State Department: 'Hold down the fort,' other common phrases could be offensive

That is bullshit. The rule of thumb came about when the settlers first encountered bears. The rule of thumb is that if you can't cover that bear with your thumb then run like hell. Its a good rule, but stupid greenie hikers with a camera and no gun cannot understand that.

Man, I wish I got a paycheck and a pension for Googling up bullshit all day.

...

I have evoked the anger of Lanzman. I remember way back when Wordforge could take a joke.

Your tax dollars at work.

I would honestly LOVE to meet someone legitimately offended by the phrase "hold the fort".

Hmmm. I didn't know that story about the origin of the phrase "rule of thumb." That's horrible. I can see how that might call an unpleasant image to mind of someone who knows that origin.

Not that I'm going to stop using it, however. But the origin is interesting.

No one owns or decides the proper usage of the English language. Even if "hold down the fort" or "rule of thumb" have unpleasant origins, virtually everyone who says and hears uses these today are completely unaware of them.

The PC police should find something productive to do.

I miss the good ol' days when you could slap a bitch back to her senses.

Like, for example, kill themselves.

Oh, look.

A prime example of government waste.

Oh...and he doesn't even care if his "historical facts" are accurate or not:

Yeah...this guy is worth taxpayer's money.

Either you are The Jolly Green Giant or that is one tiny fucking bear. Does it hunt fleas for food?

Anyway, this has to be a joke. A sick, twisted joke foisted upon the citizenry of our once great nation.

I got used to this bullshit in The Army (and now my son endures the epic pussification) so I feel for the other government workers who have to abide by this happy horseshit. And yes, "diversity" experts along with Equal Opportunity are the least diverse group of people on the planet, so this comes as no shock. They throw a token white male in there now and again, but more than one and it risks becoming The Aryan Brotherhood I guess.

The State Department wants diplomats to be diplomatic? The horror!

Diplomacy is the art of hiding the knife in plain sight.

I got the impression this memo was more for the peons than for the high fallutin' diplomatic corps.

There's diplomatic and there's just foolishness. This falls under the latter heading.

I used "rule of thumb" the other day. I hear it probably dozens of times per year. Am I going to start "correcting" people who use it? Am I going to TOLERATE having someone "correct" me for using it?

No way in hell. It's a perfectly apt and usable phrase, it puts the right mental picture in my listener's head, I'm used to it, I like it, and I'm not going to change. If it becomes non-PC, I'll find a way to use it 20 goddamned times a day.

Words express ideas and for every idea you can almost certainly find SOMEONE SOMEWHERE who will find that idea objectionable. We don't need ridiculous speech codes to keep someone from using "hold down the fort" in order to keep from--I'm shaking my head in disgust as I type this--conceivably offending some American Indian.

People should quit working at finding new ways to be offended and do something useful. Inasmuch as they won't, I'll ignore them.

I always heard that rule of thumb was a rough and easy standard of measurement. Although it might well have been used to determine whether a beating was worthy of prosecution, it was almost certainly first used to measure other things (the joints in an adult thumb are close to an inch in length). Wiki agrees with this. I'm gonna call bullshit on the idea that it is a misogynistic term.

I love how people go on about the fluid meaning of words and symbols over time...unless there is some PC crap involved...then the words must never be uttered, the meaning must never be changed so that the offense may last for eternity.

Personally, as someone with Lakota heritage, I find Jackson's face on the $20 bill to be a lot more offensive than someone saying "hold down the fort", which actually doesn't even register. There are plenty of actual offensive things white people have said about Natives going back through history, like say, "the only good Indian is a dead Indian." Occasionally, though, a few of them offset that by saying something along the lines of "with just 80 men, I could ride through the whole Sioux nation."

This reads like every other HR column in every company newsletter ever. Not seeing the problem.

And it's obvious why Muad posted the guy's picture along with it.

Maybe you could use the phrase a bit more niggardly.

I get the same way when I see a penny or a $5 bill.

I guess government employees better stop using the word "disaster" as well. Its root meaning is "bad stars," so any government employee who uses it is clearly violating the First Amendment, by insinuating that the government favors seeing the stars as gods who affect our lives. It is not up to the government to promote that kind of religious outlook.

The idea that this insanity is that prevalent is a whole new layer of problem on this problem.

Me heap-big sympathy for you. You smoke 'em doobie?

That had always been my impression, as well. That it was originally that and eventually came to its modern meaning, which is something like any unofficial guideline.

Aside of the obvious pointed out by Ramen, I have to wonder how many Deputy Diversity Officers there are.

Wow, you yanks are getting crazy with this stuff nowadays.

Well, I see Hillary is packed, ready to go, and doesn't even give a fuck at this point what her office looks like.

After the election: regardless of who wins. "Bill... take me home. Then get a lawyer; I want a divorce."