On Thu, 9 Apr 2009 19:15:48 -0700 (PDT), DaveS wrote:

On Apr 9, 6:06*am, wrote:

What a martinet.

Um, a "martinet," Gracie? *Hang on, you don't actually mean to say "martian" or
"maraschino" or "canard a l'orange" or something, do you...?


Here Junior, let me help you out, or more correctly

let the Wiki help you out

Maybe you ought to Wiki up something for yourself, there, Daffy...

"In English, the term martinet is usually used not in reference to the
whip itself, but rather him who would use it, a person who demands
strict adherence to set rules, especially such a person in the
military. This sense of the word reputedly comes from the name of Jean
Martinet, Inspector General of the army of Louis XIV and thus would be
etymologically only by accident related to the earlier sense.
In an extended sense, a martinet is any person for whom a strict
adherence to rules and etiquette is paramount: martinets often use
etiquette and other rules as an excuse to trump ethics, to the point
that etiquette loses its ethical ground. The Ugandan dictator Idi Amin
was famously described as a "strutting martinet" by Time in 1977.[1] "

As I said, I don't watch Hannity, but I did occasionally watch Hannity and
Colmes, and I must say, the first time I saw it, I thought, "Boy, that Hannity
guy is _EXACTLY_ like a white Idi Amin"...his exaggerated military bearing and
repeated citing of "Robert's Rules of Order" and "Emily Post," even to
off-camera personnel, did seem a bit odd and excessive...

HTH,
R
....OTOH, maybe it was just all the festoonery on Hannity's Gilbert and Sullivan
inspired uniform...he is the very model of a modern Ugandan dictator...

Dave