Tuesday, May 17, 2011

new rule

politicians should not be allowed to claim their words were "taken out of context" without making them identify the proper context and explain how pulling the quote out of context changed the original meaning of what he/she said.

the whole reason that they all claim they were taken out of context is because no one follows up for an explanation. "it was taken out of context" becomes the explanation, even though it doesn't explain anything. that gives politicians a huge incentive to use it every time they want to disavow a prior pronouncement without accepting responsibility for it.