Is the term "Appendage Furloughing" pulling your leg?

Satirist Joe Queenan on the Wall Street Journal Online reports that the world is following President Obama in abandoning the fierce rhetoric of the Bush era in favor of kinder, gentler terminology.

Yet, if the intention of the Obama administration is to tone down the confrontational rhetoric being used by our enemies, the effort is already reaping results. This week, in a pronounced shift from its usual theatrical style, the Taliban announced that it will no longer refer to its favorite method of murder as "beheadings," but will henceforth employ the expression "cephalic attrition"...

Read the whole thing here.