Friday, September 26, 2008

Clueless

BarbinMD at Kos has a partial transcript of the Couric interview with Palin where Palin is implying that Henry Kissinger is naive for favoring meeting with Iran with "no pre-conditions being met." To be fair, it was Katie Couric who brought up that Kissinger, not Palin. But still, it shows just how clueless she is.

Notice that in a 65 word response, Palin uttered the words "preconditions being met" twice, as if she has these ready phrases at hand, like someone pushed a button in her pre-programmed brain which triggered her response.

In fact, George Orwell himself had a lot to say about Politics and the English Language -- in 1946.
You can shirk it by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in. They will construct your sentences for you, even think your thoughts for you to a certain extent — and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself. It is at this point that the special connection between politics and the debasement of language becomes clear.

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