an anatomy of key memes, phrases and obsessions in Wall Street Journal editorials, Jan. 5-Jan. 17, 2013

“assault” weapons: (note: “assault” must always be in fright quotes). Demspeak for any guns–rifles, handguns, etc. Really a recycling of the old “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” meme.

“biggest tax hike in twenty years”: not actually a new tax, but  “fiscal cliff”-related reinstatement of mostly Bush-era tax cuts.

global retrenchment: Obama’s diabolical strategy to let the bad guys take over the world.

growing world disorder: any challenge to American policy or power, anywhere in the world. “Disorder” always has to be “growing,” a meme to maintain the steady drumbeat of impending doom under a hapless, appeasing Obama (see also, “global retrenchment”). aka, “global troubles and disarray,” traced ultimately to liberals clinging to their entitlements.

growth agenda: any economic policy that promotes deregulation, tax cuts, and an unchecked private sector. Anything that unleashes the inherent and unfailing magic of the free market. “Growth” defined, of course, in purely economic terms, regardless of social or environmental consequences, as if a society cannot “grow” morally. (see also, “market failure”). (see also  the “productive engine”)

market failure: any economic policy that promotes deregulation, tax cuts, and an unchecked private sector.

productive engine: the unleashed power of private sector free markets policies. As opposed to the unproductive “entitlement” culture. Obama wants to “extend and entrench entitlements into the daily expectations of the middle class–from cradle to college to health care during the working years to retirement and then the grave,” in the process “reorienting the private economy to finance income redistribution”.

redistributionism: “the prevailing socialist mindset in the academy”.  aka, “Obama Unfettered”. aka, “the progressive agenda: reordering the relationships of Americans to their government”.

tax “reform”: the Democrat Trojan Horse for raising tax rates and broadening the base of taxed. Part of the Democratic masterplan to “spend, borrow, elect, tax, and then tax some more”. note: “reform” must always in fright quotes

troubling: any Obama nomination the Journal opposes (Hegel, Kerry, Lew)