Scapegoat ...Aaaaaaggghhhh!

The President of the USA told 60 Minutes in an interview that if Americans wanted a "scapegoat" he was it. There have been "things that could've been done better" and if we need a scapegoat he'll take it on for us. My head exploded.

I like Webster's 9th New Collegiate, it's not the best but they do get to the point fairly quickly and are accepted:

scapegoat - 1. *biblical, never mind* 2. a: one who bears the blame for others b: one that is the object of irrational hostility

If Merriam Webster take these people in the White House seriously they're going to be publishing an entirely new type of dictionary, one with meanings optional. They'll just spray words at a page and you get to pick what you like.

Now if you can explain to me how exactly it is that the Commander-in-Chief, you know, The Decider, is bearing the blame for someone else regarding the conduct of his war I'll try to put my head back together and apologize. Failing that, explain to me how this person who has mislead us into a war, mismanaged a war, inaccurately described the progress of a war, and divided this country into Patriots who back him and Traitors who do not is the object of irrational hostility on this basis and I'll just stop writing anything at all, ever again, because I must be psychologically imbalanced and just plain retarded.

There is such a complete and total disregard for the meaning of the English language demonstrated by these people that there probably are no words to adequately describe it to them. This misuse of the language goes beyond spin into the realm of propaganda. For Condi Rice to argue that escalation isn't the proper term, that augmentation is a correct description to a US Senator - Republican - is just plain ... stupid. Augment means: to make greater, more numerous, larger, or more intense and escalate means : to increase in extent, volume, number, amount, intensity, or scope. This is the best we can do for a Sec. State? This isn't about the diplomacy of correct language, this is about using the language to deny that what you're doing is exactly what you say you're doing. Does this make your head spin? 'We don't want you to think we're doing exactly what we're telling you we are doing because you might not like us doing exactly what we just told you we are doing.' If you don't like being treated like a complete idiot, it would pay to remember that these people were elected by us TWICE.

Words and More Words

Words are such wonderful things, there's so much information included in them and in some usages so much music. They contain not only information and music but also feelings. Ah, words, I suppose it's obvious as a Blogger that I love words.

Well, mostly I do. The misuse of words infuriates me, the misappropriation of words can bring me to frothing fury.

Hero. What a great word, short, almost musical in itself, magical in its connotation, magnificent in its fact. What crap to apply it to people doing their ordinary job. Calling a supply seargent sitting at his desk a Hero devalues the word and hence the soldier risking his life by rescuing a comrade under heavy fire or holding a position at all odds. I watched a dashboard camera recording of a cop climbing onto the hood of a fully engulfed burning automobile to smash out the windshield and pull an unconscious woman out and get hit by the explosion within feet of the car while carrying that woman, now I can say the word hero and have a feeling in my eyes and throat and gut and know exactly what I meant and I didn't mean a cop writing a speeding ticket.

George Bush has brought up the Freedom Agenda, agenda is pretty non-commital but there's that word Freedom. Hey, 1776, the Emancipation Proclamation, VE Day, boy have we got some some background stuff for freedom. What the heck does freedom have to do with George Bush's oil and war profiteering inspired adventure in Iraq? And since he's linked it to terrorism, exactly how does the restriction of our civil libeties and abridgement of the Bill of Rights and violation of the Constitution have anything whatever to do with the word freedom? And he uses it to the American Legion? And they bought it?

Security is one of those double edged words, little kids have their security blanket, a warm soft concept and then there's the other side. The FBI sneak and peek, you know, Federal Agents breaking into your house without a warrant to get something to get a warrant. Then there's the comforting thought that the President of the United States says he can listen to your calls without court approval, because he says so. Now if you're fond of secure vacations from work, security means that if George Bush calls you an enemy combatant and you just disappear into the Federal Penal system, you don't get a trial. Now don't you have a warm soft feeling?

Cut and Run, there's a set of cold words. These are good for debasing someone. Cut and Run, oooh, cowardice all over it. We all remember those bang bang shoot 'em up westerns, the weasly shop owner cuts and runs while the brave cowpoke stands up to the desparadoes. Has anybody made a comparison to Vietnam and the draft and getting to fly jets in Texas and deferments out the kazooo for people now "running the show" and "staying the course"? Maybe I exaggerate, it has been proven dangerous to shoot caged pigeons. For other people.

Clean Air Act, Forest Preservation Act, Patriot Act, there's some nice sounding stuff. There was a near miss with Homeland Security, that one evokes swastikas. What the hell are these people doing to our words? Joseph Goebbles mangled German to abuse people and justify atrocities, is this where we're headed? Even if these people's politics didn't stink, for what they're doing to our language they've got to go.