“You’re obviously not a regular reader of mine, or you would recall that I broke the story of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s endorsement of John McCain, the key to McCain knocking Mitt Romney out of the race in the California primary.”
Wow. I guess it was actually you who propelled McCain to the nomination, eh? Suffer from delusions of grandeur, much? Of course, maybe you think writing a story about McCain means that you’re incapable of telegraphing your support for Obama when writing other stories. Do you really think you have such tight control of your craft, and that you’re an intellectual juggernaut to boot? (I think you do.)
“Critique, incidentally, is not a verb, and I supported the invasion of Iraq.” “… had bigger problems in his/her posts than sloppy use of the language.”
Setting aside the ridiculousness of a sentence construction whereby you admonish verb usage (wrongly) while noting your support for Iraq (?), this is what’s known as ‘downstream’ thinking. Amateurs think language is static and usage set in stone. Linguists know otherwise, to wit:
Usage Note: Critique has been used as a verb meaning ‘to review or discuss critically’ since the 18th century, but lately this usage has gained much wider currency, in part because the verb criticize, once neutral between praise and censure, is now mainly used in a negative sense. But this use of critique is still regarded by many as pretentious jargon, although resistance appears to be weakening. In our 1997 ballot, 41 percent of the Usage Panel rejected the sentence “As mock inquisitors grill him, top aides take notes and critique the answers with the President afterward.” Ten years earlier, 69 percent disapproved of this same sentence. “Resistance is still high when a person is critiqued”: 60 percent of the Usage Panel rejects its use in the sentence “Students are taught how to do a business plan and then are critiqued on it.” Thus, it may be preferable to avoid this word. There is no exact synonym, but in most contexts one can usually substitute go over, review, or analyze. Note, however, that critique is widely accepted as a noun in a neutral context; 86 percent of the Panel approved of its use in the sentence “The committee gave the report a thorough critique and found it both informed and intelligent.”
So congratulation, Bill: You just embarrassed yourself. But I thank you, though: I haven’t really worried much about grammar for decades — not since I was in middle school, in fact. Let us all know when you’ve gotten to the point that you worry less about grammar and usage and more about the soundness of your ideas, and by extension your ability to defend them when critiqued.
“What I would like to see here is an actual discussion. Which is why I bothered to corrrect your statement.”
Not true. Like most amateurs you take things far too personally. It’s fairly obvious that you fancy yourself, or aspire to be, someone like Michael Barone, but something tells me you don’t have a library stacked with 3000 books, most of which have been read (with comprehension), as does Michael and numerous others in the professional commentariat who are worth reading. You’ve got a long way to go, baby.
