tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43562886661048069942012-03-21T00:31:40.843-07:00Words matter, but they're not all that matter.gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-9072882922300203202011-08-28T18:13:00.000-07:002011-08-30T10:11:14.023-07:00

Is is possible to sign up for a $9.99/month cell phone "Music Fan Club" simply by receiving a cryptic text message? That's what the folks at SendMe Mobile seem to be telling me.I've heard of people getting cell phone spam, but yesterday marked the first time I've received any. Or at least that's what I thought it was. Here's what the message from 77899 said: SendMe:Music fan Club:Ringtones &

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-20357800566966782982011-05-03T08:14:00.000-07:002011-05-03T09:47:40.876-07:00

What a difference a quotation mark makes!I was one of countless thousands who were fooled yesterday by the following quote attributed to Martin Luther King Jr.:I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-43615715885805216992011-02-24T09:52:00.000-08:002011-02-24T10:33:04.213-08:00

Still again today, I got a phone call from someone at "Cardholder Services," the company that wants to help me lower my interest rate on my credit card. I don't know exactly what "Cardholder Services" is offering, but there's no doubt it's a scam.And again today, I filed a complaint with the National Do Not Call Registry, a program of the Federal Trade Commission.Under federal law, the call was

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-7838048338122423642010-12-29T15:49:00.000-08:002010-12-29T15:52:24.620-08:00

After a jetliner ended its flight more than 600 feet beyond the end of a snowy runway at the Jackson, Wyo., airport today (nobody was hurt), American Airlines spokesman explained what happened: The plane "had a long rollout," he said.

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-8043919925504606012010-12-07T11:53:00.000-08:002010-12-07T19:21:09.139-08:00

It was less than a week ago that politicians of both political parties were agreeing that it was time to get serious about the deficit, about getting our nation's fiscal house in order.So what do they come up with? A tax-cut "compromise" that is more of a pander than anything else and will continue to sink the U.S. further into its sinkhole.The "compromise" between President Obama and

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-38228571196606352982010-10-22T08:47:00.000-07:002010-10-22T09:09:07.101-07:00

Have we become so dependent on sound bites that we're incapable of listening to anything in context? It seems like it.The most recent example, of course, is this week's firing of Juan Williams by NPR. Out of context, yeah, his fears about riding on planes with those in "Muslim garb" are indeed offensive, and his feelings were awkwardly stated. But in context, it's clear that Williams wasn't

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-58026606525206329992010-09-05T15:30:00.001-07:002010-09-05T18:55:39.308-07:00

You're in 21st-century America, and you're part of a religious movement that is often misunderstood and seen in a negative light. So what do you do? Start an ad campaign, of course, and back that up with an Internet presence.A few weeks ago, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints launched TV ads in a few cities and also has more heavily promoted a web site, Mormon.org. Here's a sample of

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-86511470748601925212010-08-28T17:21:00.000-07:002010-08-28T17:31:37.469-07:00

I spent much of this morning watching Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally on Cspan.org, and I'm still not sure what I saw. Was it a political rally? A tribute to our troops? Or a religious revival meeting?It was, of course, partly all three. But while I emphatically support the First Amendment right of Beck, the Tea Partyers and adherents of all religious faith to gather and speak out in the

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-15630493064763079462010-07-15T18:04:00.000-07:002010-07-16T00:07:21.726-07:00

One of the unfortunate trends in modern written English is avoiding the use of hyphens. Why unfortunate? Used properly, especially in compound modifiers, they can eliminate ambiguity such as that present in the dominant headline on this week's cover of Time magazine.The headline: The Only Child Myth. What is that supposed to mean? That there's only one child myth? That's the way I read it when I

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-32431494178653108492010-04-27T06:55:00.001-07:002010-04-27T07:50:47.857-07:00

The Cuban government and the University of Wyoming have something in common: They have found that their unwarranted attempts to squelch free speech have backfired, resulting in giving more attention, not less, to those they tried to silence.In Cuba, a tiny group of dissidents known as the Damas de Blanco (Women in White) have been demonstrating regularly for years — and were basically never

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4356288666104806994.post-25802393530740677392010-03-26T07:13:00.000-07:002010-03-26T07:52:19.181-07:00

If you care at all about democracy, here's something scary: A new Harris Poll suggests that a significant number of our population are so ignorant or stupid or both that they can't intelligently participate in our democracy.OK, the poll doesn't really say that. But it does show that a surprisingly large number of people (surprising to me, anyway) believe things about President Obama that are

gfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07190198394206152918noreply@blogger.com0tag: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.com2tag: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.com6tag: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.com0