Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

You are here: Home / Economics / Grifters Gonna Grift / Trash Even a Man Who Lies With Goats (allegedly) Won’t Touch

Trash Even a Man Who Lies With Goats (allegedly) Won’t Touch

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This is funny:

The blogger Mickey Kaus has quit his job at The Daily Caller after the conservative site’s editor-in-chief, Tucker Carlson, pulled a critical column about Fox News from the site, Kaus told the On Media blog on Tuesday.

“It’s pretty simple,” Kaus said in an interview, “I wrote a piece attacking Fox for not being the opposition on immigration and amnesty — for filling up the airwaves with reports on ISIS and terrorism, and not fulfilling their responsibility of being the opposition on amnesty and immigration…. I posted it at 6:30 in the morning. When I got up, Tucker had taken it down. He said, ‘We can’t trash Fox on the site. I work there.'”

Carlson, who co-founded The Daily Caller in 2010, is a conservative contributor to Fox News and the host of its weekend edition of “Fox & Friends.”

Kaus says when he told Carlson he needed to be able to write about Fox, Carlson told him it was a hard-and-fast rule, and non-negotiable.

“He said it was a rule, and he wouldn’t be able to change that rule. So I told him I quit,” Kaus explained. “I just don’t see how you can put out a publication with that kind of giant no-go area. It’s not like we’re owned by Joe’s Muffler Shop, so we just can’t write about Joe’s Muffler shop.”

Reached via email, Carlson told On Media: “Mickey is a great guy, and one of the few truly independent thinkers anywhere. I’m sorry to see him go.”

Fair and Balanced, yo.

Reader Interactions

123Comments

  2. 2.

    Tractarian

    Wow. Kaus was attacking Fox News from the right.

    Sounds like just the sort of against-the-grain thinking an outlet like Slate would gladly pay for. If not , I’m sure he’ll land on his feet at NewsMax.

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    This is a damn shame.

    Racism is TAUGHT. period.

    …………………….

    Parents won’t let daughter attend birthday sleepover because birthday girl is black
    POSTED 2:45 PM, MARCH 17, 2015, BY CNN WIRE

    MEMPHIS, Tennessee — A young girl wrote her friend a letter that explained she could not go to her birthday party because she is black. The children are students at Highland Oaks Elementary near Memphis. Civil rights activist Lasimba Gray said he hoped the letter can turn into a teaching experience.

    “Fifty-two years since the Dr. King ‘I have a dream speech,’ you would think that the basis for racism would disappear, but evidently it is being perpetuated by those who teach it,” Gray said. Gray, who has dedicated his life to civil and human rights, said when he saw the letter he called it “regrettable” because a parent told their child it was OK to judge someone based on the color of their skin.

    “Every child has a blank canvas when they come into the world,” Gray said.

    The letter reads in part, “Maybe I will not be able to go to your birthday sleepover because my dad will not let me go because you are black.”

    http://wtvr.com/2015/03/17/birthday-letter/

  7. 7.

    John M. Burt

    My first response was the usual “Circle the firing squad while I make popcorn,” but I find myself strangely in sympathy with Mickey.

    This incident is a reminder of something I never tire of pointing out to “conservatives”: that since “conservative” is a verb, they need to remember “Conservative what?”, the answer being that they are conservative Liberals, as distinct from us progressive Liberals. What unites us (that “all men are created equal” stuff) is more important than what divides us (tribal loyalty and wrongheaded notions about economics, mainly).

    Mickey Kaus has got Liberalism deep down inside, and once in awhile those Liberal values shine through.

  9. 9.

    Sloegin

    Aww Mickey what a pity can’t you understand
    Attacking from the right will quickly get you canned

    /duck and cover

  12. 12.

    raven

    Two gunmen and a security officer were killed in a raid at a Tunisian museum on Wednesday, ending a hostage situation that followed an attack on the building that left several tourists dead.

    The gunmen killed 19 people — including 17 tourists — and injured 22 people, according to Prime Minister Habib Essid. The attack started outside the National Bardo Museum, which lies next to the capital’s parliament compound.

  13. 13.

    Violet

    Hey, Mickey!
    You’ve been around all night
    And that’s a little long
    You think you’ve got it right
    And I think you got it wrong

  14. 14.

    MattF

    So, exactly how long has Kaus been working happily for Carlton Tucker? Where ‘happily’ means ‘without throwing up every now and then’. I don’t feel any sympathy for Kaus– unusually, he’s getting pretty much what he deserves.

  15. 15.

    rikyrah

    Black girl’s parents banned from school after complaining about racist threats warning, ‘N****rs don’t belong’
    18 MAR 2015 AT 09:22 ET

    An Indiana sixth-grader’s parents were banned from school after confronting administrators over racist threats made against their daughter.

    NyZeria Neely, the only black student in her high-ability class at Concord Intermediate School, said she found a pair of threatening notes in her locker two weeks in a row.

    The first note, which she found last week, warned, “Watch your back,” reported the Elkhart Truth.

    The second note, which she found Monday, read, “N****rs don’t belong!!!”

    NyZeria said she considered crumpling up the second note, fearing no one would understand how she felt targeted in a school where just 10 percent of students are black and 2 percent of school personnel.

    http://www.elkharttruth.com/news/schools/concord-high-school/2015/03/17/Notes-with-threats-racial-slurs-found-in-Concord-Intermediate-student-s-locker.html

  16. 16.

    Pogonip

    @Amir Khalid: No, not in English. In proper English it’s an adjective–a conservative approach, a co servative politician– and in sloppy modern English it’s a noun–Bob is a conservative–but in no kind of English is it a verb. “I am going to conservative” doesn’t work in English.

  19. 19.

    SatanicPanic

    @rikyrah:

    She said she felt awkward as she explained the notes to her teacher, and then to Principal Chad Stamm.

    “He told me not to worry because it’s just words,” NyZeria said. “But it’s more than words. I felt that it was offensive, very offensive.”

    RRRRRrrrrr what is wrong with this dude?

  20. 20.

    Violet

    Speaking of trash:

    Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) is floating the possibility of running for Sen. Bill Nelson’s (D-FL) seat in 2018.

    According to the Tampa Bay Times, Scott told donors that he’s interested in challenging Nelson when he would be up for re-election at the end of his third term.

  24. 24.

    gvg

    @rikyrah: What I wonder is why the parents of the girl who can’t go thought she should put that in writing. Childish grammar can be difficult to decipher but was she saying her mom might let her go and it was only her dad who wouldn’t let her? I wonder what the child will think of the reactions of classmates and other adults? I wonder what the reactions will actually be? Some will act angry at her for things she doesn’t even understand yet (or she wouldn’t have put that in writing) and others may encourage the racism…..she wanted to go and evidently played with the black girl although with our kid daycare through now 1st grade the rules are pretty much invite everyone in the class or none. I doubt the child is ready for all this attention.

    My white first grader is positive that MLK was a president not just a famous man because he has been taught so much about MLK in much the same way as he is taught about Washington and Lincoln. He tells us we are wrong when we try to explain. I am generally a wet blanket about things like holidays for every hallmark event but I think the holiday may have prevented that part of history from being not taught well. the little kids get coloring pages to teach them and word searches, hear stories, etc. It starts early. Washington and Lincoln are still the 2 biggest deals just like when I was a kid. that is kind of reassuring. I had wondered if they were going to try to forget Lincoln, given what the news has reported about school boards and textbooks. I wonder if they haven’t realized the subversive power of free printable coloring pages that teachers all seem to know about.

  25. 25.

    Amir Khalid

    @Pogonip:
    Thank you for that reassuring explanation. For a moment there, I thought someone had changed the rules of English while I wasn’t looking.

  26. 26.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    So the rumors about Kaus dying from a disease contracted from goats isn’t true?

  28. 28.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @rikyrah:
    This story is deranged. In what world ‘could’ these letters qualify as harassment? An anonymous note reading ‘Watch your back’ is terroristic threatening. I don’t care if it’s about race, someone’s trying to make that girl live in fear. You come down on that like the hammer of God.

    But the threat was about race, and the school’s attitude is that she and her folks should just let it slide. That could not be more fucked up.

    And that’s the real face of racism in America, folks. A couple of people do the classic Klu Klux Klan shit, and 99 out of 100 whites pretend they didn’t see it.

    Obama’s presidency has been such an eye-opener for me.

  30. 30.

    Matt McIrvin

    @gvg: Mine got a lot about MLK too, but it’s mythologized about on the level of stories about the First Thanksgiving or George Washington and the cherry tree. I’ve tried to explain that, you know, King wasn’t just a guy who wanted everyone to be nicer to everyone; he was a radical who was trying to end a reign of terror, and adopted nonviolence in part because he felt it was the most effective way to do that. But it’s sometimes hard to get across in an age-appropriate way.

  31. 31.

    jl

    @Frankensteinbeck: Sounds messed up. Anonymous threats, one openly racist, are ‘just words’ that can be ignored. Complaining about anonymous threats are not ‘just words’. What is the difference? Please do tell… what is the difference…

  33. 33.

    SatanicPanic

    One the bright side, someone is doing something right: San Francisco mayor eyes firing of police over racist texts

    The mayor of San Francisco said Tuesday that four police officers under investigation in the sending of racist and homophobic texts will be fired if the probe determines they sent the messages.

    Mayor Edwin M. Lee called the messages heinous and despicable, and called for immediate disciplinary action against the officers.

  34. 34.

    jl

    @SatanicPanic: Those were seriously Fd up texts. Not just racist, but eliminationist ideations of racist and homophobic violence, shooting, and execution. Far worse than I first thought.

  35. 35.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    At this point, Kaus could write a Journalism Career How Not To book. Maybe he could serialize it in his new gig at Newsmax.

  36. 36.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Well, I’m sure we’ll soon be hearing from the wingtards about how Kaus’ First Amendment rights have been violated by Fucker Carlson, right?

  37. 37.

    bemused

    @rikyrah:

    Actually meant for gvg.

    From the link, it’s not clear if the girl who wrote the note did it on her own without her parents knowing or her parents directed her to write it. If they told her to write a note saying she couldn’t go to the party, did they read it and or not know she was being totally honest (out of the mouths of babes) about their racism? If they read it and let her give the note to her friend, well, that would be another whole level of awful.

  39. 39.

    Bem

    “It’s not like we’re owned by Joe’s Muffler Shop, so we just can’t write about Joe’s Muffler shop”

    I think I see the problem. He apparently didn’t know who actually owns his ‘shop’.

  41. 41.

    jl

    Hey, this jackass, from Louisiana of all places(!) insulted my state! He is unconstitutional, insulted the glorious dignity of my sovereign state, and must be inpeached!

    GOP Rep: Obama Has ‘Grand Plan’ To Make ‘Single-Party’ Nation For Dems

    ‘ Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) warned radio listeners Monday that President Obama hopes to create a “single-party” nation for Democrats by flooding the voting booths with undocumented immigrants, according to audio surfaced by Buzzfeed.
    …
    Fleming added that Democrats had already turned California into a single-party state, “and you see the devastating impact it’s having there.” ‘

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/john-fleming-single-party-dems

  43. 43.

    Karen in GA

    @rikyrah: When I was a kid my parents didn’t want me inviting a friend to my birthday party because she was black. “We don’t mind, but other people in the neighborhood might,” blah blah blah. There were three girls I was particularly close with at school, and she was one of them. I decided I didn’t want the party.

    If there was that hope for me 35 years ago, perhaps there’s hope for these kids. Some of them, anyway.

  45. 45.

    Tenar Darell

    @rikyrah: I wonder, seriously, is there a clipping campaign for forwarding all of these reports to Chief Justice Roberts? Because even if he didn’t read them, the sheer weight could be instructive. The Supreme Court has closed its eyes to what really happens, but maybe their ears cannot be shut?

  46. 46.

    trollhattan

    He’s a very confused man. Some may remember his 2010 senate run for Boxer’s seat. He ran as a Democrat.

    I blame the drugs. And the (purported) goats.

  47. 47.

    Tommy

    @SatanicPanic: Because if you are a public servant that you say racist things gets you fired should be a given. I don’t even see how it is up for conversation.

  48. 48.

    SatanicPanic

    @Tommy: Oh, yeah, I agree, I wish more places were like San Francisco. (minus the high rent and lousy weather)

  50. 50.

    cokane

    “conservative” is an adjective. Adjectives can also be used as nouns, it’s really common even in “proper” English, not sure why this is so hard.

    “Conservatives don’t care about the poor.”

    Easy and obvious, no?

  51. 51.

    MattF

    @jl: Of course, a single national party composed of the right sort of God-fearing folks would be dandy. I know, it’s tiresome to point out that this is yet another case of projection of unacceptable opinions onto you-know-who, but there it is.

  52. 52.

    Randy P

    @jl: I thought California was finally enjoying some prosperity after the Dems achieved a large enough majority. What devastating effect would he like to point out?

  54. 54.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @cokane: The great thing about “Conservatives” in this country is that they seem to loathe efforts to conserve anything. They hate environmentalists and “preservationists” with a passion because the ingrates actually fucking care about clean air and water above profit.

  55. 55.

    Calouste

    @jl: I think it was the Republicans who turned California into a single-party state, by being incompetent assholes out of touch with its population.

  56. 56.

    jl

    @Randy P: Commie California’s employment and GDP growth rate higher than US average, and most of that comes from commie commie parts of Northern California. Fiscal situation in CA is better.

    I was thinking poverty rate, but Louisiana’s is higher.

    I’ve heard some news quotes that California’s poverty rate is highest in US, but I looked into it, and apparently that is from confusion (innocent or otherwise) between standard and supplemental measures.

    Sorry, Louisiana, I love ya, but you’ve been Jindaled real good like, and look for other states to trash, please.

    @Calouste: That is true. I heard the CA GOP goons nasty themselves into oblivion, with my own ears. They used to go on really nasty rants on the news. Now they since they are hanging onto their slim margin of non political oblviion (1/3 of leg) they have their relatively more polished and polite leg leaders speak for the lout GOP

  57. 57.

    Mandalay

    @Tommy:

    Because if you are a public servant that you say racist things gets you fired should be a given. I don’t even see how it is up for conversation.

    It’s up for conversation precisely because firing rarely happens, even when it should. Here’s a current example:

    A French teacher at Cypress Bay High school in Weston will serve a five day suspension without pay for referring to a Muslim student multiple times as “Taliban” in school.

    The School Board approved the suspension without discussion on Tuesday, despite ongoing protests from the student’s father and other community members who wanted tougher disciplinary measures.

    A teacher repeatedly calls a 14 year old student “rag head”, “Taliban” and “terrorista”, and all she gets is a five day suspension? WTF? Forget firing. She needs to be behind bars.

  58. 58.

    Not Adding Much to the Community

    ” one of the few truly independent thinkers anywhere” which is why he was a poor fit for our organization.

  59. 59.

    kc

    not fulfilling their responsibility of being the opposition on amnesty and immigration….

    LOL, is that Fox’s “responsibility?”

    Railing against amnesty and immigration will please the GOP base, but it’s not what the moneyed bosses want.

  62. 62.

    Germy Shoemangler

    Trump is ready to run for 2016 nomination. He will make the others look sane and reasonable. He believes he can win this.

    Unrelated, but is my macbook being held hostage by adobe flash? Every once in a while, I am compelled to update adobe flash, or I won’t see pictures or video. So I do it. Yesterday I ignored the prompt. Now every site I visit is full of blank boxes. WTF?

  64. 64.

    RaflW

    Semi-OT but this makes me happy:

    Trump Takes Initial Steps for Presidential Bid
    March 18, 2015 by Taegan Goddard

    Donald Trump “will launch a presidential exploratory committee Wednesday, the eve of the business mogul’s return to New Hampshire,” the New Hampshire Union Leader reports.

    “Trump has flirted with running for President before, but his moves ahead of 2016 are far more concrete. He has a team of political advisers based in New York and he has hired staff in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.”

    Any time the man with a floor mop for a head can be more closely linked to the GOP is a good day in my book. And, as they say, grifters gonna grift. Trump is a master con man.

  65. 65.

    ruemara

    @SatanicPanic: “eyes”? Jesus. Is it that fucking hard in sooooper liberal SF to say “will be fired”?
    @rikyrah: Also, fuck these guys with the notes. Fuck those school officials even harder with a rusty chainsaw.

    OT: Are there any serious alternatives to Amazon? They have been a font of incompetence for months, but this latest mess is costing us nearly 40% of our normal sales.

  68. 68.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Amir Khalid: Given that your English is better than that of many native speakers, your question doesn’t surprise me.

    On the topic of native speakers can anyone here suggest some good sources for remedial grammar and spelling for a 23yo? A shirt tail relative of mine is incarcerated and his letters demonstrate an appalling lack of vocabulary, spelling and sentence/paragraph structure understanding. His job prospects are going to be limited due to his crime, and they will be non-existent if his writing doesn’t improve.

    @Amir Khalid: I understand your concern. They’ve changed the periodic table of elements a couple of times when I wasn’t looking. I keep a much closer eye on them now.

  69. 69.

    Mike J

    @kc:

    LOL, is that Fox’s “responsibility?”

    Railing against amnesty and immigration will please the GOP base, but it’s not what the moneyed bosses want.

    Fox’s responsibility is to throw out enough red meat to get the yokels to swallow the message the money wing of the party wants out there. Fox is not going to rail against cheap labor.

  72. 72.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @RaflW: Unfortunately Trump ends up making the other contenders look reasonable and… presidential.

  73. 73.

    Svensker

    @ruemara:

    Are there any serious alternatives to Amazon? They have been a font of incompetence for months, but this latest mess is costing us nearly 40% of our normal sales.

    What are you selling? We sell books and are finding ebay to be really strong lately. But I don’t know about other stuff.

  76. 76.

    raven

    Welcome to GED®forFree.com. Here you will find an online, completely free GED® test preparation course, as well as practice tests, which can help you pass your GED® exam and take the next step toward college or a new career. Developed by experienced instructors, this 200-page course covers all of the key points of the GED® test, as well as the major topics of the HiSET and TASC exams. It is comparable to study guides which cost twenty dollars or more at bookstores or online.

  77. 77.

    Francis

    What ever did happen to Kaus? I remember hearing his voice many years back on NPR, and now he’s quitting Carlson’s rag?

  78. 78.

    Amir Khalid

    @RaflW:
    The Donald is every bit as serious now about running for President as he was in 2012. And no doubt he’ll get endorsed by all the right people: Scott Baio, Kid Rock, and Angelina Jolie’s crazy old dad.

  79. 79.

    Pogonip

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): “Why Johnny Can’t Read,” by Rudolf Flesch, has exercises in the back that’ll get your relative reading like a champ. There’s a reason it’s been in print for half a century and counting. Then once he can read he can start working on grammar and writing. Good luck to him!

  80. 80.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Germy Shoemangler: Well, there will be the bitch slap fight between the tribble on Rand Paul’s head and the furry thing (we haven’t identified it yet) that lives on The Donald’s head to look forward to.

  81. 81.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Francis: Kaus became too wingnutty even for Nice Polite Republicans to tolerate him. Now he’s just one teensy step from joining Aryan Nation.

  82. 82.

    Calouste

    @Amir Khalid: Hey now, giving prisoners remedial education cuts into both current and future profits of the for-profit prison industry. They might become law-abiding citizens and not returning customers! Won’t you think of those poor for-profit prison industry CEOs?

  84. 84.

    bemused

    @RaflW:

    May I add that they also want to conserve/confiscate as much as everyone else’s money as they can get away with.

  86. 86.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @schrodinger’s cat: Duden.

    Oh, wait, that’s for Deutsch!

    Well, I’m a big fan of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style but that’s not exactly a grammar book.

  88. 88.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Villago Delenda Est: Better they fight. If they joined forces and reproduced…

    But Trump standing next to Walker, or Jeb: Doesn’t that make the average undecided think “Mmm, Walker certainly looks plausible to me!”

  91. 91.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Amir Khalid: “eschew obfuscation”

    I think that Strunk & White is useful for a number of issues, such as confusing homonyms and such. Your mileage of course will vary…

  93. 93.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Amir Khalid: He’s going to have to up the ante to get the decisive Chuck Norris endorsement, though. Look at what it did for Bibi!

  95. 95.

    Cervantes

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Okay I have a question for all grammar Nazis and pedants, what is your go to reference book for grammar?

    You need a comma after “Okay,” a colon instead of a comma after “pedants,” and a hyphen in “go to.”

    (I did not consult a reference book while writing this comment.)

  96. 96.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Amir Khalid: There is such a program in the prison, but in VA he’s likely to be in a regional jail for 1.5-2 years of his 2.5 sentence. So, referring him there isn’t an option.

    @raven: Thanks! I’ll see what I can find in print; he’s not got access to computers for at least the next 5 years. If you get my drift.

    He seems to be able to read decently, but his grammar/spelling/word usage is just appalling. His uncle has noticed it, and asked me to address it (thanks, dude). So I sent a couple lists of frequently confused words, and used examples of where he’d missed in the last letter (e.g. alot, all together to mean thoroughly). Then there are spelling things like evilution, simpathetic, and hypocracy. Oy.

    @Pogonip: Thanks for that, too. I’ll see if I can copy some of it. Books have to be sent from a bookstore there, and they are only allowed 3 at any given time; the rest are stored in their locker.

  98. 98.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Villago Delenda Est: You might mean homophones that are confused. P-boy’s uncle made the same mistake. We both agreed that the distinction would be way over the little creep’s level of comprehension.

    @Villago Delenda Est: Okay, that cracked me right up. Thank you. I’ve encouraged him to go to religious groups, because his family considers themselves serious Christians. The preceding phrase is worded quite carefully.

  102. 102.

    Trollhattan

    Yikes.

    Nineteen people, including 17 foreign tourists, have been killed in a gun attack on the Bardo museum in the Tunisian capital, the PM has said. Italian, Spanish, Polish and German citizens were among those killed, as well as a Tunisian and a police officer, PM Habib Essid said. Some media reports suggest the death toll could be as high as 22.

    Security forces killed two gunmen and were searching the surrounding area for accomplices, Mr Essid said.

    At the time of the attack, deputies in the neighbouring parliamentary building were discussing anti-terrorism legislation. Parliament was evacuated following the attack. At least 22 tourists and two Tunisians were also injured, Mr Essid said. Other reports suggest up to 50 could have been hurt.

  103. 103.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Trollhattan: Let me guess. It will be established that the gunmen were ISIL wannabes.

    Because they can’t possibly be “lone wolves”….too much melanin.

  104. 104.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @schrodinger’s cat: I would say colon without quotation marks and comma with quotation marks:

    Okay I have a question for all grammar Nazis and pedants:what is your go–to reference book for grammar?

    OR

    Okay I have a question for all grammar Nazis and pedants, “what is your go–to reference book for grammar?”

    I prefer the colon.

  109. 109.

    Cervantes

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I agree with you about the comma but not about the colon.

    What do you suppose a real “grammar Nazi” would do in the face of this outright impertinence?

  111. 111.

    Cervantes

    @RSA:

    The noun is attested from 1831, originally in the British political sense

    Yes.

    There is a much older noun usage as well, synonymous with “preservative,” dating from the Middle Ages.

  114. 114.

    Tenar Darell

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): If he would not be offended, there is an actual English Grammar for Dummies. The series is usually written clearly, with a sense of humor and playfulness that can be helpful when feeling overwhelmed. (Otherwise I’d take a look at the Oxford series because they are known for comprehensiveness). Plus send him a good paperback dictionary.

  115. 115.

    John M. Burt

    @Amir Khalid: Sorry, I didn’t mean to say “conservative” is a verb.
    I meant an adjective, of course.
    My point being, it’s a modifier, as in a “conservative architect” whose buildings look old-fashioned, or a “conservative Catholic” who takes care not to go against Church doctrine, or even a “conservative Marxist” who frowns on deviationism.
    The people we call “Conservatives” as though they were practicing an ideology of “conservatism” are in reality conservative Liberals, as opposed to progressive Liberals like us.
    We should keep in mind the things we have in common with our fellow Liberals, and not lose sight of the fact that there are genuinely anti-Liberal people out there (the Koch Brothers come to mind), and they and their dupes (some conservative Liberals, and some progressive ones, too) are our real enemies.
    I am not just playing pedantic word games here. I sincerely mean it. We should not treat our fellow Liberals as though they were enemies of Liberalism, especially when actual enemies of Liberalism are at work to do Liberalism genuine harm.

  116. 116.

    Terrye Cravens

    Keep in mind that Kaus is a Democrat who voted twice for Obama and yet he can not stop braying about amnesty. How fair and balanced is he?

  117. 117.

    Another Holocene Human

    @RSA: when does “modern” English begin? Given that “early modern” starts in the 16th (?) century, I’m guessing modern is either mid 18th or early 19th (when industrial era begins)–18th century vernacular seems remarkably similar to 20th century vernacular to me.

  119. 119.

    J R in WV

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Elements of Style by Strunk and White. It has been the go to for English since I was in HS 45 years ago. A thin book, with plain guidance towards correct English prose.

  120. 120.

    Cervantes

    @Amir Khalid:

    Strunk & White’s advice on usage is mostly crap.

    Well, we’ve discussed linguist Geoffrey Pullum here before, as you may recall. Here he was a few years ago discussing not only Strunk but also White in the Chronicle of Higher Education:

    The Elements of Style does not deserve the enormous esteem in which it is held by American college graduates. Its advice ranges from limp platitudes to inconsistent nonsense. Its enormous influence has not improved American students’ grasp of English grammar; it has significantly degraded it.

    […]

    [Its popularity] was most unfortunate for the field of English grammar, because both authors were grammatical incompetents. Strunk had very little analytical understanding of syntax, White even less. Certainly White was a fine writer, but he was not qualified as a grammarian. Despite the post-1957 explosion of theoretical linguistics, Elements settled in as the primary vehicle through which grammar was taught to college students and presented to the general public, and the subject was stuck in the doldrums for the rest of the 20th century.

  121. 121.

    J R in WV

    So, then. Why am I provided Strunk and White by my tutors in the 1960s?

    They were highly regarded teachers, librarians, who were tapped for Superintendent during the war. By the time I came along they were in their 3rd generation of teaching and tutoring, retired from actual classroon work, but still teaching one-on-one because they cared.

    I still have the book on the shelf… maybe my commenting proves the uselessness of the book?

    Going to fix dinner…

  123. 123.

    Original Lee

    @rikyrah: Back when they first started integrating our school district, my sister’s class had one biracial girl added to it. My sister didn’t say anything about it, so my parents had no clue, until the girl’s mother came up to my mom at a PTA meeting and thanked her for not requesting a seat change. Every single “original” child in that class except my sister had come in to school with a note from the parents requesting that their child not be seated next to the new kid. Some of the parents objected to the girl on the basis of her race, and the rest objected to the girl on the basis of her parents being in an interracial marriage. My mom is still friends with the mother, and I (later) became friends with the older siblings and still am in touch with them. My sister is still friends with her classmate. I guess my parents decided to skip the racism chapter in the parenting handbook.

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