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Lately I’ve noticed a number of terms which are frequently used, particularly by the Anglo-American news media and punditry, in ways that seem deeply misguided and misleading. I would like therefore to challenge the assumptions made in current usage of the following terms:

Center (or centre). Frankly, in the context of American politics, the term “center” seems to have become nothing less than a euphemism for “conservative,” “reactionary” and/or “Republican.” “The center” always seems to be located in a rightward direction; the only time it ever seems to apply to Republicans is in the context of a primary race, usually for the presidency, in which there is a brief window between courting primary voters and commencing the general election campaign when a candidate might “move back to the center” by means of some modest leftward shift. Otherwise, the “center” seems exclusively used to describe a position to the right of Democrats.

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As a counterpoint to yesterday’s State of the Union commentary, I would like to make note of a couple items which suggest that, if things are intractably screwed, overall, there are nonetheless some things to be glad of.

First, the permanent Orange Alert is going away, at last. Thank you, Obama and Obama administration. Sweet fucking Christ. This doesn’t really matter that much to be honest, but it still feels so good that we have a government willing to shitcan this useless, pointless, brainless fear-prompter-as-designed-by-committee-of-idiots system.

Second, more evidence that, all the shouting and spin aside, Democrats may indeed have won the war when it comes to health care.

And, while I’m sharing doom-and-gloom-dispelling links, I may as well note this one, even if it was from a week ago: Republican brand in Calif[ornia] is “dead.” I’m not sure how much good this does the rest of us but, hey, 1) it’s still a pleasant thought and 2) maybe it’s just me but, this doesn’t seem like much of an exaggeration at all, and that does seem kind of impressive.

Early on in America’s recent dalliance with a “backlash” against the TSA, I read a news item about TSA honcho Pistole “Pete’s” early attempt to frame some sort of response to criticism. It was a combination of the industry standard bluff-and-bluster, with a sort of general rambling almost Randy Moss-ian in its fumbling aimlessness. “Yeah, just as I thought; the TSA is run by a bunch of complete tools” was my unavoidable conclusion.

And yet, maybe not quite. Certainly the people running the TSA are inept bumblers when it comes to planning and implementing genuinely useful security procedures. But in terms of public relations management, someone at least may actually be pretty crafty. Because, by the end of “National Opt-out Day,” the TSA appeared to be winning the PR war in something like a 96-0 shutout.

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