Change of Heart (1649)

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:45 PM -0500 2/9/03, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>    OED has 1828 for "change of heart."
>    Change of heart?  Saddam?  Has he morphed into Jennifer Lopez?
>Did the CNN Valentine's Day drudge write this?
>    I'm reading that the latest entertainment celebrity to Barbra
>"Streisandize" is Madonna.  Don't they realize that all they're
>doing is giving more time to a known enemy to develop biological and
>chemical weapons?  Will they be happy if all of New York City is
>destroyed next time?  Is Madonna really Jewish?
>    Back to word and phrase origins.

Please.  At least one of us would vote for that.  I'm pretty sure
this isn't the appropriate forum--I get sick enough watching the news.

Not everyone here thinks that the scheduled war with Iraq will be
worth the devastation in terms of people (Iraqi civilians, civilians
in neighboring countries, U.S. soldiers, and no doubt others), the
environment, the impact on the perception of the U.S. in the rest of
the world, the further destruction of civil liberties (especially to
those of Mideast or South Asian origin), or the damage to an already
tottering domestic economy from which our leaders are intent on
funneling all resources that don't go to the war effort into other
military "needs", tax cuts for the wealthiest citizens, subsidies for
purchasers of very large SUVs, and such, while we build up an
enormous debt for the next generations to pay off and while we can't
afford education or medical care for the current generation.  Yes,
Saddam is a rogue dictator, as vile as a number of others we've
supported--I wish previous administrations (including G. H. W.
Bush's, before the Gulf War) hadn't worked so well to build him up.
Yes, he almost has nuclear weapons (maybe), and he's unstable.  Good
thing we can ignore the non-crisis with North Korea, which already
has nuclear weapons (probably) and a leader more unstable than
Saddam.  Yes, Saddam may well have some ties with Bin Laden and those
who attacked the Trade Center--unlike our "friends" in Saudi Arabia,
Pakistan, Qatar, etc., who we know grew, harbored, and directly
supported the terrorists, and even though the man Secretary Powell
linked to Saddam is in fact a rabid anti-Saddam zealot, as has been
widely reported, and even though the one thing we can perform that
will actually encourage Saddam to use those weapons you refer to
would be the very invasion we're planning.  And yes, I promise not to
post off-topic diatribes about Iraq and the coming war if everyone
else promises not to.

Larry