Presque vu LXXIII
rosyb on Vulpes Libres does her nut about grammar:
You see this is what annoys me so much about grammar freaks. They act as if language is rendered completely incomprehensible by the odd misplaced apostrophe or semi-colon. But the things they get their knickers in a twist about are very rarely anything to do with actual meaning.
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After Iraq, it is clear that American military might is no longer a sufficient gateway to power. America has to work with its allies. That is one of the great lessons of a post-neocon world. A few years ago, Condoleezza Rice said that in the Middle East, the Americans will do the cooking and the Europeans can do the dishes. Can you imagine the national shame for the French, who are so keen on gastronomy, to have America — the nation of McDonald’s — insist that they will do the cooking? That was hard to swallow. But in all seriousness, Europe needs to get back in the kitchen. America can’t do it alone anymore.
Gilles Kepel on the Future of the Middle East.
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How the mighty are fallen . . .
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Literary Kicks has a nice post about Francoise Sagan, her life, loves, her first novel and the movie of her life.
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“In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.
“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.”
Times Online reports from a paper published in the Journal of Religion and Society, a US academic journal.
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Thank’s for, the grammar freaks’
Thanks for the Literary Kicks link. That’s a new site to me.
“In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.
“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.”
That’s so remarkably true.
I remember Bob Geldof on the briefly-rekindled Juke Box Jury in 1979 and I was so struck by how intelligent and articulate this unkempt punk was – especially compared to his fellow panelist Johnny Rotten. I really thought they’d all burn bright and leave, well, maybe not so beautiful corpses. But then The Who didn’t die before they got old either did they? You can’t trust anyone.
jb says: Yeah, yeah, promises, promises. Rock stars and movie celebs must come second in line to politicians.