Word: doublespeak
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Obama claims to have scuttled Constellation in order to replace it with a partially privatized space program. But this is Washington doublespeak at its worst and nothing less than a cover for doing away with the program. Like national defense and fire departments, space exploration is at present a public good, optimally undertaken by governments. The private space industry has a very important role to play but it cannot and should not replace the role of government—the two are synergistic...
...these changes. If beleaguered captains of industry hope to survive in the Internet age, Jarvis argues, it's worth considering what Google might do in their increasingly uncomfortable shoes. Jarvis, proprietor of the influential media blog BuzzMachine, gleans maxims from Google's successful strategies that occasionally sound like doublespeak (Free is a business model! Abundance is the new scarcity! Correcting yourself enhances credibility!). But they boil down to practical suggestions: Put your customers in control. Earn their trust. Figure out what they actually want from you. And then get out of their...
...weekend, many news organizations had mounted a backlash of their own, running prominent pieces accusing the self-branded "straight-talking" McCain of deceiving voters. "The 'Straight-Talk Express' has detoured into doublespeak," announced the Associated Press, while the New York Times blared, "McCain Barbs Stirring Outcry as Distortions...
...response, legislation that permitted the exercise of sanctions by the White House “to support a transition to democracy in Iran.” The notion of these sanctions as in the service of freedom is not just an example of Ministry-of-Love levels of doublespeak, but plainly disingenuous: even under Iran’s potent religious leadership, democratic processes function there relatively freely, and very much like...
...also things we wish we didn't. Language is a window into human nature, but it is also a fistula, an open wound through which we're exposed to an infectious world. It's not surprising that we sheathe our words in politeness and innuendo and other forms of doublespeak. FROM THE STUFF OF THOUGHT BY STEVEN PINKER...