I just heard Charley Gibson ask if the new swim suits that the US swimmers are wearing give them an unfair advantage. Huh??????? Are we to be hamstrung because our scientists and industry have teamed up to invent a substance so Speedo could make a swim suit out of? If the other countries want the same advantage then they can do one of two things: 1) Buy the damn suits and put them on their swimmers (I’m sure Speedo will sell them. I have seen them on the Aussie swimmers) or 2) invent their own space age material and build their own suits.
I’m sorry but isn’t it the job of the US Olympic committee to ensure our athletes have the best possible training and equipment? I mean we invented new lighter metals for bicycles, lighter better track shoes, and even Mark Spitz had his little Speedo suit in 1984. It isn’t like something like this has never happened. The Soviets had whole battalions of scientists working to make undetectable steroids and the French just swap out urine samples so their people can win.
Man I am so tired of our people apologizing for our inventions and how well we do on the world stage. I blame it on Political Correctness; those two words should never go together any way. There is nothing correct about politics.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The Power of Language
I have been thinking a lot about language lately. It is an election year so I guess I’m a little more sensitive to what people are saying. I have always been a proponent of using the English language properly and hate it when I hear it being slaughtered because somebody is too lazy to use it properly.
Recently I was happily revisited by an old favorite of mine. The song is titled, “The Language of Violence” by The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. The song is about homophobia (another one of my pet peeves but that is for another day) and has some very pointed lyrics talking about how language can be used to reduce people to inanimate objects. I will let Michael Franti’s words speak for themselves:
But dehumanizing the victim makes things simpler
It is amazing how so many cultures over the years have used the power of language to destroy cultures. The Nazi’s used the power of language to decimate the Jews in Europe, the British to dominate India, and now the Republican Party to destroy civil liberties in the name of “security”.
As I said it is an election year and that means I read George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”. Most people only know of Orwell though his haunted vision of the future in “1984” and his not so subtle jab at Communism in “Animal Farm” but he also wrote many essays during his lifetime and in my opinion “Politics and the English Language” is in the top two (the other is “Such, Such Were the Joys”). In this essay he rails against the improper use of the English language using Soviet propaganda as his primary target, but he also goes after English writers who abuse the language also.
The reason I read this essay every election year is to remind me to listen to the words that are being spoken by the candidates. Which reminds of another great song lyric. I will let Michael Franti’s great words describe it about in his song “Television, Drug of a Nation”:
T.V. is
the stomping ground for political candidates
Where bears in the woods
are chased by Grecian Formula'd
bald eagles
T.V. is mechanized politic's
remote control over the masses
co-sponsored by environmentally safe gases
watch for the PBS special
It's the perpetuation of the two party system
where image takes precedence over wisdom
Where sound bite politics are served to
the fastfood culture
Where straight teeth in your mouth
are more important than the words
that come out of it
Race baiting is the way to get selected
Willie Horton or
Will he not get elected on...
We have become a fast food culture and have become a slave to the television to get our news. It is amazing how many people vote for the person who looks better on television. Have you ever noticed after a "debate" (I use that word loosely since they are the furthest thing from a debate that can exist on this earth) the talking heads always comment first on who "looked" better that night. I would vote for a river troll if he/she could fix our health care problem or could provide an answer to our addiction to fossil fuels.
The power of words,
Watch your politicians (and those around you) and don’t take what they are saying at face value. If you don’t pay attention we could get more of the same thing we have had for the last 8 years and we don’t need any more of that.
Recently I was happily revisited by an old favorite of mine. The song is titled, “The Language of Violence” by The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. The song is about homophobia (another one of my pet peeves but that is for another day) and has some very pointed lyrics talking about how language can be used to reduce people to inanimate objects. I will let Michael Franti’s words speak for themselves:
But dehumanizing the victim makes things simpler
It's like breathing with a respirator
It eases the conscience of even the most conscious and calculating violator
Words can reduce a person to an object,
something more easy to hate
An inanimate entity, completely disposable,
no problem to obliterate
It is amazing how so many cultures over the years have used the power of language to destroy cultures. The Nazi’s used the power of language to decimate the Jews in Europe, the British to dominate India, and now the Republican Party to destroy civil liberties in the name of “security”.
As I said it is an election year and that means I read George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”. Most people only know of Orwell though his haunted vision of the future in “1984” and his not so subtle jab at Communism in “Animal Farm” but he also wrote many essays during his lifetime and in my opinion “Politics and the English Language” is in the top two (the other is “Such, Such Were the Joys”). In this essay he rails against the improper use of the English language using Soviet propaganda as his primary target, but he also goes after English writers who abuse the language also.
The reason I read this essay every election year is to remind me to listen to the words that are being spoken by the candidates. Which reminds of another great song lyric. I will let Michael Franti’s great words describe it about in his song “Television, Drug of a Nation”:
T.V. is
the stomping ground for political candidates
Where bears in the woods
are chased by Grecian Formula'd
bald eagles
T.V. is mechanized politic's
remote control over the masses
co-sponsored by environmentally safe gases
watch for the PBS special
It's the perpetuation of the two party system
where image takes precedence over wisdom
Where sound bite politics are served to
the fastfood culture
Where straight teeth in your mouth
are more important than the words
that come out of it
Race baiting is the way to get selected
Willie Horton or
Will he not get elected on...
We have become a fast food culture and have become a slave to the television to get our news. It is amazing how many people vote for the person who looks better on television. Have you ever noticed after a "debate" (I use that word loosely since they are the furthest thing from a debate that can exist on this earth) the talking heads always comment first on who "looked" better that night. I would vote for a river troll if he/she could fix our health care problem or could provide an answer to our addiction to fossil fuels.
I am going to finish this by highlighting the final lines in “The Language of Violence”.
The power of words,
don't take it for granted when you hear a man ranting
Don't just read the lips, be more sublime than this
Put everything in context…..
Watch your politicians (and those around you) and don’t take what they are saying at face value. If you don’t pay attention we could get more of the same thing we have had for the last 8 years and we don’t need any more of that.
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