loot
(noun) (verb)
- (v.) steal goods; take as spoils;
- (n.) goods usually of considerable value taken in war; goods or money obtained illegally;
In The Discovery of India, the final and perhaps most profound part of his "prison trilogy", written in 1944 from Ahmednagar Fort, Jawaharlal Nehru described the effect of the East India Company on the country he would shortly rule. "The corruption, venality, nepotism, violence and greed of money of these early generations of British rule in India," he wrote, "is something which passes comprehension." It was, he added, "significant that one of the Hindustani words which has become part of the English language is 'loot'". -- New Statesman, The world's first multinational, 2004-12-13
wedge
(noun) (verb)
1 [noun] : (a) something (as a policy) causing a breach or separation; (b) something used to initiate an action or development
2 [verb] : (a) to force (one's way) into or through; (b) to separate or force apart with or as if with a wedge
"We define wedge politics to be a calculated political tactic aimed at using divisive social issues to gain political support, weaken opponents and strengthen control over the political agenda." Wedge politics and welfare reform in Australia, 2001
- "Wedge Politics are a calculated political tactic that garners votes at the expense of another party using divisive social issues. That middle part is important. It’s not enough simply to use the tactics – that’s just populism – they need to be aimed at stripping votes from someone else. This is where the “wedge” component comes into it. ... It’s important to acknowledge that Wedge Politics revolve around minorities, a language of 'us and them'. Underpinning this is the idea of social cleavage - literally, 'us and them'. Cleavages can be class, welfare, race – or anything, really. We need to acknowledge the possibility that we like wedge issues. They make the news because they’re controversial, and even if they shouldn’t be accessible, they often are. The media gravitates towards them, not because they’re evil hacks, but because wedge issues have news value, and it’s a value we recognise as viewers." Riding The Wedge, July 12, 2004
- The Discovery Institute in Seattle, originally founded as a conservative think tank in 1990, is a heavy promoter of Intelligent Design -- creationism in a labcoat but without the lab. Current tactics include using the divisive wedge (familiar in politics) to counter methodological materialism -- the assumption that all events have material, rather than supernatural, explanations. For Discovery, the "thin end" of the wedge - according to a fundraising document leaked on the Web in 1999 - is the scientific work of Johnson, Behe, Dembski, and others. (In the 1996 book Darwin's Black Box, Lehigh University biochemist Michael Behe contended that natural selection can't explain the "irreducible complexity" of molecular mechanisms.) The Crusade Against Evolution, Wired Magazine, Issue 12.10 - October 2004
