This is a shocking headline: “Ex-CIA chief will be sentenced for leaking military secrets.” You almost have to read it a second time, to grasp it.

The article begins, “Former CIA Director David Petraeus, whose career was destroyed by an extramarital affair with his biographer, was expected to be sentenced Thursday in federal court in Charlotte for giving her classified material while she was working on the book.”

The word “tragedy” is probably overused (like many words). But the Petraeus story is a tragedy almost Greek in its scope. I believe he is, on balance, a good or great man who had a moral breakdown, not true to his nature.

Do you remember when MoveOn.org, the left-wing group, labeled Petraeus “General Betray Us”? It was in 2007. Those words have a creepy ring now (to me).

Anyway, Petraeus has a lot of living to do, in or out of jail — and it will probably be out. I write these words before his sentence is announced.

‐Let me pause for a language note. I began our first item, “This is a shocking headline.” Originally, I wrote, “This is a genuinely shocking headline.” Then I struck out the word “genuinely.”

We tend to use language so loosely — language like “shocking” — that we have to resort to words like “genuinely” when we really mean it. That ought not to be.

You know?

‐There is a lot to say about the genocide of the Armenians, or the mass murder of Armenians, and whether these killings should indeed be described as a genocide. I’ve written a lot about genocide over the years — maybe too much. But I’d like to jot just one note now. (Pardon the light word “jot” in the context of so serious and terrible a subject.)

Typically, a presidential candidate says that the mass murder of Armenians should be labeled a genocide. When he gets elected, he decides, “Er, maybe not.”

It reminds me of this longstanding pattern: A candidate says, “When I’m president, we’re going to move our embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the true Israeli capital!” Then when he gets into office, he finds it’s inconvenient . . .

(For a news story on President Obama and the Armenian-genocide question, go here.)

‐The word “genocide” is used with shameful looseness. People would devalue it, if they were allowed. In a recent issue of National Review, I had a piece on anthropology. I quoted from the Association of Black Anthropologists, which in December issued a “Statement Against Police Violence and Anti-Black Practices.”

The statement begins, “The Association of Black Anthropologists condemns, in no uncertain terms, the ongoing terrorism waged against Black U.S. communities by the state, police, and White vigilantes.” It further says, “These are state-sponsored massacres of our people, massacres enabled by a long history of national and global anti-Blackness.” In short, “we charge genocide.”

In my piece, I write,

The charge of genocide — the wholesale murder of a people — is one I heard on my campus in the 1980s. Protesters were incensed by the attempts of the Reagan administration to slow the rate of growth of social-welfare spending. They chanted, “Reagan, Bush, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.”

‐I realize that I quoted the above in a column earlier this week. Please pardon this cataract of self-quotation, and repetitious self-quotation at that.

‐This is a terrible case, but an important one. I’ve written about it before. Let me quote just the opening paragraph of a news story from two days ago: “A woman accused of cutting into the belly of an expectant mother to claim the unborn child can’t be charged under Colorado law with murder. But Republicans in the state Senate advanced a bill Wednesday aimed at changing that situation.”

Why only Republicans? Why can’t others recognize the murder of an unborn child as murder? It is so bizarre.

A gynecologist testified against the bill. She said, “It’s to take the rights away from women, not to help us.” If sex (or gender) is to be an issue here, can’t anyone give a thought to girl babies, and their rights?

Anyway, to be continued (of course).

‐I have an essay in the current National Review. It’s called “The Even-Steven Temptation: Adventures in moral equivalence.” I don’t intend to recapitulate it now. I just want to mention one thing.

In this essay, I have occasion to quote Bernard Lewis, the great Middle East historian. He recently observed, “Americans used to have a saying: ‘My country, right or wrong.’ Now it’s ‘My country, wrong.’”

It is certainly that way for some (many). I bring this up here in Impromptus to say that, on the subject of patriotism, it’s hard to improve on Burke. Bill Buckley liked to quote it. Let’s sing along, with Burke (and Bill): “There ought to be a system of manners in every nation which a well-formed mind would be disposed to relish. To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.”

Smart sumbitch, Burke.

‐I kind of bristled at this headline: “US puts 2 Greek far-left militants on terror blacklist.” (Article here.) Why would I bristle?

Well, I thought of Cuba — by which I mean, the Castro dictatorship. Obama has removed them from the State Department’s list of terror sponsors. They have been busted in illegal weapons trafficking with the North Koreans and the Chinese. They feed the FARC. But who cares?

Who in the administration, I mean?

‐I started at this headline: “Carter concerned Iran ships may carry arms for Yemen rebels.” I thought, “That doesn’t sound like Jimmy.” Then I realized — it’s Ashton Carter, the new SecDef. More like it.

(To read the article, go here.)

‐Here is a headline that says “modern economy”: “Volvo prepares to send ‘Made in China’ cars to US.” (Article here.) Ay, caramba. (How do you say that in Chinese? Or Swedish?)

‐Have another headline: “Cops: Woman arrested at JFK hid cocaine in girdle, underwear.” (Article here.) I thought — I swear — “JFK would kind of like that . . .”

‐Say you’re a satirist, and you want to satirize the Left, particularly the Left on campus. You might come up with something like this.

The University of California, Santa Cruz, has a “space-themed” night. There is food, and that food is Mexican. And that spells trouble.

A university official sends out an apology, saying that organizers “made a poor decision when choosing to serve a Mexican food buffet during a program that included spaceships and ‘aliens,’ failing to take into account how these choices might be perceived by others.”

She continues, “We would never want to make a connection between individuals of Latino heritage or undocumented students and ‘aliens.’” The presence of Mexican food “demonstrated a cultural insensitivity on the part of the program planners and, though it was an unintentional mistake, I recognize that this incident caused harm within our community and negatively impacted students.”

That would be over the top, right? Satire of too exaggerated and obnoxious a sort. But it happened — it really happened. In real life. At Santa Cruz.

For a news article, go here.

I need a phrase stronger than “Ay caramba,” I really do . . .

‐You will enjoy this: Rush Limbaugh has a cousin named Stephen Limbaugh, who’s a pianist. His website bills him as “The Greatest Pianist in the World!” Confidence must run in the family, and a sense of fun, too. I have corresponded with Stephen a bit. A neat guy, and a talent.

His new album is called “Pants.” It has a pair of Uncle Sam-type pants on the cover. Rush himself talked about Stephen and his new album here.

At some point, Stephen made a video recording of the national anthem. He is playing it, I mean. He’s doing so in those pants, and with a George W. Bush bobblehead doll on the keyboard. To see the video, go here. On this same page, you’ll read about Stephen’s relationship with Rush.

Something new under the sun, a break away from the everyday.

One more thing: While Stephen is playing the anthem, the GWB doll takes a tumble, hitting some keys on the way down. On his website, Stephen comments, “I would say that the wrong notes are Bush’s fault, but then I’d sound too much like the current president.”

‐Rush’s biographer, as you know, is Zev Chafets. (For the bio, go here.) Zev has now edited a new book called “Remembering Who We Are: A Treasury of Conservative Commencement Addresses.” Go here.

‐Finally, a word about Dana Perino, who has just come out with a book: And the Good News Is . . .: Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side. Good. I could use it.

I was reading about this marvelous woman in a news article, here. Dana, as you remember, was a press secretary for President Bush (43). Sometimes, she was highly annoyed with the press, but felt that she could not lash out at them. She did not do nothing, however. The article quotes her:

“I’d just rest my hand next to my water, out of view of anyone, keep a pleasant look on my face, and flip ’em the bird.”

Have you ever flipped secret birds? I have, quite a few. And some open ones, too.

Anyway, thanks for joining me, y’all, and see you soon.