CLICK on over to Feisty Repartee for all he caloric goodness you can handle.
I wanna sing new lyrics to the “Mazda Song” after just glancing through this week’s offerings: Yum, Yum. Yum!
Does this bother anyone else?
Find English usage errors (in writing and speech) a pain in the keister? Have fun with Common Errors in English
Rant: ON
Chapter II of an ongoing gripe…
Yeh, I know, I know. Communication sometimes happens even with usage errors in common speech. But mass media (including print media) is so darned full of the subliterate that I sometimes get a tad steamed.
No, subliterate writing and speech isn’t all the fault of Mass Media Podpeople (and their brethren in advertising and entertainment and “the (mostly phony) arts”. No, a lot of the fault can be traced to bad, really bad public schooling. Oh, and lazy people who just don’t give a flip about learning their own language well or who just don’t care to read much. (And even there, I find myself correcting grammar, usage and spelling in books I own—print and ebook—in narrative or descriptive passages. I pretty much leave dialog alone. What the heck do editors and proofreaders get paid for?)
And yeh, I know I use colloquialisms loosely on this blog, and I even have numerous typos and the occassional misspelling (like “occassional” which should be “occasional” See? Sometimes I catch myself and make corrections. :-).
But really, ought we not to be a tad more literate as a society than we are? Or mabe just a wee tad less subliterate? Especially those who make a living with the printed and parrotted-from-a-teleprompter word?
Just read the list of errors at Common Errors in English. I’ve seen or heard darned near all of them—some of them frequently—from mass media (print, audio and video/tv/etc.) since I last ranted about this topic.
And people listen to these subliterate morons!
Oh, and one other thing: If I hear one more person say, “To err is human; to forgive, divine” and mispronounce “err” as “air” I swear I’ll scream bloody murder! It’s “ûr” or “er” (as in dumbER than rocks). Learn the language!
*grumble, grumble, gripe, complain*
OK, OK, I know most darned near all of the folks who read this blog do NOT fall into the subliterate category, in general. And here, note: I once again do NOT classify myself as being “literate” in to the same order of literacy as my grandparents, for example. I’d need a much better grasp of history, for one thing, to meet that standard.
Still, wouldn’t it be lovely *heh* if more folks actually knew how to speak and write English—especially in Mass Media?
Rant: OFF.
There. I feel muuuuuch better, now…
UN-run internet?
This week’s PGHA asks the question, What would the internet be like if it were run by the UN?
Normally, I’d not stoop to answer a question with such obvious answers, but seeing as how it was asked by one of the Great Minds of the blogosphere (and derived from a comment by another such Great Mind), I’ll go ahead and give the obvious answers, even though they are all common knowledge.
What would the internet be like if it were run by the UN?
1.) Bloggers would no longer be allowed to wear pajamas. Female bloggers would be required to wear hijabs; male bloggers would be required to wear sheets on their heads, like so many of the sheetheads at the UN like to do.
2.) All blogposts would be submitted to the UN for redaction and censorship. Bloggers would be required to submit posts six months in advance of posting date to assure enough time for UN blogocrats to have them translated into pidgin barbarian speak, read (and explained) to them before being trashed.
3.) All sites critical of the UN will be assigned high-priority 404 status, so that they will load muuuuuch faster. Owners of such sites will be turned over to UN Peacekeeping forces, raped and flayed. All such high-priority 404 status sites will return the same message: “You have attempted to access material that is deleterious to Kofi’s malfeasance in office. The UN Internet Police have been dispatched to your location and will be there as soon as they have stopped to rape a few children. Resistance is futile.”
4.) All site owners praising the UN and calling for world government by the UN will recieve stipends of $50,000 per anum and up, awarded Land Rover SUVs, sent on all-expense-paid trips to “disaster” sites to sip tea and go to cocktail parties with UN “observers”. Additional benefits will be based on content, traffic and payment of excessive dues by the U.S. to the UN slush fund.
More? Of course there’s more. But I’ll leave the rest as an exercise for the students…
Another one I missed…
The Precision Guided Humor Assignment roundup was posted Weddnesday. Good stuff, Maynard.
“By their fruits you shall know them.”–Matthew 7:20
Thanks, R’Cat, for reminding me to get this up
Was so drained when I finally sat down at the comp last night I didn’t even comment on THE news of the day. Well, here’s my comment: American Muslims missed the “civilized response” boat five years ago and have refused to book passage since. What’s changed, now?
Reuters (of course) puts a positive spin on it:
“Top U.S. Muslim scholars issued a “fatwa,” or religious edict, against terrorism on Thursday and called on Muslims to help authorities fight the scourge of militant violence.“The fatwa was part of efforts by U.S. Muslims to counter perceived links between Islam and terrorism and avert any negative backlash after this month’s bombings by suspected Islamic extremists in London and Egypt.”
Of course Reuters (almost “al Jazeera West”) presents this as a genuine proclaimation, but since it’s taken four years of bloody, brutal, vicious attacks by their co-religionists since 2001 (let alone the previous 20 years! ) I hope you’ll pardon me for casting a jaundiced eye at this as being too little, too late. It’s as though Georgy Malenkov were to step up and say, “I never really agreed with Stalin’s policies of killing millions of our countrymen while I was his Deputy Secretary. I was just along for the ride,” and expect folks to believe him.
No, these Muslims have aided and abetted in the brutal attacks for all this time by being silent when they could have spoken. Speaking out now seems disingenuous. Worse, it echoes the Koran’s encouragement of Muslims to lie to unbelievers whenever they feel it would advance the purposes of Islam. (See also here and here.)
“Let not the believers take the disbelievers for friends rather than believers. And whoever does this has no connection with Allah unless it is done to guard (Takeyya) yourselves against them, guarding carefully. And Allah cautions you against His retribution. And to Allah is the eventual coming.” (Koran 3:27)The principle of Al Takeyya is precisely what makes negotiations with Islamic statesmen such a frustrating endeavor for the naïve diplomats of Christianized nations. It is imperative that diplomatic envoys learn that when dealing with Muslims, what Muslim statesmen say is not the issue. The real issue is, what do they mean and actually intend to do in their hearts._*_
I’d rather let them be tested by scriptures other than their own:
“By their fruits you shall know them.”–Matthew 7:20
If this fatwa results in Muslims informing on jihadist terrorists (thus twarting plans to attack noncombatant men, women and children); if this fatwa results in sutting off the flow of money and matériel serving jihadist terrorism; if this fatwa results in Muslims who actively oppose their co-religionist jihadist terrorists in genuinely substantive ways, then this proclaimation will be believable.
Until then, I’ll view it with great distrust. Words are easy. How about some moral, civilized action, sheetheads?
Update:
Looks like lgf was on top of this all along. Could saved my fingers some typin’ had I checked them out earlier, but was just too pooped last night to click on over there. Over 600 comments… *sheesh* Some-a those folks oughta get their own blogs… heh
ACLU CAIR package
Build your own ACLU-CAIR package.
Established fact: CAIR has known ties to jihadist terrorism. And LOTS of support from the ACLU. Just a few links to make up your own ACLU CAIR package…
Jihad Watch: CAIR, ACLU Sue Gov’t over Border Scrutiny
FL bus company employees sued by CAIR/ ACLU
CAIR, ACLU To Announce Action Against DHS Over NY Detentions
ACLU, CAIR decry anti-terror efforts
Oh, why go on. CAIR fronts for terrorists; the ACLU is in aliance with them and defends terrorists. Both should be sent on a long walk off a short pier carrying the weight of their sins with them to the bottom of the deep blue sea.
Oh, crap. That’d just give the EPA an excuse to get involved…
*sigh*
This has been a (day late) post for the Stop the ACLU Blogburst
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