Sorry, honey. President Obungle is responsible for all of his actions.
We’re Halfway There ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXsmGSnq3lE&feature=fvwrel
True, but generally only from around 1800 to 1960.
Prior to that "gentleman" meant a man of the upper classes, a member of the "gentry." It gradually acquired the meaning Mr. Williams refers to based on the notion that this was the way a "true gentleman" would behave, and that one who didn't wasn't really a gentleman regardless of his birth. In Shakespeare, for instance, characters of noble birth behave in the most appalling manner without anybody claiming they aren't acting like a gentleman.
Since 1960 the term has been generally used in ridicule, not surprisingly since the very notion that being honest, brave, courteous and loyal" has itself been subjected to ridicule.
A good bit of the demand for "political correctness" and rules against sexual harassment has arisen because of the loss of belief in the ideal of being a gentleman.
A true gentleman would never have sexually harassed a subordinate, for instance. I've often wondered whether the ideal of "being a gentleman" was more effective at restraining men's natural inclinations along these lines than today's laws and regulations.
Where is the dignity of an office that depends on an impeached perjurer as a character reference? I know of not one objection to his smarmy little joke, not one.
It also demonstrates the coarse vulgarity that so easily spews out of foul mouths.
Whoopie! A political commercial with dirty mouthed seniors! How cutting edge, how mature, pressing the envelope and so frank! Give me a sick bag!
The talking heads were amused, tee hee hee.
Calls to mind Obama’s use of the word “folks” ... as in, we’re going to “get the folks” who killed our Ambassador and others in Benghazi. Folks? Who in their right mind would refer to the terrorists who struck the consulate as “folks?” WHO I ASK YOU?
I have heard with my own ears: “The gentleman then entered the schoolyard and opened fire...”