25 February 2013

polemic

[puh-lem-ik, poh-]

noun

1. a controversial argument, as one against some opinion, doctrine, etc.
2. a person who argues in opposition to another; controversialist.
adjective
3. Also, po·lem·i·cal. of or pertaining to a polemic; controversial.

Origin:
1630–40; < Greek polemikós of or for war, equivalent to pólem ( os ) war + -ikos -ic

Related forms
po·lem·i·cal·ly, adverb
non·po·lem·ic, noun, adjective
non·po·lem·i·cal, adjective
non·po·lem·i·cal·ly, adverb
o·ver·po·lem·i·cal, adjective

Today’s aphorism

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.

– Plutarch

On this day

25 February 1921 – The Russian Army seized the capital of Georgia, eventually incorporating the republic into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

25 February 1948 – communist rule established in Czechoslovakia by President Eduard Benes.

25 February 1982 – the European Court of Human Rights rules that beating school children without the consent of their parents is a violation of the Human Rights Convention.

25 February 1986 – The People Power Revolution in the Philippines results in the ousting of corrupt dictator Ferdinand Marcos who is airlifted from the Presidential Palace in Manila by U.S. helicopters. The U.S. repatriated him to Hawaii where he lived in exile until his death in 1989 at the age of 72. Marcos had stolen billions from the Philippine treasury and was a suspect in the 1983 assassination of Benigno Aquino, the opposition party leader.