Saturday, April 25, 2009

Can Remedial Spelling Cure Wingnuttia?

I was reading through this - Daily Kos: Saturday hate mail-apalooza - when the element common to almost every one of the Wingnut Hate Letters struck me: misplaced apostrophes, misspelling, and/or dyslexic spelling. You know the pattern: your becomes you're, lose becomes loose, and anything plural is indicated by an apostrophe followed by an "s" as in "plural's."

Here are a few examples from that post of letters sent to Kos:

Comrade,

we will rise up and squash you and those like you. Enjoy you moment in the sun.

we will not much longer stand by and watch while you and you're ilk destroy what is our birth right.


Enjoy you moment in the sun? You and you're ilk? Here's another:

Go to HELL WITH YOUR SOICALISM, THIS IS AMERICA AND THE TRUE AMERICANS WILL DEFEND LIBERTY, FREEDOM TO THEIR LAST BREATH, CAN YOU COWARDS SAY THE SAME, I DOUBT IT. TURE AMERICAN VIETNAM VET, CONSERVATE, T.A.TATE


Soicalism is something with which I am unfamiliar. The practice of soical? As for "ture" and "conservate," I admit to being baffled.

But I do wonder this: Can these people be saved by remedial spelling and remedial grammar? If they learn the proper use of the apostrophe (Use it to form a contraction or to indicate possession. Period.) will they suddenly find themselves freed from their nonsensical worldview? Will the term "freedom" suddenly come to mean "freedom for all" rather than "you must think the same thing as me?"

I have no proof that this would work, but I think it's worth a try. Oh, and while we're at it, we might add "remedial use of the caps lock key" to the mix.

Friday, April 03, 2009

Bush V. Obama... A Visit to Britain

Just in case someone out there forgets what the Bush years were like, when those Texans trampled the pristine grounds of Buckingham Palace...
The Mahablog » Anyone Else Remember the Five Chefs?