Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn no more!
from Fark
Got this via Fark. I’m not sure what it means, and my University education compels me to take the next hour to diagram it out, then write an essay where the number of pages of essay > the number of words in the sentence. That way, I’m guaranteed an “A;” only the really conscientious profs add “may be over-reading it” under the grade, and I try not to hang out with conscientious people, as it harshes my mellow.
The sentence o’ the day, from Wikipedia via Fark:
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“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” is a grammatically valid sentence used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated constructs. It was featured in Steven Pinker‘s 1994 book The Language Instinct, but is known to have been around before February 1992 when it was posted to Linguist List by William J. Rapaport, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo.[1]
Sentences of this type, although not in such a refined form, have been known for a long time. A classical example is a proverb “Don’t trouble trouble until trouble troubles you”.
Also with bonus Boris!
It’s complicated. Watch the Daily Show, with Jon “World’s Greatest Dad” Stewart and learn what the MSM thinks of what the MSM thinks of the Blogosphere.
from Timothy Lynch of the Cato Institute, who actually called it “Doublespeak and the War on Terrorism.”
The abstract:
Five years have passed since the catastrophic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Those attacks ushered in the war on terror. Since some high-ranking government officials and pundits are now referring to the war on terror as the “Long War” or “World War III,” because its duration is not clear, now is an appropriate time to take a few steps back and examine the disturbing new vocabulary that has emerged from this conflict.
One of the central insights of George Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four concerned the manipulative use of language, which he called “newspeak” and “doublethink,” and which we now call “doublespeak” and “Orwellian.” Orwell was alarmed by government propaganda and the seemingly rampant use of euphemisms and halftruths— and he conveyed his discomfort with such tactics to generations of readers by using vivid examples in his novel. Despite our general awareness of the tactic, government officials routinely use doublespeak to expand, or at least maintain, their power.
The purpose of this paper is not to criticize any particular policy initiative. Reasonable people can honestly disagree about what needs to be done to combat the terrorists who are bent on killing Americans. However, a conscientious discussion of our policy options must begin with a clear understanding of what our government is actually doing and what it is really proposing to do next. The aim here is to enhance the understanding of both policymakers and the interested lay public by exposing doublespeak.
and the full report as PDF here.
It seems that in the latest development in TWAT and The War Against Liquids, the forces that be have turned their beady little eyes to the tiny terrorist known as Harry Potter.
American airport staff almost stopped Harry Potter author JK Rowling boarding a flight because she would not part with the manuscript for the final book.
Rowling was not prepared to stow her top secret notes for book number seven in her check-in baggage when she flew back from a book festival in August.
Eventually she was allowed to take them on the flight, bound in elastic bands.
Indeed, if that manuscript fell into the hands of terrorists, what havoc could they create? Unimaginable, worldwide suffering would invariably follow the manuscript-napping.
But seriously, what was she going to do? Use it to threaten the pilot? “Turn this plane around NOW and land in Havana or Hermione gets written out!“
raincoaster 