It usually pretty tough to find something I agree with in the opinion pages of the Boston Globe, but a piece on using language to defeat meaning pushes my like button.
As a matter of respecting widespread sensibilities, it is all well and good to console a tyke who has fallen on his "tail." And that pretty thing over there is not "tail;" it is a woman. Law Dog has, to our amused profit, spread "wedding tackle" far and wide in libertarian Blogville. There's no particular harm in referring to the dead as those who have "passed away."
"But telling citizens that torture is “abuse” and mercenaries are “contractors” — or in Orwell’s words, that burning and bombing villages is “pacification” — is a different sort of enterprise. These euphemisms — the top-down terminology invented and deployed to serve the interests of the coiners — are the ones that give “euphemism” a bad name."
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Feb 14, 2011
Feb 13, 2011
Egypt libre!
So the bread riots leave Egypt with no legislative branch, no constitution. We can be pretty sure that , in his heart of hearts, His Obamaness is insanely jealous.
Sioux Fall AAR
We walked into the show with respectable rolls of Benjamins safety-pinned to our skivvies. The two pals and I left with a total expenditure of less than $20. (Mine added up to $8 -- a factory extended magazine for the SW 59 and a sheath for the Camillus air crew "survival" knife.)
That is to say, the prices left us gasping.
M1 carbine prices seem to have stabilized at $750-$950, and that's the end of the good -- or non-horrifying, at least -- news.
There were dozens of 1911A1s. I didn't see one tagged at less than $2,000, and $3,000 would not have purchased the best Remington-Rand there.
The old Winchester lever guns and Colt SAAs were gold. Example: A fair-to-good Winchester 1892 in .25-20 at $6,500. It was easily possible to loophole a Peacemaker which appeared to be an outhouse dugup for $7,500.
If I were panicky about TEOTWAWKI I would go back today with every interesting old weapon I own and trade them for a few hundred Hi-Points.
On the other hand, domestic beer in Adrian is still just $3, but the ethanol subsidies may not yet have worked their way into that market yet.
That is to say, the prices left us gasping.
M1 carbine prices seem to have stabilized at $750-$950, and that's the end of the good -- or non-horrifying, at least -- news.
There were dozens of 1911A1s. I didn't see one tagged at less than $2,000, and $3,000 would not have purchased the best Remington-Rand there.
The old Winchester lever guns and Colt SAAs were gold. Example: A fair-to-good Winchester 1892 in .25-20 at $6,500. It was easily possible to loophole a Peacemaker which appeared to be an outhouse dugup for $7,500.
If I were panicky about TEOTWAWKI I would go back today with every interesting old weapon I own and trade them for a few hundred Hi-Points.
On the other hand, domestic beer in Adrian is still just $3, but the ethanol subsidies may not yet have worked their way into that market yet.
Feb 12, 2011
Head 'em up nd move 'em out
Westward, ho. This weekend's entertainment occurs in the prairie oasis of Sioux Falls. It a biggie, several hundred tables of delectable old stuff. Shake out your loopholes, buckaroos.
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It will be interesting to see how new dog Libby gets along with the house sitter .
As in "Libbytarian." Get it? Huh? Huh? Get it?
:)
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It will be interesting to see how new dog Libby gets along with the house sitter .
As in "Libbytarian." Get it? Huh? Huh? Get it?
:)
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