:: Spinspeak Letter ::

Exposing Deliberate Pollution of the English Language: Spinspeak Rots the Mind.

:: Thursday, January 30, 2003 ::

Reuters Calls Up Fresh Spin

Reuters, the news service that has problems using the word “terrorist,” reports in a headline: Some Europeans Rally to Bush.

Usually, “some” means at least one; it implies a few. But , as the Reuters story gets around to mentioning in paragraph 3, eight European countries including Britain, Italy, Spain and Poland announced support for Bush’s Iraq stand.

Let the careful reader take note: The spinspeak definition of “some” now is putdowntalk for whatever number in a group who want to do whatever the writer doesn’t like. .

Further along in the same story, Reuters reports: “ Public opinion in France, Germany and elsewhere remains firmly opposed to an American-run war.”

Question for Reuters: Who would run the war if, as many roadblocking appeasers say they want, the UN Security Council approved it? France? Liechtenstein? Zimbabwe? Who, for that matter, would have run the war if the Communist Soviet Union had decided to put into effect its plan to move its western border to the French coast?

Again, let the reader take note: the spinspeak definition of “American-run” is Halloweentalk for ill-bred crazy cowboys when, misguidedly or not, you have convinced yourself that your rear end is not in jeopardy this week.

:: James Baar 1/30/2003 02:36:00 PM [+] ::
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The Loyal Reaction: When Many Is Not Necessarily a Crowd

Obstructers of President Bush's Iraq policy like to quote expert opposition with two favorite polluted words: “many” and “most.”

For better insight into these critiques, it is helpful to keep in mind the following definitions of this spinspeak that implies numbers far too large to count so why try.

many = rhetorical inflator employed to suggest research that shows millions, well maybe thousands, but certainly not only your layabout brother-in-law and his dog-robber cousin agree on something. Another version very popular with politicians is many of us, a rhetorical inflator for at least two of us – maybe.

most = outrageous anonymous inflator adjective purporting without stating any factual basis that at least a majority but likely almost everyone in a given group agrees on something. e.g., most economists, most patients, most Europeans, etc.

:: James Baar 1/29/2003 11:41:00 AM [+] ::
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English as an Elective Opens Doors

The Supreme Court just possibly might wonder during its forthcoming deliberations on affirmative action why the University of Michigan finds it necessary to give some minority students a free ride to achieve not-a-quota diversity: Surely there is a clue in the Public School Cartel's largely failed bi-lingual education programs and the transmogrification of their gobbledegook nomenclature.

First came:

ESL = English as a Second Language

But in the oft chance that you speak fluent Spanish, Swahili and Ancient Greek, surely you would undergo psychic harm taking English as anything but your fourth language. Therefore, we evolved to:

EAL = English as an Additional Language

But, even if you only speak one foreign language poorly you may know a few unprintable words in English; obviously, ESL still offends your delicate esteem. Therefore, we evolved to:

LEP = Limited English Proficiency.

But surely the word “Limited” also is an esteem damper. And so we evolved to:

ELL = English Language Learner.

:: James Baar 1/27/2003 03:58:00 PM [+] ::
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Peacenik Fuzzballs Defined

Five spinspeak fuzzballs are dominating the opposition chatter about Iraq: “smoking gun,” “broad-based coalition,” “make the case,” “more time,” and “unilateral.”

Here, as an aid to translation for concerned Iraq watchers, are cleansing definitions:

smoking gun = hard-nosed proof of danger favored by appeasers who if shown pictures of a warehouse full of anthrax in downtown Baghdad would ask if it were really bath powder for starving Iraqi mothers and children.

broad-based coalition = peacenik spinspeak for the United States doing the fighting while cheered on from afar by a hodgepodge of Third World kleptocrats and UN layabouts.

make the case = portmanteautalk for in the end, only a mushroom cloud or a whiff of bubonic plague will do. See: smoking gun.

more time = Potemkinvillagetalk for never on Sunday, weekdays, Saturday and certainly not during Ramadan.

unilateral = the United States as leader of the Free World taking action in concert with other nations against a common threat to world peace and security.

:: James Baar 1/26/2003 03:08:00 PM [+] ::
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