We’ve always been amused by the biblical authority of dictionaries in our culture, almost as much as we’re amused by the biblical authority of the Bible. Dictionaries, last we checked, are compiled by harmless drudges, and we consider our judgment as good as theirs. For that matter, most dictionary editors are observers of linguistic usage, not dictators of meaning. Their job is to follow the crowd, not lead it.

That, and provide 300-point solutions to Scrabble problems.

So we’re not surprised that the dictionary meaning of “marriage” has been evolving in recent years, much like the dictionary meaning of everything else. Webster notices that many folks use it to describe any couple in a committed relationship. And the OED sniffs that they’ve always called it “husband and wife”, not “man and woman”.

Read more »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVhuGCVIf3g

GOP ‘trackers’ stalk Dems in hunt for ‘macaca’ moment [McClatchy]

Ten miles from where we write, Robin Long sits in a brig at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. He pleaded guilty last August to desertion from the Army, and is serving a 15-month sentence.

Long is the first war resister deported from Canada since Vietnam. He enlisted in the Army in 2003, with what he thought was an assurance from his recruiter that he would not be sent to Iraq. When the Army ordered him to Iraq anyway in 2005, he fled the country. Long had been vocal about his objections to the war, and he was the only soldier deployed from his “nondeployable” unit.

Read more »

[ Comedy Central Flash video not available. ]

The complete unedited Daily Show interview: Part I (5:47)

We don’t produce a comedy show at night, so we don’t bother watching cable news during the day. Neither do most Americans — we’re a generation beyond the era when three broadcast networks controlled the national conversation.

We’re also a generation beyond the era when television news took itself seriously, when Network was over-the-top satire, when Doonesbury mocked Roone Arledge for turning ABC into “Wide World of News”. How silly we all were, thinking news could be about something other than ratings and advertising.

Which is part of what makes Jon Stewart interesting. Where we’ve long since given up caring, he still holds television news to standards long since abandoned, back when Beethoven’s Ninth introduced The Huntley-Brinkley Report, and not Countdown.

What’s more, he’s effective. Or at the very least, an early sign of change on the horizon.

Read more »

The new Forbes roundup of world billionaires is out, and the interns had an easier time of it this round: Just 793 filthy-rich folks to track, compared to 1,125 a year ago.

If you’re looking for poetic justice, you may enjoy the fact that former AIG head and Big Shitpile Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg lost about 95 percent of his $1.9 billion fortune. If you prefer spit-takes, that still leaves him with $100 million.

Read more »

• Live in areas dominated by sagebrush.
• Infestations occur in which large numbers form roving bands.
• Create hazards when they swarm.

Read more »

We’ve mentioned before our love of WorldNetDaily, your one-stop shop for right-of-Rush infotainment. It you want to know “why leftists love tyrants and terrorists,” you’re just a click away from enlightenment.

Actually, two clicks: One to wade through a page of blurbs, the second to hit the WND Shop to buy the book that delivers the goods. Which is published by — wait for it — WND.

It’s a neat trick, and we envy their success. It also helps explain why WND has suddenly gone millenialist on us, with a couple of stories warning us about the end of the world as we know it.

Read more »