Adventures in Bureaucracy
Monday, September 22, 2008
 
All the news these days seems to be bad, and there's so much of it that I want to turn off the computer and withdraw from the world. But then along comes some little gem to make paying attention worthwhile.

In this case, I now have a new favorite term of abuse:

"A sad little lettuce heap of worthlessness."

I will now try to work that one unobtrusively into daily conversations, e-mails and Congressional responses.
  21:59
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
 
I really like this:

The thing I like best about being a conservative is that I don’t have to lie. I don’t have to pretend that men and women are the same. I don’t have to declare that failed or oppressive cultures are as good as mine. Leftism has outlived its own failure by hiding itself within the most labyrinthine construct of social delicacy since Victoria was queen.
  23:11
Sunday, September 07, 2008
 
And since I'm on the topic of language, I was thrilled to find there are others like me out there:

"My latest pet grammar peeve: the increasing habit people have of using the word “utilize” when they should simply use the word “use.” No, that’s not “utilize the word ‘use’”, it’s “USE THE WORD ‘USE’”! . . . Grr, kill everyone."

Although to be fair, I think that "utilize" is the preferred word in any bureaucratic style manual, and I am sure there's got to be one out there. If not, I need to be the one to write it. The section on use -- no, wait, utilization of passive voice alone would fill up an appreciable number of pages.

There is one other usage issue that drives me nuts -- the word "area", and the way it's used by airline staff and weathermen. Like when a weather system or a flight is moving towards a city, it's never just moving towards, say, New York. No, it's always the New York area. It makes me crazy.
  16:26
 
Another reason I like the Czechs:

"The overuse of the adjective ‘sustainable’ is itself not sustainable".
  16:11
Personal comments, opinions and observations from someone stuck inside the Capital Beltway.

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