It depends on what the meaning of "is" is...

 

 

"Love him or hate him, the fellow was an unusually good liar..."

 

I was listening to some of my favorite lefties on MSNBC recently. They were rubbing their hands together and getting all lathered up by what they thought was a fatal move by a ranking Republican. It seems that Darrell Issa got fed up and called a spade a spade. He accused Jay Carney of telling lies. In fact, he called him a "paid liar".

Someone needs to tell Chairman Issa that in the world of newspeak, we don't talk frankly like that anymore. We now use euphemisms . The correct terminology today would be something like "I think Mr. Carney possibly might be at variance with the truth." Or he might say, "Quite often, the facts are not on the side of Mr. Carney". But to come right out and call Jay Carney a "paid liar" for not telling the truth? Good grief Darrell, get a grip! These are the new days of vernacular limited warfare!

We have come a long, long way since the plain speaking days of Will Rogers. We now have artists of sophism, such as our beloved 42nd president. Not only could he lie, he could make some woman swoon while doing it. When asked a direct question, he became the "Prince of Parsing." Who among us could ever forget the quote for the ages in his perjury trial - "It all depends on what the meaning of 'is', is." Or when he was questioned about Monica - "I did not have sexual relations with that woman (pause) Ms. Lewinsky".  Oh yes, sweet Bill was a master of para-language and meta-communication. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. As the song goes, "Nobody does it better" than Bill Clinton.

Back to today. Are lies being told by the Administration on the wide variety of scandals? Duh! Is Jay Carney lying about many of them? He is either "at variance with the truth", or incredibly stupid. Oh, to bring back the old days of saying something like "You sir, are a liar!" No, to do that today would be an "overreach", and the voters would throw you out in the next election.

I guess my job will be to dig out my Webster's Dictionary and brush up on my lexicon. Since we now know "there is no there, there", we should be okay. We will practice the art of many words saying very little. We will never be tied down to anything as our words will be so vague, they could mean just about anything. I am ready to join this new world. I will close with this statement:

The plentitudious man, he should sit here, John pleonastically said in a sesquipedalian manner.

Even though that sentence is grammatically correct, not one person will know what the Sam Hill you are talking about. Welcome to the world of newspeak....