[ExI] mysterious observations infer yo mama

[Damien Broderick]

At 11:43 PM 7/31/2009 +0100, BillK wrote:

>To be more cautious and avoid the grammar gestapo

Why this resistance to educated usage? We all make slips; that's no 
reason to canonize sloppy or just plain silly grammar (such as the 
ever popular "begs the question"). Yes, obviously there's no 
unimpeachable objective point of reference as there is guiding us in 
distinguishing the validity of "the sun orbits the earth, 20 stadia 
up" from "the earth orbits the sun, 93 millions miles away", but that 
doesn't mean attention to received usage is Nazioid. In fact I'm 
tempted to invoke Godwin... (And I don't care what Pinker says, 
either, fine quasi-liberal fellow though he is.)

Damien Broderick