People who love English because the language can be precise and powerful can't protect it from people who love English because they love the sound of their own voices speaking it. Words like “disingenuous”, “chaotic”, and “appalling”, for example, have distinct and useful meanings. To the journos and pub bores and politicians they have become fashionable with, these words are fancy-sounding labels for anything members of those groups disapprove of. “Cynical” used to mean “disinclined to recognize or believe in goodness”; now it's just an adjective randomly applied to things or people you don't agree with. Today the BBC reacquaints us with the essence of the word.

While the British Broadcasting Corporation has been coy about the “motivation” of the Sudanese government in its not-very-indirect support of ethnic cleansing, the Beeb decided today that it was worth questioning why the USA is so interested in discouraging mass rape and slaughter. As thousands of Sudanese refugees “rushed to welcome” Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, Elizabeth Blunt asked if Powell's visit was “driven by oil” or by “pressure from right-wing Christian groups” or by “Sudan's place in President Bush's war against terrorism”.

The truth is that the Amer-cans just want another opportunity to carpet-bomb innocent civilians in their relentless bullying greed and desire for conquest. Once Bush has razed the country to the ground he will build sweatshops where Halliburton will employ displaced farmers to produce cluster bombs for the military-industrial complex and reformed chicken snacks for the McDonald's restaurants that will spring up from the rubble. The Sudanese will be made to join evangelical Christian sects who will demand their followers' disposable income to pay for buses to take the Joooos back to The Zionist Entity in time for Armageddon. Colin Powell is an Uncle Tom. Bush is Satan is Hitler. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. This is the BBC.