Blog-IT-o ergo sum

	12/26/2003

Best Play on Words of the Day (from the Village Voice)

The Martial Plan - Police State Tactics Transform a Nation

...Best new product of the day (also from the Village Voice) Your own personal Dirty Bomb Detector

10:20:23 AM

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The next popular twist of words

Now that "embedded" has won word of the year (beating out "blog"), I am thinking the phrase of the year for '04 will be "an abundance of caution." Example: All 10,410 pounds of beef from those carcasses have been recalled in "an abundance of caution." (Can it be long before Tom Ridge makes sure this word gets embedded in the lexicon of his Homeland Security newspeak team?)

The phrase occurs in an AP wire story that has an equally novel employment of the word "quarantine." The lead title of the Christmas day story is: Dairy Under Quarantine on Mad Cow Report . That certainly sounds ominous at first glance, but if you go on to actually read the story apparently "quarantine" can mean using police to enforce private property rights. That is, police on public road ways are being used to keep reporters flooding into the area from trespassing on local private farms. It must be a shock to many of the "quarantined" reporters that such a thing as private property rights can still be enforced.

9:43:53 AM

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