Words with amorphous meanings to Americans

Bernie Madoff - convict

Americans are such damn funny people... as in strange.

Many people have been in the news lately from the banksters to auto makers to politicians to CEOs. They proclaim they are responsible for this or that (not so much CEOs).

Responsibility: They take it, but what does it mean? It would seem acceptance of responsibility should carry with it some consequences. It doesn't appear that is so. Except for Obama who could lose his job in 3 years, no one appears to suffer in any way for their having claimed responsibility.

Socialism: Americans mostly hate it, but live with it every day. Most firefighters, police, the FBI, are all socialized. Few would find it preferable to have private militias protecting them.

Free trade: There's no such thing unless it's linked to human rights. It's merely a mixture of tariff controls, or lack thereof, which allows exploitation of people so other people can buy stuff cheaply. I think we can all agree NAFTA has certainly improved the lot of thousands of Mexicans, right? Many more after NAFTA are middle class with shiny new cars and big houses, right? Yeah, that worked out pretty well.

Theft: This one depends on your level of masochism. If banksters have fucked you by destroying your 401k or diminished your other retirement accounts and you liked it, then you don't see any theft. If you live in the real world, you realize there are many more Madoff's out there who need free room and board courtesy of the state.

War crimes: They don't apply to American politicians. Nor do they apply to Tony Blair. So they are not really crimes.

There are many other such words, but I'm not out to write a damn dictionary.