Forgive our Chevron Oil Tanker, secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. She only has a PhD from Denver University and in all fairness, her major was political science, not English. That probably explains her misunderstanding of superlatives as illustrated by what she said earlier today:
"I think it's clear that we are safe - safer - but not really yet safe."
What The Oil Tanker meant to say:
"I think it's clear that we are safe _ safer _ but not really yet safest."
Not to worry, she's got eight and 1/2 weeks til election to practice and say it right. And I'm sure she'll get a lot of help from Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld who'll be echoing the same talking point.
3 comments:
Dada, the omission of the use of the superlative, "safest" by "oil tanker" is correct. "Safest" would be appropriate only as a comparison to some standard of safety. The problem is that we are allowing ourselves to be led down a non-sequitor road of "safety." We are the most powerful nation in world history and yet we have the most frightened people on earth, so afraid of terrorists that we allow our civil liberties to be compromised and our travel plans to be spooked. In Nixon's ironically prescient phrase, we are a "pitiful, helpless giant." Or, as a visiting professor (of political science!) put it to us several decades ago, "We don't live in a democracy; we live in a boobocracy." Witness the Time and CNN polls showing that 38%-42% of americans STILL believe that Saddam was directly involved in 9/11!
Cheers from eljoven who took many courses in public policy and administration and political theory many years ago, alas, not from the U. of Denver but froma "left coast" institutions. :)
noone is safe while those characcters are running this government...
The tanker that is Condi has been seeping a substance far more foul than crude ever since being foisted upon us by the Fart Boy. I understand they take your shoes from you in lockup. We need to get this enabling babe into rubber flip-flops toot-sweet, her and the rest of the gang. The Devil Wears Prada, indeed.
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