Can you tell us what that says in English?
Don’t give up yet! There are still youths out there who can type correctly. As a honor roll student, I always use good (not well) grammar. However, there are more widespread troubles. In Indiana, many people use the phrase, “Where’s it at?” I usually respond, “Before the ‘at’!” (“At” is a preposition.)
ShiftKicker
No. What it is is Old Southern.
If I make a mistake in typing, I fix it right away.
I beg to differ. “Irregardless” is in the dictionary.
See the preceding post.
It makes a point, but weakens all your points’ foundations.
Where’s it at?
It’s before the at!
There’s another example of a common mistake.
I know how VDCdriver feels about “I answered you’re add” and “when I step on the peddle, I loose my breaks”. But where are you gonna (!) draw the line? One of my first posts on an online English-usage group had me complaining about people who write “I won’t tow the line”, “that wouldn’t phase him” and “acting like a pre-Madonna”.
You kids had better get off my lawn!
I have to admit that I have never seen the “pre-Madonna” gaffe, but I guess that when folks have little (or no) cultural familiarity in their background and education, that type of bizarre mistake is possible.
Just when I think that I have seen everything, you present some mangled English that I haven’t previously seen. Thank you for keeping me current!
Sadly, Mr. Cheap, you’ve made an excellent point.
Many of the problems that I complain about in the primary and secondary school systems, and even at the higher education institutions, originate in mandates created by politicians and political bureaucracies for the purpose of catering to a special interest group or (and it scares me to suggest this) to bias our children toward a specific way of thinking. These things seem to have taken precedence over a good education. Although I’m not convinced that those creating these mandates are intentionally interfering with the development of an educated population, they’re certainly interfering unintentionally.
Those who doubt that academia is attempting to control our childrens’ thinking need only look at the actions taken by Elana Kagan toward the military recruiters when she was dean of Harvard.
I know I’m being an ornery old codger. But my concerns are real, and I take the issue very seriously.
Along the same lines, MB, how about the recent decision by the Texas School Board to remove references to Thomas Jefferson from their history texts?
Their rationale was that Jefferson, the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the author of the Declaration of Independence, US Ambassador to France, US Secretary of State, father of The University of Virginia, purchaser of the Louisiana Territory, the man who sent Lewis and Clark on their incredible journey of discovery, and…of course…President of the US, was “unamerican”.
What was behind their decision was Jefferson’s steadfast belief in separation of church and state, which…apparently…many Texans do not believe in. For those who don’t believe in separation of church and state, wherein we would allow much greater control of society/influence over gov’t policy by religious groups, I have a few words for them to consider.
Among those words are…Al Sharpton and his ilk…radically-influenced Islamic groups…and other groups that are not attuned to what the bulk of the US populace believes in. Once you establish the principle that religious groups should be allowed much greater control/influence over our daily lives, you are on a very slippery slope, and at that point, you essentially have to allow ALL religious groups to have undue influence over government policies. Think about those implications for a minute…please.
Talk about catering to special interest groups!
Talk about trying to bias children toward a particular way of thinking!
History is written by historians. Sucks to the nth degree I think.
Hmmm…to me, that sounds like the complaint of someone who was not a particularly good history student. However, I could be wrong.
Much of our history–both world and national–is based on original documents and on accounts of their times written by those who lived through particular eras and events. Are those the “historians” to whom you refer?
Just as the only students who used to complain that SATs were…unfair or irrelevant…were also the ones whose SAT scores were abysmally low, I have found over the years that most people rationalize that anything in which they cannot excel…“sucks”, or is irrelevant, or is outmoded, or…
As Santayana saged stated, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
No need for that nonsense here. (Unless you are texting while driving.)
It’s bad enough that I share letters to savelectronic ink.
I remember my father in law complaining about stuff like this
http://www.libnot.com/2010/08/12/japanese-revisionists-re-write-wwii-history-the-japanese-way/
?Japanese efforts to ignore the war and portray themselves as victims? seems to be written especially for our current, ?lets do it if it makes us feel good? - administration. History be damned.
That is an interesting article, but unfortunately the writer loses points for one of the most common language errors nowadays, namely, “and many Americans could care less”.
Where did that particular mangled use of English originate, and when will people learn that they are making a statement that means the opposite of what they are attempting to communicate?
What he should have stated was, “and many Americans couldn’t care less”.
The instructors of my writing classes (just last year) at community College were allowed to require we base our writing on any subject they wanted. My last Professor required we write about racisim and "white privlidge’. At the beginning I fought very hard with the points she was trying too make in both situations and this caused my grade to suffer. By the end I went for the grade and wrote what she wanted. Since Jefferson has been brought up has anyone ever read a group of “notes” written by Jefferson call “Notes on the State of Virginia”? In this group of notes Jefferson makes his case for why slavery is a good and justified condition. These notes were something this Professor I mentioned earlier required me to read. These kind of requirements are fine for a College class as we are there by choice (I could have dropped her class and taken another) but I do not agree this format should be used in High School.
Oldschool
I’m not exactly sure of what your point is, but I think that you may be arguing in favor of eliminating references to certain people in history books, such as Thomas Jefferson. Am I correct? If not, I apologize for my misinterpretation.
Yes, Jefferson had beliefs that, by 21st Century standards, were clearly racist. However, he was a product of his times, and to have believed differently would have been highly unusual for someone of the privileged class residing in Virginia in the 18th Century.
By learning about significant people in our past–“warts and all”–we can learn much about the human condition that can help us in the future. Nobody is perfect, and clearly Jefferson had his flaws.
However–trust me–his racist ideas are not what the folks in Texas objected to when they voted to remove him from Texas history books. If having racist convictions was the criterion for removal from textbooks, then future books would eliminate MANY people, including Washington, Lincoln (yes, there are quite a few confirmed racist quotations from Lincoln!), and virtually every other politician from the 17th, 18th, 19th, and–yes–even the 20th Century.
Heck–the governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, recently destroyed his chances for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 by declaring that the incredibly racist era of the '50s, “Wasn’t so bad”. Of course, for a Mississippi white boy of privilege it wasn’t so bad, but his perspective clearly did not include people of color.
And then, Barbour went on to laud “The Citizen’s Council” (real name–The White Citizen’s Council), a group that rose up after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in order to resist the new federal civil rights regulations. So, there are even prominent politicians in the 21st Century that are still ignorant of what racism consists of!
The decision to remove references to Jefferson was made because of his belief in separation of church and state. The folks in Texas probably envision their own local church as being the rightful recipient of increased latitude to influence the lives of others who are not members of that church.
However, what they fail to comprehend is that, by eliminating separation of church and state, in addition to Reverend Billy Bob’s local church, they would also have to extend those same privileges to every other religious denomination in the state–many of which they would likely abhor.
The old saying, “Be careful what you wish for”, comes to mind!