No doubt there are a hundred others like them, but two that occur to me at the moment are:
A LIFE INSURANCE POLICY, that relies for its existence on what it refuses to name, namely death.
and
THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, which likewise refuses to name what it gaily promotes, namely war. (The "War Department" had a healthy and more forthright run from 1789 to 1947. The "Department of Defense" became the new moniker in 1949.)
Lesser luminaries include the latter-day "issue" to replace the blunt-force-trauma of a "problem" and the always-soothing "procedure" to stand in for an "operation."
Yes, Virginia, it's true: Shit doesn't stink.
Any mention of insurance brings to my mind "The Man Who Sued God". It brings enough chuckles to ease the pain.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268437/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
But the spin doctors have always rearranged the definition of words and idea's. When Bush lowered pollution standards with "The Clean Skies Act", he didn't rename it to the "Less Clean Skies Act" or the "Clean Enough For Me And Screw You Act".
And in keeping with the thought of a defense department. Another stinker along the lines of "there are no atheists in foxholes" is that there aren't any capitalists in foxholes either. They operate safely out of the range of fire in the pentagon or similarly based. When the guy in the foxhole says he's out, somebody throws him some ammunition without a discussion of ownership.
Shit not only doesn't stink, it tastes good too.