Category : Various Text files
Archive   : HUMOR.ZIP
Filename : AWARDS.MEM

>From: [email protected] (Larry Kolodney)
Subject: doublespeak awards
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA


There's an article on page A 23 of today's Seattle Times titled "Doublespeak:
O 'arbitrary deprivation of life,' where is thy sting?" The article reports
on the 1984 Doublespeak Award, from the National Council of Teachers of
English.

The winner was the State Department:

In reports of human-rights violations, many by U.S.-supported
governments, the State Department replaced "kiling" with the
phrase "unlawful or arbitrary deprivation of life."
...
The State Department triumphed over a verbiage-strewn field, which
included Vice President George Bush and Secretary of Defense Caspar
Weinberger. Its cause was advanced by the invasion of Grenada,
which it called "a pre-dawn vertical insertion."
...
Bush ... was cited for equating "liberal" with "leftist." He also
accused Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale of wanting
to "drastically cut" defense spending. Mondale actually favored
higher spending, though not at the level proposed by President
Reagan.

"He's favoring cutting our defense proposals," Bush said. "Therefore,
he wants to cut defense spending."

Weinberger won recognition for claiming the removal of American
troops in Lebanon to ships offshore did not constitute a
withdrawal. "Nothing has changed," said Weingerger. "We are not
leaving Lebanon. The Marines are being deployed two or three miles
to the west."

Other nominees included:

* The National Transportation Safety Board, which calls an airplane
crash "controlled flight into terrain."

* The Pentagon, which renamed peace "permanent pre-hostility,"
combat "violence processing," and civilian casualties in nuclear
war "collateral damage."

* The Central Intelligence Agency, whose mercenaries in Nicaragua
are considered "unilaterally controlled Latino assets."
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larry kolodney (The Devil's Advocate)