“It’s Only Words” #4,276

If you see any form of “decimate” used in any text published in this century, you can be at least 90% certain it is misused. Even the most corrupt definition listed by contemporary lexicographers seems to be eschewed by at least 90% of contemporary speakers of English, because words only USED to have meaning.

(Most “readers” in English-speaking countries will not be able to understand the above text.)

Waste of Time

Memory spurred by random crap on the Interwebs: When Doc Yarborough told me he wanted me to apply for a MENSA membership (after some p-sych tests taken as part of a senior p-sych course), I knew it was not for me. I mean, why join yet another group I’d have to explain everything to?

Nah. I just gave him my (extracurricular) survey on the GSR research he was interested in and bugged out. (The info I handed him was based on my idiosyncratic results of running the unblinded tests on myself. Decidedly NOT valid for anything but an open comparison of results, and could have been influenced by my knowledge of the research, but still interesting to him. My results were decidedly. . . Odd, of course. *heh*)

The Original ‘Florida Man’

De Leon was a Ponce.

On another topic. . .

If Banana Ball rules were instituted in MLB, I might stay awake for a whole game. If Banana Ball rules were somehow _translated_ into the NFL – even if just in spirit – I might even actually find watching football moderately interesting.

Actually, if gladiator “deathmatch” rules were instituted in the NFL, I would definitely watch. . . Oooo! NBA deathmatches! Wait. No, MBA deathmatches! Yeh, watch the Wall Street Bloodsport! (The NHL already has these beat, so. . . ) Better: CSPAN after a constitutional amendment REQUIRING all congresscritters to be armed whenever Congress is in session. CSPAN would rule cable.

? This is what happens when a guy dreams w/o enough coffee in his bloodstream.

[sarc /on] Thank You, Department of Injustice [sarc /off]

Read a quick lil novel that’s a fantasy about justice served on Antifa (and similar) thugs in the wake of the 2020 riots. . . after those thugs were released and given pats on the head for looting, burning, and outright murder. It’s a little like a weak version of John Ross’s “Unintended Consequences.” Not sure those are healthy fantasies to harbor, though. Such things, once out in the wild, might well progress beyond being fantasy.

Still, it would be nice for justice to be more than a fantasy that seems more and more to be denied a place in reality. We can, at least in part, thank organized government crime like that perpetrated by the Felonious Barony of Iniquity and its parent organization, the Department of Injustice for much of the anarcho-tyranny leading to so much else in government following their examples.

It’s a Real Head-Scratcher

I don’t understand why Peter Jackson did all the CGI stuff to make Andy Serkis into Gollum for LoTR, when James Carville could have played the role w/o even any makeup.

It’s a Thing, Ya Know. . .

It’s been several years since I have been “trapped” by a listserv-posted novel. New chapters (or just pieces of new chapters, in some cases) posted at regular or irregular intervals, as the writer is able or as the writer simply feels like doing, just does not appeal to me, especially since everything is usually first draft, unedited.

But. . . yeh. in my sporadic armchair pseudo-anthropological dabbling in understanding the background of a subset of 20-something or 30-nothing grups, I usually read some litrpg/isekai/wuxia fiction each week, out of the usual 10+ books of various genres (including a few non-fiction from varied subject lines). So, I was snagged by a Royal Road thread featuring a variation of isekai-wuxia I had not run across before. Only 20 chapters on RR, so. . . Patreon. But no, not paying $8/month to have instant access to new material, etc. The book is better-written and more interesting than 90% of the its genre, but not THAT musch better-written or interesting.

Winds of Destiny: A Cultivator’s Odyssey. Fluff, but entertaining and not even nearly as badly-written as most normally published self-pubs available on Amazon.

Hyfrydol

Rowland Prichard’s tune “Hyfrydol” has been used as a setting for some great hymn texts, but one of my very favorites will always remain John Wilbur Chapman’s,

Jesus! what a Friend for sinners! Jesus! Lover of my soul;
Friends may fail me, foes assail me, He, my Savior, makes me whole.

Chorus
Hallelujah! what a Savior! Hallelujah! what a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end.

Jesus! what a strength in weakness! Let me hide myself in Him;
Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing, He, my strength, my vic’try wins.

Chorus

Jesus! what a help in sorrow! While the billows o’er me roll,
Even when my heart is breaking, He, my comfort, helps my soul.

Chorus

Jesus! what a guide and keeper! While the tempest still is high,
Storms about me, night o’ertakes me, He, my pilot, hears my cry.

Chorus

Jesus! I do now receive Him, More than all in Him I find,
He hath granted me forgiveness, I am His and He is mine!

Chorus


BTW, the song is only loosely a hymn, technically speaking. It’s actually much closer to a Gospel song, though not in the contemporary pejorated sense but in the classical sense.

According to Congress (and All the Other Crooks), Those Words Do Not Mean What They Mean

The idea that laws only apply to “the little people” is EXACTLY what the Framers wanted to avert with Article I Section 9 Clause 8 and and Article I Section 10 Clause 1 of the Constitution, denying both the feds and the states the power to grant titles of nobility. Of course, our “betters” have decided to arrogate unto themselves the PRIVILEGES and POWERS of “nobility” without the titles themselves. Because they can. Hence lawmakers immune to the laws they impose and law enFARCErs with *cough* “qualified” *cough* immunity (which means in practice, anything their allies in crime let them get away with).

“I do not think that means what you think it means.”

Grammar exercise for the day. Diagram:

“After a long sleepless night, [Character Name] comes across a man chasing a woman thief named [Other Character Name], who soon becomes [Personal Possessive Pronoun] loyal ally in the wild.” Lil clue: as it (rather much) later turns out, the sentence does not actually say what the writer intended. *smh*