The word “Criminal” has lost its meaning

[Cyrano]

Steal food because your children are hungry? You are a criminal. Bounce a check to pay the rent? You are a “paper-hanging” thief. Sell a nickel bag on a street corner because it’s the only way you can survive? You are a “perp.”

But if you work on Wall Street, or in a bank, that’s different. Peddle millions of dollars of some paper that might be worthless in an hour, no problem. Con someone into buying worthless crap? That’s okay. Practice usury? No one will accuse you of being a criminal.

And how could we possibly leave out those who claim to “serve us.” Steal an election (or two), and you’re the president. Invade a country that didn’t attack us and you’re an “avenger.” Cause the deaths of thousands of Americans, and perhaps a million Iraqis, and you’re some mythical creature called “The Commander Guy.”

We’ve gone so far through the looking glass as to give Alice a migraine.

We started ignoring the meaning of words many years ago. And we are now on a plane of verbal “reality” that no one (but Orwell) could have dreamed possible.

Right now, we have much hope for the future that Obama can bring us. And one of the greatest gifts he can give us is to rescue the English language from George Orwell’s “1984” nightmare scenario.

The Republican Party has perverted the meaning of words as much as they have perverted the meaning of human decency.

But regardless of what Obama can accomplish over the next four/eight years. let us hope he can restore the meaning of the word “criminal.” And let’s hold those responsible for the monumental crimes of the past eight years accountable.

At one time, words meant something. Let’s restore those meanings.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. But the law treats all equally.

It forbids the rich as well as the poor from sleeping under bridges and stealing crusts of bread.

[Cyrano]

2. Gimme a break. Only liberal/commies sleep under bridges and steal bread

[Jackpine Radical]

3. And of course Anatole France was indeed a Communist. Here's the full quote

in context in his novel the Red Lily (I only got it approximately right above):

Nowadays it is a duty for a poor peasant to be a soldier. He is exiled from his house, the roof of which smokes in the silence of night; from the fat prairies where the oxen graze; from the fields and the paternal woods. He is taught how to kill men; he is threatened, insulted, put in prison and told that it is an honor; and, if he does not care for that sort of honor, he is fusilladed. He obeys because he is terrorized, and is of all domestic animals the gentlest and most docile. We are warlike in France, and we are citizens. Another reason to be proud, this being a citizen! For the poor it consists in sustaining and preserving the wealthy in their power and their laziness. The poor must work for this, in presence of the majestic quality of the law which prohibits the wealthy as well as the poor from sleeping under the bridges, from begging in the streets, and from stealing bread.

[Cyrano]

6. "He obeys because he is terrorized, ..."

What observation is more appropriate than these words that describe those who have been manipulated for the past eight years?

[Jackpine Radical]

8. I was sure you'd pick up on that--

and saw no particular need to comment. Plus ça change...

[Swamp Rat]

4. We are being terrorized and suffocated slowly...

ALL of us, from tree-hugging liberals to right wing nuts, freeps included.

[Cyrano]

7. Thank you, Swamp Rat. One more great illustration added to your

magnificent visual library of the early 21st century.

I'm somewhat hesitant to say what I'm about to say: As far as I know, there is not yet an on-line version of what could be called "classical art."

Having said that, I believe that you, Swamp Rat, are perhaps among the first great visual artists of the 21st century. You have managed to combine art, political commentary and virtually unprecedented immediate visual responses to the opinions of others.

This may sound pretentious, pompous, or, perhaps insightful. Online art such as yours will soon come to be recognized as a "new art form." But there is no doubt in my mind that you will be recognized as one of its most important founders.

[Swamp Rat]

10. Here's a new one:

Thanks for your kind words :hug:, but I'm really just a hack... as in hacking up low-res photos, airbrushing, and then jumbling the pieces up into what I call fotovandalism. :D

I did, however, at least live up to your statement regarding my 'immediate visual response to the opinions of others'. So, here is it:

[specimenfred1984]

5. Disaster capitalism/fascism fueled by 100 years of propaganda

is now collapsing after 30 years of deregulation/fraud. It's about time.

[Cyrano]

9. The fascist propaganda machine ain't goin' away

Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly and all the other members of the wingnut echo chamber aren't going away that fast.

The poison that they have been, and continue to pour into the pond we call democracy continues.

The term "pond of democracy" is not a careless statement. The 30 years to which you refer has been an overwhelming flood of wingnut supremacy that will not be blocked, stemmed, or diverted so easily.

They call themselves a "movement" trying to instill an "ideology." I call them a disease trying to infect humanity. In this last election, we've won a battle. The war goes on.

[noise]

11. Support for torture is patriotic

Asking pathetic questions is good journalism.

Leaders always act in good faith. If it seems to be untrue, well you just aren't trying hard enough to buy the spin (incompetence, bad intel, bureaucratic inefficiencies, lack of power due to Constitutional limitations, etc).

Everyone is to blame so no one is to blame. Or is it vice-versa? Who knows. The point is that nobody should be held accountable. They need more power.

The unitary executive. Give POTUS the power of a dictator with none of the accountability of high office. In effect, a dictator without the bad press of a...well dictator.

Support for Bush's Iraq policy is the very same thing as supporting the soldiers. This (idiotic) notion goes with the idea that failure to support Bush's Iraq policy means one wants to lose the war in Iraq. Oh but you say it's an OCCUPATION and Bush's policies made winning an occupation impossible. That's just another way of saying you don't want to win the war against al Qaeda in Iraq. Hey don't forget. Bush acted in good faith. Who could know that Iraqis would be pissed when things became worse than they were under a brutal dictator? Who could know the Iraqi military would be upset about being thrown out of work? Or that the Baathists wouldn't be happy to lose power? Or that everyone in Iraq wouldn't embrace privatization with the work going to foreign contractors? Oh and no AC or clean water.

[noise]

12. The GOP and their media cheerleaders

successfully sold the public on the notion that authoritarianism=patriotism. This is the ultimate form of elitism...the notion that powerful officials deserve unconditional support simply because they hold high office.