Carl, what are you clucking about now? Here is exchange between zonder and me, verbatim.
zonder: Bush is clearly out to conquer the world. He is turning the US into a "rogue state" - zero respect for world opinion, zero respect for international treaties...
Nadine: Bush has a fine respect for international treaties -- the ones the US has signed, that is. He doesn't have the same respect for treaties that the Eurocrats of Brussels think we should sign.
zonder: I believe you are trying to say "ratification". US signed Kyoto Agreement AND the UN Charter, Nadine
big kerfluffle over the difference between signing and ratification, and how an ambassador, not the President, had signed Kyoto after the Senate had passed a resolution saying they would not ratify it.
Nadine: zonder, this is a tempest in a teapot. I was using "signed" in the general sense of "become a signatory to," which requires both signing and ratification under US law.
zonder: Whatever. (eom)
So zonder never misused the term "signing", I did that, but she did insinuate the the US had taken on a legal obligation with regards to the Kyoto Treaty, then blown it off ("shown zero respect"). This insinuation, which was false, touched off the kerfluffle. |
