The Questions not worth their own thread thread VII

[Earthling]

They say there's no parody you can make that some people won't mistake for the truth...

Spoiler :

Yes, I've posted that before in similar conversations but I'm not trying to be overly spammy - also afaik Dachs is the only person to recognize or even comment on it. Anyway, it just serves as a reminder to folks of all stripes and persuasions. Adult Diapers is possibly one of the most pretentious people in the world - he puts pathetic internet persona to shame. He could toss aside a thousand trolls as their Lord and King and have enough ego left over to tussle with the likes of Napoleon and take it extra innings. This of course is not helped by the fact that his columns by some longstanding default get put into newspapers all over the country every week. And of course, many non-USians and even many Americans don't know much about this - though some people quote still Diapers far too often in various discussions often as a source of authority as well. He has pretty much two purposes in everything he writes:

-How he and his circle of friends, social associates, and politicians are better than everyone else. And not on the standard rhetoric of race or gender or ethnicity or intelligence or anything a lesser and typical bigot would say - on why by their very social standing and position in society they are better than the common man. How he is the only true "intellectual" not marred by the ivory towers of liberalism, or apparently reason and logic.
-Anecdotes and metaphors about baseball either meant to soley discuss controversies in the sport itself ("GRR DEM STEROIDS") or as some vague analogy to some bit of Americana and propagandistic ideology - the American dream and capitalism and whatnot.

Also, for seriousness I'm not going to grace Dachs with the typical lolpear or "The more you know" or anything, so yeah, there it is.

 

[Elrohir]

Ayn Rand was close to one.

You're joking, right? Have you ever read an Ayn Rand novel? Like Atlas Shrugged, for instance? Where her heroine, who sounds an awful lot like her, falls in love with the super-confident, crazy smart, alpha male, and then he has sex with her in a passionately violent way that honestly almost sounds like rape. Oh, and then she ditches him when she finds a stronger, smarter man. (And then again, as well - she's in love with what, three guys in the course of the novel?) Regardless of the rationality of her political and economic ideas (And I don't think they're especially good) she was even more bizarre when it came to sex.

An excerpt:

Spoiler :

She [Dagny Taggert] felt him [Hank Rearden] trembling and she thought that this was the king of cry she had wanted to tear from him - this surrender through the shreds of his tortured resistance. Yet she knew, at the same time, that the triumph was his, that her laughter was her tribute to him, that her defiance was submission, that the purpose of all her violent strength was only to make his victory the greater - he was holding her body against his, as if stressing his wish to let her know that she was now only the tool for the satisfaction - of his desire - and his victory, she knew, was her wish to let him reduce her to that. Whatever I am, she thought, whatever pride of person I may hold, the pride of my courage, of my work, of my mind and my freedom - that is what I offer you for the pleasure of your body, that is what I want you to use in your service - and that you want it to serve you is the greatest reward I can have. [Chapter 8, Atlas Shrugged. Bolding mine, italics in the original]

 

[kulade]

HEY GAIS

When your elementary school teacher told you to sit indian style, what kind of indian did she mean?!?!?!?!?!?! The indian kind or the american kind?!?!?!?!?!?!

OK, TY

 

[Huayna Capac357]

American.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Its funny, because in Europe that style of sitting associated with Turks.

You're joking, right? Have you ever read an Ayn Rand novel? Like Atlas Shrugged, for instance? Where her heroine, who sounds an awful lot like her, falls in love with the super-confident, crazy smart, alpha male, and then he has sex with her in a passionately violent way that honestly almost sounds like rape. Oh, and then she ditches him when she finds a stronger, smarter man. (And then again, as well - she's in love with what, three guys in the course of the novel?) Regardless of the rationality of her political and economic ideas (And I don't think they're especially good) she was even more bizarre when it came to sex.

An excerpt:

Spoiler :

She [Dagny Taggert] felt him [Hank Rearden] trembling and she thought that this was the king of cry she had wanted to tear from him - this surrender through the shreds of his tortured resistance. Yet she knew, at the same time, that the triumph was his, that her laughter was her tribute to him, that her defiance was submission, that the purpose of all her violent strength was only to make his victory the greater - he was holding her body against his, as if stressing his wish to let her know that she was now only the tool for the satisfaction - of his desire - and his victory, she knew, was her wish to let him reduce her to that. Whatever I am, she thought, whatever pride of person I may hold, the pride of my courage, of my work, of my mind and my freedom - that is what I offer you for the pleasure of your body, that is what I want you to use in your service - and that you want it to serve you is the greatest reward I can have. [Chapter 8, Atlas Shrugged. Bolding mine, italics in the original]

Well that certainly explains a lot about her insane ideas. Sounds very Giulianiesque to me. "Submission is freedom!" or whatever he said. Obedience is freedom, or something like that.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Obedience, submission. Sounds like slavery. And using the symmetric property.......

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Today on the way home I passed by the church, and it said on the outdoors sign:

"TWO TENETS OF ATHEISM
THERE IS NO GOD
AND I HATE HIM"

I don't exactly get what that means. I thought a tenet was somebody who rented an apartment. I also don't get the entire thing

 

[Elrohir]

Today on the way home I passed by the church, and it said on the outdoors sign:

"TWO TENETS OF ATHEISM
THERE IS NO GOD
AND I HATE HIM"

I don't exactly get what that means. I thought a tenet was somebody who rented an apartment. I also don't get the entire thing

A tenet is a belief or doctrine. A tenant is someone who rents an apartment.

And the sign was saying that atheists don't just disbelieve in God - they seem angry at him for various reasons. That's can be true true, and can be false, depending on the person. Blanket statements suck. (Except for this one!)

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

A tenet is a rule you hold to be true. A tenant is a person who rents an apartment.

EDIT: Crosspost!

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

OK, now I get it. Thanks

 

[Elrohir]

Grammar opinion question: in the draft of one of my papers, I included a sentence that read "To this day, to call a newspaper a yellow newspaper is to denigrate its solemnity and objectivity." The teacher wrote WW (Wrong word) and circled solemnity. She's mentioned before that I sometimes use the wrong word, or the wrong form of a word when writing. But I don't get it - solemnity is the "the state or character of being solemn," just as "objectivity" is the "the state or quality of being objective." I think I may want to reword the whole sentence anyway, because it's a little awkward. But I really don't see why solemnity is an incorrect word to use here. Can someone here explain it, to me? Or is my teacher just wrong? (She's a history teacher, not an English teacher, so that seems plausible to me...although she has been grading papers for decades now.)

 

[Flying Pig]

Solemnity means seriousness, as in 'this is a very serious situation'. It doesn't really mean serious as opposed to silly.

 

[Trafalgar]

At what age are you considered old?

 

[Flying Pig]

When you a) get grey hair, b) retire or c) start going to bed before your children

 

[Elrohir]

Solemnity means seriousness, as in 'this is a very serious situation'. It doesn't really mean serious as opposed to silly.

Solemnity
"the state or character of being solemn; earnestness; gravity; impressiveness: the solemnity of a state funeral. "

I don't think there's the distinction in definition that you're suggesting....A serious situation is one where things are, well, serious and deserve earnest and grave thought and action, rather than silly, or non-grave or earnest thoughts or actions.

What you're saying doesn't make sense to me. If you really think I'm wrong, could you explain why in a bit more detail?

 

[Flying Pig]

Are you british? It just sounds like the wrong word, although it is probably technically correct. The reason it was circled is that it sounds out of place where you put it

 

[Elrohir]

Are you british? It just sounds like the wrong word, although it is probably technically correct. The reason it was circled is that it sounds out of place where you put it

Nope, I'm American! I guess that's probably it - I read a lot, including a lot of older books, so I suppose my writing style just could be somewhat old fashioned. I'll probably end up coming up with a more American way of saying it, I don't think it's worth butting heads with her over.

 

[GinandTonic]

Solemnity
"the state or character of being solemn; earnestness; gravity; impressiveness: the solemnity of a state funeral. "

I don't think there's the distinction in definition that you're suggesting....A serious situation is one where things are, well, serious and deserve earnest and grave thought and action, rather than silly, or non-grave or earnest thoughts or actions.

What you're saying doesn't make sense to me. If you really think I'm wrong, could you explain why in a bit more detail?

Solemnity in the sense you use is really only appropriate in a religious/ ceremonial context, possibly extending via the sense of taking an oath into a somewhat wider sense.

In regard to a newspapers kudos and dignity perhaps gravitas would more accurately convey the intended meaning - so long as I correctly understand the americanism "yellow journalism" to be a pejorative aimed by the broadsheets at the tabloids.

 

[Brighteye]

Grammar opinion question: in the draft of one of my papers, I included a sentence that read "To this day, to call a newspaper a yellow newspaper is to denigrate its solemnity and objectivity." The teacher wrote WW (Wrong word) and circled solemnity. She's mentioned before that I sometimes use the wrong word, or the wrong form of a word when writing. But I don't get it - solemnity is the "the state or character of being solemn," just as "objectivity" is the "the state or quality of being objective." I think I may want to reword the whole sentence anyway, because it's a little awkward. But I really don't see why solemnity is an incorrect word to use here. Can someone here explain it, to me? Or is my teacher just wrong? (She's a history teacher, not an English teacher, so that seems plausible to me...although she has been grading papers for decades now.)

I don't know what these yellow papers are: I vaguely recall being told about them at some point, and I think they're tabloids.
But anyway, denigrating solemnity sounds very odd. Solemnity isn't a virtue, whereas objectivity is.
Solemnity is being too serious; it is tinged with these meanings (from the free online one, since I can't get at the OED at the moment):
2. characterized by pomp, ceremony, or formality
3. serious, glum, or pompous
6. gloomy or sombre
It is not merely another word for serious.

 

[SG-17]

Today on the way home I passed by the church, and it said on the outdoors sign:

"TWO TENETS OF ATHEISM
THERE IS NO GOD
AND I HATE HIM"

Contradictions at their finest.