1983_02 Insight February 1983

              InNighl
OPINION
February 29, 1999
Words front the world at small
MICHAEL TODD
In a speech long ago and far
away, Warren G. Harding used tbe
word 'normalcy.' He didn't Just use it,
he created it. The fact that no such
word existed previously didn't daunt
Warren. Truth is, little things like that
kept Harding from attaining tbe
stature no one thought he could attain.
In tact, If presidents were put on
baseball-type cards, Harding would
be equivalent to Orlando Cepeda.
Nonetheless, I admire people who
take chances with language, using it
to, or beyond, its full potential.
Perhaps the Harding incident ("Tbe
Harding Incident:" a thrilling new
spy thriller as thrilling as all the
previous spy thrillers. What makes
this one unique Is that there are no
swastikas on the book's Jacket) is
more a case of abusing language, but
my point is still obvious.
Unfortunately for people like me,
assuming there are people like me,
too few people use the language with
any elan. As should be apparent, I certainly don't But I am aware of my
fallings and have developed a simple
way to improve myself short of
suicide. You might benefit from my
brainchild, therefore, without further
ado, I proudly present an excerpt
from:
Tbe Michael Todd Short Coarse far
Speaking as Weti as the Nightengale
Slags
Many poor souls struggle every
minute to find the right word to express themselves. What they don't
realize is that a single word,
strategically placed, will brighten
every word to its vicinity. After all, it
is the diamond that makes the ring
and not tbe setting. What follows is a
list of words, their definitions and
uses, guaranteed to add sparkle to
any sentence.
PEDANT: This Is an excellent
word as it is short yet no one knows
what it means, till now. A pedant is a
person who Is boring, but doesn't
know anything about sports. A
paradox, indeed. If it weren't for
pedants, there would be no controversy over "1" before "e."
Quite often you will bear someone say, "I don't mean to be pedantic, but ..." They lie! Tbe supposed
meaning of that phrase is: "I've really got a fascinating point to make, so
I'm glad you've screwed up so I can
show off," but actually, it's code for,
"Get a pillow, this may take awhile."
Wartatog: Pedant is not to be confused with tbe now extinct animal
known as tbe •heart-shaped pedant'
This beast which used to be found
feasting on two-pound boxes of See's
Candy, was a favored gift of lovers on
Valentine's Day.
FRITZ: This European name
first gained credence as an English
word to tbe United States as part of
the infamous phrase "on tbe frits."
That phrase, which actually i
of schoolchildren to bold that all German immigrants were appliance
repairmen. Other phrases popular at
the time of "on the fritz" were "by the
helmut," "sinking like a franz," and
the tratorflglral "do the olga."
Rather than use tbe word fritz,
though, this "Short Course" suggests
tbe creation of a new generation of
i who has spent too much time
in the sun could be "lookin' like an Andropov." Other favorites might be
"dead   as  a   Mora,"   "feeling
Reynolds rates the Grammys: They're fixed
JEFF REYNOLDS
J Prior to the creation of tbe Grammy Awards 25 years ago, there was no
awards program to honor musical artists for top-selling records, so the
various record labels got together and
conjured up an awards ceremony,
hoping to create something equal in
prestige to the more established
Academy Awards.
' In recent years there has been
almost as much guessing as now tbe
Grammy nominees are chosen as to
how the ultimate winners are
selected.
Many recent Grammy Awards
selections have been questioned
because more often than not, tbe artists omitted from tbe list are better
than the ones chosen. It's enough to
make one wonder what tbe voting
members of tbe National Academy of
Recording Arts k Sciences (NARAS)
h a v e been listening to.
Two years ago, Tor example, tbe
NARAS became so captivated by
Christopher. Cross— a mildly talented
singer o(./"luJfe'.. non-substantial love
songs— that it awarded him an
unbelievable five Grammys, and
totally ignored other more important
artists that had something more
meaningful to say.
Also, the NARAS was to no hurry
for quite a while to give rock music
serious recognition despite sales
figures snowing that rock discs sold
far better than those in other music
catergories. Does the voting body —
the singers, songwriters, composers,
engineers, musicians, producers, conductors, arrangers and art directors
— seriously evaluate the merits of a
particular recording? Or do they
march to a heavily conservative, corporate wimj>rock beat?
For example, when the NARAS
considers rock, it nominates the likes
of "Toto IV " by Toto, a bland Los
Angeles band of studio musicians, as
one of five candidates adBbum of the
Year, and ignores totally Elvis
Costcllo's "Imperial Bedroom" and
Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" to
pick but two solid possibilities. _,
On top of that, Toto's single
"Rosanna" is nominated both as
Record of the Year and Song of the
Year, which appears to me an attempt to insure that Toto will win
something. And how many record
buyers and radio listeners think
"I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World)" by
Steely Dan recluse Donald Fagen was
one of the five best songs of 1962, and
that Fagen's album, "The Nightfly,"
was one of the five best albums?
Tbe NARAS did raise its sights
higher than usual when it nominated
Pat Metheny, Willie Nelson and a
handful of other entrants to the Jazz
and country categories. However,
such exceptions do not change my
view that the Grammy ceremonies
have long been out of touch with what
is going on in music.
Powerful political songs are virtually outlawed. For example, "The
Message" by Grandmaster Flash &
the Furious Five and "Rock the
Casbah" by the Clash, two excellent
singles, have been overlooked to this
year's nominations.
Other omissions suggest the
NARAS just isn't paying attention —
no nomination for ABC's "The Look of
Love," for example, even though
everyone in America must have heard
it at least once; and, except for The
Human League, no acknowledgement
of the latest British invasion, tbe
synthesizer-based dance-rock bands.
In a year that saw more and more
criticism being fired at radio programmers for their dull, conservative
playlets,, the. qiflyyay., nominators
.emerge..as. the worst o#el»ders for
lightweight. Widdle-o£-^pad approaches. It also goes without saying
that groups on the biggest labels totally dominate the nominations.
1 wish the Grammy winners —
which will be announced tonight on
CBS — were more consistently
representative of the true state of
popular music. The Grammy choices
that follow may not necessarily actually be up for tbe award, but are my
personal choices.
Record of tbe Year — Former
Eagle Don Henly deserves this award
for his "Dirty Laundry," a scathing
look at the electronic and print media.
Album of the Year — Several
solid choices here, with Costello's
"Imperial Bedroom" and Springsteen's "Nebraska" sharing top bill-
tog.
Song of the Year — "Tbe
Message," a pulsating, grim look at
life in America's inner cities by rapp-
sters Grand Master Flash and the
Furious Five.
1 Best New Artist —   Australia's
Men At Work is a sure choice here,
although Little Steven and the
Disciples of Soul are a close second.
Best Pop Vocal, Female —
Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders is a
runaway choice for "Back on tbe
Chain Gang," a dynamite song
dedicated to the late James
Honeyman-Scott, guitarist for:-.toe
band before his untimely demise last
summer.
Best Pop Vocal. Male — For this
one, I would have to go with ABC's
Martin Fry, whose soaring vocals on
"The Look of Love," was ot%of "me
highlights of 1962.
Rock l ns tru menu I — Tbe Clash's
"Mustapha Dance," which is found on
(he flip side of the "Rock the Casbah"
12-inch single.
Beat RAB Vocal. Female —
Aretha Franklin's "Jump To It" is
her best effort to years and is a strong
choice.
Best RAB Vocal. Male — Ray
Parker, Jr.'s "The Other Woman" is
my choice here, a 1 though Luther Van-
dross"'Sugar and Spice" is a close second.
Best RAB Performance by a Duo
or Group With Vocal — "Let's Go
Dancin'" by Kool and tbe Gang gets
tbe nod here.
Best RAB Soag— Grandmaster
Flash's "The Massage."
"welU'llbeaMitterand."
HAG: A marvelous word, coming
from tbe Indo-Sanskit root 'hagge,'
meaning "any woman who works
graveyard at a truck stop." Too often,
when the word is used, it has tbe connotation of 'old.' This is unfortunate,
as age cannot be controlled, whereas
haggjneas is a state of mind.
~:Yeta    '
o of tat Year -
Video of the Year
between Peter Gabriel's "Shock tbe
Monkey" and Greg Kihn's "Happy
Man."
Producer of the Year— This one
goes down to Jimmy Iovtoe, for his
finework on Tom Potty's "Long After
Dack" and Bob^ Soger's "the
Distance."
Jeff Reynolds is Insight sports
columnist who thought he'd try
something different thi* week.
tbe "Word Most Likely to be Uttered
by Sir Kenneth Clark" contest This
word Is also best explained by its
roots. Sessile, from tbe Latin, meant
"students' appearance to a seven
o'clock class," or to be exact "a VH
o'clock class."
RECANT: Ah, the first verb. Re-
cant once meant 'to take back a statement,' except to Catholic nations,
where it meant 'to cry uncle.'
Lately, however, it has been used
to rebut optimists who start spouting,
"If at first you don't succeed..." The
proper answer is now "I recant," with
the meaning, "I tried and failed twice,
already."
HELLUVA: One of a new breed of
words, popularly known as 'television
vulgar.' The theory is you can say
anything you want on the air, as long
as it's hidden to a forest of tonocuous
words.
Helluva Is not a"brand of watch. It
does translate as "ten of V which
has no known English meaning. Companion phrases are "sunuvabitch"
and "Isle beDamned."
tew federalist papers
"NECESSITY OF A BALANCED
BUDGET " or "HOW TO MAKE
CUTS WITHOUT LOSING
YOUR FINGERS."
Prior to tbe Great Depression of
tbe 1930s, the prevailing policy of the
American political system was one of
laissez faire. There was some government involvement in the economy, but
when there was doubt about what role
the government should take, it did
nothing. Deficit spending was a rari-
ty, so was inflation, and thus prices
remained stable. (A loaf of bread cost
five cents to 1790; in 1910, it was still
five cents). In 1800, tbe consumer
price index (CPI) was 51 (1967 ■ 100).
It rose somewhat during the War of
1812 — a period of deficit spending —
reaching 63 to 1814. Tbe CPI continually declined until the Civil War,
but even at tbe height of the war in
1864, the index stood only at 47 -
lower than it had been to 1814. After
this catastrophic war, prices steadily
declined until World War I. Between
1815 and 1920, tbe CPI doubled from 30
to 60, but once the war was over, as to
earlier cases, prices declined and continually did so until the 1930s. Since
1999, the CPI has Increased every
single year. The CPI ts now above 225,
and until recently, it was rising at a
rapid rate.
Prior to Roosevelt's New Deal,
prices had been relatively stable. So
what has happened since World War
n to break this oattero? There are
two answers: (1) The government's
ability to Increase tbe supply of
money is unlimited due to tbe aboli
tion of the' gold standard. (2)J
Democrats and government offic
have a deep interest in mair '
high, steady rate of inflation, so as to
bring in additional revenue through
taxation. Thus, Democrats could buy
their votes to the belief that deficits
were good /or the economy.
(Democratic/Senator Paul Sarbanes
of Maryland voted against having a
balanced budget as a desirable fiscal
goal). This has enabled the
Democrats to promise tbe people
something-for-nothing. The people
could have all tbe new government
programs they desired and it would
not cost them anything because the
programs were paid for them with
deficits rather than taxes.
Of course, this has not been tbe
case, at least to part. We have been
given all of these new government
programs, but at a tremendous cost
through higher taxes, induced by Inflation. As inflation rose, tbe ability
for many Americans to purchase even
the basic necessities for sustaining
life itself (food, clothing and shelter)
has become more difficult Because of
this situation, most people can not afford to buy important items such as
automobiles and houses due to high interest rates, which are a result of
deficit spending.
The Prime Interest Rate is now
down to 11 percent (interest rates for
tbe general public are between 16 to 17
percent) and that is with current
fiscal year deficit of close to $200
billion! Imagine what interest rates
would te ti tbe deficit was one half of
this figure. .This does not meant tbe
budget should be balanced by increase taxation. As soon as new taxes
would te imposed, the big spenders
would be Wf again, and then there
would be/ another burst of deficit
government spending. It is far better
to have total spending at $200 billion
with a deficit of 8100 billion than a
balanced budget at $500 billion.
So what is to te done to balance
the budget? Tbe main cause of our
trillion dollar deficit is an overabundance of government programs.
These programs are crippled into
near impotency by over-regulation
and by a bureaucracy that is a Joke as
far as efficiency is concerned. It has
been proven that 90 cents out of every
dollar that goes into welfare is consumed by the bureaucracy to
distribute the remaining 10 cents. Yet
Blue Cross only takes 10 cents out of
every dollar to distribute the remaining ninety.
There are three cures in balancing the budget They are: (1) reduce
the amount of government programs,
(2) Reduce the conflicting and contradictory regulations, and (3)
Reform the bureaucracy, which consumes the vast majority of the
revenues used to fund these programs.
Not all government programs are
bad ideas; to fact some are very
good. But ones that use millions to
study the behavioral patterns of
emotionally-disturbed rodents are
farces. Tbe abolition of these programs which are useless for the
general public would save millions,
which could be used to lower the
deficit. Reducing the amount of
federal red tape would benefit
bureaucracies, business, and the national budget Before Reagan became
President's block grant proposals
have reduced 57 grant programs into
nine block grants. The new regulations are only ten pages in length,
replacing several hundred pages of
complex regulations under the
categorical system. Regulatory relief
has already created savings of over $2
billion in annual recurring costs. It is
estimated that over $13 billion in onetime capita] investments have been
saved by business as a result of reductions in unnecessary regulations. As
you can see, reduction of federal red
tape saves tbe government money —
which can be used to reduce the
deficit — and business, which can use
these additional revenues to expand
and hire more workers. The
bureaucracy can also function more
efficiently, and needs all the help it
can get.
The reform of the federal
bureaucracy is of great Importance.
The entire system badly needs an
overhaul. The hiring/firing procedure
must te changed. Once hired, it is
almost impossible to fire a government employee, even if te is incompetent and is incapable of doing a good
Job. Incentive must be created too. A
good bureaucrat gets the same pay as
does a bad one. So why should tbe
good bureaucrat strain himself? This
needs to be dealt witnT Vast amounts
of money could also te saved through
the social-security and quotaivstem
reforms discussed to our previous
papers. Usage of these policies, coupled with less red tape, would save
billions - billions originally intended
to benefit tbe country instead of tbe
parasitical bureaucracy. Not aa much
money would te needed to fund these
programs, and so the budget could te
further reduced.
PS. "The New Federalist
Papers" Is an everlasting ode to the
virtues of Mom. apple pie and making
a /tut buck. Be with us next sumek
when -we go to war against our
nation's armed forces.
SeanCanfleldUagmditodentta
History (minor: Geography). Scott
Hatfield claims to be a "bora again
Christian" and U studying musk.
It is fairly obvious that at
budget is of great necessity. Those
who oppose one usually belong to
special interest groups which run
useless government programs. Is it
not ironic that those who cry the most
usually foul tbe most? Liberals try to
use the argument that tbe President's
new budget is making huge cuts. This
is not accurate. The budget overall is
larger than last year by more than $30
billion. Unemployment benefits have
been extended from 10 to 14 weeks.
Those to need are still receiving aid.
What had been changed is tbe rate of
growth to federal spending. Hopefully, this policy will continue to an even-
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__JAProgram of Trinity Christian College)
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