A new standard phrase in my arsenal has became "When everything is an emergency, then nothing is an emergency."  Saying that something is "super critical" or an "emergency" is supposed to raise its importance above tasks... in order to set priority.  But when you call everything an emergency, then no tasks are made to be more important compared to the others, and thus nothing is an emergency.

This is how we're beginning to treat the word "terrorism".  Take for example, this case in Roanoke:

Two Pembroke teenagers have been charged in connection with a series of playing cards that were defaced with threatening writing and left at stores in Christiansburg and Pearisburg -- a gesture police said the teens admitted had been inspired by this summer's Batman movie, "The Dark Knight."

Justin Colby Dirico and Bryan Eugene Stafford, both 18, admitted to leaving cards that bore handwritten messages inside the Pearisburg Wal-Mart, according to police Chief J.C. Martin.

Martin would not say how they identified the suspects but said the teens admitted Tuesday during police interviews they were responsible for the cards, which they patterned after elements of "The Dark Knight." Both were charged with conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism.

These are two kids who were playing a really bad, distasteful prank.  They've been charged with terrorism.  This is a charge that has often come to mean decreased civil liberties for those who are charged with it.  We've been promised that we'd only use this for the worst of the worst, because we have no choice, and the consequences are that dire.  Unfortunately, as is always the case, when you give the government an inch with your civil liberties, they take a mile.

When everything is terrorism, nothing is terrorism.  Via Hit & Run.