Chinglish no die

The Guardian reports an unfortunate drive to kill Chinglish (or the more generic, Engrish), the delightful union of English words and Chinese grammar/syntax/brains. This can result in rather humorous non sequiturs (“I TOOK A SHOWER AFTER PLAYING SEX.“) to official blunders.
As with all attempts to standardize a language with prescriptive rules, I have no doubt [...]

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The CIA are a bunch of pussies

The other day, the Washington Post had a piece about how awesome torture was and how it worked, that read as though it were written by Dick Cheney or Stephen Hayes. I’m used to seeing those by now, but it wasn’t in the Op-Ed section. Instead, it was a news story from the front-page section. [...]

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Reason why the media suck, #134890

The news media tend to be self-righteous and grandiose about their own importance, but recent polling on the public option (via Nate Silver) demonstrates the degree to which the free press fails to do its job.
That’s atrocious. As Silver notes, only 37% got it right, whereas 33% would have gotten it right had they simply [...]

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“We don’t use griffins, and that’s what separates us from them.”

Yes, this is hilarious, but it is a caustic satire of not only arguments in favor of torture,  but also specifically the media’s reactions to those arguments.
Note that:

The moderator only “presents evidence”; she does not judge it. Analysis is all about fallout and spin, not about whether the evidence proves anything.
Three [...]

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Dear Me,

I have students do an activity at the beginning of the year called “Dear Me.” In it, students write a letter to themselves in the future. This serves a few purposes: it provides me with a writing sample, gives students a refresher on letter-writing conventions, etc. It also serves as an investment tool — students [...]

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Re: Top ten songs

Just to follow up with Linus, I thought I’d list my top ten songs of the aughts.
Spoon – “The Underdog” (2007)
Sleater-Kinney – “Jumpers” (2005)
Phoenix – “Long Distance Call” (2006)
Jay-Z Feat UGK – “Big Pimpin’” (2000)
The New Pornographers – “My Slow Descent Into Alcoholism” (2000)
Fountains of Wayne – “Hackensack” (2003)
Annie – “Heartbeat” (2004)
White Stripes – “Seven [...]

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Thought for the day

How is it possible for so many conservatives or Republicans to hold the following two views at the same time:
(1) The federal government is incompetent to manage large and complicated things like health care, regulating business, welfare, etc.
(2) The people we imprison are all guilty and deserve to be there, those we execute are all [...]

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I knew this wouldn’t take long

After the decision by Eric Holder to launch an investigation into low-level CIA operatives who might have violated our totally-reasonable-torture-guidelines (a terrible idea that I will write about later), I wondered who would be the first to launch accusations of treason. Congratulations, Rep. Peter King (and Stendhal favorite), you are the winner! Ben Smith reports:
“It’s [...]

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Chopped and screwed

One part of T.R. Reid’s recent piece talking up his new book stuck out to me as a point often missed in the health care debate.
American health care is not any more “free-market” than, say, America’s telecommunications networks (another problem entirely), but both left and right often treat the system as a cruel and brutal [...]

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Oh, man it’s back…

Classes resumed after summer vacation. I’ll be treated to many more scenes like this one, I imagine.

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