Limbaughfication of Discourse

What has happened to our culture? Once upon a time, there were a few paragons of language, upon which one could count on for high-quality politically-neutrial reportage. Among these was the Wall Street Journal, which, I am dismayed to see has become another victim of the Libaughfication of American Discourse. Instead of simply reporting business news as it had done so well for so long, it now seems to find it necessary to pepper stories with Rushesque touches, slippery, sloppy, slanted language that is difficult to rebut without muddying the issue. Along with Dark Lord Cheney and Chief Puppeteer Rove, the Evil Hero of those who apparently don't have jobs where they need to pay attention (so they can listen to the radio) has taken this once-great land to a sad place, rhetorically; where clarity of thought is eschewed in favor of mindless chants of "ditto!"

It's Soviet! It's Orwellian! None of this is news, of course. I'm putting my head down again. When I start paying attention, I just get angry.

Happy Veterans Day. Freedom Isn't Free.

All veterans are not equal, however. There is a significant difference between the heroes at Yorktown, Gettysburg, and Iwo Jima and the cowards abusing detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan (and elsewhere).

Most of the folks serving their time in the service of Halliburton ("I have a good idea! Let's go make a big mess and deploy the military so that there will be plenty of opportunities to need support from a large provider of cleanup and military support services!) are there quite involuntarily, and are just trying to stay alive. (I suppose that just trying to stay alive is what soldiers an all deployments are doing.)

Don't call them heroes. There's nothing particularly heroic about why they're there or what they're doing.

Freedom Isn't Free! Right, you pay for it with your freedom. At least in this regime. It has nothing to do with Saddam or Osama. They posed no threat to American freedom. Imagine the Gore Administration's response to 9/11. There probably wouldn't be any secret prisons.

Why is it that only during Bush Administrations that Mobius rhetoric like "Freedom Isn't Free" and rhetorically unassailable "Support Our Troops"? Could it have anything to do with the fundamental fallaciousness of their policies?

Confederate Anti-Terrorists?

Last night, on Main Street USA in Walt Disney World, I saw a man wearing a t-shirt with a confederate flag on the back--with the caption "Fighting Terrorism Since 1861." I found the phrase on merchandise from a cafepress shop (click image to go there). Different image, though. I suspect somebody said it on talk radio, and it got into a lexicon of catchphrases.

Are they implying that "The War of Northern Aggression" was a terrorist action?

I'm becoming more and more afraid. Then again "The Happiest Place on Earth" is in Florida, where people who feel threatened have the right to use force, including firearms, to protect themselves.

Yikes. When I lived in Japan, a co-worker asked me for a character reference for an application he was making to get a permit to use an air rifle in an indoor shooting range. The most common question I was asked there (after "Can you use chopsticks?") was, "Is it true all Americans carry guns?"