A few sentences need to be clarified

Question

Hi.

Could you please help me to understand the following sentences?

"Say K-FED KNOCKED'EM DEAD! is clipped from a longer review that reads 'If K-FED knocked'em dead at the Vegas nightclub last night, it would have been a coup de grace."

"Happily we don't come away from these arguments feeling sullied. Unhappily, we still come away from these arguments with highly questionable ideas."

"Why would some ordinary person, or at least some ordinary 1940s German, be taken in by such a tranparent disposition of who the genuine bad guy is?"

"a joke that depends on Jewish stereotypes for its punch is usually permissible..."

(Can someone say what this punch is?)

"It's at that point that' heads spin, we head for cover."

"Mr Cheney is said to always have the president's ear, which he apparently keeps in an undisclosed location."

"He lost that race by a whisker and a chad."

"...ceremoniously decorated and subsequently unceremoniosly auto-undecorated Vietnam War veteran"

"Those hearings were televised and popularized McCarthy's day-old-shave look, taken up by Nixon."

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Doctor D · Accepted Answer

Several of these depend upon cultural understanding (familiarity with American politcs, for example), not grammar.

Say K-FED KNOCKED'EM DEAD! is clipped from a longer review that reads 'If K-FED knocked'em dead at the Vegas nightclub last night, it would have been a coup de grace."
To "knock them dead" means to move an audience to wild applause or appreciation. However, a "coup de grace" is the killing stroke mercifully given to a dying opponent. The sentence suggests that K-Fed was so awful he was killing the audience with boredom.

"Happily we don't come away from these arguments feeling sullied. Unhappily, we still come away from these arguments with highly questionable ideas."
The key word is "sullied," meaning made to feel unclean or dirty. So the arguments are not bad enough to defile us, but are still implanting bad ideas in our minds.

"Why would some ordinary person, or at least some ordinary 1940s German, be taken in by such a tranparent disposition of who the genuine bad guy is?"
The difficult word here is "disposition" which is not the clearest way to say this. I think they are using "disposition" in the sense of a transfer. The subject is apparently the **** use of the Jews as the scapegoats for other social problems. I would have said something like: "Why would some ordinary person....be taken in by such an obvious misstatement of who the real bad guys were?"

"a joke that depends on Jewish stereotypes for its punch is usually permissible..."
(Can someone say what this punch is?) I think they may be using "punch" as short for "punchline" (the twist at the end of a joke that provokes laughter). If by "punch" they mean what makes it effective, then they are assuming that Jewish stereotypes (such as miserliness) are in some way valid.

"It's at that point that' heads spin, we head for cover."
I think this is a reference to the movie The Exercist where the head of the girl, who is being possessed by a demon, spins around. So the writer is suggesting possible demonic enemies.

"Mr Cheney is said to always have the president's ear, which he apparently keeps in an undisclosed location."
"To have someone's ear" is to be listened to. "An undisclosed location" is where Vice President Cheney was reported to have been at one critical time. The writer is making a joke about Mr. Cheney having the physical ear of the president in his possession.

"He lost that race by a whisker and a chad."
To lose a race by a whisker is a common expression meaning to lose by the smallest amount possible. A chad is a reference to the voting in Florida in 2000 when Al Gore narrowly lost the race for the presidency (a chad is the part of the voting ballot that is punched out when you vote).

"...ceremoniously decorated and subsequently unceremoniosly auto-undecorated Vietnam War veteran"
A reference to John Kerry? He was decorated with various medals during his service in the Vietnam War, but threw those medals away later in an anti-war protest (thus self-undecorating himself).

"Those hearings were televised and popularized McCarthy's day-old-shave look, taken up by Nixon."
Nixon had been photographed as unshaven (he had dark, heavy facial hair). I would guess that the writer wants to link Nixon with the despised Senator McCarthy.

All clear?

A few sentences need to be clarified

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