Words

The Lady or the Tiger by Frank Stockton
Good story of blind faith
short-stories/UBooks/LadyTige.shtml

Leo Tolstoy-"Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold."

Putin- "Fools are lucky. We work day and night."

Edward Murrow- "Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions."

Hemingway- "The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin."

Mark Cuban was asked about his business decisions, whether he used gut instinct or cold hard facts: "Cold hard facts. Even gut instinct is based on facts...whatever facts you've ingested over the years, that's what you use."

(?) Ambition is like hunger; it obeys no law but its appetite.

icarian
(AWAD) adj- Of or relating to an over-ambitious attempt that ends in ruin. [Greek mythology]
Any politician that runs for office promises his ambitions that he knows he can't meet.

feculent
(AWAD)adj- Full of filth or waste matter.
Congress

cockalorum
(AWAD)n- 1) A self-important or boastful person. 2) Bragging
[middle English cock, of imitative origin]
Career Congressman

fool's paradise
(AWAD)n- A state of happiness based on false hopes.

exculpate
(AWAD)vb- To clear of guilt or blame.
Presidential and Governor's Pardons. Papal Infallibility 
-It was the early 16th century, and across Europe there was already great dissatisfaction with the papacy; which had become extraordinarily powerful and corrupt. Rome's most scandalous practice was the widespread sale of indulgences: papal certificates absolving the buyer of sins, even those not yet commited. The money financed the church's never ending extravagence...St. Peter's Cathedral.

claque
(AWAD) n- A group of people hired to applaud at a performance. (Also hired to heckle a rival's performance)
"Town Hall Meetings" fill rooms of claques and are arbitrary to progress.
Bush town hall meetings
Picking on Bush, but they all do it.
adulate
(AWAD)vb- To flatter or admire slavishly.
goes well with Claque

defalcate
(AWAD) [di-Fal-kayt] vb- To misuse funds; to embezzle.
Wanted: Government job opening for someone good at handling contributions and taxes. Must be skilled in defalcation.

Draconian
(AWAD) adj- unusually harsh


novation
(AWAD) n- the replacing of an obligation, a contract, or a party to an agreement with a new one.
like when politicians declare a "debt ceiling" and then vote to raise it.


kleptocracy
(AWAD) n- A government by the corrupt in which rulers use their official positions for personal gain.


parry
(AWAD) vb- To ward off or evade. n- A defensive movement or an evasive answer.
politicians parry the ignorant to get elected. Unfortunately. there are many ignorant voters.


Charlatan
(from Wiki) is a person practicing quackery or some similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, fame or other advantages via some form of pretense or deception.


hegemony
(AWAD) predominance over others, especially of a country over other countries.