What we need is a word that meets the qualifications of:
1) indicating spam that, significantly, may or may not exist,
2) bears no direct resemblance to, nor carries any overtones of, anything snarkish, and
3) is sufficiently rare that it will not be misinterpreted as anything with more than meta-spam value.
As I can think of no word that meets said qualifications, I feel confident we shall have to co-opt an existing one. I propose "anglet", for I feel anglet is a ridiculous word that should never be used for its intended purpose.
Thus, comments such as, "Beware the bit of anglet above," or, "That looks like a load of anglets to me," should never be read as anything other than a helpful bit of post that points out the (one-time) existence of spam.
:uhm. I lock the doors to my house, not out of cowardice, but because I be stupid if I didn't.
But if you post a bunch of "no trespassing" signs, put up barricades, hang razor wire, and hunt down and beat anyone with a record of breaking and entering to stop them from potentially stealing from your house in the future -- well, it doesn't make you look smart anyway. And not brave. And it's certainly not going to win you many friends in the neighborhood.
At some point, America became cowardly. There was a time -- somewhere around the era when the phrase "innocent until proven guilty" was coined, no doubt -- when anyone recommending "pre-emptive" action would be viewed skeptically and subjected to tough scrutiny. Now, our President has a doctrine declaring that pre-emptive action is not only fair and just, but necessary.
All the barricades, all the security, all the patrols, all the border-tightening... It's all just an effort to pre-empt something like 9/11 from ever happening again. And it's cowardly. A brave nation would take an attack like 9/11 squarely on the chin, try those it could prove complicit in a court of law, and dare anyone to try something like that again. Our weak Nation has instead let our paranoid xenophobia get the better of us and lashed out at any-and-everything that looks at us cross-eyed.
Only one security enhancement was actually justified after 9/11, and that was the hardening of cockpit doors. Everything else on top of that is the direct result of our fear and insecurities speaking louder than our courage and good sense. I'm not surprised other people are getting antsy. Who feels comfortable around a paranoid, cowardly, shoot-first-ask-questions-later cowboy with a really big gun?
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2005 | 4 |
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