highwaystar101 on 13 January 2010
| twesterm said: Wow, that's horrible. Random, but I found an odd quote from Obama in one of the articles: President Obama called it a "cruel and incomprehensible" tragedy" and pledged swift U.S. support. Cruel just seems an odd word to use since an earthquake can't really be cruel, malicious, or anything like that. |
I've heard it used for situations outside of human choice, such as the phrase "a cruel twist of fate", kind of like an anthropomorphic interpretation of a non human initiated occurrence. Though Obama's use is probably not a good use of the word in this way.
