05 November 2011
Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party: What's Goin' On?
We've seen the Tea Party "take back the country" in the U.S. Congress for the last year or so. That was certainly a howling success. Now we have the Occupy Wall Street folks occupying parks throughout the nation and, to some extent, the world. What's the deal?
In the tradition of the early 1930s "Hoover-villes," the OWS folks are protesting a financial system that they perceive (not altogether incorrectly) takes the profits and the high salaries, but leaves the losses of a huge fraudulent mess, the September 2008 credit freeze and its fallout, to be paid for by ordinary U.S. citizen-taxpayers in the name of bailing out companies that are "too big to fail."
As a result of the fall 2008 "festivities," the country's economy is a mess and will probably continue to be for several years, regardless of who is in control. No one went to jail. Hardly anyone is even being investigated. The American public is awakening to the fact that they've been had, and not only just recently, but for the last 30 years, by a federal government that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of private organizations who, through lobbyists and revolving doors, buy the government with the huge piles of money needed by the politicians for election campaigns and the use the government for their own narrow purposes.
The reaction to this in its less-educated form is the Tea Party. A more-educated, but still jobless, incarnation can be seen in the OWS folks. There's a rage afoot in the country, and heaven help anyone who becomes its target, whether the rage comes from the right, the left, or just out in left field.
People don't talk to each other much these days, much less listen, but it would be wise for each of us to find some ordinary Joes to talk to. Many of these ordinary folks aren't buying anything that's being sold to them by either major political party, and a revolt is on its way. Whether anyone can break the strangle hold that monied interests have on the legislative branch of the U.S. government remains to be seen, but hide and watch. Stranger things have happened.
_________________________________
Note to *all* current political office holders, Democrat, Republican, Independent, liberal, conservative, genius and idiot: pack your bags; there's a really good chance you're headed home after the next election. To paraphrase the old movie line, "we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more."
04 November 2011
NOVA -- Explore Ancient Egypt
Wanna go see the wonders of ancient Egypt? Have a little cash shortage? Here's a pretty good substitute: http://to.pbs.org/s9bEYs .
More of same: http://bit.ly/uNqupf
More of same: http://bit.ly/uNqupf
03 November 2011
2011-11-03, A Language Survey Question
A language survey question: does anyone still know about the subjunctive mood of verbs in English (or Ang-lish, if you speak Texan)?
Around my house when I was a kid, if I *were* to start a sentence with, "If I *was* ... ", I'd draw a stern look and a correction in a hurry from my ex-Latin teacher grandmother. A while back, I asked the head of a high school English department if the subjunctive mood were/was still being taught English grammar courses, and the answer was, "What's the subjunctive mood?" That answered the question! :^)
I know first hand that people whose first language is English struggle with subjunctives in other languages, e.g. Latin. How 'bout some of you who learned English as a second or later language? Do any of the examples here:http://bit.ly/uO9qeI make sense? Do they sound odd? Did anyone tell you about the subjunctive mood of verbs when they were teaching you English?
Living languages change, and life goes on, but I've been startled lately by a bombardment of "if I was ..." utterances and by OCCC "finishing its remodel[ing]." Dropping endings, of course, is the way English became a separate language from German, so missing "-ings" aren't too unexpected. For example I used to go to Carri's "swim meets," not "swimming meetings." On the other hand, changing accepted verb conjugations (dropping subjunctive forms, for instance) in less than one lifetime is pretty unusual, although changes do come relatively quickly in English. Try reading Shakespeare or Chaucer or the anonymously written Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf," if you want to get a sense of how much English has changed over several centuries.
Just for jollies, here's a subjunctive mood reference from a raging reactionary grammarian: http://www.ceafinney.com/subju
Y'all have a good day now, ya hear?
_Eiplog_
My, how things change!
_______, "Beowulf": http://bit.ly/uS4cOw
Chaucer, "The Wife of Bath's Tale": http://bit.ly/uVFUTQ
Shakespeare, "Macbeth": http://bit.ly/viAoRW
For those who acquired post-traumatic stress disorder from their experience of reading these in high school, I apologize for stirring up memories of ancient horrors. --CLO
Around my house when I was a kid, if I *were* to start a sentence with, "If I *was* ... ", I'd draw a stern look and a correction in a hurry from my ex-Latin teacher grandmother. A while back, I asked the head of a high school English department if the subjunctive mood were/was still being taught English grammar courses, and the answer was, "What's the subjunctive mood?" That answered the question! :^)
I know first hand that people whose first language is English struggle with subjunctives in other languages, e.g. Latin. How 'bout some of you who learned English as a second or later language? Do any of the examples here:http://bit.ly/uO9qeI make sense? Do they sound odd? Did anyone tell you about the subjunctive mood of verbs when they were teaching you English?
Living languages change, and life goes on, but I've been startled lately by a bombardment of "if I was ..." utterances and by OCCC "finishing its remodel[ing]." Dropping endings, of course, is the way English became a separate language from German, so missing "-ings" aren't too unexpected. For example I used to go to Carri's "swim meets," not "swimming meetings." On the other hand, changing accepted verb conjugations (dropping subjunctive forms, for instance) in less than one lifetime is pretty unusual, although changes do come relatively quickly in English. Try reading Shakespeare or Chaucer or the anonymously written Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf," if you want to get a sense of how much English has changed over several centuries.
Just for jollies, here's a subjunctive mood reference from a raging reactionary grammarian: http://www.ceafinney.com/subju
Y'all have a good day now, ya hear?
_Eiplog_
My, how things change!
_______, "Beowulf": http://bit.ly/uS4cOw
Chaucer, "The Wife of Bath's Tale": http://bit.ly/uVFUTQ
Shakespeare, "Macbeth": http://bit.ly/viAoRW
For those who acquired post-traumatic stress disorder from their experience of reading these in high school, I apologize for stirring up memories of ancient horrors. --CLO
01 November 2011
2011-11-01, A B-17 Flying Fortress Just Left OUN
A B-17 Flying Fortress (!) just left Norman's Westheimer Field (OUN). My Facebook entry:
'via Blog this'
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