There are four ideas coming from the left that spell death for liberty and democracy. The first of these is "political correctness."
Political correctness is an attempt to control speech and ultimately thought by making it unacceptable to use certain words and phrases while at the same time promoting acceptable words and phrases. It began as early as the first century AD when the Roman writer Tacitus famously followed the literary convention of the time and called a "spade" an implement for digging. More recently, it's been around since the 1980s when conservative commentators started calling the left on it. Lesson one: the true believers of the left never give up.
Recently it's gotten a whole lot worse. There is no longer a "war on terror;" instead acts of terrorism are "man-made disasters." Illegal aliens are simply undocumented. The examples are legion.
At the same time, it is apparently just fine to refer to Tea Party protesters as "tea baggers" after some (fortunately) undefined homosexual practice and to label protesters at town hall meetings as "right-wing extremists."
What does all this political correctness get us? The shooting at Ft Hood by a man identified as having terrorist connections and ambitions. Although he was shot while in the act of shooting his defenseless fellow soldiers, the media continue to refer to him as "the alleged gunman." His terrorist connections were first revealed in the British press; only three days later did the information begin to appear here.
Political correctness spells death not only of liberty and free speech, but death quite literally.
We preserve our freedom and our very lives only by fighting political correctness wherever and whenever we encounter it. Always call a spade a spade.
