...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Monday, December 06, 2004
      ( 11:18 AM )
 
He Wins Awards, Too!

Teachers show their higher cognitive abilities again:

For the second consecutive year, George W. Bush has been named the winner of the National Council of Teachers of English's Doublespeak Award.

The Doublespeak Award is an ironic tribute "to American public figures who have perpetuated language that is grossly deceptive, evasive, euphemistic, confusing, or self-contradictory."

Bush, the committee decided, "has set a high standard for his team by the inspired invention of the phrase, 'weapons of mass destruction-related program activities.'

In its official announcement, the committee also took note of the president's description of an open forum as a place where "you're able to come and listen to what I have to say."

It also gave dishonorable mentions to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for describing the torture of Iraqi citizens at Abu Ghraib as "the excesses of human nature that humanity suffers" and for changing the Vietnam-era term, "body bag" to the innocuous sounding "transfer tube."

The irony falls on deaf ears at the White House, where its main Resident doesn't even recognize the name "Orwell."

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