Word: claptrap
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Barth has a good ear for the sort of psychologizing claptrap that passes for conversation in some circles. The earnest talk of the three academic friends is a comedy of manners in itself-almost on the level of Mary (The Groves of Academe) McCarthy or Randall (Pictures from an Institution) Jarrell. Barth is clearly one of the more interesting of younger U.S. writers and he has produced that rarity of U.S. letters-a true novel of ideas...
...Christian will not contain much that is new for those who have passed through the illuminating fires of Hum 5 or Phil 1b. But the apalling atavistic rites that drew earnest millions to Madison Square Garden last summer, and the pietistic claptrap emanating constantly from the White House indicate that Russell's rationalistic pamphleteering is still far from superfluous. Neither the great mass of people nor their highest leaders have evidently yet caught up with the thought of the eighteenth century. Russell performs a real service by reiterating the unrefuted arguments of Voltaire and Hume which, seemingly out of sheer...
...Washington. The agreement was hidden by a barrage of partisanship touched off by Harry Truman's blast at the Administration's stony-hearted attitude toward the recession. Republicans replied in kind, waving at Harry such red-flag terms as "dime-a-dance oratory" and "typical Truman claptrap." Even the President joined in the counterattack. "The economy of this country is a lot stronger than the spirit of those people that I see wailing about it," he told the National Food Conference in Washington. Amid the flap, Capitol Hill's Joint Economic Committee quietly reported a bipartisan conclusion...
...critical barrage went on in private as well as in public. At cocktail parties Tinker was needled mercilessly by Canadians who seemed to feel that they were entitled to hold him personally responsible for McCarthyism, U.S. foreign policy, and "every bit of claptrap put out by Hollywood, U.S. Steel or the C.I.O...
...finger under the Douglas nose. Douglas waggled right back. Clearly outreached, stubby Gene Millikin retired briefly. Douglas accused the Republicans of sponsoring tax measures which would benefit only the wealthy. Rejoined Millikin: "Dear Senator, if that did not come out of your mouth. I would call it sheer claptrap-and it is still claptrap, even though it comes out of your mouth." From his safe distance, Millikin waved a long yellow pencil at Douglas...