"Perfect storms" are popping out all over

I hear the guy who did the Pentagon report on the Pat Tillman affair – the reports of his heroic death in battle against the enemy, rather than the truth that he was killed by “friendly fire” – called it the result of a “perfect storm” of well-intended screw-ups, not a conspiracy to pump up support of the Iraq War (even though Tillman was in Afghanistan, but I’m sure somebody figured Americans won’t know the difference because it’s still a war “over there”).

It seems everybody now wants to call any embarrassing scenario a “perfect storm” of this or that combination of exonerating factors. It’s the new buzzword excuse to deflect your attention from the real reason for something. I thought the real “perfect storm” was supposed be a once-in-a-millenium occurrence. Now it happens more or less every day. When you hear it, especially from someone in government, stay on alert. You know, at least reddish-orange.