David Foster Wallace grammar quiz
I corrected 9* of the 10 questions.
I need to pick up some of Wallace’s work. Many people speak highly of him, and from what I’ve read, I admire his attitude toward language.
*My answers for 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 matched the answer key exactly. On 2 and 7, I identified the problem but chose a different correction. And on 10, I identified the problem and second-guessed myself as I checked the answers.
They're coming!
- A: I hear something weird out front.
- ME: Like what?
- A: Like sanding or blowing noise.
- ME: Hm... I don't hear a thing.
- A: I hear it out the bedroom window.
- ME: Maybe the wind.
- A: No :-p I know what the wind sounds like. It's a machine.
- A: Maybe it's the pool filter.
- ME: Maybe it's the roomba uprising.
- ME: That's possible too.
- A: I think it might be. I see a few outside. They are much more advanced than we imagined.
- ME: Ahhh! Maybe the pool filters are in cahoots with the roombas!
Voted Obama.
To clarify
Government shouldn’t legislate personal decisions*, particularly in a blanket way and particularly not based on religious preferences. Someone gave the example of China’s one-child law, wherein people are only allowed one child and abortion of (female) children is, if not mandated, encouraged, to make a point of what can happen when government legislates moral (or immoral) choices.
I’m unsure of this as a legitimate argument, but it does offer a look at the opposite side. I will definitely have to research this further.
A thought experiment: The government screens everyone who potentially will have a child for genetic defects that could possibly prevent complications with birthing and child development. To take it further, why not screen for good genes, to eliminate the propagation of children with family histories of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, mental illness, and addiction? Or even more extreme, let’s require people to pass government-issued tests to determine their capability as parents before they are allowed to reproduce. If the fail they test three times, they are sterilized.
These are extremes, obviously, but are they unrealistic eventualities if the government starts — continues, even — to legislate personal choices? Because in the end, the argument to make abortion illegal based on the idea that some people make the decision to abort a child for selfish, personal reasons is not too many steps away from the idea that we’d be better off not letting those people breed in the first place.
*In this case, abortion. This is not to say I am pro-abortion. I am pro-choice, or abortion rights, or any number of ways that say the government shouldn’t make that extremely personal decision for individuals.
Update: Just because some people make bad decisions does not mean the government should legislate against those decisions for the entirety of the population. If that were the case, cars would be illegal because some people drive them while drunk or are reckless in them.
On abortion, McCain, and "health"
“Two of my favorite bloggers in the past couple of days have explained in succinct detail why we (women in particular) should be sickened by John McCain. I implore you to take the time to read these, they’re not just a bunch of liberal propaganda or pro-choice cheerleading. These are stories of people’s lives.” - Dooce
She won it for me at the fair.
Beautiful
Sexy.
