Painful English

[pecunium]

Sign between the airport and the hotel, "Welcome to the National Capital Region"

Phrase on CNN, "The arrest of the three suspects, the alleged supects." Which begs the questions, if they aren't suspects, why were they arrested.

Comments

[mayakda.livejournal.com]

National Capital Region -- were you in the Philippines?

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

Nice revealing usage slippage: "alleged" suspect reveals that in the murky depth of the collective unconscious "suspect" has become very close in meaning to "guilty".

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Washington DC.

That spelling of capital/capitol is the one for head, and money.

TK

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Not exactly. "Capital" is the city; "capitol" is only the building.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yes, and if it said, "Welcome to the National Capital" I'd read it that way.

But the use of region makes me think of the building, and the area around it.

If you want to have that sign, post it at Wall Street.

:)

TK

[tongodeon.livejournal.com]

if they aren't suspects, why were they arrested.

I think the same thing about the "enemy combatants" they've got in Gitmo. Of course they're enemy. We're not locking up FRIENDLY combatants, are we?

(Of course the whole point of calling them "enemy combatants" is to avoid calling them "unlawful combatants", which they were until lawyers told Rumsfeld that the term confers Geneva Convention rights.)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

The fact of the matter is that being in a zone of hostilties confers GC rights.

The Conventions cover everyone. A POW was an enemy combatant (if he wasn't combative, he wouldn't be a POW, he'd be a protected, or detained, or retained, person.

But that's a whole 'nother can of worms.

TK