Updating Godwin's Law

Since 2001, the rhetorical trump-card role once played by Hitler seems to have been taken over by terrorists. Case in point: Education Secretary Rod Paige calls the National Education Association a "terrorist organization". Normally I'm just annoyed by that sort of hyperbole, but I'll confess I had a nice long laugh at that one.

Comments

[John Hensley]

He should have called them pirates instead.

[Thorley Winston]

The stories I've read of accounts, said that the SecEd was "clearly joking" when he made the remarks. So what was the joke?

[Jean Bart]

I thought the point of Godwin's Law was to circumscribe the use of the term "Nazi." Hannah Arendt had much to say on the use of terminology (especially terms like Nazi, totalitarian, etc.) and how their abuse can lead to great harm.

[calling a spade a spade]

Of course, the NEA aren't Nazis - they're Stalinists.

[Jean Bart]

calling a spade a spade,

I doubt that they are that either; unless part of their agenda is forced collectivization of agriculture, de-kulakization, and rapid, brutal industrialization based partly on slave labor. I think this is what Arendt was getting at of course; this sort of dialogue becomes more a lie than any sort of truthful discourse and it becomes difficult to differentiate the lies from the truth.

[calling spade a spade]

Damn, Jean Bart, I could have sworn they had irony in France, too.

[calling a spade a spade]

Although maybe I should take another gander at the NEA agenda - perhaps it wasn't all that ironic.

[MALAK]

Jean Bart: In case you did not back track. The wine was excellent, and no, it was not too expensive. That is one of my complaints against French wines (the price point, I mean). As someone who generally prefers S. African vintages, or Australian, this was a most pleasant surprise.

[mike van winkle]

Did you read his written apology? "It was an inappropriate choice of words to describe the obstructionist scare tactics the NEA's Washington lobbyists have employed against No Child Left Behind's historic education reforms." The sarcasm in the apology is almost funnier than the orginal insult.

[Russ]

dhex,

Can you please clarify for me the distinction between "fucktard" and "tardbunny"?

Thanks.

[Sam I Was]

An even better idea: Get the federal government to stop stealing my money to educate other people's kids; and get the federal government to repeal the National Labor Relations Act, which allows to NEA to exist.

Then maybe we'd have, like, a free country and stuff, and none of these inane "controversies" would exist.

[Rick Barton]

Right, the Feds should have zero to do with K-12 education. We need to abolish the Dept. of Education. That used to be a plank in the GOP platform every election...before the dark days, before the Empire...err I mean before Bush.

[Ron Hardin]

I can't believe they got him to apologize. American goons at work. Figures of speech are the enemy now. It's too close to humor, and we can't mock pig-biting stupidity.

[John Hensley]

Sam, the NEA is primarily a political lobby group, not a union in the traditional sense of strikes and contracts. Can you explain what effect you think repealing the NLRA would have on it?

Regarding the "Stalinist" charge, it is absurd. However, their monthly newsletter rarely goes an issue without at least one article full of Marxist canards.

[The Sieve of Eratosthenes]

No Child left behind is an expensive failure of a program. It is only natural that the NEA and the administration are trying to blame each other, and in an election year no less.

[calling a spade a spade]

I wonder if the NEA is responsible for the inability of Americans today to recognize figures of speech.

[joe]

Rod Paige is as dumb as a bag of hammers.

Calling a Spade a Spade, referring to a union as "Stalinist" is so common on this space, there's no way for a regular reader to know that you were being ironic.

[JimInNoVA]

Terry McAuliffe called his remarks "hate speech" later in the artical. Can the rhetoric get more inane at this point? Pot to Kettle, you are Black, repeat you are Black.

[dj of raleigh]

The NEA pretends to exist for the good of the children.
The NEA is for TEACHERS, not students.
Students will have to get their own self-interest organization.
Their number one target will be the TEACHERS.
Maybe one day the students can go on strike,
and the teachers won't get paid until they return.
The NEA is pro-democratic party and therefore
can't be for anything Republicans propose.

[dhex]

figure of speech or not, he's still a tardbunny.

[Jennifer]

Good thing he didn't make that comment in an airport, or the TSA would've arrested him.

[Rick Barton]

Well, lets see, the NEA might be able to be considered a "terrorist organization" if we can consider all the students who who's lives are influenced by their nonsense as the "innocent victims".

But, what's probably going on here is that Secretary Paige is exasperated that the NEA doesn't seem to show any gratitude to the administration for it's irresponsible lavishing of the public purse on them...

From a GOP fact sheet:
As a result of these increases, Title I spending increased more during the first two years of President George W. Bush?s administration than it did during the entire eight years of the Clinton Administration combined.

http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/108th/education/funding/realgoprecord.htm

And, in politics/government one ridiculous hyperbole often gets answered by another!...

Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe called Paige's words "hate speech" and said "President Bush and the Republican Party should immediately renounce" it.

What we need is a separation of education and state; OK; that's not gonna happen, but how about all schools being voucher schools? Get a little market dynamics going for excellence in education.
Another thread, huh?