Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Chutzpah

Chutzpah: Leo Rosten in The Joys of Yiddish defines chutzpah as "gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible 'guts,' presumption plus arrogance such as no other word and no other language can do justice to." In this sense, chutzpah expresses both strong disapproval and a grudging admiration. In the same work Rosten also defined the term as "that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan."

Washingtonpost.com:

An alleged attempt to blow up a transatlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas would be all-consuming for the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration -- if there were one.

Instead, the post remains vacant because Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has held up President Obama's nominee in an effort to prevent TSA workers from joining a labor union.

DeMint, in a statement, said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's alleged attempted attack in Detroit "is a perfect example of why the Obama administration should not unionize the TSA."

Get that? If the TSA unionizes, it won't be able to stop terrorist attacks. We're so dedicated to this principle, we're going to render the TSA leaderless. The fact that there was an attempted terrorist attack during this interregnum just proves our point, even though the TSA was not, at the time of the attempt, unionized.

Sheer chutzpah.

6 comments:

David said...

That is one word for it - but why am I feeling this urge to hunt up "Pretzel Logic".

Anonymous said...

I thought the GOP was about freedom? Or is that only the freedoms they want, rather than, say, the freedom to join a union should you so choose?

David Terrenoire said...

It makes my head hurt.

Kate Hathway said...

That the insane Nigerian got on a plane in Amsterdam is the fault of anyone in the TSA, unionized or not, because WHY? I'm agreeing with David in saying "Pretzel Logic" is more applicable here.

Dory said...

Heck, I want to know why the explosive petered out. . . maybe he tinkled in his pants?

Guess in the future al qaeda will have to make a rule: NO FLUIDS AFTER 4 PM.

Happy New Year to you all.

Gerard said...

Interregnum? Talk about chutzpah.