Are these times FISSIPAROUS or what?

What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's...

FISSIPAROUS [fih-SIP-er-us] (adjective)

Tending to break apart; divisive.

"This endless multiplication of somatic cells has been going on under the eyes of numerous observers for forty years. What observer has watched for forty years to see whether the fissiparous multiplication of Protozoa does not cease? What observer has watched for one year, or one month or one week?"
--Herbert Spencer, "Professor Weismann's Theories", in Popular Science (1893)

The word "congress" means "coming together". Odd, isn't it, how fissiparous the US Congress tends to be?


TWITO, page 54