Sarah Palin has received a certain amount of flak recently for using the word "refudiate," a mangling of the words "refute" and "repudiate." Though I am a language maven, I'm not put out by this. Rather, I'm put out by the context in which she has most recently used this neologism. She is asking for "peaceful Muslims" (the adjective is an insult to Muslims) to "refudiate" the planned construction of a mosque not far from the World Trade Center site in Manhattan. I have commented on this view before, and found it wanting.
For this reason, I hereby declare that Palin knows shit about religious freedom, equal protection, and anti-bigotry. Raise your hand if you're surprised. No one? Bueller?
