Just in case you’ve forgotten, modern English is a distributive language.  That means that it is the word order that determines the meaning of the sentence.  It matters:

Dog bites man.

Man bites dog.

 In Latin or any other inflected language, “man” and “dog” would have endings or other form changes that would tell you who was doing the biting and who was being bitten.  The order of the words would be much less important.

One word that gets misplaced often, especially in casual speech and writing, is “only.”  We say things like “I can only see my friends on Thursday,” when that’s not at all what we mean.

Consider:

I went to the store yesterday.

Only I went to the store yesterday.

I only went to the store yesterday.

I went only to the store yesterday.

I went to only the store yesterday.

I went to the only store yesterday.

I went to the store only yesterday.

I went to the store yesterday only.

Posted by Sharon under Observations | No Comments »

One of my many objections to the Internal Revenue Service, as I have written before, is its distance from its original function, which is to raise money for use by the government.

As a Libertarian, I find its basic function offensive enough; but the IRS has now strayed into the dodgy area of trying to manipulate behavior.  We give tax breaks to citizens for adopting children, investing in certain industries, giving money to charities, and buying medications, among others.

Mind you, I think that giving to charities and adopting children are noble behaviors.  I just object to my government mixing behavior modification with fund raising.  I object to my government indulging in behavior modification at all.

The current heated debate among our legislators about extending tax cuts seems to me to be the classic embodiment of this dichotomy.  Some of them want to keep the tax cuts for everyone.  Some of them want to keep the tax cuts for only the less wealthy.  Where to draw the line that determines who is more wealthy and who is less wealthy is the only item still on the agenda, and will almost certainly be the tool of compromise.

Wealthy people in our culture are, after all, always suspect.  They’re probably evil and exploitive, don’t adopt children or give to charities, and got their money by cheating more deserving folks.  And since we can’t find a way to legally modify their behavior, at the very least we can make them pay a larger part of the shared expenses.

Posted by Sharon under Libertarianism | No Comments »

One impractical solution to the airport security problem:

The airlines provide two planes for every flight.  One of them will carry all passengers whose persons have been scanned or patted down and whose luggage has been screened.  The other plane will carry all passengers who have chosen neither to be subjected to any security measures nor to have their luggage checked.

You choose which plane you want to fly on.

Posted by Sharon under Observations | No Comments »

I vote we change TSA to T&A.

Posted by Sharon under Laughter | No Comments »

Oh, yeah!

Posted by Sharon under Laughter | No Comments »

Dear LPKS,

Okay, the mid-term election is over, and we didn’t get the results we hoped and worked for.  I admit to being profoundly disappointed, and sometimes I wonder why we do what we do.

God knows it’s not expedient.  God knows it’s not popular.  God knows it’s right.

And that’s it, isn’t it?  Every one of us knows, as surely as we breathe, that assuring liberty and expecting responsibility is the only acceptable way to govern.  And we suspect that we are the only line resisting the slide into tyranny.

So this is my love letter, and my note of thanks, to all of you.

To the candidates, those who put their names on the ballot, who stood up there visible and vulnerable, who held the banner for all to see:  thank you.

To the candidates’ families, those who stood beside them and who welcomed them home at night, who urged them to bed at two in the morning even as they kept answering emails and planning strategies, who saw the anger and the frustration and, probably, the tears that the rest of us will never know about:  thank you.

To those who booked speaking engagements and produced radio ads and researched ad placements and deposited donations and filed financial reports and gave advice about wording for ads:  thank you.

To those who donated money in any amount:  thank you.

To those who walked or drove or rode in the parades throwing candy and handing out flyers, to those who stood on the corner of 10^th and Topeka Blvd. waving campaign signs and cheering for anyone who honked in agreement:  thank you.

To those who planned the watch party and brought food to the party, those who came to the party and were determined to be cheerful even when the returns were disappointing, to those who were not cheerful at all but came to the party anyway:  thank you.

To those who voted for freedom:  thank you.

There is no group of people I am more proud to call my friends.

I’ll see you all back here again in a couple of years, okay?

Love,

Sharon

Posted by Sharon under Libertarianism | No Comments »