I really like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.? I’ve now watched the entire series three or four times (the last time with the kids).? I’ve been known to expound on what I feel Buffy has to say about our world – probably even more than some (perhaps unfortunate) drinking partners would prefer.? But this guy MikeJer…now he really knows how to go on about Buffy.? ? Case in point: nearly 14,000 words analyzing the often derided Season 6.? Just, wow.
The word “tot” doesn’t give me the heebie-jeebies all by itself (not like, say, “linoleum,” or “panties”), but it seems like CNN has developed quite a fetish for the use of the word. I suppose it’s to save headline space and help make their lists of links look nicer by preventing lines from wrapping, but it just seems out of place in nearly every case. Used less frequently, and to slightly less consternation on my part is the word “kin.”
Neither of these words seem appropriate to the types of stories they are used to promote. They seem to convey a sense of informality, or even condescension, that is rarely appropriate to the content of the story.
Here are some examples that make my stomach turn in the way it used to every day working for a television station:
Tot who died on Disney ride had bad heart
Missing tot’s trail goes cold after three months
Tot had heart sticker on mouth
Tot mom meant to kill!
Twister kills two mothers protecting kin
Buffett: Tax my kin, please (not surprisingly, Buffet did not actually say “kin”)
I haven’t really heard anything about what kind of work Rick Warren has done to combat AIDS in Africa since Obama announced him as his pick to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. I’ve though it a bit odd since that is the main response that the Obama team has used to defend their selection of a homophobic prick.
“He’s devoted his life to performing good works for the poor and leads the evangelical movement in addressing the global HIV/AIDS crisis.”
- From talking points circulated by the Obama team
Leave it to AlterNet to dig into it. How surprised am I do find that Warren has worked AGAINST the so-called ABC program (hint: the “C” stands for “condoms”) created by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in cooperation with several NGOs, and credited with lowering Uganda’s AIDS rate by 10%? Not very surprised, I tell you. Not very surprised at all.
