logic and language
two of my favorite subjects, slammed home by susan hogarth today at LRC:
The most common refrain from the war-crazed Clinton/Bush oligarchy these days is (as Hillary Clinton most recently expressed it) “We cannot take any option off the table in sending a clear message to Iran that they will not be permitted to acquire nuclear weapons.”
No options off the table. Truly?
If eviscerating her daughter in public would send a clear message to Iran – and surely it would send a blazing telegram of deadly seriousness – would she consider that to be an option on the table? I always wonder about the minds of people who can make this sort of pronouncement. If destroying an entire city by bombing – and make no mistake about it, this is what she and others are referring to in this latest round of bomb-rattling – is an option to send a message, then wouldn’t simply murdering her own daughter be an improvement? After all, think of the lives saved! As for messages – what could possibly send a stronger message to the world that a person is serious (or crazy, which in the political world comes to the same thing) than that she would willingly sacrifice her own child for peace? There’s even biblical precedent for such an option. [...]