Recent Comments

1. about 1 hour ago on Wallace the Brave

   I love etymologies, but that is no excuse to preserve archaic spellings (except for some scientific terms, such as ‘scientific’). One of my concerns is the unnecessary burden it places on foreign learners of English, hindering the spread of our (yes, our!) amazing language. As for “the poverty-stricken American language”, try going an entire day without encountering, even using, an Americanism. (From yesterday’s Times: "Turkey has begun repatriating foreign Islamic State prisoners from its jails. . . " . Not ‘gaols’ but ‘jails’.)

2. about 2 hours ago on Wallace the Brave

   I watch many foreign-language TV shows from about a dozen European countries, and I always smile when I hear a German, Dane, Italian, Dutchman, etc., say “okay”. But will the Brits ever spell “draft” or “color”? That’s when I’ll really believe the American version is winning.

3. about 3 hours ago on Working Daze

   How do you feel about “snuck” and “spilt” in today’s “Wallace the Brave”? (As for “aunt”, I find it varies regionally and ethnically across the U.S.)

4. about 3 hours ago on Wallace the Brave

   “Snuck” instead of the rapidly-disappearing “sneaked” but “spilt” instead of “spilled”? What is happening to our language?!?!

5. about 3 hours ago on Scenes from a Multiverse

   Stay tooned, as some cartoonists say?

6. about 24 hours ago on Red and Rover

   I am very sorry you think that way. That’s not the American way of thinking of the relationship of the individual to society or to the government. Read the Declaration; despite some flaws, Jefferson (and honorary Founding Father John Locke) got it basically right. Government exists to defend rights, not violate them. The idea that you OWE the government (or society or your tribe or your race, etc.) for your existence is an ancient evil with many forms. I wonder how you were taught it.

7. 1 day ago on Red and Rover

   I beg to disagree. Slavery is slavery, no matter what “benefits” are claimed for it. As for the Founding Fathers, I recently read “The Federalist”, and it was amazing to watch the author change his mind on standing armies: the horror of them they had inherited from British history which was not theirs, and the author (Madison? Hamilton?) then argues that a standing navy is necessary, which means permanent naval bases, which require fortification, which require permanent troops, which require at least some minimum standing forces. (I can deal with the militia another time, not now.)

   (I volunteered and served as a Nuclear Weapons Assemblyman in Germany during the Berlin Wall Crisis; I was given a yellow fever shot during the Cuban Missile Crisis; and Kennedy was my Commander-in-Chief when murdered by a Communist traitor. Not the horror of Vietnam, but still no fun. And I’m very proud of my service which ended before I was even allowed to vote.)

8. 1 day ago on Pickles

   I just discovered that there are 122 over-the-air broadcast channels in my area, including most of my favorites. After cable-system Comcast changed Turner Classic Movies from free to fee (and in a sports package no less!), I am seriously considering getting a digital antenna and dropping cable, even though they will probably try to charge me the same fee for Internet alone.

9. 1 day ago on Monty

   Hey, hands to yourself there!!

10. 1 day ago on Last Kiss

    SUPER!!! 48-stars, “one nation, indivisible”, AND Porky Pig! Thanks for that!