I was fortunate enough to be a small child before the PC age arrived, when every absurdity exposed with a “racial” overtone (I was never aware that there WERE such things as “races” until an eight-grade classmate saw me talking to a “negro” girl and commented upon it – I’d assumed people came in different shades) was deemed chauvinistic and banned from decent venues. I was early exposed to (and delighted by) the story of Pamanondis and his assiduous, painstakingly literal, obedience to his Mammy’s injunctions to “Be keerful.”
This is eons ago, people; so I can’t recollect all the delicious instances of Pam’nondis’s obedience. But two do adhere. P was sent to get butter by his mother and sworn “to be keerful” of that butter. So he carefully wrapped it in leaves, placed it in his hat, put on the hat and walked home on a hot summer day. Guess what happened.
The other episode I recall occurred on a day when P’s mother, who had been baking pies all day and was cooling them on the doorstep, was called away and exhorted P, who was still at home, that if he went out to “be keerful how you step in dem pies.”
So, of course, Pamanondas stepped very carefully in the center of each one.
Now, I can appreciate the racial denigration in the tale. But the semantic point remains for all that. Perfect twisting of the CONTENT of words to distort their INTENT – in Pamanondis’ case from innocent stupidity, in more current discussions from devious, even malevolent violence on logic.
Karl Roverer’s claims that he did not “name” Valerie Plame outright may be literally true – I have no idea. Karl Roverer’s assertions that Wilson’s “story” was in error and he was simply saving reporters from reporting a lie is a logistical extension of a P-interpretation that is in itself an untruth. Karl Roverer’s cycling of classified information so that all sources “sourced” each other is a shell game. Karl Roverer has stepped neatly into the middle of every American pie baked hopefully in the last five years; and it wasn’t because he made a naive mistake.
