Ron Coleman analyzes the chattering classes' affection for the defiant ones:
You always know the bad guys are losing when the opposition press starts describing them as defiant. Arafat was always defiant. Castro? Señor Desafiante. Not only losers — Iran is always defiant. The little genocidal mullahs that could. As long as they’re on the other side, they’re defiant or, as we see, frequently resilient.As far as the BBC is concerned, bin Laden and al Qaeda define defiant. Al-Qaeda is defiant over Bin Laden, his son is is defiant, the Taleban is defiant over Bin Laden - it's a cycle of defiance.
For Juan Cole, Muqtada al Sadr is the defiant little cleric that could - Sadr & co. are defiant in Najaf, they're defiant in Basra, they listen to defiant sermons, they have defiant dogs.
(Well, no they don't have defiant dogs because to these 'defiant' ones dogs are filthy/najis, like infidels, music and shaving.)
Ron says: "Just do tell me when you read an MSM account of meek submission, pathetic surrender or broken acknowledgment of defeat by any enemy of the United States or its allies."
That'll never happen. After CNN's silence concerning Saddam's atrocities, the few reporters who spoke out against Hezbollah's propaganda tours, the general reaction to the Danish Cartoon controversy, we know that most of the media sees meek submission and pathetic surrender as the norm. They don't know what real defiance is.
Now I don't know what to make of these BBC headlines:
Israel defiant over Yassin killing
Bush defiant over 'Bin Laden tape'
Iraq PM defiant after bloody week
Very confusing, but a thought occurs. Maybe instead of using it as a code word, the BBC actually means the dictionary definition?
They're 'arrogant' with the same consistency that al Qaeda is 'defiant'.
In Juan Cole's world, al Sadr is the most defiant of all, when he's not being a 'firebrand', a 'young firebrand' or a young, radical firebrand.
You liked the cute seal? Nobody said they liked the seal, so i took him down. I'm recycling headers, so I'll bring it back soon.
I could bring the Maxfield Parrish back too. The only banner consensus was that everyone hated the paint splatters.
I count 74 hits on the BBC website calling Bush "defiant", and only four for "arrogant". And very one of the "arrogant" hits in their content was a quote of someone not at BBC.
So I think you're making things up.
And yeah, loved the seal, defiant or arrogant or whatever it was. Your photo? Taken where?
You may be right - the word 'arrogant' is more often applied to the BBC than by the BBC.
There's some message there...
And yeah, loved the seal, defiant or arrogant or whatever it was. Your photo? Taken where?
It was taken off the coast of Ireland, off the Hook. I spotted some scuba divers surfacing in the water, and one of them was wearing an odd black hood. That one was the seal..
Not only a cute seal, but possibly a selkie. I look forward to its return. And nice cropping of that image, by the way, it works nicely.
It's actually pretty good work on your part. On the other hand, for "defiant Saddam" on the Beeb website I got 21... pages of hits. Defiant Iran, 16 pages. No hits where Iran was described as arrogant, but 43 pages of hits for "Bush arrogant" where the adjective was applied to the President.
Didn't someone say something about lies, gol-darned lies and statistics?
Regarding a defiant Saddam, that's hardly surprising. He was defiant as all get-out for some ten years or so when under sanctions. Or is there another word to describe his defiance?
Is it possible that you may be supplying some positive attribute to the term "defiant" that others may not share?