It's no coincidence that the act of deference came out of the woodwork when the creatures accumulated some power.
"He who has the gold makes the rules", and prior to the New Deal expansion, they didn't have the gold.
The other element is simple human psychology. Some humans simply need a king; they cannot tolerate the burden of freedom, and so they delegate all their Power to whichever strongman they believe will beat them least.
These people have egos inversely proportional to their IQ's.
Listen to Harry Reid and Joe Biden as just two typical examples of the illiteracy in the congress. These two fools are laughable. Sorry, but the joke is on us sadly.
What I have never understood is-----who re-elects these jerks?
People. Dumbass people. Who figure "Yeah, he's a crook/jerk/drunk/moron, but he brings money in!" Never mind that that money comes from looting other people. And never mind that, sooner or later, it costs the dumbass people right out their own ass.
I wonder of the idiots who keep reelecting Barney Frank have considered just how much, how many millions/billions, his corruption is costing them? And if they do, if they'll get off their dumb ass and vote for someone else?
Actually, that's how adults of breeding spoke to each other back when it was still considered somewhat vulgar to use a person's first name without their permission.
Alas, today the crass is commonplace while the polite seems like groveling to the hoi polloi...
That's what I was thinking as well, Tam. Although I agree with the overall point that our public servants are treated like rock stars or royalty now, I don't think the way they address each other in their official capacity is either a result or a cause of the situation, but merely a long-held tradition—and not a harmful one in and of itself.
The curlicued manner in which congressweasels address each other is a function of tradition and the rules, which require the use of the third person when making reference to other members of the body, based on some theory that transforming, "You ratsucking scum!" to "My esteemed colleague behaves in a manner reminiscent of ratsucking scum." engenders courtesy and buffers conflicts, making them less personal.
The penalty is that if you break the linguistic rules, the rules of parliamentary procedure allow the mentioned person the right to interrupt on a point of personal privilege to resolve the matter, (on the speaker's clock?) which has the tendency to break the speaker's flow. As a result, they strive not to provide their opponents with the opportunity to derail them.
Note:
All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost;
references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>
JS-Kit/Echo comments for article at http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2008/10/firehand-has-question.html (6 comments)
Tentative mapping of comments to original article, corrections solicited.
Crossposted from Firehands:
It's no coincidence that the act of deference came out of the woodwork when the creatures accumulated some power.
"He who has the gold makes the rules", and prior to the New Deal expansion, they didn't have the gold.
The other element is simple human psychology. Some humans simply need a king; they cannot tolerate the burden of freedom, and so they delegate all their Power to whichever strongman they believe will beat them least.
Hence the Obamessiah.
These people have egos inversely proportional to their IQ's.
Listen to Harry Reid and Joe Biden as just two typical examples of the illiteracy in the congress. These two fools are laughable. Sorry, but the joke is on us sadly.
What I have never understood is-----who re-elects these jerks?
People. Dumbass people. Who figure "Yeah, he's a crook/jerk/drunk/moron, but he brings money in!" Never mind that that money comes from looting other people. And never mind that, sooner or later, it costs the dumbass people right out their own ass.
I wonder of the idiots who keep reelecting Barney Frank have considered just how much, how many millions/billions, his corruption is costing them? And if they do, if they'll get off their dumb ass and vote for someone else?
Actually, that's how adults of breeding spoke to each other back when it was still considered somewhat vulgar to use a person's first name without their permission.
Alas, today the crass is commonplace while the polite seems like groveling to the hoi polloi...
That's what I was thinking as well, Tam. Although I agree with the overall point that our public servants are treated like rock stars or royalty now, I don't think the way they address each other in their official capacity is either a result or a cause of the situation, but merely a long-held tradition—and not a harmful one in and of itself.
The curlicued manner in which congressweasels address each other is a function of tradition and the rules, which require the use of the third person when making reference to other members of the body, based on some theory that transforming, "You ratsucking scum!" to "My esteemed colleague behaves in a manner reminiscent of ratsucking scum." engenders courtesy and buffers conflicts, making them less personal.
The penalty is that if you break the linguistic rules, the rules of parliamentary procedure allow the mentioned person the right to interrupt on a point of personal privilege to resolve the matter, (on the speaker's clock?) which has the tendency to break the speaker's flow. As a result, they strive not to provide their opponents with the opportunity to derail them.
Note: All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost; references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>