Over Used and Abused Words

There are words that are starting to really irritate me every time I hear them.  I’ve already written about the over use of the word “unexpected” in our daily life.  If the stubborn nature of our economic problems continue to be “unexpected” to the “experts” immediately available to the mainstream media – then they need to get smarter “experts.”  It appears that Barack Obama and his merry band of socialists are going to continue to bedevil and mystify the “experts.”  At least that’s what I expect.

The word that is grating on my hearing of late is “alleged.”  This one is killing me but it is an old problem.  Think about it – Abdul Mutallab ignites his panties in front of a plane-load of witnesses and we continue to hear on the news that he is the “alleged” bomber.  No – he knowingly put on a pair of explosive underwear and executed the sequence that he thought would detonate them.  He is a suicide bomber. 

Now we have this nut-job Amy Bishop who waltzes onto the campus at the University of Alabama and kills three colleagues.  We find out after the fact that these are not her first victims.  No doubt she was considered innocent until she wasn’t proven guilty when she accidentally shot her brother three times.   Personally, the first time you pull the trigger of a weapon might conceivably be an “alleged” accident, but based on the way a shotgun responds to having its trigger pulled, the second and third trigger pulls are most definitely intentional.  But 24 years later we have to pretend that Amy Bishop might not have killed three other human beings.  Absurd – a misuse of the word “alleged.”

Representative Charlie Rangel (D-NY) was an “alleged” tax cheat and rule breaker until they confirmed his guilt recently.  Senator Harry Reid is “allegedly” (though not likely) sane and Speaker Nancy Pelosi “allegedly” has a soul, though odds are she doesn’t.  But I digress . . . . .

If you commit a crime – you don’t have the right to a chance of going scot free.  Rather in Amy Bishop’s case, she has the right to a first class trial followed by a first class hanging.  The rest of us shouldn’t be required to hear that she is “allegedly” guilty.  That’s the kind of thing that ends up with a murderer like OJ Simpson spending his life playing golf until he finally gets thrown in jail for something else. 

The Professor Amy Bishop news cycle should be limited to three by-lines:

On page one: Deranged Professor Kills Three Colleagues

On page six one week later: Deranged Prof found guilty on one-day trial

On page eight one week later: Wacky Prof Hung 

 That’s the way justice is intended to be delivered.  That would put a lid on crime. 

Conservative Resistance – Day 480

Days to lighten the Congress of some liberal lawyers – 248