Chicken-Fried-Steak-Fried Chicken

When the president said the "leak" of the domestic spy program was "shameful," he was merely using adjectives Texas-style! Down here in the Lone Star State, for example, you can order "chicken-fried chicken"--which is chicken fried not like fried chicken is fried, but like steak that has been "chicken-fried." Texans are quick to point this out to newcomers who are foolish enough to ask why it isn't simply called "fried chicken." The name of the dish, which isn't fried chicken, has really been shortened, helpfully, from "chicken-fried-steak-fried chicken" to plain old "chicken-fried chicken." (I should point out that eating much of either of these--tasty as they may be--puts you at risk of becoming a heart-attacky cyborg like the vice-president, if you can afford the cyborg part. Otherwise, you'll just die off the golf course like everybody else.)

Anyway, I was reminded of wacky Texas-speak this morning, as I read about the president calling the "leak" of the domestic spying "shameful." He means that it's "shameful" like it's shameful to reveal state secrets that put us all at a security risk (whatever these might be)--not like it's shameful to talk until you're blue and smirking about "freedom" while secretly authorizing secret spying on a secret list of people you maybe just don't happen to like.

In other words, lest anyone is confused, the president really is suggesting that someone besides himself should feel ashamed. I know it sounds crazy. Trust me. I live here in Texas.