Pixelated Semantics

An uptick for murderous deceit

The Courier-Mail reports that the "US said today that terrorist activity in the world increased sharply" last year with the number of attacks and dead "more than tripling" but that it [the US, that is] was winning the global "war on terror". The US National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC) said in a report there were 651 attacks last year with 1907 people killed, compared with 625 attacks involving 208 fatalities in 2003. 6704 people were wounded last year, compared to the 3646 reported for 2003. Another 710 people were taken hostage in 2004, the new report said. In other words, the number of fatalities has increased five-fold in one year - "more than tripling" chosen to sound less threatening than five-fold, presumably. The CM, confirming its position as one of the least analytic organs of the Murdoch empire, also fails to mention that these figures are information that "the State Department has decided not to make public in its annual report on terrorism", a fact readily reported by the Washington Post. The State Dept. has labelled the increase a "dramatic uptick". Uptick? An "uptick" is commonly defined as "a stock market transaction (or sometimes, a quote) at a price higher than the preceding one for the same security" - very interesting, the continuing nexus between "terror" and the language and philosophy of the stock-market. And only Americans like the Bush Junta could take figures that show they are comprehensively losing the battle against "terror" and claim they are "winning", as if the disparity is no more than a market correction.

Item posted by AutoEditor at 10:07 am ::