violence = 'personal or social domination of any kind'

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Sun Nov 14 18:48:11 UTC 2010


On Sat, Nov 13, 2010 at 7:17 PM, Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> OK, then what about the politician who actually delivers the message and
> then makes the ritual announcement that he approved it?
>
> Isn't the fact that he is one doing the talking proof enough that he
> approved it. Â Does the law require them to do that?
>

It's merely that I find that particular phraseology under those
particular conditions annoying. I'm not concerned with truth or
untruth and I'm fully aware that every other English-speaker on earth
may feel a frisson of pleasure upon hearing "... and I approve this
message," as though the speaker were eyeballing the physical
expression of the "message" and in the act of stamping APPROVED on it
even as he spoke.

--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

Once we recognize that we do not err out of laziness, stupidity,
or evil intent, we can uncumber ourselves of the impossible burden of
trying to be permanently right. We can take seriously the proposition
that we could be in error, without necessarily deeming ourselves
idiotic or unworthy.
–Kathryn Schulz

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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