Culture: August 2008 Archives
toledoblade.com -- 'Basic Instinct' author writes book about faith
Once a writer of screenplays that explored the dark side of humanity and afflicted with throat cancer, Joe Eszterhas experienced a "Damascus Road" conversion and a miraculous healing. The Toledo Blade does a fine job telling the story. His latest work is Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith. (Via Get Religion.)
Paul Greenberg :: Townhall.com :: Modals and Me
"One of the great advantages of a regional dialect is that it's rooted in real life and real distinctions, like the one between 'I could' and 'I might could,' each with a different degree of probability. To sacrifice such shades of meaning for no better reason than a false respectability is to lose sight of what language ought to be about: conveying meaning precisely, even about imprecision."
Greenberg quotes a linguist: "The use of double modals in Southern American English fills a gap in Standard English grammar, namely the loss of inflectional distinction in English between indicative and subjunctive modals. Dialect or regional forms are often more progressive in gap-filling than is a standard language." Greenberg cites the distinction between "you" and "y'all" as another example of the greater precision of the Suthuhn tongue.
Roger L. Simon » Bob Costas' rug and other Olympic observations
NBC mixes Bush Derangement Syndrome in with its coverage, while giving ChiCom oppression and cheating a pass. From "Lightnin' Hopkins" in the comments: "What is it with sports anchors and writers who gain some popularity and then become insufferable 'progressive' jackasses? I mean in the media in general, only even moreso? Olby and the Napoleonic Mitch Albom... come to mind immediately. Yeah yeah, I get it, you hate Bush. How about giving us the scores, Chomsky?"
Childhood's End by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal Summer 2008
"A system of perverse incentives in a culture of undiscriminating materialism, where the main freedom is freedom from legal, financial, ethical, or social consequences, makes childhood in Britain a torment both for many of those who live it and those who observe it. Yet the British government will do anything but address the problem, or that part of the problem that is its duty to address: the state-encouraged breakdown of the family. If one were a Marxist, one might see in this refusal the self-interest of the state-employee class: social problems, after all, are their raison d'être."
The Bill Kumpe Blog: They might kill fewer Jews ....
Bill Kumpe doesn't think Republicans should tolerate an abortion supporter on their party's ticket:
"Hitler's and to a lesser extent Mussolini's treatment of Jews should have been a warning that something was terribly wrong. Officially tolerated injustice is a cancer on nation's soul that will kill it if it is not removed. But, like a miner who doesn't pay attention to the canary that quits singing, the Germans and Italians, happy with their jobs, their improved economy and their restored world position, decided that the deaths of a few socially unacceptable people was small price to pay for what they were receiving in return. And, it worked for a little less than a decade. But, by the middle of the second decade, Germany and Italy lay in smoking ruins.
"Voting for John McCain ticket [with a pro-choice VP] on the grounds that he might reduce the number of abortions with his judicial picks is political naivety of the first order. The majority justices who decided Roe v. Wade and every crazy abortion decision since were GOP nominees. If allowed to serve in the in White House, McCain will do exactly what he is doing right now ... ignoring the better moral lights of his nation and doing precisely what he has to to stay in power. It is a morally contradictory position that can do nothing but move the agenda of both parties farther and farther away from principled leadership. Voting for a moderately pro-choice or mixed pro-choice ticket today is the moral equivalent of a 1930's German voting for a moderate Nazi ticket because, if elected, they might kill fewer Jews."
languagehat.com: If you don't help, it's a shande.
The Jewish Institute of Religion is researching the extent of Yiddish language influence on American speech. Help out by taking this survey. You may be surprised by the number of Yiddish words and turns of phrase that you know and use.
