Jingoism

   Dust storms that struck Phoenix recently were so severe that weather reporters began using the term for similar storms that occur regularly in the Sahara. But some folks were upset about the use of an Arabic word -- haboob -- claiming it was an insult to the American military serving in the Middle East and to the victims of 9/11.
   One response, however, is that if we stop using that word because it is Arabic, we should also stop using other words borrowed from Arabic, including such terms as algebra, zero, and alcohol. In addition, there is the issue of numerals: How would we do arithmetic, add up our grocery prices, reprogram all the cash registers, and, for that matter, how would we refer to the year? Are we now in the year MMXI? And is it an insult to the victims of the World Trade Center disaster to use the Arabic numerals 9/11? Or must we use the Roman version -- IX/XI?