| Sour Grapes |
| Of course we're Fair and Balanced! |
|
|
||
|
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by Blogger, SDF, my employer or my family, but they should be.
Blogs and such
e-mail lists
Other Results of 2 Nov 2004 General Election (winners in bold; click on office for more detail)
Tools |
2004-12-21
Language as a weapon of war I read an interesting adaptation of a speech by one Deroy Murdock. I liked some ideas — "Quote Islamo-fascist [his term] leaders to remind people of their true intentions" — better than others — "Specify the number of human beings whom terrorists destroy" — but one in particular struck me as particularly important: Daniel Pipes of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum believes terror is a tactic, not an enemy. Calling today's conflict "a 'War on Terror' is like America in 1941, after Pearl Harbor, declaring a 'War on Surprise Attacks.' We really are engaged in a war on radical Islam." I think calling it a war on radical Islam would lead to a much better focus on what needs to be done, especially if it's clearly named to be a defensive war against Islamic theo-fascism [my term]. That would make it very difficult, for example, for a cabinet member to call the National Education Association (a union of US teachers) a terrorist organization and be taken seriously (though I'm not sure anyone did anyway).
Justice (Civil Liberties, so-called Intellectual Property, Privacy & Secrecy); Politics & Government (International, National, State, Local); Humor (Irony & the Funny or Unusual); Science & Technology (Astronomy, Computers, the Internet, e-Voting, Crypto, Physics & Space); Communication (Books, Film, Media, Music & the English Language); Economics (Corporatism & Consumerism); and Items of Purely Personal Note (including Genealogy, Photography, Religion & Spirituality). |
