Do they seriously not know what a "chickenhawk" generally refers to?
As always, the Right gets all its ideas from the Left -- this is just like feminists reclaiming the word "bitch" or the various similar efforts among homosexuals.
They've got some great investment opportunities over at that site too:
With yet another successful election, time may be running out to buy the New Iraqi Dinar before it hits the open market. It's now unbelievably affordable. The same amount that was once equal to over $82,000 can now be purchased for around $45.
Keyboardists?
Ben Folds / Elton John smackdown.
sing us a song, you're the piano man.
I heart FL.
From the link:
Wow, no sooner do we form this new unit than we get attacked! Hosting Matters came under a Denial Of Service attack from Saudi Arabia,
I wonder.how often they stuff socks in their shorts.
Hey, it's the first five! (l-r: Bob, Unf, Alameida, Ogged, FL).
Jet!
Surely that requires its own post.
(I don't know much, but I like the Holmes pick.)
Here, read the Captain:
I've thought about that for a while, wondering what exactly about both epithets ["chickenhawk" and "101st..."] appear so fascinating to left-wing bloggers. As a middle-aged grandfather supporting a chronically ill wife, I have few options for doing my part in the war on terror. After 9/11, I spent weeks looking into different options for service while trying to balance my family obligations. Our family found out just three weeks after the attack that the Little Admiral would soon join us, and the implications of terrorism and war weighed heavily on my mind. I resolved to use the skills I had -- writing -- to make the case for fighting a forward strategy against terrorists. Eventually that led me to this blog, but in the interim I argued for a continued muscular offensive against the Islamofascists that had murdered thousands of our fellow Americans.
Is that the same as military service? Of course not. The men and women of the military do the real fighting, and we salute them and support them by supporting their mission. Milbloggers give us the best of both worlds by not only defending our nation and fighting (and beating) terrorists around the globe, but also by reporting on the fight first hand. There is honor in engaging in public debate for policies which we believe are in our nation's best interest as well. For many of us, we know that without presenting our arguments in the national forum, many in the media and the public will quickly overpower the debate and threaten the policies we feel give us the best long-term opportunity to defeat terrorism and the states that fund and shelter them.
My own cranky reaction to the 101st types is that if you're going to do something as stupid as blogging, at least have the good sense to keep in mind that none of this matters. You're engaged in an electronic equivalent of round-the-watercooler BSing, so for pity's sake stop the "I'm doing my part" schtick.
Which is why I find the apparent obliviousness to the slang meaning of chickenhawk so, I don't know, screamingly weird.
I've never heard of that slang meaning of chickenhawk. I just thought it meant a kind of hawk that eats chickens, with its only use in pop culture being a non-beloved Warner Bros. character.
Did the slang usage of chickenhawk to refer to someone who loves war but won't fight one originate in the lead-up to Iraq War II, or was it preexistent?
Preexistent, I bet older than the other meaning (aside from bird). I doubtit's true that pederast is what it generally refers to.
I first heard the term used to mean "pederast" maybe thirty years ago, and I had the impression then that it was a well-established usage; I don't think the "hawkish non-combatant" meaning was much used at that time--those types weren't so vocal, maybe, back when there was a draft. You had your hawks, and you had your doves, and that was about it for bird metaphors in the mainstream.
It seems pretty clear that the "pederast" and "non-combatant" meanings are independent developments using separate metaphors; the former referring specifically to the bird preying on the weak, and the latter as a compound based on the use of "hawk" for war supporters. These guys appear to be trying to reinterpret the term with yet a third meaning, which is based on the bird metaphors in the second, but which (apparently inadvertently) uses the central metaphor of predation inherent in the first, very unflattering meaning.
"CHickenhawk" was first used in the npn-combatant sense by the New Republic when Dan Quayle was running for VP, the first prominent right-wing evader of the Vietnam draft. Dukakis and Bentsen were both wartime vets, not especially heroic. I think Hendrik Hertzberg came up with the term. Quayle looked kind of swishy and sort of lisped, and his wife looked both older than him and butch (although they did have five or so children). It's pretty certain that Hertzberg and his editors knew the other meaning.
Huh, that's not what I thought I remembered, but I'm sure you're right.
John Kenneth Galbraith has died. Too bad he had to go during Bush's reign.
independent developments using separate metaphors
I don't know, I think the older meaning was always implicit in the newer. A chickenhawk(1) is an older man who gets ahead at the expense of younger men; a chickenhawk(2) is... an older man who gets ahead at the expense of younger men. So I think "an irregular" is right.
I'm also sure "an irregular" is right, but the parallel seems a little strained to me. Clearly not everyone got it.
