Words just don't mean anything anymore

Particularly in politics and journalism, words seem to more and more be used for effect, not to convey meaning. I think it's becoming a real problem, it promotes acting out from emotion rather than rational decision making. It's manipulative, dishonest. I've had a few posts that touch on this before.

The Huffington Post has an observation along these lines about the inappropriate use of the term terrorism by Tony Blair. When we just use words for effect we basically are just spouting nonsense.