Rice - getting away from "Punish France, ignore Germany..."?

Main Entry: co·quet·ry Pronunciation Guide
Pronunciation: kktr, -ri sometimes kket-
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): -es
Etymology: French coquetterie, from coquette + -erie -ery
1 : the conduct or art of a coquette : effort or action intended to attract admiration, gallantry, or affection without responsive feeling : a trifling in love
2 : a dallying or trifling attention or consideration (as to a cause) without serious espousal
3 : delicate charm of a type distinctive of coquettes <lack of coquetry -- in the sense of a lighthearted desire to please -- is a lack of charity, of natural kindness -- English Digest>

Main Entry: co·quette Pronunciation Guide
Pronunciation: kket, usu -ed.+V
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): -s
Etymology: French, feminine of coquet
1 : a woman who endeavors without affection to attract men's amorous attention : FLIRT <instruct the eyes of young coquettes to roll -- Alexander Pope> -- sometimes, with male, used of a man
2 : any of several tropical hummingbirds (of Lophornis and related genera) with crested head and metallic-tinted neck feathers
3 : a moderate to strong yellowish pink that is yellower and paler than coral blush

Walter: Generally the -ish suffix converts the noun into an adjective.

With or without Webster's, you have an admirable command of the language. :wink:

"We are lazy, to say it simply," said Roca.

The solution to the problem Roca suggests is to convince the European community of the need for deep structural reforms, in order for the European Union to subsist in a global economy in the 21st Century, with hopes that the United States may look to Europe as a strong contender and ally.

Spanish center-right lawmaker Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca, a vice president of the European Parliament ...

McTag wrote:

And why stop now? Let us attack every regime which is openly opposed to our way of life. May as well go the whole hog.

BTW, isn't that old line about ready for mothballs? You couldn't find a taker for that in junior high debate club. :wink:

McTag wrote:

WhoodaThunk wrote:

georgeob1 wrote:

What crime? What is your standard for this exceedingly complex judgment?

An excellent post, georgeob1, and certainly a valid question.

I, too, await a reply that's based on more than opinion and media hype.

Not complex, but simple. No need for historical obfuscation.

Iraq did not attack us. We attacked Iraq. That's a crime.

Well at least there is a standard here. Progress! However. Iraq did attack Kuwait without provocation or justification, and later failed to abide by the agreement which concluded our successful campaign to drive them them out. Our case was that we attacked in 2003 to enforce an armistice agreement concluded with Iraq after driving them out of Kuwait to redress what was itself an obvious Iraqi crime. Sounds convincing to me.

There was no media hype in my earlier arguments, and what you term "historical obsfucation" was not obsfucation at all - instead it was an attempt to apply some of the texture of reality and historical fact to what appear to me to be simplistic, logically inadequate (and therefore ultimately intenable) arguments and sweeping jnudgements.

Lash wrote:

(Some idiot European newspaper called Condi--"coquettish". That should clear up any questions as to their ability to read people... I like her, but hell, she is the most sexless person I can think of. She's sort of the conservative Hillary in that aspect.)

Well, I don't know, how much of Rice's visit you followed.

I really can understand that some could see her 'coquettish'. (And I can't follow you, when you connect this with 'sex':

Quote:

Main Entry: co·quett·ish Pronunciation Guide
Pronunciation: ()k|ked.ish, -eti-, -sh
Function: adjective
: having the air or nature of a coquette or coquetry : practicing or exhibiting coquetry <heartless, coquettish women, who put self first and played with fire -- Margaret A. Barnes>

)

WhoodaThunk wrote:

McTag wrote:

And why stop now? Let us attack every regime which is openly opposed to our way of life. May as well go the whole hog.

BTW, isn't that old line about ready for mothballs? You couldn't find a taker for that in junior high debate club. :wink:

If you read back, you will find I was echoing your own words.

Walter: Coquettish is a sexist comment. It's not only sexist, it's off-the-charts sexist. It's disrespectful and demeaning. It's insulting. It's bad.

Coquettish = BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

one German newspaper was so impressed with Dr Rice's diplomatic skills that it described the way she looked at Mr Schroeder as "coquettish"

An Iranian leader called Rice "emotional," and one German headline said she was "coquettish" in her news conference with Schroeder.

To be described as coquettish could be insulting to (or on behalf of) a minister of state, but I would think not necessarily so. I wonder what Ms Rice would say of this, if she could speak on her own behalf?

Margaret Thatcher famously used her feminine wiles on her colleages, and others. Quite ourageously and deliberately, if her biographies are to be believed. Men were aware of the woman within. Francois Mitterand (steady, George) said she had "the lips of Marilyn Monroe, but the eyes of Caligula".

If a man were called on to fix a period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus. The vast extent of the Roman Empire was governed by absolute power under the guidance of virtue and wisdom. The Armies were restrained by the firm but gentle hand of four successive emperors whose characters and authority commanded involuntary respect. The forms of the civil administration were carefully preserved by Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonies, who delighted in the image of liberty and were pleased with considering themselves as the accountable ministers of the laws.

Briefly able to log in from an airport can reassure posters that in French "coquet, coquette" is an adjective with no "sex object" connotation whatsoever. It can be used for buildings (well-taken-care-of), cars (comfortable, well-designed) very old people - it was the standard adjective applied to the late Queen Mother, e.g., even when she was 103 and nobody could call her sexy.
[...]

Did Marilyn Monroe have lips? That's what the French remember about her?