My Virtual Reading Room

I have been thinking about precision of language. Yes, this kind of precision of language. I had been watching a fair number of video interviews w. commentary on current and related historical events--well, they were discussing the war in Ukraine, and this line came out onto the screen every few minutes:

РОСКОМНАДЗОР НАСТАИВАЕТ, ЧТО СПЕЦИАЛьНАЯ ОПЕРАЦИЯ РОССИИ В УКРАИНЕ НЕ ЯВЛЯЕТСЯ "НАПАДЕНИЕМ, ВТОРЖЕНИЕМ ЛИБО ОБъЯВЛЕНИЕМ ВОЙНЫ"

Roskomnadzor insists that the special operation of Russia in Ukraine is not "an attack, and invasion, or a declaration of war"

...well. No, of course not, dear Roskomnadzor. (Roskomnadzor, in case you were wondering, is short for Rossiyskiy Komitet Nadzora--Russian Committee of Oversight. I hear people have taken to calling it Roskompozor. "Pozor" is "disgrace". A far more fitting designation, I think.)

Other quotes that came to mind, in no particular order--

O sancta simplicitas (re: recent events in my former home region--never thought I'd have occasion to quote this when I learned it in history class, long ago--)

The ever-applicable, it seems, alas 'tis so-- O tempora, o mores

and

Deus vult perdere, prius dementat

and

“Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose “

"If, of all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these: 'It might have been',
Far sadder are those we daily see:
'It is, but it isn't ought to be.'"