Dictionary "T"

TABOO (from) Tongan tabu, exceedingly sacred. Cannibalism is a no-no to most westerners, but imagine how sacred it must be to a cannibal to eat the heart of his greatest opponent. He will take on the fierce qualities of the defeated and become all the more awesome! It is exceedingly sacred to particular religions to eat wafers and drink wine believing that they are consuming the flesh and blood of their "savior," presumably to take on his peaceful and holy qualities, but that's not what most carnivores eat it for. It is taboo for me to tell you that the reason Americans eat so much meat these days is because the meat market was flooded with cattle at the end of WW II. In order to minimize losses, the meat lobby convinced the Medical Bureaucracy to announce meat as first class protein. The seven food group chart was changed immediately to place meat at the top, instead of fourth in order of importance. Our health has declined ever since. Not so the meat industry.

TALENT (from) Old English talente, unit of weight or money, and Old French talent, inclination, aptitude, both from Latin talentum, unit of weight or money. The IndoEuropean origin is tel. The Greek word telos is tax, charge. There is no extra charge for that. The Latin word tolerare is to bear, endure, tolerate. That's tolerable, but the variation talio, "something paid out," became retaliate. I've no talent for that, and no desire to weigh this any more. If a person has enough money, he doesn't need much talent.

TALK (from) Old English talian, to relate. More than a way to exercise the jaw and tongue, talking is a way to prevent the ears and brain from functioning.

TAX (from) Latin taxare, frequentative of tangere, to touch. A burdensome or excessive demand. For example, "When the IRS reaches out to touch someone, it can be very taxing."

TELEVISION (from) Greek tele, far off, + visus, sight. Electronic gadgetry controlled by The Bureaucracy that keeps everyone's sight so far off that no one can see what's going on anymore. A way to keep us from seeing ourselves. Electronic gadgetry controlled by The Ministry of Truth and Commerce that keeps everyone's sight so far out that no one can see inside themselves anymore. A friend of selfishness that prevents people from understanding the meaning of the words, "Know thyself."

TERRAIST (from) Terrology. One who counterattacks the machinations of the military/industrial bureaucracy for an obvious war against Life on Earth.

TERROLOGY (from) Latin Terra, Earth + -logy, study. A study of how we humans fit into the order of life on Earth which will reveal how we humans don't fit into the order of life on Earth.

TESTIFY (from) Latin testis, witness + facare, to make. To make witness. Oaths among men were once sworn with some burly dude threatening to squeeze a tender handful for failure to comply. So I've heard, anyway. It would tend to make a testifying witness testy, eh?

TESTIS (from) Latin, "witness" (to verility). The rites of passage among Roman men are not the subject of this entry, nor is what they had to witness reprintable here. At least, the results of such ceremony involved few, if any, deaths. European Pagans, however, sure have witnessed a lot of brutal Roman verility.

THEOCRAT (from) Greek theos, god + kratos, power. A heavenly bureaucrat, God, and his mob of angels, created by the Great Spirit to manage the planet. Due to forces beyond his control, us humans, his responsibility now is to delegate authority to various commissions to research the problems of a humanity run wild, and try to come up with some solutions to problems that were undoubtedly created by the Theocracy in the first place.

"Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system." -- Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

THEOREOS (from) Theos, god + Oreos. Sandwich Cookies of the Gods.

THEOTEOS (from) Theos, god + oats. The High Fiber Breakfast Cereal of the Gods.

THEOTOCRAT (from) Greek theos, god + (phonetically implied auto[mobile]) + kratos, power. The power of feeling like God when driving an automobile. Americans derive their ultimate power from driving, hence, a fast motorcar on the Interstate is the last bastion of freedom for a lot of us. As long as the price of gas is artificially low, the only driver who will pass us is God himself at the wheel of his mighty Christler Lay Barren.

THEY (& THEM) (from) Latin tam, so much. Those persons we blame so much for all misfortune when we know not where else to cast it. For example, "I heard They are planning a joint space mission to Mars because They have ruined Earth's atmosphere and want to get off this planet." I'm not sure I want to go to Mars with Them. Other examples, "The reason the Interstate Highway System is strategic is so They can control us, not Them. Why? They know we are going to be pissed off when we discover how much They have been wasting our taxes and resources."

THIRD WORLD (from) Bureaucratic nonsense inspired by greed. That part of the world manipulated for production and consumption by The Bureaucracies of the First World. Why don't we ever hear about the exploitations of the Second World, and why don't The Big Bureaus call themselves the First World? The Book of Revelations (in the Christian Bible) prophesies that the first ones now shall later be last. Don't bother to ask your congressman what this means, or about the coming Meek States of America.

TOGA (from) Latin tegere, to cover. The toga is a comfortable covering worn by Roman citizens in times of peace. We associate it with party time, but it more correctly symbolizes a time of not making war, not covering up an overseas war while political parties and their puppets preach peace at home.

TORNADO WATCH (from) Yup Consumerism. An alarm goes off when high winds tear the watch from your wrist. A global warning phenomenon.

TRADITION (from) Latin tradere, to hand over : trans-, over + dare, to give. It was good for my old pappy so it's good enough for me.

"Tradition is what you resort to when you don't have the time or the money to do it right." -- Kurt Herbert Adler

TRASS (from) Earlier Dutch terras, from French terrasse, pile of earth, from Old French terrasse, terrace. Now there's an idea, we brick our trash into terraces along the ends of the hills instead of dusting the hills with the gaseous remains of incineration. Bet we would produce less trass. Besides, some folks don't want to have to purify their air as well as their water, and are more willing to take responsibility for their own piles of earth.

TREE (from) Old English treow, from Sanscrit daru, wood. Trees produce more food per acre than any other food producing plant life. Without trees, life as we know it would not exist, so it is frightful to know that worldwide an area larger than Kansas is cleared of trees every year. Other words from the same origin (deru) are druid, wood, true, trust, truth and endure. "If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is true, there would be little hope of advance." -- Orville Wright

TROGLODITE (from) Goddess of cave love.

TWINKIES AND SNOBALLS (from) food like substances. An experiment in pastry forms that were developed simultaneously by rowdy bakers who subsequently were refused permission to market them in the same package.