You know "re-framing" has gone too far...

Many of Blue Gal's readers are familiar with the work of George Lakoff, author of "Don't Think of an Elephant!" He's the guy who has made "re-framing" language a core tenet of the current Democratic leadership. It seems to work too, if the recent Social Security debate/debacle is any clue. By taking the Republican's "reform" and "crisis" statements and responding with "privatization" and "Wall Street", the Democrats have actually won one with the American public. Ditto the filibuster rule: Democrats turned a Republican demand for a "procedural up-or-down vote" into "changing the rules in the middle of the game." Again, the American public bought the dem's words hands down.

But now Blue Gal has come across a copy of "The Libertarian Communicator," and an article by Alan Korwin [author of that one hit wonder "Supreme Court Gun Cases"] called "17 Words and Phrases You Should Never Use When Debating Gun Rights."

The sidebar to this article is obviously straight outta the Lakoff boilerplate:

"In this article, best-selling author and gun law expert Alan Korwin provides specific examples of how language can win--or lose--for you on the gun issue. But this article is much more than that--it's about creating a philosophy of word usage. It's a great starting point for examining your own word choices, on this and every other important issue."

The words and their doublespeak translations made Blue Gal laugh her panties off. You can read the whole list at Korwin's site here, but Blue Gal's favorites are:

Don't say "gun control," say "crime control."
Don't say "junk guns," say "the affordability issue."
Don't say "the powerful gun lobby," say "civil rights organizations." I guess that's just in case you get yer NRA mixed up with yer ACLU and yer NAACP.

And BLUE GAL'S ABSOLUTE FAVORITE:

Don't say "assault weapon," say "household firearm."

That's such a coincidence, because Blue Gal has always kept her assault weapons under the kitchen sink right next to the Mop n' Glo. She feels safer that way.

'Kay that was a good laugh. But we liberal bloggers, especially those addicted to Katrina coverage, need to go here. Now. We've got some re-framing to do.