Curmudgeons' Corner

Guestmudgeon Roland Bogush got out of the wrong side of the bed today:

Not normally given to curmudgeonliness (indeed curmudgeonlinessless is the state in which I am normally to be found), I am however infuriated by the phrase smoking gun in the context of the search for evidence of certain types of weapons in Iraq.  If a gun is smoking, it is evident that it has been fired. The search is being conducted for weapons that have the potential to be fired, so the inspectors should more appropriately be seeking metaphorical cocked revolvers, grenades with removed pins, burning fuses etc.

If I may be allowed a supplementary curmudge, we may like to consider the possibility that the phrase weapons of mass destruction refers only to those weapons that destroy mass, (presumably converting it to energy) and excludes those that exert their effect through other means. Just a thought.

Guess who got out of the wrong side of bed today....

Have you heard or read similar or equally distressing usages?

Do tell us. 

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