"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
Syrian factions vie for control of chemical weapons.
Meanwhile, Syrian rebels pledge loyalty to al-Qaeda, and Obama Steps Up Military Aid To Syrian Rebels
Personally, I think Syria stored Iraq’s WMD in the unused jockstraps of ball-less, go-along-to-get-along, bend over and say, “Please may I have another” cowardly country club Repugnican’ts who have sucked up to traitorous Dhimmicraps for decades, and The Zero just wants to be in on the jock strap raid, but what do I know?
So, since we–very uncharacteristically–have a refund due us from the fedgov this year (primarily due to some rebates on “energy efficient” home improvements and to lower income *sigh*), we filed as soon as all the correct forms were available.
Son&Heir filed a couple of weeks later.
Whose return was processed first? You got it.
Reason #1,386,237 why I hate the IRS.
What? Oh, this article about the feds making those who unlock their dumb phones criminals. Sure, the info is pretty much useless to Olde Phartes like me who just use a cell phone to make calls (don’t try calling my cell phone, cos I won’t answer), but it’s interesting nonetheless.
Still, how many times can one read something like,
“There’s more than a few ways around this. . . “
. . . without gagging and searching for a way to dopeslap, then tar, feather and hang the author from the highest tree?
There ARE. . . ways, idiot. Count it out. Plural. Got it? (No. He can’t count and can’t parse a simple sentence in English. Typical Hiveminder.)
Continue reading “Apart From Innumeracy and Grammar Failures, Moderately Interesting. . .”
. . . well, at least a few are.
The headline from the subliterate British idiot (well,he’s either subliterate or deliberately deceptive, although I wouldn’t rule out both at once, yet), Nick Squires, tries to sensationalize a yawner:
Seriously, is there any literate person anywhere in the world who didn’t already know this? No, really. The error in a sixth century monk’s calculations has absolutely no impact whatsoever on the NT record of Jesus’ birth. None. Zilch. A big zero with the rim kicked off. It’s nothing more or less than a moderately interesting piece of trivia about one small aspect of one of the relatively early stages in the development of the most common Western calendar.
The article makes clear that the “years earlier” in the headline (leading people astray right there) is around two to maybe as many as seven years’ difference between Dennis the Small’s erroneous calculation and Jesus’ probable birth (most scholarship settles around four years). Oh, but do notice the idiocy in the lede:
The ‘mistake’ was made by a sixth century monk known as Dionysius Exiguus or in English Dennis the Small, the 85-year-old pontiff claims in the book ‘Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives’, published on Wednesday.
WTF? Why is “mistake” in sneer quotes? And why “claims”? And why–citing the sub-title of the article, “The entire Christian calendar is based on a miscalculation… “–try to cast doubts about the “entire Christian calendar”?
It’s all about the Hivemind’s anti-Christian narrative, folks. File the information somewhere for a trivia game and move along. Nothing to see here (unless you are a history buff).
BTW, again: “Little Monk Dennis'” placement of the birth year of Jesus is an anomaly. Very, very few authorities, from the early church Fathers on, before and after Lil Denny, agreed with his placement, and by far the majority have come down on a placement anywhere from 4-6 B.C., by Lil Denny reckoning. So, for darned near a couple of millenia, any literate person knew what is being trumpeted in the article as “news”. Only incurious subliterates will find this to be news.
I see a dumbass construction so often that I now just gag, spew and go on. *sigh* Here’s the situation: a writer (or speaker) is attempting to say
“Some members of [Class A] are also [Class B]; some are not.”
But they write/say,
“All [Class A] are not [Class B],” as in, “…a distribution center was set up under a former S4 proving that all S4s are not lame-brain[…s].”
What the author said there is not what he meant, if the preceding text (wherein it had been asserted that S4s are characteristically “lame-brained”) is to be believed. No, what the author meant was very distinctly different to what he wrote, namely, “…a distribution center was set up under a former S4 proving that not all S4s are lame-brain[…s].”
It’s NOT a subtle difference at all. It is a profound difference. “All are not” is NOT “Not all are” by any stretch of the imagination. One says very plainly, “NONE of A are B” and the other says, “Some of A are not B.”
This kind of widely-spread lack of sense in writing and speaking says to me that those who use these formulations have a logic circuit that’s broken, or firing only intermittently. This sort of widely-spread butchering of sense in language is a definite indicator that popular culture is, simply and bluntly put, stupid.
On FB I told someone who related a conversation with an Obamanoid she had a good four word response when the Obanaoid’s first paycheck next year reflected the increased grab by the feds, “I told you so.”
One dope responded, “Isn’t ‘I told you so’ three words?”
I swear. Some folks can’t even use the fingers on one hand to count, or…
“I railed against the innumerate who couldn’t even count to four on the fingers of one hand, until I met a man who only had three fingers… “
No, apparently he wasn’t kidding. And I bet he even voted.
*profound sigh*
(Yes, I think these things so you don’t have to.)
As I head off for bed, the Hivemind is calling it for their candidate. “Bylines for Barry” has worked tirelessly to re-elect the monster, and they’re saying it is so. *shrug* It may well be so. If so, the margin of victory for The Zero in each so-called “battleground state” has been… the votes for Gary Johnson. “Principled” voters who hate the way the country is headed have assured that the 120mph speed at which the Dhimmicraps are running the country toward a precipice and utter, complete and absolute ruin will continue unchecked, not slowed but more likely speeded up (after all, what checks on overweening exercise of executive orders, illegally withheld EPA agendas, etc. will there be on a lame duck presidency?). Or to use another analogy, “principled” voters have decided the country’s house deserves to be burned to the ground and hope their own strange bird will rise from the ashes.
Thanks, asshats. I wish you the joy of your achievement.
And for all those who actually voted directly to burn America’s house to the ground, you may well rot in hell. Not wishing you there, but those who actively support evil have no assurance that it will not devour them as well.
(I will note, as the graphic below illustrates, that as of 10:55 CT Ohio is still very, very close… A guy can at least dream, with numbers like that, you know?)
Note: As of 6:55 a.m. November 7, Ohio still hasn’t reported all precincts and the count remains close there, but… it’s still just as close–and within the “asshats with so-called principles” margin nearly everywhere that would have counted. Oh, well. Anyone want to “go Galt” with me?
While I appreciate the effort my health plan providers make to keep me informed of benefits, I do with they’d hire better-trained parrots to write the notices.
“Please note that all pharmacies may not be providing… “
Really? “[A]ll pharmacies” followed by “may not”? Nonsensical*, but if the parrot were better-trained, it might have pecked out,
“Please note that not all pharmacies may be providing… “
…although the passive voice construction in this case is an abomination. A better construction altogether would have helped clarity and, probably, have avoided mocking, but then,
“For additional information about this benefit, please see the frequently asked questions on the reverse side of this letter,” would have assured loud guffaws and raucous mocking anyway. The “reverse side of this letter” was, of course, blank.
Idiots.
*Semantics (meaning) is not as sensitive to syntax in English as in some languages, but this is one of a significant class of examples where it is.
Obamanoids–dupes in general, the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind (A.K.A. “Bylines for Barry”), The Zero’s campaign mouthpieces (TOTUS, Cwazy UNka Joe and all the other usual suspects) and the whole gaggle of leftard loons have invested tons of disingenuity into the meme that Romney doesn’t pay his “fair share” of taxes. Their argument, such as it is, is that his nominal 14-15% income tax rate on his investment income–the sum total of his income–is “less” than the average person pays. Leaving aside the 47% who receive more in benefits from the “feddle gummint” than they pay in taxes, if they pay any income taxes at all, what about that claim?
The corporations Romney receives his investment income have to make a profit. Those profits are distributed after taxes and reinvestment in the business to investors. So, say a company makes $100 in before tax profits. Yeh, yeh, a ridiculously small amount, but one that makes for easy numbers. After paying JUST the federal corporate income taxes, that number is reduced to about $72 available to return to investors who are then taxed a nominal 15% of that. So, assume only one investor, for simplicity. That investor would then receive about $61. All told, the “feddle gummint” has just gobbled up 39% of the income.
Average Joes don’t pay that sort of income tax rate, unless they’re too stupid to be able to use Turbotax and misfigure everything on their own. (ABOVE average–in income and privilege–“Timothys” however Do use Turbotax and fail to properly pay their federal income taxes for years, but the law only applies to the little people.)