In an interview with a German newspaper, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano stated that she would no longer be using the word “terrorism” but instead “man-made disaster” – all in an effort to abandon what she calls the politics of fear.
How frightening. While the secretary busies herself crafting language that sanitizes systematic mass murder, there are terrorists (dare I use the word) who are planning their next attack. It calls to mind the use of ethnic cleansing to euphemistically refer to genocide.

On a lighter note, grab the popcorn and watch Press Secretary Robert Gibbs do the liberal shuffle at the press briefings. On Tuesday he struggled to find the words to refer to the enemy combatants being held at Gitmo. After some awkward searching, and with confusion and near shame, he called them “those that committed these terrorist acts.” Obviously told not to use the word terrorist to refer to the terrorists, he ultimately used the word terrorist to refer to the terrorists’ terrorist acts. Huh?

Ms. Napolitano’s next task is to come up with a new word to refer to those people who commit “man-made disasters”. First may I suggest that to be PC, she change “man” to “person”. We don’t want to risk marginalizing female disaster makers. Women are wholly capable of making disasters too.

This turn of events has necessitated that we create a new word to refer to the old terrorist. How about “person-made disasterist” or “person-made disasterer”? “Person-made disaster maker?” Please advise Jan. She needs to work fast. The new admin is banning words every minute. Notice how Gibbs shied away from the words “timeline” and “timeframe” when addressing questions regarding Obama and Geithner’s feigned outrage at the AIG bonuses. Instead, he was going to check “the tick-tock” on that and get back to us.

Tick-tock, Robert. Tick-tock.