R
Rabble
An uncontrolled mob.
A name given by the government to any group of people who have gathered to protest against government policies. See also anarchist.
Race
(1) A competition to see who can go the fastest.
(2) The whole of the human condition, or sections of it.
There have been people who run up mountains, or along roads, for the sheer enjoyment of it but they are few and far between. Competition is the name of the game, and so it is when we come to that other definition. Race there is a concept which slows down much of human development.
Racists
People who do not like people who are of a different race.
Mostly they are people who say they are not, or people who confuse a variety of shades of pink and brown with the colour white. Racists are people who allow liberals to be intransigent.
Raconteur
One who tells funny or interesting stories.
Usually a man who wears a bow tie, and drinks good wine, and commits slander with impunity. See also anecdote.
Rapid deployment force
A group of soldiers ready to go into action at short notice.
Certain countries in the first world, or the free world as they like to call themselves, like to think that they have the right to act as a police force for the rest of the world, or the third world as they call it. They are somewhat selective about the crimes they choose to police, apparently it depends on how much oil there is in the country, but when they do choose to go in then they send a rapid deployment force. They also make sure there is maximum television coverage so you can be assured that the soldiers of a rapid deployment force will be dressed in the latest combat fashions. See also peace keeper.
Reality television
A television genre where members of the public are held in captivity and put under stress.
The big push in television has always been to cut costs, at all costs. Making even a bad drama series, or a soap opera come to that, does cost money. A cast has to be hired, along with artists and musicians and other people of a creative bent, and they do like to be paid for their efforts. A much cheaper form of television is to take half a dozen members of the public, who were probably brain dead to begin with, then lock them away for a few weeks and abuse them, even suggest that some of them might be making love to others of them, but never showing the act, just what they ate for breakfast. Apparently it is very popular but then so were the gladiatorial games in Rome. See also fly on the wall.
Real life
Life which is not a fantasy.
Actually it is a dress rehearsal for insanity, any time when everything is going wrong, the condition of not being able to handle drugs or alcohol.
Reason
The capacity of rational thought.
Reason is often stood to, which does not help it much. Like logic it is a process which has to be taken carefully if it is to have any value.
Reasons to be cheerful
Conditions which will not make you sad.
Being able to roll a cigarette with ungummed French papers, knowing who the Dutch prime minister is at any given time, understanding the Irish system of proportional representation, being able to make decent coffee while listening to the early morning news and not feeling guilty.
Recession
A backward movement.
When it is a term in meteorology it is that which always brings bad weather. When it is a term in politics it is a delusion which suggests that bad economic management is a naturally occurring phenomena.
Relationship
That which unites two or more people or things.
Mostly this will mean an agreement to become addicted to another person, which in turn means an agreement to have casual sex more than once a week, which finally means talking about sex before doing it.
Religion
The rules concerning the worship of a divine being.
Religion is one of the most popular topics in this work, after politics and sex that is, but in truth it is a very small minded approach to pan cosmic mysteries. It is telling God what She believes rather than listening to what She might believe. And I do have sympathy for God, even when I know that She doesn’t exist, or perhaps because I know that She doesn’t exist.
Retrospect
Looking backward, usually in time.
The place where all the right decisions are made, or the comfortable place from which mistakes can be admitted.
Reward for information
A recompense paid by police authorities.
Another of those illogical situations. In the first instance it is a suggestion that the police may not be able to find the culprit by any other means but this leads to a position in which a third party can benefit from a crime without the fear of judicial retribution.
Right
(1) The opposite of left.
(2) That which is correct. (3) A thing to which a person is entitled. In terms of morally we are looking at the opposite of wrong, which is probably a good place to be though not always an exciting one. As for the rest, take your pick.
Right wing
The opposite of left wing in political theory.
Fascists and bigots are right wing, so are capitalists, so are many religious beliefs coming out of America and a fair few out of the Middle East. In general it is not such a good place to be.
Right to choose
The freedom to make selections based on one’s own preferences. Which could mean the acquisition of that which should have been granted without question but for some white men it is the freedom to become gun carrying racists whilst for most women it is that which they rarely have in maters pertaining to fecundity.Rites of passage
Events which mark a progress through life.
Forget things like birth marriage and death. Instead think, for a boy, of learning how to shave or, for a girl, of loosing her virginity. Obviously boys have it easier than girls.
Road rage
Becoming extremely angry on a motorway.
One of the few times a psychopath is honest about her/his condition, or an obscure branch of logic which places a greater value on speed than it does on human life.
Rock
(1) A large stone.
(2) A style of popular music from the 60’s and 70’s.
The place opposite a hard place when you have no choice, especially where the music is concerned.
Role play games
Fantasy board games.
A pastime in which those with retarded personalities imagine that they are heroes, or where men who wear anoraks imagine that women who wear leather costumes can be controlled by the throw of a dice.
Romance
Idealised love.
Love without wet patches on the sheets, or a suggestion that men and women can fall in love without first having sex.
Royal family
A clan which imagines that it rules a country by divine right.
In most of Europe, where they still exist, this means an institution which likes to make it’s divorce proceedings as public as it’s wedding ceremonies. And they are the only people to make sense of family trees or rather, a limited company with an interesting line in logos.
