Category: Language Matters
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John W. Carlson’s Words of Wisdom: A Philosophical Dictionary for the Perennial Tradition
Dear Bill (if I may), I came across your interesting 2009 post on "The Dictionary Fallacy," and I would like to follow up. I wonder whether you are aware of my recent work, Words of Wisdom: A Philosophical Dictionary for the Perennial Tradition (University of Notre Dame Press, 2012). Attached are the publisher's notice, plus…
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Why is the Gore Lane So-Called?
See the triangle-like piece of roadway where the routes diverge? That's called the gore lane. Gore lanes are also found near on ramps and exit ramps. Driving across such a lane is a moving violation. The gore lane is not, strictly, a lane, nor is it named after Al Bore Gore. This scintillating topic came up in conversation with…
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Whether Atheism is a Religion
Yesterday I objected to calling leftism a religion. Curiously, some people call atheism a religion. I object to that too. The question as to what religion is is not at all easy to answer. It is not even clear that the question makes sense. For when you ask 'What is religion?' you presuppose that it…
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Leftism: The World’s Most Dynamic Religion?
Dennis Prager answers in the affirmative: For at least the last hundred years, the world’s most dynamic religion has been neither Christianity nor Islam. It has been leftism. Most people do not recognize what is probably the single most important fact of modern life. One reason is that leftism is overwhelmingly secular (more than merely…
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The Constructive Curmudgeon
I don't know whether he is an antediluvian and a bibliomaniac, but Douglas Groothuis is a self-professed curmudgeon, albeit of a constructive stripe. I am not persuaded by his case for Biblical inerrancy, but I find his political observations astute, as in this list of reasons not to vote for Obama. Read the list! By the way,…
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“Possible Tornado Touches Down in Brooklyn and Queens”
Story here. "Only a possible tornado? It is the actual ones that worry me." "Did you hear about Jack? He died of an apparent heart attack." "Wow, hs heart must have been in terrible condition if all it took was an apparent heart attack to do him in." Bad jokes, no doubt, but they do…
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‘Porkulus’
'Pork' + 'stimulus' = 'porkulus.' Anti-Obama invective in use since 2009. Attributable to Rush Limbaugh. But I just got wind of it. Stinks like cooked bacon when you are not hungry.
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Michelle Malkin on Racial Code Words
Here are her recent additions to the list. By the logic of the Left, cosmologists are racists because they study, among other things, black holes. The willful stupidity of liberals is evidenced by the umbrage they take at the apt description of Obama as the food stamp president: At the dawn of the modern federal food…
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Montaigne on Why Language Matters
Allan J. writes, You often speak of the importance of using language responsibly, i.e. not like a librul. So I thought you would enjoy this: “Our understanding is conducted solely by means of the word: anyone who falsifies it betrays public society. It is the only tool by which we communicate our wishes and our…
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The ‘You Didn’t Build That’ Speech Revisited: Wieseltier Says Romney and Ryan are Lying
In His Grief and Ours: Paul Ryan's Nasty Ideal of Self-Reliance, Leon Wieseltier taxes Ryan and Mitt Romney with a simple lie (emphasis added): It is no wonder that Ryan, and of course Romney, set out immediately to distort the president’s “you didn’t build that speech” in Roanoke, because in complicating the causes of economic…
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To Call it an Exaggeration Would be an Understatement
There are statements so extreme that to call them exaggerations would be an understatement. There are plenty of examples to be found in liberal precincts. "The photo ID requirement is voter suppression. It disenfranchises minorities, the poor, the elderly. It is an onerous barrier to voting." Onerous? In Pennsylvania a photo ID can be had…
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Ambiguity
'She was determined to succeed.'
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‘Not So Much’
Do I like the increasing usage of this phrase? Not so much.
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Generation Screwed May Support Ryan
Gen-Xers (those born between 1965 and 1980) are the cohort sandwiched between the Boomers and the Millennials. Now they have one of their own in contention for high office. And Paul Ryan, 42, is no slacker. Romney's pick of the man for VP was a brilliant stroke and may gin up support for the Republican…
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The Double ‘L’
Marvellous, travelling, tranquillity. Not that the single 'l' is wrong. It could be argued that the extra 'l' does no work and just takes up space. What's my rule? Being a conservative across the board, I am a linguistic conservative, though flexibly such and not hide-bound like some people I could mention. So I may…