What's In a Name?

Inegales - French for "Unequal." Thus, the way notes are played in Jazz, is that they are "swung" instead of just plain time consuming quarter notes. Four quarter notes consume 4 beats, but notes two and four can be less than quarter notes, followed by a rest, and the measure still gets 4 beats. Confused? Thus the name Swungnotes.

The same artifice holds true, I notice, in the written languages, particularly English that I know of, and I suspect in other tongues as well. I'll be exploring that aspect of News posts, and news utterances on TV to show how vested interests tend to denigrate those of an opposite persuasion just by using the language. My father taught me as a youngster to revere the language, and one of his quotes I remember well is "... There are those who can steal a lot more with a briefcase than with a gun." His meaning, obviously, was subtlety, thus using the language to confuse and rob the uneducated is much more efficient than violence. (And most of theime, not a crime.) Several graphic instances of this verbal theft of late have been "Weapons of Mass Destruction;" "Flip-Flopper;" "National Security;" and my personal favorite "Nuclear Weapons."

So words have enormous value in any language. They enable the greatest communication vehicle, but simultaneously the greatest theft devices. How I'd love to see kids get a better education in their native language than they're getting - but that would mean more money for education, and less for high explosives, wouldn't it? Not gonna happen, probably.