Free Republic

How’s that for a headline? You’d think we’d know something about geopolitics, tossing around the twenty dollar word like that. But we don’t -- not too much, anyway. We do, however, know more than we’d like to about half-heartedness, as most probably do. And one doesn’t need any specialized education to know what sort of trouble half-heartedness gets everyone into. A little experience in the business of everyday life is sufficient to impart the lessons. We all know what half-heartedness is – we’ve seen it in ourselves and in those we’d relied upon for something at one time or another....

There is full employment — yet no one is working. No one is working — yet the factory quotas are fulfilled. The factory quotas are fulfilled — yet the stores have nothing to sell. The stores have nothing to sell — yet people got all the stuff at home. People got all the stuff at home — yet everyone is complaining. Everyone is complaining — yet the voting is always unanimous. Economic justice: America is capitalist and greedy — yet half of the population is subsidized. Half of the population is subsidized — yet they think they are victims. They...

Reminiscent of the authoritarian regime in George Orwell’s 1984, the Obama Administration introduced some “newspeak” terms into our political debate earlier this year. The “war on terror” became an “overseas contingency action” and “acts of terrorism” became “man caused disasters.” Seemingly innocuous changes in statements appeared to do no harm at the time. Now, however, when one looks at the execution of “overseas contingency actions,” the change in semantics reflects a change in urgency. We have seen Obama drag his feet in Afghanistan while our casualties mount. Rather than denounce “acts of terrorism,” we are striving to understand “entering a...

Phil Elmore had a great opinion piece in WND today where he pointed out the similarities between George Orwell's 1984 and today. We don't just read about the tyrannical, controlling, manipulatively mendacious society Orwell portrayed in 1984- we get to live in it.

In George Orwell’s allegorical novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the picture of “Big Brother” appears constantly in the adoring media. Perceived enemies are everywhere — supposedly plotting to undo the benevolent egalitarianism of Big Brother. Citizens assemble each morning to scream hatred for two minutes at pictures of the supposed public traitor Emmanuel Goldstein. The “Ministry of Truth” swears that the former official Goldstein is responsible for everything that goes wrong in Oceania. In Orwell’s Oceania, there is a compliant media that offers “Newspeak” — recycled government bulletins from the Ministry of Truth. “Doublethink” means you can believe at the same time...

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela is taking dozens of radio stations off the air and putting stricter rules on cable and satellite television, a minister said on Thursday, part of President Hugo Chavez's battle with private media firms. Disodado Cabello, the public works minister who also oversees Venezuela's broadcasting watchdog, said 154 FM radio stations will be taken off the air and shifted into public hands in what he called "democratizing the airwaves." He recently said 86 AM radio stations will also be hit as the government steps up efforts to turn Venezuela into a socialist society. "The use of the...

The Government has been accused of fixing the outcome of public consultations on health policy after it emerged that reviews were flooded with block votes from groups funded entirely by the taxpayer. Earlier this month the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, announced that the display of cigarettes and tobacco in shops would be banned in England and Wales from 2011. He added that people wanting to buy cigarettes from vending machines would in future have to show proof of age to obtain a token to activate the machine, and machines could be banned altogether in the future. Mr Johnson boasted that...

A top White House lawyer called the firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin an act of "political courage," according to House Republican aides who were in a meeting with the lawyer Wednesday. Norman Eisen, who is the White House Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform, met with staffers for Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday. Eisen, along with another White House staffer who accompanied him, "wanted to talk broadly about inspectors general," says a GOP aide familiar with what went on at the meeting....

In his essay "The Principles of Newspeak," the appendix to his classic novel, 1984 (published 60 years ago this month), George Orwell describes how the leaders of his totalitarian future have contrived to assure their hold on power by replacing English with Newspeak, a language containing no vocabulary for concepts contrary to the platform of the state-run Party. By controlling language, the Party controls its people's very thoughts. Intuition suggests that language is a product of thought: if we think clearly, automatically we will speak clearly. Orwell demonstrates the opposite, that thought is a product of language. Because we formulate...

Here in America, citizens and other legal residents have every right to stage rallies, protests and demonstrations on any topic that tickles their fancy. But they ought to say what they mean. It's reached the point where some of these characters use so many misleading code words that you need some kind of politically correct secret decoder ring. And I wonder if the folks who cover such events for our newspapers shouldn't provide us with a little of that cryptanalysis. "A coalition of labor, business, faith and immigrant rights leaders gathered in downtown Las Vegas on Monday to launch the...

On Morning Joe today, Joe Scarborough nailed the Washington press corps for its sycophantish performance at the White House Correspondents Association dinner this past Saturday night: “like a bunch of teenage girls waiting for a Bay City Rollers concert, waiting to scream at the top of their [lungs].” Mika Brzezinski, agreeing with Joe, lifted the veil on the goings-on behind the scenes, describing an enraptured TV production crew scrambling to get the most flattering shots of the prez and First Lady. View video here.

In the debate over his top environmental goals, President Obama is backing away from "cap and trade." Not the policy. It's the phrase itself, deemed confusing by Democratic pollsters, that has all but disappeared from the president's vocabulary of late. Now when Obama talks about forcing companies to bid at auction for the right to emit greenhouse gases, he is more apt to mention "market-based" proposals and "clean energy jobs," hinting at a rich new employment source. Control the language, politicians know, and you stand a better chance of controlling the debate. So the Obama administration, in its push to...

Michael Savage is banned from the UK. That is not important, the reason why is compelling ... "I think it's important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here, the fact that it's a privilege to come and the sort of things that mean you won't be welcome in this country," Ms Smith told GMTV. "Coming to this country is a privilege. If you can't live by the rules that we live by, the standards and the values that we live by, we should exclude you from this country and, what's more, now...

The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is “global warming. The term turns people off, fostering images of shaggy-haired liberals, economic sacrifice and complex scientific disputes, according to extensive polling and focus group sessions conducted by ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing and messaging firm in Washington. Instead of grim warnings about global warming, the firm advises, talk about “our deteriorating atmosphere.” Drop discussions of carbon dioxide and bring up “moving away from the dirty fuels of the past.” Don’t confuse people with cap and trade; use terms like “cap and cash back” or “pollution reduction refund.” EcoAmerica has been...

The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is “global warming.” Instead of grim warnings about global warming, the firm advises, talk about “our deteriorating atmosphere.” Drop discussions of carbon dioxide and bring up “moving away from the dirty fuels of the past.” Don’t confuse people with cap and trade; use terms like “cap and cash back” or “pollution reduction refund.” Asked about the summary, ecoAmerica’s president and founder, Robert M. Perkowitz, requested that it not be reported until the formal release of the firm’s full paper later this month, but acknowledged that its wide distribution now made compliance with...

Top White House adviser David Axelrod on Monday said that President Obama's trips to Europe, Turkey and Latin America in the last three weeks have made anti-American sentiment uncool and "created a new receptivity" to U.S. interests. "What's happened is anti-Americanism isn't cool anymore," Mr. Axelrod said, speaking to an audience of a few hundred at a conference in Washington sponsored by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. "This president has not only engaged the leaders of the world, he's engaged the people of the world," Mr. Axelrod said, arguing that Mr. Obama's approach to foreign policy has restored...

I don’t know whether this belongs in the comic-relief category or the future-threats category, but the Harvard Law School is having a conference to analyze the “free market mindset.” The basic premise of the conference seems to be that people who believe in limited government are psychologically troubled. The conference schedule features presentations such as “How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community” and “Addicted to Incentives: How the Ideology of Self Interest Can Be Self-Fulfilling.” The most absurd presentation, though, may be the one entitled, “Colossal Failure: The Output Bias of Market Economies.” According to the description, the author argues...

Arizona’s Supreme Court Justice has agreed to enforce the Hispanic Bar Association’s demands of banning the terms “illegal” and “aliens” in all of the state’s courtrooms. Claiming that the terms are inflammatory, the president of Arizona’s Hispanic Bar Association, (known as Los Abogados) has asked state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor to stop using them at trials or hearings because they create perceptions of judicial bias. In a strongly worded letter to the chief justice, Los Abogados’ president says attaching an illegal status to a person establishes a brand of contemptibility, creates the appearance of anti-immigrant prejudice and tarnishes...

Subway apologizes for homeschool snub.

And don't call al-Qaida a movement. The Bush administration has launched a new front in the war on terrorism, this time targeting language. Federal agencies, including the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counter Terrorism Center, are telling their people not to describe Islamic extremists as "jihadists" or "mujahedeen," according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. Lingo like "Islamo-fascism" is out, too.

All cultures are equal. One culture is less equal than others. Members of a minority are never responsible for their failures. Members of the majority are never responsible for their successes. Only the Liberal elite and certain select villains on the Right have free will. Capitalism is bad because it requires empathy. Socialism is good because it requires only sympathy. No statement is ever true or false except this one. Cultural Relativism is a fact. Temporal Relativism is not. A woman has a right to her body, but no responsibility for it. Everyone is a hypocrite. Words speak louder than...

Ministers have adopted a new language for declarations on Islamic terrorism. In future, fanatics will be referred to as pursuing "anti-Islamic activity". Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that extremists were behaving contrary to their faith, rather than acting in the name of Islam. Security officials believe that directly linking terrorism to Islam is inflammatory, and risks alienating mainstream Muslim opinion.

Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim” in ­connection with the ­terrorism crisis. The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on ­terror” is to be dropped. The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more “consensual” tone than existed under Tony Blair. However, the change provoked claims last night that ministers are indulging in yet more political correctness. The sudden shift in tone emerged in comments by Mr Brown and Ms Smith in the...

ERLANGEN, Germany, June 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A city court in Erlangen, Bavaria, gave Lutheran Pastor Johannes Lerle a one year jail sentence for the “crime” of comparing abortion to the Nazi holocaust. In response, Jim Hughes, Vice President of International Right to Life Federation has called on pro-life activists internationally to take action on the matter by contacting German authorities to demand freedom of speech and freedom of religion for the pastor (see contact information below story). Pastor Johannes Lerle compared the annual murder of 150,000 babies through abortion in Germany to the murder of thousands of innocent Jews...

Affordable Housing "NewsSpeak" - Papers' Love of Government Makes Private Low Income Housing Sector Invisible The Pasadena Pundit PasadenaNow.com - June 15, 2007 Excerpt: Look at the front page of almost any newspaper in any place in America and you are likely to find a story about some victimized group that is aided by a government housing program or non-profit, using government funds. In Pasadena it is the Desiderio Project and Habitat for Humanity. Or it is the proposed Heritage Square with Danny Bakewell's politically wired low income housing project which will require a multi-million dollar over-market subsidy. Or it...

The more than 32,000 earmarks requested in the Homeland Security spending bill have roiled the House this week, and now Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) wants the word ‘earmark’ to just go away. In a Tuesday press conference about appropriation bills, Pelosi said, “Why don’t we leave here today forgetting the word earmark?” She said they should be called “legislative directives” instead. Five months ago, Pelosi’s House passed a resolution to require that these “legislative directives” be listed within the texts of applicable legislation next to the names of members who requested them, and therefore available to the public. It was...

We can all glean more into the mind of Rudy Giulani with this babble .... "Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do." - Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani [ Interruption by someone in the audience. ] "You have free speech so I can be heard." - Giuliani [ Another interruption. ] Thomas Jefferson and James Madison warned us about people like this. We should chase such tyrants off the stage - the sooner the better.

House Democrats Offer Plan to Ban Use of 'Global War on Terror' Wednesday, April 04, 2007 WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader John Boehner blasted a Democrat-backed plan on Wednesday to ban the use of "global War on Terror" and "long war" in the 2008 defense budget bill. A memo sent to Democratic staffers on the House Armed Services Committee instructed the aides not to use the specific phrases, the Military Times newspaper reported. Boehner accused Democrats of launching an "absurd effort to deny the fact that America is battling terrorism on a global scale," according to a statement released Wednesday...

Now council bans the use of 'political correctness' at workBy CHRIS BROOKE Last updated at 10:41am on 1st November 2006  Cllr Robert Light: Kirklees council leader blamed his political opponents and said the booklet was no longer being used by council staff A council has warned staff against using the phrase 'political correctness' at work because it might offend people. A booklet outlining 'equality' policy to council workers claims using the term at work can be damaging and even linked it to the Ku Klux Klan. See also... Council worker paid £91,000 to fix the lights  The bizarre publication...

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who supports abortion rights, on Monday during a speech at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., said both abortion-rights supporters and abortion-rights opponents sometimes use "misleading and unconstructive" language and urged both sides to find "common ground," on the issue, the Boston Globe reports (Klein, Boston Globe, 9/19). Kerry during an interview in July 2004, while running for president, said, "I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception. ... But I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or...

DURING A GET-TO-KNOW-YOU meeting with the new Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, last week, a veteran Washington journalist asked about possible bipartisan talks to deal with the growing cost of entitlements. "Would revenues be on the table?" he inquired. Paulson looked puzzled. Another journalist explained that the question was about tax increases. Would they be considered?The questioner had used a word--"revenues"--drawn from the growing lexicon of liberalism. It is a language quite common now in Washington and in liberal political circles, and it's designed to substitute softer or neutral words for harsher ones with political implications. It is a language of...

To: National Desk Contact: Eric Hegedus, 215-840-3909 (cell) or eric@nlgjaleaders.org, or Tom Avila, 202-588-9888 ext. 17 or 202-906-9885 (cell) or tavila@nlgja.org WASHINGTON, July 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following is an open letter from the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association to the news industry regarding Lance Bass' "coming out": Dear Colleagues: This week, many reporters will write stories about the public "coming out" of musician Lance Bass, the ‘N Sync band member who discusses his sexual orientation in the latest issue of People magazine. Over the past year, such celebrities as WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes and "Star Trek" actor...

Vocabulary of Denial By Boba Borojevic May 4, 2006 -- According to news reports, officials in Brussels have been working on producing new politically correct terminology in order to ban words and phrases that could cause offense. The Saudi based Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC) and its 56 member states, for their part, are pressing ahead and requesting from the United Nations and European Union to take steps, including legal ones to ensure that the freedom of speech and expression does not interfere with the "respect for cultural diversity, religious beliefs and religious symbols." The aim is to "...

September 16, 2003, 10:30 a.m.On PatrolDiane Ravitch goes inside a protection racket.A Q&A by Kathryn Jean Lopez iane Ravitch, research professor of education at New York University, is author, most recently, of The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn. Ravitch recently talked to NRO about the Language Police. Kathryn Jean Lopez: Who are "the language police"?Diane Ravitch: Read the book and you will see. It is now a process of "bias and sensitivity review" for weeding out anything controversial or offensive. It is self-censorship, which publishers think is high-minded and necessary. It is the result of...

Madonna, the High Priestess of Peekaboo Pop, once unleashed this bit of wacky wisdom: “What is the big problem with Eminem? Since when is offensive language a reason for being unpopular? I find the language of George W. Bush much more offensive.” The defense of four-letter-wordery by bozobabes like Madonna comes as no surprise. And although it reflects society’s decline of decency and class, we should not be overly shocked. What should concern us more is a wordage aberration that is significantly more dangerous to this country than the debasement of our language; namely, the contortion of our language--which I...

CNN's Carol Lin and the French "African-Americans" The Paris riots have highlighted more than any other issue in recent years not only the bias, but the ignorance of the "old media." Internet readers have studied the situation in Europe for years. Numerous writers, from Mark Steyn to Ba'at Yeor to Debbie Schlussel, have long predicted the decline of Europe and the jihad that we have seen over the past few weeks. But the "old media" personalities still have no clue as to what is going on. And their reporting and commentary has taken on an almost comical quality as a...

Green pacifict geeks should do as hypocrite high-rollers AlGore and Arianna say, not as they do. Both were in San Franciso last weekend at a Green vehicle event pitching hybrid cars (gas/electric combination) yet both were chauffered in BIG GAS-GUZZLING, GLOBAL-WARMING SUVs. They really stepped in this one and DFU has documented it well--and got the word out to MANY talk shows in addition to Mr. KABC including Tony Snow, Mark Levin, Michael Graham, Melanie Morgan, Roger Hedgecock and Al Rantel. And, a major syndicated Conservative columnist has responded to DFU's email and is trying to get some answers from...

Men surrender after baboon slur03/08/2005 22:37  - (SA)   Zinkie Sithole  Polokwane - Three men have been charged with calling a petrol attendant a baboon. One of the three men, who is aged 34, and two others, aged 23, handed themselves over to the Polokwane police on Wednesday. "They were brought in by their legal adviser.They're not in custody, but have been warned to appear in court on Friday," said Polokwane police spokesperson Lesiba Ramoshaba. Petrol attendant Isaac Sebata has accused the men of calling him a baboon last week and slapping him during an argument. "We don't know yet what led...

When Steven Johnson's book about popular culture hit stores in May, he was prepared for a barrage of hate mail. After all, the author takes a rare position: that playing video games and watching TV shows like "The Sopranos" and "24" actually expand minds rather than numbing them. No flurry of angry correspondence has arrived yet, but that doesn't mean the book, "Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter," isn't stirring debate. Critics are concerned that the title alone will give Americans - and their kids - license to spend more time...

Former Massachusetts congressman Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest who supported legalizing abortion when he served in Congress, still uses the authority of his collar to cheerlead for evil causes. On Easter Sunday, he turned up at various television studios to praise the starvation to death of Terri Schiavo. Drinan was apparently Tim Russert's idea of a sturdy Catholic authority on this matter. Even as Drinan praised the killing of a disabled woman he mused nostalgically about passage of the "Americans with Disabilities Act," a glorious piece of legislation, he said. A host not willing to play the stooge to a...

“Man and Woman”, “Wife”, “Husband”, “Widow”, “Widower” Banished From all Ontario Law Terms, when referring to spouses, are banned from all government programs, services, documentsToronto, February 25, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – With the obscenely rapid, three-day introduction and passage of its same-sex “marriage” Bill 171, the Ontario government has advanced a revolutionary change in the way all laws and government programs and institutions refer to marriage and married persons. Everything referring to spouses must now be gender neutral. No longer can a married couple be referred to as “husband and wife” or “man and woman”. The terms “Widow” and “widower” are...

February 11, 2005 CNBC Redefines the Word "Sacrifice" by Peter Schiff One of the more amusing spectacles in the ongoing circus on Wall Street occurs monthly as economic contortionists attempt to twist horrific trade reports into positive news for the American economy. Such was the case today on CNBC, as Steve Leisman and a guest described American consumption as being "a sacrifice," and American consumers as "bearing the brunt of world consumption," and of having an "obligation to consume." First of all, the word "sacrifice" implies some form of self-denial or restraint. What exactly do Americans sacrifice by indulging their...

The man who led 11 Christians in protesting a homosexual event in Philadelphia and is one of five criminally charged for his actions is now receiving hateful, vulgar messages via his website and voice-mail system. Michael Marcavage, the head of Repent America, received an obscenity-laced voice-mail message on Thursday in which the caller expresses his hope that the Christian activist will serve time in prison and be raped there. "Michael, I hope you enjoy your time in prison, you piece of s--t," the caller said. "You are a worthless piece of s--t." As WorldNetDaily reported, on Oct. 10, a group...

On the heels of new research showing Southern California children can suffer permanent lung damage from breathing pollution, the head of the region's smog-fighting agency vowed on Friday to "take off the gloves" to help speed up clean-air improvements. In his State of the Air report, William A. Burke said he would push critical air-pollution efforts, such as reducing emissions from railroads and ports and converting diesel-fueled school buses to cleaner-burning models. "The time for political correctness has passed," Burke said in his speech given in Diamond Bar. "The time has come to take off the gloves and tell the...

I've been reading Karl Popper's two volume work "Open Society and it Enemies". Here's the amazon.com link:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0691019681/103-5859654-8821426?v=glanceThe thread I posted at commongroundcommonsense.org, "In Defense of Open Society" was inspired by that work. I'd like to start a thread with the same name here because I see this as an important problem that crosses partisan lines. In a nutshell, the central question is this: how can we rationally institute changes in our society? Changes take place whether we consciously bring them about or not, and some changes are threatening to some people. Popper charts some of the philosophers who have tried...

In his new book, Intellectual Morons, Daniel Flynn exposes the dangers of blindly following intellectual elites who support and promote idiotic ideas and theories. Chris Banescu, who recently wrote the review of the book, interviewed Flynn about the origins of the material and the impact its revelations will have on our culture. Chris Banescu: What inspired you to write this book? Daniel Flynn: My goal in writing Intellectual Morons is to get more people to think with their brain rather than their ideology. By exposing ideologically-inspired hoaxes and frauds, the book not only rebuts falsehood but helps immunize readers against...

And what if, this coming November 2, at the same time as millions of Americans, all the world's peoples went to the ballot box to vote? There would be legitimacy in their participation in the election of the president of the world's greatest power. Simply because their lives, their future, depend on it in one way or another. It would be a symbolic gesture, a universal speech in observation of a fact and a direct and unambiguous way of saying that the fate of the world depends in large part on the American presidency. The Vietnamese and the Chileans at...

RB: So the Times consciously chose to become a journal of disinformation, and it only masquerades as a newspaper? Bob: Precisely. And we are quite good at it, I must say, thanks to my office's diligent surveillance and prior censorship of our news and opinion articles. The issues are too important to be left up to an informed citizenry. RB: This is quite an impressive operation you have here at the Office of Ideological Bias. Are staff writers on the Times aware of the extent to which their articles are being scrutinized? Bob: They don't know me personally, but they...

How the Language-Engineers Reshape Civilization by Reshaping the Language It has been said that the side that defines the vocabulary of a debate wins the debate. This idea was expressed in George Orwell’s book 1984 with "Newspeak," which was the name given to the language paradigm that the oppressive government portrayed in the book sought to foist upon its people. The purpose of Newspeak was as follows, "was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits . . . but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak...