Poltics and Government Homework

1) Current Events
2) Read Vidal Chap 4 65-76. Select five quotes and for each discuss:
a) What Vidal wants you to know, think believe
b) The connection to the E. Q. How Democraic is the Constitution
c) Why you picked the quote; its significance in the book.
(Each answer should be at least several sentences)

New Vocab:

Esteemed: having an illustrious reputation; respected; "our esteemed leader"; "a prestigious author"

Proto: indicating the first or earliest or original; "`proto' is a combining form in a word like `protolanguage' that refers to the hypothetical ancestor of another language or group of languages"

Inalienable: 1 - incapable of being repudiated or transferred to another; "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights"
2 - unforfeitable: not subject to forfeiture; "an unforfeitable right"

unscrupulous: Without scruples, immoral; Contemptuous of what is right or honorable

commensurate: proportionate; of a similar measurable standard

scurvy: 1 - a condition caused by deficiency of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) 2 - of the most contemptible kind; "abject cowardice"; "a low stunt to pull"; "a low-down sneak"; "his miserable treatment of his family"; "You miserable skunk!"; "a scummy rabble"; "a scurvy trick"

indelible - cannot be removed or erased; "an indelible stain"; "indelible memories"

incarnate – 1 - represent in bodily form; "He embodies all that is evil wrong with the system"; "The painting substantiates the feelings of the artist" 2 - invested with a bodily form especially of a human body; "a monarch...regarded as a god incarnate"

augur: predict from an omen; bode

allure: tempt: dispose or incline or entice to; "We were tempted by the delicious-looking food"

intrepid: without fear; "fearlessly, he led the troops into combat"

assert: affirm: to declare or affirm solemnly and formally as true; "Before God I swear I am innocent"

megalomaniac: Megalomania is a non-clinical word defined as: 1 - A psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence. 2 - An obsession with grandiose or extravagant things or actions.

Protocol: 1 - forms of ceremony and etiquette observed by diplomats and heads of state
2 - code of correct conduct; "safety protocols"; "academic protocol"

in esse: in existence

in posse: in possibility, having a potential to exist, in potential but not in actuality, (contradistinguished by in esse); in possibility, having a potential to exist, in potential but not in actuality, (contradistinguished by in esse)

somber: drab: lacking brightness or color; dull; "drab faded curtains"; "sober Puritan grey"; "children in somber brown clothes"

commencement: beginning: the time at which something is supposed to begin