Allegations

CYA PHRASING -- Too often, the word "alleged" is used when there is really no need for it. When a victim is bound, gagged, blindfolded, with throat slit and two bullet holes in the back of the head, there is no point in calling it an "alleged murder." The allegation -- equivalent to the word "charge" -- is to be used against the accused perpetrator, when he or she is found and arrested. The event actually occurred. The allegation should be reserved for whodunnit.
   Likewise, there is no point in referring to an "alleged terror plot," when "improvised explosive devices" are found on airplanes. Clearly, there was a plot. The allegation can easily be held until the alleged perpetrators are allegedly arrested and allegedly charged in connection with the alleged terror plot.
   Also noted last week was the change in phrasing by some TV networks to use the word  "bomb," rather than more tame term "improvised explosive device." It is, after all, a bomb for all that it may be improvised or home-made. Add to the list the term "potentially suspicious." Either it is or it ain't.
   We can understand a government or a military calling the opposition insurgents or fighters, rather than the more dignified and, in their view, more honorable term "soldiers." Much depends on whose side you're on. Some 230 years ago, the soldiers in Gen. Washington's Continental Army were called a gang of rabble, or rebels, by the official government in London.
   Much also depends on conduct. There is no honor or respect attached to killing civilian bystanders.

CLICHE CORNER -- "Brutally" slain, murdered, raped, etc. All murders are brutal. Get thee to a thesaurus.

WHO SAID? -- A foreigner landing with a bunch of armed bandits and establishing himself king against the consent of the natives has no divine right to rule, and this is no basis for a system of government, even if some alleged goddess or some other moistened bint threw a sword at him, or if some watery tart launched a scimitar in his general direction.
Answer:
 a/ Thomas Paine
 b/ Monty Python
 c/ Both of the above

GRATUITOUS PHRASING -- In an obit for James Neal, the lawyer who successfully prosecuted Teamster leader James Hoffa as well as Watergate perpretrators John Mitchell, John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman, The Week newsmagazine wrote, "At 5 foot 8 inches, the genial, backslapping Neal carried himself like a big man." This is the Great American Fallacy, that somehow bigger equals better, and that even though the man was "only" 5 foot 8 inches tall, he somehow was able to overcome that by carrying himself "like a big man." At that height, Neal was not particularly tall, but neither was he short. The average height of an American man is 5 foot 9 inches, about the same as in European countries. Moreover, the American average has not changed much since 1776. The average soldier in the Continental Army stood 5 foot 7.
   None of this, however, has affected the prejudice in favor of height. For decades, MBA graduates taller than 5 foot 8 have gotten better paying jobs sooner and with more responsibility than those graduates below that mark. All of which is to say that a man's height as a qualification for employment has as much relevance as a woman's bra size.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -- Never let a machine know you're in a hurry.

QUOTATIONS of the Samurai Rim Man -- I'm the only me I've got. I can only be me; everyone else was taken.