Ever Lowering Expectations

After eight years of George W. Bush's assault on not only civil liberty but English language as well, it was reasonably hopeful that we were entering a new era with vast improvement in both fronts.

Well, there were changes for sure and some improvement but not nearly enough.

Not only Guantánamo detention camp is still in full operation, but the assault on English language has changed from mangled words to ignoring the rules of grammar and deliberate twist meanings of phrases.

Obama's biggest offense to date is still his most infamous arm wrestling with the phrase "too... to..." and I wonder if the new generation would ever understand how to use this phrase correctly after his ghastly incorrect way to describe faulting banks in need of bailing out as "too big to fail".

New, a new offense, minor one, admittedly.

Associated Press reported that Obama says he would resign if he were Weiner. San Francisco Chronicle detailed his comments:

President Barack Obama, increasing pressure on Rep. Anthony Weiner to quit, said Monday that "I can tell you that if it was me, I would resign."

I was once again incredulous.  I asked a friend of mine, who graduated from the exalted University of California, Berkeley with English degree and was told that though grammatically speaking, President Obama was wrong.  He should have said "if it were me".  But, according to my friend, that the correct way has been seen as literal, mannered and bookish and colloquially, people usually say it the way President Obama did, the grammatically incorrect way.

I was flabbergasted.  I think there is a debate in the nation regarding the lowered expectation brew generations of lower achievers.

One would hope that a president would have set up a better example.  Is it his hope that by speaking folks' language, therefore, more people would choose him to have beer with?

It is quite disappointing and disconcerting.

The assault on civil liberty and English language has continued.

By the way, happy Flag Day.  Or is it Flagellation Day?

Neither Her Husband Or She?

Republican candidate for Californian governor, Meg Whitman is being accused of knowingly hiring illegal immigrant and she issued denial.

According to San Francisco Chronicle, she stated that:

"'Neither my husband or I received any letter from the Social Security Administration,' Whitman insisted. 'We never saw any such letter.'"

I cannot believe that a candidate for governorship made such a grammatical mistake.  What she should have said was "Neither my husband nor I received..."

I did a little online search and was confirmed my believe that she made mistake.  However, the online resource claimed that such an "informal" pattern is common now.  Commonly committed mistakes don't make them correct, even though language itself should remain a living thing.

Not only Whitman failed to vote in many years past, she even failed to speak proper English, if the quote from Chronicle was accurate, therefore she should not be the governor of California for sure!

Sad State of English Education

With the end of George W Bush era, I hoped for a return of reason and correct English. Alas, my hope was dashed by Barak Obama's infamous, wrongly used phrase of "too big to fail". The strangulation of English continued.

Even in my daily life, I was assaulted by such misuse of English constantly. A friend of mine, who has a degree in English from the prestigiousUniversity of California Berkeley, often uses phrases like "more sharp" instead of sharper. I also heard Obama talked about the new nuclear weapon treaty will make our country "safer and more secure". Securer should be used instead of secure.

How sad that even such elites cannot speak proper English.