What are your pet peeves re English usage?

JTT...

How good's your arithmetic... ? Count up my last few posts in this threrad and then count yours - and then total up how many of mine have been on-track with this thread topic as against yours...

ad hominem attacks against me is no substitute for reasoned debate. So far I've only heard you trashing me personally while only ONCE attempting to refute my statements with some argument revelant to their content.

JTT...

True - and there's nothing wrong with that - in moderation. I have been referring to those individuals who have made it a permanent habit to string out each of their sentences with an interminable string of errrrrrrrr[/i]'s and aaaaaaaah[/i]'s and mmmmmmmm's.

glitterbag...

Correct.

But it's no less true that one leaves a tip for the commendable efficiency and friendliness of the waitress[/i] who has so diligently been attending to your needs all evening in a nice little restaurant in the better part of town.

You know as well as I do that words that were in common usage for centuries - such as 'actress', and 'waitress', and 'seamstress', and 'manageress', and 'hostess', and 'poetess', etc - were changed in recent times only at the behest of an aggressive and boiler-suited feminist movement which basically reviles all things male as representing Capitalist Oppression and male-chauvinist dominance in the home, in politics, and in the business scene.

Nothing has more clearly exposed the sisterhood's ugly and subversive anti-male Social-Marxism than has their insistence that the term 'wife' be re-labelled 'partner'... and that the femininely lovely term 'Miss' be reduced to an absurd, and ugly, gender-neutral 'Ms'.

'Feminazis[/i]... ? Damn right! You'll get no apology from me.

I'll let you get back to ironing your blue boiler-suit ready for the next parade down Main Street USA with the boyz in leather and the broad-beamed gurlz on their Harley-Davidsons... Brrrooom... ! Brrroooom ... !

Hi Merry Andrew... back on track as promised:

I loathe this new practice in which the kiddies correspond with one another on forum boards by using only the lower-case of the alphabet.

I hate it even more when these very same kiddies employ this lazy method of undisciplined poor English usage when in commmunication with those of us who are obviously very much their senior and whose education and maturity deserves the courtesy of the correct use of the English alphabet.

On another forum I have long since disciplined one of these errant youths who once thought it totally acceptible to post in SMS code and infantile lower-case script. I'm happy to report he is now at the forefront of the membership as being a very able and excellent writer of conventional prose.

My threats of corporal punishment finally paid off with him.

herbert,
Don't worry your pretty little head about it. I don't need or want an apology from you. I was simply stating that your use of the word "feminazi" told me and many other women just what you are all about. No need to contact further I'm sure you are buzy applying salve to the carpet burns on your knuckles. By the way, you might want to check several dictionaries, the only language that hasn't changed is Latin, English is still a living language. If you know the boys in leather,,,, well enjoy yourself.

Thinking back in time, I wonder if Gloria Swanson, one of the founders of United Artist's would have enjoyed being called a feminazi? Lucky for you she is no longer among the living. Made a lot of good movies and married 6 times.

glitterbag...

Well! - Look who's got herself into a sulking fit about this now... 'your pretty little head... '[/i] indeed!

So herbert, you took it like a man! What a surprise.

glitterbag...

And that, dear lady, does neither you nor your feminist sisterhood any credit for being so shallow-minded as to make snap-judgments about people based upon nothing more substantial than the use of the term 'Feminazi'.

If you are so offended by the term then it can only mean that you are either a ball-crunching feminazi yourself - or if not, have absolutely no concept of the damage that the feminazi movement has wrought amongst the teaching professions... the media organisations... the leftwing of politics... and even in our hospitals where the feminist trendies have managed to persuade administrations to set up unisex wards where men and women are forced to occupy beds alongside one another.

jitterbug...

Huh? Yo no entiendo, señorita. Explique por favor.

Well, herbert, what can I say, except you are totally lunny tunes. If you can't understand the impact of such a loaded term, I suggest you ask you mother, your sister if you have one, your wife if you have one and your daughter if you have one. If you do indeed get an agreement from all the women in your family, then something is seriously wrong with you. You are either not listening or somehow, somewhere, developed an unnatual dislike of the opposite sex. I can't help you if that is the case, because I have deep and respectful relashionships with both men and women. Probably because my mother and father had so much respect for each other. Then again, there was that wonderful union between my grandmother and grandfather, what can I say? I have to mention that you are the first person I have run into since the 70's that refer to the "sister-hood", whatever that is.

You must be very young, glitterbag. Or perhaps you're a sheltered housewife who confines most of her intellect to the pages of Women's Weekly and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

When I use terms like 'feminazis' and the 'sisterhood' I am of course referring to only those women whose attitudes and behaviour qualifies them to be described in this way.

Heaven forbid - I am by no means painting a broad brush across the whole of the female population.

It is NOT up to you to decide the measure of anyone's speech patterns, herberts. I suspect that your ignorance on language issues runs as deep as all the other ignorance that you've seen fit to splash across these pages.

Keep up the good work work, herberts. You're a real gem of humanity.

JTT...

Compliments always gratefully accepted.

Meanwhile... KISS MY ASS![/i]

How about you, JTT, at least attempting to answer some of the points I've made with regard to the topic of this thread.

It's so often the case that people will provoke me with ad hominem personal attacks until sure enough it gives the admin the excuse to lock down the thread and thereby censor commentary which may have been slightly to the right of Leninist-Marxist Socialist Theory...

So herbert, you think I made personal attacks on you. Mea culpa, Mea culpa , Mea maximus culpa. Sorry to disappoint, but I am not really very young, which means I have had more experience dealing with people like you, than you, have had dealing with people like me. I am not attacking you, I am trying provide some insight that people who use terms such as "feminazi" are way off the beaten track. If you like the vile slur, by all means, use it. Just remember this notion will diminish you, you have labeled yourself as a person who thinks that this term" is a good way to diminish women who dare to think of themselves as any other thing than a mere appendage to a male". Frankly, I'm done with you, you can shield yourself with all of the ani-female terms you want. It doesn't really matter to me what you think about women. You can envelope yourself with whatever extrek you choose. If you really have such a low opinion of women, I urge you to pursue your fantasy. There are a whole passel of women who would be happy to indulge your beliefs. On the other hand, you may occassionally run into the women who are daughters of incredibly strong men who served duringf WWII. If those men wanted their daughters to succeed, they encouraged them to do well: in school, not let silly "Old wive's tales " disueade them, and encouraged us to be the best that we could be.

So continue with your warped idea that women think that they are superior to men. It's not a creed that I subcribe to, but if it makes you feel elated, good for you. You have never interacted with me, and you don't have the slighted idea what I'm all about., I guess your ego is moving you in the wrong direction. Perhaps, it might have helped you if you had been tutored by people like myself who strive to make compentcy part of the program. I'm just curiuos, do you assume that women in positions of influence shoud stay home and bake the cookies? I bake cookies, find time to make meals, love my husband and my son, and would never express statements such as feminazi or some random slur against men. If this works in your area of the globe, congratulations. you have joined a group that disparages their mothers. I think we all have wisdom to pass on. I am sorry that you think in such narrow lines. But coming to a conclusion, neither you or I will not sway public opinion. I'm not concerned, I've been useful to my family, useful to the DOD, and could not care less how you cataorize women. I love men, my husband, father, son, and my grandfather. They were men , and I loved them with all my heart.

I have a deep and unrelenting disire to see this county move forward Your reference regarding "feminazis" is inappropriate, ignorant and stinks of self-loathing. I suppose I can't protect you from the lunitic fringe, just try not to be so gullible.

But what the hell, if you depise women in positions of authority, stay home, hide under the bed until women get there com-uppance.

!! You really do have a package of emotional issues here which you need to work through with someone professional, don't you glitterbag? There's no shame at all in admitting to this, and I hope things eventually sort themselves out for you. You have my sympathy.

But I can sense a great deal of unresolved tension and emotional stress in you which a few sessions of cognitive therapy with a health professional might help to put things into their proper perspective.

You freaking out on the word 'feminazi' is a symptom of emotional issues far deeper than just a superficial concern for semantics.

I can only repeat what I've said before -- I use the term 'feminazi' only in relation to those jaundiced women whose inferiority complex and resentments towards male success and predominance in the higher echelons of society inspires in them a desire to geld and emasculate and neutralise the genders until we are all wearing the same unisex pajama-suits as they have in China.

I told you not to argue or stray off-topic, but did you listen?

So now I'm going to have to come round there and whup yo' ass.

Don't give me no aggravation honkey or ah is gonna kick yo' white punk ass!