Faux Faux and Beyond the Pale.
In a forehead-slapping development, Neiman Marcus and two other retailers... on Tuesday settled federal claims that they had marketed real fur as fake fur. The supposedly fake stuff was actually rabbit, raccoon and, possibly, dyed mink.
That’s right: it was faux faux fur.
NY Times 3/19/13
Faking fake fur with real fur has to be some kinda sign-o-the-times. The notion that someone sensitive to the cruelty to animals issue would also still be desirous of wearing something that passes for that which they purport to oppose suggests what? That the faked fake pelt is merely the seller's opportunistic attempt to profit from the fakery exhibited by the buyer?
Hmmm. You know, that Veggie Burger I had last night tasted just like top sirloin. Wonder how they do it.
Hoping Obama trip to Israel yields something of value, if not in substance then at least in spirit...but I may be crossing my fingers in vain. This book (I'm only 120 pages in and may fail to finish cause I got the point and may not have stomach for more) may be partly responsible for my pessimism...I quote from an Amazon Reviewer:
"... Robin Shepherd examines the crucial battle of ideas between non-Muslim westerners that Israel is losing...." "... and influence of the enmity towards Israel among European opinion-formers. During the past decades this animosity has spread from the far left to the mainstream liberal-left..."
".Shepherd identifies the cause as Europe's civilizational exhaustion and its symptoms like the post-Holocaust guilt complex, embrace of pacifism, appeasement and relativism."
The phrase "beyond the pale" dates back to the 14th century, when the part of Ireland that was under English rule was delineated by a boundary made of such stakes or fences, and known as the English Pale. To travel outside of that boundary, beyond the pale, was to leave behind all the rules and institutions of English society, which the English modestly considered synonymous with civilization itself.
".Shepherd identifies the cause as Europe's civilizational exhaustion and its symptoms like the post-Holocaust guilt complex, embrace of pacifism, appeasement and relativism."
The phrase "beyond the pale" dates back to the 14th century, when the part of Ireland that was under English rule was delineated by a boundary made of such stakes or fences, and known as the English Pale. To travel outside of that boundary, beyond the pale, was to leave behind all the rules and institutions of English society, which the English modestly considered synonymous with civilization itself.
I knew there was something I didn't like about the expression.
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