When It Comes to Terrorist Threats, the Feds Need to Call a Spade a Spade

Commentary A jihadi by any other name is a jihadi Shakespeare had it right. No matter what we call something that does not affect its essence.  Trends and fads come and go but facts are facts. Roses do smell sweet no matter what label we put on them. Language is a funny thing. No matter how many times people try to control it, or change it, or ban words from the public lexicon, they end up failing, for our species’ linguistic competence is one of the most democratic of institutions. We say what we want to say, in the way we wish to say it, regardless of what the language czars prefer. This is known as a descriptive approach to language in linguistics (as opposed to a “prescriptive” one)....