Self-test for the American “leftist”: “Are you tired of living in this capitalist hell?,” asks Alex Tokarev. If so, click here.
Words Carry Our Ideas and Their Consequences
Lynn Vincent points out some word usage in a terrible story of a couple who had a miscarriage within a month of conception. To sum it up, the mother discharged the tissue naturally at home and then wanted to cremate their child properly. Miscommunication began between all officials involved, and soon the police had entered their apartment on a report that they were keeping human remains.
The coroner is quoted saying, “The husband was nothing other than cooperative and gracious, and I felt very bad for him. We run into cases where people don’t want anything to do with the baby, and here you run into circumstances where someone wants to do the right thing. I was a little surprised to see a detective there.”
Note the coroner used the word baby. Lynn writes: “But with abortion-on-demand, this country has created a linguistic looking glass: On one side of it, a baby is a baby and the parents of a dead baby grieve. But on the other side is a lethal Wonderland where, as Alice said, everything is ‘nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. . . .'”
God help us.
Good News from Relief Journal
Good news from the people who put together and those who contribute to Relief Journal—babies, book contracts, and editor positions. Note also all the good things that happened last year. Bravo. Have you picked up at least one copy of Relief yet? It’s good reading.
You may quote me, whether I said it or not
I think I’m beginning to recover from Daylight Savings Time-Lag. This morning I found myself 5 minutes ahead of schedule getting dressed and breakfasted, and I still don’t know what part of my morning routine I forgot to do (and yes, I had put on my pants, thank you very much).
Today is the day of the Great Snowstorm. Well, it’s great up where Roy Jacobsen lives (or so I understand), but down here it’s a storm without enthusiasm, an ambivalent storm where the snowflakes come down still uncertain whether they want to be snow or rain, and opt for rain once they hit the pavement. It’s cooling down now, so I suppose we’ll get some accumulation, but I’m not counting on a snow day off from work tomorrow.
I meant to do a second post last night, but the idea I’d been working on all day flew out of my mind entirely (blame Daylight Savings Time). Let’s try this again:
Over at The American Spectator, Daniel Oliver posted a column yesterday about a few common political quotations which weren’t (or can’t be proven to have been) said by the people who generally get credit for them. Apparently nobody said them.
Wait. Somebody must have said them. Continue reading You may quote me, whether I said it or not
iMonk Projects Evangelical Collapse
The Internet Monk, who is not a Lutheran for those of you in doubt, has a commentary in the Christian Science Monitor called, “The coming evangelical collapse.” The article is condensed from three posts available here. He opens by saying:
I believe that we are on the verge- within 10 years- of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity; a collapse that will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and that will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West. I believe this evangelical collapse will happen with astonishing statistical speed; that within two generations of where we are now evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its current occupants, leaving in its wake nothing that can revitalize evangelicals to their former “glory.”
To the extent that such a collapse makes evangelicals look less like Joel Osteen and more like Tony Evans, this could be very good. But it ain’t necessarily going to happen.
In the Name of Fairness
The Prowler wrote last month:
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is also looking at how it can put in place policies that would allow it greater oversight of the Internet. “Internet radio is becoming a big deal, and we’re seeing that some web sites are able to control traffic and information, while other sites that may be of interest or use to citizens get limited traffic because of the way the people search and look for information,” says on committee staffer. “We’re at very early stages on this, but the chairman has made it clear that oversight of the Internet is one of his top priorities.”
Many commentators are watching the anti-choice crowd, currently in power in our federal and many state governements, for bills to make the semblance of ideological diversity a legal requirement. Liberal views don’t get enough play on the air or apparently on your blog, you filthy capitalist, so liberals must administer the airways and Internet in order to get their views into your head. I heard on the news several days ago that while Senator Jim DeMint proposed and saw passed an amendment to reject The Fairness Doctrine from the FCC, another amendment passed the Senate to allow the FCC to enforce ethnic diversity in media ownership. If there aren’t enough of the right people running media outlets in a particular area, the Feds will insist that someone sell their company to one of those select people. It’s another reason we call them the anti-choice crowd. If we don’t make the choices they want us to make, they will use legal force to choose for us.
So the current word on the street is that The Fairness Doctrine may be dead, but it’s spirit will live on in many other laws.
In related news, David Limbaugh writes about “The Orwellian Presidential Bully Pulpit.”
The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W.B. Yeats
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
“The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by W.B. Yeats, written in a time of economic and political turmoil.
Decisions, decisions
Our friend Loren Eaton meditates on the question of whether writers are happy or unhappy people (and if unhappy, whether that’s a necessary condition). And he links to a good article by Nathan Bransford, literary agent, on how to be happy though creative.
Happy or sad? Happy or sad?
I’m thinking. I’m thinking.
New Bestseller Lists
Hardcover, softcover, and manga are now categories in new NYT bestseller lists for graphic novels. Number one on the hardcover list: Starman Omnibus, Vol 2. At the top of the softcover list: Watchmen, out in theaters today. On the Manga list: Naruto, Vol. 38.
Bad buttons and shabby sheaths
According to this report, Hillary Clinton “dropped a brick” (as the English say) when she met with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. She’d had her crack staff put together a joke red button that was supposed to have the word “Reset” printed on it in Russian.
Instead, the word inscribed on the item by the Best and Brightest was one that means “overloaded.”
OK, I’ll cop to it. It’s all my fault.
In their zeal for equal opportunity, the State Department chose not to hire an actual Russian interpreter for this translating exercise, because Russian speakers have an unfair and undemocratic lock on such jobs.
Instead, in a bold affirmative action move, they broke the glass ceiling by hiring a Norwegian translator instead. And that translator was me.
My bad.
The little video Phil posted below advertises a fantasy game set in a sort of imaginary Viking world.
One thing that caught my attention was that the hero wears one of those over-the-shoulder back scabbards.
Allow me to rant about those for a moment. Continue reading Bad buttons and shabby sheaths