Incredible. Simply incredible.
April 29, 2004 by Phil Barron · Comments Off
Okay, seriously now: of all the American presidents prior to the current administration, do you think that any of them would explain needing a vice-presidential chaperone with the detail and depth of consideration that this guy did:
Bush said it was important for him and Cheney to appear together so that commission members could “see our body language… how we work together.”
Incredible. Or, if you prefer, literally not credible.
One could be amused, considering that Cheney fills the role of Edgar Bergen in this duo. But it would be smarter to be outraged.
Bush refused to testify under oath. He refused to speak in public. He refused to speak alone - and, discounting the bizzare quote above, he refused even to explain why. That the commission accepted his conditions without challenge is depressingly understandable; that the press did so is inexcusable.
When historians look back in amazement at the unbridled mendacity and cynicism of this administration, they will wonder why a national press apparatus - abandoning all responsibility - never called it to account.
Have you used the word “blogosphere” in the past week?
April 9, 2004 by Phil Barron · Comments Off
If “yes,” deduct ten points. It’s a silly and pretentious word that should have been strangled in its cradle. It smacks of a secret clubhouse mentality that most people outgrow when they discover sex, or learn to drive. It’s even more annoying than “netizen,” and I didn’t believe that was even possible. Really, the whole thing is enough to give you a bad case of blogorrhea.
Some damn poet once said “I gotta use words when I talk to you,” but that doesn’t mean we should make up terms willy-nilly when the ones we’ve got aren’t even cold yet. It’s linguistic counterfeiting, plain and simple, and can only lead to (1) a overall devaluation of word meaning and (2) cliquishness worthy of high school. Oh, wait. We already have both of those.
Doesn’t matter. Waveflux remains adamant. The word “blogosphere” should be mocked, derided, and ridiculed at every opportunity. So let it be written. So let it be done.
