Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Nuisance snow and cold. How to avoid responsibility. More linguistic legerdemain.

Interesting:  the news readers are noting the "time worn" tactic Chris Christie used in his mentions of the bridge closing scandal--"mistakes were made."  Nice way to avoid specifying who made what mistakes.  And simply saying that he takes responsibility isn't enough because he didn't say for what he is taking responsibility.  Clearly not for the initial situation.  Merely for the damage, perhaps?

From the same bureaucrat that gave us the phrase "least untruthful" we now have this humorous bit of linguist obfuscation.  And I don't mean humorous "ha ha."

At least 11 oil spills off Trinidad.  How long before the entire Gulf and Caribbean area becomes a dead zone?  And the president of their national oil company considers the $3.1 million fine "harsh."

So--the oil companies engaged in hydro-fracking are not only polluting huge quantities of potable water they are creating a more explosive oil that has to be moved somewhere else.  Isn't that just wonderful.  We have the choice of having pipelines which seem to be quite prone to leak or rail tankers that are prone to explode.  Either way we are screwed.

Hell of a way to fight a war!

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