vietnam doesn’t automatically make you an expert in national security, and it doesn’t say much, if anything, about leadership qualities regardless of his family’s military pedigree. Clark called McCain a hero and said his service would make him sympathetic to our troops. I would fully expect that too, but in recent history Read the rest of this entry »

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