...the prison population is exploding while our schools implode, civil rights are verklempt and vivisepulturated, ...
discounting the political nature of the source (counterpunch) and the oververbing of 'vivisepulture' (burying alive), how can civil rights be 'verklempt'?
well, one might say that civil rights today were sad...?
one might say that...
In sad shape, but incapable of emotion. And the guy who
was using German word ought to get spelling right. No "p" if I remember correctly. Gotta go check that.
Auf Deutsch:"Bin ich verklemmt? Beantworte bitte folgende Fragen: Du bist auf einem geilen Konzert. Wie verhälst du dich? "Vielleicht ein bißchen ... "
No, no, AnnaS...must be Al Sharpton waxing with literary pretension.
interesting guesses... here is the actual philippic:
warning:: HIGH POLITICAL CONTENT ::warning
http://www.counterpunch.org/tripp05082003.html
Brilliant piece of political digging and very well written, too. Won't be all that many people who frequent a free-thinking forum such as this who disagree with the sentiments either, I would have thought.
using German word ought to get spelling right
A short google confirmed my suspicion that the word here is not the German one with mm and a sexual connotation, but actually a yiddish variant with a different meaning:
"A few years ago a couple of women in my office asked me if I knew what the word verklempt meant. I didn’t. They asked because some character on a television show called Saturday Night Live used it all the time. People always think I know the weirdest things. I looked up the word in a German dictionary and they said it was a Yiddish word meaning closed in, as though the pressure of the world was proving too much with which to cope. "
... the pressure of the world was proving too much with which to cope
It's a quite accurate description of the *scenario of civil rights in the US, and flows nicely (for me) in the context of his writing style... not to mention the impact using that term.
Ahhhh... the power of words!