Bam! Just like that! "Sticks and Stones..."

An interesting article appeared in the national news today. An expose, if you will, after a week filled with various warnings about "terrorist activities" the world around...(we have had a very busy week of this sort of information in much of the press!) and the danger that we are in and reportedly have been in despite the western alliance's brink of victory in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some of the latest reports offer us that "white Europeans" from "Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Romania and Estonia" have been actively training for service to al-Qaeda as would-be terrorists. A major accomplishment if it's true, with the goal of recruiting western non-Muslims to the cause of doing the bidding of al-Qaeda. So much for the battle to win the hearts and minds of the invaded people of the middle east, huh? So stop the rhetoric on it and the s(pl)urge, already.
But back to the purpose of my writing about this today:
Considering that what was once called simple assault according to the laws in the United States is now being called "an act of terrorism" thanks to the Patriot Act and Homeland Security initiatives... (I direct your attention to the not so distant case of the "hockey Dads" who get physical with their kids coaches and pepper the national news every so often)...I would be very careful in choosing what one may choose to believe about the latest "terrorist encounter" they read of, based upon who originally made the claims, what kind of spin was used by the press in the article published about it and just what standards were used in attaching the new "terror-anything" label to those activities being reported about.
Until water boarding, sleep deprivation, extreme exposure to temperature change and electric shock can be openly called what it is, "torture", and the use of that torture can finally be recognized as a genuine act of terrorism even by those empires that use it to meet their own strategic objectives, all bets should be off on who the actual terrorists are in any given case. There are obviously more than we can even imagine. And many of them who hide behind being a world power or being part of an alliance with one are controlling the story, the spin, the language and the writing of daily events and resultant history for their own purposes and to their own advantage.

BAM! Just like that! "Smilin' faces, they tell lies, sometimes."

Thanks to those good folks who have been riding rough shod over every law and article of the constitution that the attention span of the American people could allow for during the last 7 years, we again find them hard at work in the field of creative language arts and double speak or as Orwell penned in his novel 1984, "newspeak".
Yes, the same people who brought us phrases like "it's not civilian casualties, it's collateral damage" and, "it's not troop expansion, it's a "surge"", have now somehow smuggled into the American lexicon, the American consciousness and into the reporting of the main stream media their newest code word for what has been up until now, after years of congressional investigation into the military use and practice of torture...well, "torture".
While up until now these acts that have been questioned by even the international community and collectively and historically called "torture", is now being bandied about as, merely the practice of "harsh interrogation practices".
There. Isn't that so much nicer on the ear and easier on the national conscience than, ugh, "torture"?
Ah, the cleverness of these people in Washington is not to be underestimated. And their ability to infuse even the most stalwart broadcasting entities such as NPR to help reshape the message sent out to the American listener is indeed stunning in it's effectiveness.
At the same time, try and keep in mind (if for nothing else but perspective) that the sign posted high and prominently above the entrance to the camp called Auschwitz still reads "Work is freedom." But that neither, necessarily makes it so to this very day.
Maybe when it comes to that part of human nature to do one thing while striving to convince others that by changing what it is commonly called it can appear to be acceptable... some things never do really change.