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October 2016

The War on Grammar Clumsy attempts to avoid offending anyone do violence to the English language By Josh Gelernter

This week, the 127-year-old American Dialect Society voted the plural pronoun “they,” used as a singular pronoun, their Word of the Year. Reporting the story, the Washington Post illustrated the new use of “they” with the mystifying sentence “everyone wants their cat to succeed,” the old way having been “everyone wants his cat to succeed.”

Trying to depluralize “they” is an asinine effort, stemming from a stupid misunderstanding made by stupid people whom the ADS has chosen to indulge rather than to correct.

The misunderstanding is best illustrated by a Washington Post copy editor who was quoted in the Post’s “singular they” piece. He describes the “singular they” as the “the only sensible solution to English’s lack of a gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronoun.”

But English does have a gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronoun – it’s “he.” Per the dictionary of record, Webster’s Second International Unabridged, the primary definition of the pronoun “he” is “the man or male being previously designated.” The meaning of “male being” is self-evident, but the meaning of “man” has been forgotten by many badly educated people. The first definition Webster’s gives for “man” is “a member of the human race.” Webster’s gives a quote from Hume by way of illustration, “All men, both male and female.” “A male human being” is the second-given, secondary definition.

“Woman” always refers to a female human being, but in the abstract, “man” is neuter (or “gender-neutral,” as the Post says); likewise, “she” always refers to a previously designated female, but in the abstract, “he” is neuter. Just as an actress always refers to a female actor, whereas the abstract “actor” refers generally to both female and male actors. The Academy Awards give an Oscar to the “best actress,” while the Screen Actors Guild gives a SAG Award to outstanding actors, “male actors” and “female actors.”

Surely the American Dialect Society is aware of this. Certainly, they out to say so. You might ask why it matters one way or the other. Aside from being wrong, and sounding wrong, using “they” as a singular steals precision from the language. It is destructive. It makes horseshoe throws of sentences that would previously have been bull’s-eyes. English lost precision when “you” replaced “thou.” Ideally we’d still use “thou” as the familiar for an individual. But at least that change had a good reason; “you” caught on as the more polite form of address, as its equivalents remain in so many other languages (“tu” and “vous,” “tú” and “usted”).

And the same word-blind stupidity is spreading to our armed forces. As of last week, the U.S. Navy is dropping all job titles that include the word “man.” A chief yeoman will become just a chief. “Fire Controlmen” will become nondescript “Petty Officers.” To avoid insult, “sailors will no longer be identified by their job title,” says the Navy Times; the titles “airman, fireman, constructionman and hospitalman” will be “replaced by job codes”; “B320” or “B450” or some other colorless non-word.

All this because no one has told Navy secretary, Ray Mabus, that the suffix “man” does not necessarily mean male.

RATS LEAVING A LISTING SHIP IN A STORM- AN UPDATED ROSTER OF ANTI-TRUMP REPUBLICANS….BY ELIANA JOHNSON SEE NOTE PLEASE

This is history….the tired old party is realigning by splitting elites from the vox populi…..and whatever the outcome of the election this will be tectonic….This is the culmination of the dissatisfaction that started with the Tea Party….stay tuned! rsk

UPDATE — 10:30 p.m. ET: Ohio Senator Rob Portman is the latest Republican to climb aboard the anti-Trump bandwagon. Portman, who is cruising to reelection in the Buckeye State, released a statement Saturday night withdrawing his support of Trump — and announcing his intention of writing in Pence’s name for president. “I thought it was appropriate to respect the millions of voters across the country who chose Donald Trump as the Republican Party nominee. While I continue to respect those who still support Donald Trump, I can no longer support him. … I will be voting for Mike Pence for President.” Portman’s announcement brings the overall count of anti-Trump Republicans — among congressmen, senators, and governors — to 55.

UPDATE — 7:30 p.m. ET: The ranks of anti-Trump Republicans continue to swell. Of the GOP’s 331 total congressmen, senators, and governors, 54 of them — or 16 percent – have now publicly stated their opposition to the Republican nominee. That tally, according to the expert whip-counter @Taniel, includes two dozen Republicans who withdrew their support after the release of Friday’s video in which Trump can be heard making extremely vulgar comments about women. Some have rescinded their endorsements, while others have gone further in calling on Trump to step aside and allow Mike Pence to replace him as the party’s nominee.

That group of 24 includes several Republicans who are facing competitive reelection fights. One of them is John McCain, the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee, who issued the following statement Saturday afternoon: “I have wanted to support the candidate our party nominated. He was not my choice, but as a past nominee, I thought it important I respect the fact that Donald Trump won a majority of the delegates by the rules our party set. I thought I owed his supporters that deference. But Donald Trump’s behavior this week, concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy.”

THE MEDIA AND BILL CLINTON

THIS WAS BEFORE supermarket tabloids helped dictate political coverage and before the Internet or Matt Drudge. Back when a Bill Clinton lie didn’t really matter much to the entire world, there was one taped conversation. The Star had the tape of Clinton and Gennifer Flowers and there was sex talk on it. Clinton was a liar even then. This was in New Hampshire in January 1992. Clinton, then seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, walked into a prosperous silkscreen company on Route 38 in Salem. Teenage girls with shopping mall faces stood outside the factory. Clinton had been heard on the tapes calling Gov. Mario Cuomo a Mafia gangster. Everyone initially wanted to believe the tapes a lie, but Clinton apologized. Cuomo accepted the apology and now Clinton apologizes, to the country. What was one lie has become a warehouse of boxed lies.

FROM ACCURACY IN MEDIA

Earlier this year the Star, a tabloid newspaper, published some 2,000 words of transcripts of telephone conversations between Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and Gennifer Flowers, a woman who asserts she had a 12-year sexual affair with the prospective Democratic presidential nominee.

Our media decided you didn’t have the right to read these transcripts. The Washington Post published a meager 59 words. The Associated Press, the wire service which supplies news to most American dailies, transmitted only 24 words. The New York Times, arguably the most influential paper in the country, ran two sentences, both pertaining to derogatory remarks Clinton was heard making about Gov. Mario Cuomo. (The Washington Times and the New York Post are the only papers we’ve seen that published sizable portions of the transcripts; neither paper, unfortunately, has mass circulation in national terms.)

Why the media censorship? Eleanor Clift, who covers politics for Newsweek, wrote in that magazine on Feb. 10, 1992, after the Flowers revelations, “Gary Hart would have given anything for the support Clinton got last week. Truth is, the press is willing to cut Clinton some slack because they like him — and what he has to say.” Steven Stark, a columnist for the liberal Boston Globe, wrote on March 16 that “the question is whether the coverage, as a whole, has become so one-sided that the mainstream press is not giving the public the whole truth. That has clearly happened. Why have so many baby-boom reporters boosted Clinton? In part, it’s because they identify strongly with a liberal, semi-hip contemporary who seems to share their values.” Let us give liberals Clift and Stark credit for honesty: at least they are up front about their shameless admiration for Bill Clinton.

German Police on Manhunt For Syrian Refugee Who Planned Airport Bombing Attack By Patrick Poole

UPDATE: Police have made arrests in this case, but the manhunt for the original suspect apparently continues.

German police arrest two people in #Chemnitz after explosives found in apartment raided during search for man suspected of planning bombing

— Sky News Newsdesk (@SkyNewsBreak) October 8, 2016

BREAKING: German police: “Several hundred grams” of explosives found in raided apartment linked to alleged bomb plot.

— The Associated Press (@AP) October 8, 2016

Original Post: A massive manhunt is underway in the German city of Chemnitz and the town is currently on lockdown as they seek a terror suspect who entered the country last year as a Syrian refugee.

According to reports, 22-year old Jaber Albakr was planning a bomb attack on an airport and slipped police surveillance.

Currently running a large-scale operation in #Chemnitz because of the suspicion of a planned bomb attack.

— Polizei Sachsen (@PolizeiSachsen) October 8, 2016

Major police operation in Chemnitz, Germany. Reportedly explosives found. https://t.co/Yq4Sbj19HS

— Björn Stritzel (@bjoernstritzel) October 8, 2016

#Saxony Police release picture of #Chemnitz bomb threat suspect, Jaber Albakr. Saxony Police says #Albakr is from #Syria.#Germany pic.twitter.com/Mdrdh8HIpn

— Ahmed Hassan (@SHAWSHANK5) October 8, 2016

This follows two previous terror attacks in Germany this past July by an Afghan refugee and a Syrian asylum seeker who was scheduled for deportation.

The Daily Mail reports:

A German city is in lockdown as armed police are hunting for a man suspected of planning a bomb attack on an airport.

The suspect has been named as Jaber Albakr – a Syrian who was under surveillance by the Federal Office for Constitutional Protection in Cologne, say reports.

He is a 22-year-old who was born in Damascus.

He is suspected of plotting a bomb attack on a German airport, according to Online Focus.

It is understood the suspect entered Germany last year with refugees from Syria.

Residents have been ordered to remain indoors as large-scale closures and evacuations take place in the town and the suspect remains at large.

The Republican White Togas at Work for the Queen of Sleaze By Clarice Feldman

Are Americans so addlepated as to pick an incompetent, thoroughly corrupt globalist over an often-vulgar man who loves his country and has accomplished a great deal?

Years ago I wrote of my contempt for the white togaed squishes of the right who flee the grounds of the forum when jackals attack their allies in order to keep their garb free of stain. This week in the lead up to the second presidential debate tonight, they’re at it again.

Just as evidence of the Clinton corruption is once again made manifest in the release of more of her emails and a closer look at the late revised Clinton foundation filings, they flee Trump because of a suspiciously timed tape of an eleven-year-old conversation with GHW Bush’s nephew, Billy Bush. If, like a toddler, you are easily distracted by shining objects you’ll fall for it. If you’re a grownup who realizes the fate of the world and this country depend on your vote you won’t.

1. How Hillary Broke the Law and Destabilized North Africa, creating a Refugee Crisis and a catastrophe in Libya and Syria

General Mike Flynn laid out the catastrophic results of then Secretary of State Clinton’s actions in Libya, based on false claims that Qaddafi was engaged in widespread attacks on civilians.

While no saint, Qaddafi was key to our counterterrorism efforts in the area. Ignoring the advice of the secretary of defense and lawyers in her own department, she allowed 18 shipments of arms from Qatar to Libyan jihadis who were on the State Department’s own list of foreign terrorists, in apparent violation of federal law (28 U.S. Code 2339A and 2339B). The arms shipments were funneled through a Qatar cleric “who brokered their release from prison” after Clinton persuaded the President to grant the terrorists full diplomatic recognition,

If that wasn’t bad enough, Flynn underscored the connection to the Clinton foundation in her otherwise puzzling conduct:

Qatar has donated anywhere from $1 to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, and emails reveal members of the Qatari royal family were privileged with back channel meetings with Secretary Clinton at the State Department. While whipping up support for the Libya military campaign, Clinton told Arab leaders, “it’s important to me personally,” the Washington Post reported.

Hillary Clinton’s prosecution of foreign policy in Libya crossed several lines: she showed extremely bad judgment by ignoring military and intelligence officials, she let personal interests conflict with U.S. foreign policy and, most importantly, she may have broken the law — again.

2. Hillary’s speeches to Big Donors Reveal clearly her Deceptive nature and her view of Trump and Sanders supporters

Wikileaks revealed a batch of new hacked emails involving Hillary this week. As people sort through them, some gems from the well-paid speeches she gave to big corporate donors showed up.

“My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders, some time in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere.” [05162013 Remarks to Banco Itau.doc, p. 28]”

Putin’s Puritan Piety: The Ideological War against the West by Giulio Meotti

Russia is one of the few countries in the Western world in which religion is becoming increasingly important and not less.

To establish his authority on the Russian society, President Vladimir Putin has shaped a doctrine mobilizing the entire Russian society against a perceived Western “decadence”. He has declared that Russian traditional family values are a bulwark against the West’s “so-called tolerance — genderless and infertile.”

The first Cold War was a clash between Western democracy and the Soviet dictatorship of the proletariat. The new Cold War is a one between Western liberalism and Russian conservatism.

During the Cold War, American conservatives used to label the Soviet Union “the godless nation” on the verge of collapse because it had purged religion from the Russian society. Two decades later, the Kremlin is occupied by a former officer of the KGB, secretly baptized, who launches the same accusation of atheism at the United States and the West.

Welcome to “Putin’s covert war on Western decadence”, as The Spectator defined it:

“Putin’s Russia is fast becoming a very puritan place. Ever since returning to the presidency in 2012, Putin has pursued an increasingly religious-conservative ideology both at home and abroad, defining Russia as a moral fortress against sexual licence and decadence, porn and gay rights”.

Recently, Russian officials censored porn websites. When the largest pornography site on the internet, PornHub, offered the Russia’s official communications and media watchdog a premium account in exchange for lifting the ban, Russian officials replied: “Sorry, we are not in the market and the demography is not a commodity.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ideological war against the West is getting cocky and self-confident. In a televised speech from a Kremlin hall, Putin declared that Russian traditional family values are a bulwark against the West’s “so-called tolerance — genderless and infertile.”

“Many Euro-Atlantic countries have abandoned their roots, including Christian values,” said Putin. The patriarch of the Orthodox Church, Kirill, echoed Putin by charging the West of being engaged in a “spiritual disarmament” of the Russian people, and by criticizing the European laws that prevent wearing religious symbols in public. “We have experienced an era of atheism and we know what it means to live without God”, Kirill said.

Hungary to Amend Constitution to Block EU Migrant Plan “Brussels or Budapest, that was the question, and the people said Budapest.” by Soeren Kern

The Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, all former Communist countries, also oppose the EU plan to relocate 160,000 “asylum seekers,” which they say is an “EU diktat” that infringes on national sovereignty.

“One of the principals underpinning the system is the primacy of EU law.” — Margaritis Schinas, chief spokesperson for European Commission.

“In the early autumn of 2015 we erected a fence on the external green border of the European Union and the Schengen Area. This was to protect the European Union’s greatest achievement: free movement within the common area of the internal market…. We do not want to distribute the migration burdens falling on Europe, but we want to eliminate them: to put an end to them.” — Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, July 11, 2016.

“We do not like the consequences of having a large number of Muslim communities that we see in other countries… That is a historical experience for us.” — Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, September 3, 2015.

“We lose our European values and identity the way frogs are cooked in slowly-heating water. Quite simply, slowly there will be more and more Muslims, and we will no longer recognize Europe.” — Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, September 30, 2016.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has proposed amending the Constitution to prevent the European Union from settling migrants in Hungary without the approval of Parliament.

In a speech on October 4, Orbán said the amendment would be presented to Parliament on October 10, and, if approved, it would come into effect on November 8.

Hungarian voters overwhelmingly rejected the European Union’s mandatory migrant relocation plan in a referendum on October 2, but failed to turn out in sufficient numbers to make the referendum legally binding.

More than 97% of those who voted in the referendum answered ‘no’ to the question: “Do you want the European Union to be entitled to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without the consent of the National Assembly?”

Voter turnout was only 40%, however, far short of the 50% participation required to make the referendum valid under Hungarian law.

The Nobel Appeasement Prize By Rachel Ehrenfeld

The Norwegian Nobel Committee bestowing the Peace Prize on Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, for his concessions to the narco-terrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), reinforces the trend to legitimize terrorism, legalize drugs, and reward criminals. This contradicts the instructions Alfred Nobel gave in his will, which clearly states the Peace Prize should be rewarded to those who “have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Had Nobel been alive today, he, like the Colombian people, would have voted against the Cuban and Venezuelan-sponsored deal, which was negotiated and signed in Havana. The agreement, as well as the Nobel Peace Prize, is aimed at whitewashing the violent drug-trafficking FARC. Over the past fifty years, the group has claimed the lives of more than 220,000 Colombians and displaced some six million people. The agreement, however, re-labeled the FARC members as “fighters” and “rebels,” whose cause was to “[improve] the country’s rural areas.” Not surprisingly, Raul Castro, John Kerry, the Obama Administration, the European Union, and the United Nations, among others, hailed the agreement, as did the international media. All were “shocked” when the agreement was rejected in the plebiscite held on October 2, 2016.

This is not the first time that negotiations with the FARC have failed. The first initiative to negotiate with the narco-terrorists began in 1997, during the Bill Clinton Administration. Peace talks have been chosen to resolve a criminal conflict and to appease dangerous criminals under the guise of a political agenda. In 1999, Colombian Pres. Andres Pastrana told the Argentine newspaper, Clarin, “there is no evidence that the FARC are drug traffickers.” On the contrary, Pastrana claimed, “The FARC have always said they are interested in eradicating illegal crops.” To boot, then Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, used the Left’s favored “blame America first” motto, claiming the extensive growth drug supply from Colombia is not the FARC’s fault, but the fault of “our [America’s] demand for drugs.”

Indeed, this slogan has become the mantra of drug traffickers smuggling ever growing quantities of illegal drugs to the United States, as well as the international movement to legalize drugs, which has been launched and funded by Bill and Hillary’s long-time and generous supporter, George Soros. In the early 1990s, after he made at least one billion dollars bidding against the Bank of England, Soros positioned himself as a social reformer and set out to create an “open society.” Since then he has been using his philanthropy to “change” or more accurately deconstruct the moral values and attitudes of the world’s leading democracy. He declared war on the “war on drugs’ because, like the Castro brothers in Havana, he understood that corruption by drugs and ultimately drug money, can take advantage of even the most advanced, democratic, capitalistic system.