Now This

This blog is now read by more machines than humans: RSS robots, spam-laying insectopoids, echoes of blog-gathering .edu projects. This essentially is the state of affairs that all human activities w

Cleaning Up the Nation

Austin Bay:

If Air America were a conservative radio network its corrupt funding trail and cynical abuse of a poverty program would be front page news at the NY Times and full-time mega-scandal at

Rank Materialism

Freedom. I am now the proud new owner of a Gateway 6020GZ laptop, perfect for students and others with limited means. I can now go into a Starbucks or a Barnes & Noble and look like I'm doing some

Fallujah Fonda

Uh-oh. From the Telegraph comes this exciting news:

Jane Fonda is returning to anti-war activism and embarking on a cross-country tour to call for an end to US military operations in Iraq.

Acros

John Pilger: Partner in Terrorism

In an outrageous piece of terrorist propaganda appearing on the cover of today's New Statesman, John Pilger puts the blame for the 7/7 London attacks not on the terrorists, but rather on Tony Blair:

What's in a Name?

Some of the left wing blogosphere is going on about the Bush administration's recent suggestion that we don't call those hypothetical Social Security accounts "private accounts" but rather "personal accounts". I can see why the White House is pushing that- it sounds much better. Like a personal computer or a personal pan pizza or a personal trainer. It's all good. And private? Private grounds- keep off! Give me twenty, private.

We disagree about privatization, but everyone loves personalization. I got personalized service! One size does not fit all. The media will most likely use the Bush administration term.

This reminds me of the great naming war of the eighties when there was much talk about "pro-abortionists" and "anti-abortionists" and there was "pro-choice" and even some "anti-choice". As you know, it eventually settled into "pro-life" and "pro-choice", this way both sides could be for something good. It's positive, you know? I love life, and I love choice too. Who loves abortion?

"Pro-choice" is one of the greatest political marketing terms ever.

Here's another good one: "undocumented worker". It's so much less threatening than "illegal alien". (Which at least subtly suggests Sigourney Weaver's arch enenemy, to me anyway.) This one's having a little trouble catching on. There's a little bit of Marxism in it, calling people workers. They're not all workers after all. And people do occasionally have other reasons for being here. And undocumented is quite a bit understated. The documents they're missing is their permission to be here, not a meaningless bureaucratic form they forgot to fill out.

"Universal healthcare" over "socialized medicine" was, obviously, a great boon to those who support universal socialized healthcare medicine. The only thing that should be socialized, in most people's eyes, is their children's behavior. Certainly most rational people don't want something that they depend on to be "socialized", like they did in that Union of Soviet Socialized Republics. On the other hand there's nothing at all wrong with something being universal. Universal makes movies, gym equipment, and a solvent that comes in pretty handy. You can't say anything against it.

"Healthcare" bugs me. We used to have medicine and health. The Department of Health. Now we have the warm, fuzzy, compound "Healthcare". They ought to spell it "HealthCare".

Even worse is "childcare". What happened to day care? It's gone with the wind. You hear people complaining that the government doesn't provide them with childcare, or enough childcare. Childcare sounds like something that maybe the government should be providing as a matter of right. I have the right to HealthCare, ChildCare, PetCare, and AutoCare. You never hear someone complain that the government isn't babysitting their kids for free. What's in a name?

Anyway, since the Democrats are going to lose this private/personal semantic battle, they need to regroup around a positive term for the old, unchanged Social Security program (which is quite a term in itself). I suggest "Undocumented UniversalCare".

Update: Outside the Beltway has the goods on this controversy.

Trackbacks

Comments

Check for new comments.

Add Your Comment

Name (required)

Email (not required, not displayed)

Web (optional - will be linked)

Comment (max 4000 characters)


Reload Image

Enter Code

Top Tags
Archives