74 definition by Peter Kobs

1. The banning of all Blackberry smart phones by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Republic starting in late July 2010.

Because Blackberries use data encryption for transmitting text over the airways, the security forces of those two countries can't "monitor" e-mail traffic from them. Afraid that anti-government forces will use Blackberries for nefarious purposes, they simply banned the devices entirely. Other authoritarian countries are expected to follow suit. Welcome to the 21st century!

1. "Snow Leopard" is the nickname of Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, the first Olympic skier from the nation of Ghana. He became a world media sensation in 2010 when he qualified to ski in the Vancouver Olympic Games.

Kwame, 31, grew up in Accra, Ghana, where the average temperature is about 79 degrees F and it has never snowed during his lifetime. He learned to ski only six years ago at artificial snow dome in Milton Keynes, England, where he previously worked as a receptionist.

Despite having no sponsors and very little money, he was able to represent Ghana in the men's slalom event thanks to the generosity of friends and relatives. His special "Snow Leopard" pin became the hottest item in Vancouver as athletes from around the world raced to snap them up. (Only 1,500 were made.)

A father and animal lover, he has a small foundation devoted to the preservation of actual snow leopards in Africa.

2. A very cool guy who knows how to ski very fast.

3. The pride of Africa in this year's Winter Olympics.

1. A political theory invented by arch-conservative Joseph Overton, VP of the anti-tax Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Michigan. (Overton died in 2003 when his ultra-light airplane crashed.)

2. The name of a poorly-written novel by right-wing talk show host Glen Beck. Published in early 2010, the book is a cautionary tale about leftist radicals taking over the government through incremental change.

In theory, the Overton Window represents the boundaries of "acceptable" public policy and discourse -- what a politician can support without seeming too "extreme." Opposing forces try to broaden this window (or shift it to one side) to make formerly "radical" ideas seem more "mainstream."

Overton's theory has a decidedly pro-business, anti-regulation slant. Something is either "more free" or "less free" in his view. He never mentions "more just" or "more fair" or "more practical." In fact, the entire theory tailor made for paranoid people and right-wing lunatics who think Obama is a totalitarian Marxist dictator bent on world domination.

This acronym stands for "Great Depression #2." It's shorthand for the seemingly imminent collapse of the global economic system starting in late 2008 and continuing into 2009. Some professional economists, as well as ordinary working people, are fearful that the spiralling financial meltdown will lead to a decade-long repeat of the 1930s, complete with bread lines, soup kitchens, radical uprisings and the possibility of global violence. "Happy times are here again!"