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Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
What exactly is a terrorist fist jab?
www.guardian.co.uk
What exactly is a terrorist fist jab?
Questions, questionsThe Guardian, Saturday June 14, 2008
You will have seen it before, even if you don't know what it's called. In fact, everybody seems a little confused regarding the accepted terminology for when two people bump their fists together in the manner of tennis doubles partners who have just scored a crucial point.
Since Barack Obama and his wife knocked knuckles just prior to his victory speech the week before last, the American press have variously described it as a "fist bump", a "pound" or a "dap greeting", while the New York Times opted for the excruciating "close-fisted high-five".
For the terrorism angle, however, we must credit Fox News Channel presenter ED Hill, who introduced an item about Mr and Mrs Obama's affectionate and wholly unremarkable little tap with the words: "A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently."
The trouble with Hill's assertion was that she appeared to have coined the term "terrorist fist jab" herself. The only other record of a similar phrase was in the comments section of a blog on the creepy conservative website HumanEvents.com, where some anonymous crank referred to it as "Hezbollah-style fist-jabbing".
The comment was quickly removed from public view and, despite a half-hearted apology, so was Hill: Fox News cancelled her show.
The Wikipedia entry for "dap greeting" briefly and belatedly entertained the contention that the gesture is "also used by underground terrorist cells", but there is no evidence that this is true, and if terrorists do give each other fist pounds it's almost certainly something they picked up from either the NBA or from repeats of the US version of Deal or No Deal, where the pound is the standard greeting and all-purpose good luck sign.
For many, the Fox News gaffe is part of a wider smear campaign against Obama, but this is really about the US media being completely bewildered - and idiotically distracted - by a gesture that is, in America and across the world, familiar and utterly commonplace.
Whatever you call it.
What exactly is a terrorist fist jab?
Questions, questionsThe Guardian, Saturday June 14, 2008
You will have seen it before, even if you don't know what it's called. In fact, everybody seems a little confused regarding the accepted terminology for when two people bump their fists together in the manner of tennis doubles partners who have just scored a crucial point.
Since Barack Obama and his wife knocked knuckles just prior to his victory speech the week before last, the American press have variously described it as a "fist bump", a "pound" or a "dap greeting", while the New York Times opted for the excruciating "close-fisted high-five".
For the terrorism angle, however, we must credit Fox News Channel presenter ED Hill, who introduced an item about Mr and Mrs Obama's affectionate and wholly unremarkable little tap with the words: "A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently."
The trouble with Hill's assertion was that she appeared to have coined the term "terrorist fist jab" herself. The only other record of a similar phrase was in the comments section of a blog on the creepy conservative website HumanEvents.com, where some anonymous crank referred to it as "Hezbollah-style fist-jabbing".
The comment was quickly removed from public view and, despite a half-hearted apology, so was Hill: Fox News cancelled her show.
The Wikipedia entry for "dap greeting" briefly and belatedly entertained the contention that the gesture is "also used by underground terrorist cells", but there is no evidence that this is true, and if terrorists do give each other fist pounds it's almost certainly something they picked up from either the NBA or from repeats of the US version of Deal or No Deal, where the pound is the standard greeting and all-purpose good luck sign.
For many, the Fox News gaffe is part of a wider smear campaign against Obama, but this is really about the US media being completely bewildered - and idiotically distracted - by a gesture that is, in America and across the world, familiar and utterly commonplace.
Whatever you call it.