tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43562886661048069942010-03-08T16:38:07.325-08:00Words matter, but they're not all that matter.gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-43358019113628042522010-03-05T09:21:00.001-08:002010-03-05T09:33:22.263-08:00

When ABC used da Vinci's famous painting of the Last Supper as a model for a publicity photo for Season 6 of Lost, fans should have expected that Christian symbolism would be a part of the show's final season. And indeed that has been the case — although, perhaps, it's Christian symbolism being used in a reverse way, having a Christ figure that becomes a symbol of evil rather than of goodness.

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-80760734429420827492010-02-04T10:04:00.000-08:002010-02-04T18:30:37.526-08:00

It's surprising that people fall for these e-mail scams, but apparently they do. Some of the e-mail headers suggest the following one came out of Nigeria, but I'm not sure. In any case, it came from an sbcglobal.net address. Real persons' names and addresses have been replaced by xs and hash marks; my e-mails are in italics.The bait:I'm writing this with tears in my eyes, I came down here to

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-75858537848135321592010-01-27T17:08:00.000-08:002010-01-30T03:17:56.801-08:00

There's quite a discussion going on at the Crave blog over just what the new iPad is: Is it a computer, or is it something else?Well, of course it's a computer. But so is my hopelessly outdated cell phone, which lets me do little more than make calls and maintain a basic calendar but still has more computing power than the computers aboard the first manned spacecraft. When they ask whether the

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-33542849687312083902009-12-24T07:41:00.000-08:002009-12-24T07:45:06.890-08:00

Who would have thought they'd make a police film for grammar aficionados? I haven't seen it yet, so I can't make a recommendation, but today's New York Times has an intriguing review of Police, Adjective. I must confess I'm a bit skeptical of how well a film that focuses at least in part on language could fare through the subtitling process, but we'll see.

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-79738622759848499942009-11-27T06:40:00.000-08:002009-11-27T09:48:24.360-08:00

I can't help it: Whenever I see a movie that is promoted as "based on a true story" — or, more nebulously, "inspired by a true story" — it doesn't take me long afterward to try to find out how much was really true and how much was Hollywood.And such was with Hollywood's latest feel-good blockbuster, The Blind Side, featuring Sandra Bullock in a dramatic role (she's the best I've ever seen her

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-62805521633711057212009-11-19T20:34:00.001-08:002009-11-19T20:42:22.902-08:00

Another word, this one coming to us from the folks at Merriam-Webster, has won Word of the Year honors. It's "admonish," a word that resulted in thousands of online lookups after the U.S. House admonished one of its members for calling President Barack Obama a liar during a presidential speech.That doesn't seem like a word most people would need to look up — but I must confess, I was one of them.

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-26179482319818080702009-11-18T08:20:00.000-08:002009-11-19T20:43:43.316-08:00

Here's the news language junkies have been waiting for — the New Oxford American Dictionary has selected its Word of the Year for 2009. It shouldn't be surprising that it's associated with social networking, a new activity that has become so much a part of our culture that even my relatives in their 70s and 80s are doing it. When one of my sons signed up for Facebook a couple years ago, he did it

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-29891028461920587602009-11-10T20:56:00.000-08:002009-11-10T21:35:16.629-08:00

President Obama was elected partly because of his promises that he would seek to bring both sides together, to try to get Republicans and Democrats working together on common ground. So far, his efforts haven't been particularly successful, as evidenced by party-line vote after party-line vote on key issues in Congress.But something that occurred in Salt Lake City over the past few weeks shows

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-65030849041626531772009-11-07T20:50:00.000-08:002009-11-07T20:54:35.204-08:00

And you thought the fight against abortion was no longer a viable issue.Tonight's 240-194 vote in the House to impose a quite restrictive ban on subsidized health coverage in the comprehensive health reform package should delight anti-abortion activists — and infuriate those on the other side. It's probably the most meaningful congressional vote on an abortion matter in at least a dozen years.So

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-90736122562175598172009-11-04T07:54:00.000-08:002009-11-04T08:12:23.532-08:00

The folks at CNN should listen to their own lawyer.As CNN's pundits were pontificating Tuesday night about governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia, and somehow saying that the lackluster Democrats' losses were somehow tied to disenchantment with President Obama, CNN's lawyer-pundit Jeffrey Toobin pointed out that in a few years nobody will remember those gubernatorial races — but we'll still

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-258053047507572372009-11-01T14:36:00.000-08:002009-11-04T08:09:34.663-08:00

Off-off-year elections, those in odd-numbered years, don't usually get a lot of attention, but at least three contests that to be decided Tuesday have national significance.Leading the list is a referendum, Question 1 in Maine, the "people's veto" of Maine's same-sex-marriage law. The significance of that contest is that if it passes, the election will mark the first time that voters in a U.S.

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-821226122845404172009-10-31T19:29:00.000-07:002009-10-31T19:50:01.278-07:00

It's looking more likely than ever that voters in New York's 23rd U.S. House District will elect a Conservative to Congress — that's Conservative with a capital C.I'm stunned, frankly, at today's development: The Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, who less than a month ago was the favorite, has dropped out of the race. (Technically, she has suspended her campaign and told her supporters they

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-40555887581504862922009-10-26T07:03:00.000-07:002009-10-26T07:51:58.377-07:00

Has the Mormon church publicly distanced itself from the man who today is perhaps most frequently identified as a member of the church? It doesn't take much reading between the lines to believe that's the case.In an unsigned commentary, the public-relations department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a few days ago bemoaned "stories of rage and agitation [that] fill our airwaves

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-41844736986515363212009-10-09T06:22:00.000-07:002009-10-09T06:26:33.753-07:00

When I first saw a blog headline referring to President Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace prize, I thought it was a joke. Indeed, I like the president and find him a refreshing leader after eight years of George Bush in the White House, but the Nobel Peace Prize? It's way, way too early for that.Obviously, the Nobel committee's decision was a slap at Bush. While Bush's foreign policy wasn't a

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-37386958446083241102009-07-04T15:12:00.000-07:002009-07-04T15:38:08.662-07:00

It would be difficult to imagine a more fascinating political scenario than what may play out in Tegucigalpa on Sunday. I'm a bit surprised the U.S. media haven't paid more attention to it — resources are limited, I guess, and all the staff is busy covering Michael Jackson's upcoming memorial service.Will the coup in Honduras succeed in ousting President Manuel Zelaya?In any case, the gist of it

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-78415459187192799372009-07-04T14:52:00.000-07:002009-07-04T15:09:38.663-07:00

If Sarah Palin indeed is planning on running for president, her abrupt withdrawal from her job as governor of Alaska seems a strange way to do it.But even stranger is her explanation of why. According to her own account, she decided first that she wouldn't run for re-election. That's reasonable enough — once the GOP presidential contest begins in earnest after the 2010 elections she'd be free to

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-38393431623848785812009-05-21T08:47:00.000-07:002009-07-04T15:11:52.774-07:00

Here I am about as experienced of an Internet user as anyone, and security conscious as well. But I think I may have fallen into a Facebook fishing scam. The culprit: an e-mail from a Facebook friend that said merely this:"Check areps.at"The subject line said merely "hello."And now I can't get into Facebook to try to fix the damage, if I still can.Dumb, dumb, dumb.Updates: Apparently the domains

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-16491348376286490572009-04-08T10:50:00.000-07:002009-04-08T10:58:07.856-07:00

This feature by Robert Krulwich points to an interesting study by a Stanford professor in which native German and Spanish speakers were asked to give words that describe bridges. The Germans describe used words such as "elegant" and "fragile," while Spanish speakers used words such as "strong" and "stury."Why the difference? The theory of the prof, Lera Boroditsk, is that the German speakers have

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-57698833687591920322009-04-08T10:46:00.000-07:002009-04-08T10:58:43.600-07:00

Here's my pick for the typo of the week. I wish I could say I've never made similar mistakes, but fortunately mine haven't been so conspicuous to so many.

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-42327772753981500272008-12-18T07:48:00.000-08:002008-12-18T08:10:52.196-08:00

Sometimes people are taken by surprise when politicians do what they say they're going to do. And that seems to be the case with the furor from the gay community and Proposition 8 opponents over the selection of megapastor Rick Warren to say the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration.From the beginning of the campaign, Obama said he would seek to reach across divides. What does that mean? What

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-90646674545456661962008-12-08T08:37:00.000-08:002008-12-10T07:37:31.431-08:00

Two states where doctor-assisted suicide is legal have gone that route with voter approval. Now, it appears, a third state could join that exclusive club via court decision.In a decision that hasn't received a lot of attention outside the state yet, a district court in Helena, Mont. (the state capital), ruled Friday that the privacy and human dignity provisions of the Montana Constitution prevent

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-77652533777021050522008-11-14T12:47:00.000-08:002008-11-14T12:51:10.483-08:00

Not all the activists supporting gay marriage and upset over the approval of Proposition 8 in California are being disruptive or otherwise taking what would seem to be a counterproductive approach if their goal is to change people's minds. Or perhaps there is a backlash to the backlash of the proposition's passage. In any case, there are encouraging signs that some advocates of same-sex marriage

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-86224816211858750942008-11-11T09:21:00.000-08:002008-11-11T09:25:49.682-08:00

A pro-gay Utah group sees a silver lining in developments surround passage of California's Proposition 8, the measure that outlawed same-sex marriage.The group, Equality Utah, held a press conference yesterday to announce that it would pursue a legislative agenda expanding certain protections for gays — and that it expects the politically dominant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to go

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-16408496856260263182008-11-08T13:05:00.000-08:002008-11-08T13:06:11.139-08:00

It's difficult to find any clear conservative trends, or liberal ones, in voting on initiatives and referenda this week. There was a little of something for everyone. Even so, there were plenty of losers and winners.Among the winners:Opponents of gay marriage: California's Proposition 8, designed to reverse a state Supreme Court ruling calling two-sex-only marriage unconstitutional, apparently

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-90057851655870687742008-11-03T20:24:00.000-08:002008-11-03T20:41:20.537-08:00

Unfortunately, it almost goes without saying that an initiative on as emotional a topic as Proposition 8, the California measure that would in effect reverse the California Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage, will be promoted with distorted facts on both sides. Indeed, that is what has happened. Both sides seem to have forgot what that court decision and Proposition 8 are all about —

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0