Careful of Political Ads And The Dodge Game

Just a thought about political ads from candidates or supporters from both parties where the candidate says, "I'm for," or "I'm against," and then some generalized statement that ends with "for more information go to www.," and then some website address. If you have a plan or program, tell us what it is in your ad, don't refer us to a website most people will never visit. These things make me suspicious right away. Maybe they should say, for more info, go to my site: "I Don't Want You Tell You What The Hell I believe." Remember folks, just because we have freedom of speech and freedom of the press doesn't mean you're going to have an informed public. This is a battle for information. Politicians by their very nature try to keep from saying in any detail what they intend to do if elected. They may even have to be pressed for generalities. I realize they're afraid they will alienate elements of the electorate, but we need to know more than "Romney will stand up to China." What the hell does that mean? Or, "I know how jobs are created." What the hell does that mean? Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, and the host of "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, was recently talking about how Romney just won't answer questions, and remember, Joe is a REPUBLICAN! Now, in fairness, Romney may give us more info as time passes, and it is the duty, in my opinion, of the American press to get answers from him. Our system isn't perfect, but there has to be more info than "I know how jobs are created."

In this coming election, Romney has more on him to tell us what he believes and what he wants to do, because, "essentially," we know what Obama believes and what his programs have been. That's just true of incumbents for any office; they've been there, so we know "most" things about them. Further, incumbents can sort of hide behind "I can't discuss sensitive foreign policy details," and that may or may not be true, but it is what it is, and the public is sort of in a "Catch 22;" if we get details on a sensitive issue, it could lead to a foreign policy problem, but if we don't have information, we can't decide if the issue is really sensitive or not. The President also has to be pressed on what he wants to do in a second term. It isn't enough to say "I want to be your President again."

WORD HISTORY:
Reek-The ultimate origins of this word are uncertain and it seems to only appear in Germanic, although Lithuanian has a similar word, but it could well have been borrowed from Germanic (Lithuanian bordered on Germanic dialects/languages for centuries). Old Germanic had "reukanan," which meant "give off smoke." This gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "reocan," with the same meaning. This later became "reken," before the modern version. The notion of "smoke" giving off an odor to clothing, hair, etc. gave the word a secondary meaning of "smell badly," the meaning that has persisted into modern times in English and some other Germanic languages. There was once also a noun form in English "riec" (Old English) and later "rek," before "reek," but it is now archaic, although such forms in other Germanic languages are still much in use: German has the noun "Rauch," which means "smoke," and the noun "Rauchen," which means "smoking,"^ the verb "rauchen," meaning "to smoke," but also "riechen," which means "to smell (in the sense 'use your nose,' not the sense 'smell badly'),"^^ and the noun "Geruch," meaning "a smell, a scent, an odor;" Low German has the noun "Rook" ("smoke), as does Dutch ("rook"), but Dutch also has "reuk," ("scent, odor"), and  the verb "roken" ("to smoke"), as well as "ruiken" ('to smell," in the sense "with your nose," but also "smell badly/reek"); West Frisian has "reek" ("smoke") and the verb "rikje" ("to smoke"), as well as "rûke" ("to smell," although I'm not sure how much this is used anymore); Danish has "røg"  ("smoke") and the verb "ryge" ("to smoke"); Norwegian has "røyk" ("smoke") and "røyke" ("to smoke"); Swedish has "rök"  ("smoke") and the verb "ryka"  ("to smoke"); and Icelandic has "reykur" ("smoke") and the verb "rjúka" ("to smoke").

^ You've perhaps seen "Rauchen Verboten" signs in movies or pictures set in Germany. It means "No Smoking," literally "Smoking Forbidden" (Verboten=forbidden and again shows the close relationship between the two languages).
 
^^ In German (and others, see more above) the notion of smoke making things smell gave rise to the verb meaning "to use your nose to detect odors, scents;" that is, "how an odor is detected," rather than the result of "the odor given off," as in English "reek."