PANAMA (from) Spanish. A near obsolete canal strategically located between here and the coca fields of South America to allow military and merchant ships better access to the east and west coasts of the Americas without having to round Cape Horn to the tune of higher insurance rates. PaNAMa is our attempt to regain military prowess, shattered so severely in our last attempt to compel lesser folks to bend over our will. PaNAMa is important consumer supported American Imperialism and the precurser to drilling our new route canal across Nicaragua. PaNAMa is the trigger to detonate the war in Central America. Regardless of who we shoot, we have the right of way for a new canal somewhere in Central America.
PANAMANIANS (from) Panama. Third world impediments to Western Imperialism. Recalcitrant janitors of our most important canal zone who messed up by allowing a tin-horn Central American general to skim too much off the top of our profitable South American drug trade.
PARADISE (from) Avestan pairi-daeza, walled-in park : pairi, around + daeza, wall. Is the wall to keep the Pagans out or the converted in?
PARAPHERNALIA (from) Greek para, beyond + pherne, dowry. Everything a woman owns, with the exception of the most important thing she has, her dowry.
PARTNER - One with whom we part, or are a part?
PARTY (from) Latin pars, part, divide. A permanent political group that collects money, divides the right payments to the right parties at the right time, and engages in mock battles with others of kind. "Party" is a function of bureaucratic activism that keeps the electorate divided and polarized. Party is what anyone likes to do with someone else's money.
"Party is the madness of many, for the gain of a few." -- Pope
"The decisive millions are in neither party. The real function of parties as legally organized groups is to serve the purposes of citizens. In many districts the parties provide the bus, the driver, and the maintenance men. Non-partisan citizen action can and should furnish the passengers." -- Raymond Moley
PASQUENADE (from) French, from Latin Pasquino, nickname of an ancient statue in Rome on which lampoons were posted in the 16th Century. A lampoon posted in a public place. For example, "Thanks to the Internet, I may now easily post this pasquenade in a public place."
"In the present state of the world it is difficult not to write lampoons." -- Juvenal (60 -140 AD), Roman satirical poet
PATHOLOGY (from) Greek pathologia, study of passions < pathos, emotion, suffering. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as "the scientific study of the nature of disease, its causes, processes, development, and consequences." Only very recently has modern science begun to explore the mental causes of illness. Perhaps the Greeks felt the connection between the mind and disease!
PATHOPATHY (from) Gk patho, disease + -pathy, feeling, perception. A feeling for disease shared by those who are ill and those who capitalize on the treatment of disease.
"With the aid of medicines and bloodlettings, Candide's illness became serious." -- Voltaire
PEACE (from) Latin pax, a binding together by agreement. Commonly accepted to be the enemy of big government which must bind itself to its major industries for weapons of death, or risk the death of its economy.
"When the Democrats control the Congress, they don't undo the policies instituted by the Republicans, nor do the Republicans change anything the Democrats introduced. To know how much tax money is spent on weapons of war gives me the impression that our Congress thinks of peace as the enemy." -- Roger Henry
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in a final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed - those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone - it is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than are governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of their way and let them have it." -- General Eisenhower
PENNY (From) Old English penning, probably from Latin pannus, a cloth. Pieces of cloth were, in barbarian Europe, used as a medium of exchange. Fashion marketers would not agree that the exchange of fabric is barbarous, but I venture that the exchange of pennies for some of the great fabrics woven in Europe in the last 1,000 years is a barbarous theft of the peoples' labor. In the USA a penny is an alloy coin representing 1/100ths of a dollar that costs the taxpayers 3/100ths of a dollar to mint, and more to distribute. Incidentally, it costs 3 pennies to buy a single flat washer of steel that costs 1 penny to mint and is adorned with no more than a crudely punched hole in the middle. Maybe the U.S. Treasury ought to commission the steel industry for flat washers as a medium of exchange, since they are more useful around the house, and it is obviously better business.
PERIPHERALISTS (from) Greek peri-, around + pherein, to carry (to carry around). The Common Folk who carry around the knowledge of self-reliance and who choose to live at the edge of big centralized government and business. Peripheralists exist in contradistinction to greedy industrialists (Centralists) who buy all competition in goods and services (on a national scale, in order to control production, distribution and profit) in the name of making business more efficient. It was once difficult to convince agrarian people to buy imported food and fuel, but local production can be controlled and destroyed by importing it. When folks tire of the effort to earn enough money to pay the price of imported food and fuel, they begin to rediscover how to grow and produce their own again. Peripheralists have a tendency to live plurally and congregate in communities where all may share the labor of self-reliance, and most importantly, protection of soil. Centralists, being nurtured by capitalism, tend to live isolated lives in fear of death, disease, poverty and loss. The last thing they notice is the loss of their most valuable asset, topsoil.
"All progress in capitalistic agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the laborer, but of robbing the soil. -- Karl Marx
"The difference between soul and soil is U and I." -- Dirty Dan, Garden Doctor
PERPESTUALS (from) Latin perpetuus, continuous, permanent + pests. Bugs that won't go away.
PHARAOH (from) Egyptian "great house." Whether of pyramids, utilities, empires, bases, corporations or bureaucracies, pharaohs are great house builders (centralists) who build out of a necessity to themselves while telling an enslaved labor force all about the coming improvements in their lives.
PHILOSOPHY (from) Greek "loving wisdom." A love or belief based on logical reasoning, found among all artists and scientists except in the fields of medicine and law, the likes of which, based on empirical methodologies, "practice" rather than study or love.
PHILOPHILY (from) Roger's Greek, "lover of pita sandwich."
PHOENIX (from) Latin. A bird that consumed itself by fire and rose renewed from its ashes. A person or thing of unsurpassed excellence or beauty. Like all creatures alive today, the Phoenix is contaminated by high levels of toxic ash refined from nature into surprisingly concentrated, and ultimately, hazardous amounts. If you see a Phoenix, call your local Haz-Mat, don't touch it, stand upwind of it, and for God's sake, keep quiet about it!
PHRENOLOGY (from) Greek phren, diaphragm, mind. The study of character and mental capacity from the conformation of the skull. Phrenology is a weak (and virtually unheard of) science. What interests this scientist is the fact that the Greeks had the same word for mind and diaphragm. Could it be more correct to say that they did not differentiate thinking from breathing? It is lucky for us that breathing is an automatic function of our nervous systems because we have lost the knowledge that conscious control of our breath gives us greater control of our minds. Warning: Please do not try to get control of your mind. Forget you read this and go turn on your TV.
PICOWAVE (from) Spanish pico, small quantity, from picar, to prick. The prefix pico- indicates one trillionth, implying that a picowave will be a trillionth of a wave. Waves of ionizing radiation tend to prick adversely the genetic structures of what they are exposed to, so Picowave is a clever diminuendo for "Danger: This food pricked with a trillion waves of gene deforming radiation." For many it will mean, "Buy this product at your own risk."
PIRATE (from) Greek peirates, attacker, from peira, trial, attempt (peril has the same origin). It is generally accepted that pirates operate at sea, since it is obviously easier to attack, board and overcome ships than countries. Crossing the oceans has always been perilous, but is it more because of pirates than the dangers of the sea? Assuming that attempts to cross the oceans predates the Greeks, we may further assume that the greatest peril on the oceans has always been piracy. Unfortunately, piracy has spread to land and takes its worst form as a marauding government that selfishly wastes taxes while the governed starve and freeze. Pirates have long run this planet and controlled the flow of money, resources and food. Fortunately, there are only two groups of them, the In Pirates and the Out Pirates.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD (from) The Bureaucracy. A bureau created to convince people to practice "birth control" so as not to get pregnant. Planned Non-Parenthood. Compare UNPLANNED PARENTHOOD.
PLASTIC (from) Greek plassein, to mold. The distinguishing mark of 20th Century man. A by-product of our time which will help future archeologists mold an impression us when they excavate our remains in a few thousand years.
PLUTO (from) Greek Plouton, "the rich one" (from) Roman Mythology. The god of the dead and the ruler of the underworld, identified with the Greek god Hades, and the American god Satan.
PLUTOCRACY (from) Greek ploutos, wealth. Government by the wealthy. Not to be confused with "the rich one" mentioned above. Return to OLIGARCHY.
POLITICIAN (from) Greek polis, city. A city dweller who, at the turn of the century, did not insult the farmer with his belly full of food.
"To be a politician, one need only to study his own interests." - - Max O'Rell
POLITICS (from) Greek politikos, of a citizen, from polis, city. Where in 1900 A.D. only 5% of Americans lived.
"Politics is the conduct of public affairs for private advantage." -- Ambrose Bierce
"Whenever a man cast a longing eye on them (political offices), a rottenness begins in his conduct." -- Thomas Jefferson
POPULAR (from) Latin, populus, people. What the common people aren't to The Bureaucracy and the politicians until election time.
POPULATION CONTROL (from) the fear that too many undeserving people will want some of the world's resources. The purpose of the AUTOMOBILE.
POSTHUMOUS (from) Latin, alteration of postumus, coming after, influenced by humus, earth, and taken as "after burial." What with contemporary embalming techniques, and internment in steel caskets, life after burial is no longer influenced by humus. Compare EMBALM
POVERTY (from) Great wealth. An unfortunate symptom of capitalism, not an ignorance of welfare applications.
"Whether there are great extremes of rich and poor in society is a matter of very little significance." -- William Sumner
PRAYER (from) Latin precarius, obtained by entreaty.
PRECARIOUS (from) Latin precarius, dependent on prayer. Return to BREATH
PRESENT (from) Latin praeesse, to be in front of. A mean and miserable time following a glorious past on our way to a brilliant future. All mass movements deprecate the present by depicting it as a mean preliminary to a glorious future. Religious movements present the present as a place of exile, a vale of tears leading to the heavenly kingdom; social revolutions stop at the present way station on the road to Utopia; and nationalist movements consider the present an ignoble episode preceding the final triumph. Mass movements deliberately foment unhappiness with individual pleasure now in order to win converts to fight for the big happiness to come. I am presently unhappy with all that. Why can't we be well and happy right now?
PRESIDENT (from) Latin praesidere, preside; literally "to sit in front of." An elected official who never sits in front of but exerts powerful persuasion over Congress. He doesn't gubernate, he presides.
PRODUCE (from) Latin producere, to lead or bring forth. Something produced; especially, farm products collectively. For example, "What do mothers, farmers and gardeners have in common? They all reap produce."
PROFANE (from) Latin pro-, before + fanum, temple. The common language spoken before one enters the temple, and presumably, postfane.
PROFESSIONAL (from) Latin professus, to declare publicly. Performed by persons receiving pay (the amounts they often will not profess). For example, "Our American politicians are true professionals and are the best that money can buy."
PROFIT (from) Latin pro- + facere, to do, make. Why all businesses exist. Once upon a time, when a skilled person could supply his family with commodities and/or services in excess of need, he could start a business of supplying the same to his neighbors and community in order to save others the need for having to do it themselves. His profit was primarily service to his community, something that is seldom understood today. I foresee a time on Earth when we work for the glory of the Life itself, not for the Almighty Buck.
PROGRESS (from) Latin progressus, < pro - forward + ghredh, to walk. The locomotion of so-called "civilization" that is marked by concrete, steel, smoke and the automobile. The progress of Nature is to get us walking again, and on our knees praying and gardening.
"Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity." -- Thor Heyerdahl
"What we call progress is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance." -- Havelock Ellis
"Progress might have been all right once but it has gone on too long." -- Ogden Nash
PROPERTY (from) Latin proprietas, ownership, peculiarity, from proprius, own, particular. The acquired hope of the past, from which we do not easily escape in this world or the next. That which is more valuable than life, in as much as common robbers and thieves often get longer jail terms than murderers. Exceptions are made for those who have the knowledge and skill to steal millions of dollars in bank fraud and savings and loan scandals, etc.
"The effort to get property stimulates the social virtues." -- William Sumner
PROPHET (from) Greek prophetes, "one who speaks beforehand," (from) pro-, before + phanai, to say. Who the Prophet is depends upon your convictions. Your Prophet may be Elijah, Joe Smith or Mohammed. The necessity of prophecy is uncontested in heavy religion. The more is prophesied in its behalf, the more convincing it appears. Contemporarily, the coming of any savior is of no account unless is it prophesied beforehand. Until we see said savior, I prophecy profits before prophets.
PUDENDUM (from) Latin pudere, to be ashamed. Our external genetalia. Nature was so crude to put our reproductive equipment on our outsides and then expose us when we are born totally nude! I blush as I type this. Here is a good example of man being right and Nature being shamefully wrong. Either we should have our things created inside a fold of skin, like the whales, or we should be born with clothes on. We could at least be wrapped in a swaddling cloth with an alligator on it.
PUNDIT (from) Sanscrit pandita, a learned man. It is difficult to find in modern usage any connection between puns and pundits, yet it is undoubtedly the learned that are most apt to "o pun" the doors to discovery.