Tuesday, July 12, 2005
literal
It's a good rule of thumb that when you're looking to understand how the Bush Administration is lying to you, pay attention to the various definitions of words. These folks always seem to have wiggle room to justify blatantly misleading statements.
A good example is Bush's statement about the Valerie Plame leaker(s):
Let's parse this, shall we? The quote actually consists of two subquotes. It's folly to assume the two statements are actually related to each other logically.
1) "If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is...." I'm sure that's the case. What he planned to do with that information is another question. Certainly it doesn't seem like he used it to aid an investigation into the source of the leak.
2) "...and if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of." Well, first of all, he didn't say anything here about an act which might be morally reprehensible but not actually technically in violation of the law. But more importantly, the phrase he used, "be taken care of," has a dual meaning. Sure, you and I might assume on first glance that he means "will be punished severely." But if it's Rove we're talking about, maybe he's using the phrase in its more literal sense:
To assume responsibility for the maintenance, support, or treatment of.
Hmmmmm.
Update: If you are fed up by spending federal tax dollars on this kind of "literalism," feel free to "virtually" demand that Bush fire Karl Rove here.
A good example is Bush's statement about the Valerie Plame leaker(s):
"If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is and if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of," Bush said in September 2003.
Let's parse this, shall we? The quote actually consists of two subquotes. It's folly to assume the two statements are actually related to each other logically.
1) "If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is...." I'm sure that's the case. What he planned to do with that information is another question. Certainly it doesn't seem like he used it to aid an investigation into the source of the leak.
2) "...and if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of." Well, first of all, he didn't say anything here about an act which might be morally reprehensible but not actually technically in violation of the law. But more importantly, the phrase he used, "be taken care of," has a dual meaning. Sure, you and I might assume on first glance that he means "will be punished severely." But if it's Rove we're talking about, maybe he's using the phrase in its more literal sense:
To assume responsibility for the maintenance, support, or treatment of.
Hmmmmm.
Update: If you are fed up by spending federal tax dollars on this kind of "literalism," feel free to "virtually" demand that Bush fire Karl Rove here.
